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Kid Flash burst through the doors into the cave's common space. "Is he here yet?"
Zatanna looked up from the cushion she was fluffing, tossing it back onto the sofa. "Not yet. Did—did you run here?"
"Nervous energy," Kid Flash excused and dropped into a bar stool next to a plate of cookies. "I knew for sure the zeta tube would be too fast, and I was too jittery anyway. Artemis said I get annoying when I'm buzzing, so I thought I'd burn it off on a run."
"Annnnnd the cookies, then, would be to…replace…this energy?" she asked skeptically.
"Nah." Wally demolished one with the verve of a woodpecker. "A guy's gotta nosh."
Superboy entered with a dresser casually balanced on his shoulder. "Which room is it again?"
"The green room," Zatanna answered. She retrieved her water bottle from the coffee table and unscrewed the cap. "Aqualad said it's the most…reinforced."
"Plus, I mean, come on: Color scheme!" Kid Flash added.
Superboy nodded once and retreated from the room. Zatanna recapped the bottle and moved on to the next cushion while Kid Flash pulled back his cowl.
"Do you really think an 11-year-old will care—or even notice if the cushions are poofy?" Wally drawled.
"Well I have to do something, Wally!" Zatanna snapped. Upon Wally's recoil, she brushed some strands of hair behind her ear and continued working. "After a lifetime with a loving parent in your life every single day, this cave feels big and cold and hard and unwelcoming. So excuse me if I waste time fluffing pillows to try to give this room some feeling of having been cared for."
Wally sobered. "Sorry, Z, I…forgot."
A half-hearted scoff and dismissive wave was the girl's reply.
"Why not just backwards-talk it into perfection?"
"Nervous energy," the girl parroted.
"Eh, touché," he answered. "Well, you ready for another roomie?"
"I guess so. As much as I love Superboy and M'gann, it'll be nice to not just be third wheel all the time. Of course, I wish the circumstances were a little better…"
"True that," Wally agreed and bit into another cookie.
The rustling of paper echoed down the hallway as Robin approached in civilian clothes. He entered the kitchen, face obscured by the oversized grocery bags in his arms. "Hey, guys," he greeted, "is he here yet?"
"Not yet," the two chorused.
Robin bent his knees to slide the bags onto the kitchen island and shook out his arms. "Whew! Scaling a cliff is no problem, but try carrying groceries for ten minutes."
"What is all that?" Zatanna asked and sank into an armchair.
"Agent-A sends his love. And cooking." Robin removed some Tupperware containers and plastic-wrapped plates from the bags before moving on to other raw ingredients. "How's the cave coming?"
"Oh, well enough. Superboy's working on the room now. Too bad we didn't have more notice. I'm sure M'gann would have loved to paint a jungle mural or something on the wall. Make it feel more like home, y'know?"
"Or rub it in," Wally grumbled.
"Well, the room is equipped," Superboy reported as he entered again, "but whether it's 'ready,' I don't know."
"I'm sure it will do for the first night," Zatanna assured. "And once we get everything settled, we can start to personalize it a bit."
"Any word on when the funeral will—?" Robin asked.
Zatanna defeatedly shook her head.
"Poor kid," the Boy Wonder continued and returned his attention to the open refrigerator. "I remember *my* first night. I had no idea what was going on. Thank god for Bruce and Alfred. I felt like the world was crashing around me, and they provided shelter."
"Well, now it's our turn to pay it forward," Wally said. "It'll be just like your first night out, right, SB?"
"Heh heh, yeah," the Kryptonian answered. "Except this time maybe we can skip the Speedy Gonzales marathon."
"Oh, come on, man," Wally chided. "I know you loved it."
Superboy rolled his eyes. "I still think of you when I hear the Looney Tunes theme."
"Um...thanks?"
"I'm not sure that's a compliment..." Zatanna knowingly suggested.
Artemis sprinted into the room. "Is he here yet?"
"For God's sake, no," Zatanna repeated once more. "I'm pretty sure the entire League will know the *second* he arrives, so take a chill pill, will ya? Any word from Rocket?"
"Nope, nothing," Robin said. "I think she's still in that Calculus exam."
"We don't want to overwhelm him," Superboy grumbled. "The fewer people here when he arrives, the better. I think this is already too many people."
"Aw, don't be a party pooper, SB," Wally insisted.
