Trans-dimensional Migrant

Rating: T

Pairings: None

Ages: Canon, besides Danny who is 19.

Summary: Tony Stark wasn't the only one to fall back through the portal above New York. Hulk managed to catch Tony, while Thor managed to catch the second unintentional free-faller. When they eat shawarma with the stranger, it's a bit odd. When he understands some of Tony's engineering jargon, it gets suspicious. Then they read the diary of the stranger's late mother, one Madeline Ann Fenton… Tony's entire world tilts sideways.

Thor barely has time to react to Cap's observation that there was another figure falling through the sky. He swung Mjolnir quickly and launched into the air as Hulk slammed into a building with Iron Man dangling in his grasp. The god grabbed the smaller Midgardian and landed a bit more gracefully than the Hulk.

Iron Man and the mystery boy were laid beside each other. Captain America had already determined that the boy's heartbeat was strong while Tony wasn't breathing. Cap had to stop himself from laughing when Tony woke up from Hulk's below and started to babble on about shawarma. Eventually, the genius noticed the other person next to him.

"You guys find some kid in the rubble?" Tony asked, gazing at the boy's face. He was young, just starting to become a man with bristle starting to grow on his chin. He had very dark hair that was nearly black and he was wearing very worn looking clothes.

"No, Man of Iron, he fell through the portal with you," Thor explained, only for Tony to respond quicker than they others were expecting or thought was polite in Cap's opinion.

"Impossible. I didn't see any sign of a kid floating in space. Also, you said he was alive and healthy. He had nothing to protect him from the vacuum of space if he fell through with me," Tony grunted and leaned up a bit more, not wanting to be on his back any longer.

"We just fought against an alien army and you're telling me that this specifically impossible?" Cap asked, letting a bit of frustration through at how out of the loop he felt near consistently.

"The odds dictate there would be aliens, easy. That's math. A normal kid falling through a portal that led to space is not," Tony answered gesturing with his hands after blowing off Cap's question.

"Perhaps, this is were we are mistaken." Tony and Steve both looked up at Thor who was gazing at the boy. "Perhaps he is not normal as you say." When they glanced back at where the boy had been laying, they were stunned to find him gone.

zz

"So, you're saying he just, disappeared?" Bruce asked as the rest of the team sat around eating their shawarma. Bruce didn't remember anything about a boy from his time as the Hulk, so Thor, Steve, and Tony had giving their points of view.

"Do you think something hostile got through the portal?" Clint asked, narrowing his eyes.

"He didn't lose power like the others when the mothership exploded," Tony quipped before wiping his mouth clean.

"He seemed completely normal," Steve expressed as the bell on the front door ringed to signal that the owners of the joint have stepped out for a bit.

"I'm sorry, but who are you guys?" The sudden strange unaccounted-for voice caused everyone to jump up and arm themselves, which mostly fell to Clint, Natasha, and Steve.

"Show yourself." Natasha demanded. Everyone's eyes were darting around the room.

"Uh, you guys just pulled out weapons, why should I show myself. I've fallen for that one before."

"He has a point," Tony expressed, causing some of the others to give him a look.

"We can't really trust you either," Steve spoke up, still in a battle-ready stance, sans his cowl.

"Are you guys, like, superheroes?" There was a quiet that came over the group at the seemingly naïve and innocent question. "I thought those were only in comic books, but then again I did fall through that portal…" The voice seemed to murmur to itself as though trying to piece together their own timeline of events.

"Wait, comic books?" Tony pressed. Natasha gave him a short glare, she was better at interrogation after all, but Tony was curious and just shrugged at her.

"Well yeah, people with superpowers don't exist."

"Then what are you?" Tony returned. There was a pause.

"A freak. That's what they called me, but my name is Danny," with that, the boy from earlier faded into view, but was now wearing some type of hazmat suit, wore a tattered purple backpack, had green eyes, white hair, and exuded an aura around him.

zz

After the debriefing of the battle the Avengers had taken place in, the group and Fury pretty quickly determined that this particular Daniel James Fenton, so recited the stranger, did not exist. Danny seemed a bit indifferent about that, expressing that perhaps he had slipped through a portal in the Infinite Realms, a place he said connected to anywhere and anytime.

