Hey, Readers!

I'm back!

Sorry for the hiatus; between classes and other fictions, I kinda lost the way to finish this next chapter, but suddenly, it came to me, and I finished it, now full of ideas on how to continue this FF. I hope that this chapter was worth the wait, and I apologize again; I hate putting stories on hold, and I don't plan on doing it with this story ever again. You who have followed and favorited this story, along with new readers, deserve to see this to its completion, and I intend to do so.

So, without further delay, here is Chapter Four! Enjoy!

-aggiefrogger

Welcome To The Jungle:

The next couple weeks were hell, to say the least.

Even though Kilowog couldn't prove that Sam had flipped the tray, it didn't stop him from coming down hard on the kid during training sessions. The teen could tell that the alien was still upset, pushing him a little harder than the rest of the other rookies, which he called "Poozers," since they were apparently "unworthy" to be a Lantern. Even though the combat training officer was tough on all of them, he seemed especially hard on the human boy, making him fly extra laps, criticizing him the most, and, when demonstrating a fighting technique, he used the teen as his example dummy. The other rookies basically cut the boy out; they didn't want to get near him, lest they also receive some of Kilowog's wrath.

Sam wasn't the only rookie that was bad at ring-slinging, though. The conjoined twin aliens, Merk and Marnas, had trouble focusing with two heads, which meant that everyone else had to constantly be on their guard to avoid a stray construct that could knock them out. It became obvious to all of the other rookies that the sullen yellow alien, whose name was Elantra, was the strongest of the group. She was the only one who managed to break through Kilowog's constructs, and rarely got yelled at by the sergeant, though she still struggled at times. The other Poozers, including Sam, were mediocre, but tried their best to grow stronger, and they slowly were.

Everyday, the boy went back to his room, sometimes too sore and too tired to move. Fortunately, his ring was helpful in healing his injuries, but it took a while for him to completely heal enough, and it used a lot of power. Ch'p had given him a small green device, which he called a lantern, which he could use to charge his ring without having to go to that giant one on Oa, though he had to charge the lantern every on. He preferred it that way, though he'd have to bring the battery lantern back to the large one every once in a while. He tried to listen to his headphones, but the metal band around his head was cumbersome, so he had to listen to the music out loud, the old music tunes filling the small room, helping him relax and focus on moving forward.

His mom responded to his message a few days after he sent it. She was doing fine; she missed him terribly, and told him that as far as any of the neighbors knew, he was spending time with an Aunt in Louisiana. She missed him as well, but according to Hal Jordan, he should be back in about a month and a half, when he completed training. They both knew his visit would be a short one, but the Texans were both desperate to see each other in person once again. It was that knowledge of going home that kept him going through the grueling training exercises.

"Fall in line, Poozers," Kilowog barked at the rookies one day, who quickly scrambled into a line, standing straight and erect, not daring to slouch even an inch. Sam held in his breath a little, wondering what new and painful move he'd have to learn today. It was three weeks into his training, and the teen was starting to get used to the constant punches and hits, his body and constructs slowly growing stronger each day.

The large alien paced in front of them, smiling a crocodile smile while he did so. "We're goin' on a little field trip today, Poozers," he finally said, and it took Sam's whole will to not look at the other rookies to see how they were reacting. It was weird; they weren't going to do any physical training or exercising, it sounded like, which meant that the teen could finally not have to spend all afternoon nursing his wounds-

"We're gonna be doing some air battles in space today."

...And there it is, Sam thought grumpily, having learned long ago not to speak out loud unless directly asked to. Another day, another humiliating beat down.

"You'll be split into two teams, and the goal will be to capture an objective that the other team is guarding. This will be a real challenge for you; not only will you have to deal with sneak attacks from all angles, but also with maneuvering in a weightless environment. I know we've done some space flight before, but this will be a chance to see how good you are at flying and fighting."

Oh, the teen thought. It's basically capture the flag, but with weapons powerful enough to destroy a planet.

"Now for the teams." Kilowog looked at the line of rookies in front of him, evaluating each one as they waited with bated breath. Eventually, he gave another sinister grin, pointing towards Sam. "Poozer, with me. We're one team. The rest of you are another team."

Sam couldn't help himself; his mouth dropped open in shock, and the other Lanterns-in-training were shocked as well. They muttered among themselves, some wondering why he chose these particular teams (though most knew that the commander had a grudge with the boy), and waiting for the human to complain or speak up in defiance. However, they were all shocked when someone else spoke up instead.

