“You’re watching CDTV Now, and I’m Ace Atchinson with a special feature. Last week, the nation was shocked when a team of junior heroes affiliated with the Justice League apparently vandalised one of America’s most beloved national monuments.”
A short, jerky video plays, showing an explosion on a large stone face – one of four carved out of the side of a mountain. The smoke clears to reveal a large hole where the nose used to be. Several figures fly out of the stone and are caught by some sort of flying vehicle. It swoops across the mountain and away.
“With me live in the studio this afternoon are some of the members of Young Justice, here to tell us their side of the story. Superboy, Wonder Girl, Impulse – did you destroy Mount Rushmore?”
“Yeah, we did,” says the boy with black curly hair and a leather jacket over his brightly coloured hero suit. A bar appears across the bottom of the screen. Superboy, it says. Member of Young Justice. “On purpose, too.”
The girl, with stiff black hair and large square glasses, scowls in his direction. “We weren’t trying to destroy it,” she says as the camera closes in on her. The bar across the bottom of the screen now reads Wonder Girl and Member of Young Justice. “We were rescuing our friend.”
“She’s a ghost you see and the apes captured her and held her in this secret base –” The brown-haired boy in goggles stops when he is nudged by the girl beside him. The bar flickers for a moment to say Impulse before returning to Wonder Girl.
“OK, so, we need to go back, like, five steps here. There was a secret government base inside Mount Rushmore where they were conducting inhumane experiments on ghosts.”
The host laughs in a strained, nervous way. “Ghosts?” he asks.
They nod. “I’d like to introduce you to another member of our team,” says Wonder Girl. A mist forms behind her as she speaks, and swiftly coalesces into the form of a pale, slight girl, hovering behind the sofa. “Um,” she says nervously. “My name is – I mean, I go by – Secret, and… I’m a ghost.”
-––––
“Danny! Turn on CDTV now!”
“What? Why?”
“Just do it!”
–––––
“–torture and imprisonment, and she hadn’t even done anything! They’re just prejudiced against ghosts because they think they’re dangerous!”
“She is dangerous,’ says the black-haired boy proudly. The label Superboy appears on the screen again, in case anyone had forgotten. “She can shape-shift and go through walls and even possess people –”
“K– Superboy!” hisses Wonder Girl. “Not helping!”
“I’m right here,” says the ghost girl. The people who do the labels have obviously been hard at work, because she now has one too, saying Secret and Alleged ghost. “And I can do those things, but that doesn’t mean I want to hurt people or –”
There’s yelling from off camera, and a crash. A bolt of blue-white energy flies past the camera and the image whites out. There’s a scream, and a burst of static. The image returns, fuzzy and striated. Another bolt of energy. A large man wearing white rushes into view. Someone in green boots and a yellow and black cape lands on his head and knocks him down. A bang, and the image turns sideways as the camera crashes to the floor. The sound cuts out. There’s smoke, and running feet, and suddenly the side of the studio sofa, before another flash of blue-white light and the screen goes dead.
Nothing happens for almost a minute, and then the TV starts playing a rerun of the highlights of last week’s sports game.
––––––––
“Well, shit,” says Danny.
Superboy here is not in fact Kon but Match pretending to be Kon and trying to sabotage the team. Robin was hiding in the ceiling behind a lighting rig because Batman is going through one of his ‘we are cryptids’ phases and wouldn’t allow him to appear on screen. Anita hasn’t joined the team yet, which is good because her dad is one of the agents and it would have been awkward.
Adrenaline coursed through Danny’s veins as he made the mad dash to Wisconsin. Vlad had been right, they had turned on him. He could still hear the shrill whine of his mother’s blaster as she aimed it at his chest. He could see the tears in Val’s eyes as she told him to leave before she destroyed him.
Danny blinked away the memories, the tears they had brought getting lost to the wind and the rain.
