Robin offers me an open granola bar, which I chew on absent-mindedly. Our game plan is laid out on the holo-screen in front of me, filled with stats about the robot we'd captured and data collected from past missions. He's trying to chat with me and I'm murmuring vague answers, but I'm not really paying attention.
Suddenly, Robin's fist in underneath my ribs, which causes a spasm of pain to ripple across my torso. I react instantaneously, twisting around and turning intangible to avoid further hits. "Robin, what the heck?"
"You said I could," he responds flippantly, turning his back to me, probably to hide a smile.
"I didn't!"
"Actually," Tucker intervenes from a nearby seat, "You did. He asked 'Hey Danny, I kinda want to punch you. Am I allowed?' and you went, 'uh huh'." He mimics our voices and goes all slack-jawed when he's impersonating me. "Before that, he was giving this whole story about how this mission would never work because it's impossible to find Sam since he murdered her and threw her into the sun."
"That's what you were talking about?"
Robin glares at my accusative tone.
"Oh, don't act all offended. I did it to get your attention, but it didn't work. So I made this elaborate tale of love, betrayal and my slow descent into madness that, unfortunately, ended up in my murdering of Sam and our adopted Nigerian child." My face must be showing some major shock and confusion right about now. "Mhmm," he affirms, taking my expression as a response and flipping onto an empty seat. "I'm gonna be a YA novelist."
"I was focusing on the mission," I defend, clipping my words to get my point across, "Something we all should be doing."
"This is me focusing!"
"Well, it sucks."
"Yeah, Batman doesn't like it either."
Before Kaldur can interrupt our budding argument, Robin and I both shrug and let it go. One of the biggest things I'd learned from the eight months in torture: how to choose your battles. And I don't think fighting with Robin leads to anything except a waste of energy.
"Looks like we're approaching the facility," M'gann announces.
Everyone stands, almost as if that'll prepare them for the upcoming battle. It's just the ten of us- at least for now. The Justice League views Vandal Savage as a top priority villain. They're ready to step in at any moment.
We prepare to attack. The first two teams are doing the initial attack, even though Kaldur, Jazz, Artemis and Wally are the alpha force. Once they draw as many out as possible, the beta team-Superboy, Tucker and Zatanna- attack the compound itself. While the alphas are fighting, the beta team will attack the enemy's back. If the enermies attempt to retreat, alphas have them trapped.
The gamma team-Robin, M'gann and I- will infiltrate. Robin hacks. M'gann fights. I search.
Jazz is decked out in her favorite Fenton invention: the ghost peeler. Or whatever ridiculous name it has. The Fentons have so many inventions, even I can't keep track. Tucker has gauntlets, guns, and a hovercycle. He's planning on riding around and creating havoc, which I can support. He may not be able to hold up a close-quarters fight with a one year old, but he definitely knows his way around long distance shooting.
I understand we've lost almost every fight that involved infiltrating this group. I mean, they did almost kill my clone on accident. But this time, we come with a secret weapon.
The Plasmius Maximus (with much sarcasm) is a device that completely cancels a ghost's powers for three hours. Furthermore, the samples (robot) that we collected from one of the facilities confirmed that the substance inside the metal death machines is, in fact, modified ectoplasm.
Using my parents, Robin and myself, we were able to figure out that the Plasmius Maximus actually destroyed an ectoplasm's ability to communicate. A ghost controls its ectoplasm through thought, but if its connection is terminated, the thought can't control the ectoplasm. Thus, they dissolve into goo until the effect thins out and loses effect.
In a halfa, it compromises the ability to keep a ghost form, as it takes effort (however little it becomes) to keep the form together and from switching human.
We figured that the robots' programming was the communication that controls the ectoplasm. Normally it doesn't work like that, but it was modified to fit. This change actually made it easier for us. Once the connection broke, it never restored. The ectoplasm was then useless.
With this knowledge and my dad's strange brilliance, we fashioned a lighter PM with a high magnetic field, shaped like one of Robin's disks. All someone has to do is press the button and come within two feet of a robot, and the magnetism and electricity would do the rest.
