Disclaimer: All rights to characters and locations belong to the respective owners, DC Comics and Nickelodeon/Butch Hartman. The author of this story owns nothing here; this story is for fun, not money or profit of any kind.
Chapter 6: WAR: Part II
Dusk had fallen over Metropolis, as Danny Phantom and Power Girl walked over to the man who called himself 'The Flash'. The red-clad hero grinned at them. "You made a tornado?" Phantom asked. "How? Can you control the wind, or something?"
Flash shook his head. "No," he said. "I'm just fast."
Power Girl nodded. "Thanks for the save," she commented. "But we got more incoming."
A large platoon of Brainiac Subjugators flew towards them. "Well, Flash," Phantom said. "I hope you can hit as well as you can run. These guys are no push-overs in a group!"
Flash shook his head, and said, "Don't worry about me. I once took down a guy that could multiply himself." Danny glanced at Flash. He wondered if Flash fought a ghost, or just some dude with weird powers.
Power Girl and Phantom launched into the air at the oncoming wave. Several Brainiac units on the ground went after Flash, who began moving his arms in tight circles at blinding speed. Two twin twisters flowed from the movement, blowing away the units. Glancing up to see Phantom blasting several units with his ghost ray, Flash ran up the side of a building. "You know," he shouted to Danny. "These things seem to be focusing a lot on you."
"Gee," Danny said, kicking another Subjugator away. "I hadn't noticed. Thanks."
Power Girl ripped away the arms of a drone before hitting it with it's own arms. She then picked up an empty minivan and slammed it down on a couple of Brainiac drones. "I love a good fight," she shouted.
"So how are you guys planning on stopping this?" Flash asked, as he ran between several drones, causing them to fire on each other.
"I still say we let some of us get captured," Danny said. "And take him out once we're inside." Before any more could be said, a loud crash sounded behind them.
The three heroes turned to see a gigantic crab-like robot bearing Brainiac's insignia land down the block and turned towards them. It was huge! Standing well over four stories high, it glowed bright orange, with dark black metal armor. "Overseer Prime, online," it droned. "New acquisitions detected."
"Okay," Power Girl said. "That's new." She rocketed towards the machine, only to be repelled by a shield. "Oof," she grunted, hitting the ground. Flash and Danny ran over to help her up, but she shrugged them off. "Finally," she said, rubbing her shoulder. "Brainiac is giving us a challenge!"
Phantom and Flash exchanged glances. Power Girl flew in the air, and blasted her heat vision at the Crab-bot. "She's, uh, tenacious," Flash commented.
Danny sighed. "You have no idea," he said dryly.
"Threat detected," the Overseer said. "Offensive systems, online." The Overseer then reared up, and slammed it's front legs down on the pavement, sending an energized shockwave hurtling towards the three heroes, blasting them away. Power Girl and Flash were slammed into a car together, while Phantom collided with a street light. They groaned, as the slowly rose to their feet.
"Wow," Danny said. "Brainiac must really be some kind of stalker! He wants us, bad!"
"HHAARRGGH!" came a war cry above them. The heroes looked up to see a winged figure speeding straight down above the Overseer at terminal velocity. It was Hawkgirl! She slammed her spiked mace onto the robot's shield, the electrified Nth Metal in the weapon causing the shield to short circuit! "Taste the mace!" Hawgirl cried, repeatedly bashing the Overseer, slowly denting it's armor.
"It's shield is down," Flash said, speeding over to help the winged warrior. Phantom and Power Girl followed suit. Power Girl and Danny Phantom poured it on with heat vision and ghost rays, while Flash was using his speed to vibrate the Overseer's leg joints, causing them to over-heat, and Hawkgirl continued to use her mace.
Quickly overwhelmed without it's force field, the Overseer collapsed. Breathing heavily, Hawkgirl and the others turned to face each others. "Hawkgirl," Danny said. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"
Hawkgirl nodded. "Good to see you, too," she replied.
"You two know each other?" Flash asked.
Danny nodded. "We've worked together before," Hawkgirl said. Phantom turned back to her. "Speaking of," he said. "Where's Hawkman?"
Hawkgirl shrugged. "He was in Egypt when the invasion began," she explained. "He'll be stuck there for awhile."
Meanwhile, in Egypt...
Hawkman was flying above the Great Pyramid of Giza, battling a squadron of Brainiac drones by himself. He was trashing several drones with his mace. In the blazing hot Egyptian desert, this was no easy feat. Of all the times he chose to go to Egypt on an archaeological survey for his museum, the Earth just had to get invaded! Growling, he shouted, "I am sick of these goddamn robots, in this goddamn desert!"
