Spoilers: Well, this takes place seven years in the future, so none:
Disclaimers: You've read the other disclaimers. Ditto. If the WB wants to sue me for everything I've got I'll be more then happy to hand over the $2.50.
Pairings: I wrote this story BEFORE I actually read any fan fiction so it's not romantic angsty or pornographic. It's basically just a typical Smallville story. I don't think I'll ever do another one, but if I do, I promise to make it REALLY obscene. They won't even call it NC-17 they'll call it NC-52 and then you'll need your mother with you to read it.
Thanks: Thanks to ALL the people at TWOP for making me think WAAAY more about a TV show then I should. Especially Fabrisse for convincing me to go ahead with the story against all my common sense desire to do useful things with my time. Miss Windy for showing me the True power of the Chlitney. JoyceH who's ideas concerning Kryptonite I shamelessly and gleefully stole. Ktbaxter who had a response to one of my posts concerning homosexuality not "defining" you that kind of stuck with me. I took the gist of it and threw it in there in regards to Lex's response to Clark's secret. And thanks also to Mr. Nobody because my horoscope told me to say something nice about zany astrologers.
Feedback: YES! Pretty please! with sugar on it! Send it to Sakifan@hotmail.com or post your remarks here, but I wanna hear what everyone has to say!
Note: since text only won't let me do italics, I was forced to use caps. Unless if the character is ACTUALLY yelling which is obvious in the story when that happens (I hope it is anyway) the caps are meant to indicate emphasis.
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And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand.
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am.
----Iris, By the Goo Goo Dolls
Lex found murder to be remarkably easy. Dr. Hamilton had, within moments gone from being one of his greatest assets to being a liability. This liability could not be silenced through bribes or intimidated through threats, nor could he simply fire him. Therefore Dr. Hamilton had to die. It was, a very simple mathematical equation he was solving. Lex saw it clearly and was pleased with himself for assessing all the variables so quickly and formulating the correct strategy.
Lex flicked a switch on the main control panel, "Attention, attention," he said, "There has been a bomb threat made on the building. We do not find this threat credible, but as a precautionary measure the building will be evacuated. Please do not panic and leave the building quietly."
"I hope you didn't mind me touching the controls there, Steven," Lex said smiling.
"It's your building, you can touch what you want, I just said that stuff to bother you, Lex " Dr. Hamilton said.
"I know," Lex said smiling.
"Lex, I studied and restudied that data a thousand times, I thought I had taken into account every possible variable. I let you down and I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Lex said sincerely, "It wasn't your fault."
"I swear to you Lex I SWEAR to you, I will not rest until I get to the bottom of this."
"I know you won't," Lex said and punched him hard in the chest.
Dr. Hamilton doubled over as his breath left his body. Lex then hit him in the face sending him sprawling to the floor. Dr. Hamilton got up and did make some kind of effort to defend himself but he was 25 years older then Lex and never in very good shape to begin with. Lex knelt over Steven Hamilton's battered form. Dr. Hamilton whispered, "I didn't mean for anything bad to happen Lex, I'm sorry, please, I'm sorry."
"What gives you the impression that I'm mad at you?" Lex asked and broke his neck.
ONE DAY EARLIER:
The offices at the top of Luthor Towers were meant to impress and awe. Clark Kent was impressed the first two or three dozen times he entered them. Now he walked past the Van Goths and Picassos on the Cherry oak walls with the same disinterest that he walked past the Kmart specials that decorated his parent's living room. The security guard nodded as he passed. They stopped checking his identification 3 years ago. He could set up tent, go to sleep on the couch, pretty much do anything he pleased. He had the run of the place the same way he had the run of Luthor castle back when he lived in Smallville. If it weren't for his complete ease in the building, he'd be completely out of place in his jeans and canon watch surrounded by the $2,000 dollar suits worn by people with Rolex watches. None of the Rolex watches could even get a phone call with Lex Luthor without AT LEAST a three day wait for him to return their calls. Yet here Clark strode in his blue jeans and book bag.
The secretary at the desk looked up and gave Clark a smile so large he had to smile back. She got up from the desk and pranced over, "CLAAAAARK" she yelled and giggled and gave him a hug. "Where've you been ? I haven't seen you in over a month."
"It's been twenty seven days."
"Tell me what you've been doing, leave nothing out."
"Well, I left the office, walked to the elevator, pressed the button to go down...."
"OK, leave that part out." she said and laughed.
"Well, I had to take my final exams and I got a job interning for the Daily Planet."
She let out a squeal and gave Clark another hug. "Oh, that's just what you wanted!"
"Yeah, I beat out four hundred eighty other applicants."
"You know I have a friend who has a daughter, she's just a few years younger then you, she's pretty, she's got a great personality. She's going to be at Steven's high school graduation party. You're still going to be there right?"
"Wouldn't miss your other sons graduation for the world." Clark called Susan his Met Mom. He had a main Mom in Smallville and he had a back up auxiliary mom which he had in Metropolis. "Is he busy," he asked before she could give him the obligatory grilling on whether or not he's "seeing anyone."
She pressed the intercom button and adopted her proper secretarial voice, "Mr. Luthor, Clark is here to see you."
He heard that familiar voice through the intercom, "Clark?! You're kidding, send him in."
He walked into the office. There was only one other person on the entire planet that could walk into Luthor Towers unannounced and see the man himself. Even Lex's father, who lost control of the company 2 years ago had to make an appointment. Lex smiled broadly, got up from his desk and embraced Clark warmly. Steven Hamilton, the President of Luthor Corp. was the other person who could see Lex unannounced and even Dr. Hamilton would never receive a hug.
Hugs were something reserved for Clark only. Clark remembered the first time they embraced three years ago. It was at his high school graduation party which Lex insisted be held at his mansion. Clark got there early to see if there was anything he could do to help, but of course Lex had everything in hand. The place was decorated as if one of the Royals were about to have a wedding there and Lex brought in the finest chefs to cater the whole affair. Clark had tried many times to tell him to keep it small but Lex just smiled and said, "I don't do small".
It looked like a band was setting up in the corner. "Wow, you even brought in a band," Clark said.
"Oh, that's not the band, the band is being flown in from Europe."
Clark eyed Lex suspiciously, "Lex, who did you get?"
"Well, I tried to get you tickets to see Radio Head and that fell through so I figured if the Clark Kent couldn't go to the Radio Head, the Radio Head had to go to Clark Kent."
"You're kidding."
"Nothing but the best for the valedictorian."
Clark laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"Lex, you're probably the smartest guy I've ever met, but you're also in a lot of ways the dumbest."
"Well, that's very nice, to someone who just got you..."
Clark grabbed Lex by the arms, and looked right in his eyes "Lex, the only thing I've ever wanted from you is your company. You know that don't you?"
"Well, I..."
Clark embraced him before he could explain, "You know that don't you? After four years don't you know that?" Lex's body was stiff, as if he was expecting a punch but Clark continued the embrace until Lex relaxed and finally hugged him back.
"Yeah, Clark. Yeah, I know that."
Clark, let go and smiled. "That and maybe one of those big wide screen high definition televisions."
Lex laughed, "Shut up."
"And a VCR, and a dvd player, and maybe a lap top computer... but REALLY that's all I want from you, your company, a TV, a VCR a dvd player a lap top computer and also perhaps a car, nothing too extravagant, hell I'll take one of your old used Lamorghini's, I'm not greedy. So that's it, your company, a TV..."
"Shut up!" Lex laughed paused and then said "you crack me up, man."
"Thank you."
"Seriously Clark, I'm proud of you." Lex said and this time he initiated the hug.
That was three years ago and since that time Lex's fortune has quintupled and quintupled again until now it would take a team of 200 accountants a month just to determine how much money he has but Clark still values those embraces because he knows that he's the only man in the world that Lex has ever warmly embraced. "I stay away for one month and you and Susan act like I took a three year vacation in Italy or something," he said flopping himself down on a couch that cost more then what the average person makes in ten years.
"You know, if she would ever light up for me the way she does for you, I think I'd double her salary. She's going to be giddy the rest of the day now, I'll be lucky if I can get any work out of her," Lex said, sitting down in a chair across from him.
"It's easier for me Lex, I'm not her boss."
"Nobody lights up for me the way they do for you Clark. Man, if I could bottle that Kent Charm I'd make a fortune."
"You have a fortune."
"Oh yeah, well, you can keep your charm then."
Clark smiled, "Thanks."
"I heard you got an internship at The Daily Planet, Congratulations."
"I forgot, Lex Luthor's eyes and ears are everywhere."
"Well, if you came by more often I wouldn't have to check up on you."
"Lex, you didn't..."
"Clark, you got all A's in High School and college you write brilliantly. You won it on your own, trust me."
"OK."
"How did your finals go?"
"They were a killer, but I think I did OK, I'm surprised you didn't call the teachers."
"Well, I considered it, but decided it was safe to assume you were getting all A's"
"Yeah, yeah."
"You know, if you ever wanted to give up this reporting thing and this College thing I think I could still find room for you at Luthor Corp."
"Really?"
"Yeah, we had a slot open in the mail room, but that's been filled."
"Damn."
"But I think there's an opening in one of my VP positions, in charge of production."
"How much does it pay?"
"Well, it starts out at just below fifteen million a year, but with a little work, you can make some REAL money."
"Fifteen million, how do people live on that?"
"I don't know, I guess they cut coupons."
"Medical? Dental?"
"Uh, no."
Clark feigned shock, "My God, retirement?"
"Other then the fifteen million a year? Nothing."
"How will you ever get anyone to take this crummy job? I'm sticking with reporting, buddy."
"How much does that pay?"
"Starting is 43 thousand a year but the benies are great."
"Really."
"They even offer dental!"
"Well, I can't compete with that."
"What good is 15 million when you have a killer cavity?"
"So true."
"And they have a 401k plan! Do you have that?"
"Nothing but stock options."
"Man, what kind of idiot would take this job?"
"Clark," Lex said, "the offer was serious."
"Lex, you remember what I said at my High School graduation don't you?"
"Yes."
"Nothing's changed."
"Clark, you know how I feel about this company. I would never offer you a job I didn't think you'd be great at and I'd never offer you a salary I didn't believe you would earn."
Clark thought for a moment and then said gently, "Lex, I love writing, and I love finding the truth. Being an investigative reporter is my dream. Money's never been important to me"
"You are so much like your father."
"Thank you, that's the nicest thing you ever said to me."
"Yeah, well I had to try, I guess I'll have to promote the mail room guy now. How is the internship going?"
"Great, I met my editor, Perry White, he's a wonderful man, you'd like him."
"Since I can't offer you a job, do you think Perry would be interested in a Daily Planet exclusive?"
Clark fell over on the couch and pretended to fall asleep, snoring loudly. He pretended to wake with a start, "Oh, I'm sorry ANOTHER Lex Luthor exclusive. Boring. Been there. Done that. In fact I don't even think I need you to do the interview anymore. " Clark grabbed a magazine from the coffee table, rolled it up and pretended it was a microphone, "Excuse me Mr. Luthor. How does it feel to be twenty eight years old and to be the wealthiest man who has ever lived?" Clark moved the imaginary microphone next to him over as if he was holding it below a phantom persons mouth and then moved to where the microphone was and adopted a deeper voice and an exaggerated air of self importance. "Well, Clark, you don't mind if I call you Clark do you? Clark, I don't think the money is as important as what the money can do to help the world and its children."
"The things you can buy with the money is also nice" Lex added, smiling.
Clark continued "Funding schools in Africa, providing computers for inner city kids, these things mean so much more to me then a large balance in a checking account." He then scooted back and became himself again only this time he was wiping an imaginary tear from his eye and speaking as if he was trying to keep from sobbing, "I'm sorry, I have to stop now Mr. Luthor. I'm... Just... So... Moved. Will you marry me?"
"Shut up! You still crack me up. You and Chloe are the only two people to interview me in eight years I haven't exactly saturated the market."
"Still I did an interview of you for my high school paper, for my college paper, people will talk."
"They already are, hell with em."
"Yeah."
"What I had in mind was NOT another interview. It was bigger then that. In fact, it's bigger then Watergate, bigger then Monica gate, bigger then Vietnam, bigger then World War II, it is in fact the biggest news story ever told and it's all yours if you want it."
Clark studied his face to see if there was any sign of him joking. There was none. "Lex, what are you talking about?"
Lex smiled, "Let's go meet an old friend."
"Oh, you're kidding, you're not going to tell me."
