//------------------------------// // Empty Space // Story: The Emerald Torch // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Spirals of the purest of blues, and stars that shone brighter than any sun seen before decorated the galaxy through which the Interceptor found itself floating, yet the inhabitants of the ship found themselves too focused on what was to come to pay any attention to the beauty of the cosmos. Spike was in the lower part of the ship, practicing shifting from construct to construct. 'Practice makes perfect after all,' he thought to himself as he shifted a war hammer to a shield before crafting his construct into a crystalized cannon. 'And I have a feeling that we're going to need to be perfect if we want to stop this threat.' The Manhunter remained in the cockpit of the ship, wanting to make sure that nothing surprised them during their flight. John was in his quarters by himself, making a full report of what had happened on the Star-Sapphires' home world while at the same time recording a message. "Green Lantern of Sector 2814 entry number 3 since mission began. After nearly a week of being on this mission, I believe that we might finally be homing in on a definitive clue or answer," he spoke into his ring while recalling all the information that he had learned. "We have recently discovered that not all of the Manhunters that are infused with the power of Lanterns are all evil. An indigo one and now a violet one are helping us in our cause, with the latter leading us to a location where it believes lies another clue. Yet I can't shake the feeling that there's something...familiar about all this. Lantern out." John finished his recording and walked out of his room, entering the cockpit and sitting down in the Captain's chair, barely paying mind to the Manhunter as he started a scan of the sector. The Manhunter remained silent, not wanting to bother John, yet it occasionally looked back into the room where Sweetie was meditating silently, though both John and the Manhunter could sense that she was still fuming a bit. "Alright, we should soon be coming up to that planet you mentioned," John muttered as he pushed a few buttons on the console and looked out the window, narrowing his eyes with a frown. "Are you sure that you have the right coordinates? I'm not seeing the..." "How can she be like that?" the Manhunter asked, cutting off John's question and getting the Lantern to turn to look to where Sweetie was. "How can she be like what?" John asked. "Angry at Spike and yet still love him. Would the anger not override the love or the other way around? Beings cannot possess two such emotions at the same time, can they?" "You have a lot to learn about living beings. We're rarely a single emotion at any given time. Besides, hating someone while loving them is normal at that age," John said with a shake of his head as turned back to the front and immediately his eyes narrowed. "Ship, we're at the coordinates that I entered, are we not?" 'You are correct Lantern Stewart. We have arrived at the destination,' the ship replied, getting a growl from Stewart as he turned on the intercom. "Spike, I want you and Sweetie ready to leave now. Something's wrong." John swiveled the chair around as Sweetie ran into the room, followed a moment later by Spike, who wore the same look of concern that Sweetie did. "Alright you two, pop quiz: We have just arrived at the coordinates that our friendly Manhunter here gave us and we should be descending on the planet right about now. But there's a problem. Either of you two know what it is?" Spike and Sweetie both looked out the viewscreen for a few seconds before Sweetie looked back at John with confusion. "There's no planet out there. There's nothing out there," she answered. "That is correct. However, before you go blaming the Manhunter for lying to us, the Guardian database says that there should be a planet right here," John explained to the two as he stood up and motioned for the three to follow him. He lowered the ramp to the ship and a moment later the four were floating around in the coldness of space looking for any signs of the planet. "So, what happened could be that both the Manhunter and the Guardian's information was wrong, or the ship took us to the wrong place or...the planet's just gone," Spike reasoned, getting a nod from John as the four flew towards where its location was. "That's how I see it, Spike. All of you keep your guards up and spread out. Manhunter, you're with me. Spike and Sweetie, look around," John ordered when his ring informed him that they were near where the planet was supposed to be. "Search for any signs of what happened and call out to the others. And if you see anything that looks remotely hostile, do NOT engage without the other group. Got it?" John asked before turning to see that Spike and Sweetie were already examining the area. "Man, there sure is a lot of debris for an area of space that's missing a planet," Spike said to Sweetie as the pair ducked and weaved through a large number of asteroids and rocks that floated around them. "Heh, that one kinda looks like