"Well, that's unnerving." Bruce said, pursing his lips. He and Stark were both looking down at the readings from the medical equipment they had attached to Phantom. They both knew it probably wouldn't show anything, but they weren't expecting it to really not show anything. They both could hear the steady tone coming from the machine as it showed a singular straight line. But instead of the line being at the bottom of the graph it was in the middle and vibrating. They came to the conclusion that his body somehow messed with electromagnetic fields.
They wouldn't even know if the kid was still 'alive' if it weren't for Loki explaining that if he had died or 'faded' he would be a puddle of ectoplasm and a glowing orb laying on the medical bed. Tony was still trying to wrap his head around it. He certainly still had hundreds of questions on how these beings worked.
Both Bruce and Tony had been watching Danny for a little over three hours now. He seems to be healing more and more with the ectoplasm they had been slowly giving him with the IV. But the kid didn't seem to be waking up yet. They were going to take off his battered suit but it seemed as though the suit was repairing itself.
They had discovered through trying to cut off small pieces of it that if it stayed away from the ghost for more than 5 minutes it would dissolve into green ectoplasm. They both came to the idea that the suit was made of ectoplasm, as well, and was just an extension of Phantom. Which was very interesting in and of itself. But it also meant that if they took it off, it would only come back with time and he could lose more of his ectoplasm trying to remake it.
Both men turned at the sound of a light knock on the doorframe. They turned around to see Steve standing there, now in civilian clothes and bandages on his side and arms. "How is he?" He stepped more into the room looking down at the boy.
Tony walked closer. "He's stabilizing, but he should have woken up already."
"We don't know anything about his species, and the stuff we are learning is coming from Mr. Trickster in the hallway." Bruce jabbed his thumb in the direction behind them where Loki was. "We don't know exactly how true the stuff he is saying is." He turned back to the useless equipment in the room. "We can't even do any experiments because we have no idea what it will do to his energy signature."
Cap nodded as he looked over to the EKG, eyes narrowing at the straight line. Suddenly he felt a shiver and turned back to the ghost. "It's so cold in here.'' His brow narrowed as he concentrated on the feeling around him. It felt like he would be able to see his breath, soon.
"It's coming from him." Tony pointed with his pen. "His body seems to be simultaneously giving off cold and sucking in heat. It must have something to do with his energy source."
"Should we turn up the heat?" Cap asked.
Banner shook his head. "We believe that he is trying to fight off the heat. It might expend more of his energy if we add more."
"But he's getting colder and we don't know why, and if it goes any further we don't know what to do." Tony said.
Cap's brows furrowed. "Have you talked with Loki?"
"Not yet. The cold is new." Tony responded. "We were going to watch him for a bit more first."
"And his phone?" Cap tilted his head looking at the item on the desk. It had a wire sticking out of it and was plugged into one of the monitors and Tony was trying to hack it. The screen was practically shattered. But it looked like it had been for a while.
"Surprisingly I haven't gotten that far with it. I'd like to shake the hand of the person who programmed the lock on this." He put his hand to his chin. "But I managed to get in far enough so that we could reach the last number he called. I just hope they know what to do." He picked up the phone and passed it to Cap.
Through the cracked screen he could make out a caller ID. The name read Jazz. But no photo. "You think this is the best idea, Stark?" Cap asked.
Banner was walking around to the other side of Phantom and pulling a monitor with him as he wrote down more readings. "We don't know what we're doing with this and can't risk making whatever is happening worse." Bruce started. "Even if they could explain in more detail what he is, it would help."
Cap sighed and pressed the call button and held the phone to his ear. It only took three rings before the phone picked up. "Danny what the HELL! Are you okay!? Where are you?! You just disappear and Tucker and Sam just say you went off with some agents! Were you in that invasion!? I swear to Clockwork if you don't explain I am going to—"
"Uhh, Ma'am?..." Cap spoke up, finally bringing the phone back to his ear. Stark and Bruce were now both looking up at Cap, and they could hear the girl's freak out from the other side of the room. But after Steve spoke there was complete science.
