A/N: I apologize for the long delay. The end result is a new computer with lots of upgrades. Hmmm, if only it would upgrade my vocabulary.
LaCasta I have to say thank you for Every chapter because you help so much.
The Missing
Chapter 6
The overhead light came on at six am, startling Chloe out of a rather nightmarish dream. Captured by a mad scientist, exposed to meteors, she'd mutated into a rat and been crawling through endless air ducts trying to escape. The desperate feeling of being chased clung to her as she sat up and tried to shake off the last vestiges of sleep.
She'd spent two hours the night before not answering questions from that asshole, John Halton. The self-important, sadistic prick. Thank God they hadn't found her true identity, yet. Fingerprinting would probably come next. Rich had been charming. He'd surprised her with a varied and inventive use of the curses available in the English language. Quite honestly, she'd never have guessed he had it in him.
Rich had come looking for her during breaks. Pissed off when he couldn't find her easily, he'd notified the guards and they'd discovered the shutdown of the ducting security. Ah, true love. Chloe knew she'd never been one to inspire poetry but Rich's loyalty was insultingly short lived. Oh, well, so much for agonizing over letting him down easy. Now she had bigger worries to tackle.
Chloe looked at the sparsely furnished room and wondered which mutant had occupied it first. Stark white walls, a bed, a chair and small table, three doors, no lamp and no night table. The air vent was high and small. Chloe remembered her pass card. It had unlocked all the doors. She'd set it down in the duct before jumping down. If she had some luck left they may not have seen it before closing the duct. Little good it would do as they would definitely have reactivated the laser sensors in the duct.
No surveillance that she could find, though, that was a godsend. The bare walls and sparse furniture didn't leave any place to hide a camera so she could only conclude there was none. Perhaps they had decided it was in the best interests of the captives to give them some privacy. Perhaps it was arrogance on the part of her captors, secure in the thought that she could not escape. This was not a comforting idea.
Immediately upon