Big Damn List has Guy's POV, too. :D
I have now posted 25% of the fanfic100 challenge! :D
Title: Guy Gardner and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day
Fandom: Green Lantern Corps
Characters: Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Kilowog, Salaak, various Lanterns
Prompt: 044: Circle
Word Count: 2780
Rating: PG
Summary: Kyle’s battery flares, leaving him blind. Guy’s not having a good day either.
Author's Notes: Takes place concurrently with 40:Sight, following 89:work and 10:years. Post the Sinestro Corps War event.
As far as Guy Gardner was concerned, this was not a good day. Any day a guy got woken up by a crashing sound that turned out to be the expensive plate glass window in his bar downstairs couldn’t really go much farther downhill, he’d thought. He should have taken it as an omen. Not that the glass was difficult to clean up, and not that it would have been particularly difficult to fix it with the ring, except that the brawling rookies who’d crashed through it in the first place had proceeded to grind the shards to dust and break a hell of a lot more furniture before Guy grabbed them both by the collar and set them straight.
That was before Kyle had come in and said he was not going to be able to work the bar that evening because the Guardians wanted him off-world for something or other. Guy hadn’t paid much attention, but what the Guardians wanted Kyle doing was their business. Anyway, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. The kid was nice to have around, but not essential, and besides, this would give Guy a chance to figure out how to make the kid stop hitting on him. It was getting old.
Even Kilowog suddenly being required elsewhere and leaving Guy on rookie-training duty wouldn’t have pissed him off quite so much, usually. Damn brats didn’t know their way around a ring, and as far as Guy was concerned, Kilowog was leaving them way too much slack. At least, that’s what he told them, just to see if anyone pissed his pants or tried to run. No one did, and for a bunch of blithering idiots who apparently couldn’t be bothered to sort their elbows from their assholes, they hadn’t done badly.
No, what really pissed Guy Gardner off was that he had tried to charge his ring and his battery had exploded. He’d gotten halfway through the charge and it had shivered once before doing a credible imitation of a grenade. Guy didn’t call himself the best in the Corps for nothing - he managed to contain the blast so completely that barely a whiff of smoke escaped. That and the very outer edge of the reaction, so that the entire room was now covered in a thin layer of soot. Guy scooped up the defective battery and stalked off to headquarters to harass Salaak about it.
A throng of Lanterns was already there, mostly rookies, a lot of them the ones he’d tried to beat sense into before his battery had exploded. “What the…” They were all babbling about their own batteries. Salaak was nowhere to be seen, and neither was anyone else with more than six months experience. Guy opened his mouth to tell them all to shut the hell up and get themselves organized when something else exploded and the entire group started milling around even worse. “Dammit,” he said instead, and grabbed one of the rookies who wasn’t as lamebrained as the rest. “Ask why everyone’s here and make a report to Salaak,” he said. “There’s some weird shit going down. Figure it out.”
The rookie paled. “But I -“
“Just do it.” Guy snatched up another of his trainees by the wrist and hauled him towards the explosion. The rookie made a sort of undignified squawk. “You’re with me.”
“Yes, sir,” said the rookie, managing not to make any more un-Lantern-like noises. Sector 3119, that’s where he was from.
The blast had come from the temporary living quarters; at this time of day they should have been mostly empty, and they were. They were burning, though, and the flames if left unchecked could devastate the city. Not that something like that would ever happen.
“Take care of the fire,” Guy said. “I’ll check for anyone inside.” The rookie wouldn’t be on his own for long; he’d be fine until a more experienced Lantern arrived. Guy knew damn good and well there was at least one person in the building - the battery hadn’t exploded on its own - and his ring confirmed an additional two.
The two bastards unlucky enough to be caught in a building with an exploding battery were easy to get out; if either of them had had any training with their rings whatsoever, they probably would have made it out on their own and rescued the third Lantern to boot. As it was, they were in the midst of staging a heroic and doomed attempt when Guy pulled them unceremoniously outside and went to do the job himself.
