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Sometimes, Danny wished that someone else had taken down Pariah Dark. When he had fought the ghost, his only goal had been to keep the Zone and Amity Park safe. He hadn’t actually realized what ‘defeating the King in single combat’ could mean. Sure, he might have if he’d thought about it for a second, but he was kind of preoccupied at the time, okay? You go ahead and try to think through succession politics when you’re getting punched in the face.
Needless to say, Danny didn’t realize just how complicated his life would become from all this. He was proclaimed King of the Infinite Realms, shuffled into meetings by the Observant Council, and then promptly relieved of his ruling responsibilities by an appointed regent. While he didn’t have to do the whole ‘day to day ruling of subjects’ thing anymore (until he was deemed an adult by the Council anyway), he was still the king, and that came with problems.
Some of these he could handle. Having lower-level ghosts grovel while you flew by was weird, but manageable, and he was already wary of anyone cozying up to him for favors. Even having some ghosts try and challenge him for the throne wasn’t outside of his comfort zone. He had been dealing with ghosts of all sorts trying to fight him for years!
No, what was the worst were the summonings. He knew it was pretty common for humans to summon ghosts. Teens at parties were a huge culprit of that with the whole ‘Bloody Mary’ trend and all, but unless the summoner was able to use a specific summoning ritual, they’d usually get a harmless blob. Considering that Danny had been a new ghost, he hadn’t had a summoning ritual of his own yet, thank goodness. He didn’t want to think about his parents or the G.I.W. getting a hold of something like that. But now that he was king, any and every summoning spell, circle, or ritual for the ‘Ghost King’ now applied to him.
Yippee.
Danny had been pulled to so many cult circles, it was ridiculous! It’d happened at least five times in the last month, and one of those had been when he was studying for an algebra test. He’d been so close to understanding those formulas and then ‘poof’! He’s suddenly three hundred miles away and surrounded by weirdos in robes asking for his favor.
So, when he felt the telltale signs of a summoning for the sixth time that month? Danny just sighed, and set down his toothbrush. He’d be going to bed later than he was planning, it seemed. The familiar feeling of his transformation washed over him, the electric buzz of it still setting his nerves on end after all this time, and with a yanking force, Danny was pulled into the ether.
His hand pushed through the circle first, letting him stabilize himself on the ground before pushing the rest of his body through to the other side. Once the ground had solidified under him, Danny rubbed at his chest. Why did a summoning always have to pull at his core? It always made it so sore and achy afterwards.
“This is the Ghost King?” A low and gruff voice asked from outside the circle. “He’s a child.”
Danny looked up from where he was still knelt on the ground, and nearly scrambled back in shock. He was in a cave, well lit and completely decked out in tech that would’ve had Tucker drooling at the sight of it all. Standing at the center of it all were a very tired looking man in a trenchcoat, and Batman.
The actual Batman.
The very real, very much in front of him Batman who did not look impressed.
“Listen Bats, you wanted the Ghost King, you get whoever shows up. I told you this was a bloody stupid idea, but did you listen? No!” The other guy spoke, a thick British accent lacing his words with sarcasm and exasperation. He snapped closed the old and weathered book he was holding to accentuate his point. “Apologies, your majesty, I didn’t want to be involved in all this mess.” He directed the last sentence towards Danny, waving his hand about and leaning forward in some sarcastic semblance of a bow.
“Uh, it’s cool I guess,” Danny awkwardly got to his feet, eyes glued on the Dark Knight. “This, um, is this about the anti-ecto acts?”
Batman’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Danny felt his nerves spike. The Justice League had never come to Amity Park, even before the anti-ecto acts were imposed. Many citizens thought that the heroes had abandoned them to the ghostly threat, and thus public support of the League members was not very high in the area. As for Danny? He wasn’t sure. When he was a kid he had admired Superman and the rest, but after Walker had invaded the city, things changed.
He was sure that people had requested help from the heroes, but they’d never shown up. Instead, Danny had taken on the job of protecting the citizens and ghosts alike of Amity Park instead, but now that he was here in front of Batman, would the man accept his heroics? Or would he be seen as a threat?
