ISSUE #1
Written by Travis Hiltz
January 2018
Written by Travis Hiltz
January 2018
"Hal Jordan, Lantern of Mars!"
The planet Ma’alea’andra, known to the inhabitants of Earth as Mars.
The trio, all riding the beaked, leathery-skinned quadrupeds that served as steeds on the red planet, reached the top of the sandy hill.
One was a tall, angular green being. His elongated skull was almost diamond shaped, his eyes red and pupil less. His arms were long and his hands three fingered with a second set of smaller vestal arms beneath them.
He was clad in a blue breechcloth and red belt and harness across his chest.
Next to him was a more human-looking being. His skin crimson and his close cropped hair midnight black. He sported a pencil thin mustache. His breechcloth, boots and armbands were blue with a grey tunic and leggings.
The third member of this party was an Earthman. He was athletic of build with brown hair. He wore a short kilt of tanned leather, boots and harness, all colored green. On the middle finger of his right hand he wore a thick ring carved of some unknown green substance in the shape of a lantern.
They paused on the ridge, peering down into the valley below. The thin green Martian drew out a device similar to a telescope and held it to his eye.
The Earthman held up his hand to shade his eyes.
Both of them seemed intent on an impact crater at the far end of the quarry-like valley.
The red man with the mustache merely frowned impatiently.
“Well?” He asked after several minutes. “It’s a hole in the ground. Very exciting.”
“What do you think, J’onn?” The Earthman asked, ignoring the red man’s tone.
“I see no sign of wreckage, Hal Jordan,” The green Martian replied.
“It’s just another meteor strike,” The red man grumbled. “That’s all any of them have been. I’m as eager as anyone to send you back home, but we have found no sign of the craft you claim brought you to Ma’alea’andra, Jordan.”
“I’ll miss you too, Thaal,” Hal Jordan said, flicking the reins of his mount and heading down into the valley. “Anytime you want to go home, I’m sure J’onn and I will learn to live with the peace and quiet.”
“Oh yes, go back and face the wrath of Katma Tu,” Thaal Sinestro muttered, following after his traveling companions. “Rather be trampled by our steeds…!”
The trio was soon across the narrow valley and inspecting the crater. It was a good ten feet across and about half that deep.
“No wreckage,” Hal Jordan muttered, glumly. “And even if there had been the sand is so windblown there’d be no prints to follow whoever took it.
He kicked at the sand and then paced around it irritably.
Jordan, a test pilot back on Earth, claimed to have been brought to Mars when the plane he was flying was caught up in a green energy bubble and drawn across the void of space between the two worlds.
Stunned after his rough arrival, Hal had wandered the desert planet, fleeing alien beasts and hostile Martians, before encountering the red Martian Abin Sur. The ailing Martian explained that he was the defender of the solar system, an alien phrase that Hal’s poor language skills translated as ‘Lantern’.
The dying alien bestowed upon him the ring and with a flash of green energy, Hal Jordan found himself once more lost in the Martian desert, eventually being taken in by J’onn J’onz tribe.
Once he had mastered the language and helped to broker an uneasy peace between the green and red Martians, Hal set out with his two allies to investigate any ‘crash sites’ he could find in hope of finding his plane or maybe even Abin Sur’s sanctuary with the hope of finding a way back to Earth.
“Nothing looks familiar,” Hal muttered in frustration. “Not that I was at my most alert when I arrived…”
“Perhaps you have not found it as you are where you are meant to be,” J’onn mused.
“Maybe, but Earth is my home,” Hal replied. “There are people who are missing me…and if my ‘destiny’ is only to protect Mars, then why are Lanterns also called ‘Guardians of the universe’? Or why not pick one of you guys to protect the planet?”
“I hate to interrupt,” Thaal said, quietly, as he joined his companions. “But has anyone else begun to feel we are being watched?”
“Yes, since we entered the valley,” J’onn J’onz said, nonchalantly. “I felt a psychic presence.”
“Those guys up on the far ridge…?” Hal Jordan added quietly. “Yeah, I thought you guys knew.”
“I hate you both,” Thaal muttered. “They seem to be on the move.”
“Must be enough of them that they are feeling brave,” Hal nodded, not looking toward the edge of the valley. “Any idea who they are, J’onn?”
“No,” The green warrior said with a puzzled shake of his large head. “I can detect them, yet cannot get any distinct thoughts…it is quite odd…?”
“White Martians are able to block the mental powers of you greens,” Thaal, added, casually laying his hand upon the hilt of his sword.
“I thought you guys said the whites kept far to the south,” Hal said.
“This is not blocking,” J’onn said. “But, something…else…?”
“We’ll ponder it later,” Thaal said, drawing a yellow scimitar. “Here they come!”
“Raiders!” Hal announced, lunging for his mount and sliding a green staff from a saddle scabbard.
The masked raiders were a mysterious group of bandits that had been making strikes all along the desert wastelands that bordered the territories of the green and red Martian communities.
A half dozen warriors came sprinting towards the trio. They wore cowl-like hoods, mostly purple, but with blue lines that created a star pattern across the face and a center circle that made it look like each attacker had a single red eye.
They carried a variety of weapons, swords, clubs and shields.
“J’onn, guard the animals!” Hal shouted, as he ran at the raiders. Due to the differences between the gravities of Earth and Mars, he plowed through them, and then easily leapt past them.
While they were recovering, Thaal Sinestro leapt at the raiders, savagely slashing at any hand that held a weapon. Three of the raiders were down and bleeding before a club caught him just below the ribs and the red Martian went down to one knee, struggling for breath.
Hal broke his staff across the shoulders of a raider and then leapt over the others to reach his traveling companion. With one hand he swung the broken bit of staff, while with the other he helped Thaal to his feet.
With his longer legs, J’onn J’onz quickly joined them and beat down the remaining two raiders.
He then knelt over one of the fallen Martians, transferring his war clubs to his lower hands. He reached forward, passing a hand over the raider’s face, but keeping his fingertips from actually touching his mask.
“Odd,” The green warrior muttered. “Even this close, I detect almost no mental signal…what…gaahh!!”
As soon as he touched the raider’s mask, it leapt off his face and latched onto J’onn’s hand. He lurched to his feet, shaking his hand attempting to dislodge the mask.
Hal abandoned Thaal and rushed to J’onn’s side. As he reached out and grabbed his friend’s wrist his ring suddenly flared and a blast of emerald energy struck the mask and J’onn J’onz flung it away.
“What happened?” Hal asked, looking from his friend, to the ring to the fallen raiders.
“The mask…!” J’onn muttered, dazed. “They are…creatures…!”
“What?” Hal exclaimed, and then stumbled back a few steps. All the masks were slithering off the faces of the various raiders and inching toward the trio of adventurers.
