Chapter 19:
Third Person:
Gear had a habit- one of her many habits actually. In a way, she considered it worse than her drinking habit because this habit caused little crumbs of chips to get stuck in the keys of her keyboard as she typed away at the computer, trying (and failing) to try to get a good visual of Vlad at the meeting that occurred the other night. She continued to eat the chips, multitasking as she ate, hacking into the various security cameras and audio.
"Shittles," Gear cursed loudly as one of the keys got stuck.
She quickly grabbed her keyboard and turned it upside down, gently banging it on the desk to get the crumbs out and fix the keys. Due to the gentle banging on the desk, a few of the keys got pressed causing the video screen to change to another section. She looked at the screen briefly and spotted Vlad.
"Meant to do that," she muttered to herself.
Turning the keyboard upright and putting it back on its rightful place, she typed away again to get a better look at Vlad, talking with Bruce Wayne in a secluded area of the room. She put on her large headphones and adjusted the volume on a separate screen. It wasn't a live video (due to her being too occupied the other day to watch it live, but she hacked into all the cameras and audio when it was live and set it to record) which made things a lot easier. She edited away the background noise and focused only on the voices of Bruce and Vlad. Even with their voices being the only audio and it being set to the highest volume, it was still hard for her to hear since it was quiet to begin with.
In the end, she couldn't catch a word of what was said, but she did notice Vlad whispering something in Bruce's ear before leaving- Bruce glaring after him. Vlad made some sort of threat, I bet… But what? What did he say? Was it about Danny? His plans? Gritting her teeth, she exited the videos and audio set-ups.
"I'm useless," Gear groaned.
Taking a sip of the water she had nearby to help with a hangover from a 'party night gone right', she opened up new windows on the computers and got to work on trying to find where Vlad currently was at. Her radar, however, confirmed that Vlad was still in Happy Harbor. After hacking into security cameras, she discovered it was Vlad fighting the partners and Danny yet again.
Crap- Sorry dude, I was busy…
She winced as she saw him hit the ground.
Poltergeist rubbed his head as he sat up, noticing the slight dent in the ground. Even with him and the team's anti-ghost weapons, they were having a bit of trouble facing Vlad. Granted, he was trying not to use all of his powers to their full extent. He knew that the team were his friends, practically a second-family, but he didn't know if they would be so understanding if he revealed that he was a lot more powerful than he looked. Besides, he didn't want to add to the damage- at least it was on the outskirts of town so there were no people or even buildings.
"Poltergeist," Kaldur inquired, "Are you alright?"
He stood up entirely and got into a fighting position,
"I'm alright."
"Good to hear, my friend, we could use your help."
Poltergeist gave a firm nod and took to the skies to join M'gann against one of the duplicates- though it might have been the original, he lost track. He didn't want to use the same attack he did before- not after he noticed how Robin was becoming a bit suspicious of how powerful he might be. It was bad enough that Robin knew his secret alias- well at least, he thought he knew since Robin made some vague comment about him going to the high school. Though he wished he did tell at least Robin that Vlad Masters was Plasmius, but telling the secret may cause Vlad to run. Danny didn't want Vlad to run. He wanted to finish the fight.
The fighting seemed to be put on a hold as the duplicates vanished, leaving one Vlad floating above every one else.
"You're such children," Vlad, or maybe even a duplicate, scowled, "So immature, so inexperienced."
"Children," Superboy growled insulted before he charged.
Vlad easily dodged, unconcerned,
"Impulsive brats," Vlad continued, "Badger, if you just joined me it would make things a lot easier. A lot… smoother…"
"I will never join you, Vlad," Danny spat out, "You crazed fruitloop!"
Vlad scowled yet again as Danny sent multiple ecto-blasts as him. He sent up a shield before he disappeared, reappearing beside Danny.
"Come now, little badger, if you join me you can go back to the thieving you enjoyed."
For a very brief moment, the Poltergeist faltered. He didn't attack. He actually thought about the offer because a part of him did miss a bit of that excitement, the adrenaline. The hesitation was all Vlad needed to continue,
"Take them down and join my side where your rightfully belong."
'Where you rightfully belong' echoed a bit in his head. He narrowed his eyes and turned around briskly, sending a strong ectoblast straight into Vlad's chest, sending him backwards,
"My rightful place is with my team! My friends!"
"Friends," Vlad barked, "They'll end up dead in the end, my boy, just like your old ones."
The team narrowed their eyes as Poltergeist winced before shaking his head.
"They may be dead Vlad, but they live on in memories because they were good people, which is more than I can say for you."
"Everyone fire at once," Poltergeist requested, "if we attack him at once it may work. Kid Flash, think you can amplify the attacks? M'gann, send a mental attack and Supes, think you could send a final push of our attacks at him."
The team gave a nod.
"3…2…," Poltergeist continued, "…1… NOW!"
Poltergeist sent a large ray of power at Vlad. Kaldur sent a water attack, made to shock the villain. Robin sent his strong baterangs while Artemis shot her arrows. M'gann used her mental abilities to try to attack Vlad's mind, to disorientate him. Kid Flash rotated his arms and body rapidly, the winds causing their attack to gain more momentum and power. The attacks seemed to mix together in some odd blend. As soon as the wind died down and it was close to Vlad, Superboy charged and hit the center of the back of the attacks, pushing it straight into the confused and dizzy Vlad.
He cried out in pain, the dust and dirty from KF's winds blocked their vision, but when it cleared, Vlad had disappeared again.
"No," Poltergeist growled, "He couldn't have walked away from that unharmed!"
"I didn't, little badger."
They all turned to see Vlad. He had a busted lip that looked bruised as few speckles of blood appeared around it and on it. His clothes were a bit torn and he was, for once, injured. Though the scowl was still on his face,
"If you won't become my apprentice, I have ways to persuade you."
He snapped his fingers. A few ghost vultures flew by, dropping an unconscious form in Vlad's arms. Poltergeist landed on the ground, his eyes widened in horror. The team looked disgusted that Vlad would bring a girl, younger than them appearing to be between ten and twelve, into his fight. It was low. Though the resemblance between the girl and the Poltergeist were stunning, even if she had black hair and was wearing old, torn clothes. Superboy and M'gann noticed the similarity between her and their friend Danny from school.
"Poltergeist," Artemis said over the link cautiously, "…Do you know her?"
"Know her? She's practically my little sister…"