Green Lantern - Sleepers Book 2

by Unknown Author

  "... your power... ”

  He shook his head. He did not understand her.

  “... your power can do... ”

  Malvolio smashed his fist into the side of the volcano until he had carved out a massive chunk of rock, the size of tank. The Marines were frantically pouring a withering fire on him, throwing grenades, firing bazookas, calling in artillery and mortar fire, anything they had to stop him. But none of it was effective—it simply bounced off him or fell, the shrapnel and bullets’ energy spent. Malvolio hurled the rock towards the sea, where, moving as fast as an artillery shell, it tore shrieking through the air and smashing into a destroyer, instantly breaking its back from the force. The ship sank in seconds, taking all but a few of its crew down with it.

  Finally Green Lantern could hear what the apparition of his mother was saying.

  “Your power can do what his cannot,” she said. “His power can deflect. Yours can absorb.”

  And Green Lantern knew what she meant. It was what the strange Qwardian being on Planet Hell had been trying to tell him. Things were bouncing off Malvolio because Malvolio, in all his blind, single-minded will, could move his power in one direction: outward. That’s why he needed the Sleepers: because he could not absorb energy. The Green Lantern could use his power to absorb.

  He would have to open himself up to Malvolio’s attack. It would be dangerous-like anything taken too strong, he could literally overdose from the power. But resistance wasn’t working. He had no choice.

  Malvolio was hovering above, ready to finish him. Summoning every bit of force he could once again muster, he sent a blast of energy at the Green Lantern so great that the flash blinded whoever was looking directly at it, and the ripple of energy sent men, materiel, jungle foliage and dirt flying.

  The cloud of dust was impenetrable for minutes. Malvolio waited to see the results of his work, hovering in the air above the crater.

  What he saw below pleased him: Green Lantern’s hand, ripped from his body, the ring still on the finger.

  Malvolio lowered himself to the object and picked it up and stared at it.

  “Alas poor Alan. I hardly knew ye.”

  The ring on the Green Lantern’s hand began to glow.

  It was a day of surprises for Malvolio. He dropped the hand and it tumbled into the crater.

  As he stared at the hand, flesh began to grow from the severed portion, first forming a forearm, then the whole arm, then flesh snaking like roots from a trunk of a tree, getting larger, forming a torso, limbs and head until Green Lantern was once again whole.

  Malvolio could not believe it. But what alarmed him the most was the glowing ring on the Green Lantern’s finger.

  So he blasted him again.

  Again the Green Lantern was blown to pieces, but this time the pieces each grew until Malvolio was surrounded by multiple Green Lanterns. This sent Malvolio into a rage and he sprayed his energy like a hose, grabbing the Lanterns and fusing them together in one mass.

  Malvolio then picked up the huge mass of flesh and energy and flew it deep into the ocean. In minutes they were in the darkest, deepest part of the Pacific. Malvolio could feel the mass squirming as he sought to drive it into the crushing depths. He had no plan; only his hatred and his strength which, for the first time in a long time, he could feel was diminishing from his effort.

  As he moved down in the blackness of the ocean depths, he felt something around his throat. It was a hand, but it was huge: it easily wrapped around his neck, choking him like a vice. Soon he could not swim any further, and the momentum reversed as the Green Lantern swam Malvolio to the surface.

  Then, from the silence of the water, Malvolio found himself ripped from the waves into the open air. He saw what had grabbed him: it was the Green Lantem, who was now huge: one hundred feet tall. He held Malvolio in the open air above the ocean. They were right in the middle of the invasion fleet, and every ship there was firing on both of them.

  And as the shells stmck Malvolio, he felt a sensation he hadn’t felt for a long time: pain.

  Green Lantem was flying Malvolio across the ocean, away from the fleet. Eventually they were out of range of the ships, and the Green Lantem stopped and held Malvolio suspended above the open ocean.

  Green Lantern’s power super-charged the space around them, sending the heated, moist air shooting thousands of feet up to the cold atmosphere above, instantly creating massive, unstable thun-derheads. Within a minute the sky was dark with storms and lightning crackling around them.

