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thejusticelounge2012-04-06 03:28 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2012-04-06 03:28 pm
space trash
Batman was aware of everything, always and forever; including the fact that Kyle had recent taken multiple people for Lantern joyrides into space on no more than three separate occasions. So Bats had located the youngest Green Lantern one morning and assigned him a duty that would keep him out in space for a good long while - clean-up duty. Given the amount of space-battles around the Earth that the JL roster had on a monthly basis (ooc: lol, comics joke there, lol), never mind all the space junk that various Earth corporations were shooting up into the atmosphere, the Earth’s orbit left a trail of detritus: from broken robot shuttles to - of all things - a freaking big rig truck.
“Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, reporting for duty in Sector 2814,” Kyle muttered to himself, as he got ready to head out. “Yeah. Duty. More like ‘space janitor’.”
He was just about to hit the airlock button when out of the corner of his eye he saw Hal in the hallway, gliding past with a cup of coffee and a bear claw.
Kyle had a brief moment of panic. Should he? Shouldn’t he? Why not? Hal just got here; and he was a GL for this sector too. Share and share alike, right? Corps sticks together through thick and thin. And space-scrubbing.
“Hey! Hal,” Kyle skidded out into the hallway. “How’s breakfast?” Kyle didn’t wait for Hal’s answer, he just prattled on. “Look, I’ve been given a huge if not really boring job to do, and I’d love to get some help and especially with another Lantern, well. You’re the only other Lantern here, so obviously I mean especially you. But two Lanterns can get the job faster’n one, any time!” Kyle did his best ‘rah-rah’ face and then slumped. “Please?”
Hal had only been at the station to check in on things, see who was around, and get something to eat. Laziness just didn’t suit him. Sure a few days planetside to stretchout, relax, and take things easy had been nice. But now, he needed some work. Lucky for him, Kyle was there to beg for his help.
“You don’t have to beg,” he said, chuckling. “Of course I’ll help you out. Probably one of the only ones who could.” It sounded like busy work to him, meaning someone had told Kyle to do it out of some level of meanness. But whatever, he and Kyle had been meaning to catch up anyway. He quickly finished his breakfast, brushing his hands off before motioning toward the nearest airlock.
“I need to log some flight hours anyway,” he said. “Make sure the blueheads back on Oa don’t think I’m slacking too much.”
Kyle felt unabashed triumph. With Hal for a partner on this task, it didn’t seem so tedious after all. He hustled over to the airlock, punching the button as they both started to glow green protective layers. Dios, even though Kyle had only been back to Earth for a few weeks, he missed this. Like, really missed the feel of Green Lanterns, together, doing stuff. Productive, useful stuff.Together.
Still, he turned to look at Hal in surprise. “You manage to report to them? I keep trying to contact them after my run-in with the Manhunters. My run-in with the lady Manhunter, against the robo-Manhunters,” he corrected himself, feeling Kate would appreciate the differentiation. “Hnn. Anyway, I’ve been getting no joy trying to get a hold of the Guardians. Not a peep. Not even Ganthet! I figured I’d eventually head over to Oa to check out why they’re treating me like an unwanted boyfriend.”
The airlock door to space couldn’t open fast enough for either of them. They both sped outside as fast as they could; not out of competition, but merely enjoying the feel of being out in the wide open space.
“They check in on us as they need to,” he said with a shrug. “After all the rings are all connected. Usually its just Salaak reminding me that I’m supposed to be patrolling, not putting my feet up. I remind HIM that all the action is usually on Earth anyway.”
Once the airlock was open, he flew out after Kyle, a green trail following his feet. He corkscrewed a little, then stopped to look at the planet below.
“You know, I never get tired of this view,” he said with a chuckle. “Amazing..” His attention turned to their task, making note of the space junk orbiting the blue ball below. “You know…it’s probably good that we get out here and clean some of this up. I don’t think I would like it if Earth had a trash ring.”
“I suppose so,” Kyle said, but he still felt doubtful. Hal always had very different feelings about the Guardians than he had, but. Hal wasn’t the one who had to re-create the little blue race from scratch, one Guardian baby at a time. He did a few flips in order to stop thinking about all those Guardian politics. He’d think about that later.
Kyle flew over and hovered beside Hal while the other Lantern admired the view. He half-stared at Hal, as well. “It’s beautiful isn’t it. Kind of glad I’m planning to settle back on Earth for a while. Do you think you will too? You know Corps policies - always ideal to have two Lanterns protecting any given sector. And with Guy on Oa and John and Jenny both on Guardian business, that just leaves you and me, viejito.”
As Hal turned to face all the space junk, Kyle followed suit and whistled. “Okay so, like. Batman wasn’t kidding when he said the atmosphere was turning into a floating landfill! Kind of embarrassing, almost.” Kyle drifted over to a piece of a discarded satellite that had the name “QUEEN INDUS—” emblazoned on the side. He showed it to Hal, grinning. “Look at that. Blackmail material for the Emerald Environmentalist?”
Hal made a large green container, hoping that would be enough for them to at least get a start on it. There was so much STUFF just floating around it was hard to really know where or how to start. When Kyle showed him the satellite, he chuckled and shook his head a bit.
“I would wager he doesn’t know about it,” he said. “He’s so hellbent on fixing the rest of the world, he always misses what’s right under his mustached nose.” He hooked a construct cable to the satellite and slug it into the bin.
“So what’s new in your life?” he asked, deciding to make small talk while they cleaned up.
Kyle nodded approvingly at the green light bin. He created a green light katamari, and it began rolling over some of the debris, collecting and growing bigger as it went.
“Ohhhhh, lots of things,” Kyle sing-songed, but he noticed that Hal hadn’t confirmed whether or not he was planning to stay. Maybe he if shared, Hal would too? “Well. Stayed in the Watchtower, mostly. Fighting the good fight. I was kind of avoiding actually going back to earth, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s hard to, um. Face the past. If you know what I mean?”
“Also! Got myself in a relationship. It tends to happen every time I’m in port, heh! I can’t complain, it’s very…reassuring.” The katamari was getting cumbersome, so Kyle let it drop into Hal’s space container and switched to a giant snow plow. “What about you? Wow, it really has been a few months, hasn’t it?”
While Kyle was being fancy, Hal settled on good old fashioned nets, collecting things in long sweeps, then depositing them in the bin. Either way, the job would get done.
“Don’t I know it,” he said with a sigh. “First few times I came back were hell. Everyone I knew at the time assaulted me wanting to know where I’d been and all…” That had been such a nightmare..and at the time, he hadn’t had a way to escape it. Kyle was lucky. “Don’t abandon your friends and family down there, trust me. One day you’ll need them. Also do NOT marathon relationships. That will only make you miserable.” Hauling in another net of debris, he paused at the question, idly looking over the odds and ends of broken or discarded this and that.
“I’ve been ok,” he said. “Being a senior lantern of sorts means I get my run of things usually, long as I don’t step out of line. Actually asked to come back here though.” He chuckled. “I miss everyone. Have to keep my center, agreed?”
Kyle eyed Hal. “So they - the people you left - they were angry at you?” Kyle felt a twang of guilt over the whole friends and family thing. Kyle still hadn’t visited his mom. “Coast City’s looking really nice these days. You checked it out, yet?”