I can't believe how much I doubted my dad when I was younger. Sure, he's big in every sense of the word, but he's brilliant and infinitesimally loving and caring. I was an idiot.
"Danny?"
"I'm here, Robin," I assure quietly. I know I've spiraled off, but at least it was somewhere good this time. I say as much but keep it short. My spiral fades off as my mind and core focus in on the mission again. This has to save Sam. There is no other option. I leave with her or not at all.
In response, my core pushes power through my veins, sending my senses into overdrive. Analyzing the screen once more, hearing the separate heartbeats, feeling the cool breeze from Wally's impatient pacing.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Sam."
"What about her?"
"How she'll be able to check on me instead of you. No offense, but she knows me better." I give him a playful smile.
"We're almost there," M'gann announces.
"Alpha and Beta teams, prepare for drop. Gamma team, prepare for infiltration."
Stealth tech flickers on as Kaldur continues issuing orders. It's not dark yet, but yellow and bright red is still easier to see than grays and blacks.
"Guys," I broach, careful but strong, "I don't want anyone to die here. No one is going to die here. If anyone might, get out. I don't care how. I can't take anymore loss. Do you guys understand?"
With their affirmatives, each team member offers a reassuring smile. They're so confident. I just hope they can back it up.
M'gann glances at the screens. "Approaching drop. ETA thirty seconds." The bioship dips as the team readies for a moving jump. The ground falls out from under them and they tuck and roll, already prepared for action.
"Good luck," Robin mutters as the team disappears below. We're not linked to them, because M'gann will probably be facing the mind ghost, and the mind link is just one more thing to keep open. Besides, if it shuts down in the middle of a fight, the team will be impaired and Superboy will go nuts at the thought of M'gann in trouble.
Now just the three of us, we do our own preparations. I pull my hood up and draw the cape around my shoulders, letting it close like drapes along the front of my body. My hands move to check the gadgets in my belt, experienced enough to keep the fabric from rippling.
Robin does the same, but only with the brand new gadgets that he's less familiar with. He has many, because he has the most experience with throwing disks. They're hooked along the outside of his belt with magnetic clips. If he pulls, they unclasp. But they might unclasp on their own, if he were to fall, or get hit…
I need to stop worrying. This will not fail. It can't fail. It won't happen. It won't; it can't.
I keep repeating this in my head as M'gann joins us in a tight cluster at the center of the ship, but as soon as the floor opens up and we fall through, my mind goes blank. While the mantra is still ringing in my head, I'm focused on grabbing the teammates beside me and turning them intangible.
My senses trip over themselves trying to deliver all the information to me as conscious thought, and for a moment I'm disoriented.
While the ship was calm and quiet, the air is crowded with different sensations. The sounds of guns going off and the shouts from allies and opponents alike, the smell of smoke, the flashes of bright ectoplasm and the taste of metal and ash.
I see that the team has already succeeded in starting a fire. Explosion shockwaves in the air alert me to the beta team's success in entering the compound. Shouts everywhere, both on our side and theirs, tell me that soldiers were joining to help fight with the robots-meaning that our new toys are effective.
Focus, M'gann's voice prods gently. I look at her in a type of apology, but she's looking more at Robin. Of course, he's probably worrying about his team. They'll be alright. We need to do our own thing.
You're right. He doesn't look over again and instead focuses on the roof below. Take us down.
Only then do I realize we're suspended instead of falling, and I lower us in response.
We pass through the roof, lowering into a normal enough hallway. Robin directs me down, insisting that they wouldn't be above ground when they've never shown that before. Circumventing the security systems is astronomically easier without guards to spot us on cameras or round a corner on us, and we make it to the last floor without much trouble.
Getting into the basement proves to be more difficult.
Like the other place, it's ghost shielded. I can't phase through without hitting the ghost shield, and I can't fall through as a human without phasing.
Robin, do you have an entrance for us? M'gann asks through our minds.
He's focused on his holo-glove, but responds, Only one, but that doesn't make any sense…
It makes perfect sense, I insist, changing directions and following down the hall, It means that there's some kind of transport in the basement or that everyone down there is a ghost. Or both. And it means I know exactly where to get in.