one of those rock monsters that showed up in Ponyville once. You remember that day? Man, I've never seen so many ponies freak out at once." His words didn't gain so much as a smile from Sweetie, who continued to stare ahead with a very clouded look on her face. Spike's own face fell before he flew up next to her with an apologetic look. "Hey, if you're still upset about my joke yesterday, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to offend you or..." "I'm not mad about that...okay, maybe a little, but that's the least of my concerns right now," Sweetie said with a voice that sounded like she was in pain. Spike was beside her the instant he heard the tone in her voice and was glaring around in rage for whatever was hurting her. "Being a Blue Lantern, I can sense when beings are filled with hope or are feeling hopeless, yet...this whole sector of space feels like all the hope has been sucked dry, like an entire race of beings ran out of hope." "But that can't be. There's no life anywhere in the universe or else that's where we'd be," Spike reminded her while keeping an eye out for trouble. "Maybe there used to be a race in this universe thousands of years ago or something, and you're just feeling the aftereffects or-" Spike stopped talking when he looked down at Sweetie to see that she looked scared, causing him to grab hold of her and hold the Lantern tight. "It's...it's not that. All of this hopelessness and agony...it's far too recent. Almost like the beings that lost all hope were only here a week ago," she shivered in Spike's arms, the void of hopelessness washing over the Blue Belle coldly. "And I also feel death, death the likes of which I've never sensed before. Billions of lives...all gone...never to-" "Sweetie! You're letting the death and darkness get to you again," Spike said with strength as he created a green barrier around the two of them before holding her even tighter, but he could feel every one of her shivers. "Breathe, Sweetie. Don't let the dark thoughts get to you." "But I can feel them...all of the dead. They're...calling to me...telling me that I should be with them," she whispered with cold fear in every word. "They say...that I died." "You did. And then you fought back. You chose to have hope instead of letting death conquer you," Spike reminded her calmly. "You did it to save your sister, to save our world and to save me. It didn't beat you then and it won't beat you now. You're far stronger than it." To Spike's relief her ring began to shine with a blue light that pushed away the darkness, calming Sweetie down and stopping her shivering. "Feeling better?" Spike asked her when she looked up at him with far calmer eyes than before. She nodded weakly before placing her head against his chest, banishing all the dark whispers from her mind with thoughts of hope. "Yeah...sorry about that..." she whispered. "You can't help it," Spike muttered as his face turned grim, and he looked around at all of the debris and rocks as if he were seeing them for what they really were. "But Sweetie...I've never seen you react like that before and the only way those...thoughts get stronger is if you're around a large amount of death. And for you to be affected on such a level..." "Means that there was a great deal of death here recently," she finished for him as she looked around at the asteroids as well, catching on to what he was thinking. "An entire planet's worth of death." "John, come in. I think that Sweetie and I found out what happened to the planet we were looking for," Spike said into the ring, but instead of hearing the voice of John the pair instead heard the sounds of laser fire and yelling. Spike and Sweetie shot each other the same look before they both rocketed over to where John was, spotting the Lantern firing bursts of green into the asteroids. "John, what's going on?!" Spike called over. "Get down!" John roared as blasts of violet light erupted around him, hurling the Lantern into one of the floating rocks with enough force to stun him. Spike and Sweetie turned towards the attacker to find the same Manhunter that had led them there was now firing at them, though its eyes were no longer a violet color and instead were devoid of any color at all. "What the heck is the matter with this thing?!" Spike roared as he and Sweetie combined their powers to create a massive bow and arrow, Sweetie using her hope-filled bow to enhance the power of the green arrow that Spike loaded into it. The arrow was hurled forth from the bow and tore through a number of asteroids on its way to the Manhunter before it tore through the Manhunter's right arm, severing the limb from its mechanical body. The Manhunter looked from the Lanterns to its missing arm, advancing forward as if to continue the battle before it stood up rigidly. It then turned around and flew off into the asteroid field. Spike made a quick lunge towards where it had vanished, but Sweetie called him over to John and he ceased his search to help his fellow Lantern. The two escorted him back to the ship and placed him on his bed, where he started to come to after a few minutes. "Urgh, what