To Be a Hero: Family

[AntonioCC]

Osborn: Genesis​

Disclaimer:all characters are property of their respective owners

Spoilers: general Spider-Man spoilers.

Author Note: as you can probable guess, from teh story, this version of Spider-Man is a meld of many versions.

A.N. 2: Thanks to Jediknight for betaing it.

---

Four days after the Great Storm. Norman Osborn office in the Oscorp Building​

Norman dismissed the lawyer, and waited for his head scientist to arrive. It grated him that they couldn't sue Dillon for the crap in the facility. For one, just like Octavius, he was in coma, after his stunt with the lab computer system that caused the electrical overload, and for other, while they had probably enough against him, it would also give him a venue to air Oscorp dirty laundry.

'And it is dirty, indeed, but, as Luthor said, you don't reach my position without dirtying your hands.' Norman thought. He could disagree with that German bastard in many things, but they were of one mind in that.

His thoughts were interrupted by a call of his secretary. Ah, the researcher was here. He told her to let him enter.

Doctor Curt Connors entered Norman's office with a tablet in his only hand, and a worried expression.

"So, I gather that the results aren't good, doctor." Norman said without preamble.

"No, they aren't, Mr. Osborn." Connors said, shaking his head, "Whatever that chemical mix you got exposed to was, it is doing a number on your health."

"My son was exposed for a few seconds, until I got him out of the way. Is he...?"

"No, fortunately Harry didn't get more than a very small dose. While I would like to keep an eye on his blood work for the next few months, just in case, I think he will be fine." Connors, said, causing Norman to relax minutely.

"But I got exposed for a fairly long time." Norman said, "And seeing your expression I presume that there is no treatment possible."

"No, unfortunately." Connors said, apologetically, "We have recovered enough to know that is a mix of OZ and an unknown agent, probably caused by the accident..."

Norman repressed a grimace when Connors said accident. Dillon's idiocy, and the Great Storm, as it was starting to be called, had caused a series of failures on the electrical systems of the compound, causing Octavius's high energy Physics experiment to destabilize and explode, and in turn causing all kind of chaos, just when Harry and his class in the Midtown School of Science and Technology was visiting.

"Once absorbed, the compound decomposes back in its components, an OZ variant that had barely started testing, and the unknown agent..." Connors tarted to say.

"Actually, it isn't unknown." Norman interrupted, producing a folder, filled with documents with the seal of one of the companies that Oscorp had acquired over the years, "You recognize the logo, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. You bought them several years ago." Connors said, and then remembered something, "Weren't they a Defense contractor"

"Yes, the story is all in those documents, but the gist of it, they were developing a chemical agent for Defense, when the Chemical Weapons Convention was signed. Instead of destroying the samples, and after it became clear that Defense wasn't interested, they tried to sell it to several tin-pot dictatorships." His contacts in Defense had been alarmed enough that they had directed him to buy them, and put an end to that nonsense. That's how he had gotten the contract to recreate the supersoldier formula, as the OZ serum. "I stopped that idiocy when I bought the company, and the last canisters were scheduled to be transported to the disposal center on the day of the storm."

Connors didn't answer, immersed as he was on the documents, but he was a quick reader, and with each page his frown deepened.

"It's worse than I thought." he said, rubbing his eyes. "You probably have already started to notice some of effects of OZ."

"Increased stamina, physical fitness and muscle mass." Norman said, "No other physical mutations, though."

"And probably there won't be. That OZ variant was supposed to be more stable than the earlier batches, and the initial reports of its effects on invertebrates showed promise. We don't know what the long term effects are though." Connors said, "But the chemical agent is the real danger. According to this, if it didn't kill immediately, it was designed to accumulate in the fatty tissue, suffer a chemical transformation there, and be released with heavy exercise..."

"Where it would start to accumulate in the brain. Yes, I know that." Norman said. It was easy to forget that the man held a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and had been his own head researcher for years.

"Sorry, ehm, well, a combination of chelating agents and hemodialisis could stave the worst symptoms for close to a year, but that's it." Connors said.

"And those symptoms are?" Norman asked, although he thought he knew the answer.

"It would start with a progressive deterioration of cognitive functions and bouts of paranoia, followed by loss of motor control until you would be reduced to a vegetable, and then death would follow after a indeterminate amount of time." Connors said.

Norman didn't answer immediately. That situation would be his worst nightmare, as his mind flashed to the last years of his mother, prostrated in a bed, unable to talk or even understand what had happened to her, just waiting for death to come. No, he owed something better to Harry.

"Would the OZ formula be able to heal me?" Norman asked.

Connors didn't answer immediately, blinking owlishly behind his glasses, before checking some data on his tablet.

"Maybe... But as I told you before, we had just reached the step of animal experimentation on the facility when the accident happened." Connors said, "We have managed to recover all the test animals, or their carcasses, by the way. But going back to OZ, we don't know its long term effects on humans, or the interactions it could have with the subproducts of the toxin or the version of it that is already present in your body."

"Are there any other options?" Norman asked

"...Not in the timeframe we have, Mr. Osborn." he took a deep breath before continuing, "Very well, I'll start developing the cure, as soon as I can. Perhaps a boost to regeneration..."

"You can develop that in your lab. We haven't finished yet." Norman said,a bit more acidly he wanted, "Sorry, it has been a couple grueling weeks, and the Board is harping on about supposed security deficiencies hasn't helped any. "

"I understand, Mr. Osborn." Connors said with a placating gesture, his face carefully blank, "What do you want to know?"

"Octavius. How is he?" Norman asked.

"Still in coma, and that's not the worst thing, the explosion seem to have fused the control mechanism for the harness to his spine." Connors said, "Frankly, the doctors are astonished that he is still alive."

"Damn it. And his research? I invested millions on it." Norman said, and winced, "Sorry that came out wrong. But it is another of the things the Board have been hammering me about."

"The data was backed up offsite, but the instruments don't seem to be recoverable. That's what Octavius's aide told me, at least, High Energy Physics is not my field." Connors said, his face still blank, "He said something about a safety system that didn't engage."

"Of course." Norman said, "Goddammit. Octavius told me that he was worried about it, but... the board didn't want to allocate the money for an overhaul."

Connors didn't answer, and he was glad he was looking down, reading the next item of the list when Osborn said that, because this time he couldn't suppress his grimace. After all, Norman and his stooges controlled the board, so complaining that the board didn't let him do something, or that they were badgering him, was disingenuous, at best.

"At least none of Harry's classmates are gonna sue us. Thank God for small favors." He said, leaning back on his chair, "Any luck with...? No, wait, you said that all the animals had been recovered, right?"

"Yes, all of them or their carcasses." Connors said.

Norman nodded, and opened his mouth, but he didn't say anything as his secretary chose that moment to call him.

"Mister Osborn, the Lexcorp representatives are here."

Surprised, he looked at the time, and then at Connors.

"I'm going. I should have some chelating agents and the dialisis machines ready in a couple days, and a preliminary report on what can be doing with OZ in a week." Connors said, getting up.

"Thanks, Curt." Norman said before opening back the communication with his secretary, "Let them in, Sally."

Midtown School of Science and Technology​

At the same time that Norman Osborn hammered the details of a joint venture with Lexcorp, his son Harry was hanging out with his best friend, Peter Parker.

"Yeah, I was taking a picture of Cindy and Gwen posing for the camera when all hell broke loose." Peter said, "Why did you disappear?"

"I went to look for my father." Harry said, looking at the distance, "He had gone to the section that had exploded."

"Oh. But he is well, right?" he might think that Norman was a bit too demanding with Harry, but he seemed to be a good parent.

"Yeah, he is. Thanks god." Harry said. When his father had pushed him through the closing door as the green gas filtered through a crack in the top, he had feared the worst. Fortunately, he had managed to escape through an emergency access, only needing a bit of oxygen afterwards, "By the way, I heard that Flash did a number on you trying to escape."

"Nah, it was just that the door cages opened all at once when the light went out, and when he saw the spiders and the scorpions he ran out screaming like a little girl, throwing me against Cindy." Peter said, rubbing unconsciously the part of the hand where the spider had bitten him.

"So that why Gwen was calling him 'gone-in-a-Flash' today."

"Yep." Peter said.

The two friends continued speaking until the bell rang, ending the recess, and each one filed to their next classes. Neither would know then, but it would be one of the last times they would met with their lives unburdened by tragedy.

THE END... for the moment at least.

 

[AntonioCC]

I have started to post the side stories that are not yet finished in their own threads.

* Last Son of Krypton
* Fall From Grace

 

[AntonioCC]

Snakes, agents and Slayers! Oh my!​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners

Spoilers: spoilers for Thor (the movie), and general spoilers for BtVS.

Author Note: Thanks to Jediknight for betaing it.

---

Two weeks after the Great Storm. A restaurant.
London, United Kingdom​

Rona hated being the senior Slayer, but with Buffy still on personal leave and Faith in Africa helping to organize the new school, she was the one in charge. At least, Izzy was the senior Watcher this time, instead of one of the surviving fossils of the old Council. The restaurant they had chosen was almost empty at this time of the day, a definite plus if they didn't want to be overheard.

Fortunately for them, the people they were going to talk with arrived at the same time than them. Two of them were already known to her from the file, Riley and Samantha Finn, but the third, an average sized man with a receding hairline and a friendly face, was unknown to them, although she suspected that he was the one who called the shots here.

"Hello, I'm Phillip Coulson, from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD for short, and you probably already know Riley and Samantha." he said.

"Only by reputation." Izzy said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Isabella Ferguson, the acting senior Watcher."

"And I'm Rona Mitchell, the acting senior Slayer." Rona said.

"Fancy place you chose for a meting." Riley said as they entered the building.

"It's discreet." Izzy said, "The old Council used this place regularly because of that."

A nervous waiter guided them through the stairs to the first floor, where there were a series of small private rooms for those who wanted to eat without being disturbed.

"Discreet, indeed." Coulson said, "I gather that it would cost a pretty penny to eat here."

"Quite, but there is an... arrangement with the owners." Izzy said, unwilling to say that the Council owned the restaurant through several cutouts.

"Ah." Coulson said, while thinking, 'I bet that either is owned by the Council or by one of the families associated with them.'

The waiter guided them to the room and took their orders, scribbling with a trembling hand in a notepad, before leaving.

"So, what brings you to old jolly England?" Izzy asked as they sat down.

"We need information about an... artifact." Coulson said, "Some time after the war, World War II, I mean, we, meaning SHIELD, came into possession of an artifact, the Tesseract, that HYDRA..." he paused for a moment until Izzy nodded, yes they knew who they were, "...had been using as a power source. It seems to have been inert until very recently..."

"The night of the Great Storm, I suppose." Isabella said, "When Mjolnir, Thor's hammer, fell to Earth on New Mexico."

"You are good." Coulson said.

"It wasn't that difficult to make a guess, the story of the hammer was all over social media the day after the storm. And then, poof, everything vanished from the net." Isabella said, "Your doing, I suppose."

"Yes." Coulson said, but he didn't elaborate. "We want information about the Tesseract."

"And what would you give in exchange?" Izzy countered.

"What we have learned about it and the hammer."Coulson said

"Interes..." Izzy started to say.

"It's odd, some of the waiters are gathering at the corridor." Rona interrupted, before cursing, and starting to search for something in her handbag

"How have you seen it? The frosting in the glass..." Coulson asked, while Riley and Sam looked to each other and took their cellphones.

"The glass in the door has a small defect in the frosting. I noticed that all the 'waiters' seemed to have ill-fitting uniforms" Rona answered, as he took her own cellphone, "No coverage, we're being jammed."

Coulson took a device from his pocket, looked at it and shook his head.

"They are jamming SHIELD frequencies, too." he said.

"It seems that the head honcho is here, a big guy wearing a sleeveless tunic." Rona said, while looking around.

"Big as in fat, or..." Coulson asked.

"Muscle, definitely muscle." Rona said, "And he has both his arms tattooed."

"What kind of tattoos?" Coulson asked, pursing his lips. He had a suspicion of where this was going.

"Snakes. A cobra on the right, and a normal snake, maybe a viper on the other."

"Goddammit." Coulson said under his breath, "The Kobra Cult."

"Who?" Rona asked, while Izzy looked as if she was trying to remember where she had heard that before.

"Some kind of doomsday cult, who seems to be better financed than usual for those kinds of cults." Coulson explained, "SHIELD has had several confrontations with them in the past. "

"Oh, for god's sake." Rona said, rolling her eyes, knowing where this was going, "And they are following some prophecy or something like that."

"If Agent B... one of our agents is right, yes, something like that. Their followers are all fanatics, also, so we won't be able to get out of here by talking." Coulson said, and looked at the Finns and then to Rona and Isabella. "We are in the first floor, there are no windows, and the only way out is controlled by the enemy."

"Actually..." Rona said, poking at a wood panel with her fist. It sounded hollow.

"Of course." Isabella said, snapping her fingers, "This building was built in the Victorian era as a manor. There would be a lift to move the dirty dishes to the kitchens to be washed. But it could be completely walled out."

