Ch.21: Dominos Falling Down
Danny hummed quietly to himself while Crispin continued speaking next to him, going through the plan King gave her to give him. The leader of the Cloaks, King, would've given Danny the plan directly but Danny never used his com. When he did, he was merely telling King something, usually sarcastic, before turning it off or changing the channel.
The white-haired boy was watching the Drake Industries building with interest next to the building they were on, trying to stake out an entrance that would be easy to get into but would also be covered. There were many different entrances but they were all strategically placed where the Cloaks would be vulnerable while they were going inside. By now, he knew that Timothy Drake was a sadistic genius that loved tormenting villains with his vulnerable but invulnerable spots. Now the only question remained was which spot he would use.
Beside him, Crispin continued talking, even though she knew Danny had been ignoring her the entire time. He never listened to her when she told him King's plans and sometimes she started telling him ridiculous things, such as mutant spiders were attacking New York City, but it never got his attention. Ever.
Crispin's voice finally died when Danny's head tilted to the side. "…can you even hear me?"
Danny continued staring at the Drake Industries building. Behind his mask, his eyes were squinting at the window near the target's room. His thoughtful green eyes swirled behind the white lenses.
"…I'll take that as a no…" Crispin muttered, slipping her hands behind her mask and rubbing her face. The only reason her team hadn't been taken off the 'on-duty' list yet was probably because Danny liked working with them. He had known them all since before he had even joined the Cloaks. Sure, they were still walking the fine line between acquaintances and friends but Danny was most comfortable with them, though he had yet to open up to them and they had yet to open up with him.
Danny finally mapped the plan out before turning off his mental blocks, turning to the Crimson Cloak beside him. "So Crispy, what did the pretty princess want us to do this time?"
Crispin closed her eyes and pressed one hand to her forehead. "I already told you the entire plan. You were too busy ignoring me to listen. And I would stop bothering to tell you all these plans but King tells me to tell you, even though he knows you won't listen anyways, and I am not getting on his bad side."
"I never got on his bad side and I did all sorts of crap to him." Danny stated, quickly getting into his stereotypical Superman-pose. Behind his mask, there was a huge, million-watt smile on his face, showing off his teeth. Ironically enough, the wind started to blow calmly, sending his cloak flying out gently. If anyone could see his face, they would immediately assume he was mocking Superman. Which he was.
Crispin glared at the boy. "You are the only one he has let get away with that crap, simply because he knows you like to avenge tenfold. And any punishments he gives you will simply be ignored."
"Yeah~…" Danny drawled, dropping the stance and softening his smile behind his mask. His arms fell by his sides, shoulders sagging. Though his posture was relaxed, his head was still high on his shoulders.
Crispin sighed, turning to look at the building. With one hand drifting up to stop around her hip, she tilted her head while looking for her own entrance. She didn't find any suitable ones and turned to look up at the boy beside her. "So what's your plan this time? I don't see any entrances that usually suit your kind of plan."
"See that window?" Danny said, pointing to the specific window he had been contemplating just minutes before. "We're going to use that as an entrance once we get on the roof. After that, all we do is tiptoe over to the target's room, grab said target, and get out via front door. Then we run back to the van, and my bike, as fast as we can and get out of Metropolis before Superman has time to bash our heads in."
The blonde glared at the taller boy. "Are you kidding? He's frikkin Superman. He always has time to bash some heads! He flies at the speed of light! And I've heard that Timothy Drake's buildings are always crawling with guards and all sorts of security programs!"
"And they are." Danny stated pleasantly. "Way back before I got caught, I did a job involving one Mr. Bruce Wayne. Timothy Drake was, technically, adopted sometime after his father's death and it was finalized and blah-blah-blah. Well, everyone in the criminal underworld knows how paranoid Bruce Wayne is, though he pretends everything is fine all the time. This, supposedly, rubbed off on dear Timothy. It has been proven by all the failed attempts to steal from him."
