The flight to Coast City was a trauma that I would not want to relive. I hadn't considered the length of time I'd be carrying my predecessor, and I thanked my lucky stars that I didn't try to carry him bridal style, because I knew I wouldn't be able to prevent myself from constantly looking at his face. That would made things worse. I preferred knowing that he was leaking all kinds of fluids, especially blood, all over me. I had always heard of how disgusting death really was, but I never thought it was like this. I didn't know how to feel. I didn't know him, but he was still a person, a hero even, and I just didn't know what to do. It was I had shut down, or maybe I simply didn't care? I really hoped that wasn't the case. I hoped death wasn't going to be a constant, even though I was smart enough to know that I probably was going to see it more then I wanted to. I wondered how much more death I was going to witness, wholly unaware of what was to come, what fate destiny had laid for me.
I shook my head, not wanting to send myself into a spiral. I didn't want to plummet out of the sky and into a township or city with the body of a Green Lantern. Especially if I dropped him in the free fall and couldn't catch him in my panic. Again I shook my head and kept my focus on my destination. Trying to occupy my mind I thought of what it was like to wear the ring and use it like a GPS or map.
When I had decided where I wanted to go, the ring was able to place a way point that was visible to only me. The ring informed me if I wanted I could relay the marker to other Lanterns, and they can follow it as well. That was cool. It was like I was wearing a visor or had a cybernetic eye with a HUD. I could see the green marker blinking in the distance, just above Coast City. I smiled at myself, possibilities raced through my mind. Since this thing was so high tech and made to travel the universe, I wondered if I could download files off of earth made hard drives and convert them into information on my ring.
"Maybe I can save all my music to my ring. Did you ever do that?" I spoke to him. I don't know why, maybe it was a comfort thing or maybe it was a way of acknowledging that he was there... or rather trying to ignore that he wasn't there, and it was only his corpse.
"Think about something else. Like the fact that I'm not hungry anymore. I was when I woke up. Couldn't possibly be because I carrying a corpse of a late hero and he's leaking all over me." I could feel myself almost slipping when suddenly the ring responded to my query.
"An atmosphere appropriate to the ring wielder's biology is created inside the force-field while body temperature is maintained and waste products are removed. Gravitational stresses which could cause injury are stabilized for the ring wielder. Theoretically, a ring wielder could use the ring as his/her/its sole source of life support." I raised my eyebrow to this.
"So the force field is more then just protection, it's regulating my body as well. Which means I don't need to make a stop for a bathroom break. That's fucking cool." I stated to myself.
"Cool indeed!" The shout came from above me and I looked up in time to see a red streak race towards me. I didn't know at the time if it was me or the ring but I narrowly avoided being rugby tackled by my attacker. I kept my trajectory aimed at cost city but when I had avoided my attacker I had rotated myself around so I could see there next move. I saw that when they missed me they had stopped abruptly, turning on a dime and wasted little motion in rushing me.
Raising my hand I pointed my ring at the individual remembering that it had mentioned something about energy blasts. Trying my luck I fired a beam at my assailant, but they avoided it. I attempted it a few more times as I saw they were gaining on me but they dodged with relative ease. Was this the thing that killed Jordan?
As the attacker drew closer I threw up a force-field bubble around me and my dead travelling companion. The attacker made contact with my green orb of defence and sent me hurtling through the air at a much harsher clip then I was travelling. I lost my grip on Hal but luckily he stayed in the bubble... unluckily we were tumbling in the ball as it was careening through the air.
"I feel like a hamster. This is so annoying." Frustration crept up my spine as my luck it would seem was non-existent and now I had to face an evil lunatic before getting real combat training in. I focused hard on my trajectory and I commanded my body to remain still and centred within my force-field. I eventually stopped spinning and I saw the unfathomably strong thing, whatever it was, race towards me again.
"You'll pay for what you've done!" The voice was decidedly feminine, boiling with rage. As she approached me again I waited till she got close enough to strike, and dropped my force-field.
"The fu-" She had thrown her punch at the bubble, but now was left wide open. I at the time didn't register her blue and red outfit, which would have saved us both a lot of trouble. So, I lifted both my legs and willed myself towards her, my feet planted into her sternum, knocking the wind out of her, as I extended my legs and sent her in a direction that was thankfully away from me. Before she got to far, I created a bulldozer and dropped it on her sending her towards the ground.
