Post by HoM on Sept 22, 2015 14:33:45 GMT -5
Previously, in GREEN LANTERN CORPS…
Our heroes have been through trials, and they’re not in the clear yet. GUY GARDNER and HANK HENSHAW were taken captive by alien entities intent to exploit an energy source of mythical proportions. During their time imprisoned, HENSHAW’s mind was broken into by the leader of the group, her actions leading him to relive his greatest failures and open old psychological wounds that he had struggled to overcome. The two Green Lanterns escaped thanks to the assistance of allies from across the galaxy, but HENSHAW’s still in rough shape, but not that he’d tell you…
Meanwhile, JOHN STEWART continued his investigation into EVIL STAR and his terrorist actions that led to the deaths of countless trillions across the galaxy. Whole planets died when their life-giving stars were extinguished by EVIL STAR’s actions, but thanks to KYLE RAYNER, untold legions more survived when he used the power of the WHITE LANTERN to re-ignite them.
JOHN tracked EVIL STAR to his home world and learned the truth-- EVIL STAR was once a Green Lantern, driven insane when the life force of every citizen on the planet AURON entered him when an experiment went wrong! Thanks to the timely intervention of KYLE, JOHN survived the encounter, but EVIL STAR fell into the clutches of the cosmic monster known as PARALLAX, aka the first Green Lantern! With EVIL STAR’s powers joined with his own, the all-powerful chaos bringer has another soldier for the upcoming war… which means nothing good can come of it!
Meanwhile, THAAL SINESTRO returned to the fold of the Green Lantern Corps after a number of years suffering at the hands of numerous villains. He’d spent his time training KYLE RAYNER in the use of his powerful new WHITE LANTERN abilities. What’s next for the greatest Green Lantern that ever lived?
Finally, in Sector 666, the mysterious RED LANTERN CORPS lurk behind an impenetrable barrier, licking their wounds after their defeat at the combined might of the Green and Love Lantern Corps. The entire sector was destroyed by PARALLAX as an act of spite, but since then they haven’t been seen…
Welcome back to the ongoing adventures of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS!
“I can’t… I can’t do this…”
“You have to. You have to. You can’t give up now. Not when we’re so close.”
“I don’t… have the strength…”
“You’re the only one of us left who can.”
“But… but…”
“Now go. Before he gets back.”
There was a shuffling sound, in the dark. No light was allowed in the cells. Red or yellow, those sunny rays were not allowed into the dank prison the people of the colony found themselves within. How long had they been imprisoned under the surface of the world they had made their own?
The shuffling was replaced by a dragging sound. An immense dragging, an immense effort, but the door was opened and the dragging continued. After an age, another door opened. The communication array was disabled, smashed to pieces, but the perpetrator didn’t know about the auxiliary array, under the fifth panel across the floor.
With a near superhuman effort, the panel came loose, and the array was quickly activated. There was the crackle of subspace channels being opened, and then words were quickly spoken: “Help. We need help. There aren’t many of us left. The others are--”
The signal was cut off as the auxiliary array melted into slag in his hand, molten metal spreading across his digits. A split second later the pain in his fingers was gone, replaced by an agonising pain in his shoulder. He couldn’t feel his fingers. He couldn’t feel anything beyond his shoulder.
“That smell filling your nose is burning meat. You’re very lucky. My olfactory senses are far beyond your unenlightened physiology. I can assure you that this act has punished me, more so than it has punished you.”
“G-G-Gods.”
“No, no, there are no Gods here. There is only me. And I see that you have volunteered for the next round of experimentation. For that, I am thankful.”
There was a sound, of a body being lifted off the floor. No footsteps followed, but the two of them were gone. Left behind was a pool of blood, and a limb without a body to call its own, the excision cauterised as suddenly as it was made.
Issue Fifty-SEVEN: “Vast and Dark”
“You don’t even know who you’re supposed to be anymore.”
Hank looked down at the world from his perch atop an old NASA satellite that no longer did anything useful. It drifted, caught in the gravity of the world, transmitting sporadic, useless data. No one could be bothered to clear the skies of this junk, but Hank had considered doing it, when he had a free moment.
The words of his torturer, the woman who pushed her fingers into his brain to pull out all his secrets, still rang through his head*. There was no lasting damage, nothing that would impact his work, or his ring, they were just words. Words that went somewhere deep in his consciousness and refused to budge.
“You’ve died too many times to count, you just don’t know how to stay down.”
Hank held out his hand then closed it into a fist. He allowed one finger to unfurl.
Cracked your skull open at the bottom of your grandfather’s estate when you were eight. In a coma for a year. No one expected you to wake up. You did.
Another finger joined the first.
The space shuttle you co-captained with your wife was exposed to deadly cosmic rays during its maiden voyage. You only survived because you were trapped in the engine room where the shielding was thickest. The rest of your crew-- your family-- died*.
A third finger.
You managed to jury rig a disabled space shuttle through your wits and ingenuity alone into getting you home. No one knows how you survived on so little oxygen and they’d written you off as lost weeks prior.
A fourth finger.
Mongul murdered you in Coast City*. Blasted your chest open and killed you dead. But you came back rotten**.
“I can count my deaths,” said Hank, to nobody but the void. He closed his hand into a fist, screamed as loud and as violently as he could, hoping to exorcise all the accumulated demons of his life through sheer force of will. The scream became a build of energy that he held onto until it became too much, and he evaporated the dead satellites and space junk littering Earth’s gravitational pull in an emerald blast that could be seen during the day down below.
“Ah, ah, ah oh God,” whispered Hank.
“You all right, Hank?” John Stewart’s voice emerged from his ring, and Hank shook his head. “My ring just picked up a massive energy flare, picked it up all the out here in the Badlands of the sector. What’s going on?”
No, you’re not all right, Hank. You’ve not been all right since you came back to life.
“I’m fine. Doing some clean up to make NASA’s life easier,” said Henshaw, shutting up his interior voice. It was good when the lies came easy and were based in the truth.
“…Right,” said John, sensing that wasn’t the whole story but respecting his partner enough not to pry. “I’ll leave you to it then. Stay safe.” He terminated the communication and Hank held his head in his hands, completely unsure of what to do with his life next.
“We received a distress call from a colony world in Sector 1759, and the Sector Lanterns we sent to investigate have yet to report back,” said Salaak. “Lantern Gardner, now that you have returned from your leave of absence, your assignment is two-fold. Journey to the colony world and investigate the distress call, and then locate the missing Sector Lanterns.”
“I wouldn’t say I had much of a shore leave,” said Guy. “Got sucked into that whole Tiamat situation with the others, didn’t I*?”
“Then you should have come back onto the clock, Guy,” said Salaak, a twinkle in his dark eyes. Did the old man just tell a joke? “Regardless, the coordinates of the world you are instructed to journey to have been uploaded to your power ring. Subluminal flight is available, and the neighbouring Sector Lanterns are on call if necessary.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. I’ll let you know what I find.”
Guy headed out of the main chambers and wandered out to the nearest balcony. The Citadel of the Green Lantern Corps overlooked the Central Power Battery, and was comprised of a central column and too many balconies to count. When you wore a trinket that allowed you to fly everywhere, why would you walk?
Guy lifted up and began putting the thoughts required in place to enter the subluminal tunnels under the skin of the universe, then vanished in a burst of light. Travel to the space sector wouldn’t take him too long, and with the universe zipping past at impossible speeds, he allowed himself to drift off, dreaming of emerald stars.
<Unidentified energy signature manifesting in Metropolis,> said Hank Henshaw’s ring. <Matching known manifestation of high intensity cosmic rays logged in ring’s archives by current bearer.>
“What?” said Hank. Cosmic rays. The very thing that killed his crew on the Excalibur all those years ago. But in Metropolis?
