[The Watchtower
March 26, 20:00 EST]
Roy held onto the support beam as tightly as he could, the muscles in his arms straining to their limits and the joints threatening to pop. He squeezed his eyes shut and screamed out in pain and fury as he fought to keep from being sucked out into the vacuum of space through the gaping hole blown into the side of the central hub. Debris and loose items around the station soared past him, darting through and ineffectually smashing into the platoon of Manhunters steadily climbing into the breach. Roy's fingers desperately tried to dig into the smooth metal beam, but they were unable to get a grip. He started slipping and put all his strength into trying to bring his legs in, but the force kept pulling them out straight. The leather straps across his chest holding his bow and quiver were creaking, and Roy contemplated releasing them if the loss of those few extra pounds would help him hang on longer.
He cracked one eye open and saw Question clinging to the next beam over. Unlike Roy, he'd managed to get on the side facing away from the breach and was faring much better. His fedora had gotten torn off, and his short black hair was blowing wildly in the rush of air escaping the room. His featureless face was eerily unlined by concern or fear, but his hands dug similarly into the metal for dear life.
Grifter and Big Barda were far worse off. They hadn't been near anything to grab onto when the fortified hull gave way, and so they'd very nearly been pulled out into space. At the last second, Barda had literally punched right through the floor and dug her arm in up to the elbow before grabbing the back of Grifter's criss-crossing, shoulder gun holster. Her helmet had also been lost, and the Apokaliptian weapon she'd called a Mega-Rod had almost soared through the hole in the Watchtower along with it before it hit the wall and stuck fast from the force.
Roy had the sudden thought that if he was in Grifter's shoes right now, he would be petrified. The blond hero had absolutely nothing to hold onto and was relying on the strength of the buckles and straps on his holsters and the fingers in Barda's hand. Grifter also had a front row seat to the Manhunters advance and was the first target in line for slaughter, because there was no way any of them could fight back this way.
He was wrong.
Impossibly, Grifter forced his arms up to the holsters on his hips and drew two semi-automatic pistols. The red bandana he had tied around his face as a mask billowed in the wind, and Roy could have sworn he saw the sinister black domino mask printed on it narrow like he was glaring a challenge at the advancing Manhunters. He started firing at the androids with inhuman accuracy, only targeting the one thin ridge where two plates of the armor met directly over the core. The special bullets that the League developed for him hit their mark every time, tearing through the weak points in the armor like it was made of paper.
Two of the Manhunters deactivated instantly on impact, and a third started convulsing as electricity crackled along its body. The others fanned out after that, flying on either side of Grifter and Barda against the buffeting air currents. Roy's mind scrambled to come up with something, anything to do. He craned his neck to look back at Question only to find that he was gone. Frantic, Roy looked back to the breach. Had he been pulled through!? Roy hadn't seen it happen.
Barda waited for one of the Manhunters to go after Grifter before she acted, "Shoot left!"
She heaved the arm supporting him out to the side and flipped onto her back. The Manhunter flew directly over her, and she kicked it square in the chest with a loud crunch of metal, sending it soaring into the ceiling. Grifter adjusted to the change in angle flawlessly, firing bullets just a little off target to compensate for the wind currents. That kind of calculation on the fly would have taken Roy minutes, and even then, it would have taken him a few arrows before he hit his mark. Grifter just kept shooting down Manhunters like he was hunting turkeys. Blindfolded. In the middle of a hurricane.
However, it wasn't long before they were overrun.
Grifter ran out of bullets and scrambled to reload while Manhunter energy blasts splashed across the invisible shield surrounding him. Barda took her hits directly – she'd refused to accept one of the Green Lanterns' shield generators – and while her armor and superhuman durability held up just fine, she was still stuck in one place.
"Keep holding on!" An urgent voice suddenly called through Roy's communicator. "I'm trying to close the breach!"
It was Mister Terrific. Through the communicator, Roy could hear him frantically manipulating the Watchtower's defenses. He had worked his hardest to shoot down the Manhunters outside with the lasers and orbital guns, but they had rushed in all at once, and he hadn't been able to keep them out.
"Hurry up!" Roy shouted into his own communicator. They didn't have much longer.
One of the Manhunters landed beside Barda and closed a hand around her throat. She thrashed side to side in fury, teeth gritted and eyes flashing dangerously. A second android leveled its energy baton right at the arm she had firmly planted in the floor and started firing at her shoulder to break her grip.
