Paranormal Mystery Squad

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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Katie, Charlotte and Stephanie

Paranormal Mystery Squad is a manga created by Adam Arnold with art by ComiPa (Vol 1), Ian Chang (Vol 2) and Micheal Shelfer (Vol 3) and licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment. It, and it’s sister manga, Vampire Cheerleaders, it are hosted by Pixie Trix Comix.

The Paranormal Mystery Squad is a group of three young women who hunt ‘cryptids’, i.e. monsters.

The print (and e-book) versions of Volumes 1 & 2 are sold as the second half of the Vampire Cheerleaders books. Volume 3 features a full scale crossover with VC, which will run on the Vampire Cheerleader page as a unified title, though they will be separated again when the event ends.

Now has a character page.

Paranormal Mystery Squad provides the following tropes

J.C.: I can't believe you said that.
Steph: He deserved it.
J.C.: Yeah, but he doubled our hours!

Katie: And I'm Yiffing Mad!

  • Mercy Kill: How Steph views slaying monsters that were born human. She initially plans to do this with her sister, but is talked down by JC and Charlotte.
  • Mismatched Eyes: Charlotte has a less noticable version with one blue and one green. There are hints that this is a halmark of her magical affinity.
  • Monster Wrongs Group: Steph finds herself butting heads with PETM (People for the Ethical Treatment of Monsters), who demand that ‘cryptids’ be captured alive and unharmed.
    • A notable subversion (especially when compared to PETA) is that PETM are well aware cryptids are dangerous and even have standard issue tasers. As Summerfield put it, they're naive, not stupid.
    • O'Keefe takes the entire thing to ridiculous extremes, such as refusing to let the army bomb an "innocent cryptid" who mind-controlled half the county (there are good reasons not to drop a bomb on a bunch of people, but that isn't one of them) and later gets the president to declare a Kaiju that's about to destroy the city and possibly the world an endangered species, forbidding the military from attacking. Well, the Squad is forbidden too, but they ignore it.
  • Near-Rape Experience: The reason Mr. Campbell summoned the team to his farm not to investigate, but to be breeding stock for his son. The climax of volume one begins when the son kidnaps Katie in order to try again.
  • No Periods, Period: Averted. Katie seems to delight and using her teenaged PMS as an excuse to ignore diplomacy (and propriety).
    • It later becomes a plot point as the now werewolf Katie ends up being in heat as a result.
  • Off with His Head: Steph is quite effective with that sword.
  • Oh Crap: Everyone's reaction to Mr. Campbell going openly hostile, but especially Katie when Theo changes.
    • A more comic version when the sea monster Steph just speared swam off rapidly. "Oh Frak...!" Yank!
  • The One Guy J.C. Summerfeild
  • Parental Abandonment: Stephanie and Katie’s parents were killed about a year before the story starts (and after Steph’s appearance in Aoi House).
  • Paranormal Investigation
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: The general put in charge the incident in Volume 2 comes off sympathetic to the PMS crew, and most definitely does not like O'Keefe's presence and interference.
    • When they kill the Kaiju rampaging around Vegas (which O'Keefe got named an endangered species), he gets them issued a full pardon, and the 4,000 hours of community service fully commuted.
  • Shared Universe: With Aoi House and Vampire Cheerleaders, with Stephenie being introduced in Aoi House, and there being cameos between VC and PMS. With PMS being hosted on the same site as Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks, there is some talk of seeing if a link is plausible between them.
    • A couple of guest comics by Adam for Eerie Cuties were set in a flashback focusing on Layla and Steph as kids. Turns out it was Layla that gave Steph her hairpin saying that they (her and Steph's hairpins) come in pairs. The two strips close with Steph in the present day wondering what Layla was up to at the moment. As far as Adam is concerned, the comics are canon for Paranormal Mystery Squad.
    • All of the main cast of Vampire Cheerleaders have made at least one appearance. Lori and Lesly here, Heather here, and finally Suki and Zoey here.
    • Volume 2 of VC had some references to events that were happening, or about to happen, in PMS. Adam has stated that Volume 3 will have a full scale crossover.
  • She Who Fights Monsters: Steph’s hatred of cryptids has some unfortunate levels.
  • Shout-Out: All of Charlotte's spell incantations are pop-culture references. No one knows why (not even her).
  • Theme Naming: Many Batman (and the wider DCU) references are made in the names for the various characters.
  • The Unfair Sex: Steph as per most of her jerkass tendencies, for example she blames the whole Katie turning into a werewolf on J.C. when really Katie had wandered off on her own. J.C, despite being a nice guy, thankfully isn't a doormat and more then willing to call her out on this.
  • Unusual Euphemism: You were "double-clicking your mouse," weren't you?
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: "Cryptoslaughter" has only recently been made illegal, and appears to remain a civil offense.
  • Whole Costume Reference: After being defeated by Lita in Volume 2, Char finds herself dressed up as Zatanna, Steph as Alice from the Resident Evil: Extinction and Katie as Claire from Resident Evil: Afterlife.
  • Van Helsing Hate Crime: Steph who believes all cryptids are evil roughly stemming what happened to her parents. Things gets complicated when her sister is turned into a werewolf and the newest member of their team is revealed to be a Dhampyr.
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