#10 (21): Brave New World, Pt. 3 (HoM / Kruger / Dread)

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Green Lantern
Issue Ten: “Brave New World”
Part Three of Three: “And Then There Was One.”
Written by Scott Kruger and House Of Mystery
Cover by DrDread
Edited by Scott Kruger and Mark Bowers

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He couldn’t move, but he was aware of everything. That was his torture. He was aware of every event that unfolded in the universe he inhabited, his gaze all-seeing, and he knew that his present was causing this place to fracture. Around him, more and more cracks in the Source Wall formed. Beams of unimaginable light shooting outward like bolts of lightning. Kavorkian screamed. He wanted knowledge, yes. He wanted power, yes. But like this? Trapped like an insect in amber? No. Never. Knowledge was to use. Power was to demonstrate. He screamed inside his head, not knowing how long it lasted, for in the Source Wall, time was infinite and finite at the same time, moving at a snail’s pace but also at the speed of light. He was trapped between the realms, no escape at hand. Oh, how he screamed.

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My name is Hal Jordan and, until recently, I was the last Green Lantern.

Yesterday (Was it yesterday? This whole deal has played havoc with my perceptions) I was slugging it out with a crazed intergalactic psychopath named, aptly, Kavorkian (hey, I didn’t name him…), who wanted the energy from my ring to recharge himself. Every battery has a power limit, so I figured, if he wanted my energy so bad, he could have it… all of it. I overloaded his armor with power directly from my lantern battery, he exploded and the universe went all weird. In fact, reality has been completely altered.

My physical body is gone… where to, I have no idea. All I know is that I am now stuck inside of the ring of Sinestro, and he’s not a total prick anymore.

In this universe, I died in the crash that gave me my ring. My Godfather, Kyle ‘Ace’ Morgan, became Green Lantern instead and Darkseid and the Manhunters didn’t destroy the Central Power Battery. The Guardians are still on Oa and reality is unraveling more and more every second… the latest casualty: Earth.

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Sinestro and Ace Morgan rocketed skyward from the dead husk of a planet that was once Earth. Ace looked over his shoulder back toward the dead planet… the oceans were gone and the ground was pockmarked with craters. It looked more like the moon now… though the moon was now an asteroid ring that surrounded the planet.

“There is no time for this, Morgan,” Sinestro urged, “we must get to Oa. The Guardians will know what to do--” He hesitated. Ace didn’t notice, he was too busy flying onward. “I…” He nodded slowly. “I understand.”

{“He’s right, Ace,”} Hal concurred, ignoring Sinestro’s nonsensical rambling, {“together we can fix this.”}

Without another word, Ace flew past Sinestro, entering a wormhole that led directly to Oa, disappearing from sight.

{“I’d follow him if I were you.”}

“Shut up, Jordan,” Sinestro replied and followed after Ace.

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The trip lasted only a few moments, the wormhole depositing them just outside of Oa’s atmosphere.
“Greetings, fellow Lanterns,” the familiar sound of Tomar Re’s voice chirped. “No doubt you are also experiencing certain anomalies in your sectors.”

Ace flew by him without a response, in the direction of the Guardians’ Citadel.

“Tomar,” Sinestro greeted him. “Look at this.”

Sinestro held out his hand, palm up, and willed a six-inch Hal Jordan into existence.

{“Tomar Re! Long time, no see,”} Hal shouted with his arms wide open.

Tomar Re’s brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed in response. “Who do we have here?”

“He appeared in my ring right as this madness began. He claims to be from an alternate universe. One where he’s the last of the Green Lantern Corps. Something about Darkseid and a Manhunter invasion of Oa,” Sinestro answered.

“Curious… I have heard this tale already…” Tomar responded. “Come, we’ll hold court with the Guardians and all will be revealed. Though it will still make little sense.”

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“WHAT THE SPROCK IS HE DOIN’ HERE?” Kilowog spat, shoving a meaty finger toward Sinestro as he and Tomar Re entered the Guardians’ main audience chamber.

Kilowog’s power ring sparked to life, and a massive green hand grabbed Sinestro and pinned him against a wall. “Hrrgh,” groaned Sinestro in pain, “what… is… going… on?” His own ring suddenly created a construct below Kilowog’s, and pried it off of him.

Tomar placed himself between Kilowog and Sinestro, and put his hands up to calm them. “Kilowog, you know that reality is twisting around us, and I do not know why you would react so, but Sinestro is a prized member of the Corps.”

