Okay, so this is how this is going to work... For those who have been wondering where on earth I've been for the past when-ever, continue reading through the Author's Note and I will try to explain using the 'long-story-short' version. For those that could honestly care less, just skip down to the chapter.
Alright, explanation time. The basics: I've moved from Louisiana to Tennessee, I've been having some major dysfunctional family issues, my parents (*Cough* parent*cough*) has been giving my siblings and I a hard time because they're probably stressed out with work (in which I'm slowing working on the courage to confront them about it), school has started and I've been enrolled into 'Middle College' at APSU (yay me...:/), and lastly, I can no longer discuss this story or the series of one-shots coming soon as easily with Silver818 as before because of the move and also because they have a hard time texting me back at times -.-'.
Yep, that's pretty much it... besides those reasons, I've been revising and editing the past chapters, so if you see changes, don't freak out, they're not that dramatic of changes, just a few changing of wording and things said by certain characters in order to help the plot.
Alright, I hope I can start updating a lot sooner, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
READ AND REVIEW! THEY KEEP ME MOTIVATED!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Danny Phantom or Young Justice! All rights reserved to respectful owners!
Ch. 8
The air within the warehouse felt thick and eery in the echoing silence. The fading sun only dampened the mood further, as shadows danced across the walls and stretched their eager skeletal fingers towards the occupants of the room. Yellow turned orange as the sun's last rays of light shown through the broken windows of the warehouse.
Danny, still in his Ghost form, observed his ex family and friends, and couldn't help but feel guilty as he took in their appearances.
Maddie and Jack Fenton's hair were graying significantly, their usually out-going colored jumpsuits looked worn and dull in color, their weapons also looked worn and poorly made in design, but lastly their eyes. Their eyes held so much grief and exhaustion that it almost hurt to look at them.
Miss Martian must've noticed the way Phantom was looking at his birth parents, for she was now talking to him through the mind-link. 'Danny... it's not your fault. They brought this upon themselves. It's their own actions that made them like this,' she said, attempting to assure him. But Danny didn't dare voice his doubtful thoughts on the matter.
Before Phantom, or anybody, could say anything, Maddie exclaimed 'Danny!' and began to run towards him with open arms and a relieved smile on her face with tears in her eyes.
But before she could reach him, Superboy stepped in front of the ghost, effectively blocking off the red-haired woman's path.
Maddie stopped and with a look of shock, stared at the slightly older raven-haired teen. Soon enough she was able to snap out of it and now looked on in curiosity.
"What do you think you're doing?" Superboy's voice echoed throughout the warehouse.
Maddie blinked in surprise at the question, but that surprise quickly turned into irritation, "Hugging my son, what else would I be doing?"
'She's telling the truth you know...' Kid Flash said over the Mind-Link.
'That doesn't mean she gets the right too,' Superboy said cooly back.
'So how are we going to deal with these guys?' Artemis asked.
"Last time I checked, he wasn't your son..." Miss Martain retorted, stepping closer to Phantom.
"You teenagers dare have the audacity to sit there and claim-"
"Enough!"
Both groups stopped and turned to stare at the person of topic, only to find that said person trying his best to refrain from lashing/acting out.
Phantom took a calming breath and stated seriously, "This discussion can wait till later... We are currently on a mission and we must complete it. Now, can you please explain what's been happening in Amity Park?"
Both groups now blinked at Phantom in shock, surprised that he decided to speak up after all. Nightwing on the other hand couldn't help but smirk, for he was proud of the young teen for speaking for himself and keeping the mission their main priority.
Maddie, now even more interested, crossed her arms and asked, "What 'mission'?"
Phantom answered back (rather sarcasitcally), "Clockwork came to me saying that Amity Park is falling apart. Imagine my surprise when I got here and I discover that there is a planned Ghost Invasion waiting to happen, and how the city doesn't seem to be equipped enough to fight it off."
Sam Manson finally came out of her shock and decided to say something, "First you go and abandon us, leaving us to have to deal with all the ghosts constantly causing havoc. Then you decide to go to an entirely different dimension, leaving us to also have to deal with the problems in the Ghost Zone! And you come back NOW only to insult us?! What is wrong with you?!"
