The Man:
"Why won't you hold still?"
Spectre screams this as he throws a punch at me. However, I spin and drop down. Spectre's hand flies past me. I lunge at Spectre, but using his intangibility, I jump through his body. Spectre smiles and turns toward me, but his smile quickly disappears when he sees me with another talisman in his hand.
Slamming the paper on his chest, Spectre tries to grab it, but I swing my hand and throw a strong right hook. Spectre screams as he stumbles back. Catching himself, Spectre raises his hand and prepares another green fireball. Forming instantly in his palm, Spectre fires it, but Kara lands in front of me. Using her super breath, Kara blows cold air, causing the fireball to dissipate.
Spectre pulls back his one hand. He then shoots both hands forward this time. Instead of one fireball, a massive wave of hot green fire shoots toward us. Grabbing Kara's hand and pulling her behind me, I reach into my jacket's pockets and throw out a handful of talismans.
The talismans fly into the air and hover around Kara and me. As the green flame hits the paper strips, they form a protective barrier, shielding us from Spectre's fire.
"Oh wow," Kara says. "Those, uh..."
"Talismans," I say.
"Those talismans are really versatile. They can make Spectre solid and also make shields."
"Yes, they are, but not in the way you're thinking."
I reach into my jacket pocket again and pull out two talismans. Despite both being strips of ancient paper, different characters are painted on them.
"The left one is written to cancel Spectre's intangibility. The right one is written to shield us from supernatural attacks."
Putting the right one back in my pocket, I look at Spectre as he pulls back one hand while his other hand keeps shooting green flames at us. Grabbing and ripping off the talisman, Spectre crushes and burns it.
"Kara. Give me your hand."
Kara nods and gives me her hand. Our fingers interlock. As they do, Kara and I look at each other. I think her face turns slightly red, but I can't be sure since something catches in my throat. I turn away and clear it.
"When I give the signal, spin around and throw me at Spectre."
Kara nods.
We look at Spectre and wait. Spectre raises his other hand again and intensifies his fire, but still can't break through my talismans.
"What kind of magic is this?"
The moment Spectre lowers his hands, I look at Kara.
"Now!"
Grabbing my hand and spinning in circles, we gather momentum before finally letting go of each other. Like a bullet, shooting through my barrier, right at Spectre, my feet hit his chest, knocking him to the floor. Slapping another tangibility talisman on him before jumping and flipping off, Spectre quickly pushes himself up. The moment he's back on his feet, Kara punches him, knocking him toward me. Jumping and spin-kicking in the air, I knock Spectre into the air, his whole body flipping over before falling again.
Landing on my knee, I look at Spectre as he shakily pushes himself up. When he does, I see bruises all over his body. What is even more disturbing is that Spectre is breathing heavily. Every single breath in and out of his body can be clearly heard, even without super hearing.
"I--I'm not---I'm not defeated yet," Spectre groans. He raises a shaking hand, but barely a flick of green flame appears. Calling it a flick is already generous.
"Neither are we," Kara says, running to my side. Her eyes turn red. She's about to use her heat vision, but I raise my hand and stop her.
"What are you doing?"
"Don't," I say, turning to look at her. Looking back at me, Kara's eyes slowly return from red to blue. "Thank you."
I nod and turn to Spectre. Still trying to shoot flame or do something else, Spectre looks at me.
"You will face judgement for Phantom Stranger's death," Spectre yells. Finally, Spectre fires some green flames, but they are nothing more than flicks floating toward me. Even when they hit my jacket, I put them out by rubbing the flicks between my fingers.
"What I did to Phantom Stranger," I start, "I will carry with me. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to deny it. Even if I wasn't in my right mind, and even if Phantom Stranger was releasing Trigon, I still murdered him, and I am sorry for it."
Spectre stops looking at me like he wanted to kill me. Now, after lowering his hand, Spectre looks at me like I'm a giant crossword puzzle.
"I have done many things I am not proud of. Hurt a lot of people who mattered to me. I am guilty."
Stopping for a moment, I lower my head and inhale deeply. Letting out a sigh, I look at Spectre.
"Spectre, I doubt you know me, but I know you. I have to know. The orichalcum? Were you the one who found it and gave it to David Kane?"
It was only a split second, but I still saw it. In that invisible second, Spectre jumped. His whole body went stiff before going back to normal.
"Why? Why poison all of Atlantis? Why did Atlantis do that you deem a plague across the whole kingdom?"
"The first regime," Spectre answers.
"The first regime," I repeat.
"Superman's first reign," Spectre starts in between breaths. "Aquaman—Aquaman and his soldiers attack Gotham. Hundreds died. Their death—Their deaths have gone unanswered—for too long—"
I look at Spectre as he almost collapses.
"Come on," I say.
"Wait, what?"
I turn to leave, but Kara grabs my shoulder.
"We're just leaving? Like that? Spectre confessed. He did give Black Manta the orichalcum. He tried to poison everyone in Atlantis. We need to do something. Throw him in a prison cell? Strip him of his power, like you did with Raven? If you don't, then--"
"Spectre will try again with something new," I finish. "He'll keep coming and coming until his target is destroyed."
"Then why are you leaving?" Kara yells.
"Because right now, his target isn't Atlantis. It's me. Spectre will keep coming after me, but I can handle myself."
I try to leave, but Kara tightens her grip on my shoulder.
"Then why are you leaving?" Kara yells again. "You need to do something now!"
"I am. We're going back to the infirmary to check on Aquaman and the other Atlanteans. Before I came here, I was able to make a cure."
"That's impossible," Spectre screams. "There is no cure for orichalcum."
"Maybe there wasn't before, but I learned a few more things since my time with King Atlan."
I nudge my head toward a set of double, golden doors.
"Kara. Come on."
Kara opens her mouth to say something, but I raise my hand and stop her. Grabbing her hand, I slowly and gently remove it from my shoulder.
"Come on," I say again. "I'm not saying I don't trust the Doc and Iris, but they're not experts. They might need help."
I turn to look at Spectre. Grinding his teeth, Spectre grabs the talisman and rips it off. He throws it on the ground, stomps on it, and then phases through the floor, disappearing.
"You should've done something," Kara says.
"Maybe, but I didn't."
Looking at where Spectre was one last time, I pick up the crumpled talisman, straighten it the best I can, and store it in my pocket. Walking together, I guide Kara through the hallways and back into the infirmary. The moment we enter, the Doc, Iris, and everyone run to us, their voices overlapping.
"Shut up," I yell. "One at a time."