sorry for the late post, I just finished this chapter this morning. I'll be honest, I don't love it, but I'm also kind of bored of trying with it so here it is. Hope you don't hate it, I guess, review and let me know I guess.
"Focus!" Sinestro snapped, irritation on his face as he paced behind Mallory in the training room.
She glared at him out of the corner of her eye. "I am," she snapped back, her voice already starting to recover. She hadn't known that the rings had a healing factor, and as soon as she'd allowed the yellow ring to slide onto her finger, the bruises on her neck had begun to heal. Her strained vocal cords were taking a little longer to fix themselves, but she could communicate a little better now, at least.
"Clearly not enough," the villain said, "or your constructs wouldn't be fading away before you can throw them."
"Maybe if you would give me a straight answer," she rasped, "I'd actually know how to use it."
"Perhaps if I give you a demonstration," he said, rising into the air calmly, "you will begin to understand." He shot a construct at her without a warning, and she automatically called her fire to respond to the threat, raising her arms up to create a shield in front of her. "No!" Sinestro yelled, and the construct hit her from the side, not the front, sending her flying across the room.
Mallory felt herself sailing through the air, twisting at the last second so that it was her feet and not her back that crashed into the wall. Sinestro's attacks were getting more forceful and impatient, and John and Razor's faces were getting angrier by the second. Kilowog, however, was the only one who spoke up against the Yellow's tactics.
"That's no way to train a new recruit!" the alien snapped when Mallory started walking back over. She'd managed to fly when she first put the ring on, but she hadn't made any progress in the half an hour since.
"I'm sure you could do better," Sinestro snapped.
"Sure I could! I train all the recruits on Oa. You can't just start in the middle of the lesson. She still ain't in touch with the ring, she can't do anything with it until she knows how it works."
"I've already explained how it works," Sinestro argued, getting visibly frustrated. He built a construct of a hand and continued, "she will get it, if I have to beat every bit of the lesson into her skull."
Two green constructs and an even bigger red one all popped up at the same time, holding the hand back. "No," John said firmly, speaking up for the first time since they'd started the lesson. "If you won't take the time to go over the basics, then at least give us a moment to do it."
The Yellow Lantern sighed heavily and waved a hand. "Very well. If you think the few hours reprieve we have been granted would be best spent wasted on training inner peace, go right ahead."
They nodded and walked over to the center of the room, where Mallory was standing. "All right, Poozer," Kilowog started, getting into a drill sergeant position in front of her, "you're about to do the hardest thing you've ever done, and after this, it's only gonna get harder. You're gonna train until you drop, and then you're gonna get up and train some more. It's gonna take every shred of will…uh, fear? Intimidation?" he glanced at Sinestro, not sure what word to fill in to his canned speech.
Razor rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Let's skip the speeches, she already knows what she signed up for," he suggested.
Kilowog glared at him, but he did move on. "Hold out your ring, rookie," he ordered. Mallory did as he said, raising an eyebrow expectantly. "It don't matter which color you're wearing, the ring's powered by emotion, so try to think about a time you were afraid."
She shook her head, but she closed her eyes. Of all of the times she'd been gripped with fear in her life, over her powers, or her crime fighting, or losing someone, or even school or work, they all paled in comparison with the heart-stopping, blood icing moment that popped into her head. Just thinking about it made her breathing quicken and her body go cold. She wanted to push it out of her mind, but when she opened her eyes, she saw the satisfied look on Kilowog's face and glanced down to see the yellow glow covering her body. She raised her eyebrows. "So I have to be afraid every time I want to use the ring?" she asked.
Kilowog shrugged. "Try to make a construct. Don't try to do anything fancy right now, just try to make a shape."
Mallory nodded and held the ring up, focusing as she tried to project the first shape that came to her mind: the simple triangle that she wore on her chest. It took a lot of effort, but after a moment, she was able to make a small one.
"There you go," Kilowog said encouragingly. "Now, throw it over there."
She nodded and straightened her arm, supporting it with her other hand like she'd seen all the other ring bearers do at some point. She channeled the emotion into the ring, but when the construct started to move, an excruciating pain went through her, making her feel like she was being ripped in half. The triangle shot across the room where she'd intended it to go, but she ended up on the ground, hugging herself as she waited for the pain to pass.
Razor ran over, sliding the last two feet and kneeling next to her, his hand hovering over her shoulder like he wanted to help her but wasn't sure how. "You didn't tell her?" he asked, pointing an accusing finger at Sinestro.
"Must have slipped my mind. Well, she knows now," he replied calmly.
The red lantern huffed in a few angry breaths and looked back down at Mallory. "Be still, it will pass in a moment," he told her soothingly.
She snapped her eyes open, forcing herself into a sitting position despite the pain. "What didn't he tell me?" she asked angrily, glaring at each of the rings in turn.
Razor sighed and sat on the floor, looking up at the others so that he wasn't looking at her, and Kilowog rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "The rings take a lot out of the wearer," John finally explained. "If the ring and the soldier are not in sync, or if the job is too much for the pair, constructs will be very difficult, and painful."
