2 ch.2

Changing into jeans and a black hoodie, I was ready to blow some shit up. At the last moment, I remembered to grab my keys, wallet, and phone. Looking at the time on my phone, I saw that it's already 2 am.

As I left, I looked around the apartment and familiarized myself with the place.

The apartment wasn't the biggest or nicest, but it had everything we needed. 3 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, and a kitchen that hasn't seen a home-cooked meal other than instant ramen in years.

Everybody cleans up after themselves in the common rooms and leaves all of their crap in their rooms.

Closing the door, I locked it behind me.

This isn't the best neighborhood to leave your door unlocked, it isn't Hell's Kitchen or anything, but it's still NYC in Marvel and Manhattan at that.

It was late at night, hardly anyone was outside at this hour. From time to time, I would see shadows of people move, doing whatever people that aren't sleeping at this time of night do.

Gathering my bearings and remembering that I lived on the upper east side, I started walking east to the east side docks to find an abandoned warehouse to practice in.

Putting my hood up, I glanced around for anyone watching. Detecting none, I connected with my ghost core and flooded my veins with ecto-energy. All at once, my body felt like it got injected with a bucket of adrenaline. I felt tens of times stronger than normal, and even the air felt fresher as a whole. The world was brighter, more alive.

Ironic, I know.

I passed through every dark and damp alleyway I could find on my way to the docks, hoping to find some thugs and muggers.

Don't misunderstand, I wasn't trying to be a Hero or anything. My cash stores were simply running low at the moment and I was hoping to acquire a small donation from the more unlawful members of society.

Before I had taken over Damien's body, he was in the process of staking out a place to rob. I figured beating up and robbing some punks that were about to do the same to me was a better and safer way of getting some cash.

What are they going to do?

Run to the cops and tell them that the person they tried to rob robbed them first?

That would be the day.

All I had to worry about is keeping my hood on and my face unseen so that I don't get dozens of wannabe thug bosses that want revenge on my ass later.

I ended up getting 'mugged' three times on my way to the docks. It may not sound like much, but when you realize that my walk to the docks hadn't taken more than an hour, you will understand what kind of dumpster fire Marvel NYC truly was at night. No wonder it had like a billion street-level Heroes.

The muggings went as I expected, although I hadn't had more than a few schoolyard fights here and there in my previous life or this life for that matter. When you're stronger, faster, and your everything is just better than the best-unenhanced human in the world, it doesn't matter how good you are at fighting. If your opponent can't react before you beat him into the ground or if their hits do nothing when they hit you, you win.

Plain and simple.

The first two muggers were alone and only coughed up 200 dollars in total.

Broke bitches.

The last mugger…cough 'victim' cough was a group of six and brought me a cool grand in cash and twice that in gold. Thugs really love their gold accessories.

Arriving at the docks, I began searching for an abandoned warehouse.

And not one that looks abandoned but is actually being used for top-secret Villain experimentation or some other crazy shit. You may think that I'm exaggerating but remember this is Marvel. Every Villain, Anti-hero, and sketchy secret organization out there has a finger in the NYC pie, where everything seems to go down.

I finally found one that looked like it hadn't been in use for a couple of years, there was dust everywhere, and most of the machines inside were rusted.

The door wasn't even locked.

Walking up to one of the machines, some sort of scissor lift, I scraped off some dust and rust just to be sure it was real.

You never know.

I let out a whoop of joy after transforming. I still can't believe that I have powers!

I calmed myself down, not wanting to waste any more time. I still wanted to get a little sleep before the night's over, after all.

Do I even need sleep?

I know that my ghost form doesn't, but what about my human side?

Another thing to figure out, not that it matters. I love to sleep, and I'm not about to give it up even if I don't need it.

I already tried Intangibility, invisibility, and body manipulation. It's time to try flying, something I always dreamed of doing.

Flying was different from all the other powers I tried before, for those I used ecto-energy, something I didn't think was needed to fly, but I figured it was the same as all my other powers and worked mainly with intent.

I imagined myself leaving the ground and flying like Superman.

There was a loud thunderclap, the next thing I know, my vision blurs, and my body slams into the ceiling of the warehouse. The only reason I didn't go right through it was because I had tried to stop myself before hitting the ceiling.

I stayed plastered to the ceiling for a second before gravity claimed me, and I fell down.

I lay there for a minute, confused and dazed, waiting for my vision and hearing to return to me.

