Bruised

Chapter Five

Acts of War

Older men declare war, But it is the younger that must fight and die.

Herbert Hover

Valerie glared at the black plane that was hovering over Fentonworks.

She didn't want the Justice League involved. They may stop her from ghost hunting if they find out.

But with her new truce with Phantom, maybe he could ensure she could still help.

She loved ghost hunting. It was fun and freeing.

She looked down and noticed some light on in the Fenton home. She flew down and looked in to see Danny sitting on the couch with Batman and Nightwing glaring at him.

She made a decision and pulled her suit into herself before walking to the door and knocking.

Nightwing had put his mask back on and was glaring at Danny who was still feeling weak on the couch.

"Look, we can't just let you go without ground rules," Nightwing started only for Batman to put his hand up.

"Don't tell anyone, got it," Danny muttered crossing his arms. He wanted to tell his friends, but he knew that they wouldn't like that.

His friends could keep a secret afterall. It's how he's survived this long.

It hasn't even been forty-eight hours since his parents said they were going to work for the GIW and it already felt like everything was falling apart.

"Yes, but there's more to it," Batman started only for a knock at the door to stop him. Danny looked at the door curiously before getting up.

"Wait, it could be a trap," Nightwing said as he took out his batons and walked closer to the door.

"Fenton, I know you're there, you asshole," Valerie called out as she knocked again. Danny huffed a laugh before opening the door.

"Hey, Val. How's it going?" He asked making her narrow her eyes at the heroes in the room.

"You actually managed to get the JL to come out here," she asked as she crossed her arms.

"It's really just us," Nightwing said feeling like she really didn't want them there.

"Of course, a town overrun with ghosts wouldn't be priority for a bunch of busy heroes," Valerie sneered. She wanted them to know they failed this city.

Nightwing looked away.

"Well, that was a bit much," Danny laughed before dragging her in. "What's been going on?"

Valerie looked at the two heroes in question before looking to Danny.

"How much do they know?" She asked not wanting to blow her or Danny's identities.

"They believe and suspect," Danny answered making Valerie roll her eyes.

"Well, Masters Blasters have been charging people for protection. It's gotten pretty bad," Valerie said. "Although, thanks to your warning of the GIW, it seems like genuine attacks have gone down. How'd you pull that off?"

"GIW are committing what the Ghost Zone considers war crimes," Danny answered rubbing the back of his head. "We're on the edge of full blow war. All the Ghost Zone is waiting for is their King to agree."

Everyone looked at the hybrid in shock.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" Batman growled not liking that this is how far its come.

Danny blinked as he registered what he just said.

Suddenly he wasn't too happy that the ghosts gave him a bunch of information.

Batman called an emergency meeting of the founders. He was pissed.

Amity Park was set to be ground zero of an interdimensional war, and this time it was preventable on their side.

They needed the government to realize that those ghosts are sentient and that they unknowingly committed war crimes against them.

Batman had a feeling that the GIW probably didn't care. He looked over some of the specs of the weaponry, and he knew that the government wanted more of it.

Superman sat down and looked to his friend. Flash and Diana walked in together talking while J'onn just stared at Batman. GL was looking though something on a tablet.

He knew that the man was angry and that it was partly their fault.

He wondered what could've happened since Batman was blocking a lot of things from getting though his mental barriers and he wasn't about to go mess with that beehive.

Shiera slowly walked in as this was the first meeting she was allowed to since she came back.

She was nervous and really hoped this didn't involve her.

"Alright, everyone is here, so why did you call this meeting, Bruce?" Superman asked as Batman brought up the town Amity Park.

"Uh. Isn't that the town that claims to be haunted by ghosts?" Flash asked confused. Batman glared at him.

"It's about to be ground zero of a war," Batman informed. "They weren't lying about the ghosts. But the ghosts aren't what you're thinking they are. They're interdimensional creatures that are connected heavily to our world. And the government just unknowingly committed war acts towards them."

"Alright, how do we stop them?" Superman asked looking at the files.

"We get the government to rescind the laws that violate them," Batman said making the rest of the League stare at him. "The Government backs off them and they won't call for war."

"But if they're ready for war…"Flash started only for GL to glare at Batman.

"What we need to do is find their leader and take him down," GL informed as he crossed his arms. Batman sighed.

"The acts were committed by the US government. They're the ones in the wrong," Batman said trying to get though. He needed them to understand that.

"But why were the laws created to begin with?" Diana asked wanting more information about the ghosts. "There has to be a good reason."

Batman sighed.

"Maybe at one time. But humans were the ones to break the door down and create a stable portal into their world. Some powerful ones called it a Death Space. I don't know what that means, but the one person I got my information from is currently trying to buy us time."

"Time for what exactly?" Superman asked knowing that the answer wouldn't be one he'd like.

"Time to rescind the Anti-Ecto Acts. We don't have much of it. We have to do something before they decide to come though."

