A/N - Thanks for all the reviews! It makes this story easier to write, knowing what you guys think, and it helps me improve, too. I'm not planning on expanding the story to cover Age of Ultron, though I might eventually do that if I feel up to writing a sequel when this story is done, but that's probably months down the road. -_-"

Thanks again! I'll try updating once every day/every other day from here on out. Please review if you can.


Chapter Three

Too Many Slip-ups

Danny wasn't really sure how to react to Tony basically kidnapping him. He knew that the eccentric genius meant well. At least, the teen was pretty sure he did. That didn't stop him from being incredibly nervous about what would happen when they got to the place.

He wasn't stupid, and he didn't live under a rock, though it was a pretty close thing. He knew who the Avengers were, and that Tony was a part of that team. He also knew, from constant media coverage that was incredibly hard to avoid seeing, that most of the Avengers stayed in Stark Tower. The media was even calling the skyscraper Tony designed the 'Avengers Tower' instead. So, he was understandably nervous.

Also, what the raven-haired boy had mentioned earlier about sensing Tony's presence was something he was still regretting. Danny was entirely certain that ability hadn't come from his ghost half, merely from practice and dangerous situations in which sensing where a person was had been the line between life and death, but he knew normal people didn't develop an ability like that. There was a chance he could play it off as having dangerous weapons around the house and a father with terrible aim, but if he was meeting the Black Widow or someone a little more observant than Tony, they'd call his bluff immediately.

"Tony," he called, "are you sure this is a good idea?"

The billionaire just laughed, and that in-and-of-itself was an answer. Danny buried his head in his hands and groaned. Why was he cursed with insane adults taking a liking to him? He even had this problem with ghosts! Plasmius, Clockwork, and other seemingly-unstable ghosts tended to gravitate towards him and his company.

"Can I at least take a moment to call my parents when we get there?" he asked, not really believing he'd get an answer. He was surprised when Tony looked mildly uncomfortable, and stared at the billionaire questioningly.

"I did kinda kidnap you, didn't I?" he asked in reply.

Danny shrugged, and glanced over at the man who was riding in the back. He had a feeling the man was a chauffeur or bodyguard or something. "No big deal, it's not like I'm not used to... it..." he commented, before he really thought about what he was going to say. Open mouth, insert foot. The blue-eyed teen sunk as far down into his seat as he could.

Tony gaped at him for a full five seconds until they nearly crashed. "Um, k- I mean, Danny? Being... kidnapped... isn't exactly normal, unless you're a friend of mine..." he mentioned, almost casually. His tone belied the uncomfortable stiffness expressed on his face, and Danny just wished he could disappear. Three years of keeping his secret locked up tight, and he had barely known this man for three hours and he was nearly giving himself away.

"I... don't have a believable explanation for that," he admitted, shrugging. The damage was already done, and the teen would bet money on Tony either holding an interrogation or researching him extensively.

Tony nodded slowly, jaw working as he thought, eyes glued to the road. "Believable explanation, or believable lie?" he stated, not really a question.

"..." Danny knew the answer was yes to both, but he didn't really want to give any more hints than he already had. So, he wisely kept his mouth shut for the short remainder of their drive to Stark Tower.


Meanwhile, JARVIS was already researching Daniel Fenton. Tony liked to do thorough background checks. On everyone and everything he came into contact with. JARVIS was actually programmed to run a basic check on everyone Tony took an interest in, be it professional or not. Therefore, the A.I. had already been researching the teenager from the moment Danny had given his name.

When Tony and Danny reached their destination, JARVIS was already compiling the information he'd gathered into a report. It wasn't as much as he would normally find, but what he did get was fairly telling. Either Daniel Fenton was involved in the underground, or there was some other, more inexplicable thing going on. As soon as Daniel was distracted, the A.I. would give the information to Tony to look over and decide what to do.

And that was exactly what happened when Danny made the call to his parents and left a message on their phones about being with Tony and the fact that the billionaire was attending the same dinner party they were.

Tony didn't know what to make of the info JARVIS had dug up. Danny's parents were close friends with a rival of his, Vlad Masters, and it appeared that Danny had been kidnapped a number of times over the past three years. He also discovered that ghosts existed, and more often than not attacked Amity Park, Minnesota. Those weren't the only interesting things going on with the high school senior, though. His grades were very low for an incredibly intelligent boy, and his attendance had more holes than Natasha's firearms practice targets.

He honestly didn't know how to react. He was almost never speechless, but he couldn't look at that teenager in the same way again, there were things that didn't make sense about him, and based on what JARVIS had scrounged up, the poor kid had been through a lot.

So, when Danny walked over to him, he did the only thing he could do, and invited him up to the Avengers' shared living room for some snacks and video games. Autopilot was so helpful, sometimes.


Danny saw the tablet in Tony's hands and the pale expression on the billionaire's face, and knew that he saw the records from Amity Park. The halfa wasn't sure how many times he had officially gone "missing" for over a day, without explanation, but it was a fair number, and it had only been growing since ghosts started kidnapping him or his friends.

The halfa was actually prepared to pull a disappearing act before Tony had stiffly invited him upstairs to play video games. Danny realized that he just needed time to process the information, whatever he had read, and calmly accepted. He flashed a warm smile at the genius and watched a little bit of the tension melt away. At least he still had that effect on people.

