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Entrance to the Channel Tunnel, Theresa Cassidy's POV
One day at a time, Da, she thought as she descended to the entrance of the tunnel. One day at a time.
It was something she told herself before every mission to bolster her resolve.
Ever since her father's attempt at policing mutants blew up in his face she'd been caught between her own feelings about what he'd done and the opinions of others. Some cared about him enough to cut him some slack and let the whole thing pass them by as just another page in the history of mutantkind. Others didn't like what'd happened but weren't going to hold her responsible for the actions of her father. Then there were those that thought they were being so subtle about the looks they were sending her way but made it clear that they thought she'd known a lot more about her father's actions with X-Corp than she let on. She supposed that it was only natural since it'd be one of her first thoughts if she met the daughter of someone involved with shady business who worked at the same place as him. It didn't mean that she liked the looks or that the looks didn't hurt but it kept her from letter her temper get the better of her.
"I wish I'd never eaten that fucking sandwich…" Sam griped as they came in for a landing.
It was his own fault for getting that sandwich from a vending machine since there was no way of knowing how long they'd been in there or if anything had gone bad until you took a bite.
"So does EVERYONE who went without an umbrella in downtown Beauvais," Darkstar said as her feet hit the ground.
"Madrox! Was that really you trying to sing 'Justify my Love'?" she asked, spotting her friend. "That was about the most perverted thing I ever heard. WIERDO that yeh are! I'll take that quavering voice to my tomb with me."
"Hey, and I hope everybody noticed he was HARMONIZING," Rictor said with his long locks of hair completely drenched by the rain coming down.
"That kind of performance takes lots of LOOONG practice sessions alone at home," Cannonball said, setting down on the sidewalk.
"I'm Madrox the Multiple Man, ya doughball!" one of the Madroxes said before high fiving another. "I'm never alone with myself!"
"So did you ever have an orgy with just the ten of yourself, Jamie?" she asked, deciding to go with the joking mood. "I'm seeing ten of your writhing on silk sheets…"
"Wuhh…" Monet stated sharply, her disgust at the imagery visible. "Conversation STOP."
"I'm just interested in the sexual habits of Madrox, the Multiple Man," she said as the assembled group began to make their way down to the entrance to the tunnel. "Don't try to tell me yeh're not, Monet, yeh dirty oul slag!"
It was fun getting a rise out of the usually cocky and proper girl and she figured since they'd yet to come across anything significant there was time enough for a bit of fun.
Monet, of course, decided to focus on something else.
"Um… so, what's happening in the tunnel?" Monet asked one of Madrox's duplicates.
"Looks like nothing to me. I haven't seen anyone…" Dupe Madrox replied before changing the subject. "Listen, did you really throw up over Beauvais?"
She had to smirk at that since it caused an amusing look to cross over Monet's face.
She was about to say something more when she noticed a spot of green light heading their way from high above. She wasn't the only one to notice so everyone paused in their initial decision to enter the tunnel to search for survivors of the train crash to see if it was a good thing or a bad thing. They didn't have long to wait because seconds later the object was close enough that they could see it was a masked man coated in a green energy field descending towards them. She didn't recognize him but then that didn't mean a whole lot since it wasn't uncommon for a new hero to come popping out of the woodwork every once in a while. Then again he could just as easily be a villain since it wasn't like there was a law of the universe that said certain colors were solely for the use of heroes. While it wasn't obvious, she prepared herself to let out a sizeable screech of her sonic powers just in case the arrival turned out to be a threat of some kind.
"Don't suppose there's room for one more in this search and rescue operation?" the unknown man asked as he landed and the green energy field vanished.
"Depends. Who are yeh?" she asked since she was the closest to him at the moment.
"Name's Green Lantern," the man replied, turning to look at her with a lopsided smile. "Picked up word of the situation and decided to come see if I could help."
"We appreciate the thought but this isn't a situation for newbies," Monet said, sounding as arrogant as ever. "Give us one good reason to bring you along."
"My ring allows me to create constructs of solid light limited only by imagination, I can generate a force field big enough to protect the whole group, electromagnetic scanning is an option with my ring, universal translator and a couple of other things," Green Lantern replied as though he hadn't noticed Monet's condescending attitude. "Considering we're walking into a biohazard situation I think a force field would be helpful since I doubt anyone here wants to get sick from whatever's in there. Add to that I can whip up scanners and displays if any of you have virus and biohazard know how in their heads and I'd say I could be helpful."
She couldn't help but chuckle at the look of surprise on Monet's face since it was rare that the teacher's pet was caught off guard like that.
"Sounds like he'd be mighty helpful, M," Cannonball said, snapping the girl out of her shock.
"Yes. I suppose so," Monet said, doing her best to trick everyone into thinking her lapse was their imagination. "You may accompany us but you will follow our lead and obey my orders. This is an X-Corporation operation and we don't need some untrained hero complicating matters."
No one was buying the trick but they let it go, figuring they had better things to do.
"Fine by me," Green Lantern said with a nod and a half grin.
"Then erect a force field around our group and produce a console so that I can monitor for potential hazards," Monet ordered, making it sound like he should feel honored to be considered useful by her.
"Aye, aye, Ma'am," he said before energy flowed out from his ring, putting all of them inside a dome-shaped force field while also creating a floating three station console with displays.
M took her place at the console and as one the group entered the tunnel, heading for where the reports stated the train carrying the civilians and the gene/biohazard had crashed. In keeping with the training she'd received from Cable as a member of X-force she kept her eyes and ears open for the slightest sign of innocents or trouble but she also spared the occasional glance at Green Lantern. Everyone else on the team knew each other from the many times their respective X-teams had teamed up during past crises, as well as team get togethers, but this masked man was an unknown. The presence of an unknown could potentially disrupt teamwork and with so many innocent lives on the line that could make things go very bad.
Therefore she decided to deal with an unknown the way Cable had taught her: fish for information.
"So yer power comes from yer ring then?" she asked casually as the group walked further and further into the tunnel.
"Mostly. According to my teacher I should be able to tap into the energy without it someday but for now the ring's just easier." Green Lantern replied keeping his eyes focused ahead.
"When'd yeh get it?" she asked, figuring it was an innocent enough question.
"That's… actually a far more interesting question then you might think," he replied with a smirk on his face. "From my perspective I got it about five years or so ago. From the perspective of the rest of the galaxy it was five months."
Naturally she tried to wrap her head around that answer but the best she could figure out it either had something to do with a VR world where a person's perception of time was different or a time-space anomaly. It was kinda strange how your definitions of impossible and possible changed after living the kind of life she had but she was still pretty sure of her guesses.
"So you're pretty experienced then?" she asked, figuring five years with the ring would make him as good as anyone she knew when it came to the item's abilities.
"Using the ring, yeah, but not outside of training," he replied before frowning and generating a third screen construct in front of him that looked like a circular grid that pulsed waves from the center.
"What's that?" she asked pointing at the new screen.
"Motion sensor. It's a little dark in here with only the emergency lighting to see by," he replied while looking for even a slight sensor contact. "When I heard about this situation I got a little suspicious about it. I know we're only here to do S&R but it couldn't hurt to be overly cautious just in case something a little shady is going on."
