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samgirl98 · 1 year

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Cain and Abel Wept 20/?

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MENTIONS OF SCARS, KILLING, AND TORTURE

Hello everyone, please pardon me if the action scenes aren't too good. I'm not too good at writing action, but hopefully, the angst you'll get in this chapter will make up for my lacking skills.

Bruce entered the room and almost threw up.

Jason’s chest was cracked open. Bruce could see his son’s ribs and beating heartbeat. Clark stopped by him.

“My god,” he breathed out in horror.

Bruce threw a Batarang at the man with a green scalpel over his son’s heart.

“Aww,” the man yelled; his blood dripped into Jason’s chest. Bruce didn’t think; he tackled the man. No part of that man should be allowed anywhere near his son.

Bruce punched the man, tears leaking out. How dare he? How dare this monster hurt his son!

“Batman, leave him. We have to save Jason.”

Clark’s voice broke through Bruce. Jason came first. Bruce got up and left the unconscious man on the floor. Bruce looked at Jason’s open chest with trepidation. Where would he even begin with this?

Jason’s eyes opened slightly.

“Da, that you?”

“It’s me, Jay-lad. I’ll get you out of here, don’t worry. Superman is here; he can take you to a hospital.”

Clark gave Bruce a helpless look; Bruce glared at the man. He was about to look for something to cover Jason with when he felt a pull.

“Wait, da—dad, don’t leave, please.”

“Okay, Jason, I’m here, son. Clark, can you look for something to cover Jason with? He’s shivering.”

“Dad, I’m dyin—dying again.”

“No, no you’re not! Clark, help me.”

He didn’t notice the use of civilian names.

“Bruce, if I move him,” Clark shook his head, “The speed it would take me to take him to the hospital would kill him.”

“Then bring a doctor here,” Bruce yelled, desperate. Why hadn’t he thought of bringing a doctor with him?

“Dad, please, just stay—stay with me as I g—go,” Jason coughed out a blood clot, “I don’t want to die a—alone this time. Please.”

“Jay-lad, my son, I’m so sorry. I—I love you so much. Don’t go.”

Bruce watched as Jason stilled. His heart stopped beating, and his lungs ceased. Bruce yelled out in grief.

Talia came in time to watch her eldest’s give his final breath and see a man running away. She could do nothing for her eldest anymore except get vengeance for his death. While her beloved cradled Jason’s body, Talia al Ghul went after the man who killed him. She would not let Jason’s killer get away; that was something only her foolish beloved would do.

____

Danny felt as the ghost shields fell. He looked toward his younger brother and nodded. For the first time in years, both al Ghul brothers fought side by side.

(Danny ignored the feeling of steel going through his chest while his brother’s sword sang through the air. Damian probably wouldn’t betray him again.)

Danny and Damian fought as one while more and more agents poured into the hallways.

(Danny heard parts of the facility falling as the Justice League destroyed it.)

Danny hit high. He used his powers and abilities to fight in the air while Damian stayed low on the ground. Damian would relieve the agents of their weapons and tie them up with zip ties and cuffs shaped like bats.

If Danny hit the agents a bit too hard, well, no one was there to stop him. It’s not as if he killed them.

Along the way, Danny would plant devices Tucker gave him so that he could remotely copy and destroy any data the GIW had.

Eventually, Danny and Damian got to where the ghosts were being held. That’s when things got worse. Danny saw scattered, broken cores on the floor. The agents were in the process of destroying any ghost under their possession.

Danny saw green.

How dare they harm and destroy his people? He was their king, and the dead would get their vengeance. Danny felt his body shift and contort until he got lost in it.

Damian saw different glowing creatures (ghosts) whimpering and begging for help. Their hands reached toward his brother. Damian didn’t know what happened. One minute, Danny was in his ‘ghost’ form. The next was a being made of pure night sky (even the stars shone in the figure.) An ice-cold circlet was around his head. A ring that scared Damian every time he tried to look at it adorned his brother’s finger. Danny’s limbs were elongated, he had too many rows of fangs, and his eyes had galaxies exploding in them instead of pupils and sclera.

The air around them turned cold.

As scared as Damian was beholding his older brother’s awesome form, the agents were paralyzed.

(What they saw was a thousand times more terrifying than what Damian did.)

The air around them was cold; Damian could see his breath but didn’t freeze.

(The agents were frozen but still breathing, their eyes large with fear.)

Just as Damian thought he would go insane from staring at his brother for so long, he felt someone turn him around. He saw Jasmine in a suit, then she put her hand over his eyes.

“Don’t look; you’re not liminal enough. If you keep staring, you might lose your mind. We wouldn’t want Danny to feel guilty, now, would we?”

Damian shook his head.

Damian heard horrified screams and a terrifying screeching. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard being amplified. Damian thought his ears would start bleeding from the sound when it, thankfully, stopped.

Damian turned around and found the agents' faces in petrified fear. Their terror would forever be etched on their faces, doomed to never wake up from the living nightmare the King of Ghosts put them in.

(Death would’ve been too merciful for them. Besides, Danny wanted to avoid having them in his kingdom too soon.)

“Help me let them go from their cages?”

Damian, Danny, and Jasmine worked quickly but quietly as the grateful ghosts left the facility. A few stayed to wreak havoc.

Danny gave them his blessing, “Give them hell, guys.”

The ghost of a little girl turned around and hugged Danny.

“Thank you, my king.”

Danny put one of the devices Tucker had given him into the computer in the room and then left with his siblings.

Elsewhere, Maddie and Jack Fenton were fighting Agent Alpha. They had found her trying to escape.

While Jack used his body to block her exit, Maddie used her fighting skills to subdue the scum before her.

Unfortunately, Agent Alpha was no slouch with her hand-to-hand combat. Maddie got punched in the solar plexus while she gave the agent a good kick in the guts. Maddie coughed while trying to defend herself.

Jack, bless him, tried to get his arms around the agent, but she was faster than Maddie’s husband. Maddie dodged a punch that would’ve hit her nose and got low to give the woman a sweeping kick. It worked for half a second before Agent Alpha took out an ectogun and shot Maddie in the chest.

She was liminal enough that the shot could stop her for a moment. The agent used that time to slap Maddie’s face against the wall.

“You’re as much a freak as them, aren’t you? You Fentons should be exterminated like the scum you are.”

“Maddie,” Jack yelled while taking out the Jack o’ Nine Tail to stop her from causing Maddie brain damage. Thankfully, he had been practicing with it, and it hit the mark. Agent Alpha was wrapped with tendrils and yelling obscenities.

“Shut up,” Maddie said while hitting the woman on the head, knocking her unconscious.

“She talked too much,” Maddie commented before tying her more securely. Thankfully, one of the Green Lanterns had followed the sounds of fighting and took Agent Alpha with them.

Maddie and Jack looked for their children, occasionally taking down a stray agent or two. They saw that fewer and fewer agents attacked them, and more were on the floor, knocked out cold. They smiled when they noticed a few hits that could’ve only come from the Boo-staff. Their little princess was quite the warrior when she wanted to be.

Eventually, they ran into Danny, Jazz, and Damian. Danny was frowning.

“C’mon, I don’t think Jason has long left so that we can save him.”

Maddie nodded and followed her son. She was the closest thing they had to a medical doctor. As they ran down the hall, they heard the scream of a grieving parent.

____

McConnell ran. He could’ve sworn shadows were following him, but nothing ever attacked.

He was almost to an exit when a woman wearing dark clothing jumped before him. She drew a knife with a green handle.

“You killed my son,” she said calmly, “Now I kill you.”

“Wait, wait, I didn’t kill your son! I swear.”

“My son’s dead body is still warm on your table, my beloved is grieving our child’s death, and you dare deny it?”

“No, wait, I was under orders,” he tried to explain.

“Your voice annoys me.”

Talia attacked the man and was able to cut out his tongue. The man screamed as blood came out of his mouth. His eyes were wide with disbelief.

“You killed my eldest,” Talia slashed the man’s eyes, “you tortured him, humiliated him, and dared try to explain yourself? It doesn’t matter who ordered it; you were the one who stopped his heart.”

Though McConnell couldn’t see it, Talia wept while she tortured the man. Even without a tongue, the man tried to beg for mercy.

“My son begged, too, didn’t he? But I know men like you! Men with sick fantasies of torturing and destroying can’t take it when someone does it to them. My child is dead because of you! My beloved screams are echoing these halls, and yet you beg. No more.”

Talia plunged the knife deep into the man’s heart and watched with grim satisfaction as he choked on his own blood.

As McConnell took his last breath, Talia said, “You’ve been avenged, habibi.\

____

Bruce felt cold and lifeless (Jason’s lifeless body was in his arms.) as the Fentons came in.

Bruce vaguely heard Damian’s choked ‘no.’ His youngest’s voice was full of horror.

“Nightwing, Red Robin, I need you! Father needs you. Jason, he is,” Bruce knew he should be comforting his youngest, but he couldn’t bring himself to let go of Jason. In the back of his mind, Bruce saw Danny approaching them.

“Batman, I need to see him. I need you to let him go,” Bruce ignored Danny. He couldn’t let go of Jason. Maybe if he held him, he could put his son back together. Maybe he would come back.

Bruce heard whispers around him and then felt a pair of strong arms pulling him away from his child.

“NO, damn you, NO!”

Superman took him away from his son.

“Damn you, Clark, let me go!”

“Bruce, Danny can help,” Clark whispered in his ears.

That penetrated his grieving mind. He watched as Danny filled a bag full of ectoplasm and hooked it up to Jason’s arms. Maddie was stitching Jason up, and Jack pulled a devastated-looking Nightwing in.

“Nightwing, we need you to shock Jason with the highest voltage your escrima sticks can go,” Jack Fenton said.

“What,” Nightwing asked, uncomprehending. His baby brother was dead. Again.

“Trust me, Nightwing, Jason will come back. Do it,” Danny said with such authority that Dick couldn’t help but follow his orders.

Bruce watched as Dick shocked his brother. He wasn’t a praying man, but at the moment, he was begging whatever entity that was listening for this to work. Let there be another miracle; let his son come back.

Please, I’ll do it right this time.

“Again,” Jason’s body jumped at the shock. He still didn’t move.

“Again,” Danny ordered.

“Please, I can’t,” Dick said.

“Trust me. Again.”

The last bit of ectoplasm entered Jason’s bloodstream, and just as it did, Dick shocked him once more.

Jason woke up screaming and with glowing green eyes.

A red ring started from his waists and traveled up and down his body, splitting in two. Jason’s hair had turned white with black streaks. His wounds bled green, and he was paler. Suddenly, he returned to his regular self, the Y-incision no longer bleeding and looking years old.

His son was no longer fully human, but he was alive.

As soon as Jason’s screams echoed through the halls again, Talia walked in.

“Habibi,” she said after Jason stopped screaming, “you have been avenged.”

Jason passed out.

Well, here it was. I only have two or three chapters after this, maybe an epilogue. I would appreciate any comments on how this chapter went. I'm hoping it came out well.

@spectralstardustandphantomnights @avelnfear @idfk-man10 @blackroserelina @candeartist422 @luer-mirin @mur-ururu @insufferablecrab @skulld3mort-1fan @meira-3919 @aethernorwood @mimilikey @marshmelloe @latheevening226 @ahyesanerd @lexdamo @chrysanthemum9484 @spooky-fm @gmkelz11 @jotaroslooseeyebrowhair @supershot73199 @starscreamlover @booberrylizard @pastalavistamf

#Cain and Abel Wept #DC X DP #DP x DC #tw: torture #tw: blood #tw: killing #tw: character death #tw: scars

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hunterguyveriv · 3 years

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My issues on Wonder Woman 1984 after my first viewing of it.

