CW: derogatory words towards ghosts and clones (wally @ danny), superman themed cursing (danny)

October 23

"Oh, just like how you were so sure magic wasn't real?" Robin countered, crossing his arms in a huff and shifting his weight to lean towards Phantom and Cujo. "Just because you believe something, that doesn't make it fact."

Wally gripped his ginger locks, groaning as he went back to pacing. "Oh please! Ever heard of Cotard's delusion? The walking corpse syndrome? Who says he isn't just some meta with coincidental powers who thought it would be cooler to claim to be supernatural?!" He looked rather funny, hair sticking out in all directions as he wildly gestured around.

Swallowing the cackle threating to escape, Robin instead just huffed out in annoyance. "Yeah, sure. Nice theory and all but we don't have the meta gene. I know you know that." He mocked, knowing full well no amount of reasoning will get through to Wally right now.

Nor the rest of the team for that matter. None of them seem too open to the idea, both in body language and what he can sense from the mindlink. At least they're smart enough to leave their thoughts to themselves with the friendly reminder that M'gann had yet to master how to block out Phantom as a separate person to Robin. And they would all know if Robin wasn't included in the link either.

It's almost like every person has a unique presence, like a color in the rainbow. One missing from it while still being in the room after so many missions together? Yeah, that would be an uncanny valley level of odd and uncomfortable.

About the same level of uncomfortable they all seemed to be with Phantom being included without a way of keeping him out at the moment. Which, for the record, would be beyond rude. But, well, so was a lot of their actions lately so as it stood, he wouldn't put it past them to try and exclude him if not both of them. Like a secret group chat without the one person nobody likes.

Gods, it's like being in high school all over again, like he didn't have that enough already. And the League had the nerve to call them the childish and immature ones.

Sure

Wally's vibrating increased again, as if he was blurring with every step he took, only becoming solid when both his feet were planted on the ground. "Yeah, you don't. But what about him? Connor doesn't have the same powers as Clark does. Who knows if he isn't just some kind of botched mistake that escaped the tube or whatever he is!" Luckily Wally didn't push it further than that, his one functioning braincell working overtime as is.

Robin stood still, years of training to remain calm coming in handy to prevent him from outright mauling the speedster in front of him. "Do not talk about my brother like that." He growled lowly, his fingers twitching dangerously towards his utility belt. The temptation was strong and he had very little care about what anybody thought of him and his choices, but they better show respect to Phantom or else they would be leaving a foot shorter and without their kneecaps at the very least.

The tension in the room rose drastically. Not only by the physical face-off of stubbornness between their two most senior members but also due to the mental link flooding with unexplainable white noise. A chill ghosted across their skin as the temperature noticeably started to drop.

Not one person spoke up about suddenly being able to see their breath. Not when the ever-present eerie glow around Phantom intensified.

Making things only worse, the stress of the situation seemed to have woken up the pup on Phantom's shoulder. Seemingly anything but amused at being woken up from a nap, the glowing furball snarled at Wally. Which, of course, set off Wolf again who was still trapped in the glowing green shell of ecto.

After a few uncomfortable moments passed, M'gann meekly spoke up. "I thought he was your clone?" Her voice was soft, like speaking too loudly would cause her pain. It probably would, considering the raging migraine she had now as well as needing to shield not just herself but everybody else from each other's extreme emotions. She didn't want to do this, she explicitly said she didn't want to use her powers too much.

Yet here she was, needing to mediate during a moment where everybody's minds were screaming in their own bubble. The only moderate comfort she had were the two minds whom seemed the be the quietest of them all. While she could feel the anger underneath her skin, there were no silent screams. Just anger and a slight burn to her left arm once more.

Luckily, her worsening state seemed to get some to calm down more. Mostly Connor who surely would have snapped ages ago had he not been the sole reason she was still standing on her own two feet at the moment.

Robin was the first to break the following silence. An annoyed huff, that sounded not too dissimilar from the pup not too long ago, escaped his mouth. "Clone, brother, why would a label or where he came from matter?" Though he didn't break eye contact, the young boy did straighten out his stance into a much looser form. Not quite loose enough though, as is shaking fists still hung a bit too close to his utility belt for all of their liking. "He is family and that is all there is to it." Robin spoke to the entire team, attempting to put the whole discussion to rest.

Every single one of them has their own reason to know standardized family relations aren't what they're chalked up to be. Whether that is for something as arbitrary as DNA relations or the order of said relations. Strangers can be family as much as an uncle can be a dad and they all knew it. So why make a big deal out of a supposed clone? Somebody has to set the record straight after Clark continued to evade eating a Kryptonite laced knuckle sandwich so he might as well try.

