November 14, afternoon

"Of course you're the fuck who makes my throat feel like I smoked a pack a day for 70 years." Phantom complained as his breath swirled in the air, once again unspoken history between the boy and new arrival sparking intrigue across the board. And unease given the blaster trained at their youngest. The only thing holding them back being Phantom's apparent ease at the threat.

Which in and of itself raised more questions than could be asked, but that was a problem for another time.

"I have waited far too long for this, brat." Skulker sneered, calmly approaching as he held Phantom at gunpoint, screen propped up on his arm as he scanned Phantom's body. "I see the rumors were true, you have grown stronger. Perhaps I'll keep you as a pet before having your pelt decorate my wall." Studded teeth shone under the lights of the training room as he settled on the ground with a weighted clank. His step heavy on the glass paneling.

A shudder ran down Phantom's spine at the mention of his pelt, a strange nostalgia he didn't know how to place warming his insides. "Dude, when will you stop saying that. It's gross."

"When that mouth of yours has finally been sown shut so I do not need to hear your incessant yapping every time we cross paths."

"Wouldn't that count as taxidermy then? Rather than just mounting my pelt? Or is that just a subset..." It wasn't clear if that was another taunt or a genuine question. Either way, it did its job at ticking another of the metallic ghost's nerves. "Plus, you're the one who crossed my path, so really, you asked for it."

Skulker didn't quite enjoy the snark. Reaching his limit, he fired off ghost-proof netting at the boy who had forgotten the stupid glowy ones were anti-intangibility. With a yelp he was shot backwards, a lot less entertained than he was before as he got himself tangled up in the damn thing.

The shift was noted by the onlooking heroes, falling into more defensive stances as they waited for any sign on what to do. Canary signaled to wait, not even sure what would work as Phantom hadn't particularly volunteered anti-ghost plans.

Robin ignored the signal, shooting off baterang to slice through the netting trapping his brother.

"Stay out of my hunt, lord kin. As interesting of a specimen as you are, I know where my priorities lay." Skulker glared over his shoulder, his smile morphing to a sneer while still holding space for some half-imagined respect. Most complicated of a look than he had ever read, and that came from the person who grew up socializing Batman and learning his tells. "Perhaps I could raise your value by speeding up the natural process, though I see no need for a copy."

A loud pop pulled the attention back to Phantom as he forced his shoulder back into its socket. "I don't care what you say about me, but you do not talk to him that way." Green spread out around his shoulder, glowing brighter for a moment before fading once more.

Skulker turned back to his pray, nonchalant shrug to pair with his casual smile. "What can I say, I prefer originals." Confusion grew behind the metallic ghost, but he didn't care for trivial human things like that.

Pushing himself up from the ground, he grinned crazily as he tapped away at his wrist computer, like his arm wasn't just injured to begin with. "Okay you soon-to-be mangled scrap-metal bastard. You want to come in here, interrupt the useless training and get on my nerves? Fine, have it your way." The training simulator sprung to life under their feet, a new ID made just for the aforementioned scrap-metal bastard to track who won. "You get the honor of being my real training." Cracking his joints, Phantom's playful aura shifted into something that reminded them a bit too much of that night.

Not moving from their spots, Phantom looked at them as he kept an eye on Skulker's manic grinning self as well. "Inside or outside the shield, it's your choice but it's not our responsibility if you fail to dodge." Lowering a decently sized dome, he allowed for more than enough airspace for himself, the border licking the edge of the training area.

Being the first to show any sign of a choice made, Robin stood firm, arms crossed as he refused to leave his brother alone with the new ghost. Zatanna and Conner also stayed still as Canary, Artemis and M'gann existed the dome. Taking a moment longer to decide, Kaldur stepped out as well while Wally remained by Robin's side.

Letting the protective barrier form completely, Phantom focused in on Skulker. "Well?" He cockily held his arms open, daring Skulker to make the first move. "I may be rusty, but I'm sure you have more than enough personal experience with that."

