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It's happening! Hal is more excited than he's ever been, because it's happening!!
Not only is something cool and not at all fighting related happening in his space sector, but it's a rare, once in a lifetime event!! He heard stories from older Lanterns about the interdimensional space zone between realities, a zone not even their rings could survive in, but what he loved hearing about the most was the beings inside it.
Space whales!
Gigantic translucent whales the size of planets made of stardust with a black hole in their core. They eat dying stars that make the veil between dimensions thin and make new ones from their blowholes like how Earth whales shoot out water, and just like Earth whales they need to 'surface' into a living space every once in a while. And it's happening in Earth's space! Today!!
Which is great, because he is excited to see it, but also terrible, because he only got back to the Watchtower five minutes ago and hadn't had time to tell Bruce yet because a Lantern mission broke his communicator. But! Hal is sure it'll be fine.
It's just giant creatures that could eat their sun entering close to earth. That they can't fight easily if they have to. And have no clue how to in the first place. And Bruce has no idea even existed before now. But it'll be fiiine.
Hal shakes off the, not at all there, negative thoughts and shoves his way into the meeting room a tech in the landing hanger told him was in use by the League's main members. He's just in time for Bruce's annual meeting about budget concerns and matters they might need more than one member to handle alone, considering Barry looks bored out of his mind, it's not a busy meeting. Yet.
"Hal." Bruce grunts, already looking suspicious. Rudely, might Hall add. "You weren't scheduled to return until next week, is there an issue with the Lanterns?"
"Not at all, Spooky," Hal smiles. "I actually have good news for once!"
"Oh?" Diana asks. "Care to share?"
Wow, there really must be nothing happening in the meeting if Diana is entertaining him so quickly. Good thing Hal is here to save their boring meeting!
"I think I will." Hal smirks. "I flew back as soon as I could because the new tech on Oa just discovered a rare space event is about to happen in Earth's zone. The first time ever, even!"
Hal's smile gets bigger as the others talk and try to guess what it could be, Bruce, being a spoil sport, is already tying away at his tablet for the answer.
"The only recent celestial event said to happen is the explosion of T Coronae Borealis." Bruce says.
"The what?" Barry asks.
"The Blaze Star." Diana, surprisingly, responds with first. "Astronomers on Themyscira have been observing it's flash for many years. It is next to Hercules in the sky and as bright as the North star when it sheds it's outer layer to begin anew roughly every 80 years."
"And it's happening near Earth, today!" Hal says, smiling.
The others just look at him confused, rude, before Clark starts talking.
"Hal," Clark has his 'soothing confused civilian voice' on, "how is this event from out in space going to be here?"
Hal scoffs. "Because it's not an event, it's a creature." Obviously.
"..." Barry waves a hand at him. "Gonna need a little more than that, buddy."
"Right." Hal stands up straighter. "So, Oa has been trying to track the rifts that enter the reality between realities-"
"The what?" Clark, confused.
"-and after a new tech Lantern joined, they could! And because of that, they could track a migrating pod of interdimensional space whales-"
"The what!?" Barry, excited.
"-would be 'surfacing' into our reality soon! The Blaze Star was apparently always one of their locations whenever they entered before, but now they will be here! We'll need to warn people to go inside and away from windows for a bit because the possible death energy radiation-"
"The what?" Bruce, upset.
"-that the 'between' puts off might hit Earth and freak them out if they died before. Apparently that's what messed up all past tech, but the new Lantern, Jazz, is from a planet that studies it and can record past it!"
Hal smiles at the various emotions on his friends' faces, Diana and Barry both look excited compared to the rest but that's okay! How could they not be excited for Space Whales!? Hal was hooked on the idea ever since he saw Treasure Planet as a kid!
"Hal," Bruce grunts out, "what do you mean 'death energy' might hit Earth? What is this energy?"
"It is what it sounds like, Spooks." Hal shrugs. "As far as I understood it from Jazz 'it is the energy that makes up the space between spaces, nothing living can survive there but all the dead and Neverborn could roam freely'."
"There are dead people there!?" Barry asks. The others look interested too, especially J'onn.
