#Bruce Franklin | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

finemealcreates · 2 months ago

Text

Some Assembly Required

Danny can’t say he had expected to hear an explosion on his way to work, but he does. He lets out a deep sigh, ducking into an alley before he lets the familiar jolt of his transformation rush through him. Then, he’s taking off into the air.

There! In the distance, the SHIELD helicarrier is … in the water?

Danny’s eyes widen as he quickly flies over to it. Sure, he may not be legally allowed to exist, but people need him. He’s not strong enough on his own to stop the helicarrier from sinking, but he can at the very least help with evacuation.

Quickly he phases into the helicarrier and begins to grab people. Most of the agents resist his help, but he ignores them and drops them off on lifeboats or at evacuation points.

“You’re welcome!” he shouts over his shoulder as they fire at him, letting the blasts go through him.

Before he can head back into the helicarrier, though, he sees a ship shoot up into the air with a (tunnel? Elevator? Whatever) attached to it.

“That can’t be good,” Danny mutters to himself as he flies over to investigate.

A man built similarly to his father is floating in the air, eyes glowing blue with a long beard and even longer hair. He’s holding a man (is that Director Fury?) in the air, spouting some nonsense Danny can’t quite hear. But Fury contorts in the air and Danny glares at the stranger, hands glowing.

That’s when a hammer hits the floating man in the head, and Fury drops.

Quickly, Danny changes directions and catches Fury.

“Phantom?” Fury asks, baffled.

Understandable, Danny’s been evading Fury for years. He doesn’t even know if the super spy knows what his identity is, he’s gone to great lengths to hide it. Besides, it’s not like Fury yet has the tech to be able to detect Danny.

“Threaten to kill me later, focus on the big dangerous guy now,” Danny retorts, flying Fury to shore quickly.

Danny spots Ant-Man on the shore, Wasp beside him. Danny smiles somewhat, Ant-Man has always been one of the good scientists.

“Please don’t piss him off any more, Fury. I know you’re good at it, but it’s not helping,” Danny says before he takes off into the air again, leaving the trio down on the shore.

He flies back to the guy just in time to hear part of his spiel.

“Fury called me Graviton because he knew. He knows I can control gravity! And when you control gravity, you control everything!” the dickwad exclaims.

“What about things that aren’t affected by gravity?” Danny snarks, shooting Graviton with a beam before becoming incorporeal.

Thor (the Asgardian, was it?) attempts to land his own blow and is blocked by the man.

“I may not be able to control the gravity around a ghost,” Graviton spits out, “but I can control the gravity of your friend!”

With that, Danny watches as Graviton increases the gravity on the other hero, sending him into the water.

Danny speeds off after Thor. He doesn’t know if Asgardians can drown, but he doesn’t want to find out.

He speeds passed who he’s 99% sure is Wasp as he dives into the water. Thor is sinking deeper and deeper, sand beginning to engulf him.

Floating towards Thor, he grabs the man’s hand and makes him incorporeal with him, causing him to be immune to Graviton’s powers. Thor nods at him in gratitude as Danny flies them out of the ocean.

“I don’t know if I can release you without causing you to go back down,” Danny admits.

“Do not worry about it, friend! I will attempt to call my hammer to my hand regardless,” Thor replies, oddly proper as he holds a hand out and focuses.

Nothing happens, and they both hear a loud boom! before watching Iron Man get flung into space.

Danny sighs deeply as he looks at Thor.

“Go after him! If I am once again submerged in the water, I shall be fine. Us Asgardians are not as susceptible to drowning at Mortals are,” Thor assures.

Danny doesn’t know whether or not to be offended by that as he releases Thor, taking off into space after Iron Man.

He does his best to focus on saving the man, he’s not sure if Iron Man’s suit has been adjusted for space travel, and not getting distracted by the fact that he’s in space.

Iron Man fires his repulsors multiple times, but keeps getting pushed further and further back. He doesn’t have enough power to resist Graviton’s own powers pushing him further and further back.

