Scarecrow had somehow went through one window only to crash into another. Landing roughly inside what looked like an old tool shed, he immediately tried to regain his posture and ignored the shards of glass that clung to his clothing. Luckily for him, none had actually seriously injured him.

He barely had enough time to find his scythe that had slid away from him upon impact as he had lost his grip on it. He scrambled for the deadly agricultural tool so as to arm and prepare himself for his enemy. Who wasted no time in making his presence known.

"Quit while you still can, Scarecrow."

He most certainly heard a voice, but its speaker was nowhere to be seen.

"I am in no mood for games; show yourself, stranger. Who are you?" Crane replied dismissively, choosing to once again ignore the fair warnings. Danny obeyed on his own whim, if only because he was no longer in a mood for words. The half-dead teenager appeared before and locked eyes with the boogeyman. Crane stared down the translucent being, and was suddenly hit with a stroke of realization. He had seen him before.

"Are you afraid of ghosts, Scarecrow?" it spoke, words rolling off his tongue languidly. Despite the severity of the situation, Scarecrow smirked as a thought that only he could perceive to be amusing entered his mind.

The ghost, a long-time medium used to instill fear in others versus the Master of Fear himself. How... cliche'd.

"Fear is a sensation lost unto me, boy, and I'm afraid quite useless when faced against the likes of me."

"Oh yeah? Then how about a fistful of ectoplasmic energy?" Wasting little time, Danny shot the Scarecrow directly in the middle of his chest with a ghost ray that he had been building up behind his own back. The force of it knocked Scarecrow backwards, banging his head against the wall. He slumped forward, unconscious, and Danny stuck around for only a few moments to make sure that he did not stir.

"You've let Phantom go after Scarecrow by himself?" Robin exclaimed, furious and unwilling to admit that this worried him.

"He said he could handle it! Besides, it's not like you or Kaldur were around to help," Superboy replied tersely, trying to be gentle with the girl that was still in his arms. He did not want any more harm to come to her.

Before the Boy Wonder could argue back, Artemis and Aqualad began regaining their own wits as well.

"Ugh, that was not pleasant," the archeress grumbled and rolled onto her hands and knees in an attempt to steady herself. Her line of sight lead her directly to the red-headed speedster still lying on the floor.

"Is he-"

"He's fine," Robin interrupted, still a little miffed over his argument with Superboy.

"Unfortunately, it seems that Scarecrow has escaped. We must recuperate and find him as soon as possible," Aqualad declared, already up on his feet and ready to go. Robin scoffed though and shook his head.

"Actually, he hasn't. Apparently Phantom went after him."

"Has he apprehended him?"

"I don't know. Ask Superboy."

Confused, the Atlantean turned to face the clone but halted when he noticed instead the obvious look of distress that he wore. He was cradling a still frightened Miss Martian in his arms.

"M'gann hasn't recovered yet," he stated, his tone sick with worry.

"Give her time, Superboy. She is a telepath, after all, the toxin must have affected her more severely than it did us," Aqualad did his best to assure, despite the fact that he was still a bit shaken up from his own experience.

"All right, so what are we gonna do about Danny? Shouldn't we go find him now?" Artemis finally spoke up, a bit peeved now that no one seemed a bit least alarmed that one of their members and a psychopath were still missing.

Before either of the original members could reply though, someone else had.

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine," Danny said, flying through a wall and re-materializing before them. He appeared to be unharmed. Artemis rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Oh, well that's just great," she said, a bit sarcastically that, when accompanied by her smile, was obviously meant to be taken as playfully rather than rudely. Phantom smiled back at her, amused by her behavior. Kaldur; however, ruined their little moment and directed a question at the half-ghost.

"And what of Scarecrow? What has become of him?" he asked, a bit exasperated now. Danny glanced over and shrugged.

"When I left him, he was knocked out cold in an old tool shed. I can show you to him if you'd like."

"Lead the way then."

It had to have been the right spot. It was the only place with a broken in window and shards of glass everywhere. The only thing out of place and missing was the villain that was supposed to be there.

