It all came down to this. I took down the minions of this Freakshow. All that's left is the King of Freaks. And despite the creep factor high, I was not backing down on this fight.
Hope can hear Zombozo's voice, as he was slowly coming down somewhere away from view. "I won't let you destroy my machine."
"Is that so? You think I'm gonna let you get away with using innocent people as your energy source?" Midnight Hope remarked, getting ready to fight while looking for her opponent. "I thought clowns were supposed to be colorful and funny. Not dark and terrifying!"
Zombozo's creepy laughter echoed all over the room, sending shivers down Midnight Hope's spine.
"Oh, believe me, I used to make people laugh…and have that as my favorite snack to feed," Zombozo clarified, licking his lips on the memory. "Unfortunately, someone else took the laughing roll as his schtick and I had to try something new. That's when I discovered a new emotion to eat and absorb the life out of people…fear. Way more nutritional than laughter and happiness if you ask me."
"If by nutritional, you mean zero in calories where you're just a sicko leech with a bottomless appetite!" Midnight Hope argued. "And what about the ghost girl in your machine as a battery source?! Huh?! Explain that to me!"
"It's actually quite simple, really. This ghost is not just any ghost. According to her, she is what she calls herself an 'Ectonurite'. It's basically like an alien ghost…but with surprisingly off-the-chart energy signatures that I've never seen before. My freaks and I found her one day and discovered her powers of fear make her the perfect battery." Zombozo explained, already coming down more to reveal his creepy face. "Once I drain those satisfied customers of their life forces, they'll be drained into husks...only knowing that fear is their home. And then, I'm gonna go global. And put the entire world into an endless nightmare! I'll be king of the world!"
Sheesh! And I thought Sinestro was delusional with the fear factor. This clown takes the whole creepy cake! It's always world domination with these villain psychos being king or queen of something!
"In your sicko nightmares, Zombozo," Midnight Hope stated strongly, pointing at him. "I defeated your freaky minions, and I can beat you! Because hope always finds a way!"
As Midnight Hope blasted Zombozo with a blue energy blast, Zombozo blocked it by punching it really hard. Along with revealing a large wire on his back connected to the machine charging him up. "Oops, did I forget to mention...the fears I drain also make me stronger? Hope is for the weak, and fear makes me powerful. So powerful...that I can withstand your blue power!"
Zombozo laughed, as he charges at Midnight Hope.
"Uh, oh," Midnight Hope muttered, flying/dodging Zombozo.
Okay, maybe this became the worst time not to have Green Lantern around. I am on my own, dodging a zombie clown guy feeding on fear, and in deep trouble where I got no plan! Worst. Date. Ever!
Just then, during the fight, Ben started to open his eyes. His body was getting weak yet he noticed Midnight Hope fighting Zombozo. "Lea..." He weakly said as he tries to wiggle free.
"You nor any other superhero on this planet can't stop me. Perhaps, once I've dealt with you, I'll go and drain the Justice League of their life forces, too, so that no other metahuman will stop me!" Zombozo said, as he uses confetti to blind Midnight Hope.
"Hey!" Midnight Hope shouted, constructing a large electric fan to blow the confetti away until getting jumped scared at seeing Zombozo heading towards her. "YIKE!"
Without thinking, she went full blast on the fan to push him back. Along with firing a laser from her ring that went all over the place until it cut one of Ben's straps by accident.
Ben's hand was free, and he tried to unstrap himself. "Got to... help," He weakly said, as he unstraps his legs and then his other hand. He then fell on the floor.
Zombozo heard the thud of the floor and sees Ben on the floor. "What?" But then he was interrupted by Midnight Hope hitting him with a big bat construct.
"Stay away from him, Zombozo!" Midnight Hope exclaimed, quickly ending the construct and helping Ben up. "Are you ok?"
"I'm...okay," Ben said, weakly. "When I saw the mirror earlier...I saw a creepy-looking clown...and then I saw more scary clowns."
"Unfortunately, that was more than just the fear-inducing mirrors," Midnight Hope stated, guiding him behind the machine. "Stay strong with hope, Ben. I'll save you, Max, and everyone else here from that mean freak. All will be well. And...thank you for helping me."