His injuries were screaming at him, vying to make themselves known. Wisconsin never seemed so far away. A searing pain, like a fire lit against the skin of his abdomen, sent him careening into the trees below. Branches and twigs tore at him as he fell, each clawing for a chance to leave their own mark on the ghost boy, stopping only when the ground itself rose up to meet him.
And suddenly he didn’t feel the pain anymore. He knew he should. There was a pool of something warm and wet spreading out from beneath him, which definitely wasn’t good. It could just be the exhaustion mixed with the adrenaline. Right? Maybe he just maxxed out on pain and his brain decided to turn off the voicemail. Except all that was worse.
This wasn’t the first time he’d been hurt, he could fix this. His bag had landed a few feet away, if he could get to the first aid kit he could put himself back together enough to get to Vlad. He was sure of it. He would be okay. He always ended up okay.
No matter how much he stretched, how much he told his body to just get the hell up and grab the kit, he couldn’t. All he could do was lay there as the pool of liquid beneath got deeper and deeper. He was going to die here wasn’t he? For real this time. No more second chances. No more transforming in back alleys, no more going back to being alive. This time he would just be gone.
He should have listened to Vlad. Or at least told him what he was planning to do. He should have listened to Jazz, should have taken more precautions, should have had an actual plan. There were so many should have’s, so many thing he could have done differently. But instead he put his faith in the ghost hunting fanatics. The parents who had accepted him in almost every other timeline, and now he was bleeding out, alone, in the middle of the woods, unable to even sit up. Helpless to do anything but think about all the things he hadn’t done right.
Then a light broke through the black. Small at first but soon blinding in the dark and the rain and the trees. For a moment Danny thought it might be that white light everyone warns you not to go towards when you’re dying. Which was ridiculous in this situation, Danny couldn’t even sit up much less move towards something.
Then it started moving towards him, and he worried just a little bit more.
But then there was shouting too, as the light got brighter, and footsteps. And people. Maybe he wasn’t dying. Maybe he was saved. He let his eyes close as the relief washed over him. Someone had found him.
There were hands sliding around his limbs, then he was moving. The pain bloomed across his body with a new vigour. Their movements were sharp and jarring. What little air had been left in Danny’s lungs escaped with a painful gasp, and a bad feeling formed in his chest that screamed danger, but he dismissed it. He’d been found, he was safe.
They finally stopped in a bright area and Danny was set down on a hard surface, the back of his head hitting hard against it and lolling to the side. Then there was a prick in his arm. It was hardly noticeable through all the pain, but it felt like a… a needle.
That- why was there a needle?
Danny forced his eyes open, just to check. He was sure everything was fine. He was- he was safe now.
The men in white suits milled around in his vision just as something heavy clamped around his wrists.
He was not safe.
A grinning face leaned in close as Danny tried and failed to struggle free.
“Sleep well abomination, you’ve got a big day tomorrow,”
Danny woke slowly this time.
The gradual return of his senses brought alot of pain though. He couldn’t even count all the places that hurt. He was sweating bullets, his sheets soaked through. (huh, sheets, those were new.) ‘
He was still breathing, that at least was a good sign. He focused on keeping his lungs doing that and his eyes stuck shut as he took stock of his surroundings, he was in a new place, he had to be careful.
The ever present smell of antiseptic was potent, barely masked by the faint citrus scent he had picked up on last time he was awake. There was also a faint buzzing in the air, accompanied by the slow beeping of medical equipment. He could exactly where each line pierced his skin to connect him to the accursed things. He couldn't feel anyone watching him though, making this the perfect time to escape.
In an Instant, Danny’s eyes were open and he began the arduous task of removing each and every one of those needles and tubes. Ridding himself of whatever poison those bastards were pumping into him. There was a ridiculous amount of them, monitoring literally everything that could be monitored, like whoever had put them in didn’t even know what they were looking for. Idiots.
