Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Alan Scott,
John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kilowog formed a circle in the middle
of the chamber, facing outward. Legions of Thunderers of Qward
surrounded them, brandishing crackling lightning lances called
qwa-bolts menacingly. Time froze in tableau for a moment as every
muscle on every body in the room tensed for battle. A single word
barked by the Thunderer's captain broke the spell:
"ATTACK!!"
Electric javelins arced through the
air at the band of Green Lanterns, blocked by flashes of emerald.
Hal Jordan raised himself a few feet off the ground and began
to give orders.
"John, Kilowog, give us some
coordinated defense here! Alan, Kyle, Guy, you're on offense with
me! Go!" Jordan stretched out his right arm and began firing
solid beams of bright green energy into the Thunderers' ranks,
knocking several of them down.
John Stewart raised his hands and
verdant energy issued forth from them, surrounding the Lanterns
in a wall of force, while Kilowog raised his ring hand over his
head and created a turret-mounted cannon that rose above Stewart's
wall and reached all the way down to the floor. The green energy
device pulled stone fragments loose from the floor and fired them
from the cannon to intercept the Thunderer's yellow qwa-bolts
in mid-air.
Kyle Rayner created an energy construct
in the image of a twenty-foot tall woman in the Thunderers' midst.
The woman wore a business-like matching blazer and skirt and her
facial expression was dominated by a made-for-television smile.
In her hand she held several large, flat discs shaped like cartoon
suns and decorated with happy faces wearing sunglasses. The green
woman brought one sun down flat on six Thunderer's heads, pinning
them to the floor.
"Sunshine
on Thunderers' shoulders
" Rayner sang in his best John Denver "
knocks them
loop-yyyy
"
The towering green weathergirl then
hurled another sun across the room where it sliced into Thunderers
like a giant throwing star.
Alan Scott rained jade fire down
on the Thunderers heads, but the Thunderers were greatly protected
by their armor. Scott's attack served only to disorient them and
prevent some from throwing their electric javelins.
One Thunderer emerged from the ranks
and charged the circle of Green Lanterns with a lightning lance
raised to striking position. He had closed to within arms reach
of them when Guy Gardner leapt over the green defensive barrier,
hunting knife gripped in his hand. Gardner and the Thunderer went
down in a heap together and grappled on the floor. The Thunderer
brought his lance around and thrust it into Gardner, who stiffened
and grimaced with pain. Gardner raised his knife and drove it
into the Qwardian's shoulder with one hand, balled his other hand
into a fist, and smashed the fist into the Thunderer's face.
Hal Jordan fought like a man possessed,
channeling every iota of his willpower through his ring. Beam
after beam of emerald energy battered the Thunderers. The beams
themselves became jagged abstract shapes as if manifestations
of Jordan's indignation and rage, for Jordan did not see Thunderers
massed against him. Over and over and over again, Sinestro was
the target, and Jordan could not seem to punish him enough.
Reinforcements for the Thunderers
began to arrive in the chamber, and although the Green Lanterns
had already taken down many of the Qwardian soldiers their numbers
were now not only replenished, but also increased. Kilowog was
unable to intercept every lightning bolt launched by the Thunderers,
as one struck Alan Scott squarely in the chest and another blasted
Kilowog's head. By sheer numbers the Thunderers were able to press
closer and strained against John Stewart's holding wall, threatening
to break through at any moment.
"This is no good," Stewart
called out to his comrades. "We have to get out of here!"
"Right," Rayner agreed,
looking to Jordan to give the order. Jordan was still hovering
a few feet above the throngs of Thunderers, pummeling them with
continuous volleys of green force beams. Rayner flew through the
air to Jordan's side.
"Hal! HAL! There's too many
of them, and sooner or later they'll wear us down! We gotta blow
this joint!" Rayner yelled into Jordan's ear.
"Evil
bastard
what you
did to me
," Jordan was muttering through clenched teeth,
completely absorbed in bombarding the Thunderers with blows from
his power ring.
"Hal, don't make me carry you
out of here," Rayner warned, hoping he sounded stern despite
his reservations about going head to head with Hal Jordan.
A qwa-bolt exploded between Jordan
and Rayner, knocking them away from each other. Rayner's vision
was momentarily whited out, but as it cleared he could see Jordan,
still hovering but no longer on the offensive. Jordan held one
hand to his temple and shook his head.
"Hal, come on, we gotta go!"
Rayner called to him.
