"More like alley cats than bats, aren't you?" Plasmius taunted, sitting in the air as if he was lounging in a chair. "Look, I won't even move."
"He's right in front of the controls." Danny muttered.
"I'm hating this Dracula rip off more and more." Jason scoffed. "So guns are out of the question as long as he sits there."
At least for him, as Jason felt another tingle to his right, shooting the duplicate before it had a chance to reveal itself.
"Good thing melee's still an option." Dick putting his blaster up, he pulled out his escrima sticks in their stead.
Jason cracking his knuckles, "Oh this will be good, Danny. Think you can keep up?"
"Already healed." Danny patting the burnt mark on the shirt. He wondered how long his healing factor was going to last though. Probably best to go back to playing it cautious again, not that he had planned to be reckless.
Plasmius raised a brow, curious. He scoffed a laugh away, as he shifted his position back into a fighting stance.
Dick and Jason didn't waste any time and charged, using the tubes to block some of the blasts. Danny started to chase after, but felt a shiver down his spine. He turned to blast towards a duplicate, only to miss as it phased back into the wall behind him.
Danny frowned, trying to sense the air around him. Something in his gut, telling him that this was strange. He couldn't dwell on it as he turned back to the fight, running to close the distance between him and the others.
Dick kicked off one of the capsules, flipping in the air, before smacking his escrima sticks down on Plasmius. Plasmius was able to block the hit with a shield, tossing Nightwing back as it shattered. Dick flipping backwards so he would land on his feet, with a slight skid.
Jason took the opening to land a high-kick at the older-halfa, hitting Plasmius's abdomen. Plasmius wheezed with shock at being hit so easily, locking eyes with Jason. Allowing, Jason to get another hit in, punching his face so hard, it made him slam into the ground.
Dick following up, trying to get a hit in, only for Plasmius to phase into the ground by the time he slammed his escrima sticks down.
"Two for me." Jason teased his brother, feeling good about getting a hit in the bastard's face. Now if only he could do it a few hundred more times, he be satisfied.
Dick shook his head, "Don't count your vampires yet."
"I say, I must agree." A laugh rumbled, filling the room with duplicates of Plasmius.
Dick and Jason were quick to stand back to back as they were surrounded by duplicates.
"Where's Danny?" Dick muttered.
Jason's eyes widened under his domino mask, as he whipped his head back and fourth. He couldn't see past the large crowd of laughing duplicates. He growled, cursing at himself. He shouldn't have let the kid tail them. Idiot. Careless.
Dick gritted his teeth, swinging his escrima sticks. Preparing for battle.
"Ah, not really much of a hero, are you? How could you possibly lose a child?" Plasmius taunted as the crowd laughed. Every other one of them charging beams in their hand.
Jason growled, glaring at the smug bastard's faces. His fists clenched, as he bounced in place. Though they were by the closed portal, he didn't want to risk exploding again. So no guns, for now.
"I'm not sure, but how can you stand looking at yourself? Considering you look like a cheap dollar store Halloween Costume." Jason's eyes kept trying to search for Danny. He was going to tie a rope around that kid as a leash once this was through.
"Vampires don't have reflections, Hood, I bet this is the only way he can get dress in the morning." Dick chimed, eyeing closely as Plasmius's faces as they scrunched up in anger, low growl rumbled from the duplicates.
"You call that getting dress?"
Jason's comment sent a flurry of pink blasts heading their direction, making them dodge in opposite direction.
"As if I take fashion advice with a bunch of heroes that follow orders from a giant bat." The duplicates kept firing one after the other at the two as they dodged through the crowd.
"Who the hell do you think we are? Henchmen?!" Jason and Dick purposely dodging the blasts so they would destroy other duplicates.
Jason taking a cape of one of the duplicates and swinging it into the crowd. Clearing a way forward. He guessed he did wanted to punch the guy's face in a few hundred more times. He just didn't think it be like this.
"And what's wrong with how I dress? I think I look fabulous." Dick grinned as he posed in the middle of his flips, just to show off.
