Chapter 15: Best Friend

Disclaimer: I own nothing

"A real friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

Walter Winchell

Chapter 15: "Best Friend"

(Sunday-March 2, 2014)

Nocturne scowled as he dismissed the shade of Technus and glared down at the central base below him, "They managed to cut the power."

"But they did have to sacrifice two of the Marvel heroes completely," Hotep Ra noted, "That will please Lord Nekron."

Aragon sneered, "He won't be pleased, however, when he finds out that nobody died."

"Not necessarily," Hotep Ra placed up a calming hand, "The batteries in the four surrounding bases have too much backed up energy and are sure to explode. That will out hundreds of people."

"True…" Nocturne stroked his chin, "And none of them are really necessary for the next step with Trigon…"

"Exactly. We have succeeded in our mission. It's time to leave and let the rest of the cards lie where they may," Hotep Ra nodded at his comrades, "Walker should be done right about now anyway. Let's go."

"What about this?" Nocturne held out the Mirror of Memories.

"We can just give it to Lord Nekron," Aragon noted with a shrug, "He can do with it as he pleases."

"Agreed. He—"

Nocturne let out a hiss as the mirror suddenly began to burn his hand. He immediately let go of the ancient object out of instinct to stop the pain. To the surprise of all three of the Black Lanterns, the mirror did not fall. It floated in mid-air and began to emit a low green glow.

"Hehehehe…I knew he'd be back…"

"What?" Aragon raised an eyebrow at the mirror, "What is this sorcery?"

"Nekron was a fool to have you use me…" A low whisper echoed off the mirror, "Now, I know everything I need to. You will not destroy the joy from this world…"

"Stop it!" Hotep Ra roared as he lunged for the mirror. He was too late, though. In a blaze of green energy, the mirror flew off to the distance, well out of their grasp.

Nightwing had long since gotten over his desire for superpowers. It was something he secretly struggled with when he was younger. After all, all of his original teammates except for Artemis had powers, and that made it hard to keep up with them. Eventually, though, he got over such feelings. Not everyone had to be a powerhouse to contribute to the mission. Nevertheless, there were moments of relapses.

Like right now where he was surrounded on all sides by giant shadow cats while trying to defend a bunch of Amazons that were having their energy stolen. Yeah, it would nice to have powers in moments like this.

Flipping around the legs of the giant cats, Nightwing tried to use very gadget in his arsenal to try and take the cats down. Shuriken, explosives, and even his electric weaponry failed to do anything other than draw their attention to him. This was both good and bad. It was good because it drew attention away from the Amazons, but it was bad because the giant cats were now trying to kill him.

"Someone please tell me that you found a weakness!?" Nightwing questioned as he dodged the giant animal's attacks.

"Nope!" Bumblebee shouted as she tried to zap the animals down, "My equipment's isn't working."

"Aim for the mouths!" Batgirl exclaimed as she threw explosive baterangs at the beast's mouths.

"We already know that!" Robin stood defensively in front of the Amazons as he tried to fight off some of the smaller beasts, "But we're lacking the fire power to get this done!"

That wasn't exactly true. The Amazons did have enough power to fight against the giant beasts. Unfortunately, they were too busy having their lives sucked from them to do anything. In that moment, Nightwing truly thought it was the end. He couldn't think of a way out of this other than an outright miracle.

Luckily, a miracle was what he got.

Kid Flash felt fatigue run through him just like he ran around the legs of the monsters. He desperately tried to keep their attention on him while Artemis and Red Arrow tried to take them down. Their arrows didn't do a lot to deter the beasts though. Not like La'gaan. It seemed that his magically enhanced body seemed to be highly effective against the shadow beasts.

Even he was only one person, though, and couldn't take on a small army by himself. With him quickly being overwhelmed, Kid knew that they couldn't hold out for long. As soon as he thought that, though, everything stopped.

At a speed that even Kid Flash couldn't follow, the giants cats disappeared. One moment they were there. The next moment, they were not there, gone into nonexistence. He wasn't the only one shocked by this. Artemis and Red Arrow paused in mid arrow and blinked at the space of nothingness in front of them. La'gaan's reaction beat them all considering how he fell from his space on what used to be a demon feline's back and onto the floor.

"Arg…What happened? Is this a trick?" La'gaan let out a groan as he pealed himself off the ground.

Red Arrow looked behind him to see that the Atlantian's were no longer screaming. Not only that, the energy strings connecting to the battery, "No, I think they managed to cut the power at the source."

"That's great," Artemis looked ready to smile but stopped when she looked up to the large battery in the room. It was glowing a bright read and was sparking, "But…"

"The battery is still overheating," Kid Flash finished as he frowned at the battery.

"What does that mean?" Damon questioned as a now perfectly functioning Red X examined the main console once again.

"It means that there is still too much energy in the battery. It was never meant to filter so much at once, liking trying to fit a grape through a straw instead of grape juice," Red X explained.

"And that pretty much ruins the straw," Rocket noted as she looked over the downed Homo Magi, "Of course, straws don't blow up."

"So that means we can finally focus on getting out of here?" Metallo let out a groan that seemed fitting considering that he was literally picking up his arm off the floor.

Red X turned back to examined the wall of black energy. The machine held out a gun and fired at the dark energy. The bullets bounced off the wall harmlessly, "I thought so. I did some tests on the energy, well…the best I could in the situation. None of my weaponry is prepared to cut through it. Neither are any of your weapons."

"So, we're trapped in here with a ticking time bomb," Damon frowned deeply, "What do we do?"

"There really isn't anything we can do. The size of the explosion would shatter any shields we make," Red X stated without an ounce of audible emotion, "Any attempts to stop the explosion or guard ourselves would prove fruitless."

"So what do we do?"

"Hope for another miracle."

(Play: This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars)

"No…" Klarion looked down at Phantom and saw a figure that he had hoped never to see again. The white energy bleeding into Phantom's normal green spread out behind him. Klarion saw giant wings white as snow spread out from a skeletal figure that could only be compared to that of an angel, "Not you! NONONONONONONONONONONO! Why are you in him?! What did you do?!"

"What is he talking about?" Jinx whispered as Phantom placed her down on her feet.

Phantom was silent. He just placed a hand on her shoulder. The white halo around him spread to her and covered her in a similar protective glow.

"NO! I won't let you ruin the chaos like you did before! I had my dream once! Pure chaos! Total anarchy! Then you messed it by spreading Life!" Klarion screamed out insanely.

Jinx was too enamored by the halo surrounding her. She felt warmth and power like she never knew cover her in a blanket of protection. This is what ascended ectoplasm was like, but she didn't understand something, "How did you do this? You can give your power to other people."

Klarion attacked before Phantom could answer. With a roar of rage, he thrusted his arms forward and sent a concentrated beam of energy at the duo. Jinx went to react but paused when she saw that Phantom didn't look worried at all. To her shock, the energy blast seemed to shrink significantly as it flew towards. She was then amazed as the energy covering them spread out and protected them from the blast that was insignificant compared to Klarion's previous efforts.

"What?!" Klarion stared at his hands in horror, "The energy stopped!"

Phantom lifted a single hand towards the Lord of Chaos. A similar beam of energy burst out from the halfa's hand. Klarion tried to create a shield of his own to stop the burst, but it was instantly shattered. Klarion was quickly consumed by the blast and disappeared into specks of dust.

Jinx looked to her lover, "Danny, what's going on?"

Danny was whispering something that Jinx could barely hear, "…Darkest night…Life's fight…Beware the Phantom…"

"Danny!" Jinx' shout pulled Phantom out of his gaze.

"W-What?" Phantom blinked at her. Then, he looked at the energy covering both of them, "What's going on? Ascended ectoplasm, but…Death isn't near…"

"So you have no idea what's going on?" Jinx frowned at the ghost.

"No…" Phantom's head turned as he felt Klarion begin to reform across the room, "But I don't think we're going to have time to figure it out."

"But you just kicked his ass," Jinx argued.

"Maybe. But that was a fluke. He's already gotten his power back under control," Phantom noted as he looked at his glowing fist, "This time, though. I don't think we'll have any trouble holding him off."

Spirit slid from her spot on the wall and crumbled to the floor in a heap. Every part of her body hurt. She was sure that if she was a normal human, she would be dead many times over. The same could be said for her friends. Luckily, they all had endurance that by far surpassed that of a normal human. That still didn't stop their groans of pain as they pushed themselves up for what seemed like the hundredth time today.

When they were all finally up, they managed to see the great change. All the giant shadow beasts had disappeared. The giant battery in the room was no longer humming with life. Not only that, Nyx had stopped her screaming was just hanging in mid-air as her shadows continued to flow off of her.

"What…What happened?" Raven questioned.

"Hey!" Freddy yelled from the top of the battery, "We shut down the power!"

"You did?" Cyborg looked at a loss for words.

"Yeah!" Marry peaked up over the edge, "Nyx shouldn't be getting pumped full of energy anymore!"