"Wait, wasn't this heist your idea?!" Crispin questioned. "Why did you suggest this place? Are you trying to get us killed or caught?!"
Danny clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Calm down, Witch. It's nearly impossible to steal from Drake Industries but not completely. I managed to steal from Drake Industries, once, without setting any of the systems or alerting any of the guards. Said heist took me, like, five frikkin hours to do completely but I managed it. It can be done."
Crispin's expression turned completely blank. "…you want us to work at this for five hours?"
"No. We'll get it done a lot faster this time. Promise." Danny assured before turning around to the others of the Beta Team. "Alright guys, let's get moving. The plan is all set and ready."
The other five gathered around, ready to listen to whatever their leader said. The white-haired boy quickly recapped what they were going to do, going into detail only when necessary. After he was done, he began leading them onto the building next to theirs, where Danny re-found the window and hooked a grappling line to the side of the building. Carefully, Crispin went down first and managed to cut a decent sized hole in the glass before she slipped inside with the pane in her hands.
After, each of the other Cloaks slipped down after, crawling through the hole while Danny looked out for anyone that could spot them and call the cops. Once they were all inside, Danny fell down after them much faster than any of them had gone and practically jumped inside the hole, making the Crimson Cloak of the group face-palm in exaggeration. It was when Danny noticed Crispin whispering something to their leader.
"Hey." He whispered, getting her attention and causing her to stop talking to King. "Don't talk to him. We're now in the middle of a mission. You listen to me, understand? If he has a problem with the way the things are being done, you tell him to talk to me, ok?"
Crispin reluctantly took her hand from her ear, listening to King's hisses in her ear uneasily.
Danny gestured for the Cloaks to follow him out of the office space they had crawled into, dozens of cubicles surrounding him. They slunk between them, leaving the pane of glass back against their entrance. The group slipped into a different hallway, tiptoeing as quietly as they could down the hall, towards the room at the end of the hall. They kept themselves spread out, making sure they had room to scatter in case of a stray security guard.
Danny led the group down the hall, with Crispin and Rider following behind him. He tensed the closer he made it to the door, noticing how guards seemed unnaturally absent and no alarms had been set off yet. That usually meant something was either going to jump out at him or he was going to trip and set something off.
As he became no more than twenty paces away from the door, Danny froze when a red laser became visible around his foot. All the other lasers crisscrossing around the door came into visibility one at a time, right before a building-wide alarm started going off.
"Hm… I didn't even have to trip this time." Danny commented before he spun around. "We can still fulfill the mission! Split up and keep the guards busy but stick together! I'll get the target!"
Without a second thought, the nineteen-year-old rushed forward and burst through the doors. Danny quickly ran to the vault in the back of the room and began trying to break it open. Timothy Drake was a lot smarter than, say, Lex Luthor, who always kept his hidden devices on display. The vault was hard to hack and Danny had to break his dramatic flair streak and phase it out before retreating from the room.
Just as he was exiting, he stopped dead in his tracks and cursed under his breathe. "Oh crap…"
At the end of the hall, Superman and Batman glared at him, blocking his exit and way to freedom. Both were tense and had a flicker of determination and anger in their eyes. They weren't going to dare let him get out of this situation without a long, hard battle.
But Danny didn't have time for battles. The male had what he needed. He needed to grab his team and go.
"Well… Didn't know you were in town, Batsy. Frankly, I wouldn't have shown up if I had but what can I do about it now that I'm here?" Danny asked sarcastically, slipping the chip he had just taken and slipping it into his belt. He also tensed his muscles, getting himself ready to bolt, find the team, and leave completely.
"We see you came here alone this time." Superman stated, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes were on the verge of turning red and bursting Danny into flames with his heat vision.
The boy's eyes narrowed behind his white lenses. "Yeah… Decided to do a solo mission for once. Is that so bad, you guys? Though I guess it would make your jobs a little bit harder, huh?"
"But you didn't come here alone, did you?" Batman questioned. He sounded like he wasn't all that surprised. "And whoever you came with isn't here anymore. I entered the building on the ground floor. No one was anywhere in the building. Just you. So where are your little buddies, Phantom?"
