October 28

If anybody thought team relations would be any better after the previous training meet up, they successfully deluded themselves.

They had another round of sessions with Dinah today. Nearly all of them had decided to leave pretty much as soon as they were done. All except a few. Kaldur had stayed to 'make sure everybody was okay'. Right. Sure. He most definitely wasn't staying because their resident trouble makers were staying.

They had made it their own personal game to see how far they could push Dinah until she called their session quits early. It was probably not the best thing to do, but any time she would not so subtly ask something that was either just plain insensitive or obviously just an attempt at getting personal info, they upped the ante. This time she managed a full 30 minutes before she ultimately gave up.

One day she'll learn she can't help those who don't want her help. Much less so when the 'help' provided wasn't what they needed.

Right now, Wally was in there with her. They knew he would bold probably the second his session was over as Barry had a case for the both of them. At least Barry was still on the mend like expected, so there wasn't too much worry about him still running around with a wound to his leg. It did, of course, mean more duo patrols so he had back up just in case. Really, the wound was giving Wally more responsibilities he had been craving so it wasn't all bad.

They still hadn't managed to ask Frostbite about it in person. After sending Cujo over with a message, the chieftain had promised to make an ointment to help clear the wound of ecto-residue. Just as they suspected, Frostbite, too, figured it was the ambient ecto attaching itself to things it shouldn't.

Apparently that was quite an issue for ghosts, especially those who can't quite control their ecto-output. Danny had had issues in the past with other ghosts being oddly attracted to not only himself but also his friends. It was pretty likely that the ambient ecto from the portal and all the fighting in Amity was just like crack for Realm dwelling ghosts. High emotion situations are quite dangerous in terms of having such volatile ecto floating around. With Danny's recent re-use of his powers, and Cujo hanging around him so much, chances were high it was another situation like that.

The level of intent was up for debate but it probably wouldn't matter to anybody already hating them.

Connor was in the lounge, listening to his favorite sound. Tv static. It was somewhat of a surprise he was even out right now, all things considered. But with his room being right next to M'gann's, and with the Martian resting at the moment, he would make some sense he would give her space as to not accidentally awaken her telepathically.

Kaldur sat on another couch, not so casually keeping an eye on the time. It was quite obvious he, too, had somewhere to be. Yet, he remained in the lounge. Every so often he would pointedly stare into the kitchen as everybody's favorite boys were making a mess.

They had decided to try and make some homemade snacks for during their telepathic training later. Alfred would have never allowed it to be made in his kitchen, so the communal Mount Justice kitchen it was. They had a few trays and two bowls already prepped.

Phantom was hovering around the kitchen, kicking and throwing about a few bags of Doritos, much to Connor's annoyance. It really did seem like he was purposely being obnoxious about it, but it had to be done. Robin, on the other hand, was lining the trays with baking paper.

Once the Doritos were properly crushed, he circled back around to Robin. Pouring a bit of the crushed chips into one of the bowls, he snuck a handful into his mouth. Pouring a bit more out, he gave Robin the second handful.

Walking over to the other bowl, he poured in some milk before vaguely gesturing at the other end of the counter. Phantom floated over, already taking two out of the carton and cracking them into the bowl with milk. "The essence of the unborn, good sir." He offered with an overdramatized British accent.

Robin paused, staring up blankly as he pulled his gloves off. "You could just call them eggs and not be weird about it." He crumbled some more Doritos into his mouth before beating the egg mixture. Phantom hovered around, watching everything mix together.

"Says the one constantly making up words."

"I'm starting to get why grandpa won't let you in the kitchen unless it's food time." Robin stuck out his tongue before shooing Phantom away. With a bit of a rush to his actions, Phantom cleaned up whatever he could around the kitchen island. Stealing a glance in his brother's direction, he beamed at the nod he got. Grabbing Robin's discarded gloves, he finally obliged the silent request. Floating up closer to the ceiling so he could still keep an eye on everything, he made sure he was outside the bounds of the kitchen.

After checking that Phantom was indeed far enough away to not cause any incidents, Robin walked over to the fridge. Putting the eggs away, he pulled out a few small boxes of chicken breast. In no time, he had the fillets cut into bite sized pieces. Bit by bit, he coated the chicken pieces in egg before tossing them around in the Dorito crumbs.

Once every bit was coated and found a spot on the tray, he quickly started cleaning up the small mess it made and washing what little dishes they had made. He was about to place their snack into the oven when he realized they had made one crucial mistake.

The oven wasn't on yet.

Looking over to Phantom, he could tell his other half had also noticed the issue. Receiving nothing but a helpless shrug, Robin facepalmed. He gestured over to the lounge. Phantom gave him a death glare, anything but on board with even the thought of asking for any help.

