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Captain Hal Jordan was chosen to represent an intergalactic police force created by the oldest beings in existence - the Guardians of the Universe. Protecting Earth and all of space sector 2814 from every extraterrestrial threat imaginable. Hal Jordan shines his light proudly as the Green Lantern

"In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight.
let those who worship evil's might, beware my power - Green Lantern's light!"

What has gone before…

Hal Jordan is Green Lantern but he has found it difficult to balance his relation with his family, his new romance with Donna Troy, his responsibilities with the Air Force and his calling as galactic policeman. After a catastrophic battle on Oa with Superboy Prime leaves him with a fractured power ring, Hal realises that something is amiss with the Guardians of the Universe. Before he can act on his suspicions his old nemesis Nekron unleashes his herald, the lost Lantern John Stewart to attack Earth at the same time as a reconstituted and intelligent Chemo. Hal's ring fails as he fights Chemo and he is killed in action. However Nekron has used his powers to hold back death itself, hoping that the entropic whiplash that will be created when he opens the gates of death again will give him enough power to absorb the planet's life force. Hal exists in a half-life, on the brink of death. However, he is rarely alone and he is rescued by the Justice Society and his former partner Green Arrow, who finds Hal's lost daughter to give blood to revive the hero. Meanwhile on Oa the Lanterns are refused access to help Hal and Earth and on New Cronus, Donna rushes to Hal's side…

 

#11

RING OF DARKNESS (3 of 4)

By Neil Gow

 

 

High Above Coast City

Two warriors clash – one wielding a scintillating emerald fire powered from his very soul, the other battering with a marbled green darkness held within a corrupted power ring. They spin through the air, feinting and diving, climbing and dodging as their myriad constructs clash and explode. One is Alan Scott, who for many is the original Green Lantern and the wielder of the Starheart. The other is John Stewart, a former Green Lantern now tied to the Lord of the Unliving, Nekron, as his herald. Beneath them a city holds it's breath.

“You fight, old man, when you know you cannot win. Your power may be ancient, but mine comes from a source as old as life itself. Not even the vaunted Justice Society can fight death.” John sneers at his old friend and a black bolt of energy slams into Alan, doubling him up and sending him spinning through the air.

Alan steadies himself and swipes at John with a glowing green baseball bat, cracking him around the head. “Age has nothing to do with it, son. Experience is what counts, and heart, and I have plenty of both!” Emerald flame envelopes John and he throws his head back apparently screaming in agony and then his head snaps forward laughing maniacally. He rushes through the air, close to Alan and grabs him by the scruff of his cape, pulling him closer as he smashes a knee into his stomach. Green Lantern doubles up and Stewart unleashes an upper cut, snapping Scott's head back and sending a stream of blood spiralling through the air.

“Your time is over, Alan Scott. Join our army now!” John Stewart grabs Alan Scott around the throat and squeezes down, throttling the life out of the elderly hero. His eyes meet with Alan Scott staring into the bottomless darkness of Nekron's control.

He grits his teeth and the Starheart erupts, blowing John Stewart off him. “There have been far too many men who have thought they could tell me when to die John. When I die, it will be my decisio…ARHGH!”

Suddenly Alan clutches his chest and shudders in agony, tumbling down through the air. He crashes into the rubble-strewn sidewalk below him at the feet of a new arrival. He is dressed in black gothic armour and around him a stench of damp decay permeates the air.

“I beg to differ, Alan Scott. I, Nekron, will make that decision for you!”

Nekron, Lord of the Unliving, walks the Earth!

 

Coast City

Nekron stands amidst the dead and dying as John Stewart kneels before him, his head bowed before his malevolent master. On the ground, the unconscious body of Alan Scott lies like a sacrifice before the lord of the dead. Nekron glances left and right, surveying the carnal house he has created. For blocks the rebuilt Coast City is shattered, a wasteland of destruction. The stench of blood and death blows around the rubble. Under his black metal helm, his taut dry skin is pulled into a soft smile.

“Master, we have breached Earth. Your shadows are battling with this place's weak protectors. Soon we will be able to tap the lifesoul of the planet itself and suck the living essence from its core. Every man, woman and child will be added to your army.” Stewart looks up, smiling a sick grin.

