Aquisition

"Skinwalker, huh? I guess the true enemy of Vampirism was never Werewolves." Green Arrow said as they all re-entered S.T.A.R Labs. The lights and wires running along the halls flickered from the previous combative shakeup.

"The true enemy of Vampires is the living. Skinwalker magic is heavily rooted in life of many forms, both human, animal and spiritual…. Elemental, even." Constantine explained.

"And the enemy of parallax is all things positive. Strength, bravery, hope. I know little of these Skinwalkers, but a green-lantern has all of those qualities." Arisia explained as she walked beside Lucian. She looked positively regal.

"Can you explain to me how the yellow cloud parasite space demon is part of this vampire issue?" Lagoonboy asked at the back of the group.

Arisia nodded, "It's simple. He possessed your most valuble warrior."

"Nightwing." Lucian said.

"Also a candidate for the green lanterns. The Guardians once considered him an evolution of Hal Jordan. The next human to alter the cosmos. Fearless, skilled, caring, a leader. But he turned down the offer."

Lucien remembered then that in many comics alternate universes and continuities that both Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were asked to be or were Green Lanterns. It only made sense. As a teen, he preferred Nightwing as a Green Lantern, it made his relationship with Starfire less reductive to her character. It also got them away from Batman. A personal gripe that felt comical given his new life…. No pun intended.

Speaking of Bruce, he could literally feel his pain.

"… I guess it was only a matter of time before the fear entity took advantage of….. well, the Guardian's fears. In doing so, Parallax took hold of the worlds fears. With Nightwing at his command, the entity realized the easiest way to spread fear through the world is to reintroduce something you all recognize. Disease, ferocity, famine— a plague. And it transfers faster than anything the fear entity could've done alone. Vampirism is a perfect catalyst to a fear entities possession of the planet. Now every vampire has a little bit of Parallax in them as well."

"That explains the abrupt changes in character." Bruce Wayne said, "Robi—….. my son, for about three days he was different before he finally made the attempt on my life."

"Nightwing's always had a bit more charisma than his younger brother. He made it past me." Bruce added. "I think….. I let him."

"He made it past us all, Bruce." Green Arrow said in support. "Some of us paid for that in worse ways than others."

"Is there a cure? Some type of space antidote?" Vixen asked as they all grouped up in the main hall— that now had a hole in the floor.

"Yes. Hope. Hope powered by bravery." Arisia explained.

"We need a Blue Lantern." Lucien realized.

"Blue-Beetle." Vixen said to him. When she found everyone looking at her with confusion she reiterated, "Blue-Beetle got his scarab ripped off by The Flash. But he saved the civilians beforehand. He gave us hope. He was chosen by the Blue Lantern corps. That was the last I saw of him."

"The Reach and Oan Technology. Mr. Reyes is growing a conflicting background. Couldn't think of anyone who could balance it better." Bruce said.

"Can you take us to the Blue Lantern home world?" Lucien asked, cursing himself for not remembering what sector or where it was himself.

"I could, but neither he nor you is ready. Not to mention, on my flight here I got physical readings of patrols in the troposphere. They're waiting for us to leave this planet defenseless. The last thing you want to do against Parallax is leave a planet of people defenseless." Arisia explained.

"So you want to wait. Because vampires are watching the skies. I'll fly up there and ash the bastards myself." Hawkgirl said as she cracked her knuckles.

"You're fighting a losing battle." Arisia said.

"Excuse me?" Hawkgirl snapped.

"Yea, say that again." Her fellow Hawk heroine added from beside her.

"In the time my mentor, Lantern Hal Jordan died, how many more vampires were made?" Arisia asked.

"I'm sure you're more aware of that answer than we are." Lucien said.

"I think I am." Arisia said. "Also— sorry if I offended, bird-women."

"I'm not with them." Raven said emotionlessly. As she stood right next to Dove, Hawk, Raven and Hawkgirl.

"My point is, we can't go around assassinating vampires until we kill them all. It's like your earth-based hydra." Arisia explained.

"Kill one, two takes its place." Lucien said.

"Yes. But instead of two, it's forty. And then eighty. And then—"

"We got it, space-elf." Green-Arrow spat.

"So you have a plan for a all out cure then?" Vixen reiterated.

Arisia nodded, "It starts with getting everyone stronger. Especially you, Lantern Lucien Lamb."

"Training camp in an apocalypse, is that intelligent?" Green-Arrow asked.

"The man dressed like robinhood in a space lab asked." Constantine mumbled.

"It's our only option. It's what I was sent here to do."

"It's what I requested." Lucien added.

"It's for the best." Bruce said, "Wars are won with patience, strength, skill and strategy. What we lack in one department we have to fix and compensate for by bolstering the others. If we can do both at the same time, we must."

"Can we?" Arsenal asked.

"Yea, I can't exactly contact the avatar of chaos by phone and ask for a power-up— that might make me a super villain…." Hawk said.

"Again." Dove added.

"Can it, sis."

"I also can't learn another martial art or suddenly increase my accuracy better than it is in however little time we have before its cure the world time." Arsenal said.

"We have a week." Arisia said. "Guardian speculation puts that at the maximum amount of time before vampiric parallaxian virus spreads to maximum capacity."

"Yea, we're cooked." Arsenal said.

"Raven, take me to hell. If I can get a demon form, I could—"

"That's not good enough, genius." Terra said from beside Beastboy. "Not to mention, Triton might try to take this chance to take earth himself. Unleashing demons….. terrifying people…."

"More fear." Lucien said.

"Oh…." Beastboy's green skin couldn't hide the reddening of his cheeks.

"So, we're out of options." Hawkgirl said, "If you let me, I can fly to my home planet and get us Nth Metal suits."

"That's actually not a bad idea…." Arisia said. "But—"

"I could teleport her…. With a little help." Constantine looked to Jason Blood.

Jason nodded, "Sure."

"Ok, but we still need more. Being reliant on a suit of armor is almost worse than not having it." Bruce said.

Everyone looked out of ideas.

Except Lucien. He'd been biting his nails in thought when everyone began to look to him.

He wasn't appreciating how often that was beginning to happen.

Except now it worked. He needed the floor to propose an insane idea. Insane to them, at least. To him, it was obvious.

"What are you thinking, Lucien." Dove asked.

Raven stared daggers into him.

"You all need to let me make you Skinwalkers. Like me."