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set during Green Lantern 154, an explanation for Kyle's sudden disappearance from the hospital and how he found himself visiting Daniel Hirsh that night...
2,606 Words
Kyle listened into the conversation, the hate bubbling up inside of him as he clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white.
“We may find the other two guys, the odds are they’ll probably skip town tonight.”
He lashed out, pushing the nearest wall with all his strength, ignoring the shocked look on the nurse’s faces as they looked at him. They just assumed that it was him letting off steam; they knew why he was here. He was a friend of Terrance Bergs; he was allowed to be pissed off about what had happened.
“I think we’re gonna lose them if this guy doesn’t flip and give them up.” The conversation between the two cops continued and the anger continued to build inside Kyle. His forearm was shaking now from the rage, he was clenching his fist so hard, wanting to lash out and hit something, someone as hard as he could.
He wanted to visit the pain that Terry had endured on every single hate filled homophobe out there, he wanted to find the people that had done this and burn their houses o the ground. He wouldn’t even use the ring; he would be quite content to beat them to a pulp with his own fists. See how they liked the helpless feeling as he reigned down blow after blow on them.
Would they cry out for mercy like Terry did? Would they beg and plead to be let go, just as he could imagine Terry doing as the three men kicked him to the ground and stomped on his chest, breaking his ribs and sending blood flying up the walls of the alleyway.
He stormed out of the hospital, ignoring the shocked look on the faces of the nurses as he kicked the swinging doors open with all his might, he ignored the shout of the policemen and security guard behind him as he stormed off into the car park and strode through it purposefully.
The cool night and the light rain soaked his clothes, making them cling to his skin as he walked down the streets to where Terry had been ambushed.
He could use the ring of course, he could use it to fly and be there in seconds, but he didn’t want to fly tonight. Tonight he felt as heavy as lead, his mind was focused on the people who had done this, the people who had crushed a young man’s future and put him into a coma. The people who had nearly killed someone just because he had a different lifestyle to them, the people he was going to find and visit every second of pain Terry had endured on them and more.
His fists were still clenched as he found himself looking down the alleyway, the rain was soaking him and dripping down his arm and falling between his fingers. The ring which he normally wore so proudly was biting into his other fingers because of the pressure his fist was placing on them.
He looked up, the street lamp on the corner flickered with life causing the alleyway to look dark and foreboding. Terry probably ducked in her, thinking he could hide from the men that were chasing him, thinking if he hid they would leave him alone.
‘Why should he hide?’ Kyle thought to himself as he reached up and pushed the wet hair out of his face. Why should anyone have to hide who they are?
The streetlight suddenly stopped flickering and the alleyway fell into complete darkness as he reached up and tore the yellow police cordon tape in front of him. Letting it fall to the floor and he stepped on it and walked into the alley.
He could smell the blood in the air; it was all over the walls of the alleyway. Pools of it were on the floor, being diluted by the rain and washing away down a manhole in the middle.
Concentrating for a brief second the alley became illuminated by torchlight, emerald bracers stood, affixed to the wall where old fashioned flame torches burned with their sickly green light, casting a foreboding emerald light on the alley as he looked around.
Electric light would have been better, but he didn’t want to see it, not properly. He didn’t want to see his friend’s blood splattered up the wall, he didn’t want to see the marks where the three men had grabbed Terry’s face and smashed it into the metal trash container. He could see enough by torchlight, he could see too much, this was all too much.
Screaming he kicked at the metal dumpster, smashing his foot into it and sending it skidding along the alleyway with a screech of metal. He punched at the alleyway walls, he punched again and again, screaming as he did and tearing the skin on his knuckles until they bled.
Letting his arms fall to his sides he just stared at the wall for a second, staring where his blood mixed with the water and dripped down the wall, mixing with Terry’s blood on the way. Hanging his head he let the rain push his hair down across his face as he reached up and rubbed his face, thinking about what Terry had gone through in this alleyway.
He felt the stubble on his face where he hadn’t shaved before they had gone to the hospital and he felt the baggy skin under his eyes where he hadn’t slept for two days.
This wasn’t right, this shouldn’t have happened.
Storming out of the alleyway and turning the corner started running down the street, feeling the wind and rain whip around him and sting his face. The rain started to get harder and it soaked his clothes making them heavy as they hung on his frame. His black shirt stuck to his skin as he ran, the undone collar le the cold rain onto his chest and drip down to his stomach.
He suppressed a shudder as he ducked into the entranceway to a bar; pulling his hand down his face he stretched the skin, enjoying the burning feeling just for a second as his hand dragged over his stubble. He could hear the sound of rock music from inside the bar; glancing at the door he noticed the name, The Exchange.
