Chapter Text
A man stood on the hill overlooking the destruction below. He didn’t smile and yet there was satisfaction on his face as he listened to the screams rising from the city.
“Xandar is destroyed. Just as you instructed, Master.” Said a figure that just appeared out of the shadows.
“Indeed. And the stone?”
“It’s here.” And there it was. Glowing purple stone radiating power. And this time, as the man gazed at the stone, he really did smile.
There was bright white light as he attached the stone to his gauntlet. Flexing his fingers, he said:” Soon. Soon I shall have all of the stones. And the universe will be at peace once again.”
“Hail, Thanos!” answered his follower and his voice echoed down the now silent city. Until even his voice died away and all that was left was a destroyed planet full of ghosts.
____
Danny jerked awake as the car bumped over the old pavement. A shiver took over him even though it was warm, not that it could be because of the cold. Cold, after all, didn’t affect Danny for almost three years now.
Not that he complained. It was one of those things that didn’t really bug him. Going invisible for example was a lot more bothering. Nerveless, the shiver easily reminded Danny of where he was and where his parents were taking him. And so it looked like he escaped from one nightmare to another. Just his luck.
“Oh. Danny, you’re awake! That’s great. We’re almost there now, sweetie.” Said his mom as she looked at him through the rearview mirror. His dad gave him an encouraging smile from the passenger seat. Danny wished he wouldn’t. He didn’t want encouragement, he wanted to go home.
Yet his dad was smiling at him, waiting for some kind of reaction. So Danny tried to react like a normal kid would. He rolled his eyes and ignored his dad’s disappointed sigh. That was how any other teenager would show his parents that he didn’t agree with what was going on. And Danny certainly didn’t agree with his parents’ actions, even though he could see where they were coming from.
Still, he wished they wouldn’t do this to him. He wished he could convince them to change their minds. But that was just wishful thinking, they weren’t going to change anything. This was final. And the finality of the situation slowly started to sink in. With every mile closer to New York that realization pressed down on Danny with more force, making it hard to breathe.
“Don’t look so down now. You know we tried everything Danny.” And they did, he knew. But that just made it harder for him, harder to ignore the building feeling of guilt in his chest. “And it's just for a few months.” his mom added as if it wasn't a hundred times she said it.
“I know.” Danny sighed and looked out of the window. His sister said it would do him good to spend some time outside of Amity. To relax, she said. But Jazz didn’t seem to understand that this was not some kind of vacation.
Not that he could relax on vacations anyway. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but he was a bit too paranoid for relaxing time on the beach or mountains to give him anything except stress. Not that it mattered, because he wasn’t going anywhere relaxing. Unless, of course, if you consider some kind of school for troubled kids to be easing.
To be honest, it surprised him when his parents and the principal of Casper high brought that up. It was an accomplishment since not a lot of things gave him a pause these days. But a school for troubled kids? Yeah, that tracked.
His preferred response to that would probably go along the lines of: ‘Oh no, I’m not a troubled kid really, you see I’m just dead. And I don’t think there is a school for half dead teenagers so I’m just gonna keep my spirit up and right here if you don’t mind.’ But he somehow doubted that would come across that great.
Danny would probably keep making stupid dead puns to add to the scenario that didn’t stand a ghost of a chance to ever actually be spoken (or should he rather say spooken) out loud, but he was haunted out of his head when the car stopped dead in front of Danny’s new prison.
His parents climbed out of their obnoxious car and made their way towards the school. Danny hesitated to move along but in the end, he gave in and stepped into the rainy spring day. It looked like the sky was feeling just as gloomy as he did. Or maybe the weather was just fucked up from all of the nasty gases that humans released in the air.
Regardless of the weather, there was a woman with a tight bun at the nape of her neck and glasses at the end of her nose waiting for them. Her back was so straightened that Danny couldn't help himself from wondering how she didn’t break in half yet.
“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. I’m Agatha Anderson headmistress of Agape boarding school. I guarantee you it’s one of the best disciplinary schools there is. There is no child who did not get some manners in my institution.” Was her warm introduction.
“Oh yeah, I’m sure everybody’s just dying to come here.” Danny murmured under his breath. And then he remembered that no, that was probably just him.
“Ah, you’re Daniel Fenton I’m guessing? Well, welcome to our boarding school. I read your record of course and be warned there is no sneaking off somewhere in here, have I made myself clear Daniel?”
He looked her dead in the eyes as he said. “It’s just Danny.” And didn’t comment on the clearness of the situation.
