Post by HoM on Nov 13, 2016 15:40:25 GMT -5
Previously, in GREEN LANTERN CORPS…
From seemingly out of nowhere, JOHN STEWART faced off against his Earth-3 doppelgänger, POWER RING, but came up short thanks to the latter’s super charged abilities-- courtesy of the villainous VOLTHOOM entity!
The villainous, ring-wielding member of the CRIME SYNDICATE OF AMERIKA stole JOHN’s Green Lantern ring, and headed back to his home dimension, only for the returning HANK HENSHAW to chase after, JOHN in tow!
Meanwhile, back in their home dimension, GUY GARDNER and THAAL SINESTRO began their search for weapons of cosmic destruction to utilise in the Green Lantern Corps’ impending war against PARALLAX. Their search took them to a mysterious sector where an entire solar system vanished-- only for a mysterious darkness to overtake them!
Finally, SALAAK led a convoy to Daxam to return a group of colonists that were cured of their deadly weakness to lead after their torture at the hands of a mad Kryptonian scientist, but it seems that the Daxamite Elite Council want to brainwash their returning citizens to perpetuate their xenophobic ways!
Welcome back to the ongoing adventures of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS!
Tomar Re was the greatest scientist the Xudar birdfolk had ever known. They were an inquisitive race, prone to curiosity, and those with the sharpest minds were looked upon as leaders.
What they didn’t know, and wouldn’t find out until the emerald light shone in the skies above their nestworld, was that Tomar had a secret.
In the hidden laboratory tucked away in his home, he would lure delinquents, children mostly, and perform his most in-depth experiments. The light struck his home, tearing it apart as he was in the middle of tearing apart a young boy with his beak. It blinded him, sent him reeling back, and the boy could pull what was left of his small body off the operating table and drag himself toward the door.
Time froze when Tomar’s sight returned to him, and he became aware of the cause of all the destruction.
A ring hung in the air before him, crackling with energy. When Tomar’s eyes found it, a voice began to whisper to him, drawing him forward: <You can contain the immensity that is Volthoom. Do you wish to wield ultimate power?>
Everyone across the universe had heard of Volthoom before, and if the legends were true, the scientist had no choice-- Tomar gladly accepted, as did numerous others across the universe. 3,599 rings were mysteriously spun into existence, each one searching for the most deadly, malicious, monstrous creatures in the galaxy.
Meanwhile, the scavenging, verminous race of Bolovaxians that had, eons ago, called the now dead world of Bolovax Vik their home, continued their parasitic spread across inhabited worlds, using stolen resources on their scientific advances, and provided the newly created Volthoom Corps with a deadly foot soldier, the thunderous Kilowog.
The seemingly childlike race of people inhabiting Graxos IV were another race that the Volthoom power rings investigated, this time being accepted onto the finger of a malicious predator known as Arisia Rrab, a diabolical, murderous crone of a woman stuck in a body that stopped ageing when she was but a young child.
Across the universe, the rings searched, familiar algorithms leading to somewhat familiar faces, until 3,599 rings were wielded by an army of monsters.
“…And that’s how Power Ring conquered half the known universe,” said Sinestro, standing before Hank Henshaw and John Stewart. Wherever they landed after their journey from Earth-1 was also the home of a duplicate of their old friend, a somewhat knowledgeable man who claimed to be an archaeologist.
Henshaw’s covert scan could not detect a power ring of any kind on the man. They listened to his story, and considered their options. If John Stewart was evil on this world, then it tracked that Sinestro was too. But what if he was as good as his word? Did that mean the Thaal Sinestro of their universe, Reality-1, was evil?
Henshaw dismissed the thought process and doubled down on the task at hand. “When we were coming through the cross-dimensional tunnel, when Power Ring blasted us, it must have given him a head start. We arrived, what, a month after him? But it was thirty seconds for us?”
“That’s all it takes to bring a galaxy to its knees when you wield ultimate power,” said Sinestro.
“The bastard used the Oan ring tech to create 3,600 new rings and put that Volthoom consciousness in them. Looking for monsters, not heroes. God, it’s like Parallax's Effigies. An army of murderers with power rings. We need to shut him down-- get my ring back,” said John.
“How will you find him?” asked Sinestro.
“All our rings are linked, I can track him down using mine,” said Hank.
“Fascinating. Are your rings empowered by the Great Volthoom too?”
“No, it’s something different. It’s fuelled by the collective willpower of our universe,” said John.
“Yeah, so what’s so great about Vothoom anyways?” asked Hank.
“The Great Volthoom ruled the universe with a flaming, emerald fist for aeons. Oa became the final battleground for the war they waged with each other, until only one was left, cursed to be trapped within a trinket for the rest of eternity. This place is a treasure trove of ancient weaponry.”
“And you crashed here,” stated John.
“I did. My team did not survive. I’ve been scavenging for the past six months…”
Hank rubbed his wrist. “You look quite healthy for a castaway.”
“I’m quite intelligent, Green Lanterns. It’ll take more than a crash landing to deter me from life. You can’t believe I’m plotting against you, can you? I’ve told you all I know.”
“Brave new world. Who knows who we can trust?” said John.
“What if I showed you the altar? The thing that allowed Power Ring to enter your reality? Would you trust me then?”
Hank looked at John, then back at Sinestro. “Sure, why not?”
Issue Sixty-EIGHT: “Vanguard of the Volthoom Corps”
HoM / HOWARD
“How can this be? How can they be dead?” asked Dekor Nek, Sector Lantern of 0003. She had pulled the skeletal remains of Guy Gardner and Thaal Sinestro closer to her so she could tether them to her aura, confident that the act would ensure they wouldn’t get caught in the stellar winds that caused the asteroids to drift wildly across the Obliteration Zone.
<Due to the condition of the remains, I am unable to provide a cause of death.>
“But the genetic structure remaining identifies them as the two Lanterns?”
<Correct.>
Nek ran her hands through her long, blue hair then tapped her ring. “They arrived here three hours ago and now they’re dead. Huh. Huh huh huh. Send a databurst to Oa. Inform Salaak. But… how old are these remains?”
<Three hours and seven minutes old.>
“Wait… wait… I’m not talking how long they’ve been like that, I’m talking how old are the bones themselves?”
<Three hours and seven minutes old.>
“But… Gardner was into his forth decade, Sinestro into his fifth. They weren’t… these remains are a distraction… created when whatever took them, took them. So where the heck are they, ring?”
Above the Altar of Volthoom, emerald light, a darker shade than that projected by a Green Lantern’s ring, crackled like it was a fire. There was a tear in space and the interior looked bloody, like someone had shredded the body of reality and you could see the muscle and sinew inside. There were scant flames on the altar itself, but the majority of the conflagration was based in the tear.
“How long until the tear closes?” Henshaw asked his ring.
<Unknown. Without connection to Book of Oa, ring is unable to make informed projections.>
“Right, right. Damn. So, we’re on a clock, but we don’t know when it’s going to tick down to zero.”
“What’s that?” John asked Sinestro, pointing at a crystalline trench dug into the earth around the altar. “The tech doesn’t match the altar.”
“I’m not sure, but it’s been there since before Power Ring unearthed the altar. I saw it all happen, when I was hiding from him over there,” Sinestro gestured to a rocky outcropping.
“I’m guessing from what you said that Power Ring was supercharged thanks to whatever energy he stole from this altar. It let him tear open reality to get to Earth-1, so if we can--”
Hank reached his hand out toward the altar, but as it crossed the trench, he regretted his decision immediately. The trench twinkled with a blue light, going from dormant to active in a split second, and then launched itself directly at Henshaw.
The Green Lantern stumbled backwards, tendrils of crystalline malice lashing out against him. The construct probed every point of his protective aura, but couldn’t get through, though the strength behind the lashes sent shivers through the shield.
He couldn’t get a bead on where to begin fighting back, but he was amazed at whatever it was that attacked him. It moved like an octopus made from diamond, and it didn’t shatter when it lashed out at him, even though it looked so delicate. There was something familiar about the technology, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was exactly.
Enjoying the distraction, Sinestro laughed and then dove for the altar, but John intercepted him, tackling the treacherous alien to the ground. He punched the Korugarian in the face, split the man’s lip open, then doubled down on his attack.
Without his ring, and stick rocky from the beating he took from Power Ring, Stewart wanted to end this fast, and that meant going surgical. He punched Sinestro in the kidneys, one-two-three, then once in the throat hard enough to cause the man to gag, then finally smashed an elbow into his temple with enough force to knock him out.
