With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)

[Mr Zoat]

23rd August
15:57 GMT

Prince Stentar looks up from his books as a servant leads me into his study. "Illustres. I appreciate you taking the time to visit me."

I perform a shallow bow. "It's the least I could do, your highness, after what I did to your brother."

He slams the weathered tome shut, then shakes his head as he stands. "My brother did that to himself. I know for a fact that he would be quite irritated if anyone else claimed credit for the man he has made himself. Save for Sinestro, perhaps." He walks out from behind his desk and approaches me. "Rather, I am grateful to you for bringing these matters to light and giving him useful work he can perform as penance."

"I honestly don't think that he sees it as penance."

He shrugs. "So long as he can hide his enjoyment should he return to this Sector."

"Thank you for your appreciation, but I'm afraid that you don't know the whole story."

"Hah! My study is a poor place for such tales of battle as one such as you must be able to tell!" He turns to the door. "Server! Two mugs of Gnuurgah!" He turns back, and catches the look of discomfort on my face. "Did you think that my younger brother was unique in our culture? No, no, if the rest of us were as staid as the Korugari then his duelling would not have been tolerated." He collapses back into a well-cushioned chair and gestures for me to do the same in the one opposite. "Ragnar takes the martial excellence that our aristocracy prizes to its extreme. He causes problems because he has never learned to balance that with the other virtues we try to possess." He leans forwards. "When we were younger, he would try to compete with me in every regard, in our.. studies, our exercises, in pleasing our father and… Our mother. But, I had two years on him. He was constantly frustrated. He told me later that he resolved to focus on one area, in the hope that in that one narrow field he could best me. And Sinestro visited the palace and that was that. Martial virtue was all he cared for."

A servant enters the room with a tray upon which sit two tankards filled with.. a grey frothy liquid. He holds the tray out between us and Prince Stentar grabs the tankard closest to him before waving it in my general direction. "Blood to the ground!"

I half-expected this, so I don't hesitate as I grab the other tankard and-.

Ring, what's the traditional local response?

Blood to the sky.

"Blood to the sky!"

He then raises his tankard to his lips and knocks back a third of its content. I match him, and…

I mean, it doesn't taste nice or anything, but I was expecting far worse based on the colouration alone.

He lowers his tankard and leans forward eagerly. "So, tell me: what is the story that I do not know?"

"It was a little under a year ago. A woman I'd bought a unique gun from was murdered a short time later, and the local police wanted a word. After demonstrating that it couldn't have been me, I ended up helping with the investigation. Myself and one of the detectives tracked the criminals to a warehouse on the waterfront. I had a peek inside, and saw a group of thugs, an infamous criminal and a man being held hostage. It was only after I breached the building that I discovered that I was being tricked: the criminal was an automaton with a built-in anti-Lantern weapon and the apparent hostage was both the mastermind and the bait."

"An anti-Lantern weapon? Do you live on some manner of lawless hell world?"

"Hehaha!" He shakes his head, not understanding. "If you're born on a hell world… How do you know? As far as you're concerned, it's just normal. My primitive ancestors once beat a Lantern to death with wooden sticks. We discovered a dozen ways to kill Kryptonians, generally regarded as being the most ridiculously overpowered species in the universe, after a couple of years. I personally killed the First of the Fallen, and it wasn't even in my dozen toughest fights."

"The First of-? You killed-?"

"But this particular weapon was telepathic. It worked by.. locking onto a mind and then turning down its capacity for coherent thought. Unlike super strength, using power rings requires a clear thought process and intense emotions. I beat down the thugs they threw at me to give the weapon time to work, then I collapsed, powerless, as their employer plucked the ring from my finger and took it for himself. He told the leader of his hirelings to give me a chance to talk my way out of the trap, then kill me if I failed."

"Clearly, you survived. Was the man a slow-witted dolt?"

"No, quite the contrary. Bane was actually quite intelligent. On the grounds that he was a mercenary, I offered him and his gang money. But he felt that killing me would open up future employment opportunities for him, and since I didn't have the cash on me he wasn't interested. And offering money to his men to free me didn't work: they were either too loyal or too afraid of him. But, I knew something he didn't. Something he'd wanted to know since he was a small boy. You see, he grew up in a prison. He was born there, his mother died there, and he eventually escaped after they tested a combat drug on him… But in all that time, he had no idea where his father was."

"I'd fought Bane before, and realised that I might fight him again in the future. So, I made a point of finding out everything about him that I could. And one of the things I discovered was his father's name and location. He checked the information, had an argument with the man he'd never met, then punched me unconscious. I woke up in an ambulance, while the man with my ring was attacking an ultra hi-tech weapon storage facility."

Prince Stentar is grinning. "How did you stop him?"

"Lantern Gardner got sent to fight him head on, but I really wanted to get my ring back. And orange rings are all about desire, as your brother demonstrated. I climbed to the top of a mountain over two thousand miles from him, raised my left hand-" I raise it. "-and called my ring back. It took a minute to arrive, but when it did?" I smile. "It brought the thief's finger with it."

"Hah!"

"Unfortunately, just as your brother managed to call his ring through interstellar space… My calling summoned rings from their resting place on Okaara. They flew out across space, and when I stopped calling… They went their own ways. And apparently, at least six of them came this way. And I very much doubt that your brother is going to be the last."

Stentar sobers a little. "I see."

"How is the.. political situation here? Ragnar's vassals-."

"Father has made it very clear that he doesn't intend to take advantage of the situation. Ragnar did increase father's political strength somewhat, and with Ragnar out of the picture it is unlikely that the throne will suffer from it in the longer term."

I nod. "If I can be of assistance in any way, let me know. The Green Lanterns can get a message to me."

"Thank you, but I believe that between myself and Lantern Dulok we can manage." He takes another swig of the Gnuurgah. "Where will you go next?"

"There was a Korugari I was trying to recruit. With one thing and another I got a bit distracted… But I think I'll visit there again before going anywhere else. After that, I've got an appointment with the Guardians on Oa."

"On Oa itself?" He exhales slowly. "At times like this, I can see why the purely martial life appeals to my brother so greatly. You must feel tremendously honoured."

"It's just the opening meeting for what will probably be a somewhat uncomfortable series of negotiations. I'm more excited about meeting some of the more experienced Green Lanterns."

"You have your favourites, I take it?"

"I've already met Lantern Medphyll and Lantern Chance, but I'm hoping that I'll bump into Lantern Rot Lop Fan or Lantern Kreon especially. I base a lot of my own techniques on methods he pioneered."

"Hah! You sound a little like my brother when you talk like that." Then I'm never talking like that again. "Of course, the one he admires most is Sinestro. What would happen if you met him?"

"Hopefully, we'd both have better things to do than fight. But I certainly don't expect to meet him on Oa of all places."

 

[Mr Zoat]

23rd August
19:19 GMT

O..kay… Assuming that Doctor Natu is a woman of routine and there hasn't been some sort of last second emergency, she should be here shortly. And -now that I'm equipped with a translator upgrade courtesy of Betrassus- I should be able to press my case a little.

"Is drink good?"

I mean, even with the upgrade it's not perfect or anything, but at least it's better calibrated to what a visiting merchant might reasonably have after spending this long in an area.

"It satisfies. I am appreciative."

Definitely not perfect, and I don't think that waiter was here last time I visited. High staff turnover or just changes in shift patterns?

"Tell me if you want anything else."

