I want you guys to tell me what you think about this chapter. My plan is to do the YJ plotline, but have it AU and altered in some ways. Though I am going to write missions that weren't in the show as well as scenes that weren't in the show, I want to make sure that the scenes from the show I do rewrite and alter are still fairly entertaining.
I ask that you consider reading the Author's Note at the bottom. Thanks and enjoy!
Mount Justice. July 17, 2010. 8:10 EDT.
He blinked open his eyes blearily. Then released a quiet yawn. It only took Danny a quick moment to look around and remember where he was. He then smothered his face into his pillow and sighed. Right, he was boarding with two other super powered teens and the general public thought Danny Fenton was dead or still missing, anyways. He turned his head sideways and just stared at his door in contemplation.
He really did want to go make some breakfast. He was hungry. Danny grumbled and pulled himself out of bed. Still in his pajamas, he phased through his locked door and walked down the hall. Once he made it to the Cave's kitchen, he started to put together his breakfast. It was when he was pouring himself a glass of orange juice that he was interrupted.
"Oh!"
Danny yelped at the sudden voice and poured orange juice over the counter before spinning around, carton still in hand. M'gann was at the entrance to the kitchen with her hand over her mouth. He glanced back at the counter when he heard the juice dripping down the cabinets and onto the floor.
"I'm so sorry Danny. I didn't mean to surprise you," M'gann spoke up and floated closer.
Danny smiled in a relaxed way before he laughed a bit. "Sounded more like I had surprised you." He looked at the paper towels and reached over for them. "Sorry about the mess."
"Yeah. I guess I'm still not completely used to another person in the Cave." M'gann expressed with a smile.
Danny finished soaking up the juice and cleaned up. He then picked up his cereal and juice. "I'm going back to my room to watch TV. Canary told me yesterday that she'll be coming in today to assess how much I know about fighting and my general physical ability." His mouth quirked downward slightly at the thought, and M'gann seemed to pick up his discomfort.
"Oh okay! I'm sure you'll do fine, Danny." She paused briefly and then spoke again. "Um, I was wondering if you wanted to do something later, with me and Superboy? I've been trying to make Superboy more comfortable..." She gasped slightly and looked up. "You too, of course!" A red glow came to the girl's cheeks.
Danny smiled at her and nodded. "Thanks and yeah, I'd like that." He furrowed his brows. Danny was so used to just Sam and Tucker wanting to be his friends that he'd forgotten what to do with newer acquaintances; he hadn't made new friends in so long. "We could uh, play a board game?" The half-ghost sorta blurted the idea out before thinking. He didn't really play board games with Sam or Tucker, though his family liked them a lot. It was just the first thing that had come to mind that most people could enjoy. By the look on M'gann's face, he'd made a good suggestion.
"Yes! I know just the one. See ya then, Danny! I'm going to go tell Superboy, once he wakes up."
The girl zoomed off and Danny let out a breath of relief. A weight seemed to float off him as a smile came to his face. He was on the way to making new friends and they seemed to like him well enough. The small act of kindness was also a confidence boost; it felt nice. He could do this.
Danny traipsed back to his room and walked through the door. After turning on the TV and flopping onto his bed, he dug into his cereal like he'd done almost every other morning at home.
Star City. July 17, 2010. 23:16 PDT.
The night was silent except for the sounds of crates being lowered on the dock's cranes. An arrow whistled through the air and stuck to the ground between the two men trying to help the crate to the floor. An explosion of smoke forced the two men to stumble backwards and one of their guns slid across the ground.
The man known as Brick leaned down and snatched up the weapon before pointing it upwards at none other than Speedy.
"Oh! You again! I'm starting to get insulted that Green Arrow's not messin' up my operations personally!" Brick growled out and took aim. He fired off several shots and Speedy dodged each one by ducking and weaving through the I-beams and skeleton of the half-built structure he was on. Speedy flipped over the last shot from the blaster and let fly another arrow while he was in mid-flip.
The arrow struck Brick and tore his suit to shreds with an explosion. Speedy watched the man closely, waiting for a response. Honestly, he just wanted the guy to shut-up so he could mark another drug-dealer or criminal off his list. If he could simply gain a decent track record and score a few bigger jobs, then the League would have to start taking greater notice of him. Brick growled angrily. "Do you know what I pay for a suit in my size?! Scorch the Earth, boys." He looked over his shoulder as some of his thugs moved forward with weapons.
A blur of yellow surged through the men and caused some to trip or drop their weapons. A few bird-a-rangs knocked even more weapons out of the thugs' hands. Robin swung over them, letting out a haunting cackle and landing behind some shipping containers as Aqualad sprung onto the boxes and whipped out his water bearers. The water whips he then constructed slammed the rest of the men into the walls of the containers and knocked them out.
