Application Scene: Hank Henshaw

[lanternslight]

Hal wipes the blood from his nose and looks up at his opponent. His left arm may be broken, but the ring is working on fixing that. His shields took the brunt of that last blast, but the kinetic force of it was still impressive.

"You can't win, Henshaw," he tells his assailant, rising from the crater left behind. "Turn yourself in, and this can go easy."

Sure, it's tough talk from a guy who's just been blasted into a crater... but Hal's always been good at that kind of talk.

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[alloy-avenger.livejournal.com]

The Cyborg has a special place in his mechanical heart for this man, this human who for his time had become a god in Parallax. This man who had tried so hard, even if in malice, to execute him. Had it been the Kryptonian, Henshaw would have been upon him before he could have begun to recover. But to this human, this Earthman as the Corps loved to quaintly put it, Henshaw would fight him with some degree of...honor.

It was a human foible.

A cold, electronically tainted chuckle rumbles from the Cyborg's throat as he floats above, waiting for Hal to gain his bearings so that he can actually feel the fury of this next strike. "You're right, Jordan. I can never win. Not at the game that I play." A scarlet burst of heat vision erupted from Henshaw's eyes, headed for the face of his opponent. It would not kill him, no. But it would surely blind him.

Jordan was blind to so much, anyway. Only a minor setback, supposed the Cyborg.

[lanternslight.livejournal.com]

Hal moves to dodge the blast, but it's not enough to save his vision entirely -- his vision blurs and sparkles as he moves away from the Cyborg Superman.

"So much for doing this the easy way," Hal replies, firing a blast of green energy back at his opponent, trying to keep him off his back while his vision clears.

[alloy-avenger.livejournal.com]

He does not guard against this attack, no. He wants to feel the strength of it. Henshaw knows how hard Jordan can hit; this piddling attack is so weak, Jordan must be truly distracted. Hank flies down through it, in hot pursuit of the former rogue Lantern. "I thought you were a jockey, Jordan," he replies with just a hint of evil glee. "You've got a bandit on your six. Good thing you brought your ring this time." Henshaw knows all about your stay with the Russians.

Overtaking the distracted green blur, and with a titanic surge of power, he directs a seismic right cross to the man's spine with almost all of the strength available to a...Superman.

[lanternslight.livejournal.com]

Hal's taken punches from Superman before. This... feels remarkably like that. And he has no desire to feel it again.

Still, he can see enough now. Shutting the pain out of his mind, he blasts again, this time aiming at Henshaw's right arm. Perhaps he can sever the Cyborg's limb and buy himself some more time.

"I don't need my ring when I'm flying a plane, Henshaw. Just to take out trash like you."

[alloy-avenger.livejournal.com]

Henshaw seethes as the concentrated emerald burst eats into his arm. It was such an aggravation. Unfortunately for Hal, it wasn't much more than that. "Too little."

Golden energy crackled down his right arm and spewed from the shiny yellow rings on his knuckles, in a column of energy that sought to engulf Jordan in demolition. He put it right down the vector of the incoming attack, seeking to neutralize it at the same time. "Too late."

There were a few cables or cords or artificial muscles or something hanging out of that bicep, now. It didn't seem to matter. And it was only a few.

In a menacingly cold voice, he stated, "You're the foremost slinger in the Corps, Jordan. It will only get easier as I kill my way through you all."

[lanternslight.livejournal.com]

Hal keeps himself from screaming as the energy surrounds him. Thankfully, yellow isn't the weakness it once was, but it remains harder to block.

He feels the energies attempting to incinerate him.

"You... haven't... killed... me... yet!" he manages to breathe out, holding his shields up.

[alloy-avenger.livejournal.com]

The Cyborg closes the distance, and brutally left hooks the Corpsman out of the path of the attack, ceasing it at the same time. With a brief exertion of Kryptonian superspeed, he is there to intercept the man before he can hit the ground. With a Kryptonian mitt. To the throat.

"Hm. No." His grip tightens with beyond surgical precision, just enough to not outright kill the man. "You do not deserve the peace of the grave, Jordan." The damage to his right arm melted away, as it returned to it's designed shape under the influence of Henshaw's cybernetic transmorphing.

It winged back, ready to deliver one more seismic punch, to the chin, surrounded and augmented by a fervent golden light. Hank's eyes glowed bright red, and he anticipated Jordan's final move...

[lanternslight.livejournal.com]

Hal replies as he would when anyone has him by the throat.

Head-butt to the nose.

Normal people would crack open their skulls with such a move. Hal's ring is at least keeping him in one piece.

[alloy-avenger.livejournal.com]

Henshaw sees this coming and doesn't even deign to release his heat vision. However, his eyes glow even brighter as his brows knit in anger.

"Here I stand, ready to give you relief from all your shame and suffering, and you..." he trails off, instead digging his fingers into the fracture of Jordan's left arm. He lets go of the man's throat, holding him solely in midair by his broken arm, and his other hand finds...Hal's right wrist.

It grips with immense force, slowly crushing and separating Jordan's hand from his body. "You dare deprecate my offer of bliss? You will beg for death when I am through."

[gl-corps.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you know what else is crushing? The force from multiple Green Lantern rings, aimed with precision at Henshaw and fired with all the force--and will--their owners are capable of.

"Not today, poozer!" cried Kilowog, as he and his contingent of Green Lanterns swarmed in and spread out. "Say hello to the cavalry!"

That Hal had quietly called earlier in the fight.

[alloy-avenger.livejournal.com]

He presses with all of his might against the sheer rock he is pinned against, but there is too much...too much...too much. The pain begins to bother him and he simply turns it off.

Henshaw realizes this is a losing battle, now. But he will not submit. On his fingers, he bears ten rings. Each of them fires at a different Lantern, coordinated by a machine that is controlled by a man. But he can feel the extent of the damage. He can sense it. His legs have been taken, now...

But he presses onwards, unperturbed; pinned to the rock, but retaliating. Until there is nothing left to retaliate with. Except that scarlet eye. He unleashes everything he can into Kilowog's face.

The eye only glows.

[gl-corps.livejournal.com]

"It's over, poozer. Lights out."

Another blast.

But not death. Never death.

[alloy-avenger.livejournal.com]

The eye faded slowly, slowly to black. But before Henshaw was completely devoid of power, he managed a simple message to Kilowog.

"Sixteen billion...at peace. Never me."