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               Nametag : rook

               LEGACY in THE LEGACY WARS 

               She awoke wide awake. Which was very unusual for her for she
               always struggled to wake up; it was a fight she staggered
               through and limped away from still hours latter. But tonight,
               and yes it was still night, for the full moon was up and
               raging its pale milky spotlight just outside her bedroom
               window. Tonight she awoke with a sudden start. Fully and
               utterly awake. So much so that she instantly convinced
               herself that she was still dreaming. But never before had she
               been in such an intensely real vivid dream and felt so dry
               bones breathless bodiless aware.

               There was a man in her room. Her father had never married her
               mother and had never lived with them or paid any child
               support and on the few occasions she had seen him she had
               referred to him to his face as, 'the sperm donor.' So there
               had never been a man in her room before. Not even in her
               dreams or nightmares. So this was a first.

               There seemed to be no sexual hint or suggestion to the man or
               the dream so she was already a little disappointed that such
               a realistic dream was going to be so dull and lifeless of
               romance. Not that she ever considered herself a romantic.
               There were no Malabo Barbie Doll Dream Houses in her closet.
               No Pony Princes Rainbow Collections under her dust bunny
               ranch bed. There was a poster of Jack Kerouac smoking a
               cigarette upon her wall next to a poster of Paris with a
               German swastika emblazoned blimp hovering over it in
               spotlights and a Donna Tartt The Goldfinch dog eared upon her
               floor amongst the piles of clothes before the empty dressers.
               Still a dream boy friend would have been nice.

               This was no dreamy boyfriend. A little old for her; must be
               in his early forties. He was naked though. Sort of. He had
               blue skin covered with odd symbols and he was sitting cross
               legged hovering in the air with his chin upon his hands,
               elbows upon knees. They were in a bubble of blue light
               glowing swirling light which added to the intensity of the
               gibbous moon light. But the light did not seem to hurt her
               eyes. This added to the sensation that this must be a dream
               and perhaps that as well as the fact that a blue skinned
               floating man was silently regarding her kept her from feeling
               any surprise or alarm.

               She sat up in bed wearing her over-sized Cure T-shirt the too
               large neck slipping down over one shoulder showing no bra
               strap. The rumpled and needing badly washed comforter
               covering her panties and bare legs and socks.

               She didn't even blink at the guy or rub her eyes; she had no
               sleep in her eyes.
               She was wide awake like an actress on her tenth take who
               couldn't even fake it anymore. Bed-head hair and crumbling
               make-up but you don't get another yawn or cotton mouth lip
               smacking Spielberg that one is in the can; trash or take it's
               your wake.

               The man was not blinking as well. His eyes glowed a soft gold
               and he started speaking to her as he hovered there glowing.
               It seemed perfectly natural. It was a dream after all. "Let's
               try this a different way. See if it works like this. The
               cosmos is a big place with a lot going on in it." He spoke in
               a very quiet very soothing voice full of easy smiles and
               fluffy kittens. He spoke like a cold blooded killer too jaded
               to care about anything.

               "Without the transfer so many big words. So many
               unpronounceable yet easily acceptable syntax stick in the ear
               that would have settled so easy born in the brain. So let's
               say there is a Mister A and a Mister B and a Mister C and a
               Mister D and a Mister E and leave it at that. That is complex
               enough for any beginning."

               The man just floated there not locked in one place but
               remaining on the side of the small bed room between her bed
               and the drape drawn window. She had a vague twinge of
               confusion because he seemed to filling up more and less space
               than he should. The room seemed much higher and wider and yet
               not as high and wide as it should.

               "Mister A is the good guy. Of sorts. We must keep it simple."
               He was a big blue lily pad floating and bobbing in place
               drifting a little and he was doing all the talking.

               "Mister A is fighting wars against all those other Mister
               letters I have listed. Mister D and E think of humans as a
               resource. Cheap slaves or food. We should thus think them bad
               though of course they would find such a classification
               confusing and insulting. Do you think of cows and water as
               good or evil? Would you like it if they called you bad?"

               She thought of the large caterpillar in the Disney version of
               Alice in Wonderland. The blue skinned man should be smoking a
               pipe, a hookah. Not that she would allow anyone to smoke in 
               her room. Of course Kerouac was smoking away. Smoking and
               talking. Talking and smoking away.

               "So Mister A is a good guy because he is fighting against
               Mister D and Mister E who would harvest us and this planet in
               the most indifferent and off hand manor. But he is fighting
               Mister B and Mister B hates violence and war. Mister B is
               very old and has covered many, many galaxies with his people
               and civilization.
               Mister A is tiny and is fighting a war of conquest to take
               some of those most remote already established worlds of
               Mister B. So Mister A is not a good guy. Even simple things
               remain complex."

