Emerald Destiny
"I should have done this a long time ago, Sinestro!" the
middle aged man in the green and black uniform spat into the
face of his near-human adversary. His brown hair had
sideburns of gray know, but his body still showed the
strength it possessed when he was younger.
Sinestro merely tried to grunt, but the chokehold that he
was being held in didn't make that possible. The maroon
colored alien tried to break free. Suddenly he felt his
foe's free hand start to apply pressure to twist his head at
a sideways angles.
CRACK. The sound carried far on the alien world, under the
unearthly night sky with far too many stars that almost
illuminated the area as if in daylight.
The grim faced human looked down on the greatest foe that
the Green Lanterns had ever known. A mockery, wearing the
proud green, black and white of the Corps again. Resurrected
just to fight him. Merely because he acted on his grief, his
loss. His face twisted in anger as he pulled off the jade
ring on his finger, dropping it to the ground.
He barely spared a glance at the diminutive blue skinned
aliens grouped together, talking and not taking action. In
front of him, a gigantic metal lantern, carved as if from
one shiny green metal ingot. Energy leaked from it,
spreading an emerald hue on him.
As if ordained by destiny, he entered into it and
disappeared.
"Or course of action is clear," said the first Guardian of
the universe.
"Who shall we choose?" asked another of the blue skinned,
white haired diminutive humanoids.
"Guanthet!" said a third.
"So it is decided."
"Wait!" the surprised Guanthet exclaimed.
Without warning, light erupted from the twenty foot tall
lantern, glowing brighter and brighter, until the statuesque
symbol of the Green Lantern Corps. exploded.
>From the wreckage strode the human. His colors were still
green and black, but no longer was the proud lantern symbol
worn. His impassive gaze swept to the drained and obviously
dead 'Guardians'. A glint of metallic jade caught his
attention.
A single step crushed his discarded ring. Without a further
word, his power flung him into the air, faster and faster.
He was now the last master of the emerald energy.
And he had many things, many wrongs to fix. Now that he had
the power.
Moments after he had left, a single blue skinned figure
crawled from the pile of lifeless corpses that had given
their lives to save him.
Guanthet narrowed his eyes in thought. He floated towards
the shattered ring, scooping it up. With a mere moments
concentration, he refashioned it into a new ring. Different
and new. A moment later he disappeared, becoming a streak of
blue light that traversed the distance between stars as
easily as a normal person would walk down a sidewalk.
-
Switch now to a different locale and the young girl sitting
on the back steps of a traditional Japanese dojo. Her short
hair and sweat covered gi spoke volumes of her
untraditional outlook on life, mixed equally with a proud
tradition as evidenced by the traditional dojo.
A cute pout was the most prominent feature on her face. In
the night sky above her, a falling star lit up the area for
just a moment, veering toward her.
The bright light illuminated the area, showing a very small
man with blue skin and wearing a red robe. "You will have to
do."
Akane Tendo blinked in astonishment as she took the
proffered ring. "Uh, okay. Do what?"
"What must be done. There are many things that must be done
to protect our universe against Jordan." And with that, he
disappeared in another flash of light.
"I have to be dreaming." Or I ate some of my own cooking,
she thought with a frown. I was so sure it was going to be
right this time!
"Akane! Are you all right?" a panicked teen boy shouted as
he bounded through the open door, looking around
frantically.
"Of course I am!" Akane snapped, her earlier irritation
rising up. "You don't have to watch over me all the time!"
"What? I ain't doing nothing of the sort! I just thought
somebody had kidnapped you again!" Ranma snapped.
"I'm not helpless! I can defend myself, you know, Ranma!"
"Ha, you could have fooled me! You're so slow and clumsy
you're lucky you don't trip and fall into some kidnappers
hands."
"Ranma! You take that back!" the girl shouted. She swung a
punch at the boy, missing him entirely.
"Nyah!" Ranma crowed as he dodged and danced away.
"Hmphf." Akane declined to follow, letting him get away with
his taunt. She opened her clutched fist, showing the strange
metal ring. She shrugged and walked into the house for a
bath. On the ground behind her, a strange rough stone that
softly glowed green lay in the bushes. Slowly its glow
dimmed, leaving it hidden.
-
Akane tossed the ring on her bed as she toweled her hair
dry. That Ranma could be so irritating. But he was always
watching out for her. A small smile crept up on her lips. He
really did care, somewhere in his crassness. He just didn't
know how to let it show.
She picked up the ring after putting on her pajamas, sitting
on her western style bed. After looking at it from all
sides, she shrugged and put it on her right hand's ring
finger. Sudden bright light filled the room, as she felt her
loose and comfortable nightwear change to a full body tight,
form-fitting outfit.
The blazing green energy diminished and faded, leaving Akane
dumbfounded. It was just some sort of ring, right?
"What's going on?" Akane said to herself as she pulled out
her little vanity mirror off of her desk.
It was still herself, but she was now wearing a little
domino mask and a body hugging uniform. Slowly, it dawned on
her, that she knew that uniform. It was the uniform of that
American hero, the Green Lantern.
So who was the little blue man? And why was he giving the
ring away? Was she supposed to become a super-hero? And he
picked her to defend the world against... what was it? A Jor-
Dan? Another alien?
A sudden rapping on her window startled her out of her
thoughts.
"Akane? You all right?" Ranma called from where he hung from
the roof's edge. "There was this weird light again!" Stupid
drapes, how was he supposed to tell if Akane was all right
if she kept them closed?