Just that remark alone got him a blast to the head. Setting off in their battle, old habits quickly resurfaced. Regular taunts and missiles in return were exchanged like casual pleasantries when normal people caught up with an old friend.

At least, until a certain bias for the rockets seemed to stand out a bit too much. Having a few scratches each, Phantom looked notably worse for wear compared to the compact look of the hunter. Putting out a few embers on his shoulder, Phantom's cheeks puffed out as he glared at Skulker. "Hey, what do you have against my suit?!"

"The cape looks stupid." Came the monotone answer, an extra missile targeting the fabric just to prove a point.

"The cape is comfy!" Wrapping himself in the offending garment, Phantom pointed an accusatory finger at the man. "You know what, I'm not trusting your fashion advice. I'll ask Bambi when she visits. How's she been, by the way?" and just like that, the apparent hostility went back to familiar Gotham branded regular banter as Skulker updated Phantom on this Ember person.

To anybody watching, it was anything but clear if they were actually fighting or just...talking a bit more aggressively than most. Even to Robin this was a whole new level of bantering with rogues. Even with Harley he had to keep on his toes, but his brother seemed to be playing more than anything. He could tell Skulker wasn't going in all too serious. Come to think about it, neither was Box Ghost. Unless one counted an empty tub to the head as violence, but that was a stretch for where they usually put the bar.

Was this what Frostbite meant when his brother chose to stay a few weeks ago? He had quite genuinely expected the offers to spar to be more...not this. He didn't know what this really was, but it did look fun. They even got to participate a little as Phantom wasn't joking about the need to dodge. Keeping track of every blast, missile and discarded piece of gear in such a small arena was unmanageable. At least if they wanted to actually focus on the fight and not nitpick the collateral.

There was a dome for a reason. They chose to be here and passively participate in...again, whatever this was.

Dodging a particularly nasty looking missile, Phantom hovered low. Quickly scanning over his audience, he was happy to note nobody had gotten hurt yet. Yet being the keyword as all they were doing now was testing endurance and that was something Phantom was surely to lose in his current state.

Locking eyes with Kaldur for just a moment, an idea popped into Phantom's head. Taking the risk, he closed his eyes to focus. Focus on the feeling of ecto flowing through his body and shaping his being. Focus on what he wanted to make as a sword slowly materialized in his hand.

With his newly acquired weapon, Phantom charged in. Ready to duel the blade wielding ghost with his own. Except, in his overconfidence, he had forgotten one thing.

Skulker's blades were retractable.

Where he had charged at the other's blade, now stood a hand waiting to grab onto him. Dropping the sword as he felt it loose its stability, he was glad he did as it melted to goop before it even hit the ground. Clamoring onto the hand holding him by the neck, his mind raced with ways to escape.

"A brave attempt, I must admit." Skulker condescended looked down on him, his own pride radiating off of himself like his stupid flaming goatee. "But an attempt at best. You will do just fine surviving in a cag-"

Slamming his head into Skulker's metal one, Phantom managed two things. Get the ghost to release him, and give himself a lovely headache. Rubbing at the forming bruise, he grumbled up at Skulker. "Did you change alloys or something? That hurt." Sure it would have hurt either way, but this was a slightly bigger pain than he remembered Skulker to be.

The hunter beamed, quite literally as his enflamed hair grew more vivid. "A keen eye, or should I say head you have, ghost child. My new carbon steel coating will take more than some squishy meat structures to damage me."

Eyeing the armor for any show of wear and tear, something caught Phantom's attention. "Chiiill." He dragged out, confidence growing as the throbbing in his head dulled from adrenaline. "Let's test out how cool it can get." With barely any warning, Phantom shot ice out at the hunter. Not thinking to dodge this previously unknown power of his, Skulker confidently took it straight to the chest.

A mistake he quickly came to regret as warnings popped up the moment he did.

"You're not the only one with some new upgrades, Skulky." Smiling to himself, Phantom made a dagger, one incased in ice this time as the hunter desperately tried to heat up the weakened chest plating.

