A/N: Taking a break from the alphabet meme for a chapter or two. This is a DP cross with Justice League (the cartoon, not the comics). I've always loved the idea for this crossover. Unfortunately, there aren't nearly enough of them out there. I've had this kicking around on my computer for about the last year, intending on making it into a full story, but I began the next chapter and promptly developed a writer's block that I can't seem to shake. Therefore, I am putting this up in my collection of one-shots and officially putting it up for adoption. Anyone who is interested, please PM me.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing that you recognize.
It was inevitable really that they should meet at some point. After all, they lived on the same world and were all in similar lines of work, though Danny was oriented more towards the supernatural than criminals and alien threats. Actually, now that he thought back on it, it was shocking that they hadn't met before. There were, after all, some members of the Justice League that also dealt almost solely in the lines of the supernatural. Even with the overlap, however, it was several years after Danny got his powers before Phantom met another hero at all, and it had been completely by accident.
"I've got you now Whelp!"
Danny dodged Skulker's missile with the ease of long practice, but instead got hit with a sonic fist, courtesy of Ember's guitar. It had taken them a few years, but the ghosts of Amity Park had finally figured out that they might have a better chance against Phantom if they all teamed up. Unfortunately for Danny, this meant that he was currently fighting Skulker, Technus, and Ember, while at the same time being dangerously close to missing his curfew...again. In short, the sixteen year old was one very unhappy halfa.
"I so don't have time for this." He muttered as he dragged himself out of the asphalt crater he had just dug with his face. He was bruised, tired, and now he was very angry.
He flew back up to face the three gloating menaces. "You guys are really starting to irritate me." He snarled, his fists glowing a dangerous shade of green. "Last chance to go home quietly."
"Forget it, Dipstick!" Ember shot back, sending another fist sailing towards the floating teenager.
Danny was ready for it this time though. Dodging underneath the audio based attack, he let loose with a series of rapid fire ectoblasts. They didn't do much damage against the three destructive ghosts, but they weren't truly meant to. The three flinched back, blinded and distracted by Phantom's attacks. Taking advantage of his enemies' temporary confusion, Danny grabbed Ember by the throat, at the same time ripping the guitar from her hands. Thus disarmed, the ghostly singer had little defence as Danny turned and hurled her towards Technus. The technological ghost's eyes went wide, but he had no time to go intangible, and the two were sent sailing into a nearby building at an impressive velocity.
With two opponents at least temporarily out of the fight, Danny turned to see Skulker rushing back into the fray. Danny knew he had to make this quick. As the most dangerous of the group, he wanted Skulker taken care of by the time the other two had recovered.
Setting up a shield to deflect the incoming missiles, Danny made to meet Skulker's charge head on. Right before the two collided however, Danny suddenly went intangible, allowing the ghostly hunter to pass right through him. Danny noted Skulker's expression of denial and outrage with a smirk as the hunter's momentum carried him beyond the halfa. He quickly turned in order to meet Phantom's inevitable attack, but Danny was faster. Already twisted in the air to that he was once again facing his adversary, Danny had already reached behind his back and pulled out the Fenton thermos. Before Skulker could even think of attacking, the blinding light had already engulfed him. With the dangerous ghost safely captured, Danny took a moment to catch his breath.
"One down," He muttered. "Now for the other two."
Looking cautiously around, he made his way to the last place he had seen Ember and Technus. Fortunately, the two were still lying dazed at the base of the building Danny had thrown them into. They barely had the faculties to yell denials as the thermos' beam hit them and they were sucked inside the cursed device.
As the adrenaline of the battle wore off, the newest of Danny's scrapes and bruises made themselves known. His shoulder ached where he had hit a telephone pole, and the stinging on his face indicated he had several deep scrapes, a fact that was confirmed when he touched his cheek, only to have his hand come away covered with his unique mix of blood and ectoplasm. Looking at his bloody hand, Danny groaned. He had become very good over the years at hiding all but the most severe of his injuries, but facial wounds were hard to conceal. His advanced ability to heal would take care of the scrapes, but not before he got home.
