Post-mission briefing [video]

[relativityspeaking]

[When Kid Q shows up on screen, she looks understandably disheartened. They tried their best on these last few missions and in a few very important places, they succeeded. Even during a dark time there had been a silver lining, there'd still been people the team had saved. Banishing Eclipso, for instance, means they don't have a Spectre-level threat dogging their steps from here on out, a situation that might've been much worse than the Spectre being free, due to her specifically targeting them instead of criminals]

[But this is still a loss and it's up there in terms of being one of the worst possible things that could've happened at this point in the game.]

[And it's not really something she knows how to deal with well. Even after the catastrophe that made the missing Legionnaires go missing, the team had held together, and since the displacee Legionnaies started getting pulled into this universe, they'd won almost every battle they'd fought. Maybe those wins involved sacrifice or ill-advised choices, like freeing the Spectre to defeat Galactus - but they'd made their choices and managed. Recently, they'd even cleaned up some of their old messes.]

I want to thank you all for how hard you fought on Apokolips. It's one of the worst battles we've faced so far since you displacees started to show up in this universe, and because you the Science Police garrison had minimal casualties, most of them lost before we showed up.

[Her eyes divert slightly from the camera.]

Our engineering teams weren't so lucky. We lost three teams of engineering support staff. Thirty-six staffers in all. We thought it best for Brainy to be the one to notify their families, since he was their direct superior and knew them all personally, so he's doing that right now.

We'll be holding a memorial service for them in a garden area in the Hab Deck at 10:00 tomorrow.

[She frowns.]

The Catatrophists and the Herald - the Penitant - they activated something deep within Apokolips and managed to successfully relocate the planet. Brainy's still trying to track where and hestill hasn't figured out a way for us to destroy the planet without it creating a tear in reality due to the defenses left behind by Darkseid, which was the whole reason we wanted to move it instead of destroying it in the first place.

That means that our enemies have a planet-sized war machine to attack us from.

Brainy also doesn't how to stop the Penitant, whoever she was, from summoning those monsters again, but he's at least figured out a way to shield Legion World from a similar attack, with help from the Book of Magic and technology similar to what was developed for us to move and hide Apokolips.

[Now she's got to do the inspirational part, she knows she does.]

I know things look bad right now, but through its history this team has weathered living nightmares and multiple apocalypses - and that kept happening after you all showed up. We've faced Galactus, the Yellow and Red Lanterns, the Fatal Five, Murderworld, the Faceless, the Legion of Supervillains, multiple Heralds, the Spectre, the Brainiacs...

Even in this fight, we faced the literal wrath of God and still beat her.

I don't know about the rest of you, but Apokolips or not, I'm not ready to say die.

Comments

[legionnpcs]

[RJ doesn't talk to them often. Oh, sure, his dime is funding all this but it's their team. The best thing he can do is supply them with what they need and stand back and let them run the show. At most, he talks to the new Legionnaires so they understand what's at stake and who they have the option of fighting side by side with.]

[But sometimes it feels right to say something more, especially during the times when things get darker.]

The ancient Earth heroes of old faced Apokolips time and time again.

[He cues up crackling video salvaged from digital archives, of different heroes fighting against parademons, against the former ruler of Apokolips. In one, Superman is fighting Darkseid, and clearly struggling, barely able to stay on his feet.]

Its old leader, Darkseid, considered himself a god of evil, and he may as well have been a god. His worshippers worshipped him just like the Catastrophists have taken to worshipping Chronoblibion and this new Herald.

The thing of it is, it didn't matter how god-like Darkseid was.

[In the video, Superman drags himself to his feet and keeps fighting back, refusing to let Darkseid win. There are more clips of people fighting Darkseid: Wonder Woman, Batman, the Martian Manhunter... all at different times, all at different ages.]

[Then the video changes, to Superboy, Superman's young clone, and a teenage time displaced Clark Kent fighting an aged and crumbling Darkseid side by side with the Legion, several years before the displacee Legionnaires showed up. Eventually, there reaches a point where he doesn't get back up again.]

