"Brainiac!" Sweetie yelled as she sat up, immediately regretting her decision when pain flooded through her stomach. She doubled over with a groan while she clutched at her gut, but through the tears in her eyes she was able to see that she was in her bed on the Interceptor. 'Wait, how did I get here? We were fighting Brainiac and then we ran for the exit and...pain.'
With a grunt the blue belle pushed herself out of the bed and staggered towards the door, trying to piece together what had happened and how she had gotten there. 'We must have somehow made it out. But we were surrounded, right? And Brainiac was right there...he was the one who knocked me out. Ugh, hopefully John can explain what happened to me, because it hurts to think.'
She opened the door to the cockpit a moment later, staggering inside to find the senior Lantern using his green ring to shift his bones back into place. "John wait! Let me help you!" Forgetting all about her own pain for a moment, Sweetie Belle raced over to John and began to heal him with her power, catching John off guard when she suddenly appeared at his side.
"Sweetie...you're up," John said in a pained voice with regret in every word. Sweetie looked up at him in confusion as the powers of the Blue ring mended his wounds. "After the blow Brainiac gave you, I thought for sure that you would be out for at least another hour."
"Please, I heal fast," she said as the ring finished mending his bones, allowing Sweetie to sigh in relief before she began to look around. "So now that we're all better, how in the world did we manage to escape from Brainiac? I honestly thought we were in trouble there for a minute. And...where's Spike?"
Sweetie looked around the room for a moment before looking into John's eyes, eyes that shone with the bitter regret and hatred at his own weakness. No words were spoken between the two, but Sweetie's eyes widened in disbelief as pain began to shred her heart from the eyes' story.
"No...no..." she whispered as her heart shattered, collapsing to the deck with tears welling up in her still wide eyes. "It can't be. Please...tell me that...no..."
"We were cornered," John admitted after a minute, defeat in his voice. "You were out, and I had broken a good number of my bones. And Brainiac summoned more Manhunters to kill us. Spike...he knew that not all of us would make it out, but if he stayed behind to fight...that you and me...might. He sacrificed himself for us."
"No..." she cried with tears starting to choke up her voice, before she glared at John with pain and agony. "Why didn't you do it?! Why couldn't you be the one to hold off Brainiac?! If you both knew it was a last stand, then...then you should have...not Spike..."
"Do you think I didn't try?! I practically begged him to let me do it instead!" John roared as he slammed his clenched fists into the console. "But his reasoning was too sound! I was injured and you were unconscious! Even if I did try and hold them off, in the shape I was in they would have killed me before the two of you could have escaped! He was...the only one who could..." John whispered as he reeled his anger back in before slowly looking at Sweetie with regret. "I'm so sorry."
"M-maybe he somehow survived?" Sweetie bargained, her ring glowing a bright blue as she struggled to remain hopeful. "He did manage to fight an entire army of Black Lanterns after all! Yeah, maybe he's still fighting! Or he beat Brainiac all by himself! Spike's the only Lantern I know who could..." But the tiny light was quickly extinguished, when both Sweetie and John looked out the viewscreen to see a small, green object flying past the ship...a small, green ring. Neither of the two said anything to the other, yet both knew what the lost ring meant. Sweetie slowly turn around and walked back out of the room, her ring's light going out as the door shut behind her.
"She's right," John said as he placed his face in his hands, a long sigh escaping his lips. "It should have been me. I should have stayed behind."
'I fail to see what that would have accomplished,' his ring spoke back. 'Neither you nor Lantern Belle were in any condition to take on the Manhunters and Brainiac. Spike was the only one that could hold them off long enough to allow for your escape.'
"I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it," John growled with bitter pain, before he closed his eyes and pressed a button on the console before him. "Call Earth. I want to talk to someone there." The ship did as he asked and a few moments later a holographic image came up of the Watchtower, a floating satellite he knew all too well. "This is John Stewart, Green Lantern of sector 2814. Justice League, do you copy?"
"John?" a familiar voice asked, and in a moment another green-clad hero sat down in a chair in front of the screen, a Green Lantern that John knew as well as the tower. "Wow, haven't heard from you in a long time," Hal said with a smile, but it quickly faded under the look of defeat on John's face. "What's the matter John?"
"How soon can you get Superman and the rest of the League out here?" John asked. His question caused Hal's eyes to go wide under his domino mask before Hal crossed his arms with a sigh.
