Ch.7: Ghosties
After hanging up on some Pentagon worker (or was that the guy from the Health Department? …shit), Danny irritably munched on a bowl of Lucky Charms, cursing the idiot between bites. He didn't understand how someone that worked for the government could be so bloody clueless. But then, it seemed everyone these days was oblivious. Oh sure, there were definitely people who weren't, but those people usually ended up getting in Danny's way. There was no medium, and that was probably the most frustrating thing in the world. Just the thought of such a thing had Danny bristling, chewing harder on his cereal than was needed.
Unfortunately, the bowl of cereal was gone soon enough. Danny sighed at his loss, downed the remaining milk, and set the bowl off to the side to deal with later. Looking back towards his beloved holograms, Danny set to work again, shoulders slumping in boredom and tiredness. There was nothing interesting going on over the net, no over-the-top schemes being planned, but Danny didn't have the mind to take the chance to sleep off the past couple of days. Instead, he continued to look and scan through all of his members' records, searching for something that wasn't going to come to him anytime soon.
The teen wished all the devious schemers and dreamers would hurry up and bombard his program with crazy plans and too-illegal-even-for-the-most-hardened-criminal merchandise already. Large waves of criminals did that anytime the Dark-Net became even the slightest bit quiet. Danny was going to regret desiring such a thing later, but the boy never worried about the future, always wishing for his present to be filled with as much wonder and magic as it could.
The present only remained unfortunate, however. It didn't matter how deep and dark the teen looked; there was nothing exciting to be found. Danny leaned back in his chair, kicking his feet up as he sighed again. Not even his angry music was making him feel particularly happy today. The teen was simply neutral, and that had the boy lost. What was he to do with himself when there was nothing to destroy and plunder?
(Being a normal teenager and doing something low-key like watching Netflix did not occur to Danny, the dumbass.)
More time passed; more of nothing continued to flash across the screens. Grasping at straws, Danny turned to the right, where his least favorite hologram was blinking with incoming information that should have been interesting but wasn't. With a couple clicks on his keyboard, the teen turned the chat-room monitoring system into a world map, green splashes dotted in meticulous spots. The sight had Danny sighing again.
The world was the teen's ectoplasmic monitor. As its name implied, it monitored the world's ectoplasm levels. There weren't too many places where heavy ecto-activity ran free, but as any knowledgeable person would've noticed, the green signaling large amounts of activity were historical sites many people talked of having lots of supernatural happenings, places like the Bermuda Triangle and New Orleans. What Danny had learned in the Ghost Zone was that said places had strong pulls to the other dimension, occasionally opening unstable portals no one liked to venture inside of. There had been too many accounts of both humans and ghosts disappearing through portals and never being heard from again. There were even reports of other ghosts and humans coming through said portals, claiming to be from different time eras. Thus, it was a universal rule that no one should enter natural portals.
Of course, if you wanted to disappear forever, then go right ahead. No one was stopping you.
It was strange, though. Considering the phenomena, Danny would've thought someone would have conducted some sort of scientific investigation on natural portals. But nope, everyone Danny had ever talked to had been just as clueless as he, and those who seemed as if they might've had some idea wouldn't share their thoughts. Danny himself would've looked into it, but doing such a thing required knowledge and experience and a drive to help humanity even a little bit… As most people knew, he had none of those things!
Besides, it didn't sound like much fun anyway. But you know what did sound fun? Plundering and destroying! Hell yeah!
Unfortunately (oh, why was everything so unfortunate at the moment?), there was nothing to plunder and destroy within Danny's reach for the moment, leaving him to groan and slam his head against the desk as the world map continued to laugh at him. (It really wasn't laughing, Danny knew- after all, maps didn't laugh; only crazy people said crazy things like that –but it sure felt like it was laughing at him!)
For a while, all Danny could do to distract himself was spin his chair around and around and around, forever and ever and ever. It was boring, but it was so much less heartbreaking than watching his beloved deep-web program do nothing at all. However, a few hours after eating his Lucky Charms and checking his world map for ectoplasm spikes, things began to pick up pace. Felons of all kinds suddenly rushed to buy things from the black market, market people's services (both willing and unwilling participants alike), and set themselves up as supposedly adequate henchmen for future gangs and super villains. It was all so extraordinary! Danny had never felt so alive, shooting people down and scaring the criminal underworld pants-less! Ha-ha, there was no stopping the great and mighty Phantom! Ha-ha-ha-ha!
Shit, Danny was laughing manically again from excitement. How was that supposed to help his intimidating mythos? It couldn't. Gosh, that was so not cool…
As the teen got back into the drift of things, adrenaline and excitement keeping his attention completely locked on his laptop, Danny missed the green dots shifting on his world map. The normal spots were starting to grow the slightest bit larger, and new green dots were beginning to form in areas they had not previously been. It wasn't a drastic change, but the small shifts should've been enough to set off warning bells.
Danny finally noticed the new and growing dots some hours later, but even though it should've been, the teen didn't find it all that concerning. He reasoned with himself that it was just a random spike; it happened occasionally. Really, it did. Just because ectoplasm was starting to manifest stronger than before didn't mean he should freak out. The levels would stabilize in a couple hours by itself. No sweat.
