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The day that Darkseid attacked, Jason Todd and Jasmine Fenton were in the Batcave.
They had been dating for around two months at that point when a mission gone wrong (among other things) had turned into a Red Hood reveal. During the ensuing chaos (in which Jason was still reeling over that fact that Jazz hadn’t dumped him then and there), Jazz had convinced him to let her visit the Bat cave sometime, and Bruce had surprisingly allowed it. Now that he thought about it, it probably wasn’t that surprising after all. Jazz had admitted afterward that she had had a hunch about his family’s identities, and with the way his siblings adored her, someone was bound to let her in at some point, with Bruce or without Bruce.
Even now, Jason sat on the sidelines as Jazz continued to gawk at the place while being pulled from one edge of the cave to the other by his over-active siblings. The demon child had even let her hold some of his beloved pets, which was a testament to her hold on his family.
Watching her smile as Tim showed her some of the new gear, red hair swishing as she turned in excitement, he could barely believe that he had managed to score someone like her.
Someone like him.
Even though he had been pretty out of it after his confession, Jazz had told him a secret of her own. She was liminal, just like him. She had told him that even though she hadn’t died like he did, her parent’s research and her brother’s accident had surrounded her with enough Ectoplasm that she was no longer completely alive. Death-touched, she called it.
Jazz had told him that there was more to her story, but at that point the pain killers had started to kick in so she had promised to tell him everything after he had healed.
In the past, Jason might have distrusted her for keeping things from him, but considering how Jasmine calmed his pit rage and how she was single-handedly bringing his family together again, all he could do was thank his lucky stars.
Jazz had streaked across his sky like a comet, and now everything was brighter because of it.
Finishing her third lap around the cave, Jazz walked up to him, still smiling.
“Your basement growing up was so much cooler than my basement growing up” she joked.
“Well, it got cooler when more people moved in. You ready to go?” He said, cocking his head towards the door.
“Yeah, sure. Let me just—“
She was cut off as a rumbling roared through the cave and the ground started to shake beneath them. Luckily, they were positioned near the far wall, but Jason still pulled her to his chest as a few of the looser stalactites crashed to the floor below.
As soon as the shaking stopped, Tim was at the Bat Computer reading of a series of alarms that had just popped up.
“It’s Darkseid,” he announced, “He… he just destroyed Pluto as a show of strength. He’s headed for earth next. B wants us at the Watchtower asap.”
A few inhales were heard at the news but it was a show of the Bat Clan’s experience with world-ending threats that none of them hesitated before suiting up.
“Wait, why the watchtower?” Stephanie called to Tim. “Shouldn’t we be here on earth defending it from Darkseid?"
“Diana thinks there might be a way to stop him without massive casualties. Apparently, there’s a new Ancient that Constantine might be able to get on our side, but he wants as many of us there as possible in case things go awry.”
Suited up and with the plan in place, Jason started to turn back to Jazz, trying to think of the safest place for her to be until they got back, only to stop as when he saw that he was already in front of him.
“You’re taking me with you.” She announced, clearly leaving no room for argument.
“Wha—“
“I told you that I have connections with the occult and if you are planning to summon something and want to wake up in one piece tomorrow, you are going to need some help.”
“Jazz, I’m sure that Constantine knows what he’s doing and—“
Jasmine gave him a look, her eyes just barely glowing green. If this was how scary she looked with her eyes only at half power, he could suddenly understand why people tended to back off when he did it.
He sighed, holding the bridge of his nose,“You realize that Bruce is going to kill me, right?”
“Has that ever stopped you in the past?”
“Touché.”
Damn, he loved this woman.
—-
After a quick discussion and a trip through the Zeta Tube, the bat family, plus his personal red-headed angel, had made it to the Watchtower.
Despite his opposition to her joining them, Jazz was actually doing pretty well up here. She hadn’t even seemed disoriented after the Zeta Tube, which was a feat in and of itself. In fact, she wasn’t even gawking over the view like most do when they first got here; she was just staring frustratedly at her phone as they all hurried to the main meeting room.
Duke noticed what she was looking at and walked over.
“What are you doing?”
She looked up, startled and sheepish.
