Phew! That mid-season break is over! Thank goodness. Now, we get back into it…Legion of Super-Heroes, the live action TV series…second half of season two.
What is this and Season One? Here.
First half of Season Two? Here.
A figure appears in the void, blurry and indestinct. Using his great power, Superboy reaches through a takes hold of the figure and pulls him through. However, the weakened and confused figure is not Mon-El at all, but an older man with long white hair. When asked his name, he looks at them with barely concealed malevolence, and whispers, “Mordru…
Episode 9
The Legion is mystified…where is Mon-El and who is this figure before them? A few remember his name–Mordru is one the Time Trapper prophesied that the Legion would fight to prevent his universal dominance. Superboy comes close to Mordru, sensing the potential threat from him, and Mordru responds by blasting Superboy and knocking him unconscious. The rest of the Legion spring into action, and realize that he’s charged with a mysterious energy that Superboy is vulnerable to.
Nura claims that Mordru is an evil sorcerer of myth and that his power is magic. But Mordru is still weak from his strange imprisonment, and begins to buckle under their combined attack. He retreats, using his power to teleport away.
Saturn Girl learns what she can Nura. On her world, Naltor, Mordru is a nightmare story whose reign of evil was only checked by another malevolent force from the end of time. However, the prophesy is that Mordru would one day return and be unchecked in his destructive power. The Legion don’t put their faith in these prophesies, but it’s clear that Mordru is a threat that needs to be found and contained. And Dream Girl’s abilities tell her that in one day there will be a terrible destruction that will seems to center on Naltor, with all her ability to foresee the future coming to an abrupt end at that point.
Saturn Girl calls the entire team together, including the new members, and also Timber Wolf and Nura Nal, whom she gives a “field appointments” to active membership.Nura takes the name “Dream Girl”. She splits the team: Brainiac 5 will take Chameleon and Phantom Girl and go to Colu, Brainiac 5’s homeworld and the greatest information repository in the galaxy. They will attempt to learn everything possible about Mordru. Lightning Lad will stay on earth in case of any other emergencies, with a small team including Ultra Boy, Karate Kid, Shrinking Violet, Timber Wolf and Bouncing Boy. Saturn Girl and the rest of the team will go to Naltor because of Dream Girl’s vision.
En route to Colu, Phantom Girl takes Brainiac 5 to task for his mistake that released Mordru. Brainiac 5 admits he has no idea what happened, how his calculations could have been so wrong.
Saturn Girl’s group approaches Naltor, with the deadline for the great disaster foreseen by Dream Girl rapidly approaching. Communicating with Naltor, they learn that all of Dream Girl’s people are foreseeing the same disaster, but have no more understanding of what causes it or what they can do about it.
On earth, Lightning Lad attempts to communicate the situation to the United Planets council, who are in a bit of disbelief about it. In the middle of this, the Legion gets an emergency call from the Science Police that a group of space pirates known as Resource Raiders are attacking an energy plant on Mars. It’s a large force, so Lightning Lad sends the entire team except for himself to stand against it, giving command to Ultra Boy, while he continues to try to get the government understand the gravity of the situation.
Saturn Girl’s team arrives at Naltor, the whole population of which is growing increasingly anxious. Suddenly, Mordru arrives by teleportation.
He appears as a gigantic warrior, and Colossal Boy enlarges to confront him–but even weakened, Mordru easily overpowers him. Mordru begins to absorb energy from all of Naltor, with the Legion unable to do anything about it. The Naltorians begin to scream as the deadline arrives. Panic and riots break out everywhere, and the Legion have their hands full trying to prevent accidental deaths. Mordru then stands stronger than before, bristling with mystical strength. He flies off into space, the Legion utterly powerless to stand in his way.
Episode 10
Most of Naltor continues to freak out, and the Legion have its hand full trying to bring peace. With the help of Star Boy, Dream Girl is able to retain her composure, revealing that her precognition are gone. Mordru has apparently absorbed this power from the entire planet, using it to recharge himself.
The Legion track Mordru to Venegar, a sister world of Naltor, which is inhabited only by primitive beings. Colossal Boy is still wounded, and Dream Girl and Star Boy give him medical attention. Saturn Girl is spending all her time trying telepathically calm the Naltorians, so she orders Cosmic Boy to lead the rest of the team to Venegar to find out what Mordru is doing.
