I'm sorry if this chapter is really awkward. I'm kinda getting back into writing and I'm also moving. If you see any mistakes feel free to point them out. I'll get better at this lol.

Living with a Tower full of ghosts really wasn't the strangest thing to happen to the Avengers. But it definitely was within the top ten.

After hearing that the Tower could be suitable to house all of the ghosts. The three of them had seemed a bit more at ease when he showed them to a floor that was only used for the storage of failed prototypes. Danny would stand from the sidelines watching Tony and the rest of the Avengers with a nervous gaze. He was jumpy and scared around them, that much was clear. Thankfully the others, besides Bruce and Tony, gradually lost interest and disappeared to other parts of the Tower.

"So how are you going to bring them here?" Tony asked as he kicked a box with the side of his shoe. Even he hadn't been up to this floor in months. Probably the most deserted room in the Tower. "You don't plan on tracking them down, do you?"

Ember shook her head, her flaming ponytail bouncing with the movement. "That would take way too long. There are- or were- hundreds of us. I'll try to send out a message. I'll need pipsqueak's help though," she said. "I'm not strong enough to do it myself right now."

Danny nodded and stepped forwards to take Embers hand. Tony and the other Avengers watched, in various states of amazement, as both of them closed their eyes and a green, glowing sphere appeared above their heads. It was doubling in size by the second before blowing outwards, passing through all the humans and stretching across the city.

Both the halfa and rocker ghost looked exhausted, like they'd just run a 5k in the middle of summer. "It won't be long," Ember advised, brushing herself off. "You good?" She asked Danny and he nodded, her protective side was beginning to show. Then they got ready to play chaperone to the dead.

The day it was spent attempting to gather all of the ghosts into the Tower. Which was extremely difficult and took a lot of coordination between the Avengers, Danny, Ember and all the other ghosts. Especially since the ghosts were hesitant to trust any humans like Tony and his teammates. So for the most part Danny and Ember handled that part while the Avengers stayed in the background.

By the time the sun was beginning to set Tony had cleared an entire floor just for the Avenger's guests to stay in- ignoring any protest he heard from some of his more suspicious teammates. Most of the ghosts had been located, according to Ember. A few were still considered missing or worse. Because apparently there was a worse for ghosts, it reminded Tony of the ghost SHIELD agent on that video.

Tony was starting to see the effects of the stressful day weighing on everyone. Especially Danny, the halfa was still very injured, though he was healing at a slightly quicker rate than a human. He'd been in his ghost form all day, but that didn't seem to be doing much for him. Unlike the other ghosts. The halfa winced everytime he moved and his shoulders had been slouched in pain all day. Tony could see how weary Danny was getting as they finished the search for the night.

"Danny," Tony called from across the room. The boy was still talking to a few of the other ghosts but he didn't seem to notice him calling. Then he remembered the kid probably didn't respond to his real name. What was the name Ember had called him? Ghost? No it wasn't that... "Phantom!"

Danny turned to him with big unnaturally green eyes, there was a moment before the teen's mask of indifference fell into place that Tony could see the fear etched onto his young features. It was made worse by the bruises- dark, painful looking blotches of green in this form- that framed his face. The ghosts he had been talking with startled and faded out of sight.

"It's okay, kid," Tony said, hands held in a placating manner. "I just came over to say it's starting to get late and we'll be busy building this thing tomorrow. You should probably get some food and rest."

"Okay," Danny said quietly, his voice was very soft and had a strange supernatural undertone to it that made Tony's hair stand on end despite himself. Danny winced and made a move to hold his throat with a shaking hand before averting the gesture but he still looked pained. Tony wondered what the GIW had done to make his voice sound like that. It was like his vocal cords had been stuffed into a blender set to puree and reattached. When Danny used his powers it was more like he was speaking from deep inside a cave but without them it was obviously painful and raspy.

"You can sleep in the infirmary, at least until we get a room for you. Plus, it gives us a chance to check on your injuries," Tony said. He hadn't had a chance to stop Danny in order to change his bandages.

"Can't I stay with the others?" Danny asked quietly, he shuffled unsurely.

"Don't you want a bed, Danny? That floor is just empty besides storage." Danny looked conflicted for a moment. He'd never really slept in a bed, and if he had it had been before he really had any memory of it. When he'd woken up, the bed in the infirmary had been very comfortable. But then immediately afterwards he'd had to deal with Ember and Youngblood storming in to try and save him. The issue was Danny didn't want to leave the other ghosts.

