TW: Graphic Depictions/Violence/Blood/Mentions of Death
Mount Justice
May 10 20:34
Batman glared as he walked closer to the raven-haired teen. "I thought you said nothing came through the portal with you?"
Danny sent his own glare back. "Nothing did."
"Sorry kid, but even if you were telling the truth, the situation doesn't look good," Green Lantern stated crossing his arms.
The Halfa let out an aggravated sigh but decided to ignore them as he racked his brain for answers.
"They might've found a natural portal somewhere and ended up here that way. Best case scenario, they're just lost."
"And worst-case scenario?" Beast Boy asked with a nervous frown.
Danny glanced at the younger teen briefly before turning his attention back to the adults. "We'll cross that bridge if we get there. Theories aside, we need to make sure civilians are not in immediate danger. Are they located away from the general public?"
"You are not going anywhere. You are a suspect and under investigative questioning," Batman warned.
The halfa's eyebrow twitched as he felt his patience starting to waver. "First of all, calm down Mr. Thesaurus. Two, as much as I like show and tell, there are more pressing matters. Those guys aren't much of a threat, but any panic from nearby citizens can and will cause others to get hurt."
Batman narrowed his eyes. "I already said the League can-"
"Your League hasn't dealt with my kind of ghost. I've been dealing with them since I was fourteen. Now are we going to sit around and debate on this, or are we going to go help before someone gets hurt?"
There was a tense silence as Danny's 'scary eyes' faded from green to blue. He was growing more restless and worried by the second. The longer they stood around, the more damage this 'Captain Marvel' or the ghosts could be causing.
Batman's glare remained, but softened.
"You'll be under strict supervision for-"
Danny rolled his eyes. "Oh for the love of- Fine! Whatever! We're wasting time! Just give me my bag so we can go!"
"Why would you need your bag?" Aquaman asked, suspicion clear in his tone.
Danny forced himself to take a calming breath.
'Getting angry isn't going to help your case, Fenton… You need to be able to think straight.'
"Because I have a device that can be used to contain ghosts. If you're really that worried, I promise to return with you guys as soon as we handle the ghosts. Now, are we done playing 20 questions?"
There was a brief tense silence as the Bat and Ghost had a staredown.
"Nightwing," Batman ordered abruptly without losing eye contact. "Tell Flash where to find Daniel's bag. Superman, Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Flash, and I will accompany Nightwing, Aqualad, Superboy, and Miss Martian to Captain Marvel's location."
'Finally!'
"You're going to need flyers," The teen quickly interjected. "Also, we may have to split up; divide and conquer. They usually move as a pack, and eight times out of ten are hired by somebody to either steal something or 'peck' someone to death."
Wonder Woman put her hands on her hips and frowned. "But you said they-"
"I said they weren't much of a threat, not that they weren't one. Also, I had said that best-case scenario was that they could just be lost," Danny retorted while crossing his arms.
Martian Manhunter stepped forwards and sent a polite nod towards the other Leaguers. "Very well. Green Lantern and I will also accompany you."
"Everyone, head to the Bioship, we depart immediately," Superman ordered with a curt nod.
The aforementioned Team and League members made a beeline for the Hangar.
There was a gust of wind as Flash appeared next to the half-ghost. The latter took a moment to realize that he hadn't even noticed his brief absence.
He offered the bag to him with a polite smile. "Here you go kid, the Team barely even looked at it, so everything should still be in there."
Danny blinked in shock for a second, before quickly shaking away his stupor.
"Thanks, Flash. We'll need to hurry to the Hanger if we don't want to be left behind."
Flash grabbed his shoulder, and in a rush of blurred colors and shapes, they were inside of a red and black ship.
Danny groaned as he grabbed his head and tried to focus on the ground to stop the wave of nausea that started to creep up his throat.
He heard an apologetic chuckle beside him. "Oops, sorry about that. I forget to give people a warning sometimes."
" 'is okay," he mumbled out as he managed to stand up straight.
'Whoa…'
His eyes widened as he looked around and saw that they were in a real-life alien spaceship. Complete with alien-looking tech on the dash, the captain's seat, and even the windows!
"This is so cool…" The teen awed as he spun in place to look around.
