Three months ago, all hope seemed lost when Superman defeated Batman and put him under his control. Using Brainiac's technology and his spaceship, he freed his regimes from Stryker's Island and locked up his own cousin, Supergirl. The world was once again under his iron fist and even the Insurgency appeared to be a lost cause. That is until a man in a pair of sunglasses arrived out of nowhere.

The man in sunglasses single-handed broke Supergirl out of Stryker, and once the two had escaped, they found the Insurgency. A band of rebellious heroes and villains, consisting of Green Lantern, Green Arrows, Flash, Black Canary, Firestorm, Blue Beetle, Catwoman, and even Harleen.

With the Insurgency's aid, they were able to destroy the WatchTower, recruited other villains such as Cheetah, Reverse-Flash, and Captain Cold to join them in the fight, and even rescued both Firestorm and Blue Beetle from the clutches of Superman and his One Earth Government. Finally, it looks like things were beginning to change for the better.

A/N To clear up any confusion, I changed the name of the hacker to someone I know.

The Man:

I roll onto my back before landing on my feet. Looking back, I push myself up before running away. Barely running five steps, Flash reaches me. Running around in circles, he traps me.

Closing and opening my eyes, the world around me slows down. The red blur turns into the Flash, and timing it right, I shoot out my arm and watch as Flash runs right into it. Screaming as he falls to the ground, I punch the back of his head and knock him out. His body dropping to the floor, I sense something incoming and turn around.

Two fireballs coming toward me, I once roll out of the way before they can hit me. Bursting into bits of flames as they hit the ground, I find myself face-to-face with Firestorm.

"You asked for this" Firestorm screams, more fireballs forming in their hands.

"Easy there hothead," I say, backing up. "I don't want you setting off the sprinkles."

Firestorm shoots out their hands, bright orange beams come toward me. I jump out of the way and watch as the beams go right past me. Having to adjust their aim, I take the opportunity to run toward Firestorm. Despite being in the air, I still manage to grab onto one of their feet with a leap. Wiping away some sweat, I climb onto the two even before they can react.

"Time to chill," I say, hitting the two in the neck with my two fingers. Firestorm screams as the fire around them die before the three of us start to fall. Jumping off and landing on my feet, Jason and Professor Stein defuse and hit the floor.

"Ollie," Black Canary screams, skidding to a stop in front of me. "Try and hit him."

Oliver meanwhile comes up from behind me, a bow in hand and arrows already loaded. Rapidly firing them at me, I have to dodge an assortment of trick arrows; net arrows, explosive arrows, and even a few regular arrows.

Slicing a flash arrow with my flattened hand, I look away as a flash goes off.

"He's not looking," Harleen says, "I'm going in. Cover me."

"No," Cheetahs says, "I'm faster. I'm going."

Even without looking, I can hear as clear as day Harleen's and Cheetah's footsteps as they run to me. Focusing and listening, I push down on my fist and ram my elbow into Harleen's stomach. Only a second later, I swing my fist around and hit Cheetah as she tries to lunge at me.

"I have more than one way of listening," I say, hearing both Harleen and Cheetah as they fall to the ground.

"Oliver," Blue Beetle yells, "I got his left. You shoot from his back."

"Cross-fire," Oliver yells back, the two of them simultaneously firing.

Looking between Blue Beetle and Green Arrow, I roll, duck, and step back as a barrage of arrows and blue blasts storm toward me.

"He's too fast," Blue Beetle says, "We can't hit him."

"Let's see if he's faster than sound," Black Canary interrupts and the barrage stops. Landing on my feet, I watch as Black Canary inhales.

"Oh son of a bastard," I say, crossing my arms. Screaming, Black Canary unleashes a sonic storm.

Invisible rings hitting me over and over, I manage to stay my ground, my feet only skidding against the floor. Eventually, running out of breath, Black Canary drops to the floor. Meanwhile, I'm still standing, uncrossing my arms. Just to be sure, I snap my fingers before letting out a sigh of relief.

"No way," Oliver says, his eyes stuck on Black Canary. "How did you survive that? There's no one anyone could have survived that."

"Trust me," I reply, "I'm not happy I survived that earlier."

Once more, I sense incoming danger and dodge to the right as Blue Beetle tries to hit me with dual sword arms.

"We can't hit you from afar," Blue Beetle says, raising one of his sword arms, "But maybe I can from close range."

"I wouldn't recommend Bug Boy," I reply, raising my fists. "

Letting out a war cry as he charges, Beetle swings his arms wildly around. Jumping left and right as I dodge them, I grab Beetle by his wrist before kicking out his leg. Force onto his knee, a swift punch to the head is what knocks him down.

"Just you and me," I say, turning to face the last of the Insurgency. Green Arrow loading an arrow into his bow, he aims it at me. While holding his bow and arrow, I notice shaking coming from his hands. His arrow bouncing against his bow, I roll my eyes.

"You can't even shoot straight," I say, reaching into my pocket and tossing a pellet. The pellet hits Green Arrow right in the face, it explodes and unleashes green smoke. Coughing for a little bit, he then drops onto his knees before collapsing.

"I thought you promised no tools," Dr. Crane says from the battlefield's sideline. "Why the smoke pellet?"

"I have better thing to do than watch Green Arrow miss," I reply, walking over to the unconscious Emerald Archer. Grabbing his body and tossing it onto my back, I carry him over to the sideline. Meanwhile, the Doc grabs Blue Beetle's body and carries him over too.

"So how was the uhh, assessment," the doc asks, now carrying Flash's body. "Was it bad, or not so bad?"

"It is horribly, insanely, on the brink of no hope whatsoever, bad," I answer, tossing the professor onto my back while dragging Jason by his leg. "None of them could so much as hit me. You saw it all. I had a harder time brushing my teeth."

The Doc picking up Harleen stops me before I can go grab anyone else.

"For the record," he starts, "And take into account, I used to fight Batman on the daily, you are unlike others I've seen. You're a lot faster, stronger, and smarter, and all of that together is a hard-to-beat combination."

"I don't have super-speed likes he does," I reply, pointing at Flash. "I don't have super-strength like the man of steel himself, and I doubt I'm a whole lot smarter than Bruce Wayne. Thanks for the compliments, but no thanks."

About to go grab someone else, the Doc once again stops me.

"You can go. I got this."

Patting the red duffle bag with a cross on it, he walks back onto the battlefield. I on the other side shrug my shoulder and leave. Exiting through the double doors, I grab my phone.

"Higgins," I start, the hacker answering within seconds.

"Yes. What's up? What do you need?"

"I'm just checking to see how the tracker is working. How is Hal?"

Hearing the sound of Higgins's keyboard go off, each push of the button sounding like thunder, he answers a few seconds later.

"The tracker is working a-okay. It's bright green, and shows that Hal is on Oa right now."

"Awesome."

"Hey listen. Not to doubt you or anything, but why did you say it was okay for Hal to leave? Especially in the condition he was in when he left?"

Thinking back to when Superman and his One Earth goons attacked Harleen's old base, to when Superman was trying to convince all of them to join him, he had captured Hal in the old Gotham pipes. Luckily, because Hal was so badly beaten, the soldiers guarding him felt they didn't have to watch him too carefully, and that's when I managed to sneak him into the base before helping the others. Unluckily for Hal however, he wasn't a hundred percent recovered before leaving for Oa.

"It was Hal's choice, and honestly, I really didn't want to get into another fight with him. Besides, if anything does happen to him, the tracker will send a signal to us and the color will change."

"And I guess since he is on Oa, home of the Green Lanterns, he'll have a few thousand lanterns watching his back. Still though."

About to reply, I stop when I sense very wrong. Feeling like waves of powerful magic had just hit me square in the face, I place my phone near my ear again.

"Hey Higgins," I say. "Thanks again for the update and for the help earlier with the betas, but something just come up. See ya."

I hang up the phone and put it in my pocket before running to check on something.

Supergirl:

As The Man and I look at each other, my hand on his arm, I see he starts to lend closer in.

"What are you doing," I say, stepping back and pulling back my hand.

"I--I---I," The Man stutters, before running out the door. Meanwhile, I'm just standing there, looking at the door.

"What was that," I ask myself, now looking at my hand. Everything just feels weird now. I feel uncomfortable and empty and alone. I feel a headache coming on and replaying what just happened isn't helping.

"What was that," I ask again, slapping my hands against my head. "What was that?"

"Head up," someone screams, snapping me out of my thoughts. Looking up in time, I see Selina in the air, her foot stretches out. Before I could react, Selina hits me in the chest and knock me to the ground. Backflipping through the air, Selina lands gracefully on her knee.

"Supergirl," she starts, standing up. "0. Catwoman: 3."

Walking up to me, Selina then offers me her hand. I roll my eyes before taking it and letting Selina pull me back up.

"Hey," she says, hitting me in the arm. "What's up? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," I reply, "Why?"

"Because in the span of ten minutes, I knocked you to the ground three times. Come on, this is supposed to be an, in the man's words, 'an assessment test'. We're supposed to see how well we can handle ourselves in a fight."

"I can handle myself just fine in a fight."

"That's what I thought too, before the last ten minutes."

"Okay. You want to see how well I can handle myself in a fight. Let's go then. Round 3."

"4," Selina says, turning around to walk away. "It's round 4 for the record."

"Okay," I think to myself, "Okay. Time to focus. Just forget about him for a second. Time to fight."

Selina and I are only about ten feet from one another. The two of us in our fighting stance, I'm hovering while Selina is crouching, I am the first to make a move. Flying toward Selina, my fist outward.

About to hit Selina, she jumps right over me.

Stopping before I can hit the wall, I turn around to see Selina land once more on her feet. Pulling out her whip, she snaps it against the ground.

"You're going have to move a lot faster than that," Selina smiles, crouching down again.

"Fine then," I reply, shooting toward Selina again. Despite not jumping, Selina dodges my fist. Stepping out of the way, she then slaps something on my back and pushes me away.

Stumbling a bit, I try to fly but couldn't.

"What the," I scream, turning around only to see Selina's whip go around my feet. Even before I could do anything, she pulls and once again, knock me to the floor.

"Do you want a round 5," Selina asks, offering me her hand again. This time, I get up on my own.

"This doesn't mean anything. Okay?"

"Got it."

"And what did you put on me?"

Once more, I try to fly but can't. Jumping over and over, all that happens is that I fall on the floor.

"It's called an anchor," Selina replies, grabbing and spinning me around. Grabbing something off my back, she then shows me something small and silver.

"An anchor," I repeat.

"An anchor," Selina says again. "Apparently, it's called that because it can weigh anyone down. Basically, stop them from flying."

"How did you come up with this?"

"It's not mine, it's uh, his."

"His?"

"His. You know, The Man."

Almost immediately, as soon as I hear his name, something forms in my throat and I have to cough a little.

"Yeah, it came with the suit. Hey, watch this."

Selina slapping her wrist, an entire, hologram screen leaps out into the air in front of us. Stepping back, I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Neat isn't it. I discovered this a few days ago. It's a sort of catalog of all of the things our suits can do. Look."

Stepping forward, she taps on the screen, right on the word 'anchor'. On cue, a picture of the same anchor Selina used on me appears on the screen, with details of what it does besides it.

"Does my suit have one," I say, slapping my own wrist. Like Selina, a screen shoots up into the air, in front of us.

"Your can transform into a scuba suit," Selina says, "That's not fair. Mine can't."

Like Selina, I tap on the scuba feature and it shows my suit changing, from what I'm wearing now to a new suit, one with a glass helmet and a tank on the back instead of a cape.

"The man sure knows how to build."

Once again, I feel something form in my throat. Just as I cough, a voice echoes throughout the room.

"Everyone meet up in the meeting room," The Man says, "Now. There's something going on and it's something you need to see."

Selina and I look at each other, we exit the dojo and head for the meeting room.

The Man:

Captain Cold and Poison Ivy are the last two to walk in. Once in, I uncross my arm and press the button, activating the table's holo-display.

"See anyone you recognize," I ask, lending back as the holo-display shows someone in a yellow helmet with a blue suit and yellow cape.

"Dr. Fate," Dinah yells, before moaning and falling back into her seat.

"Kent," Oliver shouts, before groaning and falling back into his seat. "No way. Where had he been this whole time? We haven't seen him since the invasion."

"That's because, during the invasion, he was killed."

"What," scream a majority of the Insurgency as they all get up but slowly fall back down.

"What do you mean he was killed," Barry moans. "How can you possibly know?"

"Superman makes mention of his death in the One Earth Archive."

I reach into my pocket to pull out my cell phone.

"Hey Higgins," I start, "I need you to upload some files for me. The one I told you to hold onto about a month ago. Yeah. Thanks."

Ending the call, I wait for the files to be uploaded to my phone. Once they are, I upload them on the table's display for everyone to see. The display is now a photo of Dr. Fate, with some hand-written notes beside the photo.

"According to this, when Superman and Batman entered Brainiac's ship, one of the first foes they encountered with Dr. Fate. They defeated him, but it was only seconds later that he was impaled and absorbed into the wall."

"So if that's true," Captain Cold asks, "Then how is the old doctor back?"

I switch the display over to the previous, surveillance feed showing Dr. Fate flying high in the sky. As we all keep on watching, we see Dr. Fate waves his arms around before shooting them outward. As he does, a massive, golden cross appears directly behind him. It's less than a second later when three more Dr. Fates fly out from the cross before it disappears completely.

"Well that's new," I say, still watching as all the Dr. Fates gather up. The four of them talk with each other for a bit, before they all fly away in separate directions.

"Let me guess," Selina says, pointing at the display. "They're in Gotham City."

"Yup. They must be looking for us, but we're not in Gotham City anymore. Still."

I think it over, wondering what possible reasons Dr. Fate could have for wanting to find us so bad. Especially considering his refusal to help when Brainiac invaded.

"We should talk to him," Oliver moans, pushing himself up against the chair. "Kent can help us."

"I doubt it," I reply, rewinding the footage.

"What do you mean by that?"

"There's something more going on here, but I do think you're right. We should talk to him."

I look up at Cold and Ivy.

"Congrats you two for not showing up for the assessment test. Guess what you won; a doctor's appointment."

I turn to look to Kara and Cat.

"Are you two okay?"

"We're fine," Cat replies, "We can go."

"Thanks. I guess I'll be going by myself. Considering."

Making circles with my hand, I look toward the rest, most still wearing ice packs as hats.

"Wait," Oliver moans, coughing into his fist. "I can come with you. You didn't beat me up too bad."

"I didn't beat anyone up. It was an assessment test."

"For the record, most tests don't give you a throbbing headache when you wake up."

"You and I have taken very different tests throughout our lives."

Captain Cold:

"So," I start, my hands on the wheel and my foot on the gas. "Why didn't you go to the 'assessment test'?"

"Because I didn't want to get beaten up by the guy that apparently can summon a giant rock monster," Poison Ivy replies, her arms crossed and her gaze focus on the road ahead. "And also hold his own against Superman. Why didn't you go?"

"Because the guy is neither my boss, nor my friend, nor the bartender at Ace's."

"But didn't he save you from Cyborg, Killer Croc, and Black Adam?"

"How in the living hell did you hear about that?"

"People talked and my plants listened."

Turning to me, she smiles as she uncrosses her arms. Out of thin air, a thick green vine appears and begins to wrap around Ivy's arm, reaching her hand in only a matter of seconds.

"For the record," I say, pointing at the little son of a bitch. "That sunglasses-wearing weirdo and his regime friend brought them to my apartment in the first place. It's only fair that they help, they help me, me, get rid of them."

The end of the vine blooming into some sort of ball, it then opens up, revealing a bunch of teeth. The vine then looks at me before smiling.

I reach for my cold gun, my hand wrapping around the grip.

"Let's see how funny it is when you're nothing more than a block of ice," I whisper before slamming my foot on the brake. Stopping suddenly, Ivy barely managed to shoot out her hand and catch herself.

"Hey, what the hell?"

"We're here," I answer, pulling out my cold gun, the lights turning on and white mist falling from the barrel. "I hope you're not afraid of the doctor."

Opening the car's door, I walk out a little before seeing the infamous Dr. Fate. The guy is about a hundred feet in the air, glowing brighter, and is staring at a bunch of the surrounding buildings.

"What is he doing," Ivy asks, walking to my side.

"No clue," I reply, "That's what we're to find out."

Cupping my free hand around my mouth, I begin to shout.

"Hey! Dr. Fate! Down here!"

The doctor noticing us quickly flies down to us.

"Leonard Snart of Central City," he yells, his voice sounding like it's echoing throughout the sky. "Pamela Isley of Gotham City."

Now floating about ten feet away from us, I start to notice a few things. For one, Dr. Fate's eyes are glowing brightly. Despite floating in the air, I don't see any actual eyeballs, just a pair of bright lights. Second, his blue suit seems different from before. When I saw it in the base, it look just like a normal blue suit. Now, however, it almost seems to be glowing, with lines moving all over it. The third and final thing is when the doctor raises both his hands, balls of magic I guess appear floating above them.

"You two were last seen leaving with the stranger in glasses," Dr. Fate echoes. "Both of you will tell me everything you know about him, and then you will take me to him. Or you will feel our powers."

"Our power," Ivy repeats, turning to look at me.

"Get ready," I whisper, raising my arm and trying to push Ivy back. Just as I thought, Dr. Fate tosses the balls of magic at us. Before they could hit, I turn around and kick Ivy to the ground. Turning back, I aim at the ground and fire.

Supergirl:

"Selina," I scream, watching as Selina is hit by one of Dr. Fate's displacer orbs. The orb hitting Selina right in the chest sent her flying into the car we arrived in.

About to fly to her, Dr. Fate tosses his second orb and stops me.

"Kara Zor-El of the planet, Krypton," Dr. Fate starts, his voice sounding louder than what I expected. "You are friends with the stranger in glasses."

"Stranger in glasses," I repeat, realizing who he is talking about.

"You will tell me everything about him, and then you will take me to him. Or you shall feel our powers."

"Dr. Fate," I start, flying to the same level as he is. "I don't know what's wrong with you, or why you tore up the street like that."

Looking at the part of the street where Dr. Fate literally pulled it apart, revealing the sewers underneath, I clench my fists.

"But I do know this. I'm not telling you anything. Or taking you anywhere."

"You have been warned," Dr. Fate replies, more displacer orbs appearing in his hands. "Prepare yourself."

The Man:

"Prepare yourself," our Dr. Fate roars, displacer orbs appearing in his hands. Tossing them, Oliver and I jump out of the way as they hit the street and explode.

"Kent," Oliver yells, hiding behind a piece of a destroyed wall. "Kent, what are you doing? Come on, it's me. Oliver."

Peeking out from behind the wall, Oliver quickly ducks behind it when Kent throws another orb.

"You are not important to us Olive Queen of Star City," Dr. Fate says, his hands starting to glow brighter than himself. "Stay out of this. We only want the stranger with the glasses."

"The stranger with the glasses respectfully denies wanting to talk with you," I say, getting up from my knee and reaching for a kunai in my jacket. "All of you."

Tossing my kunai at Dr. Fate, he waves his glowing hand and catches it. An eerie glow surrounds my kunai, Dr. Fate waves his hand once more and my kunai drops to the ground.

"We are not asking for your permission," Dr. Fate says, shooting me with his hand. Now the eerie glow surrounding me, Dr. Fate wastes no time and flies away.

Carrying me away, Oliver fires a bunch of arrows at Dr. Fate. Exploding all over him, he screams and uses both his hands to cover his head. The glow around me disappears, I drop toward the ground.

"Thanks," I say, shooting Oliver a thumb-up.

Oliver nods his head, we look back at Dr. Fate, his hands no longer covering his face.

"You will regret doing that."

Dr. Fate raises his hands into the air and a massive, golden cross then appears. Raising his hands once more, he then slams them down, the cross following after.

The cross is about to hit Oliver but before it can, I run to him and grab the back of his suit. Tossing him away, the cross hits me instead and knocks me to the ground. Once again, Dr. Fate shoots me with a magical beam and traps me in the same eerie glow.

Flying away, Oliver once again fires a bunch of arrows at us. However, this time, Dr. Fate is more than prepared. Conjuring up a wall to block the arrows, they all drop before exploding.

Preparing more arrows, I already knew it was pointless. Dr. Fate and I are too far away for Oliver to hit. I watch as the emerald archer gets smaller and smaller, before vanishing out of sight completely.

The Man:

Dr. Fate tosses me onto the rooftop of an abandoned building, I push myself up and dust myself off.

"Okay," I start, spreading out my arms. "You got me alone. Now what?"

"Now you must perish," Dr. Fate replies, spreading out his arms. His golden glow turns red, he waves his arms around and a bunch of mini-crosses appears. All floating around him, he points toward me, and the mini-crosses all shoot toward me.

Reaching into my jacket, I grab handfuls of kunai and throw them. His crosses hitting my kunai, he then raises his hands high into the air. As he does, I start to notice part of the building's rooftop begin to glow. One glow appears beneath me, right under my feet, I realize what's about to happen and roll out of the way.

A burst of magic erupts from where I was standing. Rolling to a stop, landing on my knee, I see more parts start to glow.

"Soul burst," Dr. Fate yells as more and more parts of the roof explode, forcing me to run and jump all over. Jumping and landing onto my hands, I cartwheel onto my feet. With this one second on my feet, I reach into my jacket and pull out a bunch of pellets. Tossing them, a thick, black cloud of smoke then blankets the entire rooftop.

Poison Ivy:

"Cold," I cry, watching as the ice wall he made shatters into a thousand pieces. The pieces, along with Cold fly all over. Running to him as fast as I can, I grab his head.

"Cold? Captain Cold? Come on, are you okay?"

Letting out a sigh when he starts to moan, I gently lay his head down.

"What the hell," I say, turning to face the fucking doctor. " What the hell was that for you son of a bitch?"

"I warned you," Dr. Fate replies, bringing his hands together. "Now, tell us what we demand or-."

"Bite me."

Shooting out my hand, I summon a bear trap, made completely from vines and thorns. Wasting no time, I throw the bear trap at Dr. Fate, the thorns clamping around one of his arms.

Screaming as the thorns dig into his skin, he loses his focus and his glow. Shooting out my hand again, I summon a vine this time.

"Come on," I say to myself, "You've seen Selina do this a million times."

Snapping the ground first, I then swing it high above my head, before tossing it at Dr. Fate. The vine wrapping around Dr. Fate, I pull him down until I can punch him in his stupid helmet.

Dr. Fate recovering fast however, he starts to glow again, the blinding light forcing me back. As I step back, Dr. Fate's glow starts to burn through the vine, and within seconds, he is breaking free.

Charcoal bits of vines hit me in the face, I cross my arm when Dr. Fate punches me. The punch hitting and bruising some bones, I then hear some sort of computerized voice.

"Tree bark armor activating," the voice says, what looks like tree barks encasing my entire body. Starting at where Dr. Fate hit me, it quickly spread out, and in only a few seconds, my green and red clothes are gone and replaced by this tree bark armor.

Dr. Fate trying for another punch hit me in the chest. Only, I didn't hear any bone crack.

"I like this," I smile, before pulling back my fist and sending it flying into Dr. Fate. I hear him groan as he steps back, holding his chest.

"Your plants cannot stop us," Dr. Fate says, pulling his arms out. At his sides now, two more balls of magic appear.

"Let's see about that," I reply, my arms also at my sides. Two roots twirling around my arms, they stop when they reach my hands. Now forming into two of my precious babies, a sort of Venus flytraps with a round head and dozens of sharp teeth, they leap off my hands and at the doctor.

Dr. Fate throwing his balls of magic hits my babies and explodes. Sparks of magic fly all over, they blind me and force me to cover my head.

Rubbing my eyes, the vision slowly coming back, I look back at Dr. Fate as now he is glowing red. Before I can even ask, Dr. Fate chants something, and appearing right in front of him out of thin air is a massive, red cross, with a pointed tip.

Shooting out both his hands, the cross falls over, with the tip pointing right at me. Moving like a bullet toward me, I don't have time to do anything except watch as the tip gets closer and closer to me. Just as it's about to hit me, someone tackles me out of the way and onto the street.

Captain Cold:

I tackle Ivy out of the way of the torpedoing cross, the two of us falling to the ground, I aim my cold gun at Dr. Fate and fire. Freezing him before he can cast any more spells, trapping him in a block of ice and stopping him completely, I let out a sigh before letting my head fall.

"You okay," Ivy asks, making me remember her. Looking at her, I realize she is on top of me, our bodies press together.

"I'm fine," I answer.

"Awesome," Ivy says, getting up and helping me to my feet. "Because the fight isn't over yet."

Ivy points to the frozen Dr. Fate as he starts to glow. It's not as intense as before, a pale-blue color, but without warning or anything, Dr. Fate is encased in the blue glow.

"Get behind me," I say, grabbing and pushing Ivy behind me. Preparing to make another ice wall, expecting the ice to break apart and pieces to fly everywhere, Dr. Fate disappears a second later, leaving behind an empty ice block.

"What the hell?"

Supergirl:

I grab Dr. Fate by his shoulders and spin him around before tossing him into the street. Skidding across it as he leaves behind a trail, I fly toward him, my arms in front. Preparing to ram him further into the street, he raises his hand and summons forth a bright-gold, glowing cross. Hitting the cross instead of him, it bursts and knocks me to the street.

Now, with Dr. Fate flying into the sky, and me on the street, I am vulnerable. Chanting and casting some sort of spells, he fires beams of magic at me. Barely flying out of the way in time, he hit the streets instead. The streets bursting with magic, it leaves behind rings of scorch marks.

"Magic can hurt you," Dr. Fate says, firing more beams of magic at me. Dodging and countering them with my laser visions, a few beams still get through and hit me.

Flinching as a beam cuts my arm, I slam my hand over it and focus my attention on my laser visions. Hitting a beam, Dr. Fate's magic and my laser battle against each other until finally, my laser won and hit Dr. Fate. Knocking him down, he recovers fast and prepares to fire again. Only, he didn't. Instead, he spread out both his arms and the glow in his eyes intensified.

"Target had been found," Dr. Fate chants. "The stranger in glasses had been found. Require assistance."

Turning around, Dr. Fate then flies away, leaving me behind.

"Wait," I think, replaying everything Dr. Fate just said. "Target had been found. The stranger in glasses. Require assistance. Oh no."

The Man:

Running out of the smoke, I jump into the air and slam my hands together. Now slamming them onto Dr. Fate's head, he let out a groan before dropping onto the rooftop. A crater forms as he drops, I land nearby on a knee. Once back on my feet, I run over to see Dr. Fate.

In the center of his crater, his glow entirely gone, I stomp on his chest. Well, their chest.

"Where is Kent Nelson," I say, kicking away Dr. Fate's hand as he tries to raise it. "I know this isn't Nelson. None of the Dr. Fates we've seen is the real Nelson, so I ask again. Where is he?"

Instead of answering me, Dr. Fate's body is eaten by a pale-blue light, little specks of the lights flying into the air before disappearing completely.

"Hmm," I say, grabbing at one of the specks before it can vanish. Feeling the power in it, I sense something incoming and turn around.

"You are a disease," another Dr. Fate says, displacer orbs floating above his hands.

"A disease that had tossed the future into dismay," a third Fate goes on, his hands glowing bright red.

"We must save the future," a fourth Fate declares, summoning a tiny cross in an orb. "And to do that."

"You must be destroyed," a fifth finishes, "The Stranger in Spectacles."

Supergirl:

"Selina," I say, grabbing and shaking her. "Selina. Come on. Wake up."

Eventually, answering with a moan, her eyes snap open.

"Uh," she cries, turning her head left and right. "What happened? Where the heck is that magical bastard?"

Selian growling, she then opens her hand, claws shooting out of her fingers.

"He's gone," I quickly answer, looking back at the sky.

"What," Selina asks, the claws disappearing. "Where? When? How long was I out?"

"I can't answer that right now. He found him. Dr. Fate found him and he's going to him. Listen, I'm going to help him. You can drive back."

Leaping into the air before I can hear whatever it is Selina just said, I hover for a bit.

"Where did you go? Where did you go? Which way?"

Stopping when I see a bunch of lights not too far away, I fly toward them as fast as I can.

The Man:

One of the dozen and dozen of Dr. Fates ripping a vent from the rooftop, he tosses it right at me. The giant piece of steel flying my way, I run toward, slipping under it at the last second. The vent flying off the roof, I pull from my jacket a kunai.

Screaming as I stab Dr. Fate in the neck with my kunai, a bright light pouring out from his wounds. Crying as he places his hand on his wounds, he moans for a bit before disappearing into a glow.

Having no time to spare, I turn around and throw my kunai. My kunai hits another Dr. Fate square in his chest, light can be seen leaking through. Falling from the sky, he drops only a few feet before disappearing into the same glow as the ones before.

As this one Dr. Fate disappeared, three more crosses appeared out of thin air and four Dr. Fates fly out from each of them.

"You cannot beat us," a Dr. Fate brags. "Our powers are near limitless."

"Yeah, so are my kunai," I reply. Reaching into my jackets, I pull out small handfuls of kunai and pellets. "So are my pellets."

Tossing everything in my hands, my kunai and pellets all simultaneously go off, unleashing thick smoke clouds, explosions, and deafening sound waves. While many are knocked out of the sky and vanish, many others are forced back.

Seeing an opportunity, I turn and start to run away. Running across the rooftops as fast as I can, I jump over a ledge and onto the rooftop of an adjacent building. Leaping and sliding across a vent, I stop when displacer orbs hit the floor in front of me. Leaving behind scorch marks, I step back but stop again when a beam hits the same exact vent.

A glow pulling the vent from the rooftop raises it right above my head. Looking past the vents, I see more Dr. Fates than ever before. Easily 50 of them, maybe even more, they're all focused on one thing and one thing only: me.

One Dr. Fate throwing the vent, a few more tossing displacer orbs, and a bunch firing magical beams, I suck in my guts and twist my body to dodge everything. Jumping over a beam and ducking under an incoming orb, the vent hitting my hairs as it shoots past me, I once again have to stop when my heel hits a wall.

"No," I think, looking behind. "Not a wall but the rooftop's railing."

Looking over the railing, I see a seven stories drop onto the empty Gotham streets. Now looking back in front, I see all the Dr. Fates slowly close in on me.

"You are trapped," one of them says.

"And our magic shows us you cannot fly," another Dr. Fate adds.

"Prepare for the end," a third says, raising both his hands. The rest of them follow, they all raise their hands.

I cross my arms and prepare for the worst.

"Hit me with your best shot," I say.

Magical beams from all angels shoot out and head my way, I watch as they get closer and closer to me. Thinking of what I could, what I can do, I lose my entire thought process when I see a blue and red blur flying toward us.

Supergirl:

"Oh no," I say, seeing The Man surrounded by an army of Dr. Fates. With his back to the ledge, he had no way to run. "So why isn't he using his powers?"

I understand why he can't use a teleporter. With all these Dr. Fates around, they could flood into the base if The Man uses the teleporter, but why isn't he using any of his powers. He once told me he tried not to use his power unless the 'situation' call for it. I think in this case, the situation does call for it.

Flying as fast as I can, about to reach him, I couldn't believe my eyes when I see all the Dr. Fates raise their hands. Magic gathering in their hands, they all then fire, the beams shooting toward The Man.

"Nnooo," I cry, flying faster than I thought I could. Reaching him before the beams could hit him, I spread out my arms and shield him.

Dr. Fates:

We watch as both the stranger with glasses and Supergirl vanish into an eruption of thick blue and gold smokes, the sound of our magic causing every window to shatter and us to fall back.

"That was not part of the plan," one of us states. "We were only meant to eliminate the stranger. Not Supergirl."

"Supergirl may not have been a part of the plan," another one of us says, "But nevertheless, we accomplish our goal. We kill the stranger."

"So why is the timeline still a blur," asks another one of us.

"What do you mean?"

"I am looking at the timeline now, and I do not see any changes. The future is still unclear."

"How is that possible? The stranger is dead."

"No, he is not. Look."

With a strong wind pushing the thick smoke away, we see clearly the stranger still standing, with Supergirl in his arms.

Supergirl:

Looking up, I see The Man looking down at me, his arms wrapped around me.

"Are you okay," he asks.

"Yeah," I reply after a while. "Wait, are you?"

"Fine," he replies, letting me go. "I don't know how this sounds, but I have a high resistance to magic. Unlike you. No offense."

"None taken."

I couldn't believe my eyes. Despite all the magical beams and the massive boom, The Man looks completely unfazed. He's not flinching, limping, or even moaning. He looks fine.

The Man:

Seeing Kara alone, I couldn't help but notice something.

"Where is Catwoman," I ask, looking around. "She's not with you."

"I had to leave her."

"What do you mean you had to leave her? Why did you leave her?"

"I left her to save you."

"For the record," I start, putting up a finger. "And let it be said, I never ever ask for your help. I especially don't need it when it comes to fighting Dr. Fate and his army of fellow dorks."

"Well sorry I came then," Supergirl says, shoving me. Before I can say anything, something shoots past our heads, destroying parts of the railing.

"Speaking of Dr. Fate and his army of fellow dorks," I say, turning back to Kara. "Uh, can we put this on hold?"

"Fine," Kara says, clenching her fist. About to fly, I grab her hand.

"No. There are way too many for a fistfight. Cover me while I set up an exit."

"On it."

"Lady first," I smile.

Taking the first turn, Kara uses her laser vision to push all the Dr. Fates further back. A few pushing through, they prepare magical attacks but before they could fire, I throw kunai at them. The kunai hitting and killing them, they all vanish.

"Don't worry," I say when I hear Kara gasp. "They're not real. They're just puppets, made from magic. I'll explain later."

Kara gives me an opening, I pull a teleporter and start to set it up. Taking less than a minute, I peek over the ledge.

"Time to go," I say, nudging my head over the ledge.

"Gladly," she replies.

Tossing the teleporter over the ledge, a portal opens in mid-air. Jumping off ourselves, we fall through the portal before any Dr. Fate can enter with us.

Superman:

"Superman," Cyborg says as I enter the room. "I have something I think you need to see."

"What is it," I ask, walking up to Cyborg's side. The two of us standing in front of a computer, Cyborg points toward the screen. A layout of a city on it, there seems to be a lot of blue dots on the outline, varying in size.

"This is a satellite imaging of Gotham City from only about half an hour ago," Cyborg says, wires in his arms connecting to the computer. "Notice all the blue dots?"

"Yes. What are they?"

"Energy signatures. A lot of them."

"Like The Man?"

Pushing Cyborg aside, I start to examine the dot, trying to find a pattern to their locations.

"I thought you said you couldn't trace his energy signature anymore."

"I can't," Cyborg answers, walking back up. "After the raid on Harleen's base, he must have done something because I haven't been able to pick up the same energy signatures since. No, these aren't his. They're new. According to my reading, they're magical energy signatures."

"Magical," I repeat. "You mean, like Raven?"

"Not exactly like Raven but yes. It's magic and a lot of it. All over Gotham City."

About to ask why all over Gotham, the sound and flashing of bright-red alarms stop me. The entire room turning dark-red, Cyborg and I look at each other. Immediately, Cyborg activates his arm cannon and I raise my yellow lantern ring.

The map of Gotham City disappears, it switches to a map of New Metropolis, the layout of the building on the screen now. Focus on one room, the room Cyborg and I are in, we slam our backs against each other and start to spin around.

"What's going on," I say, still surveying the room.

Cyborg eyeing the screen, a blue dot begins to form in the red room.

"It's magic," he says before a bright light appears only feet from us.

Both of us turn, the bright light turns out to be a large, white cross. I recognize it immediately, and it's only a second later when Dr. Fate enters the room through the cross.

"Impossible," I say, my ring still train on the intruder. "Dr. Fate. How? I saw you died."

The Man:

"It's not him," I say, footage of all of us fighting Dr. Fate on the display in the center of the room, floating above the table.

"What do you mean by it's not him," Dinah asks, standing with her arms crossed. "It's him. We can clearly see him."

"Only that's not him," Oliver says, pointing at the display as it switches over. Now, instead of Cold's and Ivy's fight, it's Kara and Cat.

Immediately after Kara and I jumped through the portal and find ourselves back in the base, we learned that Cold, Ivy, Cat, and even Arrow all made it back to the base with help from the Doc. Also by that time, everyone else had recovered from the assessment test and had gathered around the table. Once there, Christel puts up surveillance footage he got from the reminding cameras still in Gotham.

"What do you mean by that," Barry asks.

"What Oliver means," Cold interrupts, "Is that the Dr. Fate you're thinking about, the 'noble and heroic' one, isn't the same as that one."

Cold points to the display.

"That Dr. Fate, all those Dr. Fates, are cold."

"Wow," Harleen says, "And that's coming from you."

"I know," Cold says, nodding his head.

"He wasted no time fighting us," Ivy adds, "He wasted no time almost killing Snart and no time trying to kill me."

"I still don't get it," Dinah says, looking at all of us. "Why would Kent try to kill any of you? It doesn't make any sense, or even sound like him."

"That's because again," I say, all eyes turning to me. "It's not him. All those Fates we fought, every single one of them, not one of them is the actually Kent Nelson."

Superman:

"I am not Kent Nelson," Dr. Fate says, his arms spread out and his feet on the ground. The cross behind him vanishes, Dr. Fate then looks at us.

"Then who are you," I ask, stepping forward, my ring only a thought away from firing.

"We are the Lords of Order," Dr. Fate answers.

The Man:

"The Lords of Order," Kara repeats, her wide eyes matching everyone else's. "Wait, who are the Lords of Order?"

"They kind of like Dr. Fate's bosses," Oliver says, "Right?"

"More or less," I say, shaking my hand. "From what I remember when I had to deal with them, they-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Jason interrupts, waving his hands right and left. "You had to deal with the Lords of Order before? When?"

"Years ago. Listen, just shut up and let me talk. From what I remember when I had to deal with them, they focus on one thing and one thing only; order. You know, keeping everything in balance. Making sure there is no chaos."

"If that's all they care about," Kara says, "Then why were they after you?"

Superman:

"You know about the man in the sunglasses," I ask, lowering my ring. "Do you know where he is right now?"

"We are afraid not," Dr. Fate, or the Lords, says. "Shortly after we surrounded him, your cousin, Kara Zor-El, intervened."

"Damn it, Kara," I say.

"When she did," the Lords go on, "The man used the opening to open a portal and vanished. We have not been able to find him since."

"So what does that mean," Cyborg says, in front of the computer. Deactivating the alarms, the ringing turning off and the lights turning back white, he then turns to the guards that entered.

"False alarm," he says, pointing at the door. The guards nodding their heads, they quickly walk out the room in a single file.

"It means to preserve the delicate order of balance you have achieved," the Lords says, gesturing toward me. "We must expand our efforts."

"Expand your efforts," I repeat, looking at Cyborg.

"Yes. We will share our powers with you. More specifically, we will share our power with Raven. Together, we can end that blight that is the stranger in sunglasses. Together, we can ensure the world is in order. Together, we can save the future."

As moving and heartfelt as the Lord's speech is, there is one thing I want to be sure of.

"If I do agree to this," I say, walking up, "Then I want a guarantee that only he dies. I want everyone else alive. Flash. Green Lantern. My intervening cousin."

The Lords are silent for a while, the body of Dr. Fate just floating there in the air. As we wait, Cyborg taps me on the shoulder.

"I don't like this," Cyborg whispers, "According to the records we have on the Lords, they don't share their powers. At least, not willingly. Besides, what about the plan?"

"I know," I reply, "But this may prove what we need to finally end the man. The Lords of Order are incredibly powerful, and they can stay here while we move with the plan."

The glow in Dr. Fate's eyes intensifies, Cyborg and I turn back to him.

"Deal," they say. "The man, and only the man, will die."

Cyborg:

"Raven," I whisper while everyone else is distracted by Superman and Dr. Fate.

"What is it, Cyborg," Raven asks, her attention also focusing on the two.

"Don't go through with this," I say, "This is too much. The Lords of Order want something else. Besides killing that man. I just know it."

"Calm down," Raven snaps. "I know what I'm doing. Superman knows what he is doing."

"Do you really," I ask, "Do any of us really know anything about these Lords of Order?"

"We know they want the man in sunglasses gone as much as any one of us, and that is enough."

"I'm just saying," I say before I'm cut off.

"You are saying what," Wonder Woman shouts, kicking me to the floor. Hitting and sliding across it, I push myself up and rub my chin. Standing where I was, Wonder Woman eyes me.

"Raven had volunteered for this, and the Lords of Order are more than willing to share their limitless power with her. With their aid, we may finally put an end to the Insurgency."

I want to say something. I want to object to this. This seems like a horrible idea, especially considering how the Lords "handled" things during Brainiac's invasion, but I don't. Instead, I take notice of everyone's eyes on me. Standing in the center of the room, I feel their gaze on me.

Shutting up, I walk back to where I was before I was kicked to the floor. I cross my arms as I watch Superman walks away from the floating shell once known as Dr. Fate.

"Raven," the shell says, extending his hand. "Take my hand, and the power of Order will be bestowed upon you."

Nodding her head and smiling, Raven walks up to Dr. Fate. Wasting no time, she takes Dr. Fate's hand. All of a sudden, the bright glow that covered Dr. Fate rushes from his arm onto Raven's arms. It travels along her arms before reaching her head. The second it does, Raven is screaming and it's only seconds later when she falls to her knee.

"Raven," I scream, running to help her but Wonder Woman stops me.

"No," she cries, pushing me back. "You will not interfere."

"But they're killing her."

"We are not killing her," Dr. Fate says. "We are giving her power. Powers she had never had before."

Screaming and on her knees, Dr. Fate uses his free hand and places it on her forehead. I watch as a second glow appears on Raven's head, this glow seeming to burn her. Despite how far I am, I can still see faded trails of white smoke rising.

It takes everything in me not to move. If I do, it would only be a waste. Wonder Woman, and probably Black Adam would knock me back down. All I can do is watch as an outline of a cross begin to form on Raven's forehead.

Flash:

"Until we can figure out what it is exactly that the Lords of Order want," The Man starts, "Then we can't do anything."

"So what does that mean," I ask, tapping my foot.

"It means until we know more, there's nothing for us to do. So for now, you're all dismissed."

"Dismissed," I repeat, "What, are you stupid? One of us is in trouble, and you're going to do nothing. For all we know--"

"Exactly," The Man says, cutting me off. "For all we know, and we do not know much."

"We know that the Lords of Order revived Dr. Fate for a reason, and while all those Fates we guys fought may not be the real, it doesn't mean one of them, just one of them isn't Kent Nelson. He could be in trouble, and need our help."

"And exactly how are supposed to help him," The Man asks. "You weren't there. Those Dr. Fates won't exactly be in a 'talking mood'. At least, not about whether or not they were Nelson or not."

I feel my blood starts to boil. All I see is the color red and the man.

"The reason I wasn't there was because you knocked me out you stupid, son of a b--"

"Hey, hey, hey," the man says, trying to cut me off but I yell over his heys.

"Bitch," I finish, my voice echoes throughout the room. "You stupid son of a bitch. I could have been out there if you didn't crack my skull during your 'assessment test'."

"Well maybe if you could actually hit me," the man replies, "Then you would have gone."

Biting my tongue, grinding my teeth, I run out from the side of the table and toward the man. Preparing to knock him out, prepare to show him I can hit him, I stop when he grabs me by the throat and slam me to the floor.

As my back hit the floor, everyone else gets up from their seats and rush to us. They pry the man off of me while the other helps me to my feet.

"Still can't hit me. Can you?"

Breaking free of Selina's and Oliver's grips, I run toward him but Cold stops me.

"Don't," he says, oddly holding out his hand and not his cold gun. "Just, don't."

Cold turning to the man, Jason's and Jaime's grips still on him.

"You said we're dismissed," he asks, the man nodding. "Then I'm going to room for a little bit. The rest of you, don't bother me."

The first to leave the room, the rest of us begin to slowly follow after him, each of us going to do our own things.

I leave after Harleen, leaving The Man, Jason, Martin, and Supergirl alone. As I wander alone in the hallways of the base for a while, I somehow find myself at the massive portal built right into the wall. Walking up to it, I hit it over and over again with the bottom of my fist.

"Damn it," I say, not even leaving a dent. "We're trapped in here, with him and Captain Cold and Reverse-Flash, and all these others. We need to leave, but how. How? The only way in and out of this base is with one of those teleporters. The only two who have these, and can even use them, are the man and Scarecrow."

I think it over for a bit.

"I can't steal one from the man, but I can sure as hell steal one from Scarecrow. Once I do, I can figure out how the thing works, and then we can all leave. Oliver. Dinah. Jason and Martin. Iris."

Memories of Iris working with Scarecrow creep their way into my head. Turning back, I walk toward the infirmary.

The Man:

I enter my room before closing the door behind me, making sure the locks are locked. Walking over to my computer, I sit down before turning it on. As soon as it's ready, I push an icon and a silhouette of Higgins appears.

"Howdy," I start, shooting the hacker a wave.

"Howdy," Higgins repeats, also shooting me a wave. "Is this how we're greeting each other now? I like it."

"No. I thought I'd try something new. I did, but I didn't like it. Anyway, what is this about?"

"Okay, earlier this morning, while scouting around the One Earth network, seeing what's new and what I can find, I discovered this."

A bunch of payrolls, along with reports and logs, appear all over my screen.

"There's something going on in the beta factories," Higgins says. "Something big."

"Yes, there is," I say, reading over the reports and logs. "If this is right, then Superman is pouring millions upon millions of dollars in raw materials and electronic parts into the factories also daily. He also hired a bunch more people. Engineers and programmers mostly. Did you try hacking the cameras on the inside?"

"I've tried, but can't. Whatever Superman did, he made his cameras hacker-proof."

"Okay. Thank you though. Keep trying and call me once you have something."

Higgins nods his head before we end the call. Once the call is over, I bring up the profiles of all the engineers and programmers Superman had hired recently.

"Why you," I ask myself. "Why all of you? What is it you bring that others do not?"

About to read their files, I stop when I hear my door start to open.

The Man:

Snapping my hand and pulling a kunai from thin air, I slam the invisibility button to the side and spin around.

"Who's there," I say, pulling back my hand and preparing to throw my kunai.

"Calm down," Kara yells, putting up her hands. "It's me."

"Oh," I sigh, letting both my hand and my kunai fall. "How did you get in here? I could have sworn I locked the door."

Lending to the side a little, I look past Kara at my door. The door is still on its hinges, but all the locks have been destroyed, most of them are ripped in two or have completely fallen off the door and to the floor.

"Hmm," I mutter, looking at Kara. "I normally don't have guests in my base with super strength. Then again, I normally don't have guests here in my base."

Kara:

The Man's room is nothing more than just the color black. I literally don't see anything else. As I step into The Man's room, it instantly feels like I'm floating in an empty space, only even worst because there aren't any stars or asteroids or anything for that matter. It's just one big black space with The Man sitting in the middle.

"Hmm," he mutters, looking at me. "I normally don't have guests in my base with super strength. Then again, I normally don't have guests here in my base."

Looking behind me, I see all the locks I accidentally destroyed when I walk in.

"Oh," I say, turning between The Man and the locks. "Uhh, sorry."

"Don't worry about it," The Man replies, "This is a sign."

"A sign," I repeat. "What do you mean?"

"I mean it's a sign that I need to upgrade my security system."

"I don't think so," I say, "In fact, I think you need to downgrade your security system. You know, get rid of all the lethal traps and maybe even a few of the non-lethal."

"Doc and I told you and everyone where the traps are. They're easily avoidable."

"They are avoidable," I agree, "But there are also just so many. It makes walking around here hard."

"That's what I want. There are rooms in here I don't want any of you to find. They're personal rooms. Besides, I'm only referring to my room. Considering how easier you walked in, I need to get some new locks. One that can keep out Kryptonians."

"Sorry to bother you," I say, crossing my arms. "I just wanted to see if you were okay."

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. Maybe because instead of going to the infirmary to see either Dr. Crane or Isis, you instead went to your room. I mean, after your fights with all these Dr. Fates, you don't want to at least see if things are okay with you. I know Leonard and Selina went, but not you."

"I've been through a lot. I know what my body can take and how much. Besides, I'm a doctor myself, so I do feel something is off, I'll just check myself out."

"Okay, what about your fight with Barry? Doesn't that even bother you the sightly?"

"Not even a little. I'm okay with Flash wanting to kill me."

"He doesn't want to kill you."

"No, I'm very sure he wants to kill me. At the very least, he wants to punch me really, really hard and knock me out for the next week and a half."

"And you're okay with that? You're not going to, I don't know, try and talk with him."

"Again, I am okay with Flash not liking me. In fact, I am more than okay with Flash not liking me. I am okay with Dr. Crane not liking me. I am even okay with you not liking me."

"What," I accidentally scream, "I mean, what?"

"I have never been a people person. I don't like people, and people, but I guess in your case, Kryptonians, don't like me. We're just together because we have a mutual goal."

"Hey now listen here," I say, walking up to the very stupid man. "We are not together because we have a mutual goal."

"Oh, I forget. We're also together because I have a secret base, knowledge about Superman's One Earth government, and free foods."

Getting up from his seat, The Man faces me head-on.

"Am I missing anything," he ask.

"Yeah, I think you forget the part where, without us, you would have gotten beaten up by all these soldiers back in Harleen's base and died."

"Oh please," The Man snarls, "I have a harder time brushing my teeth."

"Excuse me for wanting to help you."

"Help me or help you," The Man says.

"What?"

"Help me or help you," The Man repeats. "I mean, I'm not the one that couldn't stop my cousin from taking over again."

The Man:

"Oh what the h-e-double hockey sticks is wrong with me," I say as soon as I realize what I've just said.

Kara staring at me, her eyes starting to water, I grind my teeth before running my hands through my hair.

"Here goes everything," I say, stepping forward. Seeing Kara about to turn away, I stop her. I wrap my arms around her and pull her in for a hug.

"I am so sorry," I say, feeling Kara shaking. I don't know if it was because she was trying to get away or because she was trying to hold back tears, but I didn't let go.

"I am so sorry about what I just said," I say. "It was just stupid and idiotic of me to say, and I didn't mean it in the slightest. I'm just a little broken."

"What," Kara asks.

"I'm broken," I repeat, "It's something I heard once."

Pushing Kara out so she's face to face with me, I try and remember what it was I heard.

"I like that you're broken," I start, "Broken like me. Maybe that makes me a fool. I like that you're lonely. Lonely like me. I could be lonely with you."

Looking back at Kara, she wipes her eyes.

"Again, I'm sorry. I suck at singing."

"It was okay," Kara shutters.

"My point is, I'm broken. I'm not a people person, but that's probably because I have zero social skills and say incredibly hurtful and again, stupid things. For the record, I really do appreciate the help."

"Don't mention it."

Seeing a smile starts to slowly form on Kara's face, I clear my throat and shake my head.

"Anyway," I say, clearing my throat again and pounding my chest. "Uhh, what were we talking about?"

"Uhh, oh."

Pointing a finger and about to say something, the Doc's voice interrupts her before she can say it.

"Excuse me," the Doc says over the base's intercom. "I'm sorry to bother everyone in the middle of whatever you're doing right now, but there's something you need to see. Everyone back to the meeting room now."

Kara and I look at each other, we nod our heads and quickly exit my room. Stopping to lock the door, I remember all the locks are busted.

"Fudge," I say, looking back at Kara.

"Sorry," she says.

"I'll fix it later. Let's just go."

The Man:

"Awesome," the Doc says as soon as he sees Kara and me. "You're here. You need to look at this."

Stepping aside, the Doc reveals the holo-display from before, and as before, there are a bunch of fake Dr. Fates on it.

"So," I ask, "That's nothing new."

"But that is," the Doc says, pointing to Raven as she herself appears on the holo-display. Only, this Raven had a bright, glowing cross on the center of her chest and her cloaks is lined with gold.

We watch as Raven then swipes her arm and the army of fake Dr. Fates all over starts flying, spreading throughout Gotham City.

While many of the Dr. Fates and Raven fly away, a few of the fakers stay behind. Flying toward the streets and the empty buildings, they immediately start to tear them apart. Three Fates are pulling the street up, exposing the sewer underneath. The second the opening is big enough, two Fates fly in while the third Fate moves onto another street.

Meanwhile, five Fates haul themselves into what looks like an abandoned apartment building. Slamming through the boarded-up windows and the walls, they disappear only for a few seconds before bursting out different windows and walls. As they leave, the building they searched crumples in on itself. The roof and upper levels fall onto the lower levels and the building is soon nothing more than a pile of broken bricks and wooden planks.

"They're destroying Gotham," Flash yells, slamming his fist onto the table. "Prepare the portal, we're stopping them."

"Not so fast," I say, stopping anyone before they can leave the table.

"What are you doing," Flash says, "We need to leave now. Every second we waste, another building is reduced to rubble."

"There's something I want to see," I reply, walking over to the keyboard for the holo-display. As I start typing, I switch the holo-display from what the fakers are doing to where exactly Raven is heading.

An outline of Gotham City appears on the display, with a dot moving rather fast in a straight line.

"Is that Raven," Kara asks, looking at the dot.

Typing in a few more things, the outline of Gotham City squeezes in on itself as one-half of the display now shows Raven and a few Fates still by her side.

"Yes," I answer, "And look where she's heading."

Raven reaches what looks like a hole in the street, she and one of the Dr. Fates then drop down into it. The feed switching over, reveals an underground base with red and white stripes painted onto the sewer walls.

"Hey," Harleen says, "That's my old base. What are the bird lady and that faker doing in my old base?"

"I think we're about to find out," Cold says, his, along with everyone's eyes, still watching as Raven and the Dr. Fate clone land on the floor. All around them are the remnants of what happened there only a week ago; the destroyed betas, the discarded bullets casting, even the bridge I was on that dropped from high above.

The pair walks around for a little bit, kicking aside a few betas' parts and bullet castings. Once they have themselves a small clearing, they both sit down.

Crossing their legs and putting their fingers together, they start to meditate.

"Okay," Oliver says after a few seconds of us just watching them. "Does anyone else besides have any idea what those two are doing?"

"No clue," Selina replies, "But look. Something is starting to happen."

Looking back at the screen, we see the two starts to glow. The crosses on both Raven and Dr. Fate start to glow, the glow intensifying. Within only a few seconds, they are lighting up Harleen's entire base. The bullet holes on the walls can easily be seen. What sunlight was coming through the hole in the ceiling is being pushed out. Neither of the two still really has their shadow.

"I have a hunch what they're trying to do," I say, reaching into my pockets. Pulling out a teleporter, I set it on the table.

"What are you doing," Reverse-Flash asks.

"Checking on something," I reply, flicking my arm and pulling out from thin air a kunai. Using my kunai as a screwdriver, I begin to pull the teleporter apart. Unscrewing the cover and taking it off, I set it aside.

"Yeah," Jason says, "What are you doing?"

By now, everyone had gathered around me, all of them crowding behind me.

"Okay, personal space," I say, turning around to push them back. "Personal space."

"We wouldn't need to crowd around you if you just told us what it is you're doing," Jason says.

"I'm testing a hunch," I answer, turning back to my teleporter. "Hey Doc, give me your teleporter."

Holding out my hand and snapping my fingers, Doc reaches into his pocket and pulls out his teleporter. Giving it to me, I unscrew the cover and set it aside. The two teleporters side-by-side now, I wave at everyone.

"Now all of you can gather around," I say, standing aside. "My hunch is right. I know what they're trying to do."

"What's that," Oliver asks, getting as close to the teleporters as he can. "What?"

"They're trying to pick up on the teleporters' energy signature," I say, looking at the display as, somehow, Raven's and Dr. Fate's magical glow starts to shake the camera. The camera shaking wildly, moving in all and every direction, it breaks only after a few more seconds. Raven and Dr. Fate are gone, and the only thing on the display is a black screen.

"Wait, wait, wait," the Doc says, walking up to me. "They're trying to do what? Pick up the teleporters' energy signature? Oh my god. Wait, does that mean, assuming they do pick it up, they can trace it back here?"

Running his hands through his hair, Doc starts to walk in circles.

"Oh my god," he repeats, "Oh my god. Oh my god. Please, oh please, tell me they can't do that. I thought the base was secure."

"It is," I say, grabbing the Doc's shoulder and pulling him back from the edge of insanity. Just to be sure, I shake him a few times.

"Thank you," he says, adjusting his glasses.

"Yeah, you're welcome. Listen, I figured the reason how they were able to find Harleen's base in the first place was that they were able to trace the teleporter's energy signature."

Seeing some eyes quickly turn toward me, I hold up my hands.

"And because of that, I have taken the necessary measures to change the energy signature so they can't be traced again."

"Well, if that's the case," Flash interjects, "Then what are they doing?"

"Wasting their time," I answer, "But still."

Walking through the crowd, I make my way back to the teleporters. Screwing the covers back on, I put one back into my pocket while handing the second one to the Doc.

"I rather not give them a chance. Doc, prepare the teleporter. Kara and I are going to Harleen's old base. The rest of you, you're fighting to defend Gotham. Be ready."

Raven:

"Azarath," I chant, repeating over and over. "Metrion. Zinthos! Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos! Azarath. Metrion. Zin-!"

Stopping when I sense something incoming, I turn around and see a dagger heading for me. With no time to spare, I drop to the ground and watch as the dagger flies past me, hitting and sticking to the wall. Looking at where the dagger came from, I see the target standing on top of the destroyed seating area, playing catch with another one of his daggers.

"Do yourself a favor," he yells, catching his dagger and preparing to throw it. "Knock it off."

"It works," I smile, flying into the air. "You're here."