Once they were all off, Danny swung his legs over the side of the cot he’d been put on. (No straps either, must be more security measures than he could see. That or they were getting cocky. Danny hoped for cocky.) Sitting up so fast had caused a headache to bloom behind his eyes, but he pinched it back, it was just another pain to deal with later.
This room was sparse but still a lot better than any of the other GiW holding cells he’d been in. In fact, it was set up more like an ICU than a holding cell. A row of cots lined one wall, and shelves stocked to the brim with medical supplies on the other. It was… different. They usually just shoved him back in a dingy cell that hadn't been cleaned in months, after messing with him.
“You’re awake.”
The ectoplasm in Danny’s blood ran cold, his breath catching. He had been certain the room was empty. His back was to the door, so he couldn’t see whoever had spoken, but his mind was wiring almost as fast as his eyes darted around the room, searching for an exit, any chance of escape. He couldn’t get caught. Not now that he’d been seen up and moving, trying to get away.
The walls were probably coated with a ghost repellent, no chance of phasing through them. No vents either. The door behind him would be the only exit, but with it blocked fighting would be his only way out. Could he do that? Could he have the energy to actually get out. There was no doubt there were more agents. Getting past whoever was in the doorway would only be the start. Could he do that? Really?
Danny forced himself up onto wobbly legs. He could. Fighting was what he did best. He’d had two years of practice. He took a steadying breath ( It was a real testament to his nerves that he hardly felt it past his chest) and turned around, coming face to face with… a girl?
She looked about his age, but with a sandier, more monochrome complexion. Her eyes though, they were a piercing, icy blue. They cut into him, sharp, critical. Danny felt himself wobble a little under that unnerving stare, but the girl didn’t say anything, didn’t move even, just stared.
Danny took a shaky step back, then another, keeping his eyes on the girl the whole time. Every step was harder than the last, every breath was worse. Each pass of air rubbed at his throat, stinging like the biting wind during flight. Each movement was a battle against gravity to maintain balance and to lift his feet just enough to shuffle backwards. His feet dragging against the course concrete, the cold of it sending shivers up his spine.
A stray power chord was all it took to throw his hard won balance to the enemy, and he stumbled. The backs of his knees collided with something hard, and gravity, ever unsatisfied, took hold and brought him down.
Searing pain struck like lightning through his body, Stabbing pains where his skin pulled and twisted across his chest. Fire burnt deep in his muscles, the tense pressure all along his arms and legs, he swore he heard popping. It all hit him at once, shoving the air out of his lungs in one dizzying wave. He gasped for air but that hurt too.
“Are you alright?” The girl’s voice was much closer now. Danny opened his eyes (He hadn’t realized he had screwed them shut) to find her face mere inches from his.
He cried out, or he tried to. He felt the air pull from his haggard lungs. He felt it push through his throat, tearing and burning, but all he heard was a raspy hiss as he scrambled backwards over the cot he had fallen on, kicking out with both feet as he went. His first kick landed with a weak thump against something soft, the second sailed straight through the girl’s torso, sending a shiver through his whole body. Then he fell over the side of the cot, twisting violently and landing on his right shoulder, hard. He definitely heard popping this time as he rolled onto his hands and knees and scrambled away.
He heard her say something, but he wasn’t sure what. Probably an order to stop. Danny kept crawling. He wasn’t quite sure where he was going, he just wanted away. Preferably before reinforcements showed up.
He reached a corner and stopped. Two stone walls met seamlessly in front of him. The angle perfect and smooth, as if the room had been carved from the rock rather than built by it. Just like his parents’ lab. Just like the corner a much smaller Danny would tuck himself into while his parents worked.
This Danny wedged himself between the walls, tucking his knees up to his chin and his hands clasped behind his neck. He looked back. The girl was advancing on him, looking much less happy than before. Her form was blurring at the edges, particles swirling around her in an angry cloud, almost like smoke.
“Hey,” she said, voice tinted with a forced sounding sweetness to hide the rougher tone that sat just left of anger. Danny knew that tone, knew what it meant when people spoke to him like that.
