Hello, I'm back an better than ever. For those who are wondering what happened to all those other chapters, I deleted them. Forever. Cause they sucked.
Anyway, for our new readers, I hope you enjoy this. Cause I hammered this baby out after stacking literally a ton of wood and my muscles are killing me.
For something relevant to the story, this is OC centric. Lots of OCs. You have been warned. Really this is just my idea of what would happen if the Guys in White tried giving people super ghost powers. It take place a bit after the end of the series, and no, Phantom Planet didn't happen. I don't know who wrote that episode, but it felt like they just ran their ass over a keyboard and took what got printed.
Also, there will be lots of crossovers. Some will be obvious, like when *spoiler* Skulker fights spiderman in chapter 4 or 5.
Others will be subtle, like the occasional mention of what the value of Stark industries stock is worth.
Wow, that is a huge authors note. Anyway, enjoy.
Linebreak
Jake Stone was almost like any other teenage kid. At fifteen years old, he was just as hormone addled and girl crazy as most of his peers. Nothing about him particularly stood out. He had black hair, a slightly too pale completion, but if you looked really closely in the right light, his eyes were almost a gold rather than brown.
His sister, Kate, had similar features as well. Even though she was his fraternal twin, most people would assume he was older because of their height difference. She never said much, preferring to be in the background. It had been like that even before their mom had died six years ago.
Now, they had lost their father too. A car crash.
It didn't rain at the funeral. That would be too fitting. It would be too convenient for the rain to hide the tears.
Some men spoke, a few marines from his Father's military days told some stories, and the priest said a few words. They buried the body and everyone left.
Two days later, They arrived.
Linebreak
It was Jake who answered the door.
Two men in white suits and sunglasses stood waiting.
"The hell do you want?"
"Are you Jake Stone?"
"What of it?"
"May we come in? We have something we would like to discuss about your current situation."
Jake glared at them. Something didn't feel right, but his "current situation" was something he didn't particularly like. "Whatever, come in."
They walked into the living room where Kate was packing their things into boxes. Most would be put somewhere. Jake didn't know or particularly care.
"Oh, hello," said Kate.
"Table's in there," said Jake, pointing at the kitchen. They all sat down at the kitchen table. "So what exactly do you want?"
One man smiled. "To the point, I like that. The reason we are here is to offer you a new life." Jake gave him a look. "I mean this quite literally. If you read this, it will explain everything." The man placed a file down on the table in front of Jake.
Jake picked up the file and quickly flipped through it. There was some legal mumbo-jumbo on the first page and some more stuff about medical information on the second page, his medical information, and the big reveal on the last page. Apparently, Jake was supposed to be a guinea pig for some experimental medical treatment and they would be checking up on him for the rest of his life. The only thing was that, apart from bee allergies, Jake was perfectly healthy.
"What exactly is this treatment supposed to cure? I don't speak doctor."
The second man spoke for the first time. "Human weakness. If this treatment works, it will launch humanity forward in leaps and bounds. Imagine a world without sickness, disability, or the disease. That s what this is supposed to cure. You were chosen as a candidate. One of twenty for the preliminary tests to make sure it is safe for the large human trials necessary later on. Animal testing has already yielded promising results."
Jake looked at the two men. "Well, that's really great. What's in it for me? Yeah all this crap about improving humanity is great and all, but I don't see any point in me doing this."
"We will guarantee that you and your sister are taken care of and we will guarantee that you will not be separated."
A few seconds passed in silence. "Done."
"Sign here please."
Linebreak
It was a week after Jake had signed the contract. Since then he had been through a myriad of physical tests and other medical stuff. Today however was the big day. Other than the nervousness from being in a hospital, all Jake felt was annoyance. He wasn't permitted to eat the night before.
The final check up was finished and Jake was strapped to a bed. Several IV lines were feeding multiple cocktails into his veins. The procedure itself was fairly simple. Dozens of syringes of glowing green liquid were injected all over his body. Each injection left a painful stinging sensation after their contents had been used.
Halfway through things went fuzzy before Jake lost consciousness. Whether it was from the drugs or the experiments, Jake didn't know.