How do I get rid of the outfit? Akane thought panickly. Her
sudden surge of will turned off the outfit, leaving her back
in her normal sleeping clothes. "That was easy!"
"Akane!" Maybe he should just open the window and go in?
"Ranma! What do you think you are doing?" Akane asked, her
temper flaring as she flung open the drapes and window.
"Uh, I saw a weird light again." Uh, oh. Danger, Will
Robinson! Danger!
"And just what were you watching my room for?" Akane
inquired icily. That pervert!
"I was just on the roof, um, watching the stars. It's not
like I'd want to peep on your dorky body any ways!" Ranma
snapped back unthinkingly.
"Really?" Suddenly, books and other items started to fly out
the window, narrowly missing the hanging martial artist as
he dodged frantically.
"Nyah! Can't hit the broad side of a ba-arn-urgk!" The
dumbbell that had been saved for last cut off Ranma's jibe.
Ranma landed on his head with a neck-jarring thud. "Owie."
"Serves you right, Ranma!" Akane called from up above.
"You are so-o-o dorky, you know that?" Ranma yelled back up.
Akane's answer was to drop another box full of weights on
him.
"Urgk!"
Thoughts of her ring were driven from her mind by the need
for sleep and Ranma's intrusion.
-
Akane dashed home, eager to get her homework done and go
over to her friend's house like she'd planned. Suddenly, she
felt an itching on her finger, from the strange new ring.
She stared at it blankly for a moment, before remembering
what it really was and what this probably meant.
She ducked down an alleyway and with a mere thought, had
switched to the Green Lantern's uniform.
"So, now what?" Akane asked rhetorically. No answer ensued
from any omniscient advisor. Or even a cute magical animal
that should have just appeared. She guessed that she'd been
chosen to be a new Green Lantern, but beyond that, she was
lost.
She scratched her head. Well, from the pictures she
remembered, he could fly (she thought) and blast things.
With a shrug, she tried to concentrate about flying up into
the air.
"YEOW!" Akane screamed as she rocketed into the air, green
energy flowing around her. She wobbled but then caught
herself.
"Okay, I'm flying. I'm really flying," Akane said to
herself, trying to calm herself down. She shifted the focus
to the ring on her right hand and the itching sensation.
Just like that, she veered towards the east, heading out
over the city.
Mere moments later, she was flying over the docks of Tokyo
Bay and zeroing in on an unassuming freighter. As she got
closer, she realized that it had an odd bubble of black
energy covering the back of it. Near the edge of it, on
deck, she saw several crumpled humans. The crew?
Landing with a thump, she bent down to see how they were
doing. With startling suddenness, the prone figure grabbed
her, twisting and throwing her up against a wall. All of the
crew leaped to their feet, callous grins broke out among
them.
"So, Dr. Light you finally arrived!" the first one spoke as
he stood up quickly, taking three steps and kicking at her.
"Eh?"
Akane shook off her stupor and caught the kick with one
hand. With her free hand, she flipped to her feet. "Do I
look like Dr. Light? She wears a yellow and white costume!
I'm wearing green and black!"
The group of thugs had noticed and stopped in confusion.
"Who are you?"
The guy right next to him shrugged and yelled out, "Who
cares? Take her out so we can be ready for Dr. Light!"
With that, the group of five men charged the young girl,
swinging punches and blackjacks. The newest Green Lantern
casually ducked and blocked all of the attackers. "I'm Green
Lantern! And you guys are no threat!"
The ruffians were finding that out the hard way. All punches
were blocked or just outright dodged. One, then another,
then finally a series of five blows laid low the thugs.
Akane nodded in satisfaction. She might not be the best
martial artist in Nerima anymore, but she was still good.
She turned towards the inky darkness, her hand slowly
reaching out to touch it. Nothing happened, except that her
hand dipped in without resistance.
Midnight Psycho frowned from the freighter's bridge where
he'd just noticed the intruder on his meticulously laid out
plans. Who was this strange girl? She was wearing the
uniform of the Green Lantern, but wasn't using her ring. If
she had one. The lithe and blackly clad oriental frowned. He
reached into his leather jacket and pulled out his darkness
gun. The darkness generator would last for a while yet, even
while being countered by any source of light. He rechecked
the power level of the gun, squinting behind his special red-
tinted goggles.
He looked up to see what the Green Lantern was doing. Fool,
she was wandering around blindly. She wasn't even using the
ring to generate light.
This is dumb, Akane thought to herself. It's too dark to see
anything. "Now what?" she asked herself. She couldn't see
anything to blast and flying would be just stupid. If only
she had a light. She blinked at a flash of green light from
her ring that flickered out when she jumped.
Midnight Psycho frowned. What was she doing?
You just have to think about it! Akane thought excitedly.
She raised her left hand suddenly, as spark of emerald
energy jumping off of it as if in excitement. "Light!" she
commanded unconsciously.
The last power ring of Oa answered, letting loose a bright
light that illuminated the area around her for ten feet.
"Yes!" Akane frowned in thought, the bubble of light
shrinking around her momentarily.
Midnight Psycho frowned. Hmm. About the same that Dr. Light
could generate.
It's based on thought? Akane thought to herself. No! It's
based on concentration! Willpower! Light surged across the
deck, showing that she was right!
On the bridge, a two foot cylinder of metal started to hum,
indented red lights blinking, trying to counteract the light
being generated within its area of affect. It soon started
to whine, its exotic engines fighting against a relentless
tide of emerald light.
