Born on a Monday, Part II
April 19, 1939
The wall imploded with the force of the impact. Alan bounced off a counter display before landing partially embedded in the far wall. The world slid and wobbled before him, his head pounding. Only the cushion of the green energy kept him from being killed.
He had landed in a butcher shop, as evidenced by the stacks of meat scattered along the floor, mixed with the dislodged bricks and shattered glass. Behind the ruins of the counter, display hooks continued to rock from the impact, clinking together to create a haphazard tune. Alan touched the back of his head and felt something wet and thick. He dislodged himself from the wall, shaking out a painful kink in his left leg. He rolled his shoulders to combat the strain on them. The fight was not going well.
As if on cue, the ruin of the exterior wall collapsed further, forced open by the brutish figure that pursued him. The creature took no time in continuing its assault, as it lumbered towards Green Lantern. It opportunistically seized a meat hook from the display, swinging it with vicious purpose as Green Lantern engulfed himself in flames.
Alan had gotten the chance to see Opal City from the air after all. It was a pity he didn't get to savor the moment, focused as he was on racing back to New York City. He willed his flight faster and faster, splitting apart clouds, seeing the city sprawl below speed by.
It didn't prove difficult to find his foe. The plumes of smoke pouring into the sky over Brooklyn gave him all the guidance he needed. There was an entire swath of buildings turned to rubble, as if a storm had marched straight through the neighborhood. He descended twice to assist with rescues, shifting debris to uncover those trapped below. An elderly couple, their foreheads stained scarlet, clutching one another tightly. A girl no older than eight, carrying her dog. A woman who refused to abandon her brother, though his body was limp. Alan's fire burned hotter at the sight of these lives upturned by this act of wanton destruction.
He caught up with the perpetrator soon after, led by the sound of gunshots and thunderclaps. Green Lantern found the creature engaged in a one-sided skirmish with the police. Their cars were on their side or smashed. One sat partially lodged in a nearby wall. Bodies of officers lay on the sidewalk, broken and discarded. The creature moved maliciously from one target to the next, paying little mind to the bullets that struck his body. His skin was grey and malformed, its muscles immense.
Green Lantern interceded between the beast and its latest victim, a wall of flame separating the two. The monster pivoted his interest to Alan, a mighty hand thrown out almost casually. Alan evaded the strike, which powderized an adjacent brick edifice.
"Grundy catch green light," the monster said. His voice was harsh, each word laborious.
Green Lantern countered with a blast of flame to Grundy's chest. The wave of energy met the creature and was repulsed, spreading around him, but scarcely moving the beast. Alan felt the resistance surge back to him, his will buckling under the effort. It felt as though he were an ant trying to shift a skyscraper.
Grundy met Green Lantern's attack with a punch that sent him through the front of the butcher's shop.
Their fight reminded Alan of watching a bull rider at the rodeo, as he tried to steer Grundy clear of populated areas. He threw blow after blow at the monster, smashing him with all varieties of construct, but Grundy shrugged them off like a light breeze. Green Lantern was barely able to maintain his defenses against the savage blows delivered by Grundy. Each impact sent out shockwaves, shattering windows and bowling over anything and anyone not nailed down.
"What is it you want?" shouted Alan through the fighting.
"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday," replied his foe. The creature seemed incapable of coherent speech, instead muttering a nursery rhyme over and over, with malice.
It was a pair of errant teenagers that shifted the precarious balance of the fight. Alan saw movement out of the corner of his eye. The pair was cornered by the brawl, trapped by a dead end alley. The building that they were pressed up against was crumbling from the damage done. He saw the wall topple.
Green Lantern broke away from Grundy and soared above the teens, conjuring a defensive layer of green light. The falling wall collided with it, breaking apart, as Green Lantern gave them cover. He made eye contact with the girl, her trembling face shifting slightly to hope, before it curled into fear once more as he felt something seize his ankle.
Grundy swung Alan like a club, battering him against the sides of the alley. He plowed through the walls, his defenses cracking and breaking from the force. The air dashed from his lungs as Grundy smacked him on the asphalt, once, twice, three times, too many times. The flames began to flicker with uncertainty.
"Grundy love green light!"
Grundy grabbed Alan by the torso with both hands and hurled him into the building. Alan blacked out as he crashed through the second row of walls.
Alan awoke to hands on him once more. Only much smaller, less forceful in their grasp. He was being dragged across the detritus of the fight, through a narrow space. Smoke invaded his nose, as pain gripped his entire body.
"Almost there, almost there," said his rescuer.
After some time, Alan was dragged out of the remnants of the city block and into the street. His rescuer laid him down, his head propped against a bench. Through bleary eyes, he could see that it was the girl he saved. She stared at him with a worried expression.
"Don't die. Please don't die," she said.
Alan lifted a hand with some effort to placate her. She let out a small shriek.
"I am not dead yet," he said. For how long that would be true, he could not say. His entire body hurt. His lungs were stuck with a burning poker with every breath, his left arm unwilling to move on its own.
"I couldn't let you die in there," said the girl. "Not after what you did."
"What is your name?" Alan wheezed.
"Delilah."
"Delilah, you're my hero," said Alan.
He tried to stand, but his body refused the command. He settled for sitting more upright.
"That thing is gone. It looked for you for a few minutes. George and I hid, but it left after a while."
Delilah got to her feet and paced out of Alan's sight. He did his best to remain conscious, to ignore the blistering pain.
