2013.05.28 - Mordru or Less

Many people know what is happening. Or at least they should. For the lobby of the Legion HQ is strangely empty. And quiet. And three podiums have been set up. Each one has a light on its front with the words 'Yes' or 'No' next to it. On the top of each podium is a name, indicating which Legionnaire should be behind which podium.
But just in case someone doesn't know what this means, it is simple. it's time for yet another Legion Tryout. And as the appointed moment comes, various people either take their places, or are in place.
One such person who is already in place is Imra Ardeen, a.k.a. Saturn Girl. She's just standing there, quietly, in her usual pink and white outfit, behind a podium. All though as she stands there, she does look serious. More serious than normal.
Maybe it has something to do with whose tryout it is...?
Salu saunters in through the front door, carrying a bottle of Zesti and a bag of reeses pieces. "Is it that time already?" she asks. "Looking very official, Imra. Or shall I call you," she puts her arm in front of her face, Batman-style. "SATURN GIRL" she intones. Salu puts her snacks down on the top of her podium and lifts up into the air, shrinking as she does and sitting atop it.
"Hey, hey!" Booster Gold flies in, glowing like a golden star. He comes in for a landing by the remaining podium, giving a thumbs up and bright smile to Salu and Imra. "I gave Skeets the afternoon off. My apartment needs repainting since my lease is nearly up, so I sent him to do that." Apparently, this is considered 'leisure time' for Booster's valet droid; considered that by Booster, at any rate. "Are we good to go?"
He knows Rokk had said something about this when they first met in this timeline. 
'You're not a Legionnaire? Pro tip: the answer is 'not yet'. So tell me 'not yet'.'
It was about a week or so before Xao Jin had realized what a 'Protip' even was, which hadn't lessened the mental blow of just what Cosmic Boy-er-Man-grife-it's-complicated was saying. And so started a little war inside the head of the man from Shanghai Colony; a chance to be on the Legion, for acceptance and the chance he didn't get the last time against the faint lingering anger of a young boy who was in the right place at the wrong time, and the path it sent him on...
No, Xao Jin thinks. No, they did not send me on the path to my present. I made those choices. I chose the consequences. He'd had six or seven years, before he was dropped in this timeline, to come to this realization. And despite protests such as 'wait, when?' and 'I'm not ready,' the Tryout day and time had come.
Jin looks up from standing in the center of the arena only when he hears the three voices. The man in gold gets a curious look, the small lady in purple a nod and a faint smile of greeting.
And then there's Imra. He meets the Titanian Telepath, and his expression goes neutral. He nods, in agreement. To him, it is right that she is here, in the center. It is fair.
There's just a glance at Salu as she arrives, before Imra shakes her head. While part of her is tempted to rise that that bait, she holds herself back.
On the other hand, as Booster arrives, she has to fight back a different reaction. Namely facepalming or asking a question of how Skeets can do that with no hands.
In fact, what does get a reaction from the Telepath from Titan is the third person who enters. He... Gets Imra's full attention.
"Xao Jin. You know why you are here. Please... Impress us."
"Doesn't that mean he's working, not that he has the day off?" Salu asks of Booster. Yup, nothing like pointing out holes in a chunkhead's arguments. Then again, there's not a whole lot of challenge to it. Salu slides to the forward edge of the podium, sitting calmly. "Impress us!" she insists. "Show us something we've never seen before. If you can."
"He has the day off of being my assistant," Booster explains, with great patience, to Salu. Then he waves his hand as if to erase this argument entirely; after all, they are not here to bicker. They are here to watch Xao Jin do his thing. He turns and gives the young man a jaunty salute, telling him, "We haven't met... I'm Booster Gold. I'm sure you'll be awesome." He sits back, then, behind his podium, folding his arms behind his head.