We promise not to hurt you Danny.
We’re glad you're here Phantom, don’t worry it’s just a few tests.
I promise I won’t be angry, Daniel, just come here.
His body moved on instinct. He just grabbed and threw.
Whatever it was sailed right through the girl’s forehead.
There was a second when nothing happened, just silence. Then the cloud swirled faster and faster as she descended on him, filling the room in seconds. There was no more forced compassion. Her anger and indignity was almost tangible in the air. The overwhelming emotions pressing in on him as cold bursts of air tore themselves from his chest.
The girl was gone, but she was still there, swirling in the cloud as the pressure built and built. Danny clamped his hands over his ears and pulled himself into a tight ball. Hot tears ran down his face as he did everything he could to block it all out. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t- why did he think he could fight this. Fight them. It all ended the same. Always back on that table. Trying only made it worse. Why- Why -why whywhywhyw-
Then it stopped. The pressure in the room eased substantially, and it finally felt like he could breathe again.
“Robin!” the girl cried, her tone suddenly cheerier, “He won’t listen to me,” she whined, “I’m trying to help and he won’t let me!” there was a pause. Danny didn’t dare uncurl himself enough to see why.
“Secret…” Someone started
“What happened?” A slightly higher voice cut in. It was laced with a sort of clinical calm that set Danny’s nerves on edge.
The girl huffed, “Why are you mad at me? He’s the one that won”t let me help!” Danny flinched, he could feel the new eyes turn on him. He just wanted them gone. He wanted to be gone.
There was a deep measured sigh before the second voice spoke again. “We’re not mad at anyone,” they said in a carefully regulated tone, “I just need to know what happened so I can know how to handle this.” Handle? Was the owner of that voice his new handler? What happened to agent H? No, no it didn’t matter, he couldn’t go through anything like him again.
“Oh,” the girl said, “Well, he woke up again so I tried to talk to him, but then he, like, freaked out and attacked me. He’s not responding either.”
A hand grazed Danny’s back without warning, he threw himself forward and batted it away with a feral hiss. The hand pulled away and he shoved himself back into the corner.
“Did you fight him back?” the first voice asked. It was alot closer. Probably the owner of the hand.
“He attacked me.”
Someone sucked in a sharp breath.
“Thank you Secret, we’ll take it from here.”
“No problem Rob!” A few seconds passed before her presence was fully gone, leaving Danny alone with two unknowns. Not that three enemies was better than two.
What was her deal? She felt- well, she felt like a ghost. The way her emotion had felt so tangible in the air around her, that was unmistakably a Ghost Thing ™. But he’d never seen a ghost like her.Not only in the way she looked but also in the way she acted. Danny had definitely never heard of any right- minded ghost (Or as right-minded as any of them were) working with the GiW. What had they done to her?
Danny tensed as something was set down inches from his face.
“Hey.” The voice was a lot softer than it had just been. It was using that same tone. “Sorry about her, Secret isn’t too great with people yet.”
“Isn’t that an understatement,” the other voice snarked. Then there was a pause and a mumbled sorry.
“I’m Robin, and this is Superboy,” Superboy? The Justice League publicity stunt? What was he doing at a GiW facility? Danny loosened the tight knot he had curled into, just enough to peek at the two people kneeling in front of him. Sure enough, he recognised Superboy from TV. The Kryptonian was the one sitting closer to him. He looked more nervous than the other one. Robin, he had said, that name sounded familiar he just couldn’t put his finger on it.
“We’re here to help you in any way we can, okay?” the barest hint of a smile crossed Robin’s face. It was hard to tell if it was sinister or genuine. “We have water, if you would like it.”
Danny would be a liar if he didn’t admit how much he actually would like some. His throat was insurmountably dry which was only making breathing harder. A task that was getting more and more difficult by the minute. But that didn’t mean he could trust anything they gave him. It was probably drugged. That’s the only reason they would have to even offer. Afterall, ghosts didn’t need food or water, it was just a vanity for them. Or at least that’s what they would always say whenever he had begged for just a scrap.
