Post by DocQuantum on Jun 28, 2017 20:42:21 GMT
Prologue
The telephone rang.
"Hello?" said a tired voice as she spoke into the receiver. Still in bed, she remained in a vertical position as she listened.
"Is this Harold Jordan's residence?" said someone on the other end of the line, evidently a young Latino woman, judging by her slight accent.
The woman in bed cleared her throat and replied, "May I ask who's calling?"
"Then this is Jordan's number? Can I speak to him, please? It's very urgent!"
"It may be urgent, darling, but we still have something called manners," said the woman, running one hand through her dark brunette hair to uncover her face. "Tell me who's calling, and I might be able to help you."
There was a pause at the other end of the line, and then finally the young woman spoke. "All – all right. I guess it's OK to tell you," she said. "My name is Rosita – Rosita Ramone – and I'm calling about Guy Gardner."
"Guy Gardner?" said Carol Ferris incredulously. "Let me stop you right there, honey. Whatever story Guy's been feeding you is probably either an outright lie, part of a lame practical joke, or -- or worse." She hoped she didn't need to completely spell things out for the poor girl.
"No, no!" the girl protested. "Mr. Gardner's in trouble, and only Harold Jordan can help him!"
Carol bit back another flippant response as she considered the idea that the girl just might be telling the truth. Yes, Gardner was a jerk, but he was still a Green Lantern, just like Hal. And Green Lanterns helped each other out in the end, no matter what bad blood might be between them. In this case, Carol knew that the longstanding feud between the two men had begun over a woman named Kari Limbo. As much as Carol loved him, she knew that Hal had always had bad judgment when it came to the women in his life. Although she knew Hal to have been faithful to her now and during the times they were together, a small part of her hoped desperately that this Rosita was not another one of Hal's short-lived girlfriends from the times that they had been apart.
Of course, Carol still harbored guilt over breaking up with Hal Jordan in the first place years ago, when she'd become engaged to Jason Belmore partly out of a desire to have some stability in her life. At the time, Hal hadn't seemed ready to take the next step in their relationship, and she still didn't know that he was living a secret life as a super-hero, nor that she had a secret life of her own with a split personality as Star Sapphire. She and Hal had seemed destined to forever come back together, only to break up again.
The two had endured far too many years of tumult and not nearly enough times of tranquility in their relationship, and she wanted things to work out for them this time. She just wasn't so sure how she felt about his continued heroic career as Green Lantern. While she wasn't about to deliver him another ultimatum about choosing either her or the Green Lantern Corps, as she had done once before, it continued to be a sore spot with her. Something had to change, but she didn't know what.
"All right," she said in resignation. "Give me your number, Rosita, and I'll try to track him down for you."
Chapter 1
Arisia of Graxos IV was a young, beautiful alien woman who now lived on Earth. As a member of the Earth-based Green Lantern Corps, she was officially based in the Green Lantern Citadel located just outside of Los Angeles, California, where she associated with the two humans and four fellow extraterrestrials who made up the rest of the Green Lantern Corps of Sector 2814. However, Arisia had made friends outside of this unique social clique thanks to the fact that she was a teenage super-hero living on the West Coast. She had called San Francisco her second home for more than a year now because of her association with Titans West. It was there that she had met her boyfriend, Hal Jordan.
No, this was not the same Hal Jordan who had been Earth's first Green Lantern. This Hal Jordan was actually the younger cousin of her fellow Green Lantern, a young man much closer to Arisia in age who shared a membership in Titans West and a heroic lifestyle as the super-hero Air Wave. They were, essentially, young heroes in love, and they wanted the whole world to know it.
That was partly why they now soared through the skies above San Francisco hand-in-hand, Arisia using her Green Lantern Corps power ring to propel herself, and Air Wave using his electromagnetic abilities to do the same. There was no earth-shattering crisis causing them to rush to save the day; they simply wanted to enjoy this beautiful spring day together, and only in their costumed identities could they truly cut loose.
"I love you, Hal!" Arisia said happily, never as sure about anything in her whole life as she was about that.
