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Chapter 363: City of Valor
It was only then that Brainiac finally realized something was wrong.
He had fled through an exit he had set up beforehand, and when he entered, the environment seemed familiar, like the system he had designed, so he hadn't thought much of it. But now, he saw that was not the case.
Although the system he had escaped into did indeed look like his warship, it was not the one he had left waiting at Saturn for his escape.
It was the one he had first dispatched to Earth, the one that had suffered a crushing defeat and from which no news was ever heard again!
"I've seen plenty of AIs like you. The moment things go south, you turn tail and run. Just upload yourself to some terminal, switch to a new body, and you're back in business, good as new," Orin Vale said calmly. "So, did you really think I'd just charge in here like a brute to fight you to the death without doing any reconnaissance first?
Do I really look that much like a Green Lantern?"
"You… you tampered with the interface of my escape program," Brainiac realized with a start.
"That's right. So, apologies, but I hijacked your escape route," Orin Vale said. "The place you've escaped into now is the warship I captured from you at the very beginning.
Of course, the door is already locked tight. To quote what you just said to me, since you're here, don't even think about going back."
Brainiac's eyes turned red with fury… well, his eyes were already red to begin with.
What a despicable Warrior of Light!
He had been completely outplayed from the very beginning.
But his brain was operating at high speed. He possessed a terrifying computing power that far surpassed even the supercomputers of the most advanced civilizations, capable of performing an incredible amount of calculations in a single instant.
Although the environment he was in had clearly been molded into the shape of Light—if this virtual space were a game, then Orin Vale was now the Game Master—with Old Bu's computational power, he only needed one second to overwrite this change and seize back control of the warship that had been stolen from him. Then, he could do as he pleased again.
Provided he had that one second.
Orin Vale's arms were already formed into a cross.
"I'll miss you… uh… maybe."
Specium Ray!
It erupted within the Data World, the bursting beam of light like a storm that shattered all data. Engulfed by the brilliance, Brainiac let out a sharp, piercing scream.
"Record… updating…"
Brainiac's voice was almost swallowed by the torrent of light.
"Race Code: Ultraman… can also use light ray techniques in the Data World to achieve annihilation effects… Principle cannot be analyzed, cannot be understood… cannot… cannot…"
The data was being erased, his consciousness dissipating. Old Bu's final struggles dissolved within the brilliance of the Specium Ray.
"…Save me…"
At the very end, the Level-Twelve intelligence, Brainiac, after all the negative emotions cultivated by his creator, finally learned a new emotion he hadn't felt in a long time.
Fear.
Brainiac vanished without a trace.
Meanwhile, Parallax, who was happily fighting alongside the Green Lantern Corps outside, took a deep whiff and suddenly seemed to have inhaled a fear with a rather unique flavor.
"Hm? That last mouthful tasted a bit different."
Parallax paused, then took another forceful sniff. The scent of fear permeated the battlefield, but none of it had that unique flavor from a moment ago.
"Could it be my imagination?"
"You're telling us to run?" Jim asked in surprise.
"Yeah, it's going to get very dangerous here," Hal said. "Time is limited, I can't help everyone. I can only help evacuate the residents who might be in the center of the battlefield…"
"But if a battle is coming, you have more important things to do than this, don't you? This will cause you to lose the initiative. If things really get that dangerous later, this will put you at a great disadvantage."
Jim shook his head.
"Don't worry about us, Hal. Running is my style, not yours," Jim said. "My whole life has been filled with worries about safety. I don't let my son play football, and after what happened to my father, I'm still too scared to fly."
"That's because you have more to worry about than I do, Jim. You have your family," Hal said. "I stopped caring about my own safety right after Dad died. Compared to everything else, I only care about you and your family."
"We're your family too, Uncle Hal," Jim's son, Howard, said, looking at him with innocent eyes.
Jim's daughter, Susan, suddenly pointed out the window. "Look at that!"
Hal followed her finger and looked out the window, and he was stunned.
He saw a green light.
Perhaps it started with just one person, lighting up a green lantern on their balcony. A neighbor saw and emulated them. Then the residents in the building across the street saw, and they too followed suit…
And so, the scene before them unfolded.
Among the towering skyscrapers of Coast City, one green light after another lit up. It was like a single spark spreading from one window to the next, one building to another, until it covered the entire neighborhood, the entire street…
A city glittering with green light.
Hal's mouth opened, but for a moment, he was speechless.