“Sorry. I’m trying to contact my brother but none of my texts seem to be going through…”
“Oh, we should have warned you. The Watchtower doesn’t allow any communication that isn’t on one of the Justice League’s secure channels. Sorry.”
That was Bruce’s paranoia for you.
“Don’t worry. That’s really smart actually.” She huffed in both amusement and annoyance. ”I should have guessed that something like that was in place from the get-go. Thanks for the clarification.”
After Signal rejoined the others, Jason thought he heard Jazz mumble something under her breath about having to do it the hard way, but at that moment they were welcomed by a very strange sight.
Entering the main meeting room, the table that usually dominated a majority of it had been pushed to the wall, giving enough room for Constantine to be drawing something on the floor in lime green chalk while the screen displaying the position of Darksied’s forces and their proximity to earth flashed in the background.
The man looked like he hadn’t slept in days and Jason would bet that was probably true based on the fact that he had just stuck the chalk in his mouth while trying to continue his line on the floor with the butt of his cigarette.
The rest of the room was pretty much empty except for Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman awkwardly standing on the sidelines holding candles that Jason could only assume was for the “ritual” or whatever the heck this was.
Damion, blunt as ever, immediately went to Batman’s side.
“Father, why are we wasting time on… this?”
He gestured to the marks on the floor.
“Shouldn’t we be preparing ourselves for the coming conflict?”
“In any other circumstance we would be,” Diana answered, “ but recently there have been rumors that a new Ancient has emerged who might be able to help us. I know it is a large risk, but if taking the time to contact them prevents countless civilian casualties, then it will be worth it.”
“Well then you better pray this thing bloody works.” Constantine said while spitting out the chalk and relighting what was left of his cigarette. ”I hope you realize that I’m not going to go out on a limb for you every time one of you thinks that a god might fix your problems.”
As this was being said, the tail end of the Bat clan—Jason followed by Jazz—finally managed to make it inside. The room fell silent as the standing heroes collectively registered the presence of a civilian in their midst, but Jasmine was too focused on the markings on the floor to notice their pause.
“Red Hood,” Batman said slowly, “Why is Jasmine here?”
“Well, besides that fact that I couldn’t just leave her in a cave that is one earthquake away from collapsing in on itself—“
Jazz cut him off.
“I’m here because apparently I’m your best hope of getting the help you need and living to tell the tale. At least, according to whatever death trap is being drawn on your floor right now.”
“Hey-“ Constantine protested, before letting out a much louder “HEY!” as Jazz walked over and snatched his grimoire (or whatever the thing was called) from where it lay open on the floor.
“Okay, here’s your first problem. This thing is ancient.” Jazz addressed the room as she spoke, flipping through the book. “From the looks of it, this thing was probably written around 3000 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia or somewhere similar, meaning that while these would probably work great if you were trying to summon a god of rain or harvest, but they won’t work so well for anything more recent than that. Secondly, the runes you are using are outdated. I’m sure they work for simpler spells or summonings but the standard language of the Infinite Realms has changed a lot since this book was written, making the sigil you are currently drawing practically illegible.”
The room was left in stunned silence as Jazz finished her tirade, closed the book, and luckily had the mind to look sheepish and she handed it back to a confused and more than slightly offended Constantine.
“I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I’ve just heard too many stories of summonings gone wrong and I would prefer that didn’t happen.”
“Fine,” snapped Constantine, snatching his grimoire back. “If you know so much about summonings, why don’t you summon the star god yourself then, hm? You’re the bloody genius here, apparently.”
For some reason, Jazz lit up at Constantine’s challenge, making the whole room wonder if he had not just made a massive mistake.
“Really?!”Jazz didn’t wait for anyone to respond before she grabbed a piece of chalk and scrubbed out a clean spot in the middle of the floor.
“Perfect! This will make things so much easier.”
