//------------------------------// // Things Go Wrong // Story: The Emerald Torch // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Open fire!" With the sounds of lasers tearing through the air, the two young Lanterns shot out of their beds, their uniforms and armor forming over their bodies before they had the chance to register what was going on. The two of them staggered out of the room, trying to wake up while wondering what the heck was going on. Their answer came when they ran out of the castle and into the courtyard, where a large number of Star-Sapphires were unleashing their violet light upon the Interceptor. Standing atop the Interceptor and braving the storm of violet bolts was John Stewart, who was yelling at the Star-Sapphires as he returned fire with twin, massive chain guns that hung from his arms. The sky was illuminated with bolts of green and violet as the sole Lantern unleashed his fury upon the violet Corps, but every time a Star-Sapphire was hit she would vanish as a burst of pink and a new one would take her place. "What the hell is going on? Why is John fighting all those Lanterns by himself?" Spike growled as his green aura grew brighter and he took off towards John, Sweetie following him while erecting barriers of blue to try and stop the fighting. It was a futile gesture, as even barriers of solid hope couldn't hold against the sheer volume of love and will that pounded it. "John! What's going on!" Spike asked as he floated down next to his mentor, nearly tripping on a power cord that was plugged into the green center of the ship. The other end was attached to John's symbol, sending the will that ran the ship directly into the chest of the Lantern. "What does it look like, kid? The Star-Sapphires found out about your stowaway!" John bellowed as he continued firing blasts of green into the sky with such ferocity that those who opposed him were forced to band together to create a shield strong enough to stop them. "But how?" Sweetie asked when she landed next to the pair, her blue aura supercharging the already enhanced Lantern and sending his power levels through the roof. With the added power he created two more cyan chain guns which only added fuel to the fire. "Don't know. Maybe they learned a new trick to sense people who aren't too fond of them!" John growled as he constructed a barrier to deflect a surprise attack from the side. "Did you two find out why Rex sent us here?!" "No, all we did was talk to a few of them and that's it!" Sweetie yelled over the gunfire as she and Spike went back-to-back before unleashing their combined might to create an even bigger barrier around the three of them, one that the Star-Sapphires immediately began to shoot at. "Well, there has to be something here, some kind of clue or something?!" John wagered as he called back his constructs, taking a moment's reprieve from the constant fighting. "Didn't Queen Aga'po tell you anything?!" "She wasn't there! Another Lantern, Lareatha, said that she was off-world," Sweetie replied as large cracks started to form in the barrier, but even through the cracks they were all able to see more Star-Sapphires arriving to the battle. "So, any of you have a plan for getting us out of this?" John lowered his head for a moment as he began to think, but Spike's train of thought raced a little faster than his. "We hold them off until the Queen comes back. If they all answer to her, then if we explain ourselves to her, we might be able to get out of this alive," Spike reasoned quickly before turning back to the nearly shattered barrier, never noticing the smile that crossed John's lips. "Not a bad plan, kid; we'll go with it for now," Jong agreed as he constructed a sniper rifle. "But if all else fails, I can still turn myself over to them. They're here for me, so if they get me odds are they'll let you both go." "Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Sweetie added while drawing forth her hope into a large staff that she swung around herself a few times. "And instead, hope that they listen to reason. Though I'm not opposed to knocking some of these fruits out of the air." "You really scare me sometimes, Sweetie," Spike said with a smile as the barrier held on to its last strand of life. "Are you sure that you weren't supposed to be the Yellow Lantern and Sombra got your ring by mistake?" Sweetie had just enough time to laugh before the barrier shattered into thousands of cyan shards, but the moment it fell the three Lanterns hurled themselves through the shattered construct and into the fray. "Spike! Play ball!" John yelled as he constructed a massive bat, Spike getting the hint and wrapping himself in a reinforced sphere. John flew up behind the sphere and with a massive windup, slammed the bat into the sphere and launched it into the stationary Star-Sapphires. During mid=flight, Spike undid his sphere construct and re-forged the construct into a suit of armor with a massive war hammer clutched in his grasp. "Come on, it's hammer time!" Spike yelled as he whipped the hammer over his head before slamming it down right in the center of the Star-Sapphires, creating a massive green shockwave that blasted them across the courtyard. "Haha! Guess I really hammered the point home, huh Sweetie?" Spike called over to Sweetie while tossing his hammer back and forth in his claws. "Spike, I know you like to have fun