PP092
patreon
Phantom-23 [Notes at the end, please read]
🕑 Added 2023-08-14 02:58:29 +0000 UTCHarry sighed as he touched down on the floor of his apartment, placing Diana’s sword on the wall as he moved towards the glowing cocoon of magic floating in the center of the hall. Kara wasn’t present in the place she should have been, the glowing energy field empty and vacant for a long time. But Faust was dead, and he couldn’t hear any sounds of any struggles going on in the city, so she was fine. Sighing again, he raised his palm and concentrated, a series of Elder Futhark runes springing up on his wrist, glowing a bright viridian as he rotated his palm counterclockwise.
The world cracked like a mirror in front of him, and from the splinters of the minuscule dimensional rift he had created, he withdrew a battlesuit similar to the one Kara had worn before Faust destroyed the one she had been wearing in the battle. Thanks to the artificial intelligence module on Kara’s escape ship, named Alura, Harry had been able to create a mimicry of the Kryptonian Battle Suits by some petty theft for the materialsstealing, and a lot of experiments with Alchemy and Charms. While he knew that the chance of another fight happening just now was sli-
He growled, hearing the minute sounds of footsteps outside his balcony, as well as the dying whine of an engine slowing to a stop. “Bloody Hell,” he grimaced, pulling out the battlesuit and teleporting it to Kara with a snap of his fingers as he turned around. The dimensional rift behind him closed with a crackle of broken glass, and he removed his cloak as he saw his guest climb over the railing. “Terrible time to visit the casinos here Mr. Wayne, as you can see, they are a bit preoccupied right now with damage control. Now then, what brings you to my humble apartment?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Nothing but curiosity,” he answered, half of his mind still preoccupied with the rift in..space that he had seen the man use. He ignored the fact that the Phantom knew his name, because there wasn’t much he could do about that except for tightening his persona and nightly excursions even more, “Though I still wish that the casinos were in better shape…some of them are mine.”
“Just don’t break your toys for a few months I guess,” Phantom shrugged, throwing away his tattered cloak to the side as a table and two chairs appeared before him, a decanter and two glasses filled with ice upon it. The bodysuit he was wearing faded away to reveal the shirt and jeans beneath, and for the first time he really looked at the Phantom’s face, taken aback by just how young he was, “I have got Ginger Ale here, but tell me if you like anything else.”
“Are you of age to drink?” He asked, removing his cowl and walking forwards, his eyes flicking towards the glowing orb of energy, remembering the other individual who had been battling the unknown attacker, “Apollina, I presume?”
“My sister,” Phantom nodded, his aristocratic features and the picture of an old castle on the wall suggesting a European background—but someone who had lived in America for a quite a while if the perfect accent and the number of souvenirs on the decorations and table were anything to go by. The young man bent his neck to the side, and Bruce winced internally in sympathy as a series of cracks rang out. He had seen the whole battle that had ruined half of Las Vegas, and while he couldn’t really perform magic or the feats of physical ability that the Phantom and Apollina had performed, he understood the weariness that came with stopping assholes “Ahh, that felt good.”
“Who was the man that attacked you?” He asked, slowly sitting down on the chair after the emerald eyed man did so himself. He took a sip of the offered drink, trusting the scanners on his wrist and his immunity from his days on the League of Shadows to stop any poisoning—though he really didn’t think the Phantom would be willing to use such things. Not without a real cause to do so. Not when he could simply punch a hole through him with a flick of his finger, “Or was it the opposite?”
“First answer my question Mr. Wayne,” he shook his head in response, picking up the glass of ale and taking a gulp, their eyes meeting over the table, “How did you find this apartment?”
“Supersonic disturbances in the city’s sky I have been observing ever since I started to look into, Superman,” he shrugged back, finding no reason to lie or hide about how he found it out. As much as he was wary of these new ‘super powered’ individuals that had repelled the Imperium invasion, he had also come to realize that they were necessary, in case another extraterrestrial power came knocking on their doorstep. “Finding you was an unforeseen discovery when along with Metropolis, Las Vegas showed the supersonic trails left behind by Superman as well. When both cities showed trails appearing at the same time in patterns inconsistent with each other…I deduced that Apollina was residing in this city, along with you.”