Air Wave grinned and said, "I love you, too, baby!"
"We should go away together!" Arisia said enthusiastically. "Ooh – maybe somewhere off-planet! You've never seen how beautiful Graxos IV is this time of year!"
"That would be awesome," said Hal. "I've always wanted to visit the planet that produced such a beautiful girl as you."
Arisia positively beamed as she smiled at him. She had been afraid he wouldn't want to make the trip, but as usual Hal wouldn't let her down. She truly was lucky to have found him. While he was just as brave as his older cousin, whom Arisia had a crush on for a long time, the younger Hal Jordan not only returned her affections but embraced them. She knew she was getting ahead of herself, but she had lately begun fantasizing about marrying her young man. Perhaps, she thought, a trip to her beautiful planet would inspire him to ask her to take her hand in marriage.
Maybe they'd even get married during the trip. That would be amazing. Of course, she'd want Hal's family to be there, especially his mom, but it wouldn't be all that difficult to bring them back to her home planet for the ceremony. And of course, they could also have another wedding ceremony on Earth in her secret identity of Cindy Simpson. Pretty soon, they'd want to start having children together, and they would have to decide where to raise them. Earth was fine for now, but it was positively primitive compared to Graxos IV. She hoped desperately that Hal would like her planet so much that he'd want to live there, for at least a little while. With her Green Lantern ring, they could easily live on both planets for a few months at a time with no problem. Of course, Hal would have to study her planet's language and customs, and he'd have to train for a new career. But he was already in his second semester at UCLA, training for an engineering career here on Earth; would he even consider starting anew on another world?
"Honey?" Hal said. "What's that faraway look in your eyes all about?"
"Oh, nothing," she said, glancing down. "I'm just happy to be with you."
"Me, too," said Air Wave, and he meant it. Arisia was different than any other girl he had ever known.
When he first met her and had started to get to know her in the Titans, he had thought of her as a prospective girlfriend someday. He had an on-again, off-again girlfriend back home in Dallas named Karen at the time, but things had never been very serious between them. He and Arisia became friends, and soon after, Hal began sensing that she liked him, too. She wasn't very subtle about her feelings for him, either. Hal had never had experience with girls showing such overt interest in him before, so he was a bit wary at first. As a typical guy, he was usually more attracted to girls who were aloof and unattainable. But Arisia wasn't just any girl with a crush on him – she was hot. As a professional teenage model, and a super-hero besides, Arisia was a real catch. While he played things slow at first, it was when he finally realized that other guys were interested in her that he knew he had to act if he didn't want to lose her.
But it had been Arisia who had made the first move when she kissed him. And just like that, they began going out, even though he wasn't sure how much they really had in common – she was an alien pixie, while he was just a kid from Texas by way of California, after all – and he took things slow. They were both still young and had all the time in the world to get to know each other. What was the rush? But sometimes he suspected that Arisia didn't think the same way. It was a careful balancing act to let their relationship grow at its own pace while still developing the kind of deeper intimacy and commitment that Arisia wanted.
They had never taken a trip together before, so this would be a big step for them. It would be an even bigger step for him to finally meet Arisia's family, who had been chosen champions of the planet Graxos IV for years. He hoped that it wouldn't be too weird. Interracial dating was still frowned upon by a lot of people on Earth, especially in some parts of Dallas where he had lived. He couldn't imagine what they'd have to say about inter-species dating. And he had no idea if the people of Graxos IV would accept an Earthman dating their champion. He gulped and wondered if a trip somewhere closer to home might be better – Hawaii, for example, or Fiji.
"What are you thinking about, honey?"
Hal Jordan snapped out of his thoughts and said, "Oh... nothing." Arisia frowned slightly. Hal knew she hated when he always gave that answer to this frequent question, but the truth was that he usually wasn't thinking of anything specific when she did ask him. Thinking quickly, he added, "Just thinking about how beautiful you are." She smiled at him again, and he pulled her close to him for a kiss.
