It just kind of happened.

*****

Phantom was not in the best of moods, he was frustrated and felt like punching something, he would tear his work apart if it wasn't important. He rubbed his eyes and looked at everything again, nope he still wasn't seeing it, he was missing something but he didn't know what. Someone then knocked on his door and he turned off his lights before quickly stepping out of the room.

It was Robin, the heroes were already used to Phantom's slightly strange behavior but they chalked it up to him being a private person. Phantom spoke, "Did you need something?"

Robin looked at Phantom, he seemed tired, his hair was a little messed up which meant he was frustrated, and he probably hadn't eaten that day. Robin gave Phantom a slightly concerned look, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about it."

Robin didn't look convinced but he decided to drop the subject for now, "Batman has a mission for us."

Phantom nodded and they walked down the hall, Robin held Phantom's hand but whether it was to comfort himself or Phantom he didn't know. Robin reluctantly let go of Phantom's hand before they walked into the room, the rest of the team was already there. Batman didn't waste any time starting his briefing, a map popped up with a red indicating a forest outside New York city.

"People have been reporting sightings of something in this forest, we believe someone is either just trying to scare people or they're guarding something. Whatever the reason may be we need to put a stop to it, you need to go here and find out what's going on."

Aqualad spoke, "Do we know anything about what is in the forest?"

"Very little, people usually report a white blur, some reports say they were told to leave, other people were told to go somewhere."

Phantom thought for a minute, that sounded familiar but he couldn't remember why, maybe he was just tired. Batman soon told them to head out and they did, soon enough they were in the bio-ship heading to the forest. Something was still bugging him but he couldn't figure it out, even the fact that it was in New York bothered him.

All too soon they reached the forest and Aqualad spoke, "We should split into pairs and find whatever is hiding in this forest."

That statement alone set off alarms in Phantom's head, "I don't think we should split up."

The heroes looked at Phantom in confusion and Artemis spoke, "Why?"

Phantom had to think fast, "Whatever it is could be dangerous, sure no one reported being attacked but people have gone missing in this forest." Now he had no clue where that came from, he knew he was right but for the life of him he didn't know how he knew.

Aqualad nodded, "Then we will stay together for now."

Phantom felt some of his anxiety disappear and the heroes headed into the forest but the heroes were confused now. They didn't know why Phantom wanted them to stay together or how he knew that people had gone missing here. Robin was more concerned then anything and he held Phantom's hand, the halfa didn't seem to want to let go.

When this mission was over Robin was going to ask Phantom what was wrong, he'd never seen him like this. The heroes walked through the forest for a while and Kid Flash groaned, "How long is this going to take?"

Artemis rolled her eyes, "It hasn't even been an hour."

Kid Flash looked a bit irritated, "There's probably nothing here anyway, it's just going to be some kids messing around."

Miss Martian spoke, "Should we head back?"

Aqualad spoke, "No, we should at least search more of the forest before coming to any conclusions."

Phantom then heard something and his instincts were telling him this wasn't good, Phantom spoke, "Guys."

Kid Flash spoke, "The only dangerous things in this forest are wild animals."

Phantom spoke again, "Guys."

Superboy spoke, "This wouldn't be as bad if you weren't complaining."

Phantom growled a little, "Oh for fuck sake, shut up!"

All of the heroes looked at Phantom in shock and they heard a sound coming from the trees, something was out there. Phantom felt like someone was watching them, more specifically him, up in the trees but he couldn't see anything. Just when the heroes thought they could relax they heard a voice, "You."

Everyone tensed, the voice was quiet and raspy, that one word was almost unintelligible but it scared the heroes half to death. Something clicked in Phantom's head and his eyes widened, "Oh god, I should have known, how the fuck did I not see it?"

Robin looked at Phantom, "Phantom, what's wrong?"

Phantom didn't know what to tell him, he didn't know how to explain it without sounding crazy. Before he could come up with an answer they heard the voice again, "You."

Phantom looked at his surroundings, "Yeah, it's me, you already know it's me, so which one of you came up with this whole thing?"

They heard something in the trees again and Phantom made Robin stand with the others, he'd be safer if he wasn't close to him. Whatever was in the trees kept moving before one of the branches violently shook and something sprang toward Phantom. "Die!"

Phantom was forced to the ground and the teen did everything he could to keep it away from him. He kicked it in the chest and it gave the heroes a few seconds to see what the thing was, it was white and had black eyes. It's limbs were long and gangly, it was down on all fours and the stance didn't look natural.

It was almost as if it's limbs were twisted and mangled but if they were then the creature didn't care. It attacked Phantom again and this time it managed to tear through Phantom's stomach with it's seemingly clawed hand. Phantom quickly moved to the side and held his stomach before blasting the creature and it landed on the ground.

Phantom looked at the heroes, "Get to the bio-ship, now!"

The heroes didn't need to be told twice, they ran and Robin looked back but he knew Phantom wanted them to run for a reason. The heroes ran as fast as they could and got to the bio-ship within twenty minutes and most of them were out of breath. Artemis spoke, "What was that thing?"

Aqualad spoke, "Was Phantom behind us?"

The heroes looked around but Phantom wasn't in the bio-ship, Miss Martian spoke, "We have to go back."

Kid Flash spoke, "We can't go back, that thing could kill us!"

They then heard something in the forest and the heroes backed away from the entrance to the bio-ship. They waited and Phantom ran in, "What the hell are you doing, we need to go."

Miss Martian immediately sat down and flew the bio-ship away from the forest, the rest of the heroes stared at Phantom. His leg was badly injured and the wounds on his stomach didn't look good either, they were surprised he was standing. The heroes had no idea what was going on but they could worry about that after they stopped Phantom from bleeding out.

They were able to figure out one thing though, Phantom knew that thing in the forest and it obviously didn't like him.