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Ghost
Specter
Phantom II (or is Aunt Ellie II?)
Super-phantom…
Conner taps his pen on the edge of the desk, staring down at his list of possible hero names…he’s not getting very far. His list of rejected names, however, is steadily increasing with each made-up name Wally keeps throwing at him, so he has that at least.
He keeps trying to stick with the ghost theme to match with Danny, but none of them really fit him right. The closest is Super-phantom, but Conner is a bit hesitant to use ‘super’ in his name, worried that Superman would oppose to him sharing a name.
The thought of Superman ruins his already low creative flow. Conner had been doing his best to stay away like the other heroes recommended, but he got too excited at the thought of doing a rescue together and realized on the bridge that the man has no plan to actually build a relationship with the clone.
Conner’s not sure why the thought bothers him so much. He already has Danny, and Neil, and Ellie, and Jazz, and all this family already here for him, but he just doesn’t understand why his actual template doesn’t want him. Maybe he was too old? Despite himself, Conner sometimes wonders if Superman would’ve taken him if he were Neil’s age, he wonders if the rejection would have hurt less if he were too young to remember.
A snap brings Conner out of his thoughts and he looks down to see the ink of his newly broken pen splattering over his page. He throws down the pen with a grunt of frustration and drops his head to his hands.
Breathe, his mind reminds him, and a voice that sounds suspiciously like Aunt Jazz walks him through his calming exercises.
Mind clear, Conner flops onto his bed and decides to try again later. Thinking back, he’s not even sure why he got so worked up in the first place. Besides, he thinks to himself, why should Super-dork have a say in my hero name.
In the name of spite and mental healing, Conner makes a note to make sure his name has ‘super’ in it.
Honestly, this whole naming business is a lot more difficult than the teen was expecting. It doesn’t help that his fellow teen heroes are just ‘kid’ versions of their mentors apart from Robin…and Artemis, but Conner’s not sure he can just go around claiming his real name when he fights.
Conner once thought Phantom was a cool name, until he realized it was just a pun of Danny’s last name. Regardless of his mentor’s terrible humor, the name does serve well in summing up his powers. Maybe Conner can do something like that? Kryptonians get their powers from the sun, and the sun is just a star, according to Danny.
Superstar?
Conner shudders at his own thoughts, feeling immensely relieved he didn’t write that down; he would never hear the end of it.
Opening up his laptop—thank you Uncle Tucker—the teen begins researching stars and falls down a rabbit hole of space documentaries. He’s learning about supernovas, the death of a star, when Danny pops his head in the doorway.
“Hey, you wanna go on patrol with me?,” he asks, already in his ghost form.
Pausing his documentary, Conner looks up and frowns at seeing Neil strapped to Danny’s chest. “You’re taking the baby?”
The ghost shrugs, reasoning, “We’re just going to fly around a bit. If there’s any danger, I can send him away with a duplicate. So, you ready to have your Amity Park debut?”
The teen grins in anticipation, but his mood quickly sours when he remembers, “I can’t fly.”
Phantom hums in contemplation. “Piggy back ri—?”
“No.” Conner shuts that suggestion down immediately. There’s no way he’s going to make his debut being carried by someone half his size.
“Jeez, I see how it is,” Danny huffs. “Well, you jump pretty high, maybe you can just building hop for now?”
“Building hop,” he deadpans.
“Yup,” the halfa nods with a serious expression, one that is betrayed by an amused twitch on his lips as he continues, “like a bunny.”
Conner groans, wondering if he should reconsider this whole hero thing. Traveling around with Phantom is sure to tank any kind of reputation he’d try to build.
“Come on,” Danny complains, tugging at the teen’s arm, “we can see about getting you in the air later.”
The kryptonian pauses in his self-wallowing to stare at the halfa in confusion. “What does that even mean?”
“We can get you a hoverboard or something,” he answers, “like Red Huntress used to have.”
“Wait really?,” Conner asks, quickly getting to his feet.
“Yea?,” he replies, floating upside down, much to Neil’s amusement. “I mean air travel is pretty essential in fighting ghosts,” he adds, “or in general. It’s very therapeutic.”
“Cool,” the teen whispers, never before considering the thought of flying on his own after realizing he didn’t have Superman’s complete power-set.
“So, you coming with?”
Conner beams at his mentor. “Just let me get ready.”
The teen super isn’t exactly sure what he was expecting when he agreed to join Phantom on patrol, but being used as a jungle gym by a bunch of kids while Phantom gossips with the parents is not it.
True to Danny’s word, Conner had been building hopping around town, searching and failing to find any problems for them to solve. It’s good that Amity is safe, but the teen is a smidge disappointed by the lack of action.
Or, at least he was, until Phantom had them stop by the park and the super realized he would prefer to go back to hopping.
“So who are you?,” the kid sitting on his shoulders asks.
“He’s obviously a Phantom,” the one in his arms states before Conner can answer, pointing at his shirt.
“Ooh, like that other girl Phantom?,” another latching onto his back asks.
“He’s too big to be a Phantom,” Shoulders points out.
“Yea,” Back agrees, “he doesn’t look like a ghost either.”
“I like him!,” Arms declares, hugging the Kryptonian.
“Hmm,” Shoulders evaluates, “I guess he’s alright.”
“Is Phantom your dad?,” Arms asks.
Conner jerks in surprise. “What?”
“My mommy says Phantom is super old,” Arms responds as if it answered his question, “so he’s your dad right?”
“Uh, no,” he answers, “He is Baby’s dad though,” he continues nodding towards where Danny is showing off Neil.
“I can see it,” Back says, peeking around Conner to look. “You don’t look like him,” the kid bluntly informs.
“He could be adopted!,” Arms defends with what Conner sees as unreasonable anger on his behalf.
“Are you adopted?,” Shoulders asks, bending forward to make eye-contact with the teen.
Conner thinks back to the guardianship papers Danny filled out to have the teen live with him and to register him for school. He thinks back to his last meeting with Superman and the unlikelihood of the man taking him in.
“Kinda?,” he answers, confused by the kids’ sudden excitement.
“So you’re all a hero family?,” Back asks, “That’s so cool! What’s your hero name?” The kid then groans before saying, “don’t tell me your name is Phantom too.”
“No,” Conner replies defensively, mentally crossing ‘Super-Phantom’ off the list of name options.
“What’s wrong with Phantom?,” Arms huffs, glaring at Back.
“Nothing,” Back replies, “when there’s not a million people using it.”
“I don’t know,” Shoulder hedges, “some people say they’re all the same person. No one has ever seen the boy and girl Phantom in the same place, after all.”
“Yes,” Back laments, “Yes we have. The girl one was literally flying with our Phantom the other day.”
Shoulder hums noncommittally. “So you say.”
Conner can feel Back muffle a scream of frustration into his shirt.
“What’s your name?,” Arms asks, and the teen realizes his time to think has ran out.
He knows he can’t let the town name him—he refuses to be the next Inviso-bill, and admitting he doesn’t have a name would mean putting his entire future reputation into the hands of these three kids. He may actually need to go into early retirement if his debut name ended up a disaster.
“My name’s Super…” Conner quickly rifles through his couple months of existence in an attempt to complete his name and ends up with “nova. Supernova.”
The kids accept the name easily enough, and Conner breathes a sigh of relief that Danny’s terrible PR evades him once more.