Jason in the Ghost Zone

Where's Jason?

Interesting.
He’d thought the boy would be interesting when he’d first seen him, but not to this extent.
Vlad Masters chewed on a piece of cheese as he watched over the new footage he’d gained. If he hadn’t have known what to look for he would have sworn the boy hadn’t noticed the danger at all. In all his excursions into the Ghost-Zone, Vlad had never seen another ghost with such a profile as that one. He behaved almost as though he wasn’t a ghost at all.
A possibility had formed in Vlads mind, one that he knew to be childish and knew was probably incorrect, but investigating wouldn’t hurt.
He’d send Skulker in seeing as the boy was near his territory. The worst that could happen was Vlad being wrong. He moved down to his lab to contact the hunter.
***
The kid still hadn’t come by, and it had been around four days since the last time. Since the visits had started Danny hadn’t been away for this long before. Before he’d noticed the kids tail he wouldn’t have cared, would have actually been glad for the quiet.
For the third time that day a little poff tried to pick a fight with him and he had to keep himself from pounding it into nothing, he kicked it away from him hard enough that it flew out of sight. He hadn’t minded too much dealing with the things before, but now he found himself being more and more frustrated with them.
This was why kids shouldn’t be out playing hero. Why guardians should be doing better to keep their kids safe and protected. Now he was considering following the way he’d always seen the kid headed when he left. He wasn’t sure if the kid was smart enough to double back and make a false trail, or he would actually be able to follow a line strait to Dannys home. He didn’t want to know.
Carefully he climbed of the island and dropped the larger one below. Doing something to take his mind off it would help. He knew by seeing Dannys friends that normal people were somewhere around here. If he could find them then maybe he’d at the very least get some information about where he was. No information about your environment was dangerous.
The feeling that he’d never before been in an environment he knew nothing about troubled him a little. It was another headache inducing thought, so he found that he couldn’t dwell on it too long. Eventually he knew he’d come to a situation where those headaches were going to be a problem, he just hoped that this wasn’t it.
Since he could remember he’d tried to ignore as much of this place as he consciously could, despite his instinct to do otherwise. That hadn’t been one of his best decisions, as strange as it was, he was still stuck there.
Another island was getting closer to where he was, he got ready to jump for it. His feet left the island, but never reached the other side. He was dazed and falling before he could register that he’d been hit, never mind figuring out what had done it.
When he hit the ground the breath was knocked out of his body, and he struggled to get up.
“Remember me?” Came a voice, followed by the boy being knocked of the edge again.
How far down could he go before he reached an actual ground? Before he could find out he was grabbed by his hair and sent tumbling over to another island. Before he’d stopped rolling loud, clunking footsteps stops right next to him. He was lifted again, this time by the fabric near the back of his neck. He lifted his head to look into his attackers face.
Oh, him again.
“Sorry, I don’t have soup can to beat you with right now, come back a little later and I’ll…” Before he could finish he was thrown to the ground and kept there by a heavy boot pressed down on his chest. He looked up at the things face and smirked as well as he could with a swollen jaw. “That a sore spot? Sorry, you probably had a few of those after that huh, ya freak?”
The boot pressed down harder on his chest. Mr. Ugly pointed his gun right in the boys face, for a second it looked like he would fire, but then he started laughing. The boy didn’t like that laugh, not at all. With a quick twist he got the boot off for long enough to lift his leg and deliver a kick between its legs that should have knocked it over, even put it out of commission completely, but it barely gave the him enough time to get to his feet again, before he was lifted off them.
“Do you think a cheap…”
“Shut up!” The boy kicked at the things face with both feet.
The thing fell dropped to its back, the boy landing deliberately on it’s face again. He didn’t waste time with another kick, using the precious seconds to find a weapon, or anything he could use to his advantage against a bigger, stronger opponent.
“Some nerve, calling me the freak.” It was up again, and moving forward. “You don’t have that halfa whelp helping you now.” He shot off a few beams from gun.
Those were freaking hard to dodge! The boy twisted out of the way fast enough to keep any from hitting him directly, but his cloths were still scorched by the time the barrage was over.
