Chapter 2

Author's Note

This is actually the first story I've ever posted to Fanfiction, and I'd like to apologize for how choppy the last chapter was in terms of location and time, and for my future choppiness. I am still trying to figure out how the website works in terms of updating and posting, so it may take time. It also would explain why I don't fix all my grammar mistakes that made their way past my proof-reading immediately. So thank you so much for being patient!

In response to a question about pairings, I'm not sure yet. A lot could happen in five years. Perhaps Zatanna and Robin tried a relationship. Or Rocket hatting herself for falling for an odd and crazed flirt like Tucker. We know that Kid Flash and Artemis eventually get married. I am going to start off my story with Danny and Sam having a thing, as well as Artemis and Wally, because that is where both stories left off. What I do from there, who knows. Maybe having members of season two's cast slip in as the story develops. But whatever I do, the story WILL NOT be centered around pairings/romance. These are just side ideas, and whether or not I actually use them is currently undecided.

Again, the characters are not mine.

…

Amity Park, January 9, 3:00 pm

Robin, Zatanna, and Miss Martian made their way to Naperville, Illinois easily. Amity Park, not so much. They had to rely on looking for town signs overhead. But eventually Zatanna found a billboard reading 'Welcome to Amity Park.'

They landed slightly within what they suspected to be the city limits. Miss Martian placed the bio-ship into its camouflaged state. The trio walked out into the open clearing, happy that no one was around to see them appear out of thin air.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Zatanna asked. "tiftuo nailivic" she added as she raised her hands above her head. Her outfit changed to her civilian clothing. The general blue jeans, black boots, random shirt and black leather jacket.

"Anything odd according to the Bats. For him, that could mean literally anything. A villain, a new superhero, pretty much any unnatural phenomenon." Robin said as he threw on his jacket.

Miss Martian warped into her pale skin and cheery outfit as well. Covert in a small town meant civilian identity.

"We are supposed to find out why we haven't ever heard of this place before. Which means we could start by asking the townspeople what they hear from the rest of the world." Miss Martian added helpfully. "And what caused the entire earth to become intangible! I can't even do that!" Her enthusiasm was getting to be a bit much for Zatanna. Robin smiled it all off. Miss Martian was always over eager and Zatanna always acted overly annoyed. It was all in their personnel.

"We should probably get going. Check out where we can eat and that sort of thing." Robin scanned his surroundings, making sure he knew where he and the bio-ship was. He pulled his jacket back off, flung his bright yellow utility belt around his shoulder like a sash, and zipped his jacket back up.

He caught Zatanna's curious gaze. Robin grinned. "Batman training 101." He offered.

She smiled back. "Since we can't wander around calling you Robin, what do you want us to call you?"

"Just stick with Rob. No one out here is going to make the connection to some random 'Rob' showing up in their town and to Gotham's Boy Wonder." Robin pulled out a tracer and stuck it against a tree, just in case. He threw a fake watch around his wrist.

The watch pulled up a net screen. "Open channel, Batman." Robin said into the watch. Batman's face popped up on the screen. "We've made it to Amity Park."

"Good work. Again I stress on the covert part of the mission. Don't attract to much attention to yourselves." Robin felt as if there was more to Batman's warning than he had suspected earlier.

He gently pushed on his sunglasses, hoping that they wouldn't attract the attention of civilians. It was a cold first week of January, and seeing how the sun wasn't quite out, wearing sunglasses might come off as suspicious. Still, Robin didn't say anything. Batman disappeared from the screen. Robin tapped on his watch and the clear outline of static collapsed back into his wrist. He hit another button on his miniaturized screen to display time.

"Oh, wow, I'm an idiot. I nearly forgot." Robin's complete and utter lack of anything was a surprise to both himself and his team mates.

He ran back inside the bio-ship and grabbed the gun that Batman have him before he had left. He slung it into an inside pocket of his jacket that was specialty made to hold guns. It didn't make much sense to Robin – Batman hatted guns – but when push came to shove, they were better than letting the bad guy kill other people. He still didn't bother to question the hazy green glow that came from it. He had learned to never question Batman. The jacket hid the glow well enough.

The girls were still waiting for him when he ran back outside.

"Ready?" Zatanna asked.

"Yup." He said. "Let's go find out why Amity Park has been hidden."

…

Casper High, January 9, 3:15

Danny was more than excited for the weekend, although he was sure he got a grade below a C on his math test. But the results could wait until Monday. And he couldn't be the only one that did poorly. Winter Break had ended on Wednesday, meaning most people spent only two days studying.