While this was going on, Henshaw went on the offensive, spun upwards out of range of John, then extended his force field out. The writhing mass of crystal was pushed away, but realising they were about to be dismissed, they snapped together into one immense spear and drove directly for Hank’s heart. They smashed against Henshaw’s aura, buried deeper and deeper into the energy field, but it was chipping away, losing mass as it went.
Just as it was about to pierce the shield, Hank straining all the while, only a tiny fragment of crystal made it through, and it nicked at the Green Lantern’s chest, drawing blood. It immediately withdrew, and sprang across the desolate plains of Oa to escape destruction.
Hank fired off a strafe of energy, but the octopoid construct vanished, leaving him confused and bleeding. He floated back down and saw what John had done to Sinestro, then nodded in admiration. “Efficient.”
“The man played us. I guess he was our Sinestro’s evil twin. That’s reassuring at least.”
Hank chuckled, his ring knitting his chest back together. “Doesn’t it make you good to know that we’re the good guys?”
John didn’t know how to feel about that. “We’ll see. You need to wake him up, figure out what just happened. He might know what that thing was. And if there are more of him.”
“You can handle that. Hold out your hand.”
John did as Hank asked and Henshaw gripped his comrade’s wrist. Bands of emerald energy spread out from where he grasped him, until two bracelets formed on John’s arms.
Hank explained, “I’ve transferred half my energy allowance to you. Thanks to Kyle, our rings hold surplus charges*, so it should last until we deal with this. Hell, I never learned the outer limit of the thing. I probably should get on that…”
“Wait, you remember Kyle*?”
John was surprised, but it did make a degree of sense that another human Lantern that played such a huge role in saving the galaxy from the threat of the Red Lanterns, whose ring was borne from Sinestro’s own, would be part of the small cabal that retained memories of the missing White Lantern.
“Why wouldn’t I? He did something weird to me last Christmas, said he…well, it’s a long story, but sufficed to say, I won’t forget him any time soon*.”
“I can go into more detail once we’re out of this hellhole, but Kyle’s MIA, and he’s taken the memory of him with him. It’s like he rewrote the collective memories of the universe. Even his ex forgot about him.”
“Weird. But yeah, that should wait. How do the energy bands feel?”
John contemplated his wrists and tried forming a construct. A pistol formed in his hand, and with the flick of his wrist, it transformed into a sniper rifle. Protective shielding was automatic, but there was not voice when he tried to query the Book of Oa. Even though they were offline, if his ring was on him it would have still told him so.
“Good. Okay, I’ll deal with this bastard. Do you want to keep an eye out for that crystal squid?”
Hank nodded and turned away while John wrenched the unconscious Sinestro up by his lapels. He sent a shock through his hands into the traitor’s body, causing him to awake with a start from unconsciousness.
“Listen to me, you sonofabitch. You’ve been holding out on us. You’re going to tell us the truth, you're going to tell us what the hell that thing was, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to walk after. Do you understand me?”
Gardner gasped as oxygen hit his lungs. His ring pinged, sending waves of scanning energy outward, trying to determine where Sinestro and he had ended up, but all they could see was the void, darkness and black in every direction.
<Warning / unrecognised energy signature interfering with power ring’s CPU. Unable to connect to Book of Oa / limited functionality available / life support / flight / energy constructs. Higher processing and memory compromised / warning.>
Ignoring the plight of his ring, Guy looked around his immediate area. “What’s missing from this picture?” he murmured, rubbing his throbbing temples. Whatever had hit him zapped right through his ring’s defences and knocked him clean out. Sinestro floated unconscious nearby, so he tethered the Lantern to his own aura and continued to think through the situation.
“Ugh. What was that?” asked Sinestro.
“I’m not sure. I was talking to you then all I can remember is pain then waking up here. What did you drag us into, Thaal?”
Sinestro blinked, his eyes adjusting. “I’m not entirely sure. Wait, do you see this?”
“It’s what I don’t see, man. I don’t see any stars.”
The void was completely black, not a sun or star in sight. Hundreds of thousands of miles out was a planetoid, and behind that, others, but there were no stars. Wherever they were, there was no light reaching them, so all they had was the dark.
“Does this solar system look familiar to you? I can’t connect to the Book of Oa,” said Guy. He scratched his temple, something itching in the back of his brain. Why did this picture feel so familiar?
“Not from memory, no. But perhaps… the stories of the Obliteration Zone, the solar system wiped out by the weapon we came looking for… are you thinking…?”
“I think we found a missing solar system, Thaal. But how the hell do we get back home?”
<Warning / ring charge depleting. If continued energy drain continues, all reserves will be extinguished within eighteen hours / warning>
Guy tapped his ring. “Eighteen…? I thought Kyle’s supercharge kept us power happy *?”
“Perhaps with his absence from the universe that boon has been withdrawn, or maybe this void is suffused with energy draining elements…” Sinestro pointed toward the planetoid, his ring flaring as it detected life signs. “There’s an immense energy field coming from over there. I think we should begin our search in that direction. Perhaps that will put a stop to the drain on our ring charges…”
“We best hurry, I don’t want to die without seeing the stars one last time,” said Guy.
The Thaal Sinestro of this parallel dimension gasped awake, only to be slapped in the face by an irate John Stewart. He cried out, pawed at the Lantern, but Stewart was having none of it. The energy gauntlets that he wielded restrained Thaal, and then he slapped the Korugarian again.
“You lied to us.”
“No, I didn’t, I--”
John slapped Thaal again.
“Yes, you did. And that’ll stop now.”
“Anything, yes, yes, anything.”
“Our powers allow us to get a biometric readout of anyone we want, Thaal. That means I’ll know if you start lying to me again. Do you understand?”
“Yes! Yes, I do, I do.”
“Now there are two ways we can do this. The first, and the one you’ll probably prefer, is I ask you a question, and you answer it. Do you follow?”
“Yes, fair, fair.”
“The second, and this one isn’t so nice, is that I send little threads of hard energy into your brain and I unpick the secrets directly from the source. That usually leaves our interrogation subjects unable to hold their bowels. Do you understand that one?”
Hank turned from where he was scanning and pulled an uncomfortable face. “Hey, come on, John…”
“I’ve got this, Henshaw, back off,” snapped John.
Hank turned away shaking his head, then smiled to himself as his comrade continued the routine. Something piqued his interested in the distance, so he lifted off and left his friend to it.
With Hank gone, John looked back at Thaal. “Do. You. Understand?”
“The first way, the first way,” gibbered Thaal.
“I thought you might. You knew that thing would attack my colleague, didn’t you?”
“I saw the… the humans… Power Ring’s allies… they set the trap using parts of the… the Kryptonian hybrid’s ship. It was a… a boobytrap.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know! Honestly!”
“You said you were being honest before…”
“Yes, yes, but, I, oh, oh gods, I came here because I heard there might be some remnant, some scrap of the Great Volthoom’s power still here, and I was right. But the others in my dig, they, they wanted it for themselves. I crashed the ship because they couldn’t, I couldn’t, they couldn’t take what was rightly mine. They died and it took me months to find this place, the burial site of the altar, I mean. But when I was about to begin the dig, Power Ring shot down, raised it up from underground and sucked the power out. Then he leaped into a tear in, into, into that tear in space. I was going to try and see if I could absorb anything that was left over but then his allies, the ones he betrayed, they set the trap and left. Headed back to, to Earth, I think. Must have been. I knew that I couldn’t access the power, but then a few hours later Power Ring returned, and I saw him spin thousands of rings into existence, then follow them off into space. The tear was still open, and the altar had some spark left, but those crystals stopped me from getting near. So, so, so instead I used my ship’s computers and saw what was happening in space. I realised that maybe Oa was the safest place for me, because who’d want to come back here?”
John watched as Sinestro gasped for breath, his explanation nearly giving him an asthma attack. “Hmm.”
Hank rushed back to where they'd been situated and went straight for Thaal. He pushed John out the way, picked the Korugarian up by the throat, then grabbed his right arm. “You bastard.”
John’s brow furrowed, but didn’t intervene. “Hank, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“I’ve just been in his ship. His crew. They survived the damn crash.”
“No, no, no,” hissed Sinestro.
“He jury-rigged the cargo bay into cages. He must have kept them until he needed them… but no, they weren’t damn cages, were they? They were pantries. This bastard ate them. He kept them alive and ate them.”
John grimaced. “Is this true?”
“I-- I-- I--” Sinestro stopped stuttering, paused, and then smiled, barring his bone-chipped teeth. “Well, there’s no point in lying about that now, is there?”
Without hesitation or the aid of his power ring, Hank snapped the man’s neck and let him drop to the floor.
John was silent for a moment, then looked to the skies. “We… we need to get Power Ring to come to us. And I think I have an idea as to how we should do that.”
