I'm really sorry for the long wait. Enjoy this next chapter!
Oh, and I've decided not to use Spider-Man's villain Hobgoblin in Joker's role, as I had planned. Instead, I'll be using Freakshow, cause a friend of mine helped me see that he'd be a far better choice. Enjoy!
(I own nothing, people. Don't tell me you're surprised?)
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It was late at night, and the Specter I flew swiftly and silently through the air over Amity Park.
Inside, Sora and Danny sat at the controls, while everyone else was in the back. They had received an urgent call from the police, and now made their way to an abandoned factory on the edge of town.
"So, what's the situation, again?" Sonic asked.
"Robotnik has resurfaced." Danny explained. "He's holding some hostages in an old warehouse, and the police can't get to him, for fear that he'll hurt someone."
"That doesn't really sound like Eggman." Sonic continued. "I mean, sure he's a creep, but he's never just taken hostages like this."
"It doesn't matter." Said June. "If people are in trouble, then we're gonna help."
"Spare me your bleeding-heart speeches." Hiei said flatly. "I just want to get this fool and send him back to prison."
"You're just mad cause he got away from you." Jake replied, causing Sonic and Clover to chuckle.
Hiei growled. "I've slayed dragons before Jake; don't make me do it again!"
"Will you stop it!.?" Danny shouted. "Jeez, we're supposed to fight bad guys, not each other!"
"Danny, the warehouse is up ahead." Said Sora.
"Good. Let's go in for a landing."
They set the Specter I down on the ground near the warehouse and got off one by one.
Danny looked over the structure carefully, trying to spot traps, or any sign of their enemy.
"All right," He said at last. "Let's go in, but be careful everyone."
Slowly and quietly, the League walked inside. Finding it too dark to see anything, Danny used his ghost power to light up his hand and light the way. Once they were all inside, they all looked around.
"Over there!" Clover said in a hushed voice, and pointed across the room. Everyone looked to see a woman lying on the ground, unnervingly still.
The team rushed over and Danny knelt down to check her pulse. "She's alive." He said with a sigh of relief. "Clover, Sora, stay with her while the rest of us look for Robotnik."
Danny stood up and he and the others moved on, while Clover and Sora stayed behind as ordered.
"Do you think she's okay?" Clover asked, as she and Sora looked down at the woman.
"Yes, but that's more than I can say for you…" Sora and Clover gasped when they heard the woman speak, but weren't fast enough to react before she jumped to her feet and punched Sora with a glowing green fist, and kicked Clover.
Danny and the others heard this, but before they could rush back to help them the lights were turned on and Jake, June and Hiei were jumped by a red-haired guy in robotic armor and an ogre.
As for Danny and Sonic, they came face-to-face with none other than Robotnik himself, sitting in his mech.
"Well, well, well, glad you could join us." Robotnik chuckled. He then fired two missiles at Sonic and Danny.
Danny phased through the missiles, while Sonic sped out of the way and the two projectiles hit a far off wall, demolishing it.
Danny then flew at Robotnik, in an attempt to remove him from his mech, but was captured in a ghost-proof net and fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, Clover had engaged Shego in hand-to-hand combat, and had quickly learned to avoid her glowing fists. Sora, after recovering from the hit he took, was about to strike Shego with the Keyblade, when he suddenly felt himself pulled up into the air, where he became stuck to a metal plate. He looked down to see Dr. Draken walk up, holding a special remote in his hands. "Like my super-magnet?" He asked smugly. "I'll bet right about now you wish you weren't carrying that big metal Keyblade… or wearing all those ridiculous zippers! Ha!"
Back with the others, Hiei was engaged in battle against Jack Spicer, who was wearing specially made armor. He drew his sword to slice the armor off his foe, but Jack countered with a sword that extended from the right hand of his suit.
Hiei was surprised at the speed with which Jack could move in that suit, but knew if he could just disable it his opponent would be helpless.
Jake and June had their hands full with the Ogre (whom they both recognized, by the way) and even with Jake's speed and June's strength they couldn't seem to slow it down.
At the same time, Sonic was trying desperately to avoid the several rounds of bullets Robotnik shot at him, which kept him from helping Danny.
"Come now Sonic, you haven't started to slow since our last encounter, have you?" Robotnik taunted.
"Not on your life!" Sonic called back. "I'm just getting warmed up!"
Robotnik continued to shoot at Sonic, but finally he ran out of ammunition. "Curses!" He shouted.
Meanwhile, Sonic wasted no time in using a homing attack to knock Robotnik's mech over and rush over to free Danny.
"Thanks Sonic." Said Danny. "Now let's take care of this egg-shaped fruit loop!"
"Right behind you Mon capitan!" Sonic said with a salute, and he and Danny rushed over and attacked the mech, until it was reduced to a pile of dented metal, and Robotnik fled for his life.