"Please take a seat, we'll be taking off soon."
He turned to see Miss Martian sit down in the captain's seat, her uncle already sitting close by with a small smile.
The rest of the heroes were already taking their seats as well.
'Right, ghost attack, need to focu-'
He watched in surprised awe as another seat formed next to Superboy, on the opposite side of Miss Martian.
Reluctantly, he sat down, and within seconds, two straps wrapped comfortably around his torso to buckle him in as if it sensed him.
He tilted his head curiously at this.
'Could the ship be alive?'
The sounds of an engine starting up caught his attention, and he turned to look out the window closest to him as they took off.
His eyes widened as he saw the beach below them and a huge mountain with a camouflaged door closing behind them.
"That's so cool…" he whispered excitedly to himself.
The ship flew above the clouds and leveled out as they started to head to their destination.
He gently placed a hand on the dash next to him and felt a low hum of energy beneath his fingers. The hum shifted as though it were curious before lightly tapping a rhythmic pattern underneath his hand.
The Halfa raised an amused eyebrow at this and tapped the same pattern gently.
The ship made an audible happy humming sound as it tapped a new rhythm and Danny matched it yet again with a smile.
Miss Martian chuckled, bringing the half-ghost's attention to her.
She smiled kindly at him. "She seems to like you, Danny."
He smirked as he looked back at the dash and removed his hand, the ship making an almost complaining whine in return. "So, they're a she…" he thought out loud.
"Did you know she was alive?" Martian Manhunter asked, turning to him with an unreadable expression.
Danny smiled and shook his head, "It wasn't confirmed until a few moments ago when she played a knock-knock joke on me."
"You can understand the ship?" The Flash asked incredulously.
That caught the rest of the League's attention.
His own eyes widened before he quickly started waving off the question. "What? No, no, sorry, I don't. I can only guess what she's feeling based on her humming or energy shift. They change based on which emotions she's feeling; if you've ever had a pet animal, it's kinda like trying to read them."
The ship rumbled in a way that suggested she was disgruntled.
He placed a hand on the dash in a, hopefully, comforting way. "Sorry girl, but that's the only way I know how to describe it to humans to hopefully help them understand."
The ship tapped twice, but it didn't seem upset anymore, which made Danny sigh in relief. He definitely didn't want to accidentally offend the organic ship during their first meeting.
"Time to focus on the mission at hand. Danny, what can you tell us about these ghosts?"
The half-ghost nodded and turned to Miss Martian. "Is it safe to stand?"
She looked at him curiously before nodding back.
The straps retreated back into the seat, allowing Danny to stand up and rummage through his bag.
"So ghosts tend to have three basic powers; intangibility, invisibility, and flight-"
"Any sign of Captain Marvel?"
The air was thick with suspense, and every person aboard the Bioship was on edge. They were closing in on the location Captain had given Batman, but had yet to see either him or the ghosts.
"Nothing yet," Nightwing replied.
Superboy heard Batman grunt and shift in his seat.
"Manhunter, see if you can- what's wrong?"
The younger Kryptonian frowned and turned to see what Batman was looking at.
Standing beside his seat, with a surprisingly serious expression, was Danny. Standing as still as a statue.
"They're nearby," he announced glaring at the space in front of him.
"What? How can you tell?" The red-clad speedster asked incredulously.
"Ghost sense. Like a sixth sense but it manifests physically," he quickly responded, as though his attention was elsewhere.
"Can it hone into their exact location?" Aqualad asked.
Superboy watched with intrigue as Danny's breath became visible with a blueish tint as though he were breathing in cold air.
The strange teen's frown deepened as his eyebrows furrowed. He took a step forward, the movement was slightly unsettling seeing as how still he just was. "Doesn't work like that. Look, I can explain more later, but right now I need all of you to make a promise."
"Depends on what it is, kid," Green Lantern replied crossing his arms.
There was a brief moment of silence as Danny glanced at the Lantern.
"Don't shoot me."
Everyone was now on full alert if they weren't before.
The Flash was the first to speak. "What? Why would we-?"
Before anyone could question him further the teen closed his eyes and two glowing white halos of light appeared around his waist and started to move in opposite directions.
