#amity park is a tourist trap

[mossycobblestonewrites]

DC X DP PROMPT #25

Amity Park is seen as a tourist trap, like the whole town. No one in Amity is aware of this. All tourists think the townees are just really into the act.

One (or multiple) super families have decided to go on a Classic American Road Trip™. Which means they simply must visit all the tourist traps they see!

While in Amity, on a guided bus tour, there is a ghost attack. While the other passengers are thrilled with the commitment to the bit, the superfamily starts to become suspicious.

[dcxdpdabbles]

can you write the batfam going to amity due to *reasons* and alls well until Jason feels like he SHOULDNT go near since it’s Danny’s Haunt? Like how Crime Alley is ‘his’ Haunt? And batfam thinks he’s just being dramatic but uh, yeah he isn’t.

"I'm not going in there," Jason repeated, standing on the side of the highway, arms crossed over his chest and a stubborn scowl on his face.

"Jay, please get back in the van," Bruce sighed while the rest of the Waynes stared from their seats. They had originally all gotten off, but when the second eldest had started yelling, Bruce herded everyone back inside, including Dick.

No one knows why Jason was acting like this.

A few minutes earlier, he had napped comfortably in the far back of the large van Bruce had rented. The family had been on a cross-country road trip, where they all piled in together and let the GPA lead them to their final destination- Wayne Mountain Hotsprings. Alfred had the idea to practically kick everyone out of the manor to bond.

Members of their various teams would watch Gotham for the three weeks they would be gone. This week, Kon and Bart texted Tim updates. At first, the Waynes were not entirely up for the trip, but after a few hours of driving, they all enjoyed singing random songs and researching their vacation pick.

They each got to pick one random spot they wanted to stop at one the way- tourist trap or not- and Damian had been excited to go to "America's most haunted town." He had even been able to contact local ghost hunters who were excited to give them a tour. The Waynes would spend the night at the only hotel in the city and leave tomorrow morning.

That was the plan until Jason woke up screaming at the top of his lungs, "Pull over! Pull over! I can't go in there!"

It gave everyone a heart attack. Bruce had nearly driven into the other lane as Jason had been attempting to unbuckle himself and- were it not for Cass's quick reflection- fling himself from the moving vehicle. As soon as they found a safe spot to pull over, Jason leaped from the van and placed himself in front of the Welcome to Amity Park sign

A little up the road, they could see the city's outskirts. The Fentons, the acclaimed ghost hunters, were expecting them in twenty minutes. Damian was getting angsty.

"Can you explain why you can't go into Amity Park?" Bruce questions, stepping closer. "I won't make you go in there. I just need to know what's going on."

"Don't you feel that?" Jason asks, gesturing to the air around them. "It feels unsafe."

"What does?"

"The vibes," Jason said straightly, and Bruce's left eyebrow was spammed. "The vibes are choking."

Bruce takes another step closer, voice lowering into the familiar tone of comforting a scared civilian. "Jay what do you mean by that."

Jason opened his mouth only to snap his head upwards with a scream. "He's here!"

Everyone looked up—or at least those in the van by a window—only to see nothing. There was nothing there that could have freaked out Jason so much. The sun, maybe? Gotham wasn't known for its sunlight, and perhaps the fact that he grew up without it made it extra terrifying to the Gothamite.

Jason leaped behind Bruce, hiding like he did as a child. Now that Jay was taller than his father and buckler, it was a strange sight. "I'm sorry! I swear I wasn't going in!"

"Jaylad, what-"

"Ghost detected." The robotic voice of Damian's official ghost-hunting equipment made everyone freeze. The boy had opened the door of the van, escaping Duke's attempted grasp, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by the little machine in his hand.

It came from the Fentons' online store, and although it didn't work, Damian enjoyed walking around with it, searching for the paranormal. The rest of the family saw it as an age-appropriate make-believe, sighing in relief when he waved his little box around before deeming the area safe.

As it were, Damian waved the box again, letting the machine hum and bling as it landed on a particular spot in the sky. "Ghost detected. Ghost detected. Ghost located. Ghost is ten feet before you."

"Oh wow," An unknown voice said over the sound of rushing cars on the highway. Damian's eyes widen. "Haven't seen that design of the Fenton Finder in years. First edition, isn't it?"

Damian eyes are practilly sparkling as he puffs out his chest "It is! Are you a ghost?"

"Yeah." Suddently a glowing flouting transparent boy pops into thin air. No sound, no portal, not rush of air. Just one second he's there. He offers Damian a wide warm smile, that somehow makes his glowing green eyes menecing. "I'm Danny Phantom."

He turns his eyes back to Jason as Damian gapes at him. The boy had thought Phantom was a local urban legend. He has been decorating his room with "captured" images of Phantom for years. He turns to Tim, hissing for a pen and his photo binder.

"You." Phantom points at the cowering man. "Feel strange. You're overshadowed, but at the same time, there is no foreign soul in your body. What are you?"

"Um, I'm just here on vacation with my family-oh!" Jason words are cut off as Phantom flings himself at the pair. Before Bruce or Jason can react the ghost has his hands inside of Jason chest, ramaging around like it's a bag. Oddly enough, this makes Jason blush.

"Hmm. Yeah, there is no other ghost here. Are you haunting your own corpse?" Phantom floats upwards to stare into Jason's eyes. "Or are you a Halfa?"

"My own corpse," Jason gasps, but Bruce decides he's not about to let whoever this bothers his son, pushing Phantom back. Only somewhat surprised by the fact he made contact the hero's grunts

"Kindly keep your hands to yourself."

"Sorry," Phantom mutters, flouting back. He fidgets with his glowing white hair while shifting his feet. "I just wanted to be sure he was safe. You may enter."

And with another pop, he's gone.

Damian makes a sad whine in the back of his throat, holding a picture of a blurred image of Phantom and a pen. He flipped through the binder, attempting to find the clearest one while the ghost chatted with his father and brother. "I didn't get an autograph."

"There's always next time," Tim offered, patting the boy back as he led him towards his seat in the van again. You should keep that on your person so if you run into him again, we can get it signed for you quickly."

"Okay"

"Phew," Jason breathed, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "That was terrifying. Anyway, we should get going, I don't want to be late for the Fentons."

He ignored Bruce's look, walking back as if he hadn't held them up for nearly forty minutes because the vibes were bad.