"In due time, in due time."
"You're such a tease."
"Yeah, but you love it."
"OK, fine, we'll do it your way."
Lex walked to the door and opened it, "Susan, me and Clark will be in the sub level, please hold all my calls for the next 2 hours. I have a lot to show him."
They walked to the elevator. Lex inserted his key and his personal elevator opened. "Welcome Mr. Luthor" an automated voice from inside the elevator chimed.
"I think that's a bit much, don't you think, Lex?"
"I like much."
"But a talking elevator? I feel like I'm in a Douglas Adams novel."
"It impresses the ladies."
"You need more then 212 billion to impress the ladies? "
"Every little bit helps." Lex said and inserted his key again into a panel on the elevator "Sub level 4 Lex Luthor."
"Please stand by for retinal scan," the elevator voice replied.
"That must really impress the ladies," Clark deepened his voice, "Hey, Babe, do you wanna step into my elevator for a retinal scan."
"Identify other occupant," the elevator voice asked.
"This babbling idiot is Clark Kent. Authorization for entry Provided by Lex Luthor, authorization code Sierra, Alpha, Alpha, Juliet, eight, two, five, six, three, Echo, ten."
"Authorization granted. Hello Clark, please stand by for a retinal scan," the voice said.
"Uh, OK, Ellie." Clark said, "If she can call me Clark I should be able to call her Ellie."
A red light scanned Clark's eyes and then the elevator started moving. "We should be arriving at sub level four in 4 minutes and thirty seconds, Mr. Luthor"
"I miss the old days of quiet elevators already," Clark said. "So, are you going to give
me any hints while we're going down 145 stories?"
Lex smiled. More then Sports cars more then fine meals, even more then fine women, Lex loved an entranced audience. Anytime he could get people hanging on his every word he was enraptured. That rapture was always at its greatest when it was Clark who was transfixed. "Remember when I asked you if you believed man could fly Clark?"
"Yeah, it's when I first met you."
"And you said in a plane, well, soon man will be able to fly, without a plane. What do you think of man living on other planets? You think that will happen anytime soon?"
"Well Einstein said faster then light travel is impossible."
"There are eight other planets in this solar system, Clark."
"Human's kind of need to breathe, Lex."
"Right now they do, I think that within a decade man will be living on other planets without space suits, they'll have eradicated disease, and hunger, and our life spans will be as much as a thousand years, perhaps longer, perhaps much longer."
"What the hell's going on?"
Lex pressed a button on the elevator. "Earl, please have test subject number one meet us at the Elevator, I'm giving Clark the grand tour and I'd like him to accompany us.
"Clark? How the hell are you Clark?" A familiar voice came from the elevator speaker.
"Earl!" Clark said in disbelief. "What are you doing here?!?"
"I'm working for Luthor Corp. Again, can you believe it? I thought it would be a cold day in hell, but here I am. Only now I'm a projects manager."
"Well congratulations, I hope to see you before I go."
"You will Clark, trust me."
"So, he's not the friend I'm meeting? Who is?"
"You should be finding out right about now..." The elevator stopped and then the doors gradually opened. Clark saw a young man of blonde hair and stunning good looks, he was wearing the uniform of a Captain in the United States Air Force. In the background was a huge complex, with hundreds of computers, digital displays of human and animal anatomy, people in lab coats walking swiftly from place to place. When he saw Clark the blond young man smiled deeply, "Clark!" He said surprised.
"Whitney!" Clark said returning the smile and walked over to the man. The two embraced and back slapped. "So how you doing? What's it been? Eight months? I thought you were in LA?"
"I was, they got me over here now."
"How is Chloe and the kids?"
"Good, good, they miss their Uncle Clark."
"Give them a kiss for me."
"Hey, I'm not carrying any baggage for you Kent. They're in town you're going to have to come and see them tonight."
"Really? Great, I'll do that," Clark said "So what are you doing here?"
Whitney took two steps back and saluted. "You are looking at the commander of the first shuttle to mars and the Commander of the first Martian colony."
"I don't..... understand. I've heard nothing in any media source about a planned trip to mars."
"I know how to keep a secret, Clark," Lex said
"Are you giving him a tour? Let's start with the zoo I luuurve the zoo," Whitney said.
"OK, we'll start with the zoo."
"Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo!" Whitney sang, "I do believe it! I do believe it's true! Wooo ho wooo hoo! Woo oo oo oo."
"I'll give him a tour of the zoo if you promise to never sing in my presence ever again."
"Fine, bald billionaires have no sense of humor."
"But a fine sense of hearing, your singing sucks Whitney."
"Et Tu. Clark?"
"Sorry"
"This way gentlemen." Lex said and started walking them down a corridor. "Remember
when NASA first looked at the meteor rocks Clark?"
"Yes, they thought they were harmless, then you and Dr. Hamilton proved that NASA didn't check for radiation at a high enough frequency, you proved beyond any doubt that the meteor rocks cause genetic mutations. Then Luthor Corp took the meteor rocks out of Smallville."
"No, we proved that they cause SPECIFIC genetic mutations, and they were taken out of Smallville and brought here. We proved that the meteor rocks are attuned with synaptic pathways that they cause genetic mutations based upon the attitude or desires of the person being mutated. Thus a severely overweight girl who desires desperately to be thin loses the weight."
"And she also almost killed two people and herself when the mutation went wrong." In fact, almost ALL the mutations went horribly wrong, Lex."
"Yes, they did, but we found a way around that problem." Lex stopped at a doorway, above the door an official sign stated: ZOO must have level 5 clearance to enter . "Admit access three people, authorization Lex Luthor." There was another retinal scan of the three of them and then the doors opened.
"Wow, wow," Clark said.
"I don't do small," Lex said.
It was literally a jungle in there with animals and vegetation the likes of which Clark had never seen. To his left was a huge leopard. "Uh, Lex," Clark said, "There's a big ass leopard about thirty feet from us."
"That's Snookums," Whitney said. "Come here Snookums, come here boy." The leopard bounded playfully to the three men.
"The Leopard has been mutated to love humans, also it's now a herbivore." Whitney, as if there to prove Lex's point produced out of his pocket a carrot, which the leopard promptly started to nibble on. "That's a good Snookums." Whitney said.
"You call him Snookums?" That is just... So... Wrong," Clark said.
"Blame Whitney, he named him."
"All the animals here are genetically mutated to either love humans or have no interest in humans. Even the carnivores, look over there." Lex said, and pointed to a cow running at what looked to Clark like 40 MPH when it got near its prey its jaw changed shape into something predatory. It grabbed its prey and chomped down. Then its udders extended and it started to chew. If it weren't for the blood dripping from its mouth, it would look for all the world like your typical roadside Guernsey.
"You made a carnivorous cow? Why?"
"If man is going to live on other planets we need to either change the planet, through Tara forming, and geodesic domes, or we need to change man to be able to survive on the planet. If we can change animals in a specific way, we can change man."
"So killer cows and docile leopards?"
"Yes."
"I begged him, I BEGGED him to make a killer bunny, but he wouldn't do it."
"God, save me from Monty Python fans," Lex said rolling his eyes heavenward.
Whitney affected a shrill English accent, "Sharp Claws!" He said and tried to look like a bunny. A vicious bunny. "Sharp, Sharp Claws!"
"Yeah, let's continue on the rest of the tour," Lex said. It was all wonderment after that. Clark saw monkeys flying, lions able to leap like gazelles, dolphins with retractable legs, chickens soaring like Eagles.
"Well, are you impressed?" Lex said and they walked to where there were two more double doors.
"I am," Clark said truly.
"Let me show you the laboratories of Dr. Moreau, or in this case Dr. Hamilton. " Lex said. "Admit access three people, authorization Lex Luthor."
"I'm getting soooo tired of these retinal scans." Clark said.
"You haven't been training here for eight months," Whitney said.
"Don't touch ANYTHING, Lex" a cantankerous black man said before they even got 2 feet in the doorway.
"You know I did pay for all this stuff, I ought to be allowed to touch it," Lex said.
"These are very delicate instruments, and I can't have you mucking everything up."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Lex said. "Don't worry, I won't touch anything, I'm just going to explain to Clark here, how we do what we do." Clark smiled, Dr. Hamilton was still the only one to address Lex like that. Clark felt that he only yelled at Lex because he could, not because he was really afraid Lex would ruin his instruments. All the same, Clark made sure not to touch anything either. "You don't have to apologize for not saying hello to them, they know you're busy," Lex said.
"I wasn't going to," He said and got back to work as if they weren't there.
"Yes, The central problem with the previous Meteor mutations lay not in the meteor rocks but in the brains of the people being mutated. They were not able to give the Meteor rocks specific enough instructions, nor were they able to take into account the effect a biological change on one part of the human anatomy might make on another part. Again in the case of the obese girl, yes she was able to have the meteor rocks mutate her into slenderness, but she was not able to take into account the effect it would have upon her metabolism and the resultant effect it would have on her psyche. She was able to lose weight at miraculous speeds but she had an overwhelming need for more food, particularly body fat. The fault of that was her brain, not properly encoding the meteor rocks, not with the meteor rocks failing to mutate in the proper manner. Even in cases such as the shape shifter, where the mutation did not have any known physical side effects, the brain of the mutated person did not ask the meteor rocks to compensate for the change in physiology with a similar neurological change. The changeling though able to change her body at will, could not psychologically cope with the problems her abilities caused her. So they had these abilities, but they did not possess the psychological maturity to handle them."
"I gotta tell you Lex, you're hot when you're in scientist mode," Whitney said.
"Wait, so you're saying that not only can you change people physically, you can change them psychologically and neurologically too?"
"Yes he can Clark, and thank God for it or I'd still be in jail," Clark heard a familiar deep voice in the background.
"Earl!" Clark said. "How in the world can someone as big as you move so quiet? Are you all better now?" The last time they spoke was seven years ago. Earl was driven to desperation by Luthor's father, Lionel, and was made extremely sick by an accident inside the fertilizer plant Lex used to manage.
"I'm Fine, The only thing I shake now is hands," He said and shook Clark's.
"You feeling OK?"
"Yeah, Lex got me all fixed up."
"Ninety percent of the people you saw working so industriously before were, at one time, death row inmates" Lex said. They were all granted release on the condition that they volunteer for these experiments. They had their learning capacity increased forty percent, their capacity for violence decreased to zero, they also have a more efficient ability to burn glycogen and a more efficient transfer of neurological signals. They are, in short, the most productive work force on the planet."
"I was able to get out after only three months in prison thanks to Lex," Earl said.
"Actually, Earl WASN'T a really good candidate for the program, however, I knew that it was mostly my father's fault that Earl was in prison in the first place so I felt that I had to take responsibility. The only thing we did for Earl was increase his metabolism, he needed no neurological alterations. I was able to pressure the judge and the governor into letting me take him."
"Messing around with peoples heads, sounds kind of scary, Lex."
"I tell you Clark," Earl said, "I thought the same thing. But if you saw these people, they're happy and fulfilled, and they're not zombies, they're just plain folks now. Mr. Luthor gave them a new life, hell, he gave them a life period."
"Thank you Earl. So far we've done, between humans and animals, two thousand separate mutations, without one mistake. We've ALWAYS had the precise mutation we've wanted."
"I don't understand," Clark said, "How'd you do it?"
"By separating the subject from the radiation until the radiation actually enters their body. Dr. Hamilton was actually able to create machines that can, at a primitive level, duplicate human thought just enough for the meteor material to respond to it. We, in effect created a machine that can wish. But instead of "wishing" just to be thin, the computer can take into account the full biology of humans so it can actually ask the meteor material to have the girls metabolism speed up until she reaches a certain percentage body fat and then stop. It can further instruct the meteor material to have the metabolism speed up again as soon as her fat count rises above a certain level thus eliminating the need for her to ever have to diet again. It can wish that the violent pathways in a vicious killers mind be reduced, but it can also wish that there isn't an accompanying lethargy. Although the computer is far less advanced then the human mind, it is far more single minded in its task of giving the meteor material specific instructions, the computer is also wired into the subjects metabolism taking careful readings of all heart, lung and autonomic functions, so if something seems to be going wrong, the computer can fine tune its instructions to the meteor material. So the computer is able to effect changes even as the subject is being mutated."
"Lex, but how do you keep the subject from influencing the meteor material?" Clark asked.
"Good question, there are two ways, first the subject is anesthetized prior to receiving the injection. Secondly the meteor material is incased entirely in lead. We learned that the meteor material cannot pick up on neural activities through lead."
