watchtower_rebirth | Office Visit

STAR Labs*, Metropolis

Doctor Mid-Nite was still finding his place in things, as memories returned and other pieces of reality seemed to be playing catch-up, but people were remembering and recognizing him. STAR Labs had called on him before, when they needed someone who crossed the boundaries of medicine, science, and super-heroics.

Such was the case now. The woman calling herself Superwoman had turned to them for help, and in turn, they had had turned to him. She was dying and no one had been able to explain why.

He'd run a few tests of his own,and though he wished he had Michael here to further verify the results, he was reasonably certain, certain enough to give her the news.

She was... somewhat strange to his eyes. Of course, everyone was, but when your vision relied upon the ultraviolet and infrared, your definition of strange tended to be a little bit different as well. Even powered down, he could see the energies coursing through her.

He looked down at his tablet, then up at her.

"I'm afraid I don't have good news."

(*Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Labs)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

byfate

Lana took in a deep, shaky breath. Sure, yes, she had been expecting bad news, absolutely. After all, every time she used her powers, Lana ended up with nosebleeds, blackouts, or worse. The last fight with Amazo had taken a lot out of her.

Almost too much, if she was going to be honest with herself.

Let's just set honesty aside for my news reports, she thought darkly.

For the briefest of moments, Lana wanted to power up, shift into her Superwoman form, as though doing so would somehow shield her from whatever bad news Doctor Mid-Nite was going to share with her. It was an impulse she managed to control.

"I was afraid you were going to say that," she smiled thinly, though it never quite reached her eyes. "How much time do I have left?"

From:

will_see_you_now

"I'm afraid the answer to that is, "it depends,'" he told her.

Pieter tapped a few keys on his datapad. "The more you use your powers, the faster you're accelerating the process. The energies you're processing are, quite literally, burning you out."

He turned the device around so that she could see the results.

"I'm consulting with Doctors Hoshi and Faulkner. I'm not particularly optimistic, but we might be able to find a way to drain the energy from you and save your life."

From:

byfate

Intelligent blue eyes swept over the datapad, taking the information in. She'd already suspected that there was a correlation between using her powers and the length of her lifespan. She didn't know why, but it explained all of the after-effects pretty well.

And now she could see it.

"I was given the powers, but not the capacity to fully process them," she said, her tone matter-of-fact. "When the wave hit me - when Cla - when Superman, I mean..." She was, clearly, struggling for a way to put this into words. "Sorry, I just need a second here." She breathed in deeply, closed her eyes, and counted to ten.

"When you say drain the energy, you mean depower me. No more Superwoman. Just Lana Lang."

From:

will_see_you_now

"Correct," he said.

"It goes a bit beyond simply not being able to process them, Ms. Lang. The fact of the matter is, you were exposed to an empowering event. Now, among our community, there are a number of individuals who can say the same.

"The difference being, those individuals all possessed the metagene, which enabled them to survive it. You don't have that gene; while you may have been granted abilities... you are not a metahuman."

From:

byfate

"In other words, by all rights, that event should have killed me instead of powering me up." Would it have been the same for Lois, if she'd survived? Or was it just her luck of the draw? Lois got the classic powers. Maybe those were non-meta friendly.

Or perhaps Lois had a latent metagene herself. Who knew?

"What are my other options here, Doctor?" She sat up a little straighter, squaring her shoulders. Weak stances led to personal weakness, she had always believed. She may have been dying, she may have been burning out, but Lana Lang wasn't weak. "Except for the whole draining me of my powers thing."

The question was halfway out of her mouth before she realized what she was saying. This wasn't part of the plan. Hadn't been. When she'd been empowered by the event, the plan had been to lay low. Help guide Lois, but not go into the field herself. Only now, Clark was dead, Lois was gone, and Lana had promises to keep and legacies to uphold. She was the last living connection to her native Clark and Lois. Her friends. She couldn't let them down. She couldn't renege on those promises.

"Because that can't be my only option."

From:

will_see_you_now

"There aren't any, Miss Lang," Mid-Nite told her. "You're either a metagene carrier or you're not. You can't simply make someone into one."

Technically, you could, if Winters' operation was anything to go by, but that wasn't something he felt was ethical to disclose. Especially when he was planning on dismantling it piece by piece.

"At best, we might be able to slow the process, buy ourselves some time for further study, but even that would require that you cease using your abilities.

From:

byfate

"Please, it's just Lana," Lana said. "With all due respect, Doctor, I find that a little difficult to believe," she added. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not challenging your diagnosis. But we live in a world where almost everything that's impossible is, somehow, possible. Magic, coming back from the dead, dimension hopping, time travel. There has to be some solution here."

