#zatanna could have been annoyed of him at first

[catpriciousmarjara]

Okay so there's this dp x dc tumblr post about the JL finding the Ghost King's family tree or something and lots of misunderstandings happening but I can't find it anymore and would be grateful if someone would send it to me... Anyhow I was inspired by it and this is the result!

Also on ao3 if you wanna check it out there!

The Family Tree

"So you're telling me this is just a family tree?", Green Lantern asked with a frown on his face.

Bruce could see Constantine's eyes twitching at that question. As always, leave it to Hal Jordan to annoy people.

"This isn't just anything", the sorcerer said with narrowed eyes. "It's a Class-X magical artifact. If this thing is used as a focus for a ritual, the magnitude of magical energy would rise by at least 80 factors. For those of you non-magical or unfamiliar with magic, that's fucking huge."

Beside him Zatanna nodded, her gaze still fixed on the ancient manuscript. She hadn't taken her eyes off the scroll for more than a minute since she got to the Watch Tower and first saw it spread out on the containment room table. Constantine was the same. Captain Marvel was not present, working along with Superman, Hawkgirl, and Aquaman on a case, but his reactions have always been dissimilar from his magical colleagues, so his case might be anywhere between staying the hell away from it to trying to inhale it.

It was clear to Bruce that Zatanna coveted it, but was sensible and cautious enough to stay away from it. Constantine had no sense so he was a tossup. From where he was standing between Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter, the Gotham vigilante resolved to keep an eye on the two magicians. They most likely won't try to steal the artifact, considering the heavy dose of 'not messing with that thing' overshadowing the desire to possess it, but the scroll itself might be enchanted to encourage covetous feelings on those nearby. It wouldn't be the first time. Better safe than sorry.

It was Diana that stepped up towards the two JL Dark members to seek more clarification. As both a Demigod and as someone familiar with magic, she was usually the one taking point on such issues.

She gestured to the scroll innocently sitting inside the runic circle the two mages had constructed around it. "You have told us that the artifact is not destructive, that it is merely a record, and that the information it contains is not a spell, or a runic arrangement, or a magic circle. You have also told us that the strange energy readings coming from it are mostly due to the material it's made out of than any catastrophic sorcery enchanted into it. You have at last decoded it as a record of a family tree. Yet it is dangerous, a Class-X relic as you've said. Given all this information, I suppose the correct question to ask here is this: why is a family tree capable of raising magical energy output by 80 factors?"

The two magicians looked at each other. Zatanna finally pried her eyes away from the scroll and faced the room.

"Magic is a force that simultaneously has laws but at the same time adheres to none. It's confusing to explain but for the time being just keep that in mind."

She walked to the center of the room, followed by Constantine, visibly trying to collect her words. Bruce prepared himself for a complicated explanation and activated another one of the batsuit's recorders. He felt the urge to sigh, for a supposed unchained force, Magic was needlessly complex at times, and practically incomprehensible to non-magicals.

At the front, Zatanna took a deep breath and began.

"As you know there are multiple dimensions. But magical dimensions come under a different category. Depending on the overall magical potential of a particular magical dimension, we call it the World State Stable Thaumaturgical Output Capacity, we can classify these dimensions in grades and levels, as either higher or lower, with relation to each other. These levels are dependent on a multitude of variables like space, time, gravity, Events, Proximity, etc and as such are non-linear, and unfixed. That's the first thing."

Bruce could practically see the capitals on the last two. Looks like they would need to hold another meeting to clarify a lot of these concepts. Seeing the dawning of lost expressions on some of the members however, Bruce mentally amended that to many future meetings.

Zatanna continued. "Magical objects from higher dimensions become stronger in lower ones. The inverse is also true. This is all in relation to the Overture and the same polarity orientation of course but we don't need to get into that now-"

On the contrary Bruce thought they really needed more explanation on all of that.

"-In simple terms, a child's toy from a higher dimension could become the focus for an apocalyptic ritual in a much lower dimension, while an apocalyptic artifact from a lower dimension might as well be paperweight in a sufficiently higher one. There are ways around it, but if those methods are not implemented, then this is how it generally goes. The larger the level difference, the higher the power."

Now that wasn't concerning at all. Bruce really needed to update his contingency plans regarding magic.

Constantine continued from where Zatanna left off, looking like he'd rather be anywhere but here.

"The second thing is that when it comes to magic, things that are indefinable or unquantifiable become definable and quantifiable. Stuff like love, hate, happiness, despair, fate, necessity, authority? All measurable. Not always needed of course, But definitely possible and frequently used in a variety of magical fields."

The sorcerer leaned against a nearby chair. "One such thing is Significance. The magic contained in true names for instance is mostly based on significance. A true name is significant to you, its a doorway to your soul, and therefore it holds power. Significance is also what we call a positive, additive factor in magic. In the absence of interfering variables, significance as a quantity is directly proportional to magical output. In other words-"

"-the more significant an object or an event, the higher the magical energy output, and consequently higher the magical power", J'onn finished. He looked towards the scroll. "The information recorded on it, the family tree as you've said, valuable in significance, most likely in terms of whose family it's a record of. In addition, the artifact is from a higher dimension with relation to ours, and that has a cumulative effect."

"Yeah exactly", said Constantine with a raised eyebrow. "Which means that if that hypothetical toy Zatanna mentioned? If that happened to be important enough, like a first toy, or a cherished gift or something like that, its significance increases, its potential increases, and in the right hands, or in the wrong hands really, that potential could be harnessed at a lower level."

There was a bout of thoughtful silence as they absorbed all of the information.

But Bruce felt as if he had been quiet enough and took the chance to ask a question of his own. "You mentioned something called the Overture, and polarity orientation. What do they mean?"

Constantine just sighed. "For fuck's sake Batsy those things aren't really important to the discussion..."

Bruce just stared.

..."Fine", the mage said in defeat. "There are many names for it, the Overture, Exordium, Legerdomain, Nascence...but the most accepted two are the Beforebirth, and the Womb. It's not a something as much as it's a someplace, but then again it's not really a place either. Simply put it's the birthplace of Magic, where it all began and all that. It can't be accessed without the Key and that's been lost for a long time. It's actually a mission for many magicals to find it you know? A holy quest for a lot of them. Some of them are straight up crazy though."

Bruce field that information safely away. Figure out a plan to combat fanatic magicians trying to find the birthplace of magic for sinister reasons. "And polarity?"

"Well", Zatanna began, "its how magic is classified according to the nature of...magic? Or rather the essence? It's hard to put in mundane terms...Anyhow broadly speaking there are two main polarities, the Obverse, and the Reverse."

For a moment, she struggled with the explanation before brightening, seemingly having found an idea.

"Picture a number line, but like on the y-axis! Zero is the Overture, Obverse dimensions are the positive number side, and Reverse dimensions are the negative numbers! The higher up the obverse dimension, the larger its magical output! Similarly, the lower down the reverse dimension, the higher its magical output."

Bruce had hardly parsed through that when their resident speedster spoke up.

"Guys", the red clad hero said, "I feel like we missed the obvious follow up question after Ollie over here...like I feel like this is important, but where exactly is the scroll from?"

As one everyone turned towards the artifact.

Constantine grimaced and Zatanna winced. They looked at each other as if asking who wanted to bite the bullet. Finally it looked as if Constantine lost. The sorcerer cursed under his breath.

"Well which dimension is the scroll from?", asked Wonder Woman.

Constantine took what looked like a fortifying breath.

"It's from the Infinite Realms."

Silence.

"What?", the Green Lantern asked intelligently.

"It's from the Infinite Realms. As in Infinite. As in end of the figurative fucking line, number line whatever!"

Everyone stared at the magicians as understanding slowly dawned.

There was what was essentially a magical nuke in the Watch Tower.

"Now", began Martian Manhunter, "this is unfortunate".

[gatorbites-imagines]

Can I request John Constantine fic where the reader is a eldritch or an angel that's known the league for a while or they capture them but John knows them.

I'm a literal whore for that man 👹

John Constantine x Angel male reader

Headcanons

Reader’s bit of a black sheep amongst angels, cuz I feel like Constantine would go great with a bit of a rebel.

its honestly taken me too long to realize that lucifer from the show is the same lucifer as in the DC comics.

You had a bit of a past with John Constantine, with you being a bit of a rulebreaker amongst the angels and all. I mean, you still went to visit your brother Lucifer on the regular, even if you had been told not to.

Michael had scolded you more times than you could count, telling you not to pop in and out of hell as you please just because you want too, or to not just teleport to earth willy-nilly when Lucifer relocated there for a while.

It was at Lucifers club that you met Constantine for the first time. You didn’t really speak to him, but you did see how he seemed to truly get on your older brothers’ nerves, so you already liked him for that alone.

After the blonde Brit left, Lucifer would give you the whole spiel about him, complaining about how many times he had sold his soul, and all the trouble his actions caused in hell, and how much paperwork the blonde gave him.

After that you bump into him in other places. You like to party, you like to fight, you like to be a nuisance. And its not like anybody can stop an angel as powerful as yourself if they wanted. They’re lucky you just like to be annoying by nature and that you aren’t actually evil.

It ends up with you getting mixed up in some of the things Constantine get up too, even if its by accident because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You always just know that Michael is gonna be on your neck when you get back to heaven after each time, but hanging out with John is worth it.

Hes tried to get you drunk so many times, but it never works no matter what kind of stuff he pulls out of his coat. Being angelic doesn’t really allow you to be weakened by something as small as alcohol. But its fun to see him try anyways.

In the eyes of your siblings, even Lucifer, Constantine is a bad influence, and they’ll scold you for spending so much time with a mortal, especially someone as twisted on the ledgers as Constantine. You just always shrug, flutter your wings, and fly off to do whatever it is you do. Being the youngest has its perks, since it means you get away with quite a lot.

It was also this carefree attitude that got you caught and locked up by the league. They hadn’t dealt with many angels before, so in the beginning they think you are something else. Be It a mutant or a spirit.

You could easily escape if you wanted too. Something as weak as a man-made structure wasn’t gonna hold you, but you had been bored for weeks now, so why not see what happens. You do get pretty annoyed when they talk about you like you cant hear them. They don’t know you can hear them, but still.

Zatanna easily spots that you are of divine descent, but just how far up in the hierarchy you are is a bit lost to her, since they still believe you can be captured by human means. This is why they’re forced to call in Constantine, since hes the only one they know who regularly interacts with an angel.

The Brit has a good laugh when he sees you sitting on the floor in a cell pouting, your wings wrapped around you like a cocoon. At this point you just phase out of the cell to flick Constantine in the temple for laughing at you.

John is the one that has to explain that you could have escaped the entire time if you wanted, you were just a dick that got bored easily. The dick comment makes you huff and smack him with your wing.

After all that is cleared up, the two of you go out to drink like usual. I could imagine the league trying to figure out if you’d be willing to help them when times are tough, but to their dismay you just shrug and give a “if I feel like it”.

Constantine will later explain to them in passing, mainly to roast you, that you are the youngest, which means that you aren’t used to real work and can just do whatever you want, cuz all your older siblings baby you.

His chair disappears from right under him for that comment, so the league takes it with a grain of salt. In the end you help out if there really is no other way, since angels shouldn’t interfere with minor issues.

Most of the time on earth you spend with John though, since he matches your wavelength and isn’t freaked out by the whole angel thing.

[sagaduwyrm]

On the Grounds Where We Feel Safe

When Tim gets a letter claiming to hold his soulmate, who he's never met, hostage, he's skeptical. It turns out pretty great though. Now if he can just make sure not to make a fool of himself.

We have your soulmate , the letter claimed. It seemed ludicrous. Tim hadn’t even met his soulmate yet, and it wasn’t like Red Robin’s mark had ever been exposed. There was no way some D-list villain could have found whoever it was. Really, he should only be going to this for the chance to catch the annoying asshole.

It just seemed like a weird lie, was the thing. If they just wanted to lure him out, there had to be more believable options. Claiming to have captured one of the other members of Young Justice or another bat would have made the most sense. His teammates went no-contact for various reasons all the time, so it’s not like he could double-check.

But no. They had his soulmate, apparently. It just seemed inane.

They were more competent than expected. Tim snuck into the facility with the ease of long practice, but they must have had magic wards because he tripped some kind of alarm barely a few minutes in. He would have noticed a technological system, but his abilities with magic were more limited, like most bats. In the immortal words of Jason Todd, ‘Just set it on fire and call Zatanna if that doesn’t work.’

Tim was eighty percent sure Jason was the only bat with any real degree of familiarity with magic, but that was neither here nor there. It just made the advice more accurate.

It was kicking his ass now though. Usually he’d be doing this with a team, hopefully with at least one person who could have noticed wards, but he had drastically underestimated the size and threat of this operation.

Generic security guards dragged him through the halls, and he did his best to memorize the layout. He’d taken out the first few thugs, but frankly, he was only human, and he needed to save his energy for something more useful. In the meantime, he pressed the only emergency beacon he had that would eventually worm through the wards to call his family and examined the halls they were dragging him through. The atrocious minimalism and poor layout design were making it irritatingly difficult to keep them straight in his head.

There were four villains in the room he was brought to, three more than he was expecting. One wore a thick cloak she’d probably bought off Etsy and a cheap Eye of Horus necklace, and Tim instantly pegged her as responsible for his magic problems.

“Woooow. You assholes know how to make a Robin feel loved. What’s the occasion? Is it Christmas? You shouldn’t have.” Tim bared his teeth in a smile that had his guards leaning away from him. If he could just get them talking, this would be a lot easier.

One, the leader, threw back her head and cackled. “What’s the occasion? What’s the occasion? Didn’t you read our note? Meeting your soulmate is the chance of a lifetime! We're doing you a favor, don’t you think?” She grinned down at him. He tilted his head, bird-like.

“You know, I’m pretty sure I could swing a better meeting than this. Get some candles, jazz up the place a little bit. Your interior decorating is kind of shit.” Tim channeled the robin spirit of his predecessors and took a shot at annoying them. Instead, the woman’s demented grin grew wider.

“But your blood will look so pretty on the floors! Do you think we’ll kill him or you first? I can’t decide!” Her teeth had red in them, Tim noticed. She turned to the guards at the door. “Bring him in!”

Fuck. So they did have a hostage. Probably some poor civilian who’d got dragged into these assholes' lark and was going to need years of therapy after this. Fuck his life.