"I'm sorry John, but all of the League, including myself, have been working our asses off for the last week straight," Hal tiredly said with a shake of his head. "It's like the freaking end of the world here on Earth. Hurricanes in Florida, Tsunamis in Japan and demons rising in the Middle East. Everything's going to hell and on top of it, there's rumors that Trigon may try to rise again amidst all the chaos. Everyone's completely swamped. In fact, the only reason I answered you is because I'm up here to intercept any meteors that come flying towards Earth, of which there's been plenty. We can't mobilize the League now. Why?"
"Brainiac." That one word was enough to get Hal to groan and look up at the ceiling. "He's been kidnapping Lanterns in one of his crazy schemes, except unlike the other schemes this scheme worked. He's figured out how to take the powers of the Lanterns and put them into the Manhunters that he's built. He has enough to wage war with the six Corps and maybe the entire galaxy. I don't know all of his plans, but he seems to want to destroy the home world of each Corps."
"Dammit all, that's bad...look, the moment any of us have a break or there's a lull in the catastrophes, I'll see if I can send maybe Supergirl or Shazam your way, a Leaguer that we don't necessarily need here," Hal offered, but John held up a hand with a shake of his head.
"No, if Trigon is to rise then you'll need every hero that you can get in order to fight him. As bad as this is, we're still the protectors of the galaxy. This is still Green Lanterns' territory," John said with as much confidence as he could muster, but with a another sigh he found he couldn't hold onto it. "And we'll find a way to beat him."
"John...there's more you're not telling me, isn't there?" Hal asked.
"We...we lost Spike to Brainiac," John admitted weakly, shocking Hal, who quickly masked his emotions by turning away.
"Oh...I'm sorry."
"Don't be. Focus on protecting the Earth. If I had to wager, I guess that Brainiac waited until Earth was like this before putting his plan into motion. The Corps have stopped beings like Brainiac before and we can do it again," John growled. "Once you're done with your problems though, I wouldn't mind seeing a Leaguer or two out here to help us. God knows we could use it."
"Understood...it was good to see you again, at least. I'll see what I can do about reinforcements. Hal out."
John sighed once again as the screen before him went dark, pondering for a moment before lifting his ring before him. "Ring, transfer the information we took from Brainiac and send it to the Guardians on Oa. Maybe they can make sense of what's going on."
'I will do that, Lantern Stewart...Lantern Stewart, there is something you should know,' his ring began hesitantly. 'I have managed to decipher a small amount of Brainiac's plan and...it seems that his first target is the Star-Sapphires' home world. He is on his way there as we speak.'
"Ship! I want us heading to the Star-Sapphires' planet ASAP!" John ordered to the ship's computer, which immediately began to make a jump through space. "If we're lucky, we can cut the bastard off and warn the Star-Sapphires in time to launch a counter attack..." John rose from his seat and left the room after giving his orders, heading into the ship's passenger quarters. He hesitantly walked over to Sweetie's door and raised a hand to knock against it, pretending not to hear the muffled sobs echoing from within.
"Sweetie?" John asked as he knocked against the door, causing the sobs to stop a moment later. "I know how much pain you're in. I've...lost those I loved too, before. But right now we need to do what we swore to do. Brainiac is on his way to the home world of the Star-Sapphires right now, and God only knows what he plans to do when he gets there. The ship's on the way there as well, but even if we get there before him, there's no guarantee that any of them will listen to my warning. But they might listen to you...I need your help. I know that you're hurting, but right now we need to make sure that Spike's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Please."
For a moment there was nothing but silence, then the door to Sweetie's room slid opened and the red-eyed mare walked out from behind the door, not even bothering to hide the tears that were still streaming down her face. "Fine, I'll help. But I want first crack at Brainiac when we finally bring him down."
"It's a deal," John agreed. The two of them headed back into the front of the ship and began to plan, until the ship came out of hyper space, showing the pair that they had arrived just in time to see the Star-Sapphires wage war against the massive moon that was Brainiac's base. Brainiac had ditched the space station's guise of a moon and now a massive, terrifying skull covered the front half of the orbiting weapon while it moved closer and closer to the Sapphires' homeworld.
Hundreds of Star-Sapphires took to the skies while hundreds of Manhunters descended upon them, lighting up both the planet and the space around it with violet lasers as the two sides collided. The Green and Blue Lantern were too far away to see what was happening, but they knew that it was only a matter of time.