Pushing open the bar he was met by the smell of smoke and beer, the rock music blared out of the speakers even though there were only a few customers, and those were only kids, a little older than Terry, old enough to drink but still kids.
“Hey, you alright?” The barman shouted as he made his way to the bar and propped himself up on a stool.
“You serve coffee?” Kyle asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.
“Sure, you sure you don’t want anything stronger though? Looks like you could do with it.” The barman said as he fetched out a mug and moved to the coffee machine at the end of the bar.
“Just coffee.” Kyle grunted out as he looked around, the ambiance was just what he needed, dark with hard rock music playing that would keep his anger fuelled.
The barman just went about his business of making the coffee, his long hair pulled back in a ponytail and a ‘Kiss’ T-shirt hung on his skinny frame. Moving back to where Kyle was sat he placed the mug of steaming coffee on the bar along with a clean bar towel, “Thought you could use it.” The barman smiled. “One fifty.”
Kyle just handed over the change before wiping his face with the offered town and running his fingers through his now drenched hair, grimacing for a second as some hair got caught in his ring before he roughly pulled it free.
He just sat there for a moment, thinking about what Terry had been through. He glanced at his knuckles and saw the torn skin, they weren’t bleeding anymore but the pain helped a bit, helped him take his mind off the anger he was feeling. It was barely a fraction of the amount of pain Terry had gone through, but he felt it helped him somehow. It helped him concentrate; the burning sting of the torn flesh helped him think about things, helped him not think about finding the punks responsible for Terry’s condition and how much pain he would cause them when he found them.
He was bumped out of his musing quite abruptly when some kid who was at the bar knocked into him quite heavily. He had to grab onto the bar for balance so that he wouldn’t fall of his stool, glaring up at the kid he just righted himself and want back to staring into his coffee and letting the warmth of the mug penetrate his hands.
“Think you’ve had enough.” The barman said to the kid as he refused him service.
“I’m fine.” The kid slurred as he wavered at the bar for a second before slamming his hands down on the bar surface. “Two more beers for us.”
“You’ve had enough, come back tomorrow when you’ve slept it off.” The barman reiterated, his voice wavering as if he wasn’t sure of what he was saying.
“You going to serve us or shall we take it ourselves.” The kids friend came up behind up and slurred out.
“You’ve both had enough; the barman said no, so leave.” Kyle bit out, not even looking up at the two kids who were leaning menacingly over the bar.
“Hah!” The second kid laughed out as he stumbled around his friend and moved to stand by Kyle. “And who are you? Some sort of cop or something?”
“Something like that.” Kyle said, turning to face the kid and slipping the ring off his finger to put it in his pocket.
“You going to make us leave then?” The first kid slurred out as he moved across to back his buddy up.
“Yeah!” The other kid said, trying to sound menacing as he bounced up and down a bit behind his friend.
“You don’t want to do this, just leave.” Kyle said, turning back to his coffee when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“I think you’re going to have to make us.” The first kid said as he tried to squeeze Kyle’s shoulder menacingly.
Reaching up with one hand he grabbed the offending hand off his shoulder and squeezed the fingers together as hand as he could, smiling darkly when he heard the kid almost whimper in pain as his fingers started squirming in his grip as they tried to get free.
“Leave.” Kyle spat out a second time as he stood up, towering over the two kids by at least a foot as he released his grip on the kids hand and pushed his back to him, causing him to stumble back into one of the pillars of the bar.
“Come on; don’t want to end up like Danny.” The other kid slurred out, picking his friend up under the shoulders and moving towards the door.
“Daniel Hirsh?” Kyle bit the name out, standing up to his full height and stepping between the two kids and the door.
“Yeah, heard he got nabbed by the cops because he put some faggot kid in hospital,” The kid continued, oblivious to the shadow that had fallen over Kyle’s face as his jaw muscled clenched and both hands squeezed into fists. “Fucking faggot deserved it, prancing around with their fucking faggot boyfriend, deserved everything he got.” The kid continued to spit at Kyle as he tried o hold his friend upright.
“You know Daniel Hirsh?” Kyle bit out, moving forwards to get right in the kids face, ignoring the look of panic on the bartenders face as he backed away from whatever was about to kick off.
“Yeah, went to see him in prison today, they let us see him in Rikers because we were friends, though they were keeping at the fucking media out of it. Should have given him a medal for getting that fucking filth off the streets...” The kid never got a chance to finish his thoughts as Kyle’s fist soared through the air and connected with the kids jaw, sending both him and his friend sprawling to the floor.
