Ch.28: Really Starting Somewhere
"I hope ya'll remember me. I am the pain in the butt that helped you all last time there was a huge ghost invasion." Danny stated, standing in front of the huge crowd of heroes, once again. His expression meant no-nonsense and his head was tilted to the side a centimeter, fists on his hips. "Now, if you can remember my name, you obviously haven't been hit in the head enough times this year. We'll have to change that sometime."
"Get to the point." Batman ordered off to the side, standing beside Superman with his ticked expression.
Danny rolled his eyes but went on, as he was ordered to. "For those who simply have brain damage or you just didn't bother to remember because I was never seen again, I am Graveyard. Pretty sure Bats told you last time I was here. Anyways, the only reason I'm here is cause I got suspended from school and ghost invasion, like I said.
"My two friends, Snowbird and Droid," Danny turned and typed a few things on the keyboard behind him. The screen went from blank to live-video feed of the two that were mentioned in seconds. "are already out and about, sending ghosts back to the Ghost Zone. But they can't do it all."
Superman leaned over to Batman and whispered "Did he just hack another country's satellites?"
Batman brought up his own mini-computer installed in his gauntlet and muttered "It wasn't another countries."
The Man of Steel released a relieved sigh and wiped his brow.
"It's pure American."
Gotham's Military Base
"What do you mean you just got reports from the Pentagon that our satellites have been hacked?!" General Olsen yelled at the new techie, whom was soon to be an ex-techie.
Behind the two, papers were flying, people were running, and chaos was totally in control of the base.
Trembling, the techie handed a sheet of paper to the general while stuttering "It's j-just as I-I said, S-Sir... B-Before they lost a-a-all c-c-contact, t-they m-managed to get the h-hacker's name though… They w-wondered if you might k-know who it i-is, Sir… B-Because of his n-name..."
Olsen ripped the sheet of paper from the terrified techie's hand and quickly scanned it over with his fiery eyes.
Under the section that stated the hacker's code name was "Batman's Annoying Responsibility".
…
"THAT LITTLE SON OF A-"
Watchtower
"The procedure is going to be the same as it was last time." Danny stated, his voice loud and firm. "Each of you is going to grab a portal-gun. Metas are going to grab a bracelet. Humans will grab ray-gun. If you are human, use your weapons from the last invasion. Ectoranium is resistant to everything earth but it will have some wear and tear to it.
"If you lost or used your weapons to the point of breaking… Sucks for you. Don't die." Danny plainly stated, shrugging. Ignoring a couple of the 'what the heck' looks he was receiving, he ordered everyone to grab their gear and go, go, go. Time was being wasted while they stood around and went over a procedure that should still be remembered.
Danny, first, dug through one of the boxes, pulling out the spool thin, needle, and razor he had used the last time an invasion had struck. He hooked them on his belt like he had the first time, making sure everything was tight and ready for use.
Once he had grabbed these things, he let others step up and take their specified weapons before heading to the fancy portals, teleporting all around the world to take out the invading ghosts. Determined expressions and tense muscles all flashed out of the Watchtower, battle ready.
It soon left only Batman and Danny walking towards the portal, gearing up as they stalked towards the exit. A serious air surrounded them as they walked in sync, playing with their own artillery and double-checking to make sure they had every piece of equipment they needed on them. Dull thuds of their footfalls echoed around the eerily quiet station.
"To think, it was only a little over a year ago that we were in the same situation." Danny stated, glancing out of the corner of his eye to look at his sort-of mentor.
Batman nodded in grim silence. "Time flies."
"That it does." Danny said lowly, letting his eyes drift over to the portal he was walking to, black-clad hero beside him.
"You know the others still don't fully trust you, correct?" Batman asked.
Danny hummed a confirmative. "I do. I know they also don't trust Snowy and Droid. But, honestly, we couldn't care less if we tried. We only need each other. … But if you're worried about us being good, don't worry. We'll act extra cheery and polite just for you."
"If you didn't, I would hand you over to Olsen with a bow on top of your head." Batman stated and it took Danny a minute to detect the sarcasm hidden under all of his grim-seriousness. Once found though, the teen stuck his tongue out at the older hero while they came to stop beside the portal.
Danny immediately went up to the controls and began playing around with them. "Where you going, Chief?"
"Somewhere that's not being covered already."
"Have fun in northern Greenland, Batsy. Enjoy the snow for me, will ya?"
While the light enveloped the hero, the Dark Knight couldn't help but roll his eyes at the way Danny said 'see you later'. He was quickly gone from the Watchtower and dumped in a large pile of snow, mumbling curses under his breath.
