Author's notes.
I'm baaaaaaaaack! Sorry, this took me so long! I kind of wrote myself into a corner with that last chapter. I have so many plans for this story but I couldn't figure out how to continue from where I left off. I got stuck with writer's block. But when my break came up and I have a week or two off of classes I used the first few days to figure it out. And now I have this early Christmas present for you guys. I will be trying to post chapters again more frequently and I have a whole lot of other Marvel characters I will be introducing in this story. including some of your favorite ones. ;)
Also sorry if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes, I don't have a beta reader. I do read over these like 30 times before posting but I still can't catch everything. :)
The rest of the Avengers were left to stand around Loki's unconscious body in silence. All debating whether them letting Phantom overshadow the trickster god was the best idea. What if he couldn't leave his mind? What if Loki ends up killing him or something in the subconscious? They have no idea how ghosts work or what they are going to do.
"I don't like this." Cap started. Most of the others turned to him. "He was badly hurt when he, uhhh, possessed? Loki. Who knows what happens when he takes over someone in that state, he was probably hurt the most out of all of us."
Clint crossed his arms. "And what was all that stuff that Ross was talking about?" He asked. "It sounded pretty intense. Do you have any idea what is going on with that Stark?" He looked over to the billionaire that was still standing there staring at Loki in deep thought.
Tony's brows narrowed. "No." He paused "But I intend to find out."
Cap put his hand on Stark's shoulder. "We'll work on that later. But right now-"
There was a bright light that distracted them and they turned to face it. Phantom floated out of Loki's unconscious body on the ground. Much more gracefully than when he overshadowed Barton mind you.
He landed right next to Loki with a light thud and gripped onto his side, green ectoplasm starting to seep from the corners of his hand. Danny felt the stares of the others in the room so he tried to stand up straight and looked up at them with tired but hopeful eyes. "It worked." He stuck one thumb up in the air as he tried to put on a cheesy smile. The others sighed in relief. And Danny turned his head to look back at Loki who was stirring.
"You okay kid?" Barton stepped forward, looking at Phantom with worried eyes. Scanning the boy up and down. He didn't get to see how bad his injuries were when he was talking to Ross. And Cap and Stark were the ones that went with him after he fell out of the sky.
Danny tried to wave him off, his other arm still gripping his side tightly. "I'm f-fine. Nothing I can't handle. Just a little weak from using my core so much." Danny fell forward and Cap rushed quickly towards the ghost and caught the teen before he hit the floor. Danny heaved up a puddle of ectoplasm on the floor, it was glowing green and was the consistency of blood. "Great," Danny sighed.
"That doesn't look like you're okay!" Barton exclaimed.
Danny raised his head weakly to look at him. "I'm fine. This is… normal for ghosts."
"Most ghosts wouldn't have survived a quarter of the things you did today." Everyone spun around to the voice of Loki who was now on his knees, his hands still cuffed together. No one even noticed that he sat up, or how he had somehow taken the muzzle off of his face. "If you don't get any more energy soon, you'll fade."
Danny laughed dryly. "You're ruining the fun." He smiled slightly at Loki.
"What does he mean by fade?" Cap looked down at Danny, he had a worried tone in his voice.
Danny averted his eyes. "It basically means dieing for ghosts, at least until we can get our cores back to the zone. But I wont fade. I have some ectoplasm I can use to bring up my energy when I can keep something down."
"You're going to eat it?" Nat asked.
"That's… the best option yes."
"I thought you said it was like your blood?" Cap asked. Looking down at the boy.
Danny shrugged. His eyes drooping more and more. "Eh, potato, potato." He was slurring his words. He then dropped his hand from his side as he closed his eyes.
"Tony!" Cap called out. Now supporting the boys full weight.
"Get him to the med room!" Tony yelled. Cap quickly put his arms under the boy's legs and carried him down the halls of the tower as he followed Tony, being careful not to jostle him around too much. They quickly made it back to the med room it was slightly bigger and had more stuff in it than the one that Danny had been patching himself up in earlier that day.
They knew for a fact that he didn't like hospitals so Tony decided he could do this himself. All of them together had enough training to take care of one bleeding kid-ghost-person. Even if they were all injured in some way from the battle.
X
Cap laid the young-faced ghost down on the medical bed chest up to the ceiling. And Tony quickly grabbed his stuff. Followed closely behind by Barton who seemed just as worried about the kid as he did.
Once the kid was down on the table Tony started looking over him. He saw the kid was in much worse shape than he thought. There was… ectoplasm dripping down onto the table and then onto the floor from his side. It seemed that the stitching he did in such a rush earlier wasn't the best. And it had torn through his skin. But the ethereal blue thread was still intact.