Without any thought, Green Lantern descended upon the City of Tomorrow, home of Superman. His ring couldn’t detect the Man of Steel, but he could see the chaos unfolding down on Central Boulevard-- not that he believed his eyes.
A figure, clad in an astronaut’s space suit. Around the figure was a halo of blue light that he projected in fiery blasts at the vehicles nearby, sending them flying up into the air on pillars of flame. The Metropolis Major Crimes Unit were on the scene, firing their weapons at the dangerous entity, but their blasts dissipated before they could hit the unidentified subject.
Is that the source of the cosmic rays? thought Hank.
<Correct,> responded his ring. <Being appears to be emitting low levels of cosmic ray energy. Prolonged exposure to this being will result in mutation then death.>
Green Lantern shot down toward the street and floated near to the Major Crimes Unit, who rallied behind a cordon. “You need to get clear. That thing is giving off radiation.”
“And you are?” said one of the armoured police officers, holding tightly to her pulse rifle.
“I’m Green Lantern, ma’am,” said Hank. “I’m here to help.”
“‘Ma’am’? Oh, isn’t that great. I’m Sawyer, this is my show,” said Captain Sawyer, flicking up her visor to get a better look at the masked hero stood next to her. “Big Blue is out of town, looks like this creep decided to take advantage of that. This astronaut one of yours?”
“No,” said Henshaw. “At least… no, I don’t think so.” He managed a smile. “I can barely keep up with who’s who nowadays.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” said Sawyer, lowering her visor, “if you could keep track I wouldn’t think you were a big time player. Folks! Get clear and give the green guy some space! We got radiation! ”
One of the officers looked over to Sawyer, “Metallo protocol?”
“Yup, yup, Nemo,” said Maggie. She turned to Henshaw. “Our suits keep us safe, but if you’re saying it’s bad, we’ll back on up. I’ve got snipers in heavy gear in position above your head. You deal with this and I won’t have to give the order to take that crazy down.” She nodded once, then motioned for her men to back up, which they did swiftly.
There were no civilians nearby, their evacuation a priority of the MCU officers. Henshaw sent out a scanning ray and confirmed the absence of anybody but himself and the flaming astronaut, then stepped out.
“You’re emitting cosmic rays. How? ” said Henshaw.
The astronaut, burning blue with alien fire, turned his full attention to the Green Lantern. His voice was muffled and distorted because of the helmet he wore, but Hank could hear it from where he floated. “…I came back.”
“From where?” said Henshaw, as he took a tentative step forward. The voice was familiar, but he couldn’t place it, the distortion too much to be sure.
“HELL,” screamed the astronaut, sending a catastrophic blast of energy at Green Lantern, hot enough to scar the road surface as it flew past.
Henshaw threw up a shield but zipped out of the line of fire, just in case. His shield held but blistered, flecks of emerald energy melting on impact. The attack was impressive but concerning.
Hank’s ring generated a flood of fire dampening fluid and he doused the astronaut in it, driving him into the ground, smothering the flames he generated.
“Who are you?” said Henshaw, looming over the downed foe.
“Dead,” said the astronaut. “I’m dead.”
Henshaw surrounded the astronaut in a containment bubble then opened his visor with a pair of pincers. The man beneath the suit was a ravaged husk of a man, any extraneous features such as his noses and ears burned off, leaving only gaping wounds. His skin was covered in blistered burns, damp with pus, every facial contortion on show further damaging his flesh.
“You need to calm down,” said Henshaw. “Please, you need to--”
The astronaut’s eyes flashed with recognition. “H-Hank?”
“Wha--?” Henshaw’s brow furrowed and he didn’t have a chance to react when the astronaut’s hand found his throat. Hank was about to fill his attacker full of sedatives when an energy blast singed his temple and caught the astronaut square in the chest, knocking him unconscious and still on the floor.
Hank touched his aching throat and the spot on his head where he’d felt energy pass him, then turned to see Lex Luthor clad in his emerald and purple power suit, flanked by members of his personal security team. In his hands was a smoking energy cannon, dim lights flickering on the side of its barrel. “Thank God we got here when we did, Green Lantern. That man was about to kill you!”
“Luthor, ” whispered Henshaw. The man whose sabotage had doomed Hank’s crew to a painful death aboard the Excalibur shuttle years ago* and got away with it scot free. The man who, up until recently, had been labelled a villain in the eyes of the public, only to be exonerated after he was rescued from captivity at the hands of a society of super criminals.
“You know me, that’s good,” said Luthor, floating down to join Henshaw on street level. “I detected a dangerous level of cosmic radiation emanating from this man, so cobbled this thing together,” he tapped the weapon he held in his left hand, “it’s currently dampening the energy signature, but he needs a closer looking at. We’re about to drop him off at STAR’s xenoform unit. Would you care to join us? It’d be good to have a real hero on side.”
Hank’s first instinct was to refuse. To fly away. To blast Luthor in the face. To kill the man who killed his friends and family. To do so would fill him with, he hoped, the calm he’d been unable to achieve for months now. Alleviate the internal turmoil that ravaged his being. But the look on the burnt astronaut’s face when he saw Henshaw’s own troubled him. He had to know more.
Henshaw lifted the astronaut up in his arms, away from the rough attention of Lex’s personal security. “It’d be an honour,” he said slowly. “Lead the way.”
Lex Luthor smiled smugly, and lifted off, making a beeline to STAR Labs.
“Just because you can drop off a power ring’s radar, doesn’t mean we’re not going to be able to find you if you don’t want to be found,” said Sinestro, arms folded and aggravated expression on his face.
On the other hand, Kyle Rayner floated in the void of space with his legs crossed, meditating on the incredible wall of solid crimson energy that separated Sector 666 from the rest of the universe.
If you could look down on it from a higher dimension, where such acts were possible, the wall would be seen a perfect, impervious sphere, encapsulating thousands of worlds turned to ash by the mad former Lantern known as Parallax*, numerous dead stars and shattered satellites, but to see past it? To explore what actually went on behind the wall?
Not even Kyle Rayner, with all the abilities he had as the White Lantern, could do that.
“I’m meditating, like you taught me,” said Kyle. “Trying to clear my head and trying to figure that out,” he gestured toward the wall.
“The impossible wall generated by an impossible Lantern Corps*,” said Sinestro. “How Atrocitus and his Corps found the power to erect such a barrier is beyond me.”
“Especially after the death of their Guardian,” said Kyle. “Unless…”
“What are you thinking, Kyle?”
Thin threads of white light began to emerge from Kyle’s fingertips, and an animated scene began to play out before Sinestro, as the younger man narrated.
“The Red Lantern Corps arrived in this dimension from a universe where Hal Jordan went mad and conquered everything. Atrocitus risked everything but died, only to be resurrected in the body of this universe’s Atrocitus. A great escape plan is there ever was one*.”
“Your point, Kyle?”
Rayner smiled. “Well, he dumped a Central Power Battery on Oa and set it to detonate, releasing their Guardian. You remember all that?”
“I wasn’t there, as you know. Get to the point, Kyle.”
“What if there’s another Red Lantern Guardian lurking in this universe, and it’s consolidating its power right now behind that wall? A wall we can’t penetrate, we can’t get through-- hell, even I’ve tried, and it’s beyond the power of the White Lantern. Doesn’t that worry you?”
Kyle clicked his fingers and the construct snapped into non-existence.
“Lots of things concern me, but the major issue for me right now is your insistence on running away from the Green Lantern Corps. You have the power to drop off the map, but your habits of returning to the same place, time and time again, means your discovery is all but guaranteed.”
“I’m not hiding,” said Kyle. “Honestly. I just… I’ve never been part of the Green Lantern Corps. Before, it was just Hal and me*, then Hank came aboard**, and then I died reigniting the Central Power Battery on Oa***.”
