The Center of the Universe
Over a Billion Years Ago...
The planet Oa hung suspended in the black of space, affixed at one point with no revolutions of orbit. This point was the exact center of the known universe, and on this small green orb were a race of blue-hued beings that had known much strife and turbulence during their existence. They had taken to calling themselves the Guardians of the Universe and they had foisted upon themselves the hefty burden that such a name demanded. Already their mighty race had fractured into three groups, two of which choosing to abandon Oa for new homes amongst the stars. Those that remained, this minuscule lot of fourteen small beings with more power than their diminutive stature belied, had refrained from arguments of the heart despite the exodus of nearly their entire race.
But on this day, this dark day, the Guardians argued with a passion that would surprise any who witnessed it. They floated in a circle inside their Planetary Citadel, and below them was displayed a map of sorts – a map of the entire universe. What concerned them, however, came not from the outside universe. Nay, it came from within their very planet itself...
“Our plans are proceeding apace,” one Guardian (whose name would eventually be translated as Appa Ali Apsu) stated. “The chaotic nature of the universe is slowly being introduced to order…our order, so enforced by our robotic warriors.”
“The Manhunters know neither fear nor anger,” a second Guardian (whose name, too, would later be known as Ganthet) replied, “but they also know no compassion or love. Our design is flawed, fellow Guardians, and we shall soon rue the folly of our actions.”
“You speak out of place!” a third Guardian (Ranagar, as he would be known in later times) interrupted the second’s appeal for reason, an accusatory finger stabbed in Ganthet’s direction. “Are we not the Guardians of the Universe? Have not our Manhunters quelled every instance of violence they have encountered?”
“Fellow Guardians,” yet a fourth member addressed his peers, this one’s voice a steely calm (though his eyes burned with a desire for knowledge, this Guardian who would be called Krona), “we have not gathered to bicker about strategies already decided upon and implemented. We are here to discuss the greatest threat we have encountered thus far...we must discuss the Flame!”
With those words, a burst of emerald light flooded the center of their circle, sparking from a flicker into a roaring flame of the brightest green. “The Flame is chaos manifested,” Krona continued, “created by our hand through our attempts to destroy the cosmos’ wild energies that which lower races would call magic. We have unleashed this pox, and with it now tied to our own wellspring we can never suppress its burning brilliance.”
The Guardians listened intently to Krona’s words as they watched the ball of green flame flicker and flow through the air.
“The Flame cannot be extinguished,” Krona concluded, “but there is a way to banish it!”
The Guardians of the Universe lowered their heads as if compelled, none of their number wishing to speak aloud what Krona was suggesting. None of their number, save for one...
“I will take on this burden,” this brave Guardian of Oa said as he floated forward, toward the Flame and away from his circle of brethren, “but let it be known that were it not for the actions of one of our own, this sacrifice would not be necessary.”
Krona averted his eyes from the piercing gaze of his brother, knowing that it was his own quest for knowledge that had first sparked the power of the Flame.
“Then let it be inscribed in the Book of Cosmic Revelations,” Ranagar announced, “that through the sacrifice of a Guardian of the Universe, the Flame of chaos will no longer threaten the cosmos!”
The thirteen Guardians reacted as one, their eyes pulsing with a blinding, blue radiance. The brave Guardian, whose name has long been forgotten through the passing of millennia, reached forward and plunged his hand into the center of the Flame. The green fire immediately engulfed his body, burning away his robes and the white hair upon his head, but for only a moment did the Flame consume him. Through the power of the assembled Guardians of the Universe, the Flame receded, drawn away from the brave one’s limbs toward the center of his chest.
The Flame was drawn into the forgotten Guardian’s heart and, while small sparks of emerald flame still danced across his charred flesh, the full fury of the Flame was now imprisoned – contained within the Guardian’s cage of a heart! Near death, yet his life sustained by the Flame’s power, the sacrificial lamb was lifted higher into the air by the outstretched hands of his brothers.
