The Answer to All Life's Problems

It didn't take long before you were back in your room, Dr. Boulet draping herself across the ottoman in a very compromising position, her skirt riding up to reveal several inches of pale thigh, and her breasts threatening escape with each frantic breath.

"Okay, well I'm never doing that again. Fuck ever joining the mile-high club, the only high I'm interested in is some quality drugs. Maybe I can make something to get me into the clouds without leaving me in a shallow grave." The good doctor lamented, lolling her head back as you dusted yourself off.

"Now then, I believe we had a deal, I would consider this one of the safest places on Earth, not just because I'm here." You pointed out.

"Fyine, before Mr. Joel started declining, I made sure to have some more tests run, just to see if it was the V, but they never came back, or at least they did but no new answers. Anyways, after he... was removed from the program, I got ahold of his remaining blood samples and borrowed some of the lab equipment to transfuse his blood into me. I didn't want to just inject it all at once, that way I could monitor myself in case anything went wrong, I'm not an idiot after all. A few days later, my body started to change, my skin got all pasty, and I felt full of energy, and I could 'feel' him, you know." She explained.

"That's it? You just gave yourself a blood transfusion with a Supe's blood, and woke up with powers, what powers? You didn't run anymore tests on yourself, didn't think to maybe report it!" You pushed, only for Dr. Boulet's eyes to shift back to the pale red they were early. "Sorry, please continue." You fell back onto the couch, the cushions squeaking under you.

"Nothing else to say really, but you wanted to know about the kid at the facility, Sam, right?" Tea pointed out, sitting up as her coat fell around her, casting her body into shadow.

"Hmm, yes, Lamplighter didn't mention any other patients at Sage Grove." You replied; a nearby glass filling in a moment with some liquid, you weren't too focused on it as you sipped, the cool refreshing taste of water filling your mouth and wetting your lips and throat.

"Probably only cared about the people currently at the facility, if he started naming all the patients we'd lost, or he had to clean up after, you'd be there all day. Sam Riordan was one of the rare few who was moved to a different facility, don't know where and really don't know why, but if Vought is that dedicated to the kid, it can't end well for him, although the company line will definitely improve. He wasn't anything special, no laser eyes, no flying, just your basic all-around stats-up, course the kid had more screws loose than the usual fare at Sage Grove. I know that's rich coming from me, but I'm still lucid and capable of doing my job, I just have some quirks, some kinks in my thinker." Dr. Boulet exclaimed, walking over as she swiped the glass from your hand, downing the rest of it.

"So, you wanna tell me why you got all excited back at the ranch, or should I wait for the TLDR?" Tea queried.

Taking several minutes to absorb everything Tea had just told you, you took a deep breath, organizing your thoughts. The flight back had done little to curb your enthusiasm, your brain running in six different directions at once, like an overactive train depot.

"A few months ago, two now that I think about it, shit... a lot has happened. Anyways, we, being Vought, captured a supervillain who could regenerate, faster and better than any other we'd seen so far. I had a sobering, is that the right word, a bracing thought. We could, and should, harvest her for spare parts!" You started, only to be met with the disgusted expression of your new associate, although that term looked in jeopardy.

"Don't look at me like that, you literally experimented on the dregs of society and injected yourself with a dead guy's blood!" You argued, casting your arms out as you met her expression with your own incredulous look.

"I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, well, like I said, she could regenerate, so it just made sense to take her parts, her blood, her kidneys, liver, lungs, heart, eyes, bone marrow, plasma-"

"You-you don't have to list every part; I get the idea!" Tea shouted.

"Fine, but I thought since she could just grow them all back, we could use them, donate them to hospitals and stuff, but then I had a sobering, fits much better there, thought. Since Compound V is contained within the cells, what would happen if we moved those cells to a different host body? Would the organs taken from her body continue to regenerate, would it be capable of stopping without some part of her brain that was missing, I mean, that's what cancer is right, unmitigated cell growth." You continued on as if you had to get it all out.

"Why do I sense there's more to the story?" Tea pointed out.

"Well, I guess you could say it all started from this story I heard about, a guy got a heart transplant and developed a desire to eat sunflower seeds, but he hated them before that. Turns out the original owner of the heart loved to chew sunflowers seeds, so that got transferred with the donor heart. So, if that's possible, why not things like a drug running through the veins of every Supe in America. And if it's possible, which you proved it was, then could we take one Supe's powers and give them to someone else. Could you take the V cells from Joel Kern, put them into the body of Tea Boulet, a normie, and have her develop powers. Or could you take Translucent's skin, graft it on to Queen Maeve, and have her gain invisibility?" You babbled, walking around the room with a wide grin on your face.

"And you mentioned your blood types matching, your RH, and other factors lining up. If it only works with viable subjects, both donors and hosts, that confirms another thought I've been having, that our, your, that Supes' powers are dictated by their DNA, which means if I could figure out a way to figure out which factors, find the precise part of the strand that determines powers, then it could be possible to test someone before they're injected with Compound V, so Vought would know if it was worth giving powers to a random baby." You finished.

"Or if a down-on-their luck junkie will develop the power to shit bricks." Tea added, and you couldn't help feeling like there was a story there, nor that she was correct, the various patients at Sage Grove had entered your mind.

"Sounds interesting... I'm in." Tea said, rising up as she pulled her coat tighter around her body, placing her hands into the pocket with practiced ease.

"You're in? In what?" You pointedly asked as she giggled.

"You seem like a decent enough person, and I don't really feel like going back to Sage Grove, so new deal, I keep helping you with your idea, and you let me stay here." She offered, extending one hand to shake.

"Stay here, in Seven Tower, Vought headquarters? I'm pretty sure neither the board, nor the shareholders, or Mr. Edgar would much appreciate that." You said, not that that stopped you from shaking her hand, if you had to pull some strings, so be it.

"I don't really care. I didn't move to America just to give hobos glass bones or drug addicts walrus tusks, you haven't treated me like a mindless drone, so I'm going to help you, and if one of those asshats wants to complain, then we're going to do such a good job, they don't have a choice!" Tea spat, her too wide grin shifting for the first time as it turned upside down, a distasteful snarl replacing it.

"After all," She continued, pulling her other hand out with a smartphone, finger rapidly tapping away at the screen before she turned it to show the contents, "Fucking hosers didn't remove my access to my work at Sage Grove."