Accompanied by his companions, Zero Man was led to one of the ships private communications suites. Once inside, the lights dimmed and the holographic tank in the center of the room began to glow. A moment later the illuminated form of Vexel, the God-Emperor of the K’te materialized before them.

    “So, Ig Ahna Ne To, we meet at last,” Vexel said. “You have led us a merry chase.”

    “It’s not over yet,” Zero Man replied.

    Vexel shook his head. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Your race is gone, and that is tragic, but you have a new life now. Return to it. You can still go back to Earth. These matters are not your concern. It was the Warpsmiths that exterminated your race, not us. They are your enemy, and rest assured that we will someday make them pay for their act of genocide.”

    Zero Man glared at the image of his one-time Lord. “You ordered my people to fight them, when you knew they had no chance. You ordered them, told them they couldn’t surrender, couldn’t retreat. You abandoned them, with no supplies, no weapons! I have seen the recordings! They didn’t have their force swords!”

    The Emperor nodded sadly.

    “And, then after they were all gone, you still found a way to used them all over again.” Zero Man’s voice became low and harsh. “I know that the Cholonu General who you had beg the Warpsmiths to spare you was a fraud.”

    The Emperor’s demeanor changed. A slight, dark smile formed as resignation sank in. “In a war, sacrifices are made and priorities are set. Expending valuable resources supporting a doomed, inferior race would have been just throwing them away. Your fellow Cholonu knew their place and did what was required of them. Now, Ig Ahna Ne To, all we ask is that you do what the rest of your race did when we required it: Die.”

    The holographic image suddenly disintegrated in a shower of sparks as explosions rocked the ship. The room’s lights turned red and emergency klaxons cut through the sounds of panicked screams from outside the communications suite. Wonder Man forced open the jammed door and the party ran into the corridor. Another explosion knocked them off their feet.

    The Traveler and Zero Man ran to one of the windows and looked outside.

    “We’ve been forced out of hyperspace,” the Traveler said gravely.

     They both watched as the Skrull battlecruiser that had pulled alongside the starliner attached boarding tubes and began burning through the hall.

    “We don’t have much time,” Zero Man said.

    “We’re not far from Dressilus, but we have to get off this ship,” Traveler responded.

    Looking for docking bays, airlocks, or escape pods, Zero Man and his companions made their way aft, away from the Skrull boarding tubes. They passed groups of passengers running through the hallways in panic.

    Suddenly, they came upon a crew man running through the corridor. “We’re evacuating the ship!” he yelled over the alarms. “Follow me! I’ll take you to the lifeboats! This way!”

    The party followed him to a large open hatchway. The crewman stood beside it and waved them inside urgently. “Quick! Inside!”

    Alex Ryan and Wonder Man entered and found themselves in a large, mostly empty cargo bay. Wonder Man suddenly realized what was going on. He spun around and yelled, “It’s a trap!” just as the bay’s heavy blast door slammed closed, cutting him and Ryan off from the Traveler and Zero Man.

    The form of the crewman suddenly seemed to flow like wax; no longer Shi’Ar, he now wore a purple uniform and possessed green skin and bony ridges on his jaw. “For the glory of the Skrull Empire!” he yelled as he leveled an energy rifle at Zero Man’s chest.

    In one fluid motion, Zero Man drew his force sword and sliced the Skrull’s rifle in two. The Skrull reared back and transformed into a large bear-like alien with four arms. It swatted Zero Man with a massive, clawed paw. The hit knocked Zero Man hard into the corridor wall.

    Hearing rapid footfalls from the other end of the hallway, Traveler turned around and saw four more Skrulls running towards them, their weapons raised. Energy bolts sizzled through the air. The Traveler tied to dodge out of the way, but two of the bolts impacted the side of his suit, blasting a hole in the armor, and spinning him around.

    Inside the cargo hold, the members of D’Ken’s Imperial Guard—Starbolt, Warstar, Smasher and Hussar—walked out of the shadows.

