A kick to the ribs sent him tumbling across the plain. Evan scrambled up to his feet within seconds, the bitter taste of grass and blood lingered in his mouth. He stood there with his guard up watching and waiting for his opponent to make a move. It was not a long wait as moments later she came charging at him.
Swatting aside a fist rocketing towards his face, he made to capitalize on her mistake via a blow to her stomach when a sudden gust of wind blew his hair into his eye. The distraction cost him dearly as a spinning elbow to aimed for his temple.
She was a fan of headshots.
Evan made to beat a hasty retreat when he tripped on a rock of all things and that was the end of the match. Domino had him pinned down and he couldn't do more than offer token resistance and futilely thrash around. He tapped out after he started seeing spots in his vision.
"...Your powers are bullshit I hope you know that." Evan grumbled as the woman finally got off his back, said woman merely gave a loud bark of laughter at his disgruntled appearance. He was busy picking blades of grass out of his hair and swiping away the dirt smeared all over his face while she looked fresh as a daisy.
"Pluh-lease~! As if I needed any luck to whoop your sorry ass."
Evan didn't dignify that with a response, mostly because they both knew it was true. He could handle himself easily enough in a street fight. A bit of creativity, inborn reflexes, and decent pain tolerance was all you really needed against most common street thugs.
Against a trained mutant mercenary?
He might as well be the unloved stepchild with how regularly he was getting beaten every week. Accelerated healing and enhanced stamina was both a blessing and a curse. Evan could go for far longer without basic biological needs such as food or rest and his trainers basically didn't need to worry about holding back so much. Broken arms? No problem, just walk it off and you'll be fine after a good night's sleep. You're sore? If you have the energy to bitch and moan you can do another lap or two around the gym.
The fact that he had an entire team of hired professionals that meticulously planned everything from his sleep, diet, and exercise routine meant that he really had no excuses to not push himself when his body was clearly able to keep up with the rather insane schedule. His mind just needed to catch up with his new physical capabilities and as a certain killer-for-hire would lovingly say "man up, and get with the fucking program."
He absolutely hated it but damned if the results weren't clearly showing.
"Just you wait, I'll beat you yet. Gonna have to remember to tell Alfred to keep the yard well kept and make sure the grass is nice and fresh for you when I make you eat it."
Domino didn't reply and only gave him a rather impish smirk with a raised eyebrow as she drank her water bottle. He could practically feel the challenge behind those blue eyes. Just as he walked towards the cooler to grab a drink of his own, something splattered onto his shoulders.
"...Also, I'm so deducting the cost of my dry cleaning out of your paycheck."
Domino snorted and choked on her water. Good. Serves her right, Evan thought as he turned intangible and allowed the white mess to plop to the ground. Somewhere in the far distance, a bird cried in surprise as an emerald green blast blew it up leaving only charred feathers.
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The world was big.
No duh, right?
That's like saying the sky was blue or the ocean was wet, but Evan didn't think most people truly comprehend the simple statement. The world consisted of hundreds of countries, containing over seven billion people, and gave birth to countless cultures and languages. That was only counting this Earth and not all the alternate universes or timelines out there or the many aliens or supernaturals roaming around.
It was the height of stupidity to think he could fight the world by himself.
Even Gods could die here, and while his powers were interesting they were hardly too unique. Besides intangibility, he had the basic starter pack for most "cool" heroes: Strength, Speed, Durability, Flight, Energy blasts. Ghosts and Demons were a dime a dozen and while he was pretty sure he was different from the average ghost it was unlikely that would save him from any magician trying to hurt him.
Heck, Tony Stark could probably build some bullshit Ghost Buster armor after their second meeting- because comics-fuck-you- that's why.
Evan was definitely not the strongest, nor the fastest, or even smartest around. He wasn't a natural-born leader that could convince you to walk with him Hell and back. Heck, he was hardly the most charismatic, he wasn't even sure he could convince someone to not kick his teeth in when they got the chance.
He knew for a fact he was a downright asshole most of the time. Evan was lacking so much it wasn't even funny.
His biggest advantage as an "isekai" would normally be metaknowledge but considering how large the Marvel multiverse was- well it was dangerous if not outright stupid to rely on such spotty half-baked knowledge. Besides, he was not the most avid of readers in regards to comics and most of what he knew was more from cultural osmosis, wiki, and various cartoons than anything else.
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S.H.I.E.L.D, HYDRA, The Hand, A.I.M, and who knows what else have been lying in wait for years, decades, even entire centuries. Plotting their plans, building their foundation, and hiding their agents across every corner of the globe. Evan needed his own group that would secure his personal interests if he wanted to be more than a mere pawn in the game, a nameless casualty of their shadow wars, a puppet dancing to someone else's tune.
"Sir, your weekly report. Also, I must remind you that you have a meeting with Mr. Hammer this evening at 4 o'clock. It would be best not to be tardy." Alfred his butler, whom he absolutely most definitely did not hire solely because of the resemblance of another iconic British, placed the stack of papers on his desk. Blue eyes flicked to the nearby wall clock.
3:23...
Shit.
"Thanks, Alfred, I'm going to hop in the shower real quick, could you please have my suit and protein shake ready?" It tasted like crap but was chock full of everything a growing ghost boy needed to become big and stronk.