“This Gorram sprocker betrayed the Corps; let fear an’ hatred rule his life,” replied Kilowog with a grunt. “Why, I oughta--”

{“Kilowog?”} Hal emerged once more from Sinestro’s ring, and waved at his mentor. {“Long time, no see!”}

“JORDAN?” Kilowog gasped in surprise. “You survived the Crisis?! How??? Our Guardians gotta know; Appa Ali Apsa’s gathering Lanterns to bring the fight back to the Manhunters!”

{“I know, but I can’t go, he gave me an assignment I can’t...”} Hal paused for a moment. {“He said when the time was right, I’d get a signal...”}

“As touching as this moment is, we have more pressing concerns, such as the end of existence,” Sinestro interrupted, with a roll of his eyes.

“I swore I’d never take a life... but yer on the short list,” Kilowog spat back at Sinestro in response.

“Please, Kilowog, calm down,” sighed Tomar. “Sinestro has told me of the events that have unfolded over the past few hours, and now the Guardians know too, through my ring.” He nodded to himself mainly, but the others joined in. “They shall come to us soon.”

They waited for nearly an hour, and the Guardians did not appear.

Sinestro looked at Hal Jordan, peering up from his ring. “What is wrong?”

{“I’m just a bit uncomfortable popping in and out of your ring every five minutes,”} shrugged Jordan. {“But I’m uncomfortable with all of this mess.”}

Sinestro stroked his moustache for a moment, and then looked around. “I understand.” He then concentrated on doing the impossible. His ring could do anything, he knew that; he could create any device, any thing he needed. And so he concentrated. He closed his eyes. And then a moment afterwards, he heard the surprised gasps of Tomar Re, Ace Morgan and Kilowog.

{“This is more like it!”} Sinestro opened his eyes, and Hal Jordan, created from sparkling emerald energy, stood tall around his comrades.

“Jordan, ya poozer!” Kilowog embraced his friend, and then looked around. “Always said that green suited ya’.”

{“Thanks.”} He turned to Sinestro, and then kind of shook his head. {“I want to apologize, Sinestro. You’re not the man I knew back home, and all that--”}

Sinestro held up his hand, interrupting Jordan. “Say no more. I’m sure I would have reacted in exactly the same way if I was in your position.”

“That’s doubtful...” Kilowog muttered under his breath.

Suddenly the room fell silent, and the doors that divided the room where the Guardians resided and the large chamber where the assorted Green Lanterns stood, floated and sat, opened wide. The Guardians of the Universe flooded inside. Hal, through artificial emerald eyes, noticed a couple of the blue aliens on the outer fringes of the group flickering, changing shape, uniform, and form.

Ganthet floated forward, and then landed in front of Hal Jordan. “We now know of you, Hal Jordan. Displaced in reality.”

Jordan nodded.

“And we know that something came with you. An infection in this plain of existence. An abundance of Oan energy has somehow merged with the Source Wall, and is now causing the universe to unravel.”

{“Yeah… that was my bad,”} Hal whispered.

“You have witnessed the changes first hand, have you not, Ace Morgan?” Ganthet continued without pause.

“Yeah,” grunted the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, “I have.” He fiddled with his wife’s wedding ring around his finger.

“And Sinestro, Green Lantern of Sector 1417, all that I have said to you stands.”

Sinestro said nothing, but Hal Jordan saw a flicker of recognition behind his eyes. This made the displaced Green Lantern curious. What was going on?

“And you. You must trust Sinestro when the time comes; look beyond what has come before, because it will all be on your shoulders soon enough.” Ganthet touched Hal Jordan’s emerald form, sending a shock through his translucent body, then returned to where his brethren floated above, disappearing within their ranks.

“We have come to a decision regarding the new information brought to us by Sinestro.”

Sinestro bowed at the mention of his name. “Yes, my masters?”

Their forms shuddered. Something within them changed. They were no longer the Guardians of the Universe, but obscured by the shining purple light that engulfed them, none of the Lanterns present could discern their identities. Sinestro turned to Kilowog. Their rings sparked up, ready for action. “WE HAVE COME TO A DECISION,” roared a new voice, unknown to all those present. “HAL JORDAN MUST DIE.”

{“Oh, crap…”} whispered Hal Jordan, as the purple light vanished and the speakers were revealed.

Sinestro finished Hal’s sentence, “… the Controllers.”

