Just the newbie...

"I'll set up the meet." he said, nodding. He turned to leave. Knowing Nurse Townsley, she'd be back with fresh clothes any minute and he didn't need to stick around to hear her tell him to buzz off. Besides, he had some arrangements to make and the lunch hour was the time to do it.

The school day concluded and everyone headed for home as was the routine every day. Dana walked with Rose and James to the meeting point. It wasn't far, just a few blocks. He refused to let them teleport to the meet because Lauren had the tendency to set up visual checkpoints along the route to get a look at new recruits he was bringing along. She was a little paranoid that way. In any case, the reaction would not be good if she didn't get her positive feedback from her little spies (who were, actually, very good at this. In all the years, he'd never seen a single one of them). On top of that, their powers wouldn't be incognito for long if they reappeared right under the nose of one of their peers.

Regardless, he led them down an old main street, one which belonged to a town separate from New York before the great city expanded and absorbed it, and through an alley between a corner store and a mechanic's shop to a back courtyard that was once frequented for its basketball court. Now, all that remained of the hoop was a rusted off pole sticking out of the cement like a jagged spike on the opposite end of the place. Lauren was standing right in the middle of the yard with Harry. Dana led the way into the yard, but then something Lauren mouthed made him stop dead. He watched her lips move silently.

Run!

Dana's eyes widened as he realized what she was trying to say and looked around just in time to see a fist coming at his face. Not prepared, the impact made him sink to the opposing knee, breaking his fall with an outstretched hand. The hand grabbed the back of his shirt and tossed him onto the ground.

He looked up. Derrick and Andre were striding out of the shadows at the edge of the courtyard, a mixture of smugness and fury on their faces. Dana pushed himself up only to feel the hand on his back, pushing him down again. With a growl, though, he didn't just let them have their way this time. He was tired of this game with Derrick, of this brat thinking he could do anything he wanted to anyone he wanted to do it to.

With a rather remarkable maneuver, Dana pulled the hand from his back by its wrist and twisted it, using the force of its owner to bring him to a stand. He spun around behind the owner, one of the three he'd gotten expelled yesterday, and kicked a knee out from under him, forcing him to the ground. Standing behind him, one foot on his leg, the same hand holding the hand that he had planted on Dana in a painful position, Dana looked across the courtyard at Derrick and Andre, both of whom wore identical looks of surprise, though both still tried to play it off as though they were expecting this. Lauren and Harry didn't bother.

A moment later, the other two who'd attacked him in the alley approached from behind and tried to attack him. A moment later, however, both were on the ground groaning and Dana was back to the position he was before, holding down Dan Tordis just as he had been.

"Enough!" Dana barked at Derrick. "I've had enough of your bull, Ellers! Now, I don't like to get violent, but you've forced my hand. And I'm sick of it. Accept defeat like the man we both know you aren't and get over yourself."

He tossed Dan to the ground roughly. Tordis wisely didn't try to stand. He just rolled around on the ground, cradling his hand.

"Let me handle this, please." Dana whispered back to Rose and James. "It's about time I finished this fight."

Dana walked past Dan toward Derrick and Andre, stepping over Frankie and Markus who were both still groaning on the ground. Derrick smirked.

"You haven't beaten me yet!" he said defiantly. At least a half a dozen other Officers walked out of the shadows. They were the big enforcers of Derrick's inner circle. They were cracking their knuckles and looking as mean as possible. It didn't really matter. If Dana, Rose, and James decided to make this mild inconvenience into a piece of business, they'd need a hell of a lot more than a miniature brigade to do anything about it. Dana stopped.

"Derrick. You've never listened to my advice before." he said, brandishing a finger. He was dead serious and his face looked it. "But you should now. Let Lauren and Harry go and walk away with your thugs or you will regret it."

"There are eight of us and three of you!" Derrick snapped. "What are you gonna do? Huh?!"

"Eight to three." Dana said. "That's a two point six to one ratio. I don't know if you noticed, but the Trolls got the jump on me. At a three to one ratio with the element of surprise on their side, an element widely regarded to be of absolute importance when attacking a superior foe, I still beat them. And they were the best you had, which isn't saying much, by the way. You don't have any evidence to judge from, but I can assure you that all three of us can handle much better than two point six or three to one odds on a bad day. So anyone who doesn't feel like losing some teeth in the next five minutes should get the hell out of here. And I mean now."

So he had a bit of his father in him after all. Point is, after that little break down, almost half of Derrick's thugs looked around furtively. Then, one by one, every one of them moved out from behind their leaders and past Dana. A few helped Dan, Markus, and Frankie to their feet and then headed out past Rose and James and into the street beyond, out of sight.

"Lauren. You and Harry go too." Dana said, keeping his eyes fixed on Derrick. Lauren looked around, then nodded and nodded for Harry to follow her out. Derrick and Andre looked as though they wanted to stop them, but Dana was inflicting a rather impressive technique his grandfather had taught him once upon a time on them. The warrior's spirit could be a very valuable tool. As soon as all collateral was out of the way, Dana decided it was time to end this once and for all.

"Now then," he said. "Now that all the pawns you were planning on sacrificing for your little game are out of the way, I think it's time the kings cam into play, don't you?"

Clenching his jaw, Derrick dove forward with Andre. They both threw their pathetic skills at Dana and he danced around them with ease. He'd sparred with children who were my physically articulate. And then his turn came around. With a swift kick to Andre's shin while blocking a clumsy punch from Derrick, he landed a series of blows on Derrick, stomach, chest, face, making him stumble over backward while Dana knocked Andre back with a knee to the face. He was just turning to finish Derrick off when he found the other boy standing there with a gun pointed directly at Dana's face...

