Chapter 31: Contained

All hell breaks loose.

Black Circlers are shooting at everyone that isn't them. Robin moves swift enough to dodge and weave their blasts, taking some of their weapons out with batarangs. Kid Flash joins him, knocking down Circlers and sending them crashing into one another. Artemis stands guard of Fatality, who still hasn't moved.

I look up to Jade, who's shooting Circlers with energy blasts. "Jade!" She looks down to me. "Get those rocks out of here! We can't let a single one leave here!" She nods in response. She descends downward and creates a construct sphere around the crates to carry them out.

That's when she moves.

Fatality swings her weapon too fast for Artemis. It rams her into the chest, sending her flying to the wall behind her. She runs and jumps after Jade, who moves out of her way.

I get up and start to make my way to the crates. But the Circle leader steps in my way. He pulls his right Qwardian gun from his holster. "I wouldn't move if I were you. No ring to protect you."

"I don't need it to protect me. I've managed my own just fine."

"That's what they all say up until they're dead."

"Who are you? You seem to hate Green Lanterns just as much as Fatality does."

"I'm a man who's very angry. Someone who wishes the Guardians had chosen someone else to bear their ring. Instead of my father." His father…

"Abin Sur… You're his son."

"Amon Sur. And don't speak that name in my presence."

"You lead the Black Circle, why? Your father was one of the greatest Green Lanterns in the history of Green Lanterns. His ring and legacy lives on in another Lantern. One from Earth. If he could see you right now—"

"He can't because he's dead! He chose to serve the greater good! He chose to protect other families in the galaxy! He chose the Lanterns over me!"

"You know that's not true. No Lantern chooses duty over family."

"The Guardians may ask you to do just that! To leave your home behind in service of their cause, their crusade for their greater good. For who knows how long. And when you die, you're nothing more than a forgotten name. And the ring moves on to a new bearer."

"That is nowhere near the truth. With all this hatred in you, you can never understand what it means to be a Lantern."

"I don't want to understand. I want the Lanterns to burn, to suffer. All while I service the galaxy with chaos and destruction and a business that I can make money from."

"You're a disgrace to his name. To Abin Sur."

That sets him off. Along with pulling the trigger. I duck just as he does so and tackle him to the ground. His gun flies in the opposite direction. I pull Amon up onto his feet and grab his head, making a headlock on him to choke him out. Amon resists.

I look over to the crates. They're still in place. I look to my left and see Jade and Fatality fighting it out. Jade is defending herself against Fatality's spear. I let go of Amon and punch him in the back. I grab his second gun before he gets the chance to use it. I kick Amon to the ground. With the gun still in hand, I aim towards the crates. If we can't get them out of here, then we just take them out of the equation.

I shoot the Qwardian gun, the blast hitting its target. Metal shards and yellow rock rubble fly everywhere. Has me falling on my ass, and Amon sliding back further too. Shaking off the haze, I look over where the crates used to be. For the most part the yellow rocks are destroyed, with only a handful whole. I look to my ring; its light starts to come back. Back in business.

Amon stands and screams his head off. "NO! What did you do?" He pulls out from his sheath on his back a laser-powered sword. "Do you know how long it took me to gather all of that material?" He swings his sword at me. I dodge it to my left. His anger is getting to him. "Do you know what'll happen if I don't make this deal happen?" He swings again, and I dodge again.

"AHH!" Jade screams from behind. Fatality cuts her right arm, and then swings it in reverse. She shoots Jade with an energy blast, sending her up against a wall. Jade!

"I will kill you, Lantern!" Amon screams to me, even though I'm not looking at him. I turn my head slightly to see him charging me, sword up in the air. I duck low, grab him from above, left his weight, and throw him over. Over to Fatality.

Just as she's about to drive her spear into Jade, Amon crashes into her. They both go tumbling onto the floor. Using her weapon, she stands back up and kicks Amon in the stomach. "You're too soft and unresolved to kill a Lantern. I, on the other hand, have the resolve."

