[Third Person Pov]
"My name is Vicky Vale, brought to you by the Gotham Times, reporting live south of Arkham," Vicky stated, looking directly into the camera with practiced composure, microphone held firmly in her hand.
Behind her, the night sky burned.
The flare of the fire reflected off her face and sharp features as she turned slightly, motioning behind her toward the inferno consuming a high-rise apartment complex. Thick pillars of black smoke coiled upward, blotting out the stars as flames burst from shattered windows like grasping hands.
"As you can see," Vicky continued, raising her voice over the distant roar of fire and sirens, "Gotham's firefighters are doing everything in their power to contain this blaze. Multiple engines are on site, aerial ladders are deployed, and emergency crews are cycling in and out nonstop—but the fire continues to spread faster than they can suppress it."
Firefighters moved frantically in the background, hoses spraying torrents of water that hissed uselessly against walls of flame. Medics crouched beside stretchers, oxygen masks ready, while police struggled to keep civilians back.
"But despite the overwhelming odds," Vicky went on, her tone shifting, "it appears they are not alone."
She paused, placing a finger to her earpiece, listening.
"Reports from across Gotham suggest that a local hero—one who has only recently begun making a name for himself—has been assisting in civilian rescue efforts all throughout the city."
Vicky nodded to the cameraman, she motioned towards the side to aim the camera towards the building.
The camera shifted, zooming in on the burning building just as a familiar figure phased cleanly through the flaming wall.
Danny Phantom emerged from the structure, smoke passing harmlessly through his translucent form. Survivors clung to him— four were supported in his arms, another two draped across his back. Soot covered their faces, ash clung to their clothes, but they were alive.
"There—there he is," Vicky said, awe creeping into her voice despite her professionalism. "That's him."
Danny descended slowly, carefully lowering the survivors into the waiting arms of firefighters and medics. He lingered just long enough to ensure they were stable before giving a sharp nod—and then, without ceremony, he turned and dove straight back into the fire, phasing through falling debris as if it didn't exist.
"This has been happening all night," Vicky continued, eyes never leaving the scene. "Witnesses report the same individual pulling people from collapsing buildings, extinguishing fires in localized areas, and returning inside again and again without rest."
Suddenly, the building flared.
A deafening boom ripped through the air as a massive explosion erupted from within the structure. The shockwave slammed outward, hurling debris, smoke, and force in all directions. Vicky cried out as she was thrown off her feet, the cameraman hitting the ground hard beside her.
The camera skidded across the pavement. The screen cracked, jagged fractures spreading across the image—but it remained on.
Smoke filled everything.
The building collapsed in on itself with a thunderous roar, concrete and steel folding downward as a tidal wave of dust surged outward. Sirens wailed, voices shouted, and for a terrifying moment, the only thing visible was darkness and ash.
Then—the smoke moved.
From the perspective of the cracked camera lens, still aimed at the wreckage, the black cloud was suddenly pushed back, as though parted by an unseen force.
At the center of it all, Danny Phantom hovered in the air.
He levitated above the ruins, eyes blazing an intense emerald glow, arms stretched wide as overlapping force-fields shimmered around him. Within those translucent barriers were survivors—men, women, and children—clutching one another, all of them coated in soot and ash, coughing but alive.
The force-field pulsed, holding firm against falling debris as Danny slowly descended, guiding them safely down to the ground.
For a long moment, no one spoke.
The cracked camera captured everything—the ruined building, the stunned rescue workers, and the ghostly hero standing amid the devastation, still holding the survivors aloft as if refusing to let the city take another life.
The cameraman picked up the device to get a better angle as he stood up to his feet. Beside him Vicky was doing the same, despite her scrapped knee and trembling hands she grabbed the mic and stood before the camera.
Vicky's voice, shaken but steady, finally broke the silence.
"…This is Vicky Vale," she said quietly, "and tonight, Gotham is witnessing something extraordinary."
…
While Danny busied himself rescuing civilians from the fires below, Batman and Robin were hunting down the source.
They sprinted across Gotham's rooftops, boots pounding against concrete slick with ash and soot as Firefly rocketed ahead of them, his jetpack screaming through the night sky. Trails of flame burst from his path as he laughed wildly, banking sharply between buildings and raining fire down onto the streets below.
"Keep him airborne and away from the crowds," Batman ordered through clenched teeth.
"I see him," Robin replied, already adjusting his trajectory. "He's not getting far."
Firefly twisted midair, spinning to face them as he hovered above a narrow street canyon. His flamethrower roared to life, belching a torrent of fire toward the rooftop edge where Robin had just landed. Batman didn't hesitate—his arm snapped forward and the grapple gun fired.
The hook wrapped tightly around Firefly's jetpack harness.
Firefly barely had time to shout before Batman yanked hard, pulling him violently off balance midair. The villain flailed, struggling to stabilize as he swung toward the side of an office building.
"Burn, Bat—" Firefly snarled, raising his flamethrower.
The sentence never finished.
Robin's arm flicked forward, and an explosive birdarang sliced through the air. It struck the flamethrower dead-on, detonating in a sharp blast that shredded the weapon into sparking fragments. Firefly screamed as the recoil sent him spinning helplessly—
—and Robin rushed towards the ledge and leapt through the air with impressive air time, tackling him.
Both figures smashed straight through a glass window, disappearing into the dark interior of the office building in a storm of shattered glass and debris.
Batman followed immediately, cutting his grapple line and diving through the broken window with brutal precision.
Inside, Firefly barely had time to roll to his feet before Robin was on him, driving a knee into his ribs and a fist into his helmet. Batman joined without pause. The two of them moved like clockwork—no wasted motion, no opening given. A punch from Batman snapped Firefly's head sideways, Robin followed with a kick to the knee, Batman slammed an elbow into his chest, driving the air from his lungs.
Firefly staggered, disoriented, trying desperately to bring up another weapon.
Robin shattered his mask with a vicious strike, cracks spiderwebbing across the visor before it exploded outward in shards. Batman ripped the remaining gear from Firefly's suit and crushed it beneath his boot.
The villain barely had time to gasp.
Robin grabbed an office chair and swung it with full force, smashing it across Firefly's torso. The impact sent him flying backward, slamming hard into the wall with a sickening thud.
Before he could slide down, Batman was there.
A relentless string of blows followed—body, jaw, ribs, throat—each strike precise and devastating. The wall behind Firefly cracked under the assault, concrete slumping as Batman drove the final blow into his chest.
Firefly collapsed to the ground, unconscious, blood trailing from beneath his shattered mask.
Silence fell over the ruined office.
Batman straightened slowly, cape settling around him as Robin caught his breath nearby.
"Firefly neutralized," Robin said at last.
Batman glanced toward the broken window, where the glow of distant emerald light reflected faintly against the smoke-filled sky.
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