The elevator trip up was very quiet, and Danny occupied himself by eagerly examining the New York City skyline. It really was an amazing view, and he hadn't gotten the chance to fly over the city yet. It was on his to-do list for the week, right up there with making sure that there weren't any natural ghost portals that could be a danger to humans.

Danny silently hoped that no one would be up in the common area, but with his luck, he was entirely prepared for the entire Avengers team to be gathered together in that room with the sole purpose of interrogating the new kid.

Hey, pessimism meant he could be pleasantly surprised, or right. Any boy, did he hope he was pleasantly surprised this time.


Pleasantly surprised it was. When the elevator doors opened, a dazed Tony lead the way to one of the large, comfy-looking couches in front of a giant flatscreen with all of the latest gaming systems. There was already a tall, muscular blond man sitting there, and the teen recognized him as Captain America. It looked like he was watching... the history channel. Huh, Danny wouldn't have pegged him as being interested in world history.

Tony mumbled a brief hello and sat Danny down on the couch next to the Captain. "You can play whatever you want, or watch what the Cap's watching. I'll be back in a minute. I need to get... snacks..." he stated.

After Tony shuffled away, the raven-haired teen let out a long sigh. He turned to see the blond man staring at him curiously, and offered his hand.

"Danny Fenton. Tony helped me in a robotics competition, then sort of almost kidnapped me here. Not that I mind, I didn't really have anything better to do," he drawled, smiling. "Nice to meet you, Captain."

The man gave him a hesitant smile in return. "Captain Steve Rogers. You can call me Steve, if you like. Do you know why he's so..."

"Out of it?" Danny finished, rolling his eyes. "He may or may not have discovered part of my life story in the past half-hour. Our town's criminals are a little... unconventional, to say the least. I've experienced a lot over the past three years."

Steve nodded slowly, and asked, "Unconventional? What do you mean?"

The teen shrugged. "Ghosts, mostly. No one really does anything worse than stealing or drugs, these days. There's just too much chaos to bother," he answered, leaning back. He was right, the couch was comfy. Maybe he could take a nap, later.

"Ghosts? As in, a dead person's soul?" the first Avenger repeated, trying to wrap his head around the concept of those sorts of beings actually existing. First aliens, now ghosts. What was next? Vampires? Werewolves? Steve groaned.

Danny nodded sagely. "It's not as much of a problem as you'd expect, but the town has had some major crises over the past three years. One time, the entire town got sucked into an alternate dimension known as the 'Ghost Zone'."

Steve just gave up attempting to make sense of ghosts and buried his face in his hands. "How? How is the future so... weird?" he whined. Danny just patted him consolingly on the shoulder and smiled.

"Believe me, this isn't weird. I've seen what future ten years from now can look like, and this is pretty simple. Except for the aliens, I guess. I didn't see that coming." The teen frowned, crossing his arms.

Tony came back just then, looking infinitely better than before. He had a carton of fresh blueberries, a couple bags of chips, and a plate of pizza rolls. Danny wondered how he had time to make the pizza rolls when he was still sorting through the distress of learning what Danny's human life was like, but maybe Tony's autopilot was better than he gave him credit for.

"Squirt, you and your town need help. Like, major help," he commented.

He rolled his blue eyes. "We're fine, thanks for asking. How's learning my life story going for you? Don't tell me you didn't research my background, because I know you did. After that comment I accidentally made on the way here..."

Tony nodded and frowned. "You've got a lot going on. Where do you go when you skip school? Nobody's been able to figure that out, yet. I would have, but your city doesn't have traffic cameras up at the intersections. Why is that? Most cities, even rural towns, have those."

"I dunno. Probably cause the city can't afford to keep repairing them after every ghost fight that destroys them," he wondered aloud.

"Ghost fights, ghost fights, that is so cool," Tony continued on, remembering what Amity Park was famous for now. "Does anyone ever get hurt? Who fights the ghosts? Your parents? Other ghost hunters, too, I bet. Are there any friendly ghosts? I mean, they're like people, right? Dead people. How does that work, anyway?"

Danny laughed and held his hands up. "Stop, stop! Too many questions! No, no one ever gets hurt, except for the ghost hunters and the ghosts. Yeah, my parents and some other hunters fight the ghosts, but they can't really do much against them. There's another ghost who's responsible for protecting the town, mostly. His name's Phantom. White hair, green eyes, a black and white hazmat suit. Can't miss him."

"Phantom. What an incredibly stereotypical name," the billionaire drawled, chuckling.

Steve rolled his eyes, and focused on the earlier part of what Danny said. "You put a heavy emphasis on 'no one', earlier. Are you surprised, or... what?"

Shrugging, Danny frowned. "I guess I feel kind of protective over the town. My parents' research is what made all this happen, really. There are natural portals to the Ghost Zone, but those are usually spread out and completely random. My parents' artificial portal is what allows ghosts to get through to the human world all the time. I just feel kind of responsible."

The Captain could understand wanting to protect people. That was mainly why he wanted to join the army when he was just a kid. "I understand. You have to realize, though, you aren't responsible for all those people. Be a hero when you can, but remember your own safety, too. We can't all be super soldiers," he advised, smiling a little at the joke.

The teen grinned. "Yeah, I know. I've just always been the self-sacrificing type."

Tony rolled his eyes and mumbled, "I'm surrounded by bleeding hearts, great."

With that, the three of them settled in to play some games. Most of it was teaching Steve how to play them, but it was still a fun experience. Five o'clock rolled around before they knew it, and the trio had spent an enjoyable afternoon together.