Editing Matchsticks (DC Sidekicks in WWII) (section)

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[[File:DC_Sidekicks_in_WWII_Sticks2.jpg|frame|c|Matchsticks in Uniform]]
Benjamin de Los Santos was an orphan on the streets of Manila for as long as he could remember.
Smaller than most of the boys his age, he had to relying on his smarts to survive on the street
And no one ever denied Ben was smart. Sometimes too smart for his own good.
Ben was always fascinated with machines, especially with the locomotives the Americans were building. He managed to attach himself to one of the American engineers and started working as his "bhoi" friday and translator. It was more fun than school and he learned a lot more following Allan Scott around than a month of classes with the sisters.  Allan took a liking to the boy, who was not only smart, a gifted linguist but also knew all the best places where to eat. In short, he was worth his weight in gold.   The only thing he hid from the boy was a mysterious green lantern which needless to say made Ben very curious. One night, while sneaking around, he heard some strange noises coming from Mr. Scott's cottage, without thinking the boy hit one of the oddly dressed robbers with his excrima stick. hoping to get him to drop the lantern and give Mr. Scott time to escape. Little did he know that the robbers were actually members of the mystic order of Wu-Jen, Japanese sorcerers. They had discovered the Lanterns location and were performing an arcane rite to steal the magic of the Green Lantern for themselves. Ben interrupted them but also the flow of magic from the lantern, killing the sorcerers and bathing Ben in mystic energies. The wooden stick drained off a portion of the lantern's power, giving Ben the power to control, shape and move wood, at the cost of leaving the Green Lantern powerless against wood.
 
A small fraction of the Green Lantern's power now resides in Ben. Forcing the Green Lantern to take up a sidekick, "Sticks." Sticks wears a dark green chauffer's suit, with red mask gloves and shoes. On his lapel, he has pin with Green Lantern's Logo. 
Off-duty, Benjamin wears the uniform of St. Monrad's School of Gifted Young Boys. He much prefers Stick's costume. While Ben does not need a ring or a lantern to wield its power, he does need some pre-existing wood to manipulate. He usually carries his two excrima sticks for this purposes and can make some basic objects and devices from them, such as bows, arrows and shields. They can extend and retract at will and are like an extension of his own body. He also has a mystic connection with wood, and can use the presence of wood as a sort of 6th sense.
 
 
He is a jack of all trades and master of none, so he has to rely on being inventive. I like how although Ben is basically a nature based super, he is techically inclined. He often uses his power to create intricate wooden devices.
 
Note The Philippines was a US commonwealth until the Japanese occupation from 1942 and 1945. So Ben is technically a US citizen.