Brick lost his patience shortly after that and pulled up a large portion of concrete before chucking it at Speedy. The archer sprinted and ducked to let the projectile miss him before firing another shot. It exploded against the criminal's skin and barely did any damage, only prompting Brick to throw another boulder-sized slab of concrete.
At that moment, Aqualad dropped into the battle and sliced the boulder in half with his water swords. A smoke bomb exploded next to Brick and caused him to start hacking. As Robin dropped beside the two teens, Aqualad started to talk.
"The cave is perfect. It has everything that the Team will need."
"For covert missions, like spy stuff!" Robin exclaimed. Kid Flash zoomed up to the group of young heroes and smirked.
"And wait until you meet Phantom, Superboy, and Miss Martian! But I saw her first."
They heard the sound of crunching and cracking rock as well as a cry of anger and moved on instinct. Speedy dashed to his right, Kid Flash dove off the boxes, Robin back-stepped an appropriate distance away, and Aqualad smashed through the rock with two maces of hard-water.
Speedy took the moment to fire another three explosive arrows at the huge and thick-skinned man. Brick merely chuckled at the weapons after they'd detonated. "Tell Green Arrow he shouldn't send boys to do a man's job." The criminal watched Speedy notch another arrow and boasted while spreading his arms to leave himself open. "Go ahead."
Speedy let the arrow fly and a thick red foam started to engulf Brick before nothing of the man could be seen. Kid Flash sped over to be in front of Speedy and to get a good view before commenting. "High density polyurethane foam, nice."
Robin and Aqualad were resting against the boxes' sides when Speedy turned around and the Boy wonder continued the previous conversation. "So Speedy, you in?"
"Pass," Speedy replied harshly before explaining. "I'm done letting Arrow and the League tell me what to do. I want to be considered their equal, not someone who needs a babysitter or a membership to a clubhouse for the kids. Your Junior Justice League is a joke, something to keep you busy and in your place. I don't want any part of it." As Speedy finished his talk, he slipped between two of the shipping containers and disappeared.
Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad exchanged surprised looks at their friend's behavior after he'd left.
"Well then," Kid Flash huffed.
"He really does seem to be more bitter than I had realized," Aqualad expressed, a troubled frown appearing on his face.
Robin hummed in thought. "Maybe he just needs some time."
Mount Justice. July 18, 2010. 11:09 EDT.
Knock. Knock.
Danny glanced up from the lounge TV at the noise. Currently the ghost boy was wearing his new clothes which were pale jeans like he used to wear, along with a white shirt and dark blue jacket. His converses were still red and white. He wasn't using his disguise ring and didn't use it while he was in the Cave. At the entrance to the room, he saw M'gann there with Superboy standing behind her. "Hey Danny, me and Superboy are heading to the mission room. Aqualad wanted us to meet up there. We're going to see if Red Tornado has a mission for us."
Danny nodded and turned off the science channel program about stars he'd been watching and stood up. "Red Tornado has a mission for us?"
"Well not yet, but the others were wanting to ask," M'gann explained.
"Oh," Danny replied and scratched his neck. He then smiled and followed after them. Perhaps if something did come up, he could try and repay the League for their kindness by doing good work for them.
The three teens made their way into the mission room and encountered Aqualad waiting for them. "Morning, friends."
"Hey Aqualad!" M'gann greeted joyfully. Superboy gave his regular nod and Danny waved awkwardly. The ghost boy still wasn't quite sure how to act around these other young heroes.
Recognized. Robin, B01. Kid Flash, B03.
Robin and Kid Flash ran into the mission room after leaving the zeta beams in their civilian clothing. They saw Aqualad, Superboy, M'gann, and Phantom standing near the large holo-computer and made their way there.
"Did you ask him?" Robin asked suddenly.
"What'd he say?" Kid Flash blurted second.
"He's coming this way, now," Aqualad answered with a smile.
"Let's go then!" Kid Flash expressed before dashing off. The rest of the Team followed suit, with Danny taking up the rear. Once they were outside, they waited as Red Tornado landed outside of the hidden drive-in.
"Red Tornado, hey!" Kid Flash called out as the android landed.
"Greetings. Is there some reason you intercept me outside the cave?" Red Tornado asked as his feet touched the ground.
"We were hoping you had a mission for us," Aqualad explained.
"Mission assignments are the Batman's responsibility," Red Tornado droned in return.
"It's been over a week and nothing's happened," Robin expressed.
"You will be tested soon enough," Red Tornado replied.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Danny asked honestly. "Doesn't that mean nothing bad is happening?"
"You mean you're not bored?" Kid Flash questioned.
Danny shrugged. "Flirting with disaster has never been the first thing on my list."
"For the time being, simply enjoy each other's company," Red Tornado interrupted, gathering everyone's attention again.
"This Team is not a social club," Aqualad reasoned with slight wariness.
