Sleepy King
The Justice League Dark caught wind of a cult trying to summon the Ghost King. A being with power so terrible and great, that all of the chaotic Infinite Realms feared him. A true tyrant. Long ago it took the effort of ghosts equal to gods to seal him away into a permeant slumber.
And now this cult wishes to wake him and bring him to the living realm. It was a race against the clock to find the ritual site and all members were called on board, magic or not. Even Constantine looked stressed.
When he wakes, the boy is human. Dark haired. Blue-eyed.
...Bruce has a sneaking suspicion that this tyrant, whether consciously or unaware, is not unfamiliar to tactics of aggressive mimicry. It is a discomforting thought.
Still, soft, frail, and human-shaped, he looks as though he could be any one of Bruce's, Clark's, or possibly even Diana's children. The human-looking boy yawns, jaw cracking, arms stretching in the air. He slides off of the bed given to him, bare-footed. He pads over to the door with blanket still gripped in his fist. His eyes are half-lidded.
He still is, as far as Bruce can tell, mostly asleep.
Bruce debates with himself; what is better, that the boy knows that he is a prisoner, or that he is free to wander the Watchtower unheeded?
...Well, one of those issues, Bruce can fix. He clicks on the loudspeaker to the base. "Attention. The slumbering entity brought through to our reality yesterday at 1900 UTC is about to leave their temporary accommodations in the barracks. Do not engage unless you are conventionally invulnerable, or have permission from an upper member. Do not speak to them. Do not pass through the barracks until further announcements have been given."
Batman sweeps out of the monitor room without further notice to anyone. The boy had already reacted positively to his presence; the likelihood that further contact would put Bruce in danger is high, but not more than usual.
"Superman. With me."
Speaking to no one, as usual, feels performative— but Clark shoots him a thumbs up emoji on his communicator almost immediately. The image was followed up with a promise to meet him outside the barracks instead.
Fine. Bruce stalks off to find the boy, before any new supernatural incidents befall the Watchtower yet again.
Bruce clicks the door to one of the smaller kitchenettes. It slides open. Inside, Superman and the entity are nibbling on off-brand toaster pastries. Only Clark deigns to notice Bruce's entrance.
"There we are," Clark coaxes, taking the thing out of his mouth. It has been painted with pink frosting. The flavor is strawberry: an inferior flavor. "Get some calories in you. And look; here's my friend! He'll be able to help us out, so why don't you tell him your...problem?"
The boy keeps nibbling. His gaze doesn't shift. He looks dull, lifeless— until Clark gently nudges him, and he finally notices Batman in the room with him.
"I'm lost," the boy says, in a half-whisper. He's mumbling through his pop-tart. "Dad says you can help...?"
Clark winces, and Bruce would want to do the same in his position. None of them have ever asked royally supernatural entities to imprint on them, and yet now Bruce has a starfish for a son.
(Not that— not that Bruce begrudges Jarro's presence in his life. Jarro is an excellent, well-behaved child. Usually.)
"Of course." And Batman will help, of course. The faster they solve this new set of circumstances, the faster this boy will go back to whatever realm he came from, and leave Earth safe and sound. "What do you remember before you woke up here...?"
wait, no! I just realized there wasn't enough sleepy Danny in the other version I wrote. So take this instead (if you want, I'm not your dad).
---
The boy keeps sleepily nibbling on his breakfast pastry as his brows furrow in concentration. It's a familiar look, one Batman has seen on all his children's faces the morning after a particularly grueling patrol, when they clearly haven't gotten enough sleep and yet still have to get up for school.
"I finished my homework and went to bed…" the boy eventually says.
Bruce just hums in acknowledgment, it seems this tyrant king is familiar enough with modern American culture to say something like homework despite supposedly being in a slumber for centuries. The boy blinks, brows even more furrowed, he can almost see the gears slowly turning in the boy's head. It's very convincing.
"Dad, what time is it?" the boy asks.
Clark flinches again, but covers it with a bright smile. "In what time zone?"
The boy frowns even more somehow, his whole face covered in faint wrinkles. He's looking up at Clark through squinted eyes, there's practically smoke pouring from his ears.
“It’s the weekend, don’t worry about school,” Batman cuts in before the boy can think on it any more. There’s no knowing what will happen when the entity finishes waking up.
The boy turns his bleary eyed, squinting gaze on Batman. “It is?”
“That’s right,” Clark agrees readily. “In fact, it’s a three day weekend.” Today is actually Friday, so that’s a pretty good cover. Clark lifts the drooping pastry back to the boy’s mouth, he absently takes a bite as he mulls over the new information.
