A/N
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Okay... I have one grievance that needs to get out of the way. Several times, I have been annoyed by people (in general and not here) asking if Lanterns have super strength/speed, and everyone else going 'No! Only their constructs are strong!'
Lantern's have an aura around them that does things, like breath in space and survive massive damage-etc. Believe it or not, that same aura can be channeled to grant super strength and such, dependant on the conscious thought and emotion of the user. However, it's rarely done as constructs are a lot easier and cover larger amounts of space.
Proof? In the DCUO intro, Black Adam grabs Hal's ring hand and Hal is shown to almost stalemate Adam in strength, but eventually loses. Hal also has done this in the GL animated series and against Mongul.
Rant=Over... sorry for that. Have no idea why I did it.
Reviews
Elvisfonz23: It's always the highlight of my day to hear your approval, friend. I hope you enjoy this one as well!
Guest 1: I can't wait to get the 'Man of Prime' underway for all of you.
Guest 2: Cliff Hanger for the win! Your praise is much appreciated and I hope you stick around for the future projects I have planned.
Guest 3: Nope, not bad. In fact, the idea that you are enjoying Kyle is awesome! He's not as good as the actual DC Kyle Rayner, though.
Just so you know, there may be some slight PIS in this chapter. (Plot Induced Stupidity)
Chapter 29: In Brightest Day...
Kyle Rayner's POV
Roughly being launched through another of the stone pillars inhabiting the oasis, the standing ruin collapses to the ground on top of me, having been broken in half by my body. "Get off me before that weirdo comes for round two." I blast off the rock with a concentrated energy blast of rage. "Where is that crafty immortal, anyway?"
"Ah, here you are, lantern. You must learn to keep that mouth shut." the deep, accented voice of Black Adam sounds out, accompanied by the man hovering slightly off the ground.
"You would think that an immortal tyrant have better things to do than attack a minor, apparently, they don't." I shoot back at the magically empowered, thousands of years old man. However, like all magic it can be reversed, if only I can figure out a way. "Why did you ever get picked to hold those powers, bro? Just look at you: power crazy and has a self-righteous complex."
"This is what you 'heroes' do not understand." Adam shakes his head, disappointed in some way. "With these powers, I can bring true peace to the world, where no-one fears crime. The other members feared coming here after thinking about it and showed their true cowardice."
I snort with laughter, getting up to my feet. "By enslaving everyone under your rule? Not. Worth. It."
"I do not expect a mere child to understand how cruel this place is in reality. Happily, I would sacrifice anyone's freedom for peace and justice." he counters, slowly floating closer to me. Just as slow, I edge back inch by inch.
"That's some messed up code of honour you have came up with, Adam. I'm sure the Guardians of the Universe would joyfully share stories with you about 'justice', because as far as I checked, you would make excellent buddies to each other." I remark, inwardly amused by the look of contempt on Adam's face.
"I have had my fun with you, child. But... I'm afraid that your journey in life ends now." with that last villainous sentence, he catapults forward with his fist brought, preparing back for a ground shaking punch that he can deliver. Although, I did expect this from him as the heavy hitters- Superman, Shazam and Black Adam- usually tend to assault directly from the front using their overwhelming speed and strength. So, I was prepared for it.
Immediately rolling to the side and constructing a wall where I was stood with a crimson boxing glove sticking out of it, he smashes through the wall, but not before the glove smacks him in the face. Momentarily confused at the impact, he swiftly regains his composure and turns to the side for another attack.
Forming a shield in front of me, Adam calmly strolls up to it and breaks straight through without any effort. Damn. I need to work on my constructs. "You are incredibly innovative lantern, but your inexperience with the ring will cost you dearly. Did your friends not tell you how to concentrate?"
"Did yours tell you that you have elf ears?" I retort, however the villain appears to be unfazed at the insult. "Not even a frown. Damn, you seriously don't know when to laugh."
Black Adam continues to calmly close the distance between us. "I will laugh when you are dead."
Rushing me head on before my brain can react to the sudden speed, pain racks my chest and the view in front of me zooms out as I go soaring backwards. Landing harshly on my back, the feeling quickly dampens as though painkillers have swarmed into my system. Thank you for the auto-shield, ring, much appreciated.
Being heaved back into the air with a firm hand around my throat, a headache tears through my head, signalling that the oxygen supply is being constricted by Black Adam. Focusing on the triumphant smirk on his face, I just have the consciousness left to imagine a train running into him from the side, causing a construct to slam into him. Choking slightly, I have enough time to think of another plan of action, keeping the train in the back of my head.
So... he's strong, fast, and seemingly more ruthless than any of the other people I've took on before. Got to find some way to exploit that. I think, nervously looking to the direction that the train smashed Black Adam into. How about another ploy? Keep him distracted so I can gather my thoughts. I'm smart!