Jordan raised his eyes to meet Rayner's,
and nodded. "Everybody through the roof - NOW!" Jordan
bellowed. Then to Rayner, he added, "Let's mix these guys
up a bit before we go."
Kyle Rayner smiled. He willed his
power ring to create a green monster truck with huge knobby tires,
fitted with a snowplow in the front. The green machine moved into
the ranks of the Thunderers and began pushing them into each other.
Working from the other side Jordan used his ring to create an
emerald scoop and similarly pushed Thunderers along in its path.
The masses of Qwardian soldiers met in the middle in a chaotic
tangle of bodies and weapons. With that, Jordan and Rayner flew
up to the highest point of the room, where the others were waiting
for them.
A burst of emerald energy tore open
the roof and the six figures flew out into the Qwardian sky, putting
as much distance as possible between themselves and the Thunderer
army.
LAS VEGAS
The Metal Man called Lead entered
Guy Gardner's office in the back of Warrior's, where the Guardian
Ganthet lay resting on a small cot. Lead carried a glass of water,
and set it on a small table that sat beside the cot. The robot
considered waking the Guardian to offer him the water, then realized
he wasn't even completely sure the Guardians needed to eat or
drink. Perhaps it was best to wait until the Guardian roused himself.
Lead sat down at the big oak desk that dominated the office.
The office door blew apart and showered
the interior of the office with splinters. Lead was on his feet
again instantly, moving in front of the cot, ready for whomever
had come looking for a fight.
Two heavy-set men in dark suits walked
in through the shattered remains of the door. They carried handguns
and their expressions were impassive as they looked around the
room. They each took a few steps to the side, parting to let another
figure enter the room.
Behind them was Keith Kenyon, wearing
the golden armor of his criminal alter-ego, Goldface. He strode
into the room and beheld Lead standing before the prone form of
Ganthet.
"Mister, I don't like the way
you make an entrance," Lead informed the visitor. "And
I'm gonna see you out the way you -,"
"Do shut up," Goldface
retorted, firing a series of sparks from his helmet. A yellow
crystalline web formed between the sparks as they struck Lead's
body, and in a moment the robot was encased in a golden shell.
Goldface crossed the room, beckoning his thugs to follow him.
The thugs aimed their guns at Ganthet's
head, as Goldface grabbed two fistfuls of the Guardian's red robes
and pulled him to a sitting position. "Wake up, you little
old freak," Goldface growled. "You and I have a lot
to talk about, and I don't much like to be kept waiting."
QWARD
"I've never been here before,
so I'm not sure where we're supposed to be headed," Kyle
Rayner said as the six heroes flew through the air.
"Neither am I," Hal Jordan
confessed.
"What?"
"I've been so focused on getting
to Qward and taking down Sinestro," Jordan explained, straining
to repress the anger in his voice as he uttered his enemy's name,
"that I really haven't formulated a game plan. We know now
that we can't just make an all-out, head-on assault against him.
Beyond that, I'm still working on it."
"Hey, lookit that down there,"
Kilowog said, pointing at the ground below. Two small figures
were visible, waving wildly as if trying to get the Green Lanterns'
attention.
"Should we all go down there
and see what they want?" John Stewart asked.
"Could be a trap," Guy
Gardner pointed out.
"They seem to be unarmed,"
Alan Scott responded, "and there are more of us than of them."
"All right, let's go down,"
Jordan decided. "Everyone just be careful."
The six Lanterns landed on the ground
near the two individuals who had signaled them. One was a middle-aged
man; the other, a boy in his late teens. Both looked positively
awestruck by the Green Lanterns, staring at them silently for
a long moment. Finally, the older man spoke.
"Can it be
? The Green Lantern
Corps has returned?" The man looked up to the sky again,
searching it from horizon to horizon. "Are the rest far behind?"
"Actually, we're it," Rayner
admitted. "But
were you expecting us?"
The man returned his gaze to the
Lanterns and looked somewhat disappointed, but answered Rayner:
"No
no
even a few Green Lanterns was more than we could
have hoped for. You are unexpected rays of light in our darkest
hour."
"Who are you?" Stewart
asked.
"My name is Jurgin," the
man introduced himself, "and my companion is Ry'nen. We are
members of the Qwardian Resistance."
"We oppose the rule of Sinestro!"
young Ry'nen blurted, desperately trying to be noticed by the
Green Lanterns. "And now that the Green Lanterns have come,
we shall surely triumph over him as the Green Lanterns have in
the past!"
"I hope so," Jordan answered
solemnly. Jurgin looked somewhat embarrassed and cast a quick,
silencing glare at Ry'nen, who looked down at his feet, ashamed.