Meanwhile, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl and Chameleon land on Colu. Most
Coluans are creatures of pure thought-energy, with Brainiac seen as something of a rebellious youth for insisting on retaining physical form. Brainiac 5 asks for all data pertaining to the unclassifiable anomaly known as Mordru, but the Coluans are, as always, reluctant to share information with the outside world.
On earth, Lightning Lad checks in with Ultra Boy’s team, who are busy in a fight with the Resource Raiders. They are not especially powerful, but numerous, so the team is being kept busy.
Cosmic Boy’s team approaches Venegar, but find a strange energy field surrounding the planet which hinders their approach and prevents them from seeing or scanning the world. Cosmic Boy, Princess Projectra, Invisible Kid, Element Lad and Ferro Lad attempt to break through on a shuttle while the others remain in orbit in the Legion Cruiser. Superboy exits the ship and helps to push the shuttle through under his own power, and they land.
Exiting their shuttle, they find that Venegar is nothing like expected. Instead of being a world with only prehistoric beings, they find a planet full of thriving cities and billions of humanoids, who all worship at temples dedicated to Mordru, and are forever monitored by a mysterious disembodied eye which they come to know as the Emerald Eye of Ekron.
They find they cannot easily leave the atmosphere again, and that the Eye emits a powerful energy which disables them whenever they do anything aggressive. The Legion meet the local inhabitants and find them all friendly enough, but declaring that Mordru is their beloved lord and master. Eventually, they find Mordru himself in one of his temples, who welcome the Legionnaires, claiming the world is full of happy citizens. Cosmic Boy is not distracted by Mordru’s games, and Mordru says he admires the Legion’s spirit. Scanning the area, Invisible Kid figures out that Venegar has been cut off from the normal flow of time. Indeed, since the Legion landed, virtually no time at all has passed for the rest of the universe.
The Legion realize that Mordru has used his power to accelerate Venegar and its evolution and development. He normally exists outside of this accelerated timeframe, appearing to the locals as unmoving deity figure, only occasionally “slowing down” enough to interact in their time frame. Mordru tauntingly tells the Legion to enjoy their stay in his world, going back into his regular time frame (where he appears as an unmoving sleeping giant).
Suddenly, hundreds of the worshipers at Mordru’s temple are enveloped in a wave of energy and are mutated into twisted insectoid creatures as they go. They are shot into the sky and out of sight, having been transformed into an army to wage war upon the galaxy. It will take a generation for another wave of worshipers to be sent out to reinforce them, but from the perspective of the rest of the universe, it will only be a few moments.
The Legion realize that they have to escape as quickly as possible. The Emerald Eye fires blasts of mystical energy, destroying their shuttle. Invisible Kid realizes that the Eye’s attacks are actually creating a weakness in the energy field that surrounds the planet, which might allow them to escape simply using their Flight Rings. Superboy lures the Eye into attacking him, and the Legion makes an escape attempt. The Eye tries to stop him but Princess Projectra is able to briefly confuse it with her powers, while Cosmic Boy and Ferro Lad rescue Superboy. The Eye attacks again but the group is able to escape.
Cutting back a few minutes, the Legionnaires in the Cruiser see Mordru’s monstrous Insectoid Soldier Army rises up from the planet, blazing pass their ship and into space. Scanners reveal they are spreading out throughout the universe, with many of them heading toward earth.
Only a moment later, the Cosmic Boy, Element Lad, Ferro Lad, and Princess Projectra break through the barrier, with the injured Superboy. They board the Cruiser and order Sun Boy to fly the ship out of there as quickly as possible. Sun Boy takes them back to Naltor, where things are settling back down again thanks largely to Saturn Girl’s efforts.
Another wave of Insectoid Soldiers rises from Venegar, as another generation has passed on the planet. Cosmic Boy communicates with Saturn Girl over the radio about the situation, and they frantically attempt to communicate with Lightning Lad on earth, but they aren’t able to get through.
Only then do the Legionnaires realize that one of their number is missing: Invisible Kid for some reason did not make it off Venegar. He’s apparently still down there, where years are passing every second!
