《A New Beginning》Chapter 26
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"Meet Pariah's Army" The words echoed through the room. After a moment to process, Batman started to move. He reached up to remove the Halfa from his shoulders, the boy allowing the action without resistance, and placed him on the ground. Waving a hand at his protege, he nudged the confused hybrid to his brother.
"Robin, take Danny and get to the war room. The rest of you go with them," he ordered before turning to Flash, "go find the others. Now." The oldest speedster nodded and took off to gather the other heroes while the Young Justice team took off in the direction of the conference room.
Robin gripped his brother's hand tightly, his face blank and serious beneath the mask. Danny looked up at Robin, a small crease between his eyebrows.
"What's going on?" Robin looked down at him but didn't answer.
When they got to the room, there were three figures inside. Robin recognized one of them immediately.
"Skulker." Said robot ghost turned towards the group of teenagers. The look on his face was grave and his eyes flicked from Robin to the youngest Bat before settling on the Boy Wonder.
"Pariah moved in sooner than expected, we had thought he wasn't powerful enough to induce a natural portal for his army, but we hadn't foreseen him obtaining a portal by other means."
"What do you mean?" Wally spoke up.
"He's made an alliance, with the GIW. They provided him with the prototype of a ghost portal, which Pariah fueled to let his forces through. He himself had come through a natural portal but those are never stable or big enough for more than a few ghosts to go through at a time. Regardless, he's begun his invasion and we are officially out of time. We need to move. Now." Robin's expression grew glacial when he saw the robotic spectral's eyes dart to the smallest of the group and he pushed his little brother behind him.
"Then go inform the league. We are not participating on the offensive, we are staying here to protect Danny and defend civilians while the league subdues the threat." Skulker took a step closer threateningly, a glare and a scowl firmly etched onto the metal face but Robin didn't waver.
"Your selfishness and stubbornness are impressive, child, but unless you want your pathetic little planet to become your worst nightmare, then you will let the prophetic fight happen. The Halfa is the only one that can take down the tyrant." At the mention of his species, Danny peeked around Robin's body to look up at the increasingly angry ghost. His mind was racing a mile a minute as he processed the series of events.
"He's eleven! He's not all-powerful! I'm not going to let you throw him in the middle of a bloody, violent war with a practically-invulnerable ghost!"
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The GIW partnered with a tyrant ghost king and his army, whose only goal was to conquer the human realm and increase his wealth of power. If that's the case, what does the GIW get out of this arrangement? They may be lower than human, but they lived on this plane of existence. Having a ghost army take over and enslave the living would be problematic for them. Maybe they were offered immunity? That can't be it, the GIW is a group run by narcissists with an extreme superiority complex, they would never ask or accept a deal like that because that would imply that the army is stronger than them. So, what could Pariah offer them while also benefiting himself?
Oh.
Danny's the only threat to him and his pursuit for power. The GIW have been trying to get him back since he was rescued. All the while, the attack was a surprise, and that left the only people who could possibly stand a chance, the group of heroes, blindsided as well as horrendously outnumbered. Danny was young, traumatized, and naive to the world, he had no hope of fighting off both the ghost army and the GIW. Pariah's best bet, strategically, is to eliminate the halfa before he could prepare, but the GIW would doubtlessy interfere unless they were offered something in exchange for their cooperation.
Pariah offered them Danny.
Huh.
Okay.
Danny blinked a few times, his heart beating fast with fear as his mind flashed with his time with the organization. His neon green eyes began to sting and grow wet and he fought hard against the urge to start sobbing. He couldn't go back, if he went back there would be no Bruce, or Dick, or Ace, or Phil to save him this time he would be trapped for the rest of his unnatural life. His hands clenched where they were resting against his older brother, the fabric of Dick's cape crinkling. He inhaled silently until his lungs hurt, then slowly let out the air through his mouth. The ever-present fear rushed out of him with the air and it was replaced with another feeling he rarely ever felt, not this strongly at least.
Anger.
Skulker stopped arguing when he spotted the commotion going on behind Batman's sidekick. The rest of the teens also looked over, most of their mouths dropping open in shock. The radioactive green that normally was restricted to the child's iris spread over his pupil then the whites before it looked like a sphere of pure energy trapped behind the thin skin of the kid's eyelids. The light began to expand further, creating cracks and lightning-like lines down his cheeks, up his forehead, and over his temple. His hands began to radiate the same color light of his eyes and objects around the room began to rattle and fall over, some even bursting.