"Eh…" Hal wiggles his hand in a 'so-so' motion. "They come from literally every dimension, so there isn't any guarantee you find a former person from a specific planet from there. And that's if they ever lived outside the dimension before at all."
"How can one be born without life?" Diana asks.
"Jazz, sweet girl by the way, tried to psychoanalyze me, says they are 'beings made of strong beliefs and concepts like Time, Dreams, Space, ect.' So long as people believe in them strongly enough, they continue to exist and affect the realities connected to theirs. She actually became a Lantern because she fought her own parents and the planet's government when they tried to send a weapon to destroy the whole thing, thinking it would 'stop death'."
"But, wouldn't that have…" Barry trails off.
"Killed off every reality, all at once, without anything stopping them from touching? Yeah." Hal nods. "Oa was horrified to find out a handful of teens saved all of reality without them knowing."
"Teens?" J'onn blinks at the news.
"Oh yeah." Hal huffs, frowning. "Three teens teamed up with a teen denizen of the reality to save everyone. They had known of the Lanterns to send a signal for help, but their government had cut off all signals leaving the planet to stop anyone from trying to talk to a denizen for peace."
"Peace talks mean leadership." Diana points out. "Even if it was small collections of people, they would still have leaders and systems to not have constant conflict."
"And you said her parents wanted to also send the weapon?" Clark asks, with a tiny notebook out. Always the reporter. "A government learning about a shady idea to cheat death I can see, but what did her parents get out of it? It couldn't have just been the idea of immortality."
"Yeahhhh…" Hal makes a 'you're not gonna like this' face. "The denizen teen was actually their dead son… that their invention killed… because it ripped a hole into their reality on top of him… in their basement… who they also hunted thinking he killed their son because he showed up after their son vanished… and looked like him mixed with a denizen."
Hal would say he only got crickets back, but even those make more noise then right now! Tough crowd. It doesn't last long, however, as Clark seems to shake it off.
"Putting aside all of… that, for now." Clark does a little hand wave for what 'that' could entail. "Is there a leader that could have talked about peace? Or even just a 'please stop trying to end reality' meeting?"
"Jazz couldn't say much other than there being a King and a Princess." Hal shrugs.
"Couldn't or wouldn't?" Bruce asks, squinting at him.
"Couldn't." Hal affirms. "It was agreed after everything that the future King's identity would be hidden among the denizens because he is still weak from battle. Apparently, they can look like all kinds of things in all kinds of sizes if they stick to one size at all. The King might be obvious for certain occasions that need to be watched over, like the migration, but it looks a lot different from his smaller form."
"A warrior?" Diana asks, perking up.
"Yep! Protection is apparently his whole thing." Hal says, nodding. "The old King was overthrown by him because he kept causing destruction in other reality's space by attacking denizens in theirs. It was apparently a tough fight that dragged her whole planet into their reality and could have killed everyone if the fight took too long and her parents' inventions failed."
"Is there any chance for future talks to make connections in case another incident arises? Perhaps open trade for resources to help repair the damage of the last King?" Arthur asks. It makes sense that a king would want to help a future one, especially one that got hurt protecting his people. Just one problem with that.
"Currently, no. It's too soon after the whole, uh, weapon thing, for any denizen to comfortably talk to other realities right now. But, Jazz still talks to her brother and can pass a message along that we want to help if we write one out?"
Diana, Arthur, and Clark look ready to plan out a message, or official letter with a wax seal and everything if they really get into it. Hal hears something about dead civilizations and the lost knowledge of Krypton when J'onn interrupts them.
"As fascinating as this is, and it is, what about the death energy hitting Earth?" He asks. "Should we warn hospitals?"
"J'onn's right." Bruce adds. "You mention people that had died before as well. Explain."
"Hmm, warning hospitals and cops is probably a good idea. Yeah." Hal admits. "Jazz said it isn't dangerous in small amounts and long term is just a bio change over several years of exposure. I was sent back with some gear to keep the tower unaffected since most of us have died for a bit before."
"Is that safe?" Barry asks. Does his time stuff count as dying? They might find out.
"Considering she lived over a portal to the source of it for most of her teen years, I trust her judgment on that." Hal says. "That, and Oa tested it themselves before I left."
"What will it do if not hurt that we need alerts for it?" Diana asks.