Bruce stared as Jason skipped back to the van, feeling very old and single. Maybe he should try calling the blind date Alfred had attempted to set up for him. He needs some support in raising his children. He has too many white hairs as it were.

[clockwayswrites]

Birds and wings and hope Part 13

Masterpost

Danny had thought hat if he finished with Frostbite early that he would spend a few days in the zone to catch up with some of the other ghosts. He hadn’t wanted to with the wings. It wasn’t that Danny was ashamed of the wings, not from the fact of having different features, but Frostbite had seemed certain that Danny was in a heavily mutable state right then. The more people that knew Phantom with wings, the more likely they were to stick as they cemented in consciousness and identity.

Or something like that.

Danny had a whole stack of reading tucked away in his chest to go through later.

Just wanting time alone, Danny had given himself somewhere between an hour and a day (time was hard to tell in the zone) to sulk among the sparks and dust that were long dead stars before forced himself to get a grip and go home. He was an adult for, well, him sake he guessed. He could deal with this.

The reading set on the left side of the coffee table with a fresh notebook next to it. It wouldn’t do to mix up this work with his actual work, so Danny was sure to pick out one with a green cover from the stash that he kept on hand of his favorite dot patterned paper notebooks. He’d draw a blob ghost or something on it later. A few color pens and a highlighter joined the little pile, set in a battered and chipped Amity Park tourist trap mug.

Sam had gotten it for Danny as a present due to the so hideous it was funny caricature of Phantom on it.

On the right side of the coffee table went a box of protein bars, electrolyte drinks, suck’em candies, and Danny’s well stocked pill container. He moved the coffee table a little closer to the couch, turned the TV on to a playlist of Mythbuster episodes, and made sure he had his favorite blanket in hand before he transformed back.

And fuck that hurt. Pain shot up Danny’s back, radiating up through his shoulders, and shooting along his Lichtenberg scars so intensely that they burned. Danny collapsed inelegantly onto the couch with a defeated whimper.

Maybe it was the wings? Did having a different set of limbs as a ghost cause transfered muscle aches to his human form? He didn’t even have muscles as a ghost, not really, but the mind was a very powerful thing and not even Frostbite was entirely sure of how exactly the two parts of a halfa effected each other.

After the worst of the pain had dulled slightly, Danny managed to toss back his medication (missing doses while Phantom never did him any good) and pulled the candies close enough that he could use them as a distraction for his senses. Slowly the muscle relaxant worked its magic and Danny became a boneless lump. The episodes of Mythbusters idly distracted him as he just let his thoughts drift over what Frostbite had said.

Frostbite was sure that there had to be a reason— or several— that Danny’s form had shifted into a bird and after retained the wings still. Frostbite felt the first step to this all, if Danny was determined to either control or to get an understanding of where this all was going, was to understand the subconscious or symbolic particulars of the change.

The why Frostbite felt was clear: Danny had been without a haunt for too long now. Yes, he accepted, the pollen may have certain accelerated matters (hence the full bird then and only the wings now), but Frostbite was admit that the change wouldn’t have been occurring at this stage if Phantom had still been the protector of Amity Park.

Phantom had a purpose in Amity Park. Phantom was a protector and guardian. That guardianship extended to a very limited range. Now that Amity Park was many, many years behind him and Danny was living in a place already full of its own protectors, the Phantom part of Danny was left adrift which allowed for this new stage of ghosthood.

Why couldn’t his ghost half just be happy with a nice long nap?

“Fuck you, Phantom,” Danny grumbled as he watched a car be vaporized upon impact on the screen. Idly Danny wondered if he could get an object up to that speed if he flew fast enough.

Several hours and several protein bars later, Danny was managing to sit up enough to start going through some of the reading Frostbite had sent and make notes. Two more episodes and delivered Indian food later, Danny scrawled on the top of a fresh page ‘The Subconscious & Symbolic Particulars of Wings’.

Why on earth and beyond did he have wings?

‘Flying’, Danny wrote first and then as many reasons he could think of why he loved flying from the freedom of it to space to the way that it felt to move through a cloud. ‘Freedom’ branched off into movement and escape and getting to become his own person without the weight of Amity. ‘Gravity’ and ‘Identity’ sprawled into transformation and his death and the million of ways that it had changed everything about his life.

It was hard to think about.

Danny turned the page.

‘Wings’. Wings and feathers. Birds. Pigeons and crows and ducks and robins. And Robins. Biblically accurate angels who created the cosmos. Hope. And always hope.

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers — ”

Hope and Robins and Bats.

And always hope.

Was Gotham his haunt?

Was he the thing with feathers?

---

AN: shhhhh I've been writing as my wind down before sleep. Also special prize for @stoiczee. I promise we'll see more batfam next part. Danny just needed some time to react!

[mikami1992]

Supernatural Cops

The fandom has come to the conclusion that all kinds of supernatural or unusual things happen in Amity Park and people take it like any other Tuesday.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised if this place is the only place in the country (not to say the world) that has a police division in charge of handling Cults…

Yes, in Amity Park there is a group of police (not to say half of all the police in the city) that are dedicated to controlling cults and their peculiarities, because we must remember that, despite the reputation of being a tourist trap, this town in the middle of nowhere has the reputation of being the most haunted place in the country (or the world), so it wouldn't be crazy to say that on certain dates of the year many "tourists" (cough cultists cough) arrive who come in order to do "events" (cough rites cough), so whether they want it or not, someone has to control that the limits on how they are "celebrating" are not broken… and to top it off, the limits of what the city considers acceptable is a greater margin than other places, so it has become common for some groups to come back later.

So yes, Amity Park has one of the most effective police departments in dealing with cults and supernatural beliefs, not only are they effective in identifying participants, most of the time they know what kind of cultist they are dealing with, whether they are just playing a game or are the real magic business and how dangerous/troublesome they will be in the end.

What's more, this group is so good at what they do, that many times the inhabitants of Amity Park prefer to call them instead of the GIW (they are too destructive and there is still no 100% reliable insurance that will pay for the damages they cause), when it comes to a problem with a ghost and the ghost child is not around.

and that competition is more noticeable when other cities in the country begin to ask for help with some unknown cults that are appearing rap

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC PROMPT #28

(#) = Notes at the end of post

✦

Chartreuse

Due to the high levels of ambient ectoplasm, all the citizens of Amity Park gained a permanent change in eye color. They don't glow or flare in response to rampant emotions like true ghosts or the halfas though. They're just an unnaturally bright yellow-green.

