True Family

Chapter 7

After what seemed like hours, the swirling green and black faded into blinding white.

As Danny's eyes adjusted to the new lighting, he tensed as the smell of burnt wood, smoke, and dea-

Danny quickly shut his eyes and shook his head to get rid of the dark memories. 'That was a long time ago, Phantom... clear your thoughts and don't think about what happened then.'

He took in a breath and let it out slowly, this time taking in the present information from his senses. It smelled of old books and clay and the air offered little to no breeze in the old abandoned part of the city. The chilly atmosphere of fall surrounded
him as he saw the multicolored leaves scattered across the road. Danny took another deep breath, 'Welcome home, Fenton..."

"Woah! It's kinda chilly out here!" came Bart's voice.

Danny turned to see the rest of the Team walking out of the portal, the person being Zatanna, in which the portal disappeared with a minute hand swirling around it and it too disappeared.

"Whoah..." Gar whispered in awe.

"This is-"

"What is this place?" Artemis asked no one in particular.

      In front of them stood what could only be described as a devastated city, or at least a part of it. Some buildings and houses were completely down while others had missing pieces of their walls. Windows were shattered or cracked, papers and leaves littered the roads and sidewalks, cars were burnt, abandoned, crashed, or turned over, and pipes stuck up and out of the ground and buildings. The road in which they stood on was mostly clear, except for the piles of rubble that lay on the sides of the road from where buildings and houses had fallen.

Danny let out a long breath before turning around completely, in order to face everyone. "This happened awhile ago, my guess? About a year and a half after I got my powers."

"I didn't think it was this bad," Conner commented as he observed the new surroundings.

Danny only stared at him with a passive look as he replied back with, "I told you it was pretty bad..."

Dick nodded his head as if he were taking notes. "Alright, what next?"

'Time to get down to business, Phantom,' Danny thought to himself.

"If my guess is correct, then the base shouldn't be too far from here. Probably four to five blocks from here. Once we're there we can set up camp and can use it as long as we need too. Inside, there's guest rooms, food, a lab, and it's all powered by ectoplasmic energy. In other words, we don't have to worry about the electricity bill.-"

Some of the members cracked a smile at his attempt to lighten up the mood.

"But I do have to warn you that if a ghost shows up, you need to stay out of the fight. Until we reach the warehouse and get you the right tech, you won't be able to fight the ghosts here very effectively. Yes, you may have sparred and fought against me before, but you need to remember what I told you awhile ago. These ghosts are a little bit different than I am.."

Everyone frowned at the thought of not being able to help in a fight, but they all eventually agreed to Phantom's warning.

"Oh, and one more thing-," Phantom said as he pulled the hood up on his cloak, the rest of the Team following his lead and also going into stealth modes, "Whatever you hear from the ghosts? Don't listen to them. As I've also explained before, I have a lot of enemies here as well as allies, and some of them fight you both physically and emotionally. So no matter what they say or do, stay hidden until I've given the all clear."