I feel like I should make a specific time period between putting chapters up, as opposed to randomly submitting them... Does once a week sound good to you? I'll try to publish a new one every Monday. If for some reason I miss a day, please keep your pitch forks at bay (from what I've seen, the readers on this website are very violent), as I will surely publish it soon after. So, without further ado, let's get on with the story. This chapter features everyone's favorite ring-wearing hero. Enjoy!

Heavy eyes cracked open to an unfamiliar sight.

"Ugh… Where am I?" The man sat up with some difficulty, clutching his head with one hand as he became all too aware of the throbbing pain in his skull. As the haze around his brain began to lift, the man's trained mind began a rehearsed check list.

I am Hal Jordan: the first of Earth's three Green Lanterns from the Intergalactic Green Lantern Corporation; a founding member of the Justice League. Alrighty, memory is in check. Now, what's the situation? I feel fine, except for this stupid headache. There doesn't seem to be anybody around, no strange torture devices, no doomsday machine… looks like we're good here.

"Well, I guess I'll be on my way then-"Hal started to stand up off the bed, but was forced back down when another wave of pain washed through his head.

Wait a second, what am I doing on a bed? Ugh I wish I could remember what happened… last thing I remember I was on patrol and now…

He squeezed his eyes shut with a grimace.

It would be a whole lot easier to think without this migraine.

After a moment, Hal very slowly let his eyes reopen. Once his eyes focused, he blinked a few times as he realized he was face to face with a familiar, black and white domino mask.

"Hey, Hal! Need an aspirin?"

Hal groaned as he eyed the young superhero, who was holding two small, white pills out in front of him with a mischievous grin.

"Robin, what is going on? Where the heck am I?"

"You're in the Batcave, couldn't you tell?"

Quickly glancing around, Hal noticed the obvious bat clan theme – dark walls, giant memorabilia from past fights, the occasional drop of bat guano falling from the ceiling…

Ew.

"And how, exactly, did I end up in the Batcave?

"I kidnapped you. Well, not exactly kidnapped, but I needed to ask you a favor, so while you were out patrolling I hit you with some knock out gas and dragged you over here." Hal could practically feel Robin's innocent gaze through the mask.

"And you couldn't have just asked me the favor without knocking me out?"

"I was afraid you would say no."

Hal sighed. This kid…

"Well what's the favor, Robin?"

"Batman wants me to try and figure out the workings of some alien technology. Since he won't let me mess with any of the stuff we've confiscated from enemies, I figured the next best thing would be a Green Lantern power ring. And what better Green Lantern to help me experiment than you, right Hal?"

"Listen, kid, I'd love to help, but I have more important things to do than assist you with some kiddie project." Hal stood up and walked past the Boy Wonder, searching around for an exit from the cave. As he was walking, the Green Lantern heard a smug voice come from behind.

"Fine. I guess I'll have to tell Batman that you're the reason why I can't finish my experiment, and that you're the one who wrecked the Batmobile."

Hal stopped in his tracks. The little punk was going to frame him for wrecking the Bat's car. And no way did he want to face the wrath of an angry, car-less Batman…

"Fine… I'll do it."

The two heroes stood in a large, open area of the Batcave, a few random items dispersed around them. After a moment the Green Lantern turned to the younger, who was busy scribbling some notes on a clipboard.

"So…" Hal began. "What are you trying to find out about my ring?"

Without glancing up, Robin replied, "In order to begin more experiments, I need to get a feel for the power of your power ring. I also want to see if I can figure out its efficiency."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?"

"Simple, you are going to use your power ring to perform some rudimentary tasks – moving a block, breaking some stuff, the works – and I am going to record how much energy was exerted by the ring to perform the task and how much work was actually done. Then from there a simple work to energy ratio gives me an approximate idea of how effective the ring actually is."

Robin sighed at the blank look he got from Hal.

"Look, just do what I tell you, and I'll take care of the rest."

"Whatever you say, kid. But this better not take too long, I have places to be."

"Yea yea, whatever. Okay, first things first, I want you to move that block," Robin gestured to a large, concrete wall to their left, "over to that little crevice." He redirected his index finger to an indent in the wall just big enough for the barrier to fit.

