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

Hal had managed to get a shield up only because his ring had given off a warning a split second before the explosion. The shield had been too weak to completely stop the blast, but it had been enough to keep him from being knocked completely out. He hoped it had been enough to help Bruce and Betty as well.
“Jordan…” The word hung in the cold desert air like a hangman’s noose. The voice behind it could have been warm and soothing, but the clipped syllables and the deep malevolence spoken into that word left it clear to any listener that the person speaking it had no good intentions in mind.

“Sinestro?” Hal wasn’t sure if he was in a bad dream or a worse reality. Sinestro had been the first among the Corps. The Guardians of Oa, the creators of the Corps, even deferred to his stance at times due to the incredible peace and unity he had created in his sector of space.

At least, that was the case before Hal had exposed him as being a ruthless despot. Apparently it’s easy to establish peace when you’ve shown your populace that you’re willing to kill over the least bit of aggression. After Hal had proven Sinestro’s betrayal of the Corps’ ideals, there had been a massive manhunt and fight. It seemed that Sinestro’s methods were shunned only by almost all of the Corps. Some stood by his side to fight against fellow Corps members. It was only until the Guardians stepped in and forcibly removed the rings of the traitors that the conflict ended. The last time Hal had seen Sinestro or any of his followers, they had been serving lifetime sentences in science-cells on Oa.

Somehow Sinestro had escaped. Not only that, Hal noticed, but he had somehow acquired a yellow power ring. Hal had no idea they could come in different colors.

Sinestro floated there in front of him, dark promises written on his face. “Death is too good for you, for what you’ve done to me.” Sinestro’s ring began to glow brighter, “but I’ll take it.”

Hal used his ring to shove himself brutally to the side, barely avoiding an energy blast from Sinestro’s ring. He had purposely moved away from Betty and Bruce. He had no idea if they were hurt or not. He had no idea if Sinestro knew or cared about them, but he knew he needed to move the fight away from them to make sure neither would get hurt. Hal had seen Bruce and Betty’s forms near her car so he tried to circle away and back from them.

This wasn’t Sinestro’s first fight, he saw Jordan’s movements for what they were. The pathetic fool was trying to lure him away from those other humans. Sinestro didn’t care about them, but they could be used as tools.

When Jordan moved away, attempting to lure him, Sinestro took a step closer to the humans. They were starting to move but were clearly still dazed, possibly hurt. Over the next few minutes he had moved Hal closer to them instead of farther way. Sinestro didn’t care about killing the humans, but he did care about making Hal Jordan feel desperate. Desperation could disrupt will and without will, a Green Lantern’s ring is just a glowing toy. Desperation bred fear, fear from nearby creatures fed his own ring. Jordan was close enough to his precious humans now that he would be have to spend some of his attention on defense in case energy or debris from the fight slipped by to threaten them. He concentrated, bringing forth more power to bear against this second-rate Green Lantern. He would slowly increase the pressure on that miserable Jordan until he began crushing him, one bone at a time.

Hal matched Sinestro’s power, energy for energy. For every bit it increased, Hal increased his own. He had to stop Sinestro from hurting anyone else, especially his most dear friends. He had to! As their test of strength increased in intensity, debris from the area between them began getting shoved away, then thrown, then hurtled. Sand and rocks were being blown around at a dangerous rate. Hal realized he might be coming to a point where he had to choose between overpowering Sinestro or defending his friends.

His thoughts were interrupted by his ring. “Alert! Power levels down to 10%, entering into power reserve mode. Please find appropriate atmosphere for recharge. Shutdown is imminent at continued use levels.” Over his ring, Hal could see Sinestro starting to smile.

“What!?! I thought you only had a time limit!”

“False. A Green Lantern Corps Ring has a large, but finite pool of energy to use. The recharge timer is set as a failsafe against unauthorized beings attempting to use it as lanterns are tied to their bearer biometrically.”

“But that doesn’t even make sense, why wouldn’t the Guardians just make the rings biometric??” Hal focused on pushing his ring to its limits. He had to end this fight now.

“Answer is unknown. Alert! Power reserve levels at 9%.”

Sinestro’s smile grew and he started to laugh.