Disclaimer: These characters are on loan from the Smallville television
series with out permission and are not my property. They belong to the
Warner Brothers Empire, which include the WB network, and DC Comics. No
harm or malice is intended.
I would like to thank Christin Haney and Macayla Jo Adams for their hard work and dedication to making my work look good. I thank them along with Holly (Sasa), Ruth Despirito and Karen Poitras for all their support and inspiration.
Thank you for taking the time to read and please enjoy. Comments are always welcomed.
Description: An evil Lex Luthor from an alternate reality comes to Smallville looking for Clark, and his world is turned up side down by the results.
1 Smallville: Something Wicked This Way Comes: Chapter One
A sequel to: 'The Morning After'. Clark made a secret wish and woke up in a world where he had never landed on Earth and the meteor shows never hit Smallville and the history of the small town, like the landscape had been changed forever.
The Kents never had a son. They lost the farm only to buy the town's hardware store where they then lived. Martha Kent became a midwife. Chloe Sullivan remained alone with no friends. Pete Ross, who was placed as the scarecrow on the night of the big game, died from exposure to the weather. Lana Lang became estranged from her troubled parents and married her high school sweetheart, Whitney Fordman, who went to jail for the accidental murder of Pete Ross. She worked at the town diner while she awaited the birth of her baby. Lex Luthor never lost his hair and never became humbled by the events. He became Smallville's only benefactor, but was also evil to the core. Up to the point of holding his own father as a crippled prisoner in his large castle on the edge of town.
After a confrontation with the young stranger named Clark Kent, Lex discovered that the boy had secrets to hide, and Lex wanted them. Clark was barely able to escape with his life and woke up safe and warm in his own bed. He determined that the entire event had been just a bad dream and went on with life, but he was wrong. Unknown to Smallville, a great evil was awakened that Christmas morning, and it was making its way to Lowell County, Kansas.
Part One: Chapter One
The room was large and completely dark. No lights had shown here for over three months, and barely anyone even knew it ever existed. Yet in the early hours of a late March morning, a small orb of blue light began to flicker in the very center of the large warehouse. A slight sound of burning electrical currants began growing along with the blue ball that floated a few feet off the ground. It took only minutes before the sphere object grew to enormous size touching the floor beneath it and reaching a height of over fifteen feet.
The object seemed to settle, and stopped expanding. The bright blue light from the orb lighted the entire enclosed structure. Then, shadowed objects began to move from within the sphere. The shadows became larger and bounced around, as they seemed to come closer to the edge. It was a few second later when one by one, two figures emerged from the bright light and stepped out into the empty room. One of those figures seemed to be smiling.
Lex Luthor laid in a deep slumber, alone on his large bed in his mansion just on the outskirts of Smallville, when the phone next to his bed began to wring. The noise startled the young bald man as he sat up quickly. The phone lines to his room were always silenced during the night, and only his private line remained functional. Very few people knew the secret number, and it was always alarming for him to hear it's sound. Even more so at "Three thirty," In the morning, he looked over at his clock radio and read.
"This had better be important," he said harshly into the receiver.
"Mister Luthor," The familiar voice of his plant supervisor Gab Sullivan said. "We have a problem down here at the plant."
"Isn't that why I pay you the big money to handle it?" Lex rubbed his eyes with frustration.
"This is different," Gab returned. "There seems to be some type of structural failure with one of the walls on the second level."
"What kind of structural failure?" The subject had gotten the younger man's attention.
"A six foot hole seems to have appeared out of nowhere," he told him.
"A hole?" Lex repeated. "Well, where is it? What's on the other side?"
Gab's voice was silent for a second, and then he said the words that sent a shiver up Lex's spine: "Level three."
Lex sat in shock for a moment. Level Three had been a secret testing area that even he was not aware of until a few months earlier when he learned of his father's secrets. They had managed to seal it off and keep it hidden from the populace of Smallville.
"Clear that area of the building, and don't do anything else until I get there," Lex ordered as he tossed off his blankets and jumped out of bed. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
Hanging up the phone, he tossed it onto the bed and rushed to the bathroom.
The sun had been up for over an hour when Chloe Sullivan, Pete Ross, and Clark Kent made their way to the Luthor Corp Manure Process Plant #3 just outside of town. They made their way up to the office area of the front building. Being Gab Sullivan's daughter gave Chloe easy access to her father's side of the building. Clark, being Lex's friend, gave him admittance into the rest of the offices.
"Hi Sally," Chloe greeted her father's secretary with a smile. "Is my Dad in his office?"
"Hi, Chloe," The young blond woman smiled back. "No, I'm afraid not. He's been in with Mr. Luthor all morning. I don't know when he'll be back."
"That's strange," Chloe gave her inquisitiveness look. "My father gets called into work in the middle of the night, and now he's in a over time meeting with the head cheese himself. Something big is going on here..."
"Come on, Chloe," Clark remarked. "It's a fertilizer plant. What could possibly be so big and important?" He could see her reporter instincts churning behind her eyes.
"Yeah, besides," Pete added in. "We are supposed to be on a school break this week. Not taking another field trip to a manure plant."
"Play it down all you want," Chloe argued. "But like I said on the phone earlier, I am sure something big is happening here."
"Remind me to never to become a reporter," Clark told her. "I don't think I could live on paranoid mode all the time."