I saw Wonder Woman 1984 a few days ago and now that I have had time to collect my thoughts on my initial viewing I do have some issues with the movie. It was an okay movie, I will admit it is not a perfect movie. NO MOVIE - regardless if it is a DC/Marvel/Star Trek/Star Wars/ or even a Kaiju movie is perfect. For me, this movie I will give it a generous 5.8 out of 10.

It had its good spots, loved the dynamic between Steve and Diana again. He like in the first movie seemed to ground her and make her realize the hard truths of the world. I even loved how she helped him through his sensory overload of being a World War-I soldier brought into the modern age for the movie.

I loved that even Hans Zimmer even returned for the movie when he had retired from doing scores. I guess Warner-Brothers & DC were desperate after the Joss Whedon debacle of hiring Danny Elfman for Justice League.

I even liked the post credit scene in which it literally canonized Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman by making her character an Amazon in the DCEU. But now that they made them Amazons in the same universe, they need to capitalize on this before it becomes too late. Diana and Asteria need to interact with each other now! That way we can have an official Lynda Carter passing the torch on to Gal Gadot. But DCEU hasn’t been known to capitalize on things. This is still the DCEU right?

I understand with the uncertainty of Henry Cavill returning as Superman and Ben Affleck not wanting to return as Batman, the urgency to have a face of the DCEU. But this movie felt nothing like Gal Gadot becoming the face of the DCEU, and thus my MAIN issue with the movie.

For it t be an effective sequel for the DCEU it needs to mesh with all the other movies prior to Aquaman - Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad(?... never seen it), and Justice League. This move which is a sequel to Wonder Woman does nothing to congeal the movies together leading up to the current version of Justice League. This movie ignores 2 key scenes from 2 different movies.

Think back to when the Trinity first gathered in Batman v Superman. Diana says aloud to both Superman & Batman:

"I've killed things from other worlds before."

and most of all this line from Joss Whedon's Justice League where they argue about bringing Superman back:

"I never heard of you until Luthor lured you out by stealing a picture of your dead boyfriend. You shut yourself down for a century, so lets not talk about me moving on."

This movie ignores both lines and doesn't add to the lore. I understand Ares was a God so is considered another worldly being, but she said "THINGS" implying multiples. This movie did not add to that line. It also blatantly IGNORED Bruce's statement.

Think of it, if she "Shut herself down" as stated, then she wouldn't be as active in saving people in WW84. To the contrary every single person she saved in the movie would be dead.

When heroes typically "shut down" they either turn down the path Bruce did for BvS or just don't get involved with the affairs of as suggested by her body language prior to getting off the plane in BvS.

Hell even in Justice League, when she pops Bruce's shoulder back in to place she even admits what? She hasn't been doing her job in being a protector because of the death Steve Trevor nearly a century prior. Go watch the movies people, the evidence for this issue is there. I understand this may be a ret-con, but it is a poorly done ret-con. And with such escalation, how is it there was no mention of such escalation in BvS or Justice League? Or was it magically erased from nearly EVERYONE’s minds?

My second issue is Kristen Wiig as Cheetah. I loved her as Barbara Minerva for the first part of the movie. Where she was the pathetic loser that no one even fathomed giving attention to who envied the first person to give her attention. She played that part of the character phenomenally.

But her decent into Cheetah however I didn't believe it. Especially with how fast she mastered her speed and strength. It took Diana years to master her prowess, hell it even took Clark years to master all he was capable of and he is still doing so apparently albeit behind the scenes Post-Justice League because of what Jor-El told him " to keep testing your limits."

I will admit her not wanting to "renounce her wish" is on par to the Minerva of Injustice 2 who would rather embrace her curse. So I can definitely see Kristen Wiig returning in future movies, but she needs to get better at being a villainess in my opinion. I will say I can't blame Barbara for not wanting to renounce her wish, if I were in the same situation of wanting to be like someone I envied or become something like my favorite Superhero (look to my handle) I would do so and embrace it.

My other issue with Minerva is the design of Cheetah.

I did NOT like design. It looked and felt flat, incomplete, lazily done and completely CGI. Why did they feel they had do her completely CGI? I mean they could have done prosthetic make up for most of Cheetah's scenes and used CGI for the more extravagant parts of the final fight scene. And before ANYONE says prosthetic makeup isn't capable of such feats. Take a look at these Humanoid Cat-People from both Star Trek IV and V

The Caitians in Starfleet Uniforms were from Star Trek IV which came out in 1986 and the Cat-Lady from Star Trek V which came out in 1989. We could have easily gotten a believable Cheetah that looked like her Injustice 2

and comic book counterparts but instead we got what we got. And don’t get me started on Minerva being blonde and not a ginger LIKE her comic book counterpart and Injustice 2 counterparts.

Well these are my issues on the movie from my first viewing of the movie that stuck out the most. I am sure there are more, but I have to sit down and watch it again. But I don't see myself doing so any time soon due to work priorities.

#wonder women 1984 #my initial thoughts

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itsybitsybatsyspider · 6 years

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Halfas and Heroes PI

Summary: during a recon mission at a new Cadmus facility in Amity Park, Dick gets into an accident. Only to find out later he has ghost-like powers. And the only person who can help a half-ghost, is another half-ghost.

Notes: requested by @letsdannyphandom. This is a crossover between Young Justice and Danny Phantom. Other notes at the end of this chapter.

Words: 3k

Warning(s): violence and a little bit of gore.

It was a recon mission. That was all it was. A normal recon mission that would have ended with the team running away from an explosion or something with a few cuts and bruises to show.

until it suddenly wasn’t.

If Robin, Dick, knew what was going to happen later that day, on that mission, he wondered to himself if he would’ve still taken it. It had begun simple enough, with Batman coming to Mount Justice and giving the team a mission...

“It will be strictly recon. No interaction. Get in, get out, and report back as soon as possible. You will be heading into a new Cadmus facility that just opened up. And with the previous history with Cadmus, you will be going in and finding out everything you can about it. Is that understood?” Batman’s gravelly voice echoed throughout the mountain.

“Yeah, yeah, so just the normal stuff then?” Kid Flash snarked.

Batman glared at the young speedster, who gulped. He still could never get used to the Bat-glare.

“Yes. We understand.” Kaldur said, sending a look to Kid. “Do we know what they are researching?”

“More clones?” Robin asked.

“Strangely, no.” Batman said as he pulled up a slide on the holoscreen, which showed an image of green energy stored in a high tech containment unit, with data info appearing next to it. “It appears to be that Cadmus has decided to train it’s focus on something other than cloning. Thanks to a new investor, they’ve decided to widen their research. First with cloning, now with ecto-energy.”

“Ecto-energy?” Artemis asked.

“Ectoplasm.”

“So like ghosts. Seriously? Cadmus believes in ghosts?” Kid joked, but when he saw the look on Bats’ face, he instantly shut up.

“When an organization as powerful as Cadmus decides to investigate and research something that may seem like fiction, it’s never a wise decision to write it off as that. Now suit up, you’re heading out now.”

The screens shut off and Batman left, leaving the team to get ready.

The ride on the bioship was quiet for the most part as they flew to the small city of Amity Park, the place where the new facility was located. It was on the outskirts of the city, so hopefully the team wouldn’t too much attention when a camouflaged alien ship flew over their skyscrapers. Batman had said to Dick before that he had his suspicions about Amity Park and it’s ongoings.

There was an incident a few years ago when the entire city vanished off the face of the earth and hadn’t reappeared till a few days later. It was everywhere on the news. Nobody knew what happened and when the locals tried to explain to them that it was because of a ghost invasion, the reporters dismissed them and shrugged it off as some sort of hallucinogen. But a hallucinogen that could convince an entire city that ghosts exist and had taken over their town? Even that was a little far fetched in theory for the League. But then again, you never know. There were even rumors about a ghost superhero in the city, who fought off evil ghosts. But many of the rumors contradicted each other, some saying that he was a hero who fought for those who couldn’t fight for themselves, and others said that he was a menace who needed to be contained. So before Robin left for the mission, Batman pulled him aside and told him to look out for anything suspicious, and to have the camera inside his mask recording the whole time. He was obviously gonna go over the footage later when he got back from the mission.

But for now, Wally was trying to make some jokes about the whole Cadmus-believing-in-ghosts thing, but he wasn’t able to get a laugh out of anyone. Maybe a smirk out of Dick, but that was about it. They had arrived at the coordinates just when Kid was trying to think up of a pun with ‘ectoplasm’, so far he had nothing, and the team hoped that he would never find one.

They exited the bioship and activated their stealth suits while M’gann created the mental link with everyone.

Link established her voice echoed inside of everyone’s heads.

Good. Kaldur “said”. Robin, M’gann see if you can sneak into the ventilation shafts and hack into the security measures and find us a way inside. Once you lower the defenses, give us a two minute window and then raise them again. Hopefully, it’ll seem like a blip on their security feeds and it’ll be ignored.

On it. Robin said before disappearing into the forest they had landed in. M’gann pulled up her hood and instantly camouflaged with the shrubbery before following the Boy Wonder. She actually had no idea where Robin was, she couldn’t see him. The only way she knew where he was, was because of the mental link, guiding her to the place he was hiding. She followed the mental trail till she exited the forest and saw the bright outline of a small white building. Robin still nowhere in sight.

There’s a vent on the west side of the building. That’s our entrance point. Think you can bust it open? Robin said.

M’gann turned around and saw her teammate standing beside her, looking as if he was there the entire time.

Oh, yeah the Martian replied. They turned and walked to the other side of the building, Robin keeping a lookout for the security cameras the whole time, telling when to move or when to stop, staying vigilant the entire time for henchmen with guns or any other kind of weapon. They finally found the vent on the west side of the building and M’gann raised her hand, carefully removing the screws that kept it in place. Once it was off and the vent was open, Robin pulled out his grapple gun and shot at the opening, pulling himself up to the vent while M’gann flew.

Once inside, M’gann became visible again and Robin crawled forward a bit before stopping and pulling up the holoscreen on his gauntlets.He began hacking into the cameras and any other kind of security measures, with the little Robins on the screen turning red to green.

Alright, you guys are on the two minute timer.

Copy that. Kaldur replied. Robin shut off his holoscreen and continued to crawl through the vent, M’gann following right behind him, as they tried to find an empty room to drop into.

“Here.” the Martian whispered to the Boy Wonder as they came up to another vent opening. Robin took out what looked like to be the Bat equivalent of a swiss army knife and began to unscrew the screws around the vent. Carefully removing them and opening the vent, he dropped down onto the floor without a sound while M’gann hovered over the floor before landing silently on the linoleum as well.

Let’s go He said.

The door opened easily and the two heroes slipped into the hallway without anyone knowing that they were there. Robin pulled up the security footage on his gauntlets again, checking to see where the rest of the team was coming in. While he had put the footage on a loop for the guards, he actually had the live feed from the cameras, which showed Kid Flash and Superboy sneaking in from the roof and Kaldur and Artemis sneaking in through the backdoor.

A smirk appeared on the boys face.

Cameras coming back online in five, four, three, two, one.

The camera feed fritzed for a split second, signalling that Robin had lost his control over the cameras. He still had live footage, but he couldn’t do anything about it now. This Cadmus facility had better security than the first one. Which was surprising.

Alright, now that the cameras are back online, we can’t afford to be seen by any of them. Kaldur said.

Got it. Kid said.

Which means we can’t exactly meet up. We’re gonna have to investigate the floors on our own. Said Robin.

I agree. The Atlantean said.

Kid Flash and I have the third floor.

Me and Kaldur will take the first floor then.

And me and Robin have the second.

Robin, think you can hack into the camera feeds again? Kaldur asked.

