Link : https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/lightbringer-dc-lantern-si.268401/reader/
WC : 140k+
Plot : Lantern SI. Dual rings.
Prologue
Imagine, for a moment, that you have in you the potential to become the most powerful superhero in the world- that you have the potential to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Justice League. Superman, Captain Marvel, The Flash- these are the men and women that the world relies upon to see it safely through each day and night, when so many threats beyond the normal ken of mortal men exist.
That power exists, out there in the universe- not just through random chance of birth, industrial accident, or mad science, but also because an ancient race of incredible beings forged the very soulstuff of mortal beings into weapons, tools, and a uniform of justice.
Imagine then, that one of those tools fell out of the sky into your hand one day.
Can you picture it?
It's a ring, of course- a ring of power. Elegantly crafted, durable, imbued with a supporting intelligence, but no self-will save your own.
Having that ring is a responsibility, and a dream.
There's just one problem. One, ever so minor problem.
You see, I'm dying.
When that ring was falling from the sky? I was waking up on an unfamiliar version of my world, where people were different, and everything I knew was gone.
As I stumbled into the world, fresh and unsure, a hazard I couldn't begin to conceptualize took my life- a rampaging super villain by the name of Black Adam.
Oh, I wasn't a target- nobody's ever really a target to these maniacs- I was just in the way. A building collapsed, and a steel I beam bounced me into a wall. Before I was really aware of anything I lost the ability to draw clear breath, my lower torso smashed and broken. As my vision faded, I watched several multi-coloured blurs smash into that dark figure, and drive it off- and then the world went dark.
Even unconscious, I could feel the ring. It was all I could feel, as though in that moment stretching into eternity, the hand the ring landed on was still alive, still grasping at life. I knew every detail, every line. The weight bore down on my hand, and desperately I grasped at it- a tether to life.
I began to feel cold, dull, as what was perhaps the last part of me began slipping away. I could feel the ring, but even that sensation was dulling. Fading. I tried to pull myself back from the brink I was rapidly approaching, the point of no return.
In that final moment I thought not of myself. I didn't find some inner wellspring of determination, and my lust for life didn't grant me any staying power to defeat Death itself. I was scared- but mostly I was empty. I didn't care, any more. The darkness was near complete now, and though I could almost think-feel the shape of the ring, it was more of a ghost of sensation than anything else.
I had nothing left. Even sensation and memory was gone now. It was just the living pulse of the universe that remained now, and the core of my own self, empty of all things.
And yet, even in that dark, something yet remained
<
Chapter 1
I awoke in a hospital, the faint but persistent beep.... beep.... beep... of my pulse on the monitor, rousing me from the death-like sleep I had been in. Everything hurt, but it seemed like some sort of phantom pains, memory of being crushed, echoes of every bone breaking. I was injured, yes, but not dead. I wondered how many painkillers I was on that I couldn't really feel anything wrong.
"..." I tried to speak, but realized that there was a tube stuck in my mouth, and that my head was a little foggy. So I tried looking down at myself.
For someone whom had been crushed by a girder a short time ago, I was looking pretty intact. Somehow I knew, then, that I would be okay.
<
Like a heartbeat, the sound pulsed in my mind. As an individual who thinks in text and images, the presence of that statement in my mind was like... a high definition three dimensional model appearing on the screen of an Apple 2. It had weight and substance to it, and I could distinguish clearly between my mental awareness and it.
A part of me knew what it meant.
'Ring?' I tried to say, though it came out more like "R..ouwgh?"
I hoped that it would be enough, memory churning as I struggled to remember everything I could about power rings.
<
Brilliant azure suffused me, and I hoped it wouldn't disturb the other patients- I was still in the emergency ward.
So I was hardly surprised when all at once it dimmed down, terminating a few inches from the edges of my body. It still roiled and shifted in a storm of light, but it was a very careful storm of light. A tendril even unplugged the heart monitor while it went about its business.
<
When I got out of this I'd have time for philosophizing about lantern rings, but for now I needed to take stock of my situation. Blue had a lot of potential, of all the colours- but it was the least utilized, and often derided for it's lack of 'combat skills' without the presence of a green energy source.
