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[overcame_fear]

It's been a couple of days since the League's confrontation with Martian Manhunter, and Hal's been trying to accept it and move on. Find the alien, arrest him, see justice done. Should be just that simple.

But it hasn't been like that. Try as he might, Hal can't escape a lingering sadness that things turned out this way. He would never admit that he's almost relieved when his search for J'Onn turns up no leads, and yet....

When he finally gives up and returns to the base, he finds the remaining members of the League huddled around Snapper, who sits at a large display showing a digital map of the world. Flash is the first to look up as Hal flies down to them.

"Lantern--any sign of J'Onn?"

Hal shakes his head. "I've searched high and low. Nothing."

Comments

[raptorcanaria]

The locus agents keep coming, and never stay down for long. Dinah can keep them from doing her any harm,, but she can't do anything to stop the tide. The others are having similar problems. Flash shouts something to J'Onn, but the Martian is too busy to focus.

Suddenly there's a pair of hand on her arms and shiver running through her - a shiver that doesn't stop. Flash has her and he's vibrating.

And suddenly she's in the corner, by the computer bank, with Aquaman, and then the fallen shape of J'Onn - with Flash.

"Hold the line!" he says. "Give me time to operate."

In the corner, she and Aquaman have the advantage and can at least keep the tide at bay for a little while.

And for a while, all there is is the fight. Fists and feet and concentration and the sound of Flash tapping on the keyboard so fst she can't make out keystrokes.

And then... the beek of a cpmputer has never been so welcome.

PROCESS NULLIFIED.

[overcame-fear.livejournal.com]

Not a moment too soon. Hal can see the effects of Flash's success all the way from orbit, as the tremendous stress on the continents dies away. Hal lets out a sigh of relief.

But as the constructs fade away, he calls on the Ring again, speeding back down to Earth to join his teammates.

They aren't out of this yet.

[raptorcanaria]

Dinah doesn't have time to be grateful for long, though. The agents are still attacking. Behind her, she's aware of Flash helping J'Onn to his feet, aksing him to do one more thing.

"Enter these men's minds. Find out if there's a way to shut down their bodies."

J'Onn probes, and Dinah can see the result as the agents back off a little. Something's wrong.


And then J'Onn screams.

They all scream. The room is suddenly filled with the agonising scream of every man inside except the four of them

"Their brains!" J'Onn screams in agony. "Someone's tampered with them! They're taking their secrets to the grave!

"I feel them dying!"

Aquaman yells at J'Onn to get out of their heads, and the screaming gets louder for a hellish second before silence.

And all the Locus bodies fall t their feet.



"I don't get it," Dinah says into the silence. "Did we win?"

"Yeah," Flash replies, surveying the corpses around them.

"Hooray."

[overcame-fear.livejournal.com]

Green Lantern arrives just in time to witness the awfulness of it all: the agents of Locus falling, almost as one, and J'Onn's horror at sharing their final moments.

He hovers in mid-air, not wanting to touch that floor, until he joins the rest of the team as they file silently out of the complex and back to their headquarters.

It feels like a long trip back, but no one says a word on the way.