Grifter shoved a new clip into the butt of his gun and swung his arm over to shoot both Manhunters right in the face. The bullets ripped through their heads, and they fell back, still active but wounded. They were both sucked out of the hole and out of sight. Barda kicked a third Manhunter away from her and eyed Grifter in confusion, her long black hair whipping around her face, "A headshot will not vanquish our enemies for good."
"Sorry, sweetheart," Grifter shrugged with a laugh. "Old habits die hard. Besides, it seemed to do the trick."
The change in angle was causing his mask to flap to the side, revealing the lower half of his face with every movement. He was grinning – actually smiling – like this was fun or something. Roy watched them both in disbelief and held onto his pillar.
What the hell kind of people had he been teamed up with?!
"Alright! I've got the nanobots prepared. Get ready for a fight!" Mister Terrific warned them all, and Roy wondered what he was talking about. How was he going to close up torn metal?
He looked over his shoulder at the gaping maw and squinted his eyes to see better. The edges of the twisted panels were starting to glow bright red, and it actually looked like the hole was getting…smaller? The metal was rapidly knitting itself back together but not fast enough. One of the Manhunters peeled off from the attack on Big Barda and Grifter and flew towards Roy. He felt his heart start beating faster, and he frantically took stock of the arrows in his quiver, trying to decide which one to make a grab for and whether or not the action would sacrifice his grip on the pillar. Probably…
He was just mentally preparing himself to let go when a veritable tidal wave of luminescent green suddenly swept past the hole in the wall. It slammed into the cluster of Manhunters trying to enter and knocked them completely aside. Then a convex patch of green light covered the gash, sealing it and ending the buffeting rush of escaping oxygen. Beyond the green film, Roy could see Kilowog fly into view, arm extended at the construct and keeping it firm.
Roy released the pillar and hit the floor without anything trying to fling him out into space. The Manhunter heading straight for him missed and crashed into the support beam instead. Roy rolled onto his feet and automatically drew his bow and nocked an armor piercing arrow. The tip started rotating like a drill, and he shot the Manhunter in the back. His arrow burrowed through the shiny red and blue metal, sending shavings flying all over as it hungrily dug its way to the core.
Heavy stomping alerted him to another Manhunter coming up behind him, and Roy turned to meet it right as a third Manhunter was thrown into it like a speeding car, sending both tumbling harmlessly aside. He jerked back in surprise and saw Barda posed like a baseball pitcher a few feet away. She straightened up with a dark grin and ran to where the nanobots were just finishing up the patch. She grabbed her Mega-Rod and pulled it free of the wall with no effort. Aiming it at the Manhunters, she started returning fire, dodging blasts and making her way to each android one at a time.
Roy readied another arrow and quickly surveyed the arena, trying to get a deep breath with the air so thin now. There were no less than two dozen Manhunters in the central hub with them, firing an endless supply of energy blasts. Barda was charging through them like a wrecking ball while Grifter backed himself against a wall and picked off the stragglers, slowly corralling them into one big group.
Roy wasn't sure what he was doing, but he followed Grifter's lead and gradually helped force the Manhunters into the center of the room. His shield took a few heavy hits in the process, but Roy dodged most of the energy blasts. He was just about to go for the last straggler when Barda kicked it into the others and backed off from the fight.
Roy was just about to question the odd behavior when he heard Grifter's edgy voice through his earpiece, "Go for it, Red. You've got the heavy artillery."
It took him a moment to figure out what they wanted him to do and then he realized. Roy drew an explosive birdshot arrow and let fly high over the Manhunters' heads. The arrow lobbed into the air and landed in the middle of the tight grouping. The arrowhead hit the floor and fell apart into fifty small metal marbles. They bounced and rolled in all different directions, scattering among the Manhunters before detonating in fifty separate explosions.
The blast completely tore the androids apart. Heavy limbs and armor pieces went flying with a deafening boom, and the Manhunters collapsed. Roy let his arm fall to his side and watched Grifter come out from behind the support beam he'd taken cover by.
"Shoot the ceiling."
Roy just about jumped out of his skin at the sound of the cool, calm voice behind him. He whipped around in alarm and saw Question casually leaning against the pillar Roy had been clinging to just a few minutes before. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his damn hat was back on his head! How the hell…?!
He crooked one finger upwards, and Roy's eyes followed the direction until he was looking at a wide circle of extensive spider webbing cracks in the ceiling right above the downed Manhunters. A small red 'x' had been sprayed at the center of the circle.
Roy frowned and looked back at Question blankly, "Where the hell have you been?"
"Destabilizing the girders in the ceiling," he replied easily, tugging his gloves further onto his hands like the statement made any sense at all.
"How did you even get up there…?" Again, Roy wondered who these people were.