This had initially been sold as a technical limitation- but had later been revealed to be an in built 'safety feature' to prevent the wielders of the blue light from being anything but allies to the Green Lantern Corps.
The truth was, there was no technical limitation.
When the storm of light subsided, I found I could feel all my extremities again. My mind had cleared, and my body- my body was intact.
I sat up, then stood- carefully, then glanced about the room. I was in the ER ward, surrounded by beds with other critical patients. It surprised me that no doctors had been through yet, but I guess that's what the monitors were for.
Next to me was an old woman with significant burns- and across from her a man in an immobilization rig, alive, but with a lot of broken bones. Beyond them, even more- decidedly the result of Black Adam's rampage.
I am by nurture a quiet person. Growing up in a house with three sisters, a dog, five cats, and both parents I had been told frequently to always do my best to be quiet, to internalize any feelings I had, and ultimately to think rather than speak whenever possible.
I've grown out of that mold over the years, but at my core I am still very much the person my circumstances made me. I have no problem with internalizing a thought, rather than speaking it aloud- and so it was that I internally voiced the thought I had now
Ring? Can I heal these people?
<
Blue rings. I knew some things about blue rings- secrets, interactions between the different emotional sources. The Blue Light was hope, which itself was 'a powerful source of willpower' as some said- but rather more likely served to amplify other emotions by means of synergy. The blue light could heal- drawing charge from ambient hope, collectively achieving a task through the hope of others towards a goal. It could heal a dying star, or save a dying planet.
I hoped to start a little smaller than that, so I centered myself, going through the meditation steps I had been taught at a young age. Inhale. Hold. Exhale. Empty your mind of thought, and instead... feel. All this devastation, and yet these people had been saved. Men and women dedicated to saving life, preserving life, were here, working every day. Though there was despair here, this was also a place of...
<
The storm of light returned, reaching out, caressing each of the patients in turn, and I walked slowly across the room. One of the patients, a boy of maybe seventeen, woke- and began struggling- and I moved to his side.
"Relax, relax, no one can hurt you here," I consoled, but his eyes remained defiant. His wounds were not impact trauma, or burns, they weren't from shrapnel. Instead he was covered in bruises and welts. Victim of a beating, perhaps.
He growled at me, or tried to.
Did he have no hope left? No, though he feared, he also hoped to escape just as I hoped to heal these people.
I drew upon that hope, that emotional bond, and reached out with my ring hand to the boy, a comforting touch upon his brow.
<
From me twinned a figure of blue light, a young woman with the same fierce eyes as the lad. Perhaps his mother, or older sister. I didn't catch what went on between them, but he stopped fighting, relaxed- and began crying softly as the apparition faded.
"It will be alright, you'll see," I said- then as I turned to move on to the next patient, he nodded at me, and offered a slight smile. I nodded back and continued on.
Maybe it was hours that I continued, healing and being healed, channeling hope as I walked down the corridors and rooms of that hospital. It had just started with the ER ward- but then I had come across the ward for terminally ill children- for long term care. They were so young, but so vibrant- so full of hope.
"Ring, status?"
<
And I continued on. Miraculously, I encountered no security, nor angry doctors, and eventually found that there were no more patients, no more people to save. The strength went out of me, and I sat down, there in what seemed to be the lobby, and rested.
Dreams cut away as a pulse echoed through my mind, a sound transmitted not through the medium of air, but the medium of thought.
<
My eyes snapped open- and saw why.
Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent- with a note pad and a pen, and a man with reddish-brown hair wearing some sort of security outfit... Hal Jordan?
<
They were talking with a doctor- and Bruce seemed particularly agitated. I stood and wandered over to them, just another patient interested in what was going on.
"-suffered multiple abrasions and and blunt forced trauma, I'm surprised he was able to try and escape before we managed to sedate him-
"I'm given to understand- Doctor- that my ward was attacked by a group called- what was it?" Bruce said, acting concerned and bewildered. He turned to Clark, whom flipped through his notes.
"Intergang," Clark said.
"Yes, Intergang. I don't care how much money it costs, I just want... I-"
<
Ring? Can you access the green ring's database?
<
Can you do it without being detected?
<
Do so. Download updates and local area information.
<
A moment passed before the ring signaled completion. Time to go, before the hospital discovers the miracle I'd done.