“You know who else was there when they put that kid in hospital?” Kyle shouted out, moving forward and stepping on the kid’s hand, crushing it into the floor.
“Fuck you man, you some sort of faggot fan or something!” The kid shouted before screaming out in pain as Kyle ground his boot down on the hand.
“Who else?” Kyle shouted a second time, turning to pin the other kid to the floor with a glare that would have made Batman proud.
“I don’t know, I swear!” The kids bravado had all gone now, now that he could feel the bones in his hand starting to give as Kyle pressed down on them with all his weight. “Arggh! I don’t fucking know, I swear to you man, I don’t fucking know!” The kid screamed out, trying with all his might to shift the larger man off his hand.
“Get out of here before I finish what I started, and if you see these kids that you don’t know, you tell them I’m coming for them.” Kyle shouted as he lifted his boot off the kids hand and watched them scramble for the door, tripping up the steps as they ran through.
“Sorry ‘bout that.” Kyle said to the barman who was staring at him, eyes wide open in fear. “I’d better go.”
“Hey, you know that kid? Terry?” The Barman asked as he watched Kyle drain his coffee and start towards the door.
“Yeah, he’s a good friend of mine.” Kyle answered pausing at the door.
“Tell him so get better soon alright? We all heard what happened, if I’d known those punks were like that I never would have served them in the first place.” The Barman announce, causing a small smile to spread over Kyle’s face for the first time that night.
“I’ll tell him.” Kyle said as he walked out the door and stopped on the street, letting the rain blast through his hair again as the warm coffee filled his stomach. “Rikers huh?” He muttered into the wind as he thought about the man in prison, in the soft warm bed as Terry lie in a coma with broken arms while they operated on his eye.
Ignoring the car that drove by, or the people on the opposite side of the street he slipped the ring back onto his finger and flashed into his uniform. The people on the street stopped for a second before carrying on, this was New York, they’d seen weirder things.
Letting the warmth of the uniform shield him from the rain he took off in a blaze of emerald energy, his shield that was normally smooth and body forming now clung to his form and burned with emerald flames as he flew through the night towards Rikers Island. The ring crackled with energy as he felt himself getting closer and closer to his target, he let out a scream of raw fury as he thought about everything he could do to this kid before dawn.
He’d get his answers, one way or another he’d get his answers.
He let the shield fall away as he slipped into the prison unnoticed by guards, now wasn’t the time for flashy green constructs, now was the time for answers.
2,606 Words
Emerald Fury
Kyle listened into the conversation, the hate bubbling up inside of him as he clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white.
“We may find the other two guys, the odds are they’ll probably skip town tonight.”
He lashed out, pushing the nearest wall with all his strength, ignoring the shocked look on the nurse’s faces as they looked at him. They just assumed that it was him letting off steam; they knew why he was here. He was a friend of Terrance Bergs; he was allowed to be pissed off about what had happened.
“I think we’re gonna lose them if this guy doesn’t flip and give them up.” The conversation between the two cops continued and the anger continued to build inside Kyle. His forearm was shaking now from the rage, he was clenching his fist so hard, wanting to lash out and hit something, someone as hard as he could.
He wanted to visit the pain that Terry had endured on every single hate filled homophobe out there, he wanted to find the people that had done this and burn their houses o the ground. He wouldn’t even use the ring; he would be quite content to beat them to a pulp with his own fists. See how they liked the helpless feeling as he reigned down blow after blow on them.
Would they cry out for mercy like Terry did? Would they beg and plead to be let go, just as he could imagine Terry doing as the three men kicked him to the ground and stomped on his chest, breaking his ribs and sending blood flying up the walls of the alleyway.
He stormed out of the hospital, ignoring the shocked look on the faces of the nurses as he kicked the swinging doors open with all his might, he ignored the shout of the policemen and security guard behind him as he stormed off into the car park and strode through it purposefully.
The cool night and the light rain soaked his clothes, making them cling to his skin as he walked down the streets to where Terry had been ambushed.
He could use the ring of course, he could use it to fly and be there in seconds, but he didn’t want to fly tonight. Tonight he felt as heavy as lead, his mind was focused on the people who had done this, the people who had crushed a young man’s future and put him into a coma. The people who had nearly killed someone just because he had a different lifestyle to them, the people he was going to find and visit every second of pain Terry had endured on them and more.
His fists were still clenched as he found himself looking down the alleyway, the rain was soaking him and dripping down his arm and falling between his fingers. The ring which he normally wore so proudly was biting into his other fingers because of the pressure his fist was placing on them.
He looked up, the street lamp on the corner flickered with life causing the alleyway to look dark and foreboding. Terry probably ducked in her, thinking he could hide from the men that were chasing him, thinking if he hid they would leave him alone.