               Words were frozen smoke in the mouth of Kerouac but from the
               blue skinned man his words seemed to just 'be' in the room.
               They were already there. They filled it. They emulated from
               him but it was like they were already present just like he
               had been when she woke. And he was pushing the words around
               with his finger tips and arranging them in place like box
               cars on a toy train. She could not remember what she had been
               dreaming about before she found herself awake in this dream.
               She could not remember waking up.

               "Mister A makes planets, that have sentient beings he can
               use, fight for him. A war tax he places upon that race. He
               does not ask nor does debate about such things. One does not
               discuss the nature of thirst with a river or a well when one
               is passing by thirsty."

               It never once occurred to her to speak. She now suddenly
               thought how odd that was.

               "Upon this planet, Earth. Mister A placed a seal upon forty
               humane beings. The number forty corresponds to the number ten
               in our understanding of space and time. So he chose ten in
               his numerical system of people to bear his seal. Forty
               axillaries. And set that they should serve from sundown to
               sunset. Twenty four hours. A measure we can understand."

               Such a lazy dry moment inside the blue bubble. She found it
               utterly perplexing that she kept seeing things as now and as
               then at the same instant! That bothered her and then of
               course promptly forgot it bothered her or found it perplexing
               at all.

               "Mister A gave these forty seal bearers fantastic powers. But
               they weren't fantastic to Mister A. It was just a basic
               military kit to him. The forty were to be used as canon
               fodder. As faggots to be tossed into the trenches. Such is
               ever war."

               Other than sit up in bed with her hands pointing behind her
               and her arms stiff to support her and her to turn her head at
               the blue skinned floating man she had not moved. Had she? She
               seemed to see everything in the room. But suddenly everything
               in the room seemed to be nothing really at all.

               "If one of the seal bearers fell in battle. Well then they
               died. They simply vanished from the Earth. But if one
               survived their tour of duty they were returned and all memory
               of their twenty four hours of service was erased from their
               minds." 

               The blue skinned man seemed to be making a point or avoiding
               one. She realized he was not drifting but was some how
               tethered. He bobbed like a skiff moored in the middle of a
               babbling river. This realization made her feel very excited
               and proud and confused when it then seemed to mean very
               little at all. After all she hated boats and swimming. She
               didn't much care for bathing that much.

               "Mister A keeps a list. Mister A keeps many lists. One list
               has all the former seal bearers who did very well during
               their tour of duty. Sometimes when Mister A finds a more
               experienced and skillful seal bearer of use Mister A will
               call again upon one who has already served. This is rare for
               though Mister A never makes and contract or communication
               with worlds that Mister A has not bothered to conquer but all
               within use; Mister A has it's own sets of values and morals
               and one of these is not to use one who has been used again."

               Her thoughts were open. Her thoughts were her own.

               "Mister A has another list. It is a list of those who managed
               to survive their tour of duty but did not perform very well.
               These are never called upon again. Obviously."

               There seemed to be far less words in the room now. The blue
               skinned man was using them up. He was coming to the end of
               his talking. She wondered if the words that had been use up
               were now inside of her; for she knew they still existed and
               had not vanished.

               "Wars live and die and live again. They flow and ebb. The
               battles crawl about and leap and crash. Mister A is no longer
               fighting close by to this planet. For a long time now the
               Legacy has not been called upon to be used."

               Shouldn't her arms be tired. Why wasn't her arms tired.
               Surely she had been holding up her body by her arms stiff
               like this for a while now. This was, given the receding
               giving nature of a bed mattress to sink in and place more
               weight upon the wrists than the palm, a very uncomfortable
               way to sit up. She suddenly realized that she had thought
               about her sitting up and her arms before. This was another
               realization like the blue man being some how boat anchored
               that thrilled her. She realized her awareness was taunt
               strings and they were thrumming.

               "In that gap of true useful need the war tax was still
               methodically mechanically collected. Every twenty four hours
               a new batch was randomly chosen to bear Mister A's seal and
               serve their tour of duty. But there was no immediate pressing
               need for them. The war was too far off for them to be
               useful."

               To her fear, a sudden presence this fear, she had a third
               continuation of thought and thus realization and that was
               that her awareness was indeed stretched too stretched and she
               felt this alarm of it breaking.

               "Without real need. Those that fell in battle; their seals
               were not returned back into use but collected up by Mister A.
               So that the number forty fell to six and this was a number so
               small Mister A considered the war tax upon this planet to be
               suspend even though it thus continued."

               Her new fear kept her from having any other thoughts.

               "When one gets their kit. Their powers it comes instantly
               with a history. A knowledge. A hive mind collective
               understanding and awareness. All is understood and one obeys
               the orders given. One does their tour of twenty four hours
               and the seal, the kit, is removed and that is all there is to
               it."

               The fear seemed to be increasing. Like a darkness was filling
               the room. A shadow passing over the full white moon.

               "But when they take that kit away. When they break that seal
               all those powers cease to ever having been. What if in the
               lax of time one of the war tax Legacies; for that is what
               they are called. What if one of them did not WANT to shed
               such incredible power."