Using the distraction to his advantage, Phantom charged in, dagger in hand and ready to pierce the weld line hidden under the choker Skulker insisted on wearing. Only when he was sure it was properly lodged in there did he dissipate the ice and fly as far as he could manage. The excitement of his successful attack triggering the secondary attack he had planned for.

In an instant, the ecto in the dagger destabilized. Collapsing in on itself, it bubbled out of control before finally going out with a bang.

A bang just big enough to get Skulker's head clattering to the floor as Phantom heard a chorus of badly concealed gasps. Not that he cared. Whooping as he descended, he let the protective dome fall as the head rolled to the edge of the platform while the main body crashed to the ground.

"Oh I think I'm gonna be sick." Artemis muttered as she looked away from the now flameless head laying there. Canary, Kaldur and Wally looked on in varying levels of hidden disgust. Disapproval clear on their faces but unwilling to voice them out loud. Beheading one's opponent in a spar went beyond what any training regimen would call for.

Robin, on the other hand, approached where his brother was poking at the body. "Okay, you actually made a lot of good impro-HA!" Laughter spilled out of Phantom as he found the opening plate for the inner workings. "Did you seriously use carbon fiber tri-weave for your clothes? Seriously, did you steal that from dad's old suits or something?" Inspecting the garments for himself, Robin noted it did seem very similar to Batsuits from nearly a decade ago. What an interesting way to date a ghost's creation, interesting enough to mentally file into his list of ghost things nobody thinks to inform them of.

"Laughing over his corpse is a bit much." Conner blankly stared at the two boys prodding and poking the main body. Perturbed by their casualness as Phantom went on as if he hadn't just decapitated his own rogue. Or old acquaintance? Even that wasn't clear, but when was anything when it came to ghosts. Not even Kaldur could feel a sense of pride at Phantom successfully utilizing his new skill.

"Hey, can we keep the suit?" Phantom called out, not even bothering to look up as he and Robin were elbow deep into the inner workings of the torso. "Not like you need it anymore."

Canary looked like she was about to snap, the level of perceived disrespect to a slain rogue going over her limit of what she had mentally prepared for. Being with this batch of kids was not for the faint hearted, but even her own preparations had limits. The temptation to call in an emergency League meeting bubbled to the forefront of her mind as only little could be ignored about the robotic dismemberment happening right before her.

Another loud shriek echoed in the hall as the head started moving on its own. Wiggling out of the neck, feet first, was a pint sized blob. Well, blob with arms and legs as it started stomping over to Phantom, gesturing as wildly as its tiny body allowed. "And you dare accuse me of disliking your suit!" The high pitched string of profanities was even more unexpected as they watched on in utter befuddlement.

"Hey, you're the one who started it." Phantom argued back, holding a wire he pulled out from Robin knows where.

"Plus it's pretty cool tech. Not everything here is in the files we got. Could make some useful stuff out of it." Robin added on, intrigue going over whatever queasy feeling the previous few minutes left behind as Wally wandered closer to inspect it for himself. As morbid as it was, Robin had a point. There was a lot of stuff he had never seen before not could figure out.

Finally arriving at the remainder of his suit, the blob they presumed to be Skulker climbed atop. "I swear, welp, one day it will be me standing over your remains and inspecting them for my own pleasure!" Without his suit of armor, it instantly sounded a lot less intimidating as it did the first time.

That would explain why Phantom was so calm earlier...

"Yeah, yeah, whatever dude. Just disarm your safeties so we don't blow this place up." Phantom dismissed as he stuck his head inside to get a better look at whatever he was messing with. Skulker's deadpanned look at Robin prompted the boy to pull his brother out of the suit again so the defeated hunter could actually disarm the safeties as asked.

While Skulker worked to disarm everything, Phantom ever so innocently looked up at Canary. The smugness hiding under the surface still visible as he knew she just got a taste for what she had been trying to get him to do in almost every training session, use his powers. And even then, he barely did anything of note beyond his newfound exploding objects ability. But that was just an existing problem in a different wrapper, so did that really count.