This was not good. Dana stepped away from a groaning Andre and circled the opposite direction Derrick was circling as the gun-toting teen wiped the blood from his nose. Gulping, his face twisted in a snarl, Derrick spat words at him through a blood-stained mouth.

"You! You did this to me!" he said. "It's all your fault! Because of you, I got expelled. Because of you, I've lost everything."

"No. That was your own fault." Dana said flatly. "You decided to betray Amanda. You decided to turn her ideals into a path to power. You decided to turn what we built into a force for evil deeds. I have no regret in what I did. None whatsoever.”

All the while he was talking, he was trying to figure out a way to disarm Derrick. He may have been an abysmal hand-to-hand fighter, but even Derrick knew how to use a firearm. He wasn't close enough to disarm him, but anything else they did risked resulting in injuries. He shot Rose and James a look that clearly said 'do nothing' before continuing circling Derrick. He reached out and commanded 312 to come to him. He needed to put an end to this now before someone got hurt. But it wasn't a moment later when with a bang that filled the entire courtyard, Derrick collapsed dead, a huge hole in his chest. Dana, splashed with Derrick's blood, watched in horror as the boy collapsed before his eyes...

”Ugh... I hate missing the party.”

Rose eyes widened in horror and pure fear as she stared down at Derrick's blood covered body.

"Ugh...I hate missing the party."

Rose heart stopped beating for half a second, the world suddenly went dead silent as she slowly and nervously looked up at the monster who had just killed a boy he never even met. A cold breeze hit her as a cruel smile curled up onto the man's face.

"Hey Rosie posie! You grew up fast huh? You got so pretty...shame I am gonna have to finish what I started at out last little reunion..."

Rose froze in her place, out of the corner of her eye she could she Jame's hands curl into fists. She couldn't move her arms or legs as images of her past flashed across her mind.

The pain.

The blood.

"Come on Rosie, aren't ya gonna introduce me to your little friends from school?" He said, his cold brown eyes drifting over to Dana and Blink. Their was a evil gleam in his eyes as he studied the two boys.

Rose finally snapped out of her trance, glaring as she lifted her hands into a boxing starting position. "If you lay a finger on them Hood a swear I will personally burn you alive!" She hissed, as her fists burst into a angry gold orbs of fiery light enegry.

Hood simply chuckled cruely in responce, cracking his knuckles...

"Besides!" Dana said as 312 soared over one of the building and shot onto his finger with the speed of a lightning bolt, his green lantern uniform materializing on him instantly. "We can introduce ourselves just fine!"

Dana's hand erupted into a bright green glow as he shot a massive blast of energy at the new arrival. The man was fast... too fast. But at the same time, not fast enough. Clearly, he hadn't expected to run into a Green Lantern on this little sojourn and he wasn't quick enough to avoid the blast entirely. It caught him on the shoulder, tearing off several plates of his armor.

"Woah!" the man said almost lazily, hopping down off his rooftop perch and landing in the courtyard with them. "Not bad, kid! Not many people can wing me."

"You don't think much, do you?" Dana said. The man looked down. He was standing right in the middle of a huge bear trap. It snapped shut before he could move, the circular opening in the teeth of the device just big enough to allow his neck through.

"Not bad." Hood said. "Not bad at all! But I brought friends too."

A series of cracking bangs sounded as one of the four mercenaries that had walked up behind Hood and now stood on his previous perch took a few shots at Dana. One of the bullets tore right through his shoulder, making him shout out in pain and loose his concentration as he grasped at his left shoulder. It hurt like hell.

How did that bullet get through my shield?! Dana thought wildly, looking up at the mercs as his eyes threatened tears of pain under his mask. The wound began knitting immediately with 312's help, but this was a fight beyond them. Anyone with weapons that could circumvent a Lantern's barriers was far too much of a threat for three teenagers to face. He watched as Hood approached Rose and James. But someone he had forgotten about entirely began to stir as the brutal merc approached -- Andre.

"Hmph." Hood chuckled, noticing the movement. "Baby Lantern left survivors. More fun!"

He said these last two words in a whisper as he looked Dana right in the eye.

"NO!" Dana yelled, extending a blood-soaked hand to stop him, but it was too late. Andre's screams were silenced with a bang as another slug tore through his head. It was gruesome to say the least, a death Dana wouldn't wish on anyone, even if it was quick.

Hal! Dana thought desperately, 312 glowing bright. I need your help! Please hurry! We won't last long...

Rose had to look away as the bullet peirced Andre's skull, his cries of pain ceasing as blood gashed from the wound. No human deserved that. Even Derrick didn't deserve dying. But that was just how ruthless Hood was.

No mercy.

Finally looking up, Rose could see blood trickle down from Dana's shoulder, his OWN this time. Panic flooded through Rose like a mad river and she looked over to Blink, who was forzen in shock.

He had heard stories about Hood from Kai before, but Blink had never actually seen him in act. By the look in his child like brown eyes, Rose knew he now understood why this guy gave Nox nightmares.

Over whelmed by rage, Rose eyes flickered from their usual green to a blazing gold.

"Monster! YOU MONSTER! You used to be my FRIEND!" She hissed, venom coating her words. Rose swung her almost completely glowing arm in a slicing motion, her light shooting in hood's direction. Though it was fast...hood was faster. He lazily jumped to the side dodging the attack, again and again and again.

