Above Coast City, lights danced across the night sky: airplanes taking off, stars winking, the moonlight glistening off the clouds. And a single green torch, glowing brighter than all the rest.
Hal felt nothing beneath his feet, yet he wasn't falling. He realized his eyes were closed. When he opened them, he saw clouds and a faraway horizon—but no ground. He looked down and saw a sea of lights hundreds of feet below. I'm above Coast City, Hal realized.
Hal took a hard look at himself. He wasn't wearing his clothes anymore; he was coated in some sort of black and green material that glowed. It's the same kind of suit the alien was wearing, he realized. It didn't quite feel like fabric; there weren't any stitches or seams. Instead, it simply felt like a kind of synthetic second skin. It was warm, but not burning. It somehow just felt... safe. As if it was consciously protecting Hal from anything that might harm him. Hal suddenly realized that he was glowing actually rather brightly, but couldn't tell immediately because his eyes were somehow protected from being blinded by his own green aura. From up here, he probably looked like some sort of green beacon in the sky to anyone down in the city. Hal felt the immediate urge to land, and he felt himself begin to fall in response. Startled, Hal caught himself and stayed stable in the air.
How am I doing this? Hal thought. The ring, he remembered. He looked at the ring. Now that he was paying attention, he noticed that the ring glowed slightly brighter than any other part of the suit. Hal could barely feel power radiating from the ring and coursing across his entire body, like a ray of energizing sunlight.
"Okay," Hal said, taking a deep breath. Concentrating intently, he gently lowered himself down towards the ground, doing his best to dim the light of his suit as he went. That's it, he thought. Going to land right here next to my house and get back to normal.
He stopped. Normal. Normal meant going back to a world where he was being framed by a jackass and possibly getting kicked out of his school, his job, and his future just because of business politics. Where his mother thought he was a disappointment, and his brother thought he was a reckless idiot.
Truth be told, Hal only ever felt truly accepted and loved by his father. The hours he and his dad would spend flying through the skies were the best moments of Hal's life. And now Hal was here, floating in the same sky his father did, and he was choosing to go down to Earth again.
No. Not now.
Hal lifted his head back up to the heavens, grinned, and launched himself upward. He swirled and twisted through the air, dodging this way and that, diving and rising just to feel the adrenaline pulse like a river. He nearly broke the sound barrier at one point. Hal noticed that although he was entirely aware of how fast he was moving, he wasn't in any danger of passing out like he should be, according to the laws of physics. This suit really was a wonder.
Could he do anything else, he wondered? What did the alien say... The Green Lantern of Sector 2814. Hal was his replacement. So Hal was the new Green Lantern? What did that mean, Green Lantern? I mean, sure, the ring and the suit were bright, but why be named a lantern? Not exactly the most exciting thing in the world. What did Sector 2814 mean? Hal felt a level of concern suddenly. "Use its power wisely," the alien had said. What did that mean? Was being able to fly and glow really a power worth using wisely? There must be more this ring can do, Hal thought. Did I miss anything he said? Hal suddenly remembered the metal lantern that the alien had pointed to. He said it was important. As if in response, Hal felt a tingling at the back of his mind, and turned to see the lantern floating up towards him in the sky. Hal took hold of its handle and felt his palm stick to it like a gentle magnet. Somehow, he could feel that the ring and the lantern were powerfully connected.
Okay, this is too much, Hal thought. I need to talk to somebody about this. But who? Carl wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it, and he wasn't exactly the kind of person who'd be open to hearing about aliens and magic techno-rings and such. Barry, maybe? Sure, Barry would understand, being a superhuman and all. Hal reached for his phone, then realized that it wasn't there. Of course it wasn't; his pants weren't even there. The suit had... replaced them somehow. Hal couldn't call anyone, so he had to find someone close by.
Carol. She'd been Hal's friend forever. She got a little cranky sometimes, but with something as important as this, she wouldn't give him a hard time.
"Where is Carol?" Hal said quietly to himself, thinking.
"Specify," a pleasant synthesized female voice said from nowhere.
"Um, what?" Hal said in reply.
"Specify location query. Full name of Carol."
Hal realized the ring itself was talking. "Um... are you the ring?" he asked.
"Affirmative," the ring replied. "All Green Lantern Corps power rings contain a voice interface."
Hal thought it over. So the ring wasn't intelligent, but it could obey voice commands like a computer. "Okay, ring: locate Carol Ferris."
