//------------------------------// // Manhunters // Story: The Emerald Torch // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Cracks spread along John's barrier as laser fire pelted the shield with ruthless power, driving John back as he struggled to keep the barrier from breaking down completely under the assault. He felt his feet skid back through the dirt as his construct became more and more cracked, giving him little time to think of a plan. "Over here, you bucket of bolts!" Spike roared as he created twin, dragon-headed cannons on his shoulders and took aim at the Manhunter, which stopped firing at John to turn and face the dragon. "You want a real fight? Try me!" Spike roared as he unleashed hundreds of green dragons into the Manhunter, burying it under green and dust within moments. "Ha, take that! That'll teach you to-" "Don't let your guard down, Spike, it won't go down that easily!" John barked right before the Manhunter lunged out of the dust and grabbed hold of Spike's throat with its left hand. It slammed the Lantern into the ground before lifting a foot and crushing his chest with it, pinning Spike down as it aimed its plasma rod at his face. "No man escapes the Manhunters," it declared in its robotic tone, right before a tank construct rammed it in the side and hurled it off of Spike. "You okay?" John asked as he pulled Spike out of the ground, the dragon shaking his head and glaring at the Manhunter who was also getting up. "What is this thing? I've never seen anything take my dragon assault like that," Spike grunted before both he and John pointed their rings at the machine and began to fire in unison, making it rain green constructs upon the Manhunter that staggered back in the face of their firepower. "Tell you later. Aim for its joints, they have a habit of being weak points," John instructed before flying forward, constructing a massive broadsword and swinging for the Manhunter's neck. Yet when the blade struck the neck, surges of electricity erupted from the machine and coursed into John. He gritted his teeth as electricity attacked his nerves, giving the Manhunter plenty of time to aim the blaster rod at his chest and blast the Lantern back. "John!" Spike called out before creating a baseball glove and catching John in the mitt, stopping him from becoming a home run. "Ugh...okay, new plan. We tear this freak apart like Hal and I did," John grunted as he floated back up while he constructed pliers. Spike followed his example and created a pair of tweezers as the two Lanterns turned on the Manhunter, who opened fire once again while repeating his infamous line. "When I give the signal, we each grab a separate side of him and tear this tin can open. I got right, you got left," John instructed. "Got it." John created a second construct in the form of a shield on his left hand, allowing him to fly headlong into the laser fire while keeping both himself and Spike safe for the moment. But John's face narrowed when he saw his strongest construct breaking far faster than the last time he had taken laser fire from a Manhunter. 'Something's not right here. The Manhunters shouldn't be active, especially after Hal and his team put them down for good,' he pondered, but when a chunk of his shield shattered he cast that thought to the side and prepared to attack. "NOW SPIKE!" "Come here ugly, let's see if you have a prize inside!" Spike yelled as he fired a bolt of green into the Manhunter's staff, knocking it free from the robot's grasp and allowing Spike to clamp down on the left side of its body with his tweezers. "I'm ready, John!" "Good!" John said while crushing the right side of the Manhunter's body with his pliers. "Now pull!" Both Lanterns flew in opposite directions with all of their might, slowly beginning to feel the machine give in. The screeching sound of metal being torn apart assaulted their ears, yet when Spike cast a glance back at the Manhunter he saw the red eyes flickering on and off as a large crack spread up its torso. "No man...escapes...the man...hunt...ers..." With one last pull the two Lanterns ripped the machine in two, right down the middle. Both halves collapsed to the ground with a shower of sparks and parts, yet it wasn't until the lights in its eyes went completely black that either Lantern lowered their guard and approach the machine. "Okay, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Fortunately the guy split before any real trouble got started," Spike joked as he kicked the Manhunter's head, but John flashed him a look so serious that Spike's humor died instantly. "This is no joking matter, Spike. If the Manhunters are being reactivated, which shouldn't be possible because we destroyed all of them, then there is a very dangerous force at work here," John spat as he scanned the Manhunter remains, cursing when the ring brought up its scans of the machine. "Just like I thought, this wasn't one of the original Manhunters. This is a replicant. That's why we were able to beat it so easily." "Easy? I'm fairly certain that jerk bruised everything in my chest when he stomped down on me," Spike pointed out, but another harsh glare from John silenced the dragon once again. "Yeah, easy. You asked what this thing was, allow me to tell you. Before the Corps were invented the Guardians of Oa created machines, called the Manhunters, to