"But she's still spazzing out," Youngblood noted.

It was true, Nyx's form was still trembling unnaturally. Tears still streamed down her face as she gritted her teeth from the pain. Her shadows were still whipping around wildly in the air, while some of it continued to pore down into the acid like shadows below her. Not only that, the strings on her back were glowing and staying strong.

"She's no longer getting energy pumped in and out of her," Raven noted, "But the strings are still holding the overabundance of magic in her. Like an over inflated balloon that's stretched past its limit. We need to drain out the air, err…magic, or she'll pop."

"So cut the strings and let the energy drain out of her?" Spirit questioned.

"Yes."

"AAAAHHH!" Nyx let out another scream as she flared around in agony once more. Out of sheer instinct, she pushed her energy out of her body, and the storm around her continued once more. At least this time, though, the magic pulse was weaker and there were no giants cats in the way.

"We'll try to get these guys free to help you!" Mary called out down to them.

"We'd help ourselves, but we're kind of powerless at the moment!" Freddy exclaimed as he and Mary went to get the other magic users free.

"What are the chances they'll get those guys free in time?" Youngblood questioned.

"Very low without their powers," Cyborg noted, "And even if they do get free, they'll probably be too exhausted to help."

"But they still gave us one last chance," Spirit's eyes were as hard as steel, "And I won't let that go to waste! One more time! We're coming, Nyx!"

Dusk desperately clutched at Teekl's neck, pushing her away as the demon cat tried to force her teeth down to his neck. The cat's enhanced strength quickly beat out Dusk's own physical power. He could feel her teeth against the skin of his neck, ready to tear in a moment's notice. He desperately tried to think of a way to stop the cat, but he couldn't think of any way that wouldn't kill the cat.

..And he…He couldn't bring himself to do that. Even as he heard the Fright Knight and Black Bat continue to scream at him, he refused to create a blade in his hands to try to kill the cat. His reason and desire for survival argued that there was nothing wrong with killing those that wanted him dead, but his soul ached too much at the thought of robbing anything of its right to exist.

Many different people had often asked what he would do in a similar situation. The truth was he never knew. That was the reason he had avoided Ocean Master on this mission. Seeing Aquaman's dead son…it was the one time Dusk ever felt the need to kill, and if it came to a situation where Dusk had the chance to kill Ocean Master to save the toddler, he might have.

This, though…It wasn't him. Maybe he was just too weak. Dusk didn't know. He just knew that he wouldn't kill to save himself. That was his answer to all the questions. This was who he was and no matter what anyone said, he couldn't change that.

Looking to the side, he saw Fright Knight and Black Bat lash out. It seems their captors had been too enthralled in the situation and let their guard slip for a fracking of a second. Black Bat flipped Ravager off of her and desperately lunged for a knife to through at the cat. Fright Knight, on the other hand, kicked Deathstroke's gun away, floated in the air so he bring his tied wrists underneath his feet to have them at least able to move a little, and then went for his sword.

They would be too late. Dusk already knew this because Ravager and Deathstroke were already attacking them again. There was no way to get past them long enough to save him. He was dead…

"RAW!" Cujo roared as he bit into Teekl's neck. With a roar of her own, Teekl fought back. She desperately scratched at the ghost dog. They fought for a few seconds before finally rolling off of Dusk.

Dusk didn't know what happened after that. He had been temporarily blinded during their scuffle. Something had dripped into his eyes, and he didn't know what. Dusk desperately rubbed at the ooze that blocked his vision. After a few rubs, he rapidly blinked to regain his sight enough to look at what dripped on him.

It was blood.

Green blood covered his arms, and it wasn't his own.

Terror now thumping in his chest, Dusk whirled to Cujo and Teekl's fight. He immediately wished he hadn't. Without someone to help him, Cujo lost badly. Various cuts covered his body. Teekl was biting into his shoulder and flinging him around causing blood to fling around all over the area from the stone walls to Dusk himself. After a few more spins, the cat slammed her enemy on the ground and got Cujo in the same spot that Dusk was in seconds earlier.

The only difference was that Dusk couldn't make it in time. As he tried to right himself, Dusk could only watch as Teekl's mouth wrapped around Cujo's throat. Then, with a giant jerk of her head, she tore her mouth away and a large chunk of Cujo's skin with it. Cujo's mouth opened widely for a large screech of pain that would haunt most men's nightmares. Dusk didn't hear it though.

Silence. That was all Dusk heard despite the vast amount of noise around him. The battles, the shouts of pain, the miniature war…they all meant nothing to him anymore. Right here, right now, all the ghoul cared about was what was happening in front of his eyes.

Blood…

There was so much blood…

Could a body even hold that much blood? Dusk didn't think so. Yet, there it was, and it was everywhere. It stained his clothes. It covered the ground. It was even on…that thing...that demon.

This what not what he planned. Dusk never intended for things to go like this. He was trying to preserve life, not be the cause of its end. It was too late now. The blood had been spilt. The monster was ready to go for the kill, and Dusk was helpless to stop it.

Staring at the demon, Dusk felt something odd. He felt anger. He felt outrage. He felt hatred.

This…was hatred. What Dusk was feeling was the desire to see another being's existence. He wanted the monster to leave and never return. Not only that, he wanted it to suffer…Yes, he was going to make this thing suffer.

"You…" Dusk pushed himself to his knees. "I…want to…kill you."

That was a horrifying thought. Dusk was a pacifist. He went out of his way to prevent violence and death. Now, though, all he wanted to do was to cause pain and suffering. The halfa should be disgusted, but, instead, he was eager. He wanted this thing dead.

"I'm going to kill you…I'm going to kill you…" Dusk merely whispered at first. It was like he was dipping his toe in the water, but now he was going in for the cannonball. With all the venom he could muster, the halfa yelled, "I'm going to kill you!"

"Why are you still here?" Gizmo growled over his shoulder at the Royal Flush Gang, "You already handled the robots and the weird cat things are gone, so get out of here."

"He has a point," King noted, "We should be retreating Ace."

"We know that you want to get revenge on the Light, but all the members here are pretty much dead already," Jack spoke up.

"I know. It's not my decision to stay…" Ace gave a sideways glance to Lydia.

"Come on, Lydia! It's not enough with how many earfuls we get from you, now you're going to make us risk our skins for something stupid?" Queen rolled her eyes at the ghost.

"I can't," Lydia shook her head, "I can't just leave when I know I can do something to help save lives. I have enough regrets as it is."

"She has a point, it would be totally lame of us to just skip out," Ten shrugged.

"Oh, you refer to her as she, but I'm called a dude," Queen grumbled to herself.

Ten held his hands up in surrender, "Hey! We're all dudes. It's just the context of the sentence."

"Would you morons shut up!?" Gizmo glared at them before he looked up to Undergrowth, "I'm going to release you in a second. Feel free to go nuts on the island, but don't expect to get far. This island will blow in a few minutes."

"What are my chances of getting to the other bases in time to save the other captives?" Undergrowth questioned down at the hacker.

"Oh, you could get there in time. Good luck getting through the barriers around the place," Gizmo noted.

"Barriers?" Lydia's eyes widened.

"Yep. There's one around all three of the other perimeter bases," Gizmo explained as he rapidly typed onto his keyboard, "There used to be around this base too, but it dropped. I think whoever did it didn't want to tempt me to sacrifice myself for the greater good. Best to take down three bases worth of people instead of us."

"So…Those people are going to die no matter what?" Ace blinked at the boy.

"Yep. We'll be good, though. Just as soon as I shut down the battery," Gizmo grinned. With a few final key strokes he would be ready to shut down the entire base. Just as he was about to hit the final button, Lydia reached out and grabbed his hand, "What the hell are you doing?"

"If you shut this base down, there will be no way to help the others, right?" Lydia questioned.

"Yes, now let go of me!" Gizmo demanded.

"No, you have to save them," Lydia glared at him.

"I already told you, to do that, I would have to reroute the power here," Gizmo sneered at her, "That will cause a big boom, and all of except Undergrowth will die."

"I can turn us intangible," Lydia argued.

"Magic nullifies your intangibility, and guess what type of energy the battery is filled with," Gizmo tried to yank his arm free, "The big green guy can regenerate from any type of damage, but not all of us are so lucky. There's no surviving for us if I reroute the power."

"That's a good enough argument for me!" King quickly began to backpedal.

"Yeah! Come on, team! A tactical retreat seems like the best option!" Jack agreed and quickly followed after his old partner from the GIW.

Ten and Queen were right behind them, "Come on, Ace."

Ace continued to stare at the computer. Her expression was unreadable, and her eyes were unflinching, "Go. We'll catch up."

The remaining members of the group shared a look, "But…"

"Go. Get far enough away from the blast. We'll meet you there so don't come back," Ace stated, "That's an order."

There was another shared look, "Okay…Just hurry…"

Ace nodded as they left, but she still didn't turn to watch them go, "Is it possible for you to show us what to do?"

