THE BROTHERHOOD

Officer Dan Turpin placed his badge and gun on his desk and let out a small grunt as he took his seat behind it at the Metropolis Police Station. In front of him stood five youths who had been involved in a recent bombing attempt on Oan Towers.

He recognised two of them.

Wally West and Kyle Rayner stood in front of Turpin's desk without looking at each other. They had exchanged bewildered expressions upon seeing each other at the police station, but personal explanations would have to wait until the police was through with them.

Turpin stared at Wally and Kyle. "Why are you kids always mixed up in this kind of business? If it isn't murder frame ups, its terrorists, and if it's not terrorists it's bomb threats. Don't you ever have any studying to do at that college of yours?"

"He was working with me." The slightly older man with the brown, crew cut hair spoke up, indicating Kyle. "I'm with the guardians."

Turpin nodded, unimpressed. "They told me about you. That doesn't explain why you got civilians involved."

"We didn't know about them." Hal indicated Wally and the man next to him.

"I'm with Keystone PD." The man spoke up. "The pulse was in our custody when it was stolen. They sent me to investigate. Wally was helping me."

"And you, er... Carl, is it?" Turpin asked Kyle with a frown. "Why were you there? Don't you know civilians aren't allowed within international jurisdiction matters?"

"I'm not a civilian." Kyle said, letting out an inward sigh. He reached into his pant pocket and pulled out a green, curiously shaped ring, and slipped it on his middle finger. "My name is Kyle Rayner, and I am the green lantern of sector 4479."

Wally's head whipped towards Kyle and he stared at him in amazement. Kyle continued to look at the officer.

Turpin sighed, leaning back in his chair and massaging his temple. "Suppose you five tell me everything from the beginning, instead of piling on the surprises? Think you lot can manage that for once?"

Outside Oan towers: Two hours earlier

Wally West got out of the cab and paid the driver. He turned to stare at the imposing complex stretching out in front of him beyond the main gates. Somewhere inside the complex, a picture of him had been caught on camera and shown to him by Eobard Thawne. That picture had been dated two days into the future. He was half an hour away from the exact time shown on the picture.

Wally walked slowly towards the gate, but then hesitated. The booth next to the stop outside the main gate was empty. There should have been a guard there. And yet...

Wally could not even believe what he was contemplating doing. But the man had shown him that it was already predetermined that he would be inside the building at the appointed time. And then there was the bomb, which Thawne had said only he could save the city from. He was torn over what he should do. A part of him still thought it was all unbelievable. That was why he was not going to the police just yet. He wanted to make sure...

He hesitated for another moment, but then walked slowly towards the gate.

Wally stood in front of the lab building and stared up at the security camera. He was fairly sure this was the point at which the photo had been taken. He checked his watch. There was still time. Twenty minutes before... something was supposed to happen. It was an unsettling thought that he had no idea what that was supposed to be. Maybe he was really just wasting his time. And he was technically breaking into private grounds. He still had time to get out before-

"Hey!" An angry suddenly voice shouted. Wally turned. A guard was glaring at him from a hundred yards away. "What are you doing here?"

Wally hesitated. "I was told to be here." He began, then realised how ridiculous the full explanation would sound. He was uncertain as to how to proceed. The guard was talking rapidly into his walkie talkie.

"Wally!" A voice appeared, and Wally whirled to see Eobard Thawne beckoning to him from atop a staircase.

Wally hesitated for one more second, staring at the guard. He was in a dangerously vulnerable position, and Thawne was apparently the only person there at the moment who seemed to know exactly what was going on. He ran up the staircase after Thawne's diminishing figure, and entered the building.

Thawne had disappeared. Wally stared around the darkened room he was in. The shouting of guards outside came to his ears. He made his way out of the room through the sole doorway, and stepped into fluorescent light.

A scene of destruction greeted him. He was in some sort of a laboratory. Machines lay broken and scattered on the ground. There was smoke rising from a strangely shaped instrument. Two scientists were lying unconscious on the ground. Three guards stood staring at them. Their walkie talkies squawked, and they heard the message. They all turned simultaneously to look up at Wally, and he froze under their gaze.

