Hal Jordan is a complete mess. Just got back from the army, shaken by what happened. He got a therapist, but he struggles actually voicing what he feels? It's a whole process, but Hal doesn't have the patience. Hal knows he probably could just vent about everything with his friends and family, and they would be more than happy to. But he has this sort of traditional, toxic masculine mindset. He was raised to keep things in. So when he and his girlfriend, Carol Ferris, have dinner one day, and she starts to question why he's been so sullen and withdrawn, he lashes out.

The problem here is that their relationship have already been pretty rocky. They've been long distance for a few years, and Hal doesn't exactly tell her much besides his day to day because he's so stuck inside his head. So their relationship has been suffering heavily. So when Hal, at a VERY sensitive phase of their relationship, acts like a complete dick and makes the whole atmosphere even more uncomfortable. It only makes sense that the two break up.

Struggling with all the baggage he got, and now dealing with a breakup entirely his fault, Hal's basically walking through the streets of Coast City feeling like complete shit. And Coast City is mostly beaches, think something like Miami basically. So here's Hal, drunkenly wandering the streets, walking into the sands of a beach. He's basically laying on the sand, with a bottle of vodka, praying for the waves to take him. Like this guy's legit just begging god to drown him at this point. But instead of the waves dragging him into the ocean, he finds something that washed up on shore. A glowing green lantern, and a ring the same shade.

Hal is wasted by this point and he can barely register whether this thing was real or not. So he walks over to check if it actually was real, and the ring flies at him, latching onto his finger. Hal, even though he's a complete mess, doesn't get scared easily. He's seen worse of course. But a ring that magically washed up on shore flying onto his finger? Dude was freaking OUT.

He first tried to pull it off his finger. After that doesn't work, Hal tries biting it off, using the ocean water to sort of lube it out, and finally just trying to scratch it off. Nothing he did would get the damn thing off of him! With no other options left, Hal just runs away. And because he's still wasted to all hell chaos ensues because he can barely remember where he is or how to get back to his house. He just calls an Uber. At least his phone wasn't dead or anything. As Hal leaves, the lantern continues to glow. The waves causing the lantern to sink into the sand.

Hal wakes up in a mess of his own clothes and vomit. He went through a hell of a hangover. On the plus side he's unemployed and living with his roommate, Jon, so he isn't too worried about anything else at the moment.

Beyond the weird ring of course.

He immediately notices the ring when he wipes the dried vomit from his mouth. Green, glowing, it almost lights up the whole room. Hal remembers almost immediately what happened last night. The lantern that washed up on shore with the ring, and the ring that's currently stuck to his finger. It was incredibly bright and Hal struggled with the light emanating from the ring, praying it would just shut off. And it did.

Oddly enough, Hal could almost control it? Like the ring seemed to listen to his thoughts. There was an ominous note in the air as Hal stared at the ring. Was it sentient? Or worse yet, if it was sentient, was it parasitic? Is this an alien? Is it feeding off of Hal? If Hal could tell the ring to do things, would it be able to do the same to him?

As Hal's worries and anxieties build up, he didn't even notice the green bubble that currently surrounded him. Hal shatters the bubble and falls back onto the bed, surprised. He needs to figure out what this ring is, and slapping himself across the face realizing that the lantern may have been a way to figure that out.

In an alleyway of Coast City, a homeless man sleeps under a pile of old Daily Star newspapers. He's awoken when something lands near him. In an attempt to protect his territory, the homeless man tries to run at the thing with a hammer. But he's immediately sliced into pieces. A red, blue, and silver android walks into the light, it's eyes glow red. The remnants of the Green Lantern is near.

Hal stands on the sidewalk as he tries to call another Uber. Last time he did was a bit of a mess since he supposedly vomited all over the back seat and cussed out his driver. This isn't something uncommon with Hal btw, dude's had a rough week. Without any luck, Hal feels almost defeated. He NEEDS to find that lantern.

The ring can sense it. And Hal is thrown up into the sky, surrounded by a green light. Hal is scared yet again, but he steels himself. He's been up against worse. Hal flies through the air, almost feeling the wind on his face. Hal manages to reach the beach, now populated with people. He tries to lay low, landing in an alleyway as he wills the ring to turn off. Hal crosses the street in a hurry, trying to find where the lantern could be. As he makes it to the place he found it last, he realizes the lantern may have been washed away. Or maybe buried?

Cut to Hal digging up the beach with a toy shovel he borrowed from a kid. The various people at the beach just stare in confusion and disgust at the 27 year old man digging up the beach for seemingly no reason. Hal is almost about to give up, but that was when he was suddenly attacked by the android. It found him.

The manhunter shoots at Hal as he dodges the various shots. Thank God for Hal's military training, right? But Hal isn't exactly superhuman so the manhunting robot is shooting out a shitton of laser blasts incredibly fast and Hal is just barely avoiding them. The whole beach is in CHAOS as Hal runs away from this 7 foot tall psycho robot.