A few tense minutes later the guards walked back in carrying a black teenager maybe a little taller than Tim between them. He was struggling, doing his level best to kick at their ankles and jab at their kidneys, but the mercs didn’t even shift. Tim was grateful the hostage was a fighter at least, that could make it easier to evacuate him.

The lead villain strolled over to the civilian. Honestly, Tim wasn’t sure why the rest were here. They practically faded into the walls. She seized the boy’s chin and he tried to spit at her. She laughed. “Our little witch spent months divining for this! Ready?” She cackled and dragged his face over to meet Tim’s eyes. They both froze.

His eyes were green, Tim noticed, and lined thickly in black, like kohl. They dug into Tim's chest like his heart was moving to make room for another, two hearts beating as one. Everything felt more vibrant and alive. Tim couldn’t breathe.

The leader was still laughing, he noticed distantly. She had slumped back against the wall to keep from falling over, and her entire body shook with contortions. Her eyes were bright with bloodlust.

Tim was fucked. He was so completely fucked. Not only because this guy was stupid pretty and he could practically feel his higher brain functions turning off, leaving him a steaming pile of bisexual goo, but because his soulmate was barely five feet from a villain who practically dripped insanity, and he still had thirty seconds to go before he got his hands untied. Absolutely, completely, and totally fucked.

The other boy had stilled when their eyes met, but he tensed again as one of the other villains stalked towards him.

“I knew it,” the man snarled. “I knew it. I wonder, if I hurt you, will Red Robin bleed?”

The boy's eyes widened before hardening. Tim desperately hoped he didn’t do anything stupid. His call signal still needed more time to get through to his family. 

“Don’t damage him just yet!” the leader called out. “Start with his fingers and toes, we want this to last .” Her grin was alarmingly demented.

The other boy finally had enough. “Yeah, let’s not.” He kicked out at the ankle of the guard holding onto him, causing the man to release him. At the same time, Tim made his move. Fuck, civilians with no sense of self-preservation were the bane of any vigilante, but it being his soulmate was somehow worse. If he could just get over there in time—

A rush of sand curled up around the boy, as if from nowhere, and launched the villain near him into a wall. His eyes glowed golden, and his stance indicated some training. Not a civilian, then. 

Tim kept moving. He dumped half a dozen taser bugs on anyone in reach, leaving them keeled over on the ground, and darted forward. The guards had left the door open when they brought the other boy in. Tim grabbed him and launched out the door, practically carrying him, while the boy did something over his shoulder to hold off pursuers. The way out was blocked, but the facility was huge. They eventually managed to lose the villains, tucked up in some kind of meat locker. They curled up against the walls, catching their breath.

“You know, this was not how I expected our first meeting to go,” the other boy said.

Tim laughed, “I’ll be honest, with my luck this isn’t really a surprise.” The other boy snorted. He was beautiful when he laughed. It was an ugly sort of giggle, the kind the media would mock a person for, the kind his parents trained out of him as their heir, but it lit up his face in a way that made Tim stare. He belatedly remembered to introduce himself. “Red Robin.”

“From Gotham, right? Call me Pharaoh.”

Tim squinted at him. He was putting on a good show of confidence, but there was a tenseness to his body that couldn’t be hidden, and some of the summoned sand floating near him was curling into tight knots. “Haven’t heard that code name before. You new?”

Pharaoh waved his hand in a so-so gesture. “It’s mostly just that I stick to my hometown. We’re tiny, so we stay off the radar. And I usually manage to stay out of the news anyway.”

Tim nodded, but his eyes sharpened. Deliberately keeping out of the news wasn’t exactly a red flag, but it usually indicated something about the person in question. If you had a code name that you were clearly used to, but didn’t use for the public… There weren’t exactly any conclusions he could draw yet, but he tucked the knowledge away into the back of his brain anyway. “Do you have anyone you can call?” he asked.

The boy grimaced. “Not really. Two are out of the country, one doesn’t carry a phone, and the other is the only person back home right now and I can’t ask her to leave.”

Reasonable. The bats refuse to leave Gotham without at least one of them too. “I sent out a call, but it’s going to take a bit for it to get past the wards.”

“Can I see? I might be able to speed it up.”

Tim handed over his beacon. “You’re a magic user?” He was guessing sand-manipulating meta, but magic made sense too.

“Uh-huh. I’m not the greatest with wards, but I am a dab hand at tech,” Pharaoh said while prying open the beacon. As he held it, golden light crept from his hands into the wires, forming shapes that looked like some of the hieroglyphics his parents used to obsess over. Tim was vaguely surprised. Constantine had once mentioned that there were only a few people in the world who could do any kind of technomagic. Even the magic on his gear was secondary to the tech rather than embedded in it.

Tim got up and started looking around the room as Pharaoh worked. They couldn’t stay here for long. He moved some furniture around to block the door. It should collapse on the head of anyone who tried to get in. He shifted one of the ceiling tiles around and found there was a good amount of space between the floors. Perfect.

Pharaoh shouted in delight and Tim turned to see the connection light on the beacon turn on. Assuming there wasn’t some kind of emergency, they should have backup reasonably soon. The other boy was still grinning, “Dude, I think I’m in love with your tech. This is amazing.”

“If you like that you should see the batcomputer.”

“Can I? I do most of my stuff on a PDA I retrofitted, this is so much better it’s not even funny.”

“A PDA?” Tim blinked in confusion. How would you even—? He shook his head and gestured at the ceiling. “We need to get moving. They’ll have an easier time finding us if we stay here.”

Pharaoh nodded, still smiling from his apparent enjoyment of working with basic tech with little to no computational abilities. He clambered his way up with apparent experience. Tim wondered what kind of problems his hometown had that they needed a magic user who could do parkour.

Where Pharaoh needed a lift Tim scampered up. The sorcerer whistled quietly. “What kind of training do you even have?”

“Assasination, mostly,” Tim said as he started leading the way through the crawl space, carefully showing Pharaoh where to put his feet to make the least amount of noise.

“I thought bats didn’t kill?”

“Knowing how to kill is actually more useful in not killing people than not knowing how to kill, believe it or not.” Lady Shiva hated that.

“Huh. That sounds useful. I have to use specific spells when I want to just knock someone out, and I’m not as good at them so it’s a bit of a pain.”

“You like magic?” Data gathering, data gathering, if he was asking questions he wasn’t thinking about how nice Pharaoh’s voice was or how pretty his eyes were.

“Yeah. It’s like a puzzle, you know? There’s a lot of similarities to coding if you had to argue with the computer the whole time.”

Tim snorted.

They stilled at the sound of someone passing under them, and when they were gone Tim turned around for a second. “Hey, what do you think about picking some of these guys off?” He’d originally planned to keep them out of the fight until backup arrived, but he was getting the impression more and more that Pharaoh was competent enough to keep up for a bit.

Pharaoh grinned, and it was a sharp, unkind thing. For a moment he looked as regal as a king about to declare war, and Tim wondered if there was more to the code name than he had assumed. “I thought you’d never ask.”

+++

“Where are they?!” the leader of the villains roared. “The facility is completely locked down, they couldn’t have gotten far!”

The guards winced and opened their mouths to explain when the door slammed open and one of the other villains ran in. He was bleeding, with weeping sores up and down his arms and crush damage on his fingers. “They’re picking off the guards!”

“What? What the fuck happened to you?” The leader screamed. The witch villain, who had been melting into the wall, ran over to attempt healing magic. The others barely noticed her.

“Three-quarters of our men are unconscious, and won’t wake up. And that little ‘civilian’ soulmate tried to crush me with sand!”

The witch spoke quietly. “He must have cursed you too. This isn’t healing.” The villain looked down at his wounded arms and screamed. Golden hieroglyphs climbed their way out of the blood and up his arm, and he felt his body go numb. Within thirty seconds he had keeled over unconscious except for the occasional scream, like he was struggling with nightmares wherever his mind had gone.

“No no no no no! This was supposed to be it! Our big break! You!” The leader turned to the witch. “You said he was a civilian! This was supposed to be easy!”

Out of nowhere the ceiling above them crumbled and down came several bats and members of Young Justice. When they finally got the beacon it took them almost an hour to get to the location, leaving them tense and ready to take it out on Tim's captors.

“I hope we aren’t interrupting anything!”

The door banged open again as they finished mopping up the remaining villains and mercenaries. Red Robin and a boy in civilian clothes tumbled through the door.

“Hey! You’re late!” Tim yelled.

Robin hissed at his older brother. “You needed help to save a single civilian then?”

Tim grinned an unholy grin. “Oh, right. This is Pharaoh. He’s my soulmate.”

The room burst into yelling.

[moonlit-imagines]

Preferences: Being Klarion’s sibling and dating Dick Grayson

The Team x reader

warnings:

a/n:

prompt: @severebirdpeace: “Can you do oneshot story of Dick Grayson/Nightwing(Young Justice seasons 3 &4) x Fem s/o who is Klarion the Witch Boy's younger sister; unlike her brother she is kind-hearted, gentle, soft spoken and she uses her magic for good and she's been Dick's secret helper until she was discovered by the heroes and the Light. Each got their own reactions please?”

Artemis was a little skeptical at first. "Uh, how old is 'y/n'?" She asked, knowing that Klarion was about...well, Klarion was some millennia old. She assured Dick she'd be keeping an eye on the two of you, but she knew better than anyone not to judge by who you're related to, even if it happens to be an inter-dimensional chaos demon who has caused plenty of trouble in their years as vigilantes.

Conner did not get it at all. Like, at all. "You have to be joking," he'd say, "you're gonna put the whole Team in danger!" Dick would assure him that you weren't a danger to the team, but Conner was standoffish, believing this could only go one way. "I'll give them a chance, I guess. But believe me when I say I'll be keeping an eye on things."

Kaldur was protective, worried that this was an act of deception by the chaos demon himself. And hey, the Team had seen much more bizarre schemes, so it wasn't out of the question. "You will have to earn my trust, y/n. But until then, I'll have to remain somewhat apprehensive in your presence."

M’gann was very openly against this relationship, also protective of her longtime friend. "Out of all the people in this galaxy, you just had to pick someone who is literally related to one of our most powerful and annoying enemies! Are you being mind controlled? Do I need to go in there?" Dick chuckled and denied the accusations, defending your character regardless of how futile it would be.

Will found it amusing. After all, it was pretty ironic. "I like them bad, too." He joked with Dick, who promised you were nowhere near "bad" and were actually extremely kindhearted compared to your brother, Klarion. Will just kept teasing since he never expected this from Boy Wonder.

Zatanna really fought this one, trying extremely hard not to sound jealous. She did. But her main argument as a master of the mystic arts was that you were dangerous and not to be trusted, which was also a solid argument. Klarion is a very powerful demon and despite what the texts of her ancient books may say, she cannot trust any relatives of the Witch Boy. "Keep in mind that I will keep constant watch of y/n, one wrong move and I will send them back where they came from."

taglist: @ravenmoore14 // @summersimmerus // @azazel-nyx // @simsrecs // @xoxobabydolls // @ravenstrueluv // @cicatraize // @captainshazamerica // @bad4amficideas // @evilcr0ne // @thedarkqueenofavalon // @elenavampire21 // @jade-178 // @deanzboyfriend // @zoeyserpentluck //

[anonymous-existences]

Chapter 2 : Gotham Shenanigans

Summary:

Interview with Gothamites, Dan and John talking subtly about that DEEP PAST?? What's with their past?? First loves?? Crazy.

Danny gets kidnapped— and now where is he??

WHY DOES THE ROOM LOOK SO FANCY???

_ — _ — _ — _ — _ — _

Dan was acting odd, he's been on his phone for hours with a smile whilst blushing, "What's he on about?" Danny plops in the hotel bed staring judgingly at Dan on the couch in the balcony. "Apparently he's reconnecting with his Ex lover — someone named John Constantine?" Jazz speculates and Danny just looks at him dumbfounded. "The Hellblazer?" Danny just deadpan and narrowing his eyes at his older sister.

"Yes, the cause of some of your problematic paper work that clockwork is handling for you until you're old enough!" Jazz chuckled and ruffles Danny's hair endearingly. "Oh cut Dan some slack Danny, Earlier we noticed he was desperate to change more because of that man, although I can totally understood that him and Clockwork truly have the same type in men, tired and old looking but what they refer to as a sexy? Mm. Just matches Dan's ex!" Jazz giggled and laid down beside Danny.

"Besides you can't talk, you're dating Dash of all people." Jazz rolled her eyes and Dan became flustered, "Well I'm sorry you put us both in therapy and slowly we got closer until he found out I'm also Phantom but that's just how it goes!.. we've both changed, sure we both have scars from our past but we're still working through that yk." Dash just spreads his arms on the bed and sighed. Jazz just smiles and pats his head again, "you're both doing great Danny. Even the rest of the class somehow is getting better at being less bully and more... Closer for the sake of protecting each other instead of discriminating against each other." She smiled softly combing her hand softly through his hair.

Danny hums and nods, "I Understand...." Danny yawned and fell asleep with his head on his dear sister's lap, Ellie climbed the bed and laid beside Danny also falling asleep. Jazz giggled softly and tucked them both into bed gently and put the blanket over them before heading to Dan by the balcony, "Aren't you very calm today?" Jazz perks through the sliding door and Dan jumped, his guard being down and not expecting jazz. He chuckled and smiled, "Yeah... Vlad told me to just go with the flow if I still love this someone... He knows our complicated past stuff. I could say that this timeline's Vlad wasn't as evil as in mine which is quite relieving." Dan scoffs and Lit another ecto-cigarette. Jazz sat beside him in the other couch and finally rested her body calmly, letting her guard drop.

"I think I'm gonna meet him tonight... Can I Jazz?" Dan tilts his head and looks over to Jazz who laughed softly whilst reading her bought psychiatric books, "Ask Sir Lancer About that, It's lucky we're with a devoted teacher like him... But yeah he'd reconsider and understand your situation much better and let you off leash for a while, just don't cause trouble." Jazz waves her hand shooing him off so he'd go on and go to Lancer. Dan chuckled and nodded before walking out the room with a soft smile and flushed cheeks. Jazz sighed in relief as the night felt peaceful unlike Amity Park with it's Annoying Ghosts.