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A shard of the Source Wall was torn from its moorings. Reality quaked at the action, and a violent ripple of reality-changing energy shuddered outwards, and warped anything and everything it touched. Kavorkian could suddenly feel… cold. His arm was exposed to the harshness of space, and, through his shimmering armor, he could feel the coldness. He flexed a muscle, but the wall gave no more. But soon, maybe, his torture would be over. He prayed.

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“That ain’t happening,” grunted Kilowog, as he raised his ring. “Frak, we just lost the Guardians.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” muttered Ace Morgan, as he too raised his ring. “Kilowog, I think you should call for back up right now.”

“Good thinking, Morgan,” nodded Sinestro, who turned to Hal Jordan, and then to Kilowog. “Kilowog, I know you have no reason to trust me, but I must get Jordan out of here, before he is destroyed.”

“Yeah, I was kinda assuming this all was on his shoulders. You got a mission we don’t know about? But ol’ Ganthet was being good and subtle about it?”

Sinestro looked Kilowog in the eye. “Yes.”

Hal looked at Sinestro. {“We can’t leave them!”}

“So damn stubborn!” Sinestro yanked his hand, and Hal tumbled forward toward him, as if on a chain to the Green Lantern’s ring.

Jordan regained his footing; dazed, confused. {“What?!”}

“You’re a ring construct, Hal! I can turn you into a… a poodle if I wanted to! You must come with me, if we are to save your world!”

Hal Jordan stared at Sinestro. {“Damn it.”} He turned to Ace and Kilowog, {“Good luck.”}

“Right back at you, you poozer,” grinned Morgan.

“I’ll see you on the other side, brother…” Kilowog replied with a nod, then turned back to the battle. He raised his ring to his mouth and shouted: “ALL GREEN LANTERNS, WE HAVE A CODE BLACK IN THE CITADEL. ALL AVAILABLE RINGS, HERE. NOW.”

Sinestro and Hal blasted into the sky like bullets, and vanished into a quickly-forming wormhole. Inside the Citadel, Green Lanterns filed into the room, and clashed with the Controllers. The battle was over surprisingly fast, the Controllers no match for the combined forces of the GLC. Once they were contained in emerald stasis chambers, Kilowog turned to Morgan. “Go assist Jordan and Sinestro. We’ll tidy up the loose ends here. Tell them help is on the way..”

“On it.” Morgan leapt into the sky, and was suddenly struck by a tendril of golden light that appeared out of a rift in reality. He screamed as his body was racked with the yellow energy, which wrapped itself around his body and crawled into his ring. He twitched in midair, unable to control his limbs as they thrashed about his body. “HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

Kilowog was all too familiar with this sight. “Oh… sprock.”

Ace Morgan suddenly was free of the light, but he was different. His ring was yellow. His skin was covered in thick, throbbing veins that arched over his face and exposed flesh. His costume was no longer black and green, but black and glowing yellow. His eyes were black as the night. And his smile, devoid of emotion, lacked any feeling at all… “We. Are. LEGION.”

Kilowog cursed. “Don’t let the tendrils touch your rings!” He then aimed his ring. Ace Morgan did too, and yellow tendrils of demonic Qwardian energy began to creep outwards, ready to spring down on the Corps below.

In a chamber, not far from where the battle was unfolding, the Book of Oa began to smolder. Entire pages erupted into flame, and were swept away by a wind. Few pages remained.

Kilowog’s ring erupted, and a blast of emerald light ripped through Ace Morgan’s body, but not before the yellow tendrils jerked out of his ring and struck Lanterns in the crowd. Soon, they too were infected by the LEGION virus. Kilowog looked at Morgan’s smoldering corpse. “Frak!” He looked at his ring. “Lethal force is authorized?! This is insane!!”

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Sinestro and Hal Jordan stormed toward the Source Wall through the wormhole that was rapidly degrading around the duo. It was like a rainbow that was dying. Colors swirled together, jerked about for no reason, and then collided, creating even more colors. {“You’re not telling me something, Sinestro, and by God if you--”}

“Before we reached Oa, Ganthet contacted me. He was always separate from the rest of the Guardians, attempting to exist as a separate being fro the collective mind of his brothers. He told me things. I dismissed them as another side effect of the Source Wall tearing reality apart, but now it all makes sense.”

{“What did he say?”}

Silence. “We must defeat Karvokian,” uttered Sinestro, moments later.