"Come on now Darling? Is that anyway to treat someone who saved your life more then once?"

"YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!"

Hood shurged casually, before smirking. Like lightening he moved swftly moved over and shot his hand out, clutching Rose's throat and pionting his gun at Blink. He was to fast for Rose to react, Fear took over her once more as she struggled for air.

"You would be better off dead Rosie..."

The sounds of a rapidly spooling minigun filled the courtyard. Hood looked sideways at Dana as the young Lantern walked toward him, spraying emerald bullets at him at a rate of thousands of rounds a minute. It effectively made the man retreat. Dana moved, blood still flowing from his shoulder, a twisted look of fury so uncharacteristic of him on his face. He walked, following the man with the barrage of bullets until he was standing right in front of the still frozen Rose and James. The minigun dissolved and a ship materialized around all three of them, a shuttlecraft modeled after the crafts from his favorite Star Trek incarnation. Really, it was just something he could clearly envision, not unlike Hal with his jets. Dana was a trekkie. End of story.

Protected by the armored walls of the craft, the three of them were lifted off the ground. Dana hopped into the pilot's chair and started tapping commands into the control panels. The shuttle gained altitude and inclined slightly so they could see Hood still standing in the courtyard, looking up at them. Despite the fact that the ship was now at an almost forty-five degree angle to the ground, they didn't feel like they were on an incline because of the artificial gravity inside the emerald ship.

"Arm phasers and photon torpedoes." Dana growled, the computer beeping obediently. There was a flashing button on the panel. His fingers hovered over it briefly and then...

Down on the ground, the five mercenaries, Hood included, were staring up at the hovering ship in amazement. Then, with a flash, beams of pulsating green energy started caving up the entire courtyard. The mercenaries dove out of the way as the energy made landfall. Hood, meanwhile, clambered up one of the buildings. He expertly dodged every shot Dana sent his way. Dana hovered the ship over the rooftops, blasting away at the villain as he climbed up to meet them. But he wasn't able to get out of the way fast enough to keep the man from hopping onto the ship and clambering atop the viewport. He was just about to fire through with those bizarre bullets that could so easily tear through Lantern energy, when a flashing indicator on Dana's control panel made him look down. Realizing what it indicated, Dana looked up, a smile curling the edges of his mouth.

"Bye, bye." he said in a triumphant growl. Hood heard him because he looked down, confused. Then, a moment later, an emerald rocket ripped him off the top of the ship. It carried him a few dozen yards away and then exploded with an almighty bang. A second later, a pair of F-35s tore past, tipping their emerald wings to Dana and the others in their sci-fi shuttle. It was only a moment or two after this that Hal appeared in sight...

Rose watched in silence as the rocket exploded in the distance, her eyes lingering on the smoke.

You would be better off dead.

Her face had hardened, but her green eyes were empty. She bearly registered everything around her. Images flooded her mind like a rushing river, snap shots of Derrick's body fixed with those of her nightmares and her past...

Blink seemed to be in the same state, his eyes were glued to the bodies on the ground, their blood staining the ground and their faces frozen in the state of shock they had been in as the bullet stabbed it's way through them.

For the rest of the time being Rose didn't take much notice of anything. After staring blankly into space for a while, she finally looked up.

"He would live through that, you know. He always does..." She muttered.

"I don't really care." Dana said flatly. "It's Hal's problem now."

He tapped controls into the console instructing the shuttle to level off an land on the nearby rooftop of the mechanic's shop. He stood from the pilot's seat and turned, walking back to James and Rose who were standing in the rear of the cabin. As they set down on the roof, the shuttle dissolved, leaving all three of them standing there. Dana moved close to Rose, stooping slightly to look into her face.

"Rose." he said. "Listen to my voice. You. Are. Safe. He isn't here any more. He's gone, even if it's just for now, this moment. He's gone. Breathe." he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Just breathe."

"Who... the hell was that guy, Rosie? That was Hood?"

Dana looked over at James. He had sat himself on the edge of one of the building's vents. He was white as a sheet.

"Now isn't the time." Dana said. "James. You can take us anywhere you can visualize, right?"

"Pretty much. As long as I know where it is."

Dana constructed a map of New York State. Incrementally, the view zoomed. Down to the county, to the city, all the way down to the loose collection of houses scattered about the countryside just outside of New York. And then into the distinctly asian monastery there. Finally, a perfect recreation of the outer courtyard, the entry to the monastery.

"Here." he said. James nodded slowly. He reached out and grasped Rose's hand and with a sound like the dull crack of a whip, barely audible, all three of them vanished into thin air, the construct map dissolving in their wake. A moment later, they were standing in the very spot Dana had just revealed. A few feet away, Samuel was sweeping the path.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, surprised. He rushed over. "Dana!"

"Sam. Go get Anya and Feng. And inform my grandfather I'm here." Dana said, his Green Lantern uniform dissolving, leaving him in his jeans and t-shirt once more. The sleeve of his shirt was instantly stained in blood. Sam nodded vigorously, tipping his broom against a nearby tree and hurrying off as fast as his robes and vows would allow.

"YEEARGH!" Dana howled as he held his glowing hand over the wound in his shoulder. Something moved beneath the skin and flesh, blood gushed. It was very unpleasant. But a few moments later and the bullet was dislodged and, in 312's power, it floated into his hand as his jaw relaxed and he looked down at the tiny piece of metal which had caused him so much pain. Breathing heavily, he dropped the thing on the ground as he planted his hands on his knees, his legs folded. Sam began to tend to the wound as he sat there panting, the bare skin of his torso drenched in sweat just as his brow was.

