Insignificantly evil (DP and Batman crossover)

The Final Stance

Finding the base proved to be a much more difficult task than the ghost had originally thought. The organization was too spread out, making it very power and time consuming. If Dan would open only a few more portals, his power would be drained and he would be rendered useless.

Now he was realizing he should have gone with Jason. If only he hadn't been so stubborn. This had to be solved logically, there was no more energy to be mindlessly thrown around. Where were the other hideouts? Dan has been to so many of them that they were all mixed up.

From the ones he remembered, there were two more hidden in the mountains, one in a deep forest and few minor ones scattered in various cities among all continents.

The third option could be almost certainly discarded. It would be too easy to track down the small ghosts. Though there was the option of hiding in plain sight, this one didn't feel like it. So there were three known possibilities left.

If they wanted to hide a human weapon that wasn't supposed to exist, the tall and hardly accessible mountains would provide perfect cover. Though there was the problem of satellite mapping, a tool many had access to. They were hidden inside old shrines, but people who knew what they were looking for, those were easy targets.

If Dan's thinking was right, Zephyr should be hidden inside the forest base. It was well hidden among the tall trees, which also provided some signal interference. It was an uninhabited land stretching hundreds of miles in every direction.

Based on the given facts, this was the most possible outcome. To test this theory, Dan opened yet another portal. The swirling black and green void that appeared immediately swallowed him and let him out in a place thousands of miles away.

The environment change was immediately noticed. The fresh and cool forest air, in contrast to the heavily polluted kind in the city, enveloped the ghost, making him relax.

Dan wasn't lucky enough, in the sense that he could never get a proper moment of peace. The air filled up with something unpleasant. It stung in his eyes and nose. When the ghost turned around, he could see the reason.

A thick cloud of smoke was being pulled along in his direction by a wind current. It was accompanied by panicked screams and a moaning building, which was doing its best not to fall down.

Despite everything, it took the ghost a while to fully take in all his surroundings; fire, screams, collapsing building...

Just what the hell was going on?

Not to rush head first into anything dangerous, Dan took off into the air and stopped only after he gained a safe distance from the ground. As he neared the building, the staff members were running around in panic, trying to stop the spreading of the fire. Their effort was futile though, the surrounding trees were one by one catching fire.

The ghost paid no mind; the flames formed no obstacle for him. If things went south, the distraction could actually be of great help. The air was filled with fear, but there was also something else. The faint cries of pain mixed with shouts of anger and frustration. There was something else going on.

Ignorant of the situation below, Dan made his way towards the other commotion. He expected many things, but this took him by surprise. The sight of Zephyr going berserk was terrifying. He had this invincible aura surrounding him.

Scary

Was that how he looked to other people? He never really cared for his reputation, but for some reason, it irked him now. To be honest, he hasn't committed any great crimes. Er... at least after he had lost Danny. Every time he has engaged in a fight, it was always during self defense when he was being apprehended by the government.