Phantom creaked one eye open at the sound of the beep. A groan escaped his mouth, and at the loss of a long-needed rest, the gravel of the rooftop bit into his back as he shifted, hoping to tune out the beeping. The sound of vehicles and chatter once again pulled him from the attempt to sleep. With a grunt Phantom laid on his back, a hand shooting upwards to block out the afternoon sun.
By the sound of it, Casper High had just gotten out. Phantom stood up looking across the street at the stream of students leaving the school. Amity Park was more of a home than anywhere else for him, yes he grew up with the GIW but this place just called to him. Phantom wasn't sure what it was, the people, or the amount of ectoplasm it just felt right. He stumbled upon the small town once while searching for his way back to the lab and something inside of him seemed to click. A warm feeling as if this is where he was supposed to be, and it wasn't an irritating warm like he'd grown accustomed to, no it was a nice warm.
Ever since the accident the heat always bothered him, not enough to hurt him, but it did make him rather uncomfortable. After learning about it, the GIW reveled in it making Phantom's room the hottest one in the building.
It was fine with him, Phantom was rarely there. Spending most of his time in Amity or on missions. Since the GIW could track where he was at all times, from the tracker in his bloodstream and the one in the collar, it made it easier for Phantom to avoid being in the lab, except for the usual tests and experimentation, Phantom was rarely there.
Phantom groaned as the beep chimed again, a little louder. He lifted his wrist, watching as the message beeped into existence.
Return to base
Phantom sighed, stretching his tired arms out. He had one heck of a fight last night, with a ghost who had a lot of fun throwing boxes full of metal at Phantom.
It wasn't as fun as it sounded.
And lucky for the ghost, he got away. Phantom would wring that ghost's neck next time he saw him. Being hit with a box full of bricks was extremely painful, even with his enhanced healing. He often shook off the pain though, as ghosts weren't supposed to feel anything, it had to all be in his head.
"I'll be back." He said to the open air as he walked away, taking a deep breath, he put his focus on flying. When battling the box ghost it was rather difficult to fight with extremely diminished powers. But he managed. Huh.
That's what he'll call him. Box Ghost. It is what the ghost kept on shouting while Phantom struggled under the pile of boxes.
Taking off into the air, Phantom looked down at the town with a small smile before moving forward, shooting through the air and back towards the lab.
His flight wasn't too long, having arrived at the lab within an hour. He landed softly as Agent K stood at the entrance of the lab, watching the ten-year-old near. Agent K moved forward, holding the oval device Phantom turned in a few weeks ago.
"We have finished adjusting the EctoTracker." Phantom nodded slowly, looking at Agent K. "It will track anyone with the slightest possibility of becoming a ghost after their death. You will try it out in Bludhaven, keep an eye out for the vigilante Nightwing."
Phantom looked up, his eyes trained on the man's chin, never making eye contact. Yes, they wanted him to look up to show he understood, but looking into their eyes was forbidden.
Agent K turned around and walked back into the lab, the door sliding shut behind him. The orange light on the collar turned yellow, as Phantom felt the familiar amount of power return. Turning around, fighting off the grin as he took off in the air with little effort.
Flying was always so much more enjoyable without constant effort. It was the closest Phantom would get to space. He often wondered if ghosts could go to space, they didn't need to breathe. It wouldn't be that hard for him to just fly up and leave…
He couldn't, the GIW needed him. Phantom had nowhere else to go anyway. Even aliens wouldn't want a ghost in their home. He highly doubted they even knew ghosts existed, as intelligent aliens were, ghosts were far better at hiding. No one seemed to know they existed.
Phantom's feet touched the gravel of the building without the slightest sound. It was a calm day, rather warm now that the wind wasn't blowing in Phantom's face. A small breeze pushed past the boy as he stared at the device, watching it light up with a green glow before the screen turned to a gray color, the small arrow in the center spinning wildly before slowing to a stop, pointing to Phantom's right.
