Paper was thrown haphazardly, a mug filled with lukewarm coffee shattered against a white wall staining it, and a thin remote creaked in agony under the pressure of Six's silent rage.

Her teeth gritted hard behind her pursed lips as the wonderful government issued television in her office played the same scene again, and again.

No matter how many times she looped it the scene stubbornly did not want to change. The Amity Convicts disappearing in a ghost portal right just out of the reach of the largest G.I.W operation ever launched. The Convicts had been right there, and they lost them. The news stations were doubtlessly having a field day with this embarrassment.

She sat down her stiff chair whose tight leather cushion refused her the chance to relax. Just as she had ordered it to the everlasting chagrin of Number Four.

Six scoffed distastefully at the thought of that High Number.

That lazy fool probably hasn't gotten out of bed yet, and why would she? Four's division was based on the buying and selling of parts and equipment. She, on the other hand needed to stay awake no matter how little sleep she had previously gotten. There was so much reports to file, to process and to underline with the same annoying red ink of failure.

Months she spent putting together this operation. Three weeks of gathering thousands of troops and hundreds of pounds of equipment. Countless meetings, countless flashing badges, and countless hours signing papers. Five weeks of being forced to work with Number Two; only for it all to end in one moment of failure because the ghost boy developed a new power.

Saying that the Convicts escaping her grasp was a shock to her troops would be a gross understatement. Ghosts did not escape her. She was Number Six of Division Six. Their plans were supposed to airtight, their traps acted like a cruelly tied off burlap sack dropped in rapids. Ghosts did not escape when Division Six went hunting.

How dare this ghost escape her? Before the ghost's portal had fully closed she had ordered her people to scour the Ghost Zone for the Convict's signature. A fruitless endeavor, she knew it as the orders left her mouth. The ghost zone was endless, and their equipment could only do so much.

She lost them the second Phantom opened that portal.

Slowly she released frustration and anger out in a pent up breath. Her fingers stiffly releasing the death grip they hand on her now broken remote. Frowning at the mangled plastic she threw it trash can beside her desk, and pulled a new one out of a desk drawer. A drawer whose bottom was lined with identical remotes. Should be lined with identical remotes but she had gone through quite a number of them in a very short time.

Leaning back into her chair she breathed slowly out the same way her company assigned guru had taught her.

In. Hold. Out.

It was overdue time for her to call her guru in for another session.

An annoying yet necessary expense. If there was one thing that the Base Ten had in common it was their... negative attitude. Anger, paranoia, irresponsibility, bloodthirstiness, whatever you could name they all had it to varying degrees. Maybe it was the miasma spread to them from the ghosts they hunt, or maybe it came from what they did to become Base Ten and hold their positions. Whatever it was she wouldn't let it interfere with her work.

In. Hold. Out.

This was nothing.

Sooner or later the Convicts will show up in the mortal world, and when they do she will take care of them herself. No more mistakes. No more distractions.

A frown briefly flashed on her face as her office door slammed open. Said frown deepened into a full blown scowl at the sight of bouncy medium length dirty-blond hair.

"Hello, Six~" Two sang as he danced, literally danced into her office. His gaze fell on a shelf, and smiling he helped himself to one of her snow globes.

"What do you want?" Six asked reminding herself to mind her temper as Two started to shake the trinket to life.

Two tutted like a school teacher to a somewhat unruly child, and she felt her anger spike, "Always so abrasive. We could be friends you know." He sat on her desk, barely looking at her as snow blanketed the town in his hands.

"I do not have time for this." She hiss, itching to push him off her two hundred year old oak wood desk. She had recently gotten it polished, and he was ruining the finish with his suit. "Do you realize how much this screw up has set us back?"

Two hummed thoughtfully, tossing the globe between his hands, "From what I know, and do tell me if I'm wrong, we lost a little credit with the media."

"It's more than a little credit." Six bit out.

...and look at that. Her hands were twitching. Silently she scolded herself. The last thing she needed was to lose composure. So, deal with the fool now and make plans to visit her guru later. "Our plans are based on how the media and public sees us." She said steadily her fingers tapping on her desk, "The more incompetent we look that harder it will be for us to do our work."

"We don't look incompetent." Two chuckled, neatly crossing his legs as he looked down at her, "I dare say that we appear to be the most competent people around."

She couldn't help it she snorted, "How does losing the Convicts look competent?"