His ring confirmed that the Lantern inside was Sector 1501, training complete and slated for participation in the graduation ceremony to take place in two days. He found her pinned underneath a fallen beam - she’d been able to throw up a rudimentary shield, but the combination of the explosion and the subsequent collapse of the building had knocked her unconscious. Guy coughed, the smoke growing thicker, and leveraged the rubble off 1501. Doing so shifted the equilibrium, and the rest of the ceiling promptly fell in.
Guy was more than ready for it, and emerged from the smoke with 1501 safely in a construct and no further damage than when he’d gone in. Except that now the smoke was even thicker in the back of his throat. He was going to be tasting it for days.
3119 had been joined by several more Lanterns and they had the rest of the fire under their control. Guy handed 1501 off to someone else and went looking for Salaak. Salaak found him first, looking as if he wanted to ask what Guy had been doing.
“My battery exploded,” Guy said. “That ain’t normal.”
“Yes,” Salaak said. “We are conducting an investigation.”
“Damn straight,” Guy said, but Salaak talked right over him. Guy’s job was to contain the panic, not that that’s what Salaak called it, since this was Oa and the headquarters for a group of superheroes supposedly without fear, but Guy figured you call a spade a spade. Or at least crowd control.
“It is not crowd control,” Salaak said, infuriatingly calmly. “You will organize the Corps and prevent further damage.”
It sounded exactly like crowd control, but since it was generally a tossup whether or not arguing with Salaak would get him anywhere, Guy let it go. “Where’s Rayner? Ain’t this his job too?” he asked instead. If he suffered, Kyle suffered. That’s the way it went.
“Lantern Rayner also experienced difficulty with his battery,” Salaak informed him. “He is currently incapacitated, but awaiting further instructions.”
“He what?” Guy said. “It exploded, too?”
“He is most likely temporarily blinded,” Salaak said smoothly. “You have your instructions.”
Guy was tempted to shake a fist at Salaak’s retreating back, or throw something, but that usually didn’t do any good either. Much as he hated it, Kyle was going to have to wait until he could - at least temporarily - delegate his job to someone else. After a moment’s thought, though, Guy hit on another solution and broadcast a general assembly to anyone not actively involved in containing the several fires which had sprung up around the city.
“Listen up!” he shouted, once he figured enough of them had gotten there. “You’re all part of a unit. Get into those units. NO ONE charge rings at their batteries. Make sure your area is clear and wait for further instruction. Don’t do anything stupid.” The assembled Corps just looked at him, ninety-nine percent rookies and half of them probably doomed to fail before graduation. “MOVE IT!” he roared, and they scrambled.
Next order of business was Kyle, who was just as likely as a rookie to do something idiotic. Guy found him trying to walk out the front door, even though it was obvious he couldn’t see a damn thing. His mask completely covered his eyes, for one.
“I knew you’d try to pull some dumb stunt,” he said, and Kyle jumped. “Where d’you think you’re going?”
“I don’t know,” Kyle said, as if that wasn’t obvious.
“Yeah, well, stay there.” Guy peered behind Kyle. His battery didn’t seem to have actually exploded, but then again, Salaak had said most of them had simply disintegrated. Kyle’s must have been one of the few that flared. “Where’s yer battery?” If nothing else, the damn thing could be examined.
“Up there,” Kyle said, waving a hand vaguely. “It’s in the-“
Kyle was pointing to a wall. “Never mind,” Guy told him. “I see it.” This was not strictly true, but he had to keep the battery in one of very few places and it was in the first place Guy checked. He took Kyle by the arm; blind or not, Kyle was perfectly capable of moving his own ass. “Okay, kid, let’s go.”
“What’s going on?” Kyle wanted to know.
Guy pulled him upwards, explaining as he went. Kyle balked at flying for the first time ever since Guy had seen him, and Guy snapped that he wasn’t about to steer him into a building. That got him going, and then he asked about everyone else. He’d managed to not hear anything, so Guy explained again.
“Who’s 1501?” Kyle asked.
