ISSUE #1 (July 2019)
Written by Emma Woods Featuring: |
"SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN: PART 1"Graxos IV…
Barely on the map… Years ago… Arisia Rrab refused to sit down, regardless of how perilous their position had become. Afterall, she was the daughter of a Green Lantern, and Green Lanterns knew no fear! The peek her father had taken her to the summit of was known by many names by the populace of the nearby city, and none of them inspired confidence in the hearts of those who thought to climb it. Notoriously treacherous, few climbers, for good reason, had made the attempt, fewer still had survived it. Her father had often regaled her with tales of how he was amongst those few who had made the ascent by hand, braving the elements to reach the very top unaided. Arisia wasn’t quite sure that she believed him. Still, the view was spectacular, the young girl looking out across the landscape that stretched on for thousands of miles, her home, her city, a beehive of activity far below. She felt like a God, looking down upon the little people, standing with her fists set against her hips as she dared anyone to gainsay any such thoughts of grandeur. “Come, little one,” her Father, Fentara Rrab prompted his eldest daughter, calling the girl over to where he sat, the emerald shield he’d created from his Lantern Ring protecting them from the elements. “Away from the edge, your mother is going to be upset with me as it is. If she finds out that I brought you up here, my life won’t be worth living.” Through force of will alone, her father had flown them both to the very top of this mountain peak, Fentara wanting to share something spectacular with his daughter before he returned to active duty. For once she listened to him without arguing, her wilful nature perhaps placated by her wonderous surroundings as she dashed on over to his side, eager to share with him her many observations. He listened intently, nodding when it was appropriate, and when it seemed she had finally run out of things to say, she sat herself down beside him. They stayed together for a long time, Fentara explaining to his daughter the meaning behind the many stars, describing to her worlds that she had never seen and that she could only dream of, the child on the cusp of beginning puberty enraptured by the unknown. She knew that her father would be leaving soon, returning to Oa and the Green Lantern Corps, but she would have his ear until then, demanding that he enjoy many more adventures to regale her with later. She sometimes wondered if they were all true, some seemed too fantastical to be real, but they all had such happy endings, she could only imagine that the universe was filled with endless wonders. Not once, in all of her questioning, did it ever occur to her to ask whether or not her father would be coming back. Arisia had never believed that she needed to… Oa… The Centre of the Universe… Yesterday… “You’re grounding me!?” Arisia Rrab exclaimed, unwilling to believe what she was hearing, both of her hands held up into the air to demonstrate just how unhappy she was with the verdict that she had just received. Her attempt to make herself look bigger failed to make her appear more intimidating, just as it failed to sway the arbiter of her immediate future. Salaak, the four-armed administrator of the Green Lantern Corps, remained nonplussed to his compatriots mounting distress, acknowledging her with the scarcest of curt glances as he continued to process his many, far more pressing assignments. For a man who spent much of his time sat down, positioned upon an emerald seat of his own making before a set of terminals powered by his own will, he was a creature of perpetual motion, his many fingers never ceasing in their endless typing. “Leave of Absence both stamped and approved,” he reiterated his earlier declaration for the orange skinned, elfin Lantern who frowned openly in his direction. “Voluntary or otherwise.” “Oh, come on,” Arisia pleaded, attempting another route, the girl forlornly leaning over one of her one-time partners consoles, subjecting him to one of her most tried and tested of pouts. It didn’t seem to be working, “I just got back!” “Precisely my meaning,” Salaak looked up from his many tasks, if only slightly, which was more of his attention than he was willing to divert for most Lanterns. “You have spent the last standard year in captivity, forced to engage in slave labour and subjected to an undetermined quantity of abuse. A leave of absence after enduring such conditions is not only advisory, but also mandatory.” “Because of a year?” Arisia sulked, feeling increasingly surly about being side lined. “More like a long weekend for me,” she reminded Salaak with a sideways glass, the multilimbed Lantern well aware of her own species notoriously long lives. “Then a few weeks on Graxos IV will be akin to a brisk afternoon,” Salaak caught her in her own logic. Arisia deflated, knowing that this was a battle that she couldn’t win, half wishing that she had taken the opportunity to escort Kara to Earth while she’d still had the chance. There was always something happening there that would have delayed her return back to Oa. She lent atop the monitors of her old comrade, her opinion of him far more favourable that it was amongst many on the Corps, her chin perched atop her hands in defeat. “You’re going to make me do this, aren’t you?” “I am,” Salaak agreed. “You used to be cool,” she prodded. “Incorrect,” Salaak amended. “It’s a good thing I like you,” she huffed. “Indeed,” he was noncommittal. “Graxos IV,” Arisia mused, already feeling herself weighed down by the tedium, “how far down the pecking