For any outstanding member of the Green Lantern Corps, study and practice was essential. They had to be able to mentally image any object they wanted their ion beam to take the shape and function of. Hal's go-to applications in his construct repertoire were extremely simple by GL standards; trains, jets, cars, rocket-powered tech, ballistics weapons, and other Earth-based technologies. Sometimes he'd settle for giant fists or punching gloves. So for him, this red solar-powered crystalline laser oscillator schematic might as well have been ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Hal was wearing the clothes he retrieved from Earth on his last short visit there after the Gornian encounter since his flight suit was soaked with sweat and smelled atrocious. He wore a black NASA t-shirt along with a pair of faded jeans and work boots. Vell however, still had her GL uniform engaged.

"Wait...wait so the active...medium thing...goes here...?" Hal asked as he glanced from a holographic projection of the 3D schematics to his slowly-forming facsimile. He and Vell were at a spot in the Oan natural wilderness, practicing their constructs. The pair had been rotated out of their orbital watch shift, so this gave them free time to study. The contingent training deck got a bit crowded, so Hal made Vell come out here with him to do it in relative peace.

Most of Oa was untouched nature; the Guardians took what land and resources they needed to construct the power rings, batteries, officer facilities, then left the rest untamed. Each Contingent's base of operations was isolated, surrounded by blue jungles, orange desert, or red grassy plains. The spot Hal and Vell had selected for their practice was under navy blue canopy of the dense forest.

Vell shook her head as she pointed at Hal's construct, brow tensed. "No, it goes up here, inside the resonator. And remember that the medium needs to be diamond."

"Um. Yeah. Okay. Alright." Hal started. "What...what was the atomic structure of diamond again?"

Vell groaned, manifesting a diagram of the material's precise makeup with her ring. "Carbon by the way, in case you were going to ask again. What's frustrating about this is that I know you're not stupid. So why can't you get this right?"

Hal couldn't help but smile at her trademark Bekkorian 'compliment'. "Aw. You're cute. Okay just...gimme a second."

There was silence as Hal sighed once again, trying to materialise the diamond crystal as the focusing medium for his red solar laser as Vell watched intently. Her eyes sparkled when the diamond solidified itself. "You did it, kee'lavah. Now all you have to do is the optical pump."

"...Which is...?"

Vell snapped her fingers and a new diagram appeared. This one illustrated the waves that comprised a variety of electromagnetic radiation. "An arc lamp emitting red sunlight."

"Wait...so...okay...how do I make that again?" Hal droned.

"To make the waves, you need charged particles."

"Which particle...?"

"Ions are fine. You can just use ion."

With yet another growl of frustration, the human threw his hands up and his construct dissipated into thin air. "I can't do it. I can do other cool stuff, just not this. How you even know all of this? It couldn't have been just from studying." He said, lowering himself onto a nearby rock.

Vell crossed her arms, not angry at him but more so sad that he gave up. "Well...I had to maintain energy weapons all the time when I was a mercenary. Had to take them apart then put them back together since I was a kid. Eventually, I could do it with my eyes closed."

She sat next to him on the rock, staring at him as he gazed off into the distance. She said "It's okay. Just stick close to me and I'll shoot them with my laser instead."

"You kind of almost died last time you tried to fight one of these guys."

"Yes. Yes I did." Vell threw herself onto the ground, lying on her side and propping her head up with her arm. She then disabled her GL garb, which vanished in a bright verdant flash, revealing that the Bekkorian wasn't wearing anything underneath the energy-based uniform.

Hal sighed lowly. "Vell...why...? Is it that hard for you to wear clothes?"

"I don't need to anymore because we're 'dating' now." She said, with a strange kind of emphasis on the word 'dating', like it was the first time she'd ever said it out loud. "Isn't that how it works on Earth?"

"Uh...no. Not really."

"Oh. Whatever, I like how jittery it makes you." She said with a shrug.

"Someone else could see you..."

Vell wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "...So? I'm cool with that. I'm pretty sure that would make you more uncomfortable than it would make me."

"Look, human values here? Can you throw me a bone?"