Just then, Air Wave perked up as he heard an alert on the radio. Thanks to his electromagnetic powers, he was able to pick up radio waves, and was especially attuned to any news about his former home of Dallas. Something he heard caused him to frown.
"What is it, baby?" asked Arisia, saddened that their kiss had been so brief. She could see by the look in his eyes that he was needed elsewhere. Such was the life of a super-hero.
"An emergency in Dallas," said Air Wave, listening to the rest of the news alert. "A hostage situation at Arlington Stadium. The Texas Rangers baseball team is being held hostage by an unidentified super-villain!" He looked at Arisia with concern in his eyes and said, "Honey, I've gotta go. They need me back home."
"All right," Arisia said, a slight pout in her lower lip. "Do you need any help?"
"Go to your photoshoot, Ari," said Hal. "If I need help, I'll contact you right away."
"You sure?"
"Don't worry about me, honey. Air Wave can definitely handle a single super-villain."
"OK," the Green Lantern replied. "I'll miss you."
"Miss you, too!" said Hal, turning and preparing to fly due east.
As Air Wave began to speed away, Arisia called playfully, "And stay away from those Dallas Cheerleaders!"
"That's football, baby! See ya!" Air Wave said with a laugh, and quickly disappeared into the horizon.
***
Katma Tui traveled through the vast, seemingly endless blackness of space that was called the Obsidian Deep. She had made the trip there from Earth several times since last summer's galactic invasion orchestrated by the Controllers. That splinter group of Oans had taken over Oa itself for a period of two months, cutting its energies off from the rest of the universe and causing every Green Lantern power battery to go dry. When the former Green Lanterns – using the uniforms of the Darkstars according to an old emergency plan by the Green Lantern Corps should anything cut off their power – finally returned to Oa to liberate it, they were met by shadow creatures – eyeless creatures able to thrive in complete darkness who communicated using high-pitched sounds. The Controllers, having rescued these creatures when their home was destroyed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, made them their soldiers on Oa.
Since an energy-dampening field kept all power-based weapons and equipment inactive on Oa's surface, the former Green Lanterns had to battle the shadow creatures using primitive projectile weapons. After a fierce battle, the Green Lanterns were successful, and soon after, Oa was liberated. Hal Jordan and Valura Tur-Thol, the Green Lantern from Rokyn, had even managed to bring the Guardians of the Universe and their pregnant Zamaron wives back to this dimension for good. When the shadow creatures were defeated, they had assumed that they would all be slaughtered, which was what the Controllers had implied would happen to them. Upon being told that they were free to leave, they were so overjoyed and grateful that many of them began dancing and singing on the spot. But since their home was long gone, someone needed to find them a home. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See DC Universe: Invasion, Book 3: The Return.]
Katma Tui volunteered for this duty. After all, it was she who had recruited the lone member of the Green Lantern Corps in the Obsidian Deep. Rot Lop Fan, a member of a species that also possessed no eyes, could not understand the words Green or Lantern, possessing no sight and having no words for such foreign concepts as color or light, and Katma was forced to be creative when she recruited him as a member of the GLC. She called him F-Sharp Bell, a name he could understand, and referred to the Green Lantern Corps as the F-Sharp Bell Corps. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See "In Blackest Night," Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #3 (1987), which takes place sometime before the Crisis on Infinite Earths.]
After the invasion, she left for the Obsidian Deep and enlisted F-Sharp Bell's help to find a home for the shadow creatures. And ever since then, she had made several trips to the Obsidian Deep to check on the progress of the shadow creatures. Since most of them were young, and they had no elders left to guide them, one of Rot Lop Fan's people had volunteered to help shepherd that society into maturity, teaching the shadow creatures how to find and prepare food, how to divide up their resources, and how to organize their society according to skills.
Katma was pleased to see that much progress had been made with the shadow creatures' burgeoning society. They had been tribalistic in nature on their old world, but since they were now so few in number, they had been forced to consider the entire number of them as one large tribe. Also gone were many of the prejudices that had kept certain shadow creatures with different voices and different degrees of softness and hardness of skin on the fringes of society. All were welcome now, since the talents of all were needed in order for the shadow creatures to survive. It was a fascinating society, one that she hoped to speak of while on Earth, where so many prejudices still existed.
