#I wanna right about all the times Kyle has dived under a table or jumped in a trashcan to avoid his fellow Earthmen

[gasps-inspanish]

The Volleyball Incident

The Volleyball Incident that was referenced in my fic Fear and What Follows.

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Guy was starting to get really annoyed. Like, he was happy the Corps were back and he could be a Green Lantern again, but everything was different in the most annoying way possible.

Guy, John, and Hal hadn’t really been well liked before this since they were from Earth and seen as lesser than, but they had worked hard to prove themselves and had been more or less accepted before the whole Parallax thing. But now they were hated and right back to- no they were worse from where they started.

It was frustrating, putting in all that work just to be back to square negative one in an instant. But Guy didn’t really care about what they thought of him. They didn’t really matter so why would their opinion? It pissed him off that the negative treatment was extending to Jess and Simon, their new rookies. John was used to it since he’s been a Lantern for years, and while Guy was worried for Hal (not that he would admit it) he knew Hal could take care of himself. But Simon and Jess just started and were already being put at a disadvantage because of it.

It was really fucking annoying.

“Guy, stop glaring at the Lost Lanterns” John said, sounding tired. Guy rolled his eyes but didn’t take his eyes off of the Lost Lanterns.

“I’ll stop after they stop” Guy muttered. John sighed loudly, and Guy could tell he was at the end of his rope.

“I don’t think they will Guy” Hal mused from his seat next to Guy. “There’s more of them than you, they can rotate shifts”.

“Then help me out” Guy shot back.

“Help yourself out and stop being near me. You won’t get glared at then” Hal said. Guy’s eyes darted away from the Lost Lanterns to John.

Hal didn’t say it bitterly or sadly, he just stated a fact. He didn’t seem bothered by it when Guy glanced at him, instead just looking back at Guy in confusion.

“What?” Hal asked and Guy rolled his eyes. 

When Hal had first gotten out of the Sciencells when he was cleansed of Parallax- it wasn’t good, but now he seemed fine. But Guy knew that what happened to Hal wasn’t something u just shrugged off. You weren’t just suddenly okay.

“If this was your fault I would’ve gladly taken the excuse not to be near your ugly mug Jordan” Guy scoffed, even though they all knew that wasn’t true. “They just hate us because we’re from Earth”.

Hal nodded, looking lost in thought. He was always thinking about something nowadays.

“Maybe we should take a walk” John suggested, glancing at the still glaring Lost Lanterns.

They had nothing to do today. They weren’t assigned any missions and they weren’t allowed to train any rookies, not even the ones from their own planet. Jess and Simon were training with their group leader at the moment, so it would just be the three of them for a bit.

Guy expected to just walk in silence for an hour, John trying in vain to use his “aura” or whatever to try to calm Guy down while Hal just stared off into space, thinking way too much once again, but noise caught their attention.

“Another fight,” John said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Guy could feel John’s incoming migraine and he almost felt bad.

“Let’s check it out” Hal said, not waiting for either to reply as he started to stroll over to the noise. Guy and John quickly followed.

It was probably rookies again. Guy really thought these guys didn’t know how to act, but there were so many of them they couldn’t set Kilowog on all of-

Oh. Well it was certainly rookies, but they weren’t fighting.

Guy just stared at the green construct volleyball net, a couple of rookie and senior lanterns gathered around cheering. And of course the people playing volleyball were the only people who could get away with it.

On one side was Sodam Yat and Soranik Natu, Natu getting ready to serve the construct volleyball. On the other side was Tomar-Tu and Torchbearer, ready to receive the ball. Laira was in the middle, almost like a referee, and Arisia was close by her, hand over her mouth as she tried not to laugh.

Guy watched them play, and the point went to Natu and Yat, as Tomar dived for the ball but missed.

“What?” was all Hal said, the first one of the three of them to speak.

“If I had to guess, I’m thinking Torchbearer taught them how to play,” John mused. Guy tilted his head.

“Don’t they have training?” Guy asked.

