The Shadow of a Hero

Chapter 4

I walk into the arena with my traveling bag only to be attacked by a big, black, slobbery blob.

"Get off of me Mrs. O' Leary." I wheeze. She thankfully listens and releases me. The sound of chuckling tells me that Will has already arrived, his own bag in hand. "Ready?" I ask the overly sunny healer.

"Yep." He responds way to peppy for for this early in the morning.

Mrs. O' Leary bends down so that it's easier to mount her. "Lets get this over with." I mumble as I climb on. Will follows my lead and when we are both boarded, Mrs. O' Leary starts running towards the wall.

My world is drenched in darkness and the temperature drops low enough to see my breath in the air. Then comes the voices. While most people (not like that many living people travel through the shadows often) find the words uttered by the dead souls that pass through the shadow realm unnerving, they are nothing compared to the moanful wails of the spirits who remain imprisoned in cages of darkness reserved for the few people born under the mark of the underworld. I start drowning in the whispers of lost souls and feel as my very essence starts to fade into nothing more than a wisp of myself. The feeling of someone's arms wrapping around me act like an anchor to pull me back to reality. I really hope Mrs. O'Leary knows where she's going, because I don't know how much longer I can resist the siren like voices. Finally black starts transforming into a light grey allowing colors to start bleeding through the darkness then the world of light comes into existence.

Although it looks cozy, a secluded farm house wouldn't be my first choice for the world's most famous heroes' base of operations. What should be a tranquil scene is ruined by the overly muscular, blonde, super soldier brandishing an ax in our direction. I look back at Will hoping he can do the talking, but the lack of color in his face makes it clear that he isn't feeling up to the task. Captain America lowers his impromptu weapon slightly as he takes notice of us and not just the giant dog that appeared out of no where.

"What was that?" Will practically shouts causing Mr. Star Spangle himself to drop the ax in surprise.  The super solider quickly retrieves his weapon as I slide off of Mrs. O'Leary's back instead of answering. 

"Excuse me, but who-" Captain America starts before Will holds up the universal sign for one minuet and stuns him into silence. Will tries to demount, but he hasn't quite recovered from shadow traveling and promptly falls on the ground. The Captain looks around in utter confusion, and I have a hard time restraining myself from busting out laughing at the entire situation. "Who in the world are you people?" The super soldier tries again.

Will gives me a 'we'll talk about this later' look before getting up and brushing himself off. I would have helped him, but phasing through him really wouldn't help my case at the moment.

"I'm Will Solace and this is Ni-" He's cut off by my elbow jamming into his side.

"You can call me the Ghost King." It's clear that Captain America isn't to pleased with my lack of a decent answer, but not even Will's pathetic death glare can convince me to willingly give my identity over to a secret government organization.

With Will being the peacemaker that he is; he automatically notices the traces of tension in the air, and rushes to resolve it. "Why don't we go inside, and we can answers any questions you might have." His words seem to have the opposite effect as Captain gets into a better defensive stance.

"This is getting us no where." I exclaim before expanding my senses, grabbing onto the shadow that the ax is casting, and pulling. The ax is ripped out of the hands of the super soldier and flys into mine. "Let's talk inside." I tell him, not really making it sound like a suggestion, as I walk towards the shell shocked avenger.

As I pass by the frozen man he comes to his senses and takes a swig towards my head. I duck under the ax blade, grab his wrist, swing around so that I'm behind him, and put one arm around his neck in a choke hold while the other holds his arm between his shoulder blades. He grits his teeth, but doesn't move. 

"Your going to have to try a lot harder than that to take me down; I'm not some fake Hitler that you can knockout with one punch." I release him from my hold and start heading in the direction of the petite farmhouse with Will shaking his head in disappointment following behind me. "You coming Twinkle Toes?" I call behind me when I reach the door. He shakes himself out of his daze, and pushes past us gruffly into the houses. We follow him in.

One look at the interior and it suddenly becomes obvious why he didn't want to let strangers into their base. If the drawings and crayons are any indication than not only civilians are living here, but children too.

"Who are they?" A familiar voice asks. I look in the direction of the voice to see three more people in a doorway with a red haired woman pointing a gun at me. Will almost hyperventilating with happiness beside me lets me know Hawkeye was the one to speak without even looking. "Ghosts King?" He continues completely confused.

"You know him?" Captain America asks in surprise while the other two people are just completely lost, but at least the lady lowered her weapon slightly.

"Yes, No, Maybe, I don't know. I saw him in a dream, but I don't know what he's doing here." Hawkeye tries and fails to explain. Thankfully I'm saved from having to come up with an explanation by another person throwing open the front door.

"I know how to find Ultron" The newcomer exclaims excitedly until he sees Will and I.

"Who are these kids?" He asks, his enthusiasm dampened slightly.

"Maybe we should explain a few things." Will looks around to see if anyone is willing to disagree with his suggestion. No one does, probably because everyone is too confused to know what the right response it. 

Explaining it is then. This is going to be a long quest.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. It all belongs to Rick Riordan and Marvel.