Life and Death
Rating: K+
Pairings: None
Ages: Danny is about 18 now (three years have passed since the first Avengers movie) and Dani is 16.
Summary: Danny's been with these crazies for a little over three years and even though he's one of the youngest, he can't help but feel like he's babysitting them, especially Tony. But more importantly, he has to protect them, because somehow those same idiots wiggled their way into his obsession and once you're in, you're in.
Extra Note: Some Head-cannons and theories down in the AN after the story if you're interested.
"Yes... but a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. It is a privilege to be among them."
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He had accepted the idea that he was about to die. Hawkeye probably knew, just knew, that it was over for him and the kid, but he was going to surprise them… yeah.
He screeched to a stop as the bullets pelted the ground and crept towards him in literal slow-motion. He saw a flash of green right before explosions from the bullets erupted in his peripheral.
Wasn't it supposed to hurt more?
"You didn't see that coming, huh?" Hawkeye and Quicksilver looked over and saw Danny there, floating with a cracked green shield in front of them all. "Hey! I got to join in the inside joke!" A single bullet had hit Danny in the side and green ectoplasm was soaking his uniform, but they could see his skin starting to pull together.
Hawkeye let out a sigh of relief.
"Tsk and there goes my heroic death," Quicksilver relented.
"Why didn't you just grab them both and get away?" Danny asked with a crooked smile.
"Pah! I didn't have time you little fly," Quicksilver scoffed, before the shaking of the floating island they were on, snapped all of them back to attention.
"Danny can you take him to his mother?" Hawkeye asked, lifting the child up to Danny. Danny only nodded sternly. "You got it." In a flash of white and black, Danny soared over to the transportation busses.
Hawkeye looked at Quicksilver, who was breathing slowly. "You okay?"
Quicksilver shook his head and jumped on the balls of his feet a bit. "Yeah, yeah. I just… I was about to die." Then he sped off.
"Kids these days all in a hurry," Hawkeye huffed as a grin crept onto his face. He made his way quickly to where Danny was talking to the mother of the child they'd saved. They locked eyes before the ghost shot into the air to help Rhodey guard the vehicles from any enemies that dared present themselves.
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"You sure have been quiet, Phantom." Danny flinched, surprised again by Fury's sudden appearance.
"You've got to stop doing that. You're going to be responsible for giving a ghost a heart attack," Danny spoke, sighing in relief that it was actually only Fury. He was currently in human form, staring out of a large glass window in the new base.
"I feel as though that would be an accomplishment."
"Gee, thanks."
Fury, finally dropped his smile. "Something you want to talk about?"
Danny shifted slightly. "You know how Thor was talking about those Infinity stones?"
"Yes."
"What if I told you that I'd destroyed a weapon similar to it?"
Fury paused in complete surprise. "What do you mean?" He demanded.
"It was a Ghostly artifact known as the Reality Gauntlet. It could control life and death, wishes, and matter. One of my enemies used it to change the world to match his image-"
"Daniel. I think I would've noticed that."
Danny chuckled. "I'm sure you did, sir. Thing is, I used the gauntlet to reset everything that had happened. That was my wish. Because you see, my secret identity had been shown to the world and the Guys in White were still willing to murder three kids because I was half ghost. I was scared, so I stopped Freakshow and reset everything."
"And the gauntlet?"
"I destroyed it." A silence started to grow between the two men before Danny spoke again. "No one needs to have that kind of power."
Fury sighed. "Perhaps."
"No!" Danny suddenly yelled, whipping his head around to stare at Fury. "No one gets it! I'm constantly living and dying. I know what that feeling of… of… power is like. I understand both sides of the coin and how delicate everything is! I've moved around in people's dreams, felt my mind get taken over by another, messed with time and seen what disasters follow, and countless other indescribable things all because my parents wanted to mess around with space and poke a hole into a dimension or plane we didn't even know existed before!" There was another long pause, as Danny tried to reel in his emotions and Fury tried to decipher all of the unbelievable things Daniel had just revealed to him. "No one needs that kind of control. It can only lead to disaster."
Another silence cropped up between them. "Alright. We'll agree to disagree for now. I think the Cap was about to talk to the new Avengers. You want to help him?"
Danny blinked before glancing at his shoes. "I'd like to but… I think I need to go and talk to Clockwork. Maybe he could tell me more about the Reality Gauntlet and these Infinity stone things." With that, he transformed. Fury locked eyes with the now dead teen. "Some things aren't meant to be controlled. That's the one thing I've learned above anything else. Death isn't bad. It's natural. As strange as it is, I've come to appreciate what it means to die."
