Liberation #4: "Flashpoint"

Chaos exploded around Krona. Manhunters exploded into their spare parts, emerald lights flashed and vanished, and Krona was smiling. As he trudged toward Kilowog, Manhunter technology crushing beneath his heel, black energy swirling around his fists, he whispered: “This just got interesting.”



“Can you hear that?” Vix Partoo, formerly of Antol 7 in Sector 4, looked up to the cavernous ceiling above him, dust fluttering down as the entire chamber shook. “Sounds like there’s a war going on.” He looked around himself, the thousands of beings kidnapped by the Manhunter’s to fill their factories all transfixed by the escalation taking place outside.

“That’s because there is,” smiled a purple skinned man, his multiple arms removing the cloak he had been wearing, and revealing the green and black uniform underneath. His ring shone in the darkness. “I am Salaak of the Green Lantern Corps. I’m here to save you. All of you.”



Kilowog’s ring was exploding with energy, massive spheres of green colliding with the Manhunter units that continued to swarm about. “Watch yer backs!”

“Take your own advice.”

Kilowog span around a split second too late, and Krona’s fist collided with his jaw, sending him flying into the upper atmosphere. His ring slowed his return to the surface, a hastily thrown up force field keeping him being splattered across the landscape. As he shook the stars from his eyes, he looked up to see Krona striding towards him, confident in his gait, the slow, measured steps of someone who had all the time in the world.

Pouring his willpower into his ring, two massive Ickyaks appeared between Kilowog and the approaching Krona. Over twice the size of Kilowog and with vicious fangs hanging from their acid laced maws, they made even the natives of Bolovax Vik uneasy with their brutal natures and awe inspiring power. The constructs Kilowog had generated were true to form, seemingly even smelling like the beasts to him. As Krona walked on, unbowed by the constructs, the two beasts struck the despot...who summarily eliminated the constructs with a wave of his hand, black energy swirling about as he did.

“Aw, slag.


“No man escapes...” the Manhunter unit fizzled a final report, as a construct buzz saw cut through it, sending sparks shooting through it’s eyes and mouth, as the internal mechanisms failed in the path of pure willpower energy.

“How you holding up kid?” Katma was barely audible over the din of the rapidly cracking Manhunter offensive in from of them. Looking out of the corner of her eye, she could see for herself that Kyle was holding up just fine.

The energy flowed out of Kyle’s body easily, almost fluidly, lacing it’s way through the swarm of androids that poured down onto them. The hot energy flowed from his fingers, as the raw muscle of the Central Power Battery cut through the legions of Manhunters like a hot knife through butter.

As Katma was transfixed by the immense power wielded by Ion, the regiment focused on her had formed a loose net around her, and was tightening quickly. She fought as soon as she noticed them moving against her, but there were just too many of them. Overwhelmed, they crushed in on her, as her ring squawked.

”Katma, get down, NOW!

Taking Kyle’s not-so-subtle hint, she blasted a path downward with her ring, and flew downward through the mass of Manhunters that surrounded her. As she looked back over her shoulder, she saw the globe of swarming androids surrounded by a green field, pouring from Ion’s hands.

Before her eyes, the energy tightened the robots into a ball, so tight nothing could move. She felt the waves of heat cascading off of the field, as Ion melted the mass into a giant ball of android. Almost casually holding the ball of molten hot metal aloft, Ion floated over to Katma, as the starfield that signified him using his full power shone on his face.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Katma could barely make out the smile beneath the starfield. She returned a shaky smile, but pointed back planet side.

“What about them?” A fresh contingent of Manhunters rose like locusts beneath them, swarming on to their position. Suddenly, the field around the melted Manhunters gave, as teh mass was pushed towards their approaching attackers, destroying and scattering the lot.

“What about who?” The starfield receded, and Kyle’s wide smile was unmistakable.



“Where are we going?”

“How are we going to escape?”

“What makes you think you can fight?”

