IN BRIGHTEST DAY - Mod Plot [LOG POST | 2 | IN BLACKEST NIGHT]

[wieldtherainbow]

Who| Everyone involved in the plot
What| A space battle
Where| In the space sector around Cargg
When| If relevant, like if you want to note it's after an event.
Warnings/Notes| Things may get violent/gory!

Unfortunately, even the last Green Lanterns didn't know where the yellows or reds had hidden their central power batteries. Their long lost bases were still lost to the universe. That meant the only way to find them was to wait for them to attack.

In the space sector around the planet Cargg, reports of an asteroid mining freighter getting attacked clued the Legion and their allies into where the yellows were. By the time they got there, the red Lanterns had also joined in -- attacking all comers, including the yellows themselves. As the different groups of Lanterns collided in combat, the deaths started almost instantly. New rings started seeking owners, including those of the reds and yellows.

By now, they'd all received at least enough basic training with their rings to function in battle, and they all still had use of their normal powers.

A squad of Green Lanterns led by Kilowog gathered around the freighter, trying to shield it from attack.

"Listen up, poozers!" Kilowog called out to his greens, leading them into the fight and setting up a perimeter. "We need to give this ship time to evac. Hold the line! If it's yellow or red, it's not getting through!"

Kid Quantum, wielding a blue ring, called out to the Legionnaires, "We need to protect that freighter! Everyone move in to support the greens. Hit and run tactics! Hit 'em fast and hit 'em hard. Let's go, Legion!"

Comments

[iamresponding]

"Actually, I think he'd do a great job of it, but lucky for me, I don't need any replacing at the moment." Rich extended his flesh and blood hand and poured the power on, using his own powers to lay on a barrage. The gravimetric energy pushed Prime back. "Like he said, we're a Corps, and maybe that's a only a Corps of two, but you mess with one of us, you mess with both of us."

His ring sparked and constructs of Nova Corpsmembers coalesced around him.

"Or maybe I should say all of us."

The Corps constructs started divebombing Prime, punching and battering him and blasting him, giving Rich at least a moment to regroup with Sam.

"That's not going to keep him busy for long." He was shattering some of them with one punch. "We're outmatched in strength but I think we have a chance if we rely on speed, especially with the two of us, and especially if we keep using the rings to throw hurdles in his way."

Corpsman constructs came up from beneath and overhead and clocked him good.

"We've both got experience fighting in space. Looks to me that he's not as good at thinking in three dimensions as us."

He kept expecting attacks from on a horizontal plane and kept having a blind spot for attacks coming from other angles.

[headinjuries]

"So did you try for the total poetic justice timing, or was that just luck?" Sam swooped over to hover next to Rich, grinning.

Hearing the man himself blow a hole in Prime's argument might even have been more satisfying than punching him in the face would've been.

Not that he could really afford more than that brief moment to feel smug about it, of course - because Rich was right, and the distraction was only that. It was a solid enough plan, though. "Well, speed is what we're best at."

He darted off from Rich, moving to put himself not only on a different side than Rich, but farther below. Three dimensions, that was easy enough. Superboy Prime, no matter how much he threw their way, was still one guy, and Sam's first battle had been cutting through the middle of a Chitauri armada. He could handle being shot at.

Now he just had to actually remember to use the ring instead of falling back on old instincts.

Getting it to work was still a little strange. He kept wanting to use it the way he controlled the Nova Force, or like he'd heard Hal describe the green rings - wanting it bad enough, putting in the will - but will wasn't what drove the Star Sapphires. Just wanting to make it happen wasn't good enough; he needed to feel something else to make it work. Love. How did you just...make yourself love?

He did the best he could. He thought about home.

The twenty-first century, where everything was familiar and comforting but the wonders of space were still just a flight out of orbit away. Watching normal football on ESPN instead of whatever cool but weird future sports were on. Tacos with real meat and not some wannabe soy substitute. Skateboarding to school. The house he'd grown up in, before they lost it. Mom. Kaelynn.

Dad.

It happened in almost the blink of an eye, like he didn't have it and didn't have it and then suddenly his mind just landed on exactly where it needed to be. In a violet flash, the space around Prime (in all directions, because three dimensions, take that) filled with a hail of soccer balls.

"I never liked playing goalie. Maybe you'll be better at it than me."

[cocktimusprime]

Prime was bombarded. Between the soccer balls and the constant blows from the Nova Corps constructs, he was temporarily occupied.

"But you're not a teenager. And why are you missing an arm? And why do you have a sidekick now?"

The questions were petulant and whiny, like he was a child begging for ice cream after being told they weren't allowed to have any.

He didn't seem to be gunning for them heavily yet, but he was momentarily confused -- and curious. As if, just for a moment, he wanted to understand instead of destroy, like he was hoping to get an answer he didn't actually hate.

[iamresponding]

Rich, meanwhile, was taking advantage of his extreme speed and Prime not having a good grasp on situational awareness. Sam was finally getting front row seats to him working to his full capacity. As Prime fought and was disoriented by all their combined constructs, Rich was rocketing around the fight, the Nova force adding to his speed, attacking him from all different angles, moving so fast that he was difficult to visually track, at times just a yellow and green blur.

He managed to snipe Prime in the head with a tightly focused gravimetric beam -- a lot of force, a lot of energy, all narrowed down into a tiny beam for extra punch.

