Issue #210

FDC presents “A COLD AND EVIL STAR”

by TJ Burns and Dale Glaser 

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      Kyle Rayner dropped his flute of champagne just before it reached his lips. Jenny Hayden raised both her arms in alarm, sending the canapes on the small plate she held flying over her shoulder. Meraynn gripped John Stewart's arm tighter, shrinking close to him and letting out a startled cry. But most of the Green Lanterns, as well as the few other heroes still in attendance as the wedding reception for Carter and Shayera Hall wound down, showed little reaction to the sudden appearance of a floating Guardian's head near the ceiling of the great hall. They had grown accustomed to summonses like this, the flash of green light and the booming voice coming from the blue-skinned apparition, and knew instinctively to steel themselves and listen well.
      "GREEN LANTERNS! YOU MUST RETURN TO THE CITADEL AT ONCE! THE NEED FOR YOUR PRESENCE IS GRAVE AND URGENT!"
      The Guardian's visage had scarcely faded from sight when more green flashes began to fill the room, as the members of the Green Lantern Corps willed their power rings to garb them in uniform. The rest of the guests began to speak all at once and the room was soon filled with the din of voices.
      "Kreeyah! Who would deny the Green Lanterns their time of celebration with our windbrother?" Falthis Farr, chief of the Manhawks, demanded.
      "For the Guardians to interrupt such a happy occasion, the stakes must be high indeed, I fear. May the wind be at their backs," the Feitherian called Northwind replied.
      Adam Strange of Rann's face grew dark. "Has Grayven brought another army to one of my home worlds?"
      "I'm not sure," Dinah Lance, the Black Canary, answered, "but whatever it is I've got a feeling this party is about to clear out fast!"
      Hal Jordan approached Carter Hall, the hero known as Hawkman. "Carter, I'm sorry to cut this short …"
      "No apologies necessary, my friend," Hall insisted. "Staving off alien invasions takes priority. Believe me, I understand."
      "That's what we do, social events on the calendar or not," Ray Palmer, the Atom, agreed. "But before you go, Hal … it really is good to see you again. Welcome back."
      Jordan shook both men's hands. He kissed Shayera Hall's cheek and said, "Congratulations to you both. It was a lovely wedding." Then Jordan returned to the group of Green Lanterns gathered near the doors of the hall.       "Time to fly," he announced.
      "I will join you," Salakk of Slyggia stated, moving toward the group. The thin, four-armed alien had been reunited with his fellow Green Lanterns at the Halls' wedding.
      "You taggin' along, or you wanna join the new Corps?" Kilowog asked.
      "I wish to be a part of the Corps," Salakk answered, "if it survives beyond this threat, that is."
      "Some things never change," Jordan shook his head. "Of course we want you in the Corps, too, Salakk. Come with us."
      "Well, since you guys have one more warm body now, tell the Guardians to call me if things get out of control," Guy Gardner said. "I just got my place cleaned up, and I don't want any aliens trashing Vegas while I'm playing watchdog for the Guardians." With that Gardner was enveloped by yellow energy and flew away from the hall.
      Jordan began to follow after Gardner but was stopped by John Stewart's voice. "I can get us to the Citadel faster than any of you can fly," Stewart asserted. He closed his eyes, and a green glow bathed the small Corps, intensifying until it obscured any view of the reception hall. When the glow subsided, the Green Lanterns were standing in the courtyard of the Guardian's Citadel in Coast City. Salakk had been outfitted with the uniform and power ring of a Green Lantern as well.
      Stewart dropped to one knee and clutched his head. "uuunnhhhh … man, that takes something out of you …"
      Stewart was interrupted by a sizzling laser blast from the sky overhead. The laser struck an upper level of the Citadel and knocked loose green stone and glass. The Green Lanterns took to the air, scattering out of the way of the falling debris.