“Maybe they have a free block?” John suggested.

“Rookies get free blocks now”?

Guy thought the four of them got away with way too much, but Torchbearer was the golden boy, and the other three were friends with the golden boy so they reaped the benefits. But honestly, he wasn’t going to complain about it. Guy knew Torchbearer since the kid first became a Lantern, and even though the kid avoided Guy and the other Earth Lanterns at all costs now, Guy could see he was doing well.

When Guy had first been contacted by Dinah to meet the new Green Lantern, the last and only Green Lantern, the kid had been sick looking. Guy could see it even though the kid’s mask had been on. He was thin, pale- he wasn’t doing good, and Guy understood why with what the kid told him happened. But he got better, and Guy likes to think he and John helped, but then he had left Earth in a hurry. When Guy saw him again on Oa when the Corps had started up again, the kid was once again thin, pale, and quiet.

Torchbearer wasn’t really the quiet type.

But now he looked healthy, and Guy could often see him laughing with his friends. So whatever, let him have special privileges. With everything he’s been through as a Green Lantern, let him have his-

“Guy mo-“!

Something smacked Guy in the face so hard that he stumbled back a bit, dazed. Guy looked down at the construct volleyball at his feet, then back up at the four players.

They all stared at him, wide eyed and open mouthed. Yat had a hand in the air, basically admitting whose fault this was. It was then Guy noticed that everyone, Rookies and Senior Lanterns alike, were silent and looking at him. No one said anything, no one moved.

The silence was broken by Hal bursting out laughing. He was laughing so hard that he doubled over. It was- Guy hadn’t heard Hal laugh like that since before-

Several Senior Lantern’s started laughing too. Guy could see Torchbearer and his friends hadn’t moved or changed expressions, except for Yat who gave Guy an uneasy smile when they locked eyes.

Guy didn’t really care. However, he did have a reputation to uphold.

“Hey”! Guy yelled at the group as he stalked towards them.

“Scatter” Laira told them before walking over to meet Guy, and the four of them ran off.

“Nope” Guy said, side-stepping Laira and running after them. By the direction they ran, he could tell they were running to the other three’s shared room. Rookies.

He knocked on the door loudly.

“I know you’re in there! Come out! I just wanna talk” Guy said, banging on the door several more times until it finally opened.

“Senior Lantern Gardner” Iolande greeted with a smile that was a bit too sugary sweet. “How can I help you”?

“I know they’re in here,” Guy said, narrowing his eyes. Iolande tilted her head.

“Who”?

“You know who I’m talking about”.

“I can assure you Senior Lantern Gardner, I don’t”.

They stared at each other for a bit before Guy sighed.

“This isn’t over” Guy called into the room before spinning on his heel and walking away. Having a staring contest with Iolande wasn’t going to doing anything, but they had to come out at some point.

John and Hal were still smirking when Guy returned, but they were now standing with Simon and Jess who looked confused.

“You find them?” John asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You give them hell, Guy?” Hal added, pressing his lips together afterwards to keep himself from laughing again. There was joy in his eyes that Guy hadn’t seen in a while.

“Am I missing something?” Simon asked, eyes darting between Hal and John and Guy as Jess nodded.

“Guy got hit in the face with a volleyball,” Hal explained. “Torchbearer and his friends were playing”.

But Guy had been way too nice today.

“Lantern Jordan, 50” Guy said and John gave him a look, but Guy ignored him. Hal looked offended.

“Pulling rank on me Gardner?” Hal asked, but he didn’t look hurt, and Guy could still see amusement in his eyes. Hal didn’t need someone to coddle him, so Guy wouldn’t. Yeah Hal was stripped of his rank, but there was no reason tro treat him like it was fragile. Better tank be thrown around with his friends than someone like a Lost Lantern.

“That’s Senior Lantern Gardner to you,” Guy replied.

“Yes sir Senior Lantern Gardner sir!” Hal mocked, saluting him before getting on the ground and starting to do push ups. Guy stared at him for a second before sitting cross legged on his back, Hal not breaking his pace. “Damn you’re heavy! Lay off the beers”!