Another similarity these two facilities share is… pretty much everything. I can see Vlad's arrogance in every painting and unlocked door. Which means he's arrogant enough to have an elevator despite the fact that he goes through walls. Just like the other place.
I repress the urge to roll my eyes as we enter his office and find a near identical copy of the other office, including the signed Packers football on display.
Whoa… Robin comments. It's the same.
Yeah. His arrogance knows no boundaries.
No bounds, he corrects.
Whatever.
Are we gonna hack this, cuz we couldn't do that last time.
Not sure yet.
I open the passageway by tipping the same book and glare at the control panel. Handprint scanner.
Okay, knowing Vlad, there has to be some kind of hole to this system. Something kind of obvious for his own benefit that leaves him open. Maybe talking obsessively about my mom? Will that automatically open it? Probably not. Then it'd open all the time.
Robin and M'gann share a look that I ignore as I continue to muse.
He's arrogant, so he has an elevator even though he can go through walls. Because he's too lazy to shut down the ghost shield in the first place, maybe? So he comes here, detransforms, enters his fingerprint, and- OH! He doesn't detransform! He's too privileged.
So there's a hole in the shield somewhere? M'gann asks.
No… They're continuous. He has gloves, is what I mean. No fingerprints. So it opens another way.
Well now that I know what to look for… Robin feels around the edges of the pad for a catch. He doesn't find anything.
That is, until he finds the switch and the panel pops open and falls forward on a hinge. Behind it is a computer keyboard and a single line of digital screen.
Robin looks back at me. Any ideas about the password?
Oh yeah. I smirk and type in the only thing it could be.
maddie_masters
And the elevator opens.
We crowd inside the small doorway into the large elevator and key in the bottom floor. Its doors slide shut and the elevator descends, shooting us down at a rapid pace.
When it opens, we're not prepared for the dozen guards crowding around the doors, armed and aiming directly at us. One barks an order, and the guns go off.
"Welcome, comrade," Savage greets when Plasmius floats across the floor to him. They clasp hands with equally sinister smiles. Still groggy, they're the only thing I can focus on when I come to. My head aches and my vision is impaired where my hood falls over my face.
I spare a glance over at Robin and M'gann. He's impossible to read because of his mask, but M'gann still looks out.
"I can't believe Daniel is back here when we took so much to find him," Plasmius replies, his gaze turning to me. I shut my eyes and beg the muscles in my neck to relax. When he next speaks, he's much closer. "I wonder why he'd be so easy."
"I assure you we aren't underestimating him," Savage assuages. "Those cuffs are suppressing his powers and will administer electric shock if he tries to access them."
"That's good." He's so close I can feel his breath on my cheek, and I want to slam my forehead into his. Before I can convince myself its a bad idea, he backs away. "I know Daniel isn't capable of thinking this far ahead, but I wonder his purpose for coming here in the first place. To get recaptured? Surely not."
Who talks like that?
"For you?"
"Doubtful. Daniel wouldn't be able to beat me if I had no powers. He mostly avoids me."
"Probably searching for the girl, then."
"The dead one?"
"What other one is there?"
I force the emotion down.
"Ah, Alice and her sister." I struggle not to peek as Savage greets a new arrival. "How are things outside?"
"The team has retreated, though I doubt they will be gone for long. No one was retrieved." It's Evil Barbie! Which means her sister, Pixie, is here also.
... Her name is Alice?
"Pity. At least we have these." Pause, probably so he can look at us for the *aesthetic*. "Which ones are awake?"
Crap.
A silence, before 'Alice' answers, "All of them."
Welp. I open my eyes and raise my head, causing my hood to fall back. M'gann is already alert, and Robin is the same. My eyes dismiss Alice and land on her sister, who's been here, silent. She watches me with ethereal purple eyes.
Evil Barbie locks eyes with me over her sister. "Hello, Phantom. I'm glad to have you back."
Dread pours over me like a bucket of ice water, sending chills up my spine. No. I can't do this now. I can't, I can't.
I turn to Vlad, trying to make sense of the situation. He knew I was an experiment for months here, but neglected to tell them that I was a halfa. Either we was protecting himself, or…
He didn't know.