While the two Green Lanterns contemplated the steps they would need to take to save the day, the crystalline entity that attacked them had found a quiet spot, away from the Altar of Volthoom, and was currently analysing the genetic material it had stolen from Hank Henshaw.
There was something inside his DNA it could use, all it had to do was unlock the specific sequence that Hank had never been aware existed within his own body. It began to combine the crystal healing technology of it’s creators, the Kryptonian people, with the genetic material, until a viable amalgam could be made. When the optimum combination was settled on, it began to grow something new, an entity tailored made to destroy its targets…
Their convoy still in orbit over Daxam, three Green Lanterns, namely Katma Tui, Salaak and Sodam Yat were in an uncomfortable position. The Daxam Elite Council’s edict still rang in their ears, and if it meant what Sodam claimed, the act of returning the colonists to their homeworld might be the worst decision they could possible make.
“Could you please clarify what you mean by decontamination?” queried Salaak.
The voice of Sodam’s father, a lead member of the council, responded via the communications console on their lead ship. {It is the law of our people that if any of our populace are exposed to alien elements that the should be decontaminated.}
“You mean brainwashed,” snapped Sodam.
Salaak clicked his fingers once, drawing the younger Lantern’s attention to him. The current leader of the Corps’ eyes burned through Yat, and he muted the connection between their craft and the council. “This is a diplomatic mission, Sodam. The colonists want to return home after their experiences. If you cannot control your own bias, then wait outside.”
“I… I can control my temper, I’m sorry. This is… this happened to me, Salaak. I don’t…”
Salaak shook his head. “You misunderstand. I was not giving you a choice. Wait. Outside.”
Sodam went to argue, but he wasn’t in a position of authority here. Just because this was his home sector didn’t mean he could overrule the decision of Salaak. Instead he sighed, understanding how completely useless he was in their current setting, and exited.
Katma watched all this happen, shocked at Salaak’s tone, but she didn’t question him.
“I apologise, councillor. My Lantern spoke out of turn.”
{My son always needed a firm hand. It saddens me to know that for all that has changed, his induction into your organisation, our current situation, that some things always remain the same.}
“Yes, yes, of course. Now, what exactly does this decontamination entail?”
{I do not understand why we should answer that question, Green Lantern. You have no jurisdiction over our world, or our laws. Either the colonists agree to our terms-- and they themselves have requested permission to return to Daxam-- or their colonisation programme shall become a sentence of exile.}
“Hmm. Do you happen to know what the Green Lantern Corps does, councillor?”
{Your organisation is a self-proclaimed peace keeping force. Once the most respected in all the galaxy, I might add, but that was when you were empowered by the great Guardians of the Universe. They guaranteed a respectful and balanced approach to your undertakings. But without them, now you take it upon yourselves to interject in other races’ business, like you’re trying to do now.}
“Oh, yes, we keep the peace on an universal level. The only organisation of it’s kind. And I would like to think we are unbiased, following the example set by the Guardians. But I digress. I meant specifically. Did you know, for instance, that we regularly patrol our appointed sectors and take care of any stray asteroids that might be on a collision course with populated worlds?”
{What are you trying to--} started another one of the councillors.
Earlier, they’d spoken as one, completely in tune with each other’s thoughts, but after Sodam’s father had started to speak in his own voice that trend was spreading.
“No, no, I’m not trying to say anything, I am stating some of our functions. Others include routing potential invasion forces that might have plans to attack neighbouring worlds. That’s quite dangerous. We’ve lost many a good Lantern to that cause. What else? Lantern Tui? Any that spring to mind?”
Katma realised what Salaak was doing and nodded. “Well, yes, of course. We prevent the formation of cosmic anomalies that might drift on lunar winds towards populated worlds. If our Science Division detect the beginnings of, say, a black hole, we would send a team to ensure it doesn’t threaten anybody.”
“We certainly do a lot, and it does take a lot of our resources out. Lanterns Yat and N’buya would be better utilised performing other duties, of course, if we removed that responsibility from them. Don't you agree, Lantern Tui?”
There was a bustle of activity on the other end of the line as the council argued amongst themselves, some scared, others outraged. After a few moments, Sodam Yat’s father once again came to the fore. {I understand what you’re saying, Lantern Salaak--}
“Honour Lantern, councillor. What are the points of titles if we don’t use them?”
{Honour Lantern. We appreciate the Green Lantern Corps’ ongoing edict to protect the universe from threats both obvious and not so obvious. It is with that in mind we ask… what would you wish the terms to be for the return of our colonists?}
“I think they’d be best served if they were left alone, councillor. No decontamination of any kind. They’ve been through a lot and have received the best possible care available to them. Let them go about their lives in whatever reasonable way they wish. Your dedicated Sector Lanterns, your son included, will be near your world at all times, and if they happen to pick up any indication that the colonists have experienced ‘decontamination’, we would have to address the duties we undertake in this area of space.”
{…Agreed. Thank you for your time, Honour Lantern.}
“A pleasure.”
Salaak indicated to Katma, who terminated the transmission.
“I didn’t think you were going to pull that, Salaak.”
Salaak shook his head. “It sets a bad precedent, I’m afraid. We… I… just threatened an entire race of people because I didn’t like what they were saying. In doing so, I insinuated we’d spy on them, and intervene if we didn’t like what they were doing. At least… at least these people can go home.”
“Sodam’ll be happy.”
“Go salve his bruised ego. I’ll begin coordination of the colonists return from here.”
“Yes, sir,” said Katma, leaving the leader of the Green Lantern Corps alone on the bridge of their ship, his shoulders heavy with the responsibility they bore.
As they moved through the starless void, something became obvious to the two lost Lanterns. There were decaying husks hanging in the vacuum, space ships and satellites all somehow arriving in this place along with them. There was damage across the hulls of the vessels, decay and rot, as if something was slowly devouring them.
“God, how many people have died in here?” asked Guy.
Sinestro grimaced. “Best we focus on preventing any more lives being lost. Look, over there--”
Ahead of the two lost Lanterns, a world glistened as if it were covered by a web wet with the dew of a new day. Numerous lights blinked in series, and this caused Sinestro to hold Gardner back before they went any closer.
“What’s wrong?”
Thaal cupped his eyes. “That light series. It’s a non-verbal communication signal native to the solar system. Massively archaic, but I studied ancient language since before the ring. It’s a warning not to approach. That they’re prepared to fire upon intruders.” His ring flashed. “My Gods, even with reduced scanning capabilities the ring can see that their weapon capabilities are immense. Targeting systems are zeroing in on us.”
“Being stuck in the dark can be a scary thing, but I have an idea.”
Guy held up his ring and summoned an immense emerald flare that spurted out from his ring and lit up the void they’d found themselves in. Sinestro understood and added his light to Gardner’s, and it reached out as far as their wills could muster.
After a few moments, Thaal’s ring blinked. The targeting systems had disengaged.
“There was a Lantern back in the day that patrolled their sector, they know what this symbol means,” said Guy, tapping his ring. “We’re friendlies.”
“Friendlies with twelve hours of charge left, Guy.”
“Man, you don’t have to remind me.”
The duo headed down, through the atmosphere, and landed in the middle of a square that was quickly filling with men, women and children. Their skin was almost luminescent, their eyes large and completely black. They were taller than any human by about two feet, but their shapes were humanoid. Four fingers and a thumb on each of their four arms, but two legs, and an elongated neck that held up a slightly angular head.
A group of armed soldiers, the planet’s military, pushed forward, and their leader, a man wearing a simple black tunic, stood at their head. They levelled their weapons-- nervous at the newcomers-- but their leader waved their arms down with two of his own.
“Green Lanterns. I did not think I’d live to ever meet your kind, but there are tales of your valour in our records. You have found us. After all this time. I am Qoyhr, grand-militant of the Qylh. Your names?”
Gardner shrugged. “I’m Guy, this is Thaal. How long have you been here?”
“Our people have only known the void for countless generations. Guy and Thaal. The names of our saviours. What do we need to do to return? To see… stars?”
Guy shuffled for a second, but Thaal spoke up before he could muster the words. “Whatever dragged your world into this void caught us too. I’m afraid we’re not a rescue party, but we will rest at nothing to take you back with us.”
Qoyhr’s hopeful expression dropped immediately. “You’re trapped too? Then our exile continues. Do you not think that all we’ve done since our ancestors arrived here is try to leave? We have dedicated generations in our attempts to escape! What hope do you have of succeeding where we failed?”
“Where there’s a will, sir,” said Gardner. “We’ll always find a way.”
