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Chapter 347: Virus
Hal Jordan admitted to himself that he wasn't the type to use his head. It had been that way since he was a child, right up until he went against his mother's wishes to join the Air Force, was chosen by a power ring, and entered the Green Lantern Corps.
Often, his body would act before he had time to think through the pros and cons of an operation. Perhaps his fearlessness was related to this, as he rarely considered the consequences of his actions and never feared accepting any possibility, including death.
But things were different now.
He was no longer a rookie fresh out of the gate. He had been through countless battles, experienced life and death, been awarded the highest honor of the Green Lantern Corps, and was even asked by Ganthet to lead the Corps to win a war.
This forced him to learn to change his way of acting and thinking.
Because before, he only had to be responsible for himself. He could be reckless, charging into any danger on a wave of passion. But as a leader, he had to bear more.
The teammates who trusted him, the subordinates willing to entrust their lives to him. Every one of his decisions no longer affected just him, but everyone.
For this reason, even the fearless Hal Jordan had to learn to think for the sake of the battle.
Just like today.
"You may have frozen the surface of the entire planet, but you can't possibly freeze its core!"
Hal stepped forward, the firearm construct from his ring continuously pouring out magma. The back of the weapon was a constructed conduit, extending all the way to a hole he had punched in the ground behind him.
He had come up with this idea just as he was knocked back by Brainiac. As he rolled to a landing, he had released his ring's energy, drilling all the way to the planet's core, then constructed a pipe-like tool to draw the scorching lava as a weapon against the low temperature.
"Now, how about a taste of some real heat?"
"Unexpected."
Brainiac's robot waved its arm, releasing an invisible fluctuation like an air current. Under the effect of the resulting vortex, the direction of the gushing magma suddenly changed, deflecting elsewhere.
A large amount of lava landed on the surrounding world of ice and snow, immediately hissing and steaming with thick white smoke.
Hal frowned and clicked his tongue lightly.
"Data updated. The tactical ability of Lantern Hal Jordan requires reassessment," Brainiac muttered to himself.
"Huh? You mean you thought I was just some muscle-headed meathead?"
Hal flew up, the green light on his power ring erupting once more.
"I feel offended!"
The green light erupted like a giant orb. The moment it left the ring, it split apart, transforming into a sky full of light specks that flew toward Brainiac like a curtain of green rain.
"Are you trying to use an area-of-effect attack to break through the 'Absolute Frost' blockade this time?"
Brainiac's tone remained unperturbed. The robot continued to raise its arm.
"It's useless. Absolute Frost can even freeze light. No matter how much there is—"
*Thwack.*
The robot's arm was hit.
The reversal came so suddenly, Old Bu didn't even have time to finish his sentence.
The sky full of green light specks broke through the frozen barrier with unstoppable momentum, pelting the robot's entire body with a continuous series of crackling explosions.
"Error... Defense line breached. Does not match calculations..."
The robot staggered backward, its eyes flickering on and off, as if perplexed by this result.
The previous attack from the Green Lantern's ring had clearly been frozen successfully, so why couldn't it be frozen this time?
But its AI's processing speed and learning ability were extremely fast. A quick analysis soon revealed the problem.
A hint of astonishment appeared in that cold, mechanical voice: "You... filled every green light bullet with 'heat' drawn from the planet's core to act as gunpowder...?"
"That's right."
Hal grinned coldly. The conduit he had created was still continuously drawing "ammunition" from the planet's core. A large amount of lava was being infused into the green light fired from his ring, splitting along with the "bullets" the moment they were fired.
Each of the green light bullets in that sky-filling barrage was wrapped in a glob of lava, still hot from being drawn from the planet's core. It was because of this heat that these green light bullets could penetrate the defensive line and hit their target before their heat was exhausted and they were frozen.
"I underestimated you, Lantern Jordan."
Brainiac's eyes glowed with a cold light.
"But that won't happen again. My system can repair this level of damage in 1.25 seconds. The same little trick won't work again—huh?"
The robot's eyes flickered on and off, flashing twice as if it had a bad connection.
It tried to take a step forward, but its foot suddenly stumbled. It seemed somewhat surprised and tried to activate the thruster behind it to stabilize its balance, but the thruster also sparked with a series of crackling pops.
"What's wrong? Old Bu?" Hal sneered with his hands on his hips. "Got a virus, huh? Heh, I hate computer viruses too, especially that bundled-download crap. You can never get rid of it..."
"What did you do?"
At this moment, sparks were erupting all over the robot's body. Its limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and it sat down on the ground in a somewhat comical posture, its neck tilted to one side.
"It wasn't me, it was 'it' that did something," Hal chuckled. "What I just hit you with, wrapped in those 'bullets,' wasn't just magma."