So I left, heading out the front door and turning left.
Chapter 2
Heading down the street from the hospital, I turned down an alley. Hal Jordan tended to be a focal point for all the weird shit that went down involving lanterns- If Saint Walker and the blue lanterns were running around out there- he'd know who they were, and no doubt that'd get me in a bit of trouble, or the very formal 'you have to be a Hero' speech. I wasn't sure I wanted to be a hero.
Yeah.
But I hoped that the solution to the immediate problem of detection I was mulling over would work out. I'd seen Green Lanterns do it, and Sinestro and Hal Jordan had even done it in one of the New 52 issues. They'd shifted the spectral emissions of their power from green into ultraviolet. Given that ultraviolet didn't seem to have an emotion associated with it (though now that I think about it, why is there no 'sad' or 'happy' GL corps? lol) it probably worked as a decent means to mask your actual manipulation.
But Blue was further down the spectrum than Green.
"Ring, can you replicate the Green lantern Stealth Mode?" I asked.
<
"Why not?"
<
I nodded.
"Those protocols are really, phenomenally dumb. I know why they're in place, but they're still really stupid. Oh, also- Ring, re-designate 'Blue Lantern Corps' to 'Azure Lantern Corps'."
<...Acknowledged>>
I thought for a moment, considering what the ring had said.
"So high energy abilities- constructs, energy blasts, high energy stealth mode are locked out without the presence of Will- and a green ring, correct?"
<
"What about low energy stealth? Ring, can you shift emissions to infrared?" I wondered.
<<...Affirmative. However high energy abilities will deform the spectrum shift, and Azure light will reassert itself>>
"Those same high energy abilities that are all locked out under the security protocol?"
<<...Affirmative>>
"So I don't even care then."
I directed my hope, my belief in the future, and my imagination.
"Ring, do it."
<
And then rather abruptly the faint blue field around me vanished from view entirely- just a faint dark reddish tinge beyond my eye's abilities to perceive.
"What basic level abilities are available to me in this stealth mode?"
<
"So basically everything but constructs and offensive abilities."
<
"How far can strength, reaction times, and cognitive process rates be enhanced?"
<
That was a non-answer as ever I'd heard one. I'd ask again later.
"Right. It depends on hope, I suppose." I hoped then, focusing my imagination, and the ring's matter-energy manipulation reshaped my hospital gown and the lab coat I was wearing over it into more casual clothes. Then I focused differently, hoping and trying to reign in my determination- which wasn't helping. Hope wasn't as active like that- it wasn't will. I relaxed and let my hope take the burden of trying to force what I was going to do- and...
-and it happened. I flew into the air- into the sky even. Effortlessly as hoping, and focusing my mind.
"Ring, tap into all local frequencies, I don't want to get hit by a jet liner."
<
I blinked at the images that flashed through my mind's eye, aircraft and satellite routes, trajectories, schedules- then nodded and focused- and shot up into space, leaving the Earth rapidly behind me.
Within moments I was in orbit- in space for the first time in my life. I grinned at hope- a dream- fulfilled, and then glanced at the mental overlay of orbital trajectories my ring painted and thought of something- glanced down at the continental united states, opened my arms, and swan dived out of orbit, rocketing down towards Houston, Texas.
Even with the power cosmic, I still needed resources- money, an identity, and some sort of... base... from which to plan my next move. And I had the perfect idea for it. Something which would not only work to my advantage with this, but also rekindle a dying hope for thousands.
I pulled out of my free fall just over Mission Control, Houston, Texas, and began drifting slowly. It had always struck me as disheartening that none of the superheroes or villains ever shared their tech with the public- and for all the super-satellites, nobody had ever gone to Mars on an officially funded mission- or even unofficially to fix all the broken rovers, satellites, and other crap.
An entire generation had missed out on space exploration due to lack of funding from the US government- and even while I considered that in the face of one disaster after another, they might have much less money- going to the stars was imperative for man. Absolutely imperative.
It was a future I dreamed of.
So here and now, I took the first steps to make it happen.
Chapter 3
How does one drop a bombshell like "I can do easy spacelift" without getting looks of incrediluity?
