Welcome back, Readers!

Usually, I don't post multiple chapters in one story on the same day, but since you guys are awesome readers (as well as already tired from school and/or work), I figured you deserved this before the weekend!

Enjoy!

Homeward Bound:

Space:

How long?

How long had he been flying?

How long had it been since he left Oa? Maybe several hours; it was hard to tell in space.

Sam was only focused on just flying straight ahead, putting as much distance between himself and Oa. The memory of what had happened was still fresh him his mind, and some tears still leaked form his eyes as he shot through space, going faster than he'd ever gone before. He had no idea what had happened after he screamed; all he remembered was a bright green light, and then the next thing he knew, he was flying through space, Oa a shrinking speck in the distance. All he knew what that Elantra had betrayed him, Kilowog was still a jerk, and his music player-

A sob slipped out from his mouth as he thought about the pile of plastic and metal; the only reminder of his dad that he had.

Ring power at three percent, his ring's voice suddenly spoke up, and Sam yelped at that, pausing mid-flight to stare at the ring on his finger, which was glowing faintly as it was running out of juice.

Two percent.

"Please," he begged, his voice still sore from yelling. "Let me make it… let me live… please…"

One percent.

His outfit flickered, and he stopped flying, staring in horror as the green material and glow that surrounded him started to fade, revealing his skin and the t-shirt he was wearing underneath his uniform, along with his undershorts. He suddenly noticed how quiet it was around him, the vacuum of space so great, even sound couldn't escape, much less him.

"No…" he whispered, and then he couldn't breathe. Nothing came into his nose or his mouth, which he clamped shut to keep in air. But it was cold… so cold… even his skin was turning pale, becoming icy. He thought he saw something grey fly by, and wondered if it was a rescue ship or something.

Please, he thought desperately, feeling himself black out, the cold growing too much to bear…

..

Sam woke with a gasp, some foreign liquid being splashed on his face.

Sputtering, he squinted in the sunlight, wondering where he was, or if he was even still alive. His body felt warm, so far from the cold vacuum of space, that for a second, he wondered if he was in Heaven.

"Wake up, ya bastitch! I ain't got all day!"

The teen sat up with a start, figuring that he must be alive, since no angel would sound like that. Wiping his eyes, he caught the scent of alcohol and cigar smoke, coughing a little. Then, his eyes fully opened, he froze, staring at a pair of large black boots and jeans. His eyes travelled upward, finally resting on the annoyed face of the last Czarnian.

The alien had pale white skin, like he'd been covered with flour, and it contrasted heavily with the sleeveless black leather jacket he wore. The guy was tall, maybe seven feet or so, and muscular as well. He had crazy, long, jet black hair, and blood red eyes surrounded by diamond-shaped patches of black. The man smiled, revealing sharp teeth as he took a long drag of his cigar.

"He lives," the alien says in a deep, gravelly voice. "I thought I might've accidentally killed ya; wouldn'ta been tha' first time I'd accidentally killed someone, though!"

"W-W-What," Sam said, staggering to his feet, noticing that he was just in his underwear and t-shirt (which was soaked with beer), though he still wore his ring, which looked like a regular ring without any power. Looking around, he saw that he was on a brightly-colored planet full of large fauna and had a peach-colored sky. He then turned back to the man, noticing that his throat was no longer sore. "Who are-"

"Of course," the man exclaimed loudly, flicking the cigar off to the side. "You ain't never met the Main Man before! My name's Lobo, the greatest guy you'll ever meet, and the greatest bounty hunter in tha' universe!" The way the alien spoke, along with his wild expression and hair, gave off a demented and crazy personality to the boy, who tentatively shook his hand (Lobo shook it so hard, Sam was surprised his arm didn't become dislocated).

"H-Hi. I'm Sam. Sam McDormand." He looked around at the planet, rubbing his now sore arm. "Where are we?"

"Uasinarah," the alien replied, pulling out a large knife from his pocket and starting to pick his teeth with it. "Nearest place with air you could breathe. Lucky the Space Dolphins got to me in time-"

"Space Dolphins," Sam asked, still looking at the planet around him.

