TW: Graphic Depictions/Violence/Blood/Mentions of Death
ONE YEAR LATER
'LOOK OUT!'
BOOOM!
A fiery red explosion violently rocked the steel cargo ship against the black storm-fed waves. Lightning lit the sky in blues and whites, as though an equally violent battle was taking place in the sky as in the sea.
'Phantom! Are you okay?!' A voice shouted at the forefront of his mind.
His vision was filled with flashes of white and blues as he attempted to regain his balance against the rusted red metal railing of the ship.
The explosion caused a chunk of cargo containers to go diving overboard, some demolished, and others now just debris falling towards the raging water.
The ghostly hero shook the rest of his daze off and took to the air again.
'Yeah! Yeah, I'm okay,' he replied over the telepathic Mindlink set up by Miss Martian.
He quickly flew over to where Aqualad was fending off three of the many Black Manta divers on the top deck next to more steel crates.
'What's Gammas status?!' Aqualad inquired as he used his glowing blue water-bearers to push one of the men away, Phantom throwing bright green ectoblasts at the other two.
'They're on their last run to retrieve the rest of the hostages. Beta, what's your status?' Nightwing responded, probably set up in a perch in the control room or the bridge.
'Enemy is still attempting to stop us from reaching the lower cargo decks, might need some assistance soon if they keep this up,' Artemis reported.
'Dang, you guys must be getting rusty!' Kid Flash teased.
The ghostly teen heard a loud thud come from somewhere within the creaking boat.
'Last time I checked it was because of you slipping that got us into this mess,' Superboy's voice rang irritably through the Mindlink.
'Hey, how was I supposed to know the ground was wet?!'
'We're on a boat, Baywatch!' Artemis chimed in.
'Wait, wait, wait- We got into this mess because you slipped on a puddle?!' The ghostly hero asked incredulously as he dodged another fist, another explosion going off somewhere.
He let out a surprised yelp as the boat started to tilt dangerously forwards. The ghostly teen, along with several goons, lost their footing and began to slide towards the front of the boat.
'Everybody hang on!' Nightwing warned over the telepathic link.
Phantom quickly grabbed ahold of a nearby tethered crate and held on for dear life.
SHINK! SCRIIIIKKK!
He whipped his head towards the noise and noticed that the Atlantean had used his water bearers to slow and stop his fall by stabbing them into the floor.
'Here it comes!'
'What are you-!?'
But before the teen could finish his thought, glowing green eyes went wide as the boat lurched upwards as it hit a huge wave. Sea salt, foam, and water shook the boat as it crashed onto the upper deck, sending everyone practically swimming as it tried to drag them off the boat. Luckily, the ghostly teen was able to stop himself from sliding overboard.
He heard someone running up to him as he coughed the rest of the seawater out of his lungs. A hand appeared and he recognized it to be his teammate's.
The ghostly teen grabbed his friend's hand and the other helped him up, putting a hand on his shoulder to keep him steady.
"Are you alright?" A deep worried voice was barely heard over the raging sea.
Phantom nodded, still trying to catch his breath. "Yeah… Just swallowed enough seawater to start singing under the sea… but I'm good…"
He heard the Atlantean chuckle before letting his shoulder go and motioned for him to follow as he jogged towards the doors to the lower decks.
The ghost caught a glimpse of one of the goons standing guard reaching into their pocket, for what the teen assumed was a communication device. His eyes widened as he quickly knocked the goon unconscious with one solid swift punch.
'Phantom-'
The ghost jumped a little before facepalming, his teammate chuckled lightly beside him.
'Phase through to the lower levels and cargo holds and see what's down there. If they're protecting it there must be a reason,' Nightwing ordered over the link.
He shot back into the air and mock saluted as he passed the windows of the command bridge.
'Aye aye, Captain!'
Phantom flew upwards towards the dark clouds full of cold rain and lightning. The sky flashed blue as he turned intangible and dove straight down, passing through the metal as though it were merely air.
Making it to the lower cargo hold, he slowed his dive and landed soundlessly on the lowest level, making sure to slip into invisibility as he made his way around the suspiciously spacious and quiet room.