Jim patted him on the shoulder and chuckled. "Looks like you've changed this city more than you think. As it stands now, I don't think anyone's going to listen to you and obediently run away."
Hal's expression was complicated.
He had never been one to overthink things.
His actions always preceded his thoughts. Becoming a Green Lantern, standing up to disasters and criminals—he usually just thought about it and did it. He rarely considered what effect his actions would have on others.
Looking back now, he was stunned to realize that so many people had lit green lanterns to walk alongside him.
"A fearless city."
He rose into the air again, surrounded by the green light, muttering to himself. At the same time, he vaguely felt that his own power seemed to have grown stronger.
Sinestro reappeared before him, just as the supporting Sinestro Corps had also arrived. Hal and Sinestro stood face to face, while the Yellow Lanterns surrounded him.
"I see Coast City has lit up with your light, your color," Sinestro said, his hands clasped behind his back, his tone indifferent. "You might recall, Jordan. You accused me of being guilty for receiving this same kind of worship on Korugar."
"The laws of the Lantern Corps clearly state that using a Green Lantern Ring to interfere in the internal politics of a planet is forbidden. I haven't used my Green Lantern Ring to rule Earth."
Hal glanced at the green glow surrounding him.
"That wasn't something you deserved; it was something you demanded."
"We can just never reach an agreement, can we…" Sinestro's eyes narrowed.
At that moment, a beam of green light fell from the sky, abruptly scattering the formation of the Yellow Lanterns. Sinestro hastily raised a shield to defend himself but was still sent flying a great distance.
He focused his eyes and was stunned to see two Guardian Blue Men descending from the sky.
"Ganthet? Sayd?" Hal said in surprise. "Where have you two been?"
"Conducting an important study. Now, it is time to test the results," Ganthet said.
Sinestro stabilized himself and sneered, "Finally, a couple of Guardians have arrived. I thought all the Guardians had turned into cowards hiding in their shells under the influence of fear."
"We have brought a power greater than fear, Sinestro," Ganthet said coldly. "We have brought willpower."
As his voice fell, a green vortex swirled up behind him and Sayd. A particularly brilliant ball of green light burst forth from it, transforming into a physical entity of green light, and let out an earth-shattering roar at Sinestro and his minions.
Ion Shark!
(end of chapter)
It was only then that Brainiac finally realized something was wrong.
He had fled through an exit he had set up beforehand, and when he entered, the environment seemed familiar, like the system he had designed, so he hadn't thought much of it. But now, he saw that was not the case.
Although the system he had escaped into did indeed look like his warship, it was not the one he had left waiting at Saturn for his escape.
It was the one he had first dispatched to Earth, the one that had suffered a crushing defeat and from which no news was ever heard again!
"I've seen plenty of AIs like you. The moment things go south, you turn tail and run. Just upload yourself to some terminal, switch to a new body, and you're back in business, good as new," Orin Vale said calmly. "So, did you really think I'd just charge in here like a brute to fight you to the death without doing any reconnaissance first?
Do I really look that much like a Green Lantern?"
"You… you tampered with the interface of my escape program," Brainiac realized with a start.
"That's right. So, apologies, but I hijacked your escape route," Orin Vale said. "The place you've escaped into now is the warship I captured from you at the very beginning.
Of course, the door is already locked tight. To quote what you just said to me, since you're here, don't even think about going back."
Brainiac's eyes turned red with fury… well, his eyes were already red to begin with.
What a despicable Warrior of Light!
He had been completely outplayed from the very beginning.
But his brain was operating at high speed. He possessed a terrifying computing power that far surpassed even the supercomputers of the most advanced civilizations, capable of performing an incredible amount of calculations in a single instant.
Although the environment he was in had clearly been molded into the shape of Light—if this virtual space were a game, then Orin Vale was now the Game Master—with Old Bu's computational power, he only needed one second to overwrite this change and seize back control of the warship that had been stolen from him. Then, he could do as he pleased again.
Provided he had that one second.
Orin Vale's arms were already formed into a cross.
"I'll miss you… uh… maybe."
Specium Ray!
It erupted within the Data World, the bursting beam of light like a storm that shattered all data. Engulfed by the brilliance, Brainiac let out a sharp, piercing scream.
"Record… updating…"
Brainiac's voice was almost swallowed by the torrent of light.
"Race Code: Ultraman… can also use light ray techniques in the Data World to achieve annihilation effects… Principle cannot be analyzed, cannot be understood… cannot… cannot…"
The data was being erased, his consciousness dissipating. Old Bu's final struggles dissolved within the brilliance of the Specium Ray.
