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*****
In an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Coast City.
Dr. Hammond, whose entire body had become hideously deformed due to the corrupting influence of fear energy, sat in his wheelchair. He stared at the unconscious Carol before him, his face twisted into an expression of obsessive infatuation.
"You are truly beautiful. From the first moment I saw you, I fell in love with you.
"But you... you never once looked my way. You always looked down on me.
"Since that is how it is, I will simply turn you into something just like me."
He pulled out a syringe and plunged it into his own flesh, drawing out a tube filled with glowing, yellow fear energy. Using his telekinetic will, he caused the needle to hover menacingly over Carol's neck.
"I cannot wait to see you become like me, to finally be one with me.
"But, I must wait just a little longer. I want your precious Hal to come and see. I want him to see what you've become, to see if he still loves you when you look like this.
"I will make you realize that I am the only one who truly loves you..."
Dr. Hammond did not inject the fear energy immediately. Instead, he kept it suspended against her skin, muttering incessantly to himself. A perverted smile spread across his face as he imagined the look of pure despair on Hal's face when he arrived.
"Oh? You've arrived much faster than I anticipated!"
As he spoke, he suddenly sensed a presence. He spun his wheelchair around just in time to see Hal and George teleport into the factory.
"Carol!"
Seeing Carol floating helplessly in the air, Hal instinctively lunged forward, but Hammond's shrill voice immediately stopped him in his tracks.
"Look at her neck! You'd better not move a muscle, or she becomes just like me instantly!"
"No! Wait! Calm down, Hammond. Just stay calm," Hal pleaded, his eyes locked on the syringe filled with volatile yellow energy. "I know how you feel. I can understand you."
Hearing Hal's words, Hammond didn't calm down; instead, his rage flared. His voice became high-pitched and hysterical.
"Understand me? Look at yourself, then look at me!"
Hal was handsome, fit, a daring test pilot for an aerospace giant, and never lacked for female companionship.
Then there was Hammond. Though he had been brilliant since childhood, always at the top of his class, he was physically unattractive and short. Even his own father despised him, feeling that his son's appearance was a blemish on the family name.
He had never known the affection of a woman.
How could Hal possibly understand?
"Alright, let's stop wasting time with this small-fry. Our real target is the Parallax entity behind him."
George, watching Hammond's rambling descent into madness, spoke up and cut him off directly.
Many people turned to villainy because they had been hurt in the past; as the saying goes, "Every hateful person has a pathetic story."
However, to George, that was no excuse to turn around and punish the world.
In George's philosophy, if someone hurts you, you hurt them back. Repay kindness with kindness and vengeance with vengeance. Even if such actions skirted the law, George could respect that kind of resolve and might even offer a helping hand if he was in a good mood.
But he utterly loathed those who projected their own trauma onto innocent bystanders.
"A talking cat? Hal, what kind of cheap trick are you playing now?"
Hammond was startled by George's sudden voice, but he quickly rationalized it as a construct of the Green Lantern ring—a distraction meant to divert his attention.
Refusing to engage further, he used his mental powers to drive the syringe toward Carol's throat.
Yet, in the next heartbeat, he found that Carol had vanished. The syringe stabbed through empty air.
"Take care of your girlfriend."
On the other side of the room, George had already placed Carol gently into Hal's arms.
In the split second Hammond had moved to strike, George had moved at the speed of light to rescue her.
"How... how is this possible? Unless you are..."
Seeing George save Carol so effortlessly, Hammond finally realized that this cat was no mere construct or illusion. Recalling certain news reports he had glimpsed on television, he finally deduced George's true identity.
"You guessed right, but there's no prize for that. Only punishment."
Leaving Carol with Hal, George turned his gaze toward Hammond. A powerful surge of telekinetic force erupted, lifting Hammond bodily into the air.
Hammond tried to retaliate with his own mental energy, but he quickly discovered that compared to George's power, his own was like an ant trying to move a mountain.
"Seal!"
As George executed a remote sealing technique, the fear energy within Hammond was violently purged and locked away. Without that borrowed power, Hammond instantly reverted to a frail, weak doctor.
"No! My power!"
"Parallax is already here. I'll leave these two to you; I'm going to go handle the big one."
After sealing the corruption within Hammond, George suddenly looked up toward the sky. A massive, suffocating shadow had already begun to drape itself over the entirety of Coast City.
"I'm coming with you."
Seeing George fly up to meet the monster, Hal finally conquered the lingering shards of fear in his heart. He used his Green Lantern energy to construct restraints for Hammond, then briefly woke Carol to tell her to call the police before quickly taking flight to follow George.
"What a useless tool. It seems I must devour the fear of this planet myself!"
Sensing that his host Hammond had been neutralized, Parallax cursed under its breath. It prepared to expand its form to cover the city, intending to feast upon the terror of the millions below to bolster its strength.
Down in the streets, the citizens of Coast City looked up at the nightmare descending from the heavens and began to flee in a blind panic.
Just as the city was about to be swallowed by the darkness, a voice suddenly resonated across the sky, amplified and clear.
"I am Super Cat of the Justice League. Parallax, leave Earth immediately, or I shall arrest you for the crime of planetary assault!"
It was George. He decided to use this moment to advertise the Justice League, knowing it would make recruiting future heroes much easier.
"It's Super Cat!"
Hearing the voice and seeing the black cat silhouetted against the sky, the citizens stopped running. Their fear began to evaporate, replaced by curiosity as they pulled out their phones to record the spectacle.
Sensing the sudden drop in the "flavor" of fear energy, Parallax was enraged. It manifested a gargantuan, terrifying face within its smoky form and unleashed a massive beam of yellow fear energy directly at George.
"Be gone, you insect from a primitive world!"
In this universe, Parallax believed the only threat was the Green Lantern Corps, who wielded energy of a similar caliber. But he had already slaughtered many of their elite, instilling a deep-seated dread within the Corps itself.
As far as he was concerned, he was invincible. A lowly lifeform from a backwater planet trying to challenge him was simply seeking death.
"Tenbu Horin! (Treasures of the Heavens!)"
Facing the onslaught of Parallax, George's Cosmo erupted. He unleashed the ultimate technique of Shaka.
A perfect world governed by absolute truth manifested, forming a massive battlefield that trapped Parallax within its boundaries. Inside this sacred space, all forms of attack were rendered futile.
The colossal beam of fear energy, meant to level the city, simply dissolved into nothingness.
(End of Chapter)