"Think about it, Six. Why did we lose the Convicts?" Two said spinning the globe on a finger, his smile widened at Six's glare, "The Justice League came between us, and as a result the Convicts were able to escape to the Ghost Zone." The globe came to a rest in the palm of his hand, "It is too bad that the League lost Batman and Flash; worse still that the Titan's lost their leader and the Tamarian." He said with remorse that both of them knew was fake.

Six held the bridge of her nose, "It would be easy to shift opinion to our side seeing that two prominent league members got themselves killed. We would have free reign over the Ghost Zone, and Jump City since the Titans would be fractured." She signed, "A small stroke of luck, if they were dead."

Two frowned, "You need to read up on my division's reports." He smiled brightly, "The Ghost Zone is inhabitable to mortals seeing that it is absolutely brimming with flesh eating monsters. No matter how strong they may be, going there blind is death."

Despite herself Six smirked, She shouldn't take such joy in taking apart a person's reality, but that was her vice and oh how it entice her, "You never had to work around the Justice League before, have you? We have come to find them annoyingly hard to dispose of. Suffice to say this will not kill them especially not Batman. When they escape everything quite simply will go to hell."

Warm and deep Two laughed, "You can't seriously believe the rumours around the League. Next you'll be telling me that they really have the power to cross multiverses and that the Injustice League is real." Two paused at the widening smirk on Six's face, "You can't be serious."

"Sometimes I forget how new you are to this game, Number Two." Six laughed, soft as sweet pearls of honey that ended with a sharp click of her tongue. "The only people that our government likes to lie to more than its allies is itself. Dig deep enough and you'll find some, interesting things."

Number Six could see the gears spinning in Two's head, even behind those dark sunglasses she could read his emotion. It will be a few more years until the younger man learns how to properly close himself off, but until then she could enjoy the emotions he displayed. Mounting realisation and all.

"They're alive and are going to escape." Two said simply, the perfect mask of calm; that is if you ignored the way slight way his lips pulled back and the tension in his jaw. "They still lost the Convicts-"

"Who do you think will save them?" Six retorted, her hands slipped under her desk and- Ah! There was that empty briefcase. Two's visit had given her inkling that today was about to get worse, and her suspicions had never lead her astray before. It was best to be prepare, "If they are able to the Convicts will try to save them."

The globe in Two's grasp creaked under his grip, "From months of tracking and studying their movements we have concluded that the Convicts always run. They would've left the Justice League in order to save themselves. If you are so worried why not send your troops to find them? We know it is a matter of time before they slip."

She leveled him with a look, "Number Two, it is my job to predict all the possible routes that our targets could take. If the Convicts behaved in the way the populace and those fools in the media believed them to I wouldn't be needed. If the Convicts were like that they would have simply killed the Leaguers and the Titans, and then they would have instantly came back to the mortal world." She paused and watched the tension roll in Two's shoulders.

You know the world isn't like your labs and experiments. You know it doesn't normally take eight hours to kill someone. The Convicts would be back by now if they killed Leaguers and Titans.

"Unfortunately," She pressed on pleased at Two's cracking mask, "The Convicts try to do good, and they try to be good. The Convicts will protect them, and seeing how the League got through to them once they will get through to them again." Six said stacking loose paper and files into her briefcase, and clicked her tongue. "Of course if we had captured the Convicts in the Ghost Zone and saved the missing heroes ourselves we wouldn't have this problem." She snapped the briefcase shut, "It's too late to fix that. Now we only prepare for the usual... reprehension."

Two placed the globe a little too hard on her desk, and with his smile splitting his face darkly chirped, "And what do you mean by that, Number Six?"

"By now both the Convicts and Heroes have left the Ghost Zone." She said adjusting her dark sunglasses as she schooled her face to express nothing but dry professionalism. "Decimal will be calling for us at any moment now."

Gently, Two tapped the top of the snow globe, "You spend too much time playing war games, Six. Your 'foresight' may be legendary among your agents, but we both know that it's a simple parlour trick." Two smiled down at her the tension in his jaw waning. "If you spent more time in the labs you would know that everything in this world follows premade patterns. Patterns that can be predicable, because they don't change. The Convicts will run from the Leaguers, they will lower their guard, and then?" Two purred a sadistic cat playing with the lives of a near dead mouse, "They will fall into my grasp."

The door to her study crashed opened the booming sound echoing the desperation the lower ranked agent had as he stumbled through the doorway.

