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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 19:42:55 GMT -5
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 19:44:25 GMT -5
Within 90 seconds I am over the Nevada state line.
How could I have been so stupid? Leaving a DEO agent unattended in my apartment. Leaving my journal out on my desk… trusting a DEO agent in the first place.
My mind drifts back to the night before, sitting across from each other in the restaurant slowly emptying a bottle of Pinot Noir, sharing secrets. She grew up in Smallville, Kansas, she began investigating odd phenomenon after a group of teenagers nearly destroyed the town (See Superboy & the Legion of Super-Heroes!). Dollars to donuts Clark was involved. My mind drifts a little farther into the night.
Her blonde hair, her eyes… her legs. I begin to lose speed over Iowa; yeah the memory of that night is that distracting.
I have to keep my focus on my job, or the Corps and this Rayner kid don’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell.
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 19:46:21 GMT -5
DC2 Presents…
Green Lantern
Issue #3: The Torch Bearer
Hal Jordan Written by Scott Kruger
Kyle Rayner Written by Ramon Villalobos
Cover by Scott Kruger & Ramon Villalobos
Edited by Scott Kruger & Brian Burchette |
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 19:48:34 GMT -5
Within Ninety seconds I am well into my third plate.
The scalding hot water splashes over my hands as I mindlessly move plate after plate through the hot water, into the soapy water, back into the hot water, then onto a pile of other clean plates before doing the same exact thing with cups then spoons then forks then knifes.
As interesting and glamorous as the job sounds, I can’t help but think about her the whole time. A tall, fresh-faced and alabaster-skinned beauty, with dark hair and sparkling blue eyes who walks in some days and not on others, orders coffee, sits there at the corner table by herself… and that’s it. She’s never with people or doing something unique… she’s just there.
I have a break but I would rather wash these dishes than risk public humiliation. Besides, I really don’t even stand a snowball’s chance in hell with her.
She gets up and walks out the door and that’s it, my breaking point. This is the twentieth odd day I have noticed her come in, and for all I know, it’s her last. I don’t know why but I feel an untapped source of confidence pounding in my chest and I bolt after her.
“HEY!” I shout as I see her walk faster and faster down the street. She doesn’t look back but something inside me makes me want to go after her despite my best judgment. Time slows down and she turns her head to look back at me. She gently pulls some hair behind her ear and smiles. A rush comes over me, I feel something rumbling harder inside me as her face slowly distorts from a smile to a worried frown, then in a blink, she’s gone.
I’m afraid to turn around to see what caused her sudden panic induced bolting… Before I can turn around, I feel a cold pain creep up my spine. I’m suddenly thrown into a light post. My back cracks against the cold steel and I feel my body go numb. I see him for the first time as stars dance in front of my eyes…
He towers over me laughing; a yellow glowing, devilish monster, smiling with long sharp teeth and bony long fingers that slowly reach for me. I try to move, but all I can manage is to roll over on my stomach.
He says something, but I can’t hear the words completely as I slowly begin to lose consciousness.
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 19:52:10 GMT -5
I cross the Hudson River, zip Southeast down Canal St. when I see it. The boy is on his stomach… I can’t tell if he’s breathing and I don’t have time to check. He has a bloody wound on his back, but the fact that my ring still works (most likely) means that he’s still got a pulse. Though my lack in understanding of the kids situation isn’t much of a reassurance.
The creature towering above him only shows a faint hint of the humanity it once possessed. It’s thinning long, stringy red hair cascades loosely down its back. Its gangly frame and elongated limbs poise to deliver a final blow. I’m about to shoot him with an energy beam when I suddenly change my mind. This freak tortured Chloe and is about to kill a kid that probably has no idea what the Hell is happening to him.
This is personal.
I tuck my chin into my chest and raise my right shoulder as I increase my speed three-fold. A split second before I hit I increase the density of my aura. If it works it’ll feel like a Sherman tank shot through cannon. If it doesn’t, well, this may hurt me a lot more than him.
I hit with enough force to shatter every window on the block, and, as luck would have it, send the creature flying as well. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the brightest of moves as a waterfall of shattered glass falls downward toward the crowds below.
It’s the same in New York as it is in California, a maniac attacks, and people gather around to watch instead of doing the sane thing and heading for cover.
I blanket the city block with an energy beam that catches the falling glass. I slope the edges of the covering and allow the glass to slide safely to the street without hurting the bystanders. I look down at my feet where the boy is lying. I see the steady rise and fall of his breathing. I relax a bit… which was my first mistake.