She and John Stewart had been together for nearly three years now, and married for more than half a year, but she knew from the disapproving looks on some peoples' faces that their relationship was still judged by some as an abomination. She was an alien from Korugar who had married an African-American man from Earth. In some eyes – especially given the anti-alien prejudice that had grown after last year's invasion – that made her a criminal and John a traitor to his species. She sighed. Earth had so much to learn before it was ready to truly join the galactic community.
Reaching a wormhole located at the far reaches of the Obsidian Deep, she used it to cut down much of her traveling time back to the Milky Way Galaxy and to Earth itself. Otherwise, it would have taken her many lifetimes to make such a trip through the black void between the galaxies.
As she headed for the next wormhole that would take her closer to home, she wondered about the Green Lantern Summit that the Guardians of the Universe had announced last year at the conclusion of the invasion. It was to be held very soon, according to the Guardians, but the extremely long-lived Guardians' version of soon meant something very different than what she thought of as soon. They had not yet set a date, but some had speculated that the summit would take place an Earth year after the invasion, in which case they still had about three months left. This summit would be as full a gathering of Green Lantern Corps members as possible on Oa, and would decide the fate not only of the GLC itself but the continued role of the Guardians of the Universe and their female Zamaron counterparts. She supposed they must be busy, since all twenty-two of the Zamaron brides of the Guardians were pregnant. The Zamarons did not show any outwards signs of pregnancy, however, since Oan fetuses existed in wombs similar to tesseracts that grew no larger on the outside no matter how large they grew on the inside. That was quite a trick, she thought, since it allowed the Zamarons to keep their shapely figures. She wondered if she could find out how to do that when she and John were ready to have children.
Everyone agreed that the Green Lantern Summit was too long in coming. The Darkstars – those former members of the Green Lantern Corps who had left the GLC to strike out on their own after the invasion – had already had their summit and were well on their way to protect many worlds in parts of the galaxy that needed more protection than the Green Lanterns were either able or willing to give.
She envied the Darkstars. They, after all, were not bound by the same rules that governed the GLC. Instead of waiting for a higher power such as the Guardians to act, they wrote their own set of rules and guidelines to guide them in their policing actions. And while they had accepted equipment and limited help from the Controllers, they were completely independent of both them and the Guardians of the Universe. The Darkstars leader Ferrin Colos finally had what he wanted – a fairer, more autonomous, and more flexible version of the GLC. She wished the Darkstars well and indeed hoped that they would fill the gaps left by the Green Lanterns.
As she neared the inner edge of the Orion-Cygnus Arm, as Earth astronomers called the region of space where her adopted planet existed, she was close enough to give her husband a call and let him know she would be home soon.
Opening a line of communication using her power ring, she said, "My John?"
After a few moments, the voice of John Stewart replied, "Hey, baby! How are you?"
"I'm fine, honey," Katma Tui said, smiling at the sound of her beloved's deep voice. Hearing it, she almost felt like she was already home. "I'll be home shortly. Can you make dinner tonight?"
"Already on it, Kat-lady," said John. "I had to eat and run, but I've got leftovers for you in the fridge at the Citadel. Hopefully, Kilowog hasn't already eaten them."
Katma laughed. "Won't you be home when I get there, John?"
"Sorry, babe, but I had to leave suddenly. There's a situation in Detroit that I have to take care of."
"Oh?" Katma asked, recognizing the name of her husband's hometown. "Why are you needed there?"
"Hostage situation," said John. "An unidentified super-villain is holding the Detroit Tigers hostage – that's my baseball team – and I don't think the police will be able to handle it alone."
"All right, baby," said Katma. "I'll miss you. I can't wait to see you later. Will you do your best to get home as soon as possible?"
"Definitely," said John. "We'll make it a special night tonight, OK? I promise."
"All right, my John. I love you."
"Love you, too, Kat-lady! John out."
Katma Tui continued smiling as she flew toward the last wormhole that would take her to the star system of Sol and her adopted home.