As morning sunlight began filtering through the windows, Danny duct-taped his shades shut and noticed that the ectoplasmic radar wasn't recognizing anymore obvious spikes in activity. However, the earlier spike had yet to drop back to its previous levels. Instead of looking into it, though, Danny continued to blow it off, chalk it up to nothing. The world could fix itself, after all. There was no reason for him to step in. Maybe the universe was just having a bad day. Everyone had those.
Towards the middle of the day, Danny called Tucker to warn him about a more-suspicious-than-usual character taking an interest in his services. However, it turned into a conversation about Danny's brief brawl with Sam some nights before. Danny explained as much of it as he felt like, never really going into full detail, and Tucker never caught onto the half-truths. The two didn't stay on the subject for long, though, and decided to play one of their favorite video-games for awhile before they decided to get back to work. They hung up, feeling content.
By nightfall, though, it was obvious that the world wasn't in the mood to take care of itself. Over the course of the day, the green dots had continued to appear, had continued to stretch its reach across the map. Ectoplasmic energy was spawning and spawning and wasn't slowing down any at all. Danny watched it, too stunned to do anything as he sat bewildered in his chair. The boy tried to think up something helpful, but he just kept drawing blanks instead.
This was bad. This was undoubtedly going to draw attention from ghosts, and ghosts didn't need to be in the human realm for any reason. They needed to stay tucked away in the Ghost Zone, and humans needed to stay safely tucked in their dimension. Mixing the living and dead never ended well. As one of Danny's beloved mentors had told him, ghosts had superiority complexes but humans didn't take too kindly to being pushed around. Not a good equation, huh? (Said equation usually left Danny wondering how his half-ghost status was even possible, but eh, now was not really the time to ponder his existence. Maybe later, though.)
Eventually, the glaring fact that something needed to be done hit Danny like a sack of bricks dropped from the Empire State Building. The boy leapt into action, looking through the things on his desk before finding some keys. He snatched them up and immediately left his apartment, not even bothering to lock his precious home behind him in his haste to get to the elevator. As he pressed the down arrow and waited for the doors to open, Danny called Batman, his foot bobbing in anticipation. The elevator doors opened within a few seconds, and the teen quickly hopped inside, sticking the key into a slot and pressing the basement button. The doors closed, and Danny began to descend. The ringing in his ear stopped, and Batman's breathless voice asked, "Yes?"
"Hey Bats, we've got a growing paranormal problem on our hands." Danny answered, again tapping his foot impatiently against the ground. The teen looked to the roof, searching for something to occupy himself, and continued, "I should've called it in earlier, but normally, these things fix themselves. This time, the universe decided to say 'screw you' to the rest of us."
It sounded as if the Dark Knight snorted, but Danny couldn't say for sure if he had heard correctly or not. "I've noticed. I've been trying to stop some ghosts all day, but I haven't exactly been getting anywhere with that, as you have probably guessed. Now would be a good time to suggest some ideas to get rid of them, if you don't mind."
"Getting rid of them is the least of your problems. I already have that taken care of. However, keeping them gone is going to be the biggest issue. I can take care of it, but it's going to take awhile." Danny replied, rubbing his sore eyes. He hadn't even done anything yet, and he was already tired. The boy mumbled, "I should've gone to bed instead of playing Doomed with Sam yesterday…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing of importance. Ok, look, you're not going to like this, but I need you to come over to my place as quick as you can. Staying in Gotham isn't going to get you anywhere, and for right now, I'm looking out for your best interest. I have weapons and other tools you and the rest of the JL can use since there's nothing any of you can do that will affect ghosts. I'll need a way to dispense them, though. You have any ideas on that?" Danny asked, strolling out of the elevator doors as they opened. The teen paused just outside them, feeling along the wall for the light-switch. At the moment, all that was in front of him was darkness.
"I have a couple." Batman replied. "Can you be ready to transport everything in a few minutes?"
Danny narrowed his eyes at the question, his hand pausing along the concrete wall. Slowly, he responded, "Yeah-h-h… That's doable. But you're hours away; how are you supposed to get here in a few minutes? Please tell me you're not sending someone to pick me up…"
"I'm not, but don't worry about it right now. Just gather up the materials that we're going to need. We need to get the situation under control quickly." Batman said seriously.
The black-haired boy nodded, even if it was a useless action. His fingers finally found the light-switch and flipped it on. The florescent light-bulbs began flickering to life, lighting up the dark space. "Yeah, ok. When you get over here, I'm in the complex's basement. I guess I'll see you in a few minutes?"
Batman grunted and hung up. Danny began walking down the line of cages used for storage, the chain link fences cold and still and the locks rusty. Objects of various assortment resided inside each space, trapped and desolate. Danny paid most of the cages no mind, jingling his keys in his hands and breaking the silence like a thunderclap on a clear night. Near the back, he stopped in front of one of cages, but there should've been no reason for him to do so. The space was empty, not an object in sight. Still, Danny inserted his key, turned the lock, and opened the door.
Inside the space was a-whole-nother story compared to what the outside said. The cage was cramped with a single table pushed into the back. On top, there was a single, dusty laptop resting on one side. On the other, the table was cluttered with unfinished products that most wouldn't know what to do with. Underneath the table, there were three cardboard boxes all filled close to the brim with completed, working equipment. Two of the boxes were filled with two different models of guns, and the other was filled with strange bracelets.
