~~~~~Chapter 4~~~~~
They quickly regretted their decision.
Hal, Kilowog, and Aya had seen Razer use the strange breath-based energy blast, that seemed to be unique to the Red Lanterns, before.
This was far worse.
Razer's ring began to glow. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As he released it, a disgusting gurgling noise sounded from his throat towards the end of the breath. He opened his eyes again and they began to glow, the odd fire-like red aura flickering around them like it did when he was in the middle of a fight. All of the sudden Razer reared back, taking in as deep of a breath as he could, all the while a horrible choking sound emanating from deep in his throat. This time as he released the breath, coupled with a powerful step forward, it was joined by the same gurgling noise.
And a massive gush of blood.
Hal and Kilowog recoiled in horror as their Red Lantern companion expelled far more blood than was probably possible, let alone healthy. They recoiled even farther when said blood, upon contact with the black mineral, began steaming and then burst into flame, eating away at the stone bars even faster than Rallus' venom had. The bars fell away and dissolved into goo in a gouge the blood had eaten into the floor.
Razer himself collapsed to his knees, coughing and gasping for breath, as the last dribble of expelled blood dripped from his chin.
The sound of approaching miners and guards were so loud that they would be turning the corner into the cell recess in seconds.
Hal and Kilowog stood stock still, watching as Razer gasped for breath.
"I…told…you…" Razer rasped, eyes fixed decidedly on the floor, voice sounding vaguely like his throat had been rubbed down by sandpaper. The first to move was Aya, who ran past the other two, stepping neatly over and around the still steaming acid-holes in the floor, and helping Razer back to his feet. This snapped the other two part-way out of their shock, and they made their way over as well, all of them falling into fighting positions as the first of the miners rounded the corner.
"Wh-," Kilowog began, but his ability to speak seemed to have abandoned him. Instead, Hal gave it a try.
"What…?" Oh well, he'd made a valiant effort.
"The rings can tap directly into our circulatory systems," Razer explained quietly, spitting a last glob of blood off to the side, where it sizzled lightly into the floor. "We can use it like that. Or it can run the circulatory system of its wielder should anything happen to damage the original structure."
"I-Isn't that dangerous?" Finally Kilowog managed a coherent sentence.
"Oh yes," Razer stated, in a very dark, but matter-of-fact, tone. "Very." The first wave of miners reached them and the fight began.
Aya spun neatly and delivered a kick into the chest of a muscular but top-heavy horned alien, knocking the wind out of him and over-balancing him into at least two others in the crowd that were rushing forward too close behind. Razer sidestepped around her, and landed a solid punch onto the jaw of another that was trying to slip through the opening cause by Aya's kick. Kilowog rushed forward and met head to head and hand to hand with a massive brute of an alien; locking fingers and solidifying his stance, Kilowog whirled around and threw his opponent into the wall. Hal ran forward, dropping to the floor in an impressive baseball slide to make it under the legs of one of the aliens, jumping back to his feet on the other side of the confused creature and stealing a heavy mining tool off of its back. With a hefty whack, the alien went down like a ton of bricks.
Through the chaos of the fight, Kilowog noticed Rallus lunging forward into the fight. He grit his teeth with determination and lowered his shoulder, rushing forward and knocking anyone who got in his way aside like they were nothing. In no time he'd reached the serpentine alien. Rallus, coiled and ready for a strike at a preoccupied Razer, found himself caught mid-strike by a very angry Kilowog grabbing his snake-like tail and whipping him around hard into a wall.
"I warned you about what would happen when we got out of that cell," Kilowog growled. Rallus's eyes widened momentarily before they narrowed again and Kilowog found himself being constricted by the scaled tail.
"Very well," Ralluz hissed menacingly, shoving Kilowog away with his surprisingly muscular tail. "Have it your way, Bolovaxian!" He lunged forward.
Meanwhile, the miners were starting to use the venom-enhanced weapons that Rallus had mentioned earlier. Dodging swipes from an acid-saw, Razer found himself back-to-back with Aya, who was in a similar predicament. They ducked in, Razer slashing away with a construct sword to keep the two opponents at bay. Aya surrounded them with a construct shield to block their assailants' blows but to the Red Lantern's horror, the acid-saw sliced through the green construct easily. The Red Lantern kicked out through a gap in the shield, knocking back his opponent, and then whirled around and pulled Aya away seconds before her opponent brought its acid-saw down through her half of the shield. Hal jumped back to join them, dodging a swipe from his current opponent.
"Constructs do not seem to stop the venom," Aya warned.
"Thanks for the heads-up!" Hal responded, while leg-sweeping a spindly-legged spider alien and stealing its acid-saw.
