Wednesday, September 29th, 2030. Sector Zero, Oa.
"Hal!..."
"…..HAL!"
"Hal Jordan— the only other ugly white guy on this green orb of a planet, if you keep making me look like a clingy ex girlfriend in front of my co-workers I'm gonna give you a god damned swirly in that blood pool on Ysmault!" Guy Gardner of the Green Lantern corps said as he flew after an emerald shape in the distance.
"Haha! He does look like a clingy ex-girlfriend, don't he?" Another lantern flying beside him asked. He was massive— covered in dense muscle and an alien-bovine rhino face only a mother could love.
"Watch it, pumba. I'm not one of your little trainees you can clown on anymore." Guy replied as he weaved around a will-powered railway made of otherworldly silver metals with green energy flows.
Killowog grunted, "That was too many earth references, ya poozer. Keep it to my sector if you wanna cut deep. Or at least try. You never were the sharpest tool in the shed, though."
Guy eyed him in a rage, "YOU JUST—"
"Friends, let us not forget the purpose of this chase." Another alien flying beside Guy said. He was the physical opposite of Killowog with a lanky fatless body, scaled skin and a bird face set with a beaked mouth and hawkish eyes. Despite his goofy appearance by human standards, he was a legend among the lanterns.
"That's it, Tommy. Reel in your rhino-pig." Guy said to the lantern.
"It's Tomar-Re." The avian alien hailing from Xudar replied. "And was any of that an earth based slur? You have a tendency to use slur—"
"Hey, hey, you just told us to focus." Guy pointed at Tomar-are as they flew.
Killowog nodded, "You did say that, bird-brain."
"Then let's." Tomar-Re replied after sighing loudly.
Kilowog raised his ring-bearing hand and squinted one eye like he was aiming a rifle ahead, "Our target is six hundred meters ahead and climbing. If I see one single fighter jet construct, I'm—"
"Hey! Hal is not a target. He's our fellow corpsemen…. who's a jackass sometimes." Guy interrupted.
"Jackassery aside, Hal Jordan is also the most likely lantern to disobey the Guardians." Tomar-Re replied.
"You trying to say Hal's the green lantern corps bad-boy? Cause I'm the bad-boy last time I checked. You guys remember that bar-brawl? I cracked—"
"You're a good-boy, Guy. Your records as spotless as a bolvaxian baby's a—"
"Ahh!" Guy interrupted Kilowog, "Enough of that."
Tomar-re continued, "As the most likely to disobey, as fellow lanterns, we have to seriously consider the possibility that Hal Jordan's future and current disagreements with the Guardians are a beginnings something more…"
Guy scoffed, "Something more? He's not gonna get possessed by parallax and kill us all. He's just…. listen, we've got a thing on earth. A conflict between Jarhanpur and Boravia. It's all over the news. Heroes are being ordered not to get involved. But who are we to not get involved right? There's mentions of slavery, forced starvations. Illegal extraction of resources, the usual colonizer thing. Anyway, the rising conflict in the Vega Star System looks similar ok? It's…. I don't know? What's that mushy teenage girl term? Triggering."
Tomar-Re and Killowog eyed eachother for a second.
"What?" Guy said.
Killowog nodded, "Yep. Clingy ex-girlfriend."
Tomar-Re nodded, "That explanation was quite emotionally grounded and arguably homo-erot—"
"I'll shoot both of you in the face." Guy replied.
They all went serious as Hal whizzed around a corner and dive-bombed behind the looming figure of a collection of communal high-rises and circular towers.
They slowly hovered to the ground behind Hal as he landed on the landing strip.
It was a sort of statue or piece of architecture dedicated to him.
John made it for him with the help of a few other architecturally inclined corpsemen for his forty-fifth birthday— the same day he fought off a Manhunter invasion and saved a future member from being killed.
Her name was Arisia.
Hal stood on the landing strip. It ran for five miles. Flat hybrid road made from the respective building materials of planets he helped save. It was beautiful. Artistic. A painted canvas in aviator objective form.
As they all landed behind him, Hal turned with his hands raised, "Why are you guys chasing me like I stole something from you?"
"Why are you running like you stole something from us?" Guy replied.
Hal shook his head, "I needed some air."
Guy laughed as he crossed his arms, "Yea… those blue midg—"
"Little people." Hal held up a finger, "It's little people. Do not use that outdated term."
"Oh shut up. I'm on your side." Guy replied.
"A side that wouldn't happen to be involved in disobeying the Guardians I hope?" Tomar-Re replied.
They all looked at Hal. He was in prime form. Lean. Sinewy muscle fibers left his suit to glow and pulse with lantern energy. The only signs of age were shown in the silver specks in his brown hair. "Come on, guys…."
Silence.
"We're not moving on the Vega Star System because of a rule the Guardians made a thousand years ago to hide their own creepy overlord failures with the Psions. It's their mistake— it's their god damned fault there's a race of beings rivaling their intelligence that's planning to enslave an entire star system. Off limits? On what grounds? Shame?"
"He's got a point….." Guy shrugged.
"Quiet, butt-kisser." Killowog replied.
"I'm not a butt-kisser I'm just not pro-slavery from weird lizard alien guardian things." Guy retorted.
"I believe the star system is off limits until proper discovery and justification for corps involvement is made. The unknown is the most dangerous beast of all—"
"The unknown?!" Hal yelled, "We hold the strongest weapon in the universe. Our only limit is our own willpower. Lanterns are supposed to fight their fears, not use them as justification for inaction."
"You accuse the guardians of succumbing to fear?" Killowog asked.
"It's happened before. And I fixed that problem." Hal replied.
"And I presume you're now looking to solve this one?" Tomar-are replied.
Hal was silent for a moment. "I'll give the guardians a month. I'll try and talk with them again. Id like your help in persuading them. But after that, it's go time. Tamaran is already invaded from what I've heard. I'm sure the Psion's are building an army out of the willing the killing the rest. It's my job to stop that. I hoping the rest of you didn't forget your oath."
"Hey man, evil hasn't escaped my sight since I put this ring on. We can go right now matter of fact—"
"Guy Gardner, let's not move with even more wild haste. We give them a month." Tomar-are replied.
Hal nodded, "Thanks guys."
"Don't thank us yet. I'm gonna work you in tommorows training sesh for making me chase your scrawny ass through the south-end." Killowog replied.
"And I will be needing more intergalactic research logs. Knowledge is power— and we will need all the power to follow your lead." Tomar-are replied.
Hal waved them off.
Guy was already floating into the air, "I'm heading to the bar. I need a few bottles of that Daxamite ale. The spicy stuff!"
Hal remained on the landing strip.
"One month… will we make a difference in that time?"