In almost every corner of the room, various sized crates, containers, and boxes were stacked alongside each other like an endless labyrinth. As he walked along one of the various paths towards the center of the room, the white-haired ghost took notice of a few of the labels. Many had the words 'LEXCORP' written on them, while others had 'FRAGILE' or 'COMBUSTIBLE' written on them in black or red paint.
Carefully observing his surroundings, he made sure it was clear before dropping his invisibility as he approached what seemed to be the center of the room. There, he found an LED red camping flood light on top of a foldable table and two black foldable chairs tucked underneath it.
'Well, that's not creepily ominous at all.'
'What is?'
Phantom couldn't help but jump at the sound of Kid Flash's voice over the Mindlink. He rolled his eyes as he silently reprimanded himself.
He took a calming breath before responding to the speedster, 'There's a table with two chairs in the center of the room.'
'Any important papers or folders by any chance?' Nightwing asked, his eyebrow raise practically tangible over the Link.
'Not that I can see. I'll keep looking though,' he noted as he looked around the desk.
'Oh well, wishful thinking,' the older hero sighed.
As he continued to look around the room, he could see that there was a brown booklet laying on one of the nearby crates, a red ribbon sticking out of one end.
'I found a booklet.'
Phantom walked over and opened the booklet to the saved page, surprised to see it written in a language he didn't recognize.
'It's in another language,' he reported over the link. As he continued to look, he noticed the handwriting looked to be rushed, as though they were jotting down notes. 'Looks like someone was in a hurry to write something down. Should I leave it or take it, Aqualad?'
'Take it, it could be of use to us once we can translate it.'
Phantom nodded to himself as he picked up the notebook, making sure to put the bookmark back.
"Well, what do we have here?"
The ghostly teen whipped around and took a defensive stance as he tried to pinpoint where the echoed voice had come from.
A silhouette slowly walked out from one of the shadowed paths before stopping a few meters away from the hero.
The person was a pale bald man, with his brain visible through what seemed to be a clear dome covering it, with some strips of skin over the dome. He had three red lines on each cheek and wore a gray trench coat with a hood. Beneath the coat, he wore a black turtleneck and gray slacks.
"Who are you?! What is your business here?!" Phantom demanded as he kicked into his flight again and hovered over the ground with a stern expression.
"Last time I checked, I believe it was you and your teammates who snuck aboard and trespassed on this ship. So, I should be asking you the same thing, Phantom."
"Yeah, well, holding people captive isn't exactly-" His words came to an abrupt halt as his mind began racing.
With narrowed eyes, his hands glowed dangerously with green ectoplasmic energy. "How do you know that name?" He demanded through clenched teeth.
The man smiled knowingly at the hero. "Many of us know who you are, we always keep an eye out on who- or should I say- what joins the Justice League and their proteges' Team."
The halfa needed to get the guy's attention off of him and needed to do it fast.
Guess it was time to play witty and naïve teenager again…
"You keep referring to yourself as 'we', who is 'we'? Cause there's nobody else around or- wait- are you one of those creepy hive-in-the-body type of guys?" He feigned a look of disgust. "Please don't tell me you're one of those guys, I'd prefer to keep my suit slime and goop free by the end of the day."
"You'll find that out for yourself; once you join us, that is," the man answered with a sly smile.
Phantom raised an eyebrow.
"Is that a yes to the hive thing or-?"
'Phantom!' Aqualad's voice rang in his head. 'We're coming under heavy fire; the rest of the hostages have been evacuated, now is the time to retreat!'
The white-haired teen sighed in relief as he fixed his grip on the booklet and turned his attention back toward the strange man.
"Look, as much as I'd like to stay and chat with your fruit-loop craziness all day, I've gotta go," He insisted as he slowly began rising further and further from the ground.
"Now, now, there's no need to be rude. After all, I didn't say Simon says-"
A mischievous child-like snickering echoed throughout the room, and two red glowing chains appeared from the ground and rapidly wrapped tightly around both of Phantom's forearms.
"What the-!?"
Another chain shot up and wrapped around his neck, cutting his exclamation off as he found he couldn't speak as it glowed brighter.
He was completely immobile, hovering nearly twelve feet in the air.
A teenage boy with long, thin limbs, a thin neck, and an angular face appeared from the shadows of one of the other pathways. He had black hair in a mop-top style with V-shaped bangs and devil horns, much like Vlad's. He also had long, sharp, black fingernails, and wore a black suit, and a white dress shirt with a black tie.