"…Where is Danny? How did you get this phone? Is he okay!?" The girl called out, her voice sounding panicked and demanding.
"He is here and… not fading." He didn't really know what to say. "But right now he is unconscious."
"Where is he?"
"Stark Tower in New York." He put his hand behind his neck. They had no idea how to work this conversation.
"So he was in the invasion!" She turned away from the phone and they could hear her call out behind her. "Sam, Tucker! It's Danny!"
Cap couldn't make out the muffled response. But he knew that the people she called out to had run over. She turned back to the phone. "You said he was unconscious?... What color is his hair?" It sounded like she sucked in a bated breath.
Steve raised an eyebrow and looked over to the boy on the bed. "Uhh, white?" He thought he heard a bunch of sighs of relief on the other side. "But we don't know how to take care of him. We don't know anything about his biology. And we assume he was bleeding out earlier but now his injuries are healing."
"Are there any agents there?" Another girl asked, her voice sounded accusatory.
"No, as of his request he has been kept away from any hospitals and we have kept him away from government agents. Right now he is being taken care of by Dr. Bruce Banner and Tony Stark." He nodded over to them.
Suddenly he heard a girly squeal on the other side of the phone. He pulled it away from his ear again. "Tucker! This is not time for your fangirling!" The other girl scolded, Cap now knew her as Sam. She must have turned back to the phone. "What is happening to him?"
"Right now he is laying on a medical bed, the room around him is freezing cold. We are not sure why."
"He's healing." Jazz responded. "He must be really exhausted. His core doesn't often do that unless he is really hurt." He got the impression that she was biting her lip.
"What did he do before he fell unconscious?" Sam asked.
"We were in a battle to stop the aliens from invading. But he only fell unconscious after he uhh… Overshadowed? Someone to help them get free of mind control."
"Danny…Overshadowed someone?" Jazz asked thoughtfully.
"Danny hates overshadowing!" Tucker responded.
Cap was about to say something more before Sam spoke up. "We'll be right there. We have some stuff to help get him back on his feet."
"Stark tower right?" Jazz asked.
"Correct." Cap answers.
"Just… Promise me you won't let any agents wearing white near him… Please." Jazz asked. She sounded very worried.
"We promise." He nodded, not that they could see it.
"Thank you, Mr…"
"Rodgers, Steve Rodgers." There was another girly screech but the phone hung up before it could finish. He turned back to Bruce and Tony who had raised eyebrows. "It seems that they are on their way."
XXX
Loki and Thor walk down the hallway towards the med room. Loki was curious to see how the boy was doing. Not like he cared or anything. Just curious. When they got to the door frame, they could already feel how cold the room was as the temperature seeped through the cracked door.
Loki narrowed his eyes as they pushed the door open. Both Banner and Stark were still in the room working on different things. They were both now wearing jackets. The brothers looked up and saw the blocked-off air vents and the frost starting to form on the screens. "Interesting." Loki mumbled, stepping further into the room.
Both scientists turned to look at the newcomers. Tony obviously still hadn't stepped in a while and had cuts all over his face. Banner looked slightly tired but had no injuries whatsoever. "Ah, Loki." Bruce walked closer and put down his clipboard. "We were just about to ask for you."
"We're getting concerned." Tony added. "He has just been getting colder and there's been nothing we can do to change that."
Loki pursed his lips and walked closer towards the boy, looking seemingly unaffected by the cold temperature of the room. Everyone at this point had frozen breath fogging out of their lips when they breathed out.
Thor crossed his bare, muscular arms to warm them up as he looked over at the boy. "It feels like Jotunheim in here."
"It's coming from the boy." Loki spoke up, surveying and circling around him. To Tony, it almost looked like Loki was circling prey, and it almost made Tony want to try and stand in between them. But Loki was one of their best chances to find out what was wrong, without Phantom's friends showing up yet.
