Chapter Text
Danny Fenton already had a bad feeling about today. Sure, mainly it was because he was barely conscious and groggily reaching for the ringing phone by his bedside. However he could swear that the universe was laughing; never a good sign. No he wasn’t paranoid, he was tired and really wanted to sleep in for once. It was Sunday, he should be allowed that much at least.
High King his ass.
Blinking the illuminated screen of his phone into focus, Danny squinted slightly to make out who the hell was calling him this early. As soon as he processed the contact name however, he just slumped over with a groan. If he didn’t know for a fact that the bastard would either show up anyway or just straight up summon him, Danny would’ve just let the call ring out. At least he’d had the barest courtesy to call first.
“Constantine, the fuck do you want?”
“Well good morning to you too sunshine.” An unfortunately familiar British drawl replied.
“Yeah, emphasis on morning.” Danny flicked the call onto speaker and sunk back into his pillow. “Why are you calling me so early?”
“It’s 7:30 Danny.”
“Yeah, on a Sunday! I want to sleep.”
“Yeah yeah,” There was a telling flicker and deep breath that told him the magus had lit up a cigarette, “Unfortunately this ain’t a social call.”
“You’d need friends for that.” The teenaged halfa muttered to himself.
“Hilarious.” The flat reply telling Danny he hadn’t been as quiet as he’d thought. Either that or he was getting predictable and the Brit just assumed he was being a smartass. “Despite my best efforts at telling the self righteous pricks to keep their noses out of shite that doesn’t concern them, the League somehow found out about the Infinite Realms.”
Ah.
You know what, that was an almost half-decent reason for waking him up.
“And?”
“And suddenly they’ve decided that they need to know all ‘bout it.” Constantine huffed. “I want you to come here and do th-”
“I’m hanging up now trenchcoat.”
“Hol’ up there Casper, just hear me out.”
“Don’t wanna.”
“I can and will summon you.”
“I can and will give your soul back to the Demonic Lords.” Danny retorted but begrudgingly didn’t hang up on the magus. “Fine, talk.”
As much as he’d rather die again than admit it, Constantine had been an unfortunately helpful ally ever since Danny had first summoned him concerning his multiple outstanding contracts. Well, once he’d managed to convince the Brit that he wasn’t about to tear him apart and consume whatever was left that was.
“Simple fact of the matter is that now that your realm and subjects have pinged on the radar of our beloved heroes, they aren’t likely to leave it alone until they’ve all satisfied their curiosity or they've gotten a big enough warning to piss off.” The man sounded so tired; Danny sympathised. “Unfortunately my many, many warnings were apparently not good enough reason to stay away. Figured you’d like to be that reason.”
“Still not sure if that’s worth putting myself on the Justice League’s shit list though.”
“I’ve told you before and I’ll say it again kid, the League is mostly composed of super powered children.” Constantined huffed, his ‘complain-about-the-Justice-Pricks’ voice a regular participant in their conversations. “You’ll point out a button that’ll end the world and tell them that nothing will happen as long as they leave it alone. You haven’t even left the room before they’re poking around tryna figure out how it works, if they can pull it apart and just generally doing everything except leaving it alone. Inevitably one of them will accidentally lean on the button or assume ya lyin’ and press it anyway. Probably Flash or one of the Lanterns if we’re bein’ honest.”
This was probably the third or fourth time that Danny had heard this particular rant but it only seemed to become more applicable each time it was repeated. He really wished people could just leave well enough alone. Apparently not.
The young halfa rubbed his eyes with a groan as he debated the pros and cons of meeting with the Justice League. Sure he might convince them to keep out of anything to do with the Realms, if even just for their own good. The thought of an overshadowed Kryptonian or Amazonian wasn’t as terrifying as it may have been when he’d first tried his hand at the whole hero gig but it still wasn’t exactly comforting either.
Plus having contact with them on the off chance of a ghost or something similar popping out of a natural portal somewhere else on Earth would be convenient for quickly dealing with his more chaotic subjects.
A rather substantial possible downside however, would be Earth’s greatest heroes deciding that he was an unacceptable risk to the rest of humanity. Whether or not they could really do much against him was a bit up in the air considering that Dan had slaughtered them but being declared an interdimensional threat wouldn’t be doing wonders for his stress levels.
But if he did this he would be getting a chance to control the narrative and decide just how much informa-
“Ya still there Casper?”
“Give me three good reasons why I should talk to your estranged book club.”
“Ha! I only need two Princeling.” Constantince chuckled, his voice taking on a decidedly smug tone that Danny didn’t particularly care for. “One: I know for a fact that you’ve never turned down an opportunity to fuck with a rich dude.”
Rolling over with a groan, he picked his phone up as he struggled to get out of bed. It was a cheap move from the magus but dammit if he didn’t have Danny’s attention now. Years of dealing with the fruitloop’s shit and even longer listening to Sam’s continuous 'Eat the Rich’ rants had resulted in an instinctive need to screw with people that had more money than sense.
“Really?”
“Dark and spooky himself may or may not be capital B kinda wealthy…”
It said a lot about this call that finding out Batman himself, Lady Gotham’s Dark Knight, was a Billionaire, didn’t even phase him. The more he woke up, the more he kinda wanted to mess with the furry; consequences be damned.
“And the second reason?” He asked with trepidation. He just knew whatever was about to come out of Constantine’s mouth would either guarantee that he gave in and attend the meeting or spend the next week hiding in his Lair.
“The meetin’ll be in the Watchtower.”
Bastard.
“When’s the meeting?” Danny sighed, knowing full well he’d lost. Prince of the Infinite Realms, Heir Ascendant to the Eternal Throne, bribed with a view of the stars.
“Meeting’s in like an hour or so, just be ready for the summoning.” He could hear the shit eating grin. “Also if ya could play up the whole interdimensional royalty schtick, it’ll be great to see them all realise just how far they’ve gone and stuck their foot in it this time.”
“Did you tell them you were gonna summon the Ghost King?” He didn’t appreciate the implication that Constantine knew he’d get his way. The fact that he did was irrelevant.
“I said I could call in an expert on the Realms, never specified much beyond that.” The Brit explained carelessly. His penchant for chaos as nearly admirable as ever.
“You’re an evil bastard.” Danny didn’t bother to conceal his laughter. “Fine, I guess I’ll see you in an hour.”
“See ya then kid.”
“Yeah yeah, bye Uncle John.” Sarcasm heavy in his tone as he reached to end the call.
“You joke Casper but keep it up and I’ll pull a Batman! I’ve done more for l-”
Danny chuckled as he hung up on probably the most frustrating human he knew, a small grin unwillingly resting on his lips as he did so.
“Still don’t know what that means.”
Stretching with a yawn, he made his way downstairs to grab some breakfast before he got dragged off to what he assumed would be the most uncomfortable game of twenty questions ever.