Wally didn't seem to want to back down from it. His glare switching between Robin and Phantom as Cujo kept growling at him. Still not one to leave sleeping dogs lie, Wally gave it one last shot at trying to catch Phantom in a lie. "If you supposedly are a ghost, how are you here and solid and all?"

Phantom didn't let the insensitive question faze him. None of it really did, so long as it was only directed to him and him alone. "The worms refused to eat me because I was too skinny and Mother Nature herself called me a disgrace and kicked me back out." As deadpanned as one can look with a snarling furball on their shoulder, Phantom stared down the speedster.

With Cujo on his shoulder in is lovable form, it really did still emphasize just how skinny he still was. The pups fluffy body looked disproportionately big compared to Phantom yet still a normal size when closer to Robin.

Neither of the two Bats in attendance tried to pay much attention to it. Progress was being made and considering it took this long for the connection between random new kid and random prison kid to be made, they'd argue it's a strong enough difference is proof of just how much Phantom had been healing already.

Wally gave up on the two of them. Throwing his hands up in frustration, he backed off again to stand closer to the team. Unsurprisingly, Kaldur had yet to say anything. He had never been one to enjoy confrontation in the non-fighting sense and this entire mess was exactly that. Had they not demoted him, Robin would have stepped in ages ago and set everybody straight. But, actions are meeting the consequences today and neither he nor Phantom were there to ease that transition if they could help it.

"Doesn't change that you're still just a clone."

"The hell you mean just a clone?"

Just as they thought the temperature was finally coming back up, it free-fell down to near freezing. "Okay, genuinely, dude, what is your problem? This whole time you've been glaring at me like you'd melt me down with heat vision if you actually could."

Robin suppressed a shudder as the cold hit him just as much as the others. He tried not to focus on it too much, rather keeping his eye on his brother and the odd green ring that suddenly appeared on his hand.

Phantom stepped closer, feet not touching the ground anymore as he slightly floated up so he could be at eye-level with the actual clone in the room. "The fuck did I do to you to be such an issue to your tiny ego?" His glare was hard, and with the added floating and eerie likeness to Robin and Batman all at one, they couldn't help but feel intimidated.

Not Connor, however.

"My problem is you spoiled brats!" Connor, after holding back for way longer than anybody figured he would, finally snapped. "Not everybody has somebody like Batman wrapped around their finger to give them whatever they want. Did either of you even care to check in with anybody? The mess you left behind for others to clean up?"

He got right up in Phantom's face just like the younger had. He tried jabbing a finger in the floating boy's chest but his arm just went right through. Growling in frustration, he opted for gesturing towards M'gann rather than the tangibly-challenged child in front of him. "M'gann has been stuck in training with Zatara and Canary and neither one of you ever bothered to even show up for it!"

"As if we're allowed to! We didn't even know it started already because not a single person fucking talked to us!" Robin tried to argue back to take the heat off of his brother but Phantom just spoke over him.

"Oh this is amazing. That's what this is about?" He laughed sarcastically, running a hand through his unbraided hair. "Ancients, Kryptonian egos really are as fragile as an autumn leaf, aren't they?" He finally let the dome around Wolf go, the mutant long since exhausted himself in there. Not letting anybody take the freedom for granted, he quickly formed a chained muzzle around his snout and locked him at a safe distance from himself and Cujo.

Connor grew even more frustrated, ignoring Kaldur's remark to calm down. "This isn't about me! This-"

"Is totally about you!" Phantom cut him off, looking equal parts angry and elated in that special flavor of insanity only Gothamites can pull off. "You're just using M'gann's inability to stand up for herself and set boundaries as a way to complain about something else!"

He cocked his head to the side, head peaking just past Connor's shoulders to look at the confused Martian in question. "Which, really, you need to stand up for yourself if it's too much. They'll understand if you need a break, but they won't know you need one without telling them." He added in a tone so calm and caring it nearly gave the team whiplash as he addressed Connor once more.

He floated closer again, purposefully getting on eye level and only inches away from the clone's face. "What?" He mock-pouted, cheeks puffed out and lips pursed. "Are you pouty because Superbitch doesn't give you enough attention?" One would say baby-talking an angry Kryptonian while purposely pushing buttons showed a clear disregard for personal wellbeing and a severe lack of self-preservation skills.

Good thing Phantom didn't need any of those anymore.