“And then my pawn, we will take to the stars and every species will bow before my power. It is time to create the breach. Go, bathe yourself in death, play with the peons who protect Jordan. I will call you.” Nekron dismisses Stewart with a brush of his hand and then steps forward. He raises his hands and the ground begins to shudder.

Black dust rises slowly from the rubble. Dark shadows spread across the shattered concrete and the earth itself begins to move around him. Huge blackened shards of rock erupt from the ground and rise high into the air. Debris spins and twists in a hurricane of deafening noise. In the centre, Nekron stands with his arms outstretched. Around him, his Throne of Shadows grows and grows.

 

Coast City Central Hospital

John Stewart floats back towards Coast City Hospital to finish the job that he started earlier. He will find Jordan and kill him once and for all, and he will take out any fools that try to get in his way. Black energy marbled with green ripples from his ring at the thought of crushing his former partner.

He swoops down from the sky ready to blast the hospital to rubble … and he is thrown back with a massive explosion of blinding white energy. He spins through the air and stops short of an office block. John Stewart rubs his hands across his eyes, shocked by the blinding light. As the shimmering stars fade, what he sees before him is most unexpected!

She is floating in mid-air, surrounded by the dissipating silver fluid metal of a transwarp shell. Her familiar black starfield outfit has been replaced by a suit of armour, the style melded between the ancient Greek style of the Amazonians, the powerful delicacy of Tamaranean design and the advanced materials of her new home, New Cronus. In one hand she carries a round shield and in the other a broad bladed sword. On her head she wears a crested Greek helm, but underneath the eyes that stare out are unmistakably those of Donna Troy, formerly Wonder Girl and now the Harbinger of New Cronus and the lover of Hal Jordan.

“Get your hands off my man!”

She screams a war cry and flies into the former Green Lantern, smashing him in the gut with her shoulder. He reacts instinctively, as the superior flier, and rolls around, outflanking her and launching a bolt of dark energy at her. Donna is too quick, her reflexes honed on the battle grounds of Themyscira. She meets the bolt with her shield, ricocheting it away harmlessly and them lashes out with her sword, sending black energy sliding away from Stewarts protective sheath. He looks down and a cut has been opened across his thigh. She smiles at him and he flies high in the air, sending a chaffing barrage of rung pulses behind him, causing her to duck and dive in her pursuit.

From the ground, hundreds of Nekron's shadow spirits rise into the air to protect their Master's champion. Donna feels the cold touch of one at her ankles and instinctively lashes out with her sword, the magical blade cutting through the darkness and severing the icy tentacle. Stewart takes his chance and smashes her down with a huge anvil of power, sending her spinning into the waiting mass of death. She lashes out left and right but there are too many of them. Stewart laughs as she disappears under an undulating pile of darkness. She is finished. His work here is done.

And as he turns he fails to see one more silver transwarp orb appear above the hospital. The sphere floats down to the open room where Dr Midnite is tending the unconscious Green Arrow whilst Hal Jordan's daughter, Ali Mansfield, is cradling the broken body of her lost father.

Dr Midnite sees the orb and watches it as its beautiful shimmering lights penetrate his mind through his dead eyes. It probes him, gently, latching onto his knowledge of medicine and science and deeper into his very soul. The alien technology learns what it needs to do and it bursts into action.

Pulsating light bathes Hal Jordan and Ali Mansfield. Together they are lifted into the air as the light ripples across and around them, raising every hair on their skin as it moves past.

Ali gasps and grimaces slightly but the light changes to a different, lighter hue and she relaxes. Hal stiffens and his eyes flicker. Ali begins to go slightly pale and moans gently. Hal shivers and gasps – a massive, wrenching intake of breath from lungs that never expected to work again. Ali shudders and then drops down onto her back. She startles for a second and then scuttles under a broken piece of rubble. She shivers and shakes, slowly regaining control of her body, the weakness of the blood she has just miraculously lost hitting home. She begins to cry.

Hal is still floating and shaking. Dr Midnite scrambles to his feet and catches him as he begins to tumble to the ground. The blind physician has experienced many things in his life except a blood transfusion done on two conscious people without a single incision or a drop of blood being spilled by an alien technology. This is a new one even for him!

“Ollie…I need some…Ollie?” Pieter Cross looks around but Green Arrow has disappeared.