      The Corps cast their eyes skyward. Three sleek yet enormous space-faring vessels floated in the stratosphere with massive laser cannons aimed at the Citadel. One of the vessels was opening a set of bay doors in its belly, and twelve smaller single-man attack fighters were emerging and heading toward the Corps.
      As Kyle Rayner assessed the situation, he realized that Jade was floating in the air beside him. "Jenny! What are you doing here?"
      "I never left your side. Well, I suppose I might have hid behind M'Dahna," the green-skinned girl nodded towards the huge, manta-shaped alien Lantern, and smiled mischievously.
      "Jenny …,"
      "Hey, it's my planet, too," Jade responded quickly. "And don't make me point out that I've been in the superhero biz a bit longer than you. I know what I'm doing, and I know that if we don't stop talking and start fighting soon, we're gonna get creamed." In a flare of green light, she was gone.
      The Green Lantern Corps and the alien fighter-crafts closed on one another. Before they could engage, however, the Guardians spoke to the Green Lanterns through their rings. "THE WHOLE OF EARTH IS UNDER ATTACK FROM A MASSIVE ALIEN ARMADA. AS OUR ADOPTIVE HOME IS HERE NOW, WE MUST DEFEND THIS ENTIRE PLANET," the Guardians extolled. "SOME OF YOU WILL REMAIN HERE, AND THE REST WILL MAKE YOUR WAY TO AREAS WITH LITTLE OR NO SUPER-POWERED RESISTANCE OF THEIR OWN." The Guardians explained the assignments, and in a heartbeat the Corps fragmented and emerald trails blazed to the four corners of the sky. Chaselon, Umburu and Rot Lop Fan flew eastward to Europe, along with Kilowog and Hollika Rahn, who would continue on to Moscow, and Galius Zed and Voz, bound for Cairo. Medphyll and Xax streaked to the south, towards Rio de Janeiro. Larvox and Tuebeen soared to the west, to cross the Pacific and reach Tokyo, while Shilandra Thane and Apros followed on their way to Sydney.
      Left behind were Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, Jade, M'Dahna, Salakk, Stel, Adam and Zghithii. The invading vehicles, shaped like oversized missiles with bubble-domed cockpits, brought their weapons to bear on the Green Lanterns. Laser blasts arced through the air. From M'Dahna's power ring a gigantic tidal wave of green energy erupted, absorbing the laser fire before it could reach the heroes.
      "All right, let's get these fighter craft down, then we'll take on the big ship," Jordan called out to the rest of the Corps. Emerald light shone from Jordan's ring and took shape as an enormous shovel. The green blade smashed down atop one of the vessels and drove it straight down, embedding the fighter in the earth below with a crunch of collapsing metal.
      Kyle Rayner summoned forth an energy construct in the shape of a giant squid. Green tentacles wrapped around the hulls of two other fighters, snapped off the afterburners and then flung the hulls over the edge of the park and out to sea.
      Jade flew near Rayner, dodging laser blasts from the attack fighters and releasing dark green energy blasts of her own to disable their weapons systems. With a two-fisted beam of power she was able to shred both laser cannons of a nearby fighter, which turned towards her and attempted to ram her out of the sky. Jade stared down the oncoming vessel, waiting until the last possible moment before flattening her body to fly along the top surface of the fighter craft. When she reached the cockpit, she unleashed a deep green blast that smashed the cockpit dome and obliterated the entire control system within. The attack fighter fell from the sky like a stone.
      Stel and Salakk were back to back in mid-air, with Stel on the offensive and Salakk defending. Stel's power ring generated mechanistic arms that punched through the hull of an attack fighter and sent it spiraling out of control from the impact. Salakk willed his power ring to create a giant emerald reflecting dish which redirected the laser fire from the fighters. Salakk heard the thrumming of the massive laser cannons on the huge carrier ship warming up for another assault on the Citadel. A split-second before the devastating blast was fired, Salakk was able to reposition his reflecting dish construct in the laser's path. The laser bounced off the green dish and tore through three attack fighters on its arc back up into the sky.