“We banish you now,” Ganthet said as the blue light of their power engulfed the charred figure above them, “to the far reaches of the universe, where none may discover the power that is contained by your heartbeat!”
The brave Guardian disappeared from the Planetary Citadel in an explosive flash of light...
...and it reappeared above a world that had yet to birth life of any kind. The body fell screaming through the atmosphere of this planet before it impacted with shattering force across the barren rock, driving it deep down into the ground that would serve as its grave.
This planet, millions of years later, would be known as Earth, and the power of the Green Flame would be born once again!
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DEC 11 |
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“The Torch Lighter” Part One
Space Sector 2814
Gotham City, Earth
Present Day
“Mr. Scott, Lucius Fox is on line one.”
The large man behind the oak desk placed a firm finger on the intercom button of his office phone. “Thank you, Shelly, I’ll take it in just a moment.” On that finger, visible to only those whom he allowed to see it, was an emerald ring – an emerald ring molded in the shape of a lantern.
The man’s name was Alan Scott, and along with being the President and CEO of Gotham Broadcasting he was also the first to take on the name of the most honored organization in the universe. Alan Scott was Earth’s first Green Lantern and he’d held the mantle proudly for over sixty years.
“Lucius, how are you?” Alan’s voice was warm, respectful, yet firm at the same time as he spoke to the man whose position within Wayne Industries was pivotal. “Yes, yes, I received the information on Wayne’s press release this morning. I understand our evening news team will be doing an in-depth report tonight, but don’t expect us to roll over and ask you to rub our bellies. Gotham Broadcasting is no one’s pet news no matter how much they may spend in advertising.”
Alan smiled as Lucius bantered with him, the two men having long held a firm friendship during Alan’s lengthy term with the broadcasting company. In recent years Scott’s position and power within the corporation had been a necessary burden, an annoyance that often got in the way of his more important duties as a hero. He had left oversight of the company to his wife, Molly Mayne-Scott, whom he loved more than anything (yes, even more so than the ring) but, as some of his younger contemporaries within the Justice Society of America had pointed out to him, it was just as necessary to live a life outside the cape as it was to live inside the world of superhumans. So with little fanfare or controversy, Alan took back his place in the seat of power within the company, allowing his wife to return to domestic vacation.
Things had been going well for Alan Scott as both the man and the ‘super’ man...but things were about to change and not for the better.
{Ring bearer 2814.0. The fear is coming.}
Alan paused, wondering if he’d imagined the voice. “Lucius,” he interrupted his friend, “did you hear someone else on the line just now? No, okay, maybe my puritan work ethic is beginning to wear me down.”
{Life span taken for lives newly given.}
There it was again, the strange and hollow voice echoing inside his mind. “Lucius, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have talk to you later. No, no, I’m fine – just something on my mind that needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later. Thanks friend, I’ll have Shelly get in touch with your office in a few days. Goodbye.”
Scott placed the phone back into its cradle and leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes with thumb and finger. Was he going crazy? Was this ethereal voice merely the opening salvo of the senility that had unconsciously preyed on him as he had grown older and older? He was lucky that he didn’t look his age, a benefit of his life as a hero. Alan Scott became the Green Lantern in 1939 and he mentally bore the scars of every single day he’d lived since. With his hand still lifted to his face, he turned it and made a fist, studying the emerald ring wrapped around his middle finger.
{Ring bearer 2814.0. She is coming. Death follows with her.}
But it wasn’t from him that the voice came. No, it was from the ring, calling out and speaking to him as it had to the other Green Lanterns of Earth. Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart and Kyle Rayner had all possessed their own enchanted emerald rings, but Alan’s had come from a different source than theirs. Whereas their rings were a product of advance science, speaking to them through a form of artificial intelligence, Scott’s ring and power were products of magic. They were connected, of course, but Alan Scott had never been one of the fabled Green Lantern Corps in any capacity save honorary.
Nevertheless, the ring was speaking to him now...if only he could understand what the damn thing was saying!