Phantom's eyes darkened significantly and with gritted teeth replied, "Last time I checked, the ghosts were always Amity Park's problem, NEVER mine. And for your information, there IS nothing wrong with me..."
Then Phantom's ex-father decided to join the conversation, "Now son, there's no reason to be hostile-"
Phantom's glowing aura flared and his green eyes grew brighter turning almost blinding white, "I have EVERY right to be HOSTILE!" A light fixture above them exploded, causing sparks to fly all around the the two groups. 'Phantom your powers are getting out of control, you need to calm down,' Aqualad ordered calmly over the Mind-Link.
Phantom took a deep breath in order to gather himself again, before giving a long sigh while pinching the bridge of his nose, "Look... can we just discuss the real problem here?"
Mr. Fenton opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a certain Tucker Foley, who noticed things were going to get ugly if he didn't do something soon. "Yeah we'll explain and we'll also tell you what we found out so far. But first let's head downstairs in order to get a bit more comfortable..."
Tucker turned around and began to walk towards the desk that was in the middle of the room. He walked over onto the other side of it and pushed a button that was underneath it. The Team (except for Phantom) stared in slight awe as a trap door opened beside the desk and a metal stair case appeared heading downwards.
"So..." Beast Boy said breaking the silence, "Who exactly are you guys?"
Kid Flash actually facepalmed while the rest of the Team just gave him looks that said 'you couldn't have thought of anything else to say?'
Tucker sighed and decided to introduce himself first, "Name's Tucker. Tucker Foley. TF for-"
"Tucker, I swear to the ancients that if you finish that sentence..." Sam interrupted with a dangerous tone of voice.
Beast Boy, Impulse,and Robin couldn't help but snicker at how pale Tucker had gotten after she said that. The rest of the Team either ignored it or just tried to look amused.
"Anyways, I'm a techno-geek. The goth girl over there is Sam Manson," Tucker finished.
"And we're Jack and Maddie Fenton, owner's of FentonWorks and ghost experts and hunters," Jack stated with an enthusiastic smile.
"I honestly would love to say it's nice to meet you, and not to sound rude or anything, but from Phantom's told us so far we- um..." Kid Flash tried to explain.
Jack's eyes and smile turned sad as he replied back, "It's alright... I honestly would do the same thing if I were in your shoes."
It was then that they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through two metal swinging doors. As they walked into the room, the Team couldn't help but stare in awe. The walls were covered with all kinds of technology, there were multiple desks set up all alround the large underground room, and there was enough light to make it look as though it were day time.
"Welcome to our trusty base! Complete with guests rooms for late-night investigations and hunts, a training room, a kitchen, cable, gaming consoles, and a weapon's vault! All made by yours truly!" Tucker grinned like a mad man as he welcomed the Team.
Most of the members nodded in awe or confirmation of hearing the fellow teen, while the others were still looking around the room. But their observations were interrupted by the Fentons. "I also don't mean to sound rude, but who are you? And why are you on a mission with Danny?" Maddie Fenton glared.
Nightwing stepped up in front of the group and held out his hand towards the red-headed Fenton. "My name is Nightwing. I am the leader of this team of young heroes and am in charge of giving missions. I permitted this mission since it was a request from an old friend of Phantoms' and we felt as though it would be best to come along to make sure he was not in harm's way. As to where we came from, we're actually from a different dimension."
Both the Fentons and Phantom's ex-friends' eyes widened at that last statement.
Tucker stepped forwards waving his hands back and forth saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait! Hold up! Did you just say different dimension?!"
Nightwing and a few others couldn't help but smirk at that. And thus the introductions began. "Yep, we sure do! My name's Beast Boy!" "My name is Robin." "Kid Flash." "Artemis." "Aqualad." "Miss Martain." "Superboy." "Impulse!" "And I'm Zatanna."
"Well it's nice to meet all of you wonderful people!" Jack said with a cheerful smile.
Nightwing was about to get everyone back on track, but Sam ended up speaking first. "You can't be serious!"
Everyone's attention turned to Sam as she began to ball her fists at her side. "That's what you meant? You said we'd never be able to find you and that's where you've been all along? IN ANOTHER FREAKING DIMENSION?!"
Danny, on the other hand, just stayed quiet with his white cloak over his head, effectively hiding all of his face besides a few strands of white hair and the bottom half of his face.
