[Third Person Pov]
Unlike Danny's Ghostly Wail, which was a devastating blast overflowing with raw power and destructive energy, Spectra's Ghostly Wail lived up to the word "wail" in the most literal and horrific sense. There was no force behind it meant to destroy structures or blast enemies away. Instead, it was filled with unbearable agony and desperate pleading. Her cries were shrill, ragged, and full of suffering, a tortured sound that clawed at the ears and burrowed deep into the mind. It was the kind of sound that made a person's stomach twist and their skin crawl.
Her moans of pain and screams of despair echoed endlessly through the streets. The wailing carried far beyond the battlefield, slipping through open windows and thin walls, reaching people who had long since retreated to their homes for the night. Sleep became impossible. Those who heard it lay awake in their beds, haunted by the shrieking cries of what sounded less like a ghost and more like a banshee being torn apart.
Robin stared toward the direction the sound was coming from, his face twisted with horror and concern. His mind raced as the screams continued without pause. 'Danny? What is happening? What is he doing to her that's causing her to scream like that?!'
Robin wasn't the only one unsettled by what they were hearing. Green Arrow and Black Canary both felt it as well. Something about the situation was deeply wrong. It wasn't just the sound itself, but the intent behind it. A cold realization settled into their instincts as seasoned heroes. Whatever Danny was doing over there, it wasn't a normal fight. A chill ran down both of their spines despite themselves.
"Penelope," Bertrand growled, his voice thick with anger. His fist clenched tightly inside the mech's control interface, metal joints grinding slightly under the pressure. Rage and fury burned through him as Spectra's screams continued to echo. Hearing his partner subjected to that kind of torture filled him with a violent urge to intervene immediately.
He was just about to charge forward when the wailing abruptly stopped.
The sudden silence felt heavy and oppressive, as if the entire street had been smothered beneath a thick blanket. No one moved for a moment. The absence of sound was almost worse than the screaming had been, leaving everyone frozen in place as they waited to see what would emerge next.
Green Arrow and Speedy were the first to spot it due to their vantage point high above the street on the rooftops. Bertrand saw it shortly after thanks to the sheer height of the mech suit he occupied.
A dense, cold fog began billowing forward down the street, rolling outward with suffocating thickness. It spread slowly but steadily, swallowing the pavement and creeping toward them like a living thing. Within the fog there was movement. A silhouette appeared, the shadow of a figure casually walking forward.
With every step Danny took, sheets of ice spread outward beneath his feet. The pavement froze instantly, forming a smooth crystalline pathway that reflected his image as he advanced. The reflections revealed his cold blue eyes and his utterly emotionless expression. A smear of green blood that wasn't his own stained part of his cheek, giving him an eerie and almost otherworldly appearance as he emerged from the fog.
But that wasn't the worst part.
He wasn't empty handed.
Clutched firmly in his grasp was a foot, more specifically Spectra's ankle, as he dragged her behind him like someone hauling out a bag of trash.
His steps were slow and deliberate while Spectra's body scraped across the frozen ground. Her hands trailed limply above her head, fingers barely twitching. Her eyes had rolled back into her skull, leaving only the whites visible, and her mouth hung open as if she no longer even had the strength to scream. Her face was twisted into a permanent expression of misery and torment.
As her body was dragged across the crystal clear ice, a long trail of green blood followed behind her, staining the frozen surface. Her entire body bore the brutal signs of frostbite. Hundreds of thin cuts covered her from head to toe, shallow but numerous. Dozens of thin icicle-like pins had been driven through her skin, making her resemble a grotesque ghostly pincushion.
Kid Flash felt his heart sink straight into his stomach the moment he truly saw her condition. The others weren't any better. Their guts twisted with revulsion as their faces reflected clear disturbance at the sight in front of them.
Bertrand, however, was shaking.
Pure rage coursed through him as he watched Spectra being dragged in such a humiliating and degrading manner. The energy surrounding the mech became unstable and heavy, fluctuating violently as his fury spiraled out of control. The pressure in the air intensified to the point that everyone nearby could physically feel it pressing down on their shoulders.
Danny suddenly began to levitate off the ground. He floated upward through the cold fog and rose into the air toward Bertrand while still holding Spectra by the ankle, her broken body swaying limply behind him.
"You," Danny said calmly, pointing a finger toward the mech. His voice was flat and completely devoid of emotion. "You are her accomplice, are you not?"
Bertrand roared in response, his voice vibrating with fury. "You will pay for what you've done!!"
"Sure," Danny replied without the slightest change in tone, "but first…"
He swung his arm forward casually.
"Here. Catch. I have no need for her anymore."
Danny tossed Spectra toward Bertrand. Her limp body flew through the air in a slow arc, green blood scattering behind her like a spray.
Bertrand was completely caught off guard. Acting on pure instinct, he extended both arms outward while shouting her name.
"Penelope!!"
That was exactly the reaction Danny had been waiting for.
Arms extended. Chest exposed. Completely vulnerable.
It was the entire reason he had thrown Spectra in the first place.
Before Bertrand had even fully caught her, Danny had already moved.
He appeared directly in front of the mech's chest in an instant and placed his palm against the cold metal surface. A pulse of repulsive ghost energy erupted from his hand, surging through the machine.
The effect was immediate.
Bertrand's ghost form was violently knocked out of the bus he had been inhabiting to control the mech, the force effectively exorcising him from the vehicle in a single motion.
Without even turning around, Danny reached behind himself and grabbed Spectra by the collar just as she began to fall again, effortlessly pulling her back into his grasp.
Bertrand corrected himself as he stumbled through the air from behind exorcized.
Danny continued to float above him, while still holding Spectra's desecration ghost form, "As you are her accomplice, allow me to impart wisdom on you as well"
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