“And since our return, there is a Green Lantern Corps once more. You’re not the only one whose world was one shape before having it taken from him. I lost everything-- repeatedly*. I died too**. And thanks to you, I came back**. The universe moved on. We adjust, like I trained you, and we moved forward.”
“But the fact that you’re all keeping tabs on me, I mean…”
“You’re a young man who wields an energy source of unknown power. We are not keeping tabs, we are doing our job.” Sinestro sighed. “I know I’m hard on you, Kyle. But you’re more than capable of surpassing any expectations I, or any others, put upon you. If you want to be left alone, just say, don’t fall off the map. If we need you, we want to be able to contact you. In the interim, if we aren’t training, do as you wish. Meditate the wall, head back to Earth, it’s entirely up to you.”
“Thanks, Thaal,” said Kyle. He allowed himself a smile, before his eyes flashed white and something moved through him. “It’s just a shame what happens next to Sodam.”
Sinestro had seen this before. Kyle’s grasp on linear reality sometimes slipped, he saw things that happened before, or after, or could occur, if certain events fell into place. He’d even performed surgery on Hank Henshaw’s timeline to ensure he never became possessed by the Predator entity ever again*. “Excuse me?”
Kyle didn’t seem to notice his change in demeanour or his oddly out-of-place words. “Hmm? I said I’m fine, Thaal. You should head to Oa. Salaak is going to need you soon enough.”
“What about Sodam? Who is that?” said Sinestro.
“Oh, isn’t he a Green Lantern?” said Kyle. “Daxamite? I dunno. Never met the guy.”
Sinestro had spoken to Kyle before about the flashes. They were exactly the reason he wanted to keep an eye on the boy, but once he came out of his trance, he’d never been able to provide more information, more context to his prophetic words.
“Put yourself back on the map, Kyle,” said Sinestro. “And I’ll see you on Oa.”
Guy popped out of subluminal and arrived in high orbit above the colony. The skies were still and there was no chatter coming across any channels. Every world Guy came across had some kind of broadcast pollution going on, be it television or radio, or some non-human equivalent. There were no phone-calls zipping through the atmosphere, no signals to be detected. For all intents and purposes, this was a dead world.
Who settled here? thought Guy.
Communication between Guy and the power ring was running on silent. Thought-to-thought only, the element of surprise firmly on Guy’s side until he said otherwise. <Minor exploratory contingent from Sector 1760 world-- Daxamites.>
Huh. I thought they were terrified of space travel.
Guy scanned the world from up on high. Breathable atmosphere. No foreign substances in the air. Oceans. Mountains. One city, immediately below him. The settlers had yet to spread out. He looked over his shoulder at the glowing red giant behind him.
Guy continued his ruminations. Red sun. Daxamites become Superman-level potential combatants when exposed to yellow solar energy. If the sun is red, then I’m dealing with human-level potential combatants. That’s good. And it reminds me--
<No trace of lead or similar elements found on the planet.>
A safe place, then, thought Guy. And the Sector Lanterns?
<Trace energy signatures present on planet. Unable to pinpoint. Unable to track Sector Lanterns 1759.1 or 1759.2 at this moment in time.>
Guy descended, breaking through the atmosphere quickly and landing inside the city limits easily. The entire place was silent, with no sign of attack or invasion. What could have taken an entire world off the board so quickly?
<Location of emergency transmission locked.>
“Let’s go,” said Guy. He floated slowly through the city. The buildings weren’t high and the rockets they used to land on the planet were part of the architecture. Still fully functioning in case of emergency exit was required. If something hit, it was so fast they didn’t get a chance to blast off.
The main building in the city was taller than the rest and at the centre of the settlement. Guy phased through the wall and then down, until he was facing a wrecked communication array.
Signal must’ve come from here, thought Guy. He squatted down next to the trashed communication array and ran a diagnostic with his ring. There were markings across the surface of the machine, and he was quickly able to run millions of scenarios through his ring to figure out how the damage was done. Finally, the ring narrowed down the scenarios to one, and he replayed it using hard light constructs.
The communication array was intact until something-- moving at impossible speeds-- smashed it using bare fists. There was a hand print gouged into the surface of the metal, where the destruction ended, but no records existed in the Book of Oa to indicate who the hand belonged to. Guy took a step back and his boot became matted with something on the floor. He glanced down at the patch of blood, and the arm resting within it.
“Oh, crap,” said Guy. The blood stretched out past the arm-- the wound was cauterised, so the blood wasn’t from whatever injury resulted in the limb’s loss-- and into the corridor. He examined the fingers of the arm, burnt and covered in hardened, previously-molten metal. One finger visibly missed an entire nail. What’s that around the hand?
<Reconstruction projections suggest an 87% probability that it was secondary communication device.>
So the signal came from here, thought Guy. A hidden transponder, in case the main one is damaged. How did that arm end up like that?
<Wound patterns in line with instantaneous removal of limb by way of focused laser weapon. Intense heat cauterised wound immediately, resulting in minimum blood loss and high chance of survival.>
So someone is walking around without an arm, thought Guy. “Poor bastard.” He held out his ring and scanned the blood trail, slowly following it out into the main corridor.
<DNA analysis complete. Seventeen unique genetic signatures detected.>
Not one person, thought Guy. This is going to be grizzly, isn’t it?
<Not enough data to answer accurately.>
“Hmm.” Guy followed the trail then crouched down once more as something caught his eyes. Magnify that.
A segment of the floor was enlarged in stark emerald, and Guy’s eyes widened. There was a fingernail embedded in the floor. All the way from the communication room to the point he stood now, there were markings on the floor, tiny divots where fingernails had dug in and whoever owned them exerted strength to get to where they wanted to go.
Someone dragged themselves here… By one arm? Guy shook his head. He spotted a closed door, and the trail of blood came from under it. That’s it then. He scanned the room, but there were no life signs present. Moving slowly, he opened the door, his ring ensuring there were no booby-traps.
The sight before him caused him to gag, but he kept the vomit down, even as the bloodied, twisted, limbless bodies hung from hooks in the small room he found himself within. These people-- these poor, poor people-- had been tortured.
The markings on their bodies were scabbed over, suggesting that they were made pre-mortem. The stumps where their limbs had been were cauterised, blackened and burnt, so prevent death. Someone wanted them alive.
Finally, two holes were scoured through their foreheads. Lasers? Whatever it was, that must have been the final cause of death. The coup de grace. Whoever did this was a monster, and they didn’t care that someone had stumbled into their abattoir.
Across the floor was a thick, congealed layer of blood. There was a single, empty hook, and beneath the hook was where the drag marks started. He looked at the hook, the floor, and then the door.
Someone pulled themselves off the hook, and dragged themselves to the communication room. The door wasn’t looked-- their captor was arrogant-- didn’t think they would be able to demonstrate the willpower-- or determination-- to pull themselves off the hook and out of here.
Guy grimaced then held his ring to his mouth. “Oa, this is Gardner. I need back up at my location. This place is a horror show and I want a full forensic team to pick the crime scene apart. Send those neighbouring Sector Lanterns ASAP.”
There came no response and a sinking feeling began to form in Gardner’s stomach.
METROPOLIS:
“So, I heard you’d been exonerated of your crimes,” said Hank.
Lex Luthor displayed no emotion as the two men watched as the previously ignited astronaut was wheeled away from the intake area. The patient was surrounded by armed guards provided by Metropolis’ police department, who were intent to take him in once the full extent of the situation was discovered.
When the astronaut was out of sight, Lex shook his head ruefully. “Truthfully, I consciously committed no crime to be exonerated of,” said Lex. “I am… sickened to admit… that I was a prisoner of the alien deviant Despero* and made to commit acts I find repugnant while under his mental control*.
“I… betrayed the country I am proud to call my home*, I even armed some of the most dangerous criminals the world has ever seen while in my fugue state. I’m just relieved that the systems I believe in worked and found me innocent. I’m even helping rout those who took advantage of my situation.” He tapped the chest panel of his power suit, to indicate some sort of armoured heroism that Hank found repugnant applied to Luthor.
