A/N: Hey, look, it hasn't quite been a month this time!
Thanks to dorizard for the customary lovely long review, and to Taiski, ddsurvivor, and Bluebell20 for favoriting/subscribing. If y'all wanna say a few words, please do leave a review so I can hear what you're thinking! For now, though, enjoy Chapter Fifteen.
Chapter Fifteen: Purple Heart
"This has to be the most frustrating case we've ever had," Flash lamented, as yet another attempt to break out their captive members from their crystal prison failed. Despite a full week of solid work, they were no closer to freeing J'onn and Zatara than they were at the beginning, and the strain was beginning to show.
"Are you sure your so-called epiphany was on the right track?" Batman questioned pointedly.
"Absolutely," Flash said with conviction. "There's no way I would've gotten out if I wasn't sure that Barry wouldn't want me to live in a dream for the rest of my life. If it weren't for that knowledge, I think I would've preferred to stay there," he admitted.
Flash's assumption — that the captive had to realize and accept the knowledge that their lost loved one wouldn't want them to wallow on memory lane in order to break free of the crystal's grip — had made sense in theory, but as the last ten days had proved, it was much more difficult to put into practice. How was one supposed to communicate to a crystal-trapped individual the importance of letting go of a dearly-held, but fruitless dream?
It was a major complication that their only telepath was himself a victim, and so couldn't attempt to communicate telepathically with the crystallized men. Their latest efforts had been focused on trying to reach J'onn somehow, reasoning that if they could get him to realize what was happening, he would be able to release himself from the crystal — possibly with Flash's vibrational help — and then from there try to project the truth into the other victims' minds.
"Isn't there anyone else who might be able to help us?" Zatanna demanded. She'd taken to hanging about the laboratory whenever she could, to the point of annoying the research trio of Batman, Flash, and Doctor Fate — but all had let it pass unmentioned. It had barely been a year since she'd reunited with her father, and her separation anxiety still ran deep. Zatara's long disappearance had left her with more scars than she usually allowed to show.
"Telepathy is not a common ability," said Doctor Fate. "There are very few telepaths I am aware of, and none I know well enough to trust with a matter this delicate."
Flash's eyes suddenly widened as a new thought occurred to him. "Maybe we're going about this wrong."
Batman quirked an eyebrow, a clear indication for him to continue.
"It's not their mind we have to reach, not really. It's their emotions," Flash clarified. "Maybe we don't need a telepath so much as an empath."
Batman considered that for all of two seconds before nodding. "Make the call."
Flash sped out of the lab just as Black Canary walked in, scowling like a thundercloud, followed closely by Vixen.
"I take it your latest encounter didn't go well?" Doctor Fate said mildly.
In the same time that he, Batman, and Flash had been working in the lab, Star Sapphire had popped up in various locations in Coast City on several occasions — and, as had been agreed by the League, Wonder Woman, Vixen, and Black Canary had been attempting to deal with her each time. Unfortunately, they had been having about as much luck as their research counterparts. Superman had considered putting one or two more members on the 'Star Sapphire squad', but no one wanted to risk losing more Leaguers to her nefarious crystal, and the three ladies had so far proved immune to the stuff, even if they were still infuriatingly unable to get the better of the woman herself.
"You could say that," Vixen agreed with chagrin. "Canary screamed herself hoarse at Star Sapphire — not that it helped."
Canary huffed wordlessly as she marched to the cabinet that housed the League's collection of basic drugs and medication, and reached for the lozenges Wildcat had had specially formulated for her. Considering her power and the strength of her larynx, Canary didn't often require them, but when she overworked her throat in battle they worked wonders.
"Where's Diana?" Batman inquired.
"Where else?" said Vixen. "Analyzing battle footage." The Amazon seemed to take it as a personal affront that Star Sapphire kept giving them the slip, and had taken to reviewing footage from traffic cams after every encounter in the hopes of finding a vulnerability they could exploit the next time.
"Batman," Hawkgirl called as she too entered the increasingly crowded lab. "You need to see this."
The call to Titans Tower interrupted the normal breakfast routine of the tofu vs. meat argument, much to Raven's relief. While Cyborg and Beast Boy were not nearly as vociferous or whole-hearted as they had been in the beginning, they still engaged in this ridiculous debate out of pure habit. Why they still insisted on arguing over each other's food choices when it was clear that neither was ever going to change his eating lifestyle was almost as much a mystery to the empath as the evident closeness of their unconventional friendship, and she could only conclude that they derived some weird sort of enjoyment from the otherwise pointless verbal tussles. As the regular witness to their culinary quarrels over the last three years, Raven had learned more than she ever wanted to know about the content, production, preparation, benefits, and drawbacks of both omnivore and vegan diets.
"Thank Azar," she murmured as the sharp ring of the main communications hub cut off whatever Beast Boy had been saying about his chosen breakfast today (carrots).
Nightwing was just answering the call by the time Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy entered the main room, and Starfire and Wonder Girl were both coming in the other door, so they all saw the Flash's image light up the giant plasma screen.
"Wally?" Nightwing uttered in surprise.
