November 2

Danny groaned as he stretched out, back refusing to crack in the satisfying way he craved as his shoulders popped with relief. Dick didn't look like he was doing any better but there was no moving until the page of homework was done. Selina had decided to crack down on their schooling, mostly Dick's as he had been actively skipping school for nearly a month now. Danny had it a tiny bit easier, going through Dick's older work and doing some remedial stuff to make sure he was able to keep up with the kids at Gotham Academy at the very least.

Selina hummed as she looked over Danny's work. With every crossed out word, Danny grew more nervous. Sure, English wasn't their first language, and English itself was just 3 languages in a crappy trench coat, but he couldn't have gotten that bad after not being in school for nearing 2 years, right?

He tried to distract himself, wobbling back and forth after Alfred decided giving him a spinning chair was a horrible idea. He had done his best to stay on track with his age range but one can only do so much in solitary. Not like Selina would actually be harsh in her corrections. She hadn't been the entire time she decided to take over supervising their schoolwork.

"Danny?" Selina asked softly, making Danny stress just a tad bit more as he snapped back to reality. He already had come to know that specific tone. The one where she wants to ask something personal and is trying to keep it lighthearted. After going at it for 3 hours already, this really couldn't mean anything good.

Danny hummed, idly scratching at his arm as the itch of energy tingled under his skin. Nervously sitting straighter again, Selina leaned forward with his paper. There were lots of corrections made, but none were actual wrongs. Missed words, forgotten letters, or letters just jumbled around were all marked in purple ink.

Selina waited until Danny looked over his paper himself, noticing his own mistakes. Giving the boy the chance to take the lead, she waited until Danny looked up at her before she asked what she'd been wondering for the entire tutoring session. "Have you ever been tested for dyslexia?"

Dick stilled, already knowing where this was going as Danny looked back down at his paper. "I have." The younger said, trying to help ease Danny's discomfort as he frowned at the mistakes he made. "Bruce had me tested pretty early on because Mrs. Thatcher refused to pass me for English without it because I kept making 'too many mistakes to be in her class'." He added the extra distain for that woman as he paused his math homework.

It's not like they needed reading or writing all that much when they were still growing up so it just went unnoticed until Dick got forced into premium standardized schooling.

Danny looked down, zoning out slightly as he thought back on Mr. Lancer making similar comments even though he was sure he didn't find any mistakes when looking over it himself. Or when he was studying with Mr. Wilcox and he'd sometimes add in a word Danny was sure he wrote. Or at least appeared in his brain as he was writing.

It wasn't even that he made any substantial mistakes, just arguably cosmetical issues that took half a braincell to understand what it should have been.

He shifted again, ignoring his aching joints in favor of trying to rid himself of the uncomfortable tension building up. Maybe being forced to sit still on a chair after failing to do so for most of their lives was not the best idea, but they had to get used to it again before going back to school after all.

Dick couldn't help but keep glancing over to his brother. Now that they're spending more quiet time together again, he's started to take note of some things being...different. Not a bad different but just some things having changed. He can't quite put his finger on it but watching his brother fight to stay visible, he can't help but wonder if it's just ghost related or not.

Selina chose to finally end this eternity, which really would be barely more than a minute, of suffering. "No need to worry about that, darling. I'll talk to Bruce about it." She gave a reassuring smile before getting up and stretching her own aching muscles. "How about you two go get ready for training. You deserved a break after all." Because of course a break from mental training would be physical training.

Oh the joys of being an underaged hero.

Pulling on the suit mostly on his own, he only needed minor help with pulling on his left glove. His arm had been that annoying, itchy, kind of pain ever since they met Greta. While it was nowhere near bad enough to need a compression bandage, the cooling gel pads did make it a slight bit harder to put it on on his own. It's not like Dick minded, the boy never failed to have a sparkle in his eye whenever he saw Danny in the suit before transforming.

Dick really did like seeing Danny look near identical to Robin, no matter how often they reiterated there was only one Robin.

It seemed like the time spent away from each other had done everybody some good as the team barely reacted to the disaster duo showing up in Mount Justice. It was only mildly unnerving how there was still some palpable tension but no actual reaction coming from it.

That was, of course, until training actually started.

As if all the schoolwork they had to do hadn't been enough suffering, today was a powered training session. A grouped power training session no less. Since they were at an odd number, the two groups ended up being Kal, Wally, Artemis and M'gann while Robin, Phantom and Conner were put together. Judging off of Conner's reaction, Canary had clearly done it on purpose. What that purpose was, was anybody's except Conner's guess it seemed.

