Sweetie Belle reached the Interceptor within a few moments after leaving the planet, not bothering with the ramp and opting to phase through one of the walls instead. This completely startled John, who had been sitting in the break room and going over reports sent from Oa when Sweetie appeared before him in a flash of blue.
"Sweet God in heaven, Sweetie Belle, I'm too old to get scared like that," John muttered as he held a hand to his heart while he took in a few breaths, yet a moment later a smile crossed his face when he saw the blue ring on her horn. "But I'm glad to see that whoever that Blue Lantern was, he managed to help you remember who you are. Was starting to get annoyed having to deal with angry you all the time."
"Razer helped me to remember why I became a Blue Lantern in the first place, and what the Blue Lanterns are supposed to do," Sweetie said with confidence and hope in her voice as she shined with a radiant blue glow. "And Brainiac will never break that part of me again. Because I have hope that we'll beat him. We'll make that hope a reality."
"That's all well and good, but I seem to remember you trying to kill me at one point," John reminded her with a smirk, getting a small bow from the belle.
"I'm sorry for that, but right now we need to focus on Brainiac, or more importantly, Spike," Sweetie Belle steered the conversation before glancing at the information John had been reading with a frown. "What's all this? Something about...Oa and Brainiac? And Sinestro?"
"This is new information from the Guardians. Apparently, Brainiac has skipped over Sinestro and is coming to Oa first, if the path he's traveling stays constant," John explained while, with a wave of his hand, he brought up a map that showed where the Guardians had located Brainiac. "Apparently, all the Lantern energy his ship is now generating makes him easier to track, but that doesn't mean anything if we can't stop him before he gets to Oa."
"And it doesn't make things easier, that we've received a report from Sinestro saying how a large number of Blue Lantern Manhunters attacked his planet. He managed to destroy them, but he suffered a good number of losses," John said with a sigh as he placed his hands on the table before him. "Now we don't know if he'll back us up, and even if he does, the Guardians are starting to suspect that it won't be enough. I called the League again, but things have gotten even worse on Earth and they can't help us. And then there's...what are you looking at?" John asked Sweetie while she stared at one of the doors.
"I see. So that's who Razer was talking about when he said he brought another Lantern here," Sweetie murmured with a thin smile before calling out. "I can sense your power in there, Nattily. Why don't you come out and greet me in person, though?" After she said this, the violet wood fairy opened the door and floated out, a sad smile on her face as she nodded to Sweetie Belle.
"Hello, Sweetie. It is...good to see you again," Nattily said with a smile as she sat down.
"Way to ruin the surprise, Sweetie," John muttered as the two Lanterns greeted each other. "Yeah, she showed up not too long after...Razer took you down to the planet below us a day ago. According to what she told me, she was the only Star-Sapphire to make it off of her planet."
"While I am relieved to see that you are unharmed, I have to ask, how did you escape from Brainiac's machine?" Sweetie asked the violet Lantern, whose face fell as she leaned on her arm and sighed with sorrow.
"I was one of the Lanterns sent into orbit to battle with the Manhunters as they began to assault our home. At first, we thought we were pushing them back, but then...the strange ones appeared, ones wielding the power of greed, rage, fear and will. Normally, our love protects us from the other Lanterns' lights, but against so much power the others were forced to retreat to the planet below."
"But not you?" John asked, getting Nattily to shake her head.
"Sadly, or rather fortunately for me, the Manhunters had cut me and the rest of my group off from the planet. We fought them as hard as we could, but then one after the other we were struck down, until it was only me," Nattily said with pain in her voice as she recalled the events from the battle. "I fought as hard as I could, but I barely lasted longer than my sisters. One of the Manhunters blasted me in the stomach and horribly wounded me, so I thought that my time was up. I watched as I lay dying, how the others were shrunken down, right before the Manhunters closed in on me."
"So, how did you escape?" Sweetie asked.
"I didn't. Not by myself. I was saved," she said with a small sigh while her eyes seemed to glaze slightly. "A flash of blue light went off right before the Manhunters finished me, forcing them back as a cloaked figure wearing the symbol of the Blue Lanterns appeared before me. He told me that all would be well before he fought the machines back, buying him enough time to teleport me out of there and to the planet below us."
