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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!"

 

Issue #4

Written by: Neil Gow

 

The air above Coast City

"Green Lantern 2814.1, I must speak with you immediately!" The dignified voice of Darla, Hal's resident Guardian of the Universe, cuts through his deep concentration. Hal pulls up in his flight and hovers in mid-air, as Darla materializes before him. Her bald, blue-skinned head is level with his and she slowly moves around him, looking him up and down, but not looking at him, rather looking through him.

"I am in a hurry, Darla." Hal had made ready for an emergency trip to...

"Oa? You are traveling to Oa, yes?" Darla smiles and stops her inspection.

"I am, yes. My ring had an extreme reaction yesterday and I need to find out why."

"What has the nature of this reaction? Maybe I could be of some aid?" Darla raised an eyebrow and Hal was a little embarrassed that he had forgotten that she was stationed to Earth. On occasion, in the past, the Guardians had seen fit to send one of their number to Earth, but Hal never settled when one has here.

"The ring reported something about a 'swarm fragment' and said that it had initiated 'emergency protocols' but when I interrogated it about these, it refused to answer. It said that the information was 'Guardians Eyes Only' for want of a better phrase."

Darla paled visibly as he spoke. Her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed. "You are sure this was the exact reaction?"

"Positive. What is it?"

"As your ring informed you, the information is not for the digestion of the Corps. This is a matter for the Guardians themselves."

"Darla, I am a member of the Honor Guard. If there is a threat on Earth that causes that degree of a reaction to the power ring, then I deserve to know about it."

"You may be a member of the Honor Guard, Hal Jordan, but there are some things beyond even your capabilities. The emergency protocols you mentioned will have alerted the Guardians to the situations and they will have taken measures to ensure that this matter is investigated. This is NOT a matter for the Corps, Green Lantern. You have more pressing matters to deal with."

Hal opens his mouth to argue and then stops. There are tones that the Guardians take that deliver more than any verbal statement could ever do. This was one of them. He would get no further arguing with Darla. He would have to get his information from elsewhere - and he knows exactly where. "What other pressing matters?"

"Your latest mission was to deal with the Polaris entity yes? Have you located the host again?"

"I couldn't find a trace of 'the host' as you call her. Her name is Francis Kane. I suspect that she may have been killed."

"I doubt that. I also believe your search will be fruitless. The energies around this planets pole at the time of your confrontation were severe. The possibility for some sort of rifting was rife. This, however, is the least of your problems. I have been monitoring your local and national news channels - to adjust myself to your style of living - and it would appear that you are needed, and have been for some time, by workers for somewhere called STAR labs, in a place called Arizona?"

"That's the facility that Hector Hammond is housed at?! What could they want with me?" Hal is confused.

"I have no idea, Green Lantern; maybe you could answer their call for aid." It was a statement, an order - rather than a question. Hal nods to Darla and flies towards Arizona. Darla watches as he disappears over the horizon and shakes her head. This Green Lantern should not have to face the Swarm. No Lantern should have to face the Swarm again.

It would appear that Darla's mission was even more imperative than before. The anomaly must be found.

 

STAR Lands Secure Facility, Arizona

"Dr Heinburg, I presume?" Green Lantern reaches out a hand and shakes the hand of the pale skinned scientist.

"Green Lantern, it's good to see you. Things have been rather . difficult here, since Hector decided to get demanding."

"Hammond can be a handful. I understand he wants to see me?"

"'Want' is a little of an understatement - he has demanded to see you. He claims he has seen the end of the world and only you can help."

"He's done this before. Hector and I have a lot of history. It's not unlike him to cry wolf to get me into the vicinity and then attempt some futile hijacking of my mind."

"So you'll not be seeing him?"

"Oh, I'll see him.. But you should be prepared to sedate him again if he gets any ideas about messing with my mind." Hal's power ring flashes. "My psi-suppressors should buy you enough time."

