We Were Legion - Chapter 2 - Original Fanfic

We Were Legion - Chapter 2

by Christian Zamora Dahmen

As a kid who had been found stealing from a candy store, Nura turned around nervously and shook her head a little making the veil cover at least part of her eyes.  She didn't want anybody seeing her swollen eyes.  Her crying was her own personal business.

“Nura?”

Finally, she looked through the haze of her own surprise and recognized the built figure of one of her former teammates in the Legion.  “Jo…” Jo Nah was standing right in front of her, not menacing at all, but unsure of what to do since it was obvious he had startled her. 

The Rimborian who was also known as Ultra Boy, the boy who could only use one super-power at a time, was out of his red and green outfit and wore a long and dark trench coat.  Costumes seemed to have been gone along with the disbanding of their team.  The shade of his beard was thicker than usual and you could tell he hadn’t taken a shower in a while.  He looked just as shaken as Dream Girl.  His eyes were smaller than usual and darker, as if holding his own ground within, doing their best to keep strangers at bay.  Still, his rigid stand reeked of loneliness.

Nura and Jo stood there for a moment, looking at each other, trying to reach the other without without making the first move.  Could it be possible that in just a few weeks they had lost the connection they had for so long?  Was their camaraderie finally gone, along with the proud title of Legionnaires?   They weren't particularly close, but that didn't mean they wouldn’t care for each other.  As teammates they rarely spoke.  Somehow they used to be the stars of their own show and they rarely shared the spotlight.  Now, things had definitely changed.

 “I’m so sorry.”  Jo was the first to break the uncomfortable silence that kept them frozen where they stood.  It didn’t take a genius to realize what was going on inside of Dreamy.  She was standing right next to the tomb of the love of her life, the one man who knew the real woman that hid behind the flirtatious attitude and the graceful moves.  She still had her hand on the tombstone as if refusing to let it go.  The entire scene was there for him to read it and it needed no further explanation; Jo was just not a dumb hunk. 

He walked closer and, without another word, took her into his arms.  The pride within Nura almost forced her to break the embrace, but it didn’t take her long to finally give in.  She didn’t allow a sound to escape her mouth, though; she didn't like playing the victim, not when she was actually feeling so vulnerable.  She had played the weak card before, whenever she wanted to trick someone into doing her biding, but then it was always a game; now, it was real and she didn’t know how to handle it.  She feared if she let it go, her drift into self-pity would never end and she would never forgive herself if she did so.  But pretending to be strong was a tough act, even tougher if there wasn’t really an audience to convince because she wasn’t fooling no one, definitely not Jo, and she was fighting no one as she lied in the arms of a man who cared about her and held her tight, doing his best to help her with this unbearable void that kept claiming her soul from the inside.  For a moment, she felt like she could finally loosen up.  It was comfortable in there.  She could have stayed right there for days, letting him carry the sorrow that was tearing her apart, a pain that was too big for such a thin body.

Still, as conceited as she was, she knew she wasn’t the only one going through a rough patch.  She put her hands on Jo’s shoulders and laid some space between them, so she could gather her senses. 

“Thank you, Jo.  You have no idea how much I needed this.”  She paused for a moment as she saw a sympathetic sad smile taking form in his face.  “But I think I'm not the only one who's messed up right now, uh?”  Jo sunk his head and Nura brought it back with a finger in his chin.  "Why are you here?"

Jo shrugged once again.  “I just didn’t know where else to go.”

“But this is a cemetery…“

“It’s also the last thing I have left,” he replied, “the Legion is gone, Tinya is still missing, I have no home to go to and Rimbor, just as usual, is simply a huge nest filled with crooks and I just don’t feel like taking a fight every other night at the bars.  This place…”  He looked around.  “This place is dead, but it is also quiet.  It just felt right.  I know Tinya is not dead, but I don’t understand why she hasn’t come back.  It was so unlike her to run away from the Legion when things went bad.  Not when she was finally leading the team.  She was…  She is Phantom Girl of the Legion of Super-Heroes, for the Gods’ sake!  She was among the first batch of new recruits the Legion ever had.  She was there before any of us ever thought of joining.  It was so unlike her to run and hide.  And she hasn’t come back to me..."  He paused for a moment getting some air.  "It makes no sense at all.”

Nura uncovered her face completely this time and studied her friend’s carefully.  He needed help and simply didn’t know what to do.  He just use his ultra-strength and punch this problem away, and the impotence was tearing him apart.   She studied him for a moment with sympathy.  In a selfish flash she thought that maybe this was exactly what she needed as well; to have something to do to finally step away from this unbearable pain and do something for a friend instead of dwelling in self-pity.

“I will help you find her,” Nura said with a glimpse of hope in her blue eyes.  "Something is keeping her from coming back.  Otherwise she would be right by your side.  She is much braver than this.  We all know it."

“But how can we find a way to her dimension?,” Jo asked, “she jumped back to Bgztl and it’s not as if we can just follow her into that weird universe of hers.  And it's not as if this thing has any use at all."  He showed her his Legion ring.  Once it allowed them to fly and communicate, among other functions, but right now it was just some dead jewelry with too much history trapped inside.

"The Legion was much more than a ring and you know that," Nura said reassuring.  "Maybe finding a way to Bgztl isn't within our reach, but it's not as if we have to solve it all by ourselves.  If we need a genius, you know who we have to pay a visit."

"Brainy?"

"But of course.  He may not be the most pleasant person in the universe, but…"

"Wait!"  Jo interrupted her and made a gesture for her to be quiet and stay alert.  There was a noise in the air and he pointed at some spot in the sky.  There was a Science Police spaceship moving through the air with a spotlight pointing to the ground; searching, seeking, detecting any movement.

"It should be okay," Nura said quietly, "it's the Science Police…"

"Yes, the Science Police," Jo said ironically, "the same one who disbanded us and practically vanished us from Earth.  I'm sorry but I won't start trusting them unless they give me a good reason to do so."

The spaceship locked onto something and started to land not very far from the former Legionnaires.

"They found my ride."  Jo concluded with a frown.  "Did you come in one, too?"

"Yes."  She pointed to the opposite side.  She had been lucky enough to land in a spot that wasn’t that exposed.

"Let's go."

Nura followed him, she would have said something but there was no time to argue.  They had a mission in mind and that was all they should care about.  For once, she was excited.

As they approached Nura's ship, they heard a contained explosion and the voice of a man giving orders out loud, followed by the unique sound of people running all over the place. 

“There go the last few things I had…”  Jo said frustrated.

"They're looking for us!"  Suddenly started by the harsh move of the officers.  “I just can’t believe it.”

"You got it, Dreamy.  I could take them down, but what's the point in punching them down?  We have to get out of here.  The Science Police is up to no good."

They moved into Nura's space ship and sat in front of the commands.  A quick move on Nura's part turned the motors and the stealth mode on.  It made a soft vibration but no noise at all.

"Let's get out of here."  Jo finally said and the ship floated above the land for a few seconds and then flew into the emptiness of space at unbelievable speed.

"They may have seen us, but they will never catch us."  Nura said with pride.  "This is Naltorian technology, with a little touch of magic in its systems.  They won't be able to track us down."

Jo smiled for the first time since they met today.

"So, Colu it is?"  Nura asked already knowing the answer.

"Yup.  To Colu!" 

And in only a few seconds, the space ship defined the route to Brainiac 5's homeworld.

This story takes place after LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 23, 2013.  Names, concepts, and characters belong to DC Comics.  No infringement of copyright is intended. This is only a work of fan fiction.