               The blue skinned man looked at his own hand and then his
               forearm. No shadow had passed over the moon. The sphere of
               light of the blue glowing bubble had not dimmed. It was a
               darkness creeping up around the edges of her eyes. She could
               see lightning flashes there in the edges. Like long strands
               of hair swimming upon her eyes. Sudden white then gone.

               "War's are wasteful. By nature and by design. Mister A left
               many more than forty seals lying about. To be at hand if
               needed. To increase the war tax as necessary. But secured.
               Hidden. Too well hidden no path to follow. There were forty
               and then there were six. Unused, no orders, there was space
               to brood and ponder and think and one of the Legacy found a
               crack, a way out, a way to keep their power and extend their
               seal unbroken. A hive mind consciousness turned so far away
               to so many other more important pressing things. They see,
               they saw, they are busy."

               The darkness was the skin of her fear. Not her fear alone. It
               was the fear of many others as well. Others were trying to
               speak to her. Others had been trying to speak to her. But the
               blue man controlled all the words in the room. And the words
               were running out.

               "It is random but in the end a decision is made. The
               mechanics of the decision of who the seal passes to must out
               of simple brute necessity be decided by the blind-fault
               system of the whole thing BEFORE the exchange is made. There
               is no moment when the Legacy is not. The war tax self
               perpetuates its self by design. Even when it is unnecessary
               it is."

               The room was so cold. It had been nothing before but now it
               was freezing. Every new substance that was coming into being
               in her room was decidedly unpleasant.

               "All one has to do. Is wait for the system to make its
               choice. To select by whatever random elements are set in
               place for said choice making and having made it remove the
               selected choice. Simple. The system is not designed to make
               another choice for another twenty four hours. The current
               seal can not be exchanged so the power is left unbroken. The
               individuality increases as experience and understanding is
               gained versus the hive minds stagnation of no orders."

               There were no more words left in the room. A very cold dim
               room where nothing had changed or would change for ever.

               "I don't want to kill you. I did not want to kill any of the
               others. But by killing you I get to keep my powers. By
               killing you I gain in strength. I did not want to kill any of
               the Mister B's or Mister C's or Mister D's or Mister E's
               though the Mister D's and Mister E's are very hard to like.
               But I did and have. I did that because I had orders as a
               Legacy from Mister A and during my many, many tours I
               continue to fill what orders I receive. But anymore orders
               are few and far between. It is mostly just static and
               silence."

               "There are six Legacies left." He looked up and gestured with
               his chin over his shoulder out the window into the white blue
               sky of moon and shadow. "I am here. But the other five are
               just hovering up there. In the sky. Just waiting. For orders.
               They know I am here. They know I am going to kill you. They
               know I am doing that so I can keep my seal and keep my
               powers. They may even know that what I am doing is wrong. But
               they do nothing. They just float up there ridged as posts.
               Invisible to the world of men. Waiting for orders."

               "Sunset is when the Legacies are exchanged. This is three
               a.m. You are the next one I have to kill to keep my god like
               powers. So why am I here. Telling you this instead of waiting
               for the system to know it has picked you. I have done this so
               many times now that I even know before it does. So why tell
               you an entire day of light before the time. Why. Because I
               don't want to kill you. I just want to keep my powers. And
               because I have an idea. It is an old idea but now I believe I
               am powerful enough to achieve its success."

               All the fear all the darkness vanished.

               "I am going to kill all of the remaining Legacies. I will
               catch their seals. I will then place one of their seals upon
               you. By doing this the entire system should abort its self
               and shut down. No more war tax. Mister A will know of course.
               But will he care. I am telling you this because the first
               thing the system will order you to do is kill me. But it will
               not be an order from Mister A. It will just be local. And you
               will be able to ignore it if you choose. If you attack me I
               will destroy you easily and this attempt to spare your life
               will at least allowed me to break the system and stop the
               killing I have had to do for the past ten years to keep my
               powers. You should sleep now. I will not return until sun
               set. I must use as much of the system as it is designed as
               possible. I am trying not to kill you. It means something to
               me even in face of such powers and freedoms. I am your...
               sperm donor."

               *************************************************************

               At sunset the blue skinned man returned and placed a seal
               upon her forehead. And then he vanished with the last of the
               shackles binding him severed he went off to explore infinity
               leaving eighteen year old Rey Gunnz the last of the Legacy on
               Earth. With the local system down (it did in its last gasp
               order her to kill the blue skinned man but she ignored it)
               there was no hive mind conciseness, no Mister A and his
               distant orders, no instruction booklet for her powers,
               nothing but her standing alone on her apartment roof top
               watching the stars come out.

               Rey, or Legacy, had purple skin instead of blue and out of
               modesty she managed to fabricate with her mind blue eye mask
               and blue mini-dress and mini-cape and mini-boots and wrist
               gloves. Making fabric and keeping it on her rather than it
               fading away took some concentration and effort at first. So
               she kept the garments few and small which made the costume a
               bit risque but considering the alternative was either
               slipping in and out of street clothes or buck nakedness she
               thought she was showing surprising modesty.

