STUFF:
- No prior knowledge of Green Lantern necessary, I think. I'm not actually sure. On that note, this may not 100% follow general comics and comics-based GL canon. I tried.
- Real People appear offscreen.
- Dolphins are intelligent creatures.
- The first 'chapter', I guess, is the main fic and everything that follows are timestamps and snippets.

RAMBLEY RAMBLEY This AU came to mind when I was watching Green Lantern: First Flight, and then Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Since then, I couldn't unsee Sinestro as this oscillating-between-good-and-bad mentor character to Hal, despite him being the Big Bad in, well, everything else that GL is a recurring character (and when he's the main character). And then I was like WHOA SINESTRO IS TOTALLY HARVEY SPECTER. Then I thought about it some more and well, okay, he's not really Harvey. Which was how this thing popped up, you see. (Shh. I know it looks A-C, but B is in there somewhere.) But yeah, TL;DR, Sinestro isn't evil in this one which pretty much makes him OOC. It's crack!, though, so that's okay.

Disclaimer: I've never met him, but I assume that the late John Broome was not the jerk Sinestro portrays him to be. (I mean, come on, someone who came up with the reinvention of Green Lantern has got to be awesome. Any resemblance is purely coincidence.) Martin Nodell is also portrayed as a fictional character here and any resemblance with the actual Martin Nodell is purely coincidence. (But no it's actually coincidence everything I know about these guys is from Wikipedia.)

I need to ramble less.

Mike the Space Lawyer
By DYlogger

Mike is probably high. Why else would there have been a streak of green across the sky that landed in the New York City harbour, and why else would that streak of green be a talking dolphin? And why would that talking dolphin have floated him- using the same green light- around fifty metres from the shoreline to just die on him?

Oh, yeah. The dying dolphin- Fabian Alistair, and isn't that the most pretentious name ever?- was a Green Lantern and Mike has been chosen to be the next one of the sector. Mike has read enough comics to know that he would soon be whisked away to Oa for training and whatnot, but considering that he has lied, cheated, and broken his fair share of laws, it's pretty likely that he is indeed seeing a drug-induced hallucination and not actually wearing a shiny new power ring and flying toward his apartment.

Except Harvey had ordered him to stay away from the pot, and Mike had obeyed. And besides, marijuana isn't a psychedelic and generally doesn't make Mike see things. So maybe all of this isn't a hallucination after all.

Apparently, Earth and Mars were the only planets with life in Sector 2814; and because the most intelligent Martians species was far more intellectually advanced than humans, the Sector 2814 had only had Green Lanterns from Mars.

Incidentally, the Martian equivalent of the Black Plague hit Mars just after the first World War of Earth, leaving Mars devoid of life. In 1930, fifteen-year-old Martin Nodell became the first human Green Lantern. Twenty-one years later, he left the Corps and was followed by John Broome, who lasted nine years before he left when he was kicked out for being an asshole. After him, all the Green Lanterns of Sector 2814 were dolphins until Mike came along.

"Wait, so dolphins are intelligent creatures?" Mike stares at the Guardians of Oa incredulously, completely missing the fact that his favourite comic was blatantly ripped off from an actual intergalactic police force. Well, among other things (but other things wouldn't come and bite him in the butt later).

"They're clearly more intelligent than you," mutters one of the Guardians.

They saddle him with Sinestro as his trainer.

"But you're evil!" says Mike, thinking of the yellow rings of the Sinestro Corps.

Sinestro smirks, and Mike is suddenly reminded of Harvey. "I'm glad you think so, rookie."

On his first day of training, Mike makes a TARDIS. It doesn't do much toward time travel or being bigger on the inside, but it can fly.

"Is that a phone booth?" asks Sinestro.

It takes Mike two weeks before he snaps from the mental duress of making light constructs with Sinestro and being Harvey's lapdog. He's in his cubicle at Pearson Hardman and listening to Louis order him around while simultaneously working on files for Harvey when he just collapses on his desk. Ten minutes later, he comes to and finds Kyle leaning over him.