“Convenient,” said Henshaw, flatly.
“Excuse me?” said Luthor.
“It’s a hard story to swallow, isn’t it? The great industrialist turned super criminal is something we can all believe, but the added spice of being controlled by an alien consciousness just… doesn’t sit well with me. It must be difficult having gone through all that, it must have been difficult making people believe, but I’m glad that you did.”
Henshaw had to centre himself. He found the words spilling out of him faster than he would have liked, the proximity to the man who engineered the deaths of his friends and family pushing him closer to the edge than he would have liked.
“You’re never going to get over their deaths if you don’t do something about it.”
The voice of the woman who interrogated Hank mere weeks ago continued to echo in his head. Had her excavation of his mind led to something deeper than just the discomfort he felt since? Back on Oa they’d cleared him of any psychic infection-- one of his biggest fears since his own time under the influence of the Predator entity-- so this wasn’t some deep seated crèche of eggs hatching. This was him, discomfort at its highest, memories too close to the surface to count, reaching a point that might end badly if he didn’t break it off soon.
But Hank wasn’t going anywhere until he got what he wanted from Lex.
Luthor wore an expression of confusion. “Green Lantern, you’re obviously not the man I was aware of prior to my episode with Despero. He was younger, brown hair instead of grey, thinner in the face and wearing a different uniform than that yourself. I’ve been told that there have been numerous sightings of Green Lanterns of various colours and creeds during my time away from the world. And even the best-- in my opinion-- is currently in a coma after a vicious attack on the Justice Society*. Now, I apologise for the tone of my question, but do you have a problem with me?”
“Why would I?” said Henshaw. “You’re an innocent man. Great industrialist once more. But I have to ask, and it’s a question sparked by the events of the morning, but what are your views on space travel?”
“Don’t we all want to be astronauts when we’re growing up?” said Luthor, allowing himself a smile. “I wouldn’t sacrifice what that man appears to have, but still, one dreams of reaching the stars. You’re one of the lucky ones, I expect.”
“I’m both lucky and thankful for the opportunities afforded to me,” said Hank, gesturing to his ring. “But I never needed this before to achieve my dream. I don’t need it now for others.”
“Ah, that ring,” said Luthor. “I met an alien with one* of those before. Two**, in fact. The second one made me forget it for a while, but if there’s one thing I’m master of, it’s my mind. And I learned from the experience.”
Lex pressed a button on his gauntlet and a sound rang in Hank’s ears, but before he could say anything, Lex leaned forward and slowly said: “Colonel Henshaw, why are you posturing?” His words stabbed at Hank’s heart, “I mean, didn’t I allegedly kill your crew with my… what did you call it? ‘Negligence of the highest degree?’ But you never did anything about it, even when you did receive the power ring on your finger. You could have taken any number of shots at me, dropped a satellite on my head, redirected an asteroid shower at my office, anything, everything, but you never did. I thought Green Lanterns were supposed to be righteous, not cowards.”
Ignoring the fact that Luthor just revealed that he knew Henshaw’s identity, Hank’s world flipped upside down and red fell across his vision. The words coming out of Lex’s mouth were hardly an expression of guilt but the pride dripping off of Luthor’s statement drove him further than he had gone before.
“You’re damaged goods and you’ll never be complete, Mister Henshaw, ” said the woman who danced on his cerebrum weeks prior. “Maybe you should just do us all a favour and kill yourself. ”
Green Lantern lifted Luthor up by the collar of his power suit and snarled almightily. “You’re a monster, Lex, and--” Henshaw was cut off by an explosion from the direction the doctors had taken the astronaut. He dropped Luthor and pointed an angry finger at the man. “We’re not finished. ”
Tears filling his eyes, Hank shot toward the chaos, leaving a grinning Lex Luthor to regain his faculties. “My, my. Your buttons are nearly as easy to push as the alien’s.” He pressed a button on his gauntlet and spoke into the microphone that dropped from the top of his helmet: “Let’s begin.”
SECTOR 1759:
Guy tapped his ring tentatively with his other hand. “Ring, are communications online?”
<Communication unable to break through the planet’s atmosphere. Unknown energy field active.>
“Of course there is,” said Guy. “I’m no coward, but this is weird as balls and I’m--”
Guy was punched so hard that the wall he was punched into buckled and burst, sending him into the room behind it. He felt dazed, but knew one thing-- the strength of the blow was enough to knock his head clean off if it wasn’t for the ring protecting him. Add another to the concussion list. “What-- was-- that-- “
<Unknown energy signature intensified-- unable to scan-- connection to Book of Oa compromised-->
In the room where Guy had been in originally, a figure stood, contemplating one of the limbless corpses. The man turned to Guy, who threw his ring up and blasted. The resulting explosion vaporised the bodies in the room and melted the surrounding metal walls, but when the smoke cleared, the figure still stood there--
Wait, thought Guy, he’s not standing--“Who… who… the hell… are you…?” With every word, Guy tried to pull himself up, barely managing to get to his feet.
<Honour Lantern Gardner, your vitals show that you are concussed. Suggest strategic retreat and back-up.>
Called that one, thought Guy, and easier said than done. He grabbed his wrist and focused his will. This man-- whoever it was-- had slaughtered an entire colony. Had managed to evade detection until he wanted to be detected. If Guy’s suspicions were correct, this unidentified monster was also behind the disappearance of the two Green Lanterns sent to investigate the situation in the first place.
All that, combined with the fact that he was unable to contact Oa, left Guy releasing all his inhibitions. This guy had to be taken down, and he’d already shrugged off one hell of a ring-blast.
A furious storm of emerald energy erupted from Guy’s ring and struck the figure. For seconds, the plume swarmed outward, the sum total of Gardner’s will funnelled into the power ring, until he doubled over, exhausted by the exertion. He looked up and grimaced, sweat dripping down his face, as emerald smoke drifted off the body of the figure, whose eyes started to crackle and burn red.
The man floated toward Green Lantern, his white lab coat splattered with blood, his heavy black boots not touching the floor. There was a symbol emblazoned across his chest, a pronouncement of identity for those who saw it. The symbol made Guy think of Superman. But it wasn’t an ‘S’, it was an ‘X’, and that didn’t make any sense to Gardner.
“I am a doctor. I am seeking a cure. And you are interrupting my work.”
The man took a breath and then exhaled, freezing Gardner in a block of ice. Within seconds, the ice was melted by heat generated by Guy’s protective aura, but before he could think to move, the man had grabbed the Green Lantern by the throat, lifting him up off his feet.
The man’s eyes crackled with fire.
“Y-you’re a Daxamite?”
“Oh, no, nothing so vulgar. I’m a Kryptonian. The last true Kryptonian. I am Xa-Du, and I am here to operate.”
Xa-Du flicked Gardner in the temple, knocking him out instantly.
NEXT ISSUE: What is Lex Luthor’s game and what part does Hank Henshaw have to play in it? Will Guy Gardner escape from the clutches of the mad Kryptonian doctor Xa-Du? What will the Green Lantern Corps do when they lose another one of their own? FIND OUT NEXT MONTH!
Our heroes have been through trials, and they’re not in the clear yet. GUY GARDNER and HANK HENSHAW were taken captive by alien entities intent to exploit an energy source of mythical proportions. During their time imprisoned, HENSHAW’s mind was broken into by the leader of the group, her actions leading him to relive his greatest failures and open old psychological wounds that he had struggled to overcome. The two Green Lanterns escaped thanks to the assistance of allies from across the galaxy, but HENSHAW’s still in rough shape, but not that he’d tell you…
Meanwhile, JOHN STEWART continued his investigation into EVIL STAR and his terrorist actions that led to the deaths of countless trillions across the galaxy. Whole planets died when their life-giving stars were extinguished by EVIL STAR’s actions, but thanks to KYLE RAYNER, untold legions more survived when he used the power of the WHITE LANTERN to re-ignite them.