"Stay where you are." A guard shouted as the three came towards him up the stairs. "This is a crime scene. You are staying with us until the police arrives."

Wally's mind was in a free fall. He could not even begin to understand what was going on. All he knew was that somehow he was being seen as a criminal, and the police was involved. His hands rose slowly in the air as the guards continued to shout, and a prickle of panic appeared in his mind.

That was when he saw Thawne disappearing into the shadows at the opposite end of the walkway.

Wally was suddenly filled with anger, and a sudden fit of desperation. He did not know what was going on, but Thawne did. Whatever kind of trouble he was in, he knew that Thawne behind the whole thing.

It was then that Wally decided on a course of action that, in retrospect, even he could not decide whether was brave or stupid. Perhaps the truth was it was less a decision and more an instinctive response to the situation.

He sprinted up the walkway, past the surprised guards. They shouted and grabbed at him, but he was too fast. He was on the other side of the walkway before they had drawn their guns. The first shot rang out as he exited the hall, burying into the wall inches away from where he had been a second ago.

Wally raced out of the hallway and made his way rapidly down the stairs. He could see Thawne crouching behind a tower, watching the laboratory. Upon seeing Wally he turned and tore off in the opposite direction. Wally jumped down the last few steps, and the chase was on.

Thawne was in excellent shape, but Wally was filled with a steely anger that made him oblivious to any fatigue. He gained steadily on the figure ahead of him as they made their way deeper into the complex, the sound of guards shouting all around them

Finally Thawne slowed down. They were under a bridge connecting two buildings, and were, for the moment, hidden from view. Wally increased his speed, seconds away from Thawne. But then he stopped abruptly. Thawne had reached into his jacket, and the steely glitter of a berretta handgun suddenly shone in his hand.

Thawne was panting, and so was Wally as the two faced each other. The guards were coming closer.

"Walk away, Wallace." Thawne said coolly. "This will not end well for you if you try to force my hand."

Wally stared at him, still panting hard. "Why?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Thawne smirked.

Suddenly, the sound of a bike roared behind them. Thawne frowned in puzzlement. He turned to locate the source, and a biker suddenly burst into view.

Thawne's gun was raised and three shots rang out, but the bike was far too fast. He raised straight towards Thawne, and then at the last second turned, hitting Thawne with his shoulder at full speed. The gun flew from the impact and landed several feet away with a clatter.

Thawne took one look at the biker, and then ran. He was running at top speed now, and going full pelt.

The bike roared again, and suddenly it was right beside him. A sharp, 180 degree turn, and Thawne ran straight into the bike, the impact sending him tumbling hard to the ground. He stayed on the ground staring up at the biker as guards ran towards them, attracted by the noise. Wally jogged up slowly as well.

The biker pointed towards Thawne, and the guards nodded and seized him. One looked questioningly at Wally, but the biker shook his head. Thawne was led away, dealing one last look of hatred at the biker.

Wally stared at Thawne's retreating back, and then at the biker, a blond haired man with clear blue eyes.

"Tight spot there, Wally." The man said lightly.

Wally stared at him. "What the hell is going on in this place?"

The biker grinned. "Give me a minute to speak to the guards, and then I'll be happy to answer all of your questions. And by the way," He extended his hand. "My name is Barry Allen."

"He was lying to me the whole time?" Wally said.

"Shocking though it might seem, he's not actually a time traveller." Barry said dryly. "He was a supplier to Sinestro, a man who runs a rival company to Oa, and when the hit was decided they needed a patsy to pin it on. The purpose of telling you the story was to get you here, and then frame you."

"But he told me all these weird things." Wally rapidly narrated the circumstances of his first meeting with Thawne.

"The mobile he gave you showed information on a glass screen, right?" Barry said. "He was using sixth sense technology. They were developed a few years ago. The screen you saw the information on was a projection he was controlling. You might have seen the new samsung phones that use the technique of touching phones to share files. That's what he was doing when he pulled out the information from your mobile. And the glasses he showed you? They're pretty common in certain circles, too. He stole then from my boss, actually. You can almost do all those things through a smartphone nowadays anyway. It was simply a question of adapting the technology to lenses."

