E8: Green Lantern #4

[Spider-Man Beyond]

E8: Green Lantern #4
Emerald Dawn Part 4

Written by Russell Burlingame (Borntorun)
Edited by Daniel Dyer (Spider-Man Beyond)

Kyle woke up, and he could still see Alex, but she was upside down.

“...the hell...?” he muttered.

The shrill, clattering noise of the creature's voice in his head started back up again: >>You're back with us. Good. Ring-bearer, you need to surrender your power source.<<

Kyle looked down at his feet, and saw that he was in fact looking up at the ceiling—the monster-thing was holding him by his ankles.

“Oh?” he said. “Why didn't you take it while I was asleep?”

“It wouldn't come off of you, Kyle,” Guy said. He was standing next to Alex, his arm still looking like a gun, which was pointed at the creature. “I don't know what this thing is, but don't give it that ring.”

Kyle looked at Guy, and then Alex, and then he looked at his ankles where the creature was holding him.

“Care to chime in on this, ugly?” Kyle asked the creature. “What the hell are you anyway?”

>>I am Parallax,<< the creature answered, >>and that ring belongs to me.<<

“I thought it belonged to the midg—err, the little blue guy,” Kyle quipped. His head hurt like hell, with all the blood rushing to it, but he was starting to clear up a little bit.

>>The Guardian may have thought he controlled the destiny of the ring, but it is the influence of the Parallax which made the greatest of the Green Lanterns, and it will be my influence which charts the future of the Green Lantern legacy.<<

“I see. I see. So... what you're basically saying is that I'm not good enough to be in your little band?”

>>Stop stalling and give me the ring.<<

“I think it wants to stay with me. I think that's why it didn't come off. So you'll have to push on and make another one if you really need it that bad.”

>>Don't think that I won't gut you, Earthman. I am not beyond atomizing you and leaving nothing for the ring to be attached to.<<

{Error,} the little voice inside the ring chimed in. {Power ring protects wearer from all mortal injury.}

“Reeeeeeally?” Kyle muttered to himself. “Now, THAT is a useful piece of jewelry.”

“What are you talking about, Kyle?” Alex asked. It was the first time she'd spoken.

“Oh, good, welcome back, Alex,” Guy said. “I was worried you mighta been in shock or somethin'.”

“Guy,” Kyle asked, “what's your deal?”

“You remember how Superman was part alien and it made him tough and gave him powers? Well, same here. Except my alien parents were crazy, warmongering, weapon-producin' bastiches, so I got some pretty nasty powers that ugly here has only BEGUN to hear about.”

“Good to know. Now, Parallax, I've got a question for you, too.”

>>Make it quick.<<

“What happens when I chop one of your ugly-ass tentacles off?”

And he did, using a large sword created by the ring. For a moment, Parallax was stunned, but by the time Kyle hit the ground, the creature had regenerated.

“You know, Rayner,” Guy said while firing off a few shots in the direction of Parallax, “it wouldn't kill you to use that ring-thing to make yourself like a pillow to fall on or something next time.”

“Noted,” Kyle grunted. “Now, get Alex somewhere safe, and follow me.”

“Follow you--” Guy started, but Kyle dove at Parallax, pushed him through the doorway and out into the street. “--where?” Guy finished. “Oh,” and he turned to Alex. “Can you find someplace to hide?” he asked her.

“I want to help, Kyle,” she said. “I need to know what's going on here!”

“Sorry, honey, that's not the right answer.” Guy grabbed Alex by the waist, looked around the bar and, rolling his eyes, stuffed her into the walk-in cooler. He slammed the door and turned his arm into a wrench-like device to pinch the latch shut. He then chopped a small ventilation hole high in the door. “I'll be back later to getcha,” he said. “I'm really sorry about the fridge thing—you didn't deserve that, but we need you out of the way for this next part. There should be a jacket back there, the Byrne Dairy man always leaves it when he brings the cream for the coffees and stuff.”

