Hello! The name's tocksters and I present to you my first posted fanfiction. I accept all reviews, whether good or bad, so don't be afraid to shoot me a message. Also, since I'm fairly new to the formatting on here, let me know about any errors or things that I could fix. Thank you!
"Phantom."
The halfa turned towards the deep voice of Batman, or rather Bruce Wayne.
Danny knew Batman's identity not by any trickery of his own, but by pure accident. He had been chasing Skulker down just outside of Gotham and had found himself inside Wayne manor after following the hunter ghost there. As he searched for Skulker's hulking metal frame, he phased through a wall next to an old grandfather clock-that just so happened to be the entrance to the bat cave, of all places. He found Batman there, unmasked, along with the current Robin, Tim Drake. They were trying to fend off Skulker as he stole the highly advanced combat technology the Bat often used. Danny quickly used his thermos to capture Skulker and looked sheepishly at Bruce and his son. Needless to say, they were not pleased with his discovery, as very few people even in the Justice League knew their identities. Bruce had yet to act on Danny's discovery, besides giving him a not-so-subtle threat about what would happen should the information find its way into someone else's hands.
Now as he stood facing the man, Danny wondered what he could want. He mustered up as confident a smile as possible (Danny was even more scared of the dark knight after learning who he was behind the mask).
"Yeah?" Bruce's face remained emotionless and his voice monotone as he spoke to Danny.
"I've recently become aware of a problem. I keep certain items on hand that adversely affect members of the League in case something was to cause them to turn evil, such as kryptonite for Superman. I have no such item for you and based on footage of previous battles, normal weaponry does not have the same effect on you because of your ghost half. Is there some object you could provide me with that would be powerful enough to slow you down?"
Danny stared at Batman in shock. Whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't that. As Bruce's words sank in, Danny's face paled. Voice trembling, he replied,
"Yeah...uh yeah, God I can't believe I didn't think of that before...what if I'd...before now..." He trailed off, looking to the ground guiltily, worry over what could have happened gnawing at his stomach. Bruce's eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch but otherwise his confusion over Danny's willingness to hand over his weakness was undetectable. After Danny collected himself, he looked Bruce in the eye.
"There's a rare plant that is harmful to ghosts. They're called blood blossoms. The smell alone is enough to make me nauseous even in my human form. If surrounded by them, I am unable to use my ghost abilities to escape. Also, when they come in contact with my skin they are extremely painful, so much so that I can barely move." At this, Danny's eyes widened a bit and his face adopted a pleading look. "Please, stock up on as many of these as you can. Use them if I ever give as much as an evil smirk. Promise me you'll use them when it's necessary!" By the end of his rant Danny's voice had risen to a yell, a frantic look in his neon eyes. Bruce simply nodded at the ghost-boy's request, and walked away.
Bruce pondered Danny's reaction to his questioning for some time. He just didn't understand why a hero-a teenager at that-would divulge his weakness so willingly. There were supers who held so much stock in their own invincibility they denied that anything could ever hurt them. But Danny was different; it was like he wanted Batman to use the blood blossoms on him. Bruce didn't quite understand his urgency until the Justice League heard that Ra's Al Ghul was on the move and went to take him down.
If there was ever an adversary that Batman dreaded facing, it was Ra's Al Ghul (But that would be ridiculous; he's Batman for god's sake). Ra's was unlike the other run of the mill villains. He was crafty and cunning, with martial arts skills that very few could rival. What stood above all that though was his ability to know just what Batman was going to do next. It seemed like he was always one step ahead, a trap lying in wait. This all amounted to Batman recruiting the other JL members whenever Ra's became active. The more help the better in his mind.
The League had received intel that Ra's had been spotted off the coast of Alaska, making his base in an enormous glacier. Batman briefed the team as best he could, seeing as they had no idea what Ra's was actually up to. The goal of the mission was stealth, and none of the heroes wanted to barge into a secret base where who knows how many League of Shadows assassins were lying in wait. The infiltration was going relatively smoothly, despite the few assassins who had seen the team (they all had to be newbies, with the ease in which Batman took them down). The team approached where they knew the main hub of evil activity was located. The plan was to have Batman and Martian Manhunter sneak inside while the rest of the team prepared for a frontal assault. That plan went out the door when Bruce heard a yell from inside. A very familiar one.
Bruce slammed open the doors to the main room, and lo and behold, Nightwing was inside. What he wasn't expecting was Danny Phantom, or the three teens knocked out in a cage, which, from the faint green glow it was emitting, was either made of kryptonite or ectoranium (or both-Ra's always was one to be prepared). Bruce also wasn't expecting the look Phantom wore; he had never seen such a snarl of undiluted rage on the teen's face. Bruce knew why the look was there of course, for in the cage was none other than Phantom's sister and two best friends. Batman assessed the situation; Nightwing and Phantom stood facing Ra's Al Ghul, and besides Nightwing's slightly queasy expression, appeared fine. Phantom's friends were unconscious, but looked no worse for the wear. Nightwing glanced at Batman and slinked towards him while both Danny's and Ra's attention was taken.