Gizmo snorted, "How long to show you how to run my equipment and work through highly protected firewalls? About five years. Don't tell me you're going to start nagging me too."

"No. I have no right to lecture anyone," Ace closed her eyes gained a twinge of regret on her face, "I just sympathize with victims of the Light's plans."

Gizmo frowned. He gave Ace a hard look, "Yeah…I bet." The hacker then looked down at where Lydia was holding his wrist, "I sympathize with them too. No one has a choice where they're set in life, but to have someone come in and control your life…tell you who you are and what you're gonna be…It sucks."

Lydia raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not a hero. I never was despite what they wanted…" Gizmo whispered to himself, "I want to be selfish. I want to have fun. I want to live."

"Then live," Ace opened her eyes and looked at him, "That's fine with me. I won't criticize you for running. That's in human nature."

Lydia gained a saddened look. She released Gizmo's wrist and looked away. It was wrong to try and force Gizmo to be what she wanted him to be. No one had the right to demand he sacrifice his life for other people.

"Human nature…" Gizmo scoffed and eyed his keyboard, "It's human nature that made me be a shut-in hacker. It's human nature that made so many people victims of the Light. It's human nature that made your sister betray you. Human nature sucks balls. I think there should be something better than that crap."

With that, Gizmo began to type on his keyboard once more, "Sorry, Undergrowth! You'll have to wait a bit! You'll get free, right after I be a complete moron and save a bunch of ungrateful asswipes!"

Ace's eyes snapped open and towards the hacker, "You'll save them?"

"Well, I can't just let them die and go back to playing video games all day," Gizmo shrugged, "Every time someone died in the game, I'd feel guilty. Besides, I think I've been selfish enough for most of my life. They better build a goddamn statue for this, though, or I will be soooo pissed…"

"Why…why did you change your mind?" Lydia questioned.

"Pretty girls my age were always my weakness," Gizmo gave her a nervous grin, "Just…go, Andromeda, Lydia. Only I need to stay here. No one else needs to die for this."

David Cain took deep, heavy breaths as he pushed himself to keep running. He was covered in blood. Some of it was from his enemies. Some of it was his own. He was sure the amounts, but guessing from the gashes that covered his arms, he could assume the ooze running down to his hands was his own.

Fatigue and blood made him dizzy. Those assassins proved to be better than he thought. Maybe he was just too mad and in a hurry so he got sloppy. It was probably both actually, but there was no time to think about it. He could barely see straight, but he forced himself to keep moving.

Luckily, his targets didn't bother to cover their tracks. They wanted to get away from this island before anything could go wrong. Cain couldn't blame them. The entire place seemed ready to blow. He could only hope that the other squads didn't mess up.

Hope, however, wasn't something he could rely on with Shiva. The Shadows were not known for mercy, especially for traitors. If he didn't get to her in time…His prediction would come true.

"Please, just come with me," Cain pleaded, "The Shadows are self-righteous pricks. You might think they'll provide protection, but eventually you'll realize that both you and Cass will want more than assholes telling you what to do every day in the name of bettering the world."

Shiva held a baby Cassandra close to her chest, "Perhaps, but I can't think that far ahead right now. I have to worry about the present. I have to provide with Cassandra and keep her safe from both of our enemies."

"We can keep her safe! Just…It will be harder…A lot harder…" Cain gave her a pleading look, "Please, I don't want to see you get killed because you worked for these bastards."

"I'm sorry, David, but you'll have to just go without us," Shiva turned away from him, "I know you can't join the Shadows. I understand that, so I won't ask you to stay. So go. I'll take care of Cassandra. You won't have to worry about us."

"Damn it! I would worry about you no matter what," Cain hissed as he forced himself to run faster, despite the sharp pain in his legs, "Why the hell didn't you just come with me!?"

Vision felt the change in the air. It was a subtle change, but she felt it. The constant flow of magic had stopped. She didn't know what had happened, but something had changed. The change in the air was the first thing she felt, but the result was what she cared about the most. Ocean Master flinched.

It wasn't a big flinch, but Vision saw it. For a single moment, he stopped his attack. The pressure tearing away the muscle in her arm disappeared. That was all she needed to escape. Pushing the villain away with her foot, Vision gained enough distance to free her arms. No longer trapped, she ducked under the trident and rammed her forehead into the opening on Ocean Master's helmet. This caused the Atlantian to real in pain and gave Vision a few precious seconds to get away.

Using her superior leg strength, Vision pushed off of Ocean Master's body to give her a boost towards the surface. Combining that with her own flight, Vision quickly burst out of the water and into the safety of the air. Not one to fall for a trap twice, Vision made sure to fly all the way to the ceiling to avoid getting grabbed by the water once more.

Looking to her torn and blood soaked arm, Vision knew by the look and lack of feeling from the limbs that they were useless for the rest of the fight. That would have made this harder, if she didn't have a backup plan. Here newest strategy wasn't really battle tested, but if there was ever a time for field testing, it was now.

"Time to see if my plan to stop Greed will pay off in other ways…" Vision noted as she sent a surge of energy through her robes. Her clothes instantly flared with her ectoplasm, dividing into long strands and wrapping around her body. Soon, her body completely covered from the neck down in purple wrap that hugged her like a second skin. The tighter clothing showed curves that she usually reserved for only her fiancé's eyes, but everything was secure enough to avoid incident that would lead to embarrassment.

Ocean Master had swiftly appeared at the surface once more. Rubbing his bleeding lip, he sneered up at the woman, "A change of clothes? How is dressing like that going to help you?"

"Personally, I enjoy how I dress. Personal preference, but…" Vision smiled down at him. A strand of her cloth jumped off the rest of the wraps and tied itself around her hair to pull the golden locks into a pony tail, "I can see the benefits of changing up my style every now and then. Let me show."

Controlling the cloth around her arms to compensate for the lack of feeling in the limbs, Vision waved her hands to form eight large balls of ectoplasm to hover behind her. She then flew down towards the Atlantian, the balls of ectoplasm following right after her.

"Fool!" Ocean Master screamed as he pointed his trident up at the woman. Four giant sharks made of water followed his command and shot up Vision from four different sides. To Ocean Master's surprise, the woman did nothing to dodge his attacks. She didn't change her course at all, and the balls of energy lagged behind her too far to protect her.

To the Atltantian's further surprise, Vision let the sharks slam into her. The ghost's form was completely covered in the water laced with magic. An explosion of water soon followed, and Ocean Master was met with a small downpour of water. Through the water, though, he was surprised for a third time when Vision appeared in front of him and actually punched him across the face.

The surprise was even furthered when his helmet shattered.

He never got the chance to try to make sense of the situation, though. Vision quickly grabbed him and flung him into the air. Clenching his fist, Ocean Master ordered the water right below Vision to attack. Hundreds of hands made of water quickly formed and grabbed at Vision. They latched onto the woman's body and tried to drag her back to the depths below.

That never happened, though. For some reason, the water exploded and shattered from purple explosions that jumped from the woman's clothes. Ocean Master was so shocked by this, he couldn't prepare as Vision flew up to meet him in the air and ram a fist into his stomach. Just like with his helmet, the armor shattered from Vision's blow and caused the Atlantian to cough in a combination of pain and lack of air.

Deciding to not allow a follow up attack, Ocean Master thrusted his trident at the woman. Just like when she was beneath the water, Vision brought up an arm to protect herself. This time, though, the trident stopped around as soon as it met Vision's clothed arm. Even worse was what followed. Vision grabbed the end of the trident and then shattered it with a show of raw power that Ocean Master knew that she didn't previously have.

It was around then that Ocean Master realized that he might have underestimated Vision's change in wardrobe. Well, it was more the fact that Vision followed up by shattering his arm at the elbow and kneeing him so hard in the stomach that he began to cough up blood. Truth be told, he was too distracted by the pain to decide when he came to the realization.

The secret behind Vision's newly found fighting style and ability was simple. She had developed a way to lace her cloth with her ectoplasm. Originally, her intent was to protect herself from Greed. She had complete and utter control over her ectoplasm. No one could take her from that, even Trigon's forces. So, lacing her clothes with her ectoplasm at a microscopic level would leave give her complete control over her clothes. An added bonus was the way she could control her own body like a puppet if Greed ever tried to control her body directly.

There were other benefits to the change as well. Vision always lacked the physical strength that other S-rank ghosts, most ghosts actually, had. As such, she preferred to fight at a distance, using tricks and distractions, and by using her control over her ectoplasm to her advantage. The reinforced strength of her cloth, however, gave her a boost of power that gave her an edge in close range fighting that she never had before this development.

Vision let out a grin. Her comment about a change in style referred far more to her clothing.

"Damn you!" Ocean Master's voice scratched as he screeched at the woman. Using his free hand, he commanded all the water below him to jump up to attack the woman. He was expecting a large pool to heed his command, but instead he got a few puddles that did nothing to damage Vision's reinforced cloth, "What?!"