“Okay, stop.” The recently freed beneath Oa’s surface all froze, as Vix’s voice echoed through the tunnel. “The man leading us is one of the bravest in the history of the Green Lantern Corps, and if he and they are here, that means we can be free again. It means we are armed with more than just dreams of a rescue, we’re armed with hope. And if we can funnel our will into that hope, then we can get out of here, and take back what these monsters tried to steal from us forever! When we get to the armory, grab the nearest weapon, and head to the surface, and join in our Lantern brethren in standing up to the Manhunters!”

The tunnel erupted again, this time in cheers, and happily moved forward as their leader brought them closer and closer to their destination: the center of Oa.

“We’re here.” Salaak lowered his ring hand, having led the way, guided only by the light of his ring and his memory of the labyrinths of Oa. With great effort, he pulled open the double doors, and the prisoners flooded into the former home of the Guardians, picking up blasters and melee weapons as they ran. Vix found himself beside Salaak, his former commanding officer in the Corps.

“Hell of a speech you gave back there, Vix.” Salaak extended a hand, which Vix gladly took and shook.

“Well, we’re in for a hell of a fight up there.” Vix reached for the nearest blaster rifle, thumbing the slide to check the charge. “And we’re going to need all the help we can get.” As he turned to leave the munitions bay, one of Salaak’s arms grabbed his shoulder.

“I agree.” Another one of Salaak’s slender arms snaked into a pocket in his jacket, retrieving another power ring. “Which is why you’ll need this...Lantern Partoo.”

Nodding solemnly, Vix slipped on the ring, dropped his blaster, and flew off into battle alongside his fellow Corpsmen.



Kilowog had trained countless Lanterns on the fields of Oa. He had helped produce some of the finest members of the Corps for years, and his willpower was legend throughout the ranks of those who would protect the universe. For the first time in his years of service to the Guardians, he found himself in an unfamiliar situation.

He was getting his ass handed to him.

This ain’t good. Kilowog was braced now against the same barracks that had hosued his many charges over the years. As he peaked around the building, he found that he had lost his pursuer. Maybe he realized all his tin men were gettin’ pounded on? Or maybe he’s distracted by Salaak and them comin’ through the Citadel? Or maybe the Code Zero...

A fantastically strong fist grabbed him about his large Bolovixian neck, and lifted him off the ground. He felt the wall of the barracks crack under the force of Krona slamming him. His bloodied and broken body was nearly limp in the hands of his captor.

“What’s the matter Oan dog? Can’t focus to operate your precious ring?” Krona snarled. “Too much pain to let you stand alone?”

Twin energy blasts came from nowhere, blasting the unsuspecting Krona miles away.

“Then it is quite fortuitous he does not have to.” Salaak and Vix caught the slumping Kilowog before he could hit the ground.

“Nice save,” the feeble voice of the head Corps instructor was barely audible. “Nice to see you’re back in the game, Lantern Partoo.”

“Nice to be back, old friend. Now, are we ready to finish this fight?”

“Don’t...dunno what good I’ll be in the fight.” Though standing on his own now, Kilowog was clearly worse for wear.

“You do not have to.” Salaak’s many arms flew across a construct computer that he had generated. “Tomar Re is awaiting your assistance in the Citadel.” In the distance, the three Lanterns could make out Krona’s figure removing itself from the rubble, dark energy swirling at his fists.

“We’ve got this.” Vix patted his old friend on the back. “Go, hurry!”

With that, Kilowog took flight, headed back to the citadel, passing over the legions of armed resistance fighters that Salaak had gathered.

“Hold the line ol’ friend.”



“How much longer can we do this?” Kyle called over the din of exploding androids and energy bursts.

“As long as we have to!” Katma cried out, as three beams flared from her ring, ripping through another front of Manhunters. With Ion as close to her as he was, her ring consistently recharged while she battled, but even she had begun to grow weary.

“This is nuts.” Ion burned the metallic flesh from another dozen androids. “For every one we drop, another five...” Kyle’s eyes rolled back in his head, unable to finish his sentence. Losing consciousness and altitude, the energy plume around him vanished, as he entered a freefall from the upper atmosphere.

“By the Guardians,” Katma muttered as she flew after him. “What else can go wrong?”