"Truly amazing."
"You haven't seen anything yet, tomorrow will be our masterpiece. Tomorrow we'll create a man able to go for days without oxygen, a man able to survive in low gravity for years without his muscles atrophying. A man who can be comfortable in -200 degree temperatures and in +200 degrees. A man ideally suited to work on mars to help build the first Martian colony."
"You're going to do this Whitney?" Clark said.
"I told you, I don't want to be a 'remember him?'"
"But still, Chloe, the kids,"
"I signed up to the air force, she knew their was a chance I'd be away for a long time, this will only be two years. So far Lex has been able to mutate every test subject back to its original state without any difficulty. Think about it Clark, when I step out of that spacecraft without a suit, I'll be a part of history. I'll have taken the first step in conquering the final frontier. You know me Clark, how could I resist something like that?"
"Besides, Whitney is a perfect candidate in a lot of ways," Lex said. "He's grown up around the meteor rocks and has no physical abnormalities, he's been mutated twice already with no genetic defects. He's a trained pilot who graduated first in his ROTC class. He's passed all physicals and psychological profiles without any problem. We couldn't make up a more ideal candidate."
"Gee, thanks."
"So when, are you going to do this?"
"Tomorrow."
Tomorrow?!? Jeez, no wonder you've been jumpy today. Are you nervous?"
Whitney breathed in deeply, "Nervous, no, every things been tested and retested. I'm anxious more then anything else. Lex has done this over two thousand times already. He's got it down. And I can't wait to command my first outer space assignment."
"You want me to be there for this?"
"I was counting on it Clark."
Lex's cellular phone rang. "Oh, are two hours are up, I hope you don't mind Clark, but this ends our tour."
"No problem, Lex."
"You coming with me to meet Chloe and the kids Clark?"
"Sure."
"I'll have a limousine take you two to Whitney's hotel."
"Thanks Lex," Whitney and Clark said in unison.
Whitney was able to lead Clark up to the first floor of Luthor towers and to the ground level Where a limousine was waiting for them.
"Lex wasn't exaggerating," Clark said after they got in the limousine. "This is one hell of an amazing story."
"After tomorrow, you won't be the only superman on this planet, Clark," Whitney said.
"I was thinking the same thing, you'll finally have a taste of what it's like to be me."
"Well, Lex isn't going to give me x-ray vision or heat vision and my reflexes and strength will only be slightly enhanced, he's also giving me an ability to change my own metabolism at will, in case there's something about the mars atmosphere that we don't know about. It won't be quite as dramatic as your power, but yeah, I'll have an idea of what it's like at least" Whitney paused and then asked, "Do you ever regret me finding out Clark?"
"The only way I could of NOT revealed my secret is by letting you die, Whitney."
"I'm not asking if you regret saving me, Clark, I'm asking if you regret me knowing."
Clark thought for a moment, after the initial fear that Whitney might get angry at him and reveal his secret out of spite, Clark began to rely on Whitney. There were some things that Clark couldn't talk about with his parents, private matters that can only be discussed with people your own age. Having Whitney there as a friend he could speak to completely honestly was a godsend. Also, when they were roommates in college, Whitney provided him with valid sounding excuses for when he'd have to leave quickly, Whitney became good at explaining the unusual events that occur around a person with abilities such as Clark's. "No, I don't regret your knowing. Do you ever regret finding out?"
Whitney smiled. "I tell you Clark, finding out the truth about you was one of the best things that ever happened to me. You could of let me die that day, but you didn't. You decided to trust me with a secret that, if revealed, would shatter your entire existence. Plus, I don't know, it seemed like helping you, working with you, was somehow like working towards a greater cause or a greater purpose. It's one of the reasons I joined the air force. I liked that feeling of it not always being about me, me, me. Also, I hate to say it, but, before I learned your secret, I pretty much hated your ass."
"I think you hated just about every part of me, Whitney."
Whitney laughed, "OK, but I especially hated your ass, it's just so.... perfect. Made me all jealous. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that when you shared your secret with me, your secret became OUR secret, I felt we formed a bond. If we weren't connected with that, I don't think we would of ever of formed a connection. If I never found out your secret, Clark, I'd be absent one of my greatest friends."
"Yes but the difficulties I made for you in college, the times you had to cover for me, the danger I sometimes put you in."
"Part of a greater cause, man, I did those things because I wanted to Clark. Before I found out your secret I was in my own world. After that I found out there was more then me in the world, hell there was a whole universe out there. That's one of the reasons I think you ought to tell Lex."
"We've had conversations similar to this before. Why are we having another one?"
"Because you haven't listened to me yet."
"Look, I haven't told Pete, or Chloe, or Lana or anyone else why haven't you bugged me about them?"
"Because they HAVE someone else. Pete has Lana and his parents, Lana has Pete and Aunt Nell, Chloe has me and her family. Lex doesn't have anyone else, his father doesn't qualify as family, his mother died when he was twelve he has no one else. He only has you."
"Yeah, me and 212 billion, I feel sorry for him."
"He's ALWAYS been rich, now he's just obscenely rich, so what? Would you trade his money if it meant growing up in that house, with THAT bastard for a father?"
"No."
"I know a little bit of what it's like to have everyone THINK you have to be happy Clark. I never had Lex's wealth but I was the star athlete for the school, who dated the head cheerleader. I was a walking talking cliché on legs. People like me are never supposed to be lonely or sad, or have any problems whatsoever and if you did have a problem no one wants to hear of it. Take Lex's situation and multiply it by 100, hell multiply it by 212 billion."
"It's not my fault he's alone."
"It's not entirely his fault either. If a girl expresses interest in him he can't be sure whether they're more interested in his bank account, all his male acquaintance are usually going to be back slappers or ass kissers. You're his family Clark, his only family, the only person in all the world he cares for more then himself, it's just not right your keeping it from him."
"I just don't feel like it's safe to tell him."
"You told me, we've been friends for four years, I haven't outed you to anyone, not even to Chloe."
"You and him are different."
"Yeah, he's never hated you."
"He's also never let me be either. Yes you're right he's been there for me, he's been there for me TOO much. Showing up at my high school, trying to fix me up with Lana, arriving at my parties with fireworks, bringing rock stars to my graduation party, even involving himself in my fathers farm for goodness sakes! Involving himself in every facet of my life from my finances to dating, you KNOW it's not normal".
"It's because he loves you, he only wants to help."
"Yes, that's true but he ALWAYS wants to help, whether I want the help or not. His two biggest interests in life are his company and focusing on me and to be honest, I'm not sure which comes first in his mind. The differences between you and him are that you're there when I need you or want you, he's there all the time whether I think I need him or not. He checks out my parents finances without me asking, he checks out my grades, my social life my job status and yes, he does it with the intention of helping and I'm grateful he's a friend but you can't tell me it's one hundred percent normal."
Whitney hesitated, "Yes, it's strange, but he'd never betray you."
"No, he wouldn't do that, in fact he'd want to help. He'd want to run tests to see the extent of my abilities, he'd want to find out if my abilities were causing me psychological stress, I'd be more of a project for him then I already am."
"Maybe he could help, he's got more resources then anyone else in the world."
"Yeah, but what happens the day I say no? You know how Lex is when he doesn't get his way."
"OK, fine."
"Maybe in a couple of years, if he gets a wife and kids, when he has something else to occupy his big brain besides me."
They rode in silence the rest of the way. Finally they arrived at the hotel.
"The Waldorf! I'm impressed," Clark said.
"Well, you know Lex"
"Yeah."
Whitney was staying in the penthouse, after opening the door Whitney said, "Chloe! I have a surprise for you."
Chloe walked into the main room holding one of her children."
"Clark!" Chloe said and came forward to give him a half hug. "How've you been?"
"Good," Clark said. "This little girl is getting so big, where's Jack?"
"He's sleeping in the other room," Chloe said. "Hi Sarah! How are you?" Clark said in the over animated voice adults use to talk to 2 year olds. Sarah, grabbed onto Chloe tighter without saying a word to Clark.
Chloe laughed, "Still the lady killer Clark. So tell me what have you been doing?"
"Well, I got an internship at the planet!"
"Oh you didn't! I can't believe Clark Kent is going to be a reporter before me!"
"You'll get there Chloe," once these little guys are in school. "Having twins was a smart thing, got it over with at once."
"Well, I'm ever the efficient one, even in my breeding practices."
They shared dinner together, and talked into the evening, none of them wanting to mention what was most on their minds. Finally Clark brought it up. "So how do you feel about tomorrow Chloe?"
"Oh, I feel he's out of his mind, but he REALLY wants to do this and I can't deny him his dream. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified."
"Honey, don't be, you KNOW Dr. Hamilton, he's probably went over the mutation sequence three thousand times and he'll probably do it one thousand more times before I go through the treatment.
"I don't know, I keep thinking about all those good scientists at the EPA and NASA assuring us that the meteor rocks are one hundred percent safe. Scientists make mistakes, Whitney."
If exploration stopped because family members were worried, there'd never of been a moon landing. Relax Chloe, it will be fine," Whitney said.
"Well, I should go, it's getting late and you need your sleep Whitney, meet you at the labs at nine am tomorrow?
"You sure you don't want to stay here, Clark? Couch is comfortable." Chloe said.
"No thank you, I feel like taking a little jog and there's clothes at home."
Clark left the building and was feeling edgy. He decided to do his "Forest Gump" run to let off steam. He ran to one end of the continent and then to the other end twice. When he finally got into his dorm room an hour and a half later, he was still on edge.
His anxiety did not decrease the next morning when he met Whitney, Chloe and Lex at the labs the next day. Whitney smiled, "Clark, I'm so glad you're here."
"I wouldn't miss this Whitney, I'm glad you don't look as nervous as I feel."
"You two need to start on yoga or something, this will be over in just an hour or so. It will go without a hitch, you'll see."
With that they took Whitney away for processing and routine blood work. Clark, Chloe and Lex tried to make light small talk but were unsuccessful. Finally they were brought into a room to observe the procedure. There was a large glass partition and through it they could observe what looked like a dentist chair. Clark had an uneasy feeling, like they were observing an execution.
"Can't I be with him," Chloe asked.
"I'm sorry Chloe," Lex said, "We don't want the meteor material to pick up any neural impulses but the ones that we program into it. Even the technicians and Doctors looking over Whitney are wearing specially designed lead-lined garments. It's for Whitney's protection that you're separated."
Whitney came out wearing hospital clothes. "Hey, Chloe, hey Clark." Whitney said through the glass.
"Hey Whitney," they murmured.
"Will you two relax," Whitney said smiling, "It's going to be fine." And, as if to prove his utter confidence Whitney practically bounded into the chair. "You'll be in my loving arms in an hour, tops Chloe"
"OK," Chloe said with a fake smile.
"We're going to administer the sedative now," Clark heard the technician say.
"I love you," Whitney said to Chloe before he went under. These were the last three words that Whitney would ever say.
"I love you," Chloe said back as Whitney drifted off to sleep.
"And now it's time for the mutation," the technician said and produced a lead lined IV. The technician injected the IV into Whitney's arm.
Clark heard stories from people who were in car accidents telling how time seemed to expand. How a few seconds seem to become hours. Clark felt that this disaster was the opposite of that, he could not believe how quickly everything happened. The technician finished the injection, Whitney's eyes flew open. He screamed, looked at his hands which seemed to be decomposing, his screamed turned into a shriek which turned into a gurgle as the decomposition went to his head and neck. Soon Whitney was a large piece of what looked like protoplasm on the floor.
Chloe turned to Lex confused, "Wha, what happened, What's happening?"
"I don't know," Lex said.
"Don't tell me you don't know, I don't want to hear that what the hell happened to my husband you bastard." she said and started beating at Lex.
"I don't know Chloe."
One of the technicians made the mistake of bending over what used to be Whitney and a
piece of the protoplasm snaked around the mans neck breaking it almost instantly. The protoplasm hurled the man into the window causing the reinforced glass to actually crack. What was left of the man stayed there comically for a moment and then slid down. Clark watched the technician fall and when he looked up there were two other dead technicians in the room.
Chloe was still in hysterics beating at Lex. "Chloe, Chloe," Lex was saying, "This is no good, we need to get you to a safe place, we'll get to the bottom of this we'll get him back to normal." Two of Lex's assistants came and physically carried Chloe off as she continued to scream "You bastard."
"Security, down to the mutation room immediately, security risk level ten." Lex said into an intercom.