but make sure you don't get hurt," Sweetie calmly said as she dodged a heart shaped arrow fired by a Sapphire, before retaliating by driving the end of her staff in-between the Sapphire's four eyes, causing the lady to stagger back as Sweetie whipped the staff around and caught another Sapphire in the gut. "And those puns were absolutely terrible." "Guess you really hit the nail on the head, huh?" Spike called over with a laugh before divine providence decided it had enough of the dragon's puns, because it was at that moment a strong blast of violet energy slammed into his back and hurled him across the courtyard. He came to a stop only when he slammed into the side of a building upside down, where he groaned in pain while cracking an eye open. "Okay, ow, deserved that one." "I do not believe the two of you." Both Sweetie and Spike looked up (or in Spike's case down) to see that Lareatha and her twin assistants were descending into the courtyard, hard stares upon their faces, except for Nattily, who looked from Sweetie to the downed Sapphires with confusion. "We invite you in, shelter you under our roof and how do you repay us? By harboring an enemy of the Star-Sapphires," she said with scorn while pointing a finger at John. "Lady, I am sorry about what happened between me and Fatality, but she wasn't the only victim of that!" John roared up at the Sapphire in defiance. Lereatha scowled in response before looking at her two assistants. "I will deal with him. You two deal with the other Lanterns." Leleah let out a shriek before hurling herself at Spike, tackling the still stuck-in-the wall Lantern and driving the both of them through it. "Hey! If you hurt him you'll have to answer to me!" Sweetie roared over the sounds of the collapsing structure before turning to see that her foe was the very Lantern that she had relaxed with yesterday. "Sweetie...please don't make me have to fight you," Nattily said with pain in her voice as she constructed a shield and sword, yet Sweetie couldn't see a fighting spirit in the wood fairy's eyes. "I'm not going to make you fight me. I'd prefer to avoid having to fight any of you, actually," Sweetie replied calmly as she rested against her staff and waited to see if Nattily would make a move. "But if your sisters try to hurt either of my friends, then I'll have to fight to keep them safe. It's what you do for those you love." A mighty roar echoed throughout the courtyard and was followed by Leleah slamming into the ground near the two Lanterns, with Spike floating down a moment later with a very annoyed look on his face. "Claws off, sister, I'm already taken," Spike growled with a smirk as Leleah angrily rose back up, crafting twin scythe looking weapons as she lunged at Spike. Spike went to craft a weapon of his own, but a blue staff caught the Sapphire in the leg and flipped her onto her back, where she watched as Sweetie walked over in front of Spike with a cold look. "Like I said: you answer to me," Sweetie said, completely void of emotion, as she spun her staff and took up a fighting stance long since taught to her by Zecora. Leleah snarled as she shot up and swung at Sweetie, who deflected the attack with the end of her staff before flipping it around and jamming the other end into Leleah's gut with force. The Lantern went down without another word, allowing Sweetie to give a raised eyebrow to Nattily that caused both her and Spike to go quiet. Above the battlefield, two experienced Lanterns went for each other's throats with ruthlessness and every intent to harm the other. Lareatha wielded a two-handed broadsword that seemed to cleave the very sky every time she swung it at John's head, but John had constructed a full on battle suit, complete with a rocket pack, arm-mounted blade and massive shield on his left arm. "You should have known better than to come back here Lantern! You were given fair warning!" Lareatha roared as she swung the broadsword down right towards the crown of John's head. With a blast of green fire the jetpacks rocketed John out of the way of the swing, allowing him to tackle Lareatha in her exposed side and drive the both of them through a structure. "All I know is there are Manhunters attacking Lanterns across the galaxy, and something on this planet is the key to stopping them! And I also know that you're in the way!" John roared as he drove his emerald fist into the face of the Lantern, snapping her head back. John changed his sword to a whip and wrapped it around Lareatha's legs, first letting out a yell before he swung her over his head and drove her into the ground. Lareatha slowly pushed herself up out of the dirt as John landed in front of her, pointing his ring right between her eyes with a cold look. "No. Either you can tell me why a Manhunter sent us here or you're going to be waking up with a nasty headache for the next month," the Lantern threatened, his ring glowing a dark green when all she did was sneer in reply. "Alright then, hard way it-" "Enough!" The regality in the voice that appeared out of nowhere ceased all of the fighting in an instant, while also turning all eyes to the sky, where a lone Star-Sapphire floated down next to a Manhunter that was a violet color. "All of you, stand down this instant! I believed that we had settled our differences with the other Corps years ago," the new and extremely beautiful Sapphire muttered