{“I can get behind that plan. Though I don’t feel comfortable leaving the Corps behind to do it. We could have used the back up, or they could have used ours.”}

Sinestro didn’t say anything.

{“You’re still holding back on me, Sinestro!”}

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“COME ON, YOU POOZERS, FORM UP!” Kilowog assumed the role of General in the war that unfolded around them. His ring exploded like a cannon with every discharge he released, pummeling LEGION-virus-infected Lanterns away from the ranks of the Green Lantern Corps. “WE STAND HERE OR WE DIE. IT’S AS SIMPLE AS THAT.” Green energy clashed against yellow. Body after body fell from the skies above. The battle had poured onto the entirety of Oa. Few buildings remained of the home of the Guardians. He had experienced LEGION before. He had fought on Qward. No one else had. He realized that his hands were shaking. He had just killed Ace Morgan. He had expected the ring to control his blast, to knock Ace down from where he floated, but no, it tore a hole in his chest that killed him instantly. As simple as that. Simple. How could killing someone be so easy?

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Another ripple. Another shard of Source Wall hurtling outward and dissipating on the waves of reality-changing energy that altered the universe around it. “Hrrrrgh.” Kavorkian could breathe. Breathe… something. He had been preserved inside the Wall, not breathing, not being, just frozen. But now… “A new universe?” He grinned. “A whole new universe to explore. To map. To kill.”

{“Not in this lifetime, Kavorkian!”} Hal shouted as he and Sinestro arrived at the Source Wall. {“I… can’t believe I just said that…”}

Kavorkian responded with energy blasts that the two Lanterns easily avoided.

“Neither can I, Jordan. So much for the element of surprise.” Sinestro spat, “I thought you were a seasoned Lantern.”

{“I am… I just like to keep the bad guys talking. That’s when they usually make their mistakes.”} It’s worked on you a couple of times, Hal thought to himself.

Sinestro was suddenly hit, full on, with a blast from Kavorkian’s armor gauntlets.

{Link established,} Sinestro’s ring spoke. {Power levels at 65%}

{“No!”} Hal shouted, sending deadly blasts of energy at Kavorkian. One bolt lanced right through the villain’s thigh and straight into the Source Wall behind him, tearing a rift into the fabric of reality that glowed with an unearthly light. Hal felt this strange light tug at him, and Sinestro looked on, knowing what had to be done.

{Power levels at 20%}

“Hal,” grunted Sinestro, “you must go!”

{“I can’t leave you. You’ll die!”}

“I was never real in the first place, Jordan,” whispered Sinestro, as he deflected another attack from Kavorkian with an emerald shield. Unlike his willpower, the green defense was cracking. “That’s what Ganthet told me, Hal! This reality is not real! It’s a dead thing, made to contain this Karvokian character, ready to fold in on itself and any reality beneath it! Created the moment your world was overwritten! But now you can fix all that!”

{Power levels at 9%}

Hal looked at his glowing hands. {Ganthet…}

“Gave you the power of a Guardian! It will allow you to slip back to the moment you left the world, and prevent--”

{“I can’t leave you!”}

“Earth men are so damn stubborn! This is not up for discussion.” The tear in reality grew larger, jutting between the two heroes; beyond it, a solid whiteness was visible. “Good luck, Jordan. You were a pest!” Sinestro used the last of his energy to form a giant boxing glove. He smashed it into the emerald form of Hal Jordan, sending him flying into the rift, which sealed suddenly behind him, leaving Kavorkian, glowing with power, and Sinestro, bloodied and bruised, on floating fragments of the Source Wall.

“I have all of your power, gnat! You are going to die, ‘Sinestro’,” growled Kavorkian.

“Yes I am,” smiled Sinestro, as he raised his ring. “But, you first.”

Karvorkian gagged. He fell to his knees. A green flash of energy was visible behind his eyes.

“You made a very large mistake when you made the assumption that my ring was empty of all power, villain. You may have destroyed the Green Lantern Corps, you may have demolished the Central Power Battery, but I am SINESTRO of KORUGAR, and, with even the smallest fragment of emerald energy at my disposal, I can defeat anyone. A blood clot to the withered piece of meat in your head that enables you to control your powers just formed. In simpler terms, I just granted you a well-placed stroke. “

“Ah. Ah. Ah.” Karvokian twitched, unable to form a coherent sentence. Sinestro floated toward him, as stars died all around him. Where there were once entire star-fields illuminating the sky, there was now nothing. Only darkness. That began to unravel as well, as, like an overexposed photo, white crept in all around, until it was tangible, almost close enough to touch. “Ah. Ah.”

