Beyond - Legends World Tour ()

Author's Note: The sequel to Karrde Reign, and the next piece in the Braddockverse ...

The prologue should be up sometime early this week.


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(20th Century Fox logo)

(Lucasfilm logo)

(Marvel films logo)

(Scene opens on basketball court at Xavier's school; Ben Skywalker, Senna Harbin, Rachel Summers, Frank Richards, Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger play a pickup game while Ron Weasley watches, a bit confused)

(Cut to Luke, Leia, Han, Dumbledore, and Xavier watching them from Xavier's office window)

Luke: I don't want him - any of them - to have to come along on this search.

Dumbledore: Harry, at least, will insist, Master Skywalker.

Xavier: We may not have much say in any of this, gentlemen.

(flash of scene of Ben demonstrating lightsaber technique to a crowd of Hogwarts students)

(Xavier frowns, shuffling papers marked "WAND: Top Secret")

Xavier: There are reports ... Voldemort is moving.

(Leia looks troubled; Han just smirks.)

Han: Then I guess the Princess and I better start our second honeymoon.

Leia, with amused smile: Second?

Han, with mock exasperation: Fine, third.

(wipe to black screen)

(Opening notes of main SW theme)

(rapid-fire sequence of scenes

(H/L walk into an ornate, Baroque-decorated hall, toward a green-cloaked figure holding a goblet)

(Black-clad teenagers with various superpowers attack a shocked-looking Charles Lehnsherr)

(Jacen levitates cross-legged beside Doctor Strange, concentrating on a glowing orb)

(Frizzy-haired woman with a wand appears, cackling as she fires energy blasts at SHIELD agents)

(Two Jainas, standing back to back, ringed by Purifiers)

(William Stryker rants, until a greenish hand grabs the back of his head and turns him around to face a shadowy figure)

(Luke crosses lightsabers with Voldemort)

(Namor the Sub-Mariner - wearing a black wetsuit-like costume - breaks the ocean surface and nods to H/L aboard a small boat)

(Valin plays a power chord on a guitar, as Dazzler sings and Alema, Thann, Tiu Zax, Kettch, Myri and Kolir play instruments)

(Chewie growls menacingly at a terrified Fabian Cortez, as Magneto and Han trade amused looks and Leia sighs)

(Lando and Tony Stark sit across from each other, chatting over blueprints)

(King T'Challa of Wakanda warmly greets H/L, sits with them on a balcony overlooking a grassy plain)

(Mara deflects a Death Eater's spell, then swings her lightsaber downward)

(H/L take a step back as Northstar and Aurora appear, seemingly out of thin air, outside of Department H in Toronto)

Han, rolling his eyes: Still not as fast as the Falcon ...

(Zayne, Jarael, Gryph, the Moomos, and Slyssk - in various superhero costumes - stand in Central Park, receiving applause)

(J. Jonah Jameson bellows excitedly at Ben Urich, waving a paper with photos of H/L at a party)

Jameson: Get me exclusive interviews! We'll call it "Beyond the Star Warriors: The Truth Revealed!"

(Jysella sits in a circle of other young adults, sighs heavily)

Jysella: My name is Jysella Horn. And I have a Sith power addiction problem.

Other members of support group: Hi, Jysella!

(Tionne, Daniel Jackson, Frank Richards, and Amanda Sefton-Wagner stand at the gate of Machu Picchu as a teleportal opens)

Tionne: We know where the Celestials came from ... but where did the Furlings go after they created them?

Frank: And if something drove the Furlings off, what could be so dangerous?

(Vestara and Jace Solo kiss, then swing over a ravine as gunfire rings out behind them)

(Two Jainas, Jag, Kyp, Fox Mulder, and Dana Scully chase Alex Krychek down an alley; black and yellow circuitry appears on Krychek's neck)

(Artoo and Threepio float underwater near a destroyed freighter in San Francisco Bay, gathering metal samples, as Paige Guthrie and Cilghal watch from the surface)

(A/T wave glowrods into a dimly-lit cave, while skitter

 

Author's Note: This opens immediately after the events of You Can Pick Your Friends ...:

http://boards.theforce.net/beyond_the_saga/b10477/31150512/p1/

WARNING: Some dark and angsty scenes here - just FYI.

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Prologue: 4/2008-4/40 ABY: Xavier Institute for Paragenetic Studies, Salem Center, N.Y., Earth:
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Luke Skywalker had, quite honestly, witnessed more impossible things in his life than most people ever dreamed of witnessing.

The past four months had been filled with quite a few of them: Learning that his wife was the older sister of one of the founding members of the Terran superhero team known as the X-Men; witnessing a recording of the origin of the Ashla, and their role in the founding of the Jedi Order; and most amazingly, the rapid growth and power manifestation of his daughter, Hope.

But meeting a cross-time version of his son, Ben, who was not only almost as old as Luke himself, but also actively resisting techno-organic infection ... that took Luke back just a bit. More out of paternal empathy for "Cable," as the older, cyber-enhanced, Ben was going by.