Not really, Robin thought I have a live feed, but I can’t do much. This Cadmus facility has a lot more security measures than the last one. Probably because we were able to infiltrate it. The most I could do is delay the feed or maybe freeze it all together. But if I freeze it, I don’t know how long it’ll take for them to notice. We would have a few minutes at most.

A few minutes is better than none. Artemis said.

True. Alright then, freezing the feed in three, two, one.... Done.

Let’s go Kid Flash thought before zooming from one room to the other.

M’gann and Robin headed for the first door they saw and opened it to see that it was a lab of sorts. Just their luck. They shuffled through the papers and documents and Robin took samples of the strange green fluid they found in vials, going as fast as they could. They had no problems until suddenly red lights started flashing and wailing filled the air. Everyone heard Connor grunt in pain at the sound of the din.

Uh, guys? Looks like they noticed. Kid said

Yeah, kinda figured. Artemis sarcastically said at him in return.

Robin heard the sound of heavy footsteps in the hallway and quickly pocketed the vials he had and pulled out two birdarangs in their place as M’gann shifted into camouflage mode again.

Hiding by the sides of the doors, Robin and M’gann held their breath hoping that the guards would leave without knowing they were ever there. If only they had.

“They’re in here!” one man shouted, his voice muffled. The door was suddenly kicked down by a black boot, which was attached to a man dressed in all black, including a strange white visor that covered his face. Robin jumped into action, kicking the man in the gut and punching the visor, shattering it.

There were six guards total in the hallway, all dressed exactly the same as the first one, who all had these strange looking guns in their hands. They were white with silver accents and a bright green tip, which glowed.

Robin threw the birdarangs, each hitting it’s intended mark, as M’gann came out from behind the wall, throwing three of the guards against the wall telekinetically.

“There it is!” One of the guards shouted as he raised his ‘gun’ at M’gann and began shooting like a madman. The is only thing just as bad as a trained marksman, and it was a trigger-happy amatuer. Which this guard clearly was. M’gann flew out of the way, dropping her camo and doing her best to avoid the shots that were fired at her, putting all of her focus into her telekinesis and not getting shot. Meanwhile Robin stayed focused on the thugs he was fighting, and occasionally threw a birdarang at their guns, knocking them out of the guards hands’. One of them was proving to be a nuisance, seeing as no matter how hard Robin hit him, he kept coming back up. The guard had been able to pin Robin’s arms to his side as he held him in a strong grip, and as Robin struggled to get out of it, the guard strained to say something to him.

“Why the hell are you helping that thing? It’s just using you. It doesn’t care about you at all. As soon as you lose your usefulness, it’ll kill you.”

Robin headbutted the guard, breaking his visor, and revealing part of his face. He leaped away from the guard and took up a fighting stance.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he hissed at the man.

“It’s a ghost you idiot kid. It’s only manipulating you for it’s own gain.”

Robin shook his head and smirked. “You’re crazy.” He threw another birdarang at the man, who ducked out of the way. He ran up to Robin, grabbed his arm, and threw him over his shoulder into the lab. When Robin landed, he heard the sound of glass shattering and felt something wet covering his whole body.

Robin! M’gann yelled out in the mental link.

Ugh, oh no. Robin thought to himself as he got up. He thought he was covered in his own blood, but in reality, he had been thrown into the dozens of glass vials that held the ectoplasm. The Boy Wonder looked down at his arms to find the green goo covering his arms and a few cuts here and there, his blood mixing with the ghostly substance. That can’t be good. He thought.

He turned up to look at his opponent, who had a look of rage blazing in his eyes, and he saw that he had a pair of escrima sticks, sparking with electricity. Robin tried to move, picking himself up off of the ground and slipped into a shaky fighting stance. The man scowled.

“You’re a fool, boy.” he growled.

“NO!” M’gann shouted throwing every guard against the wall and knocking them all unconscious. Then everything seemed to slow down, as if time was moving at a slugs pace.

The guard hitting the wall dropped his sticks, still sparking with voltages of high electricity.

They clattered to the floor and slowly rolled over to the growing pool of ectoplasm. Which Robin was still standing in.

He watched as the tip touched the pool, and then everything went to hell.

The last thing Dick remembered was the sound of screaming and the feeling of immense pain shooting through his body. It felt as if he was being pulled apart, pushed together, ripped to pieces, and being stitched back together again all at the same time. He vaguely heard the sound of someone yelling his name, but he couldn’t remember. The boy hero collapsed on the floor, his body still spasming. He felt someone’s arms wrap around him and a comforting presence fill his mind before he was enveloped in darkness.

M’gann didn’t know what she saw. Nor what to do. She could only watch in frozen horror as her friend was electrocuted. His screams piercing their way into her mind, and M’gann knew in that moment that she would forever be haunted by the sound of those screams.

He collapsed on the ground, Robin’s body still spasming from the shock, and the young Martian didn’t hesitate to rush to his aid. She cast aside the escrima sticks and knelt next to Robin, her knees and cape staining from the sticky ectoplasm on the ground, and wrapping her arms around the boy. She could feel the pain coming from him and so she entered his mind, careful to avoid anything that was related to his identity, and she took the pain away. Replacing it with a comforting blanket of numbness and putting him into a deep sleep.

Tears pricked at M’gann’s eyes. But she willed them to remain in her eyes, she couldn’t lose it now. Not when Robin needed her help.

We need to get Robin out of here. Now. she said to the others. They had all heard the screams and felt the pain that the Boy Wonder felt, and they had all been shocked into silence. Kid Flash most of all.

They were all shaken out of their trance at the sound of M’gann’s ‘voice’, and had begun to make their way out. Except for Kid, who ran down to the second floor and reached the lab M’gann and Robin were in. When he saw the pool of ectoplasm, dried blood, and blackened skin on Robin, he felt like he was going to throw up. Who could ever see their best friend like this?

“Kid!” M’gann shouted at him! Wally was shaken out of his haze and his eyes focused on the Martian girl.

“Get him back to the ship! Run as fast as you can!” The speedster nodded and in a flash, Robin and Kid Flash were gone. Leaving M’gann by herself.

“Come on, buddy. Please stay with me.” Wally whispered to his friend as he ran through the building. He came across a couple of guards, but instead of fighting them and knocking them out, he ran between them. He couldn’t waste any time, not when his friend’s life was on the line. Soon enough, he was out of the facility and in the forest. The bioship came into sight and Wally let out a small breath of relief.

As if sensing the urgency of the situation, the ship opened its doors and released it’s camouflage, allowing Wally to rush inside. He placed Dick on a table that the ship had created, just when the rest of the team rushed in.

In no time at all, the bioship was in the air, flying fast to Happy Harbor, Rhode Island and to Mount Justice.

While the rest of the team sat in their chairs, glancing over at Dick from time to time, Wally stood next to him the entire trip. He took off his cowl and sat down in a makeshift chair the ship had created. He just didn’t understand how this could’ve happened to his best friend. He looked at Dick again, and finally saw the changes that he didn’t see before. It was subtle, but other than the dried blood and ectoplasm sticking to his skin and the blackened areas around his mask, Dick’s normal pitch black hair had gained streaks of white in it. It was an odd thing to see, yet nothing else had changed about his appearance. But if Wally knew anything about lab accidents, it was that usually appearances can be deceiving. And if something did happen to Dick in that lab, Wally knew that no matter what, it was still his friend, and nothing would change between them.

It was a vow that Wally took as he stared at his friend lying unconscious on the table. The young speedster looked down at the ground, a feeling of uselessness overcoming him.

“Please, be okay.”

Notes: i know, i know, this chapter isn’t as good as it could’ve been. But i did have fun writing it, and i hopefully will upload the next chapter soon. Depends on how much school work i have though.

Also, i figured out that each halfa we see on Danny Phantom, minus Dani, was somehow able to get there powers through the combination of electricity and ectoplasm. First with Vlad and the ghost portal prototype in college, and second with Danny in the actual Ghost Portal. So i figured that a combo of those two things, would allow Dick to get his ghost powers. And if you’re wondering why his hair isn’t completely white, like with Danny and Vlad, well, you’ll just have to wait on that explanation.

Then there’s the guards thinking that M’gann was a ghost. I actually really like that.

Please leave comments and reblog. Until next time!

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gearsforyears · 7 years

Text

I always loved the relationship between Danny and Dani, and I love the fics where she was much younger than the show portrayed her to be. The Dad!Danny fics make me so happy ;w; In turn, when watching Young Justice, I was so angry towards Superman and most of the League for acting so aloof around Conner Kent? He was in an impossible situation he couldn’t control, so I had a bit of a more angry Danny chewing out the team about it.

It was well known that Danny Phantom was one of the strongest members of the Justice League, as his powers rivalled that of Superman’s. He was a ghost, the first ghost superhero on Earth, and the Human Zone was glad to have him fighting for them. Phantom was reclusive towards the public, not liking press for fear of misinformation, as has happened to him before. Phantom was, however, very open to his team, and although he didn’t outright tell his life (afterlife?) story, but he answered questions honestly and openly.

One thing that the team didn’t know, was that Phantom had any family members on Earth.

Of course, they knew he had a strange relation with some adults on the living realm (all coming from his home town, Amity Park). Phantom’s strange, almost sibling-like, relationship with Gotham’s lead psychiatrist had always made the young adult happier. His friendships with Samantha Manson, a leading botanist, and Tucker Foley, a technology millionaire, had constantly had the few housing their ghost hero. Other than those three, the Justice League had just assumed that Danny had died a long time ago with no family to speak of.

That was, until they were interrupted during a conference.

Phantom was acting a bit disinterested as Batman was talking about resolving some sort of conflict with the press (Danny didn’t see what the big deal was. It was one construction site. It could’ve been so much worse). His form was hovering slightly above the chair as he sat next to Superman, who was offering different ways to soothe the PR problem. Phantom curled a lip and sneered a bit, “Why are people getting so butthurt about this? We’ve done worse damage before.”

“Yes, but this was to the construction site of a hospital, Danny,” Superman sighed, trying to make the ghost see the reason for this. He wondered how long ago Danny must’ve died to not see the point in an infirmary, “Phantom, the city needs a hospital because-”

A light hiss passed through the ghost’s lips, “Supes, I know what a hospital is, I’m just wondering why the city is angry. I mean, it was still in construction. It’s not like they couldn’t just start over; and besides, the city has three hospitals already.” Phantom sighed. He kicked a foot on his chair, taking advantage of the lack of gravity he seemed to possess, and flipped himself upside down, “Can’t we just help the city build it?”

Flash’s eyebrows raised slightly at the ghost’s position, but nodded, “I mean, if we helped with the construction, we could do the work in half the time.”

“That’s a nice proposition,” Batman nodded gruffly, his voice low, “When should I tell the-” A whirling sound cut him off, and all the Leaguers looked around warily, many slipping into battle stances. Phantom, in particular, had the oddest reaction. His head tilted to the side, his ears perked up a bit, as if he was trying to pinpoint the location.

And then the mist came from his mouth. Everyone knew that that sign meant a ghost attack was about to occur, and even Danny flipped himself back to his normal attack position, his hands glowing green. The sound grew louder and louder, before a radioactive green spark , the same color as Phantom’s glowing eyes, appeared above the large table. A portal was opening-!

And then a black and white blur charged towards Phantom, barreling him over onto the floor. The team all held their weapons respectively, some just holding their fists, at the sight of the flustered ghost, who’s hair was flying in every direction possible. The most surprising addition to the ghost, however, was the…. Smaller ghost hugging him?

“Daddy! You wouldn’t believe how much me and Wulf have been learning from Frostbite!” A small girl smiled widely, showing small canines and two dimples on her cheeks, similar to Danny’s, “I learned how to make portals just like you!”