"Can't handle it?" sneers Kyle, and Mike shoves him away. He grabs the stack of files on his desk, and leaves. He finds an empty alleyway, constructs his TARDIS, and flies off into space to do his work. Relative time works differently in space, and Mike takes advantage of that. (See, he read this book about the theory of relativity once and he's ecstatic that he gets to use this knowledge.) One Earth hour and three biological hours later, he's back on Earth and giving both Harvey and Louis their briefs. He leaves (read: runs away) before they give him more work and goes back into space.

So yeah. At this point, his body is pretty much living on forty-hour days now to make time for both training and work.

Sinestro finds out about Mike's forty-hour day thing and lectures him about how spending extended periods of time in the vacuum of space is bad for his biology. Mike grudgingly admits that he is right, but refuses to do anything about it. He loves both of his jobs too much to pick between them.

It turns out he doesn't have to. For a short time, Trevor comes back into Mike's life, and like always, screws him over. He finds out about Mike and Jenny and goes all vindictive on Mike, threatening to go public with his fraudulence, and by extension, Pearson Hardman's inability to keep track of their employees.

Mike admits to himself that he's not trying very hard to keep his job, but he's ready to take the out that Trevor has inadvertently given him.

"Don't bother," says Mike when he walks in on Harvey risking his own job for Mike's. He's holding out his letter of resignation.

"Mike," says Harvey evenly, "what are you doing?"

"Trevor threatened to go public if I didn't accept the resignation," he says. "No matter what, I'm losing this job. This way, the firm doesn't get hurt."

"Mike-"

"I accept your resignation, Mr. Ross," says Jessica, taking the sheet of paper staring at Harvey as if daring him to contest her word.

He doesn't, and Mike's glad. He leaves, and once he's out of sight, he sends Harvey a text asking to talk. Harvey never replies.

Mike thinks about telling Harvey about the ring, but he figures he should consult with the international- and then intergalactic- government about that, considering that the Green Lantern Corps are a real thing thing wasn't for public consumption on Earth, to the best of Mike's knowledge.

This is what Mike learns during his trip to the UN headquarters:

1) During the 1930s, many countries adopted isolationist policies. 1930 was also the year that Martin Nodell, creator of Alan Scott, became the first Green Lantern of Earth. When he told the League of Nations about the Green Lantern Corps, they pretty much told him to not interfere with Earth's internal conflicts. Considering that the only other planet with life within the sector was Mars and Mars had pretty much just left Earth alone in the history of, well, forever; there was really nothing the Green Lantern could do for Earth.

(And when the Martians were the Green Lanterns of Sector 2814, Mike found out later from other Lanterns, they intervened in global situations discreetly without revealing their existence. Mars was paranoid when it came to Earth.)

2) Over the years, individual nations on Earth had become less isolationist, but the isolationism from the intergalactic community was never abolished.

(That was totally fine for Mike, since he knew Earth could take care of itself and interstellar conflicts took priority over planetary conflicts anyway. Mike usually found himself on group missions all over the universe. He liked that.)

3) Sometime in the 1960s, when the United Nations found out that a) there was once life on Mars and b) dolphins were smart enough to become Green Lanterns, they a) immediately ordered various space programs to start research on Mars and b) ordered marine biologists to start research on dolphin intelligence. They found the dolphins are also isolationists and don't particularly care about intergalactic justice either.

When Mike finally gets past the tangents and asks the UN about what the public is allowed to know, he finds that they didn't really have an answer. The Green Lantern comics were already established as fiction and there had really been no need to tell everyone that the Green Lantern Corps existed, so they hadn't.

This really doesn't tell Mike anything about what to tell Harvey, so he settles with not telling him anything because Harvey won't believe him anyway. He barely believes it himself.

Besides, it's not like Mike will ever see Harvey again. This makes him a little sad, but he gets over it because he's a fucking Green Lantern and that's awesome.

He does tell his grandmother about the ring and he doesn't regret it because one month after he does, she dies.

Since then, he's pretty much moved to Oa. He stops paying the rent at his shitty apartment and all his possessions- including his admittedly small Green Lantern comic collection and Trevor's old suits- are in the room that the Guardians gave him at headquarters.

