The Green Lantern Ring – Chapter 7
I fainted in the middle of a jump from one rooftop to another... after executing Mission Revenge. Did I survive?
When I woke up, still half unconscious, I felt something strange on my face. I touched it, unsure where I was and what had happened to me. But the strange thing on my face moved as I pushed it upwards and I realised I could take it off – it was just my Guy Fawkes mask. I raised myself up and looked around. I was in my apartment, lying on my bed. I looked down at my body: I still had the green hoodie, my black jeans and my shoes on. What the hell?
“You’re awake, finally! That’s great,” said a voice that felt very close and very loud. It was my ring’s AI.
What happened? The last thing I remember is wanting to fly from one rooftop to another in the city centre… How did I get here?
“You drained yourself of energy completely and blacked out while attempting to make the jump. My emergency protocol was activated to prevent lethal injury from the fall. Hence I constructed a protective ball of green light around your body and flew you home.”
Holy shit. That’s fucking crazy. I could’ve died… but you saved me. Thank you ring!
“You are very welcome. How are you feeling? Before you answer, I’d advise you drink some water first… you’ve been out for a while.”
I had a water bottle next to my bed, so I followed the ring’s advice. I feel okay, I guess, but still a little weird. How could this happen? I’d never fainted before in my life, ever.
“A power ring is an extremely powerful device. Getting used to commanding such powers takes time.”
But I started working out again a month ago… I’ve been following the plan we put together.
“I know and that’s great! However, wielding a power ring at a high level requires a lot of practice and strength – both mental and physical. One month of training is not enough to get to that level, especially after years of living an inactive lifestyle. I’m sure you know this, but it takes a long time to achieve one’s strongest physical form, even without a ring. Add to that the fact that you’re trying to master one of the most powerful devices in the universe. It’s going to take time, but you’re on the path and doing good. You will get there if you keep this up.”
Okay, yeah… you’re right, I need to be patient.
“May I ask, what were you doing that led you to completely drain yourself of energy like that?”
I was doing ‘mission revenge’… remember? Avenging that fat pig from the office.
“I see. It didn’t go as planned?”
No… another asshole ex-colleague showed up and I decided to punish her as well. Couldn’t lift her high enough though, so I ended up throwing her on a car. Also, a lot of people gathered around them and I think someone noticed me.
“You had your mask on, so that should not be a big problem.”
Yeah, thankfully. But I think they called the police, so I had to hurry out of there and didn’t have time to rest.
“Why did you not call me? I could’ve helped by warning you about your energy reserve and other factors you might not have noticed. You could’ve avoided this.”
I know… but I didn’t want you questioning my decision to go through with it. The last time we talked about it, you were trying to change my mind, so…
“I was trying to get you to reevaluate and make sure you really thought this was a good idea before committing to it. But it seems you really did think that.”
Yeah, but your questions made me second guess myself when I went out there the first time. And I couldn’t do it. I had to go back a second time.
“So you’ve had some doubts then. Do you feel better now, having done it? Was it worth the risk?”
I don’t know… I feel good about hurting them, they deserved it. But I’m a little annoyed by the fact that someone noticed me. I would’ve preferred to leave without any traces.
“That’s the thing with these types of actions. There are consequences usually. I need to push back on something you said: ‘they deserved it’. Do you really think harming someone physically – potentially crippling them for life – is a proportional response to the social slights you experienced?”
I know, I know, we already discussed this. But, as I told you before… they bullied me, talked shit behind my back, ganged up on me… you know that. I paused for a second as something occurred to me. Wait a minute! Did anyone see me when you flew me home?
“Quite unlikely. I flew high enough to ensure that people on the streets couldn’t identify what they saw, even if they noticed something in the far distance. Also, as I mentioned, I created a force field of green energy around you, so, at best, they saw a green orb crossing the sky.”
What about when I fainted? How far did I fall before you caught me? Were there any people on the street who might’ve seen me?
“I caught you the second after you fainted. You barely fell below the level of the rooftop. The emergency protocol activated immediately as you blacked out. I did not detect anyone nearby.”
What about when you brought me back home?
“I scanned the neighbouring windows before ascending into your apartment.”
Okay, great, well done ring! And I’m guessing the completely broken window was you as well? When you brought me into the room?
“Yes. I ran a thorough analysis of the situation and there was no better way, unfortunately.”
Yeah, I understand… what matters is that you saved me. But I gotta get this window fixed before my mom comes to visit.
A few hours later:
I was a bit nervous about having been spotted and I went through the whole ordeal in my head a few more times. One thing I forgot to tell you is that I also wore surgical gloves so that I wouldn’t leave any fingerprints on the rooftop. I cut a hole in the right glove – exactly where the ring sits – to prevent the rubber from interfering with my powers.
So, basically, I think I should be covered: used a mask, green hoodie I never wore anywhere else, gloves, and I didn’t leave anything on the rooftop. But what if a piece of cloth fell off my hoodie? Can they trace the brand based on a tiny string? Is the Hungarian police so sophisticated? I need to look into that.
I checked the news and there it was: an article about what happened. “UFOs attacked our staff today?” asked the semi-clickbait title.
“Two of our staff members were lifted into the air by an unknown force, while taking a break outside the editorial office. ‘A weird green light appeared on my body out of nowhere. I was lifted off the ground and it took me as high as the top of the building we work in,’ our colleague told us.”
“This ‘invisible force’ let go of him at that point, after which he fell to the ground, breaking a total of 7 bones in his feet and legs. He underwent several rounds of surgery after the incident and is now resting in the hospital with a policemen by his side. ‘We’ve assigned a guard to his room, in case the perpetrators come for him again,’ said the police spokesman.”
“Based on the nature of this incident, some have speculated that our staff was witness to an attempted UFO abduction. Other online commentators have argued that this is impossible for several reasons – e.g. that eyewitnesses did not see anything resembling an alien aircraft. In fact, the sky was clear and no airplanes or helicopters were seen anywhere nearby.”
“However, one witness told us that he saw ‘a weird figure on top of the opposite building.’
Although he couldn’t see the figure clearly, as it was quite far away, he said ‘it appeared to have a green body or green clothes and a very white face or mask.’”
“We asked the police whether they know anything about the nature of this attack or who the attacker(s) might have been. ‘Based on the eye-witness testimony, this sounds like the type of thing you see in science fiction movies, not in real life. However, we highly doubt that anything supernatural took place. We are, however, working on assisting the injured and putting the pieces together in order to figure out what actually caused this strange incident,’ the police told us.”
I laughed out loud. “They have no idea what happened!” I felt more at ease after reading that article – my fear of being caught was quickly fading away. “These idiots think it was an alien abduction attempt.”
I’ve also been contemplating how to find out more about my power ring. I was still weary about contacting the merchandise store, as they could easily figure out who I am – I doubt anyone else based in Hungary had ordered this same exact GL ring recently. So I’m going to take a bit of an indirect route… it might not lead me anywhere, but… I have to start somewhere.
I decided to contact one of the most notorious, unconventional and groundbreaking comic book writers out there. He had written Green Lantern comics in the past, and his ideas and beliefs about the supernatural might just help me find out what’s really going on here.
Note to the reader:
I wanted to let you know that I might not be able to upload the next chapter the following Friday. So, chapter 8 could arrive on Friday the 17th instead of the 10th. Anyway, thank you for reading this series, I really appreciate it!
Stay tuned, there’s much more to come!
Best regards,
Soren