Why can't I be as good as you?

"The worst day of your miserable lives" Kilowog had called it. Terry would have to disagree, he'd been having a great time. Learning to fly, making constructs, he was living his dream.

Until...

Until they'd been instructed to fire at the yellow targets. He threw everything he had at it and every construct had simply collapsed, or passed right through. Even Kilowog explaining that in order to affect yellow, they needed to realize their fears and overcome them hadn't helped. His personal fear was the dark, a fear so strong that he still slept with a night light.

Days after the other rookies in his class had moved on and been promoted to full lanterns, terry was still at the target range, trying his hardest to have any effect at all on the yellow blocks. Desperate to manage to even mark one he imagined a bat and felt the reassuring heat and weight of the emerald construct take shape in his hand. He swung it again and again, the bat passing straight through the block each time.

On the last swing he overbalanced, tripping over his own paws and went sprawling in the red dirt of the field. At that point, he teared up and let himself have a good long sob, "I can't do this..."

"Trouble with yellow?" The voice was accompanied by the soft scuff of boots on the hard packed dust, and shortly a green gloved hand entered his field of vision. Terry grasped it and the voices owner pulled him upright. Terry let out a little whimper, partly because as he regained his footing his diaper squished under his jeans and he realized he was soaked and partly because the man in front of him was his idol.

Kyle chuckled as he saw the two color symbol on terry's chest, A symbol he'd used himself not so long ago. Terry nodded, stuttering, "y-yeah, I can't make it w-work".

"Don't fret kiddo, We've all had our rough spots, You'll get the hang of it sooner or later," Kyle replied, giving Terry a reassuring smile. A fresh tear slid down Terry's cheek as he thought "Why can't I be as good as you?", but he nodded again.

"Wanna talk about it?" Kyle asked, inclining his head. Terry turned to look back at the targets and spoke softly, "I'm afraid of the dark. Terrified actually. I... have to have a nightlight when I sleep."
"Aaah, you're not alone there, I was afraid of the dark at your age too," he replied, looking at the same target as Terry.

"You were?! But I thought Green Lanterns weren't supposed to be afraid of anything..." Terry's voice muffled a bit as he wiped his eye.

"Feeling fear is a good thing, it helps you learn and grow. Lantern's feel fear all the time, but we learn to overcome it. That's what it means to be a Lantern."

Terry turned and peered up at him, Kyle was silent a moment then spoke with a curious inflection to his voice, "You know... Right now, you ARE a light, and lights push back the darkness. No?"

Terry gasped and then looked back at the targets, a thought forming in his head. Kyle whispered, "Give it a try now."

Terry glared hard at the untouched yellow box he'd been aiming at all day, Imagined as hard as he could and felt his ring warm up as the emerald bulldozer shot from it and smashed the target to pieces, Knocking him onto his padded kiester in the process.

He stood up, smiling from ear to ear and dusted himself off. He turned as he heard kyle clapping and caught sight of his idol's grin, followed by a "I knew you had it in you all along."









Terry, story and art belong to me.

Green Lantern, the core, kilowog, kyle rayner, and related concepts belong to DC comics.