"So, Razer saved your life as well as helped me find myself again," Sweetie muttered under her breath, pretending not to notice when Nattily whispered Razer's name. "Guess he's been doing a lot of things to help us from behind the scenes for a while now. But despite keeping you safe, do you know why he brought you to us?" Sweetie asked the Star-Sapphire, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"All he said was to seek your team out, which wasn't that hard when your ship was parked right above the planet, and use my love to help another to return to you," Nattily recounted, getting a confused look from John--but Sweetie looked as though the final piece had fallen into place. "What? Does that mean something to you?"
"It depends. John, if we were to move now, would we be able to intercept Brainiac's space station before it reached Oa?" Sweetie asked.
"Yeah, but we wouldn't have much time. We'd have to leave immediately," John informed her after calculating the distance and time. "I'd ask why, but I figure you've got some crazy plan in your mind."
"I do. We're going to get Spike back." Nattily's jaw dropped when she heard this while John just raised a curious eyebrow, waiting for Sweetie to continue. "When I was down on the planet below, Razer asked me if I still believed in Spike. If still believed that he was in there, fighting against Brainiac with all of his will. At first I wasn't sure, but now I know for certain that I believe in him, that Spike isn't gone just yet," Sweetie said with passion as her blue light shone brightly. "I have hope that we can get him back. And maybe with Love and Hope combined, we'll turn that hope into a reality."
"B-but in order to get your friend back, we'll have to face Brainiac's forces--and it's just the three of us," Nattily argued. "And even if Brainiac does send out Spike and doesn't just blast us to atoms, how do you know that our light can reach him?!" For a long moment neither John nor Sweetie Belle spoke. Then a large smile crossed Sweetie's face.
"I guess we'll just have to hope that we can," she said with a smile of determination. Nattily gazed at her like she was crazy and John nodded slightly. "So yeah, I know this idea sounds like suicide, but we're Lanterns. We tackle unwinnable situations on a daily basis and somehow make it out alive. We'll find Spike, break him free of Brainiac's control, and then work on a way of bringing down the big boss together. What do you all say?"
"I say that you're crazy." All three heads turned towards one of the doors, where the Yellow Lantern Se'rokal was walking out of his room while blinking his eight eyes due to Sweetie's glowing light. "And that this is a guaranteed way to get all of us killed, and that no sane being would ever do this. Why is he worth it?"
"Because Spike is our ally and we don't give up on our allies. That's the Lantern way," John spoke up with confidence as he nodded to Sweetie. "Besides, I promised to protect the kid and I failed. But this time will be different. If you really think that you have a way to reach him Sweetie Belle, to bring the kid back to us, then I'm willing to take that risk."
"True love finds a way, huh?" Nattily asked with a cynical smile before sighing and nodding at Sweetie Belle. "Well, I do owe Razer my life and if he brought me here to help you, then I suppose it's my duty to him and my duty as a Star-Sapphire to help love overcome. Count me in." Sweetie smiled at her allies before looking over at the Yellow Lantern, who stood with his six arms crossed and a skeptical look on his face.
"Well, Se'rokal? Last chance to board the crazy train," Sweetie offered with a smile, but for a long time the spider didn't answer.
"As a member of the Sinestro Corps, I'm afraid of what will happen if we do this," he finally said at last, his voice staying neutral as he spoke. "So many things could go wrong, the worst being we could die--if not turned into the very thing we're trying to save." Then Se'rokal let out a small smile before his eyes burned a golden color. "But I fear even more what will happen if I stay behind and all of you die, because then I'll be left to fight on my own. So, I guess I'd rather die with a group than by myself. Count me in this suicide pact."
"Alright Sweetie, since none of us seem to care at all for our lives, what do you have planned?" John asked the Blue Belle, who allowed a smile to cross her face as the constructs began to match her thoughts.
"It might sound crazy at first, but you've all got to trust me with this. Here's the plan..."
|)O(|
Winds whipped across the desert-like landscape, hurling sand and debris everywhere. Normally, Sweetie Belle hated getting sand in her suit or in her mane, but the blowing of the sand barely came to her attention as she sat mediating under a large, almost inoperable communication array that had just sent a signal to the nearby space station.