"It might, might, make people… relive their death." Hal says, not looking at Bruce. "Higher chance if it was more… violent."
"..." Bruce reaches up to click his communicator and talks into it. "Oracle, send Robin, Hood, and Nightwing to the Watchtower immediately and send a city wide alert to remain indoors. When asked, claim fear toxin got in the water again with a delayed reaction time, meaning it will already be in people. I will explain later."
Oracle, whoever that is, responds with something that has Bruce looking at Hal.
"How long until this rift opens?"
"Uh, about two hours? Two in a half?" Hal thinks over the travel time and nods. Yeah, he's still on time.
"Two hours, Oracle. Have the city ready in one with alerts ready for the UN and every news outlet on my signal, it's global." Bruce finishes his call. "We need a story that doesn't reveal too much and causes more panic than what will already happen."
Ugh. This is going to be a lot of work in a short time, but Hal has not lost his excitement! This is a rare event up close and in perfect view of the Watchtower monitors, they can watch it so clearly! And like, take notes for Oa and Jazz's planet to update them too, but mostly just to see the whales.
He will see space whales!
Just over two hours later and Earth is as warned as can be.
With a story of 'normal' space whales, slightly off course, passing from deep space that may cause vivid hallucinations because of the Fear Toxin in the water supplies by another global Rogue attack that just happened to be at the same time. Batman's team worked with the Watchtower and The Daily Planet to lay groundwork to 'prove' the story if anyone were to look.
There was worry about how bright the Blaze Star always was, but going over the full report and gear from Jazz says it is a gas in that part of the galaxy that made it so bright. Like those old mining helmets, or calcium carbide lamps, that used flammable acetylene gas to be so bright. It will be bright and colorful, no doubt about that, but it won't blind people. More like really intense Northern Lights.
The whale's size won't be a problem either. Due to not being of this reality, they do not affect this reality. All the 'attacks' from Jazz's home planet were done by denizens that once lived here or the belief they could was so strong it gave them the ability too. It reminds Hal of an old saying about one scared person being manageable but a group can turn chaotic fast. Or something like that, he doesn't fully remember it.
Anyway, lights are good, whales are good, fear not so good, and the Watchtower is safe because of Jazz's tech. Also, Bruce brought his kids and a crime lord here?? Red Hood is on… a lot of lists, but also works with a space team to help? Clark and Diana seem cool with him here so… Is it fine???
He might have to re-read all the reports he skimmed over before Bruce notices he doesn't know who their allies are. It's so much easier when they're all color coded in the Lantern Corps!
"Hal!"
Hal looks away from the windows, and the neat little countdown Cyborg put up, to see Nightwing coming towards him with Robin in tow. Now, he may know Bruce's identity, and could guess the rest, but he was never really told who was who. For example, Nightwing was the first Robin and Bruce only had one kid at the time so that's obviously Dick, this Robin, however, is a stabby little guy that refuses to say who he is.
Clark's kid knows, and while Hal could bully a toddler, or whatever, into talking, Clark would give his 'I'm not mad, I'm disappointed' look and Lois would kill him. So yeah, Stabby Robin is a mystery. For now.
"Hey, Dick, how's it been?" Hal waves at the duo as Stabby Robin does a click sound at him.
"Tc, what is the purpose of a persona name if every plebian is going to not use it?" Ouch, harsh little man.
"Nah," Dick laughs. "Hal's cool, I've known him for years. He was in my Robin days!" Hear that Bruce? Hal's cool.
"So he's aged considerably," Ow!? "and cannot remember the use of a secret identity. I see now." Stabby Robin turns his nose up at Hal.
"I-" Hal blinks at the sass on this kid. "I'm as old as Bruce?"
"Tc. As if you and Father are on the same level in any way." Robin crosses his arms with a little huff.
Okay, wow, feelings are a little hurt here. Just because something is true doesn't mean you have to say it. Kids are ruthless these days!
"Haha! Bruce wouldn't work with someone if they couldn't keep up, BabyBat." Dick says. Adorable nickname, pretty sure anyone else would get stabbed for it. "And Hal here is the whole reason we learned about these space whales in the first place, you would have missed out on seeing them without him. So, what do we say to Hal?"