“Can things get any slaggin’ worse?” Beams slammed into Krona’s unmoving form, both the blaster fire from the resistance, and blasts from the power rings of the Green Lanterns. Vix was pushing his willpower to the limits, hitting the universal despot with everything he had, as Salaak did the same beside him.

Their target remained unmoved in the face of their onslaught, a slow smile creeping across his face. Pathetic fools. They truly know not of the force they attempt to curtail. It is time I remind them. And with a snap of his fingers, Krona did just that.

The dark energies erupted with the simple snap, quieting every blaster, even through the shield hastily erected by the Lanterns. Each member of the resistance was knocked back, as though punched, and even Salaak and Vix found keeping their footing problematic.

“Dealing with you Lanterns has it’s purpose,” Krona’s voice boomed. “But your rank and file are mere fodder for my Manhunters.”

Confident that Ion and Katma were keeping the main processing plant for the Manhunters more than busy, Salaak fought back a smile.

“Do you not realize that my reach is far beyond a simple plant?” Krona closed his eyes, and the very foundations of Oa began to tremble. “Arise my Mankillers. Arise, and destroy the interlopers.”

The outer crust of Oa cracked, and out swarmed the nanobot Mankillers, assimilating all in their path, until a fleet of Manhunters surrounded the resistance in the blink of an eye.

“No man escapes.”



“So good of you to join me Kilowog.” Tomar Re’s eyes never left the console he had parked himself in front of, the only light in the small room generated by his ring, casting an eerie glow over them both. “You are much needed here.”

“Well, I’d rather be up there, fightin to take back this planet. If I’d have been stronger, I could be back on the front lines.” He pounded his fist into an open hand. “No offense Tomar.”

“Why would I be offended Lantern Kilowog?” The beaked Lantern had still yet to avert his eyes from the task at hand. “While our brethren distract Krona and the Manhunters above the surface, the true vehicle of victory is in our hands.”

“Yeah, well, I hope my little back up plan holds up...wait, what?” Kilowog raised his eyebrows, finally processing what Tomar Re had said. “You mean...”

“Indeed.” Tomar turned, eyes reflecting the green glow from both he and Kilowog’s rings. “We’re the duck. They’re the decoy. Now, if I can just...”

The console exploded, showering them both in sparks.

“DAMMIT TOMAR!” Kilowog’s famous temper roared at his friend. “That’s always been your problem. You’re too busy trying to FEEL the answer, and not enough time getting to the bottom of how it does what it does.” His willpower flowed out of the ring, overtaking Tomar’s control over the open diodes.

“No, Kilowog,” Tomar Re’s smile stretched across his beak. “I felt that the best way to offend and inspire the greatest technological mind in the Corps was to look as inept as possible.”

Kilowog’s features softened at the revelation of his friend’s trickery.

“Tomar, there might be hope for you yet, ol buddy.”



Things were not going well.

Scores of the recently liberated were falling before the Manhunters, even in the face of their weapons form the Guardians armoires and the power of two Lanterns, the sheer numbers of the situation were looking grim.

As fast as the Lanterns and their forces would drop one android, the Mankiller nanobots would generate 3 more from the ruins of the very same Manhunters they had just destroyed. Salaak brought his ring to his mouth, and his voice rang into the ears of the assembled liberators of Oa.

“Fall back, we must consolidate our numbers. Lanterns Kilowog and Tomar require more time. Get behind our shields, and I guarantee that any loss will NOT be in vain. That we--”

Salaak’s ring flashed brightly, as a new voice replaced his own. A familiar voice.

“Belay that command.”

Jordan. Salaak was less than excited.

“No one else dies here today. We will fight, and we will win. Because that’s what we do. Because it’s who we are...”

All eyes searched the sky above for the source of the voice, but the ash and dirt from the battle obscured their view. Almost on cue, a blinding streak of green cut through the darkness and the light of Oa’s sun bathed the field so scarred by battle. Hal Jordan roared overhead, his afterburner wake burning away the Manhunters and their nanobot aides, flimsily thrown up shields being the only thing to protect Salaak, Vix, and their assembled forces.