It took two steps to close the distance between the door and the table. Danny picked up an unfinished bracelet lying on top of the table, fixed some of its wiring with ease, and then firmly fixed a small plate over the exposed compartment. Danny tossed it into the box filled with identical pieces of machinery before beginning to drag them out and stacking them up gently. Turning to the table, he rustled through some of his notes before finding a box under them. He threw that in a box with everything else before proceeding to throw a pair of gloves in after the other object.
With everything he deemed important in line, Danny called the white rings to his waist, hating himself for having to access his alter-ego for a third time in such a short amount of time. He hadn't used Graveyard in years, but then, he had never had a reason to. Everything he needed to take care of could be done from behind the safety of his computers and his disguise generator. Why did Batman have to go and take that from him?
(Better question: why did Danny keep letting him? Was he really becoming so attached he would rather overlook such aggravations to avoid the man's disappointment?)
The transformation came to an end soon, and Graveyard left the cage, walking some feet to the cement-block wall just down the rest of the hall. He wasted no time, feeling along the walls until his fingers met one block that seemed to be out of line with the others. It stuck out some, but not so much that it was visibly noticeable. Graveyard grasped the edges as much as he could and began sliding the block out. It took a few minutes and careful fingers, but the boy eventually managed to get it out. Despite the heavy weight that threatened to rip the block from Graveyard's arms, he still managed to place it gently on the ground, preventing it from shattering into separate pieces that would never fit back into the exact shape again.
Graveyard took a deep breath just after he set the block down. He had held his breath the entire time he had held it, terrified that he would mess up. However, the worst part was over, and the teen boy looked inside the hole he had made for the prize he had hidden inside on the first day he had moved into his apartment upstairs.
If it had been anyone else, they would have been shocked and confused by what they saw. Someone had removed an entire cinderblock to hide a black needle, a spool of green thread, and a green-edged razor? Why would anyone go through the trouble to hide such trivial things? Graveyard, however, saw the tools for what they were and removed the spool pin and razor first. He unwound some of the green thread, revealing it to be sticky in his hands. When he had unrolled the length desired, Graveyard quickly cut it when the razor. He used the thin but sturdy thread to tie the spool to his belt and slipped the razor into his pocket. Graveyard then extracted the needle, threaded it, and left it dangling from his belt.
Suited up and ready for the coming hours of work, Graveyard slipped the cement block back into its spot and turned around, just as the elevator on the other side of the room let out an unusually loud ding. The doors slowly slid open, revealing the Dark Knight in his glory as he stepped out, heading over to where he could see Graveyard waiting for him. The white-haired teen waved him into his storage space, and Batman followed behind him briskly. As soon as he saw what was being hidden inside the walls, he irritably asked, "What else don't I know about?"
It was hardly the time, but Graveyard shot a nasty grin at his supervisor. It didn't help his already tarnished image any, and he made it worse by cackling lowly and saying, "You don't want me answering that question. Trust me."
Batman sighed before picking up two of the stacked boxes. Graveyard picked up the last one. The Dark Knight gestured for the teen to be still, and the boy opened his mouth to ask why. Fortunately, his question was answered before it could even be uttered, the two becoming overcome with white light. It lasted only a few seconds before it washed away, revealing the two to be in a whole new environment. It was obvious just by looking around that it was some sort of base, and Graveyard came to the conclusion it was the Justice League's, as there were a few heroes actively buzzing around. Martian Manhunter stood in front of a control panel near the pad the teen and his supervisor stood on, and Graveyard assumed it controlled the teleporting device that had gotten them to their current location.
The white-haired boy snickered excitedly as he looked around, hardly minding the slight nausea in his gut from the ride. He commented, "This is so cool."
The Dark Knight gestured for Danny to follow him, and they journeyed quickly to what appeared to be the main hall of the base. Whatever heroes were around looked their way, but no one made a move to ask Batman who the new kid was. The two passed, coming up to a large computer multiple people could probably use at the same time. They dropped the boxes on the ground. Graveyard guarded them as Batman called all heroes for an emergency meeting. Many protested, out in the field and trying to neutralize the ghosts taking the world by storm, but the Dark Knight snapped at them to get back to the Watchtower.
Within minutes, the entirety of the Justice League crowded the main hall, standing amongst each other in a one giant mass. People were still coming through the teleporter, but Batman must have believed that they didn't have the time, for as soon as the majority of the League was in the room, he said, "As everyone knows, new super-powered beings have recently begun taking the world by storm. I'm sure it's been noticed that stopping them by normal means is relatively impossible. With that in mind, I've called in an associate to help us fix what's been broken. Graveyard?"
The teen took center stage without any hesitation. His voice held its normal condescending tone, but it was strong, keeping everyone in silence. "Ok, so long story short, what we're dealing with is a ghost invasion. It's kind of like an alien invasion but with ghosts. See how that works? Oh, also, don't go spouting some bullshit about how ghosts aren't real because that'd be insulting my existence. I'm half-ghost." Graveyard opened up before suddenly looking to where Batman was standing off to the side, looking quite pissed. The young teen smirked at him. "Oh right, that's one of the things I 'forgot' to mention. It's amazing the small details that will slip my mind… Can you spank me later, though? Now's kind of not the time."
