Lucien remembered walking to the portal back into Jay Garrick's home. He remembered being choked out by Superman before exploding with kryptonic radiation and cutting off his hand. A hand that held a microscopic Dr Light. Who he abruptly smushed. Like a bug.
Then they burned.
And his hunger grew.
He was so hungry. But he had a job to do.
A job that now had him….
"In space?"
"I don't trust bringing you to Oa."
Lucien spun around and came face to face with a Malthusian. Also known as a blue midget with control issues and lack of emotional depth….. which felt ironic for beings who dabbled in the power and function of the electromagnetic emotional spectrum.
"Why's that?"
"You're the first Lantern to steal his ring and not be rejected." The blue alien floating in space said. The fabrics of his red and white longcoat fluttered in the non existent wind.
"I think that means I was chosen."
"You were chosen after you stole it. In a time of need. You were closest. Not the ideal, I'm sure."
"Well the pickings are slim, so you can kiss my a—"
"Do you know why your pickings are slim?"
"Yea, Vampires. I get why Hal tried to kill all of you." Lucien snarled.
The Malthusian was taken aback by his words before readjusting, "Vampires are merely a symptom of the disease. One that requires cleansing from your world and it will require more than green supernovas and sharp claws, Lantern."
"Then send me a teacher."
"Kilowog is busy offworld."
"Where's Guy?"
"Working undercover."
Lucien immediately knew what that meant, "So in this universe Guy Gardner is working undercover as a red lantern— if I remember that comic run correctly, he did so after Hal asked him to. Wait... is Supergirl with him. We could use her. Especially if she's currently a Red Lantern too." He thought before replying, "Then just give me someone more experienced to learn from."
"I will send the Lantern best fit for the scenario. When this is all over, return to Oa for debriefing and proper admittance into the core."
The Malthusian flew at him in a blur, phasing through like a ghost as his vision blurred and he regained consciousness.
"I'm done serving. Whether its earth or some far away space sector. When this is over I'm ditching this ring if I have to." Lucien thought as he came to. "Like you said, there's better candidates."
To his surprise he wasn't back in Jay Gerrick's home.
He looked around and found himself in a sort of testing room on a hospital bed with one way mirrored walls and medical tech strapped to his arms and chest.
He sat up and tore the stuff off himself, taking note of the branding on the equipment.
"S.T.A.R Labs….. I guess we relocated."
Raven stepped into the dark mirrored room through a portal.
"Hello." She said emotionalessly.
"Hey." Lucien stood up. "Catch me up."
"We captured Kid Flash. S.T.A.R Labs is one of two places where speedsters can be safely contained. Plus, Jay has the tools here to reintroduce himself to the speedforce."
"He lost it…. right." Lucien said, "How'd he end up in the wheelchair?"
"Zod."
Lucien nodded in understanding.
"Also, it's been a day. No sign of Nightwing and his….. Vampire Justice League."
"They're regrouping. We can't let this time go to waste. How's Bruce?" Lucien asked.
"Sleeping still." Raven replied.
"And what about the survivors?"
"Thanks to you and Blue-Beetle, there are many. One of which is eager to meet you. He's interested in your magic."
"Like you?" Lucien asked.
"Yes, like me." Raven replied.
"Where's Bruce?"
Raven held a hand out to her left. A dark portal opened.
"Send everyone to me. Let's kill two birds with one stone." Lucien said as he stepped into the portal.
In a blink, he was in another hospital style room. White walls closed in around them with beeping monitors and wires. It smelled like sanitizing agents, clean sheets, blood and fear.
Jason Todd went alert beside Duke Thomas and Barbara Gordon as he entered.
They all viewed him with a mix of wonder, discomfort and disdain.
"Hate me all you want, he has information we need, and you'd all prefer him alive." Lucien said in reference to Bruce Wayne. He laid on the bed in the center of the room.
"Sometimes living is a choice we need to make ourselves, so we don't come back as something less than human." Jason said.
Lucien took a step closer to him. "Do I look….. less than human to you, Jason?"
The portal opened again behind him and the room quickly was filled with four new members.
Vixen stepped out first, "Hey, sleeping beauty."
"Funny." Lucien replied flatly.
"If I didn't love jewelry, I'd be a comedian." Vixen shrugged.
Coming in behind her was Raven and Jason Blood. Now joined by a man wearing a trench coat. His blonde hair was disheveled and a thin layer of stubble lined his jaw. He smelled like alcohol, cigarettes, sulfur and rare herbs. Or maybe just bizzare strains of marijuana.
"Constantine." Lucien said.
"Bloody hell, my name precedes me."
"As all of our names do." Jason Blood yawned, looking just as disheveled despite his combed hair and shaved face.