"Don't dismiss it as paranoid, Clark," She warned. "I know my father well enough to know that he was freaked when he was called in here last night. Like you said, it's a manure plant, what could possibly get him so worked up that easily?"
"Maybe a pipe busted or something," Pete told her. "He probably just didn't want his work to hit the fan, so to speak." The two guys snickered at his lame joke.
"Guys," she shook her hands with frustration. "This could be serious. We need to find my Dad."
Clark gave Pete his defeated look and they slowly made their way back up the hall behind her.
It was then they heard screaming coming from the direction of Lex's office. The voice belonged to the CEO himself, Lex Luthor. "Don't mess with me Carl!" He screamed. "We have a team working on it already, and I will take care of the problem myself."
A few hushed sounds came after.
The door swung open and six men and woman wearing smart business suite, including Chloe's father Gab, came rushing out with Lex behind them. "Now go and keep this thing quite and make sure my father doesn't find out about it. If he does, you'll all be sharing a space in the unemployment line."
The suites all scattered up the hall in all directions and each disappeared into a different office. It was then that Lex Spotted Clark and his friends at the opposite end. He made no effort to acknowledge his friend and simply stepped back into his office closing the door.
"Well, that was friendly," Chloe, remarked with sarcasm.
Clark felt he needed to be concern for Lex and began to walk towards his office. "I think you're right about this being big," He said. "I need to check on Lex."
"Wow," Chloe commented. "That didn't take long."
"What do you mean?" Pete asked.
"If we're not getting blown off for Lana, its Lex," she told him.
"Yeah, kinda makes you feel special, don't it?" Pete agreed.
At the end of the hall, Clark knocked softly on Lex's office door.
"Not now, Tammy," he said. "I don't need anymore interruptions."
Clark opened the door slowly and stuck his head inside. "It's not Tammy, Lex," he cautiously spoke. "It's me, Clark."
Lex looked up from his cluttered desk where papers and blue prints of all sorts were spread out. A look of bewilderment came across his face. "Clark? Did we have a meeting set for today?"
"No," Clark came in and closed the door. "Pete and I came with Chloe to check up on her Dad, and we witnessed the purging of your office a minute ago. Is everything alright?"
Lex could only look at him with a 'deer in the head lights' look. He attempted to smile, but could not bring his mouth to move.
"What is it, Lex?"
The debate raged in Lex's head. Should he tell his young friend what was going on, or should he keep him out of the loop, like he hoped to do with the rest of Smallville.
"Maybe I can help, Lex," Clark forced a smile. "I have been told I have a soothing personality."
"It's level three," Lex finally said. The words slipped out before even he realized. He noticed how just mentioning it to his friend seemed to ease the burden slightly for him and he added. "There has been a development in level three."
Clark was shocked by his friend's words. He remembered how months before he and his classmates had been held captured by a mad man from Clark's past who was looking for the then believed imagined level three. The man had been contaminated by meteor fragments in a failed experiment conducted by Lionel Luthor six months earlier and was looking for a cure. The discovery of the secret facility had almost proven deadly for all three of them.
"What--what type of development?" Clark's stammered voice asked.
Lex looked away. He suddenly felt this might be wrong.
"Come on Lex," Clark insisted. "Is anyone else in danger?"
"I don't know," Lex answered. "I wish to God I knew for sure."
"Well what is it?" Clark asked again with alarm in his voice. "What is going on down in Level Three?"
Lex studied his friend for a moment. "I can't explain it, Clark." There was a battle raging behind his eyes before he decided. "All I can do is show you."
Clark was surprised at his candor. Even though they had been friends for months, Lex was never open with him right at the point of origin. It was weeks after he had hit Clark on the bridge where they first met that Lex told him that he still had that same car and was trying to determine how Clark survived the crash. So he knew what ever was going on under their feet was bothering Lex to no end.
Lex walked around the desk and the two went out into the hall. They could see that Chloe and Pete were deep in conversation with her father. Gab was not being as open with his daughter as Lex was being with Clark.
They stopped and watch for a few seconds.
"Chloe and Pete came with me," Clark said from behind Lex. "She was worried about her father."
Lexes looked over his shoulder at Clark with no expression on his face, and then back up the hall.
He cleared his throat and then announced. "I am taking Clark down to level three. You are welcomed to join us."
This statement surprised them all. Chloe and Pete still were not aware that there even was a level three. They had been told that Earl, the mad man from before, had mistaken a warehouse as a secret level three.
Clark stared at Lex. What ever was happening, it was throwing his friend for a loop. He and Lex had let down their guard with each other in times past, but Lex had never let anyone else into his inner circle: Much less, the high school's best newspaper reporter. 'This is big', was putting it mildly.
Chloe and Pete first looked at each other and did not say a word. They silently followed Lex and Clark down another hall
It was about ten minutes before they reached the secret entrance to the level three's elevator. Clark knew what was hidden behind the broom closet wall. He and Lex had almost lost their lives down here before. A large gapping hole stood in place of the where the new cinder block wall was placed.
"Oh, my God," Chloe gasped.
Lex stopped and examined the opening. "This is just the beginning of the mystery," he said. "If you look closely at the edges and some of the debris, you'll notice what looks like claw or knuckle prints in the wall."
"Knuckle prints?" Pete repeated. "What do you mean?"
"It appears that someone punched their way out of Level Three with their bare hands," Lex told them.
