Second Chances: Green Lantern

Chapter 14

"Okay James, what was so important that I had to reschedule my lunch date?" Winn asked James when he entered their base, only to find James standing there with two people that Winn had never seen before.

"Why are there two strangers in our secret base?" Winn asked.

"Winn, meet Katar and Shayera Hol. Warriors from Thanagar and more importantly, refugees from Crisis." James answered.

"Wait, they're like us?" Winn asked.

"Not exactly. We just remember the old reality thanks to J'onn, but they are actually survivors of it, like Kara and J'onn." James responded.

"So, what are they doing here?" Winn asked, not unkindly.

"Since Earth is kind of known as an alien refuge, the Guardians asked me to bring them here so they can adapt to their new circumstances and they want to join the team, since while Superman might work alone, I have to admit, I did miss working with Kara and her team." James said and Winn nodded.

"Okay then, I'll reach out to our contacts at the DEO, see if we can put some human identities in place for them, since I'm assuming that you explained the purpose of secret identities to them?" Winn asked.

"I did and they've agreed to adopt human identities." James said.

"Great. So now Metropolis won't just have a Green Lantern protecting it." Winn said.

"Yeah, especially since sometimes I'll be called off-world. Especially since Hal is currently off chasing Sinestro." James said.

"And we are very eager to help protect our new home. Especially since even in our universe, Earth was home to great heroes. We hope to join the ranks of this world's heroes, though hopefully the kryptonians won't hold our origin planet against us, since from what we could tell, Krypton and Thanagar didn't exactly get along in this reality, due to how in this universe, thanagar is clearly run by the worst of our people." Shayera said.

"Both of the Kryptonian heroes on this planet are close friends of mine and neither of them will hold Thanagarian against you." James assured them.

"Good. But let's talk about this base? Is this really where you're operating out of?" Katar asked, looking around the abandoned DEO base.

"To be fair, we literally just got our operation up and running, we haven't had time to upgrade it yet and there aren't a whole lot of people we can call to handle the upgrades." Winn said.

"I think we can help with that, since I think that we can use the technology from our ship to upgrade this place and I'm sure that James can use some Green Lantern tech to help too." Shayera said.

"It's worth a shot." James said, hoping that he could convince the Guardians to let him bring some Oan technology to Earth to help with their base, since unfortunately, his ring did have limits, since while it could create hard light constructs that lasted for awhile if he wanted them too, he couldn't actually build permanent constructs out of actual matter. Something that he did find a bit annoying, but knew not to question it. Hal had explained to him that the Guardians limited programming in the rings for a reason. They wanted to ensure that no lantern became too powerful and was corrupted by it. Something James understood.

Speaking of the Guardians, back on Oa, they were currently sealed in the chamber, opening their eyes at the same time as they completed their project.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Ganthet?" Ranakar asked his fellow Guardian.

"Yes. The threat of Sinestro looms greater than ever and we have one of our best lanterns searching for him, at the same time, it's clear that new blood is needed." Ganthet said as he revealed the newly forged Green Lantern ring in his hand.

"Are you certain that this is necessary? Earth already has two Lanterns protecting it." Appa Ali Apsa asked.

"Yes. From what Mar Novu told us about the old reality, it was clear we made an oversight not giving Earth a Lantern protector in the first place. Earth is going to become a target of several powerful threats and while it has its champions, the more help we can give, the better, since we need to prevent another Crisis from emerging. Besides, humanity has shown more promise than we thought. I believe it is time we see if the rest of the population have the same courage as the Lanterns we already have." Ganthet said and the other Guardians nodded, acknowledging his point as Ganthet activated the new ring and released it to find its first master.