"What do yeh mean?" she asked since this was the first she'd heard of the situation being more serious than a gene hazard situation.
"The details I picked up were from encrypted military channels rather than emergency services," he replied while she also kept an eye on the motion sensor screen. "If this was just your average gene/biohazard situation they'd be telling emergency services what they'd be walking into so they could prepare or telling them to back off so that the better equipped and trained could go in. The fact that they're clamping down on the truth means they have something to hide and that makes my danger sense itch."
Much as she wanted to dismiss the notion, she could not.
With that in mind she decided that she'd up her level of caution accordingly since shady military operations often meant deadly technology usually aimed at killing mutants.
With such a small team and such cramped quarters, things could get very nasty very quickly.
Xander's POV
So far, so good, he thought as he kept his eyes and ears open for trouble while keeping his motion tracker within his field of vision. Still, something doesn't feel right. Yeah, there was a train crash but we haven't seen a bit of blockage the entire way down. If there were survivors at least some of them should've been able to make it this far by now.
The truth was what they hadn't seen a single soul since they'd entered the tunnel.
That could mean simply that the blockage was further ahead but to him it was far more likely that they were either dead, seriously ill or being kept captive by something. None of those possibilities were a good thing, especially as far as the rescue team he'd joined was concerned, so he made sure the force field he'd thrown up was extra strong and willed it to filter out anything dangerous. So far the young woman that reminded him a lot of Cordy, except without the 'valley girl' slang and with a more refined arrogant attitude, hadn't reported anything concerning from her place at the sensor console constructs. He had faith in the constructs since they'd been downloaded into his ring by Lianna herself, who assured him that they were some of the most advanced, most sensitive, in existence. Presuming that the woman manning them was as good as she no doubt thought she was, they hadn't yet run into something dangerous but he didn't expect that to last long. If this were a movie, video game or television, they'd soon run into their first hostile and it'd probably make its presence known by trying to ambush the least attentive of their group.
One of the reasons why he'd put up a force field around the group was to prevent that and provide protection against any airborne viruses or toxins.
If the threat turned out to be something capable of breaking through his force field then he wanted as much advance warning of their approach as he could manage. His motion sensor extended five hundred meters in every direction and could pick up anything from a rat scurrying on the ground to a Clydesdale Horse. The sensor would display the location of the object in motion every two seconds and display the size of the object at the same time, giving the person looking an idea of what was heading their way. If it looked like the number and size of the incoming threats were too much for the team to handle he'd use his ring to get them out of the tunnel. It wasn't a slight to their abilities or experience but, if the threat was infectious, better that only one more person get hit with the stuff rather than all seven of them. While he knew he was being a little pessimistic, the 'hope for the best but plan for the worst' way of thinking seemed the prudent course of action until the universe prompted him to be more optimistic.
PING!BOOP!
"I've got a contact on the motion sensor," he declared as a dot manifested on the outer edge of the screen in front of him. "Looks to be about three feet tall and headed our way. Coming at us from twelve o'clock."
PING!BOOP!PING!BOOP!
"Make that three contacts, two of them looking to be the size of a human adult in addition to the one three feet tall," he said before even more contacts popped up. "We've got incoming company and there are a lot of them."
"M? What have yeh got on the sensors?" the redhead who'd been fishing for info asked the woman behind the sensor console constructs.
"Assuming these constructs are actually doing their job I'm reading human life signs but there is something decidedly puzzling about some of the readings," M replied with a slight crease in her forehead. "It is almost as if there's some sort of secondary energy field along with the normal bio-electric field."
"Well, that doesn't sound good," he said as he watched more and more contacts show up on his motion sensor.
It didn't take long before the naked eye could see what before only sensors could tell were there but what he saw began to creep him out by leaps and bounds. At first glance it looked like the civilians from the train but there was an unnatural synchronicity to their movements that could not be happening for good reasons. Then, of course, things only got worse when he noticed a faint neon blue glow coming from both their eyes and mouth because, coupled with the identical expressions, it pretty much cemented his opinion of the situation.
Whatever the gene/biohazard was, it didn't kill the victims so much as take away their individuality and probably connected them in some kind of hive mind. Whether or not the victims still had their own minds somewhere inside and they were merely being suppressed he didn't know but it was safe to say there wouldn't be any dramatic reassertion of their individuality any time soon. Making a split second decision he brought down the dome force field around the rescue group and instead used his ring to create a wall then have it spread down the tunnel in the direction of the threat. Every possible way in or out of the tunnel was sealed off with a force field, doing his damndest to make as strong as possible.
"Miss M? What do the sensors tell you and do you need me to grab a random subject from this hoard for a more focused scan?" he asked even as he 'felt' his barrier being pounded on.
"From what I can tell they've all been infected with a techno-organic version of the micro-Sentinels Cassandra Nova hit the Institute with. They're circulating throughout the body and appear to have complete control of the nervous system including the brain," M replied even as she worked the keyboards of the consoles like a master pianist. "I'm not seeing any sign of an airborne contagion so whatever did this to them likely did it through touch or bodily fluids."
"Okay, so I think it's safe to say that anyone here who can only get the job done through close quarters combat or even mid-range combat should probably bail out," he said even as he increased the effort to keep his containment field intact. "If these guys manage to get through my barrier, long rangers will be in the best position to defend themselves from infection. For a little while, at least."
"What do yeh mean a l'il while?" asked the redhead whose name he still didn't know.
"If this is spread through touch and it started on the train, then how much do you want to bet that just about everyone on it has been infected by this point?" he asked rhetorically as more and more infected people showed up to increase pressure on his containment field. "No matter how good you guys are, even you can get overwhelmed through sheer numbers."
"Can't you keep them bottled up? Just until we figure out a way to fix them?" asked a Kentucky accented young man with blonde hair and goggles.
"Contain a hundred and fifty people plus whatever started this mess? Maybe, and that's a BIG maybe," he replied, never looking away from the infected army looking to get at them. "All depends on whether or not they have any other tricks up their sleeve. If all they got is their hive mind and physical bodies it shouldn't be too hard. If they got some kind of energy blasts or something then I'd have to wait and see how good it works on my ring's energy before I could give you a yay or a nay."
"Well… anyone have a plan B?" the redhead asked, not liking his response much.
"I do but I'll need some back up from my HQ," he said as the solution came to him much to his reluctance. "Lianna this is Lantern Prime. Do you read? Over."
"This is Lianna. I'm reading you five-by-five Lantern Prime," Lianna's voice came back loud enough for the group to hear her. "What's the situation?"
"We've got a techno-organic virus down in the Channel Tunnel on the French end that appears to forcibly integrate organics into a hive mind consciousness through touch or bodily fluids. Uploading sensor data now," he replied before sending all the information to Oa via his ring. "I'm thinking of using some blue H on the infected to get them back to normal. Will it work?"
"Give me a second," she replied, no doubt to convince the listeners that she was on their level in terms of processing information. "Hmmmm…. we should be able to do this but we'll need the help of the others in your group. In order to ensure that patient zero doesn't terminate his thralls before you get to them, you'll need to get them all in one go. You up for it?"
"You know me," he replied. "I'm an all or nothing kinda guy."
