GREEN LANTERN

FOR A DAY

BY: JOSEPH Di FRANCESCA

One day, a cracked ring with a lantern design on it showed up with a glow as it floated in the air before me. I have no idea how but it spoke to me. "Tony Li Chan of Earth, you have been chosen", it said to me.

Once on my finger it began to glow bright but it didn't hurt my eyes at all to look at it.

Suddenly, I was lost in what seemed like a day dream. While somehow inside my head I was given the history and the knowledge of how to use the ring.

When the light dimmed down I was dressed in the uniform of a Green Lantern, a member of the Intergalactic Police Force. Choosen from the Guardians of the planet Oa. Well, that's what I swear ring told me anyway.

As it preps to take me to Oa, I'm encased in a protective bubble around my body as I levitate off of the ground and into the open sky.

I imagine myself feeling like an F-15 fighter jet. Then before I know it the bubble closes in on me. Shaping the lower half of my body to resemble that of the fighter jet that I was thinking of.

Within moments I find myself in space leaving Earth's atmosphere amazed by how the ring's green bubble that shrunk down to highlight my body. Is allowing me to breathe up here.

But my amazement faded quickly when the ring spoke out. "Warning incoming threat, Armorphian Soldier. Level high."

I look over to see an Armored Man head straight towards me.

The Armorphian as the ring calls it opens fire on me. I evade the blasts easy as I fly out of his way but he was ready for me.

That first attack must have been a diversion because here comes a missile. At that moment all I could think of was that rodeo movie I was in last week. I was just a stunt extra in the rampaging bull scene. But for some reason it just stuck into my head.

So I quickly create a lasso, throw it around the missile and swing it back at him.

He dodges the missle and comes charging back at me with a sword made from his hand.

I franticly duck and dodge his sword attacks as it swings at me with every intention to hack a piece of me off or cut me in half.

And just as fast as I wished I had my broad swords with me...they suddenly appear in my hands.

I block and retaliate with a set of broad swords of my own design manifested from this glowing emerald alien ring.

This Armorphian as the ring calls it doesn't know who he's messing with. I am a stunt man for Asian movies. I've studied Ba Gua Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Capoeria, Juijitsu and my Sambo lessons start next week. Plus I've read The Way of the Rain. I also have have knowledge of many weapons so this is my thing. I block his sword with a broad sword that I created and go for a thrust using the broad sword I created in my other hand.

He blocks my slash attempt with a sheild so I reshape my broad swords into hook swords and rip his sheild out of his hand.

The sheild disintergrates as it falls away from the Armorphian.

He transforms his sword into an axe and takes a mighty swing. I deflect it just in time with a sheild of my own.

Then I form a spear to keep some distance between us.

He knows my plan and attacks with a flail. I quickly pull back my spear turning it into a trident catching the ball of the flail.

Then with all of my might I pull him him down off balance then strike him with the blunt end of my trident's shaft.

I daze him for a second so I move in to capitolize on him but he recovers and counters quickly with a gattlin gun. My protective suit does it's job saving me from being shot like it does when being set on fire or blown up in stunts. But I'll admit, I am sore from that attack.

As I look up I see him launching a barrage of missiles.

I deflect each one of them with projected sheilds slapping them out of the way. That was easy but here comes the hard part.

The Armorphian is now coming at me like an octopus with multiple arms and legs. I try to block all the techniques but I'm caught off guard and out limbed. I'm hurt, tired and this is all new to me.

He slowly approaches me with various weapons, one in each hand and guns trained on me. This is not cool. I have the ability to create any construct from my imagination all thanks to this ring. This Armorphian can morph his armor into anything too. This makes him my equal as far as powers go. So I guess I'll just have to be more creative and out think this guy. If I can stage a fall from a blocking counter to a flying sidekick on the side of a building, fall four stories and manage to hit every ledge on purpose plus a sign on the way down. Then I can get this too, easy.

First I block his chainsaw with on off my own. Only mine is rotating in reverse, placing them in a deadlock.

That is until I push harder and make my saw throw his off track.

I then block his sword with a jutte.

It's nickname is the sword breaker and I do just that.

I block his nunchucku and disarm him by rotating and striking him with my tonfa.

For the axe I use hedge shears to block the chopping attack and cut off the blade before he can withdrawl the thing.

For the gattlin gun I used a kama to jam the barrel...

...and watched as it back-fired.

All the while I'm using a san-setsu to block his knived feet from kicking me.

The Armorphian then backs himself up. I suddenly notice that the unused appendage of his looks like a cannon.

He fires a net out of it.

I throw a chain whip spiralling into the center of it, then twirl it around, tangling up the net and redirect the whip covered by the net right into his face.

Hopefully that's my window, so I charge in all energy focused on my jumping knee strike.

My ring interprets it as a stampeding elephant followed by a falling elbow strike viewed as an elephant's trunk crashing down on the Armorphian.

I finish with a somersault axe kick measured by the ring as the same force an aggressive elephant's stomp has.

As the Armorphian is dazed in his concussions. Hopefully he gets concussions. I decided to have a little fun. I use the ring to make a pair of pants for him and then give the Armorphian an atomic wedgie that ties him up.

Out of nowhere I hear a voice. I look over to see another Green Lantern. "You have a ring with limitless power and you use it to do childish shananigans against someone who not only tried to kill you but did kill the ring's previous owner." He says to me.

"Who are you?" I reply.

"My name is Hal Jordan, I'm the Green Lantern of sector 2814. That's this sector. I'm sorry to say but that ring of yours was suppose to return home." He tells me.

He points his ring at mine, his glows, mine glows then it floats off of my finger and into his hand.

As he inspects the ring Hal explains. "There's the problem, it's cracked. The damage from the fight must have disrupted it's internal programming."

"Well at least you got to have some fun with a cosmic weapon for a day. Maybe when you mature a little you can get chosen for real next time. See ya, kid." That's what he tells me as he flys off with the ring, the Armorphian in a cage and with little thoughts of my skills. Selling me short because he didn't see me personally do my performance just like in the movies. Another faceless name lost in the sea of credits overlooked by the critics.

THE END.