Ghost in Gotham

Yeah its Final

Danny knew what it was the moment he saw it: the floor portal that was supposed to return Ember home. He had kept it a secret for so long yet he was able to get his hands on. But Jezebel had taken care of the home one time...

I admit, it isn't as grand," Aster—now dubbed Disaster— monologued, "but this only a start to reopening the rift between us."

"I will finally fucking finish what Pariah has started. Starting by killing the both of you."

Suddenly, as Aster was about to strum the guitar he had, a batarang flew at the headstock of the guitar. Aster yelled as it flew out of his grip.

"Not if I can help it." Batman flew down and threw three batarangs. Aster simply laughed as he turned intangible.

Unbeknownst, Batman got his target. Three explosions followed and Disaster turned quickly around, reacting to the explosion of the mini portal toppling to the ground, spluttering in and out of activity.  The green light shining then turning off as soon as it appeared.

"Oh you've done it now, batboy." Disaster lunged at Batman. They began to fight, but Disaster had unfair advantage.

Dick turned to Danny, who seemed crumpled and defeated. He was almost motionless aside from the slow breaths.

"Hey, hey, hey," Dick said softly, holding on Danny's shoulders. "Batman's here. Use your powers and let's get outta here."

"I-I can't..." Danny whispered. "He's right... I was weak and- and I was desperate menace and-"

Dick squeezed on Danny's shoulders and cut him off, "Hey, I was the douche that didn't trust you for a second."

Danny's head rose immediately, eyes widened with realization. "T-trust. That's it! That's his thing, his obsession."

Dick knew of obsessions a little from his magical friends' notes. Hadn't he not believed Phant-Danny the night of the party? Wasn't Aster there too?

"We can't do this without you, Danny. Let's defeat this bitch." Dick plucked his left hand off Danny's shoulders and outstretched it in front of him.

Danny was hesitant, but he took it. Almost immediately, Disaster stumbled a little, getting a free jab from Batman.

Danny turned to Phantom, the glowing rings consuming his body and luminaries the room momentarily. He flew out of the cage and dragged Dick out too. The Robin honestly had to admit that it was pretty cool.

He dropped off Dick outside the cage and made a quick flight towards Disaster. His fist connected to the man's face, letting him fly off.

Dick tried to make a run to Danny, wanting to help the ghostly hero. However, a hand kept him grounded. He turned to what was keeping down, just to see Dragon Lady slowly deep from beneath the ground. "Not so fast!" She yelled.

Batman, noticing his steward in need and seeing that Phantom could handle on his own, ran to aid his battle against the other ghost.

Disaster flew back as soon as he could, attacking back. They fought back and forth, both landing very good hits together. Danny managed to hit him a good few times in at row, causing Disaster to fly a bit back.

"Back up again, huh Phantom? The moment you defeat me they'll hate you again." He taunted, trying to gain an advantage again.

Danny didn't even hesitate to throw and ecto-blast, to which Disaster dodged. "I know what you are."

"You are." He have a powered uppercut.

"Nothing but." An icy kick to the stomach.

"A fucking liar." And then Danny grabbed at what was once Aster and flew him directly to the flickering floor portal.

He grabbed at the sides as his body began to sink into it. His face became apologetic, "hey Danny, you wouldn't do this to your best bud, would you?"

Danny flared and lifted his fist. "You are no friend of mine." And have one last his and he was out. A faint 'Nooo-!' swirled as he sank away.

"Disaster!" Jezebel yelled, who followed after the screaming ghost. She was gone in an instant. Danny stomped on the portal's boxers, destroying the rift.

Danny collapsed to his knees immediately, turning back into Phantom. The injury was not boxing well for his Phantom side and it took every bit of his energy to sustain it.

Dick yelled with happiness, "Danny! You did it." He ran to Danny with joy and gave him a hug.

Danny, as awkward as ever, gave a pat on the back as a return.

"Good work, Phantom." Batman appeared before him, surprising him.

Dick whispered in his ear, "That means he likes you."

Danny did not know what was happening, but he started to laugh aloud. Not out of spite no insanity, but because he found the scene genuinely hilarious. It was funny to him. All of it. At most of all, he laughed because of how much of a dork Dick was being.

Gotham got better after that. Well, as good as Gotham to get.

Ember had made a small name for herself in Gotham for helping the trapped citizens. She did leave to go back to Indi, her boyfriend that she was ignoring for the longest. It was a stupid fight, but the near-death experiences from Gotham taught her forgiveness.

Dick and Bruce's relationship got better; they'd recently been working on tech together. Sure, Dick never calls Bruce 'Dad', but Bruce never hesitates to call Dick his son.

Lastly, Danny. He stopped being a graffiti artist. He started to talk a little more with other people, slightly more careful with the Aster incident, but still very open. He gave a generous amount of money to Mr. Quill, who had plenty of broken materials from the quakes.

Not only that, Gotham earned a new hero that day.

Phantom, the old-new superhero that people never new they needed.

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That's a wrap folks!

I appreciate anyone who's actually made it this far, seeing how this has been going since 2017.

I'm honestly sorry that it had to end in this mess of a story. I lost passion several times and I decided it was best to leave you an ending then no ending at all.

I had so many ambitions with this story that it imploded on itself.

I'll be focusing most of my attention on Phantom Files since I finally checked this out of my list. Give it a look! It had my new style of writing and all.

Night night, Darklings, have nice day!

-Crows