Chapter Ten: The Capture of Vlad Plasmius
Disclaimer: See chapter one
Welcome back to this tale I tell. Last time, we had an interesting talk with two of the Rogues. This time, other rogues are of to do something else.
On with the show:
While Johnny and Kitty were having their chat with Danny and family, elsewhere in the Ghost Zone, the top three members of the council were at Walker's prison, readying themselves to take on Vlad Plasmius. Walker was briefing his men on the mission while Skulker and Technus were having a chat of their own.
"I can't believe we agreed to this, this is madness," Technus said.
"Except we didn't agree to this, the Time Master is forcing us to do this," Skulker reminded his right-hand ghost.
"What is his endgame I wonder," Technus asked the hunter.
"The mind of that ghost is an enigma, for sure. He said he was trying to manipulate things to make the whelp's life easier," Skulker answered Technus' question, whose only response was a look of puzzlement, despite the fact that with his sunglasses, one couldn't see his red eyes. Skulker just shook his head, to show that he didn't understand either.
Walker had come into the room, "you two ready?"
"As we'll ever be," Skulker said, sarcastically.
"Let's get this over with," Technus said, not happy that he had been dragged into this.
"Alright, load up," Walker said, Skulker grabbed the heavy ecto-blaster he had brought from his island, as he had stopped to get it on his way over to the prison. The trio of ghosts walked to the front entrance and climbed into the waiting transport. Skulker gave them directions to Vlad's portal, and they sped off toward it. When they arrived outside the portal, they disembarked. "I'll go first, he may think something is up right away if we all come out together, when you hear my first shot, then come after me," Skulker said, and then stepped through the portal.
"Unless, you are bringing me the corpse of that little failure of an experiment, I don't have a need for you Skulker, I currently have bigger problems to worry about," Vlad barked out, as he knew what ghost had come through immediately as almost no one except Skulker came through his portal, aside from that one time with that ghost that kept asking to be his friend.
"Yeah, about that," Skulker started, before he raised his weapon and fired it at the halfa, barely missing.
"What are you doing, you imbecile?" Vlad barked the question, as he spun around to face the hunter ghost, his face full of anger. Behind Skulker, Vlad saw another ghost that he recognized as Technus.
"So you are the rat that had Skulker steal my lightning rod," Technus said, hands on his hips, "and what is this I have heard about a local law you instituted that restricted technology that was named the Anti-Technus act?"
"Oh you know about that, well considering that your abilities make you a very dangerous ghost in our modern world…" Vlad tried to talk his way out of this, but was cut off his trail of words when he saw what else came out of the portal. Walker came out of the portal with some of his men armed with shields and batons. "Vlad Plasmius," he started in his southern drawl, "for crimes against the Ghost zone and the Human world, you are hereby placed under arrest. Take him boys," Walker ordered, Vlad duplicated many times to throw the GZPD officers off which one was really him and firing pink ecto-blasts from both hands at the ghosts. The officers raised their riot shields to deflect them, the three ghosts returned fire, catching several of the copies straight on, but did not do enough to disperse them. Vlad conjured a large swatter and bashed aside the minions, who were collapsed into a pile. Skulker unloaded his suits entire weapons array, weakening Vlad, enough to put him on the back foot in this situation.
"Do those batons work on duplicates," Skulker asked the Warden as he traded shots with his former employer.
"You have to hit the real one, though they may be able to shatter the duplicates," Walker said.
"Now you tell us, why didn't they use them in the first place," Technus said as he traded lightning with one of the duplicates.
"It's not something we deal with on a regular basis," Walker said.
"Cover me," Skulker said as he dived for one of the batons he had noticed out of the corner of his eye. Managing to get his hands on one of the batons, Skulker fired multiple shots, breaking several of the duplicates, with a third shot, managed to hit the real Vlad, with encased him in a stun lock, which broke his concentration and the remaining duplicates. The three ghosts took a moment to catch their breaths before Walker slapped the ghost cuffs on Plasmius' hands and feet and then broke the capture field. Skulker hoisted the halfa over his shoulder, as Walker got his men back to their feet. They carried Vlad through the portal where the GZPD transport was waiting for them. They threw Vlad in the back, and everyone climbed into the vehicle, which took off at breakneck speed toward the Fenton Portal.
"What is the meaning of this, Skulker? I am your employer," Vlad barked out, from the floor of the vehicle.
"New orders, on behalf of the Master of Time, Lord Clockwork. As well the matter of you were the one to wake the Ghost King, and the experimentation on our kind and the cloning thing," Skulker said.
"Why do you care about the fact that I attempted to clone Daniel, in fact, I would think the fact she was a clone as well as a half-ghost would make her a more unique prize to you. It was the reason why I didn't ask you to bring her in to me to study the first time," Vlad said, confused as to the hunter's reasons.
"While that is correct to some degree, there is still something wrong with it, to a point even I don't know what to think about it," Skulker said, and then remained quiet, trying to reason out why this was bothering him.
"Where are you taking me?" Vlad demanded to know.
"To the ghost child, so that you may be tried in the human world," Technus said.
"I am going to enjoy locking you up in my prison when all is said and done," Walker said, knowing what the punishment would be that the humans would order with him. "Skulker can you gag him?" the Warden asked. Without saying anything, Skulker raised a gauntlet and a jet of green ectoplasm shot out and stuck to the evil halfa's mouth, Walker nodded his head in thanks.
