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Bruce had hoped— hoped , that he’d be able to return to Gotham without incident. But of course, that was too much to ask.
Batman had just returned from an off-world diplomacy mission with Wonder Woman, tired, sleep-deprived, and in desperate need to get a minimum of four hours of sleep in his king-sized bed. But as soon as he stepped into the Justice League HQ to give a brief mission report, he was met with trouble.
Trouble came in the form of half the League arguing and John Constantine nearly about to scream his head off, a worn book clutched in his hand.
He pinched the bridge of his nose through his cowl. The universe was testing his patience.
“Well,” Wonder Woman said, amused. “Will you do it, or shall I?”
“I got this.” He turned back to the room. “ Quiet !”
The room was immediately silenced.
Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow. “Impressive.”
“Batman, Wonder Woman, you’ve returned!” Superman zipped from the center of the meeting room to the door, greeting the two of them.
“Kal, would you mind explaining what’s happened here?” Wonder Woman asked.
Superman glanced back at the rest of the room, before shifting his gaze back. “A new kind of enemy appeared a few days ago that’s been causing havoc. Its range of abilities is, in a word, vast. Flight, invisibility, some kind of density shifting, and some kind of green energy blasts. Most concerningly, it even has the ability to, ah, possess people. We have no way to counteract it.”
Constantine held his book up. “We do .”
“It’s a gamble, John, and you know it.”
“Well, what else can we do? You can’t even get near the damn thing unless you wanna risk getting possessed, and our other abilities mean shit when we can’t even hit it!”
Batman raised his hand to stop the argument before it could continue any further. “What solution are we talking about?”
Constantine grunted, opening the faded book towards the end. “Look, Zatanna and I did some digging and we think that these creatures could be ghosts.”
“Like Deadman?”
“Not like him, no. These ghosts—these spirits —are inhabitants of the Infinite Realms. The space between universes, the realm between time. They’re on a whole different level than other ghosts.”
Batman took the book and scrutinized the page. The words themselves were in Latin, and though he wasn’t fluent, he’s seen this spell before so he could tell what Constantine was planning. He snapped the book shut. “No. It won’t work.”
“ Wha —” Constantine ripped the book from Batman’s grasp, face flushed. “How many times do I have to say that we don’t have any other choice ! We can’t beat these ghosts, and they only listen to one person, and that is the Ghost King.”
He was too tired for this shit. “I didn’t say that summoning the Ghost King wasn’t a viable plan, all I’m saying is that the ritual would fail.”
“Oh, you’re suddenly an expert on magic now?”
Batman blinked. “The ritual calls for a summoning circle approximately twenty feet in diameter, with three runic lines and a twelve-pointed star all written with ‘freshly drawn human blood.’ Now, some of the people here are aliens, so they can’t donate blood. Others are metas, and while they’re human, we don’t know how their powers would affect ritual. You also need to consider that unless you’re willing to entrust this summoning circle to Flash, it would take you about two hours to draw it in its entirety, and by then the blood would have already dried, thereby reducing the spell’s effectiveness even further since you don’t have one of the king’s artifacts to tie him here.”
Constantine nearly dropped his cigarette. He took a step back, ruminating over his book. “Alright. Fair point. But what other alternative do we have?”
Batman pulled a green earpiece. “I could just call him.”
“Please tell me you don’t have the fucking King of Ghost’s number on speed dial.”
“I don’t have him on speed dial.” He pressed a series of numbers and held the phone to his ear. It took three rings before the call was accepted.
“Hey, B! Whatcha need?”
“One of your subjects managed to escape and it has colleagues on edge. I’d appreciate your assistance on this, Phantom.”
“What the— Ugh. I told those guys to at least keep their hauntings to Amity. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Where do you want me to meet you?”
“The Watchtower.”
A pause. “Is that the one in space?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in ten.”
Batman hung up and pocketed his phone. “He said he’ll be here in ten minutes.”
The room burst into chaos.
Aquaman asked if there were to be any special procedures they needed to follow to greet a royal.
Flash babbled a mile a minute about getting to meet the king of the dead.
Superman asked Wonder Woman about how their mission went.
Constantine seemed to be running on his last thread of sanity.
Batman pointedly ignored all of this, instead, opening his communicator to check on the situation in Gotham. Damn it. He had to attend a board meeting tomorrow.
“ Look —” Constantine clenched and unclenched his fists, then steepled his fingers towards Batman. “Putting aside that you apparently have the Ghost King’s goddamn phone number— ” A deep breath. “Exactly how is he gonna get here? Again. Infinite Realms. Place between universes. Not the easiest place to get in or out of.”
Batman felt a rustle beneath his cape. His mouth twitched.
“Simple.” He lifted up his cape. “Like this.”
From the shadows of Batman’s cape emerged Phantom. And though he gave the Justice League perhaps one of his sunniest smiles, it didn’t change the fact that his presence lowered the temperature of the room by about five or ten degrees.
Phantom waved, giddy. “Hi.”
Batman could hear Constantine’s sanity start to fray.
Wonder Woman, ever the pillar of calm, was the first to greet their guest. “Welcome, Your Majesty, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Diana of Themyscira, though I am also known as Wonder Woman in the world of man.”
Phantom eagerly shook her hand. “It’s so nice to meet you, too! I’ve heard a lot about you guys.”
“Is that so?” She looked at Bruce.
Batman tugged his cape closed, glaring at Green Lantern over his shoulder.
Lantern released his hold on Batman’s cape, hands up and a sheepish expression on his face. “Jeez Louise, Bats. I’m just curious if you have an interdimensional portal in your cape or something. I’m pretty sure I saw like three of your kids playing Uno under your cape a couple weeks ago, and now a king ?”
Batman grunted.
Danny zipped up into the air. “Oh wow. Oh wow, wow, wow !” He flew from window to window, taking in the sight of the stars of the bright blue earth below. “This…this is beautiful !”
As much as Bruce hated cutting away Danny’s fun, they had work to do. “Phantom, we have business to discuss.”
“Oh! Yeah, sorry about that. Almost forgot.” Danny floated back to Batman’s side. “Let’s take care of this quickly. I can’t stick around for too long.”
“Oh?”
“I have to get back by curfew.”
Flash gave a confused look to Green Lantern. “Ghosts have curfews ?”