He then realized that the balls of energy that had been following Vision had long since disappeared. A quick glance around the perimeter showed him what happened. Vision had commanded the balls of ectoplasm to create dozens of holes around the edges of the base, draining the pool and leaving him without his greatest weapon.

Vision grabbed his arm and held him in place, "I never stop thinking ahead, Ocean Master. You should have kept an eye on your surroundings. I know I did." With that said, Vision's cloth reached up and began to completely wrap around her face, covering everything but her mouth.

A glowing to the side caused Ocean Master to look to see that the balls of energy had combined into one large orb about the size of a truck…a truck that was heading at them.

"By the way, my own attacks can't hurt me like this," With that, the cloth wrapped over Vision's mouth, leaving her completely covered in her enhanced cloth. Ocean Master desperately tried to get away, but his efforts were in vain. Vision didn't allow him to move as the giant sphere of ectoplasm smashed into them and covered the base in a massive explosion.

Superboy had been in a lot of crazy fights in his relatively short existence. Those fights ranged from large behemoths to people that controlled reality itself. This instance took the cake though. He was trying to rescue a thousand year old demon being held by a Black Lantern ex-jailer and a French, rubber woman assassin all the while being protected by a dimension controlling ghost that was safely sitting half way around the world. If Superboy actually said that sentence out loud, he was sure that he would burst out laughing.

This was no laughing matter, though. As soon as Superboy jumped to grab Etrigan, Walker moved to get in his way. Poindexter created a wall between them to stop the jailer, but it only stopped the ghost for a second. With a roar, Walker pushed through the wall and caused the energy to break apart like bricks. He did this just in time to grab Superboy's legs right before he managed to get to Etrigan. The ghost then flung the clone away so he could handle the other heroes in the room.

Just as Superboy left Walker's hand, the steel below suddenly jumped up and completely wrapped itself around his entire body. M'gann held her hand out towards the ghost. Her eyes glowed a bright green as she used her telekinesis to control the steel so that it was crushing the ex-jailer. Her open palm slowly began to close in her attempt to hold Walker.

A sucker punch from Madame Rogue sent the Martian tumbling to the ground and allowed the metal to fall to the ground away from Walker. Rogue was about to follow up on her attack to make sure Miss Martian didn't get up, when she was interrupted by Beast Boy once more. In the form of a rhino, he smashed into the assassin, sending her flying away. As she landed, Poindexter created a cage around the assassin to keep her from moving.

Walker didn't let the cage stay, though. He blasted the cage holding the woman away with his ring hand. With his fake hand, Walker grabbed out to Beast Boy. The energy hand blasted off of his arm and grew to the size of the rhino. It grabbed onto the young hero and held him in place. Beast Boy then tried to change his shape to escape, but that didn't matter. From a mouse to an elephant, the hand changed its size and continued to hold the boy in place.

"RAW!" Superboy jumped onto Walker's back and tried to drag the ghost down. Walker just reached back with his free hand, grabbed Superboy, and threw him away again.

After few skips, Superboy landed on his back and let out a groan. With his shirt torn, the light bruises around his torso was open for the world to see. It seems that he found something besides Kryptonite and magic that could hurt him. He'd have to warn Superman about the Black Lantern rings.

Pushing himself back up, Superboy surveyed the situation. Luckily, the steam of energy seemed to stop, so Etrigan had stopped yelling in pain. That meant they were no longer on a time limit, and Poindexter's assistance was helping them, but they still hadn't managed to get Etrigan free.

"Poindexter! This isn't working!" Superboy shouted.

"I know. I'm not as strong as Master Scribe was, and I'm being pressed trying to push through the interference," Poindexter noted, "But don't worry. I was just helping until the real help arrived."

"Real help? You said that before. What real help are you talking about?"

Just as Superboy said that, a small blast of ectoplasm blazed through the wall behind Superboy. The green shooting star sailed by Superboy and flew to the center of the room. It then froze in mid-air and spread ectoplasm all across the area.

"Hehehehehe! Time for some fun!" Light laughter jumped out of the shining object as green smoke spread across the room and began to take the shape of what appeared to be a circus ring.

"I was talking about this. The real power of the Mirror of Memories."

Phantom rushed towards Klarion. His fist swung forward and rammed into Klarion's head before the Lord of Chaos could react to it. His glowing white fist completely obliterated the magic user's head. Even without a head, though, the body continued to move. Giant claws of magic burst from Klarion's fingers. He then swung the claws wildly at the halfa. None of the attacks did any damage, though. Phantom merely raised his arms and blocked the claws. Sparks of energy flared each time Klarion's magical claws met Phantom's green and white ectoplasm.

In a burst of red, Klarion's head reformed. His jaw quickly unhinged itself and extended. Massive fangs burst from his mouth as the magic user tried to literally bite the ghost's head off. Before Klarion could do that, though, Jinx popped up behind Klarion. She shoved a fist of combined energy through her enemy's chest. Klarion arched in pain, and Jinx used this to her advantage.

Grabbing onto the Lord of Chaos's head, she flipped him over so that she was straddling his back. Jinx then surged her bad luck magic into Klarion's chest. The combination of pink and white energy spread out all around Klarion's body and eventually began to burst out at various points across his body, creating several black openings that let black smoke escape from the male magic user.

As Jinx flipped off of him, Klarion tried to fix his body. Phantom didn't allow him to do that, though. Placing a hand on Klarion's head, Phantom flash froze the Lord of Chaos. Now only able to move his eyes, Klarion looked around frantically and then shattered the ice holding him. His body then extended. His limbs and torso all grew longer so that he looked like a deformed stick figure. Dark tentacles jumped out of his back as Klarion hissed at them.

Jinx responded by completely destroying Klarion in a giant blast of energy.

Klarion's distorted form quickly reformed, "Ha! That won't—"

Phantom responded by completely destroying Klarion in a giant blast of energy.

Klarion reformed again, "Quit interrupting—"

This time, both Phantom and Jinx destroyed Klarion in a blaze of their combined energy.

"Stop it!" Klarion let out a roar as his body reformed in its natural state. He was seething so badly that actual steam was floating off of his form, "I'll kill you…What?"

Klarion's form began to flicker a bit. It reminded his enemies of television channel struggling to keep its signal.

"Looks Teekl is done for," Jinx smirked at the Lord of Chaos. She walked up to the other magical user and kicked him back. He was sent rolling backwards and then landed face down on the floor. As he tried to push himself up, Phantom strode up in front of Jinx and signaled for her to stay back.

"Gah…No…" Klarion's face went purple as he began to scream out like a child, "No! I refuse to lose like this!"

"You don't have a choice in the matter, Witch Boy," Phantom took a deep breath and then opened his mouth for his strongest attack, the Ghostly Wail.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Nyx's shadows twirled around her like a concentrated hurricane. Spirit's squad threw almost everything they had at the spinning shadows, but they had yet to create a gap for them to enter. Of course, it would help if they weren't completely exhausted right now, but they had fought through fatigue in many of their past fights. What made matters really worse was that Nyx seemed to be out of time. Cracks appeared around her body, allowing even more magic to escape.

Raven seemed to have enough of not getting any results. Her anger flared into her powers. She flooded all her remaining energy into one attack. With a shout of her signature spell, she created a large raven made of magic to ram itself into the shadow tornado. At first, it struggled against the shield, but after a few moments, it forced its way pass the mixture of magic and ectoplasm and spread its wings to create and opening.

Youngblood decided to follow Raven's example for an all-out attack. Pointing both his hook and his peg leg towards the opening, he transformed the prosthetics into weapons and then combined them. He pointed the massive cannon at the girl and opened fire. A giant ectoplasmic cannon ball shot through the opening. Nyx's energy acted on its own, though, and created a small sphere around the girl to protect her from the damage.

In a giant explosion, the tornado around Nyx was suddenly dispersed. As the ectoplasm rained down, the sphere containing Nyx began to crack from the force of the blast. Cyborg quickly took advantage of this moment of weakness. Aiming his sonic cannon up, he sent one last wave of energy towards Nyx that he was sure would completely drain his weaponry's energy supply. It was worth it, though, because when the wave of blue energy made contact with the sphere, it instantly shattered, leaving Nyx open for the final blow.

"Thanks, Cy!" Spirit shouted as she rushed into her friend. Armed with her Spectral Claws, she moved in to swing her arms around Nyx's front and cut the cords behind her. Unfortunately, this didn't work. What was worse, was that she didn't even know that it wasn't going to work. Nyx no longer had any conscious intent in this fight, so Spirit couldn't use her Premonition to predict her next move. It was only her quick reflexes that saved her from getting completely caught.

Four massive paws made of shadow jumped out from Nyx. They all raced towards their four targets. Raven, Youngblood, and Cyborg were all caught and smashed against the walls one final time. Spirit, however, managed to avoid most of it. Right before the paw smashed into her, she ducked down. Although not caught in the initial blow, the leg swung down to try to catch Spirit and a secondary blow.