"Phantom, back away from him and try to help the civilians."
Bruce urged, knowing Danny was no match for Ra's. Danny didn't listen, didn't even glance in Bruce's direction. He continued glaring at Ra's, and his fists burst into glowing green light, ready to fire off a dangerous barrage of ectoplasm. The man just smiled.
"Hello Daniel. I assume you got my message?"
Danny's eyes flashed, and the neon green orbs sharpened. He snarled.
"Well that's why I'm here, isn't it?" Ra's smiled again, and gestured to the cage housing Danny's friends.
"I do apologize for the circumstances surrounding your arrival, but I had to get your attention somehow. I was hoping we could talk."
Ra's ducked under the ectoplasmic blast that suddenly scorched the wall behind his head. Slowly, Danny stalked towards him.
"You don't get to talk to me, and you don't get to touch them." He said, pointing at the people he holds most dear.
That was all the warning Ra's received before Danny was on him. He blurred from halfway across the room, finally sharpening right next to his target, and punched the master assassin in the face. Ra's went flying back into the wall. Once more, Danny flew towards his opponent, aiming for another sock to the jaw. This time, Ra's was waiting, and caught the young halfa's fist before it made contact. Danny stared at their hands, before looking into the other man's face. His eyes glowed harsher than before, the electric green of his irises taking over the remaining white and black. Ra's Al Gul released Danny's hand and dove to the side, rolling into a standing position, barely dodging the eye beam Danny had prepared. Ra's looked unimpressed.
"Is that all you've got? I expected more from you, Daniel."
Assassins flooded into the room from every opening, surrounding Danny. If anything, Danny got angrier.
"You think your little lackeys can scare me? You know nothing," Danny checked his friends in the cage again then stared back into Ra's eyes. "and now you're going to understand why it is a very bad idea to take my friends."
Taking that as their queue, the assassins leapt at Danny. They weren't quick enough. Danny took a deep breath before wailing, spinning in a circle to catch all the henchmen in the destructive waves his scream released. They were blown back, and it was Danny and Ra's in the middle once again. Ra's opened his mouth to speak again, but never got the chance. Danny disappeared in a swirl of green energy and entered back into existence behind Ra's, an ectoblast charged on his hand. He fired it at point blank range, sending the man flying across the room. The assassin couldn't even get back on his feet before Danny was there. He grabbed the man and threw him into the wall. He sent out blast after blast of green ectoplasm, leaving the man a mass of steaming burns. Taking another deep breath, Danny released his wail again, focusing it solely on Ra's this time. The assassin slammed back into the wall, screaming from the force that was applied to him. The wall cracked and bent outwards from the strain it was being put under. Finally, the wall gave out, and Ra's flew back into the corridor behind it, slamming into that wall. Danny's neon green eyes continued glaring at Ra's, but this time there was a hint of ice blue in them that grew, until only the outline of his eyes were green. Ice erupted from the ground and took hold of Ra's body, restraining his arms and legs against the wall. More ice broke through the concrete of the base and surrounded Danny, swirling around him before pulling back, sharpening into spears behind his back.
"This is why you don't invite a cryokinetic to your base on the glacier, assassin."
With that, the gleaming ice spears sped towards Ra's vulnerable body, which no matter how much he struggled, could not get free of its icy prison. He gulped as the ice flew towards him, thinking, 'this is going to hurt.'
"DANNY!"
The ice stopped, inches from penetrating Ra's heart, among other vital body parts. Danny had frozen, and Ra's looked behind him to see what had caused the halfa to stop.
There, body pressed against the bars holding her in place, was Sam Manson. Apparently she had woken up just in time to see Danny about to try and murder a man. Her eyes were tearing up, looking both afraid and angry at the same time.
"Danny, I don't care what he did, or why we're in this stupid cage, but you need to stop! Look around you! That guy and all the others are beaten! Me, Tucker, and Jazz are fine! I know this guy probably deserves whatever you've done to him and more, but this isn't you. Please, Danny, just let him go."
Her words must have reached him, because the spears still hovering over Ra's Al Gul's body dropped to the ground, shattering on contact. Danny followed them, dropping onto the floor and falling to his knees. The murderous rage left his eyes and his shoulders slumped. Danny hung his head, and a few second later he crumpled, tears staining his closed eyes.
The destruction was over.
"How did Danny know where to find Ra's?"
"Ra's left him a note. It said that he had his friends, and the only way to get them back was to get to Ra's."
"I assume that's where you came in?"