When the teen had determined they weren't going to attack him immediately, he decided to tell them his story.

"Why are you being so open about such a thing?" Natasha asked, suspicious. The boy only shrugged and glanced around the building S.H.I.E.L.D had occupied for the time being.

"I mean, I've been on the run for years. People… they wanted to understand my powers and biology. I'm… one of a kind. I meant it when I said my world doesn't have superpowers. The point though is that I've tried to find someplace to stay and if I find them to be untrustworthy then I leave. I'm tired of getting my hopes up so I don't. If it's some kind of trap then I'll escape. I've done it before."

A silence permeated the room before Danny took a breath and began.

"All my life, my parents worked on a machine that would punch a whole through dimensions and access the Infinite Realms. They theorized that the study of the creatures there, often called ghosts, as well as the potential to harness green energy from the zone would benefit mankind." Danny sighed. "My parents were brilliant, really, but they were also a bit eccentric and sometimes got distracted. My dad more so than my mom. Something happened and well… Our house was exposed to this green energy that raced through the building. It burned. We all were dying in hospital beds afterwards. My older sister was the first to go, then dad, then mom. I thought I was next but…"

Danny frowned and gazed at them in sadness. "I didn't die with them. I was left behind. And then, I started to wake up floating, parts of my body would vanish and then reappear. Men came after that. Men that I just knew weren't kind. I escaped. I managed to control my powers just enough to sneak home. I packed a bag, took some things mom asked me to look at after she was gone and left. I was ten years old."

"You said you escaped before?" Fury asked, staring hard at the teen. Danny looked distant for a moment before he started to unzip his hazmat suit.

"They wanted to know if I had organs…" A horrified silence passed through everyone present at the beginnings of a Y-shaped incision. "They said ghosts don't feel pain. I was… God, that was already four years ago now." Danny paused and drifted off into silence before he sighed. "I had to cause a meltdown of a reactor of some kind to get myself a chance to get away. I didn't help them when I heard them screaming. I could phase through it all once I was out of their collar. I usually go towards people that need help and do something even if I scare them afterwards, but… I didn't go back that time. Not for them." A few people flinched when the teen let out a somewhat deepthroated growl of pain. "I wanted them to figure out whether or not they had organs too."

Tony suddenly stood up, causing his chair to slide back, before quickly exiting the room. Steve glanced at Fury and Natasha, wondering why they didn't call Tony back.

"…" Danny remained silent for a long while after that.

zz

Months later found the Avengers living in Stark Tower or the Avenger's tower since that was what it was being called now. Danny had also been allowed to join them, though he was still on what Fury called probation, which was pretty much imprisonment in Tony's opinion, but the teen seemed very calm and at peace with his sentence, seeing as he had a place to sleep and food to eat. Tony had eventually gotten the kid some clothes without asking and Danny had simply stared at him for a moment before smiling and thanking him.

What the other Avengers, including Tony himself, were startled by was how Danny was able to somewhat keep up with some of the jargon Tony talked about when referring to machines. Danny had merely explained that his parents had been very smart and made a bunch of gadgets. He'd even helped his dad before for fun because he liked copying his parents when he was younger. Tony had pushed for a bit more.

"And? Keep it coming Casper, you've got our attentions."

"Dad did have this awful habit of putting the name Fenton on everything though," Danny murmured fondly. Clint had smirked and looked at Tony. "Like Stark?"

"No." Danny cut in before Tony could quip something back at Clint. "When I mean everything, I don't just mean all the gadgets. Dad made his own brand of toilet paper. I mean he put his name on everything." Danny expressed, flushing slightly. "Probably why I didn't have any friends, but I loved them all the same."

Clint had bust out laughing while Tony looked at Danny as though he couldn't comprehend, which was a feat.

"Toilet paper?" Tony muttered before pinching his nose. Danny only laughed, which turned out to be the first time they had heard him laugh so freely before. It was lighter than they had expected, even though his voice had been deepening from puberty finishing up with him.

zz

It was only by accident that they ever found out so quickly. Tony had been trying to find something in his old files about a project he'd thought about ages ago but had only recently gotten interested in again. He was going to see what Bruce and Danny thought, because getting an outside point of view was interesting and a bit amusing even if he wasn't going to listen.