"Groan…that hur-" I started to say before stopping. It didn't hurt…I hadn't felt a thing. The only reason I was lying here was due to the disorientation I felt from the deafening thunderclap and the unexpected movement.

"Thinking about Superman flying when working with intent wasn't my brightest moment," I groaned while standing up and dusting myself off.

Right, let's try that again, this time a lot slower and no more thinking about Superman.

This time I tried picturing my feet slowly leaving the ground and hovering two feet in the air…when that worked. I slowly worked myself up to flying around the room.

"Woo-hoo!" I hollered as I flew this and that way.

This was the life, there is nothing more exhilarating than being able to fly under your own strength. Sufficient to say, I flew around laughing for half an hour before I remembered I had more things to do.

I had 3 more of Danny Phantom's powers to try out before I call it a day. There were actually 4, but I am not about to try the Ghostly Wail anywhere in a city. That means I have Ghost rays, Ice powers, and Duplication to try out.

Let's try Ghost Rays first, something every respectable ghost should be able to do.

Instead of applying intent, I connected with my Ghost Core directly and started circulating ecto-energy to my hands, my eyes, and even my mouth. Concentrating the ecto-energy at that particular body part for a moment, making it glow green with ecto-energy before moving on to another body part.

After I knew how it felt, I directed the ecto-energy to the pointer finger of my right hand and watched it glow with ecto-energy. Making a finger pistol, I aimed at the machine closest to me, the scissor lift. I imagined the ecto-energy becoming a ray and shooting out my finger.

"Boom!"

The ghost ray was a lot faster than I expected. I almost didn't see it before it hit the lift.

Frowning, I called up more ecto-energy from my core and directed it to my mouth, Dragon Ball Oozaru style. As I shot the ray, I focused my intent on seeing the Ghost Ray. My eyes zoomed in on the Ghost Ray and I could see the ray of ecto-energy slowly crawl through the air before impacting the scissor lift.

So it's not that I can't see it. I'm just not used to tracking fast-moving things. Note to self, train my perception for fast-paced fights.

Walking up to the lift, I examined the damage my Ghost Rays had done. There were two holes the size of the Rays in the machine, which was amazing because even though the lift was old and rusted, it appears to be made out of industrial steel, and yet my Ghost Ray had blasted a hole right through it, twice.

Neat.

"Clang! Clash!"

Just as I was about to try shooting my Ghost Rays from my eyes (I always wanted heat vision even if it wasn't the same), I got distracted by what sounded like steel hitting steel coming from outside.

At first, I wasn't sure what it was, but then I heard a grunt of pain, sounding like it came from a girl.

Curious, I turned invisible and intangible before flying out of the warehouse and in the direction of the noises. I had to fly a lot further than I expected. When I heard the grunt of pain, it sounded like it came from right outside the warehouse I was in and not this far away.

It appears that my senses have improved a lot more than I suspected, something that wasn't mentioned in the cartoon(at least I don't think so), which is a good reason why I shouldn't depend on and get all my information from the cartoon. It may be a good way to know what I should be able to do, but not everything I can do. There may be a lot of things not mentioned in the cartoon that I'm capable of or that I can learn.

As I arrive, I see 3 ninjas, I kid you not, real-life ninjas, pajamas and all, surrounding a girl. She was about my age, 16 years old, long black hair, 5 foot nothing, wearing a black shirt, and black leather pants. One glance at her told me that she was exhausted, she could barely stand on her own two feet.

The ninjas, on the other hand(pun intended), were wearing classic red ninja garbs, 2 of them were wielding swords, and the last one had one of those ninja chain weapons with a blade at the end, whatever those are called.

That wasn't all however as I was searching the dock the fight was taking place on for any more enemies my eyes caught a hint of red fabric. It doesn't take me long to realize that I was looking at a trail of ninjas bodies.

While I was still trying to figure out if I should help the girl (it isn't like she is normal. No normal person gets attacked by ninjas, let alone manage to kill 4 of them), the fight begun anew. The ninja with the chain weapon who was at the back of the girl threw his chain with such speed and precision that the chain wound around the girl's left arm before I or, the girl could grasp what had happened.

The girl tried to take it off, but the ninja on her left took advantage of the opening that she left and slashed at her with his katana, wounding her side. Impressively the girl had jumped back with the blade just as it wounded her, leaving a deep but not mortal wound. The same ninja went in for another blow but got a kick in his gut for his trouble, throwing him back and away from her, holding his stomach.