“Now, what can you tell us of the thing that stole you away from the universe?” asked Sinestro.
Qoyhr sighed, but turned to one of the attendants nearby. “Ask Nolphr to come. Quickly.” The attendant left, and Qoyhr turned back to the Lanterns. “Nolphr is our historian, she holds the collective knowledge of our people, and manages the records.”
“Do you need anything? Can we help with anything before we get started?” asked Gardner.
“Our ancestors adapted quickly to the darkness, Lantern Guy. The defense net prevents the energy drain native to this void disrupting our systems. Our attempts to explore the void have been foiled due to our ships batteries draining within minutes of leaving the atmosphere. Our homeworld is a prison.”
“I see. I’m sorry. Ah, is this--?”
Another newcomer arrived, a woman with a ponytail that started at the tip of her angular skull. She bowed slightly, then looked over at Qoyhr. “These are the Green Lanterns?”
Guy saluted. “That’s us. You’re Nolphr?”
“I am, yes. I recognised your signal from our records. I apologise for our warning, but the dark… there is a reason we are afraid of it. Sometimes it... acts up.”
“That explains your weapon systems. Now, can you tell us exactly what’s going on here?” asked Sinestro.
<--PEOPLE OF THIS GODFORSAKEN WORLD, THERE’S A NEW GUY IN CHARGE. THE CRIME SYNDICATE? THEY’RE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES. THE VOLTHOOM CORPS, THEY’RE THE NEW NAME IN ULTIMATE POWER. SO, HOW’S THIS FOR A DEAL? IF YOU SPOT ULTRAFAG, OWLMAN OR SUPERSLUT, YOU PICK UP YOUR PHONE AND DIAL 2814. YOU SAY WHAT YOU SAW. AND IF IT PAYS OFF, YOU GET ALL THE MONEY YOU COULD EVER DREAM OF. AND THAT’S A PROMISE.>
The broadcast was across all communication channels on the planet, and hearing Power Ring’s voice made Owlman’s blood boil. The CSA was their baby; Ultraman, Superwoman and his, for better or for worse. Johnny could run, sure, but he was an errand boy, and Power Ring? Well, they killed his predecessor, and this is how his replacement treats them?
Ultraman, still recovering from anti-Kryptonite poisoning, slammed his fists into the console in front of him, barely denting the surface. “Fag? He calls me a fag? I’ll show him. I’ll tear his ass in half. I’ll show him who’s boss--!”
“Not if he finds us first, honey,” said Superwoman, laying resplendent on the sofa in the corner of the bunker. “And who does he think he is, calling me a slut? Like that’s an insult…”
“You need to calm down, Ultraman. His people are probably scanning every inch of the planet to find us, and your tantrum might draw their attention.”
Ultraman turned his head whip-quick, staring holes through the man who dared to give him an order. “Don’t tell me what to do, Tommy. You’re not in charge here. You were never in charge.”
Thomas Wayne Jr stepped up to the former human called Ultraman. “Yeah, I’m in charge, Clarky-boy.”
Even though Ultraman was a head taller than Owlman, Wayne didn’t care. He sneered as Clark Kent squared up to him, his shoulders broad and his nose tilted up to look down at his all-too human comrade.
“Power Ring punked you and you’re running on fumes. I wanted, I could snap your neck just like that,” he punctuated the point with the click of fingers. “So calm the hell down and let me figure this out.”
“Owlman has a point, Clark. Plus, he’s the only one Power Ring fears.”
“Mistake…” mumbled Ultraman.
“Our mistake was going back to the Panopticon when we got back to the solar system. Of course John would have been waiting for us. How he got there so fast, I have no idea. But those people with him…”
“They all had their own rings,” said Superwoman. “Maybe I should ditch you and--”
Owlman grabbed Superwoman and hoisted her up by the neck. She hissed obscenities at her attacker but Thomas just shook his head. “Now’s not the time for your sick sense of humour, Lois. I know they taught you sadism as an art back home, but right now, we need finesse.”
“And you’re the guy for that job, Tommy?”
Owlman turned and Power Ring was stood in the middle of the underground bunker, flanked by several his recent inductees into the Volthoom Corps. The scarred hulk behind him was Kilowog, while the wiry child holding onto his leg was Arisia. There were others above their heads too, who became visible when the roof of the bunker, along with tonnes of earth, was lifted by emerald digging tools.
Owlman smiled. “Hullo, John. You took your time, didn’t you?”
“I had to take care of this pain in the ass first, didn’t I?”
<Show them, show them what happens when you cross us.>
Johnny Quick, his legs twisted around and broken at the knees and ankles, was dropped from the skies, and he bounced limply in front of Ultraman, who snarled at the insult. Their speedster was dead, and he looked like he died painfully.
“Good plan, leaving him out to flap in the wind. Ran circles around my people, but they needed the training. When he went to Keystone to pick up a batch of Speed Juice, one of his whores clued us in. We took our time dismantling him.”
<His pain was delicious.>
“Johnny was your teammate, John. You crossed the line,” said Owlman.
<His suffering made me happy.>
“There is no team. No Crime Syndicate. Just the Corps. First I stamp you bastards out, then the universe comes to heel. I’m going to enjoy making you hurt, Ultraman. You shouldn’t have killed Hal.”
“I’ll kill you, I promise that--”
<You will do nothing. You are weak. You are nothing.>
“Not without any Kryptonite. God, you were so trusting. Volthoom helped track down every drop of it before we left for Oa, and now look at you. Are you losing weight?”
<Wasting away like the nothing you truly are.>
“I’ll--” started Ultraman, but Owlman shut him up with a slap to the head. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Show some dignity.”
“Like he has any,” purred Superwoman.
Power Ring laughed. “It’s been a good ride, Crime Syndicate. But I’m afraid--”
<Warning, John! Incoming transmission!>
A distorted, horrific shriek echoed out across all the rings the Volthoom Corps wore. From out of their centres, a head was projected, familiar to those who had met Power Ring himself, but this version of the man lacked the facial scarring, the ear ring or perpetual sneer.
John Stewart of Earth-1, Green Lantern of Sector 2814, spoke softly, and succinctly. <Most of you won’t know me, but your boss does. Power Ring, did you think we’d let you fly away with my ring? I want what’s mine. You have 24 hours to disband your little terrorist cell and hand my ring back to me, or my colleague here uses his to deactivate every single one you’ve built. You think the Corps would allow their weapons to be bastardised? You have 24 hours, or I let you drop out the sky. You know where to find me.>
Power Ring watched as the hologram snapped away, then looked down at the Crime Syndicate-- they were gone! Transported out during the commotion!
<We can’t let the Green Lantern take what we worked so hard to build. We need to kill him. Him and his friend. They’re on Oa. I can feel it. We need to destroy them. Obliterate them. Then take the war to his world, make sure no one lives to fight back!>
Power Ring nodded, then looked at the nearly four thousand strong army he’d gathered, all bearing their own Green Lantern-borne ring. “Oa, then. Back to Oa. Volthoom Corps? Let’s fly!”
“Holy hell, my ring just detected a massive power surge. They’re headed here at top speed. We only have a few hours,” said Hank.
“Better here than on a populated world. I just need to touch my ring, physical contact, and I think I can fight whatever hold he has on it. Then I can pull the rings off the fingers of his army.”
“Big gamble. You sure you’re up to it?” asked Hank.
“Leave that to me. We just have to survive the Volthoom Corps to get this done.”
{That’s all well and good, John. But I don’t think you’ll be making it off this rock alive.}
The two Green Lanterns turned and were shocked by the monstrosity that lurched toward them. Crystalline matrices visible under its skin, metal flowing like water across it’s body, and an almost familiar costume covering the rest, a horrifying creation took heavy steps across the wasteland toward them.
“Who the hell is that?” asked Hank, his ring flaring. “One of Volthoom’s disciples?”
{I am the perfect combination of Kryptonian and human DNA. The ultimate hunter. The ultimate predator. You can call me the Cyborg Ultraman. And I can call you my first victims.}
NEXT ISSUE: What is the Cyborg Ultraman, and how did it come to be? How will John and Hank be able to stop Power Ring and the Volthoom Corps when they must contend with that thing as well? Meanwhile, how will Guy and Thaal escape the void they’ve found themselves within? And will the Daxamites hold up their end of the bargain when it comes to the return of their traumatised colonists? Find out next month!
From seemingly out of nowhere, JOHN STEWART faced off against his Earth-3 doppelgänger, POWER RING, but came up short thanks to the latter’s super charged abilities-- courtesy of the villainous VOLTHOOM entity!