His body was strange. Felt along his ribs through his suit and he could tell almost all of them were broken. His eyes widened. Barton quickly walked to the other side of the table with the boy on it and took a cloth to begin butting pressure on the newly opened wound until someone could do more work on it.
"This is so strange," Barton commented. "I've never seen anything like it."
Tony hummed. "I would do an exray but I have no idea if that would kill him or not, he is a being made almost entirely up of energy." Tony put his figure to his chin as he continued looking the boy over. "Maybe I should run some tests on his blood, ectoplasm, whatever."
"I wouldn't do that If I were you," Loki spoke up. Tony had almost forgotten he was in the room. Just him being in the room at the moment still made Tony feel off.
"What do you mean? If I can run tests and figure out how this stuff works I might be able to help him better."
"Ectoplasm is a very rare substance and PowerSource on earth, and it is very dangerous in the wrong hands. Ghosts try their best to not let it get into any human hands for testing. Especially scientists."
"What do you think I'm going to do? Make a weapon out of it?!" Tony asked.
"That's what the other humans do. And apparently what you used to do." He did his best to point at Tony but his hands were still in cuffs. He rolled his eyes. "You, humans, capture unsuspecting creatures and melt them down for what you want and don't care about the lives that are lost in the process."
Tony narrowed his eyes and was about to fully turn around, but Danny started moving slightly his face wincing in pain. Cap walked closer to Loki as Tony turned his full attention back to the dead kid in his med room. "That was why he was trying to make sure none of his ectoplasm was left on the street." Cap bit his lip slightly and looked down at the boy. "Was he trying to stop people from making weapons out of it?"
"More or less."
"Now is not the time!" Clint yelled. They looked down to see that Phantom's body seemed to be flickering as it was losing its tint of color. At some points, you could almost see right through him.
"He's, fading." Tony paused. "Loki… What do we do?" He bit it out. Not wanting to ask for help from the trickster god after all of the trouble he caused, even if he wasn't in control of most of it. But so far Tony didn't like his personality one bit, it reminded him too much of someone.
"He needs energy," Loki answered. "Like he said before, Core Beings, or Ghosts, as you have been calling them. Need ectoplasm to survive. It bonds to their core and makes a body. They use their ectoplasm in different ways to help them with their obsessions. If they don't have a constant supply as they do in their dimension or lair. They will fade."
"So?!" Barton yelled.
Loki rolled his eyes as if it was obvious. Humans, he scoffed in his head. "He needs more ectoplasm in his system. So find his supply. He's not an idiot he would have taken some with him."
Cap nodded and quickly started checking out Phantoms belt. There were little pouches that held certain things. One of them was a strange small tube with a green button on top. There was another that was a skinny spool of the ghost-resistant string the kid had used earlier. He quickly passed it over to Barton who would definitely know how to at least stitch up the wound and try and stop further bleeding.
A few more pockets filled with random things, including a phone that they might have to look at later if the boy doesn't wake up soon. He quickly uncovered a more solid pouch that had three glass vials in it. "I think I got it." He said. Tony reached over and grabbed one of the vials and held it up to the overhead light looking through the surprisingly thick glowing green liquid.
"We can't make him drink that. Not like this." Clint said already halfway done stitching up one of the front wounds.
"We will inject him with it. An IV." Nat spoke up for the first time in a while. She had been leaning against the far wall watching from afar for the whole thing. To many hands in this would make a bigger problem. She was busy watching Loki anyway.
Tony nodded and quickly took a vile and started mixing it with an IV bag. He only wanted to use one to start because if this doesn't work they will need more later. The moment the liquid was mixed with the IV it turned into a light glowing green, now with the consistency of water.
Tony kneeled down on the ground and gripped tightly onto the boy's arm. He made a quick cut around the synthetic fabric of the boy's right arm and pulled the sleeve of the hazmat suit off. They should really be cutting the whole thing off, but that was a thing for a later time. It took him a couple moments to find the vein and he put the needle in skillfully with steady hands.
Banner would be the best choice for this but he is still in the other room recuperating after his hulk out. Cap had sent Thor out to go check on him at the beginning of this whole shebang. Tony definitely decided he wanted the doctor's help with fixing up the boy later on. He would probably be better at this than Tony could ever hope to be. It was more up his alley anyway.
After a couple moments, the boy seemed to stabilize. Everyone began to calm down again. Now they had a little bit more piece they decided that most of the people should leave. Nat volunteered to watch Loki out of the room and make sure he wasn't up to something. At least until they could talk to Phantom and get a more full side of things.
Barton had finished patching up nicely the boy's major side injury, and after they had given him the ectoplasm infused IV it seemed as though his skin was already stitching itself back together. "Woah," Clint said as he sept back slightly. "He's already healing." He reached over to the shelf and grabbed onto some bandages. "Man, I wish I could heal that fast."