Still, who were they to argue against some free and sanctioned Conner harassment.

It wasn't even like it was hard to find what buttons to push on any given day, but today every single one of the clone's buttons were decorated with neon lights given how easy and tempting they were. It most certainly didn't help that they could feel Canary's gaze on them the entire time.

At least, the times the heroine wasn't dead focused on Artemis. Being the only non-powered person on that team, and the one with the shortest official training time, she honed in on the blonde to make sure she was okay. Logically she knew the young archer could hold herself. But her mind wasn't on a singular page, barely even the same book, as she couldn't help but worry. Artemis still had so much to work through and whatever progress they had made breaking down her walls was destroyed by their own mistake.

Though she suspected Artemis was hiding her internal struggles before, she knew the girl was for sure hiding things now. Speculating would help nobody but it didn't stop her from wanting to sit her down and try to have an open discussion about whatever it was that was plaguing the girl's mind so badly she was struggling to focus in training.

It also most definitely had nothing to do with how close Oliver felt to the young blonde. Or how Canary, as Oliver's partner, had grown close to Artemis herself.

Totally not.

Phantom was pretty sure Kaldur had noticed the two instigators were up to something the second Canary announced the team divisions. Their leader kept sending them glances every few seconds, utterly failing to focus on his own training just to make sure they don't end up driving Conner insane. Well...any more than they did by simply existing that is.

But where would the fun be without some friendly bullshitting.

"Come on, big guy." Phantom taunted again, comically moping around just to drive home his boredom even more. "I know you got more in you than that. You couldn't even swat a fly away with that last punch." It wasn't even that much of a hyperbole. Both Bats knew Conner always held back, even against Kaldur.

Before Phantom, the Atlantean was the sturdiest of the bunch, able to take whatever hits Conner could reasonably throw. But under all that anger and tough guy outer shell, they knew he would never go and train properly against any of the team. Against the boy's own friends. Against the very people who saved him from his mind controlled, test tube life.

But now they had Phantom to even the playing field. And it wasn't like Conner didn't have a plethora of grudges to fuel their fight.

Conner gritted his teeth, fists balling as he lunged at Phantom once again. His movements were painfully slow as all Phantom had to do was cartwheel out of the way. Here and there it nearly looked like he would just start breakdancing, ducking under fists with too many dramatics, rather than actually spar with the clone. Robin watched it happen from the side lines, throwing a batarang or two at his brother just to keep the boy entertained enough as they worked their magic.

"Tell you what," Phantom paused his movements, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "I'll give you a free hit. Do your worst, baby blue." With insanity glowing brightly behind his mask, he did as promised, standing there as Conner charged at him. His smile straightened out into a focused grin as Conner got closer. Grabbing the bigger teen's wrist, Phantom easily redirected his momentum into a graceful spin.

"Man, I thought I said to give it your all, not push a baby stroller." He sighed, hands on his hips as he mocked over and over again. "Have you ever been hit by a truck? It feels like you need to get hit by a truck to figure out what I mean." He completely ignored Conner's low growl, the balling of the Kryptonian's fists as he shook with rage. "Really, at this point I'm better off asking Supey for a fight because this really feels like a Temu versi-"

Phantom's complaints were cut off by Conner's fist flying directly at the boy's face. Catching it with his hand, Phantom' shoes squeaked as he slid backwards a couple inches. Cheeky smile so big it creased his mask, Phantom gleefully looked the clone in the eyes. "Now that's what I was talking about!" He practically bounced out of their hold and got into a defensive position, actually taking the training serious for the first time in the 12 minutes they've been going at it.

"Do it again, hit me like you mean it."

With only slight hesitation, mostly checking if Canary would disallow it, the clone obliged. Not even caring to look over to Canary or the others for permission any longer, Conner lunged forward again. With rage still burning in his eyes, his resolution only grew with every hit he landed on the undead boy. The lack of any sign of hurt or injury, the same cocky grin on constant display, fueled him more than anything before.

Without even noticing it, Phantom started speeding up the attacks, making sure Conner could still follow and hone in his reaction speeds. It took more than a handful of annoyingly placed hits but Conner started catching up once again. Before too long, he even started picking up the pace by himself, no longer needing to be subtly guided by Phantom.

"Robin, quit watching. This is also your training time, not just theirs." Canary called over her shoulder, sparing them a glare as she watched Phantom and Conner's spar. Her divided attention didn't last long as she got dragged back to whatever Artemis was doing. With a roll of his eyes, Robin thew out another few batarangs, giving Phantom a subtle signal to switch gears and let the real fun start.