"Yeah. I owed 'em a favor, so when they asked me to save some Green Lantern that was dyin' in tha' middle of space, I was like, 'Sure! Why the hell not?'" Lobo looked the boy over, not impressed. "You look mighty young for a Green Lantern."

"Tell me about it," the boy muttered, relieved that the Space Dolphins, whoever they were, sent someone to help him, even if this Lobo person was crazy. "I ran away from Oa." He was also surprised by his answer, but he assumed it was true; he had no plans on going back.

"Did you, now," the man asked, surprise covering his pale face. "Well, ain't that somethin'?"

"So… now what," the boy asked quickly, trying to avoid another topic change while looking around him. "Am I stuck here now, or-"

"Nah. The dolphins asked me ta take ya whereva ya wanted to go… within reason, that is," he said, tossing his knife but missing it, the tip impaling itself in his wrist. "Don't worry," he said, pulling it out of his skin and causing a spray of blood to fly out with it, "it'll heal. Now, where was it you was wantin' to go, 'cause I gotta bounty on some Bastitch and I ain't got all fraggin' day!"

The teen stared in horror at the alien's arm, which was already starting to heal, but it was still disgusting to watch. For a second, he nearly said Oa, but then painfully remembered what had transpired, and how he'd decided not to go back.

"Earth," he said confidently, staring at the alien dead in the eye. "I'd like to go to Earth, please."

..

Oa:

Guy Gardner, Hal Jordan Ch'p and Tomar waited in one of the unused medical bay rooms, looking up when the door slid open, revealing John Stewart and Kilowog.

"Well," Hal asked.

"Went about as well as we expected," John told the group as the Bolovaxian walked over to the window, looking out the window instead of everyone else.. "The Guardians heard our story, and they said we have to bring Sam back. They also said that every Lantern needs to be on alert for Elantra, and to bring her in for punishment."

"Sounds about right," Ch'p commented. "Based on what Hal and Guy told us, it makes sense that they wouldn't do anything more; neither seem to be a threat to the planet, but both are apparently too powerful to be left alone."

"I still can't believe how fast he took off," Tomar commented, having been one of the Lanterns that was flying overhead when Sam let the power surge loose. "Has he ever shown any signs of being that fast in training, Kilowog?"

They turned over to the pink alien, who didn't seem to have noticed any of them, continuing to stare out the window.

"Okay," Guy said. "Looks like someone's spaced out!"

"I can hear you," the combat officer growled.

"Then help us," John told him. "Sam was under your care, and-"

Without warning, Kilowog suddenly roared angrily, grabbed the nearby bed and tossing it across the room, nearly knocking the squirrel-like alien out of the air. It slammed into the wall, breaking apart at the joints and crashing to the ground. Everyone turned towards the pink alien, wary of what he might do next.

"IT'S MY FAULT," the Bolovaxian yelled, fists clenched in rage. "HE WAS UNDAH MY CARE! I DON'T CARE WHAT ELANTRA SAID; WHETHA' SHE MESSED WITH MY HEAD OR NOT, I STILL DROVE SAM TOO FAR! I'M THE REASON HE'S CURRENTLY LOST IN SPACE RIGHT NOW!"

"Kilowog," Hal started, holding up his hands. "Calm down, it's not-"

"IT IS MY FAULT," the Lantern interrupted, kicking a stray piece of the bed aside. "I'M THE ONE THAT PICKED ON HIM AND CALLED HIM OUT AND BEAT HIM DOWN! I'M THE ONE THAT CAUSED HIM TO LOSE CONTROL LIKE THAT! I EVEN MADE UP THAT FAKE CH'P CONSTRUCT TO MESS WITH HIS HEAD AND EMBARRASS HIM, AND CAUSED HIM TA BREAK HIS OWN HAND!"

"You what," Ch'p asked, gaping at the Lantern in disbelief.