Jumping and flying into the air, I focus my new magic onto my hands, my hands glowing both black and gold. Grabbing the first thing I can, the entire seating area, I start to raise it into the air. The man turns his head as he too is lifted into the air, I toss both him and the seating area into a wall. However, before he can hit the wall, he jumps off and charges toward us.

"You must die," the Lords of Order command, raising Dr. Fate's hands. Two orbs appear out from them, they fire the orbs at the man but he dodges both of them, the orbs hitting the ground. While they call forth some more orbs, I prepare to grab the man.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zin--."

Before I can finish, something hits and slams me onto the ground. Groaning as I push myself up, I turn around to see Supergirl hovering above me.

"Ah," I say, back on my feet. "Superman's little cousin."

"Raven, right," Supergirl asks. "If I remember correctly, you were once friends with Robin. I doubt he would be happy with how you turned out."

Biting my tongue, I use my magical powers to grab a bunch of leftover betas parts. Hauling all of them at Supergirl, she crosses her arms and blocks the attack. Rocketing toward me, her arms stretch out, I spread out my arms and make a force field. Supergirl hits it, the whole thing barely shakes as she punches it repeatedly.

"Supergirl," I say, watching safety from the inside. "Superman ordered me to capture you, but he didn't say anything about you having to be awake when I do."

Letting the force field drop, I grab her hand with my magic and swing her into the air. Slamming her into a pole, I once again focus my power on the man.

The Man:

Screaming as I hit the Lords of Order with a left hook, I quickly jump to my right as they tried to hit me with a magical beam. Now charging with a right hook, I hit them right into their stupid helmet.

"Doing a very bad job of killing me," I say, jumping up and down with my two fists in front. "How about this? You release Kent Nelson, and I'll--Hey, what's going on?"

Something grabs my foot, it then pulls me to the floor. Before I can react, it drags me through a floor full of empty shells before raising me.

Floating via magic surrounding my feet, I look up as one of my feet goes right while the other one goes left.

"I wonder which sides will win," Raven mocks, smiling as her hands are glowing both pitch-black and bright yellow.

"Hey," I say, reaching into my jacket pockets to pull out some kunai. "For the record, I don't do splits. Unless it's a banana splits."

Throwing my kunai at Raven, she uses one hand to stop them all. Magic surrounds them, they stay in mid-air for only a few seconds before falling to the floor.

"You're going to need more than knives to stop me," she says, watching as my kunai drop. Looking back at me, her eyes go wide when she sees me tossing a pellet. Before she can catch it, it hits her in the face. Screaming and stepping back, she lost focus, and the magic around my feet dispense. Flipping over in mid-air, I land on my knee and look at Raven. She's struggling to pull the goo off her eyes.

"Does that count," I ask, running away. "Hmm, thought that was a smoke pellet. Oh well, it still works."

Running over to Kara, I drop to my knee and slide over to help her up.

"Hey," I say, offering her my hand. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replies, taking my hand as I pull her up. Now on her feet, we look at Raven. Waving at the goo, she hardens it before blasting it over. The goo, now just dust, fall off.

"She's stronger than I thought," Kara says, clenching her fists. About to charge, I shoot out my arm and stop her.

"She is stronger," I say, looking Kara in her eyes. "Stronger than ever before, and I think I know why."

Eyeing the Lords of Order as they slowly float toward us, I pull out some more kunai.

"Focus on the fake Dr. Fate," I say, "I'll deal with the evil bird lady."

Kara nods her head and jumps into the air before charging toward the Lords. Meanwhile, I throw kunai at Raven, the bird lady catching all of them in mid-air with a simple swipe of her hands.

"Your weapons are no use against my magic," Raven says, swiping her hand again. My kunai that are all in mid-air, all turn around, now the tip pointing at me.

"Oh, son of a bastard," I say.

Pulling back her arm, she then shoots it forward, all my old kunai come flying back toward me. I take a page from Raven's book and quickly start to catch them, one after another. Grabbing the last one before it can hit me, I pocket all of my kunai.

"Thanks," I say, shooting Raven a quick wave. "I go through a lot of these and never get the chance to pick them up."

Raven shooting out her arm again wraps my hand in magic and picks me up again. Flying into the air, she drags me along with me. Swinging and tossing me all over like some ragdoll, I brace for impact as Raven slams me onto the floor and drags me against it.

Now, lifting me back up until we're face-to-face, she starts to close her hands together. As she is doing this, my legs start to move up, until they're squeezing against my stomach.

"I will crush you," Raven says, my knees now sliding past my stomach and pressing into my face. "Literally."

Captain Cold:

"Watch out," I shout, freezing one of the dozen of Dr. Fates as this one tries to conjure some stupid spell. The Dr. Fate now stuck in ice drops to the ground and shatters into pieces.

"Cold," Green Arrow yells, backing up as he fires some more tricks arrows. "Did you just kill Dr. Fate?"

"Well," I start, thinking it over. "Yes and no. Don't you remember what Sunglasses told us? These aren't the real Fates. They're just a bunch of copies. Copies trying to kill us."

Freezing more Fates, all of them hitting the ground and shattering, I see one coming up from behind Green Arrow. Grabbing the rich fucker and tossing him out of the way, I jump out of the way myself, barely dodging a blast from the evil doctor. Getting to my knee, I fire and freeze the doctor.

"Watch out," Poison Ivy screams.

Looking behind me, I see another one of the Dr. Fates preparing some sort of black, glowing orb in between his hands. Shooting it out, the orb then rockets toward me. Cross my arms, a wall of plants burst up from the ground and blocks the attack. Still, the eruption from the attack knocks me down and away from the wall. As I recover, I look back at the wall, only now instead of being one whole wall, it's in halves, with the edges red and with blackened, burnt plants.

"You're welcome," Poison Ivy yells, returning to trapping all of the Dr. Fates. Ivy raises both her hands, massive, thick roots shoot up from the ground and wrap themselves around all the Dr. Fates. Squeezing the Fates until they vanish, more than a few appears right behind her. Summoning more orbs, I freeze every single one of them before they could so much as blink.

"They're never-ending," Black Canary cries after screaming and knocking a few Fates out of the sky.

Falling to her knees, gasping for breath, Green Arrow rushes to her side. "I'm not, I'm not sure, I'm not sure how much more I got in me."

"That goes double for me too," Arrow replies, pulling an arrow from his almost empty quiver. Firing the arrow, it hit a Fate in his shoulder, the copy vanishing. "I hope the man and Kara are doing better than the rest of us."

The Man:

Despite my knees pressing up against my nose, I still have enough wiggle room to pull a pellet from my jacket pocket. Placing the pellet on my thumb, I flick it right into Raven's face, the pellet bursting into smoke and forcing Raven to her knees. Coughing, she lost focus and drops me to the ground.

"Oh," I cry, bending my cramped back. First bending back and then forward, I make sure to touch my toes with my fingers. "I hate being crushed."

Back up now, I see Raven fires some sort of magical yellow beam at me. Jumping out of the way, the beam shooting past me, I recognize it right away.

"That's Dr. Fate's magic," I say, clenching my fists. "Or should I say the Lords of Order?"

Raven spreads out her arms, she starts to fly high into the sky. Before I know it, two black and blue displacer orbs form in her hands.

"Feel my new powers," Raven says, tossing the orbs at me. As the orbs inch closer and closer, I start to sense something off about them. They feel different compared to the ones all the fake Dr. Fates have been using. Quickly, I pull out kunai and throw them at the orbs.

I watch as my kunai hits Raven's displacer orbs dead-on. Only, it looks more like the orbs ate my kunai. After eating my kunai, the orbs then shock them with electricity. Bolts of electricity strike my kunai over and over again until finally, both my kunai and the orbs burst into bits of blue dust.

"Okay," I say, reaching for another kunai. "That's new."

"Believe me," Raven says, clapping her hands together. "That's nothing when compared to this."

Spreading them out, the cross on her chest change from golden to pitch-black, and out of it comes a massive bird with blood-eyes eyes. The bird shakes the entire base as it takes forms, shooting out its wings the second it can. As it does, it sent out a wind storm that blows everything and everyone in the base away.

"Kara," I yell, watching as both she and the fake Dr. Fate are sent flying away. The two of them hitting a wall and falling, I'm about to rush to catch her but stop when I hear a shriek from behind. Turning around, I see the giant bird, a massive raven, charge toward it, its beak looking like the tip of a rocket. Jumping out of way, the bird hit the ground with enough force that rocks and dust shoot up and hit me.

I shield myself with my hands and wave the dust away just in time to jump out of the way of another attack. The bird slams its foot onto where I was standing. Landing only a few feet away, I reach for kunai in my pockets, but before I can grab any, I feel magic wrap around my hand.

"Not so fast," Raven says, her hand stretching out and glowing black. Lifting it, my arm follows, shooting into the air and unable to grab any of the weapons in my jacket. Stuck in the air, Raven's giant raven grabs me with its foot and slams me back onto the floor. Slamming me into the floor over and over, it then tosses me into the air before catching me in its mouth.

Supergirl:

"No," I say, seeing the bird eats The Man. Clenching my fists, I prepare to ram into the bird, forcing it to give up The Man. About to shoot through the air, Dr. Fate stops me with a magical blast. His blast knocking me to the floor, I look up to see Dr. Fate bringing up his glowing yellow hands.

"Kara Zor-El of Krypton," he says, flying toward me. "You must surrender. You and all of your allies. The future of this planet depends on your surrendering."

"What do you mean," I reply, groaning as I push myself up.

"The future of this planet, of Earth, is a blur. Nothing is certain. Everything is unknown. The cause of this uncertainty is because of The Man in the Sunglasses. The future must be fixed. The only future for this planet, the only one with order is assured, is the one where Kal-El and his One Earth Government rule. If you really care about this planet, then you must surrender. You and all your allies: Oliver Queen of Star City. Dinah lance of Stary City. Barry Allen of Central City. Selina Kyle of Gotham City."

"Oh my gosh," someone screams, grabbing our attention. Looking around for a bit, I see The Man in the giant bird's beak. "Seriously, what are you going to do? List off everyone's names?"

Struggling to push the beak open, he widens it enough for him to jump out.

"Trust me," he yells, pointing at the bird. "I'm doing both of us a favor. I don't want to be eaten, and you don't want to eat me. I am very unhealthy."

Shaking its head, the bird goes back to attacking The Man. Peaking and stomping its foot, I notice Raven circling The Man. Flying behind him, she brings up her arms. As she does, a bunch of the surrounding stuff glows black and floats into the air.

"Watch out," I shout, The Man turning to me before seeing Raven. Raven shoots all the stuff at The Man, he shoots out his arms and unleashes a large wave of bright-orange flames that burn all of the stuff to ash.

I watch as The Man keeps the flames up, the fires forcing Raven to fly away. Still shooting out fires, he starts to spin around. As he does, more and more flames gather around him, until he stops, and all the fires that once surrounded him are now floating in between his hands.

"Kara," he screams, looking at me. "Get down."

I waste no time and jump to the floor. Watching as The Man then swipes his arms, the fire in between his hands shoots out, like a wave but instead of water, it's fire. The wave shooting past me hit Dr. Fate and explodes. The explosion sent him flying back into a wall, smoking and screaming as he hits it. Staying stuck to the wall for a little bit, he eventually drops off of it and onto the floor. As he drops, I see his glowing eyes disappearing.

"Odd," The Man says, offering me his hand and helping me up. "Why isn't this Dr. Fate vanishing like the others?"

"I don't know," I reply, "But I think we have another problem."

I watch as the shadow of Raven's bird starts to loom over The Man and myself. Preparing for a fight, I close my fists.

"Kara," The Man says, grabbing my wrist. "Come on. Change of plan. We're leaving."

"What," I say, watching as The Man runs away. Confused, I still follow after him.

The two of us run to a wall, The Man stops and bends down to pick up Dr. Fate.

"What are you doing," I ask, watching as The Man presses his fingers against Dr. Fate's throat.

"Well, I'll be darn," The Man says, flipping Dr. Fate over and throwing one of his arms over himself. Raven's bird getting closer and closer, The Man pulls out his teleporter.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"Helping an acquaintance of mine," The Man replies. Slamming the teleporter down, a portal opens in front of us.

"Come on," The Man says, "We're leaving. You, me, and the real Dr. Fate."

Flash:

I run by a dozen fake Dr. Fates, punching each one across the face and watching as they vanish into lights. Skidding to a stop, I look at the others. Catwoman and Harleen are working together to take down a small group of fake Dr. Fates on the ground. Firestorms and Blue Beetle are blasting them out of the sky. Even Swamp Thing is here, summoning roots to bind the Fates to the ground. Once trapped, he swings his arm, his wooden arm stretching out and hitting all the Dr. Fates.

"There are so many of them," Swamp Thing groans, watching as all of the Dr. Fates he took down vanish and new ones appear.

"Surrender," one of the Dr. Fates orders, hovering toward the two of us, magical orbs floating in his hands. "You cannot defeat us. We are many. We are endless. We will not stop until The Man in the Sunglasses is defeated."

"As much as I hate The Man in the Sunglasses," I say, stretching my fingers as I prepare for another round against the Dr. Fates. "He and I have a common goal."

Despite feeling drained, my arms and legs feeling like stone, I suck it up and look at the hovering Dr. Fate.

"So you said we cannot defeat you," I say, "Let's see about that."

This fake Dr. Fate throwing the orbs, I run toward them, dodging in between before punching the faker. Groaning as he drops to the ground and vanishes, I run to another. Running from one to another, I punch, kick, dodge, parry, ram, and do whatever else I can think of to take down all of the Dr. Fates. Running toward another, what must be the millionth one today, I pull back my arm. Only a second from knocking this one out, a blast from somewhere knocks me to the street. Hitting the street and rolling, I catch myself and start to push myself up but mid-way, another blast hits me and sent me flying.

Moaning as I hit the street again, out of both breath and speed, I look up to see a pair of blurry Dr. Fates hovering toward me. About to get up and fight them, one of the Dr. Fates hit me with an orb, the orb burning me as it keeps me down.

The two now aiming both their arms at me, I grind my teeth. Before they can shoot, however, another blast hit both of them, white smoke erupting and covering them. The smoke fading away reveals that the pair of Dr. Fates are now stuck in ice.

Captain Cold:

Running to Flash, his jaw hanging as he stares at the frozen Dr. Fates, I grab and pull him up.

"Get up, lazy," I shout, pushing him as soon as he can stand on his own two feet. "And get everyone out of here! Robin Hood and I will hold them off until then!"

Leaving the "hero" with his eyes wide open and jaw still handing, I run to Robin Hood's side and join him in holding off the fake Fates. Freezing a bunch of them and watching as they drop, I look to the rich boy's side.

"How many arrows do you have left," I ask, switching the dial on my cold gun. I aim at the sky and fire. A white ball shooting out and into the sky, it burst, not only freezing some more Fates but also raining white smoke. The smoke hitting a few Fates below freezes them completely.

"Since when could your cold gun do that," the rich boy asks, firing off more of his trick arrows.

"Since some weird in a pair of sunglasses gave me a suit in a disc," I answer, switching the dial.

Now, firing bursts of snow and ice, I freeze three more Fates.

"How are the girls doing," Green Arrows asks, dodging out of the way as a Fate fire at him.

"The girl isn't doing so well," I reply. "He's not grabbing everyone fast enough and getting them the hell out of way."

"What," Green Arrows asks, looking at where I'm looking. "I was referring to Black Canary and Poison Ivy."

"Oh. They're doing fine."

Black Canary:

I scream and blast all the evil Fates away. Once done, I jump back and slam my back against Poison Ivy, Ivy herself summoning a wall of roots to block a blast. The wall staying intact, Ivy then waves her arms, and roots shoot to grab the Fates.

"To your right," I say, swinging Ivy behind me and screaming.

"Thanks," Ivy replies, raising her arms. A second later, a giant, Venus flytrap erupts from the street. Its teeth are shining and it's drooling acid. The second it can, it charges toward the Fates, forcing them away with its thrones-covered roots.

"That should give us the space we need," Ivy says, elbowing me in the back. I nod my head, and we both turn to run toward the group. The two of us grabbing Oliver and Cold along the way, we make it inside an abandoned store.

"What's going on," Firestorm asks. He defuses and Jason and Stein appear. "Why did you grab us?"

"We got a call from The Man a few minutes ago," I answer, looking behind as a bunch of Dr. Fates gather around the Venus flytrap and try to destroy it. "He said it's time for a retreat, and that he and Supergirl got something big."

"Something big," Barry repeats, "What? What did he and Supergirl get?"

"No clue," Oliver says, "He said we should fall and wait for a portal to open up."

"Okay. Well, where exactly is the portal supposed to open u--"

A massive portal opens right beneath us, our screams cut Barry off as we all drop in. Landing right into the infirmary, I see Dr. Crane and Iris rush to help us up.

"Oh, thank you," Dr. Crane says, helping me up. "I'm not going to lie. I wasn't sure if that was going to work. I've never adjusted the teleporter to open a portal that big before so I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. Who knows what would have happened if I did it wrong?"

"I can provide two scenarios," Cold says, kicking Jaime off of him. "One is the portal closing early and some of us losing a few parts. The other is the portal staying open too long, and this base filling with evil Fates. Now get off of me."

Helping Jaime to his feet, Iris then helps Cold to his.

"Hmm," The Man says as he walks to Dr. Crane's side, rubbing his chin. "If I had to, I would pick the second scenario. I wouldn't mind beating up some more fake Fates."

"More than we already have," Barry says, helping Jason and Professor Stein up. "Altogether, we must have taken down over a billion fake Dr. Fates."

"Yes, but as it turns out, we may only need one particular Dr. Fate."

The Man stepping aside reveals to us another Dr. Fate, only this one is strapped to a table.

"What in the living hel--," Jason tries to say but The Man loudly coughs into his hand and stops him.

"What in the living heck is one of the fake Dr. Fates doing here," Jason says, rolling his eyes.

"For the record," Dr. Crane says, putting up his hand. "I asked the same thing. I mean, no offense or anything, but I thought the whole point of this place was that it was supposed to be secure against all threats. Why did you bring a threat here?"

"This is not just one of them," The Man replies, walking over to the stripped-down Dr. Fate. Hovering over him for a bit, The Man looks Kent in his eyes, before reaching down and pulling off his Helmet of Fate. Lending back as Kent begins to scream and shake, I rush over to him but The Man shoots out his arm and stops me.

"Don't," he says. "I know this looks bad, I really do, but if this works, it could prove to be a major advantage."

"What are you talking about," I ask, watching as Kent's screams begin to fill the room. The straps keep him down as he shakes, his body starts to glow intensely, but it's not at all like before. This Dr. Fate isn't disappearing.

"Doc," The Man says, looking at Dr. Crane. "Now, set up a teleporter."

Dr. Crane scrambling to do as the man said slams the teleporter onto the floor. Pushing some buttons on it, he looks up.

"Where to?"

"Let's tried China. It's on the other side of the planet, far away from him."

Nodding his head, Dr. Crane pushes a final button on the teleporter before the portal opens with the Wall of China appearing inside of it.

"Watch out below," The Man says, throwing the helmet through the portal before it closes.

Dr. Fate:

"He must die," someone says, "He had to die. The future of Earth depends on it."

"We all agree that the man in the sunglasses must die," someone else replies, "But the question is not whether or not he must die but it is how. We cannot find him. Despite our best efforts."

"We must lure him out," a third voice answers. "And once we do, we must destroy him quickly. However, the man's true power is still unknown. I would suggest we find ourselves a new ally."

"A new ally," the first voice repeats. "What do you mean by a new ally?"

"I believe our best option for defeating the man is to form a partnership, a temporary one, with Superman and his One Earth Government. His resources are near endless and his army is at the ready."

"Ready for what," the second voice asks.

"For the invasion against the Green Lantern Corps."

The next thing I know, visions of Oliver, Barry, Harleen, Superman, and someone in a pair of sunglasses flash by, too fast for me to make sense of what is going on. Somehow, I'm entering the sewer but at the same exact time, I'm with Raven who is now glowing yellow? Meanwhile, I'm also fighting Cheetah, but Captain Cold had just frozen me in a block of ice, and the last thing I see was the sky before hearing something shatter.

As the visions run by faster and faster, they soon become too much for me to handle.

"What's going on," I think, my head feeling like it's ready to explode. "What's going on? Why am I fighting? Why am I destroying an empty street? Who is that man in the sunglasses?"

The visions going by too fast now, there's nothing more than colorful blurs. I try and look at them, try to understand what is going on, but I can't. It's too much for me to understand. It's too much for me to get. I can't understand what is going on.

Before I know it, my eyes suddenly snap open.

The Man:

I watch as the Doc jumps up and down and screams when Dr. Fate himself wakes up and starts screaming too. I take a step back and watch as the two scream their heads off. Eventually, the screaming attracts Iris who runs in. Stun for only a few seconds, Iris then grabs the Doc and keeps his feet on the floor.

"Well, that was amusing," I say, stepping forward. "I especially like the part where you ran around for a bit before jumping up and down again."

"What," Dr. Fate screams, looking all over as he struggles against the table's restraints. "What? What is the meaning of this? What's going on?"

Turning his head, he then notices the three of us.

"Scarecrow," he growls, looking like a cat that is about to attack a bird. "And Iris? You're with him now? And you. Who are you?"

"That's is not important right now," I answer.

"Also," the Doc interrupts, lending in between Fate and me. "Nowadays, it's Dr. Crane. Dr. Crane, not Scarecrow. Dr. Crane."

"Thanks for that," I say, pushing the Doc back, "But that's also not important right now. Iris, please stay here while I go and get the others. They'll want to see this."

"Wait," Iris says, stopping me before I can leave. Looking like she's about to say something, she stops herself. Instead, she leans in and whispers.

"What's about Dr. Fate? I mean, no offense or anything, but I don't think Dr. Crane is much of a fighter anymore and I can throw a few punches, but I doubt that's going to do much against a guy with magic."

Looking past Iris, at the tied-down Dr. Fate as he goes on and on, demanding answers about what is going on, I then look toward Dr. Crane.

"Dr. Fate can't use magic without his helmet," I start, "And he is tied down to the table. Still, I understand. Listen, if anything happens, there are bottles of propofol in the cabinets over there."

"Propofol," Iris says slowly. "What's that?"

"It's a type of anesthetic used commonly to put patients to sleep before surgery."

"Surgery?"

"He's not getting any surgery."

Nodding at Iris, I leave.

Going from room to room, I quickly gather everyone else in the base. As we walk through the hallway, Dinah is at my side, constantly asking questions.

"So Kent is finally awake," she starts, "And he's okay."

"More or less," I answer, "He's screaming at the top of his lungs, demanding to know what is going on."

"And you didn't tell him,"

"What exactly was Sunglasses supposed to tell him," Cold asks, "Hey, Kent, guess what? You're in my super-secret base after I, along with a bunch of your old friends, kidnapped you from Raven, who by the way, was apparently granted extra powers from your bosses, the Lords of Order?"

"No," Dinah says, slapping herself in the face. "Not that, but at the very least, you could have told him who you are."

"We don't even know who he is," Harleen interjects.

"Call me whatever you want," I say, "Honestly, it's been so long since I've heard my actual name, and I've been using so many fake names for so many years, I do not care what any of you call me."

"Really," Jason asks, "So you're okay if I start calling you Crazy Son of a Bit--"

I stop walking and elbow Jason before he can finish. As he's about to fall back, I turn around and rush forward, grabbing Jason's shirt.

"I'm not okay with being called that," I say, pulling Jason up and letting go of his shirt. "Don't swear kid."

Most of the Insurgency still behind me, I tap on Barry's door.

"Knock, knock," I say, waiting for Barry's door to open. Surprisingly, he opens it after a few seconds. About to tell him about Kent, I stop when I see the radio in Barry's hand. Immediately, I turn around and shush everyone. Everyone going quiet, I step back and watch as Barry leaves his room.

Standing in the hallway now, he vibrates his hand to the right frequency, the light turning from red to green.

"Hal," Barry starts, turning up the radio so we can all hear it. "Hal. It's me. What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

"Hello," a voice answers. The voice is not Hal. It sounds like a woman. "Hello? Is this the Flash? Hello? Please come in. Hello?"

"This is Flash," Barry answers, "Who is this? Where is Hal?"

"Hal is badly injured," the voice says, "Please listen. My name is Arisia."

"Arisia," Selina repeats," Who's that?"

"She's a fellow green lantern," I answer, thinking of her. "There's a name I haven't heard in a while."

"I'm a Green Lantern," Arisia goes on, "And we need your help. You and everyone else. We need all of your help."

"What's going on," Barry says.

"Hal is down. So are Gardner and Tomar Re. We're badly outnumbered and I don't know how much longer we can fight. Please, get here."

The sound of an explosion cuts Arisia off, and the light switches back to red. Despite Barry's best efforts, he can't seem to call Arisia back. Eventually, he just lets the radio drops to his side.

"What was that," Cheetah asks, the first to break the uncomfortable silence.

"An S-O-S," Kara says, "We need to help Arisia."

"And apparently, the rest of the Green Lanterns Corps," Harleen adds. "But just one slight problem. I mean, hey, I'm on for saving Hal and his Green Lanterns buddies, but they're in space. Far, far, far, away in space. How are we supposed to even get there in the first place?"

"Please, one problem at a time," Dinah says, "For now, let's go and see Kent."

Patting my back, Dinah starts to push me toward the infirmary.

The Man:

All of us entering the infirmary, I'm again surprised to see Kent Nelson still awake. The cabinet with the propofol doesn't seem to have been open, and somehow, the Doc isn't screaming or running around.

"See," Iris says, standing in between the tied-down Kent and the Doc with his arms crossed. "Everything is fine. Everything is clear up now. There's no need for any more threats."

"I'm not even going to ask," I say as I walk in.

"Oliver," Kent starts, shaking against the restraints. "Dinah. Barry. Oh my god, am I glad to see all of you."

"Kent," Oliver and Dinah scream, running to Kent but I shoot out my arms and stop them.

"Not yet," I say, pushing the two back. "I just want to make sure this really is Kent and not Fate. Stay back."

I make sure everyone is at least six feet away from me before I walk up to Kent. At his side now, I lean over him.

"Kent Nelson," I start, "Or Dr. Fate Let me ask you this. Do you know who I am?"

"No," Kent sighs, "No, I don't know who you are."

"Do you know where you are?"

"Iris told me I'm in some sort of hidden base that belongs to you, but she didn't know where it is exactly. Neither does Scarecrow."

"Dr. Crane," the Doc interrupts, "It's Dr. Crane. Nowadays, it is Dr. Crane."

"Yeah, thanks Doc," I say, shooting him a quick wave. "Anyway, final question. Is Barry Allen a stupid man, or a big fat baby?"

"Excuse me," Flash says, pushing through the crowd. "Why did you just call me that?"

"He isn't any of these," Kent yells, "Barry Allen, despite what he was a few years ago, is still a very noble and honest man."

"Sure," I say, lending back and turning to face everyone. "He's fine. Everyone, this is indeed Kent Nelson, not Dr. Fate."

I unhook the restraints and set Kent free. Quickly pulling them off of him, Kent turns to sit up. The second he is up, Oliver and Dinah run to his sides.

"Hey man," Oliver starts, patting Kent's back. "Easy there. Easy there. How are you?"

"I'm fine," Kent replies, "At least, I think so. My head is killing me. What happened? The last thing I really remember, I was talking to Batman and Superman when, when, something happened."

"Uhh," Oliver says, suddenly looking around.

"Here," Iris says, handing Dinah a bottle of water. Taking and handing the bottle to Kent, he practically rips the cap off and drinks the whole bottle in one gulp.

"Are you sure about this," Ivy asks," Just letting him go like this."

"As I said, this is Kent Nelson, not Dr. Fate. He's not under the control of the Lords of Order anymore. If he was, he would have answered all these questions differently. For one, he would have called Barry a stupid man. Not a 'noble and honest one'. I for one would have called him a big baby."

Kent hands Iris the empty water bottle, she tosses it into a nearby trashcan.

"After Batman and Superman, everything is just a blur. I'm at ten different places at the same time, and I'm fighting all of you at once."

"Sound about right," Reverse-Flash says, Kent turning to look at him. "Your bosses, the Lords of Order, copied you a few hundred times over, creating an army of you."

"An army of me," Kent repeats.

"Yeah," Reverse-Flash yells, "You spend the whole day trying to kill all of us. Mostly him."

Pointing at me, I wave at Kent.

"Wait, wait, wait," Kent says once he sees me. Putting his fingers on his forehead, he stares into space for a bit before looking back at me. "I remember something else. Something about a man in a pair of sunglasses."

"Oh, that's really specific. You know, there are a lot of men in sunglasses."

"Yeah, but how many of them are being targeted by some lords of orders," Cold jokes, and Ivy chuckles.

"No," Kent says, getting off the bed and walking toward me. "It's definitely you."

Before he can get too close, I snap my wrist and pull from thin air one of the handles to my swords. A small black box, I push a button, and an entire blade shoots, stopping Kent.

"A big fan of personal space," I say, holding the sword between us. "Back away."

Kent holding up his hands also steps back.

"The Lords of Order want to destroy you," Kent starts.

"That's not new information," I say slowly, shaking my head.

"They want to destroy you because you somehow destroy the future," Kent yells, his hands running to his head. "I remember them saying that they couldn't see the future anymore. That the future is a blur, and that in order to fix it, they have to get rid of you."

My blade disappearing into the box, I flip it in between my hands and back into thin air.

"So that's why they're trying to destroy him," Kara asks, "To save the future?"

"Something like that," Kent replies, walking back to the table and sitting down. His hand on his head the whole time, he looks at Iris.

"Is there any more water?"

Iris nods her head and grabs one out of the infirmary's mini-fridge. While Kent drinks, everyone looks at me.

"So what do we do now," Professor Stein asks, stepping up. "We have the Lords of Order hunting us, but we also have the S-O-S call from the Green Lanterns."

"What," Kent says, coughing up a bit of water. "What S-O-S call?"

"Like, five minutes ago, Barry got a call from a green lantern named Arisia. She said the lanterns were badly outnumbered and needed our help."

"Afterward, I then checked with Higgin. The tracker I placed on Hal before he left for Oa turned from green to black. That's a bad color."

"Wait," Flash says, "You placed a tracker on Hal?"

"Don't feel so left out. I placed trackers on all of you. I have 100 trackers on you alone. Check your right boot."

Flash's eyes going wide, he slowly lifts up his right boot. As he does, we all see a dozen, blinking trackers on the bottom of it.

"How," he cries, looking at me. "How did you do that? How have I never noticed?"

"Anyway, the tracker also acts as a health monitor. Before, the color was green, meaning Hal was fine and in excellent health. Black means the complete opposite. Quite literally the complete opposite to fine and in excellent health."

"So some of you are going to the home planet of the Green Lanterns," Iris asks, "While some of you are staying here to deal with the fake Dr. Fate?"

"No," I say, "And by the way, the home planet of the Green Lanterns is called Oa."

"What do you mean by no," Barry asks.

"I mean, no, we're not splitting up. If we are going to do something, either go to Oa or stay here, it's going to be all together."

"What," Barry laughs, "We can't split up?"

"Frankly, yes. The last time we split up, Ivy destroyed one of the most iconic buildings in all of Gotham."

"Hey," Ivy yells, her eyes shooting daggers at me.

"Okay, yeah, yeah. Calling Wayne Tower one of the most iconic buildings in all of Gotham may be a bit much, but still. Tell me I'm wrong."

Looking away, Ivy's cheeks turn red.

"Besides, you heard what Arisia said. The green lanterns are badly outnumbered, meaning there are a bunch of enemies."

"There are a lot of fake Dr. Fates too," Oliver adds.

"Exactly. Another reason we can't split up. Either we fight a bunch of fake Dr. Fates or we fight a bunch of green lanterns' enemies. Either way, it sounds like all of us are going to be needed."

"So again," Professor Stein asks, "What do we do? Do we go to Oa or stay here?"

Supergirl:

"I don't know about anyone else," Barry says, "But with all honestly, I think we should go to Oa and help Hal."

"What about Gotham City," Iris asks, "And the fake Dr. Fates?"

"The way I see it, as long as he is here, then so are the fake Dr. Fates. If we leave, then--"

"Then we're bringing to Oa an army of fake Dr. Fates," Eobard says, cutting Barry off. "Thanks for your honesty, but I think we should stay here. We should deal with the fake Dr. Fates and the Lords of Order first before going to Oa. One army at a time."

"But you heard Arisia," Jason says, "They need our help now. Now."

"So what," Cheetah asks, stepping up to Jason. "So what if they need our help now? It's not like all of us just shoot into space and go to Oa. I don't know if you notice kid, but cheetahs can't fly."

"I am sure that the teleporters the man and Dr. Crane have can teleport us to Oa," Martin says, joining Jason's side. "No need to fly."

"Uhh, actually," Dr. Crane says, putting up a finger as he takes a step forward. "I don't know if the teleporter can take all of you to Oa or not."

Dr. Crane reaches into his pocket and pulls out his teleporter.

"These things have range. They can reach anywhere in the world, but out of the world, I don't really know."

"They don't," The Man says, raising one of his hands. "The teleporters can't take all of us to Oa. At least, not without some modifications."

"Can you do the modifications," Jason asks.

"Not without some time and a whole like of electricity."

"So it's decided," Leonard says, now all eyes turning to him. "We're staying here on Earth. The green lanterns are on their own."

"Now wait one moment," The Man says, all eyes back on him. "The teleporters can't take us to Oa, but I do have a way we can get there."

"Really," Barry asks, laughing a little. "What, you got a spaceship somewhere in here?"

"Yes," The Man says, nodding his head. "I have a spaceship."

"I was kidding," Barry asks, uncrossing his arms. "Wait, do you actually have a spaceship? One that we can use to get to Oa?"

"Yes," The Man repeats, "I do have a spaceship. Give me five minutes."

Without warning, The Man runs out of the infirmary, leaving all of us behind.

"Just to be sure," Jason says, "We're not supposed to follow him? Right?"

"I don't know," I answer, looking at the doors after the man exited. "I just, don't know."

The Man is gone for a few minutes, whether it's five minutes or not, I don't know. He walks back through the door and holds it open for the right of us.

"Come on," he says, "The Rusted is ready."

"The Rusted," Barry repeats, "Is that what spaceship is called? What would you name it that?"

"Because like me, it's incredibly old. Also, like me, it's strong, stubborn, and doesn't go down easily. Follow me."

All of us looking at each other at first, we all follow after The Man. Even Kent. Despite limping at first, Oliver and Dinah help him as The Man lead us through the hallways. Taking many twists and turns, he eventually lead all of us to a hallway I don't think I've ever seen before.

"In here," he says, pushing a button on the wall and a part of the wall splitting open to reveal a circular room with a white floor and glass wall. As everyone enters the room, I step back.

"Glass wall," I think, memories of my time on Stryker's Island coming back to haunt me. "White floor."

I see myself stuck in that cell, the lights from above draining my powers. Days after days, weeks after weeks, all I can do is just sit and listen to how my cousin is quickly taking over. About to turn away, I stop when someone grabs my hand.

"Hey," The Man says, his hand on mine. Looking at me, and then at the room, he turns back to me. "Uhh, follow me for a bit."

Turning to the others, he pushes another button on the wall.

"Go without us," he says, "We'll take the stairs."

The room goes down, the walls closing as it does, The Man nudges his head and I follow after him. He leads me only a few steps away where he opens and pushes open a tall, black door. As the door opens, I see nothing but the color black. It reminds me a lot of The Man's room.

"Give me one second," The Man says, flipping on a switch and some hanging lights coming on. The lights, however, do very little. The ceiling of the room is lit up, and so is a staircase, but the bottom is still pitch-black.

"How far does this go down," I ask, peeking over the railings.

"About 3,000 feet," The Man answers, peeking over the railings with me. Throwing one of his kungi over, I watch as his knife disappears after a few seconds.

"Why did you build this?"

"For the life of me, I honestly cannot remember. I think I had plans for something more, but then something else got in the way. Come on, the others are ahead. Let's try and beat them."

"Are we going to take the stairs?"

"Well I do," The Man replies, turning toward the stairs. "You can fly, so you don't have to."

As The Man starts the walk down the stairs, I look between him and the darkness below.

"Frankly," I tell myself, "I rather walk with him. Who knows what is hidden down there? Besides him, of course. Hey, wait up."

Running to catch up with The Man, the two of us starts going down the stairs, one flight after another.

"Again," The Man says after some flights. "You can fly. You don't have to walk down with me. I know stairs."

"You know stairs," I repeat, panting a little as I try to match The Man's speed. It doesn't look like he even trying, but somehow, he is walking incredibly fast. Meanwhile, I'm running. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean I know how much people absolutely hate stairs. In fact, I have a theory that if given the choice between jumping off a skyscraper to one's end or simply walking down a few hundreds of flights of stairs, people would take option one."

"That's a bit scary. Please tell me you've never tested that theory."

"Oh, of course not. As I said, it's just a theory. I've never actually tested it, and I never will. I'm just saying that people hate stairs. That's why they're the ultimate security defense."

"Stairs are the ultimate security defense," I repeat, accidentally laughing a little.

Stopping for the first time since we started walking, he turns around to face me.

"Yes they are," he smiles, crossing his arms. "After all, can you really tell me at this point, that you rather not just fly and skip over all of these steps?"

My legs are feeling weak, my arms are feeling like they weigh a ton. I'm gripping onto the railings so tight that I'm bending the metal. As I look up, I see The Man's smug smile.

"I'm not flying," I yell back, "If you can do this, then so I am."

The Man's smile disappears, he walks back up and offers me his hand.

"Here. Let me help you."

"What are you going to do," I ask, "Carry me down the stairs?"

"Yes," The Man replies. "That's exactly what I'm going to do."

Turning around, he points at his back.

"Come on. I can carry you. This isn't my first trip up and down a few hundreds of flights of stairs."

Turning back to look at me, The Man must have seen my confused face.

"It's either I carry you, you fly, or you faint on the stairs. Pick one, and please oh please, don't pick the third one."

I sigh as I jump onto The Man's back. My arms going around his neck, his hands grabbing my legs, he starts to carry me down.

"This is kind of awkward," I think to myself.

The Man:

"Yeah, this is very awkward," I think to myself. "I'm carrying Kara down the stairs because she doesn't want to fly. Oh god, I hope I don't smell too bad. I should smell like nothing. I spent years making sure I smell like anything so dogs can't track me. Then again, I have been doing a lot of running lately."

Turning my head a little so I can see Kara, she looks back at me. The two of us looking at each other, we nod our heads.

"Please oh please, whoever is out there and listening, let me not stink of sweats."

The Man:

"How in the world did we get here before any of the others," I say, walking down the final steps. My foot landing on the stone pavement, I look around and all I can see is my empty workshop. There is no one else here.

"How can you tell," Kara asks, still on my back. "I can't see anything."

"I can see in the dark," I reply, "And what I can see right now is my ship, the wood and metals I used to build her, and my tools."

"Woods," Kara repeats, the sound of an elevator's ding grabbing our attention. Quickly getting off my back, Karak and I look to see the elevator's doors slide open and the rest of the Insurgency all inside.

"You beat us here," Leonard yells, "How? I thought you said you would take the stairs."

"We did," I yell back, "And we beat you here. Haha, slowpoke."

"So where is this spaceship of yours," Barry asks, walking out of the elevator and looking around. "I don't see anything."

"That's because the lights are off. Give me a second."

Clapping my hands together, the sound echoing throughout the entire hanger, all the lights then simultaneously come on, revealing my ship, the mighty Rusted.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Barry yells, the sound of his 'fingernails against a chalkboard voice echoing throughout the hanger. "This is your spaceship? This?"

"Yes," I reply. "This is my spaceship. The Rusted."

The Rusted, my spaceship, upon first look, is a refashioned pirate ship, complete with everything from the crow's nest at the very top to the hull, the belly of the ship. She comes equipped with three main masts, the sails already down and a figurehead I handcrafted years ago.

"You really put the 'ship' is spaceship uh," Cold jokes.

You got to be kidding," Jason joins, walking up to the Rusted. "This is a boat, not a spaceship. How is it supposed to take us to Oa? How?"

"Okay, first thing first. This is a ship, a ship, not a boat. Second of all, despite what you may be thinking, it is more than capable of taking us, all of us, to Oa."

Walking up and gently patting her, I look toward Jason.

"I made some upgrades since the last time she helped me. For example, despite being made from cedar and oak, the Rusted herself is heavily reinforced."

"Herself," Jason repeats.

"Yes Millennial. We old people like to refer to our precious cars, boats, and planes as 'her' and 'she'. After all, they have a special place in our hearts."

I nod my head as I look at the Rusted again.

"Also, you see the sails up there?"

Jason looking behind and up at the sails turns back to me.

"Yeah."

"They're made from an aluminum-like alloy, flat, smooth, and with a reflective coating that sunlight can push. Have you ever heard of something called solar sails?"

"I have," Professor Stein interrupts, stepping up. "Thought, I've never heard of someone building a pirate ship with solar sails."

"Wait, wait, wait," Barry says, shaking his hands left and right. "Are you saying this is for real? This thing--"

In less than a second, I pull off my shoe and throw it at Barry.

"Ship," I say, "This ship."

Rubbing his head as he looks at me, his eye twitching as he does, he looks back at Professor Stein.

"Are you saying this ship could actually take us all the way to Oa?"

"Possibly," Professor Stein replies, looking at the Rusted. "I remember reading something about solar sails many years ago. They do work, but there are some disadvantages to using them."

"But assuming that the sails do work," Barry says, "There are still a few things I'm worried about."

"That's funny," I whisper, picking up my shoe and putting it back on. "One of the few things that I'm worried about is you."

"I don't see a cover," Barry starts, "How are we going to breathe in space? What if we freeze out there? Also, this is huge. How are we supposed to get it out of here?"

"Inside of the Rusted, there is something I built. I called it an atmosphere generator."

"An atmosphere generator," Professor Stein repeats.

"It generates an atmosphere, a breathable one, one where even crops can grow."

"Crops," Jason repeats. "There's a farm in there?"

"Yes, but one person's questions at a time. Besides generating a breathable atmosphere, the generator will also act as a sort of jacket for the Rusted and her crew, making sure the temperature stays constant. Finally, there's a portal built into the wall that will teleport the ship to Earth's mesosphere."

I see some question marks appear over a few heads and quickly explain.

"It's the layer of Earth's atmosphere before the thermosphere. There, people can still breathe, but it is cold. About 50 miles straight up, the temperature is a near-constant of -120 degrees."

The question marks slowly fade away, Harleen is the first to make a move.

"Okay, so it's decided," she says, "We're going to Oa. I might, we have the transportation."

Walking up to the Rusted, she turns to face everyone else.

"What about Gotham City," Jaime asks, "And the Lords of Order? And their army of fake Dr. Fates? Are we really going to leave all of them?"

"Of course, we're not," Jason yells. "We're not abandoning Gotham."

"So what are we going to do," Selina says. "Stay here?"

"We can't stay here," Harleen says, "You heard the message. The Green Lanterns need us."

"All of us," I add, "So we can't split up either. It's either we all stay in Gotham or we all go to Oa. The decision is yours."

Everyone staring at each other, looking from one Insurgent to the next, waiting for one of them to make the first move, I roll my eyes and make the first move.

"Let's settle this diplomacy," I say, "Shall we? Everyone who thinks we should leave for Oa, get on this side. Everyone who thinks we should stay here, get on that side."

Once again, everyone looks at each other before slowly taking sides. Standing near the Rusted are Oliver, Dinah, Harleen, Leonard, Cheetah, and Reverse-Flash. Standing near the elevator are Barry, Jason, Jaime, and Selina. Meanwhile, Professor Stein, Supergirl, Swamp Thing, the Doc, and Iris who is still carrying Kent Nelson are still in the middle.

"Five versus four," I note, counting to make sure. "I get we're going to Oa."

"No, no, no," Barry says, stepping forward and waving his arms. "There are still some that haven't chosen yet."

Pointing toward the four that haven't, I walk toward them.

"You know it's rude to point," I say, getting in between him and the four. Barry lowering his finger, I turn to the four.

"Swamp Thing," I start," I imagine that both choices you really don't care about. All you want is to back go to your swamp."

"That is correct," Swamp Thing says, nodding his head.

"The Doc can help with that."

Stepping aside, I let the Doc bring Swamp Thing home. A portal opens up, Swamp Thing steps through and vanishes, the portal closing seconds later.

"If Swamp Thing is going back to Slaughter Swamp," Jason says, "then it means we're staying."

"No," I reply. "We're going to Oa. We settled this diplomacy. Remember? At least, most of us are."

I walk up to Iris and Kent.

"I want the two of you to stay here. Take care of the base while we're away."

"Two," the Doc repeats, putting the teleporter back in his pocket. "Wait, what do you mean by two? Not three?"

"No Doc. Not three. You're coming with us to Oa."

The Man:

"I'm sorry," the Doc says. "What? What? I'm sorry, what did you say? I'm doing what? What?"

"You're coming with us to Oa," I reply, nudging my head toward the Rusted. "Come on, she's already loaded and ready to set sail."

I reach into my pocket and pull out my cellphone. Activating the Rusted's controls, I watch as a trapdoor opens and a ramp shoots straight up. Falling down a few seconds later, I quickly spread out my arms and push a few people back before it can hit them.

"The ramp is a little longer than I remember," I say, the end of it hitting the front of my shoe. "All aboard."

Taking the first step, I walk onto the ramp before turning around. Oliver and Dinah talk with each other for a few seconds, they nod their heads and take the first step onto the Rusted's ramp.

"No," I yell, pointing and stopping them. "No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No."

"What," Oliver says, he and Dinah back away. "What? What did we do?"

"You two were about to step onto the ramp with your left foot first."

"So?"

"We get better luck if you step onto the Rusted with your right foot. It's a basic rule for any sailors."

"Better luck," Flash repeats, "Oh you have got to be kidding me."

Despite the distance, I can still see Flash rolling his eyes. It takes every bit of willpower I have not to take off my shoe and throw it at the scarlet speedster. It also takes every bit of willpower I have not to throw one of my kungi at the speedster's head.

"Okay," Dinah says. "Besides, from the sound of that message earlier, we're going to need all the luck we can get."

Dinah steps onto the ramp with her right foot, Oliver doing the same, the two then make their way up the ramp. I step to the side and watch as they make their way onto the main deck.

"Hey, this isn't so bad," Oliver says from the deck.

"Thank you," I reply, shooting the couple a quick wave. Turning back to the others, I swing my arm. "Who's next?"

A few shrugging their shoulders but most nodding their head, they all step onto the ramp, right foot first of course, and make their way onto the Rusted. All except the Doc.

"Doc," I yell, "Come on. Get up here."

"You're not kidding," the Doc yells from the floor. "Wait, why do you need me? I'm not a fighter."

"I know you're not a fighter," I say, waving my arm, "But you are a doctor, and we may need a doctor on Oa. So come on. Get up here."

"I'm sorry," the Doc replies, stepping back. "But I can't."

Wiping his forehead, he blinks over and over and turns away. I hear him start to breathe in and out.

"Listen," he says, turning around after a minute or so. "I know, I know, I owe you so much. I mean, after you rescued me from Ace Bar, and gave me a new purpose, but still, I can't leave the base."

Pausing for a bit to breathe in and out some more, the Doc falls over but catches himself on his knees.

"I just can't do it," he shouts. "I just can't do it. I can't leave the base. Okay."

Looking back up, the Doc jumps back when he sees me standing right in front of him.

"What the? How did you do that? I didn't even hear you make a-"

Before the Doc can finish, I wave my hand in front of his face.

Supergirl:

I watch from the ship as The Man waves his hand in front of Dr. Crane's face. I couldn't be sure but from the look of it, it looks like some sort of purple dust came out from The Man's hand. The dust getting all over Dr. Crane's face, he places his hand on his head and stumbles for a bit before falling.

The Man catches him in time, he starts to drag Dr. Crane up the ramp.

"I know, I know," The Man shouts while still dragging Dr. Crane. "This looks bad, but still. You all heard Arisia, right? There are wounded Green Lanterns, and they may need an extra doctor."

"You really think Scarecrow can do anything for some wounded Green Lanterns," Flash says, crossing his arms. "You know, besides put on some bandages."

"You're lucky my hands are full," The Man says, finally reaching the deck. Harleen runs to help him throw one of Dr. Crane's arms over herself. The two now carrying him, The Man turns to us.

"We're going to put the Doc in the infirmary. Since we're heading there anyway, everyone follows me. I'll give you a quick tour of the Rusted."

Once Harleen and The Man put Dr. Crane down in the infirmary, The Man then gives us a tour of the Rusted. He show us the rooms where we would be staying, the battlefield where we can practice, and even the kitchen and dining room.

"You basically have a mini version of your base here," Leonard says when The Man guides us back to the outside. "Like literally, room for room, this is the base. Only smaller."

"Anyhow," The Man starts, walking up a flight of stairs and up to a massive wooden wheel. "It's time. Everyone, get ready. We're setting sail."

Beside the wheel are a bunch of controls. Pushing a series of buttons, turning a bunch of dials, and flipping dozens of switches, the Rusted starts to transform before our very eyes. The sound of metal moving echoes throughout, we all then start to run around to see the transformation.

The entire back of the ship disappears, a bunch of thrusters shoot out and starts to fire, cones of red and orange pushing the ship forward.  The front of the ship is about to hit the wall, but before it does, the stick in front starts to light up. A beam shoots out of it a few seconds later, it hits the wall and a massive portal appears right in it, this portal begin bigger than any of the others we have seen.

"Iris," The Man says, leaving the wheel and walking up the side. "If you ever need help with anything, I have an 'acquaintance' here. He can help."

Iris trying to say something, the stick at the front of the ship passes into the portal. The second it does, the portal unleashes a powerful windstorm that blocks her. All I can hear is the wind as it tries to push the ship back.

The Man:

"Everyone hold on," I yell, the wind from the portal threatening to push all of us back. Turning my head, I see Iris and Kent rush inside the elevator.

"At least they're safe," I think, turning back as I increase the thrusters' power. The thrusters are now at 80 percent power. However, even at 80 percent power, the winds from the thermosphere still push back with all their might.

"Come on baby," I say, increasing the thrusters' power to 90 percent. "I know it had been a while, but we need you. Come on, show us what you got."

Rusted hearing me, she pushes on through until we are finally through the portal and in space.

The planet Earth is behind us and in front of us is a sea of stars.

"Oa is about three days away," I say, watching as everyone gets up from the deck after laying flat down on it. While they get up, I thank the Rusted and pat her. Lowering the thrusters' power to 20 percent, I activate the ship's solar sails and let the sunlight take over.

"Until then, everyone gets comfortable."

The Man:

"It had been three days," Kara says, standing by my side as she looks out toward the empty space. "At least, I think it had been three days."

"It's hard to tell uh," I reply, my attention switching between Kara and the Rusted's wheel. "You know, due to the lack of sun, moon, or even a clock. Don't worry though. You're right. It had been three days since we left Earth. Oa should be close."

"How do you know," Kara asks, turning back to me. "I mean, have you ever been to Oa before?"

"Yes," I reply, "How else do you think I know where Oa is. I've been there plenty of times."

"Okay," Kara says, nodding her head up and down. "One more question. Why did you design your spaceship like this? I mean, this doesn't at all seem like a normal spaceship."

"It's not," I chuckle, rubbing the back of my head. "Yeah, I'll admit, this is sort of a weird design for a spaceship but I want to keep using the Rusted. That, and I'm exactly the biggest fan of water. Despite my years on the sea."

"Your years on the sea," Kara repeats. "You were a sailor before."

"Years ago. In fact, one of my first times begins a sailor came from an old captain friend of mine. He had a ship exactly like the Rusted. I was a part of his crew, and he taught me a lot about how to sail the sea."

"What was his name?"

"Captain Edward Kenway of the Jackdaw."

"The Jackdaw?"

"It's a kind of bird. Anyway, besides teaching me how to sail, he also taught me a few other things."

I think Kara was about to ask what else Edward taught me but before she could, we hear screaming coming from below.

"Are we there yet," Flash shouts, stomping up the stairs and onto the deck. "We've been on this stupid boat for a week now. Why are we there yet? Where is Oa?"

I'm about to reach for a kungi but then I remember Kara is standing beside me. Instead, I bite my tongue and inhale.

"You can ask me that all you want," I yell from the ship's bridge. "But we are not there yet. You will know when we're there because you see a giant green planet. P.S, we've only been on this ship for three days."

"Three days," Flash repeats, looking at me. "Three days? It feels so much longer. Can't this boat go any faster?"

"The Rusted is a ship," I say. "She is a ship, not a boat. It is a ship."

It's not too long before the others start to walk out from below deck.

"Are we there yet," Jason asks, walking to the railing and looking out.

"Do you see a giant green planet," I ask, holding my hand over my eyes and looking around. "Hmm, no? Then I guess we're not there yet."

"Hey," Oliver says, walking out from below. "Are we there yet?"

I put the end of my finger pistol against my head and shoot.

"Boom," I whisper, invisible parts of my skull and brain bursting out.

"Also, how do you know we're not off course or anything like that? I mean, I'm not doubting your 'sailing skill' or anything, but this isn't the high sea."

"No, it is not."

I picture my days on the high sea versus my days traveling through space and as interesting as comets, black holes, and aliens are, nothing can beat the time I watched a squid fights a whale.

"Ahh, nature."

"What," Kara says, looking back at me.

"Nothing. Listen up here Robin Hood, this may not be the 'high sea', but I can still navigate it just fine. We should only be a few hours from Oa."

"Hopefully, Hal is okay," Flash says.

"Besides, if we are off course," I say, "The dozens and dozens of instruments I have in front of me will let me know."

Checking the monitors in front of me, I don't see anything too bad. Looking toward the sea of stars, I then shoot out my hand. Holding my hand at an angle, I close one eye.

"Yeah. Judging from the stars' position, we are still on course."

While still holding out my hand, I see something else besides the stars. There seem to be green dots heading for the Rusted.

Arisia:

"Arisia," Salaak says, flying beside me. "You need to be careful. You're new at being a green lantern, and this could be one of Superman's regimes."

"I will Salaak," I say, tightening my fist. "Don't worry, I will."

Flying ahead of the others, I am the first to reach the strange object.

"What is this," I ask when I see it. "Is this a spaceship? It's the strangest ship I've ever seen."

As I hover near the spaceship, I see people all over.

"They don't look like any of the One Earth soldiers who have been attacking, and this doesn't look like a One Earth ship."

About to ask who they are, I stop when I see a woman turning around. She is wearing a blue uniform with a red cape. As she is turning around, I see a bright red S on her chest.

"She's a Super," I scream, aiming my ring at her. "Attack!"

The Man:

"Arisia," I say, seeing the young, blonde green lantern, with pointed ears in a white shirt and green skirt.

"She's a Super," Arisia screams, aiming her ring at us. "Attack!"

A green beam shoots out from Arisia's ring, it hits the Rusted's force field, the force field turning red and the Rusted shaking. As she shakes, most of us fall to the floor.

Grabbing and latching onto the Rusted's wheel, I steady her, and the shaking stops.

"Arisia," I hear Salaak yell, flying to her side a few moments later. Following behind him are some other green lanterns I don't recognize.

"Salaak," Arisia says, pointing at Kara. "She's a Super."

"A Super," Salaak repeats, looking at Kara. "Everyone, fire."

Arisia, Salaak, and others all aim their rings at the Rusted and fire. Pushing the Rusted off-course, I catch Kara as she is about to fall.

"I'm guessing they're not big fans of yours," I say, pushing Kara back to her feet.

"What do we do," Kara asks, grabbing onto the railing as the green lanterns keep on pushing us back. "We can't fight them."

"You wanna bet," I say, looking at the lanterns. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out two black and silver discos.

I slam one disco on my chest, my excellneno-suit taking over and changing from my jacket to my armor. The second disco, I throw on the floor, the disco hovering for a few seconds before expanding into a silver hoverboard.

Jumping onto the hoverboard, I kick against the floor and fly off the ship and into space. Slamming the disco on my chest, a helmet forms over my head.

"Space helmet initiate," my armor suits, "Oxygen at 100 percent."

One of the lanterns seeing me as I fly from the Rusted aims his rings at me. Firing at me, I fly around the beam and circle around until I can get close enough to punch the lantern across the face.

"Hey, morons," I yell as I fly past, all the lanterns stopping. "We're on your side. So knock it off."

"You can't be on our sides," Arisia yells, aiming her ring at me. "You're with Superman."

Firing a beam at me, I lend to the side and dodge the beam. It's not even a full second later before Salaak and the other lanterns start to shoot me.

Lending left and right, dodging the countless green beams, I step on a button near the tip of my hoverboard. Hearing the gears turn as a rocket launcher appears on the underside of my board, I step on another button and fire a rocket.

"I know I'll regret this later, but until then, knock it off!"

Arisia:

I see the strange man with glasses fires rockets at us. Before they can hit us, I pull back my beam and call for a shield to protect us.

The rockets hit the shield, I swing my hand and grab all the leftover smoke. Tossing it aside, I couldn't believe my eyes when the man suddenly appears right in front of me. Besides I can do anything, he punches me across the face and knocks me down a later.

The other green lanterns see the man aim their rings at him but before they can fire, the people on the spaceship fire first.

"Hey, green lanterns," someone in a cold coat says, firing some sort of blue gun at the lanterns. "We're allies, but if you want a fight, then here we are!"

His blue gun firing a white beam, it's about to hit Salaak but before it can, he summons a wall to block the beam. Ice covers Salaak's wall, he tries to fire back but the Super rushes him from the side.

"Salaak," I yell, watching as the Salaak drags him from the fight. Wanting to help him, I stop when I see the man charging me. Putting up a second shield, the man bounces off of it.