They didn't stop until Phantom just froze suddenly, going intangible to let Conner's fist pass through him. Not expecting the use of powers, Conner lost his balance and stumbled through the boy. Confusion written all across his face, he turned back only to see Robin had joined Phantom on the field.

"See," Robin smirked, matching Phantom's grin as the ghost continued. "Told ya you could do more." Following the unspoken prompt, Robin stepped further away again, circling Conner like he was prey as Phantom slid back into position. Had it not been for them speaking out loud, it would have been near impossible to tell which one of them spoke as they kept pulling Conner's attention in every direction.

"Now again, but use human strength on Robin." Phantom challenged, voice laced with unspoken glee as Conner got into position. Not waiting for him to make the first move, Phantom charged in this time. Going right for his footing, Phantom went low as Robin came at him from above.

Reversing the rules of keep away, the two kept making jabs at Conner, confusing him until the clone's brain caught on enough to counter them without fearing injuries.

Phantom kept his main focus, able to easily keep up with the heightened speed of the reflexes they were training. He didn't even care if he had to take a few hits, if anything, he was learning more from it than Conner was. Conner spotted openings and reacting in ways so unlike Robin would, Phantom too started figuring out how to counter it.

Whoever said pissing off a Kryptonian into a proper fist fight couldn't be mutually beneficial.

Though Phantom stuck by Robin's side when the bird went in for an attack, just in case intangibility was needed, they soon figured out Conner was quite a fast learner. Knowing Phantom's guess about the clone's abilities was correct made them even more sure they could trust Conner's instincts and separate more to really push him into focusing.

Flash wasn't the only super speeding hero in the League. Superman himself was insanely fast as well. Though many overlooked it due to Flash existing, Conner should have inherited those base sets as well if he had the strength to match. What ordinary people didn't know was that going that fast as often as heroes do takes a toll on the body. The only reason it isn't more known is because speedsters have their healing factors and well Clark has his invulnerability. Since Conner has the strength part, and is quite a sturdy young man, one would think he had the reflexes part down as well.

And down he had them. Though he was far from being able to go toe to toe with Wally just yet, it proved more than enough.

By some galactic miracle, or Clockwork messing with their perception of time, it felt like their game of reversed keep away was taking both an enjoyable eternity and still over too soon. Pushing too far, right off the bat, would do nobody any good. Thinking of all of their safety before any of them slipped up, it took a combined effort to slow down enough to eventually come to a natural pause.

Conner looked actually entertained for once. His usual ever-present scowl replaced by a hesitant smile. Robin and Phantom were a lot more openly enjoying it, not even caring how wild either of them looked as their hair stuck to their foreheads. Well mostly Phantom's as his was longer.

Conner looked at the pair, eying them running their hands through their hair. Wet spikes stuck up wildly as they softly giggled at each other's porcupine heads. Blinking his eyes closed, he was surprised by the drop of sweat that made it past his eyebrows. Running a hand over his own forehead, the clone was confused on how the moisture even got there as he had never even broken a sweat during training before.

His previous half-smile faded slightly, now wet eyebrows scrunching in confusion as he tried to figure out what exactly went different this time that he actually felt like he had a workout. Like he accomplished something.

Phantom's silent giggles stilled as he watched Conner's expression drift further from relaxed enjoyment to hard confusion. Walking a bit closer, he carefully approached the clone. "Superboy?" Head leaning to the side so far he'd almost topple over, he tried to look up at Conner's face.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked softly, knowing his question wasn't reaching the clone's super hearing. Growing mildly concerned at potentially having done something wrong, Phantom made the, albeit reckless, decision to get into arms reach without a clear directive. "Do you..." He trailed off, not sure if he was just seeing things or not. "Do you need a hug?" Placing a delicate hand on the clone's forearm, Phantom searched for eye contact with a conscious behind it. "You look like you need a hug." He added softly, as if saying it too loud would shatter the delicate state the clone found himself in.

Conner barely moved. The only sign he even heard the ghost talk to him was his changed focus between the hand on his arm and the boy in front of him.

Did he need a hug?

He barely even knew what it was that he was feeling. Adrenaline still rushed through his veins, heart pounding in his chest with energy that begged to be released. Yet, at the same time, his mind was so...calm. Serene almost.