‘Why should he hide?’ Kyle thought to himself as he reached up and pushed the wet hair out of his face. Why should anyone have to hide who they are?
The streetlight suddenly stopped flickering and the alleyway fell into complete darkness as he reached up and tore the yellow police cordon tape in front of him. Letting it fall to the floor and he stepped on it and walked into the alley.
He could smell the blood in the air; it was all over the walls of the alleyway. Pools of it were on the floor, being diluted by the rain and washing away down a manhole in the middle.
Concentrating for a brief second the alley became illuminated by torchlight, emerald bracers stood, affixed to the wall where old fashioned flame torches burned with their sickly green light, casting a foreboding emerald light on the alley as he looked around.
Electric light would have been better, but he didn’t want to see it, not properly. He didn’t want to see his friend’s blood splattered up the wall, he didn’t want to see the marks where the three men had grabbed Terry’s face and smashed it into the metal trash container. He could see enough by torchlight, he could see too much, this was all too much.
Screaming he kicked at the metal dumpster, smashing his foot into it and sending it skidding along the alleyway with a screech of metal. He punched at the alleyway walls, he punched again and again, screaming as he did and tearing the skin on his knuckles until they bled.
Letting his arms fall to his sides he just stared at the wall for a second, staring where his blood mixed with the water and dripped down the wall, mixing with Terry’s blood on the way. Hanging his head he let the rain push his hair down across his face as he reached up and rubbed his face, thinking about what Terry had gone through in this alleyway.
He felt the stubble on his face where he hadn’t shaved before they had gone to the hospital and he felt the baggy skin under his eyes where he hadn’t slept for two days.
This wasn’t right, this shouldn’t have happened.
Storming out of the alleyway and turning the corner started running down the street, feeling the wind and rain whip around him and sting his face. The rain started to get harder and it soaked his clothes making them heavy as they hung on his frame. His black shirt stuck to his skin as he ran, the undone collar le the cold rain onto his chest and drip down to his stomach.
He suppressed a shudder as he ducked into the entranceway to a bar; pulling his hand down his face he stretched the skin, enjoying the burning feeling just for a second as his hand dragged over his stubble. He could hear the sound of rock music from inside the bar; glancing at the door he noticed the name, The Exchange.
Pushing open the bar he was met by the smell of smoke and beer, the rock music blared out of the speakers even though there were only a few customers, and those were only kids, a little older than Terry, old enough to drink but still kids.
“Hey, you alright?” The barman shouted as he made his way to the bar and propped himself up on a stool.
“You serve coffee?” Kyle asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.
“Sure, you sure you don’t want anything stronger though? Looks like you could do with it.” The barman said as he fetched out a mug and moved to the coffee machine at the end of the bar.
“Just coffee.” Kyle grunted out as he looked around, the ambiance was just what he needed, dark with hard rock music playing that would keep his anger fuelled.
The barman just went about his business of making the coffee, his long hair pulled back in a ponytail and a ‘Kiss’ T-shirt hung on his skinny frame. Moving back to where Kyle was sat he placed the mug of steaming coffee on the bar along with a clean bar towel, “Thought you could use it.” The barman smiled. “One fifty.”
Kyle just handed over the change before wiping his face with the offered town and running his fingers through his now drenched hair, grimacing for a second as some hair got caught in his ring before he roughly pulled it free.
He just sat there for a moment, thinking about what Terry had been through. He glanced at his knuckles and saw the torn skin, they weren’t bleeding anymore but the pain helped a bit, helped him take his mind off the anger he was feeling. It was barely a fraction of the amount of pain Terry had gone through, but he felt it helped him somehow. It helped him concentrate; the burning sting of the torn flesh helped him think about things, helped him not think about finding the punks responsible for Terry’s condition and how much pain he would cause them when he found them.
He was bumped out of his musing quite abruptly when some kid who was at the bar knocked into him quite heavily. He had to grab onto the bar for balance so that he wouldn’t fall of his stool, glaring up at the kid he just righted himself and want back to staring into his coffee and letting the warmth of the mug penetrate his hands.
“Think you’ve had enough.” The barman said to the kid as he refused him service.
“I’m fine.” The kid slurred as he wavered at the bar for a second before slamming his hands down on the bar surface. “Two more beers for us.”
“You’ve had enough, come back tomorrow when you’ve slept it off.” The barman reiterated, his voice wavering as if he wasn’t sure of what he was saying.
“You going to serve us or shall we take it ourselves.” The kids friend came up behind up and slurred out.
