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The first time Danny met Constantine, he wasn't in the best place.
It was just after Spectra had been chased out of the school and Danny didn't feel like his head was on right just yet. The man had stood out in Amity like a sore thumb, between his accent and his overall demeanor. It was obvious to anyone who had spent any amount of time in Amity that the man was an outsider.
He had approached Danny, though, while Danny was in his human form. Had taken a seat on the park bench next to him and pulled out a cigarette.
Danny had raised an eyebrow in response.
Constantine had taken a few drags of the cigarette before he spoke to Danny, asking him what was up with this town. Why was it soaked in ectoplasm? Why did the citizens of the town feel less than human?
Danny had his own theories, of course, but he hadn't offered any of them to the man. He had just shrugged in response and said that his parents always said that the veil between the living and the dead was thin here.
With that, Constantine had finished his cigarette and left. Danny didn't know where he went nor who he was, and he likely would have forgotten about the entire thing if he hadn't seen him again.
But he had.
The second time that Danny met Constantine was right after the ghost bug incident.
He had appeared out of what seemed to be nowhere, captured one of the lingering bugs, and looked over at Danny. He frowned, looking Danny up and down.
"You're looking a little worse for wear, kid."
Danny had huffed in response, crossing his arms, "Who are you?"
"It's better not to know," he had replied and moved to leave with the ghost bug.
"Wait!"
Constantine turned and looked back at him, raising an eyebrow.
"You can't just take that," Danny frowned, trying to figure out how he'd stop him without using his powers.
"Don't worry, kid, I know what I'm doing. I won't let it hurt anyone."
And then a portal appeared and he disappeared into it.
Danny was intrigued.
The third time was right after Danny defeated Pariah Dark.
He wasn't alone this time, and Danny realized that he must be on one of the superhero teams. He wasn't overly familiar with the less well known ones, but he knew enough to know who Raven was.
Though, that might have been from Sam's influence.
It was the first time Constantine had seen Danny as Phantom and not as Danny. He had frowned as he looked up at the floating teen before looking over at Raven, who nodded a bit. Another woman came up next to the two that Danny wasn't familiar enough with to know the name of and she crossed her arms as he looked at Danny.
"So, you're the one who stopped Pariah Dark?" the woman asked and Danny hesitantly nodded, "Impressive. What's your name?"
"…Phantom," Danny murmured, looking from one to the other.
"I'm Zatanna and these are Constantine and Raven. We're part of Justice League Dark."
Danny was surprised. He didn't think that his little town was worthy of notice by Justice League anything. It was concerning. Just who else had noticed what was happening in Amity?
"If you ever need help, don't hesitate to reach out," Zatanna handed Phantom a card with a few phone numbers on it.
"Sure thing," Danny replied, fully intending to do no such thing.
The Nasty Burger exploded.
It didn't happen the exact same way it had in the alternate future where Danny became a villain, but it still happened. By some small miracle, Jazz wasn't caught in it.
The others weren't nearly as lucky.
Danny had half expected Justice League Dark to show up again, but the explosion was very much a human problem, not a supernatural one. No one came to help.
Danny shut down for a while. He wasn't sure how long it was between the explosion and the funerals, having no real memory of the in between. Distantly he had been aware of Vlad showing up to act as a temporary guardian while the legal system figured out what to do with Jazz and Danny and Danny knew just what that could mean, but he couldn't fully bring himself to care.
At least, not until he found the card Zatanna had given him.
He had been packing up his stuff after the funerals. They were moving to Wisconsin to live with Vlad. The possibility of that future was closer than ever and Danny realized he had to do something to try and prevent it.
He dialed one of the numbers.
Jazz hadn't been thrilled, at first, at the thought of a random stranger that Danny had the number of stepping in and taking them to keep them from Vlad. She stopped any protests once she heard Danny explain to Constantine just what he'd seen in the future. The way he'd killed his own human half in order to absorb Vlad's ghost half so he didn't have to deal with the grief anymore.
How he destroyed the world. Killed the Justice League.
He couldn't risk that future coming to pass. Couldn't allow himself to be in Vlad's care with the temptation of knowing Vlad could remove his human half and make the hurt stop. Jazz tried to tell him that he wouldn't do that, he was stronger than that, she was here to help this time.
Constantine had chimed in that he'd do what he could to get them away from Vlad.
The House of Mystery certainly was what it sounded like.
Even Jazz seemed to be able to feel the way the house was alive. The house felt like it welcomed Danny and it somehow eased some of his hurt. It felt safe. He felt safe. He'd forgotten what it was like to feel that. Almost a year of looking over his shoulder for ghost attacks or his -
Danny abruptly cut off that thought. He wasn't ready to go there.
Constantine had warned them that he wasn't the best with kids and that he got called away often; Danny had shrugged and said he and Jazz were more than used to taking care of themselves. Constantine didn't seem comforted by that statement, but had moved forward with his plans to take them to his home.
He told them he was working on a plan b in case this arrangement didn't work out. He hadn't given any details about that plan, but now that they were in the house, Danny was less worried about it. They were an entire country away from Amity and everything that was left there. It would be a fresh start.
"What, like, Justice League Dark Jr?" Danny raised an eyebrow from where he was sitting at the dining room table, school books open in front of him.
It had taken months of settling in the House of Mystery before Danny had felt human enough again to attempt school. Jazz had wanted to throw herself back in right away, but Constantine made her take a step back and actually focus on herself for once. Jazz had not enjoyed that experience to say the least.
But now that they were back to a normal schedule and seemed to have adjusted well enough to being back in school, Constantine had approached Danny about what he wanted to do with his powers.
It was a fair question, one that Danny didn't really have an answer to. In Amity, he felt obligated to help; between his parents being the reason there were ghosts in town and the fact that he was the only one with the power to stop them it kind of felt like his job.
But he wasn't in Amity. The portal was shut down. He could finish school like a normal teenager. Or he could join one of the superhero teams.
Or he could start his own team, which was what Constantine had just alluded to.
"Terrible name," Constantine said, twiddling his unlit cigarette between his fingers, "But you get the vibe."
"Who would even be on the team? What other teenagers out there have powers that would be useful for supernatural things?"
"I have a couple of people in mind."
"You're hilarious," Danny deadpanned, looking over at Constantine.
He didn't respond, taking a sip from his flask, but Danny could still see the smirk. The girl before him blinked in confusion.
"Uh…" she started and Danny gave a sigh.
"Sorry. I go by Phantom. You go by Phantom Girl…"
"Oh!" She said clearly understanding immediately, "What are the odds of that?"
"Statistically? Pretty good, actually," Danny deadpanned.
Constantine snorted in response. Danny kicked a rock at him.
"I suppose I could - " The girl started and Danny waved her off.
"Nah, it's not a big deal. It does mean people might associate you with me, though, so if you don't want that then we could figure something else out."
She offered him a faint smile, "I'm sure that being associated with you isn't so terrible."
Danny cleared his throat in response, "So uh, powers?"
"Oh, intangibility and I can fly when I'm intangible. I also have a uh… explosive touch."
"Literally?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.
Phantom Girl hesitated a moment before becoming solid for the first time all conversation and reaching down to touch a different rock on the ground. The rock, indeed, exploded. She quickly went back to intangible.
"It's some sort of malfunction from being stuck in the Dark Multiverse."
"The what?"