With blood and rage of crimson red…
Ripped from a corpse, so freshly dead…
Together, with our hellish hate!
We'll burn you all, that is your fate!
These words echoed through my mind as pain coursed through my whole body. It was like acid had been injected directly into my veins, and been forced down my throat at the same time. All I could see was red. Literally, my entire field of vision was clouded with nothing but red light. My skin burnt as if I was swimming in a pool of molten lava, which wasn't actually far from the truth. I clenched my fists, forcing my eyes open, even in the burning hot liquid. With a spike of rage, I burst forth from the scorching liquid, clawing my way up the side of the cliff, a weight in my left hand that wasn't there before.
When I finally got to the top of the stone platform, I heaved the lantern over the edge, forcing my torso up with it. With my legs still hanging off the edge, I looked up at the massive, hulking figure above me, who grinned wickedly at the sight of my success, baring his razor sharp teeth in doing so. Still stark naked, I forced myself up to the platform, and kneeled before him, the one who brought me here when I was lost and alone.
"Congratulations, Lantern Sinne, your induction into the Corps is complete." The red-skinned monstrosity before me stated.
"Lord Atrocitus, I serve and obey." I responded, my voice hoarse and painful to use.
My mouth filled up with a vile tasting liquid, and I spat it out, most undignifiedly, to the side. The glowing red liquid burnt through the stone it landed on. With a spike of irritation, I clenched my right fist, the ring on my middle finger glowing slightly as I focused. A wave of red light overflew my body, covering my naked form, and getting rid of the sizzling blood dripping from my semi-long blonde hair.
My uniform was much like that of any other member, but still unique to me.
Form fitting, with the torso being red, and the legs being black. The Red Lantern Insignia came to bear on my chest, which was standard. The sides of my torso were black, and there were red lines going down the sides of my legs. Sharp red knee guards pointed upwards, below my red belt, and the bases of my boots were red too. Finally, I had a black high collar leather jacket on, with the insignia on the back in red, barring the circle, as large as the dimensions of my back would allow.
"Follow." Atrocitus ordered, unfazed by my change in clothing, or previous lack thereof. With some effort, I stood to my feet, and obeyed. Without a word, he took off, and though it took me a second to focus my anger into allowing me to do the same, I did not lag behind. I flew right after him. As he picked up speed, I did as well. In a matter of moments, we'd landed in battery square. Multiple Red Lanterns of varying species lined the sides of the road that led to the pedestal where the Red Central Power Battery was displayed.
Standing beside the Central Power Battery itself, where the other four founders of the Red Lantern Corps, two on each side.
I was surprised to find out that the other four Inversions were still alive. I'd read that in the comics, Atricitus killed them all to forge the Central Battery, but apparently that's not the case here. They each looked like eldritch abominations out of one of Lovecraft's works. Surprisingly, as terrifying as Atrocitus was, he was the least terrifying of the five of them.
As Atricitus stopped right before the Central Battery, so did I, and we both turned to face the Red Lanterns that had lined the sides of the road.
"Brothers and Sisters of the Red Lantern Corps!" he announced loudly, his dark voice echoing through the entirety of Shard. "Today, we welcome the newest member of our organisation, Levi Sinne!" He declared, turning to me and punching his right fist to the left of his chest, the rest of the Lanterns following suit. One would think it would symbolise the heart of the individual performing the salute, but that doesn't make sense since our hearts are now useless clumps of meat in our chests. Well, for those of us who have hearts on the left side of the chest. I may be mistaken, but I think Zox pressed his fist to his forehead. I don't know, I was looking at Atrocitus at the time. I wouldn't dare look away when my new boss salutes me. "All that remains is for him to connect his Personal Lantern to the Central Power Battery." He gestures to the massive battery. I nod in compliance and approach the device, holding my right fist out with my ring facing the Battery, and holding my lantern, which took the form of a hurricane lantern oddly enough, up with my left hand.
And I spoke.
"With blood and rage of crimson red
Ripped from a corpse, so freshly dead
Together, with our hellish hate
We'll burn you all, that is your fate!"
Red light poured out of the Central Battery as it glowed, filling my lantern, my ring, and myself with the Red Light of Rage. It didn't hurt this time, unlike when I first put the ring on. Granted, it wasn't exactly pleasant this time. It was like a wave of heat. Not warmth, heat; somewhat like getting into a shower when the water was just a little too hot. Still, I felt the effect almost immediately. My lantern and ring were both at full capacity.
"Ring charge at 100%"
The ring's voice made my eyebrow twitch. It made sense that the ring would have a voice that would piss me off. I want to see about changing that, but given how red rings work, it may be a bad idea.
"With that, you are one of us, Lantern Sinne." Atrocitus told me. I responded with a bow and a salute, the same one he'd given earlier. "If you are ready, your first assignment awaits." He said, his arms crossed expectantly
"I'm ready, Master." I responded. He nodded in satisfaction.