Kyle lit up when he heard that Hal had been requested to return to Earth. So had he! “It’s like fate, man,” he said eagerly. “I missed everyone like hell, too. That’s why I came back. I hope so far it’s been a bueno welcome home for you. Better than last times, hah.”
Getting bored with Mr Plow, Kyle switched to using a Green Flash: the Wally version. It whirled around the trash, but then it suddenly stopped, as if on pause. A giant hand come out from Kyle’s ring and grabbed onto Hal’s boring old nets. Kyle stared in horror at Hal. “Wait wait wait, Hal wait - Is this all trash? Oh Dios. How the hell are we supposed to know what actually should be out here? What about working network satellites and - and - NASA probes and. And! Government stuff!?” Kyle flew into the green light container, flipping through the garbage and hoping to god he didn’t just unintentionally destroy half the worlds broadcast and surveillance capabilities.
“This what what happened when you’d been away from Earth for a while!” Kyle groaned from inside the container. “You don’t think of the little details, like people needing wifi, ayyyyy.”
…Watching Kyle flip out was funny. He couldn’t help it, just watching him panic a moment was absolutely hilarious. After giving him a moment to sweat it, Hal threw a construct tennis ball at him.
“Good job, Lantern Rayner, you’ve successfully denied cell service to half the west coast. The president called and said you’re an ass.” He laughed and shook his head. “Calm down. I wouldn’t let you sweep up something important, now would I?” He gestured a little. “Do you think that there would be ANYTHING this close to the station? Do you think they would ALLOW it?” He looked through all the bits and parts. All of THAT was garbage for sure.
“Ring, locate and mark the active satellites around the planet.” He held his fist forward, gleaming markers flying out from it and attaching themselves to satellites around the globe. The nearest one was quite a ways off. “there you see? Nothing to worry about.”
Hal could hear Kyle’s tinned DiosMioDiosMioDiosMio coming from inside the trash container when he teased him about the West Coast being down, but eventually it quieted and the top of Kyle’s head poked out of the bin. He looked over to where Hal was patiently pointing at all the markers dotting the satellites around the atmosphere.
Kyle remained in the trash for a bit, before slowly emerging. “I didn’t wanna screw up,” he said, feeling abashed, but not exactly ashamed. If it had been anyone else but an Earth Green Lantern, he would have felt embarrassed. But it was only Hal. Hal didn’t judge.
They worked in comfortable silence for a while, finally finding their rhythm with each other’s different Lantern styles. Kyle kept trying to outdo himself, and Hal worked steady and sure.
After a while, Kyle flew over his face scrunched up from too much thinking. “So how long do you plan to stay at GA Sr’s, anyway? Not that I don’t see the perks.”
Working felt good. Hal didn’t realize how very little laziness suited him until he caught himself so enthralled in a simple task. It wasn’t dangerous or life or death or anything…might as well have been sweeping the floor for all its importance. But all the same, it was a work out, and it was calling up a lot of brain power. He balked a little at the question, looking a tad confused.
“Long as I need to, I suppose,” he said. “I’ve had my fill of solitude. Thought a place as lively as his would be good for me.” He chuckled a bit, sling shotting a hunk of what had once been a space ship into the bin. “Besides, he keeps me on my toes.” A moment of silence passed before he looked at Kyle quizzically.
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason, no reason,” Kyle said immediately, and flew off again, making a paltry attempt to gather an unimpressive amount of meteorites, using a broom and scoop construct. After a while he abandoned it and made a full circle back to Hal.
Kyle took a deep breath. “Y’see, I have to find a place on Earth too, since I lost my pad in New York to Jenny but that’s a long story; and quite frankly I have too many bad memories to go back East, so I was thinking about Coast City since it’s on the West Coast and Star City is wayyyyyy too expensive for a volunteer space cop, but since Coast City hit the recession its housing prices have…uh…well rent is cheap. But still not cheap enough for me to afford on my own since, heh, no job yet. So I was wondering if you….” Kyle paused in his long-winded ramble, squinting at a distance behind Hal. “Que? Did you see—?”
Kyle flew past Hal, tapping him on his arm for Hal to turn around as well. Kyle slowly flew towards a largeish spaceship fragment, that looked alien-built. Hal recognized it immediately as Thanagarian.
Most of the compartments had been blown open, but there was one compartment lid that looked like it was…swelling and decompressing was the best way to describe it. Moving. Squirming.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, viejito, but I don’t think space trash usually moves like that.” He skewed his mouth to the side, looking up at Hal. “Think it’s full of space roaches?”
Kyle wanted him to move in with him? Seemed like a logical thing, really, given the circumstance. Still, it wasn’t as though Hal himself had much to fall back on. He was a freeloader for a reason, YEARS of practice. He hadn’t had a steady income to fall back on in a long time, and unfortunately, Earth was one of the only places where flashing a green lantern ring didn’t get you much of anything.
His attention was called away when Kyle pointed out that anomaly. Following him, he loops a lasso around Kyle and tugged him back, trying to make sure they had some reaction distance in case something happened.
“Scan it,” he said, apparently having to remind Kyle of the basics. “Check for life forms. I’ll do a quick sweep, sit tight.” I with that, he broke away, circling the area and looking for anything else unusual.
“Hm? Oh, right.” Damn Hal was cautious. Kyle had almost forgotten. He obediently scanned at the space wreck, choosing an x-ray style to get a nice visual. He didn’t need to scan to long; the results were immediate.
“Whoa, Hal this thing is hot,” Kyle said, his face slacking in horror as he saw just how many….things were writhing inside the body if the ship fragment. Kyle couldn’t quite tell if they were sentient or mindless space vermin; but he still said, “There’s zillions of things in there. Hal, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Hal was on the other side of the ship investigating a strange tear in the side which looked almost half-eaten. He only had time to hear Kyle give a “Wha-HEY” before a hundred of the wormy, maggoty looking creatures burst out from the tear, propelling themselves towards Hal. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kyle being flung upside-down and backwards in space, the worm-creatures half-attaching themselves to Kyle’s green mecha armour that he threw on himself in shock.
But Hal had his own set of thigh-sized worms to contend with. They had suctioning, toothy hungry mouths that came straight for him.
Hal scarcely had time to react, jerking away quickly as the creatures propelled themselves towards him. Space scavengers? Possibly. Hell with the number of space battles that happened SOMETHING had to clean up after them. It made sense in a way.
But that was completely unimportant. Hal kicked the closest one away, constructing a mallet to slap the others back toward the ship. A bug net scooped up several and pinned them to the ship’s side. Hal could see them trying to gnaw through the net. He let himself hesitate a second too long, and one of them bit into his side. A yelp of pain left him, and he bashed the worm over the head. But it wouldn’t let go. A blast of concentrated energy did the trick, searing the creature and killing it. He pried its teeth off, putting a glowing green pressure bandage on it.
“Kyle! You ok?” he called, quickly searching for his partner.
Kyle didn’t care what the hell these little bastards were, all he knew was that they were coming from all angles.