The telephone rang.
"Hello?" said a tired voice as she spoke into the receiver. Still in bed, she remained in a vertical position as she listened.
"Is this Harold Jordan's residence?" said someone on the other end of the line, evidently a young Latino woman, judging by her slight accent.
The woman in bed cleared her throat and replied, "May I ask who's calling?"
"Then this is Jordan's number? Can I speak to him, please? It's very urgent!"
"It may be urgent, darling, but we still have something called manners," said the woman, running one hand through her dark brunette hair to uncover her face. "Tell me who's calling, and I might be able to help you."
There was a pause at the other end of the line, and then finally the young woman spoke. "All – all right. I guess it's OK to tell you," she said. "My name is Rosita – Rosita Ramone – and I'm calling about Guy Gardner."
"Guy Gardner?" said Carol Ferris incredulously. "Let me stop you right there, honey. Whatever story Guy's been feeding you is probably either an outright lie, part of a lame practical joke, or -- or worse." She hoped she didn't need to completely spell things out for the poor girl.
"No, no!" the girl protested. "Mr. Gardner's in trouble, and only Harold Jordan can help him!"
Carol bit back another flippant response as she considered the idea that the girl just might be telling the truth. Yes, Gardner was a jerk, but he was still a Green Lantern, just like Hal. And Green Lanterns helped each other out in the end, no matter what bad blood might be between them. In this case, Carol knew that the longstanding feud between the two men had begun over a woman named Kari Limbo. As much as Carol loved him, she knew that Hal had always had bad judgment when it came to the women in his life. Although she knew Hal to have been faithful to her now and during the times they were together, a small part of her hoped desperately that this Rosita was not another one of Hal's short-lived girlfriends from the times that they had been apart.
Of course, Carol still harbored guilt over breaking up with Hal Jordan in the first place years ago, when she'd become engaged to Jason Belmore partly out of a desire to have some stability in her life. At the time, Hal hadn't seemed ready to take the next step in their relationship, and she still didn't know that he was living a secret life as a super-hero, nor that she had a secret life of her own with a split personality as Star Sapphire. She and Hal had seemed destined to forever come back together, only to break up again.
The two had endured far too many years of tumult and not nearly enough times of tranquility in their relationship, and she wanted things to work out for them this time. She just wasn't so sure how she felt about his continued heroic career as Green Lantern. While she wasn't about to deliver him another ultimatum about choosing either her or the Green Lantern Corps, as she had done once before, it continued to be a sore spot with her. Something had to change, but she didn't know what.
"All right," she said in resignation. "Give me your number, Rosita, and I'll try to track him down for you."
Chapter 1
Arisia of Graxos IV was a young, beautiful alien woman who now lived on Earth. As a member of the Earth-based Green Lantern Corps, she was officially based in the Green Lantern Citadel located just outside of Los Angeles, California, where she associated with the two humans and four fellow extraterrestrials who made up the rest of the Green Lantern Corps of Sector 2814. However, Arisia had made friends outside of this unique social clique thanks to the fact that she was a teenage super-hero living on the West Coast. She had called San Francisco her second home for more than a year now because of her association with Titans West. It was there that she had met her boyfriend, Hal Jordan.
No, this was not the same Hal Jordan who had been Earth's first Green Lantern. This Hal Jordan was actually the younger cousin of her fellow Green Lantern, a young man much closer to Arisia in age who shared a membership in Titans West and a heroic lifestyle as the super-hero Air Wave. They were, essentially, young heroes in love, and they wanted the whole world to know it.
That was partly why they now soared through the skies above San Francisco hand-in-hand, Arisia using her Green Lantern Corps power ring to propel herself, and Air Wave using his electromagnetic abilities to do the same. There was no earth-shattering crisis causing them to rush to save the day; they simply wanted to enjoy this beautiful spring day together, and only in their costumed identities could they truly cut loose.
"I love you, Hal!" Arisia said happily, never as sure about anything in her whole life as she was about that.
Air Wave grinned and said, "I love you, too, baby!"
