Phantom Without Fear 1 (Patreon)

Phantom Without Fear - or ‘Do the Phantom, Mike Murdock!’ (MarvelxMinor!Danny Phantom, SI)

Being reborn is an interesting thing, being reborn in Marvel Earth-616 is even more interesting but worrying due to the many apocalyptic things that were around the path.

However, being born as a minor character that was bound to die as a kid was not as interesting as anyone would want.

But let’s skip on the fear-mongering here, as introductions are needed!

My name is Michael ‘Mike’ Murdock. I am actually real, and not the product of my twin brother’s imagination and a name he would use as a ‘fake secret identity’. If that wasn’t enough, then I will be more clear about it- my twin brother is indeed Matthew ‘Matt’ Murdock, the future Daredevil.

Now, the reason why this is bad despite my brother being on the path to become a street-level to small-country-level hero was that 1) he was supposed to be hurt and lose his sight and, 2) most important I believe, is that I should die again due to the truck carrying the chemicals.

That sounded like a simple task to solve: don’t get anywhere close to truck-kun. The issue is that I didn’t exactly have control on the timeline of events that led to the accident. First, I didn’t know when that was supposed to happen, second… Well, Matt had to be hit by the chemicals to become Daredevil.

As much as it pained me to accept that my twin brother had to lose his sight, I have to also admit that some big events were tied to my brother’s secret identity. Which is why I had to sacrifice that much.

Perhaps it was karma about this line of thought that pretty much screwed my plans of dodging the truck but… It sure felt different to get hit by it. I wasn’t exactly paying attention as our father, Jonathan, was telling us about his recent gig.

As a professional boxer, ‘Fighting Jack’ was a prized guy that had a lot of potential to make big cash. The issue was that, being a single parent, he couldn’t go full pro and get that juicy bread in the fullest. He had to evenly split his time between us and his job, thus limiting our finances considerably, but not enough to truly have us be poor.

I knew from ‘lore’ that our mother was still alive. She just had a crazy thought in her postpartum depression that led her to become a fucking nun. I had nothing against people having life-changing moments, but for her to pull this after we were just born was just utterly cruel in my mind.

Still, life was without any worry. Matt and I were working hard to be good at school despite some shitty kids really making it difficult, plus we had started entertaining odd jobs as part timers in New York. The biz was not that good in terms of earned cash, but we were helping as much as we could with the expenses.

So, around the time we hit eleven, I almost forgot to dodge the truck. In fact, I actually forgot to do that. What I remember was my sight getting ‘zapped’, my body getting suddenly pushed away and a loud crack coming from my chest making me panic.

After all, I felt no fucking pain from it.

Still, the miraculous situation had not fully manifested yet. After all, I pulled myself from the ground and… I didn’t feel any pain! I was about to go back and check on Matt, thinking that I was fine- that maybe I had unleashed my amazing power of being a ‘ragdoll’ or shit like that but…

I realized that the commotion was far bigger than I had expected. As I approached, I could feel that everyone was screaming and then soon I heard people saying that ‘one of the kids died’.

Panic swelled as I bolted to see what was going on, and as I couldn’t get hold of my speed I ended up rushing onto the crowd and bypassing it entirely as I somehow phased through their bodies.

I paused just in time to be in the center of everything, with my gaze utterly stolen by the sight of my father holding both Matt (who I recognized as his eyes were burned up quite badly) and… and another Matt?

It took me a solid minute to realize what I was looking at, and I still couldn't believe it.

Oh, that’s my body.

…

Wait, WHAT?!

Turns out that the reason I could stand up and didn’t feel any soreness was due to the fact that I was now seeing this from my body. I was outside of it. And as I hyperventilated, trying to make sense of what happened, I noticed that the ambulance had gotten to the street and had swiftly moved to scoop my brother and my body into the vehicle.

Dad was allowed inside, while another ambulance took care of checking the driver. I tried to get in too, but I couldn’t properly step into the vehicle that my legs and hands would phase though it.

I was hyperventilating harder as I saw the doors closed onto my face before the vehicle rushed through the streets to get to the closest hospital. I couldn’t exactly chase it running despite my body being seemingly incorporeal but… I tried.

I couldn’t just be put and hope for something to change. I refused to die like this!

As I started to run after the much-faster vehicle, I felt my body react to my desire to ‘catch up with the ambulance’. At first, it was my legs picking up speed, almost matching the pace I needed to go at, but still falling short.

If only I could-oooohhHHHHHHHH!!!

I thought of flying like a ‘ghost should’, but I was surprised when my legs vanished and a strange ghostly tail manifested that allowed me to fly over the ambulance. Eyes wide open, I was surprised by this development to the point of seeing myself going beyond the ambulance.

I turned around and tried to fix the pace in the flight, the experience a bit ‘relieving’ as I could keep up with the vehicle, but my brain was rattling with how many thoughts were hammering in the panic I was stuck with.

The entire chase lasted less than fifteen minutes, but it felt like I had gone through a mental marathon or two. My legs were back, and I could chase after my family as they were taken to the deepest corner of the hospital.

Dad was split on where to go as it became clear we were being treated in two different rooms, but he was told he couldn’t follow to check on Matt since he was contaminated and he may have to also be sterilized before leaving.

So, the big man that was Jonathan Murdock followed the table carrying me into the ICU where he could barely see what was happening before being also pushed out as doctors rapidly worked to stabilize me.

People were trying to reanimate, I could see this much, and I took a moment to calm down by looking at the various machines being deployed. We were in the pre-80s era, so my chances of artificial reanimation were quite low.

I saw doctors opening me up and noting that my ribs were broken a fair bit here and there. A nasty glance, while my arm was bruised but fixable. I knew I was going to die if someone didn’t do something super. Or rather, I was going to die if I didn’t do something super.

I was clearly a ghost, but I could have a level of tangibility as I could ‘feel’ stuff happening in my body. Maybe, if I just focused a moment, allowed my fingers into my body I could…

…

…

“D-Doctor, his ribs!” One of the assistants half-screeched, gaining the attention of the surgeons working on my seemingly done body.

“They are fixing themselves!” The closest surgeon commented in shock, baffled by this very development… and stunning me too as that hadn’t been part of the plan.

I just shifted the bones as carefully as possible, trying to not cut myself more or break the bone, but it was clear that my exertion was doing more than just moving bones. I was fixing it.

The ribs were mended, my organs slowly healing as I saw my hands electrically zapping all over my internal body. I was baffled by the sight, even more when the energy output caused me to briefly appear in front of the docs.

I wasn’t sure why that happened, but I noticed as my reflection appeared for a split second on most mirror-like surfaces. And I saw myself- my hair was white, my eyes were green and I was… well, a ghost.

Did I just pull a Fucking Danny Phantom?

That was the last thought I got through before being suddenly ‘sucked inside’ my body and being deprived of consciousness. A mixture of pain and sedatives had me stuck in the shell that would have turned into a corpse if not for my intervention and…

Two hours later, I woke up. Dad was happy, Matt had made it through the surgery for his eyes but… I could tell things were far from normal for me. Not when my eyes had suddenly turned permanently green.

—---------d-d-d-d—------

AN

Marvel time. Again! This time, we go back even further, and John/Mike becomes the Phantom (Kid)!

Next time, Mike trains his powers, gets a job to help his dad around, keep company with his brother and… ends up facing some unsavory individuals!

…Can I also entertain you with a Danny Phantom Opening parody mixed with ‘Do the Hustle’?