“THE CORPS!”

Badge flashing brightly, Hal slammed headfirst into Krona, knocking the despot off of his feet, and driving him into a mountain in the distance. Backing off his assault slightly, he paused to regard his opponent.

Krona was smiling ear to ear.

“The circle is almost complete.” Still smiling, he unleashed a wave of pure entropic energy at Hal, burning him through his shield. “Now, the endgame can begin.”



“Typical,” he muttered to himself, as he stretched his fingers out, opening his palm and closing it again. His hand ached, he’d pushed himself harder than he had ever done before, but now it was his turn. “Always having to make a big entrance. £$%^ing Highball.”

A sharp voice suddenly filled his ear. “We’re waiting for your signal, Warrior.”

He turned back to the hundreds of space craft behind him, Rannian, Khundian, Throneworld, dozens of types, and grinned. “Alright, Dox, calm down. Are you ready to rumble?”

“Excuse me?” Vril Dox shook his head, and turned to the images of the other ship captains that filled his computer screens. “I have--”

“Nevermind! Ok, you all have your co-ordinates, you know which factories we need to strike at and we know the power generators that need taking out. We all have our orders, so let’s get to it. Let’s make one hell of an entrance…”

Guy Gardner grinned from ear to ear as he shot through Oa’s upper atmosphere, his velocity combined with the temperature he had applied to his outer aura liquefying the Manhunter’s metallic shells. Behind him, a fleet of ships exploded down artillery on their targets, and the Manhunters suddenly had to revaluate their targets. They divided off, a swarm of the red and blue creations shooting up into space, whilst the others doubled with efforts against the ring-less Lanterns, cutting down their numbers in hordes. Guy grimaced as yellow whips tore the Manhunter units focusing on him to shreds. They were being overwhelmed.

“Well look who decided to show up and lend a hand,” an emerald shield was thrown up at Guy’s back as a Manhunter went for the kill, and Guy spun around at the last moment to decapitate it.

“Highball?!”

Guy searched for his saviour, the voice dissipating in his head, when it returned, this time much duller than before, less focused: “Bit… busy… but… watch… your back!”

Guy shook his head, and kept thinking up new constructs, his aura targeting the specific alloy comprising the Manhunters, and sending a beam of anti-matter into their circuits, rendering them explosively inert. “And here’s me thinking they were kidding when they said war was hell.” Guy spotted Hal Jordan across the ruins, battling a massive blue monstrosity, black hair and a burnt cape whistling at his back. So that’s Krona, thought Guy to himself. He doesn’t look so-- Hal’s obvious enemy was throwing punches faster than Guy’s eyes could follow, so Guy slowed his perceptions down with his ring, running his defences on autopilot, and he saw the pain on Highball’s face. --Tough. The black aura around Krona’s fists was cracking violently against the shields erected against the blows, and the thing was, Guy could tell they were inflicting.

“Highball--” He summoned all his thoughts, and every single jet engine he had ever used to reach toward the stars back on Earth materialised in glistening yellow on his back. He pushed the trigger that formed in his hand, and he catapulted himself toward the battling figures. “--Go limp.” Guy hit Krona hard, caused the intergalactic despot to stumble, but then looked up as the villain looked down at him, anger on his face. “Oh, shi--”

Krona’s tone was one of quiet indignation: “You aren’t supposed to be here.”

Guy didn’t know how he ended up half a world away, barely conscious, Manhunters swarming over him. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. And when he vanished under a tidal wave of the red and blue killing machines, he couldn’t even think to scream.



Kyle’s eyes shot open. “I’m burning myself out.” He reignited the flame of his powers, and stopped his freefall, and waved his hand at Katma “I’m ok, I’m ok, we’ve got a job to do.” She nodded in recognition, and Ion rejoined her, high in the sky.

“Your uniform has changed.”

Kyle looked down at himself, his costume now white and green, no black visible.

“Weird.”

“You don’t say,” retorted Katma sarcastically.

Kyle laughed slowly, and then raised his hand to the oncoming hordes of the Manhunters.

“Alright, want to see a magic trick?”