“The one whose name I can’t pronounce. The wiggly one. Her battery exploded. She’s burned, got a broken leg. She’ll be fine.” At least, he hoped so. He hadn’t dragged her out of the building for nothing.
Someone had to watch Kyle, or he’d try to do something and get himself into trouble. Best place for that was the medcenter - he’d need his eyes checked anyway. Soranik Natu - unofficial Lantern medico - was passing by a window, so Guy flagged her down and pointed to Kyle. After handing the kid over, he told Kyle he’d be back later and took off.
The rookies - and what experienced Lanterns were on the planet - had put out the fires and the city looked more or less normal. Guy instructed anyone who asked to carry on as usual, but stay alert, and went to find out if there was anything for him to blow up. Funny, but an attack - this couldn’t be anything else, not unless the Guardians had fucked up bigtime - usually came along with some nutjob in a cape grandly taking the credit for it. So far, there was nothing. Guy idly wondered if maybe Hal had taken a dive in the Central Battery again, or if someone else had.
Someone had put out another general bulletin - all personal batteries were required for examination, and the rings were to be charged directly from the Central Battery, which would apparently not blow up or disintegrate or blind every Lantern on the planet who actually had eyes. Or an eye. (There was at least one that didn’t.) Guy spent most of the night enforcing curfew and trying to dispel rumor, but morning saw him with the assignment to assist in the investigation.
“How about Kyle?” Guy asked, again. This stuff was more up Kyle’s alley than his. Barely. Besides, Salaak was heading to the medcenter anyway. Guy tagged along.
“As the extent of his injury remains unclear, he will be relocated to Sector 2814,” Salaak said.
That was going to go over real well. “I’ll take him,” Guy said. Finding out what to hit was not his strong point, and Kyle was less likely to be pissy if Guy was around to smack him out of it.
“No,” Salaak said.
“I’ll take him back,” Guy said, a little more loudly than he’d intended.
“You are needed as part of the ongoing investigation,” Salaak said.
“Bullshit,” Guy said. “Point me at something and I’ll hit it, but I ain’t no good at this detective stuff. You don’t need me until you know what we’re up against.”
“This is not a matter up for debate.” Salaak knocked on a door, which turned out to belong to Kyle.
“Yes?” Kyle answered. Salaak pushed the door open, and Guy saw Kyle on his feet and waiting, mask still covering his eyes.
“You get a vacation, kid,” Guy said, trying to put a good spin on it. Yeah, like that’s gonna work.
“You mean I’ve been suspended,” Kyle returned, sulking already.
“Not precisely suspended,” Salaak began.
“No, I’m just useless to you, so you’re going to get rid of me.” Kyle all but threw the ring at Salaak, his uniform and mask melting away. “Just take it.”
Salaak was reaching for the ring, but Guy got to it first and put it back where it belonged. “Quit whining. You’re a senior Lantern. Act like it.”
The uniform reappeared, but now Kyle wouldn’t look at them, not that looking would have done him any good. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“It ain’t safe here, Kyle. Something’s trying to take down the Corps from the inside out.” This was doubly true if Kyle was just going to sulk instead of figure out how to be productive. Guy put his hands on Kyle’s shoulders, trying to get him to cooperate.
“I’m a liability,” Kyle said, and Guy lost his patience.
“You cut that out,” he said, stepping back. “You an’ me are going back to Earth and I ain’t gonna hear any complaints. I’ll come back for you.”
“Whatever. Let’s go, then.”
Salaak rolled his eyes and waved Guy out of the room. This counted as one of those times arguing was not, in fact, completely and totally pointless. Guy still thought Salaak had some sort of tally running, of when to let things go and when to be anal retentive. Or maybe he just flipped a mental coin.
The trip back could be taken at the rings’ top speed - Kyle, despite his sulking, figured out that he could get the ring to give him appropriate directions and Guy only had to nudge him out of the way of giant flying rocks once or twice. He also took the opportunity to warn Hal and John that their batteries might be screwy - John said he’d gotten the memo - and tell Hal he was going to have a houseguest. He didn’t figure Hal would mind - much - and Hal agreed without too much bitching. Guy was already entering Earth’s atmosphere when he realized that Kyle had stopped following him. “The hell are you doing?”
