Chapter 7 Aftershock

As robots started to shoot at the 4 of us, the only thing I would think was, 'Of course. The moment I go ghost is when the bad guys start attacking. Just my luck'. My hands lit green with ectoplasm and I saw that Kevin's did the same blue light. The plants around Cory all trembled with power and Sammy's nails grew into her claws. "Go." I announced and we charged.

The thing about fighting is that you don't know exactly what happened after the battle. My first two ectoblasts incinerated two robots, then, nothing. It was all a blur of dodging, firing, and throwing up shields to protect the others. One moment, I'd be blasting side-by-side with Kevin, the next I'd be protecting Cory's back from sneak attacks while Sammy transformed into a saber tooth tiger to help with destroying them.

Soon, all the robots were down. I winced. "Someone is bound to have noticed that." Looking over the others, I noticed that they were panting hard from the exertion, but still relatively unharmed. "Find a place to hide. I'll scout around." Kevin opened his mouth to stop me, but I cut him off swiftly. "I'm charging you both with the responsibility of looking after my little sister. Take that task seriously." With that, I disappeared and flew up to a high altitude.

"They're…everywhere…" My eyes widened as I watched the army flow throughout the city. The group we'd fought only had about 20 robots; this was thousands. My lips parted over my lips in a snarl; the first day I'm in this stupid city and a villain takes over. Perfect.

I spotted the crazy chick from earlier. She was the trouble!? Ether the Titans were weaker than I thought, or she had some powerful friends. Flouting up behind her, I was ready to knock her off her high horse—well, rock—when someone else did it for me.

I smirked as the Titans began to attack the crazy girl—Terra, I soon learned—without mercy. My hero complex screamed that I shouldn't be taking pleasure out of someone's pain, but I couldn't help it. She'd tried to kill myself and the others several times today, so sorry for feeling like she deserved it. I followed Terra as she ran away, but was able to catch some of the Titans conversation.

"She seems very scared."

"Scared isn't the same as sorry."

When I followed Terra to the ally where she hid, she was talking to a man called Slade. So, he was the one behind this mess. Watching silently from above, I saw how the Titans found her again before she was saved by an army of robots and a…thing. That's really all I can use to describe it. I only noticed that she was gone until the green kid—Beast Boy—went off looking for her. I followed him, thinking along the lines of, 'If she goes back to her master, I can shut down the robots from the source.'

Following Beast Boy, my enhanced hearing began to catch the sound of crying. "Terra…" Beast Boy whispered as he approached the sobbing villain. My fury burned as I watched Slade—a masked Fruitloop almost as bad as Vlad—control Terra using the suit she was wearing. The only thing I could wonder was if Vlad would have done something similar to that. Even if she was bad, no one deserves to have their will taken away from them. As Terra held a stone stake over Beast Boy and the other Teen Titans threatened her, I managed to turn her suit intangible without anyone noticing and successfully detached it from her skin.

"You are free." I whispered in Terra's ear, most likely freaking her out. "Slade can never control you again. I promise."

"I'm sorry, Beast Boy." She told the small green kid she had trapped. "For everything I've done." And, with a scream of exertion, Terra threw the stone stake at Slade.

The man fell back with a grunt, and Terra, not satisfied in the least, used her powers to raise a rock and fly after him. The ground split underneath him, so Slade jumped to the steel rafters above, thinking it was safe until Terra caused them to collapse too. She raised them both on a huge slab of rock and proceeded to throw rocks at him, trying to make him fall to the ground. She finally knocked him off, and approached the darkness where he'd fallen, thinking him to be dead.

Only I saw through the shadows to see that Slade was still alive. Swiftly flying to her, I turned us both intangible so Slade's attack went right through us. "I'll take it from here." I told her before becoming visible for the first time since I left the others.

Now, I'm not stupid, despite what all the people in Amity might think. I knew that if Vlad got wind of a tan, white-haired kid in a hazmat suit, he'd know for sure that it was me. So, during my first week at Selena's, I changed my ghost form. I now wore black jeans and a black T-shirt with a skull on it. My combat boots and gloves were white, as was the cape I'd added for dramatic flair. My mouth was covered a ninja mask thing, but you could still hear me fine through it. My gaze turned from Terra to Slade. "Let's see how you against me, old man."

I admit, Slade is fast. Obviously meta fast, but nowhere near the speeds I can reach on my best day. Dodging his fists was quite easy, but he kept switching his attack pattern, causing me to get hit a few times. With a kick to his face, I sent Slade flying back a good 20 feet before he hit the ground. "Who are you?" He glared at me with his narrowed eye.

I yawned. "Name's Phantom." Someone from the Titans gasped, but I didn't spare them a glance. "I hope you realize your mistake. If you had chosen any other day to start your big invasion plans, I would have left you alone, not caring in the least. But today, you've attacked two of my friends, my little sister, and forcibly controlled an impressionable girl, who will most likely be traumatized for life because of it—I should know, it happened to me. So, excuse me for being a little cruel." With that, I pulled down the ninja mask and released a Ghostly Wail.

The noise was monstrous and sent Slade flying back into the rocks before the cave began to collapse. I fell to my knees in exhaustion; hell, even teleporting was easier than using my Wail for any period of time. The Titans were all running out of the room until there were only two people left—myself and Terra. She was radiating yellow as she tried to keep the room from collapsing. "GO!" She yelled at me. "I'LL KEEP IT UP AS YOU ESCAPE! JUST GO!"

"I'm not leaving you." I flew over to her and, triggering something inside me, hugged her, teleporting us both out of the cavern.

We landed back in Kevin and Cory's place. The front room was still covered in broken glass and wood. Terra started sobbing at the sight.

"Hey…" I rubbed her back as she sobbed into my shirt. "It's ok. Nothing is broken that can't be fixed."

"This is all my fault!" She sobbed. "How can you stand to look at me, knowing what I've done!? I can't even stand myself!"

"I…" I licked my lips, nervous. I'd never actually tried what I was about to suggest, but it was worth a shot. "I could remove your memories, if you want."

"Really?" Terra looked up at me, hope in her expression for the first time. "Please, do it! I don't want to remember anymore…"

"Okay." I looked deeply into her eyes and overshadowed her.

"Sorry this is late. I got distracted by watching anime."—said every anime watcher ever.