Second Chances: Green Lantern

Chapter 4

To both Hal and Guardians' delight, James had proven to be a natural Green Lantern, in fact, one of the Guardians even said that he took to training even faster than Hal had, but Hal accredited that to the fact that unlike him, James had spent years as a member of Superman's inner circle, so he'd been a bit more responsive to the possibilities the rings provided.

Still, he couldn't help but be impressed by how quickly James had mastered the ring's power, since it had taken him a while and a fight against Parallax to fully master the ring's power. James on the other hand had mastered it quickly.

It was also during this time that the Guardians discovered the return of the yellow element to the universe and knowing the danger of this element, they tasked Hal, James and Sinestro with retrieving it so they could properly destroy it. Well technically, they assigned Sinestro and Hal to the task, but since James was Hal's trainee, the Guardians had allowed him to tag along, since they felt that it would be a good way for him to see the danger of the yellow element in person.

However, what none of them realized was that Sinestro was the one who'd brought the yellow element back into the universe and that the only reason he'd allowed the Guardians to assign him Hal and James to come with him was because he'd always despised them and planned to use this as an opportunity to get rid of them.

That was how they'd ended up on the planet Qward, home of the Weaponers species, who'd used the yellow element Sinestro had provided to create a weapon for him.

As soon as they'd landed, James had gotten a bad feeling about everything and both he and Hal were starting to get suspicious of Sinestro, since he seemed on edge ever since they left Oa. But it wasn't until they were caught in a surprise attack by the Weaponer's defenses that James and Hal began to realize that this was a trap, since it seemed like the defenses were designed specifically to take out Green Lanterns and had information that no one but a Green Lantern could possibly know.

Especially since even after they managed to take down the defenses, it looked like Sinestro had vanished, which only made them more suspicious, since Sinestro was one of the best Lanterns in the Corp had ever seen, so they found it unlikely that any automated defenses could take him out, which meant that he'd used the chaos as a diversion to slip away, though they didn't know why.

Or at least they didn't until they used their rings to track the yellow element, which in turn led them to Sinestro, who as they discovered, was the one who'd not only found the yellow element, but he'd hired the weaponers to weaponize it into a new ring. A yellow ring that harnessed the power of fear.

It was at that point that Hal and James had stepped in and tried to take Sinestro down before he could put the ring on, since they knew that if he did, he'd be unstoppable, at least for now.

Sadly, the mission went south, since Sinestro had several more years of Green Lantern training than either of them and they'd been unable to stop him from putting on the yellow ring, which completely corrupted him, if he wasn't already and turned both his uniform and his eyes yellow before he'd proceeded to attack them with it.

Both Hal and James had attempted to fight back, but they were caught too unprepared and were forced to retreat in order to live to fight another day and more importantly, report this development back to the Guardians, which was what they were doing now.

"Sinestro betrayed us?" Ganthlet, the leader of the Guardians asked after they finished their report.

"Yes and considering how well prepared his betrayal was, I'd say it's been coming for a while, I just don't know what caused it, since Sinestro never would've been chosen for the Corp if he'd possessed the qualities of a villain before he was chosen." Hal said.

"It's possible that he only cared about the power that came from the ring, not the responsibility." James said.

"Possible, but still, we must find him to not only find out the truth, but to stop him before he unleashes untold horrors upon the galaxy." another Guardian asked.

"You want us to pursue him?" Hal asked.

"No. We cannot leave your sector undefended. Fortunately, this happened at the time where we consider Mr. Olsen's training complete." Ganthlet said.

"Why does that matter?" James asked.

"Because now we know that you are ready to protect your sector alone." Ganthlet said.

"What do you mean alone?" Hal asked, wondering where they're going with this.

"Green Lantern Hal Jordan, you are the only Lantern in the history of the Corp to go up against the power of the yellow element of fear and successfully defeat it. That is why we are tasking you with tracking down Sinestro and bringing him to justice, no matter the cost. You must stop him before he is able to recruit others to his cause." Ganthlet said.

"But how could he? As far as we can tell, he only had enough yellow element to power his ring and even so, he doesn't have the still to create more." Hal said.

"We can't leave anything to chance. Do you understand?" Ganthlet asked.

"Of course, I'll do whatever it takes to find him and stop him." Hal said and Ganthlet nodded.

"We do not expect you to completely abandon your life on Earth, but this must take priority. And while you are hunting Sinestro, we must entrust the safety and protection of sector 2814 to your student, James Olsen." Ganthlet said and James nodded.

"I'll protect it to the best of my ability." James said.

"Good. I suggest you return home to prepare for your tasks." Ganthlett said and both Green Lanterns nodded before walking out of the chamber.