Without another word, he shot an explosive arrow at the 'x', and the ceiling shattered like glass. Four thousand pounds of giant metal chunks came plummeting down onto the Manhunters to finish the job.
Grifter strolled towards the mountain of twisted Manhunters and steel, whistling appreciatively. He hopped from jagged slab to slab and started inspecting the damage, shooting any android he found that was still alive, "That was quite a trick arrow, Red. You come up with that by yourself?"
"Mostly," Roy shrugged. Wally had helped him a little bit with reducing the weight of the arrowhead.
Grifter reached back and tightened the knot on his mask, lazily ruffling his blond hair and sliding both guns back into the holsters strapped to his hips, "I like your style."
Roy wanted to ask what style he was referring to – the one where he clung helplessly to a metal pole while everyone else was busy being a badass or the one where he just stood there gaping like a rookie and watching everyone else be badasses.
Barda saved him from having to respond. She reached into the pile of smoking android husks and pulled free a heavy energy staff, looking it over closely before tossing it aside once more in favor of her Mega-Rod, "For three humans with no superpowers, you all fight remarkably well."
Roy rolled his eyes, but Grifter and Question didn't seem the least bit insulted. Grifter just laughed darkly and cocked his head towards her, "Who said I didn't have superpowers?"
He held one gloved hand palm up at the energy baton Barda had discarded, and it lifted into the air by itself. Roy watched in wide-eyed shock as the baton twirled and cart wheeled. Then he heard Grifter's voice in his head – not through the communicator – through his thoughts.
"I like to think I'm…super handsome. Though, you guys can't tell – not with the mask an' all."
Roy bristled suddenly, glaring at Grifter, who absolutely had to be winking at Barda beneath his mask, "You have telepathy and telekinesis, and you didn't use either while we were fighting just now?! Why?!"
Grifter shrugged, sitting down on one of the metal slabs and jerking his thumb at the Apokaliptian, "It's more exciting fighting without the powers. Besides, Big Beautiful over there might not have saved me if used them. And that woulda broke my little heart."
Barda raised an eyebrow at him, clearly unamused and towering over all of them by at least a foot, "I'm married."
"I don't care if you don't," Grifter chuckled suavely, resting his chin on his fist.
Roy's head almost popped. He threw his arms up in frustration, gesturing furiously at the now repaired gash in the side of the Watchtower, "You didn't need her to save you! We all could have died just now, and your powers really would've helped!"
"Nah," Grifter said, getting to his feet once more and dusting off his black, army grade pants. "We got this."
"Where is Question?" Barda asked suddenly, looking all around the room with half-lidded eyes and thinly veiled superiority.
Roy's rage quieted for a moment, and he too glanced behind him where Question had been leaning on the pillar. The faceless hero was gone. Again. Roy sighed angrily and rubbed at his eyes. He was fairly sure that he wanted a new team.
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[Earth's Thermosphere
March 26, 20:15 EST]
It wasn't so much like fighting a few Manhunters in outer space as it was trying to move in a sea of Manhunters. Hal had gone to an outdoor, standing room only rock concert once when he was in high school. This was not all that different. Except for, y'know, all the death and destruction.
Hal held his ring fist out in front of him, bracing his arm still with his other hand. He was putting every ounce of his concentration into keeping his shield up, but this was not his default mode of combat. He was more of a 'charge headlong into the fight, defense be damned' kind of guy.
"Isn't there any end to these things?!" Hal growled, trying to hold his construct together with a trio of Manhunters relentlessly attacking it. He willed the construct into a blunt spike and rammed it into the androids, doing a quick back flip to avoid the blasts. The Manhunters were knocked back, and Hal took the opening. He changed his light construct into a giant Gatling gun and held it at his side while he mowed down any that got too close to him.
"What's wrong, Jordan? Things getting too intense for you?"
Hal looked up and saw Guy several meters above him, actually punching a Manhunter in the gut with a glowing, spiked gauntlet the size of Kilowog's foot.
Ugh. Meathead.
Guy spun around and morphed the gauntlet into a giant tennis racket.
"Comin your way!" he yelled and swung the racket into a tight group of Manhunters, sending them all rocketing straight at Hal.
Hal quickly made a racket as well and smashed it into the incoming humanoid missiles, breaking them into pieces.
…effective meathead…
"This ain't a game, poozers!" Kilowog bellowed, his ring going off with the sound of sonic booms. "Get serious!"
Guy just grinned and straightened his bomber jacket before flying off with a salute, "Yes sir!"