"Hold up, punk!" A terribly familiar voice called. Dash waltzed up to Danny and grabbed him by his shirt.

Danny knew he should've seen this coming. Of course, Dash had to be one of those people who did poorly. Danny would've liked nothing more than to change into Phantom and blast Dash with an ectoplasmic-blast, but he also knew that blasting a human with an ecto-blast wasn't the best idea. What was even more ironic was that Dash idolized his alter-ego, Danny Phantom. Finding out that he was Phantom would be nice in the short-term, but the long-term consequences kept Danny's ecto-blast in check.

Instead, Danny let Sam do the talking.

"Don't you have somewhere to run off to, Dash?" Sam said with nonchalance. She let her expression remain bored and emotionless. She played the part of goth rather well.

"Yeah, but I just had to take a math test. I probably failed. And for the record, I'm not very happy." His grasp on Danny became a smidge tighter.

"You being unhappy isn't exactly record material, Dash. Now if you were to let me go and walk away with a rainbow over your head, that might be. Add in glitter…" Danny's string of words was cut off by a not-so-gentle shove.

"Just remember who's on top of the food-chain, Danny." Dash growled. He released Danny's shirt and stormed off.

Danny envisioned a literal rainbow above Dash's head with puffs of glitter shooting out from all directions, and all Danny could do was laugh.

Sam gave Danny a glare worthy of any goth. Although Danny thought that glare was outright adorable, he let his expression be somewhere along the lines of remorseful and playful. All Sam did was sigh.

"Honestly, Danny. Glitter?" Was all she ended up saying.

They began their walk to Nasty Burger, which ironically enough had the best burgers Danny had ever had. Life was full of irony, Danny realized.

"This all gives me a great idea for a prank we could pull on Dash…" Tucker pondered.

"Tucker no!" Sam and Danny said simultaneously. Danny was yelling at Tucker for the whole prank, which probably included his glitter comment, but then he realized that Tucker was about to run into someone.

Tucker slammed into a red-headed girl in a pink skirt. She looked entirely girly-girl and vastly different from Sam. Her skin was almost too pink, but she looked pretty enough. Danny pulled himself away from his thoughts, which he realized were way too weird, and helped Tucker up as Sam helped the girl.

Another girl with black hair and a more normal outfit helped the red-head as well. She looked to be slightly annoyed, which was completely understandable in Danny's opinion. He was slightly annoyed with Tucker too. A boy in sunglasses kept his distance, but seemed to be with the girls.

"I am so sorry for my friend here," Sam began apologizing, when the red-head held up her hand to silence her.

"No, no, it's my fault too. I should've been watching where I was going. Tucker, was it?" the red-head asked politely as she pushed herself back up.

Tucker nodded with his jaw ajar. Danny swore he could see the other guy's eyes role, even with his sunglasses on. Why he kept his distance, Danny didn't know and really didn't care. A puff of cold breath forced its way out of Danny's mouth, signaling that a ghost was nearby. He instantly knew that he would have to be incredibly rude to the people they just bumped into, but when duty calls…

"Look, it was nice meeting you, er, accidentally bumping into you and all, but we really have to go." Danny tried best to explain. "It's a little chilly out here and we have somewhere to be." He tried being subtle about both getting away from the new kids and giving the hint to Sam and Tucker, since they both knew his secret.

Tucker looked bewildered at the sight of new girls. "We do?" he asked unintelligently. Sam nudged him. Hard. "I mean, uh, yeah, we have this thing we, uh, have to do, and um, yeah."

The boy in glasses raised an eyebrow. Danny instantly knew he wasn't buying it, but again he didn't care. The two girls just looked confused.

"Nice meeting you!" Sam called back as she shoved Danny and Tucker between the red-head, the raven-haired girl, and Sunglasses guy.

Danny could hear the sound of collateral damage. Since the ghost wasn't hollering 'Beware,' he guessed that the Box Ghost was not the one triggering his ghost sense. They made their way to an ally not far from where they were originally.

"I'm going ghost!" Danny yelled his signature battle-cry that somehow never gained anyone's attention.

A ring appeared around his waist and split in two, one ring upward and the other downward. Danny was transformed into his alter-ego, his hair a powder white and his eyes venom green. He jumped and shot up into the sky. He let himself look down to Sam and Tucker. He smiled to them and flew off.

"Where did you go?" Danny muttered to himself as he scanned for the ghost.

Danny was suddenly slapped in the back. He did a couple spirals in the air, but recovered quickly. He whizzed around to face a green glob of a ghost with blaring red eyes.

Danny recognized the ghost immediately. "Bertrand!" he called out.