With Danny:
Danny had been reading one of the supposed books on ghosts looking for what was true and what was something he had to clarify or outright correct, as he finally got some time to start on this project, when his ghost sense went off. He bolted down the stairs, and through the house startling other members of the family, as he ran down to the lab, hoping to get there before whatever had come through got away, changing as he ran.
To Danny's surprise, there were several of his Rogues, with Vlad, all tied up, bound, and gagged, on the floor. He fixed his rogues with a questioning look. Skulker answered the unsaid question, "Consider it a peace offering, whelp, we only did this at the Time Master's command, and some of us had grudges to settle. Don't expect this to happen again. We will see you in time, for combat." He turned to leave as did his second in command.
"You may want to do whatever you do to depower him," Walker said. Danny came out of the confusion he was in at this situation, grabbed a Fenton version of the Plasmius Maximus that they had reverse engineered from Vlad's designs and shocked the half ghost depowering him and changing him back to human, and placed a Specter Deflector around his waist so that when the Maximus effects wear off he couldn't change without it hurting a lot. Walker then changed the ghost cuffs out for human ones.
"Since when did you start carrying those?" Danny asked.
"After our last meeting, punk," Walker answered. Before leaving himself, Walker said "I will be expecting the Ghost Half of this one to be delivered to me after the trial. I will then call us even," he followed the other two into the portal.
Danny, who was confused at what has happened, couldn't help but chuckle a bit at this situation, he took out his phone and called the Lieutenant. "Sergeant, what do I owe the pleasure of your call?"
"Lieutenant, we have him, Vlad Masters has been captured, send a team to take him into custody, I will call the GIW to have them come and pick him up to be held until the trial can be held."
"Excellent news, sir, I will accompany the team, we'll be there shortly," the officer ended the call. Danny then immediately called Agent Alpha of the GIW.
"Mr. Fenton, it is good to hear from you. Do you have any leads on Masters?" Agent Alpha asked.
"Something better, we have him, through some unexpected allies, he was dropped off as present to my family, and I currently have the APPD Ghost Division on the way to take him into custody until you guys come and get him," Danny informed the head of the GIW.
"We're on our way," Agent Alpha said, before hanging up.
Putting his phone away, Danny turned to his archfoe, and squatted down to look at him on a more eye level. "You failed, Vlad, in the end, I win. Your words are false, I am beloved, respected, saluted, hailed as a hero. You will spend the rest of your days in cells, split in half, and you will never threaten this town or this family again. I win," he taunted the evil halfa. Danny stood back up, ignoring the grunting of Vlad, who no doubt was trying to say something vile.
His parents also squatted down to be more eye level with Vlad, "I can't believe I once called you a friend," Jack said.
"And I that I ever thought of you as a brother, you are a vile, despicable man, no, you are less than a man," Maddie spat on him.
Soon after, there was a knock at the front door, Jazz opened it to see a bunch of heavily armed and armored in Ecto-green colored body armor at the door. The Lieutenant bowed his head a bit, "Ma'am, our Sergeant called us for a pickup," Jazz was a bit confused as she hadn't headed down to the lab.
"Down here, Lieutenant," Jazz heard Danny call from the lab, Jazz let the officers into the house, and they proceeded down to the Fenton Lab, some of the officers were a bit in wonder as they were standing the place that both Phantom was born and where their gear had been originally devised, others were mesmerized by the swirling energies of the Ghost Portal. The Lieutenant himself was a bit wowed, but remained focused on the mission at hand, snapping his team to attention, everyone trained their weapons on the tied up evil half ghost, who could only look at them at wild bewilderment.
"Meet the officers of my ghost fighting police division, Vlad, who will be taking you into custody until the Guys in White come and get you to hold until your trial. Men, take him away," they hauled the former mayor out of the house and placed him in the back of the APC.
"So, when fill out my report for this, who do you want me to credit for for helping us?" The Lieutenant asked Danny.
"Would you believe me if I told you? The leader of my rogues gallery, Skulker and his second and third in commands, Technus and Walker, warden of the Zone, just showed here with him as a gift," Danny told his technically superior officer. The officer looked incredulous at that notion, "I had the same look."
"Alright then, I assume the GIW are on their way?" He asked the still teenage superhero on the force.
" I wouldn't be surprised if they are waiting for you when you get back to the station," Danny said.
"Good point, well, have a good one, Phantom, this is a major win," the officer said, before walking out of the house and climbing into the APC and driving away.
Danny stood outside the house, watching his team drive away with his archenemy in custody, he heard Jazz say "So, it's finally over, huh?"
"Not yet, dear sister, not until he is pronounced guilty and his halves are split, but in some ways, yes, the hunt is over," he said to her, emotions swirled inside him about this victory that was handed to him on a silver platter. The family headed back inside the house, Danny called his friends to tell them the good news, and to celebrate, though the thought of what Clockwork was up to, did linger in Danny's mind, but it did not distract him, for today, he was glad.
Well there you have it, everyone. Vlad is now caught and awaiting trial, just as Clockwork wanted. It has also left Danny confused as to what is going on, but he will take it.
Next time, the trial and punishment of Vlad Plasmius, see you guys later.
The Emperor of the Multiverse is out. Peace.