Liberation #1: "Invasion"

"Come on, ya poozer! Concentrate!"

Kyle Rayner, the hero known as Ion, was dodging green scythes as they flew in front of him, yellow spiked spheres as they bounced around the empty space, and other distractions. He was being overwhelmed, and that, according to Kilowog, was the plan. Ion was the living embodiment of the central power battery, empowered as a last ditch attempt to save the Green Lantern Corps from total annihilation. Now, every power ring was charged through him. He was the Central Power Battery. He was the last hope of the Green Lantern Corps.

Last year he was a struggling student. Look how things change.

"I am concentrating!" He closed his eyes, effortlessly deflecting the attacks as they approached him, and as he closed his eyes, green energy began to glow around him. The reality being written by his opponents began to wither, and then when he opened his eyes, power sparking and spraying everywhere, his imagination manifested-- Green scythes rusted and turned to dust, yellow spiked spheres melted, and then he was home free, flying from one side of the section of space to another. "See?"

An emerald boxing glove collided hard with his jaw, his force field up but not helping to prevent him from being sent flying into a yellow cushion. Kilowog appeared from nowhere and shook his head. "If I wanted ya to dispel our attacks I woulda’ stated that in th' mission objective. We need yer concentration to be at its peak, you un'erstand me?"

"But why the green boxing glove?" Kyle rubbed his chin and stood up. Guy Gardner's yellow cushion dissolved into nothingness, and he floated nearby, smoking a glistening gold cigar. "You and Hal are such geeks..."

"If it gets th' job done, it gets th' job done." Kilowog smiled. "'Sides, it's a simple shape, isn't it? And it sent ya flying good an' proper. Ya gotta keep aware, Rayner. Broaden yer senses like Tomar wuz suggestin'."

"But meditating is boring, Kilowog. I took you apart with my eyes closed-- Literally."

"And then you got sucker punched by the big guy because you got cocky, isn't that right, walrus face?" Guy puffed a plume of smoke out into space, and it vanished after it left his force field. "Now, I ain't no drill sergeant, and I don't relish the task set, but we got a job to do, and I intend to get it done."

Kilowog grumbled. "Gardner's right, kid. Meditate. Broaden yerr senses like ya've been taught to, else yew'll fall to a Manhunter's pulse blast like any other poozer."

"I guess." Kyle opened up his hand and emerald energy fluctuated and span into shapes. As images flickered through his mind's eye they formed in his hand, and then, when he closed it, they vanished. "Meditating. Doable."

"Go an' get to that then. We've got an' entire universe ta save. Ain't gonna' go into that half-cocked."

Kyle nodded and floated back into the ship they were travelling through space in. Manhunter senses would catch stray Green Lantern signatures if they came at Oa straight on, but the baffling shields of the ship, provided by Throneworld, allowed them to move forward undetected. Not as fast as flying under an Oan Power Ring's steam, nor as efficient, but it'd get them there... And it gave them time to train up Rayner.

"How's he doin' then, egg man?" Guy floated toward Kilowog, who looked at him with a confused expression.

With a jab of his finger in Gardner's chest, he began to speak. "Th' name is Kilowog, Gardner. An' I respect you enough not to call you th'-stinking-LEGION-infected-poozer-who-nearly-killed-my-friends, so I'd appreciate it if you'd return th' favour."

Guy looked at Kilowog's hand, and then up to his face. He was almost three times as big as the former air-jockey, and was built like a harrier. He nodded slowly. "Alright, Kilowog. My bad. Let's head back to the ship, I wanna show you somethin'."

Kilowog moved his hand. "What?"

"S'called poker. You might like it."