“50 more Lantern Jordan”.

“Well fuck you too”.

“50 more Lantern Jordan”.

“Of course Mr. Senior Lantern Gardner sir”!

“This’ll be you if you don’t fall in line” Guy said, pointing between Jess and Simon, who looked amused. Other Lanterns were staring at them as they walked by, but this was the kind of shit they should’ve been staring at them for.

Later that day Guy was walking with Jess to the Mess Hall when his opportunity for revenge came. He had been answering some of Jess’s questions, the two of them sent ahead to snag a table for dinner, when he saw Torchbearer and his friends sitting at a table laughing.

There was no way they were escaping him now.

“Watch this Jess” Guy said gleefully before making his way to the table. They noticed him when he was almost there.

“Senior Lantern Gardner!” Yat said with wide eyes and an awkward smile. “I-”!

“Attention!” Guy called, and the three rookies stood at attention. Guy looked around for Torchbearer but didn’t see him, which was strange because he had just been sitting with the other three. “Report”.

“Trainee Lantern Natu, 1417.2 reporting”

“Trainee Lantern Yat, 1760.1 reporting”!

“Trainee Lantern Tomar, 2813.2 reporting”!

Guy grinned. He could see they weren’t afraid of him or anything, instead just awkward. He could respect that.

“Which one of you rookies hit me in the face?” Guy asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

“Me, Senior Lantern Gardner” Yat answered immediately. Guy stared at him for a second.

“Trainee Lantern Yat, 200”. Yat’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he saluted.

“Sir, yes sir” and Yat got down in the middle of the Mess Hall and started doing push ups. Much more respectful than Hal.

“Trainee Lanterns Natu, Tomar. 50” Guy said, feeling merciful. They both saluted him.

“Sir, yes sir!” and they both got down on the floor and started their pushups.

There was no use in looking for Torchbearer since Guy couldn’t make him do pushups, the kid was unfortunately a higher rank than him. Guy instead chose a table that he could clearly see them from and sat down.

“A beautiful sight really” Guy mused. “Still wonder where Torchbearer went. He was sitting at the table when we were walking over”.

“Oh I saw him dive under the table” Jess said. “He really wants to avoid us. I wonder why”.

“Me too” Guy said, resisting the urge to lean over and look under the table. He’d let the kid be for now.

Torchbearer had been on very good terms with John and Guy before restoring Oa. What had happened to change that?

“Wow, our number one ranking rookie group is in trouble?” Hal asked as he sat down with his food. “What did they do? And who dished that out”?

“Me!” Guy said proudly before cackling. By now Tomar and Natu were finishing up but Yat still had more to go even though he was going at a decent pace.

Guy felt better. Happy even.

That night, Guy was surprised to see Torchbearer in their room when he walked in with John and Hal. He shouldn’t have been, since he knew Iolande was on Oa so the kid couldn’t hide in his friends’ room.

Usually they roomed in twos on Oa, but since the place had been destroyed, they were still rebuilding. Training the rookies and defending the Universe were the priorities, so the barracks were only halfway done, leaving four to a room. The rooms were grouped up in either Rookie groups (since it was four to a group) or a set of sector partners with another set of sector partners from a neighboring sector. because there were so many Earth Lanterns, Hal, John, Guy and Torchbearer had been put together but Torchbearer was avoiding them so he didn’t sleep in their room often.

Right now he was in his bunk, which was on the right side right above Guy’s, curled up on his side and facing the wall so they couldn’t see his face. But Guy didn’t need to be looking at him to know he was awake still. Guy walked to the side Torchbearer’s head was on and slapped the side of the bed twice.

“Torchbearer”. There was a moment of silence, and Guy thought he was wrong and that Torchbearer actually was asleep, but then-

“Senior Lantern Gardner”? Guy grinned.

“Next time you teach your friends an Earth game, make sure they know how to play right before you set them loose”.

“Of course, Senior Lantern Gardner”.