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DC x DP Fic 13: Other Wordily Summons

Summary:

It's unusual for cults to appear in Gotham. A dark place like this with weird shit all the time? Dead that just don't stay that way? Yeah, there is a cult or two every year but they never really succeed in their plans.

Except for this time, as Jason is about to find out.

Notes:

An adoptable fic!

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Jason would like to state for the record that this is all Batman's fault somehow. 

Jason looks around at the warehouse, because it's always a warehouse, that he finds himself being dragged into. Classic ritual circle and lit candles around him and a leader at an altar. Jason isn't close enough to tell, but they seem to be practicing their lines? 

Eh, dress rehearsal is important for this Jason guesses. 

The coms are already full of his family of bastards mocking him for getting caught like this. Jason sighs internationally as he thinks back into his night.

Patrol was going how it usually did in Crime Alley up until some, honest to God, cultists tried taking a kid. Now, Jason didn't recognize this kid, and that should have been his first clue that things are not what they seemed. Jason knows all the Alley kids at this point, but still fell for it. 

He does his usual thing of using his fists and non lethal rounds to scare the cultists off and check on the kid. He's bandaging up the kid's arm when… something makes him turn to look behind him. A sound maybe? Whatever it was, let the little kid jab his inner elbow between his armor joints and inject him with something strong . Jason only had time to be surprised and knock the needle aside before his body went limp and fell over. Last he saw of the kid was them getting handed a stack of money, at least they seemed sorry about helping a cult as they left. That's nice.

Unfortunately, they got his helmet off because he hasn't fixed the shock trap from the last time it got damaged. Jason can see it sitting on a crate nearby and facing him, giving his siblings a front row seat to this mess and he gets all the unwanted commentary about it. Great.

He can hear Nightwing saying he is on his way, Mr. Freeze was trying to start something but Batman and Robin are taking care of him now. 

Jason huffs as he gets moved to the circle and made to kneel in the center, a cultist holding him by the hair to look forward. The leader is walking up to the circle, still talking to himself, as Jason tries to work off the ropes on his hand. At least they'll have time if it's just now startin-

* slice * * splatter *

Jason makes a wet sputtering sound in surprise as his neck is cut with a ritual knife without warning. His coms are full of his family's shock and surprise as well, Red Robin is freaking out because none of the listed rituals the JLD gave them that match the circle said a sacrifice happened at the beginning. Robin sounds like he is going feral on Mr. Freeze to get to Jason as soon as possible, Nightwing is heard swearing under his breath as he tries to push himself to go faster. 

Jason does not consciously take any of that in as the circle lit up a glowing green as soon as his blood hit it, the same green that haunts his nightmares and reflects in his eyes in his darker moments. It takes everything Jason has to try and keep getting the ropes off and stay calm when the cultists drop him to the ground and the leader's voice gets louder. 

(What Jason doesn't see, but his helmet cam does, is that his blood seems to be absorbing the green from the circle and changing to match it. The roots of his hair seem to turn grayish white when the green spreads to the source of the blood and goes inside him.)

"Prenu ĉi tiun oferon, Alta Reĝo, kaj uzu lian duan morton por eniri nian mondon!"

(Esperanto from Google Translate "Take this sacrifice, High King, and use his second death to enter our world!")

Jason doesn't know exactly what the leader is saying, as it sounds similar to Spanish but two steps to the left, but he can tell this is the part where you name who/what you are summoning. The middle part of the ritual! The leader wasn't practicing to himself, he was chanting the start of the ritual! This means they started before they even had Jason here! 

Jason gives a few wet, gurgling coughs as the warehouse suddenly gets very cold and frost spreads over the circle but doesn't go beyond it or cover Jason. Something in his chest seems to grow heavy but… calm(?) at the power filling the circle now. 

(He also realizes that despite bleeding out, and he knows he is because he can feel it, he doesn't feel the whole dying from it part? Jason knows what bleeding out from the neck feels like, thanks Bruce, but this is just incredibly tired and heavy. Like when he forces himself to not rest and his body decides it's not getting up again if he sits down, not the 'oh, I'm dying' tired. Weird.)

Jason blinks as Dick shouts at him in the coms to move or something so they know he is still alive, he didn't even realize he went completely limp when the  mysterious power washed over him. He coughs again as it's all he can seem to do. Coughing means alive enough, right?

