//------------------------------// // A Rainbow Of Death // Story: The Emerald Torch // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// One of the Green Lanterns constructed a foreign weapon and lunged at Brainiac with said weapon lifted above his head, but in a blinding flash of speed Brainiac's hand shot out and he grabbed hold of the Lantern by his throat. A quick blast of yellow from his eyes disintegrated the weapon and an even quicker flick of his wrist snapped the Lantern's neck, causing Spike and Sweetie to boil with rage while the machine callously tossed the body to the side. "You two...no, three if I am to count Stewart, have done the inconceivable," Brainiac seethed while he began to walk forward, glowing with a hellish red hue as he advanced. "You have found a way to interfere with my mission--My Purpose. You have introduced a foreign element into my databanks that is compromising my very core." "You're welcome," Spike replied with a smirk while control over his body returned to him, allowing him to leap forward with a sudden boost of mechanical might right towards Brainiac. Metal slammed into metal when Spike collided with Brainiac, causing the machine to slide back slightly as Spike strained against him. "And while I'm not happy about the new uniform, I should probably thank you for allowing me to do THIS!" he snarled before curling up his fist and driving it right into Brainiac's cheek , forcing the robot to take a few steps back. "Indeed, it was an error on my part to try and suppress your will instead of outright killing you," Brainiac agreed while his head slowly turned back towards Spike, with a single crack running down his face that had a multitude of lights shining from within. "For the only guaranteed way to keep you heroes down...is to kill you." Brainiac drove a fist into Spike's face as he said this and sent the dragon rocketing across the room, where he slammed into one of the screens. A rain of glass and sparks followed him to the deck, where he bounced off the metal floors with a grunt. Brainiac then slowly turned his gaze from the downed dragon to the remaining four Lanterns, each of whom was glaring at him with either fear or rage. The two Green Lanterns were the first to attack him, roaring while they combined their constructs to create a gargantuan hammer that they brought down on top of the mighty machine. Yet, with no effort Brainiac reached up with a hand shining with a golden light and grabbed hold of the construct, hardly straining as he tightened his grip and shattered the green within his grasp. "Will falters before fear," Brainiac whispered dangerously before appearing before one of the Lanterns and driving his fist into the Lantern's stomach. Green shards flew everywhere when the Lantern's personal shield was shattered, though the blood from the wound had barely begun to seep before a massive blast of yellow light reduced the ring wielder to ash. In another flash of light, Brainiac slammed the side of his foot into the skull of the second Green Lantern, snapping him to the floor where he collapsed without a sound. "And only now, do the rest of you understand the repercussions of facing me," Brainiac stated with an underlying tone of wrath as his head slowly turned towards the Yellow Lantern, whose face was filled with fear while he pointed his ring at the machine. He fired bolt after bolt into Brainiac, but a red aura surrounded the machine and dissolved the Lantern's shot the moment they struck his metal form. Brainiac wrapped his fingers around the Lantern's throat, allowing his red energy to burn through the golden barrier that surrounded the Lantern. "And what can fear do to someone consumed with hate?" "They can hope." Brainiac roared as blue light struck his form, causing the red energy to burn, and for his brain to experience a strange discomfort, almost a pain, that coursed through him. Under such powerful light Brainiac released his grip on the Yellow Lantern and staggered back, before turning on the blue belle with a cold glare on his face. "Your blue light remains as annoying as ever," Brainiac stated coldly as the red aura died away from around him. Sweetie noticed this while she constructed her staff, spinning it once before floating up in front of Brainiac with a blank look. Then, with an incredible effort of will, Brainiac forced his body to be fueled by the power of will, glowing with an emerald green as a result. "But all the blue light can do alone is strengthen that of a green. So once again, you shall be your own undoing." "Let us see about that," Sweetie coldly replied before twirling her staff and thrusting it at the green machine, driving the tip of it into the center of Brainiac's chest. She followed up the blow by slamming her hoof into the other end of her staff to double the force of the blow, creating a blue ripple at the point where the staff struck Brainiac. With a snarl, Brainiac grabbed her staff and yanked it out of her grasp, shattering it with a single clench of his fist. "Go ahead, break my weapons. I'm not done." "Yes. You are," Brainiac declared as he lunged forward towards her, only to be tackled in the side by a being as strong as he was that drove the both of them through the metal deck. Brainiac turned his head towards his attacker only to receive a metal fist to the face that snapped his skull back. "Back from the dead, jackass!" Spike roared with a mechanical fury while he unloaded lefts