"But he showed me the picture." Wally persisted. "It had me going towards the building, and it was dated today."

"Ever heard of photoshop?" Barry asked. "They could have grafted your face onto a giraffe. Melding it to the face of an employee at Oa was nothing. Neither was changing the date on the photo."

Wally stared at him, his colossal stupidity becoming painfully clear to him at that moment.

"Why did he choose me for all of this?" He asked finally.

"Because your little group has had a remarkably large hand in recent criminal arrests in this city." Barry said. "It makes your mysterious involvement more credible than any other citizen."

"But why was I chosen from the group?" Wally asked, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Because they knew I'd be the one they could fool most easily?"

"I can think of a better reason." Barry said slowly. "Thawne has a special vendetta against me. He wanted to get me here so his friends could finish me off inside the complex. He knew getting you involved would force me to come here personally."

"Why?" Wally asked with a frown.

Barry stared into the distance for a moment. "Because," He said at last in a slightly awkward tone. "I'm dating your sister, and she'd be really mad if I let anything happen to you."

"You're dating Iris?" Wally stared at him in surprise. "She never said a word to me!"

"Yeah, we're being low key about it for now." Barry said with an apologetic smile. "We both need to concentrate on our jobs for now. But it has been going on for a few months."

Wally stared at him, his brain finally starting to take it all in. "Well, thanks for saving my life, I guess."

"Don't mention it." Barry smiled. "And it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Wallace. Iris told me a lot about you and your little group, and all the times you've helped the police. I used to run in high school too, but from what I've heard, you might be faster."

"Thanks." Wally grinned. "You seem to know a thing or two about speed. The things you did with that bike were amazing."

"It took a while to learn." Barry said with a smile. "There seem to be a few things you and I share. Speed is in our blood. So is justice. So how about we work with the police when it gets here to get Thawne behind bars? They'll want a word with you as well as me."

"Who would have thought it would come to this?" Sinestro said softly.

Hal, Kyle and Gardner stared back at him from across the table. They sat in a conference room inside Oa complex. The building in which the meeting was taking place was completely deserted.

"You have a strange way of showing remorse." Hal said.

"Remorse? My dear boy, why would I show remorse? I warned Ganthet years ago what my dismissal would mean. This situation is several years in the making. I merely regret that the guardians did not heed my warning."

"I'm glad they didn't." Kyle broke in coldly. "If it got you out of the corps instead of weakening it from the inside, I think they made the right call."

"Careful, child." Sinestro's cold green eyes swivelled over to him. "I was wearing the ring while you were still in diapers. I understand the corps and the guardians much better than you ever will." Hal gave Kyle a warning glance. He was here only to observe, not to interfere with the proceedings.

"Exactly what is this pulse supposed to do?" Hal said in a neutral voice.

Sinestro picked up the silver briefcase sitting on the ground next to him and placed it on the table. Slowly, he opened the briefcase. A detonator with a pulsing red button lay in the centre. To the left lay a gleaming yellow gun, which Sinestro extracted and placed in front of him.

"Just an extra precaution." He smiled at Hal. "Although we know how foolish a personal attack on me would be inside this complex. Now, the pulse is the result of a brain wave on the part of a silicon valley scientist named Rahul Maurya. He passed away soon after, unfortunately, but by a happy coincidence the pulse fell into my hands."

"We'd heard about Maurya's design." Hal said coolly. "And Oan scientists have already built a shield against it."

"Yes, I am well aware of Tomar Re's claims." Sinestro smiled. "But you and I both know it is impossible to build a shield against my pulse. Once I press the button, the power battery that the guardians have spent all their resources making will be destroyed. I'm sure your scientists have been working round the clock trying to locate the bomb, but I can assure you they won't find it."

There was a long pause. "Your demands?" Hal's voice had changed, and Sinestro's smile widened.

"A merging between Oa and my company, with myself as majority stakeholder."

"That's a pretty big demand." Hal murmured.

