Chapter Four
Wally didn't know the name of the song he whistled through the 12th floor hallway, but he couldn't get it out of his head no matter how hard he tried. It had a catchy enough melody, but the chorus was the part that had him hooked. He wondered if he whistled the tune into the shazam app on his iPhone if it could decipher the title of the song for him.
"Shazam," he chucked to himself.
He was in a good mood. The medical trials he'd spent the last seven months working on were progressing better than expected; his birthday was only a few weeks away and with a little influence from a powerful friend he had successfully made it onto the PlayStation 5 beta-testing list, oh and he'd met a girl.
But everything wasn't all wine and roses, namely his other job.
The mission he and his teammates had recently undertaken was becoming more challenging and time consuming than originally projected, but no one ever said the life of a superhero was supposed to be easy or convenient.
A deadly new drug had begun to appear on the streets of Gotham. Being a harbor town made the city a proverbial ground zero in regards to distribution to other major markets across the country. The covert team Wally belonged wouldn't normally get involved in something as commonplace as drug trafficking, that's what agencies like the DEA and Drug Enforcement Task Force were created for, but this particular drug was special and that's what made it so concerning.
It was a highly addictive designer drug, an engineered synthetic and the first of its kind to appear in Gotham. With one initial use the addiction was immediate but the side effects were what made it potentially so dangerous.
Actual leads had been few and far between, and after months of reconnaissance the team had little to show for it. Nightwing had traced the possible manufacturers to a few suspected labs out of the Ukraine, the same labs that more than likely were responsible for the previous plague known as Krokodil, the cheap desomorphine cocktail coming out of Russia for the last year and a half, but that drug paled in comparison to what was now appearing.
This new synthetic was not cheap, it wasn't some cut-rate heroin or meth knock off, it was expensive to manufacture, but sold at a low cost on the streets. It was that cost that troubled Dick the most. The business model made no sense. Why sell an expensive to manufacture, highly addictive drug on the streets cheaply to junkies who more than likely would overdose and not live long enough to become repeat customers? The bottom line for almost any criminal organization was all about the profit, and drug kingpins weren't usually known for their charity. Everything about this enterprise screamed lose/lose to all parties involved.
The most likely candidates were the usual suspects: Intergang or Shadowspire, but the modus operandi troubled the speedster. Drug trafficking just didn't fit either profile; it was too small time for major international syndicates like these. Add to that, the drug hadn't been release in its country of origin or anywhere else in Europe for that matter. It was targeted directly at the U.S. Something just didn't add up.
The red head dropped off the last of his parcels and looked at his watch. 7:26 on the dot. He'd have time to hit the Hello Muffin café, grab what was left of Megan Morse's delicious pastries and head up to the lab before anyone arrived. He liked the solitude of the early morning hours, it was much easier to focus and think when management wasn't stopping him every fifteen minutes, asking him to dumb down everything he was working on to their level.
Today was a particularly important one. If the results came back positive he could move on to the testing phase of the trials and spend some quality time with Marcus and his family to properly go over their options. He'd become emotionally invested with the teen and his family despite the warnings of his friends and peers.
Marcus Washigton had spent most of his childhood growing up in hospitals due to acute kidney failure. He had twice been an organ donor recipient, only to have his body reject them months and years later. Now considered a high risk patient, the teen was no longer eligible for implementation of donor organs. His only option now was a lifetime of dialysis and a much shorter life expectancy. That was until he met Dr. West. If the drug Wally was working on could save just one life, Marcus's life, than everything he'd slaved over for the past few years would all be worth it.
Having successfully whined his way off of the Team duty roster for one night, the speedster might even be home in time for the Walking Dead marathon along with two large pizzas with everything, possibly breadsticks even. That was the plan anyway.
He made his way to the elevator banks and called for the car while balancing his bag of deserts along with his overstuffed backpack. The bell rung and the doors opened as Wally rushed in, only to come face to face with his nearly dining companion from the previous night. Seven others walked in behind them, and they all rode silently together, every other floor or so losing a passenger or two until finally only Wally and Artemis remained.
He didn't have to look at her to know she was fuming. The right thing to do would be to remain quiet and not kick the hornet's nest, but some of life's greatest achievements came from the mixture of combustible chemicals. He was living proof of that.