With some more grumbling, Skulker finally finished up the extensive safety protocol and got ready to leave. "SAY HI TO TECHNUS FOR ME!" Phantom shouted as he waved the disgruntled ghost goodbye. Sobering just slightly, he turned to Black Canary once again. "Hey, is training over?"

Multiple sets of eyes landed on the blonde. Even though Phantom was technically the only one who actually trained in the physical sense, the mental exhaustion of watching...whatever that was, was palpable to all. "I-" she stammered, "Yeah. Everybody's dismissed for today." Pinching the bridge of her nose, she tried not to watch on as Robin and Phantom maneuvered the colossal body onto their backs as they started making their way over to the Zetas.

Turning to leave as well, she was surprised that none of the others had left.

From the look on their faces, she could tell this wasn't a planned thing. They had each decided to stay behind for their own reason. Grouping back together, she didn't know if she'd have to prompt them into speaking, or let them finish whatever mental discussion they were having before addressing her.

"We wish to ask guidance in a choice we have to make." Kaldur spoke for the team, leading the conversation out loud as some final remarks were made mentally. "We...understand, that it is our choice to elect leaders. While this had been rather unanimous in the past, we are failing to reach a verdict at the moment."

Canary eyed the team. Kaldur looked mildly uncomfortable bringing up the topic, while others looked like they had finally won a long standing argument. If she'd have to wager a guess, Kaldur's stance screamed how against it he really was.

Not that it stopped Conner from barging through that comfortable silence. "Is there a limit on how many leaders we can have?" When his question was met with confused silence, he quickly added on, "The League has Batman, Superman and WonderWoman. Can we have more too?" It had taken him a long while, and a lot of sessions with Canary, but Conner was starting to see things a bit more clearly.

He had been wrong to assume Phantom wanted to be a new Superman. To replace what he was made to be. Hell, he didn't even know if he had it in him to be the new Superman, or well their version of Superman. No, that role already went to Kal. He was the morals guy, the one to speak for them in group settings.

Robin was Batman, the strategist, the one who knew how to work a mission to get them to where they had to go. He'd proven that more times than Conner was weeks alive.

And Phantom? He was their WonderWoman. The interdimensional diplomat. The highest ranking in social status, the royalty, the god. Without him, they'd be toast against ghosts and other beings like them. Hell, he just proved it twice over with his old...friends? Rogues? Visiting over the weekend. Had they have to go up against Skulker, even in a spar, they wouldn't have fared even half as well as he did. Not to mention that whole thing with Klarion and Nabu.

Dinah blinked, not quite sure if she understood where this was going. "The League is also a lot bigger than the team."

"But we only just started, and are still growing at a steady pace." Zatanna butt in this time, her loyalties already clear from the start and bias making the probable issue at hand more clear.

"That doesn't mean we can trust them the way the League trusts their big 3." Wally cut in, a broken record argument from the looks on other's faces.

"What isn't there to trust?" Artemis argued back. "Phantom hasn't lied to us once, Robin only did to protect Phantom. If anything, we are the ones not trustworthy. Or did you forget how we got into this mess in the first place?" Glaring at the ginger, it nearly looked like a fight would break out between the two.

Luckily M'gann chose to make herself be heard as well, pulling the attention away from what those two had going on. "We still don't even know if they're staying on the team." She glanced at Zatanna who had stubbornly refused to be their middle man and get info on what they were choosing. Sighing at the girl's hardheadedness, M'gann hugged herself close. "A lot has happened and I don't know if an offer like that would even make a difference now."

"So," Dinah mused, "To start off, yes, technically you can have more leaders. The team originally chose two. Since then 3 new members already joined and we are looking into more." Batman probably wouldn't mind her sharing that information with them. It would be silly to think the team would never grow beyond their original numbers and at the rate they were going, more than one leader might not be such a bad choice.

