maskormenacelogs | ( open-ish ) man in his 30's doesn't regret beating up a teenager

[After Hal had been convinced that it was safe to leave Jaime he simply went about his day as normal. The news about his fight was given nothing but a cursory glance before he ignored it. And why shouldn't he? He didn't regret his actions, he stands by what he did. He was the one who was trying to contain things.

However he didn't take into account the number of people who knew Jaime and might feel very differently about his very publicised beating of the teenager nor did he think about the overlap between those who knew both him and Jaime in their civilian identities.

He'd only suffered minor bruising in the fight and those had already cleared up by the time he went out again in stark comparison to the state Jaime had been left in. He'll be on his way back to his place with some newly purchased construction tools to start fixing the mess the fight caused. He's not thinking about much except for the car lying in their garden that he's going to have to move when the crowd goes away.]

[ Okay, so Ted's seen the footage. He knows that the fight wasn't one-sided, and sure, Hal probably thought he was doing what was best. But as far as Ted is concerned? That doesn't excuse the fact that he was knowingly beating the tar out of a teenager who was obviously not in control of what was happening.

So when Hal comes strolling by just before Ted leaves Jaime's house, his first instinct, obviously, is to do something stupid. Namely, he walks up behind Hal and taps him on the shoulder. ]

[Hal is not a mind reader so when someone taps him on the shoulder he isn't going to assume they've got beef with him. He's going to react like a normal person and stop and turn to see what they wanted.

Make it fast before he realises who it is.]

[ Oh, he's making it fast.

The second Hal turns around, Ted's fist is connecting solidly with his jaw. He knows he's only got one hit, and he's making it count. It may not be on the level of the time Bats knocked Guy out, but he sure does know how to throw a punch. It's going to leave a mark, at the very least. ]

What is your problem!

[His bags drop heavily on the ground, a heavy sort of finality to signal Ted's impending doom. Hal managed to stay on his feet and he has his head bowed as he runs his thumb along the injury. It's a good punch. It's just too bad that compared to some of the people they knew it was nothing.]

I should say the same to you.

[To go along with the unannounced blow, Hal straightens up and hits him back. Except where Ted's was just a normal human punch, this one isn't. If it were anyone else he might have held back, but this asshole knows who he is and hit him anyway. He knows what he's getting into here.

Perhaps Hal should be more careful considering how they're at the exact place of his last fight, but he's not known for thinking things through. It's also really satisfying watching Ted fly through the air.]

[ Ted has many regrets in life, but this sure isn't one of them. He knew this was coming, and frankly, it's worth it. He does go flying through a half-broken wall on the already decimated house, landing hard in a pile of rubble, but it's still worth it. Hal's going to be sporting one hell of a bruise.

But Ted undoubtedly is, too, judging by the fact that he's having some genuine difficulty getting up again. He's still conscious, but wow, does everything hurt. Oh, right, not getting punched by overpowered douchebags is why he retired in the first place.

Still worth it. ]

[The joke's on Ted because injuries tend to miraculously disappear when he suits up. Apparently the most overpowered weapon in the DC universe included healthcare. But for now he gets to enjoy the beginnings of a spectacular bruise as Hal crouches down next to him.]

Want to try that again?

[He can guess why Ted's mad, but that wasn't going to give him a free pass to just hit him.]

Yeah, actually. I'd love to.

[ He's really glad he's taken to carrying the BB gun around with him, because it's within reach for him to fire a concussive blast at Hal. Not enough to do any damage, he's sure of it, but maybe it'll at least knock his smug ass over from where he's crouched on rubble. ]

[There's a world of difference between catching a lantern off guard and when they're prepared. This time Hal closes his eyes as the blast hits, but instead of getting knocked on his ass it dissipates harmlessly against the shield he put up.

When he blinks his eyes open retaliation comes in the form of a giant hand pressing Ted into the ground. It's gentle enough to prevent any new injuries, but he sure doesn't care about any of the existing ones. The gun gets ripped out of his hand and Hal throws it to one side, not bothering to check where it lands.]

I can keep this up all day you know.

[ That's all the fight Ted's going to put up. He didn't really have a plan, here, but he knows he's been outmatched from the start. He shifts a little, uncomfortable under the giant green hand, but otherwise not struggling. ]

And here I thought you might be the tiniest bit worn out from beating the hell out of a kid.

