The Omnisphere: Part 6

~*~

Nick did the only thing he could think of–he flew.

Whoever this guy was, it was clear that he had been issuing orders to Legion from afar–possibly another dimension. Those orders had included keeping the rest of the League alive–which made Nick the primary target.

As soon as Nick turned and took off, War flew off after him. The gunfire tore through the floor where Nick had once been, gouging out silver dollar sized holes; Nick aimed for the window and flew out into the cold night.

Behind him, the wall exploded as War tore through it and pursued.

Nick, Daniel said. Where the hell are you going?

Whoever he is, he’s after me, Nick said. If I can lead him somewhere unpopulated–

Nick, he’s going to kill you! I don’t know the specs on that thing, but it’s got more ordnance than a tank, and it’s moving at least as fast as you!

Nick glanced over his shoulder. War was rapidly gaining. Yeah. I know. Get Lim here. Going to need backup.

It was at that precise moment that he felt something hit him from behind. One of the bullets struck the rim of his rocket; he was sent spiraling off course, hurtling down toward the highway.

It was night–only a few cars buzzed past. Still, even putting one car in danger was an unacceptable risk. But Nick needed to make an emergency landing before he could take off again. He twisted his body around, slammed his foot into the street, and drove it down through concrete. Asphalt tore up around his ankles as he skidded to a halt.

War landed several yards ahead of him with a ground-shaking whump. For a moment, the massive suit of powered armor was illuminated by a set of headlights behind him.

Nick armed his roachbots and raised his arms. War turned, slammed his fist down into the hood of an oncoming car–crinkling the front like foil around his fist–and grasped it with his other fist, pulling it off the street and over his head. He flipped the car down, driving its rear-bumper into the street–glass popped on all sides as it crumpled into a makeshift shield. Nick’s roachbots fired, each exploding on contact–blossoming into a red flame that turned the car’s underside to smoking slag.

War kicked the vertical car forward, sending it flying straight toward Nick. Nick braced himself, caught it beneath the axle, and fed his rocket a brief shot of thrust to slow it down. More sparks flew under his feet as he was sent skidding. When he stopped, he gently lowered the car to the street–the family of four inside looked dazed and bruised, but still alive. He kicked the car’s side, sending it spinning off the road and out of harm’s way.

War lifted his arms. The plates near his wrists lifted, exposing what looked like a set of copper coils.

The force of the energy blast was hard enough for Nick to feel it in his teeth. He flew back at least a hundred yards, right before his back slammed into the upper portion of a bridge.

When Nick finally got back to his feet, he felt War’s fist closing around his throat.

“It’s over,” Nick hollered through his helmet. “Goddammit, it’s over–Legion’s–”

“This isn’t about Legion,” War replied. “This is about you and me.”

The air began to shimmer with what looked like multi-colored fragments of glass. Nick got that familiar tingle at the nape of his neck–the tingle that told him the omnisphere had been activated.

“Where the hell are you taking me?!” he shouted.

“Home,” War replied.

Suddenly, the world around them erupted into a brilliant, blinding light. And then–

–then they were falling into a highway, asphalt crumpling beneath several tons of military-grade power-armor.

War let go of him. Nick dropped to the ground in a crouch, then jumped back.

His helmet’s readout fed him data in quick, informative bursts. Connection with the other Leaguers had been lost. No internet, no phone signals, no radio signals. GPS indicated that he was somewhere near–

Nick straightened and stared past War, toward the cityscape behind him.

A cracked and shattered skyscraper stood out on the horizon, tilted to the left.

“Where is this?” Nick asked.

“I told you,” War responded. “Home.”

~*~

“Where the hell did they go?” Haley asked.

“I just lost contact with him,” Daniel said. “He just–”

“Is he hurt?” Vaughn asked. “Unconscious? Would that–”

“No, he just disappeared,” Daniel said. “One second he was there, one second he was gone.”

“Oh God,” Haley said. “Does that mean–”

“Omnisphere,” Anna said.

They all turned and looked at her.

Anna shrugged. “It would explain why you lost contact, right?”

“Yes,” Daniel said. “It was so sudden. Like he popped out of existence.”

“Then where is he?” Haley asked.