"... I swear he was right here," Danny defended himself, feeling the others' eyes boring into the back of his head. Robin growled and banged his fist against the wall. In all honesty, he was more annoyed that Scarecrow got away than the fact that Danny had let him get away.

"Great, so this entire mission was a failure."

Miss Martian, who was still in Superboy's arms, began stirring a bit and slowly entered the world of the conscience again. Blinking her eyes open, she looked up to see a pair of familiar blue orbs that she had found very assuring.

"Conner... what happened?"

Instead of replying verbally, the clone let his girlfriend probe his mind for answers as he replayed the recent events over for her. She made a small "oh" sound as Superboy let her down to stand on her own. She gazed around at her friends, all of whom were sporting somber and defeated expressions. Her eyes lingered on Wally for a bit, who had regained consciousness before she had and was leaning on Aqualad for support, as she was glad that he seemed mostly unharmed from the bullet.

"So what do we do now?" the speedster questioned to no one in particular, only for his leader to answer him.

"We call in the League and inform them. There's nothing else we can do here," he said rather somberly. Defeat was a hard pill for him, and the others as well, to swallow.

"Wait, I think I can try something. Just... hold on for a bit," the Martian interrupted, and even though she was still a bit weak, she closed her eyes and scanned all of the land encompassed by the fence. This was no easy feat, especially in her weakened state, as the entire compound took up about 35 square acres.

She probed and scanned though, until finally she found a sign of life deep underground.

"I've found him, he's still here," she murmured and tried to pinpoint a more exact location, "Follow me, I've got him!"

Miss Martian lead them to a building on the far west-side of the compound, it was a mess of concrete halls and mazes that were made even more suffocating with the rusty pipes that crawled over the walls and ceilings. Zooming down the pathways sure of where she was going, the others followed directly behind. Even though it was at a very subtle angle, it was obvious that wherever they were going, it was down.

The maze seemed to go on forever, and they were all out of breath by the time they finally reached a set of large, steel double doors that marked a dead end.

"We're here. He's in the other room," the Martian announced, standing before it.

"What exactly kind of factory was this place anyway?" Wally demanded, annoyed at the sheer length and size of the place.

"It was the old Gotham Municipal Department, it supplied water to the entire... city...," Robin began explaining, but slowly trailed off as something dire hit him. Scarecrow had been staking out the department for weeks and had access to the water supply of approximately 10 million people.

Kid Flash picked up on the urgency of the situation as soon as his friend did.

"But... this place is abandoned. The pipes would have been shut off, right?" he reasoned, but ended up sounding more hopeful than sure. Robin merely shook his head, not sure what to say or think anymore. With Batman's gallery of rouges, it was always smart to look at things as pessimistically as possible.

"We are wasting time. Let's confront him once and for all," Aqualad ordered, his hand already on the door. No one was going to disagree or stop him, they were ready.

Their leader grabbed either handle, and heaved the great doors open. They reluctantly gave way to him, its hinges protesting all the way with cringe-worthy squeaking.

"Oh, I'm so glad you've managed to find me. But then again, I suppose kindred spirits are attracted to each other," Scarecrow introduced the team, as if he were greeting old friends into his home. Standing on the opposite side of the large room with his hand neatly folded over the shaft of his scythe supporting him from behind, Robin took note of the large tank next to him.

"What are you talking about Scarecrow? No one here has anything in common with you."

"Ah, but I beg to differ. Wouldn't you say so?" Scarecrow asked, directing his question at a bewildered Danny, "Your friend here has shared residences with me for a short period of time before I managed to bust out. Isn't that right, ghost? Or should I say, Patient 52."

Danny could feel his stomach drop and his mouth go dry as the fiend revealed his dirty little secret. He had hoped that they would never find out.

"But I'm sure he's already told you about that."

"Enough! We are not here to play games Scarecrow. Surrender once and for all!" Kaldur interrupted, once again bringing out his water-bearers. He would not be taken by surprise this time.

"If I surrender now though, all my hard work would have gone to waste. Do you have any idea how long it takes to completely reroute a city's water supply pipes? Without getting caught?"

"What are you planning on doing?"