“Hmm, and how probable are the chances of someone else replicating your work to find us or Superman?”
“Other than me, only Lex Luthor and two other people have Satellites of that caliber under their direct purview.”
“Thank you for that information,” the magician nodded slightly, before he took a sip and looked out of the window at the burning city. “You still haven’t told me why you came here in the first place. I doubt it was to enjoy my hospitality or some Ginger Ale.”
“I was coming to help against the man you were fighting,” he admitted, sighing as he looked out towards the smoke rising up from Las Vegas. He had been hosting a gala in Gotham when the news of the devastation taking place in Vegas had blared across the whole nation. It had taken barely a minute after seeing the small, blurred forms clashing in the sky to excuse himself and get en route to Vegas, his vambraces lined with the strongest, sharpest knives and most powerful cutting lasers along with the engine of his Batwing fitted with a small Nuclear device as a last resort, “and I also wanted to meet you regarding some doubts of mine.”
“Considering the first matter has been handled, you can ask whatever doubts you have Mr. Wayne,” the Phantom smiled, leaning back fully on his chair as he waved a hand towards the window, “and thanks for coming to help…even I was on the ropes there for a moment.”
Nodding at the gratitude, Bruce sighed and thought about which of his questions he wanted to ask first; the mystery around Phantom, it was obscure even by his standards. Ultimately deciding upon the best, and the most important course of the question, Bruce met the young man’s eyes and opened his mouth. “There are no records of you prior to a couple of years before I started, and even the highly distorted pictures of you can’t be matched with any person on this planet based on the height, build, and age…You are not from this planet…so are you related to Superman or the Martian?”
“Not really,” his question was dismissed with a chuckle as the dark-haired man looked down at his glass. “I mean, I am not technically from this planet…but I was born and raised on Earth, just not this one. And before you ask, yes Apollina is too an alien.”
“Then…do you recognize these things?” He asked, pressing a button on his vambrace, and a hologram was projected between them. A staff-like rod, made of some black-violet material with an energy field shaped like a blade on both of its ends floated between them, “I saw these in action three nights ago in Gotham, and even fought against some of the people wielding them. They hit like a truck, and are much lighter than they should be. The energy on the ends in concentrated plasma, bound to a set distance from the ends by electromagnetic shielding… this is something far beyond Earth’s engineering and science—far beyond even my own R and D. The temperature and the way the plasma follows the magnetic fields on the ends is enough to cut through military grade steel like a child tearing tissue paper…and there are dozens more if not hundreds of these things out here.”
“Extraterrestrial weaponry on Earth,” The Phantom mumbled softly, leaning forwards to take a close look at the single staff Bruce had managed to scavenge from the site before the police and more members from this ‘Intergang’ had shown up. “While I have seen similar things once a long time ago, that was just a scalpel compared to this sword you have found. This is not of human make, but I’m not learned enough about the lifeforms out there to know who has given them to humans.”
“Do you think Superman might know?”
“It's possible,” the mage frowned, turning his head to look in the direction of Metropolis, “but there is one thing I know, and I am sure you have realized it too.”
“That someone out there is interested in Earth and is going to come after this planet one day?”
“Someones, would by my guess. But yes. And those someones arethat someone is most probably after Kal-El,” Phantom sighed, rubbing his hands over his forehead as he grimaced. “Merlin be damned, this is a fucking nightmare. Fucking hell!”
“I assume that it is not a good thing, beyond the simple fact that our mystery alien wants to get to Superman?”
