Second Chances: Green Lantern

Chapter 10

Krypton Plaza was quickly reduced to ruins as the two lanterns fought, green and yellow light clashing against each other, though it was clear that the Green Lantern was at a disadvantage, since while he was powerful, Sinestro was several years older and much more experienced, since even before he'd been corrupted by the power of yellow fear energy, he'd been one of the Green Lantern Corp's best members. It was clear that James was at a disadvantage, though that wasn't going to stop him from trying, if only because he was trying to buy time for reinforcements to arrive, though he'd freely admit he was getting his ass kicked. It didn't help that yellow was the one thing his ring was powerless against.

"Come on. Where is my backup?" Green Lantern said, his uniform torn up in places and his body bruised and bloody, but he wasn't going to give up.

"You really think that any help will arrive in time to save you. This all could have been avoided if you'd just pledged your loyalty to me. And you still can." Sinestro said as he tossed James to the ground.

"Never." Green Lantern said as he looked up at Sinestro, who was aiming his glowing yellow ring at him.

"So be it." Sinestro said.

"Too bad you're too much of a coward to fight me hand to hand like we do here on Earth. Instead you have to rely on a power ring." James said as he coughed up some blood.

"Very well. Though I should warn that your end by my ring would've been relatively quick and painless compared to what I'm about to do to you." Sinestro said as he landed and powered down his ring before punching James in the gut.

"Cheap shot." James said as he retaliated by kicking Sinestro's feet out from under him.

"Impressive. But you can't really think you can beat me." Sinestro asked with a smirk as he charged his fist up with yellow energy, planning on landing a huge killing punch, only to be stopped when a huge green wall erupted in time to stop it.

"You really think you can fight dirty with me on Earth. We invented dirty fighting." Green Lantern said as he turned the wall into missiles and fired them all at Sinestro, who just barely dodged them.

"Okay, I'll admit, that was impressive." Sinestro said grudgingly as he tried to retaliate, only for his energy blast to go right through James, which faded to reveal that it was a hologram as James flew up behind him and blasted him.

"You made a mistake fighting me on my home turf Sinestro. Especially since while you might have training, I have ingenuity." James said as he blasted Sinestro again, but this time, Sinestro was able to counter the green energy beam with his own yellow one.

"You aren't worthy of that ring. You, your mentor, your species, all of you are unworthy. The Guardians have gone soft by allowing either of you to claim your rings. You don't deserve to be lanterns." Sinestro said.

"The Guardians have their reasons and you just hate that us humans make better Green Lanterns than you ever did." Green Lantern said as he broke the connection and then blasted the ground with his ring, causing a shockwave of green energy that knocked Sinestro back.

"How?" Sinestro asked, wondering how this animal was beating him.

"You look down on me because I'm human, but that's my biggest strength. My humanity gives me creativity, which actually works out very well, since the only limit to my ring's power is whatever I limit it too. And that creativity means that there are endless possibilities for what I can do. Like this." Green Lantern said he used his ring to produce a green energy version of Superman, who proceeded to pound on Sinestro before blasting him with a green version of his heat vision.

"Maybe so, but you can't really hope to defeat my years of training." Sinestro said, only to find himself being thrown back into a building and when he looked up from where he'd fallen to the ground to find the Green Lantern standing above him, his ring in his face.

"Now it's your turn, Sinestro. Stand down and surrender. You and I both know that more Lanterns will be here any minute to take you into custody." James said, feeling very smug about winning his first battle.

"And if you really think I'll go quietly, you're an even bigger fool than I thought." Sinestro said as he pounded his glowing yellow ring into the ground, causing some big yellow flash, that once it died down, Green Lantern found that Sinestro was gone.

"Should've seen that coming." Green Lantern said, knowing that he'd need to report to Oa to give the Guardians his report on the situation.