[He figured that had something to do with it.]

Your protégé is better than you at this and you still want to try avenge him? How about you help him figure out a way to prevent this from happening again instead. Make my presence unnecessary instead of throwing a fit at me.

Who says I can't do both?

[ Look, he's given up the fight, but that doesn't mean he's not going to be a petulant little shit until Hal goes away. ]

[This is going to be a low blow, but he's going to say it anyway.]

No wonder I forgot you.

[ Normally, Ted would laugh that off with some dumb, maybe even self-deprecating joke. That's his defense mechanism, and its always worked in the past. But after his draining conversation with Jaime about all the reasons why he quit the hero gig, he just doesn't have it in him. Not even the fact that Hal was one of the last people to take him seriously before he died makes that sting less.

This whole time, it's been easier to make a joke of Hal not knowing who he is. He still doesn't even know why he doesn't, but now it just feels like it doesn't matter. Why would it matter that he doesn't remember Ted? No matter what Jaime says about Ted's legacy, this is the truth he remembers: no one caring to remember some joke in a baby blue bug suit.

So he doesn't say anything. No joke, no wisecrack, no witty retort. Congratulations, Hal Jordan. You've done the impossible. You shut Ted up. ]

Edited 2016-05-02 21:41 (UTC)

[While Ted is off having his moment, Hal is blissfully oblivious to his inner turmoil. The only thought that crosses his mind is finally.

He lets up on Ted and brushes the dust off his clothes.]

Looks like some things do go through.

Go to hell, Hal.

[ The fact that those are damn near his last living words is not one that's lost on Ted. He doesn't get up, though, or even look at Hal. ]

[Okay now it's kind of pathetic. More so than normal.]

Get up, Kord.

I'll get up when I feel like it.

[ He's almost positive he's got some bruised ribs, and he's not giving Hal the satisfaction of seeing him struggle. ]

Don't you have some more kids to beat on somewhere?

[Once the Scarab had been soundly defeated and Jaime was unconscious Hal considered his options. His ring wanted him to kill them and be done with it which wouldn't work considering how no one seemed to stay dead here for very long and he's sure Jaime is genuinely innocent here. But he also couldn't leave them because if it took over once then it could do it again. He needed to think about this, but he couldn't exactly do it out here in the open where people were surely coming over to gawk.

Fighting was the easy part, why didn't he ever think about what the next step would be the whole time he was watching for a slip up?

First thing's first, he had to get them out of here. Hal covers them both in a bubble and willed the light hitting it to refract around them essentially rendering them invisible and returned to their neighbourhood. There's a sizeable crowd oohing and ahing at the damage along with various reporters, but he ignores all that to drop in through the roof of Jaime's room. Jaime gets dumped on the bed and he borrows the bathroom to wipe off the blood from his cuts and bruises.

That done he returns to stare at the unconscious kid he just beat up.]

What am I supposed to do with you now?

[ Jaime might have to count his lucky stars as the only reason Peej has suddenly shown up in a heavy gust in the middle of the room, her limbs tense and mind racing despite being hyper-focused at the same time, is because she overheard someone at work mentioning at random some kind of fight breaking out Heropa they themselves saw mentioned on their phone. Somewhat concerned, she trained her hearing to catch what was going on, overhearing mentions of an imPort in green and another in a blue bug suit. It's the latter that has her heart miss a beat and in the middle of a conversation she excused herself, sneaking off so she could zip off to Heropa and find either Ted or Jaime, hoping the two were alright and wondering which one people were talking about.

She had seen the damage outside, adding to her growing concerns, before she reached the house, the scent of fresh blood hitting her super senses before she stops concentrating.

Now she stands there, eyes bouncing from Jaime's body to Hal. She immediately cuts between the two, a makeshift wall so that Hal doesn't dare to come any closer. ]

Stay there.

[Karen is an unexpected surprise and he has to rack his half-remembered memories of her, but it's his ring that quietly informs him of her Kryptonian heritage. He stills as he takes in the implications of her presence. She considers him a threat and she can hit as hard as Superman. Saint Walker's still close enough that even as mentally exhausted as he is right now he should be able to put up a fight if it came to it.

But he'd really like to avoid another one.]

I'm not going to try anything.

