Before heading to S.T.A.R Labs, I had realized my face was completely uncovered and I wasn't too keen on people knowing who I was yet. I felt like Supergirl wasn't going to do anything nefarious given the reputation of her cousin, so I didn't mind so much that she knew what I looked like. I really didn't know how any of these people kept their identities secret with tiny masks, or in the case of Supergirl and her cousin, no mask at all.
Not caring for the aesthetic of those little masks, I removed my popped collar look, and instead fused it with armour that ran from my previous shoulder pieces to the outside and back of my neck. It crawled up to my chin, jawline, ears, temple, and around the back of my head, looking more hi-tech. The armoured part remained green, but there were a few black moving components, and a few little Green LED lights that would sometimes blink attached to them.
I left the top open for my hair to stand free and it all was framing my face. Then a black material spread from the green frame, covering the entirety of my face, and forehead, leaving no part of my skin visible. It looked like circuitry and wires that centred where my nose would be. There, a round shape formed into what looked to be a camera lens that was emanating a green light as bright as my ring did when it was active.
The design choice for the cybernetic cyclops eye was heavily inspired by a synthetic AI faction known as the Geth in a video game called Mass Effect. I even made it so that the components connected to it could move on it's own, like an eyeball would, just super imposed and centred on my face.
"This is so fucking cool." I had made it so that a voice modulator would be active whenever I was in uniform as well, making me sound more Cybernetic and disguising my voice.
Looking down at my suite, I kept the design I had made before hand, but definitely made it look more cybernetic, making it slightly more flush and slim then it already was, creating some bright green energy lines on my darker green armour, to give the impression that it was all connected and powered up, which technically it was.
"Cyber-Eye is kinda unnerving, but I'll admit, you've gotten pretty creative with your outfit. I don't think Kyle's even done anything like this? Your attention to detail is pretty impressive to. The fact that I can hear mechanical parts moving and hydraulic sounds whenever you shift your... eye... is pretty awesome." Supergirl seemed to finally have her mind off our current objective and I grinned under my mask. When I did, the camera lens projected a holographic grinning emote. "Okay, that's cute."
"Look at where my ears should be. Do those black rotating components have a green LED ring? Do they rotate when my eye shifts?" The excitement could no longer be contained. The Woman-of-Steel shifted her focus as I tilted my head towards her. She smiled.
"Yeah it does. How can you see in that thing?" She walked over to me and started feeling the material, making a note that the green parts of my uniform were very warm, and the black parts were extremely cold, like space. I figured it had something to do with helping regulate my body temperature.
"Honestly? It's because I want to. Has to do with how everything involved with this ring works on my will. I'm not going to blind myself, so my vision works perfectly. When I shift my real eyes, my cybernetic-eye shifts with them." Yeah I was feeling pretty brilliant.
"You know, I realize I'm touching your... not face, and we've fought, but I don't even know your name. I know you're going by Green Lantern now, but any chance I can have a name to identify you from the other 3 Lantern's from Earth?" Though I wasn't keen on giving my name out, she had a point.
"You can call me Shepard. I know you probably don't walk around among us using your Kryptonian name, so can I have that if you're keen on keeping your secret identity secret?" A holographic question mark was projected from my eye. She giggled at it and swiped it away.
"My name's Kara Zor-El." A smiling face emoji.
"Nice to meet you Kara. Wish it was under better circumstances." The sad face emoji with closed eyes was then projected. I wondered if I should reprogram the subroutine I had put in for emoji's to prevent it from being used in heavy situations like this, as to not give off the appearance I'm trivializing matters.
"Likewise." Silence fell upon us. We stood for a moment in that uncomfortable silence before I heard a voice come through my ring.
"This is Cyborg. Green Lantern, do you read me?" Supergirl had gotten me to call one of the Titan's in order to meet us at S.T.A.R Labs. His dad worked for the company and Cyborg himself so happened to be in the area that we didn't need to wait very long to go. He said they had scientists on site who would do an autopsy before releasing the body to the funeral home of the family's choosing.
"I read you loud and clear Cyborg. What's up?"
"Where are you?" Upon his question I realized how much time I was spending on my design and cursed.
"Ah, sorry. I decided I didn't want my face to be seen, and I probably spent a little too much time on my... would you even call this a mask? Anyway, we're on the roof, we'll fly down." I gave a sheepish apology but Cyborg sounded a little annoyed.
"Uh, okay. I've been here 5 minutes. I'm down in the front lobby."
"Great, meet you there." I cut the connection and the grimace face emoji with the raised eyebrows, indicating my discomfort, was projected in front of me.
"You're a dork. Come on let's go." I don't know what it was about watching her turn and float off the side of the building, her long blonde locks flowing behind her along with her cape, but it was that moment that the actual gravity of meeting Supergirl dawned on me. She hadn't been around as long as Superman or the League, but it still suddenly felt so surreal. Now, I was about to meet one of the original Teen Titans, now Titan, and the dude was 85% Cybernetic. I was equal parts nervous and excited in that moment. It's not like I was a fan boy or anything, but still, these guys were heroes.
