Dark-Hope Vs Wild Future

"DICK!" Red-Hood emptied the clip in both of his guns.

"How could you?!" Bat-Girl's voice was gut-wrenching.

Red Robin swung and flew around the cave with his bladed wings attached at his back. Damian tackled him as Nightwing dashed around the grounds, dodging and trying to rip apart Lucien's team.

"I thought it was obvious? I made a chess move." Nightwing said as he rematerialized behind Dove, across the cave from Lucien.

Dove's face looked just like Black Canary's before she was gutted.

Lucien roared and stomped the grounds. Cracks rippled in the stone and the metal walkways crumbled, leaving Nightwing and the avatar of order falling.

As Dove fell, she exploded with light, blinding the Vampire-King before flying back to the surface.

The moment she landed, yellow constructs of monstrous giant bats ripped through the floors, clearing the way for Nightwing to fly back to the surface.

He hovered above them all as Damian took down Red-Robin and Batgirl.

Red-Hood and Signal were knocked down to the floors with Lucien and the others.

In the brief stillness, Lucien put the pieces together.

"Nightwing and Damien are both assassins with access to all the gadgets this world has to offer. Nightwing killed Wally with the cold-gun he probably stole from the bat cave or legion of doom when he raided their hideout— most likely the same way he got a Sinestro Corps ring. Damien was probably the one to distract Etrigan this morning. This is also most likely how prime justice league members were changed. They trust Nightwing. He's the golden boy of the DC universe. Or at least he used to be… he's fallen from grace. That's terrifying. That's what makes him the prime candidate for the Sinestro Corps. Fuck."

"For a genius, you sure suck at chess." Arsenal said shakily as he pulled his bowstring back.

"The game won't look right to someone who can't play to begin with. Roy, shouldn't you be conquering your own demons before trying to comprehend the rest of the worlds?" Nightwing asked as he pretended to stick a needle into his forearm.

"Your dead, kid." Green Arrow started the second phase with a triple shot from his bow.

Nightwing encased himself in a hardlight shield. Before it could completely form, Bat-girl threw a smoke bomb inside, blinding the vampire-king within his own power. Raven further locked him in a ball of darkness.

They all charged him, forgetting about his little demon.

Lucien didn't.

He dropped into the hole in the floor and swung from the crags and cliff edges until he was suddenly exploding out and pouncing on Damian.

The vampire shifted into a bat and tried to fly away as rubble and debris flew around him.

With inhuman reflexes, Lucien spun and caught the bat in a grip that broke its wings.

Damien screeched before shifting, violently ripping apart Lucien's hands and breaking his fingers.

Lucien roared as Damien unsheathed his sword and ran him through with it. In a blur of darkness, he shoved his hand into Lucien's chest and gripped his beating heart.

"You're just a wild animal." Damian spat, squeezing the beating organ while snapping his other arm back into place.

"One you can't handle." Lucien slashed at Damien's face.

His claws raked the young vampires eyes. In the distance, Nightwing created hardlight clones of himself and took on the whole of his untitled team of survivors.

Lucien didn't care in the moment. His hunt was elsewhere. His hunt was….. noble. He was putting a child to rest.

As Damien stumbled backward swatting and hissing, Lucien ripped the sword out of his stomach and swung for his neck.

Yellow chains wrapped the blade, slowing his swing.

Without missing a beat, Lucien dropped the sword and pounced on Damian.

Another set of chains wrapped around his throat. This time they were barbed and poisoned based on the way they burned him alive.

He snarled, veins bulging as he fought against the lanterns pull to face Damian. To reach him. With his arms reaching where they could, he ripped off the Vampires arm before Nightwing yanked him off of Damian and threw him back into the divide in the bat cave.

He fell for a mile before hitting rock solid earth so hard his teeth shattered in his mouth.

He choked on them at the bottom of the divide. Lights and blood flashed overhead as the remaining heroes went to war.

With fakes.

Imitations.

Constructs.

They weren't even getting to the main point.

His freedom took a step away.

It took a metaphorical leap as as the yellow construct of a batwing fighter jet hovered above the split he fell in.

Nightwing sent it downward.

As it whistled through the air towards him, the missile thrusters sent volleys of yellow artillery raining down after him.

He'd been carpet bombed before. Only never so directly or with hardlight constructs. It was stronger than steel and the flames from the explosion burned hotter than any fire he'd ever been burned by.

It was hell. It was terror.

In the midst of it all one thing remained true. Even as he lay with charred skin and shattered bones and half his skull pulverized.

Anger.

He was in hell and he was angry about it. So angry that the fear he should've felt wasn't even an afterthought. It was atomized like the clothes he once wore.

Nightwing hovered a mile overhead. A glowing beacon to symbolize the adversity he had to overcome.

To overpower.

He had to play the game.

He had to play chess.

Lucien raised his broken and charred middle finger to the king of vampires. It healed slowly. Growing with new muscle, dark skin and fur. From the rubble to his left, a ring rose and fitted itself over his finger.

"I'm not scared of you, pretty boy."

[Lucien Lamb of (Other) Earth, you have the ability to fight great fear and an intense wellspring of willpower. Welcome to the Green-Lantern Corps.]