A Different Kind of Trap

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/54623194.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: Gen
Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons),
Batman - All Media Types
Relationship: Batfamily Members (DCU) & Danny Fenton
Characters: Danny Fenton, Bruce Wayne, Zatanna Zatara, Batfamily Members
(DCU)
Additional Tags: Not Canon Compliant, Not Phantom Planet Compliant (Danny
Phantom), Danny Fenton and Damian Wayne are Twins, Alternate
Universe - Twins, Canon-Typical Violence, Humor, Crack Treated
Seriously, no beta we die like jason todd
Language: English
Series: Part 3 of The Adventures of Robin and Robyn
Stats: Published: 2024-03-21 Words: 4,893 Chapters: 1/1
 A Different Kind of Trap
by Nanenna

Summary

Danny gets his first ever Justice League mission,

Notes
See the end of the work for notes
Danny sat in class, bored. Mr. Lancer was blathering on about their current assigned reading
and Danny just could not concentrate. Then his arm buzzed.

“Mr. Lancer,” Danny’s hand shot into the air.

Mr. Lancer sighed, “Mr. Fenton.”

“Bathroom.”

Mr. Lancer sighed again and waved Danny off, apparently having completely given up.
Which: rude! Danny’s grades had definitely improved over the last few months. He even got
extra help on his homework when he went to go visit his bio family, who knew a family of
detectives would know so much about boring things like history or government. And it was
kinda funny how easy it was to trick Jason into helping him with his lit homework, just ask
about whatever book they’re reading and let Jason rant, then put some of the stuff he said into
his essays.

But Danny’s getting off track.

Sam and Tucker gave Danny questioning looks, but he made the sign for “stay here” at them
as he got up and left the room. It wasn’t until he was halfway to the bathroom that he realized
he’d made the Bat-code sign at them, all too easy to do with how often he was visiting on
patrols. Oops. Hopefully they understood.

Now in the privacy of a stall, Danny pulled the communicator out of his arm and looked at it.
Oh boy, a JL wide emergency, all hands on deck. Danny pulled out his regular phone and sent
a quick text to his friends telling them it was a JL thing and he didn’t know when he’d be
back, then he transformed, turned invisible, and sped for the nearest Zeta.

When he arrived he lifted into the air, looking around at the red sky as he tapped his comm.
“Phantom reporting in. I’ve just arrived, heading out now.” He turned towards the direction
the marker on his map was, above the skyline was a mass of roiling black clouds.

“Phantom?” A feminine voice asked.

“Firestorm reporting in.”

“I have his profile pulled up and… oh my. That is a loooooong list of powers,” a different
feminine voice said.

“Well, welcome to the team, both of you, we’re the frontline. I’ll let Black Canary fill you
in,” the first voice said.

“We’re fighting a demon,” the second voice, presumably this Black Canary, started talking.
“Some cult messed up a summoning ritual and we got this powerful demon lord, most likely
by mistake. Your job is to keep them too distracted to finish pulling itself into our dimension
while the JLD work on sending them back where them came from.”
“Copy that,” Danny replied as he headed for the mass of black clouds. He spent a moment
marveling over how being serious like this didn’t remind him of his childhood in the League
and reporting to his severe grandfather anymore, rather it made him think of nights spent with
his new family bounding over rooftops.

“Can do,” the guy from earlier, Firestorm Danny thinks he said, added jovially.

“And no chatter on the comms. Wonder Woman is your team lead, listen to her.”

A figure flying to Danny’s left moved closer, a man wearing a yellow and red suit with his
hair literally on fire. “Hi,” he said as he drew up alongside Danny, who could hear the man’s
voice both in person and in the comms, “you must be Phantom.”

Danny had already switched his comms to listening only, no need to distract others with his
chatter. “Yeah, and you’re Firestorm?”

“Sure am!” Still the echo, Danny almost wanted to scold him. “You seem awfully young
though, how old are you?”

Danny struggled to hide his grin. “Two.”

“Two?” Firestorm sounded shocked.

“Yeah!” Danny chirped, grinning at the other hero.

“Two… years?”

“Well, almost, my second deathday is a few months away.”

“Deathday?!”

“Well yeah, obviously.” Danny looked down at his arms, even though his halfa biology made
him more physical than pretty much any other ghost he was still always a little see through.
Then he glanced back at where his misty tail waved behind him. “I’m a ghost.”

“You’re a… ghost?”

Danny sighed, but nodded.

“And you’re two years old?!”

“No chatter on the comms,” the first feminine voice came back, presumably Wonder Woman.

