A/N: Happy Halloween! I don't have any candy, but I do have a long-overdued update for everyone
Kim could do nothing more. She watched the snoozing ghost boy. He struggled with breathing: it was shaky and seemed to make his body tremble. Every now and then his face would scrunch up, but then revert back to a relaxed visage. With every exhale, his breath would flutter the raven-black bangs of his hair; with every inhale, they would collapse against his forehead. If he didn't look so pained, she would've thought it was calming.
But he didn't only look pained; he was. A fractured ankle, a broken rib, and a possible concussion. What more could the young boy take?
And speaking of concussion, it was just about time to wake the boy up from his slumber. She needed to be sure that he could still wake up. She rose from her seated position across the aircraft, and walked over. Kneeling at his side, she danced her finger-pads along his skull, and whispered – quietly so as not to startle him. "Danny? Can you hear me?"
He gave the faintest of nods, and pinched his eyes tighter closed.
"You need to open your eyes and tell me," she told him.
He did so, but only reluctantly. His left eye was the first to open but just barely. The light was blinding, so he squinted the lids back together. His face tensed up once more before relaxing, and opening his left eye again. He didn't flinch this time, and was able to open his right eye as well.
His eyes were still that murky blue; the color was strange, unhuman. No natural gene could cause these orbs; it had been the doing of ecto-contamination.
Nonetheless, he gazed into the wise sage eyes of Kimberly Ann Possible, and smiled – a small smile that hardly turned up at the corners. It was barely noticeable, but it did the job. Smiling back, Kim said thank you with just her gaze.
His eyes immediately closed again, and he was back to sleep in only a matter of seconds.
Kim stalked back over to where she was prior seated, and sat in silence. She kept an eye on the clock; she'd have to wake him once more within the hour.
But it was then that she heard a faint call; something that sounded an awful lot like–
"KayyyyyyyyyPeeeeeeeeee"
It was distant and far away, but it could be the doing of only one person. Ron.
She sprang to life. His call was frantic; he was in desperate need of her assistance. And she'd be damned if she ever denied him help. She ran to the open door of the Specter Speeder, and saw Ron, as she imagined, frantically waving his arms and running back towards the airship.
"HELPPPPPPPP!"
She didn't waste another second. She ran towards her best friend, leaving the slumbering Danny behind, and met Ron within a second.
"What is it?" she questioned.
He didn't have time to answer. Behind him, Kim was able to see 5 more figures emerge. All running just as terrified as Ron had. When they reached Kim, the 7 teens gathered in a circle. With 6 of them panting, it was difficult to hear.
"He's… too… strong," Tucker breathed.
"Haven't… been… able… to get… to him," Dani panted next.
"Just dodges… all our blows…" Jazz was shaking her head, calculating.
Valerie appeared the angriest of the bunch – and considering Sam was also there that was quite a feat because Sam was angry. She didn't like Vlad and she didn't like losing to a Fruit Loop. But Valerie? Valerie was livid.
"It's like he's… been planning this… for months," Valerie was slightly less out of breath than the others.
"He has." Kim answered shortly.
"That's not what I meant," Valerie corrected, no longer panting. "He's meticulous… always plotting… he knows our next move before even we do…"
"She's right," Sam agreed (which was a first). "It's crazy. Like he's reading our minds or something."
"Is that possible?"
"If it is, it's a power Danny certainly doesn't have," Tucker told her.
"But you can't compare their powers; even with similar accidents the two are so different," Dani now claimed. Kim realized with an air of ignorance that she did not know how Vlad obtained his ghost powers. But had Dani just said accident? Did neither him nor Danny now wish for the curse?
Kim turned to the group. "Get back to the Specter Speeder. Now. I'll handle Plasmius." She turned to jump off her feet, but a hand grasped her arm, and stopped her.
"We're not gonna let you fight him alone!" Dani shouted back. Kim had to admit; that girl had some fire in her. But that flame needed to be extinguished right now.
She turned back to their group; all beady eyes on her. In a way, they were right; she would probably need help. But not from any of them. She was doing this the old fashion way.
"I'm not gonna be alone. Ron, Rufus; you're coming with me."
The two friends shared looks of both horror and freight. They were not prepared for this.
"Ron," Kim threatened, daring him to deny her.
"Let's go kick some fruity butt!" Ron punched his fist into the air, and skipped to Kim's side.
"And what makes you think you can handle Vlad without us?" Valerie inquired
"Just trust us; we can handle it. You guys get back to the ship. And please take care of Danny. He had a head injury and needs to be woken up every 30 minutes. And Jazz," she began to solely address the girl. "He broke his nose; the bandage needs to be replaced when it gets gross and bloody – or er, ectoplasm-y. He either broke or sprained his foot; but I can't tell without an x-ray. My mom's still at your house. She'll be able to come and either cast it or wrap it in something better than ace-bandage. Call her, please. He also broke several ribs. But rest is the only thing that will heal that…"
"Thanks," Jazz smiled, shyly. She had grown fond of the wise girl, and couldn't believe she was now possibly walking away to her end. She quickly wrapped her arms around the girl, and nodded her understanding of how to treat Danny.
