Desperate
Sweetie rolled to the side to dodge Brainiac's blast while simultaneously spitting red plasma across the face and body of the machine. Brainiac looked down at his own body with interest as the metal that could trade blows with Superman was slowly eaten away by the red energy.
"I was not aware that the red plasma had such corrosive capabilities," Brainiac noted before dodging Sweetie's swing at his head. The machine reached up and grabbed Sweetie by the face, before slamming her skull first into the ground with enough force to crack the asteroid. He then lifted his boot and stomped down right on Sweetie's chest, getting her to roar with pain as her ribs cracked.
"I...will...burn you!" she bellowed with hate before constructing a spear out of blood that she hurled right into the face of Brainiac. Brainiac took a step back, while the acidic-like red energy began to eat away at his body again, allowing Sweetie Belle to get back up and lunge right for his throat.
"It seems that your power increases with your rage, to such a point that physical harm only makes you angrier," Brainiac noted as he dodged left and right to avoid Sweetie's blows, intrigued by her new powers. "The Red Lantern that I secured, despite having a great rage as well, did not last as long as you did. Perhaps your hate was stronger than his? Or have you completely surrendered yourself to your hate of me?"
Sweetie's response was to bellow with rage and bite down with all of her might on Brainiac's shoulder, letting the red plasma seep from her jaw and into the machine. Yet despite her overwhelming rage, one backhand from Brainiac was all it took to fling Sweetie off of him and back into the dust. Brainiac raised the arm that Sweetie had been biting to finish her off, but when it failed to move, he glanced at his shoulder to find that the red plasma had already eaten its way through his joints.
"How very interesting," Brainiac muttered while he glanced at Sweetie Belle, who was getting up once again with hate still burning in her eyes. "It seems that even my advanced armor is not entirely safe from this corrosive energy. I must study this further." Sweetie hurled herself at the machine once again, but this time Brainiac intercepted her with a hammer-like shot to the gut that dropped her to her knees.
"You have provided me with knowledge that I had no accounts of previously," Brainiac stated while Sweetie spat out more red plasma, burning with hate as she glared up at Brainiac and tried to grab hold of his leg, while Brainiac pointed his left arm at her. "For that, your demise shall be swift."
"Brainiac! Think fast!" Brainiac turned just in time to take a shredded Manhunter to the side of the head, sending him skidding backwards as John landed in front of Sweetie. His suit was torn, bruises covered his face and one of his arms had blood running down its length, but his emerald light burned bright as he pointed his ring at Brainiac.
"Stewart. So you survived," Brainiac noted with a small nod as he looked up to see the other Manhunters floating in pieces above them. "It seems that I have underestimated you. You can still hold your own when the situation calls for it."
"And I'm more than enough to take you on," John growled with power, even though he knew that Brainiac was in a league far above his own. But he wouldn't let that stop him. Brainiac took a step forward to engage the Lantern in battle, before a thin smile crossed his face and he started to fly back up to his ship. "Where are you running to? Face me!" John bellowed as Brainiac turned around.
"I no longer need to bother myself with you. I have far more important matters to attend to. Besides, you will have your hands full without me." John was about to ask the madman what he meant, before a roar of fury could be heard and a blast of red energy slammed into his back, hurling him across the asteroid. With a groan he turned to see that there was only one being that could have shot him, and she was slowly advancing towards him with hatred in her eyes.
"You...you let him die..." Sweetie whispered with eyes burning like a sun, plasma dripping from her maw as she glared into the very soul of John. "You did nothing to save him. You fled and left my Spike to die."
"Sweetie, you're not thinking straight. The power of the red ring is messing with your mind," John tried to reason with her, but at the same time he knew there was only one way this was going to end. He constructed two giant fists around is arms as slowly took up a fighting stance. "You have to fight it Sweetie, you're not a Red Lantern. You were chosen to bear the symbol of hope."
"My love is gone. My hope is dead. And my fears have been brought to life," Sweetie spat through crimson teeth as she constructed a large sickle and chain that wrapped around her body, making her glow with an unholy crimson. "And all because you fled for your life, instead of choosing to save Spike's. Now you will feel all I have left...YOU WILL FEEL MY WRATH!"
With a shriek that sounded like it came from hell itself, Sweetie blitzed right at John, who slammed his gauntlets together to create a shield. Sweetie slammed into the shield head first and sent crimson lines cracking across the construct while driving the both of them across the asteroid. John cancelled his shield and switched to a large jar that he placed over the bloody belle, but with a flash of crimson she shattered the container and tackled into John once again, slamming the both of them into a chunk of asteroid that was sticking out.
"Sweetie...you've got to...fight the rage!" John tried to break through to her, but with another shriek she began to throw lefts and rights at John's head. John brought his arms up to defend himself while placing a boot in Sweetie's gut, kicking her off in a burst of strength that sent her sprawling. "Do you think this is what Spike would want? Us to be fighting while Brainiac goes off to do who knows what with the power he is gathering?!"
