His heart fell into his shoes. His eyes watered. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears. He could feel it all again. If some heartless soul asked him to recite the news broadcast the day coast city was atomized, he could've word for word right then.
And it was all because of her.
She was standing— floating right beside him. As real as…. well, reality. As real as he remembered her. Curly locks of hair hung down past her shoulders. Her thin nose was almost avian, giving her a near regal visage if not for her unapologetically American expressions and down to earth nature.
She was a photographer once. He could see it in the way she viewed things.
She saw the world different.
Even in death.
Even as a construct of his own will memorialized. She saw him differently than the living.
"Nice threads."
"H-how…?" Kyle asked.
She shrugged, "I don't know, I just work here. And so do you…"
Then, she flew off.
It was only then that Kyle noticed the twenty foot tall tidal waves racing for land at the edges of his ocean spanning construct.
Even from where he hovered, he could see the cars and people at the edges of the city watching in horror.
"Rookie!"
"I got it!" Kyle took off before Nightwing could say anything.
He moved in a green blur, pushing the limits of his ring. Of his will until he was soaring over the roaring tidal waves.
Alex flew beside him. A verdant memory in motion.
"I'll get the people to safety. You handle the waters."
"You were always better with people." Kyle commented.
"Was I? I could've sworn womanizing requires people skills." Alex said as she flew on her backside while tapping her chin.
"Nah, just sleazy persistence and a nice smile." Kyle hovered at the edges of the city, Alex stopped beside him. Pedestrians watched from below.
"That's fine— and debatable. Your talent was always up here." She tapped her head, "And here." She showed her hands, flowing with Lantern energy, "Paint a picture for me, Kyle." She winked and flew down to the people.
The wave was close— too close. If he put up a wall, it would overflow. If not, he wasn't sure he could manage a strength battle with it and maintain the construct keeping the Titans from sinking.
"Something quick. Something on the move and versatile. Something big. I can multitask... I'm not ambidextrous for no reason." Kyle brought his other fist up and did what green lanterns do best.
He imagined.
The pull was a lot like a sinking feeling in your stomach. Like falling. He held it back and emboldened the image in his mind. He steeled himself. Acknowledging his fear. Focusing on the beauty of Alex as she flew people to safety. Better than him at heroism even in death.
Green fissures of light cracked and bloomed around his ringless fist, taking shape and solidifying until a construct of another Lantern ring on his finger.
"[Ring power: 45%…]"
"That's enough." Kyle huffed, aiming one fist at the football field and the other at the encroaching tidal wave.
From his ring a serpent fired. A small garden snake. Green. Like Beast-man. His muse once again.
As the snake flew towards the tidal wave it transformed. Elongating into a dragon with massive wings and a jaw that could swallow buildings.
The mythical beast crashed into the wave and spun like a tornado, turning the once homogenized force into a spatter of rainfall.
"[Ring power: 35%…]"
"Shut-up." He shut his eyes and moved onto his next piece. His next panel. His hands moved like they held pens over paper. Paint over canvas.
At the same time the football field the Titans went to war on transformed. The perimeter lines in the grass faded. The grass itself expanded until the heroes suddenly found themselves in a forest.
The Titans were swallowed up in protective caccoons like a team of caterpillars on the cusp of evolution.
All except Kryptonian-1 who would one day grow to fear Poison Ivy if the constructs of carnivorous plants ripping him apart meant anything.
Giant Venus flytraps. Tropical pitcher plants spitting gas bombs. Oak trees with bladed limbs. He suddenly appreciated his sixth grade science teacher and…. Harry Potter.
The alien monster raged. His eye beams ripped through the construct forest. Kyle's focus waned as he tried to move his protected allies out of the way fast enough.
The Kryptonian broke free, running at the speed of sound, causing a shockwave to rip through the green and leave him in a clearing. Without the forest canopy, he could finally see the sky, and what awaited him there.
For the first time, Kryptonian-1 looked scared.
The dragon construct divebombed, spitting a massive wall of flame as it crashed like a scaled nuclear bomb.
Kyle smiled as blood spilled from his nose.
"How's that, Alex?"
***
Less than a minute later and Kyle was flying to land. Six green orbs followed him, cracking before shattering like glass ten feet above ground.
Everyone landed on their feet except Kyle and Wonder-Girl. Both of their suits beginning to fade for varying reasons. Opposite reasons, even.
Wonder-Girl's silent armor slithered back into the form of bronze bracers. All thanks to the willpower and focus she siphoned from Kyle's ring energy. Same reason he was able to stop her from punching a hole in his skull under the control of psimon. If only it didn't sap so much energy.