Hal spared him a half-hearted glare and pivoted when he heard one of his fellow Lanterns cry out. Violet-skinned and fiery haired Laira was getting pummeled. Two Manhunters had her by the arms and were trying to crush her ring hand.
"Heads up!" Hal shouted at her and threw a full coach bus at the Manhunters.
Laira looked up at the sound of his voice and neatly flipped vertical as the bus construct barreled into the robots. She materialized a jagged spear and drove it down into the neck plate of a Manhunter and all the way through its back. Giving it a vicious twist, she pulled the spear free and sent it flying into another Manhunter, "Watch your back, Jordan!"
Before he had time to react, an energy blast hit him square between the shoulder blades like a bowling ball. It knocked the air from his lungs in one staggering jolt. Hal recovered quickly and used the momentum to invert and shoot the Manhunter with a beam of pure light. He dragged it in an arc over his head, slicing through a line of Manhunters going after another Lantern. An energy blast crashed into his shoulder and nearly dislocated it. Hal just grit his teeth and returned fire.
That was when he caught sight of the Watchtower's observation deck windows. Manhunters were blanketed along the windows like insects, systematically firing at the glass in waves. Through the gaps between red and blue armor, Hal could see Atom Smasher, Vixen, and half of Aqualad's leg.
His stomach dropped into his knees.
That was where Wally and Dinah were. If the Manhunters got through…
"Shit," Hal cursed, making a beeline for the Watchtower. Barry and Ollie would electrocute him and shoot him full of arrows if he let anything happen to them. He touched his communicator as he flew, "They're breaking into the observation deck! Supes, I need backup!"
"I'm on the other side keeping them away from the hangar," Clark's voice buzzed in his ear and Hal could hear explosions and thunderous bangs through the link. "I can't leave!"
Hal swore loudly, and he pushed himself faster. Huge cracks were starting to break into the glass panels. There had to be fifty Manhunters converging on it; there was no way it would hold much longer. Four of the cracks branched out into larger forks like lightning.
"Terrific, you're about to get a new port hole in the side of the Watchtower!" Hal hailed the reactor core where he knew Mister Terrific was operating the tower's defenses. "Get ready!"
In response, half of the orbital guns reversed direction and hugged close to the hull so that the glass wasn't damaged inadvertently. They all opened fire on the Manhunters in an attempt to dislodge them, but it was too late.
Hal watched in horror as the glass broke inwards and was blown out right after as the vacuum of space greedily started sucking out air and great hunks of shattered glass. He saw every figure in the room get pulled off their feet and dragged towards the breach before jerking to a halt in midair like something invisible had grabbed onto them. He didn't waste another instant, creating a wide, expansive rectangular patch and clamping it firmly over the entire window. His actions shoved all of the Manhunters into the Watchtower with Wally and Dinah's teams, but it sealed the jagged gash and stopped the rush of air threatening to sweep everyone to their deaths. He just hoped they could handle the fight he'd trapped them in the middle of.
A barrage of energy blasts suddenly struck him in the back with no warning, and Hal nearly lost his grip on the light construct, "No!"
The translucent green patch wavered and flickered before he got control of it again and fortified his concentration. Hal twisted around to look over his shoulder and saw what looked like a hailstorm of energy blasts coming right at them. He felt his body turn cold. He couldn't shield himself with a construct and hold the patch in place at the same time.
So, he drew his legs up to his chest and curled his arms in front of himself protectively as the energy blasts buffeted him like cannon fire. Agony slammed into him the second the first blast hit his forearm and continued to flare ever hotter as the rest of the blasts pelted his ribs, legs, and face. Hal gasped out and dropped a few feet to avoid the actual Manhunters that had fired the blasts. They corrected their trajectory seamlessly and darted down after them.
That was when the most detailed bulldozer construct Hal had ever seen collided into them from the side and knocked them away. He clutched his side and looked to the right through one eye that was rapidly swelling shut.
John was flying towards him with his ring arm leading the way, "You lookin to get yourself killed?"
"Gotta keep that patch up until Terrific rebuilds the windows with those nano-thingies," Hal rasped stubbornly, coughing up blood that floated aimlessly around him.
"Leave that to me," John nodded, reconstructing his bulldozer into a patch similar in size and shape to the one Hal was using, but this one was far superior. Out of all the Earth Lanterns, and a good majority of the entire Corps, John's constructs were the most intricate and stable. He fitted the angular, strong as steel patch over top of Hal's and secured it against the Watchtower's hull with a series of rivets all along the outer edges. "You go help Superman and Captain Atom defend the hangar. I'll handle this."
"You need someone to watch your back," Hal argued, trying not to smell the burning pieces of his own skin through the tears in his uniform. "Trust me."
