7736/Magna Cum Laude

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Magna Cum Laude
Date of Scene: 04 June 2019
Location: West Harlem, Manhattan
Synopsis: Lex acquires Adam's research for LexCorp. Adam gets a new home for his research. Everybody wins?
Cast of Characters: Blue Marvel, Lex Luthor




Blue Marvel has posed:
The City University of New York Department of Physics is nestled in West Harlem. The campus is busy. Students and faculty hustle to and from the building, classes and labs. The usual dress is fairly casual, with a distinct split between more formal older generations and more casual younger ones. The campus, like the city, is extremely diverse with students coming from all over the world. The Marshak Science Building is an almost castle-like building in an open space on campus, three stories tall above ground.

Faculty offices are arranged on the second floor. Nervous looking undegraduates and cocky looking graduates walk quietly down the halls. Some doors are open, others closed. Room 2036 is the office of Dr. Adam Brasher.

Adam is busy packing three cardboard boxes, dressed in his usual dated looking brown suit. He places books from the shelf that fills one wall into a box. He seems to be about halfway through packing up.

"You just got here though, it's not right," says a young southeast asian man with short dark hair, wearing an Einstein t-shirt and jeans. "I mean, it was mistake, you didn't do anything."

Adam gives the graduate student a patient smile. "No, but that's politics for you. Image is everything, right?" he says dryly.

Lex Luthor has posed:
It was a strange time in relation to Adam Brashear to be sure. Lex Luthor has not confirmed or denied anything around the suit of powered armor that was at the Sentinel attack. Indeed, he hasn't even released a press statement about it. Almost certainly intentional, given the savvy of the businessman.... but being there in-person did give Lex a solid sensor readout on Adam and his powers, and he's been studying them for weeks now, while he was in custody.

His current situation was tenuous now... and was something of a unique opportunity for Lex. Employment was the perfect bait to open the door to further testing of the Blue Marvels powers down the road.

Outside the University, a Limo is pulling up to the main entryway, with a bit of muttering and commotion at the recognition of the LexCorp logo on the hood and roof of it.

Inside the Limo is Mercy, Hope, and Luthor himself... whom has a phone to his ear and is talking to his HR department head, "Yes, I know he has a reputation now. That doesn't matter. People are fickle and will forget about the incident in a month. This is the best opportunity to snatch him for LexTech."

Blue Marvel has posed:
A young woman in a Yankees T-shirt and jean shorts jogs down the second floor hallway, her sandals flopping against the floor with each footstep. She runs up to Adam's office door, sliding to a stop right up against the other graduate student.

"You guys, look out the window! You'll never believe who just pulled up... /Lex Luthor/!" the woman, Amy, says.

"Really?" asks Rajneel asks. He pushes past Adam eagerly and looks out the window. "No way! It is. Did I miss another seminar email?"

"If you did, so did I," Adam says while still packing. "He's probably visiting Dr. Wentworth. Doesn't she have a big grant from him?"

"Sure, but she's in London for that frontiers in particle physics symposium," Amy says, as she pushes up to the window beside Rajneel. "Wow... Look at his assistants. I don't think my entire wardrobe is worth one their dresses." She looks over at Rajneel and slaps him on the arm. "I didn't mean /actually/ look."

Rajneel clears his throat.

"Instead of fogging up my windows, how about you two go find out what he's here for," Adam says with a shake of his head. Amy and Rajneel look at each other and then race out of the office and down to the lobby of the Marshak Building, where quite a few people are already gathering to catch the arrival of Lex Luthor.

Lex Luthor has posed:
Mercy and Hope are both impeccably outfitted with business dresses of custom tailoring and material for sure. Of course, being Amazons, they fill those dresses in quite well.

"Janine... I can appreciate constructive criticism, but you're getting dangerously close to being out of line. My decision is final. I'll expect the paperwork for his intake ready before he makes a decision either way." With that, Lex hangs up, and silently looks to Hope in the back of the Limo with him.

