Episode Two

Lantern's Light

Chapter One

December 1999

Kyle Rayner sat down in the overly large waiting room as instructed by Kilowog. The strange alien that looked like a cross between a boar and a hippo, not that he would ever tell him that. The guy looked like he might be able to rip him in two without much effort if inclined to do so.

It seemed strange to him that just a few days ago, he had been on Earth still getting to grips with being a Green Lantern. His life had changed so much that he had no idea what to do with himself or what was really expected of him as a Green Lantern. It was scary, not just the power but also the responsibility.

That was when Kilowog had turned up with a ball-shaped guy, whose name Kyle couldn't recall right now. Their introduction had been brief before the two Lanterns had brought him across the cosmos to where he was now on this far away planet.

Not a week ago he hadn't even been off of Earth. Now he wasn't even in the Milky Way Galaxy. While he had assumed that he was all set to be a Green Lantern but it turned out that wasn't the case. He needed to be trained first, which he was excited for, but also apprehensive about. The truth was that he was afraid of messing this up.

A door opened further down the corridor and what appeared to be a human stepped out. The older man looked over at him before he made his way over.

"Hey, 'sup," Kyle greeted, trying to be friendly, but coming off as slightly nervous.

The dark-skinned man looked at him for a few moments before he spoke. "Kyle Rayner I presume?"

"Umm, yeah, that's me," he answered, trying not to let his nervousness show in his voice.

"John Stewart," the man greeted, holding out a hand.

Kyle took it and winced slightly at John's very firm grip. "You're human?"

"That's right," John confirmed. "I'll be taking over sector 2814."

That meant literally nothing to Kyle. "What sector's that?"

"It's an area that covers our solar system and a few hundred other stars and inhabited systems," John explained.

"Oh, right, so you're taking over from me."

John frowned. "Hardly, I'm taking over from Abin Sur."

"Hold on, I thought Earth sector was given to me?"

"Depends. Sectors can be reassigned and I've been reassigned to 2814. The original plan was to have you trained on Earth, but it was decided that it would be better for you to experience more alien cultures."

"And who'll be training me? That Kilowog guy?"

"No, Katma Tui."

"Who?"

"Me," a feminine voice said.

Kyle looked to see a rather attractive woman with black hair and reddish skin dressed in typical Lantern garb. She regarded him with a steely gaze. Kyle was immediately intimidated, though he had to admit that she wasn't bad to look at. Not at all.

"I'm Katma," she greeted with folded arms. "I'm going to be your instructor."

Kyle grinned. He was expecting some weird alien creature, certainly not a hot alien chick.

"She's a good teacher," John said, his tone taking on a hard edge. "As long as you do what she tells you."

"You should know," Katma said. "I did teach you everything you know."

"Not quite everything," John said in response.

Kyle sensed an unease between them. That, however, wasn't the thing that caught his attention. It was the fact that this woman, who as far as he could tell didn't look too much older than himself had taught John, a guy that looked like he was maybe in his late thirties if not early forties.

"You trained John?" Kyle asked in surprise.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Am I older than you were expecting?"

"I would have thought he taught you," Kyle commented.

"Not everyone ages like you humans," Katma said. "Now are you ready? I want to start the training as soon as possible."

"I'm ready," Kyle confirmed, ready yet feeling apprehensive about what was to come.

"We'll see," Katma mused.

John rested a hand on Kyle's shoulder. "I'm gonna be here for the next few days before I head out to patrol my new sector. If you need any advice or to talk to a fellow human about anything, then give me a call."

"Don't worry, I will. Good to meet you, John."

The two shook hands again before John moved off, leaving Kyle and Katma alone.

He looked at her and rubbed his palms together in anticipation. "So, um, when do we start?"

"Follow me," she commanded.

He got into step behind her. "I guess that means now."

"It means you shut up and stop talking until I tell you otherwise, recruit."

Kyle went silent. He had been looking forward to training under her, but it seemed she wasn't as sociable as he had been hoping, but had been unfortunately expecting. It would have been nice to have been paired with someone he felt comfortable with and he was wishing that John was the one training him.

