#nothing like the honor of the ritual exchange of blows between warrior women

[elizabethemerald]

Danny shuddered as the power suppressing cuffs were clipped onto his wrists. He could only stare at the cuffs in horror. The Justice League had power suppression cuffs specifically designed to counter ghosts. Fentontech. Modified by the Guys in White.

He always guessed the JL were corporate shills, but now he had the confirmation. They were going to hand him over to the GIW. He shuddered again, horror and rage bleeding off his form. He didn't think he would survive getting cut open again.

"He's bleeding?"

He wasn't certain which of the heroes had said that. When he looked down he saw he was in fact bleeding. The suppression cuffs were damaging his healing factor. Old wounds that were sealed with ectoplasm and healed over were opening up again. Green blood oozed down his face and he could feel it soaking into the fabric of his jumpsuit. His torso ached. Maybe he wouldn't even make it to the dissection table.

Danny was spiraling. He knew he was spiraling, but he couldn't stop himself. If he died again it would mean war. The denizens of the Infinite Realms would storm the planet and tear it apart. Without the steadying hand of Danny as the High King, they would show the humans no mercy. Millions would die. And then if they became ghosts the chaos in the Realms would be never ending.

One of the JL members, he couldn't even see clearly which it was approached and Danny snarled at them. He couldn't die. He wouldn't let them ruin all the work he had put into returning the Realms to Balance. He threw his head back and shouted for the one person who had always made him feel safe, who had always protected him.

"I call upon the protector of the King of All Ghosts! I summon you, Fright Knight!"

The crack of a portal tearing open silenced the heroes for a moment before the sad one in a trench coat started panicking. The portal hadn't even fully opened and he was trying to pull his fellow heroes.

"If that ghost can summon the Fright Knight then we are way over our heads! We need to step back and reassess!"

The portal finished opening, revealing the swirling, green skies of the Infinite Realms and the intimidating form of Danny's Fright Knight. The black armor covered their entire body, and red flames poured out of their helmet. In their hands was bo staff covered in green flames.

"Unhand him or face the wrath of the Fright Knight!" The knight roared at the heroes.

Superman reacted first and threw himself forward his fist cocked back. Fright Knight allowed him to pass through their body and caught Superman with a back swing of their staff. Superman shouted in surprise for a second before he vanished into the staff.

Batman pulled a weapon from his belt and fired it. The electric barbs of the taser, coated in ectoplasm so it would interact with ghosts struck Fright Knight's armor and sparked there. Fright Knight looked down at the barbs, unbridled rage emanating from their form.

"You have made a weapon specifically to harm Phantom." The voice came out in a growl that made the very air shiver in fear.

Fright Knight grabbed the barbs of the weapon and the wires alit with emerald flames and raced back towards Batman. He tried to let go, but wasn't fast enough as they pulled him closer and struck him with their staff causing him to vanish into the weapon as well.

"Stop! Stop! Everyone hold your horses!" The sad man said, putting his arms out between the remaining heroes and the ghosts.

"This warrior just killed Batman and Superman and you expect us to not fight them?" Wonder Woman exclaimed.

"They're not dead! The Soul Shredder captures beings and holds them in a personal realm made up of their nightmares." Trenchcoat explained quickly.

"You are well read, wizard, but your information is out of date." Fright Knight growled, standing between Danny and the heroes. "I am a new Fright Knight for the new High King. My weapon sends them to a realm of my own design, not one of nightmares." They paused and laughed setting some of the heroes further on edge. "Though it could be a nightmare for some. I will release them if you can prove that you do mean harm to my charge or to the Realms."

The rest of the JL, at the sad man's insistence held back and Fright Knight knelt down before Danny where he was still cuffed, slowly bleeding ectoplasm from his reopening injuries. They broke the hand cuffs effortlessly from his wrists and he gasped as ectoplasm again flooded his system, racing to close his numerous injuries.