He looked down in horror as it seemed like one was munching through his mecha armour. “Oh no you don’t -” Kyle used a vice to squish the thing with a satisfying *squelch* feeling, but it seemed like fifty more had attached themselves during that time. It was worm claustrophobia. He grit his teeth and expanded the armour inside out, quickly folding in on and surrounding the little chomping bastards instead.
“Hal!” He looked around in a slight panic for his partner and saw Hal tearing off a creature and…soldering his side. Orale. That was cool. He noticed a bunch of Hal’s worm foes were netted to the side. Kyle didn’t hesitate. He twirled with his own sack of worms, releasing and slamming it against the other side of the ship.
“I’m a-ok, Hal,” Kyle responded and flew over to him, trying not to look at the bite that was…burning up across Hal’s side, Hal’s green solder patch quickly trying to compensate. These things were acidic or something?! Oh Dios, this had to be taken care of and fast.
“C’mon man, let’s do this thing,” Kyle said loudly and carelessly, trying to his mask own nervousness, and trying to make sure the older Lantern was concentrating on him and not the searing pain he must be feeling right now. “Hey worms! Meet Senor trash compactor.” Kyle created a huge car-crusher to try and surround the ship fragment where they had each trapped their respective worms.
But Kyle’s car crusher construct wasn’t strong enough to smash the ship-plus-worms into a trash-cube. Not yet. Kyle glanced over at Hal, internally willing him to still be okay enough.
Hal could feel the bite prickling and burning beneath the patch he’d thrown over it. Damn, he didn’t have time to properly tend to it, not out here. Having Kyle for backup was definitely a good thing. Light years better than no help at all. Once he’d gotten the compactor going, Hal raised his own fist, ring glowing.
“I’ve got you covered,” he reassured the other.
He added struts to the sides of Kyle’s compactor, pushing inward to keep them steady. The aura of green around him lept and flickered as he poured more of his own will on, manifested in the form of weights, each with the force of a Mac truck at highway speed. He grit his teeth, seeing it was working. Just a little more.
“Come on, Kyle,” he said. “Finish it.”
Kyle’s bunched shoulders relaxed heavily when Hal reassured him and he watched as the struts constructs expanded out from Hal’s ring to relieve Kyle’s own construct.
Kyle was always fascinated how differently Green Lanterns used their rings. Hal’s constructs - arguably setting a precedent for future Earth GLs - tended to begin as a formless piece and then expand out into a shape, as Hal fed more of his endless font of will into his creation. John - ever the architect - built things procedurally, from the inside out. Guy’s you barely had time to see popping into existence, before it clocked you one. Jen’s seemed to swirl into being, as if it was an effortless extension of herself. And Kyle drew lines and refined continually, like applying pencil, ink and paint. Every method was flawless, In Kyle’s opinion.
Kyle nodded at Hal, and then turned to the ship, now securely viced in their combined construct. “Adios, pendejos.” If there was sound in space, the Lanterns would have heard the creatures screaming in agony as they were smashed into the ship from up, down, and all four sides. Pus-looking goo oozed from around the green light constructs, and both Hal and Kyle could feel as if the acidic goo was burning holes in the green light.
They didn’t need to confer about putting their noses to the grindstone, ignoring the sopping goo and giving the ship and the worms one final squish.
It was over. When they released their green light, a dead cube of ship and worm floated benignly in front of them. Kyle used a giant football boot and punted it into the green light container, shutting it tight.
“Hal?!” Kyle flew closer to him now, lowering himself to take a look at Hal’s wound, wanting to touch it but refraining. “Holy frijoles. We need to get you to the Medbay, like yesterday.”
Hal was glad to see the crushed ship, and was all too happy that Kyle punted it into the bin with everything else. He had just enough left in him to strap a couple of bright green rockets to the sides and send it off on a one way trip to the sun. That stuff would never bother them again.
“I’m alright, I can make it there,” he said, then nodded at the charred worm still hovering nearby. “Grab that though, we might need it. I want to know what those things were.”
Wearily, he started back toward the station, hand still pressed to his side. Blood oozed around the bandages, and he could still feel that thing’s acid burning into his flesh.
“Good call,” Kyle said, looping a collar around the worm and towing it along. Dios. The man gets chomped by an evil killer worm and half his torso is bleeding out and he still managed to remember to hold back one of the worms for Watchtower analysis. Sometimes, it didn’t take grand moments for Kyle to remember just how long Hal had been doing this gig.
Kyle wanted to do something - put Hal on a flying carpet, or wrap a giant cast around his middle or something - but he stopped himself. The man had dignity, Rayner, Kyle thought sternly, and contented himself with flying close beside him.
They goth through the airlock and by this point, Kyle didn’t care about maintaining a respectful distance. He slung Hal’s arm (on his uninjured side) around his shoulders, half-flying them to the Medbay.
It was a relief to know that when they arrived, Dinah was there, looking through some medical charts on the computer screen.
“Dinah,” Kyle said tightly. “Man down.”
Dinah dropped the files she had been holding, jumping up from her chair to meet them. She grabbed Hal, moving him towards one of the beds. “My god! What happened?” She reached out towards his side, hand running along the cool green patch. It faded to reveal a burn stretching over a good chunk of his side. The wound fizzled with what looked to be some sort of acid.
“Were you two fighting?” She glared at Kyle. “Because the last time you came by, it was Oliver, and now Hal is hurt?”
“Don’t be so melodramatic, Kyle,” he teased, almost laughing until his side stung in pain. OK, bad idea then. Laying back, he adjusted his uniform, bearing his midriff to let Dinah get a better look at it.
“Sounds like you’re bad luck,” he said to Kyle, chuckling lowly once again. “We were cleaning up around the station, getting rid of this lovely trash ring the planet’s trying to develop. Ran into some kind of space worms. One of them bit me.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” Kyle said vehemently. Hal wasn’t too far off with Kyle being some sort of injury-magnet. “But you’re in good hands now; believe me she’s patched me and all of my accident cases up.”
Kyle lay a hand on Hal’s shoulder and looked up at Dinah who gave him a reassuring smile. Kyle took a deep breath and nodded at her. He looked back at the worm fritter, which was still suspended on its leash like a grotesque helium balloon.
“Well, I better get Maggot McGee to the forensic labs for analysis. I’ll come check up on you later, once Dinah’s got you all patched up. See ya, Dines.”
Kyle glided out into the hallway, and only then did it occur to him that maybe he should’ve at least said a ‘sorry’ or a ‘thank you’ to Hal. He hovered back and forth, but awkward outweighed the politeness, and he flew off to the labs.
Dinah smiled at the new nickname, watching him fly out the door. She returned her attention to Hal, examining the injury. “I need to get this acid out.” She moved throughout the room, gathering supplies to treat the man.
“Try to hold still. This is going to sting.” Dinah rinsed the wound until the fizzy discoloration was gone. Dinah slowly applied a balm to the angry red flesh, watching his side flinch at its coolness. “This is something Zatanna had whipped up for us. It heals burns a lot faster than anything you could find in a hospital.” Once she had every bit of the wound covered, Dinah set to wrapping up his side. She helped him sit up, the roll of bandages moving from one hand to the other as she wrapped them securely around his waist.