She shook her head, using Razor's shoulder to push herself to her feet. "I'm not a soldier," she corrected firmly, "and that would have been nice to know before I found it out for myself." She walked over to Sinestro and pointed a finger at him. "Now, you're going to tell me everything I'm going to need to know, or you can take your ring and fly right out of Earth Space right now."
The Yellow Lantern smiled a little. "Your attempt at intimidation is a start," he said, "but you'll need to be willing to go much further if you want my help."
"Fine," she agreed. "Teach me."
"Well, to start, you can forget everything Kilowog just told you," the villain replied. The alien took a breath, ready to defend himself, but Sinestro continued, "the ring you are wearing is a bit different than the others. You see, for the other rings, Blue, Green, Red, they require an excess of the emotions that they are fueled by to work. Similarly, the Yellow ring is fueled by fear. The difference is that an army of cowards would be less than useless on a battlefield, so these rings channel their emotion…a bit differently. Oh, the bearer can have limited success channeling their own fear into the ring, but the real power comes with intimidation, with repressing your own fear and inflicting it upon others. That is the only way you will be able to defeat Jordan."
"Hal's not afraid of anything," Mallory pointed out. "He wasn't before this thing took him over, and he certainly isn't now."
"Then you'll have to think of something else, won't you?" Sinestro said. "Everyone is afraid of something, Inferno. You merely have to find what that is and use it against them."
She stared down at the ring on her hand. "I don't–" she started, but the villain narrowed his eyes and leaned down in her face.
"Don't even think about trying to back out of this," he said, too quietly for the others in the room to hear. "Remember, you owe me, and I've a hunch you don't want me to come to collect on something more personal."
She narrowed her eyes, glaring at the man in front of her. "Don't threaten me," she warned him, her hands clenching into fists. "You've seen what I can do in space. You don't want to cross me on my home turf."
The man straightened up and smiled strangely. "And that, Inferno," he said, nodding down at her hand. She looked down in confusion and her eyes widened when she realized that she'd made the triangle construct without even thinking about it. "Is how you use fear as a tool."
"You all know Hal Jordan," a female Green, introduced by John as Katma Tui said. "He's been a friend and comrade for years, but do not let this get in the way. He has committed crimes against the corps, has killed fellow rings, and he will destroy this planet if we fail to stop him. If you can take a shot, do not hesitate to fire." There was a chorus of agreements from the Lanterns stationed around space, waiting to intercept Hal on his way back to Earth.
Mallory floated a little closer to Razor. "She's a little intense, isn't she?"
He cracked a small smile, but John glared at them. "She's a good soldier," he told them. "Katma Tui fought for her own planet, but she only managed to save a fraction of the people before it was destroyed. She'll die before she lets that happen to another planet."
The younger rings nodded, Mallory's levity disappearing along with Razor's smile. They could see Hal's light coming closer by the millisecond.
"Shield, now!" one of the Greens yelled, and in a moment every Green Lantern shot their rings out front, building an enormous construct in front of the group. Mallory shook her head, though, as she watched Hal coming closer.
"It won't hold," she murmured.
Razor narrowed his eyes. "No, but hopefully it'll slow him down enough for the others to get into place."
The green light kept coming closer, until they could make out the features of the man coming towards them. He didn't stop when he got to the shield, just crashed right into it. The force pushed everyone back, and a spider web of cracks spread out from the impact site. Hal paused when it didn't break completely, the same creepy grin on his face as he studied the forces waiting to fight him.
"You think this will keep me out?" he yelled.
Kilowog and John were the closest to the front, and the ex marine shook his head. "No, but it's the best we could come up with," he admitted.
Hal's smile stretched even more, until it looked more painful than anything, and he started to fly back out to space.
"He's going to hit it again," one of the Greens reasoned. "What should we do?"
"It won't hold for another hit like that," someone else pointed out.
They could already see the green light turning around. They didn't have enough time to rebuild the shield. "Drop it," Katma said quietly, then, louder and more decisively, she said again, "drop it!"
It came down immediately, just in time for Hal to expect to hit it and not. In his split second of confusion, the rings all shot constructs at him, tying him up in the solid light and pulling. Several of them tried to pull the rings off his fingers, but to no avail. He let out a primal yell and pulled, disrupting everyone who was attached to him. No one gave a command, but everyone knew this was the time to attack, and that is exactly what they did. Mallory flew into the fray without a second thought, using the adrenaline to fuel her constructs as she lashed out at the enemy. Hal was overpowered, though. He had two and three rings on every finger, and all of them were supercharged and ready to destroy anything that stood in his way. He was taking out rings five at a time, making his way though the battle without breaking a sweat.
She created the first thing she could think of with her ring, a giant fist, and slammed it into the pilot's stomach. He doubled over, the yellow light affecting him more than the green, but just like he'd done before, he focused his energy on the individuals that posed the greatest threats to him.
