The air in the plaza turned heavy.
It smelled like fire and burnt rubber.
Absolute Hal Jordan or whatever was left of him took a step forward.
The ground beneath his boots cracked..
The green radiation leaking from his skin was so bright it made my eyes sting.
"You have the mark," the Fallen Lantern growled.
His voice sounded like a radio station stuck between channels.
"The Black Hand... it belongs to the void. Not a brat like you."
He thrust his arm forward.
That jagged green spear shot through the air like a railgun slug.
My instincts the Absolute Joker ones kicked in before I could even think.
I didn't dodge.
I just raised my right hand.
The Black Hand energy exploded out of my sleeve.
It formed a maw.
A giant, spectral mouth of oily black ink snapped shut around the spear.
The sound was like a car crash.
The green radiation hissed and spat, trying to burn through the void.
But the Black Hand, just... swallowed.
[Ding! Consumption Active (Minor).]
[Gained: 1% Absolute Willpower construct stability.]
"What?" Hal's eyes those pits of green fire widened.
"You... you ate my Will?"
"It tasted like lime soda," I lied.
My stomach was actually doing backflips.
The energy was too hot.
Too raw.
But I couldn't stop now.
I sprinted forward.
My new boots pounded the pavement, leaving craters with every step.
The Stone Skin was active, making my body feel like a living wrecking ball.
Hal roared, his arms turning into massive green hammers.
He swung at me with enough force to level a building.
I dove under the first swing.
The wind from the blow nearly ripped my new coat off.
I lunged at his legs, my fingers sharpening into obsidian claws.
I sliced through his flight suit, cutting deep into his calf.
But there was no blood.
Only glowing, green liquid that sizzled when it hit the ground.
"Argh!" Hal kicked me in the chest.
It felt like being hit by a freight train.
I flew backward, smashing through a fountain and into a brick wall.
The bricks turned to dust on impact.
I coughed, my vision swimming.
[Warning: Physical Integrity at 85%.]
[Hunger Spike: Absolute DNA requires more fuel to repair 'Absolute' damage.]
"Fine," I wheezed, pushing myself out of the rubble.
"No more holding back."
I let the "Hunger" go.
My silver hair stood on end as my height shot up.
Ten feet.
Twelve feet.
Fifteen feet of pale, muscular horror.
My jaw unhinged, my teeth turning into a serrated forest of bone.
The black smoke from the Black Hand wrapped around my body like a cloak of shadows.
Hal Jordan didn't flinch.
In the Absolute Verse, heroes don't run.
They just fight harder.
He flew into the air, his entire body becoming a sun of green radiation.
"Die, you freak!"
He rained down a barrage of constructs—planes, tanks, missiles.
All of them glowing with that sickly, radioactive fire.
I roared, the sound shaking the glass out of every window in the plaza.
I jumped.
I didn't need wings.
My leg muscles, reinforced by 50% stone-skin and my own monster biology, launched me like a rocket.
I soared through the air, my right hand reaching out.
I didn't make a sword.
I didn't make a shield.
I made a Vacuum.
The Black Hand energy swirled in my palm, creating a localized black hole.
The missiles didn't explode.
The tanks didn't crush me.
They were sucked into the void in my hand.
I slammed into Hal Jordan mid-air.
We crashed back down to the plaza like a falling star.
The shockwave sent a cloud of dust and debris three stories high.
I was on top of him.
My massive, pale hands were pinned to his shoulders.
His green radiation was burning my skin, turning it black and charred.
But I didn't care.
"Dinner time," I growled, my voice a demonic rasp.
I bit down.
I didn't go for his throat.
I bit into his shoulder, tearing away a huge chunk of that glowing, radioactive "flesh."
It tasted like battery acid and lightning.
It felt like my head was going to explode.
But the rush of power was unlike anything I'd ever felt.
[Ding! Target Consumed (15%).]
[Gained: Absolute Flight (Fragment).]
[Gained: Hard-Light Construct Proficiency (Absolute Grade).]
[Gained: 50% Resistance to Ionizing Radiation.]
Hal screamed.
It was a sound of pure agony.
He detonated his remaining energy in a last-ditch effort to blast me off.
The explosion was huge.
It leveled the rest of the plaza and sent me skidding two blocks away.
I hit the ground and slid, my monster form slowly shrinking back down.
I was gasping for air.
My new coat was in tatters.
My skin was covered in radiation burns that were already starting to heal with a weird, green glow.
I looked back at the center of the plaza.
Hal Jordan was gone.
There was only a charred crater and a few lingering sparks of green light.
He did not die yet, he only managed to escape me
But I had a piece of him.
I stood up, my legs shaking.
I felt... heavy.
My Willpower was vibrating.
I could feel the "Absolute" energy of the Lantern Corps trying to fight my Joker blood.
It was a war inside my veins.
[System Update: New Ability Unlocked.]
[Absolute Construct: 'The Joker's Will'.]
[Effect: You can now create constructs using both Black Hand void and Green Lantern radiation. Constructs possess 'Chaotic Unpredictability'.]
"Great," I muttered, coughing up a bit of green smoke.
"Now I'm a radioactive clown with a ghost hand."
I looked around.
People were starting to peek out of their windows.
Sirens were wailing in the distance.
The "Stay Low" phase was dead and buried.
I started walking.
I didn't go back to my apartment.
I knew Jack Grimm's scouts would be all over this place in minutes.
I had a new power.
I had a new hunger.
And for the first time... I felt like I actually belonged in this hell-hole.