"Throughout the Forgotten Zone, there are Green Lanterns plaguing our space, they are our enemy. We have located one such Lantern in the Volkreg system." His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at me. "Find him, and kill him." He told me. For a split second, I hesitated to speak, though I didn't allow it to show. I quickly squashed it, however. I couldn't afford to be weak in present company.
"By your command, my Lord." I responded with a bow.
"Bleez will accompany you." He stated. It was evident that the statement was not an offer. The woman in question approached, and we gave each other a nod of mutual understanding. "The rest of you, back to your stations!" He declared to the spectating lanterns. Without any further adieu, the Red Lanterns all flew back to their posts or to resume whatever assignments they'd been given. "You may depart, Bleez, Sinne." He told us. With that, I stored my lantern in my ring's subspace pocket, and Bleez and I took off, our environmental shields activating as we left the artificial environment of Shard.
XXX
For several hours, Bleez and I had been flying through the silent vacuum of space, little to no words being exchanged throughout the process. It was not an uncomfortable silence. We had little reason to talk. We were barely acquainted. And I don't think Red Lanterns are particularly geared for small talk. At the very least, not with new recruits. Either way, that suited me just fine. I wasn't very good at making conversation myself.
"We're coming up on Volkreg." Bleez suddenly announced. Ring?
"Six Planets in the current star system, one inhabited."
Ugh, mute the external voice, will you?
"Insufficient Rage."
I said MUTE.
Ring voice muted.
Good. Now tell me which one the inhabited planet is.
Fourth Planet from the central star.
And the Green Lantern?
Insufficient Rage.
"Tell me where the bloody Green Lantern is, you stupid thing!" I growled in frustration. Bleez looked at me with surprisingly patient amusement. I assume she went through a similar stage when she started.
Will detected. Coordinates provided.
Finally.
He wasn't on the planet, for some reason. Then again, it was never explicitly stated that he himself was… Volkregan? Volkrego? Whatever. He could just be in this star system for his own ends. Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter. Atrocitus wants me to kill this Frontier Lantern, and that's what I'm here to do.
Is it wrong that that doesn't bother me nearly as much as it would have before?
"I will not be aiding you." Bleez suddenly told me. It seemed she picked up on my finding the Lantern. "I will supervise and relay your performance to Lord Atrocitus once we are finished. You succeed or fail in this endeavour alone." She said firmly.
"Understood." I nodded, taking off in the direction of the Green Lantern.
Judging by the scan I'd taken, the Green Lantern was moving. He seemed to be heading straight towards Volkreg. I don't know where he was coming from, but I didn't care. Using the ring, I calculated what trajectory to follow to intercept him before he reached the planet, and within a few minutes, he was in visual range.
His uniform was typical. Black bodysuit with green gloves, boots, belt, and upper torso, with the insignia on his chest. He looked fairly human, actually. Only, his skin was white as paper, as was his hair, and he had these strange lines coming up his chin and from his eyes to the sides of his face. His environmental shield was different to mine, probably due to his ring being green. His shield was uniform, like a faint green glow around his body. Mine, and the other Reds for that matter, was wispy and flowing, as if our skin was on fire. He stopped in mid air, looking at his ring before looking around. His eyes eventually settled on me, and he most eagerly approached.
I almost pity him now.
"Hello Friend!" He grinned widely, showing some surprisingly sharp teeth. "I've never met another Lantern before! I had no idea we came in different colours!" I guess that explains his excitement. "Did the Guardians send you? Or perhaps you are employed by a Corps allied to them?" He asked.
"No, quite the opposite." I responded, and before he could say anything else, I unleashed a red energy beam at him with lethal intent. He reacted quickly, blocking the attack with a dorm-shaped shield. My attack shredded through his shield, and he was sent back a fair distance before he stabilised himself. His ring flashed, and he made the quick decision to retreat. I can't allow that.
I immediately generated a construct kunai and chain, and threw the blade right at him, utilising my rage to make the throw stronger. The blade pierced his environmental shield, burying itself in one of his calves, eliciting a cry of agony. I yanked the chain, pulling him back towards me, and whilst he was distracted by the pain, I delivered a swift, ring-charged punch to his gut, sending him flying again.
He stabilised himself once more, and generated a construct of some kind of tank-like vehicle, with a cannon attached, and fired the weapon at me. I sped towards him, swiftly cutting through the construct weapon's fire with a red energy blast and rapidly closing the distance between myself and the Green Lantern. Before I could attack him again, he enclosed a sphere of green energy around me, causing me to hit my head on his construct. My aura flared at the frustration I felt in response. Similarly, his construct sphere seemed stronger than the ones he'd made before.
Ah, the injury I gave him. He's forcing himself to keep his composure in spite of the pain, which means more willpower, which means stronger constructs.