Alan stood from his desk and faced the large bay windows at the back of the office. The building loomed forty-seven stories above the streets of Gotham City and Alan’s office was at the very top. Luckily, a fear of heights had never been a problem for him. He scanned the horizon line of the city’s buildings, the sun departing behind them in favor of the encroaching night, and he noticed something strange. Coming out of the sun was a streak of green light, and by the time he realized that it was heading straight for him the source of the light was crashing through his windows, the impact enough to throw Alan the length of his office and into the bookshelf on the far side of the room.
Only the sound of breaking glass from the still-shattering windows was heard for a few brief moments, until a burst of emerald energy pulsed outward, freeing Alan from the debris of his office. In his arms was held the source of the crash, a young woman with green skin and white costume whose faint moans were the only sign of her being alive. “Jenny, hold on!” Scott shouted as he stepped toward the office door with the woman. “I’ll get you to a hospital!”
He was stopped from reaching the door by a powerful blast of energy that came close to hitting his leg as it struck against the floor. Alan turned, enraged, toward the open windows where there hovered five metallic humanoids painted in red and blue. “Release the female, human. She is to be taken to Oa.”
Green flame sparked from Alan Scott’s eyes, while a wave of the same emerald fire cascaded over him from the glowing ring on his hand. As the flame washed over him, his ripped business suit was transformed into his real work uniform – red shirt, green pants and the purple cape that hung from his shoulders – and a purple mask flashed over his face. “You’ve just made the worst mistake of your lives,” the Green Lantern stated, “because this woman is my daughter...”
“Irrelevant,” the lead robotic warrior replied. “No woman escapes the Manhunters!”
Alan scowled. “We’ll just see about that, won’t we?”
Space Sector 2261
Mogo, The Sentient Planet
New Homeworld of the Green Lantern Corps
It had been many, many years since the Guardian of the Universe named Ganthet had walked through the grass in bare feet, allowing the cool green flora to massage his blue skin. Ganthet was now the last of the omnipotent Guardians, and through the action of several brave souls he had seen happen an event he once thought impossible.
The Green Lantern Corps lived again and he smiled at the sky as he watched the emerald cascade of newly-forged power rings sail through the air and into space itself. With their former home planet, Oa, destroyed, it had surprisingly taken little thought as to where the newly-reborn Corps would stake their claim. Mogo had been the answer, the sentient planet that had also served as a noble Green Lantern; an appropriate answer, as it was Mogo who was responsible for guiding new rings to their owners across the cosmos.
Ganthet enjoyed his new home on Mogo as much as he enjoyed the long conversations he had with his host from time to time. But, upon seeing the approach of another long-serving and newly-reinstated Green Lantern, Ganthet put aside all notions of enjoyment and adopted the stone face that the Guardians were remembered for.
“Great Guardian of the Universe,” the cloaked Green Lantern said as he landed before his master, taking to one knee in a respectful bow, “for what mission have you called upon me to perform?”
“Torquemada of Space Sector 3521,” Ganthet greeted, “you are unique amongst your fellow Green Lanterns, and it is for your unparalleled knowledge of the mystic arts that I have summoned you.”
Torquemada continued to keep his head bowed until Ganthet raised his hand and allowed his Corpsman to meet him as an equal. “I have studied magic for decades, Master Guardian,” the Lantern answered, “and during recent times of the Corps dissolution I have devoted all to mastering what I had not already learned.”
“Good, good,” Ganthet replied. “I need knowledge on something with which you have intimate experience, my good Lantern.” Ganthet’s expression soured, turning his stone face into a saddened frown. “Tell me what you know about the Earthman named Alan Scott...”
Torquemada was unable to cover his astonished gasp.
“Tell me what you know about the green flame of the Starheart.”
Space Sector 2814
Gotham City, Earth
“No man escapes — SSSQQWAARRKK!!”
The lead Manhunter fell from the sky, bathed in green flame and screaming with its hollow, mechanical voice. Citizens of Gotham on the street below looked up in amazement as the penthouse floor of the Gotham Broadcasting Company exploded with a blast of emerald light. The four remaining Manhunters broke ranks and took to the sky, their movements tracked by the now airborne and hovering Green Lantern.