  Green Lantem glared at Malvolio, full of fury. The newly charged power crackled from him, the force of it bowling the ocean water below them, pushing it away, a smooth 200-foot wide crater in the middle of the storm-tossed ocean.

  “Have you given me everything you have?” Green Lantern asked Malvolio. *

  The wind and rain of the Lantern’s artificial storm whipped around them as he awaited Malvolio’s response.

  Malvolio had no explanation for how it had all turned against him and he knew he would not get one from the Green Lantern. But he could not help to ask.

  “How?”

  “You were giving it all away. So I accepted it.”

  Malvolio, whose whole being was about using and resisting force, did not understand the concept of acceptance. Until now.

  The Green Lantern continued. “And now, are you ready accept your fate?”

  Malvolio was defeated. “Yes.”

  Green Lantern summoned his energy to destroy Malvolio, vaporize him to subatomic particles. Malvolio would feel no pain because he would be dead faster than his mind would register the event. Unlike all that he had killed, his death would be the most painless possible.

  Green Lantern was ready. Malvolio was as well. As executioner and executed, they were about to bond in an intimacy greater than family, friends or lovers. They would share death.

  “Stop.”

  Above them was a Guardian, the same strange little man that Scott had spoken to during his time away from Earth. The Guardian was grim and cold.

  “I’ve come for Malvolio.”

  “He’s mine.”

  “He belongs to the Guardians and Oan. You are not a member of the Corps.”

  “What does that matter? My purpose was to defeat him-let me finish what I was told to do!”

  But the Guardian was insistent. “He comes with me.”

  Before Green Lantern could say or do anything, he felt the incredible power of the Guardian as he took over Scott’s hold of

  Malvolio. Scott watched as the two ascended into the blue of the twilight sky, then into the blackness of space.

  Then they were gone. And Alan Scott was once again alone.

  reen Lantern searched out the remaining Sleepers that left the island. He knew that the invasion occurring in tandem was on the island of Iwo Jima.

  His strength sapped from battling Malvolio, he pushed himself to find the last Sleeper and confiscate his ring before any more harm could be done. He changed directions to an island on the western horizon, a small flat gray smudge with a looming volcano on one end. The island itself was ringed by another invasion force of massive proportions.

  G

  Flying over the ash-covered atoll, he saw the forces of Marines swarming the island like it was an anthill, and the occasional puff from a grenade explosion and spewing of sooty fire from a flame thrower told the Green Lantern that the battle was far from over.

  The Marines were trying to flush the Japanese defenders from endless tunnels and bunkers laced throughout the island. As the battered Green Lantern watched, men were still being cut down by snipers and artillery being lobbed in from unseen positions across the island and on the volcano at the tip of the island. Whatever he'd gone through with his super powers, these Marines were suffering much worse. He decided to do what he could before he sought out the Sleepers.

  Green Lantern set down at the base of Mount Suribachi and moved along the ragged lines of Marines desperately making their wa
y up the steep, black sandy slopes. Sniper fire and grenades were lobbing down at them with regularity, and staying in any one place was inviting death.

  Tom between helping the Marines and finding the Sleeper, the Green Lantern moved towards the direction of fire. He figured that that Sleeper would be in full battle mode, programmed by Malvolio to center on the heart of the combat and create a radius of destruction that moved outwardly.

  The fiercest fighting seemed to be at a complex of bunkers at the base of the volcano. Moving slowly upward, Green Lantem saw Marines making superhuman efforts to advance in the fire, and Japanese soldiers popping out to lob grenades and shoot. The behavior of these men was not normal in any way; finding the Sleepers in this would be difficult.

  A shell went off just feet away from the Green Lantem, knocking an advancing column of Marines off their feet. He saw a Marine lying in a shallow foxhole, curled up and weeping and went to pull him up before more rounds came in.