               She liked the retro-style of her 60's mini-dress and go-go
               boots ensemble and it went with her short hair bob cut of
               blue hair. Parted in the middle and curled at the tips
               forward in swoops at the side of her face it gave her fresh
               face a nice look. Her large eyes were now a glowing gold but
               at least her teeth were still perfect and white.

               The blue skinned man (she could not think of him as her
               father) had told her that with the system down she would not
               lose her powers after twenty four hours were up.
               Since her powers were no longer on a time set schedule she
               could turn her powers off and return to her normal look and
               powerless state at any time. The seal on her forehead would
               vanish when she was de-powered and to summon her powers back
               she would need to touch the seal and concentrate.

               She soon found through trial and much error that it was very
               easy to dispel her powers and turn from a purple skinned girl
               with super powers back into her normal pale skinned civilian
               form but a LOT harder to concentrate and summon her powered
               self back.

               As far as summoning her powered self AND have it appear
               wearing her costume, well that was impossible. She always had
               to summon her power-self and THEN concentrate again to summon
               her costume. To keep the costume from disappearing after she
               summoned it she had to keep a small part of her conscious
               mind on imagining it. 

               Since a sudden unexpected sneeze on her part or a sudden
               yapping of a small unseen dog could startle her and make her
               lose this focus and thus be in that instant stark naked;
               there was a nagging debate within her wether she should not
               attempt to sew up her own costume and physically wear it.

               Of course having a costume at home where one could sneak up
               to the roof and slip into it would be convenient. But she had
               no such costume and she couldn't sew and still being in high
               school with no part-time job and her mother struggling to pay
               the bills with her two full time jobs made the idea of
               dropping seventy bucks on a pair of white go-go boots a bit
               absurd. So the ease and no money cost of using her mind to
               make her own costume won out for the time being. If she got
               startled or confused well then the men of the world would get
               their cheap thrills seeing a teen age purple skinned girl
               with a 5' 2'' 102 lbs 38 GG-cup 22 36 naked body with a large
               patch of blue untrimmed pubes. So be it!

               She also found that transforming from an un-powered state
               into a powered form while wearing any clothes of any kind was
               very difficult. She thankfully realized this was why her
               father was probably naked in her bed room. He was generating
               a shell around them to keep their conversation secret from
               the local system that Mister A had in place and the hive
               consciousness of the Legacy which of course Mister A had
               constant access to as well. Well either that or her sperm
               donor was a major perv.

               If the costume/nude thing was a bit of a downer than the
               powers themselves more than made up for it. She could fly.
               She could turn incorporable, which made her transparent,
               which was not the same of as being invisible because everyone
               could vaguely see her there but it did let her travel through
               solid objects and it meant nothing solid could hurt her,
               though she found out quickly that sound waves could still
               effect her in this ghost like state. 

               She could pick up a small car but not a buss. She could pick
               up a moped and fly, rather slowly, but she could not pick up
               the small car and fly. 

               She could send out a shock wave from her sigil in the center
               of her forehead that could knock stuff about. Shatter a
               window, knock over a mail box, or trash can, or push a
               dumpster on wheels about a bit. Did not push a car over or
               uproot a tree but it made spinning glass door to a restaurant
               whirl like crazy. 

               She could use her forehead sigil to pick small items up as
               well. But since the shove and pick up mental commands seemed
               so close together a lot of items she picked it and was trying
               to float to her suddenly ended up being thrown at her with
               some force. It was going to take a lot of practice to get
               that down.

               But her main weapons were her right palm and left palm. The
               right palm fired a visible ray that struck items with
               considerable force. Unlike her forehead sigil which did not
               increase or decrease in power over distance the right hand
               palm ray did increase in power the closer something was to
               her and decrease in power the farther away the target was
               from her. 

               The right hand ray seemed to begin several inches in front of
               her palm so she could make a fist and aim with that as well.
               She found she could make her right hand into a finger
               pointing thumb up 'gun-hand' and that increase the accuracy
               of her aim. With that in mind and her success at mentally
               creating her own clothes she made a ray gun and tried using
               that. The ray gun increased her ray beam's accuracy and power
               amazingly so much so that she quickly fashioned a white ray
               gun and white hip holster to hold it. 

               This proved very effect and fun but it gave her mind yet even
               more items to juggle in her consciousness to keep from
               vanishing. As such she sacrificed her small white panties
               under her short purple pleated mini-skirt and increased the
               cleavage of her mini-dress a lot more than she had been
               initially comfortable with. But for such a kick ass ray gun
               it was worth it!

               Her left palm produced a defensive see-through sphere around
               her body.
               The round shell was about twice the size of her body in its
               default easy to use setting and she could drop herself off a
               skyscraper and let herself fall and shatter the pavement
               without any jarring or damage to herself. It could turn
               bullets easily and she could boost its power with further
               concentration so it would ward off the blast of a tank shell.