Which explained why his own suit was dripping off his skin like a painting under rainfall.
He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, vision blurry. Head throbbing. Small puddles from the dispersed tsunami gave him fragmented reflections of his face. Half of his mask was gone.
He got to his feet, ready to run from the gaze of the growing number of onlookers in the distance.
"Shoot!—"
"Relax." Alex had her hand back on his shoulder. Only now it caused her arm to disappear as he absorbed her.
"[Ring power: 38%….]"
"Stop— what are you doing?" Kyle backed away from her. Her left arm was already gone up to the shoulder.
"You didn't think this would last forever, did you?" She turned her head knowingly and smiled. Completely unbothered. Fearless.
"I can't…."
"What?"
"I can't watch you die again. Just let me recharge— my ring is different. You can stay here. Just hold on. I can fix this. I can bring you back."
He shivered at the realization of how much he must've sounded like Hal Jordan suddenly. He didn't care.
Alex took another step forward.
Kyle took a step back.
"Please…. Let me fix this."
"You're such a goof."
Kyle swallowed, trying to forcibly smoothen out the lump in his throat.
"You know the phrase, you only live once?" She asked.
"What?"
"I rebuke that phrase for objective innacuracy." She put her hands on her hips. She always did that when she had a problem with something in the world.
Kyle couldn't speak. Maybe he didn't want to. He didn't want to sully the memory with his own interjections.
"I think the phrase should be, you only die once. And it's not as permanent as they say. You live as long as you effect, Kyle. I live. In here." She pressed a finger to his forehead. "I don't know what you're doing here— I almost don't recognize you. But I've never seen you so alive. You're so alive it brought me back. Be that for others. Be life, and will— and a symbol. Well….. you already are. Look at who you've saved. Look at how you've changed."
"[Ring power: 49%]"
"[Oan Rule-book reminder: It is against Lantern Law to use the ring for self beneficial purposes that don't have the peacekeeping goal of the Lantern Corps in mind. Failure to follow through on this ruling will result in punishment.]"
Alex was reabsorbed into his ring.
He watched the message fade, leaving him standing alone in a wet street as his suit reknit itself over his muscles, "Right…."
Members of the public began to come out of hiding. Some had glowing green lines over places where grisly wounds once left them immobilized. He could've sworn he could see her face in the lights as they faded.
"Who was that woman?"
"Are we safe?"
"I can't afford a super villain trashing my car right now, man— my credit score is damn near negative."
Impulse faced the crowd behind Kyle, "Not to worry, folks! Me and my green-faced guardian over there have SAVED you all! Don't clap too loud, don't throw your panties at me. I am underage."
Kyle remained facing the ocean as the others gathered Wonder-Girl. Mostly because, if he tried to move he was sure he'd face plant. His brain felt like mashed potatoe—
He came out of the water like a bullet. Fit with the red beam heading straight for his chest. Only this metaphorical lazer sight was a literal lazer. A focused beam of insane heat he could feel even before it h—
He blinked and suddenly he was a block away.
"Damn. He wants you bad, greenie." Impulse said as he held Kyle's hand.
Kyle turned and threw up in a bush.
Impulse vibrated nervously next to him, "Almost done? He's coming! What the hell— is that pineapple pizza?" Impulse faked a gag before being pulled back into the moment.
His approach sounded like a train. If the wheels were made of feet. But like, the feet of a giant.
A growing wave of heavy stomps and wind gusts.
He was angry. Angry Kryptonian shouldn't have been a sentence made possible. It's unfair.
"Let's move!"
Impulse grabbed his hand and suddenly they were moving so fast the world became a blur. How Impulse could see, he had no idea.
Even worse— or more impressively, he was dodging lasers— and moving people out of the way.
At one point, he threw Kyle in the air, hopped into a car and removed a family of two to avoid the crash landing of the wild Kryptonian.
Then they were back in blurring motion.
"Give me some cover fire, bro!" Impulse yelled back to him as he flailed like a flag on a race car antenna.
Kyle— sickly, turned back and fired a blast with his ring.
It fizzled and lost form in the speed force.
Impulse laughed, "That was terrible!"
"Thanks, man!"
"Don't worry, I got this. Something I've been practicing for a while."
He stopped immediately. "Top three benefits of being a super-hero. We get to curbstomp bullies. Be around beautiful women in spandex….. and have special moves."
Debris and wind flew against them from the built up momentum.
At the same time, Impulse began to glow. The electrical currents and speed force energy cloaking him became a focused sheen of heat.
Kryptonian-1 sprinted after them in the distance, clearing the many miles of street between them at terrifying speeds.
