After everyone had finally calmed down, we all took seats around a table. Jaime was still wearing his Beetle suit, though thankfully, he wasn't pointing any weapons at anyone anymore. He was still keeping a very close eye on Morbius, and honestly, I couldn't blame him.
"Okay, now that everyone has stopped trying to kill each other, can somebody please explain what happened tonight?" I asked.
The room immediately fell silent.
I looked around at everyone.
"Don't all talk at once now," I deadpanned.
Ashley was the first to speak.
"I don't really know what happened," she admitted. "I was just doing my normal nightly rounds and finishing up some paperwork. I thought I was done for the night and was heading out of the building when I came across Morbius and Jaime fighting."
She shook her head.
"And that fight was something I've never seen before, and that's saying a lot. Morbius had gray skin, huge fangs, claws, and his face was almost bat-like..." Ashley said uncertainly. "At least, I think it was. It was hard to tell because he was jumping all over the place while Jaime was firing laser blasts everywhere."
She glanced toward Morbius.
"Then, the moment Morbius saw me, he charged straight at me."
Ashley gave Jaime an appreciative smile.
"Luckily for me, Jaime jumped in front of me and started protecting me."
Everyone at the table looked at her in confusion.
"Don't you mean—" Jaime started to say, but Ashley cut him off before he could finish.
"Oh no, sweetie, I appreciate the help," Ashley said with a sweet smile that somehow still sounded completely serious. " If he had gotten any closer, I would've smacked him through a wall."
And she wasn't exaggerating.
I had given her Immortal powers. She could have absolutely folded Morbius if she'd wanted to.
Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, that explanation only made them even more confused.
"I'll probably explain that later," I said, rubbing my temples. "But right now, I want some answers."
My tone came out a little harsher than intended.
Could anyone really blame me? I was supposed to be having a nice night. Instead, I was sitting in a lab dealing with vampire science gone wrong.
The room fell silent for a few seconds before Bancroft finally spoke up.
"Michael and I were experimenting with vampire bats," she began.
She looked nervous. Guilty, even.
"We isolated certain genetic traits and began combining their DNA with human DNA. After the preliminary screenings showed promising results, we moved on to human trials."
My stomach dropped.
"Please tell me you didn't."
Bancroft lowered her head.
"The human trial subject was Michael."
"WHAT?!"
I shot to my feet so fast my chair nearly tipped over.
I was completely stunned.
"Why in the hell would you rush to human trials?" I demanded. "And more importantly, why would you test it on yourself?"
Bancroft immediately raised her hands.
"We were running out of time," she said quickly. "We didn't have any other options. Michael's condition was getting worse. According to our projections, he probably wouldn't have survived another year."
"Then you come to me!" I snapped, louder than I intended. "That's what you do! You come to me before you start injecting yourself with experimental vampire DNA!"
I wasn't angry because my night had been interrupted.
Okay, maybe a little.
But mostly, I was angry because they had done something this stupid and this dangerous.
If Jaime hadn't been here tonight, Morbius could have killed Bancroft. He could have killed other employees. Hell, he could have turned this entire building into a bloodbath.
The media fallout would have been a nightmare for the company, but that wasn't what bothered me the most.
What bothered me was Michael.
If he had actually killed innocent people, it would have destroyed him once he came back to his senses.
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.
"If you had come to me sooner, we could have avoided all of this," I said. "I could have hired the best doctors in the world. I could have put Michael in the best hospital available and made sure he stayed alive while we continued the research."
I gestured toward Morbius.
"I would've funded everything. I would've taken over the project personally if I had to. We could have searched for a cure without risking lives."
My voice hardened.
"But instead, the three of you decided to run unauthorized human trials. You put yourselves at risk, you put everyone in this building at risk, and you nearly created a disaster."
The room went silent.
"If this had happened anywhere else, you'd be lucky if getting fired was the worst thing that happened to you. Most governments would've dragged both of you into some underground facility and spent the next decade running tests on you."
Before anyone else could speak, Morbius quickly cut in.
"Jaime had nothing to do with it," he said immediately. "He didn't know what we were doing."