Creating a mental picture of the team in the expanses of my creative mind, I make them wait in the background until the most effective moment arises to strike. As expected, Adam eventually breaks the train and I can see him casually flying towards me without any real seriousness. He's toying with me;knows that I can't beat him without help. Not overconfidence, but fact.
Directing two of my illusion constructs- Conner and Aqualad- to intercept, Superboy appears out of nowhere, leaping straight at Black Adam with his trademark roar, his skin glowing ever so slightly a golden yellow. Here's hoping that my enemy doesn't have superb eyesight as well as unmatchable, raw power.
Yet, Adam swats the constructed clone out of the air without even acknowledging him, continuing to cruise towards me. From this distance, I can just make out a smirk adorned on the elder's face, signalling that something bad is about to happen.
Suddenly, my head spirals into chaos as a loud, piercing, agonising shriek enters my ears. All possible thought gets drowned out by the sheer volume of the repeating sound, negating any further avenues of construction, apart from auto-fire, but there's no way that I can activate it with a thought due to the swirling migraine currently placed in my head. I drop to my knees with my hands clasped around my head.
"I told you not to mess around with the child, Adam, he's not worth our precious time. Your abilities are best suited to deal with Wonder Woman." another accented voice speaks, the screeching continuing on without end. Currently, the only thing that's keeping me sane is the protection gained from the Sinestro power ring.
"This one is mine, Count." supposedly Adam returns. "Let me finish the brat."
The ground beneath my knees vibrate and shake with the force of his steps as he approaches my paralysed body. Then, my right hand- holding the Sinestro ring- is forcibly removed from the side of my skull and immediately it feels like a bus is driving over it. Feeling the bones in my hand break, even more pain ripples through it, causing me to cry out in pain.
"Kyle!" someone yells my name.
"Look who it is! The 'Man of Steel' and his pets." Adam chuckles to himself. Get ready to see stars, Adam.
Seizing the momentary attention shift to my desperate advantage, I ball up still kneeling and release pure rage energy into the air, feeding off someone nearby. A numbing throbbing takes over from the excrutiating, mind scrambling sound, allowing me to recover enough to fly upwards and get out of the danger zone.
Dick Grayson/Robin's POV
"Kyle!" the yell coming from Superman accompanies us as we round the hill to see our peer yelp with some guy clutching his hand roughly. A retort from said bad guy, along with another villainous looking character standing close by is enough to send all of us into immediate action mode. A small blast of crimson red emerges from Kyle's body, enough to startle the two villains and allow him to soar upwards, away from his captors.
Charging forwards towards Adam, Superman leaves the other to the entire group. Yet, Wonder Woman diverts from the majority to assist Superman with the magical monster.
"Robin! Artemis! Evasive actions and support! Miss Martian, check on your teammate! Rest of you, split up and search for any more! The Count is mine!" Batman barks out orders on the move, already with hands at the ready to unleash batarangs on Count Vertigo.
Following his orders, I flip off the ground from a handstand position and land on a half-broken archway, feet landing perfectly on the edge. Artemis also does a similar move, instead landing on a pillar for an elevated position to fire from, although her landing was slightly less balanced as mine; perks of being a Grayson, I suppose.
Before Count Vertigo could fully raise his hand to his cane, maybe reaching for a weapon of some kind, a batarang knocks and embeds into the Count's cane, making it drop to the ground in shock. With his potential arnament disposed of, Batman swiftly closes the distance, bounding a few steps at a time.
Sharing an awestruck glance with Artemis, I quickly pull out one of my own throwable devices in the event that support is needed, however unlikely that seems.
Unsuprisingly, the supposed Count gets his backside handed to him once toe-to-toe with the Dark Knight. Not many out there would even last a respectable minute against the ruthless style of Batman's martial arts- fast, powerful and vicious. Maybe, that's the reason why he's so feared by practically everyone, including me. Coming from someone who is constantly on the receiving end of the 'good' half of Batman- Bruce Wayne- he can severely creep me out.
In the amount of time that it took Batman to handle Vertigo, Superman and Wonder Woman have managed to pin down Black Adam against the desert floor, allowing the Flash to unleash a flurry of super-speed punches into the villain's undefended face. Whether it was a hundred strikes or ten, they held enough power to shake Adam visibly. Finishing off the cruel being is Martian Manhunter, thinning out his fingers and probing inside the head of Adam, abruptly knocking him out.
"What did he just do?" I incredulously mutter to myself, jumping down from the arch.
Heading over to where the group is forming around the twitching rag doll of Count Vertigo, Wally reaches there first. "Hey... how did you do that? It was awesome!"