Back with June and Jake, they were still struggling against the ogre and had backed off for a moment to catch their breath.
"We need a new strategy." June said, sounding short of breath.
An idea came to Jake, and he smiled down at her. "New strategy, coming up!"
Jake flew up and took June by the hands. He flew as high as the roof would allow, and swooped down at the ogre. He let June go, and she delivered a roundhouse kick to the ogre's jaw, and Jake punched him in the gut, knocking him to the ground.
Clover was doing all she could to keep Shego at bay, but nothing seemed to be working.
"What's the matter Hon?" Shego asked. "Afraid of ruining your manicure?"
"A little, but that's beside the point!" Clover replied. She dropped to the ground and tried to sweep her legs under Shego, but she simply jumped up and over Clover, landing on the other side of her.
Shego prepared to fight again, but was surprised to see Clover run in the other direction.
Sora meanwhile, struggled against the magnet's power.
"Give it up!" Said Draken, as he held up the remote. "As long as I've got this, you haven't got a chance."
"Then let's fix that, shall we?" Clover said, as she ran up and kicked the remote out of Draken's hand. It hit the ground and broke, and Sora fell back to the ground, landing softly on his feet.
Shego was about to jump Clover again when Sora sprang up and struck her into the nearby wall with the Keyblade. Then he turned to Draken and pointed his weapon at him.
"Wait a minute; you can't hit me with that!" Draken said, holding up his arms. "I'm unarmed, it wouldn't be fair!"
"Then how about this?" Clover asked, just before she kicked Draken squarely in the jaw.
"That'll work…" Draken fell to the ground and Clover and Sora gave each other a high-five.
Hiei was still fighting against Jack in his armor, but finally decided he'd had enough. He jumped back from his opponent to get a good look at him, and noticed a power back located on Jack's back.
"What's the matter?" Jack asked, mistaking Hiei's actions for retreat. "Can't handle my superior technology?"
"The worst mistake anyone can make is underestimating their opponent." Hiei replied calmly, just before he lunged at Jack and sliced off the power pack. "Not so superior now, are you?"
Jack, finding his armor powerless, gave a shriek of terror as Hiei attacked again with his sword, slicing and dicing in blur of motion that Jack could barely see. Finally, Hiei stood still and replaced his sword in its sheath.
Jack, finally daring to breath, looked down at himself and was amazed to see he still had his limbs. "Ha!" He laughed. "Looks like you missed!"
"Give it a minute." Hiei answered, just before Jack's armor came apart and fell to the ground in a million pieces, leaving Jack standing in his heart-covered boxers.
Jack shrieked again, but was quickly silenced when Hiei delivered a blow to his jaw, knocking him out cold. Hiei scoffed at how weak his opponent was, but was taken off guard by a blast of sonic energy which flung him into the wall.
Ember, after she was sure Hiei was unconscious, laughed to herself. But when she turned and surveyed her companion's progress and sighed heavily. "This is not good." She said to herself. She pressed a button on a device she wore on her wrist and spoke into it. "Masters, come in. I've gotta talk to you."
"What is it?" Vlad's voice replied through the communicator. "Have you defeated Daniel and the Hero League?"
"Not exactly… everyone's pretty much getting their butts kicked! What now?"
Vlad grumbled angrily a moment, before finally replying "Get everyone out of there and regroup. It's obvious we need a new plan…"
"Roger that." Ember said with a nod, before deactivating the communicator. She then held up her guitar, switched the knob to a picture of an "exit" sign, and ran her fingers across the strings, creating a bright green flash of light, accompanied by a loud note.
Everyone stopped fighting momentarily when they became blinded by the light, and deafened by the note, and by the time both had faded the villains had disappeared.
"What just happened?" Sonic asked, looking all around.
"They got away," Danny replied. That's what happened.
Danny and the others began to search the warehouse for any sign of their foes, and Jake soon found Jack Spicer laying unconscious on the ground. "Looks like we got one of them." He said with a grin.
"Yeah…" Clover replied in a worried tone, causing everyone to turn to her. They saw her kneeling beside a still figure nearby. "…But they got one of us."
Everyone rushed over to find Hiei lying on the ground, unconscious, but still breathing. "Sonic and I will take this guy to the authorities." Danny said, nodding in Jack's direction. "The rest of you need to get Hiei to the Specter Star and get him some medical attention."
The others nodded in understanding, and Jake, being the strongest in his dragon form, lifted Hiei in his arms and carried him away. The others followed, but Danny and Sonic stayed behind.
"Why do you think all these villains teamed up to attack us?" Sonic asked, once he and Danny were alone.
Danny stood silent for a minute, clenching his fist in anger, before finally answering Sonic's question with one word.