The thing is, nobody else on Earth has this eye color, and it's never been seen in the human race until the recently graduated Amity Parkers started branching out to other cities to find jobs.

Nobody paid this any mind at first, though. Many just thought the individuals liked strangely colored contacts or it was a trick of the light. It's not until Danny and Tucker are both hired for positions in Wayne Enterprises that questions start popping up.

At first, the other employees thought the two might be related. It could happen, it's not that strange. However, when both of them said they're nowhere near related, just childhood best friends, it left everyone confused. If they aren't related and they aren't wearing colored contacts, then what are the odds of too completely unrelated people having the exact same strange and unseen eye color?

After a while, everyone just stops asking questions. After all, both men are easy to get along with and are excellent at their jobs, so a strange eye color isn't really something to complain about. Their stares were just a bit more intense than most people, and honestly, they've seen stranger things.

It helps that they've started seeing other people with the same eye color popping up in celebrity, sports, and activist circles. (1)

However, It's not until the power goes out during a late meeting/presentation, and Tim Drake accidentally turns on and shines his cell phone light into Tuckers eyes, that he starts seriously digging.

Needless to say, the animal-like green shine of his pupils scared the shit out of him and got him wondering if two of his new employees were part of a previously unknown alien race that'd recently settled on Earth without anyone noticing. When he looks into the middle of nowhere town they came from, this idea is even further cemented when he sees every person he finds a photo of have the exact same shade of chartreuse eyes. Ignoring the ghost rumors and "sightings" as just a strange tourist trap for the strange little town to make extra income, he brings the info he found to the other bats and birds.

They aren't exactly welcomed when they go snooping around Amity Park, unfortunately... (2 & 3)

✦

Now. To make this a bit more cracky, when confronted, do Danny and Tucker just come clean or do they milk the idea of them being aliens for all it's worth? (4) Add in a few strange, but perfectly normal for them, things they do that have people scratching their heads and make the assumption even worse/more irrefutable. This includes the unexplainable eye shine Tim discovered.

✦

(1) Paulina became a supermodel and is coveted for her striking eye color and beautiful complexion. Dash became a coach for a well known college in Metropolis, while Kwan became a fitness trainer and sponsor for health related items that actually work, also partnered with the college Dash coaches at. Sam became a notorious environmental activist and is the enemy of many companys who are determined to turn the world into a toxic wasteland. With the help of Danny's parents, she's found many eco-friendly chemical compounds that dissolve many of the toxic substances damaging ecosystems around the world. Etc, etc.

(2) Ectoplasm exposure has made everyone a bit more territorial over the town, including their protectors. They don't need outside heroes/organizations interfering with their work and don't/won't take kindly to the sudden interest hero organizations gain over them and their strange little town. That hasn't worked out too well with other government sanctioned organizations in the past and they don't want a repeat, thank you.

(3) Maybe Team Phantom even established themselves right around the same time or even before the Justice League was formed and they just flew under the radar until now. Maybe Amity Parkers feel a bit superior due to their seniority in having an excellent team in the know about the supernatural/non-human side of the world/universe? Who knows? You pick! Amity Park has been through a lot by themselves, so it's no shocker if they have an extreme amount of solidarity towards those they call their own.

(3 cont'd) Also! Since Amity Park has become so rich and saturated in ectoplasm over the years, they were eventually annexed/became an outside part of the Ghost Zone. Jack and Maddy are border patrol and any ghosts coming through need a passport now. Amity Park is basically a vacation hub for ghosts? Ghosts can freely roam the streets, they just don't wreak havoc anymore. That'd basically be terrorizing their fellow citizens at this point anyway and that's a no no. That means jail time with Walker. Amity Parkers also aren't afraid anymore and in fact CAN hit back now. This does not stop the Bat Clan and eventually the Justice League from thinking they're a town full of aliens tho. Some are just more human looking than others. Or they've been on Earth and procreating long enough with humans that their hybrid offspring have also started looking more human, is the ongoing conclusion.

(4) The Anti-Ecto Acts are not an issue here! Team Phantom already dismantled and annihilated the GIW years before they even thought of leaving Amity Park on its own. Before graduating highschool even. Yes, Team Phantom is perfectly self-sufficient and able to handle their own problems and have kept the city-wide ghost infestation pretty isolated outside a few events that were handled quickly and with the world none the wiser. So the world is still pretty ignorant of the existence of ghosts/the Ghost Zone. Would Team Phantom and Amity Park prefer to keep it that way though?

[radiance1]

Tim traced Bruce's family tree, and that led him down a path where he finds out that apparently his ancestors, the fentonightingales, split off into the Wayne family and the Fenton family and decides to trace down the Fenton family history to see if Bruce had any unknown relatives.

He finds Jack Fenton, his wife, Madeline Fenton, their daughter, Jasmine Fenton, their son, Daniel Fenton, and their second daughter and youngest child, Danielle Fenton.

Then he digs a bit through their social media, finds out that reclusive billionaire and CEO of a morally questionable company, Vlad Masters, is the godfather of the three children. Unfortunately, for some reason it's been hard to find information about Vlad Masters that isn't involving his company or publicity stunts, anything past that and it's only bits and pieces of information.

The biggest piece in his past is that he was trapped in a hospital due to an unknown illness that left him bedridden, and then making an miraculous recovery one day, then going to found Vladco and become a business empire.

He thinks the only reason that tidbit of information was so easy to find was that it tied into his business as some type of origin story.

Tim does a bit more digging and, yet to inform anyone else of his discovery, finds a video titled:

"Pranking my godfather after he stopped trying to get with my mom and kill my dad!"

Which, was a concerning title really, then he found the godfather in question to be Vlad Masters, and the one who recorded said video was Daniel Fenton.

Curious.

He did some more digging.

He didn't really get very far, for some odd reason there isn't a lot of information to scrap together past the surface of Amity Park. Stuff like their museum, being a tourist attraction, it's history, normal stuff like that.

Nothing about the day to day lives of its citizens, nor any videos posted by said citizens or anything of the like.

He did come across some papers posted by the Fentons, however. Some research abouts ghosts, their behaviors and all that.