"Base Ten Number Six I have urgent news." The agent gasped for breath in the way one would after they had been running very hard for a very long time. "We got a message from Number Ten. The missing League members, the missing Titans and the Convicts have showed up! The League have taken responsibility over the Convicts! The League say that the government is unprepared to hold the Convicts! It's all over the international news, and international community and their governments are demanding answers from ours! The President and Congress has called for an emergency meeting, and-"

The agent was cut off with the sharp sound of shattering glass. The agent turned pale as he finally recognized Number Two and how the Base Ten was shaking glittery water from his black gloves. Rather, the poor messenger paled at the murderous smile on the face of the otherwise outwardly calm Higher Number.

Six ignored Two and reached across her desk and she pressed a small button that had been built into the wood. A thin panel on the ceiling clicked opened and large projector screen came down, covering a vast portion of her study's wall. The projector flashed to life and a smartly dressed woman sat tall behind her desk the smile of a reporter plastered onto her face. As the reporter talked a looped video of the Convicts falling into the ground played. The video was similar to the one that Six had except there was a bright red circle around Two as he jumped back and green arrows pointing to Batman, Flash, Robin, and Starfire as they jumped in.

Six tapped her desk in thought she turned to the low rank agent who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else but there. She couldn't quite feel sorry for him, being frighten came with the job of hunting ghosts. Though, he probably thought he only had ghosts to fear when he signed up, "Agent, is it right for me to assume that this," Six gestured to the screen, "is a common broadcast in Jump City and areas around it?"

"No, Base Ten Number Six." The Agent shuffled on his feet, "This is common across National News. They, uh, throw around the word incompetent a lot, and-" The agent quivered under her patient look and Two's innocent smile. Any other would have asked to be excused and then run for their lives. However, she trained her agents well and he continued faithfully albeit warily, "Please understand that I would never say this to you unless ordered. High Observer Decimal Point ordered for you and Base Ten Number Two to meet with him and," The massager hesitated just a little before soldering on, "'give him one good reason why he shouldn't flay your titles off and present your worthlessness to the vultures'."

With a short explosive sigh Six stood up, and gripping her briefcase she pushed the button on the desk again and the screen disappeared into the ceiling. Steadying herself she addressed her agent, "Thank you for reporting to me in a timely manner."

The nameless agent stood up higher, and she mentally nodded to herself. She would get his letter code later, it was hard to keep good loyal messengers. Pity they had such a quick turnover rate, and the main reason for that was still sitting on her desk.

"You seem calm about all of this, Six." Two observed, the murderous smile on his face not twitching an inch. "It's almost like you planned to fail."

Six glanced at him from the corner of her eye, "There are things that one gets used to with company experience, Number Two. The anger of one's boss is one such thing." She lifted her dark grey briefcase high presenting a sharp emblem of a number six, "This will allow me to keep my job, and give me the chance to redeem myself. I suggest for you to put together some of your divisions recent accomplishments for Decimal." She lower her arm and nodded toward him, "It would be unfortunate for you to end up like the former Number Two."

The murder on Two's face melted away and was replaced with his usual permanent grin, "Yes. That would be unfortunate since I have the sneaking suspicion that a straight-jacket wouldn't look good on me." He said before a pondering look crossed his face, "Or has her money finally run out? You know how fickle America's mental health system is. I guess I should search under a few bridges for her. It has been a long time since any of us has paid her a visit, hasn't it?" Two chuckled and slid off her desk.

In afterthought Number Two threw his ruined gloves into her trash can. Humming a jaunty tune he pulled a new pair of gloves out of his coat. "Well it seems that we both have things to do." He pulled on the black gloves and flexed his fingers, "I wonder what my agents have found in my absence." Two left her study and made sure to give the massager a sharp smile as he did so.

The poor agent shook beside her, and Six found that she could not fault him. Decimal had a way with dealing with traitors, and there was no greater traitor than the former Number Two. Decimal's revenge was legend and was still a charged topic of gossip among the agents even though they had no solid facts to work on. Six would bet her best suit that Two's words would fill her compound with rumours and nightmares.

There was a reason why Alphanumerics called the Number Two position cursed. Of the three High Numbers before the current Two only one, the original, was honorably discharged. The others...

She sighed.