"Apply only a pad and bandages to his shoulder, Samuel, to minimize the bleeding." said the wizened voice of Kenji. "The ring will do the rest."

Dana sat in one of the rooms of the monastery with his grandfather and Sam. His grandfather, Kenji, was sitting before a wall decorated with hanging scrolls upon which were written the verses of the Tao Te Ching in Japanese kanji. He had Dana's bloodied shirt in his hands, as he sat there on the floor, his legs folded as Dana's were. He was considering Dana carefully from under his lengthy white brow. His flowing beard and mustache gave him a serene, venerable appearance in combination with his abbot's robes despite the fact that he was distressed at these events. Dana could see it in the way he was looking at him.

"Whoever... invented those..." Dana panted, brandishing a finger at the bullet on the ground before him, peering up at his grandfather. "Was... beyond a sadist. I've... never felt... something so painful."

"I find that hard to believe." Kenji muttered. "This is not, after all, the first time you've been shot."

"No. No, that's no ordinary bullet." Dana said. "It went right through my shield. I've never seen anything like it."

"Then it seems that your extracurricular duties have become considerably more dangerous." Kenji said. "You will have to mind your actions when dealing with these mercenaries in future."

"And then there was... him." Dana said with a sigh, shaking his head.

"The man in the Hood." Kenji nodded.

"Yes." Dana said, nodding back slowly. "I've never met anyone so unbelievably murderous..."

"There are those for whom the act of murder is not the relief of deep-seated agony." Kenji said slowly. "Men and women who kill purely because it is sport. An enjoyment, an activity of entertainment. For them, that is the purpose of death."

"I don't like to imagine there are people of that sort." Dana said in a horrified whisper, feeling the sweat flow down his chest, the cold liquid illustrating the chilling thought in his mind.

"Unfortunately, what we do not imagine does still exist." Kenji replied.

Dana hung his head. Sam toweled off his chest and back quickly before applying the bandage, wrapping the gauze around his shoulder and chest. Dana lifted his arms to allow him to do it, but paid it very little attention. His mind was far too busy with all of this.

"There are many questions in this." Kenji continued. "You say that your friend did not steal the chip from this company of your father's, but the man they send to retrieve it knows her by name."

"By a pet name." Dana said, looking up and nodding. "And she was terrified of him. She just... froze. If I hadn't forced him to back of, she'd be--." he hung his head again briefly. He couldn't say it. He looked back up a moment later. "They knew one another. I don't know how, but... this wasn't the first time they met."

"Interesting." Kenji placed Dana's bloody shirt down on the nearby writing desk and pushed the piece of furniture away slightly. "By her reaction, I would guess that their last meeting didn't go much better."

"How is she?" Dana asked, looking sideways at Sam. He, Anya, and Feng (the three oldest of Kenji's disciples) had taken James and Rose off to quarters where they could rest and calm down after this traumatic experience. That was almost an hour ago.

"Anya says they will be fine." Sam said, his tone encouraging, though undeniably tinged with concern. "But the young woman, Rose. She is... concerned."

Dana knew what that meant. Before becoming one of Kenji's students, Anya had been a young and promising psychologist. Russian by birth, she had grown up in a gulag in eastern Russia. She'd seen the worst. When she came to America, she'd had an opportunity to apply her love of Carl Jung and his philosophies to a career. But she couldn't come to terms with the legal obligations of the profession. She hated hiding the secrets of criminals. And so she turned her mind to Buddha. Perhaps not the most understandable leap, but it made sense to her which was what counted. Point is, she knew the mind well. And if she was concerned about Rose, that meant the mind was where her concern was focused.

Dana stood, flinching a bit as the movement played on the aggravated nerves in his shoulder. He pulled on the replacement clothes Sam had brought for him, a plain white uwagi and zubon set from the training stores. He left the room and headed for the guest rooms, or so he referred to them as. That was where Rose and James were likely to be...

"We need to let Kai know what happened, Rose!" Blink said, leaning on a near by wall stareing down at Rose, who was sitting in the corner, gazing out the window.

"We will tell him later, you know he would just go out after him. Kai wouldn't be convinced that...that hood died in that explosion." Rose said quietly, forcing herself to say the murderous scum's name. Turning to look at James, Rose sighed.

"I can't believe-" She began, before Blink cut her off.

"Oh no Rose, don't start. It wasn't your fault, alright?"

Rose shivered, rubbing her arms as if she was cold. Derrick's face as he died was imprinted in her mind, and Hood's mocking grin as he pulled that trigger. Rose adsent mindedly touched her bruise on her neck, crindging slightly.

Rose looked up at James, who was stareing down at her innocently. He was fifteen, but he still had a boyish expression on his face. Rose was eternally grateful Hood hadn't put one of those devil's bullets through him. The only reason the boy she thought of as her brother was still here was because of Dana...

"How do you think Dana is doing with that wound in his shoulder? The bullet looked nasty..." She said, standing up slowly.

It shouldn't have gone through that sheild...He should've have been shot.

"I think he will be fine!" James tried to say enthusiasticly. "Can't believe his grandpop is a monk huh? Never would have guessed..." The teleporter said, shoving his hands in his dirty hoodie and looking around the room.

