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totally-here · 10 months ago

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3 times Phantom's Guardian was Mentioned + 1 Time He Showed Up

One

Phantom’s introduction to Young Justice wasn’t as dramatic as Empress’ or Slobo’s, or even Arrowette’s first introduction to the cave. No, it wasn’t during the Olympics, or on a battlefield, and he didn’t come in injured and looking for help.

Impulse just brought Phantom in one day and insisted that he should join because he’s their age, interested in justice, and now that Greta’s human again they need another ghost member. So Phantom stayed, popping in and out for missions but never really sticking around all that long.

Today is one of the days that Phantom’s with them on a mission, that being looking around a lab of the Brain’s that had an energy surge recently, despite it being presumably abandoned.

Kon got paired up with Phantom to check the rest out first, since they both have better hearing than Anita and Tim, who were both still in the main room working on checking the computers for previous activity.

The room is dark except for the light green ball glowing slightly above Phantom’s hand. He waves it around enough for it to reflect off of glass, then throws it up to the ceiling. The light expands enough to illuminate the room.

Phantom mumbles about not knowing he could do that. Kon ignores him and moves closer to inspect the glass tubes to the side of several monitors set up.

“Looks like cloning equipment,” Phantom says, casually. He drags a finger through the dust gathering on one of the monitors. “Don’t think they’ve been activated recently, though, so that’s good.”

“What? You got a problem with clones or something?” It’s a quick and defensive answer, and Phantom puts his hands up in surrender.

“Not in concept.” He shrugs and joins Kon near the tubes. “But not a lot of people ask before making clones.”

“So I don’t need to sic Superman on you?” Obviously Kon could chew Phantom out himself, but few can do a “not mad, just disappointed” face better than Clark.

Phantom scrunches his face. “Why would you need to?”

Kon stops pretending to inspect the tube and stares at Phantom. “You do know I’m a clone, right?” The blank look on Phantom’s face tells him that no, he did not. “Well I am. Clone of Superman, though we’re pretty much brothers now.”

“Cool,” Phantom says, not a bit less friendly. He hesitates for a second before continuing, “Could I maybe ask you how you got there? Me and my clone have landed on cousins, but that was also, like, given to us by her evil dad. So.”

Phantom trails off. Huh, that makes three members of the team that have been cloned. Not a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened three times.

“You’re making sure she feels accepted, right?”

“Yeah! Well, whenever she’s around. She,” Phantom waves his hand around, looking for the right word, “She’s a wanderer. Exploring the world and stuff. But Richard has a room for her at home, and I remind her of that whenever she does stop by.”

“Well, first of all, don’t push it so hard,” Kon says. Phantom nods enthusiastically. “And second, who’s Richard?”

Kon doesn’t know a lot of Richards, and he doesn’t think that Phantom ever mentioned one before. Or even if he remembers his living life.

“Oh, he’s my, uh, guardian? I guess that’s the best term. The guy I’m living with who forces me to go to school sometimes.” Phantom looks away and back to the tubes.

Before Kon can ask for more details, Robin and Empress come in with a report of dead computers and wanting to know where they’re at with the cloning room.

They’re unimpressed with their lack of progress.

Two

Wally doesn’t really need to come by the Hamilton Lodge that often, not when that’s Young Justice’s territory and he doesn’t want to get involved in all of That.

But Red Tornado said that the team has a file on a planet that’s very quickly becoming a league problem, and he figured it might be a good time to try to check in with Bart, anyway. Make sure he hasn’t run any cars off cliffs again and all that.

So he stops by Manchester to ask Bart about the file, then they both head East to actually find it.

When they arrive at the hotel minutes later, Wally’s surprised to actually find it… clean? There’s no visible trash or overturned furniture or anything else he’d expect from an abandoned hotel filled with teenagers. Well, maybe not filled, lately. He doesn’t think anyone’s living here currently, with Greta at Elias’ for the school year and Slobo gone.

Still, the room smells slightly of artificial pine scent, and Bart perks up before disappearing and reappearing rapidly, holding a teammate up by his armpits. Said teammate just accepts this, his legs folding into a wispy tail, and head rolling against his shoulders.

“This is Phantom!” Bart holds him up higher. Phantom waves. Wally’s only heard of him through Max’s updates, the same way he would hear about Preston or Carol, but with more wariness about the supposed ghost.

Actually looking at the pale face and glowing green eyes contrasting against the darker than dark jumpsuit, Wally’s a little more ready to accept his claim at being undead.

