Sorry it took so long, and it's kinda a dumb chapter, but I like it a lot. Anyway, enjoy!
"No! How did you do that?! That's fire! OH MY GOSH!"
She flies around, drawers slamming open and cupboards flying open and closed. "Where's the fire extinguisher! PHANTOM!"
I can't stop a smile at her panic. I freeze the pan and the fire with it. She stops, still in the air, her knees to her chest and her hands extended. "Not a fan of fire?" I ask.
"Heat is my weakness! How is it even possible for you to set the boiling water on fire?!"
I glance back at that the pot. My ice has started to melt, but not quickly. "I told you I'm not very good at cooking."
"You said you cook all the time?!"
"Oh. I guess I did say that. I don't have any memories though." She smacks her head. "I'm good enough. At least good enough not to set water on fire." I walk over to the stove and inspect the pan. "And good enough to know to never let Tucker and Robin in the kitchen."
She uncoils, shutting all the drawers and cupboards with her mind. "What do you mean?"
I point to the pot. "That's oil. They put oil in the water."
"How did we miss that?" she asks, peering at the water nervously.
I shrug. "It's probably colorless or something."
"They're jerks," she huffs.
"Yes, but we're the cooks," I reply, taking the water and dumping it all in the sink, the ice chunk breaking in two. She gives me a "so?". In response, I open the spice drawer and hold up a bottle of red pepper flakes.
She smiles.
I convince her to make something that's not pasta, and we settle on stirfry and french toast. What? I like stirfry, she's never had french toast. It was a compromise.
Don't ask me how I know how I like both those food items, because I won't be able to answer.
We use two different pans. Since I don't remember how to make stirfry, she hands me tasks to do as she follows the recipe and actually does the cooking. Currently I'm chopping up a bunch of random vegetables, including onions. Gag.
M'gann is adding oil to the pan (not without inspecting it first though), and gathering the chopped chicken and dropping it into the pan, causing it to sizzle. She frowns slightly at the sparking oil before going over to the sink to wash her hands.
When she turns back, she gasps. Confused, I look up at her. "Danny, are you okay?" she whispers.
Why… Oh, the onions. I resist the urge to smile. My eyes are steaming and it probably looks like I'm crying. "It…" I gulp, turning away. "It just gets so hard sometimes." My voice shakes, but not from tears. Well, not from tears of pain, anyway.
"Oh, Danny." She flies over and throws her arms around me. I stifle a giggle. "What… are those onions?" She pulls away with an annoyed expression. "You're just as bad as Tucker and Robin!"
I laugh and turn back to the onions.
"Speaking of which… Why isn't he ever a civilian?" I muse, moving the knife along the cutting board, careful to keep it away from my fingers and out of my flashbacks.
"Batman doesn't want anyone to know who he is," she replies over her shoulder, sprinkling the chicken with several different spices from her palm. "He wears civilian clothes sometimes. But he also wears sunglasses."
"Will he ever tell you?" I ask.
She shrugs. "Maybe. It doesn't matter to me, though. We don't hang out outside of the team."
"Why not?"
"He lives in Gotham," she responds.
"Oh. Cool." I push my contents into the pan at M'gann's instruction.
She smiles. "It doesn't bother you either, does it?"
"Not really." I'm surprised she got that impression based on my questions, but I guess she is a telepath. "I'm curious, but I'm always curious."
"Sometimes Conner gets huffy about it." She grins. "But he has trust issues. It's not about actually knowing. It's about not being trusted with it."
"Are you guys together?" I blurt. "I know it's random, but it seemed obvious, but I could be clueless, and nobody's straight out told me. Robin said some cryptic things and… Yeah."
She chuckles. "Yes, we are. You're not clueless, and Robin's just a butt. You got that Artemis and Wally are together too, right?"
I laugh. "I'd be concerned if I didn't."
"And Robin and Zatanna," she continues.
"Wait, what?"
"I'm just kidding! Robin's such a player."
I raise my eyebrows. "Disappointed?"
She laughs and shrugs. "What? No. He's cute, I guess, but he's like an annoying younger brother."
"He is the ultimate annoying younger brother," I agree, rolling my eyes. "Even though we're only like two years apart, and I'm losing my first sixteen years, I still feel like I'm babysitting him sometimes."
