2013.06.30 - With This Ring I Thee Smite (They are so stupid)

-Several Hours ago-

A gang of well armed insurgence from off world have come to Earth under the guise of a group calling themselves the 'Liberators of Freedom'. An anti-american, American group of teenagers who are fighting for their right to party.

They're using high tech imagery technology to hide their true appearance from the minds of the people... but Hal can see through it with the power of the one ring to rule the grass.

Because grass is green. Laugh.

At first, it's not anything the Intergalactic cop can't handle... until the invaders whip out their secret weapon. Harnessing the power of the sun through solar panels they've installed on the roof of Metropolis' bigger tenant buildings, they blast the Green Lantern with a concentrated ray of Yellow UV light.

The effect is the slow depowering of his ring and the death of his constructions... The leader, a jock of a man in a Steelers Jersey comes up with what 'appears' to be an assault rifle.. removing the Lantern's power ring and preparing to execute him infront of a crowd of onlookers!

Will our hero survive?

Find out next time.

In the future, when one of the onlookers is asked for his statement, he will say...

"Well I saw the thing a comin' out of the sky It had a one long tail and big green eyes I commits a shakin' and I said oo-ooee It looks like a purple people greeter to me--It was long-tailed green-eyed flyin' purple people greeter!"

And then they would try to lock him away, but the video evidence makes the case for him.

Vorpal had been making the rounds when things started, and he stopped at the cusp of a nearby tall building to watch Green Lantern himself deal with the perps, Hero-worshipper that he is. At first it is clear that Lantern can take care of the crooks... and then it becomes clear that, somehow, he can't. And that he's about to get his brains blown out.

And that's when he leaps into the air, manifests a series of trapeze swings in the air which he uses to both control his fall as well as add speed and direction to it- so that when he is zooming over the crowds, he is doing it at a breakneck speed. One swing---and woosh, he speeds towards the goon with his hands outstretched to grab the gun and jerk it away from him with the sheer power of his momentum. "Good Morning Metropolis!" He IS a purple people greeter, after all!

Hal isn't exactly helpless, even without his ring, but it has been some time since he didn't feel the comfort of the object around his finger. The reassurance of its power always coursing through him in the back of his mind. When he glances up, now wearing a blue jeans, an off blue shirt, boots and a bomb jacket, it's to see boys with assault rifles and not the aliens he knows them to be.

While Vorpal is approaching, another of the invaders comes over while another takes the depowered ring and retreats back into the tenant building while Hal collects his wits.

Then the cat springs and pushes the lead thugs gun away and Jordan uses the oportunity to press the attack himself.

He pushes up and grabs hold of the barrel of the second gun, pushes it into the air so that the ratta tat tat that was meant for Vorpal, hits nothing but clouds. His hand comes through the teen's guard and chops him across the throat, using the disguised alien's momentum to flip him over his twisted hip and drop down on him with a punch that would make Mike Tyson proud.

The first of the gunmen is knocked away, his gun free of his hands, and his eyes wide as he's suddenly attacked by a purple people greeter...

Vorpal rolls and crouches to his feet, the goon's gun in his hands as he rises, pointing the gun at him he is suddenly dressed like a gangster from the 1940s, albeit his attire is just as purple as he is. "Will I kill ya in cold blood? Nah, I'll let ya warm up a little!" Yeah, he watched 'White Heat' last night with Patrick. He doesn't shoot, however, for all that he mimicks he will-- it is a glowing, purple anvil over the goon's head that materializes and falls towards him (a small one to knock him out, the Joker got the medium-sized love by virtue of being The Joker).

Hal rolls as well, grabbing up the fallen goons weapon and pulling the slide back to check the loadout. The falling anvil catches his attention, as he'd just dropped down into a tactical crouch with the suddenly very alien technology weapon craddled in the curve of his shoulder... "Okay."

That's all he's got for the anvil. He's pulled that trick before, only it was green. "What's your name kid?" To Vorpal, patting down the teen he knocked out until he comes up with the invaders ammo harnass. His commondeered weapon is leaned against Hal's knee while he throws the harnass on and buckles it in the front. Extra clips and a single grenade that looks more like a flashlight than anything else military grade.

