This Chapter is dedicated to Ghost and FariyFlare for their ideas.

Thank you both.

Intermission 2 : Knives and Ghosts and Ninjas, Oh My!

"Fail : Phantom."

Danny groaned and slowly pushed himself to a sitting position. Today was a mandatory training day under the firm hands of Black Canary, who had been absolutely appalled by his self taught fighting style. After the day he'd had so far, it was excruciatingly painful icing on a humiliatingly disastrous cake.

It had started with waking up to find out his dad, the great Jack Fenton, had fiddled with his alarm clock – trying to make it run on ectoplasm – which had caused it to reset itself, meaning that it hadn't gone off, like, at all.

After a long night on a solo patrol (to make up the time his best friends and his sister had been covering for him) he hadn't woken up when he was supposed to, which meant he was a good half-hour late for school.

One detention slip (which was just a formality now, since he had proven he wouldn't attend those either, unless the teacher managed to tie him to his chair. Only Mr. Lancer had succeeded at that so far) later, and Danny headed off to his next glass.

Unfortunately, Dash Baxter, jerk-er, jock and school bully extraordinaire, had decided that he needed to take out his D- on his favorite punching bag – IE : Danny.

So, because Dash had used his free period to guard the locker Danny had been thrown in, to keep Sam and Tucker from rescuing him – and the Ghost Boy from using his powers to escape, not that the blonde knew that – the teen hero had missed another hour of classwork.

When he had finally been allowed out, Sam freeing him when the jock ran off, (Danny heard Sam, gorgeous, Gothic, steel-toed booted Sam, kick him. He didn't want to think about where, though.) and they were able to head to class.

Then his Ghost Sense went off.

Danny somehow caught the ghosts – a pair of ectopuses – within a few minutes, and had gone to class, only to spend the rest of the school day running around like a chicken with it's head cut off as his G-Sense went off every five, ten minutes. It was only weaker ghosts (animals mostly, with some appearances from the Box Ghost) but it was enough to keep him from getting any work done.

He went to the Zeta-tube that had been installed in Amity for his convenience as soon as the bell rung, only to be stopped every other block by more weak specters. When he had finally reached the 'tube, he was once again late.

Once materialized in the Cave, he had found the training session in full swing.

He hadn't been allowed to explain his tardiness. Instead, Black Canary had called on him to duel her, with the rule of no powers, and pound him into the ground in front of the other teen heroes in the name of training.

Danny knew the heroine wasn't trying to be mean, in fact, she was encouraging him and correcting his form and even expressed her pleasure at how fast he was picking things up, including the more difficult maneuvers she was using, but he was at his breaking point, and he didn't know how much longer he could keep this up before deciding it wasn't worth it and using his Ghostly Wail on everything, no matter that it still drained his Core.

Looking up at the blonde heroine, the smile she was giving him, and the helping hand she was offering him, Danny knew he wouldn't last like this. He had to get away, maybe blow something up, before he exploded.

Meeting her gaze, Danny spoke. "I'm done."

That encouraging smile melts away to be replaced by a small frown. "It's okay not to get things right the first time, Phantom. That's what practice is for. I know it can get tiring, but -"

Danny smacks away the hand that had still been held out to him and taps into his Core to float in a standing position. "No! I'm not doing this anymore. Leave me alone!"

He turns quickly, phasing through the walls until he reaches the ghost proof room that had been added after he joined the Team. When he had told some of the other teen heroes that he had never truly tested his limits, they had told some of the adults, who had made this room even sturdier and had added an obstacle course to help him.

He enters and, as soon as the door closed, Danny begins going through the course as fast as he can. What he really wants to do is shoot something, or better yet, use his Ghostly Wail to level something, but this will have to do until he can go somewhere private without having to worry about attacking someone in anger.

He flew through the course again and again and again, each time trying to beat his previous record and burn off the white hot energy he had gathered from his continuous anger and aggravation throughout the day.

It wasn't really working.

As he was preparing to fly through the series of obstacles again, a light knocking on the metal door catches his ear.

Danny turns just enough to spot the red, black, and yellow costume before returning his attention to the hoop ahead of him. "What do you want? Tell me I shouldn't have blown up at Canary? That she was only trying to help and I'm being unreasonable? Kick me off the Team for verbally attacking a member of the J.L.?"

"No, actually," Robin answers, causing Danny to whirl around to face him. He had honestly thought that he wouldn't be welcomed among them anymore, for this stunt. "We'll come back to the kicking you off the Team thing later. I just figured you could use a more 'whelming way to blow off steam, since we don't have any targets in here yet." He walks over and holds out his gloved hand to show the Ghost Boy what he's holding. "So, I brought you something."