"I DON'T CARE!" she roared in reply as she swung the sickle with deadly intent, forcing John to roll out of the way as the blade decapitated the rock behind him. He fired a pair of restraints around the mare's legs to buy himself some time, but the red plasma burned through his will within seconds. With another burst of crimson, she wrapped the chain around his leg and whipped him over to her, slamming him into the dust before whipping her chain again and hurling the Lantern across the ground. "Spike is gone! And all that I have left is my rage!"
"And do you think you're the only one?!" John bellowed in retort as green light erupted from him, momentarily battling back the overwhelming power of the red. "Do you truly think that you are the only one to lose somebody you love in the line of duty?! Hell no, all of us Lanterns have lost someone special to them, someone they love! Hal has, Kyle has, and I know for damn sure that I have! You think that I haven't wanted to surrender to my pain, to just lash out at everything that makes me hurt? Of course I did! But then I would be dishonoring the memory of those I loved!"
"There is a bigger picture here Sweetie! There is Brainiac, and what he plans to do to the cosmos will make your rage and my will insignificant in comparison!" John bellowed at Sweetie, who seemed too stunned by John's rage to speak.
"If he gets his way, then he'll be right! Spike's sacrifice wouldn't mean anything! The only way you can honor what Spike did for you is to help me stop him, to help all of space put a stop to his plan! Now, are you going to help me?! Or are you going to disrespect Spike's memory and keep fighting?"
John's words seemed to confuse the bloody belle, because she looked down at her hooves with hints of reason starting to flash in her eyes. "W-what am I...no, no! Spike must be...he died for...Spike." The moment John saw the confusion spreading across her face, he dashed forward in a burst of speed and tackled the belle, wrapping his arms around her neck as he did so.
"Sorry to do this Sweetie," John grunted as he choked the mare out, holding on tight despite her flailing. She fought against him with all of her hate, but after a few moments she slumped over unconscious, allowing John to let go of her and trap her in a green sphere. "But I can't deal with your hatred towards me right now. Not while Brainiac's on the loose. Once he's been dealt with...I'll help you deal with this hate. I promise."
|) O (|
"Free me!"
John did his best to ignore the roar of rage from the mare and the clanging of bars as she rammed herself against them, trying to focus on fixing the communication within the Interceptor. He had thrown Sweetie in the brig, which had been modified by the Guardians before to deal with Red Lanterns, before trying to send out a message to the Guardians. That was when he found that not only had the engines gone down during the attack, but that the communication was offline as well.
'And that racket going on in the back is really not helping me concentrate,' John thought as he finished connecting a pair of wires together, allowing a smile to cross his face when the console above him started to hum again. He pulled himself out from under the table and sat down, pressing a few buttons to activate the link to Oa. It took three calls, but he finally managed to make it through, though he could tell by their faces when they popped up that they were already in a bad mood.
"I hope that you have a good report for us Lantern Stewart, because we are not happy about a large number of Blue Lanterns showing up on Oa," Ali said with a cold tone in his voice. "We've had a large number of Lanterns who have never come into contact with a Blue Lantern before and now that they are supercharged, they all seem to have gained the notion that they are invincible. I hope you have a good explanation for this."
"How about this for an explanation, you old fart? Brainiac is the one who is killing Lanterns so he can use their power to fuel his Manhunters and also shrink that home worlds of Lantern Corps to add to his personal collection." To John's surprise, the entire council was struck dumb by his words and the little blue beings looked from one to another with no idea what to say for a moment.
"Are...are you certain that this information is correct?" one of them asked with a slight laugh of disbelief. "I mean, I heard of Brainiac shrinking cities, but entire worlds? Especially Lantern Corps?"
"It's already happened. I watched as he shrunk the Star-Sapphires and put them in a bottle," John said with such seriousness in his tone that all of the council believed him on the spot. "And he plans to do the same to all of the Corps' home worlds. THAT'S why I sent the Blue Lanterns to Oa. Not only are they a small Corps that need support, but they can increase all of Oa's weapons beyond one hundred percent."
"So, they would be able to increase our weapons to the point that not even Brainiac would be able to attack us. Smart thinking, Lantern Stewart," one of the other Guardians said, but John let out a bitter laugh at his praise.
"Yeah, that's what I thought at first, but then...he somehow managed to combine all the powers of the Lanterns to overwhelm the central battery that protected the Star-Sapphires," John informed the council, this time getting audible gasps out of some of them. "Brainiac found a way to tap into the Lanterns' powers and add them to his own arsenal. When we have to face him, and it will be when, he will have all our powers and more."
"Which makes it all the more necessary to stop him," Ali broke in, taking command of the situation once again. "Lantern Stewart, if what you says is true, and I have no reason to believe that you would lie, then we need to ally ourselves with the rest of the Lantern Corps as soon as possible. That is why I want you to head into the Qward and speak with Sinestro about aiding us."