as she floated down next to Lereatha, giving her a dirty look when she landed. "And I know I told you that if any Green Lanterns appeared to treat them as our guests, not to wage war with them." "But...Queen Aga'po...they brought him," Lareath said with disgust as the Sapphire pointed to John, who slowly lowered his ring to his side as the Queen Sapphire looked at him with narrowed eyes. For a moment to two Lanterns stared each other down while every other ring bearer in the courtyard watched with trepidation. Then, before either could make a move, the Manhunter stepped forward and placed itself between the two. "Star-Sapphires are symbols of love and peace. Perhaps just this once, we can extended that same love and peace to one we do not like?" it suggested, taking John's anger off of the Sapphire's and instead turning his interest to the Manhunter who looked at him with a nod. "Very well, John, just this once," Aga'po said with no kindness in her voice, before she turned and floated over to where Spike and Sweetie were, who still hadn't moved after their fight and thus Sweetie's staff was still resting on the unconscious Leleah. The Star-Sapphire looked from Sweetie to the beaten Sapphire with a look, one that Sweetie matched perfectly. "I'm not apologizing," Sweetie said without a moment's hesitation. "Then let me step in before we have another fight on our hands," Spike said as he placed himself between Sweetie and the Queen, but his attention was drawn by the Manhunter who had walked over to them. "Ah-ha! So you're the reason Rex sent us to meet the Star-Sapphires!" "Who is Rex?" the Manhunter asked. "Rex was another Manhunter who was infused the power of the Indigo Lanterns, similar to how I assume you gained your power?" Spike asked with a smile. "Yes. After being infused with the violet energy, I learned what it meant to love and thus sought out the Star-Sapphires to teach me more," the Manhunter clarified with a nod. "They are the ones who helped me gain access to my...free will, I suppose." "Awesome. Then Rex must have known that you would be able to tell us who created you and what they're planning," Spike reasoned with a smile, but the smile fell as the Manhunter shook its head. "I cannot. That information is in a part of my internal systems that not even the Star-Sapphires' greatest scientist could unlock. I am sorry, but even I myself only have vague notions of who created us and that is...fear," the Manhunter said in a whisper before saying no more, which was the perfect chance for Aga'po to step in. "We have taught this Manhunter here much and consider it to be one of our own. However, I do believe that I know the reason another Manhunter would send you to us," Aga'po said while she turned back to the Manhunter. "When you first came to us, you said you remembered something about a space station or an orbital base near a certain planet?" "Wait, a space station that looks like a moon?" John cut in as he floated forward, gaining him a look of sheer loathing from the Star-Sapphire queen. "What did this moon look like up close, and are you certain that it was a space station? I need answers, dammit!" "I...do not remember, but I can show you the planet above which I last saw it orbiting. It seemed to have some business there," the Manhunter offered. John looked back to Spike and Sweetie, who both nodded, before looking up at the Manhunter with a grim nod. "Alright, but we need to move now. It's clear that whoever is behind this doesn't want anyone to know who they are and what they're up to. Spike. Sweetie. Time to move," John said as he turned to leave, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him for a moment. "Just remember, Lantern Stewart. We are allowing you to leave just this once. But if you return again, we will not hesitate to treat you as a foe," the queen reminded him. "Trust me, the feeling's mutual," John growled in reply before floating to the ship with the Manhunter behind him. Spike took off after him, but when Sweetie tried Nattily stopped her. "I...just wanted to say thanks for telling me your experiences with love. It's really...made me rethink a number of things," she said with a wooden smile, and Sweetie smiled in reply. "No problem. If you ever come around the Blue Lantern home world, look me up. There's a lot you can learn there from a Blue Lantern." The four managed to make it onto their ship without any more trouble, but John was fully aware of every set of eyes upon him up until he was back inside the safety of the ship. He closed the ramp after the others made it on, before letting out a sigh as he slumped against the bulkhead. "So, what did you guys think of the Star-Sapphires?" he asked with a sarcastic smirk. "I'm not coming back here," Sweetie said with certainty while Spike had a good natured smile on his face. "Hey, it's not the first time I've had to punch my way off a planet. Besides, they seemed nice enough if you don't mention John around them. Anyhow, some of them didn't look too bad..." Spike laughed as Sweetie tackled him to the deck, trying to choke him out while Spike still laughed away. John shook his head at the two of them before looking at the violet Manhunter, who took interest in the two kids' wrestling match. "That is a curious sigh of affection," it said. "Nah, it's not that abnormal. Now come on. Time for you to lead us to the final boss."