Dan was walking around the streets of Gotham heading to John's Location, He's thinking of this like a little Date, "John..." Dante looked softly at John who actually fixed his hair and clothes for the day, "Dante.. it's been long—" John was interrupted by Dan immediately pulling him in with a hug, "I'm sorry... For the past things I've done..." Dan muttered and John reluctantly pats his back and hugged him back gently, "Yeah... You uhm... I can see you've changed love." John mutters, Dan hummed and both stayed in the hug.

Zatanna and DeadMan or Boston Brand was watching them in a nearby alley, observing... Stalking is the right word but that sounds illegal so Observing is the word they'll use, they've been curious as to why John Constantine wasn't drinking, was borrowing someone's perfume and fixing his look and hair, even going as far as the leave behind his cigarettes and lighter behind and being on his phone for most of the time ever since he went out to a bar. He refused to tell them anything but now they know it was because of someone. "Any ideas on who's the man Johnny is Hugging and looks like not wanting to let go of Zee?" Boston looked over to Zatanna who also had a puzzled expression.

"No he's not very open about past relationships... Nor any at all is he open about, this is the first time I've actually seen him drop his guard and fix himself for someone. Very strange and rare occurrences!" Zatanna exclaims, very bemused about the whole ordeal with John and the Strange Red Eyed possible Albino(?) Large Man who emitted this strong energy that can be related to death. "Something about him makes me tremble, Fear? No— uhm it's more like... How do I pinpoint this.. Respect?" Boston shrugged and zee was looking at him as that raised many more questions on who the man is.

Both were suddenly stunned when the two kissed and pressed foreheads before walking away from each other. "I'll meet you again John..." Dan says softly with a pleased hum and flustered face. John nodded just also flustered and with a sigh, "Ofcourse Love, I'll be waiting." He says softly. He feels like an idiot for letting Dan kiss him of all things, he's supposed to be this serious dead pan occult detective but right now especially he's acting like a teenager in love again! Bloody Hell, John facepalmed and dragged his hand on his face as he watched Dan walk away without any trace of footsteps to be heard.

Dan was pleased that he and John managed to meet, after a Messy past breakup because of Dan's blowup... It was Dan's fault for hurting the Man so he'd rather change for him, Seriously. Ghostly Bonds can be truly unbreakable especially with first true loves. He finally picked up on Zatanna's and Boston's Presence, "Why are you two of all people be following me, I thought you'd know better Zee." John scoffed walking past the two in the alley, "It's that you were acting strange John, Strange in a way that you went out of your way to look presentable! Ofcourse we'd be worried that something is wrong!" Zatanna says.

John scoffed, "Ah Please, I am not that bad of a bloody person Zee." He glances at Zatanna who just looked at him with a puzzled expression and a dead serious mixed in it. John waved his hand dismissively, "He's my Ex. He was bad now he's good, told me he wanted to reconnect again.... I didn't wanna leave him behind, he broke up with me to protect me because he's something that's supposed to be out my league." John scoffed and Boston and Zatanna we're both shocked and confused that he even told them who and what he was to John, truly is John changing? What's Happening to this man?

[DAY]

"HEY GUYS! Welcome Back to Tucker Foleeeeey's Videoooooo!" Tucker, Sam and Danny were posing and doing a Vlog Stream. Dash walked over to Danny and gave the shorter boy a small peck on the lips. "Oh come on! Not on camera! Why are you making us jealous DASHY!" Tucker glared at Dash who smirked and hugged Danny closer to him. "Hands off my brother DASH BAXTER!" Jazz smacked the back of Dash's head and Dash just backed off a bit, Danny chuckled amused.

"Welcome again Guys! Don't mind my friends, we're a big fam! We have a special guest! IT'S DAN!! HE CURRENT got back with his ex apparently and he couldn't stop smiling so feast on the eye candy my ant brethren." Tucker laughed and pointed the camera at Dan who was texting someone, Dan waved and smiled at the Camera.

"Today we're in Gotham, this is actually our second day here. We just didn't have the time to record yesterday! Because we ran out of battery which sucked by the way. We got to meet Red Hood. Wes got to meet Riddler. Somehow no chaos ensued too much. Valeria met Signal and Even took a selfie with the hero. Jazz , Dan and Little Badger Ellie met Catwoman in the alleys. They're too curious for their own sakes— Dan met his ex! As previously stated and he's been lovey dovey with em since! Sam as always is planning to find PoisonIvy. Today will not be a uh— stream about Technology, it'll be about OUR ADVENTURE through Gotham City!" Tucker exclaimed in the camera.

Tucker for now turned off the recording and looked to his friends who were fighting over who get to team with Danny. "Alright Students! We will be Seperate again, as suggested last night as long as not any of you cause any trouble you'll be free to do anything." The Class roared in approval, "Lancer, I'll be going again!" Dan says before walking away and Lancer waved him off with a chuckle. The class immediately teamed up into 4 groups.

Group 1:

Danny, Sam, Tucker, Dash

Group 2:

Kwan, Star, Paulina

Group 3 :

Valerie, Wes, Ellie , Jazz

Group 4 :

Lancer and the rest of the more introverted students.

"I'd stay with Danny's group for today." Dash says and walks behind Danny, "That's no Fun! You better come with us tommorow Dash!" Paulina yells and Dash nodded slowly burying his face on Danny's Neck. "I will I will.." Dash hummed as Danny pats his head gently. "Remember to always keep your Comms On! So?" Lancer asks them to continue the sentence, "So we don't do feral shit!" They all said in unison, "Close enough." Lancer says and let's them go and split up finally.

[Danny POV]

Danny was happy, They were eating at a burger joint they found which was BatBurger, "it's not as good as Nasty Burger..." Dash says beside Danny, "Mmm it's decent!" Danny puts a fry in Dash's mouth, "Please stop doing that, I feel very single INFRONT of you two." Sam complained and glared at them as she ate a BatBurger. "I'm gonna order more for us still the same?" Tucker stood up and asked the three who all nodded in unison, Sam continued her Chat with Danny about Best Rouges and Tucker went behind the Three Costume— is that Red Hood, Robin and Nightwing? Tucker was excited but decided not to bother them for now as they ordered food.

"Hey Tuck! Dan said he's coming with his Boyfriend! I think his name was John? John Constantine or something! Forgot." Danny waved his hand dismissively and Tucker nodded, "They're paying for our food? Cuz if so I'm down for it." Tucker asked for clarification and Danny just thumbs up. Danny and Tucker were chatting along behind the Three vigilantes, "Dude if you use your powers isn't the GIW gonna come and kill us all? That's no good for any of us—" tucker stated which got Robin to Turn around out of curiosity. "Can I ask?" Robin started and the two teens look at him almost in surprise, "What's the GIW?" He asks curiously.

"Uhm— game government stuff!" Danny states nervously with a small chuckle, "Nothing Serious— haha—" Danny waves it off dismissively, Robin narrows his eyes at them and Danny can't help but eye Tucker for speaking out loud with that information. "I see..." Robin stopped paying attention to them, maybe. 'I'll kill ya tuck! I'm gonna actually turn you into a ghost—' Danny whisper yelled at Tucker who looked like his soul almost left his body due to fear. Dan soon appeared behind them and patted their back which made the two jump and yelp in surprise, "Heya there kiddos! What's up? Why the ghastly expression?" Dan chuckled and the two sighed in relief looking up at him.

"So these are your blokes?" John acknowledged the two and then froze when he made eye contact with the Vigilantes, the three immediately eyed him holding hands with Dan. John narrowed his eyes as if saying 'We're not discussing anything here.' type of glare, Nightwing just took a sneak picture without John noticing and looked away trying to ignore them and Letting Robin order their usual food. Dan was chatting with Danny and Tucker whilst holding John's hand softly but firmly.

[At Night]

The group was back together again with a bonus John Constantine following along casually due to Dan's 'Adorable' pleads. "Dan why do you have a man in tow...?" Lancer asked and Dan just laughed nervously, "Ah I see. It's your lover, alright. I won't judge. Just please warn me next time." Lancer just dismisses John's Bonus Existence which isn't much of a bother for the Man and Dan just nodded in compliance with a chuckle.

As they were heading to Gotham's Astral Museum for a bonus 'lesson' which everyone complied to fairly easily. As they were heading to the Museum they were confronted by what seems to be an Interviewer with a Cameraman— Lancer immediately steps between the stranger and his students. Dan's face suddenly getting serious by the sudden Camera and slowly composing himself back as John squeezes his hand.

"Hello! Good evening! Are you the Amity Park Visitors?" The Journalist Asked and Lancer composed himself, he put on what Danny called the Plastic Smile and Nodded, "Yes! Yes we are— do you need anything?" Lancer tilted his head and The Journalist perked up excitedly, "Can we Interview you about your thoughts on gotham?" She asked and Lancer looked at his students who all nodded approvingly.

The cameraman turned on their camera, "Here we are Back at Gotham City! With our special Guests The Amity Park Tourists! Sir How do you think of Gotham City so far?" She asked Lancer First, "I worry for the rouges...." Lancer sighed and the Journalist was Confused until she turned to the kids and asked them the same question. "The internet here is fucking amazing! It's so fast despite the various crimes. Like yesterday a building we were in got raided and blew up by some goons and I could still continue writing my research paper without problem!" Tucker exclaimed happily.

"I got to realize being Gay was a Decent Thing because most people here are homosexual as shit and I finally get to have the confidence to ask my crush out." Dash says bluntly to the Mike. "How bout you sir?" The journalist turned to Dan, "Met My Ex, now we're back together." Dan raises his hand that's still holding John's.

[The Interview:

Jazz Fenton : I got to meet Harleen Quinzel and Talk with her about her books! Please why is her psychiatric books not being sold online?!

Sam Manson : I GOT TO MEET POISON IVY AND I FUCKING LOVE HER DUDE—

Danny Fenton : My Crush Confessed to me, Is it too late to call Gotham City the City for the Unexpected Love?? Also this city is fucking Fire. It's never boring around here, sure it can be traumatizing for some but like if you have a gun and the guts you can defend yourself.

Wes : I have every right to believe The WAYNES AND THE BATS ARE THE SAME FUCKING PEOP—

Star : Ignore him he's a Conspiracy Theorist kind off, anyways Gotham is beautiful. In my eyes that is. IT IS ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. It's better than Amity.

Paulina : I Agree with Star, there's a lot of hot guys here~ Hehehe

Valerie Gray : I got to beat up a group of criminals with my Krav Maga Skills and No one told me I was too violent so it's amazing.

Ellie : I Pranked the Police and the Robbers High Fived Me, but I got grounded and put on a leash for even interacting with the Popo and Robbers.

Danny Fenton : Oh right! I saw a crazy clown yesterday and I knocked him out, he had like goons with him which my sister beat up with her bat and we got fucking told we were amazing people for having the guts to go face the joker?? Who's the Joker?? He was not funny.

Dash : Personally I want to stay in this city with my extended family because this city is so amazing, like everyone has guns but it's rare that someone points it at you, not to mention the Vigilantes that occasionally crash through your windows? Last night we met Nightwing because he crashed in our room and we got to have autographs of him! It's fucking awesome.

Paulina : Not to mention our friend Wes going Viral for Introducing his Nana's Tea to Riddler— it's crazy!

Wes : Oh Please! Nana's Tea is the calmest best thing.]

The interview went on for another Hour with more question but eventually it concluded and the students had fun with answering the questions, "And that concludes it for the night Folks— we'll see you again soon." The journalist said to the camera before it turns off and she waved a much more amused and polite goodbye to the Amity Parkers. "Students, I dont think we'll get to Uhm go to the Museum because of how long we stayed in the interview thing? So let's go back to the hotel alright?" Lancer said and the Students especially Danny groaned.

"Aww...." Danny whined as they headed back to the hotel through a bus again, Dan and John decided to stay behind and have some alone time to catch up with each other. Danny watched them walk away almost lovey-dovey. "can I meet your allies?" Dan asks as they walked to somewhere. "Maybe, maybe not." John merely answers as Dan pulled him closer, he didn't push him away neither did he act negatively to it, rather he felt calm especially with Dan.

It was an odd change, maybe this time they'd have an actual chance for each other. Besides they were each other's firsts and everything else—. "I want to stay here... With you, I can't bring you to Amity Park yet because of those stupid... Government Officials..." Mutters and kissing the back of John's palm, (Princess Treatment) "They'll hurt you if they find out you're related to me..." Dan kept his hand clasped to John's and places it gently on his chest. "I don't want them to hurt you too." Dan's eyes were filled with desperation, John hasn't seen that pained face in so long. It's taking him back to that stupid young love phase they had in their early 20s.

"You make feel stupid again..." John muttered and Dan looked over to him, "with you I don't understand if it's good or bad—" Dan chuckled and John just scoffed with a smile, "Ofcourse it's good. Cuz you're affecting me with your stupidness ya big bloke." he poked Dan's forehead and both laughed endearingly. "Fuck, I feel young again—" Right now John Constantine didn't feel like just occult detective magician, hellblazer or whatever name they have for him. He felt like Johnny, Johnny Boy Constantine. Dan's first 'love' perse, and he can't deny that the man is also his first love.

"I love you Johnny...." Dan muttered and rested his head in John's Neck and pulling him in for a hug, "Hmm..." John hums and nods and pats Dan's Back before hesitantly responding... "yeah.. I uhm.. love you too..." He stutters, Feeling Dan's core Vibrating? purring? he never quite understood what it is called but he knew it was a good thing.

[Danny POV]

"You know I'm not Damian Wayne right?" Danny was scowling in his seat being tied up to a chair which is surprisingly enough, unphasable through. "This is stupid." Danny groaned throwing his head back as the goons? whatever, clowns. he fucking hates it. he hates that he's seeing them right now. AND WHY IS THE JOKER GUY?? BACK?? what the fuck. They ignored his groans and complaints which sucked even more. One of the goons forced him asleep, "Fuck..." Danny reflexively says and curses himself even more on his mind Finally remembering he really didn't need to breathe.

Hours Later Danny was fluttering his eyes open, he was on a bed in an unfamiliar room, Jazz was sleeping beside him in a chair resting her head beside him, Dash was also sleeping beside him in the bed itself whilst holding a bat tightly in his arms. Danny slowly sat up from his seat, "Good Morning Sir Danny, It's great to finally see that you're Awake." A butler who made Danny almost jump enter the room. "Oh— uhm... Where... exactly am I?" Danny tilts his head curiously but also cautiously.

