It was a night of many changes….
Superman's deception.
Black Canary's death.
They'd learned the king of Vampires was the fallen son of Batman wielding the power of fear and espionage better than Green Arrow could wield a bow. And he was joined by his very own Robin. Damien Wayne.
Batman was supposed to die amidst all the chaos.
Lucien had other plans.
Plans that were slowly coming to fruition as the sun of the fourth day in the vampire apocalypse rose.
Once again, he found himself hidden away in an empty train car. Well— once, empty.
He was now joined by many. Many more than he would've liked at one point. Many he would've fantasized over meeting at another.
Now, he was elsewhere.
Arsenal, Lagoonboy, Terra, Hawk and Dove slept like they just survived a war.
In the center of the car, Batman lay still. His Gotham knights sat at his feet trying to sleep but finding themselves unable as Lucien, Etrigan, Raven and Green-Arrow watched him.
He looked dead everywhere except where Lucien bit him.
"Do you wish to know why it glows? A sufficient answer would be yes or no." Etrigan asked Lucien in reference to the bite wound on Batman's arm. It's glowed a myriad of colors in the darkness.
"It's my magic— becoming its own in him." Lucien assumed.
Etrigan nodded.
"It sounds like your magic has a mind of its own." Raven said.
"It is much like an organism— or existing force, but the mind is for man and nothing worse." Etrigan said.
"Man is as worse as it gets." Raven replied.
"Indeed." Etrigan agreed.
"Why'd you do it?" Green-Arrow suddenly said.
"What?" Lucien asked.
"Why'd you change him? He was good as dead— you didn't know if that would've worked. Your new. Batman said it himself— he's probably the first person you've ever bitten. Why?" Green Arrow explained. Tear streaks ran down his cheeks and crusted his golden beard. He looked a mess.
"We need him." Lucien replied, "The only man that can best Nightwing across the board is Batman. Arguably Deathstroke….. also Ra's Al Ghul. But they're all untrustworthy. Batman also knew something was off about Nightwing. We need that information. We need any information we can get and he has the most. He's known about this all long before we have."
Green-Arrow nodded, "So that's why you didn't bite Dinah…."
"No, I didn't bite Dinah because Dinah got her heart ripped out."
"And you have fucking magic. It's literally rebuilding Batman right in front of us!" Green Arrow attempted to stand over him in his grieving rage.
Lucien burst to his feet. Uncaring of his nakedness that was beginning to disappear as fur spread across his toned back and his eyes swirled with Lantern energy and Lycanthropic magic.
"I'm sorry for your loss. But get the hell out of my face. Now."
Green Arrow took a step forward as everyone began to wake up.
Lucien snarled so loud the train car shook.
"I was wrong. The league wouldn't want you. You're heartless. Even now with all these people starting to look up to you, you only have them here to reach your own goal."
Green Arrow headed for the open train car door. "We're here."
He jumped out, leaving everyone else to catch up.
Dove was suddenly at Lucien's side, placing a hand on his arm. "Don't stress it, Lucien. He just needs time."
"We don't have time."
They were actually behind….
Thankfully, among Lucien's ranks, he had two billionaires on standby. Both had an overabundance of safehouses.
The location of their current abode had them walking through the suburbs of Central City, after hitting a mall and buying civilian clothes to ditch their super suits. It was then that Lucien was given everyone's real name. Except for Red Robin. He kept a facemask on and told everyone to call him Timothy.
The rest of the travel was done in public. In the city of speed.
Like Metropolis, Central City was grand. Columns of skyscrapers and beautiful monuments spread across the flat lands in all directions. Only it was less golden and the roads were smoother, running longer, connecting everywhere to everything.
Built for a speedster. There were even roads built up the sides of certain buildings. Surely, builders were tired of replacing walls covered in footprints by the flash. Alongside that specific development, apartments and storefronts had massive heating units made by S.T.A.R Labs sticking out the side of them.
"So where exactly are we going?" Beastboy asked— now going by Gar.
"Following a scent." Lucien explained.
"What scent? I could help!" Gar jumped and turned into a green furred wolf the size of a mastiff.
A jogger across the street screamed and ran.
"We're supposed to be keeping a low profile." Raven said as she dug her tattooed hands deeper into her jacket pockets.
"Rachel…. Look at yourself." Gar said.
"Yea, that way you won't look at me." La'gaan also known as Lagoon-boy said. Now he wore a dark blue sweater and jeans.
"They won't look at the Fishman and panic without having to look past the pretty-boy linebacker carrying an unconscious billionaire." Duke said as he flipped his yellow escrima sticks— now disguised as drum sticks instead of weapons belonging to Signal.
"He doesn't look like a billionaire right now, so we're good." Jason Todd said as he adjusted Bruce Wayne's bulk over his shoulder. They both wore sweat pants and hoodies, looking like boxers or wrestlers in training.
"We're not good, I still don't know what we're doing out here." Gar looked back to Lucien as he shifted back to his human form.
Lucien pulled a envelope out of his pocket. It was half burned and covered in atomized rubble, but inside the poorly maintained half of a photo remained.
It was a photo of Batman's time with the JSA. More importantly—
Lucien stopped midwalk and turned to face a small house at the end of the block.
His nostrils flared.
"We're here."
"Where's here?"
Before he could answer, everyone found themselves eyeballing a man in a wheelchair on the porch.
Jason stiffened, "…..Mr. Garrick?"