               It did have a few draw backs. First it did not stop gas from
               entering or exiting the sphere. The tank shell would explode
               outside the shield and all of its explosive force and
               fragments and all other collateral force would bounce away
               from the sphere but the dust raised by the explosion would
               slowly seep into the sphere. You could watch huge clouds
               rapidly blow past from the explosion but you could also see a
               few slow clouds of dust move through the sphere wall moving
               slowly.

               As such it was not water proof either. You could drop down
               out of the sky and the impact upon the ocean would not be
               felt as the surface waves where exploded away but very slowly
               the sphere would start filling up water. You could float for
               a while but not for long. 

               You could use your flight power to push down into the ocean
               with your shield up and it would keep air in there for you to
               breath until it slowly filled with water. Eventually you
               would drown but the crushing forces of the deep would never
               touch you.

               Likewise you could jump into the water and then form the
               sphere around you and fly up and you would be carrying a
               sphere full of water. Which you could then dump on a fire or
               a person who needed to cool off.

               Unlike the ray gun the shield sphere was tricky to use. It
               had many quirks no doubt because she had no understanding how
               to readily use it properly. For example; if she was standing
               on a rug and cast her defensive sphere. The sphere would
               always be set with its center on her; so standing on a floor
               it would pass into the ground or floor beneath her. Yet
               anything that pre-existed before the sphere was generated was
               in a sort of weird limbo in relation to the sphere's own
               influence. As such the rug though the part she was standing
               on was in the sphere you could set the rug on fire and it
               would very slowly burn through the shell and slowly burn the
               rug she was standing on. You could not though grab the
               exposed rug outside the sphere and yank it and cause her to
               fall.

               The best way to think about the shield sphere was that it was
               a force field that stopped force but not chemical reactions
               and that all permeable nature could enter it slowly if it did
               so without sudden violent powerful force.
               The more powerful the external force pressed against the
               sphere the more the sphere resisted that force from rupturing
               it and entering. It is important to remember all of the
               Legacy powers were based upon their own mind's filter and
               designed for them to use. So Legacy could summon her sphere
               shield to reflect small arms fire from hurting her and,
               without dispelling the sphere, walk over to someone crouching
               behind a mail box placing herself next to them so the sphere
               is protecting them as well. Doing this she might pass several
               solid items which would enter and leave the sphere with ease.
               Even if she were running and there should be an impact of
               said objects and her shield there would not be so; for the
               shield passes through the filter of her mind and it thus
               understands that she wants to move quickly pass these items.
               Likewise if she would WANT to use her shield sphere as a
               battering ram and fly it into the side of a building she
               could as again the shield sphere would understand her desire
               to do such.

               The problem with the shield sphere was more centered on all
               the dozens of unexpected things that could crop up suddenly
               which would then confuse the sphere. Say an ally came up
               behind you and wanted to say something to you. If you had not
               seen them the shield would not let them into the shield until
               you had seen them. So if they came running up to you they
               would concuss themselves upon the sphere. 

               After much practice Legacy began to realize that the shield
               sphere was actually several layers of different kinds of
               protection. One could make a air tight sphere but doing so
               made its concussive force defense very weak and so forth. You
               could have an air tight bubble to dive deep into the sea but
               the crushing force of the sea would be exerting a pressure on
               you and as you changed your sphere to prevent this force from
               crushing you the water would start to seep in and slowly
               build up to drown you.

               What's more Legacy knew that almost ALL of the battles the
               Legacy had fought for Mister A had been fought in space and
               on distant worlds. Surely the Legacy power must have the
               ability to travel through space quickly and breath. Her own
               sperm-donor had leapt up and soared away into space as soon
               as the seal took hold and the system collapsed.

               Rey Guunz lived in the suburbs of Delta City. A serious of
               apartment complexes built along the industrial parks on the
               inland side far away from the bay. Delta City was filled with
               super heroines and crime and as soon as Rey had her Legacy
               powers she knew she would be using them to fight crime as a
               secret crime fighter. She just needed practice. Lots and lots
               of practice. And knowing this she gave herself almost two
               hours on that first night doing nothing but that.
               Though the sperm-donor, had he bothered to be there, might
               have called it goofing off rather than practice and that her
               so called practice more or less was her merandering her way
               in the general direction of downtown Delta City looking for
               an adventure she was far from ready for; he wasn't there and
               neither was anyone else of any parental or social authority
               when she found herself smacking head long into a gang war.

               Purse snatchers; that is what Lydia Welles as Flag Girl first
               went solo against. True, Lydia had her first taste of combat
               action along side Ms. Americana when the super heroine went
               to rescue the kidnapped orphan, but it was purse snatchers
               that she swung down on her zip line as from the background a
               smiling but tense Ms. Americana crouched and watched.

