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When Kyle was a kid, still too small to be left at home alone for periods of time, his mother always took him to church. It wasn't particularly of interest to him, and he stopped going when he was in his teens, but something that always stayed with him—aside from the memorized prayers and older people talking about how much he was growing and what a lovely young man he was—was the large bell. Bronze, at the top of the steeple, its rope in a corner of the main hall. Some of the kids always took turns pulling it and laughing. Kyle could only remember how its ringing had drowned out every other sound in the place, leaving his ears ringing for minutes afterwards.
His ears were ringing now, had been for hours.
Three weeks he'd been in space, patrolling Sector 2814 as was his job as the last Green Lantern. He'd only just gotten back a little while after midnight, fully intent to crash in his bed and pass out until three in the afternoon.
The City that Never Sleeps had other ideas.
Kyle really hated dealing with Sonar. Not because he was a major threat, no he could handle a major threat. He'd handled Grayven and Darkseid and even Parallax. Sonar just always popped up at the worst times for him. No rest until Kyle dealt with him. Again.
He was off, exhausted and hungry and pissed—and the ring could only fix one of those. He knocked Sonar down hard with a giant robot's punch, stupidly thought that was the end of it.
Sonar got the drop on him. A blast of sheer sound waves knocked him to his knees, hands pressed over his ears. If he got distracted for too long, he'd get his ass kicked and Sonar would kill the people around here. The ones still evacuating.
Once a fist grabbed his hair, Kyle knew the fight was going to be pretty one-sided. He wasn't at the top of his game. Fine enough, he assumed. He'd just take the beating and come back twice as mad after he slept and ate and had a damn shower.
He wasn't sure how long Sonar held him to the ground, blasting his ears with those sound waves. Kyle had to focus all his energies on just keeping his suit materialized, forget any chance of fighting back. If he passed out now, it'd be over in so many ways. Even if he survived, his identity would… he didn't have time to think about that.
It lasted long enough that Kyle felt as if he'd been pinned for days. He hadn't seen the sun in ages, maybe Earth just lost it again. If only he could call Hal, but he'd blown up to reignite the sun last time. Kyle wasn't strong enough to do it himself. Couldn't even deal with Sonar on his own.
Even with his eyes squeezed shut, Kyle saw the burst of light. The fact that he didn't hear it over the growing ring in his ears sent a brief panic through his body, but Sonar wasn't holding onto him anymore. In an instant Kyle was in the air, ring ready for the next round, when he saw the Flash frowning up at him, holding an unconscious Sonar over his shoulder.
Kyle was glad he couldn't hear whatever the hell Wally just said. The ringing was worse now, but he'd be fine in a few hours. He just needed sleep, a shower, and something to eat. He ignored Wally and flew back home.
Whenever something left his ears ringing like this in the past, he could always still slightly hear things, but tonight, not even the water in the shower made a sound.
Whatever. He'd be fine.
Waking up to his pillowcase stained in blood could not be considered fine in any circumstance.
By all accounts it wasn't even a lot of blood. Just a smeared patch where he'd been resting on his side, crusted and browning. Kyle pushed himself up with a groan, two things making themselves very clear.
Kyle couldn't hear his own breathing. Not the groan, not the rustle of his sheets, not even the string of swears he let out.
A hospital. He needed a hospital.
He pulled on a pair of shorts and a hoodie before hurrying through the hall down the stairs, and into the cafe. It was busier than he'd like with the early morning rush, but this couldn't wait, and Kyle couldn't do this himself. He stood by the counter and waved Radu over.
Kyle was met with a smile and probably the usual greeting—something along the lines of 'Good morning, how's the art job?'—but he didn't hear a word.
"Radu," Kyle hoped he wasn't too loud. "I need you to call me an ambulance."
He looked around and placed a hand on Kyle's back, guiding him to a corner by the door. Again, he was talking, but Kyle couldn't hear a word. He was trying not to panic, but his hands were shaking and his vision was blurring. He'd never screwed up this bad.
Radu shook his shoulder once, then a second time. Kyle met his gaze, brown eyes wide with worry.
"Look, I can't hear anything. I can't even hear myself, so please—"
Radu turned and hurried towards the phone behind the counter. All Kyle could do now was wait.
The doctors said his eardrums had been ruptured. Well, they wrote it on a paper for him. Most of the time people could heal from this, but apparently Kyle's ears already weren't in great shape—thank you intergalactic wars—so any sort of healing would be a miracle.