Dr Heinburg looks terrified. "He's been in my mind. He's forced me to see the visions. It was horrible..aren't you afraid?"

Hal smiles an ironic smile. "Not anymore."

 

Places Unknown

"I don't know where the hell you have taken me, but I want some answers and I want them now!" General Stone is screaming at his abductor, who is standing next to him on top of a deserted mountain plateau.

"I understand your frustrations, but the time I can speak on this subject is short, sir." The young man runs his hand through his cropped dark hair and sits down. "I had to get you to a place where we could talk. I only have a little time left. Imra's psi-programming will erode my memory soon." The young man is dressed in strange casual clothing, not dissimilar to an early Star Trek uniform, as Stone sees it.

"Look son, if you don't tell me what's happening here, I'm going to teach you a lesson." Stone begins to roll his sleeves up ready for a fight, revealing a small eagle tattoo on his left forearm.

"I will be able to tell you this once. After this repetition, my mind will lose the ability to recall my former life. My name is Daniel - Daniel Blaine, but in my time I have been called Thom. In the 25 th century I am known as Star Boy, although I should really be called Starman. I have been sent back from the future as the Great Crisis has caused a window for diversification within our Universe. My work is to guide you in your destiny."

"I don't know what horse hockey you're talkin'."

"General Stone, you are a former trainee astronaut and a man of great determination. You failed in your countries astronaut program and were allocated to your countries investigations into extra-terrestrial warfare. Your posting at Edwards Starport.Airforce Base set in motion a series of events that lead to you leading your men alongside this sector's Green Lantern against the recent incursion. You were disciplined for this and .. 'Grounded'? Soon, you will be given a chance to create something far greater. Soon you will be given the chance to save your planet. There will be some that will seek to stop you - it is my destiny to stop them."

"And how the Hell might I be going to do that? If I believe any of this rubbish that you are spouting at all."

"When the time comes, you will know, I am sure." Daniel's eyes fog slightly and he staggers across the plateau, clutching his face.

"Son? What's the matter?" Stone reaches out to steady him and the young man falls to one knee, holding Stone's arm in his hands.

"I.I...Where am I?"

Stone knows when things are beyond even his vast experience. He has to contact Jordan.

 

STAR Lands Secure Facility, Arizona

Hal enters the holding chamber specially designed to restrict the amazing mental powers of Hector Hammond. Darkness clings to the corners of the room, the only light coming from the glass bubble holding chamber in the center. Pale blue rings of energy slowly shimmer up and down the exterior of the globe, bathing the pathetic, wasted figure of Hammond in the center with a ghoulish pallor.

"I see they finally managed to reach you, Green Lantern." Hammond raises his massively oversized head slightly, revealing the dark, sunken eyes of a man who has lost the ability to sleep.

"Hector.you look terrible!" Hal takes two more steps towards the chamber and then stops. Hammond laughs.

"You really can be a simpleton, Lantern. I will answer the one question that I do not need my formidable powers to discern. No, I have no intent on usurping your fragile hold on your mind again. So you need not be so cautious."

"You'll excuse me if I take your statement under advisement?"

"There are greater things at work here than the futures of the two of us, Lantern. It would appear

that our mutual nemeses - those damned Germanic gremlins - have opened up new avenues for my powers, including an expansive penchant for precognition, but at a cost."

"Your health?"

"Very observant. Yes, despite my immortality and truncated stature, I have always enjoyed a certain degree of mental well-being. However, my ability to sleep, to dream, to divest myself of this mortal coil for a few scant hours, appears to have been eliminated. That, ironically, appears to have been the catalyst that has allowed me access to a panorama of horrors."

"Is there nothing the staff here can do for you?"

"Oh please, be realistic. This is like chimpanzees performing brain surgery. If I cannot formulate a solution to this dilemma, then the protozoa employed to fill out the lab coats in this facility do not stand a chance. Regardless, the state of my health is irrelevant."

"Your visions. What were they?"

