Well I bet you guys didn't expect a chapter this quick or at least compared to the last update quick. The main reason being I had this past week off and was able to actually get some stuff done, mainly buckling down on getting a chapter written before having to go back to work. Obviously I succeed. As usual if you guys have suggestions or questions leave a review or private message me especially if they are items for Miasma to steal!

I do not own Young Justice or Danny Phantom in any way, shape, or form, if I did I would not be writing this story on fanfiction site.

Chapter 10 Kobayashi Maru Part 1

The campus police of Evengale College were stumped. There had been a theft from a teacher recently, one of the American History instructors, Professor Mark Davis. He had come into his office Monday morning to find his ship in a wine bottle that usually sat on his desk missing. The piece in question was a replica of Black Beard the Pirate's notorious ship the Queen Ann's Revenge inside of a clear wine bottle. It had to have been taken from him sometime over the weekend or late Friday afternoon. He claimed that he knew who had done it. He had been meeting with a student about their grades in one of his classes. The meeting had ended badly and the student had left furious. The student's name was Inigo Talbot, an 18 year old senior majoring in computer based science with a minor in history who was living in an apartment off campus. Mr. Davis had had this student in his classes in the past and had quickly identified him as the most likely culprit for the crime. Inigo had a criminal record in the form of one count of theft when he was a juvenile backing up Professor Davis' hunch.

After some snooping, it was determined that there had been a report of a teen spotted hanging around the garden near the outside door that led to Professor Davis' office. The teen described fit Inigo perfectly. Since Inigo was living off campus the actual city police had to become involved for the search of the student's apartment due to the need for a search warrant off campus. With all the work that was involved it wasn't until Wednesday around lunch time that the search was performed.

Upon arriving at the apartment building, the Sergeant and Officer assigned the case were informed by the landlady that Inigo was in his apartment at that moment studying with his roommate, or at least he had been when she went up a few minutes before. Inigo lived on the third floor with one other teen that also went to the college nearby. As the two officers walked away from the short but well-built Hispanic woman narrowed her eyes in suspicion. After the long hike up the steps, the officers reached Inigo's apartment and knocked on the door. A minute later it was opened. Inigo Talbot, dressed in blue jeans with a red t-shirt, widened his green eyes in surprise at seeing them. The most eye catching part about the teen was the greyish brown rat perched on his shoulder. As the Sergeant explained their reason for being there, the Officer beside him had his eyes constantly fixed on the long tailed rodent that was staring at them intently. After being let in, they were greeted by his roommate, the tall African American teen who immediately started questioning them for their reasons for searching their apartment. The Sergeant explained the missing item that was stolen from the Professor. At the mention of the Professor's name the roommate's eyes darted toward Inigo for a second. Deciding not to push the subject, the Sergeant and the Officer began to search the apartment. The Sergeant made his way to the bedroom to start searching while the Officer started in the living room. Inigo just sat on the couch with the rat curled up on his shoulder.

As the Sergeant began carefully and methodically going through the room, the roommate walked in, closing the door behind him.

" You're barking up the wrong tree."

The Sergeant felt his eyebrow lift at the point blank statement.

"How so?"

"The Prof is a piece of work, hides it from most people, but there are a few that he just doesn't give a lick of respect to, people like Inigo. If they are from a poorer background especially having a criminal offense in their past, and here only on a scholarship he doesn't pull his punches. I wouldn't have even realized it myself except one day I was gonna meet up with Inigo between classes to split a pizza. When I got outside the Prof's classroom I could hear loud voices. It was actually only the Prof who was raising their voice. He was calling out Inigo on his lack of study for the class and horrible grades. Now I know that Inigo is many things, but a slacker is not one of them! He's told me about that one time when he stole back in his home town. It nearly ruined his mom. After that he straightened up, got back to being serious in his classes at school. Did you know that he graduated when he was fourteen? He's smart, way smart, so hearing the Prof repeatedly berating him over what was obviously a lie, and the kid believing it, didn't sit right with me. Since then the Prof has been bearing down on him, nothing physical or provable. Man, you didn't see him some nights staying up late studying just to try to get a passing grade in that windbag's class so that he wouldn't lose his scholarship. And he's done it. Final semester and the only class he's getting low scores in is the Prof's, but he's still got a passing grade and is even able to graduate with honors. Then all of a sudden the Prof's stuff goes missing? Nah, to me sounds like something the Prof would pull to try to get him kicked out before he can graduate. He's always been sneaky when he's out to get someone. There was one kid last semester that he ended up having thrown out for cheating, but the kid was a straight arrow, he never would have done it."

