Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

An alarm blared through the dark night. The swishing of blades from the helicopters could be heard overhead as they hovered above the base. A loud voice cracked through the speakers. “All personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicles for our assisted evacuation. This is not a drill.” People are pushing out of the building, darting in and out between other people and personnel trying not to get trampled as they get to their cars safely. “Emergency personnel please proceed to your designated vehicles.” The voice calmly repeated.

One of the helicopters in the air slowly descends to the helicopter pad spinning its tail around. The door slides open and a woman wearing A navy blue suit steps out followed by a man with a black eye patch who was clad in all black. They both walk up to a man in a suit who had been waiting for them to arrive next to where the helicopter landed. “How bad is it?” The man with an eye patch asked, having to yell over the sound of the blades spinning on the helicopter and the alarm blaring below.

The suited man pulls off his sunglasses and faces them. “That’s the problem, sir. We don’t know.” He turned around and started walking towards the building. “We should continue talking inside.” He motions for the others to follow him into the building without looking back behind him. The moment they were out of possible civilian earshot the man continued.

“Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the tesseract four hours ago.”

Fury raised his eyebrow slightly. “NASA didn’t authorize Selvig to go past the test phase.”

“He wasn’t testing it; he wasn’t even in the room. Spontaneous event.”  The man explained. Dodging in and out between the scientists who were scrambling to retrieve as much of their research as they could before evacuating.

The woman leaned forward slightly, putting herself more into their conversation. “It just turned itself on?” She questioned.

“-Where are the energy levels now?”  Fury butted in, not managing Agent Hill’s question.

“Climbing. When Selvig couldn’t shut it down we ordered the evacuation.” He explained as they walked without changing their pace.

“How long will it take to get everyone out?”

“We should be clear in the next half hour sir.”

“Do better,” Fury stated dryly. The agent nodded and turned around to walk in the other direction while the other two continued on.

“Sir.” The girl chipped in. “Evacuation may be futile.  If we can’t control the tesseract’s energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance.”  Her voice was calm and collected for the severity of the situation before them

“I need you to make sure that the phase two prototypes are all shipped out.”

The girl raised her eyebrow. “Sir, is that really a priority right now, there are still people-”

Nick spins around to face her. “-Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.” He turns back around and continues to walk. “Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase two on a truck and gone.”

“Yes sir.” The woman says somewhat bitterly as she walks away followed by two armed guards.

Fury sighs and turns into a large room. “Talk to me, doctor.” He commands.

A man stands up and walks towards him, stumbling a bit. “Director.”

“Is there anything we know for certain?”   He glances up at the large machine holding the glowing cube in place.

“The tesseract is misbehaving.”  

Fury glances back to Selvig.  “Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No, it's not funny at all. The tesseract is not only active, but she is also… behaving.” The man stated worriedly.

“I assume you pulled the plug?”

“She is an energy source. You turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level- “

“We prepared for this doctor. Harnessing energy from space.”    Fury crossed his arms over his chest.

“But we don’t have the harness. My calculations are far from complete. And she is throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, just low levels of gamma radiation. It is surprisingly similar energy-wise to a substance known as ectoplasm, I haven’t tested on any myself, but others have. It is extremely difficult to get your hands on.”  The man explained while roughing up a few papers on the desk.

Nick looked back and forth between the man and the tesseract. “Where is Agent Barton?”

The man lets out a light chuckle and shakes his head. “The hawk? Up in his nest, as usual.” He jerks his thumb in the direction behind him pointing up slightly.

Fury walks away in that direction, paying the doctor no more mind as he gathers his things.  He stares at the man who is polishing an arrow with his thumb up on some of the rafters.  He singles for Clint to come down to talk.

-

“I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things.”  Was the first thing Fury stated when Hawkeye got down from his perch.

“Well, I see better from a distance.”  He had a light smirk on his lip.

“Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?”

“No one has come and gone, Selvig is clean. No outer contacts, no unknown access.” He paused. “If there was any tampering sir it was not from this end.”

Nick stops. “At this end?”

“Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other side of space, right?” He turns around gesturing vaguely at the cube. “Doors open from both sides, don’t they?”

Suddenly there was a spark that shot out of the Tesseract, causing the two to stumble back. The cube continued to spark blue lightning out around it and the building started to shake. Everyone froze bracing themselves for what was about to come. The blue light and energy start to spin around it and a blue beam shoots out the back of it ripping a hole in the air where it hit. Now there was a blue portal, the blue energy crackling around the edges. A few seconds after forming the portal exploded into a burst of blue light that filled the lab crackling up the walls.

Where the portal once was, stood a man with his head down. Other agents in the room started to close in on him, their guns were drawn. He was wearing green and black, had black hair, and was holding a spear with a blue glowing orb embedded in the hooked blade. 

Nick called out to the man. “Sir, please put down the spear.” The unknown looked between Fury and the spear before holding it out and trying to blast the director. The guards opened fire on the man as he leaped through the air. He landed on one of the agents and killed him with the spear through his chest. More people opened fire on his back, he spun around throwing a spray of daggers at the men killing them both.  Some embed themselves in the wall behind them.

Loki walked over to Barton who was trying to get up off of the floor and grabbed his shirt, tilting his head to the side. “You have heart.” He raised his staff and pressed the tip of it to his chest, blue energy radiating off it.  Instead of placing it through his skin, he keeps it still.   Barton looks up at Loki, his eyes slowly starting to glow an electric blue, he looks at him and puts the gun back in his holster standing at attention.

Fury sees that Loki is starting to go around the room, mind-controlling most of the survivors.  The ones he cares not for he just leaves to bleed out or die once he is done.   Fury slowly gets up and starts to grab the tesseract off its pedestal placing it nicely into a briefcase that had been left on Dr. Selvig’s desk. As he clips it shut and starts to walk to the exit, Loki’s voice rang out.

“Please don’t. I still need that.”

“This doesn’t have to get any messier,”  Fury called out slowly, turning around back to face the man who had just taken out some of the best agents he had without another look.

“Of course it does. I have come too far for anything else. I am Loki of Asgard. And I am burdened with glorious purpose.” The doctor stands up and starts stumbling forward with a surprised look on his face.

“Loki, brother of Thor.” He calls out causing Loki to turn and look at him, his eyes narrowing bitterly.  

Fury continues. Snapping Loki's attention back to him, and away from the Dr.  “We have no quarrel with your people.”

“An ant has no quarrel with a boot.”  Loki flipped his wrist to the side.

“Are you planning on stepping on us?”

Loki ignored the question and continued his monologue.  “I come with glad tidings of a world made free.”

“Free from what?”  the director pressed, he held the briefcase a little further behind him this time, behind his body and hopefully less out of sight of the dubbed god.

“Freedom…”  The man hummed thoughtfully.  “Freedom is life’s great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart-,” He spins around and touches his staff to the doctor’s chest causing his eyes to turn blue. “-You will know peace.”

“Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing.”  Fury jerked his head to the side.

Barton walks forward, his eyes glossed over with the same blue “Sir Director Fury is stalling; this place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us.” He turns his gaze to Fury

He smirks in response.  “Like the pharaohs of old.”  

The doctor speaks up too. “He is right, the portal is collapsing in on itself. We got maybe two minutes before this place goes critical.”

Loki turns to Barton. “Well then.” Clint nods and quickly raises his gun placing two shots directly in the center of Fury’s chest causing him to collapse to the ground dropping the tesseract. They start walking for the door and Barton picks up the briefcase passing it to the doctor.

X

Coulson’s voice calls out over the radio talking to Nick, who had just managed to get up and start walking out of the building, trying to get as far away as possible. “We’re clear upstairs sir. We need to go.”

Fury opens the door on the roof and rushes out to the Helicopter he used earlier to get here. The roof cracked behind him from the power of the tesseract. Just as the helicopter takes off, the helipad beneath it starts to collapse in on itself. The helicopter takes to the air trying to get as far away from the building as possible before it explodes.

The earth shakes as the building that they were just in implodes into itself before collapsing on the ground leaving behind a large creator where it was. The helicopter continued to follow where Loki and the others were going. They hover over the car they escaped in, Nick pulls out his gun and opens the door, firing on the car trying to take out the driver and hopefully hit Loki.

Loki raises his staff an energy bubble building up on the end of the spear before launching out and blasting the helicopter out of the sky, causing it to spin in a descent to the ground. Nick quickly leaps out of the helicopter landing on the ground with a roll, so he didn’t break his legs. He once again opens fire at the car as it is driving away, but they are too far. His radio sounds off again.

“Director? Director Fury, do you copy?”  There was a tinge of worry and urgency in Coulson's voice.

Fury pulls up his radio. “The tesseract is with a hostile force. I have men down.” He turns to face the destroyed flaming helicopter. “Hill?”

The woman from before calls through the radio now. “We have a lot of men still under. I don’t know how many survivors.”

“Sound a general call. I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase.” Fury responds.

She sighs. “Roger that.”

“Coulson get back to base. This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war.”

Coulson’s eyes dart around as he picks up his radio again. “What do we do?”

“We need a team.”

X

A small jet lands just outside the small town of Amity Park, out from the jet walks Agent Hill and Director Fury. It is early morning. Hill jogs up to Nick who had a bit of a head start walking toward the city. “Sir, are you sure we can find him here?”

“Our intel says he will be here, he has never left his home before. We just need to find him.”

“Our intel also says that he is hostile, and a criminal.”  Hill spat. “Are you sure we should be trying to find him?”

“I believe he is one of our best chances for winning this. And I have a backup plan if things don’t work out with him.”

Suddenly there was a huge explosion of debris in front of them as dirt and grass started flying up as something crashed into it at high speeds. Inside the small crater in front of them was a boy with snow-white hair and a hazmat suit, the one who they were looking for.

Chapter Text

This was not a good day for Danny, and it was only nine o'clock in the morning! First, he has to fight some strange electric eel ghost that was scaring the civilians, and now Johnny has shown up, something to do with another fight with Kitty.

Danny chased him around town for a little while he was just about to catch him when Shadow grabbed him by his ankles suddenly. The dark ghost dragged him up into the sky away from Johnny and started flying down to the ground just outside the city at high speeds. Danny didn’t understand what Shadow was doing until it was too late, they both crashed into the ground and Shadow fazed through, escaping quickly while Danny was distracted.

Danny sat up slightly using one arm to prop himself up off the ground. He rubbed the back of his head, Jonny couldn’t do that much damage, right? Ugh, but he should still go after him. He stood himself up but was greeted by two agents standing on the outside of the crater he just made with his body.

Danny raised an eyebrow and backed away slowly, the man stood there looking at him with his arms held behind his back while the woman next to him had her hand on her holster ready to grab her gun at any second. Not that a normal gun would really do anything in this situation against a ghost like Danny.

The man spoke up, still studying him. “Phantom?”

Danny nodded slightly, backing up a bit more, not knowing what to expect. These people didn’t look like the guys in white, but it could all be a trap or something.

“Director Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D we wish to speak to you.”

Danny's stance softened a little, he was still very alert though. “You mean like talk to me, like a normal person. Without trying to shoot me into oblivion?” He questioned.  Eyes flicking over to the female agent's gun again.

“Yes, we have come seeking your expertise in the substance known as ectoplasm, as well as some of your… unique abilities.” He explained. “Someone has stolen a powerful weapon and wishes to take over this planet. We require your assistance in tracking to object, and maybe in your fighting skills.”

Danny's face turned into more one of shock. “You want me to help?” He looked at Hill who was still all tensed up. “I wouldn’t think you guys would trust me. I don’t have the best track record.”

“Right now we just want you to help us stop this man. We can worry about your past later.”

“How do I know I can trust you, I mean you could walk me into a trap.” Danny paused for a second thinking. “How do I know you are not working with the Guys in White?”

“We are not working with the GIW, and we know of their past with you. You may not trust us, as we you. But we need your help with this, you can fly outside of the jet if that will make you feel safer.”

Danny raised an eyebrow and looked around him at the Jet with a pilot sitting in the front seat who was wearing an identical suit to the one the female agent was wearing. Danny leaned back a bit contemplating his options. He could just leave and not look back. But something was telling him to help them, he could tell that whatever it was that they needed help with was bad. He couldn’t not help, his core ached with the thought of people being hurt, and if he just left them to battle this on their own what kind of person would he be?

He looked back up at Nick who showed no emotion. “I…-I will help.”

Nick looked down on him for a second and raised his hand out to the young ghost. “Thank you for choosing to come with us.” He stated, there was no emotion in his voice.

Danny reached out to shake his hand and the moment their hands touched Danny felt a light tingle in his arm, he played it off as nothing, but Fury pulled his hand back looking down at it, and then the boy. “You are… cold.” He said questingly.

“Oh yeah, sorry I should have warned you.” Danny once again raised his hand to the back of his neck, Jazz always said he would get a rash from rubbing it so much.

Nick turned towards the ship behind him and waved his hand to signal that Danny and Hill should follow. Danny looked around nervously, should he be doing this? No, they asked for his help, so he was going to help them. He just hoped that this doesn't end badly.

He floated off the ground just slightly before hovering slowly into the ship. Fury motioned Danny to a seat which Danny cautiously sat down in and buckled up. When he looked up he saw that there was another agent in the jet with them, he was already buckled up and was waiting for the director to return. He had a blaster in his hand, it didn’t look anything fancy, but the guy looked like he was gripping it for dear life.

Hill looked at Danny and sat in her own seat next to the other agent, while Fury sat next to Danny. Once they were all buckled up Fury gave the all-clear and the ship took off.

Danny thought this was cool, it felt like he was in the ops center when it was in its alt transformation, just without his Dad's crazy driving. Could you get a ticket for speeding in a jet?

x

The Jet pulls up to a ship that is floating in the middle of the ocean riddled with planes and people, they had been traveling for about an hour now. Danny gazed out of the window, this was really cool.

They pulled up to a person holding two batons and were waving them signaling where the ship could land. The ship landed with a sudden jolt and the engine turned off. The moment Danny stepped out onto the ground he looked out into the ocean that was in front of him. It was beautiful.

As soon as Hill stepped off the jet she called out to Danny. “You better hang on.” She warned.

Danny had a puzzled look on his face, what could she mean? Just then the water started to swirl around the ship and it started to rise out of the water. Danny hovered a little closer to the edge to get a better look at what was happening. The ship was starting to fly. IT WAS A FLYING SHIP! Danny's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head, this was so cool!

Danny swore he could see a smirk on Agent Hill's face at Danny’s surprise. “You should meet up with Dr. Banner so you can help each other with locating the Tesseract,” Nick mentioned as he started to walk away from the teen ghost. Danny followed close behind and he was trailed by the two other agents from the jet and Agent Hill. One of the two agents had his hand on his blaster while the other looked tense. Danny sighed slightly, these guys didn’t trust him. And he doubted anyone else on this ship did either.

Danny had started walking on the ground instead of floating, because of how unconfinable it made the other agents. He followed Nick into a room within the ship. The moment he walked in multiple of the people in the room turned to look at him, they only looked for a second and seemed a bit uneasy as they turned back to their monitors. Danny tried to ignore them walking a bit more away from the people, as Nick walked over to what looked like the master control panel.

Danny noticed that there were another couple of people that were in the room that didn’t seem like they belonged. Mainly because they were not wearing the same uniforms everyone else in the room was wearing. They seemed to be in a bit of awe and also glancing cautiously at him. Danny realized that sometimes if he was in a room with other humans his cold presence sort of put people off a bit.

Danny sighed trying to sort of hide in the corner of the room without being weird, the last thing he wanted was more people looking at him. Everyone had been calling out commands and info at each other, but Danny mostly ignored it. He did look up when Nick spoke up again turning around to face the people in street clothes. “Gentlemen.”

The taller blond man nodded and passed Nick a ten-dollar bill. Danny chuckled, they must have had a bet or something. Nick motioned slightly for Danny to walk closer to the group before turning towards a man who looked like he was almost trying to hide. “Doctor, thank you for coming.” He held his hand out to the man.

The doctor nodded and shook the director's hand. “Thanks for asking nicely.” He paused. “So, um how long am I staying?”

“Once we get our hands on the tesseract, you’re in the wind.”

The man started to walk around the area a bit. “And where are you with that.”

Nick gestured towards Colson who started talking in response. “We are sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops… If it's connected to a satellite it is eyes and ears for us.”

Danny's eyes widened slightly. “You can actually do that?” He muttered partly in disbelief part betrayal. Cap turned and looked at him for a second only barely hearing him because of his slightly enhanced hearing.

The redhead spoke up turning to the group. “Still not going to find them in time.”

The doctor turned around. “You need to narrow your field.” He paused for a second. “How many spectrometers do you have access to?”

Nick smirked smugly. “How many are there?”

“Call up every lab you know.” The doctor continued. Tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition… at least we can rule out a few places.” Nick nodded.

Coulson spoke up. “Kid, you can sense ectoplasmic entities right?” Danny's attention snapped to him, he then nodded with a slightly confused look on his face.

“Can you tell where the tesseract is?” He questioned.

Danny shook his head. “No, but I may be able to sense it when it is nearby.”

Coulson nodded and turned back to his work, as the doctor and the redhead left the room.

X

The next hour was quite quiet, everyone tried to avoid Danny and no one had talked to him yet, so he just stood in the corner of the room waiting for something to happen. This was quite boring, and right now it seemed that they didn’t need him after all. He sighed as he leaned his head against the wall. Suddenly someone called out.

“We got a hit. 67% match. Wait crossmatch 79%”

Coulson walked over to him. “Location?”

“Stuttgart, Germany. 28 Konisgesse.” He answered. “He is not exactly hiding.”

Nick nodded. “Romanoff, Rodgers, I want you there.” He paused for a second as they started walking away. “Phantom, you too. Stay behind in the ship for backup. And don’t try anything.” Fury warned and Danny started to walk down the hall after the two that just left.

Chapter Text

Danny followed the two people silently, they ended up in a ship hanger of the Helicarrier. He watched as they went around the hangar and collected the gear they needed for this mission to Germany. Danny was his own weapon, and he had anything he needed on his belt, so he was fine. The blond man had put on a blue and red suit And grabbed a round shield off the wall. Danny couldn't believe that he hadn’t realized before, that was Captain America! Tucker would be going crazy right now.

As soon as Nat realized that Danny was going on the mission with them she walked over to Cap. “Be careful with him.” She shifted her eyes toward Danny who was looking wide-eyed up at the equipment and weapons they had on the walls. “He is an unknown, and he is dangerous.” She warned. Cap looked back at the boy, thinking to himself that he seemed harmless, but decided to nod in understanding at the woman's warning. Better safe than sorry, and if she felt that she needed to tell him specifically he could be a problem.  Then he should take her warning

The team walked onto the ship, now accompanied by one other unnamed Agent who seemed quite tense around the teenage boy, Steve noticed.

Nat walked up to the front of the ship taking her place in the pilot seat, while Danny, Steve, and the other agent sat in the back of the ship buckling up in the seats. Cap sat next to Danny while the other guy sat across from them. Danny sighed looking out of the window as they took off, hoping helping these guys wasn’t a mistake.

“We will be there in six minutes.” Nat's voice rang out through an intercom.

Steve glanced over at the boy looking out the window, lost in thought.   Steve was curious about him and decided to start up a conversation with the boy, he couldn’t be that dangerous could he? “Hey, my name is Steve.” He stuck his hand out towards the boy. “What is yours?” the boy regarded him with quite a surprised look. He reached out and hesitantly shook the man's hand.

“Danny, Danny Phantom.” He introduced. Steve instantly realized the frigid temperature of the boy's hand through the glove, but decided not to say anything. While that was not normal,  the boy seemed fine enough. Steven also noticed how bright the boy's eyes glowed now, they were a toxic, almost neon-green color. Phantom then pulled his hand away. “You don’t seem all tense or worried about me being here,” he questioned the man.

Steve smiled back and glanced at the Agent who was looking quite fidgety sitting across from them, eyes glued to the boy. “I tend to judge people on what I see myself, rather than rumors.” He answered.

Phantom looked quite surprised and pleased by this, “Really? You mean you don’t have a problem with me?”  He sounded too excited that someone wouldn't instantly be weary of him, which put a strange feeling in the captain's stomach that he couldn't quite place.

Steve nodded, opening his mouth to say something more but Nat's voice rang out again. “Guys Loki is here, and he has civilians gathered around.” Danny and Cap both stood up, and Nat opened the back door. “Phantom, just stay here for now. Let Cap handle this. You are the backup.” Danny nodded and walked to the front of the ship to see what was happening.

A man was standing in the middle of a crowd of bowed civilians, dressed in an outfit that definitely didn't fit in, he was opting to stand over the people a god of some sort hoping to be worshiped, Danny rolled his eyes. Obviously, the man they were looking for. One man had stood up from the group and was arguing with Loki who didn’t seem pleased. Danny's eyes widened as he was just about to blast the man with his staff. He almost jumped out of the jet if it wasn’t for the captain jumping out first. He landed in front of the man protecting him from Loki's blast with his tradmark shield. The blast ricocheted back the shield and knocked Loki off his feet. 

“You know, last time I was in Germany, I saw a man standing above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing.” Loki started to stand up to his feet, glaring at the man.

“The soldier.” He chuckled. “The man out of time.”

“I am not the one who is out of time.” He turned away to the side a bit as the jet pulled up behind him. Nat pressed a couple of buttons causing a machine gun to extend out of the bottom of the jet aiming directly at Loki.

Nat's voice rang through the speakers. “Loki drop the weapon and stand down.” Danny was surprised that she was aiming the gun with all of those people there, but she wouldn’t fire at them, right?

