Love's Guiding Light (SuperSquirrel)

On the planet of Memiphito in sector 524, Teen Lantern and a new recruit of the Star Sapphire's; Izzy, were on their way to infiltrate the planet to free two prisoners of love. It wasn't a huge mission, maybe not even lantern worthy, but it was training for the new Violet Lantern recruit. She had recently received her ring and Carol Ferris asked Hal Jordan to find someone to show her the ropes. So of course he looked for a Lantern her age he knew of and Blue Lantern corps. member and local of Earth Mark Rowan came to mind.

Spoiler:

Ganthet had given them mission specs; the princess of Memiphito, had fallen in love with an off-worlder, which was against their customs and apparently had..erm, done the deed. Well her mother, the Queen was going to put the male to death the next day and had locked her daughter away. This was against intergalactic law, since their planet had no rules against this kind of courtship on record and the male had originally been invited there. Therefore, Mark and Izzy were on their way to free him with a point of entrance already mapped out. "Okay Izzy, you ready? They're holding cells are near their swamplands on their world. Were gonna dive in there undetected, tunnel in the holding area and rescue the male first. Then well go for the Princess later. Remember this is a covert op, so unless lives are in danger we try this without violence." Mark said as they flew through space about to enter the (slightly Asia in comparison to Earth) planet's atmosphere.

Izzy floated after mark into the atmosphere of this weird alien planet. So apparently it was against their customs to get with someone? That's a little bit stupid... "Yeah I know it's covert. I'm a newbie, not an idiot." the two of them shot into the swamps of the planet, propelling forward silently so as not to attract the attention of the guards.

Before a full minute passed, they found the prison walls relatively easily. "After you!" she told him.

As they flew into the green ocean like swamps, they used their rings as flashlights in the murky water and then upon coming up on the prison wall, Mark formed a drill and began to carve into the foundation, when suddenly from behind them a loud hiss could be heard and out of Mark's peripheral vision he saw it!


Mark then made a big blue hand out of his drill and shoved Izzy out of the way as the large, at least 15 foot long, fish creature passed in between them and tried to bite down on the Lanterns. Mark then tried to lure it away from Izzy by glowing brighter and propelling through the water backwards, but it kept it's focus on Izzy instead.

Izzy made a muffled squeak in the murky water as Mark dragged her away. Did he really think she couldn't handle herself? It was a fish! Oversized tuna! Who in their right mind is afraid of giant tuna?!

As the fish swam toward her she made her ring glow before shooting out a bright violet rope in the shape of a lasso. Swinging around she found the fish was a bit big to be dragged by a 5'2" girl. I know, crazy right? Instead she shot around it and landed on its back, making a construct of a fist and beating it into unconsciousness. Then she turned to Mark with a look on her face something like "See? I can handle myself""

Mark gives a giant thumbs up with blue hardlight to show that he gets it and he's impressed. Ok, kiddie gloves are off then. Afterwards the Blue Lantern made a blue blowtorch like wrist mount on his forearm and cut a hole in the sidewall of the dungeon leading them inside. "Ok, were in...Now we gotta be careful not to set off any alarms. Just follow---" As Mark speaks he uses his ring as a flashlight and accidentally set off a heat sensitive alarm by doing so. "--My lead. " Guards can be heard approaching the section of the dungeon they entered through. "Quick punch a bigger hole in the wall leading to the bay we just came through and then run! We don't have time to fight, we gotta find the prisoner. Flood them out."

Izzy sighed and shook her head. "Smooth move Mark. Now we're hostiles..." Turning back toward the wall, she created a pair of fists around her own (remarkably similar to Rex's smash hands...hmmmm...) and punched a gigantic hole in the wall, causing all of the guards to scatter through the hallways at the incoming water. Then again these guards aren't amphibious...

"This better not down them." The much shorter girl muttered as the water rose over her head...which was about Mark's shoulders probably...and proceeded to swim into the base, watching guards get swept through the prison by tidal waves.

(Sorry I PMed you. Didn't know you'd replied...)

OT: it's all good.

"Hopefully it does keep them down for a bit, while they're patching up the flood we can get in and get--WHOA!" As they made a run through the dungeon, the defense grid came up and laser trip wires began zipping around at different angles. Touching one meant getting something sliced off like a super hot knife through butter. Mark almost walked into one while talking until Izzy pulled him out of harms way just in time. "Phew. Pretty close, thanks for that."