“Mr. Lancer said I’d fail math if I missed another test.”
Batman and Clark look at each other over the boy’s head, what an odd thing for a powerful immortal tyrant king to worry over. Either he was a very good actor, or something more was going on here.
“Well then, we’ll have to make sure you get to school on time on Monday, but right now it’s the weekend.”
“Weekend,” the boy mumbles sleepily before yawning wide, his hand half up in a pale imitation of politely covering his mouth. It’s no where near close enough to hide the sharp fangs in the boy’s mouth.
“You clearly need more sleep,” Batman says. With his half asleep state he almost wonders why the boy woke up at all.
“Clearly,” Clark agrees readily. “How about we get you back to bed?”
“But…” the boy’s brows furrow as he tries to concentrate, “what about… I’m lost?”
“It’s alright,” Clark reassures as he guides the boy to stand up. “We’ll still be here when you wake back up, you’re obviously too tired to deal with this right now anyway.”
“Dad?” The boy asks as he allows Clark to herd him back towards the room he’d been put in.
“It’s alright, it’s the weekend, remember? And growing boys need their sleep.”
“Gonna be tall as you someday,” the boy mumbles as he shuffles back to his borrowed room. Once there Clark sets about tucking the boy back in, Batman watching from the doorway. The boy seems to drift off quickly once he’s tucked back in, still clinging to his chosen blanket (Batman’s cape) rather than sleeping under it. Batman tries not to think about the implications.
Clark gives the boy’s hair one last pet and a whispered “Good night,” before leaving, floating out the door so he wouldn’t make a sound. They both quickly move down the hallway before saying a word.
“Oracle, did you get that?”
“There are a lot of schools, and Lancer is a pretty common last name.”
Batman sighs, he knew that would be the answer.
“What do you suspect?” Clark asks as they re-enter the kitchenette, Clark already tidying after himself.
“Would you expect an undead all powerful tyrant king from another dimension to worry about passing math class or finishing homework?”
Clark paused and winces, “I suppose not. But he is the king.”
“He is,” Batman agrees, “I just worry he may also be a boy who was used in a ritual against his will. We only arrived at the end, we don’t know if a host or sacrifice was placed in that circle.”
Clark sighs as his shoulders droop, “I was afraid you would say that. If that’s what’s going on it complicates things.”
“Hn,” Batman agrees.
“Any word from Constantine? Surely he’s done inspecting the remains of the ritual by now.”
“He’s still searching for a containment device for the king.”
“Found one, actually.” Constantine walks into the room, tossing what appears to be a travel mug up in the air and catching it.
Clark frowns, “Did you stop for coffee on the way?”
“Nah, mate, this is a ghost containment device guaranteed to hold even the ghost king.” He holds the mug up and points to a button on it, “Just take off the cap, point, and click.”
“We may have an issue, I believe the ghost king has been summoned into a host,” Batman says before they can get too far.
Constantine curses, “Of course, why would the bloody cultists make this easy for us?”
“I think I found him,” Oracle says over the comm.
Batman brings up his holographic wrist computer and holds it up so Clark and Constantine can also see. He switches Oracle to speaker, “Go ahead.”
A picture of a middle aged, balding man appears on the screen. “Mr. Ron Lancer, vice principal and teacher at Casper High School, Amity Park, Illinois. He teaches several subjects, including math. Of note is one of his students,” the picture changes to show a very familiar teenage boy, “one Mr. Daniel Fenton, who’s in danger of failing most of his classes. School started fifteen minutes ago and he is currently marked as an unexcused absence.”
Constantine whistles, “Sure picked him, looks like he could right blend in with any of your lot. Either lot.”
“Also, worth noting Daniel’s father, Jack Fenton.” The images changes to a family photo, including a large man who one might mistake for Clark if half asleep.
Clark sighs in relief, “So he just mistook me for his father.”
“But that leaves us with a problem, how do we remove the ghost king from the boy without harming him?”
The other two quiet at Batman’s question, both Clark and Batman looking to Constantine for the answer. “Right, let me get a look at the kid first. See what I’m working with.”
Batman simply stalks off, trusting the other two to follow him. He quietly open’s the door to the boy’s, Daniel’s, room and peeks in. Daniel snorts, but doesn’t seem to wake. Batman motions for Constantine to head in while Batman and Clark wait out in the hall, hovering in the doorway.
Constantine stops in the middle of the room, hand held out to make some kind of sign as he looks down at the sleeping boy. “Well, that’s interesting.”
Ooh!
Wonder what Constantine sees now that he didn't see at the summoning site.
Also, Batman better already be planning to get Danny's absence excused. They cannot let the boy fail math because he got kidnapped.