A small outpost behind her gave her slight shelter from the sand and sun that beat down on the unforgiving landscape, but she chose to sit out in the open, so that Brainiac didn't suspect--or at least didn't put too much thought into the idea of--a trap.
'And then, there's still the chance that he completely ignores us and instead focuses on going to Oa, but despite him being an emotionless machine he sure doesn't seem to like being beaten,' Sweetie Belle thought as a smile crossed her face, and she opened her eyes to see a large moon that hadn't been there before slowly getting larger. 'And we've hindered him. We've annoyed him. And I bet he would just love to kill us in the most ironic way possible. Come on chrome dome, don't disappoint me.'
At first, she saw little black dots slowly getting larger, but a minute later all five of the "black dots" landed in the desert sand before her to reveal four Green Manhunters and the mechanical dragon that had nearly claimed her life the last time she met it. She said nothing to the five as they approached her, but she didn't need words to know that the dragon was scanning her with slight confusion.
"How strange. I believe that the last time I encountered you, you were dying in the coldness of space due to your true love stopping your heart," the dragon said in the mechanical voice of Brainiac, yet Sweetie's face remained neutral at his words. "I also see that the Blue Lantern who took you away from your certain demise also found a way to restore your hope. Yet all that has done has prolonged your inevitable death. So why are you here?"
"I'm here to fight you, Brainiac, and to get back what you took from me," Sweetie said in a calm voice as she exhaled and slowly rose out of her meditative state, her face emotionless, yet her eyes shone with a blue light that Brainiac did not recall being there the last time they fought. If Brainiac had emotion, he would have found amusement in the statement that Sweetie had just said. But instead he chose to shake the dragon's head.
"And how do you propose to do that? You fought the green light of the Manhunters before, and all you did was increase their power and aid in the defeat of your allies, which you will again," the dragon said as it turned its head to where the other Lanterns were hiding. "And yet, you chose to fight me by yourself. The light of your hope has blinded you," Brainiac said before motioning for the four Manhunters to attack, which they did all at once.
"No. Its light has finally allowed me to see," Sweetie replied before her horn glowed with light and the closest Manhunter to her stopped in its tracks. Brainiac raised an eyebrow in confusion before the Manhunter turned to the others and began to unleash blasts of green light into their chests. Combining their three laser rods, the others quickly made short work of the comrade that had turned on them, but Brainiac watched the whole spectacle with a nod of understanding.
"I see. You are a being that can access the technology known as magic," Brainiac realized as Sweetie Belle smirked at him before turning her horn to the other Manhunters once again, using her power to make another one of the three turn on its comrades. However, this time Brainiac made a motion to the Manhunters, and instead of attacking the other machine they started to fire on Sweetie, forcing her to cast a shield around herself and cutting off her spell. "But even if you do possess that power, it does not guarantee your victory. All it has done is prolonged this battle a little further."
"Perhaps you are right, Brainiac. Perhaps it is time that we end this battle," Sweetie Belle said. Brainiac narrowed his eyes slightly as he contemplated what she meant, before a barrage of green gunfire rained down from above, obliterating the Manhunters that were standing close together. "See, you were so worried about the four of us that your forgot about the Interceptor. And don't worry, we placed it just out of range of your station." The dragon looked at Sweetie Belle with narrowed eyes, not knowing what to make of her.
"What are you playing at, girl? You know that you cannot defeat me, and I know that you will not harm this form out of love for who it used to be. So why face me then?" Brainiac asked.
"Because you took someone from me, Brainiac, someone who I care about very deeply," Sweetie Belle said with power as she began to walk through the destroyed Manhunters, blue light shining in her soul. "And at first, I believed that somebody to be gone, that I would never see them again. But now I know that it's not over, that we can get him back. I believe that Spike can break free of you. And I believe that you've held onto him long enough."
"You are foolish, child. He is gone and this body is mine," Brainiac stated before lunging forward at Sweetie Belle, extending the dragon's claw with cold eyes as he prepared to tear the mare in two. "What in all of the cosmos could possibly convince you that there is even a fraction of a chance of getting him back?!"
"Hope, Brainiac," Sweetie said as she constructed a staff and prepared to fight. "I have hope."