The green sun hit the grounds surrounding the hall of Justice and birthed a simmering mushroom cloud of emerald light.
The Vampiric heroes— that weren't decimated, were blown back. Most of them recently changed, but the others— the older ones, and ones with tech like Booster Gold, survived.
Lucien didn't waste a second to watch the light show. He came crashing through the energetic debris with his claws extended, shrouded in the aura of his enforced will. It wavered as he dodged a slash of Wonderwoman's lasso of truth and volley of heat vision blasts.
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't even a little scared.
But more importantly he was angry. And he had a goal.
"You look different, Lucien." Superman yelled from the verdant shadows of desolation.
Lucien's ears twitched as he listened for the vampires. They probably thought they had him.
"Come on…. Send your speedster." Lucien snarled, a predatory anticipation made him actually begin to enjoy the hunt. Even as he smelled the dead.
Collateral was always a given in war. But they didn't die for nothing. The extra time he took before letting Raven teleport them allowed them to devise a plan.
A good plan.
No one healed as fast as Lucien. No one could manipulate light the way he could now that he was a lantern.
He was the perfect bait. He could defend himself and….
".... I can smell you coming."
Lucien aimed his ringed fist at the ground. Immediately, a construct of an ice rink covered the floor.
In the tense milliseconds between, Lucien ran over his plan again.
"The thing about the flash becoming a vampire is, he's deadly. He could end the world if allowed to run free. But Nightwing wanted to make a power move. He failed to recognize how deadly unpredictability is. And I succeeded to recognize that a speedster is only as good as his mind. As a Vampire— with his mind compromised by impulse, he's predictable."
The flash slid into him, legs moving in a spinning blur as he failed to catch ground.
Lucien lunged for the flash, tackling the fiend with all his supernatural mass. He felt the runner's ribs shatter. He didn't slow, lunging down to clamp his jaws down on the flash's shoulder as they tumbled.
"ACK!!" The Flash writhed in pain. He tried to dematerialize only to find himself caught in the construct of a bubble. Without a moments hesitation, Lucien sent the orb housing Barry Allen straight into the sun.
Kid Flash came screaming.
"RAVEN!" Lucien snarled.
A black portal opened right in front of him. The fourth speedster ran through the portal. From the other side he could hear the bat-families remaining members freezing the vampire.
They had to compromise. They had a chance. Lucien didn't have to kill them all. But in the moment that was debatable.
"Enough." Superman inhaled and blew icy winds, eviscerating the emerald dust cloud and sending shards of ice cutting against his suit and fur.
Superman hovered like a god who couldn't be bothered to let his feet hit the ground.
Beneath him, Wonderwoman stood in a fighting stance as old as her armor. At her side, heroes healed and readied themselves. Booster Gold shrugged off his broken arm and snarled.
Plastic man was being assisted by Elemental-Man, Black Condor and Blue Devil, who were trying to unfreeze him as the others guarded them.
The fact that they weren't all burning told him the second half of his plan hadn't worked.
His recon unit— consisting of Red Hood, Arsenal and Green Arrow hadn't located Dr Light. The current and only reason the vampires were so strong.
He'd have to keep buying time.
"Leave him." Superman said to the others in reference to Plastic man. "H—"
Lucien didn't give them any more time to organize and took aim with his rocket launcher construct.
Superman grimaced as the rocket flew at the grounds they occupied. "At least you aren't the artist."
Wonderwoman jumped over it, letting out a warriors cry as she pounced on Lucien. "Die beast!"
Lucien's rpg construct mounted on his shoulder quickly transformed into a shield. He braced himself with two hands.
Wonderwoman punched through it, shattering the realized mental image and sending him rolling backward a dozen times. "You're not Hal. You're not fearless with endless will. You're just a dog. A dog that needs discipline. A good fitting leash."
He heard her running after him as he rolled, causing him to push of the ground and flip out of the way of a kick.
Superman was waiting for him in the skies. He flew back to the the ground and punched through it, flying underground with the construct of a drill surrounding his body. He ripped his way up to the surface surrounded by the newer vampires where he let off a low-grade green supernova.
The fiends were knocked back.
Wonderwoman was on him again. She let off a punch combo that was cutting through the sound barrier around him with gunshot like pops. One of his ears began to bleed from the assault on his ear drums.
Lucien bobbed and weaved, snarling as he returned his own flurry of slashes and biting lunges.
Wonderwoman was a rock that somehow moved like water. His thirty years in the military and with special forces meant nothing against her century as a Amazonian Demi-godess.
He swung again. She caught his fist and lifted him up, slamming him back first into the earth on the other side of herself. Then she lifted him again. Lasers bit into his chest and smashed him back into the ground smothered in heat and searing pain.
He coughed blood from a newly formed crater.
Superman hovered under the sun.
In the brief moments of stillness he realized how odd it was.
"The vampires greatest asset isn't fighting. I mean sure he'll send a couple laser beams here and there— he'll even clear some dust. But he's not fighting. The two of them together could've erased me already. But he won't move." Lucien looked him over then.
All he could think was that one of his hands was balled into a fis—
"Wait….. maybe the reason we can't find Dr Light is because he's not in any human place. He's not human sized. We know Nightwing has no problem stealing tech from both heroes and villains, so what's stopping him from stealing gear from... The Atom. We'd never find him if we didn't know any better and he was simply resting in Superman's fist."
Wonderwoman approached the crater.
Lucien was ready to rock when he suddenly heard the gravel grinding up beneath a shoe to his left. His fur stood on end as something changed in the air. It was warm and smelled like sand and sunlight.
