Danny Phantom? No, Spectre.

Who the hell sharpens a Fencing Foil! (Targets pt. 2)

The Rhelasian ambassador behind me shouts something in his language and dozens of bodyguards rush into action, crowding the battle ground and failing miserably against Cheshire's skills as she flips them over her shoulder and bowls over several with one of their comrades. Several of Sportsmaster's tactically dressed, but clearly martial arts trained and not military, goons jump out of the helicopter, carrying shotguns and swords. 

Red Arrow notches an arrow and growls out, "Take Sportsmaster; Cheshire's mine." to the two of us. I roll my eyes and nod in agreement as Cheshire teasingly moans "Mmm. So territorial and only our third date..." to which Red responds with an arrow to her face that she easily deflects with her twin sais. I fly around their lover's battle while Kaldur shows off a complicated flip over it that Cheshire could have probably knocked out of the air if she had been paying enough attention. Or if she cared about her teammate's safety. It's no secret that her and Sportsmaster don't get along. I wonder why they keep getting put on the same missions. 

The Rhelasian guards aren't doing much better against Sportsmaster either. Granted, they are only armed with billy-clubs, but he's unarmed and you are supposed to be trained fighters. Dear deities that I do not believe in, how in the heck do these idiots keep their jobs? Kaldur's waterbearers nearly headshot Sportsmaster so he slides a baseball bat out of it's sheath on his back. I take out a goon or two when suddenly Cheshire taunts Red Arrow loudly enough for the entire room to hear over the fighting. Smart move...

"You called your little sidekick friends... But didn't you tell me they weren't in your league?" Kaldur looks back at Red Arrow with a pained look in his eyes and I shout "Look out!" but he only turns his head back to the fight in time to see Sportmaster clothesline him at the neck. And he hits the ground HARD. 

"Hey! I'll have you know that I've always been my own hero!" I spit back at Cheshire who bats her eyes with a "my mistake..." as Arrow hits her with his bow. I hover between Sportsmaster and Kaldur to give him a chance to recover, but Sportsmaster pulls out what looks like the end of a mace, but on a chain and all I can think is, "Oh for fuck's sake!" He spins it quickly behind his back, then swings it at me, and I turn intangible, but I wasn't thinking about Kaldur... 'You never look out for your friends, you just dodge every time... Some hero you are.' a voice that I can't put my finger on calls from the back of my memory. "No." I tell myself. Calling upon my cryokinesis (ten dollar word if I ever heard one. Suck it Mr. Lancer!) I freeze the puddle on the ground up into a small shield for Kaldur, but he rolls out of the way anyway, so I just had a mini-freak out for nothing. Whatever, no big deal. I decide to freeze the mace to the ground for good measure though. 

Looking up, I see that Luthor is just watching the fight blankly without any concern for his or the summit's safety on his face. Cheshire and Red are fairly evenly matched normally, but she's much better at close combat, so he's having a hard time keeping her in his firing range. There are a few ninjas and bodyguards still duking it out, but most of them have been taken out so there's that. Kaldur jumps to his feet and that draws my attention back to Sportsmaster and the fencing foil that he's now using expertly. At first I wasn't concerned about it, since foils are generally blunt and only capable of bruising, so I jumped right in, setting a large ectoblast into his stomach (that's gonna smart for days jackass), but it turns out that this one is somehow razor sharp and it catches me across the torso. 

Heh...  looky there. My unfocused vision catches on green blood that's covering my hands. I've dropped to my knees, but I don't remember doing that and distantly I hear Kaldur shouting... something and the sound of metal on waterbearers. The sprinkler system goes off, nearly drowning me and then there's a handful of explosions followed by silence and someone running their fingers slowly across the wound. As I start to come out of that weird 'blood-loss' daze, I start to realize that they're stitching it shut and that it isn't just anyone, it's Kaldur. "wha-" I cough out some water as Kaldur glares at me. "That was incredibly unwise my friend." I snort derisively, "S'not my fault he had a stupid fencing foil." He pulls a stitch extra tight and I wince. "If it was harmless, why would he use it as a weapon." he nearly growled. "You're lucky it didn't k-" Now it's my turn to glare. "Well, you only die once." I snark back. 