"We should go away together!" Arisia said enthusiastically. "Ooh – maybe somewhere off-planet! You've never seen how beautiful Graxos IV is this time of year!"
"That would be awesome," said Hal. "I've always wanted to visit the planet that produced such a beautiful girl as you."
Arisia positively beamed as she smiled at him. She had been afraid he wouldn't want to make the trip, but as usual Hal wouldn't let her down. She truly was lucky to have found him. While he was just as brave as his older cousin, whom Arisia had a crush on for a long time, the younger Hal Jordan not only returned her affections but embraced them. She knew she was getting ahead of herself, but she had lately begun fantasizing about marrying her young man. Perhaps, she thought, a trip to her beautiful planet would inspire him to ask her to take her hand in marriage.
Maybe they'd even get married during the trip. That would be amazing. Of course, she'd want Hal's family to be there, especially his mom, but it wouldn't be all that difficult to bring them back to her home planet for the ceremony. And of course, they could also have another wedding ceremony on Earth in her secret identity of Cindy Simpson. Pretty soon, they'd want to start having children together, and they would have to decide where to raise them. Earth was fine for now, but it was positively primitive compared to Graxos IV. She hoped desperately that Hal would like her planet so much that he'd want to live there, for at least a little while. With her Green Lantern ring, they could easily live on both planets for a few months at a time with no problem. Of course, Hal would have to study her planet's language and customs, and he'd have to train for a new career. But he was already in his second semester at UCLA, training for an engineering career here on Earth; would he even consider starting anew on another world?
"Honey?" Hal said. "What's that faraway look in your eyes all about?"
"Oh, nothing," she said, glancing down. "I'm just happy to be with you."
"Me, too," said Air Wave, and he meant it. Arisia was different than any other girl he had ever known.
When he first met her and had started to get to know her in the Titans, he had thought of her as a prospective girlfriend someday. He had an on-again, off-again girlfriend back home in Dallas named Karen at the time, but things had never been very serious between them. He and Arisia became friends, and soon after, Hal began sensing that she liked him, too. She wasn't very subtle about her feelings for him, either. Hal had never had experience with girls showing such overt interest in him before, so he was a bit wary at first. As a typical guy, he was usually more attracted to girls who were aloof and unattainable. But Arisia wasn't just any girl with a crush on him – she was hot. As a professional teenage model, and a super-hero besides, Arisia was a real catch. While he played things slow at first, it was when he finally realized that other guys were interested in her that he knew he had to act if he didn't want to lose her.
But it had been Arisia who had made the first move when she kissed him. And just like that, they began going out, even though he wasn't sure how much they really had in common – she was an alien pixie, while he was just a kid from Texas by way of California, after all – and he took things slow. They were both still young and had all the time in the world to get to know each other. What was the rush? But sometimes he suspected that Arisia didn't think the same way. It was a careful balancing act to let their relationship grow at its own pace while still developing the kind of deeper intimacy and commitment that Arisia wanted.
They had never taken a trip together before, so this would be a big step for them. It would be an even bigger step for him to finally meet Arisia's family, who had been chosen champions of the planet Graxos IV for years. He hoped that it wouldn't be too weird. Interracial dating was still frowned upon by a lot of people on Earth, especially in some parts of Dallas where he had lived. He couldn't imagine what they'd have to say about inter-species dating. And he had no idea if the people of Graxos IV would accept an Earthman dating their champion. He gulped and wondered if a trip somewhere closer to home might be better – Hawaii, for example, or Fiji.
"What are you thinking about, honey?"
Hal Jordan snapped out of his thoughts and said, "Oh... nothing." Arisia frowned slightly. Hal knew she hated when he always gave that answer to this frequent question, but the truth was that he usually wasn't thinking of anything specific when she did ask him. Thinking quickly, he added, "Just thinking about how beautiful you are." She smiled at him again, and he pulled her close to him for a kiss.
Just then, Air Wave perked up as he heard an alert on the radio. Thanks to his electromagnetic powers, he was able to pick up radio waves, and was especially attuned to any news about his former home of Dallas. Something he heard caused him to frown.