"No, but I have been told that social interaction is an important Team building exercise. Perhaps you can keep yourselves busy by familiarizing yourself with the cave," Red Tornado returned and started walking inside.
Wally grumbled and punched Robin's shoulder lightly. "Keep busy."
"Does he think we're falling for this?" Robin grumbled.
"Oh! I'll find out," M'gann offered and turned to concentrate on the Leaguer's retreating figure as he was recognized by the Cave's computer. "Oh oops. I forgot. He's inorganic. I cannot read his mind."
"Nice try though," Kid Flash butted in. "Do you know what I'm thinking about right now?" The speedster asked as he leaned closer to M'gann.
"We all know what you're thinking," Robin grumbled and elbowed his friend.
"Ow."
Aqualad glanced at the ground before looking back up at his teammates. "And now we tour the clubhouse."
"Well, Superboy, Danny, and I live here. We can play tour guides," M'gann suggested and looked back at Superboy and Danny.
"Don't look at me," Superboy expressed. Danny opened his mouth to reply, but Kid Flash jumped in front of him to face M'gann. Some dust was kicked up from Kid's movement and caused Danny to cough.
"We won't. A private tour sounds much more fun."
"She never said private," Robin complained.
"I don't mind helping. M'gann did a good job of showing me around before. It's a pretty awesome place," Danny commented.
"Team building, then. We'll go together," Aqualad offered. Everyone walked off to enter the cave, talking about how the League had used it before. After Kid Flash and Robin explained why the bad guys didn't know about their HQ since they were hiding in plan sight and M'gann was soothed, Superboy mentioned that he smelled smoke.
They all made their way to the kitchen after the martian had flown off to save her sweets. Robin glanced at Danny as he walked beside them. "Do you like walking more than flying?"
The boys looked at Danny as they all entered the kitchen and Danny gained a thoughtful look. "I can technically fly in this form, but it takes more concentration. Most of the time I like walking when I'm human and flying when I'm a ghost. My desires and instincts slightly switch from half to half."
"So there's spill-over between the two forms?" Robin replied in question.
"Yeah. The League says ectoplasm is bound to my DNA as a human. When I transform though, they still haven't figured out how my human half doesn't simply die immediately. They find proteins and nucleotides in my ghost half, which isn't normal for ghosts, but none of it is really organized. I can bend my body into different shapes too and not break bones." Danny shrugged. "I don't know if they'll ever really figure me out."
"I'm sure they will figure enough out with time. The League has encountered a wide variety of beings during their existence and they have many specialized individuals," Aqualad offered which made Danny smile at him.
"Yeah. I guess I just have to be patient."
The boys looked over when M'gann placed her burnt cookies on the counter. "I was trying grammy Jones' recipe from episode seventeen of, heh never mind…"
"I bet they would've tasted great. He doesn't seem to mind," Robin responded and gestured to Kid Flash who was scarfing up all the cookies he could get his hands on.
"I have a serious metabolism?" Kid Flash explained weakly.
"Hey, at least your cookies didn't come to life," Danny remarked and got some strange looks. "Mom tended to get ectoplasm in the batter most times. Eat or be eaten was a real saying at my house."
"Pfft, you serious? I had no idea ectoplasm was that versatile," Robin spoke up.
"You'd be surprised. When you see the Ghost Zone for the first time, then you'll understand," Danny explained.
"They're bringing it here, right?" Kid Flash asked.
"That's what Batman told me. He said that the Cave was a secure enough location, but also didn't jeopardize the League's HQ."
"Do you think they'll actually let us look inside though?" Kid Flash continued.
Danny shrugged. "Don't know. If you know where to avoid, it's not that bad of a place. Most ghosts just kinda leave you alone. Then again, that might be my ghost half talking, though Sam and Tucker seemed to think it was fine."
"I'm still sorry about the cookies. I'll have to make more," M'gann expressed, bringing their attention back to Kid Flash and the few rows of blackened treats.
"It was sweet of you to make any," Aqualad expressed politely.
"Thanks, Aqualad."
"I'm off duty," Aqualad declared and looked at the teens in the room. "You can call me Kaldur'ahm. Actually, my friends call me Kaldur."
Danny perked up at hearing one of his teammates real names. It was nice to hear more friendly names, rather than feeling distanced by formalities.
"I'm Wally," Kid Flash professed. He looked at M'gann. "See, I already trust you with my secret ID, unlike Mr. Dark Glasses over there. The Batman's forbidden Boy Wonder from telling anyone his real name."
"Secret identities can be really important to some people," Danny pitched in. "I mean, mine's not really a secret any more to you guys, but if things hadn't happened the way they had, I might not have ever told you I was human."
"Why not?" M'gann asked, intrigued by the admission.
Danny wasn't really prepared to answer, but tried any way. "Well I guess it's silly, but sometimes it's hard being a hybrid. Sure, my family loves me, but they aren't like me, if that makes sense. Then most ghosts don't like or are uncomfortable around me because I'm still human."