JOHN tracked EVIL STAR to his home world and learned the truth-- EVIL STAR was once a Green Lantern, driven insane when the life force of every citizen on the planet AURON entered him when an experiment went wrong! Thanks to the timely intervention of KYLE, JOHN survived the encounter, but EVIL STAR fell into the clutches of the cosmic monster known as PARALLAX, aka the first Green Lantern! With EVIL STAR’s powers joined with his own, the all-powerful chaos bringer has another soldier for the upcoming war… which means nothing good can come of it!
Meanwhile, THAAL SINESTRO returned to the fold of the Green Lantern Corps after a number of years suffering at the hands of numerous villains. He’d spent his time training KYLE RAYNER in the use of his powerful new WHITE LANTERN abilities. What’s next for the greatest Green Lantern that ever lived?
Finally, in Sector 666, the mysterious RED LANTERN CORPS lurk behind an impenetrable barrier, licking their wounds after their defeat at the combined might of the Green and Love Lantern Corps. The entire sector was destroyed by PARALLAX as an act of spite, but since then they haven’t been seen…
Welcome back to the ongoing adventures of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS!
SECTOR 1759:
“I can’t… I can’t do this…”
“You have to. You have to. You can’t give up now. Not when we’re so close.”
“I don’t… have the strength…”
“You’re the only one of us left who can.”
“But… but…”
“Now go. Before he gets back.”
There was a shuffling sound, in the dark. No light was allowed in the cells. Red or yellow, those sunny rays were not allowed into the dank prison the people of the colony found themselves within. How long had they been imprisoned under the surface of the world they had made their own?
The shuffling was replaced by a dragging sound. An immense dragging, an immense effort, but the door was opened and the dragging continued. After an age, another door opened. The communication array was disabled, smashed to pieces, but the perpetrator didn’t know about the auxiliary array, under the fifth panel across the floor.
With a near superhuman effort, the panel came loose, and the array was quickly activated. There was the crackle of subspace channels being opened, and then words were quickly spoken: “Help. We need help. There aren’t many of us left. The others are--”
The signal was cut off as the auxiliary array melted into slag in his hand, molten metal spreading across his digits. A split second later the pain in his fingers was gone, replaced by an agonising pain in his shoulder. He couldn’t feel his fingers. He couldn’t feel anything beyond his shoulder.
“That smell filling your nose is burning meat. You’re very lucky. My olfactory senses are far beyond your unenlightened physiology. I can assure you that this act has punished me, more so than it has punished you.”
“G-G-Gods.”
“No, no, there are no Gods here. There is only me. And I see that you have volunteered for the next round of experimentation. For that, I am thankful.”
There was a sound, of a body being lifted off the floor. No footsteps followed, but the two of them were gone. Left behind was a pool of blood, and a limb without a body to call its own, the excision cauterised as suddenly as it was made.
Issue Fifty-SEVEN: “Vast and Dark”
HoM / FLINCHUM
SECTOR 2814:
“You don’t even know who you’re supposed to be anymore.”
Hank looked down at the world from his perch atop an old NASA satellite that no longer did anything useful. It drifted, caught in the gravity of the world, transmitting sporadic, useless data. No one could be bothered to clear the skies of this junk, but Hank had considered doing it, when he had a free moment.
The words of his torturer, the woman who pushed her fingers into his brain to pull out all his secrets, still rang through his head*. There was no lasting damage, nothing that would impact his work, or his ring, they were just words. Words that went somewhere deep in his consciousness and refused to budge.
*All will be revealed in Green Lantern Corps #55
“You’ve died too many times to count, you just don’t know how to stay down.”
Hank held out his hand then closed it into a fist. He allowed one finger to unfurl.
Cracked your skull open at the bottom of your grandfather’s estate when you were eight. In a coma for a year. No one expected you to wake up. You did.
Another finger joined the first.
The space shuttle you co-captained with your wife was exposed to deadly cosmic rays during its maiden voyage. You only survived because you were trapped in the engine room where the shielding was thickest. The rest of your crew-- your family-- died*.
*For more details check out the psychedelic Green Lantern Corps #52
A third finger.
You managed to jury rig a disabled space shuttle through your wits and ingenuity alone into getting you home. No one knows how you survived on so little oxygen and they’d written you off as lost weeks prior.
A fourth finger.
Mongul murdered you in Coast City*. Blasted your chest open and killed you dead. But you came back rotten**.
*Green Lantern #35
*Green Lantern #39
“I can count my deaths,” said Hank, to nobody but the void. He closed his hand into a fist, screamed as loud and as violently as he could, hoping to exorcise all the accumulated demons of his life through sheer force of will. The scream became a build of energy that he held onto until it became too much, and he evaporated the dead satellites and space junk littering Earth’s gravitational pull in an emerald blast that could be seen during the day down below.
“Ah, ah, ah oh God,” whispered Hank.
“You all right, Hank?” John Stewart’s voice emerged from his ring, and Hank shook his head. “My ring just picked up a massive energy flare, picked it up all the out here in the Badlands of the sector. What’s going on?”
No, you’re not all right, Hank. You’ve not been all right since you came back to life.
“I’m fine. Doing some clean up to make NASA’s life easier,” said Henshaw, shutting up his interior voice. It was good when the lies came easy and were based in the truth.
“…Right,” said John, sensing that wasn’t the whole story but respecting his partner enough not to pry. “I’ll leave you to it then. Stay safe.” He terminated the communication and Hank held his head in his hands, completely unsure of what to do with his life next.
OA:
“We received a distress call from a colony world in Sector 1759, and the Sector Lanterns we sent to investigate have yet to report back,” said Salaak. “Lantern Gardner, now that you have returned from your leave of absence, your assignment is two-fold. Journey to the colony world and investigate the distress call, and then locate the missing Sector Lanterns.”
“I wouldn’t say I had much of a shore leave,” said Guy. “Got sucked into that whole Tiamat situation with the others, didn’t I*?”
*Green Lantern Corps #54-56, coming soon
“Then you should have come back onto the clock, Guy,” said Salaak, a twinkle in his dark eyes. Did the old man just tell a joke? “Regardless, the coordinates of the world you are instructed to journey to have been uploaded to your power ring. Subluminal flight is available, and the neighbouring Sector Lanterns are on call if necessary.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know the drill. I’ll let you know what I find.”
Guy headed out of the main chambers and wandered out to the nearest balcony. The Citadel of the Green Lantern Corps overlooked the Central Power Battery, and was comprised of a central column and too many balconies to count. When you wore a trinket that allowed you to fly everywhere, why would you walk?
Guy lifted up and began putting the thoughts required in place to enter the subluminal tunnels under the skin of the universe, then vanished in a burst of light. Travel to the space sector wouldn’t take him too long, and with the universe zipping past at impossible speeds, he allowed himself to drift off, dreaming of emerald stars.
EARTH:
<Unidentified energy signature manifesting in Metropolis,> said Hank Henshaw’s ring. <Matching known manifestation of high intensity cosmic rays logged in ring’s archives by current bearer.>
“What?” said Hank. Cosmic rays. The very thing that killed his crew on the Excalibur all those years ago. But in Metropolis?
Without any thought, Green Lantern descended upon the City of Tomorrow, home of Superman. His ring couldn’t detect the Man of Steel, but he could see the chaos unfolding down on Central Boulevard-- not that he believed his eyes.
A figure, clad in an astronaut’s space suit. Around the figure was a halo of blue light that he projected in fiery blasts at the vehicles nearby, sending them flying up into the air on pillars of flame. The Metropolis Major Crimes Unit were on the scene, firing their weapons at the dangerous entity, but their blasts dissipated before they could hit the unidentified subject.