Suddenly, Kilowog went flying by, crashing heavily into the wall of the cavern. The remaining three fell back to surround their fallen companion. While Razer and Aya held off the oncoming miners, Hal turned to check on Kilowog. There was an echoing shriek and a loud thud, as Desmod the bat alien dropped out of the air to land behind Hal. Hal turned to shield himself, but as Desmod raised one powerful winged arm there was a flash of green. Desmod was knocked back with a powerful green energy blast to the chest, and small bits of the blast ricocheted off the black mineral in the walls, some luckily managing to take out a few of the advancing miners. Hal turned back to see Kilowog, back in Green Lantern uniform, grinning. The drill sergeant opened one huge fist to reveal Hal's own ring, which Hal took gladly, donning his uniform once more.
An angry hissing shriek echoed through the cavern. The four turned to see Rallus racing towards them at surprising speed, the arm he had been wearing the rings on trailing brokenly at his side, his facial expression absolutely feral. He lunged and the Green Lanterns automatically constructed shields. In mid-air, Rallus spat several streams of venom ahead of him. Taking a deep breath, Razer stepped forward.
"Shields down!" he roared, and then took another deep breath, his eyes and ring glowing brightly. The other three complied and, as the shields fell, a familiar gurgling, choking noise rang out. Kilowog pushed Hal and Aya to the side and behind him, and Razer unleashed another veritable torrent of blood, which engulfed the gobs of venom and continued past. Rallus raised his single working arm to try to shield himself, but it was no use.
Razer dropped to his knees again, hacking up the last of the blood and gasping for air. The flame-like aura around his eyes flickered and faded. There was an agonizing throbbing in his chest, and his throat burned painfully. He barely managed to lift his gaze to check on the three behind him before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed into unconsciousness.
Razer awoke sometime later, a fuzzy grey static falling slowly away from his mind as he gradually regained his sense of his surroundings. He was laying on one of the med-tables in the common room of the Interceptor. His chest ached and his veins felt like they were burning. The horrible stench and taste of blood was still there in his mouth and nose.
"I am glad you have regained consciousness." Aya, of course. Razer didn't even bother to move to try to see her.
"How long was I unconscious?" he asked, now-raspy voice barely audible. Aya, instead, moved into his line of sight.
"For approximately 5.15 hours," she responded exactly. "We left the planet not long ago, after sending a request to the Green Lanterns of this and two adjacent sectors for help capturing and holding the remaining miners."
"What about-"
"We warned them about the moon." Razer nodded and began struggling to sit up. Aya moved to his side and helped him up.
"You're going to the bridge?" she inquired, even though they both knew it was more a statement than a question. Instead of answering, Razer merely swung his legs off of the table and stood up. The burning in his chest flared up and his legs buckled. Aya caught him and helped him sit back down on the med-table. The door from the bridge opened with a loud 'woosh'.
"Should you be up so soon?" Hal asked as he and Kilowog entered. The two plunked down at the dining table, facing Razer and Aya.
"I'm fine," Razer answered, the gravelly whisper that was his voice at the moment giving away the total lie that the statement was.
"Uh, no," Kilowog interjected. "I'm pretty sure you just coughed up more than twice your body supply of blood back there. Not just that, but blood that melts solid rock and catches fire. Something tells me, that ain't healthy."
"I'll recover," Razer shot back, then fell into a coughing fit. Kilowog and Hal exchanged looks: worried, uncomfortable, uncertain. Once Razer's coughing subsided, they spoke up again.
"Kid," Kilowog began, "you saved our behinds back there, no doubt about it. Do us a favor though?" Razer looked up, unsure and tired. It struck Hal how much younger Razer was than he and Kilowog. He was a powerful fighter and a competent soldier, but their referring to him as 'kid' was more than just a nickname dictated by experience versus lack thereof. Compared to them he really was just a kid. Hal looked over to Kilowog, who it seemed had been caught by the same thought. Hal sighed and got up. As he made his way over, Razer's eyes followed him with a vague sense of caution. He stopped right in front of the seated Red Lantern.
"Do us all a favor, Razer," Hal said, voice unmistakably serious. "Give yourself time to recover from this. The moment we get back to Oa we're carting you to the Medical Dome and you will stay off-duty for as long as the doctor says it'll take you to recover." Razer let out a snort.
"I'm serious," Hal replied, and with a smirk he added, "I'll put you under Kilowog and Aya's watch if it takes that to keep you from straining yourself." Razer made a small wheezing noise that Hal strongly suspected was an attempt at laughter.
"And don't do that blood thing again," Kilowog added in. "I don't know if my stomach can take it."
"If it were up to me," Razer said, completely serious, "I would never use it again."