"So did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"A new member joined the League. Apparently he's a real creep, too."

"Tch. I'm pretty sure I would've heard about this before. That's just rumor talk."

"Is not! I'll have you know that my source is very reliable."

"Fan-based chat forums aren't a reliable source."

"Well Red Arrow is."

"... Red said that?"

"Yeah, and you know that Green Arrow has a big mouth. He probably let it slip."

"Huh. I can't believe Bats didn't tell me about this before."

"Whatever. Come on Rob, before Black Canary chews us out for being late again."

"Yeah, all right KF."

The Watchtower was buzzing with activity. Everywhere superheroes were flying, teleporting, or speeding about - all in a sort of controlled panic. They all had the same thing on their minds, but whatever it was, Danny had no idea.

Not wanting to get into their way, and after already having bumped into the steely-faced and stiff-lipped Captain Atom, Danny stuck precariously to the sidelines as all this chaos was taking place about him. Watching with wary eyes, Danny was somewhat elated when he caught the familiar sight of his blue mentor floating towards him. The "League's Haunter", as some have taken to monikering him with (much to Vlad's annoyance), had the same sort-of-urgent-but-trying-not-to-worry-about-it-too-much look on his face as well.

"Vlad, what's going on?" Danny questioned, amidst everything that was happening. Trying to be patient with him, Vlad regarded him slightly before replying.

"It's nothing for you to worry about Daniel, now I'm sorry but training will be canceled today. There is something that I must attend to at the moment," he muttered distractedly, and without even bidding a good-bye went about his way leaving confused blue eyes to watch his retreating form.

Danny sighed, trying to convince himself that the pang in his gut was annoyance and not self-pity at being ignored. Ghosting his way through the halls, he reached the Mess Hall which had remained relatively quiet as many of the heroes were more concerned about work in the Central Station and not with food.

Taking a nearby seat, he drummed his fingers against the table in a vain effort to pass the time more quickly. Lately he had found himself becoming more and more bored, the Tower hardly equipped to keep a teenage'd boy entertained. Other than Vlad, the only other people who bothered talking to him every now and then had been Wonder Woman and Batman.

Occasionally the Flash or Captain Marvel would drop by for a few minutes at a time to talk with him and ask a few questions, but Danny had the impression that that was merely in their nature to do so.

Hearing some footsteps coming his way, Danny turned around just in time to see the Big Guy himself accompanied by Hawkman who were speaking of some manner or another in hushed tones. Danny had only seen Superman once before, but had heard enough about him to get some comprehension about the reputation he held. The two walked right past him and completely didn't notice him.

It was then that Danny realized he was still in ghost form and invisible to the human eye.

Walking over to the path they had taken, Danny looked backwards and started to unhesitantly retrace their steps. With only a vague idea in mind of where he was going, Danny ended up getting lost quite a few times and had to turn back more than once. Finally, after what seemed like quite a while, he had stumbled over the Zeta-Beam portal.

They said I could leave anytime I wanted to. Danny reasoned with himself, trying to gain the courage to go through it. But they also said that I needed to ask first. He backtracked a little, chewing on the inside of his lip. Contemplating the pros and cons, he finally shook his head in resignation, knowing that he was going to regret his choice.

"All right, so how does this thing work again?" he mumbled to himself and started fiddling with the buttons. Miraculously, they responded and the Zeta-Beam opened to reveal that bright light.

"All right, here goes then."

Vlad was not happy. Actually, that sounded too weak. Furious was more like it.

He had not bargained for this, he did not want to become a full-time member of the Justice League. And he certainly did not want to deal with their bratty sidekicks. The little runts thought they could play with the big boys, but Vlad knew that the moment one of them fell down and scraped their knee the adults would have to intervene to once again establish the rules.

In other words, it was a pain having to cover up for them and hide their tracks. Their little team was still relatively new and Batman wanted to keep the public and the media unaware of them. At least for a little while.