"What is it, baby?" asked Arisia, saddened that their kiss had been so brief. She could see by the look in his eyes that he was needed elsewhere. Such was the life of a super-hero.
"An emergency in Dallas," said Air Wave, listening to the rest of the news alert. "A hostage situation at Arlington Stadium. The Texas Rangers baseball team is being held hostage by an unidentified super-villain!" He looked at Arisia with concern in his eyes and said, "Honey, I've gotta go. They need me back home."
"All right," Arisia said, a slight pout in her lower lip. "Do you need any help?"
"Go to your photoshoot, Ari," said Hal. "If I need help, I'll contact you right away."
"You sure?"
"Don't worry about me, honey. Air Wave can definitely handle a single super-villain."
"OK," the Green Lantern replied. "I'll miss you."
"Miss you, too!" said Hal, turning and preparing to fly due east.
As Air Wave began to speed away, Arisia called playfully, "And stay away from those Dallas Cheerleaders!"
"That's football, baby! See ya!" Air Wave said with a laugh, and quickly disappeared into the horizon.
***
Katma Tui traveled through the vast, seemingly endless blackness of space that was called the Obsidian Deep. She had made the trip there from Earth several times since last summer's galactic invasion orchestrated by the Controllers. That splinter group of Oans had taken over Oa itself for a period of two months, cutting its energies off from the rest of the universe and causing every Green Lantern power battery to go dry. When the former Green Lanterns – using the uniforms of the Darkstars according to an old emergency plan by the Green Lantern Corps should anything cut off their power – finally returned to Oa to liberate it, they were met by shadow creatures – eyeless creatures able to thrive in complete darkness who communicated using high-pitched sounds. The Controllers, having rescued these creatures when their home was destroyed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, made them their soldiers on Oa.
Since an energy-dampening field kept all power-based weapons and equipment inactive on Oa's surface, the former Green Lanterns had to battle the shadow creatures using primitive projectile weapons. After a fierce battle, the Green Lanterns were successful, and soon after, Oa was liberated. Hal Jordan and Valura Tur-Thol, the Green Lantern from Rokyn, had even managed to bring the Guardians of the Universe and their pregnant Zamaron wives back to this dimension for good. When the shadow creatures were defeated, they had assumed that they would all be slaughtered, which was what the Controllers had implied would happen to them. Upon being told that they were free to leave, they were so overjoyed and grateful that many of them began dancing and singing on the spot. But since their home was long gone, someone needed to find them a home. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See DC Universe: Invasion, Book 3: The Return.]
Katma Tui volunteered for this duty. After all, it was she who had recruited the lone member of the Green Lantern Corps in the Obsidian Deep. Rot Lop Fan, a member of a species that also possessed no eyes, could not understand the words Green or Lantern, possessing no sight and having no words for such foreign concepts as color or light, and Katma was forced to be creative when she recruited him as a member of the GLC. She called him F-Sharp Bell, a name he could understand, and referred to the Green Lantern Corps as the F-Sharp Bell Corps. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See "In Blackest Night," Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #3 (1987), which takes place sometime before the Crisis on Infinite Earths.]
After the invasion, she left for the Obsidian Deep and enlisted F-Sharp Bell's help to find a home for the shadow creatures. And ever since then, she had made several trips to the Obsidian Deep to check on the progress of the shadow creatures. Since most of them were young, and they had no elders left to guide them, one of Rot Lop Fan's people had volunteered to help shepherd that society into maturity, teaching the shadow creatures how to find and prepare food, how to divide up their resources, and how to organize their society according to skills.
Katma was pleased to see that much progress had been made with the shadow creatures' burgeoning society. They had been tribalistic in nature on their old world, but since they were now so few in number, they had been forced to consider the entire number of them as one large tribe. Also gone were many of the prejudices that had kept certain shadow creatures with different voices and different degrees of softness and hardness of skin on the fringes of society. All were welcome now, since the talents of all were needed in order for the shadow creatures to survive. It was a fascinating society, one that she hoped to speak of while on Earth, where so many prejudices still existed.
