Kapitel 2: ISSUE 01 GOODBYE AND HELLO
Sunday Afternoon September 3rd, 2024. Oakland, California.
"I uhh... ERHM…. I was never good at goodbyes, Alex. I don't have to say that— you know that. No, you knew that. I mean, how many times did I just up and leave the relationship? Please don't answer that. I made mistakes. I made excuses. I cheated. I was scared. I AM scared. You were the best thing that ever happened to me, and it terrified me because, I didn't feel like I was the same for you. I wasn't the same for you, because I was scared. You were never scared of anything. I start my second year of college tomorrow, and I'm going to be like you, Alex. I'll be fearles—"
An explosion to the south shook the earth so violently a tombstone two rows ahead of him crumbled. Plumes of black smoke spiraled in the distance.
Kyle adjusted himself. Not even able to laugh at the pitiful timing.
He adjusted his leather jacket and faced the tombstone more squarely. He faced his once truest love, Alexandra Moore, more squarely.
"Like I was saying. I start my second year of college tomorrow. I switched my major like you kept saying I should. Fine arts, drawing, graphic design and creative writing. I'm gonna write a story…. as soon as I break this writers block. Either way, I'm taking the leap of faith. I'm done running. I'm done blocking my blessings because I'm scared I'm not enough for them. I was enough for you. I'll show you—"
Another explosion. Closer. So close, he could see an object flying through the air.
Straight towards him.
"NO!" He lunged for Alex's tombstone, wrapping himself around the stone slab as the spaceship crash landed in the cemetary.
The dust settled. Kyle remained wrapped around her tombstone. Thankfully it remained standing. But only a hundred feet ahead, decimation split the earth with trenches of fire and sparking wiring. The violence of the crash landing caused him to split his head on the tombstone. His blood smeared the lettering of her name.
He stumbled as he got to his feet.
At the same time, so did the spaceship. Only, it wasn't a spaceship.
It was a man— in a suit. Something mechanical and state of the art. The black shell was split around the torso and arms where cut wiring continued to spark. He looked like he walked through a blender.
"You!" The man in the dark suit pointed at Kyle.
"Me…?"
"Get the hell out of the way. Now."
"What?" He still couldn't see straight.
"I said move it, twilight. Im uprooting this entire graveyard. There's energy underground I'm gonna need before fish-boy finds me."
His heart stopped if only for a moment. Like anyone, he turned and ran.
Then, he stopped. His words spoken to Alex echoed. It felt so foolish at the moment.
"I said I'd be fearless— now what? I box a psycho cyborg and die? Oh I'm sure Alex would love that."
But he couldn't leave.
"Hey, jawline! Don't get any ideas. I'll rough that pretty face up real good, don't tempt me!"
"I'm not leaving her again." Kyle turned around on legs made of jelly.
The man in the ten foot tall mech laughed. "Oh does the heartthrob want a shot at Ohm? Come on then! I'll pulverize you and this graveyard."
"Ahhhh… to hell with it. I've been in the house all summer. I didn't even come to the funeral. Time for a change of pace." Kyle put his fists up.
The closest he'd been to a fight were in the pages in his art book. Hopefully it counted for something.
"Hopefully you aren't watching, Alex." He whispered.
Ohm's suit glimmered as he focused his waning reserves of energy in his fists, preparing a pulse blast from techno-hell.
"Come get some, pretty boy!" Ohm fired.
"I love you, Alex!" Kyle accepted defeat— proud of his decisions for the first time in months. Since Ale—
The deafening warble of the energy blast was suddenly swallowed. His fist connected with a wall of hair. At the same time, the earth rumbled and light spread in strobing arcs.
"Dude— did you just punch me?"
Kyle opened his eyes and found a six foot tall black man with blonde buzzed hair and glowing blue serpent tattoos. In front of him, he held out a wall of solid water, steaming from the absorbed blast from Ohm.
"Oh…. Uhhh….—" Kyle had never felt embarassment so pure.
"FISHBOY!" Ohm charged, turning the energy pulses in his fists into a streamlined aura.
