CW: derogatory remarks (Wally @ Cujo, Artemis @ Danny and Cujo)

October 23

Connor stormed out of the corridor, stomping over to his room before his mind connected to the mindlink again. Sighing, he pivoted on his heel and started towards the lounge instead.

"-Zeta's acting up again. That's the second time today alone." Wally complained offhandedly, but Connor didn't care. The Zeta's been acting up all week, so has the entire system. Nothing actually broke yet, outside of the 2 short power outages a few days back, so he didn't see the point of complaining about it.

"I shall bring it up with Batman." Kaldur stated, completely devoid of emotion. It didn't feel too out of the ordinary however. The Atlantean had always been more on the reserved side. If he held a bit less emotion in his tone than usual, it wasn't Connor who would say anything about it.

Artemis audibly rolled her eyes, the gesture being conveyed in feeling rather than visual. "As if he isn't the reason it broke in the first place." Her tone held more bite than the others, more annoyed than concerned for the tech acting up. He couldn't blame her. Designation codes had been broken and acting off ever since the last time they were all together. It wasn't hard to guess Batman was involved in it.

He wouldn't have cared much, if it hadn't meant they had false or even doubled announcements on the regular. He lost count on the amount of times he heard either M'gann's or his own code announced as they were nowhere near the Zeta, let alone the plethora of others who got called out without ever being there. It wasn't a surprise when nobody reacted to a string of 4 odd and broken callsigns.

"Is that why Robin hasn't been back yet? It's been a week." M'gann wondered sadly, which just made Connor even angrier. She had been so worried about everybody, forced into training barely a day after that whole mess happened, and even now she was still worrying more about the brats who caused so many issues instead of herself. And of course, she'll never actually voice that the pressure is too much. She was too caring to do so, he knew that well enough. But she can't hide her exhaustion, mental and physical, from him. Never him.

He was going to answer, call out how they aren't their problem, when he heard Wolf growling. Everybody was in the lounge, Canary was still in the office, so what, or rather who, was Wolf growling at?

"Honestly, and you wonder why I prefer cats."

A woman scoffed, but he didn't recognize the voice. Not a second later, he heard the door to Canary's office open and the woman walking towards it. He could hear two sets of footsteps. One light with a soft click to them, probably the woman he heard. The other was a heavier set one, still light but with gear weighing it down.

What was Batman doing here?

And if Batman and the woman were here to talk with Canary, who was Wolf still growling at? "What's gotten into you?!" A voice he knew all too well grunted. Robin sounded like he was struggling against something, probably Wolf considering the mutant seemed anything but happy to see him again. He couldn't say the feeling wasn't mutual.

With his signature scowl set in, Connor barged right through the lounge and headed straight for the training room where he heard the commotion come from.

"Connor?"

"Your time has not yet finished my friend."

Connor ignored them both, disregarding the confused glances M'gann and Kaldur shared as they eventually fell in a staggered step behind him. He could feel the mental prodding for answers, but his mind could only focus on Wolf and the lightheaded buzz in the back of his head. The last time Wolf acted off, it didn't mean anything good. And he was willing to bet it had everything to do with Robin being back.

The closer he got, the more agitated Wolf seemed to get. As they made it closer to the room, he could hear the sharp inhale from Kaldur when an oddly familiar voice echoed down the hall. "I told you this was a bad idea." Wolf seemed to get even more annoyed, snarling lowly at the sound of a soft metallic jangle.

"And I told you we don't really have much of a choice."

The trio were not prepared for what they saw once they finally got a full look at what exactly was annoying Wolf so much.

Wolf and Robin stood with their backs towards them. Robin was holding onto Wolf's neck with all his 4'9 might. Even though the canine easily towered over the young hero, he was still holding his own against the mutant. Wolf didn't seem to be reacting to Robin however, not caring about the boy clutched onto him.

No, Wolf was still but a breath away from jumping on the other two figures who had infiltrated Mount Justice without anybody noticing. A cloaked figure floated lightly above the floor a few feet away. They couldn't tell much about the figure, its features completely veiled by the long cloak and hood. Any features they wanted to see were hidden in shadows and fabric. The best read on the mysterious person any of them got was one of boredom and annoyance.

Next to the figure sat a small, neon green puppy. It was scratching at its neck, jingling it's obnoxiously bat-shaped collar as it did. The moment it stopped and sat back in a comfortable position, it didn't even bat an eye at Wolf. It seemed to notice the three teens entering the room, wagging its tail slightly and letting out a soft yip when it locked eyes with M'gann.

