#kilowog

- it isn’t all lonely, because there’s a few kids living in your building. some of them your age, some of them younger. some of them older, but you try to avoid those. you like helping the younger kids, since you have no siblings of your own.

- your life, albeit not exactly comfortable, is pretty much normal. until a day that changed your life forever.

- you were walking down an alley, your guard up as usual. You heard a group of boys ahead, their voices mocking and teasing.

when you got closer, you saw one of them holding a younger boy by his collar, one of his glasses lenses cracked. you didn’t recognise the smaller boy, so you guessed that he didn’t live alone here.

“Search his pockets.” One of the older boys told his friend. “Let’s see if mommy or daddy gave chum some spare change, hm?”

the smaller one struggled and shook his head a little. “i was just looking for my ball.” he said, as if that would do anything. “i was playing with it and it- i kicked it too hard. I-“

“Oh, you were just looking for your ball.” The older boy drawled out, smirking. “Why didn’t you say so? We would’ve helped you.” But they didn’t let go of him.

You thought about your options. You could just walk past, nobody would blame you. You don’t fancy being beaten up today, especially not sticking up for a posh kid. And maybe you were a little bit scared of the older kids. they were bigger than you! Messing with the wrong people can have continuous consequences. It was only when one of the boys behind clenched his fist that you spoke him.

“Just let him go.” You said, in the steadiest voice you could. The boy turned to you.

You knew him. Classic don’t-mess-with-me guy. You don’t exactly blame him though. Most of these kids parents are addicts or other problems. Hurt people hurt people.

The smaller boy opened his mouth to presumably call out to you, but you caught his eye and shook your head. His words won’t help him.

“C’mon, just leave him go. He just wanted to get his ball back.” You say again, taking your hands out of your pockets.

The boy scoffed. “Why don’t you just run along? Hm? Go on, go on home and make yourself a nice lunch and forget about it, alright?”

You hummed for a second before shrugging. “Nah. See, I don’t enjoy eating when I know there’s a bunch of bullies living around me.”

“Living around you?” He laughed. “Sorry, princess, are we not good enough neighbours for the missus?”

You sighed. “Why don’t you just pick on someone your own size?” You looked around before smiling a little. “Or you all just so weak the only person you can beat up is an eight-year old?”

“Oh, I’ll show you who I can beat up.” He took a step towards you before being met with a strong kick to the groin.

“You bitch!” Another kick. Always kick ‘em while they’re down, kids.

The other boy let go of the smaller kid, moving towards you. You grabbed a trash can lid, unsure what you could do with it exactly.

“I suggest you take your friends old advice and run along to home.” You said, sussing out what you knew about this boy. “Or i’ll tell daddy about that little bag of white powder i saw you buy yesterday that I can guess you’re hiding in your room from him, huh?”

The boy stopped. After considering his options for a second, he obviously decided that an eight-year old boy and malnutritioned teenager wasn’t worth the bigger consequences of things. He leaned down for a second to grab his groaning friend before they walked off, muttering about you’d “be sorry soon.”

You rolled your eyes before turning to the small boy. You lowered the trash can lid and extended a hand to him. “You alright?”

He took your hand to get to his feet, nodding his head. “Thank you.” He was already wiping his glasses lens with the bottom of his jumper in vain. “Thanks a lot, really. You just came out of nowhere and-“

“Yeah, alright.” You said. “I just didn’t want them to turn around to me when they were done with you.”

“Well, thank you.” He looked up at you. “Uh, I did actually come here looking my ball-“

“Kid, I guarantee you that the ball isn’t worth it.” You said shortly. “Just ask your parents for another one. And also to fix those.” You pointed to his glasses.

He pushed them up further on his nose, before nodding at you again, making them fall back down. “Thank you.”

“Alright.” You said, a bit sheepish. How many times had this kid thanked you? “Go run back out now.”

The boy nodded again, thanked you again, before dashing back into the brighter part of the street. You watched him go until he found a woman with a worried expressed. You watched him tug on her skirt, her turning around before grabbing his face and hugging him. You watched them walk away together.

You hated pity parties.

As you turned to walk back to your shitty house to make a shitty sandwich with shitty cutlery, a green light caught your eye. Usually, you tend not to go looking through your neighbours trash (it can be very disturbing), but you’d never seen anyone’s trash glowing before. You reached behind the black bag to pick up a ring, shining green so bright that it hurt your eyes.