"WHAT," Elantra demanded, speaking for the first time in their presence. Her eyes were narrowed at the training officer, her violet hair seeming to bristle irritably. "That hardly seems fair, Sir. We know you have it out for the human, but don't make things harder for him!"

The teen and other rookies quickly looked at the female alien, forgetting that they were supposed to stand at attention. For the first time since Max had started training, none of the other rookies had bothered to talk back or speak up to Kilowog in his defence. He felt grateful, but also upset that she hadn't spoken up earlier; he'd always assumed that she was trying to impress Kilowog all the time, so it surprised him that she would risk losing his positive view of her.

Kilowog turned to her, obviously surprised as well by this comment. His eyes narrowed, and he slowly walked over to the yellow woman, stopping in front of her. She was tall, but still shorter than the combat training officer. "Excuse me, Poozer," he asked softly.

Elantra didn't back down, staring the superior in the eye. "We need to learn to work together; the strongest of us mixed with the weakest, so why are you taking him away from us? It's like you want him to fail, Sir!"

You could hear a pin drop, it was so quiet. Even the alien commander was stunned into silence, his mouth slightly agape as the other Poozers stared at the two, waiting to see who would throw the first punch. Sam stared at the two in shock, wondering if he was somehow dreaming. A few moments later, the hammer fell.

"Last time I checked," the sergeant commented, speaking loudly for all to hear, "you aren't in charge of this little group of Poozers. And you're not a Green Lantern yet, either. So don't think that just because you're slightly better than the rest of this group that you have the right to speak up and tell me how to do my job. Besides, you may be the best now, but I guarantee that one of these Poozers is gonna overtake you in due time." Elantra bristled slightly at the comment, a deep blush covering her face, but she tersely nodded, her face hard and cold.

"And as for the rest of you," he said, turning back to the rest of the rookies, "if any of you have a problem with my methods, you can go complain to the Guardians; I'm sure they'd LOVE to hear a pathetic Poozer like yourself complain about someone who's produced some of the Corp's best Lanterns! Am I makin' myself clear?!"

"Yes, sir," they chorused, the sarcasm hard to miss in the superior's tone.

"Now, like I said, the human's with me. I'll guard our objective while he goes after you, and the rest of you split up who guards and who comes after our objective. We'll be in an enclosed area of space, so you can't go too far from the goals. Understand?"

"YES SIR!"

Half an hour later, Sam was hiding behind a meteor construct, spying on the other team from afar with a pair of green binoculars.

As soon as they'd gotten to the area they were to battle in, Kilowog had encircled the entire area in a sphere about the length of ten or so football fields. He and the commanding officer went to one side while the rest of the rookies, led by Elantra, went to the other. Their object they were seeking was a small grey orb. Either team could come up with whatever construct they could to defend and protect it, as long as it didn't exceed the sphere's limits or killed anybody. Maiming was off, but beating the crud out of each other was encouraged.

Well, beating the crud out of Sam, that is. Kilowog had graciously volunteered to guard their orb, since the boy's will, "was weaker than a Flarbian's entire government," whatever that meant. So now Sam had to go retrieve the other team's orb alone, and pray that he didn't die as he faced the seven other rookies. Whether they were still learning like him, they outnumbered him, and seven wills were stronger than one.

"Are you just gonna sit there forever, Poozer," the sergeant spoke up from behind him, casually floating next to their orb, arms crossed. "Or are ya gonna actually come up with a plan so we win?"

The boy shot an annoyed look at the large alien. "Aren't we supposed to work together on this, Sir? Surely you must have some sort of plan or idea of what to do." He tried to sound nonchalant, but he was secretly desperate for some sort of plan, since he had none.

"I do," the pink alien replied.

" … And?

"I'm your damn superior, boy; I don't have to tell you shit! We may be on a team together, but I'm still your commanding officer, and I'm ordering you to come up with a plan yourself!" Kilowog glared at him. "I know! Why don't you create a giant tray of food to knock them out with?"

Sam's hands clenched tightly on the binoculars, but he said nothing; he figured that if he ignored the large alien's pokes, he wouldn't get into trouble. Instead, he turned back to the opposite end of the field, trying to figure out what to do. The other rookies were floating around their orb, evenly surrounding it from all angles.