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
Fine time to find your backbone again, Guy thought, and started arguing. It didn’t take more than a couple of not-so-subtle nudges to remind Kyle that he was not a rookie, and that he probably wasn’t useless either. Guy wouldn’t have done it on a normal day, but he figured being told he might be blind for life was enough to get Kyle thirty seconds of slack. And then he was going to start kicking his ass.
Hal showed up on time for once, so Guy left the two of them to it and raced back towards Oa. He hadn’t gotten any messages, but he could always hope there’d be something to either hit or blow up by the time he got there. If not, Guy supposed he could find something just fine.
Much to Guy’s disgust, the entire matter had been resolved by the time he touched down. A rookie who’d flunked out apparently had an overzealous fanbase; the rookie herself (she was a model, of all things) had been perfectly reasonable about the entire affair and returned home, no hard feelings. A group of her fans, however, had been furious at the perceived injustice and started plotting revenge. Usually, shit like that stopped right there, but every so often, some morons got their hands on magic or technology and created a problem. In this case, the geeks had gotten their hands on some bits and pieces of the original Oa and used it to hack the Central Battery.
That was what Guy got out of the horribly long and convoluted explanation, anyway, delivered to him via Kilowog in Guy’s very own now-cleaned and repaired bar. That and there wasn’t anything for him to hit. “You’re kidding,” he said.
“Sorry, buddy.” Kilowog shrugged, massive shoulders rippling.
“That entire mess was just because of a bunch of fanboys?” Guy threw himself into a chair opposite his friend and rested his chin on a fist. “What a bunch of bullshit.”
“It could have been worse,” Kilowog reminded him, and Guy sighed. Any day everyone woke up alive and stayed that day was a good one, he supposed. But he really wished he could legitimately hit something. He looked at Kilowog and grinned.
“Wanna spar?”
FINIS
Title: Guy Gardner and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day
Fandom: Green Lantern Corps
Characters: Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner, Kilowog, Salaak, various Lanterns
Prompt: 044: Circle
Word Count: 2780
Rating: PG
Summary: Kyle’s battery flares, leaving him blind. Guy’s not having a good day either.
Author's Notes: Takes place concurrently with 40:Sight, following 89:work and 10:years. Post the Sinestro Corps War event.
As far as Guy Gardner was concerned, this was not a good day. Any day a guy got woken up by a crashing sound that turned out to be the expensive plate glass window in his bar downstairs couldn’t really go much farther downhill, he’d thought. He should have taken it as an omen. Not that the glass was difficult to clean up, and not that it would have been particularly difficult to fix it with the ring, except that the brawling rookies who’d crashed through it in the first place had proceeded to grind the shards to dust and break a hell of a lot more furniture before Guy grabbed them both by the collar and set them straight.
That was before Kyle had come in and said he was not going to be able to work the bar that evening because the Guardians wanted him off-world for something or other. Guy hadn’t paid much attention, but what the Guardians wanted Kyle doing was their business. Anyway, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. The kid was nice to have around, but not essential, and besides, this would give Guy a chance to figure out how to make the kid stop hitting on him. It was getting old.
Even Kilowog suddenly being required elsewhere and leaving Guy on rookie-training duty wouldn’t have pissed him off quite so much, usually. Damn brats didn’t know their way around a ring, and as far as Guy was concerned, Kilowog was leaving them way too much slack. At least, that’s what he told them, just to see if anyone pissed his pants or tried to run. No one did, and for a bunch of blithering idiots who apparently couldn’t be bothered to sort their elbows from their assholes, they hadn’t done badly.