"Arisia," the man says, shaking his hand. "Stop. We're not with Superman. We're allies."

"Then why did you attack us," I say, aiming my ring at the man.

"Because you attacked us first," the man answers.

"You're allied with Superman. You don't think I know what that S means."

"Kara is not allied with Superman."

"I don't believe you."

The Man:

Arisia swinging her hand, a beam shoots out toward me. Leaning back, I tilt my board and shoot up, dodging the beam. Arisia fires her ring, she chases me away as I circle around her.

"I can't throw any of my kungi," I think, lending up, down, left, and right. "No gravity. Still."

Reaching into my pockets, I pull out two giant handfuls of smoke pellets and slam them together.

Arisia:

The man disappears into a thick cloud of black smoke, I back away and cover my hand. Looking all over, trying to find the man, I give up and shoot out my hand. Calling forth three fans, I blow all the smoke away, only to see an empty space.

"What," I say, flying closer and looking all over. "Where did you go?"

Spinning around, trying to find the man, I stop when I suddenly see the man right in front of me.

"Boo," he says, before pulling back his fist and punching me again.

Flash:

"Hal," I say, shaking the radio in my hands. "Come on! Come on. Hal. Where are you?"

The ship shaking knocking me around, I drop the radio. However, Captain Cold picks the radio off the floor and throws it at me.

"Hey Butterfinger," Captain Cold yells, "Call your idiot friend, will you? Tell him we're here."

"I'm trying," I yell back, vibrating my hand again. The light goes to green, I hold down the button and try to call Hal.

"Hal," I say, "Hal, come on, it's me. Barry. Come on."

Arisia:

"I can't hit this guy," I say, firing another beam. The man flying toward me jumps over the beam and lands back on his flying board. After landing on his board, he reaches into his pocket once more and pulls out what looks like a bunch of tiny knives. Instead of throwing them at me, however, he throws them into the air.

I look at the knives as they fly into space, exploding at once and unleashing a blinding light.

Screaming and backing away, I shield my eyes. I try to look around but all I see are blurs.

"Shoot," I moan, blinking over and over. "I can't see anything."

Rubbing my eyes, trying to get rid of the blurriness, I stop when I think I start to hear a voice.

"Hal," someone yells, "Hal, come on, it's me. Barry! Come on!"

"Barry," I repeat, "Flash."

I look down and see the radio Hal Jordan gave me. It's blinking green. About to reach down to answer it, I stop when I see the man with the glasses hauling toward me, both his knees and back are bent.

I aim my ring at him and fire a massive bright-green beam. The beam running toward him, on the verge of hitting him, the man then leans back. I watch as my attack goes right past him, deep into space, not even tapping the man. The man on the other hand reaches me before I can summons anything else. He grabs my hand and pulls it back behind me. In less than a second, he grabs my other hand and pulls them together.

I scream as I try to escape but couldn't. Even with my ring, the man's grip is too strong.

"I have captured one of your green lanterns," the man yells, turning me to face everyone. "Stop or she will be hurt."

The fight between the green lanterns and the people stops. Everyone turns to face us. The second Salaak sees us, he aims his ring at us.

"Let her go," he orders, power gathering in his ring. "Now!"

Expecting the man to pull another trick, whether it's a smoke bomb or a flash, I can't believe it when he just lets me go. Turning around, he points at Salaak.

"For the record," he says, "You called us, Arisia. Also, hey Salaak. How are you?"

Salaak and I turn to each other as soon as we hear our names.

"You know our names," Salaak asks. "How? Who are you?"

"Ask them," the man replies, nudging his head toward the strange spaceship.

"Yeah we don't know," an Earthling in a blue jacket with goggles yells. "Sunglasses refuses to tell us his name."

"I didn't refuse," the man says, "As I told you before, all of you, my name is."

I turn back to the earthling in blue.

"Yeah," he says, nodding his head. "Don't ask."

"Anyway, we come in peace."

The man puts up his hands for only a second before making circles.

"Well, actually, we come because you called us asking for our help."

The man points at me. Or, more precisely, he's pointing at the radio on my belt.

"Wave at Flash. He's the annoying guy in red."

I look at the spaceship and see someone in red slowly waving.

"You are the Insurgency," I ask. "But you can't be. You have a Super with you."

"Kara is not a part of the One Earth Government," the man says. "While yes, she is what you apparently called a 'super', she is on our side."

"What should we believe you," Salaak asks, his ring still aim at the man.

"Because if we came here for a fight," the man starts, " Then all five of you were be floating and your rings would be looking for new owners. Or going back to Oa. Think about that while I regroup with my crew."

The man flying away heads toward the strange-looking spaceship. Meanwhile, I fly back to Salaak and the others. Once together, we look at the man as he jumps off his flying board and starts to talk with the others.

"What should we do," I ask.

"What do you mean by what should we do," Salaak says, "We need to defend Oa, and in order to do that, we need to defeat the Super."

As Salaak raises his green ring, the others do the same. Everyone except me.

"I think they're okay," I say, looking at everyone on the ship as they keep on talking. "I mean, you heard that strange man in sunglasses."

"What," Salaak says, "If they came here for a fight, then the five of us would be dead. I don't believe that for a second."

"No, not that, but the other thing."

"What other thing?"

"That the Super, uhh, Kara, is not with the One Earth Government. That she is on our side. Hal did talk us something about her."

"Funny," Salaak says, "I don't remember him mentioning anything about the entire Insurgency coming to Oa in a weird-looking ship."

"Still."

Pushing Salaak aside, I fly toward the ship.

The Man:

"That could have gone better," Flash says, the radio still in his hand.

"Really," I ask, "That went almost exactly as I expected."

"Seriously," Harleen asks.

"Yeah, people normally don't want me to come and will often try and kick me out. Literally."

"Where exactly do you go," Oliver asks.

"Hmm," I reply with a shrug. "Places?"

Sensing something behind me, I turn to see Arisia hovering near us.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes, but not right now. For now, let me help you, all of you, get to Oa."

The Man:

"Land ho," I shout, pointing at Oa as we all slowly approach it. Surrounded by Arisia, Salaak, and the three other green lanterns, they guided us here.

Oa, home of the Green Lantern Corps, is a little different from what I remember. Still a massive, green sphere with the Green Lantern symbol smack on it, I see what looks like a force field surrounding the entire planet. It's a pale-green color and transparent, and there seems to be a single beam connecting the force field to the surface of Oa.

"That's new," I say, watching as the Rusted suddenly is encased in a green glow. I look up to see Arisia holding us back.

"Hold on," she says, the glow around the Rusted disappearing. Gathering the other lanterns, they all then head to Oa.

Arisia:

Salaak, I, and the other lanterns flying to Oa stop in front of the planet's shield. Aiming our rings at the shield, we all fire.

"In brightest day," we start, "In blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power. Green Lanterns' light!"

An opening appears in the shield and we all fly back to the spaceship.

"Come on," I say, nudging my head. "That won't stay open for long."

"Aye-aye," the man says, waving at me as he steers his spaceship toward the opening.

"Aye-aye," I think, flying beside him as we enter through the shield, the opening disappearing seconds later. "What does that mean? Ahh, you Earthlings have way too many weird saying."

All of us descend toward the ground, the spaceship carefully avoiding any of the structures around it. Eventually, it lands in a small clearing.

The Man:

"Welcome to Oa," I say, pulling a lever and watching as the ramp shoots out before falling over. "Everyone gets off. Oh, and just in case, get your guard up."

"Why," Flash says, "We're allies. They let us in. Do you really think they're going to do something?"

"Yes," I reply, pointing at the sky as a bunch of green dots fly toward us. It's less than 30 seconds later before many more green lanterns, along with Arisia and Salaak surround us from all sides and aim their glowing rings at us. "I told you so."

Flash turning to face me, he scowls. I just shrug my shoulders.

"What are they doing," Kara asks, looking over the railings. As soon as she does, many of the green lanterns fire. Despite the ship's shield, the green lanterns' combined attacks knock us down.

Running and sliding to catch Kara before she can fall, she drops right into my arms.

"Hey," I say, "Are you okay?"

"Uhh, yeah," Kara answers.

Together, we can back on our feet.

"Is everyone okay," I yell, running from the Rusted's bridge to her deck. Helping a few back to their feet, I look over the railings. The green lanterns' rings are still trained on us.

"Let me handle this," Reverse-Flash says, cracking his fists as he walks toward the ramp.

"No," I say, shooting out my hand. "Don't. We need these idiots to think we're allies."

"Okay, first," Jason interrupts, "We are allies. Second, idiots? Really?"

"Yes," I say, "Idiot. We are allies, more or less, and they called us asking for help. Now they attacking us. Make up your minds, morons."

"Why would they even attack us," Selina asks.

"Are you kidding," Cheetah says, "Why else? It's because of her."

Cheetah then points a claw at Kara.

"You heard them. They don't trust her."

Despite Kara's best efforts, turning her head so we can't see, I can still see a tear forming in Kara's eyes. She holds her hands over her chest.

"Easy there," I say, grabbing Cheetah's wrist and pulling it down. "And by the way, here."

I reach into one of my pockets and hand Cheetah a nail clipper.

Everyone then stares at me. Once more, I shrug my shoulders.

Turning my head, I stare at all the green lanterns. Strangely enough, none of them made a move. Besides shooting when they saw Kara, they stay mostly frozen.

"I have an idea," I start, "But for now, stay here."

"Oh no," Oliver says, "What are you going to do?"

"Either something smart or something really stupid. We'll find out in a second."

Turning toward the ramp, I walk down it and onto the surface of Oa. As I step onto the ground, the glow in everyone's rings intensifies.

"Easy does it," I say, holding up both my hands. "We come in peace and we were to help. Take us to the Guardians. Wait no, I mean take us to your leaders. Oh darn, I should've said that. Shoot."

Watching and waiting as the green lanterns look at each other, an old "buddy" is the first to make a move.

"Okay," Kilowog says, flying out from the group. Landing in front of me a few seconds later, he stares me down.

A tall, fat alien with hairy, wrinkles, and pale-purple skin, he looks up and down at me.

"Hal mentioned a guy somehow like you," Kilowog starts, "But you don't look like much to me. Poser."

"You look like a lot," I reply, poking the belly of the beast.

Flash:

"Oh god," I say, watching from a distance as The Man pokes Kilowog. "This is bad."

The Man:

I see Kilowog's head turns bright red, with steam shooting out of his head. Pulling back his arm, he tries swinging at me but I jump back. While trying to recover, I reach into my pocket and throw at Kilowog a kungi.

The kungi exploding unleashes a cloud of smoke that covers Kilowog. He coughs and swings wildly at the smoke. I wait a few seconds before shooting out my hands and blowing the smoke away.

"I don't look like much," I say, "But I can do a lot."

The steam eases up a bit, Kilowog then waves at the other green lanterns. They all gather around the two of us.

"We'll take you to the Guardians of Oa," Kilowog says, "But one move out of place, and we'll shoot."

"Fine," I say. Turning back to the others, I nudge my head. One by one, everyone slowly walks down the ramp toward the green lanterns. As everyone walks down, I couldn't help but notice something. For some reason, Kara is wearing Cold's jacket. It's zipped up all the way and Cold looks weird in just a T-shirt.

Once everyone is off the Rusted, the lanterns surround us and start to guide us to the Guardians.

Harleen:

As the green lanterns guide us to wherever it is they're guiding us, I can't help but notice Arisia standing near me. If I could, I would slap her on the back of the head.

"Hey," I say, practically tying my hand to my hip. "What's the big idea? I thought you trusted us. If you didn't, then why did you let us through?"

"I'm sorry," Arisia starts, "But this wasn't my choice. I was able to convince Salaak and the others to let you and your friends through, but I couldn't convince the others you're not a threat."

"We're not a threat," I say, "Despite having some questionable people with us. A lot of questionable people in fact. Actually, maybe this is for the best."

"For what it's worth," Arisia says, "I am sorry about this."

She then smiles at me.

"It's not worth much," I reply, "But I guess it's better than nothing. I'll take it."

I smile back at her.

"One question though, if you don't mind."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Where is Hal? I don't see him anywhere around."

Stopping, Arisia stares at the ground before answering.

"Hal is in," she starts slowly, "Hal is in...Hal is in really bad shape. In fact, he's almost gone."

The Man:

"What," Harleen screams, her scream grabbing everyone's attention. Everyone turns to face her, Harleen ignores all of them and turns toward me.

"Please tell you heard that," she says.

"Yes I did," I reply, looking at Arisia. "Hal is almost gone."

"What," Flash yells, "What does that even mean? He is almost gone? Where is Hal?"

Trying to leave the circle of green lanterns, they aim their rings at Flash and stop him.

"Calm down," Arisia says, walking up to Flash.

"Calm down," he repeats.

"Yes. Calm down. After we take all of you to the Guardians, I'll take you to see him. The infirmary isn't too far from their meeting room."

Barry seems to calm down, he nudges his head.

"Come on then," he says, "Let's go meet these Guardians and then go see Hal."

Speedwalking now, we all practically chase after Barry as the green lanterns guide us to the Guardians' meeting chamber.

The Guardians of Oa meeting chamber is a large, pale-blue, half-circle-shaped building with four pillars attached to it. The main entrance is a giant arch in which the green lanterns motion for us to enter.

As we enter the meeting chamber, I see a large circular room with a single light pouring in through a hole in the ceiling. Near the light is a tall, giant, curve stone slab, and on top of the slab are the Guardians of Oa themselves.

Dressed in a red and white robe, the Guardians gaze at us as we enter. Standing in the light, the green lanterns surrounding us as we do, we all look at the Guardians.

"Arisia," one of the Guardians shouts, his voice echoing throughout the room. This particular guardian is bald and his eyes are twitching. "Why did you bring these people here?"

Arisia steps out from the crowd of green lanterns and joins the light with us.

"I brought these people here because I think they can help us," Arisia starts, "Many of us are wounded, and what few of us aren't are exhausted and tired. The yellow lanterns have been attacking us non-stop and we are at our breaking point."

"Yellow lanterns," Jason repeats, looking at us. "What? I didn't see any yellow lanterns."

"Neither did I," Oliver says. "Hmm, we must have caught the green lanterns at the right time."

"We had to ask green lanterns to withdraw from their sections," Arisia goes on, "Their sections are now vulnerable, and very soon, so will Oa."

Taking a breath, Arisia looks right at the Guardians.

"Just before Hal lost conscious, he gave me this."

She pulls from her belt the radio.

"He told me to call the Insurgency for help, and I did. And now, they're here to help us."

She then looks toward us.

"No pressure or anything," I say, crossing my arms and looking away. Harleen elbows me in the chest.

"Arisia," another guardian starts, this one with white hairs on the sides of his head and non-twitching eyes. "I know many of our green lanterns are indeed wounded, and we are lacking significant lanterns when compared to the yellow lanterns, but even I have to admit. This is a bit extreme. Bringing complete strangers here."

"Especially a Super," Salaak says.

"A Super," everyone in the room repeats. "What?"

Salaak points at Kara, and as he does, I see Kara clutching Snart's jacket in his hand.

"A Super," the bald guardian yells, slamming his fists through the air. "Arisia, you fool. How could you bring a Super here?"

"Yes, she a Super," Arisia says, "But she's not with-."

"Shut up," the bald guardian yells, opening his open hands at Arisia. Before she could do anything, the guardian blasts her with his telekinesis power. Screaming as she falls to the ground, the bald guardian then switches target.

"Guardians," he starts, "Green Lanterns. Focus fire on the Super."

Without a second of hesitation, all the other guardians and the green lanterns surrounding us aim their rings at us. All except one.

Thinking fast, I turn to one person in the whole room who wasn't aiming at us.

"Ganthet," I shout, Ganthet's eyes going wide at the mention of his own name. "Please think about this. If we really were enemies, if we really did come here to fight, then we would be fighting right now. Not just standing here. I know you. You're the rational one. Out of all the other Guardians, you are the rational one. Not Ranakar. Not Appa Ali Apsa. Think this over."

I can literally see the gears turn in Ganthet as he stares back at me. Everything is frozen for that few seconds before Ganthet turns to Ranakar.

"Stop Ranakar," Ganthet says before turning back to me. "This human, he knows our names."

Ranakar's eyes go wide at the realization.

"You're right," Ranakar says, his hands now switching to me. "How did you know our names? No one outside of the Green Lanterns Corps knows our names."

"Not many people outside the Green Lantern Corps know your names," I correct, "But I do. I know every single one of your names."

"How," Ranakar asks, "Who are you?"

"My name is," I say, looking back at Ranakar.

"Excuse me," Ranakar says. "What did you say?"

"I say my name is," I repeat, "Shave the hairs out of your ears, you blue leprechaun."

Ranakar's blue head turns steaming-red, and he fires his power.

"Get out of the way," I yell, pushing everyone back and crossing my arms. Feeling the sudden amount of intense pressure, I stay strong.

Supergirl:

"Man," I say, running to help him. The Guardian, Ranakar I think, is using some sort of power to push down on The Man. About to reach him, I stop when I notice The Man pushing back.

The Man:

My arms skinning each other as I uncross them, I reverse the blast and sent it hauling back toward Ranakar. Before he or anyone can do anything, he is hit with his own telekinesis blast. The blast sent him flying into a wall.

"Ranakar," Kilowog yells, turning from him to me. Rising his ring, he aims it at me but even before he can think of anything, I shoot out my hand.

A green beam heading for me didn't hit me. Instead, the beam turns and drops onto the floor. It changes a few seconds later, turning from a beam into a rabbit.

"What the-," Kilowog says, his eyes wide as he looks at his ring and the rabbit. "I didn't do that."

"No, you didn't," I say, bending down to pick up the rabbit. "I did."

To prove my point, I fire a second beam from Kilowog's ring. The beam reaches me, it turns into a carrot.

"You knows," I start, pointing at Kilowog with the green carrot. "People assume that rabbits eat a lot of carrots but that's not completely true."

Focusing, I change the carrot into some straws of hay.

"A rabbit's main diet should be hay," I go on, the rabbit nibbling on the hay. "They can eat carrots but it should only be in small amounts. After all, to a rabbit, a carrot is just sugar."

I notice all the eyes in the room. They're all wide and staring at me. Everyone had a question mark floating above their head.

"Like rabbits and carrots, you shouldn't assume anything about us. Thanks for the help little fellow."

The green rabbit looks up at me and nods its head. I nod back and a second later, he vanishes into green dust.

"How," Kilowog whispers, looking at his ring. "How did you do that? You weren't even wearing my ring. That, that should have been impossible."

The room is quiet. No one is making a sound. No one is even moving. It's like time had frozen and we're just waiting for Father Time to hit play. As we keep on waiting, I sense something incoming.

"Everyone," I yell, the first to make a move and snapping everyone out of their trance. "Incoming!"

On cue, the entire building shakes, with dust falling from the ceiling.

"What's going on," Kilowog screams.

Looking up through the hole in the ceiling, I see a bunch of yellow dots.

Sinestro:

"Take that shield down," I order, pointing at Oa's planetary shield. My yellow lanterns soldiers concreting their fire, the shield shakes as it struggles to maintain itself. However, it shatters into pieces a few minutes later, and in its place is an opening.

"Attack," I yell, waving my hand and watching as my soldiers and the beta fliers all charge in them the opening. The shield is regenerating itself so I stop a few soldiers and order them to keep the opening from closing.

"Yes sir," they say, flying around the opening. Before it can close, my soldiers shoot their rings and yellow claws appear around the opening, grabbing and keeping it open.

"This is going to be quite a show," I say, following after my soldiers as we all charge in.

The Man:

"Yellow lanterns," Kilowog screams, pointing at the hole in the ceiling. "Everyone, attack!"

The ring's life support comes on, Kilowog then glows green and flies into the air. Before leaving through the skylight, he stops to look at the Guardians.

"Guardians of Oa," he says, "Please take cover. We'll hold back the yellow lanterns."

Other green lanterns gather around Kilowog, they all watch as the Guardians fly down from the slab and disappear down a hidden hallway. Once the Guardians are clear, all the green lanterns fly out. All except one.

"Hey," Harleen says, kneeling down and holding Arisia's head. "Hey. Are you okay?"

Arisia moaning at first quickly opens her eyes.

"What happened," she says, placing her hand on her head as she gets to her feet. "Where is everyone?"

"They're fighting yellow lanterns," Harleen answers.

"And you didn't miss much," I add. "Just something about rabbit and carrot."

"What," Arisia says before looking up. Immediately, as soon as she sees the yellow dots, she forgets about everything else.

"Yellow lanterns," Arisia screams, her ring coming to life. Glowing green and floating in the air, she looks at us.

"If you all are really here to help," she starts, "Then please, help us now."

"You don't even have to ask," I say.

"Of course," Kara says, stepping forward.

As I turn back to the others, I notice some yellow lanterns flying away from the main fight.

"Kara," I start, "Jaime. Professor Stein. Millennial. Follow Arisia to the fight."

"What about the rest of us," Leonard asks, bringing up his cold gun.

"Follow me," I say, "I have a bad hunch about something."

"What is it," Kara asks.

Before I could answer, a building shaking reminds us of what is going on right now. Instead, we all look at each other before nodding and splitting up.

"This way," I say, leading everyone out of the meeting chamber.

"Where are we going," Flash asks.

"Oa's infirmary."

Arisia:

"Head up," I shout, watching as a bunch of yellow lanterns start firing at us. Besides the yellow lanterns, there are also a bunch of these flying spaceships. They're silver and glowing purple and firing lasers at us. Surrounding Salaak, they fire at him and knock him back and forth.

Wasting no time, I aim at one of the spaceships and fire.

Supergirl:

"Beta fliers," I say, watching as Arisia destroys one of the fliers. Shooting it with a single green beam, the flies burst into flame before falling to the ground. The other fliers see us and turn. However, before they can fire, we fire first. Destroying them within seconds, Arisia flies over to help one of the Green Lanterns.

"Salaak," Arisia says, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he shouts, shaking off Arisia's hand. Turning toward us, he growls. "I don't need help. Especially a Super's help."

Salaak looking right at me turns and flies away.

"Hey," Blue Beetle says, tapping me on the shoulder. "Forget about that hijo de puta."

"It's fine," I say, watching as the battle unfolds. Despite the green lanterns' best attempt, there are many more beta fliers and yellow lanterns. The green lanterns are outnumbered. "Come on."

Shooting out my arms, I launch into the fight, slamming right through some fliers. Grabbing a yellow lantern by his neck collar, I spin around and throw him into a building. Disappearing into a cloud of smoke, a group of yellow lanterns gathers around me and fires. Despite their combined attack, I was only knocked back a few feet.

Crossing my arms, I fly against their beams and hit each one of them with my laser visions. While doing this, I see another flier heading for me. About to turn to destroy it, a fireball from out of nowhere hits and destroys it.

"We got your back," Firestorm says, nodding their head.

The Man:

"Head up," I yell, watching as some of the yellow lanterns notice us. Stopping and turning, they aim their rings at us.

Oliver and I skid to a stop, and immediately fire. Throwing a kunai and shooting an arrow, they both unleash a sonic wave. Screaming and covering their ears, they then drop out of the sky. Once again, while Oliver fires another arrow, I reach into my pocket and throw another kunai. The two burst into these massive white pads that cushion the yellow lanterns' fall.

"Hmm," I say, looking at Oliver.

"Uhh," Oliver says, looking at me.

"Grand minds do think alike," I say.

"Hate to break up this bromance between you two," Dinah interrupts, "But there are more yellow lanterns heading for the infirmary."

"Right. Come on."

The ten of us running to the infirmary, we make it just as a bunch more yellow lanterns arrive. Almost immediately, the yellow lanterns start to shoot the building.

"Cold," I start, "Ivy. Oliver. Dinah. Harleen. Stay here and keep that building from falling. The rest of us, we're going inside to help the wounded."

Nodding their heads, we split up.

"Hey you son of a bit-," Cold yells but I turn around and slap him in the arm. "Seriously?"

"Yes," I yell, running after the others.

Running into the circular, tube-shaped building, we quickly find ourselves in a massive, shining room. As we enter the room, we see rows after rows of green lanterns, all wrapped in bandages and laying down on beds.

"Come on," Flash says, "Let's get these lanterns out of here."

Taking a step inside, a green beam shoots from above and stops Flash.

"Stop right there," a green lantern orders, stepping out and floating above us. She had long, orange hair and purple skin.

Aiming her ring at us, I rush ahead and grab Flash by his shoulder. Tossing him back, I turn to Laira.

"Listen Laria," I start, looking at the building as it shakes some more and cracks start to appear in the ceiling. "As close as we were before, and as much as I hate to do this, time is not a luxury we can afford."

Moving fast, I reach into my pocket and toss Laria a pellet. The pellet bursting into green goo, it distracts her while I run past her. Running into the rows of wounded green lanterns, I spin around over and over looking for one particular lantern.

"Found him," I say, running over to where Hal is laying. As I approach him, I make a note of all his wounds. His entire upper body is wrapped in bandages and his right arm is in a cast. His green lantern mask is torn and his face is swollen and covered in bruises.

"You put up one heck of a fight, didn't you? I'm sorry about this Hal, but I need to borrow this. I'll be sure to return it when you're awake."

Flash:

The green lantern, Laira I think The Man called her, blows up the goo on her hand. It filled with will before bursting like a balloon. Once burst, she looks at where The Man ran.

About to chase after him, she stops when a bright-green light erupts from somewhere further in the room. We all have to shield ourselves as the green light moves toward us. My eyes adjust, I couldn't believe what I'm seeing.

Standing on a green hoverboard, in a green lantern uniform, with a pair of green sunglasses and a green lantern ring on his finger, is The Man.

Captain Cold:

Jumping to the ground, I turn around and fire my cold gun. A snow bomb shoots out and erupts, freezing the yellow lanterns. They fall out of the sky and drops onto the ground, still stuck in ice.

While pushing myself back onto my feet, I hear a humming sound. Looking around, I see a beta flier heading for me. Shooting lasers at me, I have to jump out of the way once more. Eruptions of smoke fly past me and I have to cover my head. Despite being in a cloud of smoke, I can still hear the beta, it's annoying humming. Running out of the smoke, I turn the dial on my cold gun and aim.

The flier is right in my sight. I pull the trigger and shoot out a single ice shot. The ice shot flying through the air, it hits the flier dead in the center. I watch from a distance as ices grow from where it was shot. In a matter of seconds, the flier is covered in it and falls to the ground.

I hear the sound of ice cracking, follow immediately by the sound of someone screaming. I turn around and see Poison Ivy on the ground. Closing in on her is a group of fliers.

"Come on," I yell, turning the dial back to snow bombs. "Like Yellow Lanterns weren't enough."

I run toward Ivy while aiming at the group of fliers. The second they're close enough, I fire. I watch the snow bomb sail through the sky, and right when it's about to hit the fliers, a yellow wall appears and blocks the snow bombs.

"What," I say, looking around, only to be knockdown by a yellow beam a few seconds later.

"That won't work two times in a row," some yellow lantern alien with pink skin and long purple hair says. Aiming her yellow ring at me, I aim my cold gun at her but she fires first. Hitting my hand and knocking the gun out of my hand, I scream.

"You're Leonard Snart," she says, hovering toward me. "Right? Sinestro told me about you."

"Sinestro," I repeat, holding my hand. "That son of a bitch."

Yellow lights gather in the alien's ring, she's about to shoot but before she can, Harleen runs out from the side and hit her with a giant hammer. Knocking her back, Harleen rises her hammer and I watch as the hammer splits apart and turns into dual pistols.

Harleen wastes no time and starts shooting the yellow lantern. Despite bullets bouncing off of her, it's enough to force her back. Jumping and flying into the air, she turns around and aims her ring at us.

Harleen aims her guns at the yellow lantern, they stare each other down. Before either of them could fire, however, a green beam hit and sent her flying elsewhere.

"Hey," Harleen says, turning around. "I had that."

"Sorry," The Man replies, dressed in a green lantern uniform and on a flying green surfboard. "But I know that yellow lantern, and trust me, it's going to take more than bullets to bring her down."

Looking up toward the sky, all the reminding yellow lanterns flying away, The Man turns to Harleen and me.

"I'm going to follow after them," he says, "Stay here and help the others."

Before any of us can say anything, The Man flies away, chasing the yellow lanterns.

"I must have hit my head hard," I start, pushing myself up. "I could have sworn I saw The Man using a green lantern ring."

"You too," Harleen says, rubbing the side of her head.

Arisia:

Flying through the storm of green and yellow beams, I swing my hand and send a green blade through the air. Slicing through some fliers, I have no time to do anything as a combination of yellow beam and laser knocks me around.

Finally crashing on top of a nearby building, I look up to see Sinestro, slowly hovering toward me. Wearing bright-yellow armor, the armor seeming to be made of bones, he smiles as he rises his hand. I watch as a giant, spiked mace form right above him. Swinging down his hand, the mace follows after it, I try to fly out of the way but it's no use.

The mace crushes me before I can get out of the way. It slams me to the ground. Sinestro rising the mace slams it down onto me again.

Despite the power from my ring, I can still feel the spikes as they slam into me over and over again. I feel my breath being squeezed from my body. I feel my will being drained.

"You're no match for me, rookie," Sinestro says, slamming his mace down on me once more. By now, my ring is starting to flicker.

"No," I say, pushing myself up. Barely an inch off the floor, Sinestro's mace forces me back down. My ring's flicking gets worst, it turns off and I lost my shield.

"No."

"One less green lantern," Sinestro says, swinging down his hand.

With what energy I have left, I turn around and look at the mace as it prepares to destroy me. Only, it never does. A green beam shoots and destroys the mace, it turns into yellow dust.

Sinestro's eyes go wide and his smile disappears. While looking like this, another green beam shoots and knocks Sinestro away.

"Thanks," I sigh, pulling myself up.

"Don't mention it," a familiar voice replies. It's not Kilowog or Tomar Re, but instead, it's the man in glasses. He is standing on a hoverboard like before, but this one is green. Also, he is wearing green armor.

"No way," I say, not believing my eyes as I look further down. On his hand, on his finger, is a green lantern ring. "How did you get that? Whose ring is that?"

"It's Hal," the man answers.

"No way," I yell, "Hal isn't gone. He can't be."

"He's not. I'm only borrowing Hal's ring."

"You can't borrow a green lantern's ring. The ring has to choose you, and that's only after the previous green lantern had passed."

"Well, Hal isn't dead and I'm borrowing his ring which didn't choose me."

"How?"

"I will tell you later. Probably not, but until then."

The man aims Hal's ring at me and fires. Crossing my arms, I couldn't believe my eyes for a second time today. A single beam traveling between Hal's ring and mine, it looks like his ring is giving my ring power. In a few seconds, my ring is charged.

"Thank me later," the man says. "And keep your will up."

Leaving before I can say anything, I watch as he joins in on the fight.

Supergirl:

Destroying beta fliers with my laser vision, I stop to catch one before it can crash into me. Throwing the flier into another flier, the two burst into flames before falling.

As I prepare for another fight, I look up to see another burst of flames. Only, Blue Beetle is in the middle of this one.

Falling, I shoot up and catch him, flying to the side and dodging the falling scrap metals.

Blue Beetle moans as he wakes up, he then shakes his head and flies.

"Thank you," Jaime says, looking around. "Aw, esto es loco. This is insane. There are hundreds of beta fliers and yellow lanterns."

"I know," I say, only now realizing I'm panting. "But we have to keep fighting. Just hold on a little longer."

Blue Beetle and I split up. I punch my way one yellow lantern after another. Hitting a yellow lantern with my laser vision, I stop when I see someone crashes through a building and into the one behind it.

Sitting in a hole in the wall is Sinestro. The second he sees me, his teeth start to grind against each other.

"Superman," he says into his ring. "Superman, are you there?"

"What is it," my cousin says.

"Supergirl is here, and so is The Man. Send in reinforcements."

Supergirl:

"What," Superman screams through Sinestro's ring. "Kara and The Man in sunglasses are there? Impossible."

"They're here alright," Sinestro says, getting up from the hole in the wall, "And The Man had a green lantern ring."

"I'm sending reinforcement," Superman says.

His call ends, Sinestro jumps into the air and aims his ring at me. Firing a yellow beam, I counter with my laser visions. Our attacks pushing against each other, neither of us giving an inch, I stop when a second yellow beam hits me.

It knocks me down and causes me to spin through the sky. I recover fast but once again, I am knocked down by Sinestro. Falling further down, I finally hit the ground. Only, it doesn't feel like the ground. It instead feels soft.

Looking behind, I jump when I see myself on top of a giant green hand. Hearing something, I look back up to see Sinestro and another yellow lantern, a woman with pink skin and long purple hair, gasping for some reason. They're looking to the side. I look to the side myself and when I do, I couldn't believe what I'm saying.

The Man:

"Hey Kara," I say, shooting Kara a wave. "What's up? May I join this fight, or would you rather handle these two by yourself?"

"You," Kara says, climbing to her feet. Stepping on my giant green hand, I look at Sinestro and Boodikka as they fire at me. With a pair of yellow beams heading my way, I swing my hand and call forth a wall to block the attacks. Despite the two's best effect, they couldn't break my wall.

Sinestro flying back, he fires his ring again and this time, an ax is spinning through the air. Releasing my wall, I summon a second hand to grab the ax. As I spin around, I take the ax with me and throw it right back.

"Here," I say, "I don't need this."

Sinestro calls forth a wall, his ax hits it but the impact still shakes him.

"Boss," Boodikka says, turning to me. Growling like a dog, she fires her ring, and this time, a giant monster forms. With four arms, horns, and hundreds of sharp teeth, the monster shrieks at me as it charges.

Preparing to blast the beast, I pull back both my hands and focus. A green ball, forged from my own pure will, I'm about to throw it at the beast and destroy it completely but before I can, two lasers hit the beast first.

The beast screams as the lasers pierce through, vanishing seconds later. Looking down, I see Kara flying to my side.

"Get behind me," I say, showing Kara my green ball. "This is going to be big."

Nodding her head, Kara gets behind me. Meanwhile, I look at Sinestro, Boodikka, and all the surrounding yellow lanterns and fliers.

"It'd been a blast," I say, "Or it's going to be."

Raising the green ball above my head, I summon a small platform beneath me to throw the ball into. Breaking as it hits, it unleashes a burst of green energy, the energy traveling out in waves that hit all yellow lanterns and beta fliers. All the yellow lanterns are sent falling away and all the beta fliers are destroyed.

"What was that," Kara asks, her eyes watching as, besides all the falling betas' pieces, the surrounding green lanterns are glowing brighter than before.

"Something I learned a long time ago," I answer, looking at Hal's ring. "I'm surprised that worked."

Noticing Sinestro and Boodikka in holes in a building, I slowly fly over to them. The two, while not unconscious, are still moaning, groaning, and twitching. Even as I approach them, they do nothing.

Rising my ring, I call forth two clamps to grab Sinestro and Boodikka. Pulling them out, I look at Kara.

"I imagine these two have a lot to tell us. Can you stay here and check on everyone while I take these two to the prison?"

"Of course," Kara says, flying away.

Turning around, heading for Oa's prison cells, I stop when I sense something incoming. Looking up, I see a bolt of lighting heading for me. Quickly, rising my hand, I summon a barrier to block the bolt.

It's only seconds later when more bolts and even lasers start to hit me. Looking through the barrage of attack, I see Black Adam and Hawkgirl firing at me. Keeping my barrier up, I hear rockets and turn around.

Flying toward me is Cyborg, his arm cannon out and in front. Firing a shot, I jump to the side, my hoverboard and the clamps disappearing as I summon a second hoverboard to land on. After landing, I turn around to see Cyborg catches Sinestro and Boodikka. Flying away, I chase after him but stop when Black Adam and Hawkgirl attack. They force me back before leaving with Cyborg.

As I watch the five of them disappear, I turn my head when I hear someone shouting.

"You," Kilowog screams as he flies to me, glowing bright green. "You did this. What is this?"

Spreading out his arms, he stares at them before looking at me.

"It's called a power-up," I answer. "You have more energy in your ring than before. Don't thank me."

"I wasn't," Kilowog growls. As he leans forward, he notices the ring on my finger. "And where did you get that, Poser? Whose finger that you pulled that from?"

"Hal Jordan, but don't worry your big, ugly head, he's not dead. I'm just borrowing his ring."

"No one can borrow another green lantern's ring," Kilowog says, "And even more, no one can just put one on. You're doing something, and I'm going to find out. And I'll start by taking that ring back."

Kilowog reaching forward, I push his hand aside and kick him back. Flying back, he aims his ring at me. I aim Hal's ring at him. Energy gathering in the rings, we fire them.

Before our will could clash, however, someone jumps in and stops us. Ceasing our attacks, we look to see Arisia floating in between us. She's glowing bright green and is holding out her hands.

"Stop," she yells, looking between the two of us. "Stop. You two are on the same side. Why are you attacking each other?"

"He stole Hal's ring," Kilowog answers, pointing a finger at me.

"I didn't steal this ring," I yell back. "Well, actually, I did but it was to help you morons. You know. what? You want this back. Go nuts."

Without a second thought, I pull off Hal's ring.

"Wait no," Arisia screams, flying toward me.

As I pull off Hal's ring, everything on me vanishes. My green sunglasses turn back to their regular black and blue. My lantern armor turns to dust. My hoverboard disappears, and I start to fall.

Arisia:

Flying to catch the man with the glasses, I freeze when I see him flying up to him. His arms are crossed, and he is holding his ring in between his fingers.

"What," he laughs, tossing and catching the ring. "Did you forget about my non-green hoverboard? I used it in space when we first fought."

Catching the ring in his hand, the man with the glasses starts to crush it. He brings his closed hand to his face and Kilowog and I watch as a green glow starts to seep through his fingers. Without warning, the man then throws the ring.

The ring itself, glowing bright, flies past us before disappearing from sight.

"The ring is going back to Hal," the man says, the two of us turning around. "It should reach him in a matter of seconds."

I look down at my hands as my glow also disappears. I look at Kilowog and at all the other green lanterns. They seem to be returning to normal as well.

"This should be obvious, but in case it isn't, no ring, no power up."

Flash:

"There," Captain Cold says, freezing a crack in the ceiling. "It won't exactly pass a building inspection, but it will hold nonetheless."

"Thank you for your help," Laira says, using her ring to force a support beam back into its place. "Honestly, I wasn't sure how much longer the infirmary could stand with all those yellow lanterns. I am thankful for your help."

"No problem," I reply, running around the entire building to make sure nothing is shaking.

"I still don't get it though," Laira says, flying and landing in front of us. "How could your leader just pull off a ring and use it? That can't be possible."

"Okay, first," I start, "The Man is not our leader. He is not our leader. Second, well, there's apparently a lot about The Man we don't know. His name included."

"What I'm curious about is why The Man didn't just fly," Harleen asks, walking up to us. "He summoned a hoverboard for reason. Why a hoverboard? You could probably save yourself a little bit of juice if you fly, not call forth a hoverboard."

"That's what's on your mind," Dinah says. "Really?"

"At this point," Harleen starts, "The Man can tell me he can turn the whole universe into jelly and the only thing I would think about is why jelly? Why not chocolate pudding?"

Before any one of us could say anything, something small and green shoots past us.

"What was that," Laira screams, all of us turning. As it turns out, the something is a green lantern ring. Flying through the infirmary, it reaches Hal and climbs its way back onto his finger.

A green glow erupts from the ring as it climbs back onto Hal's finger, we all have to shield ourselves. Before we know it, Hal wakes up screaming.

Green Lantern:

"What the hell," I say, getting up and looking all around. "What? What? What happened? Where am I?"

Looking down at myself, I check my arms and see them wrapped in bandages.

"What happened," I ask again, trying to remember the last thing before I blacked out. I was in the middle of a fight, flying through the air, summoning anything and everything I can think of before something happened and the next thing I know, everything is black.

"Hal," a familiar voice yells. I look to see who it is and I see almost every Insurgency member. Barry is the first to reach me. Using his speed, he runs right up to me.

"Hal," he starts, "Are you okay?"

"I, I think so."

Looking at my bandaged arm, I move it up and down.

"A slight burning feeling," I say, "But overall, it's fine."

By now, everyone is surrounding me. Even Laira.

"Did Arisia call you guys?"

"Yeah," Leonard answers, "Your alien girlfriend called us asking for help."

"Arisia is not my alien girlfriend."

"Your alien girlfriend then fired at us, along with every other green lantern. And even those blue son of bitches. What the hell?"

"Blue son of bi--"

"He's referring to the Guardians," Oliver interrupts," But yeah. What is going on? Why are we the enemies?"

"It's because you brought a Super," Laira answers, all eyes turning to her.

"What," Selina says, "Are you talking about Supergirl? Yeah, she's Superman's cousin but what does that have to do with anything?"

"We don't trust Super," Laira says. "Even if they said they're allies."

"Ssssooo then," Harleen starts, "Why are you being kind to us? You specifically. Not your friends who try to blast us a while ago."

"It's because of your friend. The man in the glasses."

"He's not our friend," Barry says.

"As strange as this may seem," Laira says, looking down. "He just looks familiar. Like I've seen him before but I can't remember where or when exactly."

"Seriously," I say, "You've seen him before?"

"Maybe," Laira yells, "I don't know for sure, but, I just don't know. When he stole your ring and flew past, he somehow looks--"

"Wait, wait, wait," I interrupt, "He stole my ring and used it?"

I look at my finger.

"No. That can't be true. My ring is right here."

"The Man stole it while you were knocked out," Reverse-Flash says, "It just came back now. In fact, when it crawls back onto your finger, you woke up. Must have been some sort of trigger."

"The Man stole my ring while I was resting," I say, looking at the ring on my finger. "And he used it? I can only assume the man isn't dead, so he must have sent it back to me."

Everyone starts to say something, but I just ignore it all. I'm too focused on The Man.

"He used my ring," I think. "He actually used my ring. While I was unconscious? How? How is that possible? I need to know. I have to find The Man."

I look up at everyone, all of them still talking to each other.

"Where is he," I ask. clenching my fist. "Where is The Man?"

The Man:

"What do you mean by you borrowed Hal's ring," Ganthet asks. "That should be impossible."

"That is impossible," Ranakar yells, pointing a finger at me. "You must be lying."

"Either you stop pointing at me," I start, turning to face Ranakar with crossed arms, "Or you lose that finger."

Whether Ranakar believes me or not, he pulls back his finger either way.

"He's not lying," Arisia says, stepping forward. "I was there. So was Kilowog. We both saw it."

"I have no idea what I saw," Kilowog says, stepping up. "All I saw was some poser with a stolen ring."

"Assuming that is true," Ganthet says, "That would still imply that this stranger did, in fact, use Hal Jordan's ring."

"But how," Appa Ali Apsa interrupts, "There isn't a force in this universe that can put a ring on someone else's finger. Only the ring itself can do that."

"Can I go," I yell, everyone in the meeting chamber turning to face me. "Seriously, can I go? There's really no point in me being here so can I just leave?"

"No," everyone in the room simultaneously says.

"No you cannot leave," Ranakar shouts, "You are going to stay here and explain yourself."

"You are to explain how you managed to steal another Green Lantern's ring and use it," Appa Ali Apsa yells.

"But before you explain yourself," Ganthet says, "You will prove yourself."

"What," I say, uncrossing my arms.

"What," Ranakar also says. "Ganthet, what are you talking about?"

Ganthet floating from the stone slab, he hovers high in the air.

"Guardians of Oa," he starts, "Green Lanterns. I know these have been difficult times, with all the yellow lanterns attacks and many of us falling wounded, but I believe this stranger, this strange earthing, may indeed be a single bit of hope for these times."

"Single bit of hope," I repeat, "Really? Me? Wow, you guys really are desperate."

"That is why I suggest a trial," Ganthet goes on. "A test of will, to see if the man really as Arisia claims."

"He is," Arisia says, "You didn't see what he did. He somehow charged all of us with extra wills. We somehow got more power than before."

"Uh hey Arisia," I whisper, grabbing Arisia and pulling her close in. "Uh, stop talking."

"It's decided then," Ganthet says, "You will prove yourself in a test of will. Be ready, stranger."

Supergirl:

"Hal," I scream, seeing Hal limps his way into the arena's sitting area. "You okay."

Running up to Hal, I hug him. As I did, he screams and I immediately let go.

"Sorry," he cries, "Still got some broken bones."

"What are you doing here," I ask, realizing Barry, Oliver, and everyone else is behind Hal. I also realize that Hal is almost entirely wrapped in bandages and one of his arms is in a cast.

"What is Hal doing here," I ask, stepping to the side to look at everyone else. "He doesn't look well. He should be resting. This is no place for him."

"This is exactly where I need to be," Hal says, waving his hand and grabbing my attention. "I heard about what happened. I heard about how The Man used my ring. He used my ring while I was unconscious. I have to talk to him. I have to know how he did it. Where is he?"

"He's over there," a green lantern says, pointing toward the center of the arena. This green lantern had long orange hair and purple skin. "Wait, what's going on? Why is he in the middle of the arena?"

"The Guardians are testing him," I answer, looking at The Man as he steps into the arena. A massive oval-shaped building, there is a single floating platform directly in the center of the building, and surrounding the platform are many green lanterns.

As The Man steps onto the platform, the green lanterns boo him.

"Boo," they shout, "Boo! Enemy! You are no green lantern!"

"You green lanterns are really friendly with outsiders, uh," Leonard says.

"Trust me," the green lantern with orange hair replies, "If you've been here for the past few weeks, you would understand why we hesitate when it comes to Supers."

The green lantern eyeing me, I clutch the zipper of Leonard's coat.

"So any idea what's going to happen," Harleen asks, holding her hand over her eyes as she looks at The Man. "I mean, what exactly do your Guardians mean when they said they're testing him."

"Think of it as training," someone answers. Looking up, I see Arisia standing before us. She nods her head and points to a seat. "May I?"

"Literally the only other green lantern that had been friendly to us besides Hal and Laria," Harleen says. She steps to the side and waves her arms in front of the seat. "Please."

Arisia sitting beside Harleen, we all look at The Man.

"What do you mean by training," I ask.

"This is Oa's practice arena," Arisia starts. "This is where we trained new recruits."

"You yourself were here not so long ago," Laria says.

"You're a new recruit," Harleen asks, turning to Arisia.

"Yeah. I only completed my training two weeks ago."

"And you're already in the middle of a war," Reverse-Flash says from behind us. "Talk about bad timing."

"Hey," Selina says, snapping her fingers. "Look over there. Something is happening."

Pointing toward the sky, we see a small green dot quickly get bigger. It's only a few seconds later before a familiar green lantern land on the opposite end of the platform.

"Oh boy," Arisia says.

"That is bad," Laria adds.

"Your friend's opponent is Kilowog," Arisia says.

The Man:

"You ready Poser," Kilowog yells, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand. The two of us walk toward each other until we're about 20 feet apart. As I stop, I see out of the corner of my eyes a few familiar faces. There's one particular bruised face I'm glad to see.

"Hey Hal," I yell from the center of the arena. "Sorry about this, but I need to borrow your ring again."

Holding out my hand, I focus my will and concrete. I can hear everyone gasping as they watch Hal's ring fly off his hand. Shooting through the air, the ring places itself on my finger, and in less than a second, the green armor returns.

Everyone's mouth drops open and they all lend forward to get a better view.

Hal Jordan:

"He did it," I say, looking at my hand before looking at The Man. "He actually did it? He more than did it? I'm wide awake, and he still managed to pull the ring off my finger."

I couldn't think. I couldn't focus on anything. All I can see, all on my mind, is The Man with my ring.

The Man:

"You're going to regret ever putting stealing that ring," Kilowog says, shooting out a green blast. The blast hits my feet, I look to see green clamps closing around them. They pin me to the floor.

"Welcome to Green Lantern Boot Camp," Kilowog says, smiling. "Better known as the worst day of your sad, miserable life."

"No, the worst day of my sad, miserable life was when I had to save Flash," I reply.

Kilowog shoots out his hand and a large, green disc forms in it. Throwing the disc, it bounces off the floor before heading for me.

"Miss me," I say, lending to the side. The disc flying past, Kilowog tosses two more but I dodge them.

"You think you're so smart," Kilowog says. "Well, let's see how you handle this."

This time, shooting above my head, I watch as a massive green boulder forms right above me. The boulder heading for me, I pull out my hand from the bend of my arm and summon a catapult. The boulder landing in the catapult's cup weighs it down. The cup pats the top of my hair before shooting back up.

Despite being 20 feet away, I can still see Kilowog's wide eyes as the boulder he summoned crashes into him. It knocks him back before shattering into dust.

"You miss," I say, my catapult dispensing. "Again."

Kilowog wipes his mouth as he pushes himself. Now, back on his feet, he stomps his way back to where he was.

"Lucky shot," he says, "But this isn't luck, it's skilled."

Rising his hand, Kilowog fires a blast. The blast shoots past my head, I watch as it forms into something. The blast quickly turns into a massive sun and the clamps around my feet disappear.

Kilowog chuckles for a few seconds before stopping. As he lends back, he sees me standing completely still, my arms still crossed.

I feel the sun's gravity as it tries to pull me in. It feels like a blanket is being tossed over me and someone is pulling the blanket. However, despite the person's best attempt, I'm just too heavy to pull.

"My turn," I say after a few minutes. Looking around, I aim Hal's ring at Kilowog's sun. Firing off a shot, I watch as Kilowog's sun is destroyed and in its place is a black hole. While the black hole's blanket of gravity pulls Kilowog, I remind in place.

"What the hel--", Kilowog says before I increase the gravitational pull. Now, struggling to stay out of the vortex, I turn around.

"A black hole's gravity is greater than that of an average star," I yell. "It makes flying through space a little tricky, but I know a few tricks."

The black hole pulling Kilowog further in, he summons a rope with a hook and tosses it. The hook hitting the floor, I look at Kilowog tying the rope around himself. Meanwhile, the black hole's increased gravitational pull seems to be having an effect on the arena. Though tiny, I can see small stone chips flying around and hitting a few people.

Pamela Isley:

"Son of a bitch," Leonard cries, raising his arm. "Damn it."

"What," I ask, "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Leonard replies, wiping his face. "Something hits me."

His hand falls to his side, I see a cut on his face, and already, there's some blood flooding out.

Unfortunately, I'm not The Man, so I don't have a jacket with dozens of pockets. Having to think a little creatively, I spin my hand and make a vine grow. The vine growing around my arm, I rip off a leaf and hand it to Leonard.

"Here," I say. "It's not a bandage, but it's clean and should help."

"Thanks," Leonard says, taking the leaf. "Too bad I don't have my jacket."

The Man:

With a nod of my head, the black hole disappears and Kilowog falls to the ground. While he is pushing myself up, I offer my hand.

"Here," I say.

Not accepting it at first, Kilowog smiles before taking it.

"Thanks," Kilowog says. "Poser."

Pulling me down, Kilowog swings a left hook and tries to hit me but I catch his fist in my hand.

"My opponents may not fight fair," I say, pushing Kilowog's fist away, "But that doesn't mean I have to."

Pulling the bastard back to his feet, I summon a boot and kick him back.

"Not bad," Kilowog says, "But let's see how you deal with those two."

The Man:

Kilowog pointing behind me, I turn around to see a massive ball of green energy heading for me. Shooting out my hand, I summon a shield to block the attack.

With the blast hitting my shield, I can literally feel the willpower as my shield shakes, an eruption of green smoke and dust flying everywhere.

As I wait for the dust and smoke to vanish, I see Hal's ring flashing, indicating incoming dangers.

"Yeah," I say, pulling back my hand. "Thanks for the five seconds too late warning. I really appreciate it."

I stop everything when I hear a rumbling sound except, not a rumbling sound. It's the sound of an engine. A motorcycle engine to be specific. However, while it may sound like a motorcycle engine, there is a slight modification.

"Oh no," I say, realizing who is coming. As far as I know, there is only one person in this whole universe that rides around in space with a modified motorcycle engine.

Supergirl:

"Who is that," I ask, seeing another green lantern heading for The Man. This green lantern is a huge person. His skin is as white as snow but he had long hair darker than space. Dressed in a green vest and pants, he had red eyes and is riding a green motorcycle. Finally, in his mouth is what looks like a green cigar.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Barry yells, slamming his hands through the air. "Hal, he's a green lantern? How is he, out of everyone else, a green lantern?"

"I don't know," Hal replies, "But trust me, I'm not happy about it either."

"I can't he's a green lantern," Oliver joins in. "I mean, the guy is nuts. He is literally everything opposite to the green lantern."

"Wow," Harleen says, "You green lanterns have really loosened your requirements."

Arisia bumps Harleen with her elbow.

"Excuse me," I yell, everyone turning to me, "But who is that?"

The Man:

"Lobo," I say, clenching my fist. Watching as the infamous "Main Man" rides around in the sky, doing a few doughnuts, he finally pulls to a stop in front of me, the engine to his green motorcycle shutting up.

"So you're this new guy with glasses I've been hearing so much about," Lobo starts, getting off his bike. Chewing a massive green cigar in his mouth, he grabs one end and throws it onto the ground. "You don't look so tough, you little bastich."

"You look butt ugly as usual," I say, "Lobo."

Stopping for a sec, Lobo's eyes going wide, I prepare to shoot out my arm again. Only, I didn't have to. Instead of attacking me, Lobo turns to the sky and laughs out loud. He laughs and laughs and laughs until finally, he turns back down.

"Oh man," he says, wiping a tear from his eyes. "Oh, man. That was hilarious. Oh, I'm actually going to feel a little sorry about what I have to do now."

I can hear the sound of Kilowog flying away as Lobo raises his green lantern ring.

Superman:

"And you're sure The Man had a ring," I ask, "A green lantern ring? How is that possible?"

"I don't not know Superman," Sinestro replies, "But he had one, and used it quite well."

"I can vouch for that," Black Adam says.

"So can I," Cyborg adds. "He was using it better than Hal Jordan."

"Damn it," I say. Pulling the wires from my head, I get up from the ship's control seat and walk down the stairs.

"The Insurgency is here on Oa," Wonder Woman says. "How did they get here?"

"That is not important," Black Adam says. "What is important is that they are here: The Man with the Sunglasses. Supergirl. Flash. They are all here on Oa."

"That could be problematic," Cyborg says. "What should we do?"

"Keep with the invasion plan," I answer. "Sinestro, you and your yellow lanterns will continue to wear down the green lanterns. Meanwhile, Cyborg and I will go down the factory level and increase production of the beta fliers."

"Understood," Sinestro says, flying away.

"As for The Man," I say, "Our spy will tell us if there's anything new."

The Man:

A simple-looking, pump-action, green shotgun forming in Lobo's hand, I sense something stronger. Squeezing the trigger, a volcano worth of smoke shoot out and rocking toward me are dozens of small pellets.

With a swing of my arm, I summon forth three brick walls, side-by-side to block the attack. The pellets shatter the first wall, and most of them stay in the second, but six of them get through.

"Lobo's will is strong," I think, "Stronger than anyone else here."

While examining the bullet holes in the brick walls, Hal's ring starts to flash over and over.

"Ah fudge," I scream, turning around and putting up another brick wall.

Supergirl:

I watch as The Man spins around and summons another brick wall. Before I can even think as to why he would do that when Lobo is in front of him, I see another green lantern shoots at The Man from behind. This green lantern is human. He had very short, orange hair and is wearing a green lantern vest with a long-sleeved shirt underneath.

"Hey," I say, standing up. "What's going on? Who's that now?"

"Guy Gardner," Barry answers, also standing up beside me. "Wait, what is going on? Why is it two versus one? I thought this was just testing."

"It supposed to be," Arisia says, joining Barry and me and getting up. "Lobo and Guy aren't even supposed to be here. The last I've heard, they were in space patrolling."

"Just the two of them," Harleen asks. "Not a whole squad like you."

"Lobo and Guy are two of the strongest green lantern we have. They don't need a whole squad."

"They may not need a whole squad," Leonard says, "But The Man might."

Ganthet:

"Ranakar," I scream, looking at my fellow Guardian. "What is the meaning of this? Why did you call Guy Gardner and Lobo here?"

"Because this is supposed to be a test of will," Ranakar answers, flying to my side. "And I wish to see just how strong this Earthling's will is."

The Man:

"Gardner," I say, looking at Gardner as he slowly descends toward me.

"Do I know," Gardner asks, his ring aims right at me.

"Not me exactly," I answer, jumping out of the way as Gardner fires a beam. The ground explodes as I land and roll onto my feet, I then turn around.

Gardner charges toward me, he pulls back his hands and a baseball bat forms in them. Pulling back my own hands, I summon a staff and a second later, our weapons clash.

Struggling to push the other back, we bash heads.

"You're tough for some weirdo in a pair of sunglasses," Gardner grunts.

"For the record," I grunt back, "The bowl haircut looks really stupid."

"Gardner," Lobo yells, pumping his shotgun. "Move."

Gardner's bat disappears into dust, he jumps into the air and flies back. Meanwhile, Lobo fires and with no time to summon a wall, I spin my staff as fast as I can.

Supergirl:

"Okay, that's it," I yell, "We have to help him."

"You can't," Arisia shouts. "The Guardians won't allow it."

"Oh but they'll allow two of your strongest green lanterns to beat up someone who is just trying to help you all. What is wrong with all of you?"

"Times have changed," Hal answers, all of us turning to look at us. "I'm sorry, but times have changed. That's just it."

About to scream back at Hal, Laria jumps into the air and flies toward The Man, stopping me.

The Man:

My feet skidding against the floor as the pellets push me back, I watch as my staff breaks apart in my hands. I don't even have to mourn as I sense Garnder behind me.