The villainous, ring-wielding member of the CRIME SYNDICATE OF AMERIKA stole JOHN’s Green Lantern ring, and headed back to his home dimension, only for the returning HANK HENSHAW to chase after, JOHN in tow!
Meanwhile, back in their home dimension, GUY GARDNER and THAAL SINESTRO began their search for weapons of cosmic destruction to utilise in the Green Lantern Corps’ impending war against PARALLAX. Their search took them to a mysterious sector where an entire solar system vanished-- only for a mysterious darkness to overtake them!
Finally, SALAAK led a convoy to Daxam to return a group of colonists that were cured of their deadly weakness to lead after their torture at the hands of a mad Kryptonian scientist, but it seems that the Daxamite Elite Council want to brainwash their returning citizens to perpetuate their xenophobic ways!
Welcome back to the ongoing adventures of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS!
Tomar Re was the greatest scientist the Xudar birdfolk had ever known. They were an inquisitive race, prone to curiosity, and those with the sharpest minds were looked upon as leaders.
What they didn’t know, and wouldn’t find out until the emerald light shone in the skies above their nestworld, was that Tomar had a secret.
In the hidden laboratory tucked away in his home, he would lure delinquents, children mostly, and perform his most in-depth experiments. The light struck his home, tearing it apart as he was in the middle of tearing apart a young boy with his beak. It blinded him, sent him reeling back, and the boy could pull what was left of his small body off the operating table and drag himself toward the door.
Time froze when Tomar’s sight returned to him, and he became aware of the cause of all the destruction.
A ring hung in the air before him, crackling with energy. When Tomar’s eyes found it, a voice began to whisper to him, drawing him forward: <You can contain the immensity that is Volthoom. Do you wish to wield ultimate power?>
Everyone across the universe had heard of Volthoom before, and if the legends were true, the scientist had no choice-- Tomar gladly accepted, as did numerous others across the universe. 3,599 rings were mysteriously spun into existence, each one searching for the most deadly, malicious, monstrous creatures in the galaxy.
Meanwhile, the scavenging, verminous race of Bolovaxians that had, eons ago, called the now dead world of Bolovax Vik their home, continued their parasitic spread across inhabited worlds, using stolen resources on their scientific advances, and provided the newly created Volthoom Corps with a deadly foot soldier, the thunderous Kilowog.
The seemingly childlike race of people inhabiting Graxos IV were another race that the Volthoom power rings investigated, this time being accepted onto the finger of a malicious predator known as Arisia Rrab, a diabolical, murderous crone of a woman stuck in a body that stopped ageing when she was but a young child.
Across the universe, the rings searched, familiar algorithms leading to somewhat familiar faces, until 3,599 rings were wielded by an army of monsters.
“…And that’s how Power Ring conquered half the known universe,” said Sinestro, standing before Hank Henshaw and John Stewart. Wherever they landed after their journey from Earth-1 was also the home of a duplicate of their old friend, a somewhat knowledgeable man who claimed to be an archaeologist.
Henshaw’s covert scan could not detect a power ring of any kind on the man. They listened to his story, and considered their options. If John Stewart was evil on this world, then it tracked that Sinestro was too. But what if he was as good as his word? Did that mean the Thaal Sinestro of their universe, Reality-1, was evil?
Henshaw dismissed the thought process and doubled down on the task at hand. “When we were coming through the cross-dimensional tunnel, when Power Ring blasted us, it must have given him a head start. We arrived, what, a month after him? But it was thirty seconds for us?”
“That’s all it takes to bring a galaxy to its knees when you wield ultimate power,” said Sinestro.
“The bastard used the Oan ring tech to create 3,600 new rings and put that Volthoom consciousness in them. Looking for monsters, not heroes. God, it’s like Parallax's Effigies. An army of murderers with power rings. We need to shut him down-- get my ring back,” said John.
“How will you find him?” asked Sinestro.
“All our rings are linked, I can track him down using mine,” said Hank.
“Fascinating. Are your rings empowered by the Great Volthoom too?”
“No, it’s something different. It’s fuelled by the collective willpower of our universe,” said John.
“Yeah, so what’s so great about Vothoom anyways?” asked Hank.
“The Great Volthoom ruled the universe with a flaming, emerald fist for aeons. Oa became the final battleground for the war they waged with each other, until only one was left, cursed to be trapped within a trinket for the rest of eternity. This place is a treasure trove of ancient weaponry.”
“And you crashed here,” stated John.
“I did. My team did not survive. I’ve been scavenging for the past six months…”
Hank rubbed his wrist. “You look quite healthy for a castaway.”
“I’m quite intelligent, Green Lanterns. It’ll take more than a crash landing to deter me from life. You can’t believe I’m plotting against you, can you? I’ve told you all I know.”
“Brave new world. Who knows who we can trust?” said John.
“What if I showed you the altar? The thing that allowed Power Ring to enter your reality? Would you trust me then?”
Hank looked at John, then back at Sinestro. “Sure, why not?”
Issue Sixty-EIGHT: “Vanguard of the Volthoom Corps”
HoM / HOWARD
REALITY-1:
SECTOR 0003:
“How can this be? How can they be dead?” asked Dekor Nek, Sector Lantern of 0003. She had pulled the skeletal remains of Guy Gardner and Thaal Sinestro closer to her so she could tether them to her aura, confident that the act would ensure they wouldn’t get caught in the stellar winds that caused the asteroids to drift wildly across the Obliteration Zone.
<Due to the condition of the remains, I am unable to provide a cause of death.>
“But the genetic structure remaining identifies them as the two Lanterns?”
<Correct.>
Nek ran her hands through her long, blue hair then tapped her ring. “They arrived here three hours ago and now they’re dead. Huh. Huh huh huh. Send a databurst to Oa. Inform Salaak. But… how old are these remains?”
<Three hours and seven minutes old.>
“Wait… wait… I’m not talking how long they’ve been like that, I’m talking how old are the bones themselves?”
<Three hours and seven minutes old.>
“But… Gardner was into his forth decade, Sinestro into his fifth. They weren’t… these remains are a distraction… created when whatever took them, took them. So where the heck are they, ring?”
REALITY-3:
OA:
Above the Altar of Volthoom, emerald light, a darker shade than that projected by a Green Lantern’s ring, crackled like it was a fire. There was a tear in space and the interior looked bloody, like someone had shredded the body of reality and you could see the muscle and sinew inside. There were scant flames on the altar itself, but the majority of the conflagration was based in the tear.
“How long until the tear closes?” Henshaw asked his ring.
<Unknown. Without connection to Book of Oa, ring is unable to make informed projections.>
“Right, right. Damn. So, we’re on a clock, but we don’t know when it’s going to tick down to zero.”
“What’s that?” John asked Sinestro, pointing at a crystalline trench dug into the earth around the altar. “The tech doesn’t match the altar.”
“I’m not sure, but it’s been there since before Power Ring unearthed the altar. I saw it all happen, when I was hiding from him over there,” Sinestro gestured to a rocky outcropping.
“I’m guessing from what you said that Power Ring was supercharged thanks to whatever energy he stole from this altar. It let him tear open reality to get to Earth-1, so if we can--”
Hank reached his hand out toward the altar, but as it crossed the trench, he regretted his decision immediately. The trench twinkled with a blue light, going from dormant to active in a split second, and then launched itself directly at Henshaw.
The Green Lantern stumbled backwards, tendrils of crystalline malice lashing out against him. The construct probed every point of his protective aura, but couldn’t get through, though the strength behind the lashes sent shivers through the shield.
He couldn’t get a bead on where to begin fighting back, but he was amazed at whatever it was that attacked him. It moved like an octopus made from diamond, and it didn’t shatter when it lashed out at him, even though it looked so delicate. There was something familiar about the technology, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was exactly.
Enjoying the distraction, Sinestro laughed and then dove for the altar, but John intercepted him, tackling the treacherous alien to the ground. He punched the Korugarian in the face, split the man’s lip open, then doubled down on his attack.
Without his ring, and stick rocky from the beating he took from Power Ring, Stewart wanted to end this fast, and that meant going surgical. He punched Sinestro in the kidneys, one-two-three, then once in the throat hard enough to cause the man to gag, then finally smashed an elbow into his temple with enough force to knock him out.
While this was going on, Henshaw went on the offensive, spun upwards out of range of John, then extended his force field out. The writhing mass of crystal was pushed away, but realising they were about to be dismissed, they snapped together into one immense spear and drove directly for Hank’s heart. They smashed against Henshaw’s aura, buried deeper and deeper into the energy field, but it was chipping away, losing mass as it went.
