The Initiative Reserves #4: EMH - (Kid) Lantern

The Initiative Reserves #4
Earth's Mightiest Hero
(Kid) Lantern

My name is Wally West and I'm the Fastest in the Universe. I won't make the claim that I'm the Fastest Man Alive or the Fastest Man on Earth. Those have different meanings. That's not the way my speed works. When it counted, I crossed most of the universe in the span between the beats of my heart. But since then… Okay, no. I won't get into that now. Can't, won't, think about it.

My name is Wally West.

I am the Last Lantern

The azure glow of his hand hovered over flesh darkened red by something worse than a sunburn. The Blue spoke to Wally sometimes. It had been a better teacher than Guy Gardner by a long run. It taught him the power of healing. Not the better mentor though. Guy prepared him, readied him, to be the Last Lantern as if he had known the moment the Ring chose him that there would come a day when the kid would be the last one left behind. Or maybe that's just what Wally told himself to justify Guy's harsh tutelage and later abandonment.

His ring flickered in its light. The dark thoughts, Wally scowled… That wasn't a lack of hope or willpower on his part. His uniform, the uniform that identified him as part Lantern and part Flash, faded into the ether. It'd been awhile since he felt that scratching at the back of his head. Something, someone, was tracking him through his ring. Keeping his aura so closely concealed – one of the earliest lessons Guy had imparted – had become second nature. He only unleashed it when he had to, when he could just run free of all his burdens.

"Lantern?" Shadowcat slipped an arm around his waist, resting her head against his chest, her ears tickling his chin. She'd become empathic since that fateful night of the storm. Exposure to him – and to her father – their ties to the Emotional Spectrum had changed her almost as much as it changed them. It was nearly enough to make her a proper ring bearer. As it was, she could easily create more complicated constructs than he could with her off-brand hard light tech.

"I can't stay here, Lin."

She pinched his side playfully, trying to remain cheerful despite his distress. "Codenames. Remember? We're still in the field with," she jerked her chin towards the shirtless mutant they rescued from the DEO, "a stranger."

"Speaking of that, how come I don't get one?" A peppy blond in glasses spun around in her chair, the glow of multiple monitors illuminating her from behind. "Kid Flashy Lantern. Shadowcat. Jackrabbit. I'm just me."

"Hey, I handed Watchtower over to you, that should be good enough."

Felicity Smoak, girl genius, smart enough to figure out their identities, the past Lanterns, and more. It had taken her no time to discover Oliver Queen was the Green Arrow or that the Special Agent Harper – as seen on TV – was his ex-sidekick Speedy once they abandoned Star City for whatever reasons they had. She tracked down their former hideout beneath a closed down club, already secure enough for the vigilantes, and commandeered it for herself to be used as a central hub for Watchtower. Untraceable, access to Queen's satellites, she'd proven to be a great asset since Wally began his solo crusade.

He laughed, Lin shooting him a strange look behind her goggles. Watchtower began as some fun, borderline paparazzi website for superheroes and villains. That was how they met, first connected. A video of Guy being trained as a Green Lantern. Over time, the founders and initial contributors like Lin herself became more. The site evolved. The social network she helped build now kept Wally appraised of a world where metas, mutants, and aliens seemed to pop up daily. It's how he learned about young vigilantes going missing… Or that the very people he put behind bars were being used by likes of Harper and his government.

How better to play Big Brother than to rely on millennials and their idiotic need to pull out their cells to record a super fight than run to safety? Most of the time, he – they – stayed in the shadows. Wally acted only when he thought he needed to. Every hero, new and old, needed the confidence to stand on their own for what was to come. They needed to be ready. In situations like Jackrabbit's where he'd gotten in over his head, Wally usually would have swooped in earlier. But then the DEO showed up.

Suddenly, Wally questioned whether it was wisdom or idiocy to hide in Harper's old secret headquarters.

"Keep an eye on Jack. He should recover quick enough on his own, he's a fighter" he pulled out of Lin's grasp, "I need to plant a false trail."

Before she could say anything, Kid Lantern stepped into a breach, leaving a tornado in his wake.

Once she stopped spinning, Felicity arched an eyebrow at the cat-themed not-sidekick. "Does he always do that?"

Lin pulled up her goggles and down her cowl with a sad nod.