"Vixen…" Lucien realized.
He wasn't alone.
He looked past Wonderwoman and readied himself for Superman.
"Ok, I quit." Lucien said.
They froze as he shifted back to his human form, now looking like a simple— if a little buff, green lantern. "But you can't kill me."
"Why's that?" Superman asked.
"I know where Bruce is."
"Tell us. Now." Wonderwoman demanded.
The air stabilized. His ear twitched as he heard the faintest feline snarl.
"He's..."
"Now, Wolf."
"He's nowhere you'll find him." Lucien transformed back into his lycanthrope form.
An orange blur flew past Wonderwoman. Superman tried to blast Lucien to bits only for a fighter jet construct to crash into him from behind. At the same time, Lucien flew for him in the skies.
He cut past Wonderwoman in a blur.
She spun around and tried to pull him back to earth with her lasso of truth only to realize it wasn't on her hip anymore. Before she could look to find it, the golden godly whip was wrapping her body a dozen times over.
"I never liked you." Vixen said from Wonderwoman's right, "How are you standing in sunlight."
Wonderwoman strained, "Doctor Light— he's controlling the light around us."
Lucien crashed into Superman. All the while he tried to listen while Vixen interrogated the Demi godess. The two flew high to avoid the other vampires swarming.
Lucien put himself and Superman in a box.
Superman flew at him and punched him so hard he bounced off the back wall of his own construct.
From the ground, Superman took top mount and began choking him. "You can heal from wounds, but you can't regenerate lost oxygen.
"Perfect." Lucien thought, "If I can survive long enough to bend this light into kryptonite radiation. Kyle's done it before. All I need is to imagine."
As Lucien struggled, Vixen pressed.
"Where's Doctor Light."
"In Superman's left hand…."
"What— how is he so small."
"The Atom's size alteration suit was stolen and gifted to him by Nightwing." Wonderwoman was sniffling. Crying.
"Why are you crying?" Vixen asked.
"Because.... I don't want this. None of us wanted this. Don't let me go back. Keep this lasso around me or kill me. I won't destroy this world. Don't let my mind go dark again. The terror…. the fear…. It's unbearable."
Black spots began to appear in Lucien's vision as his throat crushed.
He flexed his ring bearing fist, knowing what kind of boost he needed.
"God dammit... In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evils might, beware my power….."
The box construct they were held inside began to glow a blinding shade of green. His ring pulsed and steamed. His suit threads warbled and popped with a spike in power as his will was hardened to a point. All the while, he imagined the weakening stone of Superman's homeworld.
"Green lantern's light."
A green flash took over the entire city.
Superman writhed in pain— his Kryptonian cells took the impact as terribly as he imagined. His grip on Lucien's throat weakened considerably. He took the chance and punched Superman in the face, breaking his jaw entirely as he flew backward.
Lucien yanked him back with a construct of a chain. He lunged forward with a sword in hand and cut off Superman's hand.
He caught the fist and crushed it with Dr Light inside.
Suddenly the lights around them changed and all the vampires on the ground below went up in flames including Wonderwoman as she cried.
"Please! Hurry bef—" Wonderwoman's words were cut short as portals opened around them all sucked them to the otherside. Much in the same way Raven had done for them.
Lucien fell to the floor where hundreds of vampirized heroes burned.
[Ringpower 8%….]
Vixen walked over to him with the lasso of truth on her waist. "New lantern? Nice."
"Barely." Lucien coughed up blood as he reassumed his human form.
"A barely lantern doesn't fend off that many vamps."
"You weren't too bad yourself."
"Oh, I know." Vixen said.
They stood in a tense silence as ashes collected and blew in the winds around them, "Where do you think they went?"
"They have a mage. It's the smartest move to make in a world they plan to send back a couple ages. With no tech, mages are at the top of the food chain. Nightwing is smart. He probably brought Zatanna or Brother Blood to his side. God forbid its Constantine."
"His side…." Vixen mumbled.
"The Vampires."
"And what's the other side?" The Werewolves?" Vixen asked.
"No."
"So you're the only Werewolf?"
"…. I didn't say that." Lucien tried to ignore how his vision blurred as he looked at her. She looked even better beyond the pages of a comicbook. Her skin was like melted chocolate. Smooth and brown. Her short hair was a lighter shade left in curls and cowlicks that only accentuated her wildly beautiful features. He was a fan. She had the potential to be DC's black panther. Her powers were brilliant. Her design was refreshing. And she wasn't tied down as a love interest like characters like Batgirl.
If Batman comics didn't take up the bulk of DC's publishing she probably would've had better comic runs.
"Are you alright?" Vixen asked suddenly. Her yellow cat eyes faded back to green. Her natural color. She looked insane. In a good way.
"I'm good. It's just been….. long. Where's Blue-Beetle. I can take him somewhere safe."
Vixen looked up at the sky, "The Blue Lanterns seemed to have that idea already. He's not on earth anymore. Let's hope he comes back to help sometime soon. I have a feeling we'll need it."
"I'm sure that's exactly what they want from us." Lucien said.
"What?"
"Hope."
Suddenly Raven's portals reopened. Red Hood and Red Robin stepped out.
"Hey Vixen." Red Robin said.
"Long time no see, bird-boy."
"Let's change that. Join the team."
"The not-werewolf team? Sure, if your lantern doesn't mind?"
Lucien and Vixen stared at eachother for a moment.
"Your powers could be of use. Get ins—"
Lucien stumbled and passed out.