Barehanded

"**Barehanded**" is the forty-eighth episode of Justice League Action.

## Summary

When Green Lantern loses his ring in a washroom on an asteroid, he has to employ Space Cabbie to help him go in pursuit of the suspects most likely to have taken it.

## Story

After a battle in space with weird alien Kanjar Ro, Green Lantern floats amongst asteroids, completely exhausted. Batman, who is in a spacecraft somewhere nearby and has the villain and his accomplices in captivity, radios Green Lantern to check on him. He replies that he is raring to go but privately knows that he needs some rest.

On a nearby asteroid, he sees a refuelling station and heads for it and then goes into the bathroom. There are amenities for aliens of all shapes and sizes and the superhero goes to a wash hand basin next to a dragon-like creature with its baby while, behind him, a burly, deathly-pale biker comes out of a cubicle. Green Lantern takes off his power ring, splashes water on his face and immediately feels revived. He goes outside at the same time as the other two characters but, as he tries to fly away, he falls to the ground and changes to the appearance of his alias, Hal Jordan - he has forgotten to put his ring back on. He commands it to return to his finger but nothing happens. Rushing back into the bathroom, he panics when he sees that the ring has gone from where he had left it. Thinking back as to who might have taken it, he realises that the biker was Lobo and goes off in pursuit.

Outside, Hal sees Lobo leaving on his space 'hog' and jumps into a cab waiting at the fuel pumps, instructing the driver to follow. The taxi happens to be that of Space Cabbie and, recognising Hal, goes off at top speed. When Hal complains that they are not going fast enough, Cabbie suggests that they could contact Batman for help, but Hal cannot face the ignominy of having to admit that he has lost his power ring. Space Cabbie then remembers that he has acquired a new GPS (Galactic Positioning System) device that can plot intercept courses and he obtains one for Lobo. The cab enters a hyperspace tunnel and exits near the still-travelling biker. Hal, wearing a life support belt, is able to jump onto the back of Lobo's cycle and a fight follows in which Hal does not do that well. However, he steps on the accelerator and loops-the-loop causing Lobo to pass out due to high G-force. When he is unable to locate the ring on his body, he arranges for Lobo to be handed over to Batman and then considers who else is likely to have taken his ring. Hal instructs Cabbie to take the shortest route back to the refueling station despite that the GPS takes them through the nauseating distortion of a wormhole.

Back at the asteroid, Hal sees the dragon-like creature walking around and notices that the 'baby' is swallowing something. He sticks his hand down its throat but this angers the creature and it chases Hal around the station, breathing fire. The GPS identifies it as a Two-Headed Babajorian (or something like that) so that the baby is its lower head and the upper head is a defense mechanism. Space Cabbie gets the GPS to speak to it in its own language, flattering it in its ability to beat Green Lantern, and, when Hal bows down, it gives up the fight and opens its mouth to reveal a fur ball. Hal now tries again to recall what he did with the ring and realises that it must have fallen down the plug hole. Running into the bathroom with Cabbie, he sees a green glow from the sink as a hair blockage creature arises from the hole and, powered by the ring, grows into a tentacled monster that fills the bathroom. Hal's knowledge of aliens makes him realise that it must be scared so he talks and soothes it as he reaches inside the hair to retrieve his ring. With it on his finger, he changes back to Green Lantern and the small-again hairball bounces back into its hole.

Outside, Cabbie takes his usual selfie with Green Lantern just before he flies away. Then, strangely, the GPS begins to talk to him, asking about the superhero, who seems familiar, and revealing that it is a disembodied artificial intelligence that has forgotten its origin. It floats out of the cab and flies away, saying that it needs to search for something that relates to Green Lantern, leaving Space Cabbie (and us) confused. Elsewhere, Batman tells GL by radio that there is a rumour he had lost his ring but GL cuts short the conversation, muttering that he will never live it down.

## Notes

* The mysterious A.I. of Space Cabbie's navigation is voiced by Grey DeLisle and is implied to be Aya from the Green Lantern animated series, even mentioning at the end of the episode that there was something familiar about Hal Jordan. Hearing this, the Space Cabbie driver shows doubt and says that was a strange thing for a navigational app to say so. She replies that she was no navigational app, rather she was a AI with no memory of her origin. Then again when the Cabbie Driver proposes to stick together and make a team, she refuses and says that she felt compelled to search for something or someone (possibly her lover Razer). She leaves the Cabbie taking the exact same circular form which she had when she was uploaded at the Interceptor of GL:TAS and finally says that the Green Lantern did not give up hope, so neither should she, which resembles the event where a Blue Lantern of Hope follows Razer in the finale of the GL:TAS when he departs in search for Aya. The writer of this episode, James Krieg, was a producer on GL:TAS.

## Gallery

Hal has a heated argument with a Two-Headed Babajorian.