Josh's Reality: Lab: Better Lead than Dead

[super-bro.livejournal.com]

Though temporarily out of the Phantom Zone and given just a wee bit of a reprieve, Mon-El was still dying, still suffering from lead poisoning in his veins.  Even if he could be cured of what was killing him now, the odds of encountering lead again were tremendous.  It would take a miracle to truly save his life.

His vision was hazy, pain making it hard to focus, but he could make out a high tech laboratory, one that would have been the envy of many a scientist.

Comments

[super-bro.livejournal.com]

"Not in any significant way," he replied. "We were able to detect it, but not until long after the fact. I discovered a last transmission from Krypton, a garbled message about a rocket and the son of Jor-El. I was able to requisition a starship to investigate, and after a number of years traveling in suspended animation, made it to Earth. Unfortunately... a meteor shower caused me to crash and gave me amnesia. I was lucky to be found by the very survivor I had sought."

[random_xtras]

"Cal-el," said the winged man softly.

Josh glanced toward them, but didn't speak.

[super-bro.livejournal.com]

He nodded. "All I could remember was the name Jor-El. Because of that and because I had powers like he did, Clark thought I was his brother. But... something wasn't quite right. Even through amnesia, I knew that. And when Krypto didn't recognize me..."

He sighed. "We knew we had to prove it, one way or the other. Clark had a small amount of kryptonite he was studying, kept it a lead box. We knew if I reacted to the kryptonite, it would prove I was Kryptonian. We didn't even get that far. The lead poisoned me the second he brought out the box. The only way to save my life was to put me in the Phantom Zone. Clark tried up until the day he died to find a cure... but he couldn't."

[random_xtras]

"Did he ever think to use Kryptonite?" asked Josh without looking up again.

[super-bro.livejournal.com]

Lar shook his head. "Not that I know of. But I didn't spent every hour of every day watching him."

[random_xtras]

"Poor man," rumbled Sonnejäger with notable lack of concern for macho image, his eyes on his plate as he contemplated his snails.

[super-bro.livejournal.com]

"He did what he could, with that he had," Lar said. "And I've spent a lot of time regretting bringing him such guilt."

[random_xtras]

Josh reached over and gave his shoulder a squeeze at the same time that Himmelriß patted his arm on the other side.

"It's done now," said Sonnejäger. "He vouldn't vant you to feel bad."

[super-bro.livejournal.com]

He smiled. "I know. Just hard to let go of two hundred year old habits."

[random_xtras]

"Ja. I try to get rid of them before they run that long." He put his ears back slightly.

Josh looked around a little and wondered if this display of family was going to make Lar uncomfortable.

[super-bro.livejournal.com]

Lar nodded. He wasn't exactly uncomfortable. This wasn't the first time he'd been taken in by another family, after all. The Kents had believed him to be Clark's brother too...

"I'm trying. Going to take it one day at a time."