And he time-travels. Or at least traveled through time once, Luke remembered, sitting around a table in the command trailer of the American government's Commission on Superhuman Affairs, whose troops were helping provide security at Professor Charles Xavier's school.

Beside him, at his right, sat Mara, holding little Hope; at Luke's left sat Ben - their Ben, anyhow, still 13 and not at all techno-organically infected (but understandably shaken at meeting an older, scarred version of himself). At Ben's left sat Jacob Summers, commander of the CSA forces and the eldest son of Mara's sister Jean Grey-Summers of the X-Men.

Continuing around the table, clockwise, were Sam "Cannonball" Guthrie, field leader of the X-Force team of former Xavier's students, and Cable-Ben's protege' - who was, rather understandably, upset about the fact that the man he knew as "Nathan Dayspring" had been lying about his true origin.

Cable-Ben himself sat at Sam's left; at Cable's left, the ashen-skinned, raven-haired mutant woman who called herself "Domino;" at Domino's left, Kyp Durron, who'd first encountered Cable in what had been Cable's adolescence; and at Kyp's left and Mara's right, Professor Xavier himself.

There were CSA guards in the room; Cable had a shockingly long list of outstanding criminal charges, mostly involving what he'd bemusedly called either "mercenary work" or "misunderstandings." Luke both understood the guards' need to be present and worried for his cross-time son - regardless of how old Cable was or what timeline he was from.

Cable (it was easier for Luke to refer to him that way, instead of trying to say "Ben" and have Cable-Ben and young-Ben turn their heads all the time) glanced at Jacob, then at Xavier, and finally Sam, before spreading his hands palm-upward on the table and giving a martyred sigh. "So. Who wants to take the first chunk of metaphorical flesh from me for all my deceits?" he asked, in such a Mara-like tone that Luke had to fight not to glance at Mara and laugh.

She wasn't amused - instead, she was being fiercely maternal, which was a definite indication that she was worried and upset (not that Luke couldn't sense that over their bond). Hope, for her part, was watching Cable intently, with far more focus than a week-old baby usually had, and Ben ...

Ben seemed haunted, like he'd been after shutting down Centerpoint (or at least making it inoperable by the Corellians).

Sam broke the silence, his drawl vaguely reminding Luke of some Outer Rim worlds he'd been to, a hurt tone beneath the patience the younger man was clearly drawing on. "Nathan - Ben - Cable. Ah ... suppose part o' why ya stayed this quiet for so long was t'keep from disruptin' the timestream. But

 

I see you gave Abeloth an origin (at least I'm pretty sure you have, 95%). For everyone else you'll just have to figure it out.

 

Tbh, Abeloth won't be appearing. The Technarchy and the Phalanx are a dangerous enough threat, IMHO ...

(Although the idea of Abeloth as a particularly deranged Phalanx is quite inspired. )

- Thanks,
Onderon1

 

Author's Note: FINALLY getting back to this ...

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Chapter 1: Late 4/2008-4/40 ABY: Basketball Court, Xavier Institute for Paragenetic Studies, Salem Center, N.Y.:
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"Got it - !"

It wasn't quite the same as shockball - but, to be honest, Ben preferred the Terran "basketball" more anyhow.

A lot less painful, he figured, smiling a little while he passed the ball to his girlfriend, Senna Harbin - Ben's cousin and contemporary, Jace Solo, had begged off learning how to play basketball while he "kept an eye" on Vestara Khai ... who was at the pool.

Jace can spend time with Vestara, and I can spend time with Senna. Fair enough, Ben thought, watching his girlfriend dribble the ball. The tanned girl's brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, mirroring the red hairdo of Ben's cousin, Rachel Summers, as Rachel tried to guard the Ysannan girl.

"Let's see if - HEY!" Senna mock-complained, shaking her head as Rachel managed to get the ball away from her and grinned.

"Good moves. But I'm just a bit better - Scrapper, lay-up!" Rachel called, throwing the ball to her boyfriend, Frank Richards. The blond boy ducked his buzzcut head as the ball whipped a little too close to his head, and he snagged the basketball with a casual reach of his hand before spinning on his foot to face Ben.

"Wait - time! We've got inbound," Frank called, concentrating - Ben nodded, sensing a Force-ripple as a series of POPs from air displacement deposited four people near the side of the court.

"Harry!" Ben greeted, smiling while he shook Harry Potter's hand, and those of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, Harry's closest friends. To Professor Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts' - the "praxeum" where the young Force-adepts were training in what they called "magic" - Ben bowed respectfully, and Senna, Frank, and Rachel did the same before greeting Harry and the other Gryffindor students.

"Good to see you all again - been meaning to see your school, Frank. My dad would love it here," Ron said, smiling a little bemusedly as he looked at the X-shaped school.

"We really need to have an exchange program between Hogwarts and Xavier's sometime, yeah," Frank said, glancing at Dumbledore while Ben considered what had to be the reason the arch-"magus" and the Hogwarts students were here.

