Just as a quick note, I'm familiar with a lot of things about how the Green Lantern's work, or at least their power and what their purpose is, and even though I do know of a lot of their stories I don't really read comics. I think they've hit this peak of nonsense. So this is mostly a fanfic inspired by rather then direct from comic to fic. That doesn't mean I won't have some events be almost identical but the main character is an OC (which I think is better then me trying to write a character I don't really know that well or rather has been written about a thousand times over.) Anyway, I don't have much else to say I suppose so enjoy.
RESUBMITTED CHAPTER NOTE: So, after I finished writing this chapter I intended on revising a section of it, but forgot to save and ended up uploading the file before it was edited. The revision was about his current job. I had him as a construction worker but decided near the end that I'd rather have him be a technical/engineering/programmer type. Basically anything to do with technology he has a knack for, though he never finished university. Anyway, sorry to the 4 of you that have already read this chapter.
It was a sunny day at Alouette Lake, the surrounding tree line was calm and peaceful, and my camping site was just about fully packed up. I didn't go camping enough, as much as I loved the outdoors I spent a lot of time reading, playing board games, video games, TTRPG's... etc etc. I especially loved the freedom of TTRPG's. I game played mostly with voice and description, followed by dice rolls and character sheets with stats to determine your strengths and weaknesses. If you had the imagination and creativity for it, those games could be an excellent outlet for story telling, puzzle solving in odd and outlandish ways, insane combat scenarios dreamt up by the players and the DM. I guess the limitations of being a human being were the only thing keeping me from actually doing stuff like that myself.
Then again, there were plenty of heroes and villains out there that had been involved in similar situations given the world we live in. Maybe I should say universe, given that there are aliens, gods, and monsters that exist in our reality. Prime example? Superman, Wonderwoman, and Batman. Alien, Goddess, and even though he's technically a non-powered hero, monster by all rights. The guy instills fear in people to make them behave, which is weird given the stark contrast to the boy scout he's supposedly friends with. Then again, this is mostly speculation and rumour and it's not like I knew any of these people at the time. I was just an ignorant young man with no real direction. Craving adventure, bored with life.
I couldn't really tell you why, but I never found real motivation to accomplish anything like most people would. There was no drive for any kind of career, everything I tried or considered seemed... empty. Even with the hobbies that I love, I sometimes found myself not interested in partaking in D&D sessions. I would sometimes sit and stare at my monitor, trying to decide if I wanted to watch a movie, a series, or play a video game, and end up doing that for a few minutes before just walking away from it entirely. I didn't know what to do with myself. Sometimes I enjoyed going out to a bar or restaurant with friends or out on a date, but in the end I found it a little hard to connect to people. I'm not anti-social, I'm am mostly an introvert but going out from time to time probably keeps me from going completely insane.
Hence the reason I went for a solo camping trip. Isolating myself in my place with technology around isn't the same from detaching myself from society and connecting with the world. Don't mistake me for a hippy or a tree-hugger, it's not like that. I was born in the suburbs, but my friends and family would joke that I should have been a country boy or something of the like. I am of the firm belief that people forgot how to live with the earth, and are now just living on it. A sentiment that has been shared by many, but I think only fully understood by those who live on ranches and prefer sleeping in the woods in a tent on the ground, rather then in an RV.
This isn't a story about nature, or political standing I assure you... though I do suppose at some point similar points will re-emerge all through out, but that is unavoidable considering those two things are a major part of life. I didn't realize how much it would be apart of all life through out the universe however, until I noticed a green light in the sky.
As much as I wanted to leave early, I couldn't tear myself away from my secluded camp site. It was just before summer, the weather was good, but not quite the time of year where everybody and their dog goes camping. I went out in a rental row boat one last time after packing nearly everything into my pick up, and drifted on the water as I tried to focus my thoughts on what I should do with my life.
I was 25, and I still didn't know what I wanted to do. More over, I went to school for a few different things, I focused mostly on anything to do with tech. Engineering, programming, coding, etc etc, but I would always get bored and dropped out before completing my courses. My parents were none to happy about this. I had a job as an IT guy at a branch of LexCorp in BC... but that ended poorly. Now, I just design and program indie video games every now and again. Sometimes solo projects, sometimes I join forces with other devs. It's still not what I'm looking for though.
