IMPORTANT: I said last chapter that I don't think Howard was intentionally abusive (and I don't believe anything in the current movies will convince me otherwise) BUT it is possible to be unintentionally abusive-and I think this is essentially what I meant by 'did leave damage,' I just didn't want to say the word. You probably knew what you were getting into when you clicked on the fanfiction, but I will say, especially for this chapter, prepare for discussions of borderline emotional child abuse.

As for physical...Tony was born in 1970 (according to some sources, I wouldn't take it as 100% accurate) and you can ask just about anyone and they will say discipline was much more physical then, so I'm not going to say Tony didn't get hit or beat occasionally when he misbehaved badly. Where discipline turns into abuse is a very conflicted and debatable line that changes with the times. So, I'll say that, in my opinion in the Cinematic Universe, Howard never hit Tony solely to bring harm to him, and while, like above, abuse can be unintentional, even if he may have crossed the boundary a time or two, it's clearly not the part that's hurt Tony into adulthood.

I understand if you characterize and see Howard differently, especially if you take influence from the comics where I hear he's a much worse character. So long as you respect me and my fanfiction, we'll get along fine. Thank you.

AO3 has a drabble "series" cough there's only one right now cough if you're into that thing, since AO3 is a lot more lax about what you can post.

Tony awoke with a start.

For a few painful moments, he thought he might have dreamt everything—from the very first sighting of Howard to the lizard-thing that came barreling through his … air… last night. But no, the notes he typed up were still on screen, the tantalizing cursor still blinking endlessly at the where he ended:

Howard Stark, father presumably

Soul Reaper vs Shinigami/Death God

Hollows, monstrous beasts

-classes

-"normal class"

-tall black robed, do not engage?

-MORE?

-How to defeat?

"magic"

Destruction Spell

Red Flame Cannon

japanese - learn|

He watched the cursor blink a few more times, before pushing himself off the desk with a careful stretch. He let out a long, somewhat amused exhale, manually compiling information was so exhausting. Briefly, he wondered if those so-called ghost hunters could actually record ghost talk, and if so what equipment to use and how to get it.

He wasn't even sure if he got all the information, but he was fairly certain—minus the parts in Japanese. Both Howard and the monster stressed the term "Shinigami," which Wikipedia conveniently had a page on. Howard seemed to take offense at the term, and Tony could understand why someone wouldn't want to be called a "death god" but was "soul reaper" really that much better? Of course, he later said something about "New York City," but that was a no brainer.

There's at least two of them running around plus whatever "hollows" show up, and up to four people around capable of seeing them…

Damn.

Even at the cost of a near heart attack he was almost no closer to solving the mystery.

He stretched back, far enough that his head tilted back over the chair so he was staring at the door upside down. He had escaped from Steve the same way he escaped from anyone else—waving off his concerns before going into a lab and ordering Friday to lock him out.

Damn.

Wait, he said that already.

Too many questions. Currently, he was debating between focusing on "Who are the two in Avengers Headquarters?" and "Should I tell Steve?"

The second was simultaneously the easier and harder of the two questions to answer.

Steve was…

Steve was a lot of things.

In a way, Tony could understand why Howard wanted to find him so badly. Hell, Tony wouldn't even really say he got along that well with Steve, but Steve was still going out of his way to make sure he was doing alright.

It was even worse than hating Howard.

He didn't want to understand why Howard acted like he did. He was perfectly content just thinking the man was an asshole with an unseen grudge against him, accepting it, and moving on. But acknowledging that there might have been legitimate reasoning been behind it was just unsavory.

Did anyone else have dead figures from their past walking out to see them? Was Steve's mother going to show up next? No? Just him? Fantastic.

But did he want to tell Steve what was going on? About ghost fathers and monsters?

"Boss, Steve Rogers is requesting entrance into your lab again."

"Tell him I'll be out shortly." He meant it. His gaze lingered briefly on the word Japanese—I should learn some of that—and his hands on the shortcut to close the notes. With a sigh, he shut it down, grimly confident he wouldn't be able to parse any more information out of the close encounter with fatherkind.

Tony stood up, stretching a few good times to work out the kinks associated with sleeping in a chair, before moving to the door. In reality, he only takes a few steps before pausing. "Friday? If I start acting oddly, send Clint to my location."

"Shall I contact him now, boss?"

"Funny." Even so, he trusted the AI to understand when he legitimately needed Clint's aid.

