Tony stood on the corner of the street out of sight until he could no longer see the Fenton's monstrosity of a car. Turning on his heel, he made his way back to the large double-story house, sneaking into the narrow alley a few houses away, his suitcase grasped firmly in his hand. Usually he would transform into his Ironman costume in broad daylight without a care, but this time he was playing it incognito. Not something he was particularly happy about – he didn't do stealth.
Scanning the house's exterior, Tony found a slightly ajar window on the second story. Setting his thrusters on minimum, he drifted his way over to the window and pulled it wide, searching the street for any potential onlookers. Satisfied, Tony slipped through.
Turning off the thrusters and sliding his helmet back, Tony briefly noted that he was in a boy's room – a teenager's, most likely. The boy had a miniature model of the Andromeda Galaxy on a desk and a rather detailed set of blueprints of the Hartman spacecraft spread all across one of his walls, which Tony's father had helped fund for its development when he was alive. The kid had good taste.
Navigating his way downstairs, Tony crept silently through the house until finding a door leading to what was presumably the basement. Taking a deep breath, he let the helmet's face fall back into place with a metallic clank and readied himself for what was on the other side of the door.
Natasha had called him almost half an hour ago. The boy – Danny, was it? – would have to be long dead by now; a shame, but accidents happen. Tony's only concerns for the moment was to make sure He wasn't still in control or that Bruce wasn't grieving too much over the dead kid, making it more liable for Him to regain control and leave Tony with an even bigger mess to clean up.
Powering up his thrusters again, Tony opened the door and swooped down the steep stairway to the lab below. Reaching the base, his eyes automatically went to the large green swirling portal on the far side of the laboratory. Following the green glow, he saw two silhouettes making their way towards to void, one dramatically larger than the other.
"Hey," Tony called, voice echoing from the suit's interior, "Where are you going with my Hulk?"
/ / /
Danny froze at the sound of the tinny voice. It sounded like whoever it was had been permanently autotuned.
Sneaking a look over his shoulder, Danny spotted a red and gold armoured suit. A triangular hollow in its chest plate was glowing an ethereal blue. Danny found himself to be a little bit dumbfounded – had this weirdo ghost-guy taken fashion advice from Skulker?
Danny sighed. It was time to show these freak-shows what side of the spectral plane they were supposed to stay on.
Dumping the drained and lethargic body of the green thing back on the floor, Danny said, "What do you mean your Hulk? If you're the reason you guys are in the human world, then you are going to learn why you don't mess with humans."
The armoured ghost was scanning the room as Danny was speaking. With a brief pause the ghost asked, "Why aren't you dead, kid? Does bleaching you hair give you superpowers or something?"
Dead? What was Robo-Cop talking about? He was already dead. Sorta. Danny threw the robot a confused look, "Okay… Whatever. Oh, here's an idea. Why don't you step into my garage? I'll buy you an oil change. On me," Danny gestured towards the portal.
"Very funny. When did all you brats get so mouthy? Even I wasn't that bad," The automaton looked back down at the green monster, "Where are you taking Bruce?"
"Bruce? What kind of name is that for a ghost? A bit lame isn't it? What do they call you, Inspector Gadget?" Danny simpered.
The ghost moved into an offensive position, "Stop playing games, Casper. Ghosts don't exist. And how can you not know who I am? I'm Ironman. Saved the world and everything," The ghost sounded affronted at Danny's lack of appreciation.
Danny mimicked the android, ducking low with his legs spread wide, "I'm not that naive, Herbie. And you and your giant green friend are going back to the Ghost Zone, whether you like it or not!" Danny cried, lunging at the robot.
A blue-white beam shot out of Ironman's hand, hitting Danny in the chest. Danny reeled back into the far wall, hitting the portal's control panel. The doors slid shut.
Surprised by the blast the halfa slowly stood up, growling, "Okay, I think it's time you had a private party with the fireplace, tin-soldier."
/ / /
Clint tapped his fingers against the large metal and glass desk in Nick Fury's office, drumming faster as his frustrations grew. Where was Fury? Clint slouched in his seat opposite the director's expensive leather chair, not caring that he covered the expensive leather in dust and grit.
The mission had been a success at least – completed just under an hour after his frustrating call with Stark. Clint had been pulled out, but not for the reason the insufferable man had claimed.
"Waste of my time," Clint muttered to himself.
The automatic door behind him slid open. Nick Fury slowly wandered around his desk to seat himself in front of Clint. The archer sat upright in his seat in response.
"Nice to see you back, Agent Barton, I take it everything went according to plan?" Fury leant his elbows on his desk, placing his chin on his laced fingers.
"Yes, sir, the mission was a success. I was just wondering why you had me ordered to pull out so early if there was another assignment in place? I could have easily covered both, there was no reason to send the Black Widow on the mission," Clint tried to keep his voice impersonal and professional.