Batman was eerily silent as Graveyard turned back to the crowd. The tension in the air could have been cut a pair of safety scissors. Someone awkwardly coughed in the very back of the crowd, and unsurprisingly, the only one who wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed was Graveyard. He merely mumbled, "Someone woke up with their period today," before bringing his attention back to focus. "Ghosts are mostly composed of ectoplasm. I would explain why you can't fight beings made from ectoplasm but I'm not, mostly because, frankly, I don't understand the majority of it myself. What I've been told is that it works on another level or plane of existence, or something along those lines. The only thing that can combat ectoplasm besides ectoplasm itself is magic, so if you're a magic-wielder of some sort, get out of here. You're immune. You don't need to be here."
There were a few people who disconnected from the large group and rushed away, heading for the teleporter. Graveyard absently waved after them as he addressed the majority of the League that was left behind. "Fortunately for all of you, I'm a fucking genius. I brought equipment that's gonna help all of you send some ghosties back home. With that said, I promise by the end of this expo that you're all find new ways to hate me more than I'm sure you already do.
"Now this," Graveyard said, holding up one of the silver bracelets for everyone to see. "is going to be a pain in every meta's ass. Humans with no powers whatsoever, you get a free pass this time. What this does is inject ectoplasm into your bodies, so your powers will be able to work on all the ghosties. The ectoplasm itself will disperse rather quickly, so this little bracelet is going to administer small doses until it finally runs out of doses. We should be finished cleaning up the invasion by then, so I wouldn't worry about it running out too much.
"Unfortunately for you unlucky bastards, ectoplasm does have some side-effects. I tested this on my friend, and she said it made her a little bit sick to her stomach while it was on. The bracelet also let a lovely bruise since it's very tight and has needles. However, that's the price of beauty, fellas. Suck it up, buttercups." Graveyard snapped before tossing the bracelet back into its respected box. He then dug out the smaller of the two guns he had. The boy held that up, as well. "Everyone will get one of these. Basically, all you do is shoot a ghost, and it will send them back home. I recommend not shooting your teammates; you might not see them again if you do." That went back into the box, and the other ray gun was pulled out. "For you lucky bastards without super-powers, happy birthday. This is your new best friend out in the field. Its essence is that of a stun-gun for ghosts. Don't try to play king of the hill with it; the ghosts will kick your ass, but it works well for distractions and defensive attacks." Graveyard tossed it back into its box. "Both of the guns are very simple to operate. Just aim and pull the trigger. If this concept is too hard for you to comprehend, we'll do a demo where you're the target."
(In other words, don't ask him any questions pertaining to the operation of the equipment.)
With the equipment out of the way, Graveyard grabbed the gloves from one of the boxes, slipping them on quickly. He then pulled out the small box from before and opened it, pulling out a green rock. The teen rolled his eyes at the low wave of gasps he heard ripple through some of the crowd. Turning back to his audience, Graveyard said, "If there was time for it, I would make all of you my bitches by claiming this is actually kryptonite, but since time is of the essence, I'm just going to come right out and say this is not kryptonite. It's ectoranium; this harms me, not Kyrptonians. With that said, I better not see any Supers dropping unconscious." Graveyard breathed deeply, ignoring the murmurs of the heroes as he continued, "This can be dusted on any of your weapons. It's really sticky, so it'll stay on for a long time, and it won't cause any of your arsenal to deteriorate. Just be mindful of what ghosts you hit with it. Some ghosts just want to go home, and ectoranium hurts like a bitch. So if you find you have to use it, use it on the bad guys, ok? Great. Now, Big Blue Buffon, come here, so I can show you guys how to get the bracelets on."
There was one last expo, where Graveyard swiftly showed the crowd how to properly get the bracelets on their wrist. It was rather easy. All they had to do was press a green button on the side that would cause the bracelet to half-dismantle itself while keeping its general shape. Then all the heroes had to do was slip it carefully on their wrists, mindful of the newly exposed needles. After, they just had to push it closed, which pinched their skin. A lot of them were perturbed by the sickly feeling they got as the first dose was injected, but Graveyard told them to suck it up again. Afterwards, the various ray guns were dispersed, people readied their arsenals, and then they were off. Batman and Graveyard were last in line for everything, as they had decided to supervise. The crowd of Leaguers grew smaller and smaller until it was just the two and a few other slowpokes.
Graveyard had snagged one of the bracelets for himself at the beginning of the lecture, and now that the majority of people were taken care and gone, he slipped it out of his back pocket. He stared down at it for a moment before pressing the little green button, slipping it on and closing it tightly over his wrist. He flinched at the pinching of his skin. However, the big punch to the gut was the cold feeling that swept through his arm, practically numbing his entire forearm but dialing back the farther it got from the origin point. However, there wasn't one place in his body that Graveyard didn't feel cool, and it was uncomfortable. He promised himself that he wouldn't notice in a little while, even though he didn't know if that was fact or not.
"Why are you bothering to put that on? I thought you were half-ghost."