Swinging my hand, a sword forming as I swing, I block Garnder's blast. Lobo pumping his shotgun once more, he fires for the third time. Shooting out my other hand, I summon a shield to defend against the pellets.

Sandwich between Lobo's shotgun and Garnder's beam, I'm glad to see an old friend helping.

Flying through the air, Laria fires at Garnder and knocks him back. Meanwhile, as Lobo is reloading, I throw my sword and watch as it sails through the air. As Lobo is aiming, my sword slice through his gun, the barrel falling off.

"Thanks for the help," I say, another sword forming in my hand. "Though, and I'm not saying I'm not grateful, why are you helping me?"

"I believe on your planet, Earth," Laria starts, summoning a ring attached to a rope and spinning it in circles. "It's called a fair fight."'

"Oh. Thanks."

Ganthet:

Smiling when I see Laria helps the man with the glasses, my smile disappears when I see Ranakar. His eyes are red and his teeth are grinding against each other.

"This is absurd," Ranakar states, slamming his fists through the air. "This is supposed to be a solo testing. No one is supposed to help that man."

"You're right, Ranakar," I say, "But there's nothing we can do except watch. Besides, I'm curious to see how the man works with the other green lanterns."

I then turn to look at the fight.

The Man:

Jumping onto his motorcycle, Lobo kicks up the leg and rides into the air. Riding at high speed, he turns around and charges toward Laria and me.

"Watch out," I yell, Laria turning back and seeing a charging Lobo. While she jumps and flies out of the way, I charge toward Lobo. Pulling back my arm, I then shoot it forward. A green blast shoots out, it turns into a ramp right in front of Lobo.

"What the frag," Lobo yells as he flies onto the ramp before flying directly into space.

"Watch out above," I say, shooting Lobo a wave as he disappears from sight.

Laria:

"Smart thinking," I think, watching as the man shoots out a ramp and uses it to send Lobo flying away. Watching Lobo fade into a dot, I look back down and see Garnder flying toward the man.

Shaking my head, I toss my weapon and watch as it wraps around Garnder's arm. Pulling him away from the man, I spin before tossing him away.

"Laria," Garnder says, wiping his mouth. "You traitor."

"Call me what you want," I say, swinging my weapon in a circle, "But I trust that man."

Garnder pulling back his hands summons two swords and charges me. Flying back, I swing my weapon but Garnder raises one of the swords and my weapon wraps around it. Pulling his sword back, he then uses his other sword to slice through my rope.

The whole weapon disappears and with nothing left to defend myself, Garnder rushes toward me.

The Man:

Seeing an armed Garnder flying toward an armless Laria, I think fast and shoot a blast. The blast turns into a large, anti-aircraft machine gun, equipped with a shield and dual barrels. Jumping in, I will myself a pair of goggles.

"Anata no sanpatsu wa orokadesu," I yell in Japanese as I push down on the buttons and unleash a hailstorm of bullets.

Hitting Garnder before he can hit Laria, I sent him flying out of the arena. Taking my thumb off the buttons, I look at Laria. She looks back at me and smiles.

"Doitashimashite," I reply, bowing my head.

Supergirl:

"Did anyone understand a word The Man just said," Harleen asks. "I thought the ring could translate."

"They can," Arisia replies, "You didn't understand him."

"Yeah, I have a Ph.D. in psychology," Harleen answers, "Not linguistics."

"What's a Ph.D.," Arisia asks.

"It's a stupid piece of paper people spend thousands of dollars getting," Leonard answers. "Listen, we can play guess what Sunglasses said later. Right now, shouldn't we do something? I mean, at this point, I don't think this is a practice test anymore. It feels more like a gladiator match."

"You're right," I say, preparing to fly. "I don't like where this is heading. I think we need to help The Man."

"And Laria," Oliver adds.

"Uhh," I say, clearing my throat. "Sure. Come on."

Once more, I'm about to fly into the air to help The Man but Arisia stops me.

"No," she cries, a green beam wrapping my wrist. "I know this looks bad, but I also know the Guardians wouldn't turn this into a gladiator match. Just, please calm down."

Looking at Arisia, and then at The Man, I let out a sigh before falling down.

"I hope you're right about this."

The Man:

I hear the roar of a motorcycle engine once more and look up. Lobo, who is in the center of a flaming meteorite, is hauling toward me. Getting up and jumping out of the way, I watch as Lobo destroys my machine gun, parts of it flying all over before they disappear.

The meteorite also disappears, Lobo looks at me as he gets off his motorcycle. His grin is gone and his eyes are looking a little redder than before.

"You bastich," Lobo yells, pointing at me. "I can't believe you did that."

"You douchebag," I shout, pointing back at Lobo.

"Douchebag," Lobo repeats.

"Yeah. I don't swear. It can make trash-talking kind of hard."

Lobo shrugs with shoulders before calling forth another shotgun and this time, a long chain.

While firing off rounds, Lobo swings the chain above his head. Shooting out my hand, I call forth a staff and use it to catch Lobo's chain. The chain wrapping around my staff, I pull it. Lobo seeing this blasts the chain before summoning a new one.

Swinging the chain, I jump out of the way as the chain hits the floor, leaving behind a long streak. Rolling and landing on my feet, I add a pointed tip to my staff and throw it at Lobo.

Lobo shoots the spear, it bursts into dust that blinds Lobo. Screaming as he steps back, I run toward him.

Shaking the dust off in time, Lobo sees me as I'm running and summon a crowbar in his hand. Swinging it down, I block it with a green sword.

Laria:

While I watch the fight between Lobo and the man with the glasses, I stop when I hear someone screaming. Turning around, I see Garnder as he flies back toward us.

As he flies, he brings his arms and legs together. Now, oval-shaped, Garnder beings to glow brightly.

I watch before my very eyes as the glow around Garnder shoots out and hits me. It knocks me out of the sky.

The Man:

Swinging our weapons, they clash, the sound of metal echoing throughout the entire arena. Stepping forward, my blade runs alongside Lobo's crowbar until it hits the hook.

Once caught in the hook, I move my foot and stomp it behind Lobo. With a quick but powerful shoulder charge, Lobo trips over my leg and I pull the crowbar right out of Lobo's hand. With Lobo on the floor, I hold my sword over him.

"You lose," I say before the platform shakes. Stumbling a bit, I turn to see a giant, glowing, green man.

The giant, looking to be roughly 100 feet, is holding Laria in his hand. She is struggling to break free, but the giant's grip is proving to be too strong. As I run toward the giant, I stop to get a better look.

Directly in the giant's chest, moving his arms and legs is Guy Garnder. Looking down at me, Garnder stomps his way toward me, the whole arena shaking as he moves.

With the sword still in my hand, I charge toward Garnder but stop when a chain wraps around my arm and pulls me back. Looking behind me, I see Lobo already back on his feet, and a chain already in his hands.

"You're going to hate this," Lobo laughs as Garnder raises his giant green foot high above my head.

Supergirl:

"Okay," I yell, slamming my fists through the air. "That's enough."

Getting up from the stand, I launch myself toward the green giant.

"Wait," Arisa says, "No!"

The Man:

Lobo's chain wraps around my arm, I look up at Garnder's giant green foot. Directly in its green shadow, I raise my sword high into the air, the blade pointed outward.

"No matter how big you are," I say, "You're still going to feel this."

The shadow gets bigger as it approaches, but all of a sudden, it disappears. Looking up, I see Kara pushing against Garnder's green giant. Despite his best effort, the arena's platform is just too small, and he falls over the ledge.

While falling, he lets go of Laria and she flies away. Meanwhile, Lobo is too busy watching Garnder fall. Taking the opportunity, I spin around and slice the chain.

"What the frag," Lobo screams as he stumbles back, the broken chain disappearing. Before Lobo could summons anything else, I throw my sword once more and watch as it spins through the air before the handle hits and knocks Lobo to the ground.

Kara:

Landing on the platform with The Man, I'm glad to see him walking toward me.

"Are you okay," I ask The Man, but he ignores me and walks past. "What?"

I turn around to see him approach Laria as she lands on the platform.

"Laria," he starts, "Are you okay?"

He places his hand on her shoulder and I cross my arms.

"I'm fine," Laria replies, "Really, I should be asking the two of you that."

"Why's that," I ask.

"Because the Guardians seem really angry now," Laria answers, pointing toward the sky as the Guardians of Oa approaches us.

The Man:

"Oh boy," I say, my shield disappearing as the Guardians of Oa approach the three of us. I can see the veins pulsing on most of their heads as they get closer and closer.

"You cheated," Ranakar screams, pointing a stern finger at us. Ranakar's eyes are twitching, and his teeth are grinding against each other.

"We cheated," I say, stepping up. "Screw you, you blue leprechaun."

"Stop calling us leprechaun," Ranakar screams, wads of splits flying out.

I'm about to raise a finger against Ranakar but stop. Again, I don't like to swear.

"This was supposed to be a test of my will," I ask, looking directly at Ganthet, Ganthet lowering his head in response. "I get the whole Kilowog pinning me down and trying to crush me thing, but how is battling Lobo and Garnder at the same time suppose to be anything more than a grudge match? Tell me."

All the Guardians stay silent. They stay silent but they stay staring with pulsing veins and grinding teeth.

"Tell me," I yell, a wave of green will shooting out and hitting the Guardians. As they're forced back, many of the Green Lanterns from the stand shoot into the sky and fly toward us. In less than a minute, they fire their ring and trap Laria, Kara, and me in a half bubble. Even Garnder joins in. Flying back up, he fires his ring and reinforces the half bubble.

"Let them go," Arisia says, flying to us. Aiming her ring at the green lantern, Sallaak is the first to move. Firing his ring, he knocks her away.

Watching as she spins uncontrollably through the air, I swing my hand and shatter the half bubble. The half bubble's destruction causes a few green lanterns to shake and fly back. While they're recovering, I swing my hand and shoot out a beam. The beam curves as it turns into a bed and catches Arisia.

As Arisia steady herself, I see all the Green Lanterns surrounding us prepare to shoot. Their rings are all glowing bright, and their eyes are completely focused on us. I raise Hal's ring and focus my will into it. Now, like their rings, Hal's ring is glowing brightly.

"Enough," Ganthet yells, flying in between us. Holding out his hands, he turns over and over, making sure none of us firing. He stops when he turns to me.

"This was supposed to be a test of your will," Ganthet starts, "I promise you, I did not intend for this."

Ganthet and I look at each other, I eventually nod my head and lower Hal's ring.

"Now," Ranakar yells, pointing at us. "Fire!"

"No," Ganthet yells, holding up his hands. "No! For the moment, for this very moment, I would strongly recommend we all rest. This had been a very intense test, and I suggest we all take some time to rest and recover before the yellow lanterns attack again. Does everyone agree?"

All we turn our heads and look at each other before nodding.

"Agree," Ranakar says, closing his hands.

"Then it is decided," Ganthet says. "We Guardians will regroup to discuss this matter, and for the time being, we ask that you and your team return to your ship."

"Understand," I say.

Blasting the ground, I call forth a green hoverboard. Standing on it, I kick against the floor and fly into the air. However, before I can make it far, Ganthet stops me.

"For the time being," he repeats, his arm blocking me. "I think it would be best if Laria and Arisia join you."

"What," Arisia says. Before she could say anything, I get in front of Ganthet and pull up my hand. Arisia seeing this nods her head.

"Come on," I say, nudging my head. "The Rusted is this way."

One-by-one, slowly at first but then quickly, we all dispense. While the Guardians float away, and many of the green lanterns fly away, Kara and I regroup with the team.

"I assume you heard all of that," I say as my hoverboard bursts into dust and I land in the seating area.

"Yeah," Barry says. "We heard everything."

"Awesome, let's go then."

About to take a step, I stop.

"Hal," I say, pulling off his ring. "This is yours. Catch."

Dr. Crane:

A yawn forces its way out as I take off my glasses to rub my eyes. Shaking my head left and right, I look back at the book. Pressing my finger against the page, I turn to my right to take down some notes.

While looking between the book and my notepad, I begin to hear some footsteps and even a few familiar voices.

"This is where you two will be staying for the meantime," The Man says. "I know it doesn't look like much, but there's a warm bed and hot meals. Life's comforts."

"Strange," I think, turning to look behind me. "I thought he already gives everyone a tour of the ship. Why he is giving another tour?"

Closing both the book and the notebook, I get up from my chair and head for the infirmary's exit. As I leave the room, I find myself almost walking right into The Man.

"Personal space, Doc," The Man says, shooting out his hand and pushing me back.

"Sorry about that," I say, adjusting my glasses. After fixing them, I see the rest of the Insurgents; Mr. Oliver Queen. Mr. Barry Allen. Ms. Kara. Mr. Hal Jordan?

"Mr. Hal Jordan," I say, "And you two?"

Standing beside Hal Jordan are two other green lanterns I didn't recognize. One of them looks like a short woman with blonde hair in a white shirt with a green skirt. The other green lantern looks slightly taller, with purple skin and long orange hair.

"Hmm, hello? I'm, I'm Dr. Crane. Who are you?"

"This is Arisia," Mr. Hal Jordan answers, "And this is Laria. They'll, uh, I guess they'll be staying with us for a while. Myself included."

"Okay," I say, "Why? What did I miss?"

"Do you want the short version or the long version," Mr. Leonard Snart asks.

"Long version."

"The short version goes like this," Mr. Leonard Snart starts. "Basically, all the green lanterns don't trust us, hence why after stealing Hal's ring, the stupid blue bastard, the Guardians of Oa, put The Man to a quote 'test of will'. He beat the rigged test, and now everyone hates us even more. Except for these two. Which is why they've been kicked out."

"Oh," I say, clearing my throat. "Okay. I did ask for the long version, but that works. It tells me basically everything."

"More or less," Mr. Leonard Snart adds, nodding his head.

"Anyway," The Man interrupts, "I guess now it's us versus the green lanterns. Despite being on the same side."

"If it's us versus them," Dinah says, everyone turns to face her. "Then maybe we should just leave them."

The Man:

"What," Oliver yells, "Dinah, you can't be serious."

"Why not," Cheetah interrupts. "Canary is right. If these sons of-."

Cheetah pauses and looks at me. I nod my head.

"If these sons of bastards," Cheetah goes on, "If these sons of bastards don't want us here, then I said we just go. So long green lanterns, thank you for almost killing us a bunch of times."

"Exactly," Cold says. "Why help a bunch of ungrateful people?"

"Because you're supposed to," Arisia yells, now all eyes turning to her. "Remember, I called you here to help us."

"And you were one of the first to fire at us," Dinah replies. "And even after we helped to fight back against some yellow lanterns, you guys still try and fight us. Just ask him."

Dinah raises her hand and points at me. As she did, I start to see a little steam coming out of Arisia's ears.

"Okay fine," Arisia says, "Even I'll admit. That test of will wasn't what I was expecting."

"Wasn't what you were expecting," Dinah repeats.

"But," Arisia screams, "But you guys still can't leave. We need you. It may not look like it but we do need you. All of you. Every single one of you."

"Arisia is right," Laria joins. "Some of you saw it for yourself. Our infirmary is filled with injuries green lanterns. They need help."

"Help yourself," Cheetah says, turning to walk around. However, before she can get fast, Harleen grabs her shoulder.

"Not so fast, Pookla Dot," Harleen says, pulling her back in. "Now, as much as the green lanterns have been as--."

I cough into my fist and Harleen looks at me.

"Butts," she says, "Now, as much as the green lanterns have been butts to us, I think Blondie and Redhead are right. We can't leave. We have to stay."

"You're outvoted," Reverse-Flash says, walking behind Cheetah and Dinah. "I voted we ditch these sorry sons of bitches and--"

I slap Reverse-Flash on the back of his head and he stops talking.

"Ouch," he yells, turning to face me.

"Don't swear," I say, facing him. "Also, we're staying."

"What," Dinah yells, turning to face me now.

"Yes," Harleens shouts, raising both her arms into the air. "Thank you."

"How can you, out of everyone here, even say that," Dinah asks. "They tried to kill you."

"The Guardians did not try to kill him," Laria corrects.

"They tried to kill me," I re-corrects, "Well, most of them did. Nevertheless, as much as I'm okay with leaving them, we, unfortunately, cannot."

"Why not," Dinah asks.

"Because they are allies. You know the old saying. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Sun Tzu."

"I think in this case," Leonard says, "The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy."

"Shut up, Leonard," Oliver says, "The Man said it. We're staying."

I sense a series of arguments on the verge of erupting, so just as everyone opens their mouths to speak their minds, I step forward and clap my hands.

"At least for now," I say, looking at everyone as they stare me down. "We are staying for now, and the reason for it is because, from more than plenty of observations, Superman and is One Earth government have already partnered with Sinestro and his yellow lantern corps. That means his army just got a lot stronger. If we can somehow convince the green lantern corps we are indeed allies, we may be able to level the battlefield."

"That does make sound," Dinah says, "But still. How are supposed to convince every green lantern we're friendly?"

"You could start by asking the Super to leave," Laria says. "Even with the jacket, we all know you're a Super."

As I watch Kara back away, I step forward and am about to punch Laria but stop. My fist already, and pull back, I force myself to stop. Laria looks ready to block, but she too stops.

"Kara is not leaving," I say, my hand falling to the side. "Please don't say that again."

Laria's hand falling to her side, I turn back to everyone.

I let out a sigh.

"Everyone," I start, "For now. Just get some rest. I sense there won't be much time for resting afterward. If nothing happens, then dinner will be in one hour."

I wait as everyone slowly leaves. Whether they go to their rooms or the bathroom, I could not care less. I do however care about Kara. Before she could leave, I grab her shoulder.

"I think it's time you return Leonard his jacket," I say. "No offense to him or anything, but he looks weird in just a T-shirt."

Kara turns to face me, she clutches the zipper of Leonard's jacket.

"I can't," she replies, "You heard Laria. The green lanterns don't like me."

"So," I say with a shrug. "I've been in more fights in one year than people who actually like me. Listen, Kara, something I've learned over the years. You just need to learn not to give a rat's butt."

"A rat's butt," Kara repeats.

"Yes. A rat's butt. You need to learn not to care what people think. At least, not the people who don't know you."

"What are you talking about?"

"We know you. Everyone on this ship knows you; The Doc, Oliver, Barry, Leonard, me. We all know you. We all know you're nothing like Superman, so you don't have to hide the S. To people and apparently, also green lanterns, that S means bad news. To me, that S actually means hope."

Kara looks up at me.

"You know what this S stands for."

"Would you be surprised to learn that I know a little bit about Kryptonian culture?"

"Really? How?"

"I'll tell you later. For now."

I hold out my hand. Kara seeing it smiles and unzips Leonard's jacket. Giving me the jacket, I head off to find Leonard.

"I'll see you later," I say, waving at Kara as I walk away.

"I'll see you later," Kara says, "And I'll hold you to that. You will tell me how you know about Kryptonian culture."

"Promise," I say.

Harleen:

As I wander around the Rusted, I stop when I see Arisia. She looks lost, considering she's spinning around.

"Hey Blondie," I say, walking up to her. "What are you doing? Other than trying to make yourself fall."

"I'm trying to figure out which way my room is," Arisia replies, her head still spinning around. "Ahh, this place is a maze."

"Yeah, it is," I laugh. "Don't worry, I kind of figured out the layout. More or less. Follow me."

With a nudge of my head, I start to lead Arisia down a hallway, toward the rooms.

As we walk side-by-side, Arisia starts asking me a bunch of questions.

"How did you learn the layout of this strange ship," Arisia asks. "Who is that man in the glasses? How did he pull off Hal's ring? Did you know you can do that? I'm sorry about attacking you, but thank you for staying. Why did you choose to stay with us?"

As Arisia goes on and on with more and more questions, most I can't really answer, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. She looks so silly when she asks the questions.

About to reach the room, the Rusted shaking knocks me off my feet.

"Whoa," Arisia says, catching me in her arms. "Are you okay? What was that?"

"No clue," I answer, back on my feet. "Let's go see."

The Rusted's shaking intensifies as Arisa and I run through the hallway and up the stairs onto the main deck. As we step onto the deck, we see The Man, Captain Cold, and Laria.

"What's going on," Arisia asks.

"Someone is attacking the Rusted," The Man answers, scanning the sky. "Watch out."

Grabbing Cold and Laria and pushing them down, a beam from out of nowhere hit the Rusted's shield, the ship shaking as the shield turns red.

"A red beam," The Man says, pushing himself up.

"A red beam," Cold repeats.

"A red beam," Arisia says. Arisia, Laria, and The Man then look at each other.

"Red lantern," they all say. Somehow, as if on cue, a huge, glowing red alien with yellow eyes and wrinkled skin appears in front of us. He's wearing some sort of armor. It's a lot like it's made from stone and lava.

"Are you him," the red alien asks, raising his hand. As he raises his hand, I see a red ring smack on his finger. "Are you the fable, man in glasses I have been seeking?"

"That depend," The Man answers, "Why are you looking for some guy in glasses, Atrocitus?"

Atrocitus:

As I look at the people on the strange spaceship, I see two green lanterns and three Earthlings. However, only one of these Earthlings is wearing a pair of glasses.

"You," I say, aiming my red ring at the Earthling with the glasses.

The Man:

As I stare down the red energy gathering in Atrocitus's ring, I look at the Rusted's bridge.

"If I can reach her controls," I think, "I can activate her cannons. I just have to wait for the right opening."

"You," Atrocitus yells, his red ring starting to glow brighter. "Are you the fabled man in glasses I am seeking? Answer me now!"

"Fabled," I repeat, looking at Cold and Harleen. "Uhh, no. I am not the fabled man in glasses you are seeking."

"You're lying," Atrocitus says, descending as he pulls back his ring. The red energy fades, and so does the glow around Atrocitus's body.

"Please," he starts, "I need your help."

"Please," I repeat, pulling back my head. "Those are words I thought I would never hear Atrocitus say. Ever."

Arisia and Laria look at each other before turning to look at me. They lower their rings and walk to the Rusted's railing. I join them.

As we stare at Atrocitus, his face looks different from before. Normally, he always looked angry. His eyes would be glowing, his brows would always be at an angle, and he would always be screaming. Now, the glow in his eyes is fading, his head is lower, and he's talking. Not screaming or yelling or saying he'd destroy me, but he is talking.

"Why do you need the help of the man in glasses," Arisia asks.

"Also, how did you get past Oa's planetary shield," Laria adds.

"Finally, how did you learn of this fabled man with glasses," I say. "Seriously, how did you learn of him?"

"I need the fabled man in glasses' help because we Red Lanterns were attacked very recently," Atrocitus says. "We tried to fight back, but he was just too strong. As far as I know, I am the last Red Lanterns."

To prove his point, Atrocitus reaches for something behind him. Automatically, Arisia and Laria raise their rings. They look ready to fire at Atrocitus but stop when they see what is in his hands.

"Are those," Arisia starts, "Are those red lantern rings?"

"Yes," Atrocitus says, almost whispering.

In Atrocitus's hand are a bunch of red lantern rings. They seem to be drained of any red energy. I watch as a few drop to the ground, the sound of them hitting echoing. Atrocitus flips his hand over and it rains powerless red rings.

"Upon realizing I was the lone survivor of the Red Lantern Corps," Atrocitus goes on. "I spend the next few months coming here."

"Make sense," I think. "The Red Lantern's home planet, Ysmault, is lightyears away. Even at full speed, it would take a green lantern 18 months to reach it."

"When I finally arrived, I saw yellow lanterns attacking. I knew I couldn't take them on so I waited."

"He knew he couldn't take out a bunch of yellow lanterns," I repeat. "Wait, is this Atrocitus, or is Clayface pretending again?"

"As the last yellow lantern entered, I followed after him and hid when the battle broke out."

"He hid during a fight? Yeah, this is Clayface alright. Where's my shotgun?"

"Shortly afterward, when the battle was over, I tried to found the Guardian of Oa, but apparently, they were busy."

"Busy trying to kill you," Cold whispers, he and Harleen now standing near us.

"Okay," I say, "That's two questions out of three answered. Again, how did you learn of this man with the sunglasses?"

"As I was flying around," Atrocitus starts, "I noticed many of the green lanterns seemed tired and exhausted. Like my ring, their rings were not glowing as bright as I remember. It was then I heard of him."

Atrocitus:

Hiding behind a building, I keep my glow low so none of the green lanterns will see me. Two lanterns flying past, they wobble up and down as they fly.

"I can't take much more of this," one of them said. A thin lantern with one eye and many arms, he looks at his fellow lantern, a short blue sphere with metal arms and legs.

"I know," the blue sphere replied. "My system needs repairs and I am running very low on power. I hope to rest soon."

"I don't think we'll be resting any time soon," the thin lantern said. "Especially with that Super and that Earthling with the glass."

"I still can't believe it. Did you see what he did?"

"He managed to rip a ring right off of Hal Jordan's finger and used it. I always thought that was impossible."

"What," I say, lending closer as I try to listen to more of their conversation. "He ripped the ring from Hal Jordan?"

"There's something off about that Earthling," the blue sphere went on. "Heck, there's something off about all of them. I said we just blast them off of Oa. We got enough issues, and now we have to deal with this."

"Just give it some time. Once the Guardians say we can, we will blast that strange-looking spaceship out of here."

The two disappeared as they turned a corner. Meanwhile, I think about what they said.

"The power to pull one's ring and use it. I must see for myself."

I then shoot up and seek out this strange-looking spaceship.

The Man:

"Just to tell you," I say, waving my hand and grabbing Atrocitus's attention. "This strange-looking spaceship is called the Rusted."

"The Rusted," Atrocitus repeats. "What an odd name."

"There's something we can agree on," Cold whispers. I bump him with my elbow.

"So again," Atrocitus says, "Are you him? Are you the fabled man in glasses? If you are, then, please. I need your help. I need your help to enact my revenge."

Atrocitus rises his ring and closes his hand. As he does, his ring fills with red energy and some of the glow returns to his eyes. Seeing this, Arisia and Laira both rise their rings. Even Harleen pulls out her pistols.

"Easy there big, red, and ugly," Harleen says, pulling back the hammers on her pistols. "I've heard of you, and of that famous ring of yours. If you want Sunglasses' help here, then ease up on the anger."

"You are him," Atrocitus says, looking right at me.

"Harleen," I say through the gaps in my teeth. I slap her on the back of her head. "Thank you so much for telling Atrocitus."

"What," Harleen says, rubbing the back of her head with her pistol. "It's not like it's a big secret or anything. The man in the glasses? You're literally the only one here in said glasses. I don't think it would have taken Bruce long to solve it."

"Still," I say.

"You are him," Atrocitus says, very creepily smiling. "I knew it. Strangely, as I approach this ship, I sense a strong feeling of rage and hate. It only grew when I saw you. Take this."

Without a second to waste, Atrocitus pulls from behind him another red lantern ring. He throws the ring at me and I catch it.

"Use that ring," Atrocitus says, "Use it and help me get revenge against the one who destroyed the Red Lantern Corps."

"And who would that be," I ask.

"Darkseid."

As soon as I hear the name, I freeze.

"Darkseid," I repeat, squeezing the ring in my palm. "You have got to be kidding me."

Looking like Atrocitus is about to say something, green chains wrapping around him stop him.

"I knew we couldn't trust you," Kilowog says, his eyes having a little bit of red in them. "But you two."

Pulling at the chains, Kilowog drags Atrocitus closer in.

"Once I tell the Guardians this, then they'll see. You're not allies. You're all enemies."

The Man:

"Atrocitus," I say, stepping onto the railing. Jumping through the Rusted's shield, I reach for a kungi and throw it at Kilowog.

As I drop toward the ground, I hear a shotgun blast and watch as my kungi is hit. Both I and my kungi fall onto the ground. Landing on my knee, I look up to see Lobo and Garnder hovering beside Kilowog.

"You traitor," Garnder says, switching targets. Now, he's aiming at the Rusted.

"Remember me," Lobo says, spitting out yet another green cigar. He pumps his shotgun and aims it at me. "No ring this time. You're dead."

Supergirl:

Running up the stairs to the outside of the ship, something happens that causes the Rusted shakes. Hitting the wall, I push myself off of it and run through.

"What's going on," I yell, seeing Arisia, Laira, Harleen, and Captain Cold all at the side. "Is someone attacking us?"

"Oh yeah," Captain Cold says, bringing up his cold gun. "We're under attack alright. By the Green Lanterns."

"Of course," Dinah says as she and Oliver run up the stairs. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Not now," Oliver says, running up the side and preparing an arrow. "It's Kilowog, Lobo, Garnder, and Atrocitus? What is doing here?"

"I'll tell you later," Harleen answers. "For now, we should probably hold onto something."

Garnder pulls in his arms and legs, he then shoots them out and unleashes a bright green glow. Turning the whole sky green, it blinds us. Shielding myself, I look after a few seconds and see Guy Garnder once again in a giant green body

Garnder pulling back his fist slams it against the Rusted's shield, causing the ship to shake again.

Dr. Crane:

"Ouch," I scream as the ship shakes and I fall onto a wall. "Ahh, what is going on up there? Ahh, why did the man have to take me here? Why couldn't I stay back at the base? I miss the base."

The ship shakes again, I jump and hide underneath the infirmary's table.

The Man:

"The Rusted's controls," I say, running toward the Rusted. However, three steps in, I jump back when the ground in front of me explodes with green smoke.

"You're not going anywhere," Lobo says, jumping off his motorcycle and landing in front of me. Pumping his shotgun, he aims it at me.

Squeezing the trigger, he fires at me endlessly but I run out of the way. Jumping and flipping through the air, I pull out kungi and throw them.

Lobo summoning a chain, he swings it and blocks all my kungi. Swinging the chain once more, it almost wraps around my leg but before it can, I pull out my sword and cut the chain.

"What the hell," Lobo says, stepping back as his chain disappears. "Where did you get that?"

"With a ring or without," I say, spinning my dual swords. "I am always armed."

I push off the ground and charge toward Lobo.

Supergirl:

"Stay here," I say, jumping into the air. Flying through the Rusted's shield, I hold out my arms as I fly directly into the green giant. Knocking him back, he stumbles over before falling over.

"I don't want to fight you," I say, hovering over Garnder, "But you're not leaving me much choice. Give it up now and leave."

"Apparently," Garnder says while still on the ground. "You don't know the first thing about green lanterns."

Garnder swings his fist but I'm able to block it. However, it takes both my hands to hold back his giant fist. Pushing against it, I look behind me and see his other hand. Closing in on me, I squeeze in between two fists.

"We don't give up," Garnder yells as he pulls back his arms and kicks me through the air. Flying uncontrollably at first, I recover fast and look at Garnder as he tried to attack the Rusted.

"Oh no," I say, flying back.

Flash:

"Try and draw his attention," I say, looking at others as they grab onto the railing. "Reverse-Flash, help me with this."

Reverse-Flash nodding his head follows after me as we climb over the railing and jump off. Landing on the ground, we use our speed to run circles around Garnder.

Within only a few seconds, a giant tornado forms that engulf the green giant. Garnder tries to get out but the tornado pulls him back in. We all watch as something starts to glow green in the tornado before a sudden explosion knocks me and Reverse-Flash to the ground.

Green Arrow:

An explosion knocks Barry and Reverse-Flash to the ground, we all watch as the tornado dies down, and there, hovering in the center is Guy Garnder. His green giant is gone, and he lost a little uneasy, considering how shaky he is while flying.

Screaming and slapping himself on the forehead, he looks up at the sky before looking down at Lobo.

"Lobo," he says, shaking his head. "Kilowog is gone. Let's go!"

The Man:

Lobo swings both his crowbar and chain, I jump to my side and roll underneath the chain. As I land on my feet, I throw my swords once more. Flipping through the air, they cut both his crowbar and chain.

Now, defenseless, I run toward him. Jumping into the air, I kick him in the face and knock him down.

"Lobo," Garnder screams from high above. "Kilowog is gone. Let's go!"

"What," I say, looking around. "Shoot. Kilowog is gone, and so is Atrocitus. This wasn't a fight. It was just a distraction."

Lobo still laying on the ground, he smiles as he looks up. Rising his hand, he forms a shotgun and fires it. He fires at the ground instead of me, and a green glow appears. Looking away, I can hear Lobo laughing and then the sound of a motorcycle engine. The glow disappears, I look up to see Garnder and Lobo flying away.

Taking a step, I stop when I feel something under my foot. Looking down, I move my foot and see all the red rings Atrocitus dropped before. A few of them are crushed, most likely from Lobo, but there are still quite a few around.

Dropping to a knee, I gather all of them up and put them in my pockets. Once the last rings is safety pocketed away, I jog over to Flash and Yellow Flash.

"Hey," I say, dropping to my knee once more. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Yellow Flash says, pushing himself up. "I'm fine."

"If you're seeing three of me," I say, "Then you should probably visit the Doc. He had some medicines to help with concussions."

"I am fine," Yellow Flash says. "No concussions. No three of you. Frankly, I can barely handle one of you."

"Likewise."

Standing up, I offer Yellow Flash my hand. He takes it and I pull him up. Meanwhile, Flash stumbles his way toward the two of us.

"Where are they going," Flash asks, looking at the sky as the two disappear.

"I can only think of one place they would take Atrocitus," I answer.

"Atrocitus," Flash repeats, jumping back. "Wait, what?"

"Oh yeah," I say, "You weren't here for that. Basically, this is what happened."

Atrocitus:

"Look who I've found," Kilowog says, throwing me to the floor. The green chains still wrapped around me, I couldn't do anything except try and get onto my knees.

"Atrocitus," one of the Guardians of Oa says. I sense rage building inside of him. "So, that Super and that thief sneak you in, uh?"

"No," I say but as I do, the chains around me tighten and force a scream out of me.

"You liar," the Guardian says. "You're here with the yellow lanterns and Superman. You're trying to destroy us. I won't allow it."

As he swings his arm through the air, the building itself starts to shake once more.

"Speaking of yellow lanterns," the Guardian says, looking at me before turning to face the other Guardians. "I've finally received his message. After a year and a half, Mogo had arrived and he is here to help."

The Man:

"Mogo," I say, staring at the biggest green lantern as he and his planet-sized shadow looms over Oa.

"Who," Kara asks, looking at Mogo as he keeps growing. Stepping back, we all look at the giant green lantern symbol on the giant green and blue planet with a green ring.

"Mogo," I say again, the entire surface of Oa now in Mogo's shadow. "The Living Planet."

"He's a living planet," Kara repeats, looking at me and then back at Mogo. "An actually living planet?"

"A living planet with a green lantern ring," I say.

"That's a big green lantern," Cold says, he and everyone else looking at Mogo.

"No kidding," Laria says, crossing her arms.

"What is Mogo doing here," I ask, looking at Arisia and Laria. "If I remember correctly, Mogo lived lightyears from Oa. In fact, he lived in the same sector as Atrocitus."

"If I remember correctly," Laria starts, "The Guardians of Oa called him when after the first week of yellow lanterns attacks. He must have just gotten here."

"Hmm," I think, crossing my arms. "Mogo and Atrocitus traveling all the way here from Frontier Space, arriving at almost the same time. I'm surprised they didn't run into each other and have a fight in the middle of space."

"Hey Man in Sunglasses," Cheetah says, backing away. "Uhh, should we be concerned? You know, about the giant green lantern and the fact that the green lanterns hate us."

"We don't hate you," Arisia corrects.

"Yeah, you and Laria don't," I whisper, turning my head and clearing my throat. Turning back, I look up at Mogo. Walking up, I make my way through the crowd until I'm up in front.

Mogo isn't moving anymore. He stops growing and seems to be staying still. He's not talking, and as far as I can tell, he's not using his ring for anything. It's like Mogo is waiting for something.

"Stay here for now," I say, turning to face everyone. "I'm going."

"Where are you going," Flash asks.

"I'm going to rescue Atrocitus," I answer.

"I'm sorry," Arisia says, grabbing my shoulder. "What?"

"You're doing what," Hal says, stepping in front of me and spreading out his arms. "You can't be serious? Atrocitus. He's a red lantern."

"He was also captured by the green lanterns," I reply, "And given how kind they've been to us, I'm a little more than curious to how they're treating Atrocitus."

"Most likely the Guardians will be Atrocitus in a cell," Arisia says, "Nothing more."

"Maybe but I rather see for myself."

I take a step but this time, it's Oliver who stops me. Holding his bow out in front of me, I look toward him.

"The Guardians are already wary of us," Oliver starts, pulling back his bow. "And you're the one who said we need them to level the battlefield. I don't think they would take too kindly to you trespassing and spying on them. Can you, I don't think, just hold back a little?"

About to say no, I stop myself.

"Fine," I say, nodding my head. "I understand."

"Also," Jason says, pointing at Mogo. "They have what I can only imagine is the biggest green lantern in the universe, so it would possibly be best not to do anything to piss them off."

"I agree," Professor Stein adds. "Let's all just sit back for a second, don't do anything rash, just see what happened."

"What," I say, "Are you afraid of Mogo?"

"Are we afraid of a sentient planet with a green lantern ring," Reverse-Flash asks, "Yes. Very much so."

Turning to leave, Reverse-Flash disappears down the stairs and into the Rusted. While everyone follows after him one by one, I stay behind. Walking up to the railing, I cross my arms and look over the empty ground.

As I see the last heads disappear, I reach into my pocket and pull out two B.U.G. Linking the B.U.G with my phone, I tap the big red activate button on the screen and watch as they begin to fall off my hand. Hovering for a bit, they then fly off.

"What were those," someone asks from behind me.

Atrocitus:

The chains tighten as Kilowog closes his hand, I feel the breath force from my body. With the last of my breath squeezes out, I fall over and gasp.

"Tell us why you're here," Kilowog says, flying over to me. Now, standing over me, he grabs and pulls me up. "Why are you here?"

"I told you," I say. "I'm here to ask for help."

"Lair," Kilowog yells, closing his hand and squeezing me. "Even if that is true, why would we help you?"

"Because you're green lanterns," I say, "You're supposed to help others."

"Not red lanterns," another green lantern. This green lantern is tall and thin, with four arms.

"Exactly Sallak," Kilowog says. "We Green Lanterns help everyone except yellow and red lanterns."

"There are no red lanterns," I say, "There is only a red lantern. Me."

"You expected any of us to believe you," Kilowog yells, "Save your breath."

"Kilowog," one of the Guardians says, "Stop."

He attempts to fly toward Kilowog but another Guardian stops them.

"Ganthet," the Guardian yells, "He's a red lantern. A sworn enemy of the Green Lantern. While our rings are fueled by will, their rings are fueled by hatred and anger."

"I know Appa Ali Apsa," Ganthet says, "But whether a yellow or red lanterns, they don't deserve this."

Ganthet then points at me.

"We are the Green Lanterns Corps. We are supposed to be a symbol of hope and justice throughout the universe. This is not hope or justice. It is injustice!"

Without any words, Ganthet raises his hands and blasts me with something. Falling back, it almost destroys the chains around me.

"Ganthet," a third Guardian yells.

"Ranakar," Ganthet yells, "Discuss matters with me later. For now, you two. Take Atrocitus and place him in one of our holding cells. We will figure out what to do with him later."

Two green lanterns pick me up, they carry me out of the room. Flying for a bit, they throw me into a small round cell before closing the door. Before closing the door, however, they take my ring, and my lantern armor disappears.

Ganthet:

Watching as the two green lanterns carry Atrocitus out of the meeting chamber, I then spin around to face the other Guardians. Now it's my time in the light.

"Ganthet," Ranakar says, his voice echoing throughout the room and silencing everyone. "You are being incredibly unreasonable. What is the matter with you?"

"I'm being unreasonable," I repeat, "Ranakar, what you are doing is unreasonable. Forcing one Earthling against two of our strongest green lanterns, and then crushing a red lantern who did nothing."

"Did nothing," Ranakar repeats. "He is with Superman and his One Earth Government. So are that girl and that Earthling with the glasses. They have been attacking us non-stop. We are at our limit. Our green lanterns are at their limit. They are exhausted and are running on no energy."

We all stop when we hear Mogo speak.

"Guardians of Oa," Mogo starts, his voice echoing throughout and sounding like thunder. "I see many yellow lanterns and beta fliers quickly approaching. I will hold them off."

"Thank you very much, Mogo," I say.

The Man:

"You have to be kidding me," Cold says, opening a cabinet only to see a bunch of pots and pans. He slams it shut before turning to me. "Seriously? Are you serious?"

"Yes," I say, cutting up porks before sliding the slices into a giant steel pot. Watching the porks sink into the red stew, I place the knife and cutting board down and wash my hands. Once clean, I move to make the salad. Quickly slicing a head of lettuce, I put it all into a wooden bowl. I then sprinkle some cheese onto the salad.

"Is that all," Cold asks, "Just lettuce and some cheese?"

"I hate tomatoes," I answer, "And Ivy is a freaking vegetarian."

"A freaking vegetarian," Cold repeats. "What, you have something against vegetarians?"

"More or less," I say, returning to the pot of stew. "I have nothing against vegetarians except when they yell meat is murder and then throw red paint at me."

"Ouch," Cold adds. "Seriously though. You don't have a single bottle of alcohol here."

"I don't drink. I never have, and after what I've seen, I never will. If you want alcohol so badly, then ask the Doc."

"He had a stash?"

"No, but he does have bottles of rubbing alcohol."

"I'll pass."

Cold reaches for a bottle of apple juice. About to take a drink, he stops when the Rusted starts to shake again. The bottle drops from his hand and juice spill all over him.

"Son of a bit-," he says before stopping. Looking up, he remembers me before grabbing his cold gun. "Now what? Who's attacking now?"

Cold leaving the Rusted's kitchen, I set the stove to low, wash my hands, and follow after Cold. Walking through the hallway and up the stairs, I have to push through the crowd just to see what is going on.

As I expected, there seem to be some yellow lanterns attacking Oa, but Mogo is easily fending them off. Unleashing a single but massive, planet-sized green beam, he pushes back the invading yellow lanterns. They didn't even make it to the planetary's shield before having to flee.

"Oh my god," Jason says, still staring at Mogo as he prepares to fire another beam. However, the yellow lanterns are long gone by the time he is ready. The glow in front of Mogo vanishes. "Is it too late to leave?"

"No," I answer, "But still, we're not leaving. Come on. Dinner is almost ready. We might as well eat before the next thing happens."

Everyone says yes and nods their heads. We all turn around and head back inside.

Arisia:

"Here," the man in the glasses says, offering me a bowl of something red. "Tortellini soup with slices of pork and kale. There are also slices of bread."

He points over to a basket with something white and brown in it.

"You should eat," the man says, "Even if it's a little."

"Thank you," I say, smiling and nodding my head. The man nods his head and walks away. He returns to a steel pot and prepares more food for everyone. He pours the soup into a bowl and hands it to everyone one by one.

I watch for a while as everyone quickly eats the soup and reaches for the slices of bread. Looking down at my own bowl, I pull my hand up and pick up a spoon. About to use the spoon, I shake my head and pull it down.

"Not very hungry," someone says. Looking up, I see Supergirl holding a bowl of soup. "Can I join you?"

"Honestly," I say, looking away. "I rather you not."

"Oh," Supergirl says. "Okay."

She then walks away. Staring at the bowl of food, I push it away. As I push the bowl away, something hits me on the head.

"Ouch," I say, watching as a piece of bread fall in front of me. Rubbing my head, I look up to see Harleen sitting directly across from me.

"Please don't waste food," the man yells.

"I'm not wasting it," Harleen yells back. Harleen reaches over to pick up the bread and she takes a bite of it. Looking back at the man, the two nod their heads before turning away. Harleen turns back to me.

"You know," she says with bread in her mouth. "It wouldn't kill you to be a little kinder to her. I mean, yeah, she's a Super, but so what? She's half a jungle cat, I'm a clown, he basically a rip-off of him, and him, over. Well, we don't know much about him, but we know there's a lot wrong with him. So whatever your issue is, just get over it."

"How can I just get over this," I ask myself. "I just got banished from the green lanterns, everyone I thought was my friends or at the very least, my teammates have abandoned me, and the only people I can rely on are all of you."

I raise my head to look around.

"The only people I can rely on are all of you," I repeat to myself, still looking around. I see people getting along and sharing things. I see them talking with each other and making conversation. Even Laria is talking. She talking with Catwoman I think. I don't know. There's one woman wearing a cat suit and one woman who is a giant cat. I can't remember who is who. Nevertheless, as I watch Laria and Catwoman talk, I can't help but feel a little better.

Turning back, I see Harleen still staring at me.

"Can you please pass the bread," I ask.

"No problem," Harleen replies, grabbing the basket and offering me it.

"Hey," Poison Ivy yells, "Why does this salad only have lettuce and cheese?"

"It's because someone once threw red paints at The Man," Captain Cold answers.

Darkseid:

"Your army is ready," DeSaad says, bowing his head as he stands at the base of my staircase leading to my throne.

With my hands behind my back, I look through the window to see Apokolips. The sky is covered with thick clouds of smoke, with mountains of fire erupting and adding to them. In the courtyard of my kingdom is my endless army.

Thousands upon thousands of parademons snarling and flying, screaming and swinging their claws, all of them are awaiting my order.

"Are the boom tubes ready," I ask.

"Yes, they are," Kalibak answers, my son bowing his head as well. Standing beside DeSaad, he raises his head. "The boom tubes are ready. They're all set for Oa."

"Excellent," I say, turning around. "There, on Oa, is where we will find the secret component to strengthen my parademons, and once we have her, we will be able to destroy the remaining lantern corps. There will be no more green lanterns, no more yellow lanterns, no more blue corps. They will all fall."

Walking down the stairs, DeSaad and Kalibak step aside as I approach. Walking behind me as I reach the doorway to my throne room, I come face-to-face with Granny and her four female furies.

"Granny," I say, "DeSaad. Kalibak. It's time for war. Prepare yourself."

The Man:

"It's nighttime," I say, watching as the lights from all over Oa slowly turn off one after the other. As the stars come twinkling on, I look up at them.

"What are you doing," a voice asks from behind me. Turning, I see Laria standing there with crossed arms.

"Nothing much," I answer, turning back. "Just a little stargazing."

Laria takes a few steps and stops when she is side by side with me. She too looks up.

"What exactly are you looking at," she asks after a few minutes.

"Again," I start, "Nothing much. Just a little bit of stargazing. It's something I like to do. Really help to calm the mind."

"Calm the mind," she repeats.

"Between Superman's invasion, the Green Lanterns hating us, oh, and let's not forget Atrocitus suddenly appearing out of nowhere, believe me. I think this is something we can all use."

"I guess," Laria says, looking back up. "Still, I see stars all the time when I fly through space."

"So do I," I say, "But every now and then, don't you just want to sit back and look peacefully up at the night sky? You know, before explosions and green beams fill it."

"I guess. This is the longest we've gone without any yellow lanterns attacking us."

I turn to look at Mogo.

"Thank you Mogo," I say, waving at the big guy. Either Mogo doesn't see me or he ignores me, but I don't care.

"So what brings you up here," I ask, turning from the stars to Laria. "You should be resting with the others. Not talking with me."

"That's actually why I came up here," Laria says, turning to face me. "We need to talk."

Supergirl:

"Oh god," I say, covering my ears with my hands. "I can't listen to this anymore."

Walking down the stairs, I walk through the hallway. I think I'm trying to find my room but I can't be sure. All I know is that I don't like The Man talking with Laria. It's really bothering me, but I don't want to interfere. Instead, I want to talk with someone, but the only person I can really talk to is busy.

I tap my wrist.

"I hope this works."

Anthony Higgins:

My head goes up and down as I beatbox to the tune of my music.

"Tur, tur, tur, duh, duh, duh, mum-mum, mum-mum, done, done."

While still beatboxing, I stop when my phone goes off. Stopping and clearing my throat, I answer the call.

"Hello," I start, "Man? Is everything okay? How's Oa?"

"It's bad," someone else answers, not The Man in Sunglasses. It sounds like Supergirl.

"Supergirl," I ask, "Is this you? How are you able to call me?"

"It's a feature of the suit I was given," Supergirl answers.

"You mean the excellneno-suit. Oh man, I wish I had one of these. These suits are awesome."

"Yeah, they're awesome. Listen, Anthony, I don't know if it's late or not on Earth, but I really could use someone to talk to. Are you free?"

"Uhhh, sure. Wait, why aren't you talking with The Man? I mean, are you two close or something?"

"We're not that close," Supergirl says.

"Really? I don't know if I can say this or not, but I thought you two were close. I mean, we've never actually seen each other, but from what I've heard, you and The Man are normally always together. From the moment he rescued you from Styker's."

I let out a sigh.

"Maybe you're the wrong person to be talking to," Supergirl says.

"Wait, wait, wait," I say, clapping my hands and trying to stop Supergirl from hanging up. Thankfully, I think I succeeded since I can still hear her breathing. "Supergirl, I don't know what's going on up there, I really don't, but I do think I can say this at the very least."

Taking a deep breath, I let out a sigh before talking.

"I think whatever it is that's going on up there, you and the man will be fine."

I wait for Supergirl to respond, but it takes a while. Eventually, Supergirl says thank you and then ends the call.

"Okay," I say, turning my music back on. "I'm definitely missing something."

Supergirl:

"You and the man will be fine," Anthony said. I repeat Anthony's words to me.

"I sure hope so," I say.

Looking up, I realize I somehow walk into the empty dining room. The lights are off, but I can still see the table and the seats. After dinner, the man stays behind to clear the table and clean the room. He said it was okay and everyone left, but I stay behind to help him.

"Cheer," he says, offering me a piece of bread. Confused at first, I took the bread and watched as the man tear off a piece. He then tapped his piece of bread against mine.

While looking at the table, I hear a series of explosions going off. Right away, I jump into the air and fly through the hallways.

The Man:

"What's going on," Laria says, raising her ring and her life support turning on. Now in a green glow, we both look up.

Past the sky, mixed with the stars, are dozens and dozens of white tunnels opening.

"What are those," Laria asks.

"Those are boom tubes," I say, recognizing the white tunnel immediately. "Darkseid."

Superman:

"Superman," Cyborg screams as he comes running into the control room.

"Cyborg," I say, unhooking the control and flying off the chair. "What is it? What's going on with Oa?"

"These are boom tubes appearing all over Oa," Cyborg answers. Raising his arms, he brings up a hologram display showing Oa. There are massive boom tubes surrounding Oa, and flying out of these boom tubes are parademons.

"Darkseid," I say, clutching my fists. "Prepare the beta flies! Now!"

The Man:

"What's going on," Kara screams as she shoots out from below deck. "Wait, where are we going?"

About to answer, I'm cut off by everyone also running out from below deck and asking the same question.

"Where are we going," Jason asks.

"Wait, are we setting sail," Jaime asks.

"Are those boom tubes," Flash yells, pointing at the sky. Soon, everyone is looking at where Flash is pointing.

"Yup," I answer from the Rusted's bridge. "Laria, I need both you and Arisia to open Oa's shield for a bit so we can cross through."

"On it," Laria replies. Arisia hearing us starts to glow green herself. The two then fly ahead of us. Meanwhile, Kara flies to my side.

"Glad to see you," I say, nodding my head.

"Same," Kara replies. "What's the plan?"

"Honestly," I say, turning a dial on the ship's control. "Fight and hope not to crash."

As I turn the dial, parts of the Rusted's deck open, and a dozen of cannons quickly pop out.

"Do any of you know how to operate cannon?"

"You're kidding right," Cold asks.

I roll my eyes.

"I miss being a crew of the Jackdaw sometime," I whisper.

Looking past the Rusted's bow, at Laria and Arisia as they chant the oath, they open the shield just big enough for the Rusted to fly through. Jumping onboard as we pass them, the shield closes behind us.

"None of you can operate the cannons," I start, "But at the very least, you can shoot from the deck. Grab onto the railings and shoot anything that looks like it wants to rip your head off."

"Don't you fall into that description," Jason asks.

Shooting out my hand, I focus my will and ask Hal's ring to summon a hand. The ring listens to me and forms a hand to slap the back of Jason's head.

"I won't rip your head off," I say, "But I should as heck will slap the living heck of it!"

I thank the ring and watch as the hand disappears.

"Head on," Selina yells, pointing at a swarm of parademons crash directly against the Rusted.

The Man:

"Brace for impact," I yell as the swarm of parademons slam themselves against the Rusted's shield. Half of us fall to the floor as the shield turns red and Rusted is beings pushed off course. Even with the added power from the thrusters, we're still not strong enough and crash against Oa's planetary shield. Now the other half of the team falls.

"Is everyone okay," I ask, pushing myself up and grabbing the wheel again. Seeing Kara still down, I offer her my hand and pull her back up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she replies.

"Awesome," I say, looking at Kara.

"Yeah," Flash says, waving his arm. "We're fine too."

"Oh yeah," I say, pulling my hand back. "That's awesome. That's really awesome."

Upon hearing snarling, I look up and see even more parademons flying around Oa. What could easily be a few million winged parademons with green and gold armors filled the void of space and cover the stars.

"Hold on," I say, activating the thrusters. The thrusters, though stubborn at first, kick into action and launch us back against the parademons.

"Come on," I say, rubbing the Rusted's wheel. "We've taken worse beatens. This is nothing."

"I hope you're right about that," Cheetah yells, "Because here they come again!"

Pointing at another swarm of parademons as they all fly toward us, we all prepare. I, for one, switch the cannons to automatic. The cannons rotate, and the fuse on them all lights up.

"You guys may want to cover your ears," I say, only a second before the cannons fire.

Louder than a train during a thundering storm, everyone slams their hands on their ears as the cannons fire. The cannonballs shoot through space and hit the parademons, exploding when they come in contact. Now, along with the green and gold parademons, there's also red and orange flame.

"You couldn't have given us a warning," Jason yells, his hands still pressed against his ears.

"I did give a warning," I yell back, watching as the cannons tilt themselves down in order to reload. "I said you guys may want to cover your ears."

The cannons tilting themselves back up aim at the parademons. Firing again, a second swarm erupts with fire. However, the cannon can't reload fast enough before a third and fourth swarm attack the Rusted's shield.

"Hey," I yell, pointing a finger at the parademons. "Shove off!"

I throw a bunch of kungi and kill many parademons, but as they float away, more replace them.

"You heard Four-Eyes," Cold screams, "Shove off!"

Aiming his cold gun, he fires and freezes a bunch of them. Very soon, everyone who can is firing at the parademons pushing against the Rusted's shield.

Green Arrow shoots one arrow after another. Dinah screams with all her might. Even Flash and Reverse-Flash are helping. Spinning their arms and blasting the parademons with tornados, they knock a bunch away.

Despite our best effort, the parademons manage to break a hole in the shield and it's not long before a few of them drop onto the deck.

"Watch out," Harleen screams as a parademon lunges at Cold. Tackling him out of the way, she turns and shoots the parademon. Sparks fly off the parademon's armor as Harleen's bullets bounce off of it.

The parademon walking toward the two of them, I'm about to run and help but Poison Ivy beats me to it. A throne-covered vine wrapping around the parademon's throat, Ivy pulls and knocks it down. Once down, she steps on its head.

"Are you two okay," Ivy asks, helping Harleen and Cold up.

"No," Harleen yells, "My guns can't do anything against these bastards."

"At least you have range," Ivy says, looking at the parademons closing in. Shooting out her arms, the vines circling around gather in her hand and forms a bear trap. Throwing the trap, the teeth dig into the parademon's skin.

Screaming as she charges, Harleen turns her dual guns into a giant hammer and hits the parademon. Knocking it off the Rusted, she prepares to hit another but the parademon catches the hammer in its hand.

"Hand off," Arisia says, firing a beam and blasting it into space.

"Hey," Blue Beetle says, his arm cannons turning back into hands. "What's going on?"

"What are you talking about," Selina asks.

"Look up."

All of us looking up, we see a bunch of parademons being blasted away from the Rusted. In a matter of minutes, most of the parademons are gone and what few are left are flying away, toward new targets.

"The green lanterns," Arisia says, smiling. "They came."

"Uhh, no," I say, pocketing a kungi. "Not the green lanterns. Look again."

Looking again, we see a completely new battle. This time, it's Superman's beta fliers versus the parademons. The two groups are clashing against each other, now a mix of green and gold versus silver and purple.

"What's going on," Kara asks, "Why are fliers fighting against parademons?"

"I don't know," I answer, grabbing the wheel. "But here's another question? Is that Superman over there?"

Superman:

Flying through space, I raise my yellow lantern ring and fire. Blasting and killing one parademon after another, I stop for only a second to grab a parademon by its neck. Bringing it to my face, I burn it with my laser visions.

Looking all around, I see endless parademons flying out from the boom tubes. As I keep looking, I see something I can't believe.

According to my spy, the entire Insurgent arrived on Oa via a flying pirate ship, and there, floating right in front of me, is an exact flying pirate ship.

Flying toward the ship, I immediately see a lot of familiar faces; Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Kara, and the man with the sunglasses.

"You," I say.

"Who exactly," the man with the sunglasses asks, pointing fingers at everyone.

Hearing snarling, I look to see some parademons flying toward the pirate ship. Using my ring, I swing my hand and shoot out a slice of yellow, cutting and killing all the parademons.

Once the parademons are dead, I turn and fly away.

Supergirl:

"Did Superman just help us," Flash asks.

"Apparently so," Cold answers. "This is getting too weird."

"Why did Kal-El helps us," I ask, watching as he quickly re-enters the fight between his fliers and the parademons.

"No idea," The Man answers, "But come on. Let's repay the favor."

The rockets on the back of the ship activate and launch us toward the fight. The cannons coming back on, they don't waste a second and fire, hitting the parademons. Meanwhile, everyone is again shooting from the ship.

As the parademons surround us, we manage to hold them back with help from the beta fliers.