“All that power in you… and you were felled by something so minute that it’s almost laughable. You are trapped here, in this dying universe.” Sinestro smiled, and then looked around as the universe faded to white. “And so am I.”

{Power level at 0.1%} He looked at his ring, and then removed it. It was a clean, easy death.

…and then the universe came to a quiet stop.

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Reality snapped back into place. “Scan his armor, I want weak points, I want Achilles’ heels, I want anything…” The ring enveloped Kavorkian, and the ring began to speak in between thoughts, so fast that no one else but Hal could hear.

{Avaraknos. Long thought dead race of genocidal procurers of knowledge. ‘Sentinels’ travel from world to world gathering information and then destroying the source of it. ‘Sentinels’ have been known to pierce holes, worm holes, through reality to travel from location to location--}

“That doesn’t sound good…”

“You will be educated.”

“Not by you.” Hal’s power ring slammed Kavorkian upwards, into the atmosphere, away from New York. “Not by anyone.”

{Alternate vibrational frequency building}

“What does that mean?!” shouted Hal at his ring, the words not making any sense.

“It means I will soon be on my way,” howled Kavorkian as he collided with Hal, causing the two to fall earthbound. The villain’s armor seemed to twist and contort, absorbing more and more power. Hal could feel it heat up, almost burning him through his ring aura. He thought words. And his ring replied.

{Armour is powered by outside energy sources, susceptible to overloading and overheating.}

Hal smiled. “So you want power?”

“Knowledge is all I crave, little Lantern, and through knowledge power!”

“THEN HAVE IT!” Hal tore his power battery from the dimensional lock and screamed his oath. Green power bathed into Kavorkian’s armor, and it shuddered and shook. He couldn’t withdraw any energy from inside the being, but if he could fill it so it could take no more, and to an extent where his power cells burst because of the overabundance of energy… “IN BRIGHTEST DAY!”

“What are you doing?” growled Karvorkian, his pistons burning against his cold dead flesh.

“IN BLACKEST NIGHT!”

{‘Sentinel’ armor cells at maximum}

{Power levels at 45%}

“NO EVIL SHALL ESCAPE MY SIGHT!” His flesh began to blister as his ring aura began to decay. He couldn’t falter. He had to push on.

Around them, the air shook. Around Karvorkian a white blur formed. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

He felt pain. He ignored it. “LET THOSE WHO WORSHIP EVIL’S MIGHT (That’s you, ya dirty creep!)”

“Can you not hear the sound!? Can you not hear the buzzing?!”

“BEWARE MY POWER!” Emerald light bathed both of them.

“SOMETHING IS WRONG!” screamed the villain, as he began to fade from sight, engulfed by the power charge.

“GREEN LANTERN’S LIGHT!” The sky exploded. Hal felt the burning cease, and the ring repaired the damaged cells in his body. He grimaced. It was healing him. His ring was healing him. It could have healed his mother, couldn’t it? Damn. He looked around, and could see no more of the villain who attacked him above the skies. Where?

{Power levels at 7.4%} Yeah. His ring had channeled his charge through it and into the armor. Overloaded the systems. But if the armor had imploded, exploded, disintegrated, something, there would be energy signatures. Evidence.

He brought himself to a stop in midair, and spoke to his ring. “Where is he?”

{Subject is no longer on Earth}

“Are we okay then?”

{Subject is no longer inside Sector 2814}

“What?”

{Scanning--}

“Where is he?”

{Unable to locate in sectors 0-3600}

Hal scratched his head. “What happened? Wait… Those ‘sentinels’ can pierce reality?” he said, remembering what the ring had told him. “So he’s… Crap, he’s no longer on this plane of existence? Then…” he paused, and squinted out to the horizon. Something was approaching him. Something big. “What the hell is that?”

{Scanning}

It seemed to devour the sky. A wave of something… Something so loud he could hear it from where he hovered. He held his power battery in one hand, and pointed his ring at it. It seemed to lack any depth, and he couldn’t tell if it was solid or otherwise. And it was white. A white wall of something he could not identify.

{Warning, energy signature matches chronicled recordings of ‘anti-matter’}

“It’s coming in fast. Let’s contain it--”

{Unable to comply. Ring energy would have no effect}

Hal looked at his ring, the thundering sound from the wall getting louder and louder. “Then what does?”