A hushed silence fell over the Leaguers as they heard the child shout ‘daddy’. She looked to be barely seven, white hair in a loose ponytail and glowing green eyes. Their shock at the child seemed palpable, as if Phantom could touch the suspense and tension filling the air. But Danny knew that Danielle would feel worried if he did not give her a proper response, “That’s great, sweetheart! Does that mean Wulf is nearby?”

“Nope!” She grinned again, and on closer observation, a few of her teeth were missing, “I wanted to see you and Aunt Jazz and Sam and Tuck by myself.” A cheek puffed out, almost like she was offended that he thought otherwise.

“That’s very dangerous, Ellie. What if a stray ghost saw you? You know how most feel about me and you, pumpkin.” He kissed her lightly on the forehead, his mood lifted from seeing his ‘daughter’, “But I am always happy to see my little girl.”

She giggled before looking away from her ‘father’, seeing all of the heroes. Her face instantly lit up a bright green in embarrassment, seemingly ashamed for interrupting… whatever they were doing beforehand. Superman opened his mouth to ask something, but Flash beat everyone, and spoke first, “So… ghosts can have kids. Who knew?”

The League was then greeted by two blushing ghosts. Phantom buried his face in Danielle’s hair, not wanting to look at his team, “It’s… not that simple, Barry.”

Phantom took a few seconds simply to collect his thoughts by murmuring to his daughter small terms of endearment, and it seemed to calm him down before he looked up and spoke, “I’d uh, like you all to meet someone very close to me.”

A clearing of his throat later, and he smiled shakily up at the superheroes, “This is Danielle, or Ellie, as we all call her. She’s my child.” Ellie smiled up at everyone as her father spoke, “I can explain the whole thing later, but for now, I’m, uh, going to show her to Jazz.” He seemed to be using the excuse as a cop-out, and was met with small glares from everyone.

Superman wasn’t impressed with his answer, “Danny, I thought you didn’t have any family relations anymore.”

“Technically, you never asked.” Danny blushed again, “Of course I have living family. Ellie’s just very much more closely related to me than others…” He cleared his throat once more, “Ellie dear, these are some of my teammates. You know some, remember? They were on the news a while back.”

Her eyes lit up and she smiled shyly, “Yeah! I remember the rope-lady with my name!”

“Her name is Diana, not Danielle, but yeah, Wonder Woman’s here.” He gestured to the woman, who tentatively waved at the small, beaming girl who seemed to love the attention from her way too much.

Flash held his hands up, “Woah, so are we not going to address that Casper here lied about his family? And that apparently he has a daughter he never thought to tell us about?”

“It is a bit suspicious, Danny,” Superman mused, a hand rubbing his chin.

Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow, “Where is the mother?” “Is she a ghost like you?”

“How can something dead make life?”

“Why haven’t you told us?!”

“Stop it!” Danielle shouted, holding herself closely to the chest of her father to block out all the noises from others, “I’m not daddy’s real daughter anyway… “

Danny rolled his eyes as everyone became completely confused at the small, quiet statement from the child, but went to comfort his daughter, “Now, baby girl, you know that you’re my little ice flower, no matter how we are related, yes?”

“Yeah, I know, dad.” She murmured as Phantom reached over and brushed her white locks from off her shoulders. Danielle looked over at the heroes before whispering over to her father, “Daddy, I think you should tell them about what Uncle Vlad did.”

Batman’s interest piqued, “Vlad, as in your archnemesis-turned-ally Vlad?”

Danny seemed to flinch, remembering that the heroes were in the room watching them, “Y-yeah, that Vlad.” He was silent for a moment, not wanting to continue with the conversation. Danny knew it would come up eventually, but figured he’d have more time to prepare himself for this day, “Maybe you should leave as I tell them, Ellie. Aunt Jazz is seven streets north and two buildings left, alright?”

Most of the team seemed appalled at the thought of him leaving her alone to try and find the psychiatrist, but realized she had flight just as Phantom did. She nodded before giving him a big kiss on the cheek and floating away as she waved goodbye to everyone.

Phantom smiled wistfully at the small girl before turning his gaze to the league members. He opened his mouth, and then closed it. He repeated this process a few times to no avail before finally sitting down in his chair with his snowy hair being the only part of him visible. Wonder Woman tilted her, questioning him, “Phantom, why have you wanted to keep your daughter a secret from us? We are a team.”

A glowing green eye met her before it lazily circled the room, landing on Superman, “Clark. Do you remember CADMUS? And Project Kr?”

Superman’s eyes widened, and he seemed to be uncomfortable with him mentioning it, “Yes, I remember. Are you saying that… Danielle is…”

“Yeah,” Phantom murmured, tugging on a piece of his hair, “You guys all look so uncomfortable when you speak of clones, and I understand. But you all, with the exceptions of Black Canary, Red Tornado, and occasionally Batman, had treated Connor as if he was… beneath you. Like because he was a clone, he wasn’t worth as much as a human or kryptonian because he wasn’t the original.”

He looked up, watching the shocked expressions on his team’s faces, but looked away to watch his much more interested boots instead, “You could imagine my surprise as a fourteen-year-old that my enemy had tried to clone me, but couldn’t get the chromosomes right, or the aging right. Vlad had created a baby girl out of my DNA.”

Silence stayed in the air as they waited patiently for Phantom to continue. He took another shaky breath before trying to speak again, “It… It was so hard trying to raise a child while trying to save the city everyday, you know?” He gave a light chuckle, but it didn’t do anything to lighten the mood. He gave a deep sigh and continued with the same unnatural calmness he seemed to always possess, “She acts… nothing like me. I wasn’t as loud as her as a child, I was definitely more scared of everything around me. She’s so brave, and different, and unique. Danielle is her own person, and she’s amazing.”

He looked up, fierce determination in his eyes, as if daring anyone to question him, “After seeing the indifference from everyone toward Connor, I knew I would never wish to tell you about Danielle. You would do only the same to her, and no one gets to hurt my baby girl.”

Wonder Woman leaned over a bit, resting a hand on the younger one’s arm, “You know if we knew the situation, we wouldn’t have-”

“But you would!” He shouted, actually practically roared. His eyes glowed even brighter, and his canines a bit more pronounced. It was a frightening yet small display of power that kept everyone uneasy, “You’ve seen how Connor acts. Defensive, unsure of himself, scared. And yet, you treat him as if that should happen to him, as if it was his fault to even exist. Of course I wouldn’t tell any of you! After seeing it, I was so disgusted that I contemplated leaving this team for good!”

Superman swallowed, suddenly not wanting to have the conversation about his clone. It was strangely invasive, and personal to have this sudden attack on the league from their ally, their friend. Suddenly, Phantom’s attachment to Superboy made much more sense. “If I had told you about Ellie, you would’ve thought I was crazy for raising her. And in turn, if she were to ever visit her father, you would’ve treated her the exact same way as you treat Connor. Think of the effects that would have on a small six-year-old? She would’ve been so hurt that her so-called heroes would never like her because of how she was born, something that she had no control over!”

The other hero who was actually cloned successfully frowned and opened his mouth, ready to speak, but Phantom held up a hand, “Nah, I’m out. Going to hang out with my kid until I can calm down enough to talk to you guys again.” He floated upwards, his eyes not really focusing on anyone, before pausing, “Black Canary, Red Tornado, Bats? If you want to join, I’ll be at Jazz’s.” And he was gone.

The team had a lot to talk about.

#Danny Phantom #OMGG AHHH #justice league dp #i like writing these so much #dp #Danielle Phantom #Clone #Daddy Danny #Daughter Dani #dc #dcdp

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dannyphantom-justiceleauge · 7 years

Text

The Crown of Fire

“Phantom! Watch out!”

Superman catches the iron beam inches from the glowing tip of Phantom’s nose. The ghost boy jerks back, eyes wide, and mouth parting in surprise. Clark can tell he hadn’t been at all aware of the danger, and it worries him. The ghost is always hyper vigilant of his surroundings, except when he gets overconfident, and the fact that he’d been so zoned out as to miss an I-beam flying straight at his face is more than cause for concern.

Clark takes a moment to launch the beam back at a small cluster of the ‘bots surrounding them, sending the whole group crashing through a crumbling concrete wall. The robots spark and die on impact. Clark turns back to look at the ghost, scanning up and down with normal and X-ray vision to make sure he isn’t hurt anywhere. Ghost physiology is weird, and Danny has bones as often as he doesn’t, but breaks are always clear. Nothing looks obviously hurt now.

Clark puts a cautious hand on the ghost’s shoulder, forcing neon green eyes to meet his. “Phantom, are you okay?”

Danny blinks. Clark can see him struggling to focus.

“Uh, yeah,” Phantom says, “yeah, I’m fine.”

He shrugs out from under Clark’s hand, wobbles a moment and then floats to compensate. “C’mon, let’s go kick some robot butt!”

He flies off to join Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, throwing precise bolts of ecto energy at the already-dwindling army of metal warriors.

Clark stays where he is, watching. He knows, objectively, that Phantom is already dead, has been for hundreds of years, but it’s hard to see past the fourteen-year-old face. The robots don’t pose much of a threat so much as they serve as battle fodder, a distraction; John will watch over the ghost kid for the remainder of the battle.

Clark waits as near silent footsteps approach, then he turns to look at Batman.

“He’s not alright.”

Bruce’s eyes narrow behind the mark. “No, he’s not. Come on. J’onn and I have triangulated Luthor’s signal.”

0o0o

“So, what’s with the costume change, little man? You lookin’ to send a message or you just get tired of your old digs?”

Phantom swats Flash’s hand away and turns, floating higher until he’s eye level with the speedster. The ring of Justice Leaguers standing by the Watchtower’s main console look over at the sudden calling of attention to the room’s latest elephant. Diana wanders over, eyebrows raised in open curiosity.

Danny reaches up and nervously adjusts the flaming crown hovering above his head. The fire isn’t hot, not to him, but he doesn’t want to find out if that applies to regular humans, even if they are super-enhanced.

“My coronation was last week,” he says.

“Coronation?!” Flash reels back in surprise, then flits around Phantom for a full look at the new crown. “Ya don’t say.”

“Congratulations,” Diana enthuses. Her smile sends cold, ghostly butterflies to his stomach and Danny blushes, acutely aware of everyone’s eyes on him.

“Yeah,” he says, putting his hands on his hips and projecting all the confidence he can muster, “turns out defeating the old ghost king puts you first in line to take his place.”

“This is great news, Phantom!” Diana says, taking one his hands in hers and holding tight despite the chill. It reminds him of how his mom would squeeze his hand when she knew he was nervous. He hopes it’s just a friendly congratulations thing and not a mothering thing. He thought the League was past seeing him as just a kid.

“You may finally be able to achieve acknowledgement of your people by the world’s governments!” Diana continues.

“Yeah, and get the ghosts to stop terrorizing Central,” Flash gripes.

Danny’s good mood vanishes at the reminder. He phases out of Wonder Woman’s grip, crosses his arms to dissuade her from touching him again.

“The ghosts won’t listen to me,” he says. “I’ll see you guys later.”

Then he vanishes.

Wonder Woman looks at Flash. Each seeing the other just as stunned, they turn to look at Superman. Clark shrugs. Behind him, Batman frowns.

0o0o

“Hey! Hey, kid! Kid!”

Phantom startles at the sudden hand on his wrist. He follows the leather glove up to meet the wide-eyed mask hiding Green Arrow’s identity. The man drops his hand before Danny can phase free, returning his fingers to a tight grip in his bow.

“Geeze, kid, lighten up a little; I don’t think this guy can take much more. He ain’t some super nut, he’s just a regular Joe Bank Robber. What, did he kick your ghost puppy or somethin’?”