happened to me?" John asked with a grunt as he sat up straight. "We were hoping you could tell us," Spike said with crossed arms. "When we ran over to you we found you locked in battle with the Manhunter. Don't tell me that it tried to carry out the Star-Sapphires' threat, or else I'm going to have some choice words for them." "We were exploring the asteroids and suddenly it attacked me," John said as he pushed himself back up and rubbed his bruised ribs with a grimace. "Those aren't asteroids. Those are what's left of the planet and the beings that used to be here," Sweetie clarified for John, who gave no reaction to the news except for a sigh. "I knew it," he muttered as he walked into the cockpit, starting up the ship and taking off through the asteroid field. "How did you know that the asteroids were the planet?" Spike asked, but John chose silence as his answer. "Alright then, how about the Manhunter? What are we going to do about that problem?" "Don't worry, I know exactly where it's going," John said with confidence as he navigated the chunks of planet with an expert's skill, allowing him to reach the end of the space debris within a matter of minutes, where the group saw a large moon orbiting around the wreckage of the dead planet. "That's where it went." "You mean that moon?" Sweetie asked, getting a laugh out of John. "Yeah. Moon, space station, orbital base of death; whatever you want to call it," John said with a growl as he brought the ship to a stop and opened up the ramp to allow them to exit. "That's the same "moon" that showed up when the Blue Lantern was captured and also when the Manhunters destroyed our indigo friend. But unlike that Manhunter, the one that brought us here was still working for the mastermind behind their attacks. And whoever that is, is in there." "So...what do we do then?" Spike asked with no effort to hide the worry and uncertainty in his voice. "I mean, that space station is the size of a small moon, so who knows what the heck could be controlling that thing? Shouldn't we call in another Lantern or a hundred? Is this a situation that requires Mogo?" John lowered his head for a long time, thinking his actions over carefully before shaking his head with a snarl. "We need to know what we're up against and we need to know now. Every minute that that thing remains operational is another moment the mastermind gets closer to their goal. Here's the plan. I'll go in by myself and find out who or what is responsible for everything while you two stay with the ship. If I don't come back out, fly to Oa and tell the Guardians what happened. They'll know what to do," John ordered as he started to fly to the moon, but in a moment Sweetie and Spike were beside him. "Sorry John, but this doesn't seem like a task we can leave to an old man," Spike said with a smirk that was met with a cold stare. "Look, just one of those Lantern Manhunters was enough to give you a run for your money, and we have no idea how many thousands of them may be in there! You'll need all the firepower you can get." "This is my call, kid. You need to follow my orders," John growled before Sweetie floated over in front of him. "Fine, then you'll go in with me instead. I'm a Blue Lantern, I don't answer to you, if you recall," she said with a smile that got John to snarl in frustration. He looked between the two rookies before surrendering with a sigh. "Alright, but the moment anything goes wrong I want the both of you out of there," John grumbled as he started to fly forward. "And all we're doing is finding out who is the mastermind. We'll defeat them if we can, but if not we are going to run for our lives. Am I clear?" "Crystal," Spike and Sweetie both responded. The three Lanterns flew up to the massive station to find that it was completely covered in strange metal and weapons, all of which tracked them as they flew up to it. But instead of opening fire on the group, the guns remained stationary and a pair of massive metal doors opened for them, seemingly inviting the group into the bowls of the massive machine. "So you were right. This is a space station," Spike said quietly as he took in the scope of the thing. "Most of it is anyway," John replied as he stared down into the darkness of the entrance. "Well, at least whoever is behind this has the manners to open the door for us." 'But this all seems so familiar, as if...I've seen this before,' John silently mused to himself as a vague idea began to form in the depths of his mind. "John? Something the matter?" Spike asked as he and Sweetie gave him both concerned looks. "Nothing kid. Just had a very scary thought," John replied before he shone his light into the darkness and began to descend. "Come on, let's head inside...and hope I know what I'm doing," John muttered with concern. The two young Lanterns followed him into the depths of the space station, pretending not to notice as the doors closed behind them. 'This is it, Spike. We find who is behind this, determine he's a bad guy or not and kick his ass accordingly,' Spike thought to himself silently. 'We're finally here. For better or for worse.'