Mrs. Anderson pulled her mouth into the tin line and didn’t respond. Most likely because his parents were still there.
Parents that were just preparing to leave. He could tell by their sad expressions and tears in his mom’s eyes. A reminder that he was not the only one hurting here. He didn’t like that; he would rather be hurting by himself. Like he was most of the time. “Danny, are you sure you don’t want to tell us what happened? If you could just explain what's wrong, we wouldn’t have to…” his mom broke off after that trying hard to gather herself.
And for a moment Danny considered telling them all of it. About how he, like the rest of Amity, didn't believe in ghosts, even though his parents were ghost hunters. Until he stepped into the portal they built in their basement when he was fourteen and became one himself. Or at least half of one.
After that, the portal started working. It led all kinds of ghosts from their dimension straight to Amity and he felt as if it was his job to protect the city.
So he, in his other form, protected humans of Amity for two and a half years. While trying to not go insane or be stupidly captured by Guys in White or even his own parents.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. He wished he wouldn't be such a coward and tell them but… All that happened over his time as a half-ghost would hurt them badly. It certainly hurt Danny in more than one way.
“We will see you in the summer then.” said his dad and for once he didn’t seem happy at all. He hugged him and turned around before Danny would see his pained face but he still saw it. And it made him feel like joining the sky in crying all over the place.
His mom hugged him too and kissed him on the forehead before she slowly walked to the car as if each step physically hurt.
He watched as their car traveled further and further away. Until he could see it no more. And he would probably stand there for some time if Mrs. Anderson wouldn’t command him to return inside for a tour of the building before he gets all wet.
After the tour in which he had to give up his phone and other electronics (he didn’t really mind. Electronics usually died anyway when his ectoplasmic signature was too high.) and all sharp objects (he didn’t have any. Ghost powers were a way better weapons than knives anyway.) He was led to a dormitory he would share with three other boys.
“This is where you will be staying. Now get unpacked and ready for bed. All lights out after ten and not a minute after.” said Mrs. Anderson before turning around and leaving Danny standing in front of the door to his new bedroom.
He took a deep breath before he entered the room. There were three boys already in there: His roommates obviously. First was sitting on a neatly made bed, his eyes behind thick glasses staring at the book. If Danny wouldn’t be good at noticing details he wouldn't notice that Glasses’ book was turned upside down.
The other two appeared to be playing chess but anyone who ever played the stupid game could see they had no idea what they were doing. Thanks to Vlad he knew some stuff about chess. He really hated chess.
“Oh. It’s just a newbie.” Said Glasses. He abandoned his book and took a knife from his jacket. Glasses didn't attempt to stab him with it though and merely proceeded to peel an apple to Danny's relief. Meanwhile, the other two stopped pretending to play chess. They pulled something called OUR ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON THAT WITCH from under the desk.
“Dude you scared the hell out of us. Though it was the headmistress. I’m Adam by the way.” continued Glasses.” And those two idiots here are Dorian and Mike.”
Now that Danny had an opportunity to observe them a little bit longer he noted Dorian’s left cheek was scared and his only acknowledgment of Danny’s existence was a low grunt. Mike on the other hand waved enthusiastically at Danny with a big troublemaker grin split over his face.
“Who are you attempting to murder?” Danny wondered and gestured to the poster that was now resting on the chess table.
Mike’s grin widened. “Agatha of course. That witch made me scrub the library and write an essay about discipline after Mopy found me sneaking around after sleeping hours. You know it suits her because witch rimes with-”
“Shut up, Mike or you’ll find yourself writing one more essay soon.” Adam interrupted.
“Who’s Mopy?” Danny said before Mike could finish his earlier poem about witches.
“He’s like a clean lady just more old and grumpy. Also, his name is not really Mopy but… Ah, you see all of the students here call him that. Probably because he mopes the floor a lot. I don't really think anyone actually knows what his real name is though.” Mike wrote something on his assassination attempt paper as he talked to Danny.
“I could come up with a much better nickname for sure but everyone was already calling him that when I came here. It’s really annoying because I have few astonishingly good ideas, you know what I mean...uhh...What did you say your name was again?”
“It's Danny.” He considered asking about those good ideas but decided against it in the end.
"What did you do?" Those were the first words that came out of Dorian's mouth since Danny entered the room.
"Huh?"
"To come here in the middle of the semester… Well, I would guess someone really wanted to get rid of you or you did something terrible."
"Oh." Danny shifted uncomfortably. He had no idea how to answer that.
Adam saved him. "Come on, it's almost ten. We have to get ready for bed. And Danny, your uniform and schedule are on the desk."