Sighing quietly, he mentally gave up on making his curfew. Better to let his parents think he was late than coming home looking like he had gone toe to toe with some ectoplasmic menace...oh wait, that was exactly what had happened! Looking once more in disgust at his blood covered hand, Danny floated up and headed to Sam's. He could clean up and hang out there until the gashes healed.
It was either very late or very early by the time Danny arrived at Sam's window, so the Goth had been asleep for several hours. Thankfully, however, she was a light sleeper and was more than used to being woken by a soft tapping at her window. Waving her permission to enter, Sam slid out of bed as Danny phased into the room. Automatically looking him over for injury as he transformed back to human, Sam raised a critical eyebrow at Danny's face.
"You look terrible." She stated flatly.
Danny gave a short laugh at his friend's bluntness. "Thank you so much, I feel so much better now. " He winced as his smile pulled uncomfortably against the wounds.
Catching the glimpse of how much pain Danny was really in, Sam's expression turned to one of sympathy as she sat cross-legged on the floor and reached for the medical kit that was always under her bed. Motioning for Danny to sit in front of her, she began to examine the lacerations.
"These'll have to be stitched up or they'll scar, amazing healing powers or not." Sam mused as she disinfected the wounds. "You can't be going home with scars you didn't have this morning."
Danny nodded, his teeth clenched against the sting of the antiseptic. He offered no complaint as the girl in front of him finished with the antiseptic and threaded a needle, although he did flinch involuntarily when Sam inadvertently pulled a little too hard on one stitch.
"Sorry," She apologized immediately. Danny gave a little hitch of his shoulders to let her know it was fine.
"There." Sam said in satisfaction after several more minutes. "All finished, although we'll have to rip them out again in about an hour. Anything else?" She asked, running her eyes down him in search of obvious injuries. "You didn't hit your head hard enough to get a concussion did you?"
Danny shook his head. "I don't think so." He replied. "I've had more than a few concussions before, so I'd like to think I can recognize the symptoms. I feel fine."
Sam nodded and began to put away the kit. After everything was cleaned up, the two lay down side by side on the bed, waiting for Danny's healing to take effect.
"So," Sam began after a few minutes of silence. "We still on for tomorrow?"
Danny turned his head to look blankly at her.
Sam's expression took on a hint of exasperation. "Tomorrow? You know, that thing in the Ghost Zone that Frostbite's having? Something about the anniversary of your fight with the Ghost King? Don't tell me you forgot."
Danny's face turned very sheepish.
"You forgot." Sam concluded, rolling her eyes. "What would you do if you didn't have Tucker and me to remind you of things?"
"I'd be totally lost." Danny admitted easily. "No one could ask for better friends."
Suddenly aware of how close their faces were to each other, Sam blushed (hoping against hope that the darkness in the room would hide it) and turned her head so that she was once again facing the ceiling.
"In answer to your question," Danny broke the silence. "Yes, we are definitely still on for tomorrow."
The next day passed normally enough. Danny had gotten another lecture when he'd gotten home the night before, but luckily, his parents hadn't seen fit to ground him. Honestly, Danny was starting to think that they'd finally given up. The next morning, he left the house, met up with Sam and Tucker, and made his way to the center of unbearable torture known as Casper High.
School, likewise, was normal. Danny's grades had gone up somewhat now that he had gotten used to balancing his schedule and had his powers under control. The ban on him handling breakable objects in chemistry had even been lifted this year! Mr. Lancer was still out of shape and obsessed with becoming cool (he was also still failing miserably), and Dash was still an unbelievable jerk. All in all, the day passed with little to no reason to mark its passage.
That night, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, and Danny met up at Fentonworks to go to this shindig of Frostbite's. Thankfully, their parents had been called to a convention in a nearby town, and weren't expected home for at least two days, so they didn't have to be overly concerned about discovery. Jazz was extremely excited, so much so that she was almost vibrating as they prepped the Spectre Speeder for launch. Although she'd had the opportunity (or the misfortune, depending on one's point of view) to meet many of Danny's enemies, she had only rarely been able to meet those that he called friends. As a potential psychologist whose thesis was on ghost envy, the opportunity to actually interview a ghost without having it try to take her head off was more than enough to have her bouncing off the walls in joy. She had met both Cujo and Wulf, but considering that one was a dog and the other didn't speak a word of English, interviewing them would've been beyond futile.