Conner didn't visibly move but Phantom wouldn't be who he was if he couldn't sense the shift in the air. Taking the initiative, he carefully closed the gap between them. Floating up high enough to reach, he wrapped his arms around Conner's neck. He floated there, somewhat awkwardly, waiting for Conner to give any sign of stopping or staying. Hoping it would help, he added a bit more strength to it. Rather than just hanging there like a feather, he made sure the clone could feel the pressure push down on his overly tensed muscles.

He only had to wait a few breaths before he felt Conner's arms tentatively wrap around his middle. Carefully, as if he was reaching out into the unknown, strong arms snaked their way all around him. With Conner being that much bigger than Phantom was, there was a lot more arm than boy to go around of.

Not that it stopped either of them.

With his hold on the clone's neck, Phantom could feel his muscles slowly release. The more relaxed Conner became, the more Phantom could feel their embrace tighten. Seeing how far he could push it, he laid his head down on the clone's shoulder.

Barely a breath after, Conner followed suit, forehead buried in Phantom's barely there shoulder.

Phantom nuzzled in, not even caring that the pressure around his torso was slowly building to where he couldn't expand his lungs without intangibility. They already figured out he really doesn't have to breathe, so no harm done. And by the feel of it, Conner needed this more than Phantom's lungs needed oxygen.

Unfortunately, his bones had another idea.

A deafening series of rapid fire cracks filled the room. Everybody froze, staring up at Conner holding a backwards folded Phantom. Panic flooded the mindlink as M'gann subconsciously tried to reach out and check up on Phantom. Tension skyrocketed as she received no reaction to the mental prodding of the boy imitating a broken flip phone.

Most disturbingly of all, Robin looked like he'd have stars twinkling in his eyes with how delighted he looked.

"Oh ancients." They heard Phantom's breathy groan, finally showing a sign of life. Or rather, undeath. "That felt good." He dragged out, stretching even further to the point his hands and feet were nearly touching.

Before anybody could even comprehend what happened, Robin was halfway climbing up Conner's arm. Jabbing his finger in the teen's bicep, his tone betrayed his age once more as he begged. "ME NEXT, ME NEXT!"

"Absolutely not!" Black Canary finally stepped in, forcefully pulling Conner and the two boys apart, grabbing both bats by the wrist as she checked them all for injuries. Fighting to keep her expression schooled, her worrying did nothing to hide how stressed she really was. If anything happened to the kids during her training session, her supervision time, her colleagues would have her head for it.

She couldn't fault anybody but herself for it either. Too focused on making sure not-quite-her girl was safe, she fully dismissed the potential danger of pitting Phantom and Superboy against each other without keeping a proper eye on them. Danger she should have been more than aware of given everything that happened the past few weeks.

Maybe she should have taken Oliver up on the offer to help with the training supervision, knowing it was going to be a split operation.

"What were you even thinking!" She chastised, grip tightening on the boys' wrists as she not so unintentionally dragged them away from Conner. Receiving nothing but stone cold looks from the boys, she couldn't stop herself from continuing on. "Who am I kidding. Clearly you weren't thinking or you wouldn't have ignored this was a training session."

As if none of the others existed in her mind anymore, Canary fully put her focus on the two boys in front of her for the first time since they entered the room. "You are both ranged, could have stayed at a safe distance with ease. There was absolutely no need to put yourselves in such a position."

She focused in on each of them, starting with Robin as she made contact with masked eyes. "I already told you to get in there too, to train instead of just watch." Keep Phantom contained, they knew she wanted to add before turning her wrath to said ghost. "What part of a powered training session did you miss? You out of everybody here should have had the easiest time keeping your distance and actually train against the others." The quiet insinuation Phantom should have had no problem turning his powers on his allies went unsaid. The bitterness of her silent message still dirtying up the taste in the air.

Having had enough of her ranting and death grip on his already upset arm, Phantom reached over to Robin, managing to brush against his cape before Canary pulled them apart. That second of contact was all they needed for intangibility to transfer over as they yanked their wrists free.

Robin glared up at the Leaguer, seething harder than Batman whenever somebody insulted his kids. Years of working together, years of trusting him in the field more than she did her own sidekicks and colleagues. Down the drain they went. He didn't hold back from rolling his wrist, giving it a soft massage through the glove as it audibly cracked.

The sound broke Canary out of her tangent, not like it could save her now.