Danny felt the tendrils of anger creeping up in the pit of his stomach. He felt the intense desire to kill each and every one of his teammates and then brutally kill King. There was no doubt that King would want his valuable pawns out of the field if there was any sign of danger. So far, they hadn't had this sort of problem. It was the first time they had set off any alarms in a city with a designated hero.
"Aw, did your team leave you?" Batman said, a mocking note creeping up in his usually toneless voice. "Now do you understand why you hurt us so much?"
Danny screamed out as he released a glowing, green punch into the ground. It sent a shockwave full of green energy through the ground, knocking Batman off his feet and blasting Superman in the face. Once they had both recovered, they noticed Danny was gone and cracks were starting to spread around the ground and through the floor, creating structural damage.
"I'll get the security guards out of the building." Superman stated. "You get Phantom. You probably have the best chance."
Batman nodded, knowing his knowledge of where Danny would go and what he would do was the only reason for such thoughts, and the Dark Knight began his way out of the building. He was going to have to find a way to apologize to Tim sometime, now that he thought about it…
Danny growled, looking at the empty spot beside his bike. It was where the van was supposed to be but nope. It was gone, who-knows-how-far from the original spot. He was unsure of when exactly they left but it didn't take long for the two heroes to get there, of course. Superman could fly freakishly fast and all Batman had to do was hold his hand!
The white-haired teen straddled the bike while letting his mask dangle around his neck, shoving his helmet over his head. Quickly turning the ignition, a loud ROAR emitted from the bike's engine. He shot off into the night like a bullet, nothing more than a streak. As he was turning a corner to get to the highway, his anger was halted for a moment by panic as he turned the brake quickly, stopping in front of a bunch of police cruisers.
And his mask was around his neck and his cloak was draped over his shoulder…
Danny and the cruisers stayed in a standstill for a couple of seconds. One of the drivers was glaring at him heatedly.
The white-haired boy hit the throttle and his bike spun around on one wheel, quickly taking off in the opposite direction. Danny yelled a command into his helmet, getting a map to flash in front of his eyes. A course outlined in blue told him where to go, leading him down the most unused path the city had to offer. From what he could tell, it had a lot windy paths and sharp turns, which is why so few used it. Its wreck toll was pretty high as well.
Danny yelled a curse when Batman's glowing Bat-Cycle swerved around a corner ahead of him, making him turn onto a different side-street to escape him and the cops. He turned the speed up, accelerating as he tried to outrun the cops and the pursing Batman. Danny was finally starting to get farther from the cops but the Dark Knight was quickly catching up, having a bike that was modified to catch up with crooks that had their own modified vehicles, like Danny did.
Though he was still very angry his team had disregarded his orders and listened to the idiot on the other side of the country, he was sort-of glad they had at the same time. They never would've been able to get away in the black van.
Danny found himself slamming on the brakes again, screeching to a slow stop as he saw the cops coming at him from ahead. There was no time to turn onto a different street and he couldn't turn around with so many other cops behind him.
He was trapped.
Small flashes of the American troops taking him down after the maze incident with Sam, Tucker, and Batman flashed through his mind, as well as visions from his quick trial, stay in prison, and failed escape. The panic he had felt before started creeping through his bones and seeping through his muscles, driving him to do something drastic to escape.
Behind the visor on his helmet, ebony slammed over his green eyes. His nightmare powers invaded the entire police forces' and Batman's minds, making them watch as the ground split open as black tendrils of fire spilled out. The officers screamed, swiveling around to avoid the black flames and crashing into each other as hellish creatures snarled and jumped at them. Batman's hands jerked to the side and his bike rolled. He spilled off the side of the back and landed on the pavement, tearing up his suit.
On his bike, Danny was feeling sick. He'd never invaded so many different minds at one time, creating such a complicated and intricate design of the stuff of nightmares. His energy was draining fast and he finally had to cut his powers off before he really did get sick. Letting his panic fuel his need to get away, the white-haired boy turned again with the screeching of tires and flew through an opening between two piles of police cruisers.