"I figured as much. Then I shall handle the treatment subroutines while you and the others provide the power," Lianna said, sounding like this was par for the course for him.
Which it was and it was something he'd made pretty clear during training back on Oa.
"What does she mean 'bout gettin' help from us?" the redhead asked, sounding like what she'd heard had given her hope for a positive resolution.
Perfect!
"The trick I'm planning to do runs on a specific emotion: hope," he replied as he mentally caused the shift from green will to blue hope. "The more we can give it, the better our odds of this working. I'm decent enough but with a little extra help from you guys and my plan B will work. You guys willing?"
They looked at each other, no doubt evaluating whether or not they should trust a stranger, but in the end they were good people so they nodded in the affirmative.
"Then let's get started," he said as he created chest plate constructs for each of them while still maintaining his quarantine barrier. "Put'em on."
Monet St. Croix's POV
"So how does this work?" she asked as she finished strapping on the energy construct.
"Simple. Think of something or someone that fills you with a sense of hope," Green Lantern replied even as more controlled civilians tried to pummel their way out of their energy prison. "It's the feeling, the emotion, that's important more than the actual imagery, so whatever suits you. The harnesses will then siphon the hope from you, channel it into my ring and I will then use it to try and save these people."
That seemed simple enough.
Still there were too many unknowns about this Green Lantern for her to be completely at ease and without suspicions regarding the man. Who was he really? Where did he get his ring? What were its strengths and weaknesses? Did he have a secret agenda? While the others might be willing to give the newcomer the benefit of a doubt, she was intelligent enough to consider the possibility of deception and a threat. Some might think that she was going against that train of thought by strapping on his construct but she was confident that her superhuman strength would prove capable of tearing herself free. She also had the option of telepathically attacking him, seizing control of his mind and getting him to release them whether he consciously wished to or not. In short, if he showed his true colors and they turned out to be evil, she would be amply prepared to make him regret it after she freed her comrades.
"So basically think happy thoughts and let you do the rest?" Madrox asked, sounding a little doubtful that this would improve their situation.
"HOPEFUL thoughts, Mister One Man Basketball Team. HOPEFUL thoughts," Green Lantern replied, stressing what he'd need to make this work.
Hopeful thoughts, she thought to herself as she considered the issue. What is it really that inspires hope in me?
Once upon a time it would've been Everett, but with his death that was no longer a possibility because, even while it was true that members of X-Groups had a tendency to return from the grave, she was a realist at heart. The circumstances regarding the return of previous mutant colleagues were extraordinary and sometimes carried a rather hefty price for both sides of the transaction. Also most of those that returned possessed some valuable ability or piece of knowledge that made them worth bringing back. As much as she would… approve of Everett's return, she knew it was not likely to happen in her lifetime.
Another possible source for hope would be her hope for her future and the few people she deigned to consider friends. While she wasn't so idealistic so as to believe in Charles Xavier's dream as some of her allies, she did hope for a day when none of them need fear using their powers in public. Deciding that this imagery would provide the needed emotion she expanded on it and filled her mind with all the things she hoped the future would bring. A world where baseline humans no longer looked at mutants like monsters to be destroyed or shunned. A world where mutants would be able to pursue their dreams without having to worry about being discriminated against due to a fluke of genetics. A world where humanity finally outgrew its infantile prejudices and violent impulses so that they could become something more than a planet of primitives that most of the galaxy saw them as. Over and over again she found new things to hope for, new things to inspire hope inside of her and it was then that she felt the feeling being pulled to the cord connecting the harness to the ring that made it.
"Reaching critical mass now, Lianna," Green, or rather currently Blue Lantern, stated as the cloud of energy around his ring reached a potent level of power. "Prepare to guide the energies to where they need to go in five… four… three… two… one… NOW!"
With all the force of a fireman's hose at full, blue energy surged towards the contained infected civilians and animals. The moment it hit the barrier it went from engulfing only half of the tunnel to the entirety as it continued to flow towards what she presumed was the other end of the shell keeping the infected contained. She could tell the instant the energy began to affect the infected since they all of a sudden ceased to move, implying that they had been immobilized. However it was when she began to notice that the neon blue light that had been emanating from their eyes and mouths began to dim that she knew true progress was being made. Then, one by one, the victims that were visible lost the light entirely but it was still a minute before Green/Blue Lantern used his ring to remove them from the quarantine container he'd constructed. If the pattern continued she estimated that all the train passengers would be restored to full health within the next half hour at most.
Then something changed.
"Damn. Whatever this stuff is, it's definitely sentient or at the very least highly adaptive," Green/Blue Lantern declared with increased exertion. "Our treatment progress went from cruising speed to going up one helluva mountain. Lianna? Anything you can do?"
"Working on it," Lianna replied with the communications link. "Whoever is controlling the remaining infected civilians is increasing the affected area in their bodies in order to retain their grip. If it goes too far there won't be enough of the original organic material for the victim to be restored."
"Not acceptable!" Green/Blue Lantern said in a way that would tolerate no naysayers.
Then, surprise of surprises, the level of power being channeled into the quarantine area jumped but she didn't feel any extra draw from her harness, nor did it look like the others were experiencing anything unusual. However it's what happened next that sent a shiver of… something… down her spine that she just knew would be nagging her for days.
"In fearful day, in raging night, With strong hearts full, our souls ignite," Green/Blue Lantern chanted with strength in every word. "When all seems lost in the War of Might, Look to the stars, for hope burns bright!"
Word by word the energy he was pouring into the quarantine field grew until it was impossible for anyone present to see what was going on inside it or look in its general direction. This bright lightshow only lasted half a minute at best but, when it finally faded to the point where she could look back, she found all of the train passengers lying unconscious on the ground in front of her team. A quick telepathic scan of each of them showed no sign of the force that had possessed them only mere moments ago and all of them seemed to be none the worse for wear. However the man who was now shifting back to a green, white and black uniform, looked like he was having something of a dizzy spell at the moment. Theresa was closest to him so she acted swiftly to steady him before he fell face first into the railing at his feet.
"Are y'alright?" Theresa asked once the man looked to be recovered.
"Yeah… just a little lightheaded for a minute," Green Lantern replied, turning his head to look at her. "Never channeled that much power before for something so complex. Lianna? Status on the victims?"
"All victims have been purged of the foreign influence and show no lingering side effects that your ring can detect," Lianna replied through audio so that all could hear. "I have also taken the liberty of using your ring to isolate patient zero for you as you were less than coherent."
"Yeah, I can feel it," Green Lantern said, looking down the tunnel and into the barely lit darkness. "I got him. Thanks for the help."
"Think nothing of it, Lantern Prime. See you in a few days," Lianna said before a beep indicated, most likely, the termination of the connection.
It was a minute later that she saw a pod of energy floating towards them from further in the Channel Tunnel but it was only when it got less than fifty yards away that she could see what was inside of it. It looked like it might have started as human but it had blue fire for hair, had the same glowing holes in its face as its victims and its fingers looked more like talons than anything else. She could see it struggling to escape the pod it was in but she didn't see so much as a shudder from the container, much less a sign that it would soon break.
"Is it a mutant? Some laboratory creation?" Rictor asked as he looked at the cause of their problem.