"You seem to be truly torn between two worlds," Kaldur offered. Honestly it hit a bit close to home considering how some Atlanteans considered themselves above others and pure blood.
Danny laughed a bit. "Yeah. Sure felt that way when I died."
Wally groaned. "Okay, I didn't say anything last time, but can you stop saying that you died? It's weird."
Danny frowned slightly. "But I did."
"You're still here," Wally expressed.
Danny placed his hands on his hips. "It's called a near death experience. I died. I felt-" Danny froze and slowly shook his head. "Point is, the accident killed me and also saved me. Heck, some of the ghosts even pester me on my deathday-" He paused when he noticed Robin's eyebrows shoot up and then a sly smile came to the boy wonder's face.
"You celebrate your deathday like other ghosts?"
"Dude, no. Don't-"
"You totally do, don't you?" Robin asked with a grin.
"Is it some type of tradition?" M'gann asked and the others looked between Robin and Danny.
"It's part of ghost culture as far as we can tell. They give their friends, rivals, and even enemies a gift on their deathday. Enemies also don't attack said ghost on that day," Robin informed.
Danny sighed. "You read my ghost files with Batman, didn't you?"
"Yep."
"That's wonderful! When is your deathday and when is your birthday for that matter?" M'gann asked in excitement.
"January fifth was when Danny was born and January tenth was when he had his accident," Robin rattled off and Danny crossed his arms.
"That's just creepy, man," Danny expressed.
"You don't know the half of it." Wally added, seemingly satisfied with the near death experience remark, and swallowed the last of M'gann's cookies. "Have you ever gotten a gift from one of your worst enemies? That has to be super awkward."
Danny chuckled a bit and rubbed the back of his neck. "Some ghosts won't give me a gift because they protest that I'm still a human. Some of my enemies also really really aren't the gift giving type in general, but yeah. The best one I got was a gift from Skulker, he's the guy that wants to skin me. He gave me a plaque."
"What for?" Superboy asked, honestly curious.
Danny deadpanned. "He said and I quote, 'I carved this plaque out of man-eater's tree wood. Whenever I do take your head, you will be properly presented with great honor.' End quote."
"Ew. Dang man, that's sick," Wally declared and stuck out his tongue.
"That's Skulker," Danny replied flippantly.
"Interesting…" Kaldur trailed off.
M'gann was contemplating what Danny might like for both a birthday and deathday gift when January came back around, before she thought back to what the group could do next, seeing as the conversation had died down. Oh! I know what we could do next! M'gann suddenly expressed telepathically, transitioning from her thoughts to communicating to her friends the fastest way she knew how.
"Get out of my head!" Superboy shouted angrily, suddenly panicked to feel the intrusion into his mind. It was too uncomfortably familiar and gave him a sudden feeling of being trapped.
What's wrong? Everyone speaks through telepathy on Mars. M'gann asked through the mind link once more. Most of the Team either looked like they had a headache or were angry, though Danny only seemed mildly concerned and more so for the others than himself.
"Megan, stop!" Kaldur commanded aloud, trying to stop her. Kaldur calmed himself and started to talk again. "Things are different on Earth. Here, your power is an extreme invasion of privacy."
"Besides, Cadmus' creepy little psychic genomes left a bad taste in Superboy's brain," Wally teased, not noticing that Superboy was still trembling.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-" M'gann started.
"Just stay out!" Superboy growled and stalked off to sit in the lounge area. An awkward silence fell over the group before Robin looked at Danny.
"You have a stuffy feeling in your head?" Robin asked and picked at his ears.
"That happens sometimes. Mostly when someone tries to bar the way of a telepath," Danny explained.
M'gann looked at Danny in surprise. "I also felt you open your mind to mine and the fog of emotion there was more peaceful when I was opening the link too. How did you know to do that?"
Danny smiled, thinking about the Observants and what Clockwork had told him. "I haven't come across many telepathic ghosts, but they exist. A ghostly friend of mine told me about it. Sometimes ghosts speak in various ways when addressing ghosts or humans. Ghosts tend to use ghost speak if they're trying to be sneaky around humans and sometimes they'll use telepathy to really creep humans or mortals out."
"Oh oh! I read about that! Can you speak Ghost?" Robin asked with intrigue.
Danny flushed red a bit. "Yeah. I had just learned about it before I was kidnapped. Uh, what do you guys what me to say?"
"How about, I'm starving?" Wally offered with a grumble.
Robin snorted and pointed at a box of toaster pastries, which Wally dove for.
"R'n hgziermt." The ones in the kitchen and of course even the sulking Superboy in the lounge heard the strange sounds come out of their new friend's mouth. Though it still held some type of structure, certain syllables sounded more like odd noises rather than letters.
"I doesn't sound like any language I've ever heard," Kaldur expressed.