No, what really pissed Guy Gardner off was that he had tried to charge his ring and his battery had exploded. He’d gotten halfway through the charge and it had shivered once before doing a credible imitation of a grenade. Guy didn’t call himself the best in the Corps for nothing - he managed to contain the blast so completely that barely a whiff of smoke escaped. That and the very outer edge of the reaction, so that the entire room was now covered in a thin layer of soot. Guy scooped up the defective battery and stalked off to headquarters to harass Salaak about it.
A throng of Lanterns was already there, mostly rookies, a lot of them the ones he’d tried to beat sense into before his battery had exploded. “What the…” They were all babbling about their own batteries. Salaak was nowhere to be seen, and neither was anyone else with more than six months experience. Guy opened his mouth to tell them all to shut the hell up and get themselves organized when something else exploded and the entire group started milling around even worse. “Dammit,” he said instead, and grabbed one of the rookies who wasn’t as lamebrained as the rest. “Ask why everyone’s here and make a report to Salaak,” he said. “There’s some weird shit going down. Figure it out.”
The rookie paled. “But I -“
“Just do it.” Guy snatched up another of his trainees by the wrist and hauled him towards the explosion. The rookie made a sort of undignified squawk. “You’re with me.”
“Yes, sir,” said the rookie, managing not to make any more un-Lantern-like noises. Sector 3119, that’s where he was from.
The blast had come from the temporary living quarters; at this time of day they should have been mostly empty, and they were. They were burning, though, and the flames if left unchecked could devastate the city. Not that something like that would ever happen.
“Take care of the fire,” Guy said. “I’ll check for anyone inside.” The rookie wouldn’t be on his own for long; he’d be fine until a more experienced Lantern arrived. Guy knew damn good and well there was at least one person in the building - the battery hadn’t exploded on its own - and his ring confirmed an additional two.
The two bastards unlucky enough to be caught in a building with an exploding battery were easy to get out; if either of them had had any training with their rings whatsoever, they probably would have made it out on their own and rescued the third Lantern to boot. As it was, they were in the midst of staging a heroic and doomed attempt when Guy pulled them unceremoniously outside and went to do the job himself.
His ring confirmed that the Lantern inside was Sector 1501, training complete and slated for participation in the graduation ceremony to take place in two days. He found her pinned underneath a fallen beam - she’d been able to throw up a rudimentary shield, but the combination of the explosion and the subsequent collapse of the building had knocked her unconscious. Guy coughed, the smoke growing thicker, and leveraged the rubble off 1501. Doing so shifted the equilibrium, and the rest of the ceiling promptly fell in.
Guy was more than ready for it, and emerged from the smoke with 1501 safely in a construct and no further damage than when he’d gone in. Except that now the smoke was even thicker in the back of his throat. He was going to be tasting it for days.
3119 had been joined by several more Lanterns and they had the rest of the fire under their control. Guy handed 1501 off to someone else and went looking for Salaak. Salaak found him first, looking as if he wanted to ask what Guy had been doing.
“My battery exploded,” Guy said. “That ain’t normal.”
“Yes,” Salaak said. “We are conducting an investigation.”
“Damn straight,” Guy said, but Salaak talked right over him. Guy’s job was to contain the panic, not that that’s what Salaak called it, since this was Oa and the headquarters for a group of superheroes supposedly without fear, but Guy figured you call a spade a spade. Or at least crowd control.
“It is not crowd control,” Salaak said, infuriatingly calmly. “You will organize the Corps and prevent further damage.”
It sounded exactly like crowd control, but since it was generally a tossup whether or not arguing with Salaak would get him anywhere, Guy let it go. “Where’s Rayner? Ain’t this his job too?” he asked instead. If he suffered, Kyle suffered. That’s the way it went.
“Lantern Rayner also experienced difficulty with his battery,” Salaak informed him. “He is currently incapacitated, but awaiting further instructions.”
“He what?” Guy said. “It exploded, too?”
“He is most likely temporarily blinded,” Salaak said smoothly. “You have your instructions.”
Guy was tempted to shake a fist at Salaak’s retreating back, or throw something, but that usually didn’t do any good either. Much as he hated it, Kyle was going to have to wait until he could - at least temporarily - delegate his job to someone else. After a moment’s thought, though, Guy hit on another solution and broadcast a general assembly to anyone not actively involved in containing the several fires which had sprung up around the city.