Harrumphing, Danny zips towards Iron Man. As soon as he touches the man’s suit, he goes incorporeal and his repulsors shoot him forward suddenly. Danny keeps a hold on the man as he gets a hold of himself, realizing what is happening.

Iron Man turns his head towards Danny, and he can practically feel the eyebrow raise behind the helmet.

“Phantom? Aren’t you a ghost?” Iron Man states dumbly.

“Obviously,” Danny replies monotonously.

“But aren’t ghosts … ya know,” Iron Man stumbles.

“Evil?” Danny offers, making a show of rolling his eyes. “Yeah that’s what the G.I.W. says anyway.”

“So why are you helping me?” Iron Man asks.

“Do you want me to not help you? I can let go and let you get pushed deeper and deeper into space if you want—”

“Nope, I’m okay, thank you,” Iron Man interrupts, giving Danny a thumbs up.

“Yeah that’s what I thought,” Danny mutters, flying them back down to the fight.

The sight that awaits them is a chunk of land beginning to fall back into the ground. Danny sees Thor begin to fly under the land mass, to slow its fall. He releases Iron Man and rushes to join Thor, hearing Iron Man follow behind him.

All three of them slow the descent of the land mass. When the ground is about to hit the bottom of the ocean, he waves Thor and Iron Man off.

“Go! I can phase through this, you two can’t.”

Surprisingly, they listen to him and leave him to handle it as they get out of there.

Only once the island is secure does Danny phase through the earth and pop up above ground.

He arrives topside just in time to see Iron Man charging a beam at Graviton, and quickly matches it with his own ecto blasts. Together, they push him into the ground causing a mini crater.

Danny winces at the damage they did, but he knows for a fact the area has been cleared. So at least there won’t be any civilian casualties from that attack.

“You need help, Franklin,” Ant-Man says, standing atop the crater they just formed.

Danny hovers over Graviton as he watches Wasp zip down toward him.

“Or perhaps some more zapping!” Wasp threatens.

“Enough!” Graviton yells, hands raising.

Danny goes incorporeal as he quickly zips down and grabs Ant-Man. They are able to stay steady as Graviton exerts his power, forcing everyone else to their knees.

“Even though you are incorporeal, ghost, I can still stop your attacks! You can’t touch me!” Graviton laughs.

Danny frowns, it dawning on him that he could try to overshadow Graviton. But, if he doesn’t completely overshadow the man, it could lead to more destruction if Graviton fights the shadowing.

“I can’t do anything to him,” Danny admits to Ant-Man, “except make sure that you or someone else isn’t affected.”

Ant-Man frowns but nods in understanding to Danny, and Danny can tell the man is thinking quietly next to him.

“I’m the strongest being in the universe!” Graviton raves, laughing as he holds debris up in the air.

“Are you sure about that?” a gruff and deep voice asks, before the Hulk jumps down on top of Graviton.

The Hulk smashes against Graviton’s gravity shield, pushing the other man further into the Earth.

Danny takes a deep breath and focuses, with Graviton’s focus on the Hulk maybe Danny can make this work.

He splits into two, then four, then enough for everyone. Danny’s sweating, weakened by the exertion of splitting himself up multiple times. It’s like playing multiplayer on one TV, his vision is split into numerous sections. Yet, he knows he can control himself and the duplicates have some section of his consciousness.

Each Danny goes to a hero, making the heroes incorporeal. The only exception is the Hulk’s Danny, as making the Hulk incorporeal would be more of a nuisance than anything else at the moment.

“Phantom, can’t ghosts overshadow people?” Iron Man asks his duplicate.

“If I overshadow him and he resists? His power would be going haywire, potentially causing more destruction than he currently is,” the duplicate answers, giving Iron Man a look. “Besides, I’d have to not be split up to attempt an overshadowing right now. Do you not want to be immune to the potential fallout that would happen?”

“Well we have to do something,” Wasp insists.