Before leaving to be back in the fight, Midnight Hope kissed Ben's forehead, making her ring and herself glow.
Turns out, that kiss and blue glow made Ben get some strength back in him.
"Lea... You're glowing again," Ben said, remembering the last time he saw her glow was when she made Fro'Gieon's eggs hatch.
"I am?" Midnight Hope asked, looking at herself. "How...? Never mind, I'll worry about that later. I got a villain to stop!"
Midnight Hope then went after Zombozo, who was recovering and ready to fight back.
However, when seeing Midnight Hope glow blue, he tried to use his fear powers again...but they had no effect.
"What the?! How are you doing that?!" Zombozo questioned.
"Looks like you're not the only one who gets energized by a certain emotion," Midnight Hope remarked, creating a construct boot to kick him across the room. "Except mine doesn't drain innocent civilians just for kicks!"
After getting some energy back somehow, Ben then decided to help out. He went to the machine and noticed the ghost girl in there. She looked like that ghost alien one of his evil counterparts turned into to kill him. But Ben sees her really hurt.
"Are you the energy source?" he asked.
Looking up, the Ectonurite girl saw Ben and had a pleading look in her eye. "Please...help me...I don't like this...It's not fun..."
Meanwhile, Midnight Hope was not holding back. She was passing Zombozo like a speeding bullet with some punches and kicks.
"You are gonna regret using others for your twisted plans!" Midnight Hope shouted, now punching Zombozo in the rubber nose that made a noise. "In other words...you are going down, clown!"
While Midnight Hope continued getting the upper hand on the fight, Ben listened carefully to the alien ghost on what needs to be done.
"You need to... find the plug...Or, at least… destroy the machine," The Ectonurite girl said.
"I'll try option one," Ben replied. "Destroying the machine while it's still plugged... tends to make things worse."
He then walks towards the machine where the plug is. Then, Ben got an idea. He can rip the cords, but needed something to cut them. Ben soon noticed that there was some left-over acid dripping from the walls. So, he looks for some metal to hold the acid.
While that was going on, Midnight Hope continued her stand against Zombozo.
"Give it up, you Halloween clown reject!" Midnight Hope exclaimed, having her hands locked into his pushing each other to a stand-still. "It's over!"
Just as Midnight Hope was about to beat her opponent, Zombozo decided to make a dirty move.
"Don't sell yourself short, Miss Lantern," Zombozo said, headbutting Midnight Hope's forehead with the circular mirror on his hat.
"Ow!" Midnight Hope exclaimed, backing off to recover from that hit. "Is that the best you-?"
The Blue Lantern paused when realizing the whole place was black. She looked around until a demented Orange Lantern Hal popped out of nowhere and scared her.
"AAHHHH!" she screamed, flying back until hitting a wall where the darkness was gone and was back to reality.
Zombozo laughed manically, absorbing that fear of getting strong again. "Knew keeping a sliver of that mirror on my top hat would come in handy."
Meanwhile, after Ben found a piece of metal, he then grabs the acid sample and drops it on the cord that was now melting it. It was weak enough to be pulled off easily. Even for Ben's weakened state.
"Here goes... nothing," he said, as he pulls very hard. He then fell on his bottom, as the cord was finally ripped.
The Ectonurite Girl gasped when feeling the connection cut. Her shackles were loose and floated out of the machine.
"I'm...I'm out," she muttered, looking at her hands.
Zombozo took notice when feeling his fear energy depleting from him, after punching Midnight Hope in the face really hard with his last strength. "What? NO! What have you done!?" he yelled at Ben, noticing it was him.
"Saving a life from you," Ben replied.
"ZOMBOZO! You treated me like a prisoner, made me be a part of your horrible plans, and worst of all...forced me to scare people, not for fun but to drain them dry like me!" The Ectonurite girl exclaimed, really mad at the zombie clown. "You want fear?! I'll give you something to be afraid of!"
When saying that, the Ectonurite girl ripped off her skin to reveal her true form and grab Zombozo with her tentacles for the beat up and scare of a lifetime.