There was no point in telling the messenger not to talk, Two's words were going to spread. She had found that silencing people only made rumors spread faster. With a frown on her face she dismissed the agent, and quickly left her study. She needed to secured her position and for that wouldn't do to leave Decimal waiting. After the heat was turned off her she will need to sent out more spies. To flush out the Convicts they needed information on their friends, or rather their enemies.

She wondered, what would make a teenager refuse money from a billionaire godfather?

Wisconsin Ghost indeed.

The pieces of this puzzle were annoyingly just out of reach, for now. Soon she would have all their secrets and she will have them. Then, she make sure that no ghost or ghost sympathizer would ever dare cross her again.


The Hall of Justice.

It was the one place where the public could meet their heroes without directing themselves into mortal danger. Constructed by the League to bring themselves closer to the public the Hall not only served to combat their image of being dangerous vigilantes, but also to give young heroes a place to go.

Made with metric tons of white reinforced concrete, tempered glass strong enough to withstand one of Superman's punches, and blatantly named by a contractor that had no spatial perception it stood out proudly in Washington, DC.

Today, the Hall was silent; closed off to the rapidly growing public outside of it. The people were restless, anxious because of what the media had been reporting for the last hour or so.

The monstrous Convicts were inside the Hall of Justice and were to be transported to a prison only the League knew about. The public had been shaken with the disappearance of Batman and Flash. As a mass they had ran to stores fighting over resources as they prepared for the worse. What kind of creatures could break through dimensions so easily, and needed the entire might of the League to stop? Was the world going to be dragged into another dimension, were the creatures of darkness going to flood their planet? They didn't know. And so mothers and fathers whisked away their children from quickly closed schools and brought them to familiar homes and not so familiar bunkers. The nature of the Convict's danger was both horribly known and unknown. They were unpredictable, and families held their loved ones close and prayed for the best.

Then, Batman and the Flash reappeared.

...Needless to say, their reappearance did not lessen the tight panic that had found it's way in the public's hearts. Now they were worried not just for themselves, but also for the heroes they had grown to love who were stuck with such demons.

Pushed by the callings from the media both social and traditional; people flocked to Washington D.C and gathered on the Hall of Justice's courtyard. Physically they could not fight the Convicts, but what they could do was show the League their solidarity.

They could only hope that whatever mind games the Convicts pulled wouldn't be strong enough to gravely injure their heroes.


Danny, Sam, and Tucker were used to the strange.

Portals to different dimensions, Ghost Kings that pulled whole towns to what was essentially the underworld, that one time Danny's dad tried to rock a speedo.

...well that last one bordered more on horrifying than just strange, but point still stands they were used to strange.

"Well, hello there."

Sam and Tucker watched opened mouth and stock still as one would be being caught sneaking very obviously through the Hall of Justice. Really, they didn't think that they would be caught this easily. They had only left the room their hosts had... encouraged them to stay in less they twenty minutes ago. Then again, Hall of Justice. Crystal chandeliers, polished white tile, giant bronze statues and all. They could only get so far sneaking behind cut stone pillars, so in hindsight they should have calculated for random wandering heroes, but-

Danny pulled back from the object that was shoved into his face. The small grey, tape recorder? "Wha-, what?"

The tape recorder was pulled quickly from him and he followed its path down to a woman in a deep blue business casual suit. Her red painted lips quirked up complementing the mischievous spark in her blue eyes. Easily holding his own blue gaze she spoke, "Lois Lane, from the Daily Bugle. So, Danny Phantom, care to comment about being America's hottest new villain?"

This was beyond strange. They prided themselves on being stealthy. Danny more so with him being a ghost and all. They had sneaked into multiple mansions, villain lairs, banks and forts across America. They had flew inches under the noses of heroes!

So how did a reporter wearing high heels on tile sneak up on them?

Again the tape recorder was in Danny's face, and again he sputtered.

"I-I," Danny looked past the intruding object at to the reporter holding it, "Who are you?"

"Lois Lane. Lois Lane." Sam echoed recognition bringing a roguish smile to her face. "She's a reporter that has been many dangerous situations, and has made many enemies high places." Sam said respect playing into her smile. "Impressive."

Lois smirked her eyes flicking over Sam, "I'm flattered. It's not every day I get recognition from the villains I interview."

Tucker pushed in-between Danny and Sam and ignoring the irritated whirring clicks of Jessica, "If I may interject, we are not villains." He paused at Lois's raised eyebrow, more so by how her eyes flicked toward the shiny black mosquito bot that crawled on top of his braided head, "Or at least we're trying to get rid of the whole villain title. It's not good for our brand, ya' know?"