"A logical one." Sinestro said. "At one press of the button, I can annihilate the power source, and without a central power battery, Oa's position on the global energy market crashes. It was foolish of the corps to stake all their money on this new energy source. The only way out is to join me."

"Exactly how did you manage to know where to place the battery?" Hal asked.

For the first time, Guy Gardener stirred in his seat next to Hal. He stood up and went to stand next to Sinestro. "I decided to look for new career opportunities, Jordan." Kyle was staring at Guy, open mouthed. Sinestro was smirking at Hal.

"Guy Gardener is a revolutionary, just like myself." He said. "And when I contacted him, he saw at once how much more effective my methods are than the guardians."

Hal was staring at Guy. "I can't say I'm surprised. The guardians have made mistakes in the past." He paused, with a hard look at Gardener. "Making you a lantern was one of the biggest."

"Guy!" Kyle burst out, unable to contain himself. "What the hell are you doing? You're a green lantern. How could you do this to the corps?"

"Sorry, kid. But Sinestro's more my kind of a boss than the guardians." Gardner said. He turned to look at Hal. "And I was a better lantern than you ever were, army boy."

"Is that why they kicked you out?"

"What?" Kyle said, turning to stare at Hal.

"I'm sorry you didn't know, Kyle." Hal said coldly. "He's not a lantern anymore. He lost his badge a month ago."

Gardener's eyes had narrowed as he stared at Jordan, a muscle working in his jaw. "What happened to qward wasn't my fault."

"Tell that to the victims of the controllers." Hal said evenly.

Gardener took a step forward, his hands curling into fists. Kyle had the sudden urge to shout a warning to Hal.

"You talk as if I'm the only lantern who ever made a mistake." Gardener hissed.

"You're the one who makes multiple mistakes." Jordan said coolly.

Gardener let out a low laugh. "Is that right, parallax?"

The blood drained from Hal's face, as he rose and took a step in Gardener's direction as well.

"Yes it is, you psychotic clown. I made a mistake in the past, but I've learnt from it-"

"Learnt how to kill people, you mean? Learnt how to screw the guardians out of their own money."

"I didn't steal that money." Hal was shouting now. "Don't you dare try to make me out to be a thief, Gardener."

"What else you wanna call it, Mr. Lantern." Gardener roared as well. "It's because of you that the battery was broken in the first place, you who tried to break into the guardians accounts, you who made Wog and the others lose their life savings. And then you tell me I'm the one who should be ashamed? At least I never tried to-"

"Enough." Sinestro's cold voice broke the argument before it could escalate into a fistfight. "Stubborn, hot headed children. That is what you all are. And you call yourselves lanterns. You can kill each other after this meeting is over. But first, Hal Jordan, I need an answer."

Hal was breathing heavily as he sat down, and it took several seconds for his blood pressure to return to normal. "I trust Tomar Re." Hal said quietly at last. "He said he'd fixed the shield, and I have no reason to doubt him. Nor do the guardians."

"Are you sure, lantern?" Sinestro voice had turned to a whisper. "Would you trust him with the fate of Oa? Perhaps we should put your faith to the test?"

"We should." Hal spoke quietly, yet something in his voice sent warning bells ringing in Sinestro's mind. Before he could react, Hal had already reached across the table and pressed the detonation button.

The other three sprang to their feet as well. Sinestro's eyes bulged in disbelief as he stared at Hal. Kyle was staring at him as well. But Hal's eyes were locked on the window. He took out his mobile and dialled a number, his gaze dispassionate. Someone at the other end picked up, and a brief message was relayed.

Hal sat back slowly in his chair, motioning to Kyle to sit as well. He was staring back at Sinestro now. "That was the head of security at Oa." He said quietly. "He just told me that the bomb went off. And it was ineffective on the battery."

A ringing silence followed the announcement. Sinestro was breathing hard, his nostrils flaring. "You planned this." He spoke slowly. "You planned all of this."

"No, we just modified your plan a little." Hal said. "Your bomb would certainly have been a threat. For the outside world. We had to make sure it went off in controlled surroundings."