“Now is the time for Phase Three. I have destroyed the Central Battery, the hope of the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardians are banished from this realm, just as they did me a millennia ago. Their soldiers are scattered across a thousand worlds, unable to prevent me from completing my mission. Now my soldiers are stationed on Oa. Now I am in control.” The Grandmaster, the only organic member of the Manhunter legion, had ordered his throne to be placed in the middle of the same room that he had been banished from the universe all those thousands of years ago. In the middle of this darkened room, the long defunct ‘Expulsion Chamber’ of the Oans, he sat, brooding and planning intricate ideas that he would mentally upload to the Manhunter production computers. Every day the Manhunters were upgraded. Every day they became more and more deadly. “How ironic is it that the very weapon used to destroy the Corps was the Guardian’s first truly flawless creation?” He stood, and grinned. “Who would think that would come to pass? I had faith. I have faith in you all.”

“NO MAN ESCAPES THE MAHNUTERS!” A phalanx of the Manhunters stood before him, and they all raised their mechanical fists into the air, a salute to their leader.

“You are perfect creatures. And you units, you have shown yourself to be more adept at your duties than any of the other units. This makes me curious, the scientist in me flaring up once again. Why is that? When you are all created so perfectly, how are you more efficient than the others? The baseline figures seem to raise in your favour. A 00.19 variable, in fact. This fascinates me, and so you are to be promoted. Improved. Upgraded. You are to be my Mankillers.”

“NO MAN ESCAPES THE MANHUNTERS!” The shout echoed out from inside the Expulsion Chamber. The Grandmaster grinned. “NO MAN ESCAPES THE MANHUNTERS!”

“Yes, we’ve made that so clear across the galaxy. Your AI is to be uploaded into new units. We’ll spread your intelligence across the ranks and that variable shall become the new baseline. You do me all proud.”

The units marched out of the room, leaving the Grandmaster alone. “Thousands of years I spent across the universe. Completely aware. Completely knowing. The Guardians of the Universe thought they could stop me. Banish me from reality.” Krona began to laugh to himself, quiet at first, and then louder and louder, until the Expulsion Chamber crackled with his laughter. “How wrong they were…” He sat back into his throne, and smiled as a Manhunter unit entered the darkened room.

"Grandmaster,” buzzed the robot, “Pockets of resistance still attempt to destroy our number."

"I am aware of this, 19432." Krona latticed his fingers, and rested his chin upon them. He had seen all when he was a thin layer of consciousness across all of reality. He had seen all, experienced all, and he was completely aware of every thing the Oans had done from the moment they banished him from this world. He had seen the Manhunters in the dead, seemingly uninhabited sectors of unrecognized space not patrolled by the Corps. They had reconstituted themselves, become weak, reliant on scrap metals and technology floating into their adopted homeworld’s orbit, and unable to build more of their own. Krona had returned as he had vowed to do when he was banished, though no Manhunter unit knew how, and returned them to greatness. And with that greatness came a pact with a God of darkness, the dread lord Darkseid, and the all-but complete destruction of the Green Lantern Corps. "Crush them. Crush anyone who opposes us. Teach them that there is no hope. That there is no Corps to save them. We are the new order in the universe. Burn that into them." He smiled. “Save one. Leave one alive. To spread the word of my hate.”

"Yes, Grandmaster." The Manhunter unit turned, and lifted left Krona alone.

"The universe must tremble. They must fear. I am in control. No one else. No one else."



"Oh, no." Tomar Re looked at the sensors of the craft that he was piloting, as a blip appeared on the radar. "Damnation." He brought his ring to his beak, and began to speak into it. "Kilowog, we've got Manhunter units approaching. Looks like a culling group."

"Where they headed?"

"We're in range of Rann. Looks like they're spreading out at an alarming rate, their attacks on the inhabited worlds increasing expotentially."

"Looks like they're trying t' solidify their power base. This works in our favour though, that means Oa is seeing less an' less Manhunters every day."

"I'm changing course to Rann. Maybe we can get there before the Manhunter's reach the surface..."

"You ain't hearin' me argue. Kilowog out."



Adam Strange's body always felt... Off. Not ill, but it was like his insides were... Glowing. In the pit of his chest, there was a tingling, a side effect from the Zeta Beam radiation. He'd spoken to Sardath about the health risks, but his father-in-law said there were none. And he was by no means negatively affected by exposure, apart from when he was torn from the moorings of this world and sent home.