Mark then tried to assess how they'd get through them. Light refraction crystal construct probably could work. "Can you sense him Izzy? The loss of hope is really apparent to me usually, but I think his loss of love is overpowering it right now."

Izzy nodded, having dragged Mark out of the way. "I do know how to get to him...only problem is its through these. I can think of a really easy way for us to get through but...it's slightly risky." Turning back to him she scratched her head. If I stick us in conversion crystals and we flow with the current, the lasers will bounce off because of the surface. I'll be immune to the side effects because I'm already a Star Sapphire but...you...might turn into one..."

Her ring started glowing and she shrugged. "The only reason I suggest this is because they don't take much to make...whereas making who knows how many mirrors could take more. Or we could try to slip through...and almost die. Your call." Looking down the hallway at the tons of lasers, she held up a finger. "So long as your sense of hope overwhelms the sense of love it causes, you should be perfectly fine though."

Mark thought about it for a second, but then clenched his ring hand and looked at her. "Lets do it. I have to have faith in my ability to hope." Mark then upped his shielding and tried his hardest not to think of his family back home, Bow, or Jasmine and anything else he loved and thought of only the mission. Rescuing these lovers was his only goal in mind right now.

Izzy nodded and made the crystal around herself first. The usual senses of love began to flow over her. Her father, her fellow sapphires and....even Chris. "For what it's worth...if this doesn't work in your favor, it'd be awesome having you as one of us Mark." Creating the crystal around him, the two slowly began to float past all the beams. It was working! Izzy watched carefully for changes in Mark's expression just in case. "How are ya holding up Blue Boy?"

"Sorry, but your uniforms don't really strike my fancy. No offense." Mark said as he placed his hands together in the boar hand seal position and then sits in a half-lotus stance as they moved through the lasers after being encased in pink hard light, which were refracted away from them. Mark didn't answer her question, however, he was in deep concentration the entire time. A bead of sweat dripped down the side of his forehead as he tried to focus, but like a cracking window the love started to seep into his force-field. He would hold on though, but visions clouded his mind of great loss. Loss he didn't even know or remember until this moment.

A flashback to his mother, as he looked at her for the first and only time at birth when he exited her whom and then she passed away immediately afterwards. Then another flashback, from his mother's eyes when she was pregnant with him of his father leaving her. Finally, the last flashback was him getting adopted finally and being treated horribly by his new foster parents. The great loss of the only loves in his life, it was burning inside him. NO! Hold on, gotta hold on to hope.

Izzy finally reached the other side and turned back. Mark would have another minute or two of flowing in that current and he obviously didn't have much longer. Reaching forward with a violet hand construct, she yanked him toward her which sent him flying into and shattering on a wall. "Crap! I'm sorry Mark! I didn't mean to hurt you!"

Mark breathes heavily while on all fours and quickly dispels any pink contamination with blue light of hope. "I'm..I'll be fine. That was intense, I never knew losing love could be that strong an emotional breakdown." It was at that moment that he fully understands what Izzy had gone through and feels empathy for her. A fact that was obvious as he gazed at her then rose.

Izzy smirked. "Maybe hope isn't really THE most powerful emotion on the spectrum then, eh? Love can do a lot of things." Turning the corner she saw the prisoner, shackled to the wall and barely keeping his head above the water. "For the record I blame you for almost drowning him." She said, ripping the bars off with her ring before creating a violet laser from her ring, starting to melt through the shackles. "Feel free to jump in."

"I accept full blame." It's true, anyone who was hurt or injured on this mission Mark accepted full responsibility for. A life for a life was not optimum or in anyway a successful mission for him. They came to save two people, if someone else were to die in the struggle to do that...then all was lost because someone still died during a rescue mission. However, Mark was confident he could stop this from occurring. Izzy was new and couldn't be held responsible if anything went wrong, but so far had proven she was more than capable.

"I would, but we've got a problem...Actually a lot of problems." That's when the guards arrived via swimsuits with laser tipped harpoons. They had been making rounds and trying to move the prisoners during the flood, but upon coming into contact with the Lanterns the source of the flood became obvious to them and the culprits became target practice. "Keep cutting and once free take him and go find the princess. I can handle these ones on my own." Teen Lantern's ring glowed bright blue as he prepared to stall for Izzy and the princess's lover, who was rather shocked, but yet relieved to see the Lanterns.