"Why are all the magic people here?" Duke asked.
Constantine lit a cigarette, "Because-"
Bruce Wayne suddenly gasped and sat up.
Constantine smiled and nodded as if it happened right on queue, "Magic…."
"Where am I?" Bruce looked beyond disoriented.
"S.T.A.R Labs, bats. Did you lose your detection skills when the dog-man bit ya?" Constantine asked.
Bruce didn't reply. He simply looked down at his arm where Lucien bit him.
As everyone did.
"How many days?" Bruce mumbled.
"Two." Lucien spoke— interrupting Constantine before he could give a reply along the lines of how long since he last had sex. "It's been two days since I bit you."
Bruce looked at his hands, "You made me into a monster…."
Lucien rolled his eyes as he thought, "Here we go with this stringent morality bullshit."
Bruce stood up.
Everyone gasped and took a step back. He was half a foot taller than he was two days ago and about thirty pounds heavier. He even moved differently. His ears were longer— almost elven, as they poked through his much longer dark hair. He also looked half a decade younger.
Vixen took a step closer to Lucien.
As did Raven.
Everyone else hugged the walls except Jason Todd.
"Bruce—"
Bruce shoved him so hard he hit the wall and cracked it. "Stay back!" He hissed.
Lucien remained where he stood. Listening— or perceiving. It came in the form of distant feelings and ideas that wafted off of Bruce in a million ways. Smells of fear and discomfort and a million chemical releases. Twitches in his movements— responses to him trying to force his senses away from the humans in the room that smelled entirely too enticing to a newly awakened shapeshifter. He was struggling, but Lucien could tell.
"You're trying to keep yourself away from them."
Constantine looked around the room, "Any popcorn machines available or do I have to make a rune?"
"You... dammit. Look what you did!" Bruce said through gritted teeth slowly turning to fangs. "My sons…. My sons tried to kill me. They should've. I failed them. I failed. And you kept me here— bastardized into this. For years I fought off my urge to kill— to be like the monsters I hunted. I turned my hunt away from blood and vengeance and towards justice. Now I feel hunger just from smelling the old blood on all your clothes. What type of hell is this?"
"I ask myself the same question." Lucien replied.
"You think this is a joke?" Bruce asked.
"I think you'd be surprised."
"Try me."
"How about we skip the bs and I cut the lights so we can get this over with?" Lucien suggested.
"Uhm—"
"Quiet!" Lucien said to Duke.
Then he cut the lights.
"Follow my voice, Bruce."
In the dark, a pair of orange eyes glimmered. "I don't need to. I can see you."
Lucien's own eyes blazed blue. "Then let's get moving."
Bruce lunged and the two exploded through the door into the operating room.
They crashed and burned outside, snarling and snapping at eachother as they transformed mid combat.
Bruce abandoned his martial arts expertise in exchange for blind fury and hunters instinct.
Lucien did the same.
It didn't take long for Lucien to gain top mount. In his wolf form, he was heavier— more dense. And his fur functioned like armor in its thickness.
As the motion directed lights flickered on, Lucien's vision adjusted and he froze right before punching Bruce.
"What the hell?"
Whatever lay below him slashed at his face with long curled claws.
Lucien rolled backward off of Bruce and flipped to his feet.
Bruce got up. His skin was covered in dark spots that spread until his skin was an inky black expanse of thin flesh pulled over fatless muscles. Thin dark fur spread across his back and shoulders but left most of his chest bare. His fingers were webbed and his heels were raised. He looked wolfish….. but he also looked like—
"A bat…."
Bruce screeched a low and echoing hybrid roar and charged.
Lucien tucked away his confusion and met the offensive gesture.
Bruce swung high, aiming for Lucien's neck.
Lucien ducked low and tackled him, jamming his shoulder into the exposed ribcage and breaking it.
Instead of taking the beast with superior claws to the ground, Lucien spun around to Bruce's backside and suplexed him.
The ground cracked and they fell into a basement of sorts. Lucien landed on his feet. So did Bruce.
In the dark he grabbed his shoulders and roared in his face.
Lucien barked and kicked him in the nuts.
Bruce's feral scream echoed as he keeled over.
Lucien drove his knee upward and sent him back up to the upper floors.
"Bruce!" Barbara said as they all spilled out onto the main floor.
From the basement Lucien's bones cracked and expanded as he completed more of his transformation.
Hearing their voices made him curse in anger before jumping up to the surface.
Just in time as Bruce prepared to lunge for his human allies.
Lucien landed on Bruce's back, transformation complete. He dwarfed Bruce with a pawed foot crushing him against the ground.
From there, he roared in Bruce's sensitive ears, demanding his attention immediately.