He looked up at the screen, and smiled. "...Yes, King Gavyn, I appreciate your..."

"Adam!" He turned from his conversation, as Alanna entered the room. "Adam, my father, he needs you!"

"King Gavyn, I must take leave of you, I apologize."

The face on the screen nodded and smiled. "Do not apologize, Adam Strange, we will continue our talks at a later date." It faded to black.

"What is it?" Adam rushed down the corridor, following his wife closely. "What's happened?"

She turned, a grave expression on her face. "Manhunters. Close."

His eyes widened, but he said nothing. They arrived in Sardath's lab, a massive screen showing a satellite feed of dozens of Manhunters headed straight for Rann. "I'll need my suit."

"No, you won't." Sardath shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Adam stepped forward. "They'll slaughter us. There's no reasoning with them! I have to stop them..."

"Yes, but not with your old suit." He grinned a manic grin, reminding Adam of the old mad scientists in the b-movie serials he used to be engrossed by as a child. "I have been building something new..."

"Well then what are you waiting for, show me!"



"Holy crap, there's gotta be dozens of those bastards up in the sky." Guy Gardner. "Remind me again why we ain't headed straight to Oa? Takin' care of this problem at the root? My pop, he used to say--"

"Gardner, it doesn't matter what your 'pop' used to say, these Manhunters are unfeeling killing machines. They will slaughter this world. Enslave those they think can further their cause of reproduction and annihilation, putting them t' work in their factories on Oa. We fight because we have to. An' it's time, unfortunately, that Kyle met the enemy."

Guy nodded. "You're right." He looked at his ring and smiled. "It really don't matter what my pa used to say."

Kyle Rayner sat in the cockpit, watching as Rann came into view. The swarm, magnified on the screen, was visible a few hundred miles away, and closing fast. Guy placed his hand on the young man's shoulder. "You ready for this kid?"

The power of Ion blazed over Kyle in a second, controlled, unlike his previous manifestations on Earth. Space felt like home to him now. So vast. So much potential in every direction he looked. "Yeah."

Kilowog looked at the assembled members of the Green Lantern Corps. The only active members of the Corps, barring the officer left on Earth. Tomar Re stood tall and proud. Katma Tui was ready for action. Guy Gardner's yellow ring was sparking already, unsettling the old guard Lantern. Kyle looked nervous but ready, and Kilowog himself... Was ready to win. "There are a few rules to this game, people. One. Keep Rann alive. Protect the people. Katma and Kyle, your keep civilians out of harms way."

Kyle stood up from his chair. "What? I should be--"

"Alive. Ya should be alive. Don't argue with me, kid. Appi Ali Apsa ain't here right now. He ain't here t' give orders, or tell us what to do. But we're Green Lantern Corps. An' that means one damn thing."

Kyle put up his hands, and shook his head. "Alright, alright."

Katma's lips formed a thin smile. "Don't you want to know what that one damn thing is, Kyle?"

"I can guess," smiled the human.

"Well I think it is best said anyway, Kyle Rayner." Tomar Re stepped forward, his ring pulsing on his finger.

Kilowog smiled. "We save the world. Any world. Every world. In brightest day..."

Guy grinned. "…In darkest night. Goddamn, those Manhunters ain't going to stand a chance."



Adam Strange's suit pulsed with power. Leaner than his old costume, laced with power cells and hard light emitters that stored a dozen planet's weapons schematics, and were prepared to recreate them at a thought. Rann was currently trying to institute a new form of policing, based on the adventures and actions of Adam Strange, but so far, they had nothing to go on, and so, as ever, Strange was the first and last line against which any threat would face.

He looked to the east, and saw a strange site begin to form just within range of his helmet sensors. A craft was approaching, wrapped in a green energy field, faster than any ship should when entering atmosphere. "What in God's name..."

"Ain't God, flyboy!" A figure formed in front of him, humanoid, grinning, and made of yellow energy. "Bare with us, we'll just be a second."

