Don't Threaten Me with a Good Time

Chapter 15

Mount Justice was utterly silent. The noises of the training room that was there before he left were no longer there; the dull thuds of fists being blocked or the clatter when someone hits the ground. The heavy breathing and the rustle of fabric as it shifted with its wearer, it was all gone. All that remained in the hollow mountain was a painful silence.

As Phantom tentatively opened his eyes, he had hoped that his ears were wrong, that there were people around him and the silence was an after effect of John's magic. He soon realised he was wrong. For the first time in over a month, Phantom was alone. He had tried his hardest always to be around or with someone else, so long as he was occupied and wouldn't let his mind wander.

'Where is everyone?' Phantom asked himself as he floated around the base. 'Were they called out on a mission? Without me? Rude.' He searched for something that could occupy himself, something menial. It's not like he could join the team, wherever they might be, he had no idea how to access the computer, and there was anyone around to tell him where to go. He sighed as he came into the kitchen/living room, he didn't want to watch T.V, Vlad was still on every channel pleading with the audience to help find his missing godson, Phantom did not want to see the face of a slapped ass.

His room! Phantom had yet to decorate his room in any way. Where had Black Canary said the computer to order stuff was? Well, it certainly was not in the living room/kitchen. He then checked the training room, that weird room with supercomputers inside, the mission room and the med bay. He was unsuccessful in all cases, then realised there was one room he had yet to check. The hanger. That's where Black Canary said it would be two days ago.

When he got to the computer e found the screens monitor to be lifelessly black, it had yet to be woken up from its long nap. He floated down until his feet touched the ground in front to the computer and reached his hand up to the mouse to shake it awake. The computer swiftly came to life.

"Welcome, please tell me your name?" The voice seemed to come from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time.

He looked around him as to search for the source. "What?"

"Please tell me your name or I'll have to deny you access." The voice called out again. He stared at the computer.

"I am Phantom." He spoke tentatively. The computer made a small chime sound, and the screen finally came on.

"Welcome Phantom, what can I do for you today?" The voice, the computer, the voice was coming from the computer. This was surely Batman's handiwork.

"I'd like to decorate my room."

"Excellent, shall we start with the paint? What colour do you enjoy, or would you prefer wallpaper?"

"I like the colours blue and red; I was thinking one wall being blue, one being red and the other two being like a light grey."

Multiple shades a blue appeared on the screen. "Please choose a shade for each colour." For the blue, he picked the shade called 'Admiral'. The screen then changed showing different shades of red, he chose the one called 'Rossa Corsa', and it finally turned to the grey shades, he chose the one called 'Slip of Silver'. There was a clanking noise coming from a box next to the computer that he had only just noticed, there was a door and small handle to get inside the top from the box. He slowly opened the box, half expecting box ghost to jump out. Instead, he found three pots of paint, one larger than the other two. "Inside the pots are the perfect amount to paint each wall. Now, what theme would you like your room to be? I shall order everything else you may need respectively."

"I was thinking of a space theme? Like galaxies and stars, I would also appreciate those glows in the dark stars you can stick on the ceiling."

"Certainly, you can leave it with me. Would you like paintbrushes for your paint?"

"Yes, please." The clanking sound came from the box again, and once it had stopped, he opened the box to retrieve the paintbrushes.

He took care to balance the paint pots and brushes in his arms, and he would hate to accidentally drop the paint and have to redecorate where it landed. The trek back to his room was almost agonising. The mountain was too quiet for Phantom's liking. When he had got back to his room, his thoughts were starting to surround him.

He made quick work of turning back into Danny once the door was closed behind him and digging out his phone to put on some music. He settled on shuffling songs by Panic at the Disco. He worked fast with the paint and soon enough he was lying on his bed that had been pulled into the middle of the room, sure the walls would need a second coat, but that could wait until tomorrow. For now, he laid on his bed, and with his chest heaving with soft pant escaping his lips.

Danny wondered. He wondered about Felix and Jenny; he wondered if they were safe and or together. He understood why the CPS had come in and taken them away. He saw the subways state after the vines tore it apart, it was not safe for a rat to live in, let alone multiple children. But that didn't stop him from worrying about them; he knew that some foster home that children were sent to were not safe for children. That they would come out with more scars than when they went in. He hoped and prayed they weren't in a home like that.

He wondered what he would be doing right then if his family was still around. He was sure that Jazz and he would have rewatched Hamilton at some point, Jazz always sang Hamilton's parts and truly Danny didn't mind. It gave him something to do with his sister that wasn't psychology related. She would have been at college by then, he realised. She was meant to go in September, just gone. She would have been at college.

His mom and dad most likely would have been in the basement working on who knows what, they would have forgotten about dinner and Jazz, and he would have had to order pizza for all of them again. At least they would have had decent leftovers the next day. He missed the sounds of his home, the clattering coming from the basement, the music coming from Jazz's room or a boyband he didn't bother to learn the name of. The gentle hum of the machinery in various parts of the house.

Sam and Tucker would have most certainly been over, either watching movies, playing video games, catching up on late homework and maybe just a bit of ghost fighting. He wondered how their parent was coping with the loss of their children, it's always hard knowing you outlived your own child, no matter who you are.

His thoughts wandered to his teacher, Mr Lancer. He certainly missed his odd use of book titles instead of cursing. How was his parent's coping?

Danny didn't realise he was crying until he shut his eyes.

He never even got to go to their funerals.