And wow, couldn't they just see the gears spinning in Lois' head. The sparks going off behind her eyes were almost seemed lethal.

"Villains on the road to redemption, what a scope!" Lois pushed her recorder to their faces stepping closer as they recoiled, "What brought on this change? Why now? Does this have to do with the increase pressure of the G.I.W?"

They glanced at each other, and swallowed dryly. Seeing that Clockwork had warned them about recklessly drawing attention; and now not even a full day later they were pinned in the Hall of Justice by an infamous reporter...

The tape recorder was pulled from Lois' manicured hands and its plastic crackled harshly in a black gloved hand. Lois looked at her empty hand a frowned crossing her face as she turned to face Batman. They couldn't help but notice how unfazed she was by how the Dark Knight just showed up without alerting any of them. Batman held her gaze for a peaceful moment then crushed the tape recorder in his hand.

"No interviews." Batman rumbled as he let the broken pieces fall to the ground. Tightly Batman turned his glare on the Convicts, "I thought I told you three to stay put."

"We would have if you told us what you were planning." Sam huffed, not so subtly putting as much verbal distance between them and Lois Lane's curiosity, "Clockwork tells us that 'time will soon reveal all' then teleports us here, and once we get here you put us in a backroom." She crossed her arms and huffed, "Forgive us for being curious."

"Clockwork?" Lois said, her eyes sparkled as she looked between them, "I never heard that name before."

A sort of silence fell around them, and Batman glared hardened.

Sam paled and pained smile crossed her face as she felt the Dark Knights annoyance at her slip, "Oops?"

"Why are you mad? You're the one who brought her here, right?" Danny ask getting between Sam and Batman, not so bravely holding his glare, "Why would you call for a reporter if you didn't want us to talk to her?"

"I didn't bring her here." Batman said shortly, his glare landed on the reporter just so...

Well, Danny had to give it to her. Not many people can face the Bat-glare and shrug. Even less had the gall to say what she did next, "Superman called me, but the door wasn't open. So, I snuck in." Lois said plainly, almost bored.

Tucker blinked openly at the reporter, "You snuck into the Hall of Justice?"

"If they wanted to keep me out they wouldn't use locks that I could pick." Lois answered honestly, ignoring Batman's scowl.

The shock on Tucker's face gave way to a faint smirk, "I'm starting to believe some of the other stories about you."

Danny frowned, "Nice to know I was being kept in the dark." He muttered before giving Lois an annoyed look, "So why did you come in here? Isn't interviewing the Amity Convicts a little dangerous?" He could hear the pettiness in his voice, but right now he didn't care.

With a wave Lois dismissed Danny's claim, "If you were as dangerous as the media said Superman wouldn't have let me five miles near this place. That, and you don't look like the cannibalism type. There is a scandal a-foot and Lois Lane is just the reporter to uncover it."

"Wait, cannibalism?" Danny screeched his hands flying up to grab at his own black hair, "Where would you even get-?" He looked at Sam and Tucker and found that shared his disbelief, "Why would you-?" He looked back at Lois, who was staring a little too intently at his eyes, "Who even thinks like that?"

A sly smile crossed Lois's face, "It's the fangs that some ghosts have, gives off bad vibes. Oh that reminds me," Lois said taking out a thin camera out of her bag. "Can you be a dear and give me a smile? I need a front page picture."

Before Danny could respond why he would very much not smile for her the camera was snatched from her hands. Lois looked at her empty hands for brief moment before frowning up at Superman who held the small device up and away from her. Superman, who they didn't hear enter either.

What was it, sneak up on the Convicts day?

"Lois, that's enough. You shouldn't tease them." Superman said, and was that amusement on the Kryptonian's face? What did he find funny about this?

Other than the very human, very underpowered reporter that was playing with them. Playing with them and knew it if Danny were to guess from her relaxed expression. And he really didn't know what to think about that. Should he be annoyed that she wasn't taking them seriously, or glad that she wasn't?

She not only approached them, she sneaked up on them. From what she said there were rumours that they ate people floating around. If she thought cannibals were fair game to interview Danny didn't want to know what level of villainy Lois thought as dangerous.

Thankfully, Tucker took the conversation over, "So she can just stroll through the Hall of Justice after breaking in and shoot the breeze when caught, but we get pushed into a broom closet?" Tucker said bemoaned as Jessica flared her wings in time with his whine, "Not fair."