He smiles and walks over to another table. My goodness me, that was a normal sentence. And the drink does satisfy; I took the time to ask Lantern Tui for a few suggestions and I've found something that tastes like passion fruit juice. There'd be an export market for it on Earth if it wasn't for the exorbitant shipping rates. As it is, it might be worth me spending enough time around here to find out what environment it's best cultivated-.

"-not be here, identically to how he was not here-" Doctor Natu turns away from the older woman she came through the door with and looks around the café. She spots me at once and I raise my glass in greeting. "-last.. time."

"That is your alien hook-up? I hoped that he would be stranger."

Doctor Natu tears her eyes away from me. "He is not-."

"Physically."

"Yes, I understood what you meant. And I hope that his translator is still too bad to-" I smile slightly, shaking my head. "-understand…" She starts to look around for another table, but her friend takes hold of her left arm and gently tugs her in my direction. Doctor Natu half-resists for a moment, then yields to the inevitable and allows herself to be led over.

Ugh. Inconsiderate real universe: giving someone I want to recruit emotional relationships with NPCs. Like they're a real person or something, with friends and a life that goes on when they're not in view of the reader. Stupid non-comic book comic book universe.

"So, you are an alien warlord?" The other woman smiles, leaning forwards across the table. "What is that like?"

"I am not precisely a warlord-."

"A headhunter who sometimes kills people while leading an army."

"It is a technique. It is not an occupation on its own."

Doctor Natu blinks, looking me over. "Your translator has been improved."

"I spent time on planet Betrassus. I bought an improvement."

The older woman grins. "Kill anyone?"

I shake my head, smiling. "Not on planet Betrassus."

"I assert that they have a duelling tradition-."

"Nakkoa, just… Please, stop."

"This is the closest you have been to a-." I don't quite catch what Doctor Natu's right hand does that cuts her friend off, but it appears to be effective. The two of them share a look before Doctor Natu turns her attention to me.

"I mentioned our conversation to some friends at the hospital. They have convinced themselves that you are the most interesting thing happening in my life."

"They think I am more interesting than brain surgery? That surprises me. We only spoke once."

"You try telling them that."

"Okay." I turn to 'Nakkoa', who is probably something at the hospital. "Ms Nakkoa, I am not at all amorously interested in the intelligent and attractive Doctor Natu."

"Pfnnnnnnnnngh." Ms Nakkoa makes a quiet snort-laugh noise, petering off into a grin as Doctor Natu sighs.

"I hope that was a joke; I was not even sure I wanted to talk to you again. What you told me last time was not funny."

"Good. I would be worried if you had found it funny."

"Recruited anyone interesting since last time?"

I nod. "A plant that covers the surface of an entire planet. An engineer made out of anti-matter. Pseudo-insects from a species with seven sexes. Prince Ragnar of Betrassus. Have you operated on any interesting brains since-?"

"A whole planet?" / "Seven-?"

"Sentient planets do exist, though they are rare. Speaking with one was an interesting experience. Physically, they have little in common with humanoids. She senses gravity and electromagnetic fields as you and I do pressure and light." Their faces relax slightly as they try to picture the being I'm describing. "The first time she encountered another intelligent mind, she found pain to be so abhorrent that she learned to turn parts of herself into emergency hospice systems, and the telepathic node network which runs throughout her body allows her to communicate with all parts of her body with almost no lag."

Doctor Natu blinks. "That is-."

"And she keeps her world surrounded by corpses, millions of bodies floating in local space so that she'll always have enough to eat."

Ms Nakkoa pulls a face. "She eats corpses?"

"She cannot live by geothermal and solar power alone." She's actually taking steps to reduce her total volume, using her ring to increase her understanding of the bioengineering she had been doing instinctively. "Corpses lost in deep space are not useful to anyone."

"Wait." Doctor Natu appears to believe that she's seen a wrinkle in my story. "If she is a planet, how did you recruit her? Are you going to build on her?"

"No. I got to sit on her surface while she used her gravity manipulation to move faster than light. Half-visible stars beyond her atmosphere flashing past as we flew. The universe is a wonderful place." I smile. "How is the hospital?"

"Ahh…" Doctor Natu shrugs. "Our hospital is fine. The hospitals in the poorer districts are getting starved of funds to make sure of it."

"I do not know how medical provision works on Korugar. Do you use an insurance-based model, or is provision universal?"

"In theory, it is universal. But some places are more universal than others."

"I had assumed that the purpose of the form of debt bondage you labour under was to compel you to select less desirable work locations. Was that not true?"

Ms Nakkoa rolls her eyes. "Why would the politicians controlling our funding put the best doctors in places they do not use? Medical students on study-grants go through the same assessments as everyone else. It works out better that way for the system, because they have trouble leaving wherever they are put." She leans back slightly as the waiter returns. "But I don't talk to alien warlords to hear about my problems. I want to hear how it works with seven sexes."

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
02:45 GMT

It's very… Green.

The Sto-Oa system is either a bizarre anomaly, or the Guardians did more than a little housekeeping when they moved in. Aside from Sto-Oa and Oa itself, there's nothing here. No other planets, no asteroids, not even dust. And as we're technically in interstellar space here, there's a whole arc of space where there aren't any stars. It's actually a little disturbing to look at, like there's a place in space you could fall out of.

Sto-Oa itself is an orange dwarf star and Oa orbits it far more closely than Earth does Sol. From where I am, if I block my empathic vision the result is that the side of Oa closest to it looks purple while the side facing away is purely green. The purple side is darker, making it look like night happens when the sun is in the sky.

But when my empathic vision is active? Solid green. So solid that it obscures Sto-Oa, obscures space, even obscures the individual light sources on the planet. I thought that the Guardians or.. maybe even Guy would stand out. They don't. I couldn't even say for certain that they're down there.

Another flicker of green draws my attention, and I take the opportunity to turn away from the planet to look at it. It's a Green Lantern, an elfin-looking woman with a complicated arrangement of pink hair trailing behind her as she flies back to Oa. Must be glad to have a power ring; there's no way that hair would stay tangle-free without a protective environmental shield keeping the strands apart.

I don't think she's seen me. I'm not.. glowing that brightly, and most Lanterns don't have empathic vision. I'm sure that the Guardians have…

Heh. For a moment I consider dropping a cloud of dust, purely for the mischief value. No. Bad Lantern.

"Orange Tw-." Ah. No, I'm not, am I? "Orange Illustres to Honour Guard Guy Gardner." I watch my ring for a moment. "Guy? Come on, you invited me."

I cross my legs, relax my muscles and stare at my ring's sigil for a moment.

Have the… Gits blocked me again..?

Ugh. Okay, what do I do? I could just throw my arms wide, create a massive orange sigil and wait for someone to pick me up. How many Green Lanterns are there down there? Probably not that many. Green Lanterns generally stick to their Sectors. Honour Guard Lanterns generally have enough to keep themselves busy… Wonder if they've attacked Colu yet? Anyway, there'll probably be a few around, plus any rookies who are still undergoing basic training. If Lantern Savenlovich is being mentored then she probably isn't, but according to the data I took from John's ring there could be anything from four to twelve rookies down there. That's the normal range due to deaths in the line, resignations and retirements, and outside major wars it's pretty consistent. Guy said that the Guardians had approved shoot-to-kill on Qwardian officers, but they waited for me to handle Ragnar. And I have an invitation. They're not going to freak out if I fly down there, are they?