They moved through a series of corridors in silence until they reached a door. Katma stopped and looked at him for a moment before she hit the button, causing the door to slide open.

"Inside," she said firmly.

He did as instructed and found himself in a room with a desk and chair. It was like a one-person classroom. He groaned. He hated school. He had spent most of his time getting into trouble for doodling cartoons instead of doing schoolwork.

Katma stepped in behind him and sealed the automatic door shut with a press of a button.

"Sit," she commanded.

Kyle did so, while she stood at the front of the room.

He took a quick glance around the room before he rested his hands on the desk's surface. He then looked to Katma. "So umm, I thought by training you meant fighting, y'know, using the ring."

"That will come," she assured him. "First you need to know rules, regulations and how to care and maintain both your ring and your lantern battery as well as good and bad places to store your battery."

"Sounds fun," he said sarcastically.

"Firstly, I never gave you permission to speak recruit. Secondly-" she turned and reached into what appeared to be some kind of filing cabinet. She pulled out an electronic data pad of some kind. "You have to read this from start to finish."

Kyle raised his hand.

"You may speak."

"Now?" he asked.

"No, in your own time. It will go over everything I teach you in more detail. I suggest you read it as there will be an examination in the near future."

Kyle's whole body sagged. He hated exams. He had to admit, this wasn't what he had envisioned when he became a Lantern.

"What's the pass mark?" he asked solemnly.

"Don't think of it in terms of grades," she said. "If you weren't up to the task, the ring would have never chosen you. The examination will show me your weak points and we will continue your training from there. Understood?"

He nodded. "Understood."

"Before we begin are there any questions?"

Kyle was about to say no when he realised there was something about Katma that reminded him of Sinestro, the one who was responsible for his predecessor Abin Sur's death. The same coloured skin and the pointed ears. He thought about making a comment on it but decided against it. If they were the same race then it was probably a sore subject.

"No, no questions," he said finally.

"That's a lie, I can tell," she said, looking at him closely. "Ask the question, don't be shy."

"Nah, it's fine. I don't have any questions."

"I insist. If you have something to ask, just ask it."

"Um, well. Are you and that Sinestro guy the same species?"

She glared at him with such an intensity that he shivered. He had definitely asked the wrong question.

After what seemed like forever, her features softened, if only slightly. "Yes, we are from the same planet. He was my teacher, the one who trained me to become a Green Lantern."

That came as a surprise to Kyle. "He trained you?"

"Yes, before he became a traitor. It was a long time ago now and not something I like to talk about."

"Sorry," he apologised.

"No, I made you ask the question. Just forget about it and let's focus on your training."

"Agreed," he said, hoping he hadn't just screwed up.

A Few Days Later

Kyle was led by Katma into a huge empty room. He wasn't sure what it was for, but he guessed it was for combat training.

Katma stepped up to a control console and began to key something in. Kyle took a step back in shock and awe as a city block formed in front of him, filling the room.

"Wow," he uttered in surprise.

"Never seen a live simulation before?" she asked nonchalantly.

"No, this is incredible. I wished I had something like this when I was a kid."

He continued to watch in awe as the street filled with aliens of all shapes and sizes.

Katma stepped up beside him. "In a moment a ship will descend and fire upon the holographic civilians. Your goal in this exercise is to shield them from the attack. I do not want to see you attack the attacking vessel. That will come later. I only want to see you shield the civilians."

He rolled his shoulders and held his ring hand forward at the ready. "I can do that. Easy."

Katma stepped back over to the control console. "Ship is incoming. I suggest you avoid getting hit by the lasers."

Kyle watched as a ship appeared from behind a building. Its energy cannons began to charge and he easily put a shield up in front of it. The vessel opened fire and he found himself struggling to maintain his shield. Eventually, it shattered, sending energy fire down on the crowd.

Katma paused the simulation.

"I don't get it," Kyle said. "How powerful were those simulation lasers? I should have been able to block sim lasers easy."

"It's not the power," Katma said stepping beside him. "That ship has KDG-14XB energy cannons on it."

