The beeping of the ship's computer caused John to crack his eyes open, just in time to close them shut again as light from a nearby sun blinded him. With a grunt he pulled himself out of his chair and walked out of the captain's quarters, heading to the brig where Sweetie still resided.
"Morning, Sweetie," John grunted when he approached the cell, spotting the bloody belle lying on the deck, feigning sleep. John constructed a chair and sat down on the outside of the cell, resting his arms on his knees as he sighed. "Look, I figured that even if you're a Red Lantern now, I still consider you a part of this team, and that means you have the right to know what's going on." For a brief moment, it seemed like Sweetie Belle was listening, but then she went back to pretending.
"In a few minutes, we're going to be crossing over to an anti-matter dimension, which is the base of operations for the Yellow Lanterns," John explained, hoping that this revelation would get a reaction out of her, yet it failed to do so. "The Yellow Lanterns are a fearful and vengeful bunch, and if I wasn't on direct orders from the Guardian's I would avoid this place like the plague. But Brainiac is bound to show up there sooner or later, and with Sinestro's history of working with the machine...I want him on our side before Brainiac gets the chance."
"But just because Brainiac has killed and captured a few Yellow Lanterns doesn't mean that Sinestro will work with us. He and Hal have a long standing rivalry with each other and he generally doesn't like any of the Lanterns, green or other," John explained as he rose from the chair and turned to leave. "What I'm saying is, this is the Corps that has the second highest chance of killing me on sight. And if they do, odds are you might become their captive. I wish that wasn't the case, and I'll do everything in my power to prevent it from happening, but...I wanted you to be prepared. But maybe Sinestro will just let you go. He's not a complete jerk, after all."
"Let them capture me. I'll kill them all," Sweetie spoke for the first time, yet it wasn't to the Green Lantern. John shook his head as he left the room, heading back to the cockpit to find that the ship had finally reached their destination, a part of space in the middle of nowhere with nothing around it.
"You sure this is the spot?" John asked the ship's computer while he sat down and gripped the controls tightly.
'There is more anti-matter here than anywhere else in the universe,' the ship replied, getting a nod from the senior Lantern.
"Then let's do this." Twin beams of green energy erupted from the ship and exploded in the empty space in front of the pair, causing a strange vortex to rip through reality in front of the ship. With one last breath, John punched the ship's engines and blasted the Interceptor through the vortex and into what lay beyond. He gritted his teeth as a strange power coursed through him, but as quickly as the energy began to bombard him, a moment later the energy subsided.
"Okay, wish I didn't have to do that again," John muttered while he looked around to find the ship floating in space...yet it was a space that seemed far different than the one he was used to patrolling. "But I guess we can thank our steam friends for helping us reach this place. If I wasn't so short on time, I'd pay them a visit. Now then, where the heck is Qward?"
'My sensors are picking up a large amount of Yellow Lantern energy coming from this direction,' the ship's computer informed John as it marked a spot on the map, giving the senior Lantern a place to go. John turned the Interceptor in the direction of the marked spot on the map and accelerated the ship towards the destination. 'Lantern Stewart, if you do not mind me asking...do you have a plan for when you reach the Yellow Lantern home world?'
"Sneak in and hopefully don't get caught before I can find Sinestro," John explained with a shrug, getting the computer to go silent for a moment before responding.
'There are nearly as many Yellow Lanterns as there are Green Lanterns, and yet you are hoping that you can sneak onto their home world and find their leader without getting caught?' the ship asked in confusion.
"That's the plan."
'That is an awful lot of hoping. Are you certain that you were not supposed to be a Blue Lantern?'
"Somebody on this craft has to be the hopeful one," John muttered as a large planet started to appear on the edge of the ship's radar, the craft confirming that it was a rocky planet that had a large amount of Yellow Energy seeping out of it. "Looks like we've finally found their home. Now, let's hope they don't mind if I drop in unannounced. Computer, lower us onto the planet as quietly and stealthily as possible. I don't want to have to fight my way through another army of Lanterns."
The ship did as John asked and a moment later the Lantern was coasting through the planet's atmosphere, with every sense and sensor on high alert in case any of the Yellow Lanterns managed to spot the ship. They were lucky enough to find a seemingly abandoned part of the planet on which the ship might touch down, but when John lowered the exit ramp and walked out onto the planet's surface, he found it insanely difficult to keep his thin shielding up.