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"Danny, buddy? You okay? What's happening?" The boy released the cape and Wally immediately pulled his best friend away from the clearly unhinged Halfa. Danny levitated a foot in the air, his hands in claws as balls of pure, destructive energy began to form in his palms with his fingers, which upon closer inspection were becoming a dark blue along with the now-visible veins from his wrists to his biceps, curling around the spheres, not quite grabbing to throw but almost as if they were restricted and forming the energy. His loose shirt fluttered in the now present wind that circled the small, wrathful boy. The energy in his hands began to sark and crackle, lightning beginning to flicker around his forearms and the lights flickered.
"Holy. Shit." Artemis said, watching with wide eyes at the display of pure power. Skulker smirked smugly at Robin.
"Still think he's not all-powerful?" Robin opened his mouth, eyes glued to where his little brother was embodying a supernova about to explode. Before Robin could respond, or try to calm Danny down, or do anything really, Batman and a few members of the league rushed in. They had weapons out and were powered up, ready to fight the threat. They all stopped dead when their eyes registered that the floating, glowing figure was their resident half ghost.
"Robin, what the hell is going on?!" Bats yelled over to his protege. Robin couldn't form the words, and he just shook his head, still overly shocked at the usually terrified and timid boy becoming...this.
Bats watched his eldest shake his head, looking lost, worried, and a tinge frightened and decided to de-escalate the situation. The look on his youngest's face was nothing short of pure rage, it was look he had never see, never thought he would see, on his child's face.
"Danny, hey," He called to the kid, "Dnny, look at me kid," The boy's head turned to the Dark Knight, solid green eyes locking onto the man's form. Bats smiled gently at him.
"Hey, buddy, I need you to calm down, okay? You're okay, I'm okay, everything is going to be fine so I need you to calm down," he ordered in a soft tone. Danny didn't budge. Before Batman could continue to try and get him down, Danny opened his mouth.
"SevEn yEaRs, 3 mOnThS, 1 wEek, 6 DaYs, 14 hOuRs," his voice was echoed by ten different whispers, all high pitched and almost wistful in their anger, "tHeY tOok seVeN yeArS, 3 MonThs, 1 WeEk, 6 daYs, 14 HoUrs aWaY fRoM mE. ThEy kiLleD mY mOm, mY dAd, My sIsTer. ThEy toOk My inNocEncE, My cHiLdHoOd, mY fReEdOm. TheE tOok eVeRytHiNg fRom Me. I am tHe HaLfa, BoRn oF bOth LiFe aNd DeAth. I hAvE tHe PoWeR oF boTh And thE liMitAtiOns Of neItHer. ThEy'Ve StoLeN eNoUgH fRoM mE, aNd I wiLl nOt LeT tHoSe PeRveRteD, deSpIcAbLe deGeNerAteS tAkE aNy MoRe," the Halfa slowly lowered to the ground, his bare feet landing soundlessly on the floor and the electricity that was dancing on his skin immediately latched onto the surface. Spotting this, those who could fly immediately did so, while those who didn't were aided into the air a few feet above the now-deadly floor. The boy took no notice as he continued his haunting speech.
"ThEy wiLl AlL mEeT a SlOw aNd pAiNfuL eNd aT tHe hAndS oF mE--tHeIr eXpEriMeNt, tHeiR lAb RaT, tHeiR mOnSteR--aNd ThEy WiLl rEgRet tHe dAy ThEy WeRe BoRn."
And just like that, the accumulation of ice cold electricity and energy that was festering inside the small vessel of an eleven year old ghost child exploded. It climbed the pipes, the wires, it blew out all the lights and made all of the technology that met its current spark violently. The display lasted a solid five minutes before it fizzled out and left the entire mountain submerged in the dark. Another thirty seconds and the emergency lights, the ones that survived the onslaught, sprung to life. The floor had a large scorch mark and any item that wasn't bolted to the ground was tipped over and broken and the kid that stood at the epicenter of the visage of destruction was breathing deeply and evenly through his nose. His eyes were ice blue and he had no glowing aura, but his hair was still bright white and his skin still tanned. He stood straight, his muscles less tense, his face still hard with anger but his temper had sizzled to a mere fraction of what it had been. There was some residual sparking from the fried tech, and when the group lowered themselves back to the ground there was a tingle of what almost felt like static emit from the surface under their feet. They all just stood there, standing in a circle around the Halfa and staring with disbelief (besides the ghost who had a hopeful gleam in his eyes and a smile on his face). The silence was broken by Superman's comm that was installed on a watch on his wrist rather than his ear to prevent any hearing damage to his enhanced senses.
"What the hell just happened on your end? I just watched the GIW facility in Star City get struck by the biggest bolt of lightning I've ever seen and explode. I swear I could feel the energy wave from three miles away. Superman? Hello? Do you read me?"
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