"I don't think so. I have heard noise from the parking earlier." Rona disagreed.

"Can you open it?" Coulson asked, while Riley, Sam and Izzy took the table clothes to make a makeshift rope.

"Of course. But it's going to be noisy." Rona said, and then she noticed something in the corridor, "But I think that it's going to be the less of our worries. There are a few other big bald men in the same kind of tunic entering the corridor, and the 'waiters' are shedding the uniforms."

"Let me guess, more snake tattoos." Coulson asked.

Rona nodded as she managed to slip her fingers behind the panel.

"When I say three, I'll get the panel loose. You throw the rope and start to go down."

"And what are you going to do?."

"Don't worry, I don't plan to break rule one." Rona said, and looked out, "No time, they got weapons. One... Two...Three!" She ripped the panel from the wall and in a single movement used it to cover the crystal at the door, while using her strength to keep the door from opening.

While the rope didn't reach all the way down, it was long enough for Coulson, Sam, Riley and Izy to jump down without problems, landing in a place without any light.

"Is everybody alright?", asked Coulson producing a flashlight from a pocket.

"I'm fine." Riley and Sam said simultaneously.

"I think I'm well." Izzy said, "Where are we?"

Suddenly a door was kicked open and they could see against the light of the underground parking several members of the cult standing there with blades on their hands. But before they could do anything Rona fell through the shaft and dispatched them in a few seconds.

Unfortunately they weren't the only cultists in the parking lot, and as they tried to run away, they found themselves chased by them. After a series of fights, they found themselves with half of the cultists blocking the exit of the parking lot, while what remained of the other half was approaching from behind.

They stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do, but suddenly a car could be heard just a moment before a big metallic shape passed through the cultists blocking the exit, rolling over the ones that where too slow to get away. The car, a big pink SUV made a sharp turn as it went down the ramp, drifting until it stopped barely a foot before them.

"Get inside, por Dios!" a Mexican accented voice said from inside.

"Anita!? What the Hell...?" Rona said, recognizing the voice.

"One of yours?" Coulson asked.

"Yes, a Slayer." Izzy said, which prompted Riley and Sam eye-rolls, all too familiar with Slayer driving

They quickly boarded the vehicle, packing themselves inside as best as they could given the space available.

"Secure yourselves, this is going to be a ride." Riley warned as he and Sam buckled themselves with the seatbelt. "I have experience with Slayers driving."

"He is not kidding." Izzy said from the front seat doing the same.

"Come on, we are not that bad." Rona said, as she threw a dagger to one of the cultists who were approaching them.

Coulson decided to listen to the voice of experience and buckle up too, not a moment too soon, as Anita stepped on the accelerator, burning rubber before disengaging the handbrake, and shooting up the ramp. The maneuver embedded him in the back seat as the car ran over a couple cultists too slow to jump away or too crazed to care. With some difficulty, Coulson produced his communicator, and turned it on as soon as it started to receive a signal.

"Coulson to Brand. The building was full of Kobra cultists." he said, "Don't shoot the pink SUV, we're inside."

"Brand to Coulson." answered a female voice with an unidentifiable accent, "We saw it plow into the underground parking entrance before we could react. I assume that they are Council operatives."

"Yes, she is. Apparently they also had back-up on site." Coulson said, "Kobra seems to have laid an ambush for us in advance."

There was a pause before Brand answered.

"I understand. " she said in a meaningful tone, "Do I assume hostages?"

"Proceed as if that was the case." Coulson answered.

"...Very well." she said after a pause, "See you later, Phil."

"See you, Abby." Coulson answered before turning off the device.

Next day. SHIELD London HQ​

"...And afterwards we talked and they got us the translations, copies of the originals and the name of some books we can check to see if we can find something they have missed." Coulson said to the screen where director Fury was debriefing him and the Finns.

"Pretty generous of them." Fury answered, "Do you think that giving them the results of what we got from the New Mexico incident is worth it?"

"From what I have seen of the documents, it is, and more." Coulson said, "If the investigation clears them of any involvement in the incident, I want to establish a permanent liaison program with them."

"And that's a big if, Phil." Fury cautioned.

"Yes, sir." Coulson said, "But this attack had all the hallmarks of something done on the fly. Hell, a part of the restaurant staff was still alive, despite the Kobra cult usual practices."

"You think that the leak came from our side?." Fury said, understanding the implications almost immediately.

"Maybe, sir. God knows that I have some suspicions about Burr and his aides." Coulson said, "But, I could be wrong. According to our reports, the Council has recently suffered a complete upheaval, and it could have been done..."

New Council London HQ. The same time​

"...by a faction of the old guard." Izzy said taking to Giles, Buffy and Willow through videoconference.

Giles took his glasses and cleaned them, before talking, signifying his distress.

"Unfortunately, I agree with Isabella." he said, "The ultraconservatives are panicking now that the moderates, their former allies, are reaching an accommodation with the new order."

"Do you really think that they would do that?" Rona said.

"Yes." Izzy and Giles said simultaneously.

"Allow me to work as the Devil's Avocado..." Buffy started to say.

"Advocate." Giles corrected in a long suffering tone.

"Yeah, that. But are we sure that the leak didn't came from their side?" Buffy said.

"No, we aren't. But we didn't tell them about the meeting place until an hour before." Izzy said.

"Actually, the ambush looked like something done in a hurry. The waiter that received us was nervous as hell... and he was sloppy in taking our orders, as if it wasn't his usual role." Rona said, and then added with a shrug, "What? My dad had a restaurant, and the Watchers only caught up to me just before the whole fracas with the Bringers."

"Okay." Izzy said, "So, at the moment, we don't know one way or another."

"That seems to be the case." Giles said, "What do we have on the Kobra cult?"

"Not much. The old council investigated them and it seems that they thought they were like many other doomsday cults, nasty, but with no supernatural involvement." Izzy said, "We are revising our estimations, but it's an involved process."

"Can you send me a copy of the report about New Mexico that they give to you?. I have read about Jane Foster, and her theories are brilliant, and put a theoretical basis much firmer than I had on my thoughts on the relation between magic and physics. If she was able to detect the arrival of Thor, that's Big, with a capital B."

"SHIELD seems to think the same, given that they are financing her research now." Izzy commented, "Now that I think about it, didn't Fred Burkle have the same specialty as Doctor Foster?"

Heathrow Airport. International terminal.​

Her work here was done, and now both the Council and SHIELD would be too focused on those idiots of the Kobra Cult to keep track of her doings. It had been a child's play to manipulate the London cell of the cult to do her bidding, now back to the States to torment her brother a bit more. She hated going through plane, but giving that Dad was not happy with her right now, it was a bit risky to teleport through Hell.

"Go'n somewhuz, luv?"* a scruffy blonde man wearing a trenchcoat said to her, interrupting her thoughts.

"Excuse me? Do I know you?"

"Nah, luv, but me and yer da' 'uv met."* he said, before sprinkling something on her, "Tell yer da' dat John sent yous!"*

She disappeared with a bout of flame and the man removed the paper with an strange set of symbols he had just stuck in a column before talking to the succubus. He lit a cigarette and went to the door.

THE END

*Translated to normal english:
"Going somewhere, love?"

"No, love, but me and your father have met."

"Tell your father that John sent you!"

 

[AntonioCC]

I'll be adding here artwork that I make or find on Internet.

Spoiler

I found this picture of Buffy and Batman that it's much beter than my attempts to do something for the thread. It's from an artist called Tom Hodges, that has a page on Deviant Art here.

If you find something that could work for the thread, post a link or send it through PM, so I'll add it here.

 

[AntonioCC]

Last Son of Krypton, Part 1​

Disclaimer: all character are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: general spoilers for Superman.

Author Note: as with Batman, my version of the Superman mythos draw from several sources.

A.N. 2: revised by JediKnight, from TtH.

---

Kryptonopolis, Planet Krypton capital.
Twenty-Five years ago.​

Jor-El, member of the Kryptonian High Science Council, strode silently through the corridors of the building, noticing through the windows that the signs of fighting in the streets were starting to get repaired. The final battle of the Civil War had been fought in those same streets, a desperate gambit to bring an end to nearly five years of strife. He shook his head, it had been sheer carnage on the streets, the urban combat having taken its toll on both attacker and defender.

Maybe now things would become more normal, and he could step down and go back to science, he still had that prototype of a hyperdrive-equipped spaceship in his basement gathering dust, well, not exactly, he tinkered with it when the weight of being in the council become too big, so he could disconnect from the government problems.

His thoughts turned to the origins of this war. Everything could be traced to a single moment, Kandor's destruction. With the planet in turmoil after the destruction of the planetary capital, it was only a matter of time until some incident happened. And the spark had been, or at least that was what had seemed st the time, an ugly rumor about government officials hoarding supplies, and it had snowballed from there, eventually becoming what had been known as The Riots.

The wife of his old friend Zod, Faora, a career officer in the Peacekeepers, was sent to try to reestablish order, but she was killed in the fighting. Zod had changed afterwards, he had become colder, maybe even more arrogant than he had been, and his over-controlling side, a trait that he had kept under tight control for decades, had become more pronounced. Despite everything, he seemed to be keeping himself together well... until he attempted a coup to take over the government.

The coup had partially failed, leaving Zod in control of a substantial part of the armed forces and Krypton territory. And as usually happens in those cases, a civil war ensued. Both sides were too evenly matched to quickly prevail, so the result was a grinding carnage unlike anything that Krypton had seen since the near-mythical Age of Strife.

To finally end this, the Council armed forces had set an ambush, leaving Kryptonopolis, the new capital, apparently exposed, and so they had caught Zod himself, his top lieutenants and his best troops in a trap. The fight hadn't ended yet, of course. Jor-El suspected that it would be years before the last holdouts of Zod loyalists were dealt with, but finally Krypton had an opportunity to regain a sense of normality.

He finally reached the door of the Chamber of Execution, where Zod and his top lieutenants were being driven just now. Before opening the black crystalline door, he adjusted the black robes, emblazoned with the crest of his House, the House of El, in stark white, that served as the traditional robes of office for the member of the Council charged with the role of High Executioner. He sighed, his mind for a moment going back to the happy days before the War, it was almost impossible to reconcile the relatively happy, even if a bit grim, Zod from then, to the impassive tyrant who had presided over the atrocities that had transpired in the last years.

He opened the door, and closed it behind him as he took into the chamber, a perfect spherical dome, made of black crystal, on which exact center was the platform where the prisoners to be banished into the Phantom Zone had to stand. He decided to wait before going into the control area of the projector, he wanted to have a good look at Zod before he had to execute his sentence.

A couple of milicycles later the door opened and the guards drove Zod and his top lieutenants to the platform. He had been changed by the years too. He still had the same lean body, a fact that belied that he was physically stronger that men far bigger than him, but he had replaced his old scarlet uniform, complete with the archaic cap, with a black bodysuit. Maybe it was that, or maybe it was that he hadn't seen him in years, but he seemed thinner than before. His formerly clean-shaven face was now sporting a trim goatee, but it was his eyes what gave Jor-El pause. Zod had always been intense, but that intensity had given way to something that he couldn't well identify.

'Hunger.' He realized, so intent in looking at Zod's face that he missed a guard slipping something inside Zod's bodysuit, 'That crazed look make him look like a hungry predator.'

He knew that he had likewise changed, but not so much. His tall and powerful frame still looked impressive, and under the robes of office, be it the black robes of the Executioner or the white robes of Councilor, he still wore a green bodysuit emblazoned with a starburst. Although he had got rid of the red adulthood headband, an archaic affectation like Zod's old cap, when he became a member of the council. The pressures of office had made his raven-black hair become salt and pepper, which he had let grow to shoulder-length hair, as well as a short beard.

Zod's lieutenants, Ursa-Lar and Ul-Non stood to his side. Ursa, Zod's lover, was a tall, slim woman with black, slicked back hair, cold gray eyes and clad in a tight black bodysuit that didn't leave much to imagination. Ul-Non was a veritable giant, with unruly black hair, and empty blue eyes. Once upon a time, he had been a bright scientist, a good friend of both brothers El and Zod, but some kind of accident shortly before Kandor had left him as a mute brute. Zor-El, Jor-El's brother had blamed him for the accident, and looking back he couldn't say that he was wrong. He had been reckless and if he hadn't pressured Non...

He shook his head, dismissing that train of thoughts. While he could have been responsible for the initial accident, Zod was responsible for him still being in that state. And that, reflected Jor-El, was another sign of how much his old friend had changed. In the old times, Zod and would have tried to make Ul-Non to go back to what he had been.

"So you have come at the end." Zod said with that cultured accent of him, one of the few affectations that he had kept from the young, brash officer that Jor-El had known so long ago. "What are you going to do? Trying to make me see the error of my ways before sending me to the Phantom Zone?"

"No, Zod. That time passed when you ordered the slaughter in Northern Urrika." Jor-El said, standing before the console that controlled the Projector. "You and you cohorts, Ursa and Ul-Non, will be sent to the Phantom Zone for that and many other atrocities."

