Second Chances: Green Lantern

Chapter 31

After Hawkgirl took Blue Beetle back to the Nest, Green Lantern, Ember and Hawkman were all that were left to fight the OMAC and while normally that wouldn't be a problem, the OMAC was designed to operate just like the Scarab, which meant it could handle the attacks of all three of them, once it was fully operational. Which meant that their priority had to be disabling the suit before it finished downloading the Scarab's code.

Green Lantern was hoping that getting Blue Beetle further away might help.

"Oracle, what's the status?" Green Lantern asked over the comms.

"Hawkgirl just brought Blue Beetle back to the Nest, Ted's getting him situated in the medbay and I'm trying to stop or at least slow down Victoria's hacking of the Scarab's systems. The scarab might be alien tech, but the OMAC is not. If I can't stop the upload, I'm gonna try to slow it down. The only way to truly stop it now that Victoria's breached the Scarab's defenses is to destroy that suit." Oracle said.

"How long do we have?" Ember asked.

"Best guess, five minutes, maybe less. I'm working on slowing the process down, but you have to destroy that suit before it's fully armed." Oracle said.

"Then let's tear that thing apart." Hawkman said, converting his mace into an Nth metal ax to make the job easier.

"You really think that I haven't prepared to fight you? Even without being at full capacity, the OMAC is more than capable of tearing all of you apart." Victoria bragged.

"Big talk. Let's see if she can back it up." Green Lantern said as he and Ember both fired energy blasts from their rings at Victoria, who easily used the OMAC to generate shields to protect against it, but while she was doing that, she didn't notice Hawkman come flying down from behind and using his ax to land a serious blow to the back of her suit, disabling it's thrusters and causing her shields to falter.

"What you just did, do it again, because the download speed just became slower." Oracle said.

"Hawkman hit the back of her suit with his ax." Ember said.

"And according to the data we've collected, it looks like that's where the power core is located. Target that and the helmet, since that controls the mental interface that allows her to control the suit without being bonded to it like Winn is to his." Oracle said.

"Gladly." Ember said, honestly thrilled to have an excuse for a headshot as she blasted at the helmet of the OMAC, only for it to dodge.

However, it was clear that Victoria Kord was relying too much on the tech, since she had no real combat experience herself while Green Lantern and Hawkman were both seasoned warriors and Ember had come a very long way in a very short time. The fight had quickly turned in favor of Team Lantern, especially after Ember knocked out the transmitter that was sending the hack signal to the scarab, canceling the upload.

"Oracle, what's the status?" Ember asked.

"That shot did the trick. The upload was canceled, Winn's back on his feet and Khaji Da is rebooting as we speak. I have to admit, that design was solid, but it wasn't the suit that was the problem." Oracle said.

"It was the fact that its pilot had no experience in combat and failed to properly test that prototype before bringing it into the field. She should've put a real soldier in it, not just taken it herself." Ember said.

"A good inventor tests their own products personally." Victoria said, seriously pissed off that her download had been disrupted when she was so close to being able to unleash a fully operational OMAC on these fools.

"Maybe, but this was not a good way to test it." Green Lantern said he blasted the OMAC back.

"I don't care what I have to do or how long it takes me, I will find a way to get that code and make my OMAC a reality." Victoria insisted as she managed to get to her feet in a barely functional and barely still intact suit.

"You really need to get a hobby." Ember said to her aunt, not that Victoria knew about their relationship.

"Let's finish dismantling that suit so that we can deliver her to the cops." Hawkman said, only for them to be blasted back a strange yellow light.

"Oh no." Green Lantern said as he looked up to see Sinestro, fully dressed in his yellow lantern suit floating above them.

"Is that who I think it is?" Ember asked, since Hal and James had told her about this traitor.

"If you think it's the megalomaniac Sinestro then yes. Hawkman, secure Victoria. Ember, with me. Time for the big leagues." Green Lantern said as both lanterns took to the sky.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm afraid that I'll be taking that human with me." Sinestro said as he blasted them with a yellow ray that clashed with both Green Lantern and Ember's green rays.

"Since when do you care about humans?" Green Lantern asked, remembering how dismissive of humans Sinestro had been when he'd first joined.

"Well the Guardians seem to think you have promise, so I want to see if they're worth the hype. If they can handle the power of a green lantern, I wonder what they can do with the power of other colors. And I think that this particular human could be of use to me in more ways than one." Sinestro said as he blasted the Lanterns to the ground before slamming his ring into the ground, causing a yellow shockwave to ripple through the ground, knocking them all of their feet and when the light died down, both Sinestro and Victoria were gone, all that remained in their place was the wreckage of her OMAC armor.

"I need to head to Oa immediately and inform the Guardians about this." Green Lantern said, knowing that if Sinestro was recruiting, then things were about to get even worse than they already were.