"I'M THE ONE THAT SCREWED UP! THE GUARDIANS SHOULDA PUNISHED ME FOR ALL THE TIMES I KNOCKED HIM DOWN AND-"

"KILOWOG," Tomar shouted, his barking order cutting off the pink alien's tirade, and everyone turned in surprise towards the usually soft-spoken alien. "You need to calm down," the beaked alien told him, walking over to his old training buddy. "Don't you see that Elantra obviously said what she said in order to mess with you? She wants you to feel guilty for what happened with Sam, even though it wasn't your fault."

"But I-"

"No buts, as humans would say," the Green Lantern interrupted, holding up his hand for silence. "You and Hal and John have all told me what she told you; she twisted your mind to do that stuff to him. You had no idea that she was messing with you."

"I still chose to listen to those promptings and take out my anger on him," the Bolovaxian interjected.

"But you're sorry for what you did, right?"

"Wha-" The officer looked a little taken aback by the question. "O-Of course I am-"

"Then stop acting like a pathetic Poozer and start focusing on finding Sam," Tomar told him sternly. "Apologize to him for what you did; he also heard what Elantra said, so he now knows that you both were influenced by her. Tossing beds across the room and throwing fits won't help you feel any better, nor will it help us find Sam." He crossed his arms, glaring up at his friend. "Do we understand?"

Everyone stared at the beaked alien in shock, not expecting him, out of everyone in the group, to be the one to slap some sense into Kilowog. Tomar was usually the calm one, even in a battle, and everyone waited to see how the Bolovaxian would react to being called out.

The pink alien stared down at his old Rookie friend, silent for a long time. Then, he unclenched his fists, slowly nodding and looking down at the ground. "You… You're right." He looked back up at the rest of the group. "I'm sorry everyone… I just-"

"It's fine," John assured him. "You've probably been under her influence so far, it may take a while for your anger to disappear. Plus we're all worried about Sam; his tracking band was destroyed when he lost control."

"I guess you're right," Kilowog replied. "I'm just glad I didn't take one of you out."

"You didn't," Hal added. "But I agree with Tomar that you should probably apologize to Sam, though, which brings me to this." He held up his ring, creating a map of space, showing Oa and all the nearest planets within 100 light years. "How far could he have gotten?"

"Not very far," Ch'p supplied, floating up to the map. "We looked at reports, and he last charged his ring this morning, and based on that explosion of his, he's was probably at 47% power capacity when he left. Based on that, along with the speed he was flying, assuming he didn't slow down, he could have traveled no more than thirty-five light years away, meaning-" The alien created a green ring, surrounding part of the map. "- he's somewhere in this region. He's not dead, or else his ring would've found someone else, so he must be on one of these planets, but probably without any power; we found his personal lantern in his room, so we know he hasn't recharged his ring."

"How many of them have breathable air?"

"12."

"We should also let his mother and the Justice League know," John spoke up. "Just in case he managed to find a way to Earth."

"How," Ch'p asked.

"Sneak onto a ship going by Earth," Guy suggested. "Would've saved his ring power, and then he flies home once he gets close enough to the planet. Besides, his mom deserves to know in case he's-"

"He'd not dead," Hal said firmly, glaring at his fellow Lantern. "We will find him. Understand?" He looked around the group, and one by one, they nodded their assent. "The Guardians have sent replacements to our sectors until we find Sam, so we'll split up into pairs and search one planet after another, cooperating with their police forces to aid in the search."

"Then let's go," Kilowog said determinedly, leaping to his feet and heading towards the door.

"We should probably let the Guardians know the plan first," Hal suggested. "And choose who searches with who."

The pink alien nodded. "Understood. But I will find him." He glanced over at the pieces of the bed, holding out his ring and repairing the basic damage to the piece of furniture. "And I will make things right."

..

Gormar, a few days later:

Ch'p and Tomar flew over one of the many cities that covered the planet, their rings scanning for the DNA of Sam McDormand amidst the crowds of aliens that packed the streets. Nothing yet. They and several other Lanterns not on duty were searching the nearby planets, but after four days they hadn't yet found the boy (though they'd only searched eight of the twelve planets). Each planet was larger than Earth, so it took them some time to cover the whole surface, not to mention having to break up several fights and riots happening in various cities.