He would say that it would be a long time before he goes back to Earth after moving to Oa, but two months after Edith Ross dies, Mike... well, Mike goes back to Earth.

See, there's this Lantern whose species happens to communicate telepathically and she has visited Earth numerous times with Fabian Alistair. One of those times, she sleeps with Daniel Hardman and gains what would be a billion pounds of dirt on him if the dirt was literal.

The consequence to her species' brain capacity for telepathy is that she's the worst lightweight he's ever met. One night when they're drunk on this planet that has the strongest liquor ever, he lets it slip that he worked for Pearson Hardman and she spills everything she knows about him. Mike pulls out a tape recorder and catches all of it, and the next day, he shows her the recording and makes her listen to her slurred ramblings. Three minutes in (out of like forty), she begs him to stop, and he agrees on the condition that she gives him permission to use the recording however he would like.

Mike had promised himself when he left that he wouldn't interfere with Pearson Hardman again, but he has what could be essential information and he can't just not use it. (And really, screw ethics. If all that is true, then Daniel Hardman is a bastard who deserves to be brought down.) So Mike goes to Earth, buys a new tape recorder, unwraps it, puts his old tape recorder in the box, and rewraps it. Then he sends it to Harvey Specter as an anonymous package because really, only Harvey will even consider a lead such as this. Two days later, when the package actually reaches Harvey's hands, Mike watches him open the package from a secluded spot.

God, you're a narcissist, texts Mike from his light construct phone when Harvey starts to record over what's already there.

Then he realises that he should probably clarify. There's information in that tape recorder that might interest you once you get past the drunken slurring.

And then Harvey is trying to text back and he can't because it's a light construct phone that doesn't have a number attached to it. You can't text me back, by the way. Just trust me and listen to the thing.

You might want to still check all of that, though, he sends again in a few moments, I'm not sure what's nonsense and what's not.

And then, because he can't resist, he sends, By the way, you owe me a new tape recorder, thank you very much.

Mike's not fully sure how that situation went down, but there's not much he can do from there. He then rescinds his stupid notion to stay away from Earth because it was a stupid notion and there really isn't a good reason for avoiding Earth.

Mike is off restoring peace to two warring worlds when he gets his right hand- the hand with the ring- sliced off. The ring immediately relocates itself to his left hand, but he spends the rest of the mission with a slowed reaction and a light construct bandage on the stump where his right hand used to be. (It also makes him wonder where the ring goes on species that don't have appendages.)

The medical bay at headquarters can't really do anything for him, so Mike goes to a hospital on a technologically advanced world to get a prosthetic hand. As a Green Lantern, he's not allowed to ask for things for free, but they're more than happy to help him as long as he acts as a witness in court to prove that they- the hospital- aren't violating their planet's International Health Code.

He does them one better- he represents them and they win. They're grateful and he's happy and this is the first case that will lead to Mike printing out business cards that say Mike Ross; Green Lantern; Space Lawyer.

He spends the time the Guardians give him to recover reading up on intergalactic law books.

(Later, he talks to the Guardians and they're okay with it, because why not? It wasn't like Mike was doing anything other than floating between missions, and they could actually use the proper legal representation since the prosecution-representing-themselves thing really wasn't working. Besides, he had already managed to talk the Guardians into letting him keep his job.)

The ring rejects his new hand. The prosthetic may be biologically attached to Mike's musculoskeletal and nervous system, but the ring refuses to recognise it as part of him. The Guardians want to strip him of his ring for this, but he says something about equal and indiscriminate employment and they let him keep doing what he does.

Mike learns to be ambidextrous. He's pretty sure that's not how eidetic memories work, but he's not complaining when he finds that he's able to transfer the muscle memory of being right-handed to his left hand. It does, however, take some time to get used to raising his left hand instead of his right to create a bright green phone booth.

When Mike first joined the Corps, his uniform was a Green Lantern t-shirt and black jeans that aren't actually constructs, but clothing that he brought from home, mostly because he has no idea how nomex or kevlar or leather armour works and he doesn't trust himself to design something. Sinestro disapproved, but really, it wasn't like he had any choice in what Mike wanted to wear.

