no warnings (i think? possibly tba if i get told to do so)

songs used:

Peter Pan's Following The Leader (only the first bit, F the rest)

Dominum : Dead Dont Die

november 5

Before anybody could even ask or comment on the least wanted presence in the link, the doors to the gym burst open with a cacophony of a child choir. Pulling the attention of every single person in the building, Phantom led the group inside as the children chanted behind him. "Following the leader, the leader, the leader. We're following the leader, wherever he may go."

The group of heroes watched on in a mix of confusion and awe as a group of kids slowly filtered in. Humming along as he led them inside, Phantom didn't even have his eyes open as he waved his icy baton around.

Artemis recognized the teen all the way at the back of the group as the one who went with Phantom before they split up. He was pushing another, very frail looking, child's wheelchair with a soft smile on his face. Taking a closer look at the group Phantom dragged along, they weren't the only one with mobility aids.

"Special needs afterschool care kids acquired." Phantom's voice hummed over the link, smile making it into their minds as he kept playing with the children. "Luke knows the couple that runs a babysitting gig in their apartment. He's more than capable of keeping an eye on them all, if we can get another person to help out." He sounded very casual, not even questioning why a teen would know how to care for high support needs children.

Oh the joys of the real world.

It was a reality check for everybody. No matter how hard they fought to protect everybody, gave up their childhood so others could live theirs. Sometimes, not every hero fights evil. Some just step up when their help is needed.

"Uncle Luke, can we play more with uncle Phantom?" One of the kids in the group asked the teen. Luke looked over to Phantom who tried his best to not make it obvious he was looking at the rest of the team.

"Uncle?"

Phantom was no fool. He knew pushing anything meant there'd be more issues to not-live through. Issues he'd very much like to avoid for the time being. He might not have Bruce or Dick's compartmentalizing skills down just yet, but he was still a master at avoidance. Same difference if you asked him.

Taking initiative beyond silently seething, Zatanna walked over and started helping out with the kids. "I'm sure he won't mind taking a little break for you cuties." She smiled as she shoulder bumped Phantom. "M'gann, any word on when your classmates will be back? We can't stay here the entire night."

As the group finally split up to go help other groups of kids and young teens, M'gann checked her phone to text Karen as she looked for where Malcom had wandered off to. "They're still 15 minutes out, another group of 7 kids but they're a bit older so should be fine." She updated before finding her own group of kids to pair up with older ones before they had to leave.

It was going relatively fine, everybody taking a short break from going out onto the streets and just spending time with the people they were there to protect.

That was, until Phantom and Zatanna's group of kids overheard Artemis messing up some standard nursery rhymes Phantom couldn't even remember the name of. English songs were never his favorite so it took until their little gaggle burst out in giggles for him to realize something was off in the first place.

Artemis tried to laugh it off, hiding her embarrassment of messing up something as silly as a kids song.

"Artemis, are you-"

"I'm fine." She snapped at Wally, fake smile plastered over her shame. "It's just been a while, can't remember the words." She curled in on herself just a tiny bit. Not enough for the kids to notice but more than enough for Phantom to pick up on the shift.

"Hey," calling out, he grabbed the children's attention once again, pulling the focus off of Artemis. "Nothing wrong with changing some words around. The normal songs are so boring anyway." He joked, tickling the kid in closest arm reach to make sure all of them were watching him now.

"Ppft, like you could do better than a classic." Luke joked as more kids from other groups stumbled over to watch the commotion unfold.

Feeling up for the challenge, Phantom grinned a bit too wide as he motioned for everybody to sit down. Clearing his throat in an overdramatized way, he leaned in. Using just the minimal amount of ice he could, he let the temperature around him lower just a little. As planned, it got the kids to huddle together on instinct. Even Zatanna sat between the kids, being a support for them to lean onto.

Like he was preparing to tell a scary story over the campfire, he made a silly camp-ice for the center of their impromptu song circle. "Hush little baby don't be sad, this is the tale of the living dead." He started off, soft giggles already popping up as he continued changing the lyrics. "I'm gonna make it a lullaby. Don't be scared, no the dead don't die."