What he found wasn't pleasant, and he was thinking about telling Bruce before he came across another page.

The Fenton page.

It was, very, very clean of research papers of any kind having to deal with ghosts as a species, and while they are mentioned it's mostly in reference to take about one of their many weapons, or an installation to equip to your home as a safety precaution.

Then he went back to the page where their 'research' is placed, did some digging, and found it to be published by some kind of organization called the Guys In White, or GIW for short. Weird name, but he's seen weirder.

Although, this does cause some concern for him.

Tim, still not telling anyone of the information he's found besides Alfred (You can hide NOTHING from that man), decides to go over to Amity Park to check out the Fenton family firsthand, gather information about these ghosts to decide if magic is involved or not, and find out why the GIW are using the Fentons' name to publish their papers.

[thevoidstaredback]

On the Watchtower, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Raven had completely taken over one of the smaller meeting rooms. No one was allowed in and all the cameras for the room had been turned off. Wonder Woman and Raven had said it was overkill, but Batman had insisted it was necessary. They didn’t argue, so the room stayed a black space on surveillance.

The entire table had been covered by information pertaining to the Ghost Investigation Ward and the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Information which was getting shadier and shadier by the paragraph. Information that was giving them more insight as to who Phantom was.

The oldest files that even mentioned the G.I.W also mentioned a young hero by the name Phantom. They describe Phantom as a villain, fighting tooth-and-nail, destroying everything in his path and attacking anyone within sight. As the files go on, the more detailed they become. Describing fights, property damage, powers, attacks, and even more ghosts. There’s also a significant number of mentions of some place called the Ghost Zone, later corrected to the Infinite Realms.

The more they read, the more horrified the heroes became. In all of these files, Phantom and the Realms Beings are described as monsters to be captured, studied, and eradicated. It wasn’t right.

Cloning technology was another thing they came across, though all of the papers were under the name Vlad Masters. Failed clones, destabilization, and the templates that were used: A fourteen year old boy named Daniel Fenton and hero Phantom. Two names and faces that Batman knew as Danny ‘Phantom’ Nightingale.

Vlad Masters apparently worked alongside the G.I.W while he lived as Mayor of Amity Park, Illinois. A place that no longer exists. Godfather to the very boy he’d been trying to clone. When he died, a disease from his college days catching up with him, all his research had gone to the G.I.W, except for one thing.

There was an empty file simply titled Ghost Portal. Although it was empty, the file had been corrupted, releasing a virus that Batman managed to catch and isolate quickly enough so that it didn’t disturb anything.

Batman would bet anything that whatever had been in that file was a lot more detailed than the simple picture Phantom had drawn up for them.

“How much do you think they had on the portal?” Wonder Woman asked.

Raven hummed. “Probably a lot more than any of us would like. Especially if that Vlad guy from the other files had any part in it.”

“Indeed,” Batman agreed, “He kept quite the detailed notes.”

Wonder Woman picked up a printed file full of Phantom’s escapades on paper, one that she’d flipped through at least a dozen times. “It’s horrible what he’s been through.”

“There’s not gonna be any more information in there,” Raven said as she gently took the folder from the demigod’s hands, “Can you find anything we haven’t poured over a million times?”

No one said anything for a few minutes, the sound of Batman’s keyboard being the only real noise for a while.Then, he said, “Nothing that we don’t already know.”

“So let’s go over it again.”

Suppressing a groan, Raven folded her legs under her and let her magic float her over to the table. The two adults walked.

Batman had a map projected onto the whiteboard. Using a marker, he marked out where they could guess Amity Park once was. “Let’s start here.”

“In the town that doesn’t exist?”

“Yes.”

Wonder Woman nodded. “How did it disappear?”

Raven rifled through the papers again. “It faded out over time. It was a tourist trap for a while, but it eventually lost its business.”

“Why?” Batman asked.

Finding the paper she wanted in the folder on Danny Fenton, somewhere in Vlad Master’s notes, Raven picked out a single sided piece of paper. “It was known as the most haunted city in America. After a while, apparently, ghosts just stopped showing up. Phantom stopped appearing and the tourists stopped coming. I assume the locals all moved out. After that, the city was absorbed by the local wildlife.”

Batman hummed. “There’s no ruins.”

Wonder Woman blinked, also taking a paper from the folder Raven had opened, this time a picture. “But there is, see?”

The picture was, indeed, of the ruins of a small city. No skyscrapers, but several businesses, lots of homes, a mall, parking lots, schools, and parks.

The map on the board zoomed out to show all of Illinois. “There’s no ruins like that anywhere in the state.” It zoomed out again. “There’s no ruins like that anywhere in the country.”

“You check the rest of the world?” Raven snarked quietly.

“Yes,” Batman said, “There’s none.”

“They have to be somewhere,” Wonder Woman argued, “Phantom confirmed that he was born and raised on this Earth. There are records of him going back to our estimated time. He himself said he was born in that town. Where could it have gone?”

There was a long pause for another long minute. Then, Batman turned his back to the map and rifled through the papers. When he finally found what he was looking for, he put it on top of the pile for the girls to see before he found his way back to the computer. “The Ghost Investigation Ward was absorbed into the Department of Metahuman Affairs.”

“So?”

“The DMA keeps records of everything, including records from every group that they absorb. Employees, research, experiments, permission, even birthdays.”

“If you can gain access to what they’re doing,” Wonder Woman started.

Raven touched back down, opting to stand again. “We can find every dirty little secret they’re trying to-”

“Done,” Batman said.

“-hide.” Raven finished quietly. “Alright, cool. What’d you find?”

Batman highlighted a few paragraphs, sending them to be projected on the whiteboard instead of the map. He walked over and erased the marker. “Even after being absorbed into an official government entity, everyone working for the G.I.W goes by a letter of the alphabet. The Heads of Department go by the Greek letters, Alph, Beta, and Gamma. In recent years,” the words switched to a picture too similar to the portal Phantom had drawn up for them to be a coincidence, “they’ve begun work on a project called Project Gateway.”

“Phantom’s Portal,” Raven gasped lightly.

Batman nodded. “According to official files, it hasn’t made any headway past sketches from old notes. But, I did find travel logs going to and from Pakistan.”

“What’s in Pakistan?”

“The League of Assassins.” Wonder Woman answered. “They’re working with the League?”