"Trust me. You, Aqualad and Robin were plenty when *I* first woke up. We're already pushing it."
Red Tornado strolled into the room. "Is he-?"
"NO," the entire room chorused.
After a momentary, expressionless pause, the android turned on his heel and exited the room. It was then that the hangar door opened, allowing the bioship entry.
"He's here!" Kid Flash exclaimed and zoomed from the room. The rest of the assembled protégés hurried to follow.
The bioship had just opened its doors when everyone arrived in the landing bay. Kid Flash eagerly bounced on his heels at the ramp's footing until Aqualad emerged.
The leader of the protégé team seemed slightly worse for wear. "Greetings, everyone," Aqualad said. He cleared his throat and gestured behind him. "I am sure you all know Garfield Logan." He stepped aside.
After a moment, a tiger's head peeked out of the opening. The green wildcat ducked its head and sheepishly inched down the ramp onto the landing pad.
Wally swallowed heavily. "G-g-g-garfield?!" he squeaked. "You've—uh, you've…changed."
Shivering, the tiger cowered behind Aqualad's legs.
"An unforeseen side effect has developed following M'gann's lifesaving blood transfusion a couple years ago. It appears that her Martian shapeshifting capabilities manifested as the ability to change into a variety of animals at will."
"Can he…turn human?" Artemis asked.
The tiger whimpered before becoming momentarily amorphous. It re-solidified into an unsettlingly naked, young, green-skinned boy with a monkey's tail.
Zatanna gasped and waved her hand, saying, "Eh sah a teknalb."
A blanket popped into existence and settled around the boy's quivering form. Garfield's face was wet with tears. He held a hand in front of his face and tried not to hyperventilate as he stared at it.
"Clothing is unfortunately futile in this state," Aqualad explained. "It merely shreds when he transforms into a…larger being."
"So don't turn into a 'larger being,'" Wally cynically suggested, earning him a slap on the arm from Artemis.
"He clearly doesn't have control yet, genius," Robin hissed.
"Where's M'gann?" Zatanna asked.
"Her uncle took her off-world to get some organic clothes, similar to her own costume," Aqualad informed. "Garfield will then be able to wear a uniform without it disintegrating every time he transforms. Unfortunately, Miss Martian may not return for hours, if not days."
"Sh-" Garfield stuttered between sniffles. "Sh-she's gone too."
"No, sweetie," Zatanna soothed. "She will be back, I promise."
"B-but I don't know how to control it!" the boy whimpered, glancing between all the protégés staring down at him. "I-I don't—I can't—Mom was—" He broke down into more sobs and began to transform again. Everyone jumped back and watched him become a dog.
Garfield's cries turned canine as he looked down at his paws in horror. He whined and backed away from the group, the blanket still draped over his back between his neck and tail. Moments later, Garfield was a boy again tumbling into a tangled heap.
The boy's cries grew louder as panic descended. "Why c-can't I make it s-stop?!" Garfield blubbered. He retched, followed by another sudden transformation into a duck and then back to a boy within seconds. "I can't stop it without Mom! She was the only one who knows—who knew—"
Zatanna dropped to her knees. She gripped Garfield's upper arms and gave the most reassuring smile she could manage. The girl then pulled him into a tight hug, momentarily calming his nerves. He let out a shaky breath before melting into her embrace—literally melting, into a koala bear. Zatanna scooped him into her arms, retaining the blanket just in case, and bewilderedly asked of her teammates, "Don't any of you know about controlling transformations?!"
Everyone glanced amongst themselves—a hyperactive track and field enthusiast, two normal humans, a simple Kryptonian, and an amphibious magician.
"Well, let's take him up to the living room for now," Artemis suggested.
The koala ballooned into an elephant and immediately dropped from the girl's arms.
"Uh…um…"
"I'll do it," Superboy grumbled.
"Well, who else besides M'gann knows about transforming?" Kid Flash asked.
"I know a guy," Robin answered and whipped out his phone.
"Of course," Mr. Lancer droned, "literary scholars *assume* the true meaning of Candide was an expression of Voltaire's disapproval of-"
*Pling*
Danny flinched awake in his seat, drool trickling down his forearm from where his palm was supporting his jaw. He sucked in another drop of drool before it could escape his mouth and shook his head in an attempt to reawaken. Danny glanced to his left and right to see Tucker and Sam paying varying degrees of attention to that day's English lesson.