There's another quick wisp of a smile. "I am Xao Jin, from the Shanghai Colony in the late Thirtieth Century," the young man being judged says. "I am known as Dragonmage, wielder of the mystic arts." He waves a hand, and lifts into the air a few feet. Underneath him forms a solid green Oriental dragon made of pure mystical energy, somewhere about twenty to twenty-five feet long. With Jin on its back, the dragon rises into the air as he holds on, focusing his spell to do loops and turns in midair. When he circles back, a pair of smaller dragons appear at his sides one red and one purple, which breathy mystic fire along the ground to score an 'X' pattern into the floor. "I have been training in magic since I was young," he says. "I was born with the gift. I have trained under my home planet's highest mystics, and was also tutored by Mysa, daughter of Mordru, in my timeline."
The fire-breathing dragon twist around each other in complicated patterns before consuming each other and disappearing, and Jin stands on the back of the large green dragon. Where once he would stand, arms folded in defiance, now he stands with his arms behind his back, solemn.
"Impress you," he says. "By all rights, I shouldn't even be here. I was dropped into this time right out of Takron Galtos, where I was serving time for the multitudes of damage inflicted by my selfish quest for power, and respect. In my time, I was in my seventh year of a very long sentence. It was fair. I deserved it. I was angry at a wrongly-perceived prejudice when I tried out all those years ago, and people were hurt as a result. I can never undo that, and there is not a day that goes by that I do not remind myself of the price for my own hubris."
Jin looks up. "When I came here, Rokk Krinn found me and brought me here. I think he wanted to give me a second chance. But I can not deny my past sins. The fact that I am being given this tryout now says more of the Legion's open-ness than it does of my worthiness."
"AND YOU ARE THE STUDENT OF MY STUDENT!"
No, it's not Imra who says that. Or any of the Legionnaires here for the tryout. But the voice echoes through the chamber. Said voice is filled with a certain amount of anger, but somehow it betrays a certain amount of great age.
"MY STUDENT... MY DAUGHTER IS POWERLESS DUE TO YOU!"
Of course as that voice echoes, with no visible sign of where it's coming from, the Telepath From Titan frowns, before slapping a button on her podium.
"This is Saturn Girl! Put the HQ on lock down! Someone get Brainiac and Rene down here on the double! Kinetix too! I think..."
But what ever she's about to say is left unfinished, when something like a bolt of lightning strikes the blonde woman, causing her to instantly turn into a statue of salt. One that quickly begins to crumble.
"Neat trick," Salu admits. "Good look and all. Still not anything Princess Priss couldn't do, or Imra if she got into your mind good and hard," she hooks a tiny thumb towards Saturn Girl. "So prove it's r..." and then the roof comes down. Metaphorically, that is. Salu whips up into the air, drawing her pistols. As the voice echoes through, Salu spins around in the air, desperate for something to shoot.
Booster over-balances and nearly topples over backwards, although this turns into a mid-air roll and he is immediately upright again. Horrified, he reaches for Imra, but contact only makes her transformed body crumble that much faster. Quickly, his body is outlined in transparent golden light as his forcefield powers up, and he flies several feet away from Salu as he also looks around for the attacker, which effectively puts Xao Jin between the flying Legionnaires. "I didn't get a chance to analyze what that energy was..."
Looking over his shoulder at that thunder voice, Xao Jin whispers a quiet 'No.' of recognition. It can't be. Not here. Not him.
"How did-NO!" Dragonmage shouts, as Imra is transformed in front of him. He turns away from the podiums, waving a hand to erect a mystic barrier in front of what was once Imra. He tries a spell to, if not change her back immediately, slow the decaying process so he can work on her before it's too late.
"It's magic," Xao Jin says to Booster Gold. "This is an ancient power from my time, who has come back and found us." He flies into the center of the room, floating in midair.
"Mordru!" he calls. "Show yourself, Lord of Chaos! Your daughter lost most of her powers when her youth was restored. Which happened when you severed her connection to the Emerald Eye of Ekron! That was your doing!" Xao Jin might later think that mentioning the Eye in front of Salu might be a Bad Thing, but now is not the time to ruminate. "I am the student of your daughter, Mordru. If it is me you wish to face, then do so. You have no cause to fight the Legionnaires here." He takes a deep breath. "restore Saturn Girl. Now. Even if it means taking me instead."