“He stress cleans,” Bart explains, moving to carry Phantom under his arm. Wally bites down the urge to tell him to put him down, but only because Phantom doesn’t resist the hold, only moving to get into a more comfortable position. His hands are touching the floor. “So what happened?”

Bart directs the question downwards, and Phantom heaves a very dramatic sigh. Definitely a teenager. It does raise the question of who exactly this kid’s mentor is. Hopefully he does have one. Maybe he’s the Spectre’s kid?

Phantom phases through the arm holding him only to lay on top of Bart’s hair. “I accidentally called Richard dad. And then fled.”

Bart nods sagely. “Classic. One time I accidentally called Max dad, so I had to start a fire to distract him.”

Phantom sighs again, almost dreamily. “Genius.”

Wally doesn’t have time to unpack all of that. Well he does, but he’s not going to, because there’s really only one Richard that comes to mind that might have the heart to take in a dead kid, even if he doesn’t go by his full name.

But surely Dick would have told him, or any other Titan, if he had adopted a kid. Right?

But there’s still a little shadow of doubt. Maybe Dick wanted it to be a secret, or it was really new or had a rocky start. Phantom doesn’t seem to hold himself like a Bat, but it’s not a guarantee Dick would have trained him.

“The lodge looks nice,” Wally offers out loud, which Phantom shrugs at and wraps his tail around Bart’s head to keep secure. “Anyway, Impulse. The file on Myrg?”

“Oh yeah!” Again, Bart disappears then reappears a few seconds later with a paper file. They really need to start digitizing more of these things. “That’s the planet where we played baseball so that they wouldn’t destroy Earth!”

“You what.”

The prospect of Dick following in his dad’s footsteps is forgotten in the face of what the hell Young Justice got up to on Myrg.

Three

Tim may be in a…Predicament.

It’s not his fault. Really. He knew what he was doing. He couldn’t let a civilian fall for the trap. But they were already so close, so he just, kinda, pushed himself into the rope instead.

So there Robin is, tied upside down in a warehouse, with the Joker below next to an overly complicated control panel. The clown’s rambling about bombs hidden all over the city that Tim knows Batman is already tracking down with Batgirl.

Tim’s not really paying attention to the rant because of that, more focused on wiggling enough to get the spare mini-birdarang out of his glove to cut the rope without notifying the Joker.

“Yikes, bad time?” Asks Phantom’s voice beside him. Based on the source and accounting for the slight echo, he’s floating with his head near Tim’s, likely upside down. “Want some help?”

Tim gets the birdarang out and starts sawing at the thick rope. They should be fine anyway, but stalling the Joker for extra time would be helpful. “Can you possess the Joker? Just hold him still.”

“The correct term is overshadow, but sure.” The voice disappears, and a few seconds later the Joker freezes.

His body jerks forward, then backward, and a laugh chokes out of his throat. His hand claws over his mouth at the noise and he hunches over. All movement halts before he rights himself, shaking out his hands and rolling his shoulders. Phantom looks up at Tim and his eyes are glowing.

Tim cuts through the rope, kicking and using the momentum to right himself and land on his feet. He brushes past Phantom in Joker’s body to handle the control panel. He turns off the radio broadcast and dismantles the bomb strapped to the panel.

Threat handled, he turns to Phantom and holds up some handcuffs. “Let me arrest you?”

Phantom obliges, turning the Joker’s body around and putting his hands behind his back. Tim lets him walk by himself out of the warehouse and moves the handcuffs around a lamppost. The Joker’s body jerks again, then slumps forward, just as Phantom reappears next to him, scowling down at the unconscious body.

“That felt really slimy. Zero out of ten, would not do again,” Phantom grouches.

“Why’re you in Gotham?” Tim asks. It’s not like Phantom makes a habit of visiting. The last time he came into the city, he complained about feeling the dead under the streets. Fortunately, that let Tim uncover a few tunnels that Talons travel through. Phantom, however, was unnerved by the Talons and left quickly.

“Oh, Solomon Grundy’s back in our sewers. Richard said I should probably tell one of you Gotham heroes, since you keep track of those guys.” He shakes out his hands like they were cramped in the Joker.

They hadn’t seen Grundy in a while. Tim assumed he was currently in a less violent personality. “What’s he doing?”

Phantom shrugs. “Just chilling. Mostly underground. I tried to talk to him but he only grunted back at me. He also tried to pick me up, dunno what that was about.”