The Sergeant's mind was running over the wealth of information he had just been given with a grain of salt. If what the roommate said was true, then it was a distinct possibility that the Professor was truly sabotaging Inigo and possibly other students based on his personal feelings. If so, it would definitely be worth it to check the Professor's office again for evidence of foul play against the students. The first time checking the office had been overseen by the campus police and in that case they were looking for evidence of a thief, not a teacher out to frame one of the students.

So it was with a busy mind that the pair of officers left the apartment, no sign of the missing ship in a bottle being found there. There were two possibilities running in the Sergeant's mind. Either the roommate was telling the truth or else Inigo Talbot was really the thief and had hidden the bottle elsewhere. Once the two policemen had gotten in the car, the Sergeant had caught the Officer up to speed on what the roommate had told him about the Professor.

It was later that afternoon at the station when the Professor came bustling in, his face scrunched up with ill-disguised anger. What followed was the bombastic man attempting to tell the officer at the desk how to do their job in great detail especially concerning how he would have handled "a low life punk" like Inigo Talbot. The unfortunate rookie at the desk was penned in by the irate teacher and was sending helpless looks towards his coworker at the next desk over when the Sergeant who was assigned to Davis' case stepped in. The look on the poor officer's face was as if he had been saved from a dragon who was going to eat him alive. It took less than two minutes for the Sergeant to have stared the riled teacher down and calmly explained to him that there had been no sign of the ship in Inigo's possession. He assured the professor they would have to keep investigating further and hope for some evidence to come to light. With that the professor left, a trail of mumbled complaints trailing behind him. The look of relief on the desk officer's face was mutually felt by everyone there.

It was decided by the Sergeant that it would be beneficial to the investigation to search the Professor's office again. The Professor's behavior at the station just seemed to reinforce the facts told by the roommate. One of the campus security guards for that building had been informed to meet them to let them into the Professor's office. The Sergeant and the Officer made their way to the college. As he drove the Sergeant considered the finer points of the case. One, the missing item was a replica of the famous pirate ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, which had been bought for 200 dollars according to the paperwork Professor Davis had shown the campus police. Two, the good professor's outburst at the police station had made it very clear that he had a grudge against Inigo Talbot or at least was drawing on some previous bias concerning the kid. Third, while there was a confirmed sighting of a kid that matched Inigo's description hanging around the garden that was close to the Professor's office, there was no way to be certain that he hadn't just been there clearing his head after the fight. Lord knows, if the Professor treated police officers like he did earlier then the Sergeant didn't want to know how much worse he treated the kid.

The walk to the Professor's office was a silent one. As the pair approached the office they saw Professor Davis standing in the hallway fiddling with the door knob, trying to get in. The officers silently walked up behind the preoccupied and slightly shifty looking teacher.

"Is there something we can help you with Professor Davis?"

The Sergeant could not deny the slight enjoyment he felt at seeing the pompous teacher jump. The presence of the Officer by his side standing at an impressive 6'3 probably didn't help the Professor's nerves.

"Why, I just needed to get something from my classroom. If I may ask, what are you doing here?"

The Professor's defensive behavior and attempt at deflection were intriguing by themselves. Add in how his eyes were constantly moving and how he didn't look the officers in the eyes left the Sergeant set on finding out what had him ruffled.