——
The next five minutes were again spent in silence; this time not of shock, but of awe. As the Justice League watched, Jasmine kneeled and drew a perfect circle in the clean spot she had created for herself. Where Constantine made a large circle, Jazz made a small one, and where he had put purposeful runes, she created a perfectly chaotic symphony. Watching her, Jason wondered if this was what it felt like to watch an artist create their masterpiece, because Jazz was clearly a master at her craft. He was mesmerized as she drew; lines upon lines, circles within circles. It was an impossible shape. One with more lines than could be easily comprehended, but Jazz created it effortlessly. It was like it was second nature to her; like wind upon water, like a dancer on stage. The only thing that tore Jason’s eyes from her movements was the sight of Constantine growing visibly paler as he also watched on the other side of the room.
Jazz finished the sigil with a final flourish then carefully took off her necklace—The one of Polaris that her brother had given her—and placed it in the center of the summoning circle.
The silence was only broken by the sharp intake of breath from the heroes around her as she grabbed a box-cutter from a nearby table and positioned it over her open palm.
Before she (or anyone else) could do anything, however, Constantine was next to her, holding back her hand with the blade in it.
Every nerve in Jason’s body screamed at him to get that man away from her and that he should be the one preventing her from doing… whatever this was, but something in Constantine’s expression prevented him from stepping in between them.
Constantine no longer looked offended, instead… he looked scared.
“You—bloody hell—You do know what you are about to summon, right?”
“Yes,” Jazz fixed him with a stare that seemed to communicate a lot more than what she was saying out loud. “We are on a time limit. I figured that you wouldn’t care who we I summoned as long as they could get the job done before we have any living casualties. It’s a risk, I know, but it's a risk that I am willing to take.”
With one more look, Constantine let go and returned to his spot along the wall. Before Jazmine could continue, however, Red Hood stepped forward.
Being (or at least having been) with the Bat Clan meant accepting magic as a part of life while also learning not to get involved. As a rule of thumb, it’s better to leave the gods and magical creatures to the people who can fly, deflect bullets, and who are usually part god themselves. Despite the fact that that left Jason with almost no knowledge of what to expect from this, he could tell that whatever was going on was unusual even for magic standards. Whatever Jazz was about to do had made John Constantine himself take action—a thing so momentous that pigs might as well be flying. If whatever they were facing had that kind of power, there was no way in hell that he would let the woman he loved face it alone. He couldn’t prepare for it, he didn’t understand it, and would most likely get killed if he tried fighting it, but he loved Jazz with everything he had, and so would stand beside her instead.
Jazz eyed him as he knelt beside her, probably expecting him to stop her too. In most other scenarios he probably would have.
But he trusted her.
Instead, he simply pulled his switch blade out from his belt and handed it to her. It still wasn’t ideal, but he had cleaned and sharpened that one just last night, and he had more faith in it than in the rusty box-cutter Jazz had found.
“…thank you.” Jazz whispered, taking the proffered blade and giving him a peck on the cheek before refocusing on the subject at hand.
With one final inhale, Jasmine brought the knife down, creating a shallow slice in her palm, and sending a few drops of blood rolling off her palm and to the awaiting floor below.
Jason didn’t know what he expected to happen (maybe he thought there would be an explosion or something?), but nothing could have prepared him for the stillness that seemed to encompass the room as the red met green. This silence wasn’t the silence before disaster, or even the silence of safety. No, this silence was something else. It ripped through the room like a tidal wave, consuming everything so completely that even the stars outside seemed to be holding their breath.
Maybe they were.
Glancing up at Jazz, Jason nearly jumped at the electric green eyes that were locked on the symbols below. Symbols that were now glowing the exact same shade of electric green.
A cold wind blew through the meeting room, defying the perpetually climate-controlled watchtower. Capes and hair rustled in the wind as it seemed to swirl inward, coalescing around the circle and those around it.
Luckily, Jason’s mask and jacket blocked him from most of the chill, but beside him, Jasmine remained completely unfazed by it even as his siblings huddled deeper inside their capes.
In fact, as everyone else became increasingly disheveled by the wind, it barely seemed to touch Jasmine. Instead of being harsh, it played in her hair, dancing along her shoulders and collar and making it look like it was almost floating around her. Combined with the green glow from the runes highlighting her cheekbones, Jazz looked simply ethereal.
Jason really hoped that none of his siblings ever gained the ability to read minds or he would never hear the end of it.