As he spoke, a streak of green light flew out from a breach in the Brainiac robot's body and hovered beside Hal.
It was an extremely small sphere of green light. Even stranger, the orb seemed to be empty, with nothing inside.
But through this seemingly empty sphere of green light, Brainiac scanned the true form hidden within.
"A... Green Lantern!?"
"That's right," Hal smiled. "Meet Lyselle Pen, a sentient smallpox virus... and a glorious Green Lantern."
The universe is vast and full of wonders. Any creature with willpower can become a candidate for the Green Lantern Corps, and Lyselle was the first virus in history to be chosen by a power ring.
Interestingly, in the original comics, there was also a virus-like Yellow Lantern in the Yellow Lantern Corps who specialized in sneaking into people's bodies to cause destruction and carry out assassinations. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's mother was attacked and killed by that Yellow Lantern.
These two virus Lanterns, the Green Lantern and the Yellow Lantern, could be considered a pair of natural enemies.
Being a leader not only means shouldering the responsibility of protecting all team members but also requires the ability to make rational use of each member's strengths.
On this trip, Lyselle also followed the team to Avadelle, and had been carried by Hal all along as a secret weapon.
Just now, he found an opportunity to shoot this Lantern colleague into the machine's body. The virus Green Lantern went on a rampage of green light inside the robot, and Old Bu's meticulously prepared cryo-robot died on the spot.
"I see. Fighting like a leader, not a soldier. Hal Jordan, it's not just your outstanding willpower; your capacity for growth is equally astonishing."
By this point, most of the machine's body was already scrapped, with only its head still talking.
"...This also makes you worthy of collection."
"Yeah, yeah, say whatever you want," Hal said, already unfreezing his Green Lantern teammate who had been frozen nearby.
Brainiac's voice continued to sound.
"You may have managed to break through the blockade of one frost mech..."
Hal's power ring suddenly began to flash.
"Alarm, detecting more dangerous low-temperature energy sources..."
He whipped his head around, only to see in astonishment that a second robot had emerged from the curtain of snow and wind. Its body was as smooth as a mirror, its structure seemingly crafted from ice crystals, standing coldly in the storm.
No, it wasn't just that one.
There was a second, a third... and more.
The frozen machines, from all directions, surrounded them like an army.
This thing was actually mass-produced.
Brainiac's calm voice continued to ring out.
"...So, how will you deal with the rest of them?"
(end of chapter)
Hal Jordan admitted to himself that he wasn't the type to use his head. It had been that way since he was a child, right up until he went against his mother's wishes to join the Air Force, was chosen by a power ring, and entered the Green Lantern Corps.
Often, his body would act before he had time to think through the pros and cons of an operation. Perhaps his fearlessness was related to this, as he rarely considered the consequences of his actions and never feared accepting any possibility, including death.
But things were different now.
He was no longer a rookie fresh out of the gate. He had been through countless battles, experienced life and death, been awarded the highest honor of the Green Lantern Corps, and was even asked by Ganthet to lead the Corps to win a war.
This forced him to learn to change his way of acting and thinking.
Because before, he only had to be responsible for himself. He could be reckless, charging into any danger on a wave of passion. But as a leader, he had to bear more.
The teammates who trusted him, the subordinates willing to entrust their lives to him. Every one of his decisions no longer affected just him, but everyone.
For this reason, even the fearless Hal Jordan had to learn to think for the sake of the battle.
Just like today.
"You may have frozen the surface of the entire planet, but you can't possibly freeze its core!"
Hal stepped forward, the firearm construct from his ring continuously pouring out magma. The back of the weapon was a constructed conduit, extending all the way to a hole he had punched in the ground behind him.
He had come up with this idea just as he was knocked back by Brainiac. As he rolled to a landing, he had released his ring's energy, drilling all the way to the planet's core, then constructed a pipe-like tool to draw the scorching lava as a weapon against the low temperature.
"Now, how about a taste of some real heat?"
"Unexpected."
Brainiac's robot waved its arm, releasing an invisible fluctuation like an air current. Under the effect of the resulting vortex, the direction of the gushing magma suddenly changed, deflecting elsewhere.
A large amount of lava landed on the surrounding world of ice and snow, immediately hissing and steaming with thick white smoke.
Hal frowned and clicked his tongue lightly.
"Data updated. The tactical ability of Lantern Hal Jordan requires reassessment," Brainiac muttered to himself.
"Huh? You mean you thought I was just some muscle-headed meathead?"
Hal flew up, the green light on his power ring erupting once more.
"I feel offended!"
The green light erupted like a giant orb. The moment it left the ring, it split apart, transforming into a sky full of light specks that flew toward Brainiac like a curtain of green rain.
"Are you trying to use an area-of-effect attack to break through the 'Absolute Frost' blockade this time?"