    Faced with this intimidating assembly, Alex Ryan and Wonder Man, standing side-by-side, regarded them warily.

    “So. What do you think?” Ryan asked.

    “I think in situations like this, you start with the giant robot,” Wonder Man replied.

    “Right.” With that, two energy beams shot from Ryan’s eyes and blasted the side of Warstar. Wonder Man took off, flying straight toward the green robot, but was intercepted by Smasher, who knocked him out of the air.

    Before Wonder Man could get up, Hussar attacked him with her neural-whip, stunning him. This gave Warstar the time needed to lumber into range and deliver a debilitating punch to Wonder Man’s jaw that sounded like a bomb going off. Wonder Man flew through the air, hitting the cargo bay door so hard it dented.

    Outside in the corridor, neither Zero Man nor the Traveler had time to notice the bulge that had suddenly appeared in the door.

    The blow the Skrull delivered to Zero Man would have killed a normal Cholonu, so the Skrull was very surprised when Zero Man stood up and dusted himself off, unhurt, but clearly annoyed. Zero Man squared off against the shape-shifted Skrull and lopped off one of the bear-form’s arms with his force sword. The Skrull screamed, but continued to attack.

    The Traveler realized that drastic action was required and stepped out of cover, facing the Skrull soldiers. The silver faceplate of his encounter suit hissed open and the Traveler sprang forth, revealing his true form.

    As the Traveler’s true form is considered repulsive by most standards of humanoid aesthetics, its sudden appearance lunging toward the Skrull had a significant effect on their moral.  A mass of viscous black slime, the Traveler quickly engulfed the panicking Skrull soldiers and smothered them into unconsciousness, just as another platoon of Skrulls rounded the corner to join the engagement. One look at the greasy ooze churning over the inert bodies of their comrades, and the strident battle cries of “For the glory of the Skrull Empire!” were quickly replaced by very different types of yelling and the sound of running.

    Having, by now, dispatched his opponent, Zero Man moved toward the door. He noted it’s strange Wonder Man-shaped dent, and began use his own eyebeams to disintegrate his way in. The door was think, however, so it would take time.

    Inside, Wonder Man only barely dodged a stream of high-energy plasma projected by Star Bolt from the back of the room. This left him open to Smasher, however, who landed another painful blow that knocked him toward Warstar.

    As Warstar prepared to deliver another monstrous attack on Wonder Man, Ryan unleashed the strongest blast yet from her laser vision, throwing Warstar back.

    Realizing that the human woman was not to be underestimated, Hussar broke off her attack on Wonder Man to engage Ryan. She viciously cracked her whip, expecting to take Ryan’s head off with it, but instead it passed right through her.

    Having again unconsciously become insubstantial, Ryan began drifting gently into the air. She stared at Hussar. She glared. She squinted. Nothing happened.

    “Damn it!” Ryan exclaimed in frustration as she caught an updraft.

    Ryan’s distraction, however, gave Wonder Man the precious seconds he needed to get his second wind. He stood up and met Smasher head-on, dealing the Imperial Guard a series of crippling body blows that quickly turned tide of the contest.

    Zero Man completed burning his way into the cargo bay. Upon seeing the Cholonu they had been sent to assassinate, Hussar broke off from Ryan and rushed him. Expecting a normal Cholonu warrior, she readied her neurowhip and was stunned when he vaporized it with his eyebeams. Enraged, she pounced and delivered a fierce kick to his chest with the sharpened point of her cloven hoof.

    It didn’t even break Zero Man’s skin. Zero Man just looked at her and re-ignited his force sword.

    Hussar, realizing that she was outmatched, fled.

    Meanwhile Wonder Man continued his struggle with Smasher. Becoming careless, Smasher lunged at Wonder Man, who was able to turn his attack, grapple him and hurl Smasher into Warstar. Smasher bounced off the metal goliath’s chest, again throwing Warstar off-balance.