"These were more than visions, Green Lantern. My mind was taken to the future and shown the fate of this planet. I have floated in the midst of the final battle and I have seen everything." Hammond's eyes dull over and the monitors on the room's equipment begin to spike. "It ....comes.again..!"

Around the room, monitors spark and explode, lights blink out and Hal drops to his knees under the gargantuan mental assault. Gritting his teeth, he tries to strengthen the psi-shields of his ring, but it is futile. They are blown away and his mind is enveloped by Hammond.

..Jordan floats in orbit around the Earth, surrounded by wreckage. There are bodies everywhere, floating limply in space. The Flash, the new Blue Beetle, Alan and Carter and some that he simply doesn't recognize. Hal turns in space and his eyes widen as he sees the Sun . it has to be the Sun, moving closer and closer to the Earth. Something deep within Hal freezes as he remembers the Final Night and the last time he touched the Sun. He flails backwards, unsure of what to do and then stops as he sees the target of the approaching star. The Sun slowly and unstoppably envelopes the Moon. Where they should have been heat, there was only chilling cold. Hal's mind spins and twists as he tries to comprehend the madness that has been presented to him and then he hears a voice in his head - a strange, artificial voice filled with an underlying confidence buoyed by consummate evil. "I have returned."

Hal regains his senses and finds himself sitting with his back to the wall, shivering. He shakes his head, attempting to clear the images of the death of the World and then he smiles at Hector.

"Nice try Hammond. Nice try." Hal pushes himself up and approaches the broken holding chamber, which has been flooded with sedative. "Every time you try the same thing. Get me here; preach a new understanding and then - wham- the old brain takeover schtick. You would think someone of your intelligence would have worked out, it never works. Sleep well Hector."

Hal turns as Dr Heinburg enters the room. "Green Lantern?"

"It was a trap, as we suspected. Still, better to be safe than sorry. You never know, one day he might stop this routine." Hal's ring sparks and he hovers in the air as he prepares to take off for Edwards. "Keep up the good work, Doctor."

Back in the chamber, Hammond battles through the sedative, reaching out a wizened hand towards the sky. "Lantern...was not a trap...." and then he passes out.

 

High Council Chambers, Thanagar Station

The darkened chamber room sits at the center of the prime coordinating station orbiting the planet that will be New Thanagar. Created from the hulls of a dozen broken starships and attack craft, it has a disjointed, unplanned appearance but it houses the center of the new Thanagarian authorities.

Four bearded men, all wearing the regalia of the Wingmen police, stand in a circle as a central holographic tower bathes them in a dull green glow. Numbers and symbols scroll up and across the column. On occasion, one of the men winces, drawing disapproving stares from his comrades. Finally the numbers stop and the men all draw breath.

"The calculations are complete?"

"Yes. The final cost of the war between Rann and Thanagar has been calculated, not including the cost to our Rannian 'allies' or any of the other races that felt the need to involve themselves in our business."

"And that cost is.?"

"Beyond measure. Millions dead, Tens of millions cast into poverty. A planets ransom in technology obliterated and Thanagar's place in the galactic hierarchy severely undermined."

"Our course of action is clear then. The crimes committed upon Thanagar and it's peoples were executed on Thanagarian soil and under Thanagarian jurisdiction. The Guardians of Oa cannot keep our nemesis locked away in their citadel, living out his days whilst our people are shattered. We will travel to Oa and demand that this so-called Superboy faces trial and his inevitable death!"

 

Edwards Air Force Base

"JORDAN!" the bristling voice of General Adams cuts across the Base parade ground as Hal pulls up in his jeep. A couple of the junior pilots turn away, unwilling to be witness to the confrontation that they know is coming. "Front and centre here flyboy!"

Hal jumps out of his jeep and stands to attention as his commanding officer strides towards him. "Sir!"

