Chapter Text
Vlad wasn't a fruitloop.
He wasn't. People talked to themselves all the time. Intelligent people, well-spoken people, influential people. They all discussed ideas with the mirror, ranted to empty rooms, tossed theories into the mindless ether and pulled from it the answers of the universe.
Of course none of them could claim to do it quite like this.
Vlad glared at his spectral duplicate as though he could somehow lay upon him the blame for this latest idea.
"You really think it's a good idea?" Vlad asked.
Plasmius merely gave his human duplicate a look to convey how unimpressed he was with the situation.
"Right," Vlad said. "But how do we go about this? And most importantly how do we make sure this isn't used against us at some point? Stripping a half-ghost of his powers, no matter how temporary, is still a dangerous proposition."
"We don't," Plasmius said. "We want it to work, not fizzle out in a blast of failure. We'll need to test it."
Vlad went rigid at that idea before slumping over with a groan. "Not testing again," he pleaded.
"How else are we going to make sure it works?"
"Last time we testing something on ourselves we ended up spending three days in a thermos or don't you remember?"
Plasmius grinned, fangs glinting in the light. Vlad could feel red eyes trailing up and down his form. "I remember we found something to pass the time."
Vlad made a slight 'eep' sound and fought off the urge to squirm. He cleared his throat. "You just want to test something on me again," he accused, his voice much less sure of itself now.
Plasmius sauntered closer, watching as Vlad backed up into a lab bench. Vlad's eyes darted back and forth, searching for a way out. Instead he found black gloved hands on either side of him, pinning him in place. "On the contrary," Plasmius purred. "I think you're the one who wants to experiment."
Plasmius popped out of sight, the duplicate merging with the whole. The disorientation faded as Vlad blinked the redness out of his vision. Experimenting on himself with his own inventions wasn't that bad of an idea. He knew his Ghost Stinger was based on a targeted flare of electrical power. Maybe he could build off of that. First thing he would need was a source of electricity, preferably hand-held...
Ooo. Vlad purred in anticipation as he started searching. Now where did he hide that taser...