“Trust the Hulk,” her duplicate answers, all eyes on the fight. “And wait for the right moment to strike.”

All of them are tensed, ready to attack where they can. Hulk’s duplicate flies around, anxious to try and sneak a blast in.

“Stop it you blasted beast!” Graviton growls, hands extended and holding Hulk down. Danny and his duplicates release the incorporeal-ness and they all swoop down to attack him while his focus remains on the Hulk.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about all of you!” Graviton says, raising his other hand and pushing them all back.

Gravity forces all of them down, and forces all of Danny’s duplicates back to himself.

With a grunt, Danny goes incorporeal again, but doesn’t have the energy to bring his duplicates back.

“It’s draining me too much to stay duplicated,” Danny admits to them, flying above where most of them are being pushed against the ground.

“Just focus on hitting him! We’ll focus on getting up,” Iron Man grunts.

Danny nods as he flies close to Graviton, whose focus has returned mainly to the Hulk.

“Why won’t you stay down,” Graviton grunts, exerting more force on Hulk who gets shoved deeper and deeper into the Earth, yet keeps moving.

“Maybe you’re not as strong as you think!” Danny exclaims, forming an ecto blast in his hand.

As soon as he tries to shoot it, though, it blasts backwards and through Danny.

“Perhaps you’re not as smart as you think,” Graviton snaps back, a sneer on his face. “I may not be able to keep you down, but you can’t land a hit on me!”

Graviton seems to increase the gravity on the Hulk, and Danny watches as he strains against it. Graviton growls as Danny flies to the other side of Graviton and debates if he would get pushed back if he went corporeal enough to hit Graviton with his stinger.

Yet, he doesn’t get a chance to think about it before Graviton lifts dozens of shipping containers in the air, then throws them down on top of the Hulk to keep him down.

“Good luck powering through that!” Graviton laughs as Danny changes tactics and soars down towards where Hulk is buried.

He barely manages to begin to phase through the shipping container when Graviton suddenly lets out a yelp and smacks at the back of his neck. The shipping containers are thrown away as Hulk smashes out of them, Gravtion’s effect clearly gone again.

Danny pauses his flight as he watches Hulk jump up and smack Graviton down. As Hulk goes to continue his attack, Graviton sends Hulk high into the air, aiming shipping containers at him.

With a slight growl, Danny changes tactics and begins to fly up to Hulk. Danny sees the Wasp follow him in the air as the rest focus on attacking Graviton.

Hulk begins to fall, but Wasp and Danny are right there with him.

Wasp uses her blasts to split a shipping container in two, while Danny uses his powers to make Hulk incorporeal when a shipping container gets too close (if he makes him incorporeal the entire fall, his punch won’t have as much strength behind it without gravity’s help).

Hulk turns to both of them, a quizzical look on his face.

“You’re … helping me?” Hulk asks, confusion so painfully clear in his voice.

“That’s the question you want to be asking right now?” Wasp questions.

“What Wasp means is of course we’re helping you,” Danny pipes up. “Besides, I know what it’s like to be unfairly labeled as a villain.”

Hulk’s face goes soft for just a moment, before twisting into something fierce. He turns back to Graviton, smirk on his face.

When Hulk lands on Graviton, a creator is formed underneath Graviton.

Immediately, Graviton shoots a hand out and pushes a chunk of the Earth up underneath Hulk to get him away, seemingly keeping Hulk pinned to the piece of Earth.

Iron Man and Danny beam Graviton with their combined blast’s, pushing the man back. Graviton responds by picking up another piece of earth, and moving it to smoosh Iron Man and Danny against the other piece of Earth he raised up.

Danny grabs Iron Man and makes him incorporeal as they watch Ant-Man go big and throw a ship on top of Graviton.

“Holy shit, I thought that dude was called Ant-Man, how’d he go so big?” Danny questions, mouth agape.

“Well, when he goes big I think Wasp calls him Giant-Man,” Iron Man comments, as if that explains anything.