Adams gets right up to Hal, right into his face, the spittle being sprayed by his vitriol, hitting his chin. "You think you're something special don't you? Some hot pilot that can just waltz in and out of here like a civilian. This unit isn't a joke Jordan and I won't have one of my seniors making a mockery of it. I've read your records and they aren't pleasant reading son. But this time... this time you really have stepped over the mark!"

"Sir?"

"Well, I'm in charge now and I'm not going to take it from the likes of you. Think you were too good eh? Think you didn't need the tests then? Every other pilot on this base turned up, on time, in uniform and took their test - and passed it. But not Hal Jordan. Oh no! Mr. Highball himself missed his - because he doesn't need to be tested. Well I'll tell you this soldier - you don't need to be tested because there isn't a chance in Hell that you're getting back into a plane! YOU'RE GROUNDED, INDEFINITELY!" Adams smiles up at Hal waiting for a response. For the second time today, Hal opens his mouth and then thinks better.

If this was General Stone he would have known that Jordan was missing from the practice because he was on a mission as Green Lantern. He would have given him some leeway. He would have been supportive. However this isn't General Stone and he couldn't allow him to know about his 'secret identity'.

"You're dismissed airman. Report to Lieutenant Graves for your new assignment." Adams spins on his heel and marches away; staring at everyone he passes waiting for one of them to make a challenge to his authority.

Hal's shoulders slump slightly as he walks off towards the Admin building and his new assignment.

"Hal? Hal?" Cowgirl chases Jordan down as he crosses the yard. "Goddamit Hal, what were you thinking of? You knew what a hard-on Adams has about the test team?" She was angry.

"Something came up. Something important."

"More important than me and the others? More important than your team? Holy crap Hal - stop being so selfish!"

Something bubbled inside Hal. For a year now, he had been working tirelessly to plug the gaps left by the departures of Clark, Diana, Bruce, Ray, Wally and the others. So many senior leaguers fell during the Crisis that the others have struggled to take up the slack. Things weren't as bad now, but for a time he had been all that stood between the Earth and whoever wanted to take it. Selfish? SELFISH? He felt the words rising in his throat. He felt his anger rising and bubbling, wanting to reach out and scream in the face of Cowgirl - but doesn't. He sucks it up and moves away without saying a word.

"Hal? Hal?" Cowgirl starts after him but stops.

Jordan strides away and works his way through the Admin building until he finds the office of Lieutenant Graves. He is an older man, a career soldier, condemned to mediocrity within the army secretarial pool. Hal had rarely had any interaction with him in the past.

"You Jordan?" His thick Texan accent extended the words almost artificially. "I've got a plum assignment for you, now that you're a groundhog like the rest of us. You familiar with that reality TV girl that's been all over the TV recently? Mindy..."

"Mandy Mason?"

"Thats the gal. Well she's got some new squalling song out soon and her record company has done some deal with the top brass and they've got permission for her to shoot the video here, at Edwards. And guess what Jordan. You're gonna be her babysitter. Nice looking kid like you, you might even get yourself into the movies or something?"

Jordan sighs. From top class test pilot to gopher for some teenage brat in one short hour. How the mighty have fallen.

 

New Cronus, The Polaris System

The power rings emerald flicker announces Hal's arrival into orbit around the strange, hollowed moon that is New Cronus. Formerly the home of the now departed Titans of Myth; this esoteric fortress is the home of the one woman that Hal believes will be able to unlock the mystery of this 'swarm fragment' for him - Donna Troy. He swoops down into the main habitat of the moon and looks around at the magnificent Greek architecture that has been combined with technology from a dozen worlds. The hanging gardens would have been fit for Babylon, but the plants are of Tamaranian origin - possibly the last specimens from that dead planet. The carefully hidden communications network is clearly Gordanian, with some Thanagarian refinements. The entire infrastructure is like a lesson in alien cooperation.