For an ordinary person that is. Luckily, Kyle was Green Lantern, and even more lucky, he had access to the Justice League's infirmary, and could maybe ask one of the members with healing powers to help him out before it became a problem.
Shit, and before Wally found out. Of all people who had to be present yesterday—
Once he was discharged and told to await a bill, Kyle suited up and hurried to the Hall of Justice, stepping into the teleporter and instantly regretting it.
Wally's mask was off as he walked down the perpendicular hall, chatting with Garth. Kyle ducked behind the control panel and let out a sigh. Of course a member of the Justice League would be here. Should have thought about that.
He risked a glance and sighed again to see that he was alone, no risk of Wally seeing him and making light of this situation. Bad enough he had to be rescued by him, even worse was that if he didn't find a Leaguer to help him quick, this might be permanent.
Long story short, every-fucking-body with healing powers was busy. For a week. And Kyle's hearing hadn't come back even with the ring's healing capabilities.
He shouldn't be surprised, it only covered important injuries. He couldn't even complain to Ganthet that this straight up prevented him from doing his job because how was he supposed to keep planets from warring by bringing them to a compromise if he couldn't even find out what they were fighting over? He wouldn't be able to hear his shitty responses.
And worst of all, Kyle was stuck attending a Justice League meeting. The email had only said there was a space issue, and that since he was the only Lantern, he had to be there.
Superman had been talking for an hour and Kyle still had no clue what was going on. Would it kill him to put a checklist on a whiteboard or activate one of his holographic information webs over the table?
Probably. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to take the easy way out.
Wally elbowed him hard.
"What the fuck, man?"
He opened his mouth, said a whole line of words that everyone else could hear. Glancing around, Kyle saw that the entire League was staring at him. Waiting for an answer.
"Um," Genius reply.
They wish to know if the Guardians have any information on this potential threat, A voice echoed in his head. Somehow he managed not to jump.
"I'll… talk to them."
Batman nodded and spoke one word, the only one Kyle had managed to pick up since this started. "Good."
His hands were shaking. He had to get this fixed or be forced out of the Corps and the Justice League. He'd worked so hard to be taken seriously, to make it to where he was now. There was no way he was going to lose it over something as simple as his hearing.
It was easy to apply for the Wayne Foundation insurance but that was a bad idea. Batman would know what was going on as soon as that file got sent out.
Teaching himself sign language and reading lips might be harder, but he wouldn't have to confess his major screw up to the heroes who had been doing this since he was still in school. None of them had ever been permanently disabled like the doctors said Kyle was.
"Excuse me for a moment," Kyle muttered and hurried out of the meeting room. This wasn't going to work. He didn't even know what the potential threat was, let alone how to ask Ganthet about it.
He found a hopefully secluded enough hallway and slammed his fist into the metal wall, instantly regretting it.
"Fuck," He hissed and shook his hand out.
Kyle, the voice said in his head again.
"J'onn?" The hallway was empty, but he's pretty sure that's Martian Manhunter's voice.
I'm unable to leave the meeting, but you seemed off. I apologize for the invasion.
No, no, Kyle replied. It's good to hear something. Anything.
Are you unable to hear?
Don't make a big deal of it okay?
What happened?
Kyle sighed and slid down the wall to the floor. I lost a fight. I'm going to try dealing with this on my own but it's gonna take some time. I won't be able to tell the Guardians about the problem.
He got the feeling J'onn let out a sigh.
What's your insurance, Kyle?
Not Wayne if that's what you're after.
Switch it tonight. I'll help you.
Are you gonna erase Bruce's memories or something?
His mind went so quiet Kyle wondered if he'd ever had a thought before. But that itself was a thought, and a stupid one at that.
But he went home, filed for his insurance to change, sent in the itemized bill, and flopped on his bed. The one good thing about the Wayne Foundation would be the fact that they didn't care if someone got hurt before filing. They just covered 90% of everything because Bruce had the money. And he was nice about it.
In the early hours of the morning, he rolled out of bed for a glass of water, stopping when he spotted something on his desk that he definitely hadn't left there. Looked like a book and a couple of sticky notes. They covered the title, so Kyle had no idea what had been brought here.
Tight cursive handwriting covered each note.
Got the file. Have something in the works. Should be a few weeks.
Kyle frowned and set that note to the side.
Wouldn't hurt to brush up on this though. For future incidents. Helped me back in the day.
Oh shit, this better not be—he signed it with a scribble of his logo. Kyle sighed and looked at the the title. ASL For Beginners.
"Thanks, Bruce," He muttered.