Anna looked to Daniel. “Can you track down where you last had contact with him?”

“I think so, yeah,” Daniel said.

“If they used the omnisphere,” Anna said, “that means they left one behind, in this world–wherever they teleported over.”

“Right,” Haley said. “Let’s move.”

~*~

The suit’s GPS continued to flash Nick his location.

Grand Lake Michigan.

The highway was abandoned. Hundreds of cars stretched out in every direction, rusted and overgrown with vines that had started to swallow up the highway. No matter what direction he looked in, there was no signs of human life–of animal life.

“Who are you?” Nick asked.

“I was you,” War replied. “Then you failed.”

He fired the wrist-mounted energy cannons once more.

This time, Nick was ready. He kicked his rocket on and flew into the sky, letting the blast split apart a rusted cadillac behind him. War followed him–and War was faster.

When he slammed head-first into Nick’s chest, alarms started flashing across his screen.

“You’re so fucking ridiculous,” War told him. He shoved his fist against Nick’s chest and charged the energy cannon again–this time, firing at point blank-range.

The chest cavity made an awful crinkling sound. Cracks appeared in the external armor; Nick’s screen immediately went red.

When Nick hit the ground, he was traveling at a good hundred mile clip. A highway bridge folded, buckled, and gave way.

He went straight through and slammed into the off-ramp beneath it.

War descended from above. On his shoulder, the miniature missile launcher reappeared; nine red tips emerged, locked on Nick. “Just a bad joke,” he said.

Nick gritted his teeth and unleashed every last sonic he could, straight for the tip of those missiles. The sound caused the windows of several surrounding cars to burst–even the bridge above gave a slight wobble.

The sonic blast slid past War like oil off a duck’s back.

“Sonics,” War said. “Really? I mean, really? You never took any of this seriously.”

The missiles fired. Nick kicked himself to his feet and soared straight up–right past War’s nose. The missiles had already locked into place, and followed him up through the hole in the bridge in a series of silver streaks.

Nick turned his speed up as high as it could and banked hard to the left. He instantly felt g-force seizing hold of his stomach–his body felt like it was being ground into fine porridge. With a press of his thumb, he activated the suit’s anti-tracking measures; the last of his roachbots spread out behind him, each firing off an ECM burst before detonating.

Eight of the nine missiles veered off course. The last one hit him dead-on.

The explosion seared through the armor. Nick felt the heat bite at his legs and back, felt it smear its way across his arms. Several of the red lights went out–and the suit’s left arm locked down. The engine behind him made a loud choking sound, then died.

Nick plummetted straight back down into the highway, slamming face-first into the top of an ancient yellow punch-buggy. The hood cracked beneath him and formed a cradle around his upper torso.

“Lives were on the line,” War called out to him from above. “People were dying. And you? You’d fly in with a fucking guitar.”

Nick’s right arm still worked. He used it to pull up a command interface in his helmet, inputting commands by curling his fingertips into his palm. With what was left of the suit’s circuitry, he began to type, trying to pull up the right program–searching for a signal. Praying that the signal was there.

“Did you think this was just a game, Nick? People died. Because you wouldn’t take this shit seriously. Because you wouldn’t do what needed to be done.”

War hit the street somewhere in front of Nick. With a soft beep, Nick’s helmet indicated that a signal had been found.

Thank you, Nick thought, and then he hit the ‘home’ command.

“When shit got real, you weren’t ready,” War said. “Because for you, this was always just a chance to have some fun. This world died because you wouldn’t get serious. Well, now guess what? I’m dead serious.”

“Who are you?” Nick asked again, just to buy time.

War’s helmet split in two and opened. The face within was Nick’s own–but older. Older, and damaged–a spider-like sprawl of scar-tissue surrounded one blinded eye.

“I told you,” War said. “I was you. Then, two years ago, the world died.”

“What happened?” Nick asked.

“Does it matter? Bad guys happened. And because you wouldn’t stop playing with your fucking toys–because you weren’t ready to kill–they won. And now everyone’s dead. Everyone except me,” he said.