"Thanks," Tomar said, lowering his ring from his mouth before turning to the other Lantern. "Still no news from anyone, but we got the same message from Earth; their Justice League went to visit his mom, and she said she hadn't seen him, and had to be calmed down when she learned what had happened. Of course, with the amount of power left in his ring, and given his average speed, I doubt he made it back to Earth."

"Do we charge his ring when we find him," Ch'p asked, waiting for some indication from his ring that the kid had been found.

"I would not," the other alien said, always the voice of reason when things were tough. "If he is upset, he might lash out and attack us. This way, we'll have the upper hand."

"He's not a bad guy," the squirrel-like alien said indignantly.

"So why are we hunting him like he is," the bird-beaked alien responded, giving the small creature a pointed glance. Ch'p sighed; Tomar was right about a lot of things, but it got annoying at times. He was about to retort when the alien froze, squinting at the ground. "There is a disturbance." Following his gaze, the tiny alien saw a group of several aliens brawling outside of a pub, seeming to be piling on top of one person.

"Let's go." They both zoomed down towards the scuffle, their bodies glowing to announce their presence. Some of the aliens scattered, but most of them continued to fight, hitting and pulling at one another, yelling indiscernible insults and threats.

"Break it up," Ch'p yelled, creating a giant hand that started picking up individual creatures and tossing them aside. Now some of them stopped fighting, cowed by the sight of the two Lanterns. They quickly scattered, leaving the person at the bottom of the pile lying in the road. The guy was a mess; his arms were broken, and his face was busted up, but as they watched, his body started to heal, and he sat up with a yell.

"THOSE FRAGGIN' BASTITCHES," Lobo roared, looking around the area and pulling out his signature chain and hook. "COME BACK HERE YA COWARDLY SH-"

He noticed the two Green Lanterns floating nearby, and he chuckled darkly, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Lookie what we got here! A couple of green boys here to save tha' day!"

"Hello, Lobo," Tomar said coolly, crossing his arms. "Causing trouble again?"

"Hell no! Those bastitches jumped me," the Czarnian said loudly, staggering a little; the smell of alcohol and smoke was strong on him, so it didn't take much for the two Lanterns to deduce what he'd been doing before the brawl.

"Sure they did," Ch'p said sarcastically. "Unprovoked."

"You shut your mouth before I turn you into a hat," Lobo snarled.

"Calm yourself, Lobo. We have no trouble with you; our concerns are elsewhere at the moment."

"Yeah," the smallest alien said defiantly, though a little shaken from the hat comment. "Go bounty hunting or whatever miserable job you do to keep yourself drunk all the time."

"I ain't drunk," the pale alien sputtered, staggering a little closer towards the two aliens. "I'm pissed! I help one of you's, and I loose my bounty to some fraggin' bastitch! 550,000 CREDITS! I'd've been rich!" He started to wrap up the chain in his hand, looking like he wanted to hit something again and again until it broke.

Tomar rolled his eyes. "We do not recall you helping us since Atrocitus' attack several cycles ago."

"Nah, not that, though that was somethin'! I helped some wimpy human Lantern get to Earth. Made me late catchin' that bastich with 550,000 creds on his head! Be grateful I ain't askin' you or dem Goody Two-Shoes Guardians to reimburse me for my bike's gas!"

The two Green Lanterns froze, their eyes widening with shock. They quickly glanced at one another, the same thought crossing their minds. "Did he look like this," Ch'p demanded, creating a pretty accurate construct of Sam.

Lobo squinted at the construct, swaying a little. If he weren't drunk, he would've noticed that the two Lanterns looked desperate to know his answer, and could have blackmailed them for credits. But he nodded, burped loudly, and said, "Yep, dat's him. Space Dolphins said I should save him, and since I owed them, I rescued the kid. Found him floating in space, wearin' nothing but his underwear; nearly died too! Took him to a planet to revive him, then took him to some place on Earth called Tax-as, or somethin'." The man turned back to the bar. "Now, if you two fraggers excuse me, I gotta get me somethin' ta drink!" The two Lanterns watched him amble back into the bar before turning to one another.

