Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time

Chapter 10

When Danny arrived at school that day, he didn't expect much, he expected to be bored in English and all of his metaphors. The day took a massive turn after lunch during history; they were learning about the revolutionary war when America was liberated from Britain with France's help, and of course, the lesson ended with most of the class performing Hamilton the Broadway Musical. Danny had taken up the part of Lafayette, which had surprised most of the class. Since he had started two weeks prior, he had mainly kept to himself, the exclusion being when he joined Megan and Connor for lunch. So, when he had started singing in French, the whole class was surprised. It was after class during study hall when the biggest surprise happened.

"Yo," A young man sat down in front of Danny, he had dark brown hair and brown skin and looked to be a few years older, a senior, "you're Danny, right?" He nodded his head as he put down the book he was reading, "I'm Peter, co-leader of the theatre club, I'll be curt, I heard what happened in your history class, and we want you to join the club."

Danny stared at the young man in front of him for a solid minute, processing what he had just said. He heard him right, right? Danny couldn't sing or act to save his life, why on earth would the theatre club want him?

"Why?" That was Danny's eloquent response.

"Oh, why he asks, Lafayette has some of the hardest lines as well as some of them being in French, and I'm told you performed perfectly," Peter stated as a matter of fact.

"Thank you, but I'm not interested in joining a club." Peter sighs in disappointment but does nothing to push the raven-haired teen to join.

"That's alright if you like you can drop by anytime to watch us practise, and I could introduce you to the rest of the club, there's always a spot open for you if you want it," The brunette smiled at Danny as he stood up, "we're in room two-o-four." He smiled again as he left Danny alone to his studies.

The day went quickly after that, and soon he was walking away from Happy Harbour High School, the children's books had been returned to the library, after all, he no longer had any use for them. Instead, he got out a few more books that though he would enjoy reading, Holes by Louis Sachar and The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowki were two of them. Though reading them and finding the time to read them were two different things.

Without realising, he had let his feet guide him to the nearest alleyway to transform into his counterpart. Looking down the alleyway all he noticed was a stray cat sat licking its bits on top of a dumpster, upon seeing his audience, he let out an exasperated meow and disappeared further into the alley. Danny threw a look over his shoulder, making sure he wasn't followed or that anyone was watching him. Satisfied that he was alone, he hid behind the dumpster.

"I'm going ghost." He whispered as a blue ring surrounded his hips and split into two that travelled both up and down his body. His regular clothes had changed into black and silver jumpsuit that now that Danny was looking at it, he wondered if he could stylise it to himself in some way. For now, though, he flew up into the air and made his way back to Mt. Justice.

As soon as he phased through the rock of the mountain, he noticed the lack of quietness in the common area. Floating down, he noticed everyone was already there, Phantom knew he had taken his time in the library, but did he take that long that everyone was already there before him? He floated down to the common area just in time to hear the tail end of a conversation in which they were all arguing their points.

"Dude, the Flash would totally beat Superman in a race!" Wally interjected.

"I think you're forgetting the World's Mightiest Mortal; I mean, Cap was literally given his power's from the Greek Gods themselves, including Mercury the God of speed." Robin cut him off.

"Oh, Phantom! You made it!" Megan halted their conversation in favour of welcoming their new teammate.

"Alright, Phantom, you're the final say, who from the League do you think would win in a race?" Wally was not giving this up.

Phantom took a few moments to think about it before pitching in. "Oh, clearly the Flash would win."

"Thank you!" Wally cheered. Robin and Artemis groaned in annoyance.

"Don't encourage him, he'll just get worse," Artemis complained.

"Rude." Wally murmured as he slumped down into the sofa.

Phantom, being the social butterfly he is, stood off to the side, the conversation had died off, and they were left in uncomfortable silence. He could feel the curiosity radiating off of all of them; they all had questions for Phantom but were either being too polite or awkward to ask him.

"Alright, I can see you want to ask questions, go-ahead, we might as well get this out of the way." Phantom sighed. He sat cross-legged floating in the air, his elbow resting on his knee and his head resting on the palm of his hand.

"Ok, thank god you're chill with us asking questions, so like last night you said you were dead, what did you mean by that?" Wally quickly queried.

"Oh boy, going right out there with the big questions, huh?" Phantom brought up his other hand to rub his temple, "So, like, once upon a time I was alive, like you guys, I had a heartbeat, family, friends and even a shitty high school life. But now, I'm a ghost, I quite literally died."

"So, how did you die?" Artemis inquired. The other's had fallen into a silence, anxious to hear Phantoms answers and to learn more about their new teammate.

"I, erm, well-"

"You don't have to answer, Phantom. We are just glad you are willing to answer our questions." Aqualad assured the white-haired teen.

"I don't mind; I'd probably have to tell you guys at some point anyway. So, my parents were sort of scientists, and there were developing this new technology, a portal of some kind," Phantom started. He wanted to keep as close to the truth as much as possible; it was less likely to get caught in a lie that way.

"Wow, so, your parents were some kind of genius inventors? Was the portal for some kind of interdimensional travel, or more of a way of teleportation?" Robin queried. He heard Wally whisper 'nerd' under his breath, followed by a cough, Robin playfully whacked his good arm and turned his attention back to the floating teen.

"Yeah, I think it was more interdimensional, I could never understand the maths behind it. But well, they tested it out a few times, and it didn't work, so my friends convinced me to go in and check it out," There was a quiet gasp as he saw Megan's green hands fly over her mouth. She must have already guessed what had happened. "I put on this ridiculous jumpsuit, that at first had my dad's face on it, thank god my friend tore that off, and I stepped- well more like tripped into the portal, I went to steady myself, but it turns out that the on switch was put on the inside of it, where I had just leant against."

"That must have been horrific!" Artemis wheezed. She couldn't imagine the pain that would have put him through.

"Well, yeah, I was electrocuted and had my DNA ripped apart. Not fun, highly de-recommend, zero out of ten."

"Your friends must have felt so guilty, and your parents, oh my, I can only imagine them finding your body in their own invention." Megan almost sobbed. It looked like she was holding herself back while she was cuddled in Connor's arms.

"Actually, there wasn't a body to find, it kinda just, disintegrated me." Phantom nervously rubbed the back of his neck. The look of horror on all their face's spoke more than words.

"Holy shit dude, talk about originstories."