A hum. “Most likely,”

“We need to warn Red!” Raven didn’t quite yell, but it was a near thing.”

Batman shook his head. “Red Robin, Constantine, and Zatanna will be fine. They’re prepared. We need to focus on this.” The slide changed again to experiment logs. Names paired with subject numbers.

“The coma victims.”

“The Anti-Ecto Acts were vetoed before they could become law. However, when the G.I.W was absorbed into the DMA, they were reworded into what we know as Anti Metahuman Laws.”

“Those laws didn’t condone human experimentation!”

“No. But, according to the G.I.W, the people they’re experimenting on aren’t human.”

“I don’t understand,” Raven interrupted, “None of those people went missing. None of them have anything in common. Why them?”

“Not quite,” Batman said, “Within a few miles of each victim’s home, there are rumors of hauntings. Ghosts, unrested spirits, poltergeists, et cetera.”

“They were picked,” Raven asked slowly, “because these people thought they were ghosts?”

“It would seem that way, yes.”

Wonder Woman sighed. “I’ll call Superman and Red Robin. Their teams will need to be made aware.”

Part 27 Part 29

[1001aus]

Their tourist trap tourism ads for "the world's most haunted town" finally resulted in the inevitable: TV ghost hunters come to Amity Park. The ones with a van full of expensive equipment. The "psychics." The ones with half a dozen tools that plug into their iphone.

Danny didn't think he could learn new things about ghosts from reality TV hacks, but apparently they're getting all surprised this month.

[invis-o-william]

Day 2: Wish

All Amity Parkers knew that “wish” was practically a forbidden word. Years of interactions with Desiree had all but guaranteed that. Younger children weren’t even taught the word anymore out of an abundance of caution, after all nobody wanted a repeat of the “Toddler Wish-mageddon” that had occurred just a year prior. The firemen had been cleaning chocolate syrup out of the streets for weeks afterwards. This left the naive and unassuming newcomers as targets for Desire’s power, many of whom didn’t quite believe the city moniker of “The Most Haunted Place on Earth” yet. One of those newcomers was Thomas Kincade, and one way or another he too would learn the consequences of the word “wish”.

. . .

Thomas had barely lived in Amity Park a week before his coworkers started messing with him. He had just been sitting down in the breakroom for lunch when Craig from accounting had sidled up in the next chair.

“Oh hey Tom,you’re new to town, right?” he asked while grabbing a bowl from his bag.

Thomas hummed an affirmative while digging through the box chock full of leftover lo mein that his wife had left him that morning. “Yeah, just moved from Springfield like a week and a half ago, why? Also, it's Thomas.”

Craig pointed a fork his way, “Well you should probably invest in a lunch bag or something. That box is a prime target for the Box Ghost you know. He’s usually pretty harmless, but he’ll definitely steal that thing in a heartbeat if he sees you with it man.” He accentuated his point by tapping on said box with his fork.

Thomas sighed. Although he’d only lived in the city for under two weeks, he’d already seen more than enough of the “ghost tourist trap” schtick. “You can give the “ghost” thing a rest Craig, I think I’ll be fine.” he said with a roll of his eyes.

Craig shrugged, “Alright Tommy, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You transplants never quite believe it at first anyway.”

“It’s Thomas.” Thomas said pointedly. Craig made a noncommittal noise before digging into his meal.

. . .

The next day it happened again. Thomas was working at his computer when his deskmate Maria leaned over the divider.

“Hey Tim, did you see the news this morning?” she asked excitedly.

Slightly irritated, Thomas looked up. “No, I didn’t. And it’s Thomas.”

Maria didn’t seem to hear him as she waved her hands around, “They got some footage of the fight between Phantom and that big metal ghost last night on the corner of Park Place and Amity Row! It looked so intense, and the big ghost is so cool looking!” She practically squealed the last words.

Thomas groaned and let his head fall back. “Look, I get it, you guys are pulling my leg, ‘ha-ha lets haze the newbie’ kind of stuff, but its getting old.”

Huffing, Maria crossed her arms. “How long have you been here now? Two weeks? You can’t tell me that you haven’t seen one of the ghosts yet! Hell, blob ghosts are so common I’m surprised one hasn’t popped into your yard yet” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Just hope you don’t encounter any big ones, you definitely don’t want to run into the Fenton’s with their tank-on-wheels.”

With a sigh and a shake of his head Thomas turned back to his work as Maria shrugged and did the same.

. . .

Thomas was getting fed up. Everyone kept talking about ghosts. “Phantom’s been seen here” and “The whisps have been really active lately” and all that crap. How long was everyone going to pull this? Not to mention that nobody wanted to call him anything but nicknames. Why was calling him Thomas so hard for them???

The last straw was his boss stopping by his desk an hour before quitting time.

“Hey Timbo, everyone on the floor is going to head over to the Mitty Boulevard Bistro after work for dinner, company’s treat. Want to join?” he said, leaning an arm on the desk divider.

Thomas’ eye twitched. “Yeah, sure that’s fine. And please. It’s Thomas.”

His boss smiled, “Great! Originally we were going to head over to the Mexican place on Park Place, but they’re closed for cleanup from that ghost fight last night.”

“Yeah! You can thank Phantom for that, honestly the Bistro is sooo good. I like Mexican food and all, but you gotta try the Bistro’s fries Tim!” Maria said, perking up from her seat.

Thomas had had it. “Ghosts this, ghosts that! I’m so sick of this! Just give it a rest already! And my name. Is. THOMAS. Not Tim, not Tommy, just Thomas!” he cried as he picked up his coat and lunch box. “If this is how all of you are going to treat me, then count me out of the dinner. Honestly I wish you guys would just cut it out already!”

Everyone in the office went deadly silent and stared at Thomas with wide eyes.

“Thomas,” began Maria, “you shouldn’t say that word. I’m sorry that we were teasing you so much about your name, but you really shouldn’t say that word.”

Thomas scoffed, “What word?”

Everyone looked around nervously, “The “w” word,” his boss said, “there’s a ghost who grants them, usually in the worst ways possible.”

Thomas threw his hands up in the air. “What, wish? Now you’re telling me that there’s a wish-granting ghost? If there was, I'd wish she’d make you all see sense right now because ghosts aren’t real!”

The office was deadly still and many held their breath. There was always a chance Desiree wasn’t around, but some still expected her to appear and grant the wish.

