When Lana showed up at the Daily Planet to visit Chloe and Emmeline, the two girls were not expecting to hear how she had hit a man in the street head-on and her car sustained all of the damage while he didn't have a scratch.

"So, on a scale from one to Taye Diggs, where exactly are we?" Chloe asked jokingly.

Lana smirked a little. "Um, he's definitely up there."

"Yeah? Tall, dark, and bionic. You think he likes blondes?"

"His girlfriend's a brunette," Clark interjected as he joined them. "Sorry."

"Oh."

"Does she know what actually happened to him?" Lana asked.

"No," Clark answered. "He doesn't want her to know. He's afraid how she'll react."

"Well, what's he gonna do? Just keep lying to her and hope that she doesn't notice how different he is?"

"Maybe he's afraid of how she'll react," Emmeline put in. "Or that she won't want to be with him if she knew the truth."

"That doesn't excuse him keeping things from her. If they really love each other, they'll share everything."

Clark, Chloe, and Emmeline all shared quick but awkward eye contact. If only Lana knew how much this conversation applied to her own relationship…

"So, I did some digging into Cyntechnics' backyard, and I came up with more flowers than dirt," Chloe quickly put in to change the subject.

"There's got to be something," Clark said.

"Well, uh, their main focus has become the Machina project. 'Cutting-edge prosthetics designed to replace damaged or severed limbs'."

"Well, what they did to Victor is much more extensive than a severed limb."

"Who owns Cyntechnics?" Lana asked.

Chloe pushed some buttons on her computer. "Um…guess what. It is owned by LuthorCorp."

"Of course it is…" Emmeline muttered.

By this point, it was going to be more likely that Lex was behind things than the meteor rocks.


Emmeline sat at one of the tables in the Talon doing some prep work for her internship in addition to her mountain of homework. One perk to knowing the person who was part-owner was that she had access to the place whenever she wanted. Seeing as Lois was out of town at the moment, she had the whole place to herself.

Her peace was drastically interrupted when the door banged open, nearly giving her a heart attack.

Her eyes widened and she bolted out of her chair when she saw who had come in: Clark and Lana followed by Victor whose arm was spewing black and green liquid.

"Em?" Lana asked in rushed surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Lois gave me a key so I could get some work done here if I wanted. What the heck happened?"

All of them quickly rushed to the apartment above the coffee shop.

"The people who did everything to Victor came after him and shot him," Lana hurriedly explained.

"All right, no one's gonna look for us here," Clark stated as he went to turn on some lights in the darkened apartment. "Lois won't be back 'til tomorrow."

"Go lie down. I'll get you a towel."

Victor sighed as he continued to press his yellow jacket to his wound. "Kent, I'm sorry. I never meant to bring my crazy world into your life."

"Don't worry about it, all right?" Clark told him. "You're safe now. Everything's gonna be okay."

Victor sat down on the couch.

"Here," Lana said as she handed him a towel.

"I'm not so sure," the young man said. "This isn't exactly something you can just put a little duct tape on."

He reached his hand into the gunshot wound and pulled the skin away. Clearly, it didn't hurt him seeing as his skin was now synthetic and he wasn't crying out in pain, but Emmeline still felt extremely squeamish and had to look away.

"The bionics in my biology are all connected. This goop coming out of my arm…is from my power cell. If it continues to drain like this…I'm a dead man."

And that was just how the people who had come after him wanted. If they hit his power cell, he would have no choice but to come back to them if he wanted to live.

While Clark went to talk to Chloe so they could find the doctor who had helped free Victor, Lana and Emmeline hung back with the young man at the Talon.

"I'm gonna get a cappuccino," Lana stated. "I'm pretty sure I can still figure out how to work that stupid machine. Either of you want one?"

"I'll take one," Emmeline answered.

"No, thanks," Victor stated. "Not sure what coffee will do to all this machinery, especially with part of it busted."

"All right. I'll be right back."

Emmeline looked over at Victor. "It kinda seems like a bad time for introductions, but I'm Emmeline."

"Sorry to drag you into this too," Victor said without looking at her.