Narrowly dodging a blast by kicking off the ground and twisting his body sideways in the air. He spun once his feet touched the ground, whacking down nearest duplicate with his escrima sticks.
Despite the continuous stream of duplicates, they were destroying them left and right. Dick and Jason noticing that only few of the duplicates were invisible, and none that were was able to do more then punch or drag them. Looks like the more duplicates he had, the harder it was to use his powers.
Plasmius held Danny in a choke hold, making him watch the 'show'. "Watch as they die. Heroism at its best."
Danny pulled at Plasmius's arm trying to keep himself from being choked, as he pointed a finger at Dick and Jason take down 20 duplicates in under a minute. "I don't know, Vlad, looks to me like they're kicking your butt."
Danny had been ganged up on by Plasmius's duplicates while Jason and Dick were getting hits on the real one. Danny really hated being powerless.
Maybe he could ask Nightwing or Red Hood for some fighting tips. Especially since his over reliance on his powers was becoming blatantly obvious to him. Plus, those flips looked really cool. He wanted to do that.
"Besides, We both know you can't keep this up forever. Also selling me less and less on this whole apprenticeship-son thing, which I didn't know was possible, with the whole threatening to kill, kidnapping, cloning, outing ghosts out to the world.. etc-Ack." Danny gagged as the arm tightened around his throat.
–-
Jason saw Danny dangling in the air a corner, once him and Dick cleared out some duplicates. Jason gestured to Dick, as he punched another Plasmius in the face, knocking him back into the crowd. "Corner."
Dick flipped over an invisible Plasmius, whacking him, causing the duplicate to dissolve. He glanced in the direction Jason had gestured to, spotting the two half-ghosts. Must be the real Plasmius. Dick ducked a pink-ly charged fist, then countered attacked.
How were they going to get Danny down? If only they could get closer. Jason and Dick locked eyes.
"I hate to be the type to drop in unannounced, but let's swing on by. What do you say, Little Wing?"
"I don't mind taking a spin."
"On three."
"I'm doing this all for you, Daniel. I wish you could see that!"
"Oh wow! Thanks Frootloop! Tell me again why killing my parents and planting batteries all over the country specifically helps me?" Danny squirmed in Plasmius's grasp.
"One." Dick ran towards the capsules, deflecting a beam with his escrima stick then hitting the nearest duplicate. It dissolved on contact.
Jason threw a duplicate over his shoulder into three other ones that were about to fire at Dick. He pulled out an ecto-ray, shooting at the pile. He had to make precise shots to avoid shooting anything dangerous.
"Because your parents are a menace! Or have you forgotten the repellent already?" Plasmius tapping on Danny's mask. "Having to hide away, in a tent all week because your darling LOVING parents can't seem to see when their child is ill over something THEY created."
Danny gritted his teeth, glaring at Plasmius. "Oh? And what? You think you're any better?! How many times have you shocked me!? Blasted me! You stole my DNA and then planned to give me to a hunter that wants to skin me!-"
Danny coughed at the tightening of Plasmius's grip again.
"You forced my hand!"
Two.
Jason was clearing the room as fast as he could, dissolving as many duplicates as he could. He stuck to close range, using melee to gather them in a pile before finishing them off. They needed plenty of room.
Dick whacked another duplicate, before running up the side of the capsule. He back flipped off of the top of it, keeping a hand extended out.
Jason kicked another duplicate in the abdomen and then shot it down, just as Dick back flipped. What area they cleared out had to do for now. Jason dodging a pink blast with a roll, before reaching out to grab Dick's hand.
–-
"If only you had disowned your father sooner, we could have been a happy family! You would have anything in the world you wanted! But no! You had to go be a self-righteous little hero!" Plasmius's rage didn't allow him to loosen up on Danny's neck.
"So... Why? The... battery." Danny knew now be the perfect time than any to get Vlad to spill.