Danny and Bruce had been watching him, when Danny had noticed a Newspaper clipping sticking out that had a familiar face. He reached out and tugged it free, not noticing the nervous looks Bruce gave him and Tony's back. Danny blinked in confusion as he stared at a face he'd seen only one other place. Danny abruptly placed the picture back on the counter and turned to walk towards his backpack in the corner. Tony had startled at the sound and he was frowning at the picture that Bruce kept glancing at.

"I didn't mean to unearth that thing." The genius muttered. The picture was of his parents with himself and his older sister. The title on the article read, Missing: The daughter of Howard and Maria Stark. Tony snapped himself out of his memories when Danny suddenly placed a brown leather book on the table and flipped open the pages. Then Danny started to read with a trembling voice.

"All I remember is that my name was Madeline Ann Stark, something about a super soldier, and the color green. I can vaguely recall faces and some other parts, but so much of my memory about those early days of confusion has faded with time. I'm not home, not anymore. Even if the streets are similar and so many things are the same… Once I had gone to school again, history class was hard. Basic things were much the same, but so many details were different. I was laughed at a lot for my mistakes. The teachers said I had a great imagination…" Danny sucked in a breath while the other two men were frozen. "I can't stop thinking about that green. So much green and I was floating. I think I'm going to try the entering the Physics of Ectoplasm club. I seen my two friends collect a small sample of ectoplasm before. Of course, it faded away before we could prove our findings. That color… it was that same green. Jack Fenton and Vlad Masters are the only two others in the club, but they're my good friends. Something has to come of this. I know I'm missing something. Even if green is the only clue I have, I'll figure it out… No, we will figure it out."

Danny slowly raised his head from his reading to look at Tony who was looking a bit white. Bruce looked like his mind had drawn a blank. Danny flipped a few pages before he slid out a picture. It was a dirty and torn picture and obviously a cheaply made copy that would've suited a child's uses well. It was an exact replica of the one on the Newspaper clipping.

Tony looked back and forth between the two photos rapidly, seeing the same young figure of his long dead sister, parents, and a younger him. He snapped his gaze up and locked eyes with Danny. Then, he slowly reached out as if Danny would suddenly disappear and even though he technically could, Danny remained still, watching the man closely. Tony's hand cupped the side of the teen's head. At that point, Danny couldn't control himself anymore, seeing as he'd never thought in a million years that he still had family out there somewhere. Fat tears started to roll down Danny's face and he felt himself sobbing, his shoulders shaking. He gazed at the ground and tried to get himself back under control. He hadn't even cried this hard when he'd lost his family.

"I..I'm..I'm..Suh-Sorry."

"Hey." Danny slowly glanced up and he almost gasped when he saw Tony's face again. He'd been around these people for a few months and while he and Bruce got along best with the genius, he'd never seen the somewhat softer look in Tony's eyes until that moment. "Welcome Home, Casper."

I've been on a Marvel binge recently, specifically Iron Man. I can't help it, RDJ is a great actor. Just wanted to write a little something. I've been really busy as usual. I have an internship coming up, so that'll take up most of my time. I'm still here though, if you need me. I'll get back to working on my longer stories in time. Thank you all for your patience!

P.S. when Danny says he's one of a kind, that's because in the DP AU of this oneshot, he never met Vlad. Makes you wonder huh? I feel like a slew of good crossovers could be made by using Maddie as a sister to other characters in fiction. Though we do meet her sister, Maddie seems a bit more of a mystery than Jack does. From how he acts and mentions his father, it seems like any family Jack had would be very similar to himself. I think Maddie could be Tony Stark's sister, Tom Dupinis sister in Miraculous, and even Inko Midoriya's sister, though the last one is more of a stretch, but quirks am I right? Anywho, that's all. Until next time!

P.P.S If anyone wants to pick up this story idea PLEASE tell me. I think this is one of my favorite concepts.