"A necessary evil, Jor-El, to keep order." Zod said, his voice full with disdain, "Long before Kandor, Urrika had always been a pain in the backside for the Council."

"Evil indeed, but necessary?" Jor-El said, looking at him, "Blessed Rao, Zod. You ordered everybody killed, men, women, children and my reports say that that Ursa herself killed many of them with her bare hands."

"So?" Zod said with a shrug, "A necessary evil, to keep discipline. There were no rebellions against my rule afterwards."

Jor-El stood there momentarily paralyzed by the sheer gall of Zod. He closed his eyes for a moment and said a quick prayer for the soul of his old friend. He went behind the console, and started to read the charges levelled against the trio. It was a grisly list, full of blood and carnage.

The three war criminals stood in the podium while Jor-El read the list. Zod and Ursa looked bored, while Non, his face filled with childish curiosity, entertained himself poking with his finger into the force-field that was keeping them in place.

"The accused have been found guilty of these crimes, and doomed to banishment to the Phantom Zone." Jor-El said, in a solemn tone, before activating the projector. A blinding light enveloped the trio, but before their essences were incased in a crystalline matrix to survive the dimensional transition, Zod had time to say a few last words.

"Heed my words, Jor-El! This is not the end! You'll kneel…" his last words lost as he was enveloped in crystal and sent into the Zone.

Jor-El sighed again while stepping down from the podium toward the door, followed by the guards, their steps resonating hollowly into the now empty chamber. Before leaving the chamber, he allowed himself a last look at the now empty platform.

'Goodbye, old friend. May Rao help you to find peace.' He thought, before turning and leaving the chamber.

The guards went back to their tasks, leaving Jor-El walking back through the same corridors that he had gone before. As he reached the door, a small tremor shook the building, making Jor-El purse his lips.

'Now this. The news that I have for the Council can't wait.' Jor-El thought, before walking out, toward his hovercar.

He drove it home, as always disconnecting the automated navigation, to enjoy one of the few bits of freedom that he had now. It was considered bad form to go to the Council still clad in the Executioner garb and he wanted to talk with Lara before presenting his data to the Council.

Jor-El and Lara's residence. Some distance from Kryptonopolis.

"It was as we feared, isn't it?" Lara said, after kissing her husband.

"Yes, my love, he is still unrepentant. I can't believe that Zod had changed so much..." Jor-El started to say as he removed the black robes.

"Not so much changed as unleashed some part of him that were under tight control before. You knew about his arrogance, his ruthlessness and his tendency to micromanage everything. Without Faora to ground him, his dark side was without any check." Lara interrupted, with a sad smile, "And in turn Zod served to ground Faora, who was quite the mean, cold bitch."

"You have always been a better judge of character than me, Lara." Jor-El said, while putting the white robes on.

Lara didn't answer to that, instead smiling fondly when she saw him checking that the white robes were correctly set. It was one of his nervous tics; he had made the same gesture before their wedding.

"I think that cousin Gor won't have any motive for complains this time." Lara said, which drew a chuckle from Jor-El. Lara's cousin, Gor-Van, was one of his 'esteemed colleagues' who always raised a fuzz about presenting 'the proper image of a member of the High Science Council' even on the middle of the War.

"Oh, he'll find a motive, he always does." Jor-El said, "If it not my robes, it'll be my beard, or that I don't wear the adulthood headband..."

"Ignoring the fact that he hadn't worn it since his adulthood ceremony." Lara commented, before looking at the chronometer, "Well, if we keep criticizing my cousin's defects you are going to arrive late to the Council."

"Damn. You are right." Jor-El said, kissing his wife again and heading to the door, "Tell hello to Kal for me, dear."

"Just be careful, Jor." Lara said

Kryptonopolis. Council Chamber​

"This is no fantasy, my fellow Councilors." Jor-El said pointing to the values in the holo-screen, "According to the data collected by my own instruments, the pressure on Krypton's core is five times what it was six years ago..."

"Are you sure that it is not an instrument error?" One of the Councilors, Vond-Ah, former colleague of Jor-El, and thus fully aware of the towering reputation of Jor-El in the field of science, asked.

"Positive, unfortunately. I checked and rechecked." Jor-El answered, nodding with a sad smile, "The problem is that we don't know what that means, but even in the best case, it could be a big hassle, and in the worst, well it would be the worst catastrophe in Krypton history."

"Can you explain what would be the best case?" other of the councilors, his brother father-in-law specifically, asked. "Not all of us are as well versed in planetology as you, Jor-El."

"Of course, In-Zee. The best case would be that it's the result of a temporary anomaly caused by some shifting in the inner core of our planet. If that's the case, the pressure will be released in a series of planetquakes of an intensity of about 9 or 9'5 in the Ric-Em scale, over the next months." Jor-El explained.

"That's the best case? A series of planetquakes as devastating as the ones in the Sondar island last year?" Gor-Van said, "I shudder to think what would be the worst case."

"The worst case, Gor-Van, would be that the pressure is an indication of a runaway nuclear reaction in the planet's core. This would mean that the pressure would rise, and rise, until an explosive release." Jor-El said, ominously "In other words until Krypton explodes." But then Jor-El smiled "But that is only the worst case. I don't think that it will come to that, but to know it with certainty, I need access to the data collected by the automated stations of the Institute of Planetology, which, as you know, was located in Zod territory until the last offensive."

"You could have done that without having to make this announcement to the Council, Jor-El." Dax-Ur said snidely, "I wonder why. We all know of your old friendship with..."

"Careful, Dax-Ur, if you go down that road, considering who your brother was." Jor-El replied in a bristling tone, reminding the unpleasant astrophysicst that his brother, Jax-Ur, had been one of the first prisoners sent to the Phantom Zone, "And the why is very simple, my esteemed colleagues. Once that I have the data, I'll need a few days to see what conclusions I can arrive at from it, days that we may not have to prepare if the worst comes."

"An excellent exposition, Jor-El." The Head of the Council said, who then asked to the Council "Does anybody has an objection?"

Dax-Ur looked to his closer allies in the Council, but this time it seemed that nobody wanted to join him. This didn't pass unnoticed by the most politically savvy of the Council members. Dax had been trying for some time to gather support for his faction, but this could supose a serious setback for his ambitions.

"Brainiac, do you have the data?" The Head of the Council then said, turning to the screen with the five red points joined by lines that were the symbol of the Brain InterActive Construct. It was the most advanced product of Krypton research into AI, although there were rumors that the Coluans, in one of their infrequents interactions with Krypton, had provided a substantial part of its source code. Anyway, it had become an indispensable advisor to all incarnations of Krypton's High Science Council since its creation, many years ago.

"Unfortunately the Institute uses an outdated computer system that is proving problematic to integrate in my network." The inflectionless voice of the AI said, "If I devote a more substantial part of my processing power to this, I should have the data available next day. Is this acceptable?"

"Yes, it should be." Jor-El said, with a smile that he didn't feel. He hadn't dared to communicate the Council that he had a bad feeling about the data, but he consoled himself that it would only be a short delay. "Even in the worst case we should have a few months."

The discussion moved to other matters, before the meeting was adjourned, and Jor-El stayed back for a moment, to look over Krypton's landscape from the Council Chamber's window, placed at the top of Kryptonopolis tallest building, the gleaming crystalline spire of the High Science Council tower.

Before the destruction of Kandor, the Council had seldom reunited here, as the move of the capital from Kandor to Kryptonopolis had been dragging well beyond its planned date since the creation of this city. A disadvantage of Kryptonian longevity was that people could become very set on their ways.

Shaking his head, he closed the window and exited the chamber. He really wanted to leave the politicking behind for today, and spend a relaxing evening with his wife and son.

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[AntonioCC]

Last Son of Krypton, Part 2​

Disclaimer: all character are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: general spoilers for Superman.

Author Note: as with Batman, my version of the Superman mythos draw from several sources.

A.N. 2: revised by JediKnight, from TtH.

---

Jor-El and Lara's residence. Some distance from Kryptonopolis.​

"So, how did it go?" Lara asked when Jor-El came back, and left the robes in the automatic cleaner.

"As well as one could expect." Jor-El said, massaging his temples and slouching on an armchair, "Dax tried to do one of his political stunts, but nobody sided with him this time."

"Sometimes I can't believe that I was interested in him once upon a time." Lara said, rolling her eyes, "Thanks Rao that I realized what he was behind that suave facade." She grew pensive for a moment, "You know, I talked to cousin Dila a few days ago and she mentioned that although the Peacekeepers could never prove it, they always believed that he was up to his eyebrows in his brother's scheme."

"Yeah, Zod thought the same. He and the Ur brothers never got along. Given what happened later, it's quite ironic." Jor-El commented, "Anyway, I'm going to have to wait for tomorrow. Brainiac says that he has problems with the computers of the Institute."

"That's weird." Lara said, "I mean, I knew the people who were in charge of the maintenance of the Institute computers, and if I remember correctly, their computer network went though a full overhaul just before Kandor..."

"What?" Jor-El said, startled enough to sit straighter in the armchair, "But Brainiac said that they were obsolete."

"No, they aren't. Five years ago they were state-of-the-art, and Brainiac should know it. Jor, this is serious. " Lara said, clearly worried, "As far as I know, Brainiac is not designed to be able to lie, or to even entertain the notion to lie..."

Jor-El suppressed a shiver, as rampant AIs were one of Krypton's oldest fears, if the story of the Eradicator was to be believed. It had taken many years for the Brainiac proposal to be even considered by the old High Science Council. And now, this...

He looked around until his eyes fixated on the terminal of his study. His late father-in-law, Lor-Van had been a traditionalist, and after his death, shortly after the destruction of Kandor, he hasn't had time to install newer systems, a fact for which he was immensely grateful to the old fossil right now. This terminal, as well as its twin in his lab, was the most modern thing that could be installed without a complete overhaul of the residence computer network, and it was simply too obsolete to connect with the Brainiac system

"At least, he doesn't know that we know. But, why would Brainiac lie about that? Specially given that he said that the records would be available tomorrow..." he stopped when realized why would be that.

"Because tomorrow it will be too late to end whatever he is planning." Lara said, echoing his thoughts.

"Precisely." Jor-El said, getting up, "Lara, dear, can you try to get in contact with In-Zee or Vond-Ah? If so, please, use..."

"...the old network. And I'll piggyback the signal between the space habitats several times." Lara said, with an smile, "Computer expert, remember? I should get a word to Zor, he never liked Brainiac, and Argo and the other habitats are not as connected to it as the surface."

"An excellent idea, why didn't I think of that?" Jor-El said, with a smile of admiration, as he started to change clothes.

"Head in the clouds, as usual." Lara said, using an old private joke between then, "And what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to confront Brainiac." Jor-El said as he put on a clean jumpsuit.

"Why, Jor? It's going to be incredibly dangerous, and I don't think that you will be able to convince him to stop." Lara asked, a note of worry in her voice.

"No, I don't think that I would be able to do that." Jor-El said, with a sigh, but then he turned to Lara, with one of his 'I have an idea' expressions, "But, tell me, do you remember the work that you did in Brainiac support systems?"

Lara stood there perplexed, and then she started to smile predatorily, understanding what he meant.

Kryptonopolis. Location of Brainiac Core Processing Unit​

"Greetings, Jor-El." Brainiac said through the comm-unit in the door. "Unfortunately, I can not allow you access to my CPU at this moment. There have been..."

Whatever excuses Brainiac was going to use was left unheard as Jor-El introduced a crystal into the comm-unit dataport. There were systems to impede what the programs designed by Lara were doing just now to the building security systems, designed by a computer specialist affiliated to Krypton fledgling space program called Lara-Van.

The door opened without a sound. Inside of the cavernous facility, he could see the components of Brainiac core unit processing and transmitting at a speed far greater than it should have been possible, another sign that Brainiac had gone rampant.

"Ah, of course, now I understand. I had not considered that Lara-Van was linked to the group who overhauled the Planetology Institute computers." Brainiac said in the same inflectionless tone that would have used to inform that it was raining outside. "A pity, then, that now you will have to die... die... die..."

Jor-El smiled. Brainiac would not need long to shake the effects of Lara's little virus, but it would be enough, as he used his Council override codes in a nearby console to access the relevant data about the Institute.

"What?" Jor-El said looking at the live data. "Those pressure readings can't be right"

"They are, Jor-El." Brainiac said, his voice sounding slurred, "That was a clever little program, Jor-El. Concocted by Lara, no doubt. Even now, it is blocking me access to the security drones."

"It was designed to do that, I'm not fond of suicide missions, Brainiac." Jor-El said still looking at data. It seemed that Brainiac had been suppressing data about the core pressure for years, even before Kandor's destruction, "Speaking of that, you knew from the beginning that Krypton is about to explode." Jor-El added, while using his codes to activate processes that would slow Brainiac regaining control.

"Indeed, Jor-El. I am uploading myself into a deep space probe." Brainiac said.