The white-haired teen's head snapped to the emotionless Dark Knight, and Batman wouldn't be lying if he said that he hadn't been startled. Under his hood, Graveyard's toxic eyes were glowing brighter, and the aura that had practically been nonexistent under the florescent lights was pulsating. It was a drastic change, but Graveyard seemed unaware of it. He merely shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I haven't really used my powers in years, especially not in a high scales like this is going to call for. This is just giving me a boost."
Batman nodded before patiently asking, "How do we plan on closing the portals?"
"Let me take care of it. There's only one safe way, and unfortunately, it requires one-of-a-kind tools." Graveyard responded, patting the spool pin dangling from his belt. "Just make sure we get most of the ghosties back home. I really don't want to be dealing with them for the next couple of years."
The Dark Knight nodded. "We'll do our best. Be careful out there, understand?"
Graveyard saluted. Batman handed him a comm., telling him to keep in touch with everyone. The boy said he would and watched as the Dark Knight hurried to the teleporters, following the very last hero out into the field. It left Graveyard all alone in the Watchtower, and as much as he would've loved to explore the place, there really wasn't any time for it. However, that didn't stop him from pulling out his phone and dialing some numbers as he fixed his personal Bluetooth in his ear. The boy meandered towards the teleporter as he listened to the ringing. Eventually, his call was accepted.
"Whaz up?"
"How's my favorite boy-toy?"
"It's going great, guys. Thanks for asking." Graveyard responded, rolling his eyes. "Unfortunately, I didn't call to catch up on your shenanigans. I called to ask a favor of you guys. I'm sure you all have noticed the massive ghost invasion going on from your safely tucked away bunkers?"
"Oh Danny, who has missed it?" Sam teasingly asked. Tucker said, "I'm assuming you want the two of us to get out there and help get the ghosts back into the Ghost Zone?"
"You would be right on point, my good friend. Tuck, you can take that battle armor we built last summer out for a spin. I'm sure it needs it." Graveyard commented.
"It does, and I guess this would be a good time to test out some of the mechanisms." Tucker replied. Even though there was hesitance in his voice, there was also trust in his friend, which always won out in the end, even if it got him into some stupid shit. Danny always had his back, after all.
Graveyard began grinning. "And Sam, don't you have that suit you love to kick my ass in because it was specifically designed for kicking my ass?"
"I'm already putting it on."
"Wonderful." The white-haired boy said, starting up the teleporter. He rubbed his hands together, trying to warm them up in vain. That didn't deter his grin any, though. "My favorite techno geek, you can start sending the ghosties back in Las Vegas. I'll meet you there. My only girl-toy, once I'm done with Las Vegas, wanna meet me in Reno?"
"I'm sure the two of us will have a blast."
"I'll see you in Vegas, D."
"Roger. See you guys in a little while. Grave, out." Graveyard said before finally allowing himself to step into the teleporter, plugging the Justice League comm. in his ear. The bright light washed over him again, and in the next second, he was back in his familiar city. It wasn't in the chaos he had imagined it would be- there was only one ghost that he could see as of the moment –but he imagined it was worse in other areas.
It was tempting to go after the ghost, but Graveyard knew he had bigger fish to fry, such as closing the portals, and there were a lot of ghost portals. The teen turned in all directions, looking for the first ghost portal in a line of many. From his vantage point, he could see none, but after some flying around the city, he finally found it hovering over a deserted road. Without any prompting, Graveyard steered himself in its direction. Just as he closed in on it, another ghost chose that time to pop out of it and look around, confusion written all over its face. By the state of his clothes, Graveyard guessed that he was from very far in the past.
Graveyard was the first person the other ghost saw. He quickly whipped out the sword sheathed at his hip, pointing the tip at the advancing teen. The man looked the boy up and down, not recognizing his state of dress and rather disliking his style as well. The ghost inquired, "Who are you?! Where am I?!" His voice was heavy with an accent that Graveyard could not place.
A smirk on his face, the teen jokingly replied, "Your worst nightmare."
The tease went right over the other ghost's head, and he gazed at Graveyard with a confused expression. Graveyard rolled his eyes, his hands lighting up green. "Ah, don't worry about it, dude. By tomorrow, all of this is going to be a bad dream." The teen shot a green ray of energy at the ghost, the force of the impact sending the ghost flying back into the portal he had come from. Graveyard flew up to it quickly, grappling for the black needle at his side. His fingers firmly wrapped around it and yanked, causing the spool-pin to roll, the thread unwinding.
The interesting thing about natural portals was that they were sometimes temporary and other times permanent. More permanent portals were hidden in hidden alcoves or, more prominently, the Bermuda Triangle. Unfortunately, as Graveyard had been taught, ghost portals had little 'malfunctions' sometimes. They would suddenly spawn everywhere, and while the majority of them weren't permanent, they tended to stick around for a much longer time than other temporary portals. Such a situation had not happened for thousands of years, but the last time it had happened, the ghosts that had come through had ravaged the earth quite a bit. To prevent such things from happening again, a very special ghost had obtained a few items that would be capable of stopping another incident when it happened again. Or, at least, that's what Graveyard's mentor at the time had told him before giving him the objects to hold onto. The boy had no reason to not believe him, though; after all, said mentor was as old as time itself and had been the one to obtain the items he had taught Danny about.
