The uneventful search for the Green Lanterns within the kiltonium composite walls of the hyper-security prison Arxis was suddenly derailed quite chaotically.

Yellow weapons of all sorts flew down the endless halls of the prison and over the dozens of unconscious bodies that littered the floor. Hal Jordan fired beams of energy at as many prisoners as he could before they reached him, then pictured a mechanical gauntlet forming itself over his right hand.

As soon as the thought became tangible within his mind, it was rendered into reality with the energy projecting qualities of the weapon looped around his middle finger; a Yellow Power Ring. Every detail that Hal sculpted with his imagination was realised in pure parallax energy via his mental connection to the Qwardian Ring, especially the twin rocket engines mounted on the gauntlet's side.

With a clenching of his fist, the gauntlet thrusted itself and its wearer forward with incredulous speed, sending like-coloured spurts of thrust down the other end of the wall. With the aid of his construct, Hal barrelled through another cluster of murderous renegades.

Behind him as he hurtled through the crowd was Vell, dealing with the other stream of pursuers who had opted to attack from the opposite direction. Not using her ring's ability to fire bursts of energy as projectiles the way Hal was, Vell instead visualised two pieces of traditional Bekkorian weaponry within her grasp; a double-ended gutting blade and a death club. She currently brutally slashed and bashed anything that moved in front of her.

A rainbow of different coloured blood was smeared across Vell's end of the hall as she lashed out with primal and instinctual ferocity that was signature of any Bekkorian.

For about ten minutes, there was no end to both flows of prisoners as the Lanterns expelled any foe that dared to face them. After the cacophony of screams, high-pitched howling of energy and banging of bodies against solid walls, came not one sound as Hal stood ready for more.

Hal's hands were planted on his hips as he took a second to glance at Vell over his shoulder. She was covered in a vast variety of colours from head to toe. "Holy shit...please tell me you didn't kill any of them."

"Of course I didn't. Your tiny blue leaders were pretty specific about that." Vell snapped, crossing her toned arms.

"Alright...good. So uh preferably, we should find Minister Joolter. If she wasn't a part of this whole plot, she's in danger."

Vell snarled. "If she was, I'll eviscerate her."

Speechless, Hal just turned to Vell with a squinted expression of disbelief.

She continued "It would've been easier to find her if your mechanical friend didn't flee like a coward. This place isn't mapped for security purposes...but surely the prisoners don't just run around blind." Vell walked up to one of the many bodies that she left in her wake and pat down their person.

She felt something tucked within a folded sleeve of the alien's jumpsuit and eagerly snatched it free. It was a crumpled piece of torn fabric, folded up several times. Hal slowly approached his partner, cocking his head in curiosity. Vell quickly unfolded the patch, and it revealed a perfectly proportionate map of the Arxis with labelled rooms, service ways and everything a pair of escapees would need.

"Sweet...! Good thinking, rookie." Hal commended, slapping a hand onto Vell's shoulder. Quite opposite of what Hal was expecting, Vell's sudden glance towards him in shock and rage caught him off guard. "By the twin moons...! How dare you strike me!"

Hal pranced backwards with his hands raised "Woah, woah! Easy, it's just an Earth custom, okay!?"

Vell squinted "What does it mean?"

"It signifies...well...uh...kinship and...like...encouragement."

Vell squinted even further. "What kind of a people are you? To strike your friends like slaves as motivation?" She asked her questions with curiosity instead of disgust, which ushered Hal to be even more confused.

"Give me the goddamn map, Vell." Hal sighed, swiping the fabric from his partner. With a keen eye, whilst Vell stared daggers into his head, Jordan scrutinized the pinpoint accuracy of the illustrated plans. "Looks like Arkillo used his ring to print maps out. How considerate."

"It made sure the inmates knew where they were going...and I think that means we had maps on those jumpsuits of ours the whole time. So..." Vell pointed out, jerking her head towards the inmate possessions lab in which their prison fatigues were.

"Dax used us... Great. Just great."

"Us? No, he used you, Harold Jordan. He used you."