Danny shook his head, “No, I’m almost two years dead.”

Firestorm just gaped at Danny, who turned his attention back to where they were heading. He
got lower, no longer skimming over the tops of skyscrapers as more and more damage came
into view. Then he spotted the demon, the thing loomed amongst a bunch of leaning or
toppled buildings.They looked half stuck in the ground, several heroes looking like nothing
more than flies flitting around attacking them.
Danny wondered what he should do, most of the heroes seemed to be throwing some form of
weapon or energy blast at the thing, should he do that? Should he just punch them? See if he
can push them back into the ground? He probably shouldn’t, Black Canary said to just keep
the thing busy while the magic users studied them. Especially with the way the thing was
wildly waving the heroes off, he didn’t want to get smacked like that.

Danny peeled off from Firestorm and angled to come around from the thing’s back, aiming a
few ecto blasts at their head.

The demon howled and clutched their head, then turned to glare at him. Danny sent a few
more ecto blasts their way. The demon swung a hand out to backhand Danny, who latched on
and bit the thing.

“Augh! What manner of creature are you?!” The demon brought their hand up to their face.
“A denizen?”

Danny had no idea what that meant, but he was too busy biting to ask. He bit down harder,
turning his fingers into claws and raking the demon’s hand.

“Augh! Why you little!” They grabbed Danny by the tail and pulled, Danny just dug his
claws and teeth in deeper, allowing his body to stretch until he suddenly went partially
intangible, causing the demon’s arm to fling wide and the whole guy to overbalance. Then
they tried to swat Danny, but again intangibility, they only swatted their own hand. The
demon then held the hand Danny was biting out as far as they could and started shaking, but
rocked as something else hit them. “You annoying gnats!”

Danny figured the biting wasn’t enough of a distraction anymore, so he let go and flew back
a little to give himself some space, then he built up a single large ecto blast with both hands
and threw it at the demon. The demon howled again and glared at Danny. Oh boy, if that
thing had eye lasers!

“You are the most annoying gnat of all! What is a denizen even doing here?” They leaned
down and picked up one of the larger pieces of fallen skyscraper and threw it at Danny, who
caught it.

He paused, then turned his comm back on, “Uh, are the buildings right next to this thing
evacuated? Are there any people in this bit I’m holding?” It was several stories worth of steel
and crumbling plaster, most of the glass long gone.

“They’ve all been emptied, just try to keep the damage only to this block.”

“Right, gotcha.” He went back to listening only, then hefted the building and threw it back at
the demon.

The demon turned and swatted the building away, but Danny was right behind it and used the
opening to get in close and punch the demon right in the face.

The demon howled in pain once more. They felt over its face, “Did you punch out a tooth?!”
“Why is the toddler the only one doing any actual damage?” Firestorm asked over comms.

“No distractions,” Wonder Woman reminded him.

“Plus it’s rude to call your teammate a toddler,” a completely different voice chided.

“He literally told me he’s less than two years old.”

Danny shot a flurry of ecto blasts at the demon, who just kept glaring at him.

“Will you stop that?! And once again: why is there a denizen here? Why are you fighting me,
little spirit?!”

“You’re threatening my haunt, of course I’m going to protect it.”

The demon stopped and stared at Danny in disbelief, then looked around itself. “I am not!
I’m no where near any haunts!”

“Yeah, but my haunt is here on Earth, and you’re putting the whole Earth in danger, and by
extension my haunt. So…” Danny shot more ecto blasts at the demon.

“Augh! Stop that at once!”

“So I’m guessing the toddler has some sort of magic powers, and that’s why he’s the only one
doing damage?” Another new voice asked.

“Save the speculation for later,” Wonder Woman said firmly. “And uh… young man?”

“Phantom,” Danny said into the comm.

“Phantom, we don’t know how long it’ll take to undo the summoning, so don’t tire yourself
out. But keep up the good work, so far you’re the only one to do any real damage.”

“Okay. I’m gonna try to keep in tight though, don’t need this thing destroying any more
buildings.” With that he flew in and punched the demon again.

“I can get behind that,” Wonder Woman said. He saw someone else fly up on the other side of
the demon, then zoom in and punch it upside the back of its head.

“Ow! Cease your annoying attacks!”

“No!” Danny shot a few more ecto blasts at it point blank. He didn’t even bother dodging,
simply letting himself go intangible as the demon kept trying to swat at him. The thing roared
in frustration.

