Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time

Chapter 9

It was too early for his phone to be ringing, Bruce thought as he stared at the offending object on his nightstand, especially his personal mobile. It was five am. What could anyone want at five am? He sighed as he picked up the phone, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Bruce Wayne speaking." He called down the mic. For a moment, the line was silent until he heard the voice on the other end.

"Ah, Bruce," he spoke as if he was surprised that Bruce had answered, "I'm terribly sorry about the early call, but it seems that I need your assistance."

"Vlad Masters, I wasn't expecting you to call anytime soon, not after what happened at the Christmas Charity Gala last year." Bruce rubbed his eyes as he stood from his bed and made his way over to his bedroom window. He had the perfect view of his garden that was hidden by the early morning mist, making the land seem eerily gothic in the way that all of Gotham was. He turned his focus back to his phone and the caller. In all honesty, Bruce wasn't a big fan of Masters, the way he spoke, and eyed people up gave him the impression that he thought he was superior, so everyone else in the vicinity.

"I understand you have connections to a world's greatest detective; you see, I have a godson that has gone missing and I would very much like he found and back to where he is safe, with me."

"And why should I help you?" The silence over the phone held such thick tension that it could be cut with a Batarang.

"You owe me." Bruce covered the microphone on his mobile before he sighed. He did indeed owe Masters a favour; he had hoped that he had forgotten about it.

"What's his name?"

"Daniel Fenton, I'll send you a picture of what he most recently looks like, I presume that will help."

"Yes, it will."

"Thank you for your help, Bruce. I assume that you will call me when you locate the boy." With that Masters hung up the phone call.

Three Weeks Later

Danny's first night at Mt Justice was amazing; he didn't realise how much he had missed having a bed, it was soft and warm, there were no springs sticking out of it like his old mattress, so there wasn't anything piercing into him in the middle of the night. Over the last month, he had become used to waking up without the feeling in his hands and his nose was just that bit cold that even burying his head into a blanket wouldn't help, cause that was cold to the touch as well. Danny was used to the cold.

But now he was warm; he had woken up in the warm blankets and duvet. He wasn't cold. He snuggled in deeper into his pillow and pulled the duvet up higher, so only the floof of his black hair was visible, he sighed in content.

He knew he had school, thankfully there was no homework due in that day, but he was contemplating taking the day off, or would that be too suspicious. He had just started there a few weeks ago. No, skipping would leave a bad impression. So, he reluctantly stretched his arms over his head until he heard the bones crack and his muscles pull, he did the same with his legs but stretched them outwards, he felt his ankles crack and his legs beginning to shake. Content that he was now somewhat awake he threw the duvet off of his body.

He almost welcomed the chill that greeted him, waking him up fully. He didn't realise it, but he felt safe, he had slept peacefully in a safe environment, that was monitored by superheroes no less.

After he took a quick shower, he struggled to decide on what clothes he was going to wear. He finally had new clothes; he felt spoiled for choice after having to wear the same outfit almost every day for the last month. He dug through the dresser and found a pair of black denim jeans that he didn't spot the day before, he rummaged through and found a plain black vest top and a dark green oversized jumper. He picked out a pair of socks and started his search for his shoes; he checked under his bed and found something he missed the day before. Under his bed were three different pairs of shoes, two different colours of converse and a pair of dress shoes. He picked the dark green converse.

He grabbed his backpack and quickly transformed into Phantom. He wasn't going to let his new team see his civilian self yet, and he wasn't sure if any of them were even in the mountain, well except Connor and Megan. He phased through the door and headed into the kitchen. He didn't realise he was entering into chaos.

The fire alarm was going off. Megan wafting the smoke around whilst taking a pan off the stove and shoving it into the sink, Danny caught sight of something black in the pan. Connor had grabbed the fire extinguisher that was next to the fridge and was covering the sink in white foam; he was making sure the fire was out and was going to stay out.

"I thought I was getting better!" Megan yelled out in frustration.

"You were," Connor replied to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. She floated back down to the ground and started on cleaning up the blackened mess she had made. It was them that Phantom let his presence be known.

"What were you trying to cook?" He saw Megan jump, startled by his sudden appearance. He also saw Connor jump but not as harshly as the Martian.

"Oh, I was attempting an omelette, the one using eggs, it didn't really work though." He didn't know if there was a different way to make omelettes without out eggs, but he didn't comment on it.

"I can help if you like?" He recalled every time he took up the cooking after his mother accidentally brought their dinner to life, as well as the containers in the fridge that was filled with leftovers that would occasionally move. He had gotten good at cooking and even learnt to enjoy it, he didn't have to get takeout all the time any more or smooch off his friends.

"You can cook?" Connor asked as if he didn't believe the floating teen.

"Well, yeah, how do pancakes sound?" Megan practically zoomed over to him and wrapped him in a crushing hug. "You know, I could teach you if you like?" If possible, the hug got even tighter, he meekly brought his hands up and patted the Martian on her back. She quickly let go.

"Thank you so much. It'll be nice be able to make something other than cookies." He smiled nervously at her and got to work on their breakfast. The whole time he cooked, Megan was floating over his shoulder, taking notes in a notepad she had gotten from somewhere, Phantom had no idea where. Soon enough, the pancakes were done and eaten.

Connor and Megan both looked at the clock and started rushing around, getting their backpacks together. "We have school," Connor stated.

"Yeah, we'll be gone most of the day, but if you're doing anything make sure you're back by four, we have trained with Black Canary, and the team will most likely want to grill you." She changed her skin tone from green to something more human before she waved to him; both of them quickly left the mountain. Phantom took that as a sign that he should make his way to High School; after all, he couldn't miss it.