I’m hit with a staggering blow that sends me reeling! Again, my ring failed to automatically protect me. I sail through a glassless window and crash down on someone’s desk, splitting it in half. I fly back through the window as quickly as I can to see the creature holding Kyle by the neck. His talon-like fingernails about to plunge into the boy’s chest!
I point my power ring at the creature, but I’m too late as he plunges his fingers into Kyle’s chest!
The boy screams and my power ring surges.
I look down at the scene and for the first time since becoming Green Lantern, I don’t know what to do.
Kyle’s eyes open wide, and are filled with green energy. There is another surge of pure emerald Oan energy and the boy is gone… along with the creatures hand!
The creature staggers over the sudden shock of losing its hand, but then re-grows it almost without missing a beat. I look down at my ring and I am shocked to see it still functioning. I launch myself at the monster, delivering a right upper-cut to the jaw. His head snaps back as he goes airborne. He lands on an abandoned taxi cab left in the middle of the Broadway and Canal St. intersection.
I leap into the air after it and smash an emerald baseball bat over its head. For the moment, it looks as though the battle is over. I land next to the Taxi and before I can bind the creature it grabs me by the throat. My ring fails again to protect me.
“I don’t know where the boy went, but you will help me find him…” the creature hisses at me as it squeezes. My ring still does not react. I pour my will into it but to no effect. It’s as if my willpower is failing me.
“Go to Hell,” I take a swing at him with all of my natural strength, but the blow just glances off its chin.
“Sinestro was one thing… the Nero boy was another, you are something altogether different! They had been broken and were easy to take over." the half human creature licks his thin lips as he speaks, making me feel like I'm some kind of entree. "You are a challenge… a Green Lantern in his prime. The last Green Lantern, unbroken. I will enjoy tearing the threads of sanity from your brain, sliver by sliver. What would terrify a man without fear?”
“Aside from… your… breath?”
Without a response, he tears into my thoughts like a warm knife through butter. In an instant our thoughts are connected. I see his life, through his eyes… I am transported to a different world, during a time when the Guardians were young. His race is a race that is now long extinct, but then, they were the pinnacle of a modern and sophisticated society.
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 19:58:07 GMT -5
I see him. Parallax is tall and gangly; hairless, with sharp jagged teeth and long fingers with talons for nails. His skin is a pale yellow. His courage and strength are the only attributes that separate him from the rest of his race, and he is their champion.
The Guardians arrive and present him with a power ring. It is the first. Its power is limitless. He accepts the ring and vows to serve the Guardians as Green Lantern, the protector of the cosmos.
I have seen parts of this before in the Book of OA… but there is much more to the story. (Back in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #0!)
There is a cataclysm on his home-world which he is unable to prevent. A madman detonated a weapon in the planets core. Parallax chased the villain across the galaxy, and when he finally caught up with him, he ignored the most sacred law held by the Guardians and executed him.
The Guardians attempted to strip Parallax of his power, but he rebelled, killing several of them and laying waste to the grassy plains and lush forests of OA. Parallax believed that the power contained within the Oan planet core could save his people… that he could bring back the dead and resuscitate his world.
He came back to OA to purge it of power, but the Guardians had laid a trap for him. The Guardians had created a prison, shaped like a giant lantern that channeled the very power he sought to usurp. In a flash of emerald his body was vaporized, and his very soul was trapped within the battery.
Forever conscious, and seething with hatred. From the prison he could see the universe, but could not interact with it. He watched as the Guardians tried again… lessening the power of the rings and recruiting lesser-beings to be Green Lanterns. He watched as, within twenty years of his imprisonment, the last survivor of his race starved to death in an icy cave while the Guardians did nothing.
Time passes and he still watches the universe pass by. He learns to communicate through the rings. He becomes the fears the Green Lanterns are forced to conquer. He speaks to each of them through their dreams… their nightmares. One day the Guardians will betray you too…
Two Billion years pass… and he is forgotten.
But he does not forget.
Is this how it truly happened? Was he only trying to save his race? Everyone he ever cared for and loved was annihilated. Isn’t that what the Corps is built to prevent? What would I do if I were in his shoes?
Suddenly the scene changes. I’m no longer seeing the world through Parallaxes eyes… I am myself, though I am not in New York any longer. I’m standing in Coast Cities central square. I see the courthouse. In the distance I see my apartment building.