“Superman is a Kryptonian,” the Phantom emphasizedsnapped, and Bruce tilted his head, wondering if that was supposed to explain anything. He knew that the Man of Steel’s species was named Kryptonian, and he was the last of his people, but it seemed like the Phantom understood his question as he continued. “Kryptonians gain power in the yellow radiation of stars as you already know. Kal-El has lived his whole life underneath this planet’s Star, and someone out there is either afraid of him, or wants his power under its thumb. There is nothing else on this rock that matters on a galactic scale as far as I know, and I doubt that some galactic power or empire will be interested in humans or their technology. Either way, they have to possess some way of defeating Superman; be it through sheer numbers, technology, abilities or simply in a contest of physical power.”
“Either of those four is quite dangerous for the other inhabitants of this planet,” Bruce mumbled softly, an image of thousands of spaceships descending upon the Earth, filled with millions and millions of enemy soldiers flashing through his mind.
Harry paused for a moment. “Trust me,” he continued in the heavy silence that followed, “You don’t want someone with the power of Kal-El and none of his moral code running around here. That submarine he pulled out of the water? He could have done that with just his pinky if that metal could support that reaction pressure. Those buildings which he moved in the aftermath of the earthquake? He can just scream and blast them all to dust. Humanity doesn’t realize just what kind of gem they have gained Mr. Wayne…if he so wished, there are probably not even half a dozen people on this planet who could pose a legitimate threat to him.”
“Did something like this happen on your Earth?” Bruce asked, pointing at the rotating hologram between them, “An invasion, or something like alien weaponry in human hands?”
“I have hopped planets two times Bruce,” Phantom chuckled, and for a moment, Bruce could do nothing but stare at the magician in silence. That statement, those seven words…they had been enough to tell him that Phantom was older than his young looks, his eyes showing a sense of sadness and weariness that he himself saw each time he looked into the mirror, “And on my original world, there were no aliens, at least not as far as were were aware yet yet. On my second one…I had a brief meeting with Kal-El, but I was once again transported across space and time before we could even talk. Tell you what, you tell me where you found these goons, and I will go and find some information on my own.”
“I hadn’t expected you to show an active interest in something that doesn’t involve you directly,” he mused loudly, his eyes turning towards the picture of the Phantom and a blonde young woman. “You don’t strike me as the sort to care about something or someone so much unless it affects you directly, and since your interaction with Kal-El didn’t strike me as familial…I am going to venture a guess and say that Apollina is the one you are worried about.”
The Phantom’s fingers stilled, and while his expression did not change or flicker in any way, Bruce knew that he had hit a head on the nail with that statement. But why would the Phantom be worried for Apoolina, when he himself had proposed the idea of Superman being the tar-”Apollina is an extra-terrestrial, not an Earthborn like you…and she is related to Superman, or is of a similar enough race to him for her to also be a probable and possible target for the alien entities we are dealing with here.”
The cogs of his brain turned, and Bruce continued to watch the eyes of the Phantom as he remembered every bit and scrap that had entered the Earth’s atmosphere in the last few years. “The meteors that fell a few years ago, when a flaming motorcycle had climbed up one of the buildings in New York and disappeared into the sky,” he muttered, remembering the widespread shower and the UFO that had flown around in the airspace, detected only by the best of weather equipment. “Your sister arrived during that event…and the attack that happened on a blond girl in New York, when in a single second, all that was left was bloody smears and ashes on the ground. That was you and her too. I know that bits of an unknown green material was recovered from the weapons of the mercenaries, which matched the green crystal found in the remains of Metallo’s core—Christ, your sister is a Kryptonian too.”
“And if she is?”
“That changes nothing,” he answered truthfully. “I am not going to share this information with anyone, and neither am I going to care about this fact other than keeping her and Kal-El away from enemy hands. Punishing criminals and protecting Gotham from its darkness has always been my focus, my driving point…but now, so many years and so many villains later, especially with the devastation left in the wake of the Imperium Invasion and this sorcerer…I have realized something.”
“Hmm? And what is that, ‘Bat of Gotham’?” The Phantom raised an eyebrow, placing the glass down and straightening up as he leaned forwards, “Please don’t say it is something like forming a superhero group or something named like the Order of the Heroes…or the Bat.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Lois!” Clark shouted, springing up from his seat behind the computer as he saw the redhead drop onto the balcony of their boss’ office. His shout made everybody look towards him, before their eyes snapped towards the direction he was staring at, and a relieved breath escaped everyone’s lips as they saw the woman enter Perry’s office. Dropping the documents in his hands, he stood and rushed towards her, barely controlling his powers as he wrenched the door of Perry’s office open and swept up the woman in his arms, “Thank God you are alright!”
