though i doubt anybody would care, sea shanty credit goes to Sail North for his song Against The Tide. The random "Youngblood ship" lore in this story is taken from more of Sail North's song lore in case anybody would be wondering. (and just for fun in case anybody wants a hint of a spoiler, just imagine Phantom Sea was written by the crew about Danny)

Soft Warning: implied child death

October 31

Robin climbed onto Cujo's back, letting the hound grow so he could be brought over to the ship without Phantom having to carry him. The added bonus of having a hold on Cujo so he doesn't try to steal the crewmate's leg again was just an afterthought.

Phantom paused before the port beam, waiting for the lines to snake around his arm. "Ello, beauty." He greeted warmly, smiling as the Shadow softly wrapped around his scarred arm. "Do you think you could let us hang out here for the night? I promise to keep them both in check."

Hesitantly, the line around his arm retreated and went over to Robin, snaking around his arm a bit less kindly. "Um, Ni? What's going on?" He watched on with worried eyes as the line slowly snaked around his whole body, pulling him in.

Phantom laughed, petting the port beam as he boarded. "She's just saying hi."

"She?"

"Yeah. The Shadow's a ghost ship." He supplied utterly unhelpfully. With a slight frown on his face, he hurriedly pulled up the nearest crewmate who bowed towards him. Clapping the deckhand on the shoulder, the others soon followed suit, albeit a bit hesitantly.

"Ha ha, very funny. Not the time for puns, man. I'm cool with being part of a ghost crew but some info would be helpful." Robin mumbled as he got off Cujo's back. The line around him unwind itself before disappearing back up where it belonged.

Phantom turned back to face his brother, brows furrowed in confusion. "It's not a- I man it kinda is. But no, I meant that she is a ghost, who happens to be a ship. You know?" He tried to explain, not sure if he made much sense. It wasn't like they had the time to go further into it as Youngblood took to the helm.

"Hoist the colors, you lily livered scoundrels!" He bellowed out far louder than his size would indicate he could. "We're sailing under the crown tonight!" With glee the crew set to work, well, whatever work the Shadow didn't do herself. The halyard undid itself, letting the sail wave freely in the unseen winds. With the fabric moving freely, the skull of the jolly roger painted on it changed to an image of a hollow eyed Phantom before the lines fastened themselves again. A flag with a symbol Robin didn't recognize now waved proudly atop the mast.

Phantom looked at the new sail decoration in discontent. "Seriously? You still have that thing?" He mumbled as he floated up the steps to hang around Youngblood, Robin and Cujo trailing behind. "Could you please add Batman's symbol to it at least? This is still his city." He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.

Listening to his request, the Shadow formed an ensign with the telltale Batlogo on it. Phantom smiled gratefully, giving his thanks as he let a hand trail over the guardrail overlooking the main deck. At least now Gotham will know whose side they were on. Softly fueling some extra ecto into, he leaned back to look over to Youngblood and his brother. "What do you think? Up for some warfare while you're here?"

Youngblood smiled deviously, unsheathing his sword and pointing it to the sky. "Ready the cannons, prepare for battle!" He cried out in delight as the Shadow opened up her gunports in an all to familiar rhythm. Phantom and the crew buzzed with excitement as they all fell in line with the impromptu shanty.

"Hoist the colors, let 'em fly! Let the cannons rip the sky. Raise your cutlass, lift a glass, fight the current till we die." The crew started softly chanting, getting louder as the ship truly came alive in preparation to hunt down a battle worthy of their presence. "Fortune's flame will never dim. Treasure stokes the fire within."

Giggling, Phantom ran over to the taffrailing, dragging Robin along with him. Confused squawking soon stilled as they watched the Shadow set sail out of the waters. "Bring on hell or waters high, we will sail against the tide." He happily sang along, all too well versed in the shanty. It wasn't the first time Phantom had been on the Shadow after the first few incidents. They had helped ferry him over to Frostbite's a handful of times so he had come to learn some of the crew's favorite melodies.

Like a scene straight from Peter Pan, they flew up high between the Gotham skyline. A soft trail of green followed the ship wherever she went. Every so often, green orbs, like little fireflies, rose from the grounds below. The little firefly like orbs would come aboard as well, briefly morphing into a child before walking below deck, towards the bunks.

Were there really that many lost child souls stuck in Gotham?

