Summoning The Grey Ghost

As Shiva took the soul into her magenta-colored room, she sat it on a flower-like pillow. "Wakey-Wakey... Grey Ghost... It is time to uphold your promise."

The atom-akin soul began to pulse rapidly as the Goddess Shiva poured her magic power into it. As she cut off her energy, the soul yelled as it awoke. The Grey Ghost was a spirit of both incredible light and putrid dark energies. No such spirit had ever existed before... but it came at a cost. Deep within him, the vestiges of Charlie Wiggins, Mammy, most of the Civil Rights Movement, and several others had given up their souls to re-manifest him. However, a few new souls had joined within his ...

The Grey Ghost's vestige glared deep into the Goddess's soul. "You have called... therefore I have answered." He spoke, causing her golden eyes to shimmer. She smiled with a nature as gentle as an undisturbed meadow. 

"Yes, I call your soul up as it is time for you to enter the fray once more. However, your body was destroyed in the previous fight that claimed your existence and that of the void god. You may design yourself a body that will serve a singular purpose."

The Grey Ghost looked over his glowing shoulder. "What of my friends, my family?"

"All save, for now. The world I am sending you to is the same one I sent them to." The Goddess tilted her head slightly as to try and better understand the soul standing before her. As she did, her raw-iron-metallic magenta hair glistened in the dull light of her void. "You ask of your people, but of your purpose. Why?"

"That's simple," replied the Grey Ghost as he looked up into the void, "I was tasked with being a protector, a shield to them, a hero who would willingly die for them in that life. No matter what you assign me, I will carry that mission out while upholding my oath of protective sacrifice. No matter the hell you put me through."

The Goddess giggled at his response. "Grey, you truly are quite the stubborn soul." She walked before him and smiled. 

"Really? You make it sound as if it isn't my better quality. However, if you know who I am, who might you be?" Asked Grey. The Goddess nodded with a satisfied smile. "You may call me Shiva, the Goddess of Summons and Summoning. 

The Grey Ghost laughed briefly at Shiva who was making a face at him just before starting his physical form process. As his body began to manifest, he began incorporating living metal into his flesh, pieces of warbird from World War Two, steel from the hulls of battleships to strengthen his bones, still keeping to his old look, old scars, and those star-spangled eyes. 

Shiva looked at him bewildered. "Why keep the same scars?" She asked him curiously. Grey looked down at them, studying them for a moment. "They are reminders... reminders of my failures, successes, defeats, and victories."

Shiva smiled, but that smile was short-lived. "Grey, you must go now. Lorelei Village is where I am sending you. Holy Knights have begun to slaughter the people there as they worship me, instead of their god..."

As she turned to look at him, a matte-black battle mask with the markings, SR-71, covered his mouth and nose. His eyes flashed that red, white, and blue hue before he spoke. "Then none shall leave alive." His words were enough to chill even the Goddess down to her bones. As she opened a gate for him, he leaped through it without hesitation.

"I swear... If he visits my temple, I'll come to bless him myself." Said Shiva fawning over him. 

Meanwhile, the village priestess was praying for a divine miracle while her knight valiantly defended her. 

"My lady, we must go!" 

"No! Goddess Shiva hasn't abandoned me once! So I won't..." The Priestess was interrupted by a beam of golden and magenta light. "G-goddess?" Asked the Priestess.

"No," came a voice she didn't recognize, "but Goddess Shiva sent me. Tell you knight to stand down," the Priestess's eyes widened to see the vision of Goddess Shiva hovering above this strange-looking man, "for you are safe now. The Grey Ghost is here."

As Grey marched past the bleeding Knight, Shiva healed his wounds, trying to keep pace with Grey. However, he came to a sudden halt as the villagers had been rounded up by the holy knights. 

"I'd surrender if you wish them not to die." Sneered an arrogant holy knight. The Grey Ghost's mask self-adjusted before he spoke. "No. No, it is you who aught to surrender."

"Huh? Don't you see you are trapped? Fight one of us and the villagers all die." The Holy Knight smirked at the Grey Ghost, only for the Grey Ghost to slam his foot down on the cobblestone walkway with a force that frightened even the most resolved of the holy knights. 

"Oh no, you are, in fact, mistaken," the Grey Ghost's eyes began to glow their star-spangled hue, "I am not trapped here by you... You are trapped here with me... THE GREY GHOST! REAPER AND HARBINGER OF SOULS! FACE ME IF YOU SO DARE! YOUR SOUL... IS MINE!"