Episode 11
On Colu, Brainiac 5 is finally able to convince the Coluans to search for the information he needs, with a promise they will send it to him as soon as possible. He, Phantom Girl and Chameleon leave for Naltor.
Ultra Boy and his team have defeated the Resource Raiders near Mars, and are cleaning up when hundreds of the Insectoid Soldiers arrive, traveling at unbelievable speeds. Some pass them by for earth while others attack the colonies on Mars. Ultra Boy’s team do their best to fight back, but they are out-powered.
A hundred more of the creatures arrive at the earth. The earth’s Energy Shield struggles under the pressure of the attack, and begins to buckle…
Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and the rest of the Legion quickly mount a defense on Naltor where another major force of the Insectoid Soldiers is attacking, leaving no time for the team to consider is happening with Invisible Kid or how they can help him. The battle rages fiercely. Saturn Girl orders a recovering Superboy to return to Venegar, as that is where new enemy armies are arriving from–albeit more slowly than before for unknown reasons.
On earth, the shield breaks down and Insectoid Soldiers begin to land on earth. In some truly spectacular sequences, Lightning Lad bravely defends the earth, pushing himself to exhaustion.
Just when it seems he will be overrun, reinforcements arrive from a group calling itself the Legion of Substitute Heroes, made up of rejected Legionnaires: Polar Boy, Night Girl, Matter-Eater Lad, Chlorophyll Kid, Color Kid and Stone Boy. The group’s powers are not entirely useful, but they give Lightning Lad the break he needs to rally his strength.
Superboy arrives at Venegar. As he tries to consider his next action, he is joined by Brainiac 5, Chameleon and Phantom Girl in their ship. Brainiac 5 deduces what is happening, and sees that they need to even out the time-differential so Venegar can return to a normal time-flow. Another, smaller, army then emerges and attacks them, leaving Superboy, Chameleon and Phantom Girl working to protect Brainiac 5 as he works to crack Mordru’s machinations.
The war continues to wage on all fronts. On Naltor, Colossal Boy has recovered enough to join the fight, and Dream Girl proves that she is capable in a fight even without her powers. On Mars, Ultra Boy’s group is barely holding. On earth, Lightning Lad and the Substitutes are able to lure the creatures to the moon. Stone Boy then sacrifices himself to get them all into one place! Polar Bear is there, surrounded by by them all, and is then unleashes a mighty burst of his power to freeze them all, disabling them, but taking himself out of action at the same time.
At Venegar, Brainiac 5 realizes that the Insectoid Soldiers are continually powered is by the mystical energy surrounding Venegar–so if they can disrupt it, it should weaken the enemy. Suddenly Mordru himself arrives from the planet, having sensed Brainiac’s interference. He destroys the machine that Brainiac 5 is working on, but Brainiac 5 protects himself with a portable force field belt he has developed. Mordru then turns his attention toward the earth, and flies toward the heart of the United Planets. Brainiac 5 is frustrated at the setback, saying it might take him 2 or even 3 minutes to make up that lost time. Seeing that the creatures are weakening, Saturn Girl takes most of her team, leaving just Colossal Boy, Star Boy and Dream Girl behind on Naltor while she follows Mordru to earth in the cruiser via Stargate, along with Cosmic Boy, Triad, Lightning Lass, Princess Projectra, Ferro Lad, Sun Boy and Element Lad.
With the earth basically saved, Lightning Lad and the remaining Substitutes reinforce Ultra Boy’s group by Mars. The Creatures are growing noticeably weaker, and no reinforcements have shown up for some time.
But Mordru himself is approaching. He is coming. He is coming soon. And he is angry…so angry that perhaps no one will survive.
Episode 12
Star Boy and Dream Girl work well together on Naltor, with the attraction between them becoming overt.
Around Venegar, Brainiac 5 finally breaks through the Mystical Barrier, with Superboy, Phantom Girl and Chameleon defeating the last of the Insectoid Soldiers. As the Field clears, the planet becomes visible and quickly decelerates to a normal time flow. Superboy sees the planet has changed a great deal from the last time he saw it. The temples and churches to Mordru are all gone, and the Emerald Eye appears to be dormant. A highly advanced ship rises to meet them, and inside, to their surprise, is Invisible Kid, alive and well, and not any older.