Dinah tried not to look, but found her eyes darting up to his face. Always the soldier, Hal didn’t even look like he was in pain. She couldn’t tell from his mask lenses where he was looking, the only sounds now were of the bandages and their breathing.
Hal waved at Kyle as he left, then laid his head back and took a slow, deep breath. He made a stress ball of green light, squeezing it slowly to redirect tension to the other side of his body…Especially since that wash hurt like the dickens. He hissed through his teeth, groaning a little once she’d finished that part. He sat up and let the ball dissipate, watching the woman’s hands nimbly work.
“You’re pretty good at this,” he said, feeling at the wraps a bit. They were just tight enough not to slip but still allow him to breath comfortably. He let the lantern uniform vanish, a plain shirt and jeans in its place. “That’s better,” he said, laying back with a sigh.
“I’ve had a lot of practice… Half of the injuries inflicted by ‘friends’.” Dinah stepped back as his uniform disappeared. She gathered her excess supplies, putting the bandages away. She set a bottle of the balm next to Hal’s bedside. “You’re going to want to apply this stuff one to two times a day. Don’t worry about using it all up because we have plenty. I suggest having someone help you change the bandages. They’ll hold better that way, although, knowing you Lanterns, you’ll do it yourself anyways.”
“Well considering I’m living with a mother hen,” he joked, “I doubt I’ll be doing much of anything on my own for several days.” He could only image that Oliver would be hovering over him or something, lecturing him on being careful or something like that. That or he would just go about his business and leave Hal to fend for himself.
“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry. The last thing I need right now is to be out of commission.” Closing his eyes, he sighed a bit, then chuckled. “Well…this gives you and me a chance to catch up.”
She laughed, imagining Ollie flitting back and forth around Hal’s room, making him as comfortable as possible. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved into your room to make sure you didn’t die at night.”
Dinah moved to sit next to him, folding her hands in her lap. “Okay, why don’t we start with you? What have you been doing on Oa this whole time? Any exciting battle stories?” Dinah felt like a child, waiting to hear a story before bed. “Any… special ladies in the Corps to keep you occupied?” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
“Nothing that exciting, really,” he said, putting a hand behind his head to get comfortable. “Mostly I’ve been patrolling the farther portions of our sector, then helping with the newer recruits. The turnover on lanterns in the field is much higher than we’d like it to be. Some sectors are tough..some just can’t handle it.” He smoothed his thumb over the band of his ring, thinking a moment.
“Always hate coming home without stories,” he said. “Everyone wants to hear them, but…I just don’t have them, haha.” He half shrugged, then looked over at her. “Looking for the more SALACIOUS stories, are we?” He smirked, then shook his head. “It’s been a while since I had a thing for anyone in the Corp.”
“It must be hard… You see more newbies than any of the other League members and to know that each new Lantern means someone you might have known is gone…” Dinah dropped her head, thinking of the people closest to her. Hal, Roy, Ollie, Connor, Mia, Bruce, Kyle and a few dozen more. The thought of them being replaced like that? “I don’t think I could do it.”
Dinah was not happy that Hal was currently unattached. She wasn’t. “Well, at least you’ve been busy. Things have been kind of slow up here. You’d think with everyone here, there’d be more to do. The dinner party Alfred set up has been the highlight of my last two weeks.”
“Hey, if things are slow, that’s a good thing in my mind,” he said. “Quiet day in the sector means no one’s tried to destroy a planet or take over or something like that.” He chuckled quietly, musing over the millions of things that could go wrong at anyone point. “…rather a quiet week than a busy day.”
Turning his ring around his finger, he settled it back into its well worn place. He liked being here, being home. It was safer here. Friends didn’t die constantly here. Even if he wasn’t close to another lantern, hearing of a death was call for a moment of silence and reflection…and to give thanks it wasn’t them.
“OK your turn to spill,” he went on. “You and Ollie are on the rocks, again. Anyone new and exciting in your life?”
“Hmpf, I wish…” Dinah sighed, leaning back in her chair. “I don’t know, Hal… Maybe I’m thinking about this too much. I just… I want something with someone that isn’t on-and-off. I’m not saying I want to marry the next guy I date, but maybe… I don’t know.
Ollie and I aren’t really on the rocks again, I’d say… This might be it. I mean, he’s so happy with Kate and I’m really happy for him, really. I don’t think there’s going to be anymore ‘us’ between us, you know?”
And then there was her one-night-stand with Kyle, but she didn’t feel the need to tell him about that. Besides, with the way things were going between him and Connor, Dinah chalked that night up to him trying to deny the feelings that were clearly there. No big, right? They both had their fun and that was that.
“What do you think, Hal? Am I just hopeless?”
Conversing while laying flat was for the birds. He tensed his abs a little, checking how much pain that would cause in his side before sitting up. Leaning on one arm, he gave his body a moment to settle and stop hurting before he drew a slow breath, shrugging before he spoke.
“Honestly? I don’t know if you two are really good for each other,” he said. Chuckling a bit, he slid a hand through his hair. “I can finally say that without sounding like I’m trying to split you guys. But…You’ve tried the commitment thing, and it just doesn’t work.” He felt for her, really. As much as he adored Oliver, Dinah could do so much better than him.
“Ollie’s thick, we all know that,” he went on. His gaze fell a bit, flitting around the room as he mulled things over.
“No, you’re right. Me and Ollie aren’t the dynamic duo anymore.” She snorted. “Maybe I’m not waiting long enough, but I kinda want to get back in the swing of things. Get out there and find someone else.”
Dinah slumped forward in her chair a little bit. “Only problem is the night job. It’s hard to date someone who doesn’t know you and your tights… or fishnets.” Craig had been there during her process of becoming Canary and other than a few dates among the team here and there, Oliver was the other major relationship. Dinah knocked her he hand against her head. She needed to stop thinking about those two.
“Sad to say, it’s hard for me to keep things quiet,” he said, shrugging. “I mean…Sometimes I’m gone for months at a time, not to mention my history and everything..” He sighed and shook his head. “Sometimes I hate it that Carol and I just don’t work. We’ve tried, we’ve failed, just…I’m not there enough for her.” He shook his head and sighed. “That’s the way things go.”
He watched her, smiling bemusedly at her apparently chastising her own thoughts. He knew that road all too well. He reached out and clasped her shoulder, then lightly bumped the underside of her chin with the crook of his finger.
“Frowns don’t suit you,” he said.
Dinah smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. She gently pressed her head against his hand. “I understand a little. The whole, being gone for god-knows how long… it can be hard to maintain.”
She quickly pulled away, realizing she must be making things awkward. Hal was, not is her friend and he’s just, so Hal. He didn’t need her sitting there moping and bitching about her man troubles when he was injured like that. “Sorry. I’m just complaining…”
He watched her a moment, then shifted to get up. Picking up the bottle of ointment, he looked it over, then pocketed it. Getting home to get some rest sounded like a great idea right about now.
“It’s alright,” he said, smiling at her. He gave her a gentle hug, rubbing her back a little before stepping back. “Sometimes a little complaining is good for you, right? getting things off your chest helps.” Smiling, he squeezed her shoulder and headed toward the door.
