Mount Justice

November 11, 16:05 EDT

Thunder rumbled outside. Snow fell onto Mount Justice but it didn't stop the speedster from entering, his fuzzy coat up to his neck. The computer announced his arrival, "Recognized: Kid Flash, B03. Zeta-Tube network now offline due to extreme atmospheric conditions."

"Woah," Wally exclaimed by the weather. "I just made it."

Wally walked into the kitchen, finding it empty before going further into the living room. The lights were off but he could just barely make out the shapes of a table—even a cake!

"Be a tragedy if I missed my own—"

"Surprise!" Wally was interrupted by the Team jumping up from hiding spaces, the lights coming back on. Even Wally's own mentor was there with his arms crossed over his chest and an amused smirk resting on his face.

"Wh-at!" Wally exclaimed in false surprise. "You guys, you shouldn't have," the speedster said in a slightly higher pitched manner than normal and put a hand on his chest.

"Right, not like you've been hinting for days or anything," Robin said sarcastically.

Wally's emerald-colored eyes scanned the surrounding people. In his head, he counted them off like tick marks on a chalkboard. Robin, Kaldur, M'gann, Connor, Artemis, Zatanna, and Barry AKA the Flash, but no—

"Where's Cyra?" Wally demanded, maybe a little too powerfully.

"The Green Lanterns had to go off-world," Barry explained, gently on the subject as he was trying to hold back a wolfish grin. "They had a GL Corps meeting. They should be back in a day or so."

"A day?!" Wally barked. "Cyra's going to miss my birthday!"

At all the smirking looks he was receiving, Wally's cheeks grew roses as he tried to cover up his misstep, "And miss the party! Now I won't get a present from her!"

"Sure, that's the only reason," Robin smirked.

"It is!" Wally defended, his face growing hotter by the moment. "And—and she'll miss the cake and she really likes cake," he struggled weakly.

Artemis shook her head pitifully. "Whipped."

"I will kill all of you if you don't drop this right now," Wally glared.

Barry put a comforting hand on Wally's shoulder, squeezing it once. "Let's move on from the murder for now. You have a buffet to eat."

The green Martian pushed Wally over to the table off food, which he fell onto his knees in awe once his eyes landed upon the row of sweets. His small frown has since faded into an open mouth.

"Beautiful," he wiped away a fake tear. "Cyra could have loved it if she was here with us today."

"She's not dead, you idiot," Artemis snorted.

Space

November 11, 16: 05 EDT

"I'm going to die!" Cyra screamed. Her excitement soared in her chest as her, beside her Green Lantern mentor, Hal Jordan, as the green emanating from her skin seemed to light up a wide portion of the dark abyss of space around them. The green around this mouths was thick, allowing them to breathe.

As they neared Oa, the brightness on her ring got brighter and began to make her hand tingle.

"Okay, so Oa is—"

"Green Lantern headquarters got it."

"And the elders are—"

"Guardians of the Universe—big kahunas, gotcha."

"Here you'll be—"

"Being evaluated by the Guardians to make sure I'm not a failure."

"Stop interrupting me!" Hal snapped.

"I know all of this!" Cyra exclaimed. "I'm been waiting months for this! Surprise, surprise, I listen—every once in a while."

Hal snorted.

A small green dot neared ahead of them, growing big with every mile they covered. Their glow could probably be seen from Earth—mistaken as dull stars, eventually to disappear from Earth's perspective entirely as the planet of Oa came into focus in front of them.

The planet itself glowed as their suits. They slowly ascended into the atmosphere, being able to remove the extra film from their mouths. Cyra's amber eyes were glossy in wonder as she stared at the immense city before her.

Large UFO shaped skyscrapers were built next to the gray streets. Other buildings started wide at the base and built up to floors that were as skinny as a needle. The buildings were truly a light blue or purple color, some of the more important buildings made from gold, but the strong green light from the center of Oa that lit the whole city washed it out.

"The Battery," Hal explained, following his protégée's stare. "It's the greatest Green Lantern power. It's what drew us here—to the center of the Universe."

"Hal!" Cyra whispered harshly as she grabbed and shook the older Lantern's arm. "This place is amazing! You should have brought me sooner."

