It had been an hour since Lucien proposed his idea.
To no one's surprise, all hell broke loose.
Green-Arrow chose violence. Bruce moved before Lucien could welcome a second offensive gesture from the Archer. And as a result, so too did the other Gotham heroes.
But that didn't mean they were in on the idea.
From Lucien's point of view, nobody was.
As a result, he rested on the rooftop of S.T.A.R Labs. The night air was crisp. The moonlight felt energizing on his skin. He'd need it for what came next.
"Are you ready?" Arisia said from behind him as he looked out over the parking lot below.
"As much as I'll ever be." Lucien stepped back from the rooftop ledge.
As he approached the Lantern, a dark shape crawled up onto the roof and began falling into step behind him.
"Bruce?" Lucien asked.
"Yes?"
"What's up?"
"Nothing. I'm of more use here." Bruce replied.
"You know I can hear parts of your thoughts, right?" Lucien asked the dark knight turned beast.
"And I yours." Bruce replied. "You know my martial skill could be of use here. Not to mention I'm a detective. I see things they don't."
"Oh, we see things just fine, bat-boy." Constantine said as he teleported onto the roof with Jason Blood and Raven.
"What do you want?" Lucien asked.
"Progress." Constantine replied, "You have a teacher for your ring, but we are here for the other half of your power."
"We'll work as one." Arisia replied.
"Then let's go." Lucien was tired of the stillness.
For the next half hour, he sparred with Bruce, simply warming his muscles and building a bond with the hero he once disliked. As they fought, they transformed. It was a smoother shift to do so bit by bit, letting the claws extend when they needed to. Letting each muscle used in each movement shift at the right time. It's like they were building themselves in real time. No pain. No delirium. Bruce was still Bruce, even as he lunged at him in his shadow-skinned bat-wolf form.
Which was so much worse. He retained his years of training.
Lucien didn't stand much of a chance as the lantern and magic users devised a gameplan in secret.
A roundhouse kick to his solar plexus ended in an explosion of fur and torn flesh.
He landed on his back, looking up to find himself at the feet of his newly assigned team of magic teachers.
Raven crouched over him, dipping a clawed finger into his fast-healing wounds. She brought her finger out of his chest wound, now dripping with blood. She watched it for a moment before licking it off her finger.
"Ouu… kinky." Constantine rubbed his hands together excitedly.
Bruce helped Lucien to his feet. The two shared a nod before he turned and faced the others, now towering over them all.
"What's the plan?" Lucien asked.
Constantine lit a cigarette, "It's simple— yet profound. Our enemies were once our friend. Bloody hell, they were like family. That's the worst kind of enemy. They know us— our weaknesses. They know how to get past that little jewel on your finger there."
Lucien looked down at his lantern-ring.
"Not to mention, you're not a very talented lantern."
"Easy." Lucien growled.
Constantine threw his hands up, "C'mon, mate. It took the world ending and strong armed robbery for you to be chosen. You're worse than the redhead and he was a dumb bastard from the beginning."
"Blondie." Jason said. "The point. Get to it."
"Right. So, to compensate for this lacking skill as a lantern, we're going to bring out your exceptionality as a skinwalker."
Lucien blinked in the silence.
"We're going to mix your lantern power and skinwalker magic." Raven said.
"We don't even know what my magic is." Lucien said.
"I do." Raven pointed at his chest, where she dined on his blood.
Jason and Constantine placed their hands over her stomach. Glowing glyph spirals glimmered in the dark.
Raven gritted her teeth.
"What are they doing?" Lucien asked.
"Demons are beings of gluttony. They eat and consume in ways far more profound than humans—"
"Cut the intro." Jason snapped.
"We're assessing your magic affinities through your blood in Raven's stomach. It's simple— Ice." Constantine said, blurting out the last word as his eyes flashed the color of the glyphs.