She giggles.
We place the food on plates, using separate ones for each, placing the four on the table. M'gann uses her telekinesis to set the table with utensils as I place the soy sauce, syrup, butter, and all the other random bottles M'gann insisted we'd need.
"You get the team," I tell M'gann. "And um… Warn them to not use the syrup or soy sauce."
She glances at them curiously.
"What did you do to them?" she asks.
I shrug. "Guess you'll have to wait and see…"
She grins and I hear Dinner Time! Ring through the mindlink that never really seems to be off.
Wally is there in seconds, sitting at the table with a huge grin at the food. "These don't really go together," he notes, gesturing at the two dishes.
I shrug.
He gives me a goofy grin. "Good enough for me."
Don't use the soy sauce or syrup, M'gann informs over the mindlink.
Why? Wally and Conner both ask. I can feel the rest of the team wondering.
Mindlinks are weird.
Danny? M'gann asks.
You'll see…
The team quickly joins Wally at the table, and as soon as they're all seated, M'gann gives the signal to go ahead.
Wally waits for everyone else to get food, which happens pretty much every night. Robin and Tucker fill up first, then Aqualad and Conner are polite enough to let all the girls get their food before them. Then the rest of us get some, followed by Wally grabbing the resulting serving plates (which are still about half full).
The team watches with realization as both Tucker and Robin drizzle their food with the sauces we'd warned them against. M'gann and I both share a glance.
I feign drinking water to avoid the telltale smile.
Tucker goes for the stirfry first, and Robin goes for the french toast. I'm glad they chose different dishes. It's better this way. The team (even Wally) pause to watch what happens.
Tucker immediately hacks, going for his water. Robin gulps and starts coughing harshly, reaching for his water too. As soon as they take a sip they spit it right back into the glass. They push back from the table and run to the kitchen.
I just sip my water.
The team bursts into a laughing fit.
"What… What did you do!" laughs Artemis.
"Um… Well, I put a lot of hot sauce and cayenne pepper in the soy sauce… and the syrup is straight vanilla and cinnamon. I'm surprised they didn't smell it." I can't help the huge smile. The syrup is like the cinnamon challenge; a teaspoon of straight cinnamon. But with vanilla too! Vanilla is nasty on its own.
"Straight vanilla…" M'gann picks up the pitcher and it moves with the consistency of thick water. "How did they miss this?"
"I put that clear syrup stuff in it so it'd be thicker and mask the smell at least a little bit."
"What was in our water?" shouts Tucker from the sink before spraying more water in his mouth.
"OIL," I announce pointedly.
The team looks confused. M'gann fills them in. "They put oil in the water we were boiling, and it set on fire."
They continue looking humorously at Robin and Tucker as M'gann replaces the ruined sauce and syrup, switching it out for unopened bottles. I'd saved a couple plates of unruined food for Tucker and Robin, and they grudgingly get it and glare at me before actually eating this time, albeit a bit more warily.
"Revenge a la Danny," Zatanna snickers, and Robin and Tucker give her dirty looks. She just grins.
Jazz even smiles. I didn't even think she was capable of that. "There's this guy at our high school," she begins, still smiling slightly. "Danny was mad at him, for some reason… I forget. It's not important. But Danny went into this guy's house and gathered all of these pink and purple stuffed bears and stuffed them all in the guy's locker." She's saying "this guy" a lot. Wonder why?
"This revenge thing is unhealthy," Robin mumbles around a mouthful of food. "You need to learn to let things go."
I smirk at him and send a kick under the table.
He yelps, choking on his food and sputtering.
Everyone looks at me. I look at Robin with mock concern. "Gosh, are you okay?"
The table snickers again.
He scowls at me but doesn't retaliate, and we return to our meal. It finishes without any more incident, even if Robin still looks miffed.
Then he acts weird. He dabs his mouth with a napkin I don't remember him having, then locks eyes with M'gann. "Thank you for dinner. That was lovely."
I raise an eyebrow. "Um, what about me?"
He focuses on me and I immediately regret talking. Almost as fast as Wally, he hops up on his seat and launches at me, flying across the table.
I scream (but in a manly way, mind you) as my chair tips back and Robin tackles me.