"I don't see what the big deal is. I let you do human things, so you let me do my thing." She said, referring to one of their previous conversations in which Hal spent an hour and a half trying to explain to her why not wearing clothes was taboo on Earth. This was probably the one thing she couldn't understand. Seconds passed and her eyes scrutinised Hal's body in detail as he unscrewed a bottle of Earth soda, generated by the food synthesizer in the mess hall, then took a long swig. Vell, still lying on her side on the grass, ran her other hand onto her hip. She asked bluntly "You wanna have sex?"

Coca Cola erupted from Hal's nostrils like lava erupting from twin volcanoes. The stuff went everywhere, and Vell was rather confused. As she usually did when she was confused, she stared at Hal with her eyes wide open. He coughed a couple times, gagged, all as he patted down his now mildly stained clothes, then finally replied "What?! N-No, Vell. N-No."

"Oh. Okay. Why not? Are you not attracted to me anymore?"

"...Ugh. No, Vell. I'm still attracted to you."

"Ha, how could you not be?" She said with a wink. "Then what is it, you stupid, pink Earthling?"

"I-It's not the time, okay? We're working... There's a super-terrorist loose." He whined, face wrinkled in embarrassment.

Vell laughed loudly at his sudden boyish behaviour. "You people are so sexually repressed, it's hilarious."

"Stop...it's not funny." Hal snapped.

"It is, actually. You have to tippy-toe, not go too fast, but also not too slow, then ask in a very particular vague way. If you don't do all these things, you're a social deviant and/or a creep."

Crossing his arms, the human Lantern was preparing some burns of his own. "Maybe you guys are so upfront about everything that...that..."

"Yes?" Vell asked in anticipation.

"That...uh...well...I don't know. It doesn't matter because you don't have a nose and you have noodley hair." Hal said triumphantly. He suddenly remembered something from back on Gorn; it looked to him that Vell cut her hair at one point during the escapade. Well, he didn't see her do it but he noticed that her hair was shorter. Now though, it was the same length it was before. He didn't even notice it grow back. "Wait, so does your hair grow fast or something? I thought you cut it on Gorn."

Subject changing was something Vell really enjoyed. Her people would do it all the time, since they spoke their mind without question. In response to Hal's question, Vell gagged as she sat up. "Ew, no. Cut it? That would hurt a lot."

"Um. Okay... Then what do you do?" Hal asked, leaning forward in his seated position.

"It retracts or extends based on the temperature. The hotter it is, the shorter it gets. When I have the ring on, I set the climate control to something cooler, so it gets long. I'll show you." Vell sent a mental command to her power ring, which dialled up her personal temperature control a few degrees. Just like that, her hair slowly receded into a bob-cut.

Hal scrunched up his face. "That's kind of gross."

"You asked." She responded, huddling her knees and bracing her arms on them. Another second passed and her hair was back to normal.

"Okay...I side-tracked myself. Put some clothes on or I'll throw some salt at you." He said, demandingly pointing at her.

"You wouldn't."

"I really would." He provoked, creating a giant salt shaker with his power ring.

Vell narrowed her eyes and huddled even closer to her knees. "I don't believe you."

As she death stared away, both of their rings notified them of an approaching officer. Hal pushed to his feet and sent his eyes skyward, disintegrating his giant seasoning bottle. "Uh oh. V-Vell...put some clothes on. Now."

The treetops rustled as John Stewart passed through them, ring shining brightly.

"U-Uh...John...it's not what it looks like...!" He blurted.

John tightened his brow as he neared the ground. Vell cocked her head, still seated casually on the ground and not wearing her uniform. She greeted "Hey. Sir."

The second human Lantern landed as Hal covered his face in humiliation. John inhaled, closed his eyes as he did, then turned his head away. "Am I...interrupting something?"

"N-No. No. She just...doesn't like clothes. Bekkorian thing apparently..."

Vell huffed in frustration as she pushed to her feet and crossed her arms. "Why isn't he looking at me? Why is this such a big deal? Why did you guys have to suddenly make this so weird?"