Danny stares. Oliver will never admit how unsettled that gaze makes him; eyes like radioactive waste and too-pale features under colourless hair tinted emerald from the cold-burning fire of a floating crown. It’s creepy.

It’s also creepy how the kid (ancient kid, from what he’s heard), seems to shift from kneeling over the unfortunate robber’s body to standing without really moving.

“I stopped him, didn’t I?” the kid says.

Oliver watches him walk away, holding fast against the shiver that tickles up his spine, until the kid meets the wall of grateful bank-goers and disappears into thin air.

He looks back the body on the floor, the shallow rise and stunted fall of the man’s breathing, the blood gushing from a broken nose, the unnatural swelling of the poor bloke’s cheek and eye. He can’t help a moment of weakness, a small wince. He’s looking at overkill. Ollie had shot an arrow into the guy’s gun hand early on, he was out, and Phantom had still beat the snot out of him.

He looks to where the kid had vanished. Definitely creepy. Ollie resolves to avoid working with the ghost in the future if he can swing it. For now, he opens the comm. to the Watchtower and requests a quick pick up.

0o0o

“Nothing to serious, yet,” Batman reports. He taps a few keys on the console in front of him, brings up on the screen a recent picture of Phantom. “It started right after he got this,” he says, pointing to the flaming crown floating above the ghost’s head.

“Bollocks.”

Batman’s eyes narrow behind his mask. “What.”

“Oh, nothing! Just the bleeding Crown of Fire, ancient ghost artifact and all around pain in the arse.”

“What does it do?”

“Well, a few millennia ago it just sat there and looked pretty. But it’s spent several thousand years cooped up with a bloodthirsty tyrant after he was forced into a small box all eternity, and these ghosts, they’re all about emotions, mate. That thing’ll have absorbed a lot of rage and now it’s found an outlet in your pet ghost. You’ve got to get that thing away from him as soon as possible.”

“Tell me how.”

“If you’re lucky, you can just ask him. More likely, you’ll need to weaken him and pry it out of his cold, dead hands. I’ll look around, see if I have anything at the Mill that can help, but no promises.”

“Thanks, John.” Batman reaches to disconnect the video feed when-

“Wait, Batman-!” the screen goes abruptly black.

Batman whirls around, finds himself face to face with Phantom and a nearly identical copy. The scowl on the one wearing the crown causes Batman to tense. He leans back, tilting his chin up in silent challenge as he casually rests an elbow on the console. Consequently, his fingers hover over a sheath of batarangs in his utility belt.

“Phantom. There something you need?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact,” the copy on the right says.

“Tell me what you and Constantine were talking about,” the original demands.

“You’re sick,” Batman barges straight through the proverbial bush. “The Crown is controlling you. You need to take it off.”

“Hm,” the copy puts a hand on its chin, feigning consideration. “No.”

“Phantom-”

Batman jumps to a fighting stance as quickly as Phantom drops into readiness, one gloved hand wielding a bat shaped razor against a supernatural kid with fists lit up in glowing green. He knows they are both aware of the anti-ghost enhancements to his belt, both aware that Phantom can’t touch him. Too bad the kid is skilled in long-distance fighting.

Phantom breaks the standoff, firing a beam of super-cooled ectoplasm at the dark knight. Batman sidesteps, whipping the batarang at the ghost boy and pulling another. The conjured clone slams into him, shrieking as the belt lights it up in ecto-electricity. He expects Phantom to back off, but the clone reaches spasming hands around the knight’s waist.

Batman slams an elbow into the clone’s face, but it doesn’t let go. Bruce feels the clasp of his belt unhitch, the yellow leather falling away with the clone. Less than a second later, his breath catches as his lungs freeze. His limbs seize, there’s a voice in his head; he knows it’s bad but he can’t think past the ice in his brain. He watches his hands pick up the utility belt, feels his boots against the floor as his legs carry him to the elevator.

This is bad. If it wasn’t so cold, maybe he could fight back…

0o0o

“Careful, John,” Chas warns, just as the Zeta beam whisks the magician away.

Constantine finds himself facing the worried red eyes of the Martian Manhunter. It isn’t often after all, that the occult expert demands emergency transportation to the Watchtower. Completely unprecedented, in fact.

“You said the Watchtower may be in danger, “J’onn says.

“Definitely in danger,” John answers. He holds up what looks like a small shard of Kryptonite, waggles the rock and his eyebrows as the martian’s expression. “You’ve got a little ghost problem. I’d say, ‘Who you gonna call,’ but I already called you.”

The grin fades quickly and Constantine turns to the elevator. “Now let’s go catch us a ghost.”

Manhunter frowns but gleans what he needs from the thoughts John gives him access to. He mentally searches out Hawkgirl, calls her up meet them to the bridge. They may require the nth metal of her mace to incapacitate Phantom.

J’onn step aside as the elevator opens and Batman walks out. Constantine is skimming through a journal, but steps absently aside as well. He puts one foot into the elevator, pauses, looks up. J’onn can see his next breath in a plume of mist. The magician whirls around, eyes wide, hand reaching into his coat for the green stone.

“J’onn,” Hawkgirl soars around the elevator column, alighting on the walkway with her mace held ready. “What’s going on? You sounded worried-”

“Shayera, duck!”

Hawkgirl reacts to the tone before she fully registers the warning, bringing her mace up in time to block the boot aimed at her head. Batman pushes off from the mace, flips to land crouched and ready.

“Batman?! What-?”

She registers the green glow from his eyes at the same time J’onn does. The martian launches himself at Batman, twisting his form to something more snakelike to wrap the knight into a crushing hold. The ghost possessing Batman tries to phase out but J’onn counters by shifting his own density to match.

“J’onn!” Hawkgirl hesitates. She can’t get a good in with her mace with Manhunter so close, and she doesn’t really want to whack Batman in the first place. She glances over as Constantine runs up to stand level with her.

“Don’t worry about him, sweetheart. Look, I need your help.” He presses something that looks suspiciously like Kryptonite to the handle of her weapon. “Do us a favour and give Bats a good whack with your mace, eh? Knock Phantom right out of him.”

“Phantom?! He’s possessing Batman?”

“Eh, the Crown’s possessing him and he’s possessing Batman, so yeah. Now, go!”

Shayera lifts off, swooping over the struggle that’s moved from the walkway and crashed into the floor below.

Manhunter flinches, shrinking to his usual shape, and staggering away. Batman’s hands are glowing with Phantom’s usual green energy, and Hawkgirl swears she see the thin green outline of a flaming crown above his head. Batman flattens his hand and leaps.

‘J’onn, move!’ Shayera thinks.

Manhunter sinks into the floor and Hawkgirl attacks. Her mace lights with electricity just before she slams it into Batman’s stomach; he goes flying.

J’onn shoots from the floor, catches Batman’s waist and follows the momentum until he can safely lower the man to the floor.

Phantom crashes into the Watchtower’s metal wall hard enough to leave a dent. Hawkgirl watches with wary, worried eyes until she sees Batman breathe. Until she sees Phantom pry himself out of the cavity.

She readies herself as he shakes off the blow, holds her position until he flies at her, then swings. He dodges with a boneless twist, shoots an ectoblast. She bats it back at him.

“Hey!” The voice is mental but it doesn’t sound like J’onn. Shayera takes one precious second to glance down.

Manhunter is carefully examining Batman, bent over as he runs gentle fingers up and down the man’s chest. Halfway across the room from them is a chalk circle rimmed black-stemmed roses. John Constantine stands just outside the circle, waves at her.

“Get him in here.”

Hawkgirl nods. She looks back in time to dodge an energy-encased fist as Phantom swings at her. She kicks him, sends him several feet through the air. Something slams into her right wing and Shayera cries out in surprise as much as pain. She wrenches her wing free, spins to see another Phantom drop a handful of feathers.

Both Phantoms shoot toward her, and Shayera flies up. She drops a foot in surprise as punch lands square to the side of her face. Three?!

No, she realizes as she flips out of the path of another fist, there are five clones! Phantom’s never been able to make five clones before. He’s also never been this quiet before.

“Clones are cheating!” she hears John call from below her.

The clones circle her, she spins slowly in the air, tries to keep all of them in her vision. She notices something quickly: only one of them wears a crown. She attacks without warning, dropping her mace to swing by the cord around her wrist, and grabs the crowned Phantom by the shoulder, folds her wings. They drop like stones, her momentum sending them crashing right into John’s circle.

The effect is instantaneous. Phantom screams. The clones disappear. Shayera doesn’t feel anything more than blooming bruises as she hops to her feet and steps carefully out of the circle’s barrier.

Constantine steps into the circle. He stands over the writhing ghost boy, then leans down and plucks the crown from his head. He makes some complicated motion with gold-glowing fingers and the crown disappears. Then he slams his palms to the floor and the circle and flowers are gone too. The gold fades. Phantom settles into an exhausted slump on the ground, breathing hard.

“It’s over?” Shayera ventures to ask.

Constantine pulls a cigarette out of his pocket, doesn’t light it but sticks it in his mouth. “Should be.”

0o0o

“It’s called the Crown of Fire, you twats! It’s Ancient and fiery. Of course Phantom was gonna have a bad reaction to it, he’s got an ice core.”

“What would have happened, eventually?” Bruce asks, scowling up at Constantine from his bed in medical.

“Eventually? The fire would have burned out Phantom’s core and asserted itself in its new host. Luckily, we got it off in time. The worst he’s gonna get is a fever and one Hell of a post-possession hangover.”

“But he will make a full recovery?” Wonder Woman asks.

“Absolutely. And from now on, how about none of you wankers lets him mess around with ghost artifacts, eh?! I don’t want to be runnin’ up here every bloody week to perform an exorcism. I don’t get paid enough for that.”

“You don’t get paid at all,” Flash points out, “You’re not even a member of the Justice League.”

“Oh? What’s this then?” Constantine flicks a card at Flash, who snatches it out of the air and narrows his eyes at it.

“This is- Where did you get a membership card?” He looks back up, only to find empty air where Constantine had stood. Flash whirls around, holds the card out to the others, only to find his fingers are empty.

“Argh, I hate when he does that!”

“You’re just jealous he can disappear faster than you,” Bruce says. He’s sitting up, watching Phantom laying still in the next bed over. They hadn’t known what to do medically to help. The boy was dead, and Constantine assured them that he would heal in time. Very special, for a ghost, he’d said. They had no choice but to trust him.

I think this is my favorite king!danny fic ever omg -Nyx Edit: also constatine is one of my favs

#submission #dpdc fic #nyx things #story time #dpdc #dpjl

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onespoongirl · 6 years

Text

Let Sleeping Wolves Lie | Chapter 6

Pairing: Stiles/oc/Lydia (polyamory)

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Read on ff.net or AO3

Summary: Beth has just moved across the Atlantic to be closer to her father, who lives in Beacon Hills, but she arrives just in time for a dead body in the woods and something monstrous prowling the school hallways. American teen sitcoms really didn’t prepare her for this.

Word count: 6304

Chapter Index

Chapter 6: What’s all the Buzz About?

“So that’s where you ran off to.”

Beth stood by her locker, having just heard the tale of the Kiss from Allison. “Can’t say I blame you. Even I thought that four hours of nonstop lacrosse talk was dull.” She’d ended the night in the corner talking with Danny and a guy who was just as into photography as she was.

Allison’s already wide smile grew wider and there was a light dusting of red across her pale cheeks. “He ran off when the game ended, and I needed to make sure he was okay.”

“Sounds like he was more than okay when you left him.” She winked at Allison as she grabbed what she needed from her locker. “The boys’ locker room, eh. You didn’t happen to see any juicy stuff in there or were you too preoccupied with the one in front of you?” She grinned and waggled her eyebrows at Allison.