Steven Hamilton spoke up, "Lex, I, I can't bring THAT back, hell, I don't even know if he's got DNA anymore."
"I know that you idiot but I wasn't going to tell Chloe that."
The security team entered the room almost immediately and started firing at the Whitney creature. The bullets ricocheted off the creature, one of them going through the eye and into the brain of one of the guards firing at it, and then the creature lashed out at one of the security guards making part of its body solid and sharp and driving part of itself through the mans leg. The man screamed, and then shouted "let's get out of here,". The rest of the detail didn't need to be told twice and they retreated. Two of the men upon leaving threw in hand grenades into the room and sealed the door. Clark closed his eyes when he saw the explosion. When he opened them the room was torn apart but the creature was intact. Clark had seen enough and quickly left the room counting on everyone being too transfixed with what was happening in the other room to notice his speed.
Lex didn't see Clark leave but knew when he turned around that Clark would be gone. He smiled at the predictability of it all. He turned to Dr. Hamilton. "Come with me Steve, we're going to have to direct things from operations base and also evacuate the building. I'll blow up the whole place before I let THAT out in public."
"Yes, of course," Dr. Hamilton said and made the fatal mistake of going with Lex.
Lex walked with Dr. Hamilton into the main security room and sealed the door shut.
Clark ran to where the creature used to be but of course there was nothing there, he scanned the area with his x ray vision and saw the creature moving quickly in the zoo area. Getting close to the main labs, getting close to the "safe area" where Chloe and the others were being guarded. As fast as the creature was going, it was no match for Clark's speed and Clark was there in two seconds.
"Whitney," Clark said, "If you're in there at all you need to stop this and get back to the lab where Dr. Hamilton can look at you."
The creature answered by extending a tentacle outwards swiping at Clark. Clark leapt over it and the tentacle knocked over a tree with its swipe. Clark hit the tentacle with a blast of heat vision severing the thing. He then ran head on into the creature and hit it hard, the creature reeled and sent another tentacle after Clark who again leapt into the air, but this time he did not come down. Clark did not have the time to be stunned at this as the creature sent another tentacle out at Clark. By simply willing it Clark went higher still and then to the left when the creature made a third pass. Clark then willed himself downward at top speed and he was stunned at the velocity he reached. He was used to being able to run across the country in an hours time, but he knew that the speed he was going now dwarfed that. He and the creature were inside a 6 foot deep crater he accidentally dug with his dive. The creature was still going at him a tentacle had wrapped around his neck and Clark was grasping at it. Clark heard a roar from above and a leopard leaped onto the creature. Clark remembered, Whitney had given it the idiot name Snookums, he said it had been programed to not eat meat and to love humans. The leopard thought it was saving Clark. The Whitney creature lashed out and split the leopard in half with one of its tentacles. Clark hit the tentacle holding him and hit the creature again with his heat vision. He hit at it again with all his strength this time and again and again, not giving it time to adapt or change or adjust to the heat or reform. He could tell by the creatures flailing that he was having an effect. Soon the creature almost stopped moving. Clark stopped.
"Clark," he heard a voice that sounded like Whitney's say, "End this please." Only he wasn't hearing the voice.
"You gotta hand it to the meteor material, it did the job perfectly, I can adapt to any atmosphere, no need to breathe, no messy skeleton to adapt to hard gravity, able to communicate through telepathy thereby ending all language barriers, only problem is the violence, I don't know where that came from."
"Whitney, I can't."
"Clark, you CAN you're the only one in the entire world that can, I can't control myself much longer and I can't stand the pain." Then what was left of Whitney let all the barriers down, Clark felt pain and anguish greater then any he could fathom losing his children losing Chloe being in this form, feeling this agony forever, forever, forever. Clark lashed out at it to end the pain and hit and hit and hit until the agony ended. There was a moment of peace before the creature completely slipped away and a final thought directed at Clark "Thank you for being my friend," and then it was gone.
With the passing of the creature Clark once again had control over himself. "Oh God, oh God, Oh Whitney, Oh God, oh no" he chanted.
He heard a voice from above, "Yes it is quite sad about the quarterback isn't it? Sad about the leopard too, I was growing attached to both of them." Clark looked up and saw Lex standing there. He quickly climbed out of the hole. "I knew you'd stop it I had no doubt in my mind. That line about needing to notify everyone else and blowing up the building if necessary was clever of me though, wasn't it? Got everyone out of the way and left you free to do whatever it is that you do. You rescued us from the mutated quarterback. I doubt if you'll get the girl though, I'll tell Chloe a story but I think she'll suspect the truth. You know her instincts. Sure you'll be friends and all, and you'll be polite, but you'll never be close again. I'm sorry about that, the quarterback became a good friend of yours"
"His name was Whitney," Clark said wiping moisture away from his face, not realizing that the moisture was tears.
"I'm so glad you remember his name, he wanted so to be remembered. Remember him Clark? He was within inches of being the most famous person on the planet. Of being the one to herald in a new age of science and exploration. Do you remember him, Clark? He was going to be more famous then Neil Armstrong and Chris Columbus combined. Do you remember Clark? It's a little hard because instead of reaching greatness he died an obscure insignificant little Air force Captain." Lex laughed, "What a treatment Shakespeare could of given our quarterback from Kansas: a man with big dreams big aspirations a life filled with sound and fury but in the end signifying nothing. Howl! Howl! Have you hearts of stones?" Lex said and laughed again.
"I don't think he signified nothing, neither does Chloe, neither does his children."
"They're nothing too, nothing and nothing and nothing make nothing Clark, don't feel bad for the quarter... Whitney, Clark. They are here for us. WE are the ones destined for greatness, the quarterback was only useful to the point where he could help you get there. His use is done."
"What do you want from me, Lex" Clark said, wiping his face again.
"The truth might be nice, let me see if I can guess it, the creature was greatly weakened by the security guards and so therefore you were able to beat it all by yourself. You also took a hand grenade with you and that's what dug this hole here. You know a day ago I would of believed a bullshit story like that, cause I would of wanted to believe it. You'd flash me one of those grins of yours and I'd have to smile back, how could I not? And I'd fall in love with you just a little bit more. Again, how could I not? And I would rather turn off my mind then believe that you were lying to me Clark, but people are dead now, Whitney is dead now and I just can't take anymore bullshit Clark."
"I don't know what you want me to say, Lex."
Lex reached up and caressed Clark's face. "Nothing, nothing, I don't want you to say a word," and with that he hugged Clark for the last time. Clark stood there stiff for a moment as if Lex were about to punch him. Lex continued to hug him and Clark could tell from his breathing that Lex was sobbing, Clark hugged back. Lex continued to sob and bury his face in Clark's chest for a while. Then he turned his face and gave Clark a long kiss on the cheek With that he finally broke the embrace and still holding onto Clark's arms he took a step back. He quickly took a forearm and wiped away his tears. He smiled, "I want you to leave here now, and never come back" he said. With that he walked to a nearby laboratory.
Clark stood there stunned for a moment and then followed. He couldn't lose two friends in one day, he simply couldn't bear that. He walked into the laboratory, Lex had his back turned to him. "Lex, what do you want?"
Lex turned, "YOU WERE THE VARIABLE, CLARK!" He shouted.
There was a bin near Lex he punched at it and sent the lid flying. A familiar wave of nausea and sickness washed over Clark. "We took all the meteor material in Smallville away and brought it here, for us to experiment on." Lex said. "It's easiest to study in powder form." Lex said and picked up a mini-shovel full of the stuff. Clark was already practically disabled. "What's the matter Clark? You're just like me aren't you? You're just like anyone else, aren't you? the meteor material doesn't bother me." He said and to prove his point he took some of the powder and threw it in his own face. "Let's see if it bothers you," he said and threw the rest of the shovelful into Clark's face.
"Oh god," Clark cried out and fell to the floor.
"It seems to bother you quite a bit, your beautiful skin is all mottled," he said. "When galaxies are formed they're initially just one big mass of gas. Most of the gasses form the sun, but some of them form the planets. It's a theory that the gasses that decide to form together do so because they have a similar signature, a code if you will, that attracts one piece of matter to another. In order for the meteor rocks to have this kind of an effect on you, you and it would pretty much have to be from the same place. Isn't that the truth Clark? Isn't that the truth?" Lex said and kicked Clark in the chest.
Clark gasped in pain, "Yes it's the truth."
"What else?" he said and kicked him again this time in the face.
"I, I came here in the meteor shower the same one that took your hair, and killed Lana's parents."
"Very good," Lex said and this time bent over close and punched Clark full in the face. "What else?"
"I have abilities, strength, I don't know how strong I am... I can run, much faster then sound, I can melt things with my eyes and see through things and, and I think I can fly.... please, please stop hurting me, Lex."
"You wanna talk about pain? Dr. Hamilton died for your secret Clark! A good man died for YOUR secret! YOU WERE THE VARIABLE! Two thousand different mutations all of them with the exact result we wanted, THIS was the only time it went wrong. The only difference was YOU! YOU WERE THE VARIABLE! Don't you understand?
"Lex," Clark gasped, "The meteor material was in lead the whole time, meteor rays can't go through lead."
"You fucking farm boy idiot," Lex said banging Clark's head against the floor. "What are you two years old? Do you think that if you shut your eyes and can't see that no one can see you? Didn't you pass tenth grade science? There are different types of electromagnetic waves you moron." He said and punched Clark again. "Sunlight goes through glass, no problem, ultraviolet light can't. Fm Radio waves can go through steel and through bridges, am radio waves can't. The meteor rocks emit several types of radiation, one type makes you sick and another type detects your presence. So yes, it couldn't have an adverse effect on you, but you sure as hell had an adverse effect on it wouldn't you say? Damn it, Damn it, Damn it Clark! Why didn't you tell me?!? I could of told you ALL of this years ago if you had just told me. We could of found out EXACTLY how the meteor rocks affect you and how you effect it, if you'd of just trusted me." He said punching him repeatedly.
Clark was sure, quite sure, this man that was his best friend was going to kill him, "You- you kept secrets from me, business deals, your past...."
"I didn't keep ME secret though!" He shouted. "You had my heart my soul, you had a full pass to all my feelings everything that made me, me. You knew WHAT I was. My past, my business dealings THAT'S NOT ME! That's what I do! You had full access to me!" He said and struck him again. "I would of given you everything! None of that is important to me! But you, Clark, you... I loved you," he said and struck him again.
"Lex, Lex, please God, Lex, you're killing me,"
"Dr. Hamilton had to die for you, you and your secret.
"Did you, did you kill him?" Clark managed to say. Merely speaking was incredibly difficult now, were it not for the new pain Lex was constantly inflicting on him, Clark would of passed out a while ago.
"I didn't say that," Lex said and grabbed Clark by the throat and squeezed. "I said he had to die to protect your secret. You see, he would of figured it out eventually, and if you knew Steven Hamilton then you KNOW that he valued his reputation as a scientist above all. There was no amount of money I could offer him to keep him quiet," Lex said and squeezed harder, "No threat that I could make. He would tell the world and there is one thing that you made clear a long time ago, is that your secret is the most important thing. Certainly more important then me," Lex said and squeezed harder still. Clark beat ineffectually at his arms and Lex laughed at having the most powerful being in the world helpless under him. "So that's what I gave you, I gave you your choice you choose your secret over me and I gave it to you. Your secret which ended the lives of five good people today, your secret which destroyed a five billion dollar project that could of heralded a new age for man. Your secret, I give it to you as a last present from me to you. I hope you rot with it."
Clark, accepted his death, he accepted it and quit struggling. He looked at Lex's face and saw the hatred there and shut his eyes. "Oh, let it come," he thought. Almost as if Lex was granting Clark's wish, Lex squeezed at his trachea a slight bit harder. One ounce more of pressure and he would of broken it. Instead, Lex let go. Clark breathed in hard.
"You saved my life, and I spared yours," Lex said. "We're even now, you print this story, I'll have to tell MY side of it. Your secret will come out. If you don't print this story, I'll take your precious secret to my grave. You made a choice between our friendship and your secret, you chose your secret. That's all that we have between us now. Lex pressed a few switches on the console and a sprinkler turned on. "The meteor material should wash off you in a few minutes," Lex said. "After that, I'm sure you'll be completely recovered. The guards will show you out. Your secrets safe with me, but you're not. Don't ever come back here again." With that Lex left and shut the door.
Clark, lay there panting and watching the green water swirl down a nearby drain.
