The vials are important. They're related to so much. I can feel it. Somehow, I don't think Robin is going to keep them as safe as I want them to be. Should I protect it with ice? No, cold might do something bad to it. Ectoplasm shield? That takes too much energy.
Phantom!
Aqualad's shout brings me out of my thoughts and into action. I make a grab for the vials where Robin left them… on the floor (knew he couldn't do it) and then rush into battle.
The robots are strong, fast, and devastating. They can blast much like I can, but it has blue energy instead of green, despite the fact that they're glowing green. Weird.
I glance around the room, trying to determine what I should be doing. First off, Miss Martian's in trouble. I gather ectoplasm in my hand and shoot it out, hitting it smack in the back. It juts to one side, Miss Martian helping it slam into a wall, spraying vulnerable parts.
As I watch, however, it starts to recall it's broken parts, rebuilding. What in the heck?
I send another blast at it, this time with a little ice, and it freezes a bit to the wall, slowing it's rebuild process. Then I address the other members. Next person in need of help looks to be Superboy. He's got a pile of them on him.
I throw several blasts at several different targets, very pleased when most hit their mark. Doesn't slow many down, though. These things are resilient. What makes them work?
Superboy smashes several down, and I follow behind him, freezing their parts. They're just machines… There has to be a specific part of them that rebuilds. If I can figure out where it is, we can stop their regeneration and keep them down.
How would I do that?
Trying to puzzle it out, I grab Artemis and Kid Flash where they stand, Kid just barely catching an airborne Artemis. He was just about to ask if she was okay, which would've resulted in them being squashed by two different machines running at them.
Now that we're intangible, the two machines crash together. I freeze them.
I release the couple, who immediately run off towards another swarm that's crowding Aqualad.
How…
My head pounds very suddenly, a flash of several images rushing by. A school building, white with a flagpole, named Caspar. A swirling vortex, green but hinting a little at purple, sparks flying around it. It belongs to me, to my family... An image of myself in a mirror, one hand placed on the glass, an expression of horrified wonder on my face.
Finally, a computer. I rush into it, become part of the electronics, become an avatar in a video game…
That's it! I can overshadow machines!
I'll work out how I figured that out later.
I go intangible and rush into the nearest machine.
The feeling inside is… strange. The programming fights against me like a soul would in a real person's body. The green energy is wholly familiar, it runs through the entire body, feels like… Like me. Green energy… Ugh, I'm such an idiot! This is ectoplasm!
It runs throughout the entire body, pulling it together. I can feel artificial ectoplasm at my chest, hands and feet. Probably the blue stuff.
My vision flickers, identifying intruders in both heat and enhanced vision. I ignore the display and shoot at the other robots, to much more effect. These blasters pack a punch!
"Phantom?" Robin asks, several blades in each hand.
I wave.
He grins, throwing his blades into the robots, which detonate. "Any weaknesses we should be aware of?"
"It's ectoplasm!" I shout in my robotic voice. "That's what these things are powered with."
"Well, yeah," he responds, withdrawing his pole and extending it. He launches with it, kicking into one robot and jumping off before it can grab him.
Dang, he already knew that? Why did no one tell me? Whatever.
"Real ectoplasm keeps the whole thing together, like magnets! The fake stuff is used to shoot. As far as I can tell, no off switch." As I talk, I shoot and punch any robot within range, as Robin electrifies his pole and slams it down on any vulnerable spot, mostly the joints.
"Okay! The robots you froze are starting to break through the ice, so let's take the robot you have possessed and study it back at the Cave! Any trackers?"
"Not that I can tell," I reply.
Fall back, we've got everything, Robin tells the team.
Easier said than done, snaps Kid, just before getting shot and slamming into a wall. He backs away, dizzy.
To the middle of the room, I input. I watch the middle as the Team starts to converge closer there. Robin flies past me to some robots behind me, foot extended.
"To the middle," I shout at him.
"Um, you'll get pummeled!"
"Um, I'm one of them, remember?"
He stops a second before dashing for the middle. I can't resist a short laugh before moving towards the middle myself. Robin calls in the fact that I'm the robot so nobody kills me, and I land right in the middle of the back to back circle of teens.