Danny looks down at the thing in the other teen's grasp. It's a small knife, with a black painted wooden handle and an equally dark leather grip, a slightly curved hand guard, and a gleaming steal blade. It's not even six inches long all together.

The Halfa picks it up to get a closer look while the Boy Wonder continues to speak.

"It's a throwing knife. Well, a practice one at any rate. I figured that you could use a new past time that doesn't involve explosions. As cool as they can be, they take a while to clean up. And if you ever run out, you can just make more with your ice. Plus, it runs with the whole ninja thing you've got going on."

Danny gives a small smile and looks at the blank white lenses of Robin's mask. "I-um, I think I'd like that."

Robin's returning smile is blinding. "Great!" he chirps. "Training's done for the day, so we should be alone if you want to go try it out now."

Danny tightens his grip on the small weapon in hand. He's not used to such short a length, considering he only really has any experience with swords (Fright Knight's Soul Shredder, practice swords in the Far Frozen under Frostbite's teaching, and his own Drako Kanalo to name a few) but he can already feel himself getting comfortable with the slight weight the tiny knife holds.

Maybe it really will help calm his nerves a bit.

He follows Robin out of the room and down a few halls to the training room, which, as he said, was empty.

The Boy Wonder immediately walks to the holo-screen and types in some sequences as Danny floats to the center of the platform. The computer makes a beeping sound and a blue holographic target appears.

Robin comes over to Danny. "Okay! We'll start with the basics. First, don't hold it so tightly. Your grip – " he grabs the Halfa's hand and positions his fingers " – needs to be like this. We'll start with an over hand throw. Like this." He takes another blade from his belt and goes through the form slowly, allowing Danny to track his movements, before going through them a second time, faster, this time actually throwing it and hitting just off to the right of the bullseye.

The Boy Wonder frowns at it, then continues with a blinding smile. "As you can see, you can't expect to be perfect all the time, especially on your first try." He moves behind Danny, who turns slightly, watching him. The human teen motions to the target. "Fire when ready."

The Ghost Boy turns, fixes his grip on the knife (which he had subconsciously changed during Robin's demonstration), pulls his arm back, does his best to take aim (it's nothing like his ectoplasts), and throws. He watches, a bit disappointed as it misses the target entirely, hits the wall sideways, and clatters to the ground.

Behind him, Robin cackles.

Danny spins around to glare at him.

The other teen raises his hands in a placating jouster. "No, no, Phantom. It's not you. That just reminded me of the time a close friend of mine was first learning to throw a batarang. You're really lucky. When he* threw it, he missed the target and hit the wall, only it didn't just fall to the ground. It hit a giant penny that Bats keeps in his little trophy corner and started a whole chain reaction that destroyed the entire main platform of the Bat-Cave!" He laughs harder. "It was 'astrous!"

Danny laughs, too. It does sound pretty hilarious, and it makes him feel better about his own miss. And his whole day, actually. He really needed this. The chance to relax with other teens who understand. To be able to let down his guard and just be himself, even if he hadn't told them his secret identity yet.

Once they get a hold of themselves, Robin offers him another blinding smile. "Ready to try again?"

Danny nods.

" 'Astrous!"

Danny loses track of time as he practices, Robin sometimes giving pointers. He doesn't hit the target much, but it's still nice, spending hours on end with the great Robin, protegee of the Batman himself, and being able to see that he – and all the other Justice League partners – is just a normal kid. Maybe, Danny really could find a place among these heroes.

Finally, they stop for a break. Danny, panting, really wants to get something to drink, but he also doesn't quite trust any of the heroes with his secret yet, so he decides to just grin and bear it.

Suddenly, a chill fills his lungs and runs up his spine from his Core, coming out his mouth in a small cloud of mist.

His Ghost Sense? What in the multiverse is a ghost doing here?

"Robin," he calls quietly, "where's the rest of the Team?"

Robin goes from cheerful teenager to serious vigilante within half a second. "They should be in the common room. Why?"

"We have company. C'mon."

Danny quickly flies to the common room, Robin running after him. As they rush through the Cave, Danny can already tell they're too late as the air takes on a dark blue hue, symbolizing the spectral intruder was projecting their aura into the atmosphere around them so they could both feed on the emotions around them better, and to intimidate any incoming opponents.

(Hey, just because he had trouble in school didn't mean he was going to skip out on Clockwork's lessons.)

They come to a halt just within the room.

They really are too late.

The room is a mess, littered with burn marks, destroyed furniture, and glowing green ectoplasmic goo.

"Yep, definitely a ghost." Robin states.

"Gee," a familiar female voice says sarcastically, causing the two boys to spin toward their left, where they find Artemis trapped in a large splash of goo, stuck to the wall. "We couldn't tell as he was shouting about being the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter."

