(Songs used: Dove Cameron - Too much / Ashnikko - Paint The Town Blue)

October 25

Team communications had been agonizingly quiet after their stellar first meeting. Sure, the restriction had been lifted but that didn't mean they'd instantly start chatting up a storm when Phantom got added. The same happened when Artemis first joined. At least she had the advantage of immediately being placed on a mission from day 1 to help ease her into things.

Not for Phantom, though.

The only time the group chat saw any life was for a reminder of the training they had today. The handful of confirmations everybody will be attending was all there was to it. Of course, this would be the first training since their previous failure of a training attempt. The stakes were pretty high to get it at least semi decent to avoid any more issues between the mentors, the team and their resident trouble magnets.

Robin and Phantom had decided to show up only a handful of minutes before the training session would actually start. Not taking any chances for any fights to break out, both Wolf and Cujo were made to stay away from them. Neither of them liked the idea but at least it wasn't Cujo getting singled out this time. Wolf lived here, though that didn't mean the mutant was allowed to sit in and quietly harass either Bat.

Though their plan had been pretty successful, they had failed to account for actually walking over the prepped room. As they expertly tried to make their way over, they had to cross through the lounge. Of course, as if they all had the same plan, the rest of the team had been waiting and procrastinating as well. Watching some shoulders sag visibly with resignation, they all started making their way over to their designated training room.

Kaldur tried to formally welcome Phantom, be the good leader his King would want him to be. Forget their less than perfect first official meeting and start over. Extend an open hand and offer of peace between the team and him.

Phantom, however, clearly had other ideas. Staring at the offered hand and then back to Kaldur, the ghost simply sidestepped him and continued floating on.

"So," M'gann awkwardly started, floating up a bit to be hovering next to Phantom. "I, ah, I was wondering if, maybe, you could teach me how you density shift so easily? Uncle J'onn has tried before but I'm still struggling quite a bit." She innocently asked, looking between the two Bats as they ignored the group behind them.

Phantom glanced at her before shrugging nonchalantly. "No can do. I don't density shift." He could feel the prickle of frustration trinkle over from the mind link. It was slightly getting on his nerves. From what his brother said, the mind link was for talking not telepathically emoting into another's brain. He'd have to ask Frostbite about it because knowing their luck, it was somehow his fault once again.

M'gann's confusion drowned out the silent annoyance of the others as she distanced herself a few inches. "Oh, I'm sorry." She apologized sincerely, though the fatigue of continuous bad sleep was coming back already. "I just thought because of the camouflage and going through things, you might know some tips."

"Yeah, well you thought wrong." Phantom sighed deeply, lazily floating on his back as he matched pace with Robin. "Density shifting and true intangibility are two separate things. You change your molecular structure to pass through things, I just simply stop interacting with it all together. Same with your camouflage and true invisibility. Probably flying too, gravity is more like a suggestion anyway."

Wally scoffed loudly, quite purposely out loud rather than telepathically. "Yeah sure, because that's totally how physics works." The speedster grumbled, glaring daggers at the floating child. "Can't you at least try harder to come up with a lie that sounds at least somewhat scientifically plausible."

Phantom sat down, or rather, sat upside-down as he continued floating along while completely taking the piss out of Wally and his persistent denial. "Can't you at least try to not be so obviously jealous? It's not my fault you can't even try phasing through anything without getting a bloody nose. Which, really, sounds more like an iss-you more than an iss-me."

Beside him, Robin was beaming at Phantom's arguably perfect joke. Wally, however, didn't seem to agree. Sneering, he sped up slightly to come mere inches away from the inverted imp. "How do you know that?!" He hissed angrily.

Phantom kept grinning, reveling in the anger coming off of the red head in palpable waves. "You wanna know what else I know?" Without a warning, Robin gave him a little jab to the ribs. Instead of letting that shut him up however, he just leaned into the momentum it gave him to start spinning around like the most obnoxious windmill in existence. "Has anybody ever told you you're very...ah, Bi?"