Jurgin said, "Come with us. We are returning now to the Resistance's
gathering place. We will take you there and you may palaver with
our leader."
The Green Lanterns agreed and followed
Jurgin and Ry'nen to what appeared to be an abandoned Weaponer's
outpost. Jurgin led them into a dilapidated building to a staircase
leading down underground. They all followed down the stairs, emerging
at the bottom into a dimly lit bunker. Several Qwardians were
performing various chores in the main room, cleaning or repairing
weapons, but all fell silent for a moment as the Green Lanterns
entered the space. Ry'nen quickly joined a cluster of his friends
and began speaking in hushed yet excited tones about his encounter.
Jurgin paid no heed and continued to the far side of the room,
where a metal door stood slightly ajar. Jurgin poked his head
inside, and said, "Rori Dag? We have
guests whom I believe
you would be most interested in palavering with."
Kilowog and Jordan exchanged curious
looks as Jurgin addressed the man in the other room. Rayner asked
Kilowog, "What, do you guys know this Rori guy?"
Kilowog shook his head. "Not
personally. Rori Dag was the first Green Lantern picked by the
Guardians. The make or break prototype
a few billion years ago."
Kyle let out a low whistle. Jurgin
turned to the Lanterns, pushing the door open and gesturing for
them to enter.
As they filed into the room, they
saw a Qwardian man seated behind a large table covered with maps,
reports, and sundry other papers. He rose as they entered. "Greetings,
Green Lanterns. I beg of you to indulge me with your patience
a moment, as I must hear Jurgin's report on his most recent mission
before I allow him to depart."
"I will be brief, Rori Dag,"
Jurgin replied. "The mission to arm some of the denizens
of Qward and sway them to take up the cause
was not successful.
Ultraman attacked us and in all likelihood terrified the thought
of resistance out of the minds of anyone we might have reached."
"Casualties?"
"Most of my team. Only Ry'nen
and myself were able to escape," Jurgin confessed.
Rori Dag let his eyes fall to the
table, nodding in understanding. Jurgin excused himself from the
room. After a moment of quiet contemplation, Rori Dag looked up
at the Green Lanterns. "You come to us at a time when we
need you the most, Green Lanterns. Already you have my gratitude,"
he said.
"Can you tell us exactly what
is happening in Qward now
Rori Dag?" John Stewart asked.
He emphasized the name of the first Green Lantern with vocalized
skepticism.
"My true name is Farral,"
the Qwardian resistance leader admitted, "and I mean no disrespect
to the Green Lantern Corps in calling myself by the name of the
first among your ranks. In truth, I adopted Dag's name when I
assumed leadership of the resistance, because our people so desperately
needed a symbol of hope. Our most charismatic leader had been
killed in prison, and the political situation under Sinestro was
darker than ever."
"So Sinestro effectively controls
the State now?" Alan Scott inquired.
"Sinestro effectively IS the
State now," Rori Dag affirmed. "He may be the most effective
leader Qward has ever known. Qward has always been ruled by the
most popular criminal therein, as determined by whomever had committed
the most destructive and evil atrocities. No being comes close
to Sinestro's crimes."
"We know," Jordan seethed,
clenching his ring hand in a tight fist.
"Sinestro is also a more ruthless
leader than any in the anti-matter universe's history. He has
a religious faction under his control in the Cult of the Red Man.
His will is enforced by the Crime Syndicate, the most powerful
villains in all of Qward."
"Yeah, right, the ones we sent
runnin' with their tails between their legs," Guy Gardner
scoffed.
Rori Dag continued, "And now
he is massing a new incarnation of the Anti-Green Lantern Corps.
The power wielded by Sinestro is unmatched. The resistance is
on the verge of being utterly wiped out, unless we strike decisively
against Sinestro's forces, now."
"That's why we're here,"
Rayner stated simply.
"Yes, I suppose in the Great
Plan, it is why you are here," Rori Dag agreed. "There
are two targets we must strike against now, whether or not the
general population of Qward is prepared to join the struggle.
One is Sinestro's Temple, the seat of power and where he and the
Crime Syndicate are most likely to be found. The other is his
scientific research complex, where the Anti-Green Lantern Corps
is manufactured. By eliminating those threats we stand a slightly
better chance of meeting the Weaponers army with our own forces."
"So we split up in threes?"
Kilowog asked.