Everyone looked toward the young hero.
"We actually tried to send him home early so he wouldn't see any of it," Morbius continued. "He forgot his headphones and came back to the lab."
Michael lowered his head.
"That's when I lost control."
I was silent for a moment before finally speaking.
"If you're going to lie, at least make it a good one, Morbius," I said.
I didn't need any of my powers to know that the story was complete nonsense.
Morbius frowned.
"I'm not lying."
"Yes, you are."
Everyone turned toward Jaime.
"Jaime," Bancroft warned.
"No," Jaime said, shaking his head. "He's right."
The young hero looked down at the table.
"I helped them with everything."
The room fell silent.
"I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought if we worked faster, we could find a cure for Dr. Morbius's disease."
He finally looked at me.
"I never expected any of this to happen. I'm sorry for letting you down, sir."
His shoulders slumped.
"I'm sorry for letting Arsenal down, too. I know he vouched for me. I know you spent a lot of money moving my entire family here, and I'm grateful for everything you've done. I'll pay you back every cent if I have to—"
"Jaime."
He immediately stopped talking.
I leaned forward.
"I know you have a good heart."
His eyes widened slightly.
"That's the main reason I hired you. Not because Arsenal said you were good. Not because you're smart. Not because of the suit."
I pointed at him.
"I hired you because you're the kind of person who wants to help people."
Jaime looked genuinely surprised by that.
"And honestly?" I continued. "I'm more scared than angry right now."
Everyone looked at me.
"My employees were willing to risk their lives rather than come to me for help."
I shook my head.
"I value every single one of you more than any contract, profit margin, or business deal. Those things can be replaced. You can't."
The room grew quiet.
"So yes, I'm disappointed."
I looked at Morbius.
"I'm disappointed in you."
Then Bancroft.
"I'm disappointed in you."
Finally, Jaime.
"And I'm disappointed in you."
All three lowered their heads.
"But I'm also disappointed in myself."
That got everyone's attention.
"If your first instinct was to handle something this dangerous on your own instead of coming to me, then somewhere along the way I failed to make it clear that you could ask me for help."
"Sir—" Jaime started.
I raised a hand.
"No. A good boss doesn't just provide a paycheck. A good boss makes sure his people know they can come to him when things go wrong."
Bancroft immediately shook her head.
"No, you're not a bad boss. Far from it."
She sat up straighter.
"The benefits alone prove how much you care about your employees. This wasn't your fault."
Morbius nodded in agreement.
"We knew rushing the science was dangerous. We knew better."
"We betrayed your trust," Bancroft continued quietly. "You trusted us with your resources, your company, and your friendship."
She swallowed.
"For that, I'm sorry."
Then she glanced toward Jaime.
"But please don't fire him. He's young, brilliant, and he only wanted to help us."
Morbius nodded.
"This was our fault, not his."
I looked at all three of them for a long moment.
Then I sighed.
"I'm not firing anyone."
The three of them froze.
"What?" Bancroft blurted out.
"I said if this were anybody else," I replied, "but luckily for you, this is me we're talking about."
I looked around the table.
"We're going to fix this."
The tension in the room eased slightly.
"I'm going to see if I can reverse the transformation. At the very least, I'll try to remove the unstable DNA while letting Michael keep the beneficial mutations."
I pointed toward Bancroft and Morbius.
"You two are going to start setting the lab back up. Anything damaged gets thrown out and replaced. I want a complete inventory of everything that survived and everything that didn't."
Then I turned toward Jaime.
"As for you, you're going home."
"What?" Jaime protested.
"You've been here long enough. It's late, you've had one hell of a night, and I'm pretty sure your family is worried sick about you."
"No, I want to help," Jaime said immediately. "This was my fault, too."
He stood up.
"And what happens if Dr. Morbius loses control again? You're going to need someone here to protect you."
I couldn't help but smile a little.
Even after everything that had happened tonight, the kid's first instinct was still to protect people.
"We'll be fine," I assured him. "I'm keeping him restrained, and I'm calling in some backup."
Jaime tilted his head.
"Who?"
"One of Arsenal's friends," I answered.