Hiding his somewhat sadistic glee as not just Connor, but the entire team tensed up, the resident ghostly troll continued on with his taunts. "Because Supermanchild doesn't let you play in Metropolis so you're stuck here? In a city long since abandoned by other heroes." He floated around the taller boy, careful to keep his intangibility up just in case of a sudden outburst. Judging from the balled up fists, there was a solid chance. "Left with the scraps nobody wanted."

Still, he didn't let it dissuade him. Pulling a page from Spectra's favorite book, he dug deeper into the festering wound the other had tried to cover up. Coming to a haunting stop right behind the stilled clone, Phantom leaned in to whisper a soft purr in his ear. "Or just because Supercunt doesn't want you?"

That seemed to finally do it.

Taking a wild swing, Connor tried aiming straight for where Phantom's head was. Just like before, he touched nothing but air. A haunting cackle echoed in the room, bouncing off the walls even harder than before as it seemed the sound was coming from all directions while Phantom hid in invisibility. He tried to focus in on where the laughing was coming from but any time he threw a punch it connected with nothingness.

Roaring, he tried finding the source of his torment but failed with every swing. Not even Wolf was of much help as the mutant couldn't do much while still chained to the ground. The entire team was on high alert, as if they were under attack by an unknown enemy and not just a ghost trying to match their own nasty energy.

Robin remained skillfully composed, following his brother around with just his eyes to not give away his location. He hadn't known this would happen, really, he'd figure Phantom and Connor would get along at least a little bit better.

But this?

Oh this was better than he could have ever imagined.

Connor had always been like a sparkly pop-it fidget toy of very alluring buttons to push but he never dared. The only person who managed to push any buttons and make it through the aftermath was Black Canary and she was trained to do that. So, no fun for him until his other half decided to tap into their inner demon duo potential and let loose.

It brought back some fun memories from before, when they'd look at rude people and see how they could get under their skin. The guards back in juvi didn't think it was all too fun but that never stopped his brother before and clearly, he hadn't learned a single lesson in all these years. Though, at the same time, it also reminded him of why they only allowed him to go with Bruce back then and not the both of them.

Clearly his brother was just such a bad influence.

Hell, maybe that's exactly the type of influence Robin lacked these past few months. Had he leaned more into this side of them, been more assertive and point out the obvious flaws instead of being nice and quiet when expected to be. Well, maybe they wouldn't have been in this situation. But what would he know? He was too immature to lead after all so that wasn't his job anymore.

He was pulled out of his musing when Kaldur had to forcefully push down Artemis' crossbow before she ended up shooting Connor in their attempt at finding their invisible foe. "And yet you have the gall to call me spoiled?" Phantom's voice echoed just a tad bit less as he let himself become visible again. Coming out of the ground like a cheesy horror flick, he set himself in between the angered team and Robin.

He could feel the anger rolling off of Phantom, like frozen waves cutting into the bare skin on his arms. Artemis and Wally were shivering, the two of them being the least comfortable with the cold. Nights on Mars can get quite cold too and so does the ocean, so no surprise M'gann and Kaldur were holding up relatively okay. Connor was very likely just too pissed off to even notice much of it in the first place.

"Just look at yourself," Phantom demanded sharply, tone as cold as the room was getting. Cujo had stilled while Phantom was invisible. No longer snarling, he had curled up around Phantom's shoulder again. Little head pressed into his neck as the tiny floof of doom was trying his best to keep Phantom calm. "At least you're still alive." The ghost boy growled out, taking a step forward and practically daring the angered clone to finally take a hit and land it.

Connor stood shaking, teeth grinding together in either anger or the cold finally hitting him. Considering his fists were shaking and muscles still tensed, it likely was the former of the two options. "Let Wolf go." He grunted out from between clenched teeth. Phantom obliged, releasing the danger floof from the ecto-entrapment. Unlike what anybody had expected, neither Wolf nor Connor did anything beyond that.

Leaving everybody in confusion, Connor stormed out towards the hangar. "Oh yeah, real mature. Run away from problems, just like Superbastard does." Wolf trailed behind him, only pausing slightly to growl at Phantom as he passed by. "Maybe you're more alike than you think." Phantom called out after the retreating clone, somewhat annoyed their game ended too early.

"That's enough, darling." Catwoman scolded softly as she approached the group with Batman and Black Canary in tow.

Artemis sucked in a deep breath, visibly recoiling from Kaldur's touch as the adults got closer. "What is she doing here?" The blonde demanded angrily, finally collapsing her crossbow but keeping the extra arrows in her hand to fidget with. The presence of the infamous Gothamite Cat burglar putting her on edge even more than Phantom had before.

