3 Chapter 2

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Irena's POV

I woke up floating in a white void. So naturally, I began panicking and yelling out for help.

"No need for alarm girl." I suddenly hear a voice speaking to me.

"Who's there?! " I asked shakily as I looked around my surrounding eventually coming face to face with a greyish blue skinned man with white hair and yelped out in fear before trying to fly...float.. away from him which resulted in me sloppily stroking my arms and legs like a amateur swimmer.

"Relax girl. I mean you no harm." The man chuckled before grabbing my leg with his arm causing me to redouble my efforts. Eventually, I tried myself out and stood in place panting.

"Now. What was the last thing you remember?" the man asked seemingly ignoring my prior antics.

"I..... was at the beach. And then something came from the sky and hit me." I spoke, timidly.

"Is this what hit you? " he raised his hand, fingers pointing at a floating object. I had not gotten a proper look at what had hit me, but I saw that it had a green aura surrounding it. The same aura that surrounded. The object above the man.

"Yeah. Oh god did I die?! Is this the afterlife?! No.... No this can't be. Im too young to die. And my mother, she'll be heartbroken." I started rambling on until the man came up to me and delivered a sharp slap on my cheek.

"Calm down. You are not dead yet. You are simply inside the fragment of my psyche which I stored inside the ring." he spoke calmly.

"What ring?" I asked quizzically.

"This ring." he said pointed at the object that had hit me. This prompted me to take a closer look at it and sure enough, inside the green aura was what looked like a ring.

I sighed with frustration and spoke. "OK. I am so very confused so please who are you and could you start explaining to me what exactly is going on?"

"Very well. My name is Ganthet, I am an extraterrestrial being from another universe much like your own." he said before flicking his wrist. The void was than replaced by the starfilled view of space and I looked down to find myself on a planet. Based on the unfamilar structures and the location of several unfamiliar celestial bodies, I knew that this wasn't Earth.

" The world you currently see was known as Malthus, the birthplace of my race. . Our people the, Malthusians had an inherent thirst for knowledge as such we began conducting experiments on planets all around the universe." he spoke as images of people having the same features as him could be seen travelling to other planets.

" And then one day, one of our own by the name of Krona used technology that bent space and time in an attempt to observe the beginning of the Universe. But doing so, it corrupted the beginning of the universe with Entropy."

To atone for his action, my people moved to Oa, a planet located at the center of the universe and took it upon ourselves to become a force dedicated to preserve peace throughout the universe.

Our first attempt was creating an army of mechanical android to keep peace called the Man hunters. It however failed as their programmings got corrupted and instead of preserving life, they attempted to destroy it. By the time we stopped them, they had managed to eradicate an entire sector of the universe.

After that failure we tried once more. This time by harnessing the green energy made of willpower from the emotional spectrum to create power rings such as this. " he said before pointing at the ring once more.

"The rings themselves had some form of sentience and roamed the universe to find one worthy to wield the ring. The ones chosen by them were brought to Oa and under our guidance became a peacekeeping organisation that spanned the universe known as the green lantern Corps. " The images shifted once more and I saw aliens of varying shapes and sizes wearing the rings while dressed in green colored uniforms.

" Eventually, other Lantern Corps came to existence as well, each harnessing a particular emotion. Such as the Sinestro Corps that fed on fear, Red lantern Corps that fed on Rage, the Star Sapphires that fed on Love, Orange Lanterns that used greed, Indigo Lanterns that fed on compassion and finally the Blue Lantern Corps with is powered by hope made by my lover Sayd and myself. Some were our foes while others became our allies. But all in all, we were all formidable.

" That was until Nekron, Lord of the Unliving raised several of deceased beings who fell into the land of the dead to wage war against the Emotional Spectrum and the universe. And were given Black power rings which was powered by death itself thereby creating the Black Lanterns. All 7 lanterns Corps as well as other protectors of the universe fought them bravely but were no match for their might. The ensuing conflicts that ensued weakened the very fabric of the universe, posing a threat to other neighbouring universes. This in turn resulted in the intervention of a being known as the Living Tribunal who managed to exterminate the Black Lanterns but it was too late for us. Our universe had come to its end and the Living Tribunal began erasing it to prevent other universes from being affected by it.

But even with our imminent demise, both me and Sayd decided to leave behind one last legacy. And this ring is it. It is unique from it brethren as it has the power to wield the power of both Will and Hope. Once it was created, I commanded it to travel the mutiverse in search of a worthy candidate to carry on its legacy. And now this ring has chosen you. " he finished talking before finally facing me. And was probably greeted by my dumbfounded expression.

To his credit the alien Ganthet waited until I was composed enough to speak (yell at him). "Is this a joke?!!"

"No it is not." he replied calmly.

"You mean to tell me that this ring which is powered by the very emotions of willpower and hope traveled through the multiverse and the only one worthy to wield it was me.?" I asked slowly.

"No. For one thing, this ring can be power by Willpower or Hope. I highly doubt you can use both energy at the same time at your current level without turning to dust. And secondly you are not the only candidate it foud. You are the first candidate it found. "

" But why me? I'm nobody. Just a stupid little girl who isn't even brave enough to standup to a couple of teenage girls. And who is..... " I began ranting with a dark chuckle only to be slapped by Ganthet once more.

" OK that's enough of that. Maybe you aren't the most ideal person to carry on this responsibility. You may not be the strongest, fastest, smartest or even the bravest. But those aren't the only qualities that makes a Green Lantern. Or a hero. I have seen Lanterns who come from different walks of life. Some were warriors, some even were just children. Heck we had a lantern who was a large sentient planet. But no matter who they were, the rings have never chosen anyone who was unworthy of the title. Most of the time. " he whispered the last sentence to himself.

