Halbarry: the Origin

3: The New Green Guy

Barry came back half a second later wearing his Flash suit. Hal whistled.
"Damn, you are fast. A suggestion on the costume, though. Try adding a little more variety in the color scheme. All red seems like too much."
Barry laughed and took Oliver back from Hal. "Thanks for the tip. You gonna show me what you can do?"
"Well yeah, we have to drop off his sorry ass, don't we?" Hal held up his right arm like he had just punched someone, pointing his ring at Oliver and steadying his arm with his other hand.
"You ever lifted a person before?" Barry asked. Hal looked unsure.
"No. First time for everything though, right?" Hal made a sphere around Oliver and used little green grabber arms to sit him up in it so he wouldn't suffocate.
"This should work," he said. "Wanna run while I fly? You have to show me where I'm going anyway."
Barry nodded and Hal took off. Hal was glowing now, too. The sphere containing Oliver was attached to his ring by a tether. Barry thought he looked okay, so he took off for the jet. He nearly lost Hal a few times, but they made it back to Ferris Air safe and sound. Oliver was still passed out when Barry put him in the bigger bed on the jet.
"What do we do now?" Barry asked Hal, walking back out of the jet. Hal was busy making different objects with his ring.
Hal continued what he was doing but glanced up at Barry. "Wanna fight some crime?"
Barry smiled. He'd wanted to do that all night, but he was dragged to the bar instead. The bar obviously hadn't been a total loss, they'd found the mysterious Green Lantern, but Barry liked fighting crime much more than drinking. He could tell that he and Hal were going to be best friends.
"I've been waiting all night for somebody to ask that. Where do we start?"
"Well, my ring just told me there were twelve different crimes going on right now downtown," Hal responded nonchalantly as he stopped making random shapes.
"Your ring talks?" Barry asked, involuntarily walking slightly closer to Hal in amazement.
Hal laughed. "Ring, say hi to Barry."
"Hi to Barry," said a small robotic voice.
"It's got a sense of humour, too."
"Well that's good, at least it's not a boring conversationalist," Barry responded, still trying not to be in awe of all the things Hal and his ring could do.
Hal laughed again. "Downtown?"
Barry nodded and let Hal lead the way. He could tell that that night would be fun.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ (AN: This indicates POV change. Sorry if it confused you!)

Hal was having more fun than he had the whole time he'd been a Green Lantern. He'd made loads of friends on Oa, the Green Lantern Headquarters planet, but none of them were so funny and kind as Barry Allen. When they fought crime together, he knew they'd be best friends forever. Before Barry, he'd forgotten what it was like to even have a best friend.
Over the course of the night, Hal learned a lot about Barry, and vice versa. Hal learned that Barry worked as a forensic scientist at the Central City Police Department. He talked a lot about his friends at STAR Labs, Caitlyn and Sisco. Hal asked once how they did it all by themselves, which seemed to disturb Barry, so they dropped it and started talking about Hal.
Hal told Barry about his job as a test pilot at Ferris Air and his boss Carol Ferris. For once, Hal actually didn't want to talk about Carol, which was strange for him. He found himself wanting to talk more about Oa and the other lanterns, but mostly he wanted to know more about Barry.
Eventually, while dropping two more robbers with the police, Hal brought up the alien ship that had crashed in the desert. He told Barry about Abin Sur and how the green ring had chosen Hal after Abin died. He told him all about Oa and how the entire corps was run by these super-powerful and old smurfs called the Guardians and about Kilowag and all his other friends and eventually he got to Sinestro.
Barry laughed. "I take it you don't like him too much?"
"How could you tell?" Hal asked. He hadn't meant to, he really hadn't, but he'd sounded bitter when he mentioned Sinestro.
"He's a great guy, he really is," Hal said, trying to backtrack. "It's just that he can be really annoying and kind of strict."
Barry laughed again. "I know the feeling."
After that, they started talking about Barry again, a fact which made Hal very happy. He didn't mind talking about himself, but he wanted to know as much as he could about Barry.
Barry told him about how the lightning strike had put him in a seven month coma and explained his powers the best he could. Apparently, Barry had to eat a lot because of all the calories he burned when he ran. He told Hal about the times he'd broken he sound barrier and... Then he stopped himself.
"What? Come on, I told you about Oa! It's the least you could do," Hal complained.
"Well...no! What am I saying? I can't tell you about breaking-" Barry stopped himself again and Hal thought he heard him mutter a curse under his breath. Hal shook the thought away, Barry was too innocent to curse like that.
"Breaking what?" Hal was very interested by that point. He had to know.
Barry sighed and lowered his voice a little. "The time barrier."
Hal practically jumped out of his seat. They had gotten through a lot of criminals and decided to get some food at a local diner. (AN: in case you were wondering, they changed out of their suits before going in!) Thankfully, Hal restrained himself and only got a few strange looks.
"You broke-" Hal started, then realised how loudly he was speaking and lowered his voice to a whisper. "You broke the time barrier? How the hell did you pull that off?"
"Well the first time I-" Hal cut Barry off that time.
"You've done it more than once?!?" Hal was in shock.
"Twice."
"So cool..." Hal muttered.
"The first time I just ran through, the second time I had to run through a supercollider until I reached like Mach III, then collide into a Hydrogen atom."
Hal shook his head in bewilderment. "How are you not dead?"
Barry giggled...wait what? Guys don't giggle. But, that was definitely what Barry had done. Barry was weird.
"Well, I went back so save my mom, but I..." Barry started to tear up. "I failed."
Barry put down his fork and stared at his plate. Hal reached over the table and touched his hand. He knew that's what he'd want someone to do.
"Jeez, Barry. I'm so sorry. If it uh...if it helps, my dad died when I was little. The plane he was testing crashed."
Barry looked up in confusion, the tears gone from his eyes. "Didn't you say you were a test pilot?" he asked.
Hal smiled. "Yeah I know it's dangerous, but I'd always wanted to be like him."
Barry smiled back, then pulled his hand away to finish his pancakes. Hal hadn't even noticed he was still holding it, and started picking at his fries.
After a while, Barry ran back to Oliver's jet and Hal went home. A few days later, Oliver and Barry went home, but Barry visited Hal a lot. There was one particular visit a few years later that Hal remembered quite well...