The boy could not, for the life of him, remember what the names of the tools were, even if his mentor had made a point to tell him. However, he did remember they had stupid names, which was probably why he had forgotten them in the first place. However, their names were not nearly as important as what they were capable of doing.
As Graveyard's mentor had explained, the tools had been created as a backup plan in case the entire universe decided to break and shatter. The spool-pin, thread, and needle were all literally made of the stuff of the whole universe and were capable of repairing what had been damaged. The razor, on the other hand, was literally made of nothing. Why? Because only nothing was capable of stopping an entire universe. (Graveyard still wasn't entirely too sure how that worked, but hey, whatever fixed a problem didn't need explaining in his book.)
Now, Graveyard counted on the items' powers to help him stop another ghost invasion. The boy jabbed the needle into the edge of the portal, watching in amazement as the green thread erupted into a brilliant barrage of colors, changing and shining as the thread came into contact with the rift in the universe. Graveyard pulled it through to the other side and began crisscrossing the thread over the swirling opening. His stitch job was messy and uneven, but considering the brilliant colors the thread had erupted into to tell him it was working, Graveyard guessed he wasn't doing a too shitty job.
The teen jumped when he heard the sound of a scream behind him, but it wasn't enough to make him turn away from his job. He was only worried for a second, anyway; a familiar voice made a quip behind him, causing an easy smile to overcome Graveyard's face.
Finishing up the rift quickly, Graveyard sliced the thread from the needle. As soon as the thread was disconnected from the needle, it melted along the rift of the portal, closing and disappearing until it was no more. Graveyard nodded to himself before turning around, just in time to see an android blast the ghost Graveyard had seen when he landed in Vegas. Another portal opened up on the ghost's chest, drawing him in as he screamed and abruptly closing behind him. The half-ghost teen grinned savagely as he studied the robot. It was pretty basic by most standards, really only having a humanoid figure and glowing, red eyes. It's only distinctive marks were the green plating on the shoulders, elbows, and kneecaps. However, it had been built with simplicity in mind.
"Thanks for the save, dude." Graveyard called, his eyes still brightly glowing under his hood. The robot turned its head towards the speaker. Graveyard said, "That thing is still as beautiful as the last time I saw it. Are you in there, buddy, or are you using the RC feature we built into it?"
If it could, the robot would undoubtedly be smiling as an auto-tuned voice gleefully replied, "Totally using RC, Grave. This is the first time it's being used in the field. I don't wanna be in this tin-can if it suddenly explodes."
Graveyard pouted and clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "That's too bad."
"Shut your damn mouth."
The half-ghost teen barked a loud laugh and shook his head. Still grinning, Graveyard asked, "So what have you decided to name this thing anyway?"
The auto-tune was replaced with an electronic recording that said in a deep, menacing voice, "Droid."
Graveyard laughed again, facepalming as Tucker used the microphone to complain about his ability to laugh at everything. The white-haired teen waved his friend off, saying, "Sorry, sorry. It's just… You only changed the last two letters of your other alias. The names are so similar. That'd be like me going around, calling myself Danny Phantom or something!" Graveyard laughed again.
If anybody else had been present, they would've been able to feel the eye roll from the one controlling the robot. Droid sarcastically asked, "Don't you have somewhere else to be?"
"You know the answer to that." Graveyard replied, lifting himself farther into the air. He gave the other male a salute as he readied himself to blast off in the direction of Reno. "Call me if you need anything, though. I'll be right there to save your ass, once again." The teen rocketed off before Droid could retaliate and say that if anyone was saving anyone's ass, he would be saving Graveyard's. Which was probably true, but the white-haired boy would never admit to it.
Even though he flew as fast as he possibly could, Graveyard still thought that it took too much time to reach the other city he had targeted. As soon as he got there, he noticed that there were more ghosts in Reno than there had been in Vegas. He didn't actively get involved with any of them, though; he trusted his female friend to be able to clean up the mess while he took care of the main problem. However, as he searched the city, Graveyard focused too much on finding the portal he needed to close and not enough on his surroundings. A mischievous ghost attempted to sneak up behind him, a ball of green energy lighting in his hands that looked similar to the one Graveyard had shot earlier. He would've hit the teen boy too, if it had not been for the white-clad figure that sprung at him from a nearby building, screaming, "Hey dumbass, look out!"
Graveyard spun around, turning just in time to see his white-clad friend slash a dirk across the other ghost's shoulder. It yelped at the pain, but Graveyard paid no heed to it, quickly pulling out his portal gun and shooting the other ghost. He didn't watch for the ghost to disappear; instead, he dove after the falling girl that had decided to jump off a three-story building. His quick speed allowed him to catch the black-haired girl before she fell too far, and Graveyard pulled up, zooming in the direction of the building the trained assassin had decided to jump from.
"You know, you could've died by doing that." Graveyard commented casually, as if his friend hadn't just decided to put her life in peril. He floated gently down to the rooftop, unhindered by the extra weight of the girl in his arms.
The girl crossed one leg over the other, just as casual as the boy who carried her. She was relaxed in his arms, and it was obvious she trusted him immensely with her safety when she just shrugged at his casual comment, replying, "I could've, but you were right there. You know how much of a pain-in-the-ass I would be if I were to become a ghost."