"No, we split up in twos,"
Jordan responded. "Kilowog, I want you to stay here. Help
the resistance members with their weapons - make sure everything
works, improve on it if you can. Against the Weaponers, especially
the Thunderers, the resistance will need every advantage it can
get. Kyle, you stay with him."
"What?" Rayner asked, incredulous.
"This is more than a physical
war the resistance is fighting, Kyle," Jordan explained.
"It's a fight for the minds and hearts of the citizens, and
the resistance has to convince them that they don't have to live
in fear, that they can make a difference and Sinestro doesn't
have to win. You know how to reach people's minds and hearts,
Kyle. You're a communicator, an artist. You have a gift. Help
the resistance find a way to communicate with the people."
Rayner regarded Jordan doubtfully
for a moment, then nodded his head. "OK, OK. But as soon
as I get a good PR plan worked up, I'm coming to find the fight."
"Given," Jordan assented.
"John, Alan, you two head for the science facility. Guy,
you and I will hit the temple. Everyone all right with that?"
No one objected. Rori Dag added,
"I can share with you all the secret entrances we know of
for the research complex and the temple."
"Then let's get going,"
Jordan urged.
A grate covering a ventilation duct
in the main laboratory glowed with emerald energy, detaching itself
from the wall and lowering itself to the floor. John Stewart emerged,
floating in an emerald forcefield, followed by Alan Scott. They
looked around at the alien equipment, a complex arrangement of
machines connected by tubes, wires, and other unidentifiable devices.
Alan Scott approached a row of gel-filled
globes. At the center of each globe was a whitish mass approximately
the size of a human body. Each mass appeared to be at a different
stage of forming itself into shape, from amorphous glob to finely
detailed limbs.
"So these will be Anti-Green
Lanterns?" Scott asked. "Sinestro is
growing them?"
"Apparently," Stewart answered
as he investigated the containment chambers. The bottom half of
each egg-shaped chamber was metal, and the top half appeared to
be opaque black glass. He ran his hand over the metallic surface,
searching for an opening, and his fingers located and pressed
a button on the back. The top of the chamber changed from black
to transparent glass, revealing an unconscious creature within.
The creature had a segmented, elongated oval body, fringed with
numerous thin, finger-less limbs. A single large eye set in the
alien's "face" stared blankly through the glass at Stewart.
"Oh my God!" Stewart cried.
"Larvox?!? Alan, Sinestro isn't building Green Lanterns -
he's cloning them!"
"No, not Sinestro - the clones
owe their existence to me," a deep voice boomed from the
other end of the lab. Lord Malvolio stepped into view as he addressed
Stewart. Malvolio wore red boots with yellow laces, green trousers,
a red blouse and a purple cape; his costume was nearly identical
to Alan Scott's. Scott and Malvolio noticed the similarity simultaneously,
and Malvolio bellowed with rage. "Impostor! Lord Malvolio
will not stand for such perfidy!" A bolt of green energy
exploded from Malvolio and impacted with Alan Scott. Scott was
momentarily dazed but quickly returned fire upon Malvolio.
Stewart prepared to add his own energies
to the fight when a female voice behind him turned the blood in
his veins to ice water. "Darling
," it cooed.
John Stewart turned around as what
felt like an eternity passed. Facing him once he completed the
turn was a gorgeous red-skinned woman with shoulder-length black
hair, wearing the uniform of the Green Lantern Corps. Except that
the ring on her right hand was black rather than green, she looked
exactly like the memory which burned in John Stewart's heart for
his beloved wife.
The duplicate Katma Tui smiled with
unrepentant evil. "Join me, John," she sighed, holding
out her hand to Stewart. "Let us be together again, this
time forever
"
In a shadowy corner of a side corridor
in the Temple of Sinestro, a single stone rose up from the floor
and came to rest a few feet away. Hal Jordan flew up out of the
hole in the floor, then pulled up Guy Gardner behind him.
"We might as well split up.
We'll do more damage that way," Gardner said with a mischievous
grin. "Those resistance guys said this tunnel would put us
near the Chief Weaponer's armory room, so I'll look for that and
do a little shopping. You go on and see what kind of trouble you
can get yourself into."
"Guy, Sinestro is planning an
invasion of Earth. Our world is on the line
" Jordan began
to admonish his companion, but Gardner was already making his
way down the hall. Jordan shook his head and began to work his
way down the other end of the corridor.
Soon Jordan was brought to a halt
by the sound of a voice he knew well. Jordan waited in the corridor
for a moment, listening to the conversation in an adjoining room.
"I am happy, Magot," Sinestro
said. "Do you know how rare that is for me?"