patrol and keep peace within the galaxy. Believing at the time that emotion was a weakness, the Guardians programmed the Manhunters without emotions so that they wouldn't be corrupted by live or hatred." "But then, the Manhunters went bad. See, the Manhunters didn't have emotion, so they didn't completely understand how emotions worked. Eventually, after seeing how all evil in the universe was caused by emotion, they decided that all emotion in the universe was evil, so they slaughtered every living thing in their path," John revealed in a dead whisper, not looking at Spike when he said this. "The Red Lanterns were created because of the Manhunters, when the machines wiped out all of sector 666. And thousands of others..." "Dear Faust that's terrifying," Spike muttered as he started to put the pieces together. "But if the Manhunters are back, or being remade, does that mean that somepony...one wants to use them against all living life in the universe?" "That's what I'm taking away from this," John agreed as he stood, pointing his ring at the Manhunter and blasting it with his will until nothing was left. "If what I'm thinking is right, it seems that the Lantern of this planet discovered the Manhunters when they first arrived here, most likely to wipe out the people. He fought them and was either killed in the battle or taken, but not before knocking this one offline. But there we hit the flaw. Manhunters don't take prisoners. That's the reason they say no man escapes them." "That's not the only question unanswered," Spike pointed out as he knelt down, creating a magnifying glass with his ring and examining the ground at his feet. "This wasn't caused by Ro-viz and it sure as heck wasn't caused by the Manhunters. No...something else, something powerful, caused the ground to be cut out like this," Spike muttered before looking up at John. "You said that the Manhunters had been activated once before? Do you think who did it then is doing it now?" "Well...the Anti-Monitor was defeated years ago, but he has a nasty habit of appearing again when we least expect it. But even then, he only has the power to destroy and consume, not build new ones like this," John muttered as he placed a hand under his chin. "Though it is possible that he's getting help from somewhere, but that would mean-" John's thoughts were blown apart by a massive explosion that went off far in the distance, snapping both Lanterns around to see that the city they had just left now had plumes of smoke billowing from its buildings. Without a moment's hesitation the Lanterns flung themselves toward the city, reaching it within moments to find that two more Manhunters were in the streets and had already laid waste to most of the area. "Dammit, there were more of these guys?" Spike roared before sending a spiked fist into the back of a Manhunter's head, taking its attention away from the citizens it was attacking and towards the Lantern. The other Manhunter turned as well before both began to open fire on the pair, who both created separate shields to keep themselves safe. "Spike, here's the plan! We isolate one of them and focus on beating it. If we each try to take one there's a chance we might be hurt or killed," John ordered over to Spike, but Spike shook his head before creating green armor over himself and lunging at the Manhunter. "And if we do that, then the other Manhunter might kill more citizens! I might be a rookie by your standards, but I won't let anybody get hurt! I will fight!" John tried to call out to Spike but the other Manhunter slammed into him and drove John into the side of a building, where it placed its hand over his face before pointing the rod right at John's chest. "No man escapes the Manhunters," it said before firing. John cried in pain as the blast hurled him through the building and out the other side, sending him crashing into the streets and carving a trench with his body. 'Damn it. I got lucky that my shield was at max or else that might have been the end of me,' John growled before getting back up just as the Manhunter landed in front of him, taking enough time to spit at the ground in front of the Manhunter's feet before constructing two giant fists. "I don't want to escape from you, rustbucket. I've got you right where I want you," John growled before leaping forward with his right arm cocked back. Green thrusters erupted from the back of his green fist and drove the construct into the Manhunter's face with enough force to snap the machine's head back. The follow up punch caught the machine in the gut and launched it backwards, but in a moment it planted its feet and slowed to a halt instantly. "Huh, tough armor?" John observed before creating twin mini-guns that he rested upon his shoulders. "Let's see how well that armor holds up at a thousands rounds a minute!" John roared as the guns unloaded will fueled hell into the Manhunter, turning the entire block green with the sheer amount of emerald bolts that flew from his guns. The Manhunter was consumed by the volume of fire and with a smile John saw that the armor on the Manhunter began to crack. "No man escapes the Manhunters." The Manhunter took aim at John and fired the laser staff at him, but John's eyes went wide when he saw that the bolts were coming out just as fast as his mini-guns. For a long moment the two fires were evenly matched, with neither able to gain the upper hand. That was until the Manhunter extended its left arm and revealed a second laser rod, which fired lasers just as fast as the other one. Both Manhunter and John were hurled back as a massive explosion went off between the two of them, an explosion that sent the Manhunter skipping across the street while John was hurled into the side of another building. 