"You fool…" Red eyes glared angrily at the reflection in the bathroom. Since the experiment, Vlad had simply stared at the feminine form in the mirror for a few hours straight. Vlad had stripped down naked, felt utter disgust as he looked over every new curve that he'd never wanted. Breasts felt alien and the lack of a penis was a deep blow to his masculinity. "Danny was right…" Vlad leaned forward onto the counter and looked away for a moment before looking back up and staring himself in the face. "You're a fool and you deserve this. You're everyone's fool…" Pink ectoplasmic energy gathered at the tip of his finger as he held it up to head, as if it were a gun. In a moment of weakness, ending this struggle he called a life seemed so appealing. To just end the torment of loneliness and inevitable failure.
Snapping out of it with a scream, "I hate you!" Vlad forced himself to not do it and instead punch the mirror, shattering the glass. A shard cut into his hand and he let out a cry of pain. There was no running water, but luckily the cut wasn't very deep. Running back into the master bedroom, Vlad looked around and settled on a very thin bed sheet. He ripped off some of the fabric and wrapped it around his hand to stop the bleeding. As he did, suddenly, he became inspired with a desperate idea. Vlad ripped away a larger strip from the sheet and brought it back into the bathroom. Very carefully, he tightly wrapped it around his chest and successfully flattened down his breasts. It wasn't the best job he could have done, but somehow seeing them hidden from view filled him with just enough relief to not kill himself.
With how very uncomfortable the binding was and how ridiculous it felt to wear it, Vlad took a deep breath and fought back the coming tears. A lump filled his throat as he left the bathroom again to rummage through the old dressers and closet to fine something, anything, to wear that would make him feel more like himself. Unfortunately, the only thing he could find that still fit were a couple of Wisconsin University t-shirts from his college days, a few pairs of blue jeans and some dirty old shoes, that had been sealed up in a cardboard box in his closet. "I never knew why I held onto these things, but I'm glad I did." He spoke softly to himself. As he looked through the clothes, in the bottom of the box were pictures of himself, Jack and Maddie all hanging out together. It only took one glance to see the three of them smiling together as friends for Vlad to grab the clothes, close the box and run out of the closet. His body trembled and the tears couldn't be stopped as his mind flashed from the happy faces in the photos to the utter betrayal and disappointment on Jack's face as he abandoned him in space.
Vlad had to sit for a moment on the edge of the bed, wiping away the tears with his good hand while trying to get a grip on himself. When he was finally able to calm down, he proceeded to put the clothes on and go back into the bathroom to see how it looked. The shattered mirror reflected the shattered image of a shattered soul and Vlad had to turn away for a moment and take a deep breath. When he could look back, he leaned in close and wished it wouldn't look obvious if he drew a beautifully trimmed beard back onto his strong chin. It was one of the features he missed the most about himself. Now his chin was just bare, soft and not suave or manly at all. While looking over himself in the old college clothes, Vlad was very much aware of how attractive he was as a woman, but it didn't feel right. This wasn't what he wanted, this wasn't his body anymore. While playing with his even longer now, white-silver hair, he moved the ponytail to his shoulder and could at least enjoy the way that looked. Long hair pulled back had been his favorite style for a while now anyway. "At least no one will recognize you?" He muttered to himself in a very melancholy tone with the best fake smile he could muster up.
Once again, Vlad became trapped staring into his reflection, but this time was cut off by a loud growl from his stomach. Although he hadn't had much of an appetite, he accepted a while ago that with youth came a more active metabolism and skipping meals would be more difficult. Besides, if he didn't try to come down off of this depression and take care of himself, he'd never have the energy to get back to work in the lab and figure out what went wrong with the experiment. With an overly exaggerated sigh, Vlad went invisible and phased downstairs to get to the pantry.
Opening the pantry door, Vlad knew he had at least one bag of chips left in his food stash, but unfortunately, Danny had beaten him to it. "Hey!" He snapped, but quickly felt embarrassed by his feminine voice and covered his mouth.