"I've been involved in worse." She took a seat on the couch next to him. "Um…do you mind if I ask…?"

"How I became a freak of nature?" he finished for her.

"Well, I wasn't going to put it like that, but…yeah."

Victor sighed a little. "I was in the car…with my sister, my mom, and my dad. It started to snow. It was so beautiful. But then the car skidded off the highway and that's all I can remember. The next thing I knew, I was waking up to doctors messing with my body and turning me into a machine."

"I'm so sorry…"

"I can't understand why I didn't just die with the rest of them."

"You're experiencing survivor's guilt. It's a perfectly natural reaction. It's important for you to not lock all your emotions away and just allow yourself to feel them especially the grief. It's okay to mourn for those you've lost. And think of the people who are glad you're still alive."

"You a shrink or something?"

"Close. Studying to be one."

"Well, no one even knows I'm still alive."

"Well…have you thought about telling your girlfriend?"

"How'd you know I have a girlfriend?"

"Clark shared the information earlier."

"She'd never accept me like this."

"You'd be surprised what we women can accept when it comes to the person we love."

"Are you talking about Clark?"

"Excuse me?"

Victor's eyes widened. "Oh, you don't know? Um, never mind. Forget I said anything."

Emmeline smiled a little. "Yes, I do know about Clark. He hasn't told Lana, but I found out a few months ago. And I still accept him just as he is. He's too important to me to not accept him."

Victor nodded a little, contemplating her words. He wondered if she knew that the way she talked about Clark made it seem like they were more than friends.

Lana returned upstairs with two cups of coffee. By this point, Victor had lost a lot of the fluid keeping him alive. His synthetic skin had started pouring sweat and his breathing had become labored.

Lana's phone rang and she quickly answered it. When she hung up, there was a long strain of silence.

"What happened?" Victor mustered out. "Did Clark find him?"

Lana turned to him with a somber expression. "I'm so sorry, Victor. Dr. Hong's dead."

Victor clenched his jaw and his eyes filled with frustrated tears. "Because of me. If he hadn't—if he hadn't helped me escape, he'd still be alive right now."

Emmeline gently put her hand on his good shoulder. "This is not your fault."

"Em's right," Lana added. "You didn't choose for any of this to happen to you."

Victor sighed heavily. "I always said I should have died with my family. I guess I'll be joining them soon enough."

"Don't give up so easily," Emmeline told him. "I don't know much about this Dr. Hong person, but I think he knew the risks when he helped you get out. Don't make his sacrifice worth nothing."

"…I need to see Katherine."

Victor quickly stood up, still clutching his sweatshirt to his arm, and made for the door.

"Victor, they're still searching for you," Lana insisted. "You can hardly walk."

"I don't care. I'm gonna see her before I die."

"Okay, let's just wait for Clark."

"I'm not waiting for anybody. If you had one last chance to see the person you love, what would you do?"

Lana and Emmeline looked at one another, at a loss for what to do.

"Well, then I'm coming with you," Emmeline said firmly.

"Forget it, it's too dangerous."

"I don't care. I'm not taking no for an answer. Not when you're injured like this. Besides, we'll get there faster if I drive."


Emmeline and Victor arrived at Katherine's house, and Victor bolted inside as fast as he could in his condition.

"Katherine!" he called. "Katherine!"

He and Emmeline froze when they saw a man sitting at the desk in the living room.

"Hello, Victor," he said arrogantly.

"Where's Katherine?" Victor bit out.

"She's safe, and she'll stay that way as long as you cooperate."

"If you so much as touch her, I swear…"

"I'm a doctor, Victor. My goal is to help people, not to hurt them."

"Don't play with me, doc. I want to see her."

"And why is that? It appears you have a new lady in your life."

Emmeline tried to say something, but her mouth refused to move to make the words. She was petrified in the presence of a doctor with no ethical morals when it came to scientific progression. She really should've guessed that he would be here.

"Well, no matter, you'll see your precious Katherine, but first you'll return to the lab with these gentlemen."

Two armed guards came into the room behind them.

Victor glared at the man. "Hope you win your Nobel Prize."