Their eyes met. Bruce's eyes went from a wild orange, to cold blue. Matching Lucien's own.
Bruce calmed.
"I'm a monster….. what have i done?"
Lucien's ears twitched as he heard Bruce's thoughts. "You've done nothing. Stop moping. We have work to do."
Lucien took his foot off Bruce's back and helped him to his feet.
Bruce stood.
The two beast-men towered over everyone.
Lucien turned to them all, "For trained detectives, you're stupid." Slowly he reassumed his human form. Bruce followed— with a little more effort.
Duke threw his hands up, "Man I just got here."
"Not wrong, thought." Constantine entered the open room— now with a hole in the floor, "I thought you all would've caught on that Bruce was directing his newly gained primal urges and despair towards Lucien to keep his focus off of you. It was quite impressive. And Lucien, being the Alpha Walker he is, took the lead when it was given. Masterful teamwork, maybe we'll survive this."
"What did you just say?" Lucien asked.
"What?" Constantine questioned as everyone began to look at him.
"Alpha…. What?"
"Oh, right. You don't know what you are."
"If you keep playing, I'll rip your throat out." Lucien said.
"I'll help." Raven added from beside him.
Constantine threw his hands up, "Fine fine. It's simple really, you're a Skin-Walker."
"What? You mean like the native people who wore animal skins and did witch-craft?" Lucien asked.
Constantine nodded, "Some of the earliest homo-magi ever recorded. Your ancestors were shapeshifters. Most of them needed a medium for their transformations, which explains the furs. You derive your magic from the elements— the wild. It's a powerful form."
"Like I said, magic-based." Jason Blood said from behind Constantine, "That also explains why I wasn't aware of what exactly you were. You predate me and Etrigan."
"You're supposed to be extinct. Yet here you are... thriving…. And significantly stronger. You're a bit of a mutant. Or a Neo-progenitor." Constantine mused aloud.
"So I'm not a Werewolf…." Lucien said.
"No. Skin-Walkers had chosen animal-kin they assumed the forms and strengths of. Usually based off of character traits or physical aspects. Take yourself for example, Lucien. You're an enduring soldier. A lone wolf. A hunter and intimidating force in search of freedom. So, your animal kin or inner spirit mojo is the wolf. A wild and enduring symbol of freedom and ferocity."
"What the hell is Bruce?" Vixen asked the silent part aloud.
"Skin-Walker's as we know them are an interpretation made by violently white men who knew frighteningly little about what they were witnessing in the moment. Lucien's ancestors were an everchanging and various people. Some worked alone, others functioned in….. packs. And packs could be made on the fly in times of need— during harsh winters and bloody wars. Like Lucien is doing. The magic of the Walker can be passed, and it will build off of what resides in its host. By this point, most of us have a minor fraction of Walker magic in us if we have great grandparents who lived in the Americas— fortunately and unfortunately. A dormant homo magi gene. More common than we realize, it just requires activation…. I guess."
"So…. Bruce has in his genes, Walker magic relating to wolves and bats?" Vixen asked
"He's a mutt, like most of us would be. It could also be thanks to his physical and mental configuration. He's a nocturnal hunter of the night. Simple math." Constantine took a long draw of his cigarette.
"And now, they're a pack?" Barbara asked.
Constantine nodded, "It was a surprisingly lucrative way of living for Skinwalkers. Everyone benefitted. The magic is… exponential. It expands and evolves as it spreads— almost like a virus. But good. Which feels….. ironic."
"Evolves how?" Lucien asked.
Constantine shrugged, "Maybe you two should go a few more rounds."
"I think I'm good now. Somehwhat." Bruce said.
"Like I said." Constantine replied, "Packs, Lucrative. With that being said, who's next for the bite?"
Raven looked ready to speak when something crashed outside of S.T.A.R Labs.
Everyone was on alert immediately.
Lucien shifted and dawned his green lantern uniform. Bruce partially shifted and maintained his mental clarity— to a degree. The others brandished their weapons and took off to intercept the threat.
When they came outside, a crater was made in the parking lot.
At its center, a green plumes of smoke spiraled. Slowly, a figure hovered out from the depths.
A woman. Not human. She had inhumanely beige skin, sharp ears like an elf and platinum blonde flowing hair. She was also a green lantern.
Lucien cursed.
"My helper is…. Arisia? Great."
"Green-Lantern Lucien Lamb, I come to assist you in liberating earth from Parallax's Vampire spawn."
"Parallax…. Vampire?!" Arsenal said as he came outside with the others.
Green Arrow jogged outdoors behind him, "I knew it wasn't as simple as magic bat-peopl— Woah… bat person. Wait… Bruce?!"
Constantine smiled as everyone came outside, "Looks like we've got some catching up to do, folks."