The girl slashed her right hand at the chain holding her, and to my surprise, she cut the steel chain like it was nothing. Taking a better look at her hands, I saw that she was holding two blades…no, not holding, two blades were coming out of her hand.

"X-23!" I whispered, already beginning to fangirl inside.

I studied her feet, and…yep she also had blades coming out of her boots, one for each foot (she must be hell on shoes).

Glancing back at the ninja she had kicked, I see blood spurting from in between his hands before he goes down. He was done for.

The chain holding ninja had thrown his broken chain weapon away and was now holding a katana. X-23 was fighting savagely back, but it was 2 on 1 against skilled fighters, and X-23 was obviously on her last legs, already little wounds began appearing on her body. It was only a matter of time before they tire her enough to finish her off.

Deciding to help, I fly behind the ninja that used to have the chain weapon, still intangible and invisible. I thought about possessing him but decided against it in the end. I had never done it before, I'm not sure what would happen, and I'm not about to test it out in the middle of a fight.

Good old fashioned beat down it is then.

I turned tangible again and punched my target in the kidneys(always a good target in a fight). Inches away from hitting him, he starts to dodge even though I appeared from nowhere, and I'm still invisible…that is some crazy good instinct.

Unfortunately for him, he began dodging too late, and I'm too fast. I hit him right in the kidney, expecting it to stun and slow him down. I got more than I bargained for as I feel his ribs break and organs explode around my fist.

The ninja grunts before going down bleeding from all his orifices, dead. I look down at my fist, surprised before remembering how strong ghosts truly are. How easily they punch each other through buildings and lift tens of tons like they are lifting feathers. I almost forgot about that with all the other cool powers.

I just killed a man.

I expected to feel bad about it but honestly, I felt nothing. Maybe it was the adrenaline from the fight, and I will cry my eyes out later, or maybe becoming a ghost had changed me more than I realized, who knows. I will just roll with it for now.

The last ninja standing and X-23 look around surprised, searching for what had killed my target. X-23 is the first to shake off her surprise, rightly assuming me not to be an enemy after helping her.

She closes the distance between her and the last ninja in a blink of an eye. Moving faster than humanly possible, she impales the last ninja on her claws before he can think to react, one claw through the heart and the other through the neck.

Releasing the bleeding corpse, X-23 walks up to the ninja she stabbed in the gut, who turned out to be still alive. He was trying to crawl away with one hand, while his other hand was holding his insides…inside. She kneels next to him and slits his throat with her claws.

Brutal.

She looks around one last time, her eyes flickering this and that way before fainting, her fatigue finally catching up to her. I fly down and check her over. She had tons of tiny wounds that were still healing, and her skin was overly pale from blood loss. The ninjas must have been trying to weaken her by letting her bleed out, knowing that she could heal.

Should I take her with me? I can't leave her here. It won't take long before more ninjas of The Hand show up and surround the docks.

Fuck it, I get down and lift her in a princess carry. A moment of concentration has both of us invisible and intangible before I start the flight back to my apartment. As I arrive back home, instead of going through the front door with an unconscious, bloody girl, I go through the roof and right into my bedroom.

I begin taking off her bloody clothes quickly, not wanting to make my room look like a slaughterhouse by letting her clothes leak blood on my carpet.

Before I can finish, X-23 comes to and lunges at me with her claws out, surprised I don't go intangible fast enough, and she nicks my arm. I look at my arm…it didn't hurt…hell, it wasn't even bleeding or anything. I watch, fascinated as the two parts of the cuts stitch back together like clay.

...huh, looks like normal attacks can't hurt me. I'm truly a ghost in this form.

X-23 had scrambled back after attacking me and was watching the wound just as fascinated as me.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm the one that helped you with those ninjas," I raised my hands to show her I meant no harm.

"You heal like me," her eyes were still focused on my arm and ignoring the rest of me completely.

"Well not like you per se, it's more like I…you know what never mind, it's similar," noticing that I had started babbling, I change the subject, "I was just trying to get your clothes off to see if you were still injured. And to stop you from staining my carpet," I added the last one with a wry smile.

"I'm already healed," she answered, not even looking herself over.

"…whatever, why is The Hand after you?" I ask curiously. I don't remember her fighting The Hand, Wolverine, yes but not her.

She looks up sharply into my eyes at the mention of The Hand, "You know about The Hand?!" I could almost see her suspicion of me visibly rise.