A list of names scrolled down Roy's glasses while twin holograms of the respective Directors of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the DEO gave out orders in one of the former's hideouts. Weapon X… A Weaponized Mutant or Meta while simultaneously being some clandestine facility both organizations and anyone else in power denied existed. Nevertheless, there was still a list of candidates that had been sold as Beings of Mass – or Precise – Destruction. The Wolverine, Sabretooth, Bo, Kouen, The Sisters, X-Insert-Number-and-Letters-Here. The list went on and on with those that had been confirmed and others only under suspicion.

He gave a start when he read the name Slade Wilson. Codename: Deathstroke. The world's most infamous mercenary. His kill count and record of successful missions was unbelievable. This guy didn't care if you knew him or not. In fact, Roy betted on him wanting to be known. Much better prices that way.

"Are you with us, Agent Harper?"

"We sure this kid is some kind of Weapon X?" Roy pulled off his glasses and met the three eyes of the Directors. "The people on this list are murderers, monsters. Hell, if that's that same Wolverine who wore yellow and blue a few years back, he wasn't much a hero in the first place. Jackrabbit is just a boy trying…" trying to fill the void he and Oliver left.

Fury said nothing. Stew fixed the agent with his New-Found Power of Super-Judgy Director glare. It said that they were in the presence of a rival agency. They were to play nice. Now was not the time to be questioning him in front of others. Just listen and when it was private time, then, then he could bring up any issue. Until then, shut the hell up.

"From personal experience, I can attest to seeing a girl no older than ten clearing out a terrorist cell by herself, armed only with the claws on her hands like that boy."

"Full grown man, hair like a lion," Diggle added, his wife nodding in agreement.

"So what, Stew? Our government outsources to a bunch of mutants and then there's this kid, from the Glades, that just happens to fight and look like them? He's done nothing wrong."

"Harper," Fury was the one to speak. "Where was this sense of morality when you apprehended the girl trying to play hero in Gateway after she caused the fatalities of three people? The world is a dangerous place and getting more dangerous by the day. Whether Jackrabbit is a Weapon X, the son of one, or Christ risen from the grave. I don't give a damn. These kids need to be brought in where they can be safe, trained."

The meaning of that last word sank into each individual. Sitting at the dining table, scrolling through a laptop, a woman with long blond hair and a severe expression instead of what Roy remembered as being kind and beautiful and the product of many an awkward dream during puberty, closed it. That face said it all. Every agent finally understood exactly what they had been tasked with the past couple of months.

"You're training weapons," Dinah Lance said, her voice cold. "May not be weaponizing… But you're taking them early, teaching them what you think is right, indoctrinating them. They'll fight and die for you."

"No. Simply training. That's what the Initiative is all about. Vigilantism is still illegal lest you forget. Those born with the silver spoon of power, money, and influence… piss me off because the rules don't apply to them. Gotham, the Gem Cities, and the boy who stole your target out from under your noses. I can't do a damn thing about them. But you know what I can do?"

The four agents were silent. They had no answer. Hell, two of them were former vigilantes themselves.

"We send them prepared for the world, home, if that's what they want, aware that should they use their abilities for personal gain, there is no warning next time. Others stay. And yes, they join. There's a Meta Arms Race going on whether we like it or not and we need as many on our side as we can. We need you, Lance, and you too Harper with your experience in taking them down without powers of your own."

"Need we remind you why you're gathered in Star City in the first place?" Stewart's voice was even colder with his addition to the discussion. "How is Miss Queen doing?"

Roy was on his feet in an instant. Just as quickly, Diggle had a restraining hand on him. What exactly he intended to inflect violence on was left to the imagination considering the Directors were thousands of miles away.

A nod from Roy. Diggle leaned forward to press the end call for the holograms. But he knew to wait. That's what partnership meant.

"If you ever bring Thea up again, Stewart, I will shoot you in the back and it won't be with a Boxing-glove Arrow."

"Harper, listen, I've been tra – "

The holograms vanished. Lyla rested her hands on her hips. This job was still fresh to her. Not much different than the FBI except every so often she had to wear the form-fitting bodysuits of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives which Diggle didn't complain about based on his expressions on their days back from vacation. Her brown bob of hair swayed when she shook her head.

"So John, should we get started on the whole family thing before or after we're fired?"

"It was a low blow, Lyla," Diggle pushed Roy back to his seat. "Stewart recruited Roy because he was that top 1% protected by money who fought crime since he was a kid. He's been up against things neither of us can imagine just as we've seen things in war that he can never truly picture."