You looked at it for a second before sliding it on your finger. Perfect fit. For a second, you stood there, before feeling a growing pain in your chest. Your hand clutched your heart for a second as you gasped for air, about to call out before the feeling completely went away. You breathed hard, staring at the ring.

“What the . . .” you said slowly, unaware as to what you just signed yourself up for.

- you hid it in your pocket, thankful that it had stopped glowing green, and brought it inside. you considered bringing it to a pawn shop for a bit of money, but something told you this was much more powerful than any amount of cash.

- you brought it to a pawn shop anyway. as you stood outside, it started making a loud beeping sound that made a few passer-by’s give you a concerned look.

flustered by the unwanted attention, you tried to quickly muffle it in your pocket but the thing was insistent to not go inside that shop.

through trial and error, and many reassurances to strangers that you were fine, you found that the beeps slowed down when you went in one direction, and sped up when you went the other.

you had never owned a metal detector, but you knew that’s how they worked. maybe this thing was some sort of gold-finder, ready to bring you luck. so, you went in the direction it started beeping the fastest.

after walking for an hour or two, the ring led you to a nice area, and then to a fairly clean apartment building. you slipped in through the door, walking up the stairs unnoticed.

you’re now almost 100% sure that the ring has a mind of its own because it seems to be pulling your legs in front of a door you’ve never seen before. and you don’t remember being the one to raise your wrists and knock on it.

a man in his late 20s with brown hair and brown eyes opens the door. he’s wearing casual clothes, but they’re clean. you’re suddenly very aware of your second hand clothes and the smudges you didn’t have the chance to wash off yet.

“you aren’t the pizza guy.” he says, raising his eyebrows.

“no.” you shake your head. you two stare at each other. you aren’t sure what to say. ‘sorry about this. but this ring brought me here and i have no idea what to do with it. you believe me, right? i’m not crazy, right?’

“uh. so, can i help you or-“ but he cuts himself off when he sees your finger. the familiar silver band with the lantern logo on it. he guesses you haven’t figured out how to disguise it yet.

he gives you a look. “where did you get that?”

“it sort of got me-“

“Look, just get inside.” He says quickly, taking a quick glance around.

You huffed, crossing your arms. “Um, hello? Stranger danger? There is no way I’m stepping into an apartment with a full grown man who I’ve never met before.”

He rolled his eyes. “You knocked on my door.”

“Because the freaky ring told me to!” You defended.

“You wanna learn more about the ring?” He said. “I got answers. Well, some answers. And, trust me kid, it’s way bigger than anything you can imagine.”

“Prove it.”

“Excuse me?”

“Prove you know about the ring.” You said, unyielding to any traps that would end up in you being on the news.

The man paused for a second, as if wondering how his life actually got to this point. Then he gave in and showed you his five fingers, one of them wearing a plain silver band.

You raise your eyebrows. “That looks nothing like my ring. For all I know, that could be a cheap thing you bought at the shops.”

“You can disguise it, genius.” He told you. “God, I’m going to have to teach you everything, aren’t I?”

“Everything about wha-“

“About being a . . .” he lowered his voice. “a Green Lantern. Can you please just come in? If John knew I was talking about this in the middle of the hall . . .”

Your eyes widened a little at the words ‘Green Lantern’. You, like so many other people your age in America, were a fan of the Justice League. Nobody would blame you for getting excited.

“You’re telling me you’re . . .” You breathed out, beaming. “You’re Green Lantern? Like, the Justice League Green Lantern?”

“Could you say it any louder?” He hissed sarcastically, eyes darting around again.

“No way!” You exclaimed. You ran past him into his apartment, having all the confirmation you needed with that conversation.

So, Hal introduced himself to you and gave you a brief overview of his own backstory and how the ring found him.

- Hal helped you with the basics of the ring. Like how to present it as a normal silver band. When you complained that you prefer wearing gold (as if you could be that choosy), he sighed and showed you how to make it gold.

“It’s all about willpower.” He repeated. “It’s what the ring represents. It’s what it means.”

- but then he took you to meet the other Lanterns. You were pretty excited about the whole thing. It was a whole new life for you, and you now had a group of people to call friends? family? it’s still in the workshop.

- the whole group acts more like siblings than anything.

- when you first join, a couple of members are concerned about you due to your young age. teenage heroes and vigilantes aren’t unheard of, but not many of them have to leave home for days on end in the middle of space.

but you quickly showed them that you aren’t a helpless baby, and instead just need a bit of training like every Lantern did when they first started. your strength doesn’t stop the teasing though.

- “(Name) agrees with me!” Kyle fights his corner, throwing his hands up.