Savage is playing Vlad. Alice is playing her sister. Vlad is here probably for the ring and crown.
"The heroes?" Alice asks, gesturing to us.
Savage glances at the sister. "Have her wipe them and send them to processing for new memories. They're talented and can come in handy. Phantom can enjoy watching that and then head back to where he belongs."
Vlad glances at him, questioning. He sees me looking and quickly wipes his face clean.
Panic rises when Pixie steps towards M'gann. I see M'gann readying for a fight, and I allow that to happen for now. I have a lot of havoc to cause and only so much time to cause it.
Time to put my best power to use: my words.
"Hey, Vlad," I call, quirking my lips into a cocky smirk. "How've you been? Good, good? I read the Packers won last season. I wouldn't know, though, being locked up in a cell for months. Not great cable. Worse than Walker's prison. Actually, probably worse than biology class for the frog. Cuz you know, I was the frog."
Savage's weird fixation on Pixie returns to me. "Nonsense. He was in a stasis chamber getting reprogrammed."
"OHHH. So that's the cover story? What's Barbie here, the technician? Please. She can't add single digits, let alone calibrate a stasis pod. That's where Danielle was, though. I, however, was busy getting torn apart molecule... by… molecule." I drag out the words. "They tried to break my mind, too, with Pixie here. But I forgot instead."
"Heed him not," Savage disarms, and Vlad almost looks like he believes him.
I speak louder. "Oh, heed me, Vlad! Did you know they cut me open on a table? That they wanted to see if I bled? That I passed out from the pain only to be forced awake because it was too much to bear? They tore my power from my veins. Once, when my hand glowed, a guard took his nightstick and crushed the bones to powder. You can imagine the complicated recovery time! Do I look like I've been in a stasis pod for eight months? Do I look like I haven't aged? Do I look reprogrammed to you?!"
My voice rose as Savage tried to quiet me. Obviously, he didn't expect me to be quite so... loud.
"I knew you didn't know, Vlad, because you didn't tell them what I was. What we are."
Savage quiets his attempts to silence me. "He is like you?"
"He knows what you are? Did he know that you aren't a perfect balance? More ghost. Malicious and insane. But I am. I'm the perfect balance between life and death. It's how I survived dissections and whippings and alive autopsies and-"
"Stop!" Savage and Vlad shout at the same time. Savage with anger, Vlad with desperation.
"I'm Maddie's son, Vlad. They carved me up with a scalpel and I'm Maddie's son."
Vlad shouts in anguish, turning on Savage with blind rage. "Is what he saying true?!"
"No! Alice, take him away!"
No, if I leave, M'gann will lose and she and Robin will disappear. I struggle to go intangible. A warning shock crackles and sends fire into my body.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Alice murmurs. "Don't worry. There's much worse." She clips the last two words, making sure I feel them all the way down to my core. But I don't care. I need to help M'gann and Robin.
Vlad and Savage are yelling at each other. They've entangled too many assets in each other and can't gain ground. If either leaves or retaliates, the other will destroy them, so I won't get any help from Vlad.
No. I can't go out like this. I can't leave my team like this.
My core thrums, and a shock reciprocates. My core thrums harder, sending the electricity through me. So much pain.
"Done yet?" She flips a switch next to me and I'm shifted backwards. "This'll put you out for the ride. Or should. We don't care much about anesthetics." She leans closer. "But you know that."
No no no. I died. This wasn't that bad. It won't be that bad. I can do this.
I force power to my fingertips. Lightning crashes through me. I push harder and harder, letting the pain hurt me, letting it spasm my body and crackle through my hair. Letting it kill me. Because I'm getting out of here.
More and more pain. It crescendos, causing my throat to open and a terrible scream to claw its way out. The sear of fire through my veins is the worst pain. My dying pain. A pain that kills me. So intense I'm barely sure if I'm feeling it. So confining I'm trapped drowning underwater and unable to reach the surface for air. So painful every nerve is alight and in pain and I can feel each fiber of my being… Millions and millions... I could count each nerve if fire wasn't using my thoughts as fuel.
