Lanterns on the Beach

(based on the fan-made comic)

Summary: Hal, Kilowog, Aya, and Razer get a vacation after helping take out Atrocitus. After months of hard work in frontier space, it's time the crew had some well deserved fun. Razaya.

Oh my gosh! You guys are great! I got such wonderful reviews and so many hits after the first chapter. LOVE THIS FANDOM.

Anyway, here's the new chapter. Hope you all like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own GL:TAS or any of its characters

Chapter 2: Sandcastles are fun


In the ocean, Hal and Kilowog's water war was over. It had come to an abrupt conclusion when Aya had surprised both of them by changing sides and helping Kilowog pound Hal with water until he surrendered. Now Hal and Kilowog floated lazily in the surf. However, the A.I. was looking back at the beach with a gloomy expression. Hal noted this and questioned her about it.

"What's wrong? Not enjoying yourself?"

"No. It is not that. I believe I am beginning to gain a better functional understanding of recreational 'fun'. It is just that…Razer does not seem to be sharing in such enjoyment."

Hal looked over at the umbrella. Razer was still huddled underneath it in the exact same position as before. It didn't look like he'd budged an inch.

"Huh…I see what you mean. Maybe you should go invite him over here. If he's feeling too hot, the water will help cool him down."

Aya perked up at this suggestion.

"Very well. I will do this."


Razer stared lazily at the lapping waves, his mind still wandering. The constant rhythm of the water wasn't unpleasant. It actually had a rather soothing quality on his nerves. But even that wasn't enough to keep him totally calm as Aya made her way out of the ocean and straight toward him. His heart began a strange fluttering beat. He kept his face composed and stoic, though. Aya stopped a few feet in front of him. The sun glittered off of the droplets of water still cascading down her sleek form. Her smooth, artificial voice was oddly melodic when she spoke.

"Razer, are you sure you do not wish to join us in the water? My thermal scans indicate it is much cooler than in the shade this umbrella is providing, so if it is the heat bothering you—,"

"No," Razer cut her off, "I…can't go in the water."

The android flashed him a perplexed look, as though he was contradicting an equation she was sure she had solved properly.

"Why? My data of your physiognomy indicates submersion should not be harmful to you—,"

"I know," Razer growled, rubbing his temples in frustration, "I know it won't hurt me but I… I… Urgh! I can't swim, okay!"

He wasn't lying. His home planet had been mostly desert wasteland, so there had never been a reason for him to learn.

"Can't swim?"

Razer whipped around. Hal was standing, or rather crouching, right behind him, getting a drink out of their cooler unit. Razer had been too focused on Aya to notice him walking up. The green lantern heard their whole exchange.

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place, before we came to a planet that's covered over 90% with oceans?"

"Because you didn't give me a chance to!" Razer hissed, "You and the Bolovaxian whisked us all off here without ever consulting me or informing about our destination."

"Okay, point taken, but come on. Swimming is easy! Heck, I could teach you! And even if you can't swim, it doesn't mean you can't wade in the shallow water with the rest of us."

"I'll pass."

Hal frowned in exasperation.

"Well, you don't have to get in water. There are still other ways you can have fun."

This caught Aya's attention.

"There is also a terrestrial equivalent of recreation?"

Hal and Razer both rolled their eyes.

"Of course! There are tons of ways to have fun, a lot of them not involving any water," said Hal, "For instance, the beach would be a great place to do one of the things that was my favorite when I was a kid—sandcastles."

"Sandcastles are fun. Entering new correlative data… How does one obtain sandcastles?"

Hal laughed at that. "You don't obtain them, silly, you build them! C'mon Razer, help me show her, please?"

"No, you can still count me out. I hate sand. It's disgusting. I don't want uncomfortable grit all over me."

"Now you're just being ridiculous," Hal huffed. And before Razer could react, the green lantern grabbed a fist-full of sand and flung it at him.

"Wha—HEY!"

"Whoops, too bad, you're all sandy now. Oh well, guess it won't hurt for you to help us at this point."

"JORDAN!"

Razer snatched up his own hand full of sand and flung it at him, but Hal had already jumped out of his way. The red lantern fumed in the shade.

"Is this similar to a 'splash fight'?" asked Aya.