"Please, I have no quarrel with you, friend." He said to me. "I am already fighting a war on my own planet, I have no desire for more enemies. I am certain we can discuss this."
"Your desires are irrelevant, Green Lantern." I responded with a low hiss. As I spoke, I allowed memories of the people I hated to surface in my mind. "You signed your death warrant as soon as you donned the green ring. There is nothing to discuss." As soon as I felt the heat burning in my chest, I inhaled deeply, and let loose.
The roar that left my throat was accompanied by a burst of rage plasma, spewing forth and destroying the sphere construct confining me. Not only that, it enveloped the Green Lantern as well, wreaking havoc on his environmental shield. He cried out in pain once again as the scorching heat burnt his skin even through his shield, but he forced himself to keep his shield up. Credit where it's due, he's good at using that ring of his. After a few seconds, I ceased the blood vomit, the glowing red liquid dripping down my chin as I did so. I wiped it away and dashed right after him as he tried to retreat again.
His Willpower may have been strong, but in the condition he was in now, there was no getting away. I generated a katana construct, gripping the blade in hand, and lunged forward.
The blade pierced through his chest from behind, and his flight halted instantly. I saw him look down for a moment, his hand almost reaching for the blade, before his body went limp, and his environmental shield died. As I dismissed the katana construct, I saw his ring start to glow, and gently float off of his finger. It spun around for a moment, before seemingly picking a direction and flying off.
Leaving the corpse to float away, I looked down at my hand, the one I'd been holding the katana in.
I killed that guy way too easily, and I feel nothing in response. I knew the Red Light of Rage would influence my way of thinking, but I hadn't imagined it would act so quickly and thoroughly. I mean, I just murdered a man in cold blood, and I have no issue with it. That doesn't bode well for my future.
I was pulled from my musings when I heard a gentle clapping sound. Bleez had approached, and she was applauding, looking satisfied.
"Very good, Sinne." She said, sincerely as a Red Lantern could manage. "Lord Atrocitus will be pleased with how you handled your first mission." She said before turning around. "Let us return." She said, flying off. After a second, I followed her.
"Should I have allowed the ring to fly off and find a new wielder?" I asked after a moment of silence.
"It doesn't matter. If the ring finds a new host, then we will kill that one as well." She said dismissively. "Lord Atrocitus will tolerate the Frontier Lantern's presence in the Forgotten Zone no longer, and once we kill enough of them, his plans will truly begin." She gave an evil smirk.
Frontier Lanterns.
The Lanterns who were too far away for the Guardians to train them, living in Frontier Space, also known as the Forgotten Zone. It consisted of Sector 666 of Guardian Space, at the very edge, I might add, and a number of surrounding sectors outside of their borders. The Frontier Lanterns are called such because they are natives who were given green rings that were sent this direction so that the Guardians could have at least some presence in this area of space, but there are only a handful of them. The fact that they're too far away to be trained, and blocked off from Guardian Space due to the Maelstrom, more on that later, means that they can only receive limited instruction from their rings. I'm guessing that's why killing that guy just now wasn't all that difficult. I'm going to need to shape up before an Oan Lantern appears.
XXX
Day to day life as a Red Lantern was a fair bit more… mundane, than I expected. Assignments and rosters were rotated like any other workplace. At times, I was stationed on the bridge of Shard, other times I was on guard duty, patrolling the ship or standing guard at the Central Power Battery. Hell, sometimes I even did administration work, handling finances, managing the wages of the soldiers employed by the Corps, and overseeing non-combat operations we had going on. There was a lot more to the Red Lantern Corps than a bunch of angry fighters with glowing red rings. One would almost think it was legitimate business, an independent nation, almost.
It's no secret that's not the case, but still.
My time was also spent training. Whilst I wasn't exactly an incompetent fighter with the ring, I had much to learn. My fight with the Green Lantern before showed I had a decent aptitude for channelling my rage into constructs, and giving them the strength to pierce the Green Light, but direct combat is a little out of my league. As stated before, I was only able to kill the Green Lantern because he had no formal training from the Green Lantern Corps, only the limited instruction his ring could provide. I wouldn't have stood a chance against an Oan Lantern, and that needs to change.
Hence the numerous bruises, scrapes, and burns I feel all over my body as I guard the Central Lantern, my assignment for the day. Boring and tedious, but not particularly difficult. All I have to really do is prevent anyone from approaching without authorisation, and report to Atrocitus immediately if someone tries.
Bleez has been handling my training with weapons, Zilius Zox, Atrocitus' right hand, has been handling my ring combat training, and a lizard-alien named Skallox has been working with me on my unarmed combat. His lessons are actually the worst, considering how agile and strong he is, fighting him without my ring is particularly painful, and Zox is brutal with his plasma breath. Bleez is no kinder, but at least I know her primary motivations are my improvement, not like Zox's sadism or Skallox's battle-hunger.
