Post by Stardrifter on Jun 20, 2012 20:42:34 GMT -5
by
Stardrifter
The Last Hope: Part 2
The Will
The sound of sirens scream out in the distance over the rainfall. It snaps Kyle out of his thoughts and back to reality. Overwhelmed by the events of the last ten minutes, Kyle goes into action with the single thought of not wanting to be where the sirens are going. The green ring still on his finger, he makes a mad dash for the side of the crater and climbs up. Once he reaches the street again, soaked to the bone and covered in mud, he sprints toward his apartment.
Relief fills him as he reaches the doorway to the building. He rushes inside and up two flights of stairs to his apartment door. His wet hands fumble with his equally wet keys and finally he makes it inside to safety. Slamming the door behind him, he leans against it and slides down to the wood paneled floor, exhausted.
"Kyle!" a voice yells from the bedroom. "I swear to God I'm gonna kill you! What the hell..." Alex's voice catches in her throat when she turns the corner to see her boyfriend in this state. Anger fading, she rushes over, tying her bathrobe, and kneels down next to him. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"I don't know," Kyle replies, barely more than a whisper. He tries in vain to wipe some of the mud off his face.
"Where have you been? Did someone do this to you? Were you mugged? Are you hurt?" Alex fires out the questions in rapid succession while she inspects him, running her hands over his head and chest.
"I'm fine...I mean...I'm not..." Words still fail him. Kyle simply raises his right hand to show her the ring.
Alex stares down at it, not sure what to think. As she looks at it she doesn't know if she really sees tiny green lights dance around the green ring, or it's just her mind playing tricks. "Where did you...?"
"From the alien."
****
Hardly any more words are spoken as Alex helps Kyle to his feet and gets him cleaned up. She helps him get undressed and into the shower. In the meantime, she reheats some pizza from the other night for his dinner. At first she goes to grab a beer out of the fridge, considers for a moment, then grabs some Sprite instead.
The shower calms Kyle's nerves. The hot water washes over him and runs down the drain brown with mud. For some time Kyle just stares down at the ring on his finger. The ring is in the same shape as the symbol on the alien's clothing. The same symbol he knew from the news videos of the super hero known as Green Lantern down in New Mexico. He tries to remember everything he heard about the Green Lantern. With so many heroes popping up all over the globe, its hard to keep all the stories straight.
Kyle's almost positive he remembers the Green Lantern firing beams of energy from his fist. From his fist, or from a ring on his fist? Kyle steps out of the shower and opens the small window. He raises his fist and points it into the sky. Turning his head to the side, as if the ring is going to jump back and bite him, he thinks about the ring firing a beam. After a minute, nothing happens and he laughs slightly to himself.
Wrapping up in his bathrobe, Kyle walks out into their tiny kitchen where Alex is setting the table. Without a word, Kyle steps in and takes the plate from her. He knows she hates having to come home and do the same stuff she does all day at work. They both silently sit at the table and Kyle begins to eat. More like pick, actually. The shower made him feel much better but the events of tonight have left him without much of an appetite.
"So," Alex finally breaks the silence, not looking up from the table where she nervously shreds a napkin. "You want to talk about this alien?"
That one sentence tells Kyle everything. The sound of her voice, the concern mixed with condescension. The same way you'd talk to a child who tells you about their playtime fantasies as if they were real. He finishes chewing on a pepperoni and tells her everything. Almost everything. For the moment he leaves out losing his job and getting lost in a D&D game for hours. When he finishes, Alex doesn't say a word. She just stares at him.
"What?" Kyle asks a bit harsher than he intended "What are you thinking? That I'm crazy?"
"I dunno Kyle, maybe. I mean some of those amateur comics you wrote were more believable."
The back handed insult stings a bit, but the fact that she doesn't believe him when he's telling the truth starts to anger him. "There's an alien flying around Metropolis. St. Roche was just attacked and tore up by another alien. I think we're way past skepticism." Alex starts to say something and Kyle interrupts her with a new thought. His voice gets louder. "And I told you his outfit had the same symbol as that Green Lantern guy in New Mexico. And all that green energy was exactly the same."
