Everything starts with good intentions.
Love and hate. Pain and affection. Opposing sides sharing a common origin. It's a shared parentage that has allowed society to prosper and grow. Intentions get interpreted, and then acted on by vastly different people living vastly different lives. Choices and actions are made based on an individual's own unique perception and worldview, and then these choices get compared to by those around them. If there's dissent, it's voiced, and therefore spoken about. With communication, empathy and understanding take place, and with a little luck, an agreement can be reached.
The values of justice, liberty, and freedom are mentioned quite liberally in our social circles. They have become abstract terms shared by people that don't actually share the same meanings with one another. But the intent is there. The desire to do the right thing. It's only after we look at the mess we've made that we're ready to admit we've made a mistake.
72 HOURS AFTER THE TRIBUNAL
"I swear to God, Bradley. If you say 'we're almost done' one more time I will beat your ass right on this table."
Jenn clamped her hands onto the surgical table and belted out a scream. "Holy shit ."
Bradley sat next to her, attempting to feed his wife an ice chip with one hand, and holding a bowl full of more frozen treats with the other. He took a quick glance at the doctor, who had been silent for the past couple of minutes. A nurse sat opposite to Bradley, coaching his wife and reciting breathing exercises that Jenn would attempt, but immediately stop once the pain set in again.
Occasionally, the operating room's lights would flicker off for just a little too long, and Jenn would scream, not out of pain, but fear. At this point, the only source of light would be two flashlights that were roped onto IV poles placed behind the doctor to prevent any loss of power from leaving the doctor and his patients in darkness.
The earth rumbled during one these flickerings and Jenn yelped in fear. Her husband dropped the frozen snack and extended his hand to her shoulder. "No, no. It's okay. It's okay," he said, as his hand's grip tightened, "you have no reason to be scared right now. This is the final stretch."
Jenn glared at her husband. "Do you think you'd do better? Because I'll switch you places right now."
"He's not lying this time, Mrs. Lazuli," the doctor laughed, as he spread his hands to cradle the exiting baby, "just one more final push, now."
Bradley looked at his beautiful wife as she screamed in pain, as a sudden silence fell upon him. It was like someone flipped on a switch, and now nothing else existed, except for his wife. The hospital's flickering lights and decrepit scenery faded out of his sight as he gave her a longing gaze. Finally, her right hand switched from the table and gripped his arm, embedding her nails as she let out one final scream.
Suddenly, his wife's screams were drowned out by a different yell. A new sound to Bradley's palate, the crying was unlike anything he had ever heard in his life, but somehow completely familiar. In the darkness, the doctor handed over the crying silhouette to the nurse, who snipped the umbilical cord. She glanced at the child, and motioned the doctor over, pointing at the newborn.
"What's the problem, doctor?" Jenn's exhaustion suddenly disappeared as her heart filled with dread.
The doctor let out a chuckle. "I'm not usually wrong, but I guess I'm living proof that no doctor, no matter how many years of medicine they have practiced, is perfect." He handed the baby back to the nurse, who in one swift motion wrapped the child in a light blue blanket. The nurse approached the couple.
"You're going to need a different colored blanket." the doctor said, taking off his gloves and wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"What are you talking about?" Bradley replied.
"Well, for your not-son. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Lazuli. You have a daughter."
The nurse gently placed the wrapped newborn onto her mother's arms as the young parents stared at their daughter, her symphony of cries echoing in the destroyed hospital room.
"We have to transfer you over to the room next door so we can begin to clean up here, since there are other doctors waiting to use this room," the nurse said as she stepped on the safety stop on the surgical table's wheels, and began to roll away the young mother and her baby. "We'll make sure the baby is healthy there. Meanwhile, your husband can wait for you guys in the waiting room."
"Wait, why can't I come?" Bradley stood up, ready to follow his wife.
"It's just a small room so there's not a lot of space. I promise it won't be long." the doctor said, patting the Bradley's built shoulder as Jenn was wheeled out of the room. Brad yelled at his exiting wife, "I'll be waiting for you! In the waiting room!"
