Chapter 29:
As Batman approached one of the crosses, he instantly recognized the bleached face. Even Joker was caught in this insanity; he flinched touching the cold metal shackling the Gotham criminal down. It was flowing with some sort of electricity… he suspected ecto-electricity. He had advised Clark against touching them, it wasn't a risk they could take.
The possibility that the shock could disable their specter deflectors and virtually leave them vulnerable and fresh for the taking was not an option.
Slowly, they parted into teams, spreading and searching for any sign of the demonic ghost. Hawkgirl and Green Lantern had taken to the skies, surveying the whole area with other aerodynamically heroes. Everyone was tense at seeing the sight, but were calm enough to listen to heed the Dark Knight's warning.
When they reached the center, a bright red light burst from the ground blinding them.
"Ah. My guests have finally arrived, I see you've come prepared with Danny-boy's trinkets." The specter, Phantom, the being ho almost destroyed the world, finally had revealed himself to the world's greatest heroes.
"What have you done to Danny?" Batman's voice was hard and cold.
Unperturbed the ghost turned to the Gotham hero, floating to the ground and facing him.
"The famous Batman, you have been terribly helpful in keeping my younger self occupied while I was temporarily confined…" the ghost simply chuckled as he saw the man's fist tightened. "You have no idea how powerful he is do you?"
"What do you mean?" This time it was Superman who had spoken.
"What I mean, Man of Steel, that Danny-boy's ghost half isn't only thing that making him such a unique specimen… He is a source of pure energy, God-sent, if I'd say so myself…"
Bruce knew a psycho was making hints, but at what, he was afraid to guess. 'God-sent'? 'Pure'? those descriptions were too close to for comfort. It didn't help that the tone the
spectre had was disturbing similar to the deceased Wisconsin billionaire.
It seemed that the ghost could tell how Batman was piecing the clues together.
"Yes, detective, you see, I'm not after Danny' ghost half…" a beep was heard and slowly a pillar began to emerge from the ground behind the ghost. His eyes glowed insanely red. "I'm after both…"
A gasp erupted at the sight. A very frail looking Danny was hanging limply. His eyes were deserted of any life, his once bright baby blue eyes turned dull. His arms and legs were trapped in metal bands strapped across his chest and body. What's more shocking were the pure white wings sticking out from behind the teen's back.
"No…"
"Oh yes, Danny isn't just half ghost… he's half angel…" the sound of metal snapping caught the league's attention. "But you'll have fight your way to get him from me."
At that moment, Phantom suddenly releases a massive ghostly wail. Immediately, all the ecto-shields from the specter deflectors flared alive against the spectral energy surrounding everyone in the vicinity.
"You fools! You think you're low-tech Fenton trinkets can stop my wails?" It was a duplicate who was freely letting out the sream of terror as the original appeared before them, smirking victoriously. "If anti-ghost technology ten years from now couldn't stop me, how do you think yours will fare under my wrath?"
Soon cracks started to form around the green shields, Bryce grimaced at the sight, he knew the ghost was right, the shield wouldn't hold on for much longer. He could almost hear the deafening sounds of that wail, ready to make their ears bleed in agony. Suddenly, he heard a beeping sound from the belt. A blue light glowing the at the core of it, he never saw that it the original schematics...
As soon as the shields disintegrated, the heroes braced themselves for the lethal impact. However, they found themselves in complete shock as blue rings shot out from the center of the belts bgan neutralising the ecto-energy, peeling away the waves of the ghostly wail layer by layer. Soon, even the duplicate was hit by the blue beams of energy, knocking the copy right back into Phantom.
"What?" Even, Phantom looked perplexed at the sudden turn of events. "Nothing has ever cancelled out my ghostly wail, not even the future technology ten years from now... interesting."
Batman agreed, he had no idea of what just happened either, he had the originals reproduced and nothing like this was ever mentioned... wait, didn't Danny want to personally test each of these belts? Did he do this?
"Amazing ingenuity I must say, nobody was ever thought of putting the specter deflector and Fenton Peeler together in my timeline, I must say I'm impressed Batman..."
Superman and the rest looked just as confused but assumed the same as the ghost. But Batman knew it wasn't him, it was his son, his Danny, who did all this as fore thought. The Phantom frowned as he saw the smirk forming on the Dark Knight's face.
"Well, it doesn't matter at the moment, since I' not the one fighting to the death, with all of you... well since I am already dead..."