With grim resignation, he exited the house.

"No, wait—" Emmeline started.

Suddenly, another arm man jammed a needle into her neck. She cried out in pain and sank to the floor.

"Take her to the lab," Dr. Krieg stated. "We'll deal with her later. She'll make an excellent subject. I've never been able to have a woman before."

The man hefted Emmeline over his shoulder and carried her out to the awaiting vehicle with the other guards.

"You were right. He came here like a fish to water."

Lex Luthor stepped out of the shadows. "Yeah, well, the heart has a way of clouding one's better judgment. But I don't believe I ever said anything about hurting anyone else."

"It's for the greater good. Once I'm finished with her, she'll be thanking me."

"I should hope so. Or believe me, I will erase every trace of you from this earth and no one will hear of this research ever again."


Victor slowly opened his eyes and groaned as he tried to come back to his senses. "Where's Katherine?" he mustered out.

"Back at home," Dr. Krieg answered. "But don't worry. We've called off the dogs."

"What'd you do to Emmeline?"

"Oh, you needn't worry about her. Something tells me she's going to serve a much greater purpose."

Victor fought against his restraints, his drowsiness quickly disappearing. "I swear, if you do anything to her…"

"You'll what? Kill me? Please, you barely even know her."

"Doesn't mean that what you're doing isn't wrong."

"Well, you'll be happy to know that we've replaced the tubing. We calibrated a few of the servomechanisms. Your arm is even better than before."

"I can't wait to use it to smash your skull in."

Dr. Krieg moved away to reveal Lex standing behind him. "How you feeling?" he asked with a suave smile. "Victor, I'm glad we managed to get to you in time to save you."

"You got some kind of God-complex or something? I didn't ask to be saved."

"Look, all I'm doing is giving you a future. A chance for a normal life."

"Normal? Half my body is straight out of the Sharper Image catalog."

"At a price a lot steeper than $6 million, the last thing I want to do is cause you more pain."

"Then why not just take back all your fancy gadgetry? You can roll my sorry stump out of here in a wheelbarrow for all I care."

"You'd die without this gadgetry. But I'm as eager for your freedom as you are. You just need to be patient."

Beeps from the side alerted Victor to Dr. Krieg prepping a machine. His eyes widened in fear. "What's that?"

"It's gonna make life easier for you."

The other doctor in the room swabbed the side of his head.

Victor flinched. "What are you doing to me?"

"What am I doing? I'm helping you be whole again. Anger, despair, loneliness…such strong emotions can create a rift between brain and bionics. This chip will take the edge off when necessary."

"You're trying to turn me into a drone. That's what you're trying to do…a robot."

"Victor—"

Victor gasped and flinched when Lex leaned too close to him.

"Easy. You've read too much science fiction. Pacemakers, synthetic tissues, artificial hearts…the merging of man and machine is nothing new."

Dr. Krieg walked over with a vial of orange liquid.

Lex stood back up. "I'll get out of your way. Keep me updated."

"I'll prep him for the implant," Dr. Krieg said. "Once I'm done here, we can start work on the girl."

Victor struggled against his restraints, but he was powerless to stop the deranged doctor from inserting the liquid into his neck.


Clark rushed back into the apartment above the Talon. "Lana, where's Victor?"

"He left," Lana told him dejectedly.

"What? He wasn't supposed to leave the apartment."

"He wanted to see Katherine one last time."

"Lana, that's the first place they're gonna look for him!"

"Look, I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen to me. Do you think they brought him back to that lab?"

"I'm gonna go check that out."

"Clark, wait, there's something else. Em went with him."

Clark froze. "She did what?"

"She didn't want him going alone, and she hasn't come back since then. I've been calling her cell, but she's not answering." Lana put her hands to her head. "I should've gone too."

"Lana, it's not your fault. I'll find her."

"We should call the police. These people have shot at us before. Who knows what they're gonna—"

When Lana looked up, she was faced with an empty room.


Dr. Krieg looked at Victor with a smile that could only be described as sadistic. "Just relax, Victor. This won't take long."

"You want me to relax, put away the drill."