"Yeah. He teleported straight to me, don't know how he knew where I was. From there he almost threatened me to tell him where to find Ra's. I used your tracking chips on the other Leaguers since I knew you all had gone after him as well. As soon as I'd told Danny Ra's was in Alaska, he thanked me and got ready to leave. I knew I couldn't let him go it alone, so I grabbed him. I don't think Danny even realized I was there while he flew to Alaska."
"He flew all the way from Gotham to Alaska? How long did it take?"
"Probably 40 minutes."
"Nightwing."
"Yeah?"
"Buy more blood blossoms."
Danny forgot about his conversation with Batman about the blood blossoms until the following month.
He was messing around with Kid Flash and Nightwing when it happened. The three of them had been goofing off all afternoon at Wayne Manor, given that they were the only young members who knew of Nightwing's identity (and that Wally and Dick were two of the only people affiliated with the League that Danny trusted enough to show his human side to). Bruce appeared silently, as always, and motioned for Dick to follow. Wally gave a noncommittal shrug and went back to annoying Danny with his super speed. Dick returned a few moments later and joined in with Wally's teasing. After a while, Wally stopped.
"I'm booored," He whined. "What else can we do in this large yet boring house, Dick?"
Dick stared off thoughtfully for a moment, before his eyes lit up. He gave a mischievous grin. "We could play hide and seek, and see how Mr. I-can-walk-through-walls does against us on my home turf." Soon Wally's grin matched Dick's, and Danny knew this would not end well for him.
"Perfect," Wally added, "it's Danny's turn to fall for all the stupid traps you've added here." With those words, he was gone. Dick turned to Danny.
"Wait here for a bit before you come looking for us. I need time to set up so Bruce's traps aren't so lethal to intruders." Then, Dick disappeared as well, leaving Danny alone in the room with that extremely comforting reassurance. A few minute passed and Danny decided it was safe to venture outside the confines of Dick's room. He transformed into Phantom, acknowledging the fact that the other two heroes were playing for keeps, and he would need all the extra help he could get.
Danny silently floated through the halls, hoping any traps placed by Dick were pressure based, and that he could avoid them. He wasn't that lucky, and had to dodge some sort of flying projectile as he was picked up by the motion sensor imbedded in the wall. Upon further inspection he deduced it was a rotten banana attached to a blunt metal batarang.
"Great," he muttered darkly, "Nightwing is going for embarrassment and pain. It must be my lucky day. The only thing that would make this worse would be if..." He trailed off, glancing to the side curiously. He could've sworn he heard...
"BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST! FEAR THE WRATH OF MY CARDBOARD CONTRAPTIONS AND THEIR BUBBLE WRAP INTERIOR!"
Danny only sighed as the Box Ghost leapt out of nowhere. Danny tiredly reached for the thermos on his belt (he'd made his own sort of utility belt after working with the bat family for a while), but before he could use it to get rid of the constant annoyance that was the box ghost, Boxy flew through a wall, forcing Danny to follow. Unamused, Danny went intangible and tracked the box ghost through the manor, following random shouts of "BEWARE!" Suddenly, the shouts stopped. He went through one last wall, only to find the Box Ghost lying on the ground in agony in a pitch dark room. The only light came from Boxy's and Danny's ghostly forms. Boxy started to scream, unlike any sound Danny had ever heard come out of his mouth before, in pure pain. Without hesitating, Danny dropped to the ground, not even taking in his surroundings, save an unpleasant smell that permeated the air. Boxy was writhing around on the ground, his face the picture of torture.
"Hey, Hey! What's wrong?!" He questioned.
The ghost just continued to moan. Danny grabbed the blue-skinned entity and dragged him through the door that his panicking mind had somehow managed to notice. As soon as they were through the doorway Boxy stopped all noises, and just breathed heavily. Whatever was plaguing him had seemed to be contained solely in that room. Danny glanced around and grabbed an ornate porcelain box that lay on one of the decorative tables found throughout the mansion. He quickly grabbed it and handed it to the box ghost, hoping an object of his obsession would help calm him down and jumpstart the healing process.
"Boxy, what happened? Come on man, you've got to tell me what went down in there." Danny pleaded with the ghost, but the only response he received was Boxy clutching the antique close to his heart, and wide eyes staring into his own, but not really seeing. Gathering his courage, Danny prepared himself to go back inside and find the root of Boxy's pain. He flew in, an ecto-blast on each hand to light up the room, and just in case an enemy was lying in wait. This time he took in the room, and couldn't help but lose his breath.
Covering the floor, the walls, even the ceiling, were piles and piles of blood blossoms. He vaguely recalled his brief conversation with Bruce on the plant and how it would hurt him. He felt relief the man had taken his advice on stocking up before the true reality of the situation hit him.