Just as the flapping doors came to a halt, it was finally over. The events of the past three days had weighed heavily on the shoulders of the young couple: the mass hysteria and destruction in the wake of the Arrival. The drive through the wreckage to arrive at the only functioning hospital when Jenn's water broke. The fear that they were bringing a child into a world that was not worth being born in. But, in the blink of a child's eye, none of those worries seemed to matter to the new parents. The first recorded parents, they would later find out, to have a child after the Arrival of the Tribunal.
A light blinked in the deep jungle. Through the fallen trees, down a shallow trench, at the base of a waterfall, the light began to blink. After months of blackness since the Arrival of the Tribunal, a deep blue light echoed through the clear water in the waterfall basin. The light had been waiting for its moment, and as made its way through the trench, breaking through the remains of fallen trees, and out into orbit, it set its course to the destination it was waiting for.
"Jesus Christ, Brad. She's been alive for five hours and you already want to kill her?"
Jenn took her eyes off their screaming child for a split second to berate her husband's swerving hands on the steering wheel. "It's bad enough that the roads are garbage, but you could drive a little slower."
"I'm sorry," Bradley responded, "I'm just excited, and she's yelling, and there's just so much debris on the roads." He took a deep breath, "You're right. I'll go slower."
"Your father is a smart man, Ali. He knows when to listen to the brains of our team." Jenn's fingers traced her crying child's face. "How long before her cries haunt our dreams, do you think?"
"It's cute you think we'll have any sleep for the next two years." Bradley set his right hand on his wife's leg and marveled at his child.
"Eyes on the road, captain. I'll let you have some one-on-one time once we're home." Jenn lifted his hand and placed it back on the wheel. She took a deep breath and looked off into the distance. Somehow, in the midst of all that was left after the destruction that had taken place, being in the car with her husband and her child gave her a sense of comfort and security that she had never felt before.
As they exited the outskirts of the city and entered a country road, however, she noticed a light in the distance. "I thought this was a one way?" she asked.
"Yeah, it is. This idiot is going to hurt somebody," Bradley steered off the country road onto the pasture. The light started getting larger as it got closer. "What is he doing?" Jenn asked her husband. Bradley began to drive further away from the road, but the growing light moved in a parallel direction, always facing the front of the car.
"Brad. Stop the car. Stop the car now."
"He's going to hit us if we stand still, we need to move." Bradley sped up and drove back towards the road. The light followed and grew larger and larger as it approached the couple.
Suddenly as the brightness overtook the couple and lit up the entire windshield, the light disappeared, crashing a couple feet into the ground in front of them.
"Brad, what was that?"
"I don't know. Stay in the car."
"What the fuck you mean, 'stay in the car'? You can't seriously be thinking of going out there. Bradley, what if it's the Tribunal?"
"Jenn, it's not the Tribunal. I just want to make sure that we're safe."
"Bradley. Do not make your daughter live her life without her father."
"It'll be fine. Stay in the car."
Bradley exited the car and approached a small crater that had formed in front of their vehicle. The headlights lit up part of the crater, but the depth of the crater formed a shadow that covered the bottom of the void. As Bradley approached the earthly dip, the deep blue illumination flared up again, this time more dimly lit than before. The light floated out of the crater and began creeping its way towards the car. Upon arriving at the windshield, the light passed through, as the glass spread apart like curtains, only to return to its solid state once the fluorescent passenger made it through. Arriving at its destination, the light set itself on the chest of the baby, whose cries had suddenly stopped. Soon, the blue brightness faded away, and in its place was a ring.
"Brad. Holy shit. Brad." Jenn opened the door and jumped out, gripping her child and dropping the ring to the floor. "It's a fucking ring."
"A ring? What kind of ring?"
"Like that Green Lantern rings. Brad, it's a fucking Green Lantern ring and it chose our daughter.
"Jenn, I don't understand. What do you mean it chose our daughter? Why would it choose her?"