“Anti-ecto? Don’t tell me you Americans have been threatening the ghost government now?” The tired man said with a groan, “I swear, I don’t get paid enough for this shit.”
“I’m not aware of any law of that nature.” Batman said, turning his head slightly to the tired man. He was about to continue, but Danny decided (for better or worse) to interrupt.
“What? I mean, I know you can’t be up to date with literally everything the government does, but seriously?” Danny’s fear abated for the moment, confusion instead taking the reins. “The law that says that ghosts and people with ghost powers have like, no rights? The one that bans us from basically existing?”
Batman tilted his head slightly, and pressed a gloved hand to where one would guess his ears were under the cowl. He muttered something out, but Danny could just make out a few of the words, enough of them to spark a flame within the boy.
“Are you serious right now? You really didn’t know they were a thing?” If he had been thinking clearly, he probably would have been a bit more careful around one of the most feared superheroes on the planet, but emotions were tricky in ghost form. They were louder, more potent, more likely to consume one’s better judgement. And Danny was angry.
“The acts probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for you guys! I mean, what else do you think is gonna happen when you ignore so many ghost attacks?”
“Attacks? What the hell are you on about?” The man in the trenchcoat stepped closer to the circle.
“Constantine.”
The man waved off Batman’s warning, instead looking to Danny for an answer.
“Amity Park? You know, the city that got dragged into the Infinite Realms?” At the wide eyed look from the man, Danny couldn’t help but bark out an incredulous laugh. “Really? You don’t know about this? I can’t tell you how many distress calls were sent to the Justice League, but none of you showed up!”
“Are we to believe that you wanted the League to show up?”
Danny threw his hands up in frustration. He didn’t like to do interviews or be on camera or anything, but his fights were always on the news. He couldn’t escape a day at school without hearing about news articles covering Phantom’s activities. How did Batman of all people not know?
“Yes! Because I was the one who had to fight the old king in order to keep Amity safe. Ancients, I thought you were supposed to be a detective or something.” Danny balled his hands into fists and stepped off the ground, letting himself hover. “You know what? Whatever you want, figure it out on your own. If you’re not going to help my city, I’m not helping you.”
Pressing a device next to his thermos, a portal appeared in mid-air. Immediately, Danny flew through it into the Zone, closing the rip in space behind him as he went. Once he was on the other side, Danny breathed a sigh of relief. It had taken his parents a long time to reproduce the Fenton Porta-Portal after the whole Johnny incident, but he was glad they had. He wasn’t sure what runes that Constantine guy had lined the summoning circle with, but they were probably pretty painful.
Taking a quick look around at his surroundings, he got his bearings and began the long flight home. If Batman and the Justice League wanted to talk to him again, he knew they would either track him down or just summon him again, but he didn’t care. Let them. Maybe he could finally get some real help for Amity Park this way.
. . .
Bruce stood staring at the cave’s computer as Constantine tried to see what went wrong with the security runes on the circle. The Ghost King shouldn’t have been able to leave them, but if this new king’s powers were different than the one described in the magician's sources, then they were operating with very few options.
On the screen, reports and request files made to the League from the past few years flew by. Search after search, and nothing came back from Amity Park, Illinois. Switching to a new application, Bruce scoured the internet for news articles, social media posts, anything from the area.
Nothing. Only the typical Wikipedia page, governmental websites, and school pages. Nothing about ghosts whatsoever. There wasn’t even a typical daily weather reporter. Humming, Bruce opened a new investigative file. For a city this size, a lack of online traffic from both official and public sources was concerning. That on its own would catch suspicion from him. Add in the Ghost King’s claims, and that the king, a child, was the one to handle them? That was more than concerning.
“Oracle,” Bruce knew Barbara had kept the line open because of the Ghost King incident, just in case. “We need eyes in Amity Park, Illinois.”
It seemed tracking down the Lazarus pools could wait for now.