We fight for control on who gets to be on top and pin the other, but unfortunately, Robin is way more trained than me.
"Intangibility!" shouts Tucker from the table.
"Oh. Duh." I sink into the floor. Robin shouts at Tucker about cheating, then at me for cheating, then throws his hands up and walks away.
I reappear.
Artemis shrugs. "Who's up for a movie?"
The team agrees and we all end up on the couch, arguing about which kind of movie to watch. I personally want a horror movie, and Tucker and Wally back me up on that. Conner, Robin (who'd come back from his pout) and Artemis are shooting for action/adventure, and Zatanna, M'gann and Jazz want some kind of RomCom. Aqualad looks like he couldn't care less, but he is the tie breaking vote so the three opposing groups try to sweet talk them on their side.
He eventually votes a horror much to my delight, but our victory turns sour as we start arguing what movie in that genre to watch. Eventually annoyed, I steal the remote with my intangibility and click on the first one that pops up.
It's a ghost film.
I love it.
The team goes quiet and begrudgingly accepts the choice. The moment the first horribly fake scream rings out the team snaps out of their silence and starts chattering.
Much like roles on missions, the team takes specific roles in watching the movie. Conner, Robin and Zatanna are in charge of critique, M'gann and Kaldur sympathize with the characters, Wally and Tucker shout out cliche warnings and Jazz and Artemis shush them constantly.
I'm the only one content with watching everyone else's reactions and not adding my own.
Like any good horror movie, the acting is terrible, the lights and sound effects are even worse, and the monster looks fake. But the jumpscares and deaths are frequent, the storyline almost believable, and the characters unable to defeat it in the end. So it's coming… for you.
When the final blood streaked words appear, the entire team is silent… until we all burst into a laughing fit. I sit behind everyone, on the top of the couch, and I realize I could very easily slip away. Robin had glanced back every once in a while, but he slowly stopped.
As the team wrestles for another movie-the sequel to the one we just watched is winning the argument so far- a plan seems to take form.
The movie starts, and M'gann, who went to get popcorn, turns off the lights and hands out six different bowls. Robin changes the tropical display behind the large flat screen to dark and stormy woods to add to the mood, and everyone quiets for the opening credits.
The teens walk in a dark forest, their car broken. Wally comments as they try to turn over the engine. Robin comments as they stumble through the woods. M'gann gasps as one falls down a mudbank.
I place my hand on the ground, letting my cold seep through the concrete. Subtle enough that no one really notices, but chilled enough that Wally grabs a blanket from the ottoman, wrapping it around him and Artemis. Robin puts an arm around Zatanna and she gives him a close-lipped growl, but lets it stay there.
Everyone else just kind moves closer together, but nobody realizes it was me.
I grin.
The ghost appears, and the teens scream in fear. They run to the kitchen, trying to find salt or iron or whatever.
Silently, I grab the salt from the kitchen, open it, and set it on the very edge of the counter. I hurry back, alighting softly on the couch. Tense music rumbles through the speakers. Silence. Silence.
The salt slams on the ground, and a couple team members yelp. I glance back. "I think something just fell," I offer helpfully.
They turn back to the movie.
I wonder if anybody has fake blood. The next thing I do is turn on the AC, freezing the grate so the wind is icy cold.
Then I slip through Robin invisibly, taking his remote control for the cave. It's touch screen, and I fiddle with it as the movie continues. The team is getting colder and colder, and the slight wind blows at their hair.
"Robin, why is it so cold?" Wally whines as the girls in the movie run through the haunted house.
"Let me- Has anyone seen my remote?"
At that instant, I find Robin's downloaded sounds, including thunder. I hit it, and the team gasps. I gasp with them, turning the remote invisible as the team looks around for it.
I palm the remote, setting in several commands. Wow, Robin has this entire place mapped out with pranks!
Movie, shut off, keep sound on and playing everywhere. Lights off. Showers on. AC on.
I hit initiate all at once, and the room plunges into darkness. Wally yelps and Tucker screams like a girl. I make a duplicate before lighting up my hand. The room illuminates with green light.
"Okay, who's pranking us?" Artemis demands.
"Everyone's here," Tucker replies.
"Robin?" she continues.
"It's not me! I don't have my remote! Someone took it."
