Chapter 3

Brooklyn General Hospital,

Irena's POV

I felt my breath hitch when I saw my mother on the hospital bed. Her face was covered in bruises and she had a cast around her right arm and leg. She was currently unconscious but even then she looked like she was in pain.

"What happened to her?" I asked the officer who had followed me inside.

"Your mother was attacked a streets down from where she worked. She was then found my one of her coworkers who immediately called us and an ambulance. Her purse and other valuables doesnt seem to be missing which makes us believe that this attack might have been personal. " He spoke before leaning forward and whispering the next part.

" Ms. Smith, do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt your mother? " he asked. I shook my head while my body trembling with rage and sorrow.

The officer, then sighed before taking out a card. "Well. Until your mom wakes up, I'm afraid we won't be able to know what happened tonight." he then, passed the card to my hand before continuing. "If you can think of anything that might help, anything at all, please call this number. I promise I will do my best to find who had done this." he spoke soflty before making leaving me with my mother.

Once I was certain I was alone I went ahead and sat on a chair next to the bed she was on before clutching her free hand before I began sobbing uncontrolably.

I just couldn't understand why anyone would do this to her. We were not a particularly wealthy family as my mother worked as a chef at a local restaurant. And my mother usually kept her head down and tried to keep away from trouble. She was also not a very social person with her not interacting with anyone aside from me, some of our neighbours and her coworkers. Even as minutes passed into hours, I couldn't come up with a good enough explanation and eventually, visiting hours were over and I had to leave.

As I made my way back home, my earlier feelings of sadness, fear slowly began morphing into rage. I wanted to find the one responsible and make him feel the same pain my mother was currently feeling. And as I felt the weight of the ring inside my pocket, I knew just how I was going to so that.

________________________________________________

Smith Household,

Irena's POV

I pull out the curtains covering the windows before giving one final glance at the unmarked Police Cruiser outside. As the police suspected my mom had been specifically targeted, they wanted to keep a protection detail both outside of our house and near my mother's hospital room. I was thankful for it except for the fact that I was now worried about them seeing me when I am playing around with the ring.

After making sure that I had locked all the doors I made my way upstairs to my room before taking out the ring.

"Overseer?" I asked.

[At your service Torch-bearer]

"What exactly can the ring do? I already know that it can help me fly, make me invisible and I guess replace my clothes with the uniform..." I began but was interrupted by Overseer.

[Incorrect, this ring is capable of Manipulating matter, your apparel is merely broken down and converted into synthetic material powered by the ring.]

" Oh I see. OK so then, what else can this ring do? "

[The ring is capable of a wide range of abilities, such as energy projection, creation of energy constructs, deployment of forcefield, flight via manipulations of anti gravitons, rendering the user invisible via refraction of light, manipulate the user's molecular density to make them intangible, provides limited cellular regenerations to self and others, create wormholes through space and other dimensions for faster travels, create an energy twin of the user which can travel long distances and is invisble save to the eyes of guardians and other Lanterns and upon dismissal, the user will gain the memory of the energy twin. Unfortunately, the user is required ro remain immobile during this process.

Other features include the ability to universally translate languages across the cosmos, electromagnetic scanner, Galactic encyclopedia, willpower empowerment, mental alteration and material alteration, energy absorbtion though it wouldn't charge the existing charge of the ring, access to a pocket dimension and it can be utilised as a homing beacon.

In rare cases the ring can acts as a Lanterns life support when he is grave injured, provide limited precognition abilities and well as travel through time.

This particular ring is also capable of harnessing the power of the blue light of hope thus has access to all abilities of a Blue Lantern which while having similar abilities as the Green Lanterns, has other abilities such as empowering hope, enhancing the abilities of green Lanterns, provids immunity against external conduits that induce fear, remove the feeling of rage from individuals. It also has better cellular regeneration ability than their green counterparts.

Does this suffice your query?]

I could only look at the ring with a baffled expression as it listed of its abilities. Its powers were so numerous that I had probably forgotten half of them by the time Overseer was finished. And then I remembered one particular ability from its list.

"Overseer, can I use it to heal my mother."

[Affirminative]

I felt joy return at his words which quickly faded with its next words.

[But it is not a recommended]

"Why not?" I growled.

[I am able list a lot of reason why.

Firstly, Utlising the regeneration feature is quite difficult even for experienced lanterns as one required prior medical knowledge of how the injury is and how it can be treated. Moreover, you currently do not possess the required Mastery to use it.

Secondly, doing so may attract unnecessary attention to us. Ones which cannot afford to at the moment as you are still untrained in the ways of the ring or even basic combat techniques.]

I bit back a curse at his words. I didn't like it but he wasn't wrong.

"OK fine. So how do we do this?"

[This unit recommends that you charge the ring before attempting any other tasks]

"Oh right. Yeah you mentioned it. So how do I access the pocket dimension?"

[Simply will it so while wearing the ring.]

I complied as I slipped the ring on, and willed to open a small portal to the pocket dimension, I then pushed my arm inside and felt around it. It felt kind of weird when I did so. Like I was pushing my arm through a soft gelatinous membrane. The other side of the portal on the other hand left no different than this side and almost immediately, I felt my hand touch a metallic handle. I immediately grabbed it before pulling it out of the portal and was shocked to see that the so called battery pack looked like an old school oil lantern. I guess that's where they got the name then.

I chuckled to myself before asking. "OK now what?"

[Place the ring on your finger and press the emblembon the ring onto the the emblem on the battery pack.]