"Lois is a close friend of the League and has earned our trust. Well most of our trust." Superman said not quite frowning at the stoic Dark Knight beside him, "You three are on probation."

Sam scoffed, "Probation! At least admit you're keeping us here until you've finished our cells." Sam released some of the tension in her shoulders, "Come on. Let us have a little safe, wholesome entertainment before you lock us away." Sam's smile reflected nothing but sincerity, "It'll be fun~."

"No." Batman said with a cold sobriety that made Sam wince. "Superman will escort you back to the safe room." His eyes narrowed, "Do not leave again."

Well that went well. Danny thought as Batman's quick stride took him and the hopes of seeing anything other than stupidly bright coloured walls and a broken TV out of sight.

"Fun, Sam? Batman doesn't have fun." Tucker said his nose crinkling, "I don't think is even capable of having fun."

Superman gave Tucker a patient look, "He's not that bad. He has interests."

Sam raised an eyebrow, "Interests other than justice? What's his favourite genre of music?"

"Um..." Superman trailed.

Tucker rocked back on his heels and grinned, "Surely he has a favourite sport? A sport's team that he cheers for?"

"I never really had the time to ask..."

Danny smiled and helpfully added, "A favourite food? You have seen him eat before right?"

"...Batman is a very private man..."

"Movie?" Lois said not bothering to hide the laughter behind her eyes.

Superman blink and looked between their smiling faces, "You're stalling me."

"Now why ever would we do that?" Tucker said so innocently, "We're simply proving that Batman is incapable of fun."

"He does have interests." Superman said. He frowned, "I have seen him smile, usually when someone falls completely into one of his gambits. Then he kind of smirks."

Superman's words wormed into their minds and the Convict's heads were filled with the unnerving picture of a smirking Batman.

Danny nodded once to himself before straightening into a stretch that released a satisfying crack in his back and said, "You know what? I think I'm done with touring the Hall of Justice. That tiny playroom with the broken CRT TV sounds good right about now, don't you think?"

"It does sound pleasant." Sam responded a little too quickly.

"You know if you really think about it, it's not that different from a flat screen. You know I think I may be able to get it to stop picking up so much background noise." Tucker said before pivoting on his heel and walking back to the room they escaped from, Danny and Sam not far behind.

The telltale clip-clip of high heels followed them, "Batman is really like kryptonite to villains isn't he?"

Let's put it this way." Tucker said glancing back at Lois while keeping his not quite urgent pace, "There is only three universal rules among the more suave villains. Don't work with the Joker without a clear out, don't get in debt the government, and don't anger Batman."

"Batman doesn't kill." Lois said reaching into her purse and...Yep that was a pen and notebook, "So why-"

Tucker frowned, "Have you seen what happens to villains and random thugs that get in Batman's path? Thugs end up drinking through a straw,and villains end up in Arkham."

The Convicts all shivered at that. The idea of being trapped in the Asylum with the most deprived of Gotham's villains and the most sadistic of guards would make anyone sane shake. There were stories about that place. Terrible, horrible stories that could make the toughest thug throw up in fear.

"Really you're afraid of Arkham?" Lois asked a cleanly plucked eyebrow raising at their discomfort, "Granted it isn't the nicest place during the best of times but it is livable. At least that was what I saw and what Harley told me."

Tucker nearly tripped catching himself at the last second moments before he face planted on the ground, "You interview Harley Quinn in Arkham!?" Tucker sputtered. "Why?"

"I needed answers, and this guy wouldn't let me near Joker." Lois said jabbing a finger behind her at Superman.

Superman for his part held his ground as her floated behind them, "I already told you going there is too dangerous."

"And I told you that by interviewing the Joker and showing the people how deranged he is we would cut down his henchmen, civilian casualties, by half." Lois shot back.

"You don't know that." Superman said stiffly.

Lois did not back down at Superman's rebuke. Instead she stood up straight and looked at him squarely in the eyes, "I know that there are criminals that wouldn't care if the Joker torched an orphanage, but there are some who would. If those petty criminals saw the inner workings of the Joker's mind they won't follow him."

"That made be so but the Joker is dangerous, Lois." Superman said tightly, "No civilian should be anywhere near him."

"I've been kidnapped by the Joker before." Lois said just as tight, "I think I ought to know how dangerous he is."

