[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/49HBDaq.png[/img][/center]
[center][b][color=green]GREEN LANTERN[/color] in: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMDrTMnm1IE]DON’T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD[/url][/b][/center]
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[color=#83de9b]“I told you when I met you Hal, part of being a Green Lantern is [i]this[/i], doing daring things in dangerous places, so quit your bitching. Besides, this one should be a milk run for us.”[/color] Kilowog said.

[color=green]“But why’d it have to be [i]New Jersey[/i]?”[/color] Hal grumbled.

They flew over the ocean, high enough to be beyond the fogged out vision of any passing fishing trawler, but low enough to see the blooming fireworks that crackled above them. They were somewhere over the eastern seaboard by now, tracing the hazy outline of the coast until they reached Jersey.

[color=#83de9b]“At least it didn’t land on Mars,”[/color] Kilowog said, [color=#83de9b]“MPs there like to get their grubby mitts on everything. Jurisdictional nightmare.”[/color]

[color=green]“There are people on Mars? Really? You’re not yanking my chain?”[/color] Hal asked.

[color=#83de9b]“Used to be, anyway… I think we’re getting close,”[/color] Kilowog said. Hal could tell he was right from the sky, the infinite space of the open ocean waned into pure black sky before the lights of New York, broken up only by swells of light and color exploding above them.

[color=green]“Clue me in on the sitrep one more time?”[/color] Hal’s shifted the ring on his finger as he asked, it felt tight today. This was the first time the Corps expected him to do something that wasn’t training. And there was Carol’s Ferris Air New Years Bash that he was missing, [i]again[/i], but at least this time he was giving a raincheck for a [i]real[/i] reason instead of a killer hangover.

[color=#83de9b]“Scans show a civvie-class vessel entered Earth atmosphere in the past few hours, with one life form aboard. Ship is of Tamaranean make, so we’re probably looking at a refugee situation, on account of some deep space politics, which is why the Corps didn't blow it out of the sky. But we need to take a look in case those boys figured wrong, and hope whoever it is doesn't pitch a fit that they’re stuck planetside until the current shitstorm subsides.”[/color] Kilowog reported. He still hadn’t shown Hal how to use the ring to tap into Green Lantern frequencies, leaving Hal to drift beside Kilowog as he thumbed at the holographic computer console emanating from his ring.

[color=green]“So, we rock up, fish them out of whatever hole they landed in, and tell them to settle in for a nice long stay?”[/color] Hal summarized. They were over Newark by now, the teal ocean waves yielding to the stout grey of the city before it.

[color=#83de9b]“That’s the gist.”[/color] Kilowog started their descent, guiding them down steady, like he expected them to come into a runway. It was how Hal had been landing, without the control to swoop through the air and stop on a dime like Kilowog could.

[color=green]“Shouldn’t I have a real combat construct going into this? Just in case?”[/color] Hal said. Refugee or not, everything Hal had met from space so far had proven capable of putting him out on his ass.

Kilowog’s ears flitted down, like a cat’s, which was apparently the Bolovaxian equivalent of an eye roll. [color=#83de9b]“Remember, [i]milk run[/i]. If things go sideways I’m always here as your security blanket. And you’ve got that eyeball thing to rely on.”[/color] Kilowog said, which prompted Hal to roll [i]his[/i] eyes.

[color=green]“It’s really more of a parlor trick.”[/color] He said. He’d been tinkering with it since his encounter with Sinestro, mostly focusing on making sure it didn’t hurt so damn much when he put it in. But Kilowog had taught him a thing or two about the capacities of his ring, assorted scanners and meters and bits and bobs. Now the ring’s data was overlain with his view of the world, reporting air pressure, coordinates... Hell, it was like being back in the cockpit. 

[color=#83de9b]“Mhm. Speaking of, you named it yet?”[/color] Kilowog asked.

[color=green]“No. Do I have to?”[/color] Hal looked back at Kilowog, incredulous, but his warthog face remained stoic.

[color=#83de9b]“Everything’s gotta have a name,”[/color] he said. He had a point, Sinestro [i]had[/i] called that ball thing something… Ganthet’s whatever-it-was. Which surely meant the lightning trick was called Sinestro’s Forehead Size Ego.

What’s in a name, anyway? He picked Highball as his callsign because they called dad Martini back in the war, and Hal though it’d be right to name himself after a drink, too. He didn’t figure out that the Highball was just a kind of [i]glass[/i] until later, but Hal thought it was the sentiment that counted. What was wrong with Highball, anyway?

[color=green]“I’ll call it [i]The Highball[/i],”[/color] Hal decided.

[color=#83de9b]“Eyes up, we’re here. Ring’s reading something extraterrestrial in the bay down a ways, but… I can’t see for shit. You got anything?”[/color] Kilowog asked.

[color=green]“Well, now you mention it,”[/color] Hal stalled in the air, letting the focus of his energy concentrate in his eyes, shifting the shape of his lens until the light filtered just so, and he finally had the magnification to see the surface in all its detail.

There were two figures below, one a woman, wreathed in a curtain of fiery locks, the other wrapped in deep blue chitin armor. They were an odd pair to be sure, but certainly no stranger than Hal and Kilowog traipsing through the sky. He might’ve taken the blue one for a bug, but they looked… Human, more or less. Maybe the big bad galaxy out there wasn’t so different. They stood across from each other on a patch of gravel rooftop, close enough to the bay that the girl’s hair listed in the sea breeze.

The ship, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen out across the rippling water, light up with the booming echoes of the fireworks above. Maybe the new alien packed camouflage.

[color=green]“I’ve got a, uh… Orange hippie and a blue guy. Ship’s not in sight,”[/color] Hal reported.

[color=#83de9b] “Sounds like our Tamaraenean found a friend. You talk to them, I’ll see if I can’t find the ship,”[/color] Kilowog said.

[color=green]“[i]Me[/i] talk to them? Alone?”[/color] Hal stopped, the edges of his flight construct wibbling in the wind. So far, Kilowog had been with him every step of the way, and having someone that big, ugly, and pink on his side had done a thing or two to allay his worries.

[color=#83de9b]“Ha! You think they wanna see[i]this[/i] poozer’s mug instead, do ya? Time to fly the nest, Jordan. Catch you in five. And Hal?” [/color]

[color=green]“Yeah?”[/color]

[color=#83de9b]“[i]The Highball[/i] sucks, we’ll brainstorm when I get back.”[/color] With that, Kilowog rolled to the right, disappearing in the night’s haze.

And just like that, Hal was alone, dipping lower and lower in the sky until he didn’t need his lens to see the detail in the hippie’s clothes, purple and green that moved as easily with the wind as her hair. If Kilowog said he could do this, he [i]could[/i]. Right? They couldn’t kick his ass worse than Sinestro.

His gaze flitted to the blue one, tracing the inlays and patterns of his armor, and the slope of his arm down into a… [i]Was that a cannon?[/i]

[i]Milk run, milk run,[/i] Hal repeated to himself. Maybe it was just a sign of Tama-whatsit greeting. He’d drawn close enough that he could hear their voices echoing below each snapped explosion above. It was his time to say something, something [i]profound[/i]. These weren’t just more Corps boys, but real honest to goodness visitors to his earth from the beyond. This could be their first contact with humanity. It had to be good.

[color=green]“Hey, this, ah, sector is on lockdown by the… Esteemed Green Lantern Corps,”[/color] Hal jerked his thumb out to the bay, [color=green]“and I can’t let you park there.”[/color]