"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE KIND OF TROUBLE YOU PUT US THROUGH?!" Sam exclaimed.
"...Sam-"
"NO- you're going to listen to this! When you disappeared, we were devastated! We looked for you for months! We even tried to get help from Frostbite, Dora, and even freaking Ember! But no matter how hard we looked, no matter how far we searched, you weren't there..."
Everyone remained quiet as they took in Sam's anger and despair.
"No, you didn't..."
"EXCUSE ME?!"
Phantom looked towards the goth girl, his eyes glowing bright green. "I said, no you didn't. I know for a fact that you didn't!"
Sam couldn't help but back up slightly at Danny's snap at her, he's never done that before, to anyone.
"You want to know how I know? Because half of the Team and I visited the Ghost Zone a little while back, and I visited Dora, Frostbite, and even went to a private concert that Ember hosted for us! Did you ever think that they might have actually known where I was, but decided not to tell you because I asked them too? But no that isn't even the case here... I asked them if you guys were looking for me, and do you know what they told me? You only searched for three days, then completely abandoned the search, you didn't care. So stop feeding me your crap and let's get down to the REAL reason why we're all here."
Everyone blinked at Phantom's response, but it only lasted for a second before Danny swung around and headed towards one of the computers and began typing rapidly.
"Tucker." Danny's tone of voice stated loud and clear 'this conversation is over'.
"Oh right! Here, I'll pull up the data we've collected so far," he replied as he began tapping his PDA rapidly.
The Team sent last glances towards the Fenton's before they too walked over to the computer monitors.
"Ok, here's what we got," Tucker announced. With a final click with his PDA, a series of newspaper articles, police reports, and security footage appeared on the large monitor above them. Then a list of people, along with ghosts, showed up on the screen as well.
"As you can see, the bombings have going on for a little while now. But we were able to stop a couple and examine them. They had traces of ectoplasm and we identified the ghost responsible by tracing their ecto-signature. It turned out to be Technus, but that's not all. He may be making the bombs, but someone else, bigger and badder is behind all this. But we still haven't figured out who ye-"
"It's him," Phantom interrupted.
Sam and Tucker's eyes widened in fear and shock at his statement, but their reactions were immediate.
"WHAT?!" "How is that possible?! He was locked up with Clockwork!"
"Well he escaped and now it's my job to put him back in that stupid thermos," Phantom replied darkly.
"This is really bad... Danny?"
"What is it, Sam?" he asked irratibly.
"He's not the only one behind this..."
Phantom turned his head towards the goth girl, "What?"
"Danny... It's Pariah Dark, he's been released again," Tucker said solemnly.
The ghostly teen turned his head back towards the screen and was deadly quiet.
"Phantom?" Superboy asked worriedly.
Said person took a shaky breath and announced quietly, "I need some air." And with that, he turned intangible/invisible and flew through the ceiling.
Everyone else remained where they were. The team with sad and solemn faces, the Fentons with surprised yet concerned expressions. But not even ten seconds passed before Superboy grunted, turned around, and started heading towards the doors.
"Superboy, don't-" Miss Martian tried to stop the clone, but instead it backfired.
"No. He's going to talk whether he likes it or not. He can't keep hiding his emotions or running away from them, or he'll only end up destroying himself in the end."
And with that, Superboy left without looking back at the other's.
"You think they're going to be alright?" Beast Boy asked. Artemis crossed her arms, "Oh please. So long as those two are around each other, they'll be just fine."
Someone cleared their throat, and the Team looked back to Nightwing standing next to Jack Fenton. "Let's call it a day and just try to settle in as much as possible. If I know Superboy, those two will be back in a little while. And if you need anything, you know where to find me."
Everyone nodded their heads in understanding, and split off into different groups, each going a different direction. Miss Martain looked towards the doors and thought to herself, 'I'll join them in a little bit. For now, I'll just leave it to Superboy to try and calm Danny down...'
And that's all I have for now. Again sorry about the wait, I'm going to try to update ALL my stories as soon as possible and keep updating them when I can. I will be posting the first chapter to my series of one-shots for the True Family Time Skip very soon.
Remember suggestions are welcome, reviews help motivate me, and constructive critizism is welcome as well.
Until Next Time! :) :D