But with one more spasm, one more color burst in my eyes, one more scream of my body being torn apart-
The electricity recedes and the pain trips backwards and tumbles into oblivion.
And I'm floating, so bright with electricity and ectoplasm. So much power. Electricity is my weakness but it also fuels my core. I've poured alcohol on a fire and now I feel invincible.
But I know it won't last forever.
So I act fast.
With a flick of my wrist, ectoplasm knocks into Alice and Pixie with enough force to crack the wall where they land. A shield forms, so powerful it's almost opaque. I explode it outwards, crumbling the room around me like a bomb. The walls fall with my shield and the room reduces to rubble.
When I see my own destruction, I feel the smallest flicker of remorse. No. Everyone's outside. No one was hurt.
Except for Vlad and Savage, who are stirring in a pile of rubble a bit beyond me. I spare a duplicate to check for pulses and another to free a barely conscious Megan and…
"Robin?" I ask. My voice is too bold, too powerful. It scares me.
"Over here, Almighty. Might want to take this." I turn to Robin's voice, finding him several yards away and holding a very familiar object. It's the Crown of Fire. "Find the ring." I take the crown and hook it on my arm.
"And use them?"
"What else would you do with them?"
But reinforcements have shown up. I see now that the team had been overwhelmed by an army of robots. An army of humans. My power is dimming already and I need to find the Ring of Rage.
I launch into battle, knowing Robin's screwed and M'gann's out for the count. I need to secure Alice and her sister. Get M'gann out of here. Find the ring.
I regret the decision to leave the map behind. I need it now.
My power rushes out of me in large bursts. Explosions of ectoplasm and ice. Shots and waves and gadgets thrown by Robin. He's clever, reusing the gadgets where he can, pulling them off of fallen robots and throwing them elsewhere. He never misses.
We're good so far, but we're losing ground. They're everywhere, and I can't keep them away. And there's so many left…
A dark shadow clouds my vision. NO! I can't lose consciousness now. NOT NOW!
It moves.
I understand now what I'm seeing. "Sam…"
She flits away, to the ground.
I understand at once and split my core in half, into a duplicate. I follow as she darts across the field, careful to keep us both out of the line of fire.
She stops abruptly, circles once, and disappears. I send a powerful burst of energy from my hands that decimates those closest to me, giving me some breathing room. Plunging my hands into the rubble Sam circled, I dig in the rocks, glass and shards of metal until I grasp a warm object. I pull out my hand.
My bloody fingers hold the Ring of Rage.
"Sam, keep me from going mad with power, please," I whisper to the ring as I twist it on my right ring finger.
I then slip the crown off my arm and place it on my hair.
The effect is instantaneous.
Power I've never known is inside me, around me.
I understand the true power of the objects. They don't give you power, per se. They unlock everything inside of you. Every potential. I can feel the ectoplasm I've already used surrounding me. I recall it.
The objects flood me with the power I didn't know I had. Teleportation. Portals. Ectoplasm manipulation.
Beyond the haze of unused ectoplasm, I spot Robin, on the ground and almost overwhelmed.
My core pulses, my power follows…
And just like that, the war is over.
Robots are down. Humans unconscious and contained. Robin and M'gann safe. Dimly, I realize the Justice League is descending from the sky with some members of the team. I laugh when they arrive. Too little, too late.
Hey, Danny. I recognize the voice in my head instantly.
Sam!
I know the power. I've survived inside it for too long.
How did you get trapped in here?
When Pariah Dark owned the crown, he discovered that his power could be boosted by trapping ghosts inside. That way, he wouldn't just have his ectoplasm, but everyone's inside. Like if you trapped Desiree in here, you could use her powers of wish granting. I guess the crown retained its last orders and when I touched them, I was sucked in.
I didn't get sucked in.
I've done a bit of reprogramming. I just can't get out. I tried to reach you… But you were always so far away, and this place is so confusing...
Can I release you?
I don't know how, but yes. I think so.
Reach out to me. I feel her presence like her hand in mine. We're leaving.