Robin hummed softly, glancing over at the absolute fool Phantom was making of himself.

"How do you say Backpfeifengesicht again?"

Robin had to hold in his laugh, but didn't hide the smirk on his face as he snorted. Doing a quick spin around, he made sure to lock eyes with Wally before continuing on like nothing happened. "A face badly in need of a fist, I guess? It doesn't have a decent translation but now that you mention it..." He didn't need to look back to know he had a few glares trying to suddenly gain heat vision aimed at the back of his skull.

"That's it!" Phantom gleefully snapped his fingers, pointing the most unserious finger gun at the speedster as he had yet to stop spinning. "You look very slapable. Like a magnet to get a few pow-pow." He voiced over his playful punches towards Wally, making sure he never actually made contact.

Wally nearly tried to start a fight right then and there had it not been for Kaldur pulling him back and away from Phantom.

"You're late." Canary called out, eying the group as they wandered in. Not a single one of them seemed willing to be there. Truthfully, not even Canary, as she eyed the gathering teens. Her eye twitched when she saw Phantom imitating a propellor at the front of the group. She was more than used to the unseriousness that came with training teens but this was on a whole new level.

Thankfully, he finally stopped spinning once they got a few steps away from the platform and mostly just stared up at the ceiling. Well, as thankful as she could be when he still wouldn't just stand straight. But she'll take floating cross legged over the spinning any day.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to just get on with it. "As you are aware, missions have been suspended for the time being. But that doesn't mean training isn't still needed. Whatever you can learn here, you can still use out in the field in your own cities so it's important you still take this just as serious as before."

Nobody seemed all too entertained by the reminder they were pretty much grounded from team activities. She half expected them to try something anyway, as these kids were especially well adapted to finding trouble to get involved in. But, so long as not every mentor signed off on it, it wouldn't be official.

Wally scoffed, crossing his arms and leaning in closer to Connor without lowering his tone any bit. "We all know who to thank for that." He glared at the two bats, but more so at Phantom. Neither of the two really reacted to it, used to a whole lot worse when out patrolling Gotham.

"Are there any questions?" Canary asked, trying to move past the unnecessary remark.

Unexpectantly, Robin raised his hand. "Are we expected to know everybody's powerset and range or is this just a free for all?" He sounded annoyed even needing to ask something like that. One would expect playing rules would be explained when it's Phantom's first day and his own first day being demoted. For all they knew, the League could have changed the rules and forgone telling them. Not like they'd actually followed the rules anyway, but that was something totally different.

Canary eyed him, somewhat surprised he of all people spoke up. "It's not exactly mandatory, but it can be beneficial to know what skillsets your both working with and going up against." She watched Phantom slightly relax, immediately putting everybody else on edge. She knew Robin didn't ask for himself. Everybody knew both of their resident Bats knew more than they would like. Obviously skillsets and ranges would be included in the standard Bat spreadsheets.

The only person this actually applied to was Phantom as his exact power set and range were pretty much completely unknown outside of what they had already seen. Clearly, he wasn't too keen on volunteering that information either. "How does it work?" His voice echoed out suddenly. "The infamous cry, I mean." He clarified as he propped one leg up to support his head.

Raising an eyebrow, her eyes ticked between the two youngest, slightly annoyed at how Phantom had yet to even look at her. Any information on how their abilities worked were surely in Batman's files. "That isn't the kind of question I meant." She wasn't sure if they were just trying to test her or what, but the unmoving stare Phantom was giving the ceiling set off more bells than any child should.

"You never specified what kind of questions."

Well...he had a point. A pretty valid one at that. "It's a sonic pitch, essentially high frequency soundwaves." She kept her gaze locked on him, looking for any sign of whatever they were trying to do.

Remaining unmoving, Phantom didn't give any sign he even heard her until he prodded some more. "Can you control it?" Even his voice remained as steady as his posture. Never once quivering or changing pitch. With a single nod, he asked the one thing she hadn't expected to explain. "How? Or does it just stop on its own?"