"NO! I WILL NOT!" booms through the Lobby. That is before there's a flash of light and a man appears. And he appears to be old. And skinny. But he's tall. Over seven feet tall, wearing a baggy purple shirt, a green hat, and black tights. And of course his hair and long beard are all pure white.
"Student of my daughter! Her power wags mine to take! Mine to use! As is yours! As is ALL MAGIC!"
Then though he points a finger at Salu as he chants, possibly to fire off a spell.
"None of you will stop me! None of you can stop me!" is said before a bolt of energy goes flying in her direction. That is before he starts to point a finger at Booster, while looking directly at Dragonmage. "Surrender your powers to me! Even with all of your might, you can not stop me! All you can do is make it worse, and risk the lives of others not just in this building, but this city!"
Salu fires of a couple shots, which sends some crackling bolts towards Mordru. No effect, and a moment later the finger hits her. There's a shift in the reduced-size Legionnaire, which heads down the ramp pretty quickly, as she shrinks, shrinking away until she disappears entirely.
"...magic," Booster echoes Xao Jin's explanation, and his tone is unhappy. He glances over to where Salu is, or at least where she was; he isn't sure if she was vaporized or, as it were, atomized. "Well dude, you don't have to face this toolbag alone," he informs Xao Jin, flying straight at Mordru with one arm extended. Blasts of golden hardlight fire from his hand towards the withered mage, as he clearly intends to get in closer for some brute force action.
"Stay away from them!" Dragonmage retorts, as a number of dragons, all different solid colors, appear around him. Two or three breathe mystic fire at Mordru, and while Xao Jin doesn't believe it will be all that effective, it will keep Mordru's attention focused on him, and not the Legionnaires. 
"Magic in your hands is a bane on all of reality, Mordru," Dragonmage says, utterly calm. "Booster, Violet, get Imra out of here and to Brainiac Five; he might be able to restore her." His hands move, reflexively, remembering long ago lessons from Mysa. "He cannot be fought. He is right; he cannot be beaten. But he can be bound! Get everyone out of here! I will hold him off! Help the innocents, they're more important!" No more innocents will be hurt because of him. No. More.
Sweat starts to pour down Jin's forehead as he chants. "I bind you Mordru, through the chains of Order." He feels his blood run ice cold as Salu disappears. No...not again. He will make it right. "I bind you, Mordru, back to your prison, sealed away so you can never hurt anyone again!" The remaining illusory dragons start to close in on the Chaos Lord as Dragonmage stares him down. "If my life is the cost to stop you, it is one I gladly pay."
And as those dragons try to surround Mordru, there's a sudden and violent flash of light, as he channels his power into knocking them back. Or at the very least back, of not flat out 'unmaking' them.
Or at least that's what the ancient wizard tries to do.
And yet, as Booster comes his way, Mordru simply flicks his wrist at the golden hero, as if casually tossing a spell towards him. And Booster as better as heck be careful. After all, for all he knows this spell could involve chains. Or worse! heck, it could be a LOT worse. Just look at the pile of salt that was Saturn Girl.
And yet as Dragonmage starts that other spell, Mordru shrieks!
"Fool! For that spell to work, you would have to sacrifice your own power! Your life! Your soul! You would sacrifice your own existence! Do you realize that! Are you willing to pay that PRICE!"
Salu snickers as she hovers in the microverse. She might be unseeable but she can still hear. Dang, this Imra knows how to ham it up.