“Listen up!” he shouted, once he figured enough of them had gotten there. “You’re all part of a unit. Get into those units. NO ONE charge rings at their batteries. Make sure your area is clear and wait for further instruction. Don’t do anything stupid.” The assembled Corps just looked at him, ninety-nine percent rookies and half of them probably doomed to fail before graduation. “MOVE IT!” he roared, and they scrambled.
Next order of business was Kyle, who was just as likely as a rookie to do something idiotic. Guy found him trying to walk out the front door, even though it was obvious he couldn’t see a damn thing. His mask completely covered his eyes, for one.
“I knew you’d try to pull some dumb stunt,” he said, and Kyle jumped. “Where d’you think you’re going?”
“I don’t know,” Kyle said, as if that wasn’t obvious.
“Yeah, well, stay there.” Guy peered behind Kyle. His battery didn’t seem to have actually exploded, but then again, Salaak had said most of them had simply disintegrated. Kyle’s must have been one of the few that flared. “Where’s yer battery?” If nothing else, the damn thing could be examined.
“Up there,” Kyle said, waving a hand vaguely. “It’s in the-“
Kyle was pointing to a wall. “Never mind,” Guy told him. “I see it.” This was not strictly true, but he had to keep the battery in one of very few places and it was in the first place Guy checked. He took Kyle by the arm; blind or not, Kyle was perfectly capable of moving his own ass. “Okay, kid, let’s go.”
“What’s going on?” Kyle wanted to know.
Guy pulled him upwards, explaining as he went. Kyle balked at flying for the first time ever since Guy had seen him, and Guy snapped that he wasn’t about to steer him into a building. That got him going, and then he asked about everyone else. He’d managed to not hear anything, so Guy explained again.
“Who’s 1501?” Kyle asked.
“The one whose name I can’t pronounce. The wiggly one. Her battery exploded. She’s burned, got a broken leg. She’ll be fine.” At least, he hoped so. He hadn’t dragged her out of the building for nothing.
Someone had to watch Kyle, or he’d try to do something and get himself into trouble. Best place for that was the medcenter - he’d need his eyes checked anyway. Soranik Natu - unofficial Lantern medico - was passing by a window, so Guy flagged her down and pointed to Kyle. After handing the kid over, he told Kyle he’d be back later and took off.
The rookies - and what experienced Lanterns were on the planet - had put out the fires and the city looked more or less normal. Guy instructed anyone who asked to carry on as usual, but stay alert, and went to find out if there was anything for him to blow up. Funny, but an attack - this couldn’t be anything else, not unless the Guardians had fucked up bigtime - usually came along with some nutjob in a cape grandly taking the credit for it. So far, there was nothing. Guy idly wondered if maybe Hal had taken a dive in the Central Battery again, or if someone else had.
Someone had put out another general bulletin - all personal batteries were required for examination, and the rings were to be charged directly from the Central Battery, which would apparently not blow up or disintegrate or blind every Lantern on the planet who actually had eyes. Or an eye. (There was at least one that didn’t.) Guy spent most of the night enforcing curfew and trying to dispel rumor, but morning saw him with the assignment to assist in the investigation.
“How about Kyle?” Guy asked, again. This stuff was more up Kyle’s alley than his. Barely. Besides, Salaak was heading to the medcenter anyway. Guy tagged along.
“As the extent of his injury remains unclear, he will be relocated to Sector 2814,” Salaak said.
That was going to go over real well. “I’ll take him,” Guy said. Finding out what to hit was not his strong point, and Kyle was less likely to be pissy if Guy was around to smack him out of it.
“No,” Salaak said.
“I’ll take him back,” Guy said, a little more loudly than he’d intended.
“You are needed as part of the ongoing investigation,” Salaak said.
“Bullshit,” Guy said. “Point me at something and I’ll hit it, but I ain’t no good at this detective stuff. You don’t need me until you know what we’re up against.”