"…Save me…"
At the very end, the Level-Twelve intelligence, Brainiac, after all the negative emotions cultivated by his creator, finally learned a new emotion he hadn't felt in a long time.
Fear.
Brainiac vanished without a trace.
Meanwhile, Parallax, who was happily fighting alongside the Green Lantern Corps outside, took a deep whiff and suddenly seemed to have inhaled a fear with a rather unique flavor.
"Hm? That last mouthful tasted a bit different."
Parallax paused, then took another forceful sniff. The scent of fear permeated the battlefield, but none of it had that unique flavor from a moment ago.
"Could it be my imagination?"
"You're telling us to run?" Jim asked in surprise.
"Yeah, it's going to get very dangerous here," Hal said. "Time is limited, I can't help everyone. I can only help evacuate the residents who might be in the center of the battlefield…"
"But if a battle is coming, you have more important things to do than this, don't you? This will cause you to lose the initiative. If things really get that dangerous later, this will put you at a great disadvantage."
Jim shook his head.
"Don't worry about us, Hal. Running is my style, not yours," Jim said. "My whole life has been filled with worries about safety. I don't let my son play football, and after what happened to my father, I'm still too scared to fly."
"That's because you have more to worry about than I do, Jim. You have your family," Hal said. "I stopped caring about my own safety right after Dad died. Compared to everything else, I only care about you and your family."
"We're your family too, Uncle Hal," Jim's son, Howard, said, looking at him with innocent eyes.
Jim's daughter, Susan, suddenly pointed out the window. "Look at that!"
Hal followed her finger and looked out the window, and he was stunned.
He saw a green light.
Perhaps it started with just one person, lighting up a green lantern on their balcony. A neighbor saw and emulated them. Then the residents in the building across the street saw, and they too followed suit…
And so, the scene before them unfolded.
Among the towering skyscrapers of Coast City, one green light after another lit up. It was like a single spark spreading from one window to the next, one building to another, until it covered the entire neighborhood, the entire street…
A city glittering with green light.
Hal's mouth opened, but for a moment, he was speechless.
Jim patted him on the shoulder and chuckled. "Looks like you've changed this city more than you think. As it stands now, I don't think anyone's going to listen to you and obediently run away."
Hal's expression was complicated.
He had never been one to overthink things.
His actions always preceded his thoughts. Becoming a Green Lantern, standing up to disasters and criminals—he usually just thought about it and did it. He rarely considered what effect his actions would have on others.
Looking back now, he was stunned to realize that so many people had lit green lanterns to walk alongside him.
"A fearless city."
He rose into the air again, surrounded by the green light, muttering to himself. At the same time, he vaguely felt that his own power seemed to have grown stronger.
Sinestro reappeared before him, just as the supporting Sinestro Corps had also arrived. Hal and Sinestro stood face to face, while the Yellow Lanterns surrounded him.
"I see Coast City has lit up with your light, your color," Sinestro said, his hands clasped behind his back, his tone indifferent. "You might recall, Jordan. You accused me of being guilty for receiving this same kind of worship on Korugar."
"The laws of the Lantern Corps clearly state that using a Green Lantern Ring to interfere in the internal politics of a planet is forbidden. I haven't used my Green Lantern Ring to rule Earth."
Hal glanced at the green glow surrounding him.
"That wasn't something you deserved; it was something you demanded."
"We can just never reach an agreement, can we…" Sinestro's eyes narrowed.
At that moment, a beam of green light fell from the sky, abruptly scattering the formation of the Yellow Lanterns. Sinestro hastily raised a shield to defend himself but was still sent flying a great distance.
He focused his eyes and was stunned to see two Guardian Blue Men descending from the sky.
"Ganthet? Sayd?" Hal said in surprise. "Where have you two been?"
"Conducting an important study. Now, it is time to test the results," Ganthet said.
Sinestro stabilized himself and sneered, "Finally, a couple of Guardians have arrived. I thought all the Guardians had turned into cowards hiding in their shells under the influence of fear."
"We have brought a power greater than fear, Sinestro," Ganthet said coldly. "We have brought willpower."
As his voice fell, a green vortex swirled up behind him and Sayd. A particularly brilliant ball of green light burst forth from it, transforming into a physical entity of green light, and let out an earth-shattering roar at Sinestro and his minions.
Ion Shark!
(end of chapter)