I switch to a standing position and accelerate towards Oa, space bending around me as I do so. John's map showed the Green Central Power Battery being over there, along the dawn line. Certainly, there seem to be a lot more buildings around there. Actually, it's interesting exactly how much of Oa isn't built on. With such a small population I suppose that -unlike on the heavily populated Maltus- there's no need for extensive structures. There are.. green light.. nodes of some kind..? Probably there to act as a relay for a shielding system. Still… Far more buildings than they need. Do they date from a time when there were more Guardians? The Guardians certainly strike me as a people who wouldn't destroy something just because they didn't need it any longer. They still use Manhunters, for goodness sake.

During major wars, far more Lanterns than normal would be stationed here, and they'd need to use more of the buildings than are routinely occupied. Then there's diplomatic visitors… Do they do prisoner rehabilitation? Are there.. work release programs? I realise that Hinon probably mentioned it as a joke, but I am going to ask Dennap if she actually wants me to. Just so I can see the look on Hinon's face when I tell her that I did.

I reduce my warp effect as I fall through Oa's atmosphere, keeping myself subsonic. No sense in creating a racket or anything. I turn my empathic vision up a little, and I'm now close enough to see the strands… Huh. Yes, those near-cuboid structures contain powerful green light focuses. More than that, I can see strands of green light forming links through the air. It's fascinating… Buuut perhaps I shouldn't fly near them while I'm only grudgingly allowed here. Instead-.

Ah! Green Lanterns over there. A group of five, and they're heading this way. Hopefully, that's my escort. I head a little further away from the green structures and descend further until I'm only ten metres or so off the ground. Quick check of my robes, yep, not naked…

Huh, they don't have the green sigil on their-.

The first green pulse hits me in the chest as I begin to realise what's happened. These are- construct armour, power armour- rookies and they've somehow gotten away from their tutor. Further green pulses strike my armour, with even more missing me and blowing small craters in the ground below us.

I fly sideways, making sure that I keep facing the approaching Greenies. I don't recognise three of them, but the Xudarian… No, Tomar-Re's older. Pass. The blonde with the yellow skin is almost certainly Arisia Rrab, so no jokes about Rrab life insurance costs or life expectancy… Construct megaphone.

"Could we possibly talk about this?"

The Jem'Hadar-looking one at the rear of the pack generates a construct torpedo and fires it in my direction.

"I have an invitation!"

I swerve in the air, still facing them as they try to close the distance. The torpedo construct follows me as the bolts start to seriously abrade my construct armour.

Right! Had enough. I've tried reasonable, and now it's time to put these raucous rookies down with the minimal level of force practical. If the Guardians wanted them to stay in pristine condition, they should have put reins on them.

I stop in the air and stick out my left arm, catching the construct torpedo by the bow cap and tossing it aside. It explodes a moment later, light and… Far less force than when John throws constructs like that around, actually.

Green Greenies, right.

I generate a shield in front of me bearing the orange sigil and I stop retreating, allowing them to close the distance. Their energy pulses slam into it accurately enough, though I'm sure that if it were me shooting like that Christopher would be patting me on the shoulder and referring to me as 'son'.

"Get over here."

An orange construct x-clamp on a chain shoots around my shield and flashes across the space between me and a Lantern who looks a little like a sea anemone and closes around… His..? Torso before dragging him back to me.

"Agh!"

"Blob-blob!"

I drag him to a halt next to me and grab him with my right hand, his environmental shield shimmering and buckling around mine.

Corrupt.

And gone. He drops slightly in the air as his ring's flight ability shuts down, then I extend my own around him.

"For future reference:-"

I extend my left hand, pulling his power ring from one of his tendrils-

"-if someone tries to talk to you?"

-before dropping him and letting him fall the three metres to the ground.

"LISTEN TO WHAT THEY'RE SAYING."

I jerk my shield forward, slamming into Ms Rrab and an eight-limbed cyborg insect of some kind and knocking them aside. The Xudarian and the Jem'Hadar look-alike with the tall head get construct clamped.

"Make this a lesson you only have to learn once, hm?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
02:52 GMT

"So." Five green rings hang from an orange loop in the air to my right as the five rookies glower up at me. "Who wants to tell me what you five did wrong?"

Lantern Rrab strains against the orange construct chains binding her. "You will not get away with this."

Amusingly, without power rings they can't actually talk to each other as they don't have a language in common.

"Get away with what? I was invited here. The only reason I came down this far away from the administration area is because with the communication bar in place I couldn't tell anyone I was here and I didn't want to frighten anyone." The three rookies with recognisable eyes widen them slightly, and the anemone's tendrils sag mournfully. "But it turned out alright; I'm practising my own Lantern training techniques and this could be a useful opportunity for me." I clap my hands together. "I will return the ring to each one of you who can identify one of your errors."

I did briefly consider putting one on myself and using it to contact someone, but I don't think that 'I beat up your newbies and took their stuff' is the way to go with this. Assuming that I even can activate non-orange rings these days. Have to ask someone here if they mind me testing that.

"We did not contact anyone when we identified a hostile." The grey-skinned humanoid sags further. "That was the first thing we should have done, in case something like this happened."

"Good answer." Now, which one-? I let the middle ring fall through my construct loop, letting it fall onto my right palm. I dismiss the chains binding him and raise my eyebrows. "All yours."

"Ah…"

"What?"

"Do you… Expect me to fight you for it?"

"No. But when I recruit someone, I make them call their ring from my hand. I know Green Lanterns can do the same thing." I move my right hand a little closer to him. "I'm not blocking you. Call it."

…

"Though, actually, you probably should look into non-ring weapons and defensive systems at some point."

"I… Don't know how to call my ring."

"Your ring selected you because you have the mental and spiritual characteristics which the Green Lantern Corps recruits for. You are already capable of calling it to you. Picture clearly in your mind the image of the ring flying from my palm and onto your finger. Focus on that, until the idea of anything else happening appears to be an impossibility. Will it to you."

That's a.. very approximate version of how Guy described the process to me when he got the hang of it. But if these rookies can actually generate constructs, it shouldn't be totally beyond them.

The grey humanoid stands and extends his right hand, eyes locked onto his ring. "Ring." A very weak shimmer of green light runs around its surface, then fades away again. "Ring." It wobbles slightly on my palm, then lies still again. He takes a deep breath, eyes locked on and staring. "Ring."

The ring rises off my palm-

"Remote activation detected."

-and flies onto his middle ringer, a wave of green light passing over him as his environmental shield reactivates. He smiles for a second, then turns to his colleagues and fires an energy pulse at the construct chains around them.

"No!" The chain isn't damaged much by his attack, but I stick an orange construct plate between him and his colleagues. "What did you just tell me you should have done when you found me?"

"Lantern-. Lantern Maestran to Lantern Kilowog, come in sir!"

Lantern Kilowog's face appears over his ring.

"Hey, kid. You keeping out of trouble?"

"Sir,-."

"Ah, hey, just so you know: there's an orange Lantern coming to Oa sometime soon. Guardians want to talk to him. I'd have told you earlier, but Lantern Gardner only just got around to telling me. So: what you up to?"

He kno-ows.

"Daaaah." He looks at me, his colleagues and then back at Kilowog. "Practice, sir?"

"Ah, I'm just messing with you. I watched you all getting your creggocks handed to you. Hey, orange guy." Lantern Maestran's ring glows brightly for a moment, then a life size Kilowog construct steps out.