"Calm down Jazz!" Danny finally exclaimed in exasperation. "You jumping around like a kid isn't going to get us there any faster. You're supposed to be the mature one here, remember?"
With visible effort, Jazz managed to rein herself in just a tad. "I'm sorry Danny," She apologized. "This is just so exciting!"
Danny snorted. "Not really. Frostbite's people are pretty isolated, so they tend to overreact to anything new. Prepare to be stared at unashamedly for the next couple of hours."
"Someone's in a bad mood." Sam commented mildly. "You should probably wipe that sour look off your face before we get there. You are the guest of honour after all, these people worship you."
Danny groaned. "Please don't remind me. I hate all of this attention. I mean, I know they mean well and all that, but I'm too used to keeping secrets. Being gawked at and shown off makes me feel...I don't know...vulnerable."
"Besides," He continued. "My fight with Pariah wasn't nearly as cool as they make it sound. I wasn't some noble hero; I was a scared kid who had no idea what he was doing. It's only sheer fluke that it turned out the way it did at all."
Tucker just shrugged. "I don't think it really matters at this point. Everyone in the Far Frozen is absolutely convinced that you're the greatest thing since sliced bread. You probably shouldn't risk that friendship just because you don't like attention."
Danny sighed walked over to open the portal as his friends and sister got in the Spectre Speeder. They were probably right, he knew, he just wasn't really looking forward to this. He and Frostbite were great friends, but the rest of Frostbite's people could be a little...overenthusiastic.
As soon as everyone was safely through, the group headed off for the Far Frozen. The Speeder cut a pretty much straight line, while Danny flitted around it, first on one side, then on the other, always looking out for trouble. This part of the Zone was usually pretty safe, but it never hurt to be too careful. Although he had made several ghostly friends over the last several years, there were still plenty of ghosts in here that hated him.
The first part of the trip went fairly well. They were temporarily delayed by the Box Ghost, but that was easily handled. It wasn't until they were almost half-way there that the trouble started.
Although he was taking great care to be on his guard up until now, the conversation going on within the Speeder had distracted him somewhat, and he was paying more attention to what was being said than what was happening around him.
"You actually agreed to go out with Dash? Why?" Danny exclaimed incredulously.
"Because I thought that if I went out with him, he would be less horrible to you." Jazz replied. "You have enough on your plate without having to deal with him too."
"I'm not arguing that," Danny shot. "But you don't have to go out with the creep. I'll lose more sleep thinking of him alone with you than I ever would because of his bullying."
Before Jazz could form a reply however, an ectoblast lanced out from behind a nearby floating boulder and hit a glancing blow off Danny's shoulder. Groaning, as that was the same shoulder he had introduced to a telephone pole only last night, Danny charged his own blasts and turned around, scanning for the attacker.
"Punch it!" He ordered Tucker. "Get to the Far Frozen as fast as you can, I'll be right behind you."
The Spectre Speeder picked up speed while Danny dropped behind to guard the rear. Another blast came from a different direction but Danny, now on his guard, dodged it and charged forward in the direction of the blast. Coming approximately to the place where he thought the blast must've come from, he still saw no one, but considering that this was the ghost zone, where inhabitants habitually turned invisible, that didn't mean a whole lot.
"Where are you?" He muttered, looking warily around.
With the ease of one who often suffers surprise attacks, Danny moved before he consciously acknowledged the blast. Whipping around, he finally was able to identify his attackers.
Ember, Technus, and Skulker glared back at him.
"Come on!" Danny complained. "Twice in two days? Don't you have anything better to do?"
"Not really, Dipstick." Ember spat, absently playing with her guitar's tuning pegs. "You think we're just gonna let you get away with making fools of us like you did yesterday? No way! It's payback time!"