"You see, my boy, I've been working hard on a new strain of my fear toxin. It's very potent, ten times more so than the stuff you've experienced earlier. And the best part? It's completely non-water soluble. Which means-"

"You can poison the water supply and intoxicate millions of people with it," Wally finished for him, stunned by the sheer genius and complete disregard for morality of the plan.

"That's correct. And who's going to stop me now?" Scarecrow provoked, knowing full well that he was the one in control of the situation. Even if the others did not.

"We will!" Aqualad proclaimed, as the others readied for battle as well. The boogeyman merely scoffed, unimpressed by their show of power. With a snap of his fingers, dozens of well-armed goons quickly filed into the room, with full intentions of obeying their boss.

"I actually won't be doing any of the dirty work, hope you don't mind."

Another snap of the fingers, and the men attacked like rabid dogs, eager to get their taste of blood.

Aqualad and Superboy both took on four each, and the two boys attacked the villains that grouped into a single mass from either side. One by one, they were being picked off with punches and water-constructed mails.

Five of the men picked on Miss Martian alone, unbeknownst to them that she was anything but easy prey. She telekinetically grabbed them by their ankles, and surprised them by holding them up upside down. With a small smirk, she let go of them and they all came falling down and landed on their heads thus knocking them out.

Artemis had chosen two of her own, and warded them off with arrow after arrow until finally Kid Flash gave her a chance to surprise them with an exploding arrow by distracting them. It landed nearby, the force of it knocking them backwards.

Leaving Danny and Robin with the last three plus Scarecrow. While the Boy Wonder was busy with trying to get rid of the goons, Scarecrow took the opportunity to be rid of the Dark Knight's sidekick once and for all. It would make his, not to mention the rest of the Gotham villains', lives so much easier if the Dynamic Duo was broken up. Creeping up behind him, he was about to swing his scythe and lop of the boy's head much of the same way the Grim Reaper was usually depicted as doing so.

Danny didn't know what overcame him. But he felt... invincible. The exhilaration of the fight was getting to him, and he liked it. In a split second, he rammed Robin with his shoulder and thus pushed him away from the impending weapon. Only to put himself in its direct path. Being a bit taller than him, the blade instead cut into his shoulder rather than his neck.

Staring at it with morbid fascination, Danny watched as a green, gooey substance oozed out of his wound instead of blood. Off to the side, he could see Robin in his peripheral vision gaping at his nearly hacked off arm.

It didn't hurt though. t

Grabbing the scythe by its shaft, he lodged it out of his arm and threw it to the ground with a clatter. The wound healed just as quick, if not faster, than Wally's. Earth based weapons had no effect on Danny's ghost form. When it came to ghosts, only fire could be fought with fire. But instead of fire, they needed ectoplasm. A technology that only three people on Earth had. Two of whom were no longer even in business.

Robin swiftly took care of the last three men, as they had also been distracted with Phantom's little demonstration of just what he was really capable of.

"No! This is impossible!" Scarecrow howled, backing off as the others began circling around him. In a final desperate attempt, Crane attempted to spill the heavy tank of toxin into the water supply below by himself. It was no use though, for he did not have the muscle to preform such a feat.

Miss Martian telepathically knocked the man out with a final move.

As the team stood around the damage and destruction they had caused, a sense of unity was impressed upon them all.

"Call Commissioner Gordon. Let him deal with cleaning this mess up," Robin spoke up softly. He turned to the Martian who, in a lot of ways, he had come to see as a sister. "Megan, will you take us home?"

She smiled at him nodded. The others began filing out, happy to return back to the mountain, leaving only Phantom behind. He stood there, unsure of what to do to. He didn't really think that the others were too eager to keep him around anymore. Robin was the last out the door when he realized that they were one short

. Turning around, he faced the boy who had just saved his life.

"Danny? Are you coming?" he asked, having finally accepted him as a comrade. Despite some things that Scarecrow had said which he would have to check out later. The ghost boy looked up at him, obviously surprised that Robin stuck around and waited for him.

"... Yeah, I'll be right there."

AN: Well, there ya go. Thanks for everyone that has reviewed, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I enjoyed writing it anyway. Please review. Let me know what you think, cuz I feel this chapter seems a bit... crowded?