"Ring! Help me find Hal's body!" I started flying towards the ground, the sky was dark and we were well above any light sources. Despite how clear it had been today the clouds were gathered here in California blocking the moon. The ring began scanning for organic matter and I pointed it in every direction. It took only seconds to see where his body was and I raced towards him. Ignoring the mental exhaustion from tanking a hit from that monster of a woman, whoever she was, and creating that construct.
"Don't worry Hal, your going to make it home! I promise!" I felt my speed pick up a bit and I had just about grabbed him when I heard a roar of anger and I spun myself around to fire at the woman attacking me point blank. A flash of emerald energy missed her as she barrel rolled and then grabbed me by my collar with her right hand, which was definitely a better place then my throat. Her eyes were a brilliant rose red, and I found myself transfixed. So much so I almost didn't notice that she had raised her left fist.
"You lost concentration on your construct asshole!" She threw her punch on the last word, letting go of my collar upon making contact, hitting me square in the chest. Given how hard she had hit my bubble force-field I focused on amplifying the personal force-field, and boy was I glad I did.
She hit me so hard, I was sent hurtling through the air at ridiculous speeds and I couldn't breath for a full second before the ring regulated my body. The fact that she could knock the wind out of me with the personal force-field up was alarming to say the least. It was however in that moment that I had momentarily forgotten about the traumatizing experience of watching somebody die and carrying his body over 2000km. I felt a thrill I'd never known. No matter how many fights I have been in, which admittedly wasn't as much as you'd think, I'd never felt a challenge like the one before me. I briefly considered how outmatched I was and considered the limits of what I could do to her when my late predecessor's words returned to me.
"My only limit is my imagination." I smiled as I halted my trajectory and angled myself towards the woman. She was racing towards me for a follow up strike, and at this point Hal had been tumbling threw the air for at least a minute. . Based on how fast I could move, so long as I finished this up quickly, I could probably still catch him. Besides, I'm sure the guy would want me to prioritize my life over his corpse. He was a fucking hero after all.
I focused on her trajectory and discovered my ring was helping me gauge her speed. I waited for her to get close enough to hit, and just as she was about to, I materialized a solid green wall. Her fist broke through with ease, which was fine because it was only meant for a distraction anyway. She flew through the wall and as the construct fell to pieces and faded, I had moved below her and she was looking around for me. I built another wall away from my direction and she spotted it. She went to hit it right away and as she did I morphed the wall into thick chains that wrapped around her and restrained her. I knew it wasn't going to hold so I acted quickly and put her in a 5ftx1ft box. I could hear her yell in frustration. I kept my concentration this time on maintaining the prison and looked to see how far Jordan had fallen, having placed a marker on him.
He was getting terrifyingly close to the ground. I needed to hurry up. I was going to race up to the prison and hit her with another attack, but I could feel that pressure I feel when my constructs are being challenged by an opposing force, and focused on keeping it up while speaking to her.
"Hey, so, I'd really like to catch the body I was carrying before he splatters all over the earth! Also, why the HELL did you attack me?" My question was met with a scream, and what I could swear was a red glow emanating within the tomb I had made for the woman.
"You dare question my motives when you are carrying the lifeless body of my FRIEND?!" Her voice grew louder along with her anger. Her fervent attempts to escape her prison intensifying greatly.
The sensation of your constructs being attacked was strange, it was particularly unpleasant when someone or something immensely powerful was trying to break it apart against your will. Imagine arm wrestling a 'Worlds Strongest' competitor with your will. You clasp hands, the ref says go, and you aren't using your limbs, but your mind. Though to be fair, she is one of if not the world's strongest woman, and my mind was controlling a power of which I was wholly unfamiliar.
When two red lasers shattered my emerald prison and it was clear the source of said lasers was her eyes, and the fact that a Green Lantern was her friend, I had figured out who I was fighting. The glowing chains she was now shattering with her strength gave me enough time to see the blonde hair, red cape, skirt and boots, and the yellow shield with a red 'S' brandished on her chest. I couldn't decide whether to be relieved or to shit my pants, which I couldn't do with the ring on.
Supergirl stared me down as she effortlessly shattered the chains I used to wrap her up, her seething red eyes bore holes in my person, figuratively of course. Got to remember to specify that for Kryptonians.
"You're done." She sped towards me and I barely managed to speak before she had hit me again.
"Yep! Done! I GIVE UP!" As much as I enjoyed that challenge I was getting extremely tired, and it was all that I could do to stay a float. Not to mention upon realizing what a large misunderstanding this all was, I wanted to clear the air, and catch my rapidly descending predecessor.