"Huh," Danny said. "Well, sucks for him. Anyway, this is Power Girl, and the Flash." Before anymore could be said, an ominous voice rang out from behind them.
"Back up power, restored," the Overseer was coming back online!
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Power Girl sneered. The group readied for another round with the the robot. The battered Overseer shakily rose, it's lights flickering.
Then, Power Girl's ears picked up a ringing from the air. "Missiles!" she shouted. Phantom instinctively created a round ecto-shield around the group. The missiles crashed into the Overseer, blowing what was left of it to pieces. They looked up to see the origin of the missiles. The Bat-wing flew overhead.
"Batman," stated Danny.
Flash looked over to Phantom. "Batman's real?" asked Flash. As if in answer, The Dark Knight himself used his long cape to glide to the ground a few feet from the group.
Danny jutted his thumb in Batman's direction. "Yeah," he deadpanned. "He's over there."
Flash's eyes widened. In the blink of an eye, he was in front of Batman, who narrowed his eyes. "It is a real honor to meet you, Mr,- Batman-, Sir, Batman,- Sir," Flash stammered. He held out his hand.
Batman glared at the young speedster for a moment. "I've followed you efforts in Central City, Flash," he said, shaking Flash's hand. "You do tight, efficient work."
"Oh, come one," Danny said, throwing his arms in the air. "When we first met, you handcuffed me? And yet you shake his hand and compliment him?"
Batman looked at Danny, and said, "I'd never seen you before. I was being cautious. Besides, you threw the first punch."
Danny rolled his eyes, and sighed. "I'm never going to hear the end of that, am I?"
Batman ignored the comment. "I came from Gotham, because I suspected this invasion would have something to do with Superman," he said.
"Well, you're not too far off," came a reply from above. Everyone looked up to see Superman arrive; along with a tall, athletic woman in what looked like an armored red and blue swimsuit with silver trim, and a man wearing a green uniform with a glowing ring on his right hand. "I see we've assembled quite the group," the Man of Steel remarked. He gestured to his two new companions. "This is Wonder Woman and Green Lantern."
Lantern nodded, and Wonder Woman raised her blade. "Greetings, warriors," she said.
Danny stepped forward. He gestured to his own group. "This is the Flash, Hawkgirl, Power Girl and Batman." Everyone nodded to one another, except Batman, who glared at everyone, ever suspicious.
Green Lantern looked Danny up and down, and asked, "And just who the hell are you? A distant member of the Adam's Family?"
Danny's eyes flashed a brighter shade of green at the comment. He floated up to eye level with the Lantern. "The name is Danny Phantom," he growled. Looking down, Danny held up the glowing power ring. "So, what's this do?" he asked.
Lantern jumped in surprise, and shouted, "Hey!" The glowing green light surrounding him faded, and his uniform vanished, leaving him wearing his Air Force flight suit. On his breast pocket read the name 'Hal Jordan'.
Danny landed on the ground, and walked a few steps away, studying the ring. "I'm not seeing any buttons, or switches, or wiring," he commented. "Does this thing run on concentration, or is it magic-based, like the original Green Lantern from back in the day?"
"How did you do that?" asked the befuddled Hal Jordan.
Danny looked over at him, and grinned. "You weren't concentrating, dude."
Scowling, Hal raised his right hand, calling the ring back to him. "Not cool, kid," he sneered. "You won't do that again."
Danny grinned, mischievously. "Unless I want to," he said. Among the group of assembled heroes, Batman smirked. Phantom had learned a few things.
"Would you two quit messing around?" Superman asked, crossing his arms. "We need to formulate a plan. The only reason Brainiac hasn't attacked us since we all got here is that he's readjusting his plans. Now that there are more of us, with such a wide array of abilities, he's going to come at us that much harder."
"And you are correct, Kal-El," Brainiac's voice filtered through the broken communication relays that remained of the fallen Overseer. "Unlike you, I do not tire. My forces are vast. If I must, I shall simply wait for you all to exhaust yourselves, and then eliminate you. But make no mistake: Your world, as well as the unknown energy signature radiating from the being known as 'Danny Phantom' will belong to Brainiac."
Danny suddenly blasted a large ghost ray at the remains of the machine, cutting the transmission. "Blah, blah, blah," he said. "We've heard it before! Find some new catch phrases!"
"Don't you all find it a little too coincidental that all of us were drawn to come here?" Power Girl asked. "I ain't complaining, but still... All of us coming here at around the same time? Superman and Phantom were already here before the invasion, but why did the rest of us decide to come here, really?" They all looked at each other, no one having an answer.
