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[b]| G U A R D I A N • S H I P • S E N T I N E L |[/b]

From out of a pocket at the back of his hip, the H'lven Blue Lantern produced a thimble-sized flask from which he put a little [i]kick[/i] into the coffee that had gone cold about two hours ago. Swirling the dark liquid around in the miniature cup, the veteran law enforcement rodent tested the potency of his concoction before putting the flask away again. It still tasted like [i]swill[/i], but at least it took the edge off a little bit. Grimacing slightly at the bitterness, the squirrel-like Lantern put the coffee cup back down and stuck the well gnawed, stub of his earlier cigar back into his mouth in order to try and get the taste of the human beverage out of his mouth. The kid had thought that introducing the H'lven to coffee might help the rodent to focus. What Ch'p discovered was that this coffee looked good, smelled better, and tasted like hammered trog swill.

A perfect metaphor for humans.

Speaking of trog swill... "How's our poozer doin', Aya?" the Blue Lantern inquired gruffly, pushing the cigar stub over to one side of his mouth so that it dangled from the corner as he spoke.

A holographic rendering of the interior of the space station was overlaid in front of the usual cockpit HUD. The projection depicted Kai-ro struggling to restrain a multi-armed robot from assaulting a waste disposal unit, which had Kai-ro in a headlock, and using one leg to hold back an automated food processor, which was cat fight slapping at the first robot. Various ring construct hands were attempting to pry and pull and seperate the lot of them, but to no avail. [i]"I believe that Green Lantern may require assistance,"[/i] the feminine AI voiced sympathetically.

"Eh," Ch'p uttered with a shrug, as the cigar traveled to the other side of his mouth and he picked up the cup of coffee again.

[i]"Blue Lantern, I am receiving a transmission."[/i]

The coffee mug stopped just a half inch away from the H'lven's face. Turning his furred head back slightly, the diminutive Lantern asked, "From?"

[i]"The transmission origin is tagged as [b]Oa[/b]."[/i]

A colorful string of words in a variety of languages were muttered under his breath, as the H'lven looked down into his coffee cup and then tossed it. Running a hand through his scruffy face, the Blue Lantern finally gave a nod. The holographic projection of Kai-ro was then replaced by the face of a reddish alien with a rather elongated cranium. "Clarissi," Ch'p stated politely, addressing the Slyggian by his title.

"Blue Lantern," Salaak intoned in kind. "We show you to be in Sector 2814. What's your present location?"

"Asteroid Blue Heaven," the H'lven supplied evenly, his tone becoming gruffer still as he asked, "Why?"

"Good. You're close to Gemini in Sector 2815," The Slyggian remarked cryptically, turning as though to acknowledge someone who was off screen. When he'd turned back to the Blue Lantern, Salaak explained, "The Graxions have requested our assistance with a homicide case."

The H'lven frowned, the cigar again trailing over to the other side of his mouth. "Homicide?" the Blue Lantern echoed, plucking the stub from out of his teeth and waving it around as he spoke. "What the frell? When did we become the galaxy police? It's a murder. They've got detectives. I'm sure they can find the smoking gun."

"The Graxions have... [i]reason[/i] to believe this might be a [b]Consortium[/b] hit, Ch'p," the Clarissi stated, nonplussed by the H'lven's insubordinate barking. "Arisia's handling a treaty negotiation at the moment. I'd prefer that she handle this, but if it [i]is[/i] the Consortium then we have to get out in front of this one."

The H'lven was speechless for a moment. But only a moment. "Frell fracking hell, Sally, I'm training a fracking [b]poozer[/b] here, not leading an Alpha unit," Ch'p argued, anger slipping into his voice as his cigar-augmented hand gestures only grew more articulate. "This is a Consortium job? How bad?" the Blue Lantern demanded.

"An entire family. Kids. Even the pets."

Were it not for his fur, the H'lven would have appeared to have blanched. He'd seen enough murder scenes to know that they weren't pretty to begin with. And when kids were added to the equation, nasty business only got that much more disturbing. Now tack on the Consortium's so-called [i]business rules[/i] and it wasn't as simple as just killing someone. "Frack, Sally, kid's ring won't work for [b]a month[/b] if he sees that," the Blue Lantern uttered flatly.

To be quite honest, Ch'p wasn't all that certain his would either.

"He'll be witnessing worse if we don't stop this, Ch'p," the Green Lantern administrator stated matter-of-factly, folding all four of his arms down on his desk as he stared down at the small chipmunk and said only, "Good luck, Blue Lantern."

And then he hung up on them, leaving Ch'p staring at an empty field of stars. In which he caught his own reflection and wasn't all that certain he liked what he saw any more.

----

The young Chinese monk was struggling. His protective aura kept Marty's arms an inch away from his neck, but he could still feel pressure pushing up against his throat. And the food processing unit's wildly slapping arms were beating against his leg and, occasionally, smacking between them, sending inadvertent shudders of phantom pain through him created by his own subconscious in sympathy for the abuse that his body was taking. Large, green constructs in the form of a pair of hands were holding back Bertha, as Kai-ro felt his foothold beginning to give way.

It wasn't his balance. His own will was starting to falter.

Luckily, [b]hope[/b] always shines brightest when that happens. True to form, the eruption of blue energy was startling to everyone - including Kai-ro - as a massive backhand issued a pimp slap that sent all of them scattering across the floor. As the robots and Kai-ro looked up, standing in the doorway to the bar was mighty mouse himself.

"You." the H'lven barked, pointy a stubby finger at Bertha and then directing his attention over toward Marty with equal vitriol. "And you. Get a fracking divorce." With that said, the Blue Lantern turned to the automated food processor. "And you. A waste disposal unit? Do you have any [i]idea[/i] where that's been?"

The three robots got to their servos, shamed into silence by the short, blue rodent. Kai-ro's mouth was hanging open, speechless as the H'lven's dark gaze fell next on him. "You, back on the ship."

Nodding, mouth still agape, the young Green Lantern got to his feet. As he started to obey, the boy paused and looked back at Bertha for a moment, then back at Ch'p. "But... the weapons discharge..."

"What?" the H'lven uttered sharply, then spied the rifle on the bar. Turning to glare at Bertha again, the squirrel-like Lantern growled. "You're gettin' a warning this time," 

"WHAT!?" Kai-ro snapped in disbelief.

"Don't make me come back here," Ch'p growled, pointing at the three robots in turn. "I'll be angry. And you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."

With that, the H'lven turned and marched back out the way he came. Jogging to keep pace with the shorty Blue, the young Green Lantern fell into step beside his partner and trainer. "Why are you..."

"Shut up," Ch'p barked shortly, offering only. "We've got a job to do."