“What will this accomplish?” Nick’s armor strained as he pulled himself out of the hood of the car. Metal clanked and snapped around him. “Look–something really bad obviously happened here, but maybe we can work together and–”

“I’m not working with you,” War replied. “I’m replacing you.”

“…what?”

“I promised Legion a Power Impregnator in exchange for them searching for a world identical to my own, but three years younger,” War said. “When I’m through with you here, I’m going back to your world, in your armor,” he continued. “I’ll take your place. And then I’ll do things right. No more screwing around. Build what needs to be built. Kill who needs to be killed.”

“No,” Nick said. “You won’t.”

There was a soft sound in the distance–like a jet engine screaming.

“Yes,” War said, not hearing it. “I will. Whatever you’re thinking of pulling, it won’t work. This is my world now, and I’ve thought of everything.”

“Not everything.”

He turned just in time to catch the 50 year old remote Rocket suit’s fists directly in his chest.

War’s helmet snapped shut. The force of the blow carried him into the air; the remote suit flew up with him, arms locking around him in a bear-hug.

Nick keyed in the final command. The remote suit’s self-destruction mechanism activated with a beep.

War managed one final cry of rage before both he and the retro Rocket suit were swallowed in a swelling tide of fire and sonics.

As the last, smoldering remains of the suit tumbled to the ground, War came crashing after. War fell somewhere in the distance; Nick ran toward him, setting the sonics in his one remaining arm to their highest setting.

War’s suit had cracked down the chest; the circuitry for the left arm and chassis were exposed. The helmet had split open once again, exposing his blood-streaked face. It was clear from the way he’d fallen that the engines on his back had been damaged beyond immediate repair–it would probably take weeks to get the suit functional again. When he saw Nick approaching, he tried to fire one of the wrist-mounted energy cannons, but it only produced a loud fizzle.

“Shit,” War said.

Nick aimed his arm at War’s unprotected face. “At this setting and range,” he said, “I’m pretty sure that the best case scenario is a frontal lobotomy.”

“You won’t,” War said.

Nick grimaced, but didn’t lower his arm. “Look. I don’t know what happened to you–what made you like this–but I’m pretty sure killing you isn’t the right choice.”

War said nothing.

“So, uh, if you promise to not try and kill me, then why don’t we just go back to my world?” Nick said. “Maybe we can work together–figure out how to stop whatever the hell did this.”

War’s suit made a growling sound. The helmet snapped shut; War reached with his good arm for the latch near his buckle.

A nasty looking ray gun popped out and fitted neatly into his fist.

“Crap,” Nick muttered, stepping back.

Behind him, energy coalesced into a sphere–he felt the heat of an incoming teleportation field. As it dissolved, Daniel, Haley, and Anna appeared. Daniel was holding the omnisphere, his brows crumpled together–Anna was pointing the particle beam directly at War.

War grunted and aimed the beam at them.

“Uh,” Anna said. “Can that suit of his take a particle beam to the chest?”

“Don’t know,” Nick said.

“Don’t care,” Haley replied, snatching the gun out of Anna’s hands and firing.

War disappeared in a ball of flame. Haley grabbed Nick with her other arm and dragged him close. “Now!” she shouted.

Daniel activated the sphere. There was another flash of light, and then–

–they disappeared.

~*~

After the smoke cleared, Nick tried his best to explain what had happened on the other side. The League had used the jet to lock off part of the highway–several cars were left stuck in traffic, but considering the smoldering wreckage that sat at the center of the highway, a blockade was the safest choice.

“He wanted to replace you?” Vaughn asked.

“Yeah,” Nick said, leaning heavily on Haley. “Apparently, something bad’s going to happen. He’s from a universe where it already happened. Thinks I didn’t take this job seriously enough.”

“You seem to be doing a fine job from where I’m standing,” a woman said. She was dressed in a brown leather bomber’s jacket, and accompanied by a dozen agents clad in black suits and ties and armed with nasty looking guns. She was a wirey old woman with hair like wool–she had to be well into her 80s. They seemed to appear from nowhere–but when Nick looked up, he caught sight of a black helicopter that had landed on one of the offramps.

“Wha–who the hell are you?” Vaughn asked, turning to her.

“Amelia Earhart,” the woman said, completely deadpan.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Vaughn replied.

