Atrocitus stared at the scrawny shorthair crouched at his feet. His expression was blank. Then fury flooded in.
"What is the meaning of this? What is the meaning of this?! Don't you laugh! You think I don't know? That's one of your planet's little animals! This is an outrage!" Orange and Yellow had returned well before Red. Atrocitus had waited and waited, and this was what he got.
The cat was small and thin—maybe four or five pounds. Even with its Red Lantern vest on, the damage was still visible: scarred head, mangled paws. It had clearly been abused.
"HA HA—!" The loudest, most shameless laughter came from Hal Jordan. He knew the stakes. He laughed anyway.
Atrocitus was a walking powder keg on a good day. Seeing Hal doubled over and clutching his stomach sent him nuclear.
In fairness, it wasn't just the perpetually irreverent Hal Jordan—the man who'd crack jokes to Highfather's face. Several Earthlings were slack-jawed, and then they were laughing too.
Even Diana—steady, composed Diana—let slip two quiet chuckles.
Thea allowed herself a smile but kept her priorities straight. She cleared her throat, aiming for a tone that definitely wasn't I'm enjoying this immensely.
"Atrocitus, look at this cat carefully. It meets every standard of the Red Lantern Corps. The ring made no error."
She'd spotted it immediately. An ordinary cat, once—but The Red, the primordial force of animal life, had elevated its existence to a higher tier. That was what the ring had ultimately locked onto. After all, rage wasn't hard to find. Every street had its share of hotheads.
Atrocitus swallowed his fury and examined the creature. Beneath its frail exterior roared an unquenchable fire—raw, potent, but contained. The Red Lantern Corps only demanded rage, and the stronger the better. But as Corps leader, Atrocitus couldn't recruit indiscriminately. He needed soldiers who could restrain their anger and follow commands, not mindless berserkers. That was precisely why the Red Lanterns' ranks remained thin.
If he opened the floodgates, every corner of the universe would yield hotheads by the thousands. That wasn't the point.
Atrocitus dropped to all fours and pressed his massive face close to the cat's. They locked eyes, apparently communicating on some level.
Hal Jordan eyed Atrocitus's upturned posterior several times, each time winding up for a kick, each time blocked by Carol Ferris.
"After the battle, I will formally induct it into the Red Lantern Corps." Atrocitus's gaze slid to Thea—the cat was, after all, from Earth.
She gave a small nod. Permission granted.
The bearers of the positive emotions adapted smoothly. Diana had been around Thea long enough that rings were old news; a moment's thought and she understood the mechanics.
The Violet ring wasn't a billion-year-old entity like Ion. No costume change. Diana mastered the temporary ring with ease.
Nearby, Saint Walker kept calling Barry "Brother Allen" while earnestly explaining the Way of Hope.
Indigo-1 gave the Atom a quick primer on channeling compassion.
Scarecrow, surprisingly cooperative, practiced alone—manifesting flocks of small birds that swirled through the air around him.
The only real problem was Orange.
"Baldy—don't you dare touch my Lantern!" Larfleeze had death-gripped his charging lantern and wasn't letting go. On the other end, Luthor's eyes blazed as he tried to pry it loose.
"Do you have any idea how to build an organization? A nation? An empire? You absolute imbecile—that ring is wasted on you!" Luthor had one foot planted on Larfleeze's face and both hands working to peel his fingers off the genuine Orange ring.
"What's happening over there?" Several heroes looked on in disbelief.
Thea was deep in emotional calibration, but she spared enough attention to flick a psychic shield at Luthor. "He's been consumed by the ring's avarice."
Though privately she knew Luthor's ambitions were genuine. He wanted everything. Orange had chosen well.
"Everyone—I don't need you to accomplish anything specific. Just release the emotions in your rings. That's all." Thea saw they were ready and sent them into the fight. Hit anything, aim at anyone—as long as the emotional energy was deployed on Earth, her objective was met.
Through the telepathic link, she told Diana: "Violet love is the key. I'm stuck on it. Deploy yours as fast as possible."
Diana handed her guard duty to Kara and launched herself forward. The mission was straightforward: use the ring's emotional energy, saturate Earth with love, and the job was done.
Her constructs materialized as a host of Amazonian warriors—mounted, spear-armed, charging into the Black Lantern horde like a violet flood.
The others followed suit. Scarecrow was, bizarrely, the most enthusiastic—manifesting countless birds that swarmed the Black Lanterns in shrieking waves.
Luthor and the cat attacked with varying degrees of reluctance. Once his mind cleared, Luthor's genius kicked in immediately. After Diana, he was the second person to use his ring with ease. Every variety of high-tech weapon materialized in sequence; then, discovering the apparently limitless energy reserves of the Orange ring, he abandoned all restraint. A mechanical army poured from the ring—wave after mechanical wave crashing into the Black Lanterns like an industrial tide.
Brainiac had classified Luthor as a ninth-level intellect. His processing power, his encyclopedic knowledge, paired with an Orange ring whose energy reserves bordered on infinite—the combination was terrifying. Where Larfleeze relied on brute-force wave attacks, Luthor optimized. His constructs fought with tactical precision, executing coordinated maneuvers, establishing kill zones. Within minutes, the Black Lanterns—nearly a million strong—were being suppressed by a single man.
So Orange Avarice plus Luthor really is the ultimate pairing. Thea filed that away quietly. Thank Destiny that the first Orange ring had bonded to Larfleeze. If Luthor had been the original Orange Lantern, Nekron wouldn't have stood a chance today.
On the other flank, the cat was unleashing devastation of its own. The Red, the primordial force of animal life, seemed to be using the tiny creature as a conduit for its own fury. Molten-red energy—blood-hot, lava-bright—gushed from the cat's mouth in a continuous torrent. The volume of blood-energy was absurd—not just impossible for a five-pound cat, but impossible for an elephant. The cat didn't hesitate. Scalding crimson energy poured and poured, scattering Black Lanterns in every direction.
The Indigo Atom didn't require much of Thea's attention. Between the secretary's existing ring and Ray Palmer's temporary one, Earth's compassion was already well-represented. Add the existing courage, fear, and compassion baselines, and three of the seven emotions had always been the easiest for her to integrate.