In Flashback we see Invisible Kid’s story–he was trapped on Venegar when the others escaped, but quickly decided he had an opportunity.
He was scientifically smart enough to figure out a way to separate himself from the world’s time distortion, similar to Mordru though not as extreme, though Lyle did not know how to do this with the whole planet (which is what Brainiac 5 did, Brainy points out smugly). The effect for Lyle was that he could control how fast he moved through the world. Mostly, he remained Invisible to avoid detection from the Eye, but he would appear from time to time, slowing down and communicating enough to undermine the people’s faith in their cruel “deity”.
Eventually Mordru himself “woke up” and left (to stop Brainiac 5’s attack), which appeared to make the Eye more sluggish in its functions. Lyle managed to spread the truth about Mordru to the people, and as people lost faith in Mordru, the Eye became less active in enforcing Mordru’s directives. In the last generation of his time on Venegar, he was particularly helped by a young girl named Sarya, whom the Eye even began to show an affinity for. Once Venegar had been completely freed from Mordru’s dominion, it cut off the villain’s supply of monstrous reinforcements.
The Legion marvel at the idea that a new highly advanced civilization has just been formed in less then a day, but have no time to consider the implications of this. A “Thought Message” is beamed directly into Brainiac 5’s mind from his people on Colu, with all their information and deductions about Mordru. Brainy declares they have to join the battle on earth as quickly as possible, as he now knows Mordru’s potential weakness. Traveling in Invisible Kid’s super-fast ship, called the Dart, they go to Naltor and pick up Colossal Boy, Dream Girl and Star Boy and then head to earth.
Having learned of Mordru’s approach, Lightning Lad (who is barely still standing), Ultra Boy, and the rest of the Legionnaires, along with the Substitutes, make a defense in the asteroid belt outside of Mars’ orbit. Mordru arrives and the Legion ambush him. He is taken by surprise, but only slowed down for a moment. Lightning Lad is knocked out as Saturn Girl’s group arrive to back them up, and Mordru finds himself struggling somewhat under the Legion’s strength. Mordru revives some of his Insectoid-Soldiers, now powering them with his own energy.
Finally, Brainiac 5 and his group arrive in Invisible Kid’s ship and join the fight. Having Superboy as a reinforcement definitely helps the team. Saturn Girl telepathically links all the Legion, looking for an answer as to how to defeat Mordru, and Brainiac 5 shares his information: according to an aggregate of all of the galaxy’s legends about Mordru, the dark wizard has an uncontrollable fear of being buried underground or stuck in an enclosed space–it apparently causes him to lose his powers. But how can they use this to their advantage in the middle of space?
Superboy and Ultra Boy attempt to smash Mordru between two asteroids, but he sees them coming and dodges. He concentrates his attack on them and leaves them both incapacitated.
Lightning Lass and Sun Boy both focus their energy attacks, while Star Boy plays havoc with Mordru’s gravity, stunning him. Colossal Boy steps in, attempting to use his size power to take Mordru (still in gigantic form) by surprise. Insectoid-Soldiers come to Mordru’s aid, but Karate Kid and Timber Wolf hold them off. However, Mordru rallies himself and with a mighty burst of power sends that entire group of heroes flying and taking them out of the battle.
Before the last of the Insectoid Soldiers can kill some of the Legionnaires, Saturn Girl exerts herself to mentally shut them all down, but also disabling herself.
Mordru is suddenly mocked by an unseen Invisible Kid, who laughs at him for how weak he is becoming. Lyle says this is because he cut off his power from Venegar. Mordru is enraged and tries to attack him with mystical energy, but misses…because Lyle is actually on the Dart, which has the same capacity for invisibility as Lyle himself.
Lyle is forced by Mordru to land on an asteroid. Mordru arrives to finish him off but is attacked by most of the rest of the Legion: Triad, Phantom Girl, Chameleon, Brainiac 5, Shrinking Violet, Bouncing Boy, Dream Girl, Princess Projectra, Ferro Lad, Night Girl, Chlorophyll Kid, Color Kid and Matter-Eater Lad. Mordru is worn out, but still able to make short work of most of these heroes. However, when Dream Girl is hit by his attack, she is surprised when it actually strengthens her, returning some of her powers (much of his energy is stolen from her people, after all).