The Japanese villain of darkness swore under his breath.
What power! He must take that ring for himself! He shattered
the bridge window with the gun in his hand, aiming the
moment it was gone.
>From behind him, the whine of tortured energies turned into
a howl for just a second, before overloading. The explosion
blew him clear out of the bridge, leaving him dazed on the
deck, a mere twenty feet from the newest Green Lantern.
"Damn. How can this be?" he muttered dazedly.
"What? Wait? I recognize you, you're a foe of Dr. Light!
Midnight Psycho!" Akane exclaimed.
With the grace of a cat, Midnight Psycho rolled to his feet.
"Nice to know that I'm well recognized. And you are the
Green Lantern? Aren't you a little young, girl?"
"Huh? So what?" Akane rebutted angrily. "And I yes, I am the
Green Lantern now!"
"You don't sound very sure. So, you're a newby. Well, I'm
not going to let my plans be disrupted by a neophyte. And
that ring will fit nicely on my finger after I kill you!"
With that, he snapped a shot off, hoping to surprise her.
Akane ducked instinctively, hearing the sound of crashing
metal behind her. A quick glance showed that the dark energy
had blasted a three foot section of the deck to smithereens.
"Oh, crud!" she cried out, ducking another blast. She
pointed the ring at Midnight Psycho and thought of it
blasting him. She was rewarded with a green beam of energy
that nearly took off the villain's head.
Dr. Light flashed across the bay, worry etched on her face.
How had Midnight Psycho learned about the shipment of
equipment for S.T.A.R. labs? And more importantly, how had
learned of the fifteen grams of anti-matter that it carried?
She was going to have words with the person in charge of
this fiasco!
Wait! What was that light?
Midnight Psycho flicked a switch on the high tech darkness
gun he carried. "Dodge this, Green Lantern!" he shouted
holding down the trigger of the gun, unleashing a fully
automatic burst of energy, striking the entire area.
Akane nearly panicked, even as the ring materialized a
glowing, transparent curved wall in front of her. It can
make things?
"No! This can't be happening!"
Akane suddenly dashed toward him, spinning a vicious kick
into his stomach. Midnight Psycho was lifted off the ground
and rocketed across the deck, slamming painfully up against
the bridge wall. He struggled to his feet, groaned once and
collapsed.
"Yay! I got him!" Akane shouted as she danced around.
"Yes, you did! Now, you'd better be ready to answer some
questions!" the white and yellow clothed Dr. Light said. Her
cape fluttered in the wind from where she floated in the air
above the water.
"Oh, wow! It's Dr. Light," Akane gushed.
"Uh, yes." Dr. Light was taken back by the awed reaction.
"So you're one of the Green Lanterns Corps?"
"Corps? I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about?"
Akane replied. She squinted in concentration, lifting off
the ground. She could get to like this.
"So you just found this ring lying around?" the older woman
asked. That uniform looked authentic.
"No, this little blue guy gave it to me. He was wearing a
red robe with the same symbol." Now that she thought about
it, that was kind of odd. Who was that?
"Little blue guy? A Guardian, I think. Hmm." Dr. Light
frowned. She really didn't know much more than that the
Guardians created the GL Corps. And gave them the rings to
use to defend the galaxy.
"Is that what he was? He didn't stay around very long."
"So what do you plan to do with the ring?" the older super-
hero asked.
"Well... be a hero of course! It's a martial artist's duty
to protect those weaker than you!"
"Really?" Dr. Light thought for a second. "You're new, of
course. Let me give you a bit of advice. Don't tell anyone
who you are. Or what you do. Even me. If you have family or
loved ones, you need to protect them. That means hiding who
you are. Even from them."
"But you don't wear a mask."
"I've sometimes wished I had thought about that first."
"Oh."
Dr. Light looked west, towards Tokyo. "You should leave. The
coastal patrol will be here soon. Along with reporters and
their cameras."
"Thanks, Dr. Light! I'll remember." With that, she took off,
faster than a rocket. In moments, she'd disappeared across
the horizon.
"Hmm. I think that life might just have become more
interesting her in Tokyo." Dr. Light shrugged and turned
back to take Midnight Psycho into custody, only to find him
long gone. "Grr. He played possum again."
-
Akane drifted across Nerima, floating high in the sky. She
had to think for a moment. What was she going to do? Dr.
Light had mentioned that she needed to hide that she was the
Green Lantern. But how? Nabiki was too nosey and Ranma would
be sure to notice the ring too, if she kept it on for very
long.
That was it! She zoomed across the sky, headed for the local
mall.
-
Around the gigantic hulking figure, guards in high tech
armor lay limp and broken. His stubby hands grabbed another
guard before he could run, snapping his neck instantly.
Insane and over powerful super-humans were gleefully
decimating the guards and freeing themselves.
"Green Lantern! I will kill Superman and the one called...
Green Lantern!" shouted Mongul the conqueror.
A blast struck him from behind, coming from the air above.
"Don't move or I'll fire again, with lethal force!" the new
guard said as he flew down to the ground on the large rocket
pack he wore.
"Fool!" Mongul called out, snagging the hapless guard
easily. "You will tell me where the one called Superman is!
Now! Or I'll crush you!"
"I-I don't know. He's gone missing and hasn't been seen in a
while." The jailer was now all too aware of his impending
mortality. The crushing grip threatened to kill him almost
instantly.