Using my laser visions and hitting a series of parademon, I stop when I see someone flying through one of the boom tubes. He's not a parademon, but instead is much taller. His skin is grey and he seems to be wearing some sort of blue armor. As I look at him, I see his eyes, glowing red.

"Who's that," I ask, looking at The Man.

"Who," he asks, turning the wheel. Looking where I'm pointing, The Man steps back.

"Darkseid," he says.

"Who?"

Before The Man can answer, Darkseid unleashes a pair of laser visions from his eyes. They move in a crooked pattern, bending and going through the parademons. The lasers hit and destroy the ship's shield. The shield cracks and pieces of it float into space.

"Incoming," Firestorm yells, the two of them pointing at the parademons flying toward us. Without the shield, they fly and land on the ship.

Captain Cold:

A parademon landing on the ship, I aim my cold gun at it but before I can shoot, it charges and hits my gun out of the way. This time, punching me square in the chest, I can feel the breath as it flies out.

Stumbling back, the parademon raises its arms and is about to slam them down on me. However, as it brings its arm down, fire shoots out and forces the monster back.

Looking behind me, I see Firestorm stepping forward while shooting flames from their hands.

"Come on," Blue Beetle says, dropping to the ground and helping me up. Another parademon charging toward us, Beetle fires a blast from his arm cannon. Hitting and knocking the parademon away, he drags me away.

"Come on," bug boy says, "Este es un mal lugar para bajar."

"English kid," I yell, "English!"

"This is a bad place to go down," Beetles translates.

"Believe me," I say, pushing myself up. "It's not by choice."

Back on my feet, I aim my cold gun and fire. Hitting and freezing an entire line-up of demons, the ones behind didn't care. They shatter all of the frozen demons before charging ahead. I stop shooting and switch the dial.

"Everyone," I yell, looking at Firestorm, Catwoman, and Oliver as they stop to look at me. "Get down!"

Raising and aiming my cold gun, white fog falling from the barrel, the three realize what is about to happen and jump down. Firing, I unleash an ice bomb that freezes almost every one of these darn demons.

The second they're frozen, everyone makes quick work and takes them down.

"Shoot," I say, looking at my cold gun as the blue light on it dies down.

"Que," Beetle says. "Que sucdeio?"

I look at Beetle.

"What happened," he translates.

"My cold gun is out of power," I say, "It's dead. And so are we."

Somehow, as if one cue, the second we clear the deck of all the frozen demons, another swarm of these bastards land on the ship and charge toward us. One heading right for me, I cross my arms.

"I got you," Beetle yells, stepping forward. Shooting out his arm, it changes into a sword, and Beetle slices the demon in half.

Superman:

Shooting my ring, I trap a few dozen parademons in a giant yellow bubble. The parademons clawing at the bubble, I swing with all my might and throw them into a bunch more parademons. They crash against each other, all of them stunned now. As they try to clear their heads, my beta fliers and I focus fire on them.

We turn every one of them into dust.

"What," I say, turning around when I hear something strange. It sounds like a mirror is cracking. Looking past the mess of parademons, I see the flying pirate ship being attacked by parademons. They somehow land right on the ship and are attacking the Insurgency.

"What happened? How are the parademons getting through? I thought I saw a shield on the ship earlier."

All my questions are answered when I hear another strange sound. Looking up, I see a pair of laser beams coming at me. Unlike mine, they move in a crooked pattern.

"Omega beams," I say, recognizing the attack right away. Moving fast, I raise my ring and summon a shield. The omega beams hitting the shield, I concrete as much as I can and try to keep it up. Finally, they stop.

"Superman," Darkseid says as he hovers in front of me. "Quite a surprise to see you here."

"I can say the same," I say, wiping my mouth as I prepare my own laser visions.

Darkseid's eyes glowing red, we both shoot.

The Man:

Ducking under a parademon's swing, I run forward and stab the parademon in the chest with my sword. Quickly pulling it out, I hear snarling coming from behind and turn. Blocking with one of my swords, I hit the parademon in its leg and force it down. Spinning around, I slice the down parademon.

Not having enough time to catch my breath, I jump out of the way as a 23rd parademon swings at me.

Its sharp claws going wild, I pull out pellets and throw them. Landing in the parademon's mouth, I watch as they explode and the parademon falls back.

"Tell about spicy," I say, looking around as more and more parademons jump on. "Okay. That's enough! Unless any of these parademons can load cannons, then I don't want them on my ship."

Slicing my way through a few more parademons, I make my way to the Rusted's control. About to reset her shield, I stop when I see Superman not too far in the distance. He and Darkseid are locked in a dual of laser visions, and it looks like he is losing.

"I owe you a favor for saving us," I think, resetting the Rusted's shield. They take a few seconds to recharge before coming back online and stopping any more parademons from boarding. "And I hate owing favors."

Once the crew finishes the rest of the parademons, I scream from the bridge.

"Hold on," I order, putting the thrusters at near full power. Entering ramming speed, I sail right into Darkseid. The Rusted's bowsprit hits Darkseid, he clings onto it at first before sliding off.

"Ahoy, Flyboy," I say, waving at Superman as I sail past him. "This makes us even from before."

Darkseid:

"What is that," I say, shaking my head as I watch the strange spacecraft fly away. I'm about to shoot my omega beams and destroy the spacecraft but before I can, I turn around.

My first wave of parademons is defeated. Their bodies are floating all over space. If I stay, I will have to fight Superman and the green lanterns by myself.

"I will come back," I say, pulling from my belt a remote control. Pushing a button, I call forth a boom tube and enter.

Superman:

"Coward," I say, watching as Darkseid enters a boom tube and vanishes. With the parademons defeated, I look toward the man in sunglasses and his flying pirate ship.

"Kara is most likely on that thing," I think, looking back. "I can attack now. There aren't any green lanterns around, and I still have a lot of beta fliers."

I think it over, before turning and flying away.

Supergirl:

Watching as Kal-El flies away, his beta fliers following after him, I turn to The Man.

"Superman isn't attacking," I told him. "Why isn't he attacking us, and why did he help us before? And why did you help him just now?"

"Because I hate owing favor," The Man replies. "As for the first three questions, I can't really answer these."

The Man turns to look at Kal-El as he soon disappears from sight, his fliers also disappearing one after the other.

"Whatever the reasons," he says, "I'm thankful, and so is the Rusted. We've taken one heck of a beating, and really need to catch our breath. Come on. Back to Oa."

Still staring into space, I nod my head and stand beside The Man as he steers the ship back to Oa. Stopping in front of the planetary's shield, Laria and Arisa fly off and start to chant.

"What's going on," The Man says, looking at Laria and Arisa and then at me.

"What," I ask. "What's up?"

"Oa's planetary shield," he says. "It's down."

"Wait, what? What do you mean by Oa's shield is down?"

Before The Man could answer, green chains wrap around both Arisa and Laria. The chains pull them into the grip of other green lanterns, and the one ordering them is Tomar Re.

"Laria," he yells, floating right in front of their faces. "Arisia. What did you two do?"

"What are you talking about," Arisia screams, struggling to break free.

"The planetary's shield," Tomar Re screams. "The entire fate of green lantern corps. The central battery. It's down, and we have proof it was you two."

Harleen:

"What," I scream, lending over the ship's railing. "Hey, Fish-Face. Get the barnacles out of your ears, would you?"

"Be quiet," Tomar-Re says, looking at Harleen, "And be thankful I'm here, and not Kilowog."

"Believe me," Sunglasses says as he approaches the railing with me. "We are."

"No, we're not," I yell, now turning to look at Sunglasses. "We're not thankful. No. No, we are not. Come on guys, help me out here. Help them out. Tell them. Listen, Fish-Face, whatever proof you have, it can't be real. Both Arisia and Laria were with us the whole time. I don't know if you notice or not, but there was kind of something going on right above your head, Fish-Face."

"There was something going on down here as well," Tomar-Re replies, "Someone tampered with our green lantern battery. It's not working properly."

"That can't be right," Arisia says, "If the green lantern battery isn't working, then our rings shouldn't work."

"The battery is working," Tomar-Re corrects, "Our rings still have power, but just barely. The battery isn't working at full power. There isn't enough to spare for the planetary's shield, and without a shield."

"Oa is vulnerable," Sunglasses finishes.

Turning around for a quick second, I try to hit Sunglasses on his head but he grabs my hand.

"Please don't," he says, before letting go of me. I eye the bastard as I turn back around.

"What," I scream, almost jumping off when I see Tomar-Re leaves with Arisia and Laria. "Quick, prepare the rower. Lower the oars. Raise the black flags."

"What the heck are you saying," The Man asks. "Do you actually know what any of these mean?"

"More or less," I reply. "Prepare the rowers. Lower the oars. Raise the black flag."

"The Rusted doesn't have any oars, hence no rowers. And as for the black flag. Well."

The Man points to the top of the tallest sail. I have to squint my eyes but I think there's already a flag up there.

"The black flag has already risen," The Man says. "It has risen since departing Earth. I really should get a different color flag though. That's hard to see."

"Hey Sunglasses," I say, slapping my hands in front of him. "You can go shopping later. What are we going to do about Arisia and Laria?"

"Yeah," Oliver says, "And about Oa? You heard the fish guy. Without the battery, Oa is vulnerable."

"Oa's planetary shield may be down," The Man answers, "But it's not vulnerable. Mogo can keep watch."

We all turn toward Mogo as he stays right where he is.

"Speaking of Mogo," Leonard says, "Why didn't the big guy help us out early? We could use a beam or two back when those parademons were attacking."

"He must have been ordered not to assist," Hal answers. "Not unless Oa is under attack."

"At least he's not attacking us," Reverse-Flash says.

"Right," The Man says with a nod of his head. "Everyone. Brace yourself. We're heading for Oa's surface. Fast."

"Finally," I say, shaking my head as I walk over to a cannon and hug it.

Arisia:

"I have them," Tomar-Re says as he gently places us down in front of the Guardians. Back in the meeting chamber, Laria and Arisia look around at all our fellow green lanterns. Despite most of them standing in the shadow, I can still see their angry faces. Their eyes are filled with red and their teeth are grinding against each other. I hear a lot of whispering.

"Traitors," someone says.

"I can't believe what they did," someone else says, "Are they idiots?"

"What are they even here? Let's just take their rings off and throw them in a cell."

I try my best to ignore the green lanterns. Instead, I focus on the Guardians as they appear, each of them standing before us.

"Arisia," Ranakar starts, "Laria. You are being accused of tampering with our central battery."

"That's not possible," Laria says, but Ranakar cuts her off.

"Silence," he yells. "There is no point in saying anything. We have undeniable proof it was the two of you. Tomar-Re, show them."

Tomar-Re stepping forward, he rises his ring and shows everyone some footage.

"This is from a short while ago," Tomar-Re says, the footage switching to the central battery. We watch as the battery is glowing bright and shoots a beam through the ceiling, the planetary shield staying strong. A few moments later, I see myself sneaking into the room with the battery.

"What," I say. "That can't be right. That can't be me. That isn't me."

"Liar," someone says.

We all watch as I ran toward the battery. Looking around, making sure I'm alone, I then placed something on the battery and left. Whatever I placed on the battery, it caused the battery's glow to lower and the beam to stop.

The video stops and Tomar-Re lowers his hand.

"We investigated the battery shortly afterward," Tomar-Re says, "And found some sort of device on it."

A green lantern steps forth, he is carrying some sort of silver and orange device, the thing floating in a bubble in front of him.

"Judging by its content," Tomar-Re goes on, "This is some sort of energy siphon. It siphoned power directly from the battery, draining it. Luckily for us, given its small size, it wasn't able to absorb all the power. That is why we green lanterns still have power."

"I have never seen anything like that before," I say.

Everyone ignores me. Even Ganthet. He isn't even looking at Laria or me. He had his head down.

"I can't believe it," I think, "I just can't believe it anymore. This isn't the green lantern corps I've heard about. This isn't a place of justice or hope. Maybe once it was, but it's not anymore."

I look down at my ring. My ring's glow is slowly fading. It's trying to stay on, but it can't. I can't keep it up anymore. I lost the will.

"Take off their rings," someone yells.

"Take off their rings," someone else repeats, "They don't deserve them."

"Leave us alone," Laria says. She clutches her hand and summons walls to surround us. "Don't you dare come near us."

Without any hesitance, the green lanterns in the room fire and immediately break down Laria's wall.

"Give it up," I say, looking at Laira. "There's no point anymore."

"That's a bad thing to say," an unfamiliar voice says.

"What," I say, looking around as, this time, blue walls appear around us and shield us. Looking at the walls, I then look up and see someone floating in through the roof. He is a tall alien with white skin and two long antennas. He looks like a green lantern but instead of the color green, his uniform and ring are blue.

"Hello green lanterns," the alien says, "Hello Guardians of Oa. I believe this is the first time we have ever met. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Saint Walker, the first and currently, only blue lantern."

Saint Walker:

As I enter the room from the ceiling, I see many green lanterns aiming their rings at me. Their rings are glowing brightly in the dark room.

"Hmm," I think, "This was not the greeting I was hoping for. Then again, I was not expecting this."

As I look down, I see two green lanterns tied up and on their knees. Using my ring of hope, I construct walls to protect them. However, I am left defenseless.

"Saint Walker," one of the Guardians repeats, "Uhh, hello. Welcome to Oa. Home of the Green Lanterns."

I smile and nod my head.

"Hello," I say, "And thank you."

I turn my head back to the green lanterns as they keep their rings train on me.

"Please," I start, "Do not judge me for what I am about to do."

"What?"

Moving fast, I aim my ring at the floor and fire. A ball of pure blue energy shoots out, it hits and unleashes a powerful, blinding blue flash. The green lanterns all scream as they step back and fire their rings. Having to fly around and dodge all their attacks, I look at the two.

"Arisia," I say, "Laria. Follow me."

With my walls turning into a sphere, I carry the two out of the room.

"Hey, uh," Arisia starts, "You know our names?"

"Of course I do," I reply.

"How," Laria asks. "I don't think we've ever met before."

"I was told," I say.

"By who?"

Wanting to answer them, I stop when I see green lanterns flying out of the meeting room. Stopping and hiding behind a building, I grab Laria's and Arisia's hands and pull them back.

"I will tell you later," I whisper, "But for now, I suggest we find friendlier grounds. Is there a place we can hide?"

The two look at each other before nodding.

"It's not exactly hiding," Arisia says, "But it's the friendlier place we know recently. Come on. This way."

I check around the corner before waving at the two. Once it's clear, we fly away.

The Man:

"Come on," Harleen screams, looking like an annoying little kid as she jumps up and down while holding the railing. "Come on! Faster! Faster! Can you move any faster?"

"That depends," I reply from the Rusted's bridge as I adjust the landing angle. "Do you think Oa needs a crater the size of Gotham City?"

Slowing her descent as we approach Oa's surface, I thank the Rusted before opening her ramp. Even before the ramp hits the solid surface, Harleen is already running down it.

"Come on," she says, drawing her guns. "The sooner we get to Arisia and Laria, the sooner we can-."

Stopping dead in her track, the bottom of her shoes skidding against the ground, I can see all the way from the Rusted her eyeballs popping out of their sockets. As I look around, everyone's eyes are out of their sockets. I can't blame them. Even I'm a little surprised.

"Saint Walker," I say, stepping off the ramp as I see Saint Walker flying side-by-side with Arisia and Laria. "A pleasure to see you again."

I bow my head when I see the old bastard again.

"Apologies," Saint Walker says as he lands, "But do I know you?"

"My name is," I say.

"I'm sorry," Saint Walker says, "But I didn't-."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Harleen says, cutting him off. "He does that. You get used to it. Kind of. Sort of. Not really. Anyway, what happened to you two? What happened to Fish-Face? Oh, if I ever see that guy again, it'll be right before a barbecue."

"Okay," I say, patting Harleen's shoulder. "Before you go busting out my grill, how about we tried and learn what happened exactly?"

"So what did happen exactly," Kara asks. "I mean, the green lantern mentioned something about proof. Did you see what the proof is?"

"We did," Arisia answers, "But I just can't understand it. It can't be real."

"What is she talking about," Dinah asks.

"The proof we saw," Laria says, taking over. "It was a video, recorded footage."

"Of what," I ask.

"Of Arisia tampering with the battery. Draining the power from it and rendering Oa defenseless only a few moments ago."

As soon as Laria finishes explaining, we all look at each other with question marks above our heads.

"Yeah," Oliver says, the first to change from a question mark to a period. "I don't get it."

"Either do I," Jaime adds.

"How can that be possible," the Professor says. "A few moments ago, you two were with us."

"Don't tell them," Hal says, "Tell the Guardians."

"The Guardians won't listen," Arisia says, "Or the green lanterns. It's time we face it. The green lanterns are a lost cause."

All our eyes shoot out of our sockets once more when we see Arisia pulls off her green lantern ring. Her white and green uniform disappears and her green glow vanishes. Now, she's wearing a blue shirt and skirt.

"What," Hal says, pushing his way through the rest of us. "Arisia, what are you talking about? Arisia? Hey! Listen to me!"

Grabbing Arisia, Hal shakes her but she doesn't respond. Instead, her face just stays facing the ground.

"Arisia," Hal yells. "Come on! Snap out of it!"

"That's enough," Harleen says, getting in between Arisia and Hal. "She's not a ragdoll. Stop shaking her."

"Harleen," Hal says, "This doesn't concern you. Get out of my way."

On the verge of fighting, either with words or fists, they both stop when Arisia moves. She walks toward me and looks at me. I look back at her and nod my head. Raising my hand, I open my palm and Arisia drops her ring onto it.

"Go and rest in your room," I say.

Arisia falls back down as she turns and walks back toward the Rusted. However, only three steps in, a green beam hits and knocks her to the ground.

All of us turning around, we see Kilowog and a few other green lanterns approaching us.

"I knew you two would return here," the bastard says, aiming his ring at us. "A bad place to hide, don't you think?"

"No," I say, "It's not."

I turn toward everyone.

"All of you," I say, waving my arm. "Back to the Rusted."

"What about you," Cold says, "And him? Is he friend or foe?"

"Saint Walker and I can handle them," I say. "Right?"

"Of course," Saint Walker answers, nodding his head. "Let's go."

Harleen and Selina grab Arisia and the three of them and everyone else run toward the Rusted. Meanwhile, Saint Walker and I turn to face the dozen of green lanterns.

"Are you sure you can fight," Saint Walker asks as he flies into the air, glowing blue.

I look down at my hand. Arisia's ring is still there.

"Don't worry," I say, closing my hand. "I can sense the will still in Arisia. It's weak, but it's still there. She's feeling down, but she just needs a little spark. A little bit of blue."

I place the ring gently in my pocket before reaching for another ring.

"I hold onto you until later. For now, I'll have to use this ring."

Pulling out a red ring, I can hear everyone gasping. Even Saint Walker is shocked at the sight of a red ring.

"Quite an active day for eyeballs," I think as I pull on the red ring. An eruption of red energy happens the second I put the ring on, I sent the green lanterns flying back. Meanwhile, I feel the ring's power begin to overthrow me.

I feel the anger pouring out from the ring as it covers my jacket and pants. I feel the rage as it climbs onto my face and covers my head.

"What have you done," Saint Walker asks as the transformation finishes.

"Relax," I say, looking myself over while in red lantern armor. "I know how to handle my anger. Besides, I'm always angry, hence an expert."

The Man with the Red Lantern Ring:

I focus my rage and shoot out my ring. A solid, bright-red shooting out, it hits the ground and forms a staircase. Pulling back my ring, I run up the stairs, with Saint Walker following after me.

"This cannot be right," Saint Walker says as he flies beside me. "My blue ring should cancel out your red ring, and yet, you're running on a staircase made from rage. By the way, why are you running? I do not want to be rude, but you do know those with rings, whether they be blue, red, or green, can fly. Right?"

"Of course I know that," I say, reaching the top of the stairs. As I step foot onto the final step, I see Kilowog and his band of idiotic green lanterns charging toward us. Despite the ring of rage on my finger, it seems Kilowog is angrier.

The second he can, he shoots out his green ring and fires a green beam. The green beam heading for us, I form a red staff and swing it. Hitting and redirecting the green beam, we all watch as it shoots into the sky before disappearing.

The green lanterns surround Saint Walker and me. They hover in the air and aim their rings at us. As they prepare to shoot, I see everyone except me glowing brighter. It seems like more energy is emitting from them than usual.

"Your ring is giving them extra fuel," I say. "You do know they're also trying to bring you down. Right?"

"It is not my fault," Saint Walker replies, staring at his ring. "My ring is powered by hope, and apparently, was designed to add extra power to the green lantern rings."

"Awesome," I say, "My partner is supercharging the same green lanterns that want to destroy us. Maybe I should have asked Kara instead of you."

"Fire," Kilowog screams, he and all the other lanterns shooting. Grabbing Saint Walker, I swing my hand and turn the staircase into sands. Dropping down, the lanterns all accidentally hit and knocks each other around.

Landing on my feet, I let go of Saint Walker and run.

"I got Kilowog and those two. You handle those three."

I channel my rage into another staff and stab one end into the ground. The staff bending, it launches me into the air as it straightens itself and I shoot out my feet, hitting Kilowog.

Laria:

"No way," I say, looking back after reaching the Rusted. "That can't be."

"What," a young Earthling asks, stopping beside me. "What are you looking at? Oh, no way. Hey Professor, are you seeing this?"

The young Earthling grabs the arm of another Earthling, this one appears to be a little older than he is.

"My word," the elderly Earthling says. "He, The Man, is using a red lantern ring. That's amazing."

"Amazing," the young Earthling repeats. "It's bad."

"Well, yes, it is bad, but clearly, he seems to be handling it quite well. That man, The Man, he obviously knows more about the many lantern rings than other of us."

"He does," I think to myself, watching as The Man battles the green lanterns. A green beam hitting the spaceship shakes it and almost knocks the three of us down.

"Come on," I say, grabbing the two and carrying them in.

The Man:

Screaming as I jump into the air, I raise my ax before swinging it down and destroying the wall. The wall crumbling before us, I kick the green lantern back before turning around. I turn the ax into a sword and rise it.

Kilowog screams as he charges toward me. Swinging down a giant green hammer, I block and hold it back.

Our weapons scratching against each other as we push, Kilowog starts to split in my face.

"Give them back," Kilowog yells, "Give the traitors back!"

"Piss off, big-and-ugly," I reply, "They're with us now, meaning they're under our protection!"

Kilowog pulls back his arm and tries to punch me but I jump back.

"Let's see how much protect those two from this," Kilowog screams, slamming the end of his hammer into the ground. Green energy shooting through the ground toward me, I rise my arm and form a red shield. Slamming the shield into the ground, I block all the energy.

"I seem to be doing fine," I say, getting back up. "Now, it's my turn."

The shield fading from my hand, I focus my rage into the ring and then punch the ground. Like Kilowog, red energy shoots through the ground toward Kilowog. Despite Kilowog flying into the air, he couldn't get away. The red energy bursts and the shockwave sent him flying away.

"One down," I say, turning around to see more green lanterns flying toward the Rusted, with Tomar-Re leading them. "20 more to go. Joy."

Saint Walker:

Spinning through the air, I land on my feet and shoot out my ring. A blue beam shooting out, it wraps itself around the green lantern. Before he can break out of it, I pull and swing him into his fellow lantern.

"Apologize," I say, putting my hands together and bowing my head, "But I do believe I was left with little choice."

"Hey bastich," someone yells from up above. Looking up, I see a green lantern on a flying motorcycle. This green lantern had very pale skin and long black hair. Also, he seems to be smoking at the moment. "Listen up here buddy. I have no clue who you are but considering you're fighting with that guy over there, it's possibly safe to assume you're no friend of us green lanterns. So, suck to be you."

Holding out his hand, a blaster forms right in it. Shooting, I swing my hand and summon a wall to protect me. However, this lantern must be strong. His attack goes right through my wall, breaking it and hitting me.

The Man:

"Saint Walker," I say, seeing the blue guy skidding against the ground. Turning back to the lantern in front of me, I watch as he swings his sword and cuts my staff.

My staff breaking into two, I jump to the side as the lantern steps forward and tries to slice me. Seeing an opening, I hit the back of his knee with my baton. Screaming as he falls back, I knock him out with a quick baton to the head.

"Don't make this any harder than it already is," Tomar-Re says, shooting a claw at me. Throwing one of my batons as the claw, I send it flying to the ground. Tomar-Re had no choice but to pull it back. "Just give us Arisia and Laria. They need to be put on trial."

"Yeah," I say, looking at the other green lanterns as they land beside Tomar-Re and step toward me. "They need to be put on trial? They need to be in a room filled with people that already decided their outcome? They need to be judged and harass without even a chance to say what they have to say? Yeah, pass."

"This is not up for debate," Tomar-Re says.

"Just give it up already," Garnder says, landing beside me.

"Oh you know," Lobo says, stepping forward. "You can keep fighting. I wouldn't mind that."

He smiles as he bangs a crowbar against his hand.

As the green lanterns approach me, I look at the baton still in my hand.

"Fine then," I say, smiling. "You guys can keep fighting, but not us."

Moving fast, before any of them could shoot me, I wind up and throw my baton high into the air.

"What was that," Garnder asks, looking at the baton and then at me. "A distraction? It's a bad distraction. You're still surrounded."

"Bull-yah," I say, watching as a shadow looms over Garnder. Garnder noticing the shadow looks up, only to see the belly of a fallen bull.

"What the-," Garnder says, changing target. He fires but it isn't enough. My red bull not only flattens Garnder but also draws the attention of the surrounding lanterns.

They scream and fly back as my bull charges toward them. However, as my bull runs, it creates a path underneath its feet. Charging right into the air, it knocks a few lanterns around. While Booyah the Bull deals with the green lanterns, I grab Saint Walker and carry him toward the Rusted.

While carrying Saint Walker, he wakes up.

"Uh," he moans, blinking a few times. "Where are you taking me?"

"As much as I hate to say it," I say, "And I really hate to say this. We're getting off Oa."

The Man:

Running up the ramp, Saint Walker still in my arms, I reach the main deck and gently throw him into the arms of Jaime and Jason.

"Get him to the Doc," I order, "And while you two are down there, tell him to hold on for dear life."

Jaime and Jason don't even bother to say anything. They nod their heads and quickly leave. Meanwhile, I run to the bridge. As I run, I see my red bull charging and galloping. It's knocking green lanterns around and drawing all their attention.

The second I can, I activate the Rusted's thrusters. I can hear the thrusters roaring as they shoot out flames.

"Prepare for immediate take-off," I shout. It takes only a few seconds before the thrusters start to push the Rusted and she starts to sail.

Guy Garnder:

Screaming as the man with the red ring's crazy bull knocks me back, I hit and bounce off the ground. Holding my chest as I look at the crazy beast, I see the strange pirate ship taking off. There are dozens of rockest behind it, pushing it into the sky.

"Oh no you don't," I say, focusing my will and taking off. "Lobo! Tomar-Re! You two with me. Now! The rest of you, put that damn, rabid animal down!"

Lobo and Tomar-Re follow after me and the three of us chase after the ship.

Harleen:

As the Rusted flies through the sky, I look over the railing and see some green dots heading for us.

"Incoming," I yell, pointing at the dots.

Even before anyone can react, the green dots reach us and I see some familiar and ugly faces.

"Bring that ship down," Bowl HairCut says. He along with Butt-Ugly and Fish-Face aim their rings at the Rusted. They fire and hit the shield, the shield turning red.

"Return fire," The Man shouts. Right away, Leonard, Oliver, and even Supergirl join me at the railing. We all fire back but the green lanterns fly around and dodge them. I watch as Butt-Ugly and Bowl Haircut fly down and disappear, leaving only Fish-Face.

Fish-Face screams as he shoots out his arm and unleashes a giant green beam. The Rusted's shield manages to withstand the green beam, but as the beam dispenses, something else starts to happen. The Rusted starts to tilt.

Lobo:

"Smart thinking," I say, smiling as Garnder and I use our rings to grab the ship and turn it over.

"Yeah," Garnder replies, "The problem with pirate ship. They have no cover."

Laughing, I summon a giant hand and grab the ship. Some sort of shield appears and stops my hand. So instead, I grab and shield and turn it over.

"Enjoy the fall, bastich."

The Man:

"Oh no," I say as the entire Rusted starts to tilt over.

My feet already sliding off the floor, I readjust myself and grab the Rusted's wheel. The Rusted is still tilting so I have to move fast.

"Hold on," I yell, "Everyone! Hold on to something now!"

As soon as I said those words, the whole ship tilts and falls to her side. Like the Rusted herself, we all start to fall as well. Sliding against the floor, I grab the railing before I can fall off the side. Looking toward the others as they claw at the floor and try to hold on, I run along the railing and jump.

"I got you," I say, grabbing Flash's hand. Flash looks up at me as I pull out a sword and stab the Rusted's deck. "Yeah, yeah, don't get carried away. As much as I have no problem seeing you fall, I do have a problem with a sad Iris."

"Hang on," Ivy yells, shooting out one of her arms and a vine appears. The vine grabs the railing and Ivy grabs Cat. Cat seeing Canary about to fall uses her whip and grabs her foot.

"I regret sending two of our fliers away," I say as I see Reverse and Cheetah still sliding. However, Oliver slides ahead of Reverse and uses one of his arrows to pin Reverse to the floor. Meanwhile, just as Cheetah reaches the railing and lends over, Kara catches her.

"Is that everyone," Kara asks, looking around.

"No," a dangling Flash yells. "Arisia."

All of us look at Arisia as she falls off the side.

"She doesn't have her ring," I say, "She can't fly."

"I'm on it," Kara yells.

"No," Harleen shouts, jumping off herself. "I'm on it! Fix the ship!"

Diving through the sky, Harleen falls after Arisia.

"Laria," I say, seeing Laria as she flies around. "Kara. You two need to go under and flip the Rusted around. We'll be fine here."

Kara nods her head and drops Cheetah off with Flash and me. She then flies around with Laria.

"I hope you're all comfortable because we're going to be like this for a while."

Laria:

As Supergirl and I fly around the turned-over ship, we see Lobo and Garnder pushing the ship. Immediately, Supergirl fires at Garnder and sends him back. I charge toward Lobo with a spear in my hand but he sees and blocks me.

"Well, well, well," Lobo says, grinning as he pushes back. "Ain't it the traitor? At least, one of them. Where's your friend?"

"You got the wrong person," I say, pushing forward. "We didn't do anything."

"The video says otherwise," Lobo says, raising his foot and stomping me back. "Then again, the video could be wrong. Who knows? Who cares?"

Lobo holds out his hand and a shotgun appears in it.

Harleen:

I can hear the air as it shoots past my ears. I can feel the wind as it dries my eyes. As much as I want to rub my eyes, I can't. I stay as straight as a pencil. Diving through the air, I see Arisia. Strangely, as Arisia is falling, she seems very calm. She isn't panicking or swinging her arms. Instead, her arms are on her chest and her eyes are closed.

"Arisia," I yell, trying to grab her attention. "Arisia! Come on! Wakey, wakey!"

I can see the ground behind Arisia getting closer and closer. As the ground approach, I check my suit.

"Come on," I say, shaking my belt and slapping my wrist. "Come on. Where are you? Where are you? Come on. Think Harleen. Think. What did you do before?"

Trying my hardest as I think back, I replay what happened.

"Fly," I yell, "Fly! What, can I fly now?"

"Flight command initializes," the same computerized voice says as brightly silver boots appear. Fire shooting out of the boots, I hold out my arm and fly like Supergirl. Flying toward Arisia, I reach out and grab her hand before she could fly any further.

"Hey," I say, shaking Arisia as she dangles. "Hey, I don't know about your homeworld, but on Earth, where I come from, when someone saved you from becoming a stain on the ground, you normally say thank you. Is that not a thing on other planets?"

Arisia doesn't say anything at first. She just stares at the ground. I shake Arisia again and this time, she looks up at me with tear-filled eyes. She then says something I can't understand.

"What?"

Once again, Arisia says something but I can't understand her.

"What are you, wait. Your ring! Your green lantern ring. It acts as a translator. Shoot. I can't understand you, and I guess you can't understand me."

Arisia says something but I ignore it and pull her up. Now, she's standing on my feet, and her face is inches from mine.

"Come on. Let goes back. Before something else happens."

I point upward and Arisia nods her head. I wrap my hands around Arisia and start to fly back up. However, the universe must have heard me because as the two of us fly up, a green wall appears and blocks us.

Looking around, I see Fish-Face hovering near us.

"I know how this sounds," Fish-Face says, "But listen to me. We're not trying to fight you. We're not trying to fight any of you. We just want Arisia and Laria. They need to be put on trial for what they've done."

"Yeah," I say slowly, looking at Arisia as she starts to gasp. "No."

I rise my hand and a pistol appears.

The Man:

"Why couldn't you have just built a normal spaceship," Flash complains as I throw him onto a railing with Cheetah. "Normal spaceships have roofs. They have ceilings. Pirate ships don't."

Jumping and landing on the railing with the two of them, I look at Flash.

"Shut up you," I say. Turning back, I run along the railing until I'm back at the bridge. Looking up, I see the Rusted's wheel. "Hope this works."

Taking a giant leap, I jump from the railing and toward the wheel. Grabbing the wheel and landing on the post it's attached to, I start to make as many adjustments as possible.

"I have to reset the Rusted's stabilizers," I start, adjusting the wheel while flipping over some levers. I look toward the main mast as it starts to blink between green and red. "I then have to fix the artificial gravity and restart the thrusters."

Carefully climbing so I don't fall, I check the gauges.

"The shield also needs to be restarted, and the atmosphere generator is losing power. I should be able to fix everything from here. At least, long enough for us to escape."

I grab and turn over a few more levers. Once the levers are flipped, I move to push some buttons. After pushing the final button, I turn a dial and look back at the main mast. The main mast stop blinking and stay green.

"Not exactly my favorite color at the moment."

"Hey," someone screams, "Hello! Can you hear me?"

"Now is a bad time, Doc," I say after grabbing the radio. "What is it?"

"What is going on up there," the Doc yells, "I'm standing on a wall."

"I suggest getting your feet back on the floor in a few seconds."

Ending the call and putting the radio back, I look at all the gauges as they turn green and show stable readings. With one pull of the wheel, the Rusted turns right side up. I can hear the sighs of everyone as they stay flat on the floor.

"Is everyone alright," I yell. Everyone looks at me and I shake my head. "Yeah, yeah, minus almost falling off the Rusted, is everyone alright?"

"We're fine," Oliver yells, bringing up a shaking thumb-up.

"Speak for yourself," Reverse-Flash whines, "I think I threw up in my mouth."

"As long as it's not on my ship," I say, walking over to the railing. "It's fine."

I look over and see Kara and Laria in a fight against Lobo and Garnder. As I watch, I feel the red ring shakes.

"My bull," I say, no longer sensing its presence. I lower my head and close my eyes. "Thanks for the help."

A moment of silence passed and I open my eyes. Looking past Kara and Laria, I try to find Harleen and Arisia but I don't see them anywhere.

"We can't leave Oa," I think, "Kara and Laria can survive space but not Harleen and a ringless Arisia. Come on. Come on. Where are you two idiots?"

Harleen:

Screaming as Fish-Face conjures something like a fly swatter and uses it to hit us, I wrap my arms around Arisia and shield her. The fly swatter sends me flying away but I manage to steady myself. Shooting out my hand, I conjure my own weapon.

"Hey Fish-Face," I yell, "Want to see how I fish?"

I squeeze the trigger and shoot bullets at Fish-Face. However, Fish-Face swings his hand and summons a bubble. The bubble protects Fish-Face as my bullets bounce off.

"Okay," I say after hearing nothing but a clicking sound. "I need a new weapon. First parademons and now Fish-Face. This is getting ridiculous."

"None of your weapons can hurt me," Fish-Face says as he hovers toward us. "Give me Arisia and Laria and I will-."

Shooting out my hand again, my pistol switches to a giant hammer. I slam the giant hammer against Fish-Face's bubble and it knocks him back. As he shakes and recovers from my swing, I change weapon again.

"Sorry about interrupting you," I say, my hammer changing to a pie. "But we have a ship to catch."

There, on the top of the pie, is a cherry. I grip the cherry's stem with my teeth and pull. A fuse sparking, I throw the pie at Fish-Face and fly up. Despite not seeing it, I can clearly hear an explosion and then Fish-Face screaming.

"I loved cherry pies," I say, smiling as I see the ship. "Hold on. We're almost there."

Looking back at Arisia, I see her sniffling as she places her head against my chest.

"Hold on," I say again, "We're almost there."

The Man:

"I see them," Oliver says, jumping up and down like a kid as he points over the side of the Rusted. Looking at where he's pointing, I see Harleen holding Arisia as she flies through the sky. Oliver pulls out an arrow and shoots it at the pair. The arrow bursts into a net that capture the two. The second they're captured, Flash, Oliver, and I pull them in.

"We could've done without the net," Harleen screams as she tries to pull it off.

"Complain later," I say, grabbing and pulling the net off. "Brace now. We're leaving Oa."

"Finally," Dinah says.

"Wait, what," Oliver asks. "We're leaving?"

"We're leaving," Hal repeats. "No. We can't leave."

"We're leaving only temporarily," I say, running to the wheel. Grabbing it and activating the thrusters, I use the red ring to summon a megaphone.

"Kara," I yell, "Laria! Get back here now!"

The megaphone turns to red dust, I stop everything when I see a bright-green glow high in the sky.

Supergirl:

Screaming as I punch Garnder across the face, I then use my super breath to blow him away. While he rolls away through the air, I see Laria using a rope to tied Lobo before blasting him away.

"Come on," I say, Laria and I flying back up. After hearing the man and seeing the thrusters come on, we race back onto the Rusted.

"Hold on," The Man says as soon as Laria and I land on the bridge. The second we do, the thrusters shoot, and the Rusted flies through the sky. Everything turns into a blur as the Rusted flies, and in only a matter of seconds, we're in space.

"Big trouble," Selina says as we enter space. "Really, really big trouble!"

Selina points toward Mogo as he starts to power up. There is green energy gathering in front of him, and any second now, he would fire.

"Get us out of here," Harleen screams. "Before Mogo shoots!"

"No time," The Man shouts, jumping off the bridge. Landing in the center, surrounded by everyone, he pushes his way through until he reaches the stairs.

"Beetle," he yells at the stars. "Firestorm. Where are you two?"

"We're here," Blue Beetle says as he and Firestorm run up.

"Do you have it," The Man asks. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah," Beetle says, "But why did you ask for his ring?"

Beetle pulls out the blue lantern's blue ring. Holding it out, The Man grabs it.

"Because I'm going to need more than one ring to shield us," The Man answers.

Once more, he pushes his way through the crowd and makes it to the front of the ship. There, he stands facing Mogo, with the blue ring in his hand.

"Wait," Laria says, stepping up. "Is he going to do what I think he's going to do? No. There's no way."

"But I think he is," Hal says, also stepping forward. "I think he really is going to do it."

We all watch as The Man puts on the blue lantern ring while still wearing his red lantern ring. As he puts the ring on, blue energy erupts and sends all of us back.

"Sorry about that," The Man says, turning back to us.

"What the hell," Laria says, looking at The Man as he wears both blue and red rings. The Man is wearing the stone armor of the red lantern, but the stone armor is covered by blue armor.

"I would slap you for swearing," The Man says, "But I'm busy at the moment. Everyone, hold on!"

Just as Mogo fires a beam of green will, The Man unleashes a blast of red and blue energy.

The Man:

I feel the rage and hope from both the red and blue rings pouring through. The powers from them spiral together and form a protective bubble around the Rusted just as Mogo fires and a massive surge of green energy hit her. Without both of these rings, the blast would have destroyed us all. However, it still knocks all of us down.

"Hold on," I yell, crushing my teeth as I push back. "Everyone, just hold on!"

I'm sweating as I step forward. I clench my fist and feel my fingernails dig deep into the palm of my hand.

"Just a little more," I tell myself, taking a step despite Mogo's will to push me back. As I take a step forward, I see cracks start to appear all over the blue and red bubble. Green energy flows through them and begins to attack the Rusted's shield. Her shields are flashing red.

"Come on," I yell, scratching the skin off my palm. "I can do this."

"So can I," Laria screams, running to my side. Looking at me, Laria copies my pose and shoots out her green ring. Green energy shoots out and hits my red and blue bubbles. Not only did she seals the cracks but also adds another layer of protection. Altogether, with three rings, we withstand Mogo's attack. As Mogo's beam dies down, Laria falls but I catch her in time. Falling right into my arms, I kneel down.

"Hey," I say, pushing a strand of hair out of the way. "Thanks for the help. You okay?"

"I'm fine," Laria moans while smiling. "Just a little tired."

"Awesome," I say, looking at Mogo. Mogo may have pushed us back quite a way but we're still within range for another attack. Already, I can see Mogo powering himself up. Green energy is flowing from his ring into the circle in front of him.

I place Laria against the railing and run.

Supergirl:

I see The Man gently place Laria against the ship's railing before leaving her. He runs and jumps over a few people before running up the stairs and grabbing the ship's wheel. I fly into the air before landing beside him.

"What are you doing," I ask.

"I'm turning the Rusted around," The Man starts, "And we're running away. Well, actually, we're sailing away."

He throws the wheel and steps back. We watch as the wheel spins, the whole thing turning into a blur. The Rusted fully turns around in only a matter of seconds. Once it does, The Man grabs the wheel again and pulls a lever. I hear the thrusters in the back turn on and launch us away.

Superman:

When I hear the doors open, I turn away from the window and face both Diana and Black Adam.

"Superman," Diana says, "We have something to tell you."

"What is it," I ask.

"According to our spy on Oa, the man in the sunglasses, along with the entire Insurgency, have left the Green Lantern Corps."

"What? When? Why?"

"Apparently, it was because of two other green lanterns. They were put on trial for tampering with the Corps's center battery. Before they two could be tried, however, they escaped and flee with the Insurgency. Some green lanterns did try to stop them, but it was no use."

"Superman," Black Adam says, stepping forward. "This is the opportunity we have been waiting for. The Insurgency is no longer on Oa. We can--."

"Wait, wait, wait," I say, cutting Black Adam off. "What do you mean by tampering with the Corp's center battery?"

Harleen:

"What do you mean by we're stranded," Flash yell as The Man gives the blue ring back to Beetle and Firestorm. The three of them nod their heads before walking down below deck to give that new alien his ring back. Meanwhile, The Man, who is still wearing a red ring, bends down to grab a toolbox.

"I mean what I've said," he answers, looking right at Flash. "There's a reason why I very rarely put the thrusters on full power. The thrusters at constant full power will cause them to clog with soot. They also burn through the Rusted's fuel reserve. Luckily, I still have plenty of fuel left."

"So now what," Oliver asks as he helps Reverse-Flash to his feet. "We're stranded in space, floating on a boat."

"Ship," The Man yells, "The Rusted is a ship. Not a boat. Why is this so hard to remember?"

"What Robin Hood is asking," I say, "Is now what are we going to do?"

"Simple," The Man replies. Using the red ring still on his finger, he blasts the floor in front of him and forms a step. Stepping onto it, he forms some more steps and walk on top of them.

"I'll fix the thrusters," he starts, "There shouldn't be too much soot since we weren't on full power for very long. While I do, I ask that all of you check around the ship. Make sure everything is working the way it should be."

"How are we supposed to know if things are working the way they should be," I ask.

"Look for red lights, leaky pipes, or any random jets of steam," The Man answers before stepping off the Rusted. "If you see anything like that, radio me using your suit."

"Aye aye captain," I say with a salute. "Come on, mateys. Let's go find red lights, leaky pipes, and some jet streams."

Green Lantern:

"Hold on," I say and everyone stops. Looking over the railing, I focus my will before shooting out my ring. A green beam shoots and goes over the railing. As I search around, I feel my beam break, the entire beam shattering and sending me stumbling.

I fall to my ass while The Man jumps back onto the ship.

"Excuse me," The Man yells, "What was that for? In case you've forgotten, I'm trying to do something. You know, fix the Rusted so we're not stranded here. Not all of us can fly through space, or even hold our breath."

"That can wait," I say, pulling myself up.

"True. I've modified the Rusted to be self-sufficient. Renewable power source with farms for foods. Still, being stranded sucks."

"No more tricks," I say, swinging my hands. "No more ignoring us. No more sentences with no end. I want answers. We all want answers. Now!"

I look at everyone else. They just stand there, looking at me.

"Answer to what exactly," The Man asks.

"Everything," I yell, "Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you helping us? I especially want answers to that."

I point toward The Man's hand.

"How," I say, "How can you possibly use that? No. No, no, no, no, no. Not just that. I used my ring. My ring! My ring, that no one, even if they pry it off my dead finger, should be able to use! How are you able to use that ring, and my ring, and even that blue ring from that guy? Whatever that ring is."

"That guy is named Saint Walker."

"How am I supposed to know that? I've never met him before. And I've never heard of a blue lantern. What is a blue lantern?"

"A blue lantern corp's ring is fueled by hope."

"Hope," I repeat.

"Hope," everyone repeats.

"Yeah. Hope."

"How can you possibly know that? How can you possibly use two rings at the same time? It's like every day, you keep on doing something that can't be explained, and honestly, I have had enough! You need to start talking. We need answers. We need answers now! Speaking with this."

I bring my ring up it's in between the two of us.

"How," I say, stopping to catch my breath. "How can you use my ring like that? Just how? It's my ring. It's my green lantern ring. How can you use it? How can you just pull it off my finger and use it?"

"You still don't get it," The Man says, lowering his head and shaking it. "Really? You still don't get it."

"Get what? What am I missing?"

"Willpower," The Man answers. "You're missing willpower."

"What?"

"Well, you're not missing it. You're just lacking it. Hal, the reason I can use your ring so easily is simple because my will is stronger than yours."

"No. No, that's not right. That's not right. It can't be."

"Remember New Metropolis? When you fought Sinestro? Your flashing swords? Remember breakfast? When I gripped your chainsaw with my bare hand and broke it? Hal. I'm trying not to be harsh here, I really am, but your will. It's not there anymore."

"What," I say, looking at my green ring. As I stare at my ring, I see the glow fades. "No. No. No. Come on. Come on. Focus!"

I try to focus but I can't. I close my eyes but when I open them again, the glow is gone.

Hal Jordan:

No matter what I do, no matter how hard I concreate, I couldn't do it. I couldn't bring back my suit or my mask. I couldn't get my ring to glow.

"What did you do," I yell, looking at The Man. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," The Man answers. "As I said, your will isn't there. Well, it is there but it's not as strong as it once was."

"I don't believe you," I say. "You must have done something. Tell me what is it. Tell me!"

The Man shakes his head.

"Believe me or not but I rarely tell lies. Mark Twain once said, tell the truth so you don't have to remember the lies. It's too much trouble to tell lies."

I look at my dark-green ring once more. I pull my hand back and shoot it forward. Barely a spark shoots out.

"Come on," I say, "Come on. Work! Work!"

Over and over, I pull my hand back and shoot it forward but nothing happens.

"Your will isn't-," The Man interrupts but I stop him.

"Shut the hell up," I say, running toward him.

The Man:

Watching as Hal runs toward me, he pulls back his hand for the 18th time and shoots it forward. I grab his hand and push it to the side while hitting Hal with the bend of my elbow. He stumbles back while holding his nose.

"You don't believe me," I say, stepping forward. "You think I'm doing something to mess with your ring? Fine. I'll prove it to you. In my own test of will."

"Oh god," Flash says, his head rolling back.

"Yeah," I say, nodding my head. "Also, my test of will is going to be rigged as heck. See, heck."

Bringing up the red ring, I focus and summon a length of rope. It wrapped around both my and Hal's wrists, binding us.

"What are you doing," Hal asks, looking at the red rope. He grabs and tries to break it but there's really no point.

"This is a ritual from ancient times," I say, spreading out my arm. As I hold out my hand, a bright-red sword form in it. "It is a dual of courage and honesty, of skill and power. It is here where we see what our heart holds. This is a bound dual."

I pull my hand back and Hal stumbles forward.

"Considering your lack of weaponry," I say, eyeing Hal's empty hand. "Let me even the odd."

Shooting out a red beam, it hits Hal's hand and there in his hand is a similar red sword.

"Show me your will," I say, holding the sword in front of me. "Show me the willpower that allows you to wield a green lantern ring."

Hal staring me down rises the sword above his head before charging forward and screaming.

Ganthet:

"Mogo had just spoken to me," Ranakar says, opening his eyes. His hand falls from his head as he looks at all of us. "They have all escaped from Oa."

"Arisia and Laria too," I ask.

"Yes. According to the account of Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Lobo, and Guy Garnder, the two flee with that insufferable Earthling and that Super. They are no longer our problem. At least, for now, that is the case."

"Excellent," Appa Ali Apsa says, "However, there is still the matter of the Green Lantern Corp's battery. Without the battery at full power, Oa's planetary shield is down, and we cannot leave the whole matter of defense solely to Mogo."

"As powerful as Mogo is," I say, "He is not invincible."

"That we can agree on Ganthet," Ranakar says with a scoff. "I see no other choice. We simply will have to assign some green lanterns to guard Oa."

As soon as Ranakar spoke those words, I see some green lanterns below shaking and breathing heavily.

"No," I say, looking at Ranakar. "Our green lanterns are already exhausted. They are begin pushed far too much as it is."

"Ganthet," Ranakar says, staring back at me. "You think I don't know that. You don't think I know our green lanterns are on the verge of collapse. You are wrong, greatly wrong, but we all also know we cannot leave Oa defenseless. Especially now."

"I can handle it," Kilowog says, stepping forward with his ring in his face.

"So can I," Guy Garnder says, also stepping forward.

"Uh shuck," Lobo laughs as he too steps forward. "You guys are making me blush."

"Very well," Ranakar says, pointing at the three. "Starting immediately, you three will join Mogo in defending Oa."

The three of them nod their heads before flying out of the room.

"Excuse me," Sallak says, stepping forward, "But I feel like there is still one unresolved issue."

"And what would that be Sallak," I ask.

"The matter of Atrocitus," Sallak answers. "What should we do with him?"

"I do not know what you are asking," I say, "Atrocitus is within our prison, and he does not have his ring. He is no threat."

"I am only asking because with all of us being too busy guarding Oa and fighting off Superman's armies, we cannot guard Atrocitus."

"I agree," Ranakar says. "Atrocitus must be dealt with."

"What," I say, "Ranakar, you're not suggesting what I think you are?"

"We don't have the manpower," Ranakar yells back. "We may have to destroy Atrocitus."

Supergirl:

The Man raises his red sword and blocks Hal's swing. Hal tries to push down but The Man is stronger and quicker. He pushes Hal back and kicks out one of his legs. As Hal falls to the floor, The Man grabs the rope bounding them. Pulling it, he pulls Hal up as well.

"Okay, okay," Barry says, walking up while waving his arms. "Come on. Stop this already. Hal, you're a lot of things, but a swordsman is not one of them. Stop that now."

Barry walks up to the two but it's Hal who pushes him back.

"Stay out of this Barry," he yells, wiping his mouth. "I got this."

"With all due respect," The Man says, "No you don't."

Hal holding his sword with both his hands then charges forward and swings it at The Man. Jumping back, The Man easily dodges Hal's swing before rushing forward. Hal seeing this, swings his sword again but The Man slides under it.

As he slides, he grabs the rope and pulls on it once more. The rope grabs Hal's foot and once more, Hal finds himself on the floor.

"How is this fair," Dinah yells. "Hal, stop already. Give it up."

"I'm not giving up," Hal yells. "I'll prove it! I'll prove it to you!"

Hal points at The Man with the sword in his hand.

"My will is strong," he yells, "My will is strong! It is unbreakable! It is indestructible! You said this is a test of will. A dual of courage and honesty. Well, here's my courage!"

Screaming, Hal jumps into the air and attacks The Man. He swings his sword down but The Man places the end of his blade on his other hand and blocks Hal's swing.

Sliding out from beneath Hal, The Man steps to the side. Seeing this, Hal turns around and swings his sword but The Man, as expected, blocks the swing and grabs Hal's hand.

He twists Hal's hand and forces him to drop his sword, the red sword disappearing before it can hit the floor.

"You lose," The Man says, rising his foot and kicking Hal away. His own sword and the rope between disappear.

"No," Hal yells, "No! Bring them back! Bring them back! Do it again! Bound us!"

"No," The Man says. "There's no point. If you want it so badly, do it yourself. You have a ring."

Hearing this, Hal shoots out his ring and tries to bring back everything. He closes his eyes and squeezes his hand, trying to summons the swords and rope but it's no use. Nothing happens. Nothing is made.

"I," Hal stutters, "I can't do it. I really can't do it. My ring. My green lantern ring."

Before anything can happen, Hal pulls off his ring and throws it at The Man. The Man catches it and looks at it.

"What are you doing," The Man asks.

"Giving up," Hal answers. "Like Arisia, I give up."

The Man:

"I'm sorry," Flash says, blinking a few dozens of times. "I'm sorry. Wait, what? What did you just say?"

"I said I give up," Hal yells, "Just like Arisia. I give up. I mean, what's the point even? My ring won't glow. According to Sunglasses Man, it's because I lost my will. And without my will, without my ring, what am I? How can I even help anymore? I'm useless."

"Easy with the drama would you," I say, looking at the green ring in my hand. "And get to your feet."

I throw the ring back at Hal. He squirms when it hits his forehead. I watch as the ring falls on the deck and Hal doesn't immediately grab it.

"Okay," I say with a sigh. "This is bad. Hal, come on."

I walk up to Hal and grab him by his neck. Lifting him up, I shake him back and forth.

"Come on," I say, slapping Hal across the face. "Snap out of it, Twitter-Dumb. This is not the time or place to feel down in the dump."

I let go of Hal but he drops to his knees again.

"Oh for crying out loud."

I take a step back and raise my foot. On the verge of stomping the bottom of my dirty shoe against Hal's sad face, I stop when Flash appears in front of me with his arms and legs spread out.

"No need for that," Flash says while Oliver and Jason run to grab and pull me back. "Just let me talk to Hal."

"What can you say to Hal that my foot can't?"

"Uhh, I don't want to kick you."

"Yeah," I say, lowering my foot. "That means sense. Fine. You guys can talk to Hal. Meanwhile, I still need to fix the thrusters, and I need at least some of you to check for any damages."

I look at Oliver and Jason as they still have their arms around me.

"You can let me go now."

"Sorry," Oliver says, he and Jason letting me go. As soon as they do, I quickly punch Flash in the chest before he can stop it.

"By the way, my fist says the same thing."

I nod my head at Oliver, Jason, and everyone else before walking over to the railing. Reaching the railing, I grab it and jump over.

Barry Allen:

"Son of bit--," I say before Oliver cuts me off.

"No, no, no," Oliver says, shaking both his hand and head. "Don't swear."

"Really," I say, bending over while holding my chest.

"Yeah. Do you want Sunglasses to hit you again?"

"Point taken."

Some of the breath returning, I look at the others as they circle Oliver, Jason, Hal, and myself.

"You want an ice pack," Captain Cold asks.

"I'm fine," I say, taking one last breath before pushing myself up. "Just go and look around. Check around for any damages. Meanwhile, I'll talk with Hal."

"Yeah," Reverse-Flash says, bending down. "Best of luck with that. Here, you might need this."

Reverse-Flash gives me Hal's ring before leaving with a few others.

"I'll stay," Oliver says with a nod of his head.

"Strangely enough," Selina says, crossing her arms. "I think I'll stay too. Let me know if you find a gas leak."

"On it," Cheetah says, shooting a wave before she leaves with the others.

We watch as the others disappear below, leaving the four of us behind.

"Okay, Hal," I start.

Harleen:

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

"I have no clue," Dinah answers, spinning all around. "I thought this was a high-tech spaceship. Why are there so many pipes here?"

"Don't ask me," I say with a shrug. "Ask Sunglasses. Then again, it makes a little sense when you think about it. Old-school pirate ship, old-school working."

"When you say it like that," Dinah starts, "It sounds bad. It makes me want to jump ship and swim away."

"Yeah," I say, "I wouldn't recommend it. I think home sweet home is a little too far to swim to. Besides, I'm sure despite the old-school working, the Rusted is a safe place. See?"

I tap my knuckles against one of the pipes on the wall before smiling and crossing my arms. My smile only stays for a second before I hear the pipe starts to rattle. The rattling is then followed by the sound of the pipe bending, squeaking, and creaking. The pipe itself, along with a few others around it, starts to shake.

"Hmm," I say, stepping back. "What is the chance there are lifeboats somewhere around here?"

"You wanna check," Dinah asks.

"Ask me after we finish checking and regrouping with the others."

Selina Kyle:

"Hal," Oliver shouts, his arms falling to his sides. "Will you listen to yourself for a second? You're going to give up. Just like that? What about this?"

Oliver waves his green ring in front of his face.

"What about it," Hal says, looking up. "It chose someone else. It chose that bastard in the sunglasses."

"Forget about that bastard in the sunglasses," Barry says. He grabs Hal's hand and the ring. Barry places the ring in Hal's palm but the second he lets go, both Hal's hand and his ring fall. "Okay. Seriously! Stop this already!"

"Even Guy Garnder turned on me," Hal murmurs, "And he's the one that help me. This is getting too much. I don't know what to do anymore."

"I can offer one bit of advice," I say, walking up to Hal. I push the two aside.

"Hal," I start, grabbing the man and helping him to his feet. "We've known each other for a few years now, and it's only recently we've been on the same side right."

"Yeah," Hal answers, still staring at the floor. "What's your point?"

"My point is this, and for the record, I am a little sorry about this. Only a little."

"Only a little," Hal repeats before I lift him up via his chin. Smiling at him, I then slap him hard across the face.

