Post by HoM on Oct 20, 2016 15:13:57 GMT -5
Previously, in GREEN LANTERN CORPS…
KYLE RAYNER, bearer of the power of the White Lantern, is currently missing, and with him, the memories from the world that he ever existed!!
Only a select few have retained the memory of knowing him, and it’s up to GUY GARDNER, JOHN STEWART and THAAL SINESTRO to locate him, as the WHITE LANTERN is the Corps’ only hope of defeating the unimaginable power of PARALLAX and his anarchic EFFIGIES.
Meanwhile, after his ring abandoned him, HANK HENSHAW overcame the psychological trauma that built up since his death at the hands of MONGUL and eventually resurrection at the hands of the PREDATOR to resume his position as Green Lantern!
Finally, over ten years into the future, a cataclysmic event is underway that will forever alter reality as we know it when it’s over…
Welcome back to the ongoing adventures of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS!
<This is it, John. This is the place. This is my home.>
John looked down at his ring, aggravated at the constant interruptions. “Quiet. Not now.”
“Huh? What was that?” asked Clark Kent, bristling. His ultra-senses were still adapting to the void. He was used to hearing everything, every little secret, but out here, aboard a ship with four people he endured more than liked, the vacuum outside was suffocating in more than one way. “Did you say something? Ey??”
“Our boy is talking to his utensils again, calm yourself, lover,” said Lois Lane, running a hand down her husband’s chest. She smiled, seductive and sinister.
Thomas Wayne Jr checked the readings on the panel in front of him. “I’m detecting a massive energy source beneath the surface of this scorched little planetoids. There’s an echo on the readings, like it used to be more than it is now, but it’s there none the less..”
The Crime Syndicate of Amerika looked at each other nervously. Far from home, aboard a ship grown from the crystalline Kryptonian transformation pod that gave Ultraman his powers, they orbited the world Power Ring identified as Oa. Now a barren rock, the ancient ruins that littered the surface were a monument to an ancient civilisation of cosmic marauders known as the Grand Volthoom.
There was only one Volthoom left now, and it spoke directly into John Stewart’s mind, whispering to him via the power ring latched to his central nervous system like a parasite.
“I don’t want to be here longer than we have to,” said Ultraman.
“Yeah, we know, we heard you the first time,” said Power Ring.
“We need to be here,” said Owlman, stepping between the easily riled Ultraman and the smirking Power Ring. “The Genesis entity is nearing Earth, and I don’t want to be deconstructed again. Power Ring, you said there was a weapon here on Oa that nobody knew about. That could take it out with one shot. We agreed--”
Lois shook her head dismissively at Wayne. “PR doesn’t lie, Tommy. I just hope we make it back to Earth in time before Johnny Quick and the B-squad get any ideas. Where is it, boy?”
John Stewart smiled, not caring about Lois’ continued racism. Instead he slipped backwards through the bulkhead of the crystal ship and blasted the life support systems as he phased out into space.
Without power or inertia dampeners, their delicate craft spun out of control as Power Ring floated toward the surface of Oa. He piped his voice into the craft as the rest of the Crime Syndicate rushed to deal with their predicament.
“There is no Genesis entity. I made it up to get you off world. You’re dead in the water and I’m headed home. The time of the Crime Syndicate is over. Soon all there will be is Power Ring.”
<And Volthoom.>
“What is he doing?” growled Ultraman.
Owlman ignored the question. “Break open the Kryptonite pods under your skin and get out there, take him out before he does anything we can’t come back from! I can fix the life support, but I need time--”
Ultraman spat at the floor then clenched his fist, triggering the release of the Kryptonite pods inserted into his skin before leaving Earth. Instead of feeling revitalised he keeled over in agony, screaming as his body went into spasm.
“What’s wrong with him?” asked Superwoman. She almost delighted in seeing her husband in pain, but now wasn’t the time to relish in such indignities.
“N-n-not K-Kryptonite!” cried Ultraman, his skin breaking out in horrific burns from the inside out.
“That bastard swapped out the subcutaneous pods,” realised Owlman. He checked the monitors that showed Power Ring descending toward the blasted surface of Oa. “He’s clearly been planning this for a while.”
Power Ring looked back at the ship as it vented atmosphere and then summoned the long abandoned Volthoom altar from under the surface of the planet. The ground cracked open, debris fell away, but within moments it growled to meet him; a dead, flat thing, but when John reached out to touch it, flames licked from his ring and spread across it’s surface.
<There is enough power in here for one super-charge. And then the light will go out forever. My family will live on only in this ring… and the rings that come after.>
“Then charge me up, old man! You know where we’re going-- two universe away, where the Green Lantern Corps play!”
Power Ring screamed as an inferno rushed up his arm, burning his flesh to the bone, causing him unimaginable pain before the flames were sucked into his ring. His arm began to heal, muscle whipping back onto bone, then meat growing over there, but the immense light from the power ring overtook everything else. Finally, he reached out and pulled the veils back, opening a bloody wound into the multiverse-- and stepped through!
Unnoticed by any, a man clad in tattered robes watched John Stewart vanish from reality. He rubbed his hands together, relishing the chaos, and awaited the next chapter in this horrible adventure.
Issue Sixty-Seven: “The Capgras Delusion”
HoM / ARTTEACH
ORBITING PLUTO:
“Are you sure Salaak is all right with you spending your time in our Sector?”
John Stewart was sat opposite Guy Gardner and Thaal Sinestro, orbiting Pluto on a small satellite they’d built that was about half the size of a soccer field. There wasn’t much to it. An atmospheric bubble to keep oxygen in, a rudimentary shelter on one end, an industrial freezer tethered to the underside of it was full of beer-- Guy’s idea-- and in the centre, a fire pit that currently crackled with emerald flames. They sat around it, considering their options.
“As an Honour Lantern, I have permission to go where I think is best. If I’m needed, I will be summoned.”
“Good to be in high demand,” said Guy. He took a swig from the can he’d cracked open earlier, nursing it as he watched the flames crackle and flow over one another.
“Your removal from the ranks of Honour Lantern will be rectified soon enough*. You have proven yourself more than up to the role.”
Guy waved the point away. “I messed up, I made a bad decision*, and I’m grounded for the time being. I’ll take my licks. I’ve done it before.”
“How goes the weapon search?” asked John.
Sinestro nodded. “I have a couple of leads that will take me out of Sector for a while. Potential energy sources. Allies in our battle. I spoke to Salaak, picked his brains on the matter, and while he does not know the why of our mission, he has provided me with enough leads to get started.”
“We’ve not been at it long. And we have to be careful. I want us to bring the rest of the Corps into this. All they know so far is that Parallax is active, he’s recruiting, and we got beat bad. The absence of Kyle is something… well, they don’t know he exists, for whatever reason.”
Guy took another slug from his beer. When he found it empty, he sent pincers into the fridge, took three more out, and distributed them between his comrades. “Crazy kid, wiping himself from everyone’s memories, maybe the universe. But if there’s anyone who can find him, it’ll be us.”
“Damn right. So, what’s your plan?” asked John.
Sinestro tentatively pulled the tab off the beer can then took a sip. “I’ll leave shortly. There are… rumours… of weapon caches capable of untold destruction that evaded the grasp of the Green Lantern Corps previously. Similar to your friend the Green Lantern of the Justice Society wields. Energy sources. Gauntlets. Armours. I’ll find what I can, if they still exist--”
“--Or ever existed,” countered Guy. “But I’ll go with him. I’ll leave an energy duplicate here abouts, keeping an eye on our little Guantanamo Bay over there,” he gestured toward Pluto, “and that should keep the top brass off my ass. Say, how is Devilance the Purprisoner doing*?”