"I don't know," Green Lantern replied as the pod finally came to a stop in front of them. "But I do know that it's dangerous."
An explosion from the ceiling caught them all by surprise and it was years of training as well as a bit of luck that kept them or any of the civilians from getting hurt. They were all barely given time to register this as figures dropped down from ropes through the hole, surrounding all of them in less than a minute. When the dust finally settled and their eyesight returned to normal, she found that the new arrivals were soldiers armed to the teeth and wearing expensive looking protective gear. One by one the automatic weaponry was aimed at them, making all hesitant to move since, without knowing who these people were, they wouldn't know what the potential consequences might be.
"Well… I must say this is a bit of a surprise," said a man in his late forties wearing a beret who looked like the leader of the group. "We'd been told that you lot were in a bit of a tight spot when we were ordered in to lend a hand. Looks like intel dropped the ball."
"Yeah. Looks like," Green Lantern said with measured tones before something seemed to catch his attention.
"Civvies okay?" Beret asked with a guarded tone of voice.
"They're alive and infection free if that's what you mean… General? Major?" she asked, wanting to know who the guy was to lead his team into their operation.
"Captain, missy, and that's good to hear," Beret replied, not giving more than he had to. "After all, that's the most important thing."
"Except maybe where this thing came from," Theresa said, sounding suspicious of their present circumstances.
"True. Guess it'll just have to be one of life's mysteries," Beret said, sounding like he couldn't care less.
Or he already knew very well where the creature came from.
"Not really," Green Lantern said in a tone she'd only heard from Miss Frost when someone had made the mistake of crossing her. "The Weapon Plus program needs better firewalls and security programs."
THIS caused a flinch and a narrowing of the eyes that told her Lantern had hit a nerve.
"My source also told me that there's enough paperwork online to tell me that this so called 'train crash' wasn't an accident. It was arranged on purpose, as was word of this getting to X-Corporation," Green Lantern growled, obviously bubbling in anger. "My guess is you guys wanted to see how your 'weapon' would do against a team of trained mutants, civilian lives be damned. I guess it's a good thing I showed up when I did otherwise things could've gotten a lot messier."
This soured the mood of every member of X-Corporation; none of them liked being set up or assholes using innocent civilians as bait.
"Well, since you know so much, you should know it can get a helluva lot messier," Beret said, sounding less polite and more hostile. "Now you can either let us reclaim our property or you'll find a decided decrease in cordial relations that your outfit enjoys throughout the world. Doesn't sound like much of a choice to make. We go the easy way and it'll be a good photo op for you mutants. We go the hard way and a lot of doors are gonna be slammed in your faces."
"I think I'll go with option C," Green Lantern said before the coloring of his costume changed from green to an indigo color.
In the blink of an eye a fiery staff construct formed of the same color as his changed costume, with a focal point of energy forming at the top. The soldiers were moving to point all their barrels at the man, but by then it was too late because a second later the pod holding the artificial weapon of the Weapon Plus program vanished in a flash of indigo light.
"You have five seconds to tell me where you sent it." Beret growled, not liking the way things were going for him.
"The sun," Green Lantern said, sounding completely unafraid. "By now it's burning up into nothingness."
Teleportation? she thought with significant amazement. And quite a significant distance at that. I wonder if he can do that with the guns. It would certainly make this so much easier.
"That was a big mistake, son," Beret said, sounding quite put out. "You've just caused a lot of trouble for your mutant friends here."
"They're not friends," Green Lantern said in an honest, no nonsense tone of voice. "I've never met them before tonight. Right, everyone?"
All of them either nodded their heads or vocally said 'yes' in response and this only soured Beret's mood even further.
"Feel free to try to prove otherwise, buddy," Green Lantern said, sounding confident that he had the man over a barrel. "Go through your surveillance photos and footage, go through your hacked files and double check your spy's reports. You won't find a single shred of evidence to prove that X-Corporation knew anything about me prior to tonight."
He has just made an enemy, she thought based on Beret's expression. Nevertheless he looks as though he can handle it.
"And if that's not enough for you then maybe you'll wonder just how secure your 'World' is and what I could do to it if properly provoked," Green Lantern said with a hint of double meaning. "Do you think your bosses are going to want you to risk their entire investment over something like this?"
For a while it looked like the commanding officer of the soldiers planned to make good on his threat but then his walkie-talkie beeped, causing the man to put it to his ear.
"Yes, sir?" Beret asked, pressing the transmission button.
She couldn't hear the chatter but she didn't need to since Beret was riled enough by what'd happened that his poker face had cracks in it.
"Are you certain, sir?" Beret asked, sounding like he didn't approve of what he'd been told. "We can't just let this slide."
Whatever the man on the other end had to say next definitely left a bad taste in Beret's mouth but she knew a person who was about to fold when she saw one.
"Understood, sir," Beret said before giving a hand signal that caused his men to lower their weapons. "Okay, men, our orders have changed. We'll recover what's left of our property and then evac. MOVE OUT!"
No one on the rescue team let their guard down, though, and it was not until the soldiers were well out of sight that the tension finally faded from the immediate area.
"Yeh sure are mental ya are," Theresa said with a grin of amusement. "Playin' hardball with 'em like that."
"Well, with military types deterrents are usually a pretty safe bet," Green Lantern said as green once more became the dominant color of his costume. "They do it with nukes and I do it with my ring and with the implication that I know where their monster making lab is located."
"Making them think…? You mean you don't know where it is?" she asked, realizing that some of what the man had said had been a bluff.
"My friend managed to find several references to a place called 'The World' but wasn't able to get exact coordinates," Green Lantern replied, turning to look at her. "Still, I figured after seeing what I can do to one of their toys and hearing me say things I shouldn't know, it'd be enough to get them to back down. Looks like I was right."
"Remind me never to play poker with you." Rictor said with an impressed look on his face.
"Done. Well, I gotta go," Green Lantern said as an energy field surrounded his body before he levitated a bit into the air. "It was nice to meet you all and I hope we can do this again sometime. Seeya!"
With that the mystery man shot through the hole and disappeared from sight before anyone could ask him any questions or try to follow him. It'd certainly be an eventful debriefing with Professor Xavier later but not a negative one since it looked like they made it through the experience with no deaths or serious injuries. She'd still feel better once the doctors at the local hospitals gave every one of the civilians a look, along with a few of Doctor McCoy's gadgets to cover things no normal hospital had any experience in. She knew nothing about Green Lantern's abilities or his allies so she had no way of knowing if the civilians had truly been cured or if it just looked that way. Until she had proof that this was more than just a fancy lightshow, she'd reserve judgment concerning just how genuine the new hero was.
She hoped that her suspicions were unfounded because the world could always use another hero, especially one who didn't seem to care that he'd been working with mutants.
Two Days Later
Approaching Atlanta, Georgia
Xander's POV
MAN it's been a busy two days, he thought as he directed his flight in the direction of the Johnson home. It was just one thing after another.