"Ouch," he screams, turning away while holding his chin.

"After seeing that," Oliver whispers, "Maybe we should've just let The Man stomps him."

Barry hits Oliver on his arm.

"Again, I'm sorry about that. Only a little sorry, but still sorry nonetheless. Hal, I didn't exactly have a mind-blowing experience like you just now so I can't relate, but here's something I can relate with. I know it sucks to have something, or someone, you care about lost. Believe me. I do. But I also know unless you do something besides mope around and stare at the floor, then it'll stay lost."

Seeing the ring on the ground, I grab the green ring and hold it up.

"The Man," I say, "As ignoring and as frustrating and all those other bad words that he doesn't want us to say, he is right. You lost will, and now, you have to find it again. Until then."

I close my hand, the ring disappearing from sight.

"I don't have as strong a will as The Man, so will you do find your will again, come find me and pull it off of me."

I turn to walk away.

"Where are you going," Oliver asks.

"In case you've forgotten," I yell while walking down the stairs. "We're two rings short. I'm going to find Arisia."

The Man:

Focusing my anger into a small red flashlight, I aim it into one of the thrusters. Now that I can see inside, I know what to fix and how.

"There are layers of soot all over the fan blades. It's making it impossible for them to spin, and the jammed blades are causing the motors to overheat. Shoot."

I focus my anger into some floating red tools before diving into the thrusters. As I clean the soot off the blades and loosen some nuts to examine the motor, I hear my phone starts to go off.

"What now," I say, throwing my screwdriver into the air and grabbing my cell phone. "My B.U.Gs? Oa. What's going on on Oa?"

I tap my screen and watch as a feed comes to life. There, on my screen, I see a bunch of green lanterns heading somewhere.

"Where are you all going?"

My question is answered when I see the lanterns surrounding Atrocitus's cell.

Atrocitus:

I look at the door to my cell as it opens. Even before I can ask, a green beam shoots in and ties my hands together. The beam pulls me out and I fall onto a green platform. As I push myself up, I look around and see myself surrounded from all sides by green lanterns.

"Atrocitus," Salaak says as he flies forward. Hovering in front of me, he raises his glowing green ring. "It's time."

The Man:

My platform shoots up from below. When it reaches the Rusuted's deck, I jump from it and the platform disappears.

"Hello," I say, greeting Oliver, Flash, and Hal as I pass them. "I hope you are well, Oliver."

"Uhh," Oliver says, looking at Flash and Hal. "Thanks. What are you doing here? And what are you covered in?"

"It's called soot," I answer, turning at Oliver before looking down at my phone. "By the way, I'm done fixing the thrusters. Where are the others?"

"They're checking on the ship," Oliver answers. "You know, making sure everything is okay. Again, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to save Atrocitus," I answer.

"Trying to save Atrocitus," Flash repeats. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

"The Green Lanterns are on the verge of executing Atrocitus, and we're too far away to save him. I have to move fast."

"Executing Atrocitus," Laria screams, running up the stairs and leaving Cheetah behind. "What are you talking about? Wait, what did you hear from the bugs?"

"Bugs," Oliver asks. "Wait, did you leave bugs on Oa? Is that what you two are talking about?"

"Yes," I say with a nod of my head. "Shortly after Atrocitus was taken and Laria and Arisia 'joined' us, I pulled from my pockets two B.U.Gs and programmed them to fly and be my ears."

"Bugs," Cheetah repeats.

"Bio, undercover, gadget. B-U-G. They emit a signal that mimics bio-life so they'll be hard to detect. If someone did detect them, they would only see two flies."

"Well besides pretending to be alive," Laria says, "Can your bugs save Atrocitus?"

"You want to save Atrocitus," Flash asks. "I thought all you green lanterns hated red lanterns."

"My mind was changed very recently," Laria replies. "Again, can your bugs do anything to save Atrocitus?"

"Unfortunately, no. They can explode, but I feel like an explosion isn't what is needed at the moment."

"Well, if your bugs can't do anything, then I'll go."

Laria raises her hand and jumps but I stop her.

"Don't go," I say, Laria stopping.

"Why not? If I leave now, I can get back to Oa--"

"By the time you get back to Oa," I say, cutting Laria off. "It'll be too late. Atrocitus will be gone, and you'll be entering enemy territory."

"So what do we do," Oliver asks. "How do we save Atrocitus?"

"We ask for help," I answer.

Ganthet:

I couldn't stand it. I feel sick to my stomach.

"We are supposed to be defenders," I think, "We are supposed to protect all life. This isn't protecting. We're ending someone's life. Even if that someone is an enemy of the Corps., we have never ended a life. What happened to us?"

I watch from my seat as the green lanterns carry Atrocitus in chains. His arms and legs are bound together, and there are even chains around his neck.

"Red lanterns are supposed to be fueled by their anger," I think as I watch the Atrocitus with his head down. "He's not struggling. He's not shouting or screaming. His rage or anger no longer fuels him. He's just defeated."

As I watch Atrocitus step onto the platform, I see Salaak hovering above him, his ring glowing brightly.

"Guardians of Oa," Salaak says, turning around to face the other Guardians and me. "Fellow green lanterns. Today is a day we never thought would happen. Today is a day that will forever change the Corps. Today is the day we executed an enemy of the Green Lanterns."

"I can't listen to this," I say, turning away. As I turn, I hear something buzzing. "What is that?"

Looking around, I see something small and black. I try to grab it but whatever it is, it flies away.

"What is that," I ask again. I thought the fly had flown away but I was wrong. It turns and lands on my head. About to hit it, I stop when I hear a voice.

"Ganthet," the voice yells, "Don't break my B.U.G. Given their small size, it wouldn't be hard to imagine they're not easy to build."

"I know this voice," I think. "It's you. The earthling with the sunglasses. The earthling that stole Hal's ring. What is this? How am I hearing your voice?"

"Again, it's called a B.U.G. Listen, Ganthet. What is going on? Is what I'm saying true? Is Atrocitus going to be executed?"

'Yes," I sigh, "As much as it pains me, Atrocitus is being executed. The other Guardians have already decided. There is nothing I can do about it."

"Don't count yourself out yet," the earthling says. "Listen, I have to know for sure. Do you want to save Atrocitus?"

As soon as I hear the earthling's question, I feel something hit me. Whatever it is, it stops me and forces me to think.

"Do I want to save Atrocitus?"

I ask myself as I look at Atrocitus who is forced onto his knees. Salaak hovering in front of me, he uses his ring and summons a green sword. Salaak taps Atrocitus with the sword before pulling it back.

"Yes," I say, "I do want to save Atrocitus. The Green Lanterns Corps does not do this. The others may not agree with me, but this is one pathway I will not go down."

"Awesome. Give me one second."

"Give you one second," I repeat. "With all due respect, what can you possibly do? I assume you're lightyears from Oa. You're too far away to help."

"I'm too far away but my second B.U.G isn't When everyone is screaming and yelling, grab Atrocitus and get him out of there."

"Screaming and yelling? Wait, what are you going to do?"

The earthling doesn't answer. Instead, I hear beeping coming from somewhere. It seems I am not the only one. The beeping is echoing through the meeting chamber and everyone is looking around for it.

"What is that," Tomar-Re asks.

"And where is it coming from," Lobo adds.

I scan the room, looking all around until I see a flashing red light. The red light is on the end of Salaak's sword.

"Salaak," Ranakar yells, pointing at his weapon. "Watch out!"

Salaak looking at his weapon sees the flashing red light and throws his sword. However, it's too late. The sword explodes and knocks Salaak back. It also unleashes a thick cloud of smoke that blankets the whole room.

Despite many of the green lanterns calling forth shield to protect themselves, they are not immune to the smoke.

"Go, go, go," the earthling yells, "Do you not hear the screaming and yelling? Go!"

I nod my head and jump from my seat. Flying directly into the cloud of smoke, I make it to Atrocitus who is laying on the floor. He's moaning as I pick him up.

"What," he starts, shaking his head. "What are you doing?"

"Staying true to what I believe in," I answer. Using my power, I shatter the chains around Atrocitus's hands and legs.

"Follow me," the earthling says. "Well, not me but my tiny friend."

The small fly flying out of my hand flies toward the meeting chamber's door. I don't have time to think. I grab Atrocitus with my telekinesis power and follow after the bug.

Ranakar:

Waving the smoke away, I am more than glad to hear the sound of fans turning on. It takes only a few seconds before all the smoke is blown out of the meeting chamber. With the smoke gone, I see that someone else is gone.

"Atrocitus," I yell, seeing the red lanterns gone. "Where did he go? Where did Atrocitus go? Someone tell me!"

I look around and see something else. Ganthet is gone.

"Ganthet," I say, seeing an empty chair. I wave my arm and shout. "Green lanterns! Find Ganthet and Atrocitus! Executed Atrocitus and bring Ganthet back here for trial!"

Ganthet:

"Follow me," I say, leading Atrocitus away from the meeting chamber. We stay close to the wall and as low as possible to avoid any detection. While on the ground level, I stop and look up. I see green lanterns flying out of the meeting chamber and spreading out.

"They're searching for us," I think, putting up my hands and telling Atrocitus to stop. "Hello? Earthling? Are you there? Can you hear me? Hello?"

"I can hear you fine," the earthling replies, his tiny bug landing on the wall beside the two of us. "Listen. I'm sending help, but I need you two to stay hidden as long as you can. This spot is okay, but it's close to the meeting chamber. There'll be a lot of activity but you and Atrocitus should be fine as long as you stay quiet. Understood."

"Understood," I answer.

"If you need anything, just talk to the bug."

I then hear a click and that is it. I don't hear the Earthling's voice anymore. With the silence, I start to think back to what I just did.

"I can't believe I did that," I say to myself. "I can't believe I actually did that. I broke Atrocitus out and now I'm hiding from the green lanterns, waiting for a rescue from an Earthling with a pair of sunglasses."

As I think about it more and more, I stop and shake my head.

"No," I say, closing my hands. "I had to do this. Maybe I'm wrong or not, but I will learn soon enough. Until then."

I then look at Atrocitus as he stays crouching on the ground.

"We have to stay hidden."

Supergirl:

"You what," Jason says, holding out his hands.

"Again," The Man says, putting his phone into one of his jacket pockets. "Before we left Oa, I sent out some B.U.Gs to act as my eyes and ears in case something was about to happen. Unfortunately, it turns out I was right. Something was about to happen."

"But there's no way," Jaime yells, "There's no way the green lanterns were really about to execute Atrocitus."

"Do you want to listen to the audio file?"

The Man reaches back in and pulls out his cell phone.

"Believe me," Barry says, "As much as I don't want to either, it's true."

"We can vouch," Oliver adds, pointing at Hal and himself. "We all heard it through The Man's phone. Thankfully, The Man put the call on speaker."

"I know it's rude and whatnot," The Man comments, "But in this case, it was helpful. Anyway, the Rusted still needs repair, but I don't know how long Ganthet and Atrocitus can stay hidden."

"Ganthet," Dinah repeats, "One of the Guardian?"

"Yeah," Laria answers. "He's the one that freed Atrocitus. Now he and Atrocitus need our help."

"What can we do to help," I ask, stepping forward.

"I'm going to stay here and fix the Rusted," The Man answers. "It should only be a few more minutes. Meanwhile, you and Laria will need to go back to Oa. Just remember to try not to draw any attention. We're not exactly welcome there anymore."

"You want Supergirl and Laria to go back to Oa to try and rescue Ganthet and Atrocitus," Reverse-Flash says. "Are you serious? That's practically a suicide mission. No, that is in fact, a suicide mission."

"No," The Man says. "A suicide mission would be all of us going there. If Kara and Laria go there alone, they have a better chance of flying in undetected and flying back out to the Rusted, which will be docked closer but still out of sight. Understood."

"That depend," Cheetah says, "We already got two ringless green lanterns with us. The blue leprechaun I can see being useful but what about the big red guy?"

The Man answers Cheetah by pulling out a red lantern ring from one of his pockets and giving it to me.

"Here," he says, putting the ring right in my palm. "At the first chance, give that to Atrocitus. It may not be his red ring, but tell him he can consider that a loan."

I nod my head and jump before flying into the air. I turn my head when I see Laria flies to my side. Together, the two of us fly back to Oa.

The Man:

"Okay," I say, looking at everyone as they look at me. "The thrusters are near-ready. I just need to clean a few blades and tighten some bolts. When everything is ready, we launch. Until then, prepare for a fight. Possibly, against a planet."

"Awesome," Oliver says, raising his bow and pulling the string back. "Well, in that case, I think I'm going to need a bigger bow."

While the others prepare, I walk to the railing and jump over the side. Summoning and landing on a red hoverboard, I fly over to the remaining thrusters and jump right into them.

Ganthet:

"Stay down," I whisper, waving my hand at Atrocitus as I see some green lanterns flying above us. Despite how many lanterns have already left the meeting chamber, there are still many staying with the Guardians. They're hovering, staying guards.

As Atrocitus and I drop to our knees, I hear a familiar voice.

"Ganthet," the Earthling says through the tiny robot still on the wall. "Ganthet, are you there?"

"I'm here," I reply. "Where are you?"

"Far, far, away," the Earthling replies. "But don't worry. Supergirl and Laria are coming to rescue you, but they need to find you first. Where are you?"

"We're at the meeting chamber," I answer.

"The meeting chamber? Are you serious? Why? That's a horrible place to hide."

"We did not have much time to hide," I yell. "Your smoke trap worked but only for a little bit. Atrocitus and I are hiding near the ground floor."

"Okay. I relay the information to Supergirl and Laria. Just be ready for a quick rescue."

"Understood."

Supergirl:

"Careful," Laria says as the two of us approach Oa. As we fly closer to Oa, the first thing I see is Mogo.

"Hold up," Laria says, using her ring to grab me.

"What are you doing," I yell, breaking free of the bond and turning back to Laria.

"Hide," Laria yells, using her ring again to grab and throw me behind an asteroid. Laria also hiding behind the stray asteroid, she peeks around the side. "If Mogo sees us, then it's over. He'll destroy us with one blast."

"So what do we do," I ask. "How do we get to Oa when Mogo is guarding it?"

Before Laria could answer, we both hear a massive boom. Many more booms follow it.

"I know that sound," I say, looking around the asteroid. "Oh no."

The booms are coming from dozen and dozen, as The Man called them, boom tubes. They're opening all over, and once more, parademons are flying out of them. They swarm all over Mogo, and even when Mogo fires and hits hundreds of them, there were thousands more to replace them. In only a few seconds, the parademons cover Mogo.

While the parademons attack Mogo and the others, Darkseid flies out of one of the boom tubes. He is surrounded by fierce-looking people.

Darkseid:

As I fly out of the boom tube, I see my parademons attack Mogo, the living planet with the green lantern ring. It seems he is not alone, and there are a few green lanterns helping him.

"It doesn't matter," I say, "My parademons will all of them. DeSaad, Kalibak, Granny, follow me to Oa. We have a battery to collect."

They all nod their heads and follow after me as I fly toward the surface of Oa.

Supergirl:

"This is bad," Laria says after peeking around the asteroid. "Then again, at least the green lanterns will be too busy to notice us rescuing Ganthet and Atrocitus. Come on. Let's go."

"Wait," I say, flying beside Laria as the two of us fly toward Oa. "What about Mogo, and the green lanterns? I know they haven't been friendly toward us, but that doesn't mean we leave them to Darkseid and his parademons. We should help."

"We will," Laria yells as we enter Oa's sky. "But not now. For now, we have to find Ganthet and Atrocitus and get them back to the ship. Once there, we tell The Man everything and see what he wants to do."

"Fine then."

Reaching Oa, the two of us fly through the cloudy sky before seeing the city below.

"Incoming," Laria says, stopping. Pointing toward the city, we see a bunch of green dots heading our way. "This way."

With no choice, I follow Laria as we hide behind a nearby building. The green lanterns don't notice us when they fly past. They must be heading to help Mogo and the others. The last of the lanterns disappearing from sight, Laria and I fly out and down.

"Okay," Laria says, stopping and hovering in mid-air. "Where are they? Where are Ganthet and Atrocitus?"

"I don't know," I answer. Taking a breath and focusing, I use my x-ray vision to look through the buildings. Practically all of the buildings are empty. There are robots in a few of them, but other than the robots, the whole city is abandoned.

"Remind of Gotham," I think as I keep scanning. "Hey, I've found them."

I hit Laria in her arm before breaking through a series of buildings. Flying and breaking through one last building, I wave the dust away and reveal a frightened Ganthet and Atrocitus. They're on the ground, holding up their arms.

"Don't worry," I say, raising my own hand. "We're allies, and we're here to help."

"I know that," Ganthet says, swinging his arms, "But what I don't know is why you had to do that. You couldn't have just gone around the buildings instead of through them."

Ganthet points at the massive hole in the wall I made.

"Sorry about that," I say, "But we have only a small opening to rescue the two of you."

"Speaking of small openings," Laria says, walking up beside me with her ring right in front of her. As she holds up her ring, I notice it starts to flash on and off.

"What's going on," I ask, "Is your will weakening too?"

"No," Laria says, "But it is losing power. It had been a while since I charge my ring, and worst, I didn't bring my portable battery with me."

"Also," Ganthet says, rubbing his chin. "Despite how many green lanterns there are fighting, the central battery is still heavily guarded. You won't be able to charge your ring. At least, not without a fight."

"We didn't come here for a fight," Laria says. She clutches her hand and the glow returns to her ring. Aiming it at Ganthet and Atrocitus, she places them in a bubble. Without saying another word, Laria jumps and flies into the air.

"Wait," I say, trying to stop Laria. Reaching into my pocket, I pull out the red ring The Man gave me. He told me to give it to Atrocitus but the three are already in the air. I shake my head before putting the ring back into my pocket and flying after Laria.

As the four of us fly through the sky and enter space, I tap my wrist.

"Hello," I say, "The Man, are you there?"

"I'm here," The Man answers, "Are you okay?"

"We're fine. Ganthet and Atrocitus and Laria are all fine. Listen, where-"

About to ask where the Rusted is, The Man cut me off.

"No, are you okay?"

"What?"

"Kara, I'm asking are you okay. Are you okay?"

I stop flying.

"Uhh, yeah. I'm fine. I'm okay."

I can hear The Man sighs.

"Oh thank you. Listen, you, Laria and the others need to get back to the Rusted now. We're only a few lightyears from Oa, but even from here, I can see the boom tubes and parademons. Get back here as soon as you can."

"Okay. Will do. See you soon."

I end the call and look back at Laria. At the edge of the fight, she braces herself as she flies through.

"Hey," I yell, "Hold up!"

Superman:

"What," I yell, slamming my fists on the armrest of my chairs. Pulling the wires from my head, I get up.

"Supergirl is there," my spy yells again, "She's here right now!"

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure? Of course, I'm sure! I'm looking right at her! She is with Laria right now, and the two are leaving with Ganthet and Atrocitus!"

"Wait," I think, thinking back to everything my spy just said. "She's with Laria right now. She's not with The Man. This may be my chance. My one chance."

"Don't lose sight of her," I order, turning off the transmission before flying out of my ship.

Supergirl:

"Watch out," I yell, flying between a parademon and Laria. The parademon lunges at Laria but before it can grab onto her, I grab it first. Using my frost breath, I freeze the parademon before throwing it.

"Fly away," I say, looking at Laria as I use my laser vision to destroy some incoming parademons. "I'll cover you three."

Laria nods her head and flies away. Meanwhile, I bring my hands together and knock a parademon down.

Darkseid:

"Darkseid," DeSaad says, stopping with the others. "Why are we stopping? We have the battery."

"There's another prize I want," I answer, watching as the Kryptonian grabs and burns a parademon with her laser vision. "Go ahead with the battery."

"Yes Darkseid," DeSaad says with a bow of his head. He, along with my son, and Granny leaves with the Green Lantern Corp's battery. Meanwhile, I fly closer and closer toward the Kryptonian. She is too busy fighting against my parademons to notice me.

The Man:

"No, no, no," I say, seeing Kara through my red binoculars. The binoculars fading from my hands, I start to step back.

"What are you doing," Oliver asks, watching me as I step back. I don't have time to answer Oliver. Instead, I just shoot him a nod before running and jumping off the deck. Using the red ring, I call forth a fighter jet. Landing right in the pilot jet, I close the hatch and push the lever forward. The thrusters in the back roar to life and in less than a second, the jet shoots through space.

"Come on," I say, pouring as much fuel and anger into the thrusters. "Come on. Come on."

Even with everything, it's still too late. Darkseid is standing over Kara. She notices his shadow and turns around but it's no use. Raising his arms, his arms glowing with power, he slams it down on Kara, knocking her out.

"Nooo," I cry, breaking the jet apart and flying toward Darkseid. Dual swords in my hands, I try to swing at Darkseid but he slaps me away. As I spin through space, I shake my head and regain my bearing. Looking back, I see Darkseid call forth another boom tube.

"Noo," I cry again. Forming a bow and arrow in my hands, I'm about to fire but as I pull back the bowstring, Darkseid grabs Kara and vanishes into the boom tube.

The Man:

I stare at where the boom tube was. Where it was.

"I can't believe it," I think, "I can't believe it. Kara is gone. Darkseid, you bastard. You're not going away with this."

As I keep staring, I realize something a second later. I'm flying in space.

"Shoot. I hate flying."

I materialize a platform beneath and dropdown. With my feet back on solid ground, I eye the leftover parademons. Despite Darkseid being gone, they're still here, attacking the green lanterns. Neither the parademons nor the lanterns have noticed me. At least, not yet.

Raising the red ring, I focus my anger on a swarm of parademons. My anger causes the ring to glow brighter than the sun. I can feel the heat coming off the ring as more and more energy filled it.

"Boom," I say, tapping my thumb against the finger. The red ball of rage shoots it, flying through space until it reaches the fight with the lanterns and the parademons. Ripping and going right through a few parademons, it reached the center of the battlefield before exploding. All of space turns bright red as the red sun explodes, destroying and incinerating the parademons, leaving behind only little bits of ashes.

As the red fades and the space returns to being black, the green lanterns soon realize that the parademons are gone. While they search for answers to what happened, I take this opportunity to turn and run away.

Summoning one platform after another, I stop and instead summon a hoverboard. Jumping off of the final platform and onto the hoverboard, I fly back toward the Rusted.

"Darkseid had Kara," I tell myself, "No doubt he's taking her to Apokolips."

As I think about Apokolips, I can't help but imagine all the horrible things Darkseid could be doing to Kara right now.

"No," I yell, stopping and slamming my hands against my head. "No. Don't. Don't focus on that. Focus on how you can save her."

As I start to breathe in and out, I see the glow on the red ring lessens. I swallow a sudden lump in my throat and shake my head.

"Focus on how I can save Kara," I repeat to myself. "Yeah right. Even with helps from the others, there's no way we can fight against Darkseid and his apparently endless army of demons. Oliver. Snart. Reyes. They're strong, but not Darkseid strong. What to do? What to do?"

I adjust my sunglasses as I fly through outer space.

"I can't do that, but what other options do we have?"

I'm still sorting through the limited options when I see a yellow dot also flying through outer space. Stomping on the end of my hoverboard, I look at the dot as it seems to be flying to Oa for some reason.

"A yellow dot," I think. Sending back my hand, I summon a red telescope and use it to look. As I thought, it's not a comet or a rogue asteroid. It's Superman. Seeing Superman, a red lightbulb forms over my head.

Superman:

Flying as fast as I can toward Oa, I start to see the planet but before I can fly any further, a red wall forms in front of me and stops me. Almost flying right into it, I examine the wall and recognize it immediately.

"A red ring," I say, bringing up my yellow ring. "Atrocitus."

I look around for the red lantern but instead, I find him.

"You," I say, pulling back my yellow ring and shooting it forward. A yellow beam fire out but The Man in the Sunglasses uses a red ring to block it. Summoning forth another red wall, The Man shields himself.

The yellow beam not working, I pull back my ring and summon forth a giant yellow hand. Throwing it forward, The Man moves fast. He summons two axes in his hands. Using one to knock my giant hand to the side, The Man throws his second axes.

I swing my arm and cut the axe in half.

Once more, I pull back my arm and prepare to shoot again, but something unexpected happens. As yellow energy gathers into my ring, The Man summons a red platform in front of him. He jumps from his flying board onto it and then drops onto his knees.

Seeing The Man on his knees, I stop.

"I need your help," he says, looking at me. "Kara needs your help."

Harleen:

"Laria," Oliver and Leonard scream when they see our fellow green lantern staggering. She bounces up and down as she flies and her green glow seems to be fading. The second they can, they help Laria aboard.

"Don't forget about them," Laria pants, pointing at the bubble behind her. I didn't notice before but in the bubble behind her are Ganthet and Atrocitus. While Oliver and Leonard help Laria, Dinah and I help those two.

"Hey, hey, hey," Barry says when he sees me helping Atrocitus to his big red feet. "Be careful."

"Of what," I say, "I don't know if you notice or not, but Atrocitus here isn't exactly glowing red now is he? Calm down why don't you? Wait, let me rephrase that. Go down to the kitchen and grab some water."

Barry doesn't move for a while, but after I clap my hands in front of him, he nods his head and disappears.

"Hey," I say, looking around Atrocitus and at Ganthet and Laria. "Uhh, you guys are aliens so your anatomy is probably different but do you still drink water?"

No one answers me. It takes only a few seconds but Barry returns with some bottles of water. He hands them to us and we hand them to the three.

"Where is The Earthling with the glasses," Ganthet asks after gulping down his bottle. "I don't see him anywhere."

"Yeah," Laria says, wiping her forehead as she straightens herself. Handing Oliver an empty bottle, she too looks around. "Where is he?"

"Humph," I say with a shrug. I point toward the wheel before moving to the railing. "He was there, and then he ran off somewhere over there."

"He's not with you," Barry asks. "Wait, where is Supergirl?"

As soon as we hear the name, we all start to look around.

"Barry is right," Jason says. "Where is Supergirl? Wasn't she with you?"

"She was," Laria says. She looks around before walking over the ship's railing. "She's gone. Where did Supergirl go?"

"She was taken," The Man says, a series of red platforms forming from outer space. Walking on the red platforms is The Man. Reaching the last platform, he drops down onto the Rusted with us. "Quickly, you three. You need to get below deck now."

Without warning, The Man starts to push Atrocitus and Ganthet toward the stairs.

"Wait, wait, wait," I say, looking at The Man as he pushes the two down the stairs. "What are you doing? Why are you pushing those two?"

"Believe me when I say this," The Man answers, turning around to face the rest of us. "They're not going to want to see this."

"See what," Jaime asks.

A looming shadow answers Jaime as he looks up. As the shadow grows and covers the Rusted, we all turn around and gasp.

"Brainiac's ship," I say. Immediately, we all prepare for a fight. I pull out my guns. Jaime armors up. Oliver and Leonard bring up their weapons while Laria aims with her ring.

"Don't shoot," The Man says, getting in front of us and shooting out his hand. A wall appears in front of us. "Don't shoot. They're friendly. At least, for now."

None of us could answer. Instead, we could only watch as Superman, Black Adam, and Wonder Woman all fly out from the skull ship and toward the Rusted. Somehow, somehow, they were able to fly through the force field, and before I know it, their feet are touching the floor.

"Superman," The Man says, crossing his arms.

"You," Superman says, crossing his own arms.

As soon as the two finish their conversation, we all aim at them but Wonder Woman and Black Adams raise their arms. All of us are ready for a fight but Superman and The Man stops us.

"Stop," Superman yells.

"Enough," The Man yells. "As much as I hate to say this, we have a common goal."

"A common goal," I repeat, my guns still trained on Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman reaches for her sword but Superman stops her.

"I said stop," Superman yells, Wonder Woman stopping. "The Man is right. We do have a common goal. Kara had been taken by Darkseid."

"What," we all say. "Blondie was taken by Darkseid? When?"

"Just now," The Man answers, "And we can't rescue her by ourselves. Darkseid is too strong and Apokolis is too heavily reinforced. That's how I've asked Superman for his help. He agreed, so we're all going to save Kara. All of us"

The Man:

"All of us," Cold repeats. "All of us? What the hell is wrong with you?"

I turn my head and look at Cold.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I said a bad word. Slap me later, Four-Eyes, but still. What the hell? You asked Flyboy and his group of goonies for help."

"Yeah," Flash yells. "What did you ask Superman for help?"

"Clean the wax out of your ears," I say. "I told you. Darkseid kidnaped Kara, and we can only rescue her if we work with them."

"You have to be kidding me," Firestorm says.

"He's not," Superman answers, stepping forward. As soon as he takes a step, everyone aims at him. Firestorm raises their hands. Cold raises his cold gun. Flash prepares to charge toward Superman. The second they do, Black Adam's hands charge with electricity, and Wonder Woman reaches for her sword.

Seeing this, I shoot out the red ring and form a wall around Superman, Adam, and Wonder Woman.

"I knew it," Adam yells, blasting the red wall with lighting. "This was a trap!"

"No, it's not," I yell back. "This is just so none of us shoot at each other. Accidentally or purposely."

I turn to look at everyone as they keep their weapons up. Despite what I've said, Black Adam doesn't believe me and fires at the wall again.

"That's enough, Black Adam," Superman yells. "I said it but apparently, I have to repeat myself. Enough."

"Likewise," I say. Using the ring's power, I fire off multiple beams and lower everyone's weapons. "We have a truce. A very temporary truce but a truce nonetheless. Superman, if I lower the wall, do I have your word Black Adam and Wonder Woman won't attack?"

"You do," Superman answers with a nod, "But do I have your word that none of your team will attack us if you lower your wall?"

"You don't," I answer with a shake of my head. "As much as I hate to say this, you don't have my word that you won't be attacked if I lower this wall."

Superman:

"That's a surprising answer," I think. "The man is honest, even if it's against him."

Looking around at everyone, I stop and look down at my yellow ring. My ring is glowing brightly. As I swing my hand around, I can see the fear radiating from everyone; Flash, Firestorm, Captain Cold. Everyone is scared of us. Everyone except the man with the sunglasses. When I point my ring at him, the ring's glow dies almost immediately.

"The man had no fear. Why is that? The three of us are standing right here, and yet, he isn't scared. There's something off about him. Still. He told me the truth."

I look the man right in his sunglasses and nod my head. He nods his own head and the red wall surrounding us fades away. As soon as it's gone, everyone rises their weapons but no one fire. Instead, they just all look at each other.

"What's the plan," I ask, still looking at the man.

"That depends," he starts, looking to his left and right before spreading out his arms. "This is my crew. Who's on your?"

"Crew," I repeat.

"Don't know if you notice or not," Captain Cold yells from the side, "But you're standing on a floating pirate ship in deep space. Just go with it."

I shake my head and sigh.

"Black Adam, Wonder Woman, and myself of course. I also have Cyborg and Hawkgirl waiting."

"No Batman," the man asks.

"No," I say. "Bruce stays on the ship. No argument."

"Wait a minute," Barry says, stepping forward but stopping when the man in the sunglasses turns and raises his hand.

"Fine," the man says, turning back. "Bruce can stay, but we're going to need more people. Not just Robot Man and Chickengirl. Who else did you bring?"

About to answer the man, Diana cuts me off.

"There is only Sinestro left," she yells. "But he, like Batman, is not going with us. He's staying."

"Fine," the man says again, "But that actually reminds me of something else. While we have this very, very, temporary truce, there's something we need to add.

"And what's that?"

"While we're invading Apokolips to rescue Kara, Sinestro and his band of yellow cowards don't attack Oa."

"We do not agree to that," Adam shouts. He steps forward, his hand pulsing with electricity. Walking right toward the man, everyone on his crew prepares and raises their weapons. However, even before I could react, the man grabs Adam's head and slams it down onto the ground.

Adam screams as he hits the floor. He tries to get back up but the man stomps on his head and keeps him down.

"We're having a conversation here," the man yells at Adam. "Don't interrupt."

He turns to look back at me.

"Sinestro holds off on any attacks while we worked together. Yes or no?"

Once more, I stare at the man in his sunglasses. As I look at him, I nod my head.

"Yes."

With my finger to my earpiece, I call Sinestro and order him and the other yellow lanterns to hold position and await further order. As soon as I end the call, the man grabs Adam and pushes him toward us.

"Call Cyborg and Hawkgirl," the man says, "Oh, and tell them to bring some betas along. I sense things won't be as simple as they were before."

"Simple," I repeat. "What are you talking about?"

"If you believe in god, then pray I'm wrong. Everyone, get ready. I'm plotting a course for Apokolips. We leave in ten minutes."

The man then leaves. As he walks past his crew, they all stay where they are, still eyeing us with their weapons drawn.

"Diana," I say, "Adam. Get Cyborg, Hawkgirl, and all the betas we have."

"Understood," Diana says before both she and Adam fly away.

"Don't worry Kara," I think, walking and standing a corner. "I'm coming."

Darkseid:

"Easy," Kalibak says, stepping back as he waves his hands. "Easy. Easy, you fools!"

Looking down, Kalibak grabs a rock and throws it at one of the parademons. My demon yells and falls as the stone hits it.

I watch from my throne as Kalibak orders the reminding parademons to lower the Green Lantern's prize battery. They place it right next to the pink lantern's battery, the orange lantern's battery, and finally, the red lantern's battery.

"Your collection is growing quite well, Master," DeSaad says as he appears beside me. "You have one more battery now. According to my calculation, there should only be two left; fear and compassion."

"They won't stay a chance," I say, smiling as I turn to face DeSaad. "Especially considering my newest asset. Had she been trained yet?"

"Yes, she had," Granny answers as she walks in. "She's under your control now."

Walking in from behind Granny is the female kryptonian. She is no longer dressed in red and blue. Now she is wearing a black suit and is equipped with one of DeSaad's inventions, the thing glowing as it rests on her head.

"And with her DNA that she so willingly gives us," DeSaad says, "Our parademons will grow stronger than ever before. No one will be able to stand against you. You are truly invincible now, Master."

"Excellent," I say.

Cyborg:

"Incredible," I say, admiring the man in the sunglasses spaceship. Well, just ship.

Despite its appearance, I can feel all the technological advancements running through it. Even without looking, I know there are machines in here that can rival anything I or even Bruce could invent. I turn my head and see the wheel of the whole ship. Walking toward it, I'm about to touch it but before I can, a hand reaches out and grab my wrist.

"Don't touch," the man in the sunglasses growls before shoving me away. I stumble away but manage to catch my footing. "Only the captain is allowed to steer. No exception, Tin Can."

The man stands in front of the wheel and starts to steer the ship.

"Plotting a course for Apokolips," the man yells, pushing a series of buttons. I watch from behind as the tip of the ship starts to glow. Even before I can ask, the tip shoots out into space. It doesn't go even far but in the short distance it does go, it creates a boom tube. A massive boom tube, bigger than any ones I have ever made.

"Everyone remembers what happen when we left the base," the man yells from the wheel. Everyone on the man's crew nods their heads and says yes. "Well, here we go again. Brace for wind."

"Wait, what," I say. "What do you mean by what happened when you left the base? What do you mean by that? Brace for wind? What wind?"

All my questions are answered when the ship enters the boom tube. As soon as the tip pierces to the other side, we're all hit by a windstorm. I, along with everyone scream as the wind threatens to throw any one of us into space.

"This isn't a boom tube," I yell.

"No one said anything about a boom tube," the man yells back. "Why are you talking about boom tubes all of a sudden?"

Our talk is cut short when we hear a scream unlike the others. Looking around, I see Hawkgirl shielding herself. She's staying as low as she can but her wings have caught the wind and now she begins picking up. However, before she can get very far, the man jumps and catches her hand. He then throws her toward me.

"I told you," he says. "Brace for wind."

"This is insane," Hawkgirl shouts. Her wings are flapping like crazy. The man pushes a lever and I hear what sounds like rockets turning on. As the rockets turn on, the ship pushes further and further into the boom tube, the wind getting stronger.

"Just a little more everyone," the man yells, pushing the lever even more. Once more, I hear more rockets coming to life. They push both the ship and us through the boom tube,  the boom tube closing and the wind dying down as soon as we're through.

"Welcome to Apokolips," the man says, offering me and Hawkgirl a hand. Somehow, the both of us ended up on the floor.

"No thank," Hawkgirl says, slapping his hand away and getting up herself. I get up myself and push the man out of my way.

The Man:

Dusting my shoulder, I turn around and walk the stairs from the bridge. I join everyone on the deck as we all look out.

"Welcome to Apokolips," I say again. "Darkseid's homeworld."

A burning planet with literally fires shooting into the sky, there are only black sky and eerie metal buildings as far as the eyes can see. As we sail deeper in, Superman is the first to break the silence.

"This isn't right," he says. "Where is everyone? Why aren't we being attacked?"

"You're disappointed that no one is attacking us," I say. "Really? Wow, do you have issues?"

"You're the last person to be saying that," Flash adds.

Without warning, I slap Flash on the back of his head. I then slap Cold on the back of his.

"Ouch," Cold shouts. He turns toward me.

"That was for before," I say turning back out front. As the Rusted sails, I scan the area. "Superman is right. There is something wrong. It's way too quiet. Where is everyone?"

"Now who had issues," Firestorm ask.

I'm about to slap the two of them but something hits the Rusted and causes her to shake. The sudden shaking knocks all of us to the floor.

"Is everyone okay," Dinah asks, helping Cheetah up.

"Ask us again in five minutes," Oliver says, pulling some arrows from his quiver. "You know, assuming we survive."

"Survive," Superman repeats as he pushes himself up.

"Superman," Cyborg yells, grabbing all our attention. Pointing up, we see a swarm of parademons flying toward us. Looking like black dots, the black dots start to shoot red beams from their eyes.

"Hold on," I yell, grabbing Harleen and Reverse-Flash and throwing them into the Rusted's railing. Holding onto the railing, they crouch down just in time as the red beams hit the Rusted's shield and push her off course. Despite the shield staying up, the Rusted didn't stand a chance. It was like a lone flower in the path of a flood.

The Rusted hitting and skidding against the metal ground of Apokolips, I look around. Luckily, this time, we were a bit more prepared. Most of us are still standing, gripping and crushing the railing.

"Since when can parademons do that," Hawkgirl says, shaking her head as she looks up.

"They can't," I say, also looking up as the parademons close in. Ten by ten, they land on the ground and surround the Rusted. As the land, I notice cracks appearing beneath them. "At least, not before they were given a bit of Super's DNA."

"Super's DNA," Superman repeats. Running up to my side, we turn to look at each other before looking out. The parademons snarl and roar as they look back at us. While a few shoot out their claws, the ones in the back prepare to shoot laser beams again. "Kara."

Superman's own eyes turn red. Meanwhile, I reach into my jacket pockets and throw kunai. Hitting and killing a few parademons, I then jump off from the Rusted and right into the middle of them.

Screaming as I charge, I shoot back my hands and pull from thin air my two black boxes. With a quick push of the buttons on both boxes, the blades shoot out and I slice a parademon. One parademon jumps and flies toward me but I spin and slice it. I keep on spinning before stopping to flip swords around and stab two parademons.

Superman:

I watch from above as the man in the sunglasses, now with twin swords, quickly slices his way through a bunch of parademons. While he attacks from the ground, I'll attack from the sky. There are still many parademons flying away.

"I'll destroy you all," I yell as I use my own laser vision to burn the parademons.

Darkseid:

Stepping forth onto my balcony, I see a massive beam of red light, not too far from my throne room.

"What is that," I ask. I turn around when I hear the sound of panting, and see my son running up to me.

"Father," Kalibak says. "We are under attack. It seems Superman is leading a charge."

I slap my son and knock him to the floor of my throne room. As he gets back up, I turn to look at the red light again.

"Superman," I say, "You will not survive this day. Send everything. All of my super parademons. All of my soldiers. Every last one of my war machine. I want you and Granny there as well."

"Understood Father."

Kalibak nods his head and leaves my throne room.

Wonder Woman:

I raise my shield just as a parademon slams into it. Pushing it back, I slice the beast in half. It snarls as it falls to the ground. Watching as it falls, I hear something coming up from behind me. I turn around only to be hit with an intense fire.

Shielding myself and flying back, I look past the flame to see some sort of war machine attacking it. Black as the sky and strangely dragon-shaped, the war machine is only one out of a whole army of them. As the war machines come, all position themselves side by side with each other and breathe fire. Even with my shield, the flame becomes too much for me to handle.

Captain Cold:

Screaming as one of the parademon blows me away, I only stop when my back hits the railing. I can feel my back break as the wind is knocked out of me.

Out of breath, I look up to see the parademon charging toward me. Before it can hit me, I change the dial on my cold gun and fire. The parademon turns into a block of ice while still charging. Pushing and crawling out of the way, I watch as the parademon hits the railing. The ice shatters but the parademons didn't.

"Seriously," I pant, pushing myself up. "We can't even take down Superman. How are we supposed to take down super parademons?"

The thing growls as it gets up. It stares me down, like some animal stalking its prey. As it prepares to pounce, I fire again and freeze it. Once more, trapped in ice, I look around and see Harleen.

"She's doing worst than me," I think, seeing Harleen back up as her bullet deflects off a parademon. Thinking fast, I change the dial once more and aim it at the frozen parademon. Shooting my cold gun, I fire a burst of wind that knocks the frozen parademon into the one Harleen is facing.

The two of them fall off the Rusted and I shoot Harleen a nod while switching the dial. As I run around, I hear someone screaming. I look around and pinpoint the person screaming. It's Wonder Woman.

These weird, dragon-shaped tanks are shooting flames at her. The flames are pushing her back. Seeing this, I rise my cold gun but I couldn't squeeze the trigger. Instead, I switch targets and shoot at the fire. An ice bomb burst and temporary stop the fire. In that short time, Wonder Woman drops before flying toward the tanks. Black Adam joins her as they tear through the tanks. While they work on these tanks, I return to defending the Rusted.

The Man:

The parademon snarls as it lunges for me. I jump back, the parademon missing me completely. It stumbles forward and with this, I run forward and swing my swords. As the parademon falls to the ground, I hear screaming coming from the Rusted. Looking back, I see the Rusted getting attack from every angle. Aside from the parademons charging in, there are war machines surrounds her. The machines are shooting fire so hot at the Rusted that despite how far I am, I can feel the heat.

"The others won't last long without some extra help," I think, looking at the distance between myself and the Rusted. "They need V2. I have to reach them, but how? There are too many parademons in the way."

Hearing another parademon snarl, I rise my sword before swinging it back. The parademon's snarl fades while I look up.

"Superman," I yell, rising my hand. Superman burning a parademon with his laser vision, look down and see me. He dives down and grabs my hand.

"Take me back to the Rusted," I say. "Hurry."

"The what," Superman asks.

"The Rusted. It's the name of my spaceship. Don't ask. Just get me to the Rusted as fast as you can."

Superman nods and flies me back to the Rusted. Dropping me off, we make quick work of the parademons that are already onboard. The second the final parademon falls, I run up to the bridge and re-activate the shield. The shield is shaking as the parademons and war machines continue their assault.

"Is everyone okay," I yell, jumping off the bridge.

The only replies are moans and groans.

"We can barely handle Superman," Flash pants. Sweat is pouring from his head like a waterfall. "How are we supposed to take down an army of super parademons?"

As much as I hate to think this, Flash is right. His face is not the only one with a waterfall of sweat. Even Cyborg seems to be leaking a little bit of oil.

"How can you take down so many super parademons so far with just a pair of swords," Oliver asks, wiping his forehead.

"I'm stronger than I look," I answer. "Speaking of stronger."

I pull some excellneno discs from my pockets and turn toward Superman.

"Here," I say, handing him one.

"Wait," Flash screams. "Don't."

I ignore him and give Superman and his crew a disc each. Once I explain to them how they worked, I turn back toward the others.

"Voice key activation," I shout. As soon as I said those words, everyone's suit come to life and there is one massive beep. "Passcodes: Barry Allen sucks."

"Hey," Flash says.

Once more, I ignore Flash and watch as everyone's suit starts to change. They light up, a combination of blue and green lights traveling throughout them.

"What the hell is this," Black Adam screams, grabbing and trying to pull the suit off.

I step forward and hit Adam on the side of his head.

"Don't swear," I say, pointing a finger at Adam.

"Seriously though," Cyborg says, examining his own suit. "What are these?"

Everyone looks at their arms and legs as the suits finish their transformations.

"It's my own invention. These are excellneno-suits. Sorry to be rude but you three will need to ask the others what they are. Superman and I will be going. Come on. We need to find Kara."

Superman nods his head and the two of us prepare to leave. Reaching the railings, I scan the area. Far, far away, I can see the dark silhouette of a building. I recognize the building immediately and nudge my head.

"There," I say, "If Kara is anywhere here on Apokolips, it will be right there."

"How can you possibly know that," Superman asks.

"It's Darkseid's throne room."

Harleen:

"Did we get an upgrade," I ask, staring and flipping my arms over and over again. My suit looks different from before. It feels different as well. It feels like I have power coursing throughout my body. "Is this how Blondie feels? Man, I feel hot."

I wipe some invisible sweat from my forehead. As I shake my hand, I hear one out of the thousands and thousands of super parademon landing on the Rusted. It stomps its foot before roaring and charging toward me.

"Shoot," I say, swinging out my hand. As I swing my hand, a new gun forms right in it. Unlike my normal pistol, this gun also appears to be different. The gun itself seems to be bigger, with glowing wires all over it. As the super parademon gets closer and closer, I shoot the new gun and it explodes.

"Holy H-E-L-L," I shout, the explosive knocking me off my feet. Shaking my head and dusting my hair, I look at my new gun first before looking back up at the super parademon. Only, there is no super parademon. It's gone, along with the two standing behind it. I look back at my new gun, my explosive gun. I would have kept on staring at it, wondering what it is exactly if I didn't hear Captain Cold screaming.

"Freeze," he yells, shooting an ice beam at one of the war machines. Despite the fire the war machine was shooting, it was nothing compared to Cold's new gun. "Why didn't The Man upgrade us sooner? This would have been so useful."

I look away from Captain Cold and see Cyborg blasting a bunch of super parademons with his arm cannon. Even his arm cannon looks different. It's covered in glowing wires and is more powerful. The super parademons Cyborg shoot are turned to burning piles of dust.

"Watch out," Cyborg screams, seeing a super parademon flying toward Hawkgirl. Hawkgirl seeing the parademon uses her new metal wings as a sort of shield. The super parademon crashes into the metal wings before Hawkgirl slams it into the ground with her mace.

While everyone is fighting the super parademons and the war machines on the surface, I can't help but notice some sneaking below deck.

"Arisia," I think, running toward the stairs.

Dr. Jonathan Crane:

As the Rusted shakes and tips, I stumble and fall against the counter.

"Ouch," I cry and hold my hip. As the Rusted shakes once more, the cabinets above open, and some medical supplies. One of the supplies to fall out appears to be a bottle of painkillers. It falls onto the floor and rolls until it hits my shoe.  "Thank but I think I'll pass."

I kick the bottle away.

"What is going on up there?"

Arisia says something but because she doesn't have her green lantern ring, I can't understand a word of it.

"Uhh, sure," I say with a nod. While nodding my head, I hear something coming down the hallway.

The Man:

Jumping out of the way as the giant dog slams its nose into the staircases, I land a few steps back. The second my feet hit solid ground, I reach into my pocket and throw kunai. The kunai burst and unleash a powerful sleeping gas. Accidentally inhaling the gas, the giant dog sneezes before falling over. With his mound down, the palace guard had no other choice but to get up and charge toward me.

Swinging his spear, I block and grab it. Pulling the guard toward me, I shoot out my arm and knock him down. The guard doesn't even hit the stairs before I hear dozen of voices coming from up above. Looking further up, I see more palace guards running down the stairs toward me.

Prepare to fight every single one of them, Superman beats me to the punch and freezes all of them with his frost breath. Freezing not only them but also the reminding dogs and about half the stairs, he looks at himself with the new excellneno-suit.

"I never had this much power before," he says, "This is incredible."

"Don't get used to it," I say, running up the stair. "I want all of those back after our truce is over."

"Fine," Superman grunts as he flies beside me. Using my swords, I climb up the frozen stairs and reach the top in a matter of seconds. Seeing a grand set of doors in our path, Superman and I easily break down them and enter Darkseid's throne room.

"Darkseid," Superman shouts as he flies in. "Darkseid, where are you? Face you!"

While Superman hovers in the air and I stay on the ground, we both scan the area.

"It's empty," Superman says, "There's no one here."

"No," I say, placing my hand flat on the ground. "There's someone here. There are two people here. Behind you!"

Superman looks behind only to be hit with omega beams. Even with his yellow ring and my suit, Superman is knocked into a wall.

"Superman," I shout, looking at a dust cloud. I try to check up on Superman but stop when I hear something coming up from the side. Looking, I see dual laser beams moving in crooked lines.

"What the--?"

Crossing my swords, I managed to withstand the laser beams.

"Wait, crooked lines? Omega beams move in crooked lines, and only Darkseid had omega beams."

I replay what happen a few seconds ago.

"The laser beams that hit Superman," I think to myself. "They came from over there. Meanwhile, these beams came from there. They moved in a crooked pattern. Wait, these move in a crooked pattern, but the beams that hit Superman didn't."

As I think about it, I see laser beams shooting out in a straight line. Screaming as I push back against the omega beams, the beams finally stop.

"Please be wrong," I say, "Please be wrong. Please let me be wrong."

Unfortunately, I wasn't wrong.

Stepping out from an adjacent room, Darkseid shakes the whole room as he enters, his footsteps leaving holes with every step. As Darkseid enters the room, I look up and see Kara flying out from the shadow with bright-red eyes.

As she flies out, I notice she isn't wearing her blue and red suit. Instead, she's wearing some sort of black suit with something on her head.

"Kara," I say, stepping forward. "Kara, what are you doing?"

"I'm ending this," Kara yells back. She fires again, laser beams shooting from her eyes and hitting Superman. Superman screams as Kara burns him.

"Kara," I yell, "Knock it off. Now!"

"Why," she yells back, looking at me now with bright-red eyes. "Why? Isn't this the whole point? Isn't this why we're fighting in the first place? Kal-El had taken control of the planet, and now it's up to us to take him down. Before he kills anyone else."

"Yes. We're trying to take him down but we're not trying to kill him! Kara, stop this now! For crying out loud, he's your cousin!"

As soon as I said those words, Kara stopped shooting. The dust cloud finally dispenses and I can see Superman laying in a hole in the wall. He doesn't look hurt, but he does look horrified.

"That doesn't mean anything," Kara says, "After all, he locked me up for three months. His own cousin."

"I know Kara, but--"

Before I can finish, Superman blasts Kara with his yellow ring. Kara screams as Superman pushes her back. Once far enough away, Superman focuses and traps Kara in a bubble.

"That's enough Kara," Superman says.

"No," Kara says. "It's not."

Superman and I watch as Kara reaches behind her. She pulls something out and shows it to us.

"A red lantern ring," I say, remembering that I gave one to Kara so she could give it to Atrocitus. "Wait, Kara! No!"

My pleading falls on deaf ears. Kara places the red ring on her finger.

Saint Walker:

"Saint Walker," a voice calls out. "Saint Walker. I know you can hear me."

I open my eyes and find myself floating in a strange void. There is no ground or sky. There is nothing around except for me.

"Saint Walker," the voice calls out again. I turn around and see the Earthling with the red ring. Only this time, he does not have the red ring with him. Similar to myself, he is floating in the void with me.

"Please listen to me," he says. "I need your help."

"What is going on," I ask, staring at my hand. For some unknown, I can see right through my hand. "What is this place?"

"It is a sort of astral plane," the Earthling answers. "Only our minds are here. Our bodies are elsewhere."

"Elsewhere," I repeat. As I try to think, I remember being in a fight against many green lanterns. "I was wounded if I remember correctly. What happens afterward?"

"Afterward, you were carried onto my ship where you are currently resting and healing. Your body is in one of my machines. It is accelerating the healing rate."

"If my body is on your ship," I start, "Then how did my mind get here?"

"I brought you here," the Earthling says, spreading out my hands. "The reason is that, once more, I need your help."

"With what?"

"I need your blue lantern ring."

Harleen:

Running down the stairs and through the hallways as fast as I can, I see the super parademons snooping through our rooms.

"Hey," I shout, pulling back both my arms and a hammer forming right in it. Slamming it down, I crush the first super parademon. The second one seeing me, roars and lunges for me. I jump back and switch my giant hammer for dual pistols. Bullets fly through the parademon before it falls to the floor.

Running and jumping over the fallen parademons, I check around to make sure the hallways are clear. Thankfully, they are, but only for a short time.

I hear a bunch of footsteps above and more snarling coming from where the stairs are.

"I don't have much time," I think. Giving the hallway one last look, I make a beeline straight for the doctor.

"Doc," I say, pounding on the door. "Doc, are you okay? Are you hurt? Can you hear me? Come on, say something! You lost your hand! Not your ears!"

"Thank you for reminding me of that," the Doc yells from the other side of the door. "Don't worry. Arisia and I are fine. So is the blue lantern alien. Whatever his name is. Listen, what is going on up there? What are the green lanterns doing now?"

"That was like ten minutes ago," I shout, "Now it's super parademons."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Listen, just barricade the doors and don't let anyone in."

"I am way, way ahead of you!"

"You and Arisia just stay safe, okay?"

I nod my head and turn away. As I do, I see the face of a parademon.

Superman:

I scream as I am blasted out of the building. Swinging my arms and clearing away all the dust, I look to see Kara, now wearing a red lantern suit with mask. The red ring on her finger is glowing brightly as she approaches me.

"I have to stop you," Kara says, rising her red ring and firing. "I can't let you hurt any more innocent people."

Kara fires off a bright-red beam. Rising my hand, I summon a yellow wall to block the attack. Flying to the side, I fire off a yellow beam. The yellow beam comes close to hitting Kara but Kara swings her hand and fires off a wave of red energy. The red energy collides with the yellow beam and cancels each other out.

"Kara," I yell, using my heat vision. "Stop this!"

Kara uses her own heat vision and pushes against mine. Unlike before, her heat vision seems stronger. It pushes against mine until I couldn't hold it anymore. Her heat vision hits me in the eye and blinds me.

Blinking over and over again, I see a blurry Kara using her red ring to cut off the top of a nearby building and grab it. She then slams the building's top onto me, crushing me against it and the metal ground.

The Man:

I scream as Darkseid hits me with his omega beams. The beams hit and knock me through a stone pillar. Slamming me into a wall, I fall down, the upper half of the stone pillar falling right onto me.

Shaking the dust from my hair as I push myself up, I look at Darkseid calmly walking toward me.

"I don't know how you got past my super parademon and my palace guards," Darkseid says. "But I do know this. You will not get past me."

Reaching me, Darkseid grabs my neck collar and lifts me up. His fist glows as he pulls it back. Punching me with his glowing fist, Darkseid sends me flying through the throne room. Coughing while using my sword to pull myself up, I shake my head and focus once more.

"Are you okay," Saint Walker asks, "What is happening to you?"

"I'm fine," I say, struggling to keep my mind in the astral plane. I shake my head to regain my bearing. "Saint Walker, please listen to me. Even if you have no reason to."

Saint Walker nods his head.

"I will listen to you," Saint Walker says. "You need my blue lantern ring to save the female Kryptonian who had been taken over by Darkseid."

Saint Walker looks down at his hand, the blue lantern ring right there on his finger.

"But you must know that I cannot. My blue lantern ring is like a green lantern ring. The ring chooses you. You do not choose it."

About to reply, I stop.

"Please excuse me."

I open my eyes and find myself back in Darkseid's throne room. Once more, he is standing in front of me. His fists are glowing again and he is about to punch me.

Moving fast, I cross my dual swords and counter Darkseid's punch. Darkseid's punch sliding alongside my blade, I lead it to the floor where Darkseid slams and cracks the floor. Sliding around him, I cut his leg. Darkseid screams as he drops to a knee. Once on his knee, I jump and kick Darkseid to the floor.

"I only have a few seconds," I think, closing my eyes and returning to Saint Walker.

"I know about the rings," I say quickly, "I know how the rings choose their owners, but you should know that I have used your ring before. Shortly after you were knocked out, I had to use your ring and a red ring to shield my ship from Mogo's attack."

"What," Saint Walker shouts, "You used my ring? That's impossible."

"No, it is not. There are secrets to the rings that only I know. Including how to properly wield them. Even if they don't choose me."

"If that is true, then why are you asking me for my ring? Why don't you just take it?"

"Because I am asking for your permission, and your help. Please, Saint Walker, lend me your ring so I may help Kara."

Saint Walker stares at his ring for a while before looking up at me.

"Of course," he says, pulling off the ring and giving it to me. "Use it well."

"Thank you," I say, taking the ring. We nod our heads and the astral plane disappears. I reopen my eyes to see Kalibak running up to me. Swinging his mace, he hits me and sends me flying through the air.

It isn't even a full minute after I fall back on the ground that Kalibak jumps and lands on top of me. Once he had me pinned to the ground, he raises his mace.

Cheetah:

Shooting out my claws and digging them into the floorboard, I'm able to withstand the super parademon's punch. However, I can still feel my stomach aching.

"Ahh," I moan, holding my stomach. The super parademon roars as it jumps and flies into the air. Snarling as I pull up my hand, I jump into the air and cut the super parademon, the monster falling as my newly enhanced claws tear it apart.

Trying to use these few seconds to catch my breath, I stop when I hear someone screaming. Looking up, I see a super parademon holding Green Arrow by his arm. His bow on the floor beneath him, the super parademon blasts Green Arrow with its laser vision. Green Arrow is knocked into the ship's railing. He is screaming as the super parademon keeps up his laser vision.