and rights into the metal face of Brainiac, caving it in with each blow and causing more cracks to run down his skull. Yet, in a moment Brainiac lifted his arm and fired a blast of energy that didn't belong to any of the Lanterns into Spike's chest, hurling the dragon back as he roared in pain and slammed into the bottom of the spherical room. "Do not assume that because you have some of my technology that you are able to fight me, Spike," Brainiac stated as he pulled himself out of the crater Spike had punched him into and floated over to the snarling dragon, watching with a cold glare as the sparking dragon tried to push himself up. "I invented the very machinery that keeps you alive, and with a simple flick of my wrist I could end you." "Then why don't you shut up and just do it?" Spike snarled while he managed to push himself back up, but as he glared at Brainiac a cold smile spread across the machine's face. "Because I am feeling...cruel," Brainiac coldly replied as a golden light began to illuminate his body. "And because I find it amusing to see what a weak and powerless creature that you are." When Spike glared up at him with both rage and confusion, Brainiac knew that he would have to elaborate. "Think for once in your life, Spike. You are weak. For all of your will and resolve, you have always had to rely on another for your strength. Be it the rings of power that the Guardians of Oa created or now, using my own mechanical form against me. But what can you do alone?" As Brainiac said this, he sent a blast of yellow straight into the dragon's chest, staggering him long enough for Brainiac to fly down and slam his feet into Spike's face. Without a moment's delay, Brainiac followed up the attack by driving his fist into Spike's jaw, hurling the dragon upwards and through the platform above them. Spike slammed into another monitor and had just begun to fall, when Brainiac shot out of the floor, finishing his attack with an elbow to the back of the head. "Everything that has made you special, that others admire you for, is because you rely on others for your strength," Brainiac continued while he grabbed the back of Spike's head and lifted him up, so the dragon was forced to gaze into Brainiac's golden eyes. "You are nothing by yourself." "And what's so wrong about relying on others to be strong?" Spike asked with a smirk before his eyes narrowed and a devious smile crossed his face. "And it's clear to me that out of all the worlds you stole, not one of them had any information on dragons. Or else you'd know...that we've all got a certain trick up our sleeves!" Right as he yelled this, Spike opened his maw as wide as he could before unleashing an inferno of magical green fire into the face of Brainiac. "GRAH!" Brainiac roared while the magical nature of the fire bypassed his armor and burned his very being, forcing him back as Spike rose to his feet. The dragon ceased the inferno for a brief moment to take in a breath before he roared in fury once again upon Brainiac, who staggered back under the unrelenting flame. Yet, Spike's moment of offense was over quickly when Brainiac pointed both of his arms at Spike and unleashed twin blasts of his own, twin blasts of yellow light that pushed back the dragon's flames before striking Spike in the face. "I will admit Spike, that it has been a learning experience having these emotions for the first time," Brainiac said with a sinister smile while he slammed his fist into the side of Spike's head and sent him sprawling to the deck next to his chair, where Spike groaned as he struggled to push himself up. "The...rage that I feel towards you and your team has been most interesting. But in the face of such rage, I wonder what it will feel like...to watch you finally die," Brainiac growled when he planted his foot on Spike's throat. "Doesn't...matter...we've...won," Spike spat out from under Brainiac's boot, confusing the machine for a moment before his eyes widened with realization. "The Blue Lantern," he growled before he spun around to find that all seven of the Lanterns that had been trapped within his containers had been freed, assumedly by the blue belle who was helping to heal all of their injuries and to get them into fighting shape. A cold realization washed over Brainiac, a realization that he had just been outsmarted by a dragon and a mare, both of whom were hardly that bright to begin with. "See what I mean about working together? Funny thing about emotions, especially for someone who's just learning what they're like...if you don't keep a close eye on them they can really narrow your field of vision," Spike taunted with a smirk as he managed to push Brainiac's foot off of him. "Especially rage. Rage can turn even a smart guy like you into an idiot who overlooks little details." Spike rolled out from under Brainiac and quickly dashed over to the other Lanterns, who were just starting to snap out of the fog. "Where...are we?" the Violet Lantern asked as she blinked her eyes a few times. "All I remember...were these machines...and..." the Red Lantern began before his eyes narrowed on Brainiac and his wrath burned back to life. "You! You are the one who captured us!" "That's right Lanterns, this is the guy that's kept you imprisoned and has been draining the power out of your rings to use against your Corps," Sweetie explained quickly while she turned to face Brainiac with a snarl, Spike floating down beside her a moment later. "But