He looked at her with a frown. "And? I don't even know what they are."

"It's not the power, it's the colour."

"I don't get it."

"Those cannons fire yellow energy," she told him. "Our rings are weak against yellow."

"You're kidding me," he said in disbelief, looking down at his ring. "That's a hell of an oversight."

"It's an inherent flaw and can't be changed," she told him, before adding, "Well, as far as I know, it can't be changed. It's your job to find ways around your ring's limitations. Use your head."

He looked from her up to the currently paused gunship. "So how do I shield the civilians if they're shooting yellow lasers?"

"Deflect it or use something else as a shield," she said. "Deflecting yellow energy is easier than trying to block it."

Kyle began to spin the power ring on his finger. "So I have to be wary of the colour yellow," he commented. "Any other colours?"

"No, just yellow," she said. "And also Sinestro uses a yellow power ring. That's why he was able to defeat so many Green Lanterns. You were able to overcome him, which shows quite a bit of promise."

While Kyle appreciated the compliment, despite the fact that he didn't do it alone. Superman had helped and without him, Kyle was sure that he wouldn't be here right now. He would probably be dead. But that wasn't really what he was focused on right at that moment. He wasn't sure he could believe that such a powerful ring could have such a dumb weakness. "Is it any shade of yellow?" he asked sarcastically. "How about brown? Is brown okay?"

Katma regarded him with a steely gaze. "It's the frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum, not the colour itself. Mock it all you want, but knowing the weaknesses of your ring is important. Do you want to go out there not knowing these things?"

"Okay, okay, point taken," he said, raising his hands defensively. "Just surprised is all."

Katma stepped back to the controls and reset the simulation. "We'll try this again. This time, you know that your ring is weak against yellow so you can't outright block the attacks."

"Got it," he said, holding his power ring hand out at the ready.

This time, when the simulated gunship turned up, he attempted to angle a green sheet of energy. The energy fire struck it but didn't bounce off. Once again he failed as the shield shattered.

"What happened?" he asked. "Why didn't it reflect the energy?"

"You have to change the composition of the barrier," Katma said to him. "It's still absorbing the blasts, not reflecting them off because you made the same barrier type but changed the angle."

Kyle scratched the back of his head. "Can you show me how to do that? Because I'm at a total loss as to what you're talking about."

"I can't teach you that," she told him. "It's something you have to envision yourself. Imagine that your construct is reflective. Make the lasers bounce off it. The ring is your own will realised. It is your imagination made a reality."

Kyle nodded, feeling confident, yet overwhelmed. It was hard for him to fully comprehend the power the small ring held within it. It was amazing, intimidating and frightening.

He held the ring aloft with a sense of determination. "Let's do this," he said firmly.

Katma reset the simulation. "It's begun."

Kyle watched as once more, the simulated gunship flew in ready to attack.

He put up a barrier, but this time, he saw it as reflective in his mind and envisioned the laser bolts bouncing off. He braced as the ship fired and was elated when, just as he had imagined, the bolts bounced off.

He started to tilt the barrier with his mind, until the bolts were bounced back directly at the ship, causing it to shoot its own laser cannons off.

The simulation ended with Katma's approval. "Well done," she congratulated.

He lowered the barrier and his arm as he turned to face her. "Why don't the bad guys just paint all their stuff yellow?"

"Because they don't know it's a weakness," she said. "Your job as a Green Lantern is to make sure they never know. You have to work with the limitations and find a way to get around them."

"Anything else I need to know about?"

"Yes. Unlike other tools or weapons, the ring is solely based on your will and concentration. There is no button to press to make it work, it is down to you. It is an extension of your limbs. Treat it as such."

Kyle looked at his ring with a nod. "I understand."

Katma moved back over to the control console. "Let's try some more simulations."

"I'm ready. Bring it on."

She smirked. "You say that now, but we'll see how you feel after we're done."

"I was a struggling artist," he said, rolling his shoulders in anticipation. "I'm used to a good challenge."