Tucker embraced Kim next, and encouragingly whispered into her ear, "You can do it; we all believe in you."
Kim and Sam exchanged a meaningful look, and the two immediately understood the other with no words having been said.
Valerie and Dani – having just met Kim – didn't hug her tightly as the others had, but they said their farewells, too, and wished Kim and Ron both the best of luck.
The group broke out into a sprint towards the ship, frantically looking for cover from the monster of Vlad Plasmius. Within moments of reaching it, the Specter Speeder vanished, and Kim realized Tucker must've made it intangible, something Kim never would have thought the ship could do.
And now she needed a plan. She imagined Vlad Plasmius in her mind. Particularly those monstrous red eyes…
And that was when Kim understood it all. The scheme, the lies, and the cheating; it was all so that he could be left alone. Alone from Danny.
Vlad wanted to have peace with himself, but that was impossible when the heroic ghost boy was breathing down his neck, always ready for his next move. Vlad Masters was neither evil nor vengeful; he was just a man who happened to be in the wrong time in the wrong place. It was depressing for Kim to witness such a man. The human part of him had given up.
And that was what left Vlad Plasmius to take over. Plasmius was an animate ghost who had no meaning for quality of human life. He didn't care about the people he murdered or the harm he caused. He lived on mayhem and havoc, and he was sure that he was the one to cause it.
An overwhelming sense of pity and understanding swept over Kim, and almost knocked her to the ground. She wanted to help Vlad. She wanted to hold him close and tell him it would all be alright. But if she dared to get close to the beast inside of him, she'd be finished. She had to think this through strategically.
In the back of Kim's mind she remembered Danny telling her the story about how he got his powers. The electric shock powered by ectoplasm had done the trick; and a dependent ghost parasite attached itself to Danny. The cells connected; DNA intertwined. It was like magic, only it was science.
And that's what Kim had to recreate for Vlad. He wanted to be free. She could see it in his eyes; feel it in her gut. He had no revenge or anger that he held on to; he desired one thing: freedom.
And Kim was going to help him get it. If not for him then for her. Because Vlad Masters with Plasmius – two cunning and manipulative beings – would destroy her in a few seconds flat.
She remembered Danny saying something about Vlad having a ghost portal in his mansion. In some secret lair in particular. Not that that helped at all, but as long as there was a portal, Kim was sure she could wire it to make it undo Vlad's powers. It would just take a little reverse-networking. Kim had worked with computers before; it should be a piece of cake.
The hard part was going to be getting Vlad there. Unless of course, there was a way to just lure him… a way to ensure he'd follow her, but not know the reasons…
If only…
Ron! She snapped her fingers, an idea that had just came to her. She immediately pulled her kimmunicator out of her back pocket, and quickly turned to Ron, ready to explain the plan she had just made up.
He appeared a little daze. He knew better than to bug her when she was thinking of a plan. "Ron" – his ears perked up and Rufus' head emerged from his pants' pocket – "You and Rufus need to get to Plasmius's lair. I'm almost positive we can reverse his ghost powers; he's harmless without them."
"He's still got that 'intellect' thing going on," Ron countered, his squeaky voice sounded terrified.
"Trust me, I don't think that will be a problem. Now hurry up and listen. The lair is most likely in the dungeon of his house. Just keep going down stairs until you find it. In the lair is a big portal. Just like the one in the Fenton' s basement. You follow?"
Ron nodded.
"Great. So you'll need this," she handed the freckled boy the kimmunicator, and kept on explaining the plan, being in a rush. "Call Wade. He'll know what to do. Explain that you need him to reverse the ghost portal so that Plasmius's powers can be erased from his body. I'm sure he can figure it out. You'll have to explain Danny's whole story IN A TIMELY FAHSION, "she emphasized that last part because she knew the boy could talk up a storm. "Can you do that?"
"KP, I think you underestimate Rufus and I," Ron said cockily, and with a smug look. Rufus clearly agreed by his head nodding. "When you combine Rufus and I, you get, like, and ultra-mega-super-tron-team! It can't be defeated!" Ron smiled so widely that she thought his eyes would pop out his head. "The hardest part's gonna be finding his 'lair', but what can Rufus' nose not find?!"
"Right…." She decided just to let him have this one.
"Time's up! Come out, come out, wherever you are," she heard the icy voice of Vlad Plasmius emerge in the darkness. It had no source, but she knew he was close. She quickly turned to Ron, who was already running toward the house. Maybe she didn't give him enough credit. …or maybe he was terrified and fleeing for his life.
Whichever it was, Kim didn't have time to ponder on it because the man that had produced that booming and cold voice had finally revealed himself. He hovered a few feet off the ground, 20 feet away from Kim, near the same area that the others had come running from.
"My, isn't this a surprise, Kimberly Possible. It's been a while."
Kim gazed into his fiery red eyes. They were full of hatred and possessed an inhumane quality. But then, these eyes were of something unhuman.
"And just when I was beginning to think you wouldn't be showing up," Plasmius smiled evilly.
"You shouldn't get your hopes up," Kim spat.