"Phantom." Both of them turned to see Ember floating a few inches off the ground and moving towards them. Despite how haggard she looked it seemed she was doing loads better in the time she'd been there. Even her clothes had begun to mend itself. In fact all of the ghosts seemed to be improving by the minute.

"Go with Tony." Danny opened his mouth to say something but the rocker ghost cut him off. "Don't you argue with me, Dipstick. You need an actual bed and food. You'll probably pass out the minute you turn human," she joked, but there was concern in her expression. The ghosts were tired but they didn't need the type rest Danny did since he was still half human.

"But-" Danny kept glancing at the inventor through the side of his eye, his distrust still obvious. Tony didn't blame him and hoped keeping his space would at least help Danny stay comfortable while he's there.

"Trust me, kid. I'll just show you where you're staying and bring you some food. I won't let anything happen to you," Tony said. He wasn't great at this comforting thing, especially dealing with kids- definitely not traumatized half human children- but that sounded like the right thing to say.

And it was. Danny looked warily between them both and sighed, the teen nodded and turned to Tony expectantly.

The genius cleared his throat. "Alright follow me, kid." Deep down Tony had been hoping Danny would accept his offer because the kid looked one strong gust away from being knocked over and he deserved to sleep on an actual bed. Luckily the Avengers- but mostly Tony himself- ended up in the infirmary often enough there were actual mattresses there.

The infirmary was set directly below the floor Tony had given to the ghosts. With a quick elevator ride they arrived. Thankfully, or worryingly, Danny seemed to be too exhausted to have any issues with the elevator. Tony knew some of the ghosts had glanced warily at it as the Avengers came and went through it.

Tony had brought Danny back to the bed he'd been in earlier that day. "Here we are. You can lay down and I'll have someone bring you some dinner."

Danny recognized the room he was in and decided the metal man- that Tony was telling the truth. The halfa took a deep breath and felt a tug in his gut as he pulled his ghost powers back into himself. Bright rings of light appeared around his waist, splitting and traveling up and down his body leaving him looking like a normal teenager.

Then Tony noted Danny had paled several shades, he was blinking rapidly and wavering on his feet. It was enough to set off the alarm bells in the inventor's head. Tony reached for the barely conscious teen. It was a show of how out of it Danny was that he didn't even flinch away from the man's touch. Though Tony nearly recoiled at how cold his skin was, it was like dipping your hand in a bucket of ice water.

"Okay kid, don't faint on me yet," Tony said, patting Danny's cheek to try and rouse him. The only thing Tony got was the kid trying to squirm away. Giving up on that for now, Tony worked on dragging Danny the last couple of feet left to the hospital bed. Tony stumbled when Danny sagged further in his hold, making it difficult to get the teen onto the infirmary cot. Tony managed to pick up the teen, it shocked Tony with how light Danny was, and got him onto the bed.

Danny groaned, which meant he was still conscious, which made Tony sigh in relief. The halfa took a deep breath and his eyes fluttered open, looking around in confusion. "You okay, kid?" Tony asked before mentally kicking himself. Of course Danny wasn't okay. He'd nearly just fainted. Tony should've stopped him earlier.

Danny nodded carefully, the dizziness had faded, but he was still pale and shaky. Thankfully not on the verge of passing out anymore. "Food?" He asked quietly to not hurt his throat.

Tony chuckled. If the kid could ask for food that meant he'd be alright. "It'll be here soon." As if on cue JARVIS spoke up.

"Boss, Mr. Banner is here with the food you requested," his volume was lowered which made Tony raise an eyebrow. Usually he had to do that manually and that was only if his technology felt like behaving. It seemed even Tony's artificial intelligence knew better than to frighten the kid.

Danny, on the other hand, was looking up at the ceiling in the general direction of where the speakers were installed. What caught Tony off guard was the expression of curiosity on the young halfa's face. He'd seen it on many of the kids when he used to do tours around the tower.

Tony realized he hadn't responded yet and mentally waved away the thoughts. "Yeah, let him in before Danny gets any skinnier." The doors whooshed open and stepped Bruce, looking like he'd been run through the ringer. Which he had, emotionally. The scientist had disappeared several times that day, leaving to take breathers and to keep himself from hulking out when he'd seen some of the conditions the other ghosts were in. When he did vanish suddenly Tony knew he would find Bruce hiding away in the lab. He had tried to not bother him too much.