'Of course, the yellow energy messes with the power of even the strongest-willed Lantern, so it's no surprise that on their home world I'd be struggling just to keep my normal constructs functioning,' John reasoned while he sealed the ship behind him and turned towards a massive, city-like structure that glowed with a golden light that made John feel uneasy. 'Flying will probably get me caught, so I guess it's time to relive some of my army days and hoof it.'
John then took off at a considerable pace, running across the cracked landscape that had a yellow, almost magma-like essence flowing through the cracks. He avoided using his ring whenever possible, and if he could jump a gap or climb across something he chose to. 'All of Sinestro's Corps know the green flash of a Green Lantern, so any use of my ring would be like shining the Bat-Signal into the sky,' John thought as he continued to run.
The closer he got to the giant, industrial like area that he was heading to, the more often he had to hide beneath cracks and rocks to avoid the growing number of Yellow Lanterns that flew across the sky. John even considered removing his ring once or twice, but then he realized that the air here might not be as breathable and decided not to risk it.
'Alright, if I know Sinestro and I think I do, then he'll be either at or near the central battery, if he's on the planet at all,' John planned as he entered into the center of Qward, a large area that looked similar to an earthling smelting site, filled with magma, construction towers and a large number of buildings that were being constructed. Despite the large number of pillars and scaffolding, John could still see the huge Yellow Battery towering over all the buildings on the horizon.
"Wow, that egotist somehow managed to make it larger than it already was," John smirked with a shake of head as he turned a corner...and ran headfirst right into two Yellow Lanterns.
"What?! A Green Lantern!" A five eyed freak yelled with surprise while he lifted his ring to shoot at John, but the older Lantern was quicker on the draw and sent a blast of green right in the center of the fear-clad being's eyes, sending him sprawling. The other Yellow Lantern, a massive monster that looked like a Yeti, let out a bellow as it football tackled John and drove the Lantern spine first into one of the structures.
"You are not welcome here!" the yeti roared before constructing a buzz saw that it slashed right at John's face, forcing him to duck while the yellow saw blade tore through the metal behind him. John constructed a piston and slammed it right into the yeti's gut, channeling all of his will into the construct as it exploded into the yeti's stomach and hurled it backwards.
"Grr...attention, all other Sinestro Corps members," the yeti began as it started to talk into its ring, but John reacted in a heartbeat to create a green sphere around the yeti's right hand and cut off its communications with the rest of the Corps.
"Sorry about this, abominable snowman, but I can't have you blowing my cover," John growled while he pulled the yeti towards him with a yank of his green energy, constructing a giant green fist over his own as the screaming yeti flew towards him. John added his own yell and slammed his fist into the face of the yeti and sent it sprawling, allowing him to let out a sigh of relief as he did so. "Take a nap guys, you earned it."
After moving the two Lanterns out of the way so that none of the other Lanterns would see them, John once again slowly crept along in the shadows of the buildings while he made his way towards the central battery, keeping a closer eye out for any of the Yellow Lanterns.
'I got lucky that I ran into a pair of rookies. Had they been experienced Lanterns, I might not have been able to deal with them so quickly. Then the whole Corps would have been down on me.' After a few more close encounters and knocking out another, far more skilled Yellow Lantern, John ran into the shadows of a building that was right next to the central power battery. Peeking out from behind his cover, John glanced at the large number of Yellow Lanterns all mulling around the clearing. 'Come on you pointy-eared jackass, where are you?' Grr, he's not here? Dammit, I can't spend all my time looking for him...guys I got no other choice.'
Throwing away all sense of caution and reason, John took in one last breath before he turned the corner and walked out of his hiding space. All eyes or seeing devices turned in utter shock towards the Green Lantern while he casually strolled through nearly a hundred Yellow Lanterns before coming to a stop right before the central battery, where he turned around to face all of them with a smirk on his face.
"Hey there guys, sorry to drop in unannounced like this, but I'm looking for your boss," John Stewart began as the Yellow Lanterns all began to construct hundreds of painful looking weapons while they started to advance on John. "But since I can't seem to find him, can you guys keep me entertained until he shows up?"