With a large shout, Spirit brought her arms up to block the blow. She pushed against the paw as it swung downward. Despite being pushed downward, Spirit did not let up. The halfa girl continued to shove her claws forward until they finally managed to cut through the paw.

Spirit then grinned. She now had a free path to Nyx. Just as she was about to rush up and finish the job, she realized that she had been pushed down all the way to the ground. The acidic shadow responded to her presence. It reached up and tried to grab at her. Spirit tried to dodge, but she only managed to move her left leg out of the way.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Spirit screamed in torment as the acidic shadow waste that had fallen off of Nyx instantly burned through her shoe and began to eat away at the skin of her foot. The pain only intensified as the shadow slowly began to crawl its way up her leg. Gritting her teeth in pain, Spirit fought through the pain and tried to pull her right leg free. To her dismay, the acidic shadow refused to give. She was trapped.

Fear surging through her body, she desperately looked around for help. All the members of her squad were now trapped and were being crushed. Mary and Freddy had no powers and lacked any fighting abilities that would help in this situation without getting them killed. Every other magic user in the area was incapacitated. That meant that she was completely on her own with this.

With a silent scream, Nyx's eyes rolled back into her eyes. Ooze dripped steadily from every hole that existed on her face. Her body was now cracked all over and looked ready to shatter. Magic pulsed off of her in one final wave. If Spirit didn't do something right now, it would be the end of everyone.

Tears running down her face, Spirit looked down at her trapped leg once more. The shadows had managed to creep up her leg and was almost to her knee. Her entire lower leg felt like the nerves of her skin were being slowly pealed apart. There was no way to stop the shadows, and she couldn't move as long as she was being held down. With grim look of determination, Spirit activated her Spectral Claws and swung down at the shadows that were now almost to her knee.

It was a clean cut.

Hatred was a strange thing. Even though people often used the word to express feelings of dislike. That was a gross understatement. Hate was something entirely different other emotions. It is the desire for something to disappear, to stop existing. Often times, that means they would want that thing dead.

Truth be told, most people go their entire lives without experiencing true hatred. They might think they do, but they don't. Hatred was on a whole other plane. It was the point where madness seemed logical, where hope seemed laughable, and where long held beliefs are thrown away without a second thought.

Until today, Dusk had never been close to being at that point. Sure, his battle instincts got the better of him a few times, but it was never like this. In the span of less than a full twenty-four hours, he experienced two of the worst things that could be seen. The first was the murder of Aquaman's only son. The second thing was watching his dog get murdered.

What happened next could not be considered snapping. It was more like an explosion ripping a door off. With a roar befitting an unintelligent beast, Dusk formed his Burst Gauntlets once more. Not only that, actually. His energy surge continued around his entire body, outfitting with a green armor with various slits along the metal. Every part of his body was covered with the Burst Armor except for his hate filled neon green eyes.

In a blaze of ectoplasm, Dusk rocketed himself at Teekl. He rammed into the beast and shot out a large burst of energy that sent the demon cat flying into the far wall. Ignoring the downed Cujo, Dusk spread out ectoplasm from his boots and shot towards his foe once more, this time accompanied by a small boom.

The halfa smashed into the cat again so hard that the entire wall began to break and cry. Not letting the cat have a chance to recover, he then grabbed the large beast by its neck and began to repeatedly punch the cat in the head. Each blow was made all the more powerful by the large bursts of ectoplasm coming out of the Gauntlets.

Dusk repeated this action dozens of times in a blind rage. His vision was completely red. The blood in his veins was heated in an almost unbearable way, pushing him on instinctively to this assault. Through the haze, Dusk could heat whispers in his ear. He recognized the voice. It was his father, Ra's Al Ghul. His words were simple. Kill. Destroy. Revenge. Hate.

In any other circumstance, Dusk would be horrified by this turn. Instincts he never knew he had were egging him on to kill Teekl. This wasn't an outside source. It came from the inside, his very DNA, and he delighted in it.

Defiant against Dusk's assault, Teekl desperately scratched and bit at her attacker. All of her attacks scratched the metal of his armor but failed to do any real damage. Dusk didn't slow down his attacks at all. In fact, he sped up his punches to the point that the wall behind Teekl collapsed.

No longer able to trap his enemy, Dusk hugged the cat close. He then flipped over and sandwiched the demon to the ground with a large burst of energy. The halfa then brought the cat back up and tossed her into the air. After throwing it above his head, he then flew up and kneed the animal so hard that it rocketed up to the ceiling and crashed into it so hard that it stuck into the wall.

With another large burst and boom, Dusk rushed up and rammed his shoulder into the monster. He then dragged it out of the ceiling, grabbed it by the tail, and began to spin. Using his Burst Armor to enhance his speed, Dusk spun so fast that he was only a blur. After nearly a hundred spins, he then flew down towards the ground and began to rapidly smack the demon against the floor.

Eventually, he stopped throwing the cat around and mounted the beast's underside to begin choking it. He then moved to its jaw and began to rip it open to reveal its blood covered fangs. Hatred once more surged through him as he continued to tear the jaw open while using the burst function of his armor to pour ectoplasm into its eyes and opened mouth. Teekl began to scream, much to the halfa's pleasure.

"Damn!" Ravager noted as she traded blows with Black Bat, "When that boy snaps, he really snaps! I love it!"

Black Bat was silent, refusing to look at the beast that had once been a respectable warrior.

"Stop torturing it, Sir Dusk!" Fright Knight ordered as he and Deathstroke pushed at each other with their blades, "Just end it!"

Dusk just ignored the Fright Knight and trying to tear Teekl's jaw off.

"Damn it!" Fright Knight kicked Deathstroke away. He then raised Soul Shredder above his head and flung the blade with as much force as he could with his hands still bound together at the beast.

Unlike other weapons, Soul Shredder was a blade of unparalleled sharpness and strength. Empowered by both Pariah Dark and the Fright Knight, it was meant to cut through everything, even fears. As such, it was able to pass through most shield, especially natural conflicting energies like magic. With a sharp ringing noise, it passed through Teekl's neck, ending its cries.

Seeing the blade, Dusk moved on instinct. His blood and internal voice was demanding that he not let someone steal this from him. As such, he ripped the blade embedded in the cat's neck from its fleshy prison and then brought it above his head. With one last monstrous roar, he stabbed the blade down towards Teekl's horror struck and pain filled face. He then impaled the monster into its open mouth, through its brain, and down into the floor below.

Breathing heavily, Dusk watched as Teekl's body began to melt. It first became a black ink. Then, the ooze began to flow. The form which had once looked like a cat was now just a mess as black smoke rose from the corpse and the ink disappeared into nothingness. When nothing was left, Dusk dismissed his armor and sunk to his knees.

Staring at the sword, the halfa allowed himself to finally calm down. As the fog in his mind fade and his instincts stopped their whispers, realization and horror struck him.

Dusk had just committed his first kill.

Ace frowned at Gizmo, "I don't think it would be fair to just let you sacrifice yourself alone."

"Well, if there's one thing that's unfair, it's life," Gizmo laughed bitterly.

"That…that's true…" Ace looked down in despair.

"Hey, tattoo ghost, just get her out of here," Gizmo ordered, "If you hurry, you'll just make it out of range."

Lydia looked to the girl, "Ace?"

Ace continued to look at Gizmo, "You know, we're a lot alike. Both of us running from our pasts, doing nothing that caused a real impact, all while acting like we're more important than we are. Perhaps I should just stay here and let the explosion kill me."

"No real importance?" Gizmo snorted, "You kidding me? You could change the entire layout of the world's politics if stopped pretending to be something you're not."

"She would never allow that," Ace argued.

"Then fight against your sister directly instead of going in such a roundabout way," Gizmo suggested.

"No…I can't…" Ace looked down at her feet, "There's no point. I'd just die anyway no matter what. It might as well be here."

"What?" Gizmo blinked at her.

"I…I have brain cancer," Ace trembled as tiny tear fell from her eyes, "It developed because of the experiments the Light did on me to enhance my powers. I only have a few years left to live anyway. And they will be painful. Dying instantly from an explosion…That sounds a lot better than slowly losing control over my body and rotting away like an unwanted vegetable."

"So that's why you upped up your movements this last year…" Gizmo realized. He turned to Lydia, "Did you know that?"

"Yes. I saw the pain in her eyes the moment I met her. Physically and mentally," Lydia sighed, "I myself have nothing to live for. I thought perhaps I could do some good in her life, but…I failed."

"No, you didn't," Ace smiled at Lydia as she took the ghost's hand into hers, "You were good to me, a good friend, like the sister I always wanted."

"I'm glad," Lydia smiled at the younger girl, "Then I guess the two of us should stay then. Two people with no reason to live going out in a blaze of glory. It sounds almost poetic."

"Or really, really stupid," Gizmo suggested.

"Let's go with poetic," Ace slipped her free hand over one of Gizmo's typing fingers, "And romantic."