Loki paused for a second, then spun around and shot a blue blast out of his staff up at the ship. Danny's eyes widened as Nat steered out of the way of the blast and it nearly missed them. While Loki was firing, Cap through his shield at him knocking him off balance. He then ran closer to him and started punching. People started to scatter, a flurry of chaos and screams. Even with Cap's superhuman strength, he couldn’t knock the Asgardian down.

Loki lifted his staff up again and blasted Cap's shield out of his hand causing it to clatter to the ground before rapid-firing at the the captain as he dodged them. Danny realized quickly that a stray shot had hit the building behind them causing a large chunk of it to start falling towards a bunch of civilians. Danny quickly phased through the ship's windshield and jumped underneath the rubble creating a green dome shield around him and the other terrified people.

The rubble smashed on impact with the shield and landed on the ground next to them. Danny dropped the shield and the people ran away as fast as they could. He then turned towards Cap and Loki still fighting, now more in hand to hand with some occasional blasts being shot, most ending up shooting up at the sky instead of people which Danny was grateful for.

Danny was now floating in the air above the screaming people, Danny shot a single less powerful ecto blast at Loki's back causing him to turn his head around to see who shot him, Danny quickly turned invisible and flew to the opposite side and shot him once more. Loki growled and shot a single blast at the sky next to where Danny was, just barely missing his arm. Cap glanced over at what Loki was firing at but was surprised not to see anyone.

Danny paused for a second hearing rock music start to erupt out of the jet's speakers above them. Suddenly there was what looked like a rocket coming flying towards them, and then a blast shot from it hitting a distracted Loki, knocking him to the ground and causing him to drop his staff just out of reach.

The rocket turned out to be a suit of armor. Not just any armor, the Iron Man armor. Danny was awestruck as it smashed into the concrete with a landing that you would see in a comic book. He had never seen the Iron Man armor in real life, he never thought he would, again Tucker would be squealing at the sight. The armor opened up all of its weapons and aimed them all at Loki who was now sprawled out on the ground.

“Make a move reindeer games.” Iron Man said not moving his blasters. Cap walked up next to Stark holding his shield that he had just grabbed off of the ground. Loki slowly raised his hands in defeat his gold armor dissipating off of him in a stream of light. Stark powered down his weapons in response to the surrender but could easily turn them back on Loki if he made any sudden moves. “Good move.”

Steve spoke up. “Mr. Stark.”

“Captian,” Tony responded dryly.

Danny then faded back into visibility behind Loki and slowly floated towards the ground. Steve stood back startled by the sudden appearance, while Tony had a puzzled look under his helmet. “The green blasts, those were you?” Cap asked. Danny nodded in response. He started walking towards them, as the jet started to land.

Nat and the other agent walked out holding ridiculously large handcuffs for Loki. Nat narrowed her eyes to Danny after the Asgardian was secure. “You were supposed to be back up.”

Tony looked between the two, while Cap tilted his head in confusion. Danny had helped why was she mad? Danny had a slightly puzzled look on his face. “Those people were about to be crushed. I was just supposed to sit back with my feet up?” He asked gesturing angrily behind him at the fallen debris from the fight. “What did you think I was going to try to attack them or something?” He asked with slight anger in his voice.

Tony noticed that the agent standing next to them reached for his blaster when the boy raised his voice. Same with Nat it was more like she was tensing reading for a fight. The other agent seemed to be more worried about the boy being there than Loki. Tony thought for a second, this kid was not on the Avengers initiative program, but he felt slightly like he recognized him, he would need to check on that later.

As the glow-stick- boy walked back over to the ship, Loki looked him up and down with a slightly surprised look on his face. Like the kid was something he wasn’t expecting in his master plan. “Shouldn’t we be getting him back?” the kid asked dryly pointing back at the Asgardian. Steve and the Agent grabbed Loki and put him on the jet as well.

As they took off Tony headed up to the front of the jet where Nat and Steve were sitting. While Danny was closer to the back with the other agent Agent and Loki next to him, the agent's hand firmly gripping his weapon. Nat was talking to Fury over the comms about Loki. “Is he saying anything?”

“Not a word,” Nat answered.

“Just get him here, we are low on time.” Nick then hung up.

Tony spoke up in a quiet voice so that the people in the back couldn't hear their conversation. “Who is the kid?”

“That’s Phantom, Fury brought him in for his experience on Ectoplasm.”

“Ectoplasm?” Steve asked.

Tony tilted his head. “I thought that substance was extremely rare.”

“In some places yes.”

“Why are you all so jumpy around him?”  Tony asked with a light amusement in his voice.

“Because they don’t trust me.” Danny's voice rang out, causing them to turn back to face the boy who had gotten up and started getting closer. “But I don’t trust them either, so I guess we are even.”  He narrowed his eyes at Natasha.

“You heard us talking?” Tony asked, sounding almost impressed.

“It was hard not to hear. But that’s not why I came over. I don’t know, don’t you think that he gave up too easily?” Danny asked. “Like this dude had to of had a plan, he wouldn’t just show up attack a few people, and then give up after a few shots.” Danny gave Loki a side glace. “He reminds me of someone, and if he is anything like the fruitloop I know he has something up his sleeve.” He looked around at the people giving him strange glances. “You don’t have to trust me to be able to tell I am right.” Phantom's voice was quite echoey Tony noticed.

“He did give up way too early. All it took was a couple of blasts, I think the kid's right. I don’t remember it being that easy.” Cap said leaning back against the wall not taking his eyes off Loki.

Suddenly lightning struck next to the ship. Nat looked up through the windshield at the sky. “Where is this coming from?”

Danny questioned under his breath. “Vortex?”

Another lightning struck even closer to the ship, and Loki started looking a bit worried. Cap spoke up. “What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?”

Loki turned to look up at the captain. “I am not overly fond of what follows.” Suddenly something hit the ship causing it to shake, knocking everyone off balance. Danny stood in a fighting stance his hands started to have a glowing aura of green. Cap gave the boy a side glance. This kid was a fighter.

Tony reached for his helmet putting it over his head and walked towards the back of the ship, and opened the back readying to fly out there and find out what had hit them. But just as it opened someone jumped down into the ship holding a hammer and wearing a red cape. Loki had a quite worried look on his face, as he tried to back away slightly.

Tony charged up a repulsor blast and was about to fire it at the man when he was hit in the chest with the large hammer the man was holding, throwing him back. The man then reached forward and grabbed Loki out of his chair pulling the god of mischief with him as he jumped out the back of the jet. Tony got up, “And now there is that guy.” He grumbled.

“Another Asgardian?” Nat called out.

“Doesn't matter,” Tony responded angrily turning back to Cap. “If he frees Loki or kills him, the tesseracts lost.”

“Stark we need a plan of attack.”

“I have a plan, Atack.” Tony turned around and flew out the back of the jet, Danny jumped into the air as well and took off after Tony to make sure he didn’t get himself killed.

Nat sighed at the fact that Phantom had left as well. She turned around to see Cap grabbing a parachute and strapping it to himself. “I'd sit this one out, Cap.”

“I don’t see how I can.”

“These guys come from legend. They are basically gods.”

“There is only one God ma’am. And I am pretty sure that he doesn't dress like that.” He turned around grabbed his shield and then dove out of the back of the aircraft.

Chapter Text

As Tony shot through the air his scanners indicated a presence beside him matching his speed, he looked over to see that the boy from the ship was flying through the air right next to him. Only his legs were gone and instead in their place was a slightly transparent wispy black tail trailing behind him whipping back and forth as he moved through the sky. Now out here the kid looked like he glowed, in the ship the glow was slightly dampened by the light, or the boy was dimming it himself. "What are you doing out here kid?" Tony raised an eyebrow underneath his faceplate. He was also quite confused about how the kid could fly. But the guy they were chasing a god with lightning powers, and Tony himself was flying through the air, so who was he to judge?

"I came to make sure that you don't get yourself killed. And it was getting kind of cramped in the jet, so..." Tony smiled at the kid, even though he knew Phantom couldn't see it, Tony liked his spunky personality already, kid had guts too. As soon as they were close enough to the ground Tony spotted the caped man and Loki on the edge of a mountain. He powered up his boosters and body-slammed into the man who was standing over their prisoner.  Wrapping his arms around his waist as he did so, knocking him off the mountain and away from Loki before he could do anything. Danny faded into invisibility and flew down to where Loki was to see if he was still contained.

Tony and Thor crashed roughly into the ground leaving behind a trailing creator, and they both stood up walking towards each other, Tony opened his faceplate to talk. "Don't touch me again."  He demanded angrily swinging his fancy hammer around in his hand. 

"Then don't take my stuff." Stark shot back.

"You have no idea what you are dealing with."

Tony looked around shrugging. "Uh, Shakespeare in the park? 'Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?'" He said in a mocking tone.

"This is beyond you metal man. Loki will face Asgardian justice."

"He gives us the cube and he is all yours... Until then." His helmet slammed shut. "Stay out of the way," Tony warns his voice coming from his helmet speakers, he fires up his thrusters and turns around to return where he left Loki on the ridge, muttering. "Tourist," under his breath.

Thor growls in response and throws his hammer at Tony whose back is currently turned, throwing him off course and crashing him into a tree causing the trunk to splinter as his body was thrown through it, the tree collapses after impact and makes a loud crash throughout the forest almost as loud as the hammer hitting Tony's metal suit. Tony mutters looking at the stats on his screen, as they are flickering and throwing up many warning symbols for the statistics of his armor. "Okay." He groans as he slowly gets up, then quickly surprises Thor with another blast, throwing him back into an opposite tree with the same result as before.

Thor shakes his head angrily getting his bearings, and then summons lightning from the sky into his hammer, and then redirects it shooting it directly at Tony's chest plate. Tony stumbles over with all of the lightning sparking off of him as he tries to regain his balance. "Power at 400% capacity sir," JARVIS called out

"Well, how bout that."

X

Danny floats over using his invisibility to stay hidden and lands silently next to Loki and sighs in relief as he sees that he is still wearing the special cuffs they put him in.  "You just going to float there? Or can you speak?" Danny jumps at the sound of Loki's voice. He turns to face where Danny is hovering just slightly above the ground, Loki has a smirk on his face. Danny narrows his eyes and places his feet down on the ground next to Loki flickering back into visibility.

"How did you know I was there?" He questioned.

"I can tell with these kinds of things."

"You couldn't tell before," Danny said smugly as he crossed his arms.

Loki's smirk slightly fell. "I didn't know what you were then." His tone was still the same, ever the silver tongue.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "And you know what I am now?"

Loki smirked again but said nothing else, and Danny huffed angrily turning towards where Tony and the other guy landed. Danny waited there for a couple of minutes watching Loki make sure he didn't escape, there was something strange about him. Danny could sense something, it felt like Loki's aura was shrouded in what seemed like mist. Something was off.

Danny was thinking of speaking up again, asking more questions when suddenly there was a large bolt of lightning flying down and it looked like it struck something...or someone. Danny's chest tightened as he wanted to go and check out what was happening, and see if Tony was okay.

He was about to fly over there when they both came flying up and smashed into the mountainside, dragging each other up the rock trying to knock the other off. Tony released a large blast from his repulsors that caused them to start spinning out of control and crash again into the trees. Danny could see multiple trees start to fall on top of them. He grumbled and looked between the crash and Loki. He stuck his finger out at Loki pointing at him. "Don't move."

Loki had a slight grin on his face that made Danny feel uneasy. "Wouldn't dream of it."

Danny huffed and took off towards the broken trees at an incredible speed, he hoped this was the right thing to do. As he made it he saw the Captain standing on the end of a broken smoldering tree above them, he had just thrown his shield that ricocheted off the both of them and flew back into his hand. Tony aimed weapons both at Thor and Cap. Danny was just hovering at the same height Cap was standing, but was on the other side of them. "That's enough," Steve demanded, jumping down, and landing on the ground next to them. Danny stayed up in the same place, just watching for a second.

"Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here-."

Thor turned back angrily. "I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes."

"Then prove it," Cap said. "Put that hammer down."

Tony spoke up again. "Yeah… no. Bad call, he loves his ham-." He was interpreted with Thor hitting him with the hammer again throwing him back to the ground roughly.

"You want me to put the hammer down!"  He yelled angrily, clearly very agitated.

Danny knew he was about to attack again so he quickly darted down and landed in front of him quickly creating an ecto shield around him, trapping him in what looked like a green transparent sphere. Thor yelled in anger as raised his hammer and slammed it into the shield, small cracks spreading like spiderwebs across the light construct's surface. There was a loud bang and lightning sparked all over the inside of the dome but Danny kept the shield up, he was about to attack Cap. And he had just attacked Tony.  He needed to be put in time-out.

Tony and Steve looked in disbelief at Danny as his eyes glowed a much brighter green and the shield did not break, Danny wincing as if the hit on the shield was transferred onto him, taking the brunt of the impact. Danny was hovering just above the ground in front of them, and Tony slightly refused to believe that a kid had enough power to just stop this guy with just a shield.

Danny looked up after a couple of seconds and released the shield. He could tell that Thor wasn't really a bad guy, he wanted to stop Loki too. "Are we done? I would love to stay and fight all day but I had to leave Loki on that mountain to come deal with you guys, and I am not sure he is still there." He put his hands on his hips, he was panting slightly. That shield took quite a bit out of him. He had to make it ten times as strong as his normal ones to stop that blow. And even worse it was electricity, Danny hated electricity, it always seemed to affect him way more than anything else.

Cap gestured towards Thor "You and Loki can come with us and once we find out where the tesseract is and stop his plan you can take him. Deal?"

"Fine," Thor grumbled.

X

The moment they landed on the Helicarrier they were met with multiple armed SHIELD agents who took Loki off their hands. They were told to follow Agent Hill as Loki was led away. Thor narrowed his eyes again, wondering if it was safe for these mortals to take Loki. But decided that it would be best to follow the other so-called heroes who had helped capture his trickster brother in the first place.

Nat, Danny, Cap, and Thor were led back to the main command room again, Tony had split off from the group to go talk with Colson about something or other. They were once again on the upper floor looking out above the rest of the agents who were still working over the screens. In the center of the room, there was a round table surrounded by chairs.

Nat and Cap both sat down on somewhat opposite sides of the table, while Thor decided to stand and Danny stood sort of awkwardly leaning on the wall, trying to keep alert. Almost as if waiting for something bad to happen, Loki has a plan. He has to, or he would have run away after Danny left. Unless Danny's threat to 'stay put' was actually that scary, something was up.

Danny sighed and looked up as another man walked into the room, it was the doctor from before the one that was talking to Fury about tracking the tesseract with gamma radiation. He stood sort of in the back as well, but the wall across from Danny.

Suddenly Nick's voice erupted around them, but he wasn't in the room. Danny glanced around for a second until he noticed that a screen turned on that was on the other side of the room. The TV was showing the camera and audio from the cell Loki had just put in. The people in the room straightened their backs nervously and turned to the screen to watch.

"In case it is unclear," Nick walks over to the control panel next to the cell. "If you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass." Fury presses a button on the panel opening up the ground beneath the transparent pod. "It's 30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap." He has to yell over the wind rushing through the room with the opening. "You get how that works?" He presses the button again closing the airlock. He gestured towards Loki. "Ant." And back to the machine. "Boot."

Loki starts to walk around inside the small room and chuckles. "It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me."

"Built for something a lot stronger than you."

"Oh, I've heard." He turns making eye contact directly with the security camera, as if knowing that the others were watching right then, it was unnerving. "A mindless beast makes play he's still a man." Danny noticed that the doctor started to shift uncomfortably. "And now, you have a so-called spirit on your hands." Danny's eyes narrowed as Nat glanced up at him. "How desperate are you, you call on such lost creatures to defend you?" Loki chuckles.

"How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force that you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill 'cause it is fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did."

"Ooh, it burns you to have come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share. And then to be reminded, what real power is." Loki grins at Fury. "What did you do, to get someone like him on your side? After all your kind has done to his." He sneered.

Nick turned around and started walking out. "Let me know if 'real power' wants a magazine or something." He mocked.

The tv turns off and everyone looks around for a second. Cap looks back at Danny who is glaring at the screen with his arms crossed. "Grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner remarks leaning back a bit fidgeting with his hands.

"Loki's going to drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?"

Thor turns a bit to face them more to explain. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They are not of Asgard, nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth, in return, I suspect, for the tesseract."

"An army. From outer space."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "It's not that strange." He commented.

"So, he is building another portal. That's what he needs Eric Selvig for."

Thor's head looks up a bit. "Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist."

"He is a friend."

Nat pipes up. "Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours."

Danny's head popped up a bit. "Spell?"

"He is being controlled by something."

Danny thought for a second about to say something else when Cap spoke up again. "Why did Loki let us take him? He's not leading an army from here."

Bruce walked forward a bit more. "I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him."

Thor straightens a bit. "Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard. And he is my brother."

Nat rolls her eyes. "He killed eighty people in two days."

"He's adopted." The god of thunder quickly added sheepishly.

"I think it is about the mechanics." Bruce continued. "Iridium… what do they need the iridium for?"

"It's a stabilizing agent." Tony's voice came from the side of the room causing the people to turn. "It means the portal won't collapse on itself. Like it did at S.H.I.E.L.D."

Danny thought for a second, his parents used a very small amount of that stuff in their portal. But they must need much more of it to make the bigger portal that they would need to have to get that army they were talking about through. Danny was debating on saying something about the ghost portal in Amity, but he was worried that they would take the portal over, start testing on it, or hurt the other ghosts when they came through it. Danny sighed.

Tony continued. "No hard feelings, Pointbreak. You've got a mean swing." He tapped Thor on the arm as he walked by.

Danny spoke up. "So if he has this stuff, that means that he could keep it open as long as he wants?"

Tony turned to him, slightly surprised he understood it. "Yes, and with the amount he has, he could make it as big as he wants as well." He walked over to the control area that Fury was at before and placed a hand over one eye. "How does Fury even see these?"

"He turns," Hill answers dryly, her arms crossed over her chest.

Tony scoffed "Sounds exhausting." He turns two of the screens. Pressing a couple of random buttons, and silently sticking something to the bottom of the console. "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton could get his hands on those pretty easily. The only major component he still needs is a power source of very high energy density. Something to kick start the cube."

"Since when did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?"

"Last night." He answered back dryly. "The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers." Tony threw his hands up. "Am I the only one who did the reading?"

Cap spoke up with his hand on his chin. "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

Banner started walking around the table. "He would have to heat the cube to 120 million Kelvin just to break through the culum barrier."

"Unless," Tony added. "Selvig had figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect."

"Well if he could do that, he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at every reactor on the planet."

Danny's head is looking between the two, only somewhat understanding what they are saying. His parents used a lot of terminology like this but he never really understood them completely, but he already knew more than most adults on stuff like this. He was more of an astronomy guy personaly than an interdimensional portals guy.

Tony smirked walking over to Banner. "Finally, someone who speaks English."

Cap turned to Danny. "Is that what just happened?" Danny smiled in response, shrugging his shoulders.

Tony's voice turned to a much quieter talking voice as he shook the doctor's hand. "It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on the anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I am a huge fan of the fact that you lose control and turn into an enormous green-rage monster."

Banner gritted his teeth. "Thanks."

Nick Fury walked into the room standing in front of everyone at the table. "Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you would join him."

Steve piped up. "I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical but it works a lot like a HYDRA weapon."

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube." Fury turned to look at Danny. "And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his own personal flying monkeys." He crossed his arms. "Phantom, care to tell me what you know about how they could be controlled."

All eyes turned to Danny who gulped. "Uh, well I am assuming you are referring to overshadowing. Right?"

The two agents closest to him tensed and backed away a bit nervously. Nick nodded.

"Overshadowing?" Cap questioned.

Danny paused for a second. "Ghost possession." The room fell a bit more silent but Danny continued. "I doubt this was overshadowing though. First of all, most ghosts don't like to work with each other, let alone someone who is alive. And ghosts are very, um, prideful. They would only take over the world if they could do it by themselves." The people in the room sent him a questioning look. "They would want bragging rights over me or any of the others, if they used another's help they would probably be seen as weak. Even then, most ghosts just want to be left alone, they don't care about world domination or chaos.

Banner spoke up. "Ghosts?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "You know, dead people. Float through walls, some of them can be really annoying."

"Ghosts aren't real, are they?" Cap questions. The agents in the room froze, expecting Danny to freak out or something. But Danny just sent him a slightly confused look.

Agent Hill gestured towards Phantom. "Captain… Phantom is a ghost." The room fell silent as they all looked at Danny once again. Danny looked around nervously and started rubbing the back of his neck. 

Chapter Text

Danny chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, as he looked around the room at some of the surprised and confused faces. “Uh, yes I am a ghost. I just thought you knew.” He gestures behind him at the agents holding their weapons tightly. “I figured with how much these guys were freaking out about me, they would have told you.”

Steve looked back and forth between the agents and Danny and raised an eyebrow. “Why would the agents be so scared?” He asked skeptically.

Danny looked back as the agents eased their grips on their weapons to try to prove that they were not scared. Nick spoke up. “It is just a precaution, Phantom could be really dangerous if he wants to be.”

Thor thought for a second. “You are a draugr, dead warrior come back to life.”