  And as the Marine looked up, the Green Lantem knew that it was an ambush. The Sleeper lashed out at him with all the power he could muster, and the surprise attack blasted the hero into the volcanic rock. The Sleeper came at him completely bent on killing him, bent on destroying the destroyer of Lord Malvolio.

  Green Lantern struck back blindly, try to defend himself with the last of his strength. He rolled to get away, but in the chaos of the battle around him, he could find no safety. Desperate to buy himself some time, his hands searched through the volcanic ash for a weapon.

  He touched the handle of an entrenching tool. Green Lantern knew that the tool alone would not harm the supercharged Sleeper, so he channeled the last of his energy into the blade of the shovel, forging and sharpening it to a fine, diamond-hard edge.

  The Sleeper made one last, mad charge at him, and before he could close, Green Lantern swung the shovel upward, the power-strengthened edge of the blade catching the Sleeper across the chest. The Sleeper literally flew down the slopes of the volcano and came to rest against an abutment of jagged lava rock.

  The Lantern tried standing but found that the pain was too great. Looking down at his filthy, dust-covered suit, he realized he was much more gravely injured than he had imagined: fear, anger and adrenaline had allowed him to ignore his wounds until now.

  He collapsed in the volcanic dust.

  A hundred yards down the slope, the Green Lantern’s last threat—the lone Sleeper-lay wounded as well, mortally injured from the blade.

  Having failed at carrying through Malvolio’s primary orders, the mortally wounded Sleeper sought to accomplish his final defensive objective: prevent Green Lantern from obtaining the source of his power.

  Seeing a corpsman working through the wounded, he cried out feebly: “Medic... ”

  The medic made his way to the Sleeper and examined him. “Hang in there, fella-help is on the way... ”

  The medic continued his patter as he tried to help, but the dying Sleeper was no longer listening: he feared the Green Lantern coming for him.

  He reached out, grabbed the medic fiercely and leaned into the boy’s face. “The ring!”

  The medic looked confused. “Did you say ring?”

  “This ring! Take it.” The Sleeper thrust the glowing ring into the medic’s hands. The medic said something more but the Sleeper wasn’t listening. “You, Medic—you take the ring!”

  No longer wearing the ring, the Sleeper quickly succumbed to his wounds.

  The young Medic’s name was Eddie Roach. He did what he could for the dying marine, then moved on to help others, pocketing the ring.

  The Green Lantern lay in the sooty dirt of the volcano and slowly healed himself, using newfound discipline in channeling the power. The surprise attack of the Sleeper told him that he was still vulnerable and that the power in anyone else’s hands was not trivial.

  He dragged himself to his feet and went to find the wounded Sleeper. He found him dead against the volcanic rock, his body ripped open by the power of the Green Lantern’s improvised blade. Bending down to examine the marine, Green Lantern saw the yellow ring was missing.

  He tried to trace the energy of the ring but the chaos of the battle continuing to rage around him and his own exhaustion prevented any discovery. Not finding it, he left to get the other rings before they, too, were lost.

  Irene had watched the battle from the beach and now helped the wounded Marines as they were triaged and loaded onto LSTs to be sent to the hospital ship anchored in the lagoon.

  A green flash happened in the horizon, and eveiyone turned with fear. Then they saw Green Lantem flying over the waves toward them, without Malvolio. The men on the beach cheered as the hero flew by, and he waved his thanks back to them.

  Green Lantem dropped down into the clearing, where the bodies of the Sleepers and soldiers still lay scattered. As he bent down to gather up the rings, he saw something else amidst the wreckage—a green metallic object half-buried in the fine dirt. He brushed away the dirt and pulled it up—it was the green lantem. He didn't know how or where it had come from, but he had a pretty good idea. He picked it up, accepting the gift without comment.

  “Was it worth it?”

  He turned to see Irene behind him.

  She waved her arms at the carnage. “All of this death. For those?”

  “It was worth getting them away from him,” he replied.

  “Why?”

  Green Lantem held up the rings. They were glowing fiercely.