*Pling*
Danny jolted again and looked down at the open front pouch of his backpack. The illumination from his phone reflected off the plastic casings containing various pencils and pens alongside his calculator.
'Huh…. I'm *sure* I silenced that before class…'
*Pling*
Danny rushed to silence his phone, but the switch on the side was already in the 'silent' position. So how-?
"Mr. Fenton," Lancer barked, making Danny whip his attention back to the front of the room. "I do hope my lecture on classical literature isn't interrupting your important personal business?"
"N-no, Mr. Lancer," he meekly replied.
*Pling*
"Then if you wouldn't mind silencing that device before I confiscate it?" the teacher suggested. "…Again," he added.
[New Confidential Messages from: Brother Dearest]
Danny almost decided to ignore it. The last time Dick had used the emergency communication function to override the vibrate setting, it had been a 'critical' need for a 4th for doubles at ping pong. But this-
*Pling*
"Mister FENTON!"
"Yeah, I'm goin', I'm goin'," Danny sassed. He shoved his belongings into his backpack and trudged towards the door. "I'll give Principal Ishiyama your regards." Danny let the door slam behind him. Once in the hall, he finally unlocked his phone.
Robin: [Danny]
Robin: [Yo Danny answer ASAP]
Robin: [Come to cave immediately]
Robin: [Not a fake emergency I promise]
Robin: [We are in the common space. Please hurry]
Danny sped to the nearest hiding spot and transformed into Phantom, immediately beelining for Amity Park's zeta tube.
Whatever Phantom had expected the emergency to be…it wasn't this.
"Soooo…" he began, appraising the state of everyone gathered around the living room. The protégés were falsely calm and stared straight ahead in varying states of despondence. "…Does someone want to address the elephant in the room?"
The green elephant in question sat on the far sofa on its rear haunches with a uselessly small blanket across its hunched shoulders. It looked up and made eye contact with the ghost boy before returning its gaze to the floor.
"Phantom! Glad you could make it," Robin greeted and walked over. He placed a hand on Phantom's shoulder and turned back to face the group. "I'd like you to meet Garfield."
" 'Garfield?' Isn't he supposed to be orange?" Phantom asked. "And a cat?"
Robin smacked Danny's arm. "Garfield Logan," he said and continued in a whisper, "Queen Bee just assassinated his mom, so lay off the sarcasm a little, huh?"
"Oh." Phantom sobered. He gulped and frowned. "Sorry to hear that. And he's an elephant becaaaauuuse—?"
"Garfield got a blood transfusion from Miss Martian to save his life a couple years ago, and now he can shape-shift into different animals. But he doesn't-"
The elephant trumpeted a sneeze and transformed into a bear cub.
Robin sighed and continued, "He doesn't have much control over it yet. His mom was the one who helped."
Phantom, incredulous, turned to him. "It's been a couple years and he still can't control it?"
"The powers are a recent development," Robin explained with a shrug and returned to his seat, leaving Phantom standing in front of the group.
Phantom began to understand why he had been summoned. He nodded to himself and slowly crossed the room. "Hey…Garfield?"
The bear cub stirred under the blanket and looked up at him as he approached.
"Hey," Phantom repeated and knelt down in front of the bear where it sat on the sofa. He tried to appear calm and friendly, though his slight twitching revealed his nerves in the face of the apparently wild animal. "I'm Phantom—Danny Phantom—but my friends just call me Danny."
"Rrrr," the bear answered.
Phantom blinked. "Um…I'll assume that was a…'hi.' Um-" He shared a look with Zatanna who sat at the green animal's side. "Garfield's a cool name. …I guess. It was one of my favorite comics growing up. I always asked my mom to make lasagna because of it, heheh…Ah, I miss reading about that stupid cat."
The bear cub chirruped and transformed into a green cat.
Phantom swallowed and relaxed slightly. "Look, um…I'm sorry about your mom. But I'm happy to tell you that a lot of kids on this team have lost their parents too, so—no, wait, that came out wrong. I mean, fortunately they've all lost people very close to them. — Urgh, stop it, Fenton. — I'm just trying to say they all know what you're going through." Danny reached up and scratched behind the cat's ears. "I haven't lost anyone like that. Well, I sort of have, but I didn't know…. Eh, it's a long story; I can tell you later. But that's not important. I'm here to help you 'fly solo' with these spontaneous transformations."
