The Legion [Mods] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
letsgolegion) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
legionmissions2017-01-03 06:11 am
letsgolegion) wrote in legionmissions2017-01-03 06:11 am
NO SANITY CLAUSE [modplot]
Who| Open to everyone not in "Silent Horizon"
What| An alternate version of The Joker, Herald of Chronoblivion, wreaks havoc on Cargg
Where| Relegg, capitol city of Cargg
When| Shortly after the other half of the team is deployed to the Silent Horizon
Warnings/Notes| Bombs, madpeople, forced drugging/torture of civilians, creepiness, and chaos
It starts with a bang, of course. Bombs going off, Joker gas making innocent Carggites go completely mad. Joker gang members, paid mercenaries and criminals, pour out into the streets, damaging property and attacking whoever they come in contact with. It's all one big nightmarish surprise -- but one that clearly took a lot of planning. All these bombs, and gas deployment systems, and tech suppression devices, and all these minions... it's random and yet not, calculated and improvised all at once.
This universe hasn't seen a villain like this in 1000 years, and last time it saw it, it was the same one, albeit a version native to this dimension. This one's from another similar dimension, but he dances around in the middle of it all the same way, laughing. Floating cameras broadcast his face to every viewscreen in the UP; he's taken over all the channels.
His body is strange, the colors of his skin and clothes and anything he touches black and white and inverted, like the negative of a photo, but that wide Cheshire grin is just as sinister as it's always been -- in the past or present, in this universe or any other.
"Hellooooo United Planets! Are you sick of having most social ills abolished? Tired of languishing under the heavy burden of an actually functional justice system? Are you bored with never wanting or needing for anything?" He waves both arms with a flourish and does a little soft shoe. "Then it's your lucky day! For a paltry sum of absolutely nothing, you can have your very own Joker! I slice 'em, I dice 'em, I make julienne surprise! Which you need desperately; just admit it, living in a perfect universe is a drag! Humdrum! Tedious!"
He blows a raspberry and waves a hand like it's the worst thing he's ever heard.
"It's a bunch of hooey, I tell ya'. Fortunately, for you, I'm here to blow the galaxy wide open!" Explosions go off behind him and there's a chorus of screams. "Literally!"
He lets out a chilling laugh, like someone's just told him the funniest joke he's ever heard.
"I even recruited a motley crew of madmen to help me with this momentous occasion -- including some UP citizens I tortured to insanity in my Ha Ha Hacienda, my own little homemade Arkham just outside the city. I missed some old friends, don'cha know, from the golden days when psychotics could roll through the revolving doors of the nuthut and freely wander the streets. I couldn't get any of them crazy enough to put on a bat costume -- that was a little too nutty even for them, hoo hoo! -- but I managed to get some familiar faces grinning back at me again, with only a turn or two of the thumbscrews."
His smile widens, even though that should be impossible for it to get any wider.
"This is just the start! Because your precious heroes, those brave souls in the Legion of Superheroes -- they've kept a little secret from the fair citizens of the UP." He leans in close to one of the cameras. "And it's that I'm just the opening act! The warm up! The main event is still to come. Y'see, I'm good pals with Chronoblivion, a monster from outside of space and time that's almost as maniacal as me, and after I've set the galaxy on fire -- and made sure it's well done -- he's ready to settle in for the main course, i.e. you. Your whole universe is going right down the hatch!"
He sweeps both arms out.
"Until then, sit back and enjoy the show, kids! I promise it'll be a gas!"
Another bomb explodes, filling the area around him with Joker gas. Screams in the area around him start turning to hysterical laughter that matches his own laugh, which bursts out of him like a living thing.
"HA HA HA HA! AHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHAHAHA!"
What| An alternate version of The Joker, Herald of Chronoblivion, wreaks havoc on Cargg
Where| Relegg, capitol city of Cargg
When| Shortly after the other half of the team is deployed to the Silent Horizon
Warnings/Notes| Bombs, madpeople, forced drugging/torture of civilians, creepiness, and chaos
It starts with a bang, of course. Bombs going off, Joker gas making innocent Carggites go completely mad. Joker gang members, paid mercenaries and criminals, pour out into the streets, damaging property and attacking whoever they come in contact with. It's all one big nightmarish surprise -- but one that clearly took a lot of planning. All these bombs, and gas deployment systems, and tech suppression devices, and all these minions... it's random and yet not, calculated and improvised all at once.