“I have more questions than before,” Danny replies.

Before they can move towards Graviton, thunder rings throughout the air as dark clouds form above, lightning crackling.

“Thor,” Danny breathes out, eyes wide as he shrinks instinctually at the sight of the lightning.

“For Midgard!” Thor yells, swinging his hammer in a downward motion, pointing at Graviton.

Danny pulls Iron Man back, out of the blast range as Thor leaves a giant crater in the ground. After Danny’s ears stop ringing and he stops shaking slightly, he peers down into it.

Graviton is still there, but he looks … like he couldn’t fight any longer. He looks severely burnt, eyes half-closed and unfocused.

Iron Man and Danny join the rest of the group at the edge of the crater, looking down at Graviton. Wasp shoots him with one final blast, making him fall the rest of the way. He’s even drooling a bit.

“And I think that’s it,” Danny states, a slight smile on his lips.

That’s when, of course, a loud megaphone sounds. Danny turns and sees the Hulkbusters and G.I.W. off to the side. Safe, and not interfering of course. Why get their hands dirty when they could wait for the fight to be over?

“Attention!” a too-familiar voice starts. “Hand Phantom and the Hulk over! They’re fugitives of the country!”

Hulk growls and gets into a defensive position, while Danny floats next to Hulk, hand outstretched and ready to retreat.

“I got us, big guy. Trust me,” Danny whispers to Hulk, eyes meeting.

Hulk nods and Danny smiles.

“If you want them you’re going to have to get through me!” Iron Man states, standing in front of Hulk and Danny.

The rest of the team also move forward, making themselves a physical barrier between the duo and their enemies.

Danny and Hulk spare glances at each other, surprise clear on their faces.

“Stand down!” Fury’s voice yells over everyone, hand raised to stop any protests. “We have bigger problems to deal with. Like the fact that seventy-four villains escaped and need to be recaptured and brought in.”

“Yeah, and exactly how did that happen, Director Fury?” Iron Man asks, getting in Fury’s face.

Danny is still tense, hovering beside Hulk. Ready to make them invisible and incorporeal the moment it’s needed.

“We don’t know yet,” Fury answers, which shocks Danny.

Sure, Danny’s pretty sure Fury doesn’t know his secret identity, but he assumes Fury knows pretty much everything else. He’s like … Batman? Somehow, someway, the dude knows things he shouldn’t because he’s that good.

“But while we’re finding out, you could help us. Join SHIELD, make a difference, together,” Fury continues, extending a hand towards them.

“Absolutely not,” Hank says before anyone can say anything, storming up to get in Fury’s face. “This is your fault, isn’t it Fury? You had Franklin working on something, and then he became Graviton. And then caused this.”

Hank gestures to the destruction around them. Danny winces, wondering if there were things they could’ve done better to have limited the amount of destruction.

“Fury’s right,” Iron Man pipes up, all heads whipping towards him.

“You of all people are going to join SHIELD?” Wasp asks speculatively.

“No, of course not!” Iron Man exclaims, clearly slightly offended by the implication. “I mean about us, working together. Making a difference as a group.”

“If we worked together, we could avenge those who these villains hurt,” Danny pipes up.

“The Avengers!” Wasp suggests, bright smile on her face.

“Hey, that’s got a nice ring to it,” Hulk comments, offering a smile.

“Director Fury,” an agent starts. Danny changes focus to be on that man instead, listening in on the conversation. “The security footage is back online. Graviton didn’t wake up until after the prison break, it couldn’t have been him who caused this.”

“Then who did?” Fury mutters to himself, eyes narrowing as he thinks.

Danny’s eyes narrow at them, before turning back to his new team. Interesting.

#finemeal art #finemeal fics #finemeal writes #dp x marvel #jeff the land shark #danny fenton #tony stark #nick fury #hank pym #janet van dyne #franklin hall #thor odinson #bruce banner #guys in white #Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

5 notes · View notes