"Okay, this isn't funny," I say seriously, frowning. "Wally, is it you? You'd be fast enough to steal his remote."
"Yeah, and you could've just phased through it!" he returns.
"This is not my idea of fun!" I shout back, pretending to be furious.
Kaldur tries to calm us. My duplicate is setting traps over the Cave, trying to guess the team's path.
"This is ridiculous," Jazz huffs, as the audio lets out a blood curdling scream.
The team jumps.
"Let's go find the main computer," Robin suggests, and I float ahead, carrying the light in my palm. Several team members grunt as they slip over a pool of oil that my duplicate spread. Only Megan and I, who are floating, are spared.
"Is… Is this oil?" Wally groans. "Is this another Robin and Tucker versus Danny prank wars?"
I frown. "It's Megan and Danny against Robin and Tucker. Everyone else is excluded."
"You two are the only ones who didn't fall," Jazz notes.
"We're also the only two who can fly," Megan replies.
True.
I decide I need to further distance myself from the blame. To do that, I need to take down my supposed team member.
My duplicate responds by launching out of one wall and slamming into Megan by the waist, carrying her through the opposite wall. The process was almost silent, but Superboy heard and his eyes dart to where he heard her almost silent gasp. His eyes widen.
"Where's M'gann?!" he demands to the air.
Meanwhile, my duplicate had carried M'gann into the closest room. Shoot. I probably need to get Superboy too. He can hear everything in the Cave.
"Megan, and Conner, too, I guess, since he can probably hear me, well, hi. It's me. This is fun. Want to join in?"
Megan giggles and nods, totally up for a huge prank war. Conner locks eyes with me, and I give an almost imperceptible smirk. His eyes are hard, and he glances once at the team, who are shaking off oil and grumbling. He looks at his own oil covered clothes. Then, he nods.
The team fights again, but this time Conner shuts them up. "Let's just get these stupid lights on," he growls. I resist a smile. This is too fun.
After using my intangibility to rid them all of oil, we walk along the hall again, careful of more booby traps. Megan and my duplicate are setting up the mission room, but they're not quite done so I stall them all by being extra careful.
"I hope we don't have a mission during this," Robin comments. "This would be impossible to explain to Batman."
"Dibs on you explaining," Wally says immediately after he finishes talking. The team quickly agrees and Robin glares at us all.
Megan gives me the okay telepathically and I use my duplicate again, to kidnap Conner.
He goes directly underneath Conner and yanks him completely underground. He does a little grunt/yelp/cry of surprise kind of noise and is gone. The team chatters again. They still think this is a prank, but it's getting a little less solid.
We count our losses and go into the mission room.
My light doesn't carry far, but we can distinctly see blood drops. I resist another grin. Megan knew where fake blood was (Halloween, apparently). I bring up a brighter light. The room is illuminated in eerie green.
"What's on the wall?" Robin asks, drawing closer. I follow with my light, face deadly serious.
Megan had suggested it. Drawing stick figures of all the team members on the wall with chalk. Our symbols are etched under the feet, some defining features too. Robin has his R and a cape, Kaldur two swords and an A, Wally goggles and a lightning bolt, Superboy the S on his chest, me a cape and my DP, Tucker glasses and a PDA as a symbol, Zatanna a bowtie and a magic wand, Artemis a ponytail and bow and arrow, Megan a cape and an X, and finally Jazz with a hairband and hair. There is no symbol for her.
On Megan and Conner's figures, there are slashes of fake blood. As we watch, my duplicate, invisible, slashes a paintbrush of blood over Kaldur's picture. We all jerk, surprised, looking to Kaldur.
He looks confused, until my duplicate grabs his foot and drags him off. He hits the ground, bracing his arms on the smooth concrete, kicking at the assailant. The rest of the team tries to react, but my duplicate moves fast. Wally tries to grab him, being the fastest, but Kaldur turns intangible and goes straight through the wall.
My duplicate reappears for Kaldur, and he drops out of his fighting stance, smiling but disapproving. As the team freaks a little bit, duplicate Danny convinces Aqualad to take part in the pranking. He agrees, and brings an amazing idea with him.
The temperature continues to drop as we try to discuss what to do, and if it's even real or not. Twice more the blame comes by me, but I either get defensive or melancholy, and they lay off.
