Phantom had ended up having another nightmare but he woke up when it was early in the morning. It was about eight in the morning so it wasn't likely that someone would question why he was awake. He slowly got up and his leg still hurt a bit but it had healed more which was good.
He stretched and he walked out of the room only to find that the other teens were awake. He didn't feel like eating at the moment, he had almost cried before he fell asleep and then he had a nightmare that made him feel sick. They were all staring at him and he quickly got irritated, "Does anyone want to explain why I'm being stared at?"
They all looked a bit guilty but Aqualad still answered, "We were wondering what happened last night. Who was the person you were fighting, why didn't you tell us that you had powers, and what else aren't you telling us?"
Phantom thought it was to early for this shit, how did these guys manage to piss him off so easily? He huffed, "Let's start with what happened, you were there so you know what happened. Unless you all got amnesia I'm pretty sure you remember what you saw, don't blame me if you missed something."
Phantom's sass levels were dangerously high, it really was to early in the morning for this shit. "Second, the guy I was fighting is a dangerous, insane, psychopath that wants to kill me, well he'd be killing me again since I'm already dead but you get the point. Third, I didn't tell you that I have powers because I keep them hidden on purpose."
"Now for the last question, I'm not telling you a lot of things, it's what you do when you have trust issues. Here's a suggestion, don't kidnap a random ghost that's on the run from the government the next time you see one." Everyone was a bit surprised by what he had said, Phantom wasn't in a good mood at all.
He had a headache, he was exhausted, he was in pain, he was being questioned first thing in the fucking morning, and his nightmares were horrible. He glared at them one last time before turning on his heel and walking down the hall he had come from. His leg was starting to hurt a lot more then it should be, it was probably because of how violent the blow to it had been.
He walked to his borrowed room and he sat in his corner while hissing because of the pain in his leg. He used his powers to turn off the lights and lock the door, he had learned that four months ago. Phantom tried to distract himself from the pain in his leg but it wasn't really working.
He just closed his eyes and the pain in his leg wasn't as bad since he wasn't walking on it. When he checked the clock twenty minutes had passed and he decided to try and sleep, he was to tired to keep his eyes open. At first he was just in a state of half sleep, he was aware of what was going on around him but everything blurred together.
After a long while he actually fell asleep and the nightmare started right in cue, oh joy. This one wasn't as bad as the last few nightmares he had, this one was a lot nicer, it was his first day at the facility. He had woken up strapped to a table and he looked around the room wondering what had happened.
Then he remembered, Kitty was almost shot by an agent and Phantom was just barely able to block the shot. He didn't have enough energy to make a shield or he would have but he didn't and he had to save her. She screamed and he fell to the ground, Phantom was able to tell Johnny to take her and run.
He saw Johnny looked physically hurt when he was told to leave Phantom behind but he did. He grabbed Kitty while she fought to try and get to Phantom and Johnny got them out of there. Shadow wanted to stay behind and help but Phantom smiled at the ghost, "Run."
Shadow looked from Phantom to Johnny and Kitty and back again, Phantom weakly pushed him away. Shadow looked at him sadly before flying off to join the two and Phantom sighed while he smiled and saw the agents approaching. His lost consciousness not long after that, the agents must have taken him and now he was here.
It wasn't long before he heard a door open and three agents walked into the room, Phantom mentally sighed. "Man you guys are rude, kidnapping is against the law you know?" The agents didn't respond so he tried again, "Let's get to know each other, I'll start, I'm Phantom, who are you guys?"
One of the agents glared at him, "Shut up ghost."
Phantom frowned, "Wow you guys really are rude, all I do is ask what your names are and you tell me to shut up. Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners, she should send you back to school." When the agents turned around while holding tools he rolled his eyes but he was freaking out on the inside.
It was at this moment that he knew, he had fucked up, not just a normal level of fucked up, he had royally fucked up. They each had looks on their faces that told him that he didn't want to know what was going to happen. He had been dissected for the first time of many that day, they had stabbed his shoulder simply because they felt like it.
