Well, this has been quite a long time coming. I had to rewrite this chapter a couple of times, unfortunately. Finally, I've come up with a pretty great story, I think, though it might be a little hard to understand at first. Do consider that this is a multicrossover!
The rest of my life started with a stalker.
My name's Danielle. No last name, though I do have a big family. I am technically six years old, but I look as if I were around eighteen or so, maybe a little older. I am also not fully human, though I suppose that's less of a shock these days, with aliens, gods and superheroes being...well, not commonplace, but certainly not as unique as they used to be.
I guess that's what the stalker came to find to Amity Park. Y'see, I protect this town in the middle of nowhere. Pretty infamous because of the pests. Amity Park is home to a link, a portal between our dimension, and theirs.
My other half is a ghost, and the Ghost Zone is really where I belong.
Still, I promised Danny - long story short, I was cloned from him, and something went wrong because I'm definitely not a him - that I would protect his hometown after he decided to leave the hero life behind and create a family with the love of his life. I'll be honest, it's not nearly as fun as the Ghost Zone, but I love a good fight and, at the very least, protecting Amity rarely lacks for that.
Ghosts are a rowdy bunch. Very territorial, mostly not evil, but definitely grumpy all the time. I grew up in the Zone, so I guess you could say I'm a little rowdy, too. I'm way more in touch with my inner ghost than I am with my inner human. I spend the vast majority of my time patrolling the city, stopping the occasional human crime and my ghostly counterparts/friends from wrecking the place and generally causing mayhem. I usually don't even shift back to human.
The first time I saw the stalker, I'd been fighting Technus.
"I AM TECHNUS! Master of all modern technology! Your dependency on modern devices will be your doom!" -he boasted as he cackled madly, surrounded by random pieces of floating technology, most of which were smartphones.
I rolled my eyes as I landed, striking a pose. "I think the whole world know your schtick by now, Technus."
He grit his teeth, sending the phone cloud towards me, making them explode on contact. I simply went intangible and yawned, then rocketed towards him, fist first. I delivered a massive punch to his nose, and he flew against a wall, wailing in pain.
Technus shook his ugly head. "Ugh...the whole...well, GOOD! Everyone should get to know their future overlord! TECHNUS!"
"Gah, you don't even know what an app is. Will you just get in the thermos, you outdated piece of malware?" -I asked, exasperated.
"NEVER!" -he roared, then blasted a bolt of ghostly electricity at me. I conjured a green shield around me, which easily absorbed the attack. Technus groaned in frustration, looking for anything to throw at me.
He found a car.
The ghost thrust his hand out. The vehicle came to life, gaining an outlandish green and white paint job and sprouting glowing ecto-guns and rocket launchers.
It would be a problem, if he didn't do the same thing every other week.
I dove into the ground, coming up right where Technus was. He was surprised by the move, and tried to fry me again. This time, I didn't defend myself, bearing the attack, but putting him between his evil car and me. The vehicle shot every weapon it had at me, but I already had a nice little shield in the form of its master. The huge resulting explosion of ectoplasmic energy blew me a good twenty feet back, but I got up, unscathed and grinning like a madman. Or woman, in this case. Technus struggled to rise, his horrifying hairdo half burned off, and oozing ectoplasm from various 'wounds'. I didn't really worry about his wellbeing, since as soon as he went back to an ectoplasm-rich environment, he'd heal pretty quickly.
"That all ya got, nerd?" -I taunted him.
Technus raged at me, diving and trying to punch me. Wrong move, obviously. His strength was his ability to create weaponized constructs out of seemingly ordinary technology, not hand-to-hand combat.
His mistake had him on the receiving end of a beatdown that would've killed a regular human twice over. I had him inside a thermos in half a minute. I shook my head, putting the thermos against a magnet my suit had on the lower back. "For such a genius guy, you never learn, huh?" -I said to no one, surveying the scene for any leftover ghostly tech I might've missed.
I knew he wouldn't change. It's simply how ghosts worked. They were really just afterimages, soulless monsters that, while often intelligent, were usually utterly bound to the obsession that had kept their minds focused during death. I couldn't help them if they didn't want to be helped. Best I could do was keeping them from causing too much damage.
I readjusted my ponytail, putting those depressive thoughts out of my mind. That's when I saw him.