"It's kinda used by all ghosts. There aren't many language barriers in the Zone. Even the more beastly ghosts can communicate with Ghost Speak," Danny added.
"What should we do now?" Robin asked, after Danny had finished his explanation.
"Well… I did have an idea before," M'gann offered.
"Sure, shoot," Danny replied.
"We can go to the hanger and I can show you all my Bioship!" M'gann expressed with excitement. She flew off towards the direction of the hanger and everyone walked off after her except for Superboy. She floated back into the room and pleaded for him to come. The clone eventually caved in and followed after her.
"Here it is," M'gann announced as she floated closer to the red and black egg-shaped blob.
"Cute. Not aerodynamic, but cute," Wally spoke as everyone entered the hanger.
"It's in rest mode, silly. I'll wake it," M'gann replied and moved her hand up towards the ship. It suddenly morphed and turned into a more recognizable shape that definitely seemed like an alien aircraft of some sort. She spun it so that it faced away from the group and then opened the back. "Well, are you coming?"
Danny's mouth dropped open and he looked at M'gann excitedly. "That is so cool!" He ran ahead of the others and up the ramp into the ship as the other boys exchanged surprised looks and soon followed.
Once inside, the ship's chairs formed out of the floor and the boys all found a seat. "Strap in for launch," M'gann offered as they were provided safety harnesses. "Red Tornado, please open the bay doors."
Before long, they were soaring over the water and through the skies. After having looked over what the controls of the ship were like in comparison to the Fenton Jet or his space ship simulator, Danny had plastered himself to the window that was nearest him and grinned as the moving landscape. "You think you could teach me how to control this thing? It's awesome."
M'gann smiled brightly. "Sure, no problem!"
"Incredible," Robin expressed as he watched the land and water rush by; he looked over at M'gann shortly after speaking.
Wally sighed while eyeing M'gann. "She sure is…" M'gann glanced towards Wally at that and he chuckled a bit nervously. "I meant the ship, which like all ships is a she."
"Fast with his feet, not so much with his mouth," Robin quipped causing Danny to laugh.
"Dude!" Wally complained.
Up front, Kaldur smiled at the shenanigans before looking at the quiet Superboy. "I may not have psychic powers, but I can guess what you're thinking. You overreacted, and you don't know how to apologize." Kaldur gave a friendly smile. "Just say sorry."
M'gann looked down at Superboy with a small frown. "He'll come around," Robin spoke, seeing her distress.
"He doesn't seem to like me much," M'gann commented.
"It'll be fine," Danny offered.
"You guys remember he has super hearing, right?" Wally asked, giving a purposeful look at Superboy. Robin paused for a moment to think before he tried to change the subject.
"Hey, how 'bout showing us a little martian shape-shifting?"
"Oh wow, yeah! That would be awesome," Danny expressed.
M'gann responded by standing up and transforming into a female Robin and then Kid Flash.
"Is it wrong that I think I'm hot?" Wally asked dreamily.
"Impressive, but you know you're not exactly gonna fool anyone with those." Robin commented.
M'gann blushed a bit and laughed nervously. "Mimicking boys is a lot harder."
"That's pretty cool though. There's this one ghost I know that loves to transform into all kinds of things, but a lot of the time he gets too caught up trying to show off his transformations," Danny spoke up.
"Really?" M'gann asked in surprise and Aqualad looked over his shoulder to be apart of the conversation.
"I was wondering about your clothes, M'gann. Do they somehow change with you?" Aqualad asked curiously.
"Yes. They're organic like the ship and obey my mental commands."
"As long as they're the only ones," Superboy smarted off grimly.
There was a short awkward pause before Wally jumped back into conversation. "Can you do that ghosting through walls thing, like Manhunter?" He asked as demonstrated the movement with his hands.
"Ghosting?" Danny asked.
"Density shifting. And No. I-it's a very advanced technique." M'gann replied.
"For ghosts it's pretty easy. Even sharing the ability to move through things with another person is fairly basic for a ghost. I guess it goes to show how different the two processes are, even if they are both a form of intangibility," Danny mused.
"Does it fell weird to pass through things?" Wally asked.
"Not really, but Sam told me that it feels tingly for passengers, but that's it," Danny answered.
Robin grinned and leaned closer to M'gann. "Well, Flash can vibrate his molecules right through a wall." The boy chuckled softly before continuing and nodding in Wally's direction. "When he tries it, bloody nose."
"Oh come on!" Wally whined in distress.
"Don't sweat it man. I can't count the number of times I ran flat into a wall because I forgot to use intangibility. My powers only really help when I remember to actually use them right," Danny spoke up.
"You've seriously run into walls?" Robin asked, immediately getting mental images.
"And poles, and signs, and doors," Danny replied with an unamused expression. "If I wasn't pretty durable, then I wouldn't be surprised if I was in a coma."