Canary wasn't quite sure how to answer that. How indeed. "A lot of trial and error, and years of practice. It's more like an instinct now rather than a conscious thing." Just as she had to explain to M'gann when the girl refused to use her powers after the incident, she was ever so slightly getting the same feeling from Phantom.

She had refused to speak after her first incident until somebody was able to help her train. M'gann, too, refused to use her powers after the first big accident. The poor girl wasn't even fully used to life on Earth, yet here she was doing her best to adapt all the same.

Phantom however? He wasn't showing any of such signs with using his powers. If anything, he was quite comfortably showing them off any given chance. The most concerning part was that they had no record of anything that would explain why he would be asking her such questions.

"Does it ever make you tired?"

"What is this, 21 questions?" Artemis complained, voicing the teams poorly hidden agitation. They likely had the same train of thought as her about the concerns regarding his unknown power set, but Canary paid it no mind.

Her focus was immediately brought back on the boy in front of her. He had barely moved, but the sign she was looking for finally popped out. Though noting in his tone changed, his position said enough for her. No longer were his hands creating a barrier between chin and knee. Now, they were wrapped around his leg, pulling it closer to his chest. Faintly she could also tell he was actually looking at her this time, not up to the ceiling anymore.

Whatever it was about her Cry that he wanted to know, there was some discomfort he was expertly trying to hide.

Very likely discomfort with an ability he cannot control if his line of questioning was anything to go by. Having a sense of what it could be did nothing to ease her concern however. If he did possess anything like the Cry, they could be in quite some danger if he ended up using it in battle. Maybe discussing Phantom with Batman had some merit, but she wasn't ready for another argument to break out over the same kid this close together.

They had time. She knew Batman wouldn't let him into the field if there wasn't a strong support for his control over the matter.

Right?

With a comforting smile, she relaxed her stance. "Any kind of battle is tiring, even more so when using abilities. If you're interested, we could always schedule training somewhere more guarded where there wouldn't be any risk of civilian harm." She had to hold in her victory when Phantom's ever so frozen expression cracked open into a smirk.

"Tt," He scoffed, rolling his head slightly. "You're making it sound like we'll just hop over to Area 51." Canary's smile didn't falter, giving him enough of an answer. "Wait," he straightened out, a hint of panic slipping in, "You can't be serious, right? I was joking." Internally, Phantom was panicking. If they really did go to Area 51, no way the government wouldn't try anything on him. He managed to evade the GIW for this long but that would just be running straight into their arms begging to get shot.

Maybe he should mention that to Batman...or maybe if he kept ignoring their existence, they would forget about him as well.

Luckily for him, Canary prevented any further spiraling by continuing their little study session. "Right, well. Since this is your first training session, would you mind showing where your skill level is at?" She watched him shift back into his bored look from before.

"Pass." Letting his head flop down, cheek pressed firmly into his knee, Phantom sounded anything but interested. It wasn't hard to figure out it wasn't just for the sake of their training. More likely it was the League failing to be sneaky at getting info on him again. "Pretty sure we already did show and tell down in Lalaland a week ago." He dismissed the notion of doing more than just lazily float around, focusing back on that one lamp that kept flickering ever so slightly.

"Those were different circumstances." She countered, losing her concern to annoyance once more as Phantom quite likely couldn't care any less about being here and actually participating. "Would a spar be more up your alley?"

Clearly the offer had absolutely no effect on him.

On Robin, however. "OH! OH!" He practically bounced forward, raising his arm as if he was trying to reach the ceiling from his bounces alone. "I volunteer!" He exclaimed gleefully. The uneasy glances between the team didn't go unnoticed as Phantom mocked the little bird.

"OH! OH!" He copied eerily perfect, down to the same bouncy kick to his tone before dropping it completely and regressing back into mild annoyance. "Can you not." Phantom's blank stare was met with the most hyperactive bouncing any of them had seen Robin do in quite some time.

"You're no fun." He blew raspberries at his brother, pouting along the way. Turning back to Black Canary, he completely ignored the fisted middle finger pressed into his cheek. "Spar restrictions?"