"That's crazy, Lex," Clark commented. "No one can punch through a brick wall," he said. No one, that is but him, of course.
"Like I said," Lex continued. "This is only the beginning." They made their way over the rubble to the previously hidden elevator and pushed the button.
"How long has this place been here?" Pete asked as they rode the elevator down.
"You'll have to ask my father that question," Lex replied. "Clark and I didn't find out until Earl took us down here a few months ago."
Chloe looked up at a silent Clark. "You knew?" She whispered.
"Clark is a good friend, Chloe," Lex said. "He knows how to keep a friend's secret."
Chloe let the matter go, but still gave Clark a suspicious look.
He in turn tried to concentrate on Lex's state of mind at that moment.
The elevator doors opened and revealed a large warehouse sized room that was emptied with the exception of a ladder that led down to the floor some thirty feet bellow and a large glowing sea blue object in the center of the room. People in lab coats with computers and other testing equipment surrounded it.
After the climb down, they made their way slowly over to the object.
"Oh, my God," Chloe gasped. "This is incredible."
"What is it?" Pete asked with the same mesmerized look on his face.
"We don't know," Lex said, joining the line next to them.
Clark stepped forward and reached his hand out to it.
"Clark," Lex grabbed it and pulled it back. "Are you crazy? We have no idea what is it. We don't even know what contact will do to the human body."
"Sorry," Clark pulled his hand away with a hurt expression.
"Any idea what it is made of?" Chloe asked.
"Energy of some kind," A voice said from behind them.
They turned to see a middle aged man standing there with a lab coat and a tiny computer object in his hand.
"This is Doctor Ruller," Lex told them. "He is the lead researcher on this project."
"I don't understand," Clark put in. "If you don't know what this is, then where did it come from?"
"It appeared during the night," Doctor Ruller explained. "From all I know about the world of electrical research and energy pulses, this is like nothing else I have ever seen. It would almost come across as being 'other worldly'."
"Are you talking like science fiction?" Pete asked.
"Is that all so hard to believe here in Smallville?" Chloe asked. "Things go on here that would put the sci-fi channel to shame."
"Well," Clark turned back to it. "Are you sure it's not a left over from one of your father's experiments?" He asked Lex.
"My father is interested in raping the world of all its resources. Not creating big blue energy balls," Lex told him. "I don't think this is something anyone at Luthor Corp could dream up."
"Do they have any clues as to what it might be?" Chloe asked.
Lex turned his head to Dr. Ruller who stood next to him. "Do we?"
"Only this," He took a pen from his pocket and tossed it into the blue orb of energy, which made a low crackling noise and swallowed it.
They all looked around to see where the pen had landed, but found it was no longer in the room.
"Where did it go?" Pete asked.
"That is the question," Ruller said. "It appears that if nothing else, this object could be some kind of transporter."
"Transporter?" Lex repeated.
"You mean like a worm hole?" Pete added.
"What in your sick little mind is a worm hole?" Chloe asked him.
"It's like one of those things on Star Trek. Where they use it as a short cut between galaxies."
They all looked at him with a puzzled look.
"You know what I'm talking about," he defended himself. "They had them all the time on The Next Generation and DS9. The Voyager even got lost in one."
"Is that the Enterprise show you watch?" Chloe asked.
"Sorta, only they don't know about worm holes yet since they are before the other shows and haven't gone that far into space."
She gave him another dumb look. "Wait, Enterprise is some kinda prequel to the original Star Treks?" Chloe asked.
"Sure, it's like what George Lucas is doing with the Star Wars movies," Pete explained. "He's telling the story that happen before the big story."
"So, you are telling me that people are interested in knowing what happens in these shows before the real story? Even when they know how it's going to end?" She asked.
"Sure, they do it all the time on television now days," he told her.
"Well, that's just plain stupid," she remarked. "Who would watch something like that?"
The entire room was completely silent for a few seconds. Each person just looked out into nothingness with a blank expression.
"Anyway," Clark interrupted. "Back to the matter at hand. A transporter device you say?"
"Yes," Dr. Ruller said. "The energy field seems to swallow anything we have to throw at it. We have even been able to retrieve some of the objects when tethered at this end. We have already tested it with various lengths of rope."
"Everything comes back unharmed?" Lex asked.
"All, but this," He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small stuff animal that was tattered and torn. "We sent this perfectly new stuff bunny through the void earlier, and something seemed to grasp onto it. When we pulled it back, it had been attacked and chewed. The wet substance found on it seemed to be of the canine nature."
"A dog ate the bunny?" Chloe questioned.
"It would appear so, young lady,"
"So what ever this is," Pete reasoned out. "There is a dog on the other end?"
The doctor nodded.
"Is that all you have?" Lex asked looked frustrated.
"I am afraid so, Mister Luthor,"
"Very well," Lex said. "Keep working on it. And I want results soon"
He lead the three young people back up to the elevator and to the second level.
Once out side of his office he turned to them. "I have to ask you to keep this under wraps," Lex Explained. "There is no telling what that thing down there is, and I do not want Smallville in a panic. I especially don't want it aimed at my company."
"Sure, Lex," Both Pete and Clark said.
Lex noticed that Chloe did not give her approval. He stood before her with a concerned look. "I know how hard this is for you, Chloe," he spoke softly. "But this could destroy Luthor Corp and Smallville as well. We need to keep this our secret. At least for now."