And it doesn't matter how god-like Chronoblivion and his Heralds are now. As long as heroes like the ancient heroes of Earth - and heroes like all of you -- keep standing up again every time they fall, eventually villains like that will reach the point where they can't do anything else but stay down.

That's how it's always been and by damn, when I look at all of you I can't help but think that's how it's always going to be.

[unrecovered]

[He's tired, and a little battered, and - if he's going to be completely honest with himself - still recovering from getting whammied by one of the Penitant's horrorterrors. He's going to need time to breathe, and ten a.m. tomorrow is already set on his calendar. That's going to be hard. It's all going to be hard.]

[But he's still standing, and goddammit, that's what counts.]

Good. Because I'm pretty sure I can speak for all of us when I say neither are we.

[steelandtemper]

[Cortana does confidence but not optimism, and "not as entirely dire as it could have been" is the best things ever got for the last 30 years where she's from, so she's not really bothered by the setback at Apokalips. Good news is always an exception.]

So, when are we at the point where "creating a tear in reality" is the lesser evil?

[You can patch a hole, after all.]

[hepunchedhitler]

As long as we can get Thor and Hercules, or whoever's close enough to count here, to punch it closed.

[steelandtemper]

I hate the fact that you're probably talking about actual deities and not weapons systems.

[Your worlds are all nuts and you should feel bad.]

[hepunchedhitler]

If it helps, you could always just consider them to be otherdimensional aliens who either inspired our mythology or just happen to match up closely enough?

[He'd read an essay on Thor where someone had suggested that was the case. Mjolnir controlled by graviton particles, the Bifrost as a complex teleportation system... He knew well enough that Thor was exactly what he said he was, though.]

[steelandtemper]

That's not better.

[Go ahead, ask her about where worshiping aliens leads.]

[relativityspeaking]

Last time that happened, I had to stitch it closed mostly on my own. I'd prefer not to do that again, especially not with something already trying to eat it's way into our reality.

[legionnpcs]

Not only did you have to stitch it closed, the Legion Outpost was destroyed, a sizable portion of the team got lost in the Second Galaxy, the Legion was forced to disband, and the rest of the team thought we were dead.

And that was with a rift not nearly the size of the one Brainy said destroying Apokolips would cause, if we don't disarm it first. I don't know about anyone else but I'd prefer to forgo being lost in another galaxy again or attending anyone else's funerals.

[relativityspeaking]

Technically, we got lost outside of reality too for sprock knows how long. We just don't remember it because we were in stasis.

[Poor Jan.]

And then we got back just in time to reveal that the president was an imposter and had to thwart his plans to forcefully evolve a percentage of the population while murdering everyone else.

[Kid Q rubs a hand across her forehead and smiles wryly.]

Considering how that's how I ended up in charge of all you squajs, I'd really prefer not to repeat that.

[relativityspeaking]

Not yet.

[prettycoolguy]

We shouldn't have to.

[ Because what's another planet-sized war machine, right? ]

[whyarewehere]

[ Grif hesitates for a moment. ]

...Wait, am I gonna be the one to have to start this?

[ Apparently. He runs a hand through his hair, clearly uncomfortable, but if they ever needed a "yay team" it seems like it's now. ]

Uh. Long live the Legion?

video

[iamresponding]

[Someone is recording this so someday in the future, when Grif is insisting he isn't a team player blah blah blah, he'll have proof.]

[But Rich doesn't tease now, at least, because Grif is actually being sincere and no way is he kicking dirt on the brand-new sincerity sneakers he started showing off with this post.]

I still like "Live long the Legion and prosper."

[Of course he does. He's a fucking nerd.]

[whyarewehere]

[ SIGH. ]

[circusbat]

Heh. Saves me from having to do it.

Long live the Legion.

[Though Dick doesn't look NEARLY as put out having to say it.]

[unspeakablyevil]

Kid Q, I presume. I am Aku and I seek to know all I can about Chronoblivion and its heralds. Does there exist an archive of knowledge you can direct me to?