"Controlled surroundings!" Sinestro repeated in disbelief. "It could have ruined the guardians. It could have destroyed all their work."

"Tomar Re told us his shield would hold."

"And you gambled everything on his word?" Sinestro still looked disbelieving. "You staked the future of the corps on the word of one green lantern?"

"That is what we do." Hal's voice had changed. It was quieter now, and compelling. "We put everything on the line every day, and all we have to depend on is our trust in our brothers. That's what you never understood about the lanterns. And that's why you couldn't stick to our code."

The look on Sinestro's face was twisted and ugly. In a second, he had grabbed the gun off the desk and was levelling it at Hal. There was no time to even think about dodging.

And then a fist smashed into his face from the left, and he was sent sprawling to the ground. He looked up to see Gardner picking up the gun from the ground.

"What are you doing?" Sinestro bellowed.

"My little bit in this plan." Gardner remarked, emptying the chambers of the gun. "It's not the action I'm used to, but what you gonna do."

"You are with them!"

"Oh, yeah." Guy nodded matter of factly. The surprise on Sinestro's face was replaced by anger.

"You fool." He said through gritted teeth. "I could have made us both rich beyond our wildest dreams."

"Not if it meant an end to the corps. Sure, we've had some bad patches, but that's another thing you never understood about this job." Gardner stared down at him, and for once there was no mocking glint in his eyes. "Once a green lantern, always a green lantern."

Slowly, Sinestro got to his feet. Guy had walked over to Hal and Kyle, and the three stood staring at him in silence, the green rings glinting identically on their fingers.

"You're free to leave whenever you want to." Hal said quietly. "No one else need know about this. Only because you were once one of us, and the damage was contained. But if you ever try to threaten us again..." He let the words hang in the air for a moment. "Just remember. You attack one of us, you attack us all."

Sinestro stood staring at them, breathing heavily. Then he turned and strode out of the room without a word. For several moments no one else in the room moved.

"Come on." Hal said at last, motioning towards the door. "We're done here."

"Sorry about the scare, kid." Guy said to Kyle. "The guardians sent me to Sinestro to keep an eye on him. When you called me, I saw it as a nice opportunity to be there when things came to a head."

"A neat end, all things considered." Hal mused aloud. "I was worried when he took out the gun, but everything else played out fairly to plan."

"So that argument between you two was part of the plan?" Kyle asked slowly.

Hal and Guy glanced at each other. "Err... no, that was just in the heat of the moment." Hal admitted.

"And that little talk isn't over yet, Jordan." Guy said. "We'll be picking up where we left off someday soon."

"Looking forward to it." Hal said with a grin.

"So that's it?" Kyle asked as they moved towards the exit of the building. "The big mission is over? We can call up the guardians? I was expecting" But Hal had come to an abrupt stop as he opened the door.

Outside, a police car was parked next to a laboratory building. A handcuffed man that Hal recognised as Eobard Thawne was being forced into the car.

"Looks like it isn't over yet." He muttered with a slight frown. Officer Turpin spotted the three and started making his way towards them.

Thanks to all the readers who've been kind enough to review. Nice to know the story was being read and appreciated even while on hiatus.

I've recently published a novel on Amazon, and I'm looking for some honest reviews. I would be happy to send a free copy of the novel via email in return for leaving a review on Amazon. Readers who are interested can leave me a message in the reviews section of this website, or at neerajchand2992atgmaildotcom . Below is the synopsis of the novel:

Neel Dervin And The Dark Angel-

He was a teenage super soldier.
There were certain questions that fourteen year old Neel Dervin had never thought to ask himself.
Like how much pain he could endure before passing out. Or how many times he could be shot and still keep running. Or how often he could lie to his friends and family without feeling remorse.
But then that one fateful day changed his life forever, and set him on a path towards immeasurable power as well as inconceivable terror.
Now the only people who can help him deal with the situation are complete strangers who are using him for their own ends. Trapped in circumstances beyond his control with abilities he barely understands, he must navigate a treacherous path mired in betrayals and difficult choices to take back control of his life.