Will Versus Fear, Round One: Fight!

[Jack Darby]

Jack Darby had been wandering aimlessly through the Tangled Green, for what seemed like an eternity. So far in his quest to get access to the Green Light of Will in a more stable manner he had been unsuccessful. Thirty attempts had been made by him using Omnilium to make an actually working Green Lantern Ring, and none of them had been what he'd call successful. None had done anything because he did not know enough about the power rings. If Jack ever encountered the individuals who gave out the rings, he would slap them as hard as he could, because they had not provided him any sort of instruction manual. With as little as he knew about the rings, even someone without a ring could likely take him in a fight. In all honesty he knew he needed some form of education so that he could master the Oan Power Ring, or learn how to create a Power Ring for himself.

[Thaal Sinestro]

The leaves shuffled, a passing wind brushing through the long, twisting limbs of the dense overgrowth. Branches knocked together ominously, catching the ear of any who might listen, but the darkness consumed the answers to anyone who might glance about to unravel the mysteries of the night. The bramble-thick path that wound beneath the trees had not been walked in some time it seemed, and any of the comforting lights of civilization were long behind any who had made their way out so deep into the Tangle. Even the moon abandoned the undergrowth, her light gobbled up by the canopy above.

A dry sprig snapped underfoot, and a dim green light shone out as the young man stumbled down the trail. His wary eyes glances around for anything lurking in the darkness that might have noticed him, another breeze rustling the limbs of the forest. He took a deep breath and kept on, sweeping his fist back and forth, the ring on his finger held high like the lantern that he had claimed as a namesake.

“Only a little further,” he reassured himself under his breath. His top caught on yet another barb of an encroaching plant, and he tugged it free. He paused and pulled out his shirt and lamented yet another hole in the fabric. He sighed and dropped it, trudging forward, his sneakers sinking into the mud below.

A distant gust came nearer, and again the entire forest shook. However, this time the traveler’s eye caught the glint of something in to foliage nearby. He spun on the toes of his feet, breath catching in his throat. He held up his rigs, beaming wavering light into the vines and branches that surrounded him.

After a moment of reticence he summoned up the courage to speak, “Who’s there?”

The jungle did not answer him. He squinted his eyes, swinging his precious green beacon back and forth fruitlessly. He sighed and exhaled, taking a moment to slow his trembling breathing. He closed his eyes and calmed his thumping heart, and the ring on his finger ceased its flickering. He shook his head and laughed gently to himself, gently mocking his overreaction.

He turned once again to his course. He took a few more steps before he heard the crack of a twig. He jumped and leveled his ring at the darkness, choking out, “Show yourself!”

Bleak nothingness returned his call. “Damn it!” he snapped, half to himself and half to the foreboding and all-consuming black. He began to walk backwards slowly, eyes darting from tree to tree, his glowing weapon whipping between the shadows and trembling leaves. His chest thumped heavily in his chest and his mind ran wild with the possibilities. The emerald light upon his finger dimmed and stuttered. He shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows, and the light swelled once again.

He focused for a time and a small, gleaming, hard-light revolver appeared in his hand. He aimed it into the darkness, a new sense of confidence swelling with a gun between his fingers.

“Is that all it takes?” a soft voice echoed, and the boy gasped, nearly jumping off of the trail. “For you to give in to fear?” A mocking laughter filled the air, echoing from trunks and stones, seeming to come from every angle at once.

“SHOW YOURSELF!” the child boomed, putting on his best baritone. He pulled back the hammer on the gun and turned completely around, checking behind himself, then back around again. “I’m not playing around! Come out or I’ll shoot!”

He grit his teeth when the voice did not answer, and another draft whipped at the leaves. He narrowed his eyes and carefully scanned his revolver back and forth, awaiting whatever might come for him. The crunch of leaves crackled in his ear and he brought the gun up to bear, blasting off a shot. The green beam illuminated the forest it whizzed harmlessly through the air, lighting up the trees and ferns it passed by.

Laughter haunted the air once again, reverberating in his head almost as much as it did outside of it. “The green light of Will…” the voice purred. “I hadn’t expected to be so disappointed. So flawed. So weak.”

A scimitar tore into Jack’s back as Taeket dropped from a tree overhead, her yellow robes fluttering around her as she landed. The fledgling Lantern called out in pain and twisted about, but the gerudo warrior had already ducked under his shot by the time her took it.

Her blades ate into his inner thigh and he yelped, falling to a single knee. She gingerly placed the tip of her weapon under his chin, looking down at him from under her crooked nose. “I am giving you a chance that we wouldn’t give many.” Her eyes burned with disgust, her voice weighted down by the depth of her detestation for the man. “You will join us, or you will die. You will die over and over again until we cease being entertained by your destruction and send you to whatever this place calls hell.”