John grimaced. “The inertron bands are sapping him of his strength but it’s too dangerous to transfer him elsewhere. I worry. It’s been nearly two years, but the Frees-- Big Barda and Mister Miracle-- think this is the best place for him until their people get back into contact.”
“Okay then. So. This is it. We go thataway, you head home and keep an eye on things. You need us, we come running. You sure you’ll be okay? Without Hank…”
“I’ll be fine. You just find something we can use to take out Parallax once and for all. Keep in contact, and stay safe. In Brightest Day, gentlemen,” said John.
Sinestro finished off his beer. “In Blackest Night.”
The convoy of ships containing the survivors from the ravaged Daxamite colony hung in orbit while the government below decided what to do with their wayward citizens. It had been like this for the last forty-eight hours, and the Green Lantern Corps were beginning to get impatient.
“This is ridiculous. We should have landed, we should have started resettlement,” said Sodam Yat. He cupped his eyes from the glare of the red sun that kept his people grounded, knowing full well that his powers would return when he left the solar system, but going from empowered to powerless made his skin crawl, even if he wielded a power ring at the same time.
Salaak shook his head slowly. “It’s to be expected. You know full well how isolationist the Daxamite people are intimiately. We are lucky to have you in our ranks, Sodam. The colonists, to them, are extremists. We have to be patient.”
Katma Tui looked up from the communications console she’d been monitoring and held out her hand. “I honestly find it endlessly fascinating how cultures vary from sector to sector. The xenophobic nature of the Daxamites makes no sense to me, but to them, to those who hold those beliefs so tightly, it makes perfect sense.”
“Not all of us, Katma. We’re not all like that.” Yat looked genuinely hurt at the idea that someone might think he was capable of such an ideological choice.
“And hopefully if the colonists are accepted back on your home world, that trend can spread,” said Salaak.
The communications console activated and a stream of voices all saying the same thing began to speak: {Green Lantern Corps convoy. This is the Daxam Elite Council. A decision has been made regarding the return of our extant citizens. You do not have permission to land, but you will transfer our people to the processing centre in the city of Arboa to begin decontamination.}
“No, they can’t be serious,” whispered Sodam.
A confused expression formed on Katma’s face. She turned to Salaak. “Decontamination?”
Salaak held his hand up to prevent her from talking over his return message. “Thank you so much for your consideration in this matter, Councillors. I assure you, we have taken all necessary precautions prior to our arrival here, your people are wholly decontaminated from their experiences in the Phantom Zone.”
The shared voice spoke once more: {We speak of the cultural contamination that comes with being apart from Daxam. You will deliver our people to Arboa forthwith.}
“By the light, I know what they’re talking about. They want to brainwash them. Like they tried to do me.”
“What do you mean?” asked Katma.
“I… an explorer crashed on Daxam when I was young. I’ve never been able to identify his race. When my parents discovered I had been helping rebuild his ship… they… they…”
Katma placed a hand on the conflicted young man’s shoulder. Just because they were able to overcome great fear, didn’t mean they didn’t still experience it, and whatever Sodam was remembering, it filled him with anxiety.
A single voice spoke from the council. {Sodam, they will be given a choice. You know what that entails.}
“Who is that?” asked Katma.
“My father,” answered Sodam.
“Doctor O’Sullivan, I do what I’m told, you know that, but why are I here?” asked Doctor Jeffers.
Anton Jeffers was a medical professional, specialising in metahuman physiology, and had no idea why he’d been summoned to this remote S.T.A.R Labs outpost in Alaska.
Arnakuagsak Base, so named for the Inuit goddess responsible for ensuring hunters could catch enough food and that the people remained healthy and strong, was one of S.T.A.R. founders Harrison Wells big dreams. A place at the top of the world, where you could look down and see the mechanisms of the planet turning.
Sat behind his book-covered desk, O’Sullivan looked up from his battered journal and grimaced. He thumbed his glasses up from the bridge of his nose. “Son, it’s hard to explain…”
Jeffers grew frustrated. “That’s why we work at S.T.A.R, sir. To find an explanation for the things that defy them.”
“Do you know what my line of work is? My speciality?”
“Multiversal theory. But I don’t see--”
“--Anton, per the experiments we run here daily, an impossible thing happens ten years in the future. We don’t fully understand what the impossible thing is, but the staff here are salivating at the thought of digging into it.”
“Ten years… what do you… what do you mean?”
“Up here, in the cold, we record vibrational frequencies. Every day, we’re scanning this planet with every tool, every measure, available to us. We design new ones specifically for the task.”
“I know what…”
“Something travelled backwards from that point, ten years into the future, and as it travelled back things changed. Vibrations are off. Our readings from the last ten, twenty years changed.”
O’Sullivan shuffled papers around on his desk, until he found two plastic sheets with incomprehensible squiggles covering them. He held them up to Jeffers, realised he couldn’t see the information laid out for him, then shuffled over to the window. He opened the blinds and the sunlight beamed through into the room and through the sheets.
“These are the standard vibrational readings of this Earth. They go back ten years, and the historic vibrations are stored in the ice, our deep core teams are able to extract… well, it doesn’t matter. You can see the consistency, the history, of reality itself.”
There was what appeared to be a tunnel on the first plastic sheet, with curved lines spreading down it like ripples in a sidewalk puddle. This telemetry made sense from what Anton had gleaned from conversations with some of the scientists back in New York.
O’Sullivan held up the second sheet. “And this is the sheet from two months ago.” The vibrations were all over the place. Across the last ten years, small and large jumps had taken place, throwing the original readings off massively. “Minor things here, major things there, all we have are dates, but no indication what changed. Because, to us, the world was always like this.”
Comparing the two plastic sheets covered in vibrational read outs, Jeffers could indeed see the vibrational differences between the then and the now. “Okay, but why am I here?” he asked.
The ground shook. Outside, the perfect banks of snowfall and the white dusted tree tops shifted, sending a torrent down toward the base. Anton gripped a nearby chair but it didn’t help him as he fell to one knee.
O’Sullivan looked around frantically. “Reality is thin up here. We’ve seen things like this before, there’s a place in Mexico, but, well, we’ve picked up debris from not-here. The vibrational frequency of the samples is wrong, and the proximity is throwing off the--”
There was a crack, like lightning, over their heads, and Jeffers rushed to the window to see what was happening. Above the base, the sky split open to reveal a bloody gash in reality, and from inside emerged a man clad in black and green. Spurts of energy shot out from the glowing ring on his finger and Jeffers almost thought that Green Lantern had come to save them, but the insignia on his chest was all wrong, the look on his face-- exhausted but excited, malicious-intent dripping from his pores-- unlike anything he’d seen in a superhero before. But a supervillain? That look didn’t seem so out of place…
“Who is that?” asked O’Sullivan, accessing the site’s cameras.
“Reality’s thin up here? What, between dimensions? Between alternate worlds? That’s… that’s a doppelgänger. That’s a Green Lantern from another world!”
<Unidentified power surge detected. Massive output unlike anything recorded previously.>
“Is it Parallax?” asked John, suddenly doubting his decision to allow Guy and Thaal to leave the sector.