He was in a room full of blood blossoms. He had been in a room full of blood blossoms that were obviously effective, based on the box ghost's tortured screams, and hadn't felt a thing. The blood blossoms weren't affecting him at all. As far as Danny was concerned, he was simply in a very smelly room.
Distantly, he heard footsteps in a corner of the room, his eyes taking in Batman and Nightwing but his brain not comprehending. Danny started to hyperventilate. His breathing grew ragged, but he was not in pain. He fell to the floor and reverted to his human state, all his energy leaving him for a reason that had nothing to do with the supposedly deadly plant surrounding him.
Nightwing rushed over, thinking that Danny must be in immense pain and only holding it in better than that other, unexpected, ghost had. He reached out to lift Danny up and carry him out of the room, but stopped when he realized Danny was speaking. Eyes glazed over, Danny was talking to himself. One look at his face and it was obvious he was devastated, even if neither Bruce nor Dick knew why. He just kept mumbling, his voice slowly getting louder and gaining strength.
"They aren't working...why aren't they working?...I can't feel them...what's happening?...why can't I feel them?...no...no...they were my last hope...no...NO!"
Danny screamed this last word, and as it left his mouth, Dick swore he saw sound waves run into the far wall and crack it. Danny seemed to deflate once again but remained silent this time. Nightwing picked up his friend and carried him outside. He set Danny next to the other ghost who looked like he had fallen asleep, still tightly gripping the old box. Bruce addressed Wally, who had found them after Danny's ear-piercing shriek.
"Kid Flash, go get Samantha Manson and bring her here. Tell her Danny needs her help."
The teen hero nodded his affirmative and zipped away. Less than a minute later he returned, holding a very worried looking girl. Sam brushed herself off and quietly asked what had happened. Dick pointed her toward the blood blossom room. She glanced inside and her face paled, her expression becoming even more scared than before. That fear was quickly replaced with anger and faster than any of the gathered heroes could react (and damn that was fast), she punched Batman in the face. Batman rubbed his jaw, knowing there would be a bruise, because that girl could throw a punch. Sam just stalked off towards Danny's limp form, but not before sending another deadly glare the heroes' way. The three shuddered, glad that she was preoccupied with Danny and not revenge. Hesitantly, she placed a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder.
"Danny? Danny, tell me what's wrong?"
For the first time since entering the flower-filled room, Danny seemed to acknowledge another human being. His eyes, filled with pain and despair, focused on Sam alone. Tears gathered, and streamed down his face. He lunged at Sam and held on to her for dear life.
"Sam they didn't do anything." He blubbered, hugging her like his only lifeline. "I was in that room and I didn't feel any different...the blood blossoms weren't affecting me!"
Understanding shone through Sam's eyes as she finally got what was hurting Danny so much. She gripped him by the shoulders and pulled away to look in his eyes.
"Listen to me, Danny Fenton; forget about the stupid blood blossoms." Danny looked confused. "Don't you dare say they were your last hope of stopping him, because guess what? You already did that when you saved all of us from the Nasty Burger explosion. This. Is. A. Good. Thing." She stated determinedly, emphasizing each word. "Now there is just one less thing to take you from me. You know why the blossoms don't matter in the long run?" Danny shook his head in confusion. Sam gave a pause before continuing, giving Danny her best I-am-right-don't-argue-with-me look. "Because as long as you have me, Dan Phantom is never going to happen." Her speech finished, Sam pulled Danny back to her chest, rubbing soothing circles into his back. Exhausted from his inner panic and emotional struggle, Danny's eyes drooped until finally, he was asleep.
Finally returning her attention to the stunned heroes behind her, Sam glared at them again, anger rolling off her in waves.
"Who in the hell though dumping Danny in a room full of blood blossoms was a good idea?" She looked to where the box ghost still held his ornamental box. "And does someone want to explain to me why the box ghost is passed out on your floor?"
The mighty heroes of the Justice League looked at the short 17 year old before them, and they were afraid.
"So what happened?"
"I enlisted Nightwing to help me test the effectiveness of the blood blossoms on Phantom. Before Phantom reached the designated room another ghost showed up and appeared to be in agony over the flowers, proving their effectiveness on ghosts. Phantom appeared, not even noticing the blooms. It wasn't until he returned to the room after aiding the other ghost that he seemed to break down."
"And was this break down caused by the blood blossoms?"
"No. He looked afraid of the fact that there was no effect, and I recorded him muttering, 'they were my last hope' before going catatonic."
"What happened then?"
"I had Kid Flash retrieve the Manson girl to help Phantom. She calmed him down, but not before mentioning something very interesting."
"What did she say?"
"Dan Phantom."
"Danny?"
"Possibly. But the way she said the name, it sounded evil."
"Understood. Mention the name to Danny and note his reaction. We need to know any dangerous secrets Phantom contains if he is to become a full-fledged member of The League. Find any information you can on this Dan Phantom."