“Maybe because you’re both dead?” Tim guessed. That would be a surface level connection. Ivy and Woodrue have had more luck working with Grundy than anyone, and Phantom definitely doesn’t have the connection to the Green that’d help with that.

Police lights turn around the corner, and Tim shoots a grapple to get to the roof above them. Phantom follows, but disappears as soon as they’re on the roof. Going back home, probably.

Cass drops down from the roof she was listening on. “Richard?”

“Not the same one.”

They both stick around long enough to watch the Joker get put into the cop car.

Plus one

A spaceship landed in the forests of New York, and Cassie’s team was the first to respond to it. Technically not respond, but check it out, since there wasn’t any alert or anything.

Still, Wonder Girl has Empress, Robin, and Superboy on the other side of the ship, watching what looks like the back door, while she, Impulse, and Phantom watch the other door and main window. She has binoculars, but the windows are so tinted she can’t quite make anything out.

No aliens have come out yet, and she hesitates to have anyone go in, in case whoever inside does turn hostile.

Impulse has offered to run through a total of five times already, and it’s a testament to his restraint that he hasn’t, and a testament to Cassie’s that she hasn’t yelled at him yet. Phantom at least isn’t being annoying, but he’s not necessarily helpful, either. He’s not even watching the spaceship anymore. Now he’s trying to make a flower crown out of dandelions.

“Door’s opening on our side,” Robin says from the comms. “But no one’s coming out.”

“Alright, good enough to try to get in,” Cassie decides. She turns to Phantom, who’s closing off the circle of flowers. Beside him, Impulse has since pulled out a gameboy. “Phantom, go in invisibly through the open door and report back. Try to see what their plans are.”

“Oh, sure. One second.” Phantom finishes the crown and tries to put it on Bart’s head. It doesn’t quite fit over his mane of hair, but Phantom shrugs and leaves it sitting there anyway before going invisible.

“Maybe I should shave my head again,” Bart says as his game character dies.

He gets a resounding no in response.

Half an hour later they have a very annoyed Green Lantern lecturing them about league jurisdiction and knowing when to call someone else.

Apparently, the alien ship was just stopping to complete some maintenance, and did not appreciate any spying on them, and especially did not appreciate who did it. Green Lantern was more than happy to explain that Wonder Girl’s team is not really a part of the Justice League and he can help with their maintenance. They denied his help and left to find a place with less people in it.

“-and you!” Green Lantern rounds on Phantom next, but Cassie knows none of them are really listening. Sure, they messed up by freaking out the visiting aliens, and yeah maybe they should have contacted the league about it, but they’ve dealt with stuff worse than this! It’s not Cassie’s fault she thought that this would have stuck to the formula.

“Who even are you?” Green Lantern runs a hand through his black hair, stupid green gauntlets shining in the sunlight. “Do I need to call your mentor?” He frowns. “Or do they know you mess up alien technology by just being around it?”

Phantom scoffs and rolls his eyes. “How was I supposed to know their tech would go all fuzzy when I came in?”

“You wouldn’t have to know if you just stayed out of the spaceship!”

“Hey!” Cassie cuts in. “Technically that was my call. It’s not all on Phantom.”

“I still could've been more careful,” Phantom says to her, ignoring Green Lantern as they argue about blame.

“Cut it out for a second, okay?” Green Lantern puts a hand between them and they stop to glare at him. He pulls the hand back. “Look, can I just talk to one of your adults about this?”

Robin glares. “We don’t need an adult. We have this under control.”

“Only because I’m here now.”

“I’ll call my mentor,” Phantom says. Kon opens his mouth, most likely to offer to call Superman instead in hopes of a lighter sentence, but Bart covers his mouth, smiling like he knows something Cassie doesn’t. Tim and Anita share a look, and don’t intervene as Phantom pulls out a phone from his chest.

It rings once before it’s picked up. Cassie can’t hear the other side of the conversation, but Kon’s eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “Hey, do you think you can pick me up? Green Lantern wants to talk to you.” Phantom looks Green Lantern up and down then says, “No, this one doesn’t have a cape.”

Phantom says goodbye after rattling off their coordinates, hangs up, and stares at Green Lantern in silence for a few seconds.

And then a swirling mass of black seeps into the space next to Phantom. The end of a cane steps out of it, followed by a leg, then the rest of the immaculately dressed man holding the handle of the cane that’s shaped like a bird’s head.

“Phantom,” The man says. His voice drips with condescension in only a way a british accent can, yet Phantom smiles up at him. The shadowy portal behind him disappears. “What, exactly, happened?”