What'd started out as a light patrol of Earth had spiraled into two days of going from one side of the planet to the other, helping wherever there was some kind of trouble he could help with. In some cases it was a natural disaster like a mudslide or a volcanic eruption and in other cases it was the old criminal favorite called a bank robbery. In most cases the people he helped had been grateful for his help but there had been a few times when the country had scrambled their fighter jets and attempted to shoot him down. Fortunately for him he could go invisible or fly far faster than them, so all he'd had to do was switch on the proverbial afterburners and they ate his glowing green dust. Still, he had to shake his head at what the big wigs of those countries were thinking since he'd only been trying to help their people out of tight spots. He supposed it was just the usual military and political paranoia when it came to things they didn't understand and automatically classifying them as threats.
I just hope they get a clue soon enough that I'm on their side, he thought as he saw the street he needed to be at. It'd be a real pain to be in the middle of helping people only to have them start shooting at me.
Setting down in an appropriately hidden spot, he quickly switched back to his civilian attire before stepping out onto the sidewalk and resuming his journey to Marcus Johnson's house.
"So I ask myself 'why would my buddy Marcus, someone with the potential to go far in the military, suddenly resign his commission?'" a voice said behind him along with the click that could only have come from a gun being cocked. "I go to ask him in person but he's remarkably tight lipped about the whole thing. Says I wouldn't believe him even if he told me the whole story. Also gave me some crap answer about it being top secret. So I decide to stake out his place for a few days to see if I can spot anyone suspicious and here you are, Mister Superhero. Now are you going to tell me what I want to know or am I gonna have to see how effective a nine millimeter round is on you?"
"Before we get to the answering I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me how you spotted me coming in, would you?" he asked, not particularly concerned since, even if the bullet made it past his auto-shield, the upgrades Lianna had given him would keep him going.
"Let's just say I know some people with some sweet surveillance gear that were willing to part with a few pieces for a week or so," the man behind him replied, sounding quite satisfied with the results. "Now start talking or I start shooting."
"No problem but let's let the Johnson's in on the story, 'kay?" he asked honestly, figuring it'd be best to tell the tale only once. "Marcus already knows most of the basics already so that'd leave only you and Missus Johnson to be let in on the truth."
"You're not taking one more step towards Marcus until I say so," the man behind him said, sounding like he truly believed he could force the truth out.
I understand that this guy is just looking out for his friend but I've got a schedule to keep, he thought with a bit of irritation before he brought his willpower into play.
With the speed of light a dome of energy surrounded the rough area where he believed the man to be and it was strong enough to take an artillery shell without giving way.
"Just so you know I wouldn't recommend firing your gun now. Ricochets can be a real bitch." He turned around to see who exactly wanted answers so insistently.
What he saw was a blonde haired man who looked to be only a little older than Marcus Johnson was dressed in casual clothes and holding a nice looking gun in his hand. At first he thought that the man was a spook, given the shades he had on, but then he considered the fact that he was wearing black shades caused him to dismiss the thought. It was far more likely that the guy was just one of Marcus' army buddies with a serious distrust of strangers and perhaps superheroes in particular, so he'd keep things civil for the time being.
"Now let's go see the Johnson family and get this whole mess resolved," he said before willing his ring to lift the man off the street and surround him with an emerald sphere.
Between the time he finished saying that and the time he arrived on the front doorstep of the Johnson household the man tried punching, kicking and headbutting the sphere to break it. While he couldn't help but shake his head at the futility of it, he had to respect the 'I will not give up' attitude the guy was going with. Then again he supposed that in the military 'give up' wasn't something that came to them easily and neither did they like to lose as long as there was a chance at victory.
In any case it was time to get on with his business so he knocked on the door and waited for someone inside to answer it.
A minute later the door opened to reveal his first potential recruit and he could tell the guy wanted to know why one of his friends was floating behind him in an energy sphere.
"You're friend here wanted some private time to talk to me but, since I'm on something of a schedule, I decided to bring him along so we can get this all out at once," he explained, jerking his head in the direction of the blonde guy. "So shall we take this inside? I'd hate for the neighbors to get strange ideas and call the cops on us."
"Point. Come in," Marcus said before stepping aside to allow entry.
"FYI? Unless you have a mirror that covers the door and you check it ahead of time, NEVER verbally invite someone into your home," he said, figuring that he might as well give out that little bit of info. "There are some nasty things out there and one of them can't enter your home unless you verbally invite them in."
The recruit didn't seem to know how to take that so he just nodded as he walked by, his 'follower' floating forward a few feet behind him. Once he heard the door close he allowed the sphere to dissipate, causing the blonde friend of Marcus Johnson to drop to the floor with a thump.
"You couldn't have just set him down nicely?" Marcus asked even as his friend grumbled a bit, getting up from the floor.
"He pointed a gun at me," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't like it when people point guns at me."
"You're bulletproof and you don't like people pointing guns at you?" Marcus asked, a bit of disbelief in his voice.
"I don't like people who point guns at me because it'll just cause their shots to ricochet and either hurt or kill innocent people close by," he said, withholding the fact that it was only due to the ring that he was bulletproof.
A nod was all he got in return before the three of them relocated to the living room where Marcus' mother was waiting for him, a serious look on her face. It looked like she wasn't any more in favor of her son giving up his military career on the word of some strange 'white boy' offering a mysterious job. He couldn't blame her because he'd probably react the same way if some stranger came to Sunnydale to convince Willow to throw away her lifelong goal for some unknown job.
"So, Mister Johnson… I've heard from your pal here that you've resigned your commission in the military but I'd like to hear it straight from you," he said, turning to the recruit. "Have you reached a decision regarding my job offer?"
"I have. I accept your job offer and, like Phil told you, I've resigned my commission as you stipulated when we talked last," Marcus said with the utmost seriousness and resolve. "Whenever you're ready to start with the training, I'm ready."
"BEFORE you go and do that I want the whole truth about what my boy is going to be up to," Missus Johnson said in a tone he'd heard from Missus Summers when would not take no for an answer. "I checked around and your 'business' does not exist and neither does your boss."
Definitely ex-spook, he thought remembering his previous hunch about the woman. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that she managed to dig out the truth in just three days.
"That okay with you, Marcus? Telling them EVERYTHING?" he asked, figuring it was the recruit's right to decide how much or how little his friends and family would know about his new job.
"I keep no secrets from my friends and family," Marcus replied, making it clear he considered that the absolute truth.
"Alright. Just remember, you two, that what you hear from here on out is something best kept a secret unless you want every government and arms manufacturer gunning for Marcus," he said, looking at Phil and Missus Johnson respectively. "Understand?"
"What? You gonna give him some futuristic ray gun that can atomize an entire city or something?" Phil asked, sounding like he didn't believe his friend could get into that much trouble.
"Not a ray gun," he replied with a smile before he willed his uniform into existence. "A ring."
Seeing the look of shock on Missus Johnson's face mirrored on Phil's, he could only presume that whatever tech he'd borrowed hadn't given him enough details. Probably just monitored for flying people or movement in secluded and therefore suspicious spots in the neighborhood or something like that.
Deciding to take advantage of their shock to pour the necessary information into their heads, he began to give both of them the cliff notes version of what the Green Lantern Corps was, what the responsibilities of a member were and how he along with whoever wound up being his partner were responsible for an entire sector of space.