Its innocent eyes darkened when Connor and Kaldur quickly slipped into a defensive stance. Red irises bleeding out, filling the entirety of its eye. The calmness radiating off the pup froze over as its eyes followed Kaldur's movements. Not a single care went towards Wolf, Robin, M'gann nor Connor. Its focus was laser set on just the Atlantean.

"Robin, what is the meaning of this?" He spoke, his tone cold and distant. It put Connor on edge even more as they rarely heard their leader speak like that to their youngest. Everybody always had a soft spot for the kid, that being gone now was unsettling. Connor could hear the soft static hum of Kaldur's water bearers. He wasn't taking chances today, Kaldur was ready for a fight if it would come down to it.

The clone didn't mind, however, he could very much use something to punch and had very little care for who it was at the moment.

"You know," Robin grunted out as he desperately tried to reposition his footing for a better grip. "Talking would be a whole lot easier-" He slid forward as Wolf managed a step, immediately forcing the boy to twist his grip and block the canine's path with his own body. His shoulder barely reached to Wolf's neck, only managing that far because Wolf was crouching down in preparation of an attack himself. "-if I wasn't holding onto a 200 pound beast that woke up and chose violence."

The cloaked figure sighed in annoyance, not doing anything to step in and help. They collectively doubted it would do any good as Wolf seemed rather intent on giving the two newcomers a rather toothy welcome. "If we had just done a one by one, like I told you, we wouldn't be in this mess." The pup seemed to agree, huffing as it rose to stand on its tiny legs.

Robin, much to his credit while holding onto an angry Wolf that even Connor struggled with before, managed out a small snort. "Trust me, it would have probably been worse."

"'Cause trusting you went so well last time." Connor scoffed mentally, squinting at how both Robin's and the figure's heads immediately snapped up to him. Well, he thought it was the figure's head. Beyond the levitating cloak and the outlines of shoulders underneath, they couldn't see anything other than shadows. Its face completely hidden and no legs in sight, it looked like a prop from a haunted house. He tried hard not to show it, but it almost felt like the pair were looking right into his soul.

Or, at least tried, as Robin barely cleared Wolf's shoulder. It was rather odd to look at. Regardless of Wolf trying to attack the unknowns, neither of them cared for the mutant. Even when they first met in India, Connor knew to not underestimate Wolf. Did they not know what Wolf could do to them, especially the puppy, if Robin's grip slipped?

Surely the son of Batman should know after all the missions they went on together.

"You were asked a question." Kaldur stated coldly, not even a hint of the previous warmth he had for the young boy. M'gann stayed oddly quiet, both psychically and mentally. Her exhaustion showed clearer and cleared by the minute as she started to struggle to keep levitating. If it would come down to a fight, they couldn't count on M'gann to be their backup. At this rate he was starting to question what was taking Wally and Artemis this long to finally show up.

He didn't have to wonder for long, whatever thoughts any of them had got cut off as instinct immediately took over. The mere second Wally zoomed in, all hell broke loose.

In the blink of an eye, the previously somewhat relaxed puppy jumped up and grew into a flaming hound. Still completely ignoring Wolf, it honed in on the speedster. Like it could track him outside of the speeding, the hound snapped right where Wally was going to be, had it not been for him dodging just in time.

Wolf didn't waste a single breath, immediately jumping in after the green hound. As if he hadn't even been there, Robin got pushed to the side as Wolf barreled forward. Not able to dodge the crazed mutant, he ended up with a minor scratch across his cheek.

Even with seeing the painfully familiar scene in front of them, none of the teen heroes reacted. That was until the cloaked figure finally stepped in after checking on Robin. A black gloved hand reached towards his cheek, revealing a pop of yellow on the other side of the cloak. Oddly enough, there was no creasing where the individual's legs should be as they bent down, heavily creating doubt they even had any in the first place in all of their minds.

"Bibi?"

"It's just a scratch, Toto." Robin waved him off, gaze still following the green hound chasing the speedster. The unknown softly touched Robin's cheek, a faint blue glow coming off of it before his hand got swatted away. Floating up, the figure locked in on the green hound, whistling a haunting melody. Echoes filled the room as the hound calmed down enough to stop chasing the exhausted speedster.

Within the blink of an eye, the figure was floating between the green hound and Wally. A flash of green popped out from underneath the cloak before it turned its back towards the group. From what little they could see, the torso faded out into a wispy tail. Just as they had thought before, none of them saw any legs. Caught off guard by the appearance of the unknown, Wally tripped over his own feet and crashed into M'gann. Connor got in-between fast enough, preventing them from colliding with the wall behind them.