I lift Jade up, wrapping her left arm around my neck. As we both stand firm, Fatality is charging towards me. Without even thinking, I raise my fist to her. No sooner, a construct of a dragon's head comes out. A construct! Its tongue grabs a hold of her weapon and tosses it to the side. It breathes a green fire in her direction, making her jump to the side. Jade creates a piranha plant construct and catches Fatality in hits mouth. It closes its mouth and after a minute, spits her out near the rubble of what was her product.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good." We both look over to Amon. "I've got him, go check with the others."

Strong and stubbornly, Jade moves her arm and stands firm after her beating. I run to the back of the warehouse, where the rest of the Black Circle and the others went during their fights. What I find is nothing but exceptional: all the Black Circlers detained, Robin, Artemis and Kid Flash victorious.

"You guys okay?"

"Nothing we couldn't handle, GL", Robin says.

"What about you, Kyle", Artemis asks, "you okay?

I create a sphere construct around the captured Circlers to carry them. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Kyle!" Jade yells to me. Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis and I run back over to her. She's still safe, with Amon Sur handcuffed thanks to her constructs. But what I do notice is who isn't here. Fatality.

"She's gone."

"I'm sorry, Kyle. I didn't mean for her to get away."

I walk over to her and tiredly hug her. "It's okay. You're alive, we've got the Black Circle here, and we stopped their sale from happening. You did your best, which is nothing more than I could ask of you to do." I look to the others as well. "All of you. Great job."

"Well we had our fearless leader to get us through it didn't we", Robin says.

"I don't know about fearless, but we made it through together."

"You've got yourself a good set of friends. Kinda jealous. Makes me wish I had friends like these."

"You do now" Artemis says. She walks over to Jade and offers her hand. Jade takes it gladly with her own.

I raise my fist to my face. "This is Kyle Rayner of Sector 2814. Requesting the nearest Green Lantern for assistance in prisoner transport. We got 'em."

After all the prisoners return to their cells, I just sit and wait and think about what just happened. Makes me glad I never did like cold weather now. And I pray that I never have to share this embarrassing detail to anyone. Ever.

The breakout is happening now.

Then we get ready.

Damn straight.

Alarms start blaring throughout the prison. They move fast. Next, the collar on my neck, the red glow dies down. They've already shut off the collars? This is too fast. I jump down from my bunk. Landing, I see Devastation knocking down the door like it's nothing.

Before she leaves, I grab her attention. "Do you mind?" I say pointing to my collar.

She walks to me, coming inches to my face. "Why should I?"

I place my hand on her shoulder and start pressing downward. After a quick second, she kneels down towards me. "Super strength or not, I can still make you suffer." With that in mind, she moves her hand towards my neck, grabs my collar, and breaks it like a twig. "Thank you", I say releasing my grip on her. Devastation gives me an ugly looking smirk before she leaves.

Leaving my cell, I look down to see the prison going amuck with chaos and insanity. All the female prisoners are running about, attacking prison guards and destroying the place. I look down to see Devastation heading over to where Killer Frost and Shimmer stand. But I don't see Tuppence/M'gann anywhere.

I decide to go in search for her, hoping to regroup and follow Frost and keep her from adjoining both wings of the prison. Only a minute in search, I feel a hand on my right shoulder. More muscular than feminine. I grab a hold of the hand, raise the arm and flip the man onto the ground. I ball up my fist to punch his lights out until I see who it is.

"Ben?"

"Haven't lost a step, have you?"

I take his hand and pull him from the floor I just flattened him onto. "How did you get to this wing? Please don't tell me—"

"Don't worry, they haven't broken any walls down yet. I crawled my way through the air ducts, followed my way to the women's wing. Figured you could use a hand corralling the prisoners here."

"Yeah, we could actually. Just need to find my teammate first."