With a snort and a roll of the eyes, Allison shut her locker. “It was just us. And-uh, um, Stiles was there too. Later.”

Beth raised her eyebrows. “Stiles? Figures. Those two are joined at the hip, it seems. He’s not going to join you when you see him again, right? When exactly are you going to see him?”

Allison barely had time to open her mouth before they were interrupted. “See who again?” Lydia sidled up beside them, wearing a smug smile that indicated she already knew who they were talking about. Beth had always been impressed by how surprisingly stealthy Lydia could be, especially considering she was wearing high heels.

“I’m going to hang out with Scott tomorrow,” said Allison, fighting to keep another huge smile off her face. She adjusted her grip on the folders in her arms. “We, uh, we sort of kissed after the game.”

Lydia’s eyes glinted when she smiled smugly. “So that’s why you disappeared. We missed you after the game. A lot of the guys had been dying to meet you.” She didn’t seem that unhappy about that. Beth, who was by no account an observant person, could see that Lydia was planning something. “So, tell me what happened.”

Allison launched into the story once again, as they walked down the hallway. “And then he texted me yesterday and asked if I wanted to hang out tomorrow.”

“That sounds fantastic, Allison,” Lydia said with a sugary smile.

Allison smiled back and adjusted the folders in her arms. “I have to do some stuff for French before next class. I’ll see you in English, Beth.” She turned around and bounced up the stairs, quickly disappearing in the crowded hall.

When Beth was sure that Allison was out of hearing range, she turned sharply towards Lydia. “All right Lydia, spill it. What are you up to?” She folded her arms across her chest and did her best to look intimidating. The look Lydia shot her implied that it didn’t work.

“What are you talking about? I’m just happy for Allison, like a friend is supposed to be.” She, too, crossed her arms over her chest and that was much more effective than when Beth did it.

Beth snorted and shook her head. “I know your wily ways. You’re planning something.” She linked arms with Lydia and started down the hallway. “C’mon, we’re going to be late for class.”

Lydia looked up at Beth with an amused smile. “Especially if you keep pulling me in the wrong direction.”

Quickly, Beth let her go. “Right,” she said with an embarrassed smile. “I have English and you have … uh, Biology?”

“Chemistry. I’ll see you at lunch.” Lydia turned around and walked back towards the way they came.

Beth was almost at the classroom when the loudspeaker came on with a squeak. “Attention, students. This is your principal. I know you’re all wondering about the incident that occurred last night to one of our buses. But while the police work to determine what happened, classes will proceed as scheduled. Thank you.”

Incident? Buses? The police? The need to go investigate was almost a physical force, but students had already started filing into the classroom and the clock would surely ring any moment. But the police.

Making up her mind, Beth whirled around and almost collided with someone behind her. She skirted past them with nothing but a hurried apology and set off down the hallway. If she was quick, she could find out what happened and still make it back before the last bell.

The buses were parked on the side of the school, which was why she hadn’t seen it. She was consulting a map of the school, which was tagged to the wall, when the first bell rang. Five minutes. She had five minutes to find it.

After nearly walking into the teachers’ lounge, she finally found the correct door. The sight that greeted her when she pushed it open was definitely not what she’d expected. Normally, when buses were concerned, it meant vandalism like slashed tyres; this was not even in the same league. The door had been ripped open, leaving it to dangle on a single warped hinge but that was not even the most memorable. Both the outside and inside was smeared with bright red blood, and the brown upholstery was slashed, littering the ground with blood-soaked foam.

So occupied was she with the gruesome sight that she didn’t notice the police officer walking up to her. She jumped nearly a foot in the air when he barked, “you there! Didn’t you hear the bell? You have to go.”

“Oh, um. I got lost, so, uh. I’m new here,” she said absent-mindedly, looking back at the bus. That was technically not a lie.

The officer scowled and put his hands on his waist. “Well, you better get un-lost then. There’s nothing to see here.” He looked young and terribly eager to show off his authority.

Beth looked pointedly from the bus to the officer. “Right,” she said. “Do you know what happened?” It wasn’t until then she noticed the Sheriff standing in the background talking to the principal.

The officer did not appreciate being ignored. “I told you, there’s nothing to see here. Now get out of my sight before I drag you to the office. Is that what you want?”

Beth looked at him sharply. How rude, making threats when she wasn’t technically breaking any rules. “Technically, the bell has only rung once so I have every right to be here,” she said a little more snottily than the situation called for.

The officer’s scowl deepened and he took a step towards her. “I could also arrest you for obstruction of justice.”

Obstruction of justice? That was a bit of a stretch, but Beth didn’t feel like finding out if he was serious. “You know what,” she said, taking a step towards the door, “I think I just heard the warning bell, so, uh, I’ll just be going now.” She backed towards the door, casting one last look at the wrecked bus.

“If I see you here again I’ll-“ She was thankfully spared the end of that sentence when the door slammed shut between them.

Beth had barely taken more than a dozen steps before another voice rang out.

“Sod it,” she mumbled as she turned around. An unknown teacher was striding towards her with long steps. She looked young too, but her face lacked the deep scowl the officer had been sporting.

“The last bell rang two minutes ago,” she said with a resigned voice. “Why aren’t you in class?”

Beth smiled innocently up at her. “I- I got lost. I’m new here, see, and I lost track of time and then I couldn’t find someone to ask for directions.” She tried stressing her accent as much as possible to really sell it.

It looked like it worked, or the teacher just couldn’t be arsed to write her up. “All right,” she sighed. “Where are you heading?”

Beth followed her back to the English classroom, trying to look like she hadn’t a clue where they were going.

With a steadying breath – it was never fun to interrupt a lesson like that – she opened the door and stepped inside. The students paused to stare at her, and the teacher stopped mid-sentence to shoot her a dirty look. Beth tried smiling but it came out as an embarrassed grimace. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire.

“Miss Vinther, how nice of you to finally join us. I don’t know how they do it in Wales, but here you show up on time, do you understand?”

Beth was still standing by the door, unsure if she should take a seat or not. What was the procedure when you were late in the States? From some of the stories she’d heard, it sounded like tardiness was a capital offence. “Uh … I got lost?” she tried, not feeling too confident. She’d already used that excuse twice and she must soon start to run out of luck.

“Then might I suggest you start carrying a map and compass. Sit down, Miss Vinther.”

She nodded meekly and walked stiff-legged to her seat. Allison mouthed at her but Beth minutely shook her head. She would not get told off for talking in class too.

As soon as she sat down, the lesson continued. She hid behind her book, waiting for her blush to subside and some of the mortification to leave her body.

A note was placed on the edge of her desk. She looked behind to see Allison looking around Scott with an inquisitive look. Beth opened the note and was greeted by a neat handwriting. It simply said “Where were you? “

Beth used her book as a cover as she scrawled her answer on the back of the note. I had to look at that bus. It was wicked. Talk later? She handed the note to Scott who sneakily gave it to Allison. When she’d read it she gave a thumbs up and crumbled the note to hide all evidence of their little talk.

Beth turned around towards the teacher and slid further down the chair. Concentration on Kafka was hard when a juicy new mystery was so close by. Her eyes glazed over as she followed that train of thought and left the classroom far behind.

··· ··· ··· ··· ···

Beth was reminded exactly why she loathed Chemistry, and the teacher, later that day. She’d never been particularly good at science and that was furthered by the sentient wank stain that was Mr Harris. She hadn’t the foggiest why he’d chosen to become a teacher, as he obviously hated both the students and the faculty alike.

The Chemistry room was mostly silent save for the scratching of pen on paper and an occasional rustle of movement from a student. Beth had hidden away in a corner of the room, having stacked all the books in her possession in front of her in an effort to avoid the beady eyes of evil incarnate. The demon in question was standing with his back to the class, writing on the blackboard.

The relative silence was disturbed by hushed whispers coming from the middle of the room. Scott and Stiles were sitting at two different tables, but Stiles was leaned forward in a truly impressive feat, having what looked to be an energetic conversation, or as energetic as whispers could be. Beth could only guess that they were talking about the bus; it seemed to be the only thing people could talk about, Beth included. Stiles sat with his back to her, but she could see Scott’s worried face.

Mr Harris turned around from the blackboard and eyed them disdainfully.

“Mr Stillinski, if that’s your idea of a hushed whisper, you might want to pull the headphones out every once in a while.” Beth ducked down behind her tower of books. She felt bad, but at least it wasn’t her getting a bollocking this time. “I think you and Mr McCall would benefit from a little distance, yes?”

Both Scott and Stiles had slunk down in their seats, but here Stiles spoke up. “No,” he tried, but Mr Harris overruled him with a single look. He jabbed a finger in the direction of Beth, or rather the empty chair next to her.

“Let me know if the separation anxiety gets to be too much.”

Stiles, who moved towards the empty chair by Beth, laughed cheerlessly. Scott moved further up the room and sat down between Jackson and Mr Harris. Beth didn’t envy him; being sandwiched between the two worst people in the school was not something she’d wish on her worst enemy.

When Stiles got to the table, he disposed his backpack on the floor with more force than necessary before throwing himself into the chair. When he turned to see who he was sitting beside, he froze with a deer in the headlight look. He clearly remembered what happened at the hospital.

Beth gave a pained smile, trying to ignore the tense awkward silence that stretched between them. The silence was only interrupted by Stiles incessant clicking a pen, eyes roving around the room without stopping for more than a second.

She should apologise to him or at least try to explain herself but her mouth wouldn’t form the appropriate words, and in the end, she just pretended to be very interested in what Mr Harris was blathering on about.

She’d just made up her mind to say something to Stiles, when the class once again was interrupted.

“Hey, I think they found something!” shouted the girl sitting beside Scott. She moved to the window and there was a scramble to join her, and Beth almost tripped out of her chair in her hurry. The indignant huffs from Mr Harris were drowned out by the din.

She pushed her way through to the window. An ambulance was parked outside, doors wide open and a two paramedics running with a stretcher, followed by two officers. On the stretched laid a man and even from a distance they could see he was covered in blood and deep cuts.

Learning forward, she almost pressed her nose against the cold glass in the hopes that it would somehow yield her more information when the man violently lurched forward and let out a piercing scream.

The entire class jumped back from the window with a shriek. It felt like someone had given Beth’s heart a good squeeze.

“You think that was the guy attacked on the bus?” A girl beside Beth asked.

“He seemed pretty spry for someone who lost that much blood,” another girl said, craning her neck to get another glimpse of the ambulance.

This was one of the first times Beth didn’t feel like contributing to the conversation. The man’s scream was still ringing in her ears. He had sounded terrified out of his mind. It had taken four men to push him back on the stretcher. What the hell happened on that bus?

It required Mr Harris threatening to give the entire class detention before they returned to their seat, but the air was still buzzing with whispered conversation and no one really seemed to pay attention to him.

When Beth was safely hidden behind her books, she turned to Stiles. “Do you think he’s going to be okay?” she asked quietly, all awkwardness forgotten.

Stiles, who had been jabbing at his paper with a pen with a faraway look in his eyes, blinked once and looked at her in like he was surprised to see her. “Oh, uh … th-the man? I don’t know.”

“Have you even seen the bus? It’s completely covered in blood. How the hell was he even conscious?” Beth briefly ducked down when Mr Harris looked in their direction.

Stiles shot a pained look at the back of Scott’s head. “But he’s alive, you know. Dead men don’t scream like that. He’s probably going to be okay.”

Beth frowned. Where was the fun in speculating when Stiles wasn’t listening at all? “The back door was nearly ripped off the hinges. What kind of animal can do that? A lot, probably, but anyone in California? How’s the Grizzly situation, do you know?”