So here he was now, having to overshadow reporters and politicians who had become enlightened with that little piece of information and making sure that it didn't get out.

There was one other thing that bothered Vlad about this Jr. Justice League. The fact that the others enjoyed the prospect of Daniel joining them. He could still remember how that meeting went down.

Plasmius found himself situated between Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado, the meeting table set up so that it was by alphabetical order so as not to imply a power rank. Batman had taken the lead and was talking about how property damage and increased and that they needed to be more careful when fighting in urban settings.

"-In other words, Aquaman, no more summoning sea monsters for help. The mayor of Jump is pretty set on demanding penalty fines this time," concluding that portion of the meeting on that semi-scolding note, the Bat cleared his throat before continuing.

"Onto other matters - as you are all already aware of - Aqualad, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Robin, Superboy, and fairly recently Artemis, have all been assigned as a covert operations team. I bring this up now, because I would like to nominate a new member. Daniel Fenton aka Phantom."

While the nomination was directed at the entire League, it was obvious that the Bat had been waiting for a response specifically from Plasmius. And a response is what he got.

"Absolutely not," he declared in a tone of finality, making no room for an argument. The others had immediately tensed - no one said "no" to Batman. It simply wasn't done. While it was no secret that Plasmius wasn't here entirely on his choice, the man still did what was asked of him. Which usually included the gray side of the law. The kind of duties that if Superman was caught doing would put the entire League under fire and perhaps breach the NATO agreement.

"If you would at least consider it-"

"-I said no. You may have me indebted, but Daniel owes no obligation to you or your League."

The meeting had ended on that sour note. That was two days ago, and yesterday was an excellent example of why Vlad didn't want Daniel on that team. It was dangerous and risky. Two things that Daniel didn't need in his life at the moment. After all, how could he trust the Little Badger to a team where even the den-mother turned out to be a traitor?

Vlad was still caught up in seething in front of the monitors (he had drawn the short end of the stick for monitor duty) when a voice surprised him.

"Plasmius, we need to talk about Daniel."

Despite his best efforts, he jumped slightly in his seat. Turning around, a seething look on his face, Vlad faced the Dark Knight. This was becoming a regular scenario.

"Instead of sneaking up on people, why don't you just knock for once, hmm?" Vlad demanded, incredibly annoyed at the moment, only for (of course) Batman to completely ignore him and go off on his own tangent.

"I didn't want to say this in front of the others, but Daniel hasn't been making any progress as far as his mental health goes."

That had certainly shut Vlad up and forced him to listen. Seeing that he had the older man's attention, Batman continued.

"At this point, Daniel's mental state can go either of two ways. He will continue getting better, or he will regress. If the latter happens, he will have to be readmitted back into Arkham."

Before Vlad could protest, the Bat held up a hand to silence him.

"But being around others his own age could help him, give him a chance to socialize. He is still too mentally unstable to be around "normal" kids in a school, but the team could handle him if he lashes out. I am not asking you to do this for me, the League, or for yourself. I am asking you to do this for him."

Very carefully, the Halfa considered this. In the back of his mind, he knew that he was right.

"... And if he chooses not to join?"

"Then that will be his choice and it will be respected."

"... Very well," Vlad finally gave in, "I will speak to him about it."

Now this certainly wasn't right. The portal was supposed to lead to the Hall, if Danny recalled correctly. Where ever he was now was mostly definitely not it.

The place was huge, not nearly as big as the Watchtower, but it was still comfortable for at least dozens of others. It led out to a lounge that was completely furnished with couches and wide-screen plasma TV. Flying around, Danny examined the place curiously.

As far as he could tell, it was empty. And heavily damaged as scorch marks and mildew were spotted here and there. Ignoring this, he let his legs reform and began walking around.

Picking up the broken half of an arrow and setting it back down, Danny turned as he sensed someone (more than one?) approaching him.

Roy had arrived at the Cave as soon as he had heard what happened. Finding the team on the rooftop, they all ended up spending close to an hour up there recalling last night's events.