"Because you've just been deputized. If they get their communications system up, we're going to be a shit storm of trouble."

"Vorpal, sir!" the cat says, running to Hal's side with a rather star-struck look in his eyes. The anvil vanishes into light-- but it was the wrong color to be a Star Sapphire (Purple instead of violet--- is there a difference? Ask a color theorist), and he wears no ring. He nods gravely at what Hal says, falling into step rather quickly because-- holy shit, Green Lantern. "You can count on me, sir. What are your instructions?"

Hal takes up his weapon and moves to a bit of cover where he can get a good view of the building they're about to storm. "I'm going to need some diversions. Bandors are strong, but they're stupid..." Dropping back behind the beat up oldsmobile where he took up cover. Glancing over at Vorpal, he gives the kid a nod and rolls out of cover. His advance on the front of the building is tactical, moving and shooting in three round bursts that is meant to keep anyone in the windows from opening fire. Every fifth step he drops down into cover again for the return volley he knows is coming.

He saw the cats anvil trick, so he knows he'll have some more up his sleeve.

"Diversion's my middle name. Actually, I don't have one. But if I did, it would be." The cat grins and works those illussions right away. Hal splits into five different Hals, all of them running in different directions, while five duplicates of Vorpal come out and start running towards the building-- all of the duplicates are mimicking the same tactic-- run, shoot and duck for cover- that Hal is doing, so it is hard to tell which is the real one. Taking advantage of this, the cat becomes invisible and now exits cover after his doubles have done so. He will make his way towards the building as well.

Hal peeks out at the illusions and nods with his chin curled impressedly, "Not bad..." Then he joins his duplicates, using the confusion to fire a few red energy bolts through the opened windows. There's a shout from inside, then another, across the front of the building as two of the Bandors go down.

Several of the duplicates go down and Hal has to dive roll out of the way of a shot himself as the invaders inside return fire. Shouting in a gutteral language that sounds a lot like ebonics. See, that's where ebonics comes from. Bandor.

Down behind cover, his weapon spits out the energy cell and he reaches down to his bandoller for another. His body is contorted down so that he's using every bit of the small garden wall to protect himself. Something he's not had to do in quite some years.

It seems like he's going to have to do something extra, Vorpal thinks. With a smirk, and as two of his illusory duplicates are hit and vanish, he crafts a particularly satisfying illusion--- Superman. The illusion flies down from the sky and touches down on the ground, creating an illusory crater where he lands... on the opposide end of the terrain from where Hal is hiding to give him the chance to get to where the cat was waiting, invisible, by the entrance.

The illusion of Steel slowly stands up, putting his hands on his hips, and his eyes begin to glow red as he looks towards the windows where the Bangors are. I mean, there is no way in hell they'll bother with two small potatoes when Mr. Punch You Into Next Week is standing right there, right?

The Lantern spies Superman and almost shouts out to him, until he sees that the Man of Steel isn't actually attacking... "Another illusion... this kid's got juice." Then he rolls out from cover and approaches the front door, dropping another Bandor that pokes his head up to take a shot. One of Hal's illusions falls and disappears on the ground, but the Lantern hits the wall near to where Vorpal is sitting invisible.

Peeking in an open window, unaware that his deputy is sitting beside him. "Hey, I'm going to give you one chance to give me my ring back and turn yourselves in..." His answer is a hail of red energy bolts fired out through the little crack.

His expression goes hard and he pulls back the slide on his weapon, checks the charge count, and releases it. "Guess they don't like to do things easy... like I told you. They're stupid."

To prove this, they actually shoot at Superman... who does that?

The cat takes perverse pleasure--- he modifies the Superman illusion so that the bolts hit him--- but the energy goes around him and then flies out the back again, as if he had some sort of distorter field on him. This was a way for Vorpal to get more time out of the illusion and explain why the beams seem to be hitting the ground. The cat appears next to Hal, rubbing his temples. "I've never had to keep so many going at the same time..." Static illusions like the Mad Hatter combined with a few dynamic ones during the Joker's encounter wasn't hard to do. But ALL of the illusions at work were dynamic, moving independently, and they were starting to give him a headache- so he dismisses all but the Superman illusion, otherwise he will overload himself. A brief break from illusionism is all he needs, and one Superman should be enough. "So what's the plan?" the cat says, generating something akin to a riot shield, except purple and glowing, and offering it to Hal.

