Work Text:
Red Hood blinked looking over at the emergency lines that the Justice League had set up, “Is anyone going to pick that up?”
“Pick what up?” Flash blinked looking toward where Red Hood had been looking, well where he thought he was looking as it was hard to tell with the helmet.
“The phone?” Red Hood’s tone was definitely questioning Flash’s intelligence.
“Why would we?”
“Because it’s ringing?”
“But it’s not?”
“Hood! Pick it up!” Red Robin commanded from the other side of the room.
As Red Robin using that tone normally meant they were in the middle of a Rogue attack and he was about to get his head cut off Red Hood’s hand shot to the phone picking it up.
“Speaker phone!”
As the speaker phone activated, they caught the caller midsentence.
“-ck they actually picked up. What in the Realms do I say!”
Wonder Woman frowned, “I cannot hear anything.”
Red Hood blinked, “You can’t? They’re talking loud enough.”
“I can hear something,” Red Robin leaned closer to the phone, “Hello?”
“Only some of you can hear us?” It was a distinctly masculine voice but one that most likely belonged to a teenager.
“Screw the questions!” Another, this one pissed off, voice shouted, “Tell them what’s going on, at least one of them can hear us!”
“Right, right,” There was a pause as a breath was taken, "Amity Ville Minnesota is under a black out by the Ghost Investigation Ward. They are preventing people from leaving or entering as well any information.”
Red Robin’s ear was practically on the speaker phone as he asked. “Do you know why?”
“Did someone say something?”
“Yeah,” Red Hood looked at the phone, “He asked if you knew why?”
“Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act. They don’t want what they’re doing to get out.” Guessing their next question they continued, “They are attempting to capture, experiment on, with the possibility of vivisection, and destroy sapient beings known as ectoplasmic entities.”
Red Hood narrowed his eyes, “That sounds like a breach of the meta protection act.”
“It’s-” The phone line cut off suddenly.
Attempting to call back they got a “this number is not in service message.”
“Well,” Red Hood set down the phone, why did the Justice League even have a bunch of phones? “That’s alarming.”
Batman had already pulled up a computer screen and was frowning at it, “As is the law creating the Ghost Investigation Ward. If there is a threat of a type of being, sentient or not, needing an entire governmental group to deal with then we should have been alerted to the threat.”
“They seemed pretty sure the, uh, ghosts are sentient.” Flash pointed out.
“What sort of ghosts?” Constantine wandered into the room, “There’s a lot of different ghoulies that they could mean and some are sapient and some just fake it well.” An unlit cigarette rested on his lips. He was probably looking for a place to light up for all that smoking was banned on the Watchtower.
“It is uncertain at this time,” Batman scrolled though the document he had pulled up, “The language of the bill is very vague.”
Red Robin nodded, looking at another screen he had pulled up, “And possibly illegal but I can’t be sure yet.”
Red Hood hummed, “The kids said they were ectoplasmic beings.”
“I didn’t catch that.”
“Did you say ectoplasmic?” Constantine was staring at Red Hood, face white.
Frowning Red Hood nodded.
“Bloody hell hound in a church,” Constantine grabbed his cigarette and shoved it into a pocket, “We could have a real problem here. Are they attacking? Making demands?”
Wonder Woman shook her head, “It seems an American governmental agency is targeting them.”
“Baby Jesus in an orgy, targeting them how? Does the King of the Infinite Realms know?”
Red Robin narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Federal Anti-Ecto Control Act, his you have information I want give it or else expression firmly planted on his face, “Capture, experiment, possibly vivisection and destruction. They have a king?”
“Bloody fucking hell,” He rubbed his face. “Yes, they have a king. They mostly reside in the Infinite Realms where several afterlives crossover in different ways, or well the waiting area to get to the afterlife. This could be bad, like really bad. The new king is said to look kindly on humans, but if he learns about these idiots and if they’ve actually hurt anyone, well they’ll have a reason to attack us and we really don’t want that.”
“Sounds like we need to investigate.” Red Robin hummed, “Are these ectoplasmic beings aliens? No, you said afterlives were where they dwell.”
“The Infinite Realms, not somewhere the living should go without a guide they really trust. Why?”
“The meta human protection act does apply to aliens but it’s a little round about it. I need to learn more to properly get them officially protected and disband the act creating the Ghost Investigation Ward.”
Red Hood grinned, “Sounds like field trip time. I can take Kori and Roy with me to investigate.”
“And leave the Ghost Investigation Ward and half the town in rubble? No thanks. I need to go to figure out the classification.”
“Well you could barely hear them talking so you need me to be able to hear and see shit if it’s not just the phone that’s fucking with you understanding them.”
“Take Nightwing as well,” Batman zoomed in on a piece of text, “He’ll act as point with interacting with anyone you meet. That will allow Red Robin to focus on the classification and acts. Red Hood can communicate well with both of you even without speaking so he can support both of you as needed. Oracle and I will look further into these acts.”
“Well I don’t have anything better to do,” Red Hood turned to Red Robin, “Lead on Baby Bird.”
Rolling his eyes, Red Robin led Red Hood from the room. He needed to pick up a few things, including Nightwing, from Gotham before they could head to Minnesota and a town apparently full of ghosts.