They had done absolutely nothing to show they'd help at all, especially Kaldur. He didn't even step in during near-fights. Why would he do anything now? Connor was not much of a better option. The clone had made it very clear he didn't like either of them at the moment. They were a whole lot more likely to get a fist to the face than any help.

Robin, however, still wanted to push his luck. He looked up, helplessly shrugging to the oven and the cameras around them. Taking a few steps towards the lounge, he waited for his brother's reaction. Phantom immediately huffed and crossed his arms, not enjoying the idea at all. But what other choice did they have?

Robin sighed, happy they didn't discuss it out loud as the clone would surely have refused. Trudging over, he leaned over the back of the couch about a foot away from where Connor was trying his best to ignore them both. With the least awkward wave he could manage, he tried to get Connor's attention. "Heya, Connor."

Cringing at himself, he was rewarded with a side glance. "What." Connor grunted out, not even asking. He did sound quite annoyed but hopefully the promise of a peace offering would help.

"So, ah," Robin droned out, struggling to find the words as Kaldur eyed him with very unnecessary suspicion. He tried to not let the clear distrust bother him but gods did it bother him. Issues for later, he had a snackcident to fix. "We kinda, sorta, maybe need some help?"

Perfect, good going there

Connor looked away again, only slightly twitching his head back. "Why don't you ask him."

"Well," Robin smoothly leaned backwards, sliding down the back of the couch, so he would be sitting upside down to look at the Kryptonian. "I'd really prefer to avoid getting a lecture about following kitchen rules even if we aren't in our own kitchen. Grandpa watches us more than Batman does." He shuddered slightly, knowing all too well there was a good chance Alfred was indeed watching them to make sure they behaved. "I'm not really allowed to touch any kitchen appliances that could cause fires and he can't be anywhere near revivable stuff."

That managed to get Connor looking straight at him with discontent but mild intrigue. Before Robin could elaborate any more, Phantom's complaints echoed over. "Well it's not my fault the hotdogs unionized before we could figure out what to do. Throwing out the entire thing was way better than hunting down your own food. It's a whole lot less fun when it's sentient ready-made meals."

Robin nodded solemnly, acting like it was the biggest tragedy ever. "Worst part is that we still don't really know what causes it to happen so until we do, he's banned from being near food that can be resurrected." He would have killed to see it happen for himself but for now, the stories of the great Fenton VS Hotdog battle will have to do.

"I beg your pardon?" Kaldur stared at them in mild horror. Right, Atlantean. He lived a pescetarian lifestyle so nearly all his usual meals would be an absolute no go for Phantom to hang around. Nobody would be looking forward to needing to hunt down a ghostly fish fillet.

"Go on."

Kaldur snapped out of his trance to look over to Phantom. "What?" He eyed Phantom, who was lazily leaning against the ceiling still.

The boy smirked at the group below, absolutely giddy he finally got to make a joke he had been waiting ages to make. "You said you'd beg, so beg." There was absolutely no way he'd try that on Alfred, who was the only other person he knew who'd make that statement in the first place. Honestly, it might have been for the best the link was still down, because he's pretty sure it would have incited a riot if Wally and Dinah heard him smirk through the sentence.

Coughing away his own laugh, Robin dragged attention back onto himself before any fighting could actually happen. They still needed help after all. "Ah-ha, yeah, so um, Connor?" He tried, really he did, but there was very little he could do to make this any less weird. Not even half a week ago they were all at each other's throats. It was quite an effort to move on from that simply because they needed something.

"Why me? Why not do it later and ask Canary?" He grunted out, slouching down a bit as he crossed his arms. The fact nobody was bringing up asking Kaldur was equally funny and sad. But, since the man himself didn't complain or offer, so be it.

"Well, M'gann cooks the most so we were planning on asking her, but she's sleeping right now. You're the next best shot at knowing how to use the oven and still being around to take them out later." It was true, especially since they forgot to preheat the oven, it'd take even longer for their snack to be finished. "We made enough to share too, after M'gann's portion gets taken out at least." He added, just to sweeten the deal and tug on Connor's heartstrings a bit.

They held tense eye contact. Robin tried hard not to smirk, holding back the giggles from how silly it all seemed. Connor on the other hand, was debating between ignoring the brats and doing it for M'gann.

With a deep sigh, he finally made up his mind and pushed himself off the couch. Robin cheered silently, letting himself fully slide down before rolling over to get up again. Trailing behind the annoyed clone, Robin bounced along. "The hell even is this?" Connor scrunched his nose at the trays of chip-breaded raw chicken.