Danny watched the other heroes then take turns backing up and flying at the demon as fast as
they could to land blows. The demon clearly hated it. That gave Danny a brilliant idea. “I’m
gonna bite it again!”
“Phantom,” Batman’s voice crackled over the comm, “do not. You don’t know where that
thing’s been.”

“Too late, already bit it once!”

“Batman, what are you doing on my channel?” Wonder Woman asked with amusement.
“You’re always chiding us about following proper procedures.”

Danny could hear giggling over the comm.

“Should’ve used my personal channel, B.” Danny flew at the demon again, this time he
unhinged his jaw and latched onto the arm the demon held up to defend themself, claws
raking over the flesh on either side of his head.

The demon roared and tried to swat Danny again, but alas, he was still intangible.

“Phantom, at least try not to swallow anything, we don’t know what demon flesh will do to
you.”

Danny couldn’t respond with a jaw full of demon flesh, so he just double tapped his comm to
acknowledge, then went back to growling and clawing.

The demon sighed wearily, “Why are denizens such uncouth creatures?”

The fight went on like that, Danny and the other heroes taking turns punching the demon
between Danny throwing volleys of ecto blasts or going in for the occasional bite and scratch
combo. And yeah, it was fun at first, and really cool to be fighting alongside some of Earth’s
greatest heroes (most of whom he’d never even heard of), but it was rather repetitive and
getting kind of boring.

Danny pulled back a little, sighing deeply.

“You doing okay there, Phantom?” Wonder Woman asked over comms.

“Oh yeah, totally fine, just bored. I’m not used to fights lasting so long.”

“Unfortunately the JLD’s having trouble identifying the demon,” Black Canary chimed in.

“Wait, so like… their name?”

“Yes, do you know it? Do you recognize them?”

“Oh no, not at all. I’ve never met any demons before. But I bet I can get their name.”

“What? How?”

Danny just zipped closer to the demon, floating right before them on his back, one leg
crossed over the other like he was relaxing on his bed. He mimed a yawn before lazily
pointing his hand at the demon and shooting a couple ecto blasts, staying intangible as they
swatted at him.
“Why you insolent little worm! How dare you!”

“Of course I dare, it’s not like you’re a big deal or anything.” A few more ecto blasts.

“What?! Why you, have you no idea who I am?!”

“None whatsoever.”

“Foolish denizen, you know not who you pathetically attempt to pester. Tremble with fear for
I am Beezlecrux, lord of the ninth realm!”

Danny flipped to sit cross legged in the air, miming a thinking pose with his hand on his chin
before giving a sloppy shrug. “Never heard of you.”

The demon shrieked and tried to grab Danny, who laughed as he flew backwards, phasing
through the demon and tossing a few more ecto blasts their way. Once he was out of range he
turned his attention back to the comms, “So, didja get all that?”

“Uh… you could understand what they’re saying?” Black Canary asked skeptically.

“Yeah?” Danny asked in confusion, “You can’t?”

“Not many people can understand Hellspeak,” an unknown voice said dryly.

“But… that wasn’t? I… what? You mean none of you could understand what they’ve been
yelling this whole time?”

“Heads up,” Black Canary said sternly, “Constantine listened to that little exchange, they
have the demon’s ID, they’re preparing to reverse the summoning now. For this to work we
need the demon fully distracted. On my mark, give it all you got.”

There were several voices all acknowledging the orders.

Danny had a brilliant idea.

“I'm gonna wail.”

“Phantom?” Wonder Woman asked.

“Mark,” Black Canary said.

Danny flew right up to the demon's face, splitting into four copies that spread out around the
demon on the way, took in a deep (but fully unnecessary) breath, and wailed.

The demon slammed their hands over their ears, clearly in pain and wilting under the assault.

Danny just kept wailing.

A duplicate popped. Then another. What was taking the JLD so long? He lost his last two
duplicates one after the other, then it was just Danny alone, wailing at this demon. Danny felt
himself growing weaker until eventually his voice gave out and he fell from the sky.

Batman was helping with the continuing evacuation when he heard it, a sound he’d only
heard a few times yet always caused all the hairs on his body to stand on end. Phantom’s
wail.

That was not good, if he overused that power he would collapse and detransform, presumably
while right in front of the demon they were currently trying to banish. He turned his head to
the other heroes he was currently working with, “I need to go.”

“What?”

Batman had already turned and started running. He needed to get outside, he needed to get
halfway across the city, he needed to do it now.

His comm came to life. “Hey, that’s spooky’s scream attack, right?” Red Hood asked.

“It is,” Robin replied, sounding out of breath.