He didn't give Steve the chance to feel like Tony had listened to his demands. Rather, he promptly exited the lab, approached him, and said, "Steve, I need your help." One of the advantages of being a constant joker who never acted seriously was that when you finally toned it down, people froze, and they listened.

As expected, Steve leaned back a little with wide eyes, blinked a few times, before nodding.

"You basically live at the headquarters anymore, minus this little rendezvous we're having here. Has anyone been acting oddly? I know you don't interact with them, but especially among the scientists."

"Tony…," Steve starts with the caution of a mouse in a cat's den, "the one acting strangely is you."

"I know." Even if admitting it felt like acid. "I know, which is why I need to find out if anyone else is affected by this … thing." He needed a way to convince Steve to help without digging into the problem any further, and it wasn't going very well. "I don't know what's happening yet. Which is why I need to find everyone as quickly as possible. But I'm here, I'm not there, and I don't know what's normal. So can you please. Just answer the question."

Sensing Tony's desperation (or otherwise just doing something Cap-esque) Steve relented, but simply sighed. "I don't know either, Tony. Weren't you the one that said scientists are just inherently eccentric? And you want as few people as possible knowing, I assume?"

"Do you ever stumble upon something that you feel like you weren't quite supposed to see? That about sums it up. But I can't just ignore it, something is definitely happening, and … it's personal." He wasn't quite sure how to end the statement, but it was vague enough that it wasn't going to tell Steve everything, but wasn't a lie either.

Steve's mouth flattened, and for a moment his body inflated, before the air was released in a metaphorical representation of their hopes deflating. "Do you mean odd like Doctor Selvig was?" Steve continued talking, but Tony wasn't paying attention anymore.

This usually works.

Yeah, get in line.

She wants to show us something!

"I think that's exactly the type of odd I'm looking for. Seeya Capsicle!" Tony disappeared back into his lab before Steve could call after him.

"Do you believe in ghosts?" Straightforward enough. Give him the chance to gauge the scientist's reaction.

"Did you … hack my phone?"

"Oh my god, is that Tony Stark?"

"Great, your friend is there too. So we can focus on the important question, do you believe in ghosts?" Back at his computer, Tony added Can see: Me, Clint, | and waited for the confirmation he hoped was coming.

"The last time I said I didn't believe in something his brother showed up and tried to take over the world. So I think I'll politely refrain from answering the question."

"Well, as opposed to Erik's scathing cynicism," Wait, who is this? "a scientist is supposed to embrace the unknown (you know I love you, Erik) so maybe there are ghosts wandering this Earth, there's no reason to say there aren't."

"Wait, does this by chance have to do with white-jacket-guy you two keep talking about?"

"Darcy!"

Tony allowed himself a brief smirk as he added Erik Selvig, Jane Foster to his list."Actually," he cut in, before the squabbling could overcome anything he could say, "that's exactly what I wanted to hear. I need you at an emergency meeting in the tower as soon as Fury or whoever you work for now will let you leave."

"Sweet!"

"Darcy!"

"So it's a deal, then. I'll let Friday and the secretary know that you'll be coming in, and we'll continue this discussion when you get here."

"Stark, wait—"

"Nope." Tony hung up before Erik could try to argue against it. Tony nodded to himself, reclining back in his chair and skimming his notes once more. He likely had a few hours at the least before his guests would arrive, and until then, he had a few more things to consider. "Friday? Save that conversation. Store it with these notes. Same encryption."

"Understood, boss."

Tony's original theory was simple enough, if incomplete. His, Erik's, and Clint's interactions with the mythical objects known as "infinity stones" somehow awakened some sense within them, that allowed them to see the beings around them, that may or may not be spirits. But, Erik had two people with him, one Tony knew as Jane Foster, and one he had a vague recollection of as interning with them, one of which had also seen the spirit, and one of which apparently did not and/or could not. The addition of these two variables, specifically the one, complicated things.

But, that was why they were meeting, to discuss it.

Meanwhile, Tony's thoughts drifted elsewhere: to Rhodey. By all rights, the man deserved to know what was going on, Tony wasn't blind to that. And it was true that they had faced aliens, both benevolent and malevolent, and robots, both benevolent and malevolent, and super-powered individuals, both benevolent and malevolent, so surely adding spirits, both benevolent and malevolent, wouldn't change anything, but it was getting personal from the past quickly, and Tony was tired of things from the past getting personal.

But if there was anyone in Tony's life that deserved to know when things from the past started getting personal, it was Rhodey.

"So…you're saying that there are … ghosts … running around the city?"

"Yep."

"And…you've only found three others that can see them?"

"Uh-huh."