Out comes Hope, efficiently moving over to Lex's door and opening it for him, before Mercy comes out of the drivers side. A remote is taken from her own business dress and aimed at the Limo, which activates the security system on it.

Both bodyguards move to flank Lex and a little behind as he heads into the building, smiling and waving as he heads for the Physics department wing.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Amy and Rajneel lean over the railing from the second floor and watch as Lex, Hope and Mercy sweep into the building. Amy bounces a little when she Lex is coming up to the second floor. She walks up to him when he comes out of the elevator.

"Mr. Luthor, oh my god, welcome to CUNY. It's so exciting to meet you, the work your company does... My name is Amy, Amy Blake, I applied to your energy physics graduate internship this summer, so excited, can't wait to hear if I got a spot. You must be here for Dr. Wentworth, but she's not here right now, but I can help you find /anything/ you need," Amy says seemingly in a single breath, beaming the whole time, leading the way to the faculty wing if he wants to go that way.

Rajneel on the other hand is silent. He walked up with Amy and stands there with wide eyes. It is not clear whether he is more overwhelmed by Lex or Mercy and Hope. Either way, his jaw is somewhere near the floor. He just turns and watches the group as they pass him.

"Amy..." Adam says to himself in an exasperated tone, over-hearing some of her monologue. He pinches the bridge of his nose. Adam straightens his jacket and the front of his slacks and steps into his doorway. A few other faculty members have poked their heads out as well. Adam gives an unknowing shrug to Dr. Jim Rolfe, computational physics colleague, and steps into the hallway fully.

"Amy, leave Mr. Luthor alone, please," Adam admonishes. "He's probably not recruiting postdocs today."

Amy stops where she is. "Amy Blake!" she calls out her name again to Lex.

Adam shakes his head and walks up to Lex. He holds out a hand. "Mr. Luthor, I'm Dr. Brashear. I'm sorry for Amy, she's... Excitable," Adam says. He shoots Amy a look over the top of his glasses. "The dean and Dr. Wentworth aren't here today. Is there something I can help you with?"

Lex Luthor has posed:
"My, aren't you the excited one." Lex offers with a mild tone of amusement when Amy basically full fangirls on him. In return, he gives her a charismatic smile, offering a handshake before they head over to Adam. "The summer internships aren't going to be compiled for another week, my dear." Lex leans in a bit conspirarily, "But I'll be sure to let my HR department know you're /very/ enthused about it." Lex gives a smirk to her, before he turns towards Adam as he approaches. "Mr. Brashear! Good."

Another smile, and a hand offered for a handshake, "I'm not here for either of them. I'm actually here for you, if you have some time for discussing an offer." Lex clarifies.

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam looks startled.

"Me?" Adam glances to Dr. Rolfe and back to Lex. "Well, I'm just packing up my office, but..."

"The conference room!" Amy pipes in. "It's free, right overe here, Mr. Luthor."

"The conference room," Adam says. He gestures to invite Lex to follow Amy and glances at Hope and Mercy, not quite sure what to make of the rather imposing women. He nods to Hope.

Amy holds the door open for the group. "If there's any..."

"No, thank you, Amy. That'll be it," Adam cuts her off. He gives Amy another warning look and closes the door and walks around the table. "I can't remember being that young."

Adam waits for Lex to sit and then sits down as well.

"I'm not that surprised to see you, Mr. Luthor, but you've probably wasted your time coming here. The answer is no," Adam says politely, but firmly. "The reactor patents are not for sale. "I already told Koontz at GE Hitachi and Eckel at Westinghouse I'm not selling the patents," he says, referring to the CEOs of those companies and his own negative energy reactor. "I'll license the technology, but I'm not selling it."

Lex Luthor has posed:
He takes a look around the conference room as Mercy and Hope move to one of the chairs and pulls it out for him, waiting for their boss to finish his inspection. After a few moments more, Lex moves to sit down, and steeples his fingers on the table, "while the patents for it are interesting... I'm here to make you an entirely different offer."