'Can't risk dragging things out any further than they've gone. Got to end this now before even more lives are lost!' Seeing the Manhunter get back up, John pushed himself out of the building while creating a wrecking ball at the end of a chain. With all of his might he hurled the ball at the Manhunter, catching it right between the eyes and driving it back down. "Stay down, fool!" John yelled while constructing a jet around himself, which he then flew straight down into the Manhunter. The jet managed to pierce through the armor of the Manhunter, but at the same time it brought John within firing range of the twin rods, which the Manhunter aimed right between his eyes. Yet, with a soldier's training John grabbed hold of one rod and pointed it at the other, blasting the rod into nothingness before tearing the other one out of the Manhunter's hand and pointing it right at its face. "No man escapes the Manhunters." "And no darkness escapes my light." The rod blasted the Manhunter's head clean from its body as well as hurled John off of the metallic monster. He landed flat on his back and let out a weak groan before forcing himself back to his feet, wincing in pain because everything hurt. 'The pain's worth it though, since I managed to take that son of a gun down,' John thought as he floated over to the Manhunter, finding that its head was nothing more than a pile of scrap now. 'Alright, one down, now where's the-?' An earth-rending roar shook John Stewart to his core, and he looked up just in time to see the Manhunter being hurled across the sky, slamming into the side of a building. The Manhunter was quickly followed by a massive Emerald Dragon that wore the symbol of the Corps, the sight of which told John that Spike had had it far worse than he did. The dragon grabbed hold of the Manhunter and hurled it straight down into the street across from John, where it just managed to lift its head before the massive beast landed on top of it and crushed the Manhunter beneath its feet. With one last roar of rage, the dragon reached down and grabbed the top half of the Manhunter, tearing it in two with one massive pull. The Emerald Dragon then brought the Manhunter before its face and grabbed hold of the machine with its teeth, ripping the Manhunter in half once again. He dropped the pieces of the destroyed machine to the ground as a bellow of victory escaped his throat, echoing across the city. "If you're done showing off, we need to help those who got attacked!" John called up at the Emerald Dragon, who nodded in agreement before he slowly began to shrink down. John watched with curiosity as the emerald light returned to Spike's ring, and a moment later the dragon Lantern was back to normal, but with a considerable change. "Ouch. That looks like it hurts." Spike moved his hand up and touched his cheek where a long cut was, wincing slightly before shrugging at John. "It's not the worse injury I've suffered. Besides, maybe if I'm lucky I'll get a cool scar out of it. Didn't you say something about helping the people here though?" The rest of the day on the planet was spent helping those who had been caught up in the Manhunter attack, and repairing as much of the city as the two Lantern's could. John was impressed at how quickly Spike was able to put those who had been injured at ease, but he found his own focus kept constantly drifting back to the Manhunters. 'Who would rebuild machines with the sole purpose to kill all beings with emotions?' he found himself thinking as he aided Spike in repairing a building that had nearly tipped over. 'Only a few villains on Earth are crazy enough to try such a thing, but hardly any of them know of the Manhunters. In fact, most of the galaxy, aside from those who have heard Atrocitous speak, actually know what they are. Heh, I bet it was just some inventor who stumbled onto the remains of one and reactivated it because he didn't know what he was dealing with. This is what happens when the Guardians don't tell people the full story.' "Yo John, I think we've gotten this place as cleaned up as we could," Spike said, breaking into John's thoughts and pulling him out. John looked from the dragon to the city and its citizens, who were starting to return to their homes now that the fighting was done. "I know that we should stay and make sure everything's fine, but I have a feeling that we're going to be needed elsewhere." "You're right there, Spike. We need to report what happened here to the Guardians and then we're going to leave for another world," John ordered as he turned and started to fly for the ship, Spike following him with a questioning glance on his face. "The resurrection of the Manhunters, the missing Lanterns; if Batman was here he'd tell me that these two events are connected. And if the Manhunters are the ones abducting Lanterns from every Corps, then I have a fairly certain idea where they're heading next. I just hope we're not too late."