"What of the one known as Green Lantern?" Mongul asked, his
large and brutish face only inches away from the hapless
man.
"I think I heard something about a Green Lantern being
sighted in Tokyo!" the uniformed man babbled.
"Huh. Our second target city. Very well." He pulled the
rocket pack off the guard. "You will not need this anymore."
With a flick of his wrists, he mashed the guard through a
concrete wall, killing him instantly.
With a thundering roar, the rocket through him into the
air.
-
A green hand picked up the small cat in the tree and hoisted
it to the ground. A little girl squealed in joy at the
return of her pet. "You take care!" Akane called out as she
flew off.
Moments later she landed in a small alley, slipping the ring
off and slipping it into necklace. A second later, she was
walking down the street, headed towards her home.
"There you are, Akane!" Ranma called out as he trotted along
a fence top. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"
"Eh? What's up, Ranma?" Akane asked.
"Not much. It just seems you disappear at times." Ranma
scowled at her. At least Ryoga wasn't around and neither was
Kuno. He'd been worried that she was starting to hang out
with them, their protests not withstanding.
"I just felt like a walk. You don't have to hover over me!"
Ranma opened his mouth, but suddenly looked up, his sixth
sense warning him of an impending attack. Ranma scooped up
Akane and leaped away. A huge figure crashed into the
ground, right where they had been.
"Green Lantern! Come fight me, so that I might grind you
beneath my heal!" Mongul shouted, stepping out of the
cratered concrete. His sensors had pinpointed this as the
last emission of the exotic energy they used.
Ranma set his fianc,e down a good distance away. "I don't
know who you are, but nobody attacks Akane and gets away
with it!" Ranma leaped the entire distance, a perfect leap
kick that barely moved the superhuman jugernaught.
Behind both of them, Akane fumbled with locket, opening it
and sliding the ring onto her finger.
"Boy, I don't care who you are, give me the Green Lantern!"
Mongul shouted, throwing a massive punch that was easily
ducked.
"What are you talking about?" Ranma asked, launching a
hundred kicks into his stomach. The much larger humanoid
barely flinched.
"He's not the Green Lantern, I am!" she boomed out, lashing
out with a beam of emerald light.
Mongul was actually staggered by that, his brow creasing in
surprise. "Who are you, girl?"
Akane floated up, a soft glow covering her body. "I already
said that! I'm the new Green Lantern."
Nah, that couldn't be! But, maybe it was. He hoped he was
wrong. "Hey, we aren't finished fighting, ugly!" Ranma
called out, snapping a full strength crescent kick into the
yellow alien's jaw.
The gigantic alien shook his head. "You are annoying me,
gnat. Die!" His huge blow missed the agile martial artist,
but struck the ground so hard that the concrete exploded,
striking Ranma's back like Ryoga's breaking point. His limp
body was flung into the air.
"Ranma!" Akane cried out, letting herself be distracted.
Mongul leaped the forty feet in one bound, tackling the much
smaller figure and smashing through a store's wall. "Now you
die, Green Lantern!" the yellow skinned alien shouted,
smashing the green and black garbed figure deep into the
ground.
"That is enough, Mongul! Cease and desist. This is your
final warning!" a resonant voice called from the air.
Mongul looked over his shoulder, seeing a red caped figure
eclipsing the sun, the martial artist being held in one easy
grasp. "You are not Superman!"
"Of course not! I am the Martian Manhunter!" the emerald
skinned alien said concisely.
"I have already slain the green lantern. I will not be
stopped by the likes of you. If you bar my path to the
Kryptonian, I will kill you!"
The ground suddenly rumbled as a blunt green missile struck
him from the earth and flinging the remorseless destroyer
into the air. "I'm not done with you yet!" A small tear and
much grime marred her clothing. She floated slowly towards
her attacker.
"Hey, let me go!" Ranma said as he finally shook off the
daze that he'd been in. With surprising strength, he eluded
the Martian's grip, ripping his shirt in the process. He
bounced twice and snapped a vicious spin kick at Mongul that
stunned him for a second.
The Martian Manhunter blinked in surprise, but immediately
zoomed in to hit his foe with a double fisted punch, aided
by his flying speed.
Mongul rubbed his jaw. This was becoming burdensome. He had
to remove one of the players from the field. His right hand
adjusted the square blaster that was mounted on his chest.
"I will deal with you in a moment, Martian. Die, Green
Lantern!" With that he sent out a yellow beam of energy that
struck a hastily raised green wall. "What? Impossible! Your
powers have a yellow weakness!"
"Huh?" Akane replied, her brow furrowing in concentration.
"Indeed, how you can even affect Mongul is amazing. But that
is not here nor now." Red eye beams of scorching energy
blasted into the marauding alien, barely moving him.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. My ring works
just fine on yellow things!" With that, Akane blasted out
with a beam of energy, following up the Martian Manhunter's
own attack and knocking Mongul off guard again.
"Hey, ugly, how can you expect to deal with them, when you
can't even hurt me?" Ranma catcalled, dancing around the
much larger biped. "I don't even have super powers and you
can't beat me!"
The much stronger and larger alien sneered and punched at
the dodging target. And kept punching at him, following him
relentlessly.
"The fool!" the Martian said loudly. "Mongul is too powerful
to enter into a fight if you have no powers."
"Wait! He knows what he's doing!" the much smaller girl
said, putting a hand on his shoulders to restrain.
"You must be joking!"
"No! Watch!"