Danny was readying the speeder to go into the Ghost Zone with Nightwing and Red Robin. Robin was in charge of keeping people away from Fentonworks.

White suits had started showing up around them.

Danny couldn't get a hold of his parents.

Sam and Tucker were on their way though.

Valerie was trying to distract both the GIW and the Masters Blasters from investigating Fentonworks just in case.

"Bringing more people in isn't a good idea," Nightwing had said when Danny warned them. Danny just glared at them and asked how many ghosts they had fought.

The heroes decided that was a battle they weren't quite ready for. Especially since none of them had experience in fighting ghosts.

Danny gathered some of the ecto-weapons for them to use should ghosts get though.

"Here," Danny said as he handed Nightwing one of his mom batons. "My mom made it. For now it should work like your own." Nightwing nodded before pocketing it.

Voices from above caught Danny's attention and he ran up the stairs to see Sam and Robin in a heated argument.

"Enough!" Danny yelled making everyone stare at him. Sam turned and smiled before running up and hugging him.

"You're okay!" she exclaimed holding Danny just a bit tighter. Tucker snickered behind his PDA.

"Yeah, I'm fine. But we have much bigger problems," Danny said as he led his friends downstairs. He looked back and noticed the Nightwing and Robin had started talking. Red Robin was still messing with his own computer.

He fled to the lab and hoped he'd have enough time to explain to then.

"Dude, are you okay?" Tucker asked seeing how spooked his friend was. He was wary himself, but he liked the Bat-clan.

"You mean minus the fact that I'm in line for the King of All Ghosts and apparently the Anti-Ecto Acts are considered a declaration of war to ghosts now that they know about them," Danny explained throwing his arms up. "I told them about the war thing, But I don't know what to do about the whole I'm next in line for the throne since I beat Pariah Dark in single combat!"

Both Sam and Tucker stared at their friend in concern.

"Dude, you haven't been gone that long, how'd everything happen?" Tucker asked confused.

"Well…" Danny started before retelling them everything from having Ember follow him to Gotham to being kidnapped and being possessed by powerful ghosts to him calling them.

Tucker stared wide eyed.

"That's quite a story," Technus said making the children jump. Danny glared at the ceiling.

"I forgot you were here. What are you even doing?" Danny asked looking around the lab for Technus to appear. "You've never been quiet this long."

His face showed up on one of the computer monitors across the room.

"Ember said you were going to finally do something about the GIW," the ghost informed. He refused to come out of the computer. Phantom's emblem was popping up on the other monitors. "I wanted to help and knew this would be your base of operations."

"That's not…whatever. It's true now," Danny sighed as he rubbed his face. "I'm giving the Justice League time to fix it first."

"Well, if you're technically the one who can call for war, then just don't," Tucker suggested making Danny shake his head.

"No, this has to be solved in order to protect the Ghost Zone," Danny said looking at his friends who stared at him. "There's no telling when the GIW will attack again. Especially after that stunt when they tried to blow up the Ghost Zone."

"You'd call for war, wouldn't you?" Sam asked knowing her friend. He would do whatever it took to protect those he cared about.

Including the ghosts.

"If I have to," Danny said sadly. "I'm hoping to avoid it."

"You'd do well as our leader, Child," Technus said as he popped up on a closer computer. "Although I'm still going to annoy you."

Danny rolled his eyes.

"Of course."

Ember blinked her eyes as she woke up.

She didn't see Danny anywhere and was concerned before going invisible and looking around the Manor.

She couldn't feel him close by and she was worried.

But there was a familiar ghost nearby and she narrowed her eyes as she phased though a couple walls.

"BEWARE!" The Box Ghost exclaimed before realizing it was Ember.

"Did you follow us?" Ember asked as she put her hands on her hips. Boxy blinked before shrugging.

"I was hoping to ensure that the Ghost Child would be safe in his efforts to ensure our safety!" Boxy yelled out making Ember face-palm.

"That's why I came with him!" she yelled at him.

Suddenly someone cleared their throat from the doorway.

"Can I help you?" Alfred asked glaring at the two floating beings. Ember smiled at him a little.

"BEWARE!" Box Ghost yelled before diving into the wall leaving Ember to explain things. Ember sighed.

"Don't suppose you know where Dipstick ended up, do you?" she asked making Alfred raise an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure I know of a…dipstick?" Alfred said slightly confused. Ember sighed.

"Kid's name is Danny."

"Master Danny was kidnapped last night by the League of Shadows," Alfred said watching her reaction. She had just stopped moving and stared at him.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! He hasn't even been here a full twenty-four hours since arriving and is already getting kidnapped by psychos?" Ember exclaimed before turning and looking out the window to glare at the city. "This is somehow your fault," she whispered as the feeling of laughter came across her.

Gotham was a cheeky bitch.

I'm feeling better! I've also gotten to like Chapter Ten! So I've got plenty of fodder for this story and hope to actually have it all written within the next couple weeks.