by Libbylawrence
That evening a group of armored knights emerged from the woods to see a pretty blonde woman reclining by a pool of water. They grinned and silently closed in on their victim.
“Wench, you’ll be needing company at this hour in such lonely woods,” said their captain.
The Black Canary smiled and pursed her lips as she drew nearer to the armored figures. She waited until she was within a certain range of the smirking men, and then she sang. Her canary cry flattened them like ten-pins, and she gently rubbed her hands together as though satisfied at the completion of a task. “Actually, I have company,” she said.
Green Arrow emerged and handed her her jacket. “Nice work. Now, we suit up,” he announced.
Batman, Hawkman, and Red Tornado followed him out of the shadows and began to remove the armor from the beaten warriors.
“Now for the old Trojan Horse gambit,” said Hawkman.
***
The Keep of the Green Knight was a grim structure that towered over the slopes that led down into the forest. The Wizard and his champion received few visitors of the willing variety. Instead, the dark old castle housed many prisoners who had dared to oppose the rule of the evil magic user and his valiant warrior.
Three armored men approached and shoved the Black Canary and Hawkman forward.
The Canary frowned in irritation. I know Carter and Ollie are friends now, but I think he shoved Hawkman a bit harder than was strictly necessary, she thought.
Hawkman remained impassive as his disguised JLA allies led him inside the Keep. It was easier for me to join Dinah as a supposed captive than shed my wings and wear that bulky armor to pose as one of the Wizard’s men, he mused. This way I can take the high ground as needed.
They entered a huge hallway and slowly approached various guard posts until they were allowed to enter the main reception hall where two figures stood on a raised platform.
“That’s G.L.!” hissed Green Arrow as he nudged Batman. The Caped Crusader nodded and drew something unseen out of his heavy cloak.
Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern, had indeed suffered from amnesia upon being abducted into the microcosmos by the yellow-furred creature. He had been convinced to serve as the knight for the Wizard who used magic and a keen awareness of Jordan’s psychological composition to position himself as one who, in Hal’s deluded eyes, nobly ruled with a firm hand and a band of peacekeeping soldiers.
Black Canary whispered to the others. “His ring has no charge since, from his point of view, he has been here for so very long! He’s using some ring-like glaive as a weapon!”
Green Arrow said, “Not when I get through to him!” He whipped out his concealed bow and released three shafts in rapid order. The green arrows soared toward the line of guards, and a net of heavy fiber expanded to snare many of the unsuspecting troops.
Hawkman flew higher and swooped down to tumble another group to the floor, where his skilled use of a mace left them stunned and battered. Black Canary flipped agilely through the air and landed with both high-heeled boots squarely thrust into the nearest pair of guards. She delivered a spinning high-kick that left them dazed. Red Tornado swept back the other onlookers with his own tightly controlled whirlwind. Batman slipped silently into the shadows and still clutched some unseen object.
As guards screamed and weapons clashed, the shadowy Wizard stayed calm and allowed his Green Knight to rush into battle. Green Lantern raised his glaive and frowned as an arrow knocked it spinning out of his grasp.
“Lantern, it’s me — Green Arrow!” yelled the Battling Bowman. “We’ve come to rescue you! You have to remember!”
Green Lantern hesitated and said, “Arrow? I can’t quite recall. Do I know you?”
Arrow grasped his arm. “Think, man! Carol, Kalmaku, Ferris! Oa!”
Green Lantern frowned and said, “Something about you all seems familiar! Still, all those who would defy the Guar — the Wizard must be brought to justice!”
He clipped his friend with a sudden right as Batman swiftly closed in on the struggling pair and gripped the deluded Green Lantern in a full nelson.
“Arrow, put his hand to the battery I’d handed you!” commanded Batman. “I brought it from his place before!”
Green Arrow grabbed the power battery and grinned as contact with Green Lantern’s ring caused it to emit a slight glow. “We can’t get you to say it, but maybe I can say it and help you remember!” began the Arrow as he recited his friend’s oath.
“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape your sight!” said Green Arrow. “Let those who worship evil’s might, beware your power — Green Lantern’s light!”
Green Lantern could not break Batman’s hold, but slowly he stopped trying to do so. As the words of his oath filled his ears and the ring was recharged, the Lantern’s awesome willpower broke through the mental walls. “Great Guardians! I’ve been under some spell!” he said. “Thank you all for freeing me.” Batman shook hands with his friend, and the Lantern clasped Green Arrow’s arm as well.
“Now, about this Wizard!” declared a determined Green Lantern.
The small bald figure on the platform scowled in rage as his old foe faced him. “My magics made you the perfect ally. I’ll soon restore the status quo!” he vowed.
Green Lantern flew forward and said, “Not if I can stop you, Myrwhydden, and I’ve done so often enough in the past!”
Green Arrow whistled softly. “So that’s who the creep is! He’s the crumb who used to be trapped in your ring!”
Meanwhile, Black Canary rolled across the floor and scattered a line of troops as Red Tornado raced through the Keep at top speed. He met little resistance, but then he had another purpose in mind. He reached the top walls and swiftly picked up a woman who waited in the shadows below.