"Delilah. You should get home. Get to safety. To your family."
The girl stopped. She crouched beside him, her face already streaked with tears.
"My family, they were, they, they were in that building. George and I were coming back. From the movies," she said. "I think they were still in it when it fell."
The dam broke. The tears turned to sobs. Her entire body quaked.
The green flame rippled up his arm. It covered Alan's whole body, supporting what was broken, shielding what still worked. He rose. Delilah blocked his path, even through her tears.
"You can't go after it. He's going to kill you," said Delilah.
"I can't let him go on. For your family. For everyone that he's hurt," said Green Lantern.
Alan took to the air, to hunt down the creature, to destroy him.
Green Lantern followed the trail of devastation. He had to confront the fact that Grundy was highly resistant to his powers. There was an element of the creature's very being that granted him protection from the green flame. Some intrinsic part of him like the immunity of wood and plant matter. Alan could not defeat him with the flame alone.
From on high, Green Lantern spotted Grundy. The creature picked through the husk of a structure, moving with uncommon care. Grundy appeared to sift through the remnants. The look on his face lost its anger, with a trace of disappointment apparent. His shoulders were hunched in defeat.
Such subtleties were not appreciated by Alan, who dove towards the creature like a bomb, exploiting the full force of his flight. He collided with Grundy's midsection, binding him with green energy. Grundy roared and struggled, but Green Lantern did not slow down upon impact, instead arcing upwards once again, flying the two of them into the night's sky.
It required immense concentration to shield against the strikes that hit his backside, as Grundy fought to be free. Green Lantern continued on his course, as the two rose to dizzying heights. The flames swirled around Grundy, tightening in on his skin.
Green Lantern released Grundy at the apex of his flight, allowing his foe to plummet towards the earth. He timed his drop to have Grundy falling towards a less populated section of the city, as the creature tumbled towards the rail yards. A plume of dust blossomed from the crater that Grundy made upon his reunion with the ground. Green Lantern flew to inspect it, descending between the rows of sleeping trains.
The rim of the crater crumbled inwards. Grasping hands shot from the hole, as Grundy erupted outwards. Grundy grabbed Alan's neck and threw him. He smashed through several train cars, their metal hulls caving in. He stopped his momentum by the engine of a locomotive. Grundy did not hesitate in his attack, leaping through the air and landing on Green Lantern. He struck the shield of flame over and over, as Alan weakened from the barrage. Grundy was bellowing with the effort, a cry of mindless rage. He could not overpower the creature with a direct contest of might.
Green Lantern seized upon a foolish possibility. Frantically, he let ribbons of flame creep past his assailant. They snaked their way into the train, finding gaps in its frame. The flames encased the engine, heating up as they did. Grundy was too preoccupied with his attacks to notice. The air grew hot. He could sense the pressure building in the locomotive, the way its contents pressed against the container. The temperature rose further. He braced.
The resultant explosion ripped through the train as the steam engine erupted. Metal, flames and steam billowed over the two fighters, knocking over Green Lantern. His ears rung from the concussive impact His shield buckled, but did not shatter before the blast. Grundy was swept away. Green Lantern peered through the haze of smoke and debris as bits of metal rained around him. It was eerily familiar to the accident that welcomed him into this world of power and monsters.
He heard the creature before he saw him. That same dull groan, tinged with a strained, gurgling quality. Grundy. The sorry state he had been in before scarcely compared to his appearance following the explosion. His clothes had been torn away, with only threads remaining. His corpse flesh was scoured clean from his body in many places, leaving a patchwork of muscle and bone. Still, Grundy shuffled toward Green Lantern, that same malevolence in his eyes. Alan could see that his foe's flesh was rekindling itself in several places. It was not over.
Unless Green Lantern stopped pulling his punches. He dug his heels into the ground and hefted another train engine above his head. Green Lantern it down on Grundy, driving him to the earth repeatedly, until the train was a twisted husk. He used his ring to throw another train and its carriages, and another. They rained down upon the creature, a deafening cacophony of broken steel. Alan was shouting, not words, but a full-throated fury, all his rage and resentment directed at the creature below.
Alan did not know when the fury lifted, only that he ran out of carriages to throw. He had depleted this part of the yard. In the graveyard of locomotives, Grundy's mangled form lay still. The animating light in his eyes was gone, his flesh unmoving, incapable of repair.
The rage subsided, a candle burnt down to its base. The distracting pain of his injuries reasserted its presence. Columns of smoke from their fight continued to drift over the city, and sirens alluded to the continued need for Green Lantern's help. There were more Delilah's to be saved. He left the body for the police.
The man in the yellow mask stood in the cold, sterile room. A table sat in the middle. On it was an array of body parts in various states of disarray, arranged into the loose form of a massive humanoid creature.
"The creature will not be missed?" said the man's companion, who stood overlooking the table.
"No. On every record it will appear to be stored at the police facility. All those involved believe that it made it to its destination. Given sufficient time we could prepare a replica," said the yellow mask.
"Do it. I would like to delay any discoveries to the contrary."
The yellow mask's superior examined the remains with a detached, clinical manner.
"An impressive find. It will suit our needs."
"Can you revive it?"
"It is well within my capacity. However, it will not be required," he said, pointing to the remains. The yellow mask observed that the tissue moved almost imperceptibly slow, coiling itself around the bones once more.
"Regeneration," said his superior. "Combined with its resistance to the green energies of this Lantern and we have a potent asset.
In time it will join the others."