"It was Oliver's money. He never took me in. Never…" Roy muttered, sinking into his chair, "I was never… I wouldn't feel like this about Thea if he had. If someone was here to make the goddamn decision."

He threw his hat across the room, anger flaring. Angry at himself. Angry at Oliver. Angry at Dinah over there being quiet, waiting for him to stop his tantrum. But mostly, he was angry that Stewart was right.

"Nightwing always understood it better than I did. And yet look what happened to both of us? Our successors, they just couldn't make the cut. Maybe we were lucky. Maybe we were that just that skilled. Does it really matter? How different would our lives be had Ollie not run off yet Bats did? Would he be the secret agent while I have a Quiver of proteges strapped to my back, depending on me?"

Deep breaths.

"What were you researching, Di? I was watchin'. You didn't care about the conversation, you were already working the job."

"Given that your glasses failed in facial recognition, I thought it best to go back to school."

There was a collective "huh."

"Tell me, Mr. Harper, how is your tummy feeling today?"

Okay. That was a good one. It made him laugh. They hadn't had the time to catch up. And he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to. They saw each other at Christmas awhile back. Celebrated it at Thea's bedside as much as they could with the girl comatose in a hospital bed, just waiting for a miracle. With every passing year, her chances slimmed and yet… it was the age of miracles. If Stewart could –

Fuck. If anyone knew what he was going through. If anyone knew it more intimately. It was that man. That had taken some investigating and breaking into the DEO's most secure medical facilities.

Time to smile. Time put on that happy face. Be Roy Harper, Agent of the DEO.

"It was very strange how often I left with a stomachache or cramps and came back to school the next day with a black eye. The school did a great job of reporting it."

"Lyla, Dinah… I guess you two get to play truancy officers." Diggle reached for his jacket. "What's on the agenda for us, Roy?"

He held up a palm-sized beacon. "Fox gave us a trick just in case Wally got in our way again. Said it should help track down the unique metal his ring is comprised of."

"I'm sensing a but."

"Don't know if it'll work. Not exactly like there's much to test it on outside the field. Uber time!"

"I'm not taking you for tacos," he gave his wife a kiss on the cheek.

Oh, Roy was most certainly getting his tacos.



On top of Queen Consolidated, Wally had the second-best view of Star City. It was breathtaking. From up here, he could see the Bay, the park, the ocean, and there sticking out in the distance was the Astro Point (the best view). He had considered it for moment but then whoever was tracking him would know it for the distraction it was. No way they could be hiding there. But a place like Queen Consolidated where they could see them coming and leave just as fast?

The blue-green of his ring faded to simply dull green the moment he removed it from his finger. One of the Nine Last Lights. One of the most powerful weapons in the universe. Wally was well aware that he didn't utilize it to the fullest of its capabilities. Still had some issue with complicated constructs. Flying was less reliable than his portals and breaches. But he'd learned some things like that bubble. Another was this trick which he wasn't entirely sure if it was exclusive to him or not.

He held the ring up to his lips and gave it a command.

"Only one who never surrenders hope shall claim you."

The special metal glowed blue and stayed that way as he sat placed it in the middle of the roof. Wally didn't bother to test it. To do so would, in its own fashion, betray hope. Betray the faith that the Power Ring had in him. And with that, he was ready to leave.

Survival Instinct had him take the stairs.



Tacos were denied. Roy, however, did manage to convince Dig to stop by the drive thru for a Triple-stack from Big Belly Burger on the way. Inconspicuous with his hat worn backwards and glasses protecting his eyes from the sun, he looked just like courier – bag and all – taking a break. The juicy grease coated his fingers as his fingers dug into the buns, mouth stretching open to try to eat what possibly equaled one burger in a single bite. He watched Diggle in the corner of his HUD, staring at an elevator door while he watched Queen Consolidated's entrance.

The signal was erratic, untrustworthy. They had chased it around half the city, saw all the sites, only to realize that Wally had somehow figured out he was being tracked. That was how Roy convinced Dig to stop for food. Might as well wait the cosmic speedster out. Then the partners reasoned that it was best to go to the heart of all the traffic and business. From here they could fan out.

Seemed like Wally and his partners had the same idea. They hadn't moved from the building for more than ten minutes. Roy didn't particularly want to step foot inside. One of his former lairs was beneath it. Far too many memories he didn't want to face. Plus, he had a theory. He was still young and roguish enough to think like a teenager who believed he was smarter than everyone else just because he put on a costume and fought crime.