“That is…that’s just really messed up,” Hal muttered.
He stepped between the mask-creatures and his friends and held his ring hand out. Hal didn’t feel like he was controlling the ring, rather that when the creatures got close enough it would emit a blast of green energy. They had to get too close by Hal’s estimate. Any the ring didn’t blast, he kicked away.
Hal didn’t realize he’d lost track of one of the things until it latched unto his calf.
“Damnit!” He gasped, through gritted teeth.
Thaal lunged forward, swatting at Hal’s leg with the flat of his scimitar.
Wincing, Hal then zapped the creature and the red warrior stabbed it as soon as it hit the sand.
J’onn approached one of the remaining creatures and using the broken pieces of Hal’s staff, scooped it up and dropped it into a mesh bag.
Thaal sat back against a rock, nursing his injured shoulder.
“What the hell just happened?” Hal exclaimed. “What’re those things?”
“I do not know,” J’onn muttered, with quiet anxiety. “They are like nothing I have seen before…!”
“And how did they track us?” Thaal asked, as he tore off a strip of cloth from his tunic to bandage his injured shoulder.
“Do you believe we were their quarry?” J’onn asked in reply.
“Why else would they be here?”
“Maybe the same reason we are,” Hal muttered, nodding toward the crater.
He and J’onn walked to the edge of the crater and peered down.
“What are you thinking?” J’onn asked.
“You don’t know?” Hal asked back.
“I do not read my friends’ minds unbidden.” J’onn replied, sounding bothered.
“I know,” Hal said. “I’m just being a jerk. I was thinking that maybe those…things were here for the same reason we are?”
“You think that like you, the Raiders are looking for something,” J’onn mused, thoughtfully stroking his pointed chin with long fingers.
“Neither you or Sinestro have ever seen them before,” Hal continuined “So, maybe, they came from somewhere else, like me.”
“What are they looking for?” Thaal asked, limping over to join the others.
“If they didn’t come from Mars,” Hal explained. “Then maybe they are expecting more…”
“An invasion…!” Thaal gasped darkly. He kicked at the remains of the nearest creature.
“Or they…I dunno…need something,” Hal shrugged. “Something they can’t find on Mars…that only comes from…up there.”
He gestured skywards and shrugged again.
“I didn’t even know there were aliens a month ago, so I’m no expert. Does seem like the ring doesn’t like them.”
“As always, between the two of you,” Thaal grumbled. “The inanimate object shows the better judgment.”
“Leave it,” Hal snapped. “We have more important things to worry about then your jealousy that I have the ring…”
“There is nothing more important!” The red man interrupted, harshly. “The ring is not just a symbol but a powerful construct…! One that tasks its wearer with the protection of all of Ma’lea’andra and it is in the hands of someone of such weak will that he can do no more with it then tricks like he is entertainer at some children’s party!”
“Then instead of sulking that you didn’t get to be ‘chosen one’, how about helping occasionally!” Hal said, angrily, as he took several steps toward the red warrior. Neither man, caught up in his anger, noticed the nimbus of green energy around Hal’s fist.
“Enough,” J’onn said, stepping between them. “This helps nothing. “
Both men glared up at the tall green warrior, but neither could hold his gaze for more then a second before looking away.
“Fine,” Thaal muttered, walking away to gather his weapons and provisions. “Then I suggest we return to the capitol. People must be warned of this invasion.”
“I don’t know…” Hal said, his gaze returning to the crater.
“Of course you don’t…!” The red man began, his voice rising once again.
J’onn J’onz silenced him with a raised hand.
“What is it, Hal Jordan?”
“It’s just…it seems…I came from out there and I didn’t come to invade,” Hal said, haltingly, the thoughts stumbled around his brain. “They may be like me, just…looking for something…?”
“You think everyone those creatures…took hold of volunteered?” Thaal sneered.
“I don’t know…not saying they’re saints, I think they’re pretty disgusting personally,” Hal said, beginning to pace, peering thoughtfully into the sandy crater. “But, this might be a mistake…”
“Mistake?” Thaal snapped. “They attacked us! They were stalking us!”
“Were they?” Hal asked. “Maybe they were here…looking for something…gives me an idea!”
Hal jogged over to his alien steed and fumbled in his saddlebag, coming away with a scroll. He unrolled it as he walked back to the crater.
“The first attacks by the Raiders, where were they?”
“Somewhere in the south, I believe,” J’onn shrugged.
“Near Ta’lan’dra,” Thaal said, absently.
“Okay, Ta’lan’dra…,”Hal muttered, studying his scroll.
“What are you doing?” The red man asked, peevish yet curious.
“Katma had your…council of science, or something…a bunch of astronomers…work up a map of as many of the craters as they could…here it is!”
He waved over his companions and continued to think out loud.
“There’s a pretty big meteor strike site, just outside the city,” He said. “And a couple smaller ones out on the plains around it.”
“When was that meteor strike?” J’onn asked.
“About…?” Hal muttered, squinting to decipher his scribbled notes on the chart. “Five, six months ago.”
“When the first rumored attacks by the masked raiders were reported.” Thaal admitted grudgingly, as he climbed aboard his mount. “Whatever those creatures are up to, that would seem to be the place to look.”
“Did he just admit I did something right?” Hal asked, surprised, as he rolled up his scroll.
J’onn J’onz held a finger to his thin lips.
“If he notices, he may retract the statement,” J’onn said, with quiet humor.
They saw that the freed ex-raiders regained consciousness left them some provisions and instructions to rest and just go home. Then the trio was on their way.
Thaal rode a bit ahead of the other two, the sting of his clash with Hal Jordan still felt.
J’onn J’onz rode, quietly, thoughtfully studying his companions.
“While Thaal Sinestro is tactless, arrogant and selfish,” He said, “He is not necessarily wrong.”
“What?” Hal asked, pulled away from watching the landscape.
“You were chosen to wear the ring,” The green warrior explained. “It gives its wearer great power, as well as a great burden of duty. I wonder if you accept that…”
“Look, I get that I’ve been given a responsibility…!” Hal protested.
“Do you? I wonder,” J’onn mused. “I am no expert, but my people, like all on Ma’land’rea have legends and stories. The ring bearers walk amongst the stars, have brought low whole planets and stood firm against cosmic forces….”
“And I make sparks and that one time I made a shield to save me from a landslide,” Hal mumbled, ruefully.
“You say you have accepted your choosing, but all your actions have been focused upon returning to your home sphere,” J’onn continued. “Yet you seem to be avoiding a path which has the potential to help in reaching your goal.”
“Are you trying to get me to do something noble by giving me permission to be selfish..?” Hal Jordan asked after several thoughtful minutes. “Remind me not to play poker with you.”