"Hey, Titans," the once-member greeted them, before looking straight at the Tower's resident empath. "Raven, we need your help."
While Flash was explaining the situation to the Titans and prepping the transporter to beam up Raven, Batman, Hawkgirl, and a curious Vixen examined the news headlines and video footage pouring in from all over the U.S.A. There was a lot of information, but they were all basically saying the same thing.
NEW GREEN LANTERN SPOTTED IN DETROIT
Voices from multiple news channels streaming live from Earth were also putting in their own two cents.
"After months of inactivity, it appears the Green Lantern has resurfaced…"
" — in Detroit, of all places…"
"— but this is a different, person, clearly —"
"…no mask? That's new…"
Vixen fixated on recent video footage of the Green Lantern efficiently dealing with a group of street gangsters. "Is that —"
"No," answered Batman, already typing. "This is a new one."
"Think he can help us with Star Sapphire?" inquired Hawkgirl.
"Possibly." Batman quickly scanned the computer for the data he wanted. "His name is John Stewart."
Hawkgirl was used to the Dark Knight's rapid detective work by now, but Vixen was amazed. "How did you —"
"He's making no effort to conceal his identity. It's child's play."
"He's either very brave or very foolish," Hawkgirl commented. Even she, an alien from another planet with absolutely no family on Earth, maintained a secret identity as Kendra Saunders, cumbersome as it was to conceal her wings when she was in civvies. She was a former espionage agent — secrecy was important to her.
"Satellite readings show he's still out on patrol. Go grab Superman and pay him a visit," Batman instructed.
"Sure." Hawkgirl glanced at Vixen. "You wanna come?" she offered.
The beautiful African shook her head. "I'm supposed to be in Paris for a dinner date in an hour."
Hawkgirl smirked. "Who's the lucky guy?"
"The director of my next photo shoot." Vixen winked. "And he only wishes he were that lucky."
Downtown Detroit was nothing like Coast City. The latter had its fair share of seedy locations, but Detroit in general was a grimier, grittier place than Coast City. Moreover, Detroit had only just gained its own resident superhero, so when Superman and Hawkgirl appeared on the sidewalk, they stuck out like sore thumbs — even more so than when their teammates had popped up in Coast City.
"See him anywhere?" Hawkgirl questioned, ignoring the gawking pedestrians. Really, you'd think they'd be used to this by now, she thought dryly.
Superman — who was attracting most of the stares — scanned the sky, and nodded towards the east, where a green figure was steadily coming closer. "There he is now."
The approaching Green Lantern looked nothing like the man Superman and Hawkgirl had worked with for the past two and a half years. He was shorter and stockier, broader in the shoulders, squarer in the jaw. His eyes were a darker brown, his crew-cut hair black, and his skin was nearly the same shade as Hawkgirl's preferred morning coffee.
John Stewart landed in front of them with an expression that was a cross between suspicion and curiosity. He carried himself with purpose and discipline; his posture bespoke strength and charisma, but it held none of the cockiness that tended to lace Hal's bearing. This was a man who was utterly confident in himself and his decisions, who would take no nonsense from anyone.
Hawkgirl liked him already.
"Let me guess; you two are here to check out the newcomer," the Green Lantern said dryly.
"Not exactly, but we'll get into that later." Superman held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Superman."
"Yeah, I know who you are." John snorted, but he shook the Kryptonian's hand. "John Stewart. New Green Lantern of Sector 2814." He glanced at the other visitor. "And you're Hawkgirl. You work in Midway, right?"
"Yes, I do," Hawkgirl affirmed. "I guess that kind of makes us neighbors."
"Yeah, well, don't expect me to be popping up there anytime soon. Apparently one guy's supposed to be enough to cover an entire freaking galactic sector" — his distaste for that particular logistic was clear — "so I'll have my hands full even when there isn't a full-blown space war going on."
"Space war?" Superman had been about to get into the reason they were visiting, but John's words gave him pause.
"Yeah, the Green Lantern Corps vs. the Thunderers of Qward." John arched an eyebrow. "Didn't your Green Lantern tell you?"
"No, he never mentioned anything about a war," Superman said with a frown, trading a glance with Hawkgirl.
A certain suspicion was beginning to form in Hawkgirl's mind. While she wasn't as close to him as Flash was, she had come to know Hal fairly well — they'd bonded somewhat over their military backgrounds, and they'd spent quite a bit of time together while working on the Watchtower's teleport system, and then again when Wally had been comatose and they were both worrying about him. When Hal quit, Flash — and most of the other Leaguers, save Batman — had accepted his reasoning without question; but Hal's assertion that he had simply 'come to the conclusion' that he wasn't cut out for hero work had never quite rung true for Hawkgirl, particularly given the fact that he had just regained mastery of his ring. In Shayera's mind, something big had to have happened to spur Hal's decision. She'd been wondering what that something was for weeks, and now it looked like she'd finally find out. All she needed to do was put a simple question to John; if his answer matched up with what she was thinking…
"When did the war begin?"
"About a month ago," replied Hal's successor.
