Fairly soon, the Green Lantern hub world of Oa comes into view.
"Take a look son, we're here." Hal says. His lips twitched into a smile as he glances at Sam for his reaction.
Sam stands up in the bubble and gazes at Oa's likeliness. "So this is it huh?" he asks.
Hal dips his head. "It is."
Sam nods in understanding before pausing. He looks up at his dad sheepishly, raising a brow. "Will I be able to breathe there?"
"Well, breathe it in for yourself."
Once they were in Oa's atmosphere and slowly make their descent, Hal opens the bubble up. He replaced a bubble with a construct around Sam's waist so Sam would still be tethered to him as he glides.
All around were Green Lanterns of many races flying about or walking around. Some even smile and wave once they see Hal, and in surprise they wave to Sam too. The experience was jarring for Sam, seeing all these inhuman people who worked with his dad. They did a double-take when they saw Sam as well, but asked nothing of it. They carried on as usual.
Hal lands so that Sam can be on solid ground again. Sam's legs were all wobbly like he was just on a cruise ship or something and needed his land legs back.
One of the Green Lanterns who was particularly hog-like in appearance comes to greet them.
"Jordan! Back so soon? Didn'tcha just leave?" The Green Lantern asks.
Sam tilts his head up to look at the newcomer and then turns to his dad. "Dad, who's the pig?" he whispers behind his hand.
Hal chuckles, patting Sam on the shoulder. "Kilowog meet my son Sam. Sam, Kilowog."
Sam waves shyly. "Hullo."
Kilowog snorts, "A mini poozer, well I'll be. I'm finally meetin' him. But still, what brings you here? And why bring him too?"
Hal inhales deeply, preparing himself for a long winded explanation, but Kilowog gets called away.
"Eh, sorry Jordan. Hafta get back to ya on that. Maybe you'd like to see Gardner, he just came in after a mission." Kilowog apologizes for having to leave and departs. He was needed for rookie training. Fairly soon, Hal spots Guy and waves him over.
Guy was just leaving the main hub building and flew over in a hurry. "Hally boy! An' look who it is, Jordan Jr." Guy gives a slow whistle, eyeing Sam's height. "Gotten taller now, eh slugger?"
"Guy!" Sam shouts, fake out punching Guy's stomach. Guy Gardner was practically his uncle, as a matter of fact, Sam was pretty sure he was his legal Godfather.
"Good to see ya." Guy says with a smile. He ruffles Sam's hair and playfully punches his shoulder.
"Where's Kyle and John?" asks Sam, who is trying to fix up his hair, but it is far too gone. He just lets it flop over.
Guy taps his chin, "Kylie is probably moping somewhere with a pencil an' paper." he answers. Kylie was Guy's nickname for Kyle just to spite him, even when he wasn't around. "Now Johnny boy is dealin' with some man I found, orbiting around Oa's gravitational pull. Just left them alone right now."
"Strange." Hal remarks, "What did this guy look like?"
Guy gestures the man's height by comparing it to Hal's own height. "About yea height, decked in some kind of armor and helmet. Says his name is Rider, Richard Rider."
Sam and Hal exchange glances, knowing that this man must've been the one trying to contact Sam. Something about the man's name made Sam's ears ring.
Hal turns to Guy, raising a curious brow. "Say, Guy, can we see this Mr. 'Richard Rider'?" he asks. Guy shrugs, "I don't see why not…" he begins. "But what about the boy? Live to see him and all, but why is he here?"
Rather than explaining it from the beginning, Hal just tries to bring up the message again. This time it only starts with "Sam Alexander" before cutting out with an error.
"Hm." Guy crosses his arms, and dips his head. "Yeah that's the guy. Right over this way I s'pose."
Guy leads them inside to where John is interviewing Richard Rider who was given a cell as a precaution.
"Hey Johnny boy, look who's back already." Guy calls out, begging John's attention. John turns toward them, his lips curling into a bit of a smile. Although, it didn't take long for it to falter.
"They want to see Rider." Guy explains, "Somethin' to do with Hal's boy."
"Hi." Sam waves, feeling rather small in this room with lanterns. He's known Guy and John his whole life, but all of a sudden they were making him uncomfortable.
A somewhat familiar voice rattles from inside the cell. "Sam is that you? Is he here?"
Richard Rider sounded sickly, and he was. When the three men reluctantly allowed Sam to see Richard, he looked pained and rather frail. There was a certain weakness you can feel emulating off of him. At a glance, anyone could tell that Richard was a strong man, well built with muscles. But now he looked hollow, his armor hung loosely against him.
When he looked upon Sam, his eyes lit up in rejoice. "Sam! Oh my Lord, I'm so glad you're here!"
Sam gives a weak smile, Richard obviously knew him somehow but the feeling wasn't mutual.
"Oh no…" Richard presses his palms against his helmet. "You don't remember me. It's me, Richard Rider, the Worldmind?"
Sam shook his head solemnly. "Doesn't ring a bell."
"Perhaps you remember the Nova Corps?" Richard asks, his eyes glistening with hope.
"Nova… Corps?" A sudden searing pain crossed Sam's vision, into the deep depths of his brain. He doubled over, holding his head. He saw a flash, of him wearing a helmet like in his dreams.
Getting defensive, Hal grabs Sam's shoulders and pulls him back. "What are you doing?" he grows at Richard.
"He's remembering." Richard replied innocently. "Happened to me just the same. Except now, I'm starting to forget."
"Tell me again Mr. Rider, what is this 'Nova Corps'?" John asks, bitterly cutting in.