Disclaimers: You've read the other disclaimers. Ditto. If the WB wants to sue me for everything I've got I'll be more then happy to hand over the $2.50.
Pairings: I wrote this story BEFORE I actually read any fan fiction so it's not romantic angsty or pornographic. It's basically just a typical Smallville story. I don't think I'll ever do another one, but if I do, I promise to make it REALLY obscene. They won't even call it NC-17 they'll call it NC-52 and then you'll need your mother with you to read it.
Thanks: Thanks to ALL the people at TWOP for making me think WAAAY more about a TV show then I should. Especially Fabrisse for convincing me to go ahead with the story against all my common sense desire to do useful things with my time. Miss Windy for showing me the True power of the Chlitney. JoyceH who's ideas concerning Kryptonite I shamelessly and gleefully stole. Ktbaxter who had a response to one of my posts concerning homosexuality not "defining" you that kind of stuck with me. I took the gist of it and threw it in there in regards to Lex's response to Clark's secret. And thanks also to Mr. Nobody because my horoscope told me to say something nice about zany astrologers.
Feedback: YES! Pretty please! with sugar on it! Send it to Sakifan@hotmail.com or post your remarks here, but I wanna hear what everyone has to say!
Note: since text only won't let me do italics, I was forced to use caps. Unless if the character is ACTUALLY yelling which is obvious in the story when that happens (I hope it is anyway) the caps are meant to indicate emphasis.
********************************************************************************
And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand.
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am.
----Iris, By the Goo Goo Dolls
Lex found murder to be remarkably easy. Dr. Hamilton had, within moments gone from being one of his greatest assets to being a liability. This liability could not be silenced through bribes or intimidated through threats, nor could he simply fire him. Therefore Dr. Hamilton had to die. It was, a very simple mathematical equation he was solving. Lex saw it clearly and was pleased with himself for assessing all the variables so quickly and formulating the correct strategy.
Lex flicked a switch on the main control panel, "Attention, attention," he said, "There has been a bomb threat made on the building. We do not find this threat credible, but as a precautionary measure the building will be evacuated. Please do not panic and leave the building quietly."
"I hope you didn't mind me touching the controls there, Steven," Lex said smiling.
"It's your building, you can touch what you want, I just said that stuff to bother you, Lex " Dr. Hamilton said.
"I know," Lex said smiling.
"Lex, I studied and restudied that data a thousand times, I thought I had taken into account every possible variable. I let you down and I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Lex said sincerely, "It wasn't your fault."
"I swear to you Lex I SWEAR to you, I will not rest until I get to the bottom of this."
"I know you won't," Lex said and punched him hard in the chest.
Dr. Hamilton doubled over as his breath left his body. Lex then hit him in the face sending him sprawling to the floor. Dr. Hamilton got up and did make some kind of effort to defend himself but he was 25 years older then Lex and never in very good shape to begin with. Lex knelt over Steven Hamilton's battered form. Dr. Hamilton whispered, "I didn't mean for anything bad to happen Lex, I'm sorry, please, I'm sorry."
"What gives you the impression that I'm mad at you?" Lex asked and broke his neck.
ONE DAY EARLIER:
The offices at the top of Luthor Towers were meant to impress and awe. Clark Kent was impressed the first two or three dozen times he entered them. Now he walked past the Van Goths and Picassos on the Cherry oak walls with the same disinterest that he walked past the Kmart specials that decorated his parent's living room. The security guard nodded as he passed. They stopped checking his identification 3 years ago. He could set up tent, go to sleep on the couch, pretty much do anything he pleased. He had the run of the place the same way he had the run of Luthor castle back when he lived in Smallville. If it weren't for his complete ease in the building, he'd be completely out of place in his jeans and canon watch surrounded by the $2,000 dollar suits worn by people with Rolex watches. None of the Rolex watches could even get a phone call with Lex Luthor without AT LEAST a three day wait for him to return their calls. Yet here Clark strode in his blue jeans and book bag.
The secretary at the desk looked up and gave Clark a smile so large he had to smile back. She got up from the desk and pranced over, "CLAAAAARK" she yelled and giggled and gave him a hug. "Where've you been ? I haven't seen you in over a month."
"It's been twenty seven days."
"Tell me what you've been doing, leave nothing out."
"Well, I left the office, walked to the elevator, pressed the button to go down...."
"OK, leave that part out." she said and laughed.
"Well, I had to take my final exams and I got a job interning for the Daily Planet."
She let out a squeal and gave Clark another hug. "Oh, that's just what you wanted!"
"Yeah, I beat out four hundred eighty other applicants."
"You know I have a friend who has a daughter, she's just a few years younger then you, she's pretty, she's got a great personality. She's going to be at Steven's high school graduation party. You're still going to be there right?"
"Wouldn't miss your other sons graduation for the world." Clark called Susan his Met Mom. He had a main Mom in Smallville and he had a back up auxiliary mom which he had in Metropolis. "Is he busy," he asked before she could give him the obligatory grilling on whether or not he's "seeing anyone."
She pressed the intercom button and adopted her proper secretarial voice, "Mr. Luthor, Clark is here to see you."
He heard that familiar voice through the intercom, "Clark?! You're kidding, send him in."
He walked into the office. There was only one other person on the entire planet that could walk into Luthor Towers unannounced and see the man himself. Even Lex's father, who lost control of the company 2 years ago had to make an appointment. Lex smiled broadly, got up from his desk and embraced Clark warmly. Steven Hamilton, the President of Luthor Corp. was the other person who could see Lex unannounced and even Dr. Hamilton would never receive a hug.
Hugs were something reserved for Clark only. Clark remembered the first time they embraced three years ago. It was at his high school graduation party which Lex insisted be held at his mansion. Clark got there early to see if there was anything he could do to help, but of course Lex had everything in hand. The place was decorated as if one of the Royals were about to have a wedding there and Lex brought in the finest chefs to cater the whole affair. Clark had tried many times to tell him to keep it small but Lex just smiled and said, "I don't do small".
It looked like a band was setting up in the corner. "Wow, you even brought in a band," Clark said.
"Oh, that's not the band, the band is being flown in from Europe."
Clark eyed Lex suspiciously, "Lex, who did you get?"
"Well, I tried to get you tickets to see Radio Head and that fell through so I figured if the Clark Kent couldn't go to the Radio Head, the Radio Head had to go to Clark Kent."
"You're kidding."
"Nothing but the best for the valedictorian."
Clark laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"Lex, you're probably the smartest guy I've ever met, but you're also in a lot of ways the dumbest."
"Well, that's very nice, to someone who just got you..."
Clark grabbed Lex by the arms, and looked right in his eyes "Lex, the only thing I've ever wanted from you is your company. You know that don't you?"
"Well, I..."
Clark embraced him before he could explain, "You know that don't you? After four years don't you know that?" Lex's body was stiff, as if he was expecting a punch but Clark continued the embrace until Lex relaxed and finally hugged him back.
"Yeah, Clark. Yeah, I know that."
Clark, let go and smiled. "That and maybe one of those big wide screen high definition televisions."
Lex laughed, "Shut up."
"And a VCR, and a dvd player, and maybe a lap top computer... but REALLY that's all I want from you, your company, a TV, a VCR a dvd player a lap top computer and also perhaps a car, nothing too extravagant, hell I'll take one of your old used Lamorghini's, I'm not greedy. So that's it, your company, a TV..."
"Shut up!" Lex laughed paused and then said "you crack me up, man."
"Thank you."
"Seriously Clark, I'm proud of you." Lex said and this time he initiated the hug.
That was three years ago and since that time Lex's fortune has quintupled and quintupled again until now it would take a team of 200 accountants a month just to determine how much money he has but Clark still values those embraces because he knows that he's the only man in the world that Lex has ever warmly embraced. "I stay away for one month and you and Susan act like I took a three year vacation in Italy or something," he said flopping himself down on a couch that cost more then what the average person makes in ten years.
"You know, if she would ever light up for me the way she does for you, I think I'd double her salary. She's going to be giddy the rest of the day now, I'll be lucky if I can get any work out of her," Lex said, sitting down in a chair across from him.
"It's easier for me Lex, I'm not her boss."
"Nobody lights up for me the way they do for you Clark. Man, if I could bottle that Kent Charm I'd make a fortune."
"You have a fortune."
"Oh yeah, well, you can keep your charm then."
Clark smiled, "Thanks."
"I heard you got an internship at The Daily Planet, Congratulations."
"I forgot, Lex Luthor's eyes and ears are everywhere."
"Well, if you came by more often I wouldn't have to check up on you."
"Lex, you didn't..."
"Clark, you got all A's in High School and college you write brilliantly. You won it on your own, trust me."
"OK."
"How did your finals go?"
"They were a killer, but I think I did OK, I'm surprised you didn't call the teachers."
"Well, I considered it, but decided it was safe to assume you were getting all A's"
"Yeah, yeah."
"You know, if you ever wanted to give up this reporting thing and this College thing I think I could still find room for you at Luthor Corp."
"Really?"
"Yeah, we had a slot open in the mail room, but that's been filled."
"Damn."
"But I think there's an opening in one of my VP positions, in charge of production."
"How much does it pay?"
"Well, it starts out at just below fifteen million a year, but with a little work, you can make some REAL money."
"Fifteen million, how do people live on that?"
"I don't know, I guess they cut coupons."
"Medical? Dental?"
"Uh, no."
Clark feigned shock, "My God, retirement?"
"Other then the fifteen million a year? Nothing."
"How will you ever get anyone to take this crummy job? I'm sticking with reporting, buddy."
"How much does that pay?"
"Starting is 43 thousand a year but the benies are great."
"Really."
"They even offer dental!"
"Well, I can't compete with that."
"What good is 15 million when you have a killer cavity?"
"So true."
"And they have a 401k plan! Do you have that?"
"Nothing but stock options."
"Man, what kind of idiot would take this job?"
"Clark," Lex said, "the offer was serious."
"Lex, you remember what I said at my High School graduation don't you?"
"Yes."
"Nothing's changed."
"Clark, you know how I feel about this company. I would never offer you a job I didn't think you'd be great at and I'd never offer you a salary I didn't believe you would earn."
Clark thought for a moment and then said gently, "Lex, I love writing, and I love finding the truth. Being an investigative reporter is my dream. Money's never been important to me"
"You are so much like your father."
"Thank you, that's the nicest thing you ever said to me."
"Yeah, well I had to try, I guess I'll have to promote the mail room guy now. How is the internship going?"
"Great, I met my editor, Perry White, he's a wonderful man, you'd like him."
"Since I can't offer you a job, do you think Perry would be interested in a Daily Planet exclusive?"
Clark fell over on the couch and pretended to fall asleep, snoring loudly. He pretended to wake with a start, "Oh, I'm sorry ANOTHER Lex Luthor exclusive. Boring. Been there. Done that. In fact I don't even think I need you to do the interview anymore. " Clark grabbed a magazine from the coffee table, rolled it up and pretended it was a microphone, "Excuse me Mr. Luthor. How does it feel to be twenty eight years old and to be the wealthiest man who has ever lived?" Clark moved the imaginary microphone next to him over as if he was holding it below a phantom persons mouth and then moved to where the microphone was and adopted a deeper voice and an exaggerated air of self importance. "Well, Clark, you don't mind if I call you Clark do you? Clark, I don't think the money is as important as what the money can do to help the world and its children."
"The things you can buy with the money is also nice" Lex added, smiling.
Clark continued "Funding schools in Africa, providing computers for inner city kids, these things mean so much more to me then a large balance in a checking account." He then scooted back and became himself again only this time he was wiping an imaginary tear from his eye and speaking as if he was trying to keep from sobbing, "I'm sorry, I have to stop now Mr. Luthor. I'm... Just... So... Moved. Will you marry me?"
"Shut up! You still crack me up. You and Chloe are the only two people to interview me in eight years I haven't exactly saturated the market."
"Still I did an interview of you for my high school paper, for my college paper, people will talk."
"They already are, hell with em."
"Yeah."
"What I had in mind was NOT another interview. It was bigger then that. In fact, it's bigger then Watergate, bigger then Monica gate, bigger then Vietnam, bigger then World War II, it is in fact the biggest news story ever told and it's all yours if you want it."
Clark studied his face to see if there was any sign of him joking. There was none. "Lex, what are you talking about?"
Lex smiled, "Let's go meet an old friend."
"Oh, you're kidding, you're not going to tell me."
"In due time, in due time."