Razer palmed himself in the face, only to growl in greater annoyance as the sand still on his hands got in his eyes. Great…Just great…

"Sorry, Razer, but I'm not going to let you sit there and sulk the whole time," said Hal, arms crossed over his chest and still a safe distance away.

Not safe if I use my ring… thought Razer murderously. But he knew it wasn't worth it to get in a fight with the human.

"I am in agreement with Hal Jordan," said Aya. "Please reconsider and join us. I calculate there is at least a 72% chance you will be able to enjoy yourself."

How does one even go about calculating that? wondered Razer.

If there was one thing he'd learned in his time with the green lanterns, it was that they were a stubborn lot. If he said no, they'd only keep on him. Thus, at length he relented.

"Very well. I'll help construct your 'sand castles', but so help me if anything else is thrown at me—,"

"Right. Got it. No projectiles. Now come on, sour-puss! Daylight's a wasting."


Hal led the NavCom and the reluctant red lantern over to an open patch of sand.

"Alright," he said, "Making a sandcastle is easy. All you need is sand, water, and your hands." He wiggled his fingers in demonstration. Razer snorted.

"Just dampen the sand with some water from the ocean and use it to build a structure. Simple enough."

"I believe I understand," said Aya.

"You know what, I change my mind," Razer huffed, "I'm just going to go back to the umbrella." He turned to leave.

Hal's eyebrows furrowed in frustration as he watched the retreating red lantern. Then he got an idea.

"What's the matter?" Hal jeered, "scared?"

That stopped Razer in his tracks.

"Excuse me? Why in the world would I be scared?"

"I bet you're just know me and Aya's sandcastles will look better than yours. You've probably never even built a sandcastle in your life, have you? Oh well. That's probably a good idea. Go back to your umbrella and leave this to the pros…"

Razer was already headed toward the edge of the water. With his ring, he made a construct of a pail and filled it wish sea water, then stomped back to where Hal and Aya were, dumped it unceremoniously on the sand, and began molding it into a mound.

Hal had to cover his hand with his mouth to keep from chuckling. At times, the kid was almost painfully predictable. He hated to back down from a challenge. Not that Hal minded. He was just amazed to see Razer do something like this of his own free will.

Well…free will that I might have manipulated a little.

"Come on, Aya, let's get your castle started. I bet you and I can do a much better job than him."

Razer grunted sardonically as they went to fill up their own buckets of water.


So far, Kilowog was having a great time. He had been drifting serenely in the waves for around an hour now, not remembering the last time he had been so worry free. He would have felt content to remain in this position for the rest of the day; however, at length the salty air left him feeling a bit thirsty, so he reluctantly got up and began making his way toward the cooler unit. Once he was back on the shore, he promptly noticed something that stopped him in his tracks.

"What in the names of the guardians…"

A lot of the beach-goers had gathered around a spot not far from the green lanterns' umbrella. They were watching the spectacle unfolding before them with avid interest. In the center of the ring of onlookers, Aya and Razer were hard at work. Each of them stood beside equally enormous constructions made purely from sand. The spectators "ooh-ed" and "aah-ed" at their handiwork.

Aya's sandcastle was incredible. It was a lifelike sculpture of the Interceptor crew. The figures of she, Hal, Razer, and Kilowog stood back to back to back to back in a circle. Each of them was in some battle-ready stance as if preparing to defend against an unseen enemy. The statuesque Aya held her fists crossed over her chest, looking like she was readying a blast of energy from the circular pads on the back of her hands. Kilowog's sculpture was crouched forward with one fist on the ground clenching a square hammer and the other raised in the air like a claw prepared to lash out. Razer's sculpted form was in a simpler stance with his ring hand pointed outward in a fist, aiming toward the presumed foe. Finally, Hal's figure had his ring arm raised skyward and his other arm pumped in a fist against his chest.

As spectacular as this sight was to behold, Razer's piece was equally impressive. In front of him was a sprawling cityscape almost as tall as Kilowog was. Towering spires arched into the air over intricately detailed buildings complete with trimmings like sloped roofs, windows, and texture to mimic wood or brick-work. Although the architecture was foreign to the lantern general, he had to admit it was beautiful. The rigid domiciles that made up the city gradually sloped off into hills and a valley surrounded by rugged mountains before transitioning indistinguishably back to the lumpy, un-worked mounds of the beach.