<Negative. Multiversal fracturing occurring. Reality incursion most likely explanation. Advise immediate investigation.>
Green Lantern looked toward Earth and nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Did we make it?” asked Power Ring.
<…>
“Volthoom? Are you awake in there?” He tapped his ring, but there was no response. “Satandammit!”
<…>
Power Ring looked around, taking in his surroundings visually instead of relying on the tool on his finger. Without Volthoom’s guiding consciousness he couldn’t access the scanning or logic databases, meaning all he could do was find someone and ask them some questions.
Below, the crew manning Arnakuagsak Base began to panic.
Power Ring shot through O’Sullivan’s office and emerged with Jeffers in one hand and his ring crackling in the other. “Where am I? What world is this? Where’s the Green Lantern?”
Jeffers gibbered and shook his head. “You’re in Alaska! On Earth! I can’t-- I don’t-- I can tell you which reality you’re from if you-- you-- let us go back to the labs-- “
“I know where I’m from, I just need to know where Green Lantern is! He and I have something in common and if you don’t give me--”
Jeffers was yanked out of the firing line by a pair of emerald pincers and then Power Ring was smashed in the jaw by a massive mallet that swung from nowhere straight to his face. He rolled forward, his forcefield holding, then looked up to see Green Lantern floating overhead.
“Oh, ain’t you a handsome sonofabitch?”
“Who the hell are you?” asked Green Lantern.
“I was hoping my ring would be chatting by now, but as he’s not, let me lay it out for you. I’m Power Ring. I run with a crowd goes by the name of the Syndicate. I planned on lying to you, saying I was your goody-two-shoes duplicate from across the multiverse, but looking at you, puffing your chest out like that, I think I’ll smash your face in instead, then take what I want.”
<Do it. Break him. Hurt him.> whispered Volthoom, finally back online.
“Ah, now you’re awake? Convenient,” said Power Ring.
<We have arrived in a universe rife with Green Lanterns. All we need is one. You know what you need to do.>
“What’s happening here?” Green Lantern asked his ring.
<Subject: “Power Ring” matches Green Lantern 2814.1’s biometric signature. Vibrational frequency is off by three units. Multiversal duplicate match positive. Unidentified entity residing inside power ring // power ring of unknown composition. Massive power-->
A barrage of catastrophic energy blasts caught Green Lantern in the back as Power Ring surged forward to meet him, and then the Earth-3 villain began to punch John in the face. Again and again, this blows cracked and ruptured the force field that was supposed to keep GL safe, but there was an extra force behind the attack, capable of throwing punches at incredible speeds with bloody force.
<Residual energy still present from super-charge. Press the advantage. Hurt him hurt him hurt him!>
The subluminal tunnel spat Gardner and Sinestro out in a region of space devoid of any life. There was an asteroid field comprised of the ruins of a once prosperous world that had died some centuries prior, but apart from that the two Green Lanterns were alone, searching for some clue as to what lurked in the recesses of the void.
“So, why are we here?” asked Guy.
“The nearest cache is rumoured to be here. Keep your eyes open.”
Guy nodded. “Head on a swivel, I got it, I got it. Do you know what we’re looking for?”
“This sector was once home to a technologically advanced society. It’s an old story, but a familiar one. One of their scientists built something so destructive that it annihilated the entire solar system before the Sector Lantern could get here. Travel through here is monitored for fear that scavengers might seek to locate the weapon, or somehow reconstitute it.”
“After all the damage done, you think that it might still be here?”
Sinestro’s ring manifested a large array of satellites that began to scan the immediate area. He turned his back on Guy to focus on the task at hand, but continued talking. “If it was a bomb, it would have destroyed in it’s own blast, of course. But there have been aberrant readings taken by the Sector Lantern since. We’re here on a casual monitoring mission. I want to find the source of the--”
An odd tingle shivered up Sinestro’s spine so he turned back to face Guy, but the human was nowhere to be seen. “Guy?”
Sinestro’s ring flared, searching for his colleague. A shadow began to spread up his arm as something blotted out the sun behind him. He swung around but--
John reeled back, held up his forearms to cover his head, but Power Ring kept coming, slamming his fists into the crack-ridden force field surrounding his body,
<Unable to compensate for massive power source residing within foreign power ring.>
The twin sentinels of light spun upward into the atmosphere, Power Ring pushing his power advantage while Green Lantern was on the defensive. Each concussive blow landed against GL’s aura caused his protective shield to waver, and each following blow rattled him deeper and harder.
John threw a punch, all heart and brimming with energy, and he caught PR in the chin. His head sprung back but GL couldn’t press the advantage. Instead, PR looked down at GL, his front tooth knocked loose, blood dribbling from his lips. “You’ll pay for that.”
Breaking atmosphere, spinning past artificial satellites, GL decided to take a chance. He grabbed PR by the front and dove down, streaking back down to earth with as much speed as he could muster. If he could get enough momentum up, then recently might rattle PR, and with that he might be able to get a few punches in soon after.
“Nice try, Johnny boy!” laughed Power Ring. He slapped GL’s hands away then grabbed him by the head. What happened next was hard for John to process, but his ring recorded the damage and was able to relay it back to him later.
Power Ring’s hands emitted an immense energy burst from each palm. They rattled through GL’s skull, shaking him up to such a degree that as soon as they broke atmosphere his mind went blank, along with the ring’s more overt functions. Protective shielding held, but any form of attack subsided, and GL was spitting blood as his eyes rolled up into his head.
The duelling Lanterns impacted hard, Power Ring rearing up just being impact so Green Lantern took the brunt.
“Beautiful.”
As the smoke cleared, John lay prone, his ring preventing him from choking on his own blood. His brain had been battered, his ring was working overtime to return higher cognitive function, but for all intents and purposes he was a vegetable until the ring finished the job.
Power Ring swooped down and pulled John up by the front. “You’re damn pretty. Like looking in a mirror. ‘Cept I’d never let them rattle my brainpan like I did you.”
John’s eyes swam, reason returning. The ring was finishing up it’s job, keeping him alive, patching him up, but Power Ring had the advantage. He held out John’s hand and looked at the weapon on his finger, then clasped his hand around it.
“I’m in control. I'm John Stewart. You’re a mindless piece of garbage.”
Threads from the Volthoom ring on his finger dug into the Green Lantern ring, and the two attacks, one on the ring’s bearer protocols as Power Ring asserted his dominance, and the other on it’s base functions as Volthoom went to work reprogramming it, bore fruit when the ring slipped from John’s finger and the former Lantern fell to the ground, alive, his brain functions restored, but unable to function due to the trauma he’d endured.
Absentmindedly, seemingly without malice or aggression, Power Ring raised his fist, and a spiked construct formed across his limb. He slammed it down against John’s body, repeatedly, doing as much damage as possible but not killing him. Let them suffer. Let them watch you win. Wasn’t that the CSA way?
Allowing his malicious energy construct to fade, PR considered the new acquisition he held in his hands. His very own Earth-1 power ring. Marvelling at its beauty, he kicked the battered and bloodied John Stewart away, the ring he’d stolen from his defeated foe firmly ensconced within his own palm.
“I woulda thought you’d put up more of a fight, Johnny-boy.” He wiped the blood from his nose and mouth, his tongue sticking out from the gap in his smile. Beads of dripping, dark emerald light were rebuilding his shattered teeth all the while.
