Secrets part 2 - Lock and Key

It's the next part. Wahoo.

Chapter 1 - Capture

March 2002, Smallville

A large team of researchers set up equipment all around the lake. The temperature had risen so the ice had melted and the frozen body of a boy that had previously been stuck between ices had now sunk to the bottom. He was very much dead, his eyes frozen in a shocked and panicked response. He'd fallen in the lake and it had somehow frozen around him, an unexplained mystery that these people were very interested in. As they lumbered the body away the team also gathered up small samples of the water and the sodden ground from the bottom of the lake. They had been ordered to gather every shred of evidence.

May 2002, Smallville

Jody lay in a hospital bed. There where long, thin tubes sticking into her, providing various services and, basically keeping her alive. She had experienced a major mutation and was loosing fat too fast for her body to keep up with. Her father refused to be moved. He had stayed there ever since Clark had found her outside the destroyed greenhouse. He sat there, beard unshaven and eyes sore, holding her hand and hoping that one-day they would find a cure. Then a group of doctors whom he had never come across before entered the room. They wore protective masks over their faces, which seemed suspicious. The others had never done that. It was almost as though they were hiding their faces.

"We are here to move the girl to a better hospital," said the leader.

He ordered his companions to put the girl on a stretcher, seemingly dismissing the disgruntled look on her father's face.

"I heard nothing about this, where are you taking her?" asked Jody's father, confused.

But he got no answer out of them. They picked her up and lifted her onto a stretcher. He followed them out, clutching at their arms frantically. When he saw the unconscious doctors all over the floor he began shouting in vein. Then he ran in front of them and kept them back. One of the masked men began to get irritated.

"Look man, get the hell out of the way," he said in a warning tone.

Unfortunately, Jody's dad did not detect it.

"I'm not moving, I'd rather die," he said defiantly, continuing to shout.

The Masked men looked at each other, amused about something. The first took out a shotgun and shot him in mid rant.

"You asked for it man," was the last words of the murderer, as they stepped over his limp form.

He lay on the floor and the last thoughts he had were of his failure as a father. Despair took over him and he spilled a single tear before slumping to the ground, the look of misery etched on his face forever.

July 2002, Smallville

Kyle Tippet was on his way to work. He was working for a charity that helped poor families in Africa to gain the money and homes they needed. What the company didn't know was that he was using his ability to manipulate people, to make them donate. He figured, it wasn't bad if it was helping those more in need, although he did feel a twinge of guilt every time an old lady would raid through her purse and then wonder where the money had gone later. It wasn't easy to be a hero but he was doing just what he'd told Clark to do, use his gift to do great things, and he felt great about his life for the first time. As he came to a set of traffic lights a police car signalled for him to park. He drove to the nearest indentation in the road wondering what they could possibly want. He rolled down his window and immediately was shot in the neck with a tranquilliser dart. As inconspicuously as they could the fake policemen loaded him into the back of the car and drove speedily off.

October 2002, Smallville

Eric Summers was a patient at a hospital in metropolis, although it was more like rehab. He had had a period a month ago in which he had become violent. But this was not because of your normal teenage angst. He had been struck by lightening and gained enormous strength and speed. Then as quickly as he had gotten them they disappeared. Oddly Clark Kent had been involved in this along the way and he had often wondered why the lightening hadn't affected him, as he was also struck. One of the helpers at the so- called hospital came in with a tray of food. He was staving; they couldn't call this place a wonder palace. There was always a dank smell and the company wasn't much to speak of, idiots with no vocabulary and not a great liking of him. Not even his family visited, they had been really freaked out by the whole thing and had begun to act as though they didn't have a son. He ate the food quickly and went back to staring out the window, dreaming of a time when he could be out in the world again. Then his head began to spin, darkness overcoming him. Three men ran quickly in and carried him away without a sound.

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