"Why won't you just die, human?" Mongul shouted.
"You asked for it! Hiryo Shotan HA!" the pig-tailed martial
artist called out, punching upwards into the air. A cyclone
of monstrous proportions suddenly swirled into existence,
sucking Mongul up into the air.
Mongul felt as if he'd been blasted with some stupendous
power. For long moments, he was in the air, until finally
the tornado of force finally spent itself, letting him fall
to the hard ground below. "Ung. That is... impossible."
Mongul slowly pulled himself out of the crater, just in time
to note the sun being occluded by a very large object.
A gigantic hammer smashed the alien back down, leaving him
very unconscious. "Yay! Got him!" Akane crowed. She floated
down to land next to Ranma.
"So what's with the outfit?" Ranma asked, gesturing at her.
"Er, what do you mean?"
"Come on, Akane. Like that mask really hides much of your
face."
"Perhaps it would be better to continue this someplace more
private?" the Martian Manhunter interrupted suddenly.
"Huh?" The popping of flash bulbs from cameras caught all of
their attention. "Oh! Uh, bye!" Akane rocketed into the air
and out of sight.
"It would be best if I departed too." And with that, the
Martian Manhunter disappeared from view, literally.
"Oh, that's just great!" Ranma complained. A burst of water
exploded from the ravaged concrete that lay underneath the
fallen alien suddenly drenched the now female martial
artist. "Gah!" Ranma cried out, hoping to a local roof and
running off, almost faster than the eye could follow. She
did not want her curse on the front of the paper.
Flashing lights on top of military land cruisers showed in
the distance as the JSDF finally showed up to take charge of
the incarceration of the dangerous villain.
Noting this, Martian Manhunter decided to follow the martial
artists. Flying silently above the transmogrified martial
artist, the green alien that had become one of Earth's
greatest defenders, followed silently. He had become quite
interested in the two, as they seemed to know each other.
His hunch paid off as the martial artist hopped over a fence
into a rustic homestead, where a girl that closely matched
the new Green Lantern was waiting. He noted the furtive look
of the martial artist as she tried to look over the area for
someone spying on them.
"So what's going on, Akane?" Ranma said, an overly cute pout
on her lips.
"Do you remember that light that one night? A blue alien
gave me the ring and told me that I had to use it, to
protect the world."
Ranma opened her mouth, but was suddenly drenched with hot
water from a glowing green cup. "That's kind of handy. So
you're a super-heroine now?" He puffed out his chest in
sudden machismo. "I don't need no stupid ring to fight bad
guys."
"Well excuse me for not being the best martial artist
around. This is my chance to do some good. To not be...
useless." Akane gulped suddenly. "This is important to me,
okay? Don't... don't mess it up, please."
"Uh, okay. I guess." Ranma suddenly changed the direction of
the conversation. "So, how do you do the school thing and
being a super hero?"
"I may have to miss some school. I hope it isn't too bad.
I'm just barely getting caught up after Jusendo!"
With that, their invisible and mysterious watcher floated
away. There was a high school near by. The heroically
muscled alien landed nearby and shifted his form as easily
as most people combed their hair. In moments, Yuchiro
Takata, reputable businesswoman walked into the halls of
Furinkan High School.
"Excuse me, could you direct me to the Principles office? I
wish to submit a proposal to him," the striking (but very
human looking) woman asked.
"Uh, are you sure?" the janitor asked.
"Yes."
"Just down this hall, you can't miss it. Look for the palm
trees."
She followed the directions, being shocked at the realistic
panorama of the Hawaiian beach. "Uh, excuse me. Are you
the... Principle?" she inquired of the brightly colored man
lying on a lounge chair. He seemed to have a palm tree
growing out of the top of his head.
"Yo got it! How can I help a pretty kiki like you?"
Principle Kuno flashed his best smile and watched for some
sort of reaction from the rather severe woman.
"I feel drawn to do a bit of good will work. I am a busy
woman, but I would like to donate ten million yen to this
school and help mold the future of our wondrous heritage. I
would like to help by being a part time teacher, filling in
when I can."
"Ten million yen? Heya, I recognize you. Furinkan would be
honored to have you join our facility."
Yuchiro Takata, aka Martian Manhunter, had an odd sinking
feeling in her stomach. How come this suddenly didn't seem
like such a good idea?
-
Ranma and Akane glared at each other across the open aisle
in the class room. Neither would remember who had started
the latest fight, or over what, but both were more than
willing to show their displeasure.
Yuchiro shook her head in amazement. They both had good
hearts, it was terribly obvious. And to a telepath of her
caliber, their suppressed love was even shown. So why did
they act so horribly to each other? "All right, class. I
want you to finish reading chapter two in preparation for
the quiz on Monday."
Muffled groans answered her, even as all of the students
slammed their books into their bags and got to their feet.
"Ranma, may I speak to you. Privately?" she asked pointedly.
The boy in question nearly jumped out of his seat, quickly
glancing over to the teacher. "Uh, sure."
Akane almost stayed, but at the last moment waved to Ranma.
"I'm going to head home!"
The last student closed the door behind them, leaving the
two alone.
"Ranma, I've heard about your curse and I was wondering if
you had actually talked to anyone about it?" The disguised
Martian looked deeply into the mind of Ranma Saotome.
Ranma blink-blinked in surprise. "Um, no. No reason to,
really." This new teacher really spooked him out.
"You feel nothing when you are forced to change genders?"
"Not... really. It's not something I like to talk about, Ms.
