Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time

Chapter 11

Soon after the reveal of Phantom's tragic back story, the arrival of Black Canary and Captain Marvel was announced over the zeta tube klaxon system. The appearance of both heroes was expected, with Black Canary training them and Captian Marvel being their den mother, although Phantom was a tad skittish. Both of the heroes were intimidating in their own right, Phantom, at that moment of their arrival just wanted to turn invisible and stay invisible.

Captain Marvel came zooming over to them, excited to be there with the team. Most of the team rolled their eyes, thinking the Cap to be more of a man child than what they usually put up with. The other hero partners didn't have an overly optimistic view on Marvel, but Phantom somewhat admired the man. He had a right set of morals that he wouldn't compromise for anything, he always did what he thought was right, he was also powerful as heck but never bragged about it, never showed off. Honestly, he was what Phantom aimed to be.

"Wally, you're exempt from training today since you have a broken arm," Black Canary called as she headed into the training room with everyone following after her. There was a lounge chair already set up at the edge of the room which Wally sped to, "today we'll be introducing Phantom into the training regiment and also going over what I showed you last time."

Phantom stood awkwardly to the side of the training ring. He had no idea what was expected of him, or what he should do; he followed the others lead.

"Aqualad, you're up against Phantom first, remember the match is until the first one is down and no holding back." Aqualad stepped into the ring already in a defensive position.

"Erm, I'm not too sure about this." Phantom hesitated he looked at the ring's edge then to an awaiting Aqualad.

"And why is that?" Black Canary sighed.

"You scared of fighting Kal?" Wally inquired from his little perch.

"No, nothing like that, I just don't want to hurt anyone badly." Phantom sighed as he stepped into the ring.

"Oo, that is totally fighting talk, you gonna take that Kal?" Artemis called to her teammate.

"I believe I will not prepare yourself," Kal responded.

"I guess we're really doing this." He floated down so he was standing in the ring and a digital scoreboard appeared with both Aqualad's and Phantom's name appearing above a large zero. He noticed that most of the other team ha taken to sitting on the ground and was all too excited to watch them spar, meanwhile Wally was sending Captain Marvel to get him all sorts of different snacks on the pretence that he was resting his injury.

Phantom made no move to change into a defensive position or an offensive stance, he stood there and waited for Aqualad to make the first move. After Aqualad realised that Phantom was not going to attack first, he charged at his opponent, keeping his body low. Just as Aqulas was about to attack Phantom shifted his body to the side, sending Aqualdad off balance and stumbling forward. Phantom moved away closer to the middle of the ring, waiting for Aqualad to attack again. Aqualad attacked again, throwing his fist towards Phantom's chest, again at the last second Phantom turns intangible, and his fist goes right through him.

"What-" Taking advantage of Aqualad moment of confusion Phantom loops his leg around his calve and pulled his body to the side. This small move sent Aqualad tumbling to the ground, the digital scoreboard buzzed loudly, and a one replaced the zero under Phantom's name.

"Dude, what was that?" Robin yelled from the ground.

"What do you mean?" Phantom cocked his head to the side, unaware of what he meant. He held out his hand to Aqualad to help the other teen up, which he gladly took.

"Good match Phantom," Aqualad stated once he was back on his feet and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, "but I thought I manage to get a hit, how did it not land."

"Oh, that, that's just intangibility."

"In-what-ability?" Artemis questioned after she had gotten up from the ground.

"Intangibility, it means I can go through things and things can go through me what I want it to," Phantom explained.

"So, you have more than one ability?" Robin asked, "What are they?"

"Well, I can turn invisible," he demonstrated this by disappearing and reappearing next to Robin who jumped slightly at his sudden appearance, "you've just seen intangibility, I can fly, which you've seen often, it's actually my favourite power. I can also manipulate my ecto-energy, I can shoot it from my hands, I can also direct the energy into my hands to make it a harder punch, and I can also create a shield with it."

"That's quite a lot, Phantom." Black Canary started.

"That's not even all of them. New powers are kind of developing as I get older." Phantom nervously rubbed the back of his neck, not liking the look of utter disbelief and shock on each of their faces.

"So, like, we've established you're dead an all, but like, as you get older do you age as well? Like physically?" Artemis asked as Aqualad stepped out of the ring and towards the others.

"I don't actually know. I haven't been dead long enough to find out," Phantom admitted.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold on. How long have you actually been dead?" Robin asked. He had done the calculations in his head, and he already didn't like the implications that the ghost teen was throwing out.

"Just over a year now, I think." The whole room turned cold and silent. Before he knew it a blur of red and green took up phantom's arms, he raised his hands and awkwardly patted M'gann on the back. "You know it's ok right? I came to term with it ages ago." He quickly consoled the almost sobbing girl.

"It's still not fair, though." M'gann released her grip on him and wiped a hand over her damp cheeks.

"Okie, you don't have to tell us, but did you have a name before you died?" Wally question. He was sat up from his seat on the lounge chair, fully focused on the conversation.

"I did, I just don't remember it." Of course, that was a lie. He knew his name, but if he told them especially Robin since he and Batman were technically looking for him, then he was scared of being found out. He was not going to go to that fruitloop if it was the last thing he did.

"What if we gave you a name? Something more casual than just Phantom all the time?" M'gann asked gingerly. She had done the same thing for Connor, and that had worked out great.

"I'd like that." Phantom smiled.