The Third Generation Part 5: Ivan
Chapter 1
It was mid-January, it hadn't snowed today but there was plenty on the ground. Ivan was getting his weekly appointment with Doctor Will Chung. The good doctor was old, Ivan tried asking him how old but the old Doc brushed him off. Ivan liked to guess he was in his 80's or 90's at least, though he didn't look that old, modern medicine was awesome like that. Ivan had just finished telling him about how he didn't have any problems, everyone else had problems. Ivan didn't see why he had to conform when he was clearly better than other people.
That wasn't his opinion, it was fact. Other people couldn't fly, shoot lasers, pass through walls, turn invisible, had claws that cut through steel like hot butter, or were as rich as him either. Of course, you couldn't tell he could do that when he was in his Human form like now. No, in his Human form he was a 5'11" wiry teen with black hair, blue eyes, and pointed ears. "Ivan, you can't deny your humanity just because you think you're above it," Doc Chung told him. "Why not? I'm more Ghost than Human, Hell, I don't even bleed red; I bleed green," Ivan stated as matter of fact. Doc Chung sighed then asked, "Do you not have eyes? Do you not have hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Are you not fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a human is?"
Whoa, Doc's busting out the Shakespeare. "If I cut you, do you not bleed? If I tickle you do you not laugh? If I poison you, do you not die?" Doc Chung finished and Ivan whistled. "TheMerchant of Venice, not a bad paraphrase, Doc," Ivan told him. Doc Chung smiled and said, "That's one more thing that's proof of your humanity. You have read Shakespeare, and know it enough to know when someone paraphrases it. You're an intelligent young man, Ivan. Why do you hide it?" Ivan shrugged and said, "I like not being the thinker, doers are the guys that actually change the world, Muhammad Ali, George Washington, my Grandpa, they all changed the world by doing stuff instead of sitting around thinking about it." It was at that time that Doc Chung's phone alarm went off, signaling the end of their session. Before he left the office the Doctor told him, "I'm serious Ivan, you should embrace your humanity more; it will make you much happier."
Ivan gave him a cocky grin and said, "Who says I'm not already happy?" Ivan passed his parents on the way out and told them, "I'm gonna fly around a little." Ivan's Dad, Roger, stood up and looked at him before turning to Ivan's Mom, Chloe. Ivan had his Mom's eyes, and his Dad's looks, for the most part. Chloe nodded and said, "Be home by 6." "Got it," Ivan said, and he went Ghost. Green rings flew up and down his body, turning his skin green, eyes red, his teeth all turned to fangs as the fingers on his right hand turned into claws and his black jacket and jeans turned white and his light blue shirt turned black. Ivan phased out of Doc Chung's office and howled into the air. God I love being a halfa!
Why any of his family chose to be in their Human forms whenever they could just didn't make sense to him. When he was in Ghost Form, he had Power, he was Free! Gravity was a joke, solid objects were nothing, scientists around the world still couldn't understand how halfas and ghosts could so blatantly break the laws of physics, and Ivan liked it. Ivan flew over the Park, seeing how different it looked covered in snow. Wish it was summer, Ivan thought. No snow, no school, and best of all: hot chicks running around in short shorts and sports bras. The only good things about winter were Winter Vacation, which was now over, and Christmas, when all ghostly hostility ceased for 24 hours.
Ivan flew over AmityPark until his Ghost Sense went off and he heard a scream. Ivan looked down to see a man get dropped into the maw of a giant cake monster with chocolate icing skin, peppermint eyes, and candy corn teeth. "Sweet Tooth!?" Ivan said in exasperation, he had met this dopey ghost 2 years ago when he went into the Ghost Zone for kicks. Sweet Tooth had tried to eat him, other ghosts stayed away from him because he ate any living thing he saw, human, ghost, animal, vegetable, all were food for Sweet Tooth. "Sweet Tooth!" Ivan yelled down, "Throw up all those people you've eaten now, or I'll be the one eating you!" The cake monster looked up at him and laughed, "Puny halfa, I want to taste your flesh!" "Here I come!" Ivan yelled as he flew down, right into Sweet Tooth's mouth.
Ivan looked around and saw that inside Sweet Tooth looked a lot like an animal, if it was made of cake and sweets. He forced himself down the monster's gullet all the way down to Sweet Tooth's stomach. He found 10 people, 4 cats, and a dog already inside the stomach, using a billboard as a raft, floating over what looked like red hot sugar water, Sweet Tooth's stomach acid. "Is everyone alright?" Ivan asked them. One person on the raft, a little black boy said, "We're okay, Risky! I knew you would save us!" Ivan smiled at that, a fan. 'Risky' was what the media called him; his 'superhero name' because he took risks everyone else was too chicken to make.
Ivan made three copies of himself and said, "Alright, four people per copy, grab on to one and hold on tight." The people grabbed the cats and the dog and held on to his copies. "Watch this," Ivan told the kid as he built up power in his hands. Ivan blasted a ghost ray into the side of the stomach, creating a passage all the way out of Sweet Tooth's stomach. Ivan's copies flew the people and animals out as Sweet Tooth roared in anger. As soon as the people were safely away Ivan turned back to the giant cake monster. "I'll chew you to bits!" Sweet Tooth yelled at him. Ivan smiled and said, "That's my line." Ivan flew down, dodging Sweet Tooth's arms and cut off the monster's feet with his clawed hand. "NOOO!" Sweet Tooth yelled as he landed face first on the ground. Ivan growled as he flew to the cake monsters head and said, "Time for dessert."
Ivan dug into the monster's head, relishing the sweet chocolate cake as red cherry filling flowed out with each bite. Ivan had his fill and flew over the now defeated monster, "Wish I could say I'm sorry, Sweet Tooth, but I don't like lying…much." Ivan took a deep breath and unleashed a Ghostly Wail on the body of the ghost, obliterating what he hadn't eaten. People chanted 'Ris-ky! Ris-ky! Ris-ky!' as Ivan flew off.