"Honour Guard Lantern Kilowog." I perform a shallow bow. "An honour to meet you. Guy has spoken fondly of his time under your tutelage."

"Heh. Guardians figured if I could teach him I could teach anyone."

"I apologise for disrupting your class."

The construct image folds its arms. "Think these poozers might learn more this way." He wheels to face those still bound. "He's still waiting for your answer! What should you have done?!"

No immediate responses.

"Rookie Rrab? Any idea?"

Her eyes move from Kilowog to me. "We… We should have identified our target more carefully."

I nod. "I know you have files on me. I read Lantern Stewart's when I stole his ring. That would have told you that it was unlikely that I was going to attack you and that five to one odds weren't actually in your favour."

Another ring drops onto my right palm as her bonds fade. "Call it to you."

The stare with which she fixes her ring looks more constipated than focused, but I'll let her work at it.

"Sorry, don't know what the rest of you are called. Any more guesses?"

The cyborg insect waggles its middle legs. "Tactically. All adopting the same technique. All approaching from the same direction. All approaching at the same time. All were errors."

"Correct."

Its bonds fade and its ring joins Lantern Rrab's.

"Come on, you're all missing the easy one."

The anemone's tendrils suddenly come erect. "We should have attempted to communicate with you in advance of attacking."

"Half marks, given that I told you that. Why?"

"To prevent shameful misunderstandings like this."

"Nearly, but not quite. Try ag-."

"Because we're police officers!" Lantern Rrab's ring flies to her finger. "We stop crimes and arrest criminals. We're not supposed to just go around shooting people because they look suspicious. That's supposed to be a last resort."

I nod. "Well done, Lantern Rrab." She smiles. "Try to remember that in advance next time." She stops smiling. "Who else wants their ring back?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
02:58 GMT

"...why you poozers thought attacking him-" There's a half second pause as Lantern Kilowog takes a breath. "-was a good idea in the first place, when you were supposed to be training!"

I see a thin strand of spittle drip down Maestran's face. Lantern Kilowog's mouth structure doesn't really lend itself to precise control. The rookie doesn't react, other than to unconsciously lean away from his towering instructor slightly. Kilowog is a big guy, and now that he's here in the flesh he's all the more imposing.

"This is Oa! Things don't happen here without the Guardians knowing about it, and if they had a problem they'd be sending the Honour Guard to deal with it!" He paces down the line of recruits, arms behind his back and clearly unimpressed with what just took place. "You rookies would be called back to the citadel to wait it out!"

"Lantern Kilowog-."

He wheels towards me. "And what did you think you were doing, coming here unescorted?"

I shrug. "I told Lantern Gardner that I'd need a day or so, he said that was fine. I tried to make contact when I got into the system, but apparently I'm still barred from communicating with members of the Green Lantern Corps."

Kilowog wrinkles his nose. And Bolovaxians have a lot of nose to wrinkle. "Gardner didn't turn that off?"

I raise my left ring to my left ear. "Illustres to Kilowog."

Nothing happens.

Kilowog snorts. "Guess I didn't beat the stupid out of him hard enough, either." He lowers his arms to his sides, then raises his right hand to his face. "Let me just see if there's-. Oh."

"What?"

He lowers his hand, the lights from his ring fading. "Standing order from the Guardians. Communications block stays up until you meet them."

"Tremendously helpful of them. Are they ready for me now..?"

"No, they're debriefing Lantern Venizz. I'll tell you when. Alright!" Kilowog turns back to the recruits. "One lap around the planet. First one back gets twenty push-ups."

"Query. First one back?"

"Everyone else gets forty."

The cyber insect turns to see that all of its companions have already started their lap, and hurries to follow them.

Kilowog and I watch them go. "Eh, we were all that bad at it once."

"Were you?"

He glances sideways at me, then raises his left eyebro-. His left eye ridge. "Guy told me about the cake."

"Could you make a cake that big? Heck, I was making faster than light jumps and complex constructs on my first day." I smirk. "Want me to chivvy your recruits along a little? I imagine that a giant orange chomping mouth construct would do wonders for their concentration."

"Nah. I make them do this because repetition works. They need to learn to focus their minds through anger and tiredness and get the job done."

"You sure?"

"Teaching Lanterns is what I do. And if Gardner could make the Honour Guard less than a year after coming off medical leave, I don't think I'm doing too badly."

"I might have had a.. little something to do with that."

"Yeah, maybe. Teaching something makes you think about it in different ways from when you're being taught it yourself."

"Guy told you he taught me? Because… Green Lanterns habitually use side arms and railguns?"

"Alright, so maybe-."

"It only took me a few weeks to get most of the stuff you taught him out of his head so I could teach him how to do it properly." I smile.

Lantern Kilowog folds his arms across his chest. "Oh yeah?"

"I realise that at the entry level green rings are so limiting that Green Lanterns have to settle for just making whatever constructs they can… But I'd have thought that senior Lanterns would be able to do better. I mean, Guy got the hang of filaments for constructs eventually and I have to credit him with learning how to resist orange light infections quickly enough, but I can't really credit you with either."

Lantern Kilowog's eyes narrow slightly. "There some reason why you're trying to piss me off… Kid?"

"I'm used to sparring with Guy. He's pretty good, but I generally come out ahead. John's getting there, but he hasn't got as good as Guy or I yet. Jordan's a good guy, but he's falling behind as far as Lantern to Lantern combat is concerned. You're a… Longer term veteran. How long now?"

"Closer to forty years than thirty."

"There you go. So I certainly haven't fought the best the Green Lantern Corps has to offer. But the way I see it, if the man responsible for training isn't the best, he's certainly got to be up there. Assuming.. your… Illustres isn't available."

"No, Illustres Chaselon's usually pretty busy. So, what; you think I might be a challenge?"

"I think we'll force each other to think about Lantern-to-Lantern combat in ways neither of us have before. Hopefully. I mean, for me it's this or pick a fight with Sinestro… And I don't think he's a… Sparring sort of guy. Also, I'm a bit annoyed about your recruits attacking me and with the Guardians, and I.. may be taking it out on you slightly." I nod my head to the side. "Sorry about that."

"Do you think you can wait until they get back?"

I shrug. "I pretty much have to wait at the Guardians' pleasure, so… Sure? Unless a free range Orange Lantern appears in this Sector before then. Those take top priority."

He nods. "Here's what I'm thinking. I've been having the rookies train against each other and against me. They haven't really seen what experienced Lanterns can do yet. They haven't seen how people like-" I think that's a smile. "-me fight when we're being pushed."

"And you want to make it a lesson." I nod. "I approve. Though I do have a condition."

"Oh? What's that?"

"I'm training rookies of my own back on Maltus. Sometime -doesn't have to be soon- you turn up and we run a similar session there. So the first generation of Orange Lanterns can benefit from your experience as well."

Kilowog thinks about it for a moment, then nods in the affirmative. "Probably a good idea. I don't want you making the rest of us ring-slingers look bad."

"Though I'll warn you: for Orange Lanterns, the problem isn't getting the required level of focus to use the ring. It's staying sane enough to use it sensibly."

"Heh. I've outthought powerful guys before. You should be more worried about me making them think they picked the wrong Corps."

"Well. One of us is in for a rude awakening."

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
03:29 GMT

"Forty!"

Lantern Tu looks up hopefully from his pushed up position at where Kilowog glowers down at him, not daring to rise until he has specific approval.