"Mission?" Fury raised his visible eyebrow.
Clint leant forward in his seat, "I am aware that it was top secret, sir. However, I think that I have worked with SHIELD long enough to prove my loyalty. Aside from the situation with Loki."
"It must have been a highly important secret mission for me not to even know about it," Fury replied nonchalantly.
Clint blinked, "Excuse me, sir?"
"I believe you have fallen into one of the Black Widow's web of lies, Mr Barton. There is no mission other than yours in Uzbekistan to my awareness."
Clint's eyes widened, "But… Stark said—"
"You should know by now that Stark is notorious for his word-play, seeing as Agent Romanoff is on a more personal mission at the moment, with both Mr Banner and Mr Stark," Fury spoke as if he was talking about the weather.
"Well, where is she?" Clint demanded.
Fury glanced casually at his computer screen perched on top of the glass table, "It appears she has gone to join the Ghostbusters."
When Fury looked back up, Clint was nowhere in sight.
/ / /
Danny easily dodged out of the way as another power blast flew in his direction. Either this guy was extremely weak, or he was going easy on him. Danny guessed the latter.
Danny looked at the scattered burn marks on the lab's walls along with the busted control panel, and groaned. There was no way Danny was going to be able to open the portal without physically forcing the doors open, not until the panel was fixed. He was going to be in so much trouble when his parents found out.
Danny twisted his head back to the robot. Snarling at the ghost, his voice harnessing elements of his ghostly wail, he powered a glowing green energy ball into his fist.
/ / /
Tony was highly surprised when Danny sidestepped all of his blasts. The first one had caught the teenager off-guard, but the boy had been quick to manoeuvre his way around the rest of Tony's shots. Double-checking his power percentage, Tony notched it up to 0.6% – he didn't want to hurt the kid, he just didn't want him in his way when he was trying to make Bruce come back to consciousness.
The boy's head twisted away from him momentarily. Rookie mistake – that left the kid wide open for any sort of attack. Just as quickly though, Danny's head snapped back as he let out a deep guttural growl. The entire room shook erratically and Tony had to take a step back to keep his balance. That was definitely not normal.
Looking at the white-haired teenager, Tony saw Danny's eyes shine a violent green, as he crouched into a low offensive position. His hand was glowing in the same manner Tony's did when he was about to release a power bla—
Tony cartwheeled fitfully to the opposite side of the lab. Crashing into the wall, he slid down into a pile of metal sheets and tools. That hurt.
"Ha!" Danny called smugly, "I thought scrap metal would be a good look for you."
Tony gave up playing nice. This kid wasn't an average football lughead who simply had a habit of drinking one too many protein shakes. Charging up his thrusters at 20 percent, he charged headfirst at Danny.
Before slipping completely through him and crashing into the wall again.
"JARVIS, what was that?" Tony muttered angrily, sitting up.
"It appears that the child has an ability to become intangible at will, sir." The automated voice responded dutifully.
Danny was walking towards him at a slow and jaunting pace, "Now," Danny said, "I am going to force both of you back into the Ghost Zone, where both of you weirdos will stay and leave the living world alone."
Danny reached the still-groaning green monster, leaning down and hoisting it up, as if he was carrying a bouquet of daffodils rather than a nine-foot tall beast made of pure muscle. Tony angrily smacked his gloved fist against the ground before powering up again, aiming his hand at Danny's torso with full power and fired.
/ / /
Danny hefted the green ghost onto his shoulder. It was a little bit awkward to hold him up due to his large size, but he managed.
Hearing a high-pitched whining sound emitting from where he had left the Ironman, he peered back, noting the suited ghost's glowing fist. Danny's hairs on the back of his neck stood up as the air crackled round him. This ghost wasn't fooling around anymore. If this shot hit him, Danny was certain he wasn't going to walk away in one piece. Danny steeled his legs in preparation for the attack.
The Ironman fired. A white-blue beam accelerated towards Danny, absorbing and burning the surrounding oxygen, fuelling its power. Danny waited until the last possible moment to turn intangible, allowing the beam to slide through him and incinerate the far wall – an echoing boom shook the room as the wall smouldered.
Danny cringed... well, mum and dad had always wanted to expand the lab.
Still intangible, the halfa sneered at the Ironman, his eyes glowing victoriously. Danny was shocked, however, when he felt his shoulder unexpectedly slip through the green creature's stomach, almost dragging him in. Danny rolled him off his shoulder brusquely, shoving the monster onto the ground.
Ghosts weren't able to control other ghosts. They were only able to overshadow permanently tangible beings or objects. Danny then realised what he had done. He had just tried to throw a living thing into the Ghost Zone.
Whoops.
Danny looked over at the suited ghost – whom he now presumed was alive– and bit his lip, "Er… Sorry about the mix up, but can we talk about this? There's no motor oil though, the toaster drank it all."