John still politely averted his eyes from her uncovered body, uncomfortably scratching the back of his head. Hal blinked several times, turning red, as he glanced from Vell to the wilderness around them.

"Hey!! Stop being weird!!" She urged.

There was no response.

Vell grumbled as she engaged her uniform, a peeved frown on her pale face. "Humans."

"Thank you. That was getting difficult." John said.

"That's my space girlfriend, John." Jordan joked with a relieved sigh, glad he didn't have to deal with such a weird situation anymore but also struggling to erase it from his memory.

John chuckled as he turned back to Hal. "I know. You were ready to cry at her bedside last cycle."

The dark-skinned man smiled. That wasn't a familiar sight to anyone, especially Hal. He was a good man, a great Lantern, and a better friend. Hal couldn't leave things the way they were after that briefing...and it was clear that John was trying to get past it. He wanted to fix it so John didn't have to force himself to get over it. Hal sighed, thinning his lips. "John, look...about what I said before..."

"You were right, Hal. That's why I'm here." John continued "I've turned into the Guardians' lap dog. Stopped asking questions. That's what makes you one of the best, Hal. You never stop questioning the man."

"Well, it took meeting you to get me to start doing that in the first place. This job...it does that do you. You start seeing all the things that can happen when people break rules for the wrong reasons, so you forget that breaking them for the right reasons is just as important." Hal replied to his old friend.

John smiled. "Then we both need to keep each other in line." The pair grasped hands and shook firmly.

Vell cocked her head inquisitively. She said "You know, back home we rub foreheads together."

John released the handshake and looked at Vell, now able to concentrate. He coughed awkwardly before saying "You operational, Initiate?"

"Yes sir. I want a rematch. Hopefully with more guys on my side this time."

Hal answered "Don't worry, beetles. You'll have the best of the best."

John peered over his shoulder, then glanced at a hologram by his side. Satisfied that they weren't being listened in on, he closed the panel. "I have a group mustered, Hal. Unlike the first response team that faced Zod earlier, they're experienced and ready for Kryptonian resistance. We're ready to converge on the manhunt teams."

Hal's brow rose in shock. "What...?"

"You heard me." John prodded.

Vell immediately leapt into the air in excitement and pounced over to the two humans. "Yes! Let's go!"

Jordan glanced between his partner and John, quite frankly puzzled beyond measure. "John, that's insubordination."

"You do it all the time, what's the big deal?"

"Yeah but I'm...me. You're you. You don't disobey direct orders. Stay here and I'll take the unit."

John raised a hand, telling Hal to stop. "It's my choice. I'm going with you, whether you like it or not."

Vell shook her fists in frustration. "Why are you guys arguing? Shut up and let's go find this poozer already!"

"Even with everything we've prepared, we're outmatched. We're going to lose people." John added.

Hal's face was morphed by the feeling of helplessness. John was always more suited to the reality of war-like situations than Hal. He wanted to be able to save everyone...and he was too stubborn to realise that was impossible. Vell sensed the conflict in her partner, so she squeezed his hand with hers and said "We'll lose more if we don't intercept now."

John reinforced her by saying "She's right. An unsanctioned attack is exactly what Zod won't expect. We're an army. He understands that we're meant to be bound by a command structure. He knows that the Guardians won't be calling an all-out assault, so when he finds the manhunt teams, he won't expect a bunch of us going AWOL to kick his ass. We'll have the jump on him."

Hal sighed heavily. Vell could tell that he wanted to find a way to beat Zod without sacrificing another good Lantern officer. The pale-skinned alien calmed him by saying "Peace has a cost, most of the time."

Jordan finally lifted his eyes from the ground and peered into John's eyes as his uniform popped onto his body with a crackle. "Let's do it."

The three Lanterns broke through the Oan atmosphere like missiles, exiting the atmosphere in mere seconds. The blackness of space seeped into each of their eyes, churning as John led the way to their rogue unit's hidden rendezvous area. There was an asteroid belt around the planet Oa due to its incredible size, and it was here that John commanded his rebellious comrades to meet. The asteroids were composed of rare minerals that could block most general scanning devices. A pinpoint scan would detect their large collective presence, but until someone thought to look specifically in that asteroid meeting place, they were nothing but cosmic background radiation to the orbital watch teams.

