Learning Curve Part Two
“Alright,” Daniel began. “For this meeting I’m going to be focusing mainly on fighting average ghosts, and pretty much any strategy that’s effective against average ghosts will be effective against weak ghosts as well. Powerful ghosts we’ll talk about more next time. Make sense?”
“Yup.”
“Yeah.”
“Yes.”
“Got it.”
“Good,” Daniel agreed, before anyone else chimed in. “Alright, the first thing we’ll talk about is ascertaining motive. Ghosts are beings of will, so it’s pretty unusual that there will be a ghost in our world without a reason. When that happens, it’s usually a case like what happened here with Aragon and that horde of weaker ghosts. Powerful ghosts like Aragon give off a lot of energy, and portals like the one he made have a pretty powerful energy signature of their own. That energy attracts weaker ghosts, especially ones that are more instinct driven, like animal ghosts and blobs. They were drawn to the portal, then to Aragaon, who had gone through the portal. Like moths to a flame. The only reason most of them could survive outside the Realms was the amount of energy and ectoplasm they pulled through with them. If there’s less ghosts than, well, a whole whole lot, then there’s some level of motive there. With most ghosts that has something to do with Obsessions. The Box Ghost, for example, is obsessed with boxes. So he comes to Earth to get boxes. Usually, the more powerful the ghost, the more complex the motive. There are also some ghosts that live on our plane, because this is where their haunts are, and ghosts defend their haunts. We’ll talk about that later. Anyway, why they’re here is important when you’re fighting them, because then you can more easily anticipate their behavior.
“Usually, it will tie in with Obsessions. Some ghosts make it really easy for you. The Box Ghosts screams ‘Beware! I am the Box Ghost, master of all things cardboard and square!’ That’s a pretty clear motive. Technus yells ‘I am Technus, master of all things technological!’ So there are those ghosts. Honestly, most ghosts are those ghosts. If they don’t just yell it out, you can usually get them to explain by taunting them like you do with villains. It’s when you can’t figure it out that you should worry.”
Daniel paused, looked around the room. He pursed his lips, then his eyes widened.
“Winter. You didn’t bring any ectoplasm, did you?” he asked, seeming worried.
Winter’s eyebrows drew together. “No. Why?”
“Miss Maximoff, you’re not doing your weird mind thing, are you?” Daniel asked, seeming increasingly more worried.
“No,” Wanda answered, shortly.
“Winter, you need to get them out of here. Now,” Daniel ordered.
“Why? What’s going on?” Tony asked.
“Mister Stark, get down!” Peter yelled, reaching over to shove him down and ducking down himself.
A ghost flew over their heads.
“Winter, get them out of here, now! I don’t care where, just go! I’ll call when it’s clear!” Daniel yelled, pulling a weapon out of nowhere and shooting something.
“We can help!” Steve protested, as Winter started physically shoving them towards the elevator.
“No you can’t! You’re not ready yet! Get out of here!” Daniel yelled back, ducking down and shooting again.
The Avengers continued protesting, but Winter got them in the elevator with the help of Natasha and they were gone. Danny’s first instinct was to transform, but he knew there were more video and audio recording devices in here than he could count, so he refrained. He’d have to fight them off the old fashioned way.
“Teaching superheroes about ghost fighting? That’s against the rules!” a voice exclaimed, and the goons laughed.
Danny cursed. “Walker,” he snarled.
Doing this without blowing his secret was going to be harder than he thought. Wait a minute. No it wasn’t. He could stop time. Surely this counted as a dire circumstance, right? But if he got rid of them too quickly, that would also be suspicious. Wait a minute, he was being an idiot. Stop time, blow all the devices and blame it on Walker, transform, kick ass. Much better idea.
“When have I ever followed your rules?” Danny yelled back.
Walker’s mouth was open to say something else when everything except Danny froze. Time stop. Danny changed, floated up in front of a frozen Walker, put his hand to his ear.
“Huh? What? I can’t hear you. Oh, you don’t have time powers? Shame for you,” he taunted, laughing to himself.
The easiest way to stop the recording devices would be to just blow all the tech on the floor. Sadly, Danny couldn’t find the power source. Instead of going through every device and risking missing something, Danny let his least favorite thing help him out. Lighting flared across his fingertips, bright and crackling, as powerful as it was deadly. He grimaced, let it loose, dancing across the walls and the ceiling, drawn to the static hum of the technology. When there was no hum of electricity left, he let the lightning die down, and the fight truly began.
Daniel paused, looked around the room. He pursed his lips, then his eyes widened.
“Winter. You didn’t bring any ectoplasm, did you?” he asked, seeming worried.
Winter’s eyebrows drew together. “No. Why?”
“Miss Maximoff, you’re not doing your weird mind thing, are you?” Daniel asked, seeming increasingly more worried.
“No,” Wanda answered, shortly.
“Winter, you need to get them out of here. Now,” Daniel ordered.
“Why? What’s going on?” Tony asked.
Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong, Peter could feel it. His spider sense shook through his body, a warning. Behind him. Tony was sitting next to him on the couch.
“Mister Stark, get down!” Peter rushed out, shoving Tony down so he was folded in half.
