Ice Cold Assistance

"Who is that?"

"Is that...Danny?"

The Avengers stood around in confusion, looking up at the ceiling as a baby Danny cooed and made spit bubbles. It didn't seem to bother him that he was on the ceiling instead of the floor, but it had taken them twenty minutes and a Russian lullaby from Natasha to calm the screaming child down when his transformation light scarred him.

"Who did this to him?" Bruce asked as he pushed up his glasses.

"I don't know, but I am not changing his diapers," Tony replied. Danny blinked his big green eyes at them and giggled, not even realizing that the ceiling probably shouldn't be the best place to roll around on.

"Hey Tony," Clint said, finishing off his hot dog, "Maybe you could make like, play area on the ceiling for him. Like hoops and stuff, maybe one of those little hot wheels things too."

"Clint, that's a great idea, but I think we should focus more on getting Danny back to normal," Sam said.

"We can't do that unless we know what did this to him," Steve pointed out. He kind of wanted to see Tony build stuff on the ceiling. He also wanted to turn Danny back, though.

While they were going back and forth, Wanda and Natasha were the only ones to notice when Danny hit is head and started crying. The lights came again, and he sank like a rock, his powers being taken away by the transformation. Wanda caught him with her powers before gently setting him in Natasha's arms. Out of all of them she was probably the best with kids.

"Why don't we go into the Zone and see what happened?" Natasha said, making Danny laugh again by bouncing him on her hip. She gave him a rare smile and booped his nose before turning half her attention back to the group of adults who were kind of at a loss of what to do.

"But who could help him?" Tony asked.

"Well, there's Clockwork, Frostbite, Dora, maybe Pandora, maybe Ghost Writer. Any number of ghosts Danny's made friends with could help him," Natasha replied smoothly.

I'll go with you," Tony said. "I've made a special armor I haven't gotten to try out yet that's built to go into the Zone."

"I'll go too," Clint said, leaning against Sam's shoulder.

"You ain't getting me to go in there even if I had a whole Asgardian army on my side. One time was enough for me," Sam sated, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Besides, he has as many enemies in there as he does friends. You're probably going to want a small team for this."

"Then I will join you on this quest," Thor said, fingering the strap on his hammer that was attached to his hip. "I will protect the infant Daniel against the Draugers that seek to harm him."

"This is probably big enough," Tony said, running his hands through his hair that was actually clean for once. The others nodded in agreement.

"Let's do this."

They had all seen the Ghost Zone plenty of times, whether they were helping Daniel or just ended up getting stuck in there on accident. Most times they were in there, they weren't really prepared enough for the trip, but they made sure to be extra ready this time.

Natasha was equipped with several small ectorays and one large one strapped to her back, and Clint had a Spector Deflector and ecto-arrows. Iron Man's whole armor, which was white with a glowing green trim, was completely ghost proof, and could shoot ecto energy as well as arc reactor energy. Thor, being a demigod, didn't really need any special protection. He had his hammer. Clint knocked an arrow, but held it loosely just in case.

"God, I don't see why he finds this place so appealing," Iron Man said. Widow rolled her eyes and took a strand of her hair out of Danny's tiny grip.

"Maybe because he's part ghost?" She said. "I'm sure once you get used to it it's not so bad."

"It's like thirty degrees cooler in here," Iron Man pointed out.

"Dude, ghosts are cold," Clint pointed out. "Danny's normal body temperature is like seventy-seven degrees or something. Quit bitching about the obvious."

"I'm not complaining, I was sating a fact. If we're here I might as well do a little bit of research."

"Look, friends," Thor was quick to interrupt them as he pointed with Mjolnier. "'Tis the Far Frozen, land of the snow draugers."

"That's where Frostbit lives. But we can't go there, we'll freeze to death," Clint stated.

"Me and Thor can go. We can take Danny with us," Iron Man said. "My armor protects me, and he's Thor. It won;t hurt Danny because of his ice core."

"We'll be waiting," Natasha said as she handed Danny over to Thor. He nodded, bringing the boy in close before taking to the air and flying down to the icy kingdom with Iron Man.

Iron Man had heard Danny's stories of the Far Frozen, and had more than prepared for the terrain should the occasion have risen prior to this. He was nice and toasty on the inside, and the outside of his armor was automatically heated so nothing would freeze over and get stuck. According to the clock in his helmet, they had been in the Zone for maybe an hour and a half, but time in the Zone was insignificant.

He stopped paying attention to the clock and started paying attention to which mountain was which, just in case they needed to back track.

Out of nowhere, there was a bright flash of light, but this time Danny didn't scare himself. But he did allow himself to float out of Thor's arms. He went airborne too, just in case.

"Danny, come here," He said. He was bad at talking to babies, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying to mimic the tone Pepper used whenever she saw babies. Danny happily floated over, zooming around his head. He seemed to be loving the sub zero temperatures. He laughed and spun around to follow Danny.