With that, she let loose with a sonic punch that Danny couldn't quite dodge. Dazed from the hit, he was in no condition to avoid the multitude of tentacles that now extending out of Technus' exo-suit. Before he could go intangible, Technus proceeded to fling him against the nearby boulder that the three had been taking refuge behind, staying far enough away that Danny's ghost sense didn't register them. Recovering from the impact, which had left an impressive dent in the rock, Danny looked up to see Skulker pointing several guns in his direction. Thinking fast, Danny went intangible and sank into the boulder.
"Oh no you don't Whelp!" Skulker cried, making to follow Danny through the boulder. Just as he was about to enter the rock, Danny came flying back out, fist cocked. Skulker, with no time to dodge, went flying away.
So intent were all combatants on the fight, however, that they failed to notice one of the unpredictable and unstable natural portals forming directly behind them. After Danny had at least temporarily dealt with Skulker, he turned to find the other two, only to get a sonic punch in the face. Flying backwards from the impact, he was flung directly into the path of the portal. Before anyone could do anything. The rift in dimensional space engulfed the young halfa, and then closed again as if it were never there.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles and a full dimension away from the Ghost Zone, the Justice League was dealing with business as usual. A group of super villains had taken it into their heads to team up and steal a bank shipment. If they had succeeded, they would've gained an entire truck full of cash bills. Unfortunately for them, however, the League had gotten a tip that the job was going to go down. When the villains had forced the truck off the road and opened the back, expecting to find cash, they instead found a team of heroes.
The fight had been going extremely well. Caught by surprise by the heroes, the villains were at a disadvantage to begin with, a fact that the League was quick to capitalize on. Batman was making quick work of Cheetah, while Supergirl and Captain Atom were occupied with tying knots with Atomic Skull. It looked as if the fight would be over before it even really began, when Flash hit a piece of ice that Killer Frost, now out of the fight, had put there earlier. Unable to keep his footing, Flash went down, and looked up see that he was lying at Sinistro's feet. The villain smirked in triumph, raising his ring to deliver the coup de grace. With his teammates otherwise occupied and an ankle that Flash was pretty sure he had just twisted, it didn't look good for the speedster.
Just as he was starting to think that he was toast however, Flash's attention was drawn behind Sinistro, where what looked like a rip in the very air was forming. Flash could see a lot of green through the hole, but not much else. Before he could say anything, something human shaped came tumbling out of the rip, Flash caught a glimpse of black clothing and white hair before the strange person collided with Sinistro, probably saving Flash's life. The unexpected delay was long enough for Batman to reach his teammate's side, finishing off the power-ring wielding villain.
By the time that the Leaguers had finished off the group and Flash had been transported to the Watchtower's infirmary, the strange person (who they could now see was very young), was beginning to regain his faculties. Groaning with the pain of the several fairly major fights he had had in the last few days, Danny forced himself onto hands and knees, one hand came up to his head in an effort to make the stars go away. What had he hit?
"Hey," A female voice came from his right. "Are you Ok?" A surprisingly strong female hand wrapped around his arm, obviously in an effort to help him up.
Looking upward, he came face to face with a young, blonde woman who looked extremely familiar for some reason. Still not thinking clearly, it wasn't until he saw the S on the woman's chest that things started to fall into place. Danny's eyes went wide. Supergirl? What was Supergirl doing here? Where was he?
Whipping his head around, he saw a skyline that was definitely not Amity Park. Wrenching his arm away from the female hero in a panic (and surprising Supergirl enough that she let go), Danny spun away, assessing the group that was before him. There were several villains that the League had obviously just been in to process of stopping trussed up on the ground. Other than Supergirl, there was Batman, Captain Atom, and a flaming woman that he was pretty sure was called Fire. All of them were looking at him with expressions ranging from curiosity to suspicion.