The displaced Earthman lapsed into silence as they rode along.
Two days riding across the red sandy wastes of Mars brought them to the mountains that formed the beginning of the lands held by the city state of Ta’lan’dra.
The trio had struggled against wild, alien beasts, hostile nomads and desert storms, but saw no further trace of the masked raiders.
J’onn J’onz continued to mentally scan, but felt no more hint of their strange mental signature.
Hal Jordan was almost relieved when they were finally attacked in the foothills. Facing a half dozen attackers was preferable to another haughty lecture by Thaal Sinistro.
The red Martian was hampered by his injured shoulder and was unable to dismount quickly, so struggled against a raider while struggling with a steed on the verge of panic.
J’onn, a battle baton in each of his four hands, kept three of the raiders at bay, while protecting his companions and the mounts.
Hal dealt with the final two. Even after several months, he was only an adequate swordsman at best and slipping on some gravel, stumbled and had his sword struck out of his hand.
“Okay, cosmic power,” He muttered, backing away from his attackers until he was against a rocky crag. “I am definitely not focusing on going home…let’s see what I can do.”
He put up his fist, figuring if worse came to worse maybe a couple good punches would succeed where a magic alien ring didn’t. A cut down his left shoulder and a split lip later, he was losing faith in that strategy. Then his right fist began to glow with emerald energy.
Struggling to ignore the two swords, Hal breathed deeply, thinking about nothing but the ring and the idea that it was his willpower that controlled it.
A beam of light shot out of the ring, topped by a large boxing glove, and plowed into the raiders, sending them tumbling down the incline to land with a thud yards away.
“Yeah, okay, that’ll work…!” Hal muttered, peering from the ring to his fallen foes. He raised his arm and pointed his fist at Thaal’s attacker.
A burst of energy knocked the mask creature from his head and a swat from the flat of the red Martian’s scimitar sent the raider to the ground.
Hal jogged over his companion.
“You okay?” He asked.
“Fine,” The other grudgingly admitted. “Let’s help J’onn.”
They turned and both men froze.
The Green Martian had taken several blows and gone done on one knee. When he stood up and turned to face his companions, he wore one of the strange parasitic creatures.
“That’s not good,” Hal muttered.
As J’onn advanced, Hal felt a strange sensation, like spiders walking across his brain. He blinked and shook his head, put the feeling only increased and then there came a buzzing, drowning out his thoughts.
“J’onn…don’t…you…uh…don’t want to…to do this…!” He groaned, struggling to raise his hand.
Thaal lunged forward, drunkenly and was easily swatted aside by the green warrior.
Hal brought up his ring hand, using his other hand to keep his arm steady. Sweat trickled down his face and he could feel his vision blur.
J’onn J’onz raised all four arms, prepared to strike down his friend. The green energy sphere that appeared suddenly around Hal caused all four battle-batons to shatter to splinters.
Straining to maintain the force bubble, Hal lunged forward, starting the bubble moving. He knocked down the green Martian and rolled over him.
As the energy bubble rolled over J’onn’s mask, it squealed, shuddered and slid off the alien’s face, leaving Hal’s friend lying senseless on the ground.
“The energy bubble faded and Hal reached out for the nearest boulder to support himself.
“Okay…will power,” He muttered. “Catch my breath and…oh damn…!”
Another dozen raiders emerged from amongst the boulders, making their way towards the battered trio.
“Thaal!” Hal shouted. “We need to scatter! We can’t handle these guys…!”
“What about J’onn?” The red warrior replied, climbing to his feet.
“Um…?” Hal said, looking frantically around.
Brow furrowed in concentration he generated a light beam with an over-sized hand on the end. Trembling with the effort, Hal scooped up his unconscious friend and draped him across his steed’s saddle. He then slapped the animal on its bulbous green rump, sending it galloping away.
“Okay,” He muttered, struggling to catch his breath.
The raiders were seconds away from being upon him. With an anxious glance to see that Thaal Sinestro was hobbling towards the shelter of the rocks, Hal jogged off in the opposite direction. He squeezed between two boulders and skidded and stumbled his way down a gravel-strewn path. While the raiders couldn’t see him, the Earth pilot was convinced they must have heard him.
At the bottom of the path was a clearing, where water trickled down one rock wall, feeding a bathtub-sized pool. He scooped up a couple handfuls of mineral-tasting water, splashed some on his face and continued his escape.
Scrabbling up the wall he ducked behind some rocks, scanning for any sign of pursuit. Relieved at not spotting any, Hal leaned back against a rock, unaware it was merely embedded in the sandy ground and that his weight was enough to send it and him tumbling down the other side of the hill. He landed in a heap, narrowly managing to avoid the rock that had come down with him and Hal collided with a block of stone. He lay there for several seconds, spitting out dirt and wincing, until he realized the stone he was huddled against was smooth, almost polished. He looked up to find it was the base of a statue. The stone figure was broken at the waist.
He had landed in the ruins of what looked like a courtyard. It was long abandoned and strewn with dirt and rubble, but had obviously been, at some distant time, an oasis in some ancient city. Looking around, Hal could see that the sides of this valley were the dirt-encrusted walls of the surrounding buildings. The faint outline of windows could still be made out.
Despite his desperate situation, he found himself momentarily distracted and impressed with what the ancient Martians had built. He wandered around, past more statues, all broken and eroded but seeming to be representations of the ancestors of the tribe of yellow Martians. He found an ornate fountain, long dry and filled with dirt and then spotted an arch that lead into the interior of the ancient city.
He was a few steps into the shadowy interior of the tunnel, when the ground beneath his feet gave way and Hal Jordan found himself tumbling through a dark void.
Seconds before he struck the dirt floor, his ring generated a wobbly cushion to break his fall. It still left him dazed and wheezing for breath.
“I…hnnn…hate this…uh…planet…!” He muttered under his breath, as he struggled to get to his hands and knees.
Several minutes later, Hal felt well enough to focus his concentration on his ring. It gave off a healthy glow that allowed Him to finally get a look at his surroundings. He had landed in a tunnel, stonewalls and a packed earth floor. The ceiling was thick with the Martian equivalent of cobwebs and plant roots had begun to push their way through the walls.
Hal got to his feet and looked down one way and then the other and then shrugged.
“Einnie-meenie…that way.” He said and started walking.
The tunnel went on for a while, until Hal thought he must have walked through the ruined city and under the mountain itself.
Luckily it was a straight path, as in his current state, any turn would have left him hopelessly lost. The tunnel started to open up and it seemed to be lighter then what his ring was generating. Hal paused, pressing his back against the wall, listening. There was a faint noise, like a wind drifting through the tunnels…or the breathing of something big.