“Ah, but does their opinion really count here?” Guy shrugs. He taps his head before saying, “their brain isn’t fully developed yet. They aren’t as wise, you see.”

- you get along with jessica the quickest. she’s an anxious girl, but with a kind heart and a hatred for violence. it’s hard to hate her.

whenever you have a question or worry about being a Lantern, and might be too embarrassed about it, it’s always a safe call to talk to her. she’s the last person to make fun of anybody. she also struggled with being a Lantern because of her agoraphobia, and will always offer a kind word.

- you and kyle bond over thinking of new constructs to make. you both always try to think of things to combine before willing it into existence. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

- one of your favourites is kilowog. the guy puts on a tough persona, but you’re convinced he’s a big softie underneath. whenever he’s training you all, you’ll appear at his side wagging your finger at the person he’s currently berating.

“yeah, come on poozer!” you’ll chime in with, flashing him a smile before he grumbles at you to return to your place.

he tries his best to show you the hard parts of being a Lantern, and the horrors you’ll eventually have to face. he stays serious, but he doesn’t object when you throw yourself onto him, sitting on his shoulders.

you think of your dynamic like terry and jake from brooklyn 99. he thinks of it like a guy and an annoying teenager he has to deal with. but you know that if you ran up to him and jumped, he would drop his coffee mug to catch you.

- you and guy aren’t allowed to be together for a mission without a third person. you two instantly both have the maturity of a ten year old when together.

- guy showed you how to make the middle finger hand thing form the ground (like in Superman 2025), and now you do it every chance you get.

- sometimes you do it to batman (behind his back because you’re actually quite scared of him)

- speaking of Superman 2025 (james gunn hire me), when lex monkeys come out with their online hate, you’re already setting up different accounts to respond. you teach guy how to do it to.

“okay, now type ‘K’.” “K.” “now ‘Y’.” “Y.” “and now ‘S’.” “S. what does this abbreviation mean?” “it means ‘keep yourself safe’.” “oh, good!”

- you two ragebait the other lanterns together.

- you constantly use brainrot that the others don’t understand.

“did you eat?” “i slayed.” “what? i’m asking if you had lunch?”

“(Name) is late. Hal, have you tried contacting her?” “I texted her, and she replied with ‘s-y-b-a-u’.”Does anyone know what that means?”

and if you ever encounter Star Saphhire while with Hal, you’re shrugging before looking at him, “you can switch up on her all you like, but the face card never declines.”

- you help out with young justice whenever you have a spare couple of days on Earth.

Hal brings you to Mount Justice to introduce you. when you get there, Batman and Robin are already discussing something in the common room.

“Hey Spooks.” Hal announces both of your presence, making the other two males look in your direction. Batman gives you nod, and Robins lips quirk upwards.

“Green Lantern,” Batman acknowledges Hal, before looking at you. “and . . .?”

“Green Lantern.” You answer for him. Batman just closes his eyes for a moment.

Suddenly, you feel a gush of wind beside you before another teenage boy is standing in front of you. he has red hair and green eyes, with freckles decorating his face.

“new member?” he speaks fast, already shaking your hand. “cool! you probably already know, but I’m Kid Flash.”

and then the rest of the team are called to meet you. you learn everyone’s names, they learn yours,

“So,” Conner comments. “you’re Green Lanterns sidekick.”

you narrow your eyes. “i’m not anyone’s sidekick. i’m my own hero.”

Hal ruffles your hair, grinning. “i don’t take sidekicks anyway. don’t want kids ruining my image.”

Connor doesn’t say anything, but he gives you a small nod. he knows what it’s like to be a mini version of someone but also wanting to be completely different to them.

- while you may not be a consistent member, you prove useful on the missions you do participate in. wally in particular enjoys taking advantage of your powers.

“can you please create some soda? i’m gonna die of thirst soon.”

“wally, there’s soda in the fridge.”

“but that’s so far away!”

- whenever you watch a sci-fi/space show (like star wars, star trek, or interstellar), you love pointing out inaccuracies. even if the movie has every fact down to a T, you’d still point your finger and start with an “actually-“. everyone else hates it. you’re convinced they appreciate the personal insight.

- your new life is different to anything you’ve ever known. but you can say it’s better in so many ways. it isn’t perfect. you see things that nobody your age should, have to fight people when you should be in bed at home. but you aren’t alone anymore. you have a whole group of people you can sling your arms around. a whole group of people like you who are there ready to catch you if you stumble.

so maybe it isn’t all bad.