“Umm, I think so.” Danny knew little about Asgardians, but he had met one or two of them in the ghost zone before, one likes to hang out just a little past the far frozen. Danny was good friends with him actually. He snapped his mind back to the present and continued to answer the man. “I wasn’t a warrior before I died though.” He chuckled nervously and looked around the room with still confused and slightly put-off faces. “It's not like I am haunting anybody or anything. I am here to help you guys with your problem and then go home.” Danny sighed, “As much as I would like to be questioned on my existence for the rest of my afterlife, I thought we were going to go look at that staff thing.”

Steve and Banner, shook their heads slightly as if they were trying to get their minds back on the mission at hand. They stood up quickly and started to head down the hall to where the staff was held.

Tony looked back at Danny again, who seemed slightly saddened. And now for sure Tony knew where he recognized the boy from, some people tried to contact him and his company about creating some kind of ghost weapons to fight off the new threat. The ghost's photo was in that file! But Tony just brushed the whole thing off as a hoax and never truly looked into it. But now maybe he should look more into this 'ghost' thing.

X

Cap was sitting off to the side thinking to himself while Banner was running some tests on Loki’s scepter. He would be of little use in the experimentation of the staff so he might as well mull over what had been revealed during the meeting.

If Danny was a ghost, that means he must have died... But he looks so young, he must have died when he was just a kid. Poor guy. But why were the agents so scared of him, Steve was certainly surprised when he discovered it, but the kid seemed nice... And maybe being a ghost meant something different than what he was used to, maybe they have different meanings nowadays?

Phantom walked past Steve into the lab and looked over to the staff that was sitting in its place on the stand so it sat on the table, he just stared down at it with slightly narrowed eyes. Something was off like he recognized this sort of power… It reminded him a little of the ring of rage and crown of fire! He was only around those two ghostly artifacts for a little bit of time, during his battle with Pariah, But you could feel the power pulsing off of them, the raw energy.

It was like the staff. And Danny assumed it was the same for the tesseract thing they were talking about and searching for. They said it was similar to what they gathered with their tests on ectoplasm, even if they couldn’t get access to much of the substance. But that must mean that both of the weapons that were once in possession of Loki probably could hurt ghosts, or at least do something to them.

“Found it,” Tony called out Breaking both Danny's and Cap's trains of thought. There was a light smile on Stark's face as he pressed a couple of icons on the computer screen. Danny stopped what looked like a staredown with the staff, and turned his attention to the man who started to walk around the lab like he owned the place.

Cap pushes himself up from the corner. “What did you find?” He questioned.

Tony points his pen over at Danny. “Him, I knew I had a file on him.” He says triumphantly.

Danny raises an eyebrow with a slightly confused look. “A file on me?” Cap also raises an eyebrow as Bruce looks up from the staff and puts the scanner he was holding down on the table next to a pile of papers.

“I had some people come to me about making some sort of ghost weapons. You were in the file they gave me.”

Danny had a panicked look on his face. “W-Weapons? You didn’t make them any did you?” Danny knew that Stark could probably make hundreds of weapons that would probably go to the GIW or SHIELD. Cap looked over at Danny's panicked look.

“No, turned them down cold. Stark Industries doesn't make weapons anymore. And besides, it seemed crazy… but now, I know that it was not as crazy as I first thought.” Danny's eyes narrowed slightly. Tony swipes his hand across the monitor next to him and looks up at the bigger screen above the room.

A photo of Danny shows up on the screen, it was of him with his ghostly tail just flying through the town without a care in the world.  It was quite blurry with ghostly interference making feedback in the camera, but if you knew Danny you could tell it was him. “That’s you, isn’t it?” Tony said as he swiped again and a glitchy video started playing of Danny getting smashed into the road creating a small crater. Danny then gets up and flies away after noticing the camera pointing at him with a groan.

Danny crosses his arms and looks at the other two people in the room watching the video. “What if it is?”

Tony seems to ignore the ghost's question. “Amity Park.” He starts, making Danny's eyes glow slightly brighter. “Nice place to live.” He chuckles and looks over to Danny. “’Inviso bill?’ that’s quite a name.” He then smirks, at the boy's look of annoyance.

“I have always hated that name,” Danny grumbled.

“You know what is interesting?” He points at Danny again. “You were not on the Avengers initiative. So why were you brought in?”

“I don’t know. They originally said that they wanted me to help track the, um, Tesseract.” He put his hand to his chin. “But that is what you are doing, right?” He points to Bruce.

“So that begs the question.” Tony continues. “Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us?” He grabs a sliver bag off of the work table that was filled with food of some kind. “I can’t do the equation if I don’t have all of the variables.”

Cap raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “You think Fury is hiding something then?”

“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Danny added with a light scoff.

Tony nodded at Danny and continued on. “He’s a spy. Captain, he’s ‘the’ spy. His secrets have secrets.” He turns to Bruce popping a blueberry in his mouth. “It bugs him, too. Doesn't it?”

Cap and Danny turn to Bruce. “Uh… I just want to finish my work here, and-“

Steve cuts him off. “Doctor?” Bruce sighs and takes off his glasses looking up at them.

“’A warm light for all mankind.’ Loki’s jab at Fury about the cube.” Cap nods

“I heard it.”

Bruce points over at Tony continuing. “Well, I think that was meant for you.” Tony nods offering the doctor a blueberry from his hand and leans on the desk. “Even if Barton didn’t tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news.”

“Stark Tower?” Cap said. “That big, ugly…” Tony looks over at him with a raised eyebrow. Cap continued quietly. “Building in New York?” Danny smiles.

“It’s powered by an arc reactor, a self-sustaining power source. That building will run itself for what, a year?” Danny had heard of it, his parents talked a bit about it thinking that it would work better or something if they worked ectoplasm into the machine.

Tony waved his hand in the air. “It's just a prototype. I am kinda the only name in clean energy right now. That’s what he is getting at.” He walks over and offers Danny a blueberry, Who in response raises an eyebrow looking down at it. “Do you eat?” Tony questioned, Danny smiled slightly and grabbed one popping it in his mouth. Tony turns back around with a smirk on his face as Bruce continues.

“So, why didn’t SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project in the first place, before this all happened? What are they even doing in the energy business in the first place.”

Tony sighs and walks back over to the computer monitor that he was at before. “I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into SHIELD’s secure files.” Danny looks up at Tony with a slight smirk and an eyebrow raised.

Caps head snaps to Tony. “I am sorry. What did you say?”

“JARVIS has been on it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours, I will know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide.” He sticks the bag of snacks out at Cap. “Blueberry?”

Cap pushes away the man's hand and continues. “Yet you are confused at why they didn’t want you around.”

“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not awesome.”

“I think Loki is trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war and if we don’t stay focused he will succeed. We have orders, we should follow them.”

Tony smirks again waving his hand off to the side. “Following is not really my style.”

“And you are all about style, aren't you?”

Bruce speaks up. “Steve tell me none of this smells funky to you.”

Cap turns around and storms out of the room calling out behind him. “Just find the cube.”

“That’s the guy my dad never shut up about?” Tony grumbled. “I am starting to wonder if they shouldn’t have kept him on ice.”

Danny looked over to Tony and back at Cap who was just turning down a strange hallway at the end of the hall. Danny tilted his head slightly, knowing that was not the way back. He started walking to the door only to stop when Tony called out to him.

“Where’ you going, Casper?” He asked with an eyebrow raised and holding his snacks in the other hand.

Danny once again looked back and forth between where Steve left and Tony. “I am going to go after him.” He paused. “I am not that much help here at the moment. And I wanted to talk with him anyway.”

Danny paused as if waiting for a nod or something from Tony before he left. Tony caught onto that. “Do whatever you want kid.” He waved him off. “I still want to talk to you later though, all the fun jucy questions for the undead.” He added turning back to Banner, who had just picked up the scanner again from the desk.

Danny thought about arguing that he was still in fact dead, not undead, but ended up nodding and just heading down the hall, he could debate that later. As soon as he got to the bend where Cap broke off he saw a sign on the wall saying ‘Storage.’ What would Steve want in storage? Danny tilted his head and looked down the hall seeing no one there. He quickly picked up his feet tucking them underneath him and started to float down the hall, at a much faster pace than he would have been going if he walked.

Once he got to yet another bend (This place was like a maze) he glanced down both paths seeing Cap just turn again down the ‘Secure Storage 10-C’ section. Danny narrowed his eyes and followed behind not making a sound.

He flew up behind the Captain with his invisibility and looked over the man's shoulder to see what he was doing. Steve was trying to pry open the door to the storage room. Danny smiled slightly “Whatcha doin'?” He asked playfully, causing the Captain to jump back looking up where Danny had appeared leaning over his shoulder.

Danny laughed slightly at the surprised Captain and landed on the ground next to him. Steve looked at the boy and quickly regained his composure. “I am looking into this for myself.” He paused at the boy's smirk.

“Weren't you just telling everyone off for investigating, and how we need to ‘Follow orders’?” Danny did quotation marks in the air with his hands. And then crossed his arms over his chest.

“As much as I don’t like Stark, he and Banner did have a point… I was, looking for something in here. The stuff in this room is supposed to have something to do with the tesseract.” He turned back to face the door. “I can’t open it without getting anyone's attention.”

Danny faced the door as well, the Captain stepped back as the boy fazed his hand through the door unlocking it instantly. “Ha, some government agency. Can’t stop a dead kid from getting into their secure storage. Even Box Ghost could get in here.” He turned back to face Cap who had a slight smile on his face before he walked into the room, followed closely behind by Danny.

The room was huge, there were shelves and crates stored up to the ceiling. You could probably fit an airplane in there. Cap looked up and narrowed his eyes. Danny followed the man's gaze and saw a second-floor section. The Captain took a running leap, jumping off of one of the crates and grabbing onto the lip of the next floor, pulling himself up effortlessly. He looked back down to Danny who had a slightly impressed look on his face before floating up and landing next to where the Captain stood.

Steve stared at the boy for a moment. So far he hadn't really seen him fly/float in person, it was like the boy was weightless. Danny paused looking at the Captain. “After you. I don’t know where we are going.” Cap shook his head and turned around facing away from Danny and started walking.

After a little bit of awkward silence, Danny spoke up. “I thought you fought in WWII, so how are you here?” Danny saw the man pause. “I mean I read about you in history class right.”

Cap slowly started walking again. “You probably did. Yes, I was in WWII, but I ended up crashing a plane carrying dangerous weapons and explosives into the ocean before it reached land. I ended up freezing, paralyzed in ice. And woke up years later in this world.” He gestured his hand around the room. “The war was over, and it was a new time.”

Danny looked at the man. “That must have been hard, for everything to change so suddenly for you.” Danny looked down at his white-gloved hands. Danny blinked for a second and looked back up. “You know I was almost frozen in ice once.”

The Captain turned his head to Danny raising an inquisitive eyebrow. Danny in response chuckled. “Everything is fine now though, But I was cold for days. My friends still bug me about it sometimes.” Steve tilted his head to the side slightly, but then abruptly stopped when something caught his eye.

Danny followed the man’s gaze to see a bunch of black cases. Danny didn’t see anything out of the ordinary with them, but something was definitely affecting Steve. The Captain walked over and stroked his hand over one of the logos on the case. It was a skull with octopus arms sticking out the bottom of it. He had a mixture of confusion and anger on his face as he quickly opened the case. Inside were weapons printed with the same logo that was on the box, as well as some masks and bluish-colored grenades. He whipped his head around looking around and gasped as all the way down the aisle were hundreds of these cases. He looked back at Danny who mainly had confusion on his face. But from how Cap was acting, he knew this was bad.

Chapter Text

Danny looked up at Cap, an uneasy feeling about him. "You know what these are, don't you?"

Cap stared down at the case before him. His eyes still, like he was thinking of an old painful memory. "This, this is what I died to stop. These weapons. But why would SHIELD have them? Why are there so many here?"

Danny sighed looking down at the cases. "They are probably trying to figure out how they were created. You said these were powerful weapons. That means they want to understand them. And probably want to use them."

There was a second of silence. "Nothing has changed has it?" Steve asked quietly looking over to Danny. "People still don't trust each other. Still preparing for a war that may never come. Creating weapons designed to hurt others."

Danny looked down at the floor solemnly. "The world is just like that." he paused. "But there are good people in this world, just as there has always been. You saved thousands then, and there are heroes now who will lay down their lives -or afterlives- to save others. But if there's good there will always be bad to counter it."

Cap sighed and looked over to Danny, the kid was wise for his age. Maybe he wasn't even a kid. "I feel like we are overdue for a conversation with Fury." He reached over and hesitantly grabbed one of the disabled weapons from inside the open case. He looked over to Danny who nodded in response.

They both started back to the door, they were going to have a long conversation with a certain pirate cosplaying government agent.

X

Fury stormed down the hall in the direction of the lab, his shoes clicking loudly as he walked. Stark had been hacking into SHIELD's secure files about the Tesseract project and phase two, and it took them this long to figure it out. He turned the corner into the lab seeing Tony and Banner leaning up against the desk with their arms crossed as if they were expecting him. "What are you doing Stark?" Fury demanded.

"Hmm, Kinda been wondering the same thing about you, Eyepatch," Tony responded.

"You are supposed to be locating the tesseract, not playing your little games."

Banner sat up, butting in. "We have the model locked and we are sweeping for the signature now." He pointed his hand up to the computer monitor next to Fury. "When we get a hit, we will know the location within a half-mile."

Tony stood up and started to walk closer to Fury. "Then you get your precious cube back, no muss, no fuss." He paused to look over at one of the monitors. "You know what is 'phase two'?"

Cap and Danny walk into the room and Cap angrily drops the weapon he grabbed from storage on the desk making a clunking noise to get everyone's attention. "'Phase two' is SHIELD uses the cube to recreate HYDRA weapons." He turns to face Tony. "Sorry, the computers were a bit slow for me."

Danny stormed angrily forward. "You're undoing everything he died for." He gestured angrily to Cap. "Just so you can have a couple more weapons in your arsenal."

Nick walked over standing in front of Danny. "We gathered everything we could on the tesseract, that doesn't mean we are make-"

"-I'm sorry, Nick?" Tony butted in. "What were you lying?" He flipped the screen around to show the room building schematics for hundreds of new weapons, and HYDRA tech.

Nat and Thor heard the commotion and entered the room. Banner's head snapped over to Nat. "Did you know about this then?"

"You should seriously think about removing yourself from this environment doctor." She said crossing her arms.

Bruce chuckled and leaned back a bit. "I was in Calcutta; I was pretty well removed."

"Loki has been manipulating you."

"And you all have been doing what, exactly?"

"You didn't come here just because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I am not leaving because you get a little twitchy." Banner walked over to the screen and pointed at it. "I would like to know why, SHIELD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction."

Fury sighed in frustration. "Because of them." He pointed to Danny and Thor.

Thor looked over confused, "Me?" And Danny simply narrowed his eyes.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet. And then we had extremely powerful beings known as ghosts, start to take over a small town in Illinois. Some more powerful than an army by themselves." He looked down at Danny. "We learned that we are not only alone in this universe but on our own planet as well. And both hopelessly outmatched, and outgunned."

Danny and Thor tightened their fists. "My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor explained.

Fury spun around. "But you aren't the only people out there, are you? And you aren't the only threat." He turned around back to Tony. "The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled," Danny growled at that, causing a stray eye to look his way at the sound.

Thor stepped forward. "Your work with the tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war."

"Higher form? You forced our hand. We had to come up with som-"

"-A nuclear deterrent." Tony crossed his arms. "Because that always calms everything down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune stark." Fury retorted.

Cap stood forward. "I am sure if Stark still made weapons he would be neck-deep-"

"-Wait, hold on how is this about me now?"

"I am sorry isn't everything." Cap and Tony were now staring each other down.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor commented pinching his brow with his hand.

"I am sorry, do we come to your home and blow things up?"

Danny's eyes narrowed. "Isn't that what you have been trying to do to us the whole time!?"

Nat butted in. "SHIELD monitors potential threats."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "So Captain America is a threat?"

"We all are."

Tony turned to Cap pointing at him. "Wait, you're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?"

"Stark, I swear if I hear one more wisecrack."

"Threat. Verbal threat I feel threatened."

"Show some respect."

"Respect what?"

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?"

Tony rolls his eyes. "Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. The only thing you fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you."

"I think I would just cut the wire."

"Always a way out. You know you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending that you are a hero."

"A hero, like you? You are a laboratory experiment, Rodgers. Everything special about you came from a bottle."

"Fine, then. Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

Everyone turned to the sound of a beep from the computer. Thor turned back to Banner who was walking across the room. "You located the Tesseract?"

"I can get there the fastest," Tony called quickly out turning to leave.

Cap reached out and grabbed his arm. "You are not going alone."

"You're going to stop me?"

"Put on the suit and let's find out."

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

"Put on the suit." Both were nearly nose to nose.

Everyone in the room was startled by the sound of breaking glass, as an arrow flew through the front window of the ship. It nearly hit Tony's arm and Danny's head as it flipped by. Everyone was startled to see that it hit Banner in the shoulder causing him to fall backward onto the floor gripping at his shoulder.

After a moment the arrow sent an eclectic surge through Banner causing him to yell out in pain, but the yell did not sound like his own. It was deeper and more grumbled. Natasha and Fury grabbed their weapons and trained them on the doctor who was trying to get up off the ground.

"There is an unknown aircraft carrying heavy weaponry just outside the ship." A voice called out through the comms. Danny looked around wondering what to do.

"Doctor Banner," Cap started. "You need to calm down." The Doctor responded with a loud yell as his skin started to turn green. Danny stepped forward ready to put a shield around the occupants in the room if need be.

Another surge went through the arrow causing Banner to growl and start to double in size, he shook his head around like he was trying to get whatever was happening to him out. He looked around and jumped through a wall and then down through the floor.

"A worthy fight," Thor called out loudly before jumping down after Hulk spinning his hammer

"I'll cover Thor," Cap called out before starting to follow.

Danny was about to jump after them as well, he could help. But Fury put his hand in front of him signing for him to stop. "I need you and Stark to get out there and stop that aircraft before they can break out Loki." Danny hesitated but nodded turning to Tony. Tony was already walking out quickly to go and grab his suit from the hangar.

Danny looked back at the hole in the ground before hearing a loud crash, he cringed a bit hoping everything would be fine. But he and Tony were the only ones who could fly, they were the only chance against the ship out there. Danny quickly hovered above the ground and took off down the hall to where Tony was going.

Tony walked into a storage area and pulled out a remote that opened up a storage unit, inside was a suit of gold and red armor. Tony walked into the armor that opened up and wrapped around him. He nodded to the ghost as the faceplate slammed shut over his face. The suit of armor was then sucked out of the ship and into the sky.

Danny flew out the same way Tony did, there was a small airlock underneath the suit of armor in the storage unit. The moment Danny made it into the sky, he had to force himself to blink a few times to adjust his eyes because of how bright the sudden sunlight was. He shook his head and turned to see Tony taking off in the direction of the front of the ship where the arrow originated.

Danny sped up to fly next to Tony. "There is only one I can see so far, but there are loads of energy-based weapons on it. You think you can handle this kid?" Tony asked through the outer speakers of his suit.

Danny smirked. "Does Technus like to monologue?" He said smugly.

Tony turned his head forward. "I think that's a yes." His boot jets released a higher output causing him to shoot forward much faster.

The moment the small black aircraft came into view, the back of the ship was opening revealing multiple people wearing head-to-toe black suits and holding weapons that looked a lot like the SHIELD's blasters. There was one who didn't cover his face, and instead of holding a blaster he was holding a bow and arrow and had a quiver on his back. Danny recognized him as one of the people they were talking about earlier, the ones being controlled.

They all looked up at the two flying heroes and then did something unexpected. They all jumped out the back of the ship into the sky. Danny was about to fly down there and catch them when the sounds of small jets sounded. They were floating in the air like the heroes were. They had jetpacks on. Danny didn't even know those existed in real life.

The jetpacks were much smaller than Danny would be expecting and instead of orange fire propelling them up, it was an icy blue color. They flew up to the same height as the heroes. The archer also had a jetpack on but was staying back in the ship simply observing.

The agents started to fire at both Tony and Danny who started dodging back and forth to not get hit with the blue beams. Danny was trying to use mostly defense and only shooting back very low-level blasts when he had to, he didn't want to hurt these people. They were humans and were probably being controlled. It wasn't their choice.

Tony on the other hand was using mostly offense, trying to aim for their jetpacks. He managed to hit one of the jet packs causing it to start leaking a blue-colored fuel out into the sky. The fire on the back of it started sputtering out, forcing the agent to land back on the ship that they originated from with an ungrateful landing as he stumbled forward.

After a couple of seconds, another arrow like the one that hit Banner before shot through the air. That was who shot the arrow. It flew by past all the agents and hit the iron suit's ankle grabbing onto it with small spurs. The repulser on his boots started to sputter out and caused Tony to lose balance, starting to fall.

Danny flew after Tony and grabbed him under his arms to stop him from falling out of the sky. Tony called out to him through the speakers. "Take the arrow out, it is messing with my suit." Danny nodded in understanding, he turned his legs into a tail and wrapped it around Tony's torso to keep him stable as he leaned down to reach the arrow.  He wrapped his fist around the shaft and pulled as hard as he could causing it to dislodge.

The arrow short-circuited in Danny's hand causing it to start smoking, Danny heard a light beeping sound and quickly dropped the arrow, after a couple seconds in the sky it blew up in a radius about ten times the size of the arrow. Danny whipped his head back around to see that the archer and a couple of the other agents were heading down to the Helicarrier, trying to keep unseen. They used the arrow as a distraction! Danny looked back to look at Tony, who seemed to be fine now. Most of the other agents were flying back to their ship because of injuries or failed tech.