"Excellent. Just a word of caution, some of the lasers are set pretty high," she warned. "Like the ones in the first test. You'd end up in the medbay if one hit you."

He looked at her with an open mouth. "Wait, what? I thought they were training lasers."

"Training lasers won't penetrate a shield, even yellow training lasers. To prove the point they had to have power. Now, are you ready for the next one?"

"Erm, you'll tell me when I can get injured right?" he asked her, feeling not nearly as confident as he had been.

"You can be injured in all the simulations. Don't worry, from now on I'll tell you when there's live fire."

"One question. How many have actually been hurt in that first test?"

"You can ask that later. Right now, you need to concentrate on the simulations." Katma keyed something into the control panel. "This next test involves a ground quake.

In front of him, a holographic roof of a large structure formed with people stood on it.

Katma turned to him. "The building is going to collapse. Rescue the people on the roof."

"Sounds easy," Kyle said wearily. It sounded a little too simple. "There isn't a catch is there?"

Katma folded her arms, indicating she wasn't going to reveal anything. That meant that it was definitely not going to be simple.

Katma then began the countdown to the start of the simulation. As she said "Zero," Kyle took to the air and projected a protective sphere around the crowd. He lifted them to safety as the building collapsed away beneath them.

The simulation paused and Katma clapped, though it sounded more sarcastic than complimentary.

"I did it right, yeah?" he asked hopefully, but also knowing there was something he had probably overlooked. Katma smirked at him and he instantly knew that there was something about this scenario that she wasn't telling him. He groaned. "Go ahead, tell me what I did wrong."

"You did nothing wrong," she said, continuing to smirk. "You successfully saved them."

"I did?" he asked, not sure if he trusted her. He was expecting her to point something out that he had done wrong, that he couldn't possibly have known about.

"Yes, apart from one of the people you saved was a Sarlian."

Kyle had a bad feeling about what she was about to tell him. "What is a Sarlian and why is that important?"

"They have adverse reactions when they come in direct contact with Lantern energy."

He knew it. "What kind of reaction?" he asked cautiously.

"Don't worry, it's not lethal. Just really unpleasant for them."

"How unpleasant?"

"Blisters and horrible rashes," Katma said.

"So how do I rescue them?" he asked, honestly wanting to know the solution.

"You did it right, Kyle," she assured him, despite him not feeling very reassured. "Blisters are better than death, don't you agree?"

"I guess," he said. "I don't get the purpose of having them in the simulation if it doesn't matter."

"Because another way of doing it would be to lift the roof off. That way you can hold them in place and there's no direct contact with the Lantern energy."

"So I didn't do it right," Kyle surmised.

"Kyle, this simulation has a random element. You have to make a judgement based on if you think the roof they're standing on will hold if you try and lift it off. The safest bet is to let the roof crumble and simply lift them off directly.

Kyle looked at his ring. He knew what she was doing with these simulations. She was showing him that while he had a lot of power, he had to be careful and observant when he used it.

He looked up at Katma. "I'm ready for whatever comes next."

Four Months Later (Early 2000 on Earth)

Kyle hovered in orbit of the planet waiting for Katma to finish sorting out the mess he had made. Somehow he had screwed up and he wasn't even sure how he had. Just that he had. They had caught the guy they were after, who was now incarcerated on the planet and no one had been injured.

So why had the people turned on him? Had he said something wrong? Had he done something that had offended them? He supposed he would find out when Katma returned from the surface.

Kyle was staring out at the planet's moon when Katma showed up. She moved in front of him looking tired. "Do you know what you did wrong?" she asked him.

Kyle shook his head. "No, I don't."

"I didn't either," she admitted. "Not until I talked to them."

"Well, what was it?"

"You know that giant flaming firebird you constructed that made the criminal crash his ship?"

Kyle nodded. "Yeah, the Phoenix."

"Well turns out that even though it was green, a giant flaming bird is like the literal Devil to these people."

Kyle bit his bottom lip. That wasn't good. "Oh."

Katma nodded. "They're still not happy that it happened, but they have offered us both a pardon for it."

"A pardon?" Kyle asked. "Wait, was it a criminal offence to make the Phoenix on their world?"

