"Do you have any family left, Maya? Anyone who's going to come looking for you with a team of lawyers or a private security firm?" Leander's voice was casual, almost conversational, but the weight behind it was undeniable.
Maya shifted uncomfortably, her eyes narrowing as she tried to read the teenager sitting across from her. "Why the sudden interest in my family tree? And why ask if I have anyone left? I assume you've already turned Killian into a memory. What's the play here, Leander? What do you actually want from me?"
She wasn't stupid. She had seen what happened in Malibu. She knew that Aldrich Killian, for all his fire and fury, was no match for the boy who could bend the world to his whim.
"You spent thirteen years in the trenches with Killian," Leander said, ignoring her question for a moment. "Building a dream out of explosive biology. How do you feel about that legacy now that the dust has settled?"
Maya looked down at her hands, the hands that had mapped the human genome's capacity for god-like regeneration. "I don't think the Extremis serum was a mistake," she said, her voice trembling slightly with a mix of defiance and regret. "The science was sound. The goal was to fix people. Killian... he just turned a scalpel into a sledgehammer. He wanted an army of invincible ghosts. I let myself get swept up in it because I wanted to see the finish line. Maybe it's better if the whole project just dies with him."
"The project shouldn't die just because the man was a monster," Leander countered. He leaned in, his eyes glowing with a faint, metallic intensity. "I'm prepared to give you the funding Killian promised but without the leash. I want you to keep going. I want Extremis perfected, but not as a weapon. I want a medicine that can knit bones together and regrow limbs in an afternoon. I want a miracle, Maya."
Maya looked at him with deep suspicion. "And you? Are you telling me you don't want your own private squad of fire-breathing soldiers? Because that's usually how these conversations end."
Leander let out a short, mocking laugh. "Soldiers? Maya, those Extremis thugs Killian sent after me couldn't survive three moves in a real fight. I don't need a biological army. I have more power in my pinky finger than a thousand of your 'super-soldiers.' No, I want Extremis for its therapeutic potential. I have people I care about, and the world is getting more dangerous by the second. I need a way to fix what breaks."
The disdain in his voice for Killian's "army" actually gave Maya a flicker of hope. If he truly didn't care about the combat applications, she could finally return to pure research.
"So," Leander repeated, "family? Anyone I need to worry about?"
"No," Maya said, her shoulders slumping. "My mother passed away four years ago. I didn't exactly have time for a social life between the lab and the security briefings. I poured everything into the serum, and even then, Killian didn't trust me. He kept my research under lock and key, limiting my access to the real data."
The sound of the heavy security door hissing open interrupted them. Zost and Dick walked in, flanking a third figure.
"Zost," Leander said, standing up. "It's been a while. How's the neighborhood holding up?"
"Boss," Zost said, his voice a mix of relief and genuine awe. "We were starting to get twitchy. Ten months is a long time for a ghost to stay dead. We're just glad the rumors were wrong."
Chara pushed past Dick, a wide, relieved grin on her face. "Things are actually great, Leander. The 'Black Prison'—our little enterprise—has stabilized. Without the foundation you laid, we'd have been torn apart by the street gangs months ago. You're the only reason we have a seat at the table."
Leander nodded, then gestured toward Maya. "This is Maya Hansen. She's a guest of the Black Prison for the foreseeable future. Make sure she has whatever she needs, within reason."
"I'm Maya," she said, offering a curt, nervous nod to the group.
"Zost," the leader replied. "That's Chara and Dick. If you need a toothbrush or a specialized centrifuge, talk to us. We'll make it happen."
"Let's take this upstairs," Leander said. "The air down here is starting to taste like damp concrete."
They moved to the top-floor office, a space that looked more like a high-tech command center than a warehouse loft. Leander took the seat at the head of the long table, his presence commanding the room without him even having to raise his voice.
"Maya, give Zost a list," Leander commanded. "Everything you need to rebuild your lab from scratch. Don't hold back."
Maya laughed nervously. "Leander, most of the equipment I use isn't exactly in the Sears catalog. We're talking high-precision molecular sequencers and pressurized thermal chambers. Without military clearance or a billion-dollar R&D budget, you can't just 'buy' these things."
Leander glanced at Zost. "What's our liquidity?"
"The Black Prison is doing well, Boss. I can pull a hundred million together in cash by tomorrow if I need to," Zost said confidently.
Maya shook her head, her voice trembling. "It's not just the money. It's the procurement. A.I.M. had its hooks in the Pentagon. They were the ones redesigning the Iron Patriot armor; they had the Vice President in their pocket. You can't just walk into a store and buy a high-grade bio-reagent processor."
