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He was okay, he had to be okay. No student, no personal apprentice, no friend of his was going to die like this. Besides, Kilowog had gotten to him in time. He was bleeding, but breathing. Dying, but not dead.
It had probably been foolish to assume that all the red lanterns would be willing to accept an alliance with Oa. And it had been more foolish to assume that none of them would go after Hal, who had offered the alliance in the first place. They’d ambushed them. Taken down Hal’s jet while Kilowog wasn’t even looking.
Hal ejected from the doomed jet, and was promptly blasted with the same weapon. By this point, Kilowog was on the scene, and managed to get them both far away. But the most he could do was construct some bandages with his ring. If this was a bolovaxian? He could practically do surgery on one of them. But Hal was a human, one of the most mysterious species in the universe.
He flew them over to the nearest planet with an intergalactic-hospital. Though he wasn’t entirely familiar with the culture, he’d been there enough to know they were second to none when it came to off-planet anatomy.
Finding the hospital was a nightmare. Most of the citizens were willing to give him directions, but used words and phrases foreign to him, even with the translator. “Now just stay still, Poozer. Keep your eyes closed.”
The human was somewhere between awake and asleep. Though his body was still, his face twitched, and his eyes darted around beneath his eyelids. “.....eject…” He murmured.
Despite himself, Kilowog chuckled. Always a pilot, even when he was on the ground. “That’s right, you did something smart for once. Just when I was starting to doubt the impossible.” He pulled the bandages a bit tighter.
The hospital was all that Kilowog expected, times two. He only managed to take in a fraction of it as he rushed Hal to the front desk, but there was no doubt that they’d earned their acclaim. Even in the lobby, there were machines everywhere, professionals frantically looking over the waiting patients. Everyone was being given water, bandages, and even food.
Kilowog screeched at the top of his lungs, rushing over to the people who seemed to be in charge of organizing everything. “We’ve got an injured lantern here! Critical condition!"
The receptionist, a pale blue lady with horns and compound eyes, blinked up at him. This was obviously a fairly ordinary occurrence for her. “The fee, please?” She asked.
The fee was… high. Kilowog would have to work for a couple months to make up for it. But he could live with that. Not like he had expensive tastes, or any family to spoil.
“Anything else?” The receptionist asked. In hindsight, that should have struck him as odd. But he was a bit distracted at the time.
He shook his head. “Just fix him.”
“Please wait out there, we’ll be with you soon.”
They shoved them outside and directed them to a tent where the other injured people were waiting. One gal was leaning over her friend, throwing up bile onto the floor. Another was picking at a healing wound, like he was trying to get it to scar. But nobody seemed to be doing as badly as Hal.
That didn’t get him into the hospital any faster though. Every once in a while, someone from the main building would come in and bring them to get treated. It seemed like they were going by order of arrival instead of severity of wounds. Seemed stupid to him, but they must have had their reasons. Maybe it was to keep people from arguing over who was in more danger.
While they waited, Kilowog readjusted the bandages he’d constructed with his ring. It probably wasn’t doing much good. It didn’t look like he was bleeding anymore, now the danger was blood loss and infection, something he couldn’t do anything about. But he could tell it was getting worse by the way he flinched at every gust of wind. He was sweating and shivering all at once, and his dazed murmurs fell silent.
Someone else sat down next to Kilowog and Hal, ignoring the fact that there was plenty of space around them. But before he could snap at him to back off, the lady came in and escorted him inside, apologizing for the wait.
Suddenly feeling like a good candidate for a red lantern ring, he put Hal down and stormed into the building. “Hey!” Every eye turned towards him. He pointed at the newest patient. “This guy got here after us, and he ain’t even as hurt!” The man in question did not shrink backwards, but rather scrunched up his face in disgust.
The receptionist’s face didn’t so much as twitch. “Talk to the coordinator if you have issues.” With no clue as to who that was, Kilowog wasn’t left with many options. Even if he threw his morals away and threatened the hospital into submission, his ring only had so much power left. And he was using that to maintain the bandages.
As far as he could tell, there was only one option left. Without another word, he went back to the tent, picked up Hal again, and went back to the receptionist.
He was looking worse by the second. Now he was completely still, and cold to the touch. Kilowog presented him like an offering to the staff. “He needs help! He’s dying!” No response. Not even a frown. “Can’t you move some people around?”
The begging was humiliating. Kilowog was the chosen lantern of his planet. The trainer of the next generation of lanterns. A hulking figure with unparalleled strength. Not someone who begged. But for the poozer? Exceptions could be made.
Eventually, the receptionist sighed. “If you want a luxury pass, you can buy one.”