By comparison…Hal's…

Well, it needed some work. So far all he had managed was an irregular-shaped dome with a couple of smaller mounds on top. Each time he tried to build up a new one, one of his earlier creations would crumble to pieces and he'd have to start over again. No matter what he did, it seemed like the human couldn't get the consistency of the sand right for it to stick together.

"Well wha'da ya know?" said Kilowog as he approached his fellow crew members. "I never would have pegged Aya and Poozer as the artistic ones of this group."

The three of them looked up at the general.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" grumbled Hal, "Mine's not that bad."

Kilowog eyed the misshapen bulge again skeptically.

"What's it s'posed to be, a Bumbtor larvae?"

"No! It's…" Hal took another good look at his creation, "…You know. Nevermind, I see your point."

The human picked up his foot and stomped the mass back into the ground as Kilowog circled around Aya's piece. She was just putting the finishing touches on Hal's facial expression.

"Nice work, kiddo! I think this might look even better than the original," he said, thumbing towards the real Hal.

"I thank you for your praise, but it is undeserved. I simply using my existing data of everyone's physical features and transitioned this planet's sediment to replicate them."

The general chuckled at her. "Yeah, but that still takes a lot of skill. Ya did good."

"I see. Very well. In that case, I am glad to accept your compliment."

"Yep, nice work Aya," Hal patted her on the back. "But I gotta say, I never imagined Razer's would be this good too."

The red lantern had also just finished putting the finishing touches on his city and was standing back to admire his own creation. He wiped off the sweat accumulated on his forehead before shooting a triumphant smirk at Hal.

"Any other bets you'd care to lose today, Jordan?"

"Ha, ha. Alright, you win. Rub it in, why don't ya?"

Aya smiled, observing the red lantern's work.

"I am impressed by your sandcastle, Razer. For something produced without access to life-model scans or assembly databases, it is well built. Rather, I mean to say, you are very talented."

Razer felt his face flush.

"Uh… Thank you, Aya. Yours…is nice as well."

Two of the children that had been standing on the sidelines watching them work ran up to Aya and Razer.

"You guys are the coolest!" said one, a little boy with bright green hair and a freckle-marked face.

"Pwees come hewp us biwd one too!" said a little girl who appeared to be the first one's younger sister."

"Yeah, please miss green skin lady and mr. line-face!"

Razer's brows arched upward. Mr. Line-face?

"Sure think kids," said Hal, jumping in, "We'll be glad to help you out."

"Uh…that's okay, mister. We just wanted them," said the first kid, pointing to Razer and Aya.

Hal's resulting facial expression was something like that of a wet kittten.

"Very well, I would be happy to assist the two of you," said the A.I., "Will you join us, Razer?"

No. Definitely not. Razer didn't do kids. He barely interacted with fully-grown, functional members of society. But the rejection that had been forming on his lips vanished when Aya's imploring blue eyes met his own.

"…Oh, fine…" he spat.

"Yaaay!" the kids cheered in sync. They whisked Razer and Aya off while Kilowog patted the dejected Hal's back.

"It's okay buddy… Those kids don't know what they're missing out on."

The two of them trudged back to their umbrella to grab some drinks. They almost walked straight past the two individuals watching them with interest.

"Well, well, imagine meeting you two here," came a familiar voice.

Both green lanterns looked up in surprise. Standing side by side were none other than Queen Aga'po and Galia of the star sapphires.

End of Chapter 2


Hey! Thanks for reading. I hope this chapter was a little more interesting. Once again, got to give credit to elfgrove for the rockin' idea.

If you'd like to see her comic go here: elfgrove (dot) tumblr (dot) com/post/23428537019

Also, I found another good GL:TAS beach picture today here: futureanimator14 (dot) deviantart (dot) com/art/Day-at-the-beach-305212072

Please let these guys know how good their artwork is!

I'll try to have the next chapter out soon, but fair warning, I'm pretty busy this week, so it might be a while. Just know that it's coming and from what I've written so far, it'll be pretty darn hilarious.

If you want badly to read some more, REVIEW! It gives the me the willpower that fuels my green lantern fanfiction writing ring, then I can recharge it with this oath:

In brightest day, in blackest night

Give me the will to fanfics write

Let those who review them on sight

Enjoy my story with all their might!