"So basically he'd be a space cop?" Phil asked after the summary was finished.
"Half law enforcement and half peace keeping force, actually," he replied, covertly evaluating how the two were reacting to the information. "The goal of my predecessors was to bring law and order to the galaxy."
"And if people tell your Corps to go take a flying leap?" Missus Johnson asked, not sounding negative about the job merely thorough in her line of inquiry.
"If a specific sector of space unanimously votes to ban the Corps from operating in that area, we'll leave them to their own devices except under certain circumstances. Like if they're all war mongering empires that think they can do whatever they please, at the very least we'll oppose them if they try something outside of their sector," he replied, having thought of such possibilities. "If there are signs that there are residents in that sector that oppose the ruling body or are being mistreated then we offer to relocate them elsewhere if they're small enough in number. If they in fact represent the majority of the population and they're being oppressed by the people in power, we'd offer what assistance we can."
This seemed to strike the listeners as reasonable but he decided to go one step further.
"Just to give you a better idea, here're a few laws written in the Book of Oa by my predecessors that I plan on keeping around for now," he said before generating a simple screen with the top ten laws. "Law number one: the protection of life and liberty within the assigned sector. Law number two: Noninterference with a planet's culture, political structure or its population's collective will. Law number three: Acting within local laws and obeying the local authority within reason. Law number four: Taking no action against anyone or anything until they are proven to be a threat against life and liberty."
He continued rattling off the laws that he'd left in the Book of Oa after reviewing the ones left behind by the Guardians and throwing out the ones he didn't agree with. Laws like obeying the Guardian's orders without question he tossed out since, in the current situation, he'd be the one in the position of Guardian and he didn't agree with blind obedience. Sure, there had to be some compliance in a peace keeping or law enforcing organization but he was fine with discussing matters with his subordinates so long as time wasn't against them. He had no desire to be elevated up to some god-like status or to run the show like a tyrant. In his mind he wanted it to be like how it was with the Scoobies, just with the efficiency and discipline such a large organization would require in order to function properly.
"Marcus will be in charge of sector two eight one four along with a partner I'll be choosing within the next few weeks. If for some reason a crisis happens in this sector of space that's more than two Green Lanterns can handle, they can call for backup from neighboring sectors so long as there isn't something big going down there as well," he explained, moving on from the laws to more relevant information. "There are roughly thirty-eight planets in this sector that the two Lanterns will be responsible for but don't worry, not all of them are home to sentient life or life of any kind. The only time you'll have to worry about the uninhabited planets is if they're connected to a case you're currently working on."
"And if the crook I'm after tries to hide in a sector that wants nothing to do with the Green Lantern Corps?" Marcus asked, following that line of thought.
"Try to negotiate peacefully for them to hand the crook over, argue that the being is more trouble than they're worth, and, if they still refuse to turn them over, we go to 'aggressive negotiations'," he replied with a bit of a grin on his face.
"And 'aggressive negotiations' would be?" Phil asked, sounding like he had an idea what it meant already.
"If the opposing force is something you can handle solo you charge in and get the criminal yourself, doing as little damage to lives and property as you can in the process. If the opposing force is too powerful for you to handle solo, call for backup until the number of GLs is sufficient to go in and get the criminal," he replied, having already thought this through. "If it turns out that the opposing force is so strong that even the entire Corps at the time wouldn't be enough to successfully retrieve the criminal, we'd approach any alien races we have ties with to see if they'd be willing to help. If not military help then putting economic and diplomatic sanctions on the sector as well as whatever other bureaucratic pressure can be brought forth to force the turning over of the criminal."
"You'd be willing to go that far just for one criminal?" Missus Johnson asked, sounding like she thought it might be going a bit too far.
"We cannot let criminals think that all they need to do in order to escape justice is seek sanctuary in sectors that refuse to recognize the authority of the Corps," he said firmly in order to show his resolve. "It must be made clear that they cannot escape justice no matter where they go."
"Are you saying you'd be willing to go to war just to apprehend one criminal?" Phil asked, definitely thinking that such an act would be overkill.
"Depends on the criminal. If it's just some two bit bank robber or smuggler, probably not," he replied after a moment's consideration. "However if it's a war criminal or someone whose actions could have global or galactic repercussions if they're allowed enough time to prepare, then yes. Much like in any combat situation it all comes down to the numbers: will more lives be lost leaving the criminal be than going in to get them? If leaving the criminal to their own devices leads to the deaths of millions of people down the line then I'll do whatever needs to be done to apprehend them sooner rather than later."
It was harsh and not very heroic but it was also reality as far as he was concerned.
Situations where you never have to kill and can adhere to some ideal hero code of conduct without repercussions was stuff best left to comic books and cartoons.
When you got down to it, all you could do was ask yourself a single question: what are you prepared to sacrifice to accomplish your mission?
Looking at the three people before him, he tried to guess whether or not what he'd told them might have been enough to get Marcus to change his mind about joining. From his point of view he hadn't said anything wrong but, like a wise Jedi Master once said, 'a great many of the truths we cling to depend entirely on our own personal point of view'. Just because he didn't find anything wrong with what he'd said that didn't mean that Phil and the Johnson's would see things the same way.
"I'm in," Marcus said, sounding like what he'd been told had only confirmed that he'd made the right choice.
"Are you sure, Marcus?" Missus Johnson asked, sounding like she still had doubts.
"Yeah. It'll pretty much be what I'd planned on doing in the military except on a much bigger scale," Marcus replied with a nod. "Besides, anything that'll make this planet and you even a little bit safer is something I'm not going to pass up."
Thus, with a satisfied grin, he willed the recruit's ring into existence and ordered it to slide onto the man's middle finger.
"Then, Marcus Johnson of Earth, welcome to the Green Lantern Corps," he declared before extending his hand for a shake.
When it was taken a feeling of accomplishment warmed his insides as he realized that he'd taken the first of many steps to accomplishing the task set forth by Ganthet.
It was a good feeling.
Twenty Minutes Later, Missus Johnson's POV
Maybe I'm overthinking things, she thought as she watched the two dimming points of emerald light in the sky.
On the surface 'Alan Harrington's' offer seemed like the offer of a lifetime and definitely something greater than could be achieved through the American military. However that wasn't necessarily a good thing since it also meant facing greater threats than would normally be encountered as a standard soldier. Maybe it was her old CIA training talking but any organization, whether it was earthbound or in space, that didn't have a proven track record of being trustworthy made her brain itch. It didn't smell like a Hydra front operation since she was fairly sure that if they had rings like the one Harrington gave her son, the world would be in a lot worse shape.
That didn't mean the space cop group were clean, though, because even if she was retired from the agency that didn't mean she still didn't hear a few things from colleagues still in the business. She knew that there were off world threats every bit as bad, if not worse, than anything homegrown but that thus far the cape and mask crowd had managed to keep them from messing up Earth too badly. However the more she thought things over, the more she wanted to do her own background check on this 'Green Lantern Corps'. If it came up clean she'd leave it be and support her son in his decision to be a member. If, however, it came up suspect or dirty, she'd confront him with the evidence in an effort to make him resign.
If Mister Harrington had a problem with that, she'd make sure she had some 'persuasion' on hand to make him accept the resignation.