“What?” Dying and luxury didn’t usually go together.
The receptionist pointed to another patient and motioned towards the circle on his shirt. “These patches? Depending on which one you buy, you get another level of priority. I’ve never seen someone come in without one.” For the first time he noticed them. Everyone had a circle somewhere on their person. The people receiving extra attention had yellow circles, while everyone in the tent had purple.
Kilowog’s heart sunk. “And if I don’t have a patch?” He asked, but he already knew the answer.
“You’ll have to wait for the priority members to be done.” Priority members. People with headaches and sprained ankles. But they were more of a priority than Hal Jordan. What had he ever done to earn their respect? Risk his life to protect his sector? Broke the rules to uncover Atrocitous’s schemes? But he didn’t have a patch. So he wasn’t a priority.
“Show me the prices.” He growled. The receptionist pulled up a glowing screen. If he used up all his money he’d earned working with the corps, he’d be able to afford the cheapest option.
“How long would I have to wait with this one?”
“At least until the end of the day. Assuming nobody else shows up.” Hal would be dead by then.
He was going to die.
There was nothing else for them here. He punched the screen, leaving shards of glass all over the floor.
“Hey!” The receptionist yelled, but Kilowog ignored her. He walked out of the hospital, finally aware that everyone was staring at them after his outburst.
He jostled his student slightly, just enough to wake him up. If he could still be woken up. “Hal, can you hear me?”
His eyelids fluttered and his hands slightly tightened around his finger.
There was one more option. Willing his ring’s messaging system, he sent a cry for help into the stars. “Distress signal: a lantern’s life is immediately in danger. I repeat, there is a lantern’s life in immediate danger. We need medical help, now!” It wasn’t an ideal solution. Only 4% of distress signals were ever answered. But it was all that was left.
He sat and waited. And waited. And watched Hal grow colder and paler.
And waited.
And waited.
“Power Levels: 5%” His ring chirped.
Nobody was going to help them.
He debated waking Hal up so he could say a proper goodbye. But at this point, he probably wouldn’t understand anything Kilowog said. If he could wake him up at all. No. The kid had some peace in his final moments. No point taking that away from him.
So he said his goodbyes to a corpse. The ring was still on his finger, glowing desperately. But he’d never wake up again, probably wasn’t feeling anything either. That was death to Kilowog.
Something cracked behind them. One of the other patients was approaching. His arm was in a sling, but he was nowhere near death. But he had an ugly yellow circle on his chest, so he’d be just fine.
“Hello?” The man hesitantly stepped closer.
“Go away.”
He did not go away. Instead, he sat down beside the two. There was a good chance that Kilowog could crush him without getting in trouble. But not good enough. “It’s not legal to give your patch to someone else.”
He pulled the patch off his chest and put it onto Hal’s.
“But I don’t think they’ll be able to prove it.”
Not wasting a moment, even to thank the patient, he rushed back to the hospital. He laid Hal onto the front desk and pointed at the patch. “Here’s your stupid little symbol. Now do your job, for once.”
She stared at them for a moment, looking disturbed for the first time that day. The staff all looked at each other for awhile. But eventually she called up some doctors to treat a green lantern.
Kilowog followed them, well aware that this hospital wasn’t exactly the paragon of virtue. If something went wrong, he was going to be there for it. “You can’t be here-” Somebody protested.
“Try and move me.”
Words like ‘septic shock’ and ‘blood pressure’ were thrown around. At one point, someone had to run and get an expert on human biology. But he was being treated. And if anyone was bitter about him not being a paying customer, Kilowog’s presence encouraged them not to slack.
His ring buzzed in alarm. Somebody had responded to his distress signal. After going out to explain the situation (and apologize for forgetting to turn the signal off) the ship’s crew offered to let them use their spare power to charge their rings. It was nice. Too late to make much difference, but nice.
When he returned, Hal was conscious for the first time since the attack. He was struggling to sit up and looking at him with a dazed expression, but he was conscious.
Kilowog rushed over and ruffled his hair. “Hal!”
“...hey….kilowog….”
A doctor caught their attention. “I believe he’s ready to be transported now.” That was probably his way of saying, ‘we aren’t treating him anymore unless you pay up.’ He was probably right though. There were no open wounds, and Kilowog could avoid aggravating any broken bones.
Really though, he was too relieved to take any issue with their practices anymore. “Fine with me. Just be glad you aren’t part of my sector.”
Kilowog made a makeshift hospital bed as he flew Hal off the planet, trying his best to keep it as steady as possible. “Now, you’re getting the luxury treatment for now, but don’t get used to it.”
“..can fly..” Hal protested.
Kilowog laughed. “Not on your life.”