A couple deep breaths and Hal quickly moved into the camber, his ring shining brighter.
“What the hell…!?” He breathed.
Against the far wall of the chamber was a giant star fish. Blue and purple like the mask creatures worn by the raiders. Its upper limbs swayed lazily, while at its feet was a pile of the smaller creatures.
“Come,” A voice intoned, echoing through Hal Jordan’s skull. “Let me look upon you, little spark.
Hal tentatively stepped further into the high-ceilinged chamber. He could still feel that voice in his head, as though it would echo around for several minutes after the creature ‘spoke’.
He shook his head and stepped forward.
“What do you want?” He asked, uneasily. “Who…what…are you?”
“I am Starro,” The voice said, with an arrogance that was tinged with boredom. “Starro the conqourer.”
“Starro…?” Hal breathed, rubbing at his temple. As he did the ring flared brighter.
“Ah, a Lantern…!” Starro purred. “I suspected there was one upon this sphere.”
“What?”
“I have traveled the great void, seeking worlds…worlds to challenge, worlds to raise my brood, worlds that may offer a distraction…worlds with champions…and usually amongst them, there would be a Lantern.”
Images of alien landscapes and beings poured into Hal’s brain, as well as the voice. It was like using Niagara Falls to fill a bucket. He staggered, clutching at his throbbing temples and sucking in breath through gritted teeth.
“Aaah, little spark,” Starro murmured, with dark satisfaction. “You are no Lantern, merely a child with a new toy. Pity. This sphere may still provide a challenge, but you are a mere distraction…a mite to be swatted away before you bite…!”
With that, the sloshing feeling in his skull was replaced by the sensation of a white-hot needle being driven through his brain.
The enormous single eye blinked lazily and then opened wide, whether in concentration or to enjoy Hal’s torment was unsure.
Hal fell to his knees, tears streaming from his eyes, clenching his teeth against the pain so tightly he thought they might shatter.
“Do-doesn’t….uhhhh…doesn’t…have….to be…this way…!” He groaned.
“Well, you and I will have to agree to disagree on that point,” Starro mused. With a flicker of mental energy he sent several of his tiny progeny scuttling, haltingly across the room, sure that in matter of moments the Earthman’s mind would be destroyed and he would have another recruit to his ever-growing army.
“Damnit,” Hal grunted, raising a trembling fist up and pressing his ring against his temple. “Why… is every… one in…hhnn space a… jerk!”
There was a burst of emerald light. Starro flinched and all his younglings squealed.
When the light cleared, Hal Jordan was getting to his feet. A green energy bubble encased his head.
“Huh…?” He muttered. “Not quite what I was expecting…but, what the hell.”
“If you think one little trick is enough…!” Starro started.
“Sorry, all I’m getting is ‘wah-wah-wa-wah-wah ’,” Hal said, tapping the bubble around his head. “Besides, you’ve made it pretty clear you don’t want to talk this out!”
He raised his arm and shot a beam of energy against the alien creature. Starro flinched back, his appendages flailing.
Snarling with rage, he sent back a blast of mental energy. Hal flinched, throwing up his hands as if to ward it off and a counter blast from his ring shielded him from most of it.
He still felt a bit shaken, and there were cracks in the bubble around his head.
Hal struggled to keep his focus, while trying to come up with a plan of attack. He wracked his brain for anything he knew about starfish. What were they vulnerable to…? He knew he was out classed as far as mental power was concerned and maybe a physical attack was his only chance. Seems he’d read something about using lyme to control the starfish population…how was he going to make lyme with his ring? He could barely muster a boxing glove. What else was there…?
“Did you really think you were a threat to me!”? Starro boomed, waddling towards Hal, in a way that any other time might have looked comical, but now was a bit frightening. “I’ve faced down true Lanterns! Warriors and tacticians! You are a monkey that’s been given the key to infinity! What do you think you are?”
“What am I…?” Hal asked himself. “I think I’m the one that stands between the people of this world and things like you. I am far from home and I am in way over my head. I am the chosen Lantern and I just remembered that paper Mrs. Landry made me write for middle school science class!”
He raised his arm, and it was steady and the ring glowed with a bright green light.
“Starfish need to maintain a steady body temperature,” Hal said, with a grim smile, as a blast of green flame shot from his ring.
Starro screeched in pain and fear, a noise that was echoed and amplified by the dozens of tiny versions of him all over the chamber. Raiders charged into the room, summoned by mental command, but almost immediately shrank back from the heat.
Hal arced his arm back and forth sweeping the room pouring whatever willpower he had left into the green fire. For the moment, he wasn’t afraid, wasn’t anxious, wasn’t home sick or confused.
All Hal Jordan could think of was the ring.
He kept thinking about it, even as his vision turned grey around the edges and blurred and it was his last thought as he felt his knees buckle, the bubble around his head shatter and blackness wash over him…
“User interface activated. Greetings, guardian of sector 2814”
# # # # #
He awoke in darkness. Lying on his back.
He looked up and saw stars.
“Back with us at last?”
He turned his head. J’onn J’onz was sitting cross-legged in front of a small fire. He leaned forward, his top arms resting upon his knees.
“Whu-where…where are we?” He asked through dry lips.
J’onn handed him a water bag, as he sat up.
“Still in the mountains. We only moved you above ground.”
“We…?” Hal asked, looking around.
“Thaal Sinestro went to the city to help restore order and see that he received proper credit for his efforts in saving Tal’an’dra from a dire threat.”
“I bet there’s a statue of him by the time we get to the city,” Hal said, before taking a deep drink of the thin, sweet vinegar the green Martians called wine. “I take it we won?”
“We did. I am a bit confused as to how, though.”
“You and me both,” Hal told him. “I think, maybe, I ‘embraced my destiny’. Or something like that…something clicked when I was fighting that thing….is it dead?”
“We do not know,” J’onn shrugged. “It is…dormant. Everyone seems more concerned with collecting all the little ones. What about you, Hal Jordan?”
Hal shrugged, and held out his hand to glance at the green ring with a rueful smile.
“I still want to find my plane and a way home,” He said, looking up at his friend. “But, I just got a hard lesson. There are bad things out there and Mars needs a Lantern…maybe Earth does too. And I learned I’m not the only ‘chosen one’. Starro talked about there being other Lanterns out there.”
“It sounds as though you will be quite busy.” J’onn mused thoughtfully.
“I’ve got you and Sinestro to help me. What could go wrong?” Hal said, getting to his feet. “Come on, let’s see if we can find something decent to drink in Tal’an’dra.”
With a gesture he created a large, Arabian-style carpet and the two friends were soon flying over the mountains.