After that, they didn't talk much. Except for Mike who wouldn't stop explaining his nickname ideas for every single teacher in the building.
As it was instructed they got to bet at ten and turned down the lights, but sleep didn't seem to come for any of them.
He didn't know why the others weren't asleep yet and his best guess was that they simply weren't tired so early into the night. Danny wished his reason for ignoring the sweet land of dreams was that innocent. But it wasn't and so there was no way he could rest. Not in here with three humans besides him. Not when nightmares just didn't leave him alone. And certainly not when he was out of control of his ice powers.
He mostly learned to control the ice when he was awake. He still sometimes froze stuff when he was upset but for that, he had to be really pissed or really close to an emotional breakdown. That thankfully didn't happen so often, but when it did lightning him on fire was the easiest way to stop him from freezing the shit out of anyone in a five-mile radius. He hated getting lighted on fire.
But whatever, it's not like it would kill him and he could handle a few nasty burns if it meant humans around him weren't hurt or turned into popsicles. Now the problem was that Danny had way less self-control when he was asleep and so sleeping in a room full of unsuspecting mortals sadly equaled human ice cream. If he were at home, he could sleep peacefully because he didn't have any unsuspecting humans in his room. Here on the other hand…
So he laid there in the dark and as he thought of his fucked up life he came to a sad conclusion: Those humans he wanted to protect so badly would most likely call him a freak or an abnormality if they were aware of what Danny was. Then they would call ghost hunters and scientists to dissect him. Danny preferred not to get dissected.
Also, he wasn't abnormal... And even if he was, it still wasn't a good enough reason to cut him open, right?
With this solemn question, Danny lost his battle and finally drifted asleep.
He was pulled from the dreamless sleep when someone touched his shoulder. Letting his body go into familiar combat mode he was out of the bed in a second pressing his knee into the stomach of the intruder.
"Holy Hulk dude. Those are some reflexes. Also ouch." Danny blinked twice before he recognized Mike.
"Sorry," he murmured and helped Mike back to his feet. He was also awfully aware of Adam's curious stare and Dorian's suspicious glances.
“Eh, I don’t mind as long as you teach me how you did that.” And Mike really did look like getting thrown onto the floor at six in the morning didn't bother him in the slightest. “Will you?”
“He can teach you later. Right now we need to go or we’ll be late for breakfast.” Adam injected. Ignoring Mike’s pout, Adam made his way to the door and Danny was quick to follow.
Danny saw the dining room (or cafeteria...Depends on how you look at it) on his tour the previous day but it was different now. Last night the room was empty, right now it was filled with students. All kinds of different kids passed through the room. Some with tattoos and big grins others with their heads low, obviously not happy in this place. Danny saw one of them smuggle a knife for butter in his uniform when he thought Mrs. Anderson wasn’t looking.
If Danny wouldn’t be sent to ghost prison quite a few times the sight would probably frighten him a little bit. But as it was he led around seven prison breaks out of Walker’s prison just this year so really a few kids with issues were nothing. At least nothing compared to a bunch of criminal ghosts.
“Come on Danny. You can sit with us today.” Adam said and Mike cheerfully stuffed a piece of toast in his mouth.
“Yeah, and you can tell us where you cough reflexes like Black Widow.”
“Like who?” Asked Danny.
Mike and Adam stared at him like he had two heads and even Dorian gave him a perplexed look.
“Dude, Black Widow! One of the original six Avengers. You know the one with red hair...though I’m not really sure how she looks like now...I mean after the Civil War and everything we haven’t actually seen Avengers in a while. You do know who the Avengers are, right?”
“Uhh...I mean...no? Not really.”
Okay so here’s the deal. Amity was kinda an isolated city even before the ghosts started invading it. And well...after ghosts started coming through the portal people of Amity just forgot about the rest of the world. I mean, could you really blame them? Every outsider thought they were crazy. They were only half right. So in Amity, they had News of Ghost fights instead of government issues in the USA.
Danny could vaguely remember hearing about the Avengers before... But it was years ago and his brain often stopped providing memory storage because of exhaustion, so Danny had no idea who or what the Avengers were supposed to be.
“Have you been living under a rock?!” Mike lowered his voice after a teacher gave him a warning look. “Are you hearing this, Adam? He doesn't know who the Avengers are! Can you believe that? How could you not know about the Earth’s mightiest heroes?!”
“Well technically half of them are criminals now so…” Adam said.
“That’s bullshit and you know it, Adam.”