Superboy, White Canary, I think my power…

Miss Martian? M'gann!

"No! Dammit!"

"What's wrong?"

"I think her cover just got blown. I have to find her. Help me, please."

"Of course."

We jump down from the upper cell blocks and start heading deeper into the prison. "You have any idea where we're going?"

"The laundry room. Frost told me that's where she and Devastation are gonna break down the adjoining wall to the mens. If anything, that's where M'gann will be." Alive I pray.

"I can see that you're just as quick as ever, Little Bird."

"Just try to keep up, old man."

"Old man? Please! I'm young enough to know I can still take you on."

"You think so?"

"Come visit me after we stop this breakout and we'll see." But I don't want to visit you, not here anyway…

It takes us awhile to get to the laundry room, but when we do, we find Frost and Devastation doing exactly like she told me she would. She freezes the wall, making it weaker, then Devastation pummels it until it breaks through.

I look to their left, and I'm horrified by what I see. My friend, M'gann, frozen in ice in the corner of the room. Like she's a decorative statue. That does it.

"FROST!" My outburst grabs both her and Devastation's attention, both of them turning their heads to me.

"I thought you'd join us for this bit." She looks to my left and sees Turner, confusion taking over now. "Turner, how did you get in here? We haven't broken through yet."

"What did you do to her!?"

She looks to Tuppence/M'gann, chuckling a bit. "Oh yeah, Tuppy. Turns out she's got a few tricks up her sleeve. Not to mention she kept me from killing a guard. Couldn't let that slide. What's it to you anyways?"

M'gann blew her cover, to save a guard's life… And now she's freezing to death for it, because of her…

"You shouldn't have done that."

"And why's that?" I'm done talking.

I run over to her, jump up and wrap my legs around Frost's head. I move so quick she has not time to react or say anything. I throw my legs downward, letting her face hit the concrete floor. I land on my feet, angry and ready to hurt someone.

Frost writhes in pain as she gets back up, breathing through her nose. "What the hell?!"

Devastation starts coming towards me, but Ben turns her around and starts punching her in the face repeatedly. Smacking her so hard she can't see right probably.

I turn my attention back to Frost, who looks pissed right now. "I wish I could've frozen you with that kiss before!" She sends a wave of ice towards me, which I duck and slip past her. I sweep her legs, making her fall again on her face. I grab a hold of her arms, place my foot on her back, and begin stretching her arms back enough to break them. I don't let up not even for a second, pulling harder and tighter by the second.

I look over for a moment and see Ben being put in a headlock by Devastation. "Ben!" Frost grabs a hold of my arm for a moment and it starts to feel numb. Shit! I let go and move away fast, keeping her touch of frostbite away from me.

I back myself towards Ben and Devastation, with Frost following me as she turns her right hand into a mace. "And to think, I thought you were a cold-hearted bitch that could warm me up some." She throws her mace around at me, with me splitting me legs to avoid it. I grab a towel near me. "Guess I was wrong, you're just a bitch. Or you will have been." She raises her mace, which lets me use the towel and have it wrap around her arm. I slip through her legs, bring her crashing to the floor again.

She tries to use her free hand to freeze me, but I stomp on her wrist to keep her from doing that. I keep at it until I hear a crack or two. "You can't do this. This is our chance to get out of here!"

"Not anymore, Icetips. Ben!" Ben, still in Devastation's headlock, looks my way. "Fly like a canary!" I heave Frost, using the towel still wrapped around her arm, and throw her in their direction. Ben reverse headbutts Devastation, grabs a hold of her hand, and backflips behind her. He then judo kicks her in the back, sending her crashing into Frost. Both women lay on the ground in pain, passing out slowly.

Ben walks over to me, with a smile on his face, proud of me I take it. "Strike like a tiger." He grabs a hold of my hand and squeezes tight, and I squeeze back just as tight. The Canary and the Tiger, what a team.