"My magical affinity is ice. Makes sense as a wolf." Lucien replied. "But it's not ideal when fighting vampires. Fuck."
"Wait— there's more." Jason said.
"Tell me later, let's take one step at a time." Lucien said before turning to Bruce and slashing his chest open.
The only reason he didn't dodge is because he knew Lucien's intentions.
"I presume that's the next step?" Constantine said as Lucien approached the three of them and grabbed Raven by the neck.
Quickly, he tilted her head back and made her swallow the blood dripping from his claws.
"If he's going to be up here, he might as well get stronger too. No reason to waste this downtime. While you guys figure out Bruce's affinity, I'll work with Arisia." Lucien said before letting go of Raven.
"Thanks for asking." Raven said as she looked up at him and licked her lips.
"Uh-huh." Lucien turned and approached Arisia.
"Let's work."
Arisia held her ring out to him. "Ring. Initiate scan."
Lucien remained still as green lights flowed from her ring and washed over Lucien's body.
"What are you scanning for?" Lucien asked.
"Diagnostics. And other things."
"[Scanning Complete-]" Arisia's ring blurted out.
Suddenly a construct of a physical overlay hovered beside her. It had a outline of a human body like an anatomy chart with physical readings and bio-markers.
[Name: Lucien Lamb]
[Planet of Origin: Earth (Otherworld)]
[Race: Homo-Magi (Skinwalker)]
[Occupation: Green Lantern, Alpha-Skinwalker, Soldier, Assassin, Vampire-Slayer]
[Health: 500]
[Strength: 50]
[Speed: 70]
[Stamina: 140]
[Perception: 140]
[Intelligence: 80]
[Dexterity: 100]
[Potential: Unwilled]
[Homo-Magi Details: Ice magic akin to that of other meta-humans and magical beings recognized in Oan Database, examples include Killer Frost and Ice. Other magical affinities are yet to be expressed and reside within subjects magical reserves— theoretical analysis states subjects magic works like a muscle. The more it is used, the more it will be understood and cultivated over time.]
Arisia watched Lucien read over the hologram of his logistics. Once finished, she began providing detail.
"The average human's physical stat readings are around one to five. The average meta is around five to ten." Arisia said.
"You're saying I'm seven times faster than a Meta-human? That's around the flash's speed— which I'm not."
"It's not around the flash's speed. But it's too close." Bruce said in the distance.
"My point." Lucien looked back to Arisia.
"You seem to be unaware of your limits. Not to mention, your physical readings weren't this drastic before I got here. What changed?" Arisia asked.
Lucien looked back to Bruce. Then to Constantine— who was already reenacting him biting Bruce.
"Ok, so I got a boost in power when I changed Bruce. That's not enough. I still don't know how to use my magic. I'm too inexperienced." Lucien said.
"That's fixable."
Lucien looked back to the screen reading off his stats.
His eyes lingered on the potential stat.
Arisia brought her ring to her lips. "Permission to speak with the Guardians."
Her ring replied, "[Permission Granted]"
Suddenly one of the guardians was speaking through her ring. "Yes, Green-Lantern Arisia?"
"Permission to unlock Green-Lantern Lucien Lamb's latent potential through brainwave will infusion." Arisia said.
Lucien raised an eyebrow in thought, "That wasn't a thing in the comics."
"Permission granted. Begrudgingly." The guardian closed the call.
Arisia walked closer to Lucien and spoke as if she could hear his previous thoughts, "Lantern's have been dying left and right. The Guardians got desperate and added new protocols to the ring. Things for hasty lantern creation. It's how you were able to steal a ring and become a green lantern— despite the fact that you'd probably be a better red lantern. It's also how I'll be able to enforce my will upon you and unlock some of your untapped potential. Usually it's used to give recruits better body control and faster processing speeds in stressful situations, but for you, that's already unlocked. All that's left is your magic."
"Shadow." Raven said.
"What?"
"Bruce's elemental affinity is shadow-magic."