Our breath is fogged in the dim light, and for a fraction of an instant, I remember the faintest but most helpful memory thus far.
My breath turns white when a ghost is near. I saw it while fighting the glob monster, but it was faint and I assumed it was my ice powers at work.
I take a deep breath and gasp out all the white breath.
Jazz and Tucker look at each other.
"What was that?" I ask.
"Your… Ghost sense…" Tucker reveals warily. "That means there's another ghost in here. And… it's close."
Everyone's immediately alert, backing into a circle. I float slightly above their heads, trying to provide light for the danger ahead.
Until the danger ahead grabs me from the ceiling in the form of a noose. Kaldur argued around my neck might be too real, and there's a line between funny-scary and call-the-League-scary that we shouldn't cross. It snags my wrist and wrenches me up. I shout a warning and kick out my legs.
My light goes out and my duplicate and I make a loud and convincing dark fight. The only illumination is my ghost rays and ice energy. My duplicate "wins" though and we wrestle out of the room, my shouts muffled as if being stifled.
I hold the team members I'd captured invisibly as the team scrambles for more light. The flashlights are produced by Robin and Artemis. He shines it on our pictures. My picture is now slashed out. Megan almost loses it at their faces. They're actually scared now!
Robin takes out several glowsticks. "Put these on. That way we'll know where we are."
I point to the glowsticks. Kaldur knows what I mean and pulls out one of his own. I take it with a grin.
As the team searches for the missing members, we stick to Megan's room, decking me out in ghost gear. She uses her organic clothes to morph a full body suit that looks like human skin with rags of clothes. She uses a hood to mask my face, but puts blood all over it so it can shine in the dim light. I dip my bangs in fake blood.
"Nice," Conner comments.
"Why did you start this?" Kaldur asks randomly.
I shrug. "I just kinda felt like it. It wasn't supposed to get so complicated, but I like it this way. Anyway, who's next?"
"I say Tucker and Robin are last," Conner suggests.
Megan nods. "And we can separate them."
"Zatanna," Kaldur answers. "She has magical abilities. That could help immensely." He pauses. "This isn't what a leader should do."
"Yes… He should lead," I respond. I hold up a glowstick.
He smiles. "What do you have in mind?"
Ten minutes later, the remaining team is faced in the training room with a dark figure with glowing red eyes.
Flashlights shine.
"Kaldur!"
His mouth opens, and a screech emits. Suddenly there are four more figures from seemingly nowhere, all with glowing red eyes.
"I don't think…" Jazz starts just as water from the pool rushes forward at Kaldur's command.
Flashlights are abandoned.
"Eht moor si detanimulli," cries Zatanna, and the room is filled with brilliant white light.
There are four of us, all decked with red contact lenses (the glow is for the outside of our lids), Kaldur, Megan, Conner and me. My duplicate dressed as the other ghost stands just out of sight. He screeches, and we attack.
The team immediately defends against the "turned" teammates, holding back to avoid hurting them.
"They're possessed," Jazz informs the team.
Zatanna's eyes furrow. "Lepxe eht tirips!"
Megan follows through on her attack, throwing Zatanna into the foam blocks underneath the gymnastic equipment.
"Why didn't that work?" Wally shouts.
"It's incredibly complicated, or maybe…" her eyebrows furrow as she mutters a spell to get her out of the pit. "No, they are… They feel like spirits…" No they don't. I feel like a spirit. "But they feel like…" I can see her connection starting. I have a lot of presence in this room, but she's going to figure out it's the only presence.
The dressed duplicate flickers in and out of invisibility, moving around the room. He appears right in front of Zatanna. She shouts, but they both disappear. Zatanna's spell fails as she is forced through solid ground, and the light shuts off, the "possessed" members closing their eyes for the glowing eye effect, then disappearing before Robin can find the flashlight again.
Zatanna jerks from my duplicate when it places her down. She begins a rapid spell, but the duplicate laughs, getting joined by the other team members. I flick on the room's light.
Megan laughs. "Don't worry. It's just a prank."
She takes out a contact lense and smiles.
Zatanna looks surprised before it morphs into anger. "That's so mean! You really scared us back there, and you know, I so want in!"
"Of course! Let's get you possessed." Megan takes out a spare set of contact lenses.