“Kyle, your powers…”

“No, I can do this. Every time I use them, the stronger I get, you know? So, if it was easy for me to do last time--”

“It wasn’t!” snapped Katma.

“--Then it’ll be easy to do this time!” He moved his hand from left to right, and the atoms of the Manhunters disassembled, and with the closing of his fist, he scattered what was left of the Manhunters across Oa. “See? And if I disperse their atoms, the Mankillers won’t be able to retrieve them as fast. Now let’s blow up that factory.”



Adam Strange wasn’t used to fighting side by side with allies. He was the lone hero of Rann, and to be backed up by not only LEGION but the fleet of Throneworld and many more, was a dizzying experience. That being said, he was used to fighting in oxygenated conditions, and right now, above Oa, he was battling killer cyborgs against a backdrop of pure black. “How are we doing?”

“As well as can be expected on a suicide mission, Strange. We’re getting slaughtered.”

“Such an optimist, Dox. King Gavyn? Blake? Anyone with anything less depressing to say?”

“Readings from the surface show that the main production factory has just been taken out, sir,” came the reply of one of the General of Throneworld’s forces, Rikane. “The tide could very well be turning--”



“Finally!” Kilowog’s voice reverberated through the tiny room he and Tomar had been working in. “It was touch and go, didn’t know if the ring could keep up with the nano resequencing that I was tryin’...I mean, alotta this stuff is theoretical in nature, but it worked it really...”

“Excellent. This will certainally slow the production of these accursed androids.”

As Kilowog started to respond, the celing above them seemed to fly apart into a million pieces, as it’s atoms were sent flying in all directions, leaving the two Lanterns staring up at the sky, and a blinding green light staring back at them. As the glow subsided, the figure of Ion, flanked by two others, was clear to them.

“If we slowed it Tomar,” Kilowog breathed. “Then it’s safe to say our torchbearer stopped them in their tracks.” Taking to the sky, they joined their fellow Lanterns.

“Kat, you’re alive!” Kilowog erupted in happiness, hugging one of his favourite pupils almost to pieces. Tomar Re turned to the other Lantern with them.

“Another Earth Lantern?” He stuck out his hand curiously, and Hank took it with the slightest hesitation, as Tomar was the least-humanoid Lantern he had met yet...until he turned and saw Kilowog.

“So,” Hank swallowed. “What now?”

“We fight.” All four Lanterns turned to see Ion floating in front of them, eyes closed. “Hal is hurt, Salaak and the resistance are in trouble. You four need to help them.”

“What about you kiddo?” Kilowog could hardly believe the certainty and steadiness in his voice. He thought back to the day they picked up the young man from Earth, and drafted him to their fight. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to Krona.” His eyes snapped open, shining an otherworldly green. “This ends today.”



Hal’s head snapped back, as his forcefield barely held of the might of Krona’s blows. As he flitted in and out of consciousness, he could barely make out the flash of green over Krona’s shoulder. He managed a small smile, a small flicker of hope...that was quickly and violently snuffed out.

Faster than should have been possible, Krona spun and grabbed the approaching Green Lantern by the neck. Regarding Vix Partoo, a look of disgust passed over the fallen Guardian’s face as he spat:

“Pathetic worm.”

Hal’s eye’s involuntarily slammed shut as Krona flexed his arm, snapping the newly rechristened Lantern’s neck.

<Ring status report. Green Lantern 4 deceased.>

The moment hung in time, as the power ring flew off of his finger, levitating for a moment.

<Space sector 4 scan for—

The ring was silenced as Krona took it in his fist, and crushed the most powerful weapon in the universe into dust.

“No more. No more mercy, no more games, no more rings.” Black energy swirled around Krona’s form. “This ends now.” As he reached back to deliver the finishing blow, he was shocked to see Hal Jordan vanish from his view.

“You’re right.” Krona turned once again, to see the remaining Corps standing in opposition, a wounded Hal Jordan teleported to their side by Ion, whose eyes tightened to slits.

“This ends now.”

TO BE CONCLUDED IN TWO WEEKS TIME!