“Wow, really going all out for his debut,” Nightwing commented cheerily.

“Doesn’t that usually cause him to un-magical girl?” Signal asked.

“Technically it makes him pass out, being unconscious is what makes him un-magical girl,”
Red Robin cut in.

“Should we… do something?” Nightwing asked.

“Batman and Robin en route,” Oracle said.

“I’m gonna go get him a milkshake!” Nightwing said cheerfully.

Red Hood tsked, “Idea thief.”

“He’s gonna be pretty hungry, I’ll see if Impulse has any spare speedster food.”

“Fuck you guys, I’m gonna get him a treat too.”

“Not a burger and fries,” Nightwing singsonged, “I’m getting him that to go with his shake,
of course.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Red Hood growled.

“I’m going to get him a better burger and shake,” Signal said mischievously.

Batman chose to tune out the chatter as it dissolved into squabbling. Even when they were
with their different teams and working separately they still somehow squabbled. Fortunately
the fight came into view as Batman swung between dangerously leaning buildings, and thank
heavens! He could see Phantom, he wouldn’t have to find his way around the demon. It was
pretty clear Phantom was starting to struggle, flashes of his civilian clothing peeking through
here and there. The demon looked as if the force of the wail had caused them to pass out.
Well at least that was one less thing to worry about.

Phantom’s voice gave out, his form slowly slipped a little lower before he started freefalling.
Batman ran faster. He didn’t manage to make it before Phantom hit the ground with an
echoing thud. The only reason Batman didn’t wince was because he was too busy sprinting
over rubble to get to his son.

The rings of light formed around Phantom’s middle.

Batman managed to get to Phantom’s side, throwing his cape over the boy as he transformed
back into Danny. Batman gave himself a moment of relief before he started checking his boy
over for injuries. He didn’t seem to have any, not even a bump on the head after that impact.
He’s just grateful it was Phantom that hit the ground and not Danny.

Robin came running up, sliding the last few yards as gasped for breath. “Father, how is he?”

“Uninjured, but unconscious.” Batman lifted his cape just enough to show Phantom to Robin,
and Robin only. “Moving him and keeping his identity is going to be difficult.”

“TT.” Robin reached up to remove his own cape.

There was a strange slurping sound, the pair looked up to find the demon that had been
towering over them was gone. Looks like Constantine finally got rid of them.

“Here, help me cover him.”

Batman and Robin worked together to keep Phantom hidden under his cape while gently
laying Robin’s cape over the boy. Once he was covered as he was going to be (his worn
sneakers poking out), Batman scooped the boy up into his arms. Robin helped adjust
Phantom so he was tucked safely against Batman’s chest, then followed just to Batman’s side
as he carried the boy to the nearest emergency center that had been set up while evacuating.

Once they were situated in a small room, Phantom laying still covered on the lone bed,
surrounded by several pieces of equipment they had no use of at the moment, both Batman
and Robin ended up leaning against the wall, arms crossed as the waiting game began.

Red Robin was the first to arrive, sporting a fresh, unopened box of high calorie speedster
strength protein bars. He took one look at the room, turned around and left, then came back
with a couple cheap aluminum chairs. He plopped them in the room, then sat down on one of
them. “So, how’s the kid?”

“Sleeping,” Batman grunted.

“Shouldn’t you be out there helping with clean up?” Robin asked snottily.

“Shouldn’t you?” Red Robin asked right back.

“Not in a sick room,” Batman growled.

The two boys quieted down.

Nightwing burst into the room, a pair of hot/cold bags swinging from his hands. He looked
around, shook his head, dropped the bags in the unoccupied chair, then left. He returned with
three more cheap aluminum chais, which was at least one more than the room could hold.
Still, he and Red Robin shuffled the chairs around until they were satisfied. While that was
going on, Robin snuck past them to steal the chair right next to Danny’s head. He snuck a
hand under the cape still draped over his twin and seemed to take his hand.

“You know even with the bags your food’s going to be cold by the time he wakes up.” Red
Robin said conversationally.

“Of course not, it shouldn’t take him that long to wake up,” Nightwing shot back.

“If he was he would’ve by now, he’s gone from passed out to straight up asleep.”

“Let him rest,” Batman said before anyone could even suggest waking Phantom up.

Nightwing pouted, but claimed one of the chairs.

There was a soft knock at the door, then it gently opened and Red Hood poked his helmet in.
“Ah, so you are all here.”

“What’d you get Danny?” Nightwing asked curiously.