"Se-Catwoman" Canary caught herself, clearing her throat before continuing, "is here to discuss certain matters." She looked every bit uncomfortable as she sounded. Her demeanor leaving much to the imagination as to what happened behind closed doors while the team was handling their little fiasco.

"Oh so we just let any other villain run around without a warning?" Artemis huffed only to straighten out after Batman came to stand right next to the rogue. Openly defying Robin and threatening Phantom was one thing, but Batman was a whole separate issue. Maybe Connor's words had some merit to them when he said Batman's protection gives them special privileges.

"Catwoman's attendance is solely as a mentor." He glared at not just Artemis but the entire group of confused teens. It really didn't take a genius to figure out they were all against the idea. Especially with their existing dislike for Phantom, having a supposed villain as a mentor didn't help that one bit. "Recent activities and drops in criminal activity proved her to be trustworthy enough to allow access."

The archer couldn't hold back a scoff, side eying Phantom while spinning an arrow between crossed arms. "So, anti-hero instead of villain, because that's so much better." She mumbled sarcastically, earning her a glare from not only Batman but also Robin and half the team. Though they may not like the current situation, blatant disrespect towards League members remained an ingrained no-no to them.

Batman's glare intensified, tone dipping down into a vague threat the more senior members were all well accustomed to. "What her status is, is none of your concern."

Robin stepped up until he was next to her as well, putting himself as a divider between his cranky teammates and Catwoman. "You do know she has been my co-mentor for years, right?" A collection of sharp or stilled breaths followed his rhetorical question. So much for any of them noticing the obviousness going on between Gotham's favorite power couple. Or the fact neither he nor Batman did anything about one of their own rogues being here. He was starting to seriously doubt their deduction skills the longer this entire mess dragged on.

He glared right at her, making no effort to hide the silent message he knew the blonde was trying to keep a secret. "You never had any issues with me, so who cares where we get our training from. So long as it's used to help people, it shouldn't matter." A look of surprise and worry flashed over her face before she returned Robin's glare.

Once again, M'gann was the first to speak up to break the growing tensions. "Is that why you changed your suit?" With Connor gone, it was one less mind for her to manage but she still very much wanted to go lay down somewhere calm. Maybe also send a message to her uncle to ask why she could feel Phantom's emotions more than his thoughts. But that was a worry for when her head didn't feel like it would split open.

Robin's entire demeanor shifted, completely forgoing the glare battle with Artemis. Smiling fondly, he traced his redesigned chest clasps. "Yeah, it isn't much but it was high time to finally change some stuff around." He shyly rubbed the back of his neck, fighting down a blush at the genuine care M'gann showed through her pained expressions.

Maybe there was some hope after all.

A soft alarm popped up as Connor had made it to the hangar and was attempting to leave. Security feed popped up immediately of Sphere blocking the way. Much to everybody's surprise, the alien technology proved just how little they actually knew about her as she immediately transformed herself into a souped up motorcycle big enough to fit a whole squad.

Ignoring the order to stay inside, Connor, Wolf and now also the not so round Sphere took off into the skies of Happy Harbor. It might be for the best, after all. He could use the time to cool down on his own. It wasn't like he was breaking any set rules either, just a not so subtle patrol of the city in an alien built bike, driven by an alien clone and a canine mutant as passenger.

Whatever could go wrong.

Still feeling anything but relieved at the entrance of the mentors, and now the departure of the resident grumpy clone, Kaldur once again put on his leader cap. "Forgive me for my brazenness, but does this imply what I believe it does?" Right, communication with the team regarding, well, everything had been left to the mentors. With Aquaman being down in Atlantis tending to Queen Mera and the pregnancy, not much had been passed on after the initial contact restriction.

Batman remained stoic as ever, back to his usual half-grunting tone as he informed the team. "As of today, Phantom will join the team under the mentorship of both myself and Catwoman. As such, she will also be stepping up as co-mentor to Robin. Effective immediately, Robin will also step down as co-leader of the Team until any changes to the leadership wish to be made." A singular squint of his lenses was enough to dissuade any outbursts, though M'gann and Kaldur both seemed too shocked to say much. "Until further notice, the Team has been suspended from all missions outside of their respective cities. Team training, however, remains ongoing and mandatory."

Silence overtook the room as they left everybody to process the new info. Robin could almost physically see the gears in Wally's brain work overtime. His face kept morphing between confusion, realization and back to confusion all in a matter of seconds.