When Hal and Vell entered, he recognised some familiar faces. Vell however, only recognised a couple here and there. Inside the hollowed-out asteroid floated Laira of Sector 112,Bloobert Cob of 74, Guy Gardner of 2814, Arisia Raab of 2815, Katma Tui of 1417, Archon Z'gmora of 26, Brin of 1324, and Chaselon of 1416.

"It's about time, Johnny. Let's get this show on the road." Guy taunted.

Hal groaned under his breath. "Of course he's here."

"Think of it like this; its one more target for the Kryptonians." John quipped.

Vell immediately gravitated towards Arisia, who smiled defiantly at her fellow GL Initiate. The blonde woman said "Vell! Doing any better?"

"Yeah. It doesn't sting as much now and my skin's not as orange as yours anymore, so I guess that's good too. I didn't expect to see you here; you don't really seem like the rebellious type."

Arisia arched an eyebrow. "I-I'm not. I'm really not...but I trust Hal."

"It seems like you've known him for a while... Aren't you the same rank as me?"

"Yes, actually. I'm not exactly always getting into sticky situations like you are. According to the operation reports, it sounds like you're running into crazy stuff every cycle.Surviving all that definitely helps bump you up a little faster. Honestly though, I'm just glad to have a friend who's going through Corpsman studies too."

Vell smiled. "We're friends? Really? That's cool. Let's see who can make Sentry rank first."

"That sounds like a challenge." Arisia said eagerly.

John hovered over to Katma Tui, a native of the planetKorugar much like her Lantern predecessor Thaal Sinestro. She had vibrant red skin, and shoulder-length jet black hair. "Katma...you came." John said softly.

"Of course I did." She responded, staring lovingly into John's brown eyes. "I have to make sure you stay on form, soldier."

Katma was one of John's advanced training instructors from when he was granted his own ring for the first time. Before that, he was a reserve unit in case Hal was otherwise incapacitated or indisposed and the Guardians needed an officer in 2814. From the moment John and Katma met, Hal could tell that they felt something for each other.

Hal was approached by Guy, who looked as stuck-up and arrogant as ever. He swiped a thumb across the tip of his nose and boasted "I thought you were gonna run and hide from big bad Zod."

"Not if that meant not seeing you get yourself brutally murdered. I wouldn't miss that for anything." Hal wisecracked as he crossed his arms.

"The only one gettin' killed is Zod, pal. Ain't no way he's gonna survive this."

Hal cocked his head. "We'll see."

After a few minutes John approached Hal and said to him "Chaselon just handed out the kryptonite samples. Just a handful...so we'll have to group up and share."

The test pilot grimaced. "That's better than no kryptonite, I'll tell you that much."

"You don't need to." John huffed. "I think it's time to rouse the troops. They're all here because they believed in what you said."

"I dunno, John. I don't think I'm any good at speeches."

"You are. I've heard 'em."

Hesitantly, Hal hovered slightly above his fellow GL officers, taking their attention. "We're going up against one of the most dangerous forces the universe has ever seen. No one expects us to survive. It's not too late to go back to Oa. The Guardians' plan could work...but it means that the good men and women out there are alone. Our brothers and sisters in arms. We all took the same oath, we all uphold the same values. We need to stand together in brightest day, and in blackest night."

Each Lantern's ring pulsated slightly brighter, urged by the neural activity caused by Hal Jordan's words. "It's not too late to go back."

No one moved a muscle. Laira, a tall and athletic female GLwith blue skin and crimson hair, made her voice heard. "We are Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan. Whoever flees from this battle is unworthy of the ring they wield."

"You got that right, sister." Guy called. "If it's not scary enough for pansy Jordan, it ain't scary enough for the rest of us."

Every Lantern gathered there thrusted their ring hands upward and ignited that corner of space with intense jade light. Hal stood a little straighter knowing that everyone was looking to him. He said sternly "We're going to go out there, find Zod, and make him wish he never survived the end of Krypton."