I only owe my character, Lea Thompson aka Midnight Hope…Along with a future character not yet mentioned. The rest of the characters belong to their respective owners that belong to Green Lantern Animated and Ben 10 Omniverse.
Enjoy and no flamed reviews, please. This is collaborated with my user friend/partner, Alvaxerox.
Even the brightest of days can have their blackest nights. Although it may sound like the beginning parts of the Green Lantern oath to you, it has an understandable meaning to some of us. Specifically, me. Because what started out as a great Summer in being a Lantern and having a boyfriend later took a dark turn. One where it involved me confronting something horrific.
Lea sees herself running away from an orange shade of light. She kept running, but the orange light was getting closer.
"Can't run forever...Got to hide...Got to find help!" Lea muttered to herself in panic.
She soon found herself in a dead-end tunnel. Although the blonde teen can just become a Blue Lantern, her ring appeared to be missing.
"No! Not now!" Lea said in fear, too scared to look back, and just hid behind a nearby dumpster.
The orange light then looked around to find Lea, but it left. Lea sighed in relief, believing the threat was gone... until a hole was punched into the side of the dumpster, and a head popped out.
"FOUND YOU!" The orange light formed a person, but not just any person.
It was Hal Jordan... as an Orange Lantern.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
Lea suddenly woke up screaming; followed by falling off the bed.
"Ow...Not again," she groaned.
She looked outside her window. It was still night. Lately, she's been having nightmares of Hal as an Orange Lantern. Only he was more demonic than how Hal described it for her.
"I have got to talk to someone about this," Lea said to herself, rubbing her head while getting back up to bed.
I know it's stupid to be scared of a past form Hal Jordan became, but there was something about Orange Lantern Hal that ran shivers down my spine. At first, I wasn't scared to hear the tale of Hal and his team going to Okaara in search of the Orange Lantern battery. But every once in a while, I keep getting nightmares about Hal corrupted by that Lantern Corp enough to not recognize me...and hurt me.
I could never tell Hal about this. Otherwise, he might be offended or think I'm a baby or something like that. Luckily, I finally have someone to talk about these things without writing/drawing them down on my drawing book.
The next day had come, and the sun was rising. Lea had woken up and ate her breakfast. After that, she ran over to somewhere in a rush.
Just as she was on her way, Lea sent a quick text to a certain guy of hers to meet at the park.
"I hope he gets there all right to the Coast City park," Lea muttered to herself, holding on to the straps of her backpack.
Lea then got a text from Hal. It reads. 'Lea. I've been called to Oa on Honor Guard duty. Be back in a while. Take care while I'm gone. - Hal.'
Lea felt some small relief on that message while texting back.
'That's fine, Hal. See you when you get back.-Lea'
I'm actually glad Hal is out of Earth for a short time. If anything, I was originally going to talk to Ben Tennyson about my problem. This made things way easier.
She later walked down to the Coast City Park to find Ben.
"All right, Ben...Where are you?" Lea said, looking around the park.
As she looked around, people were playing and hanging out at the park. It looked like Ben wasn't here...until she felt a tap on her shoulder and became startled, as she looked behind her to see it was only Ben.
"Hey, Lea. Sorry about that. I just wanted to surprise you," Ben apologized.
"Ben! I'm glad to see you again," Lea said, hugging him warmly. "Knowing you made it is the only surprise I need."
"Thanks. So, what do you wanna do?" Ben asked.
"...Can we chat somewhere around here or anywhere? I've been going through some stuff where I need someone to talk to," Lea requested.
"Sure." Ben agreed. "But where?"
"Hmmm...I might have an idea. Follow me," Lea said, taking Ben's hand and moving further to the park.
Besides the Rabbit Café, I know another good spot around the park I would always go to as my little sanctuary to draw in peace while enjoying nature.
Soon, Lea showed Ben a special pond behind the bushes with a bench to sit at and a tree above to give shade.
"Wow." Ben said as he looks at the Lea's secret spot of the park. "This place seems quiet."
"Yeah. My uncle introduced me to the place when I was a little girl," Lea said, placing a hand on the tree to get some sentimental memories. "We would always come here to sketch new stuff together and collaborate different ideas. This is also be the perfect spot to talk about personal stuff in secret with him."
"He sounds like a very good uncle." Ben said.
"He is...You would've liked him," Lea said, taking her seat on the bench. "Anyway, let's get back on topic. I didn't bring you here just to talk about my secret spot at the park. I wanted to talk to you about...an unpleasant nightmare I've been getting for a long while. Something I haven't told Hal about."
"Oh..." Ben realized, noticing the troubled look and tone his girlfriend had. "What was the nightmare?"