"What? No way. Let's use a little magic. Der, gniwolg seye rof enoyreve." All our eyes turn bright red.
"Cool," I say.
She looks at me. "Ffo." Our eyes turn back to the normal lenses. "Did you start this?"
I give her a smile.
She laughs. "This is so much fun! Now that I'm on this side, I mean. That was starting to freak me out."
"What's next?" Conner asks.
I shrug. "Um… Who's left? Wally, Artemis, and Jazz, right?"
"And Robin and Tucker," Zatanna adds.
"Yeah, but we're not getting them," Kaldur tells her. "I say we split them up and take the three at once. Wally and Artemis won't be entertained if they're taken separately. And Jazz is at risk of finding out."
"Okay. Let's use some good old fashioned bait," I suggest. "In several different places."
"I call kidnapping Jazz~" Zatanna sings.
"I'll take Robin and Tucker," I decide.
"M'gann and I can take Artemis, if Kaldur gets Wally," Conner suggests.
"You know, it surprises me most that you're in on this," Zatanna directs at him. He just gives her a wolfish smile. I turn off the lights.
"No," Zatanna mutters, and our eyes glow again. M'gann asks for her's off, and it dims.
The team is back in the mission room. The figures are up-to-date, courtesy of Megan. All at once, Megan gives the signal and four separate screams for help ring out at the same time, one of them mine, the others being Megan, Zatanna and Kaldur.
Conner refused to scream.
"They want to separate us," Robin notes. I'd flown up from the corridor to hear their conversation.
"I don't care. Danny needs our help," Jazz snaps. I grin as they start arguing again, going where Zatanna is. She briefly starts to attack, but recognizes me and stops. I smile at her and scream Jazz's name.
I wink and disappear. When I get back to the mission room, Jazz is gone and the team looks ready to go after her. Robin is looking around, and I let my duplicate appear just long enough for Robin's attention. Frosty footsteps lead off into the darkness of the corridor.
Like I thought, he immediately runs off, not bothering to get the rest of the team. Megan and Kaldur shout for help at the same time, and Wally and Artemis make a split decision to go after them together, assuming Robin and Tucker are together. Of course, they never looked to see, leaving Tucker alone.
I appear in my Phantom attire with glowing red eyes.
"Hey… Danny… Possessed, are you?" he stammers nervously.
"Hey, Tucker," I agree, walking closer. He takes several steps back.
All of a sudden, a stick of glowing green is slamming into my chest, and Tucker turns on his heel and bolts down a random hallway. I rub my sore chest.
Wow, he's gotten better.
Wait, better from what?
I ignore it, slashing the figures taken before waiting invisibly for people to return.
Megan informs me they have everyone (Jazz was sour, but she lightened up. Artemis was downright furious before we told her our final reveal) and I wait for Tucker and Robin to come back.
They eventually do, after fifteen minutes of caution and finding each other. The team torments them the entire time.
They shine the figures. They're all slashed except for themselves.
"Time to call Batman?" Robin asks.
Tucker nods. Robin goes for his watch, but my duplicate goes right in front of them, glowing ethereally. He tilts his head. One by one, pairs of red eyes open in a circle around them, including me on the end. They jerk around, guessing we're the team.
The ghost turns, slashing twice with his bloody hands, taking the last two figures.
All at once, every light source and sound shuts off, leaving them in darkness.
They both scream (but not like little girls like I hoped. As teenage boys). For three seconds there's absolute quiet as the team rushes around in silence, then I turn the lights back on.
All blood and stick figures are gone (courtesy of my intangibility), the team disappeared as well. I replace the remote on Robin's belt without alerting him. He's standing in a battle stance, several weapons in each hand.
I return to the team in the movie room.
Several minutes later, Robin and Tucker join us. All they see is the team reclining on the couch, eating popcorn and arguing over the movies.
I look at their ghastly faces. "Is something wrong?"
Zatanna jumps in. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
Their confusion is priceless.
That was kind of a strange chapter, I know, but I needed some bonding and the idea just kinda came. Seems like something Danny would do, huh? Start an innocent prank that gets more and more elaborate? Maybe not? It's not important.
I rewrote the first twentyish chapters (mostly mistake fixes and inserted plot points, only a couple are completely rewritten).