“You’ve both had enough; the barman said no, so leave.” Kyle bit out, not even looking up at the two kids who were leaning menacingly over the bar.
“Hah!” The second kid laughed out as he stumbled around his friend and moved to stand by Kyle. “And who are you? Some sort of cop or something?”
“Something like that.” Kyle said, turning to face the kid and slipping the ring off his finger to put it in his pocket.
“You going to make us leave then?” The first kid slurred out as he moved across to back his buddy up.
“Yeah!” The other kid said, trying to sound menacing as he bounced up and down a bit behind his friend.
“You don’t want to do this, just leave.” Kyle said, turning back to his coffee when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“I think you’re going to have to make us.” The first kid said as he tried to squeeze Kyle’s shoulder menacingly.
Reaching up with one hand he grabbed the offending hand off his shoulder and squeezed the fingers together as hand as he could, smiling darkly when he heard the kid almost whimper in pain as his fingers started squirming in his grip as they tried to get free.
“Leave.” Kyle spat out a second time as he stood up, towering over the two kids by at least a foot as he released his grip on the kids hand and pushed his back to him, causing him to stumble back into one of the pillars of the bar.
“Come on; don’t want to end up like Danny.” The other kid slurred out, picking his friend up under the shoulders and moving towards the door.
“Daniel Hirsh?” Kyle bit the name out, standing up to his full height and stepping between the two kids and the door.
“Yeah, heard he got nabbed by the cops because he put some faggot kid in hospital,” The kid continued, oblivious to the shadow that had fallen over Kyle’s face as his jaw muscled clenched and both hands squeezed into fists. “Fucking faggot deserved it, prancing around with their fucking faggot boyfriend, deserved everything he got.” The kid continued to spit at Kyle as he tried o hold his friend upright.
“You know Daniel Hirsh?” Kyle bit out, moving forwards to get right in the kids face, ignoring the look of panic on the bartenders face as he backed away from whatever was about to kick off.
“Yeah, went to see him in prison today, they let us see him in Rikers because we were friends, though they were keeping at the fucking media out of it. Should have given him a medal for getting that fucking filth off the streets...” The kid never got a chance to finish his thoughts as Kyle’s fist soared through the air and connected with the kids jaw, sending both him and his friend sprawling to the floor.
“You know who else was there when they put that kid in hospital?” Kyle shouted out, moving forward and stepping on the kid’s hand, crushing it into the floor.
“Fuck you man, you some sort of faggot fan or something!” The kid shouted before screaming out in pain as Kyle ground his boot down on the hand.
“Who else?” Kyle shouted a second time, turning to pin the other kid to the floor with a glare that would have made Batman proud.
“I don’t know, I swear!” The kids bravado had all gone now, now that he could feel the bones in his hand starting to give as Kyle pressed down on them with all his weight. “Arggh! I don’t fucking know, I swear to you man, I don’t fucking know!” The kid screamed out, trying with all his might to shift the larger man off his hand.
“Get out of here before I finish what I started, and if you see these kids that you don’t know, you tell them I’m coming for them.” Kyle shouted as he lifted his boot off the kids hand and watched them scramble for the door, tripping up the steps as they ran through.
“Sorry ‘bout that.” Kyle said to the barman who was staring at him, eyes wide open in fear. “I’d better go.”
“Hey, you know that kid? Terry?” The Barman asked as he watched Kyle drain his coffee and start towards the door.
“Yeah, he’s a good friend of mine.” Kyle answered pausing at the door.
“Tell him so get better soon alright? We all heard what happened, if I’d known those punks were like that I never would have served them in the first place.” The Barman announce, causing a small smile to spread over Kyle’s face for the first time that night.
“I’ll tell him.” Kyle said as he walked out the door and stopped on the street, letting the rain blast through his hair again as the warm coffee filled his stomach. “Rikers huh?” He muttered into the wind as he thought about the man in prison, in the soft warm bed as Terry lie in a coma with broken arms while they operated on his eye.
Ignoring the car that drove by, or the people on the opposite side of the street he slipped the ring back onto his finger and flashed into his uniform. The people on the street stopped for a second before carrying on, this was New York, they’d seen weirder things.
Letting the warmth of the uniform shield him from the rain he took off in a blaze of emerald energy, his shield that was normally smooth and body forming now clung to his form and burned with emerald flames as he flew through the night towards Rikers Island. The ring crackled with energy as he felt himself getting closer and closer to his target, he let out a scream of raw fury as he thought about everything he could do to this kid before dawn.
He’d get his answers, one way or another he’d get his answers.
He let the shield fall away as he slipped into the prison unnoticed by guards, now wasn’t the time for flashy green constructs, now was the time for answers.
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