Phantom Without Fear 2 (Patreon)

Phantom Without Fear 2 - or ‘Do the Phantom, Mike Murdock!’ (MarvelxMinor!Danny Phantom, SI)

The weird extracorporeal experience I perceived that day was one that changed my life entirely.

When I woke up, I was hailed as a miracle kid, but while some doctors had wanted me to keep by my room through the duration of my stay in the hospital, I would dodge guards and go to my brother’s room.

One thing was to remember the various versions of how Matt was meant to go blink, another was to see with my own eyes how that manifested on a real person. The chemical spillage had damaged his upper face, not just his eyes. The doctors had cleaned it up in most part, with the eyes being the one thing they couldn’t patch up.

The first two days were tough. Matt was almost gone with his mind due to how heavily drugged he was to handle the pain. Dad was in a ‘strong’ shape, he looked unwell but he was holding up just right. I know that helping with Matt’s cures was going to be draining on the already difficult life we had, but I planned to make things change through the use of my new powers.

And yes, I knew those were permanent ones and not a one-time situation. It was one of the things I tried after I woke up and was given some privacy in the bathroom.

“I’m going ghost!”

…

Nothing happened. That was quite depressing at the times, but I tried to use another catchphrase. It was definitely a Shazam situation, so I had to rely on a specific wording to get it to happen. And, much to my delight, it proved to be the case.

“It’s Phantom Time!”

Two circles manifested, one above my head and one below my feet. Soon both rushed to meet in the middle, changing my frame and indeed turning me into a Danny Fenton’s Ghost Form lookalike.

The mirror in the bathroom reflected my form, so I knew that I wasn’t going to be invisible to others’ eyes. Good thing to know as I slowly learned more about myself. I couldn’t exactly test out all powers, but those I could such as intangibility proved to be easy to employ but, overall, draining to use at this point.

I definitely had to train to get better control and energy output to match up with the upcoming troubles in this universe. After all, while I could try to live a normal life, my brother was destined to be a vigilante, and the world has a thing to yank ‘retired heroes’ back on the line of duty.

So, I either was on active duty and prepared to handle any kind of shit hurled my way, planned and not, or I was going to be caught off-guard and potentially killed. Or Worse.

With that in mind, I was glad I could leave the hospital after a week. Dad was happy at least one of his sons was alive, but he was rather worried for Matt. He had recovered and could interact with us, but he had lost his sight.

I gave a glance at the list of medicines needed for Matt and… fuck, I had to get myself up and running to improve our household’s income. And I got an idea as I took notice of some ‘part-time jobs’ listed by one of the boards at school.

I hadn’t looked into doing stuff like that since it was too taxing on myself since I had to also handle homework and be a normal kid, but now it was necessary to step up my game and get cash flowing in.

After getting back home, I looked into the list I wrote down on some paper I had on myself. There were a few interesting ones, but I decided to try my luck with a job as a delivery boy at the nearest pizzeria.

It doesn’t sound like much considering the pay was miserable, but I had one advantage many delivery boys didn’t have. After getting through the trial day and surprising my boss when I got all deliveries done at half the time established with the customers, I was given a small bonus for the first week and then a five percent increase on my pay by the end of the first month.

This kind of job allowed me to go to an alley, morph in my alter ego and then, as I got intangibility on, I was soaring through the roofs of Manhattan and making my way to my destinations. I would return to normal in an affordable place and, once it was half-time the expected delivery, I would turn up to the client with the food. Still warm and still intact.

In less than a month there, I had almost doubled the income of the pizzeria, increased the reputation as the quality of the deliveries was excellent, and I would get some nice tips to further bolster what I was making.

Dad was baffled by my hard work, called me a ‘good sports’ and all for what I was doing, but I knew that I had to keep up the hard work to pay for most of Matt’s medicines to try and keep the man from getting involved with the Fixer.

It was working, somewhat, as he looked less desperate with the expenses. Still, I would find time to also check on my twin brother as Matt deserved some good company.

Matt was bound to leave the hospital after a month being there, and he was easily bored and quite lonely. My visits were praised as if I was some sort of celebrity to him, and it really made the effort of helping with the work even more worthwhile.

However, this occurrence led me to remember one thing as I saw a certain nun approach his room right as I was leaving it. I froze up as I realized it was her and she seemed to realize just as quickly that I had spotted her.

Instead of hail-mary-ing it, ‘Sister Maggy’ approached calmly and paused by the door. Bowing her head to me before she spoke. “I heard what happened to your brother, young man. My condolences.”

…

I didn’t speak back for a moment, contemplating on what to say or do. My human side, the one that was more ‘attached’ to the events that left the Murdock family so weak, wanted to snarl at her for daring to show her face here. I had all the rights to call her out, to tell her off, to decry her as the worst mother possible.

The worst part for me was that she was a nun. I always thought of nuns as those sort of ‘strict women with a degree of good morale to them’. This one? I had all the reasons to say she was none of that.

Yet… Matt was just there. He was going to pick up if I was too loud, and I didn’t want my rage to become a catalyst for further pain for him. Instead, I just closed the door and gave the nun a flat look.

“God has already graced us twice. He doesn’t need further blessing,” I remarked dryly, the woman picking up the hostility and clearly undeterred by it until- “I will not scream at you for what you want to do, but I will hold the door shut for as long as I need to for a doctor or our father to come here. We don’t need your pity.”

The bitterness was impossible to swallow. The woman looked apologetic, close to tears, but she left rather than worsen the scene she would have created. I remained put for a moment, hoping that she was gone and, once that worry was out of my system, I made sure to tell the doctor assigned to Matt about this unwanted visitor and to bar her entry in the room from now on.

I know that Maggy was supposed to be an important element in Matt’s life… but that was after his father was dead. It would be if dad died. And I wasn’t planning to let it happen by working my ass off to get our family’s economy solidly up and never let any sort of trouble come to bite our asses.

But while peace reigned within the Murdock family, I would soon learn that in Earth-616, the chances of a mere pizzeria being owned by a relative of the Maggia was quite high and…

That robberies from a hostile gang were a thing  to worry about.

—------d-d-d-d—-----

AN

Next time, Phantom Kid faces robbers and… ends up catching the attention of a rather ‘thankful’ Maggia group. BTW, the Maggia is like the Mafia, but it was formed by a demon in the 13th century and it kind of became something of an international organization split in continental districts, Europe having a ‘Boss of Bosses’ but America having none of that due to how splintered the groups are in the country and beyond.