#stealing from dr strange - magic is the base code of the universe idea

[doctormead]

Constantine quietly congratulated himself on managing to keep his metaphysical wince off his face when the kid transformed.  To a magus, the surge in death magic was like suddenly taking off a welder’s goggles while staring at the sun.  With Wonderbabe and Waterboy heading over to help Bats with his “How To King: 101″ course, he reminded himself that there was still magic shit to be investigated here.

“Okay, if you kids could let me look at that ritual you cooked up?”

The girl rolled her eyes at him.  “Why would you want to see something so amateurish, Columbo?”

John resisted the urge to pull out a cigarette (he was pretty sure that Bats would object at least).  “Because magic is fucking complex and shit with loads of room for catastrophic unintended consequences, Barbarella.  I’d kinda like to make sure that no nasties can slip through since mini-Zagreas here smashed through dimensional walls like a freight train to grab a teacher.”

Mini-Zagreas, Barbarella and Beret Boy looked at each other.  “He’s got a point, Sam,” Beret Boy offered.  “As much of that ritual was like coding Linux, it’s not like we’re experts or anything.”

Linux!  This kid thinks ritual building is like programing a fucking computer?!

The Kid King thankfully transformed back to what was presumably his normal form and nodded.  “Fine,” Sam sighed.  “You grab the books, Tucker.”

Now that the “glare” from Kid-King’s aura was reduced, he would sense the other two more clearly as they brought the materials over.  And...oh shit!

“Here’s the research we did and the books we used,” Tucker said.

“And this is the finished product.” Sam held out a sheet of paper with exactingly detailed instructions.  John gave it a quick look over first, then glanced at the spines of the books Tucker handed him...and blanched.

“You kids came up with THIS from such shit books as those?  By yourselves?”

“Well, Sam and Tucker did most of the work,” mini-Zagreas offered. “I mostly provided the power.”

“Well.” Constantine hoped he was coming across as calm. “I have to say...not bad.  Let me just check for any cracks as it were.”

Sam and Tucker grinned at him (Sam smugly and Tucker excitedly) before heading back to the desk with the others.  John looked around for an out of the way corner to go over this ritual and (more importantly) call the rest of JLD.  Not only did they have a baby death god prince here, but they also had two baby magi who needed training NOW.

A twist on the summoning prompt

Ok, we've had many variations on Danny being summoned by cultists, villains, JLD, JL and bored kids at a slumber party, but what if DANNY tried to do a summons?

The scenario: Danny finds out that, once he hits 21 (let's say he's 16 when this little bombshell gets dropped on him), he's gonna be landed with the Kingship of the Infinite Realms. No, he can't get out of it. No, he can't abdicate to someone he thinks will do a good job. AND, if he can't hack it once he hits that age, the consequences will be...unpleasant to say the least.

Queue panicked questioning of various friendly Ancients who say they can't be his mentor for this (conflict of interest/inadequate scope for what he needs to learn/obscure excuse). Clockwork finally tells the desperate teen that, if he looks hard enough, he will find an appropriate mentor.

Well, Danny doesn't think he has time to search for such a mentor and taking out an advertisement in the IR's local newspaper equivalent may as well be painting a target on his back. But, he HAS been summoned a few times and thinks that two can play at this game.

So, with the help of Sam, Tucker and Jazz, he tries to come up with a summoning ritual for a mentor. The requirements are extensive but specific: non-hostile to Phantom (they initially thought about using "friendly to Phantom" but figured that would be too limiting given their situation), able to instruct in multiple forms of combat, able to instruct in strategy (small scale as well as large scale), able to instruct in management and politics (also on various scales) and, most importantly WILLING to be a mentor in such subjects.

The circle is cast and, when the smoke clears, a very startled Batman is standing in the center. Team Phantom didn't think they'd need to specify that the new mentor also be a ghost.