He poked a kid's nose, smiling through a laugh as the kid's star filled eyes lit up the longer he went on. It felt good, being around people again who don't look at him with pure hatred or simple indifference in their eyes. "Hush little angel close your eyes. Dream up a world of a million lives." He created a little galaxy above their group, prompting the littlest to try and catch the icy stars twinkling above them. "Don't be afraid of what waits ahead, you have been chosen to wave our flag." Summoning up an ice stick, he attached a flowing flag with ecto to it. Passing it out to one of the kids as they excitedly ran around with it as a little horde chased them.

He stopped there, calling out how easy it was to change lyrics as the kids erupted in demands for more. Watching the chaos unfold before him, he remembered that this is what it used to feel like. His first few days in Amity. Back before the hate started, before rumors and everything else followed suit. He was just another kid, and then he became a hero and got to experience those fleeting moments once again before the cycle repeated itself. Before...

He didn't want to think about what happened after, he just wanted to burn this very moment into his brain until the day he ceases to exist. Awkwardly he ran a hand through his hair, unseen pressure trying to make itself known once again. Luckily for him, a kid's need for answers dragged him out of it before he could get too far into the dark once more.

Catching the stumbling little, the boy looked up at him with gapped teeth. "Why do you look like Robin?" The boy nearly poked his eye as he pointed at Phantom. Ignoring the sudden very intense stares from his teammates, Phantom floated up a little so he could get the boy to sit down again.

"Well," he chuckled, "He's my brother." Cleaning in closer and making sure to look around animatedly, he brought a hand up to his mouth before stage-whispering. "But that's a secret." The boy giggled as another one popped up and leaned onto the first boy's shoulder for support.

"Then why did we never see you before?" In all his childlike glory, the boy still managed to sound curious and accusatory at the same time.

Phantom's hand found its way to the back of his neck as he glanced over to Zatanna. With an encouraging thumps up, Phantom shrugged. "He likes being in the spotlight a whole lot more than me." A soft smile ghosted over his lips as he looked up at the little icy night sky he had made. "I just like being useful and helping others."

Nearly tripping as he tried to sit down, Phantom guided him down. "Is that why Catwoman is being good now?" He pointed towards Phantom's chest clasps. Fighting the wave of pride that swelled up in his chest, he nodded, not trusting his voice. He'd have to remember to tell Selina her shift in alliances had already been noted outside of Gotham.

Before he could try and muster up a verbal response, a little girl nearly threw herself at him as she weaved between the horde of kids. "Are you-" she nearly fell, forcing Phantom to catch his third child of the hour. "Are you Jack Frost?!" She asked with such sincerity that he couldn't bring himself to laugh at the silly question.

Helping her settle as well, he had no choice but to let her sit on his lap as he had run out of room around him. "No, I'm not." He chuckled softly as he made sure she sat comfortably. "But I am good friends with him." A devilish smirk broke from his mouth, the only warning that he was up to some fooling around once more. "He taught me how to make the bunny, you wanna see?"

The gaggle of children burst out into squees of joy as Danny imitated the movie scene and created an ice bunny. It took a lot more concentration than he liked but he got the movements down to as lifelike as he could. Perhaps with more practice he could avoid having daggers stared at the back of his skull as the mind link flooded with alarm that quickly turned into annoyance.

Good to know they were still keeping an eye on him even though he was doing nothing wrong. So much trust you could choke on it.

"Phantom?" He craned his neck backwards to see whose semi familiar voice called out to him. Hearing a few ew's from disturbed onlookers, he let himself become intangible. Sinking through the floor so the girl in his lap would sit safely, he floated back up a few feet further.

"Hey Jessie, is this your friend?" He asked the girl Artemis brought back. She looked a lot more at ease with her friend next to her. The same couldn't be said for her friend however, as the poor girl was holding her bunny plush in a death throttle.

Jessie beamed up, elated to be remembered after only a few minutes of having talked before. "Yeah!" She proudly held up her plush before using it to gesture to her friend. "This is Sir Quackmeo, that's Lopsi and that's Tammy."

Phantom leaned his elbow onto his knee as he smiled up at the pair. "Well, nice meeting you, Tammy." He reached out to shake the bunny's paw, dragging out a shy giggle from the nervous girl.

"I'm Tammy." Though mumbled, Phantom could still perfectly understand her. The few benefits of having superhearing, not making shy kids repeat themselves.