Stiles didn’t answer her. He’d gone back to tapping his notebook with his pen, making a myriad of little black dots in the middle of the page.

“Do you think it has something to do with the body they found in the woods?”

“No!” That got his attention. The entire class stilled and a dozen heads swirled around to look at them.

“Mr Stilinski, it seems that moving you away from Mr McCall to stop your incessant chatting may have been in vain. Pray tell, what is so important that you once again feel the need to interrupt my class?” Mr Harris glared unblinkingly at Stiles, who shared a panicked look with Beth.

“She- uh, she wanted to borrow my notes,” he said meekly.

Mr Harris looked unimpressed. “I see. Next time, might I suggest simply shaking your head instead of shouting? And Miss Vinther-” He turned his gaze to Beth- “You wouldn’t need to borrow other peoples’ notes if you paid attention in class instead of hiding behind a stack of books.” A tittering of giggles rose from the students.

Beth looked down at her admittedly poor notes. “Yes, sir,” she mumbled.

“The next person to interrupt my class gets a one-way ticket to the principal’s office. Is that understood?” He was met with deafening silence.

Beth and Stiles made eye contact and she mouthed an “I’m sorry.”

Stiles scribbled something on his notepad and turned it towards her. Why do you think it’s connected?

Beth shrugged and wrote, IDK if it’s a coincidence. They found animal hair on the body, right?

Stiles chewed on the end of his pen before writing, maybe it is. He was apparently satisfied with that because he turned his gaze to the front of the class and no amount of prodding from Beth could avert his attention.

When the bell rang, Beth all but sprinted out of the classroom, in part because she wanted to find Lydia or Allison to tell them what she’d seen, but also because she wanted as much distance as possible between her and Mr Harris.

She found Lydia standing in the lunch line and sidled up next to her, a plastic lunch tray pressed to her chest.

“Have you heard what happened in-“

“They found the man who was attacked, yes, I’ve heard.” Lydia sounded bored.

“And that-“

“They took him away in an ambulance. I know that too.”

Beth frowned. “Jesus, rumours do travel fast in this place. I reckon you don’t care about that either,” she said dryly before she could stop herself. They did not need a repeat of the old argument.

Lydia huffed and flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Talking and speculating about what happened won’t change anything. The man still got attacked and there’s nothing we can do about it. Besides-” she held out her tray to the lunch lady. A clot of pasta landed with an unappetising thump. “There are more important things to worry about.”

Beth stared dejectedly down at the greasy pasta on her own tray. She didn't think it was possible to make worse food than at her old school but this one had surpassed all expectations.

“Like what?”

Lydia’s answering smile was worrying. She turned around and began walking towards the room with that easy, elegant walk of hers.

Beth had no choice but to hurry after her. “Lyds, our table is that way. Lydia? Bloody hell, what are you doing?”

Ignoring Beth completely, Lydia placed her tray on the table beside Scott. Scott and Stiles were sitting with their heads together, whispering furiously.

“Figure what out?” she asked sweetly as she sat down.

With an eye roll, Beth walked around the table and threw herself into the chair next to Stiles. She needed a little space from Lydia.

Scott and Stiles looked completely flabbergasted at each other, before Scott answered. “Uh, just homework.” He said, looking shiftily around the table.

Leaning forward, Stiles shot Scott a panicked look. “Why is she sitting with us?” He turned to Beth. “Why are you sitting with us?” He asked, looking at her with narrow suspicious eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” Beth whispered back.

Stiles’ eyes widened and he leaned back in his chair, looking intently from Beth to Lydia as if he could gauge their intention somehow.

Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long until Allison sat down in the chair opposite Beth, and slowly the chairs got filled out with more people.

“Get up,” Jackson ordered when he got to the table.

“How come you never ask Danny to get up?” A lacrosse player, whose name Beth had forgotten, whined.

“Because I don’t stare at his girlfriend’s coin slot,” Danny said.

Beth’s eyes unwittingly went to the aforementioned coin slot for a second, before she intently looked back at her food.

The banished lacrosse player got up with a great bit of grumbling, and Jackson sat down at the head of the table.

“So I hear they’re saying it’s some kind of animal attack,” Danny said, when everyone had settled down.

“Yes!” Beth said loudly. She ducked down a bit when all eyes swirled to her. “I mean, finally someone who wants to talk about this.” She shot Lydia and then Stiles an accusatory look. Stiles got busy stuffing his mouth with chips to avoid her gaze.

Danny shot her a bemused look around Stiles. “Beacon Hills used to be such a boring place, and now we got, what, a murder and an animal attack in two weeks. You know, that suspiciously coincides with when you moved here.” He pointed a finger at her. “Are you sure you don’t have anything to do with this?”

Beth smiled and held up her hands in mock surrender. “You got me, Danny. I am a menace of the night.”

Scott squirmed slightly in his seat.

Danny grinned and snapped his fingers. “I knew it. You act all sweet and innocent but I see the bloodthirst in your eyes.”

“I’m a-I’m a wolf in sheep’s clothing, that’s what I am.”

Beside her, Stiles choked on a mouthful of chips. He grabbed his water and downed half the bottle while people snickered around him. His neck and ears turned the same colour as the ketchup.

“Hey moron, maybe chew your food before you swallow it next time,” Jackson said.

“Stiles, are you okay?” Allison asked worriedly from the other side of the table.

“Uh, yup,” Stiles mumbled as he started peeling an orange with more concentration than what was necessary.

Danny coughed and changed the subject. “So what do you think it was? The animal, I mean. Probably a cougar, right?”

“I heard mountain lion,” Jackson said. Even he was interested in what had happened, and he didn’t care about anything that didn’t involve lacrosse or Scott’s newfound ability at the aforementioned sport.

“A cougar is a mountain lion,” Lydia snapped before she furrowed her brows in confusion. “Isn’t it?”

Jackson scoffed. “Who cares? The guy’s probably some homeless tweaker who’s gonna die anyway.”

“Compassion, thy name is Jackson,” Beth mumbled to no one in particular. She heard a snort from her right and looked at Stiles, who was busy with something on his phone. Whatever it was made the smile drop from his face.

“Actually, I just found out who it is. Check it out.” He put his phone in the middle of the table, and Beth leaned forward to see the little screen.

It showed a news clip from the local channel of the Sheriff walking in front of the very recognisable bus. “The Sheriff’s department won’t speculate on the details of the incident but confirmed the victim, Gerrison Meyers, did survive the attack.” A voiceover informed. A photo of Mr Meyers came up, and Beth had to swallow a lump in her throat. Somehow knowing who it was made it all more real, somehow. They’d joked about it, but there was an actual human being in the hospital. He was smiling in the photo and he looked like a quintessential family father.

“Meyers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition.” The voiceover finished.

“I-I know this guy,” Scott said, his face etched in worry.

“You do?” Allison said.

“Yeah, when I used to take the bus back when I lived with my dad. He was the driver.” Scott and Stiles shared a worried look again.

Lydia, who’d been silent all through the conversation and news clip of the attack, had enough. “Can we talk about something more fun, please?” She was right, attacks and critical conditions weren’t exactly cheery lunchtime discussions. “Like … oh, where are we going tomorrow night?” That statement was met with different reactions. Allison looked confused, Scott terrified, Stiles was gaping, and Beth almost dropped her fork in surprise, which she had no right to be because she knew Lydia was up to something the moment she sat down at Scott and Stiles’ table.

“You said you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night, right?” She said sweetly.

Allison looked like a deer caught in the headlights. “Oh-um, we were thinking of what we were gonna do.”

“Well, I am not sitting home again watching lacrosse videos, so if the four of us are hanging out, we are doing something fun.” Beth could’ve kicked Lydia if they weren’t sitting at opposite ends of the table.

Beth’s forehead hit her palm with a loud slap, but everyone was too busy observing the train wreck playing out at the table to notice.

“Hanging out?” Scott turned and looked at Allison with his big, puppy dog eyes. “Like the four of us?” He leaned closer to her, but Beth could still hear what he said. “Do you wanna hang out, like us and them?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Allison tried to smile but it looked more like she was in pain. “Sounds fun.”

“You know what else sounds fun? Stabbing myself in the face with this fork,” Jackson said and grabbed a fork from his tray for dramatic effect. This was one instance where Beth agreed with him.

Lydia snapped the fork out of his hand with an impatient sigh. “How about bowling? You love to bowl!”

To the right of Beth, Stiles was subtly shaking his head at Scott, a chip sticking out of his mouth like a cigarette.

“Yeah, with actual competition.” This made the deer-in-headlights look fall from Allison’s face and replaced by a surprisingly competitive glint in her eyes.

“How do you know we’re not actual competition?” She leaned over Scott to shoot Jackson a challenging look. “You can bowl, right?”

“Sort of,” Scott said.

Jackson pushed his tray out of the way and leaned his arms on the table, in a classic example of manly posturing. “Is it a sort of, or yes?”

Scott mimicked his position, and Beth rolled her eyes so hard it started to hurt. If every day was going to be a macho competition like this, then maybe she ought to find some other people to sit with. She cast a look around the cafeteria in search of Chloe.

“Yes,” Scott said. “In fact, I’m a great bowler.”

“Great,” Lydia said loudly, cutting off what would surely have been a scathing reply from Jackson. “A little friendly competition never hurt anyone.” She grabbed Jackson’s hand and smiled sweetly up at him. “Right, Jackson?”

Stiles, who’d hidden his face in his hands, peeked out between his fingers. Beth sent him an apologetic smile.

“You could’ve given a little more warning than ‘I’m sorry,’” Stiles leaned towards her and whispered, while the others talked.

“I didn’t know what she was planning, honestly,” Beth whispered back. “If I did I’d gotten as far away from this catastrophe as possible.”

“Catastrophe doesn’t even begin to-“

“Well, don’t blame me for it,” Beth whispered hotly. “I told Lydia not to-“

“Sure, Beth can come with us.” At the sounds of her name, Beth and Stiles flew apart and Beth looked around in confusion, while Stiles slunk down in his seat.

“I can what now?”

“Come with us tomorrow,” Lydia said.

Beth opened her mouth but nothing came out. She looked at Allison, trying to gauge what the appropriate response would be. Allison looked … hopeful? Beth was rubbish at reading people, and besides, she didn’t know what she was hopeful for. It could be that Beth would join them and act as a buffer between the two couples, or that she’d say no because if three was a crowd then what was five?

“I …” she looked around the table, from Scott’s terrified look to Jackson’s cool contempt. “I have family night.” She tried.

Allison’s lips grew thin as she regarded Beth with an unhappy look. Wrong answer, then.

Lydia scoffed. “Ugh, since when?”

“Uh-um, since-“

The bell rang signalling the end of lunch, and Beth breathed a sigh of relief. Literally saved by the bell.

She waited until she was alone with Lydia outside the art room, before she descended on her. “I can’t believe you!” she said loudly and shook a finger at an unimpressed Lydia. “You-you hijacked their date!”

“Spare me, Beth. A double date is still a date,” Lydia said and checked her lip-gloss in a small pink compact she seemingly produced out of thin air.

“You know as well as I do that this will turn into a pissing contest between Scott and Jackson. Why couldn’t you go out for milkshakes instead?”

With a loud snap, Lydia closed the compact. “Milkshakes?”

“Isn’t that what you Americans do? Go down to the ol’-the ol’ milk bar?”

A genuine smile crossed Lydia’s features, making her eyes sparkle like they did on the lacrosse field, and Beth temporarily forgot that she was mad at her. “You’re thinking of A Clockwork Orange,” Lydia said.

Beth beamed. “You know, sometimes you really surprise me with your weird knowledge.”

Lydia scoffed. “You knew it too.”