"I'm not stupid, Daniel. Honestly, I know it doesn't matter if Jack is gone, you still be playing hero. Fighting crime and all that nonsense.. No matter what I do to stop you. Wasting your time saving lives that despise you. All for what? I don't know, 5 seconds of fame? That's why kids do stupid stuff for, right?"
Danny glared at Plasmius... Sometimes Danny forgets Vlad worked on his own logic, and it baffled him.
Three.
Jason firmly grabbed Dick's hand, and started to swing him around in a circle. Getting a good spin. Duplicates charging their beams around them. Jason timed his throw, flinging Dick towards Plasmius and Danny.
He let out a hiss as a blast hit his shoulder, rolling out of the way to avoid the other pink ecto-blasts. Jason dodged the blasts, focusing on shooting the duplicates that try to intercept Dick.
"However, even I know you can't protect the world. Amity Park's already running you dry. If I expose the world, make more man-made portals, create ghosts.. then I think you will finally see things from my perspective."
Danny furrowed his brows. Plasmius was trying to combine their worlds? He must have more reasons than the one he was giving.
"After all, aren't you tired?" Plasmius said in a comforting tone that almost felt like he cared.
A duplicate tried to block Dick's path, but he used the momentum from whacking it to push him up higher.
"Tired.. of you.. being a Frootloop.." Danny was tired, all the time, but that didn't make Vlad right.
"Why you ungrateful-" Plasmius realized it a second too late, as Nightwing pulled out his ecto-ray blasting Plasmius in the face at point blank range.
Plasmius let out a howl as he was blasted to the wall, phasing through it. He had let his grip slip on Danny, allowing Nightwing to pull Danny out of his grasps as they fell.
Jason was rushing towards them, shooting down the last duplicates that stood in his way. Dick spun in the air, sending Danny towards Jason's direction.
Jason caught Danny bridle style, who just held on tight, still in a bit of shock at what happened in the last few seconds. Staring up at Nightwing who flipped in the air, landing on the ground with a roll. He used the roll to get back up on his feet, flawlessly.
Dick turned back to Danny with a grin and a thumbs up.
Danny blinked, stunned... He had never fallen to the ground without leaving some kind of impact in it. It be nice to just roll like that.
Jason raised a brow, as Danny seem to be frozen like a deer. He wondered what that bastard told him, or was he that star-struck by his annoying brother's antics. "You alive, kiddo?"
Danny seemed to snap back to reality for a moment, giving a snort, "About as much as I am dead. Uh.."
Danny realizing how awkward this was now, "Can you-ah- thank you."
Jason let down Danny, after confirming the kid was back to some kind of sense. Jason rolled his injured shoulder. He couldn't imagine tanking more than a few hits. There was a hole burnt in his jacket, stained a dark pink around the edges... great.
Dick looked around them, hand on his hip. "All the duplicates are gone."
Danny patted himself off, glancing around the area. He couldn't sense anything, but that put him more on edge as if he did. "They are."
"You okay?" Dick asked Jason, noticing the burnt mark on his shoulder.
"I'm fine. Stings like a bitch, though." Jason smacking Dick's hands away.
Danny just now, noticing Jason's injury. He wondered how that felt like for someone who wasn't a ghost or in gear. He knew some blasts could knock out his friends and Jazz pretty quickly. Ah, but Jason wasn't a normal person either. Maybe he could take more hits.
Danny felt a chill, "Watch out-"
Dick and Jason manage to push each other out of the way in time, as a blast fired at them scorching the place where they previously stood.
"Ah, it seems I've wasted enough time here. After all, I know you're not the only pests running around in here." Plasmius floated above them again.
Dick and Jason pulled out their weapons, ready to fight. Danny lost his blasters in the fight so he backed up towards the other heroes. He wasn't going to let himself get singled out again.
"However, before I leave, a parting gift." Plasmius pulled out three cans of the ghost repellent.
Danny raised a brow, "That'll hurt you-GAH-"
Danny let out a yelp as a couple pink blasts came from the far right, not only knocking the mask off, but melting half of it.
Jason shot the duplicate, causing it to dissolve. Dick shot at Plasmius who tossed the cans down, dodging the green blasts.
