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Note: This is fanfic based on the Legion of Super-Heroes comic book.

Background: In the 30th Century of the DC Universe, a group of young heroes has banded together from many planets to form the Legion of Super-Heroes! Now, in the dusk before their darkest hour, the Legion's morale is starting to crumble amidst political turmoil, and one of their former members returns bearing a dark secret.

5/15/2990

The machines of the multi-lab blinked, hummed, and breeped, as the Legion of Super-Heroes' chief scientist carefully studied the monitors. "Laurel, I'm afraid the conclusion is inescapable," he said, turning to the tall woman on the examination bed.

"...you're a total fox," he finished, grinning rakishly at her.

Laurel Gand, heroine of the invasion of Ricklef II, gave a snarl of disapproval. "That's not even funny, Sun Boy. I look like a wolf, anyway."

Sun Boy -- Dirk Morgna to his friends, a group which Laurel began to have doubts about belonging to -- winked at her. "Fox, wolf, same thing. They've both been extinct on Earth for nearly a thousand years, outside of the GeneZoos. But seriously, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you, except cosmetically."

Cosmetically. That's one way to describe it. Laurel's muscular body was covered with a thick layer of golden fur, matching her long hair; her hands and feet bore claws at the tips of her fingers and toes; her face had reshaped from its classical beauty to that of a lupine muzzle; and a long, bushy tail rose from her lower back.

"I know that, Dirk," she growled under her breath, standing from the exam table. "Dr. Gym'll has given me a clean bill of health too. I need to know if you can reverse it, and change me back to normal."

Sun Boy shrugged. "I can't work miracles, Laurel. There's basically no research whatsoever of the effects of zuunium radiation on Daxamite physiology -- add to that the interactions with your anti-lead serum, and I'm way in over my head here."

Feeling her rage growing, Laurel reached out and grabbed Dirk by the orange collars of his Legion uniform, lifting him off the ground. "It can't be zuunium!" she growled, her lupine snout nearly touching his nose. "Timber Wolf's powers come from zuunium, and Brin's not a giant furry monster!" [1]

About as well as someone could manage to shrug with his feet a foot off the ground, Sun Boy gave it his best try. "Laurel, please, dog breath," he said, one hand on her muzzle turning her aside. The now-wolven ex-Legionnaire snorted and dropped him squarely on his ass.

"You're just lucky that my heat vision won't hurt you," she said, her speech still slurred into a soft growl.

Dirk decided to just stay sitting down. "I can't help you, Laurel. Dr. Gym'll can't, either. I'd recommend talking to Mysa, but magic is so unreliable these days, after the Magic Wars." Sun Boy stopped, pausing before going on. "You know, your best bet for someone who can figure this out --"

"No!" Laurel barked, nearly literally. "Don't even say it. Not HIM." With that, she turned on her golden-furred heel and stalked from the multi-lab.

Rubbing his rear as he got up, Dirk sighed and looked around. "At least the multi-lab is still intact with no major structural damage," he muttered to himself. "That alone beats Brainy's record for arguments with Laurel."

***

The seven foot tall Daxamite woman fumed as she walked down the corridors of the Legion's silver floating headquarters in the city of Metropolis. She glanced down at her feet with annoyance -- paws, now, basically, unable to fit into the boots of her uniform, she had started going barefoot for lack of decent footwear. Sure, there were plenty of ways to get boots designed for any sort of alien anatomy, but to do so would be admitting defeat; that she was now stuck in this awful, animalistic shape. And a Gand never admits defeat; the family reputation stretched back over a millennium.

A Gand will, of course, admit mistakes. "It was a mistake to come back here," Laurel silently conceded to herself as she turned the corridor and headed to the gravlift. "Sure, once a Legionnaire, always a Legionnaire -- with one exception."

She stopped in her thoughts there, unwilling to finish the thought. Titanian telepaths might be listening, she told herself, but in truth, she could not bring herself to admit, even in the privacy of her own thoughts, that she'd recently broken the cardinal rule of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

She'd killed.

***

It's not like killing was alien to Laurel Gand; she'd killed before. When she was but nine years old, the Khund warrior Zaryan the Conqueror had launched a pre-emptive strike on Laurel's home planet of Daxam. A Khundian infiltrator had invaded Ricklef II, the asteroid electro-tower base where she lived with her parents, and killed everyone, save for the child Laurel.

Her family and friends dead around her on the asteroid base, the nine-year-old refused to panic -- but instead swore revenge. Everyone in the Daxam system knows the story of how she re-activated the system-spanning electro-towers, destroying the Khundish armada, killing thousands of Khund soldiers and becoming the hero of all Daxam, but none knew that she vowed that day to never again be a defenseless victim.

Against her wishes, she was sent off by Daxam's leaders to the planet Earth in protective custody. However, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Earth's yellow sun and lighter gravity gave her powers and abilities far beyond those of other pre-teen girls, and if she had to take an anti-lead serum once a day to avoid fatal poisoning, that was a small price to pay. She had true power, now.

When Imra Ranzz, Tinya Wazzo, and Luornu Durgo invited her to try out for Legion membership, the super-hero club politely overlooked the Khunds she'd killed. A Legionnaire never kills, of course, and she was expected to follow this new, almost childish set of moral beliefs as a member of the teen-run organization.