Meanwhile, Danny typed in his own coordinates for his own destination, cracking his neck and rolling it around as he did. As he finished, the portal lit up and he eagerly jogged into it, mumbling "Now if only there was an awesome theme song to go along with this…"
Palm trees and the bright sunlight suddenly surrounded the teen as the portal dropped Danny off at his destination. He looked around, smirking, before zooming into the air and zipping around quickly to find the ghost and ghost portal that surly lay in the Tampa area.
As all the heroes were doing, Danny flew from city-to-city up the East Coast. He sealed portals, blasted ghosts back to their dead dimension, fought a couple that tried to fight him head-on, and felt a small bit of sympathy for the few who had just fallen through portals from another time period.
In Bridgeport, Connecticut, Danny ran into someone unexpected.
"Johnny! Kitty!" Danny yelled, eyes bulging at the two ghosts roaring through the streets. The biker abruptly stopped his bike when he heard the familiar voice calling to him and his girlfriend. They waved casually while Danny shot down to meet them.
The teen floated beside them and with a stunned voice said "Guys, what are you doing here?!"
"Seriously asking us that?" Kitty asked, pointing to one of the few ghosts floating around in the area.
Danny made a face and mumbled "Bad question…"
"Uh-huh." The couple hummed, smiling humorously while the half-ghost boy rolled his eyes.
Shaking his head, Danny asked "Hey, since you're here, can you help me send all the ghosties back? Kitty, you've got the ability to make and close portals, right?"
Kitty nodded before Johnny asked "What's in it for us?"
Danny shrugged, half-expecting the question to pop up, even though the couple was more than willing to help anyways. "You both get to kick other people's butts back to their homes and then, if you promise you won't cause any trouble, I'll let you hang in the Human Realm whenever you want."
"Since when did you care if we cause trouble or not?" Johnny asked, a confused expression adorning his face.
"You are Danny, right?" Kitty asked.
Rolling his eyes, the teen answered "Yes, I'm Danny. I'll have to tell you the story later. A lot has happened since the last time we met up. Anyways, do we have a deal or not?"
Johnny and Kitty shared a look before they both looked back at the waiting teen. "Deal."
Smiling, Danny nodded back. "Thanks guys. I've got one more question before you go though."
"That would be?" Johnny asked curiously.
"Can you guys round up our other buds and get them to help too? Ember, Youngblood, Desiree, Wulf, Dora, Frostbite… Maybe Skulker and Technus, to a lesser extent?"
"Technus still wants your head on a pike for making his computer explode."
"Ok then, grab Sidney instead of him! Can you just do that for me?" Danny pleaded, rolling his eyes.
"We'll do it, Little D. Calm down." Kitty teased, smiling.
The teen finally smiled back before saying "Alright, thanks. See you guys on the flip-side!"
With that, Danny zipped off high into the air again, chasing after a lost ghost while Johnny let his bike roar and zoom off down the street, Kitty whooping behind him before she opened a portal and allowed them into the Ghost Zone, the green tear closing behind them automatically once they were safely through.
Danny sewed the portal in Bridgeport back up and blasted the few ghosts hanging around back to the Ghost Zone before he switched cities again. He did the same to a few others before moving on to his 'new' home base in Gotham.
Since the gothic city was like a magnet for anything sadistic and criminal, the area was filled up with more ghosts than the other cities. It was also filled with the more irritating and vial ghosts like Spectra, her assistant Bertrand, and the ghost warden Walker. The three and about six more like them hated Danny with a passion because he was a rule breaker, a pain in the arse, and he was slippery. All of that equaled up to one heck of a mess with a body.
As Danny was fighting with Spectra, one of the more elusive ghosts of the Ghost Zone, the troops that had been wandering around the city, still looking for the AWOL teen, were called in to both assist Danny in capturing Spectra (though it wouldn't matter much) and to take him in after.
While the soldiers didn't want to take Danny into custody in the middle of a ghost invasion, Olsen didn't see much of a problem with it since he had a hunch Danny helped start it, though there was no proof to prove so.
"Wow, wow, wow!" Danny yelled as the troops starting closing in. "What is this? Get out of here, morons! You trying to get yourselves killed?"
Yelping, the boy jumped out of the way of a purple energy blast from his enemy. Growling, he engaged with Spectra again, shooting at her with the portal gun, but only succeeding in sending random benches and signs to the Ghost Zone, not the ghost.
Laughing, the specter taunted "Ah, is the little fighter getting distracted easily?"
"I have to be worried about those idiots! If I don't, they get to try and kill me." Danny retorted, shooting forward with an ecto-powered punch. Spectra missed, as usual, making irritation spike in the teen since he had barely been able to land a hit on her. Her assistant was easy to take down but Spectra was not.