Danny flies over and starts burning away the sticky substance. "Let me guess," he says dryly. "Big gray metal suit with bunch of tech and a flaming green Mohawk on his head."

"Yeah," she answers then nods to the left. "Think you can check on Z and Rocket, Boy Wonder?" Once Robin's gone to them, Artemis continues. "He took Conner, Megan, and Kaldur with him. Don't know if he would've taken Wally if he was here, but..." she shrugs.

Danny finishes releasing her and they head to where Robin's dragged Zatanna and Rocket, both unconscious and looking a bit worse for wear.

"We need to rescue the others." Robin says.

"I'll stay here and take care of these two," Artemis motions to the other girls as she speaks. "You guys go."

The boys both nod, and after the archer tells them which wall Skulker went through, start searching. Danny gives Robin a brief information dump their foe as they do.

It takes half-an-hour to find them in the Cave's hanger bay.

Skulker floats in the center, facing them, by the Bio-ship. Behind him, in a levitating cage, are their missing teammates, none of whom seem to be awake.

"Hello, Ghost Child." Skulker says, smirking. "I've been waiting for you."

Danny reaches over his shoulder, where Drako Kanalo invisibly rests on his back, and grasps it's handle as he takes a ready stance. "Skulker," he scowls. "Let my friends go."

"No," Skulker says maliciously. "I don't think I will. They are just as unique as you are, and while they may not be ghosts, they are still worth the hunt."

"We won't let you keep them," Robin says firmly.

"You don't have a choice." The hunter raises his arm, which transforms into a net gun, and fires at the two teens.

The young heroes dodge in separate directions, Robin to the left and Danny to the right, and begin avoiding the nets, ectoplasts, and missiles that the ghost is firing at them.

Halfway around the room, they both run toward the hunter. As they're about to strike, Skulker activates his jet-pack and soars upward, causing the two to knock their heads together.

For a moment, Danny sees stars. He forces himself up and looks around, finding the Boy Wonder still on the ground in front of him. Danny reaches out to grab his shoulder. "Robin?" He gives him a little shake.

Nope, definitely out. Great, Danny thinks.

Above them, Skulker laughs, obviously entertained by the accidental collision.

Danny places his hand on the floor beside him, expecting Drako Kanalo – which he had drawn after Skulker's first shot – to be there. It's not.

Slightly panicked, Danny quickly looks around again, this time for his sword. He can't find it.

He wasn't sure what to do. He was certain that Skulker had found someway to counter act all his old attacks. That's why he had taken to using his sword against all his enemies recently. Now, he didn't have a clue.

He looks back down at Robin. He couldn't lose this fight. If he did...

Skulker speaking brings his attention up to the ghost in question.

"I shall finally have your pelt at the foot of my bed, whelp."

Danny stands. "That's still gross."

The hunter just raises his hand in front of his chest and makes one of his machetes pop out. "We'll see about that."

Danny stares at the weapon. Robin said... if he could get the head off... that could actually work! He just needed Skulker to get closer, cause he would only have one shot at this and he did not want to miss.

"You couldn't catch a snail even with that metal suit of yours, you have no chance of ever catching me. Here, I'll prove it. I'll stand here, and you try and cut me with your knife. You won't be able to touch me."

Skulker growls, "You'll pay for that, whelp!" and charges.

Danny quickly pulls on his Core and forms a knife-like shard of Ghost Ice in his hand.

When the ghostly hunter is almost within reach, the Halfa brings his Hand forward and throws.

The shard lodges itself in the throat and Danny wills it to extend horizontally so it severs the head from the body.

Danny sighs in relief as it drops. He moves to the mechanical head, and pulls the real Skulker – a tiny, barely three inch tall green blob of ectoplasm with arms and legs – out, then pulls his Fenton thermos out to suck in both Skulker and his suit.

Just as he puts the Thermos' cap back on, a small crowd of J.L. heroes stalks in, led by Batman.

"Phantom." The Dark Knight barks. "Report."

Danny holds up the Thermos and gives it a little shake. "All taken care of, sir."

~! #$%^&*()_+

And there's chapter six.

Once again, this chapter is dedicated to Ghost and FariyFlare. Thank you both so much. This chapter would not have been like this without your ideas.

To everyone, please send in your own. I can't guarantee I'll include it, but I'd still like to hear them.

Guest : Thank you for pointing that out. I'll make sure if I do another Y.J. Story, I'll do that, but I'd rather keep her powers the way they are. Thank you again, so much! :)

*I actually imagine Jason doing this on his first time and being banned from practicing alone by Bats with the rest of the Clan dying of laughter in the background of the smoking ruins of the Bat-Cave.

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