Robin was shocked out of his morbid amazement when Phantom bumped their shoulders together. "Come on now, don't act like you've never been on a pirate ship before." He cackled, skipping a few steps before running down the steps to the main deck again. Robin chased after him, curious as to what Phantom was planning and trying to follow his lead. Jumping up on the port beam, the pair launched themselves into the netting to get a feel of the wind on their face as the Shadow hunted for a battle.

"There's a chill on the water, as the trail's getting hotter. There's no taming the fire. It's the burn that we crave!" Youngblood led the verse, helping to steer the Shadow between the buildings and remain low enough to still collect the souls wishing to board. Now with the two beacons of safety dangling next to the sails, more and more souls dared peek out from where they had been hiding. There still weren't too many. There were more rats roaming the streets below in broad daylight than there were souls boarding, but any new soul aboard was a step forward.

Suddenly, the Shadow took a hard turn. Cackling as they went, Phantom climbed up a bit higher to see what she spotted. "What in the unholy hell?" He openly cursed in astonishment, prompting Robin to climb up as well. Following his brother's gaze, he soon spotted where their course was headed.

Through some unholy matrimony, Condiment King and Toyman had teamed up to make one giant condiment spraying doll. Somehow, someway, Riddler had gotten a hold of Clayface as the meta was fighting the giant mec while shaped as an obnoxious question mark. It was all kinds of nasty and would have been hell to deal with. Of course, since they have a literal ghost ship on their side...

Robin grinned impishly, the energy on deck was at an all time high as the crew prepared to go into battle. He's been on plenty high energy missions, fought countless fights, but this was something else. He felt a soft tap on his shoulder, a nervous eyepatched crewmate held out a sword for him. Smiling gratefully he accepted the blade. Such a simple gesture seemed to excite the crewmate even more, mouth moving but no sound came out.

Phantom turned around, noticing the shift in ecto around them. His entire being lit up even more when he spotted the specific sailor. "Byarni!" He reached out, grabbing the sailor by the forearm in a heavy handed greeting. The pair had a silent conversation before Byarni pulled out a second sword from somewhere inside his chest. This sword was a lot more embellished than other swords, clearly standing out from the crews own weapons.

Phantom reluctantly accepted it, clasping his hand in Byarni's as he did. "Bring on hell or waters high, we will sail against the tide." He spoke more determined than the sing-songy crew down below. Cheers erupted across the deck, swords and hats turned to the sky as they turned their attention to the two bats.

"Hail to the-"

"-Kings of the ocean." Phantom cheered over the crowd, awkwardly drowning out the crew below as they continued their cheerful prep to battle. Robin looked at his brother with suspicion. He was acting rather odd ever since Youngblood showed up but he couldn't quite place what was weirder than the already abnormal standard he lived by.

Shaking off the weird feeling he was getting, he focused back on the two giants fighting. If they wanted to keep collateral to a minimum, they might need to split forces and get Clayface down to a normal size before they could neutralize him. He wasn't going to make the same mistakes Aqualad made when he was trusted to lead the team in Gotham.

It totally had nothing to do with how Kaldur wouldn't even listen to his advice in his own city, against a meta Robin could solo when he was 11. No, he knew Batman knew it wasn't on him that the team failed against sentient mud. This was just him, proudly doing the job he's been doing for nearly 6 years now. Plus, it wouldn't do them any good to go at this uncoordinated. Too many bodies in one place could get a lot worse than ranch flavored dirt.

Phantom agreed to the plan, relaying to Youngblood what their plan was as moving around the vessel was a lot easier for him than it was for the only human aboard. Robin and the Shadow would primarily handle Claymark while Phantom and part of the crew went for a ground attack of the most cursed mec in existence. The ground assault had the easier job, especially given how ghosts interact with tech.

Still, this was Halloween in Gotham after all. They had to put on a good show for everybody watching along.

"Ready the cannons!" Phantom shouted out as they drew nearer. Prepping for phase 1 of the plan, separate the two giants. The crew prepping for the ground attack all hung over the side or in the nets, drawing as much attention to themselves as possible. And attention they were getting. More and more people popped out of the woodworks, pulling out their phones and watching it all go down. But that isn't what Robin was focusing on. Sure, it was helping them in the game, but that was just extras this year.

No, Robin could tell their plan was already working. Between the people down on the streets, on the corners of rooftops, everywhere he looked he could see the telltale green glow of souls watching them. They looked like the little fireflies he saw earlier, but less bright. Still, he could see them grow in numbers and color the ever so dark night a bit brighter.