"Dear, dear I think you've misunderstood me. See, I wanted you to show up."
Kim was surprised, but her fierce face didn't falter. So, Plasmius went on.
"You'll be much more fun to defeat," his eyes narrowed. "It's a shame, too, to think we started out on the same team."
"We were never on the same team," Kim told him rudely, finally talking.
"There's that defiant tone. Come, come Kimberly, have some more respect for–"
"My elders?" Kim finished. "You're not my elder, Plasmius. You're not human. You're just a sorry excuse for a sad old man that traded his sole to the devil."
Rage flared up in the old man's eyes. "Don't talk about things you know nothing about!"
Kim was right; she had hit a nerve talking about how he wanted his powers. It just proved to show that he didn't actually want anything to do with them.
"I think I can understand enough about a crazy old lunatic to know he only desires power," Kim pushed more of his buttons.
"I said don't talk!" Vlad yelled in anger, and immediately shot a hot blast of pink ectoplasm at her. Kim reacted with enough time to spare: she turned intangible and reappeared just a few feet to the left, towards his home.
"You'll have to be just a little bit quicker," she smirked.
Plasmius's eyes narrowed, and the red irises seemed to brighten. "Oh I'm just warming up, dear." He shot her once more with a blast of his ectoplasm, but once again, she turned intangible and moved just a little closer to his mansion.
"So were you trying that time?" Kim questioned mockingly.
Another bright pink blast followed by an intangible dodge.
"Come on, Vlad. You're old and tired and weak. You've been fighting for hours and I've just begun."
"If you call what your friends," he spat that word as he seemed to hold much anger against it, "performed as a fight then you'd be mistaken. They hardly made me break a sweat."
She was hurt by that, but did her best to conceal it, and continued to play this game.
"Eh, you take what you can get, am I right? But then, you don't get very much do you? Who even likes you anymore? The real you, I mean."
Blast. Dodge.
"Lots of people like Danny – the real Danny. That must hurt, huh? To know that if you ever revealed yourself, you'd be hated, despised, feared. But if he did – people would rejoice. He already has people who love and accept him the way he is. His parents would embrace him, but you? They'd think you're a monster."
"I SAID TO SHUT UP!"
Strike. He aimed directly for the ginger's head. A hot, pink blast that lit up the entire scene. It had more power than the blows prior to it. Vlad was getting angrier. More adrenaline was pumping his veins. He was becoming stronger. Kim had to move faster.
The two were just by Vlad's front door, so Kim decided it was time to take this party inside. She turned intangible, and flew through the grand French doors.
She didn't take a moment to marvel over the houses' beauty; she went straight to work. Standing in the middle of the atrium, she turned back to the door and noticed Vlad standing directly opposite her just on the other side of the glass and wood.
She scrunched up her face into a cocky smile. They both realized that Vlad had to turn human in order to get into his own house. When he first put the ghost shield on his house, he never thought he'd have to keep a human ecto-energy being out and have to let his own ecto-energy mark in.
He smiled calmly, making sure to keep his composure. A belt of energy appeared at his abdomen and instantly his body was transformed into an elegant black suit with no scrapes or holes. His hair wasn't tousled, and it appeared like he hadn't just come out of an intense fight.
He opened the door, which he kept unlocked: there was no point in keeping humans out of his home. He was not in the least bit scared of them.
He simultaneously closed his front door and turned back into Vlad Plasmius. Immediately, all the rage and anger flowed back into his eyes. Kim was scared for a moment, and then remembered Vlad was nothing more than an obsessive ghost who needed to be stopped. So, she went to work.
"You have such a lovely house here, Vlad. Everything's placed so orderly. It all looks so… fragile," she paused here for just a moment to look around. A magnificent chandelier hung from the ceiling: millions of sparkling crystals and bright lights. It was perfect.
She raised her suit's ecto gun at it, and fired. The chandelier crashed to the ground and shattered on contact. She looked up to see Vlad's horrified face. She gave him a sly smile, "Whoops."
"AAAAARRRGGHHHH!" Vlad exclaimed, and lunged for her with open hands ready to clasp her throat.
But his rage clouded his reason, and he was too slow. She easily dodged him by going intangible. She reappeared some 20 feet away with another smirk.
He angrily shot a ball of ectoplasm at her, but she performed the same technique. It was killing her not being able to be on the offensive, but she was too smart for that. She knew Vlad would never design a suit that could actually hurt him. She'd have to stay on defense and find that laboratory. Only, she didn't even know where to start looking.
She hoped Rufus and Ron already found it because if she got there first, she didn't know what she would do.
A/N: Oh my god. How have seven weeks already gone by? I am so sorry for that. Every time I got the email notification telling me I got another story follower/favorite [thank you by the way :D] I felt soo bad! I know that I was letting everyone down, so I tried working on this chapter more frequently, but the time just got away from me. The good news is (and it is sort of terrific) one of my commitments has (FINALLY) ended, so that opens up A LOT more free time. I hope I'll be able to get the next chapter out pretty soon. It's also already half-written, so it will be out even sooner!
And on that note, have a Happy Halloween and a great weekend!