Sadly, his starring time was cut short as the lights of the watchtower abruptly flickered off, leaving the room lit only by the runes on the floor, the stars outside, and Jazz’s necklace that was now hovering a few feet off the floor and glowing a bright blue color.
The silence of the room broke as Jasmine rushed to her feet in front of the floating star with Jason following close behind. As Jazz stepped forward, a strange buzzing began to emanate from the pendant. Most would probably describe it as something close to radio static, but as it continued, Jason had the strangest feeling that there was something more to the sound. If he focused, he felt like he could almost find meaning in it, like there was some nuance to it that he was just failing to grasp.
Whatever it was though, the necklace had apparently done its duty because the sound stopped as quickly as it had started.
The room’s new-found quiet made it even more surprising when Jazz stepped up and responded to it.
“Yes, of course.” She cleared her throat and stood up straighter, seeming to take on an air of power as she did so.
“I, Jasmine Nightingale, Ambassador of Liminals and Royal Advisor, do request an audience with High King Phantom of the Infinite Realms. It is urgent.”
The pendant began to buzz again at that, and before Jason or anyone else could properly process what had just been said, the star was engulfed in green flames and a voice began to come out of it.
“Jazz?” It said, “I thought I told you never to use this number.”
The voice echoed through the room (despite that being impossible considering the shape and material that the meeting room was made of), layering and doubling back on itself yet still managed to sound somewhat human and very confused.
“Sorry, I had to. The Watchtower doesn’t have guest WiFi.” Jazz explained to the impossible voice.
“That’s dumb.”
“Tell me about it.”
At that, Jason thought he heard Bruce grumble something about security measures, but that wasn’t really important right now.
“Anyway,” Jazz continued, “You heard that Darkseid is on a conquering spree and is headed for earth next, right? Could we have some help with that?”
“I mean sure, but don’t you usually have the Justice League to deal with that sort of thing?”.
“Did I mention that before Darksied set a course for earth, he blew up the planet Pluto as a show of strength?”
“…”
“O̴̟̜͑̈́̈́̓̈͊͝H̷͈͉͉̝̐͘͠͝,̴̧̘͚͉͙̖̙̦͚̮̮̻̩̺͍̻̄͛͒̑̊͒͜ ̸̘͔̺̱̉̍͆̉͌̀̓̇́͋̍͗͆͗̄̕͠H̶̖̝̺̼͕͍̩͕̪̪͔̼͚̟̒̈́̍̎̐́̏̄̄̂̔͊̚͘͝ͅḘ̵͍̥͙̩͖̻͖̱̝͗͆͌̚͜͜ͅC̵̡̧̛̪̱̝̺̣̺̏͜ͅK̷̮̂̐ ̴̧̨̧͎̣͙̖̩̳̰̰͓̣̹̣͇͌̿̉̋̚͘͠͠N̶͓͖̦̟̬̋̌̀̉̅̋͆̓͛̈́̌̉̕͜͠Ǒ̶̢̱̦̣̟̘!̷̤͖̔̈́̊͑̆͗̈́͑̈́̅̈́̈̇̂!̴̡̡̥͖͙̞̤͙̙̞̲̰̞̝̦̅͛́̄͊͆̍͋͌̈̎̚̚!̴̢̳̺̙͇̝̠͍̔́̆̄̿̉̔͑͋”
The unholy cacophony of screams and dying stars that exploded through the room was promptly followed by a sound like fabric ripping as a Lazarus green portal seemingly materialized out of the air inside the Watchtower.
Out of the portal stepped a man—though Jason could admit that that description was about as accurate as describing Cthulhu as an octopus. The man was tall, probably as tall as he was, and wore a black jumpsuit covered in pieces of medieval armor. Flowing from behind him was a cloak that appeared to be cut from the night sky itself, complimenting the crown of northern lights that rested just above his bone-white hair. These were the things that Jason focused on because he was unsure if he was even capable of processing any of the man’s features. The only things that he could see before his brain began to hurt from the sheer amount of power radiating off him were his pointed ears that were studded with stars and his glowing green eyes that were currently incredibly angry.
