2014.03.18 - The Cost of Impure Blood & The Secret Project

Days had passed since Leo had the tests done. Lex left an email, voicemail, and text message that all said a simple statement, "See me. It's urgent. Cancel everything." Lex had already cleared out his plate for the day. This was infinitely more important. He was sitting in his chair at his desk. His fingers went over a manilla folder. Green eyes scanned over the various readings.

Considering that Leo only has Bandit and Fern, it wasn't that difficult Fern is at work, and Bandit is dropped off to Bart to watch. Leo then comes to work. He looks much better, though he looks more tired than he should. Then again, Fern is sleeping over so he isn't using the UV light when she is sleeping with him to help him recover faster. He has started to pick weight back up, but he still has a little more bulk to pick up before he is like he was before. He arrives, having felt well enough to fly as someone down below reports to you about his arrival and how.

Soon enough, Leo comes up the elevator and joins his Father. "Hello Father, what's going on?" He sounds concerned.

Lex set down the folder, "Sit son. I have news, some good and some bad. The good news is there are options," he said not wanting to sugarcoat it. "You'll want to sit down. It sounds worse than it actually is." When Leo sat down Lex began, "You have cellular degeneration. You won't die from it if you take precautions. You have solar cells from the Kryptonian DNA. When you use up the solar cells it turns to your red and white blood cells, along with others from your human side. This causes everything from your weakened state and possibly death if you continue this way." The tone was serious but Lex did not sound too worried, "Do you want to hear of the alternatives to avoid this?"

"Umm...great, no panic attack at all, totally cool with this." Ya, Leo looked like he paled. But he goes to take a seat, clasping his hands together in front of him as he leans forward, resting forearms on his thighs. He frowns as Lex starts to explain what is going on.

A slow blink at that. "Umm...great, so using my ummm..Kryptonian powers can kill me, awesome. I guess not use them?" That would be the obvious option, and the first one Leo thinks as the obvious one.

"No. It's about balance. You either have to use your sun lamp, and you will be given new ones, spend some time soaking in the sun, or me adapting your suit to take in more solar radiation. You can use your powers but pushing yourself too hard will slowly kill you. If you push it, you can train yourself. If you push yourself too hard, you will slowly kill yourself," Lex said sternly. These were the facts but Leo could avoid them, "The parademons pushed you too hard. You weren't pushed before that," Lex just went through the facts to calm his son down. Before that Leo did so much without triggering this. So now they had a limit to work with.

This seems to make Leo think, but he nods, "Having a lover makes just soaking up the sun more difficult when I am resting, though some nights I can," he comments. Fern doesn't stay over every night by far. "The suit would be practical, and something I can use during intense battles to enhance recovery. I suppose I should use a mixture of both," he comments. "I'll also see about moving my office for best sunlight while I'm at work." Leo never cared about where his office was before, just used the previous holder of his title's office before. He never asked for an upgrade or anything, but this is different.

"Yes. You will need more sunlight. That's what it all amounts to. Right now you're like a runner pushing yourself without being properly hydrated. If the runner continues without hydration they will collapse. When you collapse we may need a defibrillator," Lex said his voice being gravely serious. His green eyes glistened looking at his son. Leo's comments about Fern didn't move his father. Fern was a nice girl but they had to set up a UV lamp or something. Leo was being stupid without it.

"I spend more time in the office than at home on normal weeks, perhaps we can get natural lights in my office. Others don't spend enough time in there for that to be an issue," Leo also suggests. Bandit is not going to be happy not to be able to at least try and push Leo out of the bed either, but Leo will deal with Bandit.

"Done. You will get what you need," Lex said firmly. Looking over at Leo, "You are not dying but you are hurting yourself by continuing on as you have been. Do you understand?" A smile came to Lex's face as Bandit came up, "He's a good dog. He'll adjust and get you out into the light if I give him the command," Bandit may have actually been attuned enough to do that. Bandit wasn't a normal dog. Granted Lex may have had a biased opinion there.

A chuckle at that, "He's not that smart," though Leo sounds proud of his dog. "So...I guess that's that until the items are installed and the suit designed," he says with a careful sigh. Least he hopes that is all on his medical examination.

Lex Luthor says, "After this talk you will need to fly off toward or near the sun. It will fix you," Lex said it all firmly. Leo did have the order to cancel everything after all."

A blink, "Umm...I can try, that takes a lot of energy." But Leo will try since his Father wanted him to. "I might be up to it at this point, I've only started flying about today."

"I may be able to help with that," Lex said softly. From there he got up and walked to the secret elevator going to his R and D department. Lex waited for Leo. When the door shut they went into the R and D lab. There stood an Iron Legion suit. "Put it on," Lex said. If Leo looked over there was a superman themed armor even.

Leo gets up and follows along after his Father. When he reaches the R&D, he gives the armor a funny look. He usually takes them apart, not puts them on! But he then shrugs, "Very well." His Father has purposes for this, so he just follows along. He moves to get into the blank appearing Legion armor after examining it. He never put one on, but he appears to figure it out quickly.

Looking at Leo in the suit, "Put in the flight command, you know the A.I." Lex waited for his son to take off. The suit was completely quiet and it didn't use any noticeable propulsion system. There was no jet stream of any sort. Stealth technology was far beneath what this was.

So it's a new suit, entirely new at this rate. It may seem to look the same on the surface, but it is very different. Leo starts to figure out how it works, and greets the A.I. "Otis. Prepare for take-off." He goes through the required checks, like one does if they had memorized a text book, and then he takes off. His Father is really impatient for him to go do this. It makes him wonder just how bad it is...considering he has been feeling better. It leaves an unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach.