Takata."
Yuchiro sighed even as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"That's what I was trying to talk about. Something like that
could be weighing on your mind. I'm no expert, of course,
but I really think you need to come to terms with this
change to you." A lie, of course. She was an expert of
changes to the body and how it affected the mind.
"I'll, uh, think about it." Ranma turned quickly.
"I will be here if you need someone to talk to. Thank you
for your time. You may leave now."
Ranma nodded and took off. He ran down the stairs and out
side. A single bound took him over the walls, where he
slowed down. A look of concentration took over. He hated to
admit it, but maybe he did need to think things through a
bit. And maybe talk to someone too.
But who?
-
Akane opened the house door and inhaled, ready to call out
her customary greeting, when she head a cry.
"Please, I don't know what you want!" a girl sobbed.
"Where... Green... Lantern!" growled a very coarse, foreign
voice.
"Green Lantern? I don't know-arghk!" A sickening crack sound
reverberated thru the house.
"Where Green Lantern!" he yelled out again. You could almost
hear his frustration.
"Leave her alone!" Akane yelled out, even as she slipped on
the ring. She slid into the living room, clothed again in
the familiar, masked uniform of the Green Lantern.
A maroon, hulking figure released the bleeding and bruised
body from his grasp, her arm's bones twisted cruelly and
showing thru tears in the skin. "Finally, someone who speaks
a real language! You, Green Lantern, I'm here for that ring.
Give it to me and I won't kill you!" His hand glowed with
strange energies. His interrogation hadn't been working too
well with the young house wife, anyways. He'd hoped for more
time alone to get the information he needed.
"Kasumi! You... bastard!" Her will formed a mighty,
serpentine dragon-beam that slammed the man out through the
wall. "You'll pay for that!" Without a thought, she leapt
out after him.
"You're not bad, girl." He stripped the remains of the
normal coveralls that he'd been wearing. "Doesn't matter,
'cause I'm invulnerable. You can call me Major Force. Or
your death!" Both hands blossomed with scarlet fire that
slammed into a green wall that shuddered under the attack.
Sweat beading on her brow, a metallic katana appeared in her
hand even as the wall became more solid. A burst of will
threw her at the dojo's wall, allowing herself to slip
behind him and slash with her new weapon, slicing into his
back. It was harder to keep the weapon formed than normal.
"You cut me! You bitch!" Major Force shouted, crushing the
wall behind her with his immense blow.
"How could you harm an innocent like that?" Her ring blasted
out again, smashing into the metallic looking body of her
foe.
"It was easy. Her goody-goody attitude sickened me!"
Purplish energy slammed into a European type shield that
Akane conjured up.
The shield held for just a moment and then shattered,
flinging her across the yard and up against the outer wall.
"What's going on?" she said to herself, shaking her head.
"Ha! I knew you couldn't stand up to my power! I'm going to
kill you now, girl!" He tromped over and attempted to smash
into her with both fists.
She ducked to the side and attempted to blast him with the
ring while punching, trying to increase the blows power. The
ring gave off a feeble glow and then went out! "No!"
Major Force said something in English too fast for her to
follow. With a laugh, he blasted her with a low power blow
that flung her away, bleeding and bruised.
"Akane! You creep!" a new voice cried out from the hole in
the house.
"Back off or Die!" Major Force warned in very poor Japanese.
He lashed out with another beam of energy that blew an
opening right thru the house.
"Way too slow, jerk!" Ranma crowed, merely flowing around
the attack. A lifetime's training, a will indominatible
formed within his cupped hands. "Mouko Takabishi!" he
shouted out, throwing one of the largest ki blasts of his
life. These super-villains were just too tough to take out
with mere punchs!
The super villain braced himself, shrugging off the attack.
If he'd been less invulnerable, he might have felt that.
"Hah! Is that the best you can do?" he cried out in English.
Akane coughed and rolled over. How could the ring have
failed her? She turned over to see Ranma putting up a
valiant fight, but even in her hurt state, she could see
that he wasn't hurting Major Force in the slightest.
"Ranma!"
"Akane! What happened?" Ranma called out, ducking another
blast that left a ten foot crater behind him.
"I don't know, the ring just died and won't work!" Akane
called back, almost in tears. She was going to be a hero!
She wasn't going to be useless anymore.
"Crap. I found a glowing green rock behind the dojo after
you found the ring! Maybe it can fix it! It's under the
center of the dojo!" Ranma yelled back, barely dodging
another blast, his pigtail being chopped three inches
shorter, releasing his hair.
With a pained heave, Akane got back to her feet and stumbled
towards the dojo's open door.
A near hit from Major Force sent her stumbling. He yelled
out something unintelligible in English again, pointing his
hand at her threateningly.
Akane looked around frantically. Where was the rock? Wait,
he said under the dojo. "Hiya!" she cried out, smashing a
large hole into the floor. She saw a glow of green as she
fumbled. Her hands grasped onto the roughness of the rock,
only to feel it flow and change.
"What the hell?" Major Force yelled out, gaping in
astonishment at the oddly glowing Japanese stone lantern
that she held.
With a brilliant flash of emerald brilliance, her wounds and
scrapes disappeared. She might not have towered over him,
but all of a sudden she seethed with energy and power,
causing Major Force to take an involuntary step backwards.
Ranma dove to the side, even as the largest oriental dragon
he'd ever seen appeared. It roared even as its claws smashed
Major Force into a huge crater. Even as it pulled its claw
back, a fiery gout of flame engulfed the hapless villain.