               Specter Girl took on three street thugs stealing blu-ray
               players out of an electronics store when the city was plunged
               into chaos during the three day black out. Got Gal had
               ushered her off and then pretended to rush off to deal with
               dozens of other looters and rioters but first she watched
               anxiously from the shadows of a parking garage roof to make
               sure Specter Girl had indeed got it!

               Got Chick has spent years alongside Got Gal and never has
               been given an official solo venture blessing.

               Though she had grown up wrestling lions; Jungle Girl's fist
               solo gig under the distant eagle eye of Jungle Babe's nod of
               consent, was to escort a truck load of serum through not one
               but two disputing war lords domains. The Jungle Queen
               secretly followed her younger sister all the way; lending an
               invisible hand now and then and when Jungle Girl returned in
               success. Jungle Babe had gushed with so much pride and tears
               of happiness over her sister that she had trouble cutting and
               tieing the ceremonial leopard skin costume to denote her
               successful transition from girl to woman; that to this day
               Jungle Girl has more wardrobe malfunctions than any other
               super heroine.

               One could go on and on about the trials by fire that every
               super heroine first cut her teeth on in Delta City what
               dangers they undertook and what protective eye was looking
               out over them as they stumbled or made a mistake here and
               there; but few ever went in feet first without any warm up
               stretches or back up like the purple skin girl Legacy did.
               Nor did any take on such a mismatched opponent. For when Rey
               Gunnz lowered herself out of the sky to shout, "STOP!" She
               did so in the middle of four of the toughest street gang
               members in lower Delta. Over four hundred armed thugs. Three
               hundred of them still on their feet and kicking. And as the
               fight was in the naval junk yard beyond Seventh where the
               remains of that precincts police station still smolders; the
               chances of any police incursion was far and remote.

               Three gangs wanted the freshly annexed suburbs of Toll and
               Bell Island as well as the new shore line businesses and
               housing of Green Banks. The pipe line from the gang
               territories to these new Delta City additions was through the
               triangular hub off the wharves called Black Eye Gate. The
               people in the new annexes might more commonly use the bridges
               and ferries to the north, but the drugs and illegal
               trafficking was going to go through Black Eye Gate and its
               accesses. 

               The naval junk yard sat in the tip of Black Eye Gate and it
               made a good place to decide this very lucrative matter once
               and for all. Over a month of drive by's and small hits had
               resolved nothing and the larger more powerful crime elements
               had simply been too busy with the opportunities the new
               federal government was handing out to look up our of the
               trough and down their snout at Black Eye. There would always
               be time latter for picking up the pieces once the Ronald
               McDonald Rump of D.C. had finished carving up the United
               States of Amnesia. 

               Three gangs wanted the fresh meat before the city very slowly
               extended its services to the their new conquest. For a while
               they were just being squeezed for tax money by the city. What
               services they already had were being taken over and left in
               limbo. Promises made would take years to be realized. In the
               meantime, it was a brand new unrestricted drug highway into
               Delta City! As well as an export express lane for stolen
               goods to all parts known and unknown.

               Three gangs; the Lo Tigers, a farm team for Tu Phat, the
               Desperado's, the largest gang involved, and the Gently Boys,
               based out of Gently Street and the smallest in number by a
               long chalk but these were the errand boys of the Target
               family who were big in shipping and construction; as such the
               Gently showed up heavily armed with assault riffles and full
               automatic pistols.

               The Desperado's had increased their already large numbers by
               dragging another gang into the battle with them, the Wraiths.
               The Wraiths were an odd gang in that it held no territory.
               They were comprised out of homeless youth who often
               disappeared into the sewers or sections of the condemned
               areas of the city. Anyone who could venture at will down into
               the mutiod and breeder and monster filled sewers and live was
               someone to be avoided at all costs.

               By the time Legacy had arrived the large scale gang war
               battle had been going on for several minutes and the junk
               yard was a blaze with car fires and littered with bodies. The
               Gently Boys had gotten the better of it taking few loses and
               inflecting many. However, as many a general has moaned, bows
               are no good without arrows. And the Gently were out of ammo
               and wondering why no one had brought more than they had.

               The Desperado's had taken the most loss as by sure volume of
               size they were the larger target. They had little choice but
               fill up the middle of the junk yard and putt all the other
               gangs on their collective cauldron 'front'. So they took all
               the firepower from the Gently Boys savage one puff onslaught.
               While simultaneously dealing with the martial art acrobatics
               of the Lo Tigers who were utterly shielded from fighting
               anyone else by the bulk of the Desperado's pressing up
               against them.

               The Wraith's had wisely held back in the Desperado ranks
               until they heard the empty hammer falls of the Gently Boys
               and then they made their surreal presence known; one has
               never truly been in a fight until you see someone take two
               fingers of their hand curl them slightly and then slap a man
               in the neck and then watch that man's severed head go
               tumbling back and bouncing off the tarmac like a gutter ball.
               Even the Lo Tigers inched further into the Desperado,
               embracing their attacks, to avoid the pale odd smoldering
               jacketed Wraiths.