"We gathered that. What else." Tony said, probably more defensively than he would have hoped.
Loki didn't take his eyes off of the ghost as he stepped closer, he waved his hand over Phantom's body and a goldish green light flickered around. Suddenly, it was as if they could see through Phantom's body. He was slightly transparent and looked to be made of only energy. In the center of that energy was a glowing blue orb about the size of Tony's fist.
There was blue and green energy radiating off of it. Expelling and pulling back in. thrumming with energy. The scientists had noticed the electrical-sounding hum coming from the boy earlier, and now they had a source. "He has an ice core." Loki finally commented.
Thor's eyebrows raised as he stepped closer, looking at his brother. "Like the Frost Giants?"
"Yes." Loki answered, he kept his hand over the ghost's body. "But this is a little different. Frost Giants have ice cores that are bonded to mortal bodies, but core beings are just that. Cores."
"And that means?" Tony raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.
Loki took his hand away from the boy and his body went back to normal. Tony wasn't sure if it was an illusion or he was actually making the boy transparent. "Like I told you before, Ghosts need ectoplasm to survive. Core beings are just cores that have grabbed enough ectoplasm from around them to make a body, an extension of their being."
"That explains the suit." Bruce added, and put his hand to his chin thoughtfully.
Loki nodded and continued on. "But while cores are healing and working on rebuilding that body and energy, if they don't have the ectoplasm around them they will pull in the next best energy source. Heat. And for ice cores, once they pull in heat they give off cold."
"Like those cold spots in the ghost hunting movies?" Clint spoke up. Most of them except for Loki turned to see Agent Barton leaning on the doorframe with one arm held above his head as he joined the conversation when walking by.
"Yes, like that." Loki rolled his eyes before continuing on his explanation. "But for ghosts, it is not very common for there to be ice cores. Over 95% of the ghost population have fire cores. They are the easiest to form and commonly only need weaker obsessions to cling to when they die. So Phantom… his obsession must be very strong for him to become an ice core ghost, especially if he used to be human." Loki gently raised his hand and placed it on Phantom's shoulder.
He quickly felt a tingle in his hand, a very strong cold. Tony quickly pulled Loki away from the boy. "Hey, watch it!"
Banner stepped forward with narrowed eyes as he looked at Loki. "He is freezing to the touch. You could get frostbite."
Loki stepped away from the bed and looked down at his hand where he touched the core being. The palm of his hand was blue. He stared at it for a second before it faded away into his peach-colored skin tone.
"What was that?" Tony asked.
Loki narrowed his eyes. "I—"
Suddenly there was a groan from the medical bed next to them. "…Man this job doesn't get any less painful does it?"
Authors Notes
Beta read by gamma_radio (ao3)
He's awake! And now the rest of team Phantom is coming to New York to help their ghostly friend. What will happen next? Also def fangirl Tucker. ;)
Loki also got to explain a bit more about what he understood about ghosts, it also gives you a bit more insight into how my mind makes ghosts work and there is a lot more of that to come. Especially with the whole Frost Giant cores thing. That will be important later on. :D
IMPORTANT I also wanted to mention that I will not be following the plots of any more MCU movies that are set after this. Starting now you can imagine that it has branched off into a parallel universe. There will still be backstories and characters but they will be introduced in their own ways.
Let's use 'Guardians of The Galaxy' as an example, that would still happen because it does not involve Phantom and is in the background. So I will not be doing a Phantom comes back for the 'Age of Ultron' movie thing. But that doesn't mean that Ultron, Vision, or Wanda can't be introduced some other way (same for people like Bucky, Sam, Black Panther, Spider-man, or maybe even Deadpool XD). Starting now this story is its own thing. I just used the first Avengers movie as a stepping stone.
I hope you liked this chapter and I am excited to make the next one. Please tell me what you thought of this chapter! I love your comments and opinions. Also if you want to see anything in the future let me know! I might just add it. ;)