Gizmo scoffed, "Geeze, all I needed to get a girl to notice me was kill myself in a display of heroics I swore I would never do. The irony is so bitter that I may cry."

"WAAH! This is so sad!" Undergrowth bellowed above them.

"Unlike him who is actually crying," Gizmo grumbled under his breath.

"I should help you, but how? HOW!?" Undergrowth wailed.

"There's literally nothing you can do."

"Then I shall miss you when you are gone, meat bags! Parting is such sweet sorrow! WAAAAAAH!"

"Woooow! Dude, that is so harshing my mellow!" Ten's voice sounded out from behind them.

Ace's neck snapped back so fast that a loud pop could be heard, "What are you guys doing here?!"

"We couldn't leave without you, Ace," Queen stated, "I mean, we've spent three years with you. We can't just abandon you like that."

"Well, I tried," King smacked Jack over the back of the head, "OW! I'm just saying."

"Don't ruin the moment."

"Whelp. I guess all of us are going to die…" Gizmo smashed a finger against the enter key and leaned back in his chair, "And here I was hoping someone would get away to write a book about how awesome I was in my last moments. Oh well."

"Wait! Isn't there some way to get them out?" Ace looked to Lydia as the alarms began to blare loudly across the base. Every electrical outlet began to spark and shake.

"My tattoos couldn't move us all out fast enough," Lydia gained a pained look, "I'm sorry."

"But…But…" Ace felt tears run down her face as she looked back and forth among the few friends she had in this world.

"It's okay, Ace! The Royal Flush Gang sticks together!" Ten gave her a heads up.

"Besides, it's not like we have anywhere to go if you die. We'll all be hunted down," Smack! "OW!"

"Don't ruin the moment."

"No…No, it was one thing if it was just me and these two…You guys could live long fulfilling lives…" Ace's form began to tremble as her eyes glowed brightly.

"Ace?"

"No…No…NO!" Telekenetic energy burst out of Ace just as the base began to explode from the buildup of energy. Her powers and the magical backlash met in a giant blaze which consumed everyone in the building.

It was then that the entire building exploded. Everything, even the metal, was burned away by the magical energy and flames. In an instant, an entire portion of the island was consumed in fire and smoke leaving no trace of anything that had once before existed, even Undergrowth.

Cain heard the helicopter before he saw. Rushing up the hill, he saw his targets getting ready to take off. The helicopter wasn't off the ground yet, though, so he still had a chance. He just had to hurry.

Taking out his pistols, he tried to shoot out the blades of the vehicle. The clicks and lack of bullets that followed revealed that he was out of bullets. He must have lost count during the fight. Damn it, he wasn't focusing enough. He had to keep his head in the game.

With a roar of frustration, David flung his useless guns away and sprinted towards the helicopter. He gripped the door and ripped it open. His reward was a kick to the face. Cain did not let that stop him, though. He grabbed the follow up kick and shoved his attacker, Cheshire, away. He then tried to get into the helicopter but was stopped by Sportsmaster.

Exhausted, Cain could do nothing to stop the rapid punches to the face. Stars danced in front of his eyes and his stomach turned. By the time Cain pulled himself together, he was lying on his stomach outside the helicopter. Forcing himself to his hands and knees, Cain looked up to see Talia looking outside the helicopter.

"I find your determination admirable," Talia noted as she pointed a gun at his head as the helicopter rose from the earth, "If only you used that determination for the Shadows. You could have done great work."

"Work for you people?" David grabbed a knife he had hidden in his boot, "I'd rather die."

Just as Talia was about to shoot David, he flicked the knife at the woman, making her stop her shot to dodge the knife. With her distracted, Cain lunged himself forward and jumped up to desperately grab the edge of the helicopter. Truth be told, he really didn't have a plan. There was no way for him to get back Shiva at this point, but he wasn't using logic. He was just a wild man trying to get his wife back.

Unfortunately, he couldn't hold onto the helicopter. Maybe it was the blood on his hands. Maybe it was the fatigue catching hold on him. No matter what, though, the metal slipped through his fingers, and he fell painfully onto his back.

As quickly as his bruised body would allow him, Cain pushed himself back up to his feet one final time. He then limped after the helicopter futilely. Cain followed the airborne vehicle until he reached a cliff dropping down into the water. With no ground left to go over and no weapons to help him, David collapsed to his knees and watched as the helicopter flew off into the horizon. His focus on the helicopter was so great the he even ignored the giant explosion that sounded off from the distance.

"Shiva…" Cain punched the ground, "Shiva! I'll find you! I swear!"

Ocean Master groaned as he pushed himself up to his knees. He began to cough up blood once more into his unbroken arm. A quick look at his body showed him that he was in terrible shape. All of his armor had been destroyed in the blast. He was completely covered in burns, and his legs didn't seem to be in any shape worthy of walking.

Looking around him, Ocean Master saw that the explosion had knocked him out of the now burning base. He knelt in a smoking crater a few skips away from his former base. His eyes desperately looked around for his foe. A flash of purple from the rising smoke caught his attention. With a roar of rage, Ocean Master thrusted his good arm to the figure.

Water materialized in front of him, formed a large trident, and flew towards Vision. The water made it to the woman, but it passed through her just like it did with the smoke. Before he could question what happened, someone grabbed his extend arm and shattered it just like the other arm.

Screaming in agony, Ocean Master looked to see who had done the deed, only to see Vision lacking any of her face wrapping, "But how?"

Vision noticed the change in his voice. It appeared that the power up he had before was gone. She then inclined her head to the side to point at the image of her that floated away. The hologram disappeared and revealed a green bird had been projecting the image to distract Ocean Master, "An old classic. Never fails."

Ocean Master desperately weighed his options. He was completely defenseless at this point. There was no way to fight against this woman, "Please, don't kill me."

"Begging?" Vision raised an eyebrow, "You'd resort to that so fast?"

"I just wanted what was rightfully mine! How would you feel if someone came in and stole your place in leading the ghosts!?" Ocean Master tried to relate his situation to hers.

"I would be grateful," Vision stated with calm look upon her face, "Leading others is a responsibility I often grow tired of, but I do it because the people I love rely on me."

"Then you don't understand! I am destined to be king! It is my right! No one else deserves it, especially that half-breed!" Ocean Master screamed.

"Funny, you sound like my father," Vision frowned at him, "Do you know what I did to him? Locked him away and hid the key."

Ocean Master gained a bit of hope, "So you'll let me live?"

"That's the difference between him and you. I loved my father. For you, I only feel disgust," Vision's eyes stared hatefully at him.

"Please! Mercy! Forgiveness! You ghosts are big on that that, right?!" Ocean Master pleaded.

"Do I look like Danny Phantom to you?" Vision scoffed at him.

"No! No! Please!" Ocean Master began to cry.

Vision placed a hand in front of his face. Energy danced around hers causing shadows to creep across face, "If you come back as a ghost, I'll kill you again."

A blast of purple energy blasted off of Vision's hand. It completely consumed Ocean Master's unprotected head. The searing ectoplasm erased everything in its path. When the energy finally died down, Vision moved her smoking hand away to watch Ocean Master's headless corpse tumble back into an unmoving heap.

With that done, Vision allowed her clothes to return to normal. She had heard an even larger explosion in the distance not too long ago. People were still in trouble. She had to go help them.

At least, that's what Vision thought before she collapsed into the dirt. Fatigue caught up to her, and her arms seemed to regain enough feeling for them to throb painfully. Closing her eyes, Vision mumbled to herself, "I'll help them…after a short nap…"

"What the hell is this?" Walker let out a grunt as he swiped at the clowns that were dancing around him. They all either danced around his arms or disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Zhey aren't illusions!" Madame Rogue shouted as a lion and his tamer attacked her. The bruises on her side proved that this wasn't just some normal trick.

"Illusion is such a strange word. After all, we all believe what we see as long as we think it is real," The chuckling voice from the mirror noted.

"What the hell is going on?!" Superboy shouted through all the chaos. He was surprised when green walls of ectoplasm appeared in front of him creating a clear path towards Entrigan.

"No time! The mirror doesn't have enough reason to remain active for long! Get Entrigan and retreat now!" Poindexter exclaimed.

"Gah! Whatever!" Superboy shook his head clear and did as he was told. One final massive jump allowed him to finally get to Etrigan. The clone quickly tore the metal holding the demon and held the demon as he dropped to the ground, "Beast Boy, get M'gann and follow me!"

"On it!" Beast Boy quickly turned into an elephant and charged through the chaos to get towards his adopted sister. He then moved towards Superboy. To the clone's surprise, Beast Boy grabbed both Superboy and Etrigan with his trunk and continued to charge forward towards the wall of the base. With a loud roar from its trunk, he then busted through the wall and continued out away from the chaos.

"Yes! We did it, Jester!" Poindexter smiled at the hand mirror.