"It's rude to stare, you know?" Hal jumps slightly as the voice below him gets his attention. He spins on his axis and floats down, bringing himself face to face with Donna. She is dressed in her familiar black 'starscape' outfit. Hal smiles and hugs her. "It's good to see you Hal - what brings you to New Cronus?"

"It's good to see you too Donna. I was looking for some information."

"Well, you came to the right place. New Cronus has extensive libraries and databases." Donna makes a small laugh. "I can remember a time when people would want to see me for something else, but since I because the guardian of this place and it's secrets, I've become more of a librarian than a socialite."

"Surely you can go to them? I hear those travel spheres you have are pretty fast?" Hal and Donna begin to walk through the open corridors of the moon, under the hanging plants.

"I get to visit the Titans as a trainer mainly, but those guys don't need me around cramping their style. I'm not a kid anymore." She smiles at Hal again, this time a little more warmly.

"I ... I...well, I never considered that. When Diana was around you were always Wonder Girl but that hasn't been for ..."

"Years. I haven't been Wonder Girl for years. Cassie fits that role now. And I'm not going to be Wonder Woman. Diana will be back one day. Anyway, you can talk about age. You've been around forever."

"Says the former Goddess."

"Says the former Spectre."

They bother burst out laughing. Donna puts her hand gently on Hal's shoulder. "Between the two of us, we really have been through a lot haven't we? Heck, we're both card carrying members of the 'living dead brigade'."

"You can talk about it that glibly?" Hal looks at her strangely.

"Yeah, I can. All of my life I've been uncertain as to who I am, where I belong. It's all been a bit of a mess really. It took me dying and coming back to start my new journey. Sure, I took a detour amongst the Titans of Myth, but now I am here. I know what I have to do - I have to be here, on New Cronus. What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah Hal - what about you? You've started a new journey as well. How are you finding it?" Donna stops and sits down, hanging her legs over a stone step which falls away into nothing but open space.

"I'll be honest, no-one has ever asked. It's a subject that people tend to shy away from, the entire Parallax business and what happened afterwards."

"Well I'm asking now, and there's no-one to hear you. Just me, you and the stars." Hal slides down next to her

"It's the trust I've lost. That's what bites the most. Whenever things go wrong, whenever there's a moment when I have to cut loose, I can feel their thoughts. Is it going to happen again? Is he going to crack? Even people that I thought I trusted - Carter, Dinah, Jay - they look at me and you can see it in their eyes. They may forgive, but they never forget."

"And when you came back? What did you do to start new?"

"I...I...didn't really. I'm still in Coast City. I'm still in the Corps. I still work at Edwards."

"Well, Mr Jordan, it looks like you have missed a trick haven't you?

"It's not that easy Donna...I have responsibilities. With Diana gone and the League in tatters...sometimes I'm all that's left. I don't have the chance to...."

"What? Hide yourself on a strange moon, light years from Earth, cataloguing histories? Some one has decided that you can have a second chance in life - it's up to you how you use it. We all have to be happy Hal. We can't live our lives in misery forever." She smiles and Hal notices for the first time that she really isn't a girl anymore. He's known Donna for years - ever since her and Dick and Wally decided to team up as the Titans. This isn't right but....is it wrong? "What is it?" Donna laughs, nervously.

"I was just about to say...so much wisdom for someone so young but..."

"But, like I pointed out Hal, I'm not that young anymore." She smiles and moves fractionally closer to Hal.

"You know, I noticed that."

"I was hoping you had..." Donna reaches out and touches Hal's face and plants a soft kiss on his lips. Hal hesitates slightly and then reaches around and buries his hand into Donnas raven hair, pulling her closer and crushing her lips to his. They slip off the ledge into space and bodies entwined, hands exploring, they float amidst the stars, together.

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Next Issue - Green Lantern#5: Naughty Hal....what's to become of him! Well, in 'A Rise to STARdom' - Hal returns to Earth to look after his pop STARlet. Oh come on?! If you can't guess what's STARted now you're mad. It's STARtlingly obvious!