      Zghithii's power ring encased him in a spiked forcefield which caused the snake-like alien to resemble a huge line of emerald barbed wire. Zghithii lashed through the air bedeviling attack fighters, twisting and turning his slender body to evade their fire. The serpentine Green Lantern wove between ships, bashing at the nose of one with his tail, the nose of another with his head. Both fighters turned to fire on Zghithii, and their laser blasts struck each other as Zghithii dropped down from between them at the last moment.
      M'Dahna swam through the air on an emerald wave of energy. The energy surged ahead of her and rushed into the laser cannons of an oncoming attack fighter. The pilot tried to fire the weapons but the barrels of the cannons were completely sealed. The explosions of the overloaded weapons tore open the hull of the ship and plumes of black smoke trailed behind as it crashed to Earth.
      Adam flew up from behind the last of the attack fighters to land atop its hull, his power ring projecting a gargantuan fist of emerald energy around his own pale purple hand. Adam smashed the energy fist into the top of the attack fighter, snapping the vessel into two pieces that tumbled down to the ground. Adam looked around for another target, then closed his eyes and screamed in agony. A spray of blood flew from his lips and his muscular limbs splayed out as a spear of solid yellow energy ran him through. Adam quickly plummeted from the sky.
      Hal Jordan saw Adam fall and watched in horror as the yellow spear reversed its course and returned to the hand that had launched it. The hand wore a blue, flared glove, and its owner wore a purple and blue body suit, with blue boots and a flowing blue cape. The suit included a purple cowl that was adorned with a large red star, the five points of which stood free from the cowl. The man, now holding the yellow spear and levitating near the carrier spacecraft, laughed cruelly, and the laughter was accompanied by the faint buzzing noises of the diminutive creatures that floated around their master. They were miniature versions of the holder of the spear, identical except for their size and the fact that their body suits did not include capes.
      "I did not expect to see you here, Green Lantern," the blue-and-purple clad master chuckled at Jordan. "I had heard you were dead."
      "Evil Star!" Jordan cried out.
      "Evil Star?" Kyle Rayner said quietly to himself. "Evil Star? It's not enough that he has a humongous red star on his face, he has to call himself Evil Star? How did Hal find all these cheesy-named enemies?"
      "Kyle!" Jade hissed, overhearing. "Cheesy name or not, this guy is bad news, and we have to stop him before he takes advantage of all the other Green Lanterns' weakness to yellow!"
      Evil Star stared down at Jordan. "I see your resurrection has not dulled your memory, Green Lantern. It is important to me that you know it was Evil Star who sent you to your death - permanently!" Evil Star hurled the spear at Jordan, who rolled through the air to avoid it. Evil Star aimed a red device attached to his right arm at the spear, and fired a wave of energy that transformed the spear into a gigantic whirlpool of yellow energy that hung in midair and sucked Jordan in.
      The remaining members of the Corps regrouped and began to converge on Evil Star. The mad Aoran scientist utilized the red device once again to increase the size of the energy whirlpool. M'Dahna and Zghithii were caught in its grip, while Salakk and Stel were able to skirt the edge of the yellow monstrosity.
Evil Star flicked a dismissive hand at Stel and Salakk and his Starlings dove past their master to attack the Green Lanterns. Stel raised his ring hand and fired a coiling cable of green energy at two of the Starlings, but the tiny servants of Evil Star avoided the snare. Both of the Starlings split in half, so that now there were four, and split again to make eight, and again and again, flying at Stel all the while. By the time the Starlings reached the robotic Green Lantern they were a swarm of mote-sized creatures, and they poured into Stel's mechanical joints, immobilizing him.
      Salakk found himself caught between the remaining four Starlings. Sweeping columns of hard-edged emerald energy kept the Starlings at bay, but the servants of Evil Star were absolutely indestructible and Salakk could not get free of them.