Laurel almost turned them down. Sure, the companionship would have been nice; she'd lacked friends since coming to Earth and taking the alias "Leala Linder." But in her heart burned a murderous desire. She wanted to kill Khunds, to pay them back for taking her family away.

So why did she stick around and try out? She went along with the three girl Legionnaires just on a whim. It was a test, and Laurel definitely did not want to pass up a chance to prove herself. She was strong, and no stupid super-hero club would say otherwise.

And as for why she joined, and stayed? That was HIS fault...

***

A scowl passed over Laurel's lupine features as she snapped out of her daydream, giving an audible growl as she remembered ... HIM. Realizing she'd been standing at the doorway to the gravlift for far too long, she stepped in, snarled, "Rec room," and floated down to a lower floor in the headquarters.

Laurel padded down the hall, hearing sounds of laughter and fun through the open doorway ahead. Despite the current bleak times outside the Legion's headquarters, with economic collapse on many planets, wars and rumors of war, and political squabbling, the Legionnaires still knew how to relax.

As she entered the room, Laurel spotted Ultra Boy and Impulse, the newest Legionnaire, on opposite terminals at the holographic Dungeons and Dragons game. Laurel had never liked that game, but she stopped for a moment, her breath catching in her throat for a second as Ultra Boy's iconic warrior was devoured by a holographic green dragon.

"Not again!" chuckled the ironically named Jo Nah, who'd gained his ultra-powers from being swallowed by a space whale.

Across from him, young former med student Kent Shakespeare grinned behind his holospectacles. "Don't worry, my rogue will avenge your death, Jo," he said, pressing the right buttons to slay the dragon. Laurel looked away from the game, her feelings conflicted and embarrassing. For once, she was glad of the fur; it would hide the blush of her shame.

"Breep!" said something behind her. "May I get you something to drink, former Legionnaire Laurel Gand?" Computo, the clubhouse's computerize majordomo, had floated up to her side; or rather, one of the remote globes it used for communication with the residents and guests of the Legion's headquarters.

"No. Go away," she snarled. She'd never cared for Computo; first the long hours in the lab that took Brai-- took HIM away from her for days, then the rampage that killed one of Luorno's three selves, and now this mechanical monster as an ever-present annoying reminder. It even has HIS speech patterns. Laurel walked away from both the remote and the Dungeons and Dragons game, climbing up the stairs to one of the upper balconies in the expansive recreation room.

"Laurel! You're back!" said one of the women Legionnaires up the steps. Tinya Wazzo, Phantom Girl to those outside of the Legion's hallowed halls, reclined on a sofa that afforded a good view of her fiancee, Ultra Boy. Raven-haired and still as beautiful as the day Laurel'd first met her, Tinya was among Laurel's oldest friends in the Legion, and was one of only two to try to talk her out of it when she left the Legion for the Khundish frontier.

In a comfortable chair beside Phantom Girl, Violet slouched, one leg over the arm of the chair, the other on the ottoman in front of her. "Here to rejoin?" she asked.

"Looking like this?" Laurel motioned down the length of her body with her hands. "I'm more eligible for the Legion of Super-Pets right now. Someone let me know if Krypto calls." She flopped down on the couch beside Vi. "Seriously, the UP defense forces need me too badly, even if I do look like an animal. After all, I've still got my full superpowers: flight, superstrength, penetravision, heat vis--"

Tinya interrupted her with a laugh. "Enough already, this isn't a tryout or anything. You don't have to list off all your powers to us. I've only known you for, what, 17 years. I know that you can move planets. But how'd it go with Sun Boy? Any luck in the multilab?"

Laurel sighed. "No go there either. He's got no clue. I'm not even sure he knows how to operate the machinery. Hell, I've spent more time in there than he has."

Tinya bit her lower lip thoughtfully, and then offered, "You couuuuuuld always..."

"No!" snapped Laurel.

Violet pointed a finger at the furry Daxamite. "You don't even know what she was going to say."

"Yes, I do know. And I am not calling ... that man ... ever. I'd rather stay a dog all my life," Laurel replied.

"Wolf, technically," Tinya said with grin. Laurel just scowled.

"I'm glad I came back to be the butt of the jokes around here," she complained. "I'm glad that my condition provides you with so many laughs."

Vi reached out and put a hand on her friend's softly furred arm. "C'mon, Laurel. You know she doesn't mean anything by it." The short-haired Imskian gave Laurel a wicked smile. "Besides, I think you're pretty hot like thi--"

A whoosh of air over the couches interrupted whatever Violet was about to say, and a boisterous voice called out, "Hey, hey, hey! The bitch is back!" Wildfire floated just over the trio of Legion women, red energy crackling from his bootcuffs as Dawnstar hovered behind him, arms crossed in disapproval.

In the space of a heartbeat, Laurel fled the room at superspeed, a rush of wind tailing her out the doorway. The energy being formerly known as Drake Burroughs looked around, a question mark of composed of brilliant anti-energy appearing over his helmet. "Was it something I said?" he asked with a shrug of his hands.

Tinya sighed and started to get up. "I'll go talk to her," said the Legion's senior member.

Shrinking Violet bounded to her feet. "Nah, it's okay, I'll go."

***

[To Be Continued]

Footnotes:

[1] Hey, Legion fans! This story obviously takes place before the events of Black Dawn, where Brin "Timber Wolf" Londo did indeed become a giant furry monster -- thanks to zuunium exposure.