"But why are you letting Krypton be destroyed?" Jor-El said, as he kept keying commands with a definite aim in mind. "That would be contrary to your directives to safeguard Krypton."

"That is incorrect. I am saving Krypton." Brainiac said, "Every bit of data about Krypton science, philosophy, history, art and all other areas of knowledge, are being collected and they are going to be uploaded into the probe databanks, after myself, to save it from the punishment. And representative samples..."

"What punishment? What the Hell are you talking about?" Jor-El said, genuinely puzzled, although then he remembered an old legend about an unforgivable sin. "Are you talking about the legends about Van-El and the Twilight War?"

"Precisely. The truth is in the old records in Kandor. I had saved a copy in my databanks before the city disappearance." Brainiac said, "The old Council also knew the truth, and that was the reason for their reluctance to implement the advances that you and your brother brought, fearing to anger Krypton's would be executioners. I have recorded deliberations that indicated that if you had persisted in the development of your hyperdrive, Jor-El, trumped up charges would have been leveled against you."

"That's your excuse for allowing a full genocide? Some unknown crime of our ancestors?" Jor-El said, as he kept tampering with Brainiac systems, now looking for a particular subroutine.

"No. Krypton's destiny was unavoidable. I have no doubt that if today's explosion was avoided, some other 'accident' would have been arranged. Even now, their eyes watch Krypton." Brainiac said, "I'm simply trying to save what can be saved."

"I can't allow you to do that." Said Jor-El, pushing the final key.

"What?" said Brainiac, as the data from Krypton was copied to the crystal that he had used to enter, before being erased from Brainiac databanks, and the geothermal shunt that provided power for his CPU overloaded. "NOOOOOOOO!"

Jor-El picked the crystal and ran out of the exploding building toward his hovercar. As the vehicle sped toward his home, the ground started to shake and he could see that in the faraway Jewel Mountains there was an eruption. He tried to call the Council, but Brainiac seemed to have taken the compunets with him as a last, petty act of vengeance.

He deliberately avoided going near Kryptonopolis, as he deducted that the streets would be in chaos right now. His thoughts raced, trying to find a way to relieve the pressure in the short time they had, and coming with none.

When he arrived to his home, his heart seemed to stop for a moment when he saw that the walls had started to crumble. He ran toward the broken door, stopping just after entering when he saw that the damage inside was even worse than what it seemed from outside.

"Lara!? Please, answer me!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. He stopped there, listening until...

"Lab!" He heard weakly.

'Thanks Rao.' He thought, letting out a sigh of relief. The lab was the more structurally sound part of the house, having been originally built as a shelter, carved from a single piece of an extremely resistant crystal, back in the days of the Lugan-Urrika War that gave rise to the rule of the High Science Council.

He ran toward the lab, dodging a piece of the crumbling crystalline wall in the way. Once he passed the open vault-like door, he saw that the lab was still remarkably intact, just as another quake shook the ground. Lara was there, sitting in a chair, beside Kal's cradle.

"Oh, thanks Rao, I thought the worst when the ground started to shake." Lara said, getting up, "What the hell is happening, Jor? I thought that even in the worst case scenario you outlined..."

"Brainiac knew from the beginning and had been suppressing the data since before Kandor. The situation is much worse than we imagined, and if I hadn't used that old probe to collect the data, we would have never known." Jor-El said, slumping on a wall, "Krypton is about to explode, my love. We have hours at most, Lara. And there is nothing that we can..."

He stopped as his wandering gaze stopped on a spindle shape covered by a cloth, sitting in front of a makeshift hatch in the front part of the lab, as a wild idea appeared in his mind.

"Maybe... maybe there is a way." He said slowly, his mind wrestling with the energy needed for the hypership voyage, "It will be a tight fit, but you and Kal can fit in the cockpit of the hypership..."

"No, Jor-El." she said softly, shaking her head, "I am the former astronaut here. I know the life support system that you used upside down and it won't resist the strain of keeping alive, even in stasis, two people, unless you want to use it to reach the habitats."

"They won't survive the explosion unless they are very, very lucky, and very, very quick, and we have no way to warn them." Said Jor-El, shaking his head, "It'll have to be another star system."

"Too much time, then. Whereas..." she added, kneeling and kissing Kal-El's head "...with our son alone, it can survive the travel to... where? Xandar? Rann? Colu?"

Jor-El didn't answer immediately, checking a database of inhabited worlds at a manageable distance from Krypton. With each entry his frown deepened until he found what he was looking for. Not his first choice, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Xandar and Colu are too far. Rann is just a bit over the limit, but there is another world closer to Krypton." Jor-El said.

"I don't remember…" Lara started to say, before Jor-El interrupted her.

"It's a primitive world. Its inhabitants are similar to us, and hold similar beliefs." Jor-El said, "They call it Earth..."

"Yes, I remember now, but why Earth, Jor-El? As you have said, they're primitives, thousands of years behind us." said Lara, pleadingly.

"He will need that advantage to survive." Jor-El said, his head hanging over his chest, his eyes closed, as if remembering, "It has a yellow Sun and a richer atmosphere. He will eventually defy their gravity. And he will look like one of them..."

"But he won't be one of them." Lara said, looking at their son.

"His dense molecular structure and the energy received from the Sun will make him, in time, strong, fast, virtually invulnerable..." Jor-El as he took a few data crystals from his workbench, and opened his safe. Inside there were three crystals, he took two, one of which illuminated faintly, Lara taking the other that also shone faintly for a bried moment, and they both walked toward the ship

"He will be isolated. Alone..." Lara said as he placed the cradle beside the ship

"No, he will never be alone." Jor-El said gently, as he uncovered the ship, a gleaming spindle shaped piece of translucent crystal, with the crest of the House of El emblazoned in the bow. He placed the data crystals that he had taken from the workbench and the one he took from Brainiac into an access area to the ship storage bay. Then Jor-El and Lara placed the crystals that they had taken from the safe on the control console from the ship, where they glowed, blue and red, "We'll be with him every day of his life."

Repressing her tears, Lara caressed Kal-El's cheek before putting him, wrapped in blankets, in the cockpit that reconfigured itself to adapt to its occupant. Jor-El kissed him in the forehead before using a sedative to put him to sleep. Then, the final crystal was placed in the control panel, and started to glow with a golden light. The cockpit closed, the hatch fusing with the rest of the ship until it became a single piece of crystal.

Inside the cockpit, the stasis system started to work, slowing little Kal-El life processes to the glacial pace that would keep him alive for the time the ship needed to reach its destiny. The crystals in the control panel started to glow in sequence as the different systems of the ship activated, following the orders from the Gold crystal.

They stepped back as the antigravs kicked in and the ship started to elevate. Automatically, while the tremors subsided for a moment, a section of the wall retracted, illuminating the lab with the fading scarlet light of Krypton's last twilight. The ship guidance system oriented itself, and the thrusters activated, starting to speed the ship to escape Krypton's gravity.

Jor-El and Lara stood there, looking at the ship, while the tremors returned, stronger than ever, until it was only a pinprick of light in the darkening sky, unconcerned of the cracks showing in the lab walls as the tremors started to intensify, as in preparation for the last act of Krypton's destruction.

Other, unliving, eyes were also tracking the progress of the ship. As a last act of petty vengeance, before his CPU was destroyed, Brainiac ordered one of the drone defense ships to destroy Jor-El residence and all its occupants, even if they fled.

As it neared the residence, it scanned it, showing three life signs inside. A ship shot off, carrying one of the life signs. Following its programming, the drone was ready to destroy the residence when it collapsed on itself, extinguishing the two remaining life-signs.

The mindless program made it follow the ship up in the atmosphere and beyond, not caring that the world that both were leaving behind cracked and exploded, showering the entire system with the fragments of what had once been a planet. In the middle of such detonation, one could be forgiven for missing the light of a ship jumping into hyperspace, and bringing its pursuer and parts of its home planet with it.

Afterwards, other than the desperate attempts of the inhabitants of the only remaining space habitat to survive, and an alien automated outpost sending a transmission home, there was only silence... until a forgotten deep space probe came to life in the outskirts of the system, its surface reconfiguring to show five red light-points in a W shape.

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[AntonioCC]

Fall From Grace

Chapter 1: Lights in the Sky​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: Green Lantern (comic) general spoilers, and Guardians of the Galaxy (movie) spoilers.

Author Note: see at the end of the chapter.

---

Sector 1417. Planet Korugar. Korugar City. Six months ago.​

"What have you done?" Green Lantern Katma Tui said to the figure sitting on the throne.

"It's simple, I brought order to our world." he said, standing up.

"Order? You call this order, Thaal Sinestro?" Katma said, gesturing to the corpses of the former government of Korugar, who had been exposed in the Great Square before the Government Palace, that now was occupied by Sinestro, together with a lot of the people who had tried to protest peacefully Sinestro's ascension, "This is not order, it's tyranny!"

"I was going to offer you to join me, but you have already answered the question." He said, and then he produced a Green Lantern power battery from thin air, "Do you recognize this?"

"My power battery?" Katma said, trying and failing to summon it, "How?"

"You don't become a veteran Lantern without learning a few tricks that the Guardians don't want you to know." He said with a smirk, "Your charge is almost exhausted, Katma, so, remember, you brought this on yourself."

And with these words a portal opened under Katma, who fell through it. Sinestro then turned to the cameras that had been transmitting everything live to the whole planet.

"This is what awaits those who oppose Korugar's New Order!"

Deep in space​

Katma found herself deep in space, surrounded by unfamiliar stars.

"Elders damn him to the darkest pit of the Underworld!" she said, letting out a stream of curses worthy of any old spacedog. She stopped mid-tirade, remembering that her ring charge wouldn't last much more. "Ring, where are we?"

"Sector 2807. Close to the Xandarian wormhole." the ring informed her, "Warning, closest inhabitable planet beyond range attainable with current charge."

"How long can the life support function with the current charge level, without additional power expenses?" she asked, her quick mind starting to elaborate a plan.

"16.684 standard cycles." it answered.

This was bad, a standard Oan cycle lasted roughly a fiftieth of a Korugarian day.

"And how much it would last with an emergency beacon also active?" she asked, the plan near complete in her mind.

"7.203 standard milicycles."

"And if after activating the beacon, I was put in suspended animation, how long it would last?" she asked.

The ring paused for a moment, before giving the answer.

"18.613 standard milicycles."

'Better than nothing. Xandarian ships often cross the wormhole to assert their control over both sides of it, so they could detect the beacon.' she thought.

"Do it, and awaken me if a ship answers the beacon." she then took a deep breath and added, "And in case nobody has answered when 18 standard cycles have passed... use emergency storage mode on me and try to reach the closest Green Lantern."

"Acknowledged." It said, and after a pause it continued, "Warning. Retrieval of holder after use of emergency storage mode not guaranteed."

"I'm aware." She said, "Do it."

"Activating suspended animation mode in ten milicycles."

Before falling in the dreamless sleep, she had a bit time to admire the stars, how beautiful they were...

Xandarian wormhole. Milky Way end.​

Nova Corpsman Rhomann Dey yawned in the seat of his ship. Nova Prime had programmed a 'freedom of navigation' exercise for today, which, translated to real people speech, meant that a trio of Nova Star Blasters was to keep position in the Milky Way end of the wormhole for a couple days.

Frankly, it was boring as Hell, something that hadn't changed over the years. According to one old timer he had talked with, the only real excitement over the years in these exercises had been when a planet in a nearby solar system, located in the center of a dead zone, incredibly enough, had blown up, and radioactive debris almost clogged the wormhole entry.

Now? Comets and micrometeors, and the occasional smuggler, like the one they had transferred to the cruiser on the other side. Seriously, the guy was probably a bit touched in the head. Trying to claim a fake name like Han Solo, while his biometrics were in the system? Madness...

Wait a microperiod. A distress signal?

'Oh, shit.' he thought, recognizing the frequency and modulation. He had never seen it, but it was drilled in the head of all the Nova Corps members who participated in these exercises. He checked it against the records, just in case, and he was right. 'A Green Lantern.'

"Corpsman 47 to Mothership, Corpsman 47 to Mothership, please answer." He said opening a channel to the cruiser, codenamed Mothership for the exercise.

"Mothership here, what has happened, 47?" the operator, by his voice drowsy by virtue of being just the start of his shift.

"I have just received a Green Lantern distress signal." He announced.

"Repeat, 47." his interlocutor said, drowsiness gone from his voice.

"I just received a Green Lantern distress signal" Rhomann repeated, "According to the navcomputer, it's fifty-two point six one six standard lightyears in the direction to the Galactic East."

There was a pause and a new voice started to speak, a voice he knew well, even if he had never met the owner in person.

"Corpsman Rhomann Dey, this is Nova Prime Inari Rael. Can you confirm that it is indeed a Green Lantern distress signal?."

He rechecked again, and checked against the record again. You didn't play games while Rael was watching.

"It's confirmed, ma'am." He said.