Red Arrow steps forward and tries to break this up, but I turn on him too. "And you! You're a dick! Why would you give an enemy that kind of verbal ammunition? Cheshire's distraction nearly cost Kaldur his head! If we're so beneath you, why would you ask-" "Enough!" Kaldur cuts me off. "Go back to the bioship, Spectre. The treaty was signed so we have no business here anymore." "Fine." I turn invisible and stomp out of the room before floating back in. 

"So this is it." Kaldur states stoically. "Is it? I heard what Sportsmaster said. Do you really think there's a mole on your team feeding him intel?" Arrow responds casually as if it isn't red alert level news. What the fu-"I can't rule out the possibility. I will investigate. Quietly." Kaldur knows too? "Not tell them?" Red sputters with a shocked expression that matches my own. "I don't want the unit unraveling over baseless suspicions and if there is a mole I have no desire to tip him or her off." Okay... good point, but bro! "Good luck with that." Red mock salutes and heads off before Aqualad stops him.

"One moment my friend, tonight you could have called green arrow for help or the justice league. Instead, your first instinct was to call the cave." He mimics my words in a more tactful manner. "You're right... The team deserves- Has my respect. I'm still getting used to this solo act stuff, but if you need me I'll be there." He shakes Kaldur's hand on this. Okay, maybe not 100% a dick, but hey! What can I do?

Kaldur moves to return to the ship and I rush to the passenger seat, lounging sideways casually. I barely made it into my seat before he walked in. "What took you so long?" I yawn. He shrugs off my question with a "Merely 'catching up' as M'egan would put it." walking towards the wheel, but he must have thought of something that stopped him in his tracks. He runs his eyes the length of my wound that has nearly closed, "Are you feeling any better?" Oh shit. He sounds genuinely distraught (heavy on the dis... Dammit Rob!) "Of course! Takes a whole lot more than a fencing foil to kill me." I grin at my own dark wordplay. 

"On that topic. I assumed that your physiology would prevent injury or at least the symptoms of one." He tactfully dances around the words ghost and death despite my pun. 

"Well, you could do pretty much anything and it wouldn't be the end of me. Drowning, poisons and blunt force weapons only make me super uncomfortable. Fire sucks since I've got an ice-core, but I could always go intangible and then it would suck less. Other than the rare ghost weapon that not only works but really sucks, that's about it." I muse casually on things that could actually harm me now. 

"Hurmmm..." Kaldur looks skeptical, "Forgive me for my bluntness but you looked incredibly ill today and lost a lot of erm... blood."

"Ghosts with more ectoplasmic energy are more stable and I have a lot left over from the way I died the first time. Higher level ghosts are more "human" I guess. If you didn't know, ghosts have obsessions, they may have been normal when they were alive, but when you're short on ectoplasm, you get filtered down to your most basic state. Basically, the more powerful the ghost, the more human they are. Not to say that a powerful ghost can't be a complete froot-loop, but same with the living I guess." Try to explain the best I could, but I'm no ecto-biologist. 

"wait... What's..." He seems a bit shocked, so I cut him off.

"Honestly, I used to not know. Being half ghost and all... But now I do. You see, the ghostzone is entirely made of ectoplasm. Ghosts can't exactly die again, but if they lose enough ectoplasm they'll disperse and create new ghosts. I'm not quite certain on that process since I'm not your garden variety ghost and everyone I know who was doesn't remember it, but hey! I betcha Plasmius knows." I end cheerily to try and balance out this entire conversation's darkness, but I totally failed at that.

"No. What's your obsession..."  He looks calculatingly at me.

I don't meet his eyes. "I have no idea..."

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Hey yo! It's your friendly neighborhood writer here with a fabulous update for you kiddos. Hope you enjoy it, cause your appreciation is as majestic as a massive cup of coffee! Currently I'm using votes and comments as a method for deciding which of my many in progress stories should be updated first so there's that! And with that,I'll see you in the next chapter! Buh-bye!