Blue, Green, Orange

"Robert Forester of Earth, you have the ability to instill great Hope," said the ring hovering in front of him. As it slipped on to his finger, it said "Welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps."
"Wha- what the hell?" said Bob, having really not expected his boxed set of power rings to come to life. Sure, things had gotten damn weird since the other Earths appeared, and more since that probe came, but even so, this was a bit outside his experience.
Still, paramedics are trained to act under stress and surprise, so rather than boggling at his new uniform (which oddly felt just like the t-shirt and jeans he'd been wearing a moment ago, despite having gloves and long sleeves), he noticed that the rest of the rings had figured out how to get the door to his study (or 'nerdery') open, as the door handle was a lever, rather than a knob.
Bob followed the other rings through the house, not noticing he was flying. Some of the rings trailed behind in a lazy (or sickly) manner.
As they reached the living room, one ring sped up, rushing on to his wife's finger.
"Alicia Barret-Forester of Earth, you have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps."
"Ouch!" said Alice, pinching herself, as she examined her rather form-fitting uniform.
'She looks hot in that,' thought Bob.
"Warning: Ring power at 200%!"
"Bob," she asked, "what the hell is going on?"
"Language, Alice," Bob replied, relishing the ability to be the one doing the correcting, for once, even in these strange circumstances.
As she glared at him, the other rings moved about, searching. The orange ring moved to their cat, briefly, until another resident entered the living room. Circling their four-year-old son, Timmy, the orange ring began, "Timothy Forester of Earth, you want it a-"
"NO!" Timmy's parents interrupted. The Will of a mother to protect her child, and the Hope of a father for his offspring's future, are powerful things, especially when combined. The Orange Ring of Greed was, for all its potential, still just coloured plastic carrying a new-born spirit, with no mortal host to help it. The ring was crushed and disintegrated, and the thoughtform within, dispersed.
The remaining unclaimed rings immediately flew off very fast, breaking a window.
"Do it AGAIN!" shouted Timmy, happily. His parents, wishing for something to distract him, were a bit startled when their rings provided a light-show. They were pleasantly surprised that they were able to maintain it while still having a conversation.
"Bob," Alice began, "did you do something? Where did these rings come from?"
"They were the ones on my desk," he told her, "that full set I got in November, before the other Earths showed up." His face pales as he continues, "... even the Black Lantern ring."
"Tha- that's the Zombie Apocalypse one, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yeah," he told her, "it- it is."
"W- who do we call about this?" asked Alice.
"A glazier?" Bob replied. As his wife glared at him, again, he elaborated, "For the window."
"Dear," said Alice through clenched teeth, somehow making the endearment sound like 'asshole', "if I weren't so freaked out about this, you'd be sleeping on the couch, tonight."
"Sorry, honey," said Bob, "I'm a bit freaked out, too (but the glazier is still a good idea). I'll go check out the DC message boards, try to see if this has happened to anyone else."
The answer was a rather worrying 'yes'.
==Author notes==
The story helps to explain something that I think the timeline wasn't able to: Why the Lanterns are numerous enough to get their own NGO, separate from the Justice League. DC makes and licenses a lot of Power Ring toys and jewelry, including boxed sets of seven or all nine, and when they get empowered, someone who owns multiple rings isn't going to be compatible with all of them. While the Rings that don't choose their creator will still tend to choose someone who's already mildly empowered, if possible, sometimes they just choose the nearest strongly compatible person, even if that person is a complete mundane who has somehow never heard of 'Green Lantern'. Though only Timmy and the cat qualify as unempowered in the scene above (and Timmy does know, as well as a four-year-old can, what a Green Lantern is), the other unclaimed Rings are well on their way to finding Wielders. If someone wants to write something following the story of one of those escaped Rings (except for the Black and the White, which aren't going to show up for a while), feel free.
Category:Five Earths - Vignettes