Authors' Note: Please review!

~The Nerdlings

Chapter 2:

Third Person:

Alex looked up from her thought pose as Axel and Gear walked in. She smirked, but was back to her extremely focused look in a fraction of a second.

"Just the people I wanted to talk to," She said.

They looked at her expectantly. Usually when Alex needed to say something with that tone of voice it was pretty serious, and you didn't want to take a single word lightly.

"Is it about that-" Axel started. she nodded, and he shut up before finishing his sentence, an expression similar to Alex's coming across his face.

"During the fight," Alex started, "We say this boy in the ally way. He looked like a normal homeless kid with black hair and blue eyes-"

"-Then why are you worried about him?" Gear interrupted.

"Because," Axel said, "He didn't smell like he was fully alive. He smelled like he was decaying, like...Like he was half dead." Alex nodded at his words, her frown deepening.

She loved kids, tolerated teenagers, but that kid...Well, he wasn't normal. No homeless guy ever smelt like that. It was disturbing to say the least, that someone might have gone through torture, to be half dead.

Gear shifted her weight from side to side slightly. She knew they were talking about Danny. He matched the description perfectly, and now that she thought about it, it made a lot of sense for him to be smelling half dead. She frowned slightly.

"I'm gonna look into it," Alex said suddenly.

Axel nodded in agreement.

"Same. That smell was...Off, like...I...I can't explain it, it was just..."

Alex nodded, knowing full well how he felt. saying it was disturbing or weird even for them was an understatement. That was saying something considering the twins were created by a skrull called the Ringleader.

"Well, I'm gonna go hack the satellites and S.H.I.E.L.D. to see if they have any dirt on the kid," Gear said, playing it ff like she didn't know anything.

Thankfully, the twins were so deep in thought that they didn't see her leave, and they didn't show any signs of suspicion. Usually when she lied they could see right through it. She wasn't actually planning on hacking S.H.I.E.L.D., but she wasn't lying about the satellites. She needed to locate Danny, make a fake home and I.D. for him, give him some many. After all, she had resources that not even the other Avengers, minus the twins, knew about.

"You go get the laptops, I'll get a snack," Axel said, turning to Alex. She nodded slowly, as if in a trance, and walked out.

Gear locked herself in her lab, careful to do it casually so that the twins didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary. When she made it down there, she sighed in relief. If she just spent another second up there, she might have spilled the secrets.

Now Gear was a very loyal person, she didn't tell secrets. However, when it came to the twins- she trusted them. She trusted them so much that it was hard for her to just lie to them at the risk of losing their friendship. But Danny comes first. Here we go Double D (Danny Dude).

She spent several hours on the phone and the computers, looking at different apartments and small houses in the area. When she finally found one, she paid for it quickly for an immediate move-in. Then she called up a source of hers to decorate the small house so that it would be ready. After paying him extra to have it done within a day, she called up a store and had them deliver different pieces of clothing to that house. Then, when she got the call from Paul (the decorator), she smiled- the house was ready. The best part was that the house would be close to her own.

She hacked into the different security cameras and finally spotted Danny. Smirking, she called up a telephone booth that close by. She watched on the screen as he answered the phone.

"Dude," Gear greeted, "wassup?

"Do you always have to do that? It's kind of... stalker-ish."

"If that's the case, I can just hand up right now and-"

"No! No, I mean...Don't."

She smiled,

"It's fine, Danny Dude. Look, go to 221 Baker, it's down the road you're on now, take the first left, two rights and then another left. Go down straight, it's the fifth small house on the right."

"Got it. Why?"

"It's a surprise," Gear said vaguely and then she sighed, "Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful, okay? I know the heroes of New York City."

"Why do you always know the heroes? That's like a recurring theme with you."

"Because I'm badass, why else," Gear huffed, "Look, two of them- Animal and Creature- are a bit suspicious of you. According to them, you smelt half-dead. Don't worry, I'll keep my trap shut. Just... lay low, got it?"

"Noted."

With that, Gear hung up, hoping that she made the right choice.

