Title: Emerald Ignition (4/7)
Author: Cyclone
Feedback: Please be gentle.
Distribution: Gimme credit and a link.
Rating: Just a little bad language.
Spoilers: Anything and everything.
Disclaimer: The characters depicted herein belong to other people. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Summary: All the cards are on the table. It's time to change the future. Part two of Emerald Flame.
Author's Note: Nothing to say here, really. Hope you enjoy.
At the waterfront, Xander's power ring pulsed green. It took him a moment -- and help from the voice in his head -- to identify it, as things worked differently here than back where he had learned to use the ring. He was Green Lantern Prime, and his ring was alerting him that a power ring in the area had chosen a new wielder.
And, so far as he knew, there were only two other power rings in the universe.
He paled and sent up a green beam to act as a flare before flying up into the sky himself. He was quickly joined by Faith, who looked at him quizzically, "What's wrong?"
"Trouble in paradise," he said as he rocketed back to town, Faith a moment behind. "Try to raise the others."
"Yo, Black Canary, Huntress, Lady Lantern here. You copy?" She waited for a moment, "Huntress, Canary, come in." She waited again, "Shit!" She turned, "No dice.
"Figured," Xander said. "Bastard attacked home base."
Tara stalked out of the house and into the street through the hole the man-shark had made when the giant construct fist she had created smashed him and sent him flying. The street was deserted, and in Sunnydale, no one was inclined to investigate the sounds of violence after dark. The glowing green fist opened and grabbed a tree, uprooting it and clubbing the man-shark with it. She approached the man-shark, only to stiffen as he looked up and glared into her eyes.
Sharks had an unusual sense called electroreception. They could sense the bioelectric fields generated by living organisms and use that to track prey. The mutated man-shark had an overdeveloped version that allowed him to hear radio signals... as well as output electrical interference that could disrupt electronics and even, at close range, nervous systems.
Tara stumbled back and fell to the ground, her concentration broken. She shook her head to clear it, only to see the man-shark standing next to her. He reached down and hauled her up, then pitched her across the street. She rolled over and saw the man-shark stalking toward her to finish her off... until it was struck by a red convertible doing better than eighty miles an hour.
"Canary, if you ever even think of driving my car again, I will shoot you!" Huntress declared as she vaulted over her late convertible's windshield onto the hood and began peppering the mutant shark creature with crossbow bolts. Buffy had gotten to the car first and was waiting in the driver's seat by the time she had gotten there.
For her part, Black Canary had raised her megaphone to her mouth. Slayer lungs powered a deafening screech that was amplified by the megaphone to physically devastating levels before the megaphone failed under the stress. The artificially-enhanced Canary Cry crumpled a section of asphalt and sent the shark creature tumbling back.
It was this scene which greeted two Green Lanterns as they touched down. Xander stared at the shark creature and blurted out, "What the hell are you supposed to be? Karshon?"
He looked up and snarled, "I'm what you made me, boy."
Xander considered his words for a long moment, then gaped, "Coach Marin?!"
"Coach Marin's dead," the shark creature hissed. "But I like 'Karshon.'"
"How about 'sushi'?" Faith offered, sending a giant green axe blade descending down on Shark, but the mutated swim coach dove to the side.
Meanwhile, Xander's eyes tracked over to the house, and he snapped out an order, "Tara! Get your mother to the hospital! We'll take care of sharky boy here."
The newest Green Lantern's eyes widened, and she whirled around, dashing back into the house. Xander turned and rose into the sky, sending pulses of green energy down toward Karshon, who dodged and weaved with inhuman agility. The energy pulses punched holes in the street, which looked for all the world like the result of some demented concrete-eating gopher.
Karshon was smarter than he looked, though, and proved it when he stopped dodging and dove into one of the holes and down into the darkened sewers below.
"Shit!" Xander swore as he poured energy into the openings, flooding the immediate area of the sewers with deadly green energy until Huntress and Black Canary had to abandon the street for fear of their footwear.
After a moment, he released the energy and scanned the area, "No trace."
"That means you got him, right?" Buffy asked.
"I hope so," Xander said, then turned and flew toward the hospital. He landed gently by the emergency room entrance and transformed back into his civilian clothes, then hurried into the emergency room.
"Tara?" he said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Tara turned and buried her face in his chest, sobbing.
"Shh," he said, stroking her hair comfortingly. "It'll be all right."
"I'm not ready for this," she sobbed. "She was wrong. I'm not ready for this. I don't deserve this."
It took Xander a moment to realize she was talking about the power ring.
"Hey," he said. "You can handle this, Tara. Trust me on this. I've seen you deal with tougher situation." Admittedly, he didn't like to think of Willow as a "tough situation," but by that point in time, she certainly was.
And Tara had handled that mess better than any of them would have.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Charles Kawalsky hated hospitals. The sharp and unmistakeable sterile smell of disinfectant was... unnatural. It also reminded him of the UNSC's infirmary, where he'd lost control to that... thing wrapped around his spine.