Is that the source of the cosmic rays? thought Hank.
<Correct,> responded his ring. <Being appears to be emitting low levels of cosmic ray energy. Prolonged exposure to this being will result in mutation then death.>
Green Lantern shot down toward the street and floated near to the Major Crimes Unit, who rallied behind a cordon. “You need to get clear. That thing is giving off radiation.”
“And you are?” said one of the armoured police officers, holding tightly to her pulse rifle.
“I’m Green Lantern, ma’am,” said Hank. “I’m here to help.”
“‘Ma’am’? Oh, isn’t that great. I’m Sawyer, this is my show,” said Captain Sawyer, flicking up her visor to get a better look at the masked hero stood next to her. “Big Blue is out of town, looks like this creep decided to take advantage of that. This astronaut one of yours?”
“No,” said Henshaw. “At least… no, I don’t think so.” He managed a smile. “I can barely keep up with who’s who nowadays.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” said Sawyer, lowering her visor, “if you could keep track I wouldn’t think you were a big time player. Folks! Get clear and give the green guy some space! We got radiation! ”
One of the officers looked over to Sawyer, “Metallo protocol?”
“Yup, yup, Nemo,” said Maggie. She turned to Henshaw. “Our suits keep us safe, but if you’re saying it’s bad, we’ll back on up. I’ve got snipers in heavy gear in position above your head. You deal with this and I won’t have to give the order to take that crazy down.” She nodded once, then motioned for her men to back up, which they did swiftly.
There were no civilians nearby, their evacuation a priority of the MCU officers. Henshaw sent out a scanning ray and confirmed the absence of anybody but himself and the flaming astronaut, then stepped out.
“You’re emitting cosmic rays. How? ” said Henshaw.
The astronaut, burning blue with alien fire, turned his full attention to the Green Lantern. His voice was muffled and distorted because of the helmet he wore, but Hank could hear it from where he floated. “…I came back.”
“From where?” said Henshaw, as he took a tentative step forward. The voice was familiar, but he couldn’t place it, the distortion too much to be sure.
“HELL,” screamed the astronaut, sending a catastrophic blast of energy at Green Lantern, hot enough to scar the road surface as it flew past.
Henshaw threw up a shield but zipped out of the line of fire, just in case. His shield held but blistered, flecks of emerald energy melting on impact. The attack was impressive but concerning.
Hank’s ring generated a flood of fire dampening fluid and he doused the astronaut in it, driving him into the ground, smothering the flames he generated.
“Who are you?” said Henshaw, looming over the downed foe.
“Dead,” said the astronaut. “I’m dead.”
Henshaw surrounded the astronaut in a containment bubble then opened his visor with a pair of pincers. The man beneath the suit was a ravaged husk of a man, any extraneous features such as his noses and ears burned off, leaving only gaping wounds. His skin was covered in blistered burns, damp with pus, every facial contortion on show further damaging his flesh.
“You need to calm down,” said Henshaw. “Please, you need to--”
The astronaut’s eyes flashed with recognition. “H-Hank?”
“Wha--?” Henshaw’s brow furrowed and he didn’t have a chance to react when the astronaut’s hand found his throat. Hank was about to fill his attacker full of sedatives when an energy blast singed his temple and caught the astronaut square in the chest, knocking him unconscious and still on the floor.
Hank touched his aching throat and the spot on his head where he’d felt energy pass him, then turned to see Lex Luthor clad in his emerald and purple power suit, flanked by members of his personal security team. In his hands was a smoking energy cannon, dim lights flickering on the side of its barrel. “Thank God we got here when we did, Green Lantern. That man was about to kill you!”
“Luthor, ” whispered Henshaw. The man whose sabotage had doomed Hank’s crew to a painful death aboard the Excalibur shuttle years ago* and got away with it scot free. The man who, up until recently, had been labelled a villain in the eyes of the public, only to be exonerated after he was rescued from captivity at the hands of a society of super criminals.
*As seen in Green Lantern Corps #52-53, with Luthor’s ‘innocence’ discussed in the latter
“You know me, that’s good,” said Luthor, floating down to join Henshaw on street level. “I detected a dangerous level of cosmic radiation emanating from this man, so cobbled this thing together,” he tapped the weapon he held in his left hand, “it’s currently dampening the energy signature, but he needs a closer looking at. We’re about to drop him off at STAR’s xenoform unit. Would you care to join us? It’d be good to have a real hero on side.”
Hank’s first instinct was to refuse. To fly away. To blast Luthor in the face. To kill the man who killed his friends and family. To do so would fill him with, he hoped, the calm he’d been unable to achieve for months now. Alleviate the internal turmoil that ravaged his being. But the look on the burnt astronaut’s face when he saw Henshaw’s own troubled him. He had to know more.
Henshaw lifted the astronaut up in his arms, away from the rough attention of Lex’s personal security. “It’d be an honour,” he said slowly. “Lead the way.”
Lex Luthor smiled smugly, and lifted off, making a beeline to STAR Labs.
SECTOR 665:
“Just because you can drop off a power ring’s radar, doesn’t mean we’re not going to be able to find you if you don’t want to be found,” said Sinestro, arms folded and aggravated expression on his face.
On the other hand, Kyle Rayner floated in the void of space with his legs crossed, meditating on the incredible wall of solid crimson energy that separated Sector 666 from the rest of the universe.
If you could look down on it from a higher dimension, where such acts were possible, the wall would be seen a perfect, impervious sphere, encapsulating thousands of worlds turned to ash by the mad former Lantern known as Parallax*, numerous dead stars and shattered satellites, but to see past it? To explore what actually went on behind the wall?
*Back in Green Lantern #50
Not even Kyle Rayner, with all the abilities he had as the White Lantern, could do that.
“I’m meditating, like you taught me,” said Kyle. “Trying to clear my head and trying to figure that out,” he gestured toward the wall.
“The impossible wall generated by an impossible Lantern Corps*,” said Sinestro. “How Atrocitus and his Corps found the power to erect such a barrier is beyond me.”
*Also back in Green Lantern #50
“What are you thinking, Kyle?”
Thin threads of white light began to emerge from Kyle’s fingertips, and an animated scene began to play out before Sinestro, as the younger man narrated.
“The Red Lantern Corps arrived in this dimension from a universe where Hal Jordan went mad and conquered everything. Atrocitus risked everything but died, only to be resurrected in the body of this universe’s Atrocitus. A great escape plan is there ever was one*.”
*Covered in Scarlet Reign, running through Green Lantern #44–50.
“Your point, Kyle?”
Rayner smiled. “Well, he dumped a Central Power Battery on Oa and set it to detonate, releasing their Guardian. You remember all that?”
“I wasn’t there, as you know. Get to the point, Kyle.”
“What if there’s another Red Lantern Guardian lurking in this universe, and it’s consolidating its power right now behind that wall? A wall we can’t penetrate, we can’t get through-- hell, even I’ve tried, and it’s beyond the power of the White Lantern. Doesn’t that worry you?”
Kyle clicked his fingers and the construct snapped into non-existence.
“Lots of things concern me, but the major issue for me right now is your insistence on running away from the Green Lantern Corps. You have the power to drop off the map, but your habits of returning to the same place, time and time again, means your discovery is all but guaranteed.”
“I’m not hiding,” said Kyle. “Honestly. I just… I’ve never been part of the Green Lantern Corps. Before, it was just Hal and me*, then Hank came aboard**, and then I died reigniting the Central Power Battery on Oa***.”
*From Green Lantern #12 all the way to #29
**That’d be in Green Lantern #27
***Check out Green Lantern Corps: Liberation #5
“And since our return, there is a Green Lantern Corps once more. You’re not the only one whose world was one shape before having it taken from him. I lost everything-- repeatedly*. I died too**. And thanks to you, I came back**. The universe moved on. We adjust, like I trained you, and we moved forward.”