Phantom matched Robin's glare, only his was palpable as the air seemed to nearly freeze in place. The green glow behind his mask intensified at the amplified echoing of complaining joints. Phantom clutched his wrist closer, hating how her grip agitated his scars and shifted the cooling pads under his glove. "We were." He gritted through his teeth, though he was barely old enough for puberty, his voice still reverberated through the ever thickening tension. "It's not our fault you weren't paying attention."

Canary fought to not visibly sputter as she rapidly blinked at the open call out in front of the team. "I-I was paying attention! You weren't using any of your known powers." She tried to defend herself, feeling the eyes of 7 kids on her.

Training to stay calm under intense pressure seemed to evaporate the second it were her down kids causing the pressure to be there in the first place. Pressure that made her nearly expose what this training session had really been about.

Phantom scoffed, shoulders slacking as he shifted his weight to one leg to lean obnoxiously far. With an audible crack to match Robin's, Phantom's ear and shoulder nearly made contact as his head fell to the side. "What use does me using those powers have for training? I already have them under good enough control."

He looked over every single one of his so called team members before finally landing on Conner. "Conner is barely a blip on my danger radar and I was always close enough to pull Robin into intangibility should it be needed. No offence, big guy, but none of you could win even if you tried to go 5 to 1." Purposely leaving Robin out of the count, as he was the only one who stood a chance simply because his brother was quizzed on every one of his weaknesses. Routinely at that.

As predicted, the entire team took offence to facts once again.

Not like he was done with it.

"The only person currently present mildly capable of even going up against me in a spar is Robin and that would be if I go easy on him with no powers. The League wouldn't fare any better even if they tried with everything they got." It wasn't even a lie. He knew it, they knew it, time itself knew it.

Though, accepting it, that was a whole 'nother mess.

Phantom waited, palms to the ceiling as he invited anybody to give it an honest shot, to prove him wrong. Comically, it seemed like none of them were willing to embarrass themselves today. Or perhaps just unwilling to fall into such an easy trap with a 'superior' League member present.

Either way, it wasn't him who looked weak.

"I know how to fight with powers," he stated, not even caring how cocky and downright obnoxious he sounded as he went on with his unrefuted monologue. "What I don't know is hand to hand. The point of training is to improve our weak points, is it not?" He challenged, looking directly at Canary as she had yet to move even an inch.

"It is." She supplied cautiously, shifting in a passively defensive stance should it escalate any more. "But as I said before, this is a powered training. Either use them or sit out." Clearly nobody had given her the memo that giving either of the batbrats an ultimatum was a horrible idea. Though what the point of a powered training without actually going all out was, was beyond them. There was no incentive to improve and adapt if there was no actual risk other than some temporary humiliation when the system called out a fail.

Conner's lack of actual training should have said enough, but it seemed like there was nobody willing to listen.

Nobody except one currently very bratty ghost.

With half a smirk, half a scoff, Phantom shrugged. "Then you do it." At the lack of response, he continued, "Go powered and prove me wrong." If the air wasn't thick with tension before, they were breathing in molasses now.

The sheer overconfidence it had to take to challenge ones own combat teacher, somebody who won spars against Conner of all team members, no less. Even more insane to the rest, he essentially asked her to turn her own cry against him. A power he had been so oddly interested in not too long ago.

Canary squinted, not letting herself drop to a full on glare as she looked at the smug child before her. She knew well enough he was baiting her, wanting to make a point in front of the team that would irreparably damage her authority as their teacher. "I would never use my cry against a child." She questioned every word she said as Phantom's smugness intensified enough she could feel it push her down.

"And yet you expect us to do so without a second thought."

Canary hated how even with being as careful as she thought she was, she still walked right into the trap the boy had oh so cleverly set.

"You aren't my mentor nor in charge of my training." Phantom sauntered over to the edge of the training room, crafting a comfy beanbag out of snow. "The only use you have is mandatory team training and even that is going ass because you won't let me train what I need to improve on." Not seeing the point in 'training' if he couldn't do what was necessary, he simply opted out.

Because that was definitely gonna go over well with the cat and bat back home.

Oh well, issues for later.

Getting situated on his chill seating, he pulled out the tablet he had not so casually hidden between his ribs before they left. "Ancients it's like I'm in a zoo but on the wrong side." Feeling even more like some malicious compliance should be in order, he let himself turn fully invisible, leaving his snowbag and tablet visible on purpose.

They wanted to see him use his powers? Complain when they failed to gauge what he could do? Well who was he to deny them a show of just how invisible he could be if he wanted.

If anybody would dare claim it was also so he could hide himself cringing at the corrections Selina sent through from his papers he made earlier, no it wasn't.

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