"Already done, master Blakefield. Your suit has already been iron and pressed on your bed and your thermos awaits you on the nightstand. Would you prefer the hot pink tie, or perhaps the one with dancing skeletons and smiling pumpkins?"
Damn, the man was good. It's been shy of a month and a half and Alfred already knew his habits and figured out how he worked.
Note to self, make sure my butler never has a reason to betray me. I don't think I'd like my chances of having the man as an enemy...
"Spooky please." It was the middle of June, but Halloween was timeless. Evan liked a fun splash of color every time he wore a suit. It brought him endless amusement every time he wore funny socks in a serious business meeting, a little inside joke he shared with Domino. All the uptight big wigs, trying to scam or make a deal with a kid in the animal socks. They were all looking down on him because of how young he was. Evan didn't think the joke would ever get old.
Living every day in constant gloom and doom was no way to live, and if he lost sight of the reasons he was seeking power in the first place in pursuit of it, then he might as well just off himself right now.
"An excellent choice as always sir, I'll get right on it."
It was a good thing that having ghost powers basically means he could always get the best deals.
Fun fact about overshadowing people- besides being able to feel their emotions and reading surface thoughts and memories, you're able to influence them. Statements said directly after becomes accepted and taken as the truth. Evan could tell an elderly woman she had stumbled upon a pack of wild lions and beaten them to death with her fists and she would believe it. No matter how unlikely, as long as there wasn't strict evidence to the countrary or they believe it wasn't absolutely impossible, then the mind itself would acknowledge it as an established fact without questioning it and often times even falsified its own memories.
And people have an incredible ability to delude themselves if nothing else.
Which was why he found it even more hilarious that telling people "it was aliens" was hit or miss half the time. Supers weren't common knowledge yet and the average person tended to tie extra-terrestials along with myths and legends. Ironic considering he was pretty sure more than half of "Humanity" had some inhuman gene or other supernatural elements to them. He couldn't wait until Thor came down and then see what kind of bullshit he could convince people of then.
Of course, these powers served more than just allowing him to pull off epic pranks.
It also made it laughably easy to convince one multi-millionaire Sheen Blakefield to adopt what he thought was his long lost son from a love affair years past. The old man didn't have any children so it didn't take much to make Evan his legitimate heir. A falsified blood test here, a pinch of guilt ridden dreams there, a couple dashing of restless nights ruminating on his old age and the fate of his business empire after his death and you got the perfect recipe a DIO approved takeover.
Add on some unnoticable corporate espionage and that he could forcefully have any contract he wants signed, and even a kid still learning economics 101 could turn a rather modest company into an booming success. Of course he only used his many supernatural advantages on a few of the more corrupt men and woman he had the displeasure of working with.
Osborn, Blakefield, and Hammer could suck it though.
"I wonder if... Nah if I just make him sign over his company it would probably raise a lot of red flags." Sometimes being in charge sucked. Urg, responsibility. He had to sit through long boring meetings, full of greasy old people who talked a lot but didn't have much- if anything- of worth to say, and the news reporters won't fuck off and leave him alone. Honestly, it was as impressive as it was mildly disconcerting.
Seriously, what the fuck? He could turn invisible, fly, and walk through walls, and they still somehow managed to always find him one way or another. Was this what Lex Luther had to deal with from Lois Lane? Considering Blake wasn't anywhere near as famous as the other man he could only shiver at the levels of harassment the other would have to put up with on a daily basis. Because really that would explain a lot- his True supervillain origins.
He got mobbed at a Mcdonalds once and couldn't leave the drive through for a literal hour as reporters and cameramen blocked off the damn driveway and cameras constantly blinded him. Fuckers even scratched his car with their equipment. He was half tempted to just run them all over- damn the consequences he had money!
Did Vlad Masters also have to deal with this bullshit? He sure hoped the cheesehead did so that he wasn't alone in his misery.
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"...Fuck me."
"Sorry, you can't afford me!" Taskmaster shouted from behind him.
Evan flipped the man off.
Perhaps if he kept glaring hard enough he'll spontageously develop heat vision- or rather the ghost version of it. He was pretty sure he saw it on the cartoon a few times. Sadly, Taskmaster's annoying grinning face didn't explode no matter how hard he tried. A pity.
"What's wrong Evan?" Domino asked without looking up. Even from where he was sitting across the room, he could see the royal flush she just played and the smug look in her eyes as she collected her winnings. You would think people would stop trying to test her luck by now, but nope, poker night has been padding her pockets very well for the past 5 weeks.
"Oh, nothing much. I just got an invite to an ancient secret society of the rich and powerful sociopaths club, some of whom are most definitely super powered psychopaths, most are probably plotting world domination in one form or another, and if I don't show up- well, it might or might not be a sign of disrespect. Then they'll probably blow up my house with me in it or something." He said with an almost casual tone before shrugging. "That's all. Anyways I see that Lucky Charms won again, what is this, the 17th time in a row now? What're you guys gonna try next? Russian Roulette?"
"..."
"..."
"Say what now?" Domino was understandably confused at the word salad that just got tossed in her face.
"I want a raise. You're not paying me enough to deal with that kind of bullshit."
"Screw you, I pay you to kick my ass on a regular basis, not for your sass."
... Maybe I could just blow their building up and call it a day? I mean, they're all a bunch of evil assholes anyways right? So who cares?