Instead the Box Ghost popped in out of nowhere, grabbed Thomas’ lunch box, shouted “BEWARE!”, and vanished.

Thomas could say he knew better now to pack his lunch in a bag.

[thelandswemadeofpaper]

The latest KID notice arrived at the police station written in his usual flamboyant script.

In the hour when shadows stretch and the sun begins to fall,

A gem of red, its name after a fruit, to trap the girl half a year underground.

Not in the hands of thieves nor in the light of day,

In the halls of old, shall the treasure stay."

Shinichi tapped the paper with a thoughtful frown, eyes scanning each line again. Midnight—standard KID timing. The red gem, fruit name… pomegranate. The Persephone reference wasn’t subtle, 'the girl' — maybe a mention to her epithet of Kore? That narrowed it down fast.

“The "halls of old". Salazar's old meaning in spanish." he murmured. “The Amulet of Grenadine,”

Ezra’s Amulet.

His fingers tapped absently on the edge of the desk.

The mention of the greek goddess of the dead couldn't be more ironic. But in Amity Park, that symbolism wasn’t just poetry.

He still didn’t know if the spirits were undead, extradimensional, or just a weird category all their own—but after everything he'd witnessed during that trip to Amity Park his parents dragged him along, he’d long stopped trying to file it under “normal.”

Back then, he thought the town was just strange, a tourist trap with supernatural stories.

The detective had been proven wrong fairly fast. No matter how he tried to rationalize it, to press the supernatural into boxes of science or tricks, there was no denying the truth he'd seen with his own eyes. The Ghost Zone existed. Spirits of the dead roamed freely. And somehow, impossibly, people could exist in between.

How in Enma’s name had he ended up befriending some sort of undead half-Youkai?

The detective snorted. When those two are involved, peace is often impossible.

Danny Fenton was the 'classic hero' type, always, throwing himself between danger and his town like it was the most natural thing in the world. A boy with too old eyes and too many bruises.

Shinichi recognized the look in his eyes: someone who had to protect what he loved, even if it broke him. He’d seen it in mirrors.

Ezra Salazar, on the other hand, was just as protective—but would sooner spit on the word hero than claim it. Her methods were… questionable, to say the least, and more than once during his stay, they’d butted heads over it.

And yet, beneath the frost that once made Shinichi mistake her for a Yuki-Onna, she protected who she cared for with a ferocity that even Skullker might flinch at.

Shinichi sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. If the target really was Ezra’s amulet, then she wouldn’t sit this one out. And if Ezra was involved, Danny wouldn’t be far behind—whether to stop her, support her, or clean up after whatever chaos she caused.

Just thinking about it gave him a headache. Those two had a way of turning even the simplest situations into full-blown supernatural disasters. If this heist wasn’t already complicated, their presence would definitely make sure it would be.

“This heist is going to be different,” he said to himself. “And I need to figure out if KID wants that gem from more than his usual games.”

[avayarising]

Even if Amity Park as a whole is better off in this new dimension, there will be some people who want to go back. People who were just stopping at the tourist trap on their way through and have no desire to uproot their lives; people who were planning to move out of town and still want to take up that university place or job offer; people who have family or lovers or even pets elsewhere that they are desperate to get back to. Or whom they want to bring in.

So they are still going to have to locate their original dimension, and at the least open a portal to repatriate those who want or need to leave and to reunite separated families.

Then there’s all the legal and economic stuff that needs to be sorted out. Business that were subsidiaries, branch offices or franchises need help to go independent or find a buyer in this new world. Legal firms need to get up to speed on the laws here. The banks need to get integrated into the financial network and the hospitals and care centres urgently need to be linked up with medical suppliers. Everyone needs to be set up for taxes, elections, and social security.

The Justice League has a lot of work to do. So do Wayne Enterprises, STAR Labs, and any other major business and employer that can help transfer an entire town into the national systems.

DP x DC prompt [9]

Danny doesn't remember much of what happened after his fight with Pariah. he knows the suit nearly killed him. 

He knew he passed out after and had to be carried back.

But considering the fact that the sky is blue and he's in his bedroom it was pretty safe to say that it was a classic case of a job well done and everything was back to normal.

The next day however, more and more oddities started happening. 

No longer did Amity Parkers get assaulted by GIW warnings when they accessed the internet. Instead they just got… nothing, nada, zilch.

Did the GIW go all in and just disconnect them from the rest of the world completely?

But then it became clear that that was the case with everything. stores weren't getting any shipments. 

phone calls would automatically say that numbers weren't in use. 

packages and mail weren't being picked up. 

Very worryingly, credit cards also stopped working and any attempt to contact the bank went utterly nowhere. 

people gradually are starting to get more and more worried.

Amity was very independent and self sufficient but this was a bit much.

At the very least now the city was more open to the doctor's Fenton energy solution of simply using Ecto to power everything.

The guys in white didn't show up in the city anymore either. 

The same went for the other out of town ghost hunters.

and after a quick check from Danny himself (as Phantom) he confirmed that the little not so very hidden base the guys in white had set up outside of the city borders was now simply gone.

Not only that but the roads going out of Amity also just suddenly stop.

At this point Team Phantom is starting to have a certain suspicion, and Sam asks Danny to find the nearest gas station and get them some newspapers.

Back home and now with a bunch of newspapers spread out over the floor with articles about Alien invasions in a place called Metropolis or the top floors of a skyscraper being blown up in a city called Gotham, they have enough to confirm their worries.

“Guys I think we got put back wrong”

[captainkirkk]

Ok but the implication that the rest of the world just,,, doesn’t know about what’s happening in Amity Park is fucking hilarious. They not only proved that ghosts are real, but that 75% of them are assholes with unique gimmicks. Amity Park is being terrorised by ghosts, there’s a literal portal to the afterlife in someone’s basement, a dead 14yo is their local superhero, and the rest of the world just... thinks they’re making this shit up??

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

DP X DC WRITING PROMPT #21

✦

Gotham's Phantom Royals

What if Sam was Lady Gotham? Just like Danny's haunt is Amity Park, what if Sam's became Gotham when she turned liminal/became a ghost?

You can't deny that she'd definitely love to call a gothic, aesthetically pleasing city with a penchant for chaos her own. I'm not sure how this would work timeline or dimension wise, but I like the imagery of her and Danny, in ghost form, going out on the town like the lovebirds they are and people catching flickering glimpses of a handsome, white-haired King lovingly escorting a beautiful woman dripping in black and violet, both decked out in their respective regalia that hints towards their stations.