"Looks like we got ourselves a real chatterbox, huh Teekl?" The kid mused while holding a strange calico-striped cat.
"Meowww."
The man looked towards the newcomers and nodded, "Perfect timing, Klarion."
He attempted to turn intangible, but the chains wouldn't budge.
'I might need a minute,' The teen announced seriously over the Mindlink.
He glared at the two below him, a glowing red circle and symbols forming underneath him.
The hero took in a deep breath, holding it, as he dove towards them at full speed.
The sorcerer shrieked in fright and attempted to jump out of the way, falling into the other, breaking both of their attentions. The chains dissipated last minute as Phantom dove through the bottom of the ship and into the icy ocean.
He slowed his descent and turned to look at the bottom of the ship.
'Is the notebook worth losing, Aqualad?'
'Why? Did something happen?' Nightwing asked with a worried tone.
The halfa's eyebrows furrowed. 'No time. Answer the question, yes or no?'
The ocean seemed too quiet as he waited for a response.
'… No, it could offer more information about-'
'I don't need the whole speech,' He interrupted as he used his flight to dash back towards the bottom of the ship.
He turned invisible and intangible again as he got closer.
'Danny, if it puts you at risk of being discovered, leave it,' Aqualad warned.
He stopped himself from rolling his eyes. 'It's a little too late for that, Kaldur.'
With caution now of the window, he shot through the bottom of the ship and landed in the cargo hold.
Klarion and the other stranger whipped around as Phantom shot an ectoblast, knocking the other back into one of the many surrounding crates, before quickly turning the floor beneath Klarion intangible. The sorcerer yelled in shocked outrage as he and the cat fell through the floor.
"Danny?!" A familiar voice, followed by footsteps echoed throughout the room.
"Over here!" He responded
As hurried footsteps thundered closer, the half-ghost looked around to see that the notebook he had found was luckily still intact and splayed out nearby.
He cautiously picked it up, looking up to find that the crazed telepath had disappeared as well.
"What happened?" A feminine voice asked as the footsteps slowed.
The teen turned around to find Beast Boy and Artemis out of breath.
He gestured towards the damaged crate. "Unexpected company," he crossed his arms and shared a glance with Artemis. "That somehow knew my alias."
Both of the heroes' eyes widened as they glanced worriedly at each other.
"You guys look more surprised than I do," he commented watching their tense movements.
"That's one way of putting it- do you have the notebook?" Artemis replied with a raised eyebrow.
He nodded and passed over the item in question.
"Great, we can decipher it when we get back to- DANNY LOOK OUT!"
He instinctively threw up a shield and whipped his head around to find the stranger from before merely a few feet away from him, inside the shield.
"Relive!" The man exclaimed as an object shot towards the teen from thin air.
He felt something prick his arm, but before he could make sense of it, he felt a telepathic force ram itself against his mental barrier, shattering it almost instantaneously. He gasped as he had a similar sensation to falling, hearing a cruel chuckle as the world went black.
There were a few beats where there was just silence.
A loud silence, he thought, as he floated in a black void.
That's when the sound started to fade in, as though hushed tones in a nonexistent wind.
"Such a waste-"
"I wish I never met you…"
"-nothing but an evil and odd manifestation-"
"How could you possibly understand?"
"Get out!"
"There's the Ghost kid!"
"Why did you-?!"
"I thought I told you-!"
"Hey!"
"Ghost scum!"
"GET HIM!"
"DANNY!"
"HELP!"
"SAVE HER!"
He covered his ears, desperately trying to block the onslaught of voices.
"Stop! I need to think!"
The temperature around was steadily dropping as the onslaught of voices continued, slivers of memories and flashbacks beginning to appear as well.
Flashes of red and green fluid oozing down a drain.
"-please! I need your help!"
"PHANTOM!"
"You're the only one who can-"
"Don't worry little brother we got-"
"NO!"
"You need to start acting more human-"
"WHERE WERE YOU?!"
"HELP!"
Red hair. A bright smile.
"WHELP!"
"-with a new test I want to run."
"Don't forget to-"
"CHILD YOU CANNOT DEFEAT-!"
"DANIEL JAMES FENTON!"
"Why must you always cause such a mess every-"
Violet colored eyes widened in shock and then narrowed in anger.
