[Third Person Pov]
Danny was a blur of motion as he tore through the swarm of Technus-bots. One of the metallic brutes rocketed toward him with its fist cocked back, servos whining. Danny snatched its forearm mid-swing, twisted his body with a smooth pivot, and hurled the machine over his shoulder. It spun like a flung hammer and crashed into another incoming android, both clanging together in a shower of sparks.
Without missing a beat, Danny inhaled and spun in place, unleashing a continuous, bone-rattling Ghost Wail. The sound rippled through the air like a shockwave, warping the space around him. But the bots—being little more than stubborn hunks of soulless metal—held firm. Instead of crumpling, they only staggered back, their glowing eyes flickering as they recalibrated. Not nearly as effective as it should've been… but at least it bought him a few seconds.
He slipped between their counterattacks with casual grace, weaving through bursts of plasma and electrified punches. Each micro-movement was deliberate—just enough tilt of his head to let a blast scorch by his cheek, just enough shift of a shoulder to ghost past a steel knuckle. He ducked, spun, flew backward, every dodge fluid and effortless, like he was dancing on the edge of a razor.
A pair of screens materialized at his sides just in time to intercept two incoming punches. The shields cracked immediately, spiderweb fractures radiating from the impact points. Danny's eyes widened. 'Yep—definitely a bad idea to get hit by these things.'
To keep them at a distance, Danny thrust his hands outward, summoning twin constructs—ghostly green whips that hissed into existence. A heartbeat later, he snapped them through the air, igniting them with roaring emerald-green flames that made the air ripple with heat.
He cracked one whip through the air, the sound splitting the silence like lightning. The fiery blade carved into a nearby bot, slicing through its metal plating as if it were molten wax. Embers burst from the tip, and the strike detonated into a small explosion that sent the machine flying backward. Its chassis was melted and mangled… but it was still crawling, servos whining in defiance.
"Cool…" Danny muttered, looking almost impressed with himself. He twirled the flaming whip experimentally and grinned, wicked and unbothered. "I'm not really into BDSM, but I'm starting to see the appeal."
With absolutely no actual training in whip-handling, Danny flew into the fray swinging them like ribbons. He relied almost entirely on instinct—and pure dumb hope—and somehow it actually worked for a while. He laughed as one whip sliced through an energy blast, splitting the beam cleanly in two.
Danny attempted an over shoulder strike on another bot raising its arm to block. The whip wrapped around its forearm—not what he planned. Before he could correct it, the Technus-bot seized the fiery tendril and yanked with its full mechanical strength.
"Ahhh—Ugh!!" Danny cried out as he was ripped off balance and dragged through the air like a rag doll. The bot swung a brutal backhand that connected with his face, splitting his lip and sending him tumbling straight into the arms of another waiting android.
Metal hands clamped around his wrists, wrenching them behind his back. Danny tried to phase through them, but the technusbot disrupted his attempt. A surge of violent electricity tore through him, arching across his body and forcing a strangled cry from his throat. Another bot darted in and slammed a fist into his gut. A spray of neon-green blood burst from his mouth. A second joined in, and the two began pounding him with precise, machine-gun-speed blows.
Danny gritted his teeth and endured, fury bubbling beneath the pain. His eyes burned brighter, power flaring as another electric surge rattled through him. He growled, muscles rippling as he began forcing his arms apart, inch by inch.
Then one of the bots reached toward his pocket. It produced the Tachyon device, holding it up in acknowledgment of its acquisition.
Danny's response was immediate.
The moment his jaw clenched earlier, he'd been charging a blast. Now he opened his mouth wide, and a concentrated ghost ray erupted point-blank. The beam tore through the bot's neck, decapitating it in a flash of ectoplasmic light. Its grip loosened, and the device tumbled through the air.
With a roar fueled by pain and defiance, Danny planted his foot behind him against the bot restraining him. Using the leverage, he heaved backward with explosive force, ripping the android's arms clean off. Before its systems could react, Danny twisted around and drove his fist through its chest. The impact detonated in a burst of ecto-energy, blowing a smoking hole straight through the machine.
Danny dove after the Technus-bots, all of them hurtling toward the fallen device like a school of metal piranhas converging on prey. The city blurred beneath them, skyscraper windows reflecting streaks of green and silver as they plummeted. At the last second, just before the ground rushed up to meet them, every bot extended its arm in a synchronized lunge.