All of the Yellow Lanterns roared in rage at once as they all lunged at him, getting a smirk out of John while he constructed the largest minigun that he could construct and began to unload all of his power and energy into the horde of yellow. Green light flooded the sea of yellow and fear, forcing the Yellow Lanterns back. But John's momentary smirk vanished when his construct began to crack with yellow light right before it shattered, forcing the Green Lantern to look at the now regrouped Yellow Lanterns who were all smiling menacingly at him.
'Come on Sinestro, where the hell are you?!' Stewart growled as he constructed a massive barrier around himself when the Yellow Lanterns unleashed all of their power upon the shielding, which almost immediately shattered under the sheer volume of fear. The moment his barrier shattered, John hurled himself into the sky and started firing emerald grenades into the crowd, creating massive explosions that hurled Yellow Lanterns all across the courtyard where the central battery loomed above them.
John could feel himself getting weaker and weaker as the battle progressed, with simply being in the main battery's light causing his constructs to be less that one hundred percent. He constructed a giant rocket launcher that rocketed more explosives into the Yellow Lanterns, but to John's frustration he found that more experienced Lanterns had shown up and were able to deal with his attacks.
With so much of his attention focused on the more experienced Lanterns, John was completely caught off guard by a large bluish beast that tackled John from behind and drove the both of them straight into the ground. John took aim with his ring right at the Lantern's face, but a cord of golden light wrapped around his ring arm and yanked it to the ground, leaving him open to a mighty right hand to the side of his face.
"You should have known better than to come here by yourself, Green Lantern," the Yellow Lantern snarled with a menacing grin as it moved its fangs right next to his head. "Any Lantern of your Corps that shows up here end's up becoming a prime candidate for the Black Lanterns," he snarled while constructing a weapon with numerous pointy edges. "Can you guess why?"
"Because your yellow is so damn ugly!" a voice roared as a blast of crimson wrath hurled the Yellow Lantern off of John and back into the crowd of his brethren, giving John a moment to recuperate as another blast of red severed the cord that was pinning his arm down. With his ring free John was able to ascend back into the sky, where, to his shock, he found himself floating next to Sweetie Belle.
"Sweetie? What the heck are you doing here?" John asked as the Yellow Lanterns resumed their attack, forcing the two Lanterns to dodge and weave out of the way of the hundreds of yellow bolts. "I thought that I left you in the cell back on the ship!"
"You did! I chewed my way through the floor!" Sweetie roared before lunging forward at a Yellow Lantern and impaling his leg with her horn, roaring with fury as she hurled him to the side before blasting him down with a bolt of red. "So this was your big plan to get the Yellow Lanterns on our side? Attack every single damn member of their Corps?!"
"I'm drawing out their leader! I guess the only way he'll show up is if we cause enough chaos!" John roared as he hurled a ball and chain into the side of a Yellow Lantern's head before changing his weapon into a machine gun that knocked another Lantern out of the sky.
"Well, he'd better show up soon, because I can feel their power increasing just by being in the same proximity to that massive Lantern!" Sweetie snarled as she vomited red plasma on all of the Yellow Lanterns that got too close to her, only to be tackled from behind and punched into the side of a building. She roared with fury as she pulled herself out of the metal, before a massive yellow wrecking ball slammed into the belle and smashed her right out the other side of the structure.
"Wow, if this is how you treat your guests, I hate to see how you'd treat your enemies!" John growled as he punched a Yellow Lantern in the jaw before getting shot in the back and sent spiraling into the ground. He constructed a barrier to protect himself from the second salvo as he pushed himself back up and turned to face the swarm of Yellow Lanterns, who were beginning to combine their powers to overpower any construct that he created. Three Yellow Lanterns in particular combined their powers to create a massive cannon of yellow energy that they pointed right at John, who growled as he tried to move himself out of the way in time.
"Oh, hell no!" Sweetie bellowed as she reentered the fight by slamming into the back of one of the Lanterns and knocked her away from the cannon, before turning and blasting the other two off with two consecutive blasts. She then shattered the construct with a blast of red before floating down next to John, giving him a look before turning with the Green Lantern to realize that even more Yellow Lanterns were showing up, as well as--to John's relief--a red-skinned alien with a pencil thin mustache.
"That is enough! All of you, cease!" the alien roared before he floated down in front of John, the two glaring at each other for a moment before John held out a hand.
"Hello, Sinestro," John said with as little hate as he could muster. Sinestro looked at the hand for a moment before his left fist connected with the side of John's face and sent him sprawling into the ground.
"Hello, Stewart."