The boy then disappeared from the visible spectrum.
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"Don't you see though? They can't even be directly harmed by something that is that powerful! They are dangerous!"
"Yes, but they are also a chance. More importantly he is a chance. A chance to escape a terrible fate. An important piece within the puzzle that will give the right side… a bit of wiggle room."
"They must be destroyed! The others can manage without them."
"If he goes. We go… Now, I must return to my lair. I'm expecting a guest."
"Fine! But you better know he is necessary and won't be more trouble than he is worth."
"I think you all forget constantly that I know everything…"
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"So you're another half-human? Who were your parents?"
Dani Phantom blinked, before chuckling and giving the talking Raccoon a sly smile. "I have no parents. I was cloned from someone else." This made Rocket's analytical gaze soften just the tiniest bit. "I'm sorta… more half dead than I am half human."
"You didn't have a choice in being made…"
"Nope! But I am sure glad I was. At first I was feeling pretty down, but the person I was cloned from told me I was my own person and I could do anything I wanted, so long as I didn't do evil things. He's a great big brother."
"HE!?"
"I am Groot!?"
Dani looked over at the strange tree-man resting on the ground near her other side. "Yeah… We don't know how that works, but we don't care!"
Rocket hummed.
"I decided to start traveling so I could learn about the planet I was born on, but then a natural ghost portal opened up and spat me out here randomly… Do you think Quill can figure out how to get close enough to Earth to drop me off?"
"Maybe, we're sorta in the middle of something…"
Dani nodded and started to swing her legs from her place floating in the air. "Alright." There was a pause and the three watched as a large nebula came into view, before she spoke again. "Now I know why Danny loves space so much. Life is awesome."
"I am Groot."
Rocket didn't reply and simply looked at the mass of stardust and gas which exuded a rainbow of colors.
Yeah I saved Quicksilver. Partly because I thought he didn't need to die (He was able to move a bazillion people out of the way of a speeding train but not knock two people and himself away from gun fire?) and because I didn't want him too :P
The Reality Gauntlet can control: Souls, Matter, Wishes and has a stone that powers the other three.
The Infinity Gauntlet can control: Energy (which also powers up the stones), Wishes, Thoughts and Dreams, Space, Time, and Souls.
This is the lore I've constructed so that both gauntlets can exist in the same world:
The Reality Gauntlet was made by an evil ancient Ghost long ago in the Zone, who was trying to copy the Infinity Gauntlet and succeeded, except it wasn't able to control time or space since Clockwork and Wormhole(a ghost I've made that controls Space) didn't allow it. The Infinity Gauntlet's control of time or space doesn't affect Clockwork or Wormhole because it doesn't affect Ecto-energy. Ecto-energy is like the opposite of all other energy and the Infinity Gauntlet doesn't work in the Zone (It says that the Infinity Gauntlet doesn't work in any universe it isn't from and I think the dimension of the Ghost Zone probably could meet this requirement, so as long as ghosts stayed in the Zone, they wouldn't be touched by the gauntlet's influence [couldn't have their souls controlled]). The Reality Gauntlet was ecto-based when it was created, which is why its gems burned flesh when touched and its gems were adequately held in the ghost thermos. In short, the Reality Gauntlet is literally the Ghost Zone version of the Infinity Gauntlet, being made of ecto-energy rather than normal cosmic beginnings.
Danny is also weird because the Infinity and Reality Gauntlets can't outright 'kill' him or any halfa, that's why Freakshow tried to kill him only indirectly by turning him into slime. Halfas are neither dead nor alive, so when the Gauntlets try to 'kill' them or bring them 'back to life' the gems can't figure out what to do.
If anyone has a better idea about how they could be in the same world, mention it! I couldn't find many discussions on this particular topic. Even though it's known that Danny Phantom takes a lot of inspiration from DC and Marvel.
And wouldn't that be cool? To have Danny and Dani be apart of two different groups that would probably intersect?
That and I kinda like to think that Vision and Danny could possibly understand each other some. I could go into detail why I think that, but I don't want to bog down this already large-ish AN. It's funny, but through DP and some other shows, I'm really starting to learn more about Marvel and DC than I ever would have otherwise. All I knew was the basics like a vague idea of which supers belonged to which (sorta) and that was it, but I'd say I'm a bit more learned now. Not great though, not yet. Decent.
