Chapter 3

"Okay," said Danny as he descended the stairs in to the basement. "I now officially owe my sister a lot of favours. And I mean, like five Christmas's worth of presents." Clint and Bruce couldn't help themselves, laughing at his predicament.

"How come?" asked Bruce, his manner gentle.

"Since this is going to take quite a lot longer than we originally thought Jazz has managed to get my parents out of town for the whole weekend."

"That doesn't sound so bad," said Clint, folding his arms.

"By agreeing to go ghost hunting with them," said Danny drily. It was activity he had had the "pleasure" of going through himself. And he hoped it would be a long time before having to do it again.

When Danny had first brought Clint and Bruce to his home, he had asked Jazz to keep watch by the basement door. But it didn't take long for their dad to want to get back to the basement. So she had suggested the one thing that was sure to get them out of the house.

After a few hours of following directions from their friend Tony, Bruce had almost finished setting up the video link. He was knelt on top of the desk with his body bent over the monitor to fiddle with the wires at the back. With one final adjustment, the monitor lit up between Bruce's legs.

"Hey, it's on!" said Clint, excitedly. Bruce lowered himself down and all of them gathered around the screen. Danny was especially eager to put a face to the voice. The first face they saw was Janet, waving at the screen and smiling at them all. Steve was also there, in the background, amused by Janet's antics.

"All right Wasp, that's enough," said Tony. He pushed her slowly out of view. She pouted sadly as he did so. "Okay guys, so what happened?" He positioned himself directly in front of the screen. Janet peered curiously over his shoulder. "This wasn't meant to happen, but I gotta say, I'm intrigued to find out about this other dimension."

"Another dimension," Bruce echoed, "I wanted to ask, Tony. Another dimension is likely to have different rules, am I right?"

"Yes," said Tony slowly.

"Would it be possible that in another dimension ghosts could exist?" Bruce asked the question as if he were asking something plain and straight forward. Danny felt almost offended, until he remember that there had been a time when even in Amity Park when people didn't believe in ghosts.

"Oh ghosts exist all right," said Steve Rogers, so certain in his knowledge. He stepped in closer, though never quite taking centre stage. "I've seen them myself once and trust me, they're very real."

"All right," said Tony, "that got serious fast."

"This is no joke," said Steve.

"I never said it was."

"Why don't you meet our friend?" Clint loudly interjected. He steered Danny by the shoulders, so that he was in view for the others. "This is Danny, the first fourteen year-old to beat the Hulk in a fight."

"I'm not sure I beat him" confessed Danny, "but I'd like to think I had him stumped." Clint then shoved an elbow in to his side.

"Go on," he said, "show 'em what you can do." Though Danny wasn't totally against a chance to show off, he wondered if these people would be even impressed. Clint and Bruce had told him something of their world. A world where so many people had powers. It had been the reason it took them so long to get the whole "ghost" thing. In their world, powers like his wouldn't be entirely unusual.

Danny stepped back and let the transformation happen. He could see everyone crowding around the screen to get a look. Once he was a ghost again, he floated in to the air before diving through the floor and flying back up again.

"An accident left him with the ability to actually turn in to a ghost," explained Bruce. "It seems strange but it's true." Tony had a hand gripped around his chin, watching with interest.

"It's a shame we haven't got time to set up another video link, I'd love to know more," said Tony.

"I'm here all week," joked Danny.

"Buuut," he said, "I can tell Reed is eager to get to work so guys let's leave them to it."

Reed and Bruce were left to go through exactly what had happened. They then requested Danny's help in pin-pointing where they had arrived and how it related to where they were then. The day that followed was rather dull. Reed and Tony would set to work for hours at a time without saying a word. Then they'd stop to ask Danny or Bruce the odd question and then go back to it.

When night came Danny brought down some sleeping bags so that they could be by the monitor, should they be needed. Then after a rather restless night, the work was done. Bug eyed and messy haired, the three stood around the monitor waiting for Reed and Tony to turn the machine back on.

"Initiating sequence," began Tony, "in 3...2...1..."

The ball of swirling colours appeared in the middle of the room. Clint's face lit up and even Bruce allowed himself a small smile. "You did it brainiacs," said Clint, "we're coming home." Unfortunately life isn't always so simple.

Just as Clint moved to step towards it, the ball slowly drifted towards the other side of the room. Danny's heart pounded in his chest and he experienced a sudden moment of panic. It was moving towards the Ghost Portal.

"Oh no," said Danny, mostly to himself. He then ran to the monitor and yelled. "Turn it off!" His hands gripped the screen in desperation. Clint and Bruce stared at him, their expressions filled with worry.

It was too late. The ball touched the barrier of the Ghost Portal and the room filled with a white light. For a minute the three of them clutched at their eyes, blinded by the light, until at last the light faded. As Danny's sight returned he looked to the portal. The door was open but the portal itself looked strange. It kept alternating in colour from green to purple.

"Um, what just happened?" asked Clint, his voice sounded so small.

"Something's gone wrong," came Tony's voice. "Ghosts are flying out of it! Where are you?"

"Sounds like they need us," said Bruce, unable to look away from the portal. No, Danny thought to himself. The Hulk couldn't land a punch to a ghost that stayed intangible. And Hawkeye's arrows were just as useless. They need me.

...

AN: The shortest chapter so far but it was a nice place to end. Annoyingly this means I've caught up with what I've written so far. The last chance I got to do some writing (when I didn't have a horrible flu virus attacking me) I used it to work on my novel. But fingers crossed I won't be too long with chapter 4

And again thanks to everyone who favourited, reviewed or added to their story alerts