"That's right about when our Green Lantern quit," Superman said unthinkingly, echoing Hawkgirl's thoughts.
John scoffed. "Really? They didn't tell me that part. I guess he wasn't much of a soldier, then, if one battle made him throw in the towel."
Hawkgirl frowned; she might not think much of what she now knew to be Hal's knee-jerk resignation either, but that didn't give the new Green Lantern the right to look down on the man he had replaced. This John Stewart had no idea what Hal had gone through in the weeks leading up to the attack, and Shayera felt like retorting that he wouldn't have done much better if he had been betrayed by his mentor and forced to testify against him in an intergalactic court, and then lost his closest friend while carrying a burden of guilt for not being able to save him.
Instead, she asked another question. "How bad was that battle? I'm guessing it's the one which started the war."
"Yeah," John confirmed, still unaware of the Thanagarian's indignation on his predecessor's behalf. "It was bad. I wasn't there, obviously, but the others told me it was a massacre. The Thunderers launched a coordinated surprise attack, killed half the Corps, and destroyed most of Oa."
He said it all very matter-of-factly. Hawkgirl stared at him.
"And you wonder why the previous GL wanted to quit?"
John scowled, finally noting her displeasure. "Look, lady, this thing might be happening in space, but a war's a war, and not everyone has the stomach for it. I get that. But you'd think that anyone who got picked to wear this ring would know how to deal with the consequences, and your guy clearly didn't."
"And you do?" Hawkgirl said scathingly. Her initial favorable impression of the new Green Lantern was fast souring.
"Yeah, I do," John stated defiantly. "These guys are fighting with fancy energy and anti-matter weapons, but I was in the Marines, in Afghanistan, and nothing compares to the horrors of a desperate guerrilla war. We fought up close and personal with literally anything we could get our hands on — guns, tanks, knives, grenades, minefields, you name it — they ain't pretty. Once you've seen the things I've seen, you can handle anything."
He met her gaze belligerently, as if daring her to contradict him, but Hawkgirl remained silent. She hadn't expected that revelation.
Superman, meanwhile, was looking warily from John to Shayera. "I think we'd better get back to the reason we're here," he said cautiously.
"Let's," John agreed. "I don't have all day. So what do you want?"
"We're trying to track down a supervillain known as Star Sapphire."
Confusion shifted John's features. "Isn't that the meta in Coast City? The one that's going around crystallizing men?"
"How do you know about that?" questioned Hawkgirl. As far as she knew Coast City's mayor had been attempting to keep the incidents quiet.
"The story broke on national press this morning. It's all over the papers."
Hawkgirl turned to look at Superman. Nothing noteworthy ever escaped the Daily Planet's attention; if other papers outside Coast City had picked this up, the Planet surely would have too.
Superman nodded in confirmation. "There's a front-page feature on almost every newspaper in the country about it."
"Great," Hawkgirl muttered sarcastically. She'd never liked the press.
"What's Star Sapphire got to do with me?" asked John. "She's not in my city."
"We have reason to believe that Star Sapphire might have a connection to the planet Zamaron," explained Superman.
"So?"
"Our Green Lantern told us that Zamaron has a special significance in the history of the Green Lantern Corps. He suggested that we might be able to find more information about Zamaron — and by extension Star Sapphire — in the library on Oa."
John's eyebrows rose. "Oh, now I get it. You need a Green Lantern to help you access this library."
"Yes," Superman admitted candidly.
"Sounds to me like you're just hoping for a clue."
"We are. Sixty-eight men have been trapped in Star Sapphire's crystal, including two of our own members. We're working on a way to free them, but it's not going well so far. We're hoping that we can make Star Sapphire tell us how to do it, once we catch her — but we need to find her first."
"What makes you think Star Sapphire's going to tell you anything?"
"She probably won't, not willingly, anyway — but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Besides, if her powers are somehow linked with Zamaron, there might be something in Oa's library to help us figure it out on our own, even if we can't get her to talk."
"Are you going to help us or not?" Hawkgirl asked bluntly.
John considered for a long moment. "I don't think I can," he admitted finally. "Oa's on lockdown at the moment; no one is allowed planetside except Guardians and Green Lanterns. We're expecting an attack any day now."
Superman's brow creased. "Well, what if —" He suddenly cut himself off mid-suggestion as his super-hearing picked up something. Hawkgirl, recognizing his stance, curled her fingers around the mace at her belt.
"What is it?"
Before Superman could answer, a blaze of violet light burst from the clouds. John instinctively reacted, willing a green shield around all of them — but nothing struck against his defenses…yet. The new Green Lantern followed the two Leaguers' gazes to the woman hovering in the sky.
"So you're the new Green Lantern," Star Sapphire observed disdainfully. "I expected…more."
"Yeah? Why don't you attack me and find out what 'more' I can give you," he challenged.
"Lantern, don't…" Hawkgirl warned.
"I can take her," John insisted.
A maliciously delighted smile curled Star Sapphire's lips. "Let's see, shall we?"
And she struck.
A/N: We're roughly at the two-third mark of the story now.