A New Beginning

Chapter 26

"Meet Pariah's Army" The words echoed through the room. After a moment to process, Batman started to move. He reached up to remove the Halfa from his shoulders, the boy allowing the action without resistance, and placed him on the ground. Waving a hand at his protege, he nudged the confused hybrid to his brother.

"Robin, take Danny and get to the war room. The rest of you go with them," he ordered before turning to Flash, "go find the others. Now." The oldest speedster nodded and took off to gather the other heroes while the Young Justice team took off in the direction of the conference room.

Robin gripped his brother's hand tightly, his face blank and serious beneath the mask. Danny looked up at Robin, a small crease between his eyebrows.

"What's going on?" Robin looked down at him but didn't answer.

When they got to the room, there were three figures inside. Robin recognized one of them immediately.

"Skulker." Said robot ghost turned towards the group of teenagers. The look on his face was grave and his eyes flicked from Robin to the youngest Bat before settling on the Boy Wonder.

"Pariah moved in sooner than expected, we had thought he wasn't powerful enough to induce a natural portal for his army, but we hadn't foreseen him obtaining a portal by other means."

"What do you mean?" Wally spoke up.

"He's made an alliance, with the GIW. They provided him with the prototype of a ghost portal, which Pariah fueled to let his forces through. He himself had come through a natural portal but those are never stable or big enough for more than a few ghosts to go through at a time. Regardless, he's begun his invasion and we are officially out of time. We need to move. Now." Robin's expression grew glacial when he saw the robotic spectral's eyes dart to the smallest of the group and he pushed his little brother behind him.

"Then go inform the league. We are not participating on the offensive, we are staying here to protect Danny and defend civilians while the league subdues the threat." Skulker took a step closer threateningly, a glare and a scowl firmly etched onto the metal face but Robin didn't waver.

"Your selfishness and stubbornness are impressive, child, but unless you want your pathetic little planet to become your worst nightmare, then you will let the prophetic fight happen. The Halfa is the only one that can take down the tyrant." At the mention of his species, Danny peeked around Robin's body to look up at the increasingly angry ghost. His mind was racing a mile a minute as he processed the series of events.

"He's eleven! He's not all-powerful! I'm not going to let you throw him in the middle of a bloody, violent war with a practically-invulnerable ghost!"

The GIW partnered with a tyrant ghost king and his army, whose only goal was to conquer the human realm and increase his wealth of power. If that's the case, what does the GIW get out of this arrangement? They may be lower than human, but they lived on this plane of existence. Having a ghost army take over and enslave the living would be problematic for them. Maybe they were offered immunity? That can't be it, the GIW is a group run by narcissists with an extreme superiority complex, they would never ask or accept a deal like that because that would imply that the army is stronger than them. So, what could Pariah offer them while also benefiting himself?

Oh.

Danny's the only threat to him and his pursuit for power. The GIW have been trying to get him back since he was rescued. All the while, the attack was a surprise, and that left the only people who could possibly stand a chance, the group of heroes, blindsided as well as horrendously outnumbered. Danny was young, traumatized, and naive to the world, he had no hope of fighting off both the ghost army and the GIW. Pariah's best bet, strategically, is to eliminate the halfa before he could prepare, but the GIW would doubtlessy interfere unless they were offered something in exchange for their cooperation.