*Sinestro was infected by the mind-altering Legion Virus way back in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #1
**To escape the clutches of Parallax, Sinestro killed himself in Green Lantern Annual #2
***Kyle and Sinestro were revealed to have returned in Green Lantern #44
“But the fact that you’re all keeping tabs on me, I mean…”
“You’re a young man who wields an energy source of unknown power. We are not keeping tabs, we are doing our job.” Sinestro sighed. “I know I’m hard on you, Kyle. But you’re more than capable of surpassing any expectations I, or any others, put upon you. If you want to be left alone, just say, don’t fall off the map. If we need you, we want to be able to contact you. In the interim, if we aren’t training, do as you wish. Meditate the wall, head back to Earth, it’s entirely up to you.”
“Thanks, Thaal,” said Kyle. He allowed himself a smile, before his eyes flashed white and something moved through him. “It’s just a shame what happens next to Sodam.”
Sinestro had seen this before. Kyle’s grasp on linear reality sometimes slipped, he saw things that happened before, or after, or could occur, if certain events fell into place. He’d even performed surgery on Hank Henshaw’s timeline to ensure he never became possessed by the Predator entity ever again*. “Excuse me?”
*Back in Green Lantern #51
Kyle didn’t seem to notice his change in demeanour or his oddly out-of-place words. “Hmm? I said I’m fine, Thaal. You should head to Oa. Salaak is going to need you soon enough.”
“What about Sodam? Who is that?” said Sinestro.
“Oh, isn’t he a Green Lantern?” said Kyle. “Daxamite? I dunno. Never met the guy.”
Sinestro had spoken to Kyle before about the flashes. They were exactly the reason he wanted to keep an eye on the boy, but once he came out of his trance, he’d never been able to provide more information, more context to his prophetic words.
“Put yourself back on the map, Kyle,” said Sinestro. “And I’ll see you on Oa.”
SECTOR 1759:
Guy popped out of subluminal and arrived in high orbit above the colony. The skies were still and there was no chatter coming across any channels. Every world Guy came across had some kind of broadcast pollution going on, be it television or radio, or some non-human equivalent. There were no phone-calls zipping through the atmosphere, no signals to be detected. For all intents and purposes, this was a dead world.
Who settled here? thought Guy.
Communication between Guy and the power ring was running on silent. Thought-to-thought only, the element of surprise firmly on Guy’s side until he said otherwise. <Minor exploratory contingent from Sector 1760 world-- Daxamites.>
Huh. I thought they were terrified of space travel.
Guy scanned the world from up on high. Breathable atmosphere. No foreign substances in the air. Oceans. Mountains. One city, immediately below him. The settlers had yet to spread out. He looked over his shoulder at the glowing red giant behind him.
Guy continued his ruminations. Red sun. Daxamites become Superman-level potential combatants when exposed to yellow solar energy. If the sun is red, then I’m dealing with human-level potential combatants. That’s good. And it reminds me--
<No trace of lead or similar elements found on the planet.>
A safe place, then, thought Guy. And the Sector Lanterns?
<Trace energy signatures present on planet. Unable to pinpoint. Unable to track Sector Lanterns 1759.1 or 1759.2 at this moment in time.>
Guy descended, breaking through the atmosphere quickly and landing inside the city limits easily. The entire place was silent, with no sign of attack or invasion. What could have taken an entire world off the board so quickly?
<Location of emergency transmission locked.>
“Let’s go,” said Guy. He floated slowly through the city. The buildings weren’t high and the rockets they used to land on the planet were part of the architecture. Still fully functioning in case of emergency exit was required. If something hit, it was so fast they didn’t get a chance to blast off.
The main building in the city was taller than the rest and at the centre of the settlement. Guy phased through the wall and then down, until he was facing a wrecked communication array.
Signal must’ve come from here, thought Guy. He squatted down next to the trashed communication array and ran a diagnostic with his ring. There were markings across the surface of the machine, and he was quickly able to run millions of scenarios through his ring to figure out how the damage was done. Finally, the ring narrowed down the scenarios to one, and he replayed it using hard light constructs.
The communication array was intact until something-- moving at impossible speeds-- smashed it using bare fists. There was a hand print gouged into the surface of the metal, where the destruction ended, but no records existed in the Book of Oa to indicate who the hand belonged to. Guy took a step back and his boot became matted with something on the floor. He glanced down at the patch of blood, and the arm resting within it.
“Oh, crap,” said Guy. The blood stretched out past the arm-- the wound was cauterised, so the blood wasn’t from whatever injury resulted in the limb’s loss-- and into the corridor. He examined the fingers of the arm, burnt and covered in hardened, previously-molten metal. One finger visibly missed an entire nail. What’s that around the hand?
<Reconstruction projections suggest an 87% probability that it was secondary communication device.>
So the signal came from here, thought Guy. A hidden transponder, in case the main one is damaged. How did that arm end up like that?
<Wound patterns in line with instantaneous removal of limb by way of focused laser weapon. Intense heat cauterised wound immediately, resulting in minimum blood loss and high chance of survival.>
So someone is walking around without an arm, thought Guy. “Poor bastard.” He held out his ring and scanned the blood trail, slowly following it out into the main corridor.
<DNA analysis complete. Seventeen unique genetic signatures detected.>
Not one person, thought Guy. This is going to be grizzly, isn’t it?
<Not enough data to answer accurately.>
“Hmm.” Guy followed the trail then crouched down once more as something caught his eyes. Magnify that.
A segment of the floor was enlarged in stark emerald, and Guy’s eyes widened. There was a fingernail embedded in the floor. All the way from the communication room to the point he stood now, there were markings on the floor, tiny divots where fingernails had dug in and whoever owned them exerted strength to get to where they wanted to go.
Someone dragged themselves here… By one arm? Guy shook his head. He spotted a closed door, and the trail of blood came from under it. That’s it then. He scanned the room, but there were no life signs present. Moving slowly, he opened the door, his ring ensuring there were no booby-traps.
The sight before him caused him to gag, but he kept the vomit down, even as the bloodied, twisted, limbless bodies hung from hooks in the small room he found himself within. These people-- these poor, poor people-- had been tortured.
The markings on their bodies were scabbed over, suggesting that they were made pre-mortem. The stumps where their limbs had been were cauterised, blackened and burnt, so prevent death. Someone wanted them alive.
Finally, two holes were scoured through their foreheads. Lasers? Whatever it was, that must have been the final cause of death. The coup de grace. Whoever did this was a monster, and they didn’t care that someone had stumbled into their abattoir.
Across the floor was a thick, congealed layer of blood. There was a single, empty hook, and beneath the hook was where the drag marks started. He looked at the hook, the floor, and then the door.
Someone pulled themselves off the hook, and dragged themselves to the communication room. The door wasn’t looked-- their captor was arrogant-- didn’t think they would be able to demonstrate the willpower-- or determination-- to pull themselves off the hook and out of here.
Guy grimaced then held his ring to his mouth. “Oa, this is Gardner. I need back up at my location. This place is a horror show and I want a full forensic team to pick the crime scene apart. Send those neighbouring Sector Lanterns ASAP.”
There came no response and a sinking feeling began to form in Gardner’s stomach.
METROPOLIS:
“So, I heard you’d been exonerated of your crimes,” said Hank.
Lex Luthor displayed no emotion as the two men watched as the previously ignited astronaut was wheeled away from the intake area. The patient was surrounded by armed guards provided by Metropolis’ police department, who were intent to take him in once the full extent of the situation was discovered.
When the astronaut was out of sight, Lex shook his head ruefully. “Truthfully, I consciously committed no crime to be exonerated of,” said Lex. “I am… sickened to admit… that I was a prisoner of the alien deviant Despero* and made to commit acts I find repugnant while under his mental control*.