Still holding her frown from before, Artemis stared a hole into the ground instead of a person. Every now and again, he'd catch her glancing up and checking everyone else's reactions to the news. The fact that a career criminal was not only Phantom's but also Robin's co-mentor hit her hard. Judging from how Canary was eying the archer, he knew she wasn't escaping a chat with the heroine.

Kaldur...Was oddly hard to read. He had remained rather composed for most of the time and other than a general dislike, he had been careful about any verbal and non-verbal communication. It didn't quite make him uncomfortable, but Robin definitely didn't enjoy not being able to get a proper grasp on how his longtime friend felt towards any of this.

M'gann seemed too out of it to fully get what was going on. She was still getting worse, mostly from exhaustion as the bags under her eyes were rather prominent today. He felt bad, he really did. But they had no way of knowing any of this was even going on if nobody talked to them. Sure, he could have checked in on her. But...that would require checking on everybody and that wouldn't have gone over great at all. He's pretty sure Connor would have tried to block him if he even breathed in his direction next time they were in a room together.

Oh the absolute acid trip training will be in a few days.

A deep sigh echoed through the room, followed by a soft whine from Cujo. While everybody was distracted with the arrival of the mentors, the pup had crawled off of Phantom's shoulder and was currently trying to insert himself into the boy's chest. His hand ran over soft fluffy fur, holing the pup just as close as Cujo tried to merge without the use of intangibility. His hood had also found its way back onto Phantom's head, cape draping over his shoulders in such a way only the green fluff of Cujo's body was still poking out of it.

Robin took note of that odd green accessory having vanished again but he'd rather leave that for some other time. Right now, he was more concerned about the soulless stare on his brother's face. Even Batman never looked that dead inside before and that was quite a hard bar to reach.

"Are we done here?" He lazily asked, mouth barely moving as he spoke. All the teasing fun from before was sucked out of him. Not waiting for an answer, he floated over to the back, only pausing when Canary tried to stop him.

"You still have a session to attend, Phantom."

Phantom didn't even bother turning around, he simply continued floating forward like a leaf in the winter wind. "Yeah, whatever." He drummed out monotonously. Picking up some duffels that had gone forgotten, he barely reacted when Robin approached to pick up a few as well.

They had brought over spare gear, spare civvies, a whole new med kit just for Phantom and of course new spare bags for Bioship after all. This wasn't just a social visit, they had things to get done. "Can we at least put our stuff away before that?" He asked, eyeing his brother who just kept on floating in the direction of their only safe spot in this entire place.

Well, maybe the grotto could also be somewhere they're left alone. Most people didn't like being reminded of their own mortality in the memorial room. That was never an issue for any of the Bats. They were confronted with their own mortality at a young enough age that it never leaves their mind. Now even less with Phantom haunting the place.

Taking the continued silence as a confirmation, he continued trailing behind his brother. "I could take you to introduce you to bioship if you want." M'gann offered but nearly collapsing as she tried to stand on her own. Canary stepped in to support her to the medbay.

Robin let them be, trusting Canary will have her hands full for a while with not only M'gann but also Artemis. Sighing softly, he branched off from following his brother to quickly drop the backup packs at bioship. He promised her he'd bring Phantom back around for a proper greeting but kept it short.

Something about what happened back in the training room didn't sit right with him. Sure he was still getting used to temperature changes when something bothered Phantom. Considering the temperature never quite made it back up, and only rose slightly after Catwoman and Batman came back, something clearly was still bothering him deeply.

Picking up the pace now that he was 2 duffels lighter, he made a beeline for what was now their room. It felt nice, getting to say their room after years of being forced apart. Phantom, on paper, had his own room here just like everybody else. But that didn't mean either of them enjoyed it. Plus, they almost never used their rooms here anyway. It doesn't change much if they kept their stuff in one or two rooms so why go through the effort of setting up a second room when it'll never get used anyway.

It also helped with quick access as chances are Phantom would keep his door permanently locked down since he can just pop through the door whenever.

With dread slowly settling in his stomach, he marched right over to the door and nearly pushed open the automated mechanism himself when it didn't open fast enough for his liking. Rushing in, he saw no sigh of his brother anywhere. The bags were left right at the entrance but that was about it.

Until he heard a soft whine and a muffles sniffle coming from the bathroom. No lights were on but considering Cujo was with him, the glowing pup could act as a nightlight if he so wanted. Cautiously he walked over to the door, knocking softly before switching on the light and entering the room.