Looking for the Horcruxes ... the objects holding the pieces of Voldemort's soul, Ben remembered, shivering a little inside. He'd only indirectly faced the Sith - the arrogance and contempt of Darths Krayt and Wyyrlok, and the twisted amusement of Lumiya, at the end of the fight against the Skrulls on Coruscant (1) - before the battle to save Harry from Voldemort in Little Hangleton, England, days earlier (2).

1 - The Shifting Tides; 2 - Karrde Reign - O1

Voldemort had captured and nearly killed Ben at the caldera of Mount Erebus, a volcano in Antarctica, during an attempt to awaken and control Shar Dahkan, the ancient Sith Lord who'd somehow managed to preserve his essence in a techno-organic Celestial body. Dahkan had proven unable to be controlled, and Voldemort and his lackey Wormtail fled, leaving Ben barely able to escape.

I was reckless, trying to Force-grab Vader's holocron from Voldemort ... I can't be that careless again, Ben reminded himself, shaking his head a little. He looked at his left hand, wincing a little as he remembered his older cross-time self who was now staying at the X-Mansion, and thought, I don't want to end up with a T-O infection ... or even just a cyber-limb.

More importantly to Ben, he didn't want to let any of his friends or family down. Hope was still a target of crazy lunatics who were afraid of her power - whether her mutant abilities, her huge Force potential, OR her access to the Phoenix Force - and Ben wanted to protect her, their par

 

Author's Note: Getting this back on track ... somewhat ...

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INTERLUDE THE FIRST: Late 4/2008: Somewhere in New Mexico, America, Earth:
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William Stryker was not a man given to showing fear.

He'd relied on his faith in his religion, and in his cause, to see him through - even when he'd wound up in prison for killing his wife and their son because the child was born a mutant. Long since officially stripped of his position in his denomination, Stryker had forged on, forming the mutant-killing band of Purifiers - many of whom had been arrested or killed in what they'd deemed "righteous defiance" after the passage of the Parahuman Rights Amendment of 2007 made anti-mutant violence illegal in the U.S.

But as he entered his office in the ghost town that the remaining Purifiers had turned into their compound in the desert, Stryker's blood chilled - not at the recent loss of the mutant-hunting Omega Sentinel Bastion, but rather from some undefined sense that something was spying on him.

Stryker calmly hung his jacket on the rack, pulling from it the .38 caliber pistol he'd taken to carrying with him everywhere, and said to the shadows of the room, "Show yourself, you godless ... whatever you are. Mutant or heretic."

That was when the hand grabbed him by the back of his skull and a voice whispered, "Petrificus totalis."

Stryker froze - some kind of witchcraft? - and found himself unable to move, much less raise his gun. Still, he would not fear, reciting a prayer in his mind as he was turned around.

Then, however ... staring into a noseless green face with unholy red eyes ... then, Stryker permitted himself a measure of terror.

He'd faced all manner of mutants, not a few enormous bruisers in prison, Commission on Superhuman Affairs troops, and even one Thorist with a power hammer.

But whatever had lain in wait for him this time lacked any trace of humanity in its eyes; even most mutants whom Stryker had encountered had some shred of emotion.

Whatever held him helpless in its grasp lacked anything but a darkly bemused look.

"Little preacher. Little murderer. To think that a Muggle like yourself once tormented the X-Men to the point where the dread Xavier became temporarily willing to kill his own kind," the creature whispered.

I was doing holy work! Stryker thought back, furious now.

The creature leaned in, its breath like rotting ice, and chuckled - a dead, disturbing noise. "Keep convincing yourself of that quaint delusion, little preacher. It is what makes you and your ilk so useful to beings such as myself," the thing taunted.

Fine, so you can read my thoughts, devilspawn. What do you want? Stryker thought, disgust and hatred coiling within him at his situation.

"Why, simple, my dear minister. Do what you wish to - kill Xavier and his followers, especially his guests among the hated Jedi. Attack them with all your remaining might. Consider it a crusade," the creature taunted, releasing Stryker before rippling back into the shadows.

Stryker found he could move again, and snarled, "I won't throw my people's lives away so recklessly! And especially not on the word of an obvious hellspawn like yourself!"

"Oh, I think you will. You will probably fail ... but it will be a useful delaying tactic, nonetheless. And it will amuse me," the thing taunted.

"Imperio. Obliviate."

With that, something seized Stryker's brain - but not before one seething, demanding order grasped it and took root:

The X-Men must finally die.

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Coruscant: Underlevels:
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The conduit worms and Chthons

 

Krayt's now holding the phalanx and will probably be hounding the Skywalker's soon. Other than that not much going on, just Stryker being forced to move up his plans for the final extermination of the X-Men (not like it's going to happen). Would've liked to see how Zeth and Jaina were dealing with their new lot in life. But this was a needed chapter to set up the conflict for the story, so it's all good.

 

whatever: Krayt's still in prison - probably on Coruscant. The Phalanx host in question is someone else ...

And more with Zeth and Jaina will be coming soon - the core Braddockverse Jaina has to get back from Nirauan first.

- Later,
Onderon1