A New Beginning

Chapter 7

Flash opened his mouth to respond to the troubling, and frankly baffling, information the young boy had just casually revealed when a flash of red light and a loud alarm rang out through the entire mountain.

Danny saw the red flash and prepared for a loud noise and managed to mentally prepare for the onslaught of noise, despite this, the commotion made him flinch violently and cover his ears habitually. He still counts it as a blessing that he managed to at least somewhat fortify his enhanced senses for the alarm, because as soon as it resonated throughout the room, the man in blue and red cried out in pain and fell to his knees clasping his hands over his ears and shutting his eyes tightly. Batman and the man in red immediately looked down the hallway for a threat or a trigger to the warning while the woman tried to help the non-human man who fell to the ground.

Danny, meanwhile, was internally panicking. As much as he hated to admit it to himself or otherwise, the random loud noise and bright flashing light was scaring him and it was forcing his mind to simultaneously stay overly aware of the present while also getting lost in the past (the lights and atmosphere was far too similar to the Seizure Test). The sensation that had been suspiciously absent since he arrived was back with a vengeance and screaming at him that something was happening, he can see that something is happening, ohmygodwhatsgoingonpleasestoppleasestop-

He was moving before he processed where exactly he was going to go.

Run. Red means bad. Red means blood. Redmeansbadredmeansbloodredmeansbadredmeans--

--he ran right into a tall figure who grabs his bicep before he could fall to the ground from the impact. Blindly Danny struggled harshly against the hand that was restraining him, keeping him from escaping the redredredredred and was able to break out of the grip on his arm and keep running.

His breathing was so quick that he partially expected his lungs to explode into nothing but useless bits of matter and tissue.

His heartbeat was pumping blood so fast throughout his body that he wouldn't be surprised if that exploded too.

He could hear every breath from every single person within a mile radius.

The dull red light seared his eyes so thoroughly that he thought he was going to go blind.

The air in the building was stifling hot and unbearably stuffy, and fuck is this even oxygen?

Then, suddenly, it stopped.

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"You bumbling idiot." The declaration echoed loudly through the small clearing just outside the mountain. The metal figure was towering over the other, green hair erupting into dangerous flames as he stared down the ghost below him with disbelief and an anger bordering on white hot fury. The grey, faceless figure was unnecessarily breathing heavily as if exhausted, but clearly unintimidated by the display.

"How was I supposed to know that they had sensors that could detect my signature?" The shapeshifter exclaimed to the hunter, his indignation equally as loud as the other's rage.

"You could have been a bit more incognito." Tucker mumbled, not wanting to get in the crossfire of Skulker's rage at the other ghost but feeling the need to interject. Sam and him watched the two from the lookout rock, occasionally glancing at the entrance to the mountain base to make sure that no one was going to rush out and attack them.

"Incognito?! Incognito?! I thrive on attention! I was being incognito."

Sam gave him a deadpan look trying to call him a moron with nothing but her eyes and body language. "You were a peacock. Amorpho, a peacock. Those things aren't just roaming around here. You could not have chosen a worse animal to be."

Amorpho looked indignant as he opened his mouth to retort and defend his wounded pride to the girl. However, luckily because he would have lost if he had truly challenged the goth to a battle of words, he was cut off by Tucker yelling.

"It doesn't matter! What does matter is finding Danny. So how are we going to--"

"Look!" Sam pointed to a small figure that darted out of the mountain and immediately collapsed right outside the entrance. However, before any of them could move to retrieve the fallen Halfa, a figure in bright yellow ran to the limp form and picked it up and carried it inside the mountain once more. The two ghosts and two humans stared at the spot that the half-ghost once occupied for a good five minutes before the dark-skinned boy jerkily stood as if he was going to run after the person that stole his friend.

"What the f--"

"Language child." Skulker scolded the boy, who hesitated.

"What the hell--" he got a look but wasn't interrupted a second time "--was that?! What do we do now?! What are we even up against?!" The boy yelled incredulously. Sam stood and turned to him, looking relieved yet reluctant to share what was on her mind. Tucker, seeing the look, turned to her as well.

"What?" He demanded. She glanced back at the spot their friend had occupied only a few moments ago.

"I...don't think he's in danger." The ghosts turned sharply to her. "That doesn't mean he's safe. But that was one of the so-called 'heroes.' They protect a few cities around the country, occasionally when there is something bigger they'll defend the entire Earth. I remember it happened once a few years back before I met Tucker, there was an attack in the city I had been staying in and one of them showed up to subdue the threat. As far as I can tell this is their HQ, or at least some sort of base of operations. Right now, he could possibly be in one of the safest places on Earth, surrounded by A-list level protection. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's completely safe. I mean, they are ill equipped to fight ghosts, and you saw how easily Amorpho just waltzed in, so Pariah Dark could do the same, walk in and take him. Then there is the GIW who is no doubt hunting him down like he's the only thing they've ever wanted in their lives. But ultimately, I'm not so sure how beneficial it would be to...remove him from the situation. Not unless you want a team of super powered or overly armored humans and aliens along with their sidekicks." She said, the ghost of a frown on her face as she tried to assess what the next move should be taking into account this new information. She wanted to march in and get Danny right now, but thinking about the situation as a whole logically, it could just cause more problems. Skulker frowned. Staring at the empty yard in front of him before sighing and rubbing the face of his exoskeleton.

"Ok. Here's what we're going to do. Amorpho, you will stay here and keep watch. I want you to make sure no ghost comes within a mile of the Halfa. If they do, call Wulf. He's currently stationed in the Far Frozen, so he'll be able to get help fast."

He turned to the two children. "You two will come back to base with me. Wait." He said when the two looked like they were going to argue. "You are coming back to the base, but you'll be helping me. We are going to regroup and decide how we shall proceed after we do more research into these heroes you speak of. But until we find out what we will do we'll set watch shifts to observe and make sure Pariah doesn't know the Halfa's location."

Tucker fumed. "So what? We're just going to leave him? You guys promised that you would get him back safely!"

Skulker sighed. "And we will. But getting him now will just result in both the GIW and the group of heroes after us on top of Pariah's army. So right now, we just have to regroup. We will get him. Eventually."