"Danny are you ok?" Fright Knight asked, their voice gentle and soft in a way it usually wasn't.

"I'll be ok once I get back to the Realms. Thanks for coming Jazz."

Jazz pulled her helmet off revealing her burning hair that fell down her shoulders. After a few seconds the flames died and revealed her usual brilliant hair. She smiled at Danny, though there was still tension in her face.

"I'll always come for you, little brother." Jazz said softly. Then she stood and glared at the heroes. "You have allied yourself with a corrupt branch of the government. The Ghost Investigation Ward declares all ectoplasmic beings as nonsentient and thus free to be experimented on or exterminated."

Trenchcoat looked like he was aging before their eyes at Jazz's words. He pulled out a flask from his pocket and took a large swig.

"You can't be serious. That would mean war with the Infinite Realms. A war we would definitely lose."

"We are deadly serious." Danny said, ignoring the mental eyeroll from Jazz. Now as his Fright Knight she had the ability to make her disapproval of his actions abundantly clear without letting anyone else know.

Danny floated up into the air by her side, and pulled back his jumpsuit to show off the vivisection scars on his torso. Even as they were closing, they still seeped ectoplasm and blood. The looks on their face's all showed the same horror. Then the sad man's face dropped even further when Danny closed his jumpsuit and allowed his armor and crown to form around his body.

"The Government of the United States has been hunting down, experimenting on and destroying the citizens of my Realm. My Citizens. If their actions continue, we will have no choice but to act to destroy the threat. The GIW has made your their dogs, to hunt down ghosts under the incorrect assumption that all ghosts mean harm to humans. I leave you with this information and I pray to all the Ancients that you learn from what almost happened here, and that we can be allies in the future."

Danny turned away from the JL to tear another portal into the air. He floated elegantly towards it as Jazz continued to glare at the heroes her weapon in her hand to protect the back of her brother, her King. Wonder Woman stepped forward to speak for the League.

"We will investigate this organization and unmake them when we confirm what you have said." She declared. Then she looked at Jazz. "Maybe when this conflict is behind us, you would honor me with a spar, Lady Knight?"

Jazz laughed and smiled at Wonder Woman.

"Once my brother and our people are safe, I would be glad to. I was trained by Lady Pandora, the first Amazon. It would be interesting to see how things have changed for the training of the Amazons since her passing."

Wonder Woman looked genuinely impressed and delighted to learn that. Before they had fully stepped into the portal into the Realms Flash ran forward, concern on his face.

"Wait, are you going to release Supes and the Bat? You said you trapped them in a different Realm?"

"I suppose I should." Jazz said. "Though I think if anyone could use some time in my realm Realm it would be them."

"And what is your Realm?"

Danny smirked, his face turned away from the heroes.

"My Realm is the realm of Free Therapy. And by the Ancients do they need therapy."

Jazz flicked her wrist and with a pop the two heroes fell from her weapon to the ground just as the two ghosts stepped fully into the Infinite Realms. Danny glanced back as the portal closed to see the tears flowing out from under Batman's cowl and Superman shudder and quickly wipe his eyes.

DP X DC Prompt: The New King's Fright Knight

Clockwork tells the newly crowned High King Phantom that he needs to name a Fright Knight to serve and protect him. The title comes with responsibilities and benefits. The Fright Knight must defend the King and fight challenges by the King's side. If a challenger can't defeat the King's Fright Knight than they have no right to challenge the King.

Among the benefits of the Title are a custom weapon that can take any form the Knight desires and is capable of sending any injured by the weapon to a dimension under the Knight's control and design. It could be a realm of nightmares or a realm of cotton candy, or anything in between as the Knight desires.

Danny, of course, being some what infamous for saying the first thing on his mind immediately blurts out a name when Clockwork asks him to think of the person who makes him feel the safest.

The newly named Fright Knight gets immediately summoned into the Ghost Zones to be offered the job, no matter where they were or what they were doing.