WHERE in the fancy fucking place is he?!

[obsessedftshit]

Young Justice S3 Ep4 Part 2

Again, Daddy Roy being a full on dad, telling the kids to put on their seatbelts. Nah cause I found this scene so cute and funny.

Not all the Harper's teaming against Dick. I live for the family team up.

Ok so, let me just say when we first saw Zatara in S1 with 13 year old Zatanna, he looked like, what 30 years old but he might've been 40 cause he must've had Zatanna when he was 30 smth cause my dad is 47 and im 17 rn but 47-4, my dad waa 43 when i was 13. So let's presume Zatara was 40+ when Zatanna was 13. Since 5 years passed in S2 and another 2 years in S3 Zatara would be at least 47+ so would he have grey hair and a full on white beard? Cause my dad has black hair with a little white and no beard but even when the little pricks come out from my dad's face, it's a mix of black and white. So I'm just wondering, I mean Zatara could have white hair and a white beard since hed be like 47+ but idk. So men usually get white hair and a white beard at that age? I mean I think so but alhamdulillah that hasn't happened to my dad as much as it did to Zatara.

Not me doing maths to figure out how old Zatara is 😭.

Roy telling Dick that he's gotta deal with the 2 guests he and the others saved from a mission is so real because idk wtf Dick's doing. Like I get he's no Batman and doesn't wanna be a leader anymore and shit but S1 Robin would have already dealt with this by finding a place for them and shit. I srsly don't know y Dick's being lazy and still "figuring" out what to do with them. Step up ur game boy. Your Robin self is probably cursing at u for being stupid and lazy for not doing anything.

Roy saying "THE BOARD NEVER LIES!" Is my favourite line from now on.

Their facial expressions r everything.

Not Roy getting his board before jumping on the truck 😭. He really loves his clipboard.

I actually feel so bad for Zatanna cause she probably still feels guilty for what happened since her father stopped her from being the golden guy (lmao I forgot his name 😭). It's actually torture how she can't live with her dad or even see him on a daily cause he's trapped in that stupid guys body. That guy is actually annoying.

Gifs made by me

[constantineshots]

I'm kind of confused on John Constantine's characterisation. But, to be fair, I did come across him in the dp x dc crossovers, so...*shrug*

It's just that he ranges from the most pathetic, self-centered but also accidentally altruistic smoking asshole who couldn't care less if you burned alive to a soft-hearted tsundere who wants to help but lets nobody see that and tries to be an asshole to drive them away.

Also the thing about him backstabbing everyone he spends more than five minutes with, but still being on the JL's speed dial???? And everyone says he's an asshole who's more trouble than he's worth but they still turn to him for help?

If you have the time, could you please clear that up a bit? What is he like in the comics? The good ones I mean.

Thank you and have a nice day.

hello! sorry this took me a minute- had a lot to say. its a long post SORRY

buti think the simplest way to describe it is that in regards to the dc x dp crossover, they focus more on the dc universe's john constantine- which is the mainstream universe, with big shots like superman and batman and all of the things that make him, for the most part, seem like he's the best in magic and this man who is on, as you put it, the justice league's speed dial. he's the butt of most jokes, he never actually shows his bisexuality in a healthy manner because he's more likely to be joking about it than actually being in a relationship with a man (his usual love interest is zatanna, and ofc, bisexual people are allowed to date someone of the same gender, but what annoys me is that they are willing to joke about his bisexuality without showing him actually dating these men that he jokes about).

however, vertigo comics (which is dc's black label: comics like hellblazer (john's line), lucifer, the sandman, etc. reside because the topics they touch are for mature audiences- and not just because lucifer's naked 90% of his comic run) is where we get john constantine. in hellblazer, he starts off as a terrified man who's willing to do anything to survive- and, honestly, i'd say that's still the case throughout the series. he seems more real. more possible. more like someone i can connect to.

all the magic he's learned isn't this "inner power" that we see in characters like zatanna (love her, no shade to her) who was taught her magic by her father and has been around it her whole life, or characters like the enchantress. he picked up some books and started digging through them and learning to regain some semblance of control of his life because of his abusive family and just overall not being the most popular kid.

a lot of john's character stems from trauma- his family life, newcastle, most of his relationships with other people, the things he does in general, being in ravenscar, etc.

i said something a while back that i think still stands to this day- he's not a hero because he'll do anything to save his friends or himself, but overall, he comes first. to put it in perspective, there are times he knows things are dangerous, and yet he still asks for favors. also, this guy was dying of lung cancer (yknow. because he was smoking as much as he was) and he didn’t stop smoking, of course. no, he basically pulled this huge con on a bunch of higher people in hell and was like “well now if i die, a whole war starts” so they? made sure he would live. that’s the kind of shit john does. he’s a con artist.

while john doesn't like to sit on his feelings too long, he does care- he just doesn't like showing it. he shoves people away when they get too close, and when someone hurts him- for example, kit moving back to belfast and essentially breaking up with him because of the fact people attacked her to try and get to him, john was horrible. he was cruel. he called her cold, which he knew would hurt her. then, he went into an immediate depression and was homeless for,,, what, a year? because he blamed himself for so much shit and kit was just what made him keel over.

on top of that, john is pretty political. his whole character is- he talks about climate change, he talks about racism, he’s aware of his privilege, and in one of the more recent runs of hellblazer, he shows that too. shame that one wasn’t very long- would’ve liked more of it. however, his dc run doesn’t show any of that. it’s like they’re showing john but without getting into the gritty parts of him that make him him. it’s like they’re scratching the surface and won’t just take the metaphorical shovel and slam it into him. which sucks- i like the idea of him being around the other characters, somewhat, but i don’t want him to be the go to guy when it comes to dc comics’ magical people. he certainly isn’t that. they have those- they’ve got dr. fate and zatanna right on the league, why do they need john?

his character in vertigo is definitely not a hero, and dc wants him to be that. they want him to be the magic guy they have on speed dial. they want him to be the sexy guy with a cigarette in his mouth flirting with everyone in sight. they don’t want to delve into the darker territory because it’s going to scare people away, and the ones that are scared away probably shouldn’t be interacting with his character in the first place.

honestly, i’m probably missing a lot, but this is getting to be storybook length as it is, so sorry for my little tangent but i hope this helps!

[mrszatara]

My favorite hc is that Zatanna is basically every batfam member favorite aunt.

She met Dick when he was first adopted and he loved her show so much and even asked to play her assistant once, she teaches him a few tricks like escaping a shark thank, he called her to asked for advice when he went to his first date because Alfred and Bruce were useless. Dick attended to both her parents funeral and brought flowers to put on the grave.

She loved Jason enthusiasm and loved to pamper him with normal stuff that kids are suppose to do like take him to the movies and buy him ice cream. He was not into magic, but loved when she gifted him silly things that made Bruce annoyed. He was sweet enough to always ask her to dance in every Wayne Gala that she attended. When he came back from the dead she felt the change on his aura and was absolutely heartbroken by it, but she’s still the only one allowed to call him Jay and she always invites him to her shows with a sweet note, even though he never shows up he keeps it every single one.

Although she loves every single one of them, Tim is secretly her favorite (everyone always thinks Dick’s her favorite). She was stunned how he figured out everything about Batman as a kid, he was so curious about everything and made her so many questions all the time. She would often invite him to Shadowcrest, open her library so he could explore and have some tea. She also calls him a lot to ask how he’s doing, if he had been sleeping enough, threatening him to make his coffee taste like sour milk if he doesn’t take care of himself. He opened to her about his sexuality first and she made a sweet speech about how much she loved him and she was proud and if anyone messed with him she would hex them forever.

Damian was surprised that his brothers had such an affection with her, but quickly understood why. She charmed him slowly, bribing him with magical creatures until he finally opened up to her. He likes to spent time at Shadowcrest too (something that inspires Tim to be a bit jealous sometimes and she teases both of them for it), but hates visiting her on San Francisco. She likes to make him watch animated movies that he pretends to hate first and then talks about the whole day. They also try a lot of vegetarian recipes together, because Zatanna and Damian are the only two people Alfred allows to come close to his kitchen. If everything goes wrong the just order take out and take notes on how to do better next time. He also has her on speed dial in case something happens to Goliath.

She loves watching Cassandra’s ballet concerts. Zee is so sweet about her difficult with communicating, always leaving her comfortable. She often attempts to kidnap her to a girls day, since she never could it with the previous boy, but Cass is not very used to it. She asked for Zatanna’s help when she went on a date with Conner Kent.

She thinks Duke is the sweetest of them all. She had the privilege of reading some of the stuff he wrote and thinks he is a literary genius. He doesn’t understand much about magic, but she teach him a lot about control, how easy is to lose control when you have this kind of power at hand. She’s also very attentive to his school, always asking how he’s handling.

They annoy Bruce to the most to always invite her to perform on the Galas. They are not very good on picking gifts, but they always sent sweet birthday wishes to her. They asked Alfred to do her favorite meal when she’s coming over. They think the rumours about her and Bruce dating are funny, but also disgusting, but if the media asks them something they show support so Zatanna calls them angrily demanding they take it back. They are also very nosy on her life always asking who she’s dating and she always tells them to get a life. Whenever someone comments she is old enough to be Dick’s mom she threatens to hex them.

She is so proud of them, she loves them so much and they love her. SHE’S THEIR AUNT ZEE.

[scrapcheck]

thinking about how Batman is listed as a member of the Justice League Dark sometimes + was featured in the JLD movie DESPITE not being a magic user. imagine the shenanigans this could potentially evolve into.

imagine some magic users from the normal JL ask to join the JLD and are promptly rejected. you have Capitan Marvel going “wait, why aren’t we allowed to join? we’re magic too!”

and Wonder Woman is next to him, all serious like, “yes, if your purpose is to gather magic users, i believe we should be able to join.”

Constantine just shrugs like he couldn’t give less of a fuck and just says something like “sorry princess, i don’t make the rules here.”

they’re a bit upset at first, but everyone sorta forgets about it until they’re in a meeting, and Constantine crashes it with a super vague and ominous, “sorry to interrupt, but there’s some urgent business that needs to be attended.” and everyone is so busy rolling their eyes or looking intrigued, that they miss Zatanna turning to Batman.

they have a telepathic conversation because childhood friends psychic link™️, and Batman is the one that finally answers: “we’re almost done here.”

and Zatanna finishes it with a: “we’ll meet you there, John.”

and Constantine is all, “you don’t seem to understand the meaning of urgent.” both Batman and Zatanna just stare/glare at him until he just goes, “fine. whatever. i’ll see you two later.” and leaves.

and there’s like three seconds of contemplation before someone just screams “WAIT BATMAN GETS TO GO??”

both Wonder Woman and Capitan Marvel are staring like >:0 and a bunch of other people are looking at Batman is disbelief. like, sure. Batman is good at what he does and all, but the JLD had been very picky with their members and they randomly let someone who’s neither magic nor meta join?

Superman is just kinda confused “but you’re not a magic user?”

Flash is also confused “and you’re not a magic creature?? i think.”

but Batman is annoyed, so he just goes “irrelevant. let’s get this over with already.” and everyone knows the won’t be able to get more out of him for the moment. but they’re not just going to let it go.

cue the JL investigating

[howdoesagrapewrites]

𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙤𝙣

Cw: Nightwing x vigilante!lesbian!reader

Notes: inspired by me wanting to chat with an AI of Dick Grayson and him shamelessly flirting until I had to come out to him. Also this is based off of me, like almost everything I write

>Let's say you meet as vigilante and just for comedic effect, he tries to hit on you, nothing too serious

>And he's just met with you being uncomfortable?? Like he honestly feels bad after that, he just found you cool and wanted to express his interest, it's not like he's even interested in pursuing an actual relationship with you, just friendly flirting

>He feels like a creep after that, top ten most humiliating experiences in his life, and his life has been eventful*

>It's not like he's been living inside of a cage, he's bisexual, he knows there's more than one way to go, but he sort of wants to silence his gut because he doesn't want to be the douchebag that believes every woman who doesn't want him is a lesbian

>"She doesn't seem to be into men... Oh my god, did you just assume she was a lesbian because she didn't flirt bag? What level of scumbag you have to be to-"

>But anyways, it makes him feel so embarrassed and tries to not address it because it would only get more awkward

>But you're not talking to him much and he believes you may have started this relationship with the wrong foot, and tries to fix it next time he sees you

>"Hey... So, when we met we started off the wrong way and I just want to say I never wanted to make you uncomfortable"

>"Don't worry about it, I don't care"

>"Oh, you weren't talking to me so I figured there could be an issue there"

>"Don't worry, I'm just not great talking to people in the first meeting, you should be used to it, with Batman and all"

>Your personality appears very serious but you're not at all stuck-up or severe, he likes when he makes you laugh because it seems so out of character for you

>His doubts are finally cleared out when someone else tries to flirt with you as well, gets the same annoyed frown Dick got from you

>"Sorry, didn't realize you were a lesbian"

>Then Dick comes out of fucking nowhere to give a speech about how the guy's not entitled to your reciprocity and he's got to work on his ego if he thinks you're a lesbian just for rejecting him

>"He's right!" You exclaim enthusiastically at your friend standing up for you "I am a lesbian though, but you're right about everything"

>"You didn't tell me"

>"It didn't come up" you shrugged your shoulders

>has a love-hate relationship with doing duo missions with you, since you tend to trust your own criteria a little too much and get in dangerous or reckless situations

>But you get the job done most times, and he likes hanging out with you out of the costume the most

>He's the type of friend that asks "want to hang out tomorrow?" And then barges into your house to do parallel play with the occasional "hey, check this meme/cute pic I found on Instagram"

>Will force you to engage in the latest piece of media that caught his attention

>He loves musical theater and sappy movies so if you don't like it, good luck

>He sings along to every Disney song, loudly

>Loves to cook, hates to wash dishes

>It'd be really funny if you two had the same taste in women

>"Hey, so... You and Zatanna are a thing?"

>"We were a thing but we're over, we still get along very well and- why are you asking this?"

>"And is she dating anyone else at the moment?"

>"Y/N why are you asking this?"

>"Is that information you have? Can you tell me if she's seeing anyone?"