"Alright, alright, I get it. It was my fault. Geez."

Jordan closely inspected the map and declared "The security room is this way. Hopefully we'll be able to activate some of the Arxis' defences to round up the rest of the inmates...maybe even disable whatever's blocking our power batteries from phasing in."

"We need to neutralise Arkillo before we lift the lockdown, right?" Vell quizzed.

Hal nodded. "Yeah. Making sure he doesn't get away is priority one, making sure no prisoners get away is priority two, and getting out of here alive is priority three. Not how I'd have it but that's the Green Lantern way unfortunately."

"That's terrible."

"Well get used to it."

Hal and Vell made haste to the supposed security room, which was down the other corner of the facility. Fortunately, with charged rings and no need to conserve power, the pair soared through the air and made their way to their destination in seconds. As expected, there was a group of inmates watching over the security hub. They stared, dumbfounded by the sight of two strange lifeforms hovering towards them.

Vell's ring projected a beam of energy shaped like some kind of alien vehicle, which revved to life and propelled with great speed down the hall. Hal dropped onto the ground and inspected the door, as the pained screams of the prisoners howled away into the distance.

"You know, that was a bit excessive." He quipped, placing his ring against the middle seam of the hatch and letting the yellow energy beam pour out and fill the negative space in between the panels.

Vell crossed her arms and leant onto the wall beside Hal, furrowing her brow. "You just made a giant, rocket-powered punching glove."

"Touché."

The Bekorrian snarled "When in the name of Veeortyhhu are you going to tell me what that means?"

Hal chuckled. "I dunno. Some time. Probably."

He inhaled. The point of all the large constructs and grandstanding earlier was that this Qwardian power ring is used differently than a Green Lantern weapon. Unlike GL rings which run on ion power, yellow rings are fuelled by an energy called parallax. Like basically all forms of energy, parallax waves thrive on specific conditions. The particular brain signals that flow when an organism feels fear or detects fear in others are indeed that preferred environment; these wavelengths resonate with parallax energy and increases potency, much like how adding gasoline to fire makes it burn more.

Hal thought this design of Sinestro's was way too complicated. Green rings are used only by the wearer's emotion of willpower, and that kept the whole process simple and clear. A GL ring's trigger mechanism was the user's will, not someone else's fear. Because of these key differences, he found using a yellow ring much more difficult because he had to inspire fear in others...and that wasn't exactly his strong suit.

However, because of his theatrics earlier, his yellow ring was at a decent potency and projected energy with great efficiency. With a slight mental struggle, a 'bang' sounded as the door was forced open by Hal's energy construct, sending shrapnel flying everywhere.

As pieces bounced off out of Hal's line of sight, his eyes perceived a multitude of holographic displays surrounding a lone figure in the room. It was the cloaked and masked form of Security Minister Joolter of the Celdonian Hegemony.

Vell immediately went to charge the woman to the ground, but Hal stuck a hand out. Something wasn't right. He held his ring up at here and conducted a biometric scan. "Physical anomaly detected." The Qwardian ring reported in a low, raspy tone.

"Identify." Hal urged.

The ring clicked several times before responding "Foreign virus concentrated on the brain stem of host organism. Detecting large concentration of parallax energy."

Hal frowned.

"What's happening? What are you doing?" Vell snapped.

"This situation just got a lot more complicated. Joolter isn't guilty. She's being controlled by a microscopic bio-weapon that's zapping parts of her brain to manipulate her...and that bio-weapon just happens to be Despotellis, a Yellow Lantern. A dangerous one at that."

Vell wrinkled her brow and squinted. "A microscopic...Yellow Lantern...? Controlling her brain...?"

"Do I have to repeat myself?"

"No. It's just very weird. How do we get it out of her?"

"That's the thing...I'm not entirely sure. I don't think I can make a construct small enough to poke around in someone's skull without doing damage."

"Really? I thought you were meant to be the best."

"I am the best...and that's why I'm going to figure this out. Somehow."

