Eclipse of the Eternal Light
Hal Jordan, known to his friends and enemies as the Green Lantern, was trying to clear his head, flying through an area of space that he had not traversed before. It was a thrill that he could never quench: wanting to explore the farthest reaches of the universe. To expand his own final frontier.
He was about to turn around to return to Earth when he noticed what seemed to be a void in the middle of space. He flew towards the void to inspect it, but then the strange void caused a tear in space, big enough for a person to fit through. It was like nothing he had ever seen before.
Completely by instinct, he flew into the strange hole, and when he entered the other side, he found himself in another dimension. There was an intangible floor underneath him, and he hesitantly placed his feet on it and began to walk around cautiously, trying to figure out where exactly he was.
All of a sudden, there were a few creatures who were rushing towards him in the distance. Hal readied his ring and aimed it at the hostiles, but then suddenly they disappeared. Hal Jordan put a shield around himself, and within a few seconds, the strange enemies showed themselves and started tearing down his shield. He flew up and blasted at one of them. His ring's power passed right through the creature. Astonished and confused, he noticed that these enemies were made of pure light. So instead he shot a beam of energy at the floor underneath them and shattered the floor, causing the creatures to fall down the bottomless pit below them all.
Hal tried flying faster to reach what seemed like the other side of the place, but suddenly he heard a booming voice surrounding him at all angles.
"Welcome to the astral plane, Hal Jordan. I am Onslaught, ruler of this dimension. You are not welcome here, and you will certainly not leave here alive. I sense great willpower in you. However, there is no being whose will I cannot bend."
The entity known as Onslaught, after introducing himself, appeared before him. Hal seemed like an ant compared to Onslaught, for the being seemed over 100 feet tall. Onslaught simply put his finger towards Hal's chest, and despite Hal putting up a massive shield, flicked him like a flea, launching the Green Lantern into an intangible wall. "You are nothing compared to me, Lantern. Your ring is the only thing in my way of vaporizing you where you stand."
Onslaught projected several beams from his head to control Hal Jordan's mind, and quickly the Green Lantern's ring glowed brighter than it ever have before and he placed a shield around himself and shot some beams of energy out to neutralize Onslaught's attacks. Hal was taking his power to the breaking point, and then Onslaught began clawing at his shield. Hal starting doubting that he would survive any longer, but his spirit kept him from dropping the shield. He recited his oath as his ring began to glow like it never had before:
In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight Let those who worship evil's might, Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!
As he recited those words, Hal started to finally turn the tides in his favor. Knowing this, Onslaught summoned several of his astral underlings on Hal. The Green Lantern couldn't take all of them directly, and he noticed his ring was losing its charge from using it at full power, so he flew around the enemies and onto Onslaught's back and created a machine gun out of green energy and started shooting at Onslaught and his cronies.
Hal Jordan flew as fast as he could to prevent the inevitable ambush that would have occurred. Onslaught fired a powerful beam of mental energy at the Green Lantern, but before it struck Hal he skillfully swerved around it and the beam hit a wall of the astral plane, creating a crack similar to the one Hal used to enter this nightmare of a dimension. Hal quickly formed an axe with his ring and chopped at the crack a few times to break the hole open further. As Onslaught flew towards Jordan to prevent him from leaving, Hal flew through the crack to the other side and without a second thought started to close the hole behind him so Onslaught would not continue his attack. Hal closed it as small as he could and then quickly flew away. He needed to get back to Earth to recharge his power ring.
When he arrived at Earth, he noticed something different. There was no Justice League watchtower, no Cadmus satellites orbiting the planet. This wasn't the world he knew.
His ring was barely keeping him alive, because he knew if his ring lost all power he would float through space aimlessly and die an excruciating death. Things seemed to get worse when he discovered he was too close to the Earth's gravitational pull. He had to use all the willpower he had to keep him shielded as he rocketed towards the Earth. Intense heat surrounded him as he came screaming towards what appeared to be New York City. He tried with all his might to slow himself down as he reached the atmosphere, but he eventually hit the floor hard enough that the pavement he crash landed on was demolished. He knew he was at least alive, but he had broken his left arm and possibly a few ribs. He staggered up off the ground and faintly flew a few inches off the ground to seek medical help.
As he flew through Midtown, New York City, he felt his energy draining, and his last reserves of his strength were the only things keeping him alive. He couldn't fly any longer, so he reluctantly touched down to the ground and began walking.