“Fine,” she said. “I’m the bitch who works for the government agency that’s here to clean up this mess.”

Nick turned as best as he could in his damaged armor. “What about Lim?”

“Busy. Handling, I don’t know. Aliens, some nonsense like that,” the woman said. “Important thing is that we’re here to clean up your little interdimensional invaders.”

“Oh,” Anna said. “Are you going to send them back home?”

“Maybe,” the woman said, and then she nodded toward Anna. “Think it’s time you headed back yourself, miss.”

“Right,” Anna said, and then she frowned. “But I don’t know the coordinates to–”

The woman pulled a slip of paper out of her pocket. One of the agents took it, stepped up to Anna, and placed it in her hand. Anna looked down at it, up to the agent, then back at the woman. “How–”

“We’ve worked in your sector before,” the old woman said. “Tell your Sumerset that I said ‘hi’.”

“You’re–you’re with the Agency, aren’t you?” Nick said.

The old woman lifted her fingers to her lips. “Be a good boy and stay quiet,” she said. Then she looked to Anna. “Once you go, we’ll destroy the omnisphere on this side. Recommend you do the same with yours.”

Anna frowned. “But–”

“Trust me, kid. Interdimensional travel is more hassle than it’s worth. You better head out now.”

Anna turned to the others. “So,” she said. “Um, I guess that means this is…”

“Goodbye. As in, forever. As in, hurry it the hell up, I’ve got a schedule to keep,” the old woman said.

Anna bit her lip, glanced back to Nick, then stepped forward and gave him a hug. He groaned at the contact–his bruises and burns were still fresh–but when Anna pulled back, he tried his best to smile beneath the helm. “Guess that’s that, then,” he said.

“Maybe we’ll keep in touch,” Anna said, stepping back.

“No, you won’t,” the old woman replied. “Alright, boys, let’s clean this mess up.”

Anna pressed down on the plates. The omnisphere hummed to life–she lifted one arm to wave.

The light expanded, then shrank down into a single point, taking Anna with it.

~*~

Two days later, Nick returned to working on the remote suit of armor.

Haley popped down. “Hey,” she said. “So, um–”

“Just putting on the finishing touches,” Nick said. “Wanted to see if I could use it to help in fights.”

Haley eyed the suit of armor. “This that thing that saved your life in the alternate world?”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “My clone finished it, apparently. Didn’t figure I’d use it against him, I guess.”

“Funny,” she said. “Guess he was kind of like you.”

“Guess so.”

Haley gave him a nudge. “I was kidding. You wouldn’t go all, you know. Evil or anything.”

“I don’t know,” Nick said. “According to the guy I talked to, the world he came from was probably identical to ours, just shifted three years into the future.”

“Well, things are different in this world,” Haley said. “For starters, I bet your clone never met an evil version of himself.”

“No,” Nick said. “And I doubt he had help from another dimension.”

“What, you mean Anna? I thought they destroyed the omnisphere. And even if they didn’t, we don’t know the coordinates,” Haley said.

Nick reached for a slip of paper on the table and held it up. “When she hugged me, she slipped this into my pocket,” he said. “Coordinates that the Agency gave her. I think she meant for me to try building my own omnisphere, or maybe use grandpa’s starplate. Get back in contact with her, and her dimension.”

“Are you going to?”

“Maybe,” Nick said. “If what my clone said is true, and if his world really is just like mine, something really bad is going to happen in a year. It might pay to be ready for it.”

Haley thought about this for a moment while Nick continued to work on the remote model. Suddenly, she reached forward and gave him a hug.

“Wh–hey!” Nick said. “What’s that for?”

“Just don’t spend too much time getting ready for it,” Haley said. “Whatever happens, you can’t stop it yourself. Make time for you, okay?”

“Okay,” Nick said.

Haley moved to leave. As she did, she stopped long enough to mention to Nick: “Me and the others are going to watch some movies. If you want to come, feel free to join us.”

“Okay,” Nick said.

Once Haley had left, Nick spent a moment looking between the suit of armor and the door that Haley had left through.

~*~

“So, they’re heroes like us,” Sue said.

“Mmhmm,” Anna replied.