After the debacle with losing his hand, Mike changes his uniform because who knows what else could happen? He goes back to Earth and ends up spending up most of what's left of his savings (it's not like he needs the money for his grandmother anymore) on hiring this guy who works in specialised cosplay and military uniform design; referred to him by Rene.

(He was originally just going to switch to wearing two-piece suits regularly, but Rene gives him a lecture about how suits are not to be worn in combat and Sinestro had given him a lecture earlier about how he has to be ready for combat at any time, so he finally caves and gets himself some armour.)

When he's on Earth, Mike finds that the firm has been renamed to Pearson Specter. He takes that to mean that Hardman's ass got pounded, and for a moment, he feels immensely proud of Harvey. The name change, though, isn't that surprising. Harvey's always pushed the limits on what Jessica would let him do.

(And wow, Louis must hate working under Harvey.)

As time passes, Mike stops calling his '60s British phone booth construct his TARDIS because he's not the Doctor, it's not a TARDIS, and frankly, it's really just a phone booth and it's gotten old.

Instead, he teaches himself to recreate the Star Trek Transporter. It's huge, but teleporting is way cooler than flying in a box.

(His inner Whovian cringes, but it's okay. He's a Green Lantern and he can fucking teleport.)

"So can you actually get kicked out of the Corps for being a jerk?" asks Mike one day. It's been weeks since he lost his right arm, but he remains close to Sinestro, partly because his sector shares the greatest border area with Mike's, but mostly because they'd grown close.

"Where's this coming from, Ross?"

"John Broome. Seriously, can the Guardians do that? I mean, shouldn't they trust the Ring's judgement?"

"Let me tell you something," says Sinestro. "Broome was never kicked out. He left. Not very many Lanterns from then are still around, so maybe that's not very clear."

"Why?"

"He was an ass."

"You're an ass too," pointed out Mike.

"But I'm a charming, likeable ass who does good work," says Sinestro matter-of-factly. "He was the kind that hates everyone. The kind that nobody likes or wants to work with. He couldn't deal with the kind of work that came with the ring."

"He did for ten years," says Mike. "Besides, he has to feel something. He rewrote the Green Lantern comic book and he showed the Corps in nothing but a positive light."

"Did he?"

"Yeah. Well, except for you. You turned evil and started the Sinestro Corps with yellow power rings powered by fear."

"God, I hate that man," snarls Sinestro. "He's always hated me. Am I allowed to sue him?"

"He's dead," says Mike.

"But I can still sue him, right?"

Sinestro wasn't joking, but it turns out that Sinestro's personal suit will have to wait. When he approaches the Guardians for permission to sue- Mike's not sure why he needs permission, but Sinestro is a stickler for the social order- the Guardians demand to see the comics. Mike shows them his entire collection the Guardians are enraged that the name and identity Green Lantern Corps are being used for entertainment and passed off as fiction.

"Oh, come on," he says. "We reference Earth's law enforcement system in entertainment all the time."

He gets stony looks from around the room and tries again.

"Sir, we can't really try DC Comics in the ISCJ. See, we pretty much just deal with criminal law since entire planets don't usually have civil conflicts, which means-"

"Just do it, Ross" orders one of the Guardians.

Mike can't do anything other than concede to the order. "Fine," he says, "but you're paying me, plus expenses, and I want power of attorney."

"...So we're suing you for copyright infringement and defamation of character," Mike says to the president and publishers of DC Comics, who are staring at him in shock.

There are... things to note about this upcoming case:

1) Copyright law, including what counts as criminal copyright law in the United States, isn't a thing in the Interstellar Court of Justice because the ISCJ only deals with criminal cases and copyright falls under civil law.

2) It's a conflict of interest for him, since Earth is his home planet.

3) In addition to Earth being his planet, he happens to love the Green Lantern comics. Hal Jordan was his hero growing up.

4) Pearson Specter happens to be the law firm representing DC Comics.

Of course, Mike can't use any of them to get out of this. Reason 1 doesn't apply because apparently, the justices are 'dealing with it', and reasons 2 through 4 don't apply because conflict of interest isn't a thing when it comes to Interstellar law.