Suddenly, the ground underneath him began to shake.
In the distance, Hal heard huge footsteps. He prepared himself for a fight, even though he was in no condition for one. Hal then saw the culprits: three giant robots were parading through the streets, and they were giving chase to a group of people in yellow and blue spandex and a man in a wheelchair. "I'm going to guess those are this planet's superheroes," Hal said to himself and he slowly walked towards them.
One of the men had claws and was slicing away at the giant robots. Another grasped his visor and shot a laser beam that cut through one of the robots. There was a woman who, when she rolled her eyes, changed the weather and lightning struck down at the robots. Hal walked towards the man in the wheelchair, who as soon as he got close enough, beamed something into his mind.
"Hello, Hal. Yes, I know your name because I am inside your mind. I see that who do not mean to hurt us, and to answer your question, the giant Sentinels as they are called want to… and will. My name is Charles Xavier. These are my X-Men, who protect the innocent from threats like this."
Hal Jordan was slightly surprised, but remembered his friend Martian Manhunter could do the same. He spoke up and responded, "I've been to New York dozens of times and I've never even seen you or these… things." Charles replied, vocally because he figured Hal would be more comfortable if he simply talked to him, "Then you must be from a different universe. This has happened before. You are severely injured, you should return with us to heal your wounds." Hal agreed and staggered a little, nearly falling down but managing to pick himself back up. Xavier said, "You seem worse than I previously thought… I am going to put you in a comatose-like state for the time being. Do you mind?" Hal nodded his head, and Charles closed his eyes and concentrated, causing Hal to slowly pass out.
Shortly afterwards, Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, and the other X-Men finished off the Sentinels and went towards Xavier, wondering who the stranger was that he was talking to. Charles explained to them that Hal was a hero from another universe, and was injured and needed a place to stay. "Show him to a hospital, there's enough of them in this city." Charles pointed to Hal, who was collapsed on the ground and said, "I don't think that's an option at this point." Wolverine snarled and picked Hal Jordan off the ground and carried him back to the Jean Grey Institute, and the rest of them followed.
Once the team arrived at their base, Wolverine and Cyclops carried Hal up the steps and placed the Green Lantern in one of the guest rooms, laying him down on the bed in the corner of the room. Cyclops took the ring off Lantern, and the green costume dissipated, revealing his civilian clothes. Cyclops looked at the ring, examining it, and said, "This ring must be run on some sort of power source." The mutant known as Scott Summers went down to the basement and handed it to fellow X-Man Forge, an expert on weaponry.
Charles slowly wheeled down the halls, on his way to his office to look over some paperwork, when Eric Lensherr, also known as the newly-reformed mutant Magneto, walked in front of him.
"So, Charles, I guess we're letting just anyone stay here, aren't we?"
"Eric, the man was lost. I remember a time where we both felt the same. Once he is healed, I'll feel better about letting him find his way back to wherever he came from."
Eric walked away, shaking his head, and Charles continued on his way, and not another word was spoken between them. They knew each other too well to argue further.
Meanwhile, Forge, accompanied by another X-Man, Beast, were studying the glowing green ring downstairs. "So," Beast said, "This thing is supposed to run on some sort of unknown alien power source…" "Yes," Forge replied, "BUT… it appears to be losing its charge. It must either have an energy cap or it has a timed charge it seems. "
"I think there might be one thing here that could recharge this."
"You don't mean… we're not supposed to even touch it!"
"Just tell the Professor we were curious…"
And with that, Forge left his chair and opened a vault. The vault, though large, only contained a small crystal, about the size of a baseball. "The M'Kraan crystal…" Forge said, "One of the most powerful power sources in the known universe. If THIS doesn't do anything to this ring, then nothing here will."
They placed the ring next to the crystal on a table, and didn't see anything happen. Forge was less than amused, until Charles came through the door and said, "I appreciate the effort, but there is another step to recharging that ring. And don't worry, you're not in trouble for using the crystal, I would have too in your situation."
Charles wheeled toward the table and said, "The ring in order to recharge requires that you recite the Green Lantern speech…" He noticed Forge and Beast just looking at him in disbelief. "Let's just say I searched his mind a little more than he'll know," Charles finished.