The Bats have no idea what's going on, but the citizens have turned the sightings of the couple into a tourist trap and everyone is dying to know the whole love story. Some people have even come up with their own tales about them to the point that no one knows which one they want to believe most. Even Gotham's rouge gallery is completely invested, so far to the point that if the couple is seen anywhere near an ongoing takeover, everyone freezes as they watch them walk/prance/waltz across the scene with smiles and silent laughter. They never speak or look at anyone else besides each other.

It's only when one takes it a step too far and dares to try and capture the lovebirds that they find out just who they're dealing with. Never have a pair of green and purple glowing eyes turning to peer into the depths of their twisted soul felt so terrifying.

✦

To make it even more interesting, what about making it everlasting trio? What city does Tucker haunt? Are there sightings of the three in his city too? Either way, everyone who catches a glimpse of them and their relationship is absolutely smitten with the couple/throuple and see them as peak romance.

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

After being ignored by the Justice League for years and thought of as a scam Phantom finally faces an opponent he didn't win against and his city is destroyed, killing everyone. The monster is heavily wounded by Phantom however as it was a brutal fight for both of them

Danny is heartbroken and in shock while the Justice League face off against this threat and also lose. Eventually they get thier second wind and rematch it and kill the thing, but just barely.

Later a small memorial was held for Amity Park and Phantom was enraged at how small it was. 70,000 people died and this was it? Most of the people hear weren't even mourners. They were press and fake ghost enthusiasts trying to catch internet points for thier viewer count. He hears some redhead say that the people of Amity were scammers and this whole ghost thing was fake. With tears in his eyes he screams, not as Fenton but as Phantom, "I'm fake?!" He grabbed the man by his throat and flew a few feet into the air, "You think I'm fake?! Here! Let's see how fake I am!" His words were dripping venom as he possessed the man and laughed as he used him as a puppet, attacking the people around him with ectoblasts and sending them running away screaming.

Bruce Wayne watched on as some unknown Elderich entity possessed Wally West and began attacking people. So Amity Parks pleas for help as well as the pleas from thier supposedly fake superhero were not just part of an elaborate tourist trap.

Green lantern had some explaining to do. Hopefully it wasn't too late to salvage the situation and save this child.

It was.

[tourettesdog]

DP x DC prompt where John Constantine has a no good, very bad, terrible week.

Constantine gets a little in over his head when he visits Amity Park. He is sent there to investigate strange reports of the paranormal and evaluate the threat the town is dealing with. John always assumed that Amity Park was a tourist trap destination with nothing more than Halloween decorations and perhaps a couple of shades. Unfortunately for him, the ghosts are very real.

To make matters worse, it seems like children are the ones fighting the ghosts (children of the human and ghost variety, oddly enough). Constantine can’t even get in contact with the League to report these findings; his comm has been nothing but static since he stepped foot in Amity Park.

To make matters still worse, the children-- particularly the goth girl-- are very mean. They do not trust John in the slightest and are unwilling to talk about anything pertaining to ghosts with him. The ghost boy, Phantom, won’t even let John get within 50 feet of him before he disappears. Considering John can feel power radiating from the ghost at that range, it might be for the best.

John decides his next best move is to pay a visit to the local ghost hunters, the Drs. Fenton.

The name Fenton is not new to John; he’s familiar with their research. They’re brilliant inventors, but he doesn’t think much of them in the way of “ectobiologists”. There’s entirely too much speculation and bias in their findings.

Jack Fenton is a whirlwind of a man with entirely too much air in his lungs and bravado in his posture. John has to bite his tongue as the man rambles on and on about ghosts to him. The entire time he’s speaking, John is painfully aware of a strange and powerful presence coming from beneath the house.

John thinks he’ll have to finagle answers about it from the Drs. Fenton-- but is surprised when they lead him into their basement laboratory on a whimsical tour.

That surprise quickly turns to horror when he sees the giant hell portal in their basement.

John can hardly keep his composure, looking upon the portal-- feeling the death radiating from it. Jack continues his endless prattle about ghosts, with the occasional interjection from Maddie. To John’s mounting horror, Jack eagerly opens the blast doors of the portal.

He turns his back to the portal and John watches, wide-eyed, as a robotic ghost slips out and phases through the basement ceiling. Even Maddie doesn’t notice, leaving John to just stare, open-mouthed at their negligence. 

John can’t decide if he wants to scream, bellow his lungs out at the Fentons, or just turn around and leave.

Before he can decide between screaming and bailing, however, Constantine feels a familiar presence hurtling towards him. He turns around just in time to see the ceiling cave in as the robotic ghost smashes through it with Phantom clutched in his grip. John has no time to dodge before the pair careen into him, knocking him through the portal.

It's a struggle to find his bearings. One moment John is in the disorganized Fenton lab-- the next he's surrounded by a vast sea of green with far-off floating islands and doors. The ghosts continue to fight in the air beside him, seemingly oblivious to the change in venue.

Constantine can’t move to the portal, he can’t dodge-- he’s a sitting, floating duck as he watches the ghosts dogfight. Phantom’s powerful, but he’s not faring well against a new weapon that the other ghost-- Skulker-- seems to have. Things only worsen when Skulker takes notice of John and aims at him.

In a panic, Constantine tries to teleport-- at the same moment Phantom grabs him. 

Rather than freeing himself from the realm-- the Ghost Zone, Jack Fenton had called it-- the magic reacts badly. It twists, it warps, it hurts. 

For a moment, Constantine thinks the spell did nothing. He’s surrounded by the same expanse of green, floating islands, and doors. Only... the more he looks around, the more John realizes that the islands nearby are much closer and much more oddly shaped.

It’s not until Phantom begins to panic, darting around in circles, clutching his hair, shouting “What did you do? Where are we?” that John realizes they’re in trouble. That, wherever they are in this Ghost Zone, even Phantom doesn’t know how to get home.

[tanglepelt]

dc x dp snippet? idea? not too sure....

Essentially amity park is a front. The whole town was designed to recruit member for an evil group. The end game to destroy the justice league. My brain took the idea and ran with it. I may continue this. I may not.

