General broadcast.
"Jade?!"
But first: Priorities!
Scan everything.
Compliance.
Naturally, it recognises that he's being a little
hyperbolic, and begins scanning from the local area out, I expect...
The air around me turns orange as scanners and sensors of every type I have in my database appears, the air seeming to hum with a dozen types of energetic emissions.
And message Dox.
No doubt involving a
concise summary of what happened, and an 'oops' emoticon?
Compliance.
Okay, I didn't move while I was here. Jade has moved, and I've got no idea-.
Crap, someone ran off with her? But
not Harrallax. What would
they need her for, after all?
My ring shimmers. Darn-.
"Answer."
And here comes the
"What the hell did you do this time?" rant from either Dox or Hinon...
OL:
"Did you... Just express
Rage through an Orange Power Ring?
"
A face-. That's not Dox. That's Weaponer Lysis.
"I see that my test subject has left. Are you still in possession of your mental faculties?"
And Lysis' involvement confirmed! Not that it was a
stretch.
"Yes. What are you doing here?"
"Did you know that your species has a remarkable facility for surviving emotional stress?"
Surviving, yes.
Enjoying their life afterwards, not so much...
"I haven't seen research that demonstrates that. And having access to a wealth of human psychiatric literature, I-."
"You deform but you don't crack. If my former master had tried something like this on Earth it would never have worked."
If he'd tried it on Earth, the local cape community would have risen up to kick his arse. In
this universe's case, for trying to muscle in on their cushy operations.
I don't remember anything about her working with Sinestro in the comics, but I don't think they continued the characters from the Earth 2 series into the War of Light era.
"Shouldn't you be on Qward? As a Council-Member-."
Hooray for cosmic retcons...
"I was a Council-Member, but that's become an empty position now. Qwarda-jin civilisation has collapsed. If I want to restore Qward then I need something new and powerful."
"Where's Jade?"
Oh, gee, Qward's having a little bit of a civil war? Good for you.
"In a spatial vacuole. I imagine that her armour has life-preservation systems, so the lack of fresh air won't be a problem so long as she isn't troubled by not being able to move. But as I said, your species are psychologically resilient."
I can sense spatial vacuoles, but she will probably notice and certainly will have a way to kill Jade if I don't play along.
Hell, she'll probably do some ninja meditation thing once she realises what's going on.
"Are you simply tormenting me, or-?"
"Of course I'm not! You are the one who unleashed the Parallax Entity on the universe!"
Funny,
he wasn't the one marinating a
perfectly suitable human host in
fear for who
knows how long...
"You had him in a box. I had no idea Parallax had a-."
"It didn't, fool! I was endeavouring to lure it here in a controlled environment so that I could use it to create new power rings!"
...Oh, yes, that would work
so well. I suspect the
actual result would be Parallax going '
Wut? Lulz no', eating her soul and fucking off.
Her head jerks as she starts to rant. I think she's pacing.
"And it didn't work! A world with fear in the air and a strong-willing human to break, and nothing happened! And then you were here for less than a day-tenth and this happened." She steadies herself and stares at me. "What did you say to him?"
Well, he just...
OL'd at him for a few minutes. Honestly, you've
met OL, how did you
not expect something like this when he turned up?
"Nothing much. Just a little about how fear works. As far as I can tell, once he had the space to organise his thoughts, he attained enlightenment. And then Parallax entered him. If I had to guess, I'd say that it was on or watching this planet already. I think Mister Harrolds just needed a little time alone in his own head to achieve that results."
"And now I have to wait until Parallax burns out its host and then hunt it down again."
...Ah. Evidently you have
different ideas about how this sort of thing goes, do you?
"Ah, what? Why wouldn't it just stay in its current host?"
"Mortal flesh is a poor container for an Entity. Without a ring to focus its power, the flesh will fall apart in a few tenths."
Sounds...
Plausible. And logical, really. Mere
flesh is not really designed to act as a
lens for one seventh of the universe's emotional energy.
"For a possession?"
"Yes." … "What?"
...Sadly, Humans have
quite the advantage in that respect. Comes from being
soaked in the
Life Entity's energies.
"I merged with the Avarice Entity a while ago, and I showed no sign of physical decay at the end of it. Merged. I wasn't possessed."
"He still has his original motivations?"
Sharpened quite
aggressively, but it seems so.
"Partially. He locked my mind in an illusion to try and make me feel fear. I broke out. I suspect that he's going to the matter universe to make it happen for real."
"That-. Why does he care about you?"
...Maybe he thinks of OL as a
rival? I mean, OL basically does hold the
Ophidian's heart...
"I don't know. A point of comparison, perhaps? Merging with Entities isn't something that happens very often. But that isn't important."
"Oh?"
Let's see: In the time you've been here: You and the Ophidian... Guy and Ion... And now Parallax and Not!Hal Jordan... I'd say that's
abnormally frequent.
"You want Parallax contained somewhere where you can use it to make more rings. I want Parallax out of the way and not trying to do things that will terrify me, on the grounds that it's going to set back my work immensely. I have no particular objection to you making rings, on the grounds that Qwardian society is too messed up to use them in a concerted fashion."
She stares at me for a moment.
...And if OL should happen to be able to arrange a leasing contract for those Rings between Qward and NEMO... Well, who'll argue?
"What do you suggest?"
"Do you have a way to contain Parallax?"
Seems kind of
foolhardy to go into this without some options, yes...
"I… Might. But if what you say about its relationship with the host is true, it would be easier for me to disrupt that bond."
"Good. And since our objectives don't contradict each other, what do you say to working together? If you object to the fact that I'm an alien, you can just coordinate with Kalmin. The Maltusians have contained Entities before. This is doable."
...I expect Kalmin will have
questions.
Once he
calms down and stops
smashing things. I expect his initial expletive will be audible in
orbit.
"I will keep your aide as collateral."
"Don't be ridiculous. I've already sent a report home. Physicist-Lanterns will be sent to pick her up, and you'll need your full concentration on handling Parallax and making sure that we're not betraying you. And of course if I don't know that she's safe then I'll be focusing on other things as well."
And believe me, you
want him focused on what
you need, not what
he wants..
"True. And you want nothing else?"
"I need to borrow a yellow ring, afterwards. Kalmin refuses to make one until I give him Sinestro's head, and…" I look around. "Between the two of them, I'm not sure that Sinestro's worse, morally speaking."
Ha! Indeed. After all, Sinestro's not a member of an omnicidal society of, well...
Weaponers.
"Borrow?"
"I'd prefer to own it, but I only really need it for a little while."
Aw, it took him a while, but he'll finally match the Renegade's Rings.
"I will agree, in exchange for ring telemetry. I want test data."
"And I'm happy to supply it. Isn't it amazing what can happen when you negotiate rather than limiting yourself to threats?"
I bet Lysis is half-wondering if he did
something to make her... Agreeable to his requests.
