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“Kaldur’s, uh, nice, don’t you think?,” Artemis asks M’gann, watching Robin springboard off Aqualad’s back into a flip during their spar, his creepy laugh echoing in the cave.
The archer is still fairly new to the team, but apart from Miss Martian, Kaldur’ahm is the only member to even attempt politeness.
“Handsome. Commanding,” the blonde lists off, “You should totally ask him out.” If all of them are going to be stuck in a cave together for hours at a time, she may as well try to set her friend up with the best candidate there.
“He’s like a big brother to me,” the other teen dismisses, taking a not so subtle glance at Conner.
“Huh,” the archer murmurs. She hasn’t spoken to the other boy much, but she wouldn’t blame the martian if she was only in it for the looks.
“But,” M’gann says, “you know who would make the cutest couple? You and Wally.” The girl beams as if her words aren’t making the archer physically ill.
It takes all her energy to shake her head wordlessly.
“Yeah,” her traitor of a friend nods, “you’re so full of passion, and he’s so full, of uh—of—”
“it?,” Artemis asks wryly, causing both girls to fall into fits of laughter.
After catching her breath, the blonde fights to keep a straight face as she calls out to Conner. The archer doesn’t know if this is considered assistance or revenge, but the slight panic in M’gann’s eyes helps appease the disgust of picturing her and Wally together.
The boy looks at her in confusion, but walks their way when she waves him over.
“Hi, Conner,” M’gann greets brightly.
“Hi,” he replies in a tone that Artemis would think rude if not for the fact she has never heard him sound any different, in mind links or out loud.
“So, Conner,” the archer grins. “I’ve been meaning to ask. What’s the deal with you and Phantom?,” she asks while nodding at the logo on his shirt. “You a fan?”
He glares down at her, but the slight blush makes him much less threatening as he grits, “He’s my mentor.”
“Really?,” she asks, genuinely surprised, “You seem like you’d have more in common with Superman than a ghost.”
The teen’s expression twitches, but he gives no verbal response.
M’gann quietly explains, “He is made after Superman, but he lives with Phantom.”
The blonde’s eyebrows raise in shock. “Never would’ve taken Superman as a deadbeat.”
The martian tilts her head, mouthing the word ‘deadbeat.’
Conner, on the other hand, blurts, “He’s not my dad,” in a near shout.
The archer raises her hands in surrender. Touchy subject, she notes to herself.
She looks around for a topic change and notices Batman and Phantom entering the room. The archer is momentarily taken aback at their arrival—not Batman, she sees him too often in Gotham—but Phantom, this is her first time seeing the ghost hero in person…he’s shorter than she imagined. She figures she too would be constantly floating if all her coworkers were twice her height.
There is, however, one detail that she knows she’s never heard about before.
“Hey, M’gann, why does Phantom have a baby?”
“That’s Neil,” she informs happily, “he is Phantom’s son.”
“I didn’t know ghosts could have kids,” Artemis says, blinking as her perception of death is forcibly shifted.
It’s strange to see someone who looks younger than her as a parent. She knows that Phantom is older than he appears, but the unease is still there.
“He’s a clone,” Conner informs bluntly.
The fact that someone was able to clone a ghost is a whole topic she doesn’t think she can handle right now, but if one Justice Leaguer was cloned, does that mean Conner and Superman…
The death glare the boy sends her has the teen holding her tongue. That question can wait, and she has a feeling she already knows her answer anyway.
The tension is cut by the zeta-tubes announcing the arrival of the speedsters.
Flash rushes to Batman, apologizing for being late and complaining that “traffic was a nightmare.”
Artemis watches in amusement as Batman silently walks away with a snickering Phantom floating after him. The Gotham vigilante stands in the center of the room, looming over each team member until there is complete silence.
“Today, you will start your power training with Phantom,” the bat announces.
Before the archer can question what ‘power training’ means, Robin shoots his hand up and waves it. Batman stares at the boy silently for a moment before saying “yes, Robin?,” in a weirdly teacher-esque voice.
“What if we don’t have powers?,” boy wonder asks.
“This exercise is meant to train you against opponents that do have abilities,” Batman says, addressing the entire team. “In this line of work, you will fight much stronger enemies, both experience wise and in strength. The goal here is to capacitate those that have the advantage, regardless of your own power status.”
With a final glance at the team (and no more raised hands), Batman calls out “Phantom,” startling the ghost who was clearly not paying attention. “You’re on,” the man states as he walks off to the side.
“Ah, okay,” he fumbles, placing the baby in Batman’s arms with a simple “here.”
Artemis struggles to keep a neutral face when she notices the Bat’s rigid posture and how awkwardly he holds the kid. Hearing Robin and Wally muffling their own laughter doesn’t help.