"I don't know, Brad, but these rings, they're given to people so they can become Green Lanterns. That's how they get their powers."
Bradley walked towards the ring and picked it up.
"Well, I don't think this is a Green Lantern ring," he said as he analyzed the ring, "for starters, it's blue"
"Don't fucking joke with me, Brad. You know what I mean. Oh my god, if the government finds out, they're going to kill us. They're going to kill us, and then they're going to take our daughter."
"Jenn, they're not going to take our daughter. They won't know. We live in the middle of nowhere. We'll be fine," Bradley grabbed the ring and placed it on his finger, when a sudden feeling of burning overtook his hand, hurting him as he dropped the ring to the ground. "Ah, shit ."
"Bradley, what are you doing? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I guess the ring doesn't want to be worn by anyone else," he bent over and picked up the ring one more time, and gripping it tightly with his fist, "probably some kind of security thing so that only she can wear it."
The young husband approached his wife and grabbed her by the shoulders as he looked at his child.
"Listen, we will keep this ring away, and take it a day at a time. Her fingers are too small to even fit the ring, so I think it will understand if its owner doesn't wear it yet. We don't tell anyone, and the government won't find out," Bradley gently rubbed his wife's shoulders, "I know you're scared, but the government is only going after the Justice League and the other famous people with powers. If we keep quiet, everything will be fine. Besides," Bradley reached down to kiss his daughter's forehead, "This won't last. We need the Justice League. We need heroes so that things like the Tribunal don't happen again. After the dust settles and the hysteria is over, the people will realize that."
The young couple made their way home, and although they would not tell each other for years, they both began to pray that they would have a normal life every night before they went to bed. They prayed for their daughter so that she would never find out about the ring.
The next weeks, the young couple lived in paranoia. They avoided all police officers, even letting a drunk driver get away after he t-boned them. Soon, the weeks became months, and the months became years, and suddenly, Ali was asking her parents for permission to see PG-13 movies. The old building fell apart and in their place, new buildings were built, and soon, the Tribunal became an event that happened years ago, and besides the memorial, there was no real evidence of it. Soon, the daughter that they feared they'd lose to the government was getting ready to move to Metropolis to attend Met U, and the parents stopped praying for a normal life, as they were given one.
"Hello?"
A man answered his phone in between sips of his iced coffee as he sat alone at Metropolis Cafe. "Yes, her move-in date is in two weeks," the man said, as he pulled out multiple sheets of paper from a manila envelope, "but she's been here to visit the campus a couple of times. She looks good. Happy."
"What about the others?" the voice at the end of the line buzzed. "I may have found one. I'm looking at her right now if you want to join me," the man in the cafe replied, "but it may take some time. I think she's onto me."
"Well, I have all the time in the world, J'onn," the voice chuckled, "it's not like I'm getting any older."
"True, but even immortality has its consequences, I assume," J'onn said, setting down his iced coffee, "she's turning onto 5th and Maple."
J'onn looked at the stop lights in the intersection and saw as the street cameras turned to the direction of a blonde woman. She was wearing a long, black coat and a red floppy wool hat. On her face, a large pair of sunglasses sat over her eyes, the only accessory she was wearing in the absence of any jewelry or piercings.
As J'onn saw her cross the street towards him, her face tilted as she realized that he was watching her. She smiled at him, and J'onn nodded back before he pretended to keep looking in the direction that she came from.
"You're not very good at this detective thing, no wonder she's onto you," the voice on the phone laughed, "Let me know how it goes. I'll try to stay in one place."
"I'm glad your sense of humor is still intact. I'll meet you in a couple of days."
"J'onn," the voice interjected, just before the call was disconnected, "don't go super. I don't need you getting arrested."
J'onn hung up the phone and looked down at the pages he was holding.
Congratulations, Alison! You've been accepted to Metropolis University! Attached you will find …
Maybe, he thought, maybe this is exactly what we need.
RISE BLUE LANTERN