"Is he lying?"

"I doubt it. He was pretty inebriated, and not in a state to lie," Tomar said, thinking over what the Czarnian said. "His mental defense were down, and I doubt he'd lie about Sam without anything to gain. Besides, he mentioned someplace on Earth called-"

"Tax-es, but I think he meant Texas, which is where Sam's from," Ch'p said, bringing his ring to his mouth. "Hal? Kilowog? I think we found him, but you might wanna bring your Lanterns with you; we're going to Earth."

..

Meanwhile, at the Headquarters of the Sinestro Corp:

"Sir," the yellow Lantern spoke up. "The deserter claims she has some news you might want to hear."

"Send her in," Sinestro ordered, and the alien nodded, going over to the door and opening it, letting the newest member of the Yellow Lanterns inside.

Elantra looked powerful in her new uniform; the yellow of the uniform was a darker shade than her skin, and the determined smile on her face made her a welcomed addition to the Corp. "It's nice to finally meet you, Lord Sinestro," she said, giving him a gracious bow.

"Speak up and spare me the flattery," Sinestro snapped at her. "What is your news."

Undeterred by the harsh order, she looked him square in the eye. "One of the other Yellow Lanterns stationed near Gomar let slip that some of the most powerful Green Lanterns, including Hal Jordan and the other humans, have left their sectors in search of a missing member."

The pink alien's eyes widened with interest. "Interesting… and who are they searching for?"

"A human child that was also a Rookie from Oa."

"I'd heard rumors that a child was drafted to the Corp, but I didn't believe that they would-" He looked sharply at the newest member. "Did you know him?"

"Yes, and I'm the reason he's on the run, and that the others are going after him."

Sinestro now looked at the yellow alien with interest, absorbing this new information. "You must tell me everything. First, though: do you know where they're going?"

Elantra smiled. "Yes. They're going to Earth."

..

Ysmault, Home of the Red Lanterns:

Atrocitus was busy staring out at the raging rivers of lava and blood when someone came up behind him.

"You better have the information I wanted or I will rip off your head," he growled, not looking back.

"Of course I do, Sir," the Red Lantern replied, sounding just as fierce as his leader. "Whoever gave off that blast of rage from Oa has left, and has now taken residence on Earth; his anger isn't as strong as it was, but I'm sure that a ring of ours would solve that problem. What's more, however, is that Hal Jordan and several other Green Lanterns are going after him, according to our spies."

A small cat in a Red Lantern uniform floated over to his master, swiping at his hand when he tried to pet him. The leader of the Red Lanterns was silent for a few moments, deep in thought. Usually, they didn't bring in new recruits; they'd just let a red ring find them for them. But this individual was from Oa... meaning that they were a Green Lantern, and rings didn't go to Oa. However, now this source of anger was off of Oa, but surely his friends would follow...

"I will lead a group to Earth," he finally spoke up, the red world around him matching the glow of his eyes. "Whoever this individual is, his rage will be a great addition to our Corp."

Now do you see why I wanted to post this chapter on the same day as well? I just COULDN'T wait another week or two to post this chapter, knowing that some serious stuff's gonna go down on Earth! Obviously, Kilowog's feeling guilty, Sam met Lobo, and he and his mom have lied to the Justice League about him being home. Add that to the Red and Yellow Lantern Corps, and you can probably guess that the next couple of chapters are gonna be epic!

But... you'll have to wait for me to post the next chapter to find out. Don't die or stress out until then; I don't want anyone going into shock because they don't know what happens next.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as well as the story so far! As always, feel free to follow and favorite the story if you want to be updated on new chapters and so on, and feel free to leave a review on the chapter if you want.

I hope you all have a great and safe weekend, and see you next chapter!

-aggiefrogger