The ship zipped past him, wind rushing past, and then, as it approached Ranagar, it stopped suddenly, impossibly, and vanished into the ground. Out of the ship five creatures emerged, four clad in green and black uniforms, the other in a glowing yellow... Flight jacket. They headed straight for him, and Adam immediately activated his forcefield. "Who are you? State your purpose here!"

"Adam Strange," Kilowog started, "We've heard good things about you on Oa. Sad we meet under such extreme pending circumstances, but still, a pleasure."

"Oa? Then your uniforms, your energy signature--"

"We're Green Lantern Corps." Kilowog nodded.

"But you..." Adam shook his head. "How! You've been missing from the galaxy for a year now! Longer!"

"It feels like longer, friend." Nodded Tomar Re. "But we can inform you of our troubles after that battle is done. Manhunters come, hoping to wipe Rann from the universe, and then take whoever they can back to Oa to their slave factories."

"You're really the Green Lantern Corps. Thank God." Adam grinned. "I was worried I was going to have to face this threat alone."

"Well we aren't any Justice League, but we'll do our best, sir." Kyle Rayner smiled.

"Justice League? Then you're human!"

"Sure are," replied Guy Gardner. "That there is Ion, I'm... Warrior. For now. Thinkin' about changing that after some flack I took back in Sector 1910. This here is Kilowog, that's Tomar, and the hot piece of ass over there is Katma. We'll be your saviors for the day, hope you don't mind."

"No, no, I don't mind at all, God, I'm just... Relieved. Shell shocked. In awe. Any and all of the above. So, what are we facing? I've been in talks with King Gavyn of Throneworld, among others, about the growing threat of the Manhunters, but they're been keeping to themselves for the past year, the odd raiding party coming out of... Sector 0, is it? Anyway, only recently have they been moving out of their comfort zone, and we have to do something about that."

"Oh, we intend to, Strange," mused Katma. "But first things first. We've got fifty Manhunter units headed this way. That's what we call a culling party. They will strike hard and fast and that means we have to do the very same. Ion and I will keep the civilian losses to a minimum, hopefully, and keep any damage to your cities to a minimum. In the sky, you'll have Kilowog and Tomar fighting with you. That's a plus, I promise you. You'll also have Guy Gardner up there with you, who is like a bullet. You point him at your target, and he'll tear them apart."

"Why thank you, Katma," grinned Gardner, as he stroked his ringed fist.

"It wasn't a compliment. He lacks finesse so you leave him to what he gets himself into. He always finds a way out."

"I'm a survivor, see."

"Yes. Like a cockroach. Anyway, stick close to Kilowog and Tomar, they'll be your best bet of surviving this mess."

"Noted." Adam Strange looked to the sky. "Can you hear that? Like... Flies."

Tomar Re nodded slowly. "Low level distortion field. They are going to try and knock your world for a loop, cut down any resistance. Luckily you have us. Your suit is protected, we checked on entry."

"I know, it's all new and shiny." Adam shook his head. "I'm terrified. Sorry, I'm rambling."

"It's understandable," said Katma.

"Ok then kiddies, light 'em up." Gardner's ring sparked. "Kilowog, I assume you got some last words for the group before the big fight?"

"Ain't I always, ya poozer?"

"Can I?" Kyle grinned. "I have wanted to do this since Hal first told me about it."

"Do it, kid."

Kyle cleared his throat. "Alright, here goes nothing: In brightest day, in blackest night..." The assorted heroes, barring Strange, who watched with a scientist's fascination; and Gardner who just grinned and watched his ring spark and leak energy, joined in the oath. "...No evil shall escape our sight! Let those who worship evil's might... Beware our power... Green Lantern's light!"

Kyle and Katma hit earth-side, and the other heroes looked up at the oncoming horde. "There aren't many of them, if you think about it."

"I don't think about it," laughed Guy. "I guess that's why I kick so much damn ass."