Hal entered the room, watching Joolter as she emotionlessly tapped away on the various screens that hovered before her. The human sighed, planting his hands onto his hips. The last time he encountered Despotellis, it had killed millions of innocent people, multiple Lanterns, and severely injured fellow Earth Lantern Guy Gardner. They beat it by using the medical skills of Soranik Natu, a skilled doctor from the planet Korugar.

"Why don't we just kill her?"

"It hasn't already done that because it needs her. More importantly, this thing has committed mass genocide in the past. I'm not about to let that happen again. Despotellis is probably more dangerous than Arkillo because it can exterminate entire populations of planets within a day." Hal recounted grimly.

Vell's face immediately sharpened.

Hal cocked his head. "Yeah. That's what I thought. I'm going to try to get a hold of Tomar-Re. Hopefully he can help us. Since we're packing Qwardian hardware, it would be safe to assume that our signals aren't blocked by security."

"Does it...know we're here?"

"Probably...but it's just ordering Joolter around. It doesn't have access to her ears or anything. Either way, we can expect backup. Give me a minute." Hal replied. He opened the yellow ring's communicator and punched in Tomar-Re's ring's frequency. Tomar was Hal's first friend in the Corps and one brilliant Lantern. He currently held the rank of Paladin, a step higher than Hal's former position of Sentinel. "This is Sentry Jordan, requesting immediate assistance. Paladin Tomar-Re, this is Lantern Jordan, please respond." He urged.

Static followed. Suddenly, a voice rung through the sound of explosions and laser fire. "Hal? I may or may not be occupied at the moment."

"It's Despotellis. He's taken another host."

Tomar sighed. "...Where are you?"

"Celdon, Sector nine twenty-one. There's no time. I'm here with this sector's Lantern, Vell. What should I do?"

The Xudarian contemplated for a second, then responded "Soranik designed an anti-virus after the last incident, and I made sure to save a copy of its readout on the database. If you make a liquid construct with your ring based on the vaccine's chemical structure and hold it together long enough after its injected into the host, it might repel the virus from the host and paralyse it temporarily."

"What...? I'm not a chemist, Tomar. There's no way I could even understand that stuff if you sent it through."

"Wait." Vell interrupted. "I have some experience with preparing energy weapon battery cartridges."

Tomar mused inquisitively "That involves mixing corrosive acids and plasma, correct? That is more training than your mentor has. I'll send you the data. It is imperative that you stop Despotellis. I will check in with you again."

With that, the signal closed and Vell swallowed. Hal didn't exactly find her lack of courage comforting. In the short amount of time he's known her, she's been nothing but an arrogant know-it-all. Well, on the bright side, he thought that a bit of uncertainty was important to have as a Green Lantern. It meant you valued what was at stake, that you knew that losing was more than just about points. It was about life or death.

A holographic projection appeared from Vell's ring, detailing the exact molecular makeup of Soranik's anti-viral injection. Hal's eyes widened as he looked at it. He had no idea how to make sense of the hologram, let alone make it a million times smaller than the actual image itself. "Jesus..." He muttered.

Vell glanced at Hal, an expression of fear on her face.

"Look, I don't know how and why you got mixed up with a gang of pirates, but the ring chose you for a reason. And hopefully that means you don't want the eleven billion Celdonians on this planet to die within fifty-seven local hours..." Hal then recalled the faces of the innocent merchants Vell gunned down. "...If you don't care about that, then do it for yourself. If it gets out of Joolter and into you, you're done for."

She exhaled, grimacing as she steeled herself.

With that, Vell shut her eyes tightly and an injection tube was projected from her ring. Just as this happened, Hal heard a thud in the hallway followed by the distinct sound of a Yellow Lantern flying towards him. He gritted his teeth and slinked back out, hoping to God that Vell could pull through.

Once back in the hall, Hal came face to face once more with Arkillo. He snarled at the human, glancing at his yellow ring. "That's right, beautiful. Not so big and scary now, are you?"