Anyway, I'd been a member of the Corps for about six months, and had been deployed several times for external missions, only one other Green Lantern assassination though. Most of my missions were retrievals of resources that were purchased, legitimately, I might add, sometimes I destroyed probes that were getting too close to Shard or other Red Lantern interests, and more recently, I'd been sent to finalise the conquering of a planet Atrocitus had set his sights on some time ago. It wasn't anything really significant. Massive military casualties on their side, the local Green Lantern had been killed, and the governmental leaders had given their unconditional surrender. All I really did was escort a number of the clerics that sing Atrocitus' praises, make sure all the documentation was in order, delegate the appropriate roles to the appropriate people, and tell them who they answered to. And there was only one desperate military leader who tried to kill me with his own two hands, unable to accept the new status quo.
I caught him by his face and proceeded to burn the flesh off of his skull. When I let go, his corpse fell to the ground, any and all flesh above his shoulders gone, leaving only his skull. I think it served to demonstrate what would happen if they rebelled against Atrocitus. They set me up in a very nice room in what I assumed was their version of a hotel for the three days I spent constructing churches and barracks for the respective clerics and soldiers that would be stationed on their planet. Power Rings, even ones fueled by rage and hate as it turns out, were excellent at expediting tasks that would usually take months or even years. After a brief adjustment period, the planet would prosper under Atrocitus' rule. It's strange to think that that whole situation would have bothered me a lot once upon a time.
After that whole ordeal, I returned to Shard, and continued on with my daily duties, which brings us to today. As I guarded the Central Power Battery alongside Skallox and Bleez, my ring suddenly bleeped.
Incoming Audio Transmission from Lord and Master Atrocitus
"A moment, I need to take this" I said to my colleagues, showing them my flashing ring. The two nodded as I stepped away from the Central Battery, bringing the ring to my mouth. "Lantern Sinne, my Lord. How may I serve?" I greeted.
"Report to the Bridge, immediately."Atrocitus' voice ordered before cutting off the transmission, without even giving me time to confirm the command. Then again, he wasn't one for wasting time.
"I've been summoned by our Master. I'll return shortly." I told Bleez and Skallox as I reapproached them, getting another affirming nod from the two before I took off in the direction of the Bridge.
XXX
I entered the bridge, the two soldiers guarding the entrance opening the door in response to my approach. It was odd, having soldiers treat me with such respect. We were all members of the Red Lantern Corps, but I was an actual Red Lantern, whereas they were not. That meant I was their superior. Such a strange thought. It made sense though. Unlike the Green Lantern Corps, we can't have every single member equipped with a power ring. Firstly, there aren't enough people with enough rage in their hearts to feasibly form a decently sized army. Secondly, even if there was, maintaining a chain of command and an orderly military company would be practically impossible with that much rage and hate bubbling between the members. So, whilst we have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of soldiers, we only have a couple hundred Red Lanterns, and they usually have positions of high authority in the Corps.
But, I digress. I can't be musing about whilst conversing with Atrocitus. He was staring into the abyss of space from the view screen, ignoring the soldiers and officers surrounding him in their posts.
"My Lord." I greeted him as I got down on one knee. "I serve and obey."
"Lantern Sinne. Your progress since your induction has pleased the Senior Lanterns, and myself." He told me. 'Senior Lanterns' referred to the other four Inversions. "Even Zox has good things to say about your combat capabilities." I ignored the indignant huff from the oversized beach ball that I didn't notice was in the room until now. "I have a task for you." He said, pressing a button on the station before him. A holographic image appeared in front of me. It was a planet.
"Aldra." I observed. The name of the planet.
"Indeed." Atrocitus confirmed. "My conquest of this planet is just about complete. The military is not resisting at all, the governmental leaders have accepted my rule, and Lantern Veon has already garrisoned the soldiers necessary to keep the peace there from this point on." He explained to me.
"However?" I asked, sensing the catch. Atrocitus' lip curled ever so slightly. I don't think he was amused as much as pleased that I could tell something was wrong.
"However, there is still a pocket of resistance left. Several hundred rogue soldiers and civilians still fight against our presence. They rally behind a man by the name of Voldere." He went on. The holographic image of the planet shifted to an image of a humanoid man, taller and sleeker than a human would be, with a slightly wider and more ovular head, narrower limbs, and hands with only three fingers. On his forehead, he had small, stubby horns, two on either side. "Your task is to find this man, eliminate him, and his resistance." He finished. Meaning he doesn't care much about how I do it.
"Understood, my Lord. I will leave immediately." I stood up.
"Do not fail me, Levi." He said. First name, yikes. That means he's serious. Like, really serious, more so than usual. Better not drop the ball on this one.
"As you say, my Master." I gave one last bow, and left the bridge.
XXX