“Thanks for the patch up,” he said. “I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry about it… Take care of yourself, Hal.” The door clicked shut, leaving her alone again. Dinah set about straightening up the infirmary should anyone else need it, picking up the scattered files she had dropped when the Lanterns first arrived.
“Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, reporting for duty in Sector 2814,” Kyle muttered to himself, as he got ready to head out. “Yeah. Duty. More like ‘space janitor’.”
He was just about to hit the airlock button when out of the corner of his eye he saw Hal in the hallway, gliding past with a cup of coffee and a bear claw.
Kyle had a brief moment of panic. Should he? Shouldn’t he? Why not? Hal just got here; and he was a GL for this sector too. Share and share alike, right? Corps sticks together through thick and thin. And space-scrubbing.
“Hey! Hal,” Kyle skidded out into the hallway. “How’s breakfast?” Kyle didn’t wait for Hal’s answer, he just prattled on. “Look, I’ve been given a huge if not really boring job to do, and I’d love to get some help and especially with another Lantern, well. You’re the only other Lantern here, so obviously I mean especially you. But two Lanterns can get the job faster’n one, any time!” Kyle did his best ‘rah-rah’ face and then slumped. “Please?”
Hal had only been at the station to check in on things, see who was around, and get something to eat. Laziness just didn’t suit him. Sure a few days planetside to stretchout, relax, and take things easy had been nice. But now, he needed some work. Lucky for him, Kyle was there to beg for his help.
“You don’t have to beg,” he said, chuckling. “Of course I’ll help you out. Probably one of the only ones who could.” It sounded like busy work to him, meaning someone had told Kyle to do it out of some level of meanness. But whatever, he and Kyle had been meaning to catch up anyway. He quickly finished his breakfast, brushing his hands off before motioning toward the nearest airlock.
“I need to log some flight hours anyway,” he said. “Make sure the blueheads back on Oa don’t think I’m slacking too much.”
Kyle felt unabashed triumph. With Hal for a partner on this task, it didn’t seem so tedious after all. He hustled over to the airlock, punching the button as they both started to glow green protective layers. Dios, even though Kyle had only been back to Earth for a few weeks, he missed this. Like, really missed the feel of Green Lanterns, together, doing stuff. Productive, useful stuff.Together.
Still, he turned to look at Hal in surprise. “You manage to report to them? I keep trying to contact them after my run-in with the Manhunters. My run-in with the lady Manhunter, against the robo-Manhunters,” he corrected himself, feeling Kate would appreciate the differentiation. “Hnn. Anyway, I’ve been getting no joy trying to get a hold of the Guardians. Not a peep. Not even Ganthet! I figured I’d eventually head over to Oa to check out why they’re treating me like an unwanted boyfriend.”
The airlock door to space couldn’t open fast enough for either of them. They both sped outside as fast as they could; not out of competition, but merely enjoying the feel of being out in the wide open space.
“They check in on us as they need to,” he said with a shrug. “After all the rings are all connected. Usually its just Salaak reminding me that I’m supposed to be patrolling, not putting my feet up. I remind HIM that all the action is usually on Earth anyway.”
Once the airlock was open, he flew out after Kyle, a green trail following his feet. He corkscrewed a little, then stopped to look at the planet below.
“You know, I never get tired of this view,” he said with a chuckle. “Amazing..” His attention turned to their task, making note of the space junk orbiting the blue ball below. “You know…it’s probably good that we get out here and clean some of this up. I don’t think I would like it if Earth had a trash ring.”
“I suppose so,” Kyle said, but he still felt doubtful. Hal always had very different feelings about the Guardians than he had, but. Hal wasn’t the one who had to re-create the little blue race from scratch, one Guardian baby at a time. He did a few flips in order to stop thinking about all those Guardian politics. He’d think about that later.
Kyle flew over and hovered beside Hal while the other Lantern admired the view. He half-stared at Hal, as well. “It’s beautiful isn’t it. Kind of glad I’m planning to settle back on Earth for a while. Do you think you will too? You know Corps policies - always ideal to have two Lanterns protecting any given sector. And with Guy on Oa and John and Jenny both on Guardian business, that just leaves you and me, viejito.”
As Hal turned to face all the space junk, Kyle followed suit and whistled. “Okay so, like. Batman wasn’t kidding when he said the atmosphere was turning into a floating landfill! Kind of embarrassing, almost.” Kyle drifted over to a piece of a discarded satellite that had the name “QUEEN INDUS—” emblazoned on the side. He showed it to Hal, grinning. “Look at that. Blackmail material for the Emerald Environmentalist?”
Hal made a large green container, hoping that would be enough for them to at least get a start on it. There was so much STUFF just floating around it was hard to really know where or how to start. When Kyle showed him the satellite, he chuckled and shook his head a bit.
“I would wager he doesn’t know about it,” he said. “He’s so hellbent on fixing the rest of the world, he always misses what’s right under his mustached nose.” He hooked a construct cable to the satellite and slug it into the bin.
“So what’s new in your life?” he asked, deciding to make small talk while they cleaned up.
Kyle nodded approvingly at the green light bin. He created a green light katamari, and it began rolling over some of the debris, collecting and growing bigger as it went.
“Ohhhhh, lots of things,” Kyle sing-songed, but he noticed that Hal hadn’t confirmed whether or not he was planning to stay. Maybe he if shared, Hal would too? “Well. Stayed in the Watchtower, mostly. Fighting the good fight. I was kind of avoiding actually going back to earth, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s hard to, um. Face the past. If you know what I mean?”
“Also! Got myself in a relationship. It tends to happen every time I’m in port, heh! I can’t complain, it’s very…reassuring.” The katamari was getting cumbersome, so Kyle let it drop into Hal’s space container and switched to a giant snow plow. “What about you? Wow, it really has been a few months, hasn’t it?”
While Kyle was being fancy, Hal settled on good old fashioned nets, collecting things in long sweeps, then depositing them in the bin. Either way, the job would get done.
“Don’t I know it,” he said with a sigh. “First few times I came back were hell. Everyone I knew at the time assaulted me wanting to know where I’d been and all…” That had been such a nightmare..and at the time, he hadn’t had a way to escape it. Kyle was lucky. “Don’t abandon your friends and family down there, trust me. One day you’ll need them. Also do NOT marathon relationships. That will only make you miserable.” Hauling in another net of debris, he paused at the question, idly looking over the odds and ends of broken or discarded this and that.
“I’ve been ok,” he said. “Being a senior lantern of sorts means I get my run of things usually, long as I don’t step out of line. Actually asked to come back here though.” He chuckled. “I miss everyone. Have to keep my center, agreed?”
Kyle eyed Hal. “So they - the people you left - they were angry at you?” Kyle felt a twang of guilt over the whole friends and family thing. Kyle still hadn’t visited his mom. “Coast City’s looking really nice these days. You checked it out, yet?”
Kyle lit up when he heard that Hal had been requested to return to Earth. So had he! “It’s like fate, man,” he said eagerly. “I missed everyone like hell, too. That’s why I came back. I hope so far it’s been a bueno welcome home for you. Better than last times, hah.”