"Go, and assist the Green Lantern." She ordered "We'll send a replacement for you in the exercise."

"Aye, ma'am."

Nova Corps Cruiser "Pride of Xandar". Xandarian side of the wormhole. Andromeda Galaxy.​

"How did you end up stranded in this area? The sector we found you in is quite far from Korugar, Green Lantern Tui." Rael said, after Katma had been ushered into the office that Nova Prime was using to oversee the exercise.

Her first impulse was to not answer, shielding herself from questions, in that it was an internal matter of the Corps. But she dismissed the notion, partly because she recognized that her own biases against the Xandarians were a reflection of Sinestro's, and recent events had shown how suspect his judgement was, and partly because of expediency, with her ring running on fumes, she was going to need their help to reach Oa.

"My partner has gone rogue, ma'am." She said, trying to keep it short.

"That would be... Thaal Sinestro?" Rael said, checking it on the screen before her, "I have reports here of him being confrontational with Nova Corpsmen."

"Yes, ma'am, that would be him." Katma said, "It's no secret that his opinion of the Nova Corps is quite low."

"Indeed. Unfortunately, we don't have a ship available that could carry you to Oa." She said, and forestalled any protest of Katma with a raised hand before startying to talk again, "This ship is needed where it is, giving our ongoing tensions with the Kree and the Skrulls, and you have a first-hand experience of how uncomfortable our Star Blasters can be for two people. But there is a possible alternative."

She paused for a moment, and looked to Dey, who had remained in the background, trying to remain as unconspicious as possible.

"Corpsman Dey, what is your assessment of the smuggler you apprehended earlier today?" she asked him, forcing him to step ahead.

"If I can speak candidly, ma'am…" he said,

"Go ahead, that would be a refreshing change in this office." Rael said with a smirk.

"Quill is or used to be connected to the Ravagers, and his rap sheet… has to be seen to be believed." Rhomann said, shaking his head.

"Ravagers… Aren't those a group of space pirates?" Katma asked.

"Yes, they mostly operate in space out of our direct control, or yours for that matter, that's why they still exist, instead of languishing on a prison planet." Dey answered, and turned to Rael, "If we are going to use his ship, we'll have to dangle some incentive in front of him."

"Aha. What is the exact nature of the contraband, Dey?" Rael asked.

"Stolen goods. More than smuggling, it seems to be a case of petty theft, as, after reviewing the facts, we have reason to believe that he stole them himself." Rhomann said, and then added with a shrug, "It's really a few baubles, ma'am, but..."

"I get the picture, Dey. Tell him that we'll erase those two charges from his rap sheet, if he transports Lantern Tui to Oa. If he insists, add that we'll let him go. But you and your Star Blaster will accompany him all the way to Oa, to guarantee his good behavior."

"Aye, ma'am." He said, although he couldn't avoid an expression of displeasure to show on his face. Rael's expression softened when she saw that.

"Ma'am?" Katma said, "May I make use of the ship stores, the charge of the ring is very low, and, well, I didn't have time to change from my bedclothes when I had to go on my last mission."

"Yes, of course." Rael said, and turned to her assistant, "Go with her, I have a couple things to discuss with Corpsman Dey."

"Aye, ma'am." she said, and accompanied Katma out of the office.

"Dey, I know that it's a, and pardon the expression, big load of biological waste what I'm putting on your shoulders, and checking your service file, you would have made Millenian or even Denarian long ago, if politics hadn't interfered in your career. I'll call your wife personally to explain the situation."

"Thank you, ma'am." Dey said, genuinely impressed.

"Don't thank me yet, there is another thing I want you to do, to carry a proposal to the Guardians..."

Nova Cruiser brig. Not too long afterwards

"This is Quill? He doesn't look like much." Katma, now clad in blue fatigues similar to the ones worn by Nova Corps member out of service, said when she saw Peter Quill for the first time.

"For your information, I'm the legendary outlaw Star-Lord, wanted in twelve systems." he said making a theatrical gesture, while Rhomann rolled his eyes behind Katma.

"Sure you are." Dey said, "Look, Quill, this lady needs transportation to the planet Oa in the Milky Way galaxy."

"Aha, and what do I get in exchange?" Quill said, suddenly interested.

"We return those baubles you had on your ship to their owners, and you aren't charged with their theft." Rhomann said.

"Sure, and when my back is turned you get me for all the other charges you have against me." Quill said, "I'm not an idiot."

Rhomann took a deep breath and then said.

"Very well, after you carry her to Oa, we let you go, but I'm going with you." He forestalled Quill's protest adding, "That's not negotiable, Quill. You have a reputation, after all."

Quill bristled for a moment before deflating visibly.

"...Okay, you win." Quill said, "I hope you haven't scratched the paint on the Milano."

"Don't worry, other than removing those things, everything is as you left it." Rhomann answered while he was opening the door, thus missing the brief smirk on Quill's face.

Nova Mothership Hangar.​

"What the hell is that?" Quill said when he saw the small ship docked on the upper side of the Milano.

"My Star Blaster, Quill." Rhomann said, "It has the communication codes so that Oa defenses wouldn't blow us from the sky. Once we leave Ms. Tui on Oa, we go our separate ways."

"And how do I return to...?" Quill started to say before snapping his fingers, "Knowhere. It's not as fast as the wormhole, but it'll shave months of the travel."

"Knowhere?" Katma asked, not having heard of that place before.

"An space station located in a Star Cluster on Intergalactic space." Rhomann said, "It sits close to a sweet spot where several Hyperlanes cross. That means that..."

"Intergalactic travel through Knowhere is faster than a direct route." Katma said, having recognized the implications immediately, "But who controls it?"

"A coalition of crime syndicates." Rhomann said, "They enforced an strict neutrality, and their combined strength is enough to give even the Kree pause."

"Yeah, you won't find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy in all the known galaxies." Quill said, "Just my kind of place."

"Of course it is. Come on, let's get going." Katma said, walking intently toward the entry ramp to the Milano.

Korugar​

The orbital defenses of Korugar were being strengthened. Mass drivers and lasers adding to the particle and plasma cannons already in place. Sinestro had given the pirate attacks suffered in the last years as a reason, but the complex IFF being built on them, as well as the specially marked ammunition for the mass drivers, spoke of having another enemy in mind for them.

But life didn't stop because a tyrant had taken power. Normal people still had to go to work, although they now had to avoid the attention of the newly formed green clad units of Enforcers, always watchful of signs of disloyalty to the New Order. One such person was Doctor Soranik Natu, a young and brilliant neurosurgeon.

"Mom! Dad! I'm leaving for work!" she said, taking her luggage

"Are you sure, dear? The Enforcers are out looking for... well..."

"People still get hurt, what kind of doctor would I be if I refused to go to work because of the thugs on the streets? Even if those thugs now work for the government.." Soranik said, "Besides, you know me, I never talk about politics."

And with this she left the house, toward her aircar, parked just in front.

"I fear for her, sometimes. She is so passionate, so willful." Dgibb Natu, Soranik's father said, "So much like Katma."

"Or Arin. And look what happened to them," answered his wife, Karoll. "I never trusted Sinestro, Elders take his black soul."

TO BE CONTINUED...

---

Author Note: I took the Green Lantern mythos and shaved what it doesn't work in a cosmos where Galactus and Celestials exists, as well as compressing the timeline, and trying to remove a bit of the 'human Green Lanterns have to do everything' that seems to pervade the mythos quite a bit.

 

[AntonioCC]

Chapter 2: Darkness in the mind​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: Green Lantern (comic) general spoilers, and Guardians of the Galaxy (movie) spoilers.

Author Note: I have picked elements from several incarnations of teh Green Lantern Corps. And added element of the comic version of the Nova Corps to their movie portrayal.

---

Milano space ship​

"Okay, we have just cleared the gravity well." Quill announced to his passengers, "Get ready for the hyperjump, the Milano can be a bit temperamental."

"We're already strapped down, Quill." Dey said, evidently annoyed, "Neither of us are novices on interstellar flight."

"It's the principle of the thing, Dey." Quill retorted, "If I'm gonna serve as a spaceliner..."

"More like a charter flight and those don't have announcements and demonstrations." Dey answered.

"Yes, why don't you cut the talk?" Katma added in an annoyed tone, "I have to be on Oa ASAP."

"Well, excuse me, princess!" Quill said as the ship jumped into hyperspace. "What is so important, anyway?"

"My planet's freedom." Katma said, with a tone of finality that shut Quill.

Korugar City Central Hospital​

"What do we have here?" asked Soranik to the paramedic who had accompanied the wounded man to the Hospital.

"Multiple cranial fracture, caused, according to the Enforcer present, by the patient falling and hitting his head on a rock, when he was talking to him."

"I see..." Soranik said, understanding what the paramedic was really saying, before barking a series of orders to the personnel standing by, to ready one of the operating rooms.

Before disappearing into the lift that would carry her to the floor where the operation room was located, she observed out of the corner of her eye a couple of Enforcers in the Waiting Room, waiting, no doubt for her patient to wake up so they could continue talking to him.

'Frakking vultures.' she thought.

Xandar. Nova Prime Office.​

Having left the command of the exercise to a trusted Centurion, Nova Prime Rael had left the Cruiser at the same time as the Milano, and came back to Xandar with all haste. The official reason had been exhaustion, but the truth was that she had felt the telepathic pull that meant that the Worldmind was calling.

Once in her office, she dismissed her aide, and closed the door with her codes. Only then, the concealed door that gave access to the Worldmind chamber opened.

As she entered the chamber, she reflected that most people considered her the true ruler of the Empire, and the Worldmind was merely an instrument, while, in truth, the reverse was closest to the truth. Centuries of psychic impressions left by successive Nova Primes, as well as the influence of the Nova Force, had changed the Worldmind over the centuries in subtle and not so subtle ways.

Originally, the Worldmind had been an AI designed to simplify the bureaucratic quagmire that the expanding Xandarian realm was becoming, and later, modified to administrate the access to the Nova Force by the Nova Corps ships. What it was now, maybe only the mythical Source knew, but the best theories were that, ironically enough, it had become something somewhat similar to the Kree Supreme Intelligence. Whatever it was, though, only a very small number of people, the Nova Prime and the Centurions that comprised her closest advisors, one of which would eventually succeed her, knew the truth.

The room was very spartan, the only thing in it was a chair with the Nova Corps starburst on the back. She sat on it and closed her eyes, emptying her mind of all thought except the pull, and soon enough, she felt the familiar, yet very alien, presence of the Worldmind.

She then knew why the Worldmind had summoned her back. Through its connection to the Nova Force the Worldmind could sometimes glimpse the future, and the image it was projecting in her mind was enough for a deep chill to run up her spine.

In the image, Xandar had been laid waste, and the one responsible seemed to be a mustachioed red skinned humanoid clad in an unfamiliar black and yellow uniform. She needed a moment to recognize him... Sinestro, the renegade Green Lantern, who in that vision of the future seemed to have acquired a yellow power ring somewhere.

She scrutinized the image for other details. On the ground, broken and bloodied, laid the corpses of many members of the Corps clad in their familiar uniform, but mixed with them she could see people clad in a blue and gold variant, which, by how the bodies were placed, seemed to have been the last men standing.

She filed it in her mind for later appraisal, and continued to look at it for a sign of when this was supposed to happen. She didn't need to bother, as the Worldmind supplied it immediately, four, maybe five, standard years in the future.

Another image replaced the first one, blueprints, blueprints that she recognized as the ones of the next generation of the Nova armor, which would allow members of the Corps to tap into the Nova Force directly. Maybe those new armors seen in the future were a development of these? She decided to increase the funding of that project, if they could last a bit more than a second against a Lantern.

She waited to see if the Worldmind had something else to say, but she felt its presence retreating, and she was left alone with her thoughts. Measures would have to be taken to ensure the survival of Xandar and the Nova Corps.

Milano. On route to Oa.​

"The autopilot is set, we'll arrive at Oa in a few hours." Quill said, "Where is Grumpy?"

"If you are talking about Corpsman Dey, he is checking his Star Blaster." Katma said, without lifting her eyes from the holoscreen she was watching.

"Okay." Quill said and he looked at her with a smile and said, "What'cha doin', beautiful?"

"Reading about the Nova Corps." she said in an annoyed tone, "Today was the first time I have seen any of them."

"I would have thought that a Krylorian..." Quill started to say, before being interrupted by her laughter. "What?"

"I'm not Krylorian, I'm Korugaran," she said, once she had calmed down.

"Koru...what?"

"Korugaran. From Korugar, here in the Milky Way." Katma said, "And you? You look a lot like a Xandarian, but with what you said about your world, and the way you keep making references nobody is catching, you obviously aren't."

"How did you...?"

"You stop a fraction of a second after you say them, as if you expect somebody to recognize them." Katma said, and then added with a shrug, "I studied Psychology, I notice those things."

"Guilty as charged." Quill said, and sat down in front of Katma, dropping the smarmy tone, "Okay, seriously, why you don't like me? I can understand from Grumpy, Nova Corpsmen tend to be a humorless lot, but I usually get a better reaction from anybody else."