      Evil Star smiled with satisfaction and raised his hand to signal the carrier ships to commence firing on the Guardians' Citadel. A blast of deep green light smashed into the back of Evil Star's head at that moment and sent him reeling through the air. Evil Star whirled around to see Jade floating nearby, fists crackling with dark green energy. Evil Star pointed the Starband at Jade and fired a beam of intensely white energy, which was met in midair by one of Jade's own energy beams. Evil Star pushed harder, and Jade pushed back harder still.
      Kyle Rayner made his way through the air to the yellow whirlpool that had almost completely smothered Jordan, M'Dahna and Zghithii. Rayner dragged a green net through the whirlpool that gathered his fellow Lanterns and pulled them safely out of its swirling clutches. Rayner dissolved the net and returned his attention to Evil Star. He could see that Jade was losing ground as Evil Star's white energy beam drove her own farther and farther back.
      On the far side of Evil Star's yellow whirlpool, Rayner's power ring constructed an enormous Italian cook, wearing a stained green tanktop and dark green pants, with a green-gingham towel over one shoulder. The cook grabbed the whirlpool, flipped it high over its head like spinning pizza dough, caught it again and flung it through the air at Evil Star. The Aoran was caught completely off-guard and was sucked into his own creation. He dropped the beam of white energy as he began to flail in the whirlpool, and the unrestrained force of Jade's deep green energy blasted him to near-unconsciousness.
      Hal Jordan was quick to retake control of the situation. Speeding to Rayner's side, he explained to his young friend, "Kyle, that red weapon attached to his wrist, his Starband - you've got to get it off him. It compels its wearer to commit evil acts, so don't try anything fancy with it, just take it away." Jordan flew away in a burst of emerald light.
      Evil Star had regained his balance in the yellow whirlpool and used the Starband to draw in all of the energy. As the final traces of swirling hard light disappeared, Hal Jordan rocketed past Evil Star, his fist connecting with the madman's jaw at punishing speed. Evil Star rolled back through the air, until bands of green energy from Zghithii and M'Dahna's rings caught him at the shoulders and knees, holding him still. Evil Star howled furiously, a wordless scream that finally formed into coherent thought. "My Starlings! To me!"
      The four small replicas of Evil Star that had been battering Salakk's defenses turned away from the alien Lantern, and began to fly toward their captured master. Rayner aimed his power ring at them and created a small bubble of green energy around each one, then strung each bubble to the top of a square frame, and created a giant green DaVinci's Cradle. Rayner set the nearest sphere swinging into the row, where its momentum was transferred down the line until the farthest bubble swung out.
      The swarms which had previously been the last two Starlings exited from Stel's robotic joints, but before they could reform two well-placed blast's from Jade's hands scattered the mote-sized servants of Evil Star. Rayner tossed his roommate a grateful salute, then threw his ring hand up at Evil Star himself, and projected a enormous, bright green skeleton key which slid between Evil Star's arm and the Starband. The massive energy key turned and popped the weapon of its limb. The Starband began to tumble down through the air, and was caught by Adam as he flew up to join his fellow Green Lanterns.
      "Adam!" Rayner said with surprise. "We saw Evil Star's spear hit you and we thought you were dead."
      "Adam did die," Adam said with absolute sincerity. "Although I am also called Adam, technically I am the son of the Adam you saw killed. I am the latest incarnation of a race of one, reborn after every death. At least, so I am told by the power ring I wear."
      Kyle nodded thoughtfully. "It's coming, it's coming," he said to no one in particular. "Very soon will come the day when NOTHING the Guardians have run across will surprise me anymore." He took the Starband from Adam and enclosed it in a small, green safe.
      Adam, Stel and Salakk added their energy to the restraints holding Evil Star, and Hal Jordan, Jade and Kyle Rayner floated before the Aoran criminal.