"You had to have seen Arty's face when lady Red almost scorched her!" Wally teased, the seven of them taking the stairs back down to the lounge.

"Hey, I just saved your life last night! A little gratitude wouldn't kill you, ya know," the blond archer, quick with her tongue, retaliated. Before the speedster could dish out his own comeback, they had reached the final step and the narrow staircase gave out to the lounge. Only to be face to face with a stranger in their home.

The boy had pale hair, as if age were grasping at him well before his time. And a pair of wide, glowing green eyes were staring back, marked with surprise. For a while, nobody moved.

Only for Superboy to break the stillness by lunging at the stranger with an all-mighty roar.

Not even 24 hours ago strangers had broken into his home and hurt his friends. And hurt her. He would not be having any more of it.

Without really thinking, he clenched his hand into a fist and made a swing for the boy. A punch from someone else wouldn't have been such a big deal, but a punch from an angry Kryptonian would likely shatter someone's skull. Vaguely he could hear someone, probably Kaldur, yell out his name, trying to stop him.

But there was no stopping him. Aiming directly for his jaw, Superboy blanched when his fist went harmlessly through him. The momentum of the swing caused the young clone's weight to be thrown forward, and he more or less landed on his face.

Getting up, heavy with indignation, the Kryptonian once again faced their mysterious stranger. Able to see right through him, Superboy noticed the same shocked expressions that they held as well.

"Wait, don't hurt him!" Red Arrow urgently intervened.

"You know him?" Superboy demanded angrily, still humiliated over having been tricked.

"I know of him. He's... Phantom. Am I right?"

The stranger rematerialized himself, becoming more tangible but still glowing ethereally. He nodded. Carefully, quickly.

"Another one like him joined the League. Plasmius, I think," Roy informed the others while scrutinizing the boy.

"Dude... I told you so! You totally owe me!" Wally exclaimed suddenly.

"Nuh-uh, we never made a bet!"

After that the tension in the room had melted away, though Superboy still refused to properly say hello. Automatically taking Red Arrow by his word, and knowing that he was a friend and an ally, the others clamored around him curiously.

"So what kind of powers do you have? I mean, other than intagiblity," Wally questioned, voice wavering from hyper-excitement. Next to him, Robin fired off his own questions.

"Who's the other guy, Plasmius? How come we hadn't heard of him before? When did he become a member?"

"I don't, um... it's just, I'm...," Danny found himself stumbling over his words and speaking in halting sentences. He wasn't used to the much energy being directed at him.

Before he had to finish, the portal had opened up again and read off two names.

"Batman ##, recognized. Plasmius ##, recognized," the synthesized voice listed as said figures stepped out.

"I see you've already met your new member," Batman noted.

"Possibly," Vlad growled, correcting the vigilante.

"Wait, Phantom will be joining us?" Kaldur asked. While he wasn't dismayed over a new member, he would've liked some notice beforehand. This was his team after all.

"If he agrees," the League's Haunter said once more.

With that, all eyes were on Danny waiting for an answer.

"Well, Daniel? What do you say?" the Gotham vigilante asked him directly.

The ghost boy blinked once. Twice. He had no idea what was going on.

"... Huh?" he finally replied rather uneloquently.

"It's a lot to consider. You may think it over for as long as you'd like."

Evil forces were at work.

Simon Goodall was a normal enough man on the surface. He graduated from a local city college, had a job in accounting, voted and paid taxes. Nobody would have guessed that he was involved with dark arts beyond his comprehension.

Soon though, he would have his taste in revenge.

AN:Thank you darlings, for everyone that's reviewed. You're why I bother staying up trying to finish these chapters every Friday night. Anyways, I hope you liked the chapter. Looks like we have some parallel plots developing as well now.

Please review. I'd appreciate it.

And no, I couldn't resist putting in that small shoutout to the Teen Titans show. Also, I apologize for just putting "##". I cannot for the life of me remember what Batman's number was.