Hal glances to Vorpal when he appears beside him and, to his credit, doesn't seem at all surprised. Chuckling quietly, the Green Lantern, depowered as he might be, looks like this is just another day at the office. No fear presides anywhere in the man's face or actions.

"Do you know what a flash bang grenade is?" Everyone whose ever played Call of Duty does... but it's always best to ask. And explain. "It explodes with concussive force and a flash of bright light..." His hand already closing on the flashlight shaped grenade the teen was carrying. "I'm going to toss this inside... then go in through the front door. You put your hand on my shoulder before we breach." Speaking quietly, but loud enough to be heard over the Bandors firing from the floor above them through the windows overlooking the courtyard... and superman.

"When we're inside, go left. Clear the main foyer, then stack on me... Call targets when you see them.. and let me know when your area is clear. Following me?"

"Roger, I follow." The cat places himself behind Hal and prepares to do as he was told. He takes a deep breath and nods. "'m ready, Lantern."

Hal takes a breath, prepping himself, and stacks up on one side of the door. The grenade comes free, pin pulled, and the hammer released out towards the sidewalk... after a three count he tosses it in through one of the open windows and turns away from it. The concussion and flash are only a handful of seconds later.

And then the surprised screams.

That's his que. Turning, his boot opens the door and he's rushing in through the smoke, three shotting one Bandor and turning right past the breach. All about trigger control. Tat tat. Tat tat.

"Contact left."

The cat throws his ears back to prrotect them from the blast- materializing a pair of mufflers over them. His hearing is far more sensitive than a human's, and he cannot afford to be disoriented. When he feels the waves of the blast, the earmuffs vanish and he follows after Hal. As they break in, the cat breaks to the left and advances as per instructions. He really isn't a good shot, because he's never had time to learn how to shoot accurately, so instead he uses the weapon to create cover fire while his constructs help him do the work- as he barrels in, though, he does it with the riot shield before him to see what sort of targets he is facing. The shield Vorpal gave him, which the player meant to pose taking, takes several of the red energy blasts meant to end the Lantern's career in forced retirement. No gold watch in the corp, though. Hal plants it down in the ground to give himself a fire position, stabbing the bottom in through the rotten wood and ducking behind it as a group of Bandors on the second floor condence around the stairwell, using the buildings design and the elevation to provide cover while saturating the ground floor with red bolts.

Hal peeks around one side and fires back, but the angle is all wrong and the best he can do it take out a bit of wall they were hiding behind. "It's on you kid!" Shouting over the ratta tat of gunfire.

"Roger that!" The cat thinks for a moment... and then gets the idea. He jumps up and... seems to stick to the ceiling? In truth, he is manifesting little handholds that he uses to crawl quickly across the ceiling. Because of the angle, it isn't likely that they'll see him... all he needs is a very quick peek to be able to teleport behind the shooters, so he stays flat against the ceiling as he crawls---

Hal watches the kid cling tot he ceiling and follows his reasoning pretty quickly. It wont take long for the Bandor to catch on, if they keep looking in Vorpal's direction, so the Lantern gives them something else to watch. Coming up from behind his cover with his weapon sweeping from side to side, saturating the staircase with red energy bolts that cut through the wood like tissue paper.

Two of the four Bandors peek around and immediately drop back, waiting until Hal's forced to reload to sweep out of cover from around the corner and advance on his position, not even thinking to look up as they hop across broken piece of stares to the first floor. "Glarh'dra lu la gleeg!" Shouting at the Lantern in some wet sounding language that bares close resemblance to someone gargling mouthwash... with nails in it.

The two never saw it coming. The ropes manifest around their neck and yank them off balance almost in mid jump from one piece of broken stair to the next. One of the pair is eaten up by red bolts of energy, dead before he touches the ground. The other takes enough that he's not going to be much use in a fight, but may well live to see tomorrow... if he's lucky.