Just at that momment the door handle creeked, making Rose jump out of her skin. She relaxed once she realized that it was only Anya, bringing the two of them some tea. "Don't worry Rose, It's only me..." She smiled, her words laced in a soft russian accent.

Anya was a kind women, and was quite pretty even with her hair cut close to her skull. She had high cheek bones with friendly yet knowing grey eyes that made you calmer if you had to speak with her. He walked over and handed a cup to Blink, and then to Rose. Rose took her tea with a slightly shaky hands.

"Drink it, it calms your breathing." She said softly and Rose noded a little bit and her green eyes flickered over the tea cup. Bringing the tea to her lips, she took a tiny sip.

But she didn't feel much calmer.

Rose muttered a small thanks, and James did the same. "How's Dana?" Rose asked Anya, not bothering to move her auburn hair from her eyes.

If I hadn't picked up that stupid chip...two people would still have been alive...

Dana's wouldn't have been shot...

Hood would have stayed away...

"He is doing fine." Anya said gently, seating herself on a stool in the middle of the room. "He may not look it, but he is a sturdy boy. He has suffered much worse in his time."

"That doesn't seem to bother you much."

"On the contrary." Anya said, looking to James. "He is as a brother amongst our disciples here. His wounds harm us all. But he fights for justice and peace. Our discomfort is a small price to pay for such immeasurable acts of good."

The door knob clicked again and the door slid sideways. Dana was framed in the doorway, looking in.

"Ah, we were just speaking of you, Dana." Anya said, looking around as he entered.

"Sister Anya." Dana said, placing his hands together as if in prayer and bowing slightly. It was a sign of respect he liked to adhere to. While he had been exposed to his grandfather's teachings for almost as many years, he hadn't lived the life as Anya had. That gave her a certain seniority. But moreover, he respected her voice. And that was always worthy of its demonstrations. Anya bowed her head slightly in return of the gesture.

"Before you ask, you needn't." she said, making Dana's eyebrow jump up. "I am sure you have much to talk about. I do not wish to impose upon that discussion. I shall go and assist with the preparation of dinner."

As always, Anya's powers of anticipation were somewhat staggering. Before he'd so much as been able to hint that he wanted to speak to Rose and James privately, she'd answered. He stood out of her way as she moved past him with the tray she'd brought in held in her hands. As she passed, she inclined her head again and then glided off down the passage. He'd always somewhat envied that grace of hers...

In any case, he entered the room and closed the door behind, lowering himself gingerly onto the stool Anya had just vacated. He had to work a bit to ignore the tugging tingle of his wound knitting together. 312 did great work. When it was done, there wouldn't even be the slightest traces of a scar. But the process of healing under 312's care tended to be annoying in the tiniest (and, of course, most irritating) ways. Still, he didn't even have half a desire to complain. He had the world's best trauma center on his middle finger. That was nothing to complain about.

"I'm told that you two are doing well." he said, once he was comfortable. "Considering."

Rose sighed and took another small sip of her tea, shifting in her chair just a little. For some reason, she was to ashamed to look Dana in the eyes. He had seen her cower like a fool. She just froze. Stood there and did nothing to help. She was so crestfallen over this whole ordeal.

God, you really are the weakest link, aren't you Rose? She thought to herself.

"Considering we almost DIED, Yea, we are doing swell!" Blink said sarcasticly, his anger finally being unleashed.

"Why did Kai tell us he was tha much of a crazy Rose?!? He KILLED those boys! He was so CLOSE to ki-" James quickly cought himself, realizing his insenitivity. "Rose, I'm sorry..."

"I don't care. It's true." She muttered. "I'm sorry Kai didn't tell you, alright? He was doing it for MY sake! He knew how much I HATE that...that..." Rose bit her lip, determind not to cry. She didn't want to look any more weak and worthless then she already was.

"James!" Dana said, his voice level but firm.

"What?!" James answered, outraged.

"You're not helping." Dana looked at him through eyes devoid of blame or any form of mockery. He was dead serious. Some part of that must have translated because James seemed to back off a bit.

"O... kay." he said somewhat quietly.

Dana turned his attention to the crestfallen figure of Rose sitting in the corner, the light through the window playing across her as if the sun itself wished to comfort her. Dana sat, his body lit by the same light, though his face shadowed where he sat. The warmth of the sun was pleasant indeed, but he couldn't afford to bask in it.

"Would it surprise you if I told you that I knew what you were feeling? And I'm not being patronizing either." he said slowly, his voice barely more than a whisper. "I know what it's like to feel responsible for harm done to others... for deaths.

"Just over a year ago, I first got my ring. I was taken to Oa, the homeworld of the Green Lanterns. I spent... months there..." he paused. The memory was still harsh. But he pushed through it. "The Guardians, the forefathers of the Lanterns, they... they didn't know what to do with me. For reasons a little too involved for the moment, I wasn't considered a normal recruit. They gave me to a man named Sinestro. He was to train me and he did. He was a good teacher... a... harsh teacher.

"One day, a desperate call for aide came from nearby the homeworld. Sinestro assembled a dozen of his best Lanterns and their students. That included me. We rushed to the site, but by the time we arrived, the damage was done. A being of incredible power had destroyed an entire world. Its name was Parallax, a being of pure fear. I was terrified. I'd never faced anything so fierce, so... evil. It killed many of the Lanterns with ease. I froze, just like you." he hung his head, breathing deeply as the horrible memories returned to him with full force. Looking up once more, he continued. "One of the Lanterns was a friend I'd made on Oa. He was a strange little creature. He looked a bit... like... a giant wasp, I suppose. But he was the only Lantern there as young as I was and I had no friends to speak of... I watch him die. Even now I tell myself that if I'd just had the courage to act, I would have been able to save him, but is just isn't true. Sometimes... there is nothing we can do. I probably would have died that day, but... with Oa so close, the Lanterns were in force. A hundred more arrived. Parallax was forced back.