M'gann smiled at the more friendly atmosphere. "Well here's something I can definitely do. Camouflage mode." On the outside, the ship slowly disappeared from normal sight as they continued to fly.
"Red Tornado to Miss Martian. An emergency alert has been triggered for the Happy Harbor Power Plant. I suggest you to investigate, covertly. Sending co-ordinates."
"Received," M'gann spoke. "Adjusting course."
"I wonder what's up," Danny asked with slight worry tinging his voice.
"Red Tornado's probably is just trying to keep us busy again," Robin complained.
"At least we can be helpful," Danny offered.
"Danny's right. Besides, a fire led you to Superboy. Let's check it out. You never know. We should find out what caused the alert." M'gann replied as she attempted to land the ship.
"I think I know what did it," Superboy spoke up and caused everyone to look over as a twister next to them.
M'gann tried desperately to stabilize the ship as it was sucked in and jostled by the cyclone of air. Everyone started to grunt or cry out in surprise at the turbulence. Danny panicked and instantly transformed. His ring picked up the change in his heart-rate and put up his ghost form mimic in response to his actual transformation. He smacked his hands down on the closest piece of the ship he could reach and focused hard. The Team watched in surprise as the ship and themselves all turned nearly see-through. The wind was passing through them.
"We're intangible, fly us out!" Danny shouted.
"But if we're a hundred percent intangible, there wouldn't be any matter for the thrusters to push against!" Robin exclaimed.
"Just trust me!" Danny shouted back.
"Right!" M'gann snapped, taking the boy's word for it and steered them to the ground. When they touched down, Wally glanced up at Danny as the boy retracted his power.
"How?" Wally asked in complete confusion. He was just as flabbergasted that they had just succeed in seemingly defying the laws of physics.
"It has something to do with my connection to the Ghost Zone. You don't have to worry of the physics of the mortal world when a ghost in intangible or invisible. They sorta borrow things from the Ghost Zone, like matter, light, and even oxygen," Danny explained hurriedly, before phasing out of the grasp of the harness. "We need to make sure everyone's okay though."
M'gann released the others from their harnesses and then allowed them to drop to the ground behind the ship. The teen heroes spotted the workers running out of the power plant in a panic.
"Robin, are tornadoes common in New England? Robin!?" Kaldur asked and then looked around when he realized Robin wasn't where he'd thought he was. The group heard the boy let out a playful cackle.
"He was just here…" M'gann mumbled.
Danny looked at Kaldur. "I'm going to double check the upper floors and make sure no one's trapped or hurt. You guys can go find Robin and I'll catch up."
"Understood," Kaldur replied and the teens watched Danny zoom off towards the building. They took no time before running in that same direction.
When the teens entered the lower section of the building, they first heard glass shatter above them and then they saw Robin get thrown against a concrete pillar.
"Who's your new friend?" Superboy asked as stuck his landing near Robin after jumping towards him.
"Didn't catch his name but he plays kinda rough!" Robin grumbled and got up.
"My apologies… You may address me as Mr. Twister," their opponent droned. He was a large red being with black armor accents. A tattered beige scarf was wrapped about his neck and his electric blue eyes pierced through the teens unflinchingly. Wally hurriedly pulled on his goggles as Superboy rushed forward.
Twister pushed out his hands and caused a torrent of wind to slam into Superboy as he attempted to approach. Eventually the winds grew strong enough to cause Superboy to loose his footing and he was flung backwards and into a wall, cracking it. The remaining Team members nodded to each other before jumping into battle. Wally was the next to attack and sped forward into a flying kick, only for Twister to grab him by the ankle and fling him through the back exit. The transfer of Wally's momentum caused him to slide all the way into the forest behind the building.
Kaldur and M'gann moved next, but were both blasted back as well.
"I was expecting to be met by a superhero and was not however expecting children." Twister bellowed.
"We're not children!" Robin snapped and threw a few explosive disks at the enemy which exploded. The villain flicked away the last one when it failed to detonate. It seemed like the bombs had had no effect.
"Objectively you are," Mr. Twister supplied. "Have you no adult super-vision? I find your presence here quite disturbing."
"I never needed adult supervision before and I don't need it for this!" Robin watched as Danny flew through the ceiling above him, before fading back into tangibility and landing a powerful kick to Twister's head. Twister stumbled back a bit before he recovered and nailed Danny with a short and quick blast of air. The ghost was shot backwards, and created a crater in the wall where he impacted.
Robin grit his teeth in anger at seeing another one of his teammates get tossed around and faced Twister. "Well, you might be disturbed now, but you might be more turbed when we kick your can!" Robin growled out, as most of his friends recovered and stood behind him.
