Chapter 6

Batman didn't know what to make of the petrified, careful boy that the team of protégés had discovered.

When he had first heard the news about the injured boy, he was immediately curious as to why he was at the secret lab, and if his predictions were right, then it angered him that people could stoop to such merciless levels. Of course, being Batman, he had done additional research into the lab, trying to find out what exactly they did there. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to keep much of their data digitally, so he hadn't been able to find much. However, they did seem to have a few useful files that he was able to look at.

One of the useful files just so happened to be a file about the mysterious boy.

Hacking his way into the data, he had little trouble getting past the first few firewalls, however he couldn't get further without the safe guard deleting the hard drive. Luckily, he was able to decode some basic information.

Project H-01

Documented name: Fenton, Daniel James

Gender: Male

Age acquired: 4 years

Species: Halfa

Acquired from: Fenton, Madeline (eliminated)

Fenton, Jackson (eliminated)

Fenton, Jasmine (location unknown)

Origin: unknown

Notes:

Human DNA type doesn't match Fenton DNA

Suddenly the file closed and a pop up error appeared on the screen.

"Shit." The Dark Knight muttered frantically trying to override the safe guard that was set up to protect the information.

Unfortunately, while it deleted most information, he managed to save the file he could get into. Leaning back with a sigh of mostly relief and a bit of frustration before he printed the file out and left the bat-cave.

He had a halfa to question.

Have you ever had the feeling of complete and utter helplessness? The feeling of knowing that something bad could happen to you and you wouldn't be able to do a thing about it?

The eerie feeling of impending doom is a natural instinct of human beings, or beings similar in intellect to humans. Call it a gut feeling, or your "lizard brain" if you will.

Danny, as he sat in the bright room, lit artificially with fluorescent lights that hung over head, didn't feel the chilling sensation of danger.

That' had never happened before. It was always a presence, buzzing in the back of his head, spiking to alert him that someone was coming, something was about to happen, get ready, get ready, get ready, getready, getready, getreadygetreadygetready-

-but strangely, that hadn't happened since he woke up in the new room where he was on a bed and being helped.

The sensation was gone.

And although it was supposed to be a good sign, he still didn't like it.

Its absence was far too noticeable to him. And it made him uneasy, nervous, helpless. He had no way of telling when someone was coming.

So it was understandable when he jumped a foot in the air at the sound of the heavy door to the room he was staying in swinging open.

Turning sharp, startled eyes towards the opening, he spotted the man in black – Batmanand three new people. If you could call them that, seeing as he didn't think humans wore clothes like that. At least not in his limited experience.

But what did he know about today's pop culture?

They circled Batman, as if he were the leader. The word Alpha resurfaced in his mind.

On Batman's right stood a muscular man slightly taller than the Dark Knight.. He had black, slicked back hair. He was clothed in an amour-like blue and red spandex with a red cape (Danny couldn't help but wonder if it was just a new thing now, to wear a blanket on your back).On his chest was a styled "S" inside of a diamond.

Next to him stood a woman she wore similar color schemes, however her outfit consisted of a considerable amount of gold. She had long black hair that was held back by what seemed to be a tiara or headband of some kind. She wore a mini-skirt and knee high boots with a one-piece leotard. Both of her forearms were encased in golden metal, and she had a lasso strapped to her hip (He thought only cowboys used those). He could almost say that the tall man and the gold woman were related, but they sent off different auras. Not human, but not the same as each other either.

And finally there was a lean man dressed head to toe in neon red. He had the same symbol and color scheme as Kid Flash, so Danny could only assume this was his mentor or keeper (did normal people have those? Keepers? He had a keeper while in the lab. He didn't like it). The red man had the same amount of electricity buzzing throughout his form, but it was stronger, more experienced. Oddly, it didn't feel threatening despite its obvious power.

The boy slowly lowered himself from his perch in the upper right hand corner of room, the closest and safest place to be when taken by surprise seeing as one had to fly to get there and it partially him in the shadows. The red man stared wide eyed at the unintentional display of power.

"Woah, little man. You can fly?!"

Batman watched the young child flinch slightly at the outburst before he narrowed his lumenscent eyes and cocked his head to the side in a child-like confusion.

The Caped Crusader turned a mild Bat Glare at the red speedster, who promptly closed his mouth with a quiet click and looked apologetically toward the boy. Batman, satisfied with the younger man's reaction cleared his throat, effectively gaining the sharp gaze of the unnatural green eyes.

"Daniel Fenton?"

Batman could practically see the walls shooting up as the prepubescent child narrowed his eyes further, this time in suspicion. The Dark Knight continued seemingly unperturbed.

"Daniel James Fenton, that is your name, right?" He asked without looking away from the intense gaze of the other. Both fighting for control and trying to get a read on the other.

The boy responded with one sharp nod.

"We have a few questions." A quiet, almost too quiet to hear, defensive growl emitted from the boys throat. Superman, hearing the growl took a small step forward and purposely directed the boys attention towards him.

The green gaze snapped to him.

"Nothing bad. We don't want to hurt you, we just want some answers. We promise, you're safe now." He said gently to the kid, who in turn relaxed his defensive stance and uncoiled a bit.

Hegave a soft nod of acknowledgment and sat quietly, silently indicating for the others to go on.

The four moved slightly more into the room, taking care not to get too close.

"How old are you?" Batman started.

"Eleven." Was the boy's accented answer, his voice scratchy and quiet from disuse.

Where are your parents?" Superman cut in, concern temporarily overriding his need for information.

"Dead." Looks of sadness and pity, and one pained grimace courtesy of Flash, crossed their faces.

"Do you have any siblings, any family left at all?" Superman continued.

"No sibling. Not anymore. Gone." The boy answered in somewhat choppy English, accent thick but tone flat.

"Why do they call you 'Phantom'?" Batman asked, deciding this line of questioning was not of use at the moment and suddenly remembering when he had first interacted with the boy.

The boy cocked his head in confusion, something the others noticed he did a lot, and scanned the room looking for any sign of a joke.

"Halfa." He said as if they should know, as I this was obvious. He pointed to himself to emphasize what he couldn't put into many words.

"'Hafta'? Hafta what?" Flash blurted out. Danny would laugh at the similarities between the two speedsters if he weren't so thrown off at the question.

They didn't know?

Before he could properly think it through, Danny answered.

"Half-a. Half-spirit. Half dead. Halfa."

A long silence followed and Danny got worried.

All in all, he blamed it on the dizzying feeling of painkillers. He's not used to it. Ignoring the fact that it isn't really doing much, and the fact that he took them out, it was still doing something, so he wasn't in the right state of mind to think his actions all the way through. You'd think with his limited English it would make him less likely to tell his state of being to anyone who asks. Guess not because here they were. Him and the four strangers. Staring at at each other, daring the other to make a move.

The silence drew on from seconds to minutes.

The red man opened his mouth to respond.

And that was where all hell broke loose.