               A sudden car explosion ripping though the slaughter had
               opened up a space almost in the center of the fighting and it
               was into this center that Legacy had slowly lowered herself
               down while barking out orders for everyone to stop fighting.

               The Coast Card cutter off the tip of Toll Island watched
               through mounted night vision binoculars the purple skinned
               girl descend and checked their watches for the umpteenth
               time. They knew they would be waiting for quiet a bit longer
               before the land based police forces gathered at Maiden's Head
               and made a slow steady sweep down through the Black Eye Gate. 

               These were fathers and husbands and mothers and wives; not
               soldiers and no one wanted to die to bring to a stop some
               punks killing themselves with high grade army tech versus
               their police issued Wal-Mart bulk purchased shot guns. In
               fact, some of the hold up was because the China made plastic
               pieces of the firearms kept falling off and clattering on the
               ground. 

               The arrival of a super heroine was producing some welcome
               chatter on the radios as there was some doubts of Ms.
               Americana or Omega Woman or Got Gal being in the city at the
               moment. Considering they had been live that evening on the
               six o'clock news in Europe speaking at an emergency
               conference trying to assure the delegates that the current
               president of the United States was not going to make war on
               Amsterdam because said city had brought a lawsuit against him
               for forty million dollars as well as charges of fraud and
               conspiracy in his recent business practices there; this in
               despite of said presidents repeated public news conference
               statements where he screamed he was going to 'Nuke the shit
               out of those white (n-word) clock making fagots!' 

               Legacy's arrival may have smoothed the nerves of the official
               spectators shuffling along the side lines but it did nothing
               to calm the blood lust still bubbling in the combatants now
               all around her. What it did do was give the slightly nervous
               and giddy young girl ample practice with her white laser gun
               and her defense sphere. 

               She learned for example that she could not 'fire' her right
               hand weapon in any form if her shield sphere was 'up' and
               active; but she could use her forehead seal to pick up a man
               who was making crude comments about her large breasts because
               she kept getting caught up in the fighting and her top kept
               disappearing. And using said man as a club to pummel other
               men who kept shooting and smacking their fists and feet and
               chains and tire irons and knives and yes, even rocks, at her
               shield sphere.

               "Yep, really liking the shield sphere." Legacy said as a
               sudden grenade bounced off the top of it and plunked into the
               hood of a man wearing a hoodie jacket. Fortunately it turned
               out to be a smoke grenade for the guy but that meant her
               sphere was slowly filling up with smoke as rolls of clouds of
               it hissed passed her protective bubble.

               She flew up out of the smoke but the smoke that had already
               seeped into her sphere rose up trapped inside of it with her.
               She did the water 'plunge' un-summoning her sphere underwater
               and then resummoning it again and taking the heavy load of
               water and dumping it on several gang members who looked like
               they needed cooling off.

               The water was icy cold and she let her clothes disappear so
               she could summon them back dry on her body. The gun fire had
               all but ceased it was a brawl now and she took the
               opportunity to hover around using her laser pistol on the
               gang members; because it was a 'force' ray rather than a heat
               ray it was like slapping the raging men upside the head with
               a lead filled baseball bat.

               She was getting a little tired. She let her pistol vanish and
               just used her palm for a while. Then she started using her
               forehead seal as that one seemed to take the least amount of
               effort or energy from her. Soon her clothes were gone as she
               struggled to remain airborne blasting combatants with her
               forehead force beam until even that combination proved too
               exhausting and she landed upon a stack of wobbly scrap metal.
               The navy sure seemed to have a lot of old cars in their junk
               yard. That seemed odd. And that was because the local Navy
               Captain in charge of the junk and scrap yard for the Navy was
               running a chop shop on the side. Only in Delta City.

               She kept up her forehead blasting until she was down on one
               knee from the effort. She felt so utterly drained.
               Eventually she just collapsed on her back as the sounds of
               the fighting all around her slowly died and faded away to be
               replaced by the sounds of a mass exodus and the distant snap
               and pop of police bullhorns.

               "I have to learn some martial arts. This Legacy shit is just
               too draining. I feel like I could sleep for a week!" The
               young teen almost drifted off despite the noises still around
               her but dragged herself back with images of her purple naked
               body being handcuffed and dragged to a prison cell. 

               One never knew how the police would react to the presence of
               a super heroine. Rey had seen as many photos of Ms. Americana
               getting keys and certificates from the Mayor of Delta City as
               she had seen the Queen of Justice in handcuffs being taken
               into the police station.

               Pulling herself up to purple knees the young Legacy shot up
               into the air in a large arch coming down only long enough to
               catch her breath and shoot again up in the sky and come down.
               In a serious of short hops she made her naked purple skinned
               way through the grinning and grim faced fleeing gang members
               until she had outdistanced them and found a nice sheet metal
               shed roof to lie upon and take a real rest.