I laid down in the tiny boat, making myself as comfortable as possible, and watched the birds over head. I smiled, wondering what it would be like to fly. How free it must feel. Superman and the other heroes with the ability to fly were lucky. I decided the next thing I would look into doing was getting my pilot's license and imagined what it would be like to fly like one of the meta-humans/aliens/gods as I inadvertently fell asleep.
I remember dreaming about being in the sky, free falling, like I had done before while sky diving. Only I wasn't sure where I was. All I could see was an endless field of grey-blue with dark grey clouds all around me. I would have doubted that I was falling if it wasn't for the rushing wind blowing past me. I looked down and around me and I couldn't see a thing. I was immediately startled that I couldn't see the ground, and wondered if this was a dream. It was strange though, as I couldn't understand how I was falling in my dream and not waking up. That's when I wondered if I had been kidnapped by some flying psychopath and dropped, hence waking up in the sky... but that wouldn't make sense because there should be a bottom, a ground to eventually hit and splatter across. I spun a full 360 and still could see nothing but that endless sky and the clouds all around me.
I fell, for so long that I didn't want to think about the implication of being stuck in this free fall for the rest of my life. I tried calling for help, but if I was producing any sound it was being drowned out by the high speed winds blowing past me. I nearly cried when I noticed that I wasn't passing out, or hungry or thirsty, or tired. Was I to be trapped here, incapable of escape through starvation? How the hell was I breathing? I thought about all the time I had wasted, and gave a bitter laugh at how fitting this prison was for me.
Then I roared in anger. There was no way in hell that I would let myself be stuck here. Even though I was unsure of what was going on, or how exactly I was supposed stop this weird nightmare, I decided that I will wake up in that boat. I will live free, and I would do everything in my power to make my life worth while.
Then I saw lighting in the distance, and the sky grew dark. The rumbling thunder roared louder and louder, as if it was approaching me. Straight ahead of me I could see the clouds part, and I could see the ground, but I was falling away from it. Then, I heard a deep voice yell something inaudible and another crash of lightning hit the surface of the land mass below me and it cracked. Something had launched itself from the same spot the lightning had struck and raced towards me. The ground below broke apart from the force, as it too fell into the endless sky away from me. Whatever was racing towards me was gaining on me fast, and as I raised my hands to defend myself, I could see the man extend his hand in my direction, he was nearly caught up now...
A loud booming sound ripped me from my dream and back into the boat on the lake. I nearly fell out in my panicked scramble, still believing I was falling. What the hell was that dream? I blinked my eyes to clear my vision and noticed that the sun was much lower in the sky, casting brilliant sun set on the horizon. I wondered how long I had slept for when I noticed in the distance of the purple sky a bright green light. I stared at it for a moment, and determined that I wasn't seeing things. In fact, it was moving, rapidly.
"Oh shit." I noticed it was moving towards me and began rowing my boat as best I could out of the way. It was no use however, as whatever that thing was, definitely was going to hit the lake. If it didn't hit me directly, it would still likely kill me or knock me and my boat over and I'd be in the middle of the lake. Luckily I was a pretty decent swimmer but still not ideal given I had no idea what would happen after it made contact with earth.
Fortunately for me it's path diverted, and it plummeted behind the treeline. It did appear to slow it's pace a bit however, making me wonder if the object was sentient or at the very least controlled by a life form somewhere else. Despite the slow in it's decent I could still hear impact as it made contact with Earth. There was a shock wave that disturbed the trees and wild life as I saw various animals and birds scatter from the woods. I waited a moment to see if anything would follow the green light down to it's point of contact, or if anything would come crawling out of the woods, but nothing. Just silence.
After a moment I grew impatient and my curiosity and sense of adventure won out as I opted to paddle towards the crash site as opposed to high tailing. I wondered if it was an alien spaceship having malfunctioned or been damaged in combat and made an emergency crash landing, or if it was a god falling from the sky. Admittedly, I was scared that it would be dangerous but I needed to see what it was. Besides, if there was a surviving crew, or an injured and confused god, maybe I could lend a helping hand. Once I reached land I dragged my boat onto the shore but didn't bother to tie it down as I was in a hurry.