“That’s the fucking Shade,” Anita hisses to Robin, who shrugs noncommittedly at her. Green Lantern seems to recognise him too, taking a step back and clenching his hand that holds his ring.

“Well, the team and I were staking out this spaceship–super cool, by the way–and I went inside to check it out, but my presence messed with their tech–which was an accident–and they freaked out, so I freaked out, and then we kinda got into a little fight until Green Lantern came to mediate.”

“Hm. Is that right?” The Shade asks Green Lantern, who nods slowly, still anticipating an attack. “It seems like the problem’s fixed, then.”

“Well, yes, but–”

“And it does seem about time for these kids to get home, doesn't it?” The Shade pulls out an actual pocket watch, chain and all, from his suit pocket and takes his time in checking it. “I’ll see them home.”

Shadows grow from behind the team, swirling until they become a giant, gaping maw that swallows them up and spits them out in a different forest, or maybe just a different part of the same forest.

Either way, Cassie has to take a moment to make sure she doesn’t throw up from the sudden vertigo the shadow portal caused.

The Shade looks at Phantom, and raises an eyebrow. “You can’t expect me to always bail you out.”

Phantom shrugs, looking guilty. “I know. Thanks, Richard.”

Oh, so that’s who Richard is. Annoyingly, neither Tim or Bart look surprised by this revelation.

#dp x dc #dc x dp #dp x dc crossover #this post was brought to you by me recently finishing starman 1994 #which i totally recommend it was rlly good and im happy i was able to read the physical version because there are some double page spreads #that were beautiful and i just know the online ver would've butchered #this is also part of my put danny in opal agenda!!#come on guys!! partially if not all powered by cosmic energy #missing heroes other than like benetti and the shade as far as i know #and used to have a ghostly curse on it!!! perfect place #also it's no-pulse coded because im still rotating them in my head like a microwave #the gl is supposed to b Kyle but sry if he's off i only know him from his appearances in yj and hitman #and i tried to do a read more thingy because it got long i hope it works

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kalosian-woods · 9 days ago

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clemont post-crisis really needs to be studied. but like also, so does everyone in kalos. clemont specifically i can see being really paranoid, cause even after taking back his gym and getting his invention and gym team back, it was taken away from him, right under his nose, the result being him losing his gym and soon, the city of light will fall with it.

so i can totally get why clemont would be really paranoid and overly cautious and prepared. but like geez man, this kid's rivals are full grown adults who just wish they could be as smart as him so they don't have to work, like wow.

the episode in general is so messed up in so many different levels, he was kidnapped, almost got mind controlled and after xerosic was put to jail, he immediately brushed it off like "okay! lets get back home now guys! :D" but like... what if we don't clemont. what if we talk about it. time to face another one of your fears-- addressing your feelings. your emotions. your thoughts.

(also not too mention, what happened to his gym team when team flare was taking over the tower??? did they get captured?? were they with clembot?? even then were they okay when clembot got destroyed? WHAT HAPPENED???)

-⚡ (yeah! i might talk about the other characters, mostly the gym leaders, elite 4, professor and his team, etc! i really like the pokemon league... especially the electric type leaders, they're so silly. from surge to volkner, to elesa, to clemont, to iono, we have such a wild variety of them.)

It's definitely the thing where everyone was affected by the Crisis in some way, but some had more of a role to play and thus took a harder hit with the whole situation (or at least should've). Clemont could've been semi-okay bar the fact that, y'know, Clembot as we knew it died (and also losing the Gym again), but then that episode had to happen and I'm at a loss. What did he do to deserve getting kidnapped after the whole ordeal??? I love how it's not even Ash going through the reprecussions because of Greninja/just being that OP or even Bonnie for having a connection with Zygarde, no, Xerosic felt so horrible about getting beat by a child back at a building he stole from said child so he felt the need to just control him instead. His priorities lol... (But even so, the fact that his whole Gym got taken away was probably one of the worst nightmares to him. He had so much trouble taking it back from a rouge invention and now it's happening again but the world is falling to pieces as well. Because of the device that is in his own Gym. The accountability he must've felt for it, undeserved as it was, must be crazy. If he wasn't already oerly-prepared before, you can bet your socks he's got an invention for every possible bad thing under the sun after the Crisis lol.)