“Codenames,” Batman said tiredly.

Red Hood held up a Fenton Thermos, “A smoothie.”

Everyone in the room blinked at him. “An ecto-smoothie?” Nightwing asked.

“How did you get one so fast?!” Red Robin asked incredulously.

“Dead men tell no tales,” Red Hood replied, presumably with a wink but they couldn’t really
tell with the helmet on. Which Hood removed once he was fully in the room, revealing the
domino he wore underneath. Helmet and thermos were deposited on the empty chair and he
joined Batman in leaning against a wall, though not next to him.

When the door next opened Batman expected to see Signal walking in, but instead it was a
familiar and usually welcome magician. “Ah, here you are, a full house I see,” Zatanna said
with some amusement.

“Zatanna,” Batman replied with a nod.

“He hasn’t woken up yet, poor kid tuckered himself out,” Nightwing said with a grin.

“Phantom was foolish, there was no need for him to put himself out of commission like this,”
Robin said disdainfully.
“Don’t mind little baby bat,” Nightwing cut in, “he’s just worried.”

Damian made a dismissive sound, but otherwise didn’t add to the comment.

“And will this Phantom be okay?”

The door opened and Signal walked in, two bags and a drink carrier hanging from his hands.
“I got Nasty Burger! Oh, hello Zatanna. Sorry, I got enough for all of us but I wasn’t
expecting you.”

“That’s fine, I wasn’t expecting you to get me anything.”

Nightwing sighed and picked up the food he’d brought, “You can have this, I’m sure
Phantom won’t pick mine when Signal brought Nasty Burger .”

“It’s Phantom’s favorite,” Signal said conspiratorially.

“They’re all trying to win status as favorite through cheap bribery,” Robin stated.

“Fat chance, I got a leg up on all of you,” Red Hood said.

“I have no such insecurities,” Robin said hautily.

“So I take it you all know this Phantom, and yet no one bothered to tell anyone else in the
Justice League he even exists?”

“Why would we?” Red Robin asked as he accepted the food Signal was handing out. “It’s not
like everyone in the League knows everyone in the League.”

“Akhi, time to wake up.” Robin gently shook Phantom awake,

Phantom snorted, “Huh? What?”

“Phantom,” Batman said, “we have company.”

“Huh?” Phantom shuffled around under the cape. “Ah, right, okay, gimme a second.” The
cape shifted again, fluttering in a nonexistent breeze as the shoes peeking out were replaced
by bone white boots in a flash of bright light. Phantom sat up and pulled off the cape,
handing it over to Robin.

“Here, got this for you,” Signal said the moment Phantom had his hands free, handing over a
greasy bag and milkshake.

Phantom gasped in delight, “Nasty Burger!”

Signal grinned.

“And I got ya this.” Red Hood held up the thermos.

“Oh ancients, do I ever need that.” Phantom eagerly took the thermos and popped the lid off.
“Oh, a smoothie?”
“Made with ice from the Far Frozen, so it won’t get all melty.”

Phantom nodded, “Very nice.” He stole the straw from his shake and stuck it in the smoothy,
taking a long sip.

“And you said the vegetarian options at NB were acceptable, right?” Signal asked as he
passed another greasy bag over to Robin.

“Yes, that is correct.”

Once everyone had their food, even Zatanna, and settled in to start eating, Zatanna cleared
her throat. “First of all, I want to thank you, Phantom, for helping us banish Beezlecrux.”

“Oh yeah, no problem. Honestly that was one of my more boring fights.”

There were a few snorts and snickers from the other bats. Zatanna chose to ignore them,
“Now correct me if I’m wrong, are you a Realms being?”

“Realms? Like… the Infinite Realms?” Phantom asked.

The bats all went still, “Wait, you’re from the Infinite Realms?” Red Robin asked.

“Uh, yeah, the ‘Zone has lots of names. Infinite Realms, Never Ending World, The Great
Between, Place of Many Doors, Path to Nowhere… most of those are translations but you get
the idea.”

Nightwing let his head fall into his hand with a groan, “Anything involving the Infinite
Realms is supposed to be dropped immediately and handed over to the JLD.”

“Excuse me?!” Phantom asked, clearly offended.

“Not individually,” Red Robin assured, “more like, relations? Negotiations? Contact?”

“Yes,” Zatanna said. “Realms beings are incredibly powerful and unpredictable, they can be
very dangerous for anyone that doesn’t know how to deal with them. So why is one suddenly
a member of the Justice League without anyone else knowing?”