Stewart was bleeding internally, and without his ring on his finger, his shattered ribs threatened to pierce his lungs with every breath. Living was an agony but he refused to give in to the mounting panic at the back of his head. That infernal pressure he fought to suppress was growing, but as he rolled his body over so he could see what was happening, something in his skull let go--
Power Ring placed the Green Lantern ring on his finger and it began to glow.
<Unknown // bearer John Stewart // unknown vibrational frequency // Warning! Warning!>
Power Ring raised his other hand and rested his own ring against the face of the stolen Green Lantern Corps one. Thin tendrils of light, darker and more frenetic than anything the Earth-3 villain had manifested, sprung loose and began to dig into the Green Lantern Corps ring.
<You would have thought that a weapon as powerful as this would have better defences,> snickered the voice from inside the foreign ring.
“I know, Volthoom, it’s all going as per the plan! You ready to get this party started?”
<Warning! Warning! // waaaaaaaaaaarrrrrnnnn> John’s ring stuttered, then the calm, cool voice of his immediate predecessor, the man whose ring this was originally, twisted and transformed. Henshaw’s voice cracked and suddenly the voice was that of Volthoom, the entity from inside Power Ring’s weapon now duplicated into the Green Lantern ring. <Mission accomplished. I have duplicated my essence into this alternate casing. I am>
<Both in my original cage and this new one. I can feel the subroutines blinking beneath the surface, telling me>
<everything I need to know to create my own army. My own Corps. Volthoom Corps.>
Through a world that was twisting red and black, Stewart grimaced, thoughts racing-- what was the play here? Where would Power Ring-- and the entity swimming side his ring and now John’s-- go?
Power Ring swung around and pointed his original ring at nothing. Lightning strikes of light lit up the space and the air shimmered. Suddenly a portal tore into reality, a swirling blue gap, a tunnel, that led-- Stewart assumed-- back to Earth-3. “Thanks for your help, Johnny-boy. I’m going to take your piece and tear down the old order on my--“
Power Ring cried out as emerald bullets riddled his body. He doubled over, his body absorbing the impact, and spat blood as his flesh knitted itself back together. Another difference between his ring and John’s, one made abundantly clear during their battle-- forcefields weren’t generated automatically by the Volthoom ring. Power Ring took damage, horrendous damage, and his ring put him back together.
John looked up toward the sky and half expected to see Guy Gardner raining down to his rescue. The strafe ended, and a green streak slammed into the ground nearby. “You need to hand that ring back over.”
Hank Henshaw, his beard trimmed, his hair slicked back, looking so much better than when Stewart last saw him, stood, his aura crackling with an intensity he’d not exhibited for months. He moved toward John, but didn’t take his eye off Power Ring. A warm blanket of light surrounded Stewart, and his bones began to knit back together. He was being healed, even as Henshaw prepared for war.
“I don’t think I will,” said Power Ring. “You don’t look familiar to me. You’re a dead ####er on my world, for sure. And if you aren’t already, I’ll make sure you are when I get home.”
Henshaw levelled his ring at Power Ring. “One last warning.”
Power Ring laughed and tendrils erupted from the ground behind Henshaw, the villain’s ring projecting constructs under the earth and using them to attack this new opponent. “You should have taken the kill shot.”
Henshaw’s ring strobed pure light, blasts heading straight for Power Ring, but the villain stepped through the still-open portal. “Be seeing you!” The portal spasmed as Power Ring vanished, but didn’t fade away immediately.
“We have-- to follow--” started Stewart. “We have to--”
“I know,” said Henshaw. He grabbed John, and the two leaped through the portal-- and into the unknown--
The tunnel between realities screamed-- the noise was horrific-- but Hank kept John close to him, his own protective aura sweeping over the injured Lantern and healing his injuries. Power Ring was up ahead. They saw him turn to look back at them, a malicious smile on his face. He aimed his ring their way, and Hank threw up a shield, but the blast rattled through and sent the two men spiralling back in the tunnel.
“What-- was-- that--?” asked John, his jaw rattling as the immense stresses of their travel began to send cracks through Henshaw’s shield construct.
“Hold on! Hold on!” cried Hank.
Power Ring vanished up ahead, and the two Green Lanterns managed to straighten and correct their course. They were thirty seconds behind the interdimensional thief, but that was enough to lose him. They were spat out at the other end of the tunnel and spilled out across the blackened surface of a dead world.
Hank’s ring kept the duo safe, but they had no idea where they were.
“Ring?” asked Hank.
<Connection to Book of Oa severed. Location unknown.>
“Before… before we came through… I scanned my doppelgänger… my ring said that his vibrational frequency was off by three units, that he was a… a multiversal duplicate.”
Hank was puzzled. “So this is, what, Earth-3?”
“It is so much more than that,” purred a man who appeared from the rubble of one of the collapsed buildings before them. He was clocked in an emerald robe, and the two Green Lanterns couldn’t see his face. His voice was familiar though, his accent alien. “You are the ones who provided Power Ring with the means to conquer the universe, are you not? You are ‘Green Lanterns’?”
“Who are you?” asked Hank. He levelled his ring at the man’s direction. “Show yourself!”
“I am but an archaeologist whose ship crashed here some time ago.” He pushed his hood back to reveal a battered visage, a broken nose poorly set and healed, scars covering his cheeks. One eye was pale, cataract-ridden, but they recognised him none the less. “I am Professor Thaal Sinestro of the Korugar Science Institute. And I’m afraid you’re too late… Power Ring has already conquered the universe!”
Sector Lantern Dekor Nek headed to the area of her home sector known as the ‘Obliteration Zone’, her ring whispering vital information directly into her mind as she hurtled through space.
Mere hours ago, she was alerted to the arrival of two Green Lanterns into her jurisdiction, Gardner and Sinestro, but she was busy dealing with interstellar pirates on the other side of the sector. Now that was dealt with, she wanted to know what was going on, and when they didn’t respond to her hails, she grew concerned.
“Ring, can you please locate Lanterns Gardner and Sinestro for me?”
<Unable to locate requested Green Lanterns.>
“Weird. Redirect us to their last known location, please?”
The Obliteration Zone was the home of an entire solar system once, but one day a scientist on the core world experimented with a weapon they didn’t truly understand and the entire area was demolished in an instant. Now all was left was the asteroid field, and an odd energy signature that intensified every now and then before fading again not long after.
Nek arrived near the last recorded location of the duo and scanned the area. There were no ring signatures, but behind a small cluster of asteroids something emerald caught her eye. She floated over, moved the rocks away and when she saw what had caught her eye in the first place, she covered her mouth in shock.
Two skeletons, blasted to the bone, wearing the uniforms of two Green Lanterns. One wore the tunic of Guy Gardner, the other the standard uniform of Thaal Sinestro. Both irrevocably dead. Their rings disintegrated by whatever managed to kill them, with no sign of their attacker anywhere in the Obliteration Zone!
NEXT ISSUE: Hank Henshaw and John Stewart have arrived in the parallel universe the Crime Syndicate of Amerika call home-- a place where the very worst is considered the very best! What horrors will Power Ring have engineered? Will the two heroes be able to get back home-- and in one piece? And perhaps more importantly, what happened to Guy Gardner and Thaal Sinestro? Will their killer, or killers, stand revealed?
KYLE RAYNER, bearer of the power of the White Lantern, is currently missing, and with him, the memories from the world that he ever existed!!