She smiled again, genuinely happy to see Robin more alive than he had been in way too long. "No restrictions, go all out within the limits of the room."

Immediately Robin paused his bouncing, feet firmly planted back onto the ground. "Ah, unfair advantage! He has like a ton of powers and half of them aren't indoor approved!...or well...medically approved yet to begin with." He trailed off slightly, tapping his chin as he thought of ways to make it fair.

Phantom on the other hand, couldn't look any more disinterested. "Unfair advantage!" He mocked once more, very clearly taking glee from pissing off the team behind him as it all flowed out into the mind link. "He's a dumbass and annoying." He had to hold back from making a joke about physically, well mentally, feeling waves of anger crash into him.

"What?" Robin turned around in mock hurt and surprise, gasping as he covered his mouth. "Scared you'll wipe out faster than Wally on his first try?"

"HEY!"

"Nah," Phantom scoffed, falling back into a cross legged position as he leaned his elbow onto a knee. "Just wouldn't be fair to embarrass you in front of your friends like that." He smirked devilishly as he could feel the dual sided anger from the team. If it wasn't for blatantly saying he'd win, it was for mockingly calling them Robin's friends.

Bouncing over, Robin gleamed up at the floating boy. "If you're so confident you'd win, then let's make a bet." His eyes twinkled behind the mask as Phantom raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Winner gets all of grandpa's triple chocolate chip cookies. For a month."

Phantom cocked his head to the side, still sounding bored but sporting a mischievous grin. "Thank you for your generous offerings, Bi. I'll be sure to enjoy them only when you're around so you can see the happiness your confectionary donations bring."

Robin cackled on the edge of gleeful insanity, stepping close enough their foreheads were almost touching. "Oh-ho, you wanna go, glow stick?" He challenged with a grin.

Phantom dropped down to the ground, feet landing for probably the first time since they got here. "Bring it, Tweetie." He bumped his forehead onto Robin's before pulling back and ruffling his hair as he passed by the stunned Bat. Squawking indignantly, Robin nearly flew over to the platform.

Canary pinched the bridge of her nose, beyond done with these two already. "Fine," she sighed, "No powers, and no destructive gadgets." However Batman survives the night with them, she'll never know.

Scrunching his nose as they both walked on, Phantom immediately pulled up his holocomputer and started breaking into the Mount Justice training system. Apparently it wasn't just the Zeta they had to block out as their tags on the ground both read as Robin.

While Phantom was doing that, Robin pulled up his own. Within seconds, music started playing from the speakers.

Player number one. Game over.

Phantom laughed at the song choice.

If you say I'm too much, baby go find less. If you can't keep up, stay below I guess. If I'm such a big deal, maybe your too little.

Humming along, he took inspiration from the song, programming the system to call them Player 1 and 2. Of course, claiming his birthright as older sibling, he gave himself the role of Player 1.

"Hm, nah. Not the right vibe." Robin pouted as he kept scrolling. He could feel the frustration of the team flood the link as well but who were they to not take some joy out of annoying situations. "Ah! Found it!" He wasted no time letting the next song play and bounce along as he rested his chin on Phantom's shoulder.

Oh, you want a villain, lemme show you how I evil. Oh, you think I'm difficult, I'll show you I'm a devil. Sharpshooter lethal, top of food chain like an eagle. Whack-a-mole you weasels, I'm a machine, diesel

"Robin," their bopping along quickly got silenced by a rather frustrated Canary. "No background music."

Robin pouted, grumbling as he shut off their theme song. "Party pooper."

"No cake for you." Phantom absentmindedly finished the quote in a familiar joking tone. After a few minutes of Robin humming the song, Phantom shut down the holocomputer as the system finally worked up to par with what they managed for the Zeta already.

"Hey!" Robin sulked, finally noticing their name cards. "Why are you player 1?"

Phantom simply looked him dead in the eye as he walked to the opposite side of the platform. "Cope."