Hal has to not smirk at the 'use your manners' voice Dick has and the huffy sigh Robin gives before looking back at him.
"Thank you, Green Lantern, for the opportunity to see an ecological space event up close. I am sure videos and photos would not have been able to give it justice afterwards." Robin says, almost like he's reading out a 'how to be nice' card. It's adorable, like a stabby little business man Bruce taught how to punch people.
"Well, you're welcome Robin, glad you can be up here for it." And not relive a death you had? Hal, wisely, doesn't add. It was pretty obvious why these three were called up immediately, but it isn't really his place to ask Bat business, so he won't.
Robin nods and turns to walk away to be by the observation window and Red Hood, apparently their conversation is done now. Good talk kid, always happy to talk to the youth of today.
"Don't let Robin bother you, Hal." Dick says, smiling after his… brother? "He's like that to most people that aren't me or Bruce, but he is excited for the whales. Was ready to fight half of Gotham to 'prove he could protect it' before Bruce told him the cause of the possible hallucinations was space whales he could watch up close."
"Kid likes animals?" Hal asks.
"Like you wouldn't believe." Dick snorts. "I thought it was bad enough after Batcow-" Cow? "-but after the dragon-" Dragon!? "-I stopped being surprised at what he might bring home."
"...there is so much to unpack there." And Hal can't ask any of it because that would be looking at Bat business! "Do I need to worry he might try a whale calf? Pretty sure they are as big as the station."
"Nope!" Dick makes sure to pop the 'P' sound. "Alfred gave him The Look as soon as they got mentioned. You know how it is."
"Mhm." And know Hal does.
He tracked mud one time on a white rug and had a shotgun cleaned next to him when Bruce wasn't looking and he ended up in the kitchen. Not a single threat was said or made, but the message was very clear about where Alfred stands on guns compared to Bruce. He had to work for a month on the Kent farm for Mrs. Kent's cookie recipe to trade for forgiveness.
"I doubt BabyBat would risk whatever spacy ecosystem is out here anyway." Dick shrugs. Which is a good point, Hal has no idea what the whales do outside make baby stars and eat dying ones.
"Probably shouldn't disrupt that. Yeah." Hal nods and looks over at Robin and Red Hood by the windows. "So, what's up with Red Hood? Did I miss a memo? Are we cool with him now?"
"Ehhhh…" Dick bobs his head side to side a bit. "Kinda."
"Kinda?"
"He's cool with Diana and works with the other Bats, but don't go looking for a team up anytime soon if it's not an emergency." Dick shrugs. Early days Bruce, got it.
"I'll keep that in mind." Hal hears a chime and looks over to see the countdown is about five minutes out. "Looks like we better find good seats for this, Barry pulled enough out for the non flyers if you want to gather your group."
"Will do." Dick gives a little salute and walks off. "Later Hal, hope this tech keeps us safe or Bruce might actually kill you."
"Ha, he wouldn't… right?" Hal waits but just gets a smirk as Dick leaves. "He wouldn't, right, Dick!?"
All Dick does is give his creepy little laugh that haunted his Robin years and makes several of the others quickly look over in worry. He did that on purpose, little shit. Welp, time to find clear airspace and watch the show. Oooo, the kitchens made popcorn. Nice!
Hal has to get around several people to find a clear spot to make a platform, and even then he has to share with the Hawks and a few others. Not that he minds, really, he'll just need to remember to ask Bruce for elevated platforms after this and hope he doesn't need to leave and drop them.
It's not long before the countdown reaches a minute and displayed on several screens that will blink to long range cameras once it hits zero if it's too far to see from just the window. Clark is on standby with J'onn in case something goes wrong with the tech Jazz sent and someone needs medical or restrained, but it shouldn't come to that. Hopefully.
The timer blinks down to ten seconds as everyone waits eagerly.
10…
9…
8…
7…
6…
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
There is a moment of silence before *CRACK*.
Out in the space between Earth and Mars, a massive glowing green crack appears. Hal glances away, hearing a commotion by Bruce's group, to see them holding Red Hood, but a gasp has him looking back up quickly. The crack pushes out like the water's surface before it seems to break and what can only be described a living space comes out.