"Get back in line, poozer. And try not to be so slow in future."

"Sir, yes sir!" Lantern Tu jumps to his feet, then steps back to fall in besides Lantern Blob-Blob. As with the Clickers on Maltus there's basically no way for the rest of us to say the pseudo-anemone's actual name, and daft as it sounds apparently that's the accepted stand-in.

"Alright, listen up!" Kilowog isn't pacing this time, just standing in front of them with his arms folded at his chest. "Like Rrab pointed out, the duty of a Lantern is to enforce the law! But sometimes that means you have to use force to get your point across, and sometimes you run into someone who can fight back. Part of my job is to prepare you for those situations. And since I got-" He glances my way, then returns his attention to his students. "-a volunteer, we're going to show you how you're supposed to handle that." He turns to face me, and opens his arms. "So what do you do?"

"Firstly, time allowing, study my opponent. What species are they? What equipment do they have? What weapons or armour? Are they wearing the colours of a group who might provide them with reinforcements? Immediately, or will I need to sleep with one eye open? In Kilowog's case, he's wearing an armour mesh covering his whole body, reinforced with heavy plates around his torso. The only weapon I can see is his power ring. However-" I stick out my right hand and take a cold gun out of subspace. "-that does not mean that he can't get other weapons very quickly."

I return the cold gun to subspace.

"The fact that his ring isn't glowing particularly brightly-" He corrects that at once. "-would have indicated that I had a window of opportunity to attack while his defences were weak. Remember, your environmental shield provides you with a basic level of protection all of the time, but it is not a flawless defence. In terms of local friendlies… We're on Oa. If this were a real fight I'd have to be prepared to deal with the Honour Guard garrison, and then the Guardians. I'd be looking to disengage and flee, rather than carry on fighting."

Actually… If this was a real confrontation I'd probably make an effort to kill Kilowog first, to reduce the risk of immediate pursuit. Sustained crumbler round fire to the head should do it…

"As for species, he's Bolovaxian. Slightly stronger and tougher than a standard pattern humanoid like myself, but not enough to make much difference in a power ring fight."

Kilowog snorts. "We'll see how much difference it makes."

"Yes." I rise slightly into the air and don my power armour. "We will. And of course it's worth noting that Bolovaxians -particularly those that have been away from home for a long time- have a rather easily exploitable weakness."

Kilowog folds his arms defiantly. "Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Bolovaxians share a constant empathic field, allowing them to share feelings and -to a degree- individual thoughts. Though not strictly speaking a group mind, they're fairly close. As a society, it binds them together in ways I find quite admirable. As individuals, it makes them vulnerable to telepathic attack as they're open to direct input but not really capable of fighting back against it. Lantern Kilowog has it far worse. As an Honour Guard Lantern, he rarely has the opportunity to return home. Assuming that he doesn't suppress his ability chemically, that means that after so long without input he is unusually sensitive."

I take a psi-shock grenade out of subspace and let it float in front of me. "This is a psi-shock grenade. It uses cloned neural tissue to create a telepathic surge. Against most people it's a slightly more effective flashbang. Against Lanterns, it usually disrupts their power ring usage, which can be fatal. Against people either trained for it or-" I tap my helmet. "-wearing psi-baffles, it does nothing at all. Against someone like Kilowog… It's dangerous enough that I'm not going to be using it."

I drop it to the ground.

"That's using information I got from an external examination. If you don't know all that, how do you find out? Lantern Tresh?" The cyborg insect.

"Assumption. Increase our data stores through prior study?"

Kilowog sticks his right arm out in my direction and scans me.

"No. You do that."

"Power rings aren't just effective weapons, they're tools, and most Lanterns use only a fraction of their full potential. Your ring's database is available to you all of the time, and if what you want isn't on there then it will relay the query to Oa and you'll have a response within moments. Kilowog now knows the limits and capacities of my armour, and he was also able to gather data on my physiology. To the best of my knowledge, my species doesn't have any particular weak points-"

"Oh, don't get me started."

"-but it never hurts to check. I would point out somewhat smugly that my species currently has four serving members of the Green Lantern Corps -two Honour Guard and two Sector Lanterns- as well as a fifth who'd be so good at it that the Guardians put him on the 'Do Not Recruit' list because they were worried that he'd make the rest of you look bad."

They have no idea who I'm talking about. Move on.

"Doing that also gives him any data the Corps has on me in particular. At which point, he should start looking to disengage."

"Yeah, because that's going to happen."

"Lantern Kilowog's bullishness aside, there are things that it's not a good idea to fight on your own. I had a go at fighting a Titan on Earth… I got hit by a rather large bolt of lightning and nearly died without achieving anything very much. But without the Ophidian's direct support-" And I'm not taking my lantern out anywhere near the 'Green Men'. "-he should be in my weight class."

"All that and more."

"So let's test it out." I generate construct armour. "Lantern Kilowog and I will endeavour to provide you with commentary, an explanation of what we're doing and why. Since I'm still under a communication block, you'll have to listen to me on long wave radio rather than ring-to-ring, but that's the best I can do." Their rings gleam as I fly to minimum safe distance. "Lantern Kilowog, on your signal."

Kilowog's ring glows brilliantly as opaque green construct plates cover his body.

"Ready whenever you are."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Completely sure? I don't want you to claim-"

I remote detonate the psi-shock grenade.

"-I cheated."

Kilowog's armour crumbles across most of his body and he collapses to his knees, clutching at his head.

"That's a good starting lesson. The aim is to take your opponent down. Whole if you can, in pieces if you can't. It isn't to score points or give them a sporting chance. You serve the law, not your personal honour code. And now I'm going to back off a way, because I think I just gave Kilowog a-"

His eyes come up and they look decidedly unfriendly.

"-really good motivation to beat me to a pulp."

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
03:33 GMT

His transition jammer comes up immediately, and from the volley of energy pulses that fly in my direction I think that my assessment of his mental state is correct. All respect to the man for staying so focused, but I'm glad that I started heading away from him at speed the moment I finished talking because those things aren't weak little rookie energy pulses. No, these things have to be twenty centimetres across each.

Ring, scan and auto-dodge.

Compliance.

Fortunately for me, energy packets like that don't have any homing capacity and while they are fast, they aren't faster than light. I jink around as they fly past me, not daring to let them get too close. I could phase, but I know that it's possible to affect phased objects with a power ring and if anyone's learned how to do that it's Kilowog.

"…expect to actually hit him like this, it's about keeping him off balance while I close the distance."

I smile. "Guess we're both on long wave, then. Okay, we're both warping space to move faster than our ring-flight would usually allow. I'm not using a scramjet construct to go faster because it would impede my ability to dodge. He's not using one… Probably because I'm not. No point wasting power. For those of you who weren't paying attention, I'm wearing two rings, giving me slightly under twice as much power as Lantern Kilowog. As such, a viable strategy would be to outlast him and attack him when he tries to recharge."

I drop a communication drone out of subspace, then form a simple green laser construct and three railguns. The laser I fire at Kilowog's eyes. It's not powerful enough to cause serious harm, but it does distract him for a moment as he instinctively jerks his head away. That means that the volley of crumbler rounds that slams into him a half-second later goes unanswered and unevaded. The first two shots hit him in the chest armour and left shoulder, but the series that come next hit my actual target: the transition jammer construct. The moment it goes down I transition across the system, drop another drone, transition again, drop another drone, transition back to where I was a moment before and then finally transition to the far side of Sto-Oa. Then I drop my construct armour, go invisible and fly as fast as I can down from Oa's orbital plane using my armour's flight system.