"They sent me back to Earth after that. Sinestro handed me off to the Prime Lantern of this sector and I became his apprentice instead. I think... Sinestro was ashamed of me. I don't know if I can blame him. But... I know this: Even if I had acted, I was no match for Parallax then. I'm still not. And the fact of the matter is that even though I blamed myself for T's'Gat'l's death, it wasn't my fault. All I could have done differently was die alongside him. That's it...

"Derrick... Andre, they... They didn't deserve what Hood gave them. But it wasn't your fault. It wasn't you who shot them. It was him. It wasn't you who shot me. It was them. Wounds heal. The dead's sacrifice can be given meaning. But even if it wasn't Derrick and Andre, Hood would have killed someone. Men like that enjoy it. They aren't bothered with needing a reason for it." Dana trailed off a bit, staring at the ground. "Just... promise me you won't blame yourself for this. He was just... beyond us." his eyes darted up toward Rose again. "For now."

Rose listened in silence, she could tell by Dana's face he was telling a very personal, very hurtful memory. His face was shadowed, but there was no chance of hiding the sorrow on the boy's face. She knew he had been through what she was feeling now. Once he looked back up again, Rose nodded slowly.

"It's just...hard. You didn't know what you were going to be facing when you got that call. But...I should've known...but..." she sighed and got up, walking slowly over to where Dana was sitting. She gently placed her hand on his, she crouched down to look into his eyes. "I promise I won't blame myself...if you don't. Not with what happened in the past, but in the future, alright?"

Blink watched and muttered something under his breath, to quiet for either of them to hear. "Rose, If you are up to it...do you think you could explain how you know this guy?" James asked, crossing his arms and looked down on the two.

"I'd like to know that myself." Dana said, looking to Rose. "It's clear the two of you have a history. Rosie-posie? It sounds like you have a very personal history with one another..." Dana paused, considering her for a moment. "What did he do to you?"

Dana knew the sort of people these psychos were. Hood was a glorified serial killer. And like every serial killer, there were a few people he enjoyed tormenting. That was the way of the thing. It seemed that Rose had the unfortunate distinction of being just such an object of interest for Hood. He knew what kind of answer he was bound to hear... and he wasn't going to hide from it.

"Believe me... you need to tell someone."

Rose sat down on her chair, letting out a tiny sigh. She knew she was going to have to explain herself eventually. Looking away out the window again, Rose knitted her fingers together.

"He...I..." For some reason, Rose couldn't put her past into words. There just wasn't the right ones floating around in her head. Turning to look at her two friends, her eyes reflected how ashamed she was.

"Just...don't think any lower of me, please..." She muttered, looking at Dana. "Or Kai, he is a good guy..." She looked at James, who returned it with a confuzed look. "When my parents found out about my abilties, they were scared. So, they decided I needed to go else where, away from them. They dumped me with a woman who took in 'gifted' street kids, Mrs Keen her name was." Rose let a tiny smile crawl onto her lips remembering the kind old woman. "She was lovely, but I was a little kid. I felt abandoned, unloved. Most of all I felt worthless."

Rose shifted a little, burshing her hair out of her face. "But there was a group of kids with Mrs. Keen's who welcomed me and treated my like they would any other child. Kai was one of them...and so was Hood." Rose felt that familiar shiver roll down her spine at the murderer's name. "But he wasn't like what we saw when he was young. He was our little leader. He made sure Kai didn't get pushed around for not being able to speek and included Mrs. Keen's biological daughter, Callie, in everything."

Rose paused, looking back as if it was alife time ago. "It was the first family I ever had...but Mrs Keen started to get sick. Very sick. So sick she couldn't even pay the bills. Kai and Hood went looking for jobs, but know one would hire a couple of no good kids. So we came up with a plan...we were going to steal for a living." Rose was so ashamed of what she used to be. "So we stole for people, and over the years the stuff we stole got more...serious. But we never hurt anyone!" She said, eyes wide. She never used her powers on another human being, not once. "Kai and Hood were best friends, and Callie had started going out with Kai. things were looking up..untill...Hood started bringing in alot of money from his 'side job'. It was ALOT more then we had ever gotten for any work we did. He...changed. His powers got ALOT stronger. He...huh...started doing stuff Callie behind Kai's back."

Rose blinked, the rest was a bit hazzy. "I remember Kai and Hood agruing, and then fighting...then Hood and Callie storming away. Kai was a wreak, he was planning to leave with me to start over. I...I got a message from who I thought was Kai, telling me to met up in this up... in t-this old building we used to hide in sometimes after our 'shifts'...b-but K-Kai wasn't there...Hood...he..ATTACKED me." A small tear trickled down her cheek. "He did s-something to me...but...it was the worset pain I have e-ever felt. My whole body was o-on fire...I couldn't move...I...He kicked me and cut me and DEMANDED to know w-where Kai was p-planing to go. It was t-terrifying...I knew I was going to die there, I knew it...and I thought I did." She sighed and looked up. "But a woke up three weeks later, in Ohio with A really beaten up Kai. And that was the last time I saw hood."