Hal, on the other hand, takes advantage of the situation. Up and out of cover in a flash, dashing straight for the stairs in a mad rush. The two Bandors upstairs pause a second too late a little too open... one of them is dropped by three quick snaps of the Lantern's trigger. The other... he turns and runs. They've seen a number of different races who wear the ring... and while they've never seen a 'Purple' Lantern... the way Vorpal's constructions and illusions work, they're not entirely sure he isn't one.

Hal presses against the wall, weapon held close to his body but turned to the side. With a grimmace, he tosses it away and grabs a pistol from one of the fallen bandors. "You done this before?" Glancing up at Vorpal.

"You mean the shooty-shooty bang-bang bit? No, I can't shoot to save my life. But the other thing? Three months." He says, manifesting a shield for himself and Hal again, as the other constructs vanish. "I've already gotten in way over my head in just about everything, though." Giant robots. The Joker. The Fearsome Four. Sucked into death vortices. His career didn't so much hit the ground running so much as it dragged him from a het.

Hal bobs his head from side to side, holding the pistol with the barrel pointed down at the ground. His arm slips through the grip of the shield, setting it up high on his forearm so it doesn't interfere with his gun handling. "If we can get me to my ring, I can stop their signal." He finally says, glancing around the corner once more. Not really getting into the whole 'four months' thing. Other heroes might balk at the idea, get a little nervous of the potential for undertrained...

Hal doesn't really get scared. He just does. "You got a battery on those illusions you're throwing?" Peeking out around again and snapping off random shots that is more meant to keep them busy than actually hit anyone. Keep ammo counts, especially when it relates to power... Lantern logic 101.

"Let me do that for you..." Vorpal adds helpfully, and fires off illusion blasts, very convincing as they fire out of his gun. "No... I use my willpower to create them and keep them moving, just like my constructs. Tell me what you want, and it's yours."

Hal watches the display and perks a brow at Vorpal's explanation of how it works. "Huh.. sounds familiar." Again he glances around the corner, "They have to think I don't need the ring. I can feel it, it's on this floor... but they'll never let me get close enough to get it, so long as they think I 'need' it." Again he looks to Vorpal, "Think you can create a Green Lantern? Make them think I was just toying with them? They drop their guard and I'll go in guns blazing... we don't have enough time to fight them floor to floor."

Hal eyes the illusionary representation of himself with a slow nod, "Handsome." Then he's moving, the Green Lantern out ahead of him. While the illusion moves forward down the hall, using his 'ring' to deflect the red energy blasts concentrated on him around and into the walls to either side, Hal moves from cover to cover, taking advantage of the suddenly startled Bandors to take a few out with quick shots. Coinciding his attack with those from his duplicate so that the others are even more convinced they're being beset upon by a repowered lantern.

Back the invaders retreat, holding position near the end of the hall with the Lantern in pursuit. Hal, on the other hand, ducks into one of the side rooms and immediately dives behind an overturned table when the man inside opens up his own rifle in response. "You, Lantern... you no get ring, Lantern.. Lantern fall. Earth Fall... Lantern die..."

Of course, he is wholely unaware of the invisible companion.. but...

Keith has a pet peeve about evil intergalactic aliens. They can create amazing technology, travel through the many light years... but they never seem to worry about learning terran languages. It was hard to make witty banter with the evil guys when they spoke like this. The cat runs into the room after Hal, and Sidesteps, appearing behind the invader and becoming fully visible. "You know, you need to work on your conjugations, boy!" The cat jumps backwards, springs off the wall, and prepares to deliver a tiger kick at the alien.

Not smart.

That's what Hal said and he meant it. The Bandors, they are not a space faring race at all. They're more like shock troopers her have been accelerated to act in that capacity for a much smarter race who are not capable of this kind of fighting... smaller, less resiliant.

A problem, if you asked Green Lantern. Since they sure do have a grudge against him.

Because the Bandor aren't entirely capable mentally, the surprises really does catch the thug off guard. Looking like one of those tween girls you see in all the videos on MTV these days. The tiger kick sends the creature falling backwards, but his body, when he hit, felt like rock. Bastard is heavy... and wearing something most certainly metal as armor.