In the midst of all of this, Mordru doesn’t see that Cosmic Boy and Element Lad are missing. Element Lad is changing another nearby asteroid to give it large desposits of iron ore, and Cosmic Boy is straining to magnetically bring it down on top of them. Brainiac 5 sees this and joins them. Invisible Kid gets his ship working and leaves with some of the Legionnaires, while Chameleon turns into a giant space amoeba and envelopes the rest to bring them off the asteroid safely. However, when Ferro Lad gets hurt and almost misses the ride, Matter-Eater Lad risks himself to save him, and ends up left behind, and gathering with Cosmic Boy and the others. Mordru realizes too late that the second asteroid is crashing down on top of him…
The asteroids crash together in a mighty cataclysm. The rest of the team are in shock. Phantom Girl phases into the earth to find any signs of their friends, but comes back uncertain. Saturn Girl and some of the other injured Legionnaires rejoin them, and Imra attempts to scan for survivors. She can sense Mordru’s mind shutting down, as the physical and psychological effects of being buried overwhelm him.
After a moment she detects something else. Suddenly, an area of the ground on one part of the asteroid begins to cave in. The Legion stand ready for more battle, but it turns out to be…
Matter-Eater Lad, digging a tunnel from deep below up through the ground at super-speed! Brainiac 5, Element Lad, and an exhausted Cosmic Boy come up behind him. It turns out that Brainiac 5 used his force field to protect them all until Matter-Eater Lad could save them. Everyone is relieved, and then go to work tending to their wounded and trying to figure out what to do with Mordru.
The people of Venegar have developed technology that can be used to imprison Mordu, so Invisible Kid goes there with some Science Police officers to supervise the process. The Legion returns to earth, with various characters going to hospital satellite Medicus One. Earth itself has survived relatively unscathed, thanks to Lightning Lad and the Subs. Brainiac 5 returns to his lab, to take stock of things. But as he enters, he’s suddenly attacked.
Brainiac 5 finds himself pinned to a wall, his force field belt and flight ring removed from him by mysterious electro-magnetic forces. His attacker speaks from the shadows:
“Creator…my age has dawned.”
Brainiac is stunned.
“C–Computo?”
Episode 13
Brainiac 5 is held prisoner by Computo in his lab, by his own force field technology, with nobody else being aware of this. He is forced to pretend to the rest of the Legion that everything is fine and that he’s just busy with his work.
Superboy bids farewell to everyone and is taken by Triad and Shrinking Violet back to his own time. Some suspicion is aroused when Brainiac 5 refuses to come out to say goodbye or supervise the time travel process, but it’s chalked up to his reclusive personality.
Saturn Girl goes to the medical satellite Medicus One to visit all the heroes who are recovering there, including Lightning Lad, Colossal Boy, Ferro Lad, Cosmic Boy and Polar Boy. She thanks Polar Boy for the help of his team, and promises that once he’s recovered they will figure out a suitable memorial for Stone Boy.
On Venegar, Invisible Kid brings Mordru’s inert body, where the people are preparing an eternal prison for him. Sarya is now an adult (having aged those last few years as Venegar was decelerating to a normal time flow) and is now the ruler of the planet. The Emerald Eye is still present but seems harmless, obeying now Sarya’s commands. She uses it to help rebuild her world. She is glad to see Invisible Kid again, though when he expresses concern about leaving her with such a mysterious powerful force, her expression grows darker. They agree to leave things as they are for the moment, and Mordru is imprisoned. Lyle realizes that Venegar has now developed the means to “tap into” Mordru’s body as a source of power for the whole world, which makes him more conerned. He wonders what this bodes for the future.
Star Boy and Dream Girl talk about their relationship. They agree that they want to be a couple, but Dream Girl is not sure of her future. She has regained some of her precognition, but it’s different then before: she is no longer dreaming of things days or months away, but rather seems to be aware of what will happen in the next few minutes. She is also aware that while she has some of her power back, the rest of Naltor does not. Star Boy sympathizes–he also had to do with an abrupt alteration of his powers, as well as planetary responsibility. Eventually, she chooses to go back to her world, at least for the time being, and at the last minute, Star Boy opts to go with her.
Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl agree to go on a double date with Timber Wolf and Lightning Lass, really as a favor in order to help the newer couple not feel so awkward with each other. It doesn’t work, though, as Timber Wolf’s sullen personality and inherent moodiness embarrasses Ayla. Phantom Girl talks to Ayla privately and challenges her that whatever she decides about the relationship, she will need to learn to accept Brin for who he is.
Chameleon visits R.J. Brande, and enjoys showing off how much his language skills have improved.
On Medicus One, Saturn Girl privately shares with Lightning Lad that she’s decided to step down as Legion leader. The battles they’ve fought have been exhausting, and seem never ending. The upshot, she says, is that there will more time for her to focus on other areas of her life, including her relationship with Garth. To her surprise, he encourages her not to act hastily. Of course he wants more time with her, but he also doesn’t want her to make a big decision for the wrong reasons.
While all this is going on, Brainiac 5 continues to be a captive of Computo, who is using the resources in the lab to build some mysterious thing. As they talk, Brainiac 5 realizes that Computo was the “traitor” that Saturn Girl was suspicious of, and that he’s been responsible for a lot of their recent troubles. He supplied the Brain Lords of Khann with secret information that almost led to Saturn Girl’s death. He gave the Khunds the cloaking technology that allowed them to go undetected both by sensors and telepathy. And he sabotaged the attempt to rescue Mon-El so that Mordru was released instead. Each of these strategems was part of an effort to weaken the Legion, as part of his plan to take their place as the ultimate protector of the earth. He intends to kill the rest of the Legion, and has even sabotaged the Time Bubble so that when it attempts to return from the past, it will explode, destroying them.
Computo seems desparate for Brainiac 5’s praise and approval. He believes that in taking this course of action, he is exceeding what his “father” ever hoped for him, thus fulfilling the wish of all fathers throughout history. He believes Brainiac 5 should be “proud” of him.
In the past, Triad and Shrinking Violet drop off Superboy and head home, when the Time Bubble circuits begin to malfunction. They struggle to maintain control.
By using carefully ordered words in his conversation with Computo, Brainiac 5 manages to activate some voice control circuitry to set him free from Computo’s force field. In the few seconds he has to act, he punches some commands into a console. Computo quickly recaptures Brainiac 5 and disables the voice controls. He realizes Brainiac 5 has erased all information about time travel from the databanks Computo is at first confused, but Brainiac 5 makes him realize that when the Time Bubble is destroyed, the secrets of time travel will be lost forever. Computo finds that unacceptable, as Brainiac 5 predicted, and so allows his creator to warning his friends of the sabotage. Brainiac 5 does so, sending a set of instructions along with a short audio message: “Brainaic 5 here. No time for questions–follow the attached instructions to avoid disaster. It’s rough but will have to do–no time for complicated instructions.” At the same time, Brainiac 5 is able to secretly cause a short circuit to an exterior emergency light outside the HQ near the lab without Computo noticing. This causes it blink erratically.
In the timestream, the girls get the message. They open the data file, and effect a few an adjustment to the Time Bubble that brings it to a halt and disable the sabotage. Triad and Violet are confused–Brainiac 5’s “fix” seems to have trapped them. But looking more closely at the data file, they find it contains a second set of instructions, encoded below the first. They set to work at decoding it.
As she returns to HQ, Saturn Girl notices the blinking light, and telepathically attempts to communicate with Brainiac 5. Finding her efforts blocked by the shielding Computo has put up around the lab, she grows suspicious, and gets Karate Kid and Element Lad to accompany her to the lab.
Inside, knowing that Saturn Girl is approaching, Computo accelerates his plans. He is not satisfied to continue to exist merely as a small, harmless interface. He wants…a “body”, so that humanity will have something to worship when he establishes himself as master. That is what he has been working on. A door in the corner opens and Brainiac 5 stares in horror at what emerges.
The lab locked, Element Lad tries to change the door to a gas, but finds it resistant to his powers. So Karate Kid instead begins to strike at the door, finding its weaknesses. Finally, he is able to enter, and they find themselves face to face with Computo–a perfect android duplicate of Brainiac 5! He is not being deceptive, however. He announces who he is, and declares himself to be the master of earth. When the Legion disagree, Computo says he anticipated this, and calls forth its other body–a horrific Battle Robot of monstrous proportions, dealing out destruction as it approaches.