The further I went in the more disturbance I saw in the forest. At first it was just soil, rocks and what have you being disturbed from their normal resting places, and no animals were present. It was strangely quiet, so quiet that it was somewhat unnerving. Some trees had cracks in their bark, and weaker thinner branches had been snapped off by the force, as if a high speed wind storm had just swept through here. After walking for what was probably 10 minutes I finally started seeing some trees that were partially uprooted, and it was at this point that I could see a dimly glowing light. It was in the middle of an impact crater that was probably 20ft wide, and all the trees that were within 20 feet of the crater were snapped in half, toppled over or completely uprooted. My eyes fell on the figure in the crater and I realized what I was looking at. It wasn't a god, or an alien space ship, or a dangerous monster. He was a man, like me.
Only he was a Green Lantern, and he was dying.
I didn't even think twice about it, I slid down into the crater and knelt down next to him. I inspected him and noticed that he had some strange looking wounds all over. Despite what he had apparently just been through, he was conscious and looking at me.
This was one of the two Green Lanterns I knew of that wore a mask. Right as I took notice of his mask though it faded. The Lantern that had crash landed at Alouette Lake was, like me, a Caucasian man, in his 30's. He had short brown hair, and equally brown eyes, his green and black suit were complimented by white gloves and white boots. He had bruises on his face, his right eye was swollen shut and he was missing some teeth. There was a lot of blood, and I didn't know what the extent of his internal injuries was but it had to be bad. I placed my hand on his and gave him a light reassuring squeeze.
"Hey man, just hang in there. I'll try and find some help, maybe they can airlift you out of here." As I was about to stand up he grabbed my hand. When I looked back down at him he shook his head.
"What's your name kid?" He tried to seem jovial about meeting me, despite the pain behind his effort to speak.
"Joseph Shepard." I nearly whispered it. I'd seen a dead body once, but it was at a funeral. I'd somehow gone through my whole life without seeing somebody die in front of me. I didn't know what to do. "Come on man, can you contact the League, or other Green Lantern's? I'm sure they can help you."
The man managed a smile on his beat up face. I'll never forget what it looks like when somebody is willing themselves to hold on to life for just a moment longer. He was the first I ever saw do this, and he did better then the rest.
"Fir-first time?" I nodded, I knew what he was asking. "Hey, it's al-alright. I knew wh-what I signed up for. Not going t-to lie, I'm scared, but... overcoming fear... it's what Green Lanterns do." I held on to every word. This was the mans last moments, and given all he had done for us, undoubtedly more then the general public knew, I would stick with him till the end.
"The ring ch-chooses the successor. My ring is a bit different, so it's next w-wielder is in for a wild ride, hehe." He paused for a moment while looking at his ring. He glanced at me and then back to the ring a few times before smiling.
"Yeah, kid... Welcome to the club. Take the ring, put it on, pr-practice with it. Your will- willpower, is how you use it. Limited onl-only by imagination... you can make things out of light... f-fly, survive in space, you can do anything..." My mouth fell open and my brow scrunched up in disbelief.
I was going to be the next Green Lantern?
"What? I don't know if that's the bes-"
"Take it. It chose you. I-if you don't w-want to join t-the Corps... then give th... the ring back to... them." I could see that he was fading, his time had most likely run out awhile ago and he was forcing himself to stick around. "I rather you keep it. Tell my... family... I love them... don't let them... see me... like... this." I wanted to try and do something but there was nothing to be done. The man was dying and I had no magical way of healing him.
"Who are you?" It was the only thing I could think to say. I should know the name of my predecessor.
"...Hal... Jordan..."
With his last words, the light faded from his eyes, his last breath was expelled, and he slumped in his position in the crater.
The silence was so loud that I couldn't think. I could hear my heart in my head, and that ring dimmed for a moment, before floating off the mans finger. As it did, the Green Lantern uniform vanished, to reveal a set of civilian clothes, with a brown bomber jacket that had his last name on the left side, and on his left sleeve there was a logo for Ferris Aircraft. I didn't take my eyes off of his though. I shouldn't have looked him in the eye, it did something to me.