Amity Park had always been a strange place. For as log as anyone could remember. A gimmick, a spooky town. It played its role perfectly. No one really looked into it. No one saw the mad scientist or weapons facility as odd. Who would ever think to investigate a tourist trap. The showier they were the more believable. The Fenton’s were assets at keeping tourist gullible, their driving, and obsession sold the show. Keeping the tourist distracted and money coming in. Who would notice the laser watches, they just looked normal. Any ghost attack was just a show. Any damage done and its fixed the next day as if It was planned. The town had was obviously committed to there “haunted” town.

Ghost hunters in amity just made sense. Walking around with weapons was a normal and not suspicious. Locals didn’t care and anyone else thought it was part of the gig. The bigger the dramatics the more they could get away with. With all the chaos and attacks the tourist would be distracted.

It let them track anyone who came into town. They would check in visitors with the guise of making sure they stayed in the living world. Waivers had to be signed or there was no entry permitted.

No one to see how all the kids were more observant, no one to see the the gym coach or classes, no one to see the experiments, and no one to notice the secret town meetings while the children slumbered.

The meetings discussing the children and how they’ve advanced. Who needed to be terminated, who was improving and who would soon be integrated into the loop. Every year they discussed the first-year students. It was there last chance to become incorporated or “move” after high school. They couldn’t risk any of them leaving the town unless they were in the loop. 

After all of if the kids thought their schooling was normal, they’d never question it. The president challenge was harder then most. Why would an average school require flips off the bars or the ability to scale a rope to the roof if a building. The last two years of high school centered around obstacle courses, agility and parkour in gym.

An amity child leaving without being in the fold could be catastrophic. It would only take one to alert authorities for a slight inconvenience. Authorities could be paid to look the other way or easily put down. A hero however would be a headache to deal with. This town was the center of there recruiting. It was do or die.

Now the organization will admit the ghost were a welcomed surprise. A front row sear to watch the progress the kids had. They expected the jocks or even geeks to manage it the best. The seniors to take arms and manage the threat at the very least. The oddball trio was not what they had wanted or expected.

Those three were the problem students after-all. One so into technology it would be hard to keep him in line. The network was heavily blocked a monitored but using him was an issue. He had nearly bi-passed there security on accident. Imagine if he knew what was going on. Then the goth, the activist. She was too much an individual, free thought and radical views. They’d have to break her spirit. Then there was Danny Fenton.

He had promise in the beginning. Well rounded. Wasn’t so caught up in improving others as his sister. Held good grades through elementary and through middle school and was the golden candidate until the previous summer. No longer set to focus on study’s but off with his friends.

As Sam had grown falling away from their potential, she dragged Danny and Tucker with her. Both now had more individual thoughts and opinions straying from his parents. His grades had dropped even before the ghost. Just to A- or so. Attempts to steer them away from her only brought them closer.

If they couldn’t get sam in line they’d have to cut there loses. They’d lose a good potential hacker, the masons would need a new heir someone they could actually mold to gain more funds and business, and they’d lose a potential leader or scientist.

Cutting just Sam would have led to problems. They had tried. Sam was abruptly moved for a week to see what would happen. The guise a business trip. Danny and tucker given no notice. The two took matters in their hands and hunted for her. They nearly discovered the truth of the town. Only once the Fentons explained she was on a trip did they calm down. The trio were deemed lost causes. They were set to bet terminated.

Two weeks before the plan was set to eliminate them the ghost appeared, and it was them who took charge. Now the ghost was always planned, the Fenton’s had been close to opening the portal. So close to new weapons and infinite power supply. Nothing they had done activated the portal. But the problem trio when left alone somehow got it working. The power from the portal shorted the cameras in the lab and they were unable to see how.

 Sam and tucker were out on the field. They were learning at a rapid pace. With them constantly fighting and winning. The three were considered candidates again. They’d still have to break the girl, it was worth the effort now. Add the fact they had a viable solution now.

The newest hero of amity park. Phantom.

Phantom himself would simple a ghost to take care of. Allowing the Fenton to play around for now. What fun was a hunt to them if they couldn’t play with there prey. Once it was time to rid themselves of the pest the Fenton’s could truly hunt.

For now, phantom was getting Sam and Tucker more suited for future missions. He could keep “his” team for now. Danny was obviously the one with the plan. He was never with them but had to be the main contact with phantom. Whenever Danny was around phantom would show to clear his messes.

The surprise reunion with Vlad confirmed their suspicion. Not to mention the Youngblood incident. Danny led his schoolmates to board the ship and free their parents. Only once the ghost shield was down did he go and contact phantom to come handle the rest.

An accident would be in order. It was only a matter of time until the trio grew stagnant and needed more focused teaching. The masons were still an asset they just would not be allowed to be a caretaker again. Jeremy and Pamela mason still were the main source of income. The two were good the schmoozing. Sam would just have to manage field work with her business persona as her “grandmother” had. The Fenton’s were non-negotiable and a necessity to the group. If the need arises, they be allowed to raise another.

The foleys would work. They were good caretakers but served no other purpose to the group. Framing phantom for there deaths should be enough to ignite a need for revenge and break the group apart. Introduce a new fourth to them after the shock wore off.

Valerie had grown as well. She would be brought into the loop soon. The red huntress would be an asset. Her original purpose no longer mattered. Valerie would be easy to recruit. All it seemed to take was some money and a reason to dislike a group. All it took for her to despise ghost was her father losing his job, one of the groups smartest moves yet.

Good thing that reason was already in motion. The anti-ecto acts were set to be announced tomorrow. The justice league would publicly denounce the acts within an hour. They had no reason to condemn an entire species that had shown no sign of aggression. Most ghost weren’t even visible to the public.

With Amitys gimmick who would believe the reports of supposed ghost destruction. Viral videos of it just to be explained through special effects. Keep the rest of the world believing the gimmick and the young in amity only seeing the disbelief.

The justice league would be the key to their own demise. Events have been ruined, the children had been infected by the ghost flu, Sam had been kidnapped by a ghost, and the constant attacks on the school. This was the wedge they needed to keep them in line. To bring them into the fold. The towns caretakers would make sure any opinions of the hero’s would be bad. The only mentions of the hero’s permitted of the hero’s online would be failures and misunderstandings.

Citizens of the infinite realm and ghost were two very different species. Not that the children would ever be allowed to know.

Soon the justice league would fall.