The boy's feet touched the ground as he rolled his eyes, setting his female friend's feet on the ground. She patted him on the shoulder, somehow conveying it to be condescending. Graveyard huffed before looking the girl up and down, noticing her new uniform. The white jumpsuit was very reminiscent of Black Thorn's suit, as was the bulky purple belt wrapped around her waist. However, her mask covered less than half of her face, and the mask itself was in the shape of outstretched wings joined at the girl's crown. Her striking violet eyes glistened with amusement from behind the mask. She held twin dirks lovingly in her hands. Both of them had matching white hilts, an ornamental violet gemstone in each. Graveyard couldn't quite see it, but he could feel the ectoranium radiating from the weapons.
"My dear lady, would you happen to know where a ghost portal is? I would greatly appreciate the help." Graveyard asked, performing a mock bow quickly before he got up.
His friend rolled her eyes and pointed to her right. "There's a flashy casino down that way. You can't miss it. There's a portal hovering beside a window." Graveyard saluted to her, preparing to take off and fly away, but she made him pause as she added, "And just for future reference, the name's Snowbird."
Graveyard winked at the trained mercenary before echoing his words to Droid, telling Snowbird that she could call him if she found herself in trouble. The white-clad female scoffed, as if she thought the notion ridiculous, but there was the slightest nod in her head to tell Graveyard that she would call if she did somehow need help. With that, the teen boy zoomed off into the distance, preparing himself for the dozens upon hundreds of towns he was going to hit to resolve the problem.
It took an astonishing twelve hours for the JL and friends to get the world back to its original state, and even then, it wasn't perfect. Graveyard was sure there were other ghosts they missed and portals he hadn't repaired, but for the most part, the invasion had been terminated. There were no more constant attacks on people and no more constant hoards of spectral beings coming and going through easily accessible portals.
For the most part, Graveyard merely stuck to his repair job. However, by the end of those twelve hours, he was absolutely exhausted. It surprised the teen how much he kept thinking of sleeping for a week once all was said and done. He hadn't even done much fighting, though some heroes had needed help here and there whenever he hit the town they were trying to help. However, he did acknowledge that he hadn't used his powers like this in years and also hadn't been very physically active either. Honestly, the only reason he wasn't overweight was because he forgot to eat a lot.
Graveyard stitched up the last portal in a town in Angola and behind him, the teen could hear a handful of heroes sending the last few ghosts to the Ghost Zone. Just as he cut his brilliantly colored thread and the portal melded together, the boy turned around, witnessing as the last ghost disappeared in a flash of light. Both the townspeople and the heroes began cheering, and a heroine by the name of Black Canary relayed that their mission had been completed in the comm. Graveyard floated down to join the group, grinning tiredly as he inserted himself at the edge of the group of heroes.
Through the laughing and happy chatting, Snowbird slid up behind her male friend unnoticeably, wrapping her arms around his shoulders from behind. The boy looked at her just as she rested her chin on his shoulder. Snowbird batted her eyes flirtatiously at Graveyard, and the boy rolled his eyes. After all, it had been a running joke for the past hours that Snowbird was a total flirt with everyone but would burn you to the ground if you made any advances. For the Leaguers, it had been very off-putting. For Snowbird, Droid, and Graveyard, it had been hilarious.
"What do you need, birdie?" Graveyard asked.
Snowbird trailed a finger across his shoulder, lightly drawing circles. Instead of answering her friend's question, Snowbird asked, "Are you going to go back to the JL's little hideout once everyone is done celebrating here?"
"I would assume so." Graveyard replied, his eyes glancing in the direction of the smiling Leaguers. He noticed the bracelets on their wrists and the different ray guns he had spread out between them. "They have all my junk, and I kind of want it back. I'm not giving any mad geniuses in the bunch a chance to go nuts with the technology." The jab was obviously poked at Batman, but Snowbird didn't catch onto that detail.
"Ok. I was just making sure. Droid and I were interested in having a chat with you, so if you would please indulge us soon, it would be greatly appreciated." Snowbird said, her flirtatious stare turning serious.
Graveyard only nodded, his eyes shining with serious as well, but it vanished in the next second. Instead, he continued the charade the two of them had going, smiling as he tilted his head in her direction. Snowbird slipped away from him, though, wagging her finger at him in a 'no-no' gesture. Graveyard rolled his eyes at the girl.
From his vantage point, Batman wondered at the two teens' relationship. As most would assume by their performance, Graveyard and the self-proclaimed heroine, Snowbird, looked to be involved. However, even though their eyes said 'bedroom buddies,' their body language read more like 'friendly rivals.' Batman couldn't see either of them taking their advances seriously, and if either of them did, he could imagine the other would set them straight. The nature of the relationship, however, wasn't all that Batman wondered about. He wanted to know how the teens (and by extension, the new android, as well) knew each other. After all, as far as Batman knew, Danny didn't like to associate himself with other heroes if he didn't have to, so why was he so buddy-buddy with these two and where had they come from?