"Lasers are intense beams of light. Since you can see through your environmental shields, you're obviously able to shoot through them with lasers. That's why my armour shows me my environment using sensors rather than risk exposing any part of me to shots like that. Since Lantern Kilowog clearly prefers close quarters fights, I used the distraction my laser provided to destroy the thing preventing me doing a simple FTL transition and then got away. Lantern Kilowog?"

There's a momentary pause.

"Normally, that wouldn't be much of a problem. Power rings are great at tracking things through space. Multiple transitions are harder to track, especially if they use some kind of sensor masking. Over the area of a single star system it's pretty easy to scan for a single object if you can define exactly what it is you're looking for. Except in this case, I know Orange Lantern got magic protection against general ring scans. And that means I've got to find him the hard way. You listening, Orange?"

My communication drones use bleed fracture pulse receivers, paired to the one in my armour. They can also receive and transmit in long wave and by laser, but given the distances involved either would require substantial delays.

"Naturally."

"Communication signals can generally be tracked, too. And so can power ring scans. Orange Lantern had to put out communication drones so he could keep talking without me immediately being able to find him. His armour also has stealth systems and a separate flight system not dependent on his power ring."

"Rings."

Glowing green spatial charges appear all around me!

"Gesundheit."

Armourarmourarmour!

My construct armour reappears just as the charges detonate, blasts of green light and distorted gravity slamming into me from all directions. Through the fury of it I turn up my empathic vision and try to spot-. There he is. I don't know how he realised where I was, but-. The mines clear as another series of energy pulses comes at me. And… I'd have to want to destroy him to match them, and I don't.

Warp.

Compliance. Warning: high energy drain.

And I'm gone, the intense green dot that marks Lantern Kilowog disappearing into the distance as I drop what's left of my construct armour and go invisible once more.

"Which is pretty clever, but doesn't help if I physically interface with the drones and use that to get your position. Go on, say something."

I fire a communication laser shot at the nearest drone. "Well done."

Ugh. Bit of a waste of time, it'll take minutes to get there. But it does make me feel like I'm participating in the discussion.

"So… Are you actually planning on fighting me, or is this strictly an evasion exercise?"

Alright, he can't directly detect me, but I am going to need to confront him. And an Orange Lantern trying to bludgeon someone they don't want to hurt is going to be at a disadvantage. What to do, what to do?

I take another drone out of subspace and set it to transmit on a delay. Then I change direction, sending the drone back towards Oa while I move further around the planet's orbital plane. I wait three seconds, then take psi-shock grenades out of subspace and start sending them after the drone. Then I accelerate and take a small physical railgun out of subspace.

"I suppose that we may as well bring things to a head. I should warn you-"

The green blip moves closer, and I rapidly fire the railgun in the direction of the drone.

"-that I fight at a far higher speed than most human-"

Close enough. A field of spatial charges appears around the drone and I detonate the grenades.

"What, you thought that would work twice?"

Direct transmission from me. "No. Did you?"

Okay, if he's there, then judging by the angle and speed of my railgun shots…

"Ugh."

As much as I could hope for. I raise my hands and point them at the green blob as at least one of the railgun rounds I fired along his flight path hits home. Hopefully enough to pierce his armour and distract him. Medphyll wouldn't teach me how to control plants like he does. And to be fair, he probably didn't know how to. But with observation, meditation and experimentation…

All Things Strive.

And Kilowog's in my face, his active sensors flashing out and piercing my invisibility system. He's actually past me when he detects me, but I see in slow motion as he forms a hammer construct and has his ring swing it at me while he turns around.

I fly to evade, my own construct armour reappearing and two small railguns forming. The hammer is barely half way to me when the crumbler round hits it and causes it to collapse. Kilowog finishes his turn, construct scatterguns pelting my construct armour with pulses of green light. I generate a construct shield as my armour starts failing.

"Pretty sure you've lost, Kilowog."

One of his scatter guns disappears as he takes a neural impacter out of subspace. "Pretty sure I haven't. I was saving this for Sinestro, but I guess you'll do for a… A triaoouhuhhah."

"Sorry? Didn't catch that."

I fire another volley of crumbler rounds in his direction as I stop backing up. If this works as I think it does…

Kilowog stops trying to evade, the noises coming from him becoming increasingly unsettling.

I cease my attack, reinforcing my construct shield and armour. "Kilowog? If you don't respond coherently I'm calling myself the winner."

There's a flash of green as his constructs and armour evaporate and I see him spraying grey/green gunge from his mouth.

"Rookies, I just won. You're escorting me and Kilowog to the Green Lantern Corps' medical centre. Now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
03:52 GMT

The blue-grey skinned, feminine-looking humanoid turns away from the instruments surrounding Kilowog's bed and regard me for a moment. She..? Looks a bit like a cross between a Vedalken and a Kaminoan. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that the Green Lantern Corps has civilian support workers; the chance of a medical doctor specialising in xenobiology getting a ring in the first place must be astronomically small, and the odds of them ascending to the Honour Guard smaller still. And the Guardians are far too thin on the ground to handle it themselves.

"Explain to me what you did."

"I caused-."

"And the explanation had best be a good one."

I half-turn to see the rookie squad hurriedly giving Illustres Chaselon as much space as he wants. Unlike most of his species, his use of his ring's flight system allows him to use his mechadendrites purely for fine manipulation rather than for motion. The rest of his body is a large, round, multifaceted crystal with a.. really distracting… I don't want to call it a Mohican, but that's what it looks like.

So… This is the one non-Guardian on the planet I might not be able to take in a fight.

"Illustres Chaselon. Lantern Kilowog and I were sparring, as a demonstration for his class. I disabled him using a technique I cribbed from Lantern Medphyll: I caused the microscopic symbiotic plants in his digestive system to multiply far faster than they would naturally. That caused him extreme gastrointestinal upset, and also demonstrates that Medphyll deserves to be promoted."

"Both Jothra and Medphyll rejected promotion when it was offered to them. Neither could bear to leave their homeworld for the duration that would have been required."

"Oh. Okay."

"Doctor, will Lantern Kilowog-"

"Uouououououoghhhh…!"

Kilowog rears up, belches forth a wave of grey/green vomit and then collapses back again onto his bed.

"-recover swiftly?"

"The Bolovaxian digestive system is surprisingly malleable. The drugs I have administered should neutralise the increased growth within an hour. Repairing the damage that has been inflicted on his digestive tract should be a simple matter after that."

"Thank you. I imagine that he will find this a valuable learning experience." He half-turns, facing the rookies. "Recruits. While your teacher is incapacitated, you are placed under the tutelage of Lantern Apros."

A clear wave of fear passes through the rookies. Why would-? Oh. Yeah. It looks like Apros likes to force his students to face their fears until they're not afraid of them any more. Which is apparently fine if you're an Honour Guard Lantern, but the one time I tried to do that to Jordan…

"You will find him in the refectory. Go there now."

There's an unhappy chorus of 'yes, sir' and they file out, Chaselon turning away and scanning Kilowog with his ring as they do so. "Can you hear me, Lantern Kilowog?"

"Uuuuugh…" Kilowog blinks, then tries to focus on Chaselon as a couple of drones float around him and disintegrate his vomit. "Yeah?"