"Our Dorito nuggies!" Robin elatedly explained. "Sleep is fuel for the mind, nuggies are fuel for the soul." As if it had been the wisest thing known to man, the two Bats nodded at the statement.

Connor didn't even validate it with a response, simply walking over to the oven and raising an eyebrow. Robin awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, looking rather sheepishly at the clone. "Right." He thought for a second, trying to remember without being able to look at the recipe. "Preheat to, ah, 300?"

"350 (180°C)."

Robin snapped his fingers at Phantom, happy he didn't try anything other than correcting the temperature. "350 for like 15 minutes? And then the nugs go in for like 20 but you gotta flip them over halfway." He did his best to look up with puppy eyes, but the mask kinda ruined it. Still, Connor did as asked and set the oven to preheat. If only just so he could go sit back down as soon as physically possible.

After a few, relatively tense moments, the mind link sparked back to life. They left it silent for now, nobody willing to bother M'gann too much when she had exhausting training coming up.

Not a second later, Wally zoomed over to the lounge. "What we makin?" Confusedly he looked around until his eyes landed on Phantom up by the ceiling. Face falling into a frown, he was about to ask Robin what was going on when the bird in question spun around to Connor once more.

"And that's our cue." He sent over a double thumbs up before walking out of the lounge. Behind him, Phantom vanished from view and flew over to his brother without the others spotting him. Completely ignoring the confused questions from Wally over the link, they all too soon felt both the speedster and Atlantean leave the link as they Zeta'd out.

Their training would be held in a room quite similar to the therapy room, ironically enough. The waterfall was quite useful when needing to relax and focus. Of course therapy and training were best kept as two separate situations and mentalities, so separate rooms it was.

It helped a little at least, this waterfall was slightly bigger and sounded better. A soft trinkle down the slope rather than rushing down a straight wall. J'onn was already there, waiting for them. Neither of them really greeted the elder Martian too excitedly.

Though they were incredibly grateful for the help he gave Phantom during the discussions, they knew being too friendly might send the wrong signal to the League. And so, Phantom took the lead in asking softball questions about Mars. He couldn't help it, The Martian Manhunter was right here. Who knows when he'll have another chance to casually chat like this.

J'onn did eye him curiously, surprised he already knew so much. "Oh, yeah. Bioship showed me some stuff a little while back. It was really cool." He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, fighting down a small blush. His bright white mask did nothing to help hide the green coloring his cheeks.

"How peculiar." J'onn hummed, eying the pair a bit closer. "Bioship does not usually reminisce about Mars, let alone to a stranger to her bonded."

Phantom looked on, wide eyed. Fearing he might have accidentally crossed some unknown alien politeness rules, he began scripting an apology for Bioship. J'onn walked over, placing a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder so he wouldn't spiral down. Or, at least not as palpable as he was currently doing. "You needn't worry, young one. Though irregular, it isn't a cause of concern. Quite the opposite, as she must have really trusted you to share something so special to her."

Phantom calmed down enough to explain how exactly Bioship showed him Mars when Robin excitedly asked for details. It was midway that explanation that M'gann finally walked in, Canary in tow. Giving M'gann some time to adjust, it wasn't too long before they started their actual training.

Or...well...more like M'gann started her training and the boys just hung around. It being the first time they actually practiced with them there, it didn't take too long before they found out some interesting things.

If she limited the range of the mind link to only this room, she still could not tell the difference with both of them present. But, if one left the room, she was able to drag only one of them into the link. That really didn't help figure out what exactly the issue was on how to differentiate them, but it was a step forward nonetheless.

M'gann was getting exhausted already, sweat slightly building up as she kept trying to focus as much as she could. "Excuse me?" Phantom interrupted the mentors discussing what to try next. "I know it's probably a horrible idea, but would it be worth a shot to ask Zatanna?"

"We already asked her if she could explain how she does it. All she was able to provide was that it was just a feeling." Canary explained, regretting even thinking about the previous training session when Zatara was here to supervise Zatanna's involvement.

Phantom hovered around Robin, one leg folded under him as he let the other one dangle. "Yeah, but like, did you ask her actual perspective? And figure out where the difference is between Zatanna and M'gann? Because just painful trial and error isn't going to do her any good." He motioned towards M'gann who was, as expected, quite exhausted.

Canary looked at J'onn, contemplating the idea. Calling Zatanna would go directly against what Zatara asked for, especially with the two Bats right here. Chances were also pretty slim the girl could give them any extra insight that she didn't already tried to give. But they were making almost no progress until they could figure out the issue behind the mix up.

With a nod of agreement from the heroine, J'onn pulled out his communicator and called up the young magician.