Batman was the first to recover, as he had been on the receiving end of Danny's Black Vision before. With an inaudible groan falling from his lips, the Dark Knight pushed himself off the ground. He looked in the direction Danny's bike was taking off, panting. Wiping the sweat off his face, he got up on his feet and pulled his bike off the ground. He threw his leg over the seat and took off after, thunder rolling above him.
Danny kept his speed off as he turned off one of the main drags leading out of the city, cruising onto a short cut that most people would never use, simply because the road had many hairpin curves and other sharp turns that made it hard to keep on the road. It was much easier for smaller cars and motorcycles to navigate on but, if you weren't careful, you could easily drive right off the side of the road.
Danny's panic was still flowing through his veins. He remembered everything about the terrain of the specific road but, somehow, his mind had completely forgotten it was dangerous to go the speeds he was going on a narrow and twisty road. He was too busy thinking the cops were going to catch him, though he had made them all crash back in Metropolis.
Of course, it had also started raining as he had exited the large city. It drenched him to the bone as it pelted him and his bike, making the asphalt under him slippery. His speeds, though they had decreased considerably as he exited the city, were still a little too high for a slippery, windy road.
The white-haired teen yelped as he barely made the first hairpin curve he came across. His bike had tipped to the side, almost throwing him off before he was able to regain control completely. His speed decelerated again but it was not dropping into a safe-zone quite yet.
Danny had just sharply turned another corner when it started hailing. He cringed every time one of the balls of ice landed on his helmet, back, or arms. They stung his skin, though there was protective Kevlar covering his body. His head rattled every time a chunk of ice hit his helmet, reverberating through his skull.
Fortunately, the hail didn't last for more than a few minutes. It covered the road in ice, making the bike bounce and swerve some. The rain calmed some too, turning into a mild shower. With this, Danny's speed accelerated some, even though his sight was still being hindered by the downpour.
A scream fell from Danny's mouth as he ran over a piece of intact hail. His wheels swiveled in all directions. Another curve approached him ahead. Panic flew through Danny's arms, down to his hands to avoid the turn. His bike jerked to the side.
CRASH.
Batman sped along the icy road, slowing down considerably with each turn he came across. Since no panic was fresh in his mind, nothing was going to make him go faster than he absolutely had to. He was also unsure if Danny had even gone down this road. It was just a guess, since Danny would want to be by himself and, with some panic still at the front of his mind, he would undoubtedly do something reckless.
Hopefully nothing too reckless… The road he was currently riding along was more than capable of killing someone, even a half-ghost youth. One wrong turn and you could drive off the side of a cliff.
Three and a half miles down the road, Batman turned a corner and almost accidently slammed on his brakes. A couple hundred of meters in front of him, there was a bike half-hanging off a cliff with a black-clad body lying in the middle of the road, sprawled out on his side.
The Dark Knight stopped his bike close to the wreckage. Taking off his helmet, Batman called over the pouring rain "Danny! … Danny, are you ok?!"
Unexpectedly, one hand rose off the concrete briefly before falling back onto the pavement. Danny stayed well in his spot though. The only other sign his rather still body, which was a bad sign in itself because Danny didn't stay still, was the careful rise and fall of his chest.
Batman wasted no time in practically falling off his bike and running up and falling down beside the male, slipping the cracked and broken helmet aside as he carefully took him up. Holding his cape above their heads, the Dark Knight blocked the rain falling down on them, enabling him to better see Danny's drenched black hair and drooping black eyes. The wounds scattered across his body started bleeding, no water to wash the vital, red liquid away. The split in his chin started dripping all over his black tee.
"What were you doing?!" The Dark Knight yelled at him, a stern expression on his face.
Danny smiled at him, showing off his bloodstained teeth, courtesy of his busted lip. "Well~ Batsy, I got bored driving like a maniac and went a little nuts so I crashed my vehicle. Is twas a swell idea, was it not?"