>"Y/N, are you seriously trying to bag my ex right now??"

>"It's not my fault you dated half of the USA population"

[ekat-fandom-blog]

Masterpost thingy 3

Unless stated otherwise, all of these are prompts and sometimes they're still prompts even when stated otherwise. First masterpost here. Second masterpost here. (also some of them explicitly say "prompt" because adding a description seemed pointless or I was being lazy)

Thought Experiment - Billy shares his powers with the Avengers.

And All Hell Breaks Loose - Harley runs into Valerie while a nearby cult summons a hellhound.

Parental Mentor Figure - Batman tries to be a mentor figure to Dani.

Vlad annoys Sinestro - prompt

Pirates - Wondergirl and Johnny 13 get stuck in the PotC dimension

The Wish - Tim makes a wish.

De-Aged - Dick, Jason, and Tim get de-aged.

Titans Tower - Dani crashes in Titans Tower and finds Jason beating Tim.

Insults - Zatanna insulted Dairy King.

All-Blades Torture - my thought process on how you could use the all-blades to torture someone. also a link to a fic.

Time Loop Soulmate - Jason loops the day he planned on beating up Tim in Titans Tower.

Shared Custody - Clark and Lois adopt Dani and Dan, Bruce adopts Danny and Jazz. Suddenly, the three have 13 kids.

Don't Mix - Ectoplasm and Lazarus Pits don't mix.

Ring - Technus overshadows a lantern ring.

Star City - Star visits her aunt, Dinah.

Reverse Batfam AU - my take on reverse batfam. it's kinda a prompt.

Silent room - just wondering how the silent room would affect the supers with super hearing.

Pandora's Box - Ends up in Dr. Sivana's hands.

Maddie and Jack meet Mr. Freeze - prompt

Shifty - Dani finds a shifter group.

Accidental Dimension Travel - The trio wind up in DC universe.

Reflection - JazzxSelena soulmate au where your reflection looks like your soulmate.

Obedience - Dani gets cursed.

Puppet King - Danny's part of the Teen Titans

Important things - BillyxDanny soulmate au where an important event that happens during your soulmate's day is written on your arm.

Normal Day - FlashFam and Danny's timestream shenanigans prompt.

Halloween Cat - Danny turns into a cat.

Flower Scars - SamxValeriexStephxCass soulmate au where your soulmate gets little flower "tattoos" where you got hurt.

Family Reunion - Danny is adopted by Clockwork, Diana gets an invite to a family reunion.

Worst Enemy, Greatest Ally - dpxdc soulmate au

Color Stripe - DanixDick soulmate au where there's a stripe of color on everyone's wrist in the color of their soulmate's hair.

Secret Payment - The batfam sneakily pay their civilian informants without anyone's knowledge.

Run into you - DannyxBart soulmate au where you die on your 18th birthday if you don't find your soulmate.

Time's Ticking - DanixBilly soulmate au where there's a timer on your wrist that counts down to when they meet their soulmate.

No Dick Grayson AU - dick grayson never exists/never joins the bats and how the fam changed

Words - Danny goes to Gotham. soulmate au where everyone has a set number of words they can say unless they're with their soulmate.

Pit Madness - Dan gets stuck in the back of (insert dc character who's been dunked in the pit here)'s head.

Flower Scars - all scars appear as flowers

The Giggle - Dick's nightmare giggle followed him into adulthood

Hiding an Injury - Dick finds Dani in his apartment after patrol

Switch - Danny and Jason switch bodies cuz they resurrected at the same time

Symbiote - Constantine gets stuck with symbiote!Amorpho

Letters - Soulmate au w/ TuckerxTim

Mythical au & Part 2 - Alfred's a guardian angel, Bruce adopts Danny and Dani

Tarot - i chose who i thought works best for major arcana for a dc tarot deck

Obsession - Dani made a game out of trying to figure out other ghosts' and halfas' obsession. Bruce is a halfa.

Thrown under the Bus - Tim gets hit by cuddle pollen and chances upon Danny.

Soulmate AU - dpxdc. soulmates teleport to each other on their 16th birthday.

Eye Color - soulmate au where everything's black and white except for things that are similar in color to their soulmate's eyes. TimxDanny

Important PSA

[cardcaptorsakura96]

Fairy Tales-Chapter 6

Fandom: Supergirl

Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Characters: Kara Danvers, Lena Luthor, Original Danvers/Luthor Children, Jess, Zatara, Zatanna, Billy Batson, Lillian Luthor, Alex Danvers, Kelly Olsen, Kanna (original character), Krypto,

Summary: Lena finally has the work and home life balance that she wants and is excited to get to spend the next two weeks that she has off with the girls while Kara is away. She believes that it will be smooth sailing, but things are not as they seem.

Word Count Up To For All Chapters Combined: 19,607

Chapter 1 link, Chapter 2 link, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5

Chapter Notes: Just want to give a heads up in case this is a trigger for anyone. A character's death (one that hasn't appeared physically in the story) is discussed in this chapter. The death itself happens before the events of the story.

Lena opened the door to the girls room to check on them. It was almost midnight and they were back at their own home despite the girls' protest. She promised the girls and her mom they can stay the weekend at her house next week. She sighed at what she saw. After buying the dog several dog beds, she saw that the girls had pushed their beds together so the dog could sleep between them. She would have been annoyed, but a part of her found it cute seeing the three of them snuggling together tucked under a blanket. She quietly closed back the door. She was happy that the girls didn’t seem too traumatized by what happened this week. A good portion of that was their focus on the dog which Lena hated to admit. It justified keeping the dog at home with them. Lena herself though was emotionally and mentally spent. She sighed and headed to the living room to look at her old vinyl records. It took her a second to find the one that she was looking for: Compositions by Anita Baker. She took the album out and set it to Fairytales. As she sat down with a glass of whiskey, she took heart to the following lyrics:

I can remember stories, those things my mother said

She told me fairy tales, before I went to bed

She spoke of happy endings, then tucked me in real tight

She turned my night light on, and kissed my face good night

My mind would fill with visions, of perfect paradise

She told me everything, she said he'd be so nice

He'd ride up on his horse and, take me away one night

I'd be so happy with him, we'd ride clean out of sight

She never said that we would, curse, cry and scream and lie

She never said that maybe, someday he'd say goodbye

The story ends, as stories do

Reality steps into view

No longer living life in paradise - of fairy tales 

She thought over the last several days with the girls and wondered if she sugar coated things too much to them. Maybe it would have been better to teach them life’s harsh realities. She was so lost in thought she didn’t hear a thump on the balcony or the door to the balcony opening. After a minute, Kara came into the living room. She was initially smiling until her eyes landed on Lena. She had a somber look on her face while drinking whiskey. Kara then realized there was music playing. She groaned when she heard the song. She gradually approached Lena and sat down on the couch next to her. She took her hand in hers and started rubbing smooth circles around it. Lena jumped when she felt the touch and looked over to Kara staring at her with concern. Lena instantly had tears forming in her eyes and quickly embraced Kara. 

“I missed you so much!” said Lena with her voice wavering.

“I missed you” said Kara softly.

Lena wiped her tears and looked up at Kara with a soft smile. 

“I am surprised that you got in early. I thought you weren’t supposed to be back until Sunday.”

“We were supposed to head to the capital to debrief the president of what happened during the peace negotiations, but I wanted to come home and see my girls first. I am glad I did. Is everything ok?”

“Why you ask?”

“You only play Fairytales and drink whisky when something is wrong.” 

Lena sighed, snuggled closer to Kara, and said, “I am glad you know me so well.”

Kara wrapped her arm around Lena and said, “Why don’t you tell me what is bothering you?”

“It has been an eventful couple of days” muttered Lena. 

“How so?”

Lena looked up to Kara and asked, “Do you want the good news or bad news first?”

Kara said hesitantly, “Bad news. I would rather end things on a high note.”

Read the rest on AO3

[coffeebooh]

the flashspell tag being 90% me and 10% other random posts dating from 2012… I’M IN THE TRENCHES FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE

[mortiferumsomnum]

Excuse Me, Barmaid, I’m Afraid You Brought Me the Wrong Hero

EDIT: MASTERLIST

***

Okay, so... Mayyyyybe Dash should have thought this through. And, Dash would like people to know that he was doing all this out of the goodness of his heart. Phantom was becoming... Tired. Everyone could see it. Even the wacky Fenton parents noticed it, doubling their efforts to catch the only ghost that could defend their home.

And, well, when you find an old book from your grandma's that tells you how to summon heroes, who wouldn't take that chance to help their local hero? At least, until Phantom gets better.

So, yeah. Dash wanted a hero who wouldn't get overshadowed. He wanted a hero who had the might of the gods. He wanted a hero who could also be just a regular person, able to blend in with the crowd.

"Hey, do you have any more food?"

Dash wanted to bash his own head against the wall. Because he didn't summon a hero. He summoned a scrawny, 12-years-old kid who looks like he was randomly picked up from the streets!

His mom cooed at the child.

"Yes, you're welcome to have more, sweetheart."

"Thank you, Mrs. Baxton!"

Yeah, this kid certainly isn't a hero if he's easily stealing all of his mom's love and affection like that.

His mom pinched his cheeks, commenting how polite the child is, before getting started with the dishes.

****

HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA 😂😂😂

I LOVE summoning fics and ideas!!! 💙 And because I love them, I wanted to change things around a bit! What if it's the local Amity Parker that ends up summoning heroes from another world/universe? (or they could be in the same universe if you'd like!) HERO SUMMONING! 

- Dash ended up summoning Billy Batson, who could pass as Danny's little brother if the Fentons were willing to take him in.

- But the kid, for some reason, doesn't hate him for summoning him and wants to stay with Dash.

- Dash's parents are even considering adopting the kid! As if Dash brought the kid into their home out of the goodness of his heart. (Technically, he did. 😂)

- "Oh, Dash, sweetie. This reminds me of the time you said you wanted a little brother because you found out that little Danny was actually the same age as you!"

- "Mooooom! You promised not to talk about that!"

- "Correction: your dad promised. And I will abuse my power to tease you endlessly!"

- At first, Billy did this to annoy Dash. He knows a bully when he sees one. He also wanted to see how far he could go in annoying Dash before he gets kicked out by him. But as time with the Baxters’ goes by, Billy finds that he's become very fond of this summoner who's slowly becoming like his big brother. Being annoying didn’t feel like a ‘how far could i get away with this’ but has now turned into small teasing between siblings, it was... kinda great...

- But, when Billy encounters his first ghost attack, he suddenly knew exactly why he was summoned. It could have been Superman, or Batman, or Zatanna, or even Wonder Woman! But being the Champion of Magic gave him access to the Infinite Realms, not enough to traverse it, but to at least receive contact from it.

- And so, with a loud SHAZAM! he turns into Captain Marvel and fights alongside the upcoming King to the Ghost Realm.

- Dash... He just witnessed the most insane de-transformation of his life. When lightning struck near his home, he got worried about his parents and, dare he say it, his new little brother. (Dash saw the adoption papers. But also, the kid was growing on him. He gradually stopped being a bully when Billy thought of how cool Dash was, like he was a white Victor Stone or whatever. It made him want to be better, especially when those eyes were genuinely impressed with him. It made it all the better when Danny was weirded out by his character development.)

- But when he saw the newest Hero, Captain Marvel, the very example of what a hero should look like, should act like, and should be like, transform back into his little brother, so many questions started filling Dash's head. Was Billy actually an adult? Or was Captain Marvel really just a child?

- Dash really did summon a hero.

- Dash confronts Billy, because there was no way Dash would be able to pretend he didn't see anything.

- The more Billy talked, though, the more Dash felt... panic rising in his chest. He summoned a hero, yeah, but the hero is an ACTUAL KID who TRANSFORMS INTO AN ADULT.

- That's not what makes him panic, though. What does is that he became so attached to this scrawny kid who keeps raiding his secret sweets stash, who keeps stealing his parents' affection, who Dash has to visit his room at night because he seems to be the only one who can quell the kid's nightmares.

- The newest hero is his kid brother. His annoying little brother. His newest precious little brother who laughs and smiles at him, and calls him the coolest when he manages to throw the football so many meters away.

- It's not about Phantom anymore. Dash needs to be there for his brother.

- He comes to a realizatiom that maybe, maybe, all this time Phantom didn't need another hero to help him. Maybe, all he needed was people who cared to just back him up and give him support. Give him encouragement that he was doing great. That what he was doing was appreciated.

- Because Billy seemed to get better and better when he was told how good he was being in this hero gig. How relaxed and relieved he was when he realized that Dash wasn't going to leave him alone in helping Phantom.

- So, Dash also tells Phantom what he said to Billy, that he has Phantom's back. Phantom didn't seem convinced, most of all Manson and Foley. But Phantom takes it, especially when Dash was being genuine about it.

***

- And then there's Wes. Nosy and annoying, and bordering on stalkerish. Maybe he might be right about Phantom being Danny Fenton, but he really needs to leave his little brother alone. Dash won't hesitate falling back to old habits if he won't stop.

- "Why are you so calm about all this, Billy?"

- "Oh, well, Batman was more of a stalker than Wes is. Oracle and Red Robin, Batman's hero partners, are actually scarier because they thrive in this. The way he's going about it is actually pretty cute, in comparison."

- Cute? "We need to do something about how desensitized you are about this."

[gilbirda]

Never judge a book by its cover (JLxDP crossover)

They had a problem. A big problem. A madman had bonded with an eldritch god from space, it went wrong, and now there was a possessed human rampaging, eating everything it crosses. Constantine and Zatanna had an idea - they found a book about a Ghost King, a being from another dimension so powerful and so dangerous that they only suggested this summoning as a last resort.

What they got was a underfed and sleep deprived kid that knows about: - possession - eldritch gods - space

Can be read on its own.

EDIT: forgot to mention here my lovely beta @avaritia-apotheosis​

From my series, You and me and our best friend makes three

Sequel>>

[Read on AO3][Read on FF.net]

CW:non-graphic violence scenes, implied cannibalism

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Superman side-eyed Constantine as the warlock finished painting the summoning runes using a combination of his blood and pig’s blood. Something about making sure he summoned the correct dimension’s subject.

“Yeah, yeah. Absolutely positive, mate.” The blond said around the cigarette in his mouth, his eyes checking back to the picture on his phone, making sure the symbols were correct.