"Yep, no one else dresses like ninjas in this city." I tell her, "So why are they after you?"

She bites her lip, but in the end, stays quiet.

"It's your business, if you don't want to tell me, don't," I sigh, "wait here."

I stand up and walk to the door, making sure to walk around her, to not spook her. After making sure there was no one outside, I went to the kitchen and got a new trash bag from the kitchen drawer before returning to my room.

"Here," I handed her the trash bag, "throw your clothes in here," I look pointedly down to the trail of blood she left on my carpet.

She looks down at her clothes or rather rags stained with blood before shrugging and undressing.

I would like to say I tried to stop her or at least look away to maintain her modesty, but we all know I didn't. I am a teenage boy with a healthy libido, and she was a beautiful girl. If I get the chance to see her or any beautiful girl naked, I will take it.

She had a petite form, as I already said she stood at 5 foot even, small b cup breast tipped with small pink nipples, toned but not muscular arms, a six-pack that made me feel bad about my own flat stomach. Hips that looked like perfect handholds, leading down to a modest bush hiding her treasure. Unfortunately for me, I could not see the spectacular ass that no doubt came with the package.

It would have been even better if she wasn't covered in blood.

I looked her in the eyes after enjoying the view. Strange how a girl with her tits out makes me compelled to look her in the eyes. She had green eyes just like me, except hers weren't glowing.

"I meant in the bathroom, not that I am complaining," I said after she was done.

X-23 rolls her eyes at me and continues putting her clothes in the trash bag.

I grab a clean towel, shirt, and shorts from my closet before handing them to her, "the bathroom is the second door to the right."

X-23 just nodded and left, showing off her perfect toned ass.

I should ask her what her name is, I know it's Laura, but you never know. There may have been changes in this Universe compared to the 616 comics.

Looking down, I adjusted my pants. I didn't even know ghosts could get boners.

Remembering that I was still in my Ghost Form, I changed back to my human form. But left the connection with my core open just in case and as training.

After changing my clothes into sleepwear, I sat down on my bed and thought about everything that had happened today. I was reborn, got powers, learned I was in Marvel, saved a damsel in distress, killed someone…I killed someone.

I still felt nothing thinking about it. It's not that I suddenly am a psycho that is going to roam the streets of New York looking for people to kill or anything. But…well, it is The Hand, and they were trying to kill a teenage girl. They got what they deserved as far as I'm concerned. And honestly ever since becoming a ghost I noticed that the thought of death doesn't bother me as much anymore, it was just another part of life.

More importantly, I saw one of my childhood(still) crushes naked!

A few minutes later, X-23 walks in, looking like the most beautiful thing alive. Her face was rosy from the hot shower, her hair was still a little wet, and the shirt she was wearing was almost comically big on her. I am no giant or anything(still growing and all that), but I'm still 5.9" to her 5"0, and to finish the assembly, she was wearing shorts that hugged her hips like they never wanted to let go.

I'm pretty sure I was in love.

While I was inspecting X-23, she was doing the same to me. Only she was doing it for different reasons.

I pat the bed next to me for her to sit.

"You look different," she said, sitting down next to me.

"Hmm?" I hum, "oh, don't worry about it. It's just something I can do."

"Do you have anywhere to go?" I asked, changing the subject away from my powers, while I liked her and had an obvious crush on her. I didn't know her, and she obviously wasn't a cut out from the comics. She had her own emotions and personality that I knew nothing about, so I wasn't about to tell her everything about me.

She shakes her head, no.

In for a penny and all that, "you can stay here for now."

She stays quiet.

'Maybe she doesn't even want to stay here with a stranger. Ever thought about that stupid?!'

"If you want to, that is," I add on awkwardly.

She looks at me for a moment, I try not to fidget too much from the attention. After a while, she nods, apparently having found what she was looking for.

Probably some assassin's trick or whatever to see if I'm trustworthy.

"Okay…" I draw out before looking at my alarm clock, "it's almost 4:30 am. Let's get some sleep."

I turn off the lights before lying down on the bed. X-23 hesitates for a moment before lying down next to me. The only light in the dark room is my glowing green eyes and X-23 normal ones, staring at each other.

"I almost forgot. What's your name?"

"Laur…, Laura Kinney," the newly named Laura answers hesitantly like it was the first time she had said her own name out loud.

"Well, I'm Damien Shade, nice to meet you, Laura."

I almost miss the small smile that forms after I say her name.

