PFC Chapter 4419 Dark Prelude (4)
Chapter 4419 Dark Prelude (4)
Chapter 4419 Dark Prelude (Part Four)
Hal returned to his apartment. Sitting on the sofa, he felt something was missing. After thinking for a moment, he realized the expensive bottle of red wine he had retrieved from the Mars spaceship was gone.
But he didn't think much of it, because he knew very well that his alcohol tolerance wasn't very high—he could probably only drink about the bottom of a glass of whiskey and a small half-glass of red wine before he would start to feel dizzy and lightheaded. When the alcohol hit, he couldn't remember anything; he probably hadn't remembered anything after drinking too much the day before.
Hal remembered there wasn't much liquor left in the bottle, and he didn't intend to become addicted to alcohol, so he didn't pay much attention to it. He sat down, turned on the TV, and while watching programs, he pondered what Bruce had told him.
He knew that resurrection wouldn't be so simple. This act of defying fate would inevitably come at a price, but he hadn't expected that the resurrection wouldn't be completely successful. He hadn't truly come back to life.
When the topic of death came up, Hal was relatively calm. If he were someone who was terrified of death, he wouldn't have become a test pilot. The job paid well, but it was equally dangerous. He had narrowly escaped the last accident; if it weren't for his good fortune, he probably wouldn't have had the chance to obtain that mysterious ring, nor would he have become a superhuman.
Since he'd already escaped death, there was no harm in giving it back to the Grim Reaper. At least he'd saved Victor from Steppenwolf, so dying wouldn't have been a complete loss.
But Hal was still curious about his current state: if he wasn't fully resurrected, then why was he conscious and able to move?
Hal guessed that this situation might be because his soul was currently controlling a corpse, and the two hadn't truly merged, which explained the problem. Would Green Lantern headquarters have a solution?
Although Bruce said he should be able to solve it after some time, Hal wasn't the type to rely on others. He decided to go to Green Lantern headquarters to see if the other Lanterns had a solution.
Hal initially intended to fly directly there, but then he remembered he'd been drinking the night before and hadn't had a proper shower. So he went straight to the bathroom to run a bath. The steam from the bathroom caused the mirror to fog up. After showering, Hal soaked in the bathtub.
But as soon as he raised his hand, he noticed a small bruise on his forearm. To be precise, it was a dark red bruise. He touched it lightly, but it didn't hurt; it was just that a small area of muscle was abnormally sunken.
Hal then began checking other parts of his body, and found similar marks on his back and calves. He couldn't remember when he had been injured. Where did these marks come from?
Suddenly, Hal's hair stood on end, because he suddenly thought: if he were a corpse now, could this be livor mortis?
Hal sighed, losing all interest in taking a bath. He quickly dried himself off, dressed hastily, and prepared to go to Greenlight headquarters for a solution.
“Hello, is this Victor Stone?” Carol looked out the window while holding her phone, then said, “We met at the Justice League’s Christmas party. I’m Hal Jordan’s girlfriend, Carol Frith. Hal’s been having some problems; he’s not feeling well. I’d like to meet you to talk, is that alright?…Okay, I’ll send you the address. See you in an hour.”
An hour later, Carroll parked her car and went into the café. Victor was wearing a hood, concealing his semi-mechanical face. Carroll walked up to him, shook his hand, and said, "Hello, Mr. Stone."
“Just call me Victor,” Victor said. “You said Hal is in trouble, what happened to him?”
Victor was clearly worried. He knew that during the previous battle against Steppenwolf, if Hal hadn't interrupted Steppenwolf several times, he would probably have died long ago, the Mother Box would have fallen into Steppenwolf's hands, and the entire Earth would have faced disaster. He was very grateful to Hal, so as soon as he heard that he was in trouble, he rushed over without stopping.
"Here's the thing, Hal has always wanted to return to flying and has been training. In the process, he discovered that he had some physical problems, and his strength and physical fitness were not as good as before; at the same time, he also experienced flashback symptoms. After Bruce examined him, he concluded that he had not fully recovered."
"He didn't intend to let the Justice League members know because he didn't want to put pressure on you. However, I think that since you were the one who carried out the resurrection procedure, you might have some understanding of what went wrong. I just wanted to ask if you knew any clues."
Victor was stunned. He said, "Not fully resurrected? How is that possible?"
Carol crossed her hands on the table, applying slight pressure, and said, "It's not that I don't trust your abilities, but resurrection is the power of God, and I'm afraid no one can say for sure that there won't be any problems. Besides, you know Bruce's abilities; he shouldn't be talking nonsense."
Victor fell into deep thought, and after a while said, "To be honest, this ability is not under my control; it is executed automatically by the mother box. In theory, there shouldn't be any problems, because I am a successful example."