"Hehehehe…I really don't know what's going on, but I do know that an enemy of a Black Lantern is my friend," The mirror flickered toward Poindexter's window, "You remind a lot of the Ghost Writer. Who are you?"

"Come to my location and I'll inform you of what happened in your absence."

"Alright! Sounds fun!" The mirror flickered towards Walker, "Sorry, buddy, but I'll have to play with you later. I'm almost out of energy. Ciao!"

Suddenly, the entire room was covered in a bright light. Both Walker and Rogue were forced to cover their eyes. When the light finally died down and they managed to get their vision back to normal, everything strange in the base was gone. They were alone.

"What zhe hell was zhat?" Madame Rogue questioned.

"I don't know," Walker gave a deep frown, "But I doubt Master Nekron will like it."

"Zhould we go after zhe children?" Madame Rouge asked her follow up question.

"No…No, at this point it would draw too much attention," Walker shook his head, "The halfas might come running if we're out in the open, and if I see them, I won't be able to hold back. And I've seen what Master Nekron does to people who disobey his orders to leave the halfas alone. Best not to walk into temptation."

"But zhey will now know zhat zhe Black Lanterns were behind zhis," Madame Rogue noted.

"That would have happened no matter what," Walker noted, "Sure, they'll be more active and alert to our activities, but that's fine. Soon, they'll have other problems to deal with. They can't focus on us with Trigon coming into play."

"And zhat is when what you did to Entrigan will come into play?"

Walker gave her a wide grin, "Indeed."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Klarion screamed as the physical manifestation of death's wail slammed into him. It slowly peeled away every fiber holding his body together. For the first time in a long time, Klarion felt pain as half of his face was ripped away and limbs were dissolved into putty. His already deathly thin frame became that of a skeleton as Phantom's attacked peeled his apart piece by piece.

Then, the Ghostly Wail stopped. Klarion would have sighed in relief if the pain still wasn't so great. He hissed out in hopes of releasing the pain, but that only made it worse, "You…bastard…"

"That…" Phantom walked forward until he was right in front of Klarion, "Was for Nyx and Pandora. And this…" Phantom kicked Klarion so that he was lying painfully on his back, "Is for almost killing Zatanna."

"What for everyone else…" Jinx stepped up beside the ghost. She stomped a foot on Klarion's face and smirked, "As a representative of the Light, I officially give you your pink slip. You're fired."

"So everyone's a traitor?!" Klarion's form continued to flicker. With Teekl gone, he couldn't continue to exist in this plane of existence, "Damn you! Damn them! Damn everyone! When I get back, I'm going to destroy everything! It will be total chaos!"

"You already tried that and failed, Klarion," Phantom noted, "A few hundred years won't make any difference. You're a failure. That will never change."

"No…Nonononono!" Klarion began to cry, "I don't wanna go! I don't wanna fail! There's so much more fun to be had!"

"Well, you're going to miss out, Witch Boy," Jinx noted as she sent a burst of energy out of her foot, obliterating Klarion's body one final time. This time, there was no coming back for him.

With that done, Jinx turned back to Phantom to say something. She never got the chance because Phantom's energy suddenly gave out and he collapsed forward in exhaustion. She caught him and stopped him from hitting the ground.

"Ah…What a rush..." Phantom blinked, "I…I don't…What was that? What happened?"

Jinx frowned, "I was hoping you could tell me."

Spirit ignored the burns she received as she pushed through the magic surrounding Nyx. Nothing compared to the pain the shadows had caused her leg, and she wasn't going to let anything else stop her. Letting out shouts and warrior cries to give her strength, Spirit continued to push herself forward until she was face to face with Nyx.

Looking into Nyx's agonized featured one last time, Spirit swung her Spectral Claws around Nyx and cut through the strings reaching out of Nyx's back. The effect was immediately. All the backed up energy burst from her back. Spirit hugged Nyx close to keep her from getting hurt further. Once all the energy poured out of the ghost, the room instantly became quiet.

The paws holding the rest of Spirit's squad down disappeared. All of the acidic shadows disappeared into nothingness. The cracks covering Nyx's frame slowly began to close and heal as the Lasso of Truth loosened and fell lifelessly to the floor. Nyx went limp, but Spirit held her close to keep her from falling.

"Gah…D-Dani?" Nyx blinked open her normal red eyes as her chin rested against Spirit's shoulder. She raised a shaky hand to wipe all the blood and tears that soaked her face.

"Shh…I'm here, Nyx. You're safe," Spirit closed her eyes as she gently whispered in her friend's ear.

Nyx let out a small smile as her vision cleared, "You saved me…Idiot. I told you to kill me…"

"Hey, I managed to save you without anyone dying," Spirit argued calmly, "I call that a win."

"I guess, but…" Nyx's eyes went down, "Oh my God…"

The room went silent. Everyone in the room stared at the duo with shocked expressions and looks of horror. Nyx shared the same look as her eyes went to where everyone else was looking.

Spirit shushed the other girl again, "It's okay. Don't mention it."

"B-but D-Dani," Tears began to flow down Nyx's face once more. "Your leg…"

What once could be described as a full leg could now only be called a stump. Now cut right at the knee, Spirit's lower right leg was now gone. The injury had been burned closed instantly by Spirit's searing Spectral Claws. What was left of the missing limb had long since been dissolved by the acidic shadows. Any possible chance of getting the leg back had been destroyed the moment she had amputated her own leg.

"It's okay. I've got two of those," Spirit hugged Nyx tightly and let out a satisfied hum, "I've only got one of you."

Trembling, Nyx returned the hug. She dug her face into Spirit's shoulder and began to sob loudly, "D-Dani…T-thank you…"

Spirit grinned as her own tears began to fall, "Don't mention it."

"Whelp, that's it for us," Deathstroke sheathed his sword, "Mission accomplished. Time to leave."

"What about the traitor?" Ravage asked as she flipped away from Black Bat.

"No bounty on her head yet. No orders to bring her in. No point in putting any effort into her yet. At least until payment if confirmed," Deathstroke noted.

"Gah! Fine!" Ravager glared at Black Bat, "We'll finish this later, Cass."

Black Bat ignored her. Instead, she focused her eyes on the form of Dusk.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Ravager hissed. Shrugging off her father's grip on her shoulder, she addressed the other girl once more, "You'll pay for betraying us! Betraying me! I thought we were friends!"

"Friends?" Black Bat pulled off her mask and gave Ravager a sad look, "If that was true, then you know why I did what I did. Don't get mad at me just because you're too scared to rebel against your father."

Ravager froze at those words.

"Ravager! We're leaving! Now!" Deathstroke ordered.

Ravager flinched, "Yes, sir."

As they disappeared back into the shadows, Black Bat looked to the Fright Knight, "What do we do now?"

"Our mission is done as well. Let's collect our wounded and head back up," Fright Knight ordered as he began his approach to Dusk.

As for the halfa he was approaching, Dusk looked completely terrible. His skin was paler than Fright Knight had ever seen, even compared to right after he was freed from the Ghoul Project. The poor boy looked like he was about to vomit and cry, and he seemed to be doing everything he could to hold them back.

"Dusk…Joel…" Fright Knight placed a hand on the halfa's shoulders, "I know that you feel shocked and disgusted, but now's not the time for this. There is still work to be done. Cujo—"

"Cujo!" Dusk immediately jumped up and ran to the downed dog.

No longer able to hold his battle form, Cujo had shrunk down to his puppy form. This made all of his wounds look that much more terrible. Especially his neck, which without most of the outer flesh, was a green pulsing blob of blood.

"Oh, Cujo," Dusk whispered as he gently reached out to stroke the dog's head. It was a meager attempt to comfort the suffering canine.

Cujo just whimpered at him. His sharp red eyes looked up to Dusk pleading. For a second, Dusk wondered what the dog wanted. The halfa had seen hundreds of similar looks meant for food, drink, and attention. This look, though, was different. It was like…

Then, the answer hit Dusk. A silent message passed between dog and master, 'Take me to them. My two other masters. I want to see them one more time.'

"Yes!" Dusk fought down a sob as he picked up Cujo as carefully as he could, "Yes! I'll take you to them!"

The halfa then flew off at rapid speeds to find the other hybrids. As he did this, Fright Knight walked over to Soul Shredder. Pulling the blade out from the ground, he stared at it for a second and then to the direction where Dusk had left. With a nod, he sheathed the blade and turned to the still unconscious Constantine. It would be his job to carry of the exorcist back to the surface.

Poindexter let out a sigh as he watched all the basses slowly empty out through his windows. His work was done. He had limited the number of deaths but couldn't save anyone. That was a fact of life, one that made him incredibly sad.

"It's finally over," Harriet's shoulders slumped in relief as she looked across the windows.

"Thank God," Mal wiped the sweat from his brow, "I was worried there for a while. Things looked bleak. Who would have thought that a bunch of bad guys would save the day?"

"You'd be surprised," Poindexter dismissed the windows with a wave of his hand, "They might seem selfish, but they are just victims of circumstance that took extremes too far. But they redeemed themselves this day."