My concentration on the late Hal Jordan was broken by his ring. It floated into my face and began to dispense a prerecorded message.
"Joseph Shepard of Sector 2814. You have proven to be capable of overcoming great fear. Take the ring if you accept the responsibility of a Green Lantern Corps Member." I was so dumbfounded I could barely register what was being said. A ring was talking to me. An alien ring, was tell me I was chosen to pick up the emerald torch.
You have to understand, it would have been one thing if other Green Lantern members were there to walk me through this but I had no idea what I was doing. I tried focusing on my breathing. I needed to calm down. I looked past the ring and saw Hal's eyes again, and I immediately looked away.
Trying to keep my mind off the man who had just died in front of me, I decided to reach for the ring. As I did, the little piece of alien technology floated away from me. I wondered why it was doing this if it chose me to be it's wearer and reached for it again. Again, it moved away. I stood up and slowly paced on the spot to think about what to do. This was clearly some kind of test.
"Willpower." I said it out loud, repeating what Hal said to me. I use it with my willpower. Well, if that's the case alright then. Sticking my hand towards the ring I focused on wearing it. Imagining it on my hand I spoke.
"To me." I commanded it, but it didn't budge. I concentrated harder on the concept of it floating towards me and resting on my finger and it seemed to vibrate a little. "Get on... my hand... you... piece... of... junk." I struggled, grounding out the words, when suddenly the ring shot onto my finger. I yelped in surprise at the speed of the thing. I relaxed though as I saw it had simply slid onto my finger, and I could have sword that I saw it's size change to fit me.
I gazed at it for a few moments, the light on it remaining dim. I wondered about how bright it normally was whenever I saw a Lantern on TV, or pictures or videos of them online, and remembered reading a theory about it needing a power source. I wasn't sure if there was any validity to any of the rumours and speculations made about the Lanterns, let alone any of the other League members, but decided I probably should figure this out.
"Uh, I don't know if you can talk normally or if that was just a prerecorded message, but do I have to charge you?" I felt dumb talking to my hand but my efforts were not in vain.
"Current power level is 4%. You may charge your ring with a standard issue personal Power Battery. Located in the pocket dimension connected with your ring." Well, that's useful. Having a talking piece of alien tech was probably going to be very handy in the future.
"Pocket dimension? That's dope. Okay, uh, how do I access it. Is there an entry point I have to find or can I do this any where?" My curiosity piqued realizing how advanced this little finger fitting piece of tech was. Given my own background, I was more then enthusiastic to learn everything I could about the ring.
"The dimension is accessed only by your ring."
It took me nearly 3 minutes of attempts but I finally managed to open a small opening into the pocket dimension mentioned by the ring. It was barely visible, given away by dull wisps of green energy, and when I stuck my hand into it, it looked like the air was bending around my arm, like sticking your hand into jello, but gave that nasty squelching sound you get when you stick your hand in meat. Before you freak out I'm not a serial killer, I just feed my dogs raw meat, anything else is wrong.
The feeling inside of the pocket dimension however was nothing too spectacular, though admittedly cold at first, but very warm the minute I grabbed what I was looking for. Pulling my hand out, I took with me a... well it was a literal green lantern. It almost looked like a standard lantern, but it had some alien looking designs on it and if I had to hazard a guess, it was made with metal that wasn't found on earth. I mean, it goes without saying that the most unearthly thing about this alien lamp was that it was all green, and produced a green light from some green energy that was inside of it. Tjere was an opening where the light was produced on either side of the lantern, and the Corps Logo was designed around it like a jack-o-lantern's face.
Bringing my hand up I was about to ask how the hell this worked when I realized I probably should just place the ring's logo against the lamps. Sure enough it worked, and boy did it work. The second my ring made contact with the power battery, I felt an immense surge of power rush through me. The energy gave off an intense heat, sent my nerves on edge, but did no damage to me. It was just under the threshold of being too much to handle, constantly feeling like I was about to explode from the build up, but never quite going off. It took about 10 seconds for the ring to become fully charged, the battery returning to a dormant state of just producing light and Hal's... my ring was now glowing. Looking more illuminated instead of being on the verge of going inert. I placed the power battery back in the pocket dimension, and I felt a milder energy then I had felt previously, wash over me.