The floor is not meant to cater to this kind of weight.. and gives way after a burst of dust. Hal was scrambling as soon as Vorpal appeared, jumping out over the now gaping mawl that was the floor and swiping at his ring as it twirls in the air...

Then down into the blackness below. Because for dramatic effect, they actually went up three stories, instead of just the one that we actually posed going up.

I'm the story tell here... >:(

In the darkness, Hal falls until the shadows swallow him, tumbling through the open craters created as Tween invader creates a path through three stories, then piling on the material that falls atop both of them down in the basement.

In the doorway, several Bandor turn the corner with their weapons ready to shoot... all of them speaking that gurgly language in a threatening manner to the Kitty Kid.

The cat snarls-- he hadn't exected the Bawhatever to be so heavy. He wanted to dive in after Hal and save him, and then he has weapons pointed at him. "...I don't think that's a smart idea, kids..." A quick thought of illusion, and something bursts through the hole on the ground. It is a tentacled, mutiple eyed monstrosity with a gaping maw full of teeth. An illusion meant to take their attention away while he runs along the wall, to beat the ever living stuffing out of them.

The hole is dark, swallowing light down at the bottom most level and the Bandor are suddenly very brasen with the Lantern 'out of the picture'.

That is, until the tenticle comes up through the cracks in the wooden floor and starts snapping and grabbing at them. Their attention goes away from Vorpal and focuses on this new target. Their expressions from cocky to concerned instantly. They shoot, they dive away... and they do not pay attention.

Because, they are stupid.

"In brightest day..." The voice comes from the walls like an echo. "In blackest night..." A faint green glow begins to rise up through the cracks in the floor. "No evil shall escape my sight..." Green Lantern rises up from the center of the hole into which he fell, his body again uniformed in the emerald and black costume.. the green domino mask back in place and his body faintly glowing.

"You got this floor kid? I'm going for the communications upstairs."

It's just another opening, creating more disaray as the invaders focus half on the tenticles and half on Green Lantern, firing red energy at him that bounces harmlessly off the shield that appears out ahead of his outstretched fist.

"Let those who warship evils might, beware my power.." Spoken rather than sang, pure concentration and unshakable will.

The cat lunges forward, manifesting a baseball bat-- it is large, larger than a regular bat... and he swings it with abandon towards the stupid mercs. "I've got you covered, Lantern!" he says, sounding ever so relieved that he had not, in fact, killed him. "Go for the communications, I'll tango with these boys!"

Green Lantern inclines his head to Vorpal when the young hero dives at the Bandors swinging his bat at the confused and terrified invaders. One takes the purple weapon across the head, another right in the neck. They start backing away from him, others outright running, all of them convinced that the Green Lanterns are employing some sort of new Purple power.

Hal watches a second longer, white washed eyes ticking from one combatant to another, "Green Lantern's Light!" when he shouts the last part, the shield around him flashes a bright and vibrant green and he turns his whole body to fly straight out the window like an emerald streak through the air, headed up several stories to the roof where they're building their communications.

Cresting the rooftop with his arms crossed, one foot raised slightly for pure dramatics... "Look... E.T. isn't phoning home on my watch. You are in violation of Sector code Fifty two dash five oh five seven. Illegal occupation of a peaceful world and Zero oh two seven zero sixty, position of unauthorized technology by an undeveloped species. This is your 'last' warning, put down your arms..."

His arms unfold, fist raising, ring pointed down at the group of Bandors. Deep down, he kind of wants them to resist. Nobody takes his ring and walks away with out their ass thoroughly kicked. Nobody.

Vorpal cartwheels out into the hallway, taking on the next group of baddies. "Hey, boys, let's play Tetris!" He generates a set of odddly-shaped blocks over the next group of aliens that he lets fall as he dodges the blasts, trying to trap them between blocks---

They. are. Stupid.

That's important to remember and the basis for why, in their infinite levels of stupidity, they attack a fully charged Green Lantern who has height advantage and superior firepower. Their weapons bounce harmlessly off the 'Knight' shield that appear on his arm as he flies down towards them swinging his fist around with a huge green fist smacking one into another. When his boots touch ground, the Lantern pivots, drops down into a twirling crouch, and takes their legs out from another group with a long green whip. Their guns go flying up and are gathered together in a green box off to one side of the rooftop.