Danny was sitting on the floor of the small room, crunching on the last bit of chips in the bag. "Sup?" He asked with an amused snort at hearing Vlad speak again in that girly voice. When he looked up, he saw Vlad's sad attempt at dressing like a guy, but he wasn't mean enough to point it out. Even Danny could see that she had obviously been crying during the few hours she had disappeared and teasing her at that point would just be pouring salt in the open wound.
"Sup?!" Vlad crossed his arms and frowned down at him. "I can try to tolerate you staying in my mansion, but stealing my food too is just plain rude, Daniel. Do you even realize what I risk every single time I have to steal something to get by?"
"First of all, this isn't your mansion anymore." Danny cut her off and finished the chips. He then crumpled the bag and threw it at Vlad in a playful way. "Second of all, if you want more, then here…" Pulling out his wallet from his back pocket, Danny handed Vlad a $20. "Go get some more, just bring me back something too. I'm gonna go take a nap." Without another word, Danny went ghost and flew upstairs to find a room to sleep in. Leaving Vlad alone, confused, irritated and hungry.
The thought of leaving the mansion again was worrisome, but he had a feeling that he could get away with being in public now and not get noticed. Being given the money was something kind he hadn't expected either from troubled youth. Dealing with an adult Daniel was definitely an alien experience for Vlad, regardless of the current circumstances. As he went ghost and flew off, he wondered to himself what had happened to make the young man so jaded. Perhaps it was just the divorce he had mentioned or maybe something more? Either way, Vlad was sympathetic about it and didn't feel the need to probe him for answers. What mattered right now, Vlad had to be brave and enter a public store to test if the youth serum at least made him unrecognizable.
Vlad knew the area well from living here for so many years. After making his way past the local town, it had only been a few minutes more of flying after that before he finally reached the nearest small city. There, he knew he'd at least be even more anonymous. It was early morning, so when he made it to the nearest superstore, it wasn't as busy as it normally was. He chose this place because he knew he could get the most for his money here. Vlad changed from ghost to human form behind a parked vehicle in the store's lot and with a deep breath, put on his confident face and walked to the doors and on inside.
This was the first time since returning to Earth that he allowed himself to be seen by anyone else, minus the incident with Daniel Fenton wandering into his laboratory. Keeping his gaze down, Vlad walked quickly and cautiously to the snacks aisle. He stuck to buying things that didn't need cooked or cooled since the mansion didn't have running water or electricity of its own. As he pressed forward, something caught his eye in his side vision that made him have to stop and look. The clothing was placed next to the food aisles and with autumn approaching, this Wisconsin store had a display full of Packers clothing and accessories in the men's section. Vlad immediately stopped what he was doing, smiled, and like a moth to a flame, had to check it out.
"Very nice…" Vlad muttered with an ever growing smile while holding up a small men's T done up in green, gold and footballs. Seeing only $5 on the price tag, Vlad couldn't resist and decided Daniel could deal with it. After the night he had, this was exactly what he needed. Spoiling himself.
"Getting that for your boyfriend?" Came the voice of an elderly woman seemingly from nowhere.
This had startled Vlad, but thinking quickly, he replied in the kindest way possible, "No... This is for me actually. They're my favorite team, so-"
"They have shirts out for the girl fans too. They're over there." She had cut Vlad off and pointed to the girls section where nearly everything was in pink and feminine enough to make Vlad want to vomit.
Vlad was irritated by this and replied firmly, but calmly. "I don't like the girl clothing and I don't like being a girl, so please leave me alone?"
The woman made Vlad uncomfortable as she stared up and down the clearly feminine form in front of her, then shook her head. "Don't fight what God gave you, dear. With looks and youth like yours, you could have boys trying to kill each other over you. Wouldn't that make you feel special?"