He started targeting her and Razor, flying right between them and catching them in a net, dragging them into the others around. Razor burst through the light trapping them, catching Mallory by the wrist before she floated too far away. They looked around them and froze when they realized that only a small fraction of the greens were left. Others were floating around unconscious, or their rings were coming off their fingers and shooting back out into space.
Mallory's eyes widened and she shared a grim look with her friend. She'd never been on a real battlefield, where people were killed in the fight and you had to just move on. Razor hardly batted an eye at the death around them, though. He just narrowed his eyes, determination written in every line on his face.
"He cannot reach the surface," he told her, flying in front so that she was looking at him and not the bodies floating around them.
She shook her head, clearing her mind, and nodded. "Let's go."
They flew after him, surrounded by the handful of Greens left, including Katma Tui, Kilowog, and John. Guy did not join them, and Mallory decided not to wonder if he was unconscious or dead above them. They started into Earth's atmosphere just minutes after Hal, but it was enough of a headstart that John contacted the League to tell them to get ready.
Flames pushed against them as they broke through the atmosphere, and Mallory reached out, lacing her fingers with them. She'd been inside volcanoes and forest fires and even burning plasma, but she had never experienced fire like this. She took the protection of the ring off, letting the flames envelope her body, collecting them as she went down. When they could finally see Hal, back at the place he'd first landed, the powerhouses of the Justice League were already fighting him.
"Get them out of there!" Mallory yelled at John, and he nodded once and the Greens flew ahead, scooping the Leaguers and flying them to a safe distance. Hal barely had time to look up to see why they were leaving before Mallory threw the collected flames at him like a comet.
He threw his hands over his face, putting everything he had into his personal shield, and in the moment that the flames were searching for something to consume, Mallory flew threw them, a yellow fist ready to punch him out of the flames. He was thrown back into the middle of the heroes. She took a moment to recollect the flames, dispersing them so they wouldn't hurt her people. The League, the team and Quitters, the Green Lanterns, Sinestro, Razor, and even Star Sapphire were there, all working together to try to subdue the threat to the city and the planet.
Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain Atom, and Captain Marvel each had a limb, the rings, Zatanna, and Dr. Fate all had binds attached to him, stretching him out so that he wouldn't be able to pull free. Kaldur brought water from the pipes that were spewing through the cracked pavement all around them, covering his body up to his chin, and the other heroes kept attacking from all angles, trying to keep him off balanced enough that he wouldn't be able to focus enough to make a construct.
The grin was gone, but the savage glare that replaced it had Mallory almost wishing it would come back. The Martians were stationed a few feet away, their eyes glowing white as they tried to pull the rings off his fingers with telekinesis. Rings started coming off his hands, shooting to the sides like pieces of a machine exploding. Hal screamed in frustration and fought everything holding him, but with every ring he lost, he became less and less powerful. Soon, he was down to just the one original ring, and he sagged, and John landed in front of him and held up a hand.
"That's enough," he said.
The Martians landed, the heroes stopped attacking, and Kaldur let the water down in a wave that splashed over the heros' feet as they waited for the four Leaguers to let go of Hal. They did it tentatively, staying close, but the man collapsed as soon as they weren't holding him anymore. The group looked at each other, panting, and seemed to all lean in at once. He snapped his head up suddenly, making some of them jump. The grin was back on his face, his eyes wide enough to show how bloodshot they were even from a distance.
"You think this is over?!" he screamed. "It will never be over! Not until I have destroyed every particle of this place! You hear me, heroes?! You will never stop Parallax! You will never–"
Batman's fist collided with Hal's jaw, and the Lantern dropped to the pavement, out cold. As soon as the Lantern's head hit the concrete, the side of his temple started to tremble, like the vein was twitching, but the movement grew until it looked like a snake was slithering just under the skin. A yellow gas started to billow out of his nose and mouth. John and Katma acted at the same time, putting up a construct to catch the gas before it got away. Once all of it was in the green bubble, it started to shape itself into something that looked like a cross between a beetle and a dragon. The grin on its face was familiar, though, and the evil look in its eyes was unmistakable. Mallory stepped closer to it, fascinated by it, but someone put a hand on her, keeping her in place.
"Parallax, huh?" John said, going closer to his construct. "Well, you'll have plenty to answer for once we get back to Oa." He and the other Greens started to fly up into space. "We'll be back soon," John told the League. "We need to handle this, and pick up the ones who survived up there."
Batman nodded, and they went up into space. The person who'd put a hand on her shoulder took it off, and she looked back to see that it had been Artemis, and she was now leaning against a crushed car.
"I can't believe it," she muttered, looking back at Hal. "He was…possessed."
"Not exactly," Zatanna told them. She walked over to where the team had gathered along with Dick and Roy. "Possession is magic, and it's done with souls or spirits. That was, I don't know, more like a parasite, making the host work for it until it ends up killing itself."
"Anyone ever heard of Parallax before?" Conner asked. He glanced at Mallory, who was still covered in the yellow glow from the ring. "You can take that off now," he said. "Fight's over."
She looked down at the yellow band on her finger, and with one word, all of her friends were on their feet, exchanging uneasy looks.
"No."