I looked down to notice that a Green Lantern uniform of my own had materialized over my normal clothes. Though the strange thing was that it didn't look like I was wearing anything under the suit. I frowned as I realized the suit looked almost identical to Hal's. Thinking on it, I had seen 4 different Green Lanterns on the news before, and some pictures of them passed around on the internet. All of their costumes were different. The red head in particular stood out from the rest in the sense that he wore a jacket with his suit and the logo was emblazoned on the bottom part of said jacket. I smiled, realizing Hal said I could do anything with this ring. Which probably meant I could design my suit as many times as I wanted.
I reshaped my uniform so that all of the black areas were basically a flight suit or what have you, while the green parts were armour. The under suit was skin tight starting from the top of my neck all the way down to my feet, even encompassing my hands. The green armour parts formed around my neck like a popped collar and ran along my shoulder and ending just before reaching my arm. Each piece of armour would have a slight gap where you could see a black line to allow for flexibility, although I knew that I wouldn't be hindered so long as I didn't will it to happen. It was more just for the sleek design I was going for because I didn't want to be bulky. Anyway, then a shoulder pauldron formed around each shoulder. The upper arm and elbow were exposed but the forearms and hands were in gauntlets, separated at the wrist. The hand was covered from the back of the hand to the first set of knuckles, leaving the black fingers where the ring sat on my right middle finger. My torso's armour pieces were layered and outlined my toned muscles, starting at my chest and going down. Where my previously mentioned collar and torso piece met, there was a split in the middle, looking similar to a zipper line, starting out thin, but then became a perfect circle where a glowing green lantern logo was placed, minus the white circle. My outer thighs had green armour pieces that went from my hips to my knees and wrapped around to the inside as it got closer to my knees before separating. A poleyn for each knee was made and my green boots and greaves formed under that.
The design of my armour was human/alien inspired and looked as sci-fi as possible with a sleek look that would boast aerodynamics. I briefly wondered about a helmet, face plate or mask but having no real inspiration at that moment I had decided to leave it alone. This left exposed my short thick and wavy black hair, short tamed full beard, and my normally grey eyes out in the open. I refocused on Hal Jordan. His one good eye still open, looking at me for I hadn't moved from where I was knelt next to him before. I winced at the thought that I was just standing here messing with my uniform. Although admittedly it only took me a few seconds to think of the design and form it.
"Sorry Hal. I'll take you home right away... uh ring? Where does Hal Jordan live?" I knelt back down next to the man and closed his eye.
"Hal Jordan lived in Coast City, California. Next of kin is his wife Carol Jordan, who lived with him. Time until arrival is dependent on desired speed."
"Desired speed huh? Let's see if I can even get off the ground." Before I could do anything I needed to make sure I could control my flight. "How does flight work with you anyway?"
"By the manipulation of anti-gravitation and directed molecular movement, the ring allows the user to fly at speeds near to, exactly the same as, or far exceeding the speed of light. This is dependent on the users willpower and desired speed. If in space, your automatic force-field will protect you from the void, including filtration of stellar radiation and microscopic particulate matter which would ordinarily be fatal should the space debris strike the ring wielder at high speeds."
"Dope, I'm pretty hyped for this actually. Okay, anti-gravitation and directed molecular movement eh. I'm sure I don't have to think about those concepts specifically, I just need to believe I ca- Holyshit!" My excitement and determination to fly had gotten away from me and I had somehow managed to will myself into the air. I was propelled about 6 feet off the ground in an instant. "Okay, gotta be careful about speed. Hal, I promise I'll be right back, I just need to make sure I can fly around properly, give me like 5 maybe 10 minutes."