Walking over to the phone, she dialed a number that wasn't listed in anywhere and required she navigate a tree options in order to reach the department she wanted.
"This is S-Division, what is the nature of your call?" spoke a voice she didn't recognize from the other end.
"I'd like a background check on an Enterprise Tertiary organization." She remembered the aliases and codenames like she'd never left.
"Name?" asked the voice on the other side of the phone call.
"Green Lantern Corps. Claims to be a rule enforcer group."
"Understood. We will inform you once the background check has been completed." The connection was cut.
She didn't know how long it'd take to finish but she hoped no more than a month since in that amount of time she expected that her son will have stumbled or been dragged into some mess of trouble or other. Don't get her wrong, she was proud of what her boy had accomplished and the fact that he'd been all set to enter Ranger school had only made her prouder. However the boy was just a little too much like his father when it came to trouble, so she couldn't help but worry at times.
Still, maybe I am overthinking things, she thought as her mind returned to its previous train of thought on its own.
The Skies, Heading Towards the West Coast
Marcus's POV
"So where are we going?" he asked even as he did the odd barrel roll and loop de loop.
"My hometown," 'Alan' replied with a half grin on his face. "It's a small town in California and since there's a desert nearby, it'll be a good place to get your training started. Plus I plan on checking in on some friends of mine to make sure nothing happened while I was away."
"You're certainly taking an… informal… approach to things," he said, a bit surprised that things weren't starting out like boot camp.
"Well the way I see it, your military training has done most of the body work being a member of the Corps requires, so all you really need practice with his using the ring," Alan said, not looking back from his lead position. "Good thing there are no shortage of targets back home and for the more explosive stuff the desert should be far away from civilians that we can get that part of your training done without interruption."
"You make it sound like your hometown is gangbanger central," he said half-jokingly as he looked at the scenery go by below.
"You're not too far off the mark there, Marcus," Alan said, sounding completely serious. "But you'll have to wait until we get there before you'll believe the reason why."
That was certainly an odd statement if ever there was one.
Still, he was the recruit and Alan was the recruiter so, until he did something completely off the wall, he'd play along. Besides, it wasn't like he was so immature that he'd throw the ring back in the guy's face for so small a reason as talking odd.
"Are we going to get some space training, too?" he asked, remembering a brief desire to join NASA.
"Walk before you try to run, poozer," Alan replied, sounding a bit like his drill instructor back in boot. "Down here the only things capable of giving you trouble are the hero teams and black ops types with hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of hardware strapped to their backs. Up there… whole different story."
"And you don't think our training is going to bring either of those groups in to investigate?" he asked, figuring explosions and light shows of the type the rings were capable of would definitely provoke a response.
"There've been plenty of things that've happened in my home town and not a single cape has shown up to save the day," Alan replied a bit acidly. "As for the Black Ops crowd, if they haven't picked up on the fact that Sunnydale isn't your ordinary town by now they're either blind, incompetent or crooked."
Hearing all of that, he had to wonder just what Sunnydale was like that it could cover for a pair of capes training but at the same time have stuff happen that should've brought in the cavalry but hadn't. It gave him something to think about as he continued to practice flying maneuvers while keeping up with Alan.
It was about half an hour later that they reached their destination and began their descent towards an abandoned building, landing on the side that faced the road going out of town. Again he watched as, with a line of light from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, Alan changed his clothes from the Green Lantern uniform to casual street clothes. This sparked another question he'd had ever since the ring had automatically changed him into the uniform after it'd slipped itself onto his finger.
"Are there any regs about the uniform I should know about?" he asked as he tried to use his willpower to follow his superior's lead.
It didn't happen as smoothly as he'd have preferred but it still came to a close without any trouble.
"The only things you need to keep is the color scheme and the Green Lantern symbol," Alan replied as he walked around the corner of the building and onto the sidewalk. "Aside from that you have complete freedom to design your costume as you see fit. Same thing goes with the mask. I plan on keeping my civilian ID a secret here on Earth but I'll leave it up to you to decide whether you want to go about the job mask free or not."
He was quiet for a minute or two as he considered whether or not he wanted to wear a mask or not while he was on duty. Wanting to keep his civvie life private was a good reason in favor of the mask but it felt like hiding to him. He was going to be helping people with the ring he had, saving lives, so there was no real reason to hide who he was if he was doing good deeds. Soldiers didn't wear them most of the time. Sure, they wore camo face paint when needed and he guessed that some black ops people might have to hide their faces for deniability reasons, but he'd never really planned on going into that line of work. When most of your records were blacked out, you had entirely too much leeway with how you went about accomplishing mission objectives. Sure, he guessed that some black ops operatives probably managed to stay righteous but, when the brass only cared about results or deniability, most guys stopped caring about such things.
In the end he decided to compromise.
"I'll stick with the mask until everyone knows I'm here to help, not hurt," he said casually, looking about the immediate area.
"It's your call. Your ring's programmed so that only you or another member of the Corps can use it so someone won't be able to just take it off your finger, slip it onto their own and start using it," Alan said, looking over his shoulder partially. "That, of course, won't stop some of the more resourceful among them from trying to analyze it and duplicate it for their own ends. Just promise you'll do what you can to keep that from happening. The power of a Green Lantern ring in the wrong hands… not a pretty picture."
"I hear that," he said, being able to picture all too easily how bad it could get.
Even if he hadn't seen everything the jade ring could do, he'd seen enough that he could extrapolate on how it could be used in the wrong hands. Being able to produce energy constructs meant that you could replicate virtually any weapon you had a strong familiarity with, or even just create a giant Godzilla construct to crush everything underfoot. He didn't want to even contemplate what someone who was truly sadistic would do with a ring that could bring their imaginings into the real world.
It was about five minutes later that his curiosity got him to open his mouth again.
"Where're we goin'?" he asked, taking in the small town sights.
"A shop where my friends hang out," Alan replied while keeping his gaze straight ahead. "They'll know where the best action'll be tonight."
"Action? I thought we'd be training, not partying." He was really wondering if the guy in front of him had any idea how things were supposed to work.
"Oh, we'll be training, alright!" Alan declared with a lopsided smile on his face. "The nightlife here's just a little 'different' from other cities. It's the reason why most people stay indoors after sunset."
What the heck did he mean by that?
"Oh, and FYI, my real name's Xander Harris," Xander said before turning back to look ahead of him. "Figured you might as well know since one of my friends is going to say it for sure before I can clue them in on my alias. Besides, I want the Green Lantern Corps to be built on trust. That can't happen if it starts off with a lie."
That was a sentiment he could get behind.
Xander's POV
Hopefully nothing too big will be happening tonight, he thought as he continued to navigate the familiar route to Giles' new business. I want to break the newbie in slowly. A vamp nest maybe, or a demon capable of taking a reasonable pounding.
Sure, he knew that with the power a Green Lantern ring packed the number of things that could take hits from it were few unless the wielder specifically held back, but he was sure there'd be SOMETHING capable of being used as a training dummy. He figured it'd be the perfect place to start Marcus' construct training as well as perhaps his barriers since both would need to be pretty good before the former soldier could do solo patrols.