There is a crowd gathered around… everyone of them I recognize, not necessarily by name, I just do. I look down and I am wearing my uniform… I know that I have just flown into town. I have stopped Dr. Polaris from another attempt at taking over S.T.A.R. Labs. Everyone runs to me and pats me on the back. They all call me Hal and I realize that something is not quite right.
I’ve been here before. (Yes he has… a dream, back in Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #4!)
The scenery begins to change as the trees in the town square begin to burn. The grass turns to ash. The buildings start to crumble and fall apart. The courthouse becomes a smoldering ruin. The air was thick and hard to breathe. I labor to take a breath… I spin and see that everyone is dead. The putrid smell of burning hair and flesh burn my nostrils. I choke down bile as a hand touched my shoulder…
I turn and come face to decomposing face with my mother.
I’ve been here before…
Behind her are my brothers as well as Carol and Chloe. The whitened ashy skin from their bodies flake off in a horrible mockery of a snowstorm. I reach out for my Mother, but she rejects me.
"Hal, why didn’t you stop him…?" Her decaying parched lips crack as she speaks to me. I want to tell her not to talk that it will all be over soon, but I can’t because I know what happens next. She points to a man standing on the ruined husk of the courthouse.
Her body crumbles before my eyes.
"Mother, no…" I say going through the motions.
I turn away from her empty clothes facing the courthouse. A figure was standing at the highest standing pinnacle of the building. I think to myself that something is familiar about this person, I already know why, but I am forced to relive it again.
Each breath, a labor, I walk toward the building… A giant banner is unfurled from the ruined buildings ledge… a flag with a Green Lantern symbol. But the symbol was not the sickly yellow and black that it had been in this nightmare before, it was normal.
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 19:59:17 GMT -5
The nightmare has changed.
I look up and see myself again. I am wearing green and black armor… my hair is streaked with gray, though I can tell I am not much older than I am at this very moment. I wear a cape and carry an expression of disgust.
I float there before my alternate-self and prepare to strike. I rear back with my ring as tears cloud my eyes. But he reaches out and takes me by the throat! He begins to squeeze as his features shift. His teeth grow sharp and pointed, his fingers elongated and taloned, and his skin a sickly shade of yellow.
He draws me closer to his face and he mouth contorts into a wicked smile.
“You are mine.”
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 20:03:15 GMT -5
I feel my mind and body drift into different planes, shifting from one place or places to another or others.
I’ve heard of out of body experiences but this is another thing altogether. One minute, I’m Kyle Rayner, college student, artist, world renowned dish washer, now I feel every atom in my body shifting. I didn’t even know you could feel your atoms shift… I can’t quite get a grip on what the hell is going on.
If I could vomit, I would, but unfortunately I’m not sure exactly where my stomach is anymore. Just as I am getting used to being dead, I feel it all rush back. It starts with my left foots big toe and works its way back until I can feel every last strand of my hair form out of thin air.
I don’t know where I am but its comforting to know that If I so chose, I could puke out whatever I had for breakfast and lunch all over. And I do.
There’s no ground here and no sky, just a blackness everywhere I look with swirling green flashes of light and sparks bursting around me every time I turn my head.
“Kyle Rayner,” a deep voice calls out to me “You have been summoned.”
“Yeah… um about that, one minute I’m walking down the street and the next I am attacked by some kinda B movie monster and then I’m here, not that I know where here is.”
“Indeed Rayner, you have encountered our greatest failure,” the voice darkens slightly, “the intergalactic parasite known as Parallax. This is precisely why you have been summoned. The Guardians of the Universe have fallen. The voice that you hear is the collective consciousness of Guardians that fell at the hands of Parallax so many years ago.”
“What the hell is going on and what the hell are you talking about? Parallax? What kind of lame name is that? It sounds like a stupid comic book character from the nineties. From what I saw, he didn’t have a really big gun and pouches all over so-”
”Perhaps we are not making ourselves clear, this is an issue of up most importance, insolent one-”
“Perhaps I haven’t madeMYSELF clear, whatever-” I feel my words drift out but I hear nothing, I grab my throat in confusion, ready to speak up again and hear nothing.
“Earthlings have always been hard to silence, especially the younger ones.” I nod nervously and the deep voice continues, “You have been summoned here in the core of the planet OA, at the center of the universe, because we need an ion battery. A living, breathing organism to maintain guardianship over all the cosmos in our current state of absence. Kyle Rayner, in a cosmic lottery, when we could have selected anyone in any galaxy to maintain our light, you were chosen. Are you ready to take the responsibilities that will come along with it?”