Just when the manhunter robot manages to get the upper hand. BOOM

A green laser bolt hits the robot directly in the face. Hal stares at the ring, still trying to figure it out. He imagines it in his mind, the pistol he used back as a soldier. The handle, the trigger. He remembers all the times he's had to shoot someone. The defend his friends, the friends he lost. Hal is filled with guilt and regret, but he grounds himself. And he stands up to face the manhunter, pointing the ring directly at the robot.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Hal hits the robot over and over. The robot at first seems indestructible. But it's armor starts to dent. Hal gives the robot a smug grin as he walks over, his confidence building. The ring seems to sense this as it covers him in green light again, Hal is floating over the android. He's clothed in a sort of green armor? Like it's this weird alien looking regal dress thing? Whatever it is Hal can tell it's just the ring protecting him. But his victory is short lived, the manhunter holds out its arm as it turns into a straight up lightsaber! It's not actually a lightsaber because copyright and it's a different universe, but it IS basically a lightsaber. It tries to hit Hal with the laser blade but he deflects it with the armor the ring made.

The manhunter hits him again and again as Hal uses the ring to make shield after shield. Hal thinks he has the upper hand again, but then his chest starts to feel heavy. He hears screams of terror. Fear all around him. He thinks of the desert, of his friends. The fear. His armor flickers, and each hit the manhunter throws at him starts to hurt. Hal is burnt, his body in pain as the manhunter keeps going.

Hal gives in to fear. But the ring senses this.

He flies away from the beach as the manhunter follows. He only has enough energy to swerve around to avoid the manhunter's attacks. Hal couldn't stop hearing the screams. He closes his eyes tightly as he grits his teeth.

No.

Don't give in.

He steadies his breathing and looks around at the clouds all around him. The manhunter is pretty far behind, so he takes a second to calm down.

Hal clenches the fist the ring is on as he focuses. The ring seems to rely on his thoughts? Emotion? Strength? Whatever it is, Hal pushes himself to think of a solution, something that could help him. As the manhunter grows closer, Hal finally got it. He rushes the manhunter and with one final grunts of effort, the ring creates a large green hammer. With every last bit of willpower, Hal slams the hammer directly into the manhunter. The force of the hammer throws the manhunter into the ocean below. It's lifeless form sinks into the bottomless sea.

Hal flies backwards as he tries to head home, but the amount of mental fortitude and pressure he put himself under has exhausted him. Not even the ring could stop him as he falls unconscious and drops 50 feet to the ground.

In…..and out…..

Hal wakes up in his room. Significantly cleaner than before. He gets up, wincing from the pain he's in. But before he could say anything he hears a voice speak up.

"You look like shit"

Hal is face to face with John Stewart, his roommate. And the only other person that survived from his squad.

To give you an idea of Hal's living situation. He lives with three other people:

John Stewart: Hal's friend from the army. He picked up a pretty lucrative architectural career. Pretty much the guy who bought the apartment in the first place. He let Hal crash until he finds a job, dude's been living rent free for about three months now

Kyle Rayner: A friend of John's. Currently a graphic design artist. He just graduated college and is currently in an internship at the newly developed Daily Planet (more on that soon enough). He's usually out an about so he isn't always at the apartment. Still pays more rent than Hal

And finally, this one is a HELL of a change.

Oliver Queen: Disgraced billionaire son. Was going to be heir to the Queen fortune, but Oliver got into a scandal with some singer named Dinah Lance. It's a whole thing, don't wanna talk about it. He's friends with John and Hal since college so he's also rooming with them because he is INCREDIBLY broke.

He also pays more rent than Hal.

"Wait. I. How."

"Found you on the roof. You should be glad no one else noticed. Probably thought a fuse broke or something with how loud of a crash it was"

"Do you…?"

"The green guy that fought the android at Starling beach? And finding you laying in a mess of tile with a glowing ring on your finger? I can connect the dots"

Hal's worried, but John gives him a smirk

"All that flight training did you pretty well, huh? Gotta stick that landing though."

Luckily, Oliver's at a party, and Kyle's at the Daily Planet. So the two talk about the ring. Hal is actually happy that he has someone to vent to about this. Like, ever since Carol dumped him he's basically been stuck in his own head. Like this whole thing takes place in the course of THREE DAYS. Dude got dumped, finds an alien ring, and almost DIED. Jon, used to putting up with his shit, is there to comfort his friend.

The lantern on the beach glows green. It's like it senses something. Or someone. A creature lands on the beach late at night. It sniffs around, the ring has finally found a master. And the creature is hungry. The beach was bathed in orange light as the creature fed off the power of the lantern. The lantern he managed to dig up.

It's been roughly a week since Hal barely managed to kill the manhunter. Thankfully, he's managed to unlock more secrets of the ring thanks to John. The two spent most of the week (on and off of John's shifts at work) training with the ring, learning more about how it works. Thanks to Jon, Hal learned something important about the ring. It runs on willpower. By focusing his willpower on the ring, Hal could create constructs of pure light energy. And if Hal pushed himself even harder he could actually create things that could actually do things on its own? Like, with enough willpower, Hal can create living beings??