“I’m glad everything worked out,” Sue said. “I was really worried.”

“I was worried about you, too,” Anna said.

“Really?”

Anna looked over her shoulder and grinned. “Not really,” she said.

The garage had taken a little damage during the battle, but nothing that Anna couldn’t handle. Now that she was back, she had already replaced most of the instruments that had been damaged–and in the meanwhile, she had started up another project. It was laid out on the worktable in front of her, with the majority of its wiring exposed. It had the shape of a miniature stealth-bomber, six feet from tip to wing-tip.

“Anyway,” Sue said, “we’ve got a lot of catching up to do. You want to get lunch?”

“Maybe in a bit,” Anna said. “Want to finish this up.” She was pouring over the contents of her project, armed with a soldering iron.

Sue leaned forward to eye it. “Something for me?”

“No,” Anna said. “Something for me.”

“What is it?”

Anna grinned. “Jetpack.”

~*~

33 thoughts on “The Omnisphere: Part 6”

  1. Thank-you so much for having War take issue with Nick’s ridiculous “guitar weapon”. Oh, it’s a convincing toy for a teenaged boy, but I can’t stand that thing, and I’m delighted to see someone else pointing out the absurdity of it!

  2. Also, its ability to explode in a spectacular fashion has already been useful once. Integrated weapons are all well and good, but there’s something to be said for a gun you can share (or set to overload and toss at your enemy).

  3. Seventh paragraph, should probably be ordnance (military supplies) not ordinance (law or decree). I find it says sad things about the society that the two are so commonly mixed.

  4. Having a combo laser rifle/sonic gun/super-bomb seems like a good idea; making it into the shape of a guitar and adding an mp3 player sounds like something a teen would do. It just also felt right for War to give Nick shit about it.

  5. Good show, interesting bad guy related plot twist.
    As for Nick taking things seriously, taking the guitar as an example, yes its a wacky/not so serious concept, but it proved extraordinarily useful so far.

    I do think his suit is short of lethal options for when push really comes to shove, and that some integrated lasers or heavy firepower could be justified. Nick needs to design a new suit badly, the current one is somewhat outdated ( grandpa designed this one in the 80s iirc )

    @ Mazzon There were lots of ordinances about military related things however. Burgundian Compagnies D’Ordinance for example. The words are related ordnance being a clipped form of ordinance which ironically first meant what ordnance means now.

  6. Personally, I see the guitar as illustration of Nick’s tendency to have fun with technology. It’s supposed to be absurd. Thus I laughed at War’s comment.

  7. Yeah–when I was crafting alternates, I wanted to create bizarro clones that somehow reflected the mistakes that I thought these characters could have made–War is supposed to be what Nick would look like if he took his job way too seriously. To me, Nick fights evil because fighting evil is awesome; War fights evil because he must. War is what happens when Nick acts like Ray–focused on winning rather than on being himself. He’s like some murderous version of Batman, but with power armor.

    Which is why War finds the guitar ridiculous, and why I found it hilarious to have Nick beat him by using his grandfather’s incredibly outdated remote-controlled suit.

  8. I think that what I love best about this storyline, and its climax, is the ironic factor. The duplicates showing the shadow side of our heroes, down to War pointing out what makes Nick ridiculous to some and awesome to others — his creative, fun side that sees the joy in inventing, rather than the necessity.

    I like how that fits with what Anna said about Batman and Superman at the start of the storyline, it creates a nice thematic element. And it’s beautiful how War’s comment will mess with Nick in the back of his head far better than any villain — after dealing with The Power and Ray, Nick has to be wondering whether his “way” is the right one, and War pointed out its weaknesses — and he might stop seeing his good qualities as strengths, if a world-ending crisis arrives. I like how it might make Nick his own worst enemy, and foreshadows the possibility of things to to come.

    And I hope they deal with the fact that Haley is willing to vaporize her boyfriend if he goes rogue.

    All in all, a beautifully done story that highlights what I like best about Jim’s work, through Robert’s eyes, and gives me a better appreciation for you both as writers.