"In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, Beware my power, Green Lantern's light", Charles shouted, and as soon as he finished, the ring started to glow immensely, sparkling with intense green light. "I-I think someone should try it on, you know, to see if it's alright…" Forge said. Professor Xavier decided to put on the ring on, and after he secured it on his finger, the ring projected the same green costume on Charles as it always did to Hal. Then, something happened that no one would belief…
Xavier stood up. Then he started flying above Forge and Beast, who were astonished at the power of the ring. They encouraged Xavier to go upstairs and show the rest of the team. Charles flew up the stairs and outside and called the X-men to the front door. Charles landed on the ground and stood, and as soon as the team saw Charles standing up, after all this time, Storm ran to him and hugged him tightly. Wolverine smiled and Cyclops walked towards Charles and shook his hand. Magneto was leaning against the door, and he tipped his helmet to Charles and walked back inside.
The next day, Cyclops and Nightcrawler were watching the news in Hal's room, to make sure he was stable, and Hal began to blink his eyes. Hal eventually woke up and tried to sit up in his bed, and Cyclops helped him up. Nightcrawler teleported out of the room to inform the Professor, and seconds later, both Charles and Nightcrawler teleported back into the room. "Welcome back," Charles said, "Are you alright?" Hal immediately noticed Charles wearing the ring and said, "What are you doing with that? And how is that still working?" "We found a way," Charles replied. Hal added, "…And you're able to stand! That's incredible, I didn't know the ring could do that."
"Actually, I didn't," Charles smiled and said, "The ring must have been able to read my desire to walk, and created two leg braces that now allow me to stand in front of you."
All of a sudden, Storm burst through the door and said, "Professor, you're going to want to see this. Scott, change the TV to channel 7." Scott clicked the remote, and the channel showed a breaking news story. It showed that Onslaught had come to Earth and was terrorizing downtown New York City. Hal spoke up and said, "He came back for me. I need to finish this!-" Hal held his side and groaned in pain. Xavier said to Hal, "You need to stay here and rest, Mr. Jordan." He then turned to the team and told them to get into the jet out back and fly to Onslaught's location and help the people. Before Charles flew out the window to assist the X-Men, he told Hal to stay here for his own good.
Hal just sat in bed, feeling angry. Not because Professor Xavier was wearing the ring, not because he was stuck here. Because Onslaught was here to finish the job of killing Hal, and he knew no one would stand in his way. Hal pretended to fall asleep and waited until Beast left the room, then got out of bed and walked into the halls. He remembered Professor Xavier said something about jets, and with his Air Force experience, Hal knew how he could help.
Meanwhile, the X-Men were escorting innocent people out of the area, and Professor Xavier flew up at Onslaught and warned him to stop. Onslaught was floating over the city, with a portal to his astral plane behind him. "So, you are wearing the Lantern's ring. So he is here… I will destroy you and your pathetic team, than I will find and annihilate Hal Jordan," Onslaught exclaimed, and sent out mental blasts of energy at Xavier, who swatted them away. Onslaught quickly realized a telepath with this weapon would be more of a bother than he previously thought, and Onslaught started attacking Xavier with everything he had.
Xavier was putting up shield after shield to protect himself, with Onslaught breaking every single one of them. Xavier started projecting guns and weapons to attack Onslaught with, but Onslaught was too prepared for it and smashed them with his talons. He lifted his right claw and was about to slash Xavier's last shield into pieces, when all of a sudden he was bombarded unexpectedly by missiles.
It was Hal Jordan, flying one of the X-Men supersonic jets. Onslaught became enraged and took his focus off Xavier and started swinging at Hal in the ship. Hal's experience behind the pilot seat allowed him to swerve around his talons and fire the machine guns on the front of the ship. It allowed Xavier to charge up an attack to shoot Onslaught back into the portal behind him. Hal shot a rocket at Onslaught to prevent him from coming back out, and Cyclops, from the ground, shot out a furious laser beam at the rocket before impact to blow up in Onslaught's face, phasing him enough for Xavier to force the portal shut.
Normally, this would have been a joyous occasion, but with Hal losing his only known way home, everyone was silent. All of them grouped together on the ground, with Hal landing the ship near them, and Xavier called over Wolverine and Cyclops. He told them grab a hold of his shoulders as he took off the ring. The two X-Men held Xavier up, and Hal walked towards the professor. Xavier handed Hal the ring, and once Mr. Jordan put the ring back on, he was the Green Lantern once more. Xavier told Hal that there were many places in the far reaches of the galaxy that had ways of reaching other dimensions. Hal thanked the professor and said goodbye to the X-Men, flying away to find a way home.