Massive whale shaped beings made entirely out of transparent material glide across the stars, their bodies giving off a kaleidoscope of lights from all the different colors of stars inside them. Every now and then there is a burst of brighter colors as a whale exhales stardust out into space, streaks of colors filling the space above them for miles as the dust leaves to make more stars later.
Like regular whales, these ones also call out in song between each other. It echos and has an otherworldly sound under it, likely to make the sound travel in the vacuum of space and whatever their native reality has.
The gathered heroes are making awed sounds as they watch the window or the screens that are zooming in. Some exclaim in surprise as a screen shows the closest zoom, there are hundreds of smaller beings 'swimming' around the whales and keeping the calves from wandering off. Some carry supplies or what could be weapons. They all have different appearances with only collected groups looking similar, but they all have a long fish-like tail behind them.
"Sirens!" Arthur exclaims. "A massive mixed pod of sirens!"
Hal thought those were the Greek half bird ladies, but who is he to question the king of the sea?
They watch the amazing display for a while longer when someone points at something that shimmers into view in the middle of the pod. It's another, massive siren made out of the same transparent material as the whales, ribs and glowing green organs seen past its skin. There are several sharp spike-like horns on its head that make the shape of a crown poking out of their long white hair.
It's the King!
If that is what the King looks like now, what the hell did the last tyrant look like? How did a regular siren fight and beat that when even the largest of them is only as big as his hand!? Hal is happy to not know as he watches the King shimmer back out of the visible spectrum.
The migration seems to be reaching the end, as the portal closes behind the last adult. About 18 whales have passed through their space before the leader seems to 'push' against a spot in front of them and open another crack to reenter their reality. People are talking to each other excitedly as the last few adults and a slow calf are left. Hal is lowering his platform a bit at a time once an open space opens up when he hears a worried yell.
"The calf!" Kon is pointing at the screen in front of him and Tim in his Red Robin gear (when the fuck did he get here!?) is tapping at his wrist to pull up the zoomed footage.
The whale calf seems to have darted off path and has dozens of the sirens trying to get it back to the portal in time. The heroes watch with baited breath as the upset calf slaps its tail out at the sirens and hits one with black octopus legs instead of a tail. It makes something small fall out of its hip bag and drift towards the Watchtower. None of the sirens notice as they are focused on the whale.
Clark leaves for the hanger to reach the airlock as they manage to get the calf safely into the portal shortly before it closes. They watch him fly to the small object through the windows and screens and catch it. He looks at it for a bit before a camera sees him going pale and turning back to the tower.
Clark comes up to the observation windows and stops right in front of Bruce with the rock. The rock looks like a large polished stone that goes up into a rounded point at the top, its colors look like blue space dust and there is a purple band around it with a medal of some kind on it.
Hal, Barry, J'onn, and Diana join Bruce at the window to see what's going on. The other heroes behind them keep a respectful distance but are clearly invested in what's going on. They can't hear Clark until J'onn links their minds.
'There is a heartbeat! The siren's lost an egg!' Clark says, holding the egg up so they can see the metal on it. 'And I think it was a pretty important one too!'
Oh. That metal has a crown insignia on it.
Oh, no. That means royalty in most cultures.
Jazz is going to lose her shit.
Notes:
- Blue Flash Labradorite Egg is the egg to look up an image for, if it's in a hand and about ostrich egg sized it's the look of Ellie's egg. It was linked to Ebay, so I couldn't link to it. Sorry.
- Here is a link to read about the real Blaze Star! (there are ads on the site, I can't control that) Link
- Jason died and became Red Hood ("A Death in the Family"), Dick temporarily died to disarm a bomb (Forever Evil), and Damian died via a clone aged up to an adult (Batman, Inc. #8) but was revived later (Robin Rises).
- I have a new favorite lantern and it's the literal box one that speaks in box and is named B'ox. Love that funky little guy.
- Sirens are the Greek bird ladies but it is also used when talking about mermaids. Some people use 'sirens' for the water folk that lure sailors to the water and mermaids for the ones that save them. It could also be used for the bigger and more 'sharp' looking ones and mermaids are 'softer' like Arial.
- Sam is a Cecelia, they have the lower half of an octopus or squid.