[Jack Darby]

The Yellow Lanterns were skilled combatants, even without the power rings most of them were accustom to wielding likely. Given the situation where she had a blade quite literally up against his throat, Jack was nervous. Understandably so, since he didn't know how to make the power ring work like it should, at present. Granted, he had never had any form of formal education whatsoever. As he tried to figure out what Optimus Prime would say in the matter, Jack admitted he hadn't a clue. Optimus would probably blast the individual, but right now, Jack was too afraid to manage to make the ring work. 

The Oan Power Ring was a useless weapon, a weapon that was too unstable for any prolonged use. The power ring was one that probably was something the Yellow Lanterns likely had some information on. Tapping into that information could make him better able to wield the powers that he possessed, and to recover his strength. Thinking about it, Jack realized what the best choice was in the situation he had presently. Really, it should be an easy task for Jack. All he had to do was fake his surrender and learn how to use the power ring properly. If he could witness the skills of the Lanterns when they had their rings, he could probably recreate something similar for himself, so that he could use it. 

And really, with Arcee not being able to help him in a fight, it was the only option...unless. Unless he fought hack with the power ring and what he knew. And fighting back seemed like the best option. Primes could respawn, and he could later investigate the Yellow Lanterns, learn their strengths, and weaknesses. Subtly charging up an Unstable Emerald Blast Wave, Jack knew he was going to need to use it on her. Right now he had to prove the strength of his will, and his drive to both himself and the people around him. 

[Thaal Sinestro]

The darkness of the woods was wiped away in a flash of green light, a massive shockwave washing out from Jack’s ring. The trees swayed as the energy flowed over them, dirt and foliage swept along its path. The gerudo warrior slammed into a nearby tree as the wave continued to pound into her, pinning her in place. The viridian light died with the blast wave, darkness besetting them once again.

Falling to the ground, she landed in a kneel, her hands still firmly wrapped around her weapons. She wiped her cheek, and then looked down to see a streak of blood on the back of her hand. “I was hoping you’d say that,” she growled to herself with a wicked smile.

Her blades swirled around her and she leapt into the air, and she landed with a flourish a few meters away from her target. Jack’s hands fumbled as he focused to call his firearm back into existence, backing away nervously as the gerudo sprinted to close the distance. Her blade hissed as it whipped down towards his head, but he managed to tuck and roll out of its path, white light flashing out as sparks jumped from place where the scimitar hit the ground.

She swirled her other hand in a follow up, the very edge catching Jack’s shirt as he leapt backwards. She spun the steel between her fingers and grinned at the boy as he slowly began to circle, the light of his ring flickering with untempered power. “To be given a weapon with no idea how to use it,” she hissed mockingly, “is a mockery of the weapon. The weapon is only an extension of the self, even more so with a Power Ring. You possess an untested soul, child. You have on your finger one of the greatest blessings this or any other universe has ever known.” Her swords snaked into a fighting position, and she narrowed her eyes. “And you disgrace it.”

She bound forward once again, just as Jack’s weapon materialized in his hand. The revolver barked, but its shot ricocheted off the surface of the dancing blade that danced around her. Her target bound off into the dense tree cover as she came closer, trusting his feet and the obstruction to give him an advantage for his next shot.

Again she took to the air, a pirouette of metal and fluttering cloth, ending with the sharp blade slicing through the overhead branches as she descended towards him. He gasped and pulled the trigger, one of his attacks finally finding their mark on her hip. Her trajectory was thrown off and she tumbled into the undergrowth, only to spring to her feet.

Smoke rolled from just above her left leg, but only a few burns persisted. “Even your constructs are weak. If a member of the Sinestro Corps had struck me in such a way, this fight would be over. But that?” She cackled menacingly. “That was nothing. Because you are nothing.”

With a slash a small sapling fell, forcing Jack to step out of its path. She was there, waiting for him when his foot landed. He stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding a rising strike, and threw himself to his back when a horizontal one followed it.

He fell to his back, hands propping him up to sit. He lifted his weapon one last time, both hands supporting it, fingers trembling. She wasn’t there when he pulled the trigger, a green bullet soaring into the night sky.

Both scimitar came down in a scissor, catching his wrists between them. His hands fell to the ground, and the gun dissolved into nothingness as he stared on in disbelief and horror. A boot to his face sent the nightmarish vision into blackness, Jack blissfully no longer having to contemplate the amputation of both of his hands.

With a grin, she stooped down and plucked his palm up, turning it left and right, observing the glint of the Oan metal wrapped around his finger. She slid the ring off of it, and then threw the boy’s hand into his lap.

“Perhaps you’ll be worth fighting next time we meet,” she spat, and then turned and disappeared once again into the night.