Sector 2261

Mogo feels the turning of the Celestial Wheel. It is time.

 

Coast City Central Hospital

Dr Midnite cradles the body of Hal Jordan in his arms as the hero shakes and shivers. He had never seen anything like it – it was as if the artifact Donna Troy had brought to aid Hal had accelerated the healing process a hundredfold, but the shock had nearly underdone all of the healing. From the hole in the rubble of the hospital he can see Nekron's citadel rising from the shattered buildings of Coast City and he can hear the other members of the Justice Society desperately battling agains the half-dead shadow spirits that this dark Lord has unleashed from his realm.

Across from him, huddled under a broken wall segment is the brave young girl whose blood saved Hal, Ali Mansfield. She looks terrified and she is sobbing. Dr Midnite raises his hand and places a finger to his lips, signalling her to be silent so as not to attract the attention of the monsters. In his arms, Hal takes a massive involuntary gasp of breath.

“So .. so… cold.” Hal's eyes open and he jerks in Dr Midnite's arms, confused and bewildered. “I… I .. where am I?”

Pieter Cross runs a soothing hand over Hal's brow. “ You're alive and … well, things aren't good. Jay and the others are handling things but..” He stops suddenly as Hal pushes himself from his arms and to his feet. He staggers and falls again, dropping to one knee. Ali rushes out and holds him up, stopping him from falling.

“Who…?”

“I'm … my name is Ali, Mr Lantern.”

Dr Midnite steps in and brings Hal to his feet supporting him. “This is Ali, she helped save you but we can talk about that later. You need to get out of here Hal. Nekron is here.”

“Nekron? Here?” Hal looks wide-eyed, incredulous.

“He brought John Stewart back but he was controlled in some way. Alan fell fighting him. Donna … she fell. People have died and not died and then died again.” Midnite begins to move Hal away from the fighting.

“No! Nekron has tried before. He wants to add more life to his armies. He wants to wage war on the lands of the living. I have to stop him. I have to…” He looks down at his cracked and useless power ring. “I need to recharge. This is my ring, it will recharge.”

“You're in no fit state to fight anyone Hal.”

“When I want your opinion Dr, I will ask.” Hal looks around at the pitched battle going on and he sees the figure he needs. Taking a deep breath he shouts as loud as he can. “JAY!” Seconds later Jay Garrick, the Flash, is at Hal's side.

“Good to see you back Hal. You need this? I picked it up on the way over?” Jay produces a large green lantern, Hal's connection to the Central Power Battery on Oa. Hal smiles and takes it from him.

”Thanks Jay. Now can you get that kid to safety?” Jay nods and turns towards Ami as Hal drops to his knees again, cradling his lantern. He looks down at his ring, running a finger across the fractures in the surface. “Come on girl, one more time, lets do this.” Hal clenches his fist and rams his ring into the face of the lantern. He grits his teeth, sweat dripping from his brow. He cannot do it – even with his legendary determination and willpower, he cannot force the ring and the lantern to work together. He has to – he has to make it work. He has to for everyone here…the world begins to blur, his hand begins to sway and then the emerald spark ignites in his ring!

Contact is established with Oa!

 

Oa, the Centre of the Universe

“Front and centre, poozer – what's your name?” Kilowogg runs his eye up and down the newest recruit to the Green Lantern Corps. The girl looks back at him with icy blue eyes. He sighs. He knows that this is going to be hard for the kid. Someone had to replace Hal but so soon?

“My name is Kerys Va of the planet Cerela in what this ring tells me you can Sector 2814 of known space. It also tells me that I have the ability to overcome great fear… and that I am to be a Green Lantern.”

“Indeed you are kid, indeed you are. My name is ..”

“Kilowog, and you are to be my instructor.” Kerys smiles meekly at the huge senior Lantern.

“How did you …”

“Our latest recruit comes from a race of telepaths, Kilowog. I have already had more than twenty complaints from other Lanterns in the vicinity of her probing their psyches. Please desist, Cadet Va.” The pink skinned Lantern Administrator Salaak floats down through the air.

“I apologise. Amongst my people it is natural to seek to join minds with those around us. A matter of courtesy and tradition.”

