Work Text:
The Justice League had been on this case for over two months now. It hadn’t been a top priority before. Something that had only pinged on the local PD’s radars. Missing people reports that had trickled in and were lost in the seas of other cases just like them. But then bodies started to be recovered. Each of them exhibiting the exact same cause of death. All of them in conspicuous places. Hands and feet bound, mouth gagged, bloody runes carved or painted over their bodies. The runes were never exactly in the same place. But the more recent cases were starting to show some consistency.
When the runes started to become more consistent energy spikes followed. At every site there were three things in common; the body of a recently missing person covered in runes, a severe energy spike with slight variations, and a summoning circle.
“Yeah I have no idea.” Constantine takes a long drag from his cigarette. Exhaling slowly before looking around again, hoping to see something he hadn’t before. “All I can get from this is that it’s a summoning circle. A powerful one at that.”
“You can’t tell at all who or what they were trying to summon?” Batman questions as he continues to take pictures of the crime scene and jot down notes. Cataloguing every single detail, knowing that he has to be extremely thorough if he wanted to make any kind of connections between the cases other than what was already obvious.
“Nope. The closest I can get is that it’s something from Beyond.” Constantine scuffs his boot at the summoning circle.
“Beyond?” Superman enters the room, a concerned look on his face. It was the third body and summoning circle they had found in the last week. This most recent one being found in Metropolis.
“Exactly, whatever they’re going after is some kind of demon of the afterlife. They’ve got a few vague names inscribed in the circle but nothing concrete.” Another long drag and slow exhale.
After that they had no more leads. The locations were sporadic, if there was more than one in the same city they usually had at least a week or more between summonings. They had hit mostly larger cities that had one or more heroes and vigilantes protecting it. As well as some smaller towns that sometimes had a hero. There was also two rural towns that had no heroes or JL connections whatsoever. But there was no rhyme or reason to how they picked the locations. Sometimes they were in abandoned warehouses. Others in deserted and unkempt back lots. With some in houses where the residents weren’t there for extended periods of time.
The energy spikes were also dead ends. There was nothing in any database, earthly or otherwise, that had any kind of record of what the energy was or where it came from. The victims were all dead ends as well. None of them knew each other in any way or form. Diverse backgrounds, situations, ages, race, everything. The closest connection victims had with each other was that two women in Central City had gone to the tame taco truck for lunch. It wasn’t at the same time or even the same day or week, but it was a connection.
The cultists themselves were proving extremely difficult to find. Even though they did nothing to hide their summoning activities there wasn’t anything that could link a single person to the cult. There was a question of if they even existed. It was as if these people were ghosts. Leaving nothing to point that a person or group was behind the kidnappings and subsequent murders.
It drove Batman nearly mad. He had contacted every magic user he could to get their opinion on the case. All of them had given him almost the exact same answers.
There was no direct mention or name of the intended summon.
The circles were powerful with the most recent ones becoming more and more powerful than the ones before them.
The intended summon was likely from the afterlife or Beyond.
Other than that, there wasn’t much Bruce could find. So he had to force himself to put these specific cases on a back or side burner. They were important but there were other things that demanded his attention as well. So he started looking into other cases that had been ignored in favor of the mysterious summoning circles.
And that’s when he stumbled upon it. A warehouse had been purchased two states over right after a young woman by the name of Savannah Michelson had gone missing not a day before. So he alerted a small group to go investigate. The team consisted of himself, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Constantine, much to his displeasure. Once they had all been called and given the details they all headed out to meet at the predetermined location.
Having gone over the plan of attack they set it into motion. Constantine was to avoid all fighting to focus on shutting down and securing the circle. If the girl could be rescued do that. If not, concentrate fully on reigning in and shutting down the circle. Whatever this cult was trying to summon so badly mustn’t make it to this plane of existence.
Flash was responsible for protecting the occult detective as well as getting the girl to safety if she was alive. If that was out of the options then to keep everyone and anything away from Constantine. Once Constantine had the circle under control, Flash was supposed to round up the cultists and tie them up so they could be turned in.
Superman, Wonder Woman, and himself were responsible for the cultists. Making sure that none escaped and that they were all accounted for. And to make sure that if there were any civilians around that they didn’t get caught up in the fray.