As the rings moved apart, his t-shirt turned into a black jumpsuit with a white 'DP' on his chest and his pants also turned into a black jumpsuit with a white belt. He also had white gloves, boots, and a collar. And as the rings finished his transformation, his raven-black hair turned silvery-white, and his skin had slightly tanned. The rings finally disappeared, and, in their disappearance, they left a barely seeable white aura.
Superboy's fight or flight instinct threatened to take over as toxic or radioactive glowing green eyes opened and lifeless eyes looked towards him.
Most of the heroes had gotten into fighting positions that ended up being useless as the ghost fell backward through the bottom of Bioship.
There was a brief stunned silence.
"What… just happened?" Superman breathed.
"There!"
The heroes all flocked to the side of the ship where Nightwing was, to see a blur of black and white flying after two distant glowing green birds.
"Looks like the kid was telling the truth," Green Lantern scoffed.
Batman grunted before ordering Miss Martian to quickly land.
He turned to the rest of the heroes with a determined expression. "I want anyone, besides Miss Martian, that can fly to go after Daniel and the other ghosts The rest of you go find Captain Marvel and ensure there are no civilians in the area."
Superman, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman took off towards the rooftops as soon as they landed.
Batman turned to the speedster. "Go scout ahead and report back if you see the Captain. The rest of us will split up and do the same."
"Sure thing Bats, back in a flash!" In a blur of red, the Flash was gone.
Superboy grunted disapprovingly as he followed Aqualad, Nightwing, and Miss Martian East, while Black Canary and Batman went West.
Luckily, it seemed most of this side of the city was evacuated and/or abandoned. So redirecting or worrying about civilians was off the to-do list.
There was a long silence before Miss Martian spoke up.
"I honestly didn't expect Danny to leave like that…"
Superboy frowned as he was just having the same thought.
"He doesn't seem like the kind of person to want to endanger others, so I am not too concerned for the Leaguers. However-" the Atlantean stopped and turned to the three of them. "I do not know why he went after them by himself. If they are as dangerous as he says, why risk it?"
Nightwing's eyebrows furrowed as he hummed in thought. "He may not be much of a team player. I noticed back at the Cave that the number of people there was putting him on edge. He may not be used to a lot of attention, nor being a part of a larger group of people. On the bright side, that means it's safe to say he isn't some Light spy or something."
Superboy's enhanced hearing picked up two different crashes, one further away and one closer.
"I heard a crash nearby, it might be the Captain," he announced out loud.
The other three nodded and followed Superboy as they ran towards the source.
Phantom sighed invisibly as he watched Wonder Woman fly through one of the vultures again.
'Didn't I just tell them, not even ten minutes ago, that intangibility is a basic ghost power?'
The flying Leaguers had attempted to and failed to capture the ghosts. And right before he got a chance to talk to them too. So now, he was forced to watch their pitiful attempts at fighting the ghosts since Green Lantern decided the halfa was on the capture list.
Superman charged at full speed toward one of them, probably in hopes to catch him off guard as Wonder Woman kept him distracted. Until, of course, he turned intangible yet again and the red and blue hero went soaring into the building next to them.
Debris exploded into the air and rained over the, luckily, abandoned street.
'Okay, I think that's one too many buildings damaged for today.'
He dropped his invisibility and as quickly as he could, he shot a low-powered energy beam at one vulture and then tackled the other one onto a nearby roof.
"Ay, what's the big id- oh crap…"
Phantom smirked as he stood up and crossed his arms. "Hello, bird brains, long way from home aren't we?"
"Daniel!"
The half-ghost facepalmed and sighed in exasperation as the Leaguers landed on the roof behind him.
"Friends of yours, Ghost Kid?"
Phantom shot the bird an exasperated look, "Haven't decided yet."
The birds glanced at each one with amused smiles. "Perhaps we should leave then…"
"Yeah, we wouldn't want to interrupt whatever you and the flying weirdos have going-"
A warning ectoblast was shot in between them, making them close their mouths instantaneously.
"You're not going anywhere, understood?" The teen warned with a glare.
Both birds huffed in annoyance but remained still.