Episode 14
Saturn Girl sends out general alert, but Computo shuts it down before it go beyond the headquarters itself. Princess Projectra, Bouncing Boy and Sun Boy still respond, and the heroes attempt to fight the monster version of Computo. Computo has prepared, however, and is largely impervious to their powers.
Brainiac 5 pleads for Computo to stop, but his cries fall on deaf ears, and Computo begins to influence machinery all over the earth. Everywhere, computerized machines start imprisoning the humans who control them. The Legionnaires, however, are targeted for death. Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Lightning Lass and Timber Wolf must all fight malevolent robotic maintenance drones a the nightclub they are hanging out in. Chameleon helps protect R.J. Brande from automatic security systems gone evil at his mansion. And on Medicus One, the injured Legionnaires work together to defend themselves.
Around the world, machines atttach themselves to each other, transforming into an army of soldier robots. The fusion powerspheres are integrated into this and the earth’s defensive Energy Shield is fully disabled. Some of these robots break into the United Planets headquarters and hold the council hostage. The Android-Computo leaves the HQ to take control of the government, while his Battle Robot form continues to battle the Legion. Alerted to this situation, Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Timber Wolf and Lightning Lass make their way to the UP council to try to defend them.
At Legion HQ, the main Computo Battle Robot is simply too well prepared against the Legion’s powers. After most of the Legion is injured, it grabs Brainiac 5 and imprisons it inside of itself (in a clear dome on its “head”) so he can bear witness to his “child’s” triumphs.
It then leaves the HQ and begins to smash its way through the city.
In the Time Bubble, Triad and Shrinking Violet decipher the second set of instructions, and see the outline of an experiment that involves using the Time Bubble’s power to launch an energy pulse into the timestream at a certain frequency, and from the very specific temporal coordinates which they are currently stuck at. They decide that there must be a good reason for all of this and get to work.
Android-Computo arrives at the United Planets headquarters, where it demands to see the United Planets president, who is also the President of Earth. Ultra Boy and his team arrive to fight Computo, but again he’s prepared and disables them. Computo then kills the President, declaring himself the new protector of earth. He turns to kill the Legionnaires, but Phantom Girl is able to recover enough to bring her companions into a phantom state. Computo is unable to kill them, but he hits them with a blast that freezes them in that form, disabling them.
Around the earth, Computo consolidates his power. The local Stargate is destroyed, cutting earth off from potential help, and a huge Polymer Shield is rapidly built around the planet, isolating it from the rest of the galaxy. The robots off of earth have gone dormant, so the battle on Medicus One is over. The Legionnaires there watch helplessly as the earth is cut off by the massive shield.
Episode 15
Invisible Kid arrives from Venegar in the Dart, which travels faster than any UP ship, and Lyle meets up with the recovering Legoinnaires on Medicus One. They examine the Polymer Shield, but find it defies their efforts to break through. Lyle realizes there is only one thing that might be powerful enough to crack its defenses is the Dart itself.
The Legion on earth desparately try to regroup, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly, Saturn Girl gets a message from Invisible Kid, who is using advanced technology from the Dart to scramble his message. He says he can use the same technology to allow the Dart to break through the Shield, if even just for a moment. This should distract Computo long enough to give Saturn Girl’s chance–a single moment to beat Computo. But the question remains–what to do in that moment?
The hiding Legionnaires–Saturn Girl, Karate Kid, Element Lad, Princess Projectra, Bouncing Boy and Sun Boy–debate this. They realize they are up against an enemy that they know nothing about, and have no way of understanding or analyzing, and so have only move: free Brainiac 5.
The Legion carry this out. When the Dart strikes the Shield, Computo is indeed distracted. He hungrily takes hold of the ship and strips it of its technology, eagerly adapting it for its own purposes. At that point, the heroes are able to free Brainiac 5. While fighting with robot-drones rage around them, Saturn Girl asks Brainiac 5 for ideas of how Computo can be defeated. Brainiac 5 immediately leaves toward the wreckage of his lab, with Saturn Girl following. Brainiac 5 says they need power…raw power, strong enough to punch Computo in the face and make it hurt.