He then cleared his throat before continuing his speech."What I am trying to say is that you may be right. You may not be the best the bravest, strongest, or the most intelligent but with this ring, you could be more."

He then brought the ring closer to me. "It is time to make a choice girl. You can refuse it and go back to your normal life. Or you can become something greater."

I stood frozen in place as I contemplated his offer. On one hand I get to become a superhero like I have always wanted. But on the other hand, doing so means that I could no longer live a peaceful life.

" Do you believe I can do it?" I asked Ganthet.

" Yes, I do. Many of the strongest Green Lantern and Blue Lanterns were humans much like yourself. Some came to us more lost then you are. And honestly considering that even that brute Gardner made a decent enough lantern, for your I say the sky's the limit. " he chuckled at his words.

I looked at him quizzically as I wasn't familiar with this person known as Gardner. But his reassurance was enough to give me enough courage to extend my hand at the ring. The ring seemed to freeze in place as my hand got closer making it easier for me to slip it into my index finger. The moment it did so, the ring began glowing and green light began engulfing my body making me freeze until I realised that it wasn't harming me in the slightest.

By the time it was done, my clothes had been replaced by a green and black uniform similar to what the green lanterns wore in the images.

"I'm glad you decided walk this path." Ganthet said with a smile. "It seems I can now rest in peace." he said as is body began fading. Seeing this, my eyes widened and I tried to grab him to stop him from fading.

"Wait. There has got to be a way. You can't just disappear like this." I cried out in panic intent on saving this person who I had met just moments ago.

"Fret not child. My body has already perished along with the rest of my universe. With this I can finally rest in peace."

"But.... But....." I sputtered and got a third slap in response.

"Fear not child, I have taken steps to ensure that you will master the ring. Keep your chin up. You now carry my legacy and that of my universe. I know you will make us proud." he said before fading away completely. And with that, a bright light filled the void and I blacked out once more.

________________________________________________

Several miles over New Jersey.

Irena's POV

I was greeted by the sky when I woke up. I then attempted to get up only to find there was nothing supporting me. In a panic I began looked around to find myself surrounded by clouds. Below, I could make out the Lights of the city, further fueling my panic. I was dressed in the same green and black uniform and still had the ring on my palm but I couldn't help but panic wondering how I was going to get down.

[May I be of assistance? Torch Bearer]

A voice suddenly spoke out of no where.

"Whos there?" I demanded while looking around.

[This unit's designation is Overseer. This unit's directive is to assist the Torch Bearer fulfil their duties as a Lantern.]

At his words I stared at the ring. "Are you inside the ring?" I asked

[Affirminative. This unit is a virtual intelligence system bound with to the ring by Guardian Ganthet and Guadian Sayd to assist you.]

So this was what he meant by steps to help me master the ring.

"Alright then Overseer, how do I get down? Better yet, how did I get up here in the first place?"

[Upon contact with the ring, your mind was temporarily transfered into the fragmented psyche of Guardian Ganthet. Thus to ensure the safety your primary body in the mean time, this unit took it upon himself to place a sensory and optical cloak over you before telekinetically transporting you to a safer location until you were awake]

"OK so how do I get down?"

[Simply will it so while concentrating on what you would like to do]

I followed the Overseer's instruction and emptied my mind and focused on getting down. And sure enough, I began safely descending. And upon seeing this, I stopped before repeating the same procedure except this time I tried to move forward and backwards. When that succeeded I then moved laterally and got the same result.

After that, my earlier fear disappeared almost completely, now replaced by excitement as I now opportunity to cross something else from my bucket list. Flying. It was something I wanted to do ever since I saw Iron man and Falcon flying like it was second nature to them.

I began with baby steps, by flying no faster than around 10 mhr before gradually increasing my speed.

"Overseer, what is the maximum speed I can attain ?" I inquired.

[Based on Earth's Metric units, and the ring's current power supply, you are capable of reaching an estimated speed of Mach 5 and perhaps Mach 8 with the aid of an aerodynamic envelope.]

I was awed at the number until I completely registered the Overseers words. I then skidded to a halt or the equivalent of it considering I was midair. "What do you mean power supply?" I demanded.

[The ring requires to be charged with the battery pack once its charge gets low.]

"So where is this battery pack?"

[It is currently stored in a pocket dimension inside the ring to be taken out once a Torch-Bearer is chosen]

"OK can I take it out then, so that I can recharge the ring?"

[Negative. Due to recent multiversal displacement, It is advised to avoid using the ring's dimensional Manipulation capabilities for the next 12 hours to prevent detection by quote unquote unsavory individuals]

I deflated at his words until I heard the reason. I then remembered that there was a chance that somebody already knew about the ring's arrival. As such my new priority was to go back home. My mother would be working late but I didnt want to risk her finding me missing when she gets home.

"Overseer, you mentioned a cloaking mode before. Can you activate it? " I muttered

[Affirminative]

The Overseer answered and a pale green light surrounded me. While I could see myself clearly, i was going to be rendered invisible to others if the Overseer is to be believed.

I then flew back toward New York at around Mach 2 until I found my way to suburbs of Queens. I then landed in an inconspicuous alley before taking the ring off thus reverting back to my original clothes. I was curious about how this worked but decided to wait until I was at the safety of my house before asking Overseer. I then began walking the rest of my way to home.

I turned a corner to find a police cruiser on the street where my house was and I immediately fell t a knot in a stomach. Did my mother come home earlier or was I unconscious for longer than I thought. The knot tightened even more as I got closer as I realised that the cruiser was right infront of my house.

As I almost reached my house, a pair of officers got out of the cruiser before walking up to me.

"Irena Smith? " one of the officers a middle aged man with a goatee asked.

"Yes?" I asked softly.

"We need you to come with us to the hospital. It's your mother."