Phantom nodded and turned back to the Leaguers.
"Daniel what-"
"I already told you guys I prefer Danny. Also, my alias is Phantom. So please, for the love of whatever you believe in, stop calling me Daniel."
The Leaguers sent each other looks, while the vultures snickered behind him.
The Halfa pinched the bridge of his nose and let out an impatient sigh, making the vultures snicker more.
He looked back up at the adults and put his hands on his hips. "Is there something you need? Cause, I'm kind of in the middle of something…"
"Why aren't you arresting these ghosts or capturing them?" Wonder Woman demanded with a tone that practically screamed 'where-is-your-manager'.
One vulture huffed and retorted matter-of-factly, "We prefer Ecto-Americans, humans."
"I'm not the Idiots-in-White. I don't shoot first and ask questions never," The halfa replied, rolling his eyes as he turned back to the vultures. "Now, you two, where's your friend?"
Both vultures shared a look before one smirked. "He's fine, just out having a stroll."
Phantom glared, "I doubt that, you three are always together. None of you are likely to go on your own for a bite to eat."
"Whateva, Phantom, we ain't gonna tell you."
The Halfa's eyes flared and the two flinched. "Fine, we'll come back to it. Why are you guys here?"
The first vulture shrugged. "We got lost, been flying for hours till we got here."
The teen's stance loosened, and his glare softened. "Was it a natural portal?"
The second vulture sighed. "Yeah, and it was a rough one too. One second, we were minding our own business, the next, it just appears in front of us and we couldn't stop in time to avoid flying right through."
"I see…" the white-haired teen replied as he put a hand up to his chin in thought.
"Hey ghost kid…" the first one asked.
"What is it?" He replied with a tired sigh.
There was a beat of silence before the vulture cleared his throat. "Why are you here? Last we checked you weren't doing so good in Amity Park. Did you finally decide to ditch the place?"
The teen felt the Leaguers eyes boring into his back and did his best to ignore it.
"I received a mission from the ghost Master of Time," he answered honestly.
The two birds' eyes widened and glanced at each other.
"We'll find our friend and be on our way then," The first vulture announced with a sense of urgency.
The second culture nodded in agreement. "Wouldn't want to disturb the Master of Time's plans. We ain't that dumb."
Before the two could fly off, a blue beam of light sucked the two birds into the metal thermos in Phantom's hands. He closed it tightly after they were captured, and he clipped it back onto his hip.
He turned to see the Leaguers staring at him in stunned awe.
"Why did you capture them?" Martian Manhunter asked with a frown.
Phantom smiled knowingly, "Because as soon as they found their friend they would've run off, and I have to make sure that they go back to the Ghost Zone. Now come on, we still have another ghost to catch."
Upon arriving at the source of the crash, they found Captain Marvel attacking Flash and Batman.
The four young heroes jumped into action, each attempting to restrain or distract the older hero.
"He's not responding!" Flash exclaimed as he dodged another lightning bolt. "We think that one of the ghosts might've cast a spell or put him under mind control!"
"Copy!" Nightwing affirmed as he pulled out his Eskrima sticks.
The four young heroes dodged, punched, and kicked, but to no use as the man continued to throw them off or send them flying into nearby buildings.
"It's the League and the Team, Captain! We're your friends!" Miss Martian attempted to reason as she flew above him.
"Captain snap out of it!" Aqualad exclaimed as the Atlantean sent a wave of water over him.
The now-soaking wet hero smirked and lunged forwards to send another punch Aqualad's way. Superboy quickly intercepted it and ended up in a strength standoff.
The older hero's red eyes and crazed smile looked strange on his usually cheerful and kind face.
"Superboy get back!"
The clone looked up just in time to see a green energy disk flying toward him and Captain Marvel.
His eyes widened and he quickly dove out of the way, whipping back around to see the other hero stumble backward with a sneer.
Another green blast sent the man flying into a nearby lamppost, bending the thing perfectly in half.
The clone turned to see Danny floating towards Captain Marvel with an unreadable expression.
His eyes widened when he saw the half-ghost teenager pick up the man by the back of his suit like he weighed nothing.
"Phantom!"