"Bad date huh?" Wally frowned shaking his head. "He's gay isn't he? I knew it. It's always the good looking rich ones."
Artemis turned to face him with a coldness in her eyes that actually sent a chill up the red head's spine. Suddenly she lurched forward and pulled the alarm toggle stopping the car.
She got within inches of his face before she spoke.
"What in the hell is wrong with you? You made me look like a fool last night jackass. The only thing that is stopping me from dragging your sorry ass to the top floor of this building and pushing you out the closest window is that you're my boss's best friend and killing you would look bad on my resume!" she barked.
"Actually I think the windows are sealed shut up there, something to do with people jumping out of them during the Great Depression," he politely tried to correct.
"Shut up!" she screamed. "You don't know me; you don't know shit about me. This is a really huge break for someone like me. I don't know if you're mentally ill or just stupid, but this is not a game to me, this is my life, and you're screwing it up!"
Her breath became haggard and her face red as Wally's normally jovial expression began to fade.
"Ok. I'm sorry," he spoke sincerely. "I really mean it. I was just having some of fun at Dick's expense. It was dickish of me and I apologize."
Wally stopped talking as a gleam flickered in his green eyes. "See what I did there? A little play on words…"
Artemis scowl grew ever sterner, boring holes through the red head.
"Really? Nothing?" Wally sighed in defeat and continued. "Look I was just having some fun, friends do things like that, maybe you'd understand the concept better if you actually made some instead of wearing that I'm going to cut your balls off face you do all the time. Let me make it up to you; let me buy you lunch and make a fresh start. What do you say?"
A small smile appeared on Artemis's face and Wally let out a sigh of relief, satisfied that the West charm had once again come to the rescue. That relief lasted for all of five seconds before the blonde grabbed him by the lapels of his lab coat and slammed him against the wooden elevator wall.
"You just don't fucking listen do you. Let me spell it out for you!"
A hard callused finger dove painfully into the speedster's sternum as the blonde began.
"A: I have plenty of friends. B: I don't need any new ones and even if I did, I promise you that you'd be dead last on that list, emphasis on dead. C: If I chose to cut yours off I'd be doing the women of the northeast a huge favor, no court in the world would dare convict me, and D: The only way I'd ever eat lunch with you is if spending time with a fucking moron was on my bucket list."
She roughly let go of the jacket and reached over and slammed the alarm button back in and the car jerked into motion. Wally stared off irritably, unwilling to glance back at the girl. The elevator stopped on Artemis's floor and she took a step off the lift before turning back towards the silent fuming red head.
"Are we clear?" she demanded.
Wally pursed his lips and nodded.
He opened the bag slowly and presented her with one of his pastries, a frosted olive branch of sorts, when she balled her fists and growled, knocking both the muffin along with the bag out of his hands and spilling its contents all over the wood paneled elevator floor. As the door closed Wally sighed and bent down to pick up the remains of his morning snack.
A floor later the door reopened and Zatanna walked in carrying a series of contracts to be reviewed by the legal department and notarized.
"Looks like you're making real progress with her Wall-man," the brunette snickered.
"Shut up," he grumbled picking up the last of his dust bunny covered breakfast and exiting on his floor. His once bright day was beginning to take a turn for the worse.
xxx
Later that morning Wally stared into the eyepiece of the microscope before transferring the live image onto the large computer screen on the wall. The gene sequences he was observing had been tainted with a faint radioactive isotope and stood out brilliantly on the monitor. He watched intently as they finally began to interact with the host tissue. He looked back to his notes, crossing off a few formulas and changing integers on others. He circled the target genes with his finger on the smart screen and began recording the activity for a few moments, pleased with the tissue and its interaction with the compound he'd administered.
It was still hard for him to believe that everything that was happening before his eyes stemmed from a little known research paper he wrote years ago back at Stanford, one he doubted anyone would actually read, let alone take seriously.
Using DNA Sequencing to Circumvent Organ Transplant Rejection was a novel idea at bypassing the traditional anti-rejection drug therapy for a more maverick approach of suppressing and redirecting the body's immune system, the main cause for organ rejection in a majority of cases.