Best not disappoint them.

With a toothy grin, Phantom and his team went below deck to prepare. Robin and Youngblood watched from the top of the netting as they counted down the seconds until their fight. Eagerly, the crew started banging on the beam or the deck. Forming their own drums of war, they instilled just enough fear in the three rogues to pause their fight and the entire district to hear their approach.

Waiting for just the right moment, Robin buzzed from excitement as he finally spotted the right opening. "FIRE!" He shouted out, pointing his sword exactly where he wished the cannon ball to go. Like the Shadow could read his mind, she fired off a singular shot.

Except, it wasn't a cannon ball she shot off. It was Phantom.

Uncurling himself, he readied his sword. Instead of simply crashing into them, he cut off Claymark's hands. With the two giants now separated, the rest of Phantom's team shot out. Quickly they surrounded the mec. While Condiment King and Toyman were desperately trying to squish their assailants beneath not only the mec's feet but also drown them in rancid condiments, Robin and the Shadow set to work on shrinking down Claymark.

Swapping ghosts for ecto, the Shadow provided Robin with cover fire. Jumping down with the sword he had been gifted, he kept throwing out cement pallets. Every bit of Claymark that solidified, he immediately cut off before the meta could neutralize the reaction. Between taking heavy cannon fire and losing chunks to the bladed bird, Claymark was forced to shrink down.

Now simply running around as just Clayface, abandoning his inquirous shape, the enraged rogue tried to go after Robin even more. No longer big enough for the Shadow to help, it was all on Robin to take him down.

Except, he had an undead brother floating around that was waiting for the signal. Right before Clayface could try to hit Robin, the little bird parkoured his way over to a fire hydrant. Letting him think he could take the hit, Robin waited for the very last moment to jump out of the way. Clayface hit the fire hydrant, sending gallons of water into his arm and surrounding his entire body.

Trying to stay out of the water, Clayface formed as small of a base as he could, trying to keep his shape stable. That was until Phantom's team finally got full control over the mec, swatting its hand down on top of the meta. Now forced to reform while waterlogged, Clayface's form rippled from the access water he was forced to take in.

But of course, that was all according to plan. Not giving the sentient garden patch a moment to think of his next attack, the Shadow sent down a line, whisking Robin off to perch on top of a lamppost before reaching inside the broken mec to snatch the two weeping rogues.

Taking that as his sign, Phantom went intangible. Flying right towards Clayface, he went straight for the center of the now blob shaped meta, freezing him from the inside out.

Robin sat comfortably, watching on as the Shadow docked in the middle of the street to help tie up the last of their foes. People all around them were staring in awe as Phantom happily talked with some bystanders. Carefully cradling some fireflies, he held them close as he explained how to legally get a hold of the broken mec and salvage its pieces to build or repair household appliances that the onlookers asked about. The pride he felt inside completely distracted him from why they were out here in the first place.

He felt the gentle pressure of somebody gripping onto his cape. Somewhat surprised somebody managed to sneak up on him on top of a lamppost no less, he slowly turned to look at where he felt the tug coming from.

With a breath caught in his throat, Robin looked down to a small girl. She couldn't have been older than 5 with how small she was. Blood was splattered all over her little dress. He would have been worried about her being cold had it not been for the faint green glow coming off of her.

Right.

They weren't here for fun. They had a job to do.

Swallowing hard, he stood up and held out his hand to the girl. The girl eyed him suspiciously, still not quite sure. She pointed over to Phantom, hand tightening on his cape as she did. Robin smiled warmly, "That's my brother." His reassurance seemed to be enough for her. Letting go of his cape, the little girl made grabby hands at him.

He lifted her up, setting her on his hip before jumping down to check that their precious cargo was secured enough. Deeming it safe, he wandered over to Phantom. The moment he turned his head, the little girl tightened her grip around Robin's neck and hid her face in his shoulder.

Protectively, Robin tightened his grip on her, trying to ignore all the questions flooding his head about her. Gotham may have heroes protecting her, but they weren't everywhere. They couldn't stop every crime from happening. At least now, he could help those who were failed. Genuinely help them and bring them over to somewhere they would be safe for the rest of their existence.

He cleared his throat before speaking up. "Sorry folks, we have to go deliver our little present to the Commissioner. You'll see him round more." They waved their goodbyes to the Gothamites, a trail of fireflies following them as Cujo jumped down from the deck to lift Robin back onboard. The little girl took quite an interest in the pup, only letting go of Robin's neck when he promised she could ride on Cujo's back until they made the cross again.