“Well we have other traditions around here kid, like honour, courage and respect.” Kilowog's words may be directed at Kerys but their meaning is like a barbed lash to Salaak. “When we are allowed to pursue them.”

“Kilowog…the Guardians, they ordered…”

“Save it, Salaak. I've heard it all before.” Kilowog turns his back on the administrator and returns his gaze to Kerys. “ Now kid, lets get your training started. I see you have met your power ring? Well it is the most power….”

Kilowog's monlogue is halted by a shrill chiming message running through the minds of each Green Lantern, directed from the Grand Marshal, Guy Gardner's ring itself.

Power Ring 2814.1: Designate Hal Jordan of Earth has been reactivated
Power Level 0.0% Request Emergency Central Battery Recharge and Repair

“Kid, this is going to have to wait.” Kilowog takes to the air and heads directly towards the Central Power Battery to join Guy Gardner and a number of other Lanterns. Salaak follows him, as does Kerys. As he lands he slaps a ‘high five' with Gardner.

”I told you Hal wouldn't just go and leave us. All we need to do is give him the juice. Salaak, open up a transwarp communication with Earth.” Guy Gardner doesn't request things, or demand them, anymore. He is the Grand Marshal of the Green Lantern Corps. He orders them. Within moments a shimmering emerald portal appears and Guy looks down at a weak and feeble Hal Jordan, clutching his shattered ring and power battery to his chest.

“Guy … it… it's Nekron. He's here… on Earth. Donna.. Alan…Ollie…all dead. I need power.” Hal's voice is shaking but his eyes are filled with a steely determination.

Guy listens to the words. Donna dead? Alan dead? Ollie dead? “Hal, we're coming to you pal, regardless of what the blue skinned midgets say.”

“No … time. Need power. Now.”

“He will have no power from the Central Power Battery.” The assembled Lanterns turn to face the new voices, all speaking as one. Three Guardians float in the air, forming a triangle. “Hal Jordan is no longer a Green Lantern. His replacement has been chosen.” They gesture towards Kerys.” The Green Lantern Corps cannot continue to come to the aid of Earth whenever it is in danger. Other planets must be protected as well. Earth must stand alone.”

As the Guardians speak, more Lanterns arrive to view the confrontation between their powerful benefactors and the Green Lanterns of Earth. Guy Gardner is screaming at the Guardians but they remain unmoved, staring into the middle distance. Kilowog smashes his massive fists into the ground, impotent with rage. Salaak shakes with anger, unable to express his fury before his masters. Kerys does the only thing she knows how to do. She reaches out with her mind and touches the Guardians, desperate for some insight into their decision. When she does she staggers backwards, her mouth gaping in horror at what she sees.

And then the chaos is split by one word.

“ENOUGH!” Hal Jordan, through the transwarp communicator, struggles to his feet and addresses his peers, his friends and the aliens who have abandoned him. “ For longer than I can remember I have … served … as a Green Lantern. I have fought with the Corps, I have bled for the Corps and I have held … the thin Green line. Every time I have been asked, I have come and I have prevailed for the forces of life. Now … now just this once, I'm asking something of you and you say no? You would rather Lanterns die than help them. You stand back and watch brave corpsmen fall without caring. You are not the Guardians I pledged myself to all those years ago.”

“We care nothing for your words, Earth man. You are nothing to us now. You waste our time.” The Guardians turn as one, as if to leave.

“Stop me then!” Hal raises his hand towards his lantern. The Guardians turn back.

“You cannot take the power, Hal Jordan of Earth. It is forbidden. This crime …”

Kerys staggers back to her feet and runs across the platform, grabbing the furious Kilowog by the arm. He brushes her off but she stands her ground. “ What do you want kid?”

“Instructor Kilowog! Those beings .. they are not Guardians. I have touched their minds. What are the Keepers?” Kilowog hears the revelation of the newest Green Lantern explodes with anger.

“Imposters!” His power ring erupts and the emerald beam explodes against the the Guardians. They turn, their faces changes from the calm serene visages of Guardians into the twisted malevolent masks of the Keepers, the Guardians of the Anti-Matter Universe. The platform around the Central Power Battery is covered in green light as the massed ranks of the Corps rise to engage the false Guardians.