Not long after Snowbird and Graveyard's conversation, the heroes were teleported back to the Watchtower, and Snowbird was sent on home via the teleporter. Despite how much all the Leaguers would've loved to merely go home and sleep everything off by this point, they were ordered to return their borrowed weapons, Graveyard watching with boredom through the entire process. After that, most people went straight on home. Most metas, however, stayed behind for a little while longer, if only to bandage their bruised wrists and grab some pills for the oncoming nausea and migraine Graveyard had warned them of.
Batman seemed to be the only normal human in the League that wasn't totally depleted of energy. He watched his allies with his signature stance that screamed of power and intimidation, which elicited many eye-rolls from the other Leaguers. His perception skills were not hindered at all, either. Through the hustle and bustle that was hard to sort out for others, Batman noticed that Graveyard was nowhere to be seen. He asked around some of the remaining Leaguers if they had seen the boy, and after a few tries, Flash finally pointed down one of the Watchtower halls and said, "Oh, him? He went to the bathroom. I don't think he was feeling well."
The Dark Knight nodded before storming off. He was in the bathroom in minutes, standing in the open doorframe of a bathroom stall. Graveyard was sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall with a small smudge of gastric acid in the corner of his mouth. Whatever he had puked up was long gone, as the toilet water was clear.
For a moment, Batman believed the teen to be asleep, but when the boy sensed the silence presence, he opened one dull, green eye. Upon seeing the Dark Knight, Graveyard whined, "Please take me home."
A day and a half later, Danny struggled up into his favorite (and only) chair, pulling himself miserably up to his desk. His head was pounding, and he still felt quite nauseous after his adventure with the Justice League. In all honesty, Danny really wanted to stay in bed, rest off the worst of the sick feeling, but he had made a promise to his friends, and he'd already stretched it out enough. They would undoubtedly understand why it had taken so long for him to finally get in touch with them, but Danny still didn't feel good about putting their talk off for any longer than it needed to be put off.
As the teen sent a command to his computer to call his two friends, Danny noticed a bottle of pills on his desk, along with a note. He picked up the note, and read Batman's simple instructions to eat and drink whenever he got around to reading the note. The Dark Knight explicitly stated that Danny should eat before taking the medication he left behind to help with the migraines and nausea. He also said he'd call eventually, probably with a job of some sort. It wasn't stated, but Danny knew the call would also be to check up with him. The job was only an excuse. The thought had Danny smiling gently as he rolled to his fridge, pulling out whatever fast-food leftovers he had stored away.
While Danny was busy digging through the fridge, both Sam and Tucker decided to pick up, shooting off their normal greetings before noticing that Danny was nowhere to be seen. The teens glanced at each other in question before Tucker, "Danny, where are you?"
After throwing some Chinese food in the microwave and punching in some numbers, Danny rolled back over to his desk, saying, "Right here. Sorry. Heating leftovers. What's up?"
Tucker completely ignored Danny's tired question, commenting seriously, "You look like shit."
Sam laughed a little, though she did her best to try and hide it with a cough. Danny only glared at the other boy, not amused. "And all this time, I thought I looked like a fucking princess."
Grinning, Sam intervened, "Calm down, Danny. As much as I would love to continue teasing you about how you look like you were hit with a semi, the two of us are here for another reason, ok?" Danny, unconcerned, waved his hand in a silent 'go on.' Sam needed no other encouragement, saying, "Look Danny, Tuck and I are a little concerned at how easily you're letting yourself go hero."
It didn't take much brain power for Danny to figure out what Sam was telling him. She was referring to his intervention with her gig and now the ghost invasion. He knew exactly what she meant because, though he couldn't bring himself to admit it, he had the same concerns. He was jumping into the good fight faster than he would've months ago. He was letting his ever-growing affection for the Dark Knight to sway his mindset. He liked the way people smiled at him, as if he was a good person and even though the looks still threw him through a loop. Danny knew what was going on, but he was reluctant to make it stop. Hell, he was reluctant to even acknowledge what was going on, for fear all of it would simply go away.
So, Danny did the only thing that seemed reasonable at the time. He lied.
"Look guys, I know what it looks like. Seriously, I do. But it's just an act, ok?" Danny replied, smiling easily at his friends. It was as if he had been expecting the conversation. "That first time with Sam? Just another act. I know I shouldn't have bothered with the cops, but their stupidity was pissing me off. It was Batman's idea to intervene with your job; I did so because there was no good reason for me not to. And this invasion? I was looking out for own interests here. Ghosts terrorizing the world and all? Yeah, that's kind of bad for business. So you can say I'm going good and everything, but I know what I'm doing, ok?"
Shit, Danny almost believed himself. Even the Dark Knight would probably believe the teen. However, neither Sam nor Tucker seemed entirely sure if they should trust his words. Danny continued to grin, hiding the fact he was holding his breath. There was a brief moment of tenseness, but Tucker finally caved. He just kind of shrugged, looking uneasy as he said, "If you say so, man. I just hope you know mean that."
"Trust me, guys. I do." Danny stated. Sam looked as if she was ready to interject with something, but the black-haired boy cut her off before she could. Danny said, "Look, guys. My head is throbbing, and I feel like I'm gonna hurl any minute now. I'll talk to you guys later, ok?"
No one could question that, and the three teens hung up seconds later. Danny leaned back with a sigh, rubbing his aching temples and wondering what sort of crap he had gotten himself into.