Inside the cave.
"Is this your base? It looks cool." Hal Jordan turned his body and looked at the instruments placed around him and the various surveillance screens, his eyes shining.
"We have some questions and hope you can answer them truthfully." Batman's deep male voice sounded. Bruce Wayne did not hide himself. He also realized that unless he abandoned the Batman vest in the future, or mastered a kind of energy, it would be difficult not to expose his true identity.
But now, with Rogers standing in front of him, he can completely act as another vest, that is, the behind-the-scenes supplier of equipment and funds for Batman.
"What do you want to ask?" Hal Jordan looked at Wayne who was speaking. He felt that the man looked familiar.
"Your origin, your experience, what do you want to do on this planet?" Wayne asked a series of questions.
"Before I answer the questions, can you ask him to return my ring to me first?" Hal looked eagerly at his ring that was still floating on Rogers.
"How can I give it to you? I don't even dare to touch it right now." Rogers covered his head, his face full of headache. He never thought that after his ring was animated and gained a vague consciousness, it would actually become jealous!
Yes, he knew from Luke that a person can generally only wear a ring with one attribute. If rings with opposite attributes are worn together, some bad accidents may occur.
But Luke never told him that those terrible accidents were the consciousness of the ring madly washing over his body over and over again, expressing resistance and dissatisfaction.
Even though the green lantern ring was close at hand, he could grab it with just one hand, and the other party would cooperate with him, but he still didn't dare to reach out.
Green Lantern Hal was silent for a moment, then took the initiative to step forward and try to get the ring back, but as expected, the ring was still playing hide-and-seek with him. When he reached out his hand, the ring moved away for a distance. When he reached out again, the ring moved away for a distance again. After a few times, Hal looked at the Green Lantern ring with a bitter face, which used to listen to him and cooperate with him very well, and felt a little at a loss.
Then, the next moment, something happened before Hal's eyes that made his face turn green. Apparently realizing it couldn't get close to Rogers, and after the energy confrontation, it felt it couldn't snatch Rogers' Soul Ring, the Green Lantern reluctantly left Rogers, looking back every few steps. Then, under Hal's surprised gaze, the ring seemed to have discovered something and, with a whoosh, floated in front of Bruce Wayne, a stream of green light.
Hal was stunned!
In one day, he'd endured two devastating blows! He'd been betrayed twice by his own ring! It was like his girlfriend had seamlessly switched roles right under his nose. He felt like even without the ring, he'd already turned green from head to toe.
It all came to an end only after Bruce rejected the ring and it was reluctantly returned to Hal, who fell into a state of autism. But in the short term, Hal may not be able to use the Green Lantern Ring as smoothly as before.
"You said you were aboriginal?" Wayne frowned at Hal.
"Yeah, is there something wrong?" Hal was a little confused by Wayne's question.
"So, after this ring was handed to you, you accepted your new identity without any doubt?" Wayne raised his eyebrows.
"The other party is from the good camp, I think it's okay, right?" Hal was stunned for a moment, lowered his tone a little, and asked tentatively.
"Do you know the organization behind the ring?" Wayne asked again.
"I've been to one of their headquarters. They're a very ancient civilization in the universe, dedicated to maintaining cosmic stability and peace. They have a powerful Green Lantern Corps under their command, responsible for different sectors of the universe. I'm the new Green Lantern in this area," Hal explained. He had only been with them for a short time, and even less time at their so-called headquarters. He simply took in the history he'd been told.
"It seems that you are still too naive. What if the other party has any bad intentions? Even if not, is there any backdoor in this ring that can be controlled? If some accidents really happen, will you choose to stand on our side or the other party's side?" Wayne, who has always been suspicious of everyone and everything, shook his head slightly at Hal for accepting the other party's thoughts and the identity given to him so easily.
Too immature.
"Has he always been like this?" Hal looked at Rogers strangely.
"Don't ask me." Rogers shook his head. He didn't have any ill feelings towards the Green Lantern Corps. If what Hal said was true, then this group, like his own Avengers, was one that favored order and justice. Rogers instinctively had a favorable impression of such a group.
"Okay, if you have any other questions, I'll state in advance that I'm still a rookie. While they say I have great potential, I don't know much." Hal waved his hand, attempting to end the conversation. As someone who had gained power, he instinctively didn't want to believe Wayne's words, and from his skeptical perspective, he examined the Green Lantern Corps and the Guardians.
"Is there only one Green Lantern Corps?" Rogers asked curiously.
"As far as I know, there's only one Green Lantern Corps I've come into contact with." Hal didn't know why Rogers asked this question, but he still gave his answer.
"The green rings represent will and courage. The stronger the will and the more resilient the courage, the greater the power they can unleash. So, where does their power come from? It can't be an energy source that appears out of thin air, right?" Rogers originally believed that this universe also had a genius similar to Luke, but the information he received from Hal made him instinctively feel that his guess was significantly off. He wanted to learn more.
"I know this. It is said that the power of the lantern ring comes from the lantern furnace. So every once in a while, after the members of the Green Lantern Corps have used up the energy in the ring, they need to return to the lantern furnace at headquarters to recharge." Hal said.