Peter ducked down, too. The dangerous thing passed over them with a chill.
“Winter, get them out of here, now! I don’t care where, just go! I’ll call when it’s clear!” Daniel yelled, pulling a weapon out of nowhere and shooting something.
Peter pulled Tony back upwards, looking around. He couldn’t see anything dangerous, but he could feel it, buzzing against his skull, making his skin tingle, a shiver passing over him. Ghosts presumably, from Daniel’s reaction. Peter was smart enough to know that this was a fight he would be more a hindrance than a help in. That was true for everyone in this room except for Daniel and Winter.
Winter was moving now, pulling people out of their seats, shoving them towards the elevator. Natasha and Bruce were helping her. Peter grabbed Tony by the elbow and pulled him up and towards the elevator. Tony didn’t protest, his eyes still scanning the room, trying to assess the threat.
“We can help!” Steve protested, struggling against Natasha, who was pushing him towards the elevator bodily.
“No you can’t! You’re not ready yet! Get out of here!” Daniel yelled back, ducking down and shooting again.
Peter pushed Tony into the elevator along with everyone except Natasha and Winter, who were trying to get Steve to come with them. Peter turned around, jogged back to them, grabbed Steve’s arm, and pulled. Steve wasn’t the only one with super strength, after all.
“Come on, Cap,” Peter insisted, pulling harder.
Steve stumbled towards him, and Peter took the opportunity to pull him harder, making him fall towards Peter. Peter ducked under his arm and pushed him into the elevator. He stumbled and almost fell, caught only by a startled Bruce offering a hand. Peter blocked him in before he could duck out. Winter and Natasha were right behind him. The elevator doors slid closed.
“Roof,” Natasha barked, and the elevator started moving.
“We can’t just leave him there! We have to help!” Steve yelled.
“Believe me when I say that he doesn’t need our help, Captain. You would only have been in the way,” Winter snapped back.
“He’s just a teenager!” Steve protested.
“He’s been fighting ghosts since he was old enough to walk. He’s known how to use a blaster longer than that. He can handle himself. We would have been in the way, and he would have been so worried about protecting us that he would have gotten himself hurt. He. Will. Be. Fine. Alone,” Winter emphasized, seeming calmer.
The elevator doors opened onto the roof, cutting off any further conflict. Everyone poured out and caught sight of the...submarine? On the roof. Why was there a silver submarine on their roof?
“What?” Tony asked, staring at it.
Winter chuckled. “That’s how Danny and I got here. The Specter Speeder. Blame Danny for naming it that. It’s a vehicle that can travel through the Realms.”
“Wait, seriously?” Bruce asked, walking around it slowly.
“Yeah. It took us about a million years to figure out the portal opening mechanism, and it’s still not as efficient as the way Phantom and Scarlett travel, but it gets us where we need to go,” Winter explained.
“Portal opening mechanism?” Peter asked.
“Um, honestly, I’m not the best person to ask. Danny and Sebastian were the ones that figured that out. I’m more the one that runs the business side of things. I mean, I also do the fun science, but I’m not an engineer.”
“Fun science?” Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.
Winter shrugged, abashed. “That’s what we call it. I study ghost biology, ectoplasm, the atmosphere in the Realms, things like that. The messy stuff.”
“Wow, really?” Bruce asked, sounding impressed.
Winter nodded.
“I would love to get in on that sometime.”
“That can be arranged,” Winter agreed, smiling.
The doors to the elevator slid open and Danny limped out.
“Winter! Got ‘em!” he yelled, clutching his side.
Winter turned to face him, caught sight of his limp and the way he was holding his side, and jogged over to meet him. Peter watched, wondering what had happened. Winter pulled Danny’s arm around her shoulders and supported him as he limped towards the Specter Speeder.
“What happened?” Steve asked, walking over to meet the pair. Peter trailed after him.
“Freaking Walker and his goons. I got ‘em, but not before they got a few good hits in,” Danny grumbled, sitting on the open edge of the Specter Speeder, which was...floating a few inches off the ground? How had Peter not noticed that before?
“Walker? What did he want?” Winter called, rummaging around in the Speeder for something.
“Teaching superheroes about ghost fighting is apparently against the rules now, too!” Danny called back.
Winter emerged with a first aid kit. She frowned as she set it in front of Danny and sat on the ground next to it. The Avengers had gathered around them now, listening in, watching. Peter was the closest.
“Seriously? How did he even know about that?” Winter grumbled, pulling things out of the first aid kit.
“He cheats,” Danny grumbled.
“I’m sorry, who?” Clint asked.
“Ah,” Danny began. “Walker. He’s an average ghost, bordering on powerful, obsessed with rules. Freaking rules. Has his own prison in the Realms, he’s a sort of twisted version of a warden. There were some incidents. He, uh, doesn’t like me.”
“Drink,” Winter ordered, shoving a vial of something green and glowing at Danny.
Danny wrinkled his nose up, but accepted it and downed it like a shot. Winter patted him on the shoulder. Then, she started pulling his shoes and socks off to examine his ankle.
“What was that green stuff?” Peter asked.