{Unable to comply}

“Oh, God.” It wasn’t fear. It was awe. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. He had no time to call the Justice League or the Justice Society. There was no Corps, he couldn’t contact the Guardians. This was him. “What’s going to happen?”

{Antimatter wall overlaps section of reality it touches. Replaces all known organisms and entities}

“So there are people behind that?”

{Unable to comply}

“If it replaces… Then…” He concentrated.

{Power levels at 4.2%}

Above his ring formed a globe of glistening energy. A container of all the information on what had just happened. The Avaraknos. The sentinels. The anti-matter wave. All that had happened since he arrived. He pooled all his willpower, all his inner strength, and watched as the storm of anti-matter was mere meters away from him. The sound was deafening.

“GO! FIND--” The words didn’t leave his lips in time. But he knew what he wanted to say before the wave crashed into him. ‘GO! FIND SOMEONE WHO CAN STOP THIS! THE GREATEST HERO!’

Silence.

Hal opened his eyes, and before him, the white wave had frozen. There was a blur of green in front of him, glistening in the sky with him.

“Who are you?” He whispered.

“Who do you think?” winked Hal Jordan to himself, as his energy form evaporated and was absorbed back into Hal’s ring.

In a silent burst of green light, Hal Jordan was whole again. And he knew where he had to be. He pooled his willpower into his ring, and a wormhole formed above his head.

He arrived at the edge of space within five minutes, traveling faster than anyone could imagine. There, he looked down at his black-gloved hands, relieved to see that they were no longer translucent... That feeling confused him. Memories of something lingered in his mind, like a dream. But again, he knew what he had to do. What had happened. “Ring, run diagnostic.” he said to the green ring on his right middle finger.

{“Energy levels 115.76%”} Abin Sur’s voice replied.

“Okay... So whatever just happened... is alright. Everything is normal... Or as normal as it could be,” he said to himself while surveying his surroundings. He was in the deepest, blackest pit of space. Distant stars shone bright, beckoning for him... he had been here before. He turned to see the Source Wall and its newest captive: Kavorkian, forever locked in the wall’s deadly embrace.

“We...” Memories of Sinestro, of Kilowog, of an entire universe, washed over him like a wave. “We stopped you. An entire universe died to stop you.” He looked at his enemy, trapped in the Source Wall. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” Hal said with a dark look on his face, and, without another word, Hal slipped back into the emerald wormhole and headed home for Earth, content with the knowledge that somewhere, out there, Kilowog was fighting to recharge the Corps and that soon he would be called upon to relight the torch of the Green Lantern Corps.

For Hal, the call to arms couldn’t come soon enough.

…But for the other, time was finally nigh. The wall had been weakened under the strain of his new neighbor’s battle with realities. He pulled, his arms of stone bulging with power, until at last they were free. The deliciously cold void of space washed over his arms. He blindly groped for his face, excitement building…

Darkseid would soon have his revenge!

The End...?

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Tales of the Green Lantern Corps

Before Darkseid's legions invaded Earth, he knew that the Green Lantern Corps had to be destroyed first. Through a series of unfortunate events, the Green Lantern Power battery on OA was destroyed leaving all but one emerald ring powerless. The destruction allowed the Manhunters and their new Grand-Master the opportunity to invade OA. The Guardian Appa Ali Apsa and a handful of ex-Corpsmen are all that stand between the Manhunters and their dreams of galactic conquest.

It has been a year since the fall of the Corps... the time for the Green Lantern Corps to strike back has come.

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[glow=green,2,300]“The Gathering, Part 4: Least Resistance”[/glow]

Written by David Charlton
Cover by Scott Kruger
Edited by Scott Kruger & Brian Burchette

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Tomar-Re, former Green Lantern of Sector 2813, gritted his teeth and pulled back on the controls of the hyperslider. Explosions buffeted the ship, and lasers streaked the void on either side of the craft. The speakers in the cockpit crackled…

“No man escapes the Manhunters.”

He spared a glance outside, and saw the emotionless, blue faceplate of the killer android coming even with his ship.

“That,” the Xudarian’s beak clicked in an expression of determination, “remains to be seen.”

Another Manhunter flew up on his other flank, but before they could catch him in a pincer, he killed his thrusters, jerked hard on the throttle, spun the hyperslider ninety degrees and engaged his transluminal drive.