I wasn't dressed like a superhero or villain, I was just a guy- and I guess at some point in the minds of people here, if you didn't wear a costume, you didn't have any powers. There was nothing iconic about me, and as the glow that surrounded me constantly wasn't visible to the naked eye, I didn't come with a lot of credibility.
That said, getting to meet with the Director- one Ellen Ochoa- had been fairly easy. I had just showed up at the door in what was otherwise a secure area, let myself be escorted by Security to a checkpoint, and waited for them to find out I didn't actually exist in any database.
Ellen was a middle aged woman- a former astronaut, I'd learned- who seemed very friendly at a glance. But she was also very firm.
"Who are you?" she asked, from behind the protection of two men armed with what seemed to be some sort of energy rifles.
"I told you, my name is Kerrus Magrus, and the place I was born, grew up and lived before I came here doesn't exist anymore. You might call me a refugee from an alternate timeline," I said, quite frankly. "I came here, because I believe that we can help each other."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Explain."
"Haven't you ever wondered why, for all the super-powered people this world of ours has, none of them ever seem to pick any job other than- hero... or villain?" I asked, slowly. "I mean what, there's a super porn industry, and that's the shining example of shit people who are powered go do when they decide not to be heroes or villains? That's seriously your only third option?"
I sighed, and leaned back in the chair I'd appropriated.
"It boggles my mind that there's no supers working in construction, in engineering- or... in the space program," I finished.
"And you're a so called 'super'?" Ellen asked, looking me down and up. "You just look like a crazy person that came in off the street. We get a couple every week. What makes you different?"
I shrugged.
"I actually have super powers," I told her.
"Really..." she deadpanned, not believing me.
I rolled my eyes at this, then focused my hope on proving to her that I meant every word of what I said.
And levitated, chair and all, about five feet off the ground.
"Really," I reiterated. "But this? This is a party favour. It's nothing. Yeah, I could have been a hero- but I'm not interested in fighting crooks or villains- that's not my skill set. I help people. I see a nation which has given up on space, and dreams, and the future- and instead just goes about their lives content to not have a villain kill them in a fit of super powered angst."
"That's not the America I want to live in. That's not the World I want to live in. Nobody has any real hope for a better world anymore- NASA's funding has tanked, and every other space program only continues to receive funding insofar as it provides a public face to develop new technology for the military to use."
I stood- and the guards stepped back.
"This nation has the chance to be great a gain- to build a road to new frontiers, if only it will take it. But people are scared, and feel that they're alone. They can't take that first step by themselves, and actually sustaining a motion in this world of supers is increasingly difficult. So I want to show them that they can do it- I want to help them take that first step, and put some damn hope back in this world of ours."
Ellen met my eyes- and then laughed.
"You've got guts, I'll give you that. Alright then, spaceman, let's see what you can do," she said, gesturing to the guards, whom- I'll note reluctantly- put their rifles to the side. "Unfortunately for you, this is mission control- if you wanted to put something in orbit, you should have gone to the Cape."
I shrugged.
"Respectfully, Ma'am, when you can get into space as easily as I can, there isn't much difference," I replied.
"Well, we'll see. You're lucky but we do have a new satellite in for testing. Scheduled to go up next month, but we're overseeing the final systems check now. If you can get it up today, in the proper orbit, with minimal fuss, then I'll personally ensure you a percentage of the money we save from that launch- and a steady job here for us."
That's pretty good. Even a small percentage of the cost of a rocket launch would still set me up for the next year or ten.
"Right. So where is this Satellite?"
"Just follow me," she answered, and turned- heading off. I, and the guards behind me, followed.
"Are you receiving me?" I asked, the ring taking my voice and transmitting it back to Mission Control. I was in a low orbit, one hand held forward in the iconic flying superhero pose, and the other reaching behind me, a thin flickering field of infrared projecting out from my ring to encompass the satellite. I slowed, directing hope, bleeding off a bit of momentum even as I followed the guide path projected into my mind by the ring.
<
#This is ground control to Zero Flight, we read you. Doing final systems test now# the reply came in over the ring's comm.
I nodded to myself, releasing the payload, and watched as it deployed from the compacted 'launch' mode into the proper form- solar panels stretching out, dishes deploying- and a balloon like canopy inflating.
