A/N: Inspired by a tumblr post and written for the Phanniemay prompt of Time. Also posted on my tumblr. It's just a short one this time, nothing spectacular. I tried writing a different one for the event, but I ran out of time. I don't really mind, I kind of liked writing this one. Maybe I'll finish the other one someday too.
Disclaimer: Definitely not mine. none of it.
He stared on, unperturbed by the muffled banging and crying behind him as he watched the machine carefully deposit the boy into the cool steel, the specially designed glass doors sealing the exit as soon as the claw pulled itself out. The child scrambled up, faster than the others, he noted absently, no tears streaming down his face like the others, just rage and the faintest traces of fear. Perhaps those were other possible variables? Only one way to find out.
He pulled the switch.
Immediately the screams and bangs behind him were cut off, drowned out by the mechanical and electrical whirring of the portal in front of him. He could see the hair springing up from the boy's head, the way his eyes widened and he beat harder, screaming, still no louder than the machine he stood within. The tears flowed now, but it made no difference. It never made a difference. The power that was gathered behind glass walls converged.
Vlad watched the lethal mix of ecto-energy and electricity virtually disintegrate most of the body before the green swirls overtook the entrance. He waited a second. Two. Three.
Nothing at all but the husk of a child, and Vlad eventually opened the glass doors, the clawed contraption pulling the body out of the portal before he shut it off with a disappointed sigh. The loud humming of the machine would take a few minutes to fade completely, though it still managed to drown out the few desperate thumps and the fearful shrieks and sobs. He kept his eye on the portal to make sure the residual energy didn't form any temporary portals in his basement before he turned his eyes on the corpse. Vlad sighed; such a tedious but delicate task to dispose of it, and he was the only one he trusted to not mess things up.
He gave no glance to the cages lining the far end of his lab, hidden behind even the main area that only two other living beings had ever been privy to. This was one thing he knew he couldn't allow anyone else to see; not even his ghostly acquaintances were aware of his second portal. He leaned down, carefully gripping the arms and sending a quiet thanks that the body wasn't stiff this time around and that the charring didn't flake any ash or skin onto the floors. Cleaning the soot from his suit and the floors was a pain, almost as much as moving a stiff body was. This made it easier.
The fears of ashes gone, he hoisted it up and floated out of his lab, the special ghost shield and security functions set to allow him, and only him, through the walls and floors through intangibility. Anyone else would immediately be turned away or destroyed.
Vlad sent his sensors a cursory glance as he went, double checking to ensure no one else was in the area before he soared towards the back lots, the massive forests and open land that belonged to no one but was used by everyone who lived in the general area, whether for hunting, camping, or any other simple and most likely innocent activity. Of course, his own uses for the area were decidedly less so.
He pondered the possible variables for the experiment in his mind again as he pulled the intangible shovel from the tree he'd stashed it in. Phasing the body through the ground would be of no use, the body would remain in the intangible state due to the ectoplasmic nature of its destruction; If it was still whole enough to be identified, he would burn it further before burying the corpse by hand, allowing the earth's decomposers to devour it. The land was wide, no one would find it and if they did, they'd never trace it to him, ordinary and human billionaire Vlad Masters.
Vlad turned his mind back to the subject as he worked, carelessly dropping the body onto the ground. The differences in the fear and rage of the subjects didn't seem to have any particular effect, and considering how many times he'd altered that one piece he assumed it was about time to move to a different one. Perhaps he could test the overall emotions before he activated the portal? The physical shape of the people could make a difference, although both himself and Daniel hadn't been the strongest of individuals before their own half-deaths...
He nudged the body into the hole with his boot, sweeping the loose dirt over it with his telekinesis. Job done, he phased the shovel back into the tree, his gaze sweeping over the innocuous mounds of soil that marked the others buried nearby. Most of them were overgrown with fungi and grasses. Such a shame the child had died, really; Vlad had high hopes for this one. But his own hopes never changed anything.
Another failure. Another change in variables, another attempt on creating a halfa. More time spent on replicating a one-in-a-million moment that had happened twice in the span of approximately twenty-five years.
It was all the same to Vlad. None of the deaths mattered. It just mean he'd have to change things next time and try again. As he strolled out from the wooded area, changing back as he walked, he wondered how much longer it would take him to recreate their accidents and create the world's third halfa.
Not that it mattered. He would repeat it as many times as he had to, time and time again. Anything for another person to understand, for someone to stand by him.
Anything for the son that would someday become his own.