It was a risky move. Usually his ring did the calculations for him, protecting him from the vagaries of the spaceways--- now it only sat silent and dark on his right-hand ringfinger. But Tomar-Re figured the variables, programmed the coordinates and made the jump with the same calm, confident competence he did everything.

“The ring doesn’t make the Lantern,” he had told Arisia of Graxos IV once, not so very long ago. “And only fear can unmake a Lantern.”

The hyperslider re-entered normal space near the Great Rao Nebula, and a quick check could find no Manhunter energy signatures. He had lost them, but he knew it wouldn’t be for long. He had spent the last year racing the Manhunter Crusade across the universe, raising the cry and rousing the sentient worlds against them. But planet after planet, galaxy after galaxy, and sector after sector fell before their relentless advance.

Now, at last, Tomar-Re had come home. Sector 2813. The blue green gem of his homeworld glowed in the viewscreen on his console: Xudar. Here, he would make his stand. Here, the Manhunter juggernaut would crash and grind to a halt.

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“Xudar will surrender to the Manhunters,” announced the Venerable Elder Prime of the Xudarian World Council. The Elder bowed his head of graying feathers, and Tomar-Re, watching from the floor of the Council Chamber, felt his heart sink.

“Since the fall of OA, the Manhunters have raged, unchecked and unstoppable, across the universe. The mysterious Grandmaster of the Manhunters raises his flag on worlds of every sector of space. Refugees have flooded towards Xudar, and we have taken them in, but they all tell the same story: those worlds that resist are put to fire and sword, and their peoples are subjugated or destroyed. Entire civilizations are enslaved or extinct. We would not see the same ruin come to Xudar.”

Tomar-Re clenched his fist around his drained ring. He was not given to fits of raging emotion, or surges of anger. He was too reasonable for that. But the words of his people outraged him. He could not remain silent.

“Most Revered Elders,” he addressed the Council, stepping before their high Judicial Bench, “this is not the way. The Manhunters can be stopped, and we must make a stand here, on Xudar. We are famed across the galaxy as the finest scientific minds, surely our planetary defenses can---.”

“Green Lantern Tomar-Re,” one of the Elders interrupted with a deep sigh. “We have not come to this decision lightly. We honor your service to us, and we honor the sacrifice of the Green Lantern Corps. But the Corps is no more. And if those proud defenders of the galaxies have fallen in battle, what hope have we? Xudar is a world of science and art. We have no weapons or defenses anymore. We would be overrun in a day. Resistance can only mean annihilation for our people. Our only hope of survival is to surrender.”

Stricken, Tomar-Re stared at the faces of the Elders, and saw the truth there. They had already given up.

“Surrender is the death of hope,” he pronounced, “and a poor way to honor the memory of those who gave all to keep this world safe…”

They had no response to this.

Instead, Tomar-Re became aware of a rhythmic clanking sound, and he watched in disbelief as a tall, metallic figure emerged from a door at the base of the Judicial Bench.

“No man escapes the Manhunters,” the killer android intoned.

Tomar-Re could only gape, astonished. They were already here! He’d been betrayed!

“Go, Tomar-Re,” the Venerable Elder Prime squawked in despair. “We have purchased your life in return for your good behavior. Return to your Familial Nests. Your father and brothers await you. Live in peace.”

But Tomar-Re held up his fist in defiance, light glinting off his ring.

“My life cannot be purchased,” he told them. And then, with a lingering look at the Manhunter, he left the chamber.

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The legions of deadly robots flooded from space onto their world, stripping it of precious resources, establishing labor camps and factories and orbiting offensive arrays. The pacifistic Xudarians watched and did nothing, retreating for solace into their ages-old scientific-philosophy, called the Path: “What will be, will be; only endure that the Fathersongs should not die.”

But who shall we sing them to? Tomar-Re thought bitterly as he watched the black smoke from the Manhunter Temple smudge the sky. He was perched in a High Xudakan, one of the giant sentient trees of Xudar--- except this one was dead, strangled by the pollutants from the nearby ziggurat. But there were many more around, and unless he did something, they would all soon share the same fate.

“You are contemplating violence, Tomar-Re.”

Behind him, was a small crowd of men of varying ages; some were crack-beaked Elders, and others were hatchlings with bright feathers. The speaker was a young man with bright wide eyes who looked at Tomar-Re with a mixture of horror and astonishment.

“I am contemplating why this proud, ancient tree died without a defender, Tomar-Tu,” the former Green Lantern told his youngest brother.

