Chapter 3 Sammy Tucker

The girl in the cage sat curled up in a ball, shivering. Her large, purple eyes—so much like Sam's, but not—were filled with fear and tears. Her pale skin was covered with semi visible scars and her black hair was cut short and tangled. She wore what was once an oversized, white T-shirt, now ripped and stained with dirt and blood. But the completely special things about her were the bright purple cat ears twitching uncontrollably on her head and the same colored tail wrapped tightly around her legs. "Hey," I reached out to her cage and she flinched slightly. I slowly pulled down my hood, realizing that hiding my face would only make her more scared. "It's ok. I'm not going to hurt you."

I reached out and turned the lock on the cage intangible, opening the door. The girl stared at me in wonder and amazement as I kneeled at the entrance to her cage. "Come on." I said softly, giving the young girl—for she couldn't be older than 10—a smile. Without warning, she rushed me to wrap her arms around my neck and bury her face in my shoulder, sobbing. "Shh…it's alright." I held her awkwardly before fully embracing her. "You're safe now; I won't let anyone hurt you. My name is Danny. Can you tell me yours?"

Inside, my common sense was screaming at me. 'What the hell are you doing!?' It screamed. 'Why are you saying you'll protect her!? You know you'll never be able to keep her safe! You're a thief now! Tonight proves it!'

'But…she's so much like Sam…' My heart whispered back. 'And she's so young…how can I not protect her? How could I just leave her in a cage?' My arms automatically tightened around her. 'I'd never be able to look at myself again…'

'Damn hero complex.'

"No…name…" She sobbed out, words broken by tears. "Neber…given…une." From the way she pronounced her words convinced me that ether she wasn't allowed to speak often or she had taught herself to speak.

"Well, would you like me to name you?" She looked up from my shoulder and nodded, a small smile showing off tiny fangs. I took a moment to think. "Well…you look a lot like an old friend of mine…she and my other friend died recently, so I'll name you after them. Your name is Sammy. Sammy Tucker."

The newly christened Sammy smiled big at that and I rubbed her ear, causing her to purr. "Sammy…I'm going to be your big brother from now on, ok? That means I'll always protect you. So, please do what I say. When I pick you up, bury your face in my shoulder and don't look up 'til I tell you."

She nodded. "Yes, Big Bwother Danny." Sammy lisped, causing me to chuckle. I carefully picked her up, since she was all skin and bones, and carried her towards the one computer in the room. The reason I didn't want her to look up was so she wouldn't see the two dead experiments, if she hasn't already. Ripping the hard drive out of the machine, I placed it into one of my many pockets before putting plastic explosives all around the room. The least I could do was make sure that they bastards doing this couldn't ever use this location again. After arming them, I speed walked back up the stairs. I heard fighting, and then, to help protect us, turned us both invisible, making Sammy gasp.

"Shh…Sammy, don't make a sound, and when I put you down, stay hidden. Don't you worry. I'll keep you safe. I promise." I phased us through the door, which made Sammy shiver, and froze in shock, almost dropping our invisibility.

There, in the main room, was Batman and Batgirl, fighting Joker and Harley respectively. The rest of the villains had ether fled or were tied up. Even Catwoman. I placed Sammy down behind an exhibit and snuck over to where Catwoman was to cut her ropes. Batman slammed Joker up against the wall. "What are you all doing here?" Batman growled.

"Isn't it obvious, Bats?" Joker cackled. "We're having a little party in honor of Kitty's apprentice graduating! AND you crashed it!" With that, Joker tried to stab him and they started fighting again.

"There." I whispered in Catwoman's ear as I freed her from her binds. I then approached Harley, who was getting her butt whopped, and flipped up my hood.

"I will not allow you to destroy one of our city's oldest buildings!" Batgirl shouted as she knocked down Harley with a Batarang. I decided it was time to intervene and turned visible, right before sending her flying with a round house kick to the face.