"I've always been rather good at that," a fierce, female voice said from behind him. Hal twisted around and saw Katma approaching them. The Korugaran moved to John's side and clenched one red-skinned hand into a fist, taking up a clearly defensive position around him. She brushed her black hair out of her eyes and gave Hal a confident smirk.
Hal looked between his two comrades and made up his mind in a split-second. He retracted his construct and nodded, "Keep that patch up like your life depends on it."
He spared one last glance at the window and saw the heroes inside battling the Manhunters. Wally and Dick were fighting as hard as they could, attacking around each other and guarding each other's weak points like a well-oiled machine. Air distortions rippled in the wake of Dinah's muted screams as she cut loose, holding nothing back.
Hal hoped they would be fine. He sped off around the Watchtower and soared close to the hull, swerving around the orbiting defense weapons and dodging a crossfire of energy blasts and laser beams. He took sneak shots at the Manhunters as he went, taking out a dozen or so that were overwhelming his fellow Lanterns. One peeled away from the others and gave chase, obviously taking his attacks as more than cheap hits. It fired energy blasts at Hal from behind, gaining on him as they both flew along the Watchtower's outer hull.
He dodged the blasts by weaving back and forth through the space station's many jutting segments and wings. Turning onto his back as he flew, Hal returned fire. If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was fly. He'd been a pilot long before he was accepted into the GLC, and he was still the best at it. This unoriginal, mass-produced robot couldn't hope to keep up with him. Hal headed straight for a certain bend in the underside of the living quarters segment that he was never able to resist flying through, even if it was completely out of his way.
Its purpose was to allow the segment to be jettisoned from the rest of the Watchtower as a safety precaution in case the need ever arose, but the curving, sharp cornered chutes made for irresistibly dangerous tunnels. Hal sped right into one, tucking his arms in close to his sides as he darted into the pitch black, narrow tunnel. The Manhunter followed him right in, shooting the whole way. Hal quickly twisted left, then right before timing it exactly right and diving down ninety degrees through the emergency escape hatch he'd never bothered to need before. Behind him, the Manhunter couldn't possibly adjust in time and crashed into the sides of the tunnel with a loud boom.
A huge grin split across Hal's face, and he came out on the other side of the living quarters, sparing a satisfied glance behind him before looking to the hangar.
The smile left his face.
The sheer number of Manhunters converging on the outer doors of the hangar was staggering. Hal could hardly even see the doors. Superman was flying around with a speed that, while not nearly as fast as Barry's, was still difficult to follow with the eyes. He was punching his fist right through Manhunters, flinging them as far away into space as he could, melting them into unrecognizable lumps with his heat vision, and even freezing some solid with his breath. He took hits from the Manhunters like they were ants and just kept ripping them apart with his bare hands. But every time he took one out, twenty more rushed in to take its place.
Captain Atom was faring about the same. He was floating in the middle of a clustered sphere of androids. He absorbed blast after blast and repurposed the energy into his own beams, turning their weapons against them.
They were both barely able to keep themselves from getting dog piled on by Manhunters, much less the hangar. Hal plunged into the fight, shoving aside the androids with his constructs to create a path to the bay doors. It was slow going, but he kept at it, indiscriminately slicing great gashes through the Manhunters until he was there.
The robots on the door ignored him for the most part, which was just insulting really.
Hal materialized a giant green paint scraper and wedged it between the Manhunters and the Watchtower. He pried about half of them off before he heard Superman shouting his name. He turned, ring blazing and ready for a Manhunter to be rushing at him or firing energy blasts.
What he found instead was a massive spacecraft the size of a cruise ship bearing down on them all from above. It wasn't poised to attack either, but instead coming about like it meant to dock. Hal shook off the surprise and forced his construct into a razor sharp harpoon launcher. He was gonna spear this thing and see how the Manhunters inside liked being towed out into the sun.
"GL, STOP!" Captain Atom called out frantically.
Hal paused in the middle of taking aim and looked over at his comrades in confusion.
Superman was furiously throwing off Manhunters left and right and trying to make eye contact with him. His pupils were glowing red with the signs that he was using his x-ray vision, "There are humans on board!"
Hal's stomach dropped and he looked back up at the ship. This was bad. Up until now, they'd all been able to fight with full power – breaking out the sharp weapons, no holding back, no pulling punches. But, with living humans as their enemies, they'd have to be more careful.
"Are they hostages or acolytes?" Hal shouted back, already knowing the answer.
"Acolytes," Superman confirmed.
Hal took a deep breath and glared at the ship. He couldn't let it get past him.