So I ended it there last time because this could go in several directions (Danny wakes up and sees the thermos, danny wakes up thinks it’s all a dream and sleepily rambles secrets, danny doesn’t wake up but something else happens, etc). I'm choosing this one, but if you wanna take it in another direction feel free.
---
Daniel's face scrunches up and he makes a kind of groaning sound. John quickly backs up, motioning Clark forward. Knowing this boy simply mistook him for his actual father rather than some kind of interdimensional cosmic horror imprinting on Clark makes this both easier and harder.
“Uuuugh, what stinks?”
“I'm not sure what you mean, son.”
“Danny,” Bruce whispers softly.
“Smells like rotten eggs,” Danny mumbles sleepily, already falling back asleep with John out of the room.
“We were just cleaning out the fridge, go back to sleep.”
“Did the hotdogs start a war again?” Danny slurs. At least that's what Clark thinks the boy said. He pays it no mind as Danny's breathing evens out, sometimes dreams are just weird like that.
Clark carefully tucks Danny back in, then just as carefully leaves the room as quietly as possible. They can't risk letting the boy wake up, not until John finds a way to do something about the king.
They all move back to the kitchenette, where John tucks the travel mug out of sight in one of his deep pockets.
“You're not gonna like this,” John starts with a tired sigh. He's already tucking a cigarette, unlit, into his lips. He's also fiddling with a lighter, though they all know he knows better than to actually use it.
“Tell us,” Bruce demands, the lenses of his cowl narrowed to mere slits.
“That kid is dead as a doornail.”
Clark closes his eyes in grief, they really were too late. He listens to the slow, steady heart beat just a few rooms over, knowing that even though the body is clearly still alive that’s not what John is talking about.
“He's also fully hale and alive. My guess is the ritual killed him and the ghost king possessing him is keeping him alive. Won't know for sure without a closer look.”
Bruce frowns, “But?”
“But the kid being asleep might be the only thing keeping Pariah Dark asleep, since he was pulled straight from the Sarcophagus of Eternal Slumber. And I can't risk getting a better read without waking him up again.”
“Rotten eggs,” Clark says. “He said he smelled rotten eggs.”
“Sulfur,” Bruce adds. Not that he needs to, they all know what that means.
John nods, “He can smell the demon on me. Best if I don't get close, we can call up others to come look at him though.”
“There's only so long he'll sleep,” Bruce says ominously. “Even teenagers only sleep so long, at most maybe two hours.”
“Problem is the kid's some kinda undead now,” John replies. “No knowing how he'll react to tranqs or sleep spells. Could put him out, could do nothing and us making a fuss would wake him, could put the kid to sleep and wake up Pariah.”
Clark sighs, “So in short, we're on an unknown time crunch to figure out how to safely remove the ghost king from this boy without waking either of them up and without killing the boy in the process.”
“Got it in one, mate.”
“There’s a further complication,” Bruce says. Likely he’s about to share some of the information Oracle has been feeding him off and on this whole time, just quiet enough that Clark would have to concentrate to listen in, but he’d rather concentrate on the soft breathing of the boy just down the hall. They can’t afford to be surprised by his waking. “Amity Park advertises itself as the most haunted town in America.”
“It don’t take being the world’s greatest detective to connect being haunted with the king of all ghosts.” John sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “Alright, plan?”
Clark looks to Bruce, he is their best strategist after all.
“Constantine, contact whoever you can. Superman, keep an eye on Danny. I’ll put together a quick presentation covering all the most important information Oracle is currently digging up, it seems the cult chose Danny as the ghost king’s host very carefully.”
“Right. Great. Wonderful. Splendiferous.” John sighs one last time, “Alright, I’m going to get as far away from the poor sod as I can and get on calling in back up.” John leaves without another word.
Before Bruce can leave, Clark turns to him and asks, "Do we tell his parents?"
Bruce breaths a little heavier, his shoulders drooping ever so slightly, the closest he'll allow himself to showing emotion while in the cowl. "What can we tell them at this point?"
Jack and Maddie were just heading upstairs for a snack break when the house phone rang. Maddie slotted herself in against the wall while Jack started digging through the fridge. “Fentonworks, Doctor Madeleine Fenton speaking.”
“Hello! This is Superman, with the Justice League. I have news about your son.”
“The Justice League? Well that’s just wonderful! Jack, honey, it’s the Justice League, the want to talk about Danny!”
“The Justice League? About time they finally noticed all of Danno’s hard work! He’s real hero material!”