Instead of giving up, which would be smart, they attack him with their fists. Hal brings his hand up to deflect one blow, pushes with both hands... and extends a longsword out from his curled fingers. Dancing around the Bandor like a whirling dervish, blades materializing around him to mimic his moves as others get to their feet and join the fray with knifes in hand.

In the lower levels, the blocks begin to... block off? the running invaders. One even runs right into it and bounces back onto the ground with a startled expression on his face. They still try to take up defensive positions, but stupid doesn't mean without self preservation. Half the remaining soldiers drop their weapons and raise their hands in the universal sign of 'respect'...

They certainly were under the table when brains were handed out, that's for sure. The cat sees that half have surrendered...and that half have not. He pushes off with his feet and starts levitating off the ground, while his costume becomes that of a Green Lantern...except purple and black instead of emerald and black. A soft glow around his form is complemented by the star-bright glow on his hand as he extends it, presenting a purple ring in a menacing way at the aliens.

"I can do to you what I did to your friends and make it the FUN way... or you can drop your weapons and surrender like your smart friends did. Either way, I win. Choose."

Addressing the very excellent manner in which Vorpal pulls the wool over the already considerably dim eyes of the Bandor, first. As the kid begins to float and his costume changes... the remaining insurgents get a bewildered look in their eyes and, throw their weapons down. It isn't worth it... they can clearly see that this isn't going to turn out well for them, not with two Lanterns in the building. The whole company goes down on their knees, but they still have a defiant look in their eyes. This isn't fear that's caused them to surrender. It's knowing they are tactically out matched. Or at least thinking as much.

Upstairs, Hal has knocked most of the remaining group out or rendered them immobile with green chains holding them to the roof. The few remaining are in a similiar line of thinking as their brothers in arms downstairs. Eyeing the communications array and then the Lantern... Hal swings his hand over head and thrusts it at the makeshift equipment, materializing a huge green wrecking ball that batters through the array like paper, showering its creaters in tiny metal shards.

One brow perks, fist pointing to them... And down they go, hands up over their heads. "Smart choice... stupidly late, but smart..."

"Good boys," Vorpal quips, and generates a 15x15 foot cage to slam down on them until the Green Lantern gets here. He slowly floats down to the floor and crosses his arms. "Everything okay up there?" he shouts.

Who knows exactly 'how' the Green Lantern transports his captives to Oa, but he does. Where they will be imprisoned in the cubes until their sentence is up. Each disappears systematically once tagged for it by Hal. Including those downstairs, when he floats down the steps and over to Vorpal, head tilted admiring his purple cages. "Huh.. Four months you say?"

Nodding, the Green Lantern lands softly on the busted up floor and walks over the captives, tagging them for removal to Oa's prison cells. He stands and turns to Vorpal with his arms crossed as he looks the kid over with white washed eyes. "Vorpal, right?"

"That's right, sir. Or Keith. Keith O'Neil. Don't really have a secret identity. More like three-and-a-half months at this point." Now that the battle had passed, the adrenaline was subsiding and he was grinning quite widely. Heck, he got to meet the Green Lantern! Hal's ego doesn't really need more stroking... not that he'd stop the kid from being star struck. Far from it. But he wouldn't gloat in it either, "You did good. Better than most with that little time in the suit." Offering his hand out to the young hero, ring glowing on the outter most side of his hand. "Thanks for the assist." If meeting the Green Lantern is rare... getting him to 'admit' he appreciates someone helping him is even more so.

The Green Lantern suit illusion vanishes from Keith, and he shakes the Lantern's hand, eyes a little wide. "Thank you... I'm so sorry about the floor, I was afraid I'd done something incredibly stupid...."

Hal's feet lift off from the ground, arms returning to cross over his chest, "Naw, you were fine... them on the other hand?" Back nodding to where the Bandor were before being transported to Oa, "They are incredibly stupid..."

With a smirk, the Lantern raises a bit higher and turns towards the broken window and flashes out, leaving an emerald green trail behind him.