“Yeah, but I’m also a huge- Oh!” Beth’s eyes widened and she grabbed Lydia’s hand, tugging it lightly so they stood closer to each other. “Lydia, are you secretly a nerd?” She whispered.

Just like that, the smile vanished, replaced by a deadpan look. “You can’t go even five minutes without ruining the moment, can you?” She tugged her hand free and whirled around so Beth got a face full of strawberry blonde hair, and strode into the now open art room.

Beth followed behind her, still thinking about the rare smile and how she hoped to see it again soon.

… … … … …

Alright so if you square that then you get x and five there but then you have to square this too, which means we have to take this wanker times this wanker, but then that doesn't make any bloody sense because then you’re gonna have to divide that shitting thing too. So instead we're just gonna take this eight times this bloody eight and then screw this and screw that and screw that thing in particular.

This was going nowhere. No, it was going somewhere but slowly and with great difficulty. It took a lot more effort than Beth normally put into anything and she was starting to feel that it wasn’t really worth it. In the great scheme of things did maths really matter that much?

Beth sat at her desk in her room, hunched over her maths homework, softly cursing every time she had to backtrack because she’d made an error somewhere. Her eyes occasionally darted around the room in search of something that could distract her. Soft music played in the background and she’d lit every candle she owned to create a cosy, study-friendly atmosphere, but all it did was make her want to curl up on the bed with a cup of tea and a book.

With a groan, she threw down her pencil and leaned back in the chair, which creaked loudly.

“I’m not that heavy you useless piece of shite,” she said to the chair, which didn’t bother responding.

With her foot, she pushed away from the desk and spun in a circle. The many candles around the room turned into streaks of light.

There was a knock at the door, and Beth threw out an arm to stop and nearly knocked the laptop off the desk.

Jaime stood in the doorway, looking at her. “I just wanted to say goodnight. What are you doing?”

Beth grabbed both armrests in an effort to make the room stop spinning. She squinted at the three Jaimes, trying to figure out which was the real one. “Maths,” she grunted.

“It’s sure changed a lot since I was in school,” Jaime said softly, and walked over to her desk, peering down at the equations.

Beth scooted back to the desk. “I may have gotten a tad bit distracted,” she said with a smile.

“I can see that. Do you need any help?”

With a snort, she looked up at Jaime. “Why, are you going to call Louie?” There was a sort of indiscernible look on Jaime’s face, and she was almost scared she’d offended him, until he reached out and gently pinched her cheek.

“I must have a talk with your mother, raising a cheeky child like that.” He let go of her cheek. “I use math every day, and you do too if those photos of yours are worth anything.”

With a huff, she crossed her arms. “Of course they are.”

Jaime smiled fondly and kissed her on the top of the head. “I’ll take you with me to the studio sometime. You might learn something.” He squeezed shoulder. “Don’t stay up too long, it’s a school night.”

Beth smiled at him. “I won’t. Goodnight.”

After he closed the door, she got up and stretched. The alarm clock on the desk said it 6 minutes past 11.

She went to the stereo by the window and turned it off, looking outside where the darkness pressed against the window. Across the street, the empty car park stretched out until it reached the school. The lampposts were on, doing their part in scaring away vandals and thieves.

“This is your fault,” she muttered at the school and flipped it off. It didn’t make her maths homework go away, but it made her feel just a smidgen better.

She was about to turn around and go back to her assignment when a car pulled up to the otherwise empty car park. She leaned up against the window, squinting at the car trying to make out who it was.

Two people exited the car and walked towards the school. Even with the lights on, she couldn’t make out who it was. They stopped in a deep shadow by the school and Beth thought they’d disappeared before one of them returned to the car and stood leaned against it.

The curiosity was almost overwhelming and in her haste to get up she nearly knocked over a lit candle. Tearing out of her room, she went to an old cupboard in the walkway where she found a pair of heavy binoculars. She had no idea what Jaime and Louie needed what looked to be military grade binoculars for, but she didn’t complain.

When she got back to her room she turned off the lights and blew out the candles nearest the window. Luckily, the shadowy figure was still standing by his car.

Throwing open the window as fast as she could, she put the binoculars up to her eyes. It took a second to get it properly focused but when it did her brows furrowed in confusion. What in God’s name was Stiles doing at the school at night? She zoomed in as far as it would go and tried to get comfortable. She didn’t know how long he’d stay there but she was certain she wouldn’t miss a second of it.

He was leaning against a blue Jeep – she assumed it was his – and kept looking around shiftily. The other person – probably Scott, they didn’t seem to be able to function without each other, - had disappeared around the school.

After five minutes, Beth was ready to call it quits. Her knees hurt from kneeling for too long and Stiles hadn’t done anything noteworthy except for fidgeting around, and she saw that every day at school.

Just before she removed the binoculars, there were flashes of light inside the school. Stiles saw it too because his entire body went rigid before he threw himself into the driver’s side and held down the horn. Even from the house, Beth could hear it.

Suddenly a human figure came sprinting around the school. True enough, Scott was running for all he was worth. He dove into the passenger seat and the Jeep peeled out of the car park and down the road much faster than was allowed in a school zone.

Beth sat staring out into the dark, trying to make sense of what she’d seen. What were Scott and Stiles doing in the school at night?

With a groan, Beth stood up on stiff legs. Suddenly, she felt a lot more tired than before and she stumbled to the bed.

Laying down on the covers, she looked up at the ceiling. Think. She had to think about this. They could’ve broken in to get the answer sheet for a test, or maybe they’d released all the frogs from the biology class.

She kept coming up with more unlikely scenarios until she, quite unintentionally, fell asleep.

Previous Chapter

#teen wolf #fanfiction #stiles stilinski #lydia martin #stiles/oc #lydia/oc #stiles/oc/lydia #oc #let sleeping wolves lie #beth

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sending-the-message · 6 years

Text

Why I stopped hacking. For good. by Menmaro

Allow me to preface by saying that this is an encounter from a good friend of mine. For his safety however I will not use his Alias or real name. I have created an alternative. I will also write it in the first person as he had regaled me with this story and knows I enjoy writing. Here goes.

I grew up all my life glued to a computer. When I first started talking I was already browsing through my uncles computer, switching between games. By the time I was 10 I was taking over my families msn accounts and making them send each other awkward messages. I was 10 at the time so the messages were stuff like "I hate you" or "give me back my power ranger".

As you could imagine, I had no friends growing up. I was bullied and pushed around a lot. I'm autistic so I guess that was the reason. I don't know, nor will I ever will. My old man kept telling me I had to stand up for myself, that I had to show them I wasn't afraid. Truth is I couldn't fight back. I tried, but my punches were weak and my kicks would tickle. I spent the best part of 6 years thinking the only way I could fight back was by physically fighting them. Little did I know that the world I grew up in, the virtual world, was about to become the second life for everyone.

From here on, my mistakes started to pile up. I was 16, everyone was using facebook, twitter, whatever what was popular, people flocked to it. I had a 'main' bully as you could say [Brock]. Brock was the definition of an asshole. I guess it made what I did to him easier to live with. Brock loved to brag. His girlfriend was hot, his figure was fit and he was amazing at sports. His only downside was he was dumb as shit. And he hated anyone that excelled acedemically. Surprise surprise, I was a smartass. I was incredibly good at solving problems. I guess that was the upside to my autism. He hated that and proceeded to make my life a living hell.

I tried fighting back again, again using my weak body. Forgetting my strongest weapon was my mind. One day I was browsing Facebook and found Brock as a suggested friend. He was in my world and suddenly, something clicked. I created a burn account, jazzed it up and made it look legit. I added Brock as a friend and proceeded to find out as much as I could about him. I found his girlfriend and added her too. I sent Brock an email from "Facebook" claiming his account had been compromised and to download a PDF file with all our security measures updated. Of course to keep his account he downloaded the document. Fool. I had access to his Laptop and proceeded to find everything there was to know about him. I knew so much that at any point in time I could tell you where he was, what he was doing and who he was doing it with. I had his laptop camera send me images every so often to know what he was up to. When his girlfriend came over, I was ready. I booted up my "online dating" application and started sending messages to Brock. "Hey baby, can't wait to see you tomorrow, last week was a blast". I won't go into so much detail but due to the fact that I knew what he was up to, it was easy to convince his girlfriend that his online babe was real. I didn't stop there, I downloaded on his laptop as much gay porn as I could find. At a time where homosexuality wasn't as accepted as it was today, you could imagine how his parents reacted to his "fun drive". He didn't come back to school since then, my guess is he moved out of town. I don't know, I didn't care to look anymore, to me that was a small victory and I relished in it.

Now I wish I'd have stopped there, oh God I wish I stopped there. But I was addicted. That feeling of justice being served by my hands was one I loved and wanted more. So I targeted criminals, the type that used the dark web to hide and spread their filth. For 4 years straight I was a pain in their asses. Pedophiles, rapists, heavy drug dealers, you name it. If they were online, I was making their lives a living hell. I thought I was being smart, I thought I was hiding myself pretty well. But fuck man, something was following me every step of the way. And it would soon tell me.

I woke up one morning as any normal day, made eggs and toast for breakfast with a glass of Orange juice. Booted up my desktop and browsed Reddit. The usual was on, guys complaining that something was overpowered, something was underpowered, the game designers weren't listening. The usual morning chuckle. Then I heard a ping, the Facebook messenger notification sound. Funny, I didn't open Facebook yet. Maybe I did and forgot? Wouldn't make sense as I rarely open Facebook. It was odd but not enough to sound any major alarms. A message from someone I don't know, "Hey Danni. What's the weather like in Japan?"

What the fuck? Weather in Japan? I'm on the other side of the world. The name read James Puckerson. On my other monitor I started to go through his profile trying to find any mutual friends, someone I met in a party or something. I responded with "Sunny I hope, anyone who knows me knows I hate the rain". I keep looking but nothing of interest pops up. James replies " Ooooh a funny guy. Tell me Danni, do you enjoy playing games?"

At this point I think he's referring to video games. "Yeah dude, what did you have in mind? League of Legends? DoTa? I don't mind."

"Oh Danni, I didn't mean one of those childish games, I mean a real game. You know, the type that involves putting ones life on the line".

I let out a chuckle, someone probably hacked my Facebook account, added this weird ass account and is now trolling me.

"This isn't a joke Danni, I take these games extremely seriously".

Ok what? How did he know I laughed? Did he guess? There's no way he can see me, my camera isn't even plugged in and how could he have gotten into my apartment? My Facebook profile had a fake address on it and I never used my real address for anything, not even amazon or eBay. This has to be a joke.

I wrote: "Sure dude I'm bored as fuck anyway". I was buying time to try and find out where this son of a bitch was. I scoured everywhere trying to find any small clue to latch onto. Found something, kept going and looked into it more. Eventually leading up to an address. When I looked at the address I froze. I could feel my blood draining from my face. It was my address. I was the only one living there but somehow this asshole was using my address as a cover. Ping! Another message.

"I see you've gone extremely pale Danni, what's the matter? Don't believe in ghosts?"

I couldn't move, this guy could see me, he knew every move I was making and I didn't know what to do. Do I run away and burn everything down? Fry my hard drives and shred my motherboard. What the fuck is going on?

"Ring ring Danni, ring ring".

My phone starts to ring, but it isn't James, the caller ID read "mum". I pick up.

I hesitate to speak, I can't show my mum I'm afraid of something, she'd worry. I try to act cool.

" Hey mum, everything alright?"

What I heard next made me drop my phone in horror, it made me realise that shit was real and this wasn't a joke. A voice, obviously modulated to hide the identity of the caller. But the threat was real and I knew who it was.

"Hey Danni, what's the weather like in Japan?"

#reddit #nosleep #scary #story

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