Alex leans forward and sticks her finger out at him. She raises her voice to match his. "But you expect me to believe that this alien comes all the way to Earth and picks you as his last hope?"
That hits Kyle like a slap in the face. All the outward anger that was on his face disappears to be replaced by the blank stare of barely contained rage. Alex realizes she hurt him, but too angry and proud to apologize, just falls back into her seat and crosses her arms in a huff. They sit in silence for another couple minutes before Kyle finally gets up to go toward the bedroom.
"Kyle?"
"Save it," Kyle barks, not even bothering to turn around. "If you're going to commit me it can wait till tomorrow."
****
Morning comes without incident. Alex's alarm goes off at quarter-to-five so she can get to work. Kyle just rolls over and continues to sleep badly, getting minutes here and there in between tossing and turning. When he hears Alex leave he finally has enough, throwing the covers off.
After going through his morning routine, he considers what to do with his day. Despite everything that happened with the alien and the ring, his foremost thought is of his sudden unemployment. As justifiably angry as he feels with Alex right now, he still has to tell her about being fired, and when he does he'll lose his righteous indignation. So he decides the best use of his time is to find a job as quickly as possible, that way he can quickly follow telling her he was fired with telling her he found a job.
Kyle spends a couple hours searching online for openings and filling out applications. When he begins to go stir crazy he decides to get out and walk the streets. Not every business lists online, and it can be advantageous for a possible employer to have a face for the applicant rather than just a sterile online application.
It's sunny and in the 80s when Kyle steps out onto the street. The city is bustling as always. Curious, he walks back to where he encountered the alien. The crash site is all taped off with city workers buzzing about like bees. There's only one police officer and she's only directing traffic, so any investigations must have taken place last night or this morning. Paranoia stirs and Kyle rushes off, worrying he might be recognized.
His luck in person is not as good as it was online. Most stores and businesses aren't hiring or want qualifications an out of work comic artist simply doesn't have. Still, his fear of not having something lined up when he tells Alex is enough to get him to try even fast food joints.
After being turned down by a Burger King, Kyle's stomach growls and he decides to make the most of it and get lunch while he's here. Sitting out and watching the busy street, he slowly eats his Whopper of shame. As he chews his mind turns back to the ring. He looks around to make sure no one's watching and tries again to make something happen. And again, nothing. If not for the giant crater in the street back by his apartment, he might start to wonder if he was crazy.
He starts to dig into his fries when a loud screech interrupts his thoughts, followed by a crash. Everyone in the restaurant jumps up to look out the window. On the street, a cab is on its side. Next to it, an Altima is on the wrong side of the road, its front end demolished and burning. A half dozen members of the crowd start to call 911 when Kyle sees through the broken windshield that the man inside the Altima is unconscious, his body hunched over the deflated airbag. Without thought, Kyle rushes outside to the car.
"Are you okay?" Kyle yells while knocking on the window. There's no response. "Hey! Mister!" He tries to get the drivers side door open, but its bent out of shape. The fire begins to spread up the front of the vehicle and he can feel the heat on the side of his face. In the corner of his eye he sees that other people have run over to help the cabbie. Kyle continues to try pull the door open but its just too much for him.
"Hold on, man." A big, bearded man in biker gear says as he runs over. Together they grab the car door and pull as hard as they can. After for what seems like an eternity, the door opens with a loud pop. It hits the biker in the side and knocks him down. Kyle looks quick to see he's all right and then turns to the unconscious man in the burning car. The fire begins to spread into the front seat as Kyle unbuckles the seat belt and pulls the man out. Just as he gets him out, the car explodes.