"The Guardians make the rules, kid, not me, but if I was in charge, I would have, you know that."

Men and women of a thousand different species walked the streets. Some with an extra arm or leg, several more eyes than Cyra deemed necessary, and some merely just blobs that slugged along, leaving a trail a goo in their wake and their Green Lantern ring floating somewhere inside of her mass. Cyra even saw something that looked like a big dog with floppy rabbit ears hop by.

"I never knew there were so many Lanterns!" Cyra exclaimed.

"The Universe is a big place," Hal nodded with a sly grin on his face.

Cyra had never been to Oa. Most Green Lanterns go to the Lantern planet for their training once getting their ring, but after Hal had to practically beg to give Cyra the chance for a ring, he then convinced him the best way for her to train, being so young and all, was under his leadership on Earth through an internship of sorts. Cyra didn't know why, as the Guardians seemed like strict gym teachers, and she wasn't sure Hal did either, but they eventually agreed to his negotiation.

"Come on," Hal instructed Cyra to follow him in the direction of a large golden building built around the Battery. It was constructed in a square and had many small windows, causing Cyra to believe that it was at least three stories tall on the inside, but quite long. They quickly walked inside, passing a man with a head shaped like a bowling pin, another girl with hair that swept the floor and light pink skin, and conjoined twin bears, who roared at them as they walked past, but it sounded more like a mouse squeak than anything else.

"This is where the Guardians do their Guardian-thing. It's mostly just offices to keep the paperwork and all the Green Lantern's straight." Hal pressed a button on an elevator like contraption. The door slid open and the pair got in, starting to descend. There was a creature in there who seemed to be pregnant with for different babies on either side of it. It gurgled at them, and, thankfully, got off on the next floor.

"But this—" Hal motioned as the doors opened, "—is where the real cosmic magic happens."

If Cyra's mouth had fallen open before in awe, this time her jaw must have completely disconnected on the rest of her face and was currently resting on the floor from the levels of astonishment she had just rocked through.

The walls were round and decorated with engravings of famous Green Lantern battles throughout the Universe of Time and the three billion years the Corps have lived through—every death and rebirth were written on these walls. Cyra had no doubt that Hal or John was drawn somewhere—and maybe one day if she was lucky—she would be too.

In the middle of the room, the underside of the big Battery above could be seen with the Green Lantern insignia on the bottom. Cyra's ring relaxed slightly at her finger—feeling at home near the source of the power. Instead of being blonde, her hair was bleached by the low glow and caused her amber eyes to look more grayish.

Her heart danced in her chest as she had to resist the urge to take a running jump and tap her heels together.

Stronger looking Lantern's stood around, talking to each other in tight-knit groups and their arms crossed over their chests with serious expressions stamped on their faces. Cyra spotted familiar Lanterns like John Stewart, who gave her a curt nod, Jessica Cruz, with her half-pulled smirk, and Guy Gardner, and when he caught sight of her he left the group of amphibian creatures he was laughing with.

"Oh no," Hal muttered but his protégée was grinning.

"Hal!" Guy clasped his hand into Hal's and patted his back all American-football-huddle-style like some real dudebros. Hal's face flashed with annoyance as he pulled his hand away from the buzz-cut ginger's.

"Hey, Guy," he said dryly.

"Cyra," Guy hooted deeply and their hands met in a low-five. "It's about time to finally see you with the big dogs."

"Woof woof!" Cyra barked, and they laughed afterward.

"Yeah, yeah," Hal chuckled along sarcastically as he put a hand on Cyra's shoulders. "She's not with the 'big dogs' just yet. The Guardians still have to test her."

Guy whistled. "Tough luck."

Cyra's eyes narrowed. "Tough luck?" she questioned.

"There has never been trials before. Everyone was just chosen and went through training. You'll be a first and I heard the Guardians didn't like having to make a new ring. They are going to go hard on you. I'll be surprised if you get out with all your limbs en—"

"I think that's enough of that," Hal interrupted, steering Cyra away from Guy. "We have to go and see the Guardians."

"The Guardians are busy right now. There's a meeting going on about some weird dark matter war going off in sector 3008 with some other Lanterns. They should be ready in an hour or so," Guy called out.

"Oh that's just great," Hal growled to himself.