The cat perked up in surprise before seemingly disappearing from view. Everyone jumped in their seats and leaned forward in alarm.
"I didn't do it, I swear!" Phantom insisted.
"Where'd he go?!" Artemis asked.
"He must have transformed into something smaller," Aqualad proposed. "Perhaps an insect of some sort."
Phantom flipped over the blanket, and a fly buzzed frantically into the air. It rapidly circled around the various team members, each protégé taking swats at it as it approached.
"Hey, cool it!" Phantom exclaimed and stood. "It's probably Garfield!"
Everyone froze and watched as the fly gravitated towards the unperturbed Superboy. It danced around in the air, though the Kryptonian remained outwardly unaffected and ignorant of its existence.
"Quick, somebody make another animal reference!" Wally suggested. "He seems to respond to those!"
"I- uh—" Phantom faltered.
"Garfield, quit *monkeying* around," Robin punned.
A spider monkey materialized in midair, dropped onto Superboy's head and clawed at him in a panic. The two tousled for a few moments, Superboy grunting and the monkey screeching. They wrestled for a grip of each other until the teen finally got a hold of the back of the monkey's neck. Holding it at arm's length, Superboy growled, "I hate monkeys…"
Artemis scoffed. "Well, it's a vast improvement over an el-hmmph!"
"Ssssh!" Wally hissed and removed his hand from her mouth. "Don't give him any ideas!"
"Alright, let's all just calm down a bit," Phantom said and, holding out his arms to beckon Superboy and Garfield forward. "Connor, please hand the monkey over to me."
The boy did so, and Danny cradled the barely-tamed monkey in his arms.
Phantom continued in a steady voice, "Alright, see? Everything's fine, we're all cool, let's all just take a breath and relax a bit." He looked down in his arms and made eye contact with the animal. "Gosh, I'm—I'm sorry, Gar, being held like this must feel pretty dehumanizing for you, but we'll figure it out, okay?"
" 'Dehuma-' For god's sake, it's a monkey!" Superboy snapped.
"Hey!" Phantom snapped back and held the monkey out on display at arm's length while glaring at the Kryptonian. "Somewhere in there is a human boy, and I'll be damned if we don't find and help him!"
The monkey suddenly transformed back into Garfield.
"Ulgh!" Phantom grunted, collapsing to the floor under the unexpected sudden weight. Garfield sprawled face-down on top of Phantom for a moment before realizing he was blanket-less again. He rolled off of Danny and curled into a ball.
"Zatanna, blanket," Aqualad ordered, and the girl tossed it over to Garfield.
"See? Told you," Phantom moaned and rolled to sit up himself. "Nice to meet *actual* you, Garfield."
"Welcome back, man," Robin greeted.
The green boy sniffled but didn't look up. "T-thanks."
Phantom shifted to sit next to him, leaning their backs against the picture windows for support. He threw an arm around Garfield's shoulders and pulled him in, still breathing heavily from the excitement.
"I c-can't make it stop," Garfield whispered. "Mom started to help, but she—she's…"
"Yeah, I know," Phantom soothed. "Look, you have every right to mourn her; I mean, come on, she was your mom. Nobody can replace her. But know that you are not alone, okay? A lot of these guys have been through the same thing."
Danny looked up and nodded to the other protégés. A heaviness settled over the room as everyone began to reflect on their lost loved ones.
"Mine died right in front of me," Robin muttered. "Murdered. In front of a whole crowd of people."
"One died in a car accident when I was a baby, the other possessed by a magic helmet's lord of order," Zatanna added.
"Supervillain," Artemis added.
"Supervillain," Superboy parroted.
"Supervillain," Aqualad muttered bitterly.
"And I never even knew my real ones," Phantom added, "though the people I thought were my parents did love me. Tried to kill me a few times, sure, but—but they didn't know it was me before, so we're cool now."
"They didn't know it was you?!" Garfield asked, bewildered.
"Ah, no. I can transform, you see; that's why I'm here," Phantom explained. "I don't always look like a 16-year-old grandfather who glows in the dark," he added, subconsciously running a hand through his white hair.
"You can transform?"