What makes this whole thing even more terrible is that the because the United Nations and the US government have always been apathetic about the Green Lantern Corps, they are completely okay with this development after being told that the worst thing that could happen to DC if the Green Lantern Corps win is that Green Lantern and related entities are completely erased and never used again and an explanation (including that the Green Lantern Corps is an actual, real thing) be publicly issued. They wouldn't even be fined.

Interpol, on the other hand, has just found out about the existence of the Corps and is concerned (read: pissed) about how the UN simply forgot to tell them. They back down when Mike assures them that the Corps will respect Earth's isolationist policy unless it gets into an intergalactic tussle such as the one that is happening now.

The case is given to some associate at Pearson Specter, but when it gets out that this is going to take place in space and it's going to be big, it gets passed up until it reaches Jessica Pearson, Founding and Managing Partner. Jessica doesn't have the time to dedicate to this case, not to mention that she just doesn't want to go into space. Harvey, on the other hand, has always loved Green Lantern and space, so he takes the case and he's ecstatic because. Well. Green Lantern and he gets to go to space.

Mike thought that might happen, so when he walks into Conference Room D for the first time in two years, he says, "So I take it the dirt on Hardman checked out?"

Harvey blinks, gapes, and scowls in the stretch of two seconds. "My name's on the door, isn't it?" he says when he regains his composure.

"Whoa. Did I just surprise Harvey Specter?"

"Of course not. I'm always prepared for any scenario."

"Not this one," says Mike, and uses his ring to pull out a copy of the Book of Interstellar Law. And yeah, okay, maybe he's showing off, but seriously, he could swear he sees Harvey gape.

"Isn't this a conflict of interest?"

And Mike suddenly laughs, because even though this time they're on opposite sides of the table, he's missed this.

Jessica isn't particularly surprised when she learns that Mike Ross is the opposing counsel. Apparently, she saw the ring when he was giving her his resignation letter, and even though she didn't understand at the time, she made the connection when she got the case and Green Lantern Corps and space and space lawyer popped out at her. (She's very observant, you see.)

She doesn't fully trust Harvey to not let his personal feelings cloud his judgement, but she doesn't think Mike will be completely detached from the case either.

"Oh my god," says Harvey the next day, "the interstellar law system is horrible."

"I'm working on it," says Mike.

"But this is civil copyright law being tried in a criminal court following criminal court procedures!"

"Come on," says Mike, "you've worked in the DA's office, you know how this goes. It's not that different."

"Fine," says Harvey, "get out. If we're following criminal court procedures, you don't need to be here."

Mike scowls, but leaves.

"Look at this," says Harvey the next day. They're on the couch at Harvey's apartment, which is just as mind-blowing as Mike remembered it to be. (The apartment, that is, though the couch is pretty awesome too, all plush and leather.)

"You can't make a motion to settle, Harvey," says Mike.

"Why not? The interstellar justice system is already ridiculous as it is; I'm sure they'll allow this," says Harvey.

Mike scowls. "Respect the system, man. Besides, you know the international government of Earth definitely won't let you because they can't let money leave Earth for nothing."

"I'm Harvey Specter," says Harvey. "I can talk the international government into letting it happen if you work on the Interstellar Court of Justice."

"Which, by the way, is a criminal court. The justices are going to be so pissed at me; they've probably already scheduled a jury and everything," says Mike, but he knows he's already on his way to agreeing. "How about this?" says Mike. "If you can get the Guardians to agree to it and you can come up with an acceptable settlement offer, I'll let you move to settle."

"You'll let me?" says Harvey, and he's suddenly looming over Mike and Mike is suddenly having flashbacks- of the non-violent kind- back to his first days at Pearson Hardman.

"They won't pass the motion if we don't back you."

"You told me you had power of attorney."

"I do, but if you can't talk the Guardians into agreeing with you, you won't convince the judges. Come on," says Mike, "they're easy. Aren't you still the best closer in the city? Or have things changed since I was-"

"Shut up," says Harvey, and huh, Mike still knows how to goad Harvey.