I finally regain control of my vocal chords and I look around the darkness before finally giving them the only answer that comes to mind, “Are you kidding me?!? No, heck no, absolutely not, never ever ever ever ever. Look, I’m not the smartest guy around but even I know this can’t be real, shouldn’t you pick someone who has some semblance of what is going on?”
“We assumed you’d respond like this… that is why you have no choice, the transformation has begun, for months now our Lanterns have been channeling your inner light.”
“WHAT?! Are you kidding me with this?”
“Rayner, the choice has been made for you, earthlings have a tendency to overreact when faced with these kinds of challenges. You were chosen not because of your courage or because we have faith that you can accomplish what we expect you to but because of simple. Blind. Luck.”
“Wait, that little blue guy in the red dress… when all Hell was breaking loose in Metropolis. He zapped me!” (Tales of the Green Lantern Corps #10)
There is no response. With my voice intact I have nothing else to say, I hear my own voice echo away and I am left floating in darkness, no more swirling green lights or sparks, only me, and the air that surrounds me.
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 20:05:40 GMT -5
I am stuck and feel my heart sink into my foot. I look around for some sign of life but see nothing but blackness. Suddenly I feel a sudden painful surge inside of my chest. Not like when I was attacked by that monster thing on earth, no this pain comes from inside me. I reach for my chest and realize for the first time since I arrived here, I can see. I look down and see that underneath my skin I am glowing like a dull light bulb.
I shake for a moment and I feel like the darkness around me beings to seep onto my skin. Finally a circle of light erupts from my chest! Rays of light shine everywhere, exposing a massive system of caves leading out in every direction. My eyes glow green for a moment and I let out a scream. My voice turns into light and I become a human torch. The blackness around me fights back like it has a life of its own crawling on my skin eating it up unable to reach the light blasting out of the circle in the center of my chest. It’s like the planets core is trying to reclaim something it lost.
It’s like the worst headache I’ve never had. Holy crap, I’m on another planet!
The circle burns hard and for the first time in my life I know what to do. I shake my hands and crack my knuckles like I do before I shoot into a three hour painting marathon before a class deadline. If I am a guardian for earth, no matter how ridiculous that sounds, I better get back to stop that parallax thing… and fast.
I close my eyes.
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 20:10:09 GMT -5
The same way I came to OA, I leave, shifting through light years of space in a blink until I am back where I was, in New York, lying on the ground bleeding. Now, though, I’m covered in a black and green suit with my chest still glowing white!
The giant sharp toothed bastard looks different now. It’s not the same guy as he was before. This ones hair is short and brown… he also wears a shiny black and green suit of armor, not entirely unlike my own. He’s surprised at first to see me again, but rears back quickly, before stabbing his fingers into my chest again.
“I have no idea what the hell you are doing guy.” I say grabbing his hand and squeezing them as hard as I can with my fingers, “But that’s not how I roll.” His face is in shock, as much as my own, when my hand bursts into green flames and blasts him off of me.
He slowly rises to his feet, a billowing dark cape behind him. “So it is true, you are the torch bearer.”
“Yeah well… I’m not really sure what that means but I guarantee you I already don’t like the sound of it.”
“I am going feast on your soul, boy.” He says hissing and pointing his long sharp finger at me.
“Yep… I friggin’ hate the sound of it.” He darts towards me headfirst in an attempt to knock me down. He does. I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do. The voice didn’t exactly give me an instruction manual when they made me a “living battery” so I am unsure exactly how I should fight this freak off of me. I try the hands glowy thing again, but he pulls a green glowing jagged stake out of no where and stabs my hand into the ground. He makes another one and takes aim at my right hand. As he plunges it down I feel the glowing circle on my chest warm up and I unload on him sending him up in the air.
Effective as it was, it’s mere seconds before he spins and shoots back in my general direction. I yank my hand out of the ground and roll over just in time.
“Oh no, we are definitely not doing that again.” I try to punch him and he shoots a bony green fist at me, knocking me into the ground again. Wherever he gets these little green weapons from, I am guessing I can get them too. It’s not an educated guess but seeing is how I keep getting called a torch bearer and a battery I think I should be able to have some cool powers too.
The hulking monster gets up and stares me down with his eyes glowing. I swear he’s like something out of Evil Dead, if only I had some kind of chainsaw hand… my hand turns into a very elaborate green light chainsaw. I rev the chain saw. “Oh now you’re in biiig trouble, ugly.”