—

[Spider-Man Beyond]

Out in the street, Parallax was slamming Kyle through the front end of a truck when Guy got outside to help. Guy shot him in the back, and the monster spun around, slamming Guy with his tail while Kyle used the ring to try and put it into a straitjacket. Its strange physiology slipped out of the jacket, though, and it wrapped the truck around Kyle, kicking it into the middle of the street.

“Hey, ugly!” Guy screamed. “I can make any weapon ever invented with only my hands!”

The creature paused for a second to watch as Guy created a Green Lantern ring for himself. “You want it? Come get it.”

Parallax looked for a moment at Kyle's bruised, half-conscious body and then turned to Guy. As he crossed the street, Gardner blasted pure energy at the creature's face with all he could muster. Parallax's face was clearly disfigured, missing whatever passed for flesh, but the creature pressed forward.

“Damn, monsterboy, that should have killed you!”

{Error, Kyle's ring called out. {The power ring cannot inflict mortal injury.}

Parallax, hearing this, spun around to strike out at Kyle, who had been sneaking up behind him.

“Rayner, can you make that stupid thing shut up for a while? That one just about killed us.”

Kyle spat out a mouthful of blood, and then created an ax and used it to chop away at Parallax's tail as it turned to attack Guy. “Yeah, you're telling me. At least you still have teeth.”

“Ah, nothing worse than what I went through in college. You know, when I was on the football team, there was this big, black guy called John Henry?”--he blasted the creature, who was slashing at him with its claws while Kyle held it back by its tail-- “Craziest player you ever saw, and I was on the line protecting the bastard. I took some really strange hits over the years...”

Just then, Parallax slashed at Guy's face and drew blood.

“Bastard!” Guy shouted and, creating a mace out of each arm, smashed each into the sides of Parallax's head.

“Hold him there a minute, Guy,” Kyle shouted. Carrying a telephone pole, he flew at the creature and swung it, baseball bat-style, using the ring. Unfortunately, just as he would have made contact, Parallax disappeared and the pole smashed into Guy instead, sending him flying back through the glass window of Radu's Coffee across the street.

—

[Spider-Man Beyond]

It was almost ten minutes before Guy regained consciousness, and when he did, he was slumped in a booth inside Radu's, with Kyle on the other side, still in costume, and Radu, the tall, mustachioed owner of the place, at the head of the table with a pitcher of water.

“How goes, Hero?” Radu asked.

“Eh? 'Mnot a hero. I'm a Warrior,” Guy said, and cracked a smile.

“He's fine,” Kyle said, and rolled his eyes. “I'm Green Lantern and this is, eh, Warrior.”

“You guys from Superman's planet?” Radu asked.

“Nah. My people fought 'em once, though,” Guy muttered, licking the blood off his lips. “A real cosmic odyssey, that was.”

“Nevermind him,” Kyle told Radu. “He's still a little wobbly from getting his butt kicked by a weird worm monster.”

“That's good. He saved this block, a window's not so bad. Ever since Superman died, I worry about what would happen if some of these super-bads came to town. At least now I know we have the Green Lantern and his trusty sidekick, Warrior.”

“Hey, now!” Guy grunted, and started to get up, but dizziness drove him right back down. “I'm nobody's sidekick! I'm the best there is at what I do!”

“What do you do?” Kyle asked. “As far as I know, this is a new thing for you.”

“Yeah yeah yeah. But if there's a sidekick, it's gonna be you, 'Teen' Lantern!”

“Um, heroes?” Radu said, “I think this conversation will have to wait.”

“What's up?” Guy asked, and turned around to face the street outside where Radu was looking.

“Oh, crap,” said Kyle.

Out in the street, where Parallax had been a moment before, was Guy Gardner – clad in spiky yellow armor, with glowing yellow eyes, and brandishing a gold version of a Green Lantern ring.

“I really, really don't like the look of this,” Guy said, as Kyle helped him to his feet. “Let's go ask me some questions.”

-To be Concluded.