She thought hard about what he was asking. "The Torch is not printing this week for vacation," she said. "I'll need to have some answers for next weeks addition."
"If I have them," Lex assured her. "So will you. So please, no story until we have answers."
Again she thought it out. "Okay." She returned with a suspicious look. She had no idea if she could trust him to ever tell her the truth, but the fact that she had been let in on the secret at all was a big enough shock to her system already.
"Good," Lex smiled. "I just need to do one more thing." He pulled on Clark's arm and led him into the office. "Could I see you for a minute?"
"Sure," Clark allowed himself to be lead. "I'll catch up with you guys," he called back to Pete and Chloe.
Once behind closed doors, Lex returned a serious look to his face. He paced for a few minutes. "Can I trust them?"
"For now," Clark told him. "Chloe will expect you to keep your word about the scoop."
"And I will," Lex assured. "I'm not sure it was a smart idea to let your friends in on the secret, but I'm also not the evil man this town would like to portray me as."
"I know, Lex," Clark's face seemed to be genuine. His statement earlier was true. Where Lex was concerned, Clark had a strange soothing effect on him.
Lex looked into Clark's eyes for a minute. He seemed to be searching for something. Answers. Peace or just plain understanding. It was unclear, but Lex felt that Clark was the only person he could trust right then.
"There's more to the story," he finally said walking behind his desk to a television monitor. "The security camera I had installed after I knew about level three caught these pictures a short while before the hole was discovered."
Clark watched as the tape played a picture of an empty hallway that lead to what he knew was the fake broom closet. It was a few seconds before he saw the images of two shadowed figures walking from that direction. Within seconds, the image went black.
Clark stood dumb-founded for a second.
"Something came out of that hole, Clark," Lex told him. "Something or someone who destroyed the camera on their way out."
"I saw something," Clark stated.
"What?" Lex asked.
"I saw something on the tape, just before it went black," Clark told him. "It was probably just one frame, but I think I saw a face."
Lex looked at him with concern. "I watched the tape over and over again, Clark. There is no face." He was sure.
"Trust me, Lex," Clark lowered himself into a chair. "There was a face."
Lex picked up the remote control and rolled the tape back, frame by frame while watching for Clark's reactions.
"There's nothing there, Clark," he said looking back at him.
"Keep going."
A few more frames and then an image seemed to block the camera's view.
"It's a complete blur," Lex announced.
Clark stood up and walked over to the video recorder and began to fiddle with some of the controls. He adjusted them as best as he could.
"I still can't make anything out, Clark," Lex told him.
"It's a face, Lex," Clark insisted. "I can't make out whose, but I swear to you it is a face."
Lex pulled a disc out from his desk draw and placed it into the DVD burner attached to the television. It took only a few seconds to burn the image onto the disc. He pulled it out, and the two of them turned to the computer on his desk. He slipped the disc into his driver and tapped a few keys on his keyboard.
"I have a high resolution imagine device in this. It's even more advanced than the ones you find with those high priced scanners," He explained to Clark. "This should only take a second."
True to his word, the image came up on the screen, and with each tap of the keys, it became a clearer and a more defined picture. After a few minutes, Clark stood back from the desk with a gasp.
Lex looked up at him. "What--what is it?" He had never seen Clark shy away like that.
Clark stood silent and watched as Lex continued to clear the image. It was a few seconds more when he announced. "You're right, Clark," he said. "It is a face. But who's?"
He gave few more clicks of the keys, and Lex began to see the image that Clark had already identified. "Wait a minute," he said with a few more clicks. "This can't be right." A few more taps were made on the keys. "Oh, my Lord."
It was a few more taps before Lex stopped. He too took a step back. "This can't be right, Clark," he said with a soft almost defeated voice. "This can't be right." He kept looking at Clark and back at the monitor.
They both stood transfixed at the image on the screen. The image of one of the men who had emerged from the blue orb in Level Three. His face was shockingly familiar. His face was...
"Me," Lex said. "It's my face."
He leaned back in to take a closer look. "How could this be possible, Clark? I know that girl who impersonated me a few months ago is still locked up. I keep tabs on all the freaks of the week," He let that little bit of information slip out. "How could someone else have my face? Someone who seems to have come through some type of trans-dimensional portal in the basement and knows about the companies hidden cameras."
Clark did not say a word. He seemed to be trying to bury himself in the corner of the room. A few beads of sweat appeared on his face and he looked to be slightly trembling. Lex saw him, but he was more interested with the face and did not say a word. He returned his interest to the screen.
"What is it, Clark?" He finally asked. "What do you see?"
Clark could not find his voice to speak.
A few more taps, and Lex noticed more. "Wait a minute. I have hair in this picture. I have bright red hair like my mom use to have. Like I had when I was a kid," Lex tapped the keys again. "And I have what looks like a pony tail. I not only have hair, I have lots of it."
The realization of what he was looking at finally hit Lex. "There is someone who looks like me in Smallville," he said. "Someone from God only knows where."
After pulling himself together he looked over to the corner where Clark was pacing and trying to contain his emotions. Lex walked over to his friend.
"What is it, Clark?" He asked him softly. "What do you know? Who is this guy?"
Clark looked at him with large baseball sized eyes. Trying to control the fear that was building up inside of him, he said the words. "My worst nightmare," he said with a shaky voice.
