A/N: This is my first one shot, so I welcome critiques. I recently acquired the Green Lantern two-shot Brother's Keeper, and I was absolutely furious at how those guys treated Terry, and I thought that a mere beating and some jail time wasn't enough to punish them, so I took my Smallville OC and added him to Earth-1 in order to give them a more fitting punishment, one that, as Shade says in this, the Spectre would appreciate. As this is based off Smallville in addition to GL, there will be a Smallville character in this. And when Shade is talking, the italics are there to show that his voice modulator is on. The one thing I've never understood is how heroes managed to keep people from discovering their identity when they rarely change or muffle their voice, so Shade makes sure to cover that.
Brother's Keeper: Shade's Justice
It was now nearly nine years since the death of my half-brother, Kal-El of Krypton/Clark Kent/Superman and his resurrection at the hands of the Fortress and the Eradicator. Nine years since my wife, Chloe Sullivan and I barely escaped the Coast City disaster. Nine years since the fall of my best friend Hal Jordan and the near annihilation of the Green Lantern Corps. Nine years since Ganthet, the last Guardian of the Universe, had given Kyle Rayner the last Power Ring.
In those nine years, I had become good friends with Kyle, we had served in a war together (the greatest war mankind had ever seen.) We had saved the universe from Parallax's manipulations, and thanks to my Blue Power Ring, we had saved the earth from freezing to death by weakening Parallax enough to let Hal Jordan shine through. And worst of all, I've seen the election of Clark's number one nemesis to the presidency. (How Luthor got elected President of the United States with all the articles I'd ran as David Rosen and funding his opponent's as David Rosenzweig I'll never know.)
In those nine years, I'd been so busy with VeV Ltmd and my work as Shade that Chloe and I had barely had any time together, except when we were too tired to do more than cuddle together. We were finally having an evening to ourselves, the first in nearly two years (and the sixth in nine years,) when we heard the news. Terry Berg, a good friend of Kyle's, had just been attacked outside of a gay club in a part of Manhattan that I always patrolled. "Alright David, what are we going to do about it?"
"Do about what, Chloe?"
"Terry, of course. How are we going to help him? He's a great kid, and he didn't deserve for that to happen to him just because he's gay."
"You're right, in fact I was already working on a list. First thing I can do is pick up the hospital bill for his parents. The last thing they need is to have to worry about bills on top of this. Second, I need you to find out how much of my blood is safe to give to a human." My blood had some healing properties, so long as you didn't put too much in. Too much of my blood, and instead of saving a life, you condemned that person to a short life and a hard battle with an extreme case of leukemia. We needed to constantly find out how much of my blood was safe to give to humans because it kept changing. In high school, three drops was enough to cause leukemia, and the last time we checked, it was up to five drops.
I called the hospital and asked for the doctor in charge of Terry Berg. When he got on the line, I told him my business name and what I wanted. He recognized my name and promised me that I would be the only one getting Terry's bills. "Good. And when his family asks who's paying, just tell them that I'm a generous benefactor, alright?"
"Yes, sir. And what about his friends?"
"Friends? What friends?" I didn't think any of Terry's friends could be there already. The news had just reported it a few minutes before, and the incident was only hours old.
"Ms Jade Scott, Kyle Rayner, and his boyfriend. They're currently the only one's outside of his family that are allowed to see him."
"Thanks doc. I'll donate some money to the hospital as thanks." I hung up and turned to Chloe. "How are those results coming?" Usually, if the blood was going to cause leukemia, it would do it inside of an hour.
"Looks like eight drops are safe now. Did I hear right, Kyle and Jade are at the hospital?"
"Yeah, I'm going to give Kyle a call."
"What for?"
I was afraid to answer her, because I knew she wouldn't like my reason. But she gave me a glare that would have had even Batman or even the Spectre bending to her will. "All right. I was going to go catch the guys that did this and judge them."
"Electric judgment, or something mental? Knowing you and why you want to judge them, probably mental."
She knew me too well. But then, that's what happens when you've known someone for about 25 years. "You're right. But how bad depends on how repentant they are, and if they're willing to confess."
"All right, but you better leave them conscious. We don't want another case to go down because of your judgments. People fear you enough already, especially since you killed Brainwave." So she still hadn't completely forgiven me for that. I had killed him more than ten years ago, and only after he threatened Chloe and much of Coast City with a kryptonite-enhanced bomb. Chloe said that I shouldn't have done that, that she could have found the bomb and disarmed it before he detonated it. But I knew better. Brainwave had been very proud of his bomb and was convinced that no one could have stopped it, so he told me everything about it, except it's location. Brainwave had told me that only his thoughts could detonate it, and if someone attempted to deactivate it, then that person would have either died or fallen under his control. I'd had no choice, but to kill him, especially considering he was going to detonate it in only three hours.