Danny had to make a split-second decision. If he leaves Tony would be left with all of those agents who were shooting at him. But if Danny doesn't leave, the others will release Loki. Danny shook his head and took off after the agents nearing the ship. Leaving Tony and the small aircraft.  He hoped he didn't come to regret this later.

Chapter Text

Danny took off after the agents with his invisibility. They landed on the ship and Barton stuck a small piece of blue tech on what looked to be a security panel next to a security door. He turned to the rest of the agents. “Security is disabled, go now.” He and two agents split off from the group running along the outside of the ship to another door while the other three walked through the door they landed next to.

Danny looked back and forth, one group was going to the ship's control room and the other was going in the direction of Loki’s cell. Once again he had to make a split-second decision. …Ugh what was with all of those today? He darted in the direction of Loki’s cell where Barton’s team was going, still outside.

The moment he caught up to them they were opening a door to get inside. Sticking out of the door's eye scanner was an arrow with a blue light blinking on the end. Danny shot two blasts next to the door startling the agents, they turned around quickly holding up their blasters but did not see who or what the blast originated from.  Their eyes darted around frantically.

Danny flickered back into visibility as his clenched fists gleamed with ecto energy, his eyes glowing so bright you could see it through the afternoon sun that shined overhead the ship. The agents turned around aiming their blasters at Danny. And Danny once again went for the defensive, using a glowing green ecto shield to block the blue beams of energy.

Barton narrowed his eyes and shot an arrow very much left of where Danny was standing. The halfa just stared at him with a ‘really?’ look. Only a couple of seconds later, the arrow came flying back around, directed by the wind. The arrow pierced his back-shoulder blade releasing an electricity pulse similar to the one that had hit Banner.

Danny instantly dropped the shield and fell to the ground reaching for the arrow in his back only for it to send another shock. Danny yelled as he tried to get back upright. The agents instead of continuing to shoot turned around and continued on their mission leaving Danny writhing on the floor.

With the electricity shocking his ectoplasm it was hurting. Causing Danny to be very weak. He pushed all of the energy he could muster into his intangibility, he could only get it to turn his arm and chest intangible, but that was good enough. The arrow fell through his chest and onto the ground with a small clink.

Danny gasped for air, even if he didn’t need it in his ghost form it was still a habit. Danny got up, dry coughing into his hand. “I really hate electricity.” He muttered, narrowing his eyes at the open door before him where the corrupted agents had escaped.

Danny took off down the hallway, he could already feel his core working hard to replenish his energy. His shoulder still ached, and it would for some time, but it will heal. Danny turned the corner to see Agent Barton and Agent Romanov fighting in hand-to-hand combat. Danny quickly realized that the other two agents weren’t there. They must have already gotten to Loki.

The redhead looked like she was handling Barton fine. He should go and stop the other agents from releasing Loki from his cell. He quickly continued down the hall leaving the two SHIELD agents to fight. Only to see Thor stuck in the same cell that used to house the god of mischief.

He smashed his hammer against the glass only for it to crack only slightly under its pressure. Loki paused for a second looking at the contraption up and down. A smirk spread across his face as he stalked over to the control panel for the cell. “Humans think us immortal, should we test that theory?” He started pressing a bunch of buttons on the panel causing the floor to open up beneath the cell, as it did in Fury’s demonstration to Loki earlier.

Thor looked down into the sky, and then glared at his brother. Danny shot over to Loki, ectoplasm surrounding his hands. He ran into where Loki was standing reaching for his shoulders to push him away from the panel, only for the god to phase through Danny’s fingers. Danny smashed his head into the glass cell which made it start to shake uneasily.

The ghost wiped his head around to see the Loki he had run into disappearing in gold light, whereas another Loki appeared leaning on the wall next to the door holding the scepter that was in the lab moments before. One of the agents must have grabbed it for him. Or maybe he could teleport?

Danny bent down into a fighting stance, ecto in his clenched fists ready to blast at him. Even if Danny was still weak from the arrow Barton shot, he wasn't going to let Loki kill Thor. “Stay there,” Danny commanded to Loki who stood there holding the staff slightly in front of him.

“Do you realize that you are working for the people who would seek to destroy you and your kind, your home, at a moment's notice? People who would stop at nothing to see others like you gone.” The man spat, It seemed as though Loki was thinking that he could mess with Danny’s mind. Make him distrust the people he was helping. But what Danny said next Loki didn’t expect.

“Of course, I know that.” Loki’s smirk slightly fell. “I am only helping them to stop you. I kind of like Earth the way it is. No need for any evil overlords, thank you very much.”

“You do not care about your own self-being?” Loki questioned.

“Of course I care, I just care about other people more.” Danny could feel Loki's mind reeling. His face changed to a sort of glare as he walked toward the ghost with his staff pointing out.

Danny quickly shot a blast at the staff pushing it away. But it didn’t leave Loki’s grip. He spun it around and instead held it behind him. Loki glanced up from Danny to the control panel. The halfa felt Loki’s mind trying to fight itself from the inside. Danny could feel the strange haze much stronger now. Like it was growing.

Eventually, Loki’s eyes stilled, and he threw a knife that materialized from his hand at the control panel. Danny wiped his head around to see that the knife was sticking out of a red button. Danny’s eyes widened as the cell containing Thor was dropped out of the sky.

Danny without a second thought jumped out of the ship after the falling cell. He could see Thor trying to escape by trying to smash the walls more with his hammer only to be thrown around at the last second.  It looked like someone shaking a fish in a bowl as it tried drastically to make sure they were the right way up.

Danny tried to shoot an ectoblast at the glass, but instead of breaking it, It bounced like light off a mirror, almost hitting Danny’s leg. Danny grabbed onto the cell and tried to turn it intangible for Thor to escape. Danny yelped as the cell actually zapped him! It wasn't nearly as bad as the arrow earlier, but it was bad. This thing had ecto-proofing on it.

The ground was getting progressively nearer, the Helicarrier farther and farther away. Danny thought quickly through all of his powers that might be able to help in this situation, he suddenly remembered something. Danny’s eyes turned bright blue suddenly, surprising Thor who was still being thrown around. A blue color surrounded his fists.

Danny waited for just the right moment, he pulled the energy straight from his core, even if this would weaken him more it was probably the only chance. The cell spun around one more time and the spot Thor had been hitting showed. He shot two beams of cold out the first one coated the glass in ice, and the other beam followed directly after the first, it was a large spike of ice that looked a bit like a spear. The first blast cooled the glass down making it a bit more brittle, not as brittle as it would make metal but still brittle enough. The spike that followed stuck itself into the glass causing large cracks to spread all the way across it in a spiderweb-like pattern. Thor realized this might be his only chance and propelled himself off the back wall of the cell hammer first. The final blow with the hammer shattered the frozen glass and Thor escaped.

He flew up to where Danny was floating just as the cell crashed into the ground. The rest of the glass barely broke when it landed, but Thor likely still still have died if he had been in that death trap. Thor turned to look at Danny. “Thank you, mighty warrior. Although I did not know you could create ice?”

“Yeah I can, but I often forget about it.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck. “I was just glad I could get you out of there.” Danny paused for a moment, if that cell was also meant to keep him in that must mean that SHIELD didn’t know about his ice powers. He looked back up to Thor. “I would rather you not go telling the others about my ice powers. I do want them to be kept secret.” Thor turned to him and nodded.

“I agree with your terms.”

“Terms?”

“But now we must get back and see what damage my brother has caused. He has surely escaped by now.” He sighed and started to spin his hammer that launched him into the air.

X

Nick Fury stormed across the room. “Loki escaped.” He stopped in front of the table that once again sat most of the heroes. “And Hulk is missing. Is there anything else you guys want to mess up?”

Danny was the first to speak up. “Was anyone killed?”

“Thankfully no. But there were a lot of major injuries.” He gestured to Nat. “Agent Romanov was able to subdue Agent Barton. But he is still under Loki’s control.”

Danny paused for a second thinking. “I might have a way to bring him back to normal.”

Tony turned his head to the ghost. “How?”

“I can… overshadow him an-“

He was cut off by Nat. “-Absolutely not! You are not going to possess him. We have no idea what you will do! What information you will have access to.”

Everyone turned to look at Danny, Nat had her hand on the gun on her hip. She was having a staring contest with Danny, her lip curled up into a snarl. The ghost’s eyes narrowed. “I am not going to do anything with his body. I was just saying that I might be able to coax his mind back from inside his head. Help him break through the control.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “How do you know he will be able to break free, even with your influence?”

“Anyone can break free of mind control if they have the right help.” Danny's mind flashed back to his friends yelling at him, trying to get him to break free of Freakshow’s control. If he didn’t have them, he would probably still be a thieving puppet. “I don’t see anyone else coming up with any ideas. I have the most experience with mind control and maybe the only one who can help right now.” He crossed his arms. “Let me try.”

Fury paused for a moment with his hand on his chin. Nat still glaring down at Danny. “Fine. Only because Barton is a valuable asset and may know of Loki’s plan.”

Danny nodded. “Where is he?”

Fury started to walk out of the room followed by Danny and then the other Avengers. Nat was still visibly upset about the whole plan, but she wasn't going to let the ghost possess her friend without her there.

They walked down the hall into a hangar that looked like an infirmary. Barton was on one of the medical beds strapped down by his hands and feet in one of the private rooms. Barton had a strange haze about his head, but Danny could barely feel it on him. But Danny felt like he recognized it from somewhere.

Barton was under what seemed like a mild anesthetic, probably given to him by some of the agents so he didn’t try and escape. Danny looked back to the others in the room who was standing a bit far away. “Don’t try anything funny Phantom,” Fury said.

Danny nodded and turned back to the mind-controlled agent. He floated above him and became intangible floating gup and almost crawling into his body.  It was a strange sight to see, everyone stared at Barton's body in amazement and uncertainty. The kid just climbed into his body, like it was nothing. Everyone fell silent in the room.

X

Danny opened his eyes to see himself lying on the ground and staring into a lightly overcast sky in a very hazy yellow-colored world. Instead of just pushing Barton down into his subconscious, as most ghosts would when overshadowing someone, he followed the man into his subconscious, deep in his mind.

Danny sat up and slowly got to his feet, the world around him seemed slow, and all of the sounds around him at the moment seemed muffled. But he could hear birds chirping and… Laughter?

Danny walked toward the sound of children laughing. The sound was coming from the direction of a farmhouse that was at the top of a hill. It felt like Danny zipped there without even noticing, now he was standing a couple of feet away from the dirt driveway of the house.

Next to the house playing in an open field were two kids. A boy and a girl, the boy looked slightly older. Sitting on a bench next to the house was a woman reading a book that Danny couldn’t see the name of, the words all jumbled and melded together. Standing next to the bench was Agent Barton looking out at his kids with his arm wrapped around his wife’s shoulders. This is his family.

His mind was trapping itself in a happy state in the subconscious while his body was being controlled. Danny stepped forward and put his hand on Barton’s arm. Barton turned his head to Danny and paused for a second. He then started blinking a bit, once again looking the white-haired boy up and down. “Who are you?”

“I'm Danny.” He looked around once again. “You have a lovely family.”

Barton looked back over at his kids and smiled. “Yeah, they are.” He paused once again and tried to shake his head, redirecting his attention back to Danny.
“Why are you here?”

“I have come to help you.”

“Help me?”

“Yes, your mind is trapped here. While your body is doing something different in the physical world.”

“I don’t understand.”

Danny sighed. “What was the last thing you remember?” He gestured to the yellow-tinted world around him. “This what we are in right now is a memory of yours. Think about the last thing you remember before you were here.”

Barton closed his eyes and thought hard. “There was an attack. A problem with the tesseract.” He shook his head again. “I don’t want to be controlled. The stone.”

“Stone?”

“It, it. I don’t understand.”

Danny looked around and put his hand on Barton’s shoulder. “This, this isn’t real. This isn’t the real world, not your real family. You have to think, think about the real them, what do you think they are doing now? In the real world.”

The bright yellow color of the world started to dim. Barton was closing his eyes.

“Think of what ties you to the real world. You need to get out of here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. You can't stay here, this world might be amazing, but it is not real, not the same, not the truth.”

Barton nodded and the world started to dim into darkness.

Barton shot up his eyes open wide as he took in a gasping breath. Everyone in the room jumped back. Danny then fazed out of Barton’s chest and fell onto the ground dead first with a thud. “Ow.” Danny stumbled to his feet and looked back at the confused people in the room. “It worked.” He turned to look back at Barton, who was blinking a lot to get used to the bright light in the room.

Nick looked at the man with his hands put behind his back. “Agent Barton, good to see you back.”

“Good to be back.” He looked down at his wrists. “Can you get these off of me now?”

Chapter Text

Danny was floating idly down the halls of the Hellicarror when he heard someone call out to him. He quickly whipped his head around to make sure that the person calling out was okay and not in danger. He was relieved to see Agent Barton speed-walking over to him down the hall he just come from. Looking well enough. Well, as okay as a person who was just being mind-controlled for the last few days can be.

Danny sighed in relief. "Yeah?" He turned his body around, facing the Agent with his whole body in the mostly empty hallway. Danny lowered down to the ground so the agent wouldn't have to feel uncomfortable about the ghost floating. "I thought you wouldn't be allowed to leave the med bay?" Danny commented.

"I have my ways," Barton answered cheekily, rubbing his wrists. "So, you were the one to free me from the control?"

Danny nodded to the man but seemed slightly embarrassed by the fact. "Yeah, but I am sure any ghost with a core could do that." He chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, his eyes darting to the floor to avoid the agent's eyes.

The agent tilted his head to the side. "But from what everyone else has been saying around here, not any 'ghost' would." He carefully put his hand on Danny's non-injured shoulder, trying to ignore the feeling of cold resonating off the boy. "Thank you, really." He sighed. "It made me do terrible things. Stuff I am not proud of."

"Look I understand… you see…" He looked up a bit. "I was controlled once too, not under the same circumstances but, I know what it is like. My friends had to remind me who I was, and it was… hard." He sighed.

"I don't remember exactly what happened when you showed up in that dream thing, but you did save me. I would still be stuck if it wasn't for you." Danny looked up at the archer with a smile on his lips. Barton smiled back reassuringly, his eyes darted over to the boy's shoulder and cringed. "Sorry about your shoulder."

Danny chuckled, waving him off. "I'll be fine after a day or two, really."

Suddenly Danny's ears perked up as he heard two people rushing down the hall in a hurry. Clint noticed the ghost's quick change and turned his head to see Tony and Cap rush up to them, Tony seeming slightly more out of breath than the super-soldier. Which was understandable. Cap was the first to speak up in a commanding tone. "We need to go."

"Go where?" Danny asked first, even if both he and Barton were thinking the same question. He floated up off the ground again readying himself to take off and help them. He could hear both men's hearts and they were thumping quickly, like they were worried about something. Even if Stark's heart was hard to hear with the buzzing of the arc reactor placed in his chest.

"Stark tower." Tony started. "Loki is going to power the cube there. And we're going to stop that from happening."

Cap turned to face Barton more directly. "Do you know how to fly one of those jets?" He asked.

Barton nodded. "Yes." He smiled and crossed his arms. "And I can do it in style."

"Good, you're coming with me," Cap stated, tilting his head at the archer.

Tony spun on his heel and started walking away from the group waving his hand behind him. "Casper, care to join me? I might need an extra pair of ghostly hands with this one."

Danny nodded and started floating over to follow the billionaire. Cap reached over and grabbed his arm stopping Danny from moving.

Danny looked back at the super-soldier with a slightly confused look on his face. "Are you sure you want to do this kid?" Cap asked.

Danny chuckled and fazed his arm from the Caption's grip. "I already got both feet in the grave Captain. What is the worst that can happen?" He quipped, causing Tony to chuckle down the hall.

X

Danny and Tony both dashed through the air, their job was to get there first and try to take down whatever Loki and his controlled goons were setting up. They still had no full idea about what Loki's plan was. Barton seemed to keep most of his memories from the traumatic event, unlike Danny's previous encounter with mind control. But Clint was never told directly what the plan was, only the facts he needed to know for his part. And because he was being controlled, he didn't question it.

The SHIELD ship wasn't that far from Stark Tower when they left so it wouldn't take that long to fly there. They were going on ahead because they could both probably make it there before any ship could.

Danny was flying slightly ahead and lower in the air than Tony's suit, his legs transformed into his ghostly tail for a nimbler flight. He was slowing down slightly to stay at the same pace Tony was flying at. Danny could probably be much faster than Stark and speed on ahead, but he wouldn't want to use all of his power on flying there and have his core drained for a fight if it was needed.

Tony was already at full power with his suit, His boot jets sparking out every once in a while. Caused by the attack earlier that day. But something was nagging at Danny's mind. Why would Loki set up the Tesseract in such an obvious spot? And why were his aura and actions so strange?

It seemed part of Loki didn't want to launch his brother out of the ship. And if Danny wasn't there Thor could've died from that fall. Loki even stayed when Danny rushed off to stop Thor and Tony from killing each other with their dumbassery. What was going on here?

"You okay kid?" Stark's voice rang through his head, knocking the halfa out of his trance. Danny quickly flipped himself onto his back so he could get a better view of the armored man. Tony had given the ghost a sort of com thing when they were leaving, and Danny hesitantly put it in. Tony had said that it was blocked from all outside transmissions that weren't authorized by Stark himself.

Danny blinked a couple of times remembering that Tony had just asked him a question. "Oh, yeah, I'm… fine. Just thinking about how this is all going to work out."

Tony's helmet seemed to have nodded, he couldn't really get an expression from the outside of the suit. "Don't think about it too much kid, you will just get stuck in your own head.  God knows that's what I do."

Danny flipped back over onto his front to continue flying. "Yeah, I am just getting caught up in my head…" He sighed. It was strange, it seemed Tony had started trusting him. Or at least sort of trusted him. He was sure that Tony didn't truly believe that he was a real ghost. But it still seemed like Tony might even, like him. Despite what he had to have been told by SHIELD or any other ghost hunters that he might have been in contact with.

Danny thought for a moment looking at the rapidly approaching city in the distance. "Tony?" He asked, getting a 'hmm?' in response. "Why do you trust me? Or at least ask me things, or even talk to me? I mean you had to have been told things by SHIELD right."

Tony's eyebrow beneath his faceplate raised. "Do you not think you deserve to be trusted?" He asked. Danny lowered his head in response. "You haven't done anything wrong yet. And besides, I am a scientist, I will always question things I am told. Whether it be that you're really dead, or you are some evil being trying to trick us."

Danny nodded slightly mulling over what Tony had said. "Not all scientists are like that. Sometimes you can never change their mind."  He said quietly.

"I never said that I wasn't hard-headed, kid. I just don't like to trust everything other people tell me. I make my own decisions."

Danny chuckled. "Well," He paused. "...Thank you." Danny started speeding ahead a bit. Tony was confused and saddened by the fact that the kid would feel like he should thank Tony for just not ridiculing or hating him off the bat. Tony felt bad for the kid. Even if the SHIELD agents were ready to shoot him or put him in a cell at any second, he still showed up to help.

As soon as Stark Tower was close enough into view both the heroes could see the glowing blue light on the top of the building. Danny looked back at Tony. "Is that normal for your tower, or…?"

"Not normal Casper, and I bet that this is somehow Loki's doing." They quickly pulled up to the outside of the tower to see Dr. Selvig. He was standing next to a contraption that seemed a lot like a bunch of Tesla coils surrounding the glowing Tesseract. The cube itself was floating and slowly spinning around, blue electricity flicking off of it every couple of seconds.

Tony spoke up first using his outer coms to talk to the doctor. "Shut it down, Doctor Selvig," Tony demanded. He was now hovering in place above the roof of the building. Danny flew closer to the contraption only for it to send off a spark his way. Danny quickly backed up away from the blue barrier that was now forming around the cube after Danny got close. It seemed the Tesseract was trying to protect itself.

"It's too late!" The doctor looked back and forth between the cube and Tony. "You can't stop her now. She wants to show us something… A new universe." Danny felt the aura again around the doctor.

Tony looked over at Danny who was now looking at the doctor with a slightly concerned expression. "Okay then," Tony muttered, raising his arm to send a repulsor blast at the blue shield surrounding the cube. But it did the opposite of what he wanted. The shield absorbed the blast and shot it back out from all sides throwing the doctor off the roof.

Danny quickly recovered from the blast and darted down after the doctor, picking him up from underneath his arms. Danny then fazed the man through one of the lower floors of the building to keep him safe, for the time being. He quickly darted back up to Tony who was scanning the cube with his suit.

Danny could hear Jarvis in Tony's suit tell him that the shield was made of pure energy. Tony turned back to Danny who just zoomed up next to him again. "Casper, can you get through there?"

Danny floated down to the cube again and circled it. He hesitantly reached forward his hand to touch the barrier, his ears pinning back a bit. Once again the shield sent an electric shock, this time hitting Danny's hand. He quickly yanked it back and looked at it. It hurt but there was no major damage done. "It's a no-go."

Tony sighed and looked out the corner of his eye to see Loki standing on the balcony below them holding his staff. "Then let's go to the source of the problem." Danny quickly turned to where Tony was looking and saw Loki, he must have been watching them the whole time they were trying to take out the tesseract.

Tony lowered himself down to the ground landing on some sort of suit helipad built into the building. Only for it to start taking off pieces of his armor one by one. As that was happening Danny saw Loki start to walk inside to talk with them.