    Wonder Man noticed that, in the back of the room, Star Bolt was charging another powerful blast of plasma, and was standing approximately 25 feet directly behind Warstar. Wonder Man realized he had to act fast. He took off at top speed and flew directly into the still unbalanced Warstar. The force of the impact married Wonder Man to the robot’s chest plate, but the terrific momentum carried them both across the room, and right into Starbolt, who was too shocked to get out of the way, and who now joined their trajectory into the far wall. Starbolt, smashed between the wall and Warstar, instantly lost control of the plasma charge he and been building and released it right into Warstar’s back. The second, smaller Warstar robot, who rode in the back of the larger one, instantly ejected into the air, on fire. It landed clumsily on the ground and began attempting to extinguish itself as Wonder Man began pulling himself loose from Warstar I’s chest armor.

    The Traveler, having returned to his encounter suit, rushed into the cargo bay and surveyed the carnage. He spied an airlock door on the far side of the room and quickly drew his companions’ attention to it. Zero Man began cycling the airlock as soon as he reached it.

    “We’re leaving,” he said simply.

    “You’re the only one who can travel faster than light,” Traveler said. “Can you carry us all?”

    “I’ll have to be able to.”

    “Wait,” Alex Ryan said, “I can only survive vacuum when I’m intangible. I’ll need a suit—you won’t be able to carry me otherwise.”

    They quickly found one in a locker next to the airlock and Ryan was happy to discover that, although far more advanced, it was in many ways quite similar to the ones she had trained with on Earth. When she was ready, they entered the airlock.

    “Hold on tight,” Zero Man said and opened the outer door. Zero Man and his companions shot out of the airlock at incredible speed. Pulling away from the starliner and the Skrull battlecruiser, Zero Man accelerated as fast as he could, but his passengers was slowing him down—it would take awhile to reach his maximum velocity.

    Behind them, a small streak of green light appeared and curled around the ships that were receding into the distance. The streak, however, seemed to be growing in intensity. And it was getting closer.

    “Oh, hell! Move, Zero Man, move!” Wonder Man said, soundlessly.

    The green streak was moving terribly fast, far faster than Zero Man ever could. It was now close enough that Zero Man’s passengers could see the look of grim determination on Sinestro’s face.

    But then, suddenly, a second green-glowing figure appeared and dropped down between them and Sinestro.

    Sinestro came to a stop and regarded the new arrival with surprise. He then grinned a small, cruel smile. “The Green Lantern Prime, himself.”

    “Hello, Sinestro,” Alan Scott replied. “Your little game is over.”

     “I always hoped that when this moment came, it would be you who found me,” Sinestro said, his halo of green energy, flashing and building. “If you want this ring, you are welcome to try and take from me.”

    Alan Scott scowled somewhat playfully and cocked his head. “Sinestro, do you know how one Green Lantern defeats another Green Lantern? He runs away. Terribly fast.” And then he was gone, racing away from Sinestro.

    Sinestro looked puzzled and then laughed at his enemy’s obvious cowardice. He watched as Scott fired a token shot at him while fleeing. A pitiful effort as Sinestro’s aura was already in place and quite strong.

    Suddenly, Sinestro’s smile fell as he realized just how fast the Green Lantern Prime was moving and what that really meant. A second later, Alan Scott’s green energy beam red-shifted to yellow and struck Sinestro dead-on.

    It was a concussive force that pounded Sinestro. The blast was so intense, it completely disintegrated his power ring, incinerated his uniform and nearly killed him. But not quite. The faint yellow glow continued to surround Sinestro, maintaining enough of a pressure envelope to keep him barely alive, even as the light faded back to green.

    The Green Lantern Prime now hovered above him. He pointed out toward the stars, at a small streak of light, speeding away. “Do you see that? That’s them making it to Dressilus, Sinestro. You know what that means?”

    Sinestro’s eyes, although almost completely swollen shut, still managed to vent bitter hatred.

    “It means you’ve failed,” the Green Lantern Prime said. “And everything you did was for nothing.”