Bertrand smirked as he bobbled up and down in the air. "Nice to see you too, Danny, but you're kind of in the way."

Danny ignored the comment and shot the ecto-blast that he had wanted to shoot out all day. It wasn't Dash, but it would have to do. The glob simply warped his ghost body around the blast, letting it pass through him.

"Just because you helped save the world for us ghosts doesn't mean that Spectra and I want to stop looking young. But hey, for what it's worth, thank you." At that moment, Bertrand's existence was not horrible exactly, just annoying.

"I don't really have a good comeback for that!" Danny yelled as he let four or five, maybe six ecto-blasts in Bertrand's direction. He wasn't in the mood to keep count.

He threw up a shield over himself as the blob became a floating tiger. Its pounce sent him flying into the ground.

The tiger scratched at the shield until it broke, giving Danny no choice but to turn intangible. He flew upwards into the ghost and out. He spun around and shot another ecto-blast directly at Bertrand's new form that Danny hadn't realized he turned into until the blast was flying out of his hands. The dust he had created settled, revealing an innocent looking kitten with bright green eyes. The cat gave a pitiful 'meow,' completely throwing Danny off-guard.

The cat's expression turned vicious and its eyes began to give off a harsh red glow. The kitten changed back into a tiger and scratched at Danny, leaving a mark along his arm. Danny ignored it and put up a shield around himself when he saw that Bertrand was going to attack again. The full force of the large cat pushed Danny a few meters away, but he managed to keep up hi shield.

"You're normally quite the chatter box. What happened? Did the cat catch your tongue?" The tiger asked as it stopped to lick its paw.

"Where's Spectra?" Danny spat out. "You were talking about you and her being young, so where is she?"

"Why does everyone assume that I am never a solo act?" Bertrand gave his best innocent kitty look.

"Because you're not!" Sam shouted.

The tiger turned back into Bertrand's original form of a glob and was sucked into Sam's fenton thermos. She closed the cap and sealed it shut.

"You did raise a good question though. Where is Spectra? He's usually somebody's handmaid." Tucker asked as he glanced around the street.

Phantom flew back into the ally and changed back into Danny Fenton. Sam and Tucker caught up to him shortly.

"Let's drop this off at your place and stop at Nasty Burger." Sam said specifically to Danny. They began walking past their school.

"That sounds cool. We can pick Jazz up too. She doesn't like Nasty Burger all that much, but she'd love to hear about how the kitten surprised you!" Tucker's grin wasn't helping Danny's mood and Tucker knew it. "Man, chill, did Bertrand get the ability to drain you, because you're looking a little angry right now." Tucker's wide eyes bounced Danny back into reality.

"I don't know. I guess that would make sense. Either that or Spectra is still out there and somehow got ahold of me." Danny sighed.

Sam let her hand fall into Danny's. "Let's just get this back to your parents." She smiled.

…

Nasty Burger, 4:30pm

"So. This town has floating monsters. Why haven't we heard of them before now?" Zatanna pulled her cup to her lips and began slurping on her soda.

"I'm pretty sure that thing called itself a ghost." Megan was avoiding the overly greasy french fries. The burgers were somehow fantastic in comparison, despite them eating at a place called 'Nasty Burger.'

Dick had lost himself in thought. "That girl – the one we bumped into, I think she was helping the ghost with white hair. Which doesn't make sense, if she's on a side, what are the sides? Is the white-haired black-jumpsuit ghost even a 'good guy?' We can't have been the only ones who've seen ghosts turn intangible either."

Megan nodded in agreement. "The way the kid moved through the other ghost. I think they really do have something to do with the asteroid and earth's intangibility moment."

Zatanna raised an eyebrow. "Are we going to outright call them ghosts now?"

"This is coming from the magician?" Dick countered. He smirked, but his attention jumped to the new people walking through the door. It was the three kids they had bumped into and another older looking girl in blue.

Zatanna smirked back. "At least Wally isn't here. He'd be having a hay day. Ghosts and magic, all in one conversation?"

Dick chuckled, but he watched the four carefully as they sat down. Whatever they were talking about seemed to be centered around the boy with dark hair. The other boy, Tucker, laughed at something he had said while the girl with bright blue eyes gave Tucker a concerned look.

"Do we want to start asking people about ghosts?" Zatanna asked Robin.

"What was the last thing that the League did that popped up on the news?" Dick asked suddenly. If they had never heard of ghosts before, what were the odds that the people in this town had heard of the Justice League? Or superheroes for that matter. Was it one sided or was this blockage of news going both ways? Those were some questions that he wanted answers to.