“So this… spectre will help, yes?”

“For fucks sake, I don’t know!” he stopped drawing the symbols and turned to look at the man of steel, annoyed. Once upon a time, Constantine had been intimidated by the hulkling figure of the Kryptonian, but not anymore since he learned how much of a baby he was about some things. (Like, for example, summoning potentially dangerous creatures from another dimension.) “This is my first time doing this summoning circle  and I don’t want to mess it up, so could you please just-”

“Calm down, John,” Batman stepped in. “I know you are nervous but we trust in your abilities and your knowledge.”

John knew it was a white lie but let it pass. He took a deep breath and tried to stop his trembling hands. He didn’t like feeling so powerless. 

“Bollocks,” he fisted his hands and went for the phone, rechecking every symbol of the complicated circle he was trying to make. 

He didn’t like doing things he hadn’t tried and tested before - in his experience, being ignorant of the nuances of a ritual resulted in dire consequences. He didn’t have to look too far in his past to prove it.

But… So many people had died already and they were desperate. He had already been searching for a solution when the Justice League, with their flashy capes and their deeply rooted pride, came to him and other magic users for solutions. 

The best he could find was this High King of the Ghosts. The title sounded ominous, but the ancient book he found talked about a connection with ancient creatures from ‘beyond’ and described abilities like those of the thing that had been rampaging without control through their part of the world.

It came out of nowhere, really. One day, someone suddenly appeared, declaring they were the host of a powerful eldritch god and that now they had to bow down to him. The person was human, or at least originally human; but after days his appearance morphed into a creature made of shadows and many, many eyes…

Constantine shuddered. 

The worst part? Nothing worked. Brute force, Superman’s heat rays, guns. Nothing Green Lantern made could even make a dent in the monstrous creature. Magic seemed to do a bit more damage, but the weird hybrid of human and eldritch monster regenerated faster than they could throw spells at him. Magical traps didn’t work either. Nothing. Not even John’s most powerful spell bind could stop it.

Cue their desperate measures. Desperate times, am I right? That’s what he thought when he considered this particular summoning. It had a warning note made more recently, maybe another magician that crossed paths with the book, strongly advising against summoning this King of the Ghosts. It said that the creature was more powerful than any earthly magic and that it couldn’t be contained - but it also said that the King could be reasoned with. It gave hope to the League. Maybe they could break some kind of deal with this dangerous being.

“And… done!” John sighed, rechecked all the symbols, and put his phone back to his pocket.

“Now what?” Diana approached them from the other side of the room, not really trusting this decision, but unable to leave her teammates alone with such a threat.

“Now,” Constantine kneeled in front of the circle and put his hands, both palms cut, downwards and touching the paint, “let me do the chant in one go.”

The warlock closed his eyes and ignored the dozen of members of the League watching him from a distance. He knew the words. He didn’t know what they meant, but he knew them. He just hoped he didn’t butcher the pronunciation too much and fail at the summoning.

But it was his first attempt, goddammit!

Fortunately, halfway through the chanting the circle changed colors - from blood red to toxic green, the glow illuminating the inside of the abandoned and secluded warehouse, far from civilization, they had chosen to do the ritual. Just in case. 

As he said the last word, Constantine felt the air get sucked out of his lungs, as if the last word was fed right into the circle, nurturing it, physically closing the circle. John fell back and crawled away from the circle as it transformed, glowing greener and greener, a vortex manifesting inside the symbols.

The vortex started spinning faster and faster, the noise of the currents drowning everyone’s thoughts, putting bizarre images of a far away place with impossible physics and green skies in their minds. It also brought a cold sensation, like darkness becoming tangible, like a night without stars closing on them. Whatever was coming was strong, and powerful.

The circle of pyrotechnics shone brighter for a moment and then stopped, the vortex lazily flowing, the streaks of green dull and darkened. The following silence rang in Constantine’s ears. Had he failed?

“What-” Green Arrow started,  when the symbols started glowing softly. 

A figure started coming through the vortex of green, the ‘waters’ becoming toxic green again as it touched his body. It was mesmerizing.

Or it would be, if what came through the summoning circle wasn't… a kid. A white-haired, bluish-gray skinned, tired looking kid, but a kid nonetheless. He was wearing some kind of suit in black and white, with a stylized letter symbol in his chest and a utility belt around his waist.

The kid was half crouched, legs apart and hands ready into fists, as if he was expecting a fight.

“Who are you and what have you done to me?”

Constantine glanced at Batman, searching for help. This was not what he expected.

The Dark Knight stepped forward and John sneakily crawled as far  away as he could.

“Who are you?” 

“I asked first.” The kid was brave, John had to concede. 

Batman was silent for a second, probably fuming at the disrespect. “We are the Justice League, protectors of this planet.”

“Oh… yeah!” the kid relaxed his stance, recognition shining in his eyes. “You are Batman, right? Tucker is, like, obsessed with superheroes and-”

“Kid, focus.” Batman growled. “Who are you?”

“I’m… wait, but you guys called me with this…” he smudged a symbol with his foot. “Oops, I touched it, sorry. Anyway!” he nervously continued when Batman made a move to get closer. “I’m Danny Phantom?”

“Is that an answer or a question?”

“Answer! That’s my name,” the kid smiled nervously. “Look, there must be a mistake. Who were you trying to summon? I can go back and leave a message for you.” A muscle in his brow twitched, and for a moment John could see how exhausted the kid was.

“We were trying to summon the Ghost King.”

“Actually,” Constantine cleared his throat, jumping to his feet and dusting his coat. He walked up to the kid. If he was a dangerous creature from another dimension, he would have done something already. He chuckled. “It’s called the ‘High King of the Ghosts’, but obviously there must have been some kind of mistake.”

But the kid wasn’t laughing. In fact, he became paler.

“Why?” Danny, as he had introduced himself, became more serious. 

“We need his help.”

“With?”

“Bloody hell, kid, we are losing precious time! Tell the King we need his help with some monster-”

“Monster?” he crossed his arms, guarded. “What kind of monster?”

“I don’t know! Someone’s possessed by some creature! Eldritch, maybe from space! But why do you even care?” 

“What have you tried? Did it say it was a ghost? Is that why you summoned me? To destroy a fellow ghost?” something in his tone was dangerous, and Diana, Batman and Superman tensed. Green Arrow moved one hand carefully towards his quiver. 

“This… creature… is killing people, son,” Danny bristled at the naming, but didn’t do anything. Superman continued, trying to control the worry and urgency in his voice. “It is really important we stop it and if it can be done peacefully, better. That’s why we need the Ghost King.”

Danny seemed to think about it for a moment, looking down at his feet. Batman gave Constantine worried looks, silently asking if he could do something about the situation. John shrugged.

“Okay. I’ll help you.”

“Will you contact the Ghost King?” Superman seemed hopeful.

“No need!” the kid laughed, making a dismissive motion with his hand. “You are already talking with him.”

Before they could ask their questions, the kid was engulfed in toxic green flames, maybe greek fire, and in his place stood another different person. Don’t be confused - it was the same white haired and tired kid; but his stance was wider, shoulders back, head up; and over the superhero costume he now wore some kind of otherworldly armor, with black plating and spiky shoulder pieces, a simple white cape clasped over his chest with two tiny skull charms. 

But the most distracting thing was the flaming crown floating over his head, made of the same black metal as the rest of his armor.

Danny smirked, crossing his arms again, as he watched the Justice League lose their shit in front of a kid.

“Well, this was unexpected.”

The kid turned towards Constantine and chuckled low, his voice layered and echoey, adding to the scary picture he presented.

“I’m a man of many surprises.”

“But you are just a kid,” Diana’s voice was soft. One of her hands rested over her mouth, shocked and worried. 

“But I’m a kid that knows a lot about space,” he uncrossed his arms and lifted a hand, counting with his fingers, “about eldritch creatures, and about possession. I can help you and you know it.”

There was a brief silence no one wanted to break. The kid looked nervously at each of their faces, suddenly losing all the bravado he showed before.

“This is a nice summoning circle, by the way. Who did it?”

Constantine lifted a hand.

“Where did you get the information? I thought all the knowledge about summoning ghosts had been lost to time.”

“A- A book. I found a book,” John blinked, walking around the circle to get said book, showing it to the kid. 

“Where did you get this?” Danny’s voice was angry, one hand reaching for the book, as if he recognized it. The symbols in the circle glowed and the Ghost King jumped back. “A binding spell? In my summoning circle?” 

“It was a necessity, the book explained that the king was dangerous-”

“This pitiful attempt cannot bind me,” his eyes glowed even greener and the circle went up into flames, the paint consumed rapidly in the green fire, erasing the circle and the bindings to ash.

Constantine brushed a bit of the ash with a foot, unable to keep the kid from snatching the book from his hands.

“This shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t have this,” Danny's voice turned angrier and angrier as he flipped the pages, checking the contents. “How did you get this?”

“Found it in an auction!” John made a placating gesture with his hands. “I swear I didn’t steal it!” Danny seemed to believe him and calmed down, his eyes going back to read the contents, stopping at the bookmarked page on the summoning spell. John cleared his throat to call his attention. “What… what is it?”

“What is what?” The kid kept his eyes glued to the text.

“The book. I couldn't… I mean, there is some magic on it and I can kind of understand it, but most of it is written in a language I have never seen before.”

“Huh? You understand this?”

“Some parts of it,” the kid barely looked up at him. “What is-”

“A diary,” Danny answered, closing the book. “It’s one of the lost tomes of previous Kings’ diaries. And it’s written in a language not from this universe so kudos to you for understanding it enough to summon me.” He made a gesture towards the ruined circle.

“Thanks?”

“Definitely better than the last ritual I was in.”

“Have you been summoned before?” John was curious. If this was a unique tome, then how could someone else have summoned him?

“No,” shadows passed through the kid’s glowing green eyes. “It was an exorcism. And you are way better at executing it than my parents. Their pronunciation sucked,” he struck his tongue at the memory, but it felt like an act.

His parents tried to exorcize him…?

Constantine looked back at Batman, who seemed to be frozen in place. Everyone seemed to be after the last declaration. How could they not? The kid couldn’t be older than maybe fifteen or sixteen, and to be the freaking Ghost King and on top of that, be exorcised by his parents?

From behind them, Superman cleared his throat.

“Mr. Phantom, if you could please-”

“Phantom is okay,” the kid smiled, walking out of the ash circle to approach the Super. “If I can call you Superman?”

“Of course,” the kryptonian smiled back, trying to shake the shock and go back to his usual hero persona. “Phantom,” the kid’s smile brightened, “if you follow us we can discuss further the details of this creature?”

“Ah, yeah, sure!” the book in his hand went up in flames, making the closest to him jump in surprise. “Sorry, but you can’t keep the book, Mr….?”

“Constantine, John Constantine,” the warlock blinked, stunned in place. There goes his precious acquisition. Zatanna was going to be so angry...

***

After guiding the kid towards the temporary headquarters (there was no time and it wasn’t safe to go to the Watchtower) and doing rounds of introductions, Danny was told all the details of the problem, what they have tried, what they have not done in fear of killing the human part of the hybrid…

Danny was shaking his head. “There’s no use. The human’s gone once they’ve reached this level of transformation. If you kill the creature you have to kill the human.”

“Are you sure?” Batman asked, unhappy at the news.

“Yeah. I barely survived-” he stopped himself mid-sentence, as if he was going to say something he shouldn’t. He coughed, maybe trying to hide the mishap. “The thing is, are you ready to kill this human?”

Diana glanced at Batman, knowing the man wanted to pursue this new line of knowledge. She jumped in. “Yes. It’s not something we will be happy about, but if you are sure of this then the cost will be higher if we don’t act now.”

“Maybe if you showed me a recent photo?”

Batman snapped into attention, already opening a panel in his forearm guards and revealing a tiny projector. The image was then projected on the side of the tent they set up. A video showing an attack from that same morning, the camera barely able to capture the many eyes and shadows dancing, the disfigured face of a human in the center of even more mouths, black teeth and poisonous tongues peeking from them.

“Yeah, the dude’s dead.” Phantom leaned back on his chair. He had made his armor disappear in more green flames and now he was only in the suit. He crossed his arms, thinking. “But the good news is I can take care of this.”

Superman took a deep breath. “Are you sure?”

“I need to get closer, but yeah, I think I can.”

Some sighed in relief.

“You think?” Batman wasn’t convinced. Danny stood his glare. “There are no second chances, kid. We’ve seen this thing eat away people in milliseconds.”

“I know I can. And I’m not ‘people’. Have a little faith, dude.”

Green Arrow blinked at the interaction, disguising a chuckle with a cough. Flash would have loved this, but he was on rescue and evacuation duty.

Diana leaned in, interrupting whatever Batman was going to say to the kid. “Do you need anything? Any help? Any weapon?”

“No, not really,” then he had a realization and leaned forward as well. “There’s one little thing, though.”

“What do you need?”

“Do you have food?” his smile was sheepish, and as if on cue, his stomach growled. “I haven’t eaten in weeks and I’ll need the extra energy.”

“Weeks?” Wonderwoman asked.

“Weeks!?” Superman seemed horrified.

“Do ghosts need to eat?” Green Lantern asked from the other side of Batman. Green Arrow shrugged.

“You can’t have not eaten in weeks, you should be dead!” Clark exclaimed, horrified.

As soon as the words came through his mouth he realized he already got his answer. Phantom smiled anyway.

“A bit late for that, huh.”

***

They had to get him food on the go as they travelled to the nearest zeta tube. Danny seemed okay with half a dozen burgers from McDonald’s, and a bucket worth of fries. And if someone had something to comment about the giant cup filled with soda floating close to his head even as he flew at high speed, no one acted like it was weird.

Danny did have something to comment about everything. The kid wouldn’t stop talking, asking questions about the League, about the members, about their powers. He seemed especially interested in how they got them or what motivated them to pursue the hero career at all. 

Batman only observed from Superman’s arms (no, he was not going to comment on this) as the kid ate away his weight in junk food and talked animatedly with Wonderwoman and John, who hitched a ride in her arms. 

“So are you saying that all that Greek mythology is real?”

“Yeah,” Diana always liked talking about her family and customs. “I’m an Amazon, born and raised in Themyscira.”

“Her mom is Hyppolita herself.” John added.