He ripped through Fishboy's defensive wall of water .
"Watch out!" Fishboy shoved Kyle with the strength of ten men.
He crashed through three tombstones before rolling to a stop in the grass.
The sounds of mutual combat woke him.
"The names Aqualad. And if you keep playing with me, I'll do more than rip you out of that stolen suit!" Aqualad moved like a ninja on steroids. He was all speed and explosively inhuman power.
Ohm charged like a bull, swatting with damaged arms and stomping with waterlogged legs.
Aqualad slithered around the field like the glowing serpent designs on his arms. He was impossible to touch. In seconds he was at Ohm's backside, electrified liquid blades shifting into scalpels he used to cut open a hatch at the back of the suit.
"You're not a pilot, Ohm. You're a jealous energy junky trying to fit shoes that don't fit." Aqualad said as he flipped out of the way of a back kick. The second his feet hit the ground, he was exploding into a charge, atomizing the earth underneath him.
"If you want the suit— the power, earn it. Get a job. Help somebody. Don't terrorize graveyards, surface-dweller. It's bad karma." He sent a kick into the face shield of Ohm's helmet. It shattered like a windshield in a car crash.
The suit went dead. Lights out. Ohm's mechanically amplified screams became only human.
Before he could hit the ground, Aqualad caught the leg of the suit, lifting him off the floor and throwing him back where he came from.
Kyle was on his feet. Amazed by the fearlessness. The beauty in violence. The rise in his own adrenaline. It was like his art come to life. His fingers itched in that way that only came when he was inspired. He needed a pen. He needed to create.
Ohm came back to life. From his angle, Kyle could see him digging his suit arm into the hole in the earth Aqualad made with his previous take off.
He reached the power lines beneath that he wanted anyway.
Kyle panicked as he watched city lights in the distance fade. Ohm charged like a battery.
"AQUALAD DON'T!"
Aqualad turned around, "Wh—"
The blast hit like a flashbang. An instant flash of white followed by a wave of heat and rubble.
When Kyle came to, he was outside of the graveyard. On the street, looking at his bleeding knuckles and torn sleeves. Water dripped from his dark hair.
Someone groaned ahead of him. He rolled over and found Aqualad steaming in front of him. A massive gash marred his chest. He ate the blast, surrounding Kyle in his liquid constructs instead of himself.
Saved again.
Ohm moved in the distance like a possessed animatronic. Wires busted and popped out of his suit. His leg joint fell off, leaving his frail human leg danginling out of the shell as he hopped like a wounded animal.
His face was a white mask in the shadows of his helm. Bald and old with hungry eyes.
"HAHA! How'd you like that one, fishface?! I'm gonna bleed you dry and head back to S.T.A.R Labs for a re-up. That's my job, for the record, and without the Flash, I'm the deadliest man in town." Ohm stood no more than twenty feet away. He took aim.
Kyle jumped onto Aqualad and held his hand out to Ohm.
"Oh for Christ— you're suicidal. Is that it?!"
"Honestly, yea. I haven't had a good few months, so…." Kyle couldn't face the mechanical titan. But he couldn't keep running. "Just go away! Don't do this, man. I've got family here."
Ohm sneered, "And look what that family's done for you."
"You have no idea."
Suddenly he had the courage to face the mechanical revenant.
The blast came. The itch in his fingers faded to only one. As the flash of white came, the only other thing visible were his eyes. Usually they were brown— mundane. But in the wake of death by pulverization, they flashed an emerald green.
He never heard the blast. When Aqualad saved him, the noise was dulled. This time, there was no sound. No shake. No burn.
Death was more…. instant than he would've im—
"No way…."
"[Kyle Rayner of Earth, you have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green-Lantern Corps.]"
He still remained laying over the unconscious Aqualad. Only now he wore a suit. Green glossy metallic threads covered his hands, feet and face. A black skintight second skin hugged his muscles. It looked like it was cut from space itself with all the minute starry details and glowing nebula. With every inhale and movement, the dark threads stretched and flexed like muscle. He felt strong.