When Jake woke up, he was still annoyed. However, that had more to do with the absolutely horrible headache that he had.
"Hey, you're awake."
"Hey Kate." Jake managed to pronounce. He pinched the bridge of his nose to help with his headache. "How long?"
"Three hours." Kate handed him a can of soda.
"Thanks," said Jake as he opened it and took a drink. "Did the doctors say anything about what I'm supposed to do now?"
"They said that you'd have to take some tests once you woke up."
Jake took another swig of soda. "Doesn't sound too hard."
LineBreak
Doctor Smith looked over the notes he had prepared. The news he was about to deliver to the Director was … mixed, to say the least.
"The treatment seems to have … mixed results, to say the least. Overall performance of the subjects has only changed by an average of 3 percent over the last four weeks. It doesn't seem like the predicted results will ever come out. Any other benefits would have to be checked for at a later date."
The Director sighed. "Terminate the project. If it hasn't happened by now it won't ever happen."
"I'm sorry sir. I'll have my people double check the tablet again. Maybe there was something we missed."
"No. I personally went over that tablet. We did everything correctly. The director looked at the scientist intently. "Actually, I will take care of the termination. Don't plan on any more tests after the next one."
Linebreak
The tests weren't too hard. The tests were just a repeat of the tests he took before the procedure. The doctors gave him another clean bill of health and let him go. They repeated the tests every week for several weeks. During that time, Jake and Kate lived in a hotel that had been provided until the tests were finished.
Currently, the two were leaving the hospital to go celebrate their birthday. Tradition demanded churros and root-beer.
"So, anything new?" asked Kate as they walked down the street eating their pastries.
"No. There doesn't seem to be anything new. I didn't even get super powers out of getting glowing goop injected into me. Honestly I feel ripped off."
Kate laughed. "Well, of course not. There wasn't any radiation involved. If it were actually radioactive, the glow would have been blue."
They argued about some more stuff about how one could get superpowers, everything from lycanthropy to green rings was mentioned.
Everything seemed to be just fine when Jake felt excruciating pain in his back. Several times. The world turned around and he fell. Blood pooled around him as he bled out on the ground.
The world faded. He couldn't see straight. Nothing was in focus. Then he heard Kate scream. From his position on the ground he could barely make out a man dressed in rags holding a knife walk toward his sister.
"Can't leave any witnesses. He won't make the voices go away if I do. Sorry." The man raised his knife.
Kate screamed and fell. And the world disappeared. And then, with a flash of light, it came back in impossible clarity.
Jake also found himself standing in spite of his injuries. In fact, he couldn't even feel the pain anymore. Not dead. Not even hurt. Moving fast as he could, he grabbed the hand holding the knife. It stopped. The knife wielder looked at him in fear and tried to take control of his arm again, but Jake's grip was too strong for that.
Jake hit the man in the face. Blood flew from his broken nose. The Jake hit him again and again and again until the man stopped struggling. He stood over the unconscious man.
Immediately Jake turned to make sure that his sister was ok. She didn't look hurt, but she screamed when she saw him.
"Kate?"
Linebreak
Kate was never more frightened in her life than when some knife carrying nut job killed her brother right in front of her.
Then she grew even more afraid when her brother began to attack the man because her brother didn't have the strength to fight off any one, he didn't have white hair, and he most certainly did not have glowing red eyes. This thing was not her brother no matter how much it looked like him.
When it looked at her with those eyes, she couldn't help but scream.
"Kate? Kate, what's wrong it's me."
Kate tried to move away from the thing, but came up against a wall. It knelt down to her level. "Kate? It's Jake."
Kate looked at him more closely. Everything but the hair and eyes was her brother. "Jake. What happened to you?"
Linebreak
WOW! That is WAY better than my old first chapter. Anywho, I need reviews if I'm going to keep up this new story. Next on my list is the debut of The Epic of Aang. Expect it next week.
Originally I had planned on Jake meeting Grim, but I thought it was too cliched and a bit too early to start the crossovers.
Speaking of crossovers, you all need to start giving me suggestions for what to crossover with. Spiderman is first since it was suggested in the first round, but I still need one to follow up that one.