Danny’s eyes seemed to glow brighter. “I mean, I know Pandora and her people in the Ghost Zone, but I assumed it was only a theme or something.”

“Lady Pandora? She’s still alive?”

“Nope, she is the ruler of New Greece,” he chuckled, “back in the Infinite Realms.”

“Infinite Realms?” Constantine seemed interested.

“Is another name my- my people give the Ghost Zone.” Batman caught the hesitation. “How do I put this? It is like a dimension full of dimensions - all things that die go there, since the beginning of time. Different societies and cultures tended to band together and form worlds inside the dimension.”

“And New Greece? Is that where Greeks go when they die? How about the Hades? Do the gods go there as well?” 

Danny was shaking his head. “It doesn’t work like that. Uh… I said dead people go to the Infinite Realms when it is their time, but there are more than dead souls in there. There are… Born ghosts, who were never alive, for example. There are also Undyings there. Beings that exist outside time and that aren’t ghosts but reside there if they want.”

“Gods.”

“Not all of them are gods,” Danny’s voice was low and his eyes became dull. He floated his trash into a bag and stored it into a pouch in his belt, somehow fitting it. Was it a pocket dimension? “Okay! How long until we are there?”

Batman would have liked to insist on the topic (Undead gods from another dimension? He had to investigate in case of a future threat), but they were arriving at the closest zeta tube and the conversation would require more time.

“We need to do a quick jump and then fly a bit more,” he said, checking his computer. “The situation is turning more dire, we must hurry.”

Superman nodded and flew faster, Diana and John close behind, the kid noticing the others hurrying and boosting his speed as well. Clark’s eyes followed the bright form of the teenage-looking superhero before coming back to his teammate in his arms.

“Already investigating,” Batman knew that look. Superman was especially sensitive when children were involved in League missions, and the fact that their ace-in-the-hole was just a kid clashed with everything the man believed in. “Oracle’s been searching since we got out of the warehouse.”

Superman nodded, looking back at the kid doing loops and flying around the League members, asking more questions while he still could.

Batman looked down at his computer, changing to another tab and continued reading the articles Oracle found about this ‘Phantom’ superhero, after making a worrying comment about how tightly secured any and all news about this ‘Amity Park’ were. Pentagon level of security - nothing she couldn’t handle, but that didn’t fit in a small town in Illinois.

The hero was relatively new, had the people’s opinion divided, did some shady stuff and then saved them from a massive ghost invasion. For a while there was a crazy rise of ghost fight sightings until it stopped abruptly.

And then…

[Local hero Phantom new King of the Ghosts? Human liaisons Samantha Manson, Tucker Foley and Daniel Fenton confess association with the ghost since highschool.]

There was a photo attached to the article, of the ghost and two kids, humans, smiling awkwardly at the camera. The girl, Samantha, seemed familiar to him. Manson? The more he thought about it he felt the name familiar. The boy he didn’t know at all.

But there was another name mentioned as human liaison. Daniel Fenton? He felt he should know that name.

A new ping from Oracle alerted him of another of her findings, and he opened without hesitation. It was a science journal article talking about the Fentons and ridiculing their field of investigation - ghost hunting, ectobiology, paranormal technology.

Another ping - a photo of the family. The parents wearing jumpsuits. A girl, maybe the older sister, looking like a normal girl. A boy, a teenager, normal looking. His eyes were a striking blue that looked nervously to the side, even if he was trying to smile at the camera, and his raven hair was carelessly brushed away from his face, probably for the picture. 

Batman went back to the newspaper picture with the two humans and the ghost, noticing Superman start descending as they arrived at the zeta tube. Danny Phantom and the other kids. One human is missing. Batman pulled the family picture. Daniel Fenton trying to make himself look smaller, invisible.

He looked at the King of the Ghosts trying to coax John into confessing how he really got the diary. 

The connection wasn’t difficult to make, but it only raised more and more questions. How did he end up like this? How did a kid from a small town end up as a being summoned by a spell that Constantine was almost too scared to do? 

What had happened to this kid?

***

One teleport and one quick flight later and the kid finally stopped asking questions, more specifically, stopped asking Green Lantern about the Green Lantern Corps. 

“Oh fuck,” he cursed as he saw the destruction and the still rampaging giant creature in the distance.

“Language,” Superman said without thinking. The kid laughed.

“Sorry.”

“FINALLY!” the lightning was a telltale before the Flash appeared before them, “did you summon the kingy thing?”

Danny took a step back, hiding behind Superman’s cape, equally stoked to see the Flash in person but spooked by his sudden appearance. 

“Report.”

“Gee, Batman, everything’s fine around here. So did you meet with the ghost?”

Superman turned his head to check on the ghost kid, trying to be inconspicuous, but Flash saw the movement and found the kid hiding there. Flash frowned a little bit and looked back at the man of steel.

"Adoption on-the-go? I expected something like this from Bats but-"

"No! Nobody adopted anyone," Superman sighed and stepped aside. He cleared his throat. "This is the Ghost King."

Flash blinked. "You are joking, right?"

"He is. Believe me."

"He is right here!” Danny frowned, making Flash laugh. He looked like an angry puppy. “And I-”

In a blink, the kid turned and put up a shield, his armor materializing again in a burst of green flames. He then jumped away from the group, floating up to evade a rush of magic energy blasts, eyes searching for the source of the threat.

“Zatanna!” Constantine was already screaming, waving his arms, in an effort to make her stop trying to decimate their solution to the eldritch problem. “He is alright!”

“Have you gone MAD!” she screamed back, magically floating into the group, her eyes following the kid as he dodged more of her attacks. “That thing is dangerous! And you brought it here!?”

“That’s the King we were trying to summon!”

“What!?” she turned briefly, but that was enough. 

Danny took advantage of the moment and shot his own green ray, hitting the woman in the chest. Everyone rushed to check if she was okay, eyes nervously going back to the ghostly creature floating at a distance.

Zatanna was okay. Her wrists and ankles bound together, and a gag in her mouth so she couldn’t do any more spells. She wasn’t even hurt where the ray collided with her chest. At most, she was annoyed at being on the dirty floor.

“I would appreciate it if people stopped trying to shoot me first and ask questions later.”

Danny floated back to the group, glaring at the bound magician, his armor still in place.

“I’m Danny. I’m the Ghost King. And these people summoned me to help with some kind of situation. I mean no harm and when I’m done I will leave. Okay?”

Zatanna looked regretful and sighed, nodding. She lifted her bound hands and he made the green shackles disappear with a wave of his hand.

“You are just a kid,” was the first thing she said. 

“So I've been told,” he grumbled, crossing his arms. “But I’m actually eighteen. Not a kid.”

“You still have the ‘teen’ in the number. Sorry, kid.” 

If looks could kill, Constantine would be underground already. 

“This is cute and everything, but could we focus on the issue at hand?” Flash shifted his weight from one foot to another. He wanted to know more of this kid, but the monster they needed him to defeat was super scary.

“Report?” Batman continued like nothing had happened at all.

“Everyone from this city is safe. So far the creature is wandering and looking for more victims. Shazam and Manhunter are on distraction duty.”

The Bat nodded, turned towards Danny. “What can we do to assist you?”

Flash would never forget the moment he witnessed Batman waiting for orders from a kid.

“I can do this alone. I think it's best if you guys get as far away as possible.”

“But if you fail we need a contingency plan.”

“I won’t,” Danny’s confidence should be reassuring, but it only worried them more. “I just know I can deal with this. Don’t ask why.”

“Why?” 

The teenager growled, and for a moment Batman thought he saw his shadow flicker, but then the ghost breathed deeply and smiled without showing his teeth. “I need my secrets to be mysterious, don’t you think?”

He was deflecting, but this was not the moment to interrogate the kid. An explosion and a loud scream in the background reminded him why.

“Okay, I will go and when it’s safe to come out I’ll tell you.”

“We are going with you.”

“Uh, no??” Danny frowned. “That thing is dangerous.”

“That’s why-”

“No, no. I mean it’s dangerous for mortals. I will be fine…” Batman gave him a look, and Danny groaned. “You are worse than my sister. Fine! I guess. But stay away.”

“Take a communicator, at least,” the bat opened a compartment with the backup devices and instructed the ghost on how to set it on his ear. “You know how to use it?”

Danny nodded. They worked a bit like the Fenton phones. He hoped they didn’t get much distortion from his ghostly presence, like every electronic device not adapted to ectoplasm.

“Any last minute request?” Superman seemed tense, eyeing the sword at the hip of the ghost, which he hadn’t noticed materialize before.

“Yeah. Um…” Danny looked down for a moment. “I really like you guys, so… Whatever happens, whatever you see… I’m still me. And my boyfriend would kill me if I managed to antagonize the whole Justice League,” he rubbed the back of his head, nervous.

The man of steel noticed the sharp teeth peeking from his lips when he smiled trying to mask his fear. Somehow he knew that it was going to get ugly real fast.

He put a hand on his armored shoulder. “It’s okay, son. We believe in you. And if you need us just ask.”

The kid didn’t seem convinced but appreciated the gesture. He didn’t even flinch at the hand contact.

“Let’s go,” Batman shut down the moment and gestured to the ghost to follow him where Manhunter had informed them through the mind link the creature was.

In the back, Flash turned towards Green Arrow. “The Ghost King is gay?”

***

Batman was equally excited and afraid to see this boy in action. His request from before only added a new piece to the puzzle, more questions. What could make them antagonize the ghost after they declared he was an ally? He looked down at the transcription of an old book regarding the Ghost King. Granted it was made by humans and it stated it was a translation from something called ‘ghost speak’ and that was also translated from the language ‘of the gods’ (the book’s words); so Batman preferred to take everything he read with a grain of salt.

Even so, he could gather that the King was maddenly powerful, so much that the last king, Pariah Dark, had to be sealed away by the ‘Ancients’ after going actually mad because no one could defeat him in single combat. 

Then something about a ring and a crown? That the objects weren’t just relics, something about how they were powerful themselves. Batman remembered the crown, but he didn’t see any ring when Danny showed his true form back at the warehouse.

He looked up at Danny as the boy carefully turned around a corner, following Manhunter’s instructions in his mind (the boy freaked out for a second when the alien settled the link, before he apologized for the mental shields he had to lower down for the leaguer). The boy had to defeat this… Pariah Dark, to inherit the title. That’s how these things worked. Right of conquest.

So. There was this human boy, Daniel James Fenton, who somehow gained ghost powers and then defeated the previous Ghost King and… what? Stole the ring and the crown and magically gained the title?

A human acting as Ghost King?

“Uh, that’s nasty,” Danny whistled under his breath.

They had arrived at the place the monster was in, Shazam and Manhunter still flying in circles at a safe distance and trying to keep it in place. Danny took in the horror and the eyes and the shadows with a straight face, all the smiles and the jokes gone from his expression. His eyes showed a deep recognition.

“I barely survived-”

Has he met a creature like this before?

Or… was he implying he bonded with one, too? Maybe that explained Zatanna’s sudden attack, and the nervous looks she sent his way from time to time. Batman saw her and Constantine whispering something at the back of the group, making wide gestures and worried faces. They knew something and they weren’t telling.

But he couldn’t ask now.

“Okay, I’m going in. Wish me luck!” he didn’t wait for a response and kicked the floor, launching himself up to fly towards the hybrid creature.

“Hey ugly!” , he heard the boy scream through the comms. “I heard you liked to eat stuff. Eat this!”

And the boy punched the hybrid in the face, or what was left of it, pushing it back towards the end of the street, giant black mass of a body and all.

“Huh, directly to the point. I like it.” Diana tried to smile, but she was worried as well.

"Bats," he turned, finding the worried faces of the Justice League Dark members. "That kid is not normal."

"I've gathered," he nodded, his eyes following as the kid in question flew confidently towards the creature, which was recovering from the hit and was trying to lash back at the ghost. 

"No, he's not even human." Zatanna was terrified. "He was, once. Not anymore."

"Z says she can sense a creature just like our buddy there."

That interested the man. "Is he dangerous?" He didn't want to have double the problem. "Why didn't you mention any of this before you summoned him?"

"There was nothing about any eldritch god in the book," Constantine was already shaking his head. "We checked - Raven said the book was legit but not evil, even if she didn't recognize the language."

"He seems in control, maybe he's not possessed? Maybe he has access to some of its powers and that's that." Diana leaned in the conversation.

"Or maybe he is a god. Or an alien." Superman pitched in, trying to seem positive and not freak out at the obvious otherness of the kid. It would be a bit hypocritical, too.

Ok, this conversation was not private anymore. Batman sighed, opening his computer and showing the family photo to his colleagues.

"Born human. Daniel James Fenton. One older sister and both parents are human and alive. Almost four years ago he was involved in a lab accident - I assume it gave him some extent of ghost abilities."

"Could be a cover story, something to blend in with humanity." Diana wasn't surprised he had gathered so much information from the boy already, including his human secret identity.

Batman was already shaking his head. "Oracle says it checks out. Either this entity is very skilled at forging a life here or he is human."

"Not anymore, Bats. I mean, I can sense some human-like aura but it is buried under layers and layers of raw power. The bad kind of power. Nothing I've dealt with before," Zatanna insisted.

"I repeat, is he dangerous?"

As if answering him, the boy then plummeted down towards the creature, the collision sending a wave that reached the heroes. An explosion of green fire came next and they heard growls and high pitched screams through the comms.

“I said,'' Danny's voice was distorted, as if he spoke with more than one layer, more than one voice. Batman checked, but there was nothing wrong with the communicators. “Go back to wherever you came from and leave these people alone!”

“We won't let a puny mortal tell us what to do!” The answer came from both the comms and their own ears, as the rumbling voice could be heard from the other side of the street. It was barely human and the words were distorted by the voice obviously not made to sound with human vocal chords.

“Oh yeah, I will- ARGH!” The boy’s scream made some of them cringe from how loud it was against sensitive hearing through the communication device.

The glowing body of the armored kid flew backwards from an attack they didn’t quite see. Superman tensed, ready to jump and catch the kid before his head hit the concrete; but Danny recovered mid air and landed on his own feet, sliding a bit from the momentum of the throw.

Batman watched carefully how the boy growled and his lips curled, showing sharp teeth and unnaturally elongated upper and lower canines. His gray-ish blue skin pulsed with something, the scars in his skin glowing greener and flickering, displaced by the movement of the muscles below. 