Humming, Spectra sang "Well, that doesn't seem fair at all! Poor Graveyard!"
Laughing sarcastically but not phased by the comment, Danny stated "Trust me, it's not. I'm just lucky there's one brain-donor in the world that actually thinks I'm worth saving, amazingly enough."
The fight continued on with both ghosts trying to take the other out. The soldiers, upon being ordered, intervened at times, causing both ghosts to become agitated at their presence more-so than they already had been. Focusing on humans when they should have been focusing on the larger opponent was frustrating.
Olsen appeared in a 'borrowed' car, quickly trying to take down Spectra so he could apprehend the boy again. He was quickly shot away and burned by a purple ecto-blast. As he was getting up, his eyes widened at another purple blast flying towards him, ready to incinerate his body.
Danny shot in front of the general, a green shield falling into existence between the 'heroes' and the villain.
The purple burst exploded upon impact with the liquid green shield, leftover purple energy flying into the air around them before fizzling from existence and leaving the area clear.
Danny shot a look over his shoulder and hissed "You so owe me for that, especially since I wanted to leave you to die. Frikkin morons…"
The hooded ghost shot off again, flying straight towards the female ghost at high speeds before ramming into her, catching Spectra by surprise. They both tumbled to the side before a blue-white beam shot Spectra from the Human Realm, dumping her off in the Ghost Zone again.
Danny saluted to the troops before zipping off again, leaving a small gust of wind in his wake. Olsen could only watch after the teen, wide-eyed in amazement.
After finishing up the East Coast, Danny started traveling inland. Much to his joy, Johnny and Kitty had made good with their promise and a whole batch of ghosts were flying around the world, taking down other ghosts and sending them back to their home dimensions. A few even managed to seal up portals, if they could.
For this, Danny was thankful that he didn't have to do all the work with the needle and thread. After a brief meeting with Batman over coms, the entire Justice League knew of the helper ghosts and was informed of which ones they were. Once this was over and done with, Danny could really focus on the mission.
Sam and Tucker were doing extraordinarily well taking down the ghosts and, occasionally, working with the other wary Leaguers, gaining their trust bit by bit.
As the residents of the Human Realm became making a dent on the population of the ghosts, they closed in on the specters from all sides of the world. The ectoplasmic spirits ganged up towards the end of the long, hard battle but it quickly came to an end once they were all there.
With the last specter gone and the last portal closed, the Justice League and helper ghosts cheered in victory.
Danny landed on the ground, tired and sweating. His smile was huge under his hood, however, and he raised his fist in victory as well. His two friends quickly ganged up on his sides, hollering and happy.
The teen's ghostly friends quickly ganged up on him also, quickly engaging in a conversation since it apparently had been so long since the last time they had seen him. Sam and Tucker quickly engaged with a few too, as they had been introduced to the ghosts long ago.
Off to the side, Superman and Batman watched with calm eyes.
"You know… He's not as bad as he makes himself out to be." The Man of Steel commented, looking at his friend with a small smile. "He might be able to actually make it in this business."
Batman made an indistinguishable face. "I know. It might take a few years-"
"Excuse me, years? What did I miss?"
"-but we'll eventually get him to come around entirely. We have a long road ahead of us…" Batman mumbled before he walked off.
Superman looked between the teen among his friends and the boy's sort-of mentor before following after, repeating "Years? Are you messing with me?"
Kitty does not have the ability to make portals in the DP series. I made that up, as well as a few other things, to help Danny out for once.
This is the last chappie! Tomorrow I'm posting the Epilogue! WOOOO! GOD BLESS AMERICA! IT'S FINISHED! *sets off firecrackers*
Reviews:
YumiStar: They're a bunch of evil, genius demons. It's almost guaranteed. XD
Roselin: Glad I'm the comic relief you needed! Hope the pain goes away. :)
Guest of Honor: Yeah... They could probably make it if they were homeschooled but... Whatever. XD Ha! I don't like Supes all that much either.
Anime Hotty Lover. 18: XD That place just creeps me out period.
Sarra Torrens: Glad you got a kick out of it! That sounds like so much fun. *sarcasm implied*
16ckelman: Yeah, they really should, right? Crappy principal right there. XD
Kimori Takahashi: XD Ah, thanks~! My break will probably be tiny but who cares? XD
Scheffelman: Always. :D
IWasNeverReaL I'VE MISSED YOU! XD I thought you were gone forever! ...their talent would be annoying the entire crowd... XD
Guest(1): Of course it was~! What else would it be? XD
Ninuhuju: ...who's he?
KuriMaster13: XD Holy crap, that would've been hilarious! The only reason that didn't happen is cause I've never played the game, nor watched the videos...