I release the robot, careful to turn off it's vision first, then fly right above it. Pushing my hands up, I release a wave of ectoplasm, covering our spot in a shield. It's green, but flickers blue and back as I force more and more ice energy into it. Then, with a grunt, I shove it away and it coats the entire room of robots with ice-ectoplasm.
Now pretty much spent, I fly lower and back into the robot, switching back on the vision. It couldn't see, so thankfully it didn't flip out.
Wow, they're just statues now, Kid Flash comments, poking one. It glows a little brighter and he jumps back. Let's head out before they break through.
We all climb into the freight elevator.
Where did all the people go? I wonder.
Safe rooms on sublevel one, supplies Robin, and I don't ask how he knows that.
As soon as we are up on the ground level, Superboy throws all care to the wind and punches down the nearest wall. Miss Martian had called the ship and it was directly outside, and we clamber inside.
I leave the robot and it sits dully, vision off, sitting in a chair that materializes.
Robin grins. "We- OH CRAP THE VIALS!"
I glare at him. "I knew you'd forget, jerk. Luckily, my duplicate took care of it." On cue, my duplicate that had been floating outside the compound returned to me, bringing the vials. My copy hands me them, sticks his tongue out at Robin, and then I absorb him into my core.
Aqualad shakes his head with a grin. "Ready or not, you carried this entire mission."
I give him a wry smile. "Just wait until we run into an enemy with anti-ghost tech. Then I'm screwed."
"Regardless, being on your first mission, it was a success. Heroism suits you."
"Speaking of heroism," Miss Martian starts. "Vision said you might get some memories back. Did you?"
My smile slips into a frown, trying to pinpoint exactly what the memories were. "Er… Some, I guess. Fragments. But it's like looking at someone else's pictures. No context." The Team give me hopeful smiles. "Oh, except for the one where I went into a computer. It gave me the reminder that I can overshadow machines."
"Can you do so to other computers?" Aqualad asks.
I shrug. "I've never tried. Or maybe I have… I don't know."
They understand and drop the subject.
The girls in the ship start chatting about the mission, the boys reviewing their tactics and showing battle scars (mostly Kid Flash and Robin) and I feel horribly out of place. I flip up my hood, deciding to try and focus on the memories that had flashed by me.
The mirror one confused me the most. I picture it, my face a twisted mixture of bewilderment and terror, my hand feeling the glass like it's unreal. Eyes green, hair white, skin glowing. To my memory self, it's unfamiliar. Faintly-in the memory of course-I hear my name, a hushed whisper, almost a question.
The longer I focus, the more I see. I turn from the mirror towards the whisper, see Tucker and… a girl…
The memory disintegrates, my focus snapping as I try to recall the girl's name. I can picture certain qualities about her, dark hair a short choppy mess, a ponytail at the top of her head. Dark makeup, but not a lot of it. Purple… purple eyes…
Amo?
"Danny?" Robin asks.
I wave him off, still concentrating.
If this girl in my memories is the shade that's been haunting me… What does that mean? Wait, didn't Tucker say only he and Sam were with me when I-
Ugh, this whole thing is hurting my head!
"Danny! What did I say about losing yourself?" Robin demands, flipping up my hood. The mountain is coming into view, the rest of the team is staring at us.
Every thread slips from my grasp and I scowl at Robin. As well-meaning as he was trying to be… "Robin," I hiss. "I wasn't thinking about that, I was trying to figure out the fragments from before."
His indignant look evaporates into an interested one. "Find anything coherent?"
"Maybe, guess I'll never know," I seethe, shoving my hood back on.
I hear him shrug.
Miss Martian pipes up, "He was only trying to help, Phantom."
I flick my hood back again. "I know." My voice is light again. I've already moved on from losing the memory. It was hurting my head anyway. "But if Robin never does wrong, his ego might never deflate."
Robin scowls from his seat while the others laugh.
"At least I have an ego," he mutters.
"What kind of comeback is that?" I ask, smirking again as Miss Martian lands her ship.
He jumps up. "I don't know! I'm tired and it caught me off guard, okay!" He stomps out, leaving us all peering out at him in interest. Then he salutes us with a half-smile. "See you guys tomorrow, kay?"