Not forgetting about Wolf still hunting for blood, the figure trapped the canine in a neon green bubble. No matter how hard Wolf tried to bite and scratch at it, the substance didn't take any damage. "Shhh, Cujo, it's okay." The figure muttered softly, petting the angered hound with their free hand. Green illuminated the figure's other hand, the same green as the hound and the sphere around Wolf glowed. It didn't take a genius to connect the two entities together.

Kaldur, still not willing to take any risks, stood protectively in front of his friends. "Identify yourself-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as the moment he charged up his water bearers, the green hound charged right for him. Moving through the unknown, the hound leaped forward once more. Like it didn't take any effort at all, a single mighty paw came crashing down. Glowing spit dripped out of its mouth as it growled at the Atlantean.

Without thinking, Kaldur slammed his water bearers into the hound's paw, sending electricity coursing through it. Unfortunately for him, it did absolutely nothing except anger it even more as it threateningly snapped towards his hands.

"Kaldur, what are you doing?! Stand down!" Robin yelled, inching to hold onto the hound but unable to due to the electricity.

Unamused, Artemis finally pulled out her backup crossbow and pointed an arrow at the three of them, switching targets every few seconds. "Not until that, that thing stands down first!" Her threat remained ignored as neither Robin, the hound or the unknown figure even glanced her way. Keeping their focus solid on the Atlantean, they remained in a stand off until M'gann spoke up for the first time since the chaos started.

"Do it, Kaldur." M'gann stood up, clutching her head at the growing headache this entire mess was causing. Both she and Wally were leaning on each other as Connor made sure M'gann was stable enough to stand.

The leader didn't seem too willing, nobody else standing down either. Still, M'gann sounded certain and it was a leaders job to set the right example and show trust in his teammates judgement. Reluctantly Kaldur stopped the quite useless flow of electricity. The hound didn't back down, still mere inches from his face, until he holstered his water bearers once more.

"Thank you, M'gann." Echoed in their minds as dual voices talked, followed by a small snort that bordered on a scoff.

Finally pleased enough, the hound extinguished its flaming body and shrunk down to a size only slightly bigger than Wolf still. Shaking its entire body, the hound finally got off of Kaldur under Robin's guidance. Dots were beginning to connect in Connor's mind as he was sure he had seen that hound way too close before.

There was still a bit of static remaining on the hound, seeing as Robin's hair instantly fluffed out. The hound wasted no time, gleefully licking the boy and drenching his hair in drool. "Gee, thanks Cujo," Robin grumbled, wiping off the excess spit from his face. At least none got in his eye thanks to the mask. "As if this isn't going to take 7 showers to get out."

The figure snorted, floating over while still keeping its focus split on keeping Wolf contained. A little hesitantly, the figure reached out to Robin, not quite touching him. The hound seemed to get the idea and booped the young hero on the cheek with his big wet nose.

Robin flickered in transparency, a puddle of what used to be drool in his hair now laying on the floor under him. "You know, that still doesn't fix the-" The figure pointed a finger gun at the puddle, shooting off a beam of energy with such nonchalance it put the entire team back on edge. "Oh, well, that fixes that issue." Robin muttered as the drool puddle completely vanished.

The figure laughed as Robin inspected his hair, patting it just to be sure no residue was left behind. Judging Robin's hair clean enough, the figure turned towards the hound. "See," their eerily familiar voice echoed hauntingly, "no need to worry. They're harmless."

As if they had personally offended every hero in the room, the mindlink erupted in complaints and thinly veiled threats. Ignoring the cacophony of voices in their head, the figure snuggled into the hound's forehead. With an annoyed huff, the hound shrunk down again, becoming an innocent puppy once more.

Not wanting to be held in the figure's arm, the pup wiggled until it was let go. Taking it's freedom as is, the pup flew up onto the figure's shoulder. Licking at their face, the pup pawed at what everybody guessed was their cheek. With a soft snort, they tilted their head slightly to the side. The figure made room for the pup to crawl under their hood. Wiggling around until it got comfortable, the pup pulled down the hood to get better access to the figure's shoulder.

"Seriously, Cujo? You want a nap now?" The pup wholly ignored the remark as it got comfortable with its head on the figures shoulder and the rest of their little body supported by the hood. One amused huff later and the pup was already dozing off, completely ignoring the tensed up teens.

The severe lack of care the three shown towards the team really got on their nerves. Not like there was much they could say so long as the figure was still displaying an impressive amount of concentration regardless of seemingly being completely distracted by the puppy.