Just as it was about to pierce the shield, Hank straining all the while, only a tiny fragment of crystal made it through, and it nicked at the Green Lantern’s chest, drawing blood. It immediately withdrew, and sprang across the desolate plains of Oa to escape destruction.
Hank fired off a strafe of energy, but the octopoid construct vanished, leaving him confused and bleeding. He floated back down and saw what John had done to Sinestro, then nodded in admiration. “Efficient.”
“The man played us. I guess he was our Sinestro’s evil twin. That’s reassuring at least.”
Hank chuckled, his ring knitting his chest back together. “Doesn’t it make you good to know that we’re the good guys?”
John didn’t know how to feel about that. “We’ll see. You need to wake him up, figure out what just happened. He might know what that thing was. And if there are more of him.”
“You can handle that. Hold out your hand.”
John did as Hank asked and Henshaw gripped his comrade’s wrist. Bands of emerald energy spread out from where he grasped him, until two bracelets formed on John’s arms.
Hank explained, “I’ve transferred half my energy allowance to you. Thanks to Kyle, our rings hold surplus charges*, so it should last until we deal with this. Hell, I never learned the outer limit of the thing. I probably should get on that…”
*As discovered in Green Lantern #50
“Wait, you remember Kyle*?”
*Kyle is MIA after Green Lantern Corps #60
John was surprised, but it did make a degree of sense that another human Lantern that played such a huge role in saving the galaxy from the threat of the Red Lanterns, whose ring was borne from Sinestro’s own, would be part of the small cabal that retained memories of the missing White Lantern.
“Why wouldn’t I? He did something weird to me last Christmas, said he…well, it’s a long story, but sufficed to say, I won’t forget him any time soon*.”
*Kyle played God with Hank back in Green Lantern #51…
“I can go into more detail once we’re out of this hellhole, but Kyle’s MIA, and he’s taken the memory of him with him. It’s like he rewrote the collective memories of the universe. Even his ex forgot about him.”
“Weird. But yeah, that should wait. How do the energy bands feel?”
John contemplated his wrists and tried forming a construct. A pistol formed in his hand, and with the flick of his wrist, it transformed into a sniper rifle. Protective shielding was automatic, but there was not voice when he tried to query the Book of Oa. Even though they were offline, if his ring was on him it would have still told him so.
“Good. Okay, I’ll deal with this bastard. Do you want to keep an eye out for that crystal squid?”
Hank nodded and turned away while John wrenched the unconscious Sinestro up by his lapels. He sent a shock through his hands into the traitor’s body, causing him to awake with a start from unconsciousness.
“Listen to me, you sonofabitch. You’ve been holding out on us. You’re going to tell us the truth, you're going to tell us what the hell that thing was, and if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to walk after. Do you understand me?”
REALITY-1:
<LOCATION UNKNOWN>
Gardner gasped as oxygen hit his lungs. His ring pinged, sending waves of scanning energy outward, trying to determine where Sinestro and he had ended up, but all they could see was the void, darkness and black in every direction.
<Warning / unrecognised energy signature interfering with power ring’s CPU. Unable to connect to Book of Oa / limited functionality available / life support / flight / energy constructs. Higher processing and memory compromised / warning.>
Ignoring the plight of his ring, Guy looked around his immediate area. “What’s missing from this picture?” he murmured, rubbing his throbbing temples. Whatever had hit him zapped right through his ring’s defences and knocked him clean out. Sinestro floated unconscious nearby, so he tethered the Lantern to his own aura and continued to think through the situation.
“Ugh. What was that?” asked Sinestro.
“I’m not sure. I was talking to you then all I can remember is pain then waking up here. What did you drag us into, Thaal?”
Sinestro blinked, his eyes adjusting. “I’m not entirely sure. Wait, do you see this?”
“It’s what I don’t see, man. I don’t see any stars.”
The void was completely black, not a sun or star in sight. Hundreds of thousands of miles out was a planetoid, and behind that, others, but there were no stars. Wherever they were, there was no light reaching them, so all they had was the dark.
“Does this solar system look familiar to you? I can’t connect to the Book of Oa,” said Guy. He scratched his temple, something itching in the back of his brain. Why did this picture feel so familiar?
“Not from memory, no. But perhaps… the stories of the Obliteration Zone, the solar system wiped out by the weapon we came looking for… are you thinking…?”
“I think we found a missing solar system, Thaal. But how the hell do we get back home?”
<Warning / ring charge depleting. If continued energy drain continues, all reserves will be extinguished within eighteen hours / warning>
Guy tapped his ring. “Eighteen…? I thought Kyle’s supercharge kept us power happy *?”
*Again, back in Green Lantern #50
“Perhaps with his absence from the universe that boon has been withdrawn, or maybe this void is suffused with energy draining elements…” Sinestro pointed toward the planetoid, his ring flaring as it detected life signs. “There’s an immense energy field coming from over there. I think we should begin our search in that direction. Perhaps that will put a stop to the drain on our ring charges…”
“We best hurry, I don’t want to die without seeing the stars one last time,” said Guy.
REALITY-3:
OA:
The Thaal Sinestro of this parallel dimension gasped awake, only to be slapped in the face by an irate John Stewart. He cried out, pawed at the Lantern, but Stewart was having none of it. The energy gauntlets that he wielded restrained Thaal, and then he slapped the Korugarian again.
“You lied to us.”
“No, I didn’t, I--”
John slapped Thaal again.
“Yes, you did. And that’ll stop now.”
“Anything, yes, yes, anything.”
“Our powers allow us to get a biometric readout of anyone we want, Thaal. That means I’ll know if you start lying to me again. Do you understand?”
“Yes! Yes, I do, I do.”
“Now there are two ways we can do this. The first, and the one you’ll probably prefer, is I ask you a question, and you answer it. Do you follow?”
“Yes, fair, fair.”
“The second, and this one isn’t so nice, is that I send little threads of hard energy into your brain and I unpick the secrets directly from the source. That usually leaves our interrogation subjects unable to hold their bowels. Do you understand that one?”
Hank turned from where he was scanning and pulled an uncomfortable face. “Hey, come on, John…”
“I’ve got this, Henshaw, back off,” snapped John.
Hank turned away shaking his head, then smiled to himself as his comrade continued the routine. Something piqued his interested in the distance, so he lifted off and left his friend to it.
With Hank gone, John looked back at Thaal. “Do. You. Understand?”
“The first way, the first way,” gibbered Thaal.
“I thought you might. You knew that thing would attack my colleague, didn’t you?”
“I saw the… the humans… Power Ring’s allies… they set the trap using parts of the… the Kryptonian hybrid’s ship. It was a… a boobytrap.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know! Honestly!”
“You said you were being honest before…”
“Yes, yes, but, I, oh, oh gods, I came here because I heard there might be some remnant, some scrap of the Great Volthoom’s power still here, and I was right. But the others in my dig, they, they wanted it for themselves. I crashed the ship because they couldn’t, I couldn’t, they couldn’t take what was rightly mine. They died and it took me months to find this place, the burial site of the altar, I mean. But when I was about to begin the dig, Power Ring shot down, raised it up from underground and sucked the power out. Then he leaped into a tear in, into, into that tear in space. I was going to try and see if I could absorb anything that was left over but then his allies, the ones he betrayed, they set the trap and left. Headed back to, to Earth, I think. Must have been. I knew that I couldn’t access the power, but then a few hours later Power Ring returned, and I saw him spin thousands of rings into existence, then follow them off into space. The tear was still open, and the altar had some spark left, but those crystals stopped me from getting near. So, so, so instead I used my ship’s computers and saw what was happening in space. I realised that maybe Oa was the safest place for me, because who’d want to come back here?”
John watched as Sinestro gasped for breath, his explanation nearly giving him an asthma attack. “Hmm.”
Hank rushed back to where they'd been situated and went straight for Thaal. He pushed John out the way, picked the Korugarian up by the throat, then grabbed his right arm. “You bastard.”
John’s brow furrowed, but didn’t intervene. “Hank, what’s wrong? What happened?”
“I’ve just been in his ship. His crew. They survived the damn crash.”
“No, no, no,” hissed Sinestro.
“He jury-rigged the cargo bay into cages. He must have kept them until he needed them… but no, they weren’t damn cages, were they? They were pantries. This bastard ate them. He kept them alive and ate them.”
John grimaced. “Is this true?”
“I-- I-- I--” Sinestro stopped stuttering, paused, and then smiled, barring his bone-chipped teeth. “Well, there’s no point in lying about that now, is there?”
Without hesitation or the aid of his power ring, Hank snapped the man’s neck and let him drop to the floor.
John was silent for a moment, then looked to the skies. “We… we need to get Power Ring to come to us. And I think I have an idea as to how we should do that.”