Danny glanced from one boy to another having no idea when Earth got ‘mightiest heroes’ or when they turned into criminals. Ancients, New York was so confusing.
Adam just opened his mouth, probably to remind Mike not to curse in here when a kid stopped before their table. He had a short buzz cut and Danny could tell by his clothing that he was above middle class.
“Well well, I’m sure Mrs. Anderson will not be happy when I tell her about the bad language you’re using, Garcia.” Said the boy, his eyes sparkling with amusement. The fact that he could cause trouble for Mike seemed to make him unbelievingly happy.
“I’m not afraid of that-” Adam stopped Mike before he could finish the insult.
“Yes, of course, you’re not. But you overstepped the line this year already, haven’t you? So I’m quite certain she would make you stay here over the summer if you put just a toe out of the line again. Ah, but then maybe it’s better you stay here over the summer. It’s not like you have anyone to go home to, anyway.” The boy grinned and Mike's expression fell.
“What do you want, Thompson?” Dorian snarled.
“Oh, I just came to welcome your new friend here. So tell me what are you in for?”
Danny had to concentrate hard to stop his blue eyes from glowing radioactive green with anger: He didn't like bullies. “It’s none of your business.”
“Hmm. Well if you don’t want to tell me suit yourself, but I snuffed out the history of every single kid in this room. Sooner or later I will know just from what kind of a freak family you came from.” And with that, Thompson stalked back to his table where his friends were waiting for him to show off.
“Who’s that jerk?” Danny asked.
“Adrian Thompson. His family’s super-rich and influential so he has privileges the rest of us don’t. We don’t really know why they send him here though. You see all of his siblings and cousins attend schools for really smart people. Like Midtown high or Staten Island Technical high school. Mind you they are all big bullies who are guaranteed to get into colleges like Harvard and MIT just because of the money.”
Adam hurried to finish his explanation while they walked towards the class. They had English first hour. And when Danny saw his new teacher he wished right away for Mr. Lancer, his old English teacher from Casper high. Mr. Lancer was never his favorite teacher just as English was never his favorite subject. But at least he could sleep in class without getting on with worse than detention.
He doubted this would be the case here.
English was as he predicted terrible. And so were the other subjects. Especially French because Danny didn’t take French lessons at home...Actually, he was pretty sure they didn’t even have a French class in Casper High so naturally, the teacher picked him every time there was something to answer. He got detention for answering the question wrong.
It wasn’t fair because Danny didn’t even suck at learning new languages. He spoke fluent Greek, Latin, and Spanish. So not knowing French was NOT cause he was stupid but because the teacher didn’t know how to teach. But whatever, he still had to go to detention.
When he was finally permitted to leave the detention room it was nearly nine in the afternoon. Which meant he had barely an hour before he was supposed to be in bed.
Danny didn’t really mind though. If he was anyone else the early lockdown would certainly bother him. But he was used to sneaking out and he knew no one would catch him at it, at least not here. Really, it’s kinda hard to capture something that's invisible and to Danny’s luck invisibility was one of his abilities.
He entered the room and immediately chased away thoughts of escape when he saw Adam pass a pack of ice to Mike: His left eye was swollen shut.
Danny didn’t really need to wonder a lot about where an injury like that came from. He knew someone punched Mike but still, he asked: “What happened?”
Dorian protectively shifted in front of Mike as if he was afraid Danny was gonna attack him. Well, something obviously did attack him already so if Doran was playing guard he was a little too late.
“Adrian hit him,” Adam said.
“Why?” Danny asked. Mike kept his eyes on the floor, clearly preferring not to answer, and Adam shrugged. It looked like Adam didn’t know exactly how Mike got black eye either. Meanwhile Dorian clenched his jaw and Danny had a suspicion he knew what happened to Mike. He didn't expect Dorian to tell them anything though.
Getting Dorian to explain something he did not want to explain was like taking Cujo (Danny’s ghost dog) to a peaceful walk. Impossible. Danny was also pretty sure both of those were highly dangerous options, so he didn't even try to get the truth out of him.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Mike to break the tense silence that came after his question. “It’ll heal and it doesn't even hurt that much. I’m going to sleep now. It’s almost ten anyway.” Mike climbed into the bed and Doran was quick to follow his example.
Danny shared a look with Adam before he got ready for sleep as well. He made a note to have a talk about hitting people with Adrian. At home, he never turned against the bullies of the school, at least not outright. No, there he had to pretend he was a weakling so no one would connect his ghost and human self. But here no one even believed in ghosts.
With that happy revelation, Danny waited for other boys to fall asleep before he climbed out of the bed and let the transformation run over him.