Lex could tell that he was not over reacting. He took a long look back at his own face on the computer screen.
To be continued
I would like to thank Christin Haney and Macayla Jo Adams for their hard work and dedication to making my work look good. I thank them along with Holly (Sasa), Ruth Despirito and Karen Poitras for all their support and inspiration.
Thank you for taking the time to read and please enjoy. Comments are always welcomed.
Description: An evil Lex Luthor from an alternate reality comes to Smallville looking for Clark, and his world is turned up side down by the results.
1 Smallville: Something Wicked This Way Comes: Chapter One
A sequel to: 'The Morning After'. Clark made a secret wish and woke up in a world where he had never landed on Earth and the meteor shows never hit Smallville and the history of the small town, like the landscape had been changed forever.
The Kents never had a son. They lost the farm only to buy the town's hardware store where they then lived. Martha Kent became a midwife. Chloe Sullivan remained alone with no friends. Pete Ross, who was placed as the scarecrow on the night of the big game, died from exposure to the weather. Lana Lang became estranged from her troubled parents and married her high school sweetheart, Whitney Fordman, who went to jail for the accidental murder of Pete Ross. She worked at the town diner while she awaited the birth of her baby. Lex Luthor never lost his hair and never became humbled by the events. He became Smallville's only benefactor, but was also evil to the core. Up to the point of holding his own father as a crippled prisoner in his large castle on the edge of town.
After a confrontation with the young stranger named Clark Kent, Lex discovered that the boy had secrets to hide, and Lex wanted them. Clark was barely able to escape with his life and woke up safe and warm in his own bed. He determined that the entire event had been just a bad dream and went on with life, but he was wrong. Unknown to Smallville, a great evil was awakened that Christmas morning, and it was making its way to Lowell County, Kansas.
Part One: Chapter One
The room was large and completely dark. No lights had shown here for over three months, and barely anyone even knew it ever existed. Yet in the early hours of a late March morning, a small orb of blue light began to flicker in the very center of the large warehouse. A slight sound of burning electrical currants began growing along with the blue ball that floated a few feet off the ground. It took only minutes before the sphere object grew to enormous size touching the floor beneath it and reaching a height of over fifteen feet.
The object seemed to settle, and stopped expanding. The bright blue light from the orb lighted the entire enclosed structure. Then, shadowed objects began to move from within the sphere. The shadows became larger and bounced around, as they seemed to come closer to the edge. It was a few second later when one by one, two figures emerged from the bright light and stepped out into the empty room. One of those figures seemed to be smiling.
Lex Luthor laid in a deep slumber, alone on his large bed in his mansion just on the outskirts of Smallville, when the phone next to his bed began to wring. The noise startled the young bald man as he sat up quickly. The phone lines to his room were always silenced during the night, and only his private line remained functional. Very few people knew the secret number, and it was always alarming for him to hear it's sound. Even more so at "Three thirty," In the morning, he looked over at his clock radio and read.
"This had better be important," he said harshly into the receiver.
"Mister Luthor," The familiar voice of his plant supervisor Gab Sullivan said. "We have a problem down here at the plant."
"Isn't that why I pay you the big money to handle it?" Lex rubbed his eyes with frustration.
"This is different," Gab returned. "There seems to be some type of structural failure with one of the walls on the second level."
"What kind of structural failure?" The subject had gotten the younger man's attention.
"A six foot hole seems to have appeared out of nowhere," he told him.
"A hole?" Lex repeated. "Well, where is it? What's on the other side?"
Gab's voice was silent for a second, and then he said the words that sent a shiver up Lex's spine: "Level three."
Lex sat in shock for a moment. Level Three had been a secret testing area that even he was not aware of until a few months earlier when he learned of his father's secrets. They had managed to seal it off and keep it hidden from the populace of Smallville.
"Clear that area of the building, and don't do anything else until I get there," Lex ordered as he tossed off his blankets and jumped out of bed. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
Hanging up the phone, he tossed it onto the bed and rushed to the bathroom.
The sun had been up for over an hour when Chloe Sullivan, Pete Ross, and Clark Kent made their way to the Luthor Corp Manure Process Plant #3 just outside of town. They made their way up to the office area of the front building. Being Gab Sullivan's daughter gave Chloe easy access to her father's side of the building. Clark, being Lex's friend, gave him admittance into the rest of the offices.
"Hi Sally," Chloe greeted her father's secretary with a smile. "Is my Dad in his office?"
"Hi, Chloe," The young blond woman smiled back. "No, I'm afraid not. He's been in with Mr. Luthor all morning. I don't know when he'll be back."
"That's strange," Chloe gave her inquisitiveness look. "My father gets called into work in the middle of the night, and now he's in a over time meeting with the head cheese himself. Something big is going on here..."
"Come on, Chloe," Clark remarked. "It's a fertilizer plant. What could possibly be so big and important?" He could see her reporter instincts churning behind her eyes.
"Yeah, besides," Pete added in. "We are supposed to be on a school break this week. Not taking another field trip to a manure plant."
"Play it down all you want," Chloe argued. "But like I said on the phone earlier, I am sure something big is happening here."
"Remind me to never to become a reporter," Clark told her. "I don't think I could live on paranoid mode all the time."
"Don't dismiss it as paranoid, Clark," She warned. "I know my father well enough to know that he was freaked when he was called in here last night. Like you said, it's a manure plant, what could possibly get him so worked up that easily?"