Superman flushed and the Man of Steel lost his composure, "Lois, I don't want to lose you!"

"You will lose a lot more if you don't let me do my job!"

"Umm?" Sam said carefully. They had stopped a few paces away from Superman and Lois, and then quickly got further away when both of their hands clenched in frustrated anger. They were planning to leave them to their fight, but Sam just had to call to them. Run- ah, retreating would be rude, "Do you two need time?"

Lois and Superman stepped away from each other each of them carefully not looking at the other.

"No, no." Lois said fixing her suit, "It's just an old issue. An issue that we will talk about later, but not now. That's not why I'm here."

Danny, Sam, and Tucker briefly looked to each other, and in that second they put together a question and chose a person to speak it.

"Why are you here?" Danny asked.

Lois held up her slightly crushed notebook and pen, "I told you there is a scandal going on. I'm going to clear your names, Superman told me what happened." Sadness played plainly on her face. "What happened to you shouldn't have, and I want to help make it right."

That gave Danny pause and he gave Lois this look, "You do realize who you would be going against?"

Lois held her head up and scoffed, "The Guys in White. Believe me even if you hadn't been framed by them I still would have went after their group. Everything about their operations is suspicious, and not in the normal way the government usually is."

Sam eyes narrowed in a way which meant she was grilling a person's motives up and down her mind, "Suspicious, how?"

"Danny's parents made a ghost portal back in their college days. The G.I.W took notice and asked their university for a copy to their plans." Lois said, "That wouldn't call for alarm by itself, Danny's parents ripped a hole through space time it would be foolish if they did check it out. The suspicious thing came afterward."

"Which was?" Danny asked not liking the way his hairs stood up on the back of his neck.

Lois frown was pure repose, "Two years later the G.I.W called for aid, and lots of it. From the damage reports released to the public over ninety percent of their main base was destroyed. Damage reports they had to release because the blast that came from the destruction of their base was the equivalent of one thousand tons of TNT." With a quick tap Lois' pen turned to active and she held the device over her note book, "Danny, the G.I.W temporarily purchased your parents' house. Did they do that to gain access over their portal?"

He nodded dumbly as Lois quickly scratched notes down a frown tugging at her lips.

"It's as I thought. They wouldn't be able to gain clearance to make another portal after that failure, and even if they did they wouldn't make it themselves. One last question. When you were turned into a half-ghost, how big was the explosion did the portal make?"

"Hold up." Tucker said voice filling the space that Danny's dry gasp left, "You think that the G.I.W made an explosion big enough to set off the Richter scale trying to make a halfa? What do you think they did? Funnel unstable ectoplasm into some poor guy's veins?"

Lois nodded stiffly, "Yes, I do."

"But, why?"

"Ever heard of Ecto-sickness? Human's temporarily gaining the powers of ghosts after high contact with ecto plasm?" Lois asked, "Guess who first documented it? It's very possible that the G.I.W have been trying to make a halfa long before your parents thought of making their first ghost portal. If only that was the worst thing about this whole mess."

"What could be worse?" Danny asked, but as Lois shivered he wished he could take back the question.

Lois composed herself, "Months before the explosion there was a string of disappearances. You wouldn't really notice or care. No one did, because they were the homeless, the thugs, women of ill repute, among other things. They disappeared, and no one truly cared because there was a relocation program in effect that promised to clean the streets." Lois frowned, "After the explosion the program just stopped."

"T-they wouldn't." Danny stammered finding that his mouth felt cotton dry. Lois couldn't be implying what she was. Though Tucker and Sam were so still beside him, he just wanted to grab them and run

Superman's patient look kept him rooted to the ground. Clockwork trusted that the League would keep them safe. Superman trusted Lois, he could see it in the way he looked at her. Superman listened to what she said with the same thoughtful look that Dad gave Mom when she found a new layer to one of his problems.

Which meant that what Lois was saying had merit. The G.I.W didn't just experiment on humans randomly they had experience, lots of experience, with human test subjects. Which meant that running is the last thing they should do, because being cornered by people who would do that to humans would be very, very bad.

Seeing their stress Lois' voice soften "Everything that I've found is just speculation," Lois admitted, "but Batman can tell you. If what I found is true it wouldn't be the first time that the government forcefully took volunteers from the populace. If I were you I would find a place the government can't find you and stay there."

