Disclaimer: I do not own the TV show Smallville or any of its characters; they belong to a combination of the WB and DC comics.

Author's Note: Thanks to all those that have reviewed, and especially to C.K.7980 who added me to her favourites. :-)

Lionel Luthor was currently sitting in the back of his Aston Martin on his way to S.T.A.R Labs, to check on the two projects he was currently funding. He'd just ended a call with his most recent employee, Miss Chloe Sullivan, she'd turned up nothing so far in her investigation of Clark Kent. But then he'd never really hired her for her investigative skills with a computer, he'd expected her to use her relationship with him to find out exactly what he was hiding. Although that plan had been slightly derailed by Clark's departure from Smallville, Lionel had confidence he would return, Clark Kent was not the type to abandon his family, it meant too much to him.

The Aston pulled up outside S.T.A.R. Labs and his driver got out and opened the door for him, Lionel swept out of the Aston and into S.T.A.R. Labs. He took the elevator down into a subterranean level that was restricted to anyone who did not have Lionel Luthor's express permission. As the elevator doors opened Lionel took in the glorious sight of the research he had been funding for the last year or so. There were a number of containment tanks lined up against the back wall all glowing with a red radiance and in the centre was a single tank glowing green.

"Dr. Tang" Lionel called out as he entered the lab "where are you?"

A research assistant appeared as if from nowhere as research assistants often do, much like sales assistants.

"Dr. Tang currently up in the main research area of S.T.A.R Labs Mr. Luthor, she'll be back in about five minutes."

"That is unacceptable" Lionel snapped "she calls me here telling me it's urgent only to not be here when I arrive, this better not be some stupid power game."

"I assure you Mr. Luthor it is not." Said a voice behind him

Lionel turned and saw that Dr. Tang had just arrived in the elevator, she was about 5 ft 3 and was of Asian appearance, her short black hair was carefully arranged in a way that most scientists would not both with. The sight of her reminded Lionel why he'd initially been attracted to her when he had first employed her to explore the possible uses of the meteor rocks.

"I was dealing with a member of staff who is becoming a bit too inquisitive into just what we're doing down here." Dr. Tang explained

"Hmm, what did you do?"

"I told him I was working on an important project for a company called Yohan Industries.

Lionel smiled, Yohan Industries was the front business he was using to secretly fund this project, simply because any scientific project with the name LuthorCorp attached often attracted media attention, which was definitely not what he needed.

"Good, now what was so urgent that you called me here?"

"Test subject #018 has recently perished during the testing phase, I need you to obtain another subject for me."

"What happened?" Lionel prodded

"#018, seemed to have no biological reaction to the reagent whatsoever, when put in 'The Run' he showed no reaction to the stimuli and died due to one of the obstacles."

"Will this abject failure be of any use at all?"

"We're planning on dissecting #018's remains to discover whether there actually was no reaction to the reagent or whether it was something so insignificant that we wouldn't have picked it up. Plus it allows for a closer look at how the reagent interacts with the human body."

"Right, well I guarantee that by the end of the week you will have your new subject, now was there anything else?"

"Yes, actually. Project Gemini is coming along very well, it should be completed in a few weeks, the DNA sample you provided has reacted with the birthing mixture quite bizarrely."

"How do you mean?" asked Lionel

"Well firstly, the birthing mixture seemed to be having an adverse affect on the first attempt, however once we dialed down the dosage of the original reagent in the solution we were successful and Gemini is growing at an incredible rate."

"Excellent, well thank you Dr. Tang as always it's a pleasure seeing you."

"Mr. Luthor" Dr. Tang said curtly before returning to work at one of the display panels.

At that Lionel gave a quick glance towards the containment tank that glowed green, eagerly awaiting the day that was soon to come when he would open that container and the answers he wanted, no, needed, were there spread out before him. He then swept from the room back into the elevator, endured a short trip in the elevator to the lobby and then exited to his awaiting limo. Once there he picked up his carphone and dialed the number of an old friend of his in Metropolis.

"Good afternoon, this is Club Steel how may I help you?"

"Hello, I'd like to speak to Morgan Edge please."

"Mr. Edge is unavailable right now, would you like to leave a message?"

"No, find your boss, tell him it's Lionel Luthor and that it's important."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Edge is."

"NOW!!!" Lionel shouted down the phone.

That must have done the trick because the next voice Lionel heard was Morgan Edge's.

"Hey there Lionel, you trying to scare my secretary?"

"She was being obstructive."

"Hmm, sounds like you're in a hurry."

"Yes, I need you to secure another subject for me immediately."

"To be honest Lionel, I'm not sure I can do that for you, sooner or later people are going to start noticing plus this sort of thing is high-risk for my guys. Not to mention I just recently lost one of my best employees, guys name was Kal, solid worker." Edge lamented

Lionel's reply came back sounding weary and resigned "I'll pay double."

"No problem."

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Later that evening on the streets of Metropolis, David Brookston was searching for a place to sleep, his unwashed clothes stuck to him like a second skin and his hair was unkempt. He had been too late to get access to the homeless shelter so now he was just searching for a warm place where he could get a couple of hours sleep before resuming his begging tomorrow.

Eventually he found an unoccupied dumpster in the back alley nearby a restaurant, it had recently been filled with trash bags that on closer inspection seemed to contain food scraps. David decided that the trash bags looked fairly comfortable and the scraps could be good for breakfast tomorrow morning, so he started to climb in.

He was just about halfway in when he felt two pairs of strong arms grab him from behind and pull him back onto the ground.

"Hey man, if you want to sleep there you can alright, I don't want any trouble." David said

"Pathetic" said one of his attackers; he then shot David with a tranquilizer gun.

David felt the dart hit him and the edges of his vision started to blur, his only thought being 'I wonder if they're gonna take me somewhere warm' as he blacked out.