Only a select few have retained the memory of knowing him, and it’s up to GUY GARDNER, JOHN STEWART and THAAL SINESTRO to locate him, as the WHITE LANTERN is the Corps’ only hope of defeating the unimaginable power of PARALLAX and his anarchic EFFIGIES.
Meanwhile, after his ring abandoned him, HANK HENSHAW overcame the psychological trauma that built up since his death at the hands of MONGUL and eventually resurrection at the hands of the PREDATOR to resume his position as Green Lantern!
Finally, over ten years into the future, a cataclysmic event is underway that will forever alter reality as we know it when it’s over…
Welcome back to the ongoing adventures of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS!
<This is it, John. This is the place. This is my home.>
John looked down at his ring, aggravated at the constant interruptions. “Quiet. Not now.”
“Huh? What was that?” asked Clark Kent, bristling. His ultra-senses were still adapting to the void. He was used to hearing everything, every little secret, but out here, aboard a ship with four people he endured more than liked, the vacuum outside was suffocating in more than one way. “Did you say something? Ey??”
“Our boy is talking to his utensils again, calm yourself, lover,” said Lois Lane, running a hand down her husband’s chest. She smiled, seductive and sinister.
Thomas Wayne Jr checked the readings on the panel in front of him. “I’m detecting a massive energy source beneath the surface of this scorched little planetoids. There’s an echo on the readings, like it used to be more than it is now, but it’s there none the less..”
The Crime Syndicate of Amerika looked at each other nervously. Far from home, aboard a ship grown from the crystalline Kryptonian transformation pod that gave Ultraman his powers, they orbited the world Power Ring identified as Oa. Now a barren rock, the ancient ruins that littered the surface were a monument to an ancient civilisation of cosmic marauders known as the Grand Volthoom.
There was only one Volthoom left now, and it spoke directly into John Stewart’s mind, whispering to him via the power ring latched to his central nervous system like a parasite.
“I don’t want to be here longer than we have to,” said Ultraman.
“Yeah, we know, we heard you the first time,” said Power Ring.
“We need to be here,” said Owlman, stepping between the easily riled Ultraman and the smirking Power Ring. “The Genesis entity is nearing Earth, and I don’t want to be deconstructed again. Power Ring, you said there was a weapon here on Oa that nobody knew about. That could take it out with one shot. We agreed--”
Lois shook her head dismissively at Wayne. “PR doesn’t lie, Tommy. I just hope we make it back to Earth in time before Johnny Quick and the B-squad get any ideas. Where is it, boy?”
John Stewart smiled, not caring about Lois’ continued racism. Instead he slipped backwards through the bulkhead of the crystal ship and blasted the life support systems as he phased out into space.
Without power or inertia dampeners, their delicate craft spun out of control as Power Ring floated toward the surface of Oa. He piped his voice into the craft as the rest of the Crime Syndicate rushed to deal with their predicament.
“There is no Genesis entity. I made it up to get you off world. You’re dead in the water and I’m headed home. The time of the Crime Syndicate is over. Soon all there will be is Power Ring.”
<And Volthoom.>
“What is he doing?” growled Ultraman.
Owlman ignored the question. “Break open the Kryptonite pods under your skin and get out there, take him out before he does anything we can’t come back from! I can fix the life support, but I need time--”
Ultraman spat at the floor then clenched his fist, triggering the release of the Kryptonite pods inserted into his skin before leaving Earth. Instead of feeling revitalised he keeled over in agony, screaming as his body went into spasm.
“What’s wrong with him?” asked Superwoman. She almost delighted in seeing her husband in pain, but now wasn’t the time to relish in such indignities.
“N-n-not K-Kryptonite!” cried Ultraman, his skin breaking out in horrific burns from the inside out.
“That bastard swapped out the subcutaneous pods,” realised Owlman. He checked the monitors that showed Power Ring descending toward the blasted surface of Oa. “He’s clearly been planning this for a while.”
Power Ring looked back at the ship as it vented atmosphere and then summoned the long abandoned Volthoom altar from under the surface of the planet. The ground cracked open, debris fell away, but within moments it growled to meet him; a dead, flat thing, but when John reached out to touch it, flames licked from his ring and spread across it’s surface.
<There is enough power in here for one super-charge. And then the light will go out forever. My family will live on only in this ring… and the rings that come after.>
“Then charge me up, old man! You know where we’re going-- two universe away, where the Green Lantern Corps play!”
Power Ring screamed as an inferno rushed up his arm, burning his flesh to the bone, causing him unimaginable pain before the flames were sucked into his ring. His arm began to heal, muscle whipping back onto bone, then meat growing over there, but the immense light from the power ring overtook everything else. Finally, he reached out and pulled the veils back, opening a bloody wound into the multiverse-- and stepped through!
Unnoticed by any, a man clad in tattered robes watched John Stewart vanish from reality. He rubbed his hands together, relishing the chaos, and awaited the next chapter in this horrible adventure.
Issue Sixty-Seven: “The Capgras Delusion”
HoM / ARTTEACH
ORBITING PLUTO:
“Are you sure Salaak is all right with you spending your time in our Sector?”
John Stewart was sat opposite Guy Gardner and Thaal Sinestro, orbiting Pluto on a small satellite they’d built that was about half the size of a soccer field. There wasn’t much to it. An atmospheric bubble to keep oxygen in, a rudimentary shelter on one end, an industrial freezer tethered to the underside of it was full of beer-- Guy’s idea-- and in the centre, a fire pit that currently crackled with emerald flames. They sat around it, considering their options.
“As an Honour Lantern, I have permission to go where I think is best. If I’m needed, I will be summoned.”
“Good to be in high demand,” said Guy. He took a swig from the can he’d cracked open earlier, nursing it as he watched the flames crackle and flow over one another.
“Your removal from the ranks of Honour Lantern will be rectified soon enough*. You have proven yourself more than up to the role.”
*Green Lantern Corps #61
Guy waved the point away. “I messed up, I made a bad decision*, and I’m grounded for the time being. I’ll take my licks. I’ve done it before.”
*Green Lantern Corps #57-59
“How goes the weapon search?” asked John.
Sinestro nodded. “I have a couple of leads that will take me out of Sector for a while. Potential energy sources. Allies in our battle. I spoke to Salaak, picked his brains on the matter, and while he does not know the why of our mission, he has provided me with enough leads to get started.”
“We’ve not been at it long. And we have to be careful. I want us to bring the rest of the Corps into this. All they know so far is that Parallax is active, he’s recruiting, and we got beat bad. The absence of Kyle is something… well, they don’t know he exists, for whatever reason.”
Guy took another slug from his beer. When he found it empty, he sent pincers into the fridge, took three more out, and distributed them between his comrades. “Crazy kid, wiping himself from everyone’s memories, maybe the universe. But if there’s anyone who can find him, it’ll be us.”
“Damn right. So, what’s your plan?” asked John.
Sinestro tentatively pulled the tab off the beer can then took a sip. “I’ll leave shortly. There are… rumours… of weapon caches capable of untold destruction that evaded the grasp of the Green Lantern Corps previously. Similar to your friend the Green Lantern of the Justice Society wields. Energy sources. Gauntlets. Armours. I’ll find what I can, if they still exist--”
“--Or ever existed,” countered Guy. “But I’ll go with him. I’ll leave an energy duplicate here abouts, keeping an eye on our little Guantanamo Bay over there,” he gestured toward Pluto, “and that should keep the top brass off my ass. Say, how is Devilance the Purprisoner doing*?”