"Let's bring the lightning." Impulse whispered before beginning to spin.
Kyle stumbled backward as his ally turned into a natural disaster.
The alien juggernaut grew closer.
Closer.
Impulse was still spinning.
"Impulse…. He's coming!"
"Holy dizzy…." Impulse sounded like a demon. The cyclone distorted his voice.
He was only a mile away.
"IMPU—"
"Got it!" Impulse gave a final spin, boots drifting in the asphalt as he swung his arm in a hooking motion and threw a bolt of lightning down the street.
It was so fast it looked like a glitch in reality. A flash of light.
It hit the Kryptonian and knocked him flat on his back, stopping all his built up motion and leaving him twitching on the ground.
"Give UP!" He roared.
"Has that ever worked?" Impulse crossed his arms.
"You can't beat me. Especially not the two of you. I have more stamina than you, and your buddy is out of juice."
"False! My guy over here is just getting warmed up."
"Dude."
Impulse smiled nervously as he looked at him and dashed side to side twice.
"You know I can hear his heartbeat, right? I can also smell the release of stress hormone in his blood. He's out of the game. If anything IM just getting warmed up."
"He says from the ground." Impulse joked with Kyle.
"Best place for me to be. There's a reason I don't fly."
"What?" Impulse seemed lost.
Kyle was uncomfortable. He could feel that he was missing something.
Someone who just ate a lightning bolt to the face and laid under a Green Lantern and Speedster shouldn't have sounded so confident.
"Impulse, let's run some more. Like now." Kyle said as as Kryptonian-1 spread out his palms on the ground.
"I don't fly, because I'm not strongest there. That's not how my powers work."
"Uhm— actually it is. I know Kryptonians."
"Who said that's all I am? Do either of you know what tactile telekinesis is? If you did you'd be very afraid for the simple reason that you're touching earth— which I'm also touching and you are fast, but you aren't faster than my thoughts."
A sheen of red appeared on the street and hit them both, locking the two in place. There was no time to move, it was just there suddenly.
The alien stood. At the same time, they floated off the ground.
His hair flowed and his eyes glimmered. He looked horrifying as he smiled.
"I don't really know why I'm after you all, but I enjoyed this, I never got to move this freely back at the facility. Now back to business. Id like my freedom and you're in the way."
A blast of red lightning exploded from all around him, knocking them through a number of buildings before they skidded to a halt blocks away.
Kyle landed on a truck.
Impulse landed in a bush. He got up quick. Too quick. His movements were erratic and uncontrolled. He tripped and spun. His face was a blur from how much he vibrated and spit off fissures of lighting. He looked wrong.
"ACK!" A burst of energy wafted from him and he fell to a knee. "I can't—... someone help!"
Kyle's ring beeped, "[Unstable energy signature recognized. Speedforce explosion imminent unless contained through the creation of a layered construct.]"
Kyle aimed his ring, securing the speedster in a bubble of green.
"Hang on Impulse. I'll get you….. somewhere." Kyle got to his feet.
Kryptonian-1 landed right in front of him. Bare foot and bare fisted. His skintight black combat suit was torn and steaming but he looked no worse for wear. Like he said, just warming up.
Kyle's construct weakened. Bolts of lightning peeked through the cracks as Impulse spasmed.
"Just a challenge." The beginnings of a second ring construct formed around his freehand.
"[Ring power: 25%]"
Like Impulse, the power was unstable. Either by nature of the energies of the speedforce fluctuating around him or the fact that he gained and lost Alex again. Failed to balance his life. Failed to protect her brother. Was about to fail to save Impulse after the teen had done so for him a handful of times.
He didn't give a damn about a shape or painting or challenges.
He just needed enough power to make everyone back off—
The construct of the ring exploded— mimicking the Kryptonians previous blast in a blinding wave of green.
He stumbled backward. Almost looking sick— more human.
If only for a moment.
"Was that it?"
He flinched.
Kyle watched silently as he reached for whatever pricked his neck.
His hand reappeared at his side holding a vial full of green fluid.
"Kryptonite sniper for the win!!!!! WOOHOOO!" Bunker yelled from the side of a building as he rode Skitter's back. Beside him, a green gargoyle flew in place, holding Nightwing by the shoulders as he held his weapon up.
"You had that this whole time!?" Kyle yelled as the Kryptonian fell at his feet.
"No! Do you know how expensive that stuff is? I had to call it in. Thankfully it came when it did."
"Yea…. Thankful—" Kyle fell flat on his face.
He dreamt of Impulse sleeping in a green marble. Hopefully that meant something for the real world. Hopefully he didn't die in his sleep to a speedforce explosion.
Whatever that meant.