Pulling out the silliest of shocked faces, Phantom patted his cheek before apologizing. "Oh my, how silly of me. It's an absolute pleasure to meet you, human Tammy." He added an extra wink, rewarded with the first smile he managed to get from the little girl. An absolute win in his book.

Phantom waited for either of them to talk again, having a feeling he wasn't called over just to be introduced to a friend. Jessie also seemed to wait, focus on Tammy as she kept fidgeting with the poor plush in her hands.

Receiving a shove to the shoulder after making them wait a bit too long for the impatient 5 year old, Tammy finally mustered up the courage to take out her flower hairclip. "My mommy said when people die, you give them flowers." She started out, tiny fingers tracing over the purple petals. "Daddy always says 'Samantha, if somebody helps you, you need to say thank you.'" She acted out as gruff of a voice as her voice allowed.

Phantom felt his body freeze over, the air around him dropping a few degrees as the girls shivered at the change. He barely reacted as the girl in front of him held out the hairclip as an obvious gift. He only managed to force his body to function enough to accept the hairclip after doubt crept onto Tammy's face. Not wanting to disappoint the little girl, he held onto the plastic flower with great care.

It seemed the two girls noticed the shift in his demeanor, growing mildly uncomfortable as well. "Did I do something wrong?" Tammy asked, voice coming out small and weak.

Phantom tried to blink away the blur of tears forming in his eyes as he forced a smile. Pulling in the cold from around them, he tried his best to warm the area back up. "No, no, it's just...I thought your name was Tammy?"

Jessie looked between the two, trying to laugh off the tension. "No, silly. It's like me. But Sam is too boring so we picked Tammy as her new name." She looked over Tammy who, if she could, would sink through the floor just like Phantom had done a few moments earlier.

"Is my name bad?"

Phantom's head shot up, focused in on the girl before him. He held out his hand, motioning for them both to sit with him as he took a deep breath. "No, sweetie." He tried hard to stop his hands from shaking. "I-" He didn't actually know where to start explaining everything to these little kids.

"I had a friend called Samantha too, well she went by Sam but yeah. She would have loved your name choice." He managed a tiny yet genuine smile. "She was my best friend actually. It's because of her I became a hero. I'm just a little sad because I never got to say goodbye to her." It wasn't their responsibility nor were they old enough to fully grasp what was going on, but he felt like he owed them an explanation after stressing them out like that. "Purple was her favorite color too." He sad softly, staring down at the hairclip that laid in trembling hands.

Despite their age, it seemed like they understood enough. Reaching out for a hug, they leaned into it once he managed to wrap his arms around the pair as well. Giving everybody a moment to breathe, they took a moment before breaking apart again.

For the first time the entire night, Tammy initiated as she reached out for the hairclip in Phantom's hands. "For what it matters," Phantom leaned forward to help her reach his hair better, "I'm glad you became a hero. And I'm sure she would be proud of you." Putting the flower hairclip into his braid, Tammy looked up and smiled the biggest Phantom had seen all night.

Wiping away some of the tears that had formed on the girls' cheeks, undoubtably from what he just told them, Phantom created a little ice duck and ice bunny for the pair. "Hey now, no crying. Everything's gonna be okay."

Apparently that was entirely the wrong thing to say as the waterworks started the moment he handed over the ice figures. Startled by their sudden reaction, he was even more confused as he felt somebody grab his arm and drag him away from the pair.

Forcing his muscles to still, he let himself get dragged away without flooring whoever thought it was a great idea to put their hands on the only active hero in the entire room. After nearly tripping a handful of times, he finally managed to gain his footing as he was thrown into an impromptu circle of judgement by his supposed teammates.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Artemis asked angrily as she let go of his arm. Everybody except Zatanna and Conner were looking him with various levels of upset.

Well, Conner was staring at him like a hunter sizing up prey. "Who is Sam?"

"Who the fuck gives a shit. Why were you scaring the kids? As if this isn't hard enough already!" Wally interjected, not even bothering to keep his tone down for the onlookers. And onlookers they got after the spectacle his supposed senior heroes put up.

But what does he know, he's just an untrustworthy child anyway. "They're crying because they're little kids whose parents are fucking missing, that isn't my fucking fault. I'm just trying to keep them distracted." Not like they would listen to him, but it's hard to stay quiet when being accused of shit.