Danny darted down and started floating next to Tony, subconsciously putting himself in between where Loki was walking and where Tony was. Loki stopped walking once he reached around the middle of the room. Still holding his staff in front of him. Loki chuckled. "Please tell me you're going to try and appeal to my humanity."

Tony walked behind the bar in the room with his hands behind his back. "Actually, I am planning to threaten you."

"And you need your guard dog for this?" Loki gestured to Danny who crossed his arms in response.

"Yeah. He kinda helps, and you've got the glow stick of destiny, so it's only fair. Would you like a drink?"

Loki tilted his head slightly. "Stalling me won't change anything."

"No, no. Threatening." He grabbed a cup from the shelf and held it out. "No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one." He held the glass up to the ghost. "You old enough for one Casper?"

Danny slightly smiled and held his hand up to gesture no. He then floated down to the ground and started leaning up against the wall. It seems Tony had a plan of some sort for this, so he was going to sit back and watch. And he would be there if the plan went sour.

Loki walked over to the glass wall of the skyscraper and looked out over the city. "The Chitari are coming. And nothing can change that." Danny was surprised that he seemed almost disappointed by that fact. Danny could feel the strange aura around Loki's, there was then a pulse of power that resonated off the god. His demeanor quickly changed as he turned back to face Tony. "What have I to fear?" Danny narrowed his eyes. What was with Loki changing back and forth so suddenly?

It seemed that Tony wasn't noticing how weird Loki was being, or Stark was just really good at hiding it. Tony poured his drink and looked back up to the god. "The Avengers." Loki tilted his head slightly. "It's what we're calling ourselves. We're sort of like a team. 'Earth's mightiest heroes' type thing."

Loki walked forward again closer to Tony, Danny tensed slightly but barely enough for anyone to notice. "Yes, I've met them."

"Yeah." Tony took a sip of his drink. "Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a headcount here. Your brother, the demigod. A super-soldier, a living legend who kinda lives up to the legend." Danny saw Tony grab a piece of tech from under the table and slip it onto his wrist. "A man with breathtaking anger-management issues, a couple of master assassins. And last but not least, Casper here." Tony gestured to Danny. "The 'not so friendly ghost'." He put his drink down and pointed at Loki. "And you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single last one of them."

"That was the plan."

"When they come, and they will, they'll come for you."

"I have an army."

"We have a hulk." Tony retorted.

"I thought the beast had wandered off."

"You're missing the point here, there is no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it is too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the earth you can be damn well sure that we will avenge it." Tony walked over closer to Loki.

Loki smiled. "How will your friends have time for me, when they are too busy fighting you two?" Loki raised his staff up and was about to tap it on Tony's chest when Danny suddenly flew over in a flash and grabbed onto the staff pulling it away from Tony.

"I don't think so." Suddenly Danny's eyes widened. The staff could feel Loki's emotions. Everything. That was the answer. How could he not have seen it before? Danny looked up to Loki's eyes, his hand still on the staff, and still standing between Loki and Tony defensively.

Loki's smile wavered as he started to step backward. He knew that the ghost realized, maybe… suddenly a huge bang rang from outside as a blue beam shot into the sky causing everyone to turn and look out the window.

Loki pulled the staff away from Danny's hand as he was distracted. "It's too late. They're here."

There was then a blinding gold light in the room causing both Tony and Danny to close their eyes, but when they opened back up again Loki was gone. Great Danny finally got the answer and Loki left. He didn't know what it was, but the magic around prevented him from telling him where Loki left.

He looked back to Tony. "He's gone." Danny's eyes quickly darted over the window and the blue light. The raw power coming from the tesseract. His core humming, warning him, telling him. Another invasion…

Just great.

Chapter Text

Danny spun his head around to face Tony. "We need to get out there. Do you have a suit you can use?" He asked.

Tony snapped out of his light trance of thinking, his eyes darting up to the ghost. "I got something better." He smirked and pressed a blue button on the bracelet he had put on during their talk with Loki, he was probably planning for something bigger to happen.

Danny squinted as a blue light was emitted from the bracelet scanning over Tony's body. A disguised liquor cabinet on the back wall opened up to reveal what looked like a red and gold pod. The pod launched out of the wall and stuck itself to Tony's back causing the inventor to stumble forward slightly from the sudden weight. The armor wrapped itself around Tony's body like a blanket, gears turning as it unraveled in seconds.

Danny backed up with one foot and stood amazed. "So cool."

The helmet closed over Tony's face and his voice was emitted from the comms. "You should see what I am working on after this whole thing blows over, kid." Danny smiled at Tony and turned to face the window.

He floated into the air and then flew directly at the window phasing through it at the last second. Tony thought for a second that the kid was going to be just like a bird smashing into the window, forgetting that the ghost was… well, a ghost.

Tony turned his body and then flew out of the building at full speed. Both he and Danny hovered above the city, surveying the situation. Danny's ears twitched as he was listening closely to see if he could hear anything.

Danny could hear a high-pitched buzzing that took over most of the sounds. It was the portal. But surprisingly he couldn't hear anything through the portal, just nothing. There was no sound, where did that portal lead?

Danny narrowed his eyes and held his hand out at Tony. "Be ready for anything, I can't hear what's out there."

The Iron Man armor seemed to nod. His eyes scanned through everything his armor could get from the readings he was getting from the rip in the sky. The silence lasted for what felt like hours, even if it was only a minute.

Suddenly Danny got his first hint of noise, The noise only came through the moment the object passed through the portal. It sounded like the humming of one of his parents' inventions. Danny could see what looked like a humanoid creature on a sort of hoverbike powered by some kind of purple energy.

Suddenly the sound of the bike amplified by a thousand, the bike wasn't getting louder there were just more of them. It felt like a whole swarm of wasps! Danny's eyes widened as he took off towards the army. Tony looked at the sky slightly in disbelief. "Right... Army." He muttered, quickly taking off in the same direction Danny was flying.

The creatures started shooting at people and buildings around the city. Tony immediately armed his repulsor blasts and was already shooting at the aliens with pinpoint accuracy before he was even getting close.

Danny wasn't aiming for the aliens like Tony was, he was aiming for the bikes they were flying on. It seemed as though these guys' weapons were on the bikes so if he took out the bikes he took out the weapons.

Danny blasted multiple ecto blasts at the creatures. Bright blue, green, and purple flashes of lasers were shot through the sky at each other. Danny was constantly spinning around and dogging the blasts from the creatures with amazing agility.

The creatures seemed to be screeching very loudly. It didn't seem like a language more like a battle cry. Tony's suit shot out multiple heat-seeking bombs. They all flew out in separate directions and blew up about forty of the creature's ships at once causing them to fall out of the sky like a swarm of mosquitos sprayed with bug repellent.  Danny was slightly put off by the image.

Tony wasn't worried about the bombs hitting the ghost because the ghost had a very cold temperature and not a heat signature like the weapons and bodies of the Chitari.

No matter how many they took down more appeared. Danny turned invisible to give him an edge and jumped up behind the creatures. He could also quickly appear and disappear causing the aliens to shoot each other down. Danny dodged back and forth quickly, his eyes full of determination.

He could hear all of the people screaming down below as they were dive-bombed by more creatures that Tony and Danny couldn't take out. The creatures had started splitting up and heading into the streets. It was obvious now. They had to go down there and fight. It was getting too crowded up in the sky.

Both Tony and Danny thought the same thing as they dive-bombed down each splitting up in different directions. Shooting down aliens as they flew. Danny spotted a bunch of car crashes and people abandoning their cars to run into buildings for cover.

One of the shot-down alien ships was spinning down and was about to crash into the side of a building and explode. Danny darted over and created a flat green shield across the front of the building. All the people inside winced as they prepared for the worst. The ship crashed into the shield and exploded. After the debris fell, Danny lowered the shield and looked back up seeing hundreds of the aliens flying overhead.

Danny turned invisible and took off after them. He heard Agent Romanov call out through the comms. "We're on your three, headed northeast." Danny guessed that Tony had given them access to the coms.

"What, did you go through a drive-through!?" Tony called out, he quickly rolled to the side and dodged a blast. "Swing up the park. I'm gonna Lay'm out for you." Tony flew by Danny with nearly seventeen of the aliens on his tail.

Danny ducked down underneath Romanov's ship so they could get an open shot. He flew behind the ship and started shooting down the aliens who were trying to attack the ship from behind. One of the hoverbikes he blasted broke into two pieces. He quickly shot one of them to make it smaller but couldn't catch the other in time.

Danny's eyes widened when the piece flew right into the wing of the jet destroying it! Why couldn't he have just put up a shield instead of shooting at it? How could he have been so foolish? He shook his head and darted over to the ship that was rapidly losing altitude.

They were trying to reset themselves but it was failing miserably. The other wing crashed into a building knocking it off completely. Danny quickly flew underneath the ship and lifted it. He led it to the ground safely where it would not land on any civilians.

Quickly he listened for heartbeats to tell if anyone was okay. He was relieved to hear all three heartbeats. All of the occupants of the ship rushed out and looked up to the sky to see all of the creatures still flying around. "We need to get back up there!" Cap called out.

Danny could feel something was coming, something big. "Guys something is coming, and it's bad," Danny warned, floating next to them battle-ready. It seemed that everyone held their breath, and Danny listened closely for anything.

Suddenly a monstrous roar hit Danny's ears causing him to flinch away, rattling through the air and shaking buildings. The nose of a large creature poked through the portal taking the rest of the body with it. It was like a flying mosasaur. Covered nose to tail in the same armor that coated the rest of the invasion. It was about twice if not three times as big as Prince Aragon in his dragon form.  It could level a skyscraper with no problem.

It was slithering through the city, using its large fins to steer itself in between buildings. As soon as it was low enough to the ground hundreds of the Chitauri warriors were launched out of pods that were attached to the underside of the armor. They were launched out into the windows of the buildings so they could attack the people inside.

Danny took off into the sky towards the creature, ignoring Cap as he called out after him. He quickly noticed Tony flying by as well, still being followed by a couple of the aliens. Danny shot them down and turned to face Tony who was now hovering mid-air scanning the giant whale.

"Stark, you seeing this?" Cap called out.

"Seeing, still working on believing," Tony answered. "Suddenly ghosts aren't the most impossible things in the world." He sent a nod to Danny, who was shooting down any of the aliens who flew by while Tony was scanning the whale. "Kid I need you to get that thing's attention and bring it over there, I have a plan for big and scaley." He pointed to a building a little farther away but in the opposite direction of where the creature was headed.

Danny nodded and took off. He flew along next to the creature shooting small rapid-fire blasts along the creature's side, just underneath a lip of the armor. The creature roared and started to turn, not even caring that there were buildings in the way of its path. It was destroying them like it was nothing.

"Well, we got its attention," Danny called out. He quickly spun around and sped over to where Tony had told him to lead the creature. "Now what?"

"Ever heard the story of Jonah?" Tony asked the halfa who was dodging back and forth as the creature was trying to bite his tail. Tony took off, not waiting for an answer from the ghost. He flew past Danny and into the mouth of the creature as it was open readying to bite at Danny again.

Danny spun around surprised at Tony, he was about to go in after him when he heard the sounds of multiple grenades and missiles firing on the inside of the creature. Danny backed up a bit as the creature started to lose altitude and collide with the ground. Tony held his hands together and made one final repulsor blast into the creature's side, just wide enough for him to escape.

He flew through the creature and then started hovering next to Danny as the creature slid across the ground leaving a creator in its wake. Thank goodness there was no one in the way. "Few, it worked." Tony sighed, Danny turned his head to Tony with a 'really?' look on his face.

The inventor chuckled, Danny chuckled for a second before he heard it again, the sound, more of the whales. His light smile fell as it changed to a more serious expression. "There are more coming." He stated throughout the comms.

Everyone turned back up to the portal to see three more of the creatures fly through the rip in space. These ones seemed bigger than the one before, one slightly bigger than the other two. It also seems that the portal seemed to be expanding in size. Danny growled as he stared at the widening portal, more and more aliens flying through to attack innocent people.

Cap called out through the comms and waved Tony and Danny down. They needed a plan. "All right listen up, until we can close that portal up there our priority is containment of the situation." He turned his head around the team. "Stark do you think you can take down another one of those things like you did before?"

"No can do Capsicle, used up most of my ammunition on the first one," Tony replied.

Hawkeye put another arrow on his bow. "So we have any other ideas on how we can get rid of those things?"

Danny hesitated. "I might have an idea, but I have never done it on something so big before."

"Do you think you can handle it Phantom?" Cap asked. Danny nodded.

"Okay, Barton I want you on that roof, eyes on everything, call out patterns and strays. Stark you got the perimeter, if anything gets more than three blocks out you turn it around or turn it to ash." Cap commanded.

"Give me a lift?" Barton asked Tony.

Tony smirked under his faceplate. "Right, better clench up Legolas." He grabbed onto Barton and took off into the air. Cap turned back to the others after seeing Tony take off.

"Okay, Phantom see what you can with those whales, if you can, steer them away from any large buildings." Danny nodded. "Thor bottleneck that portal, make it so it is harder for creatures to disperse. You got the lighting, light those bastards up." Both Danny and Thor took off at the same time into the sky, flying side by side towards the portal.

Cap turned to Nat. "You and I will be staying on the ground. We keep the fighting here." Nat nodded.

Danny sucked in a deep breath, heading for one of the smaller whales. He had never done this to anything this big before, he didn't even like using this power in the first place, it is one of his least favorite powers.

Danny flew directly towards the head of the creature, his eyes narrowed. Danny closed his eyes and fazed into the creature. When they opened again his eyes were clouded with a blurry purple heat-based vision, it was pointing out where the people were.

Danny couldn't believe it worked. The gigantic alien's eyes flickered from dark purple to a bright toxic green. Its scales and armor changed slightly as well as it became much closer to the color of black, highlighted with dark green. Danny had overshadowed one of the whales.

He could hear the sounds of what seemed to be commands or code, but they weren't coming from someone talking, it was like it was being imputed into the creature's brain. He felt like he was supposed to do what the voice told him, but he resisted which was hard being that he was overshadowing something this big. He could hear everything being commanded, like it was a beehive and they were listening to a queen. That was it! These creatures have a hive mind, that is how they are so synchronized.

Danny shifted his course, so he didn't crash one of his fins into a building. The other members of the Avengers looked up to see the creature swiftly changing its course, you could see the bright green eyes from all the way down there. They suddenly remembered what the ghost had talked about earlier, 'possession'.

Everyone was amazed but quickly refocused back on the task at hand. Danny quickly spotted the bigger whale diving towards a skyscraper. He flew full speed at the creature and opened his mouth revealing hundreds of large sharp teeth.

He clamped down on the side of the creature's neck and started pulling it away from the buildings it was trying to crash into that were full of people. The other whale roared and ripped itself from Danny's grip, causing pieces of the armor around its neck to fall off all bent. The whale snarled and bit down on Danny's side, just above one of his lower fins, causing Danny to roar in pain and anger.

Danny focused all of his energy on intangibility and fazed his side individually from the creature's tight grip. Both of them backed up and ran headfirst into each other, like rams battling for dominance trying to knock each other out, the armor on their heads crumpling like paper. Danny felt his (the creature's) skull crack with the impact. Danny was starting to lose his vision and control. This was his last chance.

He bit down on the back of the whale's neck with all of his might. The other creature bit down on one of Danny's fins in retaliation. Both refusing to let go. Danny directed them to the water. Danny quickly fazed out of the creature as they were both falling full speed toward the ocean. Where no one could get hurt.

Danny coughed a bit holding his hand over his core. It was really starting to hurt, his core was trying to replenish all the energy he was losing, making it feel like he had a bunch of stitches over his core. He squinted his eyes in pain and looked back over to the city. There was still one more whale. And Danny assumed that more were coming.

Danny darted back over to the portal area shooting down a couple of the aliens as he flew. He quickly started firing at the creature, he was hoping he might be able to freeze its mouth shut so he could get a better angle on it, he didn't think he could overshadow another one at the moment.

The creature roared and spun around much quicker than Danny was expecting, his reaction time was going down with his exhausted core. The creature's tail hit Danny causing him to be thrown back first into a skyscraper. His body crashed through multiple layers of concrete and glass.

He gasped for air clutching onto his side, when he pulled his hand back to look at it, it was covered in ectoplasm. He hissed in pain rolling his head back, Danny had a deep cut all the way across his back, and he was losing ectoplasm. Nothing he could die from, he hoped. Danny could already feel his skin start to try and knit itself back together, but he would need to give himself some stitches with some ecto-proof wire when he had time.

Danny limped over to the hole he was thrown through, gripping tightly onto his side. This sucked. He was about to jump back into the air to take out the last whale when suddenly the said creature was knocked down like it was punched in the face. Danny stepped back a bit in surprise as the creature fell to the ground, practically dead on impact with whatever hit it.

Danny was surprised when he saw what knocked it down, it was the Hulk! Just in the nick of time. Danny didn't know if he could take down another one of those whales in his state.

He floated down to Hulk who was standing next to the creature panting angrily. "Hey?" Danny called out, Hulk's head quickly snapped to Danny. Looking ready to punch Danny at any second. "Sorry." Danny held his hands up in defense. "Just wanted to say thanks." Hulk looked the ghost boy up and down before huffing and leaping into the air grabbing onto one of the alien hoverbikes speeding by, ripping it in half with a guteral roar.

Danny winced and looked up at the top of one of the buildings, feeling like he was being watched, he froze as he saw a familiar face. Loki was standing up there looking down at the chaos unfolding. Danny floated slowly up to the top of the building not leaving eye contact with the god of mischief. "You need to stop this." He called out landing on the other edge of the building.

"It's too late to stop anything, you have no chance," Loki smirked.

"I know this isn't you. You are being controlled. The same way that you seemingly controlled others." Loki's eyes seemed sad but his body didn't move. Danny walked closer, drops of ectoplasm staining the ground beneath him. "We need to talk."

Chapter Text

"I can help you Loki. But I can't do anything until we can stop this invasion and close that portal." He gestured to the sky. "You know how to get through the shield, I know you do, if you can help us I can stop what is controlling you," Danny explained.

Loki turned his head slightly away, not looking the ghost in the eyes. "There is no hope, Child. How could you possibly help me? How could you know of my situation?"

"I know because I was there!" Danny yelled, taking Loki slightly by surprise. "I was controlled. And that evil man forced me and others to steal and hurt people. And if it was for a moment longer than it was, he would have had me kill my best friends." His voice sounded with a mix of pain and sadness.

Danny sighed and walked closer to the god. "I have been there and there is hope. I have no idea what you have been through in your life, -as you mine-. But anyone can be saved if they have the right help. You need people to stand by your side, stick up for you, care about you. I can help you, I can free you from this torture."

Loki looked at the ghost with slight disbelief and shock, and on the inside, something came back to him that he hadn't felt since this whole situation had started. Hope. This ghost was willing to help him. Free him. "W-Will you not just leave after the portal is destroyed?" His voice slightly shaking, but still firm as the mind control barely allowed him to form his own opinions. "Send me off to the human authorities, or my brother, you know if you stay you will be taken. You help me and there is a chance you can't go back."

Danny looked at Loki with sad eyes. "I know what I am getting into. I will help you, and I will make sure to explain the situation to everyone. You should not be blamed for something you had no control over."

"What if I should be." Loki's voice sounded sad on the inside.

"None of this here is your fault! It is whoever's controlling you. I used to blame myself for not being able to fight off Freakshow's control… HECK, I still do!" Danny pulled at his hair, before sighing. "But I did everything I could. And my friends are the only ones who have gotten me over this. I can help you get over it. You shouldn't blame yourself."

Loki stared at the ghost listening closely to his words. He eventually turned his head to face the large beam leading to the sky. His face showed near to no emotion, but his eyes told a different story. "That shield is nearly unbreakable." Loki noticed the ghost seemed a mix of worried and disappointed by that news. "The only thing that can pierce the shield is something of similar power." Loki glanced down at his staff.

"I will fix this and then I will help you. I promise." Loki took one last look at the ghost before disappearing again in a flash of gold light. Danny squinted his eyes at the flash and then winced when he heard something clatter to the ground. Danny quickly opened his eyes again to see Loki's scepter lying on the roof of the building. No Loki in sight.

X

Danny flew through the air, shooting at aliens as he sped by. Gripping tightly Loki's scepter in his white-gloved hand. His eyes darted back and forth looking for one of the other heroes. Suddenly he spotted Tony flying by rapidly dodging blasts from the aliens chasing behind him.

Danny flew directly behind where Tony was flying and raised up a green shield causing the alien hoverbikes to crash into the shield, like birds smashing into a window. The bikes were destroyed and the aliens fell out of the sky. Danny quickly turned his head around to see Tony hovering next to him.

"Thanks, kid." He did a small salute with two fingers. Danny nodded back and slightly raised the staff in his hand to show that he had gotten it. "You got the scepter!? Did you fight Loki by yourself?" Tony's tone seemed like a mix of worried and impressed.

"Not really… Okay look Tony with Loki there are some things you don't understand. I can't tell you everything right now, but I can fix it after we take down that portal in the sky." Danny pointed up to the portal. He knew that he couldn't tell anyone about Loki's mind control yet. He knew it would be hard to believe. And if they don't understand they could think that whatever Loki told him is false, that he was trying to trick him, and then the plan won't work. He would need to explain it later if he is going to fix everything. He just hoped that nothing would happen in the meantime.

"So how do we get past the barrier?"

"With Loki's staff. They are made of very similar energies. It should be able to pierce the shield and collapse the portal." Danny explained.