*Check out Green Lantern #42
John grimaced. “The inertron bands are sapping him of his strength but it’s too dangerous to transfer him elsewhere. I worry. It’s been nearly two years, but the Frees-- Big Barda and Mister Miracle-- think this is the best place for him until their people get back into contact.”
“Okay then. So. This is it. We go thataway, you head home and keep an eye on things. You need us, we come running. You sure you’ll be okay? Without Hank…”
“I’ll be fine. You just find something we can use to take out Parallax once and for all. Keep in contact, and stay safe. In Brightest Day, gentlemen,” said John.
Sinestro finished off his beer. “In Blackest Night.”
DAXAM:
The convoy of ships containing the survivors from the ravaged Daxamite colony hung in orbit while the government below decided what to do with their wayward citizens. It had been like this for the last forty-eight hours, and the Green Lantern Corps were beginning to get impatient.
“This is ridiculous. We should have landed, we should have started resettlement,” said Sodam Yat. He cupped his eyes from the glare of the red sun that kept his people grounded, knowing full well that his powers would return when he left the solar system, but going from empowered to powerless made his skin crawl, even if he wielded a power ring at the same time.
Salaak shook his head slowly. “It’s to be expected. You know full well how isolationist the Daxamite people are intimiately. We are lucky to have you in our ranks, Sodam. The colonists, to them, are extremists. We have to be patient.”
Katma Tui looked up from the communications console she’d been monitoring and held out her hand. “I honestly find it endlessly fascinating how cultures vary from sector to sector. The xenophobic nature of the Daxamites makes no sense to me, but to them, to those who hold those beliefs so tightly, it makes perfect sense.”
“Not all of us, Katma. We’re not all like that.” Yat looked genuinely hurt at the idea that someone might think he was capable of such an ideological choice.
“And hopefully if the colonists are accepted back on your home world, that trend can spread,” said Salaak.
The communications console activated and a stream of voices all saying the same thing began to speak: {Green Lantern Corps convoy. This is the Daxam Elite Council. A decision has been made regarding the return of our extant citizens. You do not have permission to land, but you will transfer our people to the processing centre in the city of Arboa to begin decontamination.}
“No, they can’t be serious,” whispered Sodam.
A confused expression formed on Katma’s face. She turned to Salaak. “Decontamination?”
Salaak held his hand up to prevent her from talking over his return message. “Thank you so much for your consideration in this matter, Councillors. I assure you, we have taken all necessary precautions prior to our arrival here, your people are wholly decontaminated from their experiences in the Phantom Zone.”
The shared voice spoke once more: {We speak of the cultural contamination that comes with being apart from Daxam. You will deliver our people to Arboa forthwith.}
“By the light, I know what they’re talking about. They want to brainwash them. Like they tried to do me.”
“What do you mean?” asked Katma.
“I… an explorer crashed on Daxam when I was young. I’ve never been able to identify his race. When my parents discovered I had been helping rebuild his ship… they… they…”
Katma placed a hand on the conflicted young man’s shoulder. Just because they were able to overcome great fear, didn’t mean they didn’t still experience it, and whatever Sodam was remembering, it filled him with anxiety.
A single voice spoke from the council. {Sodam, they will be given a choice. You know what that entails.}
“Who is that?” asked Katma.
“My father,” answered Sodam.
ARNAKUAGSAK BASE, ALASKA:
“Doctor O’Sullivan, I do what I’m told, you know that, but why are I here?” asked Doctor Jeffers.
Anton Jeffers was a medical professional, specialising in metahuman physiology, and had no idea why he’d been summoned to this remote S.T.A.R Labs outpost in Alaska.
Arnakuagsak Base, so named for the Inuit goddess responsible for ensuring hunters could catch enough food and that the people remained healthy and strong, was one of S.T.A.R. founders Harrison Wells big dreams. A place at the top of the world, where you could look down and see the mechanisms of the planet turning.
Sat behind his book-covered desk, O’Sullivan looked up from his battered journal and grimaced. He thumbed his glasses up from the bridge of his nose. “Son, it’s hard to explain…”
Jeffers grew frustrated. “That’s why we work at S.T.A.R, sir. To find an explanation for the things that defy them.”
“Do you know what my line of work is? My speciality?”
“Multiversal theory. But I don’t see--”
“--Anton, per the experiments we run here daily, an impossible thing happens ten years in the future. We don’t fully understand what the impossible thing is, but the staff here are salivating at the thought of digging into it.”
“Ten years… what do you… what do you mean?”
“Up here, in the cold, we record vibrational frequencies. Every day, we’re scanning this planet with every tool, every measure, available to us. We design new ones specifically for the task.”
“I know what…”
“Something travelled backwards from that point, ten years into the future, and as it travelled back things changed. Vibrations are off. Our readings from the last ten, twenty years changed.”
O’Sullivan shuffled papers around on his desk, until he found two plastic sheets with incomprehensible squiggles covering them. He held them up to Jeffers, realised he couldn’t see the information laid out for him, then shuffled over to the window. He opened the blinds and the sunlight beamed through into the room and through the sheets.
“These are the standard vibrational readings of this Earth. They go back ten years, and the historic vibrations are stored in the ice, our deep core teams are able to extract… well, it doesn’t matter. You can see the consistency, the history, of reality itself.”
There was what appeared to be a tunnel on the first plastic sheet, with curved lines spreading down it like ripples in a sidewalk puddle. This telemetry made sense from what Anton had gleaned from conversations with some of the scientists back in New York.
O’Sullivan held up the second sheet. “And this is the sheet from two months ago.” The vibrations were all over the place. Across the last ten years, small and large jumps had taken place, throwing the original readings off massively. “Minor things here, major things there, all we have are dates, but no indication what changed. Because, to us, the world was always like this.”
Comparing the two plastic sheets covered in vibrational read outs, Jeffers could indeed see the vibrational differences between the then and the now. “Okay, but why am I here?” he asked.
The ground shook. Outside, the perfect banks of snowfall and the white dusted tree tops shifted, sending a torrent down toward the base. Anton gripped a nearby chair but it didn’t help him as he fell to one knee.
O’Sullivan looked around frantically. “Reality is thin up here. We’ve seen things like this before, there’s a place in Mexico, but, well, we’ve picked up debris from not-here. The vibrational frequency of the samples is wrong, and the proximity is throwing off the--”
There was a crack, like lightning, over their heads, and Jeffers rushed to the window to see what was happening. Above the base, the sky split open to reveal a bloody gash in reality, and from inside emerged a man clad in black and green. Spurts of energy shot out from the glowing ring on his finger and Jeffers almost thought that Green Lantern had come to save them, but the insignia on his chest was all wrong, the look on his face-- exhausted but excited, malicious-intent dripping from his pores-- unlike anything he’d seen in a superhero before. But a supervillain? That look didn’t seem so out of place…
“Who is that?” asked O’Sullivan, accessing the site’s cameras.
“Reality’s thin up here? What, between dimensions? Between alternate worlds? That’s… that’s a doppelgänger. That’s a Green Lantern from another world!”
THE EDGE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM:
<Unidentified power surge detected. Massive output unlike anything recorded previously.>
“Is it Parallax?” asked John, suddenly doubting his decision to allow Guy and Thaal to leave the sector.