The monster smiles as he jumps towards me I stick my newly armed… arm into his chest and he screams. “Yeah, you don’t like that do you?”
“Aabrioahgn!”
“Umm… what?” He falls backward and I climb on top of him plunging the chainsaw further into his chest.
“Gawibnoauihr!”
“Those aren’t even words! Don’t you have something really eeevil to say right now. I will crush you… something along those lines?”
“Lawbrno.”
“Okay I guess that’s a no.” He starts to freak out underneath me and his face starts to peel off. I dig harder into the black hole on his chest. He Twists and contorts beneath me until I finally lose my balance and fall off of him. His teeth start to fall out exposing the face of a normal looking guy as the monster separates from his new host.
He begins to fight himself to gain control of his body. He splits in two, but the monster doesn’t leave as the man falls to the ground.
Now the monster looks like I remember, with stringy red hair and yellow glowing eyes. He begins to blast yellow bolts of lightning at me and I’m able to block them off with my chainsaw as it quickly turns into a shield. I imagine it, and in the blink of an eye I am wearing a full suit of knight’s armor. I make a lance in my right hand and keep the shield on my injured left.
The monster laughs as he begins to create more and more deadly looking knives that he hurls in my direction. My lance goes limp and I struggle to fight off a hundred yellow knives being flung at my head. I think about how easy it would have been had I not chased after that girl this morning… I might have never even been attacked… I might be done with my dish load and… crap I could get fired for this… suddenly my shield is gone and I am stuck with a knife as it jabs into my shoulder.
No more shield? Oh this is not a fair fight…
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 20:14:43 GMT -5
I’m freed by the boy.
My chest aches as I breathe, probably a cracked rib. I feel the ring weave itself into my body repairing the damage. Physically I should be myself within mere moments… mentally, on the other hand, that really @$#%ed me up! I look down and I’m wearing the armor from my nightmare.
I look up and see the kid in mid-air, fighting with all the skill of a veteran Green Lantern… though there is no ring. Kilowog would be impressed. The energy seems to surge from him like a raging wildfire.
Parallax fights with the same ferocity. He fights as though he has everything to lose. He hardly resembles the Nero boy whose body he’s possessed. The raw yellow energy scorched the hair from his head and cracked his skin.
The fight is evenly matched; they will destroy each other and everything around them in the process! I have to do something.
I pour everything I’ve got into my ring and I can barely make it glow!
As if sensing my plight, Kyle showers me in pure emerald energy, leaving himself briefly exposed to an attack. The doubt Parallax placed in my head evaporates. Parallax seizes the opportunity, and lashes out with an inferno of rage induced blasts, knocking Kyle out of the sky.
I launch myself upward and lay into Parallax with my fists and ring ablaze! I catch him off guard and immediately acquire the advantage. I burn the armor from my body and in a flash of green I’m in my uniform again.
“So, you have regained your freedom,” The words slither from the monsters mouth, “it will be short-lived!”
He glares at me and I feel his mind begin to probe into mine again. I throw out a defensive barrier, but it does no good.
“Back off ugly!” I hear Kyle’s voice and again I’m freed from Parallaxes grip.
I shake off the effects quicker this time and see Kyle throwing amazing constructs at him. They seem to come to life as if drawn, or painted. Parallax is wrestling a half serpent, half samurai when Kyle flies to my side.
“I’m Kyle,” he says as if he’d exerted the same amount of energy that it takes to swat a fly.
“I know” I answer, not sure what else to say, “I’m…”
“Harold Jordan, Green Lantern 2814... I know.” He responds… what is this kid? “I could use a hand here if you don’t mind.”
He flies off toward Parallax at top speed with a wide grin on his face, leaving me in the dust. I suddenly realize that this kid probably didn’t need my help in the first place. But what the Hell, I’m here aren’t I? With a smirk on my face I fly headfirst into the battle. This is what being a Green Lantern is all about!
By the time I reach them Parallax has dispatched the samurai serpent. Kyle is wearing a large suit of armor… Japanese animation style looks like a half jet half airplane. Reminds me of a cartoon I watched with my brothers when we were younger. I like this kid’s style! He and Parallax grapple with each other high above the city. They head south and the fight continues over the Brooklyn Bridge. Always wanted to visit New York… this wasn’t quite what I had in mind though.
I create a rocket launcher, take aim and fire at the beast. The missile strikes him dead center in his back throwing them both forward, but allowing Kyle a chance to really gain the upper hand!
