So it's been a while...say well over a year since I touched this. But I am back, maybe for good. Danny Phantom crossover with Teen Titans. Still based off original concept of 'Chasing the Phantom Past'

Enjoy. tolerate crappy writing cause that's what you're gittin.

Robin once called me immoral and a monster. Beyond that, I fail to see any perceptive reasoning with him. A bright boy, but not capable of philosophical contemplation. Perhaps a man of wisdom, but not a person of thought.

Stupid Robin. He thinks of me as though I am simple. I, of all people, am telling you that there is not a single villain that is truly simple. Even the most crude and idiotic law-breaker has a story to tell, and never the one of pure evil. No sane person alive has been born with a natural inclination to do what is considered morally and ethically wrong. The ones that are inclined are psychopaths, and that's a different subject.

Who am I? That's a good question that I could not answer. I have been many names, many faces, many aliases. Robin only knows me as Slade but he is too limited in his imagination to comprehend who I am. There are so many kinds of crime, and I have dabbled in all of them. Why? That's another good question to which you will not receive a good answer.

But I relent, and I shall hint at who I am, or to be more clear, who I was. Mafia, drug cartels, espionage, sabotage, robbery, fraud…I tried all of them and pride myself…on being a man of capability. To be, powerful, now that is a reason.

Natural law, conscience, morals…nothing is for certain, not even these staples of how right and wrong are determined. What is right to one man is wrong to the next, and no one is clean of guilt, no one can escape. Thus we must choose sides. I choose freedom and power-a way out of being ruled and dominated. Natural Law, conscience, morals…all are subjective and relative, more impulse than permanent and static. Instead of binding myself to these shades of black and white, I am grey. I choose to flirt between them. I choose to seek my own glorification.

I was once with a face. Once a nameless student many years ago at some obscure trade school. I once was tethered to a home and to misery. I was once tethered to a brutal institution of indoctrination and I was humiliated, ground to the dirt by ceaseless insults to who I was. I changed myself and became grey. I became Slade, then a nickname, now a promise.

But that was fundamental, that was basic, that was in the past. I grew to enjoy being freed from morals and did as I wished. I was my own law, my own ambition, with no limit. I seek what I want and I do not stop till I achieve. However, many years have passed and I must move forward and ensure a legacy. Trigon gave me a lease on life, but soon I too shall fall prey to the Sickle of the Reaper. Soon is relative, like everything else, and will not be for many years. My strength has still not abated, my mind still lucid.

I still consider Robin the most stupid and brilliant mind I have ever encountered. He will eventually turn. I tried to force him. I failed. New tactics are needed, pawns shall be moved.

My next plan involves a new character, one that I am unfamiliar with. Dangerous perhaps, but potent. He is similar to Robin in many ways yet starkly different. If I were freed from my conviction that you must end what you started, he would be my candidate for my successor. But he shall be a tool, used like all others to bend Robin to grey, and away from the contrast of black and white that he is still ingrained with.

"Is this Daniel Phantom?"

"It's Danny…what the hell do you want?"

"Wetwork, elimination, subjugation, assassination…those are the services you offer, correct?"

"At a price, sure, but assassinations are out of the picture. Mess with me and that price is your head"

"Cocky are we? Well, let me make an offer that your pride cannot refuse"

"We meet and you pay before I lift a finger. Who's the target"

"A hero like you were, Robin…Teen Titans. You know him?"

"HIM! Why? You got a problem with him?"

"Of sorts. I don't want you to kill him, merely toy with him. I offer considerable compensation"

"Might be fun. I hate the self righteous idiot anyway."

"Well then we have something in common. Do what I say and I shall leave you alone"

The other end of the phone line was silent for a moment. Clearly, Phantom was more used to being the one dictating orders, not the other way around. Slade was pleased. Phantom sounded cocky but bitter, angry about some deep frustration that made his voice sullen and belligerent. It made him highly unpredictable, and dangerous.

Who was Phantom? A disturbing question. Slade was taking an enormous risk with Phantom, as he had with Robin, but even more so with Phantom because there was little to nothing that Slade could identify clearly about his past. To know your enemies, you had to fight them first, especially when you had no other option, and Phantom did not give him one.

He did know quite a bit about him. He was a young bounty hunter that was neither considered a major villain or hero by the Justice League, but classified as a major threat. A Level 4 metahuman was no laughing matter, for it ranked him next to the likes of Raven and outranked Starfire, and far outstripping Robin's level 1.5 status. However, there were hints that he carried a level 5 threat level, but everything was on the table when it came to the strange ghost.

Ghost? It's what he was called; a scientific and spectral anomaly that had appeared 5 years ago in a small town named Amity Park where there was a 12 month spurge of supernatural activity that then suddenly vanished. Danny Phantom emerged almost in synchronous with the appearance of the sudden spectral hotspot and initially appeared to fight it, wearing an honest to goodness spandex suit. Had things turned out well, he would have probably gone where Robin went-a spandex toting goody two shoes but instead he had allegedly caused two acts of manslaughter and then, when the authorities tried to control him, he allegedly resisted arrest and killed one of his attackers and seriously injured several others.

There was more about him and his enemies and various escapades but those were inconsequential. The fact of the matter was that Phantom abandoned his home town and became a odd jobs man, with few qualms about doing anything for the right price except killing people.

"Alright, sure. Meet in Los Angeles in 2 days on top of the US Bank building tower at midnight. Come alone or you'll be alone."

Slade clicked the phone receiver and let his hands drop. His mind was stirring, contemplating, and deducing his next step. It was a game, one of his favorite ones. Robbery was simple. Hacking had been a challenge at first, and smuggling was even more interesting. Such games were fun but basic-they dealt with such basic principles of stealth, covertness, simple logic and timing, with some programming in terms of hacking. But this-this was a game of fighting the mind-figuring out a person's weaknesses, their assets, their allies, their escapes. It delved into something much more convoluted, involved than the steely components of usual crime. Phantom was new and perhaps a future asset…but as of now he was only pawn.

His scheme was extensive. His robots were in place, his weapons primed, Cinderblock and Plasmus in play. Phantom was the tip of the iceburg. Slade still held all the cards.