She halted her assault, her fist an inch away from my face. The force of the fist being thrown at that speed disturbed the air around me, but my rings force-field kept me from feeling it. I sighed in relief, realizing how bruised my chest was probably going to be, and thanking my lucky stars I wasn't going to be concussed or suffer major brain damage. I was sure I could get better at absorbing damage, but at the time knew surviving a fight with her wasn't likely.
"Wise choice. Tell me who you are?" I had never met her before, but seeing her up close and her face being illuminated by my ring I could tell she was late teens early 20's. Then again she was an alien, and I had no idea how the aging process of a Kryptonian worked.
"Uh, can we catch Hal befo-" She interrupted me, moving so fast that I felt the shock wave when she moved. I looked down and saw she was coming up more slowly, carrying Hal's body. She probably wanted to avoid damaging the human corpse by moving at the speed of sound. I descended to meet her half way and realized that I should probably land soon to catch my breath.
As we approached each other, I could see the pained expression on her face as she looked him over. She seemed as if she was looking for something, and my ring picked up electromagnetic waves coming from her eyes.
"You have X-Ray vision?" I was baffled. I knew her and her cousin could see and hear things from great distances, but I didn't know they could see through solid objects. Again I was intrigued. She looked at me with a scowl. "Right, not the time for a breakdown on your abilities."
She huffed in annoyance as she looked back down at Jordan. After a moment her features softened a bit and she took a deep and shaky breath, trying to keep her composure.
"What happened?" She asked weakly.
"I was camping. Fell a sleep on the lake when I heard a boom that rocked me out of my snooze, and when I looked around, I saw him falling out of the sky." She looked at me, a bit surprised, but cautiously studying me. Obviously trying to determine if I was telling the truth.
"You found him like this?" I nodded, a grim look on my face.
"I wanted to get him help but..." I let the statement trail off. The look of realization in her eyes.
"He knew he was dead. I can see from his injuries that unless we had some kind of magic or something else handy at the time... no, there was no coming back from what happened to him." She went on to list the damage that was done to his brain as well as the multiple organs that were heavily damaged. What I found strange is I thought that I should feel sick, nauseous even, but no physical reaction from what I was hear occurred. She however was shedding tears, though holding firm in her voice.
"I'm sorry, I wish I could have done more. The only thing I thought to do after he passed was to bring him home." The Kryptonian blonde nodded. She looked back to me, tears still streaming down her face. I made a handkerchief construct, which earned a bewildered look from the woman and I wiped the tears away from her face.
"Oh... thanks. Um, where did this happen?" I jabbed my finger behind me to the North in response. She raised an eyebrow. "How far?"
"Canada. I was camping at Alouette Lake in BC. Place is pretty serene and peaceful. Well, most of the time anyway." She seemed to accept what I was saying as truth, the scrutiny gone from her face. "So what do you wanna do?"
"Will you... come with me to tell his wife. I don't know what to do. I can't show her... he looks so..." Supergirl's voice cracked, and clearly she was still grappling with the loss of a teammate/friend. It didn't help how brutalized he was. I put my hand on her shoulder, and surprisingly she didn't flinch away. I wrapped us in a force-field bubble and began flying towards coast city, not as fast as I had but still at a good clip.
"Sure, it appears the short conversation we just had gave me time to recoup from our sparring match. Head feels 100% again."
"Ring charge at 75%."
"Nobody ask- Wait SEVENTY-FIVE! That's banana's. You definitely have my respect. I knew the fight was tough but I didn't realize how much power I was expending from fighting you." I turned to the young blonde next to me and I could see she was trying to muster a brave smile of triumph.
"You called that a fight. You've got a lot to learn new guy. I'm assuming you were fully charged?" Her voice still betrayed her emotion, though I could tell she was trying hard to focus on something other then the dead man in her arms.
"Yeah, I was only flying. You pack a freaking wallop though I'll tell you that. I'm definitely going to bruise." Trying to lighten the mood wasn't working. I could feel her shake, trying to keep herself from sobbing. "How well did you know him?"
"He's the one who found me. I was somehow stuck orbiting the Sun one solar system over from this one, because of a malfunction in my pods controls as it kept me in stasis for almost three decades. 30 years, I was just floating there, and the only person who knew I had survived the destruction of my planet were dead." I didn't even know where to begin to find the words to respond to something like that. If she was sent here in her teens, she would be older then me chronologically, but physically she was still a bit younger. Probably mentally as well, but again, I don't know what passes for fully mature for a Kryptonians, never met one. I had so many damned questions at the time that it wasn't helping my headache.