The ring slips off my finger. I hold tight to Sam and pull her with me, stretching my mind so it feels like it'll snap. I push the crown off my head and pull free Sam with a final yank.
The air wavers like a mirage before Sam comes into focus. She's still see through, but is steadily gaining mass and becoming more tangible. I unhook the thermos at my side and pick up the two deadly objects, placing them inside for safe keeping.
The Justice League is surveying the damage with varied expressions; some look disappointed at the missed out fight, some worried, some proud.
I look back over to Robin and M'gann. Martian Manhunter is picking her up, smiling when she opens her eyes. Batman is knelt by Robin, doing something I can't see. Zatanna, Superboy and Artemis are crowding around as much as they dare with Batman.
I glance back over at the adult superheros. "We might need to gather up everyone here," I suggest, waving my arms at the destruction around me. Superman agrees and starts issuing orders.
Sorry this is taking a minute, Danny… My body is trying to reform but it's been energy for so long…
I wave dismissively at her comment. As long as you're coming back to me.
Superman, finished with orders, comes right up to me with Wonder Woman and the Flash flanking him. I have to look up at him, and try to resist the urge to take several steps back. I do, however, float higher so I can look him in the eye.
"Did you do all this?" Superman asks, gesturing around him.
I take in the sight of destruction around me. The building is rubble, nothing but slabs of stone and twisted metal. A lone wall, half disintegrated, stands to my far left, looking moments away from falling over.
Robots and humans litter the ground as far as I can see, all inactive on the ground. I felt the fake ectoplasm around me when I was wearing the artifacts, and disabling the robots was as easy as pulling out a bow by its string.
The humans were all alive, as far as I knew. I blew them back, but nothing hard enough to give more than a concussion. If they had ectoplasmic suits, I pulled out the ectoplasm then, too, and they're now trapped inside their suits.
"Yes," I reply to Superman after recounting what happened. It all went by so fast, it's only now coming back slow enough to understand.
The rush of power, the feel of Sam, the yank of my mind when I stretched it so far.
"With these… ghostly artifacts?" At my nod, he continues, "Where are they now?"
I tap my thermos. "And before you ask, no. You can't have them. I'm giving them to the only ghost I trust not to abuse them."
Superman looks taken aback. Guess he's not used to being said no to. "Who's that?"
I grin. "You don't know him."
I stare right where I imagine the imaginary time cameras would be, gesturing to my prize and then at the destruction around me. "Come and get it, if you want it!"
Superman looks at me like I'm crazy. I probably am, I must admit. My fingers are shaking now, and I can feel an endless smile tugging at my lips. "I'm sorry," I apologize to Superman, trying to suppress the torrent of joy in my chest right now enough to speak. "It's just… We won."
I turn away from him and fly over to where Batman is helping Robin climb unsteadily to his feet. When he spots me, he waves with his left, wincing.
"Are you okay?" I ask him, sobering a little bit at the prospect of anyone getting hurt. As soon as I take Batman's place in steadying him, Batman stalks away, probably to go lead the Justice League.
"Fine," Robin grunts, "Just a dislocated shoulder. Probably a strain in my foot, too, but I'm otherwise completely fine."
I snort. "Completely."
"Did we win? Wait, where's Vlad and Savage?"
I shrug. "My guess is long gone, by now."
Robin deflates. "So this isn't over?"
"Not by a long shot," I answer easily. "Axon Labs is still up and running, led by the fruit loop. It's making deals with major companies which can't be a good sign. Furthermore, I hate to say it, but this is just one more facility! We've got a bunch left."
Artemis joins in the conversation at this. "So we didn't accomplish anything? Just hurt a bunch of people?"
"What? Who's hurt?" I notice for the first time the absence of Tucker and my sister.
Zatanna answers this time. "Wally broke his foot, which he is not happy about… Kaldur is just a little worn out, and by a little I mean a lot. Jazz has a whee concussion. Nothing to be concerned about…"
"And Tucker?"
She and Artemis look uncomfortable, but Artemis eventually adds, "He had an injury concerning his foot. We're not sure what that means yet. Nothing life threatening, though."
I'm not very comforted by that. Superboy and M'gann, who'd been doing their couple thing over where M'gann was knocked unconscious, come over looking intact.
