You Are What You Eat

Chapter 1

Little Issues

Unbetaed, unedited, basically just something I threw together, it's gonna have like 4 parts or so. This isn't a replacement for Momentum or a companion piece. For those reading Momentum I'm switching to my schooling schedule so post will be every other day. Please enjoy!

-0-

It was a bright Sunday afternoon when he first felt it. A light clawing at his stomach and a tick in his head telling him that it was time to eat. They were on a mission, they being The Team, and he'd rather die than let them know about his habits—could they be called habits if it was natural?—who knew what they would think. It was only his luck that he happened to be one of the many ghost cursed with this hunger.

When it first happened he was with his friends, it started with a ticking in his brain and a light feeling telling him that he neededfood or else he'd dieignoring the fact that he was already dead—so he ate. Unfortunately no matter what he ate and how much he did, the clawing never stopped. Only growing worse and worse until the thought of eating food was sickening and he couldn't keep anything down.

It was dizzying, like a staying on a spinning ride for far to long. He'd become more and more less responsive. Sluggishly moving through life like a viewer. As if he wasn't quite in control. Some of the ghost took notice, and used it to their advantage, Danny still tried to fight them, but there was an odd feeling when he did. A feeling he wasn't going to tell his friends about. It was easy to ignore. To force down the thing in his brain telling him that the ghost he was fighting was food and that he should eat it. The pain will all go away if you just eat it.

Then he had seen the small ghost. It was but a little blob. Bloobing it's way through it's afterlife with no discernible features. Nobody would miss it, the voice cooed, nobody would even notice it was gone.

Danny snapped, scrunching up his body nice and low like a wild cat about to go in for the kill. His eyes blazed a toxic green in the dimly lit alleyway sending a real cat skimpering off somewhere. He could feel a growl building in the back of his throat as his canines elongated and his nails sharpened. The blob ghost paused, glancing back at the rabid Phantom with mild curiosity. Phantom crept closer. The tiny thing tilted its head to the side. A line of confused ghost speak tumbling out of its mouth. Phantom crept closer. It realized something was wrong when the normally cheery hero didn't respond. He would talk to them all the time, babbling in semi-decent ghost speak about all his problems and the would laugh and talk about rumours they had heard. Phantom crept closer. Something wasn't right.

He pounced.

Mouth opening, unhinging as he launched himself at the tiny ghost. Food food food food hunger food. The words swirled in his mind, fogging his vision and stomping down any lingering feelings of no this isn't right! The ghost squirmed in his jaw, begging for him to just let it go and that it won't tell anyone. Food food food. The voice hissed, and Phantom bit down. It's struggling stopped almost immediately. The blob ghosts body falling limp in his jaws as he began to tear into his prize. Using his hand to rip small chunks of green to place in his mouth and consume.

That was when a scream interrupted him. Phantoms head snapped up, standing protectively over the corps—was it a corps if the thing he killed was already dead—that he had claimed. A warning hiss fell from his mouth. "Danny?" He could hear a small voice ask. Hiss dissolving into a low, dangerous growl as the person moved forward.

The first time was not fun. There had been a lot of self loathing at hate spiraling in Danny's mind after that experience. He was a killer, and even worse, he was technically a cannibal. After that his friends started carrying ecto-soup as they liked to call it. It was mainly just energy that they collected straight from the ghost zone, it didn't hurt anything. Danny would never tell them that it was never even close to enough food. The idea of hunting and eating something that had thoughts and ideas and a life was too much.

When he joined The Team he was nervous. What if they found out? Would they kick him out? Apparently—he wasn't even that surprised—Batman knew about his issue, and about how he wasn't eating enough technically. How, he would never know. Batman was, surprisingly supportive once he explained that it was only ghost energy that he ate and not life force or anything concerning that could hurt the team.

Black Canary was another person who knew. With his permission Batman had informed her of it, because therapy, and Batman had seen the scars on his wrist and legs. He still refused to eat ghost even with the pressure, so they compromised. Small little energy packets hidden around to look like machinery so that if any of the team members found one they wouldn't suspect anything. It would tide him over until he could get to his friends.

It usually worked.

Danny had forgotten to restock them. He was staying over at the mountain for a large mission—his parents thought he was off doing some intern stuff, technically he was but,—Megan and Conner were also there. He was huddled up in one of the spare rooms when the hunger started to literally eat at him. Without even thinking he'd leave long scratches in his legs like he was digging for ectoplasm.

Danny let out a low groan. Out of all the places. Slowly crawling out of bed he glanced around for a container. Nothing. They were all empty. Turning into his phantom form he slowly crept out of the room. Crawling along the ceiling like some sort of horror movie monster. The automatic lights flickered around him as the darkness seemed to almost cling to his body—a hunting technique. It was hard to evade what you wouldn't see—slowly Phantom made it to the kitchen area.

Nothing, absolutely nothing. A growl bubbled in his throat. He hated, hated this. Stupid food not being where it's supposed to be. The hunger only clawed. Phantom paid no mind as all the lights in the entire building slowly shut off. Leaving his pools of green eyes as the only illumination in the entire mountain.