Author’s note: Obviously, this one is dedicated to Edgar Rice Burroughs. But, Alan Moore gets a tiny bit of credit, as the spark of this idea was inspired by his second League of Extraordinary Gentle mini-series.
The trio, all riding the beaked, leathery-skinned quadrupeds that served as steeds on the red planet, reached the top of the sandy hill.
One was a tall, angular green being. His elongated skull was almost diamond shaped, his eyes red and pupil less. His arms were long and his hands three fingered with a second set of smaller vestal arms beneath them.
He was clad in a blue breechcloth and red belt and harness across his chest.
Next to him was a more human-looking being. His skin crimson and his close cropped hair midnight black. He sported a pencil thin mustache. His breechcloth, boots and armbands were blue with a grey tunic and leggings.
The third member of this party was an Earthman. He was athletic of build with brown hair. He wore a short kilt of tanned leather, boots and harness, all colored green. On the middle finger of his right hand he wore a thick ring carved of some unknown green substance in the shape of a lantern.
They paused on the ridge, peering down into the valley below. The thin green Martian drew out a device similar to a telescope and held it to his eye.
The Earthman held up his hand to shade his eyes.
Both of them seemed intent on an impact crater at the far end of the quarry-like valley.
The red man with the mustache merely frowned impatiently.
“Well?” He asked after several minutes. “It’s a hole in the ground. Very exciting.”
“What do you think, J’onn?” The Earthman asked, ignoring the red man’s tone.
“I see no sign of wreckage, Hal Jordan,” The green Martian replied.
“It’s just another meteor strike,” The red man grumbled. “That’s all any of them have been. I’m as eager as anyone to send you back home, but we have found no sign of the craft you claim brought you to Ma’alea’andra, Jordan.”
“I’ll miss you too, Thaal,” Hal Jordan said, flicking the reins of his mount and heading down into the valley. “Anytime you want to go home, I’m sure J’onn and I will learn to live with the peace and quiet.”
“Oh yes, go back and face the wrath of Katma Tu,” Thaal Sinestro muttered, following after his traveling companions. “Rather be trampled by our steeds…!”
The trio was soon across the narrow valley and inspecting the crater. It was a good ten feet across and about half that deep.
“No wreckage,” Hal Jordan muttered, glumly. “And even if there had been the sand is so windblown there’d be no prints to follow whoever took it.
He kicked at the sand and then paced around it irritably.
Jordan, a test pilot back on Earth, claimed to have been brought to Mars when the plane he was flying was caught up in a green energy bubble and drawn across the void of space between the two worlds.
Stunned after his rough arrival, Hal had wandered the desert planet, fleeing alien beasts and hostile Martians, before encountering the red Martian Abin Sur. The ailing Martian explained that he was the defender of the solar system, an alien phrase that Hal’s poor language skills translated as ‘Lantern’.
The dying alien bestowed upon him the ring and with a flash of green energy, Hal Jordan found himself once more lost in the Martian desert, eventually being taken in by J’onn J’onz tribe.
Once he had mastered the language and helped to broker an uneasy peace between the green and red Martians, Hal set out with his two allies to investigate any ‘crash sites’ he could find in hope of finding his plane or maybe even Abin Sur’s sanctuary with the hope of finding a way back to Earth.
“Nothing looks familiar,” Hal muttered in frustration. “Not that I was at my most alert when I arrived…”
“Perhaps you have not found it as you are where you are meant to be,” J’onn mused.
“Maybe, but Earth is my home,” Hal replied. “There are people who are missing me…and if my ‘destiny’ is only to protect Mars, then why are Lanterns also called ‘Guardians of the universe’? Or why not pick one of you guys to protect the planet?”
“I hate to interrupt,” Thaal said, quietly, as he joined his companions. “But has anyone else begun to feel we are being watched?”
“Yes, since we entered the valley,” J’onn J’onz said, nonchalantly. “I felt a psychic presence.”
“Those guys up on the far ridge…?” Hal Jordan added quietly. “Yeah, I thought you guys knew.”
“I hate you both,” Thaal muttered. “They seem to be on the move.”
“Must be enough of them that they are feeling brave,” Hal nodded, not looking toward the edge of the valley. “Any idea who they are, J’onn?”
“No,” The green warrior said with a puzzled shake of his large head. “I can detect them, yet cannot get any distinct thoughts…it is quite odd…?”
“White Martians are able to block the mental powers of you greens,” Thaal, added, casually laying his hand upon the hilt of his sword.
“I thought you guys said the whites kept far to the south,” Hal said.
“This is not blocking,” J’onn said. “But, something…else…?”
“We’ll ponder it later,” Thaal said, drawing a yellow scimitar. “Here they come!”
“Raiders!” Hal announced, lunging for his mount and sliding a green staff from a saddle scabbard.
The masked raiders were a mysterious group of bandits that had been making strikes all along the desert wastelands that bordered the territories of the green and red Martian communities.
A half dozen warriors came sprinting towards the trio. They wore cowl-like hoods, mostly purple, but with blue lines that created a star pattern across the face and a center circle that made it look like each attacker had a single red eye.
They carried a variety of weapons, swords, clubs and shields.
“J’onn, guard the animals!” Hal shouted, as he ran at the raiders. Due to the differences between the gravities of Earth and Mars, he plowed through them, and then easily leapt past them.
While they were recovering, Thaal Sinestro leapt at the raiders, savagely slashing at any hand that held a weapon. Three of the raiders were down and bleeding before a club caught him just below the ribs and the red Martian went down to one knee, struggling for breath.
Hal broke his staff across the shoulders of a raider and then leapt over the others to reach his traveling companion. With one hand he swung the broken bit of staff, while with the other he helped Thaal to his feet.
With his longer legs, J’onn J’onz quickly joined them and beat down the remaining two raiders.
He then knelt over one of the fallen Martians, transferring his war clubs to his lower hands. He reached forward, passing a hand over the raider’s face, but keeping his fingertips from actually touching his mask.
“Odd,” The green warrior muttered. “Even this close, I detect almost no mental signal…what…gaahh!!”
As soon as he touched the raider’s mask, it leapt off his face and latched onto J’onn’s hand. He lurched to his feet, shaking his hand attempting to dislodge the mask.
Hal abandoned Thaal and rushed to J’onn’s side. As he reached out and grabbed his friend’s wrist his ring suddenly flared and a blast of emerald energy struck the mask and J’onn J’onz flung it away.
“What happened?” Hal asked, looking from his friend, to the ring to the fallen raiders.
“The mask…!” J’onn muttered, dazed. “They are…creatures…!”
“What?” Hal exclaimed, and then stumbled back a few steps. All the masks were slithering off the faces of the various raiders and inching toward the trio of adventurers.
“That is…that’s just really messed up,” Hal muttered.