Amidst the chaos, Salaak speaks slowly to Hal Jordan. “Jordan, I did not know … they tricked me. I cannot feel them. The Guardians are gone. Gone Hal. Oa has been abandoned! Take the power Hal. Take it while you still can.” An explosion blows Salaak forward and the Transwarp communicator closes.

 

Coast City

Hal Jordan rocks backwards, stunned at the revelation that the Guardians have gone. It explains the impotence of the Guardians and their willingness to see so many Corpsmen die. And the Swarm. Surely the ancient enemy of this Universe's Guardians would have revealed them for what they are. It explains so much… but that is for later. Now, he has to deal with Nekron.

The Book of Oa dictates who can serve the Central Power Battery and how they can do it. They need a power ring, a conduit of some sort – like a lantern - and the permission of the Guardians of the Universe – usually as a Green Lantern. His power ring is broken and the false Guardians have decreed that he is no longer a Green Lantern. There should be no way he can access the power.

Should, of course, being the operative word. Hal had been a Green Lantern for long enough to know that each ring-bearer has their own unique bond with the Central Power Battery. He has touched the battery before, absorbed its power, recharged through it directly. Now it is time to see whether the Battery remembers him for what he is, deep in his heart.

Hal takes a deep breath and raises his arm high ino the sky, pointing towards Oa. The fractured green ring sparks feebly. He sets his mind and his amazing willpower to the task and reaches out far across space. Ring to Lantern. Lantern to Battery. Battery to Soul. Hal speaks his oath one more time.

In brightest day,
In darkest night,

His willpower reaches across the Universe and touches the Central Power Battery. It resists but he demands the power. It is his, by right and by station. He is Honour Guard. He is the champion of the Corps. The Battery yields slightly and the fractured ring mends.

No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,

Power flows across space. A scintillating green power that represents the very essence of life itself. Willpower. The ability to carry on and never stop, no matter how tough things become. The power to face down fear and overcome it. The power to fight and fight and never surrender. The power of the Green Lantern

Beware my power
GREEN LANTERNS LIGHT!

Hal Jordan rises to his feet. His ring flashes and a new jade and jet Green Lantern costume appears. His body is encased in a sheath of protective green. Every bruise, graze and cut on his body is mended. Pure energy from the Central Power Battery runs through him. There will be a price to pay, but for now, he has work to do. Nekron must be stopped!

 

The Throne of Shadows, Coast City

Nekron moves through the wreckage of Coast City, now transformed by his shadows into his own palace. His ebony armour, ornate and horrifically gothic creaks like old bones as he moves and his long sword sways on his hip. No longer a skeletal ghoul, he is the master of life and death. He looks down at the fallen figures before him. Alan Scott, the Starheart – what a stupid old man – and Donna Troy. He has heard of her – the Harbinger – but in the end she was as simple and vulnerable as any other mortal. The heroes of Earth, old and young. They fought their fruitless battle and now they wait to join his army of the dead. One person is missing.

“Hal Jordan. I wondered when you would come. Finally you will feel the comfort of my embrace and take your place amongst my eternal army of lost souls…”

Hal stands in his reconstituted uniform, bathed in the emerald light he has take from the Central Power Battery. His ring shines bright on his hand and the light casts flickering shadows across his stern face. “No one else dies tonight.”

“Oh but they will Hal Jordan. They will. Everytime someone dies before they have settled their affairs they come into my realm. Their lost potential, their hidden desire, their … life – it powers my being. They become my army and with that army I will destroy this world and then other worlds. I am The Blackest Night and I am your future. You? You are one soul. How can you stand against me? You are simply a man.”

A quiet smile spreads across Hal Jordan's face. “ Simply a man… I am the Honour Guard of the Green Lantern Corps and on my hand I wield the most powerful weapon you can imagine. I have held within me the natural embodiment of fear itself and I have conquered it. I have reignited suns and lived at the dawn of time. I have stood at the Right Hand of the Presence as his weapon of Vengeance.” He pauses for a moment. “ No, you are right – I am just a man. And the people you have hurt are my friends. The people you are threatening are my family. The place you are destroying is my home. I am a man – a man who has conquered fear, even fear of death. So if you want Earth Nekron … if you want me, I'm here, waiting for you.” Hal raises his fist and his ring pulses again. “ Bring it!”

Next Issue: Hal vs Nekron with the fate of the Earth in the balance.