  9. Curses! I only thought up a much easier way of defeating War AFTER this update had been posted.

    So much of my villainous intellect, wasted due to empathy, sympathy, and the possibility of pimpathy. Curse you all for ruining my dreams of commentating on a story meaningfully! I shall destroy you all!

    …so anyways, as I was saying, War would have been absolutely useless if Nick had taken to water in some way. The Rocket armor is undoubtedly not very seaworthy, but Nick’s would be lighter if War had pursued him and had War merely tried to shoot him from above, then his ballistic and missile weaponry would have been about useless, while Nick could have just popped a hand up to fire back.

    Granted, that was before I knew about the TESLA coils. The COILS of NIKOLA Tesla! Or whatever the energy gun had.

    As a nice show named Mythbusters once demonstrated, most guns that fire at a certain velocity are useless once they fire into water. Shotguns, handguns, WWI era rifles are fine. But if there’s a few feet of water between you and a .50 cal or an assault rifle, you’re perfectly safe.

  10. Personally I found the unique guilt transferrance method believable. It must have made sense if direct time travel isnt possible. Just blame the alt/past me.

  11. Gavin’s comments about this arc sum up my feelings down to the last syllable.

    @DWwolf – I too found it totally weird that Mirror Nick really kept raging at Our Nick for things that (Our) Nick hasn’t done yet, while accusing him of crimes of neglect that HE (Mirror Nick) committed.

    Robert ‘Buck’ Rodgers whirlwind nail-biter pace and alternate universe plot had me looking at Mirror Nick as a completely different guy. But once he states that he’s really Nick, just in world 3 years ahead of his own I was like WTF??.

    But of course, that’s what made this poignant. Mirror Nick wouldn’t be the first person in history who resorts to blaming others for his own screw-ups. It’s the power of Superhero/Science Fiction that allows a person to use themselves as the object of their projection.

  12. As I saw it, the only way mirror-Nick could survive the suffocating anguish and guilt of watching everyone he knows and loves die–of being the only survivor in the *world*–was by blaming his past-self. And when he found a way for that self to manifest, all that rage found somewhere to go.

    Highly self-reflective people tend to cringe at old mistakes and loathe their pasts. In this case, I imagined that this reflex would be upped by a bajillion, particularly when he came face-to-face with his pre-apocalypse self.

  13. @ ‘Buck’ Rodgers – Well, another thing to keep in mind (and another kudos to point out to you) is that the self-reflective things is truly a Nick hallmark.

    In the previous arcs, you can almost divide them by a) intro of the threat b) super fight(s) and c) the conclusion where Nick rehashes everything that was done wrong, usually getting on himself worse than anyone else (with the exception of Alex/Paladin).

    To see what many of us LoN fans considered Nick’s greatest personal character trait perverted into the rantings of an embittered lunatic….

  14. Oddly enough, that aspect of the plot reminded me a little of Superman/Batman “Public Enemies.”

    A future version of Superman (the only survivor on the planet) comes back in time to prevent the current version of Superman and Batman from making the mistake that will doom the planet (by killing both of them).

    Evidently being the only survivor on the planet is bad for your mental health.

    That being said, Spock (in the Star Trek reboot) did a better job handling it…

  15. No question about it. People go loopy in solitary confimenent, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a lot worse when everybody else is actually dead, particularly if you think you could have someway prevented it.
    Heck, once I’m the only survivor on Earth I’m SO building a time machine just to come shoot myself now with a teleforce bla

  16. I didn’t see Haley as shooting her boyfriend gone rogue as much as recognizing that these ‘twins’ were not the same person and just very much defending her ‘twin’.

    I was a little disappointed for Daniel that Nick got the goodbye hug.

  17. D’oh, that’s what I get for not reading the comments every single post!

    Of interest to me will be to see how the alternate universe angle is played up. Personally I liked Anna a lot, and seeing more of her would be great. The idea of this ancient technology that is almost more advanced than what the present can conceive of is very much my thing. I’m sure that if she really takes to heroing (as well as grows a bit more and comes to understand a bit about her arms), she’ll create some amazing things!

    To see the league in that alternate dimension would be pretty awesome! They may even have to team up with the alternate version of the Executioner! That would be interesting… Or, what if alternate Lee is there, and he made a deal with someone a great deal more sinister? The possibilities!