Most of his professors ignored the paper as a work of science fiction, but his genetics professor Dr. Silas Stone knew Wally was on to something, all he needed was modern technology to catch up with the young red head's brilliance. The proof of Dr. Stone's faith now sat displayed on the screen, perfectly interacting with the tissue it was it had been injected into.
Wally watched proudly as the double helixes of both tissues began to mimic the other when he heard a visitor clear his throat.
"Dr. West," the older man announced.
"Max,'" Wally replied, immediately wincing mentally at the man's assured displeasure. "I'm sorry Mr. Lord. What can I do for you?"
It was times like this when the speedster really appreciated Dick's office policy of leaving the formalities for the negotiating table, but Maxwell Lord was the polar opposite of his best friend when it came to business and the man seemed perpetually to have a stick shoved up his ass.
"I was just dropping by to see how our tests were progressing."
The red head hated it when Lord used the word ours in relation to Wally's work. The speedster hadn't put his heart and soul into this cure because he wanted to get rich. He had rich friends and honestly wealth didn't impress him that much.
Sure it would be convenient sometimes, especially when it came to paying his tiny Gotham apartment's rent on time, but for much the same reason he wore the yellow and red spandex, it all came down to helping people. That's all he ever wanted. He'd watched his uncle do it for years as the Flash, and for as long as Wally could remember, he wanted to be a part of that movement, that legacy. Recreating the accident that gave Barry Allen his abilities was just the first step; living up to that legacy was the challenge.
However Wally realized early on, that was never Maxwell Lord's motivation; it was always about the money. There had been several firms bidding for Dr. West's services out of college, but none offered the location or the deep pockets that Lord had at his disposal. Despite being an anti-social, anal man of questionable character, he had shown remarkable patience and generosity in giving the Wally the time and resources to see his ideas come to fruition. Wally knew deep down it was all about patents and the profits for his boss, but he wouldn't have been able to create this miracle for people in need without Maxwell Lord by his side.
"I see our little talk about a proper dress code was not well received," Lord remarked looking at the worn jeans and Central City Storm jersey the ginger wore underneath his lab coat.
"It was received, just not implemented yet. The tie dye scrubs and matching lab coat are a special order, They're on back order right now at the….scrub shop maybe?" Wally replied amusingly to the typical frown Lord wore most of his day. "I'll get around to it in a couple of weeks, I promise" Wally said with a smile.
One of the many strengths Lord had as a businessman was knowing when and where to choose his battles, and this one was not worth the effort. He knew how fortunate he was to have Dr. West on his payroll, no need to poke the bear after all.
One of the reasons for Lord Omniversal Research and Development's enormous success was always its owners vision. Maxwell Lord always had his eye on the big picture. His other pet project that had been in the pipeline way before Wally began with the company was the new antibiotic Lord Industries had received FDA approval on five months ago. Antibiotics naturally lose their effectiveness over time as bacteria populations build up resistance, and new drugs are needed to be continually developed to take their place, Lord now had that drug. Much like Wally's compound for genetically suppressing parts of the immune system, Lord Industries' new peptide-conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer, or PPMO, synthesized forms of DNA or RNA used to silence specific genetic targets in hostile bacteria and viruses, making them susceptible to the naturally forming white blood cells defense mechanism.
Wally had no interaction with that project any more than they did his. The other team of geneticists met off site. There was no friendly rivalry, no relationships among doctors built on mutual respect, nothing at all. The antibiotic team separated themselves as far as possible from Wally's work that sometimes the red head felt he was the only one who worked on the 17th floor of Wayne towers, and for the most part that suited him just fine.
Even before FDA approval, Lord had already purchased a small Pharmaceutical company to be ready for if and when the government gave them the green light. It was a big risk, but that's how much faith he had in his geneticists and their work, and as he stated in every boring staff meeting Wally was forced to attend. "Without risk there is no reward."
"Dr. West, I'm having a few more associates come by to evaluate the samples, I trust you'll be available to them?"
Wally groaned. This was the fourth time Lord had called in outside experts to observe Wally's work in process, and when Lord said available what he really meant was explaining the chemical process as if he was talking to a sophomore pre-med student. Some of these men who had arrived recently seemed to have little to no knowledge of genetics, more interested in the other applications the drug could be used for as opposed to what it was created to do. Once again it was all about the profits.