Getting bored with Mr Plow, Kyle switched to using a Green Flash: the Wally version. It whirled around the trash, but then it suddenly stopped, as if on pause. A giant hand come out from Kyle’s ring and grabbed onto Hal’s boring old nets. Kyle stared in horror at Hal. “Wait wait wait, Hal wait - Is this all trash? Oh Dios. How the hell are we supposed to know what actually should be out here? What about working network satellites and - and - NASA probes and. And! Government stuff!?” Kyle flew into the green light container, flipping through the garbage and hoping to god he didn’t just unintentionally destroy half the worlds broadcast and surveillance capabilities.
“This what what happened when you’d been away from Earth for a while!” Kyle groaned from inside the container. “You don’t think of the little details, like people needing wifi, ayyyyy.”
…Watching Kyle flip out was funny. He couldn’t help it, just watching him panic a moment was absolutely hilarious. After giving him a moment to sweat it, Hal threw a construct tennis ball at him.
“Good job, Lantern Rayner, you’ve successfully denied cell service to half the west coast. The president called and said you’re an ass.” He laughed and shook his head. “Calm down. I wouldn’t let you sweep up something important, now would I?” He gestured a little. “Do you think that there would be ANYTHING this close to the station? Do you think they would ALLOW it?” He looked through all the bits and parts. All of THAT was garbage for sure.
“Ring, locate and mark the active satellites around the planet.” He held his fist forward, gleaming markers flying out from it and attaching themselves to satellites around the globe. The nearest one was quite a ways off. “there you see? Nothing to worry about.”
Hal could hear Kyle’s tinned DiosMioDiosMioDiosMio coming from inside the trash container when he teased him about the West Coast being down, but eventually it quieted and the top of Kyle’s head poked out of the bin. He looked over to where Hal was patiently pointing at all the markers dotting the satellites around the atmosphere.
Kyle remained in the trash for a bit, before slowly emerging. “I didn’t wanna screw up,” he said, feeling abashed, but not exactly ashamed. If it had been anyone else but an Earth Green Lantern, he would have felt embarrassed. But it was only Hal. Hal didn’t judge.
They worked in comfortable silence for a while, finally finding their rhythm with each other’s different Lantern styles. Kyle kept trying to outdo himself, and Hal worked steady and sure.
After a while, Kyle flew over his face scrunched up from too much thinking. “So how long do you plan to stay at GA Sr’s, anyway? Not that I don’t see the perks.”
Working felt good. Hal didn’t realize how very little laziness suited him until he caught himself so enthralled in a simple task. It wasn’t dangerous or life or death or anything…might as well have been sweeping the floor for all its importance. But all the same, it was a work out, and it was calling up a lot of brain power. He balked a little at the question, looking a tad confused.
“Long as I need to, I suppose,” he said. “I’ve had my fill of solitude. Thought a place as lively as his would be good for me.” He chuckled a bit, sling shotting a hunk of what had once been a space ship into the bin. “Besides, he keeps me on my toes.” A moment of silence passed before he looked at Kyle quizzically.
“Why do you ask?”
“No reason, no reason,” Kyle said immediately, and flew off again, making a paltry attempt to gather an unimpressive amount of meteorites, using a broom and scoop construct. After a while he abandoned it and made a full circle back to Hal.
Kyle took a deep breath. “Y’see, I have to find a place on Earth too, since I lost my pad in New York to Jenny but that’s a long story; and quite frankly I have too many bad memories to go back East, so I was thinking about Coast City since it’s on the West Coast and Star City is wayyyyyy too expensive for a volunteer space cop, but since Coast City hit the recession its housing prices have…uh…well rent is cheap. But still not cheap enough for me to afford on my own since, heh, no job yet. So I was wondering if you….” Kyle paused in his long-winded ramble, squinting at a distance behind Hal. “Que? Did you see—?”
Kyle flew past Hal, tapping him on his arm for Hal to turn around as well. Kyle slowly flew towards a largeish spaceship fragment, that looked alien-built. Hal recognized it immediately as Thanagarian.
Most of the compartments had been blown open, but there was one compartment lid that looked like it was…swelling and decompressing was the best way to describe it. Moving. Squirming.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, viejito, but I don’t think space trash usually moves like that.” He skewed his mouth to the side, looking up at Hal. “Think it’s full of space roaches?”
Kyle wanted him to move in with him? Seemed like a logical thing, really, given the circumstance. Still, it wasn’t as though Hal himself had much to fall back on. He was a freeloader for a reason, YEARS of practice. He hadn’t had a steady income to fall back on in a long time, and unfortunately, Earth was one of the only places where flashing a green lantern ring didn’t get you much of anything.
His attention was called away when Kyle pointed out that anomaly. Following him, he loops a lasso around Kyle and tugged him back, trying to make sure they had some reaction distance in case something happened.
“Scan it,” he said, apparently having to remind Kyle of the basics. “Check for life forms. I’ll do a quick sweep, sit tight.” I with that, he broke away, circling the area and looking for anything else unusual.
“Hm? Oh, right.” Damn Hal was cautious. Kyle had almost forgotten. He obediently scanned at the space wreck, choosing an x-ray style to get a nice visual. He didn’t need to scan to long; the results were immediate.
“Whoa, Hal this thing is hot,” Kyle said, his face slacking in horror as he saw just how many….things were writhing inside the body if the ship fragment. Kyle couldn’t quite tell if they were sentient or mindless space vermin; but he still said, “There’s zillions of things in there. Hal, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Hal was on the other side of the ship investigating a strange tear in the side which looked almost half-eaten. He only had time to hear Kyle give a “Wha-HEY” before a hundred of the wormy, maggoty looking creatures burst out from the tear, propelling themselves towards Hal. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kyle being flung upside-down and backwards in space, the worm-creatures half-attaching themselves to Kyle’s green mecha armour that he threw on himself in shock.
But Hal had his own set of thigh-sized worms to contend with. They had suctioning, toothy hungry mouths that came straight for him.
Hal scarcely had time to react, jerking away quickly as the creatures propelled themselves towards him. Space scavengers? Possibly. Hell with the number of space battles that happened SOMETHING had to clean up after them. It made sense in a way.
But that was completely unimportant. Hal kicked the closest one away, constructing a mallet to slap the others back toward the ship. A bug net scooped up several and pinned them to the ship’s side. Hal could see them trying to gnaw through the net. He let himself hesitate a second too long, and one of them bit into his side. A yelp of pain left him, and he bashed the worm over the head. But it wouldn’t let go. A blast of concentrated energy did the trick, searing the creature and killing it. He pried its teeth off, putting a glowing green pressure bandage on it.
“Kyle! You ok?” he called, quickly searching for his partner.
Kyle didn’t care what the hell these little bastards were, all he knew was that they were coming from all angles.
He looked down in horror as it seemed like one was munching through his mecha armour. “Oh no you don’t -” Kyle used a vice to squish the thing with a satisfying *squelch* feeling, but it seemed like fifty more had attached themselves during that time. It was worm claustrophobia. He grit his teeth and expanded the armour inside out, quickly folding in on and surrounding the little chomping bastards instead.