I made a first making the emblem on the center of the ring face forward as I brought the fist closer to the larger emblem. Even before they both made contact, I felt energy pulse between the two object and then the emblems touched and I felt my body stiffen as energy poured from the battery pack, into my ring.

Words began forming in my head without any prompt and I felt a deep desire to recite them.

"In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight.

Beware my Power, Green Lantern's Light".

When I spoke these words, I could see an aura of translucent green energy surround me and the battery pack.

This was followed by more words which I began reciting as well.

"And in fearful day, in raging night, With strong hearts full, our souls ignite, When all seems lost in the War of Light, Look to the stars, for hope shines bright!"

And the green aura was replaced by a blur aura. This persisted until I felt the ring charge itself to its full capacity and the aura faded back into the battery pack and I was snapped out of my fugue like state.

" Overseer? What was that?!" I demanded why breathing heavily.

[Appologies for failing to inform you Torch-bearer. What you recited were the Oaths of the Green Lanterns and the Blue Lanterns respectively. All Lanterns recite them to reaffirm their dedication to their lantern Corps. In this instance, the fugue was caused to fully establish the mental link between this unit and yourself as well as impart the oaths to you.]

"Mental link?" I blinked as I asked.

[Affirminative. A partial telepathic link was between us when you first accepted the ring to allow for this unit to communicate with you. Now, with a full link you will also be able to communicate with this unit via telepathic commands instead of verbal ones. Thus preventing Torch-bearer from appearing like a mentally unstable individual to civilians.]

"Oh telepathy. That's how you have been talking to me. I never noticed that." I spoke, genuinely shocked that I hadn't noticed this before.

"OK. Mental link has been established and the ring is charged. What do you recommend that we do now?" I asked.

[This unit recommends that Torch Bearer learn how to create small energy constructs, first and foremost. Other training modules recommends the user to be away from population centers to avoid accidental civilians casualties and collateral damage.]

"OK so how do I do that?"

[Standby. Uploading Virtual training module.]

It said before green light began spreading across room. The lights than coalesced into a single point creating a holographic image of a orange skinned alien with a beak and a fin like appendage on his head.

[The individual you see before you is called Tomar-re. A scientist from the planet of Xudaria and that sector's green lantern. The following is a telepathic training module made with his assistance to train new Lanterns in the practical and theoretical aspects of creating energy constructs. Please listening to it carefully.]

The hologram then began talking.

He first gave a basic rundown about how the ring harnesses the green energy which is the embodiment of will. Then he went on to talk about the how it can be utilised to create energy constructs.

To summarise, the creation of the constructs mainly depend on the imagination of the users. If one has mental image and the mechanics of how the an object works, he can create the corresponding constructs. It's power and durability will depend on the users will and the energy I expend creating it. remaining in the ring.

Once the hour and half long lecture was finished, I attempted to create a energy construct as well. I started simple, by trying to create a stick roughly the size of my arm and after a few tries I managed to make one. I knew I could change the properties of my constructs, as such I willed to be elastic before trying to bend and was successful. After that, I spent the next few hours practicing with my constructs, adjusting their size, shape and other physical properties until glanced at the clock and found that it was midnight.

The summer classes were going to start tommorow. It wasn't because I had bad grades but because I wanted to get some extra credit by taking courses I hadn't taken. It also allowed me to enjoy school without the presence majority of my bullies.

It also occured to me that I might have to get a job until my mother is healed. She had quite a substantial amount of savings but it would hurt for me to have some extra money for expenses in case there were complications with her treatments.

As for finding the ones responsible for putting her there? I had no choice but to shelf it for later as I had no leads to follow. The best I could do was wait until my mother wakes up and hopefully, she can shed some light on their identities. Or did I?

I then glanced back at the ring.

"Overseer, you mentioned that the ring could produce probes to gather information correct?" I asked.

[Affirminative]

"So can I program them to gather information about who hurt my mother?"

[Affirminative, you can mentally program probes to search for relevant phrases or personnel. However, I must advice you to limit the number of probes to lower the risk of detection by other parties]

"Good. Then I want to create four probes. One to keep an eye on the police station, one to eavesdrop on the cops outside, one to patrol Harlem, near where my mother was attacked and one to patrol Hell's Kitchen. Search for anyone talking about anything vaguely related to my mother." I said coldly, as I exerted my will into the ring. Making it glow. Green energy began pouring out of the ring before it manifested into 4 spherical objects. The said objects, the probes, hummed to life before its cloaking mode was activated. The Overseer too over from there, as the probes flew out of the house, headed to their destinations.

I almost collapsed due to exhaustion afterwards. Not physical, but mental exhaustion. Normally creating probes would not be so taxing on a user but I made them to be capable of cloaking and phasing which expended more willpower then it would have.

I began walking towards the bathroom to freshen up before going to bed. I ran a warm shower before getting inside, the water coursing over my skin somewhat alleviating my rage and stress. I felt at ease inside the shower.

[One last issue before you retire for the evening....]

That was until Overseer spoke in its monotone voice startling me, causing me to yelp before scrambling to find a towel until I remembered who was speaking.

"What is it?" I asked with an exasperated sigh before continuing my shower.

[This has detected several psionic signatures from all around the planets. This unit recommends that the Torchbearer prioritises implementing mental barriers as soon as possible.]

"Psionics. You mean like telepaths?" I asked with a frown.

[Affirminative]

I frowned at his words. The existence of mutants with telepathic abilities were not a secret. Though I wasn't aware of any such people being active in the vicinity. Either way, the Overseer was right, I needed some form of defence against mental attacks. But that was a task for tommorow. I thought as I finished my shower before changing into my pyjamas before falling asleep.