"And…at least some of them are monstrous beings that want to eat us?"

"And one's my dad."

"…Okay."

"What? That's it?"

"I'm done being surprised."

"You're always surprised."

"Yeah, when I see them."

"What are you going to report?"

"What do you want me to report, Tony? 'Howard Stark is back from the dead and as troublesome as ever'?"

"It gets to the point. Just tell them that an unknown entity has developed invisibility tech and is targeting a few specific people."

"There is no way that'll go over well with anyone."

Well, that went well, and he wasn't being entirely sarcastic. He still had a grin on his face as he returned to the tower, riding the elevator back up to where Clint was currently residing.

"How much longer are you staying?"

"There are nicer ways to throw people out, Tony." Clint rolled his eyes, but otherwise didn't move from lounging sideways across a chair.

"I'm not throwing you out," Tony clarified slowly, "I'm trying to figure out if you'll be around for a group honing oblivious spiritual tactics meeting."

"A what now?" Amusement colored Clint's tone as his eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.

"A ghost meeting. Come on, Clint, you're sharper than that." Tony shrugged and turned around to face Clint. "Selvig and his partners will be there. I have reason to believe that at least some of them can see the spirits too."

"You're serious?" And Clint is too, now, sitting up correctly, his facial expression falling from its slight twitch upwards into a more appropriately level orientation.

"I have—had, I'll get there shortly—reason to believe that all of this might have been triggered by," Tony paused as realization dawned on Clint's face.

"Oh, son of a—"

"Language!" Tony chirped in—far more enthusiastic than he should have been, but it was worth it when Clint snorted and the dark clouds on his face cleared just a little.

After a few minutes of coercing Clint into joining the ghost meeting and then actually waiting for said meeting to start, Tony was now observing his audience, which consisted simply of a crease-ridden Erik, and two young woman trapped in an infinite loop of "What is this?" and "Don't touch it."

"So, you're probably wondering why I called you here today," Tony started in the oh-so typical mysterious leader cliché.

Erik's frown cut a little deeper.

Clint sarcastically clapped.

"We, here, us, in New York, have a problem."

"What else is new." Three of them said it at the same time, Darcy's exasperated game-on, Erik's clipped impatience, and Clint's amused eye-roll, whereas Jane's eyebrows rose in curiosity.

"To answer that exact question," Tony paused for emphasis ("Get on with it Stark!" courtesy of Clint), "spirits!" He spread his hands apart in time with the exclamation. "Between the five of us, we have confirmed sightings of three spirits." He gestured to himself and Clint, then to the other three. "Correct? How was it put, exactly, 'white jacket guy'?"

Erik shifted backwards somewhat, going on the defensive, but spoke, "…Essentially. I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye, turned and it was gone, it repeated a few times. Thought it may have been an effect of…you know," his gaze flickers nearly imperceptibly to Clint, simultaneously darkening. "Got worried, talked to my therapist, and then Jane mentioned seeing the same thing." He shrugged, shaking his head. "Odd, surely, but I don't see any reason to believe it's a spirit and not just… a something else."

"It's a fair point." Tony bobbed his head and scrunched his face in fake consideration of what was just said.

"As much as I want to be optimistic," Jane threw an apologetic glance at Erik, "as it stands, I don't have any substantial evidence to think it's anything spiritual or crazy."

"You're right—you're absolutely right—and that's high praise coming from me." His smirk was met with exasperation. "But, I can prove it. One of the ones I saw was my father."

The air seemed to freeze as they comprehended what was said, facial expressions—including Erik's stoic frown—dropping into sheer incredulity. Darcy was the first to recover, shrugging with a casual, "It'd convince me."

Erik and Jane turned to look at her, but because their expressions were still stuck on shock, it only prompted a defensive "What?!"

"Three hours ago, my plans for tonight were to go home and get drunk," Erik lamented.

"We can get drunk here," Tony offered.

Erik appeared to be considering it.

"Oh stop it, both of you," Jane playfully scolded. "Let's just start with assuming that we are dealing with spirits. What does it mean for us?"

"Well, it means we can see them." Clint was being an ass and he knew it.

"Can we, though?" Darcy immediately challenged.

"Well, it means some of us can see them," Clint corrected.

"Better." Darcy approved.

"Do you think it's safe to assume that there's a reason why only specifically us can see them?" Jane asked, critically examining her audience.

Clint shrugged. He, of course, knew Tony's theory. Tony himself was opting out of claiming his theory because it would be more credible if the other scientists around could reach the same conclusion. Erik seemed to be completely abstaining from the conversation. Darcy didn't really have interest in the conversation either.