She and John Stewart had been together for nearly three years now, and married for more than half a year, but she knew from the disapproving looks on some peoples' faces that their relationship was still judged by some as an abomination. She was an alien from Korugar who had married an African-American man from Earth. In some eyes – especially given the anti-alien prejudice that had grown after last year's invasion – that made her a criminal and John a traitor to his species. She sighed. Earth had so much to learn before it was ready to truly join the galactic community.
Reaching a wormhole located at the far reaches of the Obsidian Deep, she used it to cut down much of her traveling time back to the Milky Way Galaxy and to Earth itself. Otherwise, it would have taken her many lifetimes to make such a trip through the black void between the galaxies.
As she headed for the next wormhole that would take her closer to home, she wondered about the Green Lantern Summit that the Guardians of the Universe had announced last year at the conclusion of the invasion. It was to be held very soon, according to the Guardians, but the extremely long-lived Guardians' version of soon meant something very different than what she thought of as soon. They had not yet set a date, but some had speculated that the summit would take place an Earth year after the invasion, in which case they still had about three months left. This summit would be as full a gathering of Green Lantern Corps members as possible on Oa, and would decide the fate not only of the GLC itself but the continued role of the Guardians of the Universe and their female Zamaron counterparts. She supposed they must be busy, since all twenty-two of the Zamaron brides of the Guardians were pregnant. The Zamarons did not show any outwards signs of pregnancy, however, since Oan fetuses existed in wombs similar to tesseracts that grew no larger on the outside no matter how large they grew on the inside. That was quite a trick, she thought, since it allowed the Zamarons to keep their shapely figures. She wondered if she could find out how to do that when she and John were ready to have children.
Everyone agreed that the Green Lantern Summit was too long in coming. The Darkstars – those former members of the Green Lantern Corps who had left the GLC to strike out on their own after the invasion – had already had their summit and were well on their way to protect many worlds in parts of the galaxy that needed more protection than the Green Lanterns were either able or willing to give.
She envied the Darkstars. They, after all, were not bound by the same rules that governed the GLC. Instead of waiting for a higher power such as the Guardians to act, they wrote their own set of rules and guidelines to guide them in their policing actions. And while they had accepted equipment and limited help from the Controllers, they were completely independent of both them and the Guardians of the Universe. The Darkstars leader Ferrin Colos finally had what he wanted – a fairer, more autonomous, and more flexible version of the GLC. She wished the Darkstars well and indeed hoped that they would fill the gaps left by the Green Lanterns.
As she neared the inner edge of the Orion-Cygnus Arm, as Earth astronomers called the region of space where her adopted planet existed, she was close enough to give her husband a call and let him know she would be home soon.
Opening a line of communication using her power ring, she said, "My John?"
After a few moments, the voice of John Stewart replied, "Hey, baby! How are you?"
"I'm fine, honey," Katma Tui said, smiling at the sound of her beloved's deep voice. Hearing it, she almost felt like she was already home. "I'll be home shortly. Can you make dinner tonight?"
"Already on it, Kat-lady," said John. "I had to eat and run, but I've got leftovers for you in the fridge at the Citadel. Hopefully, Kilowog hasn't already eaten them."
Katma laughed. "Won't you be home when I get there, John?"
"Sorry, babe, but I had to leave suddenly. There's a situation in Detroit that I have to take care of."
"Oh?" Katma asked, recognizing the name of her husband's hometown. "Why are you needed there?"
"Hostage situation," said John. "An unidentified super-villain is holding the Detroit Tigers hostage – that's my baseball team – and I don't think the police will be able to handle it alone."
"All right, baby," said Katma. "I'll miss you. I can't wait to see you later. Will you do your best to get home as soon as possible?"
"Definitely," said John. "We'll make it a special night tonight, OK? I promise."
"All right, my John. I love you."
"Love you, too, Kat-lady! John out."
Katma Tui continued smiling as she flew toward the last wormhole that would take her to the star system of Sol and her adopted home.