“Hey, I may not like these much, but his you ruin them any more, I might look as bad as you, back off.” Instinct was telling him to jump of the edge of the cliff and wait for help, but he kicked that in the face even harder than he kicked The Ugly when he charged forward. Fast as he could he rained down blows on the thing, they hurt him more than it, but they kept it off balance, so he didn’t let up.
It a fist his way and he ducked low, dropping to the ground and swerving around to kick its feet out from under it. As it fell he followed up with a punch to its face. When it got up this time, parts of its body were creaking oddly.
“You’re lucky my boss said not to injure you.” It said stepping forward.
The boy matter-of-factly wiped a trail of blood – the colour of which he ignored. “Sure,” he drawled.
Mr. Ugly shot forward, almost tackling the boy over the edge, but he spring boarded of the things shoulders and it went over by itself.
He breathed a sigh of relief and dropped to a sitting position on the ground. If things like thins were going to keep happening he’d need to find some kind of defensible shelter, and some weapons. If he thought ignoring his situation had been a bad idea before, then he was sure of it now.
What if the next thing to drop in off an island did it in the emptier reasons where he wouldn’t hit anything. Would anyone look for him if he fell for ever? Could even The Someone find him if that happened? Maybe the boy would just levitate in the air for a while if that happened. Almost everything could do that here, even the… oh no. Mr. Ugly could fly!
The boy rushed over to the edge his opponent had toppled over. He couldn’t find see it. It wasn’t laying on the visible islands, wasn’t above him, wasn’t anywhere. Too weak to even sit anymore he laid on the ground, looking up at the sky above him. He had to find a way to defend himself from these things and fast, very, very fast.
***
“Get out of there you idiot!” Vlad Masters hissed into his receiver. “Leave now!”
The hunter began what was probably a protest, but Vlad hung up on him before it got very far. He leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. He’d wanted the boy kept within a small area of the Zone, not too on edge to move at all. It was a bad sign when things started going wrong in the very beginning of a plan. Especially one he didn’t yet know the worth of.
The boy could prove to be worthless in the end, a complete waste of time. There were many ghosts who could match Skulker, it was proof of nothing. Now Vlad was faced with the options of either building a plan from the ground up, or dropping the thing entirely.
It would have been easier if he could have at least gotten some visuals of the fight, but the incompetent hunter had charged in too fast for even that chance.
If there was anyone else he could have used he would have, but Skulker was the only asset under his employ that could keep track of the boy. He’d have to go over his requirements again when the brute returned.
The Halfa returned to his other work in the mean time. He’d neglected too much in previous months.
***
“Bruce? Alfred?” A young man called walking through the large ornate doors of the manor. “Kid?”
No one answered, usually Alfred at least would come upstairs to welcome him home. He shrugged off the uncomfortable feeling and made strait for the kitchen, probably just working on some bid important case. As he pulled of his jacket his eyes swept over the counter where the paper was usually kept in the mornings, it wasn’t there. He dropped the jacket on the counter and began digging through the fridge for anything that could pass for a late lunch.
His arms were full of condiments when his phone started ringing. Well, he maneuvered the phone to his ear and answered, doing his best not to drop everything. “Yello,” he answered cheerfully.
“Dick, we’ve found a notice on the computer we want to confirm with you,” Even for Raven that was a serious voice.
“Shoot,” He said, and waved at Alfred who’s appeared in the doorway.
“It’s about your… the second one.”
She told him, but it had to be some kind of mistake.
“Hey, Alfie?” The jar of sauce and his cell dropped to the floor.
“Master Richard?” The butler nodded.”
“Where’s the kid?”
The old mans face turned somber.
“Where’s where is he? I was thinking the two of his could…” He didn’t feel the hot liquid running down his cheeks. “I brought him something from Tamaran, and I was thinking we could…” a sob tore out of his throat. Do you think he’d… Where is he?”
Alfred didn’t answer, but Dick needed to know. He wanted an answer. Why wouldn’t Alfred say anything. Dick walked slowly to the entrance of the batcave. Kid, Jason, Jason was probably down there, working on his flips. Dick could help him with that, like Jason always asked, always with his false courage and Dick never had time.
He had time now, he’d help like he’d been planning to, he’d, Jason was in the cave. Jason was. Jason……….
Where was he?
Dick didn’t make it to the cave, but his screams did.