The strength flowed from the ring on his left hand. Green light bloomed, taking the shape of a dome around them.
Ohm raged on the outside.
"YOU THINK YOUR JUST FULL OF SUPRISES DONT YOU PRETTY BOY!? FAAAAAACK!" He fired electric pulse beams and punched the green barrier in a rage.
Kyle turned to Aqualad.
"Uh… hey, man. Wake up. I don't know how long this thing holds up. Am I dead? I'm dead— I have to be…. I mean if I'm not, then I'm a green lantern. Like the justice league. That doesn't sound right. I can't even keep up with rent!"
"ERHM!"
Kyle jumped at the sound of another in front of him.
He looked up and found a….
"Smurf?"
"Not funny. My name is Ganthet." He wore a red cloak with a symbol similar to his ring. "Yes, you are a Green-Lantern. You are not THE Green-Lantern. And your constructs last as long as you are focused and fighting your fears."
"Focused? Constru—" The dome shattered like glass.
"You were not focused." Ganthet moved like a ghost. At the same time, Kyle and Aqualad hovered with him, dodging a blast from Ohm.
"Go fight, Lantern. Face your fears and save us. Prove your worthy to wield the ring." Ganthet pointed over to Ohm like he was a fly Kyle needed to swat.
"Wha— I don't know how to use this!" Kyle referred to his ring as he looked between Ohm and Ganthet.
"That's why you learn. Focus. Will your imagination into realistic form. Inhale, exhale, create." Ganthet explained.
A blast hit the earth at Kyle's feet, he jumped and never came down.
"OH SHIIII—"
Ohm screamed and fired another blast into the evening sky.
Ganthet's words echoed in his mind.
He focused. He imagined Aqualad's wall of water. He imagined the ocean and the frothy waves toppling eachother, blocking sound and swallowing everything in its path.
"Inhale…. Exhale…. Create."
A green construct of a tsunami exploded from his ring. Big enough to swallow the whole forty foot wide street.
Ohm looked up at the massive wave and finally, he stopped yelling.
"Dam—"
The wave crashed into him, flattening the armored maniac instantly.
"Holy….." Kyle mumbled as he floated.
His construct faded and revealed Ohm left in sparking rubble. The whole front end of his suit was split in half, leaving the man bruised and broken— exposed to the outside world. Unconscious as all hell.
"Well, you did decently. You hesitate more than others— could be slower processing speeds due to heightened intelligence and awareness of inherent combative possibilities or that you're chaotically inexperienced and don't go outside much."
"I haven't been outside in three months." Kyle mumbled, still staring at the remains of Ohm.
"What in the cosmic hell do you do for a living?"
"I'm in college. I'm an artist."
"I get it but I don't get it." Ganthet mumbled.
For the first time, Kyle looked away from Ohm and to Ganthet. He floated beside him with Aqualad slung over his shoulder.
"Get what?"
"Why it chose you. It's….. a different approach. Perhaps that's what the universe needs in these trying times." Ganthet pondered.
"What are you actually talking about?"
"Nothing. Follow me."
"What— we're not going to call anyone for him? We can't just leave him here." Kyle referred to Ohm.
"I already did."
"You have a phone?"
"I have a telepathic brain that just contacted every law enforcement agency in a one hundred mile radius." Ganthet replied, his voice only heard in Kyle's mind.
"If you do that again, I'll die I think."
"Then our lanterns light shall dim even more. Hurry, Kyle Rayner. There's much to discuss. Also help me find Titan's Tower. Reading unconscious minds can be quite difficult. Especially when they're this durable."
Hesitantly— weakly, Kyle flew.
For the first time in a long time, he hoped Alex could see him.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
_Avatar0FFury_
_Avatar0FFury_ And with that, I give you my rendition of Kyle Rayner. In this iteration his girlfriend Alex is not fridged by Major Force and he’s a bit younger. You’ll also find that he’s a bit more beaten and confidence lacking naturally but things never remain unchanged in a good story so stay tuned. I’m having fun. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein