Get Out!
A continuation of this thread.
"It's been over a week," Jason complained, one boot up on the table to fully express his displeasure. "I'm not letting this drag out to two weeks, the kid's been trapped for nearly two decades."
Bruce, in full Batman gear, just glowered at Jason before looking over to Clark. "Superman."
"Right," Clark straightened in his seat. Jason had to give it to the League: just the big three, the Outlaws, and Zatanna were at this meeting; Jason might've lost his mind if he had to deal with a whole fucking council. Clark cleared his throat before going into report mode, "Mrs. Lane has visited every library in Spookin county under the guise of doing a retrospective on heroes, starting with the first super villain. Every single library without fail had newspapers on microfilm from Amity Park up until August two-thousand and four."
Jason frowned at that, "But the attack was in oh-six."
Clark nodded, "She also checked the newspapers form the surrounding area starting from then. A few mention ghost attacks in Amity, but there are notable gaps. Elmerton, Carsonville, Riverside, every town has newspapers missing from the same dates."
"Well that doesn't stink of a government cover up," Roy said with a sigh as he rubbed the space between his eye brows.
"Not stink at all," Biz agreed.
"What else?" Artemis asked darkly.
"She's only gotten in contact with a small number of Amity Park survivors, but without fail all of them so far have refused any interviews because they signed some sort of NDA," Clark replied tiredly. "Only one person said anything more, that the GIW made them sign the NDA."
Everyone (except the Bat) groaned at that.
"This isn't even a question anymore," Jason grumbled. "It's so obviously a giant coverup."
"It is the triumphant who write history," Diana said somberly.
"Alright, you know that means we're now on a time limit on getting Danny help before the fucking government catches wind that something's going on in Amity. So, anything else we need to know?" Jason asked harshly.
Diana, Clark, and Bruce all glanced at each other before shaking their heads. "You're clear to go in," Bruce rumbled. "Gather as much intel as you can."
"Fuck you, we're going in there to help that kid, not gather goddamn intel." He dropped his foot to the ground and stood up, the other Outlaws and Zatanna joining him. And yeah, they'd probably get Danny's whole story from him while they tried to figure out how to help him, but that was not and would not be their main goal.
◇◆◇
"The first thing you need to know is that Danny isn't like Deadman," Zatanna said as the jeep she and the Outlaws had crammed into slowed down to approach Amity Park, nearly 20 years without maintenance made for a bumpy ride. "Most ghosts have memory issues, so there's a chance he won't remember your name or that you've met before, there's also a chance he won't remember being swarmed but that's far less likely."
"Still bullshit," Jason grumbled.
"He also probably doesn't realize how long it's been since the town was destroyed, it's best to not tell him. He'll probably be a bit confused or have a short attention span, stuck forever reliving the scenario that killed him."
Jason nodded, Danny had seemed locked in while trying to lead Jason to safety, but he had also believed the GIW was actively hunting them despite nearly 20 years of nothing. The interaction was so brief it was hard to really gauge what was going on with the kid.
"And whatever you do, do not mention how he died. Especially don't ask him, that is the worst thing you can do with a ghost."
Everyone made various noises of agreement as Jason turned onto the street the remains of the Fenton house sat on. Jason parked the car in the middle of the street a couple houses down to avoid the rubble from the destroyed house (and what looked like a blimp that had crashed into it). Jason hopped out of the car and moved to go sit on the sidewalk, he figured it was best to make himself visible and as nonthreatening as possible for someone that looked like him. Zatanna and the rest of the Outlaws all stayed in the jeep, stretching out as best they could, chatting, pulling out snacks and drinks. Jason pulled out a book, ready to sprawl out on the overgrown lawn and read until Danny showed.
"Psssssst," someone near Jason's elbow hissed.
Jason nearly jumped out of his skin when he looked down to find a pale, see-through head sticking out of the ground. "Danny?!"
Danny shushed him, eyes darting over to the jeep full of out of costume vigilantes all trying to not look like they were watching Jason with intense focus.
"Those are my friends, remember how I said I'd be back with help?" Jason tried not to cringe, Zatanna had just told them he probably wouldn't remember.
"Well yeah, but I didn't think you actually would." Danny lifted a little higher, neck and shoulders emerging from the ground as he looked over at the jeep's occupants.
Jason tried not to take that personally, "I always keep my word." He tried to wipe the scowl off his face as he stood up and brushed off his pants. "C'mon, I'll introduce ya."
Danny floated up until his whole body was out of the ground, then landed gently on his feet. Jason had noticed it last time, while Danny had been leading Jason "to safety" he'd been firmly on the ground the whole time, not floating the way ghost supposedly did.
Jason sauntered towards the jeep, where his friends and Zatanna were trying to pretend they hadn't noticed them yet. "Hey guys, this is Danny, the kid I told you about. Danny, these are my friends, Roy, Artemis, Kenny, and Zatanna."
Each person gave a little wave as Jason introduced them.
Danny awkwardly waved back, "Hi."
Zatanna smiled and got out of the jeep, hand out. "It's nice to meet you."
Danny blinked for a moment before rushing to take Zatanna's hand and shake it eagerly, "Nice to meet you too!"
Once the handshake was over Zatanna smiled, "What Jason didn't tell you is I'm a magician, do you mind if I have a look at you?"
Danny suddenly looked wary, "Why?"
"You're stuck here, right? We want to help."
Danny absently rubbed just below his sternum, "Yeah, it hurts when I try to leave."
"That's terrible, will you let me have a look?" When Danny's only response was to look skeptically at Zatanna she kept going, "Just a look, you won't feel a thing."
"No needles? No samples?"
Zatanna shook her head, "No, nothing like that. I'm a magician, it's just a little diagnostic spell, like an X-ray without the radiation."
Danny looked up at Jason, who nodded, before finally nodding at Zatanna. Her hands and eyes glowed briefly as she chanted a quick spell, her hands hovering near but not touching Danny as she "scanned" down his torso.
"Well, that was interesting," Zatanna muttered.
"What was?" Danny asked, his voice edging a little higher in worry.
"You're like no ghost I've seen before, I can't tell what's normal and what's broken."
Danny just nodded, "So, guess that means you can't help me."
"Well, not quickly," Zatanna answered. "It'll take time to unravel what exactly is going on with you."
Danny snorted, "Sure, you can go check in at the local hotel while you stay, there's plenty of open rooms."
Jason put a hand on Danny's shoulder, "Danny…"
"Where do you wanna go anyway?" Roy asked casually. "Do you even want out of here?"
Danny shrugged, accidentally knocking Jason's hand off, "The fruitloop's cheese castle in Wisconsin. But considering it's been a few years and he hasn't come looking for me he probably can't, so I don't know if he's still around to maintain his portal."
Jason blinked, trying to keep up with the word salad that just came out of Danny's mouth. Was Danny having a stroke? Was Jason? He looked to his friends, who all looked just as confused.
"Bizarro understand everything little ghost just said."
"I'm with you there, bud," Roy murmured.
"What portal do you speak of?" Artemis asked, thank the gods she was there to help cut through the bullshit.
"Vlad's portal to the Ghost Zone. Or, I guess it's also called the Infinite Realms. When the GIW cut off water and electricity our portal got cut off with it. They're lucky we'd already put in that fail safe and the whole thing didn't just implode."
Jason ran a hand over his face, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck…" Judging from how pale Zatanna went at the mention of these Realms things suddenly got a lot more complicated.