[He considers removing his ring as a sign of good faith, but he doesn't remember her well enough to know if that wouldn't be plain suicide. Instead he holds his hands up and lets the green glow fade away until he's once again in his flight jacket, shirt and jeans. The only obvious sign of his actions is the bruise on one cheek as if it wasn't already obvious that their match was a little one sided.]

[ She takes him at his word and turns around, kneeling beside the bed so she can reach for Jaime. She's careful not to shake him around too much, rolling him gently so he's laid out more comfortably on the bed. She puts a hand on his cheek and pats lightly to see if he'll wake from his unconsciousness, but that bruising and the presence of a Green Lantern tells her he won't be waking up just yet. She leans down to double-check his heartbeat — which is still strong, thank god — before she turns around, rising in a quick, aggressive motion to throw Hal an acidic glare. ]

What did you do to him?

[He's mentioned it over and over and he's got way more authority so why does no one believe him when he says the Reach is really bad news?]

We're lucky I was there. I stopped him from killing someone.

[Hal crosses his arms, put out by how she's assuming he's in the wrong despite the fact that what he fought was definitely not the Blue Beetle's normal appearance. Just because he's nearly twice Jaime's age doesn't mean he can't hit him when he's taken over by alien tech.]

What happened?

[ She doesn't lower her guard in spite of the information Hal's just dropped. She wants to know exactly what went down and why it looks as if Hal practically pulverized Jaime and if he had a choice in the matter. Regardless of Jaime's appearance, he's still her friend and someone dear to her, so to see him like this is more than disconcerting. ]

[He runs a hand through his hair and whatever adrenaline he was still running on fades away, leaving him just tired. Whatever some people might think, he's not happy it got to this point either.]

I heard him yelling about nuking the place so I came over to ask him what the hell that was about. Then he started yelling at me to go away and next thing I know he's ten feet tall and trying to kill me.

I tried giving him a chance, but there was too many people around. I couldn't risk it.

[Hal slumps down in a chair and sighs.]

But what happened happened. What I want to know is, what next? I knocked them out, but is it going to be Jaime that wakes up or that thing?

What?

[ None of that sounds like the Jaime Reyes Peej knows. The same boy who barely even threw his hardest punch at her when they sparred talking about nuking anything? The skepticism reads loud and clear on her face. ]

No, something's not right — Jaime wouldn't do that.

[ At times like this she wishes she had telepathy so she could look into Jaime's mind and ensure everything was alright there. Physically speaking, he's a mess, but his organs are beating strong so he isn't in any real danger right now.

But her eyes flick back to Hal at the thought. ]

"Knocked them out"? He looks like he got hit by Superboy-Prime! This is overdoing it, Hal!

[This is the sort of situation where context is everything.]

Hey, I'm better then that! He doesn't even need a hospital. [Mostly because of the Scarab, but he doesn't know that.] I had to stop him immediately, I didn't really get the chance to plan anything.

[Not that he would have even if he did. Hal operated best when he was making it up as he went along after all.]

What if you had killed him?!

[ Hal's explanations aren't helping to justify anything that's happened right now. Instead, he manages to further aggravate her and she winds up closing the distance between them, prodding his chest with a finger. ]

He's just a boy!

Okay, I get that he's young, but he's still an adult!

[...Hal has sort of been assuming that Jaime is at least 18 this entire time. Those pathetic chin hairs actually managed to convince someone.]

[ She can hardly believe what she's hearing. It's as if everything she's said to Hal goes in one ear and comes out the other. ]

He can't even drink yet, you macho-obsessed, brain-addled, over-sized nightlight!

[ After talking to Jaime, Kaidan Alenko was not a happy man. He wouldn't call himself protective of the younger hero, and he certainly wouldn't call himself family, but he cared about the guy. He'd known about what the scarab could do -- he'd seen it -- so he could understand the worry. The Reach, whatever it was -- while not as personally scary to him as the Reapers were -- was terrifying in its own right.

But honestly? He was kind of not happy about these "Green Lanterns", which Kaidan had decided were the Turians to the Reach's Krogan. Mortal enemies, and probably inappropriately full of themselves. Which meant they were fundamentally wrong and picking fights with innocent kids who were now in a world of hurt. And Jaime was hurting, when he'd seen him. That much was obvious. He'd worked hard to keep himself under control -- Kaidan knew... what that was like. And how much it could shake someone, if they didn't keep it. Hell, he'd been there.