It was only ten hours later that I finally got in contact with Kyle and learned that he had caught the two guys that the cops hadn't. He also mentioned that Terry was in critical condition and may never wake up. Knowing that, I knew he would be very happy to have me stop by and do what I could. Four days later and Terry's condition had dramatically improved, but the three who had done it were still unwilling to confess what they'd done, so I decided to visit them and try to 'convince' them.
Luckily I found all three of them in the same cell at Riker's, and Chloe managed to hack in and record the room so that the guards wouldn't know I was ever there. Once she started the loop, I 'jumped' into the cell and turned to the boys. "Daniel Hirsh, Raymond Carsey and Alex Marsh, correct?"
"Yeah, what's it to you?" Either that kid didn't know who I was, or he didn't care. He would soon.
"Um, Danny? That's Shade, don't mess with him!" That kid sounded like he was scared of me. Good, that would mean he would be fairly reasonable to deal with.
"Smart boy. Now, I've heard that you boys aren't going to confess to beating Terry Berg almost to death, is that true?"
"Of course, you dumbass. Why should we be punished for beating up a fag?" Oooh, Danny boy didn't care who I was. This was going to be fun. First, I'd torture him by letting him see what I did to his friends, then I'd change him.
"Alright, let's start with Ray. You don't mind if I call you Ray, do you? Are you going to confess?"
"Hey! It wasn't my idea! I didn't even want to beat them up, it was Danny's idea! He made us do it, or he'd claim that we were gay. I even tried to stop him after Berg went unconscious."
"Hmm, you're telling the truth. You don't even seem to hate gays like your friend here. And what about you, Alex? Will you confess?"
"Why should I confess? Nothing I've heard about gays is good. Promiscuous, thinking about nothing but sex, willing to seduce even kids, and all of them are sissies. Why not beat them up?"
"Hmm, nothing but stereotypes. I'll fix that, but first off, Ray." I reached towards his head, and he flinched back. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. Did you know that the brain is nothing but a giant circuit board? As the master of electricity, I can change things in your mind by changing what impulses your brain receives and how you react to those impulses. For example, I could make a girl act so much like a guy that the only way you couldn't tell the difference except physically, or vice versa." Not that I'd actually do that to someone. What I was doing to Ray was something that the Spectre would truly appreciate, given his unusual sense of humor.
As soon as I pulled my hand away from Carsey, Alex jumped to him and asked if he felt any different. "Not really, I don't notice anything different." Then Alex asked him about his feelings for his girlfriend. "Girlfriend? Oh, you mean Michelle? Look, she's not actually my girlfriend, I just asked her to be my cover in case you guys asked. I don't actually like her like that. I'm sorry I never told you guys about it, but I'm actually gay."
"What did you do to him? A few days ago, he was bragging about finally scoring with her, and you turn him into a fag?"
"Watch it, kid mouth. I'm going to save you for last, and the more you insult me and gays, the worse your punishment is going to be. Alex, you're next."
"Are you going to make me gay?"
"No. I've got another plan for you." I placed my hand on his head, and did the necessary alterations. "Okay, you're done. Now for Mr. Mouth over there. Oh, and one other thing, you're not going to remember a thing about my visit. As far as you'll know, you're going to wake up after a good night's sleep and then you're going to start talking about what happened a few nights ago." I took my sweet time with Alex, his punishment was actually the worst of them all. Ray had already had a few gay tendencies that I just brought to the forefront in his mind. Alex I made so that he'd support his friend in his newfound sexuality, but he was still straight. Danny from now on would think straight, but act gay. His mind would still want girls, but his body wouldn't listen. Danny would only be attracted to guys and would subconsciously do things to make himself attractive to gays. He would know what was happening to him, but he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop himself and could only voice his true opinion in writing. He would become a stereotypical gay inside of three years, and the process would start inside of six months. From what I'd seen in his memories, his parents would probably boot him out of the house for it. That was truly a fitting punishment for the ringleader of this act.
When I arrived home, Chloe confronted me on what happened, so I told her what I did to them. I had just mentioned my thoughts on how the Spectre would probably appreciate it, when Hal appeared. Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear, as the old saying went. (I should know, I was there when it was first said.) "You're right, David. The Spectre does like what you did. It was compelling me to punish them for what they did, but you and Kyle beat me to it. What you did is truly a just punishment. I only wish Kyle would have taken the news just as well as I did."
"What do you mean, Hal?"
"Terry woke up a few hours ago, and after he talked to Terry, Kyle wrote a letter to Stewart asking him to look after Earth while he was gone. Kyle is heading out to space. He says that he hasn't lost his faith in humanity, but he has lost the will to protect them because of what happened." Then, just as quickly as he arrived, Hal Jordan, former Green Lantern and current host of the Spectre, disappeared.
"Whatever you're looking for out there Kyle, I hope you find it." I then cuddled up to Chloe, and we spent the night in each other's arms, preparing for the next day.
A/N: Please, tell me what you think, and tell me if you think I should add on more stories of Shade on Earth-1. I have plans for more, but without support, that's all they'll ever be, plans.