"How're you feeling Danny," Bruce asked kindly. He had a tray of food he'd probably found in the Avenger's kitchen- not even Tony could do much for hospital food.

Danny squeaked and nodded, eyeing Bruce cautiously. The man raised an eyebrow at the teen and shot a look at Tony who nodded, the kid had acted this all day. They both knew Danny would act like this, his contact with humans that wouldn't hurt him was practically non-existent.

"Well, I brought you some food. Wasn't sure what all you might want or how much. Just eat what you can," Bruce rambled as he placed the tray of food on the side table.

Tony wasn't surprised to see a couple of the Avengers seemed to have put their own touch into making it. With the healthier items Tony guessed that Bruce and Steve may have had a hand in those. The more junk food choices were things he'd seen Clint snack on before.

"Do you need my help with his injuries?" Bruce asked Tony. Danny quietly investigated the foods he was being offered, paying the other two men no attention. Or so it would seem to any untrained eye.

"I've got it covered, but thanks Brucie," Tony said, waving as the other man nodded and took his leave. Danny was picking at the vegetables on his plate with curiosity. It occured to the inventor the kid had probably never seen normal food like this. He doubted the GIW really cared about the food pyramid. Tony decided he would make sure as long as Danny was around he would make sure the kid ate right.

Tony shook away the thoughts. He's never really dealt with kids, at least not like this. He doubted many people had. Danny was half dead for someone's sake. At the moment he had more pressing things to deal with, like making sure Danny's injuries were still improving.

"Can I check your injuries, kid?" Tony asked.

Danny looked hesitant but nodded slowly, watching Tony with an expression the genius had a hard time deciphering.

Tony kept his movements slow and steady, the teen was as tense as a stone wall. Like Tony had predicted the halfa's bruised torso was already beginning to heal. The teenager's breathing also sounded less labored. It was a rather miraculous recovery. Tony wondered if Steve could even heal this fast with so many injuries.

"You're looking a lot better, Danny. I think you'll be fully recovered in a couple weeks even."

The kid didn't seem in the least bit surprised. It sickened Tony to realize these injuries were like a papercut compared to what he had been through. Tony turned to get back to his own room and give Danny some space. Before he could, a small, croaky voice spoke up.

"Wait," Danny said quietly and seemed to wilt when Tony turned around. He picked at the food in his lap nervously

"What is it, Danny?" Tony asked.

Danny flinched at his real name, it was unfamiliar but at the same time it wasn't. "Would you stay? Just until I'm done eating" Danny had practically folded in on himself and Tony was worried if he kept going he'd wink out of existence.

"Yeah, sure kid." He took a seat next to Danny's bed, it was where he'd sat yesterday night, waiting for the kid to wake up. To make sure he hadn't unintentionally injured himself.

After a few minutes of playing with his food Danny seemed assured it was good enough to eat and he inhaled everything on his plate. The kid was a bottomless pit and Tony made a note to himself to start bringing him food more often.

Over the next two weeks things began to settle down as much as they could. It seemed that, true to Ember and Danny's word, the rest of the ghosts stayed out of trouble and mostly haunted the floor of the Tower Tony given to them. And if Tony was being honest, they were some of the best guests he'd had in a while.

With new ghosts were coming in daily and Tony found himself shocked with the states of some of them. A few of the worst cases had been reduced down to little orbs of light. Ember said it would take a long time, maybe even years, but they would eventually heal their forms and look more like herself. Others were barely held together, barely looking only a couple experiments from joining the orbs. But most of them were like Ember, she was about as normal as she could get without being able to absorb ectoplasm.

There were very few ghosts that actually interacted with the Tower's occupants. Those were, of course, Danny, Ember- who never strayed far from the younger halfa, and Technus, whom Tony met a week after knowing Danny. He was the one that would be able to rebuild the ghost portal.

They immediately got to work on the portal. Technus has memorized almost the entire blueprint for the portal and Tony hoped he would be able to fill in the blanks.

Through all of the chaos Tony made sure Danny never got too far away from himself as well. He may have been part ghost but a lot of the kid was still human. An extremely young, vulnerable, and scared human.

And despite how much as the magazines liked to say otherwise, Tony Stark does have a heart. And it especially went out towards traumatized little kids. He didn't know all of what the GIW had done to Danny because he didn't have the stomach to go through the kid's files.