This universe hasn't seen a villain like this in 1000 years, and last time it saw it, it was the same one, albeit a version native to this dimension. This one's from another similar dimension, but he dances around in the middle of it all the same way, laughing. Floating cameras broadcast his face to every viewscreen in the UP; he's taken over all the channels.
His body is strange, the colors of his skin and clothes and anything he touches black and white and inverted, like the negative of a photo, but that wide Cheshire grin is just as sinister as it's always been -- in the past or present, in this universe or any other.
"Hellooooo United Planets! Are you sick of having most social ills abolished? Tired of languishing under the heavy burden of an actually functional justice system? Are you bored with never wanting or needing for anything?" He waves both arms with a flourish and does a little soft shoe. "Then it's your lucky day! For a paltry sum of absolutely nothing, you can have your very own Joker! I slice 'em, I dice 'em, I make julienne surprise! Which you need desperately; just admit it, living in a perfect universe is a drag! Humdrum! Tedious!"
He blows a raspberry and waves a hand like it's the worst thing he's ever heard.
"It's a bunch of hooey, I tell ya'. Fortunately, for you, I'm here to blow the galaxy wide open!" Explosions go off behind him and there's a chorus of screams. "Literally!"
He lets out a chilling laugh, like someone's just told him the funniest joke he's ever heard.
"I even recruited a motley crew of madmen to help me with this momentous occasion -- including some UP citizens I tortured to insanity in my Ha Ha Hacienda, my own little homemade Arkham just outside the city. I missed some old friends, don'cha know, from the golden days when psychotics could roll through the revolving doors of the nuthut and freely wander the streets. I couldn't get any of them crazy enough to put on a bat costume -- that was a little too nutty even for them, hoo hoo! -- but I managed to get some familiar faces grinning back at me again, with only a turn or two of the thumbscrews."
His smile widens, even though that should be impossible for it to get any wider.
"This is just the start! Because your precious heroes, those brave souls in the Legion of Superheroes -- they've kept a little secret from the fair citizens of the UP." He leans in close to one of the cameras. "And it's that I'm just the opening act! The warm up! The main event is still to come. Y'see, I'm good pals with Chronoblivion, a monster from outside of space and time that's almost as maniacal as me, and after I've set the galaxy on fire -- and made sure it's well done -- he's ready to settle in for the main course, i.e. you. Your whole universe is going right down the hatch!"
He sweeps both arms out.
"Until then, sit back and enjoy the show, kids! I promise it'll be a gas!"
Another bomb explodes, filling the area around him with Joker gas. Screams in the area around him start turning to hysterical laughter that matches his own laugh, which bursts out of him like a living thing.
"HA HA HA HA! AHA HAHA HAHA HAHA HAHAHAHAHA!"
no subject
He knew he couldn't say "right away." He'd possibly have to fight his way to get to other Legionnaires or the Science Police and there probably would be people that needed to be saved along the way.
He skated out of the building and went off to find who he needed to. It took longer than he would've liked. There were some Jokerized Carggites that he had to stop from attacking some civilians and since they were mid-fight he couldn't just ice them in a pen like he'd done near the soldier guy. He had to separate them first and lure them off so that he could trap them.
With the comms working so shoddily, he couldn't just buzz the Science Police either. It was at least fifteen to twenty minutes until he found him, and even longer before he returned to the building, leading them in.
"This way. Blue Rose stayed behind to guard him and --"
When he saw what lay before him, he stopped dead in his tracks and his blood ran as cold as the ice he could now make. Yuuri clasped a hand over his mouth and tried -- and failed -- to hold in a shriek.