Batman glared at the younger. "Keep using the sarcasm and I will slap you, regardless if you have a concussion or not."
The red-banged boy laughed. His eyes drooped closed and his head fell onto Batman's chest, tired.
"Any broken bones?" Batman asked.
Danny shrugged. "My wrist might be but I can't tell. I ain't no medical expert so that's totally your call."
"It's 'I'm not a medical expert', you little idiot-stick." Batman stated, noticing that Danny's wrist was being cradled by his good hand around his middle. The injured wrist in question was sticking at an odd angle with the bones underneath bulging in an odd place.
"Are you seriously correcting my grammar right now?" Danny questioned, eyes cracking open a smidge to look at the Dark Knight with an 'are-you-kidding-me?' look.
Batman didn't return any look to the boy while inspecting the rest of him, noticing the various gashes along his arms, sides, and legs. "Well no one else seems to want to teach you."
"If I could, I would face-palm so hard right now."
Batman ignored the simple statement, knowing Danny would rather not cause himself a lot of pain by using his injured wrist. "Did you pass out at any time?"
"Yup. Head hit the ground first. Helmet didn't give me any help there. Woke up a little bit of time later and then, wallah, you are here, saving my butt, yet again!" Danny explained, using his uninjured hand to reach up and pat the Dark Knight's head. "That was a good Batsy."
"…seriously, I will slap you."
Danny laughed to himself while Batman better situated Danny in his arms, ready to pick him up off the ground. With one hand, he pressed him com and requested to be transported to the Watchtower, along with a passenger. Danny commented below him "OOO~, they're going to be so thrilled to see me, right Batsy?"
"I'll take care of that." Batman assured, slipping his hand under the bend in Danny's legs. The rain began soaking them
Danny smiled through the small sting of pain he felt when he was moved. "Yeah, you're going to have to because I'm going to sleep now. Night Batsy."
Batman yelled for Danny to stay awake but the nineteen-year-old was out like a light within seconds. The Dark Knight cursed before they were enveloped by a blinding light. Once they were safely inside the Watchtower, Batman stood up off the ground with Danny unconscious in his arms.
The Leaguers present in the Watchtower stared at the sleeping male with shock. He had practically been uncatchable this entire time, just as he had promised. Now he was in the Watchtower and wounded nonetheless.
"He's got a broken wrist and countless gashes. Let's set the wrist and wrap the gashes before he wakes up. I don't want to want to use anesthetic on his idiotic brain." Batman ordered, watching as everyone finally snapped back to reality.
Robin tilted his head at the older, sleeping boy, tapping his foot against the ground impatiently. His arms were crossed over his chest stubbornly with a scowl set permanently on his face. His feet hurt from standing in combat boots for who-knows-how-long and his agitation was starting to fly through the roof. He couldn't figure out, for the life of him, why Danny wasn't waking up. He wasn't that lazy.
Batman walked through the doors of the medical bay, eyes easily falling to where Danny was sleeping and Robin was staring the male down with agitated eyes. Now happily dressed in a dry suit, the Dark Knight easily stepped over to where the younger vigilante was, smirking down at him. "Are you excited for him to wake up?"
"No." Robin answered, stressing the one word immeasurably. "I'm waiting for the idiot to wake up so I may question why he thought it was a good idea to drive on a narrow road while it hailed. Even people with the least common sense know that hail is inappropriate driving weather."
"Because Danny is known for his common sense…" Batman drawled, clamping the newest Robin on the shoulder. The ten-year-old rolled his eyes behind his domino mask.
Both turned to the door as the rest of the founders of the Justice League entered, standing around the room in various places. All six of them were quiet and had stern expressions gracing their faces. Some stood a good distance from the unconscious boy's bed while others were right next to it.
Batman watched them all with a dry expression, noticing how no one was saying anything. Robin smirked beside him, amused for once. The Dark Knight nudged the younger into the chair behind him, his intent to keep his son completely out of the conversation, lest the boy decided to jump in or one of the Leaguers decided to drag him in.