With more care than one could imagine a massive sailing ship would have in a densely populated city like Gotham, the Shadow set off towards the GCPD building. It didn't take long for them to arrive, pausing here and there to break up some petty crimes and add more cargo floating along the hull of the ship.

An entire unit was waiting by the garage door. One by one the Shadow released her grip on the criminals, leaving the frozen Clayface for last so Phantom could unfreeze him before they slapped a collar on him.

Gordon watched it all happen from the sidelines, looking quite dejectedly at his mug. "Coffee won't be enough for tonight. Barbara would surely understand." He muttered to himself as he poured an entire pocket flask into the mug. Staking a long sip, he nodded in greeting before following his men back inside.

They set off to roam Gotham once more, swallowing the bitterness as a lot of souls chose to board as they passed over Crime Alley and the Narrows. Trying to distract themselves from the less than pleasant reality, they looked up the online chatter.

"Holy shit." Robin wheezed as he scrolled through everything. Somehow they had managed to divide the internet, not just Gotham, as the debut of a new Gotham hero and his undead friends circled around. People were arguing, demanding a statement from the mayor, Gordon, hell even the local church on what was going on.

The generational divide was quite prevalent as well as even on camera, Youngblood could not be seen. Teens from all over were adamantly defending the existence of Youngblood and dogpiling older people who couldn't see the little captain in all their footage.

The funniest part had to be some of the names Robin recognized, confirming the League had been keeping an eye on Gotham tonight as Batman was held up in a meeting. Oliver and Barry were getting rather heated about the whole thing on their not so secret accounts. They were more so arguing with each other about the technicalities of the Shadow and all of that happening without an adult stepping in, but it was funny nonetheless.

Noting the time, Robin looked back up from his phone. "Hey, Captain!" He called out, bouncing over to the helm where Youngblood stood vigil watching over the stairs leading below deck. Phantom had gone down there a moment ago and Youngblood had been keeping an eye on the stairs ever since. "Any chance we could pass by one of the parks to check out the scoreboard? It's nearing time."

Youngblood took a moment before he tore his eyes away from the stairs. "That shouldn't be a problem, Lo-" He awkwardly cleared his throat, messing with his belt buckle a bit as his cheerful mood dimmed slightly. "Looks like we were heading that way already. I'll notify your kin of the change in heading."

Youngblood cautiously disappeared below deck, returning a moment later with a hooded up Phantom. Robin noted some awkward tension, wondering what happened down there before shrugging it off as Phantom smiled brightly when they got closer to Gotham Park again.

Landing in the pond once more, they watched the billboard as the clock ticked closer to midnight. Everybody knew the first place spot was pretty much secured, but the remaining top 5 were still interchangeably switching around until the very last second. Right before the clock hit midnight, Catwoman rose to the number 2 spot for the final time.

Elated at the final ranking, Robin ran over and dragged Phantom to the starboard beam. Hopping up, he pulled out his phone again, happily gesturing towards the billboard behind them. Floating into frame as well, Phantom awkwardly joined the picture. Trying to smile and throwing up a peace sign, they posed with their victory on display before Robin sent it over to the Bat group chat. He was tempted to send it to the team too, at the very least Wally, Kal and Roy, but eventually decided against it. They had yet to deserve such privileges.

Or, well, in Roy's case, any form of reaction other than distancing himself before the team was even formed.

He was in the process of making it his phone background when a new call came in on Phantom's phone. "Artemis?" Phantom asked to the lurker over his shoulder with a soft sneer. "What does she want?"

Robin shrugged, not wanting to speak out on the archer just yet. She had been annoying at first, but she was annoying with the entire team when she was new too. Since then she had been relatively quiet so it was hard to judge where she stood on the both of them. Not wanting to waste any more time, he pushed to accept the call.

A/N yo guess what, not only did a fren make art as i was writing this, but i also made my own art after theirs. Kam made their's first as i was still writing the chapter so theirs would be more fic accurate as i finished mine like 30 minutes before posting soooooooooo take that as you please (the art frens are teaching me stuff yall im way too entertained) SO I PRESENT TO YOU

Kam's  (https://www.tumblr.com/half-half-bish2/779584486985875456/these-two-have-my-heart-and-yall-should-read-this?source=share)

and mine