Tales of the Green Lantern Corps: Noleon Fae

Dictator Blues

by CSyphrett

He was a Coluan this month and regarded his aide with questioning eyes. Battly was very efficient about his duties. So he was not surprised at the progress reported.

He was surprised by what the subject of his experiment wanted. “He wants to take revenge on Earth?” said the director. “Still a trace of megalomania, I see.”

“Yes, sir,” agreed Battly. “Should we delete the imprinted memory, and see what would happen if he didn’t have any experience?”

“No, Battly,” said the Director. “Give him what he wants within reason, and let him do this fool’s errand. Maybe it will calm him down. If he is captured, delete him. We can get another memory somewhere else if we have to do so.

“Has the special parties arrived yet?”

“They are in the designated meeting area,” replied Battly.

“Let’s get this over with,” said the Director.

The group assembled by Battly waited impatiently for his employer’s presence. They had been summoned to deal with a problem. What the problem was they hadn’t been told yet, but they knew it was something to do with a meddler.

They were all hit men/bounty hunters and that was what they dealt in.

Blood and guts. Mostly other beings blood and guts.

The Director appeared in a hologram, a base Coluan with a monkish face, and dark hair swept back.

“Gentlemen,” said the Director, smooth voice carrying over the transmission. “I have been having problems with certain individuals. I want them removed from the scene.

“The primary target is a Green Lantern named Noleon Fae. He has cut into my shipping business to a certain extent.

“The secondary target is Vril Dox. His government is also becoming an interference.

“As soon as the targets are confirmed dead, your accounts will be credited with your fees.”

The hologram snapped off.

The Director glided into the control room. Battly walked behind a small staff of operators, monitoring their special agent. He saw that the miniature warship he had outfitted was leaving the system.

“In transit to Sol,” said Battly, following the progress of the brain in a box. “Leaving hyper space in ten minutes.”

The Director regarded the diagram for the Mongul, skeptical the cyborg would be able to make much of an impact on that world.

“Dropped in system, heading for Earth at top speed,” reported Battly. “Weapons gearing up. Ship detected in orbit. Firing particle throwers at full power. Ship has lost power, falling out of orbit.”

“What’s the make of the ship?” asked the Director.

“Thanagarian according to the threat assessment,” said the aid.

“Marvelous,” said the Director sarcastically. “Didn’t the subject have dealings with Thanagarians?”

“A Thanagarian police officer was responsible for his condition,” said Battly.

***

Dexter wore headphones playing “Living in America” as he worked at his terminal. He didn’t notice the beam of light slicing across the room at eye level, cutting through the walls of the building. He dropped a pencil off his desk while he was typing. When he straightened up, the top of his monitor was lying behind the rest of the terminal.

“What the?” said Dexter, straightening his glasses.

He heard a creaking above him. He looked up. The ceiling began to fall down on top of him. He dove under his desk to escape the mass of steel and concrete. The rebar rods and chunks of concrete crashed through the floor, ripping the dense material like paper.

Dexter tore his headphones off, as he peered out from under his protection. Then the hole widened and dumped him and his desk to the floor below. He landed with a thump.

“I thought I had gotten away from this when I left home,” he complained softly.

Clark Kent heard the trouble before he saw it. A glance out of the window told him all he needed to know for the moment. He vanished into the stairwell leading to the roof, pulling off his suit as he ran. He collapsed his suit into a pocket hidden in his cape as he took to the air to meet this new menace.

The silver craft reminded him of the Legion ships of his boyhood on a much smaller scale. A sparkling rod leaped from the top of the disc, cutting across a building in a straight line.

“That’s enough,” said Superman, blocking the rest of the beam with his hand.

“About time you arrived,” said the computerized voice from the spacecraft. “I have been wanting revenge for a while and now I have the means to my ends.”

“Brainiac?” Superman asked.

“No,” said the ship. “I am Mongul, so prepare to die.”

***

Noleon Fae traveled a great deal more than other Green Lanterns. He made his home on a planet named Alvarin, but mostly tracked down fugitives from justice and returned them to their home planets, or whatever league their planet belonged too.

He had his limits.

Fugitives from the Dominion and other aggressive systems were only hunted if they attacked shipping lines outside of those areas of the galaxy.

Any resistance to their forms of government were fine in his book. He drew the line at any move against the democratic governments outside their spheres.

Then he hunted them down and returned them to where they would get a fair trial.

Piracy was high on his list of things to look into which is what brought him to where he stood now. Ships had gone missing in the forlorn system that he was scanning with his power ring, and he was here to find out why.

***

Vril Dox looked up at his aide walked into his office. He placed his desk computer on standby. He had a meeting with his cabinet this morning.

It was not something he looked forward too. Reports of raids along his system borders had increased, as well as in the neighboring systems.