"Let the girl go have some fun, Hal," Jessica Cruz said. Her mask was on and covering half of her Latino-tanned face. "She can go explore the planet for the bit and we can catch up."

Hal opened his mouth and Cyra knew he was about to say no but stopped when Jessica flipped her dark hair over her shoulder expertly. Instantly, Hal got this glassy look in his eyes.

Cyra smirked. "Dog," she whispered to Hal and he scowled at her.

"On second thought, go, leave me alone. Just be back in an hour and don't break anything."

Cyra gave him two finger guns and grinned lazily. "It's better to not make promises then break them."

"Cyra—!"

"Come on, Hal, come talk to John," Jessica led him away, throwing a wink over her shoulder at Cyra, who mouthed a 'thank you' before turning on her heels and walking down the expanse of the hallway.

Guy fell into step next to her, shortening his long strides to keep up with her much short legs. "So, you excited. If all goes well, you might walk away with the official title of Green Lantern."

"Excited? I think I'm going to combust," Cyra said, overdramatically but couldn't keep up the facade for long and broke into a smile almost as bright as the Battery. "I'm going to go back a full-fledged hero and the others on the Team will still just be protégés."

"I heard about the Team. All the sidekicks go on covert ops, right?"

"We don't like to be called, 'sidekicks'," Cyra stated.

"Sorry. Mini-heroes. But covert ops?" Guy asked, trying—and failing—to play it cool.

Cyra just mimicked the motion of zipping her mouth shut.

Guy groaned. "Not fair! I want to hear about all the interesting stuff going on at Earth."

That little pleading was all it took for Cyra to tell Guy about the Team, their missions, and basically everything. She liked to brag how she saved a crumbling building, lost her ear to the Puppeteer, fought the Injustice League, outsmart the Brain, takes down a Manhunter with a shark, and most recently, a large sabertooth cat.

Guy gave her kudos on her ear before re-telling his own stories from over his adventures in space. The Corps have been keeping him around as a backup of sorts, sends him where he is needed before he reports back here and then goes onto the next mission. For now, he didn't stick with a particular section, instead of getting to explore the whole huge galaxy, which caused for some interesting stories.

He talked about how he went to a planet where the cows could speak telepathically and had a cow queen similar to bees in a beehive and the cows were fighting above who wanted to marry the queen, threatening to throw the planet into war. Another time three enemy space crafts were waging war next to a planet of innocent Malkerks—humanoid creatures with a large head, soft skulls, and dumb brains, about to crush the planet until Guy stopped the feud. One of Cyra's favorite stories was when Guy met up with an intergalactic bounty hunter and they went on a wild goose chase after a supposed super-intelligent dolphin with plans of galactic domination.

Cyra was near tears, clutching her stomach as their laughter filled the compound. "I can't wait till I can have big adventures like that."

"Yeah, maybe one day you'll get to my level. At first, the Guardians would probably put you on a small planet, maybe a few bad guys and battles here in there, to test you out before giving you a big job."

A bullet ricocheted in Cyra's chest.

"But knowing you, you'll move up ranks fast."

Cyra forced a grin and, eventually, it became natural and relaxed. Some sharp-teeth reptilian Lanterns called Guy over, who pulled along Cyra. Cyra talked with them for a while as Guy talked like an excited puppy dog, punching the other's shoulders well naturally like a jock in a locker room. Soon after, Cyra managed to sneak away from them and explored the building on her own.

Hal was right, it was mostly offices with different aliens all in some version of the Green Lantern suit—except one occasion where it was merely a stash across naked feathers—as they chattered and told stories, as that seemed to be the only type of work going on around here. Cyra loved it.

Cyra found a large door made out of a hard dark purple stone that could not be found on Earth. It was engraved with more pictures of what looked like books and little stick figures bowing down to them. Cyra didn't bother knocking as she pushed the heavy door open. It made a scraping sound before swinging open the rest of the way.

A pink creature with two beady black eyes and a diamond-shaped head was waiting just as the door opened. His Green Lantern suit was more like armor, coming out sharp at the shoulders. Cyra took a jump back in surprise.

The creature's eyes moved back and forth, scanning her. "Human," it decided. "English."

"Uh, hello, I'm Cyra—GL in training," Cyra offered.