"Maybe a pipe busted or something," Pete told her. "He probably just didn't want his work to hit the fan, so to speak." The two guys snickered at his lame joke.
"Guys," she shook her hands with frustration. "This could be serious. We need to find my Dad."
Clark gave Pete his defeated look and they slowly made their way back up the hall behind her.
It was then they heard screaming coming from the direction of Lex's office. The voice belonged to the CEO himself, Lex Luthor. "Don't mess with me Carl!" He screamed. "We have a team working on it already, and I will take care of the problem myself."
A few hushed sounds came after.
The door swung open and six men and woman wearing smart business suite, including Chloe's father Gab, came rushing out with Lex behind them. "Now go and keep this thing quite and make sure my father doesn't find out about it. If he does, you'll all be sharing a space in the unemployment line."
The suites all scattered up the hall in all directions and each disappeared into a different office. It was then that Lex Spotted Clark and his friends at the opposite end. He made no effort to acknowledge his friend and simply stepped back into his office closing the door.
"Well, that was friendly," Chloe, remarked with sarcasm.
Clark felt he needed to be concern for Lex and began to walk towards his office. "I think you're right about this being big," He said. "I need to check on Lex."
"Wow," Chloe commented. "That didn't take long."
"What do you mean?" Pete asked.
"If we're not getting blown off for Lana, its Lex," she told him.
"Yeah, kinda makes you feel special, don't it?" Pete agreed.
At the end of the hall, Clark knocked softly on Lex's office door.
"Not now, Tammy," he said. "I don't need anymore interruptions."
Clark opened the door slowly and stuck his head inside. "It's not Tammy, Lex," he cautiously spoke. "It's me, Clark."
Lex looked up from his cluttered desk where papers and blue prints of all sorts were spread out. A look of bewilderment came across his face. "Clark? Did we have a meeting set for today?"
"No," Clark came in and closed the door. "Pete and I came with Chloe to check up on her Dad, and we witnessed the purging of your office a minute ago. Is everything alright?"
Lex could only look at him with a 'deer in the head lights' look. He attempted to smile, but could not bring his mouth to move.
"What is it, Lex?"
The debate raged in Lex's head. Should he tell his young friend what was going on, or should he keep him out of the loop, like he hoped to do with the rest of Smallville.
"Maybe I can help, Lex," Clark forced a smile. "I have been told I have a soothing personality."
"It's level three," Lex finally said. The words slipped out before even he realized. He noticed how just mentioning it to his friend seemed to ease the burden slightly for him and he added. "There has been a development in level three."
Clark was shocked by his friend's words. He remembered how months before he and his classmates had been held captured by a mad man from Clark's past who was looking for the then believed imagined level three. The man had been contaminated by meteor fragments in a failed experiment conducted by Lionel Luthor six months earlier and was looking for a cure. The discovery of the secret facility had almost proven deadly for all three of them.
"What--what type of development?" Clark's stammered voice asked.
Lex looked away. He suddenly felt this might be wrong.
"Come on Lex," Clark insisted. "Is anyone else in danger?"
"I don't know," Lex answered. "I wish to God I knew for sure."
"Well what is it?" Clark asked again with alarm in his voice. "What is going on down in Level Three?"
Lex studied his friend for a moment. "I can't explain it, Clark." There was a battle raging behind his eyes before he decided. "All I can do is show you."
Clark was surprised at his candor. Even though they had been friends for months, Lex was never open with him right at the point of origin. It was weeks after he had hit Clark on the bridge where they first met that Lex told him that he still had that same car and was trying to determine how Clark survived the crash. So he knew what ever was going on under their feet was bothering Lex to no end.
Lex walked around the desk and the two went out into the hall. They could see that Chloe and Pete were deep in conversation with her father. Gab was not being as open with his daughter as Lex was being with Clark.
They stopped and watch for a few seconds.
"Chloe and Pete came with me," Clark said from behind Lex. "She was worried about her father."
Lexes looked over his shoulder at Clark with no expression on his face, and then back up the hall.
He cleared his throat and then announced. "I am taking Clark down to level three. You are welcomed to join us."
This statement surprised them all. Chloe and Pete still were not aware that there even was a level three. They had been told that Earl, the mad man from before, had mistaken a warehouse as a secret level three.
Clark stared at Lex. What ever was happening, it was throwing his friend for a loop. He and Lex had let down their guard with each other in times past, but Lex had never let anyone else into his inner circle: Much less, the high school's best newspaper reporter. 'This is big', was putting it mildly.
Chloe and Pete first looked at each other and did not say a word. They silently followed Lex and Clark down another hall
It was about ten minutes before they reached the secret entrance to the level three's elevator. Clark knew what was hidden behind the broom closet wall. He and Lex had almost lost their lives down here before. A large gapping hole stood in place of the where the new cinder block wall was placed.
"Oh, my God," Chloe gasped.
Lex stopped and examined the opening. "This is just the beginning of the mystery," he said. "If you look closely at the edges and some of the debris, you'll notice what looks like claw or knuckle prints in the wall."
"Knuckle prints?" Pete repeated. "What do you mean?"
"It appears that someone punched their way out of Level Three with their bare hands," Lex told them.
"That's crazy, Lex," Clark commented. "No one can punch through a brick wall," he said. No one, that is but him, of course.