"Yes, they're very religious and any depiction of their devil is a felony that ranges from ten years incarceration to the death penalty depending on the severity or intent."

Kyle's eyes went wide. "I had no idea."

"No, there wasn't any reason you would. I didn't know and I'm supposed to know these things. Maybe in the future, you could keep your constructs a little more simple, yeah?"

He pulled a face in response.

Katma folded her arms. "Don't give me that look, Kyle. No more animal constructs, okay?"

He didn't really like that idea. His ring offered him a creative outlet he had never had before. Now he was being told to reign it in, to not let his imagination flourish. Still, she was his superior and his trainer, so he relented. "Okay, fine."

Katma gave him a sympathetic look. "I don't want to stifle your creativity. If it were up to me, I'd let you make any construct you wanted, but we have to maintain peace with the people of the universe and not upset them."

"I understand," he said with half a shrug. "No more animals."

Katma rested her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, our next stop on patrol is the Ceremes deep-space station. Hirunan and Arkkis should be there."

"Okay," Kyle agreed, even though he was unfamiliar with the two names. "Let's get out of here."

The two of them broke orbit and headed out of the star system. For Katma it was nothing, for Kyle, the ability to be able to fly around the cosmos because of a ring still astounded him.

It didn't take them long to arrive at the space station, only a few hours, which in space-travel terms was quite fast. The two of them landed on a landing pad and made their way through an airlock into the deep-space station.

"This way," Katma said, taking the lead.

They headed to an elevator and took it down several floors, where she led them both into a diner that had large windows that looked out into the cosmos. The two of them headed over to a table where the two other lanterns were sat.

Both of them were humanoid, one male one female. Both of them could almost pass as human, though with only from afar. The male had pointed ears and the large lower canine teeth that arched up slightly out of his mouth. The other looked like an albino, but her skin was a very light purple as was her hair. While the male was wearing an eye-mask, she wasn't and her pitch-black eyes were visible and they seemed to be staring right at him.

Katma sat down first and he quickly followed suit, taking a seat in the empty chair next to her, which lay opposite the purple lantern.

The male spoke first, "Hey Katma, is this the new recruit?"

She nodded. "Four months into training, Arkkis, and he's doing well," she said. "Though he can be frustrating at times."

"Like today," Kyle said miserably, noting that the guy was the one that was called Arkkis, which meant the other was Hirunan.

Katma sighed. "Yeah, an unfortunate bit of business that."

Arkkis leant forwards intrigued. "What happened?"

"Kyle here made a construct of a flaming firebird. Turns out on Lerelon IV firebirds are the symbol of their devil."

"Oops," Arkkis said with a chuckle. "Were you run off-world?"

Katma slowly shook her head. "I managed to patch things up."

The one who Kyle figured was Hirunan smiled at him. "Don't beat yourself up about it," she said. "There are millions of different cultures out there all with different religious beliefs. Some worlds have thousands of them. You can't know them all, it's impossible."

Kyle smiled back at her. "Thanks."

Katma gestured to him. "I guess I should introduce you to each other," she said. "This is Kyle." She gestured to Arkkis. "This is Arkkis." She then gestured at the other. "And this is Hirunan."

Kyle raised his hand in a wave. "Hello, pleased to meet you." He then waved directly at Hirunan.

Hirunan's smile turned into a grin. "On Alderin VII a wave like that means surrender." He quickly lowered his hand, earning a chuckle from her. "He's a cute one, Kat." Kyle felt himself blush, which got another response out of Hirunan. "Aw, did I embarrass you?"

Katma shook her head at her. "Stop teasing my student, Hiru," she said to the purple woman. She then looked to Kyle "And you watch yourself with her, the females of her race eat their males once they're done with them."

Kyle's eyes went wide as his head snapped to look at Hirunan. The alien laughed at his shocked expression. "Kat's having you on," Hirunan told him once she had stopped laughing. "Historically we only ate our fallen enemies, but that was outlawed on my world centuries ago."