"Vlad."
Later, in Robotnik's underground lab, Vlad stood pacing before his band of villains.
"'The best at what you do'…" Vlad quoted himself angrily. "'The greatest villains in the world.' How could I have been so blind!? The lot of you couldn't even fight a cheerleader, much less a group of super-powered heroes!"
"In my defense, she had a lot of help from her bumbling boyfriend and that naked rat-thing!" Draken shouted, earning a punch in the arm from Shego.
"Og not think blue girl help very much." Og muttered, pointing a large finger at Ember.
"Hey, at least I managed to take one of them out!" Ember shot back. "Which is more than I can say for the rest of you! That idiot Jack even got himself caught!"
"Enough!" Vlad shouted, before he doubled over in pain from a sudden attack. Robotnik helped him to a chair, and when he recovered he continued. "It's obvious now that I made a mistake before… We need a new strategy."
"Oh, lucky for you, I have just the thing," a voice said nearby. All eyes turned to the door, where they saw a pale man dressed in dark clothes, similar to what a circus ringleader would wear. He carried a staff, topped with a blood-red orb.
"Hello, Vlad," Freakshow said with a grin, "Nice to see you."
"What do you want, Freakshow?" Vlad demanded.
"Why, to join you and your merry band, of course! I also have a perfect plan on how to take down the Phantom, and his meddlesome pals. All I ask is that you leave the demon, Hiei, to me."
"What, your obsession's turned to demons instead of ghosts?" Ember asked with a scoff.
"You might say that…"
"Thank you for the offer," Vlad finally replied, "But I believe I have all the 'muscle' I need."
"Ah, but there is one thing I know that you don't, Vlad," Freakshow protested, and walked over to the white haired man. "You see, demons, unlike ghosts, are very predatory minded beings and when it comes to the more intelligent ones, like this Hiei…" Freakshow reached behind Robotnik's head, and revealed a tiny tracking device. "I know how they think."
Vlad gaped in surprise at the tracking device a moment, before turning his gaze to Freakshow. "I'm listening…"
Back aboard the Specter Star, Hiei slowly awoke to find himself lying on one of the medical beds. He sat up and turned to see Sora sitting nearby, watching over a monitor. Sora noticed Hiei awaken, and walked over to him. "Glad you're awake," he said. "You gave us all a scare. We didn't think you could go down so easily."
"Ghost powers," Hiei replied, flatly, "must have an adverse effect on demons. Where are the others?"
"They went out to investigate. I volunteered to keep watch here."
Hiei just scoffed. "They thought I needed to be watched?" Sora just shrugged his shoulders. He knew better than to debate with Hiei.
Hiei jumped off the bed, and reached into his pocket and pulled out a device.
"What's that?" Sora asked.
"It's a device the two-tailed fox and Danny's friend made. I placed a tracker on Sonic's fat friend at the start of the battle."
Sora gaped in surprise, not even knowing when Hiei had managed to do this, but decided not to ask. "Do you have a reading?"
Hiei nodded, and was about to make his way to the hangar when Sora stood in his way. "I'm going after them," Hiei said bluntly. "And I'm going alone."
"You can't do that, Hiei! I know you're mad at these guys, but you've been hurt and may be in no condition to fight. Besides, we should wait for the others."
"I said I'm going alone, Sora. Or would you like to try and stop me?" Hiei drew his sword a little. "I promise, you won't have an easy time, Keyblade or no."
Sora frowned at Hiei, but moved out of his way. Not out of fear, but because he had no wish to fight his friend.
Hiei nodded, and sheathed his sword. "You're a good man, Sora," he admitted. "That's rare for your species." With that, he stalked off to the hangar.
Sora watched him go for a moment, then rushed to the communicators. "Guys, we have a problem," he said, after he got a hold of the others.
Later that night, Hiei leapt onto the roof of an abandoned building, and slipped inside through an old broken window. Inside, he could hear the sound of the villains talking on a lower floor, and slipped silently through the shadows.
He reached the right floor, where there was a platform above the ground. He stood there, quieter than the shadows he hid in, and looked down to see Vlad and the other villains in a poker game.
"Gin!" Draken shouted victoriously, throwing down his cards. "In your face!"
"For the last time, you moron," Robotnik sighed, "We are playing five card draw!"
"Egg person got any threes?" Og asked stupidly. Robotnik just sighed.
Hiei drew his sword without a sound, and prepared to drop down and attack, when suddenly he felt a painful surge in the back of his brain, which spread down to his arms, chest and legs. He gave out a cry of pain, before falling down over the railing and landing with a crash on top of the poker table.
Vlad and the others jumped from their seats at the sight, and turned their gazes upwards to see Freakshow, holding his still glowing staff, and laughing manically as he looked down a Hiei's unconscious form.