“I̵̦͛ ̸͓̑a̴͍̎m̴̮̀ ̶̺̆ğ̶͚o̴̬̐i̶̭̓n̵̼̆g̷͇͛ ̴̽͜ṫ̶͈ó̴̪ ̵̖͂m̶͙̔ȁ̵͙k̸̠̄e̴̛͜ ̶͚̃ṯ̸̒h̷͆͜e̶̻͠m̶̨̓ ̸͚̕r̸̤̈́e̵̼͊g̵̮̅r̴͉̈ȇ̴̱t̸̗̀ ̵̖̒ĕ̷͍ṿ̷̊e̸̱͆r̷̻͋ ̶̡̍b̸͙͒ẹ̴̔i̵̜͑ń̶͚g̴͔̾ ̴̝̂b̴̬̚ô̷̩r̴̨̓n̶͓̈.̷̭̌ ̴͘͜N̴̘̂o̵̲̎ ̵̣̕o̷̘͝ņ̴̛e̴̪̅ ̶͖̉t̵̹̉ǫ̶̉u̶̲̐c̴̙̅h̴͍̄e̶͖͌s̸͘͜ ̵͙̏Ṕ̵̹l̶̟͒u̸̖̍t̷̤̉õ̴͈ ̶̮̉w̸̩͛ǐ̷͇t̴̮̚ḥ̸͗ó̷͚û̴̥t̴̉ͅ ̶͉͋m̴̜̚y̸͈͠ ̵̨͂s̴͉̊å̴̺ẏ̵̖ ̶͈̑s̴̠͋o̸̰̽.̷̞͑ ̷͇͠B̶̙̕ẽ̶̞ ̵̻̋b̵̲̅ȁ̷͇c̷̝͐k̵̞͛ ̷͎̍i̶̝̍ņ̸̈́ ̵̙̊5̸̪̊”
With that, the man disappeared in an eruption of green flames, leaving the rest of the heroes with the chance to catch their breath (or in Constantine’s case, the chance to get up off of his knees). Everything happened so quickly that Jason hadn’t had the time to check on Jazz, but apparently that was never necessary. While everyone else was still doubled over from the onslaught of… whatever the heck that was, Jazz was standing calmly and confidently in front of where the portal had been a few seconds earlier, poised as always. She didn’t even look rattled.
Noticing his stares, Jazz returned to his side, placing her hands on his shoulders and worriedly looking him over the way she usually did after patrol.
“I’m sorry. I should have warned you. I forget how intense he can be at times, especially when angry.”
And all of a sudden, a new worry was added to Jason’s list.
How familiar was Jazz with this guy? Jason wasn’t the type of person to be suspicious of every other man that his girlfriend came into contact with, but if he was competing for Jazz’s attention against whatever that was? That didn’t sound like something that would end well for him. Not that Jason wouldn’t try regardless; as long as Jazz still loved him, he was willing to fight any number of enemies to keep her safe.
His silence must have betrayed some of his inner turmoil, because Jasmine smiled and chose that moment to lower his mask just enough to pull him into a passionate kiss.
Oh yeah. He would do anything for this woman; even fight whatever god/monster/thing Jazz had just summoned.
A chorus of gagging came from the corner where his younger siblings were currently located.
He flipped the bird in their general direction.
Unfortunately, their moment was ruined by Constantine gripping Jazz’s shoulders and flipping her to face him.
“Listen, lady,” he said, desperate, “I don’t know who you to be able to summon the fucking High King, but please tell me that you also have a way to send him back?!?”
On any other day, Jason would have punched his lights out for man-handling Jazz like that (and also cutting their kiss short). The only thing that was preventing him from immediately doing so was the fact that the man was currently white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf. He was still considering it though.
Jazz must have felt the tension radiating from Red Hood, because she put a placating hand on his arm, causing the green in Jason’s vision to recede and also keeping him from curb stomping the poor man then and there.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” she said, calmly “Danny isn’t like the last king. He isn’t the type to abuse the power he is given. He will leave of his own volition once he is done here.”
“Who-“
“Also he should be back soon and he won’t be happy if he finds you touching me like this.”
That made Constantine back up real quick.
Not a moment too soon, too.
And Jazz was right.
A short alarm came from the screen broadcasting Darkseid's position, but when they turned to see the problem, there was none.