      "You seem to be running a major operation here, Evil Star," Jordan said coolly. "But an outright attack by armada doesn't seem like your style."
      "Nor was it my idea," Evil Star sneered at Jordan. "I am but a part of a much larger whole, offered a kind of power I have often dreamed of and too long been denied, in exchange for my services here."
      "Offered by whom?" Jade asked.
      Evil Star stared at the heroes spitefully, deliberating whether or not to answer at all, and finally he spoke: "Mongul."
      Jordan's body went rigid as stone at the mention of Mongul, the alien warlord who had orchestrated the destruction of Coast City. A tense silence fell over the mid-air tableau, until Jordan closed within an inch of Evil Star's face and said, "Impossible. Mongul is dead and gone."
      Evil Star stared into Jordan's steely eyes and somehow managed a sick smile. "Mongul lives again, Green Lantern. One city was not enough - now he will see your entire world ablaze like a Carnage Globe! And as I aid him, the power of the stars shall all be mine!"
      "NO!!!" Jordan yelled, reaching back with his fist to smash Evil Star's mouth. Rayner hooked an arm around Jordan's elbow, and Jade put her hand against Jordan's chest as well.
      "Easy, buddy," Rayner said to Jordan placatingly. "Easy. We'll stop the bad guys. We always do, right?"
      "Fools!" Evil Star cried. "You cannot imagine the size of the army Mongul has amassed for the sole purpose of destroying your world. No power on Earth can resist the armada. You, and everyone else on this wretched mud-blob world, will do nothing but die! Already it is too late!" Evil Star laughed with bone-chilling malice. The heroes stared at him uncomprehendingly, until Evil Star jutted his chin toward the heights of the sky. "Look!" the Aoran villain insisted.
      Jordan, Rayner, and Jade looked up. Where three carrier ships had floated in the stratosphere before, only two remained.
      "Where is the other ship, Evil Star?" Jordan demanded.
Evil Star continued to laugh. "Did you honestly believe that Mongul would be so poor a strategist, even after his own death, as to make attacking the Guardians' Citadel a primary objective? While I personally enjoy causing suffering for their ilk, I was asked only to detain their ring-bearing watchdogs, while Mongul claimed one of the planet's greatest prizes. The deaths of millions upon MILLIONS, in the urban center I believe you know as … Los Angeles?"
      Now it was Kyle's turn to freeze at Evil Star's words. After a speechless moment, he said "Hal … that's … that's where my mom lives …"
      "I know," Jordan answered softly. Then, with booming authority, Jordan ordered, "Everyone, follow me!" The contingent of the Green Lantern Corps flew down to the grounds of the Citadel, where John Stewart waited before the doors.
      "Need to turn this one over to you, John," Jordan explained, indicating Evil Star.
      "Got it," Stewart replied. He approached the energy-bound madman and locked eyes with him. Evil Star's face was a hateful expression of contempt, until Stewart's eyes began to glow with emerald energy. Evil Star relaxed his expression and his body, and finally Stewart drew him out of the Green Lanterns' restraints. "I've subdued the influence of the Starband over him. Where is the weapon, anyway?"
      "Right here," Rayner answered, sliding the safe across the ground to Stewart.
      "I'll see to both, then," Stewart informed them.
      "Sounds good. We've got to get to L.A." Jordan proclaimed. He looked at Rayner, whose face was consumed with worry. "Hey, Kyle, like you said, we'll stop the bad guys. We always do, right?"
      Rayner managed half a smile and nodded. The Green Lanterns lifted off the ground and soared toward Los Angeles, praying to their various divinities that they were not too late.

TO BE CONTINUED …..!!!!!

NEXT ISSUE: Two minutes from now, eight heroes will arrive in Los Angeles to defend it from alien attack! But only one minute from now, the battle will already be over! What will the Corps find that the City of Angels is the City of Death? Can Mongul's mad plan be stopped? COLD ARMAGEDDON rages on!