He takes Parallax by the head in one hand, and punches him with the other, knocking him into the East River.
I plunge into the river after the stunned monster. For the first time I see some semblance of the boy he took over. His elongated limbs have begun to shrink back to human size and his jaundiced skin starts to fade. I can tell by the energy surrounding him though that Parallax is still there. I bind the boy in emerald chains and raise him from the murky depths.
Kyle’s energy joins mine as I emerge from the river with the prisoner.
“Ok… normally I’d take him to the Guardians, but that’s not possible.” I say to the kid.
“No, it’s not.” Kyle replies. For some reason I think he knows more about what’s happening in the Universe than I do. His mask seems to change as he speaks. The green of the mask fades becoming a star field similar to the ones the Guardians had in their robes. “His freedom threw the Universal balance of power to the side of chaos. He has become a necessity in that power struggle, and without his existence the power of the Lanterns would cease to function. Permanently. Parallax must be re-absorbed into the central power battery.”
I’m thrown off for a moment. The power battery was destroyed in the opening volley of the crisis. That’s when it dawns on me. I realize this is not Kyle speaking… it’s the Guardians speaking through him and I know what they’re planning.
“You can’t do that to this boy!” I urge them to stop. “I don’t give a damn what you think you must do. There is another way. There’s always another way!”
“You forget your place 2814. We know what we are doing.” My body freezes into place as my ring seemingly takes over my motor functions. I watch helplessly as he places his hand on Parallaxes head.
“Please, help me…” the boy named Alex Nero begs to this new being that holds him.
“Don’t touch me, Guardian filth!” Parallax barks immediately afterward.
The emerald power from the symbol on Kyle’s chest shoots out from him and the energy lances through Parallax. Parallax and Nero scream in unison. Two separate voices echo down the cavernous New York City streets. I try to shield my eyes from the light, but I cannot move. I’m forced to watch as the creature known as Parallax is torn free from his host and drawn into Kyle!
There’s an explosion of light and again, I am free.
I look at Kyle… his mask is green again. He just floats there holding the unconscious frame of Alex Nero.
“Wow… that was weird.” he says with a smile. He holds his hand out for me to shake it, “Hi, I’m Kyle Rayner!”
What have the Guardians done?
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Post by starlord on Jan 9, 2007 20:17:12 GMT -5
The next morning, I sit across from Kyle in a secluded booth at a little street side coffee shop called Radu’s. I nurse a hot cup of coffee, probably the best cup I’ve ever drank, while we talk. He doesn’t really seem remember what happened once the Guardians took over. But from our conversation he does know how his power works. He is the central power battery… tapped directly into the core of OA.
No ring… strange. Why do I feel like an over-protective father here?
“I can’t believe I’m actually sitting here having coffee with the Green Lantern! I mean, you know Superman, right? Wait you know Batman! That’s so cool! Is the Flash really as corny in person as he seems on TV?” he fires off questions like an over-heating M60.
“Yes, on all accounts.” I respond looking over my shoulder to make sure no one’s within earshot. I see the sort, bald, mustachioed barrister glance in our general direction. I don’t think he’s heard anything, but I silently order my ring to muffle the sound coming from our direction. “So what am I supposed to call you when we’re out in the field?”
“Huh?” He asks I think a little disappointed that I didn’t give him more dirt on the League.
“Well, you’re not a Green Lantern… no ring,” I show him the ring on my finger. “I don’t think ‘Kid Lantern’ or something as stupid as ‘Lantern Lad’ quite fit.”
“Ha!” he laugh’s, though I don’t think either were that bad. “No, I’m 19, no ‘kids’ or ‘lads’ or ‘boys’ for me. I was actually thinking about this… What do you think of ION?”
“Not quite my speed,” though secretly I’m jealous I hadn’t thought of that before. Not that I could go to the Guardians and say, ‘hey, can we be the ION Corps instead?’ “But it suits you!”
We finish our coffees and head outside after paying. Radu gives us an odd, strangely knowing look. We head around the corner to an alley.
“I have to get back to California… there’s a few issues I need to iron out with someone.” I admit to him while I figure out how I need to end things with Chloe. “You good from here?”
“You kidding me?” he asks with a wide, toothy smile.
“Right, you need me, just call!” I say as my clothes morph into my uniform. I take to the sky and I hear him call out.
“I was about to say the same thing to you!”
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Post by mockingbird on Aug 1, 2011 18:29:11 GMT -5
To let us know what you think of this issue, please visit the letters page here!
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