"I was heading here when my ring alerted me to Air Force One being in danger, but, yeah, I was headed here, already. Not sure why, now that you mention it," Green Lantern said.
Flash shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "I just had the feeling like I was needed here, rather than Central City."
Hawkgirl nodded, in agreement. "Me, too," she said.
Batman said, "I came here, because I knew Superman and Brainiac battled before. For some reason, I just... had a gut feeling that Brainiac came here for revenge."
Superman raised his hands. "Regardless of why," he said. "We are here now. And now we have a more sizable force to take on Brainiac with. We just need a plan. And, no, Phantom. We aren't going to go with your plan of letting you, or a group of us, get captured, and just hope that we can somehow break free inside."
"Why not?" Batman scowled. "Right now, it seems like the only plan we have with any chance of succeeding. As it stands, Brainiac's force field around his mothership is impregnable. Even with all our power, we won't break through. Our only choice is to take him out from within."
Superman frowned, and stepped up to Batman, looking him dead in the eye. "You don't know Brainiac like I do," he said.
Batman simply glared in response. "We don't have to," he growled. "We just have to count on him over-estimating himself. Machine or not, he'll likely still make the mistake of being too greedy. Once we're inside, it's just a matter of getting loose, and taking him down."
"Whoa, hold on there, Bats," Lantern said. "You and the ghost want us to get captured? On purpose? Hell, no. I heard you were crazy, but this takes the cake!"
"Fine," Batman said. "You can stay down here. To make this convincing, we need some of us to remain out here, and keep fighting. A few of us will go inside. Lantern, Flash, Hawkgirl and Power Girl will remain out here, and keep the fight going. Myself, Phantom, Superman and Wonder Woman will surrender to Brainiac, and once we're inside, we'll take him out."
"... I still don't like this," Superman said. "But I suppose, once we're inside, our best option would be to-" BOOM! A large explosion rocked the heroes. They had wasted too much time arguing! A massive legion of several hundred drones, Subjugators, and Overseers were flowing from the Brainiac mothership! The drones were now out-right attacking the city!
"Foolish beings," Brainiac's monotone voice bellowed over the city. "You have wasted your chance to strike. You cannot deceive me. You may have destroyed many of my drones, but they are still a part of me; my eyes and ears are now littering the streets. Your pitiful idea to give a mock surrender in order to infiltrate my ship has now doomed your city. Metropolis shall be destroyed as punishment. And so shall all of you. Brainiac will not be defied."
Without another word, the heroes jumped into action. Superman and Power Girl began trashing nearby drones with heat vision and their bare hands. Flash was once again moving his arms at high speeds, creating dual twisters, quickly taking down several drones. Green Lantern created a large light-construct mech with his ring, sitting at the controls. It had several several large missile launchers, which made short work of several Subjugators. Hawkgirl was using her mace to short circuit the shields of three Overseers, while Batman ran underneath, planting explosives on the legs.
Phantom was now really worried! He hoped his family was somewhere safe; or better yet, out of the city! He flew through the air, shooting ghost ray after ghost ray, blowing away four Subjugators. "Ha! Take that, creeps," he said.
Wonder Woman lashed out with her lasso, grouping several drones together, before slamming them hard into the side of a building. Wasting no time, she drew her blade and began dismantling several more troops, violently cutting their heads from their shoulders.
Flash and Green Lantern noticed her skill. "Holy...," Flash muttered.
Lantern nudged Flash. "Forget it, Barry," he smirked. "I already called dibs!" Yup, Lantern hadn't changed a bit since the two last worked together. Flash still grimaced at how Hal had hit on not only Iris West; Barry's girlfriend, but also his long-time colleague Caitlin Snow in the same day when he first met them. Needless to say, Caitlin's husband, Ronnie, didn't take well to that.
Hawkgirl flew above the two. "Less talking, more fighting, you two!" she ordered.
Danny flew down to wear Batman was handling his own against several drones. Impressive, considering he had no powers of his own. At least, none that anyone knew of. "So," Danny said. "Did you have an idea on how to stop Brainiac, had we gotten up there?"
Batman threw three exploding batarangs at a Subjugator, blowing it to pieces. "Computer virus," he growled. "Brainiac may be an advanced alien computer, but he's still just a machine. I designed one just for him after his first attack on Metropolis, years ago. That was before I had met Superman. I find it's best to prepare for any eventuality." Without another word, he grappled away, after more drones. "
Huh," Danny said. "He scares me more, and more. Still, he could be a little more friendly."