But even with Clemont, he really did just brush it off so casually and that makes me even more worried, if that's even possible. He's so blase about everything that was happening around that fact. Weird man I met once (1) before in my life literally stealing me alongside a part of a Legendary Pokemon?? I'll just ask what's his buisiness and use my highly-specific anti-measure against his device that will cause me unimaginable amounts of pain. Same weird man who tried to control me trying to jump off the plane (in which who is steering this thing??)? Nah, I'll catch him and tell him to repent. Like I'm with Xerosic with this one, what is actually giving you your strength ability to move on so easily?? They watch that guy go to jail so casually lmao. And I get that the whole Squishy + Greninja thing happened right after, but was no one going to talk about it?? No??

I think, in a way, being controlled like that really parallels what happened with Clembot in the Crisis. The body is still there, but the memories, the feelings and decisions that can arise from that, can't be drawn from anymore. You are not you anymore. Xerosic aims to puppeteer him fully, denying him of any autonomy, and it's also so similar suto how Clemont sort of carried himself around before at the start too. He thought that he couldn't do both Gym stuff and being an inventor at the same time. He made an invention that looks like him to carry out the Gym Leader role of him (and now Xerosic wants to make him a tireless inventor at his beck and call). Clemont initially was very closed off and wasn't as interactive, and throughout this journey he had learnt to live as boldly as he ever could. And now, after everything that has ever happened, he was faced with the terrifying ordeal of losing that all over again. I think, maybe, he doesn't want to confront that reality, that he could've lost all of his freedom and his own autonomy and having to go through that alone, at that. There is no physical proof, after all. He does not 'have' to face it fully. The problem is solved, and so, to him, there is no use thinking about it. Not when the rest of Lumiose is still under heavy construction and he needs to be the beacon of hope and standing tall (just like Prism Tower, just like a Gym Leader would, just like everyone would expect from the inventor lighting up the world).

About his Gym Team, we do see Heliolisk with Clembot in the crisis, so I presume they're just always?? With Clembot?? Tbh the anime absolutely ignores the heck out of them at all times and I don't think we even see the Mags after the Gym Takeback (okay I checked the only other time is 'Battling With A Clean Slate'... yeah). But nooo, you've got me thinking about the death arghhh I would hope that the Pokeballs are durable, and also I am of the firm belief that Clembot would've at least tried to protect them to his very last moments. In the anime proper they're probably just all with Clembot for infinity times forever, which I guess isn't a terrible fate but also yeah. Sad. At least they're alive though???

#someone get this guy to therapy stat. he needs it #also that's cool! can't wait to talk about other characters with you :3 #in a way clem ignoring the effects is very similar to ash. again very skewed perceptions of courage lol #going back to 'facing the needs of the many' (my butchered name of it from last time was better heh) reminds me of the fever dream #clem is just not okay. that must've been one of his top 5 worst days ever ngl but he's acting as if it doesn't scratch top 50 #he's so dang casual about this attempt on his life. 'yeah this crazy lead scientist guy wanted me to commit unspeakable evils.#in other words a completely average tuesday. now ash what was it you were saying about diving off a cliff on pure faith?'#i mean i get it's like the second last ep and everyone is leaving but on that note?? are we not thinking about this??#is this going to be the last thing you're going to think about each other?? the time that grenin teamed up with zygarde but also #remember how you were kidnapped and almost mind-controlled by some crazy guy???? no wonder why ash went to alola after lol #(i mean is faba better than this?? he sorta pulled similar stunts before although in a very roundabout way)#i feel like another issue that clem had with the crisis was that technically by that time he *had* finished travelling with ash #in the way of his promise to his dad being staying with ash until he finished his league matches #so technically he was already back to being gym leader. but considering how meyer was lugging clembot around the whole city #makes me think that league days are holidays for gym leaders??#like the gym was empty when team flare overtook it (hopefully. i hope no gym mons were left there)#so i feel like the burden hit harder because now he feels even more directly responsible for what happened #he just came back from a soul-searching journey and the end of the world occurred. yeah he's not okay #also not me having to check back for any signs of the gym team lol #i'm so sad for them because i know heliolisk can be awesome and y'know what?? the mags too #but yeah i'm not getting into this. going to lose steam harping on about missed opportunities #in a better world though i'm sure that the gym team is fine (apart from their bestie dying...) and are having fun with everyone else #also when you think about it wouldn't lumiose + challengers know about clembot?? would've been nice to see their opinion change #as they watch the robot grow and become a great leader and battler. and then all of them realising he's not the same afterwards #and seeing the effects one person can have on a population lol #anyways clem needs to get better rivals. all the ones he has now ar angry bitter and old. it's kinda sad and also very terrifying 😬#diancie delivers

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