"One day, he was patrolling the sector and came across some Thanagarian pirates. Don't think I ever heard the story behind that, but he made short work of them and when he was about to leave he noticed my ship orbiting the sun. He scanned it, and when his ring stated it was Kryptonian he immediately brought it back to my cousin." She paused, trying to hold herself together but I could see her slumping further and further. I grabbed her shoulders and guided her as she slumped to her knees. "If it wasn't fo-for him..."
She didn't finish the sentence, but she didn't need to. 30 fucking years. What a shit thing to happen to a kid. She would have been there either forever, or until somebody else found her. Who knows what could have happened then.
She openly sobbed over his body, dropping the legs and wrapping his torso in a hug. The girl mourned the man who released her from her static prison. Her heart pouring out of her eyes and mouth, stirred within me my own grievances and I shed a few tears of my own. My tears flowed for only a few seconds as I rubbed her back, I noticed my force-field was faltering so I pushed the feelings down and I aimed to land in a secluded area. We weren't too far from the city. We could take a few minutes.
Upon touching down I kept up the force-field, having the idea that I probably could be using it to sound proof an area. It made it easier to maintain while consoling the poor girl. We sat there for probably 10 minutes. The whole time I was just rubbing her upper back and shoulders, making circular motions. I remember it having a calming affect when I was young, and I hoped it wasn't being taken the wrong way. Then again I don't know anything about Kryptonian culture so who knows.
Finally she had settled down, just sniffling as opposed to the sobs wracking her entire body. Once again I produced a handkerchief construct. This time, she took it with her own hands after placing Hal's body down gently. She blew her nose after wiping her eyes, even Kryptonian's had these bodily functions it seemed. When she was done, I tossed the handkerchief out of the force-field and let it dissipate.
I moved over to crouch in front of her, the deceased Green Lantern's body in between us.
"This is enough of a burden as is. I'll carry him for you." I began reaching to pick him up but she interrupted me.
"Don't touch him!" She didn't move to grab or stop me, she just looked at me with a look that tried to pass as angry but was fading into uncertainty. She was even less prepared for today it seemed and to be fair she didn't know me at the time.
"I promise I'll take good care of him." Looking at her in the eye, holding her gaze as I waited for her confirmation, I felt like I didn't belong there. Honestly I was glad for the opportunity, the power ring was cool and it meant I could explore not just he world but the universe. The cost, however, seemed much to high. Thinking about it, he was an original member of the Justice League. How were the rest of them going to take this.
"I'm sorry. I just..."
"It's alright, no need to explain anything to me Supergirl. I've got this." She winced, though I did not know why at the time. I would later learn it was Hal's catch phrase to say 'Green Lantern's Got This'.
She nodded and took a step away from Hal as I formed a simple box around his form. It was much easier then it had been a few hours ago, and I decided once this was all done I was going to spend all day creating constructs, and do it every day until I was used to it.
Wordlessly we took to the skies again, the coffin towing slightly behind us. I looked over at the woman beside me and saw she was lost in her own thoughts as we flew. I gave her time as we weren't far form Hal's apartment. Before we went there though, we needed to make a detour.
"Listen." She turned to me as I spoke. "He asked not to show his family his body, so I'm going to go drop him off... somewhere... a morgue? I dunno. I'm actually not sure if there's anybody that'll inspect his body that can know about his secret." She sighed, and then took a deep breath.
"Okay, that's a good point. We shouldn't just show up with a corpse to his wife's door, but I'm not sure who would take care of him until he's ready for a funeral." She paused a moment and then looked at me. "Hey, that ring of yours can communicate with the League's communicators. Can it be used to make phone calls?"
"Honestly, it has to. Cell phones, communicators, even television sets, all work on radio waves right? Basically an invisible pattern of electricity and magnetism." My explanation earned me an annoyed glare from the Woman-of-Steel.
"I'm not an idiot." She grumbled.
"Okay, sorry, I wasn't assuming you were, I just like this stuff. Plus, this ring is dope. Anyway, the ring can detect, transmit, and receive all types of radiation and wave lengths. Honestly that's so cool. I ca-" My excitement was getting the better of me until the blonde Kryptonian interrupted me.
"Great, I need you to call a friend. You can tell me about your ring later." She said it so dejectedly, though at the time I knew it wasn't due to a lack of interest.
"Right, no problem... who am I calling exactly?"