Like, literally, there was none.
The small army of blinking arrows that symbolized Darkseid's fleet had just… disappeared.
“What the?” Red Robin said as began navigating through computer screens.
He never got the chance to figure it out, however, before an eruption of green flames announced the presence of their white-haired guest.
Instead of standing this time, the man appeared in a relaxed position, floating off the ground somewhat as he messed with something in his hands.
As the heroes watched, he compressed the thing between his palms one final time, causing a flash of light to emanate from the object, before he held it up to the fluorescent lights like he was inspecting it.
It was a marble, or at least it looked like one to Jason. It was a small brown-and-cream colored orb, about as big as a quarter. As the man turned it in the light, Jason saw that it wasn’t made out of glass like he had originally thought, but was instead made of some opaque material that allowed the two colors to swirl in random patterns. It was kind of pretty. It even had a spot that looked like a heart on it.
The heart-shaped mark must have meant something important because Jason heard Tim and Diana reflexively inhale as it caught the light.
Now that he thought about it, something about it did look familiar.
Where had he seen it before?
Oh right! It looked like the spot on Pluto.
Wait…that means…
“Pretty cool, huh?” The man smiled at the recognition on their faces, “ Pluto’s heart has always been one of her most distinctive features. Thanks for giving me the heads up in time to be able to save it. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites but…”
He smiled as he tossed the marble planet from one hand to the other.
Now that the oppressive feeling of power was gone— it was still there, just subdued— Jason could actually “see” what the man looked like.
Man was still definitely the wrong term, no normal human would have teeth or nails that sharp, but the rest of him wasn’t the eldritch monstrosity that Jason had been unable to previously comprehend.
The man was young, probably in his mid-twenties—at least by the looks of it. He had pale skin and royal green eyes; In fact, if he lost the cloak, armor, and crown, he could probably pass as a normal, maybe even attractive, human. Except for the whole white hair and aura of power of course.
“Oh great High King of the Infinite Realms,” Constantine said while bowing deeply in front of the summoning circle and either trying to non-vocally get them to follow suit or was trying to subtly glare them out of existence. Most likely both.
“We are eternally grateful for your assistance in defending our world against Darkseid's forces. You have saved thousands of lives from destruction and—“
“Speaking of Darkseid,” Superman interrupted, “Um, what happened to them? They just disappeared off of our radar.”
“N-not that we aren’t grateful of course.” He hurriedly amended from the glare that Constantine gave him from his still half-bent position. “But, uh, just out of curiosity…”
“Oh, of course,” the man—the High King—said, thankfully unoffended,“I put them into the custody of the Infinite Realms. I know that Darkseid would traditionally be under your jurisdiction, but considering that they destroyed a planet and that I had a hand in their downfall, I thought I would just be simpler to teleport them directly to the Infinite Realms to await trial. Unless you would like to deal with them yourself?”
Jason would have thought there would be sarcasm behind that statement, but the white-haired man was being completely sincere. Jason had no doubt in his mind that if they asked, this entity would teleport Darkseid's entire fleet back to this universe solely so that the Justice League could pass judgment on Darkseid themselves. There was no way in heck they were doing that, but the option was nice.
“Oh, no, thank you,” Superman agreed, “I’m sure the Infinite Realms are much more equipped to pass judgment to that sort of thing than we are.”
“Understandable,” the man chuckled, “I’ve dealt with these types before and the amount of paperwork they generate should be illegal.”
“Ahem,” Jazz very purposely cleared her throat, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Oh, right! Here!” The entity tossed Superman the miniature planet, “All I really did was pick up the pieces that Darkseid destroyed and glued it back together. The rest of it is all on Pluto. All you need to do is to wait about a week for her to fully heal, then just pop her somewhere around her original orbit. Once there, she’ll grow back to normal size and figure out where she needs to go on her own.…at least one of you is able to go into space, right?”
I mean, it was nice of him to double check, all things considering.
“Well, yes. The planet also,” Jazz amended, “but isn’t there something else you are forgetting?”