"Honestly, I have no idea. I thought that I would give it a try." the Martian replies, quite amusingly. "You appear to be rubbing off on me, Kid Flash."
"Status report." Batman commands to all of us. Gracefully, Kyle floats down and lands among the gathered heroes, heavily favouring his right hand.
"Well, where to start... those two were waiting for us the moment we stepped through that portal-thing, so it's safe to say that they were somehow expecting us. Although, I did manage to glean from Adam that they are the only two that went forward with whatever plan was rolling along." Kyle answers, occasionally wincing between words.
"You okay, kid?" the Flash asks, concerned.
"I'm fine, for the most part. Apart from when Adam annihilated every bone in my hand, according to the medical analysis of the ring. It's dampening the pain, but it still hurts... a lot." he responds, still smiling despite his injuries.
"Construct a cast around the hand and shift the ring to the other hand." Green Lantern advises, a nostalgic tone in his voice. "I had to do that back in the day a couple of times."
Then, Kyle does as instructed and forms an exo-skeleton over the hand, with his golden ring flying to his other hand, inserting next to his other rogue power ring. Even with the amount of times I have seen him use those rings, it still gives me the creeps.
"I believe that the main cause of you being ambushed is due to Aqualad's defection." Batman carries on, ignoring the previous conversation as though it never occured.
"Just wait until I get to him." Conner cracks his knuckles, earning him an odd look from Superman. "Because of him, my friends are getting hurt."
"Friends? More like... family." Artemis corrects him. For once, the clone actually smiles.
"Focus!" the bat halts the conversation in it's budding tracks. "I'm picking up signals from north-east of here- odd signals. Lanterns, transport the people that can't fly or run!" he orders.
Kyle Rayner's POV
Obeying Batman's direct, albeit vague orders at the same time, I form a large bubble around non-flight capable members of Young Justice, except Superboy as he is collected by Hal- Robin and Artemis. As soon as we did so, Batman directed us towards some place to the north-east. I took a position in the formation next to Wonder Woman, at the end right of the line.
"Tough battle back there, huh? I forgot to ask if you are okay." I start talking to the Amazon, trying to pass the time quicker.
"Good, besides a hurt pride." she replies, going into serious mode again. Turning my attention to the people trapped in a bubble below me, I consider a witty thing to say.
"How are you guys feeling down there? Hopefully,bubbly." I cheesily speak the thing that I thought of.
"You really need to stop making jokes, Kyle, you never know when someone might shut you up." Artemis shoots back, ruining the joyful aura with her sour mood swings.
"Calm down, Artemis. Besides, we could be walking into our deaths, so we should spend the last of our lives having fun and enjoying each others company." Robin darkly suggests, quite different from his usual optimism. But, I guess that the dark influence coming from Batman can do that to most people.
"That would be great, but for one small thing: I don't enjoy his company." she sasses back.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire. Of course you enjoy my company, because everyone does too. It's fine to say you like me." I tease her further.
"First off: I don't like you and I don't enjoy your company. End. Of. Conversation." she says, literally shattering the cheery mood I was in to pieces.
Silently, our formation presses on without another peep of sound, deep foreboding permeating the cool winds of Bialyia. Robin was deeply right about this being the end of the line, I can feel the coming danger coursing through my bones. Whatever Project Solar Dawn is, the inner depths of my soul is telling me that it's worse than we imagined. And anyone of us could never return from this adventure, much like the ones we read in stories.
The stories of adventurers, fighting to the valiant end to save the world from utter destruction at the hands of some unseen, sinister evil. In those tales of legend, the people who fall against all the odds are remembered as noble sacrifices, ensuring that the ordinary people out there get to have the peace and freedom most take for granted. The people who die for everyone else are written into history as legends; as heroes- a memory of warrior long since passed to where the dead sleep.
And by the powers that have watched over me from day one, shoving countless obstacles in my way to block me, I will happily die before any of my friends become one of these legends. They shouldn't be remembered as the heroes that died, but the protectors that carried on living, no matter the consequences.
"We are approaching the location of the signals." Wonder Woman informs, passing on the message from Batman. "Start descent."
Cautiously lowering to the ground, the ominous image of a desolate castle enters view as we go below the clouds. Landing some distance before the entrance and sharing determined faces, the group of heroes march straight up to the closed wooden gate in an utter silence.
Without the need to communicate, Superman easily pushes off the large gate, revealing the horror that is lurking behind.
Gasps erupt from the members of the Justice League and Young Justice, even Batman makes a comparable sound.
"This is about to get real." Wally voices our thoughts.
A/N
You people guessed it folks, the next chapter is the last.
Question for all of you people: Which is better Young Justice, or Green Lantern the animated series?