Purple fog sparkling like space dust seems to push up from the center of the circle under Jason and covers him, obscuring his vision as he can't move his neck to look up. He hears a new voice full of power talking in that not Spanish and then the leader again, things seem calm until the new voice sounds angry and then all Jason hears is panicked cultists, screaming that cuts off with multiple thuds, and then silence. The next thing Jason knows is giant hands are gently picking him up and supporting his neck and head like he is an injured bird. 

He can do nothing but gurgle at the giant face he sees looking at him with glowing green eyes. The entity seems sad and coos at Jason before they run a clawed finger over his neck and it feels cold. Jason feels even more tired now and can feel his eyes closing, the last thing he sees is the entity opening what looks like a portal of Lazarus water under them and he hears glass breaking before Dick's voice is crying out his name. 


The helmet cam saw a giant, space themed entity appear above Jason from the fog, the dark parts of their regal outfit and their long snake-like tail seems to be made of space itself and their long white hair floats as if underwater. They don't notice Jason until the cult leader points at him, this angers the entity and they yell something before waving a hand as if wiping off a screen. 

(Later, Tim would find all the cultists would have died of suffocation like all the air in the room was suddenly gone, the translated words were anger about harming "one of his denizens" in regards to Jason. This brings up questions about this 'King' having a claim of some kind on Jason.)

After the entity picks up Jason they seem to coo at him and his touch puts a layer of frost over his bleeding neck, stopping the now almost entirely green blood coming from it. Dick breaks into a warehouse window just as the entity sinks into their green portal with a completely limp Jason in it's hand and is gone, leaving only Jason's helmet and the red/green blood in the circle. 



Notes:

  • Jason did not expect the ritual to work or for his neck to be cut open as soon as he hit the circle, they usually don't start until then. He would have fought harder if he did, the cult seemed new and inexperienced for a blood sacrifice ritual. He thought his family would get there in time because he still had his hidden coms and could hear them.
  • A lot of media has cults chanting loudly and in unison, but is that a required part of one? I don't think Danny would have his own summoning ritual be so big and showy with how 90% of the show is him hiding what he is. He even chose Esperanto as the language used because it's not expected and not a lot of people know it. In canon only Tucker could understand Wulf at first it's so rare. 

         Clearly no one expects the leader to just talk to himself basically and suddenly you're mid-ritual like Jason and being sacrificed without warning. 

  • Maybe someone lost their instruction for it or magic books can be self updating and that's how the cult got Danny's summoning ritual? It's not even Danny's home world that he got summoned to so the possibilities are endless. He'll probably look into it later after Frostbite helps save the new sick Halfa he found. 
  • Danny, Sam, and Tucker are all about to graduate from high school and leave Amity Park when this happens, the portal will be shut down/absorbed by Danny so he can leave after telling his parents he is Phantom. If it goes well he can teach them about his other life and people, if it goes bad… Well, at least they are already leaving and Tucker has a new ID for Danny ready in the living realm? 

         Their plans will just now include a new Halfa Jason that needs help adjusting and healing. Jason just wants to get better, keep these three weird-os safe and alive, and go home. If he takes said weird-os with him to Gotham is up for future Jason to worry about. (any ships are up to the writer honestly, Jason is around the same age as the trio when he went to Gotham as Red Hood. None are minors.) 

  • Jason's helmet works around Danny because it has been taking in bits of his own ecto for years and doesn't short out around ghosts. He just thinks the shades the camera catches sometimes are glitches he needs to fix.

Notes:

Jason, not paying attention: Man, the fam is going to mock me for getting kidnapped.
Cult: -doing cult things, doesn't seem like they started yet-
Jason, thinking everything is fine: As Red Hood no less! This is the worst. :(
Cult: -moving Jason to the circle and immediately cutting his neck-
Jason: -surprised Pikachu face-

The Batfam reviewing the footage later
Tim: They're competent!? Why is the cult competent!?
Dick, freaking out: Forget the cultist, what just took Jason!?!
Steph: Well, either he got taken by a hot death god for fun or to be eaten.
Tim, glares at her while Dick freaks out more: Now look what you did! He's hysterical!

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