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Tucker’s device worked perfectly, disrupting a section of the force field just big enough for them to sneak through.
Danny quickly led them through a town that was strangely quiet. They only encountered a few GIW agents along the way that the Bats took down quickly.
Soon enough they came to Danny’s street.
“That’s your house!” Steph blurted out.
“How was that even allowed?” Tim asked under his breath.
Danny chuckled. “Yup, welcome to Fenton works where the laws of physics and the HOA are just a suggestion.” Despite trying to sound cheery, Danny's voice shook slightly. He wiped his hands on his pants. His eyes wouldn’t leave the front door.
A hand settled on his shoulder, startling him.
“You don’t have to go in.” Jason said. “You can just tell us where everything is.”
Danny shook his head. “No. It will be better if I can show you. It will be too difficult to try and describe all the devices that we might need.” He took a deep breath. At least his parents weren’t home. He led them into the house. Everything was pretty dusty, and Danny figured his parents hadn’t bothered to clean, too focused on the ghost in their basement.
He led them to the kitchen and through the lab door, ignoring the Bats muttering about not having locks on the lab door. Danny wanted to laugh at that. His parents– the Fentons– wouldn’t know what lab safety was even if it hit them in the face.
He hesitated at the bottom of the stairs not wanting to turn the final corner and see the lab where his parents had kept him strapped down, where they had experimented on him.
Jason’s hand rested on his shoulder again. “We’re here with you. Nothings going to happen. I won’t let it.”
Danny nodded, trying to let it reassure him.
He turned into the lab and promptly stumbled against the wall. He could barely feel the hands keeping him upright as he vomited onto the floor. His eyes stung and his stomach kept trying to empty itself even when there was nothing left. He could faintly hear voices, but his ears were ringing.
His parents hadn’t cleaned anything up. The lab table was still stained with his blood. There were jars with parts of himself laying on the tables and shelves. Oh god. He knee he was breathing too quickly, but he couldn’t stop. His parents had really done that to him. His parents. His parents were supposed to love him and take care of him, but they’d… they’d…
He was shaking, he could faintly register being moved, but he didn’t come back to himself till he was seated on the couch in the living room. He hadn’t even registered going up the stairs.
“Deep breaths, Danny.”
Jason was in front of him. How long had he been talking?
“That’s it.” Jason said as Danny inhaled deeply. “There you go.” he led Danny through a few more breathing exercises until Danny slumped against the back of the couch, closing his eyes.
A cold glass of water nudged his hand and he took it, taking slow sips.
“Where’s everyone else?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“They’re taking a look around, trying to see what they can find. They’ll bring the weapons up here and then you can explain what they do and which ones we should use.”
Danny nodded, too tired to insist he help. He glanced at Jason again, the young man’s jaw was clenched, and he wasn’t looking at Danny. Danny didn’t need much imagination to guess what he was thinking.
“They loved me.” Danny couldn’t help but whisper.
Jason let out a breath. “Maybe they did.” he conceded. “But people can say they love you and still hurt you.”
Danny sniffled. Jason sat next to him, providing a comforting presence without trying to force Danny to talk or listen to all the reasons why the Fentons were terrible parents and didn’t really love Danny.
Soon the rest of the Bats came back upstairs, and Danny was grateful for the distraction. Explaining what the weapons did and which ones might be useful was much better than dealing with his trauma.
Once everyone was armed and Steph and Damian had left to take specter deflector belts to the rest of the League, they headed out of the house.
They were about to head in the direction of the school when the sound of a weapon firing made them all duck for cover.
Above them a figure in a red mech suit zoomed closer on a mechanized hoverboard.
She fired off another volley of shots, and the Bats quickly dodged before sending back their own counter attacks. Danny ducked to avoid a shot, but couldn’t take his eyes off Val. Why was she shooting at the Bats?
Danny had told them about Red Huntress, but had said that she might be an alley. He had no idea why she was shooting at them.
He watched as she dodged and electrified batarang. Something glinted at the back of her neck, something white. Danny narrowed his eyes, focusing on the few glimpses he could catch of the back of her neck. He went invisible and floated up, not yet transforming into Phantom. Using a few powers as Danny would’t ping on the GIW radars as much as turning into Phantom would.
He used her distraction with the Bats to float closer to her, and gasped quietly when he caught a good look at the thing attached to the back of her neck.
It was a little white box with three letters on it reading ‘G.I.W.’
He swallowed, observing Valerie more closely. Her movements weren’t as smooth as they usually were, and normally her aim was much better than this.
He couldn’t be sure, but he still felt almost certain that Valerie wasn’t acting on her own right now. Had the GIW found a way to control her through her suit? Danny was almost sure that was the answer. But they needed to get her still long enough for Danny to get a better look.
“Hey!” he called down to the Bats. “I think I know what’s wrong, but I need you to get her to hold still long enough for me to check.”
None of them verbally responded, but they all moved to circle her making it so she had to continually turn to keep as many of them as she could in her line of sight.
Danny darted back down to the ground, afraid of using more powers and accidentally bringing the GIW right to them. He just hoped that Val’s presence here didn’t bring the GIW to them.
Finally, one of the electrified batarangs embedded itself in her hoverboard and she lost control of it, crashing toward the ground. Danny moved to catch, but before he could, Bruce was there. He grabbed her, wrestling her down to the ground, and Danny darted forward.
Danny pointed at the back of her neck. “That’s not part of her suit. I think the GIW are using it to control her somehow.”
Tim came forward to take a look, prodding at the device and the surrounding area, ignoring Val’s struggles to get free.
“I should be able to simply remove this.” he mumbled to himself, before taking a hold of the small device and yanking it off the suit.
Valerie shuddered and then the suit retracted back into her. She slumped in Bruce’s hold, and Danny darted forward.
“Val?” he asked quietly, kneeling down beside her. Her face looked gaunt, her hair greasy and tangled.
Her eyes opened a crack. “Danny? Is that you?”
He smiled. “Yeah, Val it’s me.” he turned to Batman. “You can let her go.” Batman grunted but changed his grip so he was supporting her instead of just holding on to her.
“Val, what happened?” Danny asked.
She shuddered again. “You went missing. Sam and Tucker told me about…” she glanced at him, her gaze still slightly unfocused, her voice scratchy. “About you.” she finished. “I tried breaking into the GIW, but they–” she coughed, and Danny noticed Dick go back into the house hopefully for a glass of water. “They got me. I don't—" she cut off again. “I don’t remember much after that. It’s all hazy.” She shuddered again.
Danny glanced at Bruce again. “We need to get her out of here. I don’t want the GIW to get her again.”
Bruce nodded. “We’ll send her back with one of the League members.”
Danny nodded, looking worriedly at his friend. If this is what the GIW had done to her, he hated to think what they might do to other liminals. He looked off in the direction of the school. Hold on a little longer, he thought to Sam and Tucker, I’m almost there.