"Halt!" Iron man did, but Danny kept going, around and around his head. Thor floated up and caught the kid, bringing his fingers up to his lips to make him quiet.

"Who are you?" A big Yeti thing came out of the white haze. He had a huge weapon, and one of his arms was completely made of ice. Didn't Danny say something about that?

When Danny saw who it was, he zoomed over and gave the beast a giant hug, babbling nonsense as he zipped around the ghost's head.

"Great One?" He asked.

"If you mean Danny then yeah, that's him," Tony said. "You're Frostbite?" The yeti nodded. "Cool. We need your help. We don't know who did this, and we don't know how to fix it. Any ideas?"

"Come with me," Frostbite said, laughing as Danny attached himself to his ice arm. He licked it and his tongue got momentarily stuck. "We have much to talk about."

"It seems to be...Magic. Dark magic," Frostbite said as he examined Danny. They were back in some cave, where there were drawings on the walls of someone who vaguely depicted Danny beating some evil ghost. Thor was very intrigued by them.

"I knew Daniel was powerful, but I never realized how much," he told Frostbite, still examining the wall.

"It was a surprise to all of us, Odinson," he said proudly. "After all, he's but a halfa. And a child. He defeated Pariah Dark when he was new to his powers. In your human years I believe he said he was fourteen. Quite young for a warrior, but he was the only one who could have done it. He has come quite a long way."

"Pariah Dark?" Iron Man questioned. Danny had never told this story. It sounded interesting.

"he old Ghost King," Frostbite said, taking ingredients off of the cave walls. Despite having a conversation about his pupil he was still entirely focused on the task at hand. "The Great One locked him back into his sarcophagus. Because he won the battle, he will become the new king. But only when he becomes full ghost."

"You mean, to rule over the ghost dimension he needs to die again?" Tony asked, bewildered. He had seriously underestimated Danny.

"Precisely. But he already knows where he will go when he does. It could be next week, it could be from old age, but his human half will go away eventually. It happens with all halfas.

It is a shame, however. He speaks highly of you all. Your mortal team gives him a type of fulfillment you probably wouldn't understand."

"What do you mean?" Thor asked. Frostbite pointed to a large stick behind him, and Thor handed it to him. Frostbite started stirring something in a large cauldron, mixing some of the ingredients in it.

"His Obsession. All ghosts have one. Young Daniel's here is protecting those who cannot protect themselves. He fights to protect. That is his goal, whether it be a cat from a tree or your mortal world from an alien invasion. To go against your reason for being could be...Catastrophic. He's been wanting to thank you for giving him the chance to do just that for a while now, but he hasn't figured out what he wants to do yet."

He walked over to Danny and cut off a small lock of hair before putting it in the cauldron. It changed from a purple liquid to a swirling blue and green. He placed it in a small cup and somehow coaxed Danny to drink it.

"It will take time for the potion to work, but the dark magic inside of him has been reversed. Now, is there anything else you need?" Frostbite looked at Danny, smiling to himself as the toddler became tired. He yawned and leaned into the soft fur of Frostbite's real arm, burrowing his face into it.

"Do you have any other stories?" Tony asked. "Of Danny, I mean."

"Quite a few, actually," Frostbite said. "But we should wait until your friends come. I sent some guards to retrieve them."

"-And that is how he successfully pulled a practical joke on Walker," Frostbite laughed. The others four were laughing too. Even Natasha cracked a smile.

Danny had grown in the past couple of hours they had been sitting there, back into a fully grown nineteen year old. He was still asleep though.

"You two seem to be really close," Natasha observed.

"He is my student, and a dear friend. I helped him when he first discovered his ice powers. He comes back occasionally to train or to have tea. He is like family, and fits in well with the rest of the Far Frozen." Frostbite said fondly.

"We shall praise his victories in the halls of Valhalla," Thor promised.

"I always though it was quite funny," Frostbite said after he gave Thor a thankful nod. "Despite not liking the spotlight, his actions force him to be front and center. Daniel ha never needed recognition for the work he does because he knows that if he saves lives it is reward enough. That is a trait I have always admired in the boy."

"Mmm, what boy?"

All heads turned to Danny as he sat up and yawned. He stretched and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before looking around, confused.

"Why are we in the Far Frozen? What happened?" He asked with tired green eyes. Clint slapped him on the back and ruffled his hair.

"Aw, don;t worry about it, kid. Let's just get you home, yeah?" Danny numbly nodded, and gave a quick goodbye to Frostbite.

"So, Great One! Are you still coming for training next week?" He asked. Danny smiled as he walked away with the Avengers that had helped rescue him.

"A promise is a promise, right?"

"Aye. Now, go, and behave!" Frostbite laughed. Danny laughed to.

"Now that, I know I won't be able to promise."

He gave Frostbite one last wave and flew off, out of sight.

"Ah, he's definitely going to forget."