Miss Martain focused and broke the pipe above the enemy with her telekinesis, spraying him with steam. All four then lunged at Mr. Twister while he was blinded. Superboy got there first and leapt into the air with a cry. Twister simply blasted Superboy backwards and caused him to collide with Miss Martain. Kaldur and Robin dodged the down teens in their own attempt to attack, only to both end up slammed into each other, curtsy of Twister's winds. Danny groaned and pulled himself up as he saw Twister exit the back and mutter something about their attempts being turbing. He floated over to his friends as they tried to get up.
"Do you think I should try to overshadow him?" Danny asked as the other teens got back on their feet. "I generally don't like taking away free will but…"
"Nah, we won't try to play body-snatchers until we have to," Robin replied as Danny nodded and phased through the wall. He glanced at M'gann. "You think you could try to read his mind, look for a weakness?"
"I thought it was bad for me to read minds?" M'gann questioned.
"It is fine to read the enemy's mind," Kaldur responded in kind. M'gann nodded in determination.
The four teens ran outside after that, only to see Danny bringing Wally back down onto the ground. "Thanks, man."
"No problem," Danny replied honestly.
"I would've thought all of you would know your limitations by now," Twister spoke up.
"What do you want?!" Kaldur demanded. Even the cool-headed Atlantean was starting to get irritated by Twister's taunts and half-answers.
"Isn't it obvious?" I'm waiting for a real hero!" Twister answered.
Robin glanced sideways at M'gann. "Anything?"
"I can't read his mind… He's inorganic," M'gann murmured in confusion, gathering the other's attentions. "Wait! Hello, Megan! Mr. Twister is Red Tornado in disguise! He must've placed himself into another android body. I mean how many red androids who like to control winds, do you know?"
"Really?" Danny asked in surprise. He wasn't entirely sure how Red Tornado worked, so he couldn't say whether or not M'gann was right or wrong. He heard some of the others start to corroborate M'gann's theory. Then something struck him, the memory of those panicked people echoed in his ears and made his core pulse slightly. "Would Red risk hurting those people though?" Danny spoke up.
The others looked at him in thought at his sudden observation before Twister scoffed and let out a laugh. He raised his arms towards the heavens, as the skies started to darken, and lightning crackled through and around the turbulent streams of winds Twister was generating.
"Uh, can Red Tornado do that?" Wally asked.
"To think, you thought I was Red Tornado, how ironic." Twister raised a hand. The buzzing of electricity grew louder and everyone's hair started to rise due to the static in the air. Robin stole a glance at Danny.
"Try to overshadow him!" The boy shouted over the wind.
Danny nodded and looked back at Twister, in time to see a bolt of lightning headed for the Team. Purely on reflex, Danny threw his arms upwards, creating a large shield of green energy. The teens watched as the lightning slammed against it and danced across it's front or reflected towards the sky and ground.
"Who are you boy? You seem to have some interesting tricks up your sleeves," Twister questioned as he tried to put more power into the stream of electricity that was striking the green shield.
"I'm just a Phantom," Danny replied as his Team ran to the left and right, out of the way of the lightning, and gave Danny the chance to drop his shield and turn intangible. He flew forward, into the machine. While Danny was no Technus, he didn't have much trouble with disabling and controlling electronics to a degree, if his trip inside of a video game was any indicator. The teens watched as Twister stuttered, sparked, and jerked before finally dying. The storm cleared as Twister plummeted like dead weight to the ground. Danny remained in the air and watched it crack apart on impact with the hard earth below. Something, seemingly a human, crawled only halfway out of the robot. As Danny landed softly on the ground, they witnessed the assumed human stutter like a broken record and sparks jump out from from between his neck and shoulder.
Superboy growled and punched the fake human's head, breaking it to pieces.
"Huh, a little redundant," Danny murmured, wondering why a robot would pilot another robot.
One of the human-robot's eyes rolled over towards Wally and the speedster smiled. "Oh! Souvenir." He snatched up the eyeball as the others continued to study the two machines.
"I can't believe I thought it was Red Tornado," M'gann murmured.
"An honest mistake. We also mistakenly assumed a good deal, to be fair," Kaldur replied, calming M'gann's worries to a degree.
Robin let out a breath as he looked at the destroyed bots. He was a bit upset with himself, he'd let his emotions overrule logic. The boy wonder looked over at Danny and smiled. "Nice catch by the way. I was just as ready to think Red Tornado had duped us."
Danny flushed the tiniest bit and Robin gasped. Everyone glanced over and saw Robin guffawing. "You blush green!"
"Ah man! Come on! What did you expect?" Danny whined as the green glow spread to his ears and neck.
"Well nice work Team and all that," Wally interrupted and pulled his arms behind his head in a relaxed stance.
Superboy was still glaring at the mangled machine in silence.
What the teens didn't know, was that the other eye from the human-looking robot was glowing red and recording the teens.
zzz
Inside of a dark warehouse of some sort, two men watched the teens on a monitor.