Danny fought to keep his breathing calm. Sure these were supposed to be the good guys, in fact, they were supposedly as good as you could possibly get, but Danny had very little luck with authorities. Usually the supposed good guys were almost as gung ho about shooting him as the bad guys. Besides, most of his career had been spent under the erroneous belief that he was a villain. Therefore, there was a pretty big risk of misunderstandings here. Danny suddenly felt the urge to go invisible and intangible and just stow away on a plane back to Amity Park, and probably would have done so if it would not have looked insanely suspicious. Hopefully he could get the League to just lose interest in him here. The last thing he needed was a curious Batman on his case. Danny held no illusions, the only reason he had been able to keep his secret so long was that everyone in Amity Park suffered from chronic cluelessness. If the League got curious, the secret wouldn't last long.
Taking in the halfa's wary expression, Supergirl took a step forward, careful to keep her hands in front of her in a peaceful gesture. "Hey, it's Ok." She tried to reassure him. "We're the good guys. You helped save one of our team back there."
Danny didn't say anything, but the tensing of his muscles made the young heroine stop her advance. Hands still out in front of her, she smiled disarmingly. "What's your name?" She asked.
Batman answered before Danny could. "He calls himself Phantom..." The low, growling voice made Danny flinch back even further. He did not want this guy on his case. "...Danny Phantom. He showed up in a small town called Amity Park a few years ago. The town claims to be the most haunted place in the world, and this 'ghost boy' is their most visible haunting."
Supergirl turned her attention back to Danny, who had taken a step back. "You're a ghost?" She asked. Danny, who was used to being judged on sight, was a little surprised to hear curiosity, but no anger or fear in her voice. Then again, she was Supergirl, what reason would she have to fear a simple ghost?
"There is also," Batman continued. "A great deal of controversy over whether he is a hero or a villain. There was one particular incident in which he was accused of kidnapping the town mayor."
It was at this point that Danny felt he should probably defend himself before there was a misunderstanding. "That was so not my fault." He snapped, the first words he had yet said. "And I tried to explain that it wasn't my fault, but people have the regrettable habit of assuming that you're evil just because you bleed ectoplasm."
"So you didn't kidnap the mayor?" Captain Atom asked.
Danny shook his head emphatically. "More like he kidnapped me. He was being overshadowed, possessed by a ghost." He clarified when he was met with blank expressions from several of the group. "This particular ghost really hates my guts and decided that the best way to get back at me would be to wreck what little reputation I had. He grabbed my hands and made it look like I was holding him hostage. Everyone heard him cry for help, what they didn't see was the ectoblast he had aimed at my gut at the time." He smiled without humour. "It worked. Not that people liked me before, but they really hate me now."
"So...you're a hero." Supergirl concluded.
"That's what my friends tell me." Danny shrugged nervously, still casing every angle for a potential escape.
Batman sent a scowl at the young halfa (although from what Danny had heard, scowling was about the only expression Batman ever had). "Then you won't mind telling us how you got here." He challenged.
Despite his wary mental state, Danny snorted in disgust and waved vaguely towards where the portal had been only a moment ago. "Freak accident actually," He replied. "Three ghosts who I'm not really on good terms with ambushed me. During the fight, I was pushed into a portal that none of us had noticed forming."
"I was lucky if you can believe it." He continued. "Natural portals in the Ghost Zone are unpredictable at the best of times. I could have ended up anywhere or anywhen in the world."
He suddenly looked at the heroes, considering. "On that note, what's the date?"
Danny sighed in relief once they had answered. He had come out on the same day that he had gone in. Actually, he was a few hours behind. If he hurried, he could still get to the Far Frozen in time for Frostbite's celebration.
"Look," He said, cutting the conversation short. "Not that it wasn't great to meet you, but there's somewhere that I really need to be, so...I gotta go." Without waiting for a response, he turned invisible and took off with all speed towards the airport. Hopefully there was a plane to Amity Park that would allow him to get to the Zone in time. Sam and Tucker were never going to believe this.
A/N: Once again, the concept for this story is up for adoption to anyone who wants it. I would love to do it myself, but I have a list about a mile long of stories I want to write and haven't had time to get around to. If you're interested, please PM me. Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it!