"And what do we do with all of the creatures already here? There is no way we could get rid of all of them."

"We need to get them back into the portal." Danny put his hand to his chin. "When I overshadowed the whale, I discovered these things work like a hive mind. They are all listening to a queen or a mother ship of some kind."

"So if we can send out a signal like the mother ships ones… we can have them leave." Tony nodded, finishing the ghost's thoughts.

"Theoretically?" Danny added, causing Tony to smile.

"…Theoretically," Tony repeated.

Danny nodded he needed to find someone to close the portal while he and Tony worked on the rest of the plan. Tony took off. Danny assumed he was going to start working on the transmitter.

He looked around for someone, only to see Steve surrounded by aliens. Cap probably would have been able to get out of there himself, but Danny needed to talk to him. He darted down and grabbed onto the captain's arm. He quickly phased both of them past the aliens and flew up to the top of the nearby building to explain everything to Cap.

To Cap, it felt like a shiver of cold just washed over his entire body. The next thing he knew he was being pulled through the aliens and then flying in the sky. He looked up and saw Danny. He had no idea that the ghost could transfer his powers like that. He then quickly realized how much pain the ghost was in.

Using his powers was tiring him out. And not only that there was a huge injury across his back. It seemed the kid was straining just to keep himself in the air. The moment they landed the first thing Danny asked was. "Are you okay?"

Steve nodded dusting off his arm. "Just a couple of scratches. But the real question is, are you?" He gestured to the boy's back. He didn't even notice the staff in the boy's hands.

"I'll be fine." He coughed slightly but tried to hide it. "It will be a couple of days to heal." Cap's eyes followed the drops of green blood falling onto the ground from the wound. Danny noticed this. "Really. You don't need to worry." He chuckled. "It takes a lot more than being smashed through a building to kill me."

The captain eyed him worriedly, he was trying to hide the pain he was in so that others didn't worry. Was this an everyday occurrence? Poor kid.

"Tony and I have an idea of how we can stop this mess." He held the staff up higher so the Captain would notice it. "I can fly you up to the top of the building. And then I need you to shut down the portal when we give you the signal. Tony is working on a device that can send out a signal to the aliens."

"You think this will work?" Cap asked.

"Well, I certainly hope so." The ghost smiled.

Danny was flying Steve to the top of the Stark building. He quickly spotted the machine and the tesseract within the glowing blue shield. It was kind of hard to miss. He quickly called out to Tony throughout the comm. "Tony, how is that invention coming along? We are going to need it pretty soon."

"I sent the schematics to JARVIS he's assembling it now." He looked at the countdown on his screen. "T-minus 3 minutes 40!"

"Good, I just got Cap to the top of the Stark building readying to shut it down." Danny turned off his comm and landed on the roof with Cap. Danny was being careful not to get too close to the shield. His ecto energy seemed to be attracting the electricity from the shield. It felt like static electricity readying to zap you if you touched it.

He passed the staff to Steve. "You should be able to shut it down with this. It can pierce through the shield."

"How do you know it can?" Steve asked.

Danny's ears went back a bit as he was trying to think of an answer. "Umm… it's like a ghost thing. I can just tell. They have the same energies so they won't repel each other."

Cap nodded accepting the boy's answer. "Okay, you should get your plan ready."

They were interrupted when Tony called through the comms. "Hey, guys… We have a big problem coming our way."

"What kind of problem?" Clint asked, he had an annoyed tone in his voice.

"The. 'Government decides they would rather blow up everything than let others deal with it' kind of problem." Tony answered bitterly.

Danny scoffed. "Of course." Danny looked up at the sky seeing Tony hovering about a block away from them. He is looking out to sea. "What did they send?"

"A nuke! I can't believe Fur-" Tony was cut off as an energy beam struck the back of his suit. A surge of purple energy flowed over the armor in sparks. Tony tried looking at the schematics to see what the blast did when suddenly he felt like he was being crushed.

Danny looked over to see a bunch of aliens standing on the edge of a roof. They had set up some sort of weapon and shot Tony with it. Danny quickly shot a blast at the weapon and it blew up, preventing them from firing again. Suddenly Tony's armor started to shrivel up on itself. And Tony was being crushed inside.

Danny took off towards Tony, and just as he made it to the suit to try and grab him before his boot jets gave out. They well… gave out. Tony started falling just as Danny had sped over his head, missing him by about a foot. Danny quickly turned around and flew straight down.

He grabbed onto the suit and put it carefully on the road. He could hear all of the gears of the armor sparking under the pressure. He could also hear some of Tony's ribs being crushed. He can't breathe! Without thinking the ghost quickly phased his hand through the armor and pulled Tony out of it.

As soon as Tony made it to the air he gasped. There were a bunch of alarms going off within the suit as it finally finished shriveling up. Thank goodness that the blast they shot did not affect Tony's arc reactor. 

Tony coughed. And then laid on his back on the cement. "Thanks, Kid." He coughed a couple more times. "Looks like we are going to have to change our plans a bit."

Danny nodded. "First problem. The nuke. There are thousands of people here. They are all going to die if we don't do something."

Tony paused to think for a second. "I have an idea of where that thing can go." He glanced up to the portal so the ghost understood what he was talking about.

"If we blow up the mother ship. It should take out all of the creatures here! That's brilliant."

"You finished the idea kid." He smiled at the ghost. He loved seeing how excited the ghost got when it came to some things.

"But how do we get it through to the ship without it getting taken out by any of the aliens or whales?" Danny questioned.

"We'll use the screamer," Tony suggested.

"The screamer?" Danny was confused.

"It's what I named the invention we came up with." Danny nodded in understanding. Inwardly thinking to himself that it was Tony who made it, not him. "If we reverse the signal output. It should repel the creatures away from the nuke; they will be unable to get close to it."

"That's perfect. Okay, we need to get to the screamer before the nuke gets here." He grabbed onto Tony but hissed in pain.

Tony turned his head to the ghost. "You okay Casper?"

"I am fine, it's just an injury. I moved too fast that's all." Tony could tell that the ghost didn't really want to talk about it. Not that they had time anyway. Danny grabbed onto Tony from under his arms. They made it to the building quickly and phased into the workshop.

Tony limped over to the 3D printer and pulled off a very heavy invention that was about the size of a football. He lifted it and put it on his desk with a loud thud. Danny winced. Tony grabbed onto his tools and started working on it quickly. It would take maybe thirty seconds to reverse the signal.

"Done," Tony stated. "Now we need to get it to the nuke."

"I'll go." Danny grabbed onto the invention. "How do you turn it on?" Tony was about to protest the ghost going instead of him but there was no time.

"Press the blue button and then spin the knob to amplify the signal," Tony explained.

Danny nodded and took off, phasing through the wall. Tony turned around to get into one of his older suits as fast as he could.

Danny quickly spotted the nuke. And it was much closer than he would have liked. "Cap you still there?" Danny called through the comms.

"Ready."

"Okay, let's do this." Danny flew at full speed toward the nuke. He started flying level with it. But there was a problem. There was no way to stick the screamer onto the nuke! Think Fenton think. He couldn't use ice because that would damage the system and he couldn't use ectoplasm because that would change the frequency of the invention.

There was only one option in this situation. He had to fly with the nuke. Danny closed his eyes and sighed trying to calm himself down. He then flew underneath the nuke and pushed it up into the portal at the last second.

Passing through the portal felt like a wave of electricity flowing over him. Even if it didn't hurt. It just seemed very different than flying through a ghost portal. When Danny opened his eyes again he gasped. The gasp didn't make a single sound. He was in space! He could feel the pressure trying to cave in on him, but he was strong enough to resist.  He couldn't go intangible to avoid the pressure without dropping the nuke.

He quickly turned on the screamer. His eyes were stinging out there so he knew he had to do this fast while he could still see. He tucked the screamer under his arm and flew behind the nuke. His legs morphed into a tale and he started to push the bomb with all of his might.

He could see a gigantic mother ship just ahead of him. There were thousands if not millions more aliens waiting to go through the portal for the invasion. Danny and Tony were right. Without the screamer, it would have crashed into more of the aliens and whales and not have made it to the mothership.

Danny closed his eyes tight as he gave it one last shove. Danny spun around as fast as he could so he could get to the portal. He knew there was a chance he might not make it back, but that chance was getting stronger and stronger by the second.

The nuke collided with the mother ship blowing it into pieces Danny could see all of the creatures around him start to fall lifelessly without any commands from their ship. Suddenly the blast hit Danny from behind knocking him out cold. His body still falling toward the rapidly closing portal.

Everyone held their breath as it looked like the ghost would not make it back through the portal. Cap was panicking in his head. Why had he started to close the portal so soon? What if the kid doesn't come back?

Suddenly as the portal was seconds from closing, the ghost fell through. Everyone sighed a sigh of relief to themselves when they saw that Danny had made it. But something was wrong. He wasn't flying. He was falling!

Tony flew out of the building as fast as he could, he was wearing one of his older MK's of armor. His boot jets were set to full power as he took off trying to catch the kid before he collided with the ground.

Tony had tried to get to him in time but it was too late. Just as the ghost was mere feet from the ground he was surrounded by what looked to be gold light! Everyone gasped, turning to see Loki standing on the ground next to the road holding out his hand.

Chapter Text

Tony landed roughly on the ground, his boots making a metal clank as they touched the pavement. He quickly straightened his arm to aim his repulser at the god of mischief. "Put the kid down, Loki!" He demanded, his eyes narrowing angrily beneath his faceplate. Even if he was worried about checking on the ghost, he never took his eyes off Loki.

Clint and Nat ran over to the situation. They had only seen it from afar. Clint quickly raised his bow aiming the arrow straight at Loki's chest. Now they were in a standoff. Nobody moving a muscle.

Danny was held, floating about three feet off the ground. His back slightly arched as his limbs limp. Ectoplasm dripped onto the ground from his back, forming a small pool of glowing green liquid beneath him.

Loki didn't move, he still kept his hand in place and the gold power surrounding the ghost. They knew that if they did anything to Loki, he would probably do something to the kid. "Put him down now!" Clint growled.

Loki hesitated, his eyes flicking back and forth. He slowly lowered his hand and Danny was placed gently and nicely onto the ground. The moment the boy was no longer sounded by the magic, a blue, red, and silver shield flew from behind the group. It was about to hit Loki in the chest when the god teleported away in another flash of light.

The shield bounced off a building that was behind where Loki was standing and right back into the Captain's hand. A couple of pieces of the wall crumbled to the ground at the sudden impact. He turned to face Clint and Nat. "You both track him down, me and Stark will take care of the kid." He commanded. Both assassins nodded and started heading off. Clint looked back at the young ghost one more time before he left. Hoping that the kid was okay.

As soon as Cap gave the command Tony instantly whipped his head around to Look at Danny. "Jarvis give me an analysis." He rushed over in his armor to kneel down next to the kid. He put his armored hand on the boy's shoulder.

Cap walked over next to Tony and looked down at the boy. The ends of his snow-white hair had been burned but only slightly. His suit that he was wearing had also been torn up a bunch, and they hadn't even seen the back yet.

Jarvis spoke up. "Sorry sir, I can't get a proper reading. His physiology makes no sense." Jarvis scanned one more time. "There is no heart, but there is a mass of energy in his chest reading a temperature of nearly 300 degrees below freezing."

Tony took off his faceplate and tried shaking the kid. "Kid?" He called out. His tone was slightly worried. Suddenly Danny groaned and moved a bit. The two men breathed a sigh of relief. Danny's eyes fluttered open and he looked up at Tony and Cap who were standing over him.

He started moving but squinted from pain. "Did anyone get the number plate of the spaceship that hit me?" Danny put his hand on his head and then moved it down to cover his eyes from the sun. "And who turned up the sun?" He groaned.

"You gave us quite a scare Casper," Tony commented, trying to help the boy up very carefully.

Danny smiled slightly, closing his eyes. "Gave you a scare? I was the one who almost died…re-died? -something like that-." Danny started coughing. He coughed into his hand and when he looked at it he saw that it had ectoplasm in it. "That's not so good." He rolled his head back onto the ground.

Cap and Tony looked alarmed. "We should get you to a hospital as soon as possible," Cap said.

They were surprised when Danny tried sitting up quickly, almost as if he was trying to get away from them. "I can't go to a hospital." Danny's ears were pinned back and shook his head from side to side closing his eyes tightly. The two men could see both how scared he was. He was more alarmed by the thought of going to a hospital than almost sacrificing his afterlife to stop an alien invasion.

"Okay, okay that's fine," Tony said reassuringly, he held out his hands in a non-threatening gesture. "We will just take you to the tower to get you patched up. No hospital." Tony explained. He would have to figure out later what the kid hated so much about hospitals.

Danny tried to sit up more. "I'll, I'll be fine." He paused. "I've had way worse." He tried to reassure them. But it didn't help.

"Worse!?" Tony questioned concern in the back of his voice.

Danny ducked his head down slightly. "How about we get to that tower." He chuckled nervously.

Tony and Cap look at each other quickly before Cap bends down to help Danny up. The ghost grabbed his hand but squinted in pain as he was standing up. Danny had used a bit of his levitation to make himself lighter, and he could see that Cap was surprised at how light he was.

Danny nodded to Cap, he started to try and walk on the ground but his legs didn't really want to walk. Danny hissed in pain as he stepped back slightly. Tony reached his hand out to grab onto the teen's wrist so he didn't fall backward.

Danny closed his eyes and started hovering just above the ground with his feet tucked beneath him. "Much easier." He sighed in relief.

"Flying is easier than walking?" Cap asked.

"For ghosts it is anyw-," He was interrupted by his coughing, more ectoplasm spurting from his mouth and onto the ground. Danny groaned in pain. Right now he was just thankful he was able to stay in his ghost form through this whole ordeal.

"We need to get you to the tower." Cap insisted.

Danny sighed. "Yeah, we-, should." He reached for his belt and pulled out a small white device with a green button on it. When he pressed it, it expanded into a full-sized green and white thermos.

"Now is no time for soup Casper, you're bleeding out." Tony started.

"It's for my ectoplasm." Danny opened up the thermos and the ground where he was lying a moment before was enveloped in a bright blue beam. When he capped the thermos, most of the ectoplasm was gone, Only some small dark green stains on a few stones remained. "We can't let anyone get their hands on it. It is very dangerous." He coughed again. "We… can go to the tower now." His voice sounded very pained.

X

The tower wasn't that far away from where they were at. It would take maybe five minutes to get there. Danny was very careful to stay behind the two men, not that he didn't trust them or anything. But he was worried if they saw how bad his back was they would freak out. Danny knew that this injury was going to look terrible. At least for people who weren't used to seeing things like that every day.

They walked with Danny into what looked like a small room with a bed, it was mostly white, which gave Danny shivers down his spine. He didn't want to be in a room like this longer than he needed to. Danny floated over to the bed and sat down on it. Front-facing towards the men.

Danny without really thinking reached into the pocket of his hazmat suit and pulled out a long coil of Fenton fishing wire. He often used this to patch himself up with injuries like this. Most normal strings would slowly disintegrate after being in contact with the ectoplasm, because of the acidic properties it carries. He quickly pulled out an ecto green needle, he tried and failed to thread it five times before hie got the hang of it.

Danny knew his back was the worst he would have to work on that last as it would be harder to reach. Although he could already feel his skin starting to knit itself back together. His core hummed loudly as it was trying to pick up the slack from all of the missing ectoplasm.  It sounded almost like a refrigerator, or Danny's laptop when he tried to play Sim's 2.

He noticed a large cut across his shoulder and he started to stitch that part first. "You've done this before?" Cap asked. Danny jumped slightly, he glanced back up at the two men. He forgot they were in the room. His ears twitched for a second as he thought.

"Yeah, I have to do it a lot." He averted his attention back to the injury. "Although lots of the time my friends help out. Mainly because I might be-, um-, unconscious or something." Danny shrugged slightly. He then bit his lip as he hissed in pain again.

"What is that string?" Cap asked.

Danny didn't look up from his work. "Fishing wire." He said calmly.

Both men's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Fishing wire!" They both exclaimed at the same time.

Danny chuckled slightly. "It's mainly used to trap ghosts. It's something they can't phase through, and the ectoplasm won't eat through it. But it will still disappear after a couple of days. It's completely safe… I think." He muttered that last part to himself.

Danny was trying his best to ignore the walls of the room. He was going to give himself a panic attack if he stayed very much longer. He was slightly glad that the two men were there too. "I have accelerated healing. I will be completely fine in a couple days. It just goes faster and is less painful if I sew it together first."

Tony started to turn around. "I'll call Dr. Cho in here. They'll be able to help with your back."

Danny's core dropped slightly. He looked up at Tony and his eyes glowed brighter, his ears pinned back once again. "I-I, would rather not be around any more humans today if you don't mind." He paused. "I'll be fine doing this myself."

"You sure you'll be okay kid?" Tony asked.

"Yeah…" He thought for a second. "Wasn't there an alien invasion like ten minutes ago? I'll be fine here, you guys should go do some damage control."

Cap nodded. "Kid's right Stark." Tony paused for a second before nodding as well. The moment both men left the room Danny sighed in relief. Sure it helped his nerves to talk to someone, but he didn't really want to be patching himself up in front of them the whole time.

As soon as Danny was done patching himself up he would need to go and find Loki. He just hoped that Loki hadn't gone too far. The last he saw of him they were talking on the roof where he teleported away. Danny could've told Tony and Cap a couple of minutes ago, but that would have been a bad move.

First things first he needs to get out of here and find Loki before anyone else does, That shouldn't be too hard, right? He then needs to free Loki from the mind control, and then he can explain everything to the others, and hopefully, they will listen.

X

After about forty minutes of healing, Danny finally felt good enough to get out there and search for Loki. He quickly phased through the ceiling and out into the open sky. Looking out, he could now see how many of those creatures were taken out during the fight. Danny hated to see so many deaths. It hurt his core.

He shook his head. Realizing that he was slowly floating down towards the ground. He needed to find Loki right now, that was what was the priority. The first thing he did was take off in the direction of where he had last seen Loki on the roof. That was the best place to start.

He was just starting to get close when he quickly felt the presence of Loki's magic. Lots of it had been used. Danny suddenly changed course and started heading towards the ground. He quickly realized that the magic was coming from the place he had woken up earlier. What would Loki have been doing there? Was he there the whole time and Danny was too distracted to notice?

He quickly turned invisible before dropping to the ground with a light thud. He sniffed the air a bit. Loki had definitely used his magic here at some point. Was he trying to find Danny? Did he come here to try and track his ectoplasm?

Danny's ear twitched as he looked around the area. He couldn't see anything of use to him. Maybe if he had gotten the staff back he could get some help from Cujo or Wulf to track Loki down? Danny didn't have time for that now. But it might end up being the only option if he doesn't find Loki soon.

Suddenly the com that was still in his ear crackled to life. He jumped slightly back from the sound. He had completely forgotten about it. He quickly put his hand up to his ear and was about to take it out when he heard someone talk over the com. It was Clint! "Loki is in custody. I repeat Loki is in custody. Over."

Danny's core dropped. He took off into the air and waited for a second. They eventually mentioned that Loki was on one of the top floors of the Stark building. Danny without a second thought took off back in the direction of Stark Tower. A sonic boom was heard at the speed Danny took off. He just hoped he wouldn't be too late.

X

Loki had been taken down by Hulk. They managed to get him into cuffs before he was able to escape. Nat had left to go and brief Fury on the situation, and that left Tony, Steve, Thor, and Clint waiting with Loki. Hulk had now turned back into Bruce Banner and was recuperating in a med room.

Two SHIELD agents had arrived and gave Loki some sort of muzzle to stop him from trying to manipulate anyone who would talk with him. The plan was that Loki would be taken into custody temporarily by the government for a couple of days until they discovered the extent of the damage he had caused, and the names of all the people he had enslaved.

After that period it would be decided whether or not they would hand Loki over to his brother for him to be taken back to Asgard. Or if he would be taken into permanent custody of the US government. They still had to convince Thor though if they wanted the second one to work.

Everyone stood around Loki waiting for Fury or someone else to arrive. Suddenly they heard someone call out "Wait!" Everyone in the room turned to look as Phantom flew into the room with great speed. "Wait." He repeated. He was now landing, almost tripping forward he caught himself after a couple of large steps.

He glanced at the others in the room before his eyes locked on Loki. The first thing Danny noticed on him was some sort of muzzle that was covering his face preventing him from speaking. Danny's blood boiled at the sight of it. How could someone-? Ugh.

Loki was on his knees, but he looked up at the ghost. His eyes flickered with hope. "You can't take him." He started. Everyone in the room seemed confused. "You don't have the whole story."

Clint raised his eyebrow. "Kid, what part of the story do we not have? He came here, tried to take over, and killed thousands of people in the process."

"You don't understand, Loki he-"

Suddenly Danny was cut off as another man entered the room, accompanied by two other agents. "-Phantom I am going to politely ask you to step away from the fugitive." The man said with a stern and cold voice. He had white hair and a large mustache to match. He seemed to be a general of some kind.

Danny heard Tony mutter "Ross." Bitterly under his breath. Danny, instead of complying with the general, stepped in front of Loki, blocking him from the agents in the room. He didn't trust this one bit.

"No," Danny said sternly. The others looked at Danny with surprised expressions at how weird the boy was acting. "None of this is Loki's fault! He's being mind-controlled!" Everyone's eyes widened as they looked at Danny.

"And did he tell you that?" The general scoffed. "You can't believe a word that comes out of his mouth."