  “Malvolio didn’t know the true power of these rings, but he would have discovered it in time. He believed that I had drawn the power out. With one of these, if we believe it, it happens. And if we don’t, it doesn’t. It all comes down to will.”

  The two were left with this troubling thought.

  “What about me?” Irene asked. “Were you comfortable sacrificing me?”

  “No. But it was the only card I had to play. I’m sorry.”

  “That’s all you can offer? ‘I’m sorry?”’

  “Yes.”

  “You're not human.”

  “I’m not offered human choices.”

  “And for that, I’m sorry.”

  Irene and the Lantern looked at each other and, although they stood close enough to touch, the distance between them was closer to forever. After a moment, she turned her back and walked away. Alan thought for a moment to call out to her, but he realized he did not know what he’d say.

  Instead he gathered up the glowing rings. He’d need to make sure they didn’t fall into the wrong hands or on the wrong fingers. This was now his responsibility and he had work to do.

  Green Lantern held up the source of his power. Touching his ring to it, the ring and lantern seemed to energize each other, and both glowed with renewed strength.

  Behind him were sounds of reinforcement and securing of the island. Seabees were already using captured bulldozers to flatten out the bomb craters on the runway. The drones of Navy bombers and fighters reverberated through the sky. Soon those carrier-based planes would be taking off and landing on the island airstrip the Marines had fought so valiantly to secure.

  He walked past beaches being cleared of destroyed vehicles and equipment, past wounded men being evacuated, and bodies being stacked. Witnessing this he came to understand that it would all be repeated. Soon there would be another island with another airfield, more casualties, more heroism, more loss. This battle was won but the war was very far from over.

  Alan Scott, the Green Lantern, heard and felt this all. And as he took in these sights, for the first time in a long time, he spoke these words:

  “And I shall shed my light over dark evil,

  For the dark things cannot stand the light,

  The light of the Green Lantern.”

  EPILOGUE

  “Why don’t you get a real silverware drawer? It’s the twenty-first century for God’s sake!”

  “What does that have to do with how I arrange my flatware? And what’s to arrange? One fork, one knife, o
ne coffee mug.”

  “Do you need to have that cat corpse nailed to the closet wall?” “It’s a carcass. And yes, I do. It pleases me, Jade. It reminds me of things.”

  Jade poured herself coffee from the battered percolator into the one mug that her father owned. The mug was as ancient as everything else in his apartment: a relic of past times. The mug had a nearly faded logo on it: Dekker Industries.

  “I really need to get you a coffee press.”

  Alan Scott tossed the Sunday paper down on the ottoman, giving up on finishing his crossword puzzle.

  “Jade, why exactly are you here? If you hate my apartment so much, why visit? We’ve got some great hotels here in Gotham and it’s not like you can’t afford it.”

  Jade eased into her father’s battered leather club chair, creased from years of sitting, and threw her leg over the chair’s arm. She smiled as she sipped her father’s instant coffee, pleased to have finally gotten his attention.

  “There are certain things I like about staying with you, Alan. This chair for instance. Can I have it?”

  “No, you can’t have it! And don’t call me Alan.”

  “Do you really want me to revert to Daddy?”

  “Dad. Father. Pater. But I don’t go for this first name stuff.”

  Jade mock pouted. “Why are you all so hung up? You’d think with all your power and prestige you wouldn’t worry about stuff like that.”

  “And why do I have a feeling that this speech isn’t for me?” “Who’s it for then?”

  Scott arched an eyebrow—it was his turn to needle. “Where’s your boyfriend?”

  Jade stared down into her coffee, assuming nonchalance.

  “Kyle? He has the same issues as you, I suppose. Maybe that’s why I was attracted to him. Because deep down inside he reminds me of you, Daddy.”

  Scott jumped to his feet, having spilled coffee on himself at Jade’s last parry.

  “Okay, enough of that Freudian crap. Daughters. Why didn’t I have a son—all I’d have to worry about is stolen liquor and wrecked cars. Okay, you’re mad at Kyle, right? You want me to talk to him?” It was Jade’s turn to jump to her feet.