"You look beautiful when you smile. You should do it more often," I said teasingly.

"Go to sleep," she grumbles back, but I don't miss the little blush that spreads on her cheeks, night vision for the win, hell yeah.

I let out a quiet laugh, letting her know that her blush didn't go unnoticed, before finally closing my eyes and drifting into the domain of the Sandman.

>>>>-Charles Xavier-<<<<

In an underground room under a mansion, known to the world as Xavier's school of gifted youngsters, we find an old man, by the name of Charles Xavier, sitting in a wheelchair wearing a bulky helmet and looking into space.

Taking off Cerebro, he turns his wheelchair around and looks at Ororo Munroe and Logan, better known as Storm and Wolverine, standing behind him.

"What is it, Chuck?" Logan asked in his usually gruff tone as soon as he saw Xavier's face, "You look like you saw a ghost or something."

"A potential student just activated their Mutation," Chuck, or rather Xavier replied, still looking worried.

"Are they in trouble?" Ororo asked, also picking on the mood in the room. She knew that some Mutations activated in times of great stress or peril. She had seen more children lose control of their powers and injure themselves or others than she cared to remember.

"No, nothing like that," he assured Ororo, already knowing what she was thinking. Sadly, even though they try to help as many Mutants as they could, they weren't always on time or even the first ones there.

"it's just that…" he paused, not sure how to put it, in the end, he just forced it out, "The boy's presence felt like death itself."

>>>>-Nick Fury-<<<<

Looking over the report Maria Hill, his right-hand woman had just handed him. He frowned thoughtfully.

Things were changing rapidly and not necessarily for the better. Every day more and more enhanced individuals were appearing at an increased rate, and even things and groups that used to stay in the shadows were coming out the woodwork.

One such group was the Hand.

The Hand was an ancient organization of enhanced and expertly trained combatants that he has had in his purview since he became director of S.H.I.E.L.D. The only reason he hadn't gone after them yet is that he had seen what they were capable of, especially its leaders, the so-called 5 fingers of the Hand.

His agents were hopelessly outmatched. They simply couldn't compete with so many well trained, enhanced at once, so he gave up.

For now.

But that doesn't mean that he didn't keep track of their movements, and like always, his extra measures have come in handy once again.

Seven Hand members had been found dead by the docks in NYC. The cause of death of Six of them was obvious by the puncture and slash marks on the bodies. The only injury on the last one, however, was a fist mark on his side. It wasn't until the autopsy that they learned that most of the corpse's insides had exploded.

Clearly, the work of an enhanced.

"The Chaste?" he asked, finally breaking the silence.

The Chaste was another ancient group of expertly trained enhanced combatants. So far they have only been using their gifts to fight the Hand, instead of using their gifts for crime.

Not that he liked them any better. Any uncontrollable enhanced group was a bad thing in his books.

"I don't think so," Hill replied, "A bystander took a video on his phone."

"Put it on the screen," he ordered, turning to the screen.

Hill nods and plays with the tablet that never seemed to leave her side. A second later, a shaky and blurry video shows up on the screen.

It was a bad video, clearly made by an amateur with bad equipment. That it was also night and almost pitch black didn't help, but it was enough to do its job of showing what seems like a female according to her figure, finishing off a Hand combatant before fainting. It didn't end there, however. A form appeared suddenly out of nowhere as soon as the female fainted, lifted her up, and disappeared again.

"Do we have anything on them?" he asked after the video ended.

"No, the female was too far and the video too bad to identify," Hill answered, "Going by her size and figure, we have tentatively set her age in the teens until we have more information."

"And the male? Do we have anyone matching his description or abilities?" he asked again, but he already knew the answer. If they had something on him, he would have already known about it.

"We are still searching, but so far nothing, Sir."

"Well search faster, I want them found!" he ordered, "And that power, what do you think, teleportation?"

"The research team seems to think so," Hill informed, glancing down at her tablet for a moment before she glanced back up, "It could also be a power to turn himself and others invisible, but they think teleportation is more likely."

"The fist imprint on the third member, that was a man's fist, wasn't it?" it was a rhetorical question, but Hill nonetheless answered with a nod.

Great, just what he needed more Motherfucking security threats with super strength and who can go wherever they want.

"I want to know who they are and where they live, ASAP!"

"Yes Sir!"

>>>><<<<

For those who have been asking, the release schedule is one chapter every Monday.

I would Love some feedback!