He runs off.
Kid Flash chuckles. "I swear that kid is bipolar."
Superboy tilts his head. "ADHD, maybe."
"No, ADHD period," corrects Zatanna. "It's probably a circus thing."
"Circus thing?" I ask.
"Oh, sorry." She gives me a sympathetic smile. "Secret identity stuff. Batman wouldn't let us tell you. Actually, Kid, Kaldur and I are the only ones who know."
I shrug. "Okay."
"Actually," continues Kid with a smile, hoping up from his seat. "Bats said not to tell you any of our identities! We had a mole problem before. But I don't think you're a mole, personally. Weird, perhaps, because ghosts, but-"
Artemis slams her elbow into his stomach and he coughs, ending his rant. We all start heading down the ramp and back into the Cave.
"What he means to say, most of us don't care. He's Wally."
"And you already know my earth name," Miss Martian-M'gann- continues. "And Artemis, Kaldur and Zatanna."
"Conner," grunts Superboy.
"How about you?" Wally chirps, already over the whole elbow in the gut thing.
"What about me?" I ask, confused.
"What's your identity?"
"Um," I start. Should I tell them about my other side? He's still so weak, and I don't know anything about him anyway… Does he even have a name?
"He's dead, stupid," Artemis snaps.
"I meant before he died," he defends, hands raised.
"Oh! Yeah, I have no idea." I give a sheepish smile and they all nod, understanding again. "But, um… I think I died in something my family made."
Wally grimaces. "Ouch."
I shrug, nonchalant.
After that, the conversation disintegrated as the two couples went off together and Kaldur went for the sea access, leaving just Zatanna and I.
She is right across the hall from me, down the hall from M'gann and Su- Conner. Apparently they're right across from each other because they were the first, and Zatanna's away from them because they're… a couple.
I followed her advice to be away from them.
We walk in silence.
"Do you like Robin?" I ask as we walk down the hall.
"If I told you, I'd kill you." Short and sweet, and completely terrifying.
"Huh."
I wave to her and go into my room, her in her own.
My room is the same as apparently all the other rooms. Bed, bureau, dresser, TV, bedside table, some shelves and a couple chairs. Bathroom with a shower, sink and toilet.
I haven't changed it much, but that's not to say Tucker and Jazz haven't. They put books on my shelves, some clothes in my dresser, brought some ghost tech. Only a couple things, a thermos (?) and a couple guns.
"In case you want to play around with them. You did all the time, before," Jazz had told me. They lay untouched.
I kinda wish I did have a diary or journal or something, just to give myself a preface. Jazz and Tucker both mentioned that they had one, but I don't think I want theirs. They have different memories than I do.
I slip out of my hero clothes and into pajamas, going to land on my bed.
Do I even want my memories back? If this Sam person meant something to me, wouldn't it be so much more painful to know her and miss her? What about who I was? I sounded like a hormonal idiot. Selfish, popularity hungry, irritable and arrogant. This is my chance to be the full hero I am.
No.
No? Who…
Oh. Shoulda guessed.
It's Amo.
"Are you Sam?" I ask it-her. The shadow moves once around my bed, a circle. That's not an answer. I frown. It-She circles again. I shake my head, not understanding. "Once for yes, twice for no," I direct. "Are you Sam?"
One circle.
"You are! Okay, where are you? No wait, that's dumb. Do you know where you are?"
Two circles.
I lean back, stuck again. "Do you…"
Two knocks at my door. "Danny?" M'gann. I glance once at Amo, who stays, before calling M'gann inside.
The door slides back, revealing both M'gann and Superboy in pajamas. "Who were you talking to?" Super- Conner (why do I keep doing that?) asks, scanning my room.
I point to Amo.
They both move closer. Look at the bed, then at me. "Danny…" murmurs M'gann, her forehead creased with both worry and a frown. "There's nothing there."
I look back down. Amo… Sam… She's right… right there…
No, she's gone.
And I'm crazy.
Kay, we good? I hope so!
Alright, so now I actually have to write another chapter because this was my last backup...
Eh, worth it!