Ranma whistled from the side. The pure power of that ring
was amazing. Ranma winced Akane blasted the man again and
again, a rictus of rage stamped on her features. Ouch. He'd
been on the receiving end of that rage before.
"Stop!" a diamond hard voice commanded. "He's beaten."
Floating majestically, the Martian Manhunter's presence was
a tangible thing, demanding obedience.
Akane floated there for a second, her mouth open. She shook
her head, releasing her will. "Yeah. I guess he is." She
took a deep breath suddenly. "It's just that he hurt...
Kasumi!" she wailed, zooming into the house.
Ranma and the Martian Manhunter followed just a moment
later. The Green Lantern knelt beside her older sister. She
looked up as they entered. "I... I don't know what to do!
She's been hurt so badly! Can't lose her too. Can't lose..."
She was interrupted by the green skinned alien. "Will the
ring to heal her." The Martian's ruby eyes stared at her
intently.
"But..."
"Will it to heal her." He overrode her objections with his
steadfast gaze.
A look of intense determination and concentration appeared
on her, sweat on her brow from her intense efforts. A soft
green glow suffused Kasumi's skin. The unconscious young
woman grimaced at the intense pain of her bones resetting,
flesh knitting at amazing speeds.
In just a few moments Kasumi's skin was unblemished with any
wound, the only sign that she'd been hurt had been blood
stains on her dress. With a sob, Akane grabbed her sister in
a desperate hug, crying like a small child.
A few minutes later, which Ranma and the Martian Manhunter
stood silent vigil, Akane finally calmed down and looked up.
"...thank you..." they managed to hear, her voice so soft it
was almost inaudible. Her eyes strayed down to the ring. "I
can't keep this. I'll just hurt my family more." She took
off the ring and tossed it violently outside. After that,
she collapsed onto her oldest sister again.
"I... understand, I think. It is your choice, but you should
be aware that others may come looking for you now." He
nodded to her and then floated outside to pick up Major
Force. With sure movements, he flew into the air.
Ranma reached out carefully, putting his hand on Akane's
shoulder. The young girl's snapped to meet his own, wild and
unsure. With the precision of a wrestling takedown, she
latched onto her fianc, like he was the most important thing
in the world, sobbing wildly.
He couldn't do anything but rock her slightly, his arms
lapped loosely back around her.
"What happened here?" an outraged female voice called out. A
moment later, Nabiki stormed in to see the three figures.
Ranma and Akane being so intimate and caring for one another
would normally have been her only focus, but the still lying
figure, stained in blood, captured her view fully. "Kasumi?"
The middle Tendo sister knelt down, shaking her older
sister's shoulder.
"Umm. Tired. Want to go back to sleep," Kasumi muttered
unhappily.
"Kasumi! Wake up! What's going on?" Nabiki shouted out.
"What? Oh, Nabiki! I had the most horrid dream. I dreamed a
mean man made out of purple metal was hurting me!" Kasumi
said as she shook herself awake.
"You aren't being coherent, sis. What purple man?" Nabiki
now had a perplexed look on her face.
"He was looking for the Green Lantern," Akane said softly,
not releasing her fianc,. "There's no Green Lantern here
anymore."
"Hey, you should go lie down now, Akane." Ranma's face was
etched with worry.
"..." Akane thought about it a second. "Maybe." She smiled
wanly, nodding an affirmative finally. She released her
fianc, and headed up the stairs.
"All right, Ranma! You'd better start talking. And fast!"
Nabiki demanded loudly from downstairs.
"Um, well, it's kind of like this..." Ranma started even as
his voice drifted out of her hearing range.
Walking woodenly, Akane opened her door and settled down on
her bed. It was starting to get dark, several hours later
when she looked away from the ceiling. She'd heard in the
distance the hammering of repair work. That had been
probably been Ranma and the fathers fixing what they could
of the mess.
Her room was suddenly lit up an ethereal emerald hue. "Green
Lantern." The strangely garbed blonde Caucasian was looking
right at her.
"I'm not Green Lantern." Her breath caught in her throat.
Was it another attacker? She was reminded of the Martian
Manhunter's words about other people hunting her.
"Actually, you're the only one that can be the Green Lantern
now. The ring will only respond to you, as I discovered."
The garishly cloaked and garbed man turned over his fist,
opening it to reveal the ring. "That boy was very persistent
in trying to keep it away from me. I am the Sentinel."
"Ranma? You didn't hurt him, did you?" Akane cried out
suddenly.
"No! Well, not much," the old man chuckled. "He's a real
scrapper, isn't he? Actually gave me a run for my money."
"So why did you come here?" Akane asked suspiciously. She
clenched her fists nervously, ready for a fight.
"We need the Green Lantern to stop Jordan."
"The Jordan?" Akane queried.
"The ...? No, Hal Jordan, the previous Green Lantern has
gone insane and power mad. He's on a quest to remake
reality, getting rid of all those mistakes that he feels
shouldn't have happened. He doesn't care who gets in his
way."
"Hal... Jordan? You mean, the old Green Lantern is the...
badguy?"
"Yes, and you are the only Green Lantern now. I am too old
to be the Green Lantern again. Now. And I've already failed
to stop him. I was almost aged to death. You must take up
the ring. Untold billions of people will die if he
succeeds." The Sentinel's expression was grim.
"Billions?" Akane could scarcely believe what she was
hearing. "My family?"