The stranger was tall and thin, with a long, wild mess of pitch-black hair atop his head. His skin was a pale olive tone, like he had some mediterranean genes in him. He wore an aviator's jacket, which looked older than I was, though that wasn't saying much. I immediately knew he wasn't from around here, because he was looking at me with an annoyed frown. I was - not to brag or anything - pretty well-liked in town, even if I wasn't quite 'Danny Phantom statue in front of Town Hall' levels of popular yet. He made no move to speak to me, only staring at me intensely.
His eyes...they were...scary. I don't scare easily, but the stranger's otherwise regular brown eyes, framed by dark bruising - the kind you get when you just won't sleep - had me feeling a strange buzzing at the base of my skull.
It freaked me out a bit, I'll admit. Most people avoided my electric blue irises. It was a survival instinct thing, according to Jazz, my surrogate sister, expert on all things psychological. This dude was definitely not most people, holding my gaze uninterrupted.
In any case, I didn't need the creepy guy's stare, so I decided to book it and continue my patrol, though not before turning invisible.
I don't know why, or how, but I could feel his dark eyes on me as I flew away.
The night was otherwise pleasant. No crimes took place, and with a powerful ghost - relatively - such as Technus easily caught, the others laid low.
I was bored out of my mind.
Ok, so maybe I was a little tired of the Amity gig. Danny had done a great job ridding the city of its worst threats, leaving me to deal with the regulars. I swear, people were no more scared of Skulker than they were of catching a cold, these days. I get why he left, though he never really explained why it was such a sudden departure. Amity Park was a stagnant city, and wanting to spend his life here was not amongst his priorities.
It wasn't one of mine, either.
To be fair, I didn't really know what else I'd be doing. The Ghost Zone was a no-no for me, since almost everyone was kind of tired of me there. I really don't mean to brag, but I'd become too strong to fight on a regular basis, unless you were as thick-headed as my friend in the Thermos, or as powerful as Vortex. I still had friends there, and a few places to stay, but the truth is, I'd really be as stagnant there as I was here.
Travelling around the world was definitely a possibility, though I'd be letting down Danny and the city. I'm sure Valerie - my roommate and fellow ghost hunter - could handle the protection duty on her own, but I didn't want to do that to her. She had finally settled down her rather chaotic life with a nice job and a cute boyfriend on the side, after all.
It was getting hard, to be honest, seeing all those superheroes out there, fighting real villains. The Avengers, obviously, and those new heroes out of New York that seemed to pop up every week or so. I was a hero, just...I guess I didn't feel as free as they seemed. Like a ghost from the old stories, I was bound to my haunt, and it didn't look like I'd be leaving it soon.
My thoughts took me to the city park, looking for a decent branch on which to lie down for a while. It wasn't every night that I could afford that luxury, and I planned on taking advantage of it.
I found one, alright.
The stranger - at this point stalker, really - sat on a perfectly good branch, idly swinging one of his feet, looking directly at me again. He couldn't have been more than twenty, but his presence was that of an older man. He narrowed those unnerving eyes, and I forced myself to focus on something else. He had worn boots on, black jeans, and a skull-themed t-shirt under the aviator jacket. A jeweled skull ring adorned the ring finger on his left hand, and a leather belt hung at his waist.
I frowned. Was that a sword?
He nodded at me, though his face was still marred by a small scowl. I frowned, turning invisible again, and flying a short distance away.
"I can still see you." -he finally said, having tracked my flight path. He had a strange accent, like someone who was raised on a foreign language but had abandoned it in favor of english long ago.
I turned visible again. "Right...why?"
He smirked sarcastically. "You're a ghost, aren't you?"
"I'm so impressed by your deductive skills. What was your first clue, the floating, or the invisibility?" -I asked him.
"Your phasing through solid pavement, actually. You know, ghosts don't usually talk to me like this." -he said, turning his weird skull ring around his finger.
I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? What's the usual deal, then?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Deference, respect, obedience...all things expected of one who is dealing with royalty."
I scoffed. Whatever he might've looked like, regal was not an adjective I would use to describe him. Dangerous, untrustworthy, suspect, were among those I would. "Right, your highness. If you'll excuse me, I have a city to protect." -I said, then flew away, to the other side of the park.