"So what did we accomplish?" Conner asks as they approach us. Seems Martian Manhunter needed to go help clean up too, as he's nowhere to be seen.
I notice several Leaguers leaving with prisoners trapped in green bubbles. I almost ask where they're headed but decide I really don't care. "We got the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage, which is a huge disadvantage on their part. Vlad and Savage won't be on the same side for a while, even if the truce is most likely still intact. We got Barbie and Pixie, also a huge blow to them and a great pleasure of mine. And we got Sam back!"
"Really? Where is she?" Robin brightens, searching the terrain.
M'gann and Superboy look at each other with equally worried expressions. I scowl at them.
"This is not me imagining Amo. Sam is just… Reconfiguring, let's say." I spot the faint outline of her at a distance, rapidly growing more solid. I call to her, and she makes her way over, slowly transferring from a float to steps on the ground.
Her outline is filling in as she approaches, and I watch her footprints appear beneath her combat boots. Her hair is slightly longer, almost like it grew while she was in the crown. It's choppy and wild, just like I remember it, starting to ruffle in the wind as she becomes increasingly more tangible.
Just like I last remember her, she's wearing her familiar goth outfit and the necklace I gave her for her birthday only a week or so before.
"Wait… Is that…?"
I ignore the urge to snap at Superboy for that comment, but I instead focus on Sam. Sam. Robin shuffles forward to be beside me as Sam approaches, whether for support, possible protection, or just plain curiosity I can't tell.
By the time she reaches us, she's completely on this plain of existence. She doesn't look nervous at all being surrounded by superheros, or uncomfortable in her physical body. She looks like she's glowing with pride.
Hey, you, she says.
Hi, I respond stupidly. Guys, this is Sam.
The small group of team members smile and wave at Sam; Robin in particular being especially friendly. "Hi, I'm Robin. You must be Sam, but not Samantha, as I've learned."
"Yeah, I know, I already said that," I groan as Robin offers his left hand for Sam to shake. She looks puzzled before using her left to shake. He has a dislocated shoulder, I explain.
Oh, okay, that makes more sense. She pulls back from Robin and observes the rest of our team with a curious expression. "Who's everyone else?" she asks.
"May I introduce you to the team?" Robin jumps in, immediately following the question with introductions, "This is Miss Martian, Superboy, Artemis, Zatanna and you've already met yours truly. There are a few absent, including Kid Flash, our team leader, Aqualad, Aparato, and Vision. Phantom's also a member."
I know most of those… but?
Aparato and Vision are Tucker and Jazz.
Tucker and Jazz are superheros?!
Yeah, I know. They're the research team we use for reference.
No field? Thank the Ancients. They're more harm to us then to them.
I chuckle and shake my head. I know. The team is giving us weird looks. "What?"
"Are you guys… communicating?" Zatanna asks, looking between us.
"Are we not allowed to?" Sam retorts, folding her arms. Zatanna mimics her.
She's not being mean, she's- ! I freeze, noticing the lack of response from the team at my words.
"Sam?" Sam?
"How many times did I say Sam?" I ask.
"Once," the team replies at the same time as Sam says, "Twice."
We look at each other with dawning realization. "Guys, I think Sam and I got telepathically linked in the Crown of Fire…"
"Is this a good thing, or a thing we need to immediately fix?" Robin asks, looking between us.
I shrug as Sam smiles at me and takes my hand. This simple movement sends our minds sprawling out into each others, causing an almost overwhelming combination of thoughts. I know she meant to be comforting, but this is hurting my already strained mind.
We let go, but our heads are still swirling.
I feel a tap on my shoulder, and see the recognition flashing on the faces in front of me. When I turn around, I'm met with an impatient Dani, in her ghost form and tapping her foot in the air.
"Dani, what-"
She lets out a long sigh that cuts me off. "Are you gonna give me the things or what? You wanted Clockwork to pick them up, and he sent me, and he needs me somewhere else, too, so I don't have all day!" She pauses, looking at Sam. "Oh, and hi Sam! I see you're back."
"...Yeaaah..."