Arkillo lunged at Hal with a crazed roar, so quickly that the veteran GL had no time to react. The colossal alien tackled Hal and thrusted him into the opposite end of the hall, denting the kiltonium-plating. Hal raised his right fist and poured pure energy into Arkillo's face, forgoing a construct entirely. Arkillo's energy shield took an immense hit from that attack, so much so that it flickered subtly.

Hal felt a lapse in Arkillo's strength due to his attack, so he pressed the offensive and hurled Arkillo into an open door. The brute skidded to a halt, tipping tables over in the cafeteria as Hal followed his foe inside. The Yellow Lantern effortlessly flipped one of these tables at Hal, who envisioned a hovering circular saw between the projectile and himself. On its approach, the table was sheared in half and both sides flew well clear of Hal's body.

The human Lantern thrusted his hand forward, and the saw flew forward straight for Arkillo's head. He slammed both palms onto the flat sides of the saw, roaring in rage and holding the energy contraption in place.

"Shit." Hal whistled.

A giant fist suddenly erupted from the part of the sawblade closest to Arkillo's head and smacked him right between the eyes. Letting the saw dissolve into inert particles, Hal came charging in with another charged punch. As he let it go however, Arkillo caught the blow with a single hand. He lashed out with a headbutt, sending Hal across the massive cafeteria with ease.

He went back-first into a food dispensary unit with a crack. Hal cringed in pain as he recovered just in time to see another table fly at his face. This time he simply sent a stream of pure parallax at the object until it disintegrated at the atomic level. Arkillo's fist promptly answered the disappearance of the furniture, but Hal managed to weave out of the way in time.

Arkillo's hand ripped into the vending machine, curling and eviscerating it with a single blow. "The more time you waste on me, the more likely Despotellis would have decided to defy my instructions and simply eradicate every piece of filth on this world."

The beast didn't let Hal have another second of the advantage. Using his parallax-charged strength, Arkillo seized Hal's face with a vice-like grip and pegged him out into another hallway. Hal tumbled, skipping along the four walls of the passage until he managed to regain his equilibrium and halt mid-air. The next thing he saw was Arkillo, barrelling at him again.

The first thing that popped into Hal's mind was an array of thick wire springs which attached themselves to the end of the hall and on the other end to a harness that was strapped snuggly to the attacking Yellow Lantern. Arkillo's speed decreased little by little as the springs gained tension. His velocity bled dry, mere metres away from Hal. The only thing the human could think of doing was going back to make sure his partner was successful...

Hal reeled back with beared teeth, then sprung forward with maximum force. The incredible punch, coupled with the built-up tension of the construct springs, released a shockwave of force that crumpled every surface in the immediate area with a deafening 'boom'.

In a split second, a tunnel appeared in every layer of the Arxis from Hal to the exterior, revealing the salmon clouds of the planet's atmosphere. "Ah shit." Hal muttered, releasing that he just shot Arkillo well out of the prison's walls. He knew that energy constructs would be useless on the walls, but he didn't account for the blunt force that Arkillo's butt provided.

Before he gave chase, Hal hesitated. He instantly spun around and zipped back into the security room. There, collapsed on the floor was Vell, who was being tended to by a now conscious Joolter.

"Protector Jordan...! Your partner...she is exhausted." The security minister reported.

Hal hurried to Vell's side, scanning her body with his Qwardian ring. Her vitals were stable, but she really was exhausted. He then redirected his ring's attention to locating Despotellis. A tiny blip appeared on the ground where the sentient virus was paralysed by the administered vaccine. Jordan made sure to envelop the bio-weapon within a force bubble in case it regained awareness.

"You son of a gun..." Hal whispered to the unconscious Vell, in disbelief.

Joolter interjected "...I apologize. I was weak enough for that thing to seize my mind."

"Don't be stupid. There's no resisting a direct attack on your brain like that." Hal reassured. "Do you have a head count on the prisoners?"

Joolter glanced at a screen to her left and read "Five confirmed escapees...and extreme structural damage. Although I would have preferred none, your assistance ensured that the breakout was not entirely successful. If any linger, we will locate them soon enough. You have my thanks."

"Don't thank me. Thank her." Hal said, nodding to his partner.