"Cool." He said with a grin. "It's like a compass."
Phantom moved forward, making sure to keep his invisibility up, it might have been in the middle of the day, but that didn't mean Nightwing wasn't hiding out somewhere.
After walking in what felt like a circle, Phantom plopped down. "Dang thing's broken." He grumbled, staring up at the darkened sky. The sun was setting and he spent the entire day, wandering around like a lost puppy.
The device chirped, earning a raised eyebrow from Phantom. "What now?" He muttered, the stupid device led him around in a circle, which would result in the GIW taking out their frustrations on him. After a second of contemplating he reached over to pick up the device. It chirped again, the arrow moving forward before plopping back down to the center of the device and moving forward again. Curiously Phantom moved forward with it, lowering himself off of the building and onto the sidewalk. No one could see him anyway. He stumbled slightly as a woman walked through him, she shivered glancing back to see nothing. She pulled her jacket closer to herself and continued onward.
He shook his head before following the device, leading him into an alley. Where a drunken man was stumbling down it. His words slurred as he talked to the air.
"How dare you." He hiccuped, glaring down at a tin can that was in his way. The man stubbornly refused to go around it. "You know who Im?" His words slurred as he grinned wickedly kicking the can. "Tat's wha you get." He said pointing an accusatory finger at the can.
The chirping got louder as Phantom neared the man, who was to busy harassing a tin can to notice. Phantom looked at the man, a twinge of guilt spiking through him before it got locked away. Phantom tucked the device away and lunged.
Phantom blinked, and he was across the alley. His hand clenched in a fist, covered in blood. The blood coated his hand and arm, up to his elbow. His eyes widened, was that his blood?
No Phantom didn't bleed red.
A wheeze from behind him caused Phantom to freeze. His heart pounding, he slowly turned around and instantly regretted it. The man stared at Phantom in horror, as blood dripped from the fist-sized hole in his stomach. "No!" Phantom cried out, lunging forward to catch the man as he fell.
His hands moved to something to help the man, anything "I'm sorry!" He cried as the man wheezed, unable to get an actual breath in. Phantom's hands were shaking, unable to do anything to help the man, he stared at them, the blood. So much blood. He could feel the warm liquid crawling on his legs, soaking in through his gloves. Filling his lungs.
He was drowning, Phantom couldn't breathe.
There was so much.
The room was filling, over the brim with blood. Phantom couldn't escape, the blood pulling him downwards, choking him.
The iron taste filling his mouth
"I"m so sorry!" He sobbed burying his face into his hands, ignoring the sickening smell as it overwhelmed his enhanced senses. He couldn't bring himself to end the man's misery.
Instead, he kept on stumbling out apologizes as the man lay there in his arms. Phantom faintly remembered the device wirling to life as he cradled the dead man. The nameless man. The man could have had a family and Phantom took him away from them.
Phantom slowly looked up, floating above the man's chest was ectoplasm, floating in place. Phantom fumbled with his belt as he pulled out a glass container, leaning forward he scooped up the ectoplasm and closed the container. It pulsed, seemingly alive.
Phantom stared at it watery-eyed, He felt even worse at the thought that the man would come back as a ghost. A ghost stuck with the GIW. Just like Phantom, maybe he wouldn't be so alone.
Grasping the thought like a lifeline, Phantom slowly stood up, before his eyes shot upwards at the sound of gravel shifting. His breath hitched as he watched the man stare at the body Phantom stood by. His attention slowly turned back towards Phantom. Only to make eye contact with a wall.
Nightwing moved forward, climbing down the building with more agility than Phantom would expect from a human. Phantom floated there for a moment before backing up, he couldn't stay much longer, even with invisibility Nightwing could still find a way to spot him. So Phantom left, shooting up into the night sky.
