FOLEY SQUARE
DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN
MARISA DELGADO
The streets surrounding the square had become a temporary relief centre for thousands of survivors evacuated from Midtown, SoHo, Tribeca, and the Financial District.
National Guard vehicles stood beside city buses, while exhausted paramedics and volunteers moved between folding cots occupied by people wrapped in silver emergency blankets.
Behind the temporary barricades, survivors waited for medical treatment, transportation, news about missing relatives, or simply somewhere safe enough to stop moving.
Marisa Delgado stood near the courthouse steps with her microphone raised, while a loose crowd of younger survivors gathered behind her.
“Thank you Ernie. Nearly every person we have interviewed tonight has described seeing the Avengers fighting somewhere across the city during yesterday’s attack. However, many survivors have also reported experiencing something far stranger during the final minutes before the alien gateway was permanently closed.”
She countries on, her voice steady and projecting.
“They describe a wave of green energy moving across Manhattan, surrounding ordinary citizens with armour, weapons, shields, and abilities that disappeared soon before the fighting ended. Standing beside me is twenty-year-old volunteer Malik Carter, a bicycle courier who was completing a delivery near Broadway and Canal Street when the invasion began.”
Malik stood beside her wearing a black hoodie with an oversized safety vest thrown over it identifying him as a relief worker.
He was young enough that the bruising beneath one eye looked especially severe, though his restless energy made him appear way more hyped than injured.
A group of friends and fellow survivors stood behind him, occasionally laughing whenever Malik gestured too enthusiastically with his freshly bandaged arm.
“Malik, you told us that you never encountered Green Lantern directly, but that his abilities somehow reached you during the battle?”
Malik leaned toward the microphone.
“Yeah, look, I never met the man face-to-face, but honest to God, I wouldn’t even be standing here talking to you right now if it weren’t for him.”
“And how is that, if I may ask?” Marisa asked.
“So look, I’m down on Canal when those aliens start flooding the block, and everything just goes completely left. I’m talking people running across traffic, cars straight-up crunching into each other, and these ugly space dudes just popping shots at anything that moves. I was in the middle of a drop when it popped off, so I’m stuck out there with my bike, my helmet, and somebody’s cold-ass sesame noodles in my bag.”
Several people behind him started laughing, while Malik shook his head at the memory and kept his momentum moving.
“I dump the bike and just start threading through traffic. I’m quick on my feet, so I’m moving, but then this old lady catches a trip and hits the pavement. I couldn’t just leave her, you feel me? So I double back to help her get inside this little electronics spot before the owner locks down the security gate. We get inside and it’s a tight squeeze. It’s this mother with two little kids, this old guy named Lester bleeding heavy from his leg, and maybe like six other people trying not to completely lose their minds.”
More people started crowding around as Malik’s voice carried across the square.
“The security gate gets jammed and won’t shut all the way. Right then, one of those sky-roaches lands directly across the street, spots everybody crowded inside the glass, and starts walking straight for us with his rifle up.”
Marisa moved the microphone closer, while Malik’s expression briefly lost the humour that had carried his story up until that moment.
“I knew that gate wasn’t coming down in time, and nobody inside had anything to defend themselves with. So I just grab this bent metal pipe sitting next to the door. I knew the vibe. I knew that thing was probably gonna clock me before I even stepped off the curb. Honestly, I don’t even know what I was thinking trying to square up with an alien…. I just wanted to buy them a couple seconds to fix the gate or run out the back. The thing just roars right in my face and lines up the shot. I thought it was a wrap for me, but then those words hit the air.”
A massive wave of emerald light rolled between the buildings, flowing through the thick smoke, shattered windows, abandoned vehicles, and the people still fighting below.
Malik’s voice continued over the footage, getting faster and more animated as the green wave washed over the people in the street.
“It came from the sky man, those words, and his voice. I don’t even know how to explain it. It was wild, like, like… hearing a song for the first time but you feel like you already know all the lyrics. It felt like the whole city was saying it together, like, you felt it vibrating inside your chest before your ears even caught the sound… I don’t know, man, but those words just got me completely locked in. I wasn’t even scared anymore, I was just in the zone, you feel me?”
Behind him, the crowd started hyping him up, shouting, “Yeah, man!” and “Deadass, exactly!”
“So I just charge the thing. Crazy, I know, but I felt like I could you feel me? The alien pops a shot at me, but that’s exactly when the wave hits the block. It came around the corner like somebody turned a rave on, except everything is bright green and moving straight through walls. Next thing I know, this green armor starts growing right over my hoodie.”
The video changed to another recording, this one shakier and filmed from behind a damaged storefront near Canal Street.
A young man surrounded by green armor stood right in the middle of the avenue, with two enormous hard-light gauntlets covering his forearms.
One gauntlet intercepted a blast of alien energy, while the other struck a Chitauri soldier and launched it clean through the side of an abandoned delivery van.
Malik pointed excitedly toward the screen behind Marisa, completely forgetting that the viewers at home could already see the footage.
