Legion of Superheroes: Brain and Brawn

Legion of Superheroes: Brain and Brawn

• Starman is seen fighting Dawnstar and Karate Kid. The fight demonstrates all of their powers and Starman ends up winning. It’s revealed this was a training exercise for the new recruits Dawnstar and Karate Kid. Starman makes them feel welcome and relates to them about joining this crazy superhero life and team.

• An alert goes out that pages Starman and the others that Colossal Boy, Cosmic Boy, Ultra Boy, Bouncing Boy, and Phantom Girl are fighting a powerful creature near the ice cream shop and need help. They new recruits look puzzled, since some heavy hitters are already fighting this guy but Starman says let’s go and they head off to face him.

• At the ice cream shop, the monstrous and powerful Validus is raging through the Legion. He pummels Ultra Boy and a giant Colossal Boy, breaks through any metal Cosmic Boy tries to trap him in, and shatters the ground Phantom Girl phases him into. Starman charges in with an energy blast but Validus walks it off like it was nothing. Cosmic Boy catches them up and tells them its been like this for 45 minutes. Bouncing Boy is very upset because this is his favorite ice cream shop! Karate Kid asks permission if he may offer a suggestion and Cosmic Boy is glad to hear him out. Karate Kid suggests that maybe a direct attack is not the best way to handle this threat and maybe they should have it defeat itself. They ask how they can do that and Karate Kid says he can. Ultra Boy mocks him by asking why he thinks his punches will do any better than the super strength they already bring to the table. Karate Kid explains that the most effective martial arts are all about defensive redirection, not striking first. He steps in front of the beast and dances around its attacks with elegant form. The creature swings and misses, crashing into objects instead. Dawnstar speaks up and says to avoid collateral damage and Karate Kid says he’s doing his best.

• The perspective switches to the back of a person from inside a closed and darkly lit storefront, watching through the window. A bald man in a yellow suit with a half mechanical body perfectly bisected down the middle, Tharok. He sees Validus slamming around the place, no longer giving the Legion a run for their money. The Legionnaires watch on, impressed by Karate Kid, but Ultra Boy asks what they’re supposed to do with this guy now. They can’t just let him run rampant until it tires itself out, if it even can get tired. Cosmic Boy offers no solution, but luckily, they don’t need to find one. From inside the dark window, Tharok raises his arm and presses a button. As a result, Validus instantly stopped attacking Karate Kid and stood up at attention, perfectly still. The Legion look confused and Bouncing Boy celebrates the battle being over, but Phantom Girl suspects something is up. 

• Tharok then clicks a different button and Validus turns into a dead sprint down the tight side streets. The Legion follows and Cosmic Boy orders all Legionnaires to chase after. Dawnstar tries to say something to Cosmic Boy but he cuts her off and orders her to take to the sky. She tries again to insist something but Cosmic Boy doesn’t hear it and says now. The monstrous creature has near-unmatched speed and manages to lead the heroes on a twisty turny chase. Validus evades them and manages to escape somewhere in the chaos. Ultra Boy gets mad and questions how they could possibly lose a guy that size. Colossal Boy chimes in and says large people can be deceptively sneaky but Ultra Boy tells him to shut up. Cosmic Boy takes charge once more and says they ought to go back to Legion HQ. Dawnstar tries to say something to Cosmic Boy again and he tells her they will debrief at HQ.

• Cut back to the inside of the dark, closed-down store where Tharok watches the Legionnaires leave. Tharok examines the creature he controls and is very pleased with its performance. He tells the beast that it actually exceeded his expectations, and for the next battle he has planned, he will need Valadis to go easier on them. 

• At Legion HQ, Cosmic Boy and Starman explain to Brainac 5 and Lightning Lad what they ran into. The crew he was with all sits on the debrief and Starman gives a lot of credit to the new recruit, Karate Kid. The debrief continues as normal, but then Dawnstar can’t take it anymore and raises her hand. Ultra Boy makes fun of her for raising her hand but Phantom Girl defends her, saying it's hard for anyone to get a word in around the raging testosterone fest. Starman says she’s a part of this team now and doesn’t have to ask permission to speak. Braniac asks Dawnstar what insight she has to offer and Dawnstar explains that she was trying to tell Cosmic Boy that she could have tracked down Validus when they were all running around looking for him. Lightning Lad knows she has this ability and asks why she didn’t then. Dawnstar said she tried to but Cosmic Boy wasn’t listening. In fact, Cosmic Boy admits he figured she was just a Thanagarian. Lightning Lad puts his hand on his face and complains about what the point is of even having him write a report on new recruits if he isn’t gonna read it. Brainiac begins to say he wrote it for Lightning Lad but Lightning Lad cuts him off and tells Dawnstar to do it now then. 

• Dawnstar says she would like to gather all who made contact with Validus so she can familiarize herself with is aura to track him. Bouncing Boy is the first to step up saying he punched his aura all over him. The other surround her, Ultra Boy being the only one seeming skeptical. Dawnstar then sits in the air, her feathered white wings begin to glow blue as she presses her hands together and focuses hard. She imagines a mystical river like trail flowing through the city streets in her mind, leading right to Validus. She then sees Validus in her head, underneath an abandoned shop near where they were fighting earlier. But she also sees something else that surprises her, someone else. A half man half robot thing attending to the beast. Dawnstar comes back to reality and shares where he is hiding. The Legion are glad to hear this and happy with Dawnstar’s cool power, Cosmic Boy compliments her especially and apologizes sincerely for not listening to her earlier. Dawnstar goes on to add that there was somebody else with them, the bald guy who is a half robot man. Some of the older members gasp and Brainaic 5 says “Tharok? How could that be?” Lightning Lad chimes in and says “Yes, didn’t he kinda get accidentally blown up last time that psycho terrorized the planet?” Karate Kid says not blown up enough. The crew then realizes this is somewhat bigger than they expected and they need to have all hands on deck to face them again.

• They assemble a team of almost all Legion members currently on world. The group follow Dawnstar’s directions to the run down shop. Phantom Girl has them all hold onto each other as they phase down surrounding them. Tharok gives a spiteful remark, saying how he did not expect to see them again so soon, but no matter, their destruction shall be swift. Cosmic Boy orders him to stand down but Tharok activates Validus and raised his robotic arm, shifting it into a blaster. Validus charges at the heroes and Colossal Boy punches him down with Lightning Lad zapping him, slumping over. Tharok’s metal arm is then crumples in through Cosmic Boy’s magnetic abilities. He looks down at his arm in panic before it discharges. Bouncing Boy bumps him back before it can damage any Legionnaires. They all look around at each other. Karate Kid asks if it was really that easy. Ultra Boy responds, of course it was. We’re the freakin Legion of Superheroes.

• Starman, Brainiac 5, Cosmic Boy, and Lightning Lad lock away the two enemies at Legion HQ along with their other captured foes. Mano is still maintained in an anti-matter stasis chamber, Persuader sits silently facing the corner of his cell, and the confiscated Eye of Ekron remains sealed in its safe. Starman jokes that they ought to be charging rent for all these freeloaders. Lightning Lad says he thinks he might move in too. The guys laugh and leave the detention ward of the tower. However, when they leave, Tharok glances up as the sliding doors shut behind the heroes. He smiles and from under his breath, he says finally the true scheme for vengeance with the others can commence according to plan.