“Manhunters,” Alan remarked as the four androids began their assault, bearing down on him with their palms pulsing with energy, “I thought you’d been wiped out years ago. Guess I heard wrong, eh?”
Scott crossed his arms against his chest and from his flaming ring a protective bubble was formed around him. The Manhunters’ energy blasts splashed harmlessly against the green shield, but still they pressed forward. “Enough play,” Alan said as his attackers grew closer. “You attack my daughter, that makes this war.”
The protective bubble dissolved as the Green Lantern flew upward, his purple and green cape billowing behind him, while the first of the Manhunters plowed through the airspace the hero had previously occupied. The robot crashed hard into the building, burying itself in steel and glass. The second, third and fourth Manhunter each applied their brakes and changed trajectories toward the flying hero. Alan was prepared for a coordinated attack, even though his own experiences with the Manhunters were less than noteworthy.
Scott applied his will to his power and around him materialized an archer’s bow, pulled back to let fly the first in a volley of explosive arrows. The arrows detonated like mini bomb bursts around the approaching Manhunters, who dodged the projectiles with relative ease. But as the smoke around them grew cloudier their visual sensors became impaired – and when the first emerged from the black cloud, Green Lantern was waiting with newly formed constructs. While four clamps locked around the robot’s wrists and ankles, spreading its limbs as wide as possible, a gleaming emerald sword (thrice the size of any human blade) was driven deep into the Manhunter’s chest cavity. The sword cleaved through the android’s steel chassis while exploding out its back, then finishing its fatal blow by arcing upward, splitting the creature in two.
With the second of five out of commission, Alan took a moment to remember all that Hal Jordan had told him about the Manhunters. They were the Guardians of the Universe’s first attempt at a peace-keeping force for the universe, a force whose lack of the ability to understand emotion caused them to massacre an entire sector of space. The robots killed billions upon billions of alien life forms before the Guardians were able to stop them and from their failure the Green Lantern Corps was born.
The Manhunters had reappeared numerous times in recent Earth history, usually centered around the other human Green Lanterns, but Alan’s loose affiliation to the Corps had never given the androids a reason to attack him personally, at least not until today.
Lost in thought while flying back through the city’s airspace, Green Lantern failed to notice Manhunter # 4 closing in from behind. It tackled Alan hard, locking its metal arms around the man’s chest, pinning his arms to his side.
“No man escapes the Manhunters,” the third Manhunter announced as it approached Scott from the front. The android’s faceplate flipped up when he came face to face with the Lantern, revealing a design that looked suspiciously like a Power Battery.
[Power retrieval in progress]
Before Alan could use his ring to free himself, he gasped upon seeing the green flame of his body being vacuumed into Manhunter # 3's facial cavity.
{Ring power at 62%.}
“That’s a new trick,” Alan thought, worried about what the implications of such a redesign of the murder machines might mean. The Starheart that powered him was connected to the Corps’ battery of power, but he’d always understood that connection to be minimal at most and practically nonexistent at worst. Regardless, the Manhunter was sucking him dry while his ribs were beginning to snap from the grip of the second android at his back.
As much as he hated to admit it, Alan Scott was in serious trouble...
Back at Alan’s office, a timid knock on the door was followed by the cautious entrance of Shelly Hughes, personal assistant to the CEO of Gotham Broadcasting. “Mr. Scott?” she asked as she navigated through the mess of debris, careful to avoid falling through holes in the weakened floor. She’d long known of her boss’ extracurricular activities as the Green Lantern, it was a secret that he’d let fall by the wayside a few years before, but this was the first time he’d ever brought such activities to work with him.
Shelly was nervous, a thin woman with blonde straw standing in for her hair and thick-rimmed glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose, but if Alan Scott ever had need of his personal assistant it was at that moment. When she heard the faint moans coming from the corner of the destroyed office, Shelly made her way to who she hoped wasn’t her boss. Who she found was her boss’ daughter, a green-skinned woman in white named Jenny (though who usually went by the name Jade) just barely regaining her consciousness after being thrown through the office’s windows.