Just as I was setting up for a nice power nap, I heard the young man's voice again.
"The city may be yours to protect, but I believe you were done for the night." -he claimed. He was leaning against the trunk of a thick tree.
"Why are you following me?" -I asked, crossing my arms and flaring my ghostly eyes in annoyance.
He shrugged, utterly unintimidated. "Believe me, if I had any say in the matter, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'm unfortunately on a mission. I've been sent to...recruit you, I suppose." -he said.
"Recruit me? For what? I hate to break it to you, but I'm not much of a follower." -I said.
The stranger scoffed. "Of course you don't. We know that. You're the free spirit type, pardon the pun. Or, am I wrong?"
I just shook my head. "I am not actually having a conversation with you."
I swiftly left the park, looking for the tallest building in Amity for some privacy.
The bastard was there. This time, I saw how he did it. From a shadow cast by an antenna on the rooftop, the shape of a human formed. It resolved into the stalker after a second or two, and he looked at me like he knew my curiosity was winning me over.
"Well?" -he asked cockily.
"Who...what are you?" -I asked, finally landing so I'd be ready should the situation with this person came to blows.
"A human, same as you. Well, half-human, same as you." -he said, and I felt my stomach churn. He wasn't even from town, and he'd already figured out my secret.
"What you just did is not an ability your regular human has." -I said, sneering.
He made a gesture as if to say, 'What're ya gonna do?'. "As I said, half-human. Your other half is what you call a ghost. Mine is a god. Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, Lord of the Dead. Pleased to meet you." -he said, extending his hand.
As soon as he said it, I felt it. I don't know if he'd been keeping it from me, or if I'd just been too distracted to notice. Ghosts had a very clear, bright aura, and Danny and I were no exceptions. This Nico guy had the opposite; it seemed as if his very presence dimmed the lights, as if the shadows clung to him in adoration. His aura pulled at mine, somehow, and I had to make sure I wasn't actually moving. I could feel his power, the way one feels the sun's touch. I couldn't really help it; I instantly believed his origin story. Being the son of a god would certainly explain him.
Before I thought about it, I was shaking his hand. His grip was stronger than a normal human's, but I could still very easily crush his hand, so I took care not to. Still, he must have felt it, since he winced slightly.
"Danielle. Not as pleased." -I replied, finally.
He shrugged. "I'm used to that. I do apologize for pestering you, but...well, we could really use your help."
I crossed my arms. "What could the son of a greek god need me for?"
Nico di Angelo leaned against the antenna. "In my world, I'm known as the Ghost King. We both know someone else who might be considered a king amongst ghosts."
I did. "Danny?"
He nodded. "I've worked with the Phantom for nearly a year. He's a good man, and a very powerful warrior. We form part of a team that deals with supernatural threats, the likes of which mundane heroes like your Avengers cannot hope to handle."
I blinked. I didn't know anything about it; Danny said he was working security at a government agency when he announced he had his first job. I thought it was highly ironic.
"About two weeks ago, we encountered a being that had been murdering individuals with known criminal pasts. This...vigilante creature was powerful. I hate to say it, but he defeated me and most of my teammates. Danny remained standing, and he managed to damage it enough to force a stalemate. The entity tried to escape, but he wouldn't have it. Danny opened a portal to your Ghost Zone, taking the creature with him to more favorable grounds."
It made sense. If he wanted to defeat a creature as powerful as that, the Zone was an excellent place to go to. He'd heal a lot quicker, and he'd know the terrain.
Nico looked downcast. "As I said, it's been two weeks. We have not heard from him since."
I felt my stomach drop. Danny meant the world to me; he'd given me a home, purpose, and a family. Even if I wasn't all that happy with my current situation, it was still the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me. Not to mention the fact that we were technically siblings.
"What do you want me to do? What can I even do, if an entire team, Danny included, couldn't beat that thing?" -I asked uncertainly.
"Don't sell yourself short, Danielle. You are strong, in ways Phantom is not. But, let's cross that bridge when we get to it. For now...how do you feel about being a tour guide?"
What do you think? I've wanted to involve the Percy Jackson franchise with my MCU for a long time. Do let me know if you like or dislike this. I won't change it, of course, but I'll appreciate the feedback!
