"I think… I can feel something." "Show me the dreams of compassion."
Ring, any ideas?
Okay, she's locking on. No doubt the Ring will find an appropriate spot.
Possible matches found.
Could just fly there, but from the look on Dreamer's face she's trying to do something difficult with her power. A delay of a few minutes is worth it if it gets get her confidence-
Given that she needs the most help out of the five of them, it's a reasonable decision.
A phantasmal image of Lantern Ub'x appears a short distance above us and then flies… In the direction of one of the points suggested by my ring. Vykin accelerates the Forevercar after it, and Lightray, B'dg and I fly after them.
-back, so I'll let her take the initiative.
Now, what information can they even get out of this thing? Especially if Ub'x didn't fly away after whatever meeting he had here.
The Ub'x illusion, is…
"Dreamer, your illusions. How reliable is it for accurately recording facial expressions?"
A good question to ask, given that we still aren't clear on how much of the recreations are real events or her interpretation made manifest...
"That depends. If I use it to show something someone did, it will be accurate. If I try to use it to find out what they were thinking or saying, it's more… Representational."
The Ub'x illusion turns to look down at us. "This doesn't have anything to do with you, Orange Lantern."
Case in point. That's just kind of
disturbing.
"I know, I just want to talk to you." I frown. "Wait, can he-?"
"And I don't want to talk to you. Not yet, at least."
...That implies that there
will be a time he's willing to talk.
"We've already spoken. On board.. Ranx… Dreamer, is this impression based on what he was when he was here?"
"Yes. If he was here before he met you, it won't be able to tell you anything about your meeting."
Man, her ability is kind of
powerful, yet kind of
quirky. I suppose that's why their group was training together...
"Thank you. Okay, Doctor Ub'x, why don't you want to meet me?"
"I don't want to be involved with either the Guardians or the Controllers. Not… Yet."
But
someday, it'll be fine for you to cooperate? Something to look forwards to...
"Then you probably shouldn't have picked up a power ring."
"No one owns a universal emotion."
Not that that's stopped the Guardians from
trying.
"No, but the Guardians have mostly done a good job as regulators of certain forms of technology. You -on the other hand- come with certain baggage."
"Do you know how many species the people of maltus have destroyed?"
More than they'd wanted to, but not as many as
deserved it, I bet.
"My species exists today because they destroyed Burning Martians, so I'm probably the wrong person to use that explanation on."
"Their judgement is impacted by their lack of contact with other emotions."
You could say the same about Lanterns. Remind me,
whose brain is
actively flooded with an Emotional Light right now?
"Our judgement is impacted by our contact with other emotions. If someone has to make decisions affecting the entire universe, being completely impartial about it is-. Why am I arguing this with you, you're not actually here."
"Empathy. I'd be interested to learn that you still do things like that."
Honestly, OL is pretty compassionate when he can
afford to be.
"I assure you that you weren't."
"I can't just drop everything to pay attention to you, you know."
Well, OL isn't going to stop chasing you until you
do.
"Why not? I'm the most important thing in the universe."
Ub'x gives me a funny look. The problem is that since he's an unusually vertical beaver it makes me want to scratch him under the chin, rather than reconsider what I just said.
To be honest, anyone would be
tempted to do that if they met an anthropomorphic beaver... Though there are
limits on how
appealing anthros can be.
And I think he realises-. Or Dreamer realises, or something like that. In any case, he looks away from me.
"Lantern B'dg, please stop."
Ah, changing tack? Not that the real Ub'x is likely to be aware of this. But if the impression thinks Ub'x would try this tack, well, then....
"No. We need to know what you're doing. They've tried to convince me not to arrest you, but I want to make certain that you're reformed for myself."
"You won't find me. I'm undetectable. And even if you did, I'm pretty good as a Lantern, and I can teleport."
Don't underestimate how tenacious a protagonist can be when he has something he
wants.
"Me too. Look, do you know what the Anti-Life is?"
"No. No, I can't say that I do."
And that's probably a
good thing.
"Well, it's-. It's really bad. I just want you to spend a few minutes on my homeworld, and then you can go and do whatever you want."
"To… Get rid of this 'anti-life'?"
...
Hopefully.
Man, I am impressed that this psychic projection is getting
this kind of reaction from OL.
"Is your world worth the entire universe? Objectively?"
"Y-. N-. Yes, for… Reasons you might know if you spoke to a maltusian."
...Not that they'd willingly tell you anything about it. More likely they'd simply give a 'It's secret for a
very good reason' excuse or something.
Lightray looks at me askance. "I'm not aware of any reason to treat your world like that."
"Have you recently spoken to a maltusian?"
Boy, are you in for a
surprise, 'Ray.
He smiles ruefully. "I suppose not."
"Well, there you go, then. Try asking Metron next time he appears."
...Could we not?
Metron is...
Not fun to talk to.
He look away. "I don't want to know that badly."
The Ub'x illusion shakes his head. "I suppose I can't stop you if you're determined."
And if there's one thing Green lanterns are good at...
"You can't."
"And I can't stop you learning what I did here."
...It's sticking to their goals.
"You could just point us towards a different Indigo Lantern. It's not as if I need you specifically."
He frowns. "Other-?"
I wonder how
vocal other Indigo Tribesmen are. In the comics, some can
barely speak outside of a few words of their secret language.
Mostly '
Nok'.
The images fades as the Forevercar slows to a halt. Yes, this… Does look like what the vision showed. "Dreamer, can-?"
Dreamer glares at me. "You pushed that recreation too hard. It isn't a person, just an echo of one. If you do that, it will fail and I won't be able to call it back."
...Well, shit. Could have mentioned
that sooner, Dreamer.
"Oh. Um. So you..? Can't get whoever it was the Ub'x was talking to?"
The car lands and she walks towards the site of their meeting. "I should be able to recreate the meeting. And just that. And I should be able to summon whoever he met. But that is all."
I smile at her. "Then that's what we do."
Let's hope it provides
useful information, then.