"Seems fair." Tony shrugged. Many proofs began with an assumption.

"So then what do we have in common?" Jane was taking it seriously. Unlike some people.

"Dead-end careers?"

"Presence in this room?"

"Charming good looks?"

"Immense bad luck?"

"Come on, guys!" Jane all but groaned, "Work with me! The less seriously you take this, the longer we have to be here."

"Well...I think it's safe to say we've all led interesting lives recently." Which, honestly, to Erik was just another way of saying immense bad luck.

"Hey, don't be so down, Erik!" Darcy said enthusiastically. "Maybe this time a super-hot guy will fall out of the sky for you!"

Tony thought Erik's expression was critical before.

"But," Jane interrupted before he could say something equally scathing, "can we tie those events to this?"

"Cap can't see them," Clint informed dully.

"Are you sure?" Erik finally gave something somewhat substantial to the debate, "I would think he could, if anyone."

"Well, he stared blankly while I was nearly devoured by a giant lizard one, so either that or we have more issues than I thought." Tony shrugged and mentally added 'nearly devoured by a giant lizard' to the list of things he never imagined saying. Man, that list seemed to grow exponentially.

The stunned expressions returned to Jane and Erik, this time tinged with the slightest edge of horror. Darcy, on the other hand, simply remarked "Cool," and focused on her iPod. It was dubious if she was still paying attention.

Tony looked offended.

"…so it's something that we experienced, and Captain America didn't," Jane continued with a blink, though hasn't seemed to completely digest that particular piece of information.

"That doesn't give us very much room," Erik sounded skeptical. Or so Tony thought. He was having trouble distinguishing that from his standard tone.

"What about Thor, Erik?" Darcy threw out, actually paying attention it seemed, before clarifying, "What do the myths say about the afterlife?"

"Uh," Erik sighed, running a hand through his hair and looking floored, "I'm no expert, and it's been a long time since I've heard or read any of the stories, but I think they had three afterlives? I think they believed in some sort of spirits as well, but I wouldn't be surprised if I was mixing it up in my mind."

"You've been mixed up a lot recently?" Clint "asked." It was technically a question, but the intonation didn't rise correctly, and it seemed as though the last words were oddly hard to say for him.

Erik grimaced.

Tony glanced at Clint. He caught that Clint was trying to help out by nudging them in the right direction, but they obviously weren't making the jump. "I think it's an excellent starting point. You two were controlled, he tried to control me and failed. That's what I was going with, until she joined us too." He nodded to Jane.

Erik paused—faced with the horror of not something magical, not something out of stories or nightmares, but with the horror of something coldly logical. He had the face of a man just told he was relapsing.

"And Jane had the experience with the Aether," Darcy chipped in, nodding.

The room was now mostly frowning. Tony had heard about the events in London, of course (who hadn't) but the details were quite sketchy, and it was never an event he felt the need to look into. But Thor did mention that the Aether involved was another of the Infinity Stones, with the Tesseract and the Scepter's Stone, so perhaps his theory was still holding after all.

"It's a weak connection…," Erik weakly pointed out, the criticism both correct and deserved.

"I know. But it's all we have right now." There were still too many questions, even if his theory was completely correct.

But they were questions that would have to wait.

Rhodey is one of those poor characters that are largely ignored in our roleplays, so both him and Tony's interactions with him are OOC, I apologize, but I couldn't in good conscience leave him out. So yeah, dialogue only sections are usually frowned upon, but like I said I'm terrible at the characters so I wanted to let us both get it over with as quickly as possible, and in a way I think it also adds to the "whatever, I'm done" mood that Rhodey is experiencing.

As for some other characters, I personally love Selvig-I'm always fond of the older background characters, almost no exceptions-and I think there are better ways to bring comedy to the character that don't involve laughing at mental illness, so I'm going to try to avoid that route-feel free to point out if I accidentally do something insensitive. Also I try really hard to keep things consistent so by all rights he SHOULD be Erik, so if I've accidentally referred to him as Selvig in the narrative, it's a mistake. The gag about "maybe we'll find you a hot guy this time" is a reference to the fact that we usually portray him as gay in roleplays, not a homophobic expression of the author. He probably wouldn't appreciate the sentiment even if he was gay.

I'm going to try to flesh out Jane's character as more than just "Thor's boyfriend" and help her and the other characters share the smart roles, and as for Darcy...I don't have a good reason for her to be here other than I can't imagine Erik and Jane without her, so here she is.