“Clark,” she gasped back, her arms winding around him just as tightly, and he calmed down a little at her voice in his ears and the feel of her in his arms. “You can put me down now, I am totally fine!”
“Sorry,” he winced, reigning in his enthusiasm and relief as he put the auburn haired woman down, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he saw Perry and their colleagues throw knowing towards them, “Are you fine though? Did you get hurt in Vegas? And why the hell were you dropping in on the balcony—I didn’t hear any helicopter!”
“I’m fine Clark,” she replied exasperatedly, giving him a warm look before her eyes moved to their boss. “Sorry about dropping like that on your balcony Perry, but I thought it would be better if I gave the report to you first and foremost instead of getting hounded all the way up.”
“You thought that right Lane,” the large man grunted, raising an eyebrow as he caught the camera she had thrown him. “Did Sampson send anyone else with you?”
“There was no one left,” she shook her head, and Clark opened his mouth, his eyes wide as he realized that Lois had ventured into such a peril all by herself—while he had been stuck behind a desk, shuffling papers and watching the bare clips of the clash! However, before he could voice his outrage, Lois continued, “When the first tremors came, everyone rushed to their homes to get out as a citywide alert was issued, and one of the buildings around us crumbled down to dust. I was the only one there who didn’t have a family in the city, so I decided to get to where the Phantom was fighting—what did she call him? Right, Felix Faust.”
“She?” Perry raised an eyebrow, taking the camera Lois passed to him and hooking it to his computer, “You making friends in between a superpowered deathmatch Lois?”
“Kinda hard to refuse when said woman saves you from a disastrous battle and then gives you a ride home,” she shrugged back, and Clark’s eyes widened as he looked from Lois towards the balcony. There was only one she Lois could have met in Vegas with Phantom there, who was capable of bringing her to Metropolis within minutes, “I also got an exclusive interview of the famous and illusive Apollina by the way, which should totally make me eligible for that Christmas bonus.”
Ignoring the ensuing commotion in the cramped office, he walked out into the balcony as everyone hounded the quite smug redhead. Releasing his mental restraints upon his senses, he blinked momentarily, adjusting to the sudden onrush of sounds and smells that assaulted him. The screams, shouts and swears of millions filled his ears, and he could smell the rotten stink of stale food from someone behind him. The sounds of a chase taking place a few blocks away too entered his ears, but for once, Clark decided to let the cops handle it—the robber was running on foot anyway—and expanded his awareness, filtering out the decibels of the humans and vehicles both.
And then, he heard her, her voice soft and welcoming unlike the last time they had stood together in his parents’ house—and Clark hadn’t even realized that he had regretted the way things had gone so much until now.
“Hello cousin,” the smooth Kryptonese of Kara Zor-El flitted across his ears, and his head snapped in the direction of his apartment, his vision piercing through every block of concrete and every rebar in between to watch his cousin make herself home on his couches, “I hope you don’t mind me dropping in to talk…without Harry or your parents getting in the way.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes: There might be—99 percent—another Phantom chapter this month.
Also, finally, we are seeing the formation of the Justice League, and while things may seem calm for now...a major shitstorm is gonna come soon.
I apologize for the lateness and quite large gaps in updates, but I was suffering from a bad case of...well various hospital stays and college exams. But now I am free for quite a while, so updates should be a bit more frequent.
Thank you and have a nice day.
ALSO ONE LAST THING< PLEASE COMMENT ON THE FIGHT THAT HAPPENED IN THE LAST CHAPTER, and if you find anything that could be better.
Comments
PP092
I am. College stressed me out as I started doing everything at once. Now I am balancing things
Heroville111
Great job on the fights. Hope you are feeling better.
