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SM/DC Chapter 164 : Oa Takes Notice
🕑 Added 2025-07-01 22:06:47 +0000 UTCPLANET OA -
A place where the cosmos converged, eternal in its green luminescence. suns hovered low in the sky, bathing the Citadel of the Guardians in shifting jade light. The spires of the Central Battery pulsed with quiet authority and the pure power of Will, surrounded by constructs shaped from will itself. Lanterns patrolled in silence, but the real storm brewed deep within the Hall of the Guardians.
Hal Jordan stood alone at the center of a towering chamber. High above him, a ring of robed blue immortals floated with passive expressions, the Guardians of the Universe, timeless and cold.
His boots echoed as he took a few steps forward, his ring glowing faintly in resonance with the Central Power Battery.
“I’m requesting clearance,” Hal said, eyes fixed. “And Immediate access to Qward.”
There was silence for a beat, then Guardian Appa Ali Apsa lowered slightly, hands clasped behind his back.
“For what purpose, Lantern Jordan?” the ancient voice was calm but unreadable. “You are not authorized to launch independent actions into the antimatter universe.”
“I’m not asking for authorization,” Hal snapped. “I’m telling you there’s something going on over there. I can feel it. They took something, Sinestro’s retreated with his Corps after a skirmish with us. I must investigate; I can do it!”
Guardian Ganthet spoke next, gentler than the others. “Hal… your instincts serve you well, as they always have. But Sinestro’s Corps remains vast. We will not risk one of our most valuable Lanterns on a suicide mission.”
Hal took a slow breath, jaw tightening. “So what, we wait? We sit here in our big glowing tower and hope they don’t do what they want? Hope Sinestro doesn’t come back with something worse, or maybe even invade here and finish us all once and for all?”
“Patience is not inaction,” another Guardian said sternly. “We must respect and uphold the balance. You must trust the structure of the Corps.”
Hal looked up at them, disbelief seeping into his voice. “You’re telling me to sit still… again. After everything that’s happened.”
“You are not alone, Jordan,” Ganthet said again. “But you would be if you crossed the veil into Qward. Alone against an army of fear.”
“Yeah. I know the odds,” Hal said. “I’m not new to this.”
“No,” said Appa, “but you are still mortal. And not immune to consequence.”
Hal stepped forward, the light in his ring flaring like a heartbeat.
“Sometimes I think you people don’t want us to win.”
That got their attention.
He held up his hand before they could speak. “You say you protect the universe. But you guard it like it’s made of glass. You’re so afraid of making the wrong move, you never make any move.”
“Be careful, Lantern Jordan,” Appa warned. “You speak dangerously close to insubordination.”
“I speak truth,” Hal said, unflinching. “We can’t beat enemies like Sinestro by waiting for a clear shot. We’ve got to take the fight to them. We have to know what they’re planning.”
“The last Lantern who acted alone nearly doomed an entire sector,” one Guardian replied coldly. “We will not allow it again.”
“And I’m not that Lantern!” Hal said through clenched teeth. “I’ve faced Parallax, I’ve faced multiple threats and I almost died in many occasions, I’ve come back through in all of those through sheer will. I’ve saved this universe more times than I can count.”
He looked at each of them.
“Let me do what I do best.”
There was another long pause. Then Ganthet sighed.
“The answer is still no.”
Hal exhaled sharply and looked down. When he spoke again, his voice was low, bitter.
“You’d rather risk the whole universe than let one of us act. You don’t want protectors. You want puppets!”
He turned away from them, taking a step toward the chamber doors.
“We are doing what is necessary,” Appa said flatly.
“No,” Hal said without looking back, “you’re doing what’s easy.”
He walked away, trying to leave this place.
Ganthet, still watching him go, lowered his head slightly. There was no satisfaction in the silence that followed.
As Hal’s silhouette receded through the grand doors, a heavy hush settled over the Council Chamber of Oa. Ganthet stood rooted in place for a heartbeat longer than the rest eyes narrowing, fist clenched. Then, as if jolted by the same sudden awareness, all the Guardians stirred.
One of them the oldest, silent until now spoke first, voice cracking the stillness
“Can you feel it?”
“Yes…” another Guardian replied, leaning in. Their robes rustled tension igniting between them.
In unison, they turned back to the vantage point where Hal had just stood.
“We should send him to check if it’s true...” came a decisive voice urgent and resolute.
“Yes. This is not to be discussed. We must see to it and act now.”
Another Guardian’s tone was clipped, directive. “Prepare the roster. An infiltration team we send them across the antimatter border immidietly.”
Hush fell again, the Chamber’s crystalline lights reflecting off ancient visored faces. Ganthet spoke softly, voice firm
“Then we must let Hal lead this team, it was his request after all.”
Moments later, with ceremony and haste, their words became orders whispered into the wind. Suddenly, boots clicked down marble corridors constructs hummed into form. Plans that defied protocol unfolded among the silent lamps of the central colonnade.
When Hal returned, met once more by the Council, he stood tall expectant, uneasy.
The head Guardian stepped forward. "Lantern Jordan," he began, voice stolid. "We apologize... there has been a change of plans." Hal stiffened. The Council behind him was silent, earnest.
“Effective immediately, you are to lead a small team into Qward. You depart within right now and see to the situation there, we will open the path for you."
Something flickered in his gut, something never settled, a moment ago they were against the idea and now...
“Understood,” Hal replied simply, fighting surprise. “Thank you.”
He turned, mask unreadable, but inwardly his pulse raced. He’d led missions before but this felt ... strange. ‘what the hell is wrong with them...’ Hal muttered to himself.
As he exited, Ganthet watched through the translucent doors. A silent promise passed behind pale eyes: “May will guide you where we cannot.”
****
QWARD’S ORBIT -
Arthur hovered in the cold black sea of space alone, yet not. The stars glinted in the distance, faraway and quiet. But around him, his shadow was restless.
The aura of the Shadow Ring cloaked him in a flowing mantle of darkness part void, part violet flare, not unlike the power rings of the Lantern Corps, yet unmistakably other. It didn’t pulse like will or scream like fear, It bled power.
Arthur’s cloak billowed with an unseen current as he glanced back toward Qward. The world behind him was dead, fractured and swallowed by his legion. Before him, the void.
He raised his hand the one with the ring.
"Sinestro opened a path," he murmured “I can too.”
He exhaled slowly, then smiled. “I could just let Shadow Sinestro do it… but where’s the fun in that?”
Arthur concentrated and then the ring on his hand surged. Its glow flared outward not like a beam, but like a wound splitting open. The air space itself rippled around him. Darkness coiled from his palm, swirling like serpents of black stardust. Violet lightning cracked across the vacuum.
With a soundless boom, reality began to split.
The void fractured, tearing apart at a point just ahead of Arthur. Lines of deep indigo and jet-black danced across the cosmos, forming a jagged circle, as though the universe was being cut by an obsidian blade. What began as a flicker exploded into a rift a glowing, chaotic tear stitched in strands of shadow and violet flare.
Beyond the tear… he saw Earth.
A blue-green marble, distant but vivid. Familiar and foreign. Home.
Arthur tilted his head slightly, shadows brushing along his jaw.
“Well look at that,” he said, eyes narrowing in amusement. “I can open portals now… without the Black Heart.”
He floated closer. The portal’s edges trembled with raw power, the border between universes barely held by the ring’s power. The energy radiating from it danced across his uniform, casting him in a silhouette of dread and majesty.
he passed through.
In a heartbeat, he was gone swallowed by his own gateway, vanishing from the antimatter universe.
And far behind him, the remnants of the Yellow Lantern Corps still burned.