"The entire universe."
"I... I'll do it. For my family!" Akane proclaimed
determinedly, a new fire lit within her. She took the ring
and put it on. Thinking back for a moment, she grabbed the
lantern that Ranma must have brought up here. Energy
crackled off of it, seemingly refilling the ring.
"Hmm. You might want to take the lantern with you. Who knows
when you might make it back to recharge?"
"Right! So we are off?" Akane asked, garbed again in the
Green Lantern's uniform.
The other ring wielder nodded, floating up through the
ceiling.
"I can go thru things? Hey, wait up!" she called out,
willing her ring to follow.
-
"Sorry, old friend, but you won't be stopping anything," Hal
Jordan, now Parallax, said to the stunned heroes that were
assembled. The unconscious Superman's head and torso was
only being held up by his cape, firmly in his green clad
grasp.
"It's really him, Hal Jordan!" Guy Gardner stammered out in
surprise. He shifted his techno-organic arms into cannon
looking weapons.
"He was behind it all?"
"I've taken the name Parallax now. I've traveled to the
beginning of time and back, learning and gaining the power
that I need to fix everything. I won't let you stop me!"
"You creep! You erased Tokyo!" the young female Green
Lantern screamed out, sending a solid beam of green energy
at him. "You killed my family!" You killed Ranma! she
screamed internally.
Parallax staggered under the attack for a moment, before
shrugging it off like a shower of rain. "Not bad, girl. But
that won't stop me!" His own attack was far more potent,
sending the young woman bowling, knocking over the other
heroes.
Akane wiped the blood from her lip. She couldn't let him
destroy the universe! She just couldn't! Taking a hold of
her invisible lantern, she let it become seen, its power
directly funneling into the ring. "Parallax! I won't let you
win!" she screamed out, an incredible surge of energy
forming in front of her.
"What?" Parallax said, turning to face her. He ignored the
other heroes preset, seeing a serious attack forming. Whole
worlds could be destroyed with that sort of energy! He
blasted out with his own green energy, meeting the wave of
energy she sent at him head on.
Akane, the last Green Lantern, gritted her teeth, pulling
even more on her immense willpower. But eventually, even
that met its match with the greatest wielder of the Emerald
Energy.
"You're too dangerous to leave where you can come back and
challenge me again. I'll make sure that you'll never come
back!" Parallax snarled. She had just too much power to
outright destroy. But she wasn't prepared to be ejected into
the farthest regions of existence, even further than he had
traveled.
"No!" she screamed just a consciousness fled her battered
body.
A seeming eternity later, she groaned and woke herself up.
Whiteness met her masked gaze, wherever she looked. She
focused on her ring, trying to detect anything.
She floated, curled up in a ball. 'Kasumi. Nabiki. Daddy.
Ranma,' she bewailed to herself.
-
"I wasn't able to find Green Lantern. It's like she doesn't
even exist anymore!" Waverider announced to the assembled
heroes as he reappeared in a burst of rainbow energy.
"Poor kid. That's not a pleasant way to go."
Batgirl nodded. "She said that she'd lost her family and
fianc, to the entropy wave."
Superman shook his head. "We have to stop him. Too many
people have been hurt."
-
Akane frowned. She was bored. And hungry.
And getting angry! It was obvious that Waverider wasn't
going to be able to find her now, like they'd planned. So it
was up to her. And the ring, of course! Maybe they've
already won and all she had to do was get home somehow.
Home to her family. And that idiot... Ranma. She stifled a
sob. How could she even think of him like that? After he
died, trying to save Nabiki and Father? And she hadn't been
able to do anything to stop it!
She focused her will on the ring. Find Ranma, she commanded
it. The ring flared bright against overwhelming whiteness.
Suddenly, she felt a small tug off into the vast unknown.
"Yes!" she cried out. She knew that he couldn't be killed!
She flew off, pushing herself to travel in the strange,
unknown ether. After hours of traveling, she came across a
battered and bruised form floating in the void.
"Ranma!" she cried. Her green aura encompassed him.
Ranma reflexively inhaled as air became available. It had
been such a long time. With air, came coughing. Who was
that, trying to talk to him?"
Akane threw off her mask. "Oh, Gods, I thought he'd killed
you!" The mask dissolved into the void.
"Huh? Akane?" She was alive? But he'd thought that... His
thinking was interrupted by her throwing herself into a
tight hug. Ranma smiled, his heart relaxing. He must have
been mistaken. He started to blink, his eyes starting to
come into focus.
"Yes, you silly. Now we have to get out of here. Wherever
here is, anyways." Great. How?
Ranma glanced around, seeing absolutely nothing for as far
as he could see. "Where are we? All I remember is getting
blasted and thinking I was going to die!"
"I've got it!" Akane crowed suddenly. 'Ring, take me to
Japan by the fastest means possible!' Her willpower surged,
green energy flaring in response. Someplace Ranma and I can
be happy, she hoped.
"Huh? Where did you get...?" Ranma started to ask, when the
void around them turned into a rainbow of coruscating
colors, seemingly traveling around them like they were in an
immense tunnel. With a burst of light, they appeared above a
forest.
"Where are we?" Akane asked, spinning around in the air,
trying to see a familiar sight. Ranma tumbled to the ground
lightly, five feet below.
"Say, what are you doing in that Green Lantern getup?" Ranma
asked, turning his head to look at her closely.
"Dummy! I am Green Lantern, now!"
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