A Chance to Trust (YJ/DP)

-13- Meet'n'greet

-0o0o0o0 lil itty bitty time skippy to a few moments before 0o0o0o0-

Batman was about to enter the living room when Danny stopped cold. Danny's heart was accelerating, his face grew warm and tears brimmed his emerald eyes. What if they didn't like him? What if they teased him? Worse, what if they attacked him? Logic told him that these were Robin's friends and that if Robin trusted them he should too. But the thought that people would automatically hurt him was so ingrained into him he couldn't help but think of worse case scenario, seeming as how with the GIW worst case was always the case.

Batman knelt down in front of the boy who stood stiffly, trying not to cry. Batman put a large hand on his shoulder and looked Danny in the eye.

"It's going to be fine Phantom, if you feel threatened you can always hide behind either me or Robin, but it won't come to that because these people would never think about hurting you. These people will protect you if the need arises." Batman said, Danny sniffed and looked in Batman's white slits for a split second before looking down again.

He nodded and swiped at his nose, then held onto Batman's hand with both of his and together they walked slowly into the room. The occupants paused their communing and turned to see the newcomers.

Robin was standing next to a tall lanky kid wearing bright yellow and red, spiky red hair poking out of the top. Like Robin's the redhead's core was a magnificent yellow, but a cold blue lurked behind it, obviously hiding. A bright corn colored haired girl stood next to them with a hand on her hip and wearing green clothes that seemed a bit revealing. Her core was chaotic, flashing a bunch of different colors all at the same time, first purple then blue then black, with tiny streaks of yellow in between, even some green made an appearance.

Danny did a double take when he saw the girl in the kitchen, first off she was green, secondly, she was FLOATING. Danny didn't know other people could levitate like he did, he subconsciously remembered Dick saying something about knowing people who could fly. Third, her core was strange, like the green man from his first days with Bruce, it was like an ameba, changing shape and color and complexity. Like the carrot top's her core was gold but held a deep blue in the back, ringed with a layer of purple.

A large boy stood next to her, easily the largest in the group and with what looked like a permanent scowl on his face. His core seemed perpetually red, there were little hints of other colors, from what Danny could see there was a bit of blue but not much else. He didn't like this guy, he seemed too angry, too ready for a fight.

The sixth person had just stood up from the couch, unlike the others he was dark skinned and seemed well muscled. Putting himself as the second largest but his core seemed much calmer than the big boy's raging core. His core was a pleasant blue, but not a sad blue, a grey blue. Danny took special care in studying his core, he had never seen grey before, like black he had no idea what the color meant. But one thing was for certain, he held an air of authority around him, his mere presence demanded respect, he reminded Danny of Batman. Danny immediately started to like this guy.

Then he noticed everyone was staring at him, he involuntarily shrunk back, hiding behind Batman's leg and covering himself with his cape. The Boy Wonder wanted to take a picture, Danny held the cape close to his face but kept an eye peeking out so he could see everyone. After a few milliseconds of taking the little boy in the team looked to Batman who do doubt had an answer to their unasked question.

"Team, this is Phantom. I won't go into details, but all you need to know is that he hasn't had time to socialize with anyone in the past few years. He's been mistreated and I expect you all to be gentle and patient with him, if anything goes wrong Robin knows what to do. I'm leaving him in the team's care for a few days because I will be off world. If I get any word that Phantom has been hurt in any way," Batman paused with eyes narrowing, making sure the message got in deep with each team member "I will end you, academically, financially, and make sure you never see the light of day again. Are. We. Clear?"