At his lab he proceeds to cobble together equipment. He says that once he realized that their recent troubles were caused by Computo, he knew what to do. In fact, he should have already figured it out, because deliberate sabotage by Computo is the only logical explanation for how he could have made such a blatant mistake in the first place.
Saturn Girl doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and Brainiac 5 says he has already got Triad and Shrinking Violet to launch a pulse from the Time Bubble that will grab hold of something lost in a dimension adjacent to the time stream, and propel it forward the present day. All he has to do is open up the portal on the other end and…
He does so, and a figure falls through the portal and collapses on the ground. Right behind him is the Time Bubble, caught in his wake and brought back home. Triad and Shrinking Violet emerge, while Brainiac 5 grabs a medical serum and quickly injects the injured man. He tells Saturn Girl to make mental contact and to download to him what is going on and what needs to happen. Saturn Girl does so, and the man stands, the serum apparently giving him strength…
…it’s Mon-El, Superboy’s friend, who is even mightier than he was. Mon-El receives the information from Saturn Girl and agrees about what must be done. He flies into the air, and demonstrates truly awesome strength by plowing through a bunch fot he robots that the other Legionnaires are fighting. Then he finds the Android-Computo, and punches him the face…really, really hard. Computo is staggered, shocked and hurt, but not defeated. He begins to fight back, calling his Battle Robot form to join him.
The rest of the Legion all join in as well. Saturn Girl is able to communicate with Phantom Girl mentally and reverse the process that trapped them. Karate Kid and Ultra Boy then go to investigate the Polymer Shield, where robotic repairs are underway to the place the Dart broke through, and they quickly lay waste to that. This creates a gap where Invisible Kid and the Legionnaires from Medicus One, now recovered enough to join the fight, can come through.
Computo is losing ground and he knows it. In a last ditch effort, his Battle Robot form reconfigures to hit Mon-El with a red solar beam, which weakens him. Android-Computo then deals him a mighty blow, dazing him for a moment. Seeing Battle Robot-Computo prepare to kill Mon-El, Shrinking Violet and Triad race to his aid. Triad puts her flight ring onto Mon-El, and Shrinking Violet is able to use that along with her own to fly him away. Enraged, the Battle Robot-Computo reaches for Triad. She triplicates, and one of her selves sacrifices herself so the others can escape.
Mon-El recovers, and with the other Legionnaires, destroys the Battle-Robot, and deal the Android a crippling blow. His life finally ends as he crawls to the feet of Brainiac 5, begging his “father” for mercy. Brainiac 5 responds by reaching down and deactivating him permanently.
In the days that follow, the earth begins to recover. The loss of life is minimal, but the loss of property is immense. The United Planets government reforms away from earth, with a new leader, and an interim Earth government (“EarthGov”) forms with the primary task of helping the world rebuild, as well as to either dismantle or repurpose the Polymer Shield for better purposes. The one good thing is the presence of Mon-El, who has quickly established a larger-than-life reputation as a hero and even savior of earth, who helps the world with hope. Mon-El joins the Legion.
Brainiac 5 submits himself to discipline by the EarthGov for his role in the creation of Computo, but he is ultimaty exonerated, his experiments having all been submitted for UP review beforehand. The only issue is that nobody else in the UP was smart enough to figure out what he was actually doing, so they declare that there will be much more oversight from now on.
Within Legion walls, Brainiac 5 resigns over the objections of Saturn Girl and others over all that has happened. He leaves the team and returns to Colu. Saturn Girl herself then confesses to the Legion her activity to try to ferret out the traitor amongst them, and her complete failure to suspect Computo. She announces she intends to hold another leadership election soon.
A long-delayed funeral is held for Stone Boy, who is honored as a hero. But privately, Luornu Durgo (Triad) suffers in her own private hell, having lost part of herself in the battle with Computo. Chuck Taine (Bouncing Boy) shows up at her door with flowers, offering friendship and comfort.
Saturn Girl and some of the Legion meet with the interim EarthGov leaders and the newly organized United Planets council, to pledge the support of the Legion for the future. Things have been dark, she acknowledges, but the Legion will be there til their dying breaths, working toward a brighter future.
Blue Towel Productions 