               She lay there naked under the stars panting. She had learned
               several things from her first combat experiences; first, it
               isn't how hard you hit, it's where you hit. You can keep
               upping your power of your punch but if you keep hitting a
               body where its best guarded like in the back or upper arm you
               aren't going to drop anyone anytime soon. Just as well if you
               hit with too much force you do far more damage than you need
               to do. Hit in the right place at the right time and bring
               your opponent down. Anything else may kill them or just piss
               them off. 

               Second, she needed to start taking martial art courses so she
               could know where she should be hitting and how hard. The self
               defense courses she had taken as compulsory all through
               school were utterly worthless unless you wanted to kill
               someone or permanently cripple or disfigure or main them. 

               Of course those were not really a deterrent or issue for its
               use when you are trying not to get raped or killed! But
               gouging out the eyes of a purse snatcher and rendering him
               permanently blind or putting a street thug into a wheel chair
               for the rest of his life who was smashing a window of a pawn
               shop to steal back his TV set just seemed a bit much.

               Third, she needed to stay off the radar remain low key. She
               sure as hell was not ready for a file on her at city hall-

               "Where the hell are your clothes?"

               Legacy pulled her forearm off her eyes and squinted up at a
               hovering female figure above her as the full moon pinned her
               upon the tin roof in its white spot light. "Ah, give me a
               second." Legacy got slowly to her feet keeping an eye on the
               shadowy floating figure and summoned her costume and then
               summoned her ray gun in its hip holster.

               "Well, that's better. Purple skin. Blue hair. Weird. I heard
               the chatter on my police scanner," the figure drifted down
               slowly near Rey as she tapped her neck choker. "Sounds like
               you took out quiet a few of those gang bangers back there."

               It was Amazing Babe. "Not to judge but a lot of those guys
               are not getting back up. Heading to the morgue not the
               hospital. You weren't responsible for any of that, right?"
               The long haired platinum blonde nodded at the laser on
               Legacy's hip.

               "It shoots force beams. Like getting hit with a ball bat."

               "I see. We just don't roll out the red carpet for lethal
               vigilantes in this city. Everyone gets their day in court no
               mater what they have done. Cute costume. Nice retro look. Got
               a super heroine name yet?"

               "Legacy."

               "Wow. Bit esoteric and a little... egocentric. You might want
               to run it through the data base at the Hall of Heroines in
               the park right in front of the Wade Industries building
               before committing it to any long term commitment like a belt
               buckle or emblazoned top. Speaking of which you got quiet a
               bit of sunrise areola peeping out of your top there. Might
               want to re-think that; good in a fight for distraction, but
               the soccer moms will roast you alive for it."

               Amazing Babe floated back up into the air with her arms
               crossed under her breasts. "We run a clean ship in this city.
               We don't break anyone's balls who comes along and wants to
               lend a hand. Goddess knows there's plenty to do. But wether
               your a team player or lone wolf you got to know that you will
               be watched and judged... by everyone." With that she gave a
               little two fingered salute and soared away vanishing from
               sight in an eye blink.

               "Great. The cheerleader one does not like me. You only get
               one chance to make a first impression and some how I pissed
               the captain of the cheerleader squad off?" Legacy popped up
               into the air and thought, 'fourth; you are always being
               watched. Spy satellites everywhere, never land in costume or
               leave in costume from your home!'

               She flew across the bay water heading indirectly to her
               apartment building.
               It was getting late and tomorrow was a school day.
               "Seriously?! I am showing too much nipple?! This from the
               girl who every boy at school has at least a dozen loops of
               her getting boinked in the ass while she's drooling and
               crossing her eyes in orgasm?! I am not going to take fashion
               advice from a super heroine who is flying around in biker
               slut short-shorts with a camel toe you could pop beer caps
               off in!"

               Legacy made a few lazy spins as she arrow shot on letting her
               finger tips slap the bay water as she spun. SLAP SLAP SLAP
               SLAPSLAPSLAPSLAPSLAP! The rhythm increasing as she tightened
               up her spin and increased her corkscrewing speed until she
               came out of it as she neared shore. 

               "She is right about one thing. I need to register at the
               Heroine Hall downtown. They don't let people be privet
               detectives without a licence and you won't get any police
               cooperation without signing in at the Heroine Hall. I don't
               know if I will join or not, but it wouldn't hurt to sign in
               and get my name and costume copyrighted. Don't want to see
               little miss blondie camel toe steeling my style vibe. She was
               eyeing it pretty hard." 

               "After that maybe I can do some practicing down in the Delta
               City sewers? I have heard there are some kind of mutated
               monsters down there that come up at night and grab people. I
               wonder why none of the super heroines ever do anything about
               that? Probably too easy. Beneath them. Well, it sounds just
               about right for a starting place rookie. First thing tomorrow
               I will hit the Hall and then the sewers for some under the
               radar easy practice time! It will be nice to go easy on
               myself after that war zone tonight!"

               Legacy dropped down several blocks from her apartment
               building and using the ground fog and the nearly empty
               streets to her advantage dispelled her powers and jiggled
               naked all the way home.
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