Collecting myself, I lifted Hal's makeshift coffin construct and followed my Kryptonian Companion down to the entrance. Upon touching down, I could see this 6'4 African-American man with a metal body leaning against a pillar inside the building. The automatic doors opened to us, and we entered the lobby. Looking up when the doors opened, Cyborg nodded to Supergirl, and then looked at me and a brief flash of shock covered his face before he regained his composure. He pushed off the wall to greet us, extending his hand to me.
"Hey, names Victor Stone. Cyborg is what they call me. If we get a long you can call me Vic." I took his cybernetic hand and shook it. His grip wasn't as intense as I had thought it would be.
"Name's... well Green Lantern. Though since there's four of us, you can call me Shepard." The young man nodded, though it was hard to tell by looking at him, I knew he was probably closer to Kara's age then mine. His human and Cybernetic eye never left me, as I imagined he was sizing me up. Or was he scanning me?
"Interesting design choice for your face. What's that all about?" His question was sharp and gave me the impression that he wasn't impressed.
"I've always been a tech-wiz, in all kinds of areas too. Huge fan of the Cyberpunk genre, among other things, and Sci-fi. The cyber-eye is actually inspired by this vide-"
"The Geth from Mass Effect I know." He barked, giving off a sense of irritation. After a moment of looking between me and Kara, his face softened a bit and he sighed. "A nerd Green Lantern. Should be interesting seeing your constructs in action." He turned and beckoned for us to follow. Kara and I looked at each other, my feeling of confusion about Cyborg's attitude being projected as the emoji with a monocle and she just shrugged in response. We followed Cyborg, heading down a few halls and I got to steal some glances of the labs where they were testing technology.
After riding an elevator a number of floors up, and making our way through some higher level security, we were brought to the medical wing of the facility. We passed some researchers and security staff along the way, and all of them gave me weird looks. I projected positive emoji's when we'd look at each other. Some would be amused, others just scowled and looked away. I was glad to see a good number of the researchers were actually intrigued by my design, and I'm certain if it wasn't for the coffin I was towing along, they would have asked me about it.
Finally, we ended up in a morgue, and as expected there were two doctors in the room ready to perform an autopsy. What I wasn't expecting was a League member to be in the room.
"Black Canary, meet Shepard, the next Green Lantern. Shepard, this is Black Canary..." Cyborg went on to name the doctors that would perform the autopsy, but I was struck by the super heroine with the deadly scream. Her outfit was... let's say flattering... she actually looked pretty dope, that leather jacket fit the ensemble well, I just didn't understand how women fought in heels. The blonde woman wore no mask, and I was sure I'd recognize her on the street if I just happened to bump into her. I really don't get this no mask thing.
At the same time however, she was a looker. I caught myself staring, as did Canary and Supergirl, and realized I had projected the heart eyes emoji. That was when I decided that maybe instead of having a subroutine to automatically project all my expressions/feelings in emoji form, that I should manually do so to avoid any further embarrassment. Supergirl mumbled something about 'men' and Canary, surprisingly winked at me with a smirk.
"Sorry rookie, I'm taken. Mind focusing on who you've got in that box?" Quickly projecting the emoji holding the white sorry banner in front of its face, I raised my hand and gently placed the body of Hal Jordan out of the construct and onto the operating table.
Black Canary and Victor both looked shocked, the blonde woman placing her hand over her face as she approached the body.
"No... is that...?" Victor couldn't finish his sentence. The damage to Hal's face and the blood sticking to him made him hard to recognize, but Canary shook her head.
"That's his dad's jacket. It's him." The heroine was shaken, but she held her composure more firmly then Kara had. I'm assuming it had to do with experience, probably had seen quite a few deaths in her life time. She took a moment to remain in control of her voice and then raised her index and middle fingers to her ear.
"This is insane. What the hell beat his will?" Victor's face was of utter disbelief. The doctors ushered us out of the room and as we left I could here the blonde crime fighter contact the League.
"This is Black Canary to all League members. A League member has died in the line of duty. It was... Green Lantern." Her hesitation made it evident that she was struggling with revealing the man's name. I couldn't hear the other end of the call but she shook her head. "No, he was brought to us by the new Lantern, no need for back up. We're in Coast City's S.T.A.R Labs. It's Hal Jordan."
Not 2 minutes later, a red and yellow streak came barrelling down the hallway the four of us were standing in. His speed was nigh imperceptible. I was certain I was only able to see him coming because he had slowed down as to not cause any damage in the building and yet he was still only a blur to me until he stopped right in front of me.
There I stood, staring right into the white eye caps of one of the original members masks. His aerodynamic suit, which according to my ring, was made out of advanced materials used for space travel, was largely a scarlet red, with certain accents of yellow-gold lightning. I was so dumbfounded by have the Flash appear before my eyes, that I couldn't think of anything to say.