He stepped between the mask-creatures and his friends and held his ring hand out. Hal didn’t feel like he was controlling the ring, rather that when the creatures got close enough it would emit a blast of green energy. They had to get too close by Hal’s estimate. Any the ring didn’t blast, he kicked away.
Hal didn’t realize he’d lost track of one of the things until it latched unto his calf.
“Damnit!” He gasped, through gritted teeth.
Thaal lunged forward, swatting at Hal’s leg with the flat of his scimitar.
Wincing, Hal then zapped the creature and the red warrior stabbed it as soon as it hit the sand.
J’onn approached one of the remaining creatures and using the broken pieces of Hal’s staff, scooped it up and dropped it into a mesh bag.
Thaal sat back against a rock, nursing his injured shoulder.
“What the hell just happened?” Hal exclaimed. “What’re those things?”
“I do not know,” J’onn muttered, with quiet anxiety. “They are like nothing I have seen before…!”
“And how did they track us?” Thaal asked, as he tore off a strip of cloth from his tunic to bandage his injured shoulder.
“Do you believe we were their quarry?” J’onn asked in reply.
“Why else would they be here?”
“Maybe the same reason we are,” Hal muttered, nodding toward the crater.
He and J’onn walked to the edge of the crater and peered down.
“What are you thinking?” J’onn asked.
“You don’t know?” Hal asked back.
“I do not read my friends’ minds unbidden.” J’onn replied, sounding bothered.
“I know,” Hal said. “I’m just being a jerk. I was thinking that maybe those…things were here for the same reason we are?”
“You think that like you, the Raiders are looking for something,” J’onn mused, thoughtfully stroking his pointed chin with long fingers.
“Neither you or Sinestro have ever seen them before,” Hal continuined “So, maybe, they came from somewhere else, like me.”
“What are they looking for?” Thaal asked, limping over to join the others.
“If they didn’t come from Mars,” Hal explained. “Then maybe they are expecting more…”
“An invasion…!” Thaal gasped darkly. He kicked at the remains of the nearest creature.
“Or they…I dunno…need something,” Hal shrugged. “Something they can’t find on Mars…that only comes from…up there.”
He gestured skywards and shrugged again.
“I didn’t even know there were aliens a month ago, so I’m no expert. Does seem like the ring doesn’t like them.”
“As always, between the two of you,” Thaal grumbled. “The inanimate object shows the better judgment.”
“Leave it,” Hal snapped. “We have more important things to worry about then your jealousy that I have the ring…”
“There is nothing more important!” The red man interrupted, harshly. “The ring is not just a symbol but a powerful construct…! One that tasks its wearer with the protection of all of Ma’lea’andra and it is in the hands of someone of such weak will that he can do no more with it then tricks like he is entertainer at some children’s party!”
“Then instead of sulking that you didn’t get to be ‘chosen one’, how about helping occasionally!” Hal said, angrily, as he took several steps toward the red warrior. Neither man, caught up in his anger, noticed the nimbus of green energy around Hal’s fist.
“Enough,” J’onn said, stepping between them. “This helps nothing. “
Both men glared up at the tall green warrior, but neither could hold his gaze for more then a second before looking away.
“Fine,” Thaal muttered, walking away to gather his weapons and provisions. “Then I suggest we return to the capitol. People must be warned of this invasion.”
“I don’t know…” Hal said, his gaze returning to the crater.
“Of course you don’t…!” The red man began, his voice rising once again.
J’onn J’onz silenced him with a raised hand.
“What is it, Hal Jordan?”
“It’s just…it seems…I came from out there and I didn’t come to invade,” Hal said, haltingly, the thoughts stumbled around his brain. “They may be like me, just…looking for something…?”
“You think everyone those creatures…took hold of volunteered?” Thaal sneered.
“I don’t know…not saying they’re saints, I think they’re pretty disgusting personally,” Hal said, beginning to pace, peering thoughtfully into the sandy crater. “But, this might be a mistake…”
“Mistake?” Thaal snapped. “They attacked us! They were stalking us!”
“Were they?” Hal asked. “Maybe they were here…looking for something…gives me an idea!”
Hal jogged over to his alien steed and fumbled in his saddlebag, coming away with a scroll. He unrolled it as he walked back to the crater.
“The first attacks by the Raiders, where were they?”
“Somewhere in the south, I believe,” J’onn shrugged.
“Near Ta’lan’dra,” Thaal said, absently.
“Okay, Ta’lan’dra…,”Hal muttered, studying his scroll.
“What are you doing?” The red man asked, peevish yet curious.
“Katma had your…council of science, or something…a bunch of astronomers…work up a map of as many of the craters as they could…here it is!”
He waved over his companions and continued to think out loud.
“There’s a pretty big meteor strike site, just outside the city,” He said. “And a couple smaller ones out on the plains around it.”
“When was that meteor strike?” J’onn asked.
“About…?” Hal muttered, squinting to decipher his scribbled notes on the chart. “Five, six months ago.”
“When the first rumored attacks by the masked raiders were reported.” Thaal admitted grudgingly, as he climbed aboard his mount. “Whatever those creatures are up to, that would seem to be the place to look.”
“Did he just admit I did something right?” Hal asked, surprised, as he rolled up his scroll.
J’onn J’onz held a finger to his thin lips.
“If he notices, he may retract the statement,” J’onn said, with quiet humor.
They saw that the freed ex-raiders regained consciousness left them some provisions and instructions to rest and just go home. Then the trio was on their way.
Thaal rode a bit ahead of the other two, the sting of his clash with Hal Jordan still felt.
J’onn J’onz rode, quietly, thoughtfully studying his companions.
“While Thaal Sinestro is tactless, arrogant and selfish,” He said, “He is not necessarily wrong.”
“What?” Hal asked, pulled away from watching the landscape.
“You were chosen to wear the ring,” The green warrior explained. “It gives its wearer great power, as well as a great burden of duty. I wonder if you accept that…”
“Look, I get that I’ve been given a responsibility…!” Hal protested.
“Do you? I wonder,” J’onn mused. “I am no expert, but my people, like all on Ma’land’rea have legends and stories. The ring bearers walk amongst the stars, have brought low whole planets and stood firm against cosmic forces….”
“And I make sparks and that one time I made a shield to save me from a landslide,” Hal mumbled, ruefully.
“You say you have accepted your choosing, but all your actions have been focused upon returning to your home sphere,” J’onn continued. “Yet you seem to be avoiding a path which has the potential to help in reaching your goal.”
“Are you trying to get me to do something noble by giving me permission to be selfish..?” Hal Jordan asked after several thoughtful minutes. “Remind me not to play poker with you.”
The displaced Earthman lapsed into silence as they rode along.
