[Third Person Pov]
A deafening clang shattered the depths as the spectral bell tolled, its unholy resonance ripping through water and mind alike.
"Ahhhh!!" The Atlantean soldiers' war cries twisted into blood-curdling screams. The sound wave slammed into them like a physical force, scrambling their senses, buckling knees, and shattering focus. Spears slipped from numb fingers. Eyes widened in helpless terror as the ghostly horde approached.
Spectral monsters—twisted amalgamations of teeth, shadow, and glowing ectoplasm—surged forward. Leviathans of pure nightmare, massive and semi-transparent, opened cavernous maws lined with rows of serrated fangs. The soldiers couldn't fight back. Couldn't even scream properly anymore.
Flesh tore with wet, sickening squelches. Bones crunched like stepping on sticks. One warrior was yanked in half by a pair of thrashing leviathans, his blood exploding into the water in thick, dark clouds that painted the ocean crimson. Another vanished whole into a gaping maw, his muffled scream abruptly silenced as jaws clamped shut.
Bubbles and shredded armor floated upward in the chaos.
"No! Damn it!" Danny's roar tore from his throat, raw and furious. His glowing green eyes reflected the carnage, wide with horror. This was worse—far worse—than anything they had prepared for. Guilt crashed over him heavily, nearly leaving him breathless.
He coiled his legs, frost already racing across his fists, ready to launch himself into the fray—
"Danny!!"
His head snapped toward the desperate cry.
Batman and Robin were ensnared in the thick, writhing tentacles of a ghostly octopus. Its body shimmered with sickly ecto-energy, eyes burning with malice. The tentacles squeezed tighter, armored suits creaking under the immense pressure. Batman's jaw was clenched in silent agony, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Robin's face was twisted in pain, one arm pinned awkwardly as he struggled for breath.
"Let them go!!" Danny's voice detonated through the water. His eyes blazed bright toxic green, pupils narrowing into slits of rage. Arctic blue frost exploded across his right fist, crawling up his arm in jagged crystalline patterns. The temperature around him plummeted, freezing nearby water into swirling shards of ice.
Danny shot forward like a comet, a trail of glittering frost streaming behind him as he twisted and weaved through the mass of snapping tentacles trying to seize him. The creature lashed out wildly, but Danny ducked beneath one appendage, spun around another, and drove his fist straight into its body. The impact exploded like a blizzard. Frost erupted across its ectoplasmic flesh as the creature let out a sharp screech and went flying backwards.
Danny didn't stop there. He thrust both hands outward and dozens of razor sharp ice shards blasted through the air. They tore through the creature's writhing tentacles and carved through its ghostly body, severing the appendages wrapped around Batman and Robin. The two heroes dropped free as the tentacles recoiled violently.
Batman immediately rolled away from the creature while Robin stumbled back onto one knee, catching his breath.
Above them Danny raised both hands over his head, gritting his teeth in concentration. The temperature around him plummeted as a massive iceberg formed into existence overhead. With a shout, Danny swung his arms downward and sent the enormous block of ice crashing onto the creature. The impact shook the ground as the iceberg crushed the ghost beneath its weight, pinning it down under layers of frozen ice.
Meanwhile, the other Danny was facing a far worse threat.
"If that sound really is the Flying Dutchman, then no matter what, we cannot let him break through into the physical world!" Danny shouted.
His body was trembling without him even realizing it. His ghost sense had been screaming ever since the dimensional tear opened, but this feeling was different from anything he had ever experienced before. It wasn't just power. It felt overwhelming, wrong.
"Everything in me is telling me that if a ghost has that much notoriety among people, then they're never good news!"
Nobody even had time to respond.
A thick green fog suddenly burst outward from the tear between dimensions. It billowed across the battlefield in massive waves, swallowing everything in seconds. Visibility vanished almost immediately as the fog rolled over the ground and through the air alike.
The ringing of the ship's bell echoed through the mist, but the sound gradually became quieter and quieter until it faded completely into silence.
"What?" Danny muttered uneasily as he looked around.
The world around him had changed. The battlefield was gone. Everything suddenly looked barren and lifeless. "Hello?!" Danny shouted. "Aquaman?! Jackson?! Garth?! Can anyone hear me?!"
He waited, listening carefully, but no answer came back.
Danny clenched his fists and unleashed his ghostly wail, the powerful sonic blast tearing through the fog in every direction. For a brief moment the mist parted, but more immediately rolled back in, thicker than before, swallowing everything once again.
"This isn't normal…" Danny whispered.
He cautiously stepped forward through the fog, barely able to see more than a few feet ahead of himself. The silence made everything worse. No voices. No movement. Nothing.
Then suddenly the ground beneath him vanished. "Woah—!"
Danny fell straight down and hit the dirt headfirst. "Ugh… what?" he groaned, rubbing his face as he pushed himself back up.
As he steadied himself, he realized he had fallen into a deep hole in the ground. He had landed on something hard and wooden.
Danny looked down but as he did he suddenly froze.
Resting beneath him was a coffin, partially buried beneath a small, thin layer of dirt.
Startled, Danny immediately flew upward out of the hole and hovered several feet above the ground. His eyes darted downward again, and his stomach tightened when he realized what he had actually fallen into.