Diggle reached the roof. No heat signatures. Nothing. Just something glimmering blue on the concrete. His partner crouched before the ring and tried to pick it. He yelped loud enough that Roy swore he heard it from ground level. He watched through the corner of his glasses as Dig examined his hand, the tips of his fingers were burned. Blistering.

"Damn, can't touch the thing."

"Smart kid. Cast himself a protection spell and ye not worthy, Dig."

"What makes me any less worthy than the Director?"

Roy zoomed in the ring. "It doesn't look like his. Not the same design. And y'know, it's blue. That probably means something." He noticed the readings in the corner and laughed. "You're jealous. You wanted to see if you could be a Green Lantern."

"Wouldn't you?"

"Tried. Failed. Ollie was close with the previous Lantern. Gardner's and Stewart's superior. They partied together one night, and he treated it like a toy, letting us try it out. Couldn't even make a ball."

"What about Queen?"

"Couldn't get any greener." Roy's tone left no room for discussion. As did the fact he took another bite of the triple stack. Couldn't have replied had he wanted to. Now what he could do was observe a freckled young man wearing Iron Man merch leave via the main entrance. He scarfed down the rest of the burger to his regret and scooped up the courier bag, swinging it over his shoulder.

He followed the kid a few blocks, no rush. They were heading towards the Astro Point. In the corner of his glasses, Dig grunted as the elevator down stopped nearly every three floors. Be awhile before he caught up. That was okay. Roy had this in the bag. Without his Ring, what could Wally do?

They'd find out soon enough because he knew that Wally knew he was being followed. His fellow redhead led him down an empty, trash filled alley, newspaper blowing across concrete between them like the urban tumbleweed it was.

"Harper."

"West."

"Neat trick with the ring but I'm going to have to ask you nicely to take me to Jackrabbit."

"Not happening. You'll have to shoot me first."

"Oh, I'll shoot you." Roy pressed a button on the strap of the courier bag. The hologram dropped, revealing his quiver and bow. He snapped the collapsible bow open. "I got no problem with shooting you."

"Roy… do not shoot him. I repeat. Do not shoot him."

Roy removed his hat and tossed his earpiece and glasses into it. The hat was thrown aside. He had frozen against the hydra. Didn't like to admit it but he had. Watched that kid, Jackrabbit, fight for his life, for his city, his people. The same people Roy once fought for. It had been something.

Had to make up for it somehow. Wally was too confident, too arrogant. He had a plan. That plan worked into keeping Jackrabbit out of the DEO's hands. Well, if that's how he wanted to play it then Roy intended to make the next generation earn it. He wouldn't have another Thea on his conscience. This was gonna go down one of two ways, Wally's trick worked, and he'd escape with a brief reprieve. Or Roy would emerge victorious through experience and hopefully some sense could be talked into the boy.

He reached for an arrow.

Wally stood unmoving.

More newspaper blew. God, this city used to be the greenest in America. It'd turned to filth since he'd been gone.

The arrow flew. It flew true. His foe didn't even try to dodge. The taser arrow hit Wally straight in the chest, the impact at this distance enough to send him flying backwards off his feet, convulsing. Roy fired a second taser arrow just to be sure before approaching. If Wally was acting then he deserved a reward for it.

Nope. Not acting. One straight through the arc reactor symbol, the other above his right pec. Wally jerked around on the ground leaving Roy at a momentary loss for what exactly had been the plan here and what would happen if some concerned citizen glanced down this alleyway. He yanked both arrows out quickly, suddenly worried he had been played in a way that could have political ramifications.

Wally still squirmed on the concrete.

"Hey, hey kid, it's alright, uh… I… got this."

He didn't see the pile of blue-green bricks crash down into the back of his skull, fading to dust on impact. Dazed, he couldn't avoid Wally sweeping his legs out from beneath him. Okay. That's how they were gonna do it. Fine, he'd just…

His quiver was gone. So was Wally. He flipped to his feet in time to see the younger man holding it, his blue-green aura sending out sparks. Wally threw the quiver in the air and destroyed it with on blast from his palm.

There were some questions he had for Stew when they next talked.

"I read my file from the DEO," Wally vanished behind the Agent, aiming a punch at his kidneys. "I read S.H.I.E.L.D.'s too." He was gone before Roy could counter. "Even my permanent record which is actually a thing. I did not know that." A sucker punch to the jaw sent the older man stumbling. "And I have to tell you, your Director withheld some very, very important information."