“He died that others might live, according to the Path,” Tomar-Tu answered, looking unsure.

A tall, elegantly feathered Xudarian placed a hand on the young one’s shoulder.

“Do not confuse him, Tomar-Re,” he said, his eyes watery and blinking. “Your brother must sing our songs long after you and I are dust.”

“It is for him--- and for you, father--- that I do what I must, now. The Manhunters are the Great Raptor, come to gorge themselves on our world. Only the bones will be left for the picking when they are done, and we will be complicit in our own extinction,” Tomar-Re said with resolution. He checked the Zathon Ray rifle slung around his shoulder, and prepared to go.

“You have been away from your people for too long, my son,” Tomar-Va mourned. “You have strayed far from the Path.”

Tomar-Re could only shake his head. In one way, his father was right. He had been a Green Lantern for decades, had grown old in the service of the Guardians, fighting the wars that needed fighting. He had sacrificed all thoughts of a family of his own, believing that what he did was worth it. If the ring had not come to him, perhaps he would have been standing with his father and brothers now, at peace with his destiny, his feet on the Path…

But he wasn’t. And maybe because of that, Xudar was better for it.

“If Xudar is to survive, it must find a new Path,” he declared, to a stunned audience, then turned to leave.

“Tomar-Re!” one of his brothers called to him. “This is suicide…”

Tomar-Re looked back only once.

“No, this is resistance. What you’re doing is suicide.”

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So used to the passivity of the native Xudarians, the Manhunters never realized that Tomar-Re was a threat until he was upon the gates of the Temple , and firing his Zathon gun.

At first, he was wildly successful; he cut a deadly swath through their ranks, leaving behind a trail of flaming, sparking shells on his flight to their High Altar. But after he had lost the element of surprise, their greater numbers came into play.

They rushed in, converging on the ziggurat from every direction. But Tomar-Re had, at least, reached his destination. Laser blasts tearing up the floor around him, he took cover behind the High Altar, the symbol of their authority, and unclipped the Zathon grenade from his belt. There was enough explosive here to take out the entire Temple , and hundreds of Manhunters with it… But there was no way he would be able to set it, and get past those androids.

There really was no escape this time, but at least he’d die striking a blow the Manhunters would not soon forget…

He armed the grenade, and stood, preparing to pitch it directly into their ranks--- when he noticed they were no longer concerned with him! The Manhunters had more pressing problems: crowds of screaming Xudarians were flooding into the Temple precincts, throwing rocks, swinging sticks and swarming over their Manhunter overlords!

And at the forefront was Tomar-Tu and the rest of Clan Tomar.

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Caught completely by surprise, the androids fell quickly to the overwhelming numbers of the Xudarians. Moments after the battle, Tomar-Re’s grenade went off, and the ziggurat exploded, sending a clear signal to the Manhunters that Xudar would defy them--- and all across their world, brave hearts that were sleeping stirred, and remembered their courage and purpose of old.

Watching the pyrotechnics from the High Xudakan tree with his family, Tomar-Re felt his eyes water. Before him, his brother held a flag, the standard of which was torn from a scrap of Tomar-Re’s old uniform: the symbol of the green lantern waved proudly in the air.

“Perhaps,” Elder Tomar-Va declared solemnly, “there is more than one Path to the same goal…”

Tomar-Re hugged his father, and a cheer went up in the branches on the great tree.

Suddenly, there was an emerald flash of light, and a new figure appeared before them, a diminutive, blue-skinned man, in a black suit…

“Exalted One…!” Tomar-Re gasped, instantly going to one knee before Appa Ali Apsa. “But how is this possibly? I thought---?”

“The Corps has been dealt a deadly blow, but it will rise again,” said the Guardian, and he extended his arm to Tomar-Re, palm out. On it rested a power ring--- and it absolutely pulsed with power. “The Manhunter menace must be faced, once and for all. Will you again stand with us, Tomar-Re, Green Lantern of Sector 2813?”

Wordlessly, Tomar-Re reached out and took the new ring. It felt good on his hand, instantly creating for him a sleek new uniform, and surrounding him in that familiar nimbus of power.

“Will I stand with you, Exalted One?” he whispered, in awe. “In brightest day, and in blackest night.”

“Good,” Appa Ali Apsa nodded once, even as the Xudarian’s cheered their Green Lantern. “Then come. We have a universe to save…”

[Admin]

To Be Continued!

[mockingbird]

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