“That’s me right there! Look! Those green gloves felt like they were wired straight into my brain. Whatever I wanted them to do, they just did it. When I wanted to protect someone, they became these heavy shields. When I needed to move something, they gave me the muscle to lift it. When another one of those things charged the storefront, I just thought about keeping it away from those little kids. Next thing I know, the glove was the size of a car, and that sky-roach was airborne.”
The people gathered behind him erupted into loud laughter, while Marisa struggled to hide a smile of her own.
“What happened after you stopped the alien approaching the store, and how long did those abilities remain with you?”
Malik scratched beneath the edge of his bandage before answering, his excitement gradually softening into something more serious and reflective.
“The power stayed until right before Iron Man made them all drop dead and the portal snapped shut. But for those ten minutes I had em? Man, it was movie. There were people trapped inside crushed cars, pinned under fallen billboards, stuck behind brick walls that collapsed onto the sidewalk. I just started lifting beams, carrying injured people out of the smoke, blocking shots, and helping anybody I could reach without getting myself clipped. The wildest part was looking down the block and realizing I wasn’t even the only one Green Lantern hooked up.”
The broadcast moved through a montage of footage collected from several areas across Manhattan during the green surge.
A squadron of police officers fired glowing ammunition from behind a solid emerald barricade, while civilians carried wounded strangers inside translucent protective bubbles.
A firefighter used a green construct shaped like an enormous hydraulic spreader to tear open the side of a crushed ambulance.
Several construction workers operated a glowing crane that hadn’t existed moments earlier, lifting heavy concrete slabs away from a collapsed subway entrance.
A woman wearing a waitress uniform stood behind a circular green shield while guiding children through an alley filled with burning debris.
Malik continued over the montage, his voice losing none of his local pride despite the quiet amazement underneath every word.
“Everybody had something different, man. The light just gave people whatever they needed to keep fighting or keep somebody else safe. This one dude next to me had a regular baseball bat that became an oversized club, and he was out there playing home-run derby with the space lizards, it was beautiful. We weren’t just running anymore, we were taking our city back.”
The footage returned to Foley Square, where Malik had begun speaking with both hands despite the bandaging around his right forearm.
“Those aliens chose the wrong city to”–he locked eyes with the camera for a hot second as if suddenly remembering he was on national television–“…mess with. This is New York! We don’t take no crap from nobody!”
The crowd behind him erupted into another round of loud cheers, shouting and nodding along.
“The Avengers won, man! They took back a pound of flesh for everybody those aliens hurt! Captain America came back to life just to kick ass! I never thought I’d see the day I’d be cheering for the Hulk, but he put the hurt on all of them! They all did! But yo, don’t even get me started on Green Lantern! That’s my guy right there!”
Malik pointed northward, toward the massive broken Stark Industries tower.
“You see the videos? He held that portal completely locked down while we were fighting back on the ground. He could have kept all that power to himself, but he thought about us, he shared it, he let us save ourselves, that’s what New York is supposed to be about, you feel me? Looking out for the little guy.”
Several people behind Malik shouted their agreement, while one younger woman loudly declared that Green Lantern belonged to New York now.
Marisa waited until the noise settled before noticing Malik carefully peeling at the edge of the gauze wrapped around his inner forearm.
“You mentioned before we began this interview that you had already found a permanent way to remember yesterday’s experience?”
Malik’s serious expression disappeared instantly, replaced by a wide, slightly embarrassed grin.
“Yeah, look, my moms might completely kill me for this, but I had to get it done.”
He carefully rolled back the bandage, revealing irritated skin beneath a transparent protective film covering two freshly tattooed lines.
The words had been inked across his inner forearm in heavy, clean black lettering that was still surrounded by visible redness.
IN BRIGHTEST DAY
IN BLACKEST NIGHT
Malik raised his arm straight toward the camera with a grin wide enough to split his face in half.
Marisa looked down at the fresh tattoo before turning back toward the lens with an expression balanced perfectly between amusement and disbelief.
“In brightest day, in blackest night,’ which I understand were the first words Green Lantern spoke across Manhattan.”
Malik pressed his uninjured hand against his chest while the survivors behind him repeated the words quietly among themselves.
“That is exactly what he said, and those words mean you should always try doing the right thing.” He glanced down at the fresh tattoo, his expression becoming quieter as he considered everything that had happened.
“Whether helping is easy or terrifying, whether people are watching or nobody ever knows, you still make the right choice.”
“The Avengers protected us yesterday, but Green Lantern reminded ordinary people that doing good is still our responsibility too.”
Malik raised his tattooed forearm closer to the camera and turned toward the crowd gathered behind him.
“That is why I got this, so I never forget who I can be, no matter what kind of day comes. So I got this tattoo to remind myself to help, to try and stay good no matter where or when.”
He paused, turning around to look at the crowd for a quiet moment.
A silent, heavy message passed between them, a shared understanding of what they had just lived through together.
He looked back at the camera, his voice ringing out across the square, leading a chorus from the streets.
“Just like he said, “””In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night!”””