Any frontal attack would lead to immediate defeat, and they had every other angle covered; the only way for him to win was to somehow incapacitate all of them at once, or knock them all out with a single blow. Giving his abilities, he doubted he could create a construct large enough to cause a dent, and it was obvious that Kilowog was going to remain unhelpful. That, combined with the metal band around his head starting to feel uncomfortable, the teen was annoyed, to say the least. He wished he was back in his room, listening to some old tape of his, and-

He gave a startled yelp when sound suddenly started blaring in his ears. Flailing around, the sound disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. Even though it was short, he recognized it.

Guns N' Roses.

Did I just- Sam tentatively straightened up, and, closing his eyes, focused on the song. Music started to play in his ears, quieter this time, and what was more incredible was that it seemed to be coming from the metal band. It was like a portable music player; sure, he had to think of the song, but it still worked! Listening to music was always his favorite activity; it always made him feel better, made him feel like he could do anything, and-

He smiled, the sound of a wailing guitar pounding in his ears as a crazy idea popped into his head. He could do anything.

Elantra had decided to not let Kilowog's comment mess with her, and she quickly organized the other rookies into a formation, creating the construct that protected their orb as they waited.

She knew that one of three things would happen; one, no team would move and Kilowog would eventually let them go back to Oa. This was unlikely, giving his personality. Two, Kilowog would come, wipe them out, and take their orb. That was also unlikely; this whole exercise was to single out the human's weakness, which meant that option three was the way to go. Sam would come, on his own, and, being outnumbered, would be defeated, freeing her team to launch an attack on Kilowog's orb. Sure enough, she eventually caught sight of the boy flying straight towards him. A frontal attack; he probably wanted to end this quick.

"Get ready," Elantra barked, and the rookies immediately held up their rings, ready to bind the boy with constructs, when they noticed something odd. The metal band around the human's head was glowing green, as if it were a construct.

He's actually going to try and attack, the bright yellow alien thought, but before she could figure out why he'd do something so stupid, a sudden green mist appeared in the air, surrounding them and filling their half of the sphere.

A few of the rookies yelled, expecting poisoned gas, but when they weren't affected by it, they became more confused, giving their leader silent looks of what to do next. She was still trying to figure out what it was when two giant rectangular things appeared on either side of the teen, aimed right at them, a line connecting them to his head. Each rectangular monstrosity (which was more concerning, since the boy was unable to even produce anything bigger than a Kalry), and had circular indents, as if some sort of sound was supposed to come from them.

But we're in space, Elantra thought, a bit perplexed. Sound needs a medium to travel across and be heard, and-

Her eyes widened in horror as the realization hit her, and she had opened her mouth to tell the others to plug their ears right as the loudest sound she'd ever heard filled the enclosed space.

Sam figured this:

If his metal band was somehow able to read his thoughts and play music in his ears, maybe, if he could figure it out, it could play sound for others to hear. There was no sound in space (since sound needed a medium to travel on, and space had none), so he created mist, which was thick enough to carry sound, and easy for him to construct. Then, making large speakers on either side of him, he decided to play his favorite song at full blast: "Welcome to the Jungle."

Being outside of the mist, floating in space, he didn't hear anything, but he saw the effect the sound had. The other rookies screamed and covered their ears, their construct around the orb fizzing out. Elantra managed to hold out better than the others, but she was still unable to focus on creating a construct to keep him out. Their orb floated in empty space, the rookies guarding it too busy trying to block out an electric guitar to stop anyone from taking it.

Now, he thought.

He flew forward, the mist bending around him so it didn't cover him, and he grabbed the orb, shot a writhing Elantra a quick smirk, then flew away, the music still pounding in the mist behind him. When he got far enough away to ensure that they couldn't reach him, he faded out the mist, speakers, and the sound, releasing them from the agony. Finally, he stopped in front of the training officer, who simply raised an eyebrow at him, though there was a shadow of shock on his features.

Sam tossed him the orb, unable to keep the grin off his face. "I won, sir."

And that's it!

As for Sam figuring out what the band was for, it finally came to me. Personally, when I listen to certain songs, I feel like I can do anything, and am somehow filled with energy I didn't know I had. I'm sure some of you can relate to this, which is why Sam was able to do what he did, despite still being weak.

I don't know if the whole solution to the exercise was unbelievable, but I tried to make sure it made sense with real science, and since Sam is a teen, it makes sense that his ideas would differ from those of the adults around him.

Of course, this reveal means he's about to get more powerful over time (more so than Elantra, probably), but he's still got a long road ahead of him.

Favorite and follow, and leave a review if you want! Have a great day, and keep an eye out for more chapters!

Note: I do NOT own Guns N' Roses, Welcome to the Jungle, and Green Lantern in ANY way, shape or form.