now's our chance to get back at him, to put a stop to his plans once and for all. Are you with us?" "If he is the one who captured us, then indeed it is time for some pay back!" the Yellow Lantern growled as he stepped forward. "He glows with the power of all the rings! I want his power!" Larfleeze snarled while he scurried around the group. "I know not who you are mechanical dragon, but I sense a great deal of compassion in you," the Indigo Lantern stated as he stepped forward with narrow eyes. "And emotion...that I hardly sense in the being before us." One by one the formerly trapped Lanterns stepped forward to join Spike and Sweetie, each with their reason to do so. "Let's tear him apart." "All shall be well." "His death belongs to me!" "Hey Lanterns, this is Brainiac's first time feeling emotions in his life," Spike informed the others as Brainiac narrowed his eyes, his whole form beginning to crackle with power. "So let's make sure that he feels every single blast we hit him with. LANTERN'S, LIGHT 'EM UP!" Spike lunged forward after roaring the battle cry and slammed his shoulder into Brainiac's chest, staggering the machine long enough for the other Lanterns to take to the air and unleash their lights upon Brainiac, who staggered backwards under the sheer combined power of the Lanterns' light. "No...you fools! My form...cannot...!" Brainiac tried to yell over the roaring of the Lanterns, but all eight combined their blasts with a roar that drowned out everything else. The massive blast of light hurled Brainiac into the wall of his fortress, crushing the metal wall and nearly blasting the machine into the vacuum of space. More and more cracks began to form along Brainiac's metal exterior as the lights began to overload him, preventing him from even lifting an arm to defend himself. "Now! While we can!" Spike roared as he and the eight other Lanterns lunged forward with all of their respective emotions fueling their rings, combining all of their power into one massive attack. The nine Lanterns slammed into the machine and drove him right through the side of his ship, bursting forth on the outside of the ship and right through the metal skull of the space station. With one final push the nine Lanterns slammed their lights into Brainiac and drove the machine down towards the Green planet below, Brainiac's being starting to burn away as they entered into the planet's atmosphere. Yet, despite the unyielding power of the Lantern rings, Brainiac still had the power and intelligence to keep on fighting. And he knew that the only way to defeat the power...was to absorb it. |)O(| With a roar, John drove his green blade through the back of a Manhunter's head, tearing the blade out of the side of the Manhunter's head to make sure that it was down for the count. As the machine fell to the ground without another sound, John let out a sigh of relief while he took a moment to look around. Despite the Manhunters having outnumbered them, the combined strengths of the multiple Lantern Corps had managed to fend off most of them. 'Things seem to be going better down here--more so than I expected,' John sighed before turning his eyes to the sky, a worried look crossing his face. 'So, maybe I should go after them. To make sure they're...' But John's thoughts, along with the thoughts of the rest of the Lanterns who looked up at the sky, were completely derailed when they all laid eyes on a rainbow meteor that was crashing down towards the planet. "Get down!" John roared to the Lanterns nearby while he constructed a barrier around himself as the meteor came crashing into the very heart of the city's center. An explosion that shone with a multitude of colors erupted in the sky and the ground shook from the impact, until the shaking and the burning lights finally came to a stop a few moments later. Being one of the closest Lanterns on the scene, John lowered his barrier and floated over to the crater while preparing himself for battle. But he never expected what he saw. In the center of the smoking crater lay seven different colored Lanterns, all of whom John recognized from Brainiac's ship. None of them were moving and even one of them was dead, since his ring had abandoned him and was flying off into space. But despite the sudden appearance of the captured Lanterns and the meteor that appeared in the center of the Green Lantern home world, what made John's heart go cold was the being that was walking out of the center of the crater. The being was made of a silver metal, but that metal was cracked and shattered beyond belief while a rainbow of lights shone from the cracks and fractures. But John's eyes were drawn to what the machine held in each hand, because in each hand the machine held Sweetie Belle and Spike, neither of whom was moving. As Brainiac came to a stop and glanced around at the Lanterns who were watching, his eyes rested upon the Green Lantern that had caused him so much pain and hatred. With a small smile crossing his face, he dropped the pair of Lanterns that he was holding as he walked up to John. "John Stewart. Finally, I can put an end to you," Brainiac said maliciously, his head twitching slightly as he glared at Stewart before glancing at the other Lanterns. "And put an end to the Green Lanterns. And when I'm done with you," Brainiac began as he slowly floated forward. "I will destroy all emotion in the cosmos. And the very last emotion you shall all feel is..." "Hopelessness."