Her claws began to grow in revealing long boney nails with ghoulish pale purple hands. Her wings tore through her back, spreading out to reveal that they were skeleton bat wings. Her tail ripped off the bottom that was nearly the length of her clawed arms and gave her skin the illusion of a dress. Her own right side was ripped, exposing black and white ribs. And finally, her face was revealed as a skull-like face with sharp fangs. Even her hair was a black and white striped tentacle connected to her head similar to her tail.
Ben immediately went to his superhero girlfriend…who was trying to recover from that short terror vision. She breathed heavily until going steady when feeling her boyfriend hug her in a warm embrace.
"It's okay…I'm here," Ben assured, using his thumb to dry off a tear coming from her eye. "We won…Thanks to you."
As the two heroes shared a beautiful moment, the evil clown was getting beat up big time.
Midnight Hope slowly recovered while finally noticing the Ectonurite girl was free and going crazy. "Sweet sugar cookies..."
I won't go into more detail on that fight. But let's just say, I don't think Zombozo will look nor treat Ectonurites the same again. If my GL plushie were here, I'd cover his eyes from the horror I was witnessing.
The Ectonurite girl in her Sinister form then dragged a beaten-up Zombozo somewhere dark where the clown had his gloved nails dragging the ground in horror for one final scare.
"Please! No! NO MORE!" the evil clown pleaded…his final words before disappearing into the shadows.
It was quiet, for a moment. Until…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
All that was heard was Zombozo screaming like there was no tomorrow until the sound of party streamers bursting came until it was nothing but silence.
Midnight Hope stared in complete shock with Ben weakly helping her up from the ground while doing the same.
"Yikes...I almost feel sorry for him," Midnight Hope muttered, still staring all mortified while covering her mouth. "Almost."
Just then, Ben heard a weak voice. "Ben..."
"Grandpa!" Ben said, as he weakly walks to free him. "Are you okay?"
"I will be…Thanks to you and Midnight Hope." Max said. He then sees the ghost girl coming out of the shadows. "Is that an Ectonurite?"
"By Ectonurite, you mean a ghost-like alien who had it in being a battery to a sicko clown's evil plans of world domination through fear? Then yes," Midnight Hope said, seeing the Ectonurite revert back to her first form and coming towards them.
"Wow," Ben said, looking at her carefully. "She looks like that ghost alien one of the evil mes turned into a while back."
"Looks like it, but female," Max said, as he walked close to the ghost alien. "Who are you?"
"I'm Silvania. And let me just say...thank you for freeing me!" The Ectonurite girl named Silvania said happily, already grabbing a surprised Ben with her tentacles and hugging him. "I don't know how much longer I could handle hurting people! You and that blue specter girl really showed Zombozo!"
"Not a problem," Midnight Hope said, seeing there are still people held captive and weak. "Now the bigger challenge is reversing the scare-process Zombozo has done. And shutting down that mirror room."
"Ben and I are still weak. Luckily, Zombozo didn't drain us completely dry," Max said.
"But he did drain a lot of people's life forces," Ben said. "And I just took out the machine's main source to stop it. I don't know if it can be reversed."
Midnight Hope thought very hard about something. When she kissed Ben while feeling hopeful, he seemed a little better than before.
"...We have to try. And I think I know a way to reverse the damage Zombozo has done," Midnight Hope said, going into the machine. "I'm gonna use all my Lantern energy to heal everyone."
"Is that even possible?" Max asked.
"I did feel a little good when I got free," Ben said.
"Are you sure it will work?" Silvania asked, sounding concerned.
"I'm not sure. And, to be honest, I've never truly mastered the healing technique yet," Midnight Hope admitted, holding on to the wires while closing her eyes to concentrate. "But I have to try. All it takes...is a lot of hope."
To Be Concluded…
So, in this universe of No Watch Ben, Silvania was not recruited by the Rooters and was never fused with the human Dana to become a hybrid at will that you all know as Dana the Ectonurite. Instead of hibernating for four to five years by the Rooter incident, Silvania ended up in a more dangerous fate where No Watch Ben and Midnight Hope freed her from.
Silvania also may or may not contain some sort of energy within herself that differs from the other Ectonurites. Something that might be explained at a later time.
Now, it leads to the conclusion. Will Midnight Hope's Blue Lantern power be more than enough to restore life back to Zombozo's victims? Stay tuned for the epic epilogue of this story.