"Yeah. See?" Phantom's aural rings separated, changing him back into Danny Fenton.
"Dude," Garfield croaked with hope blossoming in his eyes. "A-and you just do it when you want?"
"Eh…most of the time. Sometimes I get caught by surprise or collapse from exhaustion, but anyway. I was a mess when I first got my powers, let me tell you," Danny said with a chuckle.
"You were?"
"Yeah, all my powers were a mess. Intangibility, especially. I lost count of how many beakers I dropped in school. But if I wasn't concentrating during a fight, suddenly I was just a human again. It especially sucked when I was flying…"
Despite himself, Garfield snorted, wiping his eyes with the blanket. Danny massaged a phantom pain in his shoulder.
"So don't give up yet," Danny finished. "You'll learn how to control it, and I'll try to help."
"How do you do it?" the younger boy asked.
"You have to look inside. For me, maybe it's a little easier because I have a literal ghost core inside me. But yeah, as cheesy as it sounds, you have to feel it inside. Go to the very essence of your being, because it's your mind that controls it, okay? It feels like something separate from who you were, but you're not who you used to be. Okay, maybe you are still you, but your body isn't."
Garfield's eyes widened, and he began to hyperventilate.
"But- but your body doesn't matter, okay?!" Danny rushed to assure him. "It doesn't define you. *You* define you, and you control your body, not the other way around!"
Garfield nodded and tried to calm his nerves.
"Okay, let's try a controlled transformation."
"B-but he just got back to human!" Wally protested.
"Can't we just leave him as-is for now?" Artemis asked.
"No!" Danny barked. "He has to learn *sometime*! He can do it!" Turning to Garfield, he added in a much calmer, encouraging voice, "I know you can do it."
Garfield sniffed once and nodded.
"Okay, stand up," Danny said. Danny straightened up and helped Garfield to stand beside him.
The group waited with bated breath, but Garfield did nothing besides look nervously between them and Danny.
Danny finally caught onto Garfield's hesitation. "Here, why don't I start?" he suggested, and the green-skinned boy visibly relaxed. Danny spread his feet shoulder width apart and shook out his arms. "Okay, find the ghost within, control the ghost within, become the ghost within."
The aural rings rematerialized and passed over Danny's person. Ectoplasm flooded his physiology. Instantly, the ghostly hero of Amity Park stood before them in place of the unsuspecting apparent 'slacker.' The protégés offered a smattering of sarcastic clapping, so Phantom bowed in faux honor. "Thank you, thank you, I'm here all night. Now, Garfield: your turn."
"What should I change into?" Garfield asked.
"Maybe a-" Zatanna began.
"No!" Phantom interrupted. "His last changes were sparked by his subconscious. He has to make a conscious choice, but don't tell us what it is." He turned to the boy. "Okay, choose one and focus. Focus on the—on the beast within, and control it."
"Right. Right. Okay." Garfield closed his eyes and concentrated. "Find the beast within…"
Wally and Robin leaned forward in silent anticipation. Zatanna and Artemis braced themselves in their seats. Aqualad and Superboy simply observed.
"Control the beast within…"
Apprehension blanketed the team. Phantom steepled his gloved index fingers and pressed them to his lips in concentration. Wally bounced his leg until Artemis smacked a heavy hand down onto his knee, tearing his attention away for only a moment of annoyance. And then, Garfield's eyes shot open with predatory, vertical-slit pupils.
"Become the beast within."
A lion reared on its haunches and swiped the air with a mighty roar, startling everyone in the room. The proud animal cast a long shadow over Phantom in the pools of the room's canister lighting.
A broad smile split Phantom's face. Despite the sudden presence of a lion, he relaxed. The others cheered and clapped with varying degrees of enthusiasm. After a moment, the lion dropped its front paws to the floor and transformed back into Garfield.
"Hey, I did it!" Garfield shouted, jumping for joy.
Amongst the boys' suppressed snickers, the girls blushed and averted their gazes. Phantom wrapped an arm around Garfield's torso, pulling him into a side hug.
"Y-yeah," Phantom said, fighting a laugh of his own. He held up the discarded blanket. "You're also…*naked.*"
Garfield lost all mirth and glanced down in horror, covering himself as quickly as possible.
"We'll get there," Phantom assured and patted the younger boy's shoulder. "Eventually."