"It sounds more like a form of control. They've fundamentally cut off your independence, increased your reliance on them, and strengthened their control over the Legion," Wayne added in a predictable tone. "Of course, that's not to say they're doing a bad job. If it were me, I'd adopt the same approach. Being controlled is always better than being uncontrolled."
"Your emphasis is very similar to that of several friends I know. You and them might have more common topics to discuss. But I haven't finished asking my questions yet." Rogers pointed at Wayne, then looked at Hal, who was sandwiched between the two of them, and asked, "The lamp furnace, is it some kind of energy technology they have?"
"Really?" Hal answered uncertainly.
"It seems he doesn't know much." Wayne saw the hesitation on Hal's face and made a judgment.
Rogers asked a few more questions, but Hal either gave uncertain answers or shook his head in bewilderment. Seeing he couldn't get any more information, the captain stopped asking. However, his interest in the Guardian of the Universe increased significantly. As the oldest civilization in this universe, they knew many of its secrets. Perhaps they possessed a method of communicating with other universes?
Rogers sensed that the other party's energy bore many similarities to Luke's. For example, if he hadn't stopped it, his Mind Ring would have completely plundered the energy contained in Hal's Green Lantern Ring. It was like a superior and a subordinate. The Mind Ring possessed greater autonomy and intelligence, as well as incredible diffusion and corrosiveness.
"Should we talk about the Scarecrow next?" After Rogers finished asking the question, Bruce Wayne turned his gaze to the Scarecrow tied to the prison chair.
Rogers had completely removed Klein's hood and bound him with the ring's light. Hal also shifted his gaze to Klein's pale face and thin body.
"I've always wanted to ask, who is he? I sense some kind of threat from him and the hood. The lantern ring doesn't like it very much." Hal asked curiously, remembering the resistance he felt when he first arrived.
"You don't need to know more until you are sure that your ring will not pass on information to the guardian behind the scenes." Bruce reminded.
"I think we should give him and the Guardians some trust. I don't know what you've been through that makes you so skeptical. There are good and bad extraterrestrial civilizations. We've experienced attacks from other civilizations here, and we've also received help from other extraterrestrial civilizations." Rogers disagreed with Bruce. He was equally cautious, but not stingy with trust. The Soul Ring on his finger was still being worn. It claimed to be able to read people's hearts, but it certainly couldn't do that, but it could certainly sense whether someone was good or bad, or if their words and expressions were genuine or false.
Hal felt that the other party was trustworthy without a doubt. He did not sense any negative emotions strong enough to pose a threat.
"That's you," Bruce replied calmly. But as his gaze shifted away from Hal, he added, "But you brought them here and resolved them all, so you have a say and the right to decide how to deal with them. But correspondingly, if there are any negative consequences, you should bear the consequences."
"I won't throw my responsibilities onto others," the captain said. "Our current plan requires like-minded individuals. Your enemies are rapidly growing in strength. If you don't learn to seek out, rely on, and trust your companions, and try to solve everything alone, you'll inevitably be a loser. You'll eventually discover you can't protect anything!"
Bruce remained silent.
"I think Hal can join our plan. You can think of a name for the group or something. The spread and rampant spread of psychic energy is unstoppable. I don't have the ability of its creator to lock it in a data dimension and not significantly affect reality. We can't pray for perfect goodness in human nature, but we should also be prepared for the worst. He and the guardians behind him will naturally be able to distinguish between trustworthy and untrustworthy when they need help." The captain pointed at Hal and said slowly.
He was not blindly trusting of others, nor was he without due vigilance and caution. He had experienced no less than anyone else present, but his personality, enhanced by the superhuman potion and subsequently influenced by the ring, made him not to suspect others with malicious intent without evidence or signs.
Of course, this trust was filtered and vetted through the Ring of the Heart. Just like Hal before him, the captain could sense his inner courage, brilliance, and certain shining points of character. For him, that was enough to give him a certain level of trust and acceptance.
Upon hearing this, Bruce Wayne couldn't help but agree with Rogers. It wasn't that he didn't trust anyone, but while trusting them, he would always harbor doubts. Besides his old butler, Alfred, there were only a handful of people who truly earned his unwavering trust.
"I don't quite understand what you are talking about. What is spiritual energy? What are you talking about?" Hal felt like he was listening to a foreign language, confused and puzzled.
"You'll know. This is also one of your responsibilities. After all, a big problem is about to happen here." The captain stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder. Hal felt the ring in his hand jump again, and he quickly tightened his grip and wrapped it tightly in his palm.
After Rogers and Wayne told Hal the whole story, Hal felt completely elevated. He felt that he might have been unlucky going out today, as major problems appeared one after another in the sector he was responsible for protecting, and even on his home planet.
According to them, Gotham is being extensively eroded and infected by a negative spiritual energy. In the future, super criminals with powers similar to those of the Lantern Ring will continue to emerge. If this momentum cannot be curbed early on, this dire situation will spread rapidly, rapidly infecting more people and cities, and even spreading to the entire universe.
It sounded a bit sensational, and Hal instinctively refused to believe it. But the man before him, damned, exuded an aura of trust. His inner doubts barely had room to struggle, and they only bubbled up symbolically before being washed away on the beach by the wave of faith. Of course, the key point was the ring in the man's hand and the hideous mask, which emanated a strange energy and instilled fear in the very sight of it. These were solid evidence.
"What do you need me to do?" Hal decided to lie down.