While the two Green Lanterns contemplated the steps they would need to take to save the day, the crystalline entity that attacked them had found a quiet spot, away from the Altar of Volthoom, and was currently analysing the genetic material it had stolen from Hank Henshaw.
There was something inside his DNA it could use, all it had to do was unlock the specific sequence that Hank had never been aware existed within his own body. It began to combine the crystal healing technology of it’s creators, the Kryptonian people, with the genetic material, until a viable amalgam could be made. When the optimum combination was settled on, it began to grow something new, an entity tailored made to destroy its targets…
REALITY-1:
DAXAM:
Their convoy still in orbit over Daxam, three Green Lanterns, namely Katma Tui, Salaak and Sodam Yat were in an uncomfortable position. The Daxam Elite Council’s edict still rang in their ears, and if it meant what Sodam claimed, the act of returning the colonists to their homeworld might be the worst decision they could possible make.
“Could you please clarify what you mean by decontamination?” queried Salaak.
The voice of Sodam’s father, a lead member of the council, responded via the communications console on their lead ship. {It is the law of our people that if any of our populace are exposed to alien elements that the should be decontaminated.}
“You mean brainwashed,” snapped Sodam.
Salaak clicked his fingers once, drawing the younger Lantern’s attention to him. The current leader of the Corps’ eyes burned through Yat, and he muted the connection between their craft and the council. “This is a diplomatic mission, Sodam. The colonists want to return home after their experiences. If you cannot control your own bias, then wait outside.”
“I… I can control my temper, I’m sorry. This is… this happened to me, Salaak. I don’t…”
Salaak shook his head. “You misunderstand. I was not giving you a choice. Wait. Outside.”
Sodam went to argue, but he wasn’t in a position of authority here. Just because this was his home sector didn’t mean he could overrule the decision of Salaak. Instead he sighed, understanding how completely useless he was in their current setting, and exited.
Katma watched all this happen, shocked at Salaak’s tone, but she didn’t question him.
“I apologise, councillor. My Lantern spoke out of turn.”
{My son always needed a firm hand. It saddens me to know that for all that has changed, his induction into your organisation, our current situation, that some things always remain the same.}
“Yes, yes, of course. Now, what exactly does this decontamination entail?”
{I do not understand why we should answer that question, Green Lantern. You have no jurisdiction over our world, or our laws. Either the colonists agree to our terms-- and they themselves have requested permission to return to Daxam-- or their colonisation programme shall become a sentence of exile.}
“Hmm. Do you happen to know what the Green Lantern Corps does, councillor?”
{Your organisation is a self-proclaimed peace keeping force. Once the most respected in all the galaxy, I might add, but that was when you were empowered by the great Guardians of the Universe. They guaranteed a respectful and balanced approach to your undertakings. But without them, now you take it upon yourselves to interject in other races’ business, like you’re trying to do now.}
“Oh, yes, we keep the peace on an universal level. The only organisation of it’s kind. And I would like to think we are unbiased, following the example set by the Guardians. But I digress. I meant specifically. Did you know, for instance, that we regularly patrol our appointed sectors and take care of any stray asteroids that might be on a collision course with populated worlds?”
{What are you trying to--} started another one of the councillors.
Earlier, they’d spoken as one, completely in tune with each other’s thoughts, but after Sodam’s father had started to speak in his own voice that trend was spreading.
“No, no, I’m not trying to say anything, I am stating some of our functions. Others include routing potential invasion forces that might have plans to attack neighbouring worlds. That’s quite dangerous. We’ve lost many a good Lantern to that cause. What else? Lantern Tui? Any that spring to mind?”
Katma realised what Salaak was doing and nodded. “Well, yes, of course. We prevent the formation of cosmic anomalies that might drift on lunar winds towards populated worlds. If our Science Division detect the beginnings of, say, a black hole, we would send a team to ensure it doesn’t threaten anybody.”
“We certainly do a lot, and it does take a lot of our resources out. Lanterns Yat and N’buya would be better utilised performing other duties, of course, if we removed that responsibility from them. Don't you agree, Lantern Tui?”
There was a bustle of activity on the other end of the line as the council argued amongst themselves, some scared, others outraged. After a few moments, Sodam Yat’s father once again came to the fore. {I understand what you’re saying, Lantern Salaak--}
“Honour Lantern, councillor. What are the points of titles if we don’t use them?”
{Honour Lantern. We appreciate the Green Lantern Corps’ ongoing edict to protect the universe from threats both obvious and not so obvious. It is with that in mind we ask… what would you wish the terms to be for the return of our colonists?}
“I think they’d be best served if they were left alone, councillor. No decontamination of any kind. They’ve been through a lot and have received the best possible care available to them. Let them go about their lives in whatever reasonable way they wish. Your dedicated Sector Lanterns, your son included, will be near your world at all times, and if they happen to pick up any indication that the colonists have experienced ‘decontamination’, we would have to address the duties we undertake in this area of space.”
{…Agreed. Thank you for your time, Honour Lantern.}
“A pleasure.”
Salaak indicated to Katma, who terminated the transmission.
“I didn’t think you were going to pull that, Salaak.”
Salaak shook his head. “It sets a bad precedent, I’m afraid. We… I… just threatened an entire race of people because I didn’t like what they were saying. In doing so, I insinuated we’d spy on them, and intervene if we didn’t like what they were doing. At least… at least these people can go home.”
“Sodam’ll be happy.”
“Go salve his bruised ego. I’ll begin coordination of the colonists return from here.”
“Yes, sir,” said Katma, leaving the leader of the Green Lantern Corps alone on the bridge of their ship, his shoulders heavy with the responsibility they bore.
REALITY-1:
<LOCATION UNKNOWN>
As they moved through the starless void, something became obvious to the two lost Lanterns. There were decaying husks hanging in the vacuum, space ships and satellites all somehow arriving in this place along with them. There was damage across the hulls of the vessels, decay and rot, as if something was slowly devouring them.
“God, how many people have died in here?” asked Guy.
Sinestro grimaced. “Best we focus on preventing any more lives being lost. Look, over there--”
Ahead of the two lost Lanterns, a world glistened as if it were covered by a web wet with the dew of a new day. Numerous lights blinked in series, and this caused Sinestro to hold Gardner back before they went any closer.
“What’s wrong?”
Thaal cupped his eyes. “That light series. It’s a non-verbal communication signal native to the solar system. Massively archaic, but I studied ancient language since before the ring. It’s a warning not to approach. That they’re prepared to fire upon intruders.” His ring flashed. “My Gods, even with reduced scanning capabilities the ring can see that their weapon capabilities are immense. Targeting systems are zeroing in on us.”
“Being stuck in the dark can be a scary thing, but I have an idea.”
Guy held up his ring and summoned an immense emerald flare that spurted out from his ring and lit up the void they’d found themselves in. Sinestro understood and added his light to Gardner’s, and it reached out as far as their wills could muster.
After a few moments, Thaal’s ring blinked. The targeting systems had disengaged.
“There was a Lantern back in the day that patrolled their sector, they know what this symbol means,” said Guy, tapping his ring. “We’re friendlies.”
“Friendlies with twelve hours of charge left, Guy.”
“Man, you don’t have to remind me.”
The duo headed down, through the atmosphere, and landed in the middle of a square that was quickly filling with men, women and children. Their skin was almost luminescent, their eyes large and completely black. They were taller than any human by about two feet, but their shapes were humanoid. Four fingers and a thumb on each of their four arms, but two legs, and an elongated neck that held up a slightly angular head.
A group of armed soldiers, the planet’s military, pushed forward, and their leader, a man wearing a simple black tunic, stood at their head. They levelled their weapons-- nervous at the newcomers-- but their leader waved their arms down with two of his own.
“Green Lanterns. I did not think I’d live to ever meet your kind, but there are tales of your valour in our records. You have found us. After all this time. I am Qoyhr, grand-militant of the Qylh. Your names?”
Gardner shrugged. “I’m Guy, this is Thaal. How long have you been here?”
“Our people have only known the void for countless generations. Guy and Thaal. The names of our saviours. What do we need to do to return? To see… stars?”
Guy shuffled for a second, but Thaal spoke up before he could muster the words. “Whatever dragged your world into this void caught us too. I’m afraid we’re not a rescue party, but we will rest at nothing to take you back with us.”
Qoyhr’s hopeful expression dropped immediately. “You’re trapped too? Then our exile continues. Do you not think that all we’ve done since our ancestors arrived here is try to leave? We have dedicated generations in our attempts to escape! What hope do you have of succeeding where we failed?”