Jaime's eyes widened in surprise.
It took several more minutes of convincing, but eventually he relented and headed home.
Ashley left shortly after.
She'd already put in more than enough overtime for one night, and there wasn't much she could do while Morbius and Bancroft cleaned up the lab and prepared everything we'd need.
Once they got to work, I pulled out my phone and called Lena.
I told her I'd have to stay at OmniTech a little longer to deal with an emergency.
She didn't complain.
In fact, she completely understood. Being a CEO herself, she knew that sometimes problems didn't care what time it was.
I told her to get some sleep and promised I'd make her breakfast when she woke up.
That earned a laugh from her before we hung up.
After that, I made another call.
A few minutes later, a Ground Bridge opened inside the lab.
Out stepped Battle Beast.
The massive warrior looked around the room before his gaze settled on Morbius.
"So, I am here to make sure a vampire does not try to kill anyone?" he asked with an amused grin.
"Pretty much," I replied. "Hopefully nothing gets too violent."
"Yes, hopefully," Battle Beast said.
The way his grin widened made it very clear he was hoping for the exact opposite.
Even after breaking his curse, he was still a battle maniac at heart.
"Um, Ed?"
I turned toward Bancroft.
"Yeah?"
She hesitated for a moment.
"I hope I'm not prying, but how exactly do you know Arsenal and one of his teammates?"
"Oh, that's easy," I said without missing a beat. "I build tech for them from time to time."
The lie came naturally.
Not because I enjoyed lying, but because there was no chance I was revealing my identity.
I liked Bancroft and Morbius, but that didn't mean they needed to know everything.
I worked very hard to keep my personal life and superhero life separate.
If someone wasn't living on my island or part of my inner circle, they weren't finding out who I was.
Hell, most of the people living in my own city on the island didn't know my identity.
And I planned to keep it that way.
Several hours later...
The four of us had spent the entire night in the lab working on a cure for Morbius.
Luckily, we found one.
"Amazing," Bancroft said as she stared at the monitor. "Not only did you manage to fuse the bat DNA with the human DNA perfectly, but you've also eliminated the negative side effects. The subject won't develop the animalistic features or lose control as Michael did."
"Yes, yes, I'm a genius. Please continue praising me," I said jokingly.
That earned a small laugh from her.
"But honestly," I continued, "this probably would've taken me a few days if you guys hadn't already laid the groundwork. Your first attempt may have been a disaster, but it gave me a lot of useful data to work with."
Bancroft smiled.
"Even though you've proven it countless times, I still sometimes forget how much of a genius you really are."
"Most people do," I replied with a grin. "Honestly, it works out pretty well for me. It gives me plenty of opportunities to surprise people."
She laughed again while Battle Beast rolled his eyes from across the room.
Then my smile faded.
"Bancroft."
The change in my tone immediately got her attention.
"Yes?"
"Even though I'm helping you and Michael, and even though neither of you is being fired, there are still going to be consequences for what happened tonight."
Her smile disappeared.
"I know. And I know it's going to take time to earn back your trust, but we're willing to do whatever it takes," she said.
"Good. Since you all took responsibility for your actions and tried to protect Jaime, I'll make sure Ashley goes easy on you," I said.
"Ashley?"
"Oh, yeah. She texted me a couple of hours ago and basically said that if anyone was going to punish you, it should be her. I'm pretty sure she knew I was going to go soft on you guys. If I were you, I'd start praying to whatever god you believe in and beg for mercy, because trust me, that woman has none."
I shivered slightly after saying it.
She immediately looked nervous.
Good. She should be.
A few minutes later, I finally finished synthesizing the cure.
I walked over to Morbius, who was still strapped down. Surprisingly, he seemed completely relaxed, chatting with Battle Beast while we worked.
"Alright, sorry to interrupt this pleasant conversation, but it's time for the doctor to take his medicine," I said, holding up what looked like an oversized syringe gun.
"It is fine. We were merely discussing DNA structures," Battle Beast replied.
I blinked.
"Really?"
"Yes. He is quite knowledgeable on the subject," Morbius said.