She licked her lips and added, "I made a promise to some very important friends. I can't let them down."

From:

will_see_you_now

Pieter frowned. "Certain unscrupulous individuals are trying to achieve exactly what you're asking, Ms. La--Lana. It's dangerous, unpredictable, and has already claimed more than a few lives.

"Even if I thought it was a good idea, research and testing would take years."

From:

byfate

"Unscrupulous?" If Lana were a cat, her ears would have perked up. She may not have been a reporter long - and she knew she'd never hold a candle to Lois - but she still had good instincts. "Who? LexCorp? Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals?" She paused and raised an eyebrow. "Cadmus Industries?"

From:

will_see_you_now

Pieter frowned. In for a penny, in for a pound. She'd probably find out anyway. People talked.

"A woman named Delores Winters," he said. "A few years ago, I shut down an operation of hers where she was harvesting metahumans for their body parts. She's since branched out into a concoction using dna extracted from others metagenes.

"It temporarily bestows people with active metagenes, but it's highly unstable and addictive. It's already killed several people."

From:

byfate

"That's...not a permanent fix," Lana said after a beat. "I mean, what. It's a pill? Something you inject? Whatever it is, it's a temporary high. A temporary boost. That's not exactly the kind of solution I'm seeking out." There was, though, maybe a glint in her eye. She knew that it was risky, and it was definitely a last minute thing.

But it was also something to consider.

"But I meant more...look. I have Kryptonian powers, now. Kind of. With all of the advances we've had, there must be some way to splice Kryptonian DNA into me or, I don't know, build some sort of containment suit that allows me to be Superwoman without dying."

From:

will_see_you_now

"It's a rather painful injection, by my understanding," Pieter explained.

"There is Superboy, of course," he went on. "But as far as I've ever been able to determine, that was a one in a million shot. A technological solution isn't... completely impossible, but a bit outside my area of expertise."

From:

byfate

"I'm less keen on the tech solution, I'm not going to lie. Technology has a way of failing you at the worst of times."

Lana pursed her lips thoughtfully. "You have to understand. This...the powers. Superwoman. It's not for the glory. I don't want fame or a Nobel Peace Prize or anything. I want to do the right thing, and I think I'm seeing for the first time how I can do more, both as Superwoman and Lana Lang, than I can just as the latter. I'm sure you understand that. I mean, you're not just a doctor."

From:

will_see_you_now

A small smile spread across his lips. "More than you would expect. Even before I lost my sight and decided to deal with it by putting on a costume... I understood the power of making a difference, of having a duty to help, because you could, because most people wouldn't."

From:

byfate

"Too many people are in it for the glory and the accolades," Lana said, thinking of Lex Luthor. He wasn't her problem, not really. Lex had Superman to fight and Superman had Lex. There were occasions, sure, where Lex had found someone else to go up against, but for the most part...well. Lana had his sister Lena to deal with.

Though she had no idea where Lena was these days.

"I can't just stop. Not now. Not when I've just started." Part of her was sorely tempted to break into the Fortress of Solitude to find answers - surely the Kryptonians had found a way to meld the two DNAs together? - but she wouldn't break Clark's trust that way. Not hers, and not the new one's either.

From:

will_see_you_now

An impressive woman, Pieter thought. Her pulse rate and other biometrics had stayed steady during the entire course of that. She clearly had the courage of her convictions.

"I can't make you any promises, Lana," he said. "But if you're determined to pursue this... Well, you'd be much better off under a physicians' care than not."

From:

byfate

"I'm not expecting false hope and promises, Doctor Mid-Nite," Lana replied. "Just...some help. You're a superhero. You're a doctor. You know your stuff better than anyone else I can think of. If anyone can help me, I honestly do think it's you."

She smiled, then, at him. "I can be hardheaded and stubborn. It's the farmgirl in me. I always think there's a way, a solution. The engineer in me doesn't much help with that, to be honest. I need you to promise that you'll force me to back down if I start getting ahead of myself. I tend to push myself, otherwise. Sometimes, too far."

From:

will_see_you_now

A wry smile crossed Mid-Nite's lips again.

"Lana, you couldn't possibly be worse than Ted Grant... though I did have to sedate him a time or two.

"And please, call me Pieter."

From:

byfate

"Well, Ted Grant doesn't have the shiny superpowers that I come equipped with," Lana smirked. "But I'm sure you have more than enough experience dealing with hotheads like me, considering your history with the Justice Society."