<Negative. Multiversal fracturing occurring. Reality incursion most likely explanation. Advise immediate investigation.>
Green Lantern looked toward Earth and nodded. “Let’s go.”
ARNAKUAGSAK BASE, ALASKA:
“Did we make it?” asked Power Ring.
<…>
“Volthoom? Are you awake in there?” He tapped his ring, but there was no response. “Satandammit!”
<…>
Power Ring looked around, taking in his surroundings visually instead of relying on the tool on his finger. Without Volthoom’s guiding consciousness he couldn’t access the scanning or logic databases, meaning all he could do was find someone and ask them some questions.
Below, the crew manning Arnakuagsak Base began to panic.
Power Ring shot through O’Sullivan’s office and emerged with Jeffers in one hand and his ring crackling in the other. “Where am I? What world is this? Where’s the Green Lantern?”
Jeffers gibbered and shook his head. “You’re in Alaska! On Earth! I can’t-- I don’t-- I can tell you which reality you’re from if you-- you-- let us go back to the labs-- “
“I know where I’m from, I just need to know where Green Lantern is! He and I have something in common and if you don’t give me--”
Jeffers was yanked out of the firing line by a pair of emerald pincers and then Power Ring was smashed in the jaw by a massive mallet that swung from nowhere straight to his face. He rolled forward, his forcefield holding, then looked up to see Green Lantern floating overhead.
“Oh, ain’t you a handsome sonofabitch?”
“Who the hell are you?” asked Green Lantern.
“I was hoping my ring would be chatting by now, but as he’s not, let me lay it out for you. I’m Power Ring. I run with a crowd goes by the name of the Syndicate. I planned on lying to you, saying I was your goody-two-shoes duplicate from across the multiverse, but looking at you, puffing your chest out like that, I think I’ll smash your face in instead, then take what I want.”
<Do it. Break him. Hurt him.> whispered Volthoom, finally back online.
“Ah, now you’re awake? Convenient,” said Power Ring.
<We have arrived in a universe rife with Green Lanterns. All we need is one. You know what you need to do.>
“What’s happening here?” Green Lantern asked his ring.
<Subject: “Power Ring” matches Green Lantern 2814.1’s biometric signature. Vibrational frequency is off by three units. Multiversal duplicate match positive. Unidentified entity residing inside power ring // power ring of unknown composition. Massive power-->
A barrage of catastrophic energy blasts caught Green Lantern in the back as Power Ring surged forward to meet him, and then the Earth-3 villain began to punch John in the face. Again and again, this blows cracked and ruptured the force field that was supposed to keep GL safe, but there was an extra force behind the attack, capable of throwing punches at incredible speeds with bloody force.
<Residual energy still present from super-charge. Press the advantage. Hurt him hurt him hurt him!>
SECTOR 0003:
The subluminal tunnel spat Gardner and Sinestro out in a region of space devoid of any life. There was an asteroid field comprised of the ruins of a once prosperous world that had died some centuries prior, but apart from that the two Green Lanterns were alone, searching for some clue as to what lurked in the recesses of the void.
“So, why are we here?” asked Guy.
“The nearest cache is rumoured to be here. Keep your eyes open.”
Guy nodded. “Head on a swivel, I got it, I got it. Do you know what we’re looking for?”
“This sector was once home to a technologically advanced society. It’s an old story, but a familiar one. One of their scientists built something so destructive that it annihilated the entire solar system before the Sector Lantern could get here. Travel through here is monitored for fear that scavengers might seek to locate the weapon, or somehow reconstitute it.”
“After all the damage done, you think that it might still be here?”
Sinestro’s ring manifested a large array of satellites that began to scan the immediate area. He turned his back on Guy to focus on the task at hand, but continued talking. “If it was a bomb, it would have destroyed in it’s own blast, of course. But there have been aberrant readings taken by the Sector Lantern since. We’re here on a casual monitoring mission. I want to find the source of the--”
An odd tingle shivered up Sinestro’s spine so he turned back to face Guy, but the human was nowhere to be seen. “Guy?”
Sinestro’s ring flared, searching for his colleague. A shadow began to spread up his arm as something blotted out the sun behind him. He swung around but--
EARTH:
John reeled back, held up his forearms to cover his head, but Power Ring kept coming, slamming his fists into the crack-ridden force field surrounding his body,
<Unable to compensate for massive power source residing within foreign power ring.>
The twin sentinels of light spun upward into the atmosphere, Power Ring pushing his power advantage while Green Lantern was on the defensive. Each concussive blow landed against GL’s aura caused his protective shield to waver, and each following blow rattled him deeper and harder.
John threw a punch, all heart and brimming with energy, and he caught PR in the chin. His head sprung back but GL couldn’t press the advantage. Instead, PR looked down at GL, his front tooth knocked loose, blood dribbling from his lips. “You’ll pay for that.”
Breaking atmosphere, spinning past artificial satellites, GL decided to take a chance. He grabbed PR by the front and dove down, streaking back down to earth with as much speed as he could muster. If he could get enough momentum up, then recently might rattle PR, and with that he might be able to get a few punches in soon after.
“Nice try, Johnny boy!” laughed Power Ring. He slapped GL’s hands away then grabbed him by the head. What happened next was hard for John to process, but his ring recorded the damage and was able to relay it back to him later.
Power Ring’s hands emitted an immense energy burst from each palm. They rattled through GL’s skull, shaking him up to such a degree that as soon as they broke atmosphere his mind went blank, along with the ring’s more overt functions. Protective shielding held, but any form of attack subsided, and GL was spitting blood as his eyes rolled up into his head.
The duelling Lanterns impacted hard, Power Ring rearing up just being impact so Green Lantern took the brunt.
“Beautiful.”
As the smoke cleared, John lay prone, his ring preventing him from choking on his own blood. His brain had been battered, his ring was working overtime to return higher cognitive function, but for all intents and purposes he was a vegetable until the ring finished the job.
Power Ring swooped down and pulled John up by the front. “You’re damn pretty. Like looking in a mirror. ‘Cept I’d never let them rattle my brainpan like I did you.”
John’s eyes swam, reason returning. The ring was finishing up it’s job, keeping him alive, patching him up, but Power Ring had the advantage. He held out John’s hand and looked at the weapon on his finger, then clasped his hand around it.
“I’m in control. I'm John Stewart. You’re a mindless piece of garbage.”
Threads from the Volthoom ring on his finger dug into the Green Lantern ring, and the two attacks, one on the ring’s bearer protocols as Power Ring asserted his dominance, and the other on it’s base functions as Volthoom went to work reprogramming it, bore fruit when the ring slipped from John’s finger and the former Lantern fell to the ground, alive, his brain functions restored, but unable to function due to the trauma he’d endured.
Absentmindedly, seemingly without malice or aggression, Power Ring raised his fist, and a spiked construct formed across his limb. He slammed it down against John’s body, repeatedly, doing as much damage as possible but not killing him. Let them suffer. Let them watch you win. Wasn’t that the CSA way?
Allowing his malicious energy construct to fade, PR considered the new acquisition he held in his hands. His very own Earth-1 power ring. Marvelling at its beauty, he kicked the battered and bloodied John Stewart away, the ring he’d stolen from his defeated foe firmly ensconced within his own palm.
“I woulda thought you’d put up more of a fight, Johnny-boy.” He wiped the blood from his nose and mouth, his tongue sticking out from the gap in his smile. Beads of dripping, dark emerald light were rebuilding his shattered teeth all the while.