When the hood got pulled down, Connor finally realized why everything felt so oddly familiar. One could never forget the look of that stark white hair on a too young head. Though having changed his clothes, it still did little to hide his too small frame. Some time had passed, yet he still looked so breakable.

The mood in the room shifted drastically once the others noticed too, all of them slowly putting together who exactly they were dealing with. The near identical suit to Robin's didn't help hide it any further.

"Okay," Robin sighed deeply, glancing over his teammates various expressions. "Maaaayyyyybe one on one would have been better." He glanced over to Wolf, who was still trapped in the green bubble. The mutant had calmed down slightly, resigning to his efforts having no use against the substance. Still, the pulled back ears and bared teeth said enough about his current mood. Letting go of the mutant without somebody having a solid grip on him wasn't quite on the table just yet. And considering the team looked anything but happy, they wouldn't be any help.

"Ya don't say."

"You're that kid from Belle Rêve, aren't you?" Connor called out accusatory, forgoing the defensive stance and looking about half a breath away from jumping Phantom.

Phantom and Robin shared a look, not sure if they should actually answer that or not. They hadn't particularly discussed with Batman what they would reveal or not, forgotten in the adrenaline rush that was getting prepped for today's meeting. Selina had even gone out of her way to find hairclips that matched Nanaki and Shiro to add into Phantom's braid to keep as much of the fly aways contained. Apparently his Phantom hair was even more lively and stubborn than his regular hair. Whoever would have thought.

Robin was slightly jealous at all the accessories Phantom's suit now had. Still, he was happy his brother had an actual hero-grade suit to go out in so he couldn't be too upset about it. Maybe he could grow out his hair just enough he could argue a tactical hairclip was necessary but that's worries for later. If anybody would notice the next suit redesign having a cat shaped clip for his cape, he'll deny it to all hell.

Their silence didn't go unnoticed by the others however, the silent confirmation was all they needed to feel even more on edge. Artemis was still keeping her back-up crossbow trained on them, barely blinking to keep her aim perfect just in case. "So I take it you're Phantom?" Her gaze sharpened, quickly adjusting her grip when Phantom began strolling towards them. "I'm surprised he lets you go out like that." She crudely scoffed, eyebrow raising at his outfit as she made it very clear she was giving him more than just a once over.

Phantom didn't have to use even a single neuron to know what she was trying to do. It had been her style of greeting new people since her first day after all. The blonde always tried to macho her way into proving she deserved to be on the team, as if she had to prove she was strong and man enough. It was reminding him of all the times Sam complained about Star and Paulina in anything but a good way. Phantom, on the other hand, held no such beliefs and couldn't care any less about her opinions on the suit his brother made for him or his hair that Selina ever so lovingly put effort into.

"I'm sorry you don't have the emotional security for your mentor to do something fun with your hair." His voice was laced with a sickening overly sweet fakeness he had learned from the girls in school before the accident. Judging from how badly she tensed up and gripped her crossbow harder, he knew he struck a nerve.

Smirking as he sauntered closer, making sure his wispy ghost tail actually formed back into his legs. The soft click of his shoes on the floor, and everybody's surprised reactions, was quite satisfying. Mirroring her to a T, he made sure she was well aware he, too, was judging her.

Crinkling his nose and forgoing the fake sweetness, he dipped back into the same bored and nonchalant tone he had been using the whole afternoon. "Or the confidence to pull off their hard work." It would be a lie if he didn't enjoy the absolute hatred that burned in her eyes as she glared at him.

"Artemis, right?" He asked rhetorically, rolling his eyes underneath the mask. "What a displeasure to make your acquaintance." He phased through her, fully ignoring her silent threat with the crossbow as she clearly wasn't going to shoot. Luckily, the chill that ran down her spine, or him purposely pushing around her ponytail as he popped out on the other side of her didn't pull the trigger on accident. Now that would have been a mess to explain.

Artemis looked unnerved but recovered quickly and trained the crossbow back on the boy and his pup. Phantom genuinely didn't look like he could care any less. Completely disregarding the death stares he was getting, he walked up to M'gann. A small smile ghosted over his lips before reaching out his non-glowing hand. "Are you-"

"Don't touch her." Wally growled. The speedster stepped backwards, still a bit wobbly from his tumble but more concerned about supporting M'gann's weight as he dragged her back with him.

Phantom didn't hold back from dramatically rolling his eyes, making up for the fact the mask was hiding them. "I'm just trying to help, jeez." He expected as much from Wally, though it did sting a little that M'gann refused his offered hand as well. Out of all of them, she was the one they had they most hope for. So much for that.

"She doesn't need your help." Connor growled from behind him, slapping Phantom's hand away from reaching anywhere near M'gann or her head that she was still clutching onto.

