Disclaimer: not mine

Anyone play Pandora Frontiers game on PS5? I was enjoying it well enough but I've gotten stuck. I can sprint and I can charge jump but I cannot do both. But I have to in order to reach the resistance camp. Any tips? Someone said you need to go from a certain spot that's at an angle and even from there, it doesn't work.

This story has been giving me issues since I posted the last chapter, there may be some jumping around to get passed sections I just couldn't work out.

Chapter 7

Was it crazy offering to work with a stranger? Yes. And yet…something about Danny drew him to the stranger, he couldn't explain it. And it wasn't like he'd been the one to offer, Kon had. He glanced at Kon, seeing the way he looked at Danny before looking away. So…they were both drawn to Danny, because of how he helped free them? Had he done something to them? But he didn't think so. There was just something so…earnest about him.

He felt something strange though, whispers in his mind…the green…it didn't know whether to flee or curl around Danny. Dangerous? He shook his head slightly to clear it.

"See, Tim agrees," Kon told the newcomer, squeezing Tim's hand.

"I…" Danny looked up, green eyes going wide, and then he vanished.

Dick appeared a second later, looking panicked.

,

Dick looked around and then moved to where the two stood, hands on Tim's shoulders, looking him over. "Who was that? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine Dick, we're both fine," Tim answered. "It was him; the boy that helped us break out of the dream. He wanted to make sure we're okay."

"He was pretty jumpy, think you scared him off. He's looking for the staff too, we suggested working together."

Skip (hope to eventually fill this all in)

,

Bruce thought it far too soon for Tim to be back out but his son had insisted and Leslie had given him a clean bill of health. He was healthier now as far as she could tell and that worried him. Tim had kept himself fit but he had no spleen and that had impacted him, he was now as healthy as he'd been before the emergency surgery to remove it. He didn't like how fascinated Tim was by this Phantom, there were far too many questions about him.

As far as the public knew, Tim Drake was at a health retreat still. The public shooting when he was seventeen that nicked his spinal column and destroyed his spleen was well known, it had been a good cover and gave Tim a good excuse for when crutches were needed or if he needed to be away to 'recover' in fresh air. Yes, he'd supposedly made a full recovery with physical therapy, but an injury to the spine like that could cause ongoing nerve pain at a minimum. Just another reason for no one to believe that Tim was Red Robin.

His gaze went to where Tim, Conner, and Phantom stood at the table, going over the tracking data. Phantom was in the middle of the couple, the three talking too quietly for him to hear, but he'd only seen Tim stand so close like that was his team, especially Kon.

Tim had been changed by the Staff, his personality was intact, he interacted with his siblings and Bruce the same but…it was just something there, something strange about him. Tim had sat through all the tests, it was him. Why had the Staff affected him differently to Kon? The obvious answer was because Tim was human and Kon wasn't. He thought Phantom had some kind of theory, but the glowing young man had said nothing. That made it hard to trust him, despite the help he was giving.

,

Kon wrapped his arms around Tim's waist. Being with him, it just felt so…natural, so easy. All the awkward bits of dating had been skipped due to being locked in the dream together. "Love you," he murmured, kissing the top of Tim's head.

Tim turned in his arms, leaning up for a proper kiss. "Love you too," he answered, smiling softly. It was the kind of smile that not many people got to see, it wasn't his public Tim Drake-Wayne smile or Red Robin's smirk, it was a real smile.

They hadn't had much time alone in the weeks since Tim had woken fully, everyone working hard to track down the magician, when they weren't trying to put Tim through tests anyway. He hated it, Tim was fine, but everyone said the Staff had done something to him. But Tim wasn't any different, he was still the same stubborn, genius, loving person he'd always been.

He tugged Tim even closer, kissing him again, and Tim wrapped his arms around his neck to steady himself. And then Kon lifted Tim, feeling his legs wrap around his waist. His hands slipped under Tim's shirt, running over warm skin. Kon walked to the bed, falling back on it, Tim on top of him as they kissed. He sat up enough for Tim to yank his shirt off, returning the favour, tracing his hands over pale skin, every scar Tim had earned to save others.

His heart was pounding, there'd been no time alone for anything more than stolen kisses but he wanted more. He wanted Tim, wanted so badly…could remember it from the dreams, even though he knew it would be different awake. "Want you," he panted out between kisses.

"Yes," Tim gasped, hand moving to fumble with his belt.

,

Danny knew most of the heroes didn't really know what to think of him but they were still kinder than the people back home. He didn't like thinking about that. If time was running the same there as here…he had to have been reported missing by now, Vlad's story wouldn't have held up this long. He spent the majority of time in his ghost form, de-transforming only when alone to eat some food. Thankfully, this Earth had plenty of ambient ectoplasm for his ghost half.

He knew Batman didn't appreciate how close he was to Tim and Kon but they were his friends. And he was keeping a close eye on Tim, he could feel the way he was slowly changing, becoming more and more liminal. Why had the Staff affected him so differently to anyone else? They had managed to grab many sleepers now and none of them were becoming liminal. Had it been something about the way he had woken Tim? But Kon had been woken the same way. He missed having Team Phantom as backup but they had their own lives to live now.

He stretched and flopped on the cot he used as a bed. He had found his owl lodgings, worried about letting the Bats learn too much about him. So, he was squatting in an abandoned building at the edge of Crime Alley, close enough to keep an eye on Tim and his brother. He was liminal too but his ectoplasm…well it kind of stank. He'd sensed a lot of liminals spread across the planet, so different to home. Surely that meant that something like the Acts could never pass. And they already had protections for 'Meta's' which included aliens so liminals should be easily covered by the same laws if they became known.

The communicator he'd been given beeped and he transformed before answering. "Phantom."

"We've got a lead," Kon answered.

"On my way." So much for a nap.

,

Tim watched as Danny helped look over the latest victims. Numbers had dropped and he hoped that was a good thing, that the magic of the Staff was failing. Zatanna and Danny agreed that Tim and Kon being woken had likely had an effect since the first victims were important in magic like that. So, it was good that Danny had woken them first.

"Don't say it," he shot a glare at Dick who held his hands up in surrender.

"I was going to ask about them, I swear."

"No news yet, but they don't look happy so I'm guessing it's the same as always," Tim answered.

Danny and Constantine left the exam room, Dany floating behind the older man. Or was he older? Danny had no life signs, he could be centuries old…but he didn't think so, he seemed…young. Like Tim's age more than even Dick's let alone B.

"Same as usual?" He asked, and Danny nodded. Tim nudged his shoulder with his. "We'll stop him," he promised.

The man's face had been shown on national tv every day since the attacks began escalating, warning people to stay well away and call the police.

"How can one person do all this but hide so well?" Danny groaned.

"It's a big country, Phantom," Dick offered. "But with the general public alerted, we're getting reports of his location a lot quicker. Sooner or later, we'll catch him."

Danny nodded.

,

Red Robin and Superboy had been seen amongst the heroes again. Somehow, they had been woken. But how? It shouldn't be possible. He could believe it was someone else in Red's costume, taking his place, but Superboy? They couldn't just find a spare Kryptonian lying around somewhere. Clones? Surely that would take longer.

He threw a tome aside in anger. That was why the Staff was no longer working as it should. It was all their fault.

TBC…..