Avoiding Past And Future

(67) Intermediate

November 4

"No like honestly. What even is it with that?"

"It's like he's too good to wear civvies like the rest of us plebs and Robin just follows his lead."

"Clearly the kid can wear civvies, he did it before in there."

"Tt, it's like he's thinking he's better than us by always being prepared for a fight. Like give me a break. Work-life balance where?!"

"Maybe he's just not comfortable?" M'gann tried to supply but was immediately waved off by her teammates as they kept going.

"Pfff," Wally scoffed, scarfing down more cookies she had made for everybody. "The Robin I know would never let anything dumb like peer pressure from one kid affect him."

This wasn't how she expected her day to go. They were all doing rotations with Dinah again and actually staying back to hang out a little afterwards. Everything seemed fine until it was finally Phantom and Robin's turn. Not that they themselves were the main event. Batman and Catwoman personally escorted the two to there and they've been in there with Dinah for two whole hours already.

"Phantom is not just a kid, however." Kaldur countered, pensively leaning against the counter as he kept a respectful distance from the mess Wally was making. "Robin has made it more than clear that Phantom is his kin."

None of her teammates liked it. Artemis the least of all as she seemed to both want to crawl in a hole and disappear while simultaneously fight the desire to notch an arrow at the reformed villain. Though she didn't miss the glares her Earthling sister had sent Batman as well. Artemis' mind felt off ever since Phantom was brought into the team, but the odd feeling spiked even more any time their two boys were near Batman.

Catwoman was a whole separate walking disaster M'gann would rather not get too close to. If only just so she wouldn't have to find out why Artemis dislikes the woman so much.

"Would make it a whole lot easier on us all if those two little shits didn't sound identical over the mindlink." Artemis complained as she sipped her own hot cocoa.

Kaldur looked pensive, choosing to neither drink nor eat as he wasn't a fan of the overly sweet concoction his friends were devouring. "It is rather unfortunate that Phantom's telepathic voice lacks the vocal echo his audible counterpart has." Taking a respectful nibble of his own small plate of cookies, he looked neither pleased or discontented at the little drama hour everybody was having.

"As if that isn't just a load of bull too." Wally argued back, not wanting to give up on whatever he still had raging in his brain. "If he really was a clone, how come the League didn't know about anything? We had our eyes on Cadmus for months before AND after we found SB. No way a Robin clone of all things just went under the radar like that. Not when we all watched Rob blow up the DNA samples." He mumbled the final bits as even his mental state was being overwhelmed by the amount of cookies rage-stuffed into his mouth.

M'gann tensed slightly. None of the boys liked talking about what exactly happened during the mission that led to them rescuing Conner. Sure, she knew the basics of the unsanctioned mission, as if that was anything surprising, but actual details? Nothing beyond random tidbits that slipped out at moments like these.

If their DNA had been stolen, even if destroyed, maybe the idea that enough residue survived to create Phantom wouldn't be too off. After all, Conner was rescued when he was a mere 16 weeks old. Who knows what data was already stored before the explosives went off. Or more worryingly, who got their hands on said data.