He relaxed a bit, casting a sideways glance at Katma, who smirked at him. "You should have seen your expression," she said.

"Very funny," he retorted feeling stupid. Back on Earth, it was fairly easy to tell if someone was having him on, but out here with so many aliens and so many cultures, he simply had no idea what was truth and what was a lie. He had a feeling that this wasn't the last time his lack of knowledge or experience with aliens wouldn't be taken advantage of at the expense of his dignity.

Arkkis stood up. "Either of you want a drink? I was off to get me and Hirunan one before you two showed up."

"Sure," Katma agreed. "You know what I like."

Kyle was more unsure. He had drunk stuff out here that had immediately made him regurgitate his breakfast from hours earlier. As such, he was a little bit cautious of what he ingested. "What kind of drinks are there?" he asked.

Hirunan answered, "I suggest getting the Valonberry Brew."

He looked at Katma to see her reaction. He wasn't sure if that was a good suggestion or bad. Katma's expression though gave nothing away.

"Sure," Kyle said after a moment. "I'll have the Valonberry thing."

Arkkis nodded and headed for the bar, while Kyle looked out of the window. It was near pitch black outside and the light from the restaurant made it hard to see the stars. What he could see, however, was a large red nebula, that seemed to be slowly rotating in a spiral towards the bright luminescent centre.

"Beautiful isn't it?"

"Huh?" Kyle said, turning to Hirunan who had spoken.

The purple alien gestured to the nebula. "It's being eaten up by the star, that's why it's spiralling like that," she explained. "Eventually, no one will know there was ever a nebula there. Kinda sad, because it is beautiful."

"Yeah," Kyle agreed.

He looked at Katma as he heard her snort. She shook her head at him, rolling her eyes. "Hiru, stop flirting with my student."

"I'm not flirting, Kat," Hirunan objected.

"Lair," Katma teased.

"Okay, maybe I am. But just a little bit."

Katma gestured to Kyle. "You're embarrassing him again Hiru."

Kyle groaned. He wondered how it was, that these two aliens behaved so much like humans. If he wasn't on a space-station in the middle of nowhere that was full of aliens, then he would have assumed he was back on Earth by the way they were talking.

He looked up as Arkkis returned with their drinks. Arkkis' was a deep-red colour, while Katma's was Orange. Both Kyle's and Hirunan's drinks looked exactly the same and were both purple like her skin.

The purple alien looked delighted as she took a long sip. "Valonberry Brew," she said aloud. "The taste of home." She looked up to Kyle. "Take a sip, you'll love it."

He looked down at the purple drink for a few seconds, before he gripped the glass with his right hand. He looked to Katma, who was too interested in her own drink, then he looked to Arkkis, how was quaffing his down.

"Here goes nothing," he said as he brought the glass up to his lips.

The first thing that hit him was how sweet it tasted. The second was how it tasted familiar, but he couldn't place it. What he could say, was that he definitely liked it, which he couldn't say for most alien foods and drinks he had tried.

"You like it?" Hirunan asked him, having quickly drunk her own.

"Yeah, it's good," Kyle said.

"Glad you like it," she said smiling. "Arkkis here thinks it's disgusting."

"That's because it is," Arkkis said. "Anyway, I have to get back on patrol," he added, standing up.

"I probably should too," Hirunan agreed. "Nice meeting you, Kyle."

"You too, Hirunan."

"Call me Hiru."

"Okay, Hiru."

Kyle watched them as they left the Diner. He looked at Katma who was shaking her head at him.

"What?" he asked her.

"Be careful with Hiru. She's a friend, but she's also chewed through more than a few men in her time."

"Don't worry, there's nothing between us. We literally just met."

"I know, I'm just warning you, Kyle."

"I appreciate the concern, Katma. Don't worry about me so much."

"Believe me, Kyle, I can't wait until you pass your training and become a full-fledged Green Lantern. Then I won't have to worry because I won't be responsible for you or your well-being anymore."

"I can't wait, either," he said.

"You've still got a long way to go, kid," she retorted.

He shrugged and continued to drink his Valonberry Brew.

Updated January 2018