Once more, I snarl before running toward the super parademon. Jumping and leaping past a few parademons, I jump and cut this parademon right out of the way. Landing and skidding on the floor, I run and grab the bow before the parademon could fall on it.

"Here," I say, throwing his bow at him.

Shaking his head as he pulls himself up, Green Arrow takes his bow back.

"Thanks," he says.

"Don't mention it."

About to run off, I stop when I see the war machines moving aside. They're clearing a path for something. No, no something but someone.

"Who are they," I ask, looking over the ship to see some old lady with four other women. They're all standing in the middle of war machines, and for some strange reason, the war machines have stopped shooting.

"Furies," the old lady yells, raising some sort of staff. "Attack!"

I watch as one out of the four women grabs a nearby war machine and throws it at the ship.

"Watch out," Green Arrow shouts, tackling me to the floor.

The Man:

Holding up one of my swords, I block Kalibak's mace. While he pushes against my sword, he raises his mace again and tries to hit me. However, in that split second, I reach for a kunai and throw it. It explodes and unleashes a smoke cloud that forces Kalibak back. As he steps back, I spin and push myself up.

Still stunned by the smoke, I run up and punch Kalibak in his stomach before punching him across the face. Knocking Kalibak into the air and through a wall, I turn to see Darkseid looking at me.

"You're stronger than you look," he says, his arms falling to his sides. "No matter. You cannot beat me."

"Believe me," I say, adjusting my sunglasses. "I can, but I won't. At least, not like before."

Darkseid jumps into the air and fires his omega beams. The beams travel in a crooked pattern as they head for me. Jumping and rolling out of the way of the beams, I look up to see Darkseid falling toward me. Once more, I jump out of the way but while in mid-air, Darkseid grabs me. Holding me in front, he punches me with a glowing fist. The attack sends me flying through the air and crashing through the wall, exactly like Kalibak.

Superman:

Kara screams as she pulls her hand before shooting it forward. A bright-red beam shoots out and comes for me. Barely flying out of the way in time, I fly toward Kara as fast as I can. Reaching her before she could react, I grab her neck and punch her in the head over and over again.

"Kara," I shout, "Knock it off! Stop this now!"

"Never," Kara shouts back. Once more, she fires a red beam but unlike before, it hits me. The beam pushes me back. Pulling back her hands once more, she fires a red beam for the third time. Seeing this, I fire off my own beam: a yellow beam.

Our beams hit and push against each other. Using my laser vision, I hit Kara, her beam stopping. With her red beam gone, my yellow beam is able to hit her. Stunned for a bit, I take this opening to fly and punch Kara across the face. Falling a bit, I combine my hands together and slam them down onto Kara.

"Kara," I yell, "Come on. Stop this already. Even with a red ring, you're not strong enough to beat me."

"You're right," Kara says, breathing heavily suddenly. "You are too strong for me. I can't beat you. No matter what I do. No matter how hard I fight. I just can't do it. I can't beat you!"

She slams her hands against her head and starts to scream. As she screams, I notice the device on her head glowing brighter.

"What is that," I think.

Kara's hands fall to her sides and she looks up at me with dark-red eyes. She fires lasers from her eyes. The lasers heading for me, I shoot out my ring and summon a wall to block the laser visions.

As I hold back the laser visions, I see someone flying through the air. He crashes through the wall and is heading for one of these fire pillars.

"Oh no," I say, realizing something. There are only two people in Darkseid's throne room, and the person heading for the fire pillar is too small to be Darkseid.

Darkseid:

I watch from my throne room as the Earthling is falling toward one of my fire pillars.

"There is no way he can survive that," I think, "He'll be burnt alive."

As I wait and watch, something small and blue shoots past my head.

"What was that?"

The Man:

Saint Walker's blue ring reaches me, I grab it while flying through the air. Putting it on, I feel a surge of blue energy rush throughout me. Just as I enter the flame, I swing my arm and call forth an explosion of blue energy. The blue energy completely put out the fire.

All the way from his throne room, I can still see Darkseid. Only this time, his mouth is open a little.

"Surprise, surprise," I say, looking down at Saint Walker's ring. "Thank you again for the blue ring."

Looking back up at Darkseid, I leave him to find Superman and Kara. It doesn't take me long to find them.

"Wait," Superman says as soon as he sees me. "You have a blue lantern ring? How did you get a blue lantern ring? I have never heard of one before."

"I'll tell you later," I answer, "Assuming, of course, the truce still stands."

Seeing Kara still with the red ring on her finger, I hold up the blue ring for her to see.

"Red isn't exactly your color," I yell, "Kara. Give me the ring."

"You're against me now," Kara says, panting for some reason. "I can't believe it. I thought you were on my side. I thought you wanted to defeat Superman!"

"I do," I say, eyeing Superman. "But not like this. This is the wrong way."

"It's the only way," Kara shouts, rising the ring. "And if you can't see that, then I'm afraid I have to fight through you too."

"No," I say, shaking my head. "No. It is not the only way. Remember Kara. Remember the House of El. It stands for hope. So this does ring. Hope may fade but it never dies. There will always be a spark. A tiny spark of hope."

My words seem to be working. The red ring's glow seems to be dying down. However, while the glow is dying down, the glow on the device on Kara's head lights up. She screams as she slams her hands on her head.

"What's going on," I say, backing up.

"I have no idea," Superman answers, backing up beside me.

Before any of us could do anything, the red glow returns and Kara is grinding her teeth against each other.

"That machine," I think, looking closely at it. "We need to destroy it, but first."

I close my eyes and hold Saint Walker's ring in front of my face.

"Keep an eye out please," I say to Superman.

"Uhh," Superman says, "What?"

"Keep an eye out," I repeat, "I'm going to have a talk with Kara."

With Saint Walker's ring, I summon a large bubble to shield Superman and myself. Once safely in, I use a bit of my own power and the power of the blue ring to project myself into a sort of spirit.

"I doubt Kara would answer me like Saint Walker did," I told myself.

With my spirit power by the blue ring, I aim and fire. A tiny blue beam shoots out. Kara sees the beam and tries to stop it with the red ring but it's no use. The blue beam shoots right through the red energy before it hits Kara in her chest.

The Man:

My eyes snap open and I find myself floating in a dark, empty void. As far as the eyes can see, there isn't anything here.

"Hello," I shout. I hope to hear the sound of my echo but there is no echo. I really am in a void. "But wait, this can't be right. This is supposed to be Kara's mind. Why is it so empty? Why does it feel so cold in here?"

I can see my breath as clear as day. Every time I breathe out, even through my nose, I can see white smoke. I look down at my transparent blue arm and despite it being ghost-like, I think I can see what looks like frostbite on it.

"I like the cold, but this is going a bit too far."

My head turning left and right, I scan for Kara.

"Kara," I shout, "Kara! Where are you? It's me. I'm here to help you!"

There is no reply.

"Shoot," I cry.

Flying around the void, I look all over for where Kara could be.

"Kara! Kara! Where are you? Can you hear me? Hello?"

I feel like I'm flying through space. Only without the stars, planets, or asteroids. Screaming and cursing, I look at my pale-blue hand again.

"Hmm," I think. I adjust my sunglasses, making sure it isn't loose. "I have to be careful."

Focusing, I start to glow brighter. The black space around me is starting to turn blue. It takes only a few more seconds before I pull myself apart. My head separates front before my body splits into two. My legs are the final things to pull themselves apart.

Despite there being two of me now, I knew it would not be enough.

"Kara's mind is big. I need to copy myself a few more times in order to search it completely."

"Are you sure that's a wise move," my copy asks. "If we copy ourselves too many times over, we'll drain the blue ring's power fast, and once the ring's power is drained, we'll have to use our own power. I must remind the risk of using our own power."

I look at myself in the sunglass.

"I know," I answer, "But for the time being, we have no other choice. Are you ready?"

"Yeah," my copy grunts.

With a nod of our heads, we start to separate over and over again. Soon, there are dozens of us, all flying in different directions.

"When one of us found Kara," copy #56 telepathic says.

"Alert the others,", copy #48 finishes.

All of me search frantically for Kara. We go as far as possible, flying high and low, turning left and right, and even circling back to triple-check an area if we must.

While flying through the void, I notice something off. There, not too far in the distance, seem to be a little silver of something. It appears to be some sort of platform, with Kara right on top of it.

"I find her," copy #8 yells. "Everyone, return to me at once."

Despite none of the others being around me, I can sense them nodding their heads. Simultaneously, they are turned into blue beams and fly right into me.

"Now that I'm back in one piece," I think, slowly hovering toward Kara. As I approach Kara, I start to hear her voice. It sounds like her but it isn't her.

"You can't do anything," Kara says. "You can't beat him. He's too strong. You failed the world. You failed Bruce when he needed you the most."

"I tried," Kara cries. The Kara I see is on her knees. Her head is lowered and she looks lifeless. "I tried to help Bruce."

"You tried but you couldn't do it," the other Kara shouts. "You failed Bruce. You failed Batman and now he is under your evil cousin's control. Not only him but all of the world. You couldn't do anything. Even with all your powers, you couldn't do anything, and you still can't."

Landing on the little sliver of the platform with the downed Kara, I take a step but stop almost immediately. There are shards of glass I didn't notice before. They're all around us, and they seem to show Kara's memory. I see Kara crying as she is talking to a woman with long blond hair, very similar to Kara.

"Alura In-Ze," I think, recognizes Kara's mother. It's only a few minutes later when Alura is murdered and Krypton is destroyed. Showing in another shard is when I think Kara learned the truth about Superman. When she learned that he killed the Joker. The final shard is showing Kara back in her cell. Superman is glowing Brainiac armor is standing before her, and a mind-controlled Batman walked up to her. Kara turns to see this but the seconds she does, she cries and looks back down.

"Hey Kara," I say, placing my hand on her shoulder. She doesn't respond. "Hey, Kara. It's me. You remember me, right."

Once more, she doesn't respond. She doesn't even bother to look at me. The only things that answer me are the annoying shards of glass.

"Okay, that's enough! Piss off all of you!"

Holding up two fingers, I swing my hand and send out a wave of blue energy. The waves of blue energy cut right through the glass shards and destroy them. The leftover pieces fall to the ground where they stay for a bit before disappearing completely.

Destroying every single shard until none are left, I then turn toward Kara. She is still down on the ground. Even with the shards gone, I know Kara can still hear the voice.

Standing in front of her, I drop to a knee and place my two fingers on the top of her head.

"Kara," I think. "I know you can hear me. Focus on my voice. My voice only. I know you think you failed. I know it seems hopeless. I know it seems like Superman is invincible but you must remember never to give up. There will always be dark times ahead. The dark times are easy to remember because they haunt you like ghosts. They whisper in your ears, remind you of everything you did wrong."

I see a tear falls and hits the ground.

"But that is why you must fight to remember the better times," I say. "Remember. Remember."

I show Kara all the times she did not fail. I show her fight against Nightwing. I remind her of our fights against the Dr. Fate clones.

"Kara, everyone in life had failures and successes. Everyone had their ups and downs. Everyone thinks they are worthless at one point or another but they are wrong. You are wrong. You cannot control the failures, but you can control your successes. Make this one of them. Break free of Darkseid's control and come back to me."

I pull back my fingers and open my eyes. As soon as they open, I see Kara looking up at me. Despite the tears pouring out from her eyes, I can see she is smiling. Her smile is weak and shaking but it is still a smile.

"Hey Kara," I say, "How's life?"

"It's a little better now," she replies. Without any warning, without saying a word, Kara suddenly leans forward and hugs me. She squeezes the life out of me.

"There, there," I say, hugging and patting her back. "It's not your fault. It's that stupid thing Darkseid stuck on your head."

"I know," she cries, "I know, but still. I have lost so much in such a short time. I have failed so many times. Every time I try to help, someone gets hurt."

"I know the feeling. Believe me. We have a lot of skills and powers, but we are not gods. Things will happen with or without us. Still. We can control our own--"

"Successes," Kara says, finishing my sentence.

We part ways and look at each other.

"Why are you blue, and see-through? Oh my god. Are you a ghost?"

"No, no, no," I say with a shake of my head and hands. "Well, sort of but not exactly."

"I don't get it."

"I'll explain later."

"You say that a lot but so far, you never have."

I slap myself in the face.

"Listen, Kara," I say, grabbing both of Kara's shoulders. "Just wake up, okay? Just wake up, and don't ask too many questions. There are a lot of confusing things going on right now, but for now, just wake up. I'll see you on the other side."

With that, I leave Kara's mind.

The Man:

Once more, my eyes snap open and I find myself alone.

"Superman," I say, "Superman. Hello? Where are you? Where did you?"

I look around and notice something off. The blue bubble I summoned before. It's gone. I'm exposed.

"Someone must have attacked while I was in Kara's mind. That's why Superman is gone, but who? Darkseid."

I turn around and look through the hole in the back of his throne room. The throne room is empty.

About to fly off to find Superman, I stop when I hear a familiar voice. Turning around, I see Kara holding her hand and shaking as she tries to stay in the air.

"Kara," I say, flying over to her. "Hey, easy there."

Looking down, I realize I'm flying instead of using a hoverboard. Using Saint Walker's blue ring, I summon a hoverboard and stand on it. I make sure to summon an extra-large hoverboard so Kara can rest on it. That darn thing is still on her head so I grab and crush it.

"Ahh," Kara moans. She is still shaking despite standing on my hoverboard. Shaking her head, she finally looks up at me and smiles.

"Is this," she starts, "Is this real?"

"Yeah," I say, "It's real alright. Why do you ask?"

"Because you're still blue."

"Oh yeah. That's because of this."

I show Kara Saint Walker's ring. As I show her the blue ring, I realize something. Kara is still wearing the red ring. Without the device on her head, Kara lost her rage and anger. She isn't wearing the red lantern armor anymore and the ring seems to have lost its glow.

"Let's trade," I suggest. "Give me your hand."

Kara is hesitant at first but nods her head and gives me her hand a second later. Her hand on mine, I take the red ring off and slowly slide the blue ring on.

"This is more your color," I say, stepping back as Kara is slowly encased in the blue lantern armor. A massive burst of blue energy knocks me off the disappearing hoverboard.

"No," Kara says, looking down. However, as I fall, I put on the red ring and encase myself in red lantern armor. Now summing a red hoverboard, I fly back up.

"This feels better," Kara says, spreading out her arms.

"Yeah," I say, clearing my throat and looking away. "As I said, blue is more your color."

While looking away, I hear screaming and the sound of a fist fight.

"Come on," I say, nudging my head. "This way! Superman may need our help!"

"Wait," Kara says, flying after me. "Superman!"

"Oh yeah," I say, tapping my head. "Uhh, we're in the middle of a truce. Basically, this is what is going on."

Superman:

Screaming as Darkseid grabs and throws me into one of the war machines, I crawl out of the war machine only to have Kalibak runs up and hit me with his mace. He hits and knocks me to the ground.

Kalibak roars as he jumps and tries to hit me with his mace again. Swinging and holding out my yellow ring, I summon a barrier to protect me. Hitting the barrier, Kalibak's mace bounces off of it. He's stunned for only a second, and in that second, I hit him with a yellow beam. This time, it's me who knocks Kalibak to the ground.

I don't even have time to catch my breath before Darkseid appears in front of me. He raises both his hands and slams them against the yellow barrier over and over. I can feel each hit and it's not long before the barrier starts to fade.

"You grow tired," Darkseid says, slamming the barrier once more. "You can rest when you're dead."

My barrier flashes as Darkseid raises his fist once more. Preparing for it to shatter and Darkseid to grab me, a blue wave from nowhere hits and knocks Darkseid back.

"Thanks for the help," I say, turning around. "Where's Kara?"

"I'm right here," Kara answers while holding up a blue ring. I rub my eyes just to be sure I wasn't seeing this.

"Kara," I say, "You have a blue ring?"

"It's all thanks to him," Kara says. She points at the man with the sunglasses, only now, instead of a blue ring, he had a red one. "He explained everything to me by the way. I know about the temporary truce. So for now, we're going to fight together. At least, until we can leave Apokolips. Understood."

"Understood," I reply. The barrier fading, I jump into the air and fly up to the two. Turning around, we face Darkseid.

"Three rings," the man says, holding up his red ring. "One Darkseid. Let's see how he handles this."

The man looks toward Kara and me and nods his head. I nod my own head and Kara does the same. Together, we charge toward Darkseid.

Supergirl:

The first to reach Darkseid, The Man jumps off his red hoverboard and sends it flying into Darkseid. Seeing this, Darkseid uses his laser vision to destroy the hoverboard. His lasers cut right through the hoverboard and straight for The Man.

"Watch out," Superman yells, just as The Man jumps out of the way. As he jumps, he summons two axes that form in his hands. Landing and spinning around, he throws the axes and they both hit Darkseid.

Darkseid screams as the axes hit him, one against the shoulder and the other on his arm. They shatter when they hit Darkseid but despite breaking, they are able to force Darkseid to cross his arms. With his arms crossed, he couldn't do anything when The Man pulls back both his hands. A massive hammer forms in them, The Man throws it and hits Darkseid.

Darkseid is thrown into the air, and while in the air, Superman flies in from the side and rams into Darkseid. Pushing and throwing Darkseid into a dragon-shaped tank, Superman flies back.

Seeing an opening, I use my new blue ring and blast the tank with Darkseid in it, the whole thing exploding.

The three of us regroup and look at each other.

"There's no way it's that easy," Superman says.

"Agree," The Man says, "I fought Darkseid many times before, and have seen him survive worst."

"Fought Darkseid before," I repeat in my head. "What are you talking about?"

I can't ask The Man. I hear a bunch of familiar voices and turn around.

"Dinah," I shout, seeing Dinah on the Rusted. She's looking badly beaten up. She and everyone else; Cheetah, Reverse-Flash, Selina. Even Cyborg and Hawkgirl. They were all beaten and laying on the floor, surrounded by parademons. Standing on top of them are four women and an elderly woman.

"Granny," The Man says, "And her Female Furies: Stompa, Mad Harriet, Lashina, and Gilotina."

"You know them," Superman asks.

"Again, I've fought all of them before. They killed me a few times."

"Wait," I say, "What?"

Before The Man could answer, he turns his head.

"Watch out," he screams, using his red ring to push Superman and me out of the way. While doing so, I see a tall and skinny man in a cloak standing beside one of the war machines. The war machine he is standing beside fires at The Man, only it not fires the war machine is shooting. It's a rocket. A rocket so powerful, it hits and knocks The Man out of the sky.

"Noo," I cry, trying to fly to The Man after his sacrifice. However, something happens to Superman. Something hits him and knocks him out of the sky. He falls to the ground and I follow after him.

"Superman," I say, looking at Superman as he holds his chest. "What happened? What was that?"

"That was my omega beams," a voice answers. I shake my fist as I turn around. Standing before me and Superman is Darkseid. Despite everything we did, he looks completely unharmed.

"I see you managed to break free of DeSaad's device," Darkseid says. "Well, too bad. If you would have kept it on, you may have survived this."

Darkseid's eyes turn dark red. A second later, he shoots his laser visions. Using my own laser visions, I try to push back against Darkseid but his omega beams are stronger. As they get closer, I shoot out my hand and summon a barrier to protect us.

The barrier manages to protect us but it shatters after a while. Darkseid's own omega beams disappear, I try to use this small opening to grab Superman and fly away but Darkseid appears in front of us and knocks me down.

Hitting the ground, I rub my head as I look up. Both of Darkseid's hands are glowing. He is staring down at us with a smile.

"This is the end," he says, rising his hands. Slamming them down, I rise my arms to protect Superman, but Superman comes up from behind me and gets in front.

Kara:

"Kal-El," I shout, waving away the dust in front of me. Hardly doing anything, I instead use my super breath to breathe away all the dust. As the last of the dust clears away, I'm seeing something I couldn't believe.

"What," I say. Darkseid had slammed his hands down. I think he was trying to kill Superman and me. I tried to protect Superman, but he pushed me out of the way and instead tried to take the hit. He tried to take the hit but someone else took it for him.

"You," Darkseid says, looking down at The Man. The Man is holding up Darkseid's hands, and we're both right behind him.

"Enough," The Man yells. His voice sounds different. It doesn't sound like before. He doesn't sound calm or cold. He sounds angry.

"Enough," The Man yells again. He pulls back his head before shooting it forward. As he does, The Man breathes fire. The fire is unlike anything I've ever felt. I can feel my skin burn as The Man burns Darkseid. Darkseid screams and it seems he struggles to break free of The Man but The Man wouldn't let go.

"Father," a tall man with pitch-black hair yells. He runs toward Darkseid and The Man with a mace in his hand.

The Man:

Screaming and unleashing my dragon flame, I see Kalibak running toward me from the corner of my eyes. As he gets closer, I let go of Darkseid's hand and punch him, knocking him through the ground and toward the Rusted. He hits the side of her before falling to the ground.

My mouth is still full of fire when Kalibak reaches me. Raising his mace and trying to hit me, I grab it with one hand and grab his throat with my other.

"I will destroy you," Kalibak screams as he tries to break free. "You are nothing! I will end yo--"

The adrenaline runs from Kalibak's eyes as I stare at him. His boiling blood freezes over. He is no longer in fighting spirit. Instead, he is scared. His eyes are wide as I stare into them.

"When you see your father," I whisper, choking him as I pull him closer. "Tell him congrats. He broke me. Darkseid broke me, and now, I have to use five percent of all my powers."

Kalibak is shaking as I speak. He shakes even further when he sees glowing black lines travel from my eyes throughout my body. As the black lines reach my hand, the red lantern ring I have shattered.

"Too much anger," I say. "And raw power."

Now covered in black lines, Kalibak and I watch as literal parts of my skin open up and tiny bugs crawl out. They crawl out from my skin and right onto Kalibak. He screams and drops his mace. Now trying to hit the bugs off, I throw him to the side.

"Wh--What," Superman stutters as he looks at a wailing and panicking Kalibak before looking at me.

"Look away," I order, "Don't look at me! Both you and Kara cannot look at me as I do this!"

Jumping and flying into the air, I look at Granny and her Furies as they surround Darkseid. Darkseid is holding his hips while pulling himself up. Close to standing fully up, he coughs before dropping to a knee.

"Everyone," I shout, looking at the Rusted. "Close your eyes! Now!"

"Super parademons," Darkseid yells while still on his knee. "Granny! Furies! DeSaad! Attack him! Destroy him!"

He points a shaking finger at me. Immediately, all the super parademons, all the war machines, Granny and her female furies, all charge toward me.

"Close your eyes," I repeat, seeing a few people with their eyes open. "Do it now! Now!"

Finally, everyone closes their eyes. They shut their eyes and hold their hands over them. The second they do, I grab the earpiece of my sunglasses.

"Everyone wants to know who I am behind the sunglasses," I say as the super parademons quickly approach me. "Well here. Have a peek."

I pull off my sunglasses and show everyone what I look like. As soon as the super parademons see me, they all begin to fall. Some of parademons are frozen, turned into ice and shattering when they hit the ground. Other parademons are lit ablaze. They scream and yell as hellfire consumes them, turning them into ashes. Many starts to go crazy. White foams fall from their mouths as they lash out at other nearby parademons. It's nothing but chaos as the super parademons look at me.

A few sneak up from behind me and use their newfound laser visions to try and burn me. However, as I feel the beams hit my body, I begin to absorb them. I keep on absorbing the laser beams, and even when the super parademons tried to stop, they couldn't. I absorb the power right from their heads, destroying them in the process.

Once charge up, I pull in my arms and legs before shooting them out. Shooting out all the power I absorbed, I hit not only parademons but also many war machines. They explode and burst into flames. DeSaad who is among the war machines screams and falls to the ground. He tries to get away but an exploding war machine lands on top of him.

"Darkseid," I say, seeing the bastard still on his knees. Quickly descending toward him, I hear screaming coming from behind. Turning my head, I see Mad Harriet, grinning as she jumps toward me with her energy claws.

Eyeing Mad Harriet, her grin disappears as black lines travel up her body. In less than a second, she explodes

"Mad Harriet," Granny yells, watching from nearby as Mad Harriet disappears into a burst of orange and yellow. She growls and whips the ground before pointing at me. "Attack him! Attack him with everything you have!"

As all three of the Female Furies charge toward me, I show them my eyes. The second they see it, they stop and start to change. Stompa drops to her knees as she starts to age. In a matter of seconds, she is wrinkled and impossibly thin. Lashina struggles to fight it but it's no use. Mini black holes form all over her, sucking her in. She too disappears completely in only seconds. Gilotina falls flat against the ground as she is turned into stone, render completely harmless.

"Your Furies have fallen," I say, stepping toward Granny. "You're next."

"No," Granny says, stepping back. She snaps her whip at me but with one glare, her whip turns into something else. It hisses before wrapping itself around Granny's neck. I walk past Granny as she falls to the ground.

"Your parademon army is defeated," I say, walking up to Darkseid. "Your war machines are ruined. Kalibak is gone. DeSaad is crushed. Granny and her Furies have fallen. You are the last one."

Darkseid must have realized what is going on. He is looking away from me.

"What," he stutters, still holding his waist. "What are you? Who are you?"

"I am someone that shouldn't exist," I answer, swallowing a lump in my throat. "But guess what. I do. I do exist. You, however, did exist."

Darkseid turns and fires his omega beams. They shoot toward me but before they can hit, I slap them away with a swing of my hand. As I hit them, they turn into a sort of glass, the glass beams breaking all the way until they reach Darkseid. He screams as his omega beams break and glass gets in his eyes.

Now blinded, I grab his shoulder and slam him into the Rusted. Once his back is toward the Rusted, I use my tiny hand to pin Darkseid via his throat.

"Listen to me well," I start, "Because I'm only going to say this once and only once."

The same black lines move from my own hand onto Darkseid's hand. He screams as they start to curse it. While this is happening, I stomp my foot against the ground, and the black lines move from my leg into the very ground itself.

"Considered yourself lucky you just lost your sight."

With that done, I spin around and throw Darkseid high into the air, right into space. He screams as he flies. Meanwhile, I look at the ground. As I stare at the ground, it starts to shake.

Green Arrow:

"What is going on," I yell, "Why is there an earthquake all of a sudden?"

Looking around, I see a barren wasteland, filled with the wreckage of burning, smoking war machines. Mixed in with the destroyed war machines are the super parademons. They're all laying on the ground, defeated.

"What happened? Did he do that? Where is he?"

Once more, looking around, I see some sort of black glow coming from over the side of the Rusted.

Walking over to the side, I peek over and see The Man.

Kara:

"What's going on," I scream, looking around to see cracks appearing all over the surface of Apokolips. Massive cracks literally break the surface and it's only a few seconds afterward when lava rises from the cracks. "What is going on?"

"I don't know," Superman screams, looking around and seeing the same things. "Wait, what happened? What happened to Darkseid? To the super parademons? To the war machines?"

I look around again and see more. There, laying before us and around the Rusted, are all the super parademons. I can't be sure but it looks like some of them were frozen while others seem to have just fallen without any injuries. It doesn't take long before some of the super parademons are consumed by the rising lava. As the lava keeps on rising, some of it shoots into the air and now it's raining fire.

"Get back," I say, pushing Superman back. We barely manage to dodge some droplets. I watch as they hit the ground and start to melt it.

"Kara," Superman yells, grabbing my shoulder. "Come on! We need to get out of here! Fly back to the ship!"

I shake Superman's hand off.

"Not yet," I scream. I look around and scan the area. "Where is he? Where is The Man?"

"What?"

"The Man in the Sunglasses. I don't see him anywhere! Do you see him?"

"No!"

"We have to find him! We can't leave without him!"

"Let's go then!"

With the lava at our feet, we both jump into the air and start to fly. Almost the whole area is already covered in lava. Somehow, the Rusted is able to survive it. It's floating on top of the lava as if the lava is nothing but simple water.

About to reach the ship, we stop when The Man appears right in front of us. He appears out of nowhere, flying and covered in strange glowing black cracks.

"Wait, you can fly," Superman asks, "Also, what happened to you? Why are you glowing like that?"

"Are you okay," I ask. I lend toward The Man, wanting to check for any bruises, but The Man flies back a little.

"Listen," The Man says, "Apokolips is on the verge of total destruction. We need to get out of here as soon as we can."

"Total destruction," I repeat. "Wait, how? Why? What happen?"

"Something very bad," The Man says. "Something that shouldn't have existed."

"Shouldn't have existed," I repeat to myself. "What is he talking about?"

I don't have any time to think about what The Man said. Lava shoots into the air near us and almost hit us. Using the blue ring, I summon a shield to protect the three of us.

"Come on," The Man yells, "To the Rusted! Kara, keep the ring up! Superman, you do the same!"

Superman nods his head and uses his yellow ring to shield us. Together, the three of us fly over to the Rusted.

"Superman," Woman Woman and Black Adam shout as soon as they see him.

"Supergirl," my friends shout as soon as they see me. "And The Man? You can fly?"

"Question later," The Man says, stepping onto the Rusted. The second his feet touch, he runs up the Rusted. "Escape now."

Jumping and landing behind the wheel, The Man activates the thrusters. They roar to life and push the Rusted through the lava.

"Everyone brace yourself," The Man orders, "This is going to be a bumpy takeoff!"

Immediately, we all grab onto whatever is nearest to us. A few of us hang onto the ship's railing. Some of us latch onto the ropes tied between the ground and the flag. I hug a cannon and prepare for the worst.

The Man:

The wind is pushing against me. Sweats from the intense heat are blinding me. The sound of everyone screaming is deafening me. However, I have to endure this. I have to hold on. I have to fight through everything. I look down and see my glowing hand. It's still pulsing, like a heartbeat.

"Calm down," I told myself as I close my eyes. "Calm down. Look at what you did already. You destroyed Apokolips. You need to calm down."

No matter how many times I told myself to calm down, I can still feel the black veins pulsing. I hear the sound of wood cracking and open my eyes.

"Shoot," I say, seeing the crushed remains of one of the wooden handles. I grind my teeth and throw the broken handle to the floor. I grab another handle and steer the Rusted. By now, practically all of Apokolips is covered. It's nothing more than one big ocean of orange and red.

Grabbing and pulling a lever down, all the thrusters change angle, and the Rusted shoots into the air. It rockets through the air and directly into space in only a few minutes. The Rusted still sailing at high speed, it doesn't take long before all the gauges and meters start to scream at me. They flash red and are telling me the Rusted is at her limit.

"I know I'm pushing you," I say, turning a dial and pushing a series of buttons. "I know I am to your limit and beyond, but we need you to come through for us! Come on! You can do this! I know you can!"

The gauges and meters crack. Pieces of the hull fly off into the void of space. The solar sail flag is shaking so fast it's ringing. It's ringing so fast that there are aliens on the other side of the universe wondering what that sound is.

I raise my hand and slam it down on the last button.  The Rusted shoots out a portal and we all go right through it.

"Is everyone okay," I ask as we exit the portal. I'm still pulsing but luckily, it seems to have died down a little. "Hey, is everyone okay? Is everyone still alive?"

Everyone reply with moans and groans. It takes a few minutes but Cold is the first to make an actual sentence.

"Define alive," he shouts, pulling himself up. He tries to stand up but falls over a cannon. "If this is living, then kill me now."

"Ahh, don't be so dramatic," I say with a wave of my hand.

"Dramatic," Cyborg repeats, "What the hell was that? What the hell happened to Apokolips? One minute, we're getting our asses kicked. The second, I hear nothing but explosions and screaming, and I don't think it was us. What the hell did you--"

Before Cyborg could finish, I walk down the stair and slap him on the back of the head.

"Don't swear," I say.

"What," Cyborg asks.

"Don't ask," Cheetah says while pulling her claws out from the floorboards.

"Where are we," Hawkgirl asks, standing up and looking around.

"We're back at Oa," I say. "Well, not exactly Oa. We're a few lightyears from Oa. Oa should be right over there."

I turn around and point to Oa, only to freeze immediately.

"Oa," Kara screams, running up the railing. The two of us couldn't believe our eyes. Oa, the once bright-green planet, home to the Green Lantern Corps., is covered in yellow spots.

"Oa," I say, clenching my fists. "It's under attack by yellow lanterns. It's under attack by yellow lanterns!"

I feel nothing but rage and anger. I want nothing but to destroy the man who lies to me.

"Superman," I yell, stomping my feet as I turn around. "You lied to me! You lied! You gave me your word! You gave me your words that your yellow lanterns wouldn't attack Oa! You bastard!"

"What are you talking about," Superman asks. He looks past me to see Oa under attack. "Wait, I didn't--"

I didn't want to hear another word out of Superman's mouth. I charge toward Superman and punch him across the face. He drops down flat against the floorboard.

"Superman," Wonder Woman yells. She and Black Adam grab my arms to try and stop me but it was no use. With a fling of my arms, I throw Wonder Woman and Black Adam to the side.

"Hey," Cyborg says activating his arm cannon. "Stop that now or I'll-"

I don't waste a second. I shoot out my hand and blast Cyborg, the tin man breaking the railing and almost going into deep space.

With Wonder Woman, Black Adam, and Cyborg down, I stomp on Superman, pinning him to the ground. With Superman trapped beneath my foot, I shoot out my hand again and pull out my sword. I then raise it high into the air.

Kara:

I can't believe what I'm seeing. The man is standing over Superman with his sword risen.

"It can't be," I tell myself, "No, it just can't be. The Man is going to impale Superman. This can't be right."

I don't know what I am thinking. I can't be sure of what is going on in my head, but for whatever reason, I can't let him do it. I jump and fly right into The Man, pushing him off Superman. We fall onto the Rusted's floor and keep on rolling over each other until The Man pins me down. I look at him as he pulls back his fist. He screams as he sends it forward.

"No," I scream, closing my eyes. As I close my eyes, I expect The Man to hit me. I keep waiting for it. I keep waiting for the moment when he punches me. Only, it never happens.

I slowly open my eyes to see The Man still in front of me, but it doesn't seem like The Man from before. His hand is shaking. He's breathing very heavily. The black glow on him is pulsing like crazy.

"Kara," he says before getting off of me. The second I can, I push myself back to my feet. As I get up, everyone else is completely frozen. They're all staring at me and The Man. I ignore the look and instead focus on The Man. For some reason, he's now stumbling around, his hands pushing against the sides of his head.

"Noo," he cries, dropping to his knees. "Noo! I need to stop! I need to stop!"

I drop to my own knees and place my hands on him.

"You need to stop what," I yell, grabbing onto him. "You need to stop what! What is going on? Tell me!"

The Man lowers his head. He starts to breathe even heavier. It sounds like he choking on something.

"Get the doctor," I yell, turning to the others.

Reverse-Flash and Dinah both nod their heads. They turn to leave but before they can take two steps, The Man shoots out his hand and stop them.

"No," The Man yells. "No. I am not important. Oa is. The green lanterns there are. They need our help! We're going to save them!"

"You can't be serious," Leonard says, "You still want to save those green bastards? After all they done to us? Why?"

"Because being a superhero sucks," The Man replies.

"Also, because whether or not they know it or want to admit it," Ganthet says as he and Atrocitus step out from the stairs. "The Green Lanterns Corps. require your aids. All of you."

"You're fighting with us," Oliver asks, "Can you even fight?"

Ganthet answers Oliver with a rise of his hand. He blasts the cannon Oliver is standing next to.

"Please don't do that again," The Man says walking up the stairs and to the Rusted's wheel. He grabs the wheel and turns us toward Oa. "Those cannons are not only over five hundred old years but have also been heavily modified."

"Where did you get five hundred years old cannons," Barry asks.

"Bottom of the Caribbean sea."

As the Rusted turns and flies toward Oa, I realize something

"Wait," I say, grabbing The Man's arm and looking around. "Where did Superman and the others go?"

Superman:

"Almost there you two," I say, looking down at Cyborg and Hawkgirl. Using my yellow ring, I shield the two in a bubble and fly with them beside Black Adam and Wonder Woman. Altogether the five of us all fly to Oa.

"I didn't give the order to attack," I say, looking at a yellow Oa. As we approach the planet, I see my ship hovering nearby. I stop and watch as one of the decks opens and out flies a dozen or some beta fliers. "Who gives the attack order?"

"I did," Wonder Woman says. "It seems like the wise choice. While the man with the sunglasses and the Insurgency were busy, we unleash a full-scale attack against the Green Lanterns Corps."

"We," I repeat. As I think about Wonder Woman's words, I also think about the man with the sunglasses.

"You lied to me," he yelled, "You lied to me! You gave me your words!"

As the man's words hit me over and over, I start to clench my hands. My fingernails are digging into my palm and my whole body is shaking.

"I'm ordering a full retreat," I say, looking right at Wonder Woman.

"What," she yells.

"I gave the man in the sunglasses my word that we would not attack Oa," I say. "And I intend to keep it."

"Yeah," Cyborg says, rising his fist from now below. "We gave our words. That means something."

"No," Wonder Woman replies. "You gave your words. The rest of us never did. Superman, think about it. Isn't this what we have been after? The end of the Green Lanterns? Once they are defeated, then we can replace them with Sinestro's yellow lanterns and ensure a new era of order."

Despite Wonder Woman's words, despite everything she said is true, despite this being the goal, I still couldn't get the man's word out of my head.

"I gave him my word," I think. "I gave him my word."

"It's all thanks to him," Kara said. "We're going to fight together."

I replay everything that happened back on Apokolips. It runs through my head. I see the man and me working together to free Kara from Darkseid's control.

I straighten myself and look away from Wonder Woman. I close my eyes and focus. Using Brainiac's technology, I begin to order everyone to fall back. I order all the beta fliers and troops to stop attacking. I order Sinestro to tell his yellow lanterns to fall back. Once I am done, I open my eyes.

"We're leaving," I say, flying toward my ship.

"What," Wonder Woman says, following after me.

"Superman," Black Adam says, he too chasing after me. "Wait. Superman, we can win this fight. The Green Lanterns are weak and vulnerable now, and we clearly have the advantage. All we have to do is push more and they will all fall."

I'm about to say something but before I can, I hear the sound of a green lantern shooting. I turn back to see Mogo, the living planet, fire off a single beam. With that single beam, he destroys countless fliers.

"If we push more," I say, turning back to Black Adam, "Then we are the ones that will fall. Mogo is too strong for any of us to face head-on. Even with the support of Sinestro's yellow lanterns."

"Do not worry," Wonder Woman says. "When our spies told us about the arrival of Mogo, I asked Bruce to prepare something for him. Thanks to him and Sinestro, we found our own Mogo."

"Our own Mogo," Cyborg repeats. We all look at my ship as it starts to shake. "Oh no. What did Batman and Sinestro find?"

The Man:

"Go, go, go," I shout as the Rusted enters a sky filled with raging green and yellow lanterns, all firing their rings. Putting the cannons on automatically, they start to fire at the yellow lanterns. They manage to knock a few yellow lanterns down but most of the yellow lanterns move faster than before.

They were able to fire yellow beams that shatter the cannonballs into dust. The same yellow lanterns that destroyed the cannonballs then shoot at us.

"Brace yourself," I yell, everyone once more gripping onto whatever is nearest to them. The Rusted's shield putting up a fight themselves, I look at the yellow lanterns and reach for the earpiece of my sunglasses.

"No," I say, stopping myself in time. "No. It's too dangerous."

I let go of my earpiece and reach for a handful of kunai from my jacket's inner pockets. Throwing every single one of them, they explode and unleash a mix of flashes, smoke clouds, and knock-out gases. Despite how many I manage to bring down, there are more yellow lanterns and even a few beta fliers to replace them.

As I reach for even more kunai, I stop when everything starts shaking. The ground, the sky, even the Rusted itself. They were all shaking.

"Oh, what now," I yell, dropping the kunai.

"No," Ganthet says from the main deck. "It can't be."

Laying on the ground, he pushes himself up and runs to the Rusted's railing. Looking up at the sky, we all copy him. As we look up, we see a massive black cloud covering the whole sky. The black cloud seems to be growing bigger by the second. As it grows, massive lines of yellow appear in it.

"I know this," Ganthet says.

"So do I," I say. "This is no cloud."

"Hold on," Kara says, looking at me. "If this isn't a cloud, then what is it?"

"His name is Parallax."

Parallax:

I feel my power grow as I loom over the home of the Green Lanterns. I can smell their fear. I can taste it. It tastes so sublime. As my power grows ever stronger, no one can stop me as I head for the central battery of the Green Lanterns.

The Man:

"I cannot believe it," Ganthet says, rubbing the sides of his blue head. "Sinestro had unleashed Parallax, but how?"

"I guess," I answer, "With a little help from Superman and his countless resources. We need to stop Parallax before he can destroy the Green Lanterns battery."

"The Green Lanterns Battery," Atroctius repeats, "How can you be sure he is heading there?"

"Well, for one," I say, putting up a finger. "He's floating in that general direction. Two, it's the quickest way to destroy all the Green Lanterns at once. By destroying the battery, all and every green lantern ring will immediately die out, rendering the holder completely powerless."

"And vulnerable to the betas and yellow lanterns," Cold adds, bringing up his cold gun, "But wait, isn't the central power already dead? I mean, wasn't that the whole reason for kicking out Laria and Arisia?"

"No," Laria says, all of us turning to face her now. Walking out from below deck, she had Saint Walker by her side. Laria raises her ring but it glows weakly. "According to the Guardians, our battery was drained of any extra power and damaged but it wasn't destroyed."

"Not yet," I say, turning to see Parallax still traveling. "Not if we don't do anything."

"So what's the plan," Green Arrow says, pulling out his bow and a few arrows. As he does this, everyone else starts to prepare. Cheetah's claws come out. Professor Stein and Jason fuse together. Jaime activates his blue beetle suit, his wings opening and his arm turning into a blade. As everyone else prepares, Saint Walker walks up to Kara. He points at her hand.

"Oh sorry," Kara says. She pulls off the blue ring and gives it back to Saint Walker. Saint Walker puts the ring back on and his blue suit and glow return.

"Hold on," I say, putting up a hand. "Almost everyone is here."

"Almost everyone," Flash repeats. "Who's not here?"

"Arisia. Where is she?"

"I couldn't convince her to join us," Laria says with a heavy sigh. "She's still in the infirmary with the doctor."

"Shoot," I say. "We don't have time to snap Arisia out of it."

"Go ahead," Harleen says, stepping forth. "Go and save the lousy green lanterns."

"Thanks," Laria says.

"I'll stay here and bring in the reinforcement, but first I need said reinforcement ring."

As Harleen holds out her hand, I look right at her. I stare Harleen right into her eyes. As I stare, I see a tiny spark of something.

"Here," I say, reaching into my pocket and giving her the ring. "Best of luck."

With that and a nod of her head, Harleen runs downstairs. Meanwhile, the rest of us walk to the railing.

"So again," Green Arrow says, looking at the yellow storm cloud as it is now firing yellow beams and destroying buildings along its way to the central building. "What's the plan?"

Harleen:

"Where is she," I yell as I kick open the infirmary's door. Running in, I look around but I don't see Arisia anywhere. The only person I see is Dr. Crane with his back against the wall.

"Do you not know how to knock," Dr. Crane yells, patting his chest and picking up a knocked-over stool.

"Sorry for that," I say quickly, "I thought the door was still barricaded."

"It was until the three left."

"The three," I repeat. "Wait, I only saw Laria and Saint Walker upstairs. If Arisia isn't here, then where could she have gone?"

"I don't know," the doctor answers. He rubs his chin and thinks it over for a bit. "With all due respect for Arisia, she had been moping around a lot. If I was her, chances are, I would go to a place where I would just want to be left alone."

With the Doc's words in mind, I can only think about one place.

"Thanks," I shout as I run away. Running through the whole ship, I find the one place The Man told us never to go or else, he would beat us up: his personal dojo.

Running right up to the sliding door, I grab and slam it to the side. As expected, there I see Arisia sitting on the ground, her knees in front of her. When she looks up to see me, I can see tears in her eyes.

"Arisia," I shout as I approach her. I grab her arm and try to pull her up but she stays down. "Come on. The others need our help. Let's go. Here. I brought you this."

I reach into my pocket and show Arisia her ring. However, all she does is stare at me.

"Oh come on," I yell, raising my hands. "Arisia, this is your ring. Put it on, glow green, and let go blast some stupid yellow lanterns."

Once more, Arisia stares at me. She says something but I don't understand a word. I slap myself in the face.

"Oh yeah. You're an alien. You speak some alien language that isn't English. Okay, uhh, charade. Listen to me, Arisia."

I point to Arisia and then cup my ear.

"We need to help Sunglasses Man."

I make circles with my fingers and place them over my eyes.

"Put ring on. Go fight evil yellow lantern."

I put an invisible ring on my finger and pretend to fire off beams.

"You got me?"

Arisia doesn't nod her head. In fact, she doesn't do anything except stare at me with a confused look.

"Okay. So they don't have charades on your home planet. Well, I always hated charades. Okay. Okay. Okay. What to do? What to do?"

I rub the side of my head, racking my brain for an answer.

"What to do? I have a Ph.D. in Psychiatry, not therapy."

I slap myself on the face.

"Screw it. I got nothing else. Arisia, I'll apologize later. After you put this on and understand me."

I take a deep breath. I inhale as much as I can before grabbing and shaking Arisia.

"Snap out of it," I yell right in Arisia's face. "Come on! There's a giant evil yellow storm cloud heading for the green battery! We need your help! I need your help!"

I let go of Arisia and show her the ring again.

"Arisia, I know things haven't exactly been the best, a major understatement, but that doesn't mean you can just sit around and mope all day. Especially now. We need all hands on deck. Please, oh please, put this on."

I offer her the ring for the third time. As I hold the ring between us, I can't help but smile when I see Arisia rises her hand. Slowly but surely, she takes the ring from my palm and slides it on. Now it's my time to cry when I see Arisia gets her glow back.

"Yes," I say, stepping forth to hug Arisia. I hug her tightly, I let go after a few seconds.

"I can't believe my speech work."

"Your speech," Arisia repeats. "What?"

I shake my head.

"Nevermind. Come on. Let's go help Sunglasses Man take down a raging storm cloud."

"Raging storm cloud?"

"Yeah, I don't fully understand it either but it's something."

I turn to leave but before I can, someone grabs my wrist and pull me back. Now facing Arisia once more, she steps forth and hugs me tightly.

"I have no idea what you said," Arisia says, pulling back. "And I hated you for shaking me like that, but you should know this. I really appreciate the prep talk."

Arisia hugs me once more before pulling back.

"Harleen," she says with a glowing green lantern ring. "Lead the way."

Hal Jordan:

I step back when Harleen and Arisia run out of The Man's dojo and up the hallway.

"They need all hands on deck," I think. "What about me?"

I look at my empty finger.

"Barry had my ring. He said he'll only give it back to me as I get my will as strong as The Man."

I close my hand and look at the hallway.

"Time to get back my will."

With one final decision, I follow after Harleen and Arisia and toward the fight for Oa.

The Man:

I run and then drop to the ground, sliding across it. As I slide, I pull out my twin swords and slice the legs of many betas in half. As they all fall down, they try to push themselves up but I reach into my jacket and throw kunai at them, immediately destroying all of them.

I hear the footsteps of a beta from behind and turn around. Slicing the annoying robot right down the middle, I then kick the two halves apart. As the two halves fall, they open up like a door and reveal even more betas charging in, all of them with their hands up.

The first dozen of betas in front simultaneously shoot out the hook in their palms. Prepare to cut all of them, dual laser beams shoot out from the sky and destroy the lineup of betas. The only things left behind are melted blue and white puddles.

Looking up, I see Kara flying over me. She nods her head and turns around to face the yellow lanterns. While she, Firestorm, Blue Beetle, and Atrocitus face off against the yellow lanterns, everyone else is holding off against the betas. Everyone except Ganthet and myself.

"Come on," Ganthet says, waving his tiny blue hand. "We must hurry!"

He flies through the air toward the battery.

"Hold on," I say, chasing after Ganthet. "I can fly but for the safety of everyone on Oa, I rather not."

Having to cut through a few more betas as they try to stop me, I look up to see Ganthet using his power to destroy some incoming beta fliers. He hits them with his psychic power, blowing them up from afar. Once the coast is clear, we move up.

"We must make it to the central battery before Parallax does," Ganthet says, looking up. Parallax is already far ahead of us, but some green lanterns are barely managing to hold him back.

While Ganthet is looking at Parallax, he doesn't see a beta flier flying right at him. Running and jumping, I roll through the air and slice the flier in halves. Ganthet looks at me as I land in between two explosives.

"I'm not the one who's sightseeing," I say, pointing at Ganthet with my sword. "Now move your floating blue butt."

Now leading the way, Ganthet follows after me as we run to Oa's meeting chamber.

Kilowog:

"Kilowog," Tomar-Re shouts. Hearing him, I look down at my flashing ring and rise my hand. Tomar-Re's face comes up, along with yellow beams and flying betas right behind him.

"Kilowog," Tomar-Re shouts again, stopping only when an explosive force him to stop. He turns around and fires off some green blasts. "Listen to me! Quickly! We managed to hold back Parallax, the yellow lanterns, and all of Superman's betas but just barely! You must hurry! Evacuate Guardians!"

Tomar-Re screams when there's another explosive. His face disappears as he turns around and flies away.

I rise my glowing green lantern ring and look at the Guardians as they prepare to leave. Lining up and following after one another, I shoot out my hand and they stop.

"Guy," I say, "Come in. Guy."

Guy Garnder's face appears from my ring.

"Is everything ready?"

"Everything is ready," Guy answers. "Lobo and I are here guarding the ship. Are you and the Guardians ready?"

"We're ready," I say. Guy nods his head and he vanishes. I lower my hand and look behind at the Guardians.

"This way," I say, leading the Guardian toward the emergency spaceship. As we all approach the spaceship, my ring starts to flash and beep.

"Hold on," I scream, shooting out my ring and summoning a barrier. I look up and see a bunch of rockets flying toward us. My barrier manages to protect us from the rockets' impact but the Guardians' escape ship is destroyed. Nothing is left but a smoking pile of metals.

"Where did that come from," Garnder yells from behind a barrier. He drops the barrier and walks out.

"There," Lobo shouts, pointing at the sky. Looking at where Lobo is pointing, I see the traitor, Arisia, holding some sort of weapon. Standing in a spaceship with the One Earth symbol on it, she aims the weapon at us and fires.

Harleen:

"Hi-ya," I scream, using my giant hammer to flatten a beta. The beta begins flatter than a pancake, I look up to see Arisia swings her hand. As she swings, she fires a bunch of green blasts that hit some yellow lanterns. However, the yellow lanterns hardly seem fazed by this. They all aim their yellow rings at us and fire.

"Watch out! Fly!"

I jump into the air and my rocket boots turn on. Now flying through the air, I grab Arisia before she could be hit.

"Cherry pie bomb!"

A pie with a cherry on top forming in my hand, I wind up my arm before throwing it at the yellow lanterns. As the pie travel through the air, a small sprinkle on the cherry's stem reaches the cherry itself and explodes. It sends the yellow lanterns flying everywhere. While a few are thrown away, a few hit the surrounding buildings and the ground.

"Seriously," I say, facing Arisia. "Talk to Sunglasses Man. Ask him how you can get a stronger will, because, no offense, that was really weak."

"Uhh," Arisia says, clearing her throat. "You can let me go now."

"Oh," I say, only now realizing I'm still holding Arisia, my arm around her waist. I let go of her and she flies back a little.

"Come on," she says, waving her arm. "According to the others, Ganthet and The Man went this way."

"Hold on," I say, trying to steer with the rocket boots. "Not all of us fly frequently. Come on. Come on! Ouch!"

I fly into a building and accidentally hit my shoulder. Shaking my head, I adjust the angle of my rocket boots and follow after Arisia. As the two of us approach the Guardians' meeting chamber, Arisia stops me and points to something.

"The Guardians," Arisia says, pointing to the smoking leftover of what looks like a spaceship. "And Kilowog."

"Ahh, son of a bastard," I say. "That guy again. Really?"

"Hold on," Arisia says, grabbing my wrist and pointing to something else. Another spaceship hovering nearby, I see Arisia firing rockets from the spaceship.

"That's me," Arisia says, looking at the other Arisia. "Wait, but that can't be me? How can that be me?"

"I don't know," I say, looking between the Arisia shooting rockets and the Arisia flying beside me. As the other Arisia fires rockets, the Arisia standing beside me snaps out of it. She flies toward Kilowog and the Guardians, blasting the rockets and destroying them before they can hit.

Flying through the smoke cloud, Arisia drops in between the rocket shooting Arisia and Kilowog.

Arisia:

"Arisia," Kilowog screams. He, along with Garnder and Lobo who are nearby, aim their rings at me but they don't shoot. "But wait, how can there be two of you?"

"I don't know," I answer, "But for now, get the Guardians out of here. Garnder, Lobo, and I will give you as much cover as we can."

Kilowog stares at me. He looks me in the eyes. I meet his gaze. As we stare at each other, I start to feel something. I start to see something else.

"My ring," I say, looking at my green lantern ring. It appears to be glowing brighter than before. Kilowog must have noticed this too. He turns around to face the Guardians.

"Guardians," he says, "Back inside."

He motions for the Guardians to run back inside but before they could, a green beam hit the ceiling above them.

"Watch out!"

Using his own ring, Kilowog pushes the Guardians out of the way but is bury himself.

"Kilowog," I shout, now looking at the pile of stone. I turn around to see who fired. There, I see Lobo standing on top of a down Garnder.

"Boom," he says, shooting me a wave.

"Boom," I repeat, wondering what he could means. It then hit me. I turn around to see the other Arisia fires more rockets at me.

Arisia:

The rockets all hit me, knocking me into a building. As I hit the building, I bounce off of it and fall onto the ground. Pushing myself up, I turn my head when I hear the sound of more rockets being fired.

Thinking fast, I rise my ring and focus my will into a force field. The force field shields me from the rockets. The other Arisia prepares to fire more rockets but before she could, Harleen appears beside her and shoots the launcher out of her hands.

"Draw," she screams before pulling her pistol back and blowing away smoke. "Too slow."

The launcher falls far from the other Arisia's hood. At least, that's what I thought. I watch as the other Arisia stretches out her hand and punches Harleen.

"What the hey," I say, still watching as the other me shoots out her arm once more. Her arm stretches out so far, she grabs the launcher with ease and pulls it back up. Once back in her arms, she aims the launcher at me again.

Back on my feet, I aim my ring at the other me but as I was about to shoot, I hear someone screaming and turn.

"Head up," Lobo shouts, shooting me with his own ring. A green blast hits and knocks me to the ground. Screaming as I fall, I then hear the sound of rockets being fired.

The rockets are about to hit me but as they get closer, I hear the sound of someone screaming once more.

The Man:

Seeing the rockets as they fly toward Arisia, I pull myself up and run toward them. Screaming as I jump into the air, I spin and kick them into one another. The rockets explode on impact, destroying each other.

"Arisia," Ganthet says, flying toward me. He grabs my hand and picks me up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I say. "Wait, Ganthet? Where did you come from? Why are you here?"

"I am here to help in the fight for Oa," Ganthet answers. "And I am not alone."

Ganthet points to me and I give Arisia a quick nod. As Ganthet helps Arisia up, his eyes go wide.

"Wait," Ganthet says, looking at one Arisia and then the other. "Two Arisia? How can that be?"

"Easy," I say, watching as the fake Arisia fires more rockets at the three of us. "There isn't two Arisia. There's only one."

Reaching into my pockets, I pull out and throw kunai. The kunai cuts through the rockets, destroying them as heading for the fake Arisia. As expected, the kunai cut right through him, leaving behind large gaps.

"Showtime is over," I yell. "Time to take off the borrowed face, Clayface."

"Clayface," Arisia and Ganthet repeat.

As soon as he hears his name, the fake Arisia begins to morph. Brown mud pours out from his skin, covering him in only a few seconds. A few seconds later, the mud melts away and reveals a large, tall, muddy Clayface.

"Clayface," I say, watching as Clayface drops the launcher and steps off the spaceship. He shakes the whole building as he lands. As he does, green lantern Lobo walks up to his side.

"Ganthet," I say, shooting out my hands and pulling out twin swords from thin air. "Meet the real traitor and spy."

"Lobo," Ganthet says, leaving Arisia and flying to my side. "You're the traitor? You betray us? Why!"

"What can I say," Lobo answers with a laugh. "I would rather be a regime than a green lantern. Though I do really appreciate the ring. Bastich."

Lobo rises his green lantern ring and fires a strong green beam. Clayface who is still standing beside him rises his arm and shoots us with a giant mud ball. Pushing Ganthet behind me, I rush forth and swing my swords. I destroy Lobo's beam and slice the mud ball in half. I then charge toward the two, jumping once I'm close enough. Landing in between the two, I leg swipe Lobo, knocking him to the ground. Pushing myself up, I swing my swords at Clayface, forcing him back.

Harleen:

"Ahhh," I say as I push myself up. A headache coming on, I rub and shake my head. "What happened? Where am I?"

Looking around, I see myself laying on the ground. Still laying on the ground, I hear footsteps and turn to see betas marching toward me. They reach me in almost no time and shoot grapples at me. However, I roll out of the way and shoot at the betas. I manage to destroy a few but mostly, I just knock them down.

"Still work," I say as I push myself up. With the extra space, I activate my rocket boots and fly back up.

Flying as fast as I can, I land back on the platform where I last saw Arisia. Only now, it's not only Arisia. I also see Ganthet and The Man fighting Lobo and Clayface?

"Clayface," I repeat, thinking back to when Arisia stretched out her arm and punch me. "That wasn't Arisia. That was Clayface. It was Clayface who damaged the battery. It was Clayface who pretended to be Arisia, and most likely Laria too. It was always Clayface. Oh, and Lobo. I guess he was also involved."