Leander stood up and walked over to Maya, taking her hand. His grip was firm and surprisingly warm. "I don't need a store, Maya. I just need a location. Where was your primary lab?"
"There's a facility in Nevada," she whispered, her heart racing. "If we move fast, the government might not have locked it down yet after the Killian news broke."
"Let's go," Leander said.
A blinding flash of blue light filled the office, and in an instant, Leander and Maya were gone.
Dick and Chara stared at the empty space, their jaws dropping. "Big Brother," Dick stammered, "what... what just happened?"
Zost stared at the spot where Leander had been. "I think the Boss just upgraded. Clear out the entire fourth floor. Tell the boys to rip everything out. We're building a world-class lab, and we're doing it tonight."
Half an hour later.
The blue light flickered back into existence in the top-floor office. Leander stepped out of the light, looking perfectly fine, while Maya collapsed into a chair and immediately started retching into a nearby trash can.
"Was that really necessary?" she wheezed, her face a sickly shade of green.
"You couldn't remember the exact street address, Maya," Leander said, shrugging as he checked his watch. "We had to skip to fifty different coordinates in the Nevada desert before you recognized the mountain range. Be glad I didn't drop us in a cactus patch."
He headed for the stairs, Maya stumbling after him. When they reached the fourth floor, they found Zost and his crew working like a swarm of ants. An entire level of the warehouse had been gutted and cleaned.
Leander walked into the center of the empty space. He raised his hands, and with a series of metallic clangs and humming energy, massive pieces of equipment began to materialize out of thin air. Specialized centrifuges, reagent cabinets, thermal vats—everything he had "harvested" from the A.I.M. bases appeared in their designated spots. He had even managed to snag several crates of semi-finished limb-regeneration serum.
He placed the tools with surgical precision, his multitasking abilities allowing him to organize a million-dollar laboratory in seconds. When he finished, he turned to find the three siblings standing there, frozen in shock.
"Zost," Leander said, his brow furrowing as he looked at the man. "You're limping. What happened?"
Only then did he notice the ragged bandage on Zost's thigh. He walked over and placed a hand on Zost's shoulder. A warm, golden light flowed from Leander's palm, seeping through the fabric. Within seconds, the bullet wound under the bandage knitted together, the pain vanishing instantly.
"It's nothing serious, Boss," Zost said, though he looked like he wanted to cry from the relief. "But Lando... Lando is in a bad way."
"Where is he?"
Dick didn't wait for a second order. "I'll get him! His place is right next door!"
A few minutes later, Dick returned, drenched in sweat, pushing a wheelchair. Lando was sitting in it, looking like a ghost of his former self. His cheeks were sunken, his skin was sallow, and his eyes were hollow with a deep, crushing depression. The vibrant young man Leander remembered was gone, replaced by someone who looked like he had given up on living.
Leander stepped forward and caught the wheelchair before Dick could crash it into a lab table. He placed his hand on Lando's forehead, emitting a soft, golden radiance.
Slowly, the color returned to Lando's face. His breathing leveled out, and the sunken hollows of his cheeks filled in. His frail limbs grew stronger, his body soaking up Leander's energy like a sponge. But when the golden light reached the stump of Lando's left leg, it stopped. The flesh hummed, but it didn't grow.
"How long has it been since the amputation?" Leander asked, his voice low.
"Five months, Boss," Lando whispered, his eyes fluttering open as he looked up at Leander. "Boss... you're really back? I thought... I thought we were done for."
Leander's expression darkened. He shook his head slowly. "Five months is too long. My energy can heal a wound, but it can't recreate a complex limb that's already been scarred over for that long. If I had been here the day it happened, maybe... but now..."
A heavy, crushing wave of disappointment hit the room. The siblings looked at the floor, the guilt of Lando's injury clearly weighing on them.
"I can't fix it," Leander said, turning his gaze toward Maya, who was watching the scene with wide eyes. "But she can. Maya, show them what Extremis is for."
Maya looked up and saw four pairs of desperate, pleading eyes locked onto her. It was a pressure she had never felt in a corporate lab. Here, the "data points" had faces and names.
"What do you need?" she asked, her voice cracking.
Zost pushed Lando's wheelchair forward. Maya finally understood the stakes. This wasn't just about science; it was about redemption.
"I know you haven't solved the thermal instability yet," Leander said to Maya. "The part where people tend to explode when their heart rate gets too high. I'll help you with that later. For now, get him ready."
He turned to the door, his form already starting to shimmer with blue light. "I have other things to attend to. This floor is yours, Maya. Don't let me down."
With a flicker, he was gone.
Zost, Dick, and Chara crowded around Maya, their faces grimly determined. "Alright, Madam Maya," Zost said, his voice a low growl of hope. "Let's begin."