“Hal!” He looked around in a slight panic for his partner and saw Hal tearing off a creature and…soldering his side. Orale. That was cool. He noticed a bunch of Hal’s worm foes were netted to the side. Kyle didn’t hesitate. He twirled with his own sack of worms, releasing and slamming it against the other side of the ship.
“I’m a-ok, Hal,” Kyle responded and flew over to him, trying not to look at the bite that was…burning up across Hal’s side, Hal’s green solder patch quickly trying to compensate. These things were acidic or something?! Oh Dios, this had to be taken care of and fast.
“C’mon man, let’s do this thing,” Kyle said loudly and carelessly, trying to his mask own nervousness, and trying to make sure the older Lantern was concentrating on him and not the searing pain he must be feeling right now. “Hey worms! Meet Senor trash compactor.” Kyle created a huge car-crusher to try and surround the ship fragment where they had each trapped their respective worms.
But Kyle’s car crusher construct wasn’t strong enough to smash the ship-plus-worms into a trash-cube. Not yet. Kyle glanced over at Hal, internally willing him to still be okay enough.
Hal could feel the bite prickling and burning beneath the patch he’d thrown over it. Damn, he didn’t have time to properly tend to it, not out here. Having Kyle for backup was definitely a good thing. Light years better than no help at all. Once he’d gotten the compactor going, Hal raised his own fist, ring glowing.
“I’ve got you covered,” he reassured the other.
He added struts to the sides of Kyle’s compactor, pushing inward to keep them steady. The aura of green around him lept and flickered as he poured more of his own will on, manifested in the form of weights, each with the force of a Mac truck at highway speed. He grit his teeth, seeing it was working. Just a little more.
“Come on, Kyle,” he said. “Finish it.”
Kyle’s bunched shoulders relaxed heavily when Hal reassured him and he watched as the struts constructs expanded out from Hal’s ring to relieve Kyle’s own construct.
Kyle was always fascinated how differently Green Lanterns used their rings. Hal’s constructs - arguably setting a precedent for future Earth GLs - tended to begin as a formless piece and then expand out into a shape, as Hal fed more of his endless font of will into his creation. John - ever the architect - built things procedurally, from the inside out. Guy’s you barely had time to see popping into existence, before it clocked you one. Jen’s seemed to swirl into being, as if it was an effortless extension of herself. And Kyle drew lines and refined continually, like applying pencil, ink and paint. Every method was flawless, In Kyle’s opinion.
Kyle nodded at Hal, and then turned to the ship, now securely viced in their combined construct. “Adios, pendejos.” If there was sound in space, the Lanterns would have heard the creatures screaming in agony as they were smashed into the ship from up, down, and all four sides. Pus-looking goo oozed from around the green light constructs, and both Hal and Kyle could feel as if the acidic goo was burning holes in the green light.
They didn’t need to confer about putting their noses to the grindstone, ignoring the sopping goo and giving the ship and the worms one final squish.
It was over. When they released their green light, a dead cube of ship and worm floated benignly in front of them. Kyle used a giant football boot and punted it into the green light container, shutting it tight.
“Hal?!” Kyle flew closer to him now, lowering himself to take a look at Hal’s wound, wanting to touch it but refraining. “Holy frijoles. We need to get you to the Medbay, like yesterday.”
Hal was glad to see the crushed ship, and was all too happy that Kyle punted it into the bin with everything else. He had just enough left in him to strap a couple of bright green rockets to the sides and send it off on a one way trip to the sun. That stuff would never bother them again.
“I’m alright, I can make it there,” he said, then nodded at the charred worm still hovering nearby. “Grab that though, we might need it. I want to know what those things were.”
Wearily, he started back toward the station, hand still pressed to his side. Blood oozed around the bandages, and he could still feel that thing’s acid burning into his flesh.
“Good call,” Kyle said, looping a collar around the worm and towing it along. Dios. The man gets chomped by an evil killer worm and half his torso is bleeding out and he still managed to remember to hold back one of the worms for Watchtower analysis. Sometimes, it didn’t take grand moments for Kyle to remember just how long Hal had been doing this gig.
Kyle wanted to do something - put Hal on a flying carpet, or wrap a giant cast around his middle or something - but he stopped himself. The man had dignity, Rayner, Kyle thought sternly, and contented himself with flying close beside him.
They goth through the airlock and by this point, Kyle didn’t care about maintaining a respectful distance. He slung Hal’s arm (on his uninjured side) around his shoulders, half-flying them to the Medbay.
It was a relief to know that when they arrived, Dinah was there, looking through some medical charts on the computer screen.
“Dinah,” Kyle said tightly. “Man down.”
Dinah dropped the files she had been holding, jumping up from her chair to meet them. She grabbed Hal, moving him towards one of the beds. “My god! What happened?” She reached out towards his side, hand running along the cool green patch. It faded to reveal a burn stretching over a good chunk of his side. The wound fizzled with what looked to be some sort of acid.
“Were you two fighting?” She glared at Kyle. “Because the last time you came by, it was Oliver, and now Hal is hurt?”
“Don’t be so melodramatic, Kyle,” he teased, almost laughing until his side stung in pain. OK, bad idea then. Laying back, he adjusted his uniform, bearing his midriff to let Dinah get a better look at it.
“Sounds like you’re bad luck,” he said to Kyle, chuckling lowly once again. “We were cleaning up around the station, getting rid of this lovely trash ring the planet’s trying to develop. Ran into some kind of space worms. One of them bit me.”
“Sometimes I wonder,” Kyle said vehemently. Hal wasn’t too far off with Kyle being some sort of injury-magnet. “But you’re in good hands now; believe me she’s patched me and all of my accident cases up.”
Kyle lay a hand on Hal’s shoulder and looked up at Dinah who gave him a reassuring smile. Kyle took a deep breath and nodded at her. He looked back at the worm fritter, which was still suspended on its leash like a grotesque helium balloon.
“Well, I better get Maggot McGee to the forensic labs for analysis. I’ll come check up on you later, once Dinah’s got you all patched up. See ya, Dines.”
Kyle glided out into the hallway, and only then did it occur to him that maybe he should’ve at least said a ‘sorry’ or a ‘thank you’ to Hal. He hovered back and forth, but awkward outweighed the politeness, and he flew off to the labs.
Dinah smiled at the new nickname, watching him fly out the door. She returned her attention to Hal, examining the injury. “I need to get this acid out.” She moved throughout the room, gathering supplies to treat the man.
“Try to hold still. This is going to sting.” Dinah rinsed the wound until the fizzy discoloration was gone. Dinah slowly applied a balm to the angry red flesh, watching his side flinch at its coolness. “This is something Zatanna had whipped up for us. It heals burns a lot faster than anything you could find in a hospital.” Once she had every bit of the wound covered, Dinah set to wrapping up his side. She helped him sit up, the roll of bandages moving from one hand to the other as she wrapped them securely around his waist.
Dinah tried not to look, but found her eyes darting up to his face. Always the soldier, Hal didn’t even look like he was in pain. She couldn’t tell from his mask lenses where he was looking, the only sounds now were of the bandages and their breathing.