"Like I said," Lex continued. "This is only the beginning." They made their way over the rubble to the previously hidden elevator and pushed the button.
"How long has this place been here?" Pete asked as they rode the elevator down.
"You'll have to ask my father that question," Lex replied. "Clark and I didn't find out until Earl took us down here a few months ago."
Chloe looked up at a silent Clark. "You knew?" She whispered.
"Clark is a good friend, Chloe," Lex said. "He knows how to keep a friend's secret."
Chloe let the matter go, but still gave Clark a suspicious look.
He in turn tried to concentrate on Lex's state of mind at that moment.
The elevator doors opened and revealed a large warehouse sized room that was emptied with the exception of a ladder that led down to the floor some thirty feet bellow and a large glowing sea blue object in the center of the room. People in lab coats with computers and other testing equipment surrounded it.
After the climb down, they made their way slowly over to the object.
"Oh, my God," Chloe gasped. "This is incredible."
"What is it?" Pete asked with the same mesmerized look on his face.
"We don't know," Lex said, joining the line next to them.
Clark stepped forward and reached his hand out to it.
"Clark," Lex grabbed it and pulled it back. "Are you crazy? We have no idea what is it. We don't even know what contact will do to the human body."
"Sorry," Clark pulled his hand away with a hurt expression.
"Any idea what it is made of?" Chloe asked.
"Energy of some kind," A voice said from behind them.
They turned to see a middle aged man standing there with a lab coat and a tiny computer object in his hand.
"This is Doctor Ruller," Lex told them. "He is the lead researcher on this project."
"I don't understand," Clark put in. "If you don't know what this is, then where did it come from?"
"It appeared during the night," Doctor Ruller explained. "From all I know about the world of electrical research and energy pulses, this is like nothing else I have ever seen. It would almost come across as being 'other worldly'."
"Are you talking like science fiction?" Pete asked.
"Is that all so hard to believe here in Smallville?" Chloe asked. "Things go on here that would put the sci-fi channel to shame."
"Well," Clark turned back to it. "Are you sure it's not a left over from one of your father's experiments?" He asked Lex.
"My father is interested in raping the world of all its resources. Not creating big blue energy balls," Lex told him. "I don't think this is something anyone at Luthor Corp could dream up."
"Do they have any clues as to what it might be?" Chloe asked.
Lex turned his head to Dr. Ruller who stood next to him. "Do we?"
"Only this," He took a pen from his pocket and tossed it into the blue orb of energy, which made a low crackling noise and swallowed it.
They all looked around to see where the pen had landed, but found it was no longer in the room.
"Where did it go?" Pete asked.
"That is the question," Ruller said. "It appears that if nothing else, this object could be some kind of transporter."
"Transporter?" Lex repeated.
"You mean like a worm hole?" Pete added.
"What in your sick little mind is a worm hole?" Chloe asked him.
"It's like one of those things on Star Trek. Where they use it as a short cut between galaxies."
They all looked at him with a puzzled look.
"You know what I'm talking about," he defended himself. "They had them all the time on The Next Generation and DS9. The Voyager even got lost in one."
"Is that the Enterprise show you watch?" Chloe asked.
"Sorta, only they don't know about worm holes yet since they are before the other shows and haven't gone that far into space."
She gave him another dumb look. "Wait, Enterprise is some kinda prequel to the original Star Treks?" Chloe asked.
"Sure, it's like what George Lucas is doing with the Star Wars movies," Pete explained. "He's telling the story that happen before the big story."
"So, you are telling me that people are interested in knowing what happens in these shows before the real story? Even when they know how it's going to end?" She asked.
"Sure, they do it all the time on television now days," he told her.
"Well, that's just plain stupid," she remarked. "Who would watch something like that?"
The entire room was completely silent for a few seconds. Each person just looked out into nothingness with a blank expression.
"Anyway," Clark interrupted. "Back to the matter at hand. A transporter device you say?"
"Yes," Dr. Ruller said. "The energy field seems to swallow anything we have to throw at it. We have even been able to retrieve some of the objects when tethered at this end. We have already tested it with various lengths of rope."
"Everything comes back unharmed?" Lex asked.
"All, but this," He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small stuff animal that was tattered and torn. "We sent this perfectly new stuff bunny through the void earlier, and something seemed to grasp onto it. When we pulled it back, it had been attacked and chewed. The wet substance found on it seemed to be of the canine nature."
"A dog ate the bunny?" Chloe questioned.
"It would appear so, young lady,"
"So what ever this is," Pete reasoned out. "There is a dog on the other end?"
The doctor nodded.
"Is that all you have?" Lex asked looked frustrated.
"I am afraid so, Mister Luthor,"
"Very well," Lex said. "Keep working on it. And I want results soon"
He lead the three young people back up to the elevator and to the second level.
Once out side of his office he turned to them. "I have to ask you to keep this under wraps," Lex Explained. "There is no telling what that thing down there is, and I do not want Smallville in a panic. I especially don't want it aimed at my company."
"Sure, Lex," Both Pete and Clark said.
Lex noticed that Chloe did not give her approval. He stood before her with a concerned look. "I know how hard this is for you, Chloe," he spoke softly. "But this could destroy Luthor Corp and Smallville as well. We need to keep this our secret. At least for now."