They had managed to take off his gloves and they tore off his finger nails but they grew back within a few hours. That day was easy, it didn't hurt nearly as much as the days to come but it had still hurt. He was a bit surprised that he didn't care, he had saved Kitty and she, along with Johnny and Shadow, had gotten away.
Then he woke up and he took a few seconds to calm himself down before realizing that someone was knocking on the door. So that's why he had woken up, he was really hoping this was important because his leg really. He stood up and went to unlock the door and turn on the lights, he made sure his leg looked normal before opening the door.
He slowly opened the door and saw that it was Superboy, he must have heard the door opening because he had stepped back. Superboy crossed his arms, "Batman's here, he said to come get you." Phantom nodded and Superboy walked away as Phantom leaned on the door frame to take the pressure off his leg.
Once Superboy had disappeared Phantom floated in the air and slowly flew to where he was sure Batman and the others were. Once he was close enough to where they could see him he walked over to them and he had his hands in his pockets. He stayed away from the group but he was close enough so that they knew he was there and could hear them.
When Batman saw Phantom he started speaking, "Aqualad told me what happened during the mission. You stopped the weapons exchange but you don't know who had arranged it nor did you catch them."
Phantom rolled his eyes, "That's not entirely true." Everyone looked at him and he shrugged. "One of the men told me who was involved, the guys calling the shots are Luther and Vlad."
Batman raised an eyebrow, "We know who Luther is but who's Vlad?"
Phantom mentally sighed, "Vlad is like me, he's one of my enemies and from the looks of it he's up to something and he needs a partner, or partners, to do it."
Artemis looked at him questioningly, "Then why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"Because he's a dangerous, insane, egotistical, psychopath that doesn't care if someone gets hurt as long as he gets what he wants." Phantom didn't seem to like the guy, then again he had fought him and he wasn't exactly nice to the guy. They were surprised that Phantom had said all of that without any emotion what so ever, it was like he was talking about the weather.
Batman looked completely serious, then again when doesn't he look serious, he's Batman. "We'll discuss this later but for now I need to talk to the team."
Phantom was more then happy to leave, "Thank Clockwork." They would have asked who Clockwork was but Phantom was out of the room before they could. Robin kind of felt like going after Phantom since he seemed upset, oh who was he kidding he was definitely upset.
Phantom hadn't been happy when he woke up earlier that morning and he was pretty sure he knew why. Phantom told him that he had a nightmare and something told him he had them more than he'd admit. Plus he had been hurt and he might still be in pain, and he was probably really tired.
The only reason he didn't was because of what he heard not long after Phantom disappeared. Batman looked at the team, "How did Phantom work with all of you on the mission?" Robin was pretty sure this had something to do with proving that Phantom wasn't a danger to them.
Aqualad answered, "He was actually very easy to work with, he followed all of the orders I gave him. He helped us during the fight and he distracted the enemy so we could stop them from getting the weapons."
Megan jumped into the conversation, "He also stopped someone from hitting us with a missile launcher."
Robin cut in, "He seemed like he didn't want us to get hurt, it was almost like he was being protective." When Robin said that his teammates realized that it was true, he really had seemed like he was being protective. Batman was a bit happy that Robin had said that, it meant that he was right about Phantom not being a threat to them.
Silence fell over the group for a moment and Aqualad broke it, "I'd like to bring up another topic. I think it is clear that Phantom does indeed have problems that may never truly go away. However he has proven that he can work with this team and that he'd be a valuable asset. If it's possible I'd like to request that he join the team."
Everyone seemed slightly shocked by Aqualad's request, including Batman, but the team was quick to back him up. They all said that they wanted Phantom to join as well and Batman looked slightly annoyed. "Calm down," They all stopped speaking immediately and Batman continued, "If he agrees then he can, Black Canary has to be there when you ask though."
Batman left shortly after that since the team seemed excited about asking Phantom to join. Robin was hoping he'd say yes, after Batman had left he suggested that they wait until Phantom was in a better mood. They all wanted to ask him now but they were willing to be patient and leave him alone for a while.
They were still excited though, he might become a part of the team!
*****
So what do you guys think will happen? Will Phantom join the team or will he refuse? Leave a comment and tell me what you think!