"Well, the Injustice League was the last huge thing that happened." Megan held a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"No," Zatanna's face scrunched up in a sad expression. "When all the adults disappeared because of Klarion and those other sorcerers. When Fate had to intervene." She paused. "That would've had to happen here too, regardless. Magic like that doesn't pick and choose."

"Megan, you should ask Tucker if he's heard anything; the Justice League, the plant attack, or go on about how all the adults disappeared." Robin was beginning to get excited. "Be subtle about getting information, though."

Megan's eyes were questioning. "I'm just supposed to casually walk up to a guy and begin talking about random events that have happened? See if they've been happening here? Why me?"

Dick tried talking, but his words were tied up in his mouth. He didn't know how to subtly tell Megan to 'sweet-talk' the kid.

Thankfully Zatanna took it from there. "He so was into you. Go; use that to get information." Megan still wore a confused expression.

Robin coughed. "Or you could… flirt… or something."

Megan looked appalled. Her shock came out very vocally. "I have a boyfriend-" Zatanna and Robin quickly shushed her. She softened her tone, but only a little. "I have a boyfriend, and you want me to 'flirt' to get us the information? There has got to be better ways to do this."

Zatanna stood up quickly, surprising both Robin and Megan. Robin caught on quickly as she walked across the resturaunt, wondering if he should be eager or hesitant. what he was not expecting was a sudden pang of jealousy.

Zatanna stopped at the foursome's table. He expression was odd, like she was trying to be all mysterious. "Wow, you look like a mini version of Green Lantern." She began.

"The green who-now?"

That was a quick turn of events. How could Tucker not have heard of Green Lantern? There was three of them! Dick had pegged him as a geek, but to not know about any superheroes was beyond unusual.

"Superman? Wonder Woman? Flash?" Zatanna began spewing all the big-name superheroes quickly. She caught Robin's eyes and winked. "Batman, Robin, Gotham's dynamic duo?" The four were looking at Zatanna like she was nuts. "You know, the Justice League?"

They were all startled by a new voice. "I haven't heard of those guys for 20 years. Thought they had disbanded or something. Those guys are still around?" A pot-bellied man casually asked. "Last I heard they weren't the Justice League though."

"They've become a society of superheroes" Robin realized she had dropped the flirtatious act. He was secretly happy, but at the same time he knew that meant she was letting her guard down. "In fact, last month they saved the world when it split between kids and adults."

The boy with dark hair spoke up. "You mean the pirate ghost?" Dick watched as they boy's eyes lit up. Dick's must've too. His one simple statement was a gold mine. He hoped Zatanna wouldn't let that pass. "That happened almost 5 months ago."

"Pirate ghost?" Zatanna's tone was playful again. She had realized the potential too.

Tucker ate it up. "The ghost that stole all the adults for his pirate ship! Danny here helped lead the raid the ship with his parent's arsenal of ghost weapons. I didn't realize that had made national news." He paused as his eyes gazed up and down. "You're new here, right? Where are you from?"

Zatanna ignored his question. "Nothing happened in this town last month?" She was now thoroughly confused. For nothing to have happen, Amity Park would've had to be in an entirely different dimension. Did the town have a different set of rules when it came to magic? Even that wouldn't make sense. Two different dimensions, one for kids, and one for adults. With the crazy amount of magic involved, something should have happened in this town.

The dark-haired boy shared a look between the goth girl and the other girl, where the only similarity between him and her was their nose and their eyes. siblings maybe? "There was this one ghost that attacked last month. He put the entire town to sleep for a long while. I don't know if that helps you at all. I don't know what you're looking for, but I hope you find it." The red-head girl, she looked maybe 17, was incredibly perceptive.

Zatanna realized she was being dismissed. She smiled at them. "Thank you," Zatanna replied. She turned around, leaving the four to have an awkward conversation with the 'Mr. Lancer' about what he had heard about superheroes. She slipped down next to Megan.

The three shared a look of concern between each other.

"Them all being asleep might have actually happened exactly during the kid/adult dimension split. That would actually be funny if that's what happened." Dick decided to break the tension.

"And the Injustice League?" Megan asked. "Those were worldwide attacks."

"Somebody paid them off? Who really knows. We have to remember that this town has been kept hidden for twenty years, by the sound of it. We have to assume that whoever has been hiding the town has to be strong enough to ward off those big attacks." Dick sighed at his conclusion.

Someone across the way took a loud and obnoxious slurp from their cup.

"What do we do now?" Zatanna asked.

"I'm curious what other kind of powers these ghosts have." Dick let an amused smile play at his lips. "We're going to have to do more research and more observations. Find out what's really going on in this little town."