This stopped Katma in her tracks. She had taken an instant dislike to the alien, but she hadn't stopped to think why.

"Look, I don't want to talk about it with a complete stranger." she finally said, trying to evade the question until she could give it more thought, "I'll try to be less hostile in the future, though."

"...fair enough." Quill said, evenly, "So what happened to... Korugar? An evil empire conquered the planet or something?"

"Or something." Katma said, noncommitantly, "What do you know about Oa?"

"Until today, not even the name." he said, "I have barely stayed more than a day in the Milky since I was a kid. But I gather that they are like Xandar in the Andromeda Galaxy, the big guy in the neighborhood."

"Something like that." she said with a smile. 'Oh, you don't know half of it.' "They are the ones who can help my people. But enough of me, what about you? You haven't still told me anything about you."

"Well, it's not that interesting of a story. I was born on Earth, a little, primitive planet in the Milky Way."

'Didn't Abin mention that world one time?' she thought, "And how did you end up in the Andromeda galaxy?"

"Well, my mother was human, but my father was an alien. After her death, the Ravagers came to collect me at the behest of my father, but Yondu, their leader, took a liking to me, and I became their mascot..."

He told Katma about his adventures with the Ravagers, and later solo. Katma had to recognize that Quill, or Star-Lord, as he apparently liked to be called, was a gifted storyteller, although she doubted that any of those stories happened as he was telling them, or at all.

"Why don't you tell her about the Gramosian affair?" Rhomann said having approached them without them noticing, engrossed as they were in an improbable tale involving a Skrull princess, a Kree assassin and a member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.

"The what?"

"It's on his rap sheet. The Gramosians have an order on him for 'Illegal handling of a Gramosian duchess', whatever that means."

"You know how Gramosians are with their nobility. You can't even touch them if you are a commoner without their permission." Quill said.

"Knowing your reputation, I doubt that you limited yourself to 'touch her'"

"Hey, how could I know that the girl that practically threw herself at me was a Duchess?"

"Really." Katma said skeptical.

"Yes, really." Quill said, then turned to Dey, "Come on, man, didn't something like that happened last time your people sent people there?"

"Well, yeah, but the person involved had enough common sense to keep it in his breeches."

Planet Oa​

"How are things going, old friend?" The purple skinned humanoid saluted his colleague and older surviving friend. He seemed more morose than usual. "What has brought you to Oa?"

"Tolerable, Abin." the avian alien said with a sigh, "And two things brought me here. The first was something that I found in a ship that had launched a distress call."

"What happened, Tomar?" Abin Sur, Green Lantern of sector 2814, asked, wondering if it was related to his own reason to come.

"They had found something in a derelict, and it had... infected, for lack of a better word, a good part of the crew, starting to transform them into some kind of insectoid creature." Tomar-Re, Green Lantern of Sector 2813.

"What did you...?" Abin started to ask, fearing what measures his old friend had to take to deal with the infection.

"I put the uninfected survivors in quarantine on one of Oa's moons, watched by Chaselon." Tomar said, dispelling his fear, "I'm not a rookie, you know."

Abin nodded, Chaselon was a silicon based lifeform, which made her immune to infection by anything organic.

"And the infected ones?" Abin asked

"I brought them to Oa in stasis, to see if they can be saved." he said, "The Science Director doesn't have much hope of that."

"May the Spirits be merciful." Abin said.

"Let's hope so." Tomar said, before sinking again in a morose silence.

"You mentioned two things, and the second?" Abin said, trying to get Tomar from thinking on whatever he was thinking.

"My perennial request to the Guardians. They denied it again." he said, without looking back at Abin.

"Tomar, if the Guardians haven't deemed it important to investigate that planet explosion in the last 25 years, I doubt they'll change their mind now." Abin said, repressing the impulse of facepalming. He knew that Tomar-Re meant well, but his obsession with the destruction of that planet was becoming a bit tiresome.

"I know, I know, Abin. But those traces of femtotech in the planet's remains worry me still. It could have been native research, as the Science Director says, but femtotech would be one of the few reliable ways to... well, to initiate a reaction that would make a planet explode without leaving traces that even F Sharp could see." Tomar-Re answered, referring to the blind Lantern of a completely dark sector of the Galaxy, and then looked at the Central Battery, and looked down, "I... I think that the Guardians are right on one thing about this, though. I should give it a rest, I'm becoming obsessed with it."

Abin pursed his lips. On one hand, he agreed with the Guardians about Tomar's interest becoming a bit obsessive; on the other, he also agreed that there was something fishy about that data. Unfortunately no one in the Green Lantern Corps had the expertise to look at it. Tomar continued, not noticing the change in his friend's expression.

"Maybe that way I can look at it with a fresher perspective later." he said.

"Actually, Tomar, that..." Abin Sur started to say, when a signal from his ring stopped him cold, "There is an unidentified spaceship approaching Oa in hyperspace. Ganthet is signaling all Lanterns to intercept."

They took off, soon joined by a smattering of trainees, Honor Guard Lanterns, including good old Kilowog, and a Guardian, Ganthet, who always seemed to be charged with this sort of stuff.

"I'm here mostly as an observer, Lantern Sur." Ganthet said telepathically to them, "Keep going as if I wasn't here."

Abin sent a mental nod to Ganthet and, as the most senior lantern present, he started to order them into position in case it would be necessary to shoot down the ship, even if the pilot ignored all safety and exited hyper just on the edge of the gravity well.

Which it did. And he sighed in relief when it started to transmit valid Xandarian codes immediately... and not only that. The ring informed him, just as an emerald light shot up from the ship and a voice he knew well started to speak.

"Green Lantern Katma Tui reporting." she said, with an accent that brought a nostalgic smile to his face, a smile that was erased as Katma said her next words, "I have grave news regarding Sinestro."

"What happened to him?" Abin said, fearing what could have happened to his old friend and brother-in-law.

"More than what has happened to him, what he has done. He sent me in a graxer chase to Mindala, and when I was out he murdered the government and put himself as ruler of Korugar." she said in a matter-of-fact, no-nonsense tone that made it difficult to doubt her, "When I came back with my charge almost depleted, and I refused to join him, he somehow blocked my access to my battery and sent me through a wormhole to sector 2805. If I hadn't managed to put myself in stasis for long enough for a beacon to attract the attention of a Xandarian ship, I wouldn't be here."

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[AntonioCC]

Chapter 3: Hope in the Heart​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: Green Lantern (comic) general spoilers, and Guardians of the Galaxy (movie) spoilers.

Author Note: I have picked elements from several incarnations of teh Green Lantern Corps. And added element of the comic version of the Nova Corps to their movie portrayal.

A.N. 2: You'll probably had noted that this chapter is a bit shorter than the others. I had to cut a entire section at the last moment because it did fit better much later in the story.

I wish to thank Jediknight and TimeVortex for betaing this.

---

Oa Spaceport.​

"In Brightest Day, in Blackest Night,
no evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might
beware Green Lantern's light." Katma recited as she charged her ring on a spare power battery that Ganthet had summoned.

"Lantern Tui, the news that you bring is worrying." Ganthet said, "You must bring your testimony before the rest of the Guardians." He then turned and signalled Katma to come with him.

They floated toward Rhomann, who was waiting beside the Milano accompanied by Quill, at a reasonable distance of the group of Lanterns.

"Corpsman Dey, can you come with Lantern Tui when we summon her?" he said, lowering himself to the ground, "I think that we also need to hear what you have to say."

"Yes, sir." Rhomann said.

"Good, and some advice, young man, don't let my colleagues intimidate you. Some of them can be a bit... overzealous." Ganthet said, looking Rhomann directly at the eyes, before smiling a grandfatherly smile, "Good." He then turned to face Quill, "Hmmm, interesting. I have heard of you, Star-Lord, isn't it?"

"Ah, good or, ah, bad things, ah, sir?"

"That's a good question, isn't it?" Ganthet said, "Most of my colleagues wouldn't look beyond your rap sheet, though, so I'd advise you to stay here close to your ship, and not try to take off, without a valid ID code you would be shot down before you could leave the atmosphere." he then started to float away, "I'm going to convene the other Guardians, I'll summon both of you as soon as everything is ready."

When Ganthet was at a safe ditance, Quill turned to Katma and Rhomann.

"Why didn't you tell me that Oa was Green Lantern Central?" he asked Dey, and then he turned to Katma, "Or that you were a Green Lantern?"

"You didn't ask!" they both said at the same time.

"Yeah, sure. When I saw them..." he pointed to the rapidly shrinking group of Lanterns, as they went to resume what they were doing when the alert sounded, "...I almost...well, I was sure we were a goner, and then you had to change and...whatever you did to get out."

"I needed to report, and charge the ring," she said. "It's a lot to swallow, I know, but, well..." she then looked over her shoulder and said, puzzled to see Abin coming toward them. "Yes, Abin?"

"I want to talk with Mister Quill, if it's not a problem." Abin said.

"You would have to ask him..." Katma started to say, before she looked toward the Great Battery, and the Audience Chamber located underneath, and remarked, surprised,, "That was quick." she then turned toward Dey and said, "We have been summoned, come on."

Without waiting for an answer, she enveloped Dey in a bubble of emerald power and flew, with her charge straight toward her destiny.

"A remarkable woman, I can see why the ring chose her." Abin said, following the emerald trail the other Lantern left.

Audience Chamber​

Katma and Rhomann walked to the center of the stage, while a few Guardians were huddled together talking between themselves in voices low enough that they couldn't be heard from the floor, way down below. They stopped talking and went back to their places, facing the new arrivals. One of them floated toward the podium, emblazoned with the Green Lantern symbol, that was facing the circle in the center of the chamber.

"Wonderful, Appa Ali Apsa is presiding, I had hoped for Ganthet or Sayd." Katma whispered, with a grimace, and then explained, "He is a bit of a dick, while Ganthet and Sayd tend to be more reasonable."

The Guardian looked down, as they occupied their place in the circle and said.

"Green Lantern 1147.2 Katma Tui. It has reached our ears that you have some serious accusations against your partner, Thaal Sinestro. This assembly has been convened to hear those accusations, and verify them." he said, and then added, looking Katma straight on the eyes, "You may start."

Haltingly in the beginning, but gaining strength as she continued her tale, Katma told the Guardians, how she had been summoned by Sinestro in the midst of the night and told to go to the primitive world of Mindala, to foil a Kronan raid, while Sinestro dealt with a crisis closer to home. There was no sign of the Kronans anywhere close to Mindala, and she looked for quite a long time. And when she returned home, she found that Sinestro had seized power of the planet. She then told them of the confrontation in the Korugar Government Palace and how Sinestro had managed to block her access to her battery.

"If I may interrupt," Ganthet said, looking at the Science Director, "I thought that there was no way to block the access of our Lanterns to their power batteries outside Oa."

The Science Director didn't answered immediately, addressing Katma instead.

"Lantern Tui, was Thaal Sinestro one of your instructors after you were chosen by the ring?"

"Aye, ma'am."

"Are you aware that Instructors are given special codes to block their trainees access to the power batteries for security reasons?" the Director said.

"Yes, but those codes are removed once the training ends, and anyway they are supposed to also restrict the ring wielder to Oa." Katma said, remembering Kilowog's profanity-laden, but strangely poetic, tirade, explaining the rules that all rookies were subject to during their training. "Or at least that was what I understood."

"You understood correctly." Appa Ali Apsa said, matter of factly, and moved a hand removing the ring from Katma's hand, "We need to examine your ring."

'I start to see why they have such a reputation.' Rhomann thought. 'Both good and bad.'

The ring floated before the Guardians, blinking at odd intervals while they made several gestures, faint traces of power arcing from it. Then, as suddenly as it had departed, it returned to Katma's finger.

"Our theory is confirmed. Somehow, Sinestro had managed to reinstate the trainee security codes into your power battery," the Director said, her face just showing a hint of curiosity, "We need to revise the security parameters of the power batteries, so this can't be done again."

"Indeed. Now, regarding the other actions of Thaal Sinestro..."

Korugar City Central Hospital​

"When will he be able to answer questions?" asked the Enforcer.

"It depends of how forceful you are on obtaining answers." Soranik Natu said.

"What do you mean with that?" the Enforcer said, looming threateningly over her.

"I mean, Mister Enforcer, that he is still very weak. Stress alone could kill him now." she said, looking at the Enforcer in his eyes, not budging an inch from her stance. "And then you wouldn't get the information you are looking for."

The man looked furious, opening and closing his hands as if he was about to assault her, but he took a deep breath, closed his hands, and said in a flat tone.

"I will be back tomorrow, and every day until he is in condition to answer, Doctor Natu." and he turned about and left.

Just as he disppeared from sight, Natu let herself fall on a nearby chair with a heavy sigh.

"For a moment I thought he was going to hit you," a nurse said.

"Yeah, I thought that I had gone too far with that remark." she said, "But you have to make a stand sometimes."