He thought one mind was behind the assaults. That was pure conjecture on his part. He needed incontrovertible proof of such a mastermind.

He also felt that this mastermind had a link in his government somewhere. There had been too many failed raids by the police forces to think otherwise.

He walked the halls of his building, lost in plans to expose his internal enemy before trying to find the outer source.

***

Superman stared at his enemy in astonishment. Mongul’s comatose body had been taken from his Fortress of Solitude a month ago. He had been believed killed when the ship of his rescuer had detonated in a battle with the Green Lantern Corps.

Now here something was claiming to be the alien conqueror.

Superman scanned the ship with his super vision, hoping to locate the pilot and forestall any more damage to his beloved Metropolis.

All he saw were internal workings consistent with a robot or android, and not a cyborg at all.

“You’re not the real Mongul,” he said. “You’re just a machine that thinks it’s Mongul.”

“What difference will that make to a dead man?” said the loudspeaker. A green beam of light erupted from under the disk of its body. The light burned through the Kryptonian, sending him crashing to earth.

“Now to destroy this city,” announced the mechanical marauder, with a tone of glee in its artificial voice.

***

Noleon Fae glided through space. His ring analyzed the region in the hopes of detecting a clue to the vanishing of merchant ships on the way to Colu and some of the other nearby systems.

His bloodhound found a trail leading to a moon. The moon was in orbit around a gas giant. He let the dog drag him along, his ring shielding him from atmospheric friction. He followed the trail to a grove of trees.

He was disturbed that the bark on the trees, most of the leaves, the local grass were all yellow. He found himself on guard and suspicious.

It was common knowledge that a Green Lantern’s ring did not affect anything of that color.

Too common if you were killed in an ambush because someone had painted their ammunition the one color that would go through your protective shield.

***

Vril Dox looked out over the room. His Parliament waited for him to give his speech. Garryn Bek stood behind him to one side. His assessment of the problem was not optimistic to say the least.

Piracy was claiming half of his planet’s trade goods. A stop had to be put to the situation.

A glitter came from the back of the room. Dox jerked to one side, as his podium exploded in slivered wood. Garryn Bek threw himself forward, pulling a hand gun from under his coat. He saw a flash, before everything went black.

Dox pulled a splinter from his cheek as he ran for the door. He swerved, the floor and walls erupting around him as he ducked back into the corridor leading to his office.

Dox skidded to a halt as two humanoids in a space armor appeared in the hallway. They opened leveled their rifles and fired before he could think of reversing himself.

***

“Recall the subject,” said the Director. “I think he has stretched his personality enough for the time being.”

Battly nodded, gesturing to one of the technicians on duty. Long, spindly fingers flew across the holopads. The signal went out across the subspace channels.

“Subject refuses the signal,” reported the aide quietly.

“He does, does he?” said the Director. “Dump his core system. We’ll see how much freedom he really has.”

“What about the ship?” asked Battly.

“Self-destruct,” said the Director, flicking imaginary lent off the sleeve of his immaculate jacket. “Mustn’t let the Terrans have any more advanced technology.”

“Yes, sir,” said Battly calmly, aware that the robotic body would destroy everything within miles of the epicenter of the blast. He watched as the ready lights snapped on.

***

Noleon Fae stood in one place. He had a conch shell of green to his ear. He seemed to be listening to it. He dispersed the creation as he placed a ringed visor over his eyes. He knew what was going on now.

Could he beat it with his power ring?

Glittering lit the forest around the Green Lantern. Energy beams cut the air, as Fae ducked forward. He seemed to step away from the path of the blaster bolts. He ran from the trap, stepping behind a tree.

He paused, wondering how he was going to counter attack as yellow energy rained down on his position. A blaster bolt ripped the ground up in front of him, hurling Fae off of his feet. He collided with a yellow tree in a bad slide.

He picked himself up on his knee, his visor lighting his opponents up among the yellow trees.

Fae aimed his ring at the nearest mercenary as energy sliced through his temporary refuge. He generated a wave of gravity, propelling the humanoid away in front of the wave. The mercenary hit a tree, and fell to the ground.

A beam from the fighting force sliced into Fae.

***

The silver ship crashed to the ground beside the stunned Superman. He scanned it with his super vision, realizing the robot had lost control for some reason. He saw that the core of the thing was building up a charge.

Superman grabbed the star ship by the edge of its disc body. He flew into the atmosphere, robotic body over his head. His acute hearing was telling him he didn’t have long to act.

He hurled the disc with wings with all of his titanic strength. The ship sailed beyond the moon, accelerating without the friction of Earth’s air. He watched it until it flared into a momentary star bright enough to light the sky in daylight.

***

Vril Dox had a series of revelations as he saw the energy pulses cut through the air, heading right at him.

The first was he should have thought of making the building impenetrable to teleporters.