*Well, Lex isn’t exactly lying. For the full story, read Secret Society of Super Villains #1-6
“I… betrayed the country I am proud to call my home*, I even armed some of the most dangerous criminals the world has ever seen while in my fugue state. I’m just relieved that the systems I believe in worked and found me innocent. I’m even helping rout those who took advantage of my situation.” He tapped the chest panel of his power suit, to indicate some sort of armoured heroism that Hank found repugnant applied to Luthor.
*That’s one way to describe the epic Justice League Vs America event that ran during the DC2’s second year
“Convenient,” said Henshaw, flatly.
“Excuse me?” said Luthor.
“It’s a hard story to swallow, isn’t it? The great industrialist turned super criminal is something we can all believe, but the added spice of being controlled by an alien consciousness just… doesn’t sit well with me. It must be difficult having gone through all that, it must have been difficult making people believe, but I’m glad that you did.”
Henshaw had to centre himself. He found the words spilling out of him faster than he would have liked, the proximity to the man who engineered the deaths of his friends and family pushing him closer to the edge than he would have liked.
“You’re never going to get over their deaths if you don’t do something about it.”
The voice of the woman who interrogated Hank mere weeks ago continued to echo in his head. Had her excavation of his mind led to something deeper than just the discomfort he felt since? Back on Oa they’d cleared him of any psychic infection-- one of his biggest fears since his own time under the influence of the Predator entity-- so this wasn’t some deep seated crèche of eggs hatching. This was him, discomfort at its highest, memories too close to the surface to count, reaching a point that might end badly if he didn’t break it off soon.
But Hank wasn’t going anywhere until he got what he wanted from Lex.
Luthor wore an expression of confusion. “Green Lantern, you’re obviously not the man I was aware of prior to my episode with Despero. He was younger, brown hair instead of grey, thinner in the face and wearing a different uniform than that yourself. I’ve been told that there have been numerous sightings of Green Lanterns of various colours and creeds during my time away from the world. And even the best-- in my opinion-- is currently in a coma after a vicious attack on the Justice Society*. Now, I apologise for the tone of my question, but do you have a problem with me?”
*After the events of Justice Society of America #14, Alan Scott was left in a coma
“Why would I?” said Henshaw. “You’re an innocent man. Great industrialist once more. But I have to ask, and it’s a question sparked by the events of the morning, but what are your views on space travel?”
“Don’t we all want to be astronauts when we’re growing up?” said Luthor, allowing himself a smile. “I wouldn’t sacrifice what that man appears to have, but still, one dreams of reaching the stars. You’re one of the lucky ones, I expect.”
“I’m both lucky and thankful for the opportunities afforded to me,” said Hank, gesturing to his ring. “But I never needed this before to achieve my dream. I don’t need it now for others.”
“Ah, that ring,” said Luthor. “I met an alien with one* of those before. Two**, in fact. The second one made me forget it for a while, but if there’s one thing I’m master of, it’s my mind. And I learned from the experience.”
*Luthor murdered Green Lantern Jar Kell in Action Comics #3
**Tomar Re in Action Comics #5
Lex pressed a button on his gauntlet and a sound rang in Hank’s ears, but before he could say anything, Lex leaned forward and slowly said: “Colonel Henshaw, why are you posturing?” His words stabbed at Hank’s heart, “I mean, didn’t I allegedly kill your crew with my… what did you call it? ‘Negligence of the highest degree?’ But you never did anything about it, even when you did receive the power ring on your finger. You could have taken any number of shots at me, dropped a satellite on my head, redirected an asteroid shower at my office, anything, everything, but you never did. I thought Green Lanterns were supposed to be righteous, not cowards.”
Ignoring the fact that Luthor just revealed that he knew Henshaw’s identity, Hank’s world flipped upside down and red fell across his vision. The words coming out of Lex’s mouth were hardly an expression of guilt but the pride dripping off of Luthor’s statement drove him further than he had gone before.
“You’re damaged goods and you’ll never be complete, Mister Henshaw, ” said the woman who danced on his cerebrum weeks prior. “Maybe you should just do us all a favour and kill yourself. ”
Green Lantern lifted Luthor up by the collar of his power suit and snarled almightily. “You’re a monster, Lex, and--” Henshaw was cut off by an explosion from the direction the doctors had taken the astronaut. He dropped Luthor and pointed an angry finger at the man. “We’re not finished. ”
Tears filling his eyes, Hank shot toward the chaos, leaving a grinning Lex Luthor to regain his faculties. “My, my. Your buttons are nearly as easy to push as the alien’s.” He pressed a button on his gauntlet and spoke into the microphone that dropped from the top of his helmet: “Let’s begin.”
SECTOR 1759:
Guy tapped his ring tentatively with his other hand. “Ring, are communications online?”
<Communication unable to break through the planet’s atmosphere. Unknown energy field active.>
“Of course there is,” said Guy. “I’m no coward, but this is weird as balls and I’m--”
Guy was punched so hard that the wall he was punched into buckled and burst, sending him into the room behind it. He felt dazed, but knew one thing-- the strength of the blow was enough to knock his head clean off if it wasn’t for the ring protecting him. Add another to the concussion list. “What-- was-- that-- “
<Unknown energy signature intensified-- unable to scan-- connection to Book of Oa compromised-->
In the room where Guy had been in originally, a figure stood, contemplating one of the limbless corpses. The man turned to Guy, who threw his ring up and blasted. The resulting explosion vaporised the bodies in the room and melted the surrounding metal walls, but when the smoke cleared, the figure still stood there--
Wait, thought Guy, he’s not standing--“Who… who… the hell… are you…?” With every word, Guy tried to pull himself up, barely managing to get to his feet.
<Honour Lantern Gardner, your vitals show that you are concussed. Suggest strategic retreat and back-up.>
Called that one, thought Guy, and easier said than done. He grabbed his wrist and focused his will. This man-- whoever it was-- had slaughtered an entire colony. Had managed to evade detection until he wanted to be detected. If Guy’s suspicions were correct, this unidentified monster was also behind the disappearance of the two Green Lanterns sent to investigate the situation in the first place.
All that, combined with the fact that he was unable to contact Oa, left Guy releasing all his inhibitions. This guy had to be taken down, and he’d already shrugged off one hell of a ring-blast.
A furious storm of emerald energy erupted from Guy’s ring and struck the figure. For seconds, the plume swarmed outward, the sum total of Gardner’s will funnelled into the power ring, until he doubled over, exhausted by the exertion. He looked up and grimaced, sweat dripping down his face, as emerald smoke drifted off the body of the figure, whose eyes started to crackle and burn red.
The man floated toward Green Lantern, his white lab coat splattered with blood, his heavy black boots not touching the floor. There was a symbol emblazoned across his chest, a pronouncement of identity for those who saw it. The symbol made Guy think of Superman. But it wasn’t an ‘S’, it was an ‘X’, and that didn’t make any sense to Gardner.
“I am a doctor. I am seeking a cure. And you are interrupting my work.”
The man took a breath and then exhaled, freezing Gardner in a block of ice. Within seconds, the ice was melted by heat generated by Guy’s protective aura, but before he could think to move, the man had grabbed the Green Lantern by the throat, lifting him up off his feet.
The man’s eyes crackled with fire.
“Y-you’re a Daxamite?”
“Oh, no, nothing so vulgar. I’m a Kryptonian. The last true Kryptonian. I am Xa-Du, and I am here to operate.”
Xa-Du flicked Gardner in the temple, knocking him out instantly.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT ISSUE: What is Lex Luthor’s game and what part does Hank Henshaw have to play in it? Will Guy Gardner escape from the clutches of the mad Kryptonian doctor Xa-Du? What will the Green Lantern Corps do when they lose another one of their own? FIND OUT NEXT MONTH!
Please follow this link and let us know what you thought of this month's issue!