A sleek, oblong vehicle resembling a submarine moved steadily through a world flooded in rainbow light packed so densely it might as well have been water. The soft, trilling sounds that penetrated the thick metallic helm called to mind a distant echo of sleigh bells and flutes that synchronized so perfectly it was hard to believe there was no one conducting the strange orchestra. At least, no one that they knew of.

If one was too quiet, they might just catch the eerie shadow of the billions upon billions of voices that floated through the supposedly dead world. The monotonous humming and occasional beep of the vehicles systems blocked made hearing those shadows almost impossible most of the time.

Unfortunately, most times was only when one or both of the two-man crew were actually using those systems, making for many a sleepless night. Well, for one of the crew at least.

"You told me the creepiness gets easier." A dark haired boy accused, his tired face pressed against a window to take in the lightshow.

"Did for me." The young man at the controls took a bite from the rosy apple in his free hand.

"Cause you're the perfect measuring stick for these things, Jason." The boy navigated around the machinery to plop down into the padded seat next to his self-proclaimed older brother.

"This from My-best-friend's-a-space-alien." Jason scoffed. "No one forced you to tag along."

"Clone of a space alien." Tim retorted, a frown on his face that made him look more put upon than he really was. "And you literally dragged me out of bed." He reached into a cabinet under his seat to retrieve a brightly colored energy drink; he downed half the thing in one go, despite the way his face screwed up at the taste. "I hate these things."

"So have coffee." Jason plucked the drink out of Tim's hand and took a swig. When he got neither a complaint nor the prickling at the back of his neck that suggested a heated glare, he turned his own frown on the younger boy. "What did you do with the coffee Tim?" Silence was all the answer he needed, and he let out a groan that was somewhere between tired and exasperated.

"I didn't know we'd be here for four days." Tim snatched back the can and finished it off.

"We'll restock when we get there." Jason kept his eyes focused on the endless expanse ahead of them. There was a familiar zing in his bones, stronger and more natural than he'd felt in years, and there was more than one reason loosing it again was not an option.

His co-pilot fished out another energy drink and sipped it slowly, his eyes drooping shut despite the rush of caffeine. Grouchy, sleep deprived Tim was leagues better than the one he'd have to face if he ended up going home, so Jason let himself smile and enjoy the moment.

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"Danny! You can't be late for your orientation!" Jazz's voice was even shriller to Danny's ears than the screaming of the ghost he'd been up all night fighting.

The teenaged hero grumbled and stuffed his head under his pillow, forcing down his guilt at ignoring the sister who'd traveled miles just to take part in his first 'unofficial' day of college. Orientation wasn't mandatory anyway.

Her voice faded away and he sighed blissfully into his sheets, partly tucking his head under his pillow. As far as he was concerned the extra credit could go the way of the dinosaurs while he slept on.

Just when he was begging to doze off the loud thumps of angered footsteps began booming up the stairs. For a second he considered going intangible and falling under his bed to avoid the hassle of getting up, but his common sense won out.

He'd just pulled himself into a semi-upright position when his cell began playing an obnoxious jingle that could mean one of two things: Tucker either 'really' wanted him at school one time, or there was an emergency. Danny, in all his boundless optimism was sincerely hoping for the latter.

"Tuck?" He answered just thumping stopped outside his bedroom door.

The door creaked open, revealing Jazz peeking out from behind a bewildered Jack Fenton.

"See Jazzypants, I told you he'd be up and ready before we knew it." He boomed, puffing out his chest pridefully.

Jazz, however sighed and shut the door on the empty room. Danny never moved that fast unless he needed to, and she wasn't sure a college orientation would cut it.

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"These readings have been off the scales since last night." Tucker's fingers flew across his keypad in a blur, his glasses reflecting row upon row of the gibberish that flashed across the screen.

"Come on, we couldn't have dealt with this then?" Danny frowned, leaning across his friends oversized chair to peer at the screen. "How long is this gonna take?"

"Too long." Tucker smirked. "Start thinking up your cover story now."

Danny sighed, and with a small shake of his head pulled out the grand children of the communicators they'd used years ago. If he had to suffer, it was his job as leader to make sure the rest of the team did too.

Sam, Dani, and – surprisingly – Valery showed up within minutes, all looking about as grumpy as he was about being there.

"What is it?" Sam asked, the tinted violet shades that hid half her face failing to completely hide irate tilt of her eyebrows as she accepted a bagel from the tiny ghost that poofed into the room.

"Jazz is about ready to chew your head off, so it better be good." Dani, flew across the room, setting down on Tucker's desk with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Tucker." Danny said, shooting a questioning look at Valery, who just shrugged and set her hands on her hips.

"You said everyone." The Red Huntress said.