The sound of footsteps drew his attention down the hallway he had came from. Creeping along the ceiling silently he made his way over to the sound. Megan. She looked like food with her green skin and floaty habits, but wasn't food which was a shame because he was hungry so damn hungry he needed food it consumed his mind and was all he could think of.

-0-

The Martian-girl below him makes a questioning noise before looking around. "Hello?" She speaks into the air, slowly falling into a defensive stance. The Martian-girl then looks up, and up she looks at she sees him. Crouched and leering above her with his head turned almost impossibly around to stare at her. She makes a couple of startled, confused noises. Opening and closing her mouth a few times as the hunger in his stomach only coils. Dragging his core and ripping it to shreds. It hurts and he's hungry. "Danny?" The Martian-girl speaks in a small, tiny, unsure voice. She is not very intimidating like this. Phantom doesn't know how she could ever survive.

He growls, and she blinks with wide eyes and a far too pale face. The Martian-girl opens her mouth, and screams. He stares at the girl for only a moment, listening to her panicked cries for help, before dropping to the floor and running off. The clone-boy will be here soon, and despite what he may think, the clone-boy is very strong, and gets very angry, very easily.

So Phantom goes scampering off down the dark hallway. He may be so very hungry, but he still has survival instincts. In the distance he can hear clone-boy and Martian-girl making noises at each other. The girl sounds upset and panicked and the boy sounds angry and protective. He watches them from the distance, large pools of toxic green viewing their every move. Clone-boy stiffens suddenly, slowly turning his head to face Phantom, they stare at each other for what could've been an hour before he alerts the girl to Phantoms presence.

He would've left right then and there, if the walls weren't reinforced with anti-ecto metals. Stupid ghost repellents. Originally it had been to keep ghost out, and since that sort of technology was so complicated and difficult, it was hard to make it recognized Phantom as not a threat. It hadn't been much of a problem since he could easily just turn human, but now, he was trappedin the building, and Phantom wanted out. Now.

-0-

"We need to call the league. I don't think we can take him." Megan whispered to Conner, staring at the spot he was pointing at. There was a disheveled Phantom, crouched low, hiding behind a countertop so only his eyes were really visible. Conner had flicked on his flashlight which only seemed to cause Phantom to become more alert, hissing and growling until the light suddenly turned off. It didn't work even when Conner tried to turn it back on.

"Do it." Conner simply stated keeping a careful watch on the two wide, green, pools which signified where Phantom was. "Megan!" He suddenly hissed when the eyes disappeared. Megan glanced up with a worried expression. For whatever reason—probably Phantom—her phone was acting strange. Conner took a step in front of her when the green eyes suddenly popped back up and into view, closer this time. "Hurry up." He pushed, glaring into the darkness surrounding them. The lights didn't work anymore, they had tried it both when they first woke up. This was not good.

"Megan to the league," she spoke quickly and quietly from behind Conner, "there's—a situation. Something happened with Phantom."

"I'm on my way." The voice of Batman replied, both teens practically sighed in relief. "Can you see him?" Batman asked over the communication device.

"Yeah he's—he's right here. A few feet away in the kitchen. He's just staring." Conner explained, slowly pushing Megan with him as he began to back away and down the hall.

"Get somewhere safe we'll be on our w—" the line went dead, Phantom let out a screech and charged at them, both teens turned and bolted it down the hallway.

Skidding into a doorway they both slammed it, locking the door before finding someplace to hide. Megan under the bed, Conner in the closet. The pitter patter of feet let them know of the fact that Phantom was drawing near. Megan watched as two large green circles poked into the room. Lighting it in a dim acidic glow. The outline of the rest of Phantoms body slowly phased through the rest of the door. It was only just barely visible, lighted only by his eyes and his next to nothing glow.

Phantom stalked through the room. Growling lowly in the back of his throat as Megan struggled to stay silent. His boots touched down right in front of the bed.

Megan moved to place her hand over her mouth.

The legs slowly began to crouch down.

"Phantom."

It was Batman.

-0-

Batman could only watch as the half crouched down Phantom suddenly launched himself across the room, falling into a low fighting stance. Both Conner and Megan ran out of their hiding spots, taking places beside Batman. "You need to get out of here." Seeing them about to protest he hardened his eyes. "Now." The two teens ran not wanting to argue.

Batman carefully eyed the rabid Phantom, who only stared back at him. "Phantom," he spoke carefully. Sighing as he realized the boy was too far gone at this point, grabbing the thermos he brought with him he moved to uncap it. Phantom beat him to it. Forcing the item out of his hands as the ghost retreated to the farthest corner of the room. Huddling around the thermos.

Batman turned around to the shocked faces of Megan and Conner. "I thought I told you to leave." He stated, moving to leave the room and taking the two teens with him. "Did I not?" He questioned, closing the door and moving down the now dimly lit hallway.

"Well we uh—" Megan started

"We deserve an explanation."