order to you have to be to be named after three other planets?” Graxos IV… Still not overly notable… Now… Home, Arisia lamented, all of her infamous Green Lantern will being utilised towards keeping her shoulders from slouching, it was just as ordinary as she remembered. It hadn’t helped that she had been forced to ‘fly economy’, her ring ‘shut down’ for the duration of her leave of absence so as to remove any thoughts of temptation, only the direst of circumstances would activate it again before her time was up. She waded through the crowds of the spaceport, surrounded by more of her own people than she had been in some years, and as she was jostled left and then right by the sea of travellers around her. Arisia was not enjoying the experience. She put on a brave face, determined to make the most of it, but there could only be so much of this hustling that she would be willing to put up with before… “ARISIA!!” a young girl cried out and, much to her surprise, the Lanterns mood brightened almost immediately, a smile lighting up her features as a child ran on over to wrap her arms about her waist. Arisia hugged her back, knowing who it was immediately, but she was astonished by how much she had changed since she had last seen her. “Alexxia!” the Lantern exclaimed back, hugging her little sister whom, the last time they had met, was surely not this big. She pulled the blonde girl back to give her the once over, “look at you! A little lady now, when did you get to be so tall?” “While you were away!” Alexxia beamed, enjoying the implied praise from her big sister. She was still a child, not quite approaching puberty yet, and something about the whole affair struck Arisia as faintly familiar. “I couldn’t have been away that long?” she insisted, not quite believing it, “It’s only been…” “Three years,” a third figure revealed, the women’s far more sedated pace catching up with her excitable, youngest daughters. “And change,” Arisia’s mother stated, not unkindly, a weariness in her posture that her eldest daughter did not remember. There was a great deal more hesitation than there should have been before the two shared an awkward hug, feeling more like a formality than a desire. “That long, really?” Arisia questioned somewhat guiltily after they pulled back. “Yes,” Aerilaya Rrab affirmed, “that long.” After a few moments longer, a tired smile did manage to find its way to her mother’s features, Aerilaya palm cupping her daughter’s cheek. Arisia made a disgruntled expression at being mothered, “you look well, at least.” “Thanks,” Arisia resisted the urge to roll her eyes, “I suppose we should get going?” Aerilaya pulled her hand away and nodded while Alexxia, as excitable as ever, took Arisia’s hand in her own, pulling her towards the exit of the spaceport. “Come on!” the young girl exclaimed, evidently excited by the arrival of her sibling, and all of the wonderous things that she could tell her. “I want to know everything!” Macragge… A world that will live on in infamy… Tomorrow… Where once civilisation had ruled supreme, now only the mad roamed free. The very earth had turned against itself, the core of the ancient world infested with a parasite that infected every fibre of its creation. The core beat with a frightful thunder, causing the ground to convulse and shake, the geography of an entire planet upturned and constantly roiling. Its people were no better, once reasoned and industrious, they now poured through the devastated streets of their toppled cities in waves of rioting plunder. They were mad, each and every one, eight billion souls robbed of their humanity during a single rotation about the sun, killing, murdering and tearing into one another until only a fraction of them were left remaining. At the centre of it all stood a single mountain, an edifice that had erupted from the ground and pulsated a frightful crimson, radiating malice until it saturated the air, a beacon of maddening despair. By one hand, all of this had come to pass, and Atrocitus was pleased by his labours. He stood at the centre of what had once been the capital of this benighted world, a towering mass of tensed muscle and scarcely controlled fury. The Lord of the Red Lanterns. Bleez remained close at hand, his compatriot and second, the former angel sparing not a glance for the fallen masses as her wretched, spindly wings remained pulled tightly into her back. “I HATE YOU!!” a single citizen of fallen Macragge spat through broken teeth and split lips as he dragged himself across the shattered concrete. Both of his legs were broken, one shattered at the knee, and his fingers bled as he dug them into the earth, and yet still he pulled himself across the ground. His eyes, bloodshot and wide, betrayed some manner of lucidity behind his otherwise shattered sanity, and he knew… he knew that Atrocitus was responsible, even if he did not know why. “I HATE YOU!!” the man cursed, using every last ounce of strength he had remaining to claw at the boot of the monster that had destroyed his world. Who he was, who he had been, even he no longer remembered, but Atrocitus spared him a glance just the same. “Commendable conviction,” the Lord of the Red Lanterns growled, acknowledging kinship with the man’s fury, his honest need for retribution. “But I have no time for dissidents.” With no further word, he stepped on the man’s neck and snapped the bone, the effort required to end his life barely noticeable. “Assemble the converted,” Atrocitus commanded, his gaze returning to the rage mountain, “prune those who can not see clearly, then gather the seeds.” He turned about, leaving Macragge to burn in its own madness. “Spread the word.” |