LSH Issue 1: "The Calm"

December 31st, 3005; 11:55pm, Earth (Metropolis) Standard time

Since the inception of the United Planets, Earth had been declared the capital planet, and many of the colony worlds whose majority populace were human, adopted Earths measurements of time…

Mars Colony, a series of four large domes connected by a series of mass transit subway systems, had opened at the turn of the Century. It was the largest colony built on Mars in over 500 years. Dome Alpha was the Corporate Sector, roughly half the size of Metropolis. Dome Beta was mostly industrial-based, Dome Gamma was built for leisure, housing vacation spots, retail shopping and amusement parks. Both Dome Alpha and Dome Beta were, for the most part, closed for New Year’s, with the majority of the populace either home for the holidays or at their favorite vacation spot. Dome Delta, the largest in diameter of the four, was the residential sector, housing over 3 million citizens of the United Planets.

Despite its enormous size, Dome Delta was the perfect community. Under its artificial gravity and weather were rows of perfectly built homes with immaculate lawns and huge trees. Birds sang during the ‘daylight’ hours, crickets chirped during the ‘nighttime’. As impossible as it seemed, Dome Delta retained a small-town feel not seen on Earth since the 23rd Century.

Tinya Wazzo, Phantom Girl from the Legion of Super-Heroes, had come to Dome Delta with her mother, Ambassador Winema Wazzo, to stay at their family retreat. Winema had purchased the largest estate in the dome in an attempt to get away from the hustle and bustle of Metropolis. She had become a local celebrity, whose popularity had tripled since her daughter’s acceptance into the Legion.

This night, the Bgztlian pair left the comfort of their estate to join the masses in celebration. The dark-cloaked pair kept to themselves as they entered Tranquility Park.

At Tranquility Park, in the center of Dome Delta, the populace of the three domes partied the night away in anticipation of the new year. A giant holo-screen above beamed images in real-time from Metropolis’ Centennial Park on Earth to Mars.

{“Hi! This is Laurel Kent, Daily Planet News reporting from Centennial Park, Earth!”} the reporter bellowed into her microphone attempting to out-shout the Earth-bound party-goers. {“Joining me here are Rene Jacques Brande and the two founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes! Sixteen-year-olds Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad!”}

The crowd gathered at both Centennial Park on Earth and Tranquility Park on Mars cheered even louder at the sight of the Legionnaires. Since their inception two years earlier the Legion of Super-Heroes had become a household name. Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad in particular. Boys longed to be them, girls longed to date them, and children owned every ‘action figure’.

Tinya glanced at her mother who held her stony gaze at the monitor. Tinya just pulled her hood lower to hide her identity from those gathered around.

{“At the one minute countdown mark, Cosmic Boy will begin to lift the giant steel ball to a height of one hundred feet above Brande Tower, where, at the stroke of midnight, Lightning Lad will ignite the super-conductive ball with his lightning!”} the reporter added. {“Okay! Now with less than 30 seconds remaining before the one minute countdown the Legionnaires have taken position!”}

The crowd in Dome Delta prepared themselves for the stroke of midnight, gathering their loved ones close for the time honored New Year’s kiss. Children sitting on their parents’ shoulders spinned their noisemakers and blew on their New Year’s horns. Some shot off small boomer crackers. Security officers lined the perimeter in case the crowd got out of hand, but over the years, none ever had reason to draw a baton or take any action at all. Many, in fact had joined in with the celebration.

As the countdown commenced the crowd became louder and louder, chanting the numbers along with Laurel Kent, and watching as their heroes used their amazing powers for sheer entertainment. Cosmic Boy stood firmly with his feet planted on the ground, his hands raised as his invisible magnetic power lifted the massive ball into place.

{10}

{9}

{8}

{7}

{6}

The crowd danced and cheered thinking of the coming possibilities that a New Year could bring. Using his amazing Legion flight ring, Lightning Lad hovered in the sky above Brande Tower waiting for the signal when he would unleash a full salvo of lightning into the ball.

{5}

{4}

{3}

Ambassador Wazzo placed her hand on Tinya’s shoulder and smiled gently to her daughter. Tinya returned the smile, squeezing her mother’s hand.

{2}

{1!}

BA-BOOM!!!

Several explosions tore the foundation of the dome apart. As the dome separated, cracks formed in the transparisteel until it shattered from the strain, blowing its shards outward into the Martian atmosphere. In an instant the atmosphere inside the dome was vented into space and the toxic atmosphere of Mars rushed in. The backup force field generators, created by McCauley Enterprises, built for just that type of emergency, failed to start. Heavy pieces of debris caught by the artificial gravity inducers plummeted into the city, smashing homes and crushing innocent bystanders.