It was a grave, and it wasn't the only one, there were three graves standing side by side.
Danny slowly descended back onto the ground, one hand instinctively clamping over his mouth as dread crawled through him. Thick fog drifted around the graveyard, making the entire place feel distorted and unreal. Shadows shifted through the mist in ways that made it impossible to tell what was actually there.
Three headstones stood before him, each one carried only a single word.
'Father'
'Mother'
'Sister'
Danny's breathing became uneven as he stared at the graves. Fear settled heavily in his chest while the fog continued curling around him like something alive, feeding into his fears.
With his hand still pressed tightly over his mouth, Danny slowly extended the other forward. His fingers trembled as green energy surrounded the coffins. Using his telekinesis, he carefully lifted the lids open.
The motion alone made his hands shake harder.
Then he saw what lay inside. Danny slowly closed his eyes as they began to grow wet. His grip tightened painfully against his jaw while his breathing hitched in his throat.
Inside the coffin beneath the headstone marked 'Father' rested a corpse reduced entirely to a skeleton. It wore a bright orange jumpsuit, torn in several places and stained with patches of dried green ectoplasm around the rips in the fabric.
The coffin marked 'Mother' held another skeleton wearing a similar suit, except hers was blue. A utility belt still rested around her waist, while a hood and red goggles remained over her skull. Green ectoplasmic stains marked the remains of the suit just like the other coffin.
Then Danny forced himself to look at the final grave.
The one marked 'Sister', and the sight made his stomach church unpleasantly.
Inside rested the skeleton of a young girl dressed in ordinary clothes, just a shirt and jeans. But even through the decay there was a feature Danny recognized immediately.
Faded orange hair and a blue headband resting over her skull.
Danny tried to control his breathing, utilizing Batman's calming breathing method as he struggled to get a hold of himself. He inhaled slowly through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, trying to steady the violent shaking running through his body, but it barely helped. His chest still felt tight, every breath uneven and strained.
He tried to distance himself from the corpses. Danny walked backwards with his eyes still squeezed shut, refusing to look at the graves any longer. His foot suddenly touched a ledge and he nearly stumbled backwards into it, dirt crumbling beneath the sole of his shoe.
His eyes snapped open as he turned around, only to freeze once again. Behind him were two more graves with open coffins laid inside them. The headstones were crudely carved with a single word each.
'Mentor'
'Partner'
Danny immediately felt dread settle into his stomach. He already knew he didn't want to look inside them. Every instinct screamed at him to turn around and run, but the fog around him seemed alive, wrapping around his body and clouding his thoughts. It pulled at his attention until he reluctantly stepped closer.
The lids creaked open wider on their own.
Inside the grave marked 'Mentor' was another skeleton. Most of its body was hidden beneath the dark gray and black Batman suit it wore, but its exposed lower jaw, bony wrists, and ankles were enough to make Danny's stomach churn.
The grave marked 'Partner' was even worse. The skeleton inside was much smaller, younger. It wore a black and red Robin uniform, the thin bones of its body barely filling the suit. The skull stared blankly upward, a simple domino mask still resting over its empty eye sockets.
Danny released a shaky exhale that rattled through his ribs. "I really don't want to see this…" he whispered weakly, his voice hollow and broken.
His hands quickly moved over his eyes again as if blocking out the sight would somehow make it disappear, but the fog only continued to amplify everything around him. The smell of damp dirt, the silence of the graveyard, the horrible realism of the corpses—it all felt suffocatingly real.
"Wake up… wake up, wake up…" Danny repeated desperately. He slapped the side of his temple over and over again, each hit harder than the last. He wanted to force himself awake, to break whatever nightmare this was, but nothing changed. The fog remained. The graves remained.
Unable to go forward or back, Danny abruptly turned to the right, choosing a random direction just to get away from them. He only managed three hurried steps before he slowed down again.
Two more graves gradually emerged from the fog directly in front of him, forcing Danny to stop dead in his tracks.
One headstone bore the words 'Best Friend.' The other was carved with the word 'Lover.'
"No…" Danny muttered under his breath. He had no intention of opening them. He didn't want to see who was inside. He already knew.
But the coffins opened anyway against his will. Inside were the skeletons of Tucker and Sam.
Even stripped down to bone, they were instantly recognizable. Tucker still wore his usual clothes along with his backwards red cap, while Sam still had her dark outfit and choker wrapped around her neck.
Danny's legs finally gave out beneath him. He slowly collapsed to his knees, his head hanging low enough for his hair to cover his eyes. His fingers dug harshly into the dirt beneath him while his lips trembled uncontrollably. He couldn't even force out words anymore.
Behind him, the fog suddenly shifted once more. Danny felt it immediately, another grave was appearing.
He could feel its presence pressing against the back of his mind, almost calling to him. Enticing him to look. Slowly, Danny glanced over his shoulder before forcing himself back onto shaky legs. His movements felt numb and disconnected as he walked toward the final gravestone.
Unlike the others, this headstone carried only a single word: 'Me'
Danny stared at it silently before lowering his gaze toward the coffin beneath it.
The lid was already open… But unlike all the others, the coffin was empty.
Danny stared at it for several long seconds without moving. Then he slowly brought a hand up to his face and tilted his head back.
A laugh escaped him.
"Hahahahaha!"
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