He then noticed Superman and Wonder Woman were being overwhelmed, and flew over to give them support. He overshadowed one of the Subjugators; a little trick he had picked up fighting Technus. The Subjugator he occupied opened fire at it's colleagues. Superman and Wonder Woman were taken aback for a moment at the sight of one of their enemies attacking it's own allies, not knowing Danny was inside.
Wonder Woman frowned, charging the Danny/Subjugator. "No, no, no, no! Wait, it's me! Phantom!" he shouted in the robotic voice of the Brainiac drone, throwing his hands up in surrender. Wonder Woman stopped herself just inches from the robot, a confused look on her face. "Whew," the Danny/Subjugator sighed in relief. He then left the host body; short out the machine on his way out.
"Great Hera," Wonder Woman gasped. "You are truly a spirit?"
"Uh, that's one way to look at it," Danny shrugged. Superman nodded at the two, before heading to give Batman and Hawkgirl some support. "Nice to meet you, by the way," Danny said to Wonder Woman. "I saw your fight with Ares in DC on the news a couple months ago! Very cool! Beating the God of War, and saving everyone, and stuff! That must have been tough."
Wonder Woman looked at Danny, amused. By nature, Diana chose to see the best in everyone; even spirits of the dead. Strange, a spirit choosing to help the living. She had been raised on Paradise Island believing that the spirits of the dead were to be feared, and not trusted, like Hades. But this one seemed to give off a friendly, somewhat innocent aura. What struck a chord with her most was how young he looked. 'How sad,' she thought. 'He died so young.'
Suddenly, screaming could be heard from below. The two spun to see a group of people being chased by several drones! The group was a small family; a mother and her two children. They must have gotten lost during the initial scurry to get to safety. He and Wonder Woman flew down to engage the Brainiac drones. Wonder Woman unfurled her glowing lasso again, and grabbed three of the drones by their necks. Swinging hard, she threw them into a building. The remaining two drones, Danny went after. He blasted one with his ghost ray, but the other aimed it's weapon at the family; firing. "No!" Danny cried. He flew at top speed, throwing himself in between the family and the oncoming bolts!
The bolts struck Danny, sending him to the ground. Wonder Woman snarled, as she beheaded the offending drone. She quickly ran over to check on Danny, as Flash ran over. "I'll get them to safety," he said, before running off with the family at blinding speed. Wonder Woman rolled Phantom over to see two burn marks on his torso. Surely, a spirit can't die again? She worriedly shook his shoulder, noting how cold he was to the touch.
Suddenly, Danny gasped, and sat up coughing, causing Diana to jump, slightly. The wounds on his chest began to heal. "Wow, that hurt," he rasped, in shock. He looked around, not seeing the family he risked his half-life for. "Are those people okay?"
Diana sighed, relieved. Nodding, she helped Danny to his feet, noticing how light he was; almost like air. "That was very brave," she said. "You clearly care a great deal for people."
Danny nodded. "Of, course I do," he said, dusting himself off. "I won't stand by as innocent people get hurt!"
Wonder Woman found her respect for the young spirit growing. He had a great deal of compassion. "That is the kind of selflessness and care I wish to inspire in the people of man's world," she said.
"And precisely the weakness I intended to exploit," Brainiac's voice came from above. It had been a trap! "Danny Phantom, your power is now mine." A large energy beam from the Brainiac ship fell over the two heroes. They flinched, shielding their eyes from the glare. Superman and the other heroes nearby gasped in shock as Wonder Woman and Danny Phantom vanished from sight! "Are they... gone?" Hawkgirl asked, quietly.
Superman scowled, sadly. "No," he said. "They've been teleported aboard Brainiac's ship. He wanted Phantom because of his unique energy. Wonder Woman just happened to be standing right next to him." He turned his glare up to the massive ship. "Brainiac! You still haven't gotten me, yet! Come down here, and face me!"
"Patience, Kal-El," Brainiac said from his ship. "You time will come. I now have the unknown energy source. It is only a matter of time before I possess you, your cousin, and your entire world. In the end, Brainiac always wins."
The remaining heroes looked at one another, uncertain of how to proceed. Except for Batman. "Hopefully, they can brake free," he said. "But we need to focus on getting his forces down here under control. Then, we'll figure out a way to get them back."
Danny felt strange. Everything was a white light. He panicked, for a moment, thinking of the GIW, when a voice he'd never heard echoed through the back of his mind. It wasn't his, or Brainiac's. It was distant, and had a deep sound to it, but kept fading in and out. "Help me, please," it said. "You must release me... Only chance... Find the... Help me..." Then, Danny's whole world went black...