"Ship, can you fly us in there while avoiding both the Star-Sapphires and that Manhunters?" John asked the onboard A.I., which hesitated for a moment before answering.
'I could, but I will not.' Both Sweetie and John looked at the spot where the A.I. rested with absolute disbelief before John, very calmly, turned on it.
"And why. Not?"
'Because your ring instructed me not to.' The rage melted into confusion as John lifted his ring and glared at it.
"Ring. Why did you instruct the ship not to get close to the Star-Sapphires?" he demanded.
'Because Lantern Stewart, I have deciphered more of Brainiac's plan and...it is too late to help them.'
|) O (|
Unbeknownst to either Sweetie or John, the outnumbered Star-Sapphires had been pushed back by the Manhunters to the surface of their planet. As hundreds of Star-Sapphires surrounded the central battery, Queen Aga'po was giving the orders to make a last stand if needed and how love would never die.
'What a bothersome emotion,' Brainiac thought to himself from the center of his fortress, able to hear every word that the queen spoke through the Manhunters that were floating around their city. 'But it's still fascinating all the same.' Through the Manhunters' eyes, he could see hundreds of Star-Sapphires all looking up at the Manhunters who had ceased their attacks, confusion and fear rippling across most of their faces.
"It is time," he said as he leaned back in the chair, allowing numerous small tendrils to attach to his mind and make himself one with his ship. At Brainiac's command, the mouth of the skull slowly slid open as thousands of machines worked in unison to get it to move. With the jaws opened wide, there was now room for a massive, multicolored laser to push its way through and aim itself right at the planet.
With the sights aimed perfectly and all of the Star-Sapphires being held on the planet below by the Manhunters, a smile creased Brainiac's lips as he turned towards the seven Lanterns still trapped within his tubes. He then pressed a button on the arm of his chair, putting into motion his years' worth of planning. The entire surface of the space station shone with the seven Lanterns' colors as a massive beam of energy tore through space and sky, before striking the planet dead center. Greed, rage, fear and other emotions cast themselves across the Star-Sapphires and their planet, causing their powers to go into flux under such waves of emotion. And the moment their powers did so, Brainiac pushed another button.
At his command, a beam of silver energy shone down across the whole planet, bathing everything there under its rays. For a brief moment, the tiniest hint of doubt entered Brainiac's mind, making him wonder if he had calculated correctly. But then, drawing forth an even larger smile from the emotionless being, the planet's size began to decrease. It was barely noticeable at first, but then the beam's effect grew stronger. The planet of love rapidly became smaller and smaller until Brainiac could hardly even see it on his monitors.
"At last," he muttered to himself, as he rose out of his chair and grabbed a small item from beside the throne while he floated out of his base. Where a mighty planet had once stood, now there was only empty space--empty space and a small rock that was no bigger than Brainiac's head...a rock that radiated with a violet light. "And with this, you are mine," Brainiac declared as he placed two discs around the rock, which formed a barrier around it that was similar to a glass tube. He then held aloft his prize with one hand, the prize of one of the seven Lantern's Corps that now belonged to him.
"Seven Corps. Seven emotions whose power is tied to their rings, making their homes and the wielders some of the most valuable pieces of knowledge in the cosmos," Brainiac said in a voice that would have been mistaken for joy by those who knew he held no emotions, as he gazed into his tube at the trapped planet, which still gave off a tiny violet light. "And soon, they will all be mine."
Then, very slowly and very dramatically, Brainiac turned and gazed off into the distance, where his unmatchable mind was telling him a small piece of technology was. A piece of technology that had just barely managed to escape him a few hours before. The smile fell from his face as he registered this information before he turned and floated back into his ship, planning on securing his prize before going after the annoyances.
"Manhunters," Brainiac spoke through all the collective minds of the Manhunters once he had returned to his chair, securing the trapped planet beside him while he had his station turn towards where the Green Lantern believed himself to be hidden. "There is a Green and Blue Lantern hiding near that chunk of asteroid. I believe that we have let them live long enough."
He felt the Manhunters leave the base, as well as another machine that he had sent along with them to ensure the Lanterns' destruction, allowing him to gaze at the glowing planet that was now trapped within his grasp. 'With all the knowledge of the Lantern Corps within my grasp, I will have power beyond any comprehension. Then none, not the Lanterns, not Kal-El, will be able to stop me.'