This particular satellite had been designed to monitor minute atmospheric changes that might result from individuals or vehicles entering and exiting the Earth's atmosphere at speed. Sending its data to both NASA and the military, it correlated with a list of all registered flights, heroes, and private military data, and then put a list out of any anomalies detected, so that the USA and the international science community could keep a better eye on the skies.
#Zero Flight, this is Mission Control. The package is operational, and in proper orbit. You have a successful launch- come back home now, okay?#
"Thanks Control," I replied. "I'm on my way."
Chapter 4
"You don't really believe he's from an alternate timeline, do you?" said a caped figure to another wearing a cowl. They were aboard a vehicle some might call a space-plane, and others might say was far too 'bat themed' to be remotely practical.
"No. If anything, he's from another universe- and what his motives are yet remain to be seen," said the cowled one- a man that the world's population might readily identify as a certain bat themed super hero. "We know that even Green Lantern rings can be damaged- Alan Scott is the prime example of that. He doesn't display any insignia, or colour preference- so I have my doubts that he's part of whatever alternate-Green Lantern Corps the ring originates from. In all likely hood, it is damaged like Scott's, and he's just using it as a free lunch."
The cowled crusader turned, checking over his instruments.
"And by free lunch you mean putting a multi-million dollar satellite into orbit?" laughed the other man.
"Or steal it. Every satellite Wayne Enterprises puts up has an extra package of sensors for 'our' use. If anything had gone wrong, we would have been able to intercept it- and if this individual had decided to 'make off' with it, I would be able to remotely trigger a destruct."
"And this functionality is in everything you put up? Like say, the Tower?"
Batman didn't reply.
"Well, we had better hope that nobody uses it against us," Superman remarked to the former's silence.
"It does make me curious- how did you get the director to agree so fast to his soapbox? Ellen is a remarkable woman, and unlikely to fall such a canned speech, even if she might think that he was serious. Giving in so fast? What did you do, Clark?"
Superman shrugged.
"Super Hypnosis," he replied.
"Super. Hypnosis?" Batman deadpanned. "I suppose this is one of those innumerable super skills you had in the sixties that you forgot about?"
"Not exactly. I'll admit, I haven't had any need for Super Knitting in the past decade- and that isn't really a separate power- but it's actually a method of manipulating my body's aural field. There are wavelengths that the human mind reads and interprets, but is not actively aware of- and I can send impressions and 'feelings' through manipulating those wavelengths."
"So why not use this power in combat?"
|
Superman shrugged.
"I can't override someone's emotions, if that's what you're asking. But what makes you think I don't? Haven't you noticed how everyone I fight is a brawler? Even Luthor- especially Luthor- can't help but put on a powersuit and fight me where I'm most skilled?" Superman asked, guilefully. "Haven't you ever wondered why they might make such a choice? Maybe someone's encouraging them."
"How much of that is true, and how much of that is bullshit, Clark?"
"Oh, a little of category A, a little of category B," the man of steel replied. "But seriously- in this age of information and ever increasing data correlation connectivity, don't you think it's odd nobody in a position of power or media access has made the connection between Clark Kent and Superman?"
"You do know that I have an entire wing of Wayne Enterprises devoted to sanitizing the internet of your- and every other league member's 'goofs', right?"
"Sure. But you can't change what a person's thinking."
"Not yet," Batman admitted. Clark raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing. "Regardless of how you did it, I don't really see why this merits our personal attention. Send him an invation to join the Juniors, run him through training, send him out on patrol."
"I haven't done that, Bruce, because he'll say no."
"Nobody says no to join the Justice League," Batman replied tersely.
"He will. I'm an excellent read of character- you know that better than most. He isn't like most people, and that makes him- as you've said- dangerous. But so far he's done nothing but help."
Batman sighed, adjusting several controls as the jet- under a field to make it invisible- followed the individual of their interest back planet side.
"So what do you plan to do?"
"Honestly?" mused Superman. "You well know that I have infinite hope in Mankind and its future. I think I'll lay some of that hope on this man, and see if he can make a difference."
"Rather than forcing him to make a choice." Batman stated. His old friend nodded in reply.
And the two continued to watch the individual they had dubbed 'Infrared Lantern' as he went about a- except for lifting satellites into orbit- a decidedly normal day.
<
"The hell?"