So he was Not Happy, when he went out for his afternoon run after work -- dressed in dark blue lycra running pants -- white stripes down the sides a requirement -- and a dark tank-top, he certainly didn't look all that imposing, when he narrowed his eyes at someone in the sky. Or when he pulled out his headphones, and waved at him, to get his attention. ]

Hey! I want to talk to you.

[Hal had been attempting to avoid people since the media couldn't seem to get enough about speculating what had happened. He'd have been more than happy to go on record to say that the Reach was bad news a few days earlier, but now it wasn't that simple. Still, sometimes he got the urge to fly something faster than the plane he had at work.

He could just fly away. He's pretty sure the other man wouldn't be able to follow him. But somehow he doesn't think this would dissuade anyone. He drops down until he's close enough to not need to shout.]

What if I don't want to?

[ Really?

He just stopped, for a moment, and looked like he was thinking about that. He could use his biotics, but... he didn't really want to. He wanted to use his powers to help people, not bully someone into talking to him, even if he did want to punch him in the face right now. But... it had been a few days, he'd cooled down -- not a lot, but enough.

He crossed his arms over his chest. ]

Then you can leave, and the next time I see you, I'll bring up what you did to my friend in public, but I'm pretty sure "this guy beat up a teenager" won't go over well in a crowd of people.

[ Other people's judgement was a powerful thing, in Kaidan's eye. ]

[Alright this wasn't some random conspiracy theorist who wanted something to post online. He floats down until he's hovering just above the ground.]

You tell people you know he's a teenager, how long do you think it'll take for people to start scrutinising who you talk with? Are you really going to out him because of me?

[It's a subject Hal has had to think long and hard on. He doesn't care about keeping his identity a secret here, but he knows too many people who do and it'd be far too easy to figure them out through him.]

And if you really are that much of a jerk and was going to say yes, I'll tell you now I don't care what people think of me. I'm not going to stop doing the right thing.

[ Kaidan opened his mouth, and what was on his face was "stunned", that was the only way to describe it -- the way he looked, mouth open, eyes wide, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

At least he was closer. It wasn't like he could float up to his level, but he was pretty close to ground level that Kaidan could do something with that. He stepped forward, and put his hands on his hips, eyes narrowed, mouth turned down in a frown. ]

And how is that the right thing? He asked you to back off.

[This man is trying to intimidate him. Leaving aside the fact that trying to intimidate a Green Lantern was an exercise in futility, Hal was still looming over him.

He raises an eyebrow and very carefully holds back a snide remark.]

Did he also tell you how he looked when he said that?

[ He's also trying to intimidate him in too-tight pants and a tanktop. Isn't he the picture of intimidation? Surprisingly, even though he looked up at Hal, he didn't really look any smaller. His arms crossed over his chest, finally, and his brow knitted in thought. ]

No. But I don't think attack is the best first option. You didn't even give him a chance, to take care of it, did you?

[The upside of having to beat up a teenager is that Hal actually now has a much higher opinion of Jaime. He doesn't believe that Jaime would have told people that he attacked indiscriminately.]

Now I know you're talking out of your ass. Go talk to him before you make assumptions.

I did.

[ Arms still crossed, he didn't flinch.

Kaidan Alenko, unfortunately, was the kind of person that, despite what anyone said, would come up with his own conclusions, and act on that. Whether or not that was the whole truth, it didn't matter, when the judgement had been met. ]

And he asked you to go away. Or did he lie? Because from where I'm standing, I'm more likely to trust the person I know, and not the person who still beat up a teenager. There are always better ways than that.

[Hal's definitely rolling his eyes and while body language makes it clear what he's doing the mask doesn't make the actually eye rolling visible. Most judgemental man meets the most wilful man and neither of them are going to budge.]

Yeah, I'm totally going to walk away when he's having difficulties keeping his genocidal bug under control.

He said you and the Scarab were enemies!

[ He threw his hands up. ]

I don't know if you were the best choice for "calming it down", when he's never had trouble here before. Why can't you just trust him, if he thinks he can handle it?

( open-ish ) man in his 30's doesn't regret beating up a teenager

ted kord

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peej

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idk i guess the 25th

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