"You're such a tease."
"Yeah, but you love it."
"OK, fine, we'll do it your way."
Lex walked to the door and opened it, "Susan, me and Clark will be in the sub level, please hold all my calls for the next 2 hours. I have a lot to show him."
They walked to the elevator. Lex inserted his key and his personal elevator opened. "Welcome Mr. Luthor" an automated voice from inside the elevator chimed.
"I think that's a bit much, don't you think, Lex?"
"I like much."
"But a talking elevator? I feel like I'm in a Douglas Adams novel."
"It impresses the ladies."
"You need more then 212 billion to impress the ladies? "
"Every little bit helps." Lex said and inserted his key again into a panel on the elevator "Sub level 4 Lex Luthor."
"Please stand by for retinal scan," the elevator voice replied.
"That must really impress the ladies," Clark deepened his voice, "Hey, Babe, do you wanna step into my elevator for a retinal scan."
"Identify other occupant," the elevator voice asked.
"This babbling idiot is Clark Kent. Authorization for entry Provided by Lex Luthor, authorization code Sierra, Alpha, Alpha, Juliet, eight, two, five, six, three, Echo, ten."
"Authorization granted. Hello Clark, please stand by for a retinal scan," the voice said.
"Uh, OK, Ellie." Clark said, "If she can call me Clark I should be able to call her Ellie."
A red light scanned Clark's eyes and then the elevator started moving. "We should be arriving at sub level four in 4 minutes and thirty seconds, Mr. Luthor"
"I miss the old days of quiet elevators already," Clark said. "So, are you going to give
me any hints while we're going down 145 stories?"
Lex smiled. More then Sports cars more then fine meals, even more then fine women, Lex loved an entranced audience. Anytime he could get people hanging on his every word he was enraptured. That rapture was always at its greatest when it was Clark who was transfixed. "Remember when I asked you if you believed man could fly Clark?"
"Yeah, it's when I first met you."
"And you said in a plane, well, soon man will be able to fly, without a plane. What do you think of man living on other planets? You think that will happen anytime soon?"
"Well Einstein said faster then light travel is impossible."
"There are eight other planets in this solar system, Clark."
"Human's kind of need to breathe, Lex."
"Right now they do, I think that within a decade man will be living on other planets without space suits, they'll have eradicated disease, and hunger, and our life spans will be as much as a thousand years, perhaps longer, perhaps much longer."
"What the hell's going on?"
Lex pressed a button on the elevator. "Earl, please have test subject number one meet us at the Elevator, I'm giving Clark the grand tour and I'd like him to accompany us.
"Clark? How the hell are you Clark?" A familiar voice came from the elevator speaker.
"Earl!" Clark said in disbelief. "What are you doing here?!?"
"I'm working for Luthor Corp. Again, can you believe it? I thought it would be a cold day in hell, but here I am. Only now I'm a projects manager."
"Well congratulations, I hope to see you before I go."
"You will Clark, trust me."
"So, he's not the friend I'm meeting? Who is?"
"You should be finding out right about now..." The elevator stopped and then the doors gradually opened. Clark saw a young man of blonde hair and stunning good looks, he was wearing the uniform of a Captain in the United States Air Force. In the background was a huge complex, with hundreds of computers, digital displays of human and animal anatomy, people in lab coats walking swiftly from place to place. When he saw Clark the blond young man smiled deeply, "Clark!" He said surprised.
"Whitney!" Clark said returning the smile and walked over to the man. The two embraced and back slapped. "So how you doing? What's it been? Eight months? I thought you were in LA?"
"I was, they got me over here now."
"How is Chloe and the kids?"
"Good, good, they miss their Uncle Clark."
"Give them a kiss for me."
"Hey, I'm not carrying any baggage for you Kent. They're in town you're going to have to come and see them tonight."
"Really? Great, I'll do that," Clark said "So what are you doing here?"
Whitney took two steps back and saluted. "You are looking at the commander of the first shuttle to mars and the Commander of the first Martian colony."
"I don't..... understand. I've heard nothing in any media source about a planned trip to mars."
"I know how to keep a secret, Clark," Lex said
"Are you giving him a tour? Let's start with the zoo I luuurve the zoo," Whitney said.
"OK, we'll start with the zoo."
"Something tells me it's all happening at the zoo!" Whitney sang, "I do believe it! I do believe it's true! Wooo ho wooo hoo! Woo oo oo oo."
"I'll give him a tour of the zoo if you promise to never sing in my presence ever again."
"Fine, bald billionaires have no sense of humor."
"But a fine sense of hearing, your singing sucks Whitney."
"Et Tu. Clark?"
"Sorry"
"This way gentlemen." Lex said and started walking them down a corridor. "Remember
when NASA first looked at the meteor rocks Clark?"
"Yes, they thought they were harmless, then you and Dr. Hamilton proved that NASA didn't check for radiation at a high enough frequency, you proved beyond any doubt that the meteor rocks cause genetic mutations. Then Luthor Corp took the meteor rocks out of Smallville."
"No, we proved that they cause SPECIFIC genetic mutations, and they were taken out of Smallville and brought here. We proved that the meteor rocks are attuned with synaptic pathways that they cause genetic mutations based upon the attitude or desires of the person being mutated. Thus a severely overweight girl who desires desperately to be thin loses the weight."
"And she also almost killed two people and herself when the mutation went wrong." In fact, almost ALL the mutations went horribly wrong, Lex."
"Yes, they did, but we found a way around that problem." Lex stopped at a doorway, above the door an official sign stated: ZOO must have level 5 clearance to enter . "Admit access three people, authorization Lex Luthor." There was another retinal scan of the three of them and then the doors opened.
"Wow, wow," Clark said.
"I don't do small," Lex said.
It was literally a jungle in there with animals and vegetation the likes of which Clark had never seen. To his left was a huge leopard. "Uh, Lex," Clark said, "There's a big ass leopard about thirty feet from us."
"That's Snookums," Whitney said. "Come here Snookums, come here boy." The leopard bounded playfully to the three men.
"The Leopard has been mutated to love humans, also it's now a herbivore." Whitney, as if there to prove Lex's point produced out of his pocket a carrot, which the leopard promptly started to nibble on. "That's a good Snookums." Whitney said.
"You call him Snookums?" That is just... So... Wrong," Clark said.
"Blame Whitney, he named him."
"All the animals here are genetically mutated to either love humans or have no interest in humans. Even the carnivores, look over there." Lex said, and pointed to a cow running at what looked to Clark like 40 MPH when it got near its prey its jaw changed shape into something predatory. It grabbed its prey and chomped down. Then its udders extended and it started to chew. If it weren't for the blood dripping from its mouth, it would look for all the world like your typical roadside Guernsey.
"You made a carnivorous cow? Why?"
"If man is going to live on other planets we need to either change the planet, through Tara forming, and geodesic domes, or we need to change man to be able to survive on the planet. If we can change animals in a specific way, we can change man."
"So killer cows and docile leopards?"
"Yes."
"I begged him, I BEGGED him to make a killer bunny, but he wouldn't do it."
"God, save me from Monty Python fans," Lex said rolling his eyes heavenward.
Whitney affected a shrill English accent, "Sharp Claws!" He said and tried to look like a bunny. A vicious bunny. "Sharp, Sharp Claws!"
"Yeah, let's continue on the rest of the tour," Lex said. It was all wonderment after that. Clark saw monkeys flying, lions able to leap like gazelles, dolphins with retractable legs, chickens soaring like Eagles.
"Well, are you impressed?" Lex said and they walked to where there were two more double doors.
"I am," Clark said truly.
"Let me show you the laboratories of Dr. Moreau, or in this case Dr. Hamilton. " Lex said. "Admit access three people, authorization Lex Luthor."
"I'm getting soooo tired of these retinal scans." Clark said.
"You haven't been training here for eight months," Whitney said.
"Don't touch ANYTHING, Lex" a cantankerous black man said before they even got 2 feet in the doorway.
"You know I did pay for all this stuff, I ought to be allowed to touch it," Lex said.
"These are very delicate instruments, and I can't have you mucking everything up."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Lex said. "Don't worry, I won't touch anything, I'm just going to explain to Clark here, how we do what we do." Clark smiled, Dr. Hamilton was still the only one to address Lex like that. Clark felt that he only yelled at Lex because he could, not because he was really afraid Lex would ruin his instruments. All the same, Clark made sure not to touch anything either. "You don't have to apologize for not saying hello to them, they know you're busy," Lex said.
"I wasn't going to," He said and got back to work as if they weren't there.
"Yes, The central problem with the previous Meteor mutations lay not in the meteor rocks but in the brains of the people being mutated. They were not able to give the Meteor rocks specific enough instructions, nor were they able to take into account the effect a biological change on one part of the human anatomy might make on another part. Again in the case of the obese girl, yes she was able to have the meteor rocks mutate her into slenderness, but she was not able to take into account the effect it would have upon her metabolism and the resultant effect it would have on her psyche. She was able to lose weight at miraculous speeds but she had an overwhelming need for more food, particularly body fat. The fault of that was her brain, not properly encoding the meteor rocks, not with the meteor rocks failing to mutate in the proper manner. Even in cases such as the shape shifter, where the mutation did not have any known physical side effects, the brain of the mutated person did not ask the meteor rocks to compensate for the change in physiology with a similar neurological change. The changeling though able to change her body at will, could not psychologically cope with the problems her abilities caused her. So they had these abilities, but they did not possess the psychological maturity to handle them."
"I gotta tell you Lex, you're hot when you're in scientist mode," Whitney said.
"Wait, so you're saying that not only can you change people physically, you can change them psychologically and neurologically too?"
"Yes he can Clark, and thank God for it or I'd still be in jail," Clark heard a familiar deep voice in the background.
"Earl!" Clark said. "How in the world can someone as big as you move so quiet? Are you all better now?" The last time they spoke was seven years ago. Earl was driven to desperation by Luthor's father, Lionel, and was made extremely sick by an accident inside the fertilizer plant Lex used to manage.
"I'm Fine, The only thing I shake now is hands," He said and shook Clark's.
"You feeling OK?"
"Yeah, Lex got me all fixed up."
"Ninety percent of the people you saw working so industriously before were, at one time, death row inmates" Lex said. They were all granted release on the condition that they volunteer for these experiments. They had their learning capacity increased forty percent, their capacity for violence decreased to zero, they also have a more efficient ability to burn glycogen and a more efficient transfer of neurological signals. They are, in short, the most productive work force on the planet."
"I was able to get out after only three months in prison thanks to Lex," Earl said.
"Actually, Earl WASN'T a really good candidate for the program, however, I knew that it was mostly my father's fault that Earl was in prison in the first place so I felt that I had to take responsibility. The only thing we did for Earl was increase his metabolism, he needed no neurological alterations. I was able to pressure the judge and the governor into letting me take him."
"Messing around with peoples heads, sounds kind of scary, Lex."
"I tell you Clark," Earl said, "I thought the same thing. But if you saw these people, they're happy and fulfilled, and they're not zombies, they're just plain folks now. Mr. Luthor gave them a new life, hell, he gave them a life period."
"Thank you Earl. So far we've done, between humans and animals, two thousand separate mutations, without one mistake. We've ALWAYS had the precise mutation we've wanted."
"I don't understand," Clark said, "How'd you do it?"
"By separating the subject from the radiation until the radiation actually enters their body. Dr. Hamilton was actually able to create machines that can, at a primitive level, duplicate human thought just enough for the meteor material to respond to it. We, in effect created a machine that can wish. But instead of "wishing" just to be thin, the computer can take into account the full biology of humans so it can actually ask the meteor material to have the girls metabolism speed up until she reaches a certain percentage body fat and then stop. It can further instruct the meteor material to have the metabolism speed up again as soon as her fat count rises above a certain level thus eliminating the need for her to ever have to diet again. It can wish that the violent pathways in a vicious killers mind be reduced, but it can also wish that there isn't an accompanying lethargy. Although the computer is far less advanced then the human mind, it is far more single minded in its task of giving the meteor material specific instructions, the computer is also wired into the subjects metabolism taking careful readings of all heart, lung and autonomic functions, so if something seems to be going wrong, the computer can fine tune its instructions to the meteor material. So the computer is able to effect changes even as the subject is being mutated."
"Lex, but how do you keep the subject from influencing the meteor material?" Clark asked.
"Good question, there are two ways, first the subject is anesthetized prior to receiving the injection. Secondly the meteor material is incased entirely in lead. We learned that the meteor material cannot pick up on neural activities through lead."