Superboy turned to see the rest of the Leaguers returning, most looking disheveled or wary.
Superman landed the closest to him and raised his hands in a placating gesture toward the ghostly teen. "Put him down, Phantom. He's not in the right mind, but he's a fellow hero. A friend, okay?"
The ghost was silent for a moment before rolling his eyes; something the clone was getting quite used to seeing.
"First of all, don't treat me like I'm a kid, I'm nearly seventeen. Second of all-"
The ghost's free hand turned see-through and he plunged his hand into the Captain's chest.
"NO!"
But before anyone could move, the white-haired teen pulled his hand back and with it a transparent figure of a green vulture.
Once it was free of the Captain's body, both Phantom's hand and the vulture returned to normal.
Phantom gently let go of Captain Marvel, who collapsed onto the ground with a quiet groan and turned to the rest of them with a know-it-all smirk.
"Second of all, I told you so."
"Wh- B-but how?!" The Flash stuttered.
"Along with intangibility, comes over-shadowing, or, as humans have come to call it, possession."
"But why possess Captain Marvel?" Martian Manhunter asked with genuine concern.
Phantom blinked and looked at the disgruntled bird still in his hand. "Good question… Why did you overshadow that guy? Your buddies already told me that you guys were just lost, so why attack and overshadow him?"
The vulture scoffed, "We attacked him? He attacked us first! What were we supposed to do, not defend ourselves?"
Phantom's eyes narrowed. "There are other ways to defend yourselves, something that we've talked about before. Now, tell me why you three are actually here or you're going in the thermos too."
"Ha! Like I would tell the ghost kid any-"
Phantom's eyes flashed brightly as he glared at the vulture.
Superboy heard the bird audibly gulp before clearing its throat. "The truth is, we did get lost. We tried to turn around, but the portal closed behind us. We were on our way to find another portal when that weirdo attacked us."
His eyes returned to normal as he hummed in thought. "Did you manage to track one down?" He asked after a beat.
The bird nodded, "Yeah, my friends and I have a sixth sense for them."
The ghostly teen nodded and let the vulture go, much to the Leaguer's chagrin.
"What are you doing?" Batman demanded with a glare.
Phantom ignored him as he unclipped, what looked like a thermos, from his side, and a blue beam of light sprouted from the end of it. Two similarly green vultures appeared next to the first one.
All three turned to the half-ghost who crossed his arms. "Find the nearest portal and leave. If I find out you guys were causing trouble, all three of you are going back in the thermos and you'll have to wait until I find a portal to send you guys back."
"Yeah yeah, we get it, Ghost Kid," One of the newly released ones replied.
The three turned to leave, but one hesitated. "Hey, Phantom…"
The ghost in question raised an eyebrow.
The vulture turned and looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "Fighting aside, we're glad to see you're still kicking…"
Phantom tensed but gave no response as the three flew off.
A groan was heard, and Superboy watched as Phantom quickly walked over and knelt down next to Captain Marvel to help him sit up.
"Are you okay?" He heard the teen ask the hero with concern.
Captain held his head with a pained grimace. "Yeah, yeah I'm good, just have this killer headac- oh..." The hero blinked in surprise at the newcomer. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met before."
Phantom chuckled and helped the man onto his feet. "No, we haven't. My name is Phantom, it's nice to meet you, mister-?"
Superboy raised an eyebrow at this. He knew they've mentioned Captain Marvel's name numerous times, so why pretend like he didn't know?
The red and white hero smiled and shook the young hero's hand. "Captain Marvel, but you can just call my Captain or Shazam."
"Captain," Batman's deep voice called.
The man turned and finally noticed the small audience. "Oh hey, guys! When did you get here?"
"What do you remember?"
While Captain recalled everything before he was, apparently possessed, or over-shadowed as Danny/Phantom called it, Superboy walked over to the strange teen.
"How did you know?"
Phantom raised an eyebrow at him.
"How did you know that Captain was possessed or whatever?" Superboy rephrased.
The half-ghost sent him a tired smile and gestured towards the Leaguers. "When they came after me and the other two bird brains, I was trying to figure out where the third went. Like I said before, they usually travel in a pack. Then they had mentioned something to each other about Captain not acting normally. Then, when he attacked you guys, that all but confirmed it. Another way to check was eye color. Pretty sure Captain didn't have red eyes naturally."