I look back over to M'gann, dreading to think if she's still alive or not. Ben joins me, looking at my disguised friend. "Your teammate?" I nod in response. He places his hand on my left shoulder. "I'm sorry, Sara."

The wall breaks through, concrete crumpling to the floor. Oh great, they broke through. This could not get any worse. But the person who walks through the man-made hole is M'gann's 'twin'.

"Conner!" I saw as I rush to hug him, as he hugs back to me. I look over his shoulder to see Icicle Jr. freezing Blockbuster and Mammoth together.

"Sara, where is she? Where's M'gann?"

"Conner, I'm sorry…" I turn my head over to his right, letting him find her in her frozen state. He doesn't say or do anything, but just walks over to her. I follow him in suit, with Ben right beside me. Conner looks to Ben, then to me. "It's okay, he's a friend. He helped me find M'gann and keep them busy", I say referring to Killer Frost and Devastation.

"Woohoo! We did it, Tommy!" A rather annoying voice screams as he walks on in. "Tommy, we—Oh, dude. I'm sorry." Conner places his hand on the ice, looking in anguish and despair at our teammate. "And she was such the total babe, too."

Conner raises his fist, but I hold him back, keeping him from making it worse. "Stop! You'll shatter her to pieces."

"Assuming she's alive in there at all", Junior says.

Suddenly, cracks start appearing in the ice. I turn Conner's attention to this as more cracks appear, until the ice completely breaks. M'gann falls to the floor, alive and well. Thank god!

Conner kneels down to her, checking to see that she's okay. "Are you…"

"It's pretty cold where I come from" she says in response. "I'll be al—" M'gann is interrupted as Conner kisses her instantly. M'gann returns the favor and kisses him back. Well it's about damn time.

"Dude, that's your sister!" Junior says in shock. Yeah, thinking about it, would would be weird if someone say 'the Terror Twins' making out. Thankfully, M'gann shapeshifts back to her normal Martian look, as she and Conner continue to kiss. "What… What, is she… And are you… Oh, dad's gonna kill me."

"Yeah, sorry about that, Junior. And about this" I say as I elbow him in the face, knocking him out with one hit. Roy told me he was a lightweight of sorts but still, eesh kid.

"So, I take it this is normal for your?" Ben says, referring to my teammates kissing still.

"Well, not this specifically. But as to the part of everything else going wrong, yes."

He laughs at my answer. "I'm glad you found a home you enjoy happily."

"Yeah, me too. Now why don't we give them the room while you and I rally up the rest of the prisoners."

"Sounds fun to me", Ben says with a smile on his face.

It didn't take too long for the Lanterns to come for transport. Thankfully, Stewart and Gardner were still on-planet and nearby to take the prisoners back to Oa. Apparently, Stewart was attempting to discipline Gardner a bit using his Marine training techniques back in the day. Knowing Guy, he probably shook it off and wanted to find the nearest criminal to pick a fight with.

Gardner is containing most of the Black Circle in a sphere construct. Jade is coming out of the warehouse with Amon Sur in energized cuffs. Can't make out what he's saying under his breath, but it's nothing pleasant about us 'wardogs' to the Guardians.

I still can't believe that the son to Abin Sur ended up leading one of the galaxy's biggest crime syndicates. I figured Amon wouldn't be exactly like his father, but to turn around and go against everything he was taught as a child. Hopefully whenever I have kids of my own, the only acts of rebellion will be party trashing the house or getting into the liquor cabinet. I don't even want to think about kids anytime soon.

An opening in the sphere is made as Jade directs Amon into it. The sphere closes behind him. Stewart and the Corps should be able to get some intel from him on his customers and product.

I walk towards to Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis and Stewart. "Did you gather it all?" Stewart brings forward a bag construct. I open it and see every rock fragment that was left from the explosion inside the warehouse. All broken and void of yellow light before they were destroyed.

"And your ring wouldn't work at all when these…" John looks to the collected rubble, "…rocks were exposed to you?"