And with that, the last bit of hope for a peaceful official meeting faded away.

Retracting the offered hand, his glowing hand twitched only slightly before the ball containing Wolf floated over. "Fine," he said nonchalantly, "then you hold onto the raging floof." The closer Wolf floated, the more agitated the canine got again. Scratching at the glowing substance, Wolf snarled at the boy. Phantom snorted with a grin, floating up just so he could bend down to Wolf and boop the sphere. "You really don't like me, do you?" Anybody in the room could tell he wasn't asking the mutant.

Connor glared at him, fists balling the longer Phantom kept on prodding the ball.

"It's okay, they're just kids." M'gann softly chastised, trying to reel in the clone from starting a fight with somebody clearly much younger.

"Just kids?" He parroted indignantly. "These spoiled imps need to learn they can't just do whatever they want and let others deal with the consequences!" He argued back, keeping his expression as schooled as he could manage even with Phantom's backs still turned to him.

"Hey!" Phantom cried out in mock offence, sarcasm practically dripping off of him as he floated down enough to feign defiance. Pouting where he stood, he huffed out, "13 is hardly still kid territory, it's thirteen for a reason."

Crinkling his nose at his teammates' reactions, Robin mirrored the theatrics. Turning up his nose, he purposely puffed out his cheeks. "Hardly a kid but still not mature enough to be trustworthy. It's not like we're the ones going around calling people mean names." He made a not so subtle show of looking directly at Connor. "Not like it's our fault Wolf decided to freak out for no reason."

"No reason?!" Wally suppressed the yell that threatened to escape his throat. A week of radio silence and this is what they get? Shifting M'gann's weight over to Connor's supporting arm, he marched forward. "That green monstrosity there attacked uncle Barry! What do you expect when Wolf was there when it happened?!"

Robin dropped the act, standing his ground even as Phantom floated over to step in if needed. "Oh, I don't know? An apology? They attacked Cujo first! He was just trying to protect us!"

Wally's anger was boiling up enough for him to vibrate where he stood, going in and out of blurs as he shook at superspeed. "Protect you from who?! The people you've known for years or the newbie who none of us know?!" He threw up his hands in frustration, trying to keep moving to burn off the excess energy building up. "Uncle Barry still didn't heal, Rob! You can't expect us to be all happy and cozy with the thing that somehow causes the fastest man alive to not heal properly!"

Robin's facade faltered for a second. Sure, he was still angry at everybody for how they're treating them. But that didn't mean he stopped caring about them. Glancing over to Phantom, he looked at the sleeping pup on his shoulder.

"Probably because he's a ghost." Phantom shrugged with his non-occupied shoulder, staying calm despite also being somewhat surprised the Flash didn't heal from a nearly week old scratch yet. "I think Frosty mentioned somewhere that intent matters a lot in a fight so it wouldn't surprise me if it's causing some necrosis." He scratched Cujo's head, glad the pup was actually sleeping so he wouldn't have to hear the not so kind words the speedster had.

Robin nodded along. It would make sense, considering very little of what he learned the past week made any sense to begin with until it was proven or explained by an expert on the matter.

Wally, however, looked anything but satisfied. "The hell do you mean that thing gave my uncle necrosis?!" His momentary vibrating picked up again as he paced back and forth a few steps. "Do you not realize what kind of a safety hazard that is? Who knows what kind of poison or whatever it used that somehow works against speedster metabolisms? What if it attacked a human, huh?"

What if it attacked you?

Neither Robin nor Phantom had to hear him say it to know what he was eluding to. Wally couldn't say anything too personal in front of the team and they all knew it. But they also knew Wally had no right to talk about Cujo like that. The pup did nothing wrong, though the possible necrosis is a bit excessive that didn't change that they attacked first. Barry was healing for all intent and purpose, just slower than usual.

So what?

Wally wasn't raising a stink about the cut Wolf gave Robin so clearly he doesn't have a concern for any rabid animal, just Cujo. Scrunching up his nose, Robin looked at his best friend, who was doing a terrible job at being one at the moment. "Cujo, like we said, is a ghost. Weird things are normal. Does that sleeping potato look dangerous to you?" He challenged, gesturing to the still peacefully sleeping pup on Phantom's shoulder.

Wally looked like he wanted to vehemently disagree but changed his mind once again. He snorted humorlessly, raising his arms in protest as he did. "Come on, Rob. We both know ghosts aren't real. He's lying to you, I know you know that!" He looked over his shoulder, a myriad of doubtful faces backing his thoughts.