The plan was going smoothly. Only a slight hitch when they found a room with three other victims. They had to use up some of their time and attention to make sure that they were all taken to safety. It gave a small group of cultists a window for escape. They didn’t get too far before they were caught by Wonder Woman.
He knew that things had been progressing far too smoothly so far. That there had only been minor hiccups. This cult had eluded the Justice League, had eluded him, for nearly two and a half months. Why slip up this badly now?
A sudden string of curse words from Constantine answered that question. A bright flash of light came from the summoning circle. The pattern that had been drawn on the ground was now hovering in the air some two feet off the floor.
“Constantine! Report!” Batman yelled as he finished tying up a group of cultists.
“Damn bastards finally figured out how to summon whatever the fuck they were after!” John responds, glowing runes springing up along his right arm.
“Is there nothing you can do?” Wonder Woman shouts over the roaring winds suddenly blasting from an opening portal.
“No! Every single failsafe they have I can’t trigger. Whatever they want to summon is coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.”
The roaring winds silenced as suddenly as they had started. All eyes immediately snapped to a swirling, glowing green portal. And in true horror movie fashion spindly long fingers coated in ice and tipped with claws slowly reached through the portal. Gripping the edges of reality itself and, whatever it is, pulls the portal wider and wider until the shape of a horrifying creature is outlined in the swirling green.
Blue silver mist leaches out of the portal, chilling all of them to the bone and obscuring their vision partly. The cultists take advantage and disappear into the mist. The League doesn’t take any notice though. Instead, their full attention is on the eldritch horror that is making its way through the torn open portal. The being to horrifying and terrible to look at yet not being able to tear their gaze from.
Sharp bones protruded through paper thin skin. Huge horns grew from a white haired scalp; spiraling up to support a crown of green flames. Sticky tar flecked in a kind of glitter slowly made its way down the being’s face. A mouthful of needle like teeth, shown off through a sickly stretched smile. More icy fog pouring out of the eldritch creature’s mouth, obscuring they’re sight even more.
Overly long and incredibly skinny limbs pull an emaciated body out of the portal. Hollowed out, black eyes seeming to flick around the room. Taking in where the creature had been summoned.
Before any of the heroes, or the occult detective, could say anything a rattling snarl filled the room. Shaking them to their very cores as they stood in stunned silence.
“WHOMST HAS SUMMONED THE HIGH KING OF THE INFINITE REALMS.” The being’s voice grated over their eardrums. Millions of echoed voices all speaking at once. The sound of crashing, breaking ice splintered in the air, overlaying the spoken words. “YOU HAVE MA—.”
The creature finally laid their eyes(?) on the group. A deathly silent moment passed before the creature collapsed in on themselves. It was like watching an explosion in reverse. Spindly limbs and body shrinking and contorting, turning into something closer resembling a human teen.
Though even in its more human form there were still some aspects it kept. Their eyes were still black voids but they now held something akin to a flaming iris. It glowed a toxic, neon green, flickering slightly as they looked around. Their horns shrank as well, looking closer to a normal ram’s horns than the strange curling rack they had before. Their fingers, although definitely human shaped, were still blackened and coated in a thinner sheet of ice.
The teen was dressed in what looked to be a black and white hazmat suit. An oversized cloak draped over their left shoulder. A sheepish look and a strange green tinge was on their face.
The eldritch teen creature raise a hand and gave a timid wave. “Um, hi?”
Constantine was the first to snap out of their fear stricken state. “What in the ever loving fuck are you?”
The creature winces at the statement. “I’m the High King of the Infinite Realms? But, um, if you’re wanting a name you can call me Phantom.” The kid rubs the back of his neck. The green tinge darken. How the creature blushed then?
“No, I mean great to know a name, but what the fuck are you? How the actual hell are you a perfect balance between life and death?” Constantine demanded.
The creature, now named Phantom, responded in the most flat and uninterested tone. Their face just as flat and emotionless. “Science.” A moment of silence then a slight shrug. “And teenage stupidity.”
Before they could barrage them with questions the summoning circle started glowing again. The High King of the Infinite Realms stared down at their feet.
“Nice. A return charm. I won’t have to fly all the way back home.” They look back up to the still somewhat stunned group of heroes. “If y’all want to contact me, don’t. I’d rather not have to deal with this realm’s problems as well as my own. Bye!” And with that they disappeared in a flash of light.
“What the fuck?”