"I do not remember this being in your lesson plan. Do you think it will feature there in future?"

"Yeah. Until I learn to beat it, sir."

"Correct answer."

"Um. Sorry, Kilowog."

"Ehhrr." He awkwardly waves his right hand in a dismissive motion. "Good fight."

"This should help." I fish a spell eater out of one of my pouches and place it gently on his chest before turning away and grinning at Chaselon. "So… What's next on the agenda? Do I get a tour of the place-?"

"The Guardians are ready to see you now. I will escort you-" He turns around and leads the way out of the medical ward. "-in order to ensure that you do not hospitalise any further members of my Corps along the way."

"Is Guy about? Because-" He takes off from a balcony, heading in the direction of the building housing the Green Central Power Battery. "-him picking me up would have been-."

"Lantern Gardner slept through his alarm."

"Oh. Well, fair enough. Mistakes happen."

"He will meet us at the Guardians' chamber."

We fly out across the… I don't know what this city is called. And it is a city, even if it has occupancy levels usually seen in London property investment vehicles. I wonder what it feels like to live here, to be able to stroll along empty streets without seeing another soul. Eh, I suppose if I'd lived through one of the events which prompted it to have high occupancy I'd feel less inclined to complain.

"Are you the individual I talk to about getting Alan Scott taken off the 'Do Not Recruit' list? I don't know enough about Lantern Savenlovich to badmouth her, but Guy and Jordan getting promoted gave you a prime opportunity to bring a twenty-five year veteran into the fold."

"I do not set recruitment policy. The Guardians made their decision because they were concerned that his growing dependency on the green light was potentially dangerous."

"He's a ninety year old Human! He doesn't have much life left to gamble! Frankly, it's amazing that he's lasted this long."

"I did not mean 'dangerous for him'."

"Whatever. I'm just going to carry on telling everyone that you're afraid he'd be better than you."

"I suspect that you would do that regardless of what I told you."

"Not true. If you'd told me 'it was an oversight, I'm rescinding it now, bring him here right away', I'd never have repeated it again. Oh, is now a good time to mention that my second ring was made by Krona?"

"No."

Guy steps out from one of the outer columns supporting the portico of the Green Lantern Corps' citadel. In here is the Green Central Power Battery, and I can already feel it pressing against my environmental shield. Down below is the crypt in which those Green Lanterns whose death leaves a body may choose to be interred. It isn't actually that big a percentage, but over the millennia it's added up to a big number. Somewhere else in the complex is the famous Book of Oa, and the Guardian's reclusiam and probably their forge as well.

Oh, what fun. Ring, prepare the autoplagiarisers.

Unable to comply. Requested object does not exist.

Spoilsport.

"Hey Paul."

Yeah, Guy certainly sounds tired. Hopefully he won't need to say much.

"Good morning Guy. Now let's go see the Smurfs."

Guy closes his eyes, and quietly groans.

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
04:00 GMT

Guy stares at me with eyebrows raised. "You did what?"

I shrug as the three of us slowly fly through the corridors leading to the Guardians' chamber. Red banners decorated with the Green sigil hang from the ceiling and… Some sort of shrub runs along the floor at the sides of the walkway, breaking up the hard lines in an organic touch which surprises me a little.

"We thought that a demonstration of Lantern versus Lantern combat would be helpful for the recruits."

"I ain't arguin' about that. Jus' strugglin' t' believe you won."

"What, you never managed it?"

"Oh, sure. Right after I merged with Ion the first time, my constructs got a lot stronger an' he wasn't expecting it. But he wins a whole lot more'n I do." He looks expectantly at me for a moment. "So? How'd you do it?"

"I caused the microscopic plants in his digestive system to multiply very fast, causing disabling stomach pain and vomiting. And -I didn't check- but probably diarrhoea as well."

"Aw, that's jus' cheatin'. Since when can you control plants?"

"I can't. I can just make them grow a little bit. But… if you do that in someone's gut…"

Guy winces as we approach a large grey double door, mythologized scenes from Maltusian and Oan history carved into the surface. "Doesn't work on Humans, does it?"

I grin at him as Chaselon drifts ahead, his ring glimmering. A moment later the doors begin to swing open and I see Guy straighten up and brush down his uniform. I'm a little amused for a moment before I realise that I've unconsciously started to do the same thing. The Guardians of the Ga-. Fine, Universe. The beings I've been studiously avoiding contact with since I got here. The ancient and powerful beings I've actually gone out of my way to nose-tweak on more than a few occasions.

Should be fun.

Lantern Venizz floats out through the door, nodding to Illustres Chaselon as she passes. Guy and I get nothing more than a small frown before she switches to the swimmer pose and accelerates down the corridor away from us.

"She's got amazing hair. It must take ages to get it like that each morning."

"Yeah." He nods as she disappears around a corner. "Her ass ain't too bad, either."

I wince slightly as Chaselon turns to us. "The Guardians will see us now."

He then wheels towards the open doorway and flies on ahead. I fly after him, Guy following me a half-second later.

And… There they are. Blue skinned and white haired dwarves in red robes that are a lot less comedic when you see them in the flesh. Even with my empathic vision turned right down, the sheer intensity of the green light within them is.. quite uncomfortable. And I'm barely glowing at all any longer. They're floating about four metres up in an arc in a room whose interior is entirely disguised by what I assume are holographics. All around us, space, and in the distance, stars. And as the door closes behind us, space in that direction as well. I wonder if we're seeing anywhere in particular?

Ganthet nods politely in our direction, while next to him Sayd regards me with undisguised curiosity. Appa Ali Apsa actually smiles at us, and that's it as far as positive responses goes. Herupa Hando Hu, Pazu Pinder Pol and Ranakar are more neutral, adopting what I had assumed was the Guardian default mode for dealing with mortals: looking stern and sober but not actually aggressive. Dennap regards us with polite disinterest, Kontross looks at us like we're an undesirable chore and Broome Bon Baris looks like she's giving some serious thought to dissecting me.

And that's it. Nine survivors where once there were dozens. A few million years of fighting the good fight will do that to a people, and the Guardians have been doing it for far longer than that.

Chaselon and Guy float up to a point where the Guardians' feet are about level with their heads and stop, waiting to be addressed. I -having gawked at them for a moment- follow, coming to a halt slightly ahead of Chaselon and bowing from the waist.

"Guardians of the Universe. Greetings from Maltus." I straighten. "Thank you for agreeing to see me."

"It seemed only prudent." Herupa Hando Hu lowers his floating position slightly, bringing his head level with mine. "You have defeated Larfleeze and provided our former sister with his Central Power Battery."

"She did make my ring. My first one. It seemed like my best bet. I mean: be honest. What would you have done with it?"

Ganthet raises his left hand and an image of me carrying Larfleeze out of his caves appears in the air between us. "While your motives are apparent enough, we are still curious to know how you were even aware of its existence. We had thought that Larfleeze himself was the last person outside of the Guardians who knew of it."

Lie mode.

I reach into my robes and pull out a small box, then toss it underhand in his direction. He doesn't react as a green ball surrounds it and arrests its motion. "What is this?"

"Larfleeze made rings by using the orange 'Identity Theft' ability on people and then… Transforming them. I haven't tried that myself…" I point to the box which Sayd is now pulling in her direction. "The ring in that was made from Ogandu Onna Oslan. We don't know if it's possible to turn someone back… But I don't like the idea of having him with me, and I imagine that you would consider it to be a fairly large security breach."