    To sum this all up: I enjoyed the story a lot, and would love to see future collaborations between our two authors!

  18. What I want to know is if Jim is going to come up with anything for a world shaking apocalyptic event in a “year”.

  19. It would be interesting to see how much of this story gets carried over to the regular plot. I wasn’t sure if this was just going to be a diversionary story with unclear connections to continuity, or if some of this is going to stick. As much as we saw Haley hold herself back from the change, now she’s gotten to see what she might become. Nick might think War had a point about being a guitar hero. Or he may just make a banjo version. Once more, he’s gotta get his armor up to fighting shape. Will Vaughn reflect on how annoying he might be in battle? Will Daniel continue to work on his precognition and eventually be forced to lay in a tank of water while Tom Cruise kidnaps the woman right next to him?

    There’s also the implications of the power impregnator strengthening existing powers. It’s a damn good thing Ray and Prime never knew that part, but Syndicate L is still around.

    All these questions will be answered, interspersed with 12 seconds of fighting, in the next exciting season of…Legionball Z!

  20. With Regards to the Aftermath:

    Robert and I discussed that as he wrote because he was, after all, adding a potentially major story line if this was going to be canon.

    There are a lot of possibilities open. Among them are 1) Someone else might take care of it. 2) The Heroes League might handle it without realizing they handled it.

    Also, I’ve got the odd potentially world ending possibility coming down the pike in the next year of their lives. It could be pulled into that.

    What I think would be the most interesting option would be to write a sequel and involve Robert and characters from The Last Skull in it. I think this would be fun for a couple reasons.

    1. It flows naturally from the ending.
    2. As much as I enjoyed the occasional crossover between TV series and comic books, they made logical trouble for the series after that. Logically, if the Avengers (in Marvel) know that Superman and the Justice League of America (DC) exist, there are probably moments where they would at least try to call them in. It would be cool to do something like that for the follow up to this.

    We’ll see if it works out.

  21. Three weeks ago I stated reading this story as something to do to fill in a couple of hours. needless to say many hours, days, even weeks later I ended here. I’m glad I finally got here, but sad now because I have to wait for updates!:) You have created a great story line with charactors that everyone can relate to, Nick for me especially. You are a great writer and I look forward to your future posts!!! P.S. Robert, you also can write an awesome story as well!

  22. Viviuss: Thanks. Yeah, the story definitely can’t be read in a couple of hours at this point. That’s a good and bad thing. Archive binges are fun, but they don’t prepare a person for the reality of waiting for twice a week updates.

  23. The “Catching Up Lament” is a common theme for LoN. But what a great complaint to hear about, eh Jim?

  24. I’d like to see a crossover in the Skull universe

    Capekiller “You think you’re special just because you got a tin can? Kid, I got me a government can opener”

    Rocket “…”

    30 seconds later

    Rocket “I think your can opener needs sharpening”

    Wish that story had kept going or re-started.

  25. As I refresh my memory due to the fact I stopped reading for a while due to life, and partially because i need to go to sleep i decided to comic on another way lastman on earth with time travel could end. What if instead of getting angry at their pastselves they blamed only their current selves. Upon finding out it was possible to travel back into the past (creating an alternate timeline so paradoxes don’t happen) they realize while they have failed their past younger version has a chance still. So they decide to make sure their younger version is ready. Of course since this is a superhero story, instead of just boring training and advice, they decide to become a mysterious villain that always stays slightly stronger than their younger self. When they have finally prepared themself to the best of their ability, they have on final test for themself. They force Yself (younger self) to defeat them in a dramatic way, and as they are slowly bleeding out in the rain, they take of the mask and give a warning of whats to come with the parting words “you must be better than me do bettter than me. please don’t fail.” they future alternate self dies. (also im sorry for the blatant pronoun issue im tired.)

  26. interesting how similar nick and anna are. nick’s grandfather was a genius inventor who made stuff for other heroes, and anna’s mentor was similar in many ways. nick and anna are both genius inventors, anna is building a jetpack/rocketpack, and they both use machines to fight primarily (nick his suit, and anna her arms +backpack laser). the halloween themed girl is also a bit like cassie

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