Tony only nodded as he continued to look over the boy. There were multiple things wrong with him but the major things were dealt with for the moment. He sighed and put his head in his hands, he was exhausted. Cap walked over and put his hand on Tony's shoulder. The then turned to Agent barton. "Clint, how about you go meet up with Nat. We got this for now."
Clint looked like he was about to ague but he closed his mouth and walked out the door with a nod. "Tony?" Cap continued. "You should get some rest. The kid will be okay."
Tony scoffed. "I'm fine. I'm an Insomniac remember. I'll just stay with the kid a bit longer until can talk with Banner. Run a few more tests that's all."
"If you say so." Cap nodded before walking over to the opposite side of the bed that Tony was on. He looked down at the boy.
"He's so young." Tony started.
Cap looked up at Tony who was looking at the boy's face. "Yeah, he is." He sighed. "I wonder…" He paused. "Never mind. That's not for today." Cap turned to leave Tony in the room. "Just, get some rest when you can Tony."
Tony only 'hmmed' in response as the captain left the room. Leaving the door slightly open behind him. After a few minutes, Tony had pulled up a chair next to the bed as he sat there. He knew he should get some rest, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep for a while yet.
His eyes were drawn to the green substance on the medical bed. It was starting to turn a darker green at the corners as it dried. Much like it did earlier on the road. Tony bit his lip as he looked at it. Maybe just a little bit? He stood up and grabbed a small glass container and used one of the small scalpels on the table to shovel a small bit of the ectoplasm into it. Enough to run some decent tests. He quickly put the lid on and put the container away safely in a chemical-containing unit. Just in case.
X
Loki was standing not too far outside of Starks medical room leaning up against the wall. They didn't trust him enough other than to go in and answer questions. It had only been a couple of hours and Stark and Bruce had been going in and out of the room constantly. The others had also been taking turns watching him making sure he didn't run off or threaten Phantom's safety by leaving or killing someone.
Not that he cared that much about the boy or anything. But he did save his life. And risk his own life for him. He owed him something. Loki sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. He looked down at his ankle that now had some sort of device on it, it would electrocute him and alert the 'Avengers' if he was leaving the building. He rolled his eyes.
"Brother?" A voice cut through his thoughts and Loki looked up to see Thor standing at the end of the hall, not too far from where he himself was brooding. Loki quickly averted his eyes and went back to staring blankly at the wall.
When Thor didn't say anything more Loki spoke up. "What do you want, Thor?"
"I… Came to apologize." Loki stopped his breathing for a second. But then went on pretending that he didn't care.
"About what? Knocking me out? Fighting me? We fight all the time brother. I tried to kill you and take over the throne not even a year ago. This is no different if I was in control or not."
"For not looking for you," Thor said. Loki looked up and at his brother. Surprised by what he said. Thor only looked at the ground. "I saw you fall. You could have survived, you did survive. But we-… -I thought you were gone. I didn't even try to look. And you were off being controlled and hurt."
Loki subconsciously rubbed his side a bit. At some of the scars. But he didn't take his eyes off of his older adopted brother. "But, I should have tried." Thor continued. "Sent out a search party, gone myself. But I didn't." Thor looked up to meet his brother's eyes. "I'm sorry."
Loki paused for a minute. "It doesn't matter now. Phantom… Fixed things. And there is no way of-" He was abruptly cut off by his brother gripping him in a large hug, squeezing his ribs so tight he thought they would crack. Loki huffed looking down at his brother's shoulder. "I would stab you. But I don't have enough energy right now."
Thor laughed and held Loki for one more second before putting him back down on the ground. Loki didn't even realize he had been lifted. Loki quickly used his hands to dust off his suit. As he looked down to the side. "The boy should wake soon." Thor started. "If you want to talk to him. Seeing as he adopted you and all."
"He didn't-" Loki started but his brother was already off down the hall. He was always so energetic about things, like what are those things called again? Oh right, a puppy. Thor was like an over-exited puppy. Loki sighed and followed behind his brother. He was kinda interested to see how the ghost was doing anyhow.
Author's notes.
Please forgive me if I did anything wrong on those medical scenes. I don't know that much about them but I tried to do as much research as I could to make them work. I hope the continuation of this story is good for you guys, I wasn't sure about where this chapter was going but after I wrote it all out I decided that it works! There will be lots more to this story trust me. And if there are any characters you want to see later on in this story, please tell me! :D I would love to hear what you guys want and your ideas. I do have a lot of plans, but I want to know what you guys want as well. I might even take a few prompts if you want.
Also THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! This story has done so well and there are so many amazing comments on it. You all are so amazing! And you have given me the energy I need to write more of this! I am so excited to make more and hope you all enjoy future chapters.
Please tell me what you thought of this chapter and maybe of the whole story. I would love to read your opinions and know what you guys want! Love you all and have a great new year!