There's a brief moment where the Guardians glance at each other. Probably having some sort of high speed green light conversation. Then Ganthet returns his full attention to me. "We appreciate you returning our brother to us." To his left, Sayd opens the box and holds her right hand towards the ring, her face a picture of distaste. "We will study what Larfleeze has done to him and see if it is possible to reverse it."

"I would be grateful if you could share your findings with the Controllers. Larfleeze transformed many people in that fashion, and I would like to return them all to flesh if at all possible."

Ranakar frowns slightly. "We Guardians are somewhat dissimilar to the mortals Larfleeze transformed. What can be applied to us can not necessarily be applied to other species."

Dennap nods. "Nonetheless, this piece of information sharing costs us little. I assume that Hinon Hee Hannanan will reciprocate?"

"Actually, I think… One of the others is working on that particular problem." And it was one of the ones who's weird about giving people his name, so I can't tell them. "But yes, we're happy to share."

Ganthet frowns slightly. "You did not answer my question. You informed Lantern Jordan that we had misled our Corps well before you visited the Vega Systems. How did you know of the existence of the Orange Central Power Battery?"

Only one way to answer that.

I shrug. "I'm afraid that's a piece of information I'm not prepared to share at this juncture. I understood that you wanted to discuss the practical aspects of our coexistence?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

24th August
04:17 GMT

"You intend to make war on the Reach." Inasmuch as his expression changes, Kontross looks unhappy at the news. Can it really be news at this point? It's not as if it was any sort of secret.

"The Controllers haven't made any secret of their ongoing confrontation with the Reach. And since you don't seem inclined to involve yourselves again, they're the… People on the spot."

"Do you have any idea how many people died when the Green Lantern Corps fought the Reach?"

"No. Nor do I particularly care." I shrug. "But if you want to tell me anyway, go ahead. More or less than when you went to war with Apokolips?"

"More. And over a far longer span of time. Unlike Apokolips, the Reach were only able to match the power Green Lanterns possess, but we were forced to engage them over a far larger front. How well do you think that your neophytes will fare against Scarab Warriors?"

"Pretty well? I'll wait until I have more experimental data to give you a firm answer, but based on my personal experience killing a Beetle isn't all that hard."

Broome Bon Baris frowns. "Your estimation of your strength does not match Lantern Tui's report to us after your shared training session."

"You mean, the training session which I ran. Where I was deliberately trying to avoid killing them." I look around the semicircle of Guardians. "I realise that you haven't had much to do with the non-green colours in a very long time, but you are aware that orange is the colour of avarice, yes? As in, the strength of my constructs is proportionate to how much I want something? And while I may make the occasional… Bantering comment, I do actually respect your Corps and I certainly don't want to kill or injure its members. On the other hand…"

I take a hologram generator out of subspace.

"Sorry, I… Don't know how to interface with this room's systems…"

I don't see any of the Guardians make a particular action, but the starscape fades slightly. I nod, then have the hologram generator show my attack on the Reach ship in orbit around Urrigen.

"On the other hand, when I really want something dead, when I really want it destroyed and I feel no hesitancy at all."

The hologram shows in real time me tearing the Reach ship apart.

Pazu Pinder Pol gives me a shallow nod. "That was not a Scarab Warrior. I do not believe that it was even a warship."

"True. This was, though."

The image shows my Praexis Demons swarm in, then me shooting Yellow Beetle and myself and Tarant killing her.

"Doesn't.. really seem that hard. Please, don't.. judge me by my weakest combat constructs. And don't assume that every big thing I did was the result of the Ophidian's influence. Heck, I'm sure that Guy's told you that Ragnar beat an Anti-Green Lantern one on one, and he'd had no formal training at all."

"The rings used by the Qwardian slaves are not perfectly designed to nullify your orange rings."

"I didn't say it was a master class of ring use. I just mean to say that when one of us is assigned to a task we really want to complete… Our rookies are -in that one endeavour- as powerful as your veterans." Out of the corner of my eye I see Guy's mouth start to open. "Powerful." I turn my head to look at him. "Not as skilled, or as good.. generally. Just 'as powerful'."

Ganthet looks uncomfortable. "At the cost of their sanity."

"And that's the focus of our training. But with our Central Power Battery up and running, I don't believe-" Several Guardians… They don't quite stiffen, but it's like they just heard something surprising in a conversation they were eavesdropping on. "-that it's an insurmountable problem." They do that 'looking-at-each-other-without-speaking' thing again. "Something you.. want to share..?"

"Mmpfh." Appa Ali Apsa floats forwards slightly and waves his hands. My hologram shuts down, being replaced by the translucent image of Lantern… Chip? The Squirrel-looking one. "Lantern Ch'p, report."

"Guardians, it was as you feared. The defence screen around New Berrith has been completely destroyed."

Um. Yeah. As much as I try to value all life, I don't really think that letting the Berrith slip into extinction would really give me much cause for disquiet. They're actually worse than the Citadelians and the Gordanians; brutal, savage and ruthless. Fortunately, they were such shits that even in a universe where the Reach and the Dominion have willing trading partners they couldn't make any allies at all. And they weren't so advanced that the local species couldn't fight them off. Eventually they drew the attention of the Guardians and got quarantined on their homeworld, an act of restraint which… It impresses me, though I'm not sure that I agree that it was a good choice.

Appa Ali Apsa nods. "And you're sure of the cause?"

His whiskers twitch. "Not.. completely, Guardian. The readings I'm getting from the debris of the satellite monitors shows that they were hit by powerful but conventional weapons. And some of the damage inflicted on the surface was caused by gravity disruptors."

"Aw, great."

"But the energy readings you mentioned?"

"Confirmed, Guardian. Avarice."

"Sounds like some more a' your lost rings jus' turned up."

"Yeah, wonderful. Lantern Ch'p? Can you tell if the orange ring users were attacking? The Berrith aren't exactly a popular people."

"I-." The image of his head turns. "Who are-?"

"The Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps is here for negotiations. Please answer his question."

"I can't tell for certain, but I do know from personal experience that the Berrith respond well to strong displays of dominance. The shots targeted at the planet appear to have come close to large population centres without directly striking them. Given the number of them who have left, I suspect that whoever was shooting at the planet was simply making a point."

Probably not someone seeking revenge for an ancestral wrong, then. "Any idea how many? Desire strong enough to call an orange ring over long distances appears to draw more than one."

"I'm sorry, but I can't even tell for certain which shots were from weapons and which were from constructs. I can't detect any faster than light trail, so either they're very good at hiding themselves or they used a stealthed vessel of some kind." His head turns back around to face the Guardians. "The Berrith don't have the infrastructure to build further ships, and… I'm not sure that I could stop whatever did this by myself if it comes back. I am requesting assistance. At the very least, rebuilding the blockade to make sure that no one takes advantage of the Berrith's vulnerability."

"Guardians, I think I should look into this. It will be far easier for me to talk someone crazed on the orange light down, and I'm.. somewhat responsible for those rings being out in the wild in the first place."

Herupa Hando Hu nods. "We agree. Lantern Gardner."

"Sir."

"You will travel with him to Space Sector One Zero One Four and investigate. Take whatever follow up action you feel is appropriate." Guy nods. "And you, Orange Lantern,-"

Ch'p's head is replaced by an image of the planet someone just gouged chunks out of.

"-may wish to carefully consider the ongoing consequences of not dealing with these rings more promptly."