"DANIEL!"
"Hello, Little Badger-"
"Amiko!"
"DUDE LOOK OUT!"
Glowing restraints and handcuffs laying on the road. An explosion shook the air-
Danny shut his eyes as he drew in a deep breath.
"LEAVE ME ALONEEEEEE!!"
The flashbacks dissipated as his Ghostly Wail was unleashed, the sound of multiple desperate screams and wails overpowering the jumbled voices with little to no effort. It kept unleashing itself in waves upon waves of ecto-energy until his throat felt raw and his lungs burned. The wail stopped and he was left in peaceful silence.
But... Why did he feel like he was falling again? Why did he feel so warm?
Superboy roared as he punched another henchman.
"Man these guys are relentless!"
The half-Kryptonian looked over to see Kid Flash disarm and knock out the other henchman with a cheeky smile.
"Yeah, but why all the security? And why so suddenly?" Superboy commented as he searched for any clues in the pockets of the men they had just knocked out.
'Phantom is down! I repeat! Phantom is down!' Artemis's panicked voice rang over the Mindlink.
Both heroes looked at each other before abandoning the unconscious men and rushing to find their way through the narrow hallways to the lower floors, this time with newfound vigor.
'Delta, statu-'
'We're our way!' Superboy interjected as he shoved a guard away.
'Copy. Artemis, what happened?' Aqualad inquired.
'It was Psimon! The guy came out of nowhere and used some kind of mind trick on him! Now they're both behind Danny's shield and we can't get to them!' Beast Boy hurriedly explained.
There was a short silence before Nightwing continued the questioning.
'Is he unconscious?'
'No, but he's definitely out of it. Whatever Psimon did to him has him completely immobilized,' Artemis reported.
'Copy. Miss M-'
'On my way!'
'Good, keep me updated and try to get past Phantom's shield. If you take out Psimon, he should snap out of it.'
Superboy sent a grunt over the Link as he tackled another goon to the ground, knocking him unconscious.
"What could the Light want with Phantom?" The clone heard the speedster ask out loud.
The teen roared as he took down two more guys, before looking over at his partner. "I don't know, for all we know they may just be trying to stop us from discovering what it is they're hiding here."
Kid Flash snorted, "Yeah that's a good point, we do have quite the habit of foiling their plans, even when we're not meaning to."
A horrendous sound that resembled multiple people screaming echoed from the lower decks.
BOOM! CREEEAKK!
Superboy's eyes widened as he quickly reached out and grabbed the nearest railing as their world tipped heavily to the right.
"WHOA WHOA WHOA!"
The hero quickly reached out a hand, to which the speedster grabbed a hold of as though it were a lifeline.
"What happened?!" Nightwing's voice rang over the Mindlink.
There was a brief silence before a winded Beast Boy replied back, "It was Danny! He used his Canary Cry thing and blew out the side of the ship! We're sinking!"
"He did what?!" Kid Flash exclaimed as he gained a footing on the side of the hallway.
"Is Phantom conscious?" Aqualad inquired calmly, but firmly.
"No, Psimon fell into the water when the side blew. Beast Boy has Phantom," Miss Martian explained, sounding winded.
"Then everybody make a tactical retreat back to the Bioship," The Atlantean ordered.
"Copy!" Multiple voices sounded off.
"What's the fastest way to the ship from where we are, Nightwing?" The clone interjected.
"Give me a second- and it looks like the fastest way is going to have to be one level up and the second cargo hold on the left. There should be a hole there from one of the explosions that you should be able to fit through."
Superboy nodded and looked over at the speedster. "Kid, you get your souvenir?"
Kid Flash raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I got one, why-?"
Superboy let out a roar as he leaped and busted a hole into the floor directly above them. As he waited for Kid to catch up, he noticed the amount of debris and splintered fiberglass and wood laying around. Good thing his Kryptonian skin prevented him from getting things like splinters otherwise he would've been 98% sure Kid would've made a video game reference about him being a hedgehog.
He kept his guard up even though most of the guards had been taken care of on this floor or they had been called to backup for other floors, so the duo's retreat was swift.
Superboy saw a slight mirage effect through the gaping hole in the side of the room, and almost as soon as he saw it, the Bioship's ramp lowered from its camouflaged body.