He leans forward, his best poker face on now; the master businessman is coming out to play. "I'd like to offer you a place in LexTech. Your expertise in applied physics would be an incredible asset, and I'd be very interested in giving you a chance to apply it."

Blue Marvel has posed:
For the second time in a few minutes, Adam looks surprised. He frowns, considers Lex for a moment, then crosses one leg over the other and folds his hands together in his lap.

Adam glances at the two women again, still puzzling them out.

"I didn't know you were working in my specific field," Adam says, cautiously. The idea of corporate involvement in negative energy or anti-matter clearly concerns him. "What exactly are you hoping I'll work on?"

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Mr. Brashear, LexCorp is involved in just about every field in the world. Most of our technology goes through LexTech. We have the LexCorp Entertainment for television and premium channels... the list goes on." He raises a brow just a bit, as if to say 'this should be obvious', "We're an international Mega-Corporation with subsidiaries and branches all over the planet, and are constantly working on new breakthroughs. We'd be working on this field with or without your expertise."

He shrugs slightly, "given your current situation and the smearing from your... incident, I checked in on your employment, and sure enough, they let you go." He smiles, "Consider it an opportunity to work with the bleeding edge again."

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam exhales at the mention of his employment and considers his words carefully.

"Carmichael is still at MIT and Huang disappeared into the PRC skunkworks, and I... was here. So you can't be that far in your anti-matter program, or I'd have heard about it," he says, and licks his lips. "You're right, I do need a new home... But I'm not going to work on just anything. And most of what I do would be covered by ITAR," he says watching Lex as he speaks, referring to US laws against exporting technology that is or could easily be weaponized.

"You dodged the question though, is this basic research or a specific project?" he asks curiously, head tilted.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I had a few ideas in mind... but if you're interested in something specific, I'm open to listening and exploring options." Lex directly answers. "I try to give my employees room to breath in their own projects when I can."

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam nods. The academic's poker face is nowhere near as developed as the businessman's. Adam is obviously interested.

"I have a few," he admits. "Now that I have a stable reactor prototype, there are... A lot of applications. Munitions, molecular dispersion, portals."

He takes a breath. "There would be conditions though. I would have my own lab and staff? And I'm not doing anything to help the Russians or the Chinese," he says. He doesn't explain it, but Lex knows his history and likely motivation. This man led the US military's research into negative energy after Vietnam. He was a patriot back then, certainly.

Adam hestitates, uncertain if he should add his last condition. He clears his throat. "And no aliens. Humans, mutants, fine, but no aliens on my staff and I'm not doing projects for them."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I would need specifics if you're going to request an entire lab of your own." Lex counters, "If the project merits the expense, I'd consider it."

As the last condition lands, Lex leans back, and for the first time, Lex gives an intense study of the man before him. Body language, words, tone... "US centric... I can respect that. What makes you think we'd be doing anything with aliens?"

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam frowns, like one does when speaking opinions that are not societally acceptable anymore. He glances self-consciously at the two women.

"I don't have any reason to, but it's where I draw a line. Mutants, gay people, transgender, they're all human. But... I just don't think aliens belong here. It's dangerous. This is our planet," he says firmly and clears his throat. "Not very 'modern', I know, but it's what I think."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I can understand the sentiment." Lex offers in explanation, "I can even say I'd be fine with you making your own personnel selections within reason.... but with all the alien contact we've had in the last decade, we'll be dealing with them for years to come. I even have a few space based projects in the works that might have contact involved."

Lex raises a curious brow, "So, have you a project in mind to warrant a lab of your own?"

Blue Marvel has posed:
"I just don't want to see my work used to cause another New York," Adam says. He uncrosses his legs and leans forward to rest his forearms against the edge of the table.

"I do," he says. "The hardest part has been getting a stable reactor prototype, hmm? Richards said it couldn't be done, but he's wrong. I've got it working. It's pure dimensional energy transfer. Starting the reactor takes a lot of energy, but after that there's no fuel, just as much energy transfer as your outbound connection can handle. But it doesn't all have to be converted into conventional energy," Adam says, livening up for the first time in the conversation.