For Kyle, time seems to stand still. He watches as the fire erupts into a fireball in slow motion. On instinct, he raises his arms to shield himself from the blast. The single thought, "Shield," overpowers his mind. Kyle watches in awe as bright green energy begins to form in front of his eyes. The fire slams into the energy, but doesn't break it.
The instant is over and time returns to normal. The green energy is gone, leaving no trace. Yet in the wake of the explosion, Kyle, the driver, and the biker all sit unharmed. It only takes Kyle a second to realize what happened and, while the crowd is still reeling from the explosion, he runs off.
****
A mixture of nervousness and excitement fills Kyle the entire way home. It takes all his self control not to try using the ring again, but he wants to make sure no one sees him. When he finally reaches his building, Kyle rushes up to the rooftop. A quick inspection and it appears he's alone.
"All right, all right, all right," Kyle mutters to himself. He paces a bit and shakes his hands, trying to loosen up. Finally he stops and points his ring at a can sitting on the roof. He begins to concentrate, trying to evoke the same feeling he had when he created the shield earlier. He begins to focus his thoughts on firing a beam of energy at the can. He focuses all of his will.
"Shit!" Kyle yells, trying to clear his mind before he fires. He jogs over to the can and picks it up. The last thing he needs is to accidentally blow a hole in the roof. He sets it on the wall at the edge of the roof and jogs back.
Stretching out again and clearing his mind, he prepares for another try. He focuses his mind on willing the beam into existence. Suddenly green energy erupts from Kyle's ring. It blows the can and a tiny bit of the wall away with it.
"Yes!" Kyle shouts, pumping his fist in the air. "Fuck yeah!"
He fires a couple more blasts into the air, laughing at how awesome it is. Each time he finds its easier and easier, taking less of his concentration. He quickly realizes firing green blasts into the air is not a good way to avoid attention and stops, trying to regain his calm.
"I wonder what else you can do?" Kyle asks his ring, the possibilities racing through his mind. He creates another shield, this time keeping it in place to examine it. He discovers he can play with the size and shape, molding it as he sees fit. It doesn't take him long to realize he can use the ring to create objects, and he spends a good ten minutes jut amusing himself by creating objects in a stream of consciousness. As he goes they get more and more complex. When he creates a man sized Gundam suit and has it hover above the rooftop, a thought occurs to him.
"That's right, Green Lantern could fly," he says with a smirk.
He takes it slow. First he hovers a foot over the roof. Then he tries moving from one side to the other. Once he becomes comfortable with that, Kyle's next problem is figuring out how to hold himself. The ring does what he wants, so he doesn't need to be in a specific position to fly, so it takes him a few minutes to decide what looks most impressive and the least silly. He finally decides that holding his body flat with his right arm extended, leaving the ring pointed forward, is the best choice.
After that important decision, Kyle lands and checks the time. A chuckle comes out. "Wait till you get a load of this, Alex."
****
The Ruins of Oa
The energy being hovers over the remains of the once mighty Green Lantern Corps. It takes no form or shape, instead simply coalesces like a cloud in the clear night sky. The dead are strewn in various degrees of horror below it, from both sides, but they are no longer a concern. It has become more than that. More than the simple concepts of life or death.
The being continues to adjust to it's new circumstances. With a mere thought it can stretch it's consciousness over the vast reaches of space. It's not immediate, not yet, but it's an awe inspiring development that is taking some getting used to. Already the memories of physical form and limitations begin to fade. It exists now as the very spectrum itself.
Despite it all, there is a nagging in the back of it's thoughts. A concern, once of great importance, that has not managed to leave it yet. At first a minor nuisance, it festers until finally it can no longer be ignored. Stretching it's thoughts amongst the stars, it begins to remember as it seeks out the concern. The last ring. On the edge of it's thoughts it can feel all of the rings left by the Tree of Light, those are of little concern. But all of the Green Lantern rings were destroyed or...lost...save the one the last Guardian fled with. The last Green Lantern ring. It feels it. It's power growing. And it must be destroyed.
-To Be Continued-