Danny grimaced again. “Ectoplasm. I’m what we call liminal. I grew up around enough ectoplasm and ghosts that it sort of infused into my DNA. Gives me an edge when I’m fighting, and a hell of a healing factor. When I’m injured introducing more ectoplasm kicks my healing factor into high gear. Infusing it into my blood is more effective, but drinking it works well enough in a pinch. Even if it tastes terrible.”
Everyone stared. Except for Winter, of course, who was carefully wrapping Danny’s ankle.
“You sprained this. Again,” she griped.
Danny shrugged. “What can I say? Fighting inside isn't my strong suit. Too many obstacles. The bruised ribs you can blame on Walker, though.”
“I’m sorry, can you repeat that entire thing about the ectoplasm again?” Clint asked.
Danny chuckled, but it turned into a cough. He wiped blood off the back of his mouth.
“I’m what we call liminal. I grew up in a thin spot, where distinguishing our world from the Realms is hard. Ectoplasm, energy, things like that permeated throughout the house I grew up in. There were pocket dimensions, places that if you went into them just right you would end up in the Realms instead of on Earth. This was from the time I was a newborn. Turns out, the effect of that is that I grew up with ectoplasm being infused into my system. In the food, the water, the air. Everything. I’m a little bit ghost, I guess you could say. My body can metabolize ectoplasm and put it to use where it’s needed. Think of it like supercharging. I can move a little faster, heal faster, drink straight shots of ectoplasm and have it be beneficial. For reference if, say, Winter here did the straight shot of ectoplasm like I just did, it would most likely kill her. But I’m liminal. Long term exposure shifted my biology just enough to incorporate ectoplasm.”
“Wait, if that happened to you, why didn’t it happen to the rest of your family?” Tony asked, suspicious.
“Because-” Winter started. Danny cut her off with a raised hand.
“It’s alright, Winter,” he said. Then, he turned his attention back to everyone else. “I’m Daniel Paris now, but I grew up as Danny Fenton. My parents were ghost hunters, but that was all they were. They didn’t understand any of the nuance of it, they thought every ghost was evil and that was that. That’s how I was raised. They’re the ones that taught me to use a blaster, that locked me in rooms with just a balster and a ghost when I was barely old enough to walk in a straight line. It wasn’t a good way to grow up. My older sister Jazz was the only reason I got through it. My parents opened a portal into the Realms to be able to capture and study more ghosts. That increased the ectoplasm concentration in our house to sky high. If we hadn’t already grown up in such a thin spot, it probably would have killed all of us. But it didn’t. Jazz is the same amount of liminal as I am, maybe a little more, because she’s two years older. When my parents found out we were liminal, they said we were ghosts and, well, tried to kill us. So we left. Kendra and Winter came across us, they were new to town. They listened, took us in, went through the legal system to get us away from our parents. We’ve been Daniel and Jasmine Paris ever since then. Jazz is in college now, at Harvard. And I’m here.”
“Satisfied now?” Winter grumbled.
Everyone had been struck speechless, Peter included. Peter especially, more like. How could someone do that to their own kids? How could people think that way at all?
“I, um, I’m sorry,” Tony said, awkwardly.
“I’m gonna kill them,” Clint snarled.
Danny laughed, scrubbed at his eyes. “Thanks, but they’ve been...taken care of.”
“That’s ominous. I like it,” Natasha decided.
“What happened?” Steve asked.
“Scarlett happened,” Danny answered, voice soft.
“She’s got a thing about justice. Or revenge. The line is kind of nonexistent with her,” Winter chimed in.
“What’s her deal, anyway? I mean, like, how do you guys know her and Phantom?” Rhodey asked, trying to break the tension.
Danny and Winter exchanged a glance. Winter had finished wrapping Danny’s ankle and ribs now, and was sitting next to him on the edge of the Speeder, periodically shoving a vial of ectoplasm at him.
“Our town, Amity Park, is Phantom’s Haunt. Scarlett is Phantom’s kid brother. We study ghosts. Do the math,” Winter answered.
“Ah,” Tony said, in a tone that said he did not do the math.
“They came to take us out, originally,” Danny supplied. “Thought we were like the Fentons. I’m just lucky Kendra and Winter talked them down.”
“Enemies to frenemies to friends?” Peter suggested.
“Yeah, that,” Danny agreed, seeming satisfied.
“I should probably get him home. He’ll insist he’s fine and he can finish the lesson, but Kendra would probably actually skin me alive if I let him,” Winter decided.
“You worry too much,” Danny complained, rolling his eyes.
Winter shrugged. “I’m your sister, that’s my job.”
“At least reschedule? I didn’t even get to the fun part,” Danny griped.
Winter turned to the Avengers, raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, yeah, we can do that. I’ll figure out everyone’s schedules and call you?” Tony offered.
“Perfect,” Winter agreed. “I’ll talk to you then.”
“Bye, everyone!” Danny called, waving as he shuffled further into the vehicle.
Winter waved as well, walking into the front of the vehicle. Everyone still on the roof waved and yelled their goodbyes until the doors closed. A portal opened in front of the vehicle, and it was gone.