"In my, our universe, the Nova Corps were an intergalactic peace keeping force. Similar to how you Green Lanterns are." Richard answers with compliance, there was no need to hold anything back… except for one thing. He knew that Sam thought Hal Jordan was his father, at that moment he couldn't bear break the boy's heart.
"What do you mean our?" John presses.
Richard looks over at Sam. "Mine… and his. Mine and a lot of others, w-we don't belong here!"
"Who are the others?"
Richard chews his inner cheek, pondering about how he could explain this. "If Sam had is Nova Corps helmet I could show him but… I guess I can let him wear mine."
Sam looks at John expectantly, and then at his father as if asking permission.
John happens to do the same, this was his kid after all. "Hal?"
Hal bites his lower lip, pondering the decision. If anything were to happen to Sam, Carol would kill him, if he didn't kill himself first. "No, I don't like it."
Richard sighs, "Well. The name drops won't make any sense, but an event occurred where certain artifacts from your universe-" he points at Hal, John, and Guy, "- crossed over into ours. It combined with our most powerful artifacts and combined both of our universes. Places were similarities were saw, we overlapped. Such as Peter Parker from our Earth-616 working at The Daily Planet rather than our Daily Bugle. Some changes replace certain people, such as the Black Cat from Earth-616 replacing, what was it again… Catwoman?"
"Catwoman? We don't know any Catwoman." Guy chimes in, putting his two cents.
"Exactly. As the Worldmind, I was allowed to retain my memory and forced to relive my life knowing that something was wrong. In the meantime, I did my best to learn about how your Earth used to be. Now, I'm starting to forget…" Richard takes off his helmet, revealing his face under. His eyes were sunken into his skull, darkened with knowledge. "We have to do something and separate our universes and go back to the way things were."
The three Green Lanterns huddle together in question of what to do.
"I say we ditch the nut and throw him back into the gravitational pull." Guy whispers, throwing his arms around Hal and John.
"But what if he's right?" Hal asks.
"But what if he's wrong?" John rephrases. "No one but this man says that this merging event occurred. If something was wrong a Green Lantern would know."
Hal slacked his jaw, John was probably right but then he realized something. "The Guardians would know."
Guy snorts indignantly. "You'd think they'd tell us about some 'Nova Corps.'" he places air quotes around the name.
"Unless Rider is actually correct and that everyone was forced to forget." Hal contradicts, his brain making sparks. Something about it made sense to him.
Guy gestures over to Richard's cell, "And he gets to be the lucky schmuck to remembers it all, hm?"
Richard sighs, listening to their conversation. "Well then you leave me no choice."
He slips his helmet back on, using the last bit of Nova force he has left to blast open the cell. Being in this new amalgamated universe with no real Nova Corps had reduced his power supply.
Active immediately, the three GLs opt to subdue him but Richard fought them off. He blasted them with enough concussive Nova force energy until it was completely gone. Though in a fairly weakened state physically, Richard failed to escape. John had created a construct clamp around him to keep him still.
"You don't understand, I have to find Sam's helmet, the black ops helmet is one of the strongest there is." Richard protests, wriggling around in the construct.
"You act like you know my son." Hal states, stepping up to Richard. He brings his face close so that they're barely nose to nose. "How?" Hal demands, "How do you know him?"
Richard returns the same defiant look in Hal's eyes, determined not to look weaker than he really is at this moment. "Because, Sam Alexander is a member of the Nova Corps where I'm from. I met him as the Worldmind. The Worldmind is the collective unit of all fallen Nova Corps member's' intellect. Until Sam showed up, I was the last one. The Nova Corps had died off."
Hal glances back at Sam somberly.
"Just like in my dream dad. That can't be a coincidence." Sam says. He walks up to Richard and gives him a friendly smile. "I feel like we were friends in that past life."
Richard nods, returning the smile. "You reminded me of what it was like to be human."
They share an unspoken moment before Hal asks another burning question.
"You keep saying Alexander… he's Jordan. His name is Samuel Martin Jordan… what gives?"
Richard winces like he was slapped in the face. He didn't want to answer that question. Truth be told, while certain people replaced others due to similarities, the new universe sought to replace Jesse Alexander with Hal Jordan. Same goes to Eva Alexander who was replaced with Carol Jordan (or Carol Ferris, who before wasn't married to Hal at all.) As a consequence, Sam's sister Kaelynn never came into existence.
"Because… in my universe your name was… Harold Alexander." Richard lies, biting his tongue in shame. "Also a member of the Nova Corps."
"I… died?"
"Not exactly."
Hal looks at the ground. "I see… John let him go. We have to believe him for now. This isn't our first multi-Earth rodeo."
"Well, multiverse actually." Richard corrects. "Your Earth's only go from negative 52 to 52. Mine are… well hard to count. You all come from your Earth Prime. I come from Earth-616."
A little peeved at being corrected, Hal rolls his eyes. "Exactly, now John let him go."
Reluctantly John listens. "Alright, but he's now your responsibility Hal. If anything happens, as Head of the Green Lantern Corps, I will hold you accountable.
Hal nods, "Wouldn't have it any other way."
Dumbfounded Guy glances at everyone in the room with a bewildered expression. "That's it? That's all it takes? We're just gonna let it go?" He jabs a finger at Richard, "He may be insane for all we know, or playin' tricks on us an' Sam."
John starts to pull Guy away, "Don't worry about it Guy. When someone cries interdimensional wolf, you listen."
Guy grumbles incoherently and crosses his arms. "I guess you're right…"
Soon the two are out of eyesight, their talking getting lower and lower the farther they get.
"So…" Hal turns towards Richard and offers his a good natured handshake. "Good to have you Richard because you have a lot more to explain."
Richard smiles despite himself, "I'm more than willing."