Two days riding across the red sandy wastes of Mars brought them to the mountains that formed the beginning of the lands held by the city state of Ta’lan’dra.
The trio had struggled against wild, alien beasts, hostile nomads and desert storms, but saw no further trace of the masked raiders.
J’onn J’onz continued to mentally scan, but felt no more hint of their strange mental signature.
Hal Jordan was almost relieved when they were finally attacked in the foothills. Facing a half dozen attackers was preferable to another haughty lecture by Thaal Sinistro.
The red Martian was hampered by his injured shoulder and was unable to dismount quickly, so struggled against a raider while struggling with a steed on the verge of panic.
J’onn, a battle baton in each of his four hands, kept three of the raiders at bay, while protecting his companions and the mounts.
Hal dealt with the final two. Even after several months, he was only an adequate swordsman at best and slipping on some gravel, stumbled and had his sword struck out of his hand.
“Okay, cosmic power,” He muttered, backing away from his attackers until he was against a rocky crag. “I am definitely not focusing on going home…let’s see what I can do.”
He put up his fist, figuring if worse came to worse maybe a couple good punches would succeed where a magic alien ring didn’t. A cut down his left shoulder and a split lip later, he was losing faith in that strategy. Then his right fist began to glow with emerald energy.
Struggling to ignore the two swords, Hal breathed deeply, thinking about nothing but the ring and the idea that it was his willpower that controlled it.
A beam of light shot out of the ring, topped by a large boxing glove, and plowed into the raiders, sending them tumbling down the incline to land with a thud yards away.
“Yeah, okay, that’ll work…!” Hal muttered, peering from the ring to his fallen foes. He raised his arm and pointed his fist at Thaal’s attacker.
A burst of energy knocked the mask creature from his head and a swat from the flat of the red Martian’s scimitar sent the raider to the ground.
Hal jogged over his companion.
“You okay?” He asked.
“Fine,” The other grudgingly admitted. “Let’s help J’onn.”
They turned and both men froze.
The Green Martian had taken several blows and gone done on one knee. When he stood up and turned to face his companions, he wore one of the strange parasitic creatures.
“That’s not good,” Hal muttered.
As J’onn advanced, Hal felt a strange sensation, like spiders walking across his brain. He blinked and shook his head, put the feeling only increased and then there came a buzzing, drowning out his thoughts.
“J’onn…don’t…you…uh…don’t want to…to do this…!” He groaned, struggling to raise his hand.
Thaal lunged forward, drunkenly and was easily swatted aside by the green warrior.
Hal brought up his ring hand, using his other hand to keep his arm steady. Sweat trickled down his face and he could feel his vision blur.
J’onn J’onz raised all four arms, prepared to strike down his friend. The green energy sphere that appeared suddenly around Hal caused all four battle-batons to shatter to splinters.
Straining to maintain the force bubble, Hal lunged forward, starting the bubble moving. He knocked down the green Martian and rolled over him.
As the energy bubble rolled over J’onn’s mask, it squealed, shuddered and slid off the alien’s face, leaving Hal’s friend lying senseless on the ground.
“The energy bubble faded and Hal reached out for the nearest boulder to support himself.
“Okay…will power,” He muttered. “Catch my breath and…oh damn…!”
Another dozen raiders emerged from amongst the boulders, making their way towards the battered trio.
“Thaal!” Hal shouted. “We need to scatter! We can’t handle these guys…!”
“What about J’onn?” The red warrior replied, climbing to his feet.
“Um…?” Hal said, looking frantically around.
Brow furrowed in concentration he generated a light beam with an over-sized hand on the end. Trembling with the effort, Hal scooped up his unconscious friend and draped him across his steed’s saddle. He then slapped the animal on its bulbous green rump, sending it galloping away.
“Okay,” He muttered, struggling to catch his breath.
The raiders were seconds away from being upon him. With an anxious glance to see that Thaal Sinestro was hobbling towards the shelter of the rocks, Hal jogged off in the opposite direction. He squeezed between two boulders and skidded and stumbled his way down a gravel-strewn path. While the raiders couldn’t see him, the Earth pilot was convinced they must have heard him.
At the bottom of the path was a clearing, where water trickled down one rock wall, feeding a bathtub-sized pool. He scooped up a couple handfuls of mineral-tasting water, splashed some on his face and continued his escape.
Scrabbling up the wall he ducked behind some rocks, scanning for any sign of pursuit. Relieved at not spotting any, Hal leaned back against a rock, unaware it was merely embedded in the sandy ground and that his weight was enough to send it and him tumbling down the other side of the hill. He landed in a heap, narrowly managing to avoid the rock that had come down with him and Hal collided with a block of stone. He lay there for several seconds, spitting out dirt and wincing, until he realized the stone he was huddled against was smooth, almost polished. He looked up to find it was the base of a statue. The stone figure was broken at the waist.
He had landed in the ruins of what looked like a courtyard. It was long abandoned and strewn with dirt and rubble, but had obviously been, at some distant time, an oasis in some ancient city. Looking around, Hal could see that the sides of this valley were the dirt-encrusted walls of the surrounding buildings. The faint outline of windows could still be made out.
Despite his desperate situation, he found himself momentarily distracted and impressed with what the ancient Martians had built. He wandered around, past more statues, all broken and eroded but seeming to be representations of the ancestors of the tribe of yellow Martians. He found an ornate fountain, long dry and filled with dirt and then spotted an arch that lead into the interior of the ancient city.
He was a few steps into the shadowy interior of the tunnel, when the ground beneath his feet gave way and Hal Jordan found himself tumbling through a dark void.
Seconds before he struck the dirt floor, his ring generated a wobbly cushion to break his fall. It still left him dazed and wheezing for breath.
“I…hnnn…hate this…uh…planet…!” He muttered under his breath, as he struggled to get to his hands and knees.
Several minutes later, Hal felt well enough to focus his concentration on his ring. It gave off a healthy glow that allowed Him to finally get a look at his surroundings. He had landed in a tunnel, stonewalls and a packed earth floor. The ceiling was thick with the Martian equivalent of cobwebs and plant roots had begun to push their way through the walls.
Hal got to his feet and looked down one way and then the other and then shrugged.
“Einnie-meenie…that way.” He said and started walking.
The tunnel went on for a while, until Hal thought he must have walked through the ruined city and under the mountain itself.
Luckily it was a straight path, as in his current state, any turn would have left him hopelessly lost. The tunnel started to open up and it seemed to be lighter then what his ring was generating. Hal paused, pressing his back against the wall, listening. There was a faint noise, like a wind drifting through the tunnels…or the breathing of something big.
A couple deep breaths and Hal quickly moved into the camber, his ring shining brighter.
“What the hell…!?” He breathed.