He stared at me for a moment, no animosity or tension, rather a neutral expression. I wondered how long that would last. How long before any of these people would be happy to see me. I found it odd, though, he was the only one that didn't seem to be put off by my cybernetic-eye.
"Where is he?" he was still staring at me when he asked the question.
"They're doing the autopsy right now... I wouldn't go in the-" The Scarlet Speedster, seemed to almost shift from his spot 10 ft away from me to standing nose to nose with me. He was slightly taller, but I wasn't backing away from him. Not that I wanted to fight, especially not against somebody with that speed... yet.
People really had a nasty habit of interrupting me today.
"Who. Did. This." Despite not being able to see his actual eyes, I could tell by the small sparks of lightning coming off his body, and his menacing tone, that his anger was boiling over.
"Look, and you all listen up so you can relay this to the rest of his friends and family who want to treat me like this, because I'm not repeating it again. I was camping, he fell out of the sky, died in front of me, and the ring chose me. Nothing followed him down and neither he, nor the ring, gave me any warning or info about what killed him. So get out of my fucking face." He seemed to glare even harder at me, and to be fair my response was rude, and directed at a man who was trying to find an answer to what happened to his best friend. I hadn't known that at the time of course, and my own emotions about the situation wasn't being dealt with either.
"Why didn't you go investigate it then? You didn't think to go check up on a threat that was able to kill him of all people?!" When Flash started yelling at me I started to feel this anxiety and anger.
"For as fast as you are, you're pretty fucking slow aren't you? If he's so good how the hell was I supposed to beat whatever pulverized him?!" Flash and I were about to come to blows, a fight I knew I'd lose, but Supergirl forced her way in between us.
"You guys need to calm down. We're on the same side." Kara spoke in a demanding tone.
"Flash, leave him be. If the ring chose him-" Canary began, but Flash cut her off.
"The ring chose Sinestro didn't it? Let's not forget the other Lantern's who abused their power or-"
"It was Hal's ring!" Kara shouted so loud the windows shook. "You aren't an idiot, you know what that means. You were his friend Flash... you know what that means." While I was thanking my lucky stars for Supergirl's intervention I was suddenly struck by confusion as the two Justice League members glanced at me knowingly. I wasn't in on what Kara was talking about but I was pretty pissed off about this situation.
So I decided to leave. Luckily, there were windows leading outside opposite the wall I was standing next to in this pristine yet suddenly overcrowded hall way. I slid it open and squeezed out, flying into the sky to get some space.
I flew for about 10 minutes before the mental exhaustion that I had accrued through out the day had caught up to me again. I supposed Green Lanterns still needed to sleep, even if they didn't have to do it as often. I lowered myself to a rooftop of an apartment building and briefly contemplated where to stay, when I remembered I had left my wallet in my truck.
"You idiot."
"No need to call me names." The sound of Kara's voice reached my ears and I turned to face her.
"Wasn't. Left my wallet back at the Lake." Kara gave a short laugh as she landed next to me.
"Of course you did. What else can go wrong today? Right?" We sat on the edge of the building, our legs dangling over the side, and I snorted at my luck.
"Honestly, wouldn't be surprised if some kind of invasion or some other crisis was to take place at this moment." We both frowned, and looked to the sky, scanning it for any sign of danger. Then proceeded to look from our left to our right, and then over our shoulders before looking back at each other. God it was that plausible that it could happen at any given moment.
"About The Flash... he had become friends with Hal before the League was even formed. As I understand it they had worked together a few times and became fast friends. He's devastated, and normally, he's a very kind and gentle soul." I put my hand up before she could continue.
"Let's get one thing clear Kara. I get that you people knew him, but it's not like I've never lost anyone. I can understand the frustration and all that stuff that comes with death, but the lot of you have to understand, I watched him die. I didn't find his body, the ring didn't choose me then reveal his corpse to me. I..." I stopped for a moment, realizing my emotions were getting the better of me and I was watching the breath leave his body and the light fade from his eyes all over again. My breathing became haggard, and I could feel my heart pounding in my ears again. There was so much blood. What did that to him?
Kara scooted closer to me and grabbed my hand in hers. She gave me a firm, yet gentle, squeeze.
"Take your time with it. It's still so fresh, especially since it's only been a few hours. I understand if you want to talk about it later we can. You can crash at my place tonight if you want to. I live in National City." I looked up at her, trying to keep my breathing even.
"You sure? I can ju-"
"I'll have none of that Shepard. I know your face, so you can rest well knowing that I won't let anybody see you." That was a good deal honestly.
"Alright, but I still have to go see his wife. If they were as close as you say, I'm assuming Flash would probably want to come to support her." Kara nodded at this, and I slid off the roof.
Taking a deep breath, I motioned for her to follow me and we headed back to S.T.A.R Labs.