In Sheep’s Clothing

It had been six hours since Lucien's run in with Amanda Waller's agents, the police and Wally West's dead body.

Hawk, Dove and himself spent the time searching for Jason Blood. The longer they searched, the more Lucien was prepared to settle with the fact that he was dead.

Until they made it back to the scene of the crime, after he scoped the area out for an hour and used an improvised electronic jammer on a mile radius around the place. Robbing phone stores was easier in his current world.

Lucien entered the alley, traveling no more than half a mile through the dark walkways as the scents increased until he found him.

Tied up behind a dumpster with his mouth taped shut.

"Is that…. A rosary?" Hawk asked as Lucien threw aside the dumpster and helped Jason to his feet.

With ease he snapped up the religious paraphenalia, revealing puss leaking cuts and burns running across the demon's skin.

"Bloody holy water and crosses…." Jason snarled, "Whoever tied me down knew to go for my mouth first. The little bastard was quick. It's nice to see the rest of you didn't need my protection. I obviously couldn't supply my own." Jason explained.

Lucien shook his head, "They got the drop on us. They know us."

Jason nodded, "Few heroes even understand my weakness to denied speech. Which I find….. silly."

"Well, that limits our pool of suspects." Lucien said. "Who on the justice league do you work with most?"

"Batman."

"Oh hell…." Hawk mumbled.

"What?" Dove asked.

"Are we being serious?"

Lucien turned to face the avian avatar of chaos.

"Of all the justice league members who could be Vampires, it's the one who's already nocturnal and named after bats?"

"It does seem too fitting." Jason said.

"But think from the Vampires pov. Who's the most dangerous member of the League? Who's got the most resources and a detailed contingency plan on how to take down everyone? A vampire uprising could use that. They'd be stupid not to."

He stopped talking when he found everyone staring at him.

"Batman has a contingency plan to kill his friends?"

Lucien shrugged, "Well… when you're friends with gods and alien mutants…."

"Fair." Jason said.

"Anyway, you two." Lucien looked to Hawk and Dove, "Who on the Titans is most likely to become a Vampire based off what we just discussed?"

Dove twirled her braid of white hair, "Well…. I'm sure they're after the flashes simply because making a speedster addicted to murder and infectious is game over. They're too strong. They'd topple the empire before it was finished building."

"They'd go for a healthy medium." Hawk said. "Someone crazy strong— conditionally, but decently strong at base. Someone with magic who could do with a physical boost."

"Someone like Raven." Dove finished, seemingly not liking her own answer.

"No." Jason said with a head shake, "I don't think the Vampires are looking to anger Trigon."

"Someone else. Someone who could be a useful addition— but maybe not crucial. That leaves them the element of surprise." Lucien said, "Beastboy."

Dove's eyebrows raised as if the answer suddenly clicked in place. "He would be a perfect spy. He could be here right now…."

"A rat…. A snake….. a bird overhead. Right now the Vampires don't seem to need heavy hitters. They're making moves using the chess pieces they can afford to lose. That means one of two things." Lucien said, "They're not ready to show their full hand, or this is the best way they see themselves doing it— which is why they want me dead. I seem to be the only one who can sniff them out."

"True. You're a natural foil." Jason agreed.

An uncomfortable silence spread between them as the stakes of the world rose.

"So…." Hawk mumbled, "We found Jason. Now what?"

"He needs time to heal." Dove said.

"I'm fine. We don't have that kind of time anyway. We need to move before the—"

They blinked and suddenly he was standing between all of them.

He moved from the outer edges of the atmosphere down to a single alley in the middle of downtown Washington, D.C. in a blink.

The blue boyscout.

In the flesh. In flesh that smelled like pure fire. Lucien noted that he must've been in the sun very recently. Or at least absorbing its rays. Meaning he was stronger than usual.

He was tall. Not as tall as Lucien but wider and thicker boned. He was Kryptonian but the farm-boy dna he inherited was strong in him.

His suit hugged his muscles that flexed beneath the comical fabric as he stood. His cape fluttered in the wind. Only he could pull of a suit made by his grandparents and make it terrifying.

"I was told you were smart— dangerous. It's the only way you could've taken out a number of crime bosses, wild dog, Arsenal, Green-Arrow and Green Lantern all in the span of two days." Superman said.

"Fuck. I covered my tracks….. I used my senses and learned skills. I wiped the area— I can't even hear a tv for a mile. But when I was trained in the military they didn't have to account for aliens that can hear from space and see from states away. I fucked up." Lucien growled in irritation.

"Don't pin it all on the beast-man. He had help. Assistance from traitors." Wonder-Woman stood on a rooftop above them with a sword and shield drawn.

"Acting real spartan with those accusations, Wonder-bitch. If you want war just say the word." Hawk replied.

Wonder-Woman simply stared, face unreadable from the sun at her back.

"The origins of the dark-dome now make sense." Martian Manhunter stepped through the wall beside them, visibly startling them all. "Jason, I'm thoroughly disappointed. As for my rage? You'll know it intimately soon."

"Make that an introduction for two." Hawkgirl hovered overhead twirling her mace like it was a baton instead of a hunk of spiked metal.

Lucien began to transform involuntarily. He wasn't like the hulk. Magic wasn't radiation poisoning. It was a blessing. He felt himself seamlessly grow and fortify beneath a sheen of dense fur in between a single breath.

He was the blue eyed behemoth once again.

"The wolf has shed its sheepish clothing." Martian Manhunter commented.

They were the first people to be unfazed by his true form. It was unsettling. He could run forever and rip through buildings and do worse to a Lantern and they couldn't care less.

"We won't get to talk about this, will we?" Jason asked.

Superman clenched his fists so hard Lucien could hear air molecules explode between his fingers, "You killed my friends. Hell no."

Lucien's hackles stood on end as the brief stillness they held came crashing to an end. He was hyperfocused. Every sense maximized like never before, leaving him process everything to such minute details that time slowed.

It allowed him to think. To understand.

"Batman isn't here. He's the only league constant that isn't here. If he's the Vampire it's because he doesn't want to risk stepping into the sun— but that doesn't make much sense. He's smart enough to know how to work around that. He's also smart enough to know not to try and pin Green Arrow dying on me with him still out there. Meaning Oliver and Roy are actually dead— or they've been in hiding since Hal's death and haven't spoken to anyone on the league for at least a day. It's a risky move, but it's the final straw needed to motivate all of the justice league to kill me. This is the last day of calm. This is the last day the Vampires play like this. They can't keep it up. I'm too close. My freedom is on the other side... or the end of freedom as a whole. Let's work."

Superman went straight for Jason Blood. His only weakness in the alleyway.

His only assumed weakness.

Lucien crashed into Superman and took him through a wall of an apartment building.

The battle against the Justice League had begun.

And unfortunately….

"There's another Vampire…"