“Krystal Kaa! You reached the Keep in record time, considering the rugged path you took,” he said as he carried the pink-hued beauty inside.
“Aye! I knew that only such a seldom-used path could lead me this close without drawing down the guards,” she said.
The Red Tornado nodded and brought her to the scene of battle, where Green Lantern had created a huge cage to hold back the guards while he and his allies faced Myrwhydden.
“How’d the little worm get out of your ring?” asked Green Arrow.
“He had already been removed by the Guardians,” explained Green Lantern. “They placed him in what they call a sciencell before the Crisis. How he got out of it is a good question.”
Hawkman scooped up the discarded glaive and said, “Ironic of him to arm you with a ring-shaped weapon. Still, I think he had more of a purpose than mere mockery. These gems look like the ones that lined the Ikaara Staff!”
Myrwhydden said, “Indeed they are, winged one, indeed they are! Little good shall they do one such as you.”
Hawkman smiled defiantly. “Then I’d best give them to their proper owner!” He soared skyward and met the Red Tornado and Krystal Kaa. She eagerly caught the glaive, and at her touch, pink energy radiated from the weapon, causing Myrwhydden to shudder.
“That cursed wench!” he shrieked. “She is breaking down all my magical creations! I thought to keep the stones from any of her ilk by giving them to the one warrior I felt could never fall!”
“Sirrah, I shall do more than destroy your spells!” said Krystal Kaa. “I shall rekindle our sun!”
Green Lantern nodded and said, “Let’s just do that little thing after I get some answers from our short friend, here!”
Myrwhydden cringed in fear as the Ikara stones robbed him of his powers. “I’m not defenseless. I have my pets!” he cried, gesturing to the door, where a dozen of the heavily furred creatures rushed inside at his call.
“Those are the creatures mutated from Mule!” called Black Canary as she prepared to sing. Her sonic cry stopped them in their tracks.
“They like Canary’s pipes!” said Green Arrow.
The Blonde Bombshell slowly moved across the chamber, and the mesmerized beasts followed her docilely. Nice to think this cry can do more than break things, she thought.
“Some tranquilizing pellets will help put them to sleep!” said Batman, rolling the pellets into the path of the creatures, and in moments they were dozing. “Almost emptied the whole supply, but it’s worth it.”
“And I thought you could carry an entire cave’s load of gear in that belt!” said Hawkman.
Batman grinned. “That’s my other belt.”
Green Lantern said, “Myrwhydden, you were in a sciencell on Oa, but you still had some link to my ring, didn’t you? That’s how you were able to escape the cell. You could not go any other place, but you could return to the interior of my ring.”
The wizened dwarf nodded. “Exactly. From there I was able to escape when you put Doctor Light inside the ring. (*) Her powers allowed her to ride out the light beam during its next use. I enslaved her immediately, and from your world we entered this microcosmos. I had studied such realms during my time within your ring’s tiny universe!”
[(*) Editor’s note: See Green Lantern: Power and Light.]
“So where’s Doctor Light now?” asked Green Arrow.
“I think that poor woman has been serving as Myrwhydden’s living sun all this time!” replied Hawkman. “He dampened the spells that fueled their natural sun and forced her to serve in its place. Now I hope the Ikara gems can do so in her place!”
Myrwhydden shrugged. “Without my spells to dampen the magical sun of this realm, it will likely rekindle as well!”
Green Lantern said, “So after you forced your way into ruling this realm, you bred those monsters and sent one to capture me. Since time passes so differently here, you had all the time you needed.”
The beaten wizard sighed. “Correct. I also knew that Krystal Kaa’s heirs like that wench could invoke magic from the gems, so I took them and hid them in the glaive with which I armed you as my champion!”
Green Lantern said, “Well, I’ll soon free Doctor Light and, with Krystal’s help, use the gems to restore the sun spell.”
***
In a surprisingly short amount of time, the Emerald Champion had been as good as his word. A weary Doctor Light was freed from the magic sphere above, and a new sun glowed warmly in her place.
“I have been possessed by the other Doctor Light. I have been enslaved by this fiend. My pride and my honor are offended. I will complete the project that brought me to America, and then I will never return!” vowed the Japanese woman.
“You can’t blame a nation for the actions of people like Arthur Light and the wizard,” said Green Lantern. “He’s not even from Earth.” Doctor Light merely snorted in disdain.
Krytal Kaa said, “My Siren Sisterhood will soon have all the rebels who served Myrwhydden in custody. How may I thank you all?”
“It’s simply what we do,” said Batman. “Rule wisely with justice and mercy, and that will be payment enough.”
“Restarting that sun was the least I could do after serving as a goon for Myrwhydden for so long,” said Green Lantern. “He’s back in my ring, by the way. He won’t have Doctor Light’s powers to help him escape again, and the only way out will put him back in a sciencell!”
Black Canary smiled. “Next time we visit here I hope it won’t be in search of a lost friend.”
Green Arrow smiled back. “You know it, Pretty Bird. Think what that kind of thing says about the local Chamber of Commerce. The Sisterhood needs a good P.R. guy!”
Muted laughter greeted his comment as the bowman shrugged in defense.
The End