"Truly amazing."
"You haven't seen anything yet, tomorrow will be our masterpiece. Tomorrow we'll create a man able to go for days without oxygen, a man able to survive in low gravity for years without his muscles atrophying. A man who can be comfortable in -200 degree temperatures and in +200 degrees. A man ideally suited to work on mars to help build the first Martian colony."
"You're going to do this Whitney?" Clark said.
"I told you, I don't want to be a 'remember him?'"
"But still, Chloe, the kids,"
"I signed up to the air force, she knew their was a chance I'd be away for a long time, this will only be two years. So far Lex has been able to mutate every test subject back to its original state without any difficulty. Think about it Clark, when I step out of that spacecraft without a suit, I'll be a part of history. I'll have taken the first step in conquering the final frontier. You know me Clark, how could I resist something like that?"
"Besides, Whitney is a perfect candidate in a lot of ways," Lex said. "He's grown up around the meteor rocks and has no physical abnormalities, he's been mutated twice already with no genetic defects. He's a trained pilot who graduated first in his ROTC class. He's passed all physicals and psychological profiles without any problem. We couldn't make up a more ideal candidate."
"Gee, thanks."
"So when, are you going to do this?"
"Tomorrow."
Tomorrow?!? Jeez, no wonder you've been jumpy today. Are you nervous?"
Whitney breathed in deeply, "Nervous, no, every things been tested and retested. I'm anxious more then anything else. Lex has done this over two thousand times already. He's got it down. And I can't wait to command my first outer space assignment."
"You want me to be there for this?"
"I was counting on it Clark."
Lex's cellular phone rang. "Oh, are two hours are up, I hope you don't mind Clark, but this ends our tour."
"No problem, Lex."
"You coming with me to meet Chloe and the kids Clark?"
"Sure."
"I'll have a limousine take you two to Whitney's hotel."
"Thanks Lex," Whitney and Clark said in unison.
Whitney was able to lead Clark up to the first floor of Luthor towers and to the ground level Where a limousine was waiting for them.
"Lex wasn't exaggerating," Clark said after they got in the limousine. "This is one hell of an amazing story."
"After tomorrow, you won't be the only superman on this planet, Clark," Whitney said.
"I was thinking the same thing, you'll finally have a taste of what it's like to be me."
"Well, Lex isn't going to give me x-ray vision or heat vision and my reflexes and strength will only be slightly enhanced, he's also giving me an ability to change my own metabolism at will, in case there's something about the mars atmosphere that we don't know about. It won't be quite as dramatic as your power, but yeah, I'll have an idea of what it's like at least" Whitney paused and then asked, "Do you ever regret me finding out Clark?"
"The only way I could of NOT revealed my secret is by letting you die, Whitney."
"I'm not asking if you regret saving me, Clark, I'm asking if you regret me knowing."
Clark thought for a moment, after the initial fear that Whitney might get angry at him and reveal his secret out of spite, Clark began to rely on Whitney. There were some things that Clark couldn't talk about with his parents, private matters that can only be discussed with people your own age. Having Whitney there as a friend he could speak to completely honestly was a godsend. Also, when they were roommates in college, Whitney provided him with valid sounding excuses for when he'd have to leave quickly, Whitney became good at explaining the unusual events that occur around a person with abilities such as Clark's. "No, I don't regret your knowing. Do you ever regret finding out?"
Whitney smiled. "I tell you Clark, finding out the truth about you was one of the best things that ever happened to me. You could of let me die that day, but you didn't. You decided to trust me with a secret that, if revealed, would shatter your entire existence. Plus, I don't know, it seemed like helping you, working with you, was somehow like working towards a greater cause or a greater purpose. It's one of the reasons I joined the air force. I liked that feeling of it not always being about me, me, me. Also, I hate to say it, but, before I learned your secret, I pretty much hated your ass."
"I think you hated just about every part of me, Whitney."
Whitney laughed, "OK, but I especially hated your ass, it's just so.... perfect. Made me all jealous. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that when you shared your secret with me, your secret became OUR secret, I felt we formed a bond. If we weren't connected with that, I don't think we would of ever of formed a connection. If I never found out your secret, Clark, I'd be absent one of my greatest friends."
"Yes but the difficulties I made for you in college, the times you had to cover for me, the danger I sometimes put you in."
"Part of a greater cause, man, I did those things because I wanted to Clark. Before I found out your secret I was in my own world. After that I found out there was more then me in the world, hell there was a whole universe out there. That's one of the reasons I think you ought to tell Lex."
"We've had conversations similar to this before. Why are we having another one?"
"Because you haven't listened to me yet."
"Look, I haven't told Pete, or Chloe, or Lana or anyone else why haven't you bugged me about them?"
"Because they HAVE someone else. Pete has Lana and his parents, Lana has Pete and Aunt Nell, Chloe has me and her family. Lex doesn't have anyone else, his father doesn't qualify as family, his mother died when he was twelve he has no one else. He only has you."
"Yeah, me and 212 billion, I feel sorry for him."
"He's ALWAYS been rich, now he's just obscenely rich, so what? Would you trade his money if it meant growing up in that house, with THAT bastard for a father?"
"No."
"I know a little bit of what it's like to have everyone THINK you have to be happy Clark. I never had Lex's wealth but I was the star athlete for the school, who dated the head cheerleader. I was a walking talking cliché on legs. People like me are never supposed to be lonely or sad, or have any problems whatsoever and if you did have a problem no one wants to hear of it. Take Lex's situation and multiply it by 100, hell multiply it by 212 billion."
"It's not my fault he's alone."
"It's not entirely his fault either. If a girl expresses interest in him he can't be sure whether they're more interested in his bank account, all his male acquaintance are usually going to be back slappers or ass kissers. You're his family Clark, his only family, the only person in all the world he cares for more then himself, it's just not right your keeping it from him."
"I just don't feel like it's safe to tell him."
"You told me, we've been friends for four years, I haven't outed you to anyone, not even to Chloe."
"You and him are different."
"Yeah, he's never hated you."
"He's also never let me be either. Yes you're right he's been there for me, he's been there for me TOO much. Showing up at my high school, trying to fix me up with Lana, arriving at my parties with fireworks, bringing rock stars to my graduation party, even involving himself in my fathers farm for goodness sakes! Involving himself in every facet of my life from my finances to dating, you KNOW it's not normal".
"It's because he loves you, he only wants to help."
"Yes, that's true but he ALWAYS wants to help, whether I want the help or not. His two biggest interests in life are his company and focusing on me and to be honest, I'm not sure which comes first in his mind. The differences between you and him are that you're there when I need you or want you, he's there all the time whether I think I need him or not. He checks out my parents finances without me asking, he checks out my grades, my social life my job status and yes, he does it with the intention of helping and I'm grateful he's a friend but you can't tell me it's one hundred percent normal."
Whitney hesitated, "Yes, it's strange, but he'd never betray you."
"No, he wouldn't do that, in fact he'd want to help. He'd want to run tests to see the extent of my abilities, he'd want to find out if my abilities were causing me psychological stress, I'd be more of a project for him then I already am."
"Maybe he could help, he's got more resources then anyone else in the world."
"Yeah, but what happens the day I say no? You know how Lex is when he doesn't get his way."
"OK, fine."
"Maybe in a couple of years, if he gets a wife and kids, when he has something else to occupy his big brain besides me."
They rode in silence the rest of the way. Finally they arrived at the hotel.
"The Waldorf! I'm impressed," Clark said.
"Well, you know Lex"
"Yeah."
Whitney was staying in the penthouse, after opening the door Whitney said, "Chloe! I have a surprise for you."
Chloe walked into the main room holding one of her children."
"Clark!" Chloe said and came forward to give him a half hug. "How've you been?"
"Good," Clark said. "This little girl is getting so big, where's Jack?"
"He's sleeping in the other room," Chloe said. "Hi Sarah! How are you?" Clark said in the over animated voice adults use to talk to 2 year olds. Sarah, grabbed onto Chloe tighter without saying a word to Clark.
Chloe laughed, "Still the lady killer Clark. So tell me what have you been doing?"
"Well, I got an internship at the planet!"
"Oh you didn't! I can't believe Clark Kent is going to be a reporter before me!"
"You'll get there Chloe," once these little guys are in school. "Having twins was a smart thing, got it over with at once."
"Well, I'm ever the efficient one, even in my breeding practices."
They shared dinner together, and talked into the evening, none of them wanting to mention what was most on their minds. Finally Clark brought it up. "So how do you feel about tomorrow Chloe?"
"Oh, I feel he's out of his mind, but he REALLY wants to do this and I can't deny him his dream. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't terrified."
"Honey, don't be, you KNOW Dr. Hamilton, he's probably went over the mutation sequence three thousand times and he'll probably do it one thousand more times before I go through the treatment.
"I don't know, I keep thinking about all those good scientists at the EPA and NASA assuring us that the meteor rocks are one hundred percent safe. Scientists make mistakes, Whitney."
If exploration stopped because family members were worried, there'd never of been a moon landing. Relax Chloe, it will be fine," Whitney said.
"Well, I should go, it's getting late and you need your sleep Whitney, meet you at the labs at nine am tomorrow?
"You sure you don't want to stay here, Clark? Couch is comfortable." Chloe said.
"No thank you, I feel like taking a little jog and there's clothes at home."
Clark left the building and was feeling edgy. He decided to do his "Forest Gump" run to let off steam. He ran to one end of the continent and then to the other end twice. When he finally got into his dorm room an hour and a half later, he was still on edge.
His anxiety did not decrease the next morning when he met Whitney, Chloe and Lex at the labs the next day. Whitney smiled, "Clark, I'm so glad you're here."
"I wouldn't miss this Whitney, I'm glad you don't look as nervous as I feel."
"You two need to start on yoga or something, this will be over in just an hour or so. It will go without a hitch, you'll see."
With that they took Whitney away for processing and routine blood work. Clark, Chloe and Lex tried to make light small talk but were unsuccessful. Finally they were brought into a room to observe the procedure. There was a large glass partition and through it they could observe what looked like a dentist chair. Clark had an uneasy feeling, like they were observing an execution.
"Can't I be with him," Chloe asked.
"I'm sorry Chloe," Lex said, "We don't want the meteor material to pick up any neural impulses but the ones that we program into it. Even the technicians and Doctors looking over Whitney are wearing specially designed lead-lined garments. It's for Whitney's protection that you're separated."
Whitney came out wearing hospital clothes. "Hey, Chloe, hey Clark." Whitney said through the glass.
"Hey Whitney," they murmured.
"Will you two relax," Whitney said smiling, "It's going to be fine." And, as if to prove his utter confidence Whitney practically bounded into the chair. "You'll be in my loving arms in an hour, tops Chloe"
"OK," Chloe said with a fake smile.
"We're going to administer the sedative now," Clark heard the technician say.
"I love you," Whitney said to Chloe before he went under. These were the last three words that Whitney would ever say.
"I love you," Chloe said back as Whitney drifted off to sleep.
"And now it's time for the mutation," the technician said and produced a lead lined IV. The technician injected the IV into Whitney's arm.
Clark heard stories from people who were in car accidents telling how time seemed to expand. How a few seconds seem to become hours. Clark felt that this disaster was the opposite of that, he could not believe how quickly everything happened. The technician finished the injection, Whitney's eyes flew open. He screamed, looked at his hands which seemed to be decomposing, his screamed turned into a shriek which turned into a gurgle as the decomposition went to his head and neck. Soon Whitney was a large piece of what looked like protoplasm on the floor.
Chloe turned to Lex confused, "Wha, what happened, What's happening?"
"I don't know," Lex said.
"Don't tell me you don't know, I don't want to hear that what the hell happened to my husband you bastard." she said and started beating at Lex.
"I don't know Chloe."
One of the technicians made the mistake of bending over what used to be Whitney and a
piece of the protoplasm snaked around the mans neck breaking it almost instantly. The protoplasm hurled the man into the window causing the reinforced glass to actually crack. What was left of the man stayed there comically for a moment and then slid down. Clark watched the technician fall and when he looked up there were two other dead technicians in the room.
Chloe was still in hysterics beating at Lex. "Chloe, Chloe," Lex was saying, "This is no good, we need to get you to a safe place, we'll get to the bottom of this we'll get him back to normal." Two of Lex's assistants came and physically carried Chloe off as she continued to scream "You bastard."
"Security, down to the mutation room immediately, security risk level ten." Lex said into an intercom.
