"A Kryptonian God...?!"
Abin cried out in shock, then fell completely silent.
The silence lasted a full seven seconds before Abin finally spoke again.
"I only stopped paying attention to Earth for a few weeks. Why is there a Kryptonian God on it now?!
Bize, don't go to Mogo alone. Stay on Mars and wait for me—I'll be there soon!
Earth is far too dangerous right now. Damn it, a Kryptonian God..."
Abin quietly cut the communication, and his words made Clark frown for a long moment.
The Green Lanterns Clark had met before—Mogo and Bize—had both left him with a pretty good impression.
But this Abin...
What gave him the right to make such assumptions about Krypton? Why did he insist a Kryptonian God had to be as dangerous as he claimed?
That kind of thinking wasn't just presumptuous—it was narrow-minded.
Stereotyping!
At that thought, Clark shook his head in irritation, then turned and grabbed Tiff's wrist.
"Forget it. Let those Green Lanterns sort out their own communication. I'm taking you home!"
"We're just going back like that?"
Tiff asked fiercely, then glared viciously at Bize's ship and continued.
"He dared to slander Your Excellency right in front of me. That Green Lantern called Abin must die. I want to—"
"You want a fist to the face, that's what you want!!!"
Clark was instantly on the verge of tears. Sure enough, this was his people's most traditional type—the kind that jumped straight to murder at the slightest provocation!
Suddenly he didn't blame Abin Sur so much anymore, because holy hell, Krypton really was terrifying!!!
Fighting back tears, Clark grabbed hold of Tiff, then waved toward Bize's ship.
"You wait here for your teammate. We're heading out first. Once you get to Earth, come find me and Great-Grandfather in Metropolis, USA."
"No need!"
Hearing Clark's farewell, Bize refused flatly, then opened the ship's hatch.
A moment later, a little bee wrapped in green light buzzed all the way over to Clark's side.
"I'm not in the mood to sit around waiting for him. Damn it, does he think I'm some little kid buying alcohol for the first time?
When I was going up against Yuga Khan's Apokolips back in the day, Abin was still playing in the mud on Korugar!"
With that, the little bee shook his tiny head dismissively, then gave his wings a full buzz.
"You two don't look slow, so keep up with me. From here to Earth, I'll only need about two minutes!"
"Same here. As long as I don't exceed lightspeed, I'd say around 280,000 kilometers per second is my limit.
So, let's go!"
"Go!"
The bee and Clark exchanged a glance, then shot forward in an instant. The two of them transformed into streaks of light, carving two brilliant lines across the space between Mars and Earth.
...
Meanwhile, atop the dome of Earth's Divine Kingdom, Heisenberg hugged Mogo and sighed with frustration.
"The things I care about are getting fewer and fewer. So many things I don't care about, I just forget in the blink of an eye.
Forget it. Let's bring Clark over now."
"Yeah, Dad, hurry and bring them back.
Otherwise, Bize's probably going to wake up any minute now!"
Thinking of Clark and Tiff left behind in Sector 2261, Mogo finally remembered to worry.
Bize had been with her for tens of thousands of years. In a certain sense, that little bee had always been like a teacher in her life.
So Mogo was actually pretty scared of Bize.
Hearing Mogo's support, Heisenberg nodded and quietly sensed Clark's location.
"Found him. Huh?
He's already in the solar system? Did he find a jump wormhole?"
Heisenberg muttered to himself, then casually clapped his hands.
In the next instant, the light of the Bifrost blazed to life.
Clark, who was speeding through space, immediately sensed the descending rainbow light.
"Great-Grandfather's teleportation—he's seen us?"
"What what?!!"
Bize, beside him, panicked slightly and immediately rushed closer to Clark.
Just as Clark was about to be taken away by the Bifrost, he dove straight into it, clinging to Clark's chest.
Only after he'd truly gotten inside did he belatedly react.
"What the hell is this thing? You two aren't in any danger, are you? Don't worry, I'll protect you.
This is my first time seeing something like this. It's kind of like the Boom Tubes over on Apokolips.
But no—this one's different. This one's beautiful. Those Boom Tubes damn near rattle your ears off!"
Bize kept muttering while clinging tightly to Clark's clothes.
The next moment, the three of them landed on a metal dome covered in mysterious patterns.
Across from them, Heisenberg stood holding the little broken ball, smiling as he waved at the three of them.
"Sorry, I forgot about you two for a second there. Come on, Tiff, go take a look at our new home in the Divine Kingdom.
Clark, I'll bring the other clansmen who called out back soon. Take them around the Divine Kingdom, or show them around Earth if you like.
Let them get familiar with their new powers, and let them see how Earthlings live."
With that, Heisenberg smiled and reached out to pat Clark on the shoulder.
But the moment he extended his hand, he suddenly noticed a large hornet—two centimeters long—perched on the bright S emblem on Clark's chest.
"A bee?"
He was a little puzzled. Clark's body was covered in a bioelectric force field. How could a bee land on him?
Puzzled or not, Heisenberg casually swatted at it.
Smack!!!
"Ahhhhh!!!"
A crisp, clear smack rang out, and a scream followed from under Heisenberg's hand.
Hearing the scream, Heisenberg was baffled. Had he been wrong this whole time—was the Superman suit actually Clark's real body?
Why did it scream when he hit it?
At the same time, Clark was panicking beyond belief.
