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Either Hal was going crazy, or the Watchtower was being haunted by some kind of ghost that lived in the walls. At this point, he wasn’t sure which one was worse.
See, it had all started a few months ago, when they’d finally been able to formally start using the Watchtower as the main Justice League headquarters. At first, Hal hadn’t really given the strange noises that seemed to follow him around the station much thought. After all, a brand new space station was bound to have some weird noises, right?
But more recently, the mildly ominous creaks had gradually shifted away from easy-to-explain sounds to what Hal swore were footsteps. Hell, he’d even heard what could only be described as a child’s laugh float through the halls one night when he was on monitor duty.
Now, Hal tried to let it go. He really did. But the problem was that the hallucination/ghost seemed to have decided to exclusively fuck with him. When he tried to mention the sounds to the other heroes, they all looked at him like he was crazy. Which, at this point, he probably was. Even Supes and the others with heightened senses had no idea what he was talking about, which only made the mindfuck of a situation worse.
Plus, Hal was sure that the damn ghost was escalating, because it was almost certainly the one who kept hiding Hal’s half-finished reports and stealing his snacks if he even glanced away for a moment.
This had to end, and Hal was determined to get to the bottom of it.
***
Hal heard the infuriating pitter-patter above his head the second he was alone. As usual, there had been no sounds while he’d been in the founder’s meeting, but now it was on.
The sounds were moving away, further down the hallway, and Hal quickly followed as silently as possible.
The footsteps led him down the Tower hallways, twisting and turning in a way that made Hal wonder whether there was a whole side of the Tower that he didn’t know about. Eventually, they took him into a training room that Hal hadn’t even known existed.
Suddenly, the footstops stopped, and Hal wondered if he was really starting to lose it.
A moment later he was nearly deafened as the room erupted in a cacophony of the eeriest child’s laughter that Hal had ever heard. Hal was a Green Lantern, so by trade he’d travelled through some of the darkest corners of space and visited countless alien worlds, and yet he could safely say this was the most freaked out he’d ever been.
The automatic door shut behind him, locking with a hiss, and Hal nearly jumped.
Then, the god-awful laughter shifted from a resounding choir to a single laugh that bounced around the room as though mocking Hal’s imprisonment.
Now, Hal usually thought of himself as a pretty good Lantern and hero. Hell, he was a founding member of the Justice League. And yet, as he finally arrived at the end of the trail he’d been chasing for so long, Hal couldn’t help but freeze up.
What was he doing? He’d just walked into the most obvious trap, and for what? To figure out what some weird sounds were?
A motion in the corner of the room pulled him out of his spiraling thoughts. Spinning, Hal readied himself for a fight.
But the damn ghost wasn’t there.
A minute later, it appeared in the corner of Hal’s eye again, but no matter how quickly he moved the thing just continued to evade him. It even went so far as to tap his shoulder, taunting him into action.
Frustrated, Hal moved to form a construct, no real plan in mind but desperate to break the cycle of spinning he’d found himself drawn into.
But nothing happened.
Needing confirmation that he’d truly fucked up so bad, Hal looked down at his clothes. To his own horror, he found himself dressed back in his flight suit, his Lantern uniform gone. Which, of course, meant his finger was also bare, his ring nowhere to be found.
“You should probably go get a backup. I’m pretty sure you need a ring to be a Green Lantern.”
Hal spun around one last time, and found himself face to face with…a child? Or, at least, something that looked like one. The “kid” was dressed like a mini superhero, mask, cape, brightly coloured costume and all. In his hand was Hal’s ring, which he was tossing haphazardly through the air.
“Uh, look kid,” Hal began uneasily. “I’m gonna need you to give me the ring back.”
The kid seemed to consider Hal’s words for a moment, before grinning maniacally.
“No can do, GL,” he said with the utmost sincerity. “ I have a mission.”
Yeah, Hal hadn’t really thought it would be that easy. So he did the next best thing and lunged to grab the ring the next time the kid tossed it in the air.
It was a miracle that Hal didn’t fall on his face. The second that he began to move, the kid was gone. He didn’t just dodge, no, he straight up disappeared, with only a now-familiar cackle left behind as some kind of fucked up goodbye.
Hal liked to think that he was man enough to know when he was fighting a losing battle. Reluctantly, he headed back to the main area of the Watchtower to follow the kid’s advice and get some fucking backup.
As he walked, Hal tried to figure out how he could explain himself without sounding like a complete idiot. Maybe he could ease his way into it.
Unfortunately, the second that he walked back into the meeting room, Hal realized that he’d completely forgotten about his current attire.
“Hal!” Clark exclaimed as soon as he walked in, “What happened to you?”
Apparently Hal had been gone long enough that most of the League had left, because the only people left in the room were Clark and Batman. Clark was looking at him with deep concern that only made Hal feel more incompetent. Batman was, of course, as impassive as ever, though Hal almost could have sworn there was something extra to the weight of his gaze.
“There is some kind of demon-child thing up,” Hal said, no longer seeing the point in beating around the bush. “It’s been taunting me for months and it just stole my ring!”
Clark frowned. “Are you okay?”
“For months?” Batman intoned before Hal could answer. “Why didn’t you report this potential security breach immediately?”
“I―I wasn’t sure if there was a breach until today.” Hal replied, and even he could hear how defensive he sounded. “I thought I might’ve been imagining things.”
A noise that sounded suspiciously like a child’s giggle suddenly erupted from Batman, and Hal realized that he was, in fact, losing it. That weird kid had cursed him, and now he was tricking himself into thinking that the goddamn Batman was giggling.
Except, Batman looked directly at Hal and did something that Hal had never seen him do before: he smirked.
And then he slowly parted his dark cape to reveal the demon kid attached to his leg in a firm grasp while laughing his head off.
What the actual fuck?
“Robin, I take it the mission was a success?” Batman asked, and if Hal didn’t know any better, he’d say that there was a hint of fondness in his tone.
The kid―Robin, apparently― beamed up at the Dark Knight himself and presented the ring he’d stolen. “I can’t believe it took him this long to investigate! Does this mean I get my ice cream now?”
“Sure, chum.” Batman patted Robin’s head and tossed the ring to Hal.
“You should be more aware of your surroundings, Jordan. Next time, it won’t be training.”
With that, Batman scooped Robin up and walked out of the room.
Hal turned to Clark to see if he had any idea what had just happened.
Clark smiled apologetically. “Sorry, Hal, Batman had some pretty unconventional ways of training his kid. Don’t take it personally, I’m pretty sure the only reason I haven’t found myself locked in a room alone with Robin and kryptonite is the fact that Robin refuses to do it.”
Then he too walked out of the room, as though it wasn’t absolutely unfathomable that Batman, Spooky himself, had a kid that he was apparently training to be able to fight superheroes. A kid who had tormented Hal for months simply for the promise of ice cream.
God, Hal hoped that the kid didn’t decide to become a villain someday.
Maybe it would've been better if Hal had actually gone crazy. Hell, it probably would have been better if it had been a real ghost haunting him. At least then Hal wouldn’t have to live in terror of getting his ass kicked by a grade-schooler.