"Alright, spit it out." Batman stated, copying Robin's earlier form with his arms over his chest and head tilted to the side. Whatever was about to be thrown at him, he was expecting every word of it.
"He needs to be taken to Blackgate." Wonder Woman said bluntly, fixing her firm gaze on his. The others had exact replicas on their faces, agreeing wholeheartedly with the Amazon in the room.
Batman suppressed rolling his eyes at the statement. "He's not going to Blackgate or Arkham or Belle Reve or any of those places, as of right now."
"His vitals are stable. They never even dropped to dangerous levels. It's not like we can't transport him when he's like this." Flash pointed out, not seeing why they couldn't just roll him out of the room and beam him down to one of the prisons. Their problems would be instantly solved.
Green Lantern John Stewart glared at his red-clad friend. "You know that's not the reason. He thinks he can get Danny to try another reform, regardless of what happened last time we tried that."
"Well it wouldn't be hard to get him to agree." Batman stated ominously, gesturing to the sleeping boy.
"But how long would it be until we have a repeat of this incident?" Hawkgirl questioned, thinking of all the times the cycle could repeat. "Don't you remember the transmission he sent that had you ticked off?"
Batman opened his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Superman agreeing. The others quickly followed his example, nodding and agreeing. They took turns stating reasons why the Dark Knight was "too emotionally attached" and why the red-banged boy needed to go Guantanamo Bay, never to see the sunlight again.
The Dark Knight listened to them, a set glare on his face as he watched the other six. Behind him, Robin was watching them with interest, following along like it was nothing more than a tennis match. An amused smirk was starting to grace his face but it was still small, trying to be hidden from the adults.
A few times during the long, drawn out rant, Batman tried to get a say in but someone always cut him off. Every small break there was, he tried to jump into the conversation (aka argument) but someone always managed to push him right back out. Finally, the Dark Knight snapped "Shut up for just one minute, will ya?!"
The other six Leaguers fell quiet instantly, noticing they had managed to make Batman angry enough that he had to rub his face in exasperation.
"Don't you get it?! He's my double agent!"
How did no one say anything about him being a double agent?! I thought for sure everyone would guess that but no one did! This frikkin surprises the crap out of me! Like, ya'll don't even know how surprised!
Reviews:
Eirena Gaia: No, this goes up to twenty-five chapters and is actually longer in word-form than Dark-Net. :D Glad to hear you're enjoying so much~!
Anime Hotty Lover. 18: Haha, cool! Glad you enjoyed~!
Poohbearmorris: Yeah~! No more finals~! :D I'm a lot farther ahead than you all are... I said I had fun writing it. I don't know how you guys will take it. :D
SomeItalian: That's nice and all but if you're seriously tracking me down, quit it. I don't appreciate being tracked. I'm only allowed to Skype the one person.
KuriMaster13: It was an act, alright. ...still surprised no one said anything about being a double agent.
SweetyKinz: I KNOW, RIGHT? Poor Tucker, Sam, Damian and Jazzy... We don't feel bad for you, Vlad. Sorry (no we're not)! Banks... *snickers* I'm glad you're enjoying! *hugs happily*
Pegasus Sword Master: Yup! Just a couple more chapters and we are finished! :D
16ckelman: Yes, Danny is a little bummer that way. XD
Karen: Interesting way to think about that... :D
BringbackDannyPhantom: Calm yourself! It shall be soon~! With the trio, it's all for one or none at all... Yeah, that was pretty smart of her.
Guest of Honor: You'll find out when we come to that, ok?
Ninuhuju: Yeah, that's what everyone wants to know. XD
Popcornbubbles77: Danke. And yeah, they are kinda depressed it seems. ...I can't remember if they are explosions but I know there are bike wrecks.
Phantom Heir Daughter of Zeus: I always have something else in mind. XD However, one of them might not come out till the end of July for future-ly explained reasons.