"When we're done, I promise you, you'll feel like a new man."

Victor watched in horror as the whirring drill came closer and closer to his skull.

In barely two seconds, a blur of red and blue sent all of the doctors and surgeons flying into different corners of the room.

Victor was surprised but was too relieved to be free to question what exactly had just happened.

"Nice tackle," Victor remarked.

Clark undid the restraints on his hands, head, and feet before tossing him his blue shirt. "Come on. Let's get you out of here."

"Kent, wait, they have Emmeline somewhere."

Clark looked at him with panicked eyes. "She's here?"

"Krieg was talking about her serving a greater purpose."

"…He was going to do the same thing to her. We need to find her and fast. Come on."


Emmeline groggily opened her eyes and waited for her world to come into focus.

She was not pleased with what she saw.

The creepy guy who had brought her here or at least whoever was working for him had strapped her to a medical table inside a large empty room. Both her hands and feet were restrained.

The scariest part was that when she looked to her left, she saw a small table with various medical tools and syringes filled with various-colored liquids. She did not even want to consider what those were going to be used for.

She struggled against the restraints, but they were made of steel and all efforts to escape were futile.

How did she keep getting into these situations?

Exactly how many creepy people who had it out for her could she possibly come in contact with in her lifetime?

And the better question was why couldn't she fight back? Why did all of them succeed in taking advantage of her?

Her thought process was interrupted when she heard her name being called.

"Clark?"

"Em!"

"Clark, I'm in here!"

Clark kicked down the steel door and rushed inside.

Emmeline breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry! I'm putting both of you in more danger."

"Forget that, let's just get you out of here."

Clark quickly undid all of the restraints, and Emmeline bolted up off the table. Then she, Clark, and Victor raced down the hallway, careful to avoid all of the medical and security personnel who weren't happy about Victor escaping.

"How'd you do that, Kent?" Victor asked as they ran out one of the doors and onto the roof of the building.

"I can do a lot of things," Clark answered.

They bolted up the small set of stairs to get to the very top of the building. Clark quickly swept Emmeline up into his arms.

"Hang on."

Emmeline wrapped her arms around Clark's neck and hung on for dear life. Then he and Victor ran to the edge of the building and jumped off. They landed on the ground below hard enough to make it crack.

Dr. Krieg and armed guards came out to catch Victor but all they found was the damaged asphalt.


Emmeline knocked on the door to the barn where Clark and Victor were.

"Hey, guys," she smiled.

"Hey, Em," Clark smiled back.

Victor looked at her with embarrassment. "Um…Emmeline, I'm sorry for getting you caught up in everything. If it wasn't for me, they would've—"

"It's not your fault," she told him. "I was the one who decided to come with you. We couldn't have known they were going to be at the house or that they were going to take me with you. And I'm sorry too. The both of you could've gotten out a lot faster if you hadn't had to worry about me."

"I appreciate how supportive you were of coming with me. I've been alone ever since I first woke up and to have someone so assertive about being by my side…it meant a lot."

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Yeah, I'm glad you are too. Now, I gotta get going. I'm meeting Katherine for our first official date since I miraculously came back from the dead."

"Enjoy every second of it. We'll see you around."

"See you guys. Thanks for everything."

Victor happily left the barn to meet his girlfriend, finally reconciling after so long.

Emmeline crossed her arms over her chest.

"You okay, Em?" Clark asked.

The girl sighed and turned to face him. "How many times have you saved me now? How many times are you going to save me in the future? All I'm ever good for is getting into trouble and needing you to get me out of it. It's embarrassing and I feel pathetic. I just wish I could fight for myself even once."

"Em…the things we deal with almost every day…it's not like anything other people face. We are up against the unexplainable and people with no morals whatsoever. But you're not powerless. When the circumstances are right, you can take control of a situation easily. There are plenty of times you've been the one to help me. Besides, even the most talented fighters get beaten down every now and again. The important thing is getting back up."

Emmeline smiled a little. "I thought I was supposed to be the psychologist here."

Clark laughed lightly. "I learned everything I know from you. Em…no matter what happens, I'll always be there to save you."