"Are you crazy? Sinestro?! He hates our guts! In fact, I'm fairly certain that he's teamed with Brainiac to assault Earth before!" John roared with fury, but Ali held up a hand to silence him.
"Yes, but as you stated, Brainiac has captured a Lantern from all seven Corps," Ali explained while John began to catch on to the plan. "That means that Brainiac has captured at least one Yellow Lantern while killing a number more. And if we know Sinetro, and we do, he will stop at nothing until he has his revenge. And I believe you Earthlings have a saying for this situation?"
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," John finished, getting a nod from Ali before the Guardian began to look around the room.
"By the way, Lantern Stewart, where is the Blue Lantern and Lantern Spike? I believe that they were with you the last time you called?" The long silence after Ali asked the question was answer enough for most of the Guardians, but John still felt the need to be heard.
"Sweetie...is now a Red Lantern. And she's being held in the brig until I'm certain that she won't tear my throat out. As for Spike," John began with a pained sigh, "he held off Brainiac so Sweetie and I could escape. He's gone. We saw his ring."
"I see. Well then, I would recommend that you move quickly to ensure that no other lives are lost," Ali stated as he brought up a map for John. "The Interceptor was created with the ability to travel to the anti-matter dimension in case we needed to reach Sinestro. It will lead you to Qward in this sector, Lantern Stewart. If we are lucky, Sinestro will not need much convincing to join our side."
"And if he doesn't, it's me against a thousand Yellow Lanterns," John pointed out with a rueful smirk. "Fine, we have our backs against the wall and need all the allies we can get. Let's just hope that we catch him in a good mood," John said as he reached out to terminate the connection.
"Lantern Stewart?" Ali said before John could switch the communications off.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry about Lantern Spike. From the little I had heard about him, he was one of our best."
"Yeah. I'm sorry too."
John cut the conversation there, before leaning forward in his chair and entering the coordinates to where the wormhole was supposed to be, crossing his arms when he finished while he leaned back and let the ship do the rest. Off in the other room, he could still hear Sweetie Belle slamming against the bars, but it was now a less frequent event than it had been previously.
'I'm going to have to tell the ponies.' John frowned with sadness as that thought crossed his mind, realizing that if they got out of this alive, he would have to be the one to tell Spike's family that he had died in the line of duty. It was a part of his job he hated the most, and thankfully he rarely had to preform it on Earth. 'But they deserve to know. They have to right to know...know that the kid was a hero, just like the rest of the Lanterns that have given their lives.'
He then reached out to the communications again, considering for a moment of giving the Justice League another call before deciding against it. 'Trigon's a much bigger threat than Brainiac, as much as I hate to say it, and they're going to need everyone they got to beat him, despite Clark having the best win-loss record against Brainiac,' John thought before another smirk crossed his face and he closed his eyes while waiting to arrive.
'Guess I'll just have to be Superman in his place and put the weight of the cosmos on my shoulders...and one of my shoulders keeps giving out. I hate getting old.'
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Uh hum. Black Lanterns. DO YOUR F***ING JOB AND BRING SPIKE BACK TO KICK ASS!
Got some typos to point out.
Misspelled Sinestro.
I think John's line should be, "And if he does" due to it being in case Sinestro DOES need a lot of convincing.
Well, it looks like until she manages to gain control over her rage, Sweetie will have to stay in the brig.
And the bombshells that John dropped on the Guardians...seeing their dumbstruck reactions was priceless!
from what i can see aside from the sinestro corps, stewert is probably gonna need the lanterns of equestria to fight brainiac and its a smart one at that since brainiac dosent know about them.
Please do not kill John in this story, he is one of the cooler Lantern's! He is dropping the lines that proceed a character getting killed.
I wanna see a death battle between Trigon and Braniac now!
6343717 What makes you so sure he hasn't found out about the Equestrian Lanterns? Knowing him, he probably already knows all about their existence.
6343469 But who will be the tortured soul to be trapped in the Black Lantern Central Power Battery?
And even more important, if that does happen, what will prevent him from being an even bigger threat than Brainiac is?
6344351 he said interesting when he saw spike and sweety belle and lets not forget he wants all knowledge from the corps to himself. How dose that work when there are still lanterns not on their homeworlds.
6344366 For all we know, the reason he said "Interesting" might have been due to a sense of amusement at seeing them attempting to challenge him.
6344366 Also, for Christ's sake, start using proper spelling and capitalization in your comments!
6344377 dont give a dam
Correct me if I'm wrong but is Trigon truly a bigger threat than Brainiac at the moment? I mean as far as I know Trigon's reign even if successful will remain contained on Earth, Brainiac however is a threat to the whole universe.
Well things certainly are getting more hopeless by the minute, first John loses Spike in the line of duty, and now Sweetiebelle has become a liability due to being blinded by rage. Now he has to talk to Sinestro Corps. all alone and hope that they don't just take advantage and kill him on the spot.
Considering how dire things are now, they may have to call in Mogo. Of course considering Brainiac can now shrink planets, even Mogo may not be enough.