In the center of the room, where the ice column holding Firefly had been, there was now a gruesome sight -- a bubble of water that was boiling, and what was clearly the remains of a now-dead man boiling in it, both his body and his insulation suit breaking down under the onslaught of the heat. What was even more strange and horrifying was that this bubble was still perfectly preserved within the column of ice, like the heat wasn't affecting it at all. It was like some kind of miracle -- or maybe "abomination" was a better word for it.
Yuuri gagged at the sight, and had to work hard to keep himself from throwing up. If it wasn't for the fact he was used to having to swallow down bile every time he got nervous competing, he probably would've lost his breakfast. One of the Science Police officers -- a rookie -- wasn't so fortunate, and he threw up on the floor.
But the more shocking sight was what was next to the ice throne Blue Rose had made, which was now melting. Several Carggite civilians had taken shelter in the building and they were trying to help Blue Rose, who lay still and pale on the ground. Her side was soaked with blood, that pooled on the ground around her, the costume completely soaked through. One of the Carggites was holding a cloth to the wound at her side. Another was performing CPR. A third was holding up her legs, as if trying to treat her for shock.
For a moment, Yuuri could only stare, mouth hanging open, face pale, eyes wide and watering.
"I don't -- I don't understand," said Yuuri weakly. "She was fine. When I left, she was..."
One of the Science Police officers took out a med kit and a scanner and dove to her side, trying to help.
"A man told us we would be safe here. A man in a green jacket," said a Carggite, standing there, looking distraught as her other two triplicated selves performed chest compressions and rescue breathing. "When we found her, it looked like she'd been trying to keep that wound iced over but couldn't manage anymore, so we -- we tried to help her."
"The man in green just stood there, like -- like he was waiting for her to die," said another Carggite, a triplicated twin to the ones putting pressure on the wound and holding up Blue Rose's legs. "The moment she stopped breathing, he -- he did that."
The Carggite pointed to the boiling remains of Firefly and shook his head, looking away like he could barely keep his eyes on the sight.
"The man didn't try to help or anything," he went on. "He just waited until she...until she...and then he said something about judgment and did that. Then he left."
"How long?" asked Yuuri, dropping to his knees near Karina, ready to scoop her up and run with her if he had to. "How long since she...since she...? This is the future, right? Your technology is so much more advanced than back home. I bet they can still revive her! I just need to get her to a threshold gate and back to the Medbay on Legion World--"
"Fifteen minutes, maybe twenty," said the Carggite giving CPR.
The Science Police officer looked at his medscan and shook his head unhappily. "That's too long, even for our med-tech. She's...she's too far gone. The scans show too much neural damage. Resuscitation might be possible, but not neural regrowth and reintegration."
The officer place a hand on Yuuri's arm and Yuuri's heart sank.
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing that can be done for her now. She's gone."
The Carggites finally stopped giving CPR, finally acknowledging that it'd long since stopped being a futile gesture, and stepped back to give the officers and Yuuri some space. One of the triplicates of the Carggite man that had been putting pressure on the wound comforted the female triplicate who had been doing chest compressions as she started crying.
Now that there was space, Yuuri crawled up towards her head, looking down at her pale face.
This is your fault. You're supposed to look out for your teammates and you didn't make sure she was really okay before you left, said the horrible little voice that always chimed up when he needed it least. You're a failure.
This was the worst he'd ever felt, worse than even his dismal failure during the last Grand Prix Final. His life had been too shallow to feel guilt like this; competitions paled in comparison to life or death struggles, to the opposing forces of shame and responsibility.
His face screwed up, he pressed his knuckles against his closed eyelids, and he let out a screeching noise of distress that made it so the officers and Carggites were looking at him with pity when he finally opened his eyes again.
Then, his expression going blank, tears still rolling down his face, he reached out for an errant blanket that they'd clearly tried to use to keep her warm at some point, judging from the blood stain. He covered most of her body and face with it, and lifted her up in his arms.
"We'll...we'll take care of...that," said one of the officers, pointing at the boiling mess inside the ice. "Whatever it is. You...you just worry about taking care of her, and your people, okay?"
Yuuri didn't offer a response as he walked out the door with Blue Rose. As her hair started to thaw out, her tiara fluttered to the ground, forgotten.