The second was at least the mastermind had finally tipped his hand enough to show there was a mastermind.

The third was “Did I wear my vest today?”

The bolts hit his chest, shredding the jump suit’s top. Dox felt heat and pain as the vest he wore tried to convert the energy of the projectiles into harmless light. He fell to the floor, as the vest worked to protect him with its limited capabilities.

The assassins approached him cautiously, weapons at the ready. One took the time to aim at his head to make sure the next bolt would finish the job. Then they could collect their pay and move on to the next job.

Dox flinched at the whining charge up, as he prepared to move. He could hear Bek complain loudly at his performance so far in the back of his mind.

***

Noleon Fae lay still under the yellow branches of a nearby tree. His long coat and green shirt underneath were torn by the energy that had sliced into him. His hunters approached cautiously, weapons at the ready.

Everyone knew Green Lanterns were vulnerable to yellow. That’s why they had rigged the ambush on a predominately yellow planet, wore yellow armor, and used weapons that fired yellow energy, or projectiles. So no one thought twice about approaching the fallen lantern to collect some kind of proof that he had been killed.

Green tentacles erupted from Fae’s power ring. They plunged into the eye and mouth holes in a furious display of speed. The armor burst apart as the tentacles swelled in diameter. Suddenly naked and unarmed, the assassins were easily flung about in the grip of the prehensile limbs.

Fae got to his feet, feeling the fresh scar on his chest with a fingertip.

“Anybody want to talk voluntarily?” he asked.

***

Vril Dox rolled to the left, watching the floor glow and throw fiery sparks in the air as his enemies’ weapons discharged where he should have been. He pulled a sonic driver from his belt, thumbing the beam wide open. The mercenaries began to shake, caught in the vibrating field extended by the tool.

Dox got to his feet, as weapons fired wildly. He plunged into an empty office, as scorched air drifted to his nostrils. Dox locked the door behind him to gain precious seconds. He examined the office closely, looking for a weapon.

He settled on the com screen and went to work with the sonic driver. He only had to hold out until Bek noticed he was gone and investigated.

***

“Mongul, Mongul, Mongul,” said the Director, with a shaking of his head as he talked. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Let me out of this box, you popinjay,” said the angry, mechanical reply. “I was winning for once.”

“Shut up,” said the xenomorph, coldly. “I own you pad, works, and cover. When I say kill, you kill. When I say heel, you heel. One push of the button, and you’re deleted forever and I will get someone else to fill your shoes.

“You may have done some grandiose things in the past, but you’re my servant now. Get used to it.

“One more act of disobedience, and out you go.”

“You can’t talk to me like that,” said the disembodied conqueror. “I am the greatest ruler alive.”

“You’re nothing but a tin box that can be shut off at any time I wish.”

The Director made a gesture at Battly. The aide disabled the connections to the artificial brain’s senses with a button push. They waited five minutes before turning the robot back on.

“Next time,” said the Director. “It’s for good. Understood?”

“Understood,” said the machine sullenly.

But I will pay you back for this indignity, it thought silently.

***

The pirates burst into the closed office, shattering the door with energy bolts. A com screen came to life in a show of static. They paused at the rapidly moving colors played over their eyes repeatedly.

One of the armored men collapsed in a fit of despair. He dropped his rifle, sobbing at a wasted life. Those in front slowly followed, crying like children. Those who hadn’t seen the screen yet quickly backed away from the strange events. Temporary glitter marked teleporters performing a recall.

Vril Dox slipped pass his assailants as guards jogged into view. He warned the security detail about the hypnotic screen as he went to survey the damage. He realized absently he had broken a sweat in the fight. He wiped the blood from his face as he walked to the congressional chambers.

Questions had been raised that needed some kind of inquiry to answer.

***

Noleon Fae flew to Colu as fast as his ring could carry him on the back of a winged lizard. He slipped past the defensive screens without thought. He passed through the silver president’s building quietly.

He saw that he was too late to help the Coluan president.

Vril Dox’s security forces had everything in hand.

The Green Lantern shared what information that he had, and a raid of the meeting place was planned with Coluan troops. Both men knew that their enemy had struck at them and left himself impervious to detection.

They could only wait for developments as the hidden mastermind conducted his operations with impunity.

Epilogue

The Director looked up as Battly entered the office. He waited patiently, already knowing what his aide would say.

The look on the man’s face said it all.

“The assault squads failed,” said Battly. “The meeting place is being gone over by Coluan forensics teams. So far, they have found nothing to trace back to us.”

“Keep me informed, Battly,” said the Director. “A man as relentless as Vril Dox will not be put off by a simple assassination attempt. We may have to plan another attempt in the next few months. Until then we wait, and watch until the investigation gets colder.”

“Yes, sir,” said the aide, turning and leaving.