Hal waved at Kyle as he left, then laid his head back and took a slow, deep breath. He made a stress ball of green light, squeezing it slowly to redirect tension to the other side of his body…Especially since that wash hurt like the dickens. He hissed through his teeth, groaning a little once she’d finished that part. He sat up and let the ball dissipate, watching the woman’s hands nimbly work.
“You’re pretty good at this,” he said, feeling at the wraps a bit. They were just tight enough not to slip but still allow him to breath comfortably. He let the lantern uniform vanish, a plain shirt and jeans in its place. “That’s better,” he said, laying back with a sigh.
“I’ve had a lot of practice… Half of the injuries inflicted by ‘friends’.” Dinah stepped back as his uniform disappeared. She gathered her excess supplies, putting the bandages away. She set a bottle of the balm next to Hal’s bedside. “You’re going to want to apply this stuff one to two times a day. Don’t worry about using it all up because we have plenty. I suggest having someone help you change the bandages. They’ll hold better that way, although, knowing you Lanterns, you’ll do it yourself anyways.”
“Well considering I’m living with a mother hen,” he joked, “I doubt I’ll be doing much of anything on my own for several days.” He could only image that Oliver would be hovering over him or something, lecturing him on being careful or something like that. That or he would just go about his business and leave Hal to fend for himself.
“I’ll take care of it, don’t worry. The last thing I need right now is to be out of commission.” Closing his eyes, he sighed a bit, then chuckled. “Well…this gives you and me a chance to catch up.”
She laughed, imagining Ollie flitting back and forth around Hal’s room, making him as comfortable as possible. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he moved into your room to make sure you didn’t die at night.”
Dinah moved to sit next to him, folding her hands in her lap. “Okay, why don’t we start with you? What have you been doing on Oa this whole time? Any exciting battle stories?” Dinah felt like a child, waiting to hear a story before bed. “Any… special ladies in the Corps to keep you occupied?” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
“Nothing that exciting, really,” he said, putting a hand behind his head to get comfortable. “Mostly I’ve been patrolling the farther portions of our sector, then helping with the newer recruits. The turnover on lanterns in the field is much higher than we’d like it to be. Some sectors are tough..some just can’t handle it.” He smoothed his thumb over the band of his ring, thinking a moment.
“Always hate coming home without stories,” he said. “Everyone wants to hear them, but…I just don’t have them, haha.” He half shrugged, then looked over at her. “Looking for the more SALACIOUS stories, are we?” He smirked, then shook his head. “It’s been a while since I had a thing for anyone in the Corp.”
“It must be hard… You see more newbies than any of the other League members and to know that each new Lantern means someone you might have known is gone…” Dinah dropped her head, thinking of the people closest to her. Hal, Roy, Ollie, Connor, Mia, Bruce, Kyle and a few dozen more. The thought of them being replaced like that? “I don’t think I could do it.”
Dinah was not happy that Hal was currently unattached. She wasn’t. “Well, at least you’ve been busy. Things have been kind of slow up here. You’d think with everyone here, there’d be more to do. The dinner party Alfred set up has been the highlight of my last two weeks.”
“Hey, if things are slow, that’s a good thing in my mind,” he said. “Quiet day in the sector means no one’s tried to destroy a planet or take over or something like that.” He chuckled quietly, musing over the millions of things that could go wrong at anyone point. “…rather a quiet week than a busy day.”
Turning his ring around his finger, he settled it back into its well worn place. He liked being here, being home. It was safer here. Friends didn’t die constantly here. Even if he wasn’t close to another lantern, hearing of a death was call for a moment of silence and reflection…and to give thanks it wasn’t them.
“OK your turn to spill,” he went on. “You and Ollie are on the rocks, again. Anyone new and exciting in your life?”
“Hmpf, I wish…” Dinah sighed, leaning back in her chair. “I don’t know, Hal… Maybe I’m thinking about this too much. I just… I want something with someone that isn’t on-and-off. I’m not saying I want to marry the next guy I date, but maybe… I don’t know.
Ollie and I aren’t really on the rocks again, I’d say… This might be it. I mean, he’s so happy with Kate and I’m really happy for him, really. I don’t think there’s going to be anymore ‘us’ between us, you know?”
And then there was her one-night-stand with Kyle, but she didn’t feel the need to tell him about that. Besides, with the way things were going between him and Connor, Dinah chalked that night up to him trying to deny the feelings that were clearly there. No big, right? They both had their fun and that was that.
“What do you think, Hal? Am I just hopeless?”
Conversing while laying flat was for the birds. He tensed his abs a little, checking how much pain that would cause in his side before sitting up. Leaning on one arm, he gave his body a moment to settle and stop hurting before he drew a slow breath, shrugging before he spoke.
“Honestly? I don’t know if you two are really good for each other,” he said. Chuckling a bit, he slid a hand through his hair. “I can finally say that without sounding like I’m trying to split you guys. But…You’ve tried the commitment thing, and it just doesn’t work.” He felt for her, really. As much as he adored Oliver, Dinah could do so much better than him.
“Ollie’s thick, we all know that,” he went on. His gaze fell a bit, flitting around the room as he mulled things over.
“No, you’re right. Me and Ollie aren’t the dynamic duo anymore.” She snorted. “Maybe I’m not waiting long enough, but I kinda want to get back in the swing of things. Get out there and find someone else.”
Dinah slumped forward in her chair a little bit. “Only problem is the night job. It’s hard to date someone who doesn’t know you and your tights… or fishnets.” Craig had been there during her process of becoming Canary and other than a few dates among the team here and there, Oliver was the other major relationship. Dinah knocked her he hand against her head. She needed to stop thinking about those two.
“Sad to say, it’s hard for me to keep things quiet,” he said, shrugging. “I mean…Sometimes I’m gone for months at a time, not to mention my history and everything..” He sighed and shook his head. “Sometimes I hate it that Carol and I just don’t work. We’ve tried, we’ve failed, just…I’m not there enough for her.” He shook his head and sighed. “That’s the way things go.”
He watched her, smiling bemusedly at her apparently chastising her own thoughts. He knew that road all too well. He reached out and clasped her shoulder, then lightly bumped the underside of her chin with the crook of his finger.
“Frowns don’t suit you,” he said.
Dinah smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. She gently pressed her head against his hand. “I understand a little. The whole, being gone for god-knows how long… it can be hard to maintain.”
She quickly pulled away, realizing she must be making things awkward. Hal was, not is her friend and he’s just, so Hal. He didn’t need her sitting there moping and bitching about her man troubles when he was injured like that. “Sorry. I’m just complaining…”
He watched her a moment, then shifted to get up. Picking up the bottle of ointment, he looked it over, then pocketed it. Getting home to get some rest sounded like a great idea right about now.
“It’s alright,” he said, smiling at her. He gave her a gentle hug, rubbing her back a little before stepping back. “Sometimes a little complaining is good for you, right? getting things off your chest helps.” Smiling, he squeezed her shoulder and headed toward the door.
“Thanks for the patch up,” he said. “I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry about it… Take care of yourself, Hal.” The door clicked shut, leaving her alone again. Dinah set about straightening up the infirmary should anyone else need it, picking up the scattered files she had dropped when the Lanterns first arrived.