Without looking at her and instead, looking through the clothing, Vlad replied coldly. "If I were still a sociopathic mess, then yes, I would have loved to watch blood shed for my approval, but sadly life has a way of putting one in their place. Something I'm sure an old bag like you would understand?" Vlad paused, needing to focus his energy on holding back the urge to go ghost and throw this woman. "God had nothing to do with making me what I am. If He had, I wouldn't hesitate to hunt him down and kill him for turning my life into a joke. Now please, could you just go away and leave me the fuck alone?!"
"Well?!" The woman gasped at being told off and turned away from him. "Packers are a shit team anyway…" She said under her breath as she quickly walked away.
Vlad was steaming with anger and if it weren't for someone putting a hand on his shoulder, he wouldn't have been able to hold back this time. Insulting the Packers was just adding insult to injury. "What?!" He asked as he turned to see who was bothering him now. This time, it was a tall, strongly-built, butchy looking woman with an employee nametag that read, Chelsea.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. It's just that, I overheard what happened and I wanted to say thanks. That woman comes in here and bothers me about how I dress too. If I didn't need this job, I would tell her off like that too, so… thanks, again." The woman smiled timidly and fixed her glasses.
Vlad had to close his eyes and just breathe for a moment. Remaining calm was the key to keeping his identity safe. Female or not, Plasmius would be easily recognized. "Don't thank me, she's lucky I'm forced to hold back my temper or things may have turned out differently. Never insult a man's team to his face. Especially if that man is me."
"I totally understand. By the way, my name is Chester. I know the nametag says otherwise, but I'm a transman too. This area is so backwards, I never thought I'd meet someone like myself. What's your name?" He asked with a growing smile.
It honestly took Vlad a moment to remember what transman meant, but when he did, he confidently smiled back and answered, "Oh yes, we transmen are a rare breed, aren't we? My name is Vla-" He paused and realized he hadn't thought of what alias to go by. Thinking quickly, Vlad continued, "I'm… Vick? Yeah! My name is Vick Polaris and I'm new to town." He followed this up with a firm handshake.
"That's such a badass name! Hey, Vick, would you maybe want to hang out with me on my break here in thirty minutes or so? We could go catch the breakfast menu at Nasty Taco before they switch to the regular stuff?" Chester asked excitedly, really wanting to be friends with this like-minded stranger.
"Nasty Taco has a breakfast menu now? Since when?!" Vlad asked, rather shocked by this.
"Uh…" Chester wasn't sure how to reply to that and decided to shrug it off as Vick not having watched much TV recently. "Yeah, they've been doing it since last year. It's really good. Better than the breakfast menu anywhere else."
While the thought of a classic taco chain doing breakfast seemed strange, Vlad was too hungry to pass up the chance to get some free food. "I would love to join you for brunch. Just allow me the time to finish purchasing the items I came here for and I will wait for you outside on one of the benches. Sound fair?" Vlad smiled as sweetly as possible. He knew making friends could prove to be beneficial.
Chester nodded in agreement and left Vlad alone to finish his shopping.
Still hanging onto the shirt he wanted, Vlad left the merchandise display and gathered two large backs of chips and a jug of water for himself. After he paid for the items, Vlad did as he said and waited outside on the bench. With the sun rising in the sky and the morning birds tweeting, he had to admit that this lovely day was very relaxing. Even better, was that he could sit outside and enjoy it without worrying about being hunted by the billions of people and ghosts who still wanted to kill him for his actions over ten years ago. Vlad closed his eyes and rested back against the bench, trying to not let memories of the past ruin his increasingly better mood. All he could do, was swear to himself that as soon as he returned home, he would begin work on figuring out went wrong in his calculations that caused the gender reassignment mutation in the DNA sequence. If he could just isolate that factor, he could become a man again and remain young.
Suddenly, Vlad was tapped on the shoulder and opened his eyes to see Chester smiling at him. "You ready?" He asked.
"Obviously." Vlad answered with a smirk and got up, following Chester to his car with groceries in hand.