Booster does have the ability to absorb a variety of energy sources, so when the spell is flung his way, this is what he tries to do. The problem is that he has never dealt with magic before, and this is giving him and his suit some serious trouble. His attack upon Mordru ceases immediately and it looks as if he might be having trouble just staying in the air. The glow surrounding him is flickering, going dim and bright, and tendrils of counter-energy coruscate over his limbs and torso. "Oh--" he never gets a chance to even start the expletive before he flashes bright as a supernova, the shockwave a visible sphere in the air as it radiates away from him. The explosion or possibly implosion is otherwise strangely quiet. Some glittery gold light rains down, but that quickly fades as well.
His hands move in a complicated pattern, not letting the platitudes from Mordru break his concentration. There is too much at stake, he knows. As the last Legionnaire is removed, Jin even feels tears well up. "I'm so sorry," he whispers, before turning a baleful look to Mordru.
"They took me in, you monster," he says, his voice low. He's functioning on willpower alone at the moment. Maybe he can't stop Mordru, but it will not stop him from trying, even at the highest costs. "When they had no reason to. Whatever havoc you may wreak, you will never, ever understand. They will not give up until they end you. No matter the time or place, even to the ends of the universe, the Legion of Super-Heroes will not rest until you are stopped. That is their true power, a magic all their own. They. Will. Not. Give. Up."
"And neither will I."
He raises his hands, and the dragon images representing his spells force themselves forward, inch by inch, to get closer to binding Mordru. "My soul, my essence, my being. I give them all with no regret to stop you!"
And before Xao Jin can finish that spell two things happen.
The first is Mordru up and vanishes. Suddenly, and with no warning.
The second is that a voice can be heard from behind the podium with the 'Saturn Girl' name plate on it. 
"I think I've seen enough. How about you guys?"
That is in turn before a third thing happens, as an apparently unharmed Imra Ardeen shimmers back into sight. In fact it's almost as if the background itself is somehow peeling away revealing her.
"What do you guys think?"
A sudden enlargement comes behind Xao. "It's not just an illusion," Salu admits. "He didn't freak out even in the face of his father in law, or whoever that was. I say in."
Sitting on the floor, because that is where he landed when he dropped out of the air, Booster opines, "Probably a tic or two more than enough." He helps himself up via his flight ring, floating upright rather than standing up.
The only hiccup Jin gets is at Salu's comment. "Mysa? We never-!" He has the good grace to look embarrassed, and the flood of relief coming from him at seeing that all three people are alive and well is palpable, even to the non-telepaths in the room. He takes a breath, and wipes his face because of the sweat not because he was crying sprock it all. The calm comes over him as he returns to parade rest; feet apart, hands folded in front him over his waist, head down.
With a press of a button the light next to the word 'Yes' appears on Saturn Girls podium, even as Imra smiles. All while deciding NOT to comment on Salu's little 'joke' and how Xao Jin responds to it.
"I may have had my doubts, but... You showed that you have what it takes to be a Legionnaire today Dragonmage."
Salu laughs aloud. "Take a joke," she says, play-punching Jin as she goes past him to grab her Zesti and take a sip. She languidly presses her button, registering a 'YES'. "I read your file, I know that's not how it was."
As Booster moves by Xao Jin, he gives the young man a companionable pat on the back. He's been there. Landing behind his podium, he rests one hand upon its surface. "It's tough being in a chaotic and emotionally charged situation, but still able to focus on what needs to be done. Especially considering some of the stuff you mentioned when you introduced yourself." He moves his hand so he can tap a button, which lights up the green 'YES'.
Years ago, a young man from the New Shanghai Colony dreamed of being a Legionnaire. That dream, at one time, was shattered, but sent him on a new path. He's older now, and he likes to believe he's wiser, and more mature. Still, at the three signs glowing green, Xao Jin, a.k.a Dragonmage, feels his breath catch in his throat. "Thank you," he says, not trusting his voice to go any louder, or to say any more.
Salu actually smiles. "If Shadow Lass were here she'd insist we celebrate with drinks," she points out.
"Welcome to The Legion of Super-Heroes Dragonmage. Hopefully you survive the experience." is all Imra can say as her smile starts to fade, and she offers a glance towards Salu and Booster.
Category:Log