"Scanning," the ring said. Hal saw a faint wave of light extend from the ring and wash across the city. For some reason, Hal got the impression that no one else could see it except him.
"Carol Ferris located."
Hal saw a glowing green beacon off towards the far end of the city. He flew towards it.
When Hal reached the beacon, it was near a restaurant. Hal landed quietly on the ground in an alleyway behind the building. He lamented the fact that he was still in his green lantern suit, and wished he could change back into his regular clothes. Once again responding to his thoughts, a wave of energy quickly slid down Hal's body. As it went from head to toe, the suit was instantly replaced with the clothes Hal had been wearing before he'd put on the ring. The green aura faded. Hal reached in his pocket and found his phone. Apparently, he hadn't lost his things at all; the suit had just hidden them somehow. Hal hid the lantern behind a trash can in the alley, then stepped out to go find Carol.
Hal saw Carol inside through the window. But she wasn't alone; Hector was with her.
Hal felt his fist tighten around the ring. Carol and Hector walked towards the door, laughing together over some joke of Hector's that Hal was sure must have been idiotically smarmy. The two exited the building and stood on the sidewalk. Hector leaned in to kiss Carol, but she turned away. Good, Hal thought. At least she's not a complete whore. Carol and Hector parted ways, Hector walking to a parking lot in the opposite direction and Carol walking towards Hal. When she saw Hal, Carol's eyes flashed with surprise, frustration, and anger.
"Hal?! What are you doing here?! Were you following me?!"
Hal frustratedly shook his head. "No! What? No! Why were you with him?!"
"That's my business! Why are you stalking me?!"
"I'm not stalking you!"
"And you just happened to turn up right here?"
"Y—well, kind of. It's complicated."
"Save it, Hal. You're a jealous idiot."
"What?! No!"
"Please. You used to spend all your time trying to kiss me when we were kids. Now you're mad that I went on a date with the guy who caught you trying to cheat."
"WHAT?!"
Carol turned and walked away.
"No, wait! Carol! I... I've got this... thing..."
Carol wasn't about to start listening. Hal wanted to follow her and try to explain, but he was so mad at her that he didn't really feel like giving her the time of day. He went back to the alley to get his lantern.
Before Hal could even pick up the lantern, a bright light from behind caught his peripheral vision. Hal felt a massive force slam him to the ground. He instinctively twisted around and lashed out with his fist. A green explosion of light punched whoever or whatever had hit him. Hal heard a deep grunt from his attacker, then a growl as he was hit by what felt like a giant hammer. Hal nearly fell unconscious, but barely managed to keep his eyes open.
Hal got a good look at who he was facing. Descending from the sky were two vaguely humanoid aliens, both covered in the same suit and aura that Hal had just been wearing. One was thin, with orange skin and birdlike features including a beak, black eyes, and a lizardlike mohawk fin. The other was essentially a ten-foot-tall wall of muscle; aside from his roughly humanoid body, he looked like an alien pig, with a giant bony jaw and no snout.
"Where is Abin Sur?" the finned alien said firmly.
"He... he was in a spaceship that crashed," Hal said. "He gave me this ring; said I was his replacement."
"Like hell he did!" The giant one boomed. "I've trained hundreds o' lanterns, and lemme tell ya, you ain't no lantern. There ain't ever been a human GL before. EVER. Give it up."
The finned alien leaned in toward his companion. "Kilowog, if what this human says is true, the ring has indeed chosen him. We cannot simply take the ring from him; we don't have the authority."
"What if he took the ring from Abin?!" Kilowog said. "Not like there ain't a trillion beings in the galaxy that'd wanna be a green lantern if they got the chance."
"...I don't even think I know what a green lantern is," Hal said.
The finned alien looked back at Kilowog. "There, see? It's highly unlikely that he even knows what has happened since the ring found him."
"So what, we take him back to Oa?!" Kilowog said. "He ain't no replacement for Abin."
"It's our duty, Kilowog."
Kilowog puffed twin jets of steam out his nostrils. "Fine. We take him back. See what the Guardians think."
Hal didn't like that his situation was being determined without him. "Hey! Don't I get a say in this?!"
Kilowog grabbed Hal's arm in with one of his gigantic hands. "SHUT YER FRAKKIN' MOUTH, POOZER. You're comin' with us."
Hal felt himself being enveloped with energy from the aliens' rings, then being lifted into the sky.