In the meantime, Oliver's heading home drunk like always. He was busy at a nightclub, but got kicked out after getting into a fight. The entire club felt super aggressive and weird all of a sudden and he got into it with this weird woman with an orange dress? Anyway, Oliver is heading home with the lady in the orange dress. But once the two get into his apartment, the woman starts freaking out. She acts oddly feral? When Oliver tries to check in on her, she backhands him directly into a wall. Oliver is down for the count as the lady crawls around on all fours, searching for something. She transforms back into her true form, a weird anthropomorphic Pig-like creature?

Here's the thing about this guy. His name is Larfleeze of the Orange Lantern Corps. The only member of the Orange Lantern Corps. Here is a guy that, through pure greed, came across his own ring in his own planet. Unlike Hal, he abused the power of his ring and ate his entire world. See, each of these rings have their own forms of power. Hal's ring has the lantern and uses willpower to make his ring work. This guy eats to gain more power. And that's exactly what he's done throughout his time in space. And now that he's sensed the power of the Green Lantern, he's determined to find the user, and eat him.

Unfortunately, Hal and John came back to the apartment at the wrong time. An Orange Lantern facing off against a Green Lantern. One has what the other wants. Hal's ring glows brightly, he can sense the lantern in Larfleeze's stomach.

Wait.

Stomach?

Shit.

Oliver wakes up as he finds Hal in weird glowing green armor facing off against….a human-pig hybrid? Watching Hal fly right into the creature, bursting out the apartment and going god knows where, he looks over at a very unusually calm Jon.

"Dude…am I still high?"

"Yeah. Want some coffee?"

"Please."

Larfleeze and Hal fight HARD. The two crash into lampposts, sidewalks, beaches. Punch after punch. Larfleeze tries to bite him, Hal uses the ring to create a muzzle around his mouth. The two throw each other around over and over. Chaos, anger, bloodshed even. Hal's wailing on the guy as he yells at him.

"The lantern! Where is the damn lantern!"

A perk of the rings are a universal translator. There's no explanation for it really, it could be explained by whoever made them.

But they're long dead.

Larfleeze understands him. He knows what he's saying. But he won't talk. Instead, he summons an army made of orange energy constructs. Hal is faced with a massive army of Larfleeze lookalikes. The life energy that the alien took after eating his planet now powering his ring. They swarm the Green Lantern as he strengthens the armor around him, creating a protective barrier between him and the orange constructs. The constructs bite and scratch, like hundreds of animals each trying to devour Hal. The Orange Lantern ring wielder watches as his creations attack Hal. No one has ever fought against him and won.

But none of them were Hal Jordan.

Hal remembers when he trained with John to use the ring. Learning to fly again was ridiculous, but flying on your own isn't the same as flying in a jet. But through the training he did with his friend, he remembered the comradery the two shared. The friendship he built with his whole squad back in the army. Through all of Hal's failures, he had people that cared about him. He had strength, confidence in himself. And while losing his friends destroyed that confidence and self esteem, it was still there inside himself. All Hal needed was bravery…and willpower.

Like he did with the manhunter, but this time with a stronger focus. Hal put all his energy into creating his own construct. The energy field around him begins to grow, pushing away the constructs and sending Larfleeze into a panic. It grows and grows until it becomes a fighter jet. Hal, inside the cockpit, shoots out multiple missiles, each hitting the constructs one by one. Larfleeze is scared, his ring flickers. The alien was so used to picking on people lower than him. This human wasn't just on his level, he was above it.

Hal keeps going, using a giant hammer construct to punch him into the air. The alien goes FLYING. And Hal keeps going. The wind resistance starts to mess with his eyes so he creates a mask to cover his face and make it easier to see.

20 feet

50 feet

100 feet

Larfleeze has a giant bat slam directly into his stomach and he falls to the ground at 100 miles an hour. On impact, he spits out a lantern. A green lantern.

As Hal lands, in all his green armored glory, he's surrounded by people. Most with their phones out. Some on X, by Lex, posting about him. A green armored man, holding a green lantern.

Hal grins. Thankfully he has a mask on.

The Last Lantern

A few days later, Hal wakes up to the glowing lantern on his desk. He reaches out to it. Voices calling. He can barely hear one name out of thousands of words. At least he thinks it's a name: Sinestro

Larfleeze's body lays lifeless through the chaos. His ring flying off his finger. It leaves, moving around through the crowd. But someone manages to grab it. As he shoves it into a jar, Floyd Lawton walks back to a motorcycle. Driving away he puts his finger to a commlink connected to the helmet he's wearing. The left eye of the helmet glows a bright ree

"Smith. Yeah, I got it. He should be pleased. Dunno how well it'll work, but this thing's got power if the green one's anything to go by."

By midnight, Larfleeze's body has been taken by the government.