Brainiac's tone remained unperturbed. The robot continued to raise its arm.
"It's useless. Absolute Frost can even freeze light. No matter how much there is—"
*Thwack.*
The robot's arm was hit.
The reversal came so suddenly, Old Bu didn't even have time to finish his sentence.
The sky full of green light specks broke through the frozen barrier with unstoppable momentum, pelting the robot's entire body with a continuous series of crackling explosions.
"Error... Defense line breached. Does not match calculations..."
The robot staggered backward, its eyes flickering on and off, as if perplexed by this result.
The previous attack from the Green Lantern's ring had clearly been frozen successfully, so why couldn't it be frozen this time?
But its AI's processing speed and learning ability were extremely fast. A quick analysis soon revealed the problem.
A hint of astonishment appeared in that cold, mechanical voice: "You... filled every green light bullet with 'heat' drawn from the planet's core to act as gunpowder...?"
"That's right."
Hal grinned coldly. The conduit he had created was still continuously drawing "ammunition" from the planet's core. A large amount of lava was being infused into the green light fired from his ring, splitting along with the "bullets" the moment they were fired.
Each of the green light bullets in that sky-filling barrage was wrapped in a glob of lava, still hot from being drawn from the planet's core. It was because of this heat that these green light bullets could penetrate the defensive line and hit their target before their heat was exhausted and they were frozen.
"I underestimated you, Lantern Jordan."
Brainiac's eyes glowed with a cold light.
"But that won't happen again. My system can repair this level of damage in 1.25 seconds. The same little trick won't work again—huh?"
The robot's eyes flickered on and off, flashing twice as if it had a bad connection.
It tried to take a step forward, but its foot suddenly stumbled. It seemed somewhat surprised and tried to activate the thruster behind it to stabilize its balance, but the thruster also sparked with a series of crackling pops.
"What's wrong? Old Bu?" Hal sneered with his hands on his hips. "Got a virus, huh? Heh, I hate computer viruses too, especially that bundled-download crap. You can never get rid of it..."
"What did you do?"
At this moment, sparks were erupting all over the robot's body. Its limbs twisted at unnatural angles, and it sat down on the ground in a somewhat comical posture, its neck tilted to one side.
"It wasn't me, it was 'it' that did something," Hal chuckled. "What I just hit you with, wrapped in those 'bullets,' wasn't just magma."
As he spoke, a streak of green light flew out from a breach in the Brainiac robot's body and hovered beside Hal.
It was an extremely small sphere of green light. Even stranger, the orb seemed to be empty, with nothing inside.
But through this seemingly empty sphere of green light, Brainiac scanned the true form hidden within.
"A... Green Lantern!?"
"That's right," Hal smiled. "Meet Lyselle Pen, a sentient smallpox virus... and a glorious Green Lantern."
The universe is vast and full of wonders. Any creature with willpower can become a candidate for the Green Lantern Corps, and Lyselle was the first virus in history to be chosen by a power ring.
Interestingly, in the original comics, there was also a virus-like Yellow Lantern in the Yellow Lantern Corps who specialized in sneaking into people's bodies to cause destruction and carry out assassinations. Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's mother was attacked and killed by that Yellow Lantern.
These two virus Lanterns, the Green Lantern and the Yellow Lantern, could be considered a pair of natural enemies.
Being a leader not only means shouldering the responsibility of protecting all team members but also requires the ability to make rational use of each member's strengths.
On this trip, Lyselle also followed the team to Avadelle, and had been carried by Hal all along as a secret weapon.
Just now, he found an opportunity to shoot this Lantern colleague into the machine's body. The virus Green Lantern went on a rampage of green light inside the robot, and Old Bu's meticulously prepared cryo-robot died on the spot.
"I see. Fighting like a leader, not a soldier. Hal Jordan, it's not just your outstanding willpower; your capacity for growth is equally astonishing."
By this point, most of the machine's body was already scrapped, with only its head still talking.
"...This also makes you worthy of collection."
"Yeah, yeah, say whatever you want," Hal said, already unfreezing his Green Lantern teammate who had been frozen nearby.
Brainiac's voice continued to sound.
"You may have managed to break through the blockade of one frost mech..."
Hal's power ring suddenly began to flash.
"Alarm, detecting more dangerous low-temperature energy sources..."
He whipped his head around, only to see in astonishment that a second robot had emerged from the curtain of snow and wind. Its body was as smooth as a mirror, its structure seemingly crafted from ice crystals, standing coldly in the storm.
No, it wasn't just that one.
There was a second, a third... and more.
The frozen machines, from all directions, surrounded them like an army.
This thing was actually mass-produced.
Brainiac's calm voice continued to ring out.
"...So, how will you deal with the rest of them?"
(end of chapter)