"Of course, just let me know and I'll be here."
"What about tonight?" Lord asked, not so much a question as a direction.
Wally bit his lip and blew out his breath quietly. "Sure. I didn't have plans anyway."
"Perfect," Lord responded walking towards the exit, "and perhaps you could change into something a bit more….mature."
Wally smiled through gritted teeth. "I'll see what I can do," he snided.
"Excellent," Lord replied, not even bothering to say goodbye as he walked out of the lab.
"So much for pizza and Zombies," the speedster groaned.
xxx
Artemis finished off target number one with a powerful round house kick to the jaw followed by a vicious shot to the groin that surely ruptured something important. Target number two lay slumped over the last rungs of the fire escape while blood dripped from his broken nose and shattered teeth. The archer reached down and grabbed one of the would-be rapists' phones and dialed 911 before throwing it to the ground with the call open. The police operator on the other end would only hear the guttural moans and groans coming from the two men before she triangulated the signal and dispatched officers to the scene.
The archer felt comfortable that between the weapons they carried as convicted felons and their DNA splattered all over the alley, the police would have no trouble matching them up with the suspects responsible for assaults and rapes on the Gotham south side. She straightened her shirt and jacket, hoisted her bag back on her shoulder, and calmly walked towards the subway station, listening off in the distance for the sounds of approaching sirens, unaware that twelve stories up she was being watched.
Once the scene was clear two figures in black dropped to the ground and walked over the unconscious victims. Dick Grayson reached down to the open phone and picked it up, taking a cloth from his belt and wiping it down properly before muting it.
"I'm pretty sure her prints are still on file in some NCIC criminal or juvenile database somewhere, no need to get some desk bound detective in Star City all riled up trying to make a name for himself."
"Rookie mistake," Conner replied, catching the cuffs in midair that Nightwing tossed and securing them and their occupants together between the rungs of the ladder just to make sure if it took longer than expected for the police to arrive, the two perps would still be there waiting patiently, that is if they ever regained consciousness before then. Conner carefully lifted the chin of one of the men and looked at remains of what used to be his front teeth.
"Ollie sure can find 'em," Conner grimaced. "She's a blond, angrier version of Roy."
"You're one to talk," Dick smiled closing the cell phone while Conner rolled his eyes.
"Are you sure right now is the best time to bring in a new teammate mid-mission? She's pretty raw." Superboy questioned.
'We all were," Nightwing replied, "but Ollie says she's special, and from I've seen so far I can't argue"
"Beating up pimps and carjackers doesn't mean you're ready for the next level."
"I know. I'll admit the timing's not great." Dick frowned.
"You could just ask Roy back."
"I did, he's… occupied at the moment." Dick replied.
"That's what he said?" Conner chuckled.
"No, it was more of a fuck off, but I cleaned it up a little."
"Sounds like our boy," Conner smiled. "So what's our next move?"
"KF and Zee have a new dealer under surveillance, and Kaldur is still the Baltic watching the freighters."
"I meant about her," Superboy answered.
Dick sighed. "I was thinking it's time for Megan to formally introduce herself since Wally crashed and burned."
"Surprise, surprise." Conner retorted.
Dick laughed it off, "Yeah, he really could use some pointers in the suave and debonair department sometimes, but you know Casanova, he sees things through speed colored lenses, but despite how hot he thinks she is, he's as concerned as you are about bringing someone new in mid mission."
"For once he and I agree. I assume you feel differently?" Conner questioned.
"I do."
"I hope your right."
Off in the distance the two heroes heard the approaching sirens of Gotham's finest. Conner glanced back down one final time at the two slumbering men before turning back to Nightwing.
"I'll see you tomorrow. Tell Megan's she's on deck."
Superboy nodded and the two men shook hands and went off in separate directions and home.
xxx
Author's Note. Yeah I know. Kind of wordy, kind of heavy on the science, but I had to set the plate before the meal comes. Ironically most of the science is based on fact. Anyway hope you enjoy, back to more super heroics and action next chapter.