I stared at Battle Beast as he'd suddenly grown a second head.
"What? I'm a scientist too. I just happen to enjoy battle more," Battle Beast said with a shrug.
"Noted. Anyway, this is probably going to hurt a lot since your DNA is already pretty messed up," I said.
Morbius nodded. "I understand. How bad are we talking?"
"I honestly can't say for sure, but my best estimate is that it'll feel like your entire body is on fire, then every cell in your body is breaking apart one by one before rebuilding itself. Also, there's about an eighty percent chance you'll shit yourself."
"What?!"
"Or pee yourself. We don't really know yet," I said.
"That's not making me feel any better."
"Yeah, I didn't think it would."
Bancroft stepped up beside him and slipped something into his mouth.
"This is just in case. We don't want you breaking your teeth."
Morbius spat it out for a second, only to realize it was a mouthguard. He still looked terrified.
"Don't worry, Morbius. I promise you'll survive this," I said. "And who knows? There's a chance you won't feel a thing. You might even pass out."
His expression somehow became even more worried. Clearly, I wasn't helping.
"I think you should just get on with it," Battle Beast chimed in.
"Yeah, you're right," I said. "Okay, on the count of three, I'm going to inject you."
Morbius swallowed hard and nodded.
"Good, one—"
Before I could even finish counting, I jammed the injector into his arm.
Not even three seconds later, Morbius's entire body began to convulse violently. He bit down hard on the mouthguard as muffled screams escaped him. Even through the thick rubber, we could hear every agonized sound. Sweat poured from his body almost instantly.
He strained against the restraints with everything he had. If they had been normal restraints, he would have snapped them like twigs. Fortunately, while nobody was looking, I'd enchanted them to hold someone with super-soldier-level strength.
The whole process lasted about three minutes.
By the time it was over, Morbius lay slumped against the table, completely exhausted. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he struggled to catch his breath.
Without wasting a second, Bancroft drew a blood sample and rushed it over to the computer for analysis. The room fell silent as we waited for the results.
A few moments later, Bancroft's eyes widened.
Then she started to cry.
"He's cured," She said, his voice trembling. "All of his DNA structures are completely different now, but they're stable. They're not in the chaotic state they were before."
She looked back at Morbius, tears streaming down his face.
"He's not sick anymore."
After hearing the good news, I let out a long, relieved breath. I hadn't realized how much tension I had been carrying until that moment. The whole ordeal had taken more out of me than I wanted to admit.
Once everything had settled down, Battle Beast returned to Sanctuary, and Morbius was finally unstrapped from the table. The moment he was free, Bancroft didn't waste a second. She threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly before kissing him, tears streaming down her face.
I couldn't blame her.
Just a few hours ago, she thought she was going to lose him forever.
"Okay, you two," I said, getting their attention.
They reluctantly pulled apart and looked at me.
"It's been a really long night, and I know you're both exhausted. So let's not even think about coming into work today. Go home, get some rest, and get some sleep."
They nodded in agreement.
"As for me," I continued, turning toward the door, "I'm going home to get some sleep too. Then I'm going to wake up and cook a delicious breakfast for a beautiful woman."
Bancroft managed a small smile while Morbius chuckled weakly. With that, I waved over my shoulder and headed for the door.
"Ed," Morbius said.
I turned my head slightly toward him.
"You've done a lot to help me today, and for that, I don't care how long it takes; I will repay this kindness. I swear it."
A small smile crossed my face.
"I'm going to hold you to that. Now go get some rest. Both of you," I said.
With that, I continued walking out of the lab, completely exhausted. Mentally drained. I hadn't even made it a minute down the hallway before my phone started ringing.
"Oh, come on."
I pulled it out of my pocket, expecting another problem. To my surprise, it was Gamma.
I answered immediately.
"Gamma, whatever it is, can it wait until later? I'm kind of tired right now," I said, hoping to delay the next disaster long enough to get some sleep.
"Sir, a Green Lantern has been spotted."
That stopped me in my tracks.
"A Green Lantern?"
"Yes, sir. And it appears to be Hal Jordan."
Any trace of exhaustion vanished instantly.