"Anti-matter can be condensed and stored for highly dense energy storage. Think millionths of a gram powering an aircraft carrier. Release is fast, but with proper storage in the destination device..." he spreads his hands. "It's military applications should be obvious. Anti-matter warheads would instantly vapourized normal matter targets. Negative energy beams do the same, without radioactive fallout. The US government looked into it years ago, but abandoned it. But now it's possible."

"What's really exciting, though, is molecular manipulation. Governed correctly, negative energy can re-arrange molecular bonds. Mechanical and medical repairs at the molecular level, zero pollution disposal of harmful materials or even regular waste. Theoretically transmutation is possible, but I haven't been able to get fine enough control over the strong nuclear force. EM conversion is also possible, but that's trivial," he waves his hand and shrugs. "There are cheaper ways of doing EW and ECW."

"But you see where this leads. We have never had access to an energy source like this. Not since... eletricity," he says with a smile.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Some applications need risks." Lex concludes, simply. "I've been considering taking something like this to the next level, but I haven't found a project lead I trust to look into working on a prototype." Lex leans back just a bit as he places his hands under his chin, "I can see the military being very interested, if it works."

He nods, "You want to get to the miniaturization stage next, if I'm listening correctly?"

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam nods.

"Yes, as the applications are proven. Containment is an issue at that scale, but I'm convinced it's just a matter of time and and resources. Installation-sized reactors and anti-matter production are one thing, but this could easily outpace Stark's arc reactor technology in energy:weight terms. It's just entirely different physics."

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Alternative energy sources are a big market, if you have something effective." Lex muses out loud in a half-statement, "I'm getting the impression the initial lab will need to be a fairly large complex for the current technology so you have a base to work with and the team can have a reference."

Then, he looks back to Adam, and Lex gives a nod, "Let's say I do this. Make it worth my while to invest. You say you're not interested in selling the patent... but you want to license it. What's to stop you from taking the research and claiming it on grounds of your patent?"

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam drums the fingers of one hand on the table, considering Lex. He stops and taps the table once with that hand.

"I keep the patent on the basic reactor design, you get an exclusive licence for 20 years, with options for renewing at 20 year intervals at your discretion. If I'm on your payroll, the patents on the resulting devices and processes are yours. I expect the pay to be commensurate for a project like this, and a royalty on derivative patents, but I don't think that's a problem for you," Adam says with a slight smile. "I get credit in the history books for proving the concept and can push my work further than I can get here. You profit from everything that gets built on top of it; from industrial reactor designs to miniaturized devices. Non-disclosure, secrecy, all that I can handle. I've worked on defense projects before, I don't have a problem with that stuff," he says with a wave of his hand.

Lex Luthor has posed:
The wheels and cogs turn in Luthors brain, and he let's the poker face slip just a bit, intentionally... to allow Adam to see the thought processes of the Man of Tomorrow as he considers the proposal.

In the end, Lex stands, and begins to walk over to where Adam is, "You have a deal. I can have a lab repurposed out of one of my old factories in Metropolis, convert the main section of it for a basic reactor and the rest of it into a lab. Once the contracts are signed and you have the bureau contact me with the exclusive licensing, we can discusss personnel."

Blue Marvel has posed:
Adam stands and shakes hands with Lex.

"Well, this was not how I expected my afternoon to go," Adam says with a smile. "I appreciate you taking the time to come see me, Mr. Luthor."

He holds the door open for everyone to go back out into the hallway and carefully brings his expression back to neutral. Adam talks amiably with Lex all the way down through the building to the limo. His mind is mostly on the future. He gives Lex a final handshake and then watches as Lex, Hope and Mercy climb back into the limo and leave. He watches the LexCorp vehicle drive away.

"So, what did he want?" Amy asks excitedly.

"A better tomorrow," Adam says with a smile.