Tinya and her mother instantly went into action phasing slightly into their own dimension in order to stay alive. Both women rushed to the aid of as many as they could but were only able to phase a few people before the strain became too much. Tinya and her mother tried to communicate with each other , but without the atmosphere neither could hear the other.

None of the adults were pulled out of the dome from the lighter gravity of the red planet, though many children were lost by those means. Those that didn’t die quickly, slowly suffocated while trying to escape.

There were no screams after the first minute as the red Martian dust began to coat them.

Within the first 3 minutes of the new year, 2,963,287 citizens of the United Planets, who’d been living on the Mars colony, were dead.

Due to the efforts of the Wazzos, nine survived.

Legion roll call:

Cosmic Boy (Rokk Krinn)

Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz)

Phantom Girl (Tinya Wazzo)

Sun Boy (Dirk Morgna)

Blok

Polar Boy (Brek Bannin)

Shrinking Violet (Salu Digby)

Reserve Members: Triplicate Girl (Luornu Durgo); Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg)

The Legion Clubhouse, Metropolis

Monitor duty sucked.

He hadn’t done anything to deserve it… this time. And even that was Brek’s fault… not his! It was a dare!

Sun Boy sat at the Mission Monitor Board keeping tabs on all activities the Legion were currently involved in, and since every active member aside from he and Vi were on Mars, that amounted to a whole lot of nothing. He couldn’t really watch the monitor though. Most of his macho attitude just covered up the truth, he was just a teenage boy and death scared the hell out of him.

He wished at least he was there on Mars with them… then he could help.

OK, so there isn’t really that much a guy that creates extreme heat and light could do in a recovery operation, but still, it beat monitor duty!

With only two monitors currently monitoring all the Legionnaires… that left the other twenty-eight monitors for other things.

He switched a few monitors on and set the stations to the All Magno-Ball channel, and the Magno-Ball Cheerleader Channel. Gods bless the being that thought of that one! Dirk thought.

He leaned back in his chair and took in the sights when suddenly all 28 non-Legionnaire watching monitors cut off with breaking news.

A very solemn-looking reporter appeared on the screen. She was slightly disheveled, with bags under her eyes and black streaks staining her cheeks. Yikes, she’s looked better.

{“Good evening. Laurel Kent reporting for the Daily Planet with breaking news. We, at the Daily Planet, have received a very disturbing holo, which we will now play for you in its entirety. We warn you, some of the images you are about to see are graphic and not suitable for children.”}

The screen changed to show a masked figure from the neck up. The mask was black, form-fitting and featureless, with a small gray circle on the forehead.

{“We have stood by and watched idly for too long…”} The masked being was female, and spoke with a determined tone. Her Interlac accent was Earthen. {“What we are about to do is not an act of terror, but an act of patriotism! The United Planets is diseased!”} The figure knelt down, showing her full figure. She stood on a solid surface. The camera that recorded her message lifted off from ground level, slowly revealing Mars Dome Delta.

“Dirk, what the hell is going on?” Shrinking Violet asked, running into the Monitor room. “All the monitors in the Clubhouse are on!” Sun Boy held up a silencing hand and watched helplessly, knowing he was seeing images recorded the day before.

{“We will purge the United Planets of evil!”} The woman exploded, setting off a chain reaction of other explosions around the dome.

Dirk leaned forward in his chair, covering his mouth in horror as the smashed dome collapsed inward. The oxygen from inside the dome was visibly vented into space along with smaller objects. Dirk forced the bile down when he realized they were beings… children.

“My Gods…” Vi whispered to herself, covering her mouth.

The scene was replaced by the image of another masked being, this one with a large gray circle encompassing the entire face of a loose-fitting hood.

{“You see here what we are capable of.”} The masked man spoke in a deep hypnotically baritone voice. {“We will strike again unless the governing body of the United Planets step down and their puppet masters reveal themselves to the Universe!”}

The screen cut back to the clearly distraught reporter. She struggled to regain her composure.

{“We have no idea who this group is claiming responsibility...”} Laurel paused to clear her throat. {“I… we’ll be back.”} The screen went dark.

Sun Boy activated the communication system on the Monitor Board. “Cos.. Ahem…” Dirk cleared his throat, choking back tears, “Cos, this is Dirk…”