Still, he couldn’t help but want.
The two were still watching him. And, well, they didn’t really look GiW. They were both dressed up in hero outfits. Superboy was obviously wearing his signature look with the jacket and the S crest. The other boy, though, was dressed like a traffic light. Yellow cape, green gloves and boots, and a red suit. Most of all though, they looked Danny’s age. What were they even doing here? This was all too bizarre to trust. Or… too bizarre to not trust?
Ancients, he was thirsty.
He risked breaking eye contact to let his eyes flicker over to the clear plastic cup they had placed in front of him. The liquid inside looked like water, but that was no guarantee. Slowly, he reached a hand out to snatch the cup. Neither of them flinched, just watched. The liquid was clear. Even with his senses dulled as they were, Danny’s were still better than most. There were no floating particles, no odd smells, no physical tells that this wasn’t just ordinary water.
He took a hesitant sip- a small one, just in case- and still nothing. It tasted like water, clean water, no dirt or minerals to hide the taste of the sedative. At least 80% sure that the water was just water, Danny downed the rest of the cup in one go, swiping the excess off of his parched lips with the back of his hand. The immediate relief on his throat was bliss, but he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. There had to be a reason they had given him that.
Superboy took the cup and got up.
Where was he going? What was he doing with that cup? Had that just been a ploy to get his DNA? No that was ridiculous, if they wanted his DNA they would just cut him open and take it. But then why did he take the cup-
Then Superboy was back, the glass refilled. Oh.
Danny took the cup gingerly, eyeing the Kryptonian curiously.
“Can you tell us your name?” Danny’s eyes snapped back to Robin as he spoke. Strange. Shouldn’t they already know his name? Agent H had known his name, boasted about it even, used it against him. Were these people attempting an opposite approach? Pretending to be friendly to lure him into a false sense of security? That sounded like something they would do, but something about that thought felt wrong in an unexplainable way. Whether they were playing a game or not, though, his name, that was a powerful thing to give to people he didn’t know. They had given their names though. Obviously they were codenames, but still, that was more than he’d gotten from previous agents. They had never introduced themselves, Danny had had to learn their names by listening to conversations. So maybe…
“My..” name is Phantom, he said. Except, he didn’t. He choked on the first word, his voice was raspy and cracked and his throat felt weirdly full as he took a sip of water and tried again. “My-” It wasn’t even a whisper. His throat was burning as if set on fire. He was moving his lips, forming the words, but nothing was coming out. Even though he could feel the air moving through his throat. Robin only looked, disappointed? Sad? As he watched Danny struggle for his words.
Danny was only vaguely aware of his breathing getting faster and faster. Each breath bringing only more fire. His hands flew up to clutch at his throat, maybe to check it was okay, maybe to stifle the increasing speed, but there was something wrong. It felt wrong, it- One of his fingers slipped into a channel, feeling the ridges where his skin met with some rubbery material.
Ancients, there was a hole in his neck.
His lungs kept pulling in air at a rapidly increased rate. Why? He was a ghost, ghosts didn’t need oxygen. It was a non-necessity and all it did was hurt. He just- he needed it to stop.
“Hey, hey, breathe for me okay?” Robin said, trying to soothe him. Danny tried to look at him, but there was a light flickering just behind his head. It was just- on and off, on and off, again and again and again and again- Danny looked away. His gaze fell on Superboy. He was glaring at Robin.
“Here, try to match my breathing, okay? In for six, hold for three, out for six. Got it? Again.” Robin was demonstrating the technique, trying to get Danny to follow along. But Danny didn’t need to breathe, he needed to stop.
“It’s okay, you’re safe. We’re at Mount Justice, the old Justice League base. We rescued you on a mission. You sustained multiple injuries from your captors. Chiefly to your voice box, we had to install a laryngectomy tube so you could breathe, but you have to calm down before you damage it further.” If Robin thought that little infodump would calm him down, the dude seriously needed to work on his people skills.
