18th February

13:00 GMT

Beryl catches the newly relaunched Dairy Milk with Biscuit as she walks across the battlements of Sheldrake Castle, smiling as she realises what it is. "How was the moon?"

"Grey, dusty, in orbit around the Earth. Usual moon stuff."

"You know it's technically a dwarf planet."

"The barycentre is under the Earth's surface. If it wants to be its own planet then it's free to leave. Ready?"

"Yes, let's get this-"

I attach a filament to her head and transition-

18th February

07:00 GMT -6

-us to the St Roche zeta tube. While I could have gone right to Mount Justice -it's not like our principal enemies don't know exactly what we use it for- I feel that a minimal effort to keep random tourists from visiting all the time is worthwhile.

"-show on the road."

She steps lightly into the zeta tube-

"Recognized, Squire, B One Five."

-and I follow her through.

18th February

08:01 GMT -5

"Recognized, Orange Lantern, B Zero Six."

Batman's briefing isn't for another half an hour, and we'll be splitting up into sub-teams for planning after that. Actually carrying the mission out could be an all-weekend thing, which makes me very glad that I got out of returning to school. I really don't know how the others manage it.

"Arisia, right? I'm Squire. Pleased to meet you."

Beryl walks over to greet our team mate, who smiles politely back at her. Unlike Ghia'ta, Arisia is living off-base. I'm… Aware of the relationship between her and Jordan in the comics, but I.. don't think anything like that is happening here. Given that she's wearing an actual uniform rather the corset and miniskirt that she ended up wearing in the comics I'd guess that she's still in wide-eyed fangirl mode rather than actively trying to seduce him.

I hope so, anyway.

Living out of the mountain is probably a good choice for her. Unlike Ghia'ta, Arisia can actually pass as human; I've seen plenty of fake tans producing stranger shades of skin than that and her hair covers her ears pretty well. With us being on separate teams yesterday and her and Jordan leaving the moment we were all back we didn't get much of a chance to talk, which is something I need to fix.

"Like-" Her eyes alight on me for a moment, then she gives Beryl her full attention. "-wise."

"Aren't you one of the Green Lantern trainees who attacked Paul when he visited Oa?"

She looks away awkwardly. "That.. was a mistake."

"'Attacked' might be overstating it. I assume that Kilowog and Jordan have gotten your construct strength up a little since then?"

"Do you want to find out?"

Ring glow… Yes, that's a little bit brighter than when we met -I'm not going to think 'fought'- on Oa, and I'm sure that it'll be easier to focus in a scheduled training spar rather than a random encounter like our original meeting.

"I will have to get an idea of what you can do, but this isn't really the time. Did Jordan tell you about our regular all-Lantern training sessions?" She nods. "Are you coming along, or does he want to make sure that you're up to it first?"

"I'll be there."

"Good show. Alan's wanted to teach someone for a while, but he couldn't teach me when I was first starting and-."

"What-" Beryl is looking at my left hand. "-happened to your third ring? Did you recruit someone again?"

"Not exactly. I gave it to Ghia'ta to experiment with. The Zamarons were rather down on the orange light and I want her to learn that it isn't as toxic as she's been led to believe. Now, Lantern Rrab, the reason why I wanted to talk to you before we get our marching orders today is that I want to go over your equipment."

"Equipment? I only needed armour for low gravity training because I wasn't allowed to use my ring. Power rings are the most powerful and adaptable weapon in the universe."

I raise my left hand and flare the two I'm still wearing. I had wondered why she only wanted a minimalist setup yesterday, but I assumed that was because she didn't have time to train with something more sophisticated before we were due to start.

"Yes. Rings.. alone.. aren't enough on Earth. You remember the armour I was wearing on Oa?" She nods. "It shouldn't be too hard to fit you out with something like that. Solid protection against a wide variety of attacks, several useful integrated systems and as a Lantern you can store it in subspace when you're not using it. You'll also need a spell eater, or some other form of magic protection."

Arisia glances at Beryl, who nods and pulls her own amulet out of her tabard to show her.

"Does Graxos have a native magic tradition? I've never visited."

"No it.. doesn't. But I've seen enough in Hal's fil-. Ah, Lantern Jordan's files to take it seriously. Can you make one fit a bracelet?"

"Bracelet, no. Bracer, yes. But a necklace might be better; magic artefacts take a lot of charge to move into or out of subspace and if it starts to overheat you might need to get it off quickly."

"Do you have a version which doesn't catch fire?"

"Certainly. How do you feel about tattoos?"

"W-? Why?"

Beryl nods at me, grinning. "You should show her."

"Beryl, I'm in a relationship."

"You wear less on the beach. Come on, everyone should see your tattoos at least once."

I sigh quietly, then look at Arisia. "Do you want to see my tattoos?"

"Um. Yes?"

I subspace my shirt and jacket. "I'm not sure if the people who did these-" She's staring intently. "-could make them work on an alien, but they're what I use to throw off basic ring scans and they work on normal magic tracking as well. So anyway: spell eater, and I want to start getting you used to heavier armour and training to use conventional weapons."

Jacket back on and ignore Beryl's disappointment. I don’t think that she's in danger of becoming Zatanna Mark 2 so much as expressing a healthy interest in the other sex as is perfectly normal for a young woman of her age, but I'm still not.. entirely comfortable with the situation.

"I don't know about armour. Lanterns usually-."

"Arisia, how many members of your family have died in the service of the Green Lantern Corps?"

Her face grows sombre. "All of them. My grandfather, mother, father and uncle have all died for the good of my Sector."

"You're on my team now. Part of mine. Which means that keeping you alive is my responsibility. Orange Lanterns wear armour and you will too because your death is not acceptable to me. Four members of your family are dead and Earth is more dangerous than your Sector. You might be some sort of one-per-generation power ring genius who doesn't need it but most people do. Guy Gardner wears armour and carries a sidearm, as do Lantern Stewart and Lantern Savenlovich. Do you think you're better than the Host of Ion?"

She takes a thoughtful breath. "No. Okay, I see your point. What do you have in mind?"