This is set shortly after my fic Party like you are dead. But can be read on its own!
Note: Danny makes a comment about referencing a movie - it's all made up, it's not an actual reference.
Many MANY thanks to the lovely beta of this fic, juno.
Never judge a book by its cover
"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 conversion 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.