It was only by some miracle that Danny managed to get it under control. He started by matching Robin’s pace, then slowing it down until he was hardly breathing at all. For some reason that seemed to worry them more than the hyperventilating. There really was no pleasing some people. He chugged the rest of the water to hopefully relieve his throat a little.
“Hey, hey, hey, you still need to breathe, okay? You can’t just stop.’’
“Back off Rob.”
“Not now Superboy, I know what I’m doing.”
“Yeah? Well I don’t think you do. Back off a little.”
Danny flinched away from the yelling, curling back into himself just a bit more. It would be nice if they could both leave, actually. Danny had a lot to process right now, and their bickering wasn’t helping. There was already so much noise, and their voices were getting louder, and that light was still flickering just at the corner of his vision. On and off and ON and OFF and ON AND OFF AND-
The door flew open with a loud bang, there was a streak of red and white light then-
“Morning! How are you feeling dude? These two bothering you? Are you hungry? Want a snack? I have Trail mix, Mars Bars, chips, fruit leather, and a granola bar. I just came form school though so they aren’t the good ones y’know? Just the gross high calorie ones that Max makes me carry around in case of emergencies. Actually- scratch that. You probably shouldn’t eat those unless you have, like, a suuuuper fast metabolism. They might, like, destroy your liver or something. That or give you the sugar high to end all sugar highs.” The boy was in Danny’s face before he had even had time to process his arrival. A buzzing started in his ears, getting louder and louder as the boy talked, his fire engine red hair bouncing with each wide gesture he made.
Danny pressed himself further against the wall, willing his body to just go through it already. Anything to get him away from all this.
The buzzing sound hitched, then something lurched in Danny’s chest, and suddenly he was falling. Falling through the cold stone and away from the noise.
He landed in what looked like a supply closet, amongst seemingly endless rows of dusty shelves and unopened cardboard boxes. It was dark, though, and the floor was cold, the chill was grounding. The buzzing had stopped, leaving him in total silence. It was nice. He almost didn’t want to try standing or leaving. Maybe he could just stay here for a bit.
He crawled under the nearest shelf and curled up with his back pressed against a heavy crate.He shivered as his exposed skin made contact with the frigid stone. The only thing separating him from the floor was the thin hospital gown he had been changed into at some point. The front was soaked with blood and ectoplasm, which were probably the stitches he’d popped earlier. He pulled at the fabric a bit to see if that was a now problem or a later problem. He settled on later. Just the thought of getting up now made him feel nauseous.
Which meant he probably wasn’t escaping anytime soon. Even with the new knowledge that walls were not, in fact, ghost proofed, if he didn’t even have the energy to sit up and look through a few boxes, then he definitely didn’t have the energy to phase himself out of the- Robin had said they were in a mountain? Yeah, that wasn’t happening. He couldn’t even feel the ectoplasm under his skin, the ever-present, comforting hum wasn’t in his chest anymore. That buzzing had been the closest thing he’d felt to it since that third week when they had started the operations.
One hand found its way to his neck, bare fingers ghosting over the uneven ridges left behind by careless stitches. He could still smell the rubber, feel the sting of the antiseptic, see the leering grin on his face as they poked around his chest cavity, knowing just where to squeeze to force a scream.
He shook his head to dislodge the memory. Ancients, Ancients help him.
—------
He woke up later, back in the cot. The lines were returned to his arms and face. The light was still flickering. There were no people.
There was a glass of water set on the side table, next to a note.
‘We’re sorry. You are safe here. We promise.’
Danny didn’t know what to believe anymore. He crushed the paper into a ball, and threw it away.
Ahhhh, i know its been literal months since i posted the og part, but ive been working really hard on this and i finally think im ready to post it? Maybe? It will not be a quick update schedule bevause im always changing things, but i hope you all like it.