Against the far wall of the chamber was a giant star fish. Blue and purple like the mask creatures worn by the raiders. Its upper limbs swayed lazily, while at its feet was a pile of the smaller creatures.
“Come,” A voice intoned, echoing through Hal Jordan’s skull. “Let me look upon you, little spark.
Hal tentatively stepped further into the high-ceilinged chamber. He could still feel that voice in his head, as though it would echo around for several minutes after the creature ‘spoke’.
He shook his head and stepped forward.
“What do you want?” He asked, uneasily. “Who…what…are you?”
“I am Starro,” The voice said, with an arrogance that was tinged with boredom. “Starro the conqourer.”
“Starro…?” Hal breathed, rubbing at his temple. As he did the ring flared brighter.
“Ah, a Lantern…!” Starro purred. “I suspected there was one upon this sphere.”
“What?”
“I have traveled the great void, seeking worlds…worlds to challenge, worlds to raise my brood, worlds that may offer a distraction…worlds with champions…and usually amongst them, there would be a Lantern.”
Images of alien landscapes and beings poured into Hal’s brain, as well as the voice. It was like using Niagara Falls to fill a bucket. He staggered, clutching at his throbbing temples and sucking in breath through gritted teeth.
“Aaah, little spark,” Starro murmured, with dark satisfaction. “You are no Lantern, merely a child with a new toy. Pity. This sphere may still provide a challenge, but you are a mere distraction…a mite to be swatted away before you bite…!”
With that, the sloshing feeling in his skull was replaced by the sensation of a white-hot needle being driven through his brain.
The enormous single eye blinked lazily and then opened wide, whether in concentration or to enjoy Hal’s torment was unsure.
Hal fell to his knees, tears streaming from his eyes, clenching his teeth against the pain so tightly he thought they might shatter.
“Do-doesn’t….uhhhh…doesn’t…have….to be…this way…!” He groaned.
“Well, you and I will have to agree to disagree on that point,” Starro mused. With a flicker of mental energy he sent several of his tiny progeny scuttling, haltingly across the room, sure that in matter of moments the Earthman’s mind would be destroyed and he would have another recruit to his ever-growing army.
“Damnit,” Hal grunted, raising a trembling fist up and pressing his ring against his temple. “Why… is every… one in…hhnn space a… jerk!”
There was a burst of emerald light. Starro flinched and all his younglings squealed.
When the light cleared, Hal Jordan was getting to his feet. A green energy bubble encased his head.
“Huh…?” He muttered. “Not quite what I was expecting…but, what the hell.”
“If you think one little trick is enough…!” Starro started.
“Sorry, all I’m getting is ‘wah-wah-wa-wah-wah ’,” Hal said, tapping the bubble around his head. “Besides, you’ve made it pretty clear you don’t want to talk this out!”
He raised his arm and shot a beam of energy against the alien creature. Starro flinched back, his appendages flailing.
Snarling with rage, he sent back a blast of mental energy. Hal flinched, throwing up his hands as if to ward it off and a counter blast from his ring shielded him from most of it.
He still felt a bit shaken, and there were cracks in the bubble around his head.
Hal struggled to keep his focus, while trying to come up with a plan of attack. He wracked his brain for anything he knew about starfish. What were they vulnerable to…? He knew he was out classed as far as mental power was concerned and maybe a physical attack was his only chance. Seems he’d read something about using lyme to control the starfish population…how was he going to make lyme with his ring? He could barely muster a boxing glove. What else was there…?
“Did you really think you were a threat to me!”? Starro boomed, waddling towards Hal, in a way that any other time might have looked comical, but now was a bit frightening. “I’ve faced down true Lanterns! Warriors and tacticians! You are a monkey that’s been given the key to infinity! What do you think you are?”
“What am I…?” Hal asked himself. “I think I’m the one that stands between the people of this world and things like you. I am far from home and I am in way over my head. I am the chosen Lantern and I just remembered that paper Mrs. Landry made me write for middle school science class!”
He raised his arm, and it was steady and the ring glowed with a bright green light.
“Starfish need to maintain a steady body temperature,” Hal said, with a grim smile, as a blast of green flame shot from his ring.
Starro screeched in pain and fear, a noise that was echoed and amplified by the dozens of tiny versions of him all over the chamber. Raiders charged into the room, summoned by mental command, but almost immediately shrank back from the heat.
Hal arced his arm back and forth sweeping the room pouring whatever willpower he had left into the green fire. For the moment, he wasn’t afraid, wasn’t anxious, wasn’t home sick or confused.
All Hal Jordan could think of was the ring.
He kept thinking about it, even as his vision turned grey around the edges and blurred and it was his last thought as he felt his knees buckle, the bubble around his head shatter and blackness wash over him…
“User interface activated. Greetings, guardian of sector 2814”
# # # # #
He awoke in darkness. Lying on his back.
He looked up and saw stars.
“Back with us at last?”
He turned his head. J’onn J’onz was sitting cross-legged in front of a small fire. He leaned forward, his top arms resting upon his knees.
“Whu-where…where are we?” He asked through dry lips.
J’onn handed him a water bag, as he sat up.
“Still in the mountains. We only moved you above ground.”
“We…?” Hal asked, looking around.
“Thaal Sinestro went to the city to help restore order and see that he received proper credit for his efforts in saving Tal’an’dra from a dire threat.”
“I bet there’s a statue of him by the time we get to the city,” Hal said, before taking a deep drink of the thin, sweet vinegar the green Martians called wine. “I take it we won?”
“We did. I am a bit confused as to how, though.”
“You and me both,” Hal told him. “I think, maybe, I ‘embraced my destiny’. Or something like that…something clicked when I was fighting that thing….is it dead?”
“We do not know,” J’onn shrugged. “It is…dormant. Everyone seems more concerned with collecting all the little ones. What about you, Hal Jordan?”
Hal shrugged, and held out his hand to glance at the green ring with a rueful smile.
“I still want to find my plane and a way home,” He said, looking up at his friend. “But, I just got a hard lesson. There are bad things out there and Mars needs a Lantern…maybe Earth does too. And I learned I’m not the only ‘chosen one’. Starro talked about there being other Lanterns out there.”
“It sounds as though you will be quite busy.” J’onn mused thoughtfully.
“I’ve got you and Sinestro to help me. What could go wrong?” Hal said, getting to his feet. “Come on, let’s see if we can find something decent to drink in Tal’an’dra.”
With a gesture he created a large, Arabian-style carpet and the two friends were soon flying over the mountains.
Author’s note: Obviously, this one is dedicated to Edgar Rice Burroughs. But, Alan Moore gets a tiny bit of credit, as the spark of this idea was inspired by his second League of Extraordinary Gentle mini-series.