He'd take a jungle with bullets flying and the smell of cordite in the air any day.
But here he was in Sunnydale General Hospital by the side of his neighbor, a victim of a "wild bear attack." He shook his head; he supposed it offered some variety from the usual "gangs on PCP."
The injury to Rebecca Baxter's side was severe, and the doctors had done what they could. This was in God's hands now.
God's... and Charlie's.
He gently laid his hands on the woman's side, then took a moment to utter Shepard's prayer before going to work: "Dear Lord, please don't let me f*ck up."
This was, after all, his first real attempt at healing a near-mortal injury. Leo had assured him that screwing it up was basically impossible -- it was a part of who and what they were -- but then again, Leo had been a medic during his time in service and therefore had some idea of what he was doing. Charlie had been just a shooter, albeit a very good one. A white glow bathed the wound, and the woman stirred. Her eyes fluttered open, just enough to see a figure vanish in a swirl of lights.
Charlie reappeared in his living room, slumping down into his couch and breathing a sigh of relief.
"Good job."
Old reflexes snapped to, and Charlie found himself pointing his pistol -- a Colt M1911A1 -- at his mentor before his conscious mind identified the voice. Lowering the pistol, he nodded, "Thank you, sir."
"I mean it," Leo said. "You're doing fine." He smirked, "And stop calling me 'sir.' I worked for a living, Major."
Xander dozed in the hospital waiting room chair. His eyes snapped open, and he took a moment to recognize Faith standing in front of him, a big grin on her face. He blinked in confusion, then looked down and saw Tara asleep and curled up against him. He glared at Faith and brought a finger up to his lips before carefully extracting himself from the newest Green Lantern's grip.
He stepped away and murmured, "Well, Faith?"
"The birds are fine," she reported quietly. "No sign of the fish. Also heard from the Doc. She's gonna be fine. Apparently, it looked worse than it was."
"Good to hear," he nodded. He glanced back at Tara's sleeping form. "Keep an eye on her, okay? I've still got some unfinished business out of town."
As he left, Tara stirred and looked around. Spying Faith, she unfolded herself and rose to her feet, looking around, "Where's...?"
Faith shrugged, "Unfinished business."
Tara frowned. "And Mother?"
"Docs say she'll be fine."
Relief flooded through Tara, and she sank back into the chair. Then she thought about Xander and scowled.
My mother's in the hospital, and he leaves? That jerk.
"I really am turning into a comic book character," Xander muttered in disgust as he negligently tossed the Green Lantern back issue across the desk. Karshon, aka the Shark, was a fairly minor -- if gruesome -- Green Lantern villain, a predator who consumed brains to get smarter and enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. The comic book villain savored fear, which was the writers' justification for pitting him against Green Lantern, the hero who knew no fear.
"Are you all right, Xander?" Joyce asked, gently opening the door and sticking her head in.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Mrs. Summers," he said. This room -- the room he remembered belonging to Dawn in the other future -- had been a spare storage room until he had moved in, courtesy of the CPS decision. "I've still got some things out of town to deal with. Could take a few more days."
"All right," she nodded with reluctant acceptance, then left and closed the door.
He picked up the phone, "Cortana? Get me the Brig."
The small cave was a natural formation out of immediate sight of the main RNAD Coulport facility. It also served as an emergency evacuation point from the UNSC's concealed facility beneath Coulport and was where Green Lantern had requested they meet.
Exactly how Green Lantern knew about the hidden egress was a question that made the Brig extremely uncomfortable.
A faint green light appeared above and grew stronger. Had it not been night time, it would have gone unnoticed. Green Lantern landed gently, an unconscious figure slung over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.
Xander approached the Brig with the Ashrak's former host in tow, ignoring the Royal Marines flanking him. Making contact through Cortana had seemed the safest way to get back in touch with the UNSC, and...
His train of thought was interrupted when he heard the distinctive clicks from all around him. He looked around at the L85A2 rifles leveled at him. He looked back at the Brig in sheer disbelief.
"You're not serious."
With his power ring, the trickiest part if they opened fire would be keeping the ricochets from killing everyone else, thanks to the enclosed space they were in. Unless they had gold bullets or something like that. Four crackle-whines sounded a moment later, and Xander glanced over to where a quartet of marines held armed staff weapons aimed at him.
"Okayyy, maybe you are serious," Xander muttered. He looked back at the Brig, "So, General, what's with the unfriendly reception?"
"Would you care to explain your rather abrupt departure earlier?"
"Yeah," Xander said, holding up the unconscious man. "This man was host to an Ashrak, a goa'uld assassin sent to hunt down and kill Jolinar of Malkshur. I was confirming her identity, and while I was at it, I got the Tok'ra to extract the symbiote. So, how do you feel about rescuing Jolinar's true host and striking a blow against Cronus while we're at it?"
Author's Postscript:
Another chapter in the can.