“Where’s my Dad?” Jade asked. “And who are you?”
“It’s Shelly, Ms. Scott,” the receptionist answered as she helped the girl to her feet. “We met at last year’s Christmas party.”
“Right, right,” Jade mumbled, her knees still shaking as she tried to stand.
“What happened to you?” Shelly asked, pointing out the extremely bizarre accouterments affixed to the heroine’s wrists and ankles. At all four points were thick cuffs clamped, broken chains dangling from each – restraints of a powerful nature.
Restraints made of shimmering yellow light.
Any attempt to answer Shelly’s question was lost when a mound of rubble began to move on the far side of the room. Slowly, confidently, the Manhunter that had crashed into the building stood on strong legs, assessing any damage the crash might have caused him. Jade and Shelly moved quickly but quietly toward the door, but their movement was halted when the Manhunter jerked its face in their direction, casting a yellow spotlight against the two women.
“Shelly, run!” Jade shouted whilst shoving the other woman toward the open door, causing the Manhunter’s energy beam to miss by only inches as it seared through the space between them. Jade could feel her power building inside her as she dove away from another energy blast, though her vision was still blurry and her thoughts still mired in a fog. She stumbled as she landed and it only took a second for the robot to take a position looming over her.
“No woman escapes the Manhunters! Prepare for incapacitation!”
“That’s what you think,” Jade said as she turned her head toward the floor to cover her eyes, while raising her right hand into the air in front of her attacker. The most brilliant flash of green light exploded from her fingertips, flame of such intensity that the two outermost layers of the robot’s shell simply disintegrated on contact. The Manhunter fell backwards, its sensors and hardware fried beyond all hope of repair, leaving a still-shaky Jade in astonishment that she’d been able to call forth such an amount of energy.
“Oh, no,” Jenny said upon a sudden realization, “hold on, Daddy, I’m coming!” She scrambled to her feet and took flight out of the office, not noticing just how dim her green aura had faded.
“No man escapes the Manhunters!” said the robotic creature at Green Lantern’s back.
“You guys really need new material,” Alan remarked in turn, though his bravado was quickly failing along with the crashing power limit of his ring.
{Ring power at 19%.}
“Incoming, Dad!” Alan heard his daughter’s voice from below and a sly grin came across his face.
Before the Manhunters could react, a series of spinning green buzz-saws flew through the air toward them. All three sheared their way through different points of the power-draining android, severing him at the knees, waist and neck to fall in pieces to the ground far below. Using the distraction and the last gasps of energy contained within him, Alan created an expanding force shield that dislodged the second Manhunter’s grip and pushed it backward. This gave Scott a much needed moment to catch his breath.
“Ring, since you’re talking now for whatever reasons,” Alan spoke, lifting the ring to his face, “how much energy do I have left?”
{Ring power at 7%.}
“Should be plenty,” the Green Lantern remarked as the sole surviving Manhunter flew toward him. He knew the robots were incapable of feeling emotions of any kind, but this one almost seemed angry. Alan pulled back his ring hand in anticipation.
“No man escapes–”
“That will be enough of that,” Scott interrupted as he swung his fist, a giant green boxing glove materializing in the air in front of him as he moved. The solid fist hit the flying Manhunter at full force, knocking it silly as it sparked and sputtered through the sky. Its retro-rockets flared as it attempted to right itself, its sensors rebooting after the impact.
“Jenny, honey,” Alan said to his daughter, “would you like the honors?”
“Hell. Yes.” Jade flew past the disoriented Manhunter, producing a cloud of thin needle-like blades that consumed the robot as she flew around and around. When she stopped her circling flight, the Manhunter hovered face to face with her as energy began to leak from nearly every point in its body through the million tiny holes punched through it during Jade’s attack. Jenny reached forward and placed her hands on the side of the Manhunter’s head just as its body dismantled and collapsed into fragments. She saw the artificial life leave the robot’s eye cavities and wondered to herself why anyone would create such a soulless abomination.