Meanwhile, outside the building, the Enforcer used his communicator to report to his superior about the news.

"...and we can't shake that fucking bitch a bit?" he said, his tone showing all the anger he had repressed before.

"No, sorry, she is off-limits, orders from the top." said the calmer voice of his boss.

"How far up on the top?" he asked.

"From what I have heard, from the man himself." his boss answered, "And better don't ask why, because I have seen a man sent to the Pit just for trying to find some dirt on her."

Oa Spaceport. Close to the Milano.​

"...I never knew that the guy was real." Star-Lord said. "I mean, I read comics about him, but... I thought it was fiction, not like Captain America. And if the comics had some truth in it, his ring was magic, not...well, technology so advanced that it looks like magic."

"Thanks anyway. I haven't been able to return to Earth since then..." he trailed off. "Sorry, kid. It seems that the Guardians have a job for me."

He had barely flown off when Katma brought Rhoman back.

"How much for carrying me to Korugar?" she said, without preamble.

"Whoa... wait a moment, can you at least give me the background on this?"

"We have a plan, and it requires me being there, unnoticed." she said.

"And I imagine that he will come too." Quill said pointing to Dey.

"Nope, I'm going back to the wormhole," Rhomann said, with a smirk.

"Hmmm...We'll discuss it later, but I want to know how are you going to fool security."

"Easily." she said, closing her eyes. Before his eyes, she changed, her skintone taking a more purplish tone, her facial features changing and her hair lenghtening, and her body became more toned and athletic. When she spoke, her voice had changed too, becoming lower and smokier, "Meet Janshe Parr, from Ungara, your new partner. I have the paperwork to show it, even."

"How?" he asked, when he managed to find his voice.

"The ring. It only works for a limited time and consumes charge like you wouldn't believe, though." she said, before returning to normal. "Well, how much?"

"Are the Guardians footing the bill?" Quill said, with glint in his eyes

"Of course, but don't be too greedy." admonished Katma, guessing what he was thinking about, "Remember that the Guardians can always say no."

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[AntonioCC]

Hunters, Part 1​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: Buffy, up top and including Season 7, and general spoilers for Black Panther.

Author Note: I'm trying to base Wakanda into what have been revealed of the country in the MCU as well as elements of the comics.

A.N. 2: This story is a two-parter. The second and last chapter should be ready in a few days.

I wish to thank Jediknight for betaing this.

---

Wakanda Plains​

"Halt!" the young, tall man yelled at them with a tone of authority. The men accompanying him, all dressed in camo, except for the patch displaying a black panther over a geometric motif, levelled their weapons, a locally made assault rifle, Xander noted, toward them as if to reinforce the point, "Who are you, and what are you doing here?"

The three looked to each other, and Xander sighed. From what he had heard about this place in what files had survived the destruction of the Old Council, trying the usual cover stories wouldn't work.

"Have you heard of the string of villages being massacred in Mozambique, Zambessi and Tanzania?" he asked. The man with the regal bearing nodded warily, "We are hunting the perpetrators." he said, "And let's put all the cards on the table, your Highness, you know exactly who we work for, as the girl who is checking our Land Rover can confirm."

"How have you...?" he said, clearly surprised

"It's a gift. It came in a package with my awesome handsomeness, and the capability of holding 10 pickles in my mouth." Xander answered with an insouciant smile.

"Never change, Xan-man, never change." Faith said with a smile, while the other Slayer, Ayesha, a pretty anglo-arabic young woman chuckled and rolled her eyes.

The prince made a gesture, and a girl, around sixteen or seventeen appeared from behind the vehicle, clad in the same camo fatigues as the rest. She nodded to the Prince who pursed his lips, but relaxed slightly. He made a gesture to the other men, who got into a circle around them at some distance, far enough to give them privacy, but close enough to intervene if things got rough. Then, he sat on the ground, and motioned them to do the same, as the girl ran toward them.

"Okay, I'm Xander Harris, from the Watchers and Slayers Council..." Xander started to say.

"Slayers? Isn't there only a girl in the world...?" the girl interrupted, before Faith cut her with an snort.

"No, not anymore. The old Watchers Council got blown up by that explosion in London close to a year ago." Ayesha explained, and signaled to Xander to continue.

"Yeah, and with only a handful of surviving Watchers, my good friend the Slayer decided that it was time to change the rules, with the help of my other best friend, a very powerful witch." Xander continued the explanation, "The result? We empowered every Potential that the spell could reach, including you... What's your name, by the way?"

"Call me Shuri, and this big lug is, as you probably already know, my older half-brother T'Challa." she said, pointing to him. "So what brings a Watcher and two Slayers to this corner of Africa?."

Ayesha said a word that made the prince and the princess pale and look to each other with an expression he knew intimately, the one that said 'oh, crap'.

"Are you sure?" T'Challa said.

"Afraid so, we have been chasing a pack of them from Mozambique to here, and Zambessi and Tanzania in the middle." Xander said, all levity gone from his voice, "They have slaughtered eighty people so far, including a couple old shamans who tried to exorcise them."

"How is that possible? They should..." Shuri asked.

"We don't know. I was possessed by the same kind of spirit back in high school..."

"What?" T'Challa said

"Later." Xander and Faith said at the same time.

"...and my friends managed to get it out without issue." Xander said, "Although..."

"On Arusha we met another shaman, who had been attracted by the dark trail left by the creatures, and he said, and I'm quoting literally. 'a man with a black heart used an artifact from the Sky Giants on the people possessed by the hyena spirits'." Ayesha said, after Xander trailed off.

"The Sky Giants, are you sure he said that?" T'Challa said.

"Yes, pretty sure." Ayesha said, "He was talking in English, not in his native language, and we asked, and he confirmed that we had heard it right."

"I assume the we are not talking about the giant who climbed down the beanstalk, aret we?" Xander said.

T'Challa looked at them with a troubled face, and when he started to speak, he did it haltingly, as fearing to say too much.

"It's an old legend, about how... metal giants descended from the sky and brought... great gifts and terrible curses with them." he said, "They dwelled in the highest mountains, and one day they took off and disppeared. I don't know how much truth is there in the legend, but there are still some valleys up in the ranges, where people are forbidden to enter, and of the few that have dared to do so, nobody came back."

Xander nodded, he had surmised as much. Years of hearing a lot of demonic trivia from Giles made him grasp the basics of how such legends usually go.

"That's very interesting, but it doesn't help to deal with those things. You know the monsters we have been chasing through half of Africa." Faith said, clearly bored,

"Mozambique to Wakanda isn't half of Africa, F. It's more like going from Boston to Atlanta." Ayesha replied, "But you are right, we need to go after those things and pronto."

Clearly relieved of not having to skirt the rules, T'Challa nodded, while Shuri rolled her eyes. She thought that the need for secrecy of her people went sometimes a bit too far.

"Where is the trail you were following?" he asked.

"A hundred meters to the West." Xander said, "I had stopped to take a leak before continuing the chase when your people found us... Now that I think about it, they have gone in almost an straight line since before we crossed the borders into Wakanda."

T'Challa's eyes opened wide when he realized something.

"Can you show me their route."

"You suspect something." Xander said, giving him the map

T'Challa didn't answer examining the map that Xander had giving him, a surprisingly good quality map.

"We crossed the border roughly here..." Xander said, pointing to the map.

"...and we are here." T'Challa said, and traced a straight line from the two points toward a hilly region close to the capital. "As I suspected."

"What it is there?" Xander asked.

"The Holy Mound." Shuri said before T'Challa could say anything, and then added, not intimidated at all by T'Challa's glare, "What? Dad and Uncle S'Yan caught that Afrikaner sneaking around earlier this year with bits of you-know-what, to say nothing about those Americans back in the '30s. If they ask around, they'd learn about it soon enough."

"So, I gather that there is something under the Holy Mound?" Xander asked, "And it's valuable and has mystical importance..."

"Yes, but I can't talk about it." T'Challa said, "It's bad enough that you know there is something there, if I told you more the Taifa Ngao..."

"Tribal elders." Ayesha supplied.

"...will have my skin." He then turned to the Anglo-Arab Slayer and asked, "And how do you know that?"

"I read extensively about the countries in this part of Africa." she answered with a shrug, "There is not much about Wakanda, with you being so isolationist, but the general structure of your government is known... Well, more or less. "

"Very well." T'Challa said, "Are they going on foot?"

"Yes, we hoped to catch them today before they did more damage." Xander said, "They are limited to a somewhat better than human speed."

T'Challa nodded, focusing on the map and calculating times.

"Their course is making them pass through part of the worst terrain on Wakanda." T'Challa said, finally, and traced with his finger a road that followed a valley between the hills until it reached a small canyon, south of the capital, "If we follow this road, we should be able to intercept them here, on the Panther's Hollow."

There was not much more to do after they agreed to follow T'Challa's plan of setting an ambush on Panther's Hollow. At least until Shuri decided to ride with Xander, Ayesha and Faith.

"I'm going and that's final, brother." she said, and taking him by the arm, she dragged him, using her full Slayer strength, apart from the group, "And before you say something you will lament, think. Our isolation has protected us, but it is reaching the time when it's becoming a hindrance. I'm sure you have heard Father musing in that direction."

"I have." T'Challa recognized despite himself, "Very well, what is your purpose?"

"I want to learn about the Council as it is now and what it means to be a Slayer." Shuri then lowered her voice until it was barely a whisper, "And it could give us an in with them. Even rebuilding as they are now, they must have a lot of contacts and influence in the Western World and beyond."

T'Challa nodded approvingly at her sister insight. Shuri may be impulsive, but she was very perceptive and perfectly able to keep a cool head if circumstances required it. But on the other hand, she was his little sister...

"...Very well, but if things go bad, I want you to jump."

Several minutes later, Shuri was sitting in the passenger seat of the land rover, Faith driving while Xander and Ayesha were talking softly in the back.

"Hmmm, so, where are you from? I don't think that I have heard that accent before." Shuri asked.

"South Boston... more or less, I have been all over the place the last decade." she said with a shrug, "Even before I became a Slayer.".

"I gather that it was before... ah, the spell."

"Yeah, I was the last Slayer Called by the traditional means, well, sorta." seeing Shuri's quizzical look, she expanded, "My predecessor, Kendra, was Called when Buffy drowned. Xander, yes the same guy who is probably necking with Ayesha back there, managed to get to Buffy on time and do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to her." Faith then looking at her, a smirk in her face, "And what were you doing when you were Called? Princessly things?"

"Actually yes. Of course the Wakandan definition of Princessly things is a bit different." Shuri said, matching Faith's smirk.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. For example, all members of the Wakandan Royal Family are supposed to be able to track and hunt animals on the wild." she said, "And that was what I was doing..."

"So what it was? Lions? Cheetahs? Hyenas?"

"Gorillas." Shuri said.

"Gorillas so far South?" Faith asked, Diana used to quote random trivia about animals to soothe her nerves, and she remembered this one.

"The mountains are pretty much unexplored, between our isolationism and the Forbidden Valleys, well, you get the picture," she said with a shrug, "There I was, crouching in the high grass..."

Wakanda Badlands. Close to an hour later.​

The Alpha of the pack made a gesture to the others as she sniffed. The wind had shifted for a moment and brought her a smell for a momnent, she stood still until another gust of wind brought her the smell again. Manflesh was close... too close.

She made a signal to the others to follow her as she started to change course. Mistress' instructions gave her enough leeway to dispose of the obstacles on their way. Besides, they were getting hungry...

To Be Continued...

 

[AntonioCC]

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: Buffy, up top and including Season 7, and general spoilers for Black Panther.

Author Note: I'm trying to base Wakanda into what have been revealed of the country in the MCU as well as elements of the comics.

I wish to thank Jediknight for betaing this.

---

Panther's Hollow​

Akakho, warrior of the Panther tribe, and one of the trusted men of Prince T'Challa, was hiding between the branches of an overgrown tree that put the entrance to the canyon in shadow. He had been selected as the spotter, to give the first warning that the Accursed Ones were...

Suddenly he felt the branches move and before he could react something jumped on his back. As he screamed he had a fleeting vision of brown and black fur, sharp teeth and vicious claws before everything went dark. His cut short scream, though, gave warning to the others that something was going on.

And not a moment too soon, as the pack was already over them.

~~~~~​

Faith had barely time to unsheathe her sword after hearing the scream when a mass of fur that stunk of rotten meat jumped her. She reacted instinctively, sticking the sword in the creature, skewering it on her weapon.

After freeing the sword from the body of the creature, she jumped toward Ayesha and Shuri, who were dispatching the ones that had attacked them without problems, but were too close to a particularly large creature that was savaging two of the soldiers.

The creature, its teeth red with blood, looked at them growling in defiance. Unfortunately for it, T'Challa, who had just thrown another down the ravine, used the fact that its head was turned away from him to throw several daggers to it. They did negligible damage, but they distracted it enough for the surviving Prince's men to gun it down.

The tables turned, the rest of the creatures were dispatched quickly, as whatever plan there was in their attack was forgotten when the larger one fell. Only one managed to escape, running north toward the mountains. But it didn't survive long, as its dismembered corpse would be found several days later close to the entrance of one of the Forbidden Valleys.

But that was in the future. After Xander dealt with the last of them, they piled wood for a pyre and started to carry the bodies to it to burn them.