Carol widened her eyes slightly as she looked at him and said, "You?"
"Yes. The reason the Mother Box merged into my body is because my father used it to resurrect me. But in that sense, we are different. The Mother Box merged into my body, so my resurrection was successful; while the Mother Box did not merge into Hal's body, so it may not have been a complete success."
Victor frowned deeply, then said, "But whether that's the reason or not, I can't say for sure. I'm not an expert in this area. If you want to know the specific details, I'm afraid I'll have to ask my father. He was the first person to use the Mother Box to resurrect a human. He knows much more about the Mother Box than I do."
“Then I’ll leave it to you,” Carroll said. “I absolutely don’t mean to blame you. I just think that since there’s a problem, we should do everything we can to solve it. At least Hal’s situation isn’t at its worst yet. If we keep delaying, things could get much worse.”
“In the end, it’s all Steppenwolf’s fault,” Victor said. “If that Darkseid dares to send anyone else, I’ll give them a piece of my mind.”
After leaving the coffee shop, Carol picked up her phone to call Hal, but found there was no signal. She thought for a moment and figured Hal might have left Earth. So, sitting in her car, she carefully crafted a text message and sent it to Hal.
Hal was currently at Green Lantern headquarters. Earlier, when he was participating in rookie training, the Green Lantern with the small mustache walked over, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "You missed our victory celebration."
"A victory celebration banquet? What are we celebrating?"
“We have resealed Parallax,” he said. “This is great news. The universe will no longer be plagued by the forces of fear. You are a great hero to us.”
Hal then remembered that Parallax had been banished from Earth, and several Green Lanterns had given chase; it seemed they had won a battle. But he didn't care about that at all—Parallax was like a greenhorn in front of Steppenwolf.
But this was just Hal's personal feeling. His willpower was too strong; he was almost completely unaffected by the power of fear. Keep in mind that Parallax's fear power had taken down half the Justice League, and Steppenwolf was also affected. If it were anyone else, they might not have been able to banish Parallax from Earth so easily.
“Sir, I’ve come back for other reasons,” Hal began. “I was wounded in the previous battle, or rather, I died once…”
“No rush, let’s talk over here.” The man led Hal into the lobby. At that moment, the communication signal was restored, and Hal received a text message from Carol.
He glanced at Carol's text message and sighed. He knew it; Carol had gone to see Victor after all.
Between him and Carol, he tended to be more considerate of others' feelings, while Carol preferred to focus on the facts and solve problems. However, Hal didn't expect to keep it from Victor forever; Bruce might eventually have to consult Victor anyway, so it was better to ask him in advance.
Upon hearing Carol's mention of the differences between his and Victor's resurrection processes, Hal's brow furrowed even deeper. If that were the case, it made sense: Victor had directly merged with the Mother Box, becoming a cyborg, which allowed him to be successfully resurrected; if he only had energy, he might not have been able to fully resurrect.
Just then, Hal felt a little dizzy again and leaned against the wall for support. The man in front of him turned around, looked him over, and said, "You don't look too well. Come here, let's give you a check-up."
The two of them arrived at a place that resembled a research center. There were all sorts of strange machines there, none of which Hal recognized, but they looked very high-tech and were clearly designed specifically for Green Lanterns—many of the machines were enveloped in a green glow.
Hal was once again reduced to a puppet, manipulated at will. He did whatever his superior told him to do: stand on this machine one minute, input energy into that machine the next. After checking for a while, he heard the man say, "To be honest, something is definitely wrong. There's something wrong with how your green light energy works, which may be caused by a pre-existing problem in your body."
Hal thought for a moment and said, "Do you have any solutions on your end?"
"Do you remember what I told you when you were doing the beginner training?"
Hal thought back carefully. Back then, he was a complete novice, utterly clueless about how to use Green Lantern energy, and it was this officer named Sinestro who became his mentor. Under his guidance, Hal became a qualified Green Lantern.
Sinestro had taught him many combat techniques, so he didn't immediately know which one the other was referring to. Sinestro walked over and said, "Green Lantern Energy is a kind of idealistic energy supported by willpower. That is to say, belief and imagination are the best foundation for you to use this ability. First, you must believe, believe that what you create is real, so that Green Lantern Energy can be transformed into matter; second, you must have a rich enough imagination to wield the power as easily as you control your own body."
Hal seemed to understand a bit. He said, "So, I need to pull myself together. As long as I feel okay, things will be much better?"
“Theoretically, that’s true. But as you know, that doesn’t solve the root of the problem. I can only tell you that you do have some issues, but we don’t know the specifics of what’s wrong because we don’t understand the human body. You can alleviate the symptoms with faith, but to be completely cured, you may have to go back to your home planet.”
Hal nodded and said, "You've been a great help, thank you, sir."