"That's another thing..."
They turned to see Aqualad, Nightwing, and Miss martian walking toward them.
"You asked for Captain Marvel's name," Aqualad continued. "But I distinctly remember his name mentioned multiple times on the ship. Why did you act as though you didn't know it?"
Phantom outright laughed, startling the Team members. He collected himself before answering with a hint of amusement. "Because of first impressions and introductions. I'm pretty sure as proteges you guys had more than one civilian accidentally call you by the wrong name when you started out. I also wanted him to have the chance to properly introduce himself, even if he may not remember me from the fight."
The four looked at him with slight blushes or hints of amusement. He was right.. they had all been called some name or another that wasn't their alias before.
"That reminds me…"
They looked at the teen curiously as the half-ghost crossed his arms and looked scornfully at the four of them. "You guys need to seriously work on your self-images."
Shock? Surprise? Anger? Maybe all three were what Superboy felt at that moment.
"Excuse me?" He growled loudly.
Superboy's outburst must've grabbed the Leaguers attentions as they too started to listen to their conversation.
Phantom remained passive "Using your mentors as reasons to justify your heroism? What kind of explanation is that? If someone were to come from a different dimension or timeline, and had no idea who the League was, how would they have known if you were a threat or not?"
"How did you expect us to respond when you asked to prove we were heroes?" Aqualad challenged as he stepped forwards defending Superboy and the others.
The ghostly teen shrugged. "Pick one. By showing that you're not a threat. By showing that a citizen's safety comes first and foremost. By explaining what it is that you guys do. Seriously, there are so many ways you could've gone about it. But you guys chose to use your mentors' credibility instead of your own."
"Yeah, and what makes you such an expert?" Nightwing chuckled challengingly.
"I never had a mentor."
There was a brief silence.
"What about your overseer?" Aqualad inquired with a perplexed expression.
Phantom shook his head. "He was only ever just that, he just watched over me. Unless it was time-related, I rarely saw him or heard from him. He was just supposed to keep an eye on me. Everything else I learned from my own failures and experiences."
"He was a first-gen…" Superboy heard Black Canary comment to Batman.
"So what? You didn't have someone to teach you, how do you know what we're going through then?"Superboy demanded as he crossed his arms.
The teen made eye contact with the clone and didn't miss a beat. "I might not, but what I do know, is I wouldn't let myself stand in my mentor's shadow."
There was another silence.
"You don't know what it's like…" The clone grumbled.
"Oh? I don't know what it's like to be judged by how I look or what I am? I don't know what it's like to feel like all eyes are on you and if you fail then you afraid of being seen as unworthy or aren't a good enough hero?"
The four Team members looked down in shame.
Superboy heard Phantom sigh and looked up to see him uncross his arms.
"Something you guys need to learn is to see that you don't need someone else to say that you're a hero. Because your actions will speak louder than words. And at the end of the day, as long as you know that you did the right thing, you won't need to prove to anyone else that you're a hero, because you'll have already proved it to yourself."
The audience was stunned. Danny no longer seemed like the sarcastic and witty teenager from before, but an older and wiser being that's probably seen as much, if not more than, the Leaguers.
The ghostly teen smiled tiredly at the four before sighing defeatedly.
"Well now that that's taken care of…"
He turned around to face Batman and offered his hands.
Team members and League members alike were confused.
"What's that for?" Batman asked expressionlessly.
Phantom rolled his eyes and huffed in annoyance. "I made a promise to return with you to the base once we took care of the ghosts. Technically, I was a suspect and broke the agreement to stay under surveillance when I went off by myself to catch them. I did so, knowing that I could be placed under arrest and take full responsibility for my actions."
He watched as Batman and the other Leaguers all shared glances with one another. Each nodding as if to confirm something privately between one another.
Superman gently pushed his hands down while Black Canary placed a hand on the teen's shoulder.
Phantom looked back at Batman with a confused frown.
"You'll make an excellent addition to the Team."
Phantom blinked at the Caped Crusader.
"…. Wait, what?"