Alex sneezed, screwing up the thing she was typing in the search engine. Axel didn't even flinch as his twin backspaced, typed some more, and pressed enter. He couldn't help but think that something was up with Gear. It wasn't normal for her to lie to them like that. But they also knew that Gear was extremely loyal, and wouldn't spill unless she was in a situation where she absolutely had to.

"You saw what was up with Gear too, right?" Alex asked, looking up from her screen.

He nodded.

"Yeah, and I'm kinda worried about her. She was totally stressing a few minutes ago."

"Where was Gear's home town?"

Alex thought for a moment. Gear had been to a number of places, so it was kinda hard to remember which was which.

"Uh, a small town called Amity Park, I think," he said. Alex chuckled slightly.

"No wonder she believes in ghosts. She grew up in a ghost town."

Alex bit the tip of her tongue in concentration as she scrolled through the things listed. There was the Amity Tragedy. Ghost sighting in Amity, Amity's Lost Son...

She clicked on that one. A title like that was obviously shouting at people that there was a missing kid.

"Huh."

Axel looked at her quizzically.

"Find something?"

She nodded slowly, scrolling through the page. It was all about a kid named Daniel Fenton, a normal kid who ran away after his house mysteriously blew up. His parents, along with his sister, Jazz Fenton and best friends, Tucker Foley and Samantha Manson. She frowned at the picture of Vladmir masters making a speech about the missing Daniel. She handed her laptop to her twin, watching his face as he read the articles. He clicked on a picture and showed Alex. Her eyes widened slightly and she smirked. It was a picture of Jazz, Daniel, and Gear.

"Okay, well that solves that puzzle," Alex said, "But there's also a lot of people saying that this Phantom dude kidnapped him, or killed him. Yet other's say he's a hero, and has saved the town hundreds of times. Even from a guy named Pariah, the king of some Ghost Zone. Do you think we should talk to Gear about it?"

"No. She'll tell us when she's ready. We shouldn't push her, we'll trust her."

Before either twin could discuss their thoughts, Clint burst through the room.

"What are you guys doing? Tonight we get pizza, remember?"

"Is Stark buying?"

Hawkeye nodded and the twins shrugged.

"Sure, whatever."

Danny whistled as he entered the house. It was pretty simple- one bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen, living room. The floors were dark hardwood floors and the walls were all a simple light gray color. As he realized that everything was furnished- there was a couch, TV, shelf, curtain, and everything he might need in the living room, necessities in the bathroom, food and appliances in the kitchen along with a table and chairs- he knew he had to give his thanks to Gear because it couldn't have been easy for her to do everything.

He finally reached the bedroom only find a note on the door. It was written in cursive that was a bit slanted to the right, big, and loosely written, but it still fit between the lines of the notebook paper it was written on.

Hey Danny dude,

I hope you like the new place. I told Paul to leave this note here so I hope you're actually reading this. Anyway, no thanks is needed because let's face it- I'm kickass and too cool for apologies. Just kidding, but seriously it's all good dude.

Remember, you need to stay low. I'll get on in a few and track the Guys in White to make sure that they aren't following you, which I'm sure that they aren't.

Anyway, go check out your room and feel free to explore New York. There's an awesome pizza place near the library on 5th street that's pretty good. You'll find some money in the first dresser drawer in your new room. You probably need to eat something- you looked thin on the cameras.

With a kickass attitude,

Gear

(P.S. Be careful around the heroes if you see them).

He rolled his eyes at her signature that did a loop at the end that made the shape of a gear. He entered the bedroom as he pocketed the note. His eyes widened. The ceiling was covered with stars, NASA posters were along the walls along with Humpty Dumpty posters, and there was a large oval bed with black sheets and pillows. There was a simple dresser and nightstand along with a closet. A quick look inside the closet revealed that there was in fact new clothes for him. He smiled slightly, knowing that Gear was nice enough to leave him fashionable guy clothing- for once.

He went back to the dresser and sure enough, in the top drawer was a note and some cash.

Don't worry about paying me back- it's on me.

-Gear

He pocketed the money and headed out- his stomach growling at the mere thought of a good slice of pizza.