Most of the man's training had already been handled by the military in terms of physical conditioning, hand-to-hand combat, weapons training and other skills. All that was really lacking was familiarity with the ring and what it could do but, once that was done and Marcus incorporated it into how he fought, he'd be able to move on to the next recruit Lianna found.
It was his short term plan to locate eight potential Green Lanterns, train them up to the point where they could handle most things solo or be the equivalent of someone fresh from boot camp. Once that was done he'd have them locate eight recruits of their own from the various sectors that currently didn't have a pair of GLs to call their own. Once they went past fifty members he'd start reviewing each of their files to see which ones would be best to fill the various positions that were currently vacant on Oa. After all, they couldn't just spend all their time recruiting. They needed to do actual patrolling and only when the bureaucratic and training side of the Corps was running with at least a skeleton crew. True, Lianna could probably hand most of the proverbial paperwork side of things being an A.I., but he didn't think it'd be fair to dump all that work on her just because she wasn't flesh and blood. Besides, it might turn out that some of the recruits were better at that side of things than combat and that'd solve a lot of his personnel issues.
I know Lianna's scoping out the universe for species that wouldn't necessarily be Green Lanterns but have the skills to do the non-combat roles, but I'm a little uncomfortable about that, he thought as his soldier memories and common sense pointed out some cons. Until we have a better idea of which species are trustworthy and which ones aren't, letting any of them know Oa's location would be dangerous, never mind letting them work there.
After all history had proven that not all races would welcome the coming of the Green Lantern Corps and, just like on Earth, they'd covet the power each ring possessed. It was one of the reasons why he'd had Lianna rig it so that no sentient that wasn't registered as a member of the Corps could use the rings, even if they came into possession of one. He'd also had her rig the power battery's each Lantern would possess so that they'd automatically shunt themselves into their pocket dimensions if anyone unauthorized tried to use them or tried to figure out how they worked. It might complicate things down the road but he took his responsibilities as Lantern Prime very seriously and that meant ensuring that no GL tech got into the wrong hands.
Then there was always THAT issue Lianna had told him about.
Letting GL tech, especially the green energy, get into the hands of others would be the first step towards THAT happening.
No way was he going to let THAT come to pass.
Turning the corner, the 'Magic Shop' came into view but the odd thing was that there was a rather pricy looking car parked out front that he was reasonably sure no one in Sunnydale could afford. Sure, there were a couple of families in Sunnydale that could be considered 'rich' but wealth was relative to the place where you lived. A rich person in a small town like Sunnydale would be considered a pauper by some of the rich people who lived in the major American cities. While Cordy had brought to school many a pricy car, he was pretty sure that the car outside the 'Magic Shop' was well outside the price range of Sunnydale's rich unless they wanted to lose half their savings. Now some idiots might think to do that, believing that doing something like that would get them an invite to the class above them or make them seem more important, but it'd be a bad move. After all, paying a shit ton of money to get the car was bad enough but when you considered how much it'd cost to maintain such an expensive ride… the poor Sunnydale native would be bankrupt inside of two years.
I wonder who it is.
"Problem?" Marcus asked from behind him, sounding like he was ready for a fight if necessary.
"Not necessarily. Just that the car there is a little too pricy for this town," he replied as they arrived across the street from the 'Magic Shop'. "It could be nothing. It could be something. Keep your ring warm but don't let it go past a light glow."
He knew that such precision control might be beyond the ex-soldier's abilities, given how new he was to the ring, but it'd be a good exercise for him.
Crossing the street, he pushed open the 'Magic Shop' door hearing the familiar jingle of the bell hanging just above the doorframe and once inside with Marcus he took a look about the area. Most of the gang was present as expected but there were two people there as well that had him a bit on edge since they were definitely NOT locals. If their leather or PVC clothes weren't big enough hints then there was the fact that he recognized them from a news broadcast he'd seen once. Unless he was very much mistaken the man was one Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops of the X-Men, and the lady to the right of him was Emma Frost. He had no idea what her codename was but, considering how she was dressed, 'Modesty' probably wasn't it, nor was 'Humility'.
A nice piece of eye candy, though, and that was probably the point.
The minds of men were probably easier to break into if they were distracted by lust and the weaker among them were probably oh so easy to manipulate wearing an outfit like that as well. A few implied rewards here, some precision body language there and probably an entire wardrobe of revealing outfits would probably make any man putty in her hands mentally as well as physically. What had him on edge was that, if what he'd heard both on the news and via rumors were true, then she was also a telepath and that was a security risk. While part of his 'upgrades' as a result of Lianna's tinkering was improved mental strength, he doubted it'd do much good against someone of Frost's level. Besides that, he figured it was a pretty done deal that she'd be able to get into Marcus' mind, so it looked like he'd just have to hope that she didn't find either of them interesting enough to scan or she had enough morality in her to keep whatever she learned to herself.
I make no promises… Lantern Prime. came a female voice in his mind that sounded very arrogant and playful.
Considering the likewise cocky smirk on Frost's face, it didn't take a genius to figure out that it'd been her voice in his head.
He couldn't help but frown at a potential problem in the making.
"Xander! You're back!" Dawn said, rushing up and giving him a big hug.
Returning the hug with a smile, he released it after a few seconds but oddly enough Dawn kept the hug going for another five seconds before letting go.
"Yep. Needed a place to train the new recruit here and figured there was no end of target dummies in Sunnydale," he said with his smile in place.
"Can I come?" Dawn asked, sounding like she had a chance to go to a water park or a movie she really wanted to see.
"As long as your mom doesn't have any trouble with it, sure," he said, not forgetting that Dawn's body didn't match her actual age.
In a flash, metaphorically speaking, Dawn was behind the cashier counter of the store and using the phone to dial home.
"Is it truly wise to go looking for trouble, Xander?" Giles asked, sounding like he'd prefer a little more caution. "While I do not pretend to know everything about your… abilities, you should not allow yourself to become overconfident. All it would take would be to encounter something capable of turning your own abilities against you to make things problematic."
"Don't worry, Giles. We're only going to go after dust buster food," he said, confident that they had nothing to worry overly about. "If something strong in the mojo shows up we'll pull back… unless, of course, they're doing something truly horrible, in which case I'll give you guys a call before doing what needs to be done."
"If it isn't too much of a problem, Mister Harris, we could come along as well," Emma Frost said, sounding like she had ulterior motives. "It will be beneficial to see Miss Summers use her abilities in order to determine where she needs help and, if you run into something 'strong in the mojo', an extra pair of fighters could prove beneficial."
"True," he said as a position began to form in his mind. "But call me Xander. Whenever someone says Mister Harris I start looking for my father and I'd rather not be compared to him in any way, shape or form."
"Very well, Xander it is then." Miss Frost said with a nod of understanding.
"Mom says I can go as long as things don't get too dangerous!" Dawn declared before briskly walking back over to his position.
"Like I told Giles, it'll just be some dust buster food for tonight. Nothing dangerous about them when you can do what we can," he said, glad that Dawn was happy. "So, G-Man? Any parts of town particular full of fang faces?"
Seeing the former Watcher wince at his much hated nickname, he grinned at the familiarity of it all and believed that as he had this to come home to he'd manage to get through anything.