But it was not a natural way of muscle stretching, it was almost as if he could control the surface level of skin, like a cat - a smooth ripple coursing through his body.

The glowing green eyes flashed and for a split second, Batman swore he saw the pupil contract into slits. He blinked, and his eyes were back to normal.

“Stand back,” it took a moment to realize that the kid was talking to them. “I need more space.”

Wonderwoman gave the kid a worried glance, but she quickly obeyed, dragging the bat and the man of steel with her, both frozen in place at the sight of the kid transforming in front of their own eyes.

If he was unsettling before, now Danny was giving more and more reason to believe that he was the rightful ruler of the dimension of the dead - his hair waved with an invisible breeze, showing pointed ears they hadn’t noticed before; his hands curled in claws, the nails growing and becoming thicker, real claws; and his eyes…

Danny blinked and his eyes became only sclera. Toxic green flowing, glowing, the corners of his eyes pouring out some kind of green mist, as if the sockets weren’t enough to contain all the green and the power in them.

The boy also straightened his back, becoming suddenly taller, broader, not afraid to show all the muscles bulging in his arms and chest as he tensed, ready to jump.

But that wasn’t all. The ripple he saw before in his skin happened again and again, in sync with some kind of heartbeat he couldn’t hear. With each beat, the skin became darker and more… purple, the glow of the scars diminishing.

Danny jumped in place, as if flinching. He made a sound that came from deep in his chest and the rippling stopped.

He had become a different person altogether, some kind of creature less and less human, and it was now easier to believe Zatanna that this… Daniel Fenton had stopped being human a long time ago. 

When the bat thought the transformation had stopped, it was when it happened.

The lights went out. The streetlights that were lining both sides dimmed until they went out, and the neon signs of the few shops and cafés in the area exploded at the same time. Darkness began creeping from the shadows, tentacles made of absence of light, of existence, a tangible form of darkness that was almost a physical form.

All of the darkness crawled towards Danny, as if he was some kind of black hole, absorbing matter around him. It wasn’t until the dark void tentacles grabbed him from the waist and lifted him up that they didn’t notice how from their position they could almost hear it whisper the kid’s name over and over again.

For a moment Batman feared that the creature had done something to trap their ally, but it went out of the window when the Ghost King himself let a few dark tentacles curl around his hand and lifted them towards his face, nuzzling them like a mother cat.

Their eyes met for a brief moment. The kid’s all green eyes were hard to read, but the bat somehow got the impression that the boy was sad to be seen like this.

Phantom turned, his body carried towards the hulkling figure of the hybrid by the material darkness around him.

“Impossible!” they heard through the comms the growling voice of the creature. “This is not possible!”

“One last chance to surrender,” Daniel’s voice was also changed. A deeper layer also not made to exist in human voice boxes was under the usual echoey voice of the ghost. 

In the silence that followed another voice was almost heard in the background, a whispering nonsense of words. Clark frowned, tilting his head, trying to decipher what they were hearing, mouthing the sounds and waiting to make sense of them.

“Sir, We didn’t know- I mean, I didn’t, we…”

A growl. The deeper voice fought for dominance, and the street became even darker, if that was even possible. 

“I didn’t know this was your turf, sir!” The creature’s voice became a bit high at the end, the layered voice turning into a prolonged whine, like a kicked puppy. The eyes and the tentacles that the hybrid had slithered between the buildings started to retract.

“You knew, you just didn’t care. This place is MINE.”  

“No, sir. Please! Please, sir! No-!” a crunching sound was heard, followed by a layered scream and more of that whine. Some leaguers shivered, happy to not be able to see what was going on. “I’M SORRY SIR. PLEASE HAVE MERCY!”

“Mercy? You should have known before you bothered the people of this planet,” another crunch, followed by wet noises. 

Someone gagged behind Batman. 

“MERCY!” was the last gurgling scream as more and more crunch and wet noises filled the comms, the alarming speed increasing as the seconds ticked, drowning whatever the hybrid was trying to say to plead for its case, until not even the whine could be heard.

Only the chewing.

Batman had to admit. He was used to weird stuff. As a Gothamite through and through, he had to develop an iron stomach to process everything he saw in his career as a vigilante. But this? This made him swallow back bile and shiver uncomfortably.

A few seconds later they heard heavy breathing and Danny whispering something that sounded like “it’s okay, i’m okay, we’re okay” before the bulbs of the streetlights came back on. The air was less heavy, something they hadn’t noticed had changed, as well as their breathing was back to normal.

But things weren’t exactly ‘back to normal’.

Danny appeared soon after, flying carefully towards the group of terrified heroes, his scary form gone and the armor gone and looking like a normal kid. He had some kind of black ooze smudge on his cheek, probably an effort to clean his face after-

The crunching and the deep layered voice was still fresh in their minds. This was not a normal kid. Not even a meta or enhanced kid. Or their usual level of weird and scary. No. There was a reason that this was the Ghost King, and they had witnessed it.

“Heyyyy….” Danny waved his hand, landing without making a sound. “Sorry for the show, ha ha,” he laughed nervously, not really looking anyone in the eye, his hands unable to settle in any position. “I admit it was a bit too much for the usual so… yeah…”

Nobody could really speak.

“Um, the guy’s gone?” he pointed with his thumb towards where the threat had been. Now they were too afraid to check what was left. “So if you don’t need anything else… I can… I mean, I can make my own portals, kinda, a friend is teaching me. Uh, I’m rambling again. I’m going to shut up now.”

Another moment of shocked silence. Danny tried to smile, but it only reminded them of his sharp teeth and fangs. He had to feel all the stares fixed on his mouth and what it did just a few minutes before.

“O…kay…” the kid swallowed, uncomfortable, “It’s been a blast, guys. Call me if you need anything else,” he lifted a hand to make a portal to leave, but a hand stopped him.

“What the actual fuck, kid?” 

“Language,” Superman blinked, coming back to reality at the absurdity of reprimanding Constantine. 

Phantom snorted, realizing the same. The warlock glared at the Super before turning back to the ghost.

“Those were some, um, moves, kid.”

He smiled, his cheeks becoming a little green. “Thanks! But you should see my wife!”

“You are married?” John tilted his head, narrowing his eyes.

“No! I mean, it was supposed to be a joke from that movie… nevermind, - and I do have a girlfriend I plan to marry waaaaay in the future but - uh, you know what? If she was here she would kill me for this.” His face had gone green, and they assumed it was him blushing. The blush was cute, but out of place next to the remaining blood of the creature on his face.

“Is she a ghost, too?” Is she like you? Constantine was trying to ask. Better be warned in case they multiply.

“Nope! Human!”

“A meta, then?” this interested Diana, who had relaxed at the rather normal conversation. 

“Nope again! She’s completely human, but she has a special suit, well, more like an armor… Kinda like Batman! She’s normal but she’s amazing! Not that I don’t think you are amazing, Batman! Aaaaaand maybe I should stop talking again.”

“I thought you were gay?” Barry walked up to ask.

“Bi, actually,” Danny’s shoulders relaxed. He preferred talking about this and completely ignoring what had happened before. “And poly. Sam and Tucker are the best partners I could have asked for.”

He pulled his phone to search for photos to show the interested leaguers, but Batman interrupted him.

“Kid,” he looked up at the man in a dark suit. “We need to talk.”

Danny gulped loudly. “Do we?”

“Yes. Like, for example, how does a human named Daniel James Fenton end up eating an eldritch god like it’s nothing.”

The kid sobered, his fingers frozen over the screen of his phone. When he looked back at the bat, his expression had sobered. “You really are the world’s best detective, huh.” He smiled, but it was weak.

Batman didn’t smile.

“It’s not like it’s a secret, not anymore” Danny shrugged. “I was a kid and I did something stupid, there was an accident with a portal to the ghost dimension, I got some cool ghost powers, defeated the other king, now I’m here.”

“I’ve already gathered as much, kid. But that,” the man gestured towards where the horror happened, “that is not ‘some cool ghost powers’.”

“I may… have skipped a few things.”

“Yes, you did.” He crossed his arms.

“Hey, Bats, I don’t think-” Supes frowned, feeling the kid start to close on himself, his glow diminishing.

“What do you want to know?” Danny pocketed his phone and straightened his back, trying to put on the mask of the King. “And why?” He narrowed his eyes.

“I want to know if we should worry about another hybrid problem soon.”

Phantom’s lips stretched in a joyless smile. “I should have known you figured it out. Not like I was hiding anything.” He shrugged.

“So it’s true?”

“Yeah, I’m the host of another god.” He didn’t move, not even when Diana stepped back quietly. “But mine was a more… successful ceremony.”

“Why? What did you expect to gain? More power?” Zatanna approached him.

“No.” He said quickly, not wanting to elaborate further. Batman glared harder. Danny sighed. “Before I say more I would like to ask for your absolute discretion. This information is classified even in the Ghost Zone and only some of the Council are allowed to know.”

They nodded.

“Also I would like to preface this by saying that I did what I had to do.”

“We understand.” Zatanna wanted to put a hand on the kid’s shoulder, but when she moved he only curled more into himself, looking down at his gloved hands.

He suddenly seemed to age before them. The tired and underfed kid they had summoned was back, gone was the high and proud King of the Ghosts, but his eyes were hardened around the edges. Batman had only seen that look a few times in his life.

“I became… something else. With the union, I mean. ‘Union’, ha, it makes it sound like it’s a marriage,” he scoffed. “I’m the host, but my role is more like a buffer between the Whisper and the ghosts in my dimension. If there’s not a King bonded with it, the Whisper will eat it all. And if the Infinite Realms go down, the human world goes too. They are like two sides of the same coin.”

“Power? I guess I gained more power,” he continued, shrugging, “but the cost is too high. You saw what it can do to a weaker human mind. It could have been me, if the Whisper didn’t like me.”

“But you were not human to begin with.” the Bat not-asked.

“No. I died in the accident, but came back as something in between. A halfa. Half human and half ghost.”

There was a brief moment of silence.

“So you are saying,” Flash swallowed the knot in his throat, “that you died, defeated the previous king and volunteered to get possessed by an eldritch god because if you didn’t do it then the world would end? At only eighteen?”

“Fourteen. I was fourteen.” The corners of his mouth curved up, knowing how it sounded out loud. “The coronation part was a few months ago, but, the rest… yeah.”

***

Back at the Watchtower, the Justice League was having an impromptu emergency meeting. 

It was pure mayhem - half of them couldn’t sit still and were pacing around, talking out loud, maybe hoping that bouncing ideas would somehow solve anything. The other half sat frozen at the table, an air of defeat and astonishment over them. Superman was straight up crying, no longer trying to keep it in now that they were safe at the Watchtower and the kid went back to his realm.

“This is fucked up. This is so fucked up.”

“Why did the League never hear of this?”

“He’s just a kid! Our nuke option is barely out of high school!”

“Bats, there must be something we can do, right?” Superman said, more calm now that he cried it out. Diana was patting him on the back, also looking expectantly at the Bat.

The Dark Knight was sitting with his head in his hands. He didn’t know what to do, what to say. He had never encountered anything like this before. A kid that slipped between the cracks like this, becoming a willing host to an eldritch horror, unguided, alone.

How could this happen? They should have been alerted as soon as the ghost attacks started in Amity Park, as Danny had confirmed his hometown was called. They should have been there, assisting the young hero, training him better…

And now it was too late for them. A kid had almost died (he refused to believe he died all the way) and took upon himself to save them all, not only not asking for anything in return, but sacrificing himself to an eternity on the edge of becoming what they were asking him to stop.

Danny explained all of this with a calm and serenity that could only exist from a deep acceptance of what he had become. He tried to brush it away and simply move on, cracking jokes that didn’t quite land (he reminded Batman so much of his sons) and nervously laughing and resuming his light questioning of the League members.

Shortly before he left, he asked them if they could keep it touch. He said he was trying to form a Council and wasn’t sure how to create a functional one, especially when ghosts were not exactly the teamwork type of creature. And so, he wanted some advice.

So they exchanged contact information, the boy giddy as he typed in the phone numbers of those that allowed it; ecstatic when even Batman shared his number as well (for emergencies ONLY) once Oracle deemed his device totally secure. 

Danny’s phone had an anime background and a few games that Shazam recognized, starting an enthusiastic conversation about gaming strategies.

He was just a kid. An eldritch god that could eat an entire dimension full of dimensions, destroying everything they knew in the process, lived inside this kid. 

They were supposed to protect everyone on this planet from evil. The whole point of the Justice League was that. But they had failed.

Batman suddenly had the urge to go back to Gotham, hug his children and never let them out of his sight.

BACK TO THE ARCHIVE

Sequel>>

[dead-but-still-magic]

Oh thats perfect! Yes do that cake! But youll have to sacrifice some to me so I can make sure that you got it right. For taste testing and all... and your Jason is the best for doing that! Ive just been scaring people :/

Yes! Ive already been thinking of doing costumes related to the dead like Dracula and the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera! And of course I have to dress up as the Whistling Man to. Gotta pay homage to Mama after all. B deserves the jumpscares that Im going to put him through...

Cass? Whos that? I havent met anyone going by that name in my dimension

Yeah but theyre super dense sometimes. Theyre so work driven... Alfie always has to ask me to hide some papers away from them if they havent eaten yet. Theyre only good detectives when it comes to crime scenes but the moment its emotional all of their intelligence flies out the window!

An amulet brought you here? Thats strange... for me there was a big fight I was watching and one of the BBEGs did something and made a shockwave. It bit the batcave and the next thing I knew I was in the manor for the first time since I died

Is the amulet marked with anything? Did it change colors after it sent you here? Could Zatanna refill it with magic? This kind of magic is so annoying

I dont like talking about my sperm donor so I can understand... the less said about my bio mom the better...

A big family... thats one plus for going back to the land of the living...

That must have been so much fun though! Almost all of the rouge gallery are just wacky aunts and uncles who get a little to silly and bored sometimes. My favorite is Aunt Pam because she always gave me little flowers everytime we caught her

That... makes sense but thats so extreme... we arent judge jury and executioner we just bring in the criminals! No singular person should judge another persons life forfeit but death penalties are needed in extreme cases...

Boo!

💀🐦

Whaa! Who? ฅ^._.^ฅ