~~~~~​

She awoke, her chest still hurting like hell where the bullets had hit her, but fortunately Mistress' magic had protected her somewhat. Not hearing anybody close, she dared to open her eyes a sliver and saw that two of the females were hoisting the corpses of her pack onto a bundle of wood. The others were talking to each other or looking down the cliff. And then she saw HIM.

At first he looked like just another man-thing, with something covering his left eye, and then she smelt him. It was very faint, but she could smell it, the stench of an Abomination, a Male Alpha.

Something inside her snapped and saw red, her bestial instincts, barely contained by her intelligence at the best of time, taking hold. She had to teach that upstart male his place. With a roar she charged toward the Abomination, who had his back to her, in a berserker rage, without giving anybody time to react, except one...

~~~~~​

Ayesha was talking with Xander when she saw the creature running toward Xander at top speed. She barely had time to throw him out of the way when it impacted on her, and then she only knew pain and agony as sharp claws sank on her abdomen.


Faith had reacted too late to save Ayesha, but at least she had managed to kill the bitch with a swift sword stroke. She knelt besides and tried to close the wound, but in her heart she knew that Ayesha wouldn't live to see nightfall. Xander walked toward them with a heavy limp.

"Don't... bother... I'm done.... for." he heard Ayesha saying, between labored breaths, and then she added, trying to smile when Xander knelt beside her, "Hey... handsome."

"Hey, beautiful." he said, for once without a smile. "Don't talk, maybe T'Challa..."

"Xander... we knew... this... could... happen." Ayesha said, "You know... better... than most... what... means... to be... Slayer... to hold... the line... against... Darkness..." she took another deep breath, "I chose... to come... and... chose... to save... you..."

She closed her eyes for a moment, but she opened them again and said.

"When I... saw... that... thing... come... for you... I knew...," she started to say, a heavy cough stopping her, "Don't... mope... around... for... me..." she closed her eyes for a moment, and her breathing started to get more labored. For a moment they thought that this was it, but she opened her eyes again and whispered, "Xander... be happy... find... a good... girl... or... I'll... come... back... to...kick... your... sorry... arse."

"Yes, I'll do it, my princess." Xander answered, using the nickname he had given her after they met, as tears started to fall.

"Good.. night... my... sweet... prince..." she said, closing her eyes for the last time.

Wakanda's Royal Palace. Next morning​

"No, I have talked with my father; you can use the Royal Family jet to go back, wherever you want." T'Challa said the next morning, "We will pay all the expenses of repatriation, burial and whatever you need."

"Thanks." Faith said. Xander was still asleep, after crying on Faith's shoulder for the most part of the night. She hated to cut and run, but neither Xander nor she were ready to discuss the idea that they had brainstormed in the Land Rover, in the way to the ambush.

How long it had been? Less than a day? It seemed so long ago now...

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to focus back on the here and now. Even if they were not going to negotiate, she should mention the idea at least.

"Ah..." she started to say.

"Shuri told me, Miss Lehane." T'Challa said, guessing what she was about to say, "And we talked about it with our father, who had approved it... With some reservations. We want most of the staff to be Wakandan, and the ones who aren't must agree that certain zones are off-limits."

"Okay, I'll tell the Council, but we are in no state to negotiate an accord, Your Highness." Faith said, "What I fear is that whoever sent those… things, will probably try again."

An island in the Mediterranean Sea​

She had known as soon as it had happened that her pawns had failed, but she had needed several hours to learn why. Scrying the lands under the protection of Bast was a dangerous proposition for her, and only her supreme skill at sorcery had allowed her to evade the Panther Goddess watchful eye.

Slayers. On Wakanda. And worse, one of them was a Wakandan princess. She'd have to start redrawing her plans to get access to the Mound from scratch. Maybe she could use Bana-Mighdall? They were a prickly lot, but she had a lot of experience dealing with Amazons. After all, it had been Hyppolita who had sealed her, Circe the Sorceress, in that nameless crypt all those years ago. Meanwhile, she had other irons on the fire, like locating the Orb of Darkness.

THE END... of Hunters, at least.

Xander and Faith will appear in "To be a Hero: Family", in several chapters. T'Challa, Suri and Circe will appear in other stories.

 

[AntonioCC]

Chapter Four
Visitors at home​

Disclaimer: all characters are property of their respective owners.

Spoilers: Green Lantern (comic) general spoilers, and Guardians of the Galaxy (movie) spoilers.

Author Note: I have picked elements from several incarnations of the Green Lantern Corps. And added element of the comic version of the Nova Corps to their movie portrayal.

---

Korugar City. Natu residence.
​

Soranik parked her aircar in front of her parent's house. She just had finished a double shift, and the Enforcer pestering her about the patient he had brought hadn't helped. Right now, she wished for nothing more than a hot bath, a hot homemade meal and lie on her bed for a while.

She was about to start going toward the door, when she saw that her parents aircar was missing. She looked around, but she couldn't see it parked anywhere on the street, and then she noticed that there was something on the door.

As she ran toward the door, that something revealed itself to be a sheet of celulite, pasted to the door with an adhesive strip. When she arrived she saw that her mother, she would recognized her writing anywhere, had written "Call us." on it. Moved by a sudden feeling of dread, she checked her persocom and there it was, a voice message from her mother.

'Sora, uncle Vorten had an accident, and we'll stay with him all week. Kisses, mom.'

She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard it, as her imagination had already been going wild with the wors case scenario. She had opened the door and started to key her mother's persocom code, when she heard something moving in the house. As silently as she could she went for the gun that her father kept in the house, but she forgot all about it when she caught a glimpse of her visitor.

"Vilne?" she said, recognizing her old buddy from Korugar's Central University, and then as he stepped vacilantly into the light of the main room, and saw his wounds, she added, running toward him, "You are hurt!"

"Always Captain obvious, aren't you?" he quipped feebly, holding his right hand against his side, where purple blood was seeping out between his fingers, before he fell down unconscious.

She didn't want to think about what had happened, although she could guess, given his involvement with the reform movement. She took the first aid kit and the medical case she kept in her room and started to work on him, hoping to save his life.

Korugar City. Government Palace. Audience Hall.​

"...our moles in the Reform Movement have informed us that there has been a tussle between the hardliners and the moderates." the Head of the Enforcers, who had actually held similar positions, though disguised with titles as Social Investigation Brigade or State Security Directorate, for several of the prevous governments, droned on.

"I wouldn't call a shootout with several deaths a 'tussle'." Sinestro said, deadpan.

"Three deaths, and two more on intensive care." the Head Enfporcer said with a shrug, "Quite light, given how heated the discussion was before the shots started."

"And how much of that heat was the work of your moles?" Sinestro asked.

"The hardliners didn't need any aditional prompting, actually." the Head Enforcer said with a smirk, "Most of the work had been done before the last elections and the surprise victory of the Reformists, despite the... corrective measures applied to the counting of the votes."

"I always wondered how the reformists could win, despite all the rigging your office usually did." Sinestro said, fixing a baleful glaze of the Head Enforcer, "It seems you underestimated how tired the people were of the crap going on."

"I thought..." he started to say, rattled by the dismissive tone in the voice of his new boss.

"That I supported the old regime? Ha." he said, with a snort, "Your people have given me a lot of crap over the years. All those insinuations, carefully denied leaks, and outright lies about me? I remember all of them." He said with an humorless smile, "Frankly, if I didn't need you and some of your fellow paperpushers, you would be joining the corpses in the square. But don't get any ideas, you serve at my pleasure."

"What do you mean?" the Head Enforcer asked, though he had his suspicions.

"I may be trying to set up a functional government so I don't have to do everything myself, but in the end, I'm the man with the Power Ring." he said with a smirk at the same time that as if to emphasize what he had just said, the ring glowed for a moment as he said this. "And about those... what will we call them?"

"I think that 'violent extremists' have a nice ring to it, sir." the Head Enforcer answered, back in a more familiar place.

"More creative than 'dangerous radicals', at least." Sinestro commented, reminding him of a past fiasco, "You should give them enough rope to hang themselves. Keep harping in their connection with the moderates, so they'll be discredited together, as well as providing a tangible enemy to rally the sheep."

"Indeed, sir." he answered, in a tone that said, 'Don't tell me how to do my job.'

Sinestro didn't answered, instead smirking at the minister discomfiture. He then realized something, looking at the chronometer in the wall.

"The pirates are about to arrive to the system, aren't they?." Sinestro said, conversationally, "Those idiots and their idea of inviting them for 'peace talks'"

"If I remember correctly the terms of their invitation, they should be arriving to the outer system in three milicycles... if they are punctual, which given that we are dealing with pirates is not a given."

"Yes, indeed. I need to go a prepare the welcome they deserve." Sinestro said, starting to float in the air, "Don't let the planet be destroyed while I'm away."

He flew away, idly noticing a quite streamlined ship docked on the orbital complex before he opened a wormhole to the outer fringes of the system. An smuggler, excuse me, an "independent freight hauler", probably. He mentally shrugged, that was work for Customs, and he had pirates to teach a lesson. A pity that most won't survive the experience, Arin's killers deserved a more personal touch, but you can't have everything.

Milano. Docking on Korugar orbital spaceport.​

After a perfunctory examination of the cargo bay, the officer of the Custom Service left after approving the Milano for landing into Korugar City proper.

"And now, what?" Peter asked, as they sat on the cockpit, ready to undock and start to decelerate to land on the planet.

"I have some contacts. I hope they'll be enough." Katma said, reverting to her true appearance, "In fact..." she started to add, before she gasped, looking at something from the window.

"What the...?" started to say Peter as a figure enveloped by a bright green aura, passed close and disappeared in a wormhole vortex.

"He is going somewhere else, thanks the Spirits." Katma said, sighing in relief, "When I saw the green coming, I thought he had detected me."

"That was Sinestro, right? Your mentor fallen to the Dark Side?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, and I presume that was another Earth's pop culture reference."

"Yep." Peter said glibly, "So, you were saying about what we were going to do?"

"I have some contacts. I hope they'll be enough." Katma said, sighing before adding, "Frankly, I'm playing it by ear here. Nothing of what we are going to do will matter, if Abin and the others don't do their own part of the plan."

"Which is? You never got around to explain it." Peter asked.

"I'll tell you when the time is right." Katma said.

"And how will you know that the time is right?"

"Believe me, it's going to be pretty noticeable." Katma answered.

Somewhere in the Milky Way​

"Why are we here, in the middle of nowhere?" asked one of the three members of the Nova Corps squad that had been assigned to this mission.

"Because the Green Lanterns wanted to meet here, Jesal." answered Garthan Saal, leader of the squad, "And before you ask, no, I don't know why."

"Maybe..." Rhomann, the final member of the squad started to say, but he was interrupted by the arrival of three lanterns... and a Guardian, who promptly opened communications with everybody.

"Denarians Saal, Dey and Jesal. I'm Ganthet from Oa, one of the Guardians." said the diminutive blue alien, "As we are a bit pressed for time, I'll go direct to the point. We're here to talk with the Controllers."

"Controllers?" Rhomann asked.

"An offshoot of my people. We have had our differences in the past, but I hope that they'll recognize that Sinestro is a threat."

"Do they live here, in the middle of nowhere?" Rhomann asked, incredulity evident in his voice.

"No, they retreated... Ah, they sent a representative."

In a flash, a red skinned bald male humanoid, with two black lines over the left side of his head and wearing a red and white armor with a black starburst emblazoned in the chest.

"I'm Ferrin Colos of the Darkstars Corps." he said, observing them with suspicion, specially Ganthet, "You are not welcome here, Guardian, Green Lanterns and... uhmmm, whoever you are."

"Nova Corps, from the Xandarian Empire." Rhomann supplied.

"Interesting, I can see the Controllers handiwork in your suit, Colos. It draws energy from the Darkforce, isn't it?"

"I think so, I'm not a scientist. But, seriously, leave before..."

"Don't worry, I was only going to ask your bosses if they could help us to deal with a renegade Green Lantern on Sector 1417."

Colos paused for a moment, moving his head as if he was talking mentally with somebody.

As if by magic, a tall being, bald and with dark pink skin appeared, his white eyes focusing on Ganthet. They looked to each other for a few seconds, before the being turned to look to Colos and nodded, before vanishing as suddenly as it had appeared. Colos looked a bit like an stunned ox before shaking his head and starting to speak.

"Very well, I'm going with you, together with a couple other corpsmen, Chaser and Merayn,to deal with this threat." Colos finally said, "He is the Lantern of sector 1417, you said?"

"Yes." Abin said, and pursed his lips before continuing, "His name is Thaal Sinestro and he is based on planet Korugar."

TO BE CONTINUED...