"So you can stand for the human experimentation that was happening in the basement? That's not very heroic of you." I said before throwing a couple of knifes at her—nothing close to harming her, just enough to make her move. She was too close to where Sammy was hiding. "Or do you only go after obvious criminals?"

"What are you taking about?" Batgirl shouted back, not happy about being tossed and accused of not doing her job. "What's your proof!?"

"How about the dead human/animal hybrids down the stairs." I dodged a kick from her and had to leap over a glass display to get back to Harley. "You ok, Quinn?"

"Kiiiiiiiiidddd!" She whined. "I was doin' fiiine!"

"No you weren't." I deadpanned, looking over at Batman. It seemed like he was now worried about Catwoman and Joker was trying to get away. "And my name is Phantom, not kid. You better go before your man leaves you. We'll be fine." I dodged a Batarang, and got back into my battle with Batgirl.

"Batgirl!" Bats yelled as we were fighting again. "He's still mostly innocent!"

"Think of what you're doing!" Red instantly yelled at me as I blocked her punch and tried to swipe her feet from under her. "Do you want to be marked as a criminal for the rest of your life-?"

I cut her off. "Blah, blah, blah. Shut it, Red. Everything you're saying is going in one ear and out the other." I smirked slightly, knowing she could see it out of my hood. Witty banter, how I love you.

"You don't want to ruin your life!" My eyes darken considerably at her words and scenes flashed before me. A couple dead on the ground, a flash of green followed by excruciating pain, an explosion forcing my body backwards. My voice became emotionless with my next words.

"My life was ruined a long time ago." Though I regretted to hurt her, I knew I had to finish this battle quickly. I threw multipule knifes at her, pinning her to the wall, and walked up close to her, grabbing her chin. "You know, Red, you're too cute to be working on the right side of the law. Why not come to the dark side? We have cookies." She glared at me, making me smirk even more. Has antagonizing my foes always been this much fun?

"ARGH!" I cried out as I was forced away from Red and into the ground. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Batman kneeling over me, taking out handcuffs. I was about to turn intangible when a blur attached itself to his back and started clawing at his eyes.

"LET 'IM GO!" Sammy yelled as she scratched her 3 inch nails—where did those come from—into the area around the Dark Knight's eyes. He threw her off, an action that made me extremely pissed, without letting me go. Before our very eyes, midair, Sammy began to change. Instead of seeing the lovable 10 year old I'd rescued, a purple panther landed in her place and roared in rage. She rushed the Dark Knight again, and, after he released me, Batman dodged her swipes and threw her against a column. Her head made a sickening crunch and she transformed back into her human/neko form, unconscious.

"SAMMY!" I screamed as I ran over to her crippled form. I felt something fall from one of my various pockets, but I paid it no heed as I slid to my knees by her body. My hood had lowered when I had ran over, but I didn't care as I checked her pulse. It was there. I sighed in relief until I heard a persistent beeping that was slowly getting faster. I looked back to where I had been and saw the trigger I had used to arm the explosives. The button to set them off was blinking.

I did the math in an instant. 'There is no way for me to save us both. The way out is too far away, even if I went ghost.' In our last seconds, I griped Sammy as tight as I could. 'Anywhere but here.' I repeated in my head, like a chant. 'Anywhere but here. Anywhere but here.' As the bombs in the basement when off, I transformed into Phantom and we disappeared in a green flash.

20 minutes later, Robin's PoV**************************

"Yo, Rob." I looked up from the computer to Beast Boy, who was holding the phone. We always kept a phone for all of us in the tower for calls from the mayor, and such. "There's a call for you!"

"Hello?" I spoke into the phone.

"This is Robin, correct?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"Please excuse me for not introducing myself immediately, dear boy. My name is Vlad Masters."

BEGONE, FRUITLOOP! If you still haven't voted for which character I should use, please do so. If you have, take a cookie and vote again. AND SHAME ON THAT PERSON WHO DOESN'T LIKE OCS! BEGONE WITH THE FRUITLOOP!