Second Chances: Green Lantern

Chapter 2

Note: This will mostly be a memory chapter.

When James came too, he found that he was back in his old condo in Metropolis, the condo he'd had before he moved to National City and began the trip that turned him into the Guardian and small town newspaper owner in Calvintown. However, when he looked down at his right hand, James saw that he was still wearing the Green Lantern ring Mar Novu had given him, though he wasn't wearing any kind of uniform. At least at this moment. However, he could see that the ring was truly his, since he could feel its energy allowing him to access the memories of his counterpart as he felt their consciousnesses fully merge.

Anyways, as James went through the memories of his counterpart from this world, he began to see how their lives differed. His early life was pretty much the same in this reality. He still grew up in Calvintown with his mother and younger sister Kelly and had lost his father overseas. It wasn't until he moved to Metropolis that things started to change. Some things remained the same there though. After he started at the Daily Planet, he still met Clark and Lois, who would both go on to be two of his closest friends and Clark was like a brother to him and they still had their secret handshake. In addition to Clark and Lois, James also met Perry White and Cat Grant, before Cat moved to National City to start up Catco Worldwide Media, something that James knew Clark was relieved about, since James could tell that he was feeling uncomfortable by her constant flirting attempts despite the fact that he'd made it very clear that he was happy with Lois.

Anyways, eventually, James discovered that Clark was Superman like he had before and it was around that time that the first real change in his reality, since he met Winn Schott in Metropolis in this reality, saying that he worked for the FBI, though James now suspected that the FBI was really the DEO, something he'd have to ask J'onn about to confirm. Anyways, after he'd become friends with Winn, James had decided to become a hero a lot sooner in this reality than he had before, something that made James smile. Winn had built him his Guardian armor just like before and he'd started helping Superman out on crime scenes, despite Clark's best efforts to stop him from being a hero, though eventually he came to accept it, though James refused to tell him where he got the suit from, in order to keep Winn out of trouble.

However, the fact that he was always seen riding Superman's cape, Guardian had been labeled as Superman's sidekick, since this was a step down from the old reality, since while he'd operated in the same city as Supergirl, he'd never been called her sidekick, probably because he and Kara hadn't started working together until after he'd established himself outside of her.

Anyways, James had not been happy about being labeled a sidekick, but eventually, he got his chance to step out of Superman's shadow, since after Clark's mom passed away, Clark had decided to move his family back to his hometown of Smallville, especially after Jordan had begun showing signs of having inherited his father's kryptonian powers. Before he left however, Clark officially named James as Metropolis's new protector, since while Superman would always protect the world, he'd no longer be able to serve as Metropolis's first line of defense, which would mean it would become Guardian's responsibility to be that now.

However, it turns out that fate had other plans in mind for James, since in this reality, he got a very new life changing experience. As in the night after they left, James was struck by a very strange meteor that seemed to have come out of nowhere and more importantly, it seemed like it had targeted him specifically. Normally he'd think that was crazy, but after everything he'd seen since he'd met Superman, crazy was just the new normal.

After he recovered from being knocked out by the crash, he found that in place of the meteor was some strange kind of box. Before he even knew what was happening, James picked up the box and began to open it to find that it contained something that glowing a bright green light as he began to see visions of all the different lives he could lead, all the different things he could do. He saw the power it contained and realized that it would finally give him the power he'd wanted to be a hero outside of the supers. It was in that moment, James saw the light harden into the form of the ring he now wore on his finger and as soon as he removed the ring from the box, he saw the box morph into some kind of glowing green lantern that seemed to put the words into his mind as he put the ring.

"In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might beware my power, Green Lantern's light." James remembered saying again right before he, the ring and the lantern all vanished in a flash of green light.