"I did this little thing called growing up. And I lost my arm saving the universe from some Lovecraftian juju. And he's not my sidekick, he's my protege. Subtle but very distinct difference. He deserves being called Nova just as much I as do, because he's every bit the hero I am."

Every time Prime had a chance to recover and aim, he was already gone, rocketing to a new position.

"That's why he's helping me kick your sorry S. We don't care about all this nonsense with us being different than you expected, or comic books, or any of that. What we do care about is that ship is filled with civilians and you're helping the people trying to murder them all. And one thing that is the same is I'll always be a cop."

Another twirl in the void, another quick turn, another focused gravimetric beam.

"That's why you're under arrest. You have the right to issue a statement or remain silent at this time. For everyone's sake, I encourage the latter. If you don't have a legal-rep the Science Police will provide one. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?"

[headinjuries]

Sam had started bristling at the word "sidekick," but Rich's rebuttal was all it took to put the grin back on his face as he kept the pressure on, giving Prime a few dozen more things to think about on top of trying to deal with Rich's attacks. His onslaught wasn't as strong as Rich's, but it was busier, more of a distraction meant to help give Rich more openings to deliver the real whammy.

"Nobody can really make anybody do anything. Doesn't every teenager know that?"

Maybe there'd been pressure, or some weird circumstances, but it was never a matter of no choice that led people to do things like this. It was a matter of a bad choice or a worse outcome. His father's dilemma didn't make Sam miss school or land himself in trouble; he just decided that the trouble and the suspensions were worth finding him. Moffet had never made him get detention with all of those fights; Sam just decided that detention was worth getting a punch in instead of taking it quietly.

Whatever Prime thought the heroes of other worlds had done to make him throw in with these guys, Sam wasn't buying it for a second.

"Just make this easy and give up. Seriously. Did your comic books show you Rich when he gets mad? Because Annihilus sure ain't around to tell you about it."

[cocktimusprime]

"You killed someone, too?" Prime cried out, getting bombarded by hits of Nova Force and construct. He sounded like he almost wanted to cry. "Of course it happened to you, too. It's the same everywhere, isn't it? Heroes don't know how to be heroes anymore."

A massive blast of heatvision, directed all around, broke through most of the constructs.

"And I bet you're teaching your sidekick to be terrible, too."

[iamresponding]

When the heatvision blast came his way, Rich threw up a construct and then dodged before the heatvision broke through.

Then the constructs of the Corpsman faded and he changed it up a bit. Instead, he tossed up constructs of the New Warriors -- the original team. Speedball bounced around the battlefield, slamming off of other constructs and into Prime, moving around completely unpredictably. Firestar blasted green ring energy at Prime that looked like flames. Night Thrasher and Namorita got right up in his face, fighting him hand to hand, and Marvel Boy put up green shields that looked like teke to protect Rich (and sometimes Sam) as they shot around the battlefield.

"I fought in a war where an omnicidal maniac was trying to destroy all life in the universe. He killed billions of innocent people. Whole worlds. You're damn right I killed Annihilus. But it wasn't because I was mad."

Sure, he'd been furious. After a war where he'd led the resistance against him, after trying to counter his every move, after failing to stop countless acts of bloodshed initiated by him, after losing the Corps and Xandar to him, he'd hated Annihilus. But that wasn't the only reason, and Rich figured this here was something of a teaching moment, for both Sam and this lunatic that claimed he wanted to be a hero.

"I did it to save all life in the universe. I did it because no prison would've held him, and because the billions of spacebugs that were his troops would've kept fighting unless he was dead. No one that calls themselves a hero should kill someone just because they're mad. Hell, I was mad when a war criminal almost killed my little brother, but her, I arrested, because life could go on if she was alive and there were tribunals to try her and a prison that could hold her."

Rich finally managed to pull off a shot that damaged one of the energy siphons on the suit. It was the same one that he'd noticed Sam get a few hits on, too. Between the two of them, the damage finally took.

"That's what I'm teaching the kid: that unless the goddamn universe is ending, unless there's no other way to save lives, justice is more important than vengeance. Seems like if you think you're supposed to be a hero, it's a lesson you need to learn, too. What you're doing right now? This ain't justice. This ain't saving lives. This is just you acting out your rage on everyone around you. I don't know why you have so much of it, but you're not protecting anyone or anything by doing this. You're just helping monsters that wanna see innocents die."

[headinjuries]

"That's a really nice way to say that if the irony of your situation is still escaping you, you've got to be delusional," Sam said, his tone surprisingly thoughtful for someone doing a hairpin turn at high speed and launching another barrage of constructs at Prime, the space around Prime, and pretty much anywhere it looked like Prime might move to next.

Sarcasm was easier than thinking too hard about what Rich was saying. Not the general idea of it - because that was right, and Sam felt a little stupid for needing the reminder.

But he hadn't known that, about Rich's brother. About Rich arresting whoever was responsible and playing it completely by the book.

Sam's family hadn't been hurt, when Kaldera came after them. He'd been pissed off enough that they were threatened in the first place, but if something had actually happened...would he be able to do that? Rein it in, do the right thing and not the thing he wanted?

He didn't know, and this really wasn't the time or the place to start questioning himself.