"Unlike you, boy. I have a way to immune myself to the effects of it." Plasmius charging his pink blast.
Both Jason and Dick stop their shooting. Danny was still bent over on his knees, hand over his jaw. Quickly both of them ran to Danny, as the cans landed a rolled near them.
"Got this trick from your sister." Plasmius laughed as he shot all three cans, then flew off into the ceiling.
The room quickly filled with the nauseating repellent. Jason covered Danny's face with his jacket just before the cloud of spray could hit them. Jason coughed and hacked violently into his sleeve, as he could hear Danny wretch and gag despite being covered.
Dick was coughing just as hard. Even though the smell was pleasant for him, large quantities would choke anybody to death. He reached out, tugging on Jason's arm. Trying to get him to move.
Jason stood up, coughing and wheezing. He started to feel dizzy. He could only imagine how Danny was feeling then. He held Danny by pressing him to his side under the coat. Jason knew Danny wouldn't be able to walk out on his own. He let Dick lead the way, dragging him by the arm.
They only stopped for a moment out of shock, when Danny first puked soaking Jason.
– uwu –
"Hmm." Jazz hummed as her and Damian explored one of the rooms at the end of the hall.
The Fenton Finder told them that they right in front of three ghosts.
Leading them to a security room. It was trashed, desk over turned, computer busted, and most of the screens on the walls were either busted or blackened.
"Tt. Must be broken." Damian huffed as he poked his roasting stick in the general air where the ghost were suppose to be. He could hear the action from the comms, wishing to be apart of it.
"That or... They're either above or below us. I don't think Mom and Dad ever updated it to measure depth. Just distance." Jazz explained.
"Tt." Damian put up the stick, walking towards the monitors on the screen. He wondered if he could see Richard's and Todd's fight against Plasmius. It be advantageous if he could get a sense of Plasmius's fighting style before taking on the ghost.
Luck would have it, one of the monitors did display their fight, but the screen was half broken distorting the footage. It appeared to be the tail end of the fight too, as Plasmius filled the room with.. smoke? He couldn't tell, nor did the footage have any sound. Either way Dick was dragging Todd and he assumed Danny too out of the view of the camera.
"I hope Danny's ok." Jazz said out loud, making Damian jolt glaring back at her.
Now she chooses to be quiet, and not Damian being lost in thought. That be ridiculous.
Jazz smiled at Damian, as she picked up some documents, tapping them on a flat surface to neaten them up in her hand. She could only get a glimpse at the screen, but it didn't look good. Figures, Vlad would seek out her brother first. He knew better than to leave Danny alone without a handicap.
The Fenton Finder buzzed. Jazz looked at it to see a fourth dot closing in. Jazz folded the documents and stuffed them in her pockets, "Vlad's coming."
Damian furrowed his brows, taking the finder from her to check. They glanced at each other, as they started to hear a voice. Quickly, they hid squeezing themselves behind the monitors and the desk. Keeping still as Plasmius floated through the floor, grumbling.
"Peanutbutter Fudge! Brittle Brisket!" He cursed.
Damian raised brow and looked at Jazz, who shrugged mouthing. 'Later.' Promising to explain.
"I knew I should have waited at least a day in, before sending out those batteries! I thought I had time! I would have had the time if JACK and Madeline didn't create that infuriating spray!" Plasmius growled as he floated towards the monitors, trying to see if he could find the other bats.
Jazz tensed up, as the air static from Plasmius's close proximity. Damian didn't like the air that the ghost gave off.
"Though, I suppose it wasn't a total waste. Little Badger can't be a nuisance and it may keep that one fellow down too." Plasmius rubbed his cheek where he was punched. Plasmius scanned the monitors, giving a smirk as he noticed a figure in one of them.
Damian peaked through a gap between the monitors. Catching sight of Plasmius duplicating himself into four, sending the duplicates out of the room. The real one staying put, watching the screens.
Jazz and Damian realizing they were going to be stuck in place for a while.