It seemed Delta was the last squad to arrive because almost as soon as they set foot on the ramp, the ship took off.
Superboy turned and watched as the ship slowly started to get swallowed up by the raging sea as the ramp closed shut.
He let out a relieved sigh as he slowly walked over to where Miss Martian was. Watching as she carefully laid Phantom done, who looked dimmer than normal.
"How is he?" the clone asked.
Miss Martian looked up at him with a curious gaze and paused for a moment before turning back to their ghostly friend. "I can't really tell at the moment, but I'm sure we'll all be fine once we get back to the Cave," she reassured with a gentle smile.
He nodded and was just about to turn away when a metallic glint caught his eye.
He caught Miss Martian's arm right as she was about to leave as well.
She paused in her movement and looked at him curiously again. "Is something wrong?" she asked with furrowed eyebrows.
The dark-haired teen narrowed his eyes as he carefully reached across the ghost and plucked a small metallic object from his arm. Pulling it closer for inspection he first noted that it was in the shape of a small tube and was spray-painted a metallic black, probably to hide it more effectively. The next thing he noticed was the sharp needle on one end, and the engravings of LexCo on the other end.
Miss Martian's eyes widened as Superboy turned around to show her the object. "Is that…?"
Superboy grunted and nodded. "I think so, but we won't know for sure until we have Nightwing analyze it."
After making sure Phantom was secure, the two heroes swiftly made their way back to the front of the ship to join everyone else.
"Besides the rescued hostages, is everyone here?" Aqualad asked from the driver's seat in the center of the room.
"You took off before checking that?" Beast Boy asked incredulously, transforming back into his monkey-like appearance.
Ignoring the younger teen's comment, Superboy walked over to Nightwing and showed him the object.
The other hero's eyes narrowed as he carefully took the object and began inspecting it. "I'm guessing you found this on Phantom?"
Superboy grunted and the bioship instinctively formed a nearby seat so he could sit and watch his teammate examine the object.
"Found what on Phantom?" the speedster asked through a mouthful of a nutrients bar.
Artemis elbowed Kid in the side and started to quietly scold him for talking with his mouth full.
"How is he?" Nightwing inquired, ignoring the speedster's question as he continued to look at the hopefully normal tranquilizer dart.
"Physically it looks like he just has a couple of scrapes and bruises, nothing that won't heal in a few hours," Miss M reported with confidence.
The clad-in-black hero hummed with a contemplative tone before continuing. "I'll take a look at him when we get back, just to make sure. What about mentally?"
The martian sighed in defeat, "I wasn't able to get a good read of the situation at first glance. His thoughts are- scattered? jumbled? It's kind of difficult to figure out what exactly Psimon did, but I feel like once we get back to the Cave, I won't feel as rushed and will be able to get a better look."
"Is there anything you might be able to do for him now? Just in case Psimon implanted some kind of code, kinda like what Cadmus did to Conner and Roy," Artemis inquired with a frown.
"Well, he wasn't an experiment of Cadmus, and honestly, I don't think Psimon would have had enough time to do something like that. You said, at the time, he was only down for two minutes right? Before I got there?"
"Yeah, but it's what the guy said. He said 'relive'," Artemis added.
"'Relive'?" Aqualad repeated with a questioning tone.
"Yeah, weird, right? Kinda like a secret code or something," Beast Boy commented.
"Hmmm, that's not a command I'm too familiar with, but Psimon is a powerful telepath." The martian seemed to contemplate something before nodding her head. "I'll make sure to look into it, in the meantime, let's focus on getting all of us back safely."
"Agreed. Artemis, did you manage to get the notebook Phantom mentioned?" Aqualad inquired.
Superboy watched as Artemis reached into a hidden pocket and pulled out a brown booklet with a red ribbon hanging from the inside of it.
The Atlantean breathed a sigh of relief, "Good work, team."
"The mission was a success. Admittedly, the sedative took longer than expected to take effect, but it was highly effective. Unfortunately, we lost the notebook in the process."
"The notebook was merely a distraction and holds no significance to our future plans. Send your feedback to LexCorp and instruct them to create a new sedative that may allow for more immediate effects."
"It will be done."
"And what about me?!"
"As for you, Klarion, we will need to discuss the next step in our plan. It is almost time."
"What do you say, Teekl? Up for a little field trip?"
"Meoowwww."