"Until today." Dana said slowly as she finished her story. Dana stood slowly, his arm still sore. He turned and walked to the door, resting his hand on the doorknob briefly. "What is a crime?" he said, looking back over his shoulder at Rose. "Harm. If anything in you still feels guilty about your so-called crimes, I suggest you forgive yourself. Surviving is never a crime. What Hood did. That was a crime."

He turned the knob and slid open the door.

"One day... I will help you bring him to justice for that crime." he said. "Consider that a promise. Now. I'll go see about dinner."

He left the room and slid the door closed behind him...

Rose studied Dana intently as he spoke, her eyes lingering on his face trying to pin piont if he ment what he said. Once he left Rose turned to Blink and stood up. "Now you know James..." She said, her vioce emotionless...


After the deaths of two students who died in a brutal shooting, the school was closed for three days while the community was in shock. The lanterns and the G.L.A made a pretty convincing Story to tell the police, while they fretted over Hood's sudden attack.

Appearantly this wasn't Hood's first open attack on civilians.

Rose spent her spare time keeping her mind of the attack, distracting herself with mad studying and reading and rereading her text books. After alot of hard thinking, Rose had come to the conclusion that she needed more training. She was determind to never freeze up and let innocent peoplembe harmed again.

But where was she going to get someone to teach her?

It isn't like there is a whole lot of light manipulators... She thought to herself, sitting on the sofa with her chemistry work spread out around her. It was one in the morning and she hadn't slept a wink. Sleep was becoming for of a chore then doing the dishes was.

She had put lavender under her pillow in home that it would help sooth her and help her sleep, but all it did was make her hair smell like the plant. After leaving the monestry Rose hadn't spoken to Dana, and to her surprize she had gotten used to having him around.

Wonder if he is having as much trouble sleeping as I am...

Rose casually checked her phone out of sheer bordom, before tossing it onto the coffee table. A small orb of light that Rose had made to brighten the room enough to see in flickered above her head where it was floating. Sighing, she turned the page in her text book...and began doodling in the corner...

"This Hood?" John said slowly, the three Lanterns standing in the white space of a communication stream. "We couldn't find any trace of him."

"Yeah. AIM-9 Sidewinders tend to do that." Hal said, nodding. "Raytheon Co. isn't in the business of leaving traces of their customers' targets."

"I don't think he's dead." Dana said. Both the older Lanterns looked at him in surprise. He looked between them quickly and then explained: "I don't think he's the sort of man who gets ended by a random rocket is all. From what I've heard, he's been through far worse and survived. And I've never seen anyone move like that before..."

"Dae, I know you were shaken up by that whole event, you and your friends, but the idea that he could survive a twenty pound bomb exploding on his chest is a little ridiculous." Hal said, folding his arms. "There's no way he survived."

"I fought him." Dana insisted. "I looked into his eyes as he blew one of my classmate's heads off. I can... sense it. He's alive."

Hal and John exchanged a look. It was clear they doubted him, but every time they'd doubted his instincts in the past, they'd come to regret it. Now they were faced with a decision between believing him and continuing the search for a man who couldn't still be alive or ignoring him and, in all likelihood, add another dash onto their collective mistakes tally.

"Alright." Hal said, nodding. "I'll bring it to the League again. We'll continue to keep an eye on it all."

"Thank you." Dana nodded.

"John. Can I have a moment with Dana?" Hal asked. John nodded and then his image dissolved, leaving Dana and Hal alone in the seemingly infinite white void. Hal turned to Dana.

"War Raven?" he said. "Are you okay with this given your connections to it?"

"I'm fine, Hal." Dana said.

"Don't give me that lie, Dae. You're not good at it." Hal said. "You know I know how much you hate the fact that your father is causing trouble for the League. And now this? I need to know that you're not slowly killing yourself from the inside out."

"I'm fine." Dana said flatly. "For now, I'm fine. Besides. If I fell apart, who'd make all the good constructs around here?"

Hal's mouth curled into a grin briefly and then he nodded. Dana smiled weakly as well.

"Do me a favor and check up on your friend, would you?" Hal said. "Rose, was it? I called in a few favors in S.H.I.E.L.D. and put a detail on her and that boy, James? Anyway. She's been a little too inactive. After what happened, she might be able to use a friendly face."

"I was already planning on it." Dana nodded. Hal returned the gesture, then vanished like John. The whiteness dissolved and Dana awoke, sitting in meditation in the monastery, staring out on the gardens through open sliding doors...

Dana stood in the hall outside Rose's apartment a few hours later. He'd gotten information on her residence from Agent Silman of S.H.I.E.L.D., his handler with that organization, though he rarely ever worked with them. Every so-called hero had one whether they knew it or not. Not many people escaped the watchful eye of S.H.I.E.L.D. He peered up and down the deserted hall for a moment, then reached up and knocked on the door.

knock knock knock...

The soft sound of someone hitting their knuckles on the apartment door echoed through the otherwise silent room. Rose looked up at the door from across the living room, closing her book she got off the sofa and histantly walking over to the entrance to her home.

Who the hell would be here at this hour?

Rose nervously tugged the hem of her shorts as the glowing orb of light followed her to the door. She leaned forward and put one light green eye to the door and saw none other then Dana standing there. Rose instantly relaxed and switched on the light, her orb dissapearing. She opened and door a little and slid out, closing it behind her.