"What do you mean kid?" Steve asked, trying to ignore the General in light of seeing what the ghost had to say.

"He's been controlled this whole time. Everything that happened, he wasn't in control. He had been trying to fight it this whole time. We wouldn't have beaten the invasion without his help." Danny started explaining.

"What do you mean?" Clint asked. He looked from Loki and then back to the ghost.

"During the fight, I saw him on the roof. He managed to explain to me through the mind control as best he could how to close the portal. He left his staff behind so that I could take it so we could make our plan." Danny paused for a second. "I could feel him fighting it this whole time. I just didn't realize it until I touched him when I was with Tony. It's the same as it was with Barton."

Thor piped in. "But he was the one controlling people in the first place."

Danny turned to look at Thor. "Have you really not noticed anything different with him? He's your brother for crying out loud!" He threw his hand to the side angrily. "You've known him longer than anyone else in the world. And a ghost that had known him for under a day was able to tell he was acting strangely." Thor backed up a bit looking at his brother with a slightly saddened look.

Ross rolled his eyes and took a step closer. "Wow, just like a ghost to go side with the bad guy." He scoffed. All of the Avengers were taken aback by that comment. Only looking with wide eyes at Ross.

Danny pinned his ears against his head and his teeth sharpened giving him a slightly more threatening appearance. "I promised him that I would help him! Free him!" He snarled.

"Get out of the way ghost," Ross demanded. "Before I call in the people who are supposed to deal with things like you."

Tony was taken aback at how Danny was being treated. He was even being called a thing! He stepped in front of Danny. "Ross. Stop." Cap, Clint, and Thor stepped forward as well.

Danny took his eyes off Ross to look at the others in surprise, his ears coming forward slightly. They were defending him? The intensity of his eyes lowered as he didn't know what to think at that moment. Ross crossed his arms. "I will not hesitate to arrest every one of you." He warned. "Loki is a criminal."

Danny looked back at Loki, he was glancing up at Danny worriedly. Danny turned back around with determination, he pushed in front of Tony to stand head-on with Ross. "I will take responsibility for him," Danny stated.

Ross narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I'll be responsible for him. After he is free from the mind control, anything that he does I will be responsible for." Danny started. "If he does anything bad like this happens again under his own free will, you call the Guys in White on me, take me away, whatever!" He threw his hand to the side. "I will not let something like this happen to him, not over something he can't control!"

Ross smirked slightly. "Did you really think a deal like that would work?" He asked. "I could call the GIW on you right now if I wanted to, and I would still get my way."

Danny narrowed his eyes at the man. "But you won't be able to get me, and you know that. You guys have wanted to experiment on me for ages. This is a risk-free deal on your part." He jammed his finger into the general's chest. "If something bad goes down, you get me. And Loki."

The room was dead silent. Everyone just stared at Danny, who refused to move an inch from his spot until he got an answer. The general paused for a second, glaring into Phantom's glowing green eyes. "One chance." Danny felt his core leap. "And if this goes south, you get a free trip to a dissection table." He turned around and started walking out. "Freak."

The moment the general's face was no longer visible to the others he smirked darkly. The two agents followed after the general, being silent and emotionless the whole time. The moment they left the room Danny collapsed to his knees on the floor and clutched his core. Tony rushed over to him and kneeled down next to him. That was one of the most terrifying things Danny had ever done. And he just hoped he hadn't made a huge mistake.

Chapter Text

Danny gasped for air as he rippled into the yellow-tinted realm once again, it felt like he was yanked up through a pool of warm water and everything felt tight around him, his core thrumming with energy. This place was definitely different than the one he had been in earlier in Agent Barton's mind.

The easiest part was getting Loki unconscious though. It merely took three seconds of Danny explaining that it would be better for Loki to be asleep for this, for Thor to hit him upside the head knocking him out cold. The suddenness of it surprised Danny, but the sooner he could fix Loki the better. He just hoped the Asgardian didn't end up getting a concussion from the blow.

Danny looked around his surroundings quickly realizing that he was surrounded by solid gold pillars that rose almost forty feet into the air, they were holding up a ceiling covered in murals, telling the history of this ancient place. Not unlike the murals and tapestries you could find in some of the older ghost zone castles and lares. It was beautiful. Everywhere around him seemed to be brightened by sunlight. This place seems so magical… So unreal.

This must be Asgard. Danny had heard a little about it from other ghosts who had been here before, or maybe even lived there themselves. But he never could have imagined. Danny took a step forward, his foot landing on a beautiful white stone pathway.

When Danny took that step he realized that his body felt better than it had in hours. He could barely feel most of the major injuries that he sustained in the battle, but he was in a mind, or at least a mental realm. He assumed he would feel all of that 'amazing' pain again when he got back to the mortal realm. He sighed.

Suddenly Danny heard the sounds of talking not too far ahead from where he was. It sounded like kids. Two boys if he would have guessed. He looked down the pathway, past the end of the pillars was a large open garden.

The garden had a large tree in the center that was covered in beautiful green and light blue leaves that flowed like water, and a trunk looked to be entwined with gold in its bark. The area around the tree was filled with grass and other smaller plants and shrubs, equally as beautiful and unique.

And there at the base of the tree were two young boys who appeared to be maybe about ten or eleven years old. One of them had golden hair and bright blue eyes. He was running around the trunk holding a stick in his hand pretending it was a sword. He had a bright smile on his face and kept running back up to the other boy over and over again, pretending to hit him with the sword and strike devastating blows.

The other boy sat in the grass looking kind of bored, he had black hair that was slightly longer than the other boy's. There was a book next to him, but it seemed that he had put it down, to look up at the other boy.

"What do you want now, Thor?" The black-haired boy asked, seeming annoyed. Danny quickly put two and two together. That was Thor and Loki as kids!

"Please brother, let us hang out, go see the courtyard." He pointed his stick to the side. "Something. Maybe we can even try one of those pranks you always like to do." The boy, Thor pleaded. "Maybe you can even practice some of your magic!"

The younger brother chuckled slightly, he had a smile on his face, but it looked like he was trying to hide it from his brother. "Fine. I guess we can go hang out." He said it in a seemingly uninterested tone, stifling a fake yawn behind his hand.

Thor's face lit up as he grabbed onto Loki's arm pulling him up to his feet quickly. Loki was lurched forward to his feet, his brother knocking him almost clear over. He quickly caught himself before spinning around and dusting himself off. He bent down and grabbed onto the black-covered book that he had left lying in the grass. Once he had hold of it, he held it out in front of him and closed his eyes tightly, as if he was focusing on something.

Suddenly the book in his hands disappeared in a flash of green light. Both boy's eyes lit up at the missing book. "I did it!" Loki yelled out exited.

Thor seems equally as excited about his brother's feat. He pulled his brother in a hug. "You did it! That's so cool!"

"I have to tell mother," Loki announced before starting to run away.

"Well, weren't we going to play?" Thor asked, he sounded kind of saddened.

Loki looked in between his brother and his open hands, debating. "I guess I can tell mother later." He said. Thor's face lit up again. "Let's go!" Loki called, this time it was him leading them away. Not masking his laughter.

As soon as they ran around the corner out of Danny's sight the world around him rippled, like a pond that had a pebble dropped into it. Everything became blurry and the moment the rippling stopped Danny found himself standing in a large courtyard. In front of him playing a game, Danny couldn't quite tell what it was.

Both children, -or at least they looked like children- froze partway through their game to look at the strange boy who was now floating slightly above the ground and glowing. Danny slowly lowered to the ground seeing their surprised faces. Danny himself was surprised at the sudden… teleportation?

"Loki may I speak with you?" Danny asked calmly. Looking down at the black-haired boy with kind glowing green eyes. Loki looked back up at the boy's eyes, pausing as if he recognized him for a second.

Thor pushed in front of Loki, protectively sticking his arm out ahead of his younger brother. "Who are you and what do you want with my brother?" He demanded. His childlike voice made it hard to sound threatening. Especially to a ghost who had been threatened more times than he could count.

"I'm Phantom." He answered. "I just wanted to talk to him about something," Danny explained.

"What are you? You were just flying a second ago." Thor said.

Danny looked at Loki who didn't stop staring up at him with curiosity. "Loki this isn't real. Can we talk?"

Loki looked down at the ground and then over to his brother. Thor glanced back at him with a worried expression. "I know." Loki sighed.

Suddenly everything around them disappeared in a green mist and Danny found himself in complete darkness. Like a pocket void of light. The only thing giving off light was himself. He eventually realized he was standing on a reflective surface, like polished black marble.

Danny took a couple of steps forward before Loki appeared in front of him in a flash of green light. This time an adult Loki, wearing the same Asgardian suit he was wearing in the battle in New York. Only this one looked brand new, and not like it had been worn through an alien invasion.

Danny floated up slightly, feeling a little short around the tall Asgardian. "What are you doing here?" Loki asked the ghost.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "I'm here to help you get free from this mind control, why else would I be here?"

Loki laughed dryly, turning slightly away from the ghost. "It has never worked before."

"You've never had me before." Danny crossed his arms with a smile.

Loki looked back at the boy puzzled. He was so unlike anyone he had ever met. He acted with trust and kindness. He protected anyone even if he had no idea of the past or problems they may have on their shoulders. "Why would you do this?" He paused. "Why would you help me? I don't understand."

Danny shrugged. "I made a promise to you, didn't I? And I have been through the same thing myself, maybe not the same circumstances but, you know…" He sighed. "...Look, I just don't want you to end up going through the same pain I did. At Least let me help you."

"Then what? We get out of here, I backstab you, and then you are left to the humans and their cruel one-sided vision of justice." Loki raised an eyebrow. "Why trust me? I have done nothing to show you that I am trustworthy." Loki asked. "No idea if I am good or evil, murderous or kind."

"Then, you wouldn't be the first to backstab me. I think I have only teamed up with four people who I have truly believed would never betray me." Danny chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "But no, I have no idea if I can trust you or not. But what I can do is give you a second chance… And also kinda hope that you won't leave me to die in a lab." He shrugged his shoulders.

"I mean I am sticking my neck out for you even though I barely know you." Danny continued. "Which I will admit was kinda rash on my part. But still. I've made my play, and now I'm waiting for your move. And there is no going back. I'll either lose, win, or keep playing. And I have no say in the matter."

"Now I just wait for your play." Danny held his hand out. Loki looked the ghost up and down before opening his mouth slightly to speak.

Chapter Text

The rest of the Avengers were left to stand around Loki's unconscious body in silence. All debating whether them letting Phantom overshadow the trickster god was the best idea. What if he couldn't leave his mind? What if Loki ends up killing him or something in the subconscious? They have no idea how ghosts work or what they are going to do.

"I don't like this." Cap started. Most of the others turned to him. "He was badly hurt when he, uhhh, possessed? Loki. Who knows what happens when he takes over someone in that state, he was probably hurt the most out of all of us."

Clint crossed his arms. "And what was all that stuff that Ross was talking about?" He asked. "It sounded pretty intense. Do you have any idea what is going on with that Stark?" He looked over to the billionaire that was still standing there staring at Loki in deep thought.

Tony's brows narrowed. "No." He paused "But I intend to find out."

Cap put his hand on Stark's shoulder. "We'll work on that later. But right now-"

There was a bright light that distracted them and they turned to face it. Phantom floated out of Loki's unconscious body on the ground. Much more gracefully than when he overshadowed Barton mind you.

He landed right next to Loki with a light thud and gripped onto his side, green ectoplasm starting to seep from the corners of his hand. Danny felt the stares of the others in the room so he tried to stand up straight and looked up at them with tired but hopeful eyes. "It worked." He stuck one thumb up in the air as he tried to put on a cheesy smile. The others sighed in relief. And Danny turned his head to look back at Loki who was stirring.

"You okay kid?" Barton stepped forward, looking at Phantom with worried eyes. Scanning the boy up and down. He didn't get to see how bad his injuries were when he was talking to Ross. And Cap and Stark were the ones that went with him after he fell out of the sky.

Danny tried to wave him off, his other arm still gripping his side tightly. "I'm f-fine. Nothing I can't handle. Just a little weak from using my core so much." Danny fell forward and Cap rushed quickly towards the ghost and caught the teen before he hit the floor. Danny heaved up a puddle of ectoplasm on the floor, it was glowing green and was the consistency of blood. "Great," Danny sighed.

"That doesn't look like you're okay!" Barton exclaimed.

Danny raised his head weakly to look at him. "I'm fine. This is… normal for ghosts."

"Most ghosts wouldn't have survived a quarter of the things you did today." Everyone spun around to the voice of Loki who was now on his knees, his hands still cuffed together. No one even noticed that he sat up, or how he had somehow taken the muzzle off of his face. "If you don't get any more energy soon, you'll fade."

Danny laughed dryly. "You're ruining the fun." He smiled slightly at Loki.

"What does he mean by fade?" Cap looked down at Danny, he had a worried tone in his voice.

Danny averted his eyes. "It basically means dying for ghosts, at least until we can get our cores back to the zone. But I won't fade. I have some ectoplasm I can use to bring up my energy when I can keep something down."

"You're going to eat it?" Nat asked.

"That's… the best option yes."

"I thought you said it was like your blood?" Cap asked. Looking down at the boy.

Danny shrugged. His eyes drooped more and more. "Eh, potato, paht-ato..." He was slurring his words. He then dropped his hand from his side as he closed his eyes.

"Tony!" Cap called out. Now supporting the boy's full weight.

"Get him to the med bay!" Tony yelled. Cap quickly put his arms under the boy's legs and carried him down the halls of the tower as he followed Tony, being careful not to jostle him around too much. They quickly made it back to the med room it was slightly bigger and had more stuff in it than the one that Danny had been patching himself up in earlier that day.

They knew for a fact that he didn't like hospitals so Tony decided he could do this himself. All of them together had enough training to take care of one bleeding kid-ghost-person. Even if they were all injured in some way from the battle.

X

Cap laid the young-faced ghost down on the medical bed chest up to the ceiling. And Tony quickly grabbed his stuff. Followed closely behind by Barton who seemed just as worried about the kid as he did.

Once the kid was down on the table Tony started looking over him. He saw the kid was in much worse shape than he thought. There was… ectoplasm dripping down onto the table and then onto the floor from his side. It seemed that the stitching he did in such a rush earlier wasn't the best. And it had torn through his skin. But the ethereal blue thread was still intact.

His body was strange. Felt along his ribs through his suit and he could tell almost all of them were broken. His eyes widened. Barton quickly walked to the other side of the table with the boy on it and took a cloth to begin putting pressure on the newly opened wound until someone could do more work on it.

"This is so strange," Barton commented. "I've never seen anything like it."

Tony hummed. "I would do an x-ray but I have no idea if that would kill him or not, he is a being made almost entirely up of energy." Tony put his figure to his chin as he continued looking the boy over. "Maybe I should run some tests on his blood, ectoplasm, whatever."

"I wouldn't do that If I were you," Loki spoke up. Tony had almost forgotten he was in the room. Just him being in the room at the moment still made Tony feel off.

"What do you mean? If I can run tests and figure out how this stuff works I might be able to help him better."

"Ectoplasm is a very rare substance and power source on earth, and it is very dangerous in the wrong hands. Ghosts try their best to not let it get into any human hands for testing. Especially scientists."

"What do you think I'm going to do? Make a weapon out of it?!" Tony asked.

"That's what the other humans do. And apparently what you used to do." He did his best to point at Tony but his hands were still in cuffs. He rolled his eyes. "You, humans, capture unsuspecting creatures and melt them down for what you want and don't care about the lives that are lost in the process."

Tony narrowed his eyes and was about to fully turn around, but Danny started moving slightly his face wincing in pain. Cap walked closer to Loki as Tony turned his full attention back to the dead kid in his med room. "That was why he was trying to make sure none of his ectoplasm was left on the street." Cap bit his lip slightly and looked down at the boy. "Was he trying to stop people from making weapons out of it?"

"More or less."

"Now is not the time!" Clint yelled. They looked down to see that Phantom's body seemed to be flickering as it was losing its tint of color. At some points, you could almost see right through him.

"He's, fading." Tony paused. "Loki… What do we do?" He bit it out. Not wanting to ask for help from the trickster god after all of the trouble he caused, even if he wasn't in control of most of it. But so far Tony didn't like his personality one bit, it reminded him too much of someone.

"He needs energy," Loki answered. "Like he said before, Core Beings, or Ghosts, as you have been calling them. Need ectoplasm to survive. It bonds to their core and makes a body. They use their ectoplasm in different ways to help them with their obsessions. If they don't have a constant supply as they do in their dimension or lair. They will fade."

"So?!" Barton yelled.

Loki rolled his eyes as if it was obvious. Humans, he scoffed in his head. "He needs more ectoplasm in his system. So find his supply. He's not an idiot he would have taken some with him."

Cap nodded and quickly started checking through Phantom's belt. There were little pouches that held certain things. One of them was a strange small tube with a green button on top. There was another that was a skinny spool of the ghost-resistant string the kid had used earlier. He quickly passed it over to Barton who would know how to at least stitch up the wound and try and stop further bleeding.

A few more pockets filled with random things, including a phone that they might have to look at later if the boy doesn't wake up soon. He quickly uncovered a more solid pouch that had three glass vials in it. "I think I got it." He said. Tony reached over and grabbed one of the vials and held it up to the overhead light looking through the surprisingly thick glowing green liquid.

"We can't make him drink that. Not like this." Clint said already halfway done stitching up one of the front wounds.

"We will inject him with it. An IV." Nat spoke up for the first time in a while. She had been leaning against the far wall watching from afar for the whole thing. Too many hands in this would make a bigger problem. She was busy watching Loki anyway.

Tony nodded and quickly took a vile and started mixing it with an IV bag. He only wanted to use one to start because if this doesn't work they will need more later. The moment the liquid was mixed with the IV it turned into a light glowing green, now with the consistency of water.

Tony kneeled on the ground and gripped tightly onto the boy's arm. He made a quick cut around the synthetic fabric of the boy's right arm and pulled the sleeve of the hazmat suit off. They should really be cutting the whole thing off, but that was a thing for a later time. It took him a couple moments to find the vein and he put the needle in skillfully with steady hands.

Banner would be the best choice for this but he is still in the other room recuperating after his hulk out. Cap had sent Thor out to go check on him at the beginning of this whole shebang. Tony definitely decided he wanted the doctor's help with fixing up the boy later on. He would probably be better at this than Tony could ever hope to be. It was more up his alley anyway.

After a couple of moments, the boy seemed to stabilize. Everyone began to calm down again. Now they had a little bit more piece they decided that most of the people should leave. Nat volunteered to watch Loki out of the room and make sure he wasn't up to something. At least until they could talk to Phantom and get a more full side of things.

Barton had finished patching up the boy's major side injury, and after they had given him the ectoplasm-infused IV it seemed as though his skin was already stitching itself back together on its own. "Woah," Clint said as he stepped back slightly. "He's already healing." He reached over to the shelf and grabbed onto some bandages. "Man, I wish I could heal that fast."

Tony only nodded as he continued to look over the boy. There were multiple things wrong with him but the major things were dealt with for the moment. He sighed and put his head in his hands, he was exhausted. Cap walked over and put his hand on Tony's shoulder. He then turned to Agent Barton. "Clint, how about you go meet up with Nat? We got this for now."

Clint looked like he was about to argue but he closed his mouth and left the room silently. "Tony?" Cap continued. "You should get some rest. The kid will be okay."

Tony scoffed. "I'm fine. I'm an Insomniac remember? I'll just stay with the kid a bit longer until can talk with Banner. Run a few more tests that's all."

"If you say so." Cap nodded before walking over to the opposite side of the bed that Tony was on. He looked down at the boy.

"He's so young." Tony started.

Cap looked up at Tony who was looking at the boy's face. "Yeah, he is." He sighed. "I wonder…" He paused. "Never mind. That's not for today." Cap turned to leave Tony in the room. "Just, get some rest when you can Tony."

Tony only 'hmmed' in response as the captain left the room. Leaving the door slightly open behind him. After a few minutes, Tony pulled up a chair next to the bed as he sat there. He knew he should get some rest, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep for a while yet.

His eyes were drawn to the green substance on the medical bed. It was starting to turn a darker green at the corners as it dried. Much like it did earlier on the road. Tony bit his lip as he looked at it. Maybe just a little bit? He stood up and grabbed a small glass container and used one of the small scalpels on the table to shovel a small bit of the ectoplasm into it. Enough to run some decent tests. He quickly put the lid on and put the container away safely in a chemical-containing unit. Just in case.

X

Loki was standing not too far outside of Starks medical room leaning up against the wall. They didn't trust him enough other than to go in and answer questions. It had only been a couple of hours and Stark and Banner had been going in and out of the room constantly. The others had also been taking turns watching him making sure he didn't run off or threaten Phantom's safety by leaving or killing someone.

Not that he cared that much about the boy or anything. But he did save his life. And risk his own life for him. He owed him something. Loki sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. He looked down at his ankle which now had some sort of device on it, it would electrocute him and alert the 'Avengers' if he was leaving the building. He rolled his eyes.

"Brother?" A voice cut through his thoughts and Loki looked up to see Thor standing at the end of the hall, not too far from where he was brooding. Loki quickly averted his eyes and went back to staring blankly at the wall.

When Thor didn't say anything more Loki spoke up. "What do you want, Thor?"

"I… Came to apologize." Loki stopped his breathing for a second. But then went on pretending that he didn't care.