Danny, fueled by desperation and a flicker of reckless brilliance, shifted his spectral body. His hand stretched out like a serpentine whip, extending far beyond their normal reach. He snatched the Tachyon device a fraction of a second before the others could close in.
Before they could crash, all of them—Danny included—pulled up sharply, blasting back into the air. They surged through the streets in a chaotic chase, weaving between traffic lights, billboards, and startled civilians. Pedestrians jerked their heads around, hair whipping from the sudden gusts the fighters left in their wake. Papers flew. Car alarms blared.
Danny finally skidded to a hover and threw up a forcefield, palm extended. The shimmering dome enveloped him just as the Technus-bots slammed into it. Sparks flew. Metal fists hammered nonstop against the barrier while Danny shoved the Tachyon device back into his pocket, triple-checking it was secure.
His chest heaved up and down, breaths sharp and uneven. Bruises marbled his face and arms in shades of black, blue, and deep violet; his skin looked like it had been painted with pain. Blood trickled steadily down his chin as the bots' pounding intensified. The moment the barrier shattered, fragments of green light splintered outward like broken glass.
Danny didn't flinch.
He wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand. He didn't offer a quip, a taunt, or even a tired smirk. His silence was heavier than the air around him. His eyes narrowed, and his fists ignited—an emerald blaze curling around his knuckles. He inhaled once, slowly… then vanished in a streak of green fire.
Danny tore through the streets like a blazing comet, leaving a trail of emerald flames in his wake. Each time he passed a Technus-bot, a burst of green light erupted as the machine exploded into scrap and smoke. For a moment, Danny no longer resembled a friendly neighborhood hero—he looked like a wrathful apparition, a spirit avenging every blow he had taken.
But the Technus-bots were quick learners. They adapted. They studied his movements with cold precision, predicting his angles, tracking his acceleration. What was once a scattered swarm became a unified mind, moving as a single mechanical organism. Their attacks sharpened—plasma bolts aimed at vital points, electrical charges synchronized to trap him mid-phase.
Danny adapted just as quickly.
He flicked a hard-light screen into existence and spun it sideways, turning it into a razor-edged disc that sliced two bots cleanly in half. Another lunged from behind, firing ghost rays. Danny blinked out of sight and reappeared upside-down above it, palm planted over its faceplate. A swirling cyclone of emerald fire erupted from his hand, vaporizing the machine in a roar of heat.
Another bot charged him—and Danny boxed it in with a flurry of screens. They snapped into place around it like a prism. With a swift clap of his palms, he forced the hard-light cage to implode inward. Metal screamed as the bot was crushed flat.
A sudden blast struck Danny in the shoulder, making him stagger. He turned just in time for another shot to hit him square in the back. Before he could recover, a third bot streaked in and punched him across the jaw, sending him spiraling toward the asphalt below.
He crashed hard but broke his fall enough to avoid cratering the street. Dizzy, he rose to his feet—only to find himself surrounded on all sides. More bots hovered above, targeting systems humming. He shut his eyes and breathed in deeply.
As he exhaled through his teeth, a faint whistle accidently escaped him… and with it, a memory. A glimpse of Black Canary standing over him during training, arms crossed, voice sharp but encouraging.
'That's right… frequencies!'
Danny's eyes snapped open.
The swarm of Technus-bots attacked in perfect unison.
Danny opened his mouth—
—and unleashed a Ghostly Wail so powerful the world seemed to vibrate.
The shockwave blasted outward in a dome, a devastating sonic storm. Civilians nearby clamped their hands over their ears, crying out as the air itself rippled. Windows trembled. Streetlights flickered. The Technus-bots were hurled backward as their beam attacks were swallowed and flung away by the overwhelming sound.
Seeing that his Ghostly Wail alone wasn't bringing the Technus-bots down as quickly as he hoped, Danny forced himself to think fast. He swallowed, reshaped his throat with a twist of his spectral body manipulation, and let the sound rising from his chest shift. His pitch climbed higher and higher, the air around him tightening like a vibrating wire.