"I can't tell you what this is, but I can tell you it's not supposed to be here." He spun in his chair to swipe a disk from the other end of his crescent work desk. A few seconds after inserting the disk, dozens of maps replaced the digits scrolling across his screen. "Aw man." The boy groaned. "Something that big, you just know it's not gonna be friendly."

"We'll deal." Danny said, injecting all of his confidence into his voice. "Can you find where exactly it's gonna show."

"Here if the new guidance system works." Tucker said, shooting a look at Danny out the corner of his eye that told him his friend wasn't as sure of that as he should have been. "I'm not sure this thing is even a ghost portal."

"So you wanna bring the freaky monster to the million dollar headquarters we just got?" Valery asked with a disbelieving frown, one of her eyebrows disappearing behind her short bangs.

"Better than in the middle of the city." Sam didn't look at the other girl as she spoke, her gaze fixed on the three prongs dangling from the ceiling.

"Yeah well if you're payin' for it." Valery huffed.

"Hey look!" Dani pointed at the prongs, hopping off the desk to stand at the ready, her eyes gleaming.

It took the others a second to pick up on what had her so exited, but once they did it was all hands on deck.

Sam stroked the jagged beads of her bracelet, as a small army of ghost poffs appeared, and Valery pulled the oversized ecto-cannon off her back.

Tucker muttered something unintelligible, and his frantic hands moved even faster. Danny would have almost thought his friend was just mashing keys randomly if not for the concentrated from on the other boy's face.

The little pinprick of red grew while team phantom stood at the ready.

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"I was asleep for ten minutes!" Jason yelled, trying in vain to stabilize their out of control vehicle.

"If you hadn't been in such a hurry we wouldn't have slept at all!" Tim countered, tapping away at the navigation console in hopes of finding source of their apparent malfunctions.

Jason refrained from commenting on how not everyone could subsist solely on coffee and gripped his arms rest for second when a particularly strong bout of shaking almost had him thrown from his seat. Tim rolled his eyes at his brother's unclasped seatbelt and turned back to his screen.

Jason cursed and slipped his crimson helmet over his head. The colors ahead of them darkened, some morphing into an ugly brackish tinge with red quickly becoming dominant.

"Damnit! This is what I get for taking you with me." Jason held the controls tightly, applying all his strength to keeping the vehicle from barrel rolling.

"The one time I actually wanted to stay home. I told you something was wrong!" Tim tossed the screen aside and leaped from his seat to inspect the systems manually in the face of the diagnostic's contradictory data.

Behind his helmet, Jason shot an uneasy glance at the younger boy, but got over it a shake of his head later. 'Not worrying about that.'

He gritted his teeth, tightening his hold on the controls and praying with every fiber in his freaking body that they wouldn't snap in half under his grip. His eyes studied the formation of dark colors ahead of him and he let out the stream of vulgar not-Alfred-approved curses he's been saving for a special occasion.

"Get in your seat Babybird." He called over his shoulder. "Nothing you can do." He'd learned the hard way that there was no getting out of a hole like that once it had you.

Tim looked back at the wires like they'd failed him and got back into his seat. Before he was able to clip it in Jason lost his battle with the steering and both of them were tossed headfirst into the console.

The smattering of colors ahead of them morphed into a swirling red vortex. Jason held on to the steering wheel with one arm, encircling Tim with the other to keep them mostly in place during the vehicle's attempt at emulating Nightwing's performance across the trapeze.

They were slurped into the vortex and barreled out the other side, crashing into something with enough force to knock all their viewing screen's offline. For a few seconds the only sounds were the cracking of damaged equipment and their own heavy breathing.

Tim opened his mouth as if to speak, but decided that his scowl in the weak emergency lighting was telling enough.

"I miss when you were tiny and remembered how awesome I am." Jason took a deep, steadying breath before disentangling himself from the smaller boy.

"You sound like Dick." Tim huffed, barely on his feet before he fell into his chair.

"Tch." Jason motioned for him to stay down before stepping up the ladder to the ceiling catch. He at least had a chance of survival if there was something out there waiting to chomp down on his head. Half the vehicle opened up and blinked a few times to make sure the world outside wasn't a hallucination brought on by the concussion he was pretty sure he had.

The scene never shifted though, and he took a second to contain the swelling in his chest and force down that goofy smile before his pulled of his helmet. The traitorous curving of his mouth returned full force as soon as he caught the recognition in their eyes.

"Long time no see Boss." He reached a hand into the ship, closing it around Tim's and tugged him into view, wrapping an arm around the confused boy's shoulders and pulling him close. The gesture was partly to show Tim it was okay and partly to have a physical weight grounding him as proof that this was reality.

"This is my little brother, Red Robin."