"Whatever you say, Boy Wonder." Hal proceeded to activate his power ring, a luminescent, green light emitting from the top while he pointed it at the barrier. A beam of the green light made its way to the wall, encompassing it entirely as it slowly began to lift off the ground. Hal winced at the sudden weight. How heavy is this thing, two tons? But, ever so slowly, he dragged the barrier over to its designated spot, and not-so-gracefully dropped it on the ground. Panting slightly from the effort, Hal turned his gaze to Robin while he stared at a strange, speedometer-like contraption and wrote down some nonsense.

"What are you doing now?"

"Calculating the kinetic energy of the block while you were moving it."

Robin was met with another clueless glance.

"Math."

"Right… So am I done here?"

"Not quite. I still have one more thing for you to do. Follow me." Without waiting for a response Robin walked towards another part of the Batcave. Following him, Hal entered a room taken up almost completely by a pool of water. In the pool, Batman's high tech submarine sat, slightly bobbing up and down from the waves of the connecting ocean.

"What are we doing here?"

"There's a big spring that's used to launch the Bat Sub through the water when we need. Lucky for us, the spring hasn't been reset since the last time we launched it, so you're going to reset the spring so it has the necessary amount of elastic potential energy to launch the sub, and I'll do more math stuff that you don't understand."

"How does a spring make the sub move, anyway?"

"It's a basic inelastic collision between the spring and the sub! Come on, Hal, did you ever even take a physics class?"

"Look kid, I am a guardian of outer space. I have much more important things to worry about than some stupid science."

"Ugh, whatever. Just… use your fancy light and move the spring." Robin groaned while he walked to the edge of the pool, speedometer contraption in hand. Hal grudgingly made his way in front of the spring, using his will power to release the light. The Green Lantern focused his energy on the metal, smirking with satisfaction as it recoiled further and further. A moment later, the spring was coiled as far as Hal could force it, and Robin stood up from his crouched position.

"That's good, I got the data."

"Great. So what did you find out?"

"Well-" Robin paused when he heard the elevator to the Batcave being activated. Bruce must have just gotten home, which means Batman would be down in the cave any second. And Batman had a strict rule about outsiders in the Batcave…

"I'll, uh, tell you later. But you need to go. Now." Robin shoved the green clad hero out of the room and through the Batcave, cursing quietly under his breath when he heard footsteps growing increasingly louder.

"Wait, why can't you just tell me now? Is Batman here? I want to ask him a few questions about this experiment of yours."

"No time for that, Batman's busy. Besides, didn't you say you had more important things to do than be here?"

"Well yea, sort of, but-" Before Hal could finish, Robin pushed him out of a secret back entrance to the cave, slamming the door shut before the man could react. Sighing in relief, Robin turned around just in time to see his mentor make his way towards him.

"Hey, Bruce, how was work?"

"Fine. Did you finish all the chores I asked you to do?"

"Yup, every single one."

"That includes moving the barrier from your training the other day AND resetting the Bat Sub's spring?"

"Of course, Bruce, you know me: Always following your orders."

"Right... What is that?" Bruce asked, nodding to the scribbled math in his ward's hand.

"Oh this? Just some practice problems for school. Nothing important." Richard crumpled up the pieces of paper and tossed them into a nearby trashcan.

"Well, why don't you go upstairs now? I think Alfred is almost done making dinner."

"Sure thing, Bruce." Dick started making his way towards the elevator.

"Oh, by the way." The young hero started. "Hal stopped by about an hour ago. He wanted to tell you something about the Batmobile. Something about an 'elastic collision gone wrong'?" Dick continued his way up to the manor, a hidden smirk making its way to his face. Meanwhile, Batman rushed to the garage that held his precious car, eyes widening when he saw its wrecked condition. The Dark Knight let out a feral growl when, upon closer inspection, he found a single strand of short, sandy blonde hair on the shattered window – a perfect match of Earth's founding Green Lantern.

"Hal…"

I just love when Robin trolls people. Granted, Batman is pretty untroll-able, so he'll probably figure out it was Robin anyway, but not before showing Hal who's boss. I hope you all enjoyed this week's story! I have 2 more chapters in my inventory to put up, and so long as my teacher doesn't assign any more of these assignments (for those of you that didn't catch it, these mini-fics are my physics homework assignments) that'll be all that gets published. If you want me to write more short stories for this FanFic anyway, please review and tell me so!
~The Vernaculist