"About what? Knocking me out? Fighting me? We fight all the time brother. I tried to kill you and take over the throne not even a year ago. This is no different if I was in control or not."

"For not looking for you," Thor said. Loki looked up and at his brother. Surprised by what he said. Thor only looked at the ground. "I saw you fall. You could have survived, you did survive. But we-… -I thought you were gone. I didn't even try to look. And you were off being controlled and hurt."

Loki subconsciously rubbed his side a bit. At some of the scars. But he didn't take his eyes off of his older adopted brother. "But, I should have tried." Thor continued. "Sent out a search party, gone myself. But I didn't." Thor looked up to meet his brother's eyes. "I'm sorry."

Loki paused for a minute. "It doesn't matter now. Phantom… Fixed things. And there is no way of-" He was abruptly cut off by his brother gripping him in a large hug, squeezing his ribs so tight he thought they would crack. Loki huffed looking down at his brother's shoulder. "I would stab you. But I don't have enough energy right now."

Thor laughed and held Loki for one more second before putting him back down on the ground. Loki didn't even realize he had been lifted. Loki quickly used his hands to dust off his suit. As he looked down to the side. "The boy should wake soon." Thor started. "If you want to talk to him. Seeing as he adopted you and all."

"He didn't-" Loki started but his brother was already off down the hall. He was always so energetic about things, like what are those things called again? Oh right, a puppy. Thor was like an over-excited puppy. Loki sighed and followed behind his brother. He was kind of interested to see how the ghost was doing anyhow.

Chapter Text

"Well, that's unnerving," Bruce said, pursing his lips. He and Stark were both looking down at the readings from the medical equipment they had attached to Phantom. They both knew it probably wouldn't show anything, but they weren't expecting it to really not show anything. They both could hear the steady tone coming from the machine as it showed a singular straight line. But instead of the line being at the bottom of the graph it was in the middle and vibrating. They came to the conclusion that his body somehow messed with electromagnetic fields.

They wouldn't even know if the kid was still 'alive' if it weren't for Loki explaining that if he had died or 'faded' he would be a puddle of ectoplasm and a glowing orb lying on the medical bed. Tony was still trying to wrap his head around it. He certainly still had hundreds of questions on how these beings worked.

Both Bruce and Tony had been watching Danny for a little over three hours now. He seems to be healing more and more with the ectoplasm they had been slowly giving him with the IV. But the kid didn't seem to be waking up yet. They were going to take off his battered suit but it seemed as though the suit was repairing itself at the same time as his skin.

They had discovered by trying to cut off small pieces of it that if it stayed away from the ghost for more than five minutes it would dissolve into green ectoplasm. They both came to the idea that the suit was made of ectoplasm as well and was just an extension of Phantom. Which was very interesting in and of itself. But it also meant that if they took it off, it would only come back with time and he could lose more of his ectoplasm trying to remake it.

Both men turned at the sound of a light knock on the doorframe. They turned around to see Steve standing there, now in civilian clothes and bandages on his side and arms. "How is he?" He stepped more into the room looking down at the boy.

Tony walked closer. "He's stabilizing, but he should have woken up already."

"We don't know anything about his species, and the stuff we are learning is coming from Mr. Trickster in the hallway." Bruce jabbed his thumb in the direction behind them where Loki was. "We don't know exactly how true the stuff he is saying is." He turned back to the useless equipment in the room. "We can't even do any experiments because we have no idea what it will do to his energy signature."

Cap nodded as he looked over to the EKG, eyes narrowing at the straight line. Suddenly he felt a shiver and turned back to the ghost. "It's so cold in here.'' His brow narrowed as he concentrated on the feeling around him. It felt like he would be able to see his breath, soon.

"It's coming from him." Tony pointed with his pen. "His body seems to be simultaneously giving off cold and sucking in heat. It must have something to do with his energy source."

"Should we turn up the heat?" Cap asked.

Banner shook his head. "We believe that he is trying to fight off the heat. It might expend more of his energy if we add more."

"But he's getting colder and we don't know why, and if it goes any further we won't know what to do," Tony said.

Cap's brows furrowed. "Have you talked with Loki?"

"Not yet. The cold is new." Tony responded. "We were going to watch him for a bit more first."

"And his phone?" Cap tilted his head looking at the item on the desk. It had a wire sticking out of it and was plugged into one of the monitors and Tony was trying to hack it. The screen was practically shattered. But it looked like it had been for a while.

"Surprisingly I haven't gotten that far with it. I'd like to shake the hand of the person who programmed the lock on this." He put his hand to his chin. "But I managed to get in far enough so that we could reach the last number he called. I just hope they know what to do." He picked up the phone and passed it to Cap.

Through the cracked screen he could make out a caller ID. The name read Jazz. But no photo. "You think this is the best idea, Stark?" Cap asked.

Banner was walking around to the other side of Phantom and pulling a monitor with him as he wrote down more readings. "We don't know what we're doing with this and can't risk making whatever is happening worse." Bruce started. "Even if they could explain in more detail what he is, it would help."

Cap sighed and pressed the call button holding the phone to his ear. It only took three rings before the phone picked up. "Danny what the HELL! Are you okay!? Where are you?! You just disappear and Tucker and Sam just say you went off with some agents! Were you in that invasion!? I swear to Clockwork if you don't explain I am going to—"

"Uhh, Ma'am?..." Cap spoke up, finally bringing the phone back to his ear. Stark and Bruce were now both looking up at Cap, and they could hear the girl's freak out from the other side of the room. But after Steve spoke there was complete science.

"…Where is Danny? How did you get this phone? Is he okay!?" The girl called out, her voice sounding panicked and demanding.

"He is here and… not fading." He didn't really know what to say. "But right now he is unconscious."

"Where is he?"

"Stark Tower in New York." He put his hand behind his neck. They had no idea how to work this conversation.

"So he was in the invasion!" She turned away from the phone and they could hear her call out behind her. "Sam, Tucker! It's Danny!"

Cap couldn't make out the muffled response. But he knew that the people she called out to had run over. She turned back to the phone. "You said he was unconscious?... What color is his hair?" It sounded like she sucked in a bated breath.

Steve raised an eyebrow and looked over to the boy on the bed. "Uhh, white?" He thought he heard a bunch of sighs of relief on the other side. "But we don't know how to take care of him. We don't know anything about his biology. And we assume he was bleeding out earlier but now his injuries are healing."

"Are there any agents there?" Another girl asked, her voice sounding accusatory.

"No, as of his request, he has been kept away from any hospitals and we have kept him away from government agents. Right now he is being taken care of by Dr. Bruce Banner and Tony Stark." He nodded over to them.

Suddenly he heard a girly squeal on the other side of the phone. He pulled it away from his ear again. "Tucker! This is not time for your fangirling!" The other girl scolded, Cap now knew her as Sam. She must have turned back to the phone. "What is happening to him?"

"Right now he is lying on a medical bed, the room around him is freezing cold. We are not sure why."

"He's healing." Jazz responded. "He must be really exhausted. His core doesn't often do that unless he is really hurt." He got the impression that she was biting her lip.

"What did he do before he fell unconscious?" Sam asked.

"We were in a battle to stop the aliens from invading. But he only fell unconscious after he uhh… Overshadowed? Someone to help them get free of mind control."

"Danny…Overshadowed someone?" Jazz asked thoughtfully.

"Danny hates overshadowing!" Tucker responded.

Cap was about to say something more before Sam spoke up. "We'll be right there. We have some stuff to help get him back on his feet."

"Stark Tower right?" Jazz asked.

"Correct." Cap answers.

"Just… Promise me you won't let any agents wearing white near him… Please." Jazz asked. She sounded very worried.

"We promise." He nodded, not that they could see it.

"Thank you, Mr…"

"Rodgers, Steve Rodgers." There was another girly screech but the phone hung up before it could finish. He turned back to Bruce and Tony who had raised eyebrows. "It seems that they are on their way."

XXX

Loki and Thor walk down the hallway toward the med room. Loki was curious to see how the boy was doing. Not like he cared or anything. Just curious. When they got to the door frame, they could already feel how cold the room was as the temperature seeped through the cracked door.

Loki narrowed his eyes as they pushed the door open. Both Banner and Stark were still in the room working on different things. They were both now wearing jackets. The brothers looked up and saw the blocked-off air vents and the frost starting to form on the screens. "Interesting," Loki mumbled, stepping further into the room.

Both scientists turned to look at the newcomers. Tony obviously still hadn't slept in a while and had cuts all over his face. Banner looked slightly tired but had no injuries whatsoever. "Loki." Bruce walked closer and put down his clipboard. "We were just about to ask for you."

"We're getting concerned," Tony added. "He has just been getting colder and there's been nothing we can do to change that."

Loki pursed his lips and walked closer to the boy, looking seemingly unaffected by the cold temperature of the room. Everyone at this point had frozen breath fogging out of their lips when they breathed out.

Thor crossed his bare, muscular arms to warm them up as he looked over at the boy. "It feels like Jotunheim in here."

"It's coming from the boy," Loki spoke up, surveying and circling him. To Tony, it almost looked like Loki was circling prey, and it made Tony want to try and stand in between them. But Loki was one of their best chances to find out what was wrong, at least without Phantom's friends showing up yet.

"We gathered that. What else." Tony said, probably more defensively than he meant it to.

Loki didn't take his eyes off of the ghost as he stepped closer, he waved his hand over Phantom's body and a goldish-green light flickered around. Suddenly, it was as if they could see through Phantom's body. He was slightly transparent and looked to be made of only energy. In the center of that energy was a glowing blue orb about the size of Tony's fist.

There was blue and green energy radiating off of it. Expelling and pulling back in. thrumming with energy. The scientists had noticed the electrical-sounding hum coming from the boy earlier, and now they had a source. "He has an ice core." Loki finally commented.

Thor's eyebrows raised as he stepped closer, looking at his brother. "Like the Frost Giants?"

"Yes," Loki answered, he kept his hand over the ghost's body. "But this is a little different. Frost Giants have ice cores that are bonded to mortal bodies, but core beings are just that. Cores."

"And that means?" Tony raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

Loki took his hand away from the boy and his body went back to normal. Tony wasn't sure if it was an illusion or if he was actually making the boy transparent. "Like I told you before, Ghosts need ectoplasm to survive. Core beings are just cores that have grabbed enough ectoplasm from around them to make a body, an extension of their being."

"That explains the suit," Bruce added and put his hand to his chin thoughtfully.

Loki nodded and continued. "But while cores are healing and working on rebuilding that body and energy, if they don't have the ectoplasm around them they will pull in the next best energy source. Heat. And for ice cores, once they pull in heat they give off cold."

"Like those cold spots in the ghost-hunting movies?" Clint spoke up. Most of them except for Loki turned to see Agent Barton leaning on the doorframe with one arm held above his head as he joined the conversation while walking by.

"Yes, like that." Loki rolled his eyes before continuing on his explanation. "But for ghosts, it is not very common for there to be ice cores. Over 95% of the ghost population have fire cores. They are the easiest to form and commonly only need weaker obsessions to cling to when they die. So Phantom… his obsession must be very strong for him to become an ice core ghost, especially if he used to be human." Loki gently raised his hand and placed it on Phantom's shoulder.

He quickly felt a tingle in his hand, a very strong cold. Tony quickly pulled Loki away from the boy. "Hey, watch it!"

Banner stepped forward with narrowed eyes as he looked at Loki. "He is freezing to the touch. You could get frostbite."

Loki stepped away from the bed and looked down at his hand where he touched the core being. The palm of his hand was blue. He stared at it for a second before it faded away into his peach-colored skin tone.

"What was that?" Tony asked.

Loki narrowed his eyes. "I—"

Suddenly there was a groan from the medical bed next to them. "…Man this job doesn't get any less painful does it?"

Chapter Text

Danny groaned as he woke up, something had touched his arm and he didn't know what. He was hurting, he was hurting a lot actually. He reached up and rubbed his forehead, "Man this job doesn't get any less painful does it?" He slowly cracked his eyes open, only to be practically blinded by a bright ceiling light. It felt very fake and was giving him a migraine.

"Kid, you're awake!" Was that… Tony? "You had us worried for a while there." Danny had a pounding headache and could barely tell anymore.

Danny chuckled dryly, "Yeah, me too." He ended up coughing. His throat hurt and he didn't know why. Normally it wouldn't hurt unless he used his wail, and that is always a last resort.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his back that was lifting him up slightly. "You gonna be okay?" That was Agent Barton, right? After a second, the man pulled his hand back with a sound of surprise.

Danny, now sitting up tried to open his eyes to blearily look at the man who was now holding his hand against his side, pinned under his arm. It looked like he was trying to warm it up or something… Oh. "Sry," Danny slurred. "I can't help it sometimes." His eyes glanced over to see a concerned Dr. Banner standing next to Barton, he was holding a clipboard and gesturing for Clint to show him his hand.

"It's fine Doc," Clint reassured. "The cold just surprised me."

Danny cringed, he was glad he wasn't hurt, but Danny could have given him frostbite if he had touched him for much longer. "I'll start to wr-m up soon. Well at least to my nor-ml temperature." Danny thought he was slurring, but at this point, his headache was too much to tell. That was, until he felt someone put their hand over his forehead.

He flinched and tried to pull away, he didn't want to freeze anyone else. But when the touch never came Danny opened his eyes slightly to see Loki standing next to him holding his hand just about an inch above Danny's head. There was a light golden glow emitting from it. Or maybe that was just Danny's imagination.

Danny's headache started to subside and he hummed in relief, leaning further forward toward the trickster god. It wasn't gone completely but at least he couldn't hear the buzzing of his head anymore. "What did you do?" Tony asked. He sounded one part accusatory and another part curious.

"Simple pain-dulling spell," Loki explained with a flick of his wrist as he stepped back, trying not to look at Danny and focusing somewhere on the wall behind Clint.

He felt Tony lean closer and almost reach out to put his hand on Danny's shoulder before pulling it away. He tucked it behind the small of his back and grabbed onto it with his other hand as if to hold himself back and remind himself not to reach out. "You feeling okay, kid?"

"Never been better," Danny responded somewhat sarcastically, he held up his thumb. His eyes were still half-lidded. "And just 'cause I look like a kid, doesn't mean you have to treat me like one." Danny waved his hand in Tony's direction. "I've had worse from a fight with Skulker."

There was silence. Danny looked up slightly to see everyone in the room looking at him with some sort of concern. But Danny didn't want their concern, he didn't want to make people worried about him or wondering if he'd be okay. He already got enough of that from Jazz thank you very much. But on the other hand, he was glad that they at least… cared.

With the silence, the halfa's ears then tuned into a beep of machinery. He turned his head and next to Tony was a bunch of monitors and machines. Most of them show him as deceased, or really terrible vitals… for a human anyway. For a ghost, not so much. Danny scrunched his eyebrows at the monitors and then looked down at his left arm which was still lying on the cot.

Some wires were sticking out of it, and now that Danny thought of it, he felt something attached to his chest as well. The main one sticking out of his arm led to an IV bag that was filled with a transparent liquid that glowed somewhat similar to the color of Ectoplasm. Danny guessed that was what it was.

But what was more concerning was all of the equipment around him. Had they been running tests this whole time? That was the entire thing he was trying to avoid with this trip. Oh no… Had they taken any of his ectoplasm?

Danny scooched back on the cot closer to the wall and a little further away from the scientists in the room. "Were you testing on me?" His voice was quiet, and not accusatory. It was a simple question. A question Danny needed to know the answer to.

His eyes drifted over to Tony who bit his lip. And then flicked over to Banner who was holding his clipboard to his chest. "Just a few things to make sure you were still… alive," Banner spoke carefully, not really knowing how to reassure someone like this. "We had no idea what you were or how your species react to things, all we had was Loki's knowledge." He gestured to the god who was now, for some reason, looking at Tony with slightly narrowed eyes.

"We didn't experiment on you if that is what you're asking." Banner continued. "Trust me I don't like being a science experiment as much as the next guy." He chuckled awkwardly before turning back to a more serious face. "We didn't take any of your blood, or, I guess ectoplasm. And we did patch up a few of your injuries." Danny thought that he saw Tony wince in the corner of his eye.

Clint stepped in. "And you tore your stitches open. It was pretty nasty. But from what I saw, you can heal pretty fast. That's a neat power." Danny smiled slightly and opened up his posture a bit more. Clint was trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, it's pretty useful, especially when your clothing can regenerate itself." He chuckled.

Clint kneeled down next to the cot with a smile on his face. "I was thinking about that. So, is your suit just an extension of your body?" Danny knew the man had kids, after seeing them in his dream state. This was probably how he calmed them down or changed the subject of things, or helped distract them. Danny didn't mind.

"Yep." Danny responded popping the 'p'. "I can even change the suit if I wanted to. It takes effort though. My friend Kitty was showing me how to do it." He shrugged. "But ghosts are just an extension of their core, so theoretically they can look like whatever they want. But it's harder for some ghosts than others. They tend to want to look like how they did when they were alive."

"Fascinating!" Thor bellowed. Making Danny chuckle. "I must learn more about your kind and other draugrs alike."

"Core Beings-" "-Ghosts" Loki and Danny both corrected at the same time. Only Danny's sounded more amused than Loki's, 'I know better than you' tone.

"Right of course," Thor responded still beaming.

Dr. Banner cleared his throat to grab Danny's attention. "We mixed one of your vials of ectoplasm into the IV bag. You have two left." Danny nodded, that was pretty smart. A good way to get it into his system without forcing it down his throat, or just pouring it on his body and letting his skin absorb it.

Though he seriously doubted if anyone would have tried to just pour it on him. Maybe he should do that as a prank sometime. Just pour a vial of highly corrosive ectoplasm on his head. He wondered what they would do. But that was a prank for another day. And not one where he had almost died in a fight with an alien invasion. And got threatened by the government.

Danny looked down at his white-gloved hands. The IV was coming out of his arm and through the fabric of his hazmat suit. It had probably grown back over his arm and left the needle still sticking out. Danny was surprised that it hadn't dissolved yet, but he assumed that because the needle was feeding ecto-infused IV into his veins it was taking care of itself and was probably now ghostproof.

Danny was also extremely grateful that he hadn't transformed back into his human form yet. He had gotten much better at it. After his run-ins with hunters and getting captured for days at a time, he had learned to keep his ghost form intact for long periods, even when he was unconscious.

Tony cleared his throat. "We don't know what kind of stuff you need to heal, But you'll probably need rest and not go flying around or whatever." He waved his hand in the air. "I would rather you stay here for a bit until you're better. We can keep you safe from Ross here, too."

Danny tilted his head. "Well, the deal I made for Loki probably helps to keep him away for a little bit." He shrugged. "But I don't know how long I can stay here. I'm going to have to go back to my haunt eventually. Emotionally recharge and whatnot." He gestured vaguely.

Banner nodded. "Do you need anything in the meantime? To help you, uh, recharge?"

Danny smiled, letting one of his sharp canines show. "A snack would be nice. Can't really think of anything else you can do for me at the moment."

Clint leaned forward with a raised eyebrow. "A snack? I thought a ghost wouldn't eat? No offense."

"Ghosts don't need to eat mortal food to survive." Loki jumped in.

"But that doesn't mean I don't like to." Danny finished with a shrug. "It sometimes its fun to do things like I did when I was alive."

The three humans in the room shifted uncomfortably at the comment. But it seemed both Asgardian brothers were unaffected. They had probably been around talk like this before. And with the amount that Loki knows, he had probably met some other ghosts before, too. It would be fun to talk to him. When he warms up, that is.

Tony turned around grabbed some sort of protein bar from the corner of the desk and handed it to Danny, he was planning on eating it later, but he was too worried about the ghost's safety to try. When Danny grabbed it, he just phased off the wrapper and started to nibble on it. He didn't really like that he was being watched by a bunch of people at the moment.

And it was true that a halfa nearly didn't need food at all. Especially when Danny was in his ghost form, but it was a quick way to get his energy up without using pure ectoplasm taken from the filter in the basement. Or from another ghost.

Danny looked down at himself. Lots of his tools were missing, including his phone. He frowned and glanced around the room looking for it. He definitely didn't want anyone going through his phone. The last thing he needs is for them to find out his secret identity through having a mom and dad contact.

"Where's my phone?" He asked.

"Oh right." Tony turned around to unplug the white and black phone that was sitting on the desk. Danny could see the 'NASA' logo on the back of the case when he lifted it. He passed it to Danny and the halfa looked it over thoughtfully.

"Glad to see you're awake." Danny glanced up at the doorframe to see Steve standing there. Man, there were so many people in here now. "We were worrying there for a second, son. But your friends should be here soon to help."

Danny's eyes widened. "Friends?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, I managed to get the number of the last call you made on your little ghost phone." Tony pointed at the phone in Danny's hands. The ghost's mind was reeling trying to think of the last person he called. If it was his parents he was so screwed. More than screwed he was going to be an experiment.

But they did say friends, so that would probably mean that they were nice and willing to help over the phone. "You called my humans!?"

"Your humans?" Barton mumbled questioningly.

Loki raised his hand to Clint. "It's a ghost thing, albeit an uncommon one." He raised an eyebrow at the ghost on the medical cot.

Danny blushed green and leaned back. "Well um… who did you call exactly?" He glanced over to Tony.

"Capsicle was on the phone with someone named 'Jazz' if the caller ID had anything to say about it," Tony responded.

Danny ran his hand down his face. "Oh, Clockwork be with me."

Also, I have a Discord server now!  If you want to join.  It's probably not going to be very active, mainly for announcements, fics, and answering questions.  It would be great to have you!

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