Nightwing landed on the ground with a sound thump. His eyes scanned the area before pulling up a thermal reading. Nothing, the boy just vanished. How did the boy disappear so quickly? When he arrived, the man was already dead, and the child was sobbing, crying out apologies, and clinging onto the man like it was all he had left in the world.
Nightwing felt his heartbreak at remembering the child's cries. It's how he found the place in the first place. It took him a little bit to narrow down where they were coming from, and by the time he got here, the boy had seemingly calmed down. As much as he could, the boy was shaking so badly, that Nightwing was surprised he was actually able to stand.
Shaking his head, Nightwing moved closer to the body, eyes narrowing at the gaping hole in the man's chest, he didn't notice it before, due to the boy covering it with his own body. The blood, coating the dirty ground, was a little less dense from where the boy was kneeling. He made his way around, careful not to step in the blood.
He stopped behind where the boy was previously kneeling, eyeing the bloody footprints that led away, then just vanished. His lips pressed together before his attention moved to the man's chest, a perfectly circular burn on the man's chest, with an unburned marker in the center shaped like a teardrop.
His finger went up to his ear as he clicked on his comm. Waiting for it to connect. "Hey B-"
A grunt came in response, obviously, Batman was in the middle of something, yet Nightwing continued
"I found something."
"Tt spit it out, Richard." A younger voice came through, obviously annoyed at the intrusion. Nightwing heard grunts before Batman's voice came back.
"Explain."
"I kind of can't." Nightwing tilted his head examining the area. "Your gonna wanna see this yourself."
Silence followed before a sigh. "I'll be there shortly."
A dismayed noise followed before Nightwing disconnected, no reason to listen to Robin argue with the Bat.
Nightwing paced back and forth. Stopping in front of the body and now dried blood. "Took you long enough." He said with a huff turning around to face Batman, who would have just looked like one of the shadows to an untrained eye.
Batman walked past him, kneeling down next to the body, scanning over it. "Report."
"I just started patrol when I heard he a kid screaming." Nightwing watched as Batman's head tilted ever so slightly. "It wasn't a pained scream, more like extreme despair. It took me a little bit to narrow down where it was coming from." Nightwing ignored the disappointment he felt radiating off of Batman. "When I arrived, there was a hooded boy, a white cloak to be exact, with a bloody hand print on the hood, I'm guessing it was from the child in his distress, he reached up and grabbed the hood. The bottom of the cloak probably stained in blood now tha-"
"Nightwing."
"Right, the report. Anyway, the kid was calmer when I arrived, he adjusted the man's shirt and then stood up. I was examining the body and when I looked back to where the kid was he was gone." Nightwing pointed towards the bloody footprints.
"Cameras?"
"All garbled, they were fine until the kid showed up." Nightwing held up a device, playing a recording of the man stumbling into the alley before the video became all fuzzy."
"And bodycam."
"The same thing happened." Nightwing sighed rubbing the back of his neck. "B… what if whatever did this took the kid."
Batman stood up, his cape swooshing behind him. "Send me the autopsy reports." With that, he disappeared into the shadows. Nightwing turned around shaking his head before heading in the same direction.
It had been a long night.
Chapter Three is done.
Yay. Ayyyy. So yeah I know it hasn't been a week. It's been like two days. But this story has me all excited. So I coudln't help it.
Also I'm sorry if I get Batman and Nightwing and all them wrong. Again I haven't watched anything or read the comics with the batfam. I literally know nothing about Cass and Duke.
OH also which shows or comics should I watch/read to get a better understanding of them? And for my own personal enjoyment.
Alsoooooo I'm struggling to figure out if things are moving too fast. Does the story seem rushed to you? I really hate it when stories rush and I struggle with finding a way to stretch things out. I have to look over the chapter a few times to make sure it's not too rush.
But then I get a little annoyed at reading my own writing.
Also I'm on tumblr if you just wanna stop by and say hi.
Username is ellabellabugz on there and you'll know it's me cause it says that I'm the author of You're a Hero