The man stared at her blankly
“Something that Clockwork had you practicing for three months?” She waved her hand in a go-on sort of motion, almost like she was trying to convince the gears in his head to move faster via example, but it was still a solid few seconds before whatever she was referring to finally clicked.
“Crap. Right.”
Moving from his previous relaxed position in the air, the man quickly flipped himself upright, standing to his full height with his feet just barely hovering off the floor.
It was a much more commanding position and it actually reminded him a lot of Jazz when she was the one giving orders.
“My apologies,” he said, giving a sort of half-bow. “I haven’t properly introduced myself. My name is Danny Phantom, High King of the Infinite Realms. It is a pleasure to finally meet the Justice League, of whom I have heard so much about. I hope that, despite my- uh- indecorous first impression, we can move forward with nothing but goodwill throughout all our future endeavors.”
“Future endeavors?” Batman spoke up in his usual distrusting gravel, “So we will be seeing more of each other?”
Phantom chuckled, “Well, I can promise you that I will meet all of you at least once more—that’s a meeting that not even superheroes can escape—but considering that Jazz has taken up residence in this world, I would imagine that this won’t be that last we will see of each other in the living world either.”
“Besides,” he continued smiling while looking out the windows, “anyone who can appreciate a view like this one is good in my book.”
“Speaking of which,” Jasmine piped up, turning to face Phantom. “Thanks for helping us out. That would have been a lot worse without your intervention.”
“No problem; you can always pay me back later.”
“I’ll take it out of your tab.”
He laughed,“That’s fair.”
“But seriously,” he said, turning to face the rest of the Justice League, “if anyone messes with my stars again, call Jazz. She knows my number. And please don’t try to contact me via rune, that’s a good way to get your entire body flipped inside out if you do it wrong.”
He eyed the slightly smudged marks of Constantine’s summoning circle on the floor warily before making concerned eye contact with Jazz, then looking back toward the rest of the heroes.
“Like, seriously. Don’t”
“Don’t worry,”Jazz nodded in agreement,” there won’t be a next time. But for now…”
She held her hand up vertical, palm open, next to her head.
Jason hadn’t the foggiest idea what that was supposed to mean until he saw the star-shaped necklace that Phantom was casually spinning in a circle around his index finger. At Jasmine’s signal, the man launched the pendant at her in a move that had clearly been practiced and perfected from the way that Jazz was able to catch it without even flinching.
“Thanks,” she said, putting the Polaris necklace back on. “But you should probably get going. You have a meeting in fifteen minutes that you can’t be late for.”
Phantom grimaced
“Don’t give me that look. You know you’ll already have to give the Observants your rationale for being here or else they will be on your tail about it for the next century.”
“Yeah, I know, but I feel like I shouldn’t have to give an entire freaking PowerPoint presentation to justify this one”
As he spoke, Phantom turned his back to the rest of the room and casually ripped a new swirling green portal from the fabric of reality with one long claw that Jason swore did not exist a few moments before.
“I mean, think about it,” he continued, stepping one foot in while still talking to Jazz. “ You: in danger. Pluto: destroyed. That’s two of my obsessions that Darkseid was messing with; you know I can’t just ignore that.”
“That's true, but maybe try to emphasize the Pluto: destroyed part in your presentation. You know the fact that a significant portion of the people you are bound to protect are still alive freaks them out to no end.”
“Eyeball sympathizer.”
She just smiled at him.
“Anyway,” Phantom announced to the rest of the heroes. “Thank you again for your hospitality and it was an honor to meet you all.”
“Are we still having dinner on Sunday?” He asked Jazz who gave two thumbs up.
He pumped his fist at that before giving everyone one final wave and disappearing into the portal.
There was a period of silence as the rift closed up on its own. Jason assumed that everyone else was trying to process what had just happened, but he was just trying to figure out what that last question meant.
Sunday dinner? Jason knew that Jazz always hosted Sunday dinner for whatever family was able to travel up to Gotham, but that was very much a family event. Even he hadn’t been invited until a few weeks previously.
Actually, Jazz had been really excited for this next one because her younger sibling was finally able to visit.
“Jasmine,” Batman broke the silence, “Have you met King Phantom before?”
But that meant…
“Of course,” she smiled
“He’s my little brother.”