"Great-Grandfather, stop! That's not a bee—it's a Green Lantern!!!"
"What?"
Heisenberg froze and quickly pulled his hand back. Where he'd just swatted, an utterly miserable bee lay sprawled.
But it didn't look good at all. Two of its six legs were broken, and one wing drooped limply to the side.
At the same time, the barely-hanging-on bee used its last strength to gasp out its final words.
"Earth really is dangerous... His Excellency the Kryptonian God is terrifying...
My ring... go choose a more suitable Lantern. Someone just, someone kind... don't be mischievous like Mogo!
Go now, my last strength... ugh...!"
With a final cry, the ring on the little bee's leg quickly detached and gradually enlarged.
When it reached the size of a normal ring, it shot off into the distance in the blink of an eye.
Seeing this, the little ball in Heisenberg's arms—who had been frozen in shock—burst into tears on the spot!
The little broken ball wailed as she threw herself toward Bize, crying out.
"Don't die, Bize! I didn't mean to get you killed! I just wanted to run away and move house!
Bize, wake up, Bi—"
Smack.
Heisenberg, caught between laughter and tears, swatted the little broken ball in his arms. Then he lifted her up with one hand and held her out in front of Clark.
At the same time, he beckoned with his free right hand, and the Green Lantern ring—already flying off into the distance—arrived in his palm in an instant.
"If you make the little broken ball actually cry, I'll really kill you, little Bee!"
At Heisenberg's threat, the little ball he was holding froze.
"Bize isn't dead?"
"Is that any reason to be happy? You nearly scared this old man to death!!!"
Before Mogo even finished speaking, Bize irritably came back to life from his corpse-like state.
Shaking his two remaining legs, he flew up and slowly settled onto the little broken ball, then said respectfully to Heisenberg.
"I am Bize, warden of Sector 2261 of the Green Lantern Corps. It is an honor to meet you, great Kryptonian God, Your Excellency!"
"Cut the flattery. I'm not great, and I'm not Kryptonian. Just call me Heisenberg."
With great interest, Heisenberg handed the Green Lantern ring back to Bize, and the ring obediently slipped onto Bize's leg.
With the ring back on, green light shimmered over Bize's body, and in an instant, the light scanned the now-many-times-shrunken little broken ball.
When the scan finished, Bize twitched his antennae in utter astonishment.
"This is truly magnificent art. Your divine power has pushed spatial technology to its absolute limit, Your Excellency.
This is already within the realm of twelfth-level intelligence. Your might leaves me in awe."
Bize nodded in admiration, then lifted a slender leg and tapped Mogo's body.
"You little thing—now you've finally become a little thing in my eyes too, ha!
But I'm not in the mood for that. There should be a passageway, right? Open it up. I need to go home and see my wife!"
"Ah, oh, okay!"
Mogo trembled slightly, a bit bashful, then used her planetary force field to draw Bize down onto her surface.
Bize shrank rapidly, about to vanish from sight entirely.
Just before he disappeared, he spoke his last words to Heisenberg.
"Looks like you and Mogo get along well. You're the sun, she's the planet—you really do seem like a good match.
So I'll allow her to stay by your side for now.
As for the future, I'll make periodic inspections from Mogo. If you two truly get along, I'll deal with that troublesome Abin myself.
I'm Mogo's keeper. Wherever Mogo goes, I go.
As for Sector 2261—it's just an empty sector. Let the Corps and the Guardians figure it out themselves!
Ha!!!"
With his laughter, Bize vanished completely from sight. Inside the little broken ball—now fully linked through Mobius technology and divine power—there existed an entirely separate space.
And that space was exactly like Darkseid's Apokolips.
Without knowing the proper method, and without the permission of the planet itself or Heisenberg,
no one could break into the Divine Kingdom or the little broken ball.
Watching Bize disappear, the little broken ball smiled happily.
"I should've known not to knock him out. Bize really is the reasonable one after all!"
She was especially delighted—her sudden decision had actually earned the approval of an elder.
That was good news for any child, wasn't it?
Listening to the little broken ball's happy words, Heisenberg smiled warmly. As he kneaded her, he spoke to Clark and Tiff.
"Come with me. It's time we went home too."
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
Clark and Tiff answered, then followed Heisenberg into the Divine Kingdom's ship.
Once they entered, the dome of the Divine Kingdom closed instantly, and the inside and outside of the ship became two entirely separate worlds.
Taking in everything within the Divine Kingdom, Heisenberg reached out with his right hand, and a palm-sized continent flew into his grasp.
On that tiny landmass, all the Kryptonians still moving about stared up at the sky in shock.
In their eyes, Heisenberg loomed as tall as a god of creation.
Heisenberg nodded to the clansmen gazing up at him, then tossed the little broken ball into the air.
In the blink of an eye, the little broken ball unfurled her true form throughout the Divine Kingdom.
At the same time, on Mogo's surface, inside a beehive wrapped in clusters of flowers, Bize's helpless and dejected voice rang out.
"I knew it would be like this. Bees are climbing on you again... wuwuwuwu!!!
This is maddening! Why hasn't the Corps developed technology to give ordinary bees intelligence yet?!
If you keep being controlled by instinct and mating with other drones, I'll—I'll—
I'll end up with hundreds or thousands more children!!!"
With Bize's agonized roar, the green light covering his body grew greener and greener without him even realizing it.
Greener and greener...
Truly worthy of the name Green Lantern!
/-\
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