During the meeting, Harvey tries to screw the Corps over three separate times with three separate bullshit offers, but Mike counters each time. Mike is just about to call him out when Harvey finally pulls out a realistic offer, and they finally come to an agreement.

"Mr. Ross," says one of the Guardians from the video screen, "why did we not come up with this method earlier?"

"We negotiate things all the time, Sir," says Mike.

"Yes, but we generally don't try to put the other party at a detriment," says the Guardian.

"Let me put it this way," says Mike. "If there's one thing that humans are good at, it's screwing each other over."

"What about screwing each other?" says Harvey.

"You totally suck," says Mike, and shuts off the video. "You totally did that on purpose."

"That," says Harvey, "was payback for leaving without a trace or an explanation."

"I helped you with Hardman. We are so even."

Eventually, the Guardians will decide that they will cultivate a relationship with Earth because, well, it's not like there's any other option. Besides, it's seriously about time that Earth gets in contact with outer space and if Earth won't take the initiative, the Guardians will. As a result, Mike will end up commuting every other week or so to talk with people from global organisations on Earth, whether they be police organisations, the scientific community, or non-governmental organisations; and to prosecute space criminals at the Interstellar Court of Justice.

Earth will still be the only planet with life in Sector 2814, but the Guardians will also choose another representative because a) they're expanding and b) Mike will have a lot of things to do. And yes, it will turn out to be another dolphin. This one will turn out to be named Tallulah Tang (and it's like all dolphins have pretentious names or something) and she will end up taking over the fighting-intergalactic-crime bit and Mike takes over the law-and-intergalactic-relations bit because he will still be the Corps' only legal representation..

Mike will get an honorary law degree from Harvard as well as offers from eleventy bazillion other higher education institutions on Earth. He will be a nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize, but it will go to someone else. Eventually, Mike will retire from the Green Lantern Corps and his ring will go to one Ross Evans, son of Jenny and Trevor Evans, and Mike will spend the rest of his life laughing at the irony.

But that's all in the future. Right now, Mike and Harvey are privately meeting the Head Justice of the Interstellar Court of Justice.

"And you're not going to try to screw anyone over?" says the Head Justice. "Mike's told me stories about Earth lawyers."

"All good, I hope," says Harvey, and both Mike and Harvey know that they've won over the judge.

"I must say," says the judge, "that was a complete farce. Do you know how much pain it is to organise a jury and then disband it?"

"...Dude. John Broome is dead. Leave his memory alone," says Mike to Sinestro after the whole suing DC Comics fiasco is done with.

If anyone remembers still Fabian Alistair, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 before Mike- well. It turns out that no matter what dolphins are named, they will always sound pretentious. Alistair's father had this absolutely ridiculous-sounding name that Mike still can't pronounce, but he still was super-impressed.

End Notes:

This was written like three weeks before the Harvey-doesn't-get-his-name-on-the-door thing happened in Suits canon. (I didn't think it was going to happen anyway, but come on, I just wanted to piss off Louis. The poor guy.) Additionally, this was going to include some sort of shipping but WOW AM I BAD AT MIXING SHIPPING AND CRACK without making it shipping-centric so. Mike is a bachelor forever. Sorry Mike. :D

In-Universe Headcanon:
- The last time Sinestro visited Earth, it was during the '60s when the blue phone booth thing that they use in Doctor Who was still commonly used.
- Headcanon says that Nodell, after his run as Green Lantern, Martan Nodell returned to Earth and pitched Alan Scott to DC Comics in the 1940s. Just underater, Broome, his immediate successor, returned to Earth after HIS stint as GL (this was right after WWII) and pitched Hal Jordan and the reinvention of Green Lantern to DC in the late 1950s. (This coincides with events IRL.)
- Abin Sur, the GL before Hal Jordan, was also a dolphin. In-universe, he was the GL after Broome.
- The GL who slept with Daniel Hardman is named Marlu.
- Mike has yet to meet a someone who was alive while Martin Nodell was Green Lantern.
- I WILL FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE THE STAR SAPPHIRES EXIST IN THIS UNIVERSE SOMEHOW