Synopsis: Kyle Rayner begins a trip of self discovery as he attempts to learn more about the Green Lantern about himself by traveling to the ruins of Coast City. However before he gets to Coast City he stops at the site of the plane crash he survived unaware after he’s left that he may have awakened someone or something.
He was supposed to be on a flight home to visit his mother instead he told her that he was going to be traveling to New York visit a few museums. Kyle Rayner liar. He didn’t like lying to his mother, but how was he going to tell her that he was headed to Coast City. She didn’t like talking about Coast City. All Kyle could remember was that she usually got quiet and said that it was such a shame. Such a shame. It’s what she always said before changing the subject. Kyle didn’t give it any real thought. He was recovering getting better. That’s what he was supposed to focus on. Not to mention he was being studied to try and find out why he survived. It hadn’t made any sense. Those were the things that consumed him, not the tragedy of Coast City.
True he would have to fly to one of the regional airports and take a bus in and then figure out how he was going to get there from there, but truth was that he would be taking a bus all the way in, because there was another place he wanted to stop at first. It really wasn’t anywhere special for most people, they would find it quite unremarkable, but for Kyle he guessed its where everything changed.
He took the flight as close as he could get it and decided that he would take a bus there. It was crazy wasn’t it? He was on break from school, just one of those random things that happens sense he attended a private one. Something about some of the previous classes lobbying for some kind of fall break like spring break. He didn’t know what that was about but he was grateful for it. He had a little money saved up plush the money he had for the flight home.
It was tearing him up that he lied to his mother, but he didn’t know how he was going to explain this to her. He knew what she would say. She would try to rip the ring from his finger and give it away. She didn’t want any trouble. Just the way his mother was, but she didn’t understand she didn’t see what he was able to do with it.
True he had only done it that once, but there were things for him to learn apparently things that he had to figure out for himself and he wouldn’t be able to do that if his mother went all helicopter mom on him. He was almost a man somewhat, and he had to start making decisions for himself. The little blue man…Ganthet said he was the Green Lantern. What did it mean?
The information he gathered wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to make him start researching and what he found surprised and terrified him. When he read about what happened Coast City he couldn’t figure out why…why he couldn’t he recall the events. Why did it feel like any time he looked at anything remotely connected to what happened it was like uncovering it for the first time?
It was weird, but if he was going to make any sense of it then he was going to have to go there. He needed to see it for himself. He needed to touch it. He didn’t know. Honestly, he was making it up as he went along, but right now he needed to do something first. He needed to make a stop before he made the connection to Coast City, well more like the two towns away. No buses went into Coast City, why? It was in ruins, but before he went there he needed to visit another area first. It was important.
The connection was a day lay over which meant that he could ask around to find out how to get where he needed to be. He knew what the ring was capable off, well he seen what he could do with it but that would be pretty flashy so Kyle used the wits he had. His mother would kill him. Hitchhiking? What was he thinking. How could he do such a thing? Well, how else was he going to get to a crash site. He knew everything had been gathered, bodies taken away and buried, but he had to see it, the scorched ground, what little bits of the plane they left behind if any.
He hadn’t been back since he had been rescued. Kyle couldn’t quite explain it, but he needed to stop here first. Perhaps that was the theme of the trip visiting places where lives ended. He didn’t know how else to explain it. He wasn’t going to say that he had a deep connection with Coast City, but there was a connection one that couldn’t be denied. He needed to see the truth for himself. He read some of the good a lot of the bad and he needed to see the bad. It needed to be seared into his mind so he knew how bad it could get.
He needed to see how real it was. Saving people was one thing, but what happens when he takes that step and steps into the light instead of doing thing from the shadows. He had seen enough reports on television to know that this could turn his life upside down. The question became was it worth it. No one could answer that question for him, but him. This was Kyle trying to figure out what those answers were.
In a way it was very The Greatest American Hero. It was the closest analogy he could think off while he made his way to the site. Sun was close to setting. It was going to have to be quick. He had to be on the bus tomorrow. He was working on a time table. If he timed it right he might be able to surprise his mom. Might. He didn’t know. Looking down at the map he drew he checked his watch and resumed heading in the direction until he came upon the field he was looking for.
Kyle stopped for a moment doing his best to try and remember, but what could he remember? He was unconscious. The world was black, darkness, fuzzy. He was in and on, but this was the spot. He closed his eyes and focused, really focused on what he wanted to see. What he could remember. He had drawn so many images that dealt with it, but to be here. He could recall the plane dropping the pilot saying that they were going to make an emergency landing.
Reaching out with the ring he did his best to recall what he could. He had been through enough visualization exercises to remember how that worked. Start with one detail, one small tiny detail and work your way from that detail to the next. Balling his hand into his fist he took a deep breath as the ring began to glow and almost like magic lines of green light began to appear in the air almost like it was Kyle’s canvas as he began to recreate the crash site. He tried his best to visualize the what he could remember bringing some pieces into sharp detail.
Quickly the ground was covered with pieces of a broken plane, all constructed from energy that was emitted by the ring. When he felt it was enough Kyle opened his eyes to look upon what he created. His mother and his friends from home and probably the school would be appalled, but the shrinks? They probably would say it was a step in the right direction.
Releasing the fist he let his hand fall at his side so he could look upon what he created, what had been made. There were probably far better uses for the ring than to confront your personal demons, but if he couldn’t look this in the eye what good was he? He remembered what the ring had said, it spoke. It said he had a great capacity to overcome fear.
Didn’t that mean that he needed to put this to bed and move on, that he needed to look upon it and see it for what it was. Perhaps it would help him with the pieces of his memory that were fuzzy. Walking towards some of the pieces that had been recreated. He wasn’t here to guilt himself. He knew that bad things happen. It was a fluke that he survived. He began moving through the wreckage to find the spot where he was laid out at. The spoke where he saw Ganthet for the first time.
The plane crashed and there were bodies around him seats everything, but that’s when it happened. He was in and out. He thought it was a dream, a hallucination. Right here in this spot.
Chewing on his lower lip turned and laid on the ground as he used the ring again to create a rather good approximation of Ganthet hovering over him. It was like he appeared. He was the only one left. You shall have to do.
Licking his lips, Kyle stared up at the sky reaching out to his hand that held the ring wondering where Ganthet came from, where did the ring come from. Most people might consider the why me? However, he had that pretty much cleared up. He was the only one around, but should it matter? Did it make a difference? He had the ring, it meant that he was entrusted with using it wisely and keeping it safe.
Right?
Shutting his eyes, Kyle played the moment over in his mind like it was a movie. Still he couldn’t linger here. No, lingering. He was working on a timetable and a budget. Opening his eyes, he pressed against the ground so he could stand up. The moment he stopped thinking about the plane it faded from sight and he was left in an empty field again.
If he was going to make it back to the town then he was going to have to fly. It wasn’t dark yet, but it was getting there. He could make it without being seen. He didn’t need the ring to see the plane he saw it in his head every day he closed his eyes or thought about it. With a few steps he was surrounded by the aura of green light that carried him into the air away from the site.
Crash in the bus station and tomorrow he would be on his way. Next stop Coast City.
It was time to put it behind. He had to look to the future. Future was ahead of him not behind him. Connections that’s what Kyle needed to focus on as he flew away until he was nothing more than a dot in the sky unaware of the shifting ground of the field he left behind him, ground that gave way to what appeared to be plant, but it wasn’t green it was gnarled and diseased. It pushed against the ground until it was several inches above it.
The growth rose a bit more until it stopped until a hand emerged afterwards and the faint sound of a voice could be heard coming from below.
“…Born on a Monday, Christened on Tuesday….”