"At the cost of their lives," Harriet frowned.

"No. They will return. I am certain of that," Poindexter noted as he held up his hand. A blaze of green appeared before his palm and revealed the Mirror of Memories, "But only when the time is right."

"You mean…with that mirror?" Mal questioned.

"No," Poindexter shook his head as placed the mirror in his pocket, "Not like that. They still live. They're just lost, and one day they will find their way back, but only on the blackest night."

"What does that mean?" Harriet questioned.

"Nothing," Poindexter shrugged as he reached into his coat and pulled out a book, "I will be keeping this mirror. Colossus was a good choice to guard it, but now it needs to be with someone that can use it correctly. Tell that to Vision when she asks. Don't worry, though. I won't leave you without compensation."

Mal blinked as Poindexter handed him the book, "Compensation?"

"Yes. It's a fair trade I believe," Poindexter turned and began to walk away, "Besides, I think that book is best suited for you, Hornblower."

Mal couldn't help but blink again. He examined the book in his hands for a moment. It was completely bland. There were not pictures or patterns on the cover. The only thing on the front was the title of the book.

"Gabriel's Horn?"

Robin gently laid Troia on the ground. The exhausted Amazon had long since fallen into blissful unconsciousness. A quick glance around the open field showed that all the other Amazons were in similar situations. Luckily, they managed to guide them to the extraction zone. Now, it was just a waiting game.

"Excuse me," La'gaan stated as he tiptoed over some of the sleeping Amazons. Queen Mera hung from his arms until he found a soft piece of land to place the queen down.

"So your team made it too?" Robin glanced to see the other members of La'gaan's team lead the exhausted Atlantians. Unlike La'gaan, they didn't seem to take a lot of care where they went. Most of them dropped to the ground as soon as Artemis told them that this was their destination.

"Yes, barely," La'gaan followed Robin's eyes to see Red Arrow and Kid Flash helping the Atlantian members of Young Justice along, "We made it out by the skin of our gills."

"Err…Okay. I think I get what you mean," Robin shrugged, "Us too. The entire base almost blew up. We have no idea what stopped it."

La'gaan nodded and pointed to a large cloud of smoke drifting up from the horizon, "I do not think one base was so lucky."

"That was the Royal Flush Gang's location…" Rocket noted as she landed down next to the boys. She dropped the kinetic bubble she was using to carry a lot of the Homo Magi to the extraction zone and gently placed them down.

"So only their base blew up? That can't be a coincidence," Robin noted.

"Perhaps it is Karma. From what I heard from Aquaman's protégé's, they weren't good people," La'gaan noted.

"Still, they did help us," Robin frowned.

"Hey! Robin! Quick standing there and help us! We need to make sure no one is in critical condition!" Batgirl yelled to the Boy Wonder.

"You too, La'gaan!" Artemis looked over to the scaled Atlantian as she assisted Kaldur, "We need as many people on deck as possible, and those two aren't going to be a big help!"

Both Robin and La'gaan glanced at the people they were sworn to protect, "Well…I guess they'd probably want us to help."

"Agreed," La'gaan nodded as he held out a hand to Robin, "My name is La'gaan."

"Robin," Robing shook the hand, "Not my real name, but Batman forbid me from telling people outside the Team."

"Then I will just have to join your Team to find out," La'gaan smirked at the Boy Wonder.

"I think that just might be doable. I've only heard good things from Dusk," Robin stated as he began to go help the others.

La'gaan's face fell as he remembered his adventure with Dusk. He still had to tell Queen Mera what happened. That wasn't something he was looking forward to. It might break the poor woman, "Err, right…Where is the ghost called Dusk anyway?"

Artemis heard La'gaan's questioned. With a worried look, she looked over to her boyfriend, "He's got a point. A lot of the squads are still missing."

Kid Flash nodded, "I'll run over and see if they're okay."

"No need," Red Arrow pointed to an approaching group. A surprisingly beat up Superboy was carrying Vision while Beast Boy, in the form of an elephant, carried both Etrigan and Miss Martian on his back.

"Dude," Kid Flash raised an eyebrow at Superboy's bruised form, "Did you get run over by a bus lined with kryptonite?"

"Gah, I wish that was it," Superboy let out a grunt, "It's a really long story. Let's just say that Walker got an upgrade."

"And does that story involve Vision somehow?" Red Arrow questioned.

"I found her outside the base with, err…" Superboy gained a dark look, "A headless Ocean Master."

All eyes turned to the unconscious Vision. Kid Flash frowned, "How do we explain that to the League."

"We don't. Vision doesn't play by our rules. Everyone knows that," Red Arrow noted, "The rest of the League might complain, but considering what Ocean Master did…I doubt there will be any consequences. If the League went after Vision for this, then they'd have to deal with a lot of political backlash. From Atlantis specifically, but when the rest of the world finds out…"

"They'll want Vision to get a medal," Artemis agreed.

Superboy nodded. With his task of getting his team and Vision here safely, he decided to survey the situation, "Where's Danny and the others?"

"Not here yet—Oh, shit," Red Arrow's eyes widened as he looked past Artemis.

"What is it—Oh, shit!"

"Hey guys…" Spirit smiled to them as Cyborg carefully carried her in his arms, making sure not to bump her too badly.

"Dani…Your leg…" Kid Flash looked on in horror at the lump that was once Spirit's leg.

"Yeah, I lost it," Spirit laughed, "I'll just have to get a new one. You got any spares, Vic?"

"A few," Cyborg gave her a squeeze.

"And the others?" Superboy questioned.

Cyborg looked back behind him to see Raven and a now de-aged Youngblood helping Nyx into the clearing. Mary and Freddy were helping Shazam while Captain Marvel and Doctor Fate were supporting each other as they limped into the clearing. Spirit smiled once again, "Safe…They're safe…"

Superboy nodded, "They are…And so is Danny."

"Hey guys…You won't believe—" Phantom limped over to them. Jinx followed right behind him, "Woah! Dani! Damn! What the hell happened!?"

"Yeah, we just went over it. It's—Did you hear that?" Spirit's head snapped up.

Phantom initially thought that that she was trying to distract him. Just before he could say anything, though, he heard it too. He recognized the noise. It was the sound of an animal moaning in pain, dying. More than that, he recognized which animal that was making the noise.

"Cujo!" Phantom's eyes widened as he watched Dusk rush over to him. In his arms was a very bloody dog.

"Cujo!" Spirit pushed herself out of Cyborg's arms, "Let me go! That's my puppy!"

Dusk collapsed to his knees once he met up with Spirit and Phantom. Like him, they too had fallen to the ground. Phantom looked exhausted like him, while Spirit…Well, in any other circumstance, Dusk would have been completely focused on her missing leg. Right now, though, none of them could focus on that.

"Cujo!" Spirit had tears running down her face, "Oh god, what happened?"

"Teekl…She…" Dusk tried to fight through his sobs.

Phantom placed a hand on his shoulder, "It's alright. You don't need to say it. Just let us see him."

Dusk nodded. He extended his arms to show the dog. Spirit immediately flinched as she saw the cuts and the large chunk of flesh missing from Cujo's neck. Phantom, however, just looked on with a gaze of steel.

"I see…" Phantom let out a tired sigh as tears began to well up in his eyes, "Damn."

"We have to do something!" Spirit exclaimed.

"There's nothing we can do, Dani," Phantom shook his head, "It's his time."

"No…" Spirit's lips trembled in shock and despair.

"I'm so sorry…" Dusk looked down in shame, "I should have stopped this…somehow..."

Cujo whimpered in his arms. Half opened eyes peered at the youngest halfa, giving him comfort and assurance that there was no anger on his part. Cujo then looked over to his other two masters. He soaked in their image one last time and gave them a questioning look.

'Was I a good dog?'

Phantom allowed his tears to fall. He gently placed a hand on the dog's head, "The best. Nothing could have replaced you."

Cujo let out a soft whine as he rubbed his head against Phantom's palm.

"I love you, Cujo," Spirit whispered to the dog as she scooted close and kissed the dog on the nose, "You were such a good puppy."

Cujo licked Spirit's nose in response.

"Thank you, Cujo," Dusk continued to sob. His many tears fell from his face without anything to stop them and dropped down on the dog's face, "For everything. I don't know what I would have done without you around, boy."

Cujo closed his eyes in contentment. Little balls of light began to rise from the dog's body. Just as that happened, though, his body began to dissolve. Before Cujo could become one of the few ghosts to ascend fully, his body finally gave out. Soon, he was merely a pile of green slime sliding from Dusk's arms, and just like that Cujo was gone.

The halfas continued to kneel together and cry. They held each other and mourned the loss of their loyal canine. Cujo had followed them through hell and back more than once. He had been with the Phantom Family longer than any other non-halfa ghost, and he never once strayed. Cujo was more than just a pet to them. He truly was man's best friend, and now he was gone.