re: Bard's Poor Attempt at a Combined Marvel/DC Universe (an ongoing project)

The tingling from Hal’s ring had gotten stronger. He moved his hand from the table down to his lap, but he felt pretty sure that if the sensation got any stronger his whole body might vibrate. He needed to get somewhere private to find out what was going on and he needed to do it soon. Betty was telling him about the trip she and Bruce were planning to take to Rome when the waitress showed up to take their order. Perfect timing! “Betty, while you order I’m going to run to the ‘little pilot’s room’.

Once there, he checked to make sure he was alone, locked the door then willed the ring to become visible. “Okay, ring, what’s going on?”

“Anomalous surge in gamma radiation, close proximity. Advise caution.”

Hal had just willed his costume and shield aura into appearing when something huge exploded through the bathroom wall across from him then through the next one, leaving a massive opening from the parking lot in back of the building, through the bathroom and into the dining area. He flew through the hole into the dining room and almost ran into the reason for the hole. It was huge, he guessed it was a solid eight feet tall and ridiculously muscled. Hal had seen some sights ever since joining the Green Lantern Corp, but thus far he hadn’t seen any humanoid anywhere close to this thing’s size. Not even Kilowog, and Hal often called him a “hulking brute”.

Before Hal realized what was going on, the jade behemoth strode forward then bent over to reach for something. Over the tumult of customers fleeing the building he heard a woman scream from in front of the monster.

Betty!

Hal wrapped the beast in the green hard light powered from his ring. With enough willpower, Hal could shape that light into anything he desired and right now he desired a straightjacket around this thing and to fly it far away from innocent civilians. The straightjacket appeared and the ring lifted the creature up as Hal began quickly towing it backward. “Hands off the customers, big guy.” They had barely made it out to the parking lot when the creature burst free. The backlash stunned Hal briefly, he hadn’t felt anything like that since his first week of training against Kilowog.

The creature hit the ground for only a moment before turning then leaping up at Hal. Hal hadn’t been expecting that. The creature clamped one massive hand onto Hal’s shoulder and another onto his opposing hip as they crashed together. The thing’s strength was incredible, he could feel the pressure on his shield aura as they hung there in the air a dozen feet above the parking lot. The beast was literally trying to tear him apart! He tried increasing the size of his shield to break the monster’s grip but it was so strong that all he accomplished was to barely ease the pressure. The giant, green behemoth responded by letting go of Hal’s hip but then used that hand to begin pummeling Hal in the face. If he hadn’t had the ring and good training… he didn’t want to think about it.

He focused on maintaining his shield while flew them outside of town. It felt like hours, but only a few seconds had passed and they were well beyond the city and out into open, barren expanse. Hal poured everything he could spare into focusing on expanding the shield around his shoulder. All he needed was to loosen the things grip just… enough… THERE! With the creatures grip loose enough Hal shot sideways while retracting his shield, it was just enough to allow him to slip from the giant’s fist. They were a thousand feet in the air, Hal was pleased to see it couldn’t fly.

Again, it landed then shot back up into the air at him like a giant, green missile with rage issues. This time, Hal was ready. He shifted to the side far enough to get out of its way then got in behind it as it continued its upward arc. He willed half-dozen giant pincers into existence behind the beast. The creature thrashed as it tried to find some sort of leverage, but Hal was quick with his thoughts and randomly let a pincer go from this thought if the monster’s hand got too close to it. It’s hard for incredible strength to come into play if you don’t have any leverage.

“So… what’s your name, big guy?”

The creature ignored him as it continued to try to get at the things holding him up, but also denying him any leverage. Apparently, it didn’t care if it fell a thousand feet. Again. Hal soon realized a couple of stationary, bright green glows in the sky might draw a little too much attention, so he began to lower them into a small canyon. “You know, you remind me of my old buddy, Kilowog. He’s a big guy as well, but he uses words to express himself. At least at first. Sometimes. Have you ever heard of the word ‘poozer’?”

The beast seemed to finally begin realizing that it was never going to get free by trying to grab the pincers. As Hal continued talking, it began to focus on him instead.

“Yeah, it’s a strange word but the big hulking brute seems to like using it.” Hal realized the beast was paying attention to him now as they drifted slowly downward below the rim of the canyon walls.