“To be fair, we didn’t know he was a Realms being,” Nightwing said with a sheepish grin.
“We thought he was just a regular ghost.”

Red Hood snorted, the sound and his expression clear with his helmet off to eat. “Ain’t
nothing normal about Spooks.”

“Even if he were a ‘normal’ ghost,” Zatanna said severely, “dealing with anything
supernatural is very dangerous. How did you even come into contact with Phantom?”

“I knew him when he was alive,” Robin said simply.

Zatanna blinked, “What do you mean? Alive? You were ever alive? You’re not a banshee?”
“Yeah, that’s what makes me a ghost.” Phantom turned his attention to Batman, “Should I
just show her? It’ll make explaining things easier.”

“That’s up to you,” Batman replied. “But I do trust her, if that helps.”

Phantom nodded, then let his transformation wash over him. “Tada, rumors of my death have
only been slightly exaggerated.”

Zatanna stared at Phantom in shock.

Robin removed his domino and pulled Phantom down so their faces were next to each other.
“We’re twins.”

“Oh,” Zatanna said.

Phantom took another bite of his burger, “Man, this tastes so much better with taste buds.”

“Eh, I still like Batburger better,” Red Robin said as he ate a few fries.

“Agent A’s home cooked meals,” Nightwing said.

Everyone made noises of agreement and nodded along.

“How did you do that?” Zatanna asked. “You’re… I don’t even know how to describe it.
You’re alive?”

“I’m what the other ghosts call a halfa, half human, half ghost.”

“That makes it sound like B fucked a ghost,” Red Hood said in disgust. “Probably more
accurate to call yourself a part time ghost.”

“Dual citizenship,” Red Robin added. “One hundred percent ghost, one hundred percent
human, one hundred percent of the time.”

“Oh, I like that,” Phantom said. “But part time does feel a bit more accurate.”

Red Hood grinned at the others.

“Stop gloating about being Phantom’s favorite,” Nightwing said with a pout.

“Undead solidarity, you livings just don’t get it.”

Phantom rolled his eyes, “You didn’t get it either until I had to explain everything to you.”

“You didn’t even know what I was, we had to go visit your ghost doctor to find out!”

“And I knew who to go to for answers, which is way better than calling yourself a zombie
and just not doing anything about.”

“No fighting in the med bay,” Batman said tiredly.

Zatanna sighed, “I don’t even know how to deal with this. This is… unprecedented.”

“I suppose I’ll have to get moved over to the JLD,” Phantom said with a sigh. “But that will
mean getting to work with Captain Marvel, right? He seems pretty cool.”

“Aren’t you still a minor?” Zatanna asked.

“Our sixteenth birthday just passed, we’re old enough to go get a driver’s license!”

“Not in New Jersey,” Robin said with a sigh. “I have to wait a whole year.”

Phantom patted Robin’s shoulder, “You still get to ride your bike at least.”

“Only while Robin.”

“My point is,” Zatanna cut in, “you shouldn’t be a member of the Justice League at all in any
shape or form until you’re an adult, either by human or ghost standards. I’m told you’re less
than two years dead?”

“Yeah,” Phantom said reluctantly.

“Then your powers won’t have finished settling in for another eight years at least.”

Phantom gasped, “Eight years?!”

“I only have to wait two more,” Robin said smugly.

“No! Not fair!”

“You could still join Young Justice, or make your own team like we all did,” Red Robin
offered sagely.

“Technically Robin, Superboy, and I already kinda are our own team.”

“There you go, problem solved.”

Phantom groaned and flopped over, but ruined the effect by taking a loud slurp of his ecto-
smoothie.

“We should hurry up and finish eating, I’m sure your parents are worried about you going
missing from school,” Batman said.

“They probably saw the news,” Phantom said nonchalantly.

“Which means they saw you pass out and nearly get caught on camera de-transforming.”

Phantom grinned sheepishly, “Right.” He transformed back into his ghost form and quickly
shoved the rest of his food into his mouth, then washed it down with another long, obnoxious
drink of his ecto-smoothie, until it gargled from having run out. Red Robin picked up the box
of protein bars and handed them over to Phantom, who made a face but obligingly opened the
packaging and stuck two in his mouth. He pulled the straw from his thermos and put it back
into his milkshake, which he started drinking.

Zatanna just shook her head, an oncoming headache already starting to form. Bats.
End Notes

Of screen Constantine is having a conniption fit over a random Realms Being showing up.
Zatanna chose to go find the Bats instead because the last thing she wanted was Constantine
causing an interdimensional incident.

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