Steven Hamilton spoke up, "Lex, I, I can't bring THAT back, hell, I don't even know if he's got DNA anymore."
"I know that you idiot but I wasn't going to tell Chloe that."
The security team entered the room almost immediately and started firing at the Whitney creature. The bullets ricocheted off the creature, one of them going through the eye and into the brain of one of the guards firing at it, and then the creature lashed out at one of the security guards making part of its body solid and sharp and driving part of itself through the mans leg. The man screamed, and then shouted "let's get out of here,". The rest of the detail didn't need to be told twice and they retreated. Two of the men upon leaving threw in hand grenades into the room and sealed the door. Clark closed his eyes when he saw the explosion. When he opened them the room was torn apart but the creature was intact. Clark had seen enough and quickly left the room counting on everyone being too transfixed with what was happening in the other room to notice his speed.
Lex didn't see Clark leave but knew when he turned around that Clark would be gone. He smiled at the predictability of it all. He turned to Dr. Hamilton. "Come with me Steve, we're going to have to direct things from operations base and also evacuate the building. I'll blow up the whole place before I let THAT out in public."
"Yes, of course," Dr. Hamilton said and made the fatal mistake of going with Lex.
Lex walked with Dr. Hamilton into the main security room and sealed the door shut.
Clark ran to where the creature used to be but of course there was nothing there, he scanned the area with his x ray vision and saw the creature moving quickly in the zoo area. Getting close to the main labs, getting close to the "safe area" where Chloe and the others were being guarded. As fast as the creature was going, it was no match for Clark's speed and Clark was there in two seconds.
"Whitney," Clark said, "If you're in there at all you need to stop this and get back to the lab where Dr. Hamilton can look at you."
The creature answered by extending a tentacle outwards swiping at Clark. Clark leapt over it and the tentacle knocked over a tree with its swipe. Clark hit the tentacle with a blast of heat vision severing the thing. He then ran head on into the creature and hit it hard, the creature reeled and sent another tentacle after Clark who again leapt into the air, but this time he did not come down. Clark did not have the time to be stunned at this as the creature sent another tentacle out at Clark. By simply willing it Clark went higher still and then to the left when the creature made a third pass. Clark then willed himself downward at top speed and he was stunned at the velocity he reached. He was used to being able to run across the country in an hours time, but he knew that the speed he was going now dwarfed that. He and the creature were inside a 6 foot deep crater he accidentally dug with his dive. The creature was still going at him a tentacle had wrapped around his neck and Clark was grasping at it. Clark heard a roar from above and a leopard leaped onto the creature. Clark remembered, Whitney had given it the idiot name Snookums, he said it had been programed to not eat meat and to love humans. The leopard thought it was saving Clark. The Whitney creature lashed out and split the leopard in half with one of its tentacles. Clark hit the tentacle holding him and hit the creature again with his heat vision. He hit at it again with all his strength this time and again and again, not giving it time to adapt or change or adjust to the heat or reform. He could tell by the creatures flailing that he was having an effect. Soon the creature almost stopped moving. Clark stopped.
"Clark," he heard a voice that sounded like Whitney's say, "End this please." Only he wasn't hearing the voice.
"You gotta hand it to the meteor material, it did the job perfectly, I can adapt to any atmosphere, no need to breathe, no messy skeleton to adapt to hard gravity, able to communicate through telepathy thereby ending all language barriers, only problem is the violence, I don't know where that came from."
"Whitney, I can't."
"Clark, you CAN you're the only one in the entire world that can, I can't control myself much longer and I can't stand the pain." Then what was left of Whitney let all the barriers down, Clark felt pain and anguish greater then any he could fathom losing his children losing Chloe being in this form, feeling this agony forever, forever, forever. Clark lashed out at it to end the pain and hit and hit and hit until the agony ended. There was a moment of peace before the creature completely slipped away and a final thought directed at Clark "Thank you for being my friend," and then it was gone.
With the passing of the creature Clark once again had control over himself. "Oh God, oh God, Oh Whitney, Oh God, oh no" he chanted.
He heard a voice from above, "Yes it is quite sad about the quarterback isn't it? Sad about the leopard too, I was growing attached to both of them." Clark looked up and saw Lex standing there. He quickly climbed out of the hole. "I knew you'd stop it I had no doubt in my mind. That line about needing to notify everyone else and blowing up the building if necessary was clever of me though, wasn't it? Got everyone out of the way and left you free to do whatever it is that you do. You rescued us from the mutated quarterback. I doubt if you'll get the girl though, I'll tell Chloe a story but I think she'll suspect the truth. You know her instincts. Sure you'll be friends and all, and you'll be polite, but you'll never be close again. I'm sorry about that, the quarterback became a good friend of yours"
"His name was Whitney," Clark said wiping moisture away from his face, not realizing that the moisture was tears.
"I'm so glad you remember his name, he wanted so to be remembered. Remember him Clark? He was within inches of being the most famous person on the planet. Of being the one to herald in a new age of science and exploration. Do you remember him, Clark? He was going to be more famous then Neil Armstrong and Chris Columbus combined. Do you remember Clark? It's a little hard because instead of reaching greatness he died an obscure insignificant little Air force Captain." Lex laughed, "What a treatment Shakespeare could of given our quarterback from Kansas: a man with big dreams big aspirations a life filled with sound and fury but in the end signifying nothing. Howl! Howl! Have you hearts of stones?" Lex said and laughed again.
"I don't think he signified nothing, neither does Chloe, neither does his children."
"They're nothing too, nothing and nothing and nothing make nothing Clark, don't feel bad for the quarter... Whitney, Clark. They are here for us. WE are the ones destined for greatness, the quarterback was only useful to the point where he could help you get there. His use is done."
"What do you want from me, Lex" Clark said, wiping his face again.
"The truth might be nice, let me see if I can guess it, the creature was greatly weakened by the security guards and so therefore you were able to beat it all by yourself. You also took a hand grenade with you and that's what dug this hole here. You know a day ago I would of believed a bullshit story like that, cause I would of wanted to believe it. You'd flash me one of those grins of yours and I'd have to smile back, how could I not? And I'd fall in love with you just a little bit more. Again, how could I not? And I would rather turn off my mind then believe that you were lying to me Clark, but people are dead now, Whitney is dead now and I just can't take anymore bullshit Clark."
"I don't know what you want me to say, Lex."
Lex reached up and caressed Clark's face. "Nothing, nothing, I don't want you to say a word," and with that he hugged Clark for the last time. Clark stood there stiff for a moment as if Lex were about to punch him. Lex continued to hug him and Clark could tell from his breathing that Lex was sobbing, Clark hugged back. Lex continued to sob and bury his face in Clark's chest for a while. Then he turned his face and gave Clark a long kiss on the cheek With that he finally broke the embrace and still holding onto Clark's arms he took a step back. He quickly took a forearm and wiped away his tears. He smiled, "I want you to leave here now, and never come back" he said. With that he walked to a nearby laboratory.
Clark stood there stunned for a moment and then followed. He couldn't lose two friends in one day, he simply couldn't bear that. He walked into the laboratory, Lex had his back turned to him. "Lex, what do you want?"
Lex turned, "YOU WERE THE VARIABLE, CLARK!" He shouted.
There was a bin near Lex he punched at it and sent the lid flying. A familiar wave of nausea and sickness washed over Clark. "We took all the meteor material in Smallville away and brought it here, for us to experiment on." Lex said. "It's easiest to study in powder form." Lex said and picked up a mini-shovel full of the stuff. Clark was already practically disabled. "What's the matter Clark? You're just like me aren't you? You're just like anyone else, aren't you? the meteor material doesn't bother me." He said and to prove his point he took some of the powder and threw it in his own face. "Let's see if it bothers you," he said and threw the rest of the shovelful into Clark's face.
"Oh god," Clark cried out and fell to the floor.
"It seems to bother you quite a bit, your beautiful skin is all mottled," he said. "When galaxies are formed they're initially just one big mass of gas. Most of the gasses form the sun, but some of them form the planets. It's a theory that the gasses that decide to form together do so because they have a similar signature, a code if you will, that attracts one piece of matter to another. In order for the meteor rocks to have this kind of an effect on you, you and it would pretty much have to be from the same place. Isn't that the truth Clark? Isn't that the truth?" Lex said and kicked Clark in the chest.
Clark gasped in pain, "Yes it's the truth."
"What else?" he said and kicked him again this time in the face.
"I, I came here in the meteor shower the same one that took your hair, and killed Lana's parents."
"Very good," Lex said and this time bent over close and punched Clark full in the face. "What else?"
"I have abilities, strength, I don't know how strong I am... I can run, much faster then sound, I can melt things with my eyes and see through things and, and I think I can fly.... please, please stop hurting me, Lex."
"You wanna talk about pain? Dr. Hamilton died for your secret Clark! A good man died for YOUR secret! YOU WERE THE VARIABLE! Two thousand different mutations all of them with the exact result we wanted, THIS was the only time it went wrong. The only difference was YOU! YOU WERE THE VARIABLE! Don't you understand?
"Lex," Clark gasped, "The meteor material was in lead the whole time, meteor rays can't go through lead."
"You fucking farm boy idiot," Lex said banging Clark's head against the floor. "What are you two years old? Do you think that if you shut your eyes and can't see that no one can see you? Didn't you pass tenth grade science? There are different types of electromagnetic waves you moron." He said and punched Clark again. "Sunlight goes through glass, no problem, ultraviolet light can't. Fm Radio waves can go through steel and through bridges, am radio waves can't. The meteor rocks emit several types of radiation, one type makes you sick and another type detects your presence. So yes, it couldn't have an adverse effect on you, but you sure as hell had an adverse effect on it wouldn't you say? Damn it, Damn it, Damn it Clark! Why didn't you tell me?!? I could of told you ALL of this years ago if you had just told me. We could of found out EXACTLY how the meteor rocks affect you and how you effect it, if you'd of just trusted me." He said punching him repeatedly.
Clark was sure, quite sure, this man that was his best friend was going to kill him, "You- you kept secrets from me, business deals, your past...."
"I didn't keep ME secret though!" He shouted. "You had my heart my soul, you had a full pass to all my feelings everything that made me, me. You knew WHAT I was. My past, my business dealings THAT'S NOT ME! That's what I do! You had full access to me!" He said and struck him again. "I would of given you everything! None of that is important to me! But you, Clark, you... I loved you," he said and struck him again.
"Lex, Lex, please God, Lex, you're killing me,"
"Dr. Hamilton had to die for you, you and your secret.
"Did you, did you kill him?" Clark managed to say. Merely speaking was incredibly difficult now, were it not for the new pain Lex was constantly inflicting on him, Clark would of passed out a while ago.
"I didn't say that," Lex said and grabbed Clark by the throat and squeezed. "I said he had to die to protect your secret. You see, he would of figured it out eventually, and if you knew Steven Hamilton then you KNOW that he valued his reputation as a scientist above all. There was no amount of money I could offer him to keep him quiet," Lex said and squeezed harder, "No threat that I could make. He would tell the world and there is one thing that you made clear a long time ago, is that your secret is the most important thing. Certainly more important then me," Lex said and squeezed harder still. Clark beat ineffectually at his arms and Lex laughed at having the most powerful being in the world helpless under him. "So that's what I gave you, I gave you your choice you choose your secret over me and I gave it to you. Your secret which ended the lives of five good people today, your secret which destroyed a five billion dollar project that could of heralded a new age for man. Your secret, I give it to you as a last present from me to you. I hope you rot with it."
Clark, accepted his death, he accepted it and quit struggling. He looked at Lex's face and saw the hatred there and shut his eyes. "Oh, let it come," he thought. Almost as if Lex was granting Clark's wish, Lex squeezed at his trachea a slight bit harder. One ounce more of pressure and he would of broken it. Instead, Lex let go. Clark breathed in hard.
"You saved my life, and I spared yours," Lex said. "We're even now, you print this story, I'll have to tell MY side of it. Your secret will come out. If you don't print this story, I'll take your precious secret to my grave. You made a choice between our friendship and your secret, you chose your secret. That's all that we have between us now. Lex pressed a few switches on the console and a sprinkler turned on. "The meteor material should wash off you in a few minutes," Lex said. "After that, I'm sure you'll be completely recovered. The guards will show you out. Your secrets safe with me, but you're not. Don't ever come back here again." With that Lex left and shut the door.
Clark, lay there panting and watching the green water swirl down a nearby drain.