Maddie hushed her husband, they weren’t allowed to talk about him being Phantom unless the other party already knew. It was hard, they were so proud of how their son had stepped up to defend the town, and open up entire new horizons in ghost studies to them! And their new daughter too! “What did you want to talk about Danny, exactly?”
“Well the good news is he’s safe, we rescued him from his kidnappers.”
“Kidnappers?” Maddie blinked, completely confused. “Honey, did something happen to Danny? The Justice League says he was kidnapped. Isn’t he at school?”
“Let’s go check the Ghost Logs!” Jack thundered back down the stairs to the lab.
Maddie did a quick check on the phone before following him down, thank the ancients for cordless handsets. “Jack, dear, there aren’t any missed calls.
“I assure you, ma’am, your son is here with us. He’s currently asleep.”
“Well that’s just odd, the school should’ve called us! I’m going to have to have a word with the principal after this!”
“There were a few spikes last night,” Jack said while scrolling through the ghost log. “Looks like we had an incursion last night that good ol’ Danno took care of, but there was another spike less than an hour after he got back, nothing since.”
“Alright, honey, now let me just put this on speaker so we can both talk to Mr. Superman at the same time.”
“Wonderful idea, fudgecakes.”
Maddie did just that, setting the handset down so they could be near it. “Now, tell us exactly what’s going on, please.”
“Right,” Superman sounded a bit nervous. “Last night we apprehended a cult summoning the Ghost King, but unfortunately we weren’t in time to stop the ritual. Your son was there, we believe the cult was using him either as a sacrifice or a host for the Ghost King, and even more unfortunately it looks like it worked.”
“I’m sorry, you think the Ghost King is overshadowing Danny?” Maddie asked skeptically.
“Overshadowing?” Superman asked in confusion before slowly stated, “Yes… we believe the Ghost King is… overshadowing Danny.”
“Well that just doesn’t make sense,” Maddie said emphatically. “The Ghost King is currently locked up in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.”
“I… how did you know that?” Superman asked.
“Everyone in Amity knows that,” Maddie said matter of factly. “And not only that, I doubt Danny’s actually being overshadowed.”
“He’s really good at getting ghosts out of overshadowed people,” Jack said proudly. “Doesn’t even need the gauntlets!”
“Where are you?” Maddie plowed on, “We have some tools we can bring just to be safe. Jack, be a dear and go get the Fenton Ecto Detecto and that Specter Deflector Danny modified.”
Superman sputtered, “You can’t just-”
“And why not?” Maddie asked, an edge of steel in her voice. “Right now it sounds like you’re holding our minor son without his parents present to advocate for him. Not to mention this sounds like a ghost situation and we happen to be ghost experts. Now, where is our son?” Maddie asked that last question oh so sweetly.
Superman gulped, “I’ll send someone to come escort you.”
-_-_-
Jack and Maddie strode confidently through the halls of the Justice League base. They hadn’t been told which base it was or where, but that hardly mattered if their son was on it. A man in a dirty trenchcoat that reeked of cigarette smoke met them halfway there.
“Did you tell them everything?” he asked Batman, who had been escorting them since they arrived through that fascinating teleporter.
“Ask Superman,” Batman replied.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” Maddie asked, not bothering to slow down to address this stranger.
“Name’s Constantine, occult consultant.” He looked the pair of scientists up and down, he had the same expression many people had right before calling them quacks. Well, the feeling was mutual, Maddie had to hold herself back from rolling her eyes and scoffing. Occultist indeed.
“Superman said some cult was trying to summon the Ghost King and Danny is involved somehow.”
“Not trying, they actually did it. So far as we can tell your son was used as his anchor, right now we’re trying to figure out how to get the tyrant out without killing him.”
Maddie suspected something, but she would keep her peace until they had more proof.
“Since the tyrant was summoned right out of the Sarcophagus of Eternal Slumber-”
Maddie did roll her eyes at that.
“... we think he’s asleep and hasn’t realized he’s out yet. So long as your son stays asleep it’s likely to stay that way. Hopefully we can get the king out soon.”
“Oh, if Danny is being overshadowed we have our ways.” She doubted it, Danny had said any ghost that tried to overshadow him only ever managed a few minutes at most. He seemed to think his will was too strong, but she suspected it had more to do with his body already being possessed by his own ghost. Not that she would test that theory, not even if there were actually a way to do it.
“That’s right,” Jack agreed eagerly. “We brought up the Specter Deflector Mark II! If Danny is being overshadowed we just put this on and that nasty ghost will be spit right out!”
“Not all ghosts are nasty,” Maddie reminded Jack absently.
“Of course, sweetie! But this is the Ghost King, we already know he’s nasty.”
“How do you know that?” Constantine asked.