Superman nodded, "We have that covered." He looked at them, "I know it's not the coziest place but that 'broom closet' acts as safe room. We may not have the solid evidence we need to dismantle the G.I.W, but we can keep you from them."

"Personally I would feel much better if they were all behind bars." Sam said not quite hugging herself, "But thank you, really. It's nice to know others outside of our group are with us on this."

Superman smile kindly, Lois stood up tall beside him, and Danny knew that Clockwork was right. They should have asked for help from the start. It felt good not to have face the G.I.W alone.

"Oh, one last thing." Superman said, and what was with that sheepish look, "I need your shirt sizes."

Oh, well if that was all he needed. They told Superman their sizes and continued back to the safe room.

Sure the room was cramped, but it wasn't the worst. Danny knew he shouldn't complain, he was going to space and the world wasn't in mortal danger. Technically he was going there as a prisoner, but space.

Years of reading up on rockets and NASA came back to him, and he smile.

It was going to be great!


He really needed to learn not to temp Murphy. That ghost, spirit, or whatever that accursed thing was had it out for them and he knew that.

"Danny."

Ah. The lovely voice of Sam speaking to him. Normally he loved to hear her voice, but right now it was tinged with annoyance and he could just see her eyebrows furrowed in that way which meant she was seconds from screaming at him.

On his right side separated but not impeded by some very impressive solid glowing metal he heard a sigh. And, yes. That was the rhythmic sound of a head beating against said metal. Tucker could be melodramatic at times, their situation wasn't that bad.

Though he really wished he could scratch the itch on his nose.

"Danny." Sam's lovely voice came again, "You tempted Murphy, didn't you?"

"I wouldn't say I tempted him…"

The banging got worse.

"Tucker, would you stop that!" Sam snapped not caring that Danny was between her and the techno geek, "We need your brain."

A sniffle, "They took Jessica."

"They couldn't really leave you with you mosquito bot." Danny reasoned. "What if we used it to escape?"

"We're in straight-jackets what could we possibly do?" Tucker groaned, and Danny knew he couldn't agree with that logic. The League had tailored the jackets to them. They were tight not painfully so, but they kept him from using his powers, and Sam and Tucker from using their hands.

He should have been suspicious when Superman asked for their measurements.

"You know this has to be authentic." Sam answered. He could hear the annoyance in her voice, but it wasn't currently pointed at Tucker. "What kind of guards leave their prisoners armed?"

"Clair, Sasha, Hanna…"

"Oh for the love of-"

"Easy now." Danny said giving placating looks to his left and right although Sam and Tucker couldn't see it. "This isn't ideal, but it is what we agreed to."

"You agreed to being blindfolded and teleported, because I sure didn't." Tucker said crossly.

"The way into the Watch Tower is supposed to be a secret." Danny's tone went lighter and couldn't keep the giddiness out of his voice, "Guy's look at the bright side, we're in space! Don't tell me the view when they walked us here wasn't great."

"...I did see a comet." Tucker replied through the grey metallic wall.

"Did you see the Northern Lights? Earth looks so beautiful up here." Sam said and Danny had to agree with her.

The view didn't look so great now what with the ghost repealing metal making a box around him and a ghost shield in front of him. The other side of the ghost shield didn't look too great either. They were in an equally grey room that had a desk and a few chairs beside it, and on the opposite side of their cells was a single heavy looking door.

But the view when Superman and Batman was escorting them here?

They had passed a huge viewing windows that gave them full view of the earth, and it was breathtaking. Just vast amounts of blue water striped with clouds of every shade of grey. Under the clouds the continents ruled. Emerald green, arid brown, and everything in between feeding and caring for that which lived on it. Behind that substance of life was the stars, trillions on trillions of stars, flashing and burning in every colour known and not known. Billions of lives spinning with a planet hurdling through space.

He would have stayed there for hours, but then Batman's scowl and Superman's light tapping reminded him why he was there.

They had been cut away from that beauty pretty quickly, but still, "It was amazing, wasn't it?" Sam and Tucker answered in the affirmative and he smiled, "See? This place doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. We can make the most of this, all we have to do is stay positive!" Danny exhaled a little laugh, "I mean we're imprisoned in the Watchtower what else can happen?"

The single door to the room slowly creaked open.

"Danny…" Sam started her voice laden with a tired threat.

Another bang came from his right wall of his cell followed by what was pure exasperation, "Dude, we had just talked about this."

He sighed and hung his head.

God damnit, Murphy.