She thought hard about what he was asking. "The Torch is not printing this week for vacation," she said. "I'll need to have some answers for next weeks addition."
"If I have them," Lex assured her. "So will you. So please, no story until we have answers."
Again she thought it out. "Okay." She returned with a suspicious look. She had no idea if she could trust him to ever tell her the truth, but the fact that she had been let in on the secret at all was a big enough shock to her system already.
"Good," Lex smiled. "I just need to do one more thing." He pulled on Clark's arm and led him into the office. "Could I see you for a minute?"
"Sure," Clark allowed himself to be lead. "I'll catch up with you guys," he called back to Pete and Chloe.
Once behind closed doors, Lex returned a serious look to his face. He paced for a few minutes. "Can I trust them?"
"For now," Clark told him. "Chloe will expect you to keep your word about the scoop."
"And I will," Lex assured. "I'm not sure it was a smart idea to let your friends in on the secret, but I'm also not the evil man this town would like to portray me as."
"I know, Lex," Clark's face seemed to be genuine. His statement earlier was true. Where Lex was concerned, Clark had a strange soothing effect on him.
Lex looked into Clark's eyes for a minute. He seemed to be searching for something. Answers. Peace or just plain understanding. It was unclear, but Lex felt that Clark was the only person he could trust right then.
"There's more to the story," he finally said walking behind his desk to a television monitor. "The security camera I had installed after I knew about level three caught these pictures a short while before the hole was discovered."
Clark watched as the tape played a picture of an empty hallway that lead to what he knew was the fake broom closet. It was a few seconds before he saw the images of two shadowed figures walking from that direction. Within seconds, the image went black.
Clark stood dumb-founded for a second.
"Something came out of that hole, Clark," Lex told him. "Something or someone who destroyed the camera on their way out."
"I saw something," Clark stated.
"What?" Lex asked.
"I saw something on the tape, just before it went black," Clark told him. "It was probably just one frame, but I think I saw a face."
Lex looked at him with concern. "I watched the tape over and over again, Clark. There is no face." He was sure.
"Trust me, Lex," Clark lowered himself into a chair. "There was a face."
Lex picked up the remote control and rolled the tape back, frame by frame while watching for Clark's reactions.
"There's nothing there, Clark," he said looking back at him.
"Keep going."
A few more frames and then an image seemed to block the camera's view.
"It's a complete blur," Lex announced.
Clark stood up and walked over to the video recorder and began to fiddle with some of the controls. He adjusted them as best as he could.
"I still can't make anything out, Clark," Lex told him.
"It's a face, Lex," Clark insisted. "I can't make out whose, but I swear to you it is a face."
Lex pulled a disc out from his desk draw and placed it into the DVD burner attached to the television. It took only a few seconds to burn the image onto the disc. He pulled it out, and the two of them turned to the computer on his desk. He slipped the disc into his driver and tapped a few keys on his keyboard.
"I have a high resolution imagine device in this. It's even more advanced than the ones you find with those high priced scanners," He explained to Clark. "This should only take a second."
True to his word, the image came up on the screen, and with each tap of the keys, it became a clearer and a more defined picture. After a few minutes, Clark stood back from the desk with a gasp.
Lex looked up at him. "What--what is it?" He had never seen Clark shy away like that.
Clark stood silent and watched as Lex continued to clear the image. It was a few seconds more when he announced. "You're right, Clark," he said. "It is a face. But who's?"
He gave few more clicks of the keys, and Lex began to see the image that Clark had already identified. "Wait a minute," he said with a few more clicks. "This can't be right." A few more taps were made on the keys. "Oh, my Lord."
It was a few more taps before Lex stopped. He too took a step back. "This can't be right, Clark," he said with a soft almost defeated voice. "This can't be right." He kept looking at Clark and back at the monitor.
They both stood transfixed at the image on the screen. The image of one of the men who had emerged from the blue orb in Level Three. His face was shockingly familiar. His face was...
"Me," Lex said. "It's my face."
He leaned back in to take a closer look. "How could this be possible, Clark? I know that girl who impersonated me a few months ago is still locked up. I keep tabs on all the freaks of the week," He let that little bit of information slip out. "How could someone else have my face? Someone who seems to have come through some type of trans-dimensional portal in the basement and knows about the companies hidden cameras."
Clark did not say a word. He seemed to be trying to bury himself in the corner of the room. A few beads of sweat appeared on his face and he looked to be slightly trembling. Lex saw him, but he was more interested with the face and did not say a word. He returned his interest to the screen.
"What is it, Clark?" He finally asked. "What do you see?"
Clark could not find his voice to speak.
A few more taps, and Lex noticed more. "Wait a minute. I have hair in this picture. I have bright red hair like my mom use to have. Like I had when I was a kid," Lex tapped the keys again. "And I have what looks like a pony tail. I not only have hair, I have lots of it."
The realization of what he was looking at finally hit Lex. "There is someone who looks like me in Smallville," he said. "Someone from God only knows where."
After pulling himself together he looked over to the corner where Clark was pacing and trying to contain his emotions. Lex walked over to his friend.
"What is it, Clark?" He asked him softly. "What do you know? Who is this guy?"
Clark looked at him with large baseball sized eyes. Trying to control the fear that was building up inside of him, he said the words. "My worst nightmare," he said with a shaky voice.
Lex could tell that he was not over reacting. He took a long look back at his own face on the computer screen.
To be continued