Clint and Natasha had both looked a mixture between shaken and furious afterwards. That almost surprised Tony as much as the fact she treated Danny kinder than he ever thought the assassin could be. In fact many of the members of the tower had taken to the kid quickly.

All of them treated the halfa kindly. Clint and Steve would offer him food whenever they saw him going between the ghost floor and the labs where Technus was working. But one gave the teen more junk food than the other one did, take a wild guess on which.

Tony feared when they finished building the Ghost Portal and time did come for all the ghosts to go back, Danny was going to find himself getting kidnapped.

They were finally making progress with creating the blueprint for the portal, but it was still slow going. Technus as it turned out didn't have the entire blue print memorized.

"I only managed to catch a glimpse of it before the portal exploded," Technus explained through gritted teeth. "Even my superior memory can't do everything." He grumbled something under his breath as he started to fill in the blanks on a design that hadn't been used in over a decade. Tony had a feeling he'd managed to ruffle the technology ghost's metaphorical feathers. Not surprising since his teammates repeatedly reminded him that he's the most annoying Avenger.

It was very late, or early depending on how you looked at it, and Tony, Technus and Bruce had been working on the design most of the night. Bruce hadn't been much help, machines like this weren't his forte but he had tried anyways. Then Tony and Technus' tech speech bored him to sleep at his table and Bruce hadn't moved an inch in the past two hours besides the rise and fall of his chest.

"How long do you think this portal will take to construct?" Tony asked. It was complicated. He had to give the Fentons credit where it was due, they were impressive inventors. He had managed to recover a few of their intact weapon designs from the GIW, and they were all extremely ineffective on humans and only worked on ghosts. But no worries. He made a note for one of his future designs. Maybe he could modify it.

"No telling," Technus buzzed. He seemed to have forgotten entirely about their earlier conflict. "Anywhere from four to six months would be an appropriate timeframe. Given the intellectual steam and resources backing it.

"So what you're saying," Tony paused, hoping he was right, "is that we could get this up and functioning in four months?"

"If everything goes correctly that is approximately the time the assembly will take. Gathering the materials may be more the difficult and time consuming part," Technus said, that odd metallic tone echoed throughout the lab.

"I'm Tony Stark," he said as an explanation, "I can get everything we need for it."

"Some of the radioactive isotopes available are owned by private collectors. Including one you may know, Vladmir Masters."

"I've only met the guy once. And that was ten years ago," Tony stated. "Right before the explosion of Amity Park I think."

"Yes, well he possesses what we need. His business has been falling on hard times recently, perhaps if you offer to buy, he will take that."

"What if he doesn't?"

"Then we will have to look elsewhere," there was a hint of fear in the ghost's voice.

"Why does a man like him need it?" Tony asked. Something just didn't seem right.

Technus contemplated for a moment. "It is difficult to explain but I will try. Masters is something called a halfa."

"Like Danny?"

"Correct. If Danny told you what he is, I'm guessing you know what that entails. The reason he has the materials is that he's been trying to build another ghost portal. That was years ago, I'm unsure if he has been successful."

Tony dragged a hand through his own hair, making it more messy and bedhead-ish than before. "Is there anywhere else? And if he has access to the Ghost Zone does that make him a threat."

Technus shook his head, Tony could see sparks firing through the ghost's translucent body. "There's no way to know for sure, Tony Stark. I'm sure I could find some. But it could take many more months."

The genius nodded in understanding. "Try doing that. Messing with Vlad should be a last resort, especially if he has powers like Danny's." Tony only knew a fraction of the teen's abilities. And even though Danny was weakened and looked like a prisoner of war he was powerful. Not a good person to make an enemy out of.

Tony would be lying if he said he hadn't heard about the apparent halfa and his rather crooked business tactics that allowed him to rise to the top. He may have only met him once but he'd heard a lot through the crowds he found himself in.

Learning that Vlad had powers similar to Danny's just made everything make sense. Vladmir Masters was a name that had risen to fame and wealth almost overnight. He was a very tactful person and knew how to turn a conversation to his favor. The type of guy whose favorite game was probably chess.

"Indeed," Technus agreed, a million watt smile was on his face. The technology ghost let his hand run along a few of the blueprints laying out, seeming to take in every component of what they were making.