“Where there’s a will, sir,” said Gardner. “We’ll always find a way.”
“Now, what can you tell us of the thing that stole you away from the universe?” asked Sinestro.
Qoyhr sighed, but turned to one of the attendants nearby. “Ask Nolphr to come. Quickly.” The attendant left, and Qoyhr turned back to the Lanterns. “Nolphr is our historian, she holds the collective knowledge of our people, and manages the records.”
“Do you need anything? Can we help with anything before we get started?” asked Gardner.
“Our ancestors adapted quickly to the darkness, Lantern Guy. The defense net prevents the energy drain native to this void disrupting our systems. Our attempts to explore the void have been foiled due to our ships batteries draining within minutes of leaving the atmosphere. Our homeworld is a prison.”
“I see. I’m sorry. Ah, is this--?”
Another newcomer arrived, a woman with a ponytail that started at the tip of her angular skull. She bowed slightly, then looked over at Qoyhr. “These are the Green Lanterns?”
Guy saluted. “That’s us. You’re Nolphr?”
“I am, yes. I recognised your signal from our records. I apologise for our warning, but the dark… there is a reason we are afraid of it. Sometimes it... acts up.”
“That explains your weapon systems. Now, can you tell us exactly what’s going on here?” asked Sinestro.
REALITY-3:
EARTH:
<--PEOPLE OF THIS GODFORSAKEN WORLD, THERE’S A NEW GUY IN CHARGE. THE CRIME SYNDICATE? THEY’RE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES. THE VOLTHOOM CORPS, THEY’RE THE NEW NAME IN ULTIMATE POWER. SO, HOW’S THIS FOR A DEAL? IF YOU SPOT ULTRAFAG, OWLMAN OR SUPERSLUT, YOU PICK UP YOUR PHONE AND DIAL 2814. YOU SAY WHAT YOU SAW. AND IF IT PAYS OFF, YOU GET ALL THE MONEY YOU COULD EVER DREAM OF. AND THAT’S A PROMISE.>
The broadcast was across all communication channels on the planet, and hearing Power Ring’s voice made Owlman’s blood boil. The CSA was their baby; Ultraman, Superwoman and his, for better or for worse. Johnny could run, sure, but he was an errand boy, and Power Ring? Well, they killed his predecessor, and this is how his replacement treats them?
Ultraman, still recovering from anti-Kryptonite poisoning, slammed his fists into the console in front of him, barely denting the surface. “Fag? He calls me a fag? I’ll show him. I’ll tear his ass in half. I’ll show him who’s boss--!”
“Not if he finds us first, honey,” said Superwoman, laying resplendent on the sofa in the corner of the bunker. “And who does he think he is, calling me a slut? Like that’s an insult…”
“You need to calm down, Ultraman. His people are probably scanning every inch of the planet to find us, and your tantrum might draw their attention.”
Ultraman turned his head whip-quick, staring holes through the man who dared to give him an order. “Don’t tell me what to do, Tommy. You’re not in charge here. You were never in charge.”
Thomas Wayne Jr stepped up to the former human called Ultraman. “Yeah, I’m in charge, Clarky-boy.”
Even though Ultraman was a head taller than Owlman, Wayne didn’t care. He sneered as Clark Kent squared up to him, his shoulders broad and his nose tilted up to look down at his all-too human comrade.
“Power Ring punked you and you’re running on fumes. I wanted, I could snap your neck just like that,” he punctuated the point with the click of fingers. “So calm the hell down and let me figure this out.”
“Owlman has a point, Clark. Plus, he’s the only one Power Ring fears.”
“Mistake…” mumbled Ultraman.
“Our mistake was going back to the Panopticon when we got back to the solar system. Of course John would have been waiting for us. How he got there so fast, I have no idea. But those people with him…”
“They all had their own rings,” said Superwoman. “Maybe I should ditch you and--”
Owlman grabbed Superwoman and hoisted her up by the neck. She hissed obscenities at her attacker but Thomas just shook his head. “Now’s not the time for your sick sense of humour, Lois. I know they taught you sadism as an art back home, but right now, we need finesse.”
“And you’re the guy for that job, Tommy?”
Owlman turned and Power Ring was stood in the middle of the underground bunker, flanked by several his recent inductees into the Volthoom Corps. The scarred hulk behind him was Kilowog, while the wiry child holding onto his leg was Arisia. There were others above their heads too, who became visible when the roof of the bunker, along with tonnes of earth, was lifted by emerald digging tools.
Owlman smiled. “Hullo, John. You took your time, didn’t you?”
“I had to take care of this pain in the ass first, didn’t I?”
<Show them, show them what happens when you cross us.>
Johnny Quick, his legs twisted around and broken at the knees and ankles, was dropped from the skies, and he bounced limply in front of Ultraman, who snarled at the insult. Their speedster was dead, and he looked like he died painfully.
“Good plan, leaving him out to flap in the wind. Ran circles around my people, but they needed the training. When he went to Keystone to pick up a batch of Speed Juice, one of his whores clued us in. We took our time dismantling him.”
<His pain was delicious.>
“Johnny was your teammate, John. You crossed the line,” said Owlman.
<His suffering made me happy.>
“There is no team. No Crime Syndicate. Just the Corps. First I stamp you bastards out, then the universe comes to heel. I’m going to enjoy making you hurt, Ultraman. You shouldn’t have killed Hal.”
“I’ll kill you, I promise that--”
<You will do nothing. You are weak. You are nothing.>
“Not without any Kryptonite. God, you were so trusting. Volthoom helped track down every drop of it before we left for Oa, and now look at you. Are you losing weight?”
<Wasting away like the nothing you truly are.>
“I’ll--” started Ultraman, but Owlman shut him up with a slap to the head. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Show some dignity.”
“Like he has any,” purred Superwoman.
Power Ring laughed. “It’s been a good ride, Crime Syndicate. But I’m afraid--”
<Warning, John! Incoming transmission!>
A distorted, horrific shriek echoed out across all the rings the Volthoom Corps wore. From out of their centres, a head was projected, familiar to those who had met Power Ring himself, but this version of the man lacked the facial scarring, the ear ring or perpetual sneer.
John Stewart of Earth-1, Green Lantern of Sector 2814, spoke softly, and succinctly. <Most of you won’t know me, but your boss does. Power Ring, did you think we’d let you fly away with my ring? I want what’s mine. You have 24 hours to disband your little terrorist cell and hand my ring back to me, or my colleague here uses his to deactivate every single one you’ve built. You think the Corps would allow their weapons to be bastardised? You have 24 hours, or I let you drop out the sky. You know where to find me.>
Power Ring watched as the hologram snapped away, then looked down at the Crime Syndicate-- they were gone! Transported out during the commotion!
<We can’t let the Green Lantern take what we worked so hard to build. We need to kill him. Him and his friend. They’re on Oa. I can feel it. We need to destroy them. Obliterate them. Then take the war to his world, make sure no one lives to fight back!>
Power Ring nodded, then looked at the nearly four thousand strong army he’d gathered, all bearing their own Green Lantern-borne ring. “Oa, then. Back to Oa. Volthoom Corps? Let’s fly!”
REALITY-3:
OA:
“Holy hell, my ring just detected a massive power surge. They’re headed here at top speed. We only have a few hours,” said Hank.
“Better here than on a populated world. I just need to touch my ring, physical contact, and I think I can fight whatever hold he has on it. Then I can pull the rings off the fingers of his army.”
“Big gamble. You sure you’re up to it?” asked Hank.
“Leave that to me. We just have to survive the Volthoom Corps to get this done.”
{That’s all well and good, John. But I don’t think you’ll be making it off this rock alive.}
The two Green Lanterns turned and were shocked by the monstrosity that lurched toward them. Crystalline matrices visible under its skin, metal flowing like water across it’s body, and an almost familiar costume covering the rest, a horrifying creation took heavy steps across the wasteland toward them.
“Who the hell is that?” asked Hank, his ring flaring. “One of Volthoom’s disciples?”
{I am the perfect combination of Kryptonian and human DNA. The ultimate hunter. The ultimate predator. You can call me the Cyborg Ultraman. And I can call you my first victims.}
TO BE CONCLUDED
Please take a moment and follow this link to let us know what you thought of this issue!
Please take a moment and follow this link to let us know what you thought of this issue!
NEXT ISSUE: What is the Cyborg Ultraman, and how did it come to be? How will John and Hank be able to stop Power Ring and the Volthoom Corps when they must contend with that thing as well? Meanwhile, how will Guy and Thaal escape the void they’ve found themselves within? And will the Daxamites hold up their end of the bargain when it comes to the return of their traumatised colonists? Find out next month!