"Well, since you are here you can go ahead and open the door for us. We've decided to take another look around your office to hopefully gain more insight on the theft."

The Professor's apprehension seemed to grow with those words. He was now fiddling with his office keys and the Sergeant could see sweat starting to bead around his hairline.

"Of course officer, that wouldn't be a problem."

The uneasy look on the Professor's face made the Sergeant even more set on finding out what had the man on edge. With a click the door swung open wide, showcasing the office. The walls were painted a cream color with a dark wood molding and baseboards. There were two floor to ceiling shelves packed with books and in the corner opposite from the door sat a corner desk that matched the wood trim of the room. There was a bare spot on the otherwise well planned desk, presumably where the ship in a bottle had previously sat. The Professor stood at the door looking very uncomfortable, probably at the thought of his domain being invaded and him having no say in it.

The Sergeant gave the Officer a nod and the two split up, the Officer taking the higher areas while the Sergeant began visually combing through the contents of the desk. The homework that was on the desk was carefully sorted into stacks depending on the class, while the computer was centered carefully in the corner that was facing the door. There were multiple knickknacks spaced throughout the length of the desk, most of them historically based. A quill pen and inkwell set, a small case containing medals, and a small model of a ship, not in a bottle. The entire office gave off a stifling air, an attempt to put out an air of dignity. In the Sergeant's case it came off as pretentious and frankly quite obvious, but being a puffed up windbag wasn't a crime or the jail back at the station would be packed to the maximum. He was jarred from his thoughts by a rough spot in the otherwise flawlessly smooth desk, on the underside of the desk right where there was some detailing. He carefully ran his hand around the rough spot, feeling it give slightly. There was a click and the thick carving at the base of the desk popped open with an accompanying clink. There nestled in the bottom of the now visible hidden compartment were three alcohol bottles, one of which contained a ship, the "missing" ship in a bottle. The other two though were vodka, one of which was half empty.

The Professor had moved from beside the door once he had seen the secret drawer pop open and was now standing beside the Sergeant arguing as to how none of the vodka bottles were his,barely taking a breath. Hs face blanched at the sight of the bottles within the drawer. With a look and a nod from the Sergeant the Officer stepped forward to escort the Professor out of the room.

"You planted those to frame me, I know you did!"

With those words the Professor turned and swung a hard right at the Officer who jerked back as it flew past his face. After a brief struggle the two officers had the Professor against the wall with his hands cuffed behind him. While the Officer kept a hand on the Professor's shoulder, the Sergeant put the call into headquarters about the recent developments on the case.

The case against the Professor was pretty big news in the following months. Even though the police were planning on only officially charged him with resisting arrest, there were still the repercussions from the school for what had been uncovered by the officers. There had been at least 3 cases over the years of the Professor sabotaging students in ways including verbal & emotional abuse, changing test scores, and of course the most recent case of trying to frame Inigo Talbot for theft. The school was performing a thorough investigation into the matter and had already cut all ties with the ex Professor Davis, declaring their intent to prevent him from ever getting a job at another institution of higher education.

It was the day after the now ex Professor had gotten out of jail on bail. The college had informed him of his immediate termination shortly after he had been arrested and demanded he clear his possessions out of what had been his office as soon as he was able. As he made his way down the familiar hallways, many of his former colleagues wouldn't look at him and those that did looked at him with such scorn that he had to turn his eyes away. None of his old friends spoke to him and the walk down the hall was the longest 5 minutes of his life. The whispering only grew the farther he went into the school on the way to his office. Finally he reached the relative safety of his office door, quickly opening the door and slipping inside. As he stepped through the door he heard a sharp crunching sound. There scattered on the floor of his office was the remains of his ship in a bottle. Its once smooth wooden surface was now dented and the carefully stitched sails had bits of glass stuck in them. The wreckage of his model of the Queen Ann's Revenge lay next to his desk as if a reflection of his life.