"Yes, lord Sinestro," the
man called Magot answered with sycophantic eagerness.
"I stand atop a base of power
which is
immutable. I am about to lead the forces of Qward
in the most gloriously destructive conquest either the anti-matter
universe
or the positive universe
will ever see," Sinestro
proclaimed. Jordan could hear Sinestro breathing heavily in the
pauses in his speech.
"Yes, lord," Magot agreed
again.
"And can anyone deny Sinestro
this ultimate
triumph?" Sinestro demanded. "Can any
thing
stand and oppose me?"
"Don't ask questions you won't
like the answer to, Sinestro," Jordan answered as he entered
the room, his ring aimed at Sinestro.
Magot staggered backwards from his
place beside Sinestro in obvious terror. Sinestro was slumped
in a chair at a long table with a golden bowl set before him.
Heavy vapors were rising from the bowl and swirling around Sinestro's
head. Sinestro peered through the mists at Jordan with heavily
lidded eyes and smiled weakly at him.
"Jordannnnnn
," Sinestro
slurred. "You have
" - he inhaled deeply - "
arrived. And to find me thus
indulging myself in the potent
narcotics of my home world. They bring me to the very threshold
of death." Sinestro raised his right hand and brandished
his yellow power ring at Jordan. A feeble yellow light shone from
the ring, then failed completely. "You see?" Sinestro
asked. "I am weakened, Jordan. There is nothing I can do
to you now."
Magot continued to retreat to the
rear of the room, but neither Jordan nor Sinestro noticed. "Of
course
," Sinestro continued, "I have already done
so much to you, Jordan, have I not?" The Korugarian leered
wickedly across the table at Jordan. "I unleashed your doppelganger
on the positive universe and he nearly unmade existence. How many
lives did Parallax claim in the name of 'Hal Jordan's grief'?"
Sinestro laughed. "How many Green Lanterns were slain in
the cold depths of space, their dying thought that they had been
betrayed by Halllllllll
Jordannnnnnn
How many of your fellow
Earthlings damned you for my little pet's villainy? How much do
they hate you, Jordan? How much more
when my Corps
MY Corps
sweeps across the face of your Earth and kills every one they
can find, will you be reviled?"
"You can spare me the shock
talk, Sinestro," Jordan insisted. "I didn't come here
to listen to any more of your psychotic delusions."
"Of course not," Sinestro
agreed. "Aren't you going to get on with it
and kill me?"
Guy Gardner worked his way down the
corridor, looking into every room he passed, until at last he
came upon the storeroom for the Chief Weaponer.
"Oh, mama," Gardner sighed.
"All these toys with my name on
"
Without warning an energy blast caught
Gardner in the side and knocked him to the ground. Gardner shook
his head and looked up to see the Chief Weaponer of Qward himself
standing before him.
"I don't know who you are,"
the Chief Weaponer said, "and you won't live long enough
to tell me, anyway." The
Chief Weaponer raised a gauntlet
and fired another blast at Gardner. Gardner rolled out of the
way a split second before the energy struck the floor, grabbed
a long rifle off the wall, and turned it on the Chief Weaponer.
Gardner fired at the Weaponer's head.
The Chief Weaponer dodged the blast.
"So, you'd like to put up a fight before meeting your eternal
reward," he growled.
Guy Gardner replied, "Bring
it on."
"I'm not going to kill you,
Sinestro," Jordan announced flatly. "I'm going to stop
you, no doubt about that. But death is too good for you. You'll
wish I had killed you when I'm through with you."
Sinestro chuckled. "At times
I miss your endless bravado, Jordan. It amuses me." The smile
left Sinestro's face as he continued. "But I know you lack
the stomach for killing. Call it your superior sense of justice
if you will, if you must. But I call it weakness. And that is
why you will fail, even if I leave you to my minions. Such as
my servant behind you now."
A shadow fell across the table beside
Jordan's, and he turned around. Standing in the doorway now was
a man wearing emerald armor and a flowing green cape. He had Hal
Jordan's face. He spoke with Hal Jordan's voice.
"This effrontery is intolerable,
pretender," the armored being hissed. "For it, you will
be destroyed at the hands of Parallax!"
TO BE CONCLUDED!!!!!
NEXT ISSUE:
Civil War! The fates of two universes hang in the balance! More
grudge matches than we could possibly list in this limited promo
space! It's been a year and a half in the making, but the ultimate
chapter in the triumphant return of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern
Corps will finally unfold in our double-sized spectacular next
issue! Be there!