"Indubitably." Tomar pointed his ring up. "Divide and conquer gentlemen. Guy, you keep the group that divides from the main swarm busy. That's ten or so. We'll handle the rest."

"Alright. Don't go dying guys. We still have the main event scheduled for later."

Kilowog chuckled, a hearty bellow. "Don't intend to die."

"My wife wouldn't agree to it," smirked Adam. "So."

"So," replied Kilowog. "Let's move."

They burst forward, and were surrounded by Manhunters instantly. As predicted, a group of the robots parted with the swarm, and Guy followed, yellow machine guns firing round after round at the mechanical shells, and engaged them one-on-one, his fists burning with golden energy as they tore into red and blue suits of armored robotics.

Tomar flew elegantly between the droids, drawing their fire into each other half the time, instead of even needing to fire a beam of emerald energy at any of them. When he attacked strands of thin light formed and whipped through the robot shells, cutting them down from where they flew.

As they fought, they drew closer and closer to the planet's main city of Ranagar. Kilowog's ring exploded with canon fire, green blasts of burning, scolding emerald energy forcing its way through the middle of the Manhunter's chests, and Adam Strange, his weapons forming out of blue hard light energy, erupted with fiery plasma, taking the head off of any Manhunter that drew near.

"It's like they're dancing," mused Kyle Rayner, as he and Katma floated over Ranagar. "It's beautiful, and yet completely, totally insane. Killer robots. Space men in jet packs. Alien worlds!"

"Do you feel out of your depth, Kyle?"

"I feel like I'm in Heaven," he replied with a grin. "Guy looks like he's having fun." An emerald screen appeared before the duo with a thought from Kyle, showing Guy screaming in defiance as his ring went to work tearing apart the machines. "Doesn't look like we'll get much of a fight."

Katma looked at her ring, and then up at the sky. "We'll see."

Kyle looked around for a second, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. "Wait." He floated around, something niggling at him. "Do you feel that?"

"What? What is it, Ion?"

"Like the world..." His eyes darted about, swarming black where once was white. "Is screaming." He grabbed Katma by the arm. "That isn't the invasion force. That's the distraction."

An explosion echoed out across the city, as a tear in sub space opened up. Katma shook her head. "How... They're using the sub-space tunnels that we used to use to get from our sectors to Oa! Undetectable until they exit... Oh, God, there has to be at least two hundred. This isn't a culling squad. They're going to raise this planet from the sector."

Kyle gripped Katma's shoulder tight. "I know. I can hear them all. So. Loud."

Energy blasts boomed down toward them, and the city below shook, even as Katma began to form dozens of emerald shields to deflect the blasts.

"The distortion field, I know, I can hear it too. Get ready to fight, Kyle, don't freeze up."

"I can hear their insides... Like clockwork gears..." He gripped his skull. "Oh, God, it's so..." He threw open his hand, and the Manhunters that approached them stuttered backwards. Kilowog, Tomar, Adam and Guy hesitated in their attacks, and their opposition was caught in the wave of cascading emerald energy emitted from Kyle's hand. "..So loud." The atoms began to swarm around inside the Manhunters. Emerald energy leaked from the cracks that formed all over their armor. They blew up from the inside out, but the explosion was contained, and whispered away with the winds even as the heroes watched Kyle struggle to stand.

"Kyle, power down, power down, it's done!" Katma grabbed Kyle as blood began to pour from his nose. "It's done, pull back, pull back..."

He looked at her, his eyes completely black, and spoke with a voice that was so inhumanely not his. "He's going to die." With that, he collapsed into her arms, and the heroes shot down.

"What's happened? Is he ok?" Guy pushed past Adam, and checked his pulse with his bare hand. "Shallow pulse, goddamn..."

Tomar turned to Strange. "Adam, what do you have by way of medical equipment here on Rann?"

"The best, come on." Adam shot down, and the others followed.

Katma held Kyle in her arms, and his words echoed into her head. He's going to die. "Who?" she whispered to herself, as they descended toward Ranagar.