#The GIW saw that Phantom was missing and the inexperienced team of Heroes who had replaced him and saw an opportunity

[bet-on-me-13]

Danny goes on Vacation: Bad Ending

(Kind of a Part 2 to This Post, and specifically the comment made by @gamermineral about the GIW)

So! Danny has not had a Vacation in Years. Not since the day he became a Hero.

Its not even that he hasn't tried before, its that every time he does it all goes horribly wrong.

The first time he ever tried taking a vacation, Undergrowth broke out of the Zone and took over the town for a 2nd Time. It took a week to fix that mess.

The next time, he tried just going away for a few days, and that was the day Aragon and Vlad teamed up to try and take over the City.

The final time was a few years later. He had mostly managed to establish a Stable Situation after months of Hard Work. The Rogues weren't attacking as Frequently, and in fact many of them had become good frenemies with him over the years. Their Battles were more like Play Fights at that point, although he did need to keep them from going too far and hurting civilians.

He thought he was safe for a few days break in the next city over...

Turns out some random Cult decided to Summon Pariah Dark out of his Coffin in them middle of a Major City that very day. That Incident had both Secured his Position as the new Ghost King, and had caught the attention of the JLA. They approached him afterwards offering a position on their Team.

Still, Danny held off on having a Vacation for a while longer. He still didn't know if it was even worth asking them to cover for him, the situation was mostly peaceful and they weren't that big of a threat usually.

Eventually though, after a few months of working up the nerve he asked the Team if they could cover for him so he could have a Vacation. They had enthusiastically agreed, happy to help even if it was a supposedly easy job.

Danny left them a few instructions on what to do in the case of a Rogue Attack, and left for his Vacation in Space.

But he still wasn't fully sure, so he went back to check on them after 2 days. It seemed like everything was actually fine, and he left again.

A week later, he was feeling nervous again, and check up again. And it still seemed to be going well.

After one more minor checkup, he felt secure in the safety of the Situation. So he left to deep space for the remainder of his Vacation and enjoyed the hell out of it. He felt free for the first time in YEARS!

But the situation wasn't going nearly as good as the Team had lead on.

The Rogues were too powerful for the initial team dispatched to handle the threat, and they needed to call in a few more Heroes to fight them off. When Danny showed up for his check in, they had played if off as Much as they could and sent him on his way. Then they did the same for the next two times.

The JLA Team was struggling far too much, much more than they could handle. But they didn't want to call in high level members, they had too much pride.

And unfortunately, the GIW was there to "help" them. They said that they could use the GIW Tech at their disposal to contain the Ghosts until the Hero of the town got back, that their weapons were Optimal for battling them without hurting them.

And the JLA Team took up the offer.

The next time they beat a Rogue, using GIW Weapons, they sent them to the nearby GIW Base and called it a day. And they continued doing that for the entire month Danny was away. They didn't know better, they would later claim.

Danny returned from his trip happy as can be. Until he sought out his Fight Buddies, and could find none of them.

"Hey guys, I just checked up on the Zone." Said Phantom, "And I couldn't find any of my Rogues. Do you know where they are?"

One of the Team Members who had taken over Amity for the month responded, "Well, we weren't having an easy time forcing them back through the Portal, so we took up the offer of some Locals who said they could help."

"Oh!" Said Phantom, "So Ms Mason and Mr Foley helped? Or was it Mrs. Grey? Or the Fentons? What did they do to keep the Ghosts from the Zone?"

"Oh no, it wasn't any of them" Said the Team Member, "It was this little organization called the Ghostly Investigation Ward, they helped us contain all the Rogues in their Base. We started last month, and-"

And Phantom stopped listening after that. His Heart stopped, his blood drained from his face, and he felt a deep sense of horror permeating his Core.

The GIW had captured all of his Friends.

And the JLA had helped them.