Conner looked quite pleased with that information too. A hopeful smile breaking the stress lines marking his face.

"But," and how she felt bad for ruining that hope, "being a leader has to come from both sides. You can't force either of them to take the role much like how they couldn't force it on any of you if you didn't agree with it." At that, Wally puffed his chest at Artemis, eliciting a sneer from the archer. "If you can't all be in agreement, I fear that's where this discussion already ends. Unless anybody has more to add?"

Looking between each other and the heroin helping them decide, it was clear they couldn't quite let it go. "How about everybody says their vote and reasoning. But objectively only, choices like this have no room for hurt feelings over personal things." Eyeing everyone's reactions to the proposition, it seemed like they wanted to, but nobody dared go first.

Zatanna sighed, raising her hand as she casted her vote. "Aye, to the both of them. They already took lead before, even without holding the role. It's formality at best."

Moving to stand next to her, Conner raised his hand as well. "Both, too. Robin has the most experience out of all of us and Phantom just...I don't know, he looks at problems a different way. Like there is more than just the obvious solution." Clicking his mouth shut before he rambled on in an attempt to be understood, he left the proverbial stage open for the next person to cast their vote. It wasn't like he could just blurt out he liked how Phantom helped him with his training or saw him as more than just muscle.

To nobody's surprise, Wally voted no, leaving his hand next to him. "At best only Robin should be reinstated. Phantom is too new and too inexperienced in how we work to be entrusted with leading a mission."

"But he won't be alone, Kal and Robin would-"

"Not always." Wally cut Zatanna off, her own inexperience with missions being a main reason he didn't let her finish. "We don't know what the future brings, if we lose another leader or we need to split up for whatever reason." The mention of losing a leader cut harder than he meant, especially for Kaldur as he still struggled to forgive himself for the choices he made in that doomed simulation.

Backing down from the argument, neither Wally nor Zatanna had anything objectively useful to add.

Much to the agreeing side's surprise, Kaldur also voted against. "They are too young. As experienced as Robin is, and as much as he has already grown since our initial vote, he and Phantom alike are just children. Moreso than we are." He quicky added at the unimpressed glances shot his way. "They deserve to live their youth without the pressure leadership would bring."

M'gann followed his lead, albeit partially, her hand following at chest height. Not quite as high as those who voted yes, but not a full no either. "It's not like we can't give them lead in the moment it would be needed." Like we did before wasn't necessary to say aloud, but the sentiment was felt. "They seem...happier, now. I don't want to take that away with things Kaldur can handle for now." M'gann didn't dare meet Conner's gaze, feeling bad for voting against him but genuinely having their best interest at heart.

"I don't know about you guys, but we're all inexperienced." Being the last to cast her vote, all eyes were on Artemis as the blonde slowly moved to stand beside Conner. "That's why we're a team, to lift each other up and bring the best out of each other. Phantom may be the newest, but he's done more to do so than we have before he showed up. He's got things we could learn from, all of us." Her pointed stare didn't go ignored as Wally glared right back.

"All valid points." Dinah pulled the attention back to herself, trying to avoid the two hotheads going at each other again. There was a clear majority voting for at least partial agreement, but those who voted against, either both or just Phantom's promotion, couldn't be ignored either. That wasn't how the team worked. The League would have ignored the minority and split it down the middle, but these kids had their own path to follow.

Voicing as such, it brought on a pensive silence she truly shouldn't have been surprised them to be capable of.

"Maybe," M'gann sighed, drifting towards the middle of the two camps. "Maybe we should ask them? All out leader votes have been as a group, the only time it wasn't..." She shook her head, the bad feelings still ghosting their souls at such a choice being taken from them trying to force its way back out. "They're not here to vote themselves. It's not a team vote with two missing."

From the shared somber looks, her words seemed to have struck a chord. A new vote was cast silently, nods following one another as they finally agreed on something.

Of course, that brought them to their next problem. Propping the question to the two most difficult to get a hold of members the team has had so far.