I concentrated really hard on going no faster then 5km/h. I focused on going up above the trees and I kept lifting myself until I was clear of the forest and all that was above me was the now dark sky. I hadn't realized how dark it had gotten, the ring having illuminating the crash site the entire time. I looked around and felt this slight unease, remembering the dream I had. I still wasn't that convinced it was a dream and it was scaring me the more I thought about it. Who the hell was that guy flying at me, and why was I endlessly falling. The memory of that nightmare sent a chill through me and my control over my flight faltered. I plummeted to the ground from about 20ft in the air and landed, hard, about 45ft away from the impact crater that Jordan made. I made no such crater, but the landing wasn't soft. Despite falling from 20ft up, I noticed how that force field stayed around my form and I took no damage from the fall. I wondered just how much punishment I could take and decided I wasn't going to test it any time soon, but it was good to know that I could potentially tank a lot of damage.
I remembered my breathing and calmed my nerves as I pushed the imagery of that dream away. I wanted to fly. I was fondly thinking of it before I had fallen asleep. I grinned as I realized I could go anywhere with this new found power and using my excitement to fuel my will to fly I bent my knees, unnecessarily mind you since I don't need to jump, and launched myself off the ground.
The power of the ring fuelled by my will, carried me 20ft, 50ft, 80ft, into the air in less then 5 seconds. It was a rush I had never felt before. When I looked down, I had almost startled myself again because I wasn't even aware of how high I had flown until I had asked my ring, but I kept my cool and maintained control of my power. I began toying with the 'controls' as it were, strafing left to right, up and down, without looking in the direction I was going in order to get a feel for the movement. I spun myself upside down, sideways, and flew at weird angles. In this open space I tested making hard turns and instantly changing trajectory. It was a little harder then I thought it would be, but after doing it for far longer then I had promised to be practising my flying I felt I had enough control that I'd be comfortable travelling from BC to California.
As I was soaring through the air, I felt no wind on my face hindering my sight and no pollutants assaulted me, I felt that freedom I had been thinking about while watching those birds. I flew over the camp sites and the lake and I gazed in every direction, astonished at what it was like to fly. Given the fact that the ring was literally defying gravity to allow for me to feel weightless while in the atmosphere of Earth, I wanted to explore. The speed that I could travel, I could go around the entire planet in probably a few hours, maybe less, who knew? I would eventually.
I briefly wondered if Hal saw the world in it's entirety, and I was immediately hit with a bitter taste of immense guilt. Hal Jordan died for a reason, not so I could dick around. I'd have my fun later. I did as I said I was going to do and got comfortable enough with flying that I was sure I could make it to Coast City with his and my body intact. I needed to make sure his family could lay him to rest.
I flew back down to Hal's body, hovering above the crater by only a few feet and attempted making a construct of a casket. I had finished creating it around him but dropped the construct and landed on my knees in the crater, feeling a sudden mental exhaustion I wasn't prepared for.
"What the hell is wrong with my head?" I asked to nobody in particular.
"Using the ring can be demanding on the wielder, though flight, manifesting the uniform and the automatic force field aren't particularly strenuous, given those systems in particular are subroutines programmed into the ring. Low level energy blasts only slightly more strenuous. Building constructs can be very difficult on the user however. Actions that add to the stress of creating a construct is the quantity of constructs being made and controlled at once, the size of the construct, and complicated designs/mechanical parts without a full understanding of every working mechanism. Multi tasking while attempting to maintain and manipulate a construct can also cause weakness in structural integrity."
"Oh for fu- how long will it take me to get to Coast City with my current ability then?" I demanded.
"With you're quick understanding of the ring and it's many functions, estimated travel time with a construct is cited to be 24hrs, accounting for frequent 30 minute breaks." I balked at the ridiculous time line. If I got on a flight from B.C to L.A right now it would be a little over 2hrs.
"Guess I'm just carrying you then Jordan. God that's so creepy." I leaned down and picked up the lifeless body of my predecessor. As much as I didn't want to do it, I needed to get him home to his family. They deserved to know what happened, though hiding the state his body was in would be difficult. I figured I could at least will my force field around his remains so that he would be protected from the elements as we travelled.
Satisfied that I had a good grip on him I took off flying as fast as I could without losing control of my abilities, or my lunch, towards Coast City.
"Uh ring, do you have a GPS system built into you?"