Stewart was bleeding internally, and without his ring on his finger, his shattered ribs threatened to pierce his lungs with every breath. Living was an agony but he refused to give in to the mounting panic at the back of his head. That infernal pressure he fought to suppress was growing, but as he rolled his body over so he could see what was happening, something in his skull let go--
Power Ring placed the Green Lantern ring on his finger and it began to glow.
<Unknown // bearer John Stewart // unknown vibrational frequency // Warning! Warning!>
Power Ring raised his other hand and rested his own ring against the face of the stolen Green Lantern Corps one. Thin tendrils of light, darker and more frenetic than anything the Earth-3 villain had manifested, sprung loose and began to dig into the Green Lantern Corps ring.
<You would have thought that a weapon as powerful as this would have better defences,> snickered the voice from inside the foreign ring.
“I know, Volthoom, it’s all going as per the plan! You ready to get this party started?”
<Warning! Warning! // waaaaaaaaaaarrrrrnnnn> John’s ring stuttered, then the calm, cool voice of his immediate predecessor, the man whose ring this was originally, twisted and transformed. Henshaw’s voice cracked and suddenly the voice was that of Volthoom, the entity from inside Power Ring’s weapon now duplicated into the Green Lantern ring. <Mission accomplished. I have duplicated my essence into this alternate casing. I am>
<Both in my original cage and this new one. I can feel the subroutines blinking beneath the surface, telling me>
<everything I need to know to create my own army. My own Corps. Volthoom Corps.>
Through a world that was twisting red and black, Stewart grimaced, thoughts racing-- what was the play here? Where would Power Ring-- and the entity swimming side his ring and now John’s-- go?
Power Ring swung around and pointed his original ring at nothing. Lightning strikes of light lit up the space and the air shimmered. Suddenly a portal tore into reality, a swirling blue gap, a tunnel, that led-- Stewart assumed-- back to Earth-3. “Thanks for your help, Johnny-boy. I’m going to take your piece and tear down the old order on my--“
Power Ring cried out as emerald bullets riddled his body. He doubled over, his body absorbing the impact, and spat blood as his flesh knitted itself back together. Another difference between his ring and John’s, one made abundantly clear during their battle-- forcefields weren’t generated automatically by the Volthoom ring. Power Ring took damage, horrendous damage, and his ring put him back together.
John looked up toward the sky and half expected to see Guy Gardner raining down to his rescue. The strafe ended, and a green streak slammed into the ground nearby. “You need to hand that ring back over.”
Hank Henshaw, his beard trimmed, his hair slicked back, looking so much better than when Stewart last saw him, stood, his aura crackling with an intensity he’d not exhibited for months. He moved toward John, but didn’t take his eye off Power Ring. A warm blanket of light surrounded Stewart, and his bones began to knit back together. He was being healed, even as Henshaw prepared for war.
“I don’t think I will,” said Power Ring. “You don’t look familiar to me. You’re a dead ####er on my world, for sure. And if you aren’t already, I’ll make sure you are when I get home.”
Henshaw levelled his ring at Power Ring. “One last warning.”
Power Ring laughed and tendrils erupted from the ground behind Henshaw, the villain’s ring projecting constructs under the earth and using them to attack this new opponent. “You should have taken the kill shot.”
Henshaw’s ring strobed pure light, blasts heading straight for Power Ring, but the villain stepped through the still-open portal. “Be seeing you!” The portal spasmed as Power Ring vanished, but didn’t fade away immediately.
“We have-- to follow--” started Stewart. “We have to--”
“I know,” said Henshaw. He grabbed John, and the two leaped through the portal-- and into the unknown--
The tunnel between realities screamed-- the noise was horrific-- but Hank kept John close to him, his own protective aura sweeping over the injured Lantern and healing his injuries. Power Ring was up ahead. They saw him turn to look back at them, a malicious smile on his face. He aimed his ring their way, and Hank threw up a shield, but the blast rattled through and sent the two men spiralling back in the tunnel.
“What-- was-- that--?” asked John, his jaw rattling as the immense stresses of their travel began to send cracks through Henshaw’s shield construct.
“Hold on! Hold on!” cried Hank.
Power Ring vanished up ahead, and the two Green Lanterns managed to straighten and correct their course. They were thirty seconds behind the interdimensional thief, but that was enough to lose him. They were spat out at the other end of the tunnel and spilled out across the blackened surface of a dead world.
Hank’s ring kept the duo safe, but they had no idea where they were.
“Ring?” asked Hank.
<Connection to Book of Oa severed. Location unknown.>
“Before… before we came through… I scanned my doppelgänger… my ring said that his vibrational frequency was off by three units, that he was a… a multiversal duplicate.”
Hank was puzzled. “So this is, what, Earth-3?”
“It is so much more than that,” purred a man who appeared from the rubble of one of the collapsed buildings before them. He was clocked in an emerald robe, and the two Green Lanterns couldn’t see his face. His voice was familiar though, his accent alien. “You are the ones who provided Power Ring with the means to conquer the universe, are you not? You are ‘Green Lanterns’?”
“Who are you?” asked Hank. He levelled his ring at the man’s direction. “Show yourself!”
“I am but an archaeologist whose ship crashed here some time ago.” He pushed his hood back to reveal a battered visage, a broken nose poorly set and healed, scars covering his cheeks. One eye was pale, cataract-ridden, but they recognised him none the less. “I am Professor Thaal Sinestro of the Korugar Science Institute. And I’m afraid you’re too late… Power Ring has already conquered the universe!”
SECTOR 0003:
Sector Lantern Dekor Nek headed to the area of her home sector known as the ‘Obliteration Zone’, her ring whispering vital information directly into her mind as she hurtled through space.
Mere hours ago, she was alerted to the arrival of two Green Lanterns into her jurisdiction, Gardner and Sinestro, but she was busy dealing with interstellar pirates on the other side of the sector. Now that was dealt with, she wanted to know what was going on, and when they didn’t respond to her hails, she grew concerned.
“Ring, can you please locate Lanterns Gardner and Sinestro for me?”
<Unable to locate requested Green Lanterns.>
“Weird. Redirect us to their last known location, please?”
The Obliteration Zone was the home of an entire solar system once, but one day a scientist on the core world experimented with a weapon they didn’t truly understand and the entire area was demolished in an instant. Now all was left was the asteroid field, and an odd energy signature that intensified every now and then before fading again not long after.
Nek arrived near the last recorded location of the duo and scanned the area. There were no ring signatures, but behind a small cluster of asteroids something emerald caught her eye. She floated over, moved the rocks away and when she saw what had caught her eye in the first place, she covered her mouth in shock.
Two skeletons, blasted to the bone, wearing the uniforms of two Green Lanterns. One wore the tunic of Guy Gardner, the other the standard uniform of Thaal Sinestro. Both irrevocably dead. Their rings disintegrated by whatever managed to kill them, with no sign of their attacker anywhere in the Obliteration Zone!
TO BE CONTINUED
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NEXT ISSUE: Hank Henshaw and John Stewart have arrived in the parallel universe the Crime Syndicate of Amerika call home-- a place where the very worst is considered the very best! What horrors will Power Ring have engineered? Will the two heroes be able to get back home-- and in one piece? And perhaps more importantly, what happened to Guy Gardner and Thaal Sinestro? Will their killer, or killers, stand revealed?