"You don't need the Ring," Roy assumed, snapping his bow into its secondary configuration as bo. "I don't need my arrows. I'd say we're even."

Wally shrugged and vanished beneath a swing only feel the but of the staff slam into his stomach. Their reactions were matched. An overhead sweep blocked by the sudden appearance of a ladder that the younger man threw in his face. Stumbling backwards, Roy expected to find Wally behind him again. He wasn't. Shit.

A green arrow flew at him. In a single, fluid motion, he caught it, crouched, returned to his bow formation, and released it to split a blue arrow in two. Wally got smart, extending his hand which in turn extended another glowing hand to launch a dumpster at Roy. Flipping over it, the agent caught the speedster with a bola around the legs when he predictively moved to try to hit Roy into the trash. Both landed with a dull thud and shared grunts.

The bola snapped in an instant. Roy crawled out of the way before the dumpster could trap him between the alley wall, his ankle just barely avoiding being crushed. He stood, facing Wally. There was sweat dripping across the younger man's face. Ha. They were just getting started.

He flicked the bow back to bo, watching Wally close his eyes. The azure flash blinded him. The hairs on the back of his neck, honed from a decade – give or take a year – of surviving on his own in more dangerous spots than this warned him that somehow Wally was now behind him… while also still being in front of him.

The two attacked as one, catching Roy in a pincer. Basic boxing, some mixed martial arts. Gardner had taught him but not enough. Not nearly enough. He blocked, reflected, deflected and attempted to counter every attack because they were both real. A duplicate. How in the hell was that possible? Didn't matter currently. Not when he could see Wally's hair now dank with sweat. Kid was getting exhausted.

A swing of the bo-staff caught both in the middle. He smacked first one then the other across the chin, knocking them to the ground, stunned.

"I win."

All the hairs on his body stood on end now. Goddamnit. He fell for the rookie mistake. He gloated.

Azure and Emerald lighting blasted him in the chest. As he flew backwards into the dumpster he knew he would land in, the Wallies fused back together and took off, stumbling out into Star City.

Here, at this moment, Roy just laid there in the trash. All things considered, he held his own. As did the kid. Strange to feel some pride when he was the one who lost. That's where Dig found him, a bemused expression on his face and a crispy hole through his shirt.

"You smell like shit."

"Kinda feel like it."

"There's a half-eaten taco next to your foot if you're still craving one."

His partner helped him out of the garbage. He did not help him clean off. That was understandable. Hopefully the ladies fared better with their detective work. Even with the mixed emotions he felt over everything from Jackrabbit to purposely apprehending thrill happy teens to be turned into child-soldiers the past few months to giving Wally this chance to prove his worth, Roy's thoughts returned to Starling General and the sleeping beauty he once knew. The work they were doing wasn't wrong.

It just wasn't exactly right either.



It was a pinch difficult slipping into the hospital unnoticed, bruised and as dirty as Wally was. Yet somehow he managed it. Managed to find his way to the more expensive wing donated by Moira Queen and the expensive suites it contained for Star City's elite. A lot of it had to do with not sneaking. It was something he learned from Pop-pop and his dad. Act like you belonged and people would believe it… within reason.

The fight with Harper was strange to say the least. He doubted the man understood remotely what happened or how exactly Wally lasted as long as he did against the more experienced hero. There was a kernel of hope buried within the ex-vigilante's heart. More than one actually. From that hope, Wally acted as the conduit for feats that he had rarely been able to achieve by relying on the ring alone. Feats he wasn't even aware of like the duplicate.

He saw a dream within Harper of a girl. One that a quick call to Felicity – Watchtower – confirmed. This was a situation he'd been in twice before. Once with his father after he became emotionally dead, forced into a sleep by the machines which made him a Manhunter. The second happened around an alien woman he now knew to be John's wife. Two people hadn't given up fighting and neither had their families. Wally was proof of that.

When he made it to Thea Queen's room, he found the source of hope that a small part of Harper relied on to keep going. To keep moving forward. She was young, around his age, connected to the machines you'd expect to keep her alive. The sight reminded him of his father. The anguish she radiated on the other hand couldn't be farther from him.

Thea Queen was still in there and she was angry.

Such anger.

Wally wasn't entirely sure he could begin the healing process without his Light but he had to try. He had to believe. His hand rested on her forehead, brushing way long bangs of brown. Without hope for a tomorrow, there was no reason for today.

Today, the Last Lantern of Earth would remind Thea of all who still cared for her so that she might bring herself back.