"Harleen," Arisia shouts, waving her hand. "Over here!"

I see Arisia and Ganthet picking up and throwing rocks away. Realizing what they're doing, I run over to help them. Altogether, we grab as many rocks as we can and throw them to the side.

"Step aside," Ganthet says, "I can do the rest."

Arisia and I step back while Ganthet holds out his hand. Using his power, he lifts a bunch of rocks and throws them to the side. We wait for the dust to clear, but the second it does, we see the other Guardian and even the big ugly guy. Whatever his name is.

"Kilowog," Arisia says, stepping onto the rock pile to help him. While she helps him, Ganthet and I rush to help the other Guardians.

Moaning and groaning as we wake them up, Kilowog screams the second he sees us.

"You," Kilowog shouts. He rises his ring at Arisia but I move faster. I shoot out my own hand, a pistol forming right in it. With the pistol in hand, I slap Kilowog's hand down and point at Clayface.

"You see that big ugly guy right there," I ask. "And I'm not talking about you. He is the traitor. He is the one that damages your stupid battery. His name is Clayface and he had the power to shape his body into anything or anyone! He pretended to be Arisia and set that bomb! You got it!"

As I yell, I point Kilowog on his forehead over and over again.

"You got it? You got it? You got it?"

Kilowog slaps my hand away. He looks like he was about to say something but one of the Guardians stops me.

"Lobo," the Guardian screams. He pushes his way through and watches as Lobo and Clayface battle The Man.

"It can't be," the Guardian says. "Is Lobo a traitor himself?"

"I'm afraid so," Ganthet answers, everyone now turning to him.

"Ganthet," the Guardians say. "You're here."

"I am here with our true ally," Ganthet starts. "That Earthling over there is but one of them. The others, such as Supergirl, Atrocitus, and even Laria are here as well. They are desperately trying to hold off the yellow lanterns, betas, and even the regimes. Ranakar. Appa Ali Apsa. Kilowog. It is time you open your eyes! Look before you and tell me what you see!"

Ranakar, Appa Ali Apsa, Kilowog, and the other Guardians turn to watch The Man fight against Lobo and Clayface. The Man slides underneath Clayface and cut off his leg. He falls to the ground, bits of mud flying everywhere. However, before he could get up, Lobo shoots out his ring and grabs The Man's foot. He then pulls him back before throwing him into a growing Clayface.

With Lobo and Clayface working together, it becomes clear who is who.

"You're right," Ranakar says, his arms falling to his side. "He's right. The Man is our ally. So are Supergirl and Atrocitus. We were wrong. We were betrayed by our own but it wasn't Arisia or Laria. It was Lobo."

"And Clayface," I say, putting up a finger. "Don't forget Clayface."

"Forget Clayface," Kilowog screams. "What is that?"

We all look at where Kilowog is pointing. Directly overhead is the same yellow storm cloud from before. Once it's over us, a large face emerges from the cloud. It opens its mouth and fire a yellow beam right at us.

Superman:

"What is this," I ask, looking myself over. I stare at my arms and hands. I move my fingers back and forth. I then look over at Wonder Woman, Black Adam, and Hawkgirl. They're all doing the exact same. They're staring at their own arms and hands, moving their own fingers.

"These suits," I say, looking at the skin-tight blue sleeve. It feels like there's nothing there, but when I touch it, it also feels like some sort of hardened wool. It's soft to the touch, and yet somehow, I know from fights on Apokolips, it's also incredibly durable.

"Whatever these suits are made from," Cyborg says, typing away at one of the computers onboard my ship, the sound of his typing echoing like thunder. "It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. The material alone is so different, I can't even form a full report on what is it exactly."

"Can he?"

I ask and point to Bruce as he pulls his head back from the microscope. He enters some notes into a nearby computer and returns to his microscope. Cyborg walks over to the computer and looks over Bruce's notes.

"What did he write?"

"A synthetic polymer," Cyborg reads over. "Made from an unknown source. Unlike anything on Earth or from any of the alien species, we know of. Capable of unique transformation. Incredible resistance."

I clap my hands together and grab everyone's attention.

"You already told us all of this," I say, "We already know all of this. What I want to know is how it's made."

As I look over my arm and hand again, I realize something else.

"What I also want to know is why Sinestro and his yellow lanterns are still attacking Oa."

I look around my ship but see only Cyborg, Bruce, Wonder Woman, Black Adam, and Hawkgirl. Normally, my ship would be filled with betas guarding the rooms and hallways. There would be yellow lanterns in the hangers, awaiting their next order from Sinestro. At the current moment, I don't see any betas or yellow lanterns.

"I ordered a full retreat! Why isn't Sinestro retreating? Why aren't the yellow lanterns? Why aren't the betas?"

I feel myself losing control. I can feel the blood in my vein starts to boil. The boiling blood is rushing to my head and it soon starts to cover my eyes.

"Diana," I scream, turning around to face my own friend. "Did you relay my order? Did you?"

Diana, staring back at me, throws her shield and sword to the floor.

"No," she answers, "No, I did not."

As soon as I hear her answer, I want to hit her. I want to grab Diana by her throat and throw her into the floor and through it. Instead, I try my most damn to stay calm.

"Why not?"

"Because we are on the verge of victory," Diana answers. "The Green Lanterns, even with the help of the man with the sunglasses and the Insurgency, will fall. We have Sinestro, Batman, and Cyborg to thank for that."

I turn my head toward Batman and Cyborg. When he sees me, Cyborg turns away.

"They help to unleash Parallax," Diana goes on. "With his power, along with Sinestro's yellow lanterns and our betas, this will be the end of the green lanterns. And possibly even the Insurgency."

"The end of the Insurgency," I repeat to myself. "The end of the Insurgency. The end of the man with the sunglasses. The end of Kara. No. I want them alive."

I look toward Oa and see a massive yellow explosion.

"Move," I say, pushing Diana out of the way after walking up to her. I make my way to the door and open it with my mind.

"Where are you going," Black Adam asks.

"To capture the man and Kara," I answer. "The rest of them can die for all I care. I want those two alive."

I walk only a few steps before flying through the empty hallways and out through the hangers. I then fly toward Oa.

The Man:

"Arisia," I scream, seeing Arisia, Harleen, Kilowog, and all the Guardians get eaten by a yellow beam. I rush to see them but as I turn to run, I feel something wraps around one of my legs. Looking down, I see a green chain. I follow the chain to Lobo who is holding the other end in one hand and a shotgun in the other.

He fires multiple shots but I quickly block them with my twin swords. I look down again at the green chain. With a quick but heavy swing of my sword, I slice the chain clean off.

Lobo stumbles back as the chain breaks. He loses focus and the chain fades away. He's about to fire his shotgun again but before he can, I inhale as much as I can. I then exhale, watching as my own breath turns into dragon fire. Even with the green lantern ring, the dragon fire is so hot, Lobo couldn't stand it. He screams and backs away as dragon fire hits me. It shatters not only the barrier Lobo summoned but the glow around his body. He screams and falls off the platform.

With Lobo gone, I turn to see Clayface as he struggles to pull himself. His face rises from a pile of clay and so did an arm. He pulls back his arm and prepares to throw some mud at me but exactly like Lobo, I inhale as much as I can. This time, when I exhale, I watch as my breath turns into ice. It hits and freezes Clayface, rendering him motionless as he stays stuck on the ground.

"Rat bastards," I say as I leave them and head over to the others. As I run, I look myself over. I'm still pulsing, the pitch-black glow still running through my veins. However, the pulsing seems to be quicker than before. "It's getting dangerous for me to be here, but I can't leave. I just have to be more careful."

By the time I reach the spot, I can feel a smile starts to form. There, as the smoke is fading away, I see Arisia and Kilowog with their rings risen. The two of them, along with the Guardians and even Harleen are safe underneath a green barrier.

"What is that," Kilowog screams as he and Arisia drop to the ground. The barrier around them disappears as well. While Harleen catches Arisia, I think to catch Kilowog but instead, step back and watch as he falls to the ground.

"Opp," I say with a shrug.

"You did that on purpose," Harleen says.

"What can I say? I'm petty."

I look up to see Parallax looking down at us.

"You are him," Parallax says, his voice sounding like growling. With his giant, bald, cloudy head, yellow eyes, and sharp, cloudy teeth all put together, it brings back a lot of painful memory.

"I was told of you," Parallax goes on. "No matter. You cannot stop me from consuming the battery."

Parallax prepares to fire again. Yellow energy rushes from the other parts of him to his mouth. It gathers in his throat until it was enough, and he fires.

Supergirl:

"Saint Walker," I scream, pointing at The Man, Arisia, the Guardians, and the others. Saint Walker sees where I'm pointing and immediately shoots out his ring. He fires a blue beam that hits the yellow beam from Parallax. As they hit each other, they both explode and send shockwaves back, knocking Saint Walker and me stumbling away.

I manage to catch myself after a few flips and even managed to grab Saint Walker.

"Are you okay," I ask.

"Yes," Saint Walker answers with a nod of his head. "I am fine. Are the Guardians okay?"

I look at where we last saw them and now see The Man kicking one of the Guardians in his behind. I use my super hearing to hear what's going on.

"Come on," The Man shouts, pushing a different Guardian. "Inside now! You blue bastards! Move! Move! Move! You! Clean the wax out of your ears and move!"

I remember the Guardian The Man is shouting at. His name is Ranakar.

"You cannot talk to me like-" Ranakar says before The Man turns and walks away.

"Have fun dying," The Man shouts with a wave of his fingers. "The rest of you. Inside now!"

He points his finger and the Guardians, even Ranakar, all run back inside the building. The Man then grabs Kilowog by his head and back and throws him inside. Meanwhile, he, Arisia, and Harleen look up at Parallax.

Parallax stares back at them. As he does, part of him starts to rain down on the three.

"Come on," I say, pushing Saint Walker to his feet. "Let's go!"

"Of course," Saint Walker says as the two of us fly to help the three.

Green Arrow:

I scream as I jump and flip through the air, shooting a dozen or so betas with an assortment of trick arrows. While some betas are pinned to the ground because of ice arrows and some are trapped because of net arrows, they are all destroyed due to my explosive arrows.

Landing back on my feet, I turn around to see how the makeshift barriers are holding up.

"Are the barriers doing okay," I ask, watching as Reverse-Flash runs past me at super speed. Splitting out some dust after he runs up, I wave my hand and see a large wall made from broken stones standing strong.

"We're doing fine," Dinah replies from on top of the barrier. "So are the Green Lanterns we manage to recover." She shoots me a nod and turns. Another squad of betas is approaching.

"West side," I yell. As if from thin air, Selina and Cheetha appear. They rush the squadron from both sides and tear right there. In Cheetha's case, she literally did tear through them.

"Above you," someone says. I look up to see some fliers heading right for me. However, while powering up their shots, multiple red beams hit and destroy all of them.

"Do not worry," Atrocitus says as he flies through a smoke cloud. "The Burning Man, the Little Bug Man, and I have the sky covered."

"Firestorm," Firestorm says after throwing and knocking a yellow lantern to the ground. "We are named Firestorm. It's not that hard to remember. Your name is harder to remember."

I couldn't believe it. Somehow, somehow, we were actually managing to hold our own against the yellow lanterns and betas. Shortly before leaving the Rusted, The Man told me to pick a spot and make a stand there. He told us to pick a spot where we could control the field. Where we could see everything. A place where we would more than put up a fight.

Seeing more squads of betas approaching us, I reach back for more of my arrows and place them in my bow. However, as I pull the bowstring back, my vision starts to go blurry. All of a sudden, my legs feel weak and my hands are shaking uncontrollably.

I drop my bow and arrows and slam my hands over my eyes. I scream as I start to see something I can't explain.

Laria:

"Easy there, Salaak," I say, gently laying Salaak down on the mat Reverse-Flash found.

"Laria," Salaak moans. He opens his eyes weakly and he raises his shaking ring. I can tell he still thinks I'm an enemy of the green lantern. He's trying to summon something but can't. The wound on his shoulder is too bad.

"Take it easy," I tell him. "The others and I will protect you and the other Green Lanterns the best we can."

Salaak's hand falls when he takes a look around. There, behind the makeshift barrier, are a bunch of the other Green Lanterns who were badly hurt in battle.

"Atrocitus and I gathered as many of you as we could find and brought you here," I say. "This isn't the infirmary, and I have no medicine to heal you, so now, just rest."

Salaak moans as he lays his head back down.

"Why are you doing this," he asks. "Why are all of you helping us? After the ways we treated you?"

"Because this is not a time to be holding grudges," I answer. "This is a time when we need to put aside our differences and work with our true allies. Even if they're not who we were expecting."

While Salaak rests, I get up and look at the other Green Lanterns. Exactly like Salakk, they're simply laying on the ground with no medicines. About to check on some other patients, I stop when I hear Dinah calling me.

"Laria," Dinah calls from above. "Get up here! I need your help!"

I nod my head and fly up to Dinah. Flying to her side, I see Oliver laying on the ground.

"Oliver," I say. I notice how there are no yellow lanterns or betas around him. "What happens? Why is he unconscious?"

"I don't know," Dinah answers. "He was doing fine until a few minutes ago. Grab him. I'll cover you!"

"Okay."

With Dinah directly behind me, I fly down the barrier and grab Mr. Oliver. As I pick him up and throw his arm over me, I hear another sound. I look up and see something flying toward the central battery.

"Oh no," Dinah says, looking at a fading blue line. "Superman."

The Man:

While Arisia shoots out her ring and summons a green barrier and Harleen flies out of the way, I run toward the incoming line of yellow clouds. I shoot out my wrist once more and pull out my hidden swords. Jumping over the line, I slice and dice the line of yellow clouds, cutting it into pieces. The pieces that I cut off fall and turn into black dust.

"Behind you," Harleen shouts from far above. I turn around and see another line of yellow clouds rushing toward me. It's about to hit me but before it could, I swing my swords up and down, slicing the line right down the middle.

As I slice the line in half, I hear a familiar sound and turn around. Flying up the platform with Arisia, Harleen, myself, and Parallax is Superman.

"Oh come on," I cry, looking up at Superman and then back at Parallax. "Isn't one big bad enough?"

I rise one sword and pull back the others. I prepare myself against both Superman and Parallax. However, as Superman approaches, so do more lines from the yellow clouds. They spread out and try to attack me but as they fly down, Superman uses his laser visions to cut them off, destroying all of them in the process.

The sky fills with black dust as Superman lands on the platform with me.

"You need to come with me," he says, pointing right at me. "Don't bother fighting."

Superman:

"Superman," the man with the sunglasses shouts. He spins one of his swords around before catching it.

"I didn't come for a--" I try to say before the man runs forward and jumps into the air. He screams and pulls back his swords. I barely have enough seconds to get out of the way as I watch the man land and slice off an entire section of the platform.

"Wait," I scream, putting up my hands. "I don't want to fight. I'm here to--"

Once again, the man cuts me off before I can finish. He throws one of his knives and it hits me, blanketing me in a smoke cloud. Before I could use my super breath to blow it away, the man leaps and grabs onto me. He wraps one arm around my throat and the other arm around his hand.

"Ahh," I scream as I fly through the sky and into space.

Arisia:

Watching as The Man fights Superman, Harleen and I are left alone to handle Parallax.

"Uhh," Harleen says, guns forming in her hands. "Got any idea how to beat a storm cloud?"

"Maybe we can help," a familiar voice says. We turn around and now I also have to fight back the tears in my eyes. "Supergirl. Saint Walker. Glad to see you two here."

Supergirl and Saint Walker fly toward us before landing on the platform.

"We saw everything from afar," Supergirl says. "We know the Guardians are safe inside."

"With the battery," I add.

"They will not be safe for very long," Saint Walker says. He points at Parallax as he's powers up and fires another yellow beam. The beam hits the building, sending an eruption of rock and dust into the air.

"The building has been breached," I shout, running and jumping into the air. I look down and see through a hole in the roof the battery. The Guardians and Kilowog are safely protected under a green shield but the battery seems to be flickering.

Screaming as I fly toward Parallax, I spin and swing my ring, a bright-green wave shooting out. It hits Parallax but it doesn't seem to faze him.

My green wave shatters into tiny pieces and Parallax looks up. He fires another yellow beam but I manage to summon a shield. However, it's not strong enough. It breaks almost instantly and I'm sent flying back.

Almost hitting a building, I instead land on a giant, soft, blue hand.

"I got you," Saint Walker says with his ring out in front. I thank him and jump off the hand. I fly back toward Parallax as he starts to move toward the battery.

Ganthet:

Even with help from Supergirl and Saint Walker, Arisia and Harleen can't seem to beat Parallax. They attack him relentlessly but with only a breath, he simply blasts them away.

"That is enough," I think as I jump and fly into the air.

"Ganthet," Ranakar screams. "What are you doing?"

"I'm helping," I answer as I fly out of the building. Screaming as I charge toward Parallax, I shoot out my hands and focus my power.

"Guardian of Oa," Parallax says in a deep voice. "Do not fool yourself. Whether there is one of you or many of you, you cannot beat me. I am Parallax. I am the living embodiment of fear. I am yellow energy itself."

As much as I hate to even think it, Parallax is right. I hit Parallax with all my power but it doesn't even seem to faze him. He didn't even flinch. I keep my hands up and fire at him with all my might but it never bothers him. Parallax waits until I can't keep my hands anymore to attack. He gathers yellow energy in his mouth before firing.

It hits and knocks me to the ground.

"Ganthet," Harleen says running up to me. She drops to her knee and helps me up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I answer, brushing some rocks and dust off my shoulder. I shake my head and look up. Parallax is moving closer and closer to the battery. Once more, I jump and fly into the air. I get in between him and the battery and fire again.

"You shall not enter," I yell, pouring everything I have into keeping Parallax back. He tries to get lines of black cloud past me but I destroy them immediately. However, as I keep pushing Parallax back, I begin to feel dizzy.

My arms and hands and even my head start to hurt. I feel myself running out of breath. My whole body is shaking, but I have to fight through it all.

Now choking on the air itself, my hands and arms lower a little. Parallax must have seen this. The moment it happens, he smiles, and I feel a cold run down my back. Parallax opens his mouth and fires.

I push against his yellow beam but I can't keep it back. The yellow beam is about to hit me but before it could, something comes in between me and the yellow beam. It shields me from the yellow beam, the yellow energy scattering all over.

"Leave him to me," The Man says as he flies toward me with a red ring in front of him.

"A red ring," I ask, "Where did you get another red ring? I thought the one Atrocitus gave you was destroyed."

"It was," The Man answers, flying to my side and looking at Parallax. "Luckily, Atrocitus gave me more than one. Well, he didn't give them to me. He just drop them. I, however, pick all of them up. I remember them when Mogo almost blasted Superman and me."

"A red lantern," Parallax. "Strange. Why is a red lantern, enemy to the green lantern, here?"

"The Green Lanterns asked for help," The Man answers, "So we came. Oh, and then Atrocitus came and ask for help as well. Busy week."

"No matter," Parallax says, "Green, blue, or red. Yellow will defeat them all."

Parallax opens his mouth and fires again. The Man with his red ring glowing very brightly swings his hand. A wave of red energy shoots up and turns into a catapult, capturing the yellow blast and redirecting it back at Parallax. He roars as his own yellow energy hits him.

"You're exhausted," The Man says. "Go back inside. I'll handle big and ugly, and, this time, I'm not talking about Kilowog."

The Man leans back on his flying board and shoots up into the air. He flies circles around Parallax, blasting him non-stop with his red ring.

Panting as I swallow my split to dampen my throat dry, I prepare to head back inside as The Man told me but stop. Mid-flight, I see what appears to be a purple steak heading for The Man. It takes me very little time to realize who it is.

"Superman," I say. I change direction and fly off to face Superman.

Supergirl:

"Ahh," I say as I push myself up. Rubbing my throbbing head, I look to see Parallax and The Man fighting each other.

"The Man? Where did he come from? No matter. Even with a red ring, he's going to need more power in order to take down Parallax. The question is, where can he gets more power?"

I look around for anything I could use. As I do, I see Saint Walker laying near me. I run over to him to see if he's alright.

"He's breathing," I think as I put him into a sitting position. As I lean him against a wall, I look down and see his blue ring.

"More power," I think. "I'm sorry about this Saint Walker but I'm going to borrow this for a bit."

The Man:

I jump off my hoverboard just as Parallax fires yet another yellow blast. My hoverboard breaks into thousands of red pieces before disappearing completely. While falling through mid-air, I shoot out my red ring and summon a racecar and track. Landing into the driver's seat, I strap myself in and put on my helmet and racing goggles.

"Let's see how fast my anger can go."

I put the car into drive, stomp on the gas, and activate the rocket booster in the back. Going from 0 to 100 miles in less than a second, I drive around Parallax.

Seeing a bit of red in his yellow eyes, the red only grows when I push a few buttons on the control board and automatically machine guns come out from the sides, shooting Parallax.

Parallax screams and turns away as I shoot at him. He tries to hit me with a yellow blast but by the time he fired, I'm already gone.

Skidding as I race across my red racetrack, I focus my anger and summon a ramp. Driving right off the ramp, I hit the ejection button and launch out. My racecar crashes directly into Parallax, the explosion almost as loud as Parallax's roar as part of him catches fire.

Flipping through the air, I swing my hand and shoot out a wave of red energy. The red energy turns into a fighter jet this time, and even before Parallax could say anything, I'm back to shooting him.

I can feel the quick vibration of my controls as I steer the jet and aim at Parallax. Turning left and right, going up and down, I manage to avoid most of Parallax's attacks.

Upgrading, going from machine guns to rockets, I fire dozens and engulf his whole head in bright-red flames. Parallax shakes and turns as part of him burns up. He's grinding his teeth against each other as he tries to pinpoint me.

"Behind you," I shout. I prepare to fire another barrage of rockets but before I could push the button, lines of dark clouds shoot out and hit my wings. "Fudge!"

The lines rip and tear through not only my wings but the whole jet. They reach the cockpit before I could hit eject and capture me. He first destroys my red jet before bringing me face-to-face with him. His eyes meeting mine, I look right back at him.

"No need to be courageous," he says. "Let the fear consume you."

Parallax opens his mouth and fire but it's not like before. A single beam of yellow comes out and hits me. It fills me with yellow energy.

"I've seen this before. Parallax is trying to fill me with fear so he can absorb it and grow stronger."

I watch as lines of yellow energy crawl throughout. They continue to climb higher and higher until they reach the black lines still all over me.

"Big mistake," I say, watching as the black and yellow lines crash. Immediately, all the yellow lines turn blacker than night. They overrun in less than seconds and travel all the way back to Parallax himself. Now, he and I are filled with something other than fear.

Parallax opens his mouth wide as he screams. His screams echo throughout all of Oa as he tips his head all over.

"What," he moans as parts of him go from yellow to black. "What did you do? What is this power? It is not fear! It is not willpower! It feels like anger, but no! This anger, this pure anger, is unlike anything I have ever felt!"

Parallax still throwing up, he doesn't see Kara as she flies up and fires a blue beam. Cutting me free with the blue beam, I summon a red hoverboard and land on it.

"Kara," I say, watching as Kara, somehow with a blue ring, flies up to me. "How did you get Saint Walker's blue ring again?"

"You of all people should not be asking that," Kara replies. She turns around and looks at Parallax. "What happened to Parallax? What did you do this him?"

"Believe me when I say this. He did that to himself."

Parallax now glowing black and yellow looks at us with more red in his eyes.

"You will pay for that," Parallax yells as he unleashes a whole new storm of clouds. The clouds all charge toward Kara and me. As they get closer and closer, we shoot out our hands and make a red and blue wall. Parallax's cloud couldn't get through the wall.

"Fly to his right," I say, "I'll fly to his left. When I give the signal, we fly toward each other. Got it?"

"Got it," Kara answers.

Pushing back the clouds, Kara and I fly our separate ways. As I thought, Parallax follows me, leaving Kara completely alone. He follows me, shooting me and trying to catch me again. One cloud about to catch me, I jump off my hoverboard and summon a pair of red swords. Slicing the cloud while in mid-air, I land back on my hoverboard and fly away.

Not stopping until I'm in position, I look Parallax in his eyes once more.

"Parallax," I shout, spreading out my arms. "Many years ago, you and I met."

Parallax looks at a crooked eyebrow.

"What," he asks. "What are you talking about?"

"It was shortly after you kill Abin Sur."

"Abin Sur," Parallax repeats.

"This is for him! Kara now!"

I raise my red ring before lowering it. There, directly in front of me, I summon a propeller. The propeller spinning and turning into a blur, I charge right into Parallax. With the propeller in front of me, I cut through Parallax.

Supergirl:

Using both Walker's ring and my own laser vision, I cut my way through Parallax. As I cut my way through him, I hear what sounds like a propeller.

"Hey Kara," The Man says as he and a red propeller pass me.

I smile as he passes me. Together, we cut our way through Parallax.

"Again," I hear The Man shouts. I don't waste a second and dive back into Parallax. We repeat this over and over again until The Man tells me to stop. The Man and I regroup in front of a now smaller Parallax, with pieces of him quickly fading away. However, despite Parallax's new form, he still fighting. He gathers power in his mouth before shooting it.

"Altogether," The Man shouts. The Man then grabs my hand. Our fingers interlock. At first, I couldn't believe it but I nod my head. We look at each other before raising our hands and shooting them. Blue and red energy spiral together into one beam that destroys Parallax's yellow beam. The red and blue pushes through the yellow and hits Parallax. As it hits Parallax, Parallax himself starts to twist and turn.

"Nnooo," he cries as the yellow and black in him is replaced with blue and red. It pours throughout him before pouring out. He struggles to fight it, but Parallax's head starts to shrink deeper and deeper into the blue and red clouds until it's gone.

The storm cloud then explodes with traces of yellow energy spreading out.

"Is he," I start, turning to look at The Man.

"Yeah," The Man answers. "He's gone. Parallax is defeated."

The Man looks at me and smiles. I smile back at him but only for a short time.

"Wait, what about the others? And the battery?"

"And Ganthet," The Man says, his smile disappearing as well.

As soon as he said Ganthet, we hear something and look up.

"What's going on?"

For some reason, it looks like Mogo is powering up for a shot but he's not shooting. I look to the side and see a yellow dot heading for Mogo.

"Superman," The Man shouts, "And Ganthet!"

"What?"

"Superman had Ganthet by the throat. He's using Ganthet as a shield. That's why Mogo won't shoot. He doesn't want to hurt Ganthet."

"No way," I say.

I look up and see the yellow dot edge closer and closer toward Mogo until finally, they hit.

Ganthet:

"Grab out of my way," Superman yells as he blasts me with his yellow ring. I scream as the power of the yellow ring forces me back. Struggling to regain my footing as I flip uncontrollably through space, I'm only saved from another blast because of Mogo.

Mogo must have noticed Superman and me. He turns away from the invading beta fliers and fires at Superman. Hearing the green energy building up and then shooting out, Superman swings his hand and summons a shield to protect himself. He disappears into a massive green beam.

I pray Superman would have been knocked lightyears away with that blast. I pray that when he is gone, so will his beta armies and the yellow lanterns. I pray that with all of them gone, I could use this time to catch my breath. It didn't work.

There, covered in a dark-yellow glow is Superman. Despite Mogo's mighty blast, it seems pointless against Superman and his yellow shield. His shield appears untouched. It only breaks after Superman flies through it and grabs me by the throat.

"Either grab out of my way," he shouts, tightening his grip. "Or die."

I didn't even have to think about it.

"That earthling," I struggle to say while looking Superman in his eyes. "That man in the glasses is the green lanterns' best hope. He is, he is our best hope in stopping you and your armies. I will not, I will not get out of the way."

I raise a shaking hand and hit Superman with my power. All I manage to do is turn his head slightly. He returns his head back and stares at me. He crushes my throat and I feel my breath leaves me. Superman's face starts to glow, signaling Mogo is getting ready to fire again.

Superman looks at Mogo before looking at me. He then pushes me in front of me and flies.

"What are you doing," I scream as the two of us fly through space.

"Ending this fight," Superman replies as he flies even faster. As we fly, I notice the green glow on Superman's face getting brighter and brighter. I only now realize what Superman is doing and turn away.

"Mogo," I say as I close my eyes, "I am sorry."

The Man:

"Ganthet," I shout as I watch Superman slams Ganthet right into the surface of Mogo. Even from all the way down here, I can hear the impact as if I was standing right there.

About to fly up to help Ganthet, Kara grabs my arm and pulls me down.

"No," she shouts.

"What," I scream, turning back. "What is it? What are you holding me down?"

"Look," Kara answers. She lets go of me and points to the building where the central battery is being held. There, crawling in through the hole in the roof, are little slivers of yellow energy. They climb and fall through the hole only seconds before there's a bright-green flicking.

"Parallax," I say, "He reached the battery!"

"But how," Kara asks, "We just destroyed him!"

"We destroyed him," I say, "Yes, but we didn't defeat him. Let's go!"

Together, Kara and I fly to the top of the building. Using our rings, we destroy all the remaining bits of Parallax we could find but it's too late. Enough of him had dripped onto the battery and had infected it.

"My ring," Kilowog says as the shield around him and the other Guardians starts to fade.

As Kara and I enter the building, I see the yellow sparks appear all over the front of the battery. The sparks start off small before escalating. They soon travel all along the battery, covering it. The green battery flickers even more, before turning off.

"Watch out," I shout, stomping on my hoverboard and breaking it. Dropping in between the battery and Kilowog and the Guardians, I rise my ring and form a shield.

The green battery then explodes, engulfing the whole room and everyone in it.

Laria:

While Dinah is carrying Oliver up the barrier, I hold out my both hands and summon a green staff. Yellow lanterns and beta fliers heading toward me, I swing my staff and knock them all down. While dodging to the side to avoid an incoming beam, I swing my staff and break it against a flier.

About to summon another staff, I stop when I hear an explosion. Turning around, I see smoke coming from where the battery is.

"No," I cry. It's less than a second later before the power from my ring disappears, and everything with it. My glow vanishes, I lose flight and fall to the ground.

Arisia:

I slowly open my eyes when I keep hearing a strange series of sounds. Seeing blinks of Harleen at first, I fully open after a minute.

"Harleen," I say while fighting a headache. "Harleen, what are you saying? I can't understand a word of it. Wait, why can't I understand a word you're saying?"

I push myself up and look at my hands and arms.

"No," I say, looking at my ring. It's not glowing. It's not flashing or flickering. "My ring is dead. The battery!"

I look to see smoke rising from the building. I push myself up as fast as I can and run toward the building.

Kilowog:

I couldn't believe my eyes. I still can't believe them. After everything we did, everything we said, after everything he said and done, the earthling with the red lantern ring saved me and the Guardians. He used the power of the red ring to shield us from the battery's explosion. However, because the green battery exploded, it means all the green rings are dead. I look down at my green ring. My dead, powerless, green ring.

"It's over," I say, looking at the dark, lifeless green central battery. "It's all over."

"Not yet," the man says.

"Wait," I say, stepping forth. "You speak my language. How is that possible?"

"Because before its destruction, I've been to Bolovax Vik. I lived among the Bolovaxians for many years."

"Impossible," I say.

"And yet, how we stand, speaking a forgotten language."

Our conversation is interrupted by the ground shaking. No, worst, the planet. All of Oa is shaking.

"Stay here," The Man says. He summons a flying board to jump on and flies away, with the female Kryptonian by his side.

Supergirl:

"What's going on," I ask, flying beside The Man as he flies out through the hole and back outside.

"Something bad," The Man answers. "Looks familiar."

The Man points somewhere, and I follow his finger.

"Oh no," I say, looking at an all too familiar sight. Looming over Oa, exactly like Krypton, is Brainiac's ship. Only now, it's not Brainiac but Kal-El.

"He can't," I say, looking between the ship and The Man. "He can't do it. He just can't. No matter how far he goes or how much he wants to control, he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't! He would--"

A single, massive white beam shoots out from the bottom of the ship. It cuts Kara off and hits the surface. As the beam hits, it causes even stronger earthquakes. Buildings shake and fall. They crumble into each other, disappearing into dust clouds.

"We need to go," The Man shouts. "We need to go now! Before Oa, and we, are destroyed!"

Supergirl:

"Okay, okay, okay," I say, flying back into the building with Kilowog and the other Guardians. "Time to go! Time to go!"

The Man and I using our rings shoot out our hands and summon a platform for everyone to step on. The Man doesn't even have to explain it to them. They all immediately step onto the platform. Surrounding the platform and them in a small bubble, The Man and I carry them out. We fly together for a bit before The Man stops.

"What are you doing," I ask, "Why did you stop?"

"I think he might need his ring back more than you," The Man says, pointing down. I look down and see Saint Walker with crossed arms. "I can hold Kilowog and the Guardians by myself. You give Saint Walker his ring back and then go find the others. Tell them to go to the Rusted immediately. We don't have much time."

I nod my head and leave The Man. Flying down to Saint Walker, he holds out his hand. As much as I don't want to, I take off the blue ring and give it back to him.

"What is going on," he asks after putting the ring back on. "Why is Oa shaking? Where is Parallax? Where is Ganthet?"

"Ganthet is," I say before stopping. I swallow the lump in my throat and muster up the courage. "He's gone. Ganthet is gone."

Saint Walker's expression changes as soon as he hears the news. His arms fall to his sides and his eyes go wide. They shine with tears.

"Ganthet is gone," Saint Walker repeats. He brings up his hand and rubs his blue ring. He only stops when Oa shakes.

"Yes, he is," I quickly say. "And so are we if we don't leave Oa. We need to get back to the Rusted."

"Wait," Saint Walker says as I turn to fly away. "What about Arisia and Harleen? Have you seen them?"

"No," I say, slapping myself on the head. "I completely forgot about them. Listen. We need to move fast. You stay here and try to find those two. I haven't seen them lately so they can't be far. I need to find Barry and Selina and all the others and get them back to the Rusted."

"Of course," Saint Walker says. He jumps into the air and flies toward the ruined building. Meanwhile, I leave to find the others.

Atrocitus:

I hear screaming and turn to see Laria falling toward the ground. Jumping before diving through the air, I fly toward Laria and catch her before she could hit the ground.

"Laria," I say, dropping her off at the top of the barrier. "What is the meaning of this? Why can you not fly?"

"My ring," Laria says. "It's powerless. It had been drained of all green energy. The battery."

"The battery," I repeat. I turn and look at where the green lantern battery was held, only to see a faded smoke trail rising into the air. "No. The Man had failed. The battery is destroyed."

I turn my head again when I see all of the yellow lanterns leaving. They stop fighting and turn to leave. Even most of the beta fliers are leaving. The only ones staying behind are a few flies and the beta foot soldiers.

"What is going on," Flash asks. "Where are they going?"

"They're leaving," Cheetah answers. "At least, most of them are, but why?"

"Because Oa is only hours from being destroyed," someone answers. A few seconds later, lasers rain down from above, destroying the betas and betas fliers that have stayed.

We all look up to see Supergirl flying toward us. She lands on the top of the barrier and looks at all of us.

"Oa is only hours from being destroyed," Laria repeats. "What are you talking about?"

"What," Supergirl asks. "What did you say?"

"She's asking what do you mean," I answer, taking over. "What do you mean by Oa is only hours from being destroyed."

"They did it," Supergirl says. "He did it. Superman used Brainiac's ship to destroy Oa."

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Flash yells into the sky. He stomps around in circles before coming back to us. By now, since all the betas are destroyed, everyone had regrouped around Supergirl and heard her.

"We need to get off of Oa," Firestorm says. "Now!"

"Wait," Laria says, stepping in front and spreading out her arms. "What about the other green lanterns? We can't leave them behind!"

"Well, it's not like the Rusted can hold all of them," Reverse-Flash says after I finish translating.

"It might," Catwoman says, "Compared to everything else The Man had built, a few hundred secret rooms in the Rusted would actually be the most normal things."

"In that case," Blue Beetle says, "Let's cross our fingers and go find out."

About to fly off, Laira once again stops us.

"Go ahead of us," Laria says, "I need Atrocitus for something. Atrocitus, please follow me."

Laria then runs into the barrier. I explain what she said before following after her. As I enter the makeshift infirmary, I see Laira standing over a green lantern with grey skin and four arms. He's laying on the ground, with all four arms on his stomach.

"Atrocitus," Laria starts, "Please translate for us."

"Of course," I say, dropping to my knee to hear better.

"Please tell Salaak we'll be going for a little bit but we'll be right back."

I nod my head and am about to tell the green lantern named Salakk but before I could, he cuts me off.

"Atrocitus," Salaak says, "Please tell Laria to leave."

"What?"

"Tell her and Arisia and anyone else who can to leave now. To leave Oa before the planet is destroyed."

"Wait, you know about Oa's destruction? How?"

"The rings told us. The rings told us before they died. They told us you and Laria and everyone else fought as hard as you could, but it wasn't enough. Oa is lost, but not the green lanterns. So long as one of us survives, then so will the green lanterns. Tell her! Please."

Salaak goes quiet. He falls to the floor. All I can do is stare at him.

"Atrocitus. Atrocitus!"

"What," I say, looking around. "Laria?"

"What did Salakk says? Did you tell him?"

About to tell Laria what Salaak said, I stop.

"Yeah," I say with a nod. "I told Salaak. He understands. Come now. We must go back to the Rusted."

Laria nods and throws her arms over me.

"You fought well, green lanterns," I think, giving Sallak and the rest of the green lanterns one last look before leaving the barrier. "Rest well and know this. Laria will survive."

The Man:

"Come on, come on," I say, tapping my fingers against the rail and my foot against the floor. "Come on. Where are they? Where are they?"

Another earthquake shakes the Rusted and the Guardians and I struggle to stay on our feet.

"We are running out of time," Ranakar says after pushing himself up.

"If you even suggest leaving," I say, putting up a finger. "Know I will punch you so hard in the face, you'll literally be eating and pooping out your teeth. Do not test me!"

I end the sentence by slamming my fist against the railing.

"I was not suggesting we leave," Ranakar says, "I am however suggesting you drive your ship to meet them. Not just wait here."

"Pass," I shout. "We're going to stay right here, where they know we are!"

"But--," Ranakar says before I turn around. The speed at which I turn causes a windstorm that shut Ranakar up. I then put my fist up.

"How hungry are you," I ask. Ranakar not answering, I turn back around. A few minutes later, I finally start to see some people.

"Saint Walker," I say, stepping back as he, Harleen, and Arisia land on the deck of the Rusted. He is followed shortly by Supergirl and the rest of the Insurgency.

"Awesome," I say, turning to run toward the bridge. "Everyone's here. We can leave."

"Not yet," Laria says, stopping me. She runs in front and spread out her arms. "Listen, I know you can't understand because my ring isn't working but--"

I stop her and show her the red ring on my finger.

"I can understand you just fine," I say. "Ring or no ring. What it is?"

"Oh. Listen, there are some green lan--"

"We must leave now," Atrocitus yells, cutting off Laria. He pushes her back. "You! Get this spaceship up! Before it's too late!"

I nod my head and try to run past the two but Laria stops me.

"Wait," she says but Atrocitus cuts her off again.

"It's too late, Laria," Atrocitus says. "The other green lanterns know there isn't time. They know. Go now."

Atrocitus points at the wheel.

"Okay," I say.

The Man:

The impact of Oa exploding kicks the Rusted into overdrive. She sails faster than before, outsailing the flying debris. With me at the wheel and everyone else gripping for dear life, we manage to make it out of range of Oa before there is any damage.

As the fire starts to die down and the debris floats instead of shooting out, I pull a lever, and out comes thrusters. The thrusters appear on the side of the Rusted. They turn her to the side so we can look at Oa. At least, what's left of Oa.

"Oa," Kilowog says.

"Oa," Arisias says.

"Oa," Laria says. "Salaak. Everyone."

The three of them lower their heads. It spread like wildfire, and very soon, everyone, even the Guardians, have their heads lowered.

"We lost Oa," Kilowog goes on. "We lost Mogo and Tomar-Re and Guy and who knows who else. All because we didn't believe in you guys. Ahh!"

Kilowog screams and slams his fist against the railing. He screams again while shaking his fist.

"What do we do now," Arisia asks, turning to face Harleen. "I mean, what will happen without the green lantern corps?"

Even though Harleen couldn't understand Arisia without her ring, she could sense the sadness in her voice.

"It's okay," Harleen says, wrapping her arm around Arisia. Arisia rests her head on Harleen's shoulder and cries.

"Salaak told you to go," Laria asks Atrocitus. "He told you Oa is lost and that we should leave."

"Yes," Atrocitus answers. "He told me that he knew. He knew you and Arisia and everyone else fought as hard as we could but that Oa was lost. He wanted you to get out of there. He told me that if one green lantern survives, then so will the green lantern corps."

Upon hearing this, Laria looks at her ring. She shakes her head and lets her hand drop.

"He was wrong," Laria says. "Kilowog, Arisia, and I are all here, but without our rings, we're not much of green lanterns."

"No," I shout, stomping my foot so loud, it grabs everyone's attention. They all stare at me as I walk down the stairs and toward the deck.

"Without the rings, you're not much of a green lantern," I repeat to Laria. "That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard and I have heard a lot of dumb things over the years. The earth is flat. The sky is falling. Barry isn't an idiot."

"Hey," Barry says from somewhere in the back but I ignore him.

"With or no ring," I go on, "You are still green lanterns. The rings choose you because they believe in you. The reason I could wear the rings, whether green, red, or, blue is that they believe in me. They sense the willpower, the anger, and the hope I have. That I still have, and so do the three of you."

I stop when I see something small flying toward us. I waste no time and shoot out the red ring. A claw and wire appear and they catch whatever it is. I pull it in and show it to everyone.

"A dead green ring," Ranakar says. He turns his head and points outward. We all look to see dozens and dozens of green rings floating out in all different directions.

"They're floating," Kilowog says. "Not trying to find new owners."

He grabs one as it floats by. Kilowog throws it into the air over and over but it always comes back down.

"Come on," he says, "Go. Go. Find someone worthy."

Kilowog throwing it again, I catch it this time. I then throw it back into space.

"Kilowog," I say, "Give me your ring."

"What," he asks.

I roll my eyes, shake my head, and go to the next person.

"Laria," I say, "Please give your ring for a bit."

Though clearly confuse, Laria takes off her ring and gives it to me.

"Saint Walker," I say, "I need your ring as well. Please, may I borrow it?"

The same confused expression as Laria, he still takes it off and gives it to me. I then reach into my pocket and pull out all the red rings Atrocitus dropped before. Adding the red ring on my finger to the pile, I throw them into space.

"What are you doing," Ranakar asks.

"Giving the universe a little bit of hope," I answer. "It may be the tiniest bit of hope there is, but it's still hope."

With the green and red rings floating in space, I prepare myself. I breathe in and out repeatedly before putting on all three rings and chanting.

"In brightest days," I start. "And in blackest nights, from the known and unknown, no evil shall escape my sight. For those who worship evil might, beware my power. I am green lantern light!"

Laria's ring then sparks before coming to life. I can hear gasping as not only do the other green rings come to life back but I am encased in green lantern armor.

"Through fearful days," I start, "And raging nights, we with strong hearts and will, do our souls ignite, When all seems lost in the War of Light, looks to the stars and see hope burning bright!"

Saint Walker's ring then roars and explodes. It shines brightly as now blue lantern armor falls on me. I hear even more gasping as the green rings begin to summon themselves. There, floating in front of us, are a green Salaak, a green Tomar-Re, and even a green Mogo. They all smile as they look at us.

"Salaak," Laria says, holding her hands over her mouth. "It's you!"

"No way," Kilowog says as his own ring starts to glow.

"This is impossible," Ranakar gasps. "This shouldn't be possible. Especially since the battery was destroyed. Who are you?"

"Busy here," I say, concreting as I begin my secret red lanterns' oath. "The power of the crimson red can lead your soul away from dread and heal the deepest wound of hate. Let no one else decide your fate."

Red armor forms on me and like the green rings, the red ring themselves start to summon their previous owner. As they do, I see one familiar face.

"Hey Razer," I say with a nod. "Long time no see."

The red Razer smiles and nods his head when he sees me.

"That is not red lantern oath," Atrocitus says.

"Nor is that the blue lantern oath," Saint Walker adds, "Or the green."

"Of course, I know that," I say. "These are alternative oaths. Secret oaths that hold more power."

"If they're secret oaths, then how do you know them," Ranakar asks.

"Shut up you," I say as I slowly step forward. All the past lanterns turning to me, I speak as loud as I can.

"Go forth," I shout, shooting out my hands. "Go forth and find new owners. Find these worthy of your power and tell them this. Come find us."

With that, all the past lanterns disappear. They disappear back into their rings before shooting out in all and every direction.

We all watch as the rings shoot around, moving at unwatchable speed before leaving and disappearing with only a single twinkle.

"They will find new owners," I say, turning to face a stunned crowd. "Those with strong hearts and unbreaking will. Those with anger but with a sense of peace and justice. It won't be easy, and it won't be short, but we will see them again. One day."

"Well, in that case," Kilowog says as he clenches his fist and his ring glows brightly. "They'll need someone to quickly get them into fighting shape."

He jumps into the space and hovers there for a bit.

"I'll track down any ring owners I find and train them," Kilowog says. "We'll be coming to Earth as soon as we can."

"Wait, what," Supergirl says, walking up to the railing. "Are you serious? How are you going to track down ring owners?"

"I don't know," Kilowog answers. He lowers his head and stares at his ring. "But I do know this. A whole new bunch of green lanterns will be coming, and they're going to need training if they want to stand up to Superman."

With that, Kilowog flies toward me. He looks me in the face and offers me his hand.

"This was something I learned from Earth. Thank you."

I cough and look away for a bit. I really don't want to shake Kilowog's hand, mostly because I'm still slightly mad at him, but everyone is looking at us. Even Kara.

I roll my eyes and shake the big ugly's hand.

"Hold on," Laria says as she runs up to me with an open hand. I rub my hand on my jacket before pulling off Laria's ring and giving it to her.

"I'll come with you," Laria says, jumping into space with Kilowog.

"So will I," Saint Walker says, running up to me now.

"I as well," Atrocitus adds. He and Saint Walker follow Kilowog and Laria into space. The four of them hover together, side by side.

Arisia:

With my ring charged now, I could talk with Harleen. I made sure we were both in the back, away from everyone's sight.

"I don't know how," I say, staring at my glowing green lantern ring, "But The Man did it. He somehow recharges our rings, and not just ours, but theirs as well."

I look at The Man as he shakes his with a smiling Kilowog.

"It has been a long time since I've last seen Kilowog smile. It has been a long time since I felt something besides tiredness and worry."

"I'm happy for you," Harleen says, looking at Kilowog, Laria, Saint Walker, and Atrocitus. "So you're going with them, aren't you? You're leaving us to go and find other lanterns."

I take a deep breath before answering.

"Yeah. I guess I have to."

"You don't have to," Harleen says, "You could stay with us. You know, come back to Earth. Punch and kick a few Earth soldiers and betas. I know it's not space travel, but hey, it's not half bad."

"Thanks," I say, smiling as I look at Harleen, "But I think you and everyone else can handle those bastards just fine. I think with them is where I'm needed right now."

Now, Harleen takes a deep breath.

"Oh well. I tried. Just, please promise me one thing before you go seeking out more green, and I guess red lanterns."

"What's that?"

"Please, oh please, be careful. After all, you don't have us watching your back."

"Yeah," I say. "That's the sad part. I don't have you watching out for me."

I feel my chest beating as Harleen laughs. I couldn't take my eyes off her lips as she tries to hide them behind her hands. I don't know what is happening. I can't be sure what is going on but something is telling me to lean in.

Leaning in closer and closer, until my nose is touching Harleen, I close my eyes and lean in just a bit closer. It then happens.

I feel Harleen's soft lips against my own. Our tongues play with each other as we kiss. As we do kiss, I feel something in my chest beating like crazy. I don't know how long we stay like this. It could have been for a few seconds. It could have been for years. I don't know. All I know is that when we pull back and I open my eyes, I see a red, panting Harleen.

"Wow," she says. "That was--"

"Something," I say.

"Yeah," Harleen says. "That was something alright."

"Bye Harleen."

"So long Arisia. See you soon."

I nod my head and make my way through the crowd. Reaching the railing, I jump and join the others.

"You did that," Laria asks, looking down at her ring. "How?"

"Stop asking me that," The Man shouts. "Just be happy I know secrets that even the Guardians don't know."

"I guess we should be at this point," Kilowog says with a sigh. "Hey, at least we don't have to worry about running out of power while in space. I mean, if The Man really did turns your ring into a battery."

"I didn't turn Laria's ring into a battery," The Man shouts. "I just taught it a few new tricks to make it self-sufficient. Your and Arisia's ring will be able to draw power from Laria."

"Meanwhile," Saint Walker says, taking over. "I and Atrocitus still have our battery. We will be fine."

"So I guess this is bye," Supergirl says.

"No," The Man says. "Something else I've learned over the years. There are no such things as byes. There is only see you later. I'll see you later."

"See you later," Supergirl says.

"See you later," Barry and Oliver and Cheetah, and especially Harleen say.

"See you later," I say to everyone as the five of us turn. With a deep breath, a fully-charge green lantern ring, and a new sense of hope, I leave with the other.

"There are no such things as byes," I repeat to myself. "There is only see you later."

The Man:

The lanterns turn into twinkling stars as they disappear. The second they're gone, I turn to face everyone.

"Okay," I say, clapping my hands. "Well. More or less, we gain some new allies."

"Less," Cold says, "Definitely less."

"Hey," Professor Stein says with a raised hand. "Uhh, what about the Guardians? What do we do with them?"

"Yes," Ranakar says, "What about us Guardians? What are we to do now?"

"For now," The Man says, "All of you will be staying with us back on Earth. Until we figure something else. My hidden base had plenty of spare rooms."

"Yeah," Reverse-Flash says with a scowl. "Just beware of all the traps."

I bump Reverse-Flash as I past him.

"Speaking of extra rooms," I say, "I'll go and make up some beds for all of you. I don't trust any of you to steer so the Rusted is on auto-pilot. Until we reach Earth, do whatever you want."

With a wave of my hand, I leave the main deck and disappear below. I walk through the hallway before coming upon one of the spare rooms of the Rusted.

"The Guardians aren't very big," I think as I pat down the pillows and clean the blankets. "I hope they don't mean sharing beds."

As I look around the small room, I hear footsteps and then the sound of a creaking door. Immediately, I reach for a kunai and hold it over my head.

"Really," Kara asks, stepping in the doorway with her hands on her hips.

"Force of habit," I say, putting my kunai away. "What are you doing here?"

"I just came in here to tell you," Kara says before stopping. She scratches the back of her head and coughs before going on. "I just came in here to tell you I think you're a really awesome person."

"What?"

"I mean," Kara stutters as she goes on. "I think you're a really amazing person."

"You already say that."

"No, I didn't."

"True. First, you said I'm an awesome person. Now, you're saying I'm an amazing person. No offense Kara, but I have things to do for people I hate."

"That's it right there," Kara says. She shakes her head and takes a breath before talking again. "Despite all the mean things you said and do, I know from experience that you really do care about people. I mean, if you didn't care about the Guardians at all, then you wouldn't be making beds for them. And Kilowog. When he and Arisia and Laria all lost hope, you did that unbelievable thing where you use the power from three rings to charge the green and red rings and make them go find others who are worthy of these powers."

Out of breath now, Kara had to stop for a little bit.

"Not to mention when I was under Darkseid's control. I remember how you help me."

Kara steps forward, the distance between us closing.

"I can't even begin to express how grateful I am. You're an amazing, wonderful person and I'm glad to know you."

As she talks, Kara starts to lean in closer and closer. Somehow, I feel myself leaning in closer and closer. The distance between us is gone. Our bodies are pressed together. I can feel Kara's breath as she edges closer and closer.

Our lips about to meet, I remember something and pull back. As I pull myself back, I accidentally fall against the wall and collapse.

"Are you okay," Kara asks. She runs to me but I stop her.

"Kara," I say with a raised hand. "Please. Please, just leave me alone."

"What?"

"Please," I shout, Kara jumping. "Please, just leave me alone. Get out."

Kara stays still for a few seconds. She just stares at me as I lay on the floor. Eventually, she nods her head and leaves. As soon as she leaves, I pick myself up.

"I can't believe it," I think, slamming my fists against the bed. "I can't believe it! I'm so sorry Kara! I want to. I want to but I can't!"

I look down at my shaking hand. I then look at the wall I bumped into. Screaming as I run up to it, I punch the wall, my hand going right through it.

Kara:

Somehow, I'm able to walk out of the room. Somehow, I'm able to walk away from the room. Somehow, I'm able to walk away from the room. Once I'm far enough away, I fall against a wall, slowly sliding down it. Once on the floor, I curl up, my knees pressing my face.

I couldn't hold it back anymore. Now that I'm alone, now that no one could see me, now that The Man couldn't see me, I start to cry. I let it all pour out. I feel the tears pouring down my face as I cry alone.

Darkseid:

I scream as I open my eyes.

"Aaahhh!"

Grasping for breath, I look around but all I see is darkness. As I feel about, I remember that earthling's last words.

"Considering yourself lucky you just lost your sight," he said before throwing me into space. Even blind, I remember hearing the rumbling of Apokolips. I can still hear the shaking. Something slowly flies up to me so I place my hand on it. It feels like an asteroid. Only, I know it's not an asteroid.

"Aahhhh," I scream again as I spin around. "You will beat for this, you pathetic earthling! You will beat for destroying my kingdom! I will hunt you down and I will kill you! This, I promise!"

I grab the floating piece of Apokolips and throw it. I listen as it crashes against the other remains of my kingdom. With a clear straight path, I take off.

"I may be blind. I may only have one arm, but I will find Earth no matter how long it takes or how far I have to travel."

Carol Ferris:

Blasting my way out from under the rubble, I then pull myself up and out. My body is bruised and broken. I'm covered in cuts from top to bottom, but at least I'm alive. I can't say the same for the other star sapphires.

"Darkseid," I say, limping while holding my waist. As I limp, I look around. "Hello? Is there anyone there? Can you hear me?"

Silent. No one answers. I don't think anyone can answer. As I keep limping, the pink glow around my body starts to flicker.

"No, no, no. Not now. Not now!"

I look down at my ring. It's flickering. It's running low on power. The second it runs out, I'm stranded here.

"I can't recharge the ring. Darkseid took the battery. I have only one shot at this."

I close my eyes and concrete. I pull together all the power the ring had left in it. My ring flickers over and over, a few times turning off, before finally turning back on. It glows brightly and a portal appears in front of me.

"Take me to the one I love," I say, falling through the portal just as my ring dies.

Superman:

I punch and knock Wonder Woman to the floor. She screams as she falls.

"I never give the order to destroy Oa," I shout, stomping my way to Wonder Woman. I grab her by the throat and pick her up. "I never give the order! Why did you destroy Oa? Why?"

I shake Wonder Woman as I scream.

"Superman," Cyborg says, running toward me. He tries to pry Wonder Woman and me apart but he fails. Instead, he falls as I push him back.

"I never give the order," I repeat, dropping Diana. She falls to the floor while holding her throat. I walk up the stair and sit back down on my chair. Grabbing the wires, I hook them to my mind.

"Wasn't that the plan," Wonder Woman says after pushing herself up. "Wasn't the plan to destroy the corps and allow for Sinestro and his yellow lanterns to be the new protectors?"

"The plan was for us to destroy the Green Lanterns Corps," I answer, "Not the planet! We could have used Oa as a second stronghold! First, you attacked Oa without my order and then you destroyed it! Wonder Woman, keep going without my order, and I promise you this. You'll be the next one under my control."

The whole room falls silent. Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Black Adam, and even Bruce who is still under my control stop. They all turn and face me.

"Fine then," Wonder Woman says. "I will do nothing without first your approval. But remember this. The only reason, the only reason, we could defeat the whole green lanterns corps once and for all, is because of me."

With those last words, Wonder Woman turns and leaves the room. Black Adam follows shortly after her.

"You aren't serious," Cyborg asks, "Are you?"

"Don't test me," I say with a stern finger. "Victor, I am telling you this now only because we are alone, but I had plans."

"Plans?"

"Plans to try and rescue the man and Supergirl."

"Rescue them? Wait, you mean--"

Before Victor could finish, Sinesto walks me. He smiles an uneasy smile and looks at me.

"Superman," he says, sounding strangely happy. "I have interesting news. I have found us a new ally. Well, actually, he was a regime once but decided to give it up. Now, he is one again."

"One again," I repeat. "What are you talking about?"

Sinestro chuckles as he steps to the side. At first, the only thing we hear is the echoing of footsteps. The footsteps get louder and louder until finally, Hal Jordan steps into the room, with a yellow ring.

"I find Hal running by himself shortly before Oa's destruction," Sinestro says. "I offered him a chance. Either join us once more or die. It was an easy choice."

Upon hearing this, I watch as Hal raises his yellow ring up and shows it to all of us.

The Lords of Order:

"Do you feel that," I ask.

"Yes," the other Lords answer. "Yes, we do. It is him."

"The man in the sunglasses," I say. "His power is setting ripples across the magical planes. His power alone. He is too strong to be left unattended."

"He must be stopped," another Lord says.

"It falls to us, the Lords of Order, to stop this coming storm. We must be hasty."

"We must. We must. We must."

"We may have lost Kent Nelson, but he is not our only weapon."

"We still have Raven, daughter to Trigon."

"Raven was not enough. Even with her power and ours, we could not destroy The Man."

"It is because of the other Insurgent fighters. They are in our way."

"Then we will call upon our own fighters."