Glass windows all around the block began to tremble violently… then burst, raining glittering shards onto the streets. As Danny pushed the frequency further, the sound became less audible to human ears—more a pressure than a noise—yet its effect on the world intensified.
Danny's emerald eyes burned with power.
Cars jolted violently as their alarms activated in a chaotic chorus. Streetlights flickered and dimmed like dying stars. The phones in people's hands sparked, buzzing, shocking their owners before popping like firecrackers and detonating in small bursts of smoke. People screamed and stumbled back, dropping the dead devices in terror.
The Technus-bots didn't fare any better.
Their bodies convulsed, joints locking and shaking as blue and green sparks erupted from every seam. Their heads spun in complete 360-degree rotations, whirling so rapidly they turned into blurry halos. Smoke pumped from their limbs. Their chassis whined in agony—if machines could feel such a thing—before the first one finally ruptured.
Then the others followed.
They exploded in rapid succession, dozens upon dozens erupting in the sky like fireworks. Emerald-tinted flames and ghostly sparks painted the skyline in haunting, shimmering waves of light that momentarily turned the ruined street into something almost beautiful.
When the final bot detonated, Danny dropped to one knee, panting and wheezing. His throat ached. His lungs burned.
"Woah, that really takes a lot—" he began—
Then froze.
His voice sounded like a helium-sucking chipmunk.
Mortified, Danny cleared his throat. The next sound that came out was too deep, gravelly, and borderline demonic. "I mean… woah, that really takes a lot out of me."
He winced. "Okay… that's better. Sort of."
Before he could recover fully, the sharp, thunderous crack of the sound barrier shattering boomed through the city. Followed immediately by the deafening symphony of destruction—walls collapsing, metal tearing, concrete splitting.
Danny's gaze snapped upward just in time to see a red-and-blue blur ripping through multiple buildings like they were paper walls. Masonry and steel cascaded behind the figure as it smashed through one building, then the next, then the next—before eventually slamming into a far wall with terrifying force. The concrete bowed, then Superman peeled off the impact crater and plummeted downward like a falling star.
"SUPERMAN!!"
Danny shot forward in a streak of green, snatching the Man of Steel before he hit the ground. He eased them both down, guiding Superman's arm over his shoulder.
The sight made Danny's stomach twist.
Superman's iconic suit was shredded; the exposed skin beneath was mottled with deep purple bruises. Blood trickled steadily down the side of his face, staining the edge of his cape.
"Danny…" Superman rasped, barely audible. "I can't hear at the moment… I burst my own eardrums. You need to run. I don't know what's happening, but… my power—" He winced. "It's dropping."
From across the battlefield, a manic, distorted laugh echoed. Electric. Triumphant. Hungry.
Technus.
"But that shouldn't be possible," Danny muttered, dread curling in his chest.
"That shouldn't be possible," Superman echoed, forcing himself upright. "Unless… it's Kryptonite—"
Danny's heart skipped.
Technus' body. His impossible strength. Superman weakening only when near him.
Danny's eyes widened as the puzzle pieces snapped together.
He thrust a finger toward the ground and fired a quick ghost ray, carving a single word into the asphalt:
METALLO?
Superman's eyes widened.
"What?"
Before Danny could elaborate, Technus materialized high above the city. His presence darkened the skyline as green, storm-like clouds roiled around him. The electromagnetic aura he emitted intensified, warping the atmosphere like reality itself was bending to his will.
Car alarms blared simultaneously.
Every household appliance—microwaves, washers, dryers—jolted violently before rising into the air. Phones, speaker systems, computers, anything electronic was ripped upward as if gravity had reversed. Cars levitated, spinning helplessly as Technus drew everything metallic or electric toward him like a living singularity.
"Now…" Technus shouted, amplified through every single speaker in the city. "Where is my TACHYON CAPACITOR!?"
Superman's face darkened. He stared deeply at Technus, activating his super-vision despite the pain. His eyes narrowed—then widened with grim understanding.
"I see it…" he whispered. "His core. Danny, you were right. He's using Metallo's body as his host."
Superman swallowed hard, his voice heavy with dread.
"That means this situation just went from bad—"
He looked up at Technus as the machines circling him formed a crown of metal debris.
"—to worst."
********************************************
+10 advance Chapters and my other patron exclusive content on: patreon.com/Shadow_D_Monarch3