"I can't explain why but yeah. It's like my ring was out of juice completely."

"I didn't think a Green Lantern's ring could be affected like that", Kid Flash says.

"Thankfully Kyle here was able to handle himself without it", Robin says confidently.

"That I have no doubt", John says. "The Corps will examine the remains and see what they come up with."

"Is it okay if we take a few samples to S.T.A.R. Labs?" I ask. "I'm sure having two scientific laboratories looking into this stuff would be beneficial."

"I don't see why not." John divides the bag construct in two. He hands one bag to me. "I'll tell the Guardians that Earth is helping to study and examine the rocks."

"Thanks John. What about Fatality?"

"We're not sure where she'll go next. I'll put together a squad to search for her. But at least we know why she wanted this stuff. Powerless Green Lanterns would make it easier for her to hunt down."

"A Green Lantern assassin. She'd fit in perfectly with the Shadows", Artemis says.

We all look over to Gardner and Jade. Gardner seems to be egging the prisoners, making them feel worse about themselves probably. Jade is trying to talk some sense into him and stopping it. She'd be the first to knock some sense into him.

"We better get going before Gardner decides to let them loose and fight them all himself." John stops and turns mid-walk. "And Kyle", getting my attention, "keep up the good work."

"Yes sir", I say beaming a bit.

John smacks Gardner in the back of his head. All he does is grunt in response. Down boy.

"Hey Jade!" Jade turns and walks over to us. "Hey, thanks again for helping us."

"Yeah it was pretty rad working with a GL other than Kyle." I give Wally an annoyed look. "Not that we don't love working with you, Kyle."

"Stop while you're ahead, Wall Man", Artemis says.

"Next time you wanna team-up, you better bring some embarrassing stories about Kyle here", Robin says.

"What embarrassing stories? No clue what you're talking about Robin."

"Actually, you guys should ask him about the time he got his ass whooped by Kilowog so bad…"

"Okay, time for you to go", I say pushing her away from my friends. The others chuckle a bit as they wave bye to Jade. "But seriously, thanks again. If we ever need an extra woman on mission or you wanna tag along again, come by Mount Justice sometime. I'll give you the grand tour."

"Sounds good. I might have to take you up on that offer." Jade flies up into the sky with already airborne Gardner and Stewart with their prisoners. "See you soon, Rayner." The three then fly into space, back home to Oa. See you soon, Jen.

"You sure you don't wanna go back with your friends?"

"I already told them I'd be hanging back. They're okay with it. Besides, I wanted a few more minutes to talk with you still. Though I'd kinda like it to be just the two of us, and not these two guards", I say as the guards listen and look at me. "Guys, I'll be fine. Five minutes, that's all I'm asking for. Besides, he's in cuffs, what can he do?" Thankfully, it doesn't take them too much more convincing to have them step outside of his cell.

"You do know I can get out of these, right?"

"Oh, I know. I just needed an excuse to give us the room."

He smiles to my response. "I'm so glad to see you after all this time. That you've adjusted to your new life, as a hero nonetheless. And happy too. I don't remember you smiling too often back then."

"Well if I ever did, it was because you put it on my face." We both smile to that. "Ben, what happened, really? How are you in Belle Reve?"

Ben inhales and exhales, the answer weighing heavily on his mind. "A few months after you were gone, I couldn't stand it anymore. Cause or not, I just couldn't bear to stand that they left you as if you were already dead to them. So, I left. I moved to Detroit, lived a quiet life. I even met a woman, Miyoshi, a caring, kind, beautiful woman. We had been together for a year, I even asked her to marry me. She said yes." He looks down to the concrete, then to me right in my eyes. "One night, when I came home, I found Miyoshi laying dead in our bedroom. The police came in soon after and arrested me for her murder. They had evidence, my tiger claws as the murder weapon." Tears start to roll down Ben's eyes, as do mine. "Because I abandoned their ways, not only did the Shadows frame me for murder, but they took the love of my life away. They should've just killed me. But they wanted me to suffer. To break me."