“Jenny,” Alan said as he approached his daughter from behind, his power ring running on fumes, “are you okay?”
“Dad, I don’t...” she paused, closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t think I am.”
And, with that, Jade lost consciousness and the green aura that kept her afloat faded away. “Jenny!” Alan’s eyes widened as he caught his daughter with his emerald energy, his concern quickly evolving into panic.
{Suggest immediate recharge with user’s power battery.}
“Fine, fine,” Green Lantern said in reply to his ring’s statement, cradling his daughter in his arms as he flew back down toward Gotham City, “but the hospital first.”
“Excuse me, I’m looking for my husband, Alan Scott?”
The nurse cocked a curious eyebrow at the older woman, who was clutching to her chest what appeared to be a large green lamp. “Down the hall to the right; his daughter’s in recovery and he’s in the waiting area.”
Molly Mayne-Scott thanked the nurse and walked on, hefting her husband’s lantern as she went. When she rounded the corner, she found Alan sitting slumped over in a chair, his face in his hands. “Alan,” she greeted with a smile, “I brought your lantern. How’s Jenny doing?”
“The doctors say she’ll be fine,” Scott answered as he lifted his head to look at his wife, faking a smile of his own, “she just collapsed out of exhaustion. Those Manhunters chased her across the city, from her apartment to my office. Thank God she was able to reach me...”
“Alan,” Molly said while sitting next to the man she loved, “you look awful. Were you hurt in the fight too?”
“Molly, something is very wrong with me,” he admitted. “I feel like an old man. I’ve aged, physically and mentally, since this morning. I think it’s all connected to my ring.” He reached down and lifted the lantern up by its handle. “But I have a theory.”
Alan placed his ring hand against the lens of the lantern, causing both to glow a bright emerald green. He closed his eyes and recited the oath.
“And I shall shed my light over dark evil, for the dark things cannot stand the light – the light of the Green Lantern!”
Waves of green fire washed over him, and only him, leaving both his wife and the surrounding room untouched. Molly gasped softly as she watched the lines on her husband’s face fade away, his hair become a brighter blonde, and his posture in the seat become more upright. He had de-aged back to the man she was married to; the elderly man who had been sitting next to her was gone.
“Alan, I don’t understand...”
“My ring started acting strange today, right before Jenny came crashing through my window,” Scott explained as he placed the heavy lantern back on the floor. “I’ve long known that the source of my power, the Starheart, is within me and not the ring, which is just a conduit for the green flame…but today a Manhunter used a power battery to drain my ring of its energy, and the result was that I aged. I fear that had Jenny not saved me, had the ring’s power dropped to zero, I would have died of old age.”
“So what does all that mean?” Molly asked in bewilderment.
“I have no idea,” Alan admitted, “but I have a place to start, at least. The Manhunters said that they were ordered to bring Jenny back with them to Oa and that means the Guardians of the Universe are somehow involved. Since the Green Lantern Corps disbanded, they must have reactivated the Manhunters to be their new police force.”
Alan sighed and looked at the door to the intensive care unit. “Molly, I need you to stay here. I know Jenny’s not your daughter, but...”
Molly placed a finger on her husband’s lips. “Shush, you. Jenny may not be my blood but I love her just the same. You go do whatever you need to do, Alan, and I’ll call you if anything changes here.”
Alan smiled, and this time he didn’t have to force it. He stood up and straightened the large collar of his cape, adjusting his costume back to a proper appearance after hours of sitting in the waiting room. “I have my starting point, Molly, and I think it’s time Kyle Rayner and I had ourselves a little chat.”
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To Be Continued...
Next: In Green Lantern: The Emerald Age #2: “The Torch Lighter” continues with Alan having a sit-down with the current Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, about what the Guardians are up to (but wait, aren’t all the Guardians dead?). Plus, the return of a forgotten hero with the last name Jordan...?!
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