Since the idea of ghosts had become less jarring Tony had taken it upon himself to learn about them. From what he had learned from Ember that there were two types of ghosts. Simple spirits and full fledged ghosts, which was what they were. To be an actual ghost, they had to have an obsession, and that was what powered them, allowed them to exist and interact with the world.

Tony knew some of the ghost's powers, his obsession was technology and electricity and therefore his abilities revolved around those. He seemed excited to be back around technology he could control. It made him wonder if halfa's like Danny or Masters had an obsession and if so, what was it?

Tony snapped himself out of his thoughts. He hadn't slept more than a few hours this past week and it was starting to weigh on him. "I'll be keeping an eye out on these parts," Tony said, barely stopping himself from yawning.

"I can help with that," Technus said in a way that meant he would be doing it. He'd likely have an easier time finding exactly what they were looking for. "There is nothing more that can be done tonight, Tony Stark."

Tony blinked. He was getting dismissed from his own lab. Knowing it would do very little good to argue the man sighed and made his way to the elevator, watching it slide shut through drowsy eyes. He really must be more tired than he thought.

"Sir," JARVIS spoke. "Miss Pepper Potts is inquiring on your whereabouts."

That woke Tony up immediately. He hadn't explained to Pepper about any of what's been happening in the past two weeks. "Where is she?"

"Still in Japan sir, she has been calling for the past hour."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Tony asked. He knew he was in for an angry Pepper.

"You turned the volume off in the labs three hours ago."

Tony rolled his eyes and stepped out onto his floor. He talked as he walked to his bedroom. "New protocol, whenever Pepper is calling, always alert me. Speaking of which, put her on the line."

"As you say sir."

Tony listened to the dial ring and stepped into his room right as Pepper picked up. "Hey Pep-"

"Don't 'Hey Pepper me'," came his beloved's annoyed voice, "why aren't you answering any of my calls? Did you blow up the Tower again?"

"Er, no. And your confidence in me is astounding, Pepper. And you probably would've seen it on the news before now. I've just been… Busy." He sat down at the edge of his bed. He wondered the best way to explain the current status of the Tower.

"'Busy,'" she repeated, waiting for him to explain further.

"Yes… Do you believe in ghosts, Pepper?" Tony asked to the ceiling.

"What?" She sounded confused. "Anything's possible, I guess. We've seen aliens, so why wouldn't ghosts be possible too."

"Well, they exist."

There was silence, so Tony continued. "One day ago, we- the Avengers- stormed a HYDRA knockoff facility called the GIW. They specialized in ghosts, it's some of the worst stuff I've seen. And now we're helping make a portal to help them get back to their dimension. Are you still there Pepper?"

"Yeah, sorry. I'm just trying to wrap my head around this. Ghosts exist and they're from a different dimension? Wait, please tell me you aren't keeping a bunch of ghosts in the Tower."

Tony stayed quiet. "Oh my god. The Tower is haunted."

"Where else was I gonna put them?" Tony asked.

"Anywhere else. Couldn't SHIELD have handled this? Given them somewhere to go, instead of the Tower of all places."

"SHIELD doesn't actually know about this. As far as they're aware all the ghosts have escaped and aren't traceable."

Even over the phone he could tell she was shaking her head lightly. "Oh Tony… What am I going to do with you."

"The portal should be done in a few months," Tony said. "I doubt any of them will be making any trips to this world anytime soon." He stopped himself from yawning.

Pepper sighed. "As long as this is over before my trip back from Japan. I forgot it was four in the morning there, go to bed, Tony."

Tony smiled at the fondness in her voice. "I will."

"Oh, and you better answer my calls next time." And then Pepper hung up with a beep. Tony let himself yawn and was barely able to shrug off shoes before collapsing into bed.

Despite the stress of the night, Tony was out like a light the second his head hit the pillow. His dreams were strange that night. He watched as a toddler about three, with a shock of black hair and familiar blue eyes pressed a big red button from inside a large machine. One that even in his subconscious Tony remembered; the original ghost portal.

First chapter of 2020 sorry I died for a bit! Not much actually happened here, but next one will include more of the plot :)

2020 is just 2019 on steroids, what the actual hell a a a. The world is NOT passing the vibe check. Be safe. Just stay inside and read fanfiction. Wash your hands and stop hoarding the goddamn toilet paper.

Hang out with me on Tumblr (calm-is-overrated) because I'm bored and I like chatting. Also my anxiety has been through the roof and Idk having something to do might help. I take requests? And I'll let you see my lizard, plants, and snails.