Pinky only snorted and turned, stalking back into the room. He muttered something in another language and Cyra doubted it was flattering.

Cyra frowned but shook off the odd alien as she stepped deeper into the room.

Long, fancy dark shelves covered the walls, wrapping around the whole room and splitting down into columns. They were filled to the brim with books of all different colors, sizes, and textures. Some looked as big as a car and others shook on the shelves, vibrating at weird intervals. Another was made out of what looked to be dragon skin and another one was lined with dangerously sharp spikes.

"You like books?" the creature asked from behind a counter like a book checkout at a library.

"Not really," Cyra shrugged.

The alien growled out of disdain. "Lanterns these days, no respect for their histories. They just want to know how to make guns and tanks." He put his hands on his hips. "Are you one of those Lanterns who just want to make weapons."

"Weapons are nice."

Pinky raised a book as if he was about to beat her over the head with it before letting out a shaky breath and putting it back down. "Deep breaths," he murmured to himself. "Deep breaths."

"Look who just got through their first week of anger management," Cyra smirked.

"Get out!" Pinky roared and pointed to the door.

"Sorry, alright? So, about all these books," Cyra said as she examined a dark red book on one of the shelves closely "What's in them?"

"Why don't you read them and find out?" Pinky's husky voice found it hard to understand when he was being sarcastic, but Cyra was skilled enough in that field to understand.

"What about this one," she pointed to the red and pale book she was examining. It looked wet.

"That one talks about a Green Lantern from Sector 6783 in 38 B.C. on Tamaran. It's made of out of the Lantern's own skin."

"Ew," Cyra shriveled up her nose in disgust as she pulled her finger away quickly. "There are books for every Lantern here."

"Yes, at least the ones who bother to come to talk to me about it. Every battle and war—no matter how minor—every Lantern—is somewhere among these shelves," Pinky said with pride. "I am the Keeper of the Books. They are the Lantern's most sacred possessions."

"I thought the Battery or the Rings were the Corps' most sacred possessions?" Cyra asked naively.

A hot breath of air went through the slit on Pinky's head, what Cyra assumed his nose was. "Sure, yeah, if all you care about it making stuff! What about research? I swear, this Corps is all going to fall down once I'm gone. Then who will take care of the books?"

"I think the books can take care of themselves. Do they need to be watered?"

"Get out! Get out!"

Pinky picked up a broomstick-like thing but when it touched his hands, it burst alive with spinning spikes. He advanced on her. Cyra yelped and backtracked out the door, which Pinky shut quite loudly behind her, causing a resonate boom.

"There goes all the money you put into your therapist!" Cyra yelled and kicked the bottom of the door.

"So, I see you met Salaak," Hal said from behind her. Cyra turned around to face her mentor. He tilted his head. "You like him?"

"He tried to kill me."

"Your not much of a book lover, so I'm not surprised." Hal nodded over his shoulder. "No time to get him to tolerate you now. The Guardians are ready to see you."

A circle of the six Guardians of the Universe—some of the most powerful beings in the world and the people who would determine whether Cyra got to keep her ring and become a full-fledged Green Lantern—or the very people who could rip it all away from her stood a few feet in front of her, raised higher up on pedestal seats.

Cyra felt her stomach flip and hoped she didn't puke.

The Guardians were short, blue humanoid creatures with tufts of white hair sticking from their large, round skulls. Their eyes were beady and black—and focused directly on Cyra, making her confident grin turn sheepish as her gut was being savaged by a hive of bees.

"State your name and sector."

Their voices didn't sound like a boom of thunder as Cyra expected. They talked normally at a level voice—which by no means didn't scream authority—but also had the hintings of a slight New Jersey accent that made Cyra tilt her head ever-so-slightly to the side.

"Uh—Cyra Brion, Sector 2814."

"Uh? Are you not sure?" The alien in the middle—the only one who had spoken so far raised a fluffy white eyebrow.

"My name is Cyra Brion from Sector 2814," Cyra said, straightening her back. She could see Hal grin from the corner of her eyes.

Hal stood at one of the corners of the large circular roof, which roof spans up higher than Cyra believed the ground to be. This room was made out of a pale green limestone color, the Guardians' pedestals made out of solid gray stone