And just like that his raven black hair turned white and his blue eyes turned ectoplasmic green. His pajamas disappeared and the hazmat suit replaced it. If he would need to breathe in this form, he would sign a breath of relief at the familiar coldness of his core. He turned transparent and passed through the wall into the spring night. He knew it was just a day since he last went flying, but it felt like years and as he sailed over the dark sky of New York City he couldn't repress a smile.
The difference between Amity and New York was even more obvious from the sky than it was from the ground. Amity was a small city that didn't attract a lot of attention. Most people didn't even know it existed and its inhabitants liked it that way. New York on the other hand was one of the most known cities in the world. There were lights everywhere and noise didn't die out even after midnight.
Danny wasn't sure which he preferred. All that mattered to him were fresh air on his face and stars over his head. He flew around the city for a while before he settled on a rooftop of an old building in Queens. He watched as lights flickered all over New York and for a moment he felt almost peaceful. But someone rudely interrupted his peace with a scream.
And just like that his obsession to protect was turned on and before he could think of what he was doing Danny was on his way to find the screaming soul.
He landed on the pavement and changed into his human form. It was his less preferred form to fight in but if New Yorkers started believing in ghosts he would have to be way more careful while sneaking around the city. So human form it was.
When he turned into the street where he heard the scream he didn’t really know what to expect but what he found stopped him in his tracks.
You see, Danny saw a lot of weird things in his short life...uh...afterlife? half-life? Whatever. But a scene before him had to be one of the weirdest.
Maybe because the dude who was holding the gun was human and Danny was used to non-human opponents. Or maybe because the woman who had a gun pointed at her head really looked scared half to death. And sure people of Amity were still scared of ghosts on some level but they seemed to notice that most of the ghosts just wanted to annoy Danny with fights.
But it was probably because of the dude hanging from the wall in a red suit that covered his whole body. There was some white stuff coming out of his wrists and it looked like he was taunting the guy with the gun.
...Okay, seriously what in the hell was going on in New York?
“Get out of my way, insect.” The man with the gun snarled.
“Oh come on! Spiders are not insects, they're arachnids!” The spider guy sounded really annoyed too as if it wasn’t the first time he had to explain this to someone. He shot the white stuff (web?) out of his wrist towards the gun and soon the dangerous weapon laid in the corner of the street.
The woman, who now didn’t have a gun pointed at her head anymore, collapsed. Probably from shock. The spider dude helped her to her legs and out of the street. He was so busy helping the civilian he didn’t notice that the gunless guy was retrieving his gun. Danny guessed it was not just so he could be called the guy with the gun in Danny’s head again.
“Watch out!” Danny shouted, preferring not to see someone get shot tonight.
Spider dude had quick reflexes and he dodged the bullet before it could hit him dead on. The bullet still gazed at his arm, but Danny could tell that the wound was not very treating. Danny knocked the guy with the gun out before the gun could be pointed at anyone else. Even though Danny usually didn’t hit humans he didn't feel even remotely guilty about this one.
“Thanks, man. That one was a little too close” Said the spider guy as he examined his bleeding shoulder.
“Yeah no problem, you know I try to stop as many people as I can from dying cause I heard humans are pretty dead-icated to stay alive lately.”
The spider guy snorted. “Why are you in your pajamas in the middle of New York?”
“Why are you wearing a Halloween costume in the middle of New York? You know it’s April, right?”
“Because I’m Spider-man! And it’s not a Halloween costume.” And Danny was ninety-nine percent sure Spider-’man’ was pouting under his costume when he said the last part.
Danny frowned. “So are you like the...uh what are they called again? Oh yeah, the Avengers? You’re not one of those who have gone rogue, are you?”
“W-what? No I-I’m not even an Avenger. At least not- not yet. And I’m on Mr. Stark’s side so…”
“Who’s Mr. Stark?”
“He’s Iron-man.” Spider dude answered as if it should explain everything. Well, it didn’t cause Danny was still confused as hell. Also, he was getting sick of stupid nicknames. What’s next, Snail-man?... Really maybe he should change his name to Ghost-man when he goes back home.
“Uhh… Look dude I have like zero ideas who that is. So you’ll need to explain a little bit better.”
“You don’t-? ...How can you not know who-... What about Captain America or Hulk or Thor do you know who they are?”
“Um no. But I’m happy they don’t have the word man in their nickname.”
He stared at Danny and for some time and for a moment Danny was afraid he broke the poor Spider dude. Until three words finally left Spider-man’s mouth:
“What the f-”