“Alright.” Phantom claps his gloved hands together as he floats to the center of the arena, his legs turning into a wispy tail. “For this test, I’m going to need you all to fight me. And hopefully we won’t have any interruptions this time around,” the ghost adds with a glare in Batman’s direction for some reason.
After a moment of nothingness passes, the archer looks at the others in confusion, noticing them all doing the same.
Robin slowly raises his hand again, waiting for the ghost’s acknowledging nod before asking, “who’s going first?”
Phantom raises an eyebrow at the teen. “You think you can win one-on-one? I meant all of you.”
Artemis catalogs the other teens’ reactions— Kid Flash’s scoff, Robin’s strained smile, Aqualad’s frown, Miss Martian’s hunched shoulders, Conner’s glare—but her mind is focused on figuring out how to re-kill a ghost.
She instantly launches two arrows, one passing through the ghost, the other exploding the floor right in front of him, and she runs forward to get a better vantage point.
Aqualad’s order of “Wait!” sounds out behind her but she can already see KF’s afterimage circling the ghost, throwing in occasional attacks that sail harmlessly through Phantom. A glance up shows Conner jumping near the ceiling and posing to slam back down on the hero.
The resulting impact shatters the ground, sending the speedster flying with a shout. Through the cloud of dust, she sees the ghost floating lazily, not even giving the teens a glance.
She readies another arrow, but her vision is soon blocked by a wall of smoke. She grits her teeth at the sound of Robin’s creepy laughter, but a voice in her mind soon distracts her.
Everyone, Kaldur’s voice announces, We need a plan— physical attacks like this won’t work against Phantom.
No duh, Wally’s voice groans. The blonde looks over to see the speedster sitting up from his landing spot.
Weapons are useless, Robin complains through the mind link.
Artemis jumps slightly at the batarang flying right past her. Watch where you throw those things, she mentally hisses.
“Are you done yet?,” Phantom asks in a bored tone, his figure becoming clear through the fading smoke.
There is no reply from any of the members, not even in the mind link. Artemis keeps her arrow aimed at the ghost, and she can see the other boys preparing to lunge.
“You know,” Phantom says in the silence, “maybe using intangibility was a bit too much for your first lesson.” The ghost looks around at the teens’ hostile expressions and grins. “Okay, from now on, I’ll just stick to flying.”
Before the outrage can even set in, the archer shoots. The ghost tilts his head in her direction and floats safely outside the line of fire, but the arrow now flies towards a surprised Robin who is quick to roll away with an offended “Hey!”
Conner jumps in to tackle the ghost at the same time a water whip swings, but the ghost simply flies up and lets the teen get hit.
My apologies, Kaldur projects in the link.
Whatever, Conner replies.
Artemis barely restrains herself from screaming in frustration. She can’t get a good aim on Phantom with all her teammates jumping in the way, and none of them are getting any good hits either.
She watches as the hero suddenly swerves in the air and says, “Don’t you know it’s rude to sneak up on a ghost.”
Before she can think of what he means, the ghost grabs the air in front of him and seems to throw something at Conner yelling, “Catch!”
The boy holds out his arms immediately and a yelping M’gann fades back into visibility as she hurtles towards him.
“This is just getting sad,” the hero says with a pitying frown, absently dodging the batarangs and arrows thrown his way. He floats lower to the ground evades Kid Flash’s and Conner’s tackles, ignoring their grunts of pain in the following collision.
Artemis grips her bow tightly, launching another shot when she hears the ghost sigh and say, “let’s go ahead and pause it here for now.”
Her attack is disregarded, but she falters when Phantom’s neon green eyes flare blue. The next thing she knows, she and the team are covered neck to toe in ice—or at least it looks like ice, but it doesn’t actually feel cold.
The blonde knew that Phantom had a lot of powers, but she can’t believe how quickly the fight could have ended if this was a serious battle.
The ghost looks at the venomous expressions from the surrounding teens and chuckles, “How mad would you all be if I asked you to chill out?”
Artemis hears an agonized groan and sees Conner attempting to smack his head on the ice.
“Tough crowd,” Phantom mutters, but the amusement on his face is unmistakable.
“I kind of already figured based on your guys’ past missions, but your teamwork really sucks,” the ghost informs the near murderous teenagers. “Don’t get me wrong, you’re all efficient at taking out large groups, but when it comes to fighting a single powerful opponent, your plans of attack all tend to hinder one another.”
In an instant the ice evaporates, and Artemis looks up to see Phantom’s infuriating smirk as he asks, “How about we try that again? But better.”
The archer doesn’t even need to look at her teammates to know they share her burning glare at the ghost’s challenge.
This ghost is going down.