"Now, Brom, aren't you relieved I didn't let you wear the armor?"
"Extremely, professor, but you're not upset?" A brown haired man asked and faced another man who was wearing a lab coat and had dark-brown, nearly black hair and a thin mustache.
"I'm convinced our tracking program was operational and that Tornado was somewhere in the vicinity. Besides, you know science advances in fits and starts. Even failure can be instructive and I'd say we learned quite a lot today."
"Should I call Mr. Luthor?" Brom asked timidly.
"Not immediately, but soon," The professor replied and gave a confidant smile.
zzz
Back at Mount Justice, the team, and Danny back in human form, stood around a table while Red Tornado examined the remains of the defeated android.
"It seems as though this machine had the capacity to reprogram machinery," Red Tornado spoke up.
"So then it was after you?" Danny asked.
"It's possible, but we can't be certain," Red Tornado replied.
"Maybe you should lie low for a while," M'gann suggested, concern lacing her tone.
"You do not need concern yourself with my problems," Red Tornado responded.
"But if you're in danger," M'gann started.
"Consider the matter closed," Red Tornado cut her off as he turned to leave the room.
"I guess he'll be fine," Danny spoke up, breaking the silence.
"If not, then you can always fry any bot that comes around," Wally declared and Danny chuckled. The speedster looked at the other teens and grinned. "Speedy was so wrong."
"This Team thing," Robin continued.
"Might just work out," Kaldur finished.
Danny yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "I need a nap."
"No way! I'm still hyped," Wally expressed. "Wanna watch a supernatural horror movie, ghost boy?"
Danny rose a brow. "You do realize they're painfully inaccurate?"
"Yeah? Wanna test that theory? I happen to have brought a copy of Supernatural Horrors to the cave recently. It's next to the lounge's TV," Robin offered.
"Sure. It'll be nice to fall asleep to," Danny replied and gave a sly smirk. He could feel himself lowering his guard. They really were kinda like him.
"Ooh, someone's getting cocky," Wally teased.
The four boys walked off together with Kaldur taking up the rear, asking about why Supernatural Horrors was any different from any other horror movie.
M'gann turned and looked at Superboy who seemed to want to speak. He frowned in determination before locking eyes with the girl. "Sorry."
The female alien gave a bright smile and her cheeks glowed red.
"Did you guys play Trivia Recall?" Robin's voice trailed out from the lounge and M'gann and Superboy looked that direction.
"Yeah, Superboy knew all the answers. It was pretty crazy. I don't have a memory like that," Danny's voice replied.
"We should bring in Life sometime," Wally remarked.
"No dude, Clue," Robin responded.
"You're a detective, Rob," Wally grumbled.
"So?"
M'gann smiled at Superboy and giggled. "Looks like we're going to get more board games for everyone." The young martian then floated towards the room and disappeared from Superboy's sight. "Okay, can we get a list of some to get? There's so many I didn't know which ones to pick."
"Don't worry about it, I'll bring some from my house in the future," Robin replied.
Superboy's mouth twitched upwards before he made his way to join them in the other room.
Was there enough introspection?
Were the differences interesting?
Have I peaked your interest regarding said changes and how they will affect my semi-AU YJ plotline?
Just wondering. I'm predicting that some of these changes will eventually compound over time and make more sense later. I can see now why several of these DP x YJ crossovers never got too far. It's hard to make a story around something with such a concrete timeline like YJ. I hope to strike a good balance of new original content as well as revamping what was provided in the YJ and DP shows. I just want to know how it seems so far, but I think it'll be easier to know what you guys think once my buffer has run out and all eight chapters are up.
Regardless, there's my first go at an episode with Danny in it. This one doesn't have many differences, besides extra dialogue and Twister getting beaten sooner. Just thought it made more sense this way. I hope you still enjoyed it though. I'm going to try my best at balancing out episodes. Currently, I'm not positive if I'm going to leave out any episodes, I may, I may not, I'll figure it out as I go along. However, episodes will be different in some way, simply because Danny is in most and also because of other outside influences that I shall not mention yet. And of course, extra missions, between mission stuff, and such will also happen. I'm coming up with other missions, but if there's ever been any villain you wanted to see or see more of in Young Justice, don't be afraid to tell me. I may not use them, but I like to know what you guys are excited for or are yearning for.
Also...
Wonder how T.O. Morrow knows Luthor, hm... It was never fully explained in YJ, but then I have a plan for that...
Final Note:
Hey guys, if you're enjoying my YJ x DP crossover and you're new to my stuff, check out Phandom Phables. It has a butch of different oneshot crossovers with DP, including Young Justice, Batman, Teen Titans, Superman, and Pokemon (sometimes continued in subsequent oneshots). I have everything from Dan, Dani, and Danny joining the bat fam, to some Vlad and Danny hero sidekick action with joining the League and Team. So if you're interested, check that out.