Maddie ignored him as she walked through the door Batman had just opened. Inside was a dim bedroom with all the personality of a hotel room. She pulled out the Fenton Ecto Detecto and activated it. After a brief scan, the screen lit up with the results. Maddie leaned over and held the device so Jack could lean down and read it with her.
“Hmmm…” Jack said softly, “these readings seem within Danno’s norms.”
Maddie nodded along, “If there were another ghost the readings should be higher, even if they were hiding inside him somehow.”
“What do you mean another ghost?” Superman, who had joined their group just outside the bedroom, asked with a furrowed brow.
Maddie ignored him, “Should we try the belt or just wake him up?”
“Wake him up, of course! Danny, you’re late for school.”
“Huh, what?” Danny snorted awake, then looked around blearily.
Maddie reached over and flipped on the light, “You’re late for school, you already missed first period.”
Danny scrambled out of bed, “Shit! I didn’t finish that essay either! Kitty and Johnny had another fight and I had… to… where are we?” Danny stopped and spun around, taking in the room. Then he looked towards the door and slunk over to Maddie’s side.
She gently pat Danny on the head as he tried to hide behind her despite being the same height as her now. He was growing up so fast! “It’s alright, honey, the Justice League says you got kidnapped by a cult? And they rescued you?”
Danny looked over at Jack, to the doorway, then back to Maddie. “A cult?”
Maddie looked back to the doorway, where Batman and Superman were both staring intently at that Constantine fellow. “He… you… but we saw… what?”
“Perhaps the summoning failed when you broke the cult’s circle?” Maddie asked oh so sweetly. “Those things are notoriously unstable.”
“Unstable?!” Constantine asked, clearly offended.
Batman frowned, “It is possible the Ghost King lost his link to the mortal world when Danny fell back asleep after we broke the circle.”
Constantine groaned, “Yes, that’s true. But! That doesn’t explain him being dead.”
Danny flinched, Maddie held him closer and cooed to her boy while Jack moved to stand between them and the doorway. “Now listen here!”
“Danny had a near death experience a year ago,” Maddie cut in before Jack could get any more steam going. “We didn’t find out about it until recently because Danny and his friends covered it up, believing they’d get in trouble.” She did an exaggerated eye roll, “Teenagers!”
“We’re just glad our Danno is doing better now.” Jack ruffled Danny’s hair affectionately.
When Danny smiled and practically purred under the affection Maddie couldn’t help feeling a stab of guilt, a whole year and a half of Danny hiding everything from them because he was just a scared kid with too much responsibility thrown at him. Well things were getting better now, she hoped this nonsense wouldn’t interrupt that.
“Well, now that that misunderstanding is out of the way, I think it’s time we took our son home, he’s clearly just been through a traumatic event.”
Danny groaned, “I think it’s already too late for that math test, Mr. Lancer said he’ll fail me.”
“Don’t worry, Danny-boy!” Jack ruffled Danny’s hair once more, “We’ll call in and excuse your absence, it’s not your fault you got kidnapped in the middle of the night by some wacko cultists!”
“I’m sure someone from the Justice League will be happy to vouch for you as well,” Maddie said while glaring at the three men still standing in the doorway.
“Of course,” Batman said gruffly. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll go talk to Danny’s school personally.”
“There, see? And now you’ll have the rest of today to finish that essay and any other homework you have. I’m sure one of your friends will be by later with any other assignments you missed.”
Danny sighed, but let himself be guided out of the room by Maddie.
It wasn’t until later, when all three were safely home and Danny had had a chance to shower and put on his regular clothes that Maddie finally sat him down to ask the question that had been burning at the back of her mind since that first phone call. “Danny, sweetie, why did the ritual to summon the Ghost King snag you?”
Danny shrugged, “No idea, I didn’t even know I could be summoned.”
Maddie pursed her lips, she didn’t like that her boy could be summoned, occultists had such a slapdash understanding of how things worked. “Do you know anyone who might know what’s going on?”
Danny sheepishly held up the thermos that had been clipped to his pants. “Well, I know two. And if they don’t know I can think of a couple others we can ask.”
Maddie smiled brightly. “Wonderful! Go get your father, I’ll warm up the Specter Speeder and we can head to the Ghost Zone.”
“Okay.” Danny re-attached the thermos and hopped up to go find his dad. Maddie smiled as she watched him go. Then the smile fell as she made her way down into the lab. She really didn’t like the implications of what they’d been told, poor Danny already had shouldered far too much responsibility, she didn’t like the idea of adding a crown to that. But if that was the case they would face it together, as a family.
A nice, cute story with sleepy Danny and a stressed Justice League...