"What are you doing here? How the hell do you know where I live? everyone is asleep. What's up?" She asked the lantern, crossing her arms firmly over her chest. The hallway smelt of carpet cleaner and chemicals, but the scent of lavenders still lingered on her auburn hair.

I need to get rid of those stupid useless plants...

"Sorry for the hour." Dana said. "Uh. Would you mind if I come in? This hall is... a little creepy."

"Uh... I guess." Rose said, stepping out of the way.

Dana walked past her and stopped just inside the apartment. He gave the place a passing glance. It was well-lived in, that was for certain. But he didn't linger on his assessment of the place long. He turned back toward Rose.

"I heard you were laying low the last couple of days." he said. "I was worried so I thought I'd drop by. I wanted to come by earlier, but I had some business to deal with so... How are you doing?"

Rose gave him a weary smile, gathering up all her books. "It's alright, me and Blink have been fine. I have had trouble sleeping though..." She said in a hushed tone, careful not to wake Kai and James.

Rose cought Dana a small look around the apartment. It wasn't the best looking place in the world, but it was the best they could do. Dana probably had never lived in a place as tiny as this.

"...So What about you? have you been okay? and," Rose let out a small laugh, "How did you find out where we lived?"

"I have some friends who've taken an interest in your well-being." Dana said, shrugging. "The world thinks that superheroes are all walking secrets with senses of justice. But there are a few people who don't know the meaning of 'secret'. People with powers like ours don't go unnoticed for long."

He put his hands into his jacket pockets as he strode into the living room from the entry hall. A minor difference. They were both pretty much the same room.

"As for me, I'm perfectly fine." Dana said. "The wound has healed completely. Not even a scar. And I've seen far worse than Hood. It's always disturbing, but... I've learned to deal with a certain threshold of evil. It seems like every mission I go on, that threshold gets a little higher..."

Rose raised an eyebrow at Dana, her arms crossed. "So what, are you saying some group of people have some secret file on me?" She snorted and flicked her hair back. Rose shifted kind of awkwardly, for some reason it was odd to have Dana in her home. She could hear James snoring from his room, but other then that the little apartment was dead silent.

"I guess that is part of your job though, the ring obviously knew you could handle it if it chose you Dana." She smiled, uncrossing her arms. "Hey, I don't want to sound awkward or anything but...But do you want to go out? It's late and all but I think I will go nuts if I read my chemistry book again." She laughed quietly, still trying not to make that much noise.

"Actually, I'm saying you've got some government minders parked outside in a black '98 Ford Crown Vic LX." Dana said, smiling slightly. "Don't worry. They're S.H.I.E.L.D. They won't get in the way. My boss called in a favor to have them keep an eye on you until the investigation into Hood has concluded. I would have missed them if I didn't know they were there. Good at their job, really, though they could probably stand to get a less conspicuous Uncle Sam-mobile."

He smiled when she made her suggestion of going out and nodded slowly, casting a thoughtful eye around. He remembered a place nearby that he'd gone to not long ago. It was good.

"I think I know a good place." Dana said. "You like pizza?"

"Man... they really need new cars." Dana said, chuckling slightly as he peered out the front window of the pizza parlor, a slice of cheese in his hand. He'd noticed a black SUV sitting in the street outside. "Yeah, that doesn't look at all suspicious. Anyway," he looked back around at Rose. "So I couldn't help but notice you weren't so comfortable with me being in your apartment..."

Rose laughed, rolling her eyes at the midnight black SUV sitting outside. "Oh yea, nothing screams goverment 'spy' more then a dodgy looking black SUV." She grinned, taking another bite of her slice of pizza.

The car had been sitting there the whole time, And Rose found it very distracting. Maybe ditching the cell phone is a good choice... She thought to herself, eyes lingering out the window. It was hard to believe that there was really these sort of orginizations around.

Well, if superpowered teens exsisted...

Rose's day dreams were broken by Dana's question, her head turning to face him. She shrugged casually, acting if she wasn't bothered by it. "It wasn't that I wasn't comfortable but, I didn't expect you to show up, you know? The place is cheap and shabby, and you go to a fancy private school. I bet your other friends homes are alot nicer then mine." She smiled good heartedly. "Out of curiosity...what is your house like?" She asked, taking a sip of her cola.

”Well, you say shabby. I kind of like it.” Dana said with a small smile. ”I like a place that feels like a home, not just a house.”

He bit off a piece of pizza and chewed it optimistically, placing what was left of his slice down on his paper plate and wiping his hands off on a cheap napkin. It didn't get much more New York than that...

”My father is a Senator. He's got friends and ridiculous amounts of money and he likes to flaunt it all.” he said, leaning on his elbows on the table. ”So, naturally, we live in a multi-million dollar mansion with an absurd amount of private land surrounding it, considering it's New York City and there's not exactly vast swathes of vacant land laying around. It's ridiculously big, packed with every expensive trinket under the sun, staffed by a bunch of underpaid servants, and guarded like Fort Knox. Needless to say, my father appreciates the high life.

“Now, I don't want you to think I'm bragging, because I'm not. The most charming thing about the place is the woodland out back, you know... the one Meriam's Pool is in? And really, you don't need an expensive manor to get good nature. Frankly, I can't stand the place. It's too big, too busy, and too opulent.

“We used to live in, you know, your average suburban house. That was a home. There was always some problem that needed fixing. I had neighborhood friends that would come to our door and demand that my sister and I come out and play at the sort of makeshift playground across the street. It was a great place. You would have loved it. And as nice as it was, I think it could out-shab your apartment.”