Taking a deep breath, Lea had Ben sit down next to her and told him everything. Where the nightmare originated, how it's visualized, and even sharing a few drawings of what she saw.
Ben looked at the drawings, and see what Lea was talking about. "Green Lantern as an Orange Lantern...and he was trying to kill you?"
Lea nodded in response, rubbing her arms a bit. "Ever since GL told me the story of how he once got corrupted by the Orange Lantern Battery of Avarice wielding a lot of Orange Lantern rings on both hands, I've been getting terrible dreams about it occasionally. The way he described himself in that form made me wonder if he would end up too selfish and greedy in not remembering his own team...Perhaps not remember me."
"Whoa...I guess not all Lantern colors in the universe are good," Ben said.
"You have no idea," Lea deadpanned. "I can name a few Lantern groups that are on the not-so-good list. However, I learned that it's the wielder who determines which side they're on, not the Lantern power. Otherwise, I wouldn't be a fan of a Red and Blue Lantern. Even when he started out as Red Lantern of Rage."
"Well, even if Green Lantern does turn insane with Orange Lantern's power of greed, he'll probably still remember, but only to see you as an enemy," Ben said. "From what you described; greed also creates paranoia."
"GL also mentioned about that Orange Lantern battery doing that to him," Lea replied, now rubbing her legs. "He got paranoid in thinking his team was against him and bolted off the ship out of madness. I even thought of telling him about my nightmares...but I'm scared of what he'll think."
"You probably think he'll judge you if you tell him, huh?" Ben asked.
"Exactly. I know GL and I have been friends for almost five years now, but there are some things I never had the guts to tell him," Lea sighed. "One time, he caught me falling out of bed and screaming from another nightmare in the middle of the night. Instead of telling him the Evil Orange Lantern situation, I lied that I had a nightmare about hypnotists...which are around my Top Three or Five things that mortify me."
"Well, you could say that's a half-truth." Ben replied.
"Fai enough...Please, don't tell anyone about me being scared hypnotists," Lea said quickly, having her hands together in a pleading way. "I know it's a lame fear. I just had a bad experience where I never saw nor ate flan the same ever again from that very day."
"I won't," Ben said, placing hands on Lea's shoulders in assurance. "I promise."
This made Lea calm down and smile warmly. "Thanks, Ben. It feels nice to admit these things without keeping them to myself. It's hard."
"Yeah, I could understand. My Grandpa Max kept his Plumber job a secret from me for 16 years. Heck, he even told me he wanted to tell me." Ben said.
"Yeah...I also have my own theories about GL not telling me everything with me," Lea admitted, holding back a laugh. "I even caught his bluff on one story he was making up to cover up the truth that involved battling a Green Lantern recruit. And Kilowog confirmed it."
"What story?" Ben asked.
"Just the time GL made a bet with Kilowog, who is also another Green Lantern, about beating his best recruit," Lea explained, unable to hide her smile. "Sector Recruit 1014, to be exact. From how GL described it, I knew he was hiding the fact that he lost under a minute...and the recruit wasn't even a huge reptile. It was a small squirrel!"
Ben then burst out laughing. "Seriously?! A Green Lantern squirrel!?" He asked. "GL must've been so humiliated."
"He was!" Lea responded, laughing with Ben on that. "And cocky. Why do you think he never told me the real story? Even GL has his tells when it comes to lying. This is also the same Lantern who thought my theory on alien vampires existing was crazy. I knew he was bending the truth on that part. The rest were all real."
Ben continued laughing. "He probably didn't want you to believe him." He said.
"True," Lea said; getting the giggles out of her system. "Feels nice to let it out of my chest."
"Yeah, sounds like keeping secrets is far more complicated," Ben said.
"Guess GL makes it looks easy," Lea shrugged. "What do you say we go somewhere fun tonight? Something to get both our minds away from all this stress."
"I like that," Ben replied with a grin. "What do you have in mind?"
"Hmmmm...I think there's supposed to be a special event happening in Coast City," Lea said, checking her phone on any fun activities going on in Coast City. "Maybe we can do that together. And, if Hal's still not back, we can have your grandfather chaperone us or have him drop us off there."
"Sure. I'll call my grandpa and ask him." Ben said, getting his phone.
While Ben does that, Lea was able to find something. "Oh! There's a carnival happening tonight. It's been a while since I've been in one of those."
"Okay...thanks, Grandpa. We'll meet you at the entrance. Bye," Ben hung up his phone. "Good news; my grandpa said he'll chaperone us."
"Perfect! Pick me up at 7 tonight?" Lea asked.
"Sure thing," Ben said, as he clicked his tongue.
After admitting my major fears to the boy that I love, I thought things would get better and be easy with just one night of fun. Unfortunately, little did I know...That the nightmares were about to begin for all of us.
To Be Continued…