"Yeah, well, you could at least quit walking through stuff like it isn't there? What if they try to copy you and get hurt?!"

"I'm literally a ghost, that's what we do?" Did these people not know anything or were they just looking for excuses to blame him like usual?

Zatanna pushed her way between the 'senior' heroes, standing next to Phantom. "None of you say anything when M'gann flies or on Conner's hearing, yet somehow he gets shat on for existing."

"That's different." Artemis argued, crossing her arms over herself as she looked over her teammates for support.

Ah. Singling out it was.

"Sure it is." Zatanna countered sarcastically, losing what little faith she had in the archer. It was like what happened with Greta meant absolutely nothing to her when the rest of the team were near.

"We know how their powers work, can't say the same for Mr. Fake-thom over here." Wally sneered, shouldering past Artemis to look straight at the duo.

Phantom weakly glared back, hating how much attention was being brought to their group. Any louder and they wouldn't need superhearing to eavesdrop anymore. "I'm literally not hurting anybody, it's just a little bit of snow. If I wanted to hurt somebody, you'd know the difference."

"And how are we supposed to even believe that?"

"Is that a threat?" Conner asked suspiciously, eyes narrowing as he looked at the boy.

Phantom glared back at him, anger rising by the second. "Do you want it to be?" Luckily nobody dared go in on it, choosing to move over to their next point of discontent.

Artemis flanked Wally, making her, albeit unfortunate, alliance clear in this argument. "Robin and Bats have been hiding you even existed for who knows how long. Would you have told us if that accident didn't happen?"

Under the pressure of multiple glares and countless of eyes on him, Phantom couldn't even lift his head. Letting it hang in silence, he refused to answer.

Was there even an answer they would accept? One that wasn't a blatant lie? How was he supposed to know when he would have felt ready to come back to the spotlight had he not been violently thrusted into it. How long would it have taken for them to come clean to Bruce? Or would Bruce have done so for them to cut to the chase. Was he worthy of having people look up to him if he couldn't defend himself against valid criticism? Could he really call himself a hero?

Would Dick have put up with him as long as he already had, had he not gotten involved with the hero biz?

What a lovely thought that was to have.

Breaking away from their circular harassment, Phantom phased through the real heroes. His eyes stayed trained on the floor until two familiar pairs of shoes popped up. Lifting his head just enough to look up at Jessie and Tammy, he could see the worry in their eyes.

He tried to smile for them, tried to reassure them that everything would be okay, but he didn't trust his voice to do so. Creating a few icy blobs, he tried to ignore what happened and just go back to creating a little winter wonderland to distract everybody that was enjoying his disgracing.

He could softly hear Zatanna arguing with the others, probably defending him even if it was in vain. It felt nice, hearing at least somebody be on his side without having to. Sure, he never forced Bruce or Dick to defend him, but they're family, that's something else. Zatanna was an outsider for all they cared. It meant more than those who had unspoken obligations.

It was helping, especially since it was mostly just Zatanna, Wally and Artemis going at it with a few interjections of M'gann trying to calm them down. At least, until Wally's voice cut through his soul over the mind link. "If you want to play favorites do it outside of the team. We don't need a mistake like him corrupting our missions."

Phantom couldn't hold in the burst of anger that spiked. Anger at Wally for daring to say, or think, that. Anger at himself for giving rise to such opinions. Anger at not being good enough. Thinking quickly he channeled all the excess energy into his ice, shooting up a shard high enough that a good portion of the gym had a snow flurry twinkling down on them.

The reaction to it was instant. He could feel the alarm spike, the mind link doing nothing to hide the sudden alertness of the team, ready to attack him at a breath's notice.

Well, if that was what they thought of him.

Phantom got up, ignoring the cries of the kids around him. Against better judgement, he glanced at the team. They were hiding it rather well, but to a trained eye they were painfully obvious about their fighting stances. Scoffing, he turned to the door.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jessie and Tammy trying to catch up with him, sliding around on the freshly fallen snow. They almost reached him too, would have been able to hold him back and make him stay. Only if he hadn't gone intangible before he took to the skies of Happy Harbor. He didn't want them to see him like this, to bare witness to bullshit he didn't even deserve. They believed in him, and he didn't want to be an even bigger disappointment than he already was.