Illusions of Truth A Tale of the Legion of Super-Heroes by Kris Burger

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear a hundred battles. -- Tzu-Sun

(This isn't meant to infringe on any of DC's rights in any way, I haven't made any money from this nor do I plan to. Everybody who's supposed to still owns the characters -- I just borrowed for a little bit.)

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Dear Diary, I looked out from the window of the closest hotel I could find near the Legion Headquarters and marveled at the human city, so unlike home. It would be very easy to become lost here in this sea of aliens, even though I'm not humanoid enough to blend. Perhaps if I am not accepted, I will stay on this planet and use the masses to cloak me from sight.

Of course, I know I shouldn't even be here. Father will be furious when he discovers – has discovered, by now – that I'm gone. I wish he could accept the truth about me, but he refuses to see anything beyond what he wants to see. And there is no power I have at my disposal right now to show him otherwise.

Well, almost no power. If I pass… If I pass, perhaps he will have to realize my destiny is elsewhere.

I've been practicing diligently, of course, in secret at home, and now here in the hotel room. It's almost easier to do broad sweeping strokes of power, then this simple, innocent design I've created. But then, they should appreciate control, too, and attention to detail. They are the Legion.

I'm nervous. What if they don't take me, and I have to go back? How can I face my family then? Bad enough in their eyes if I am accepted, but at least then I've proven my worth, in a way. To try and fail… I will fail them and myself.

I simply can't fail.

I won't.

This is my real chance to show my family what I can do.

Jecka clicked off the Diary and coiled herself up again, covering her gleaming scales in the pale human flesh she'd chosen. Movement was the most difficult; because not only did she need to animate her illusion with the subtlety of motion a real humanoid would evince, but she also had to move herself, and she simply couldn't slither. Instead, she had to carefully manipulate two coils like 'legs' – a totally unnatural act that required almost as much concentration as her power.

But it would be worth it if she was accepted at the Legion Try-outs, because then her father would have to cease seeing her as a princess and the necessary heir. Instead he would see her as she was, as she was meant to be, with all his illusions of her stripped bare.

The End