“This is not a matter up for debate.” Salaak knocked on a door, which turned out to belong to Kyle.
“Yes?” Kyle answered. Salaak pushed the door open, and Guy saw Kyle on his feet and waiting, mask still covering his eyes.
“You get a vacation, kid,” Guy said, trying to put a good spin on it. Yeah, like that’s gonna work.
“You mean I’ve been suspended,” Kyle returned, sulking already.
“Not precisely suspended,” Salaak began.
“No, I’m just useless to you, so you’re going to get rid of me.” Kyle all but threw the ring at Salaak, his uniform and mask melting away. “Just take it.”
Salaak was reaching for the ring, but Guy got to it first and put it back where it belonged. “Quit whining. You’re a senior Lantern. Act like it.”
The uniform reappeared, but now Kyle wouldn’t look at them, not that looking would have done him any good. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“It ain’t safe here, Kyle. Something’s trying to take down the Corps from the inside out.” This was doubly true if Kyle was just going to sulk instead of figure out how to be productive. Guy put his hands on Kyle’s shoulders, trying to get him to cooperate.
“I’m a liability,” Kyle said, and Guy lost his patience.
“You cut that out,” he said, stepping back. “You an’ me are going back to Earth and I ain’t gonna hear any complaints. I’ll come back for you.”
“Whatever. Let’s go, then.”
Salaak rolled his eyes and waved Guy out of the room. This counted as one of those times arguing was not, in fact, completely and totally pointless. Guy still thought Salaak had some sort of tally running, of when to let things go and when to be anal retentive. Or maybe he just flipped a mental coin.
The trip back could be taken at the rings’ top speed - Kyle, despite his sulking, figured out that he could get the ring to give him appropriate directions and Guy only had to nudge him out of the way of giant flying rocks once or twice. He also took the opportunity to warn Hal and John that their batteries might be screwy - John said he’d gotten the memo - and tell Hal he was going to have a houseguest. He didn’t figure Hal would mind - much - and Hal agreed without too much bitching. Guy was already entering Earth’s atmosphere when he realized that Kyle had stopped following him. “The hell are you doing?”
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”
Fine time to find your backbone again, Guy thought, and started arguing. It didn’t take more than a couple of not-so-subtle nudges to remind Kyle that he was not a rookie, and that he probably wasn’t useless either. Guy wouldn’t have done it on a normal day, but he figured being told he might be blind for life was enough to get Kyle thirty seconds of slack. And then he was going to start kicking his ass.
Hal showed up on time for once, so Guy left the two of them to it and raced back towards Oa. He hadn’t gotten any messages, but he could always hope there’d be something to either hit or blow up by the time he got there. If not, Guy supposed he could find something just fine.
Much to Guy’s disgust, the entire matter had been resolved by the time he touched down. A rookie who’d flunked out apparently had an overzealous fanbase; the rookie herself (she was a model, of all things) had been perfectly reasonable about the entire affair and returned home, no hard feelings. A group of her fans, however, had been furious at the perceived injustice and started plotting revenge. Usually, shit like that stopped right there, but every so often, some morons got their hands on magic or technology and created a problem. In this case, the geeks had gotten their hands on some bits and pieces of the original Oa and used it to hack the Central Battery.
That was what Guy got out of the horribly long and convoluted explanation, anyway, delivered to him via Kilowog in Guy’s very own now-cleaned and repaired bar. That and there wasn’t anything for him to hit. “You’re kidding,” he said.
“Sorry, buddy.” Kilowog shrugged, massive shoulders rippling.
“That entire mess was just because of a bunch of fanboys?” Guy threw himself into a chair opposite his friend and rested his chin on a fist. “What a bunch of bullshit.”
“It could have been worse,” Kilowog reminded him, and Guy sighed. Any day everyone woke up alive and stayed that day was a good one, he supposed. But he really wished he could legitimately hit something. He looked at Kilowog and grinned.
“Wanna spar?”
FINIS