"Oh Ben", I say as my vision gets blurry. I move over to give him a hug. He hugs me back as best as he can. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry this happened to you. If I had known, I could've helped you and Miyoshi."

"There's nothing you can do now. There's nothing anyone can do now."

I move over next to him. "But you don't belong here, not for this. You're a good man, Ben. You would never hurt someone you love—"

"But I have killed. For the Shadows. If not for Miyoshi's death, I deserve to be imprisoned for all the lives I have taken before."

"Is that why you didn't attempt to leave? You think you deserve to live the rest of your life in prison?"

"Yes. I do."

I understand Ben's thinking, I do. With the Shadows, he had to do a lot of awful, horrible acts in their name. But Ben Turner is a good man and would have made a good husband. He has compassion and kindness where most of the Shadows wouldn't even blink at the thought. Back then, I might not have blinked myself if not for him. Ben saved what was left of my soul before Dinah saved me. I owe him everything. I can't not do the same for him and save Ben Turner.

"No, I refuse to believe that. No matter what you've done, you cannot stay here in Belle Reve. You are a good man. You've protected the innocent and defenseless before and would continue to do so if given the chance. I know you. If there is a chance that you could be released from Belle Reve, would you take it and start anew?"

"But there isn't one. And no, I won't have you try to break me out. Not like Icicle tried today."

"I'm not talking about a jailbreak. My friends, the League, my sister. They can and will help you. We can find a legal way for you to get your freedom back."

"Why would they? They don't know me."

"But they do know me, and they know I wouldn't ask them of this if it wasn't important to me. Plus, you helped stop what could've been the worst prison break in history. That's worth something, to the League for certain."

"Perhaps."

"Ben, please. You helped me when I had nearly no one to count on. You where the light I needed in my darkest time. Let me be your light and let you fight for your freedom."

Ben starts chuckling as more tears come out of his eyes. "Stubborn little bird as always. If you truly believe you can find a way out of here for me, then I say go for it."

I give him a bigger hug around his neck again. "Thank you."

A knock on the wall brings our attention to the open door. But it's not a guard that enters the cell. "Hope I'm not interrupting."

"Dinah… Not at all" I say as I stand and go over to hug her. "Actually, I'm glad you're here. I want you to meet Ben Turner. He helped me, Superboy and Miss Martian stop the prison break."

Ben stands up as Dinah walks towards him. Both my role models have looks of hardened steel on them. Dinah brings out her hand towards Ben. "It's nice to meet your, Mr. Turner. And thank you for helping my sister."

Ben grabs a hold of Dinah's hand, shaking it with vigor and pride. "You're welcome. And please, call me Ben."

"There's actually something I'd like to talk to you about, if you don't mind. It has to do with mine and Ben's… shared history. From before…" I don't even need to finish my sentence for her to know what I'm talking about. She looks at Ben, then back to me. "Ben needs my help. And I need your help. Please, Dinah."

"I was only able to acquire one sample of the materiel", Fatality says, rock in hand. "That Lantern and his friends kept me from bringing back the rest."

"One is enough for now. We'll analyze it to help us discover where Amon mined it from. Then we'll begin shaping it into what we need. What of the effects?"

"You mean where Amon promised me it would neutralize a Green Lantern's power ring? Oh yeah, he was telling the truth."

"Excellent. Soon, our Light will drive the Corps to the depths of space."

"Belle Reve will be fully operational by tomorrow. All prisoners are accounted for except the Riddler. Who somehow did manage to escape during the confusion. Still, you must be disappointed", Hugo Strange says.

"Me? After the risk you took smuggling out tech inside you had nearly as much invested in the break as we did. It's a shame we got beat but the main objectives were all reached", Icicle says.

"The Light should be quite pleased."