As he heads up over the city and further toward space, he checks his com, "Father, can you hear me?"

"Yes. I can. New flight system. Beyond anything scene. Do not stay out too long. It has yet to go public. Military already has their latest batch." Lex said with a sense of pride. He waited to see what Leo thought of the new system, "This is why I have been busy. Patriot already has it."

"It's different from flying naturally," Leo states, "But it appears stable, it doesn't roar in my ears like suits normally do either." He is heading for space, checking environmental controls within the suit as well, and having Otis run checks to make sure everything remains good. Sometimes, Leo has to remind himself not to fight the suit as his TTK has a habit of trying to take over sub-consciously. "Is this your secret project?"

When the suit started to hit near space ti made all sorts noises, "I am still perfecting space travel son. You can survive fro limited amounts of time. The new system took a while," he admitted. Lex was happy to see the readouts were mostly stable.

"Yes, my jarring bones love it Father," and yes, Leo did get a little sarcastic there. But it's up in space and Leo has Otis monitor environment while he worries about holding his breath after giving Otis the orders in case the oxygen thins. Then again? How is he supposed to talk? "Guess I gotta get out of the suit anyway to absorb sunlight."

"Retrieve the suit when you're done," Lex didn't plan this but it gave Leo the needed edge so be it. He wanted his son healthy but this was just meant for a test drive. "Maintain communications son," Lex chimed in before Leo tried to disengage.

"Father, this is space. I don't breathe in it." Yes, Leo sounds amused at his Father. "Otis, stop environment controls in three seconds and then release me from the suit, then reseal immediate and try not to freeze up, cause I'll want back in."

He gains Otis' compliance, and the three second countdown starts, and then suddenly, Leo is ejected. He must have left the video on, cause as the suit reseals up, and environmental controls come back on, soon the footage comes back on to show what the suit sees.

Leo is floating there, his pants and shirt seeming to look odd as no gravity pulls it into place about his body. He appears relaxed, eyes closed, the glare of the sun on his face, no breath inside him. A peaceful death, is what it appears, frozen in time. Though there is no expression of pain or discomfort as he survives outside the suit with ease. It's oxygen he will need sooner or later, the cold and vacuum of space bothers him not.

Lex monitored what he could and just waited for everything to be done. Leo was going to get cured one way or another. The suit was going to come back too. At least readings on this one would push the suits into the space exploration phase.

It helps not to have to worry about killing the pilot, right? It's about thirty minutes later while Leo soaks up sunlight and just relaxes in the silence of space before his body jerks and his eyes snap open. He seems to have had enough as he taps on the suit. The camera stops working again, and things don't work so well in the coldness of space as things start to freeze up. But Leo gets back into the suit quickly and Otis closes it up with Leo helping him jerk pieces into place before it locks down.

When systems come up again, they are not fully operational, but Leo does have the TTK strength to start helping the suit down back to Earth for systems to de-thaw more. The problem with opening the innards to space! Still, the fact it survived exposure like that is impressive!

"If you don't get systems online you will crash our prototype son," Lex reminded his son. He knew Leo was going to survive the ordeal. A half hour near the sun was probably enough to heal himself and supercharge his system. Still Lex did worry about his son, but it would do either of them any good if fear was conveyed now. Right now Leo had to focus on survival. He would become panicked if Lex was worried or scared, so Dad never showed it.

Leo says, "Umm...you would get all the pieces back?" He glances about inside the suit, and takes a deep breath, the comlink static. But he closes his eyes and reaches out with his TTK, shaking the ice and cracking it, trying to be careful of the delicate pieces of the arm and not to shake the armor pieces itself loose. The armor heats up, but Leo doesn't worry about that right now, as this takes fine-tune control. As he comes rushing toward Earth and the armor starts to get almost too hot for it to handle, Otis comes back on fully.

"Slowing armor decent and activating environmental controls."

Leo sighs, and gulps in the fresh air, "My lungs are happy now." He sounds happy to as he was able to creative use his powers to 'fix' something rather than just destroy it, a new experience for him.

"Good. Now come home before I worry more," he admitted looking to the system readouts. Lex sat back just trying to pull himself together. That was a little too close for his tastes.

It is only about fifteen minutes or so before Leo is soon landing in LexCorp R&D lab. Otis opens the armor for him at his request, and Leo stumbles out a bit, shaking his head. He does look...better, better than when he went up there. "Sorry," he says with a grin. "I thought it better to try than, then just carry it down here with my TTK, cause that likely would have ended up with the armor in pieces." He's actually giddy.

Although it went unsaid Lex gave a small smile. Everything went well, better than he expected and above all his son was safe. "We should order a pizza, son, now that you're better we have something to celebrate."

A nod at that, "And it's a good armor you created Father," Leo states. "I'm pretty impressed it survived that." His Father hasn't been in armor making as long as Stark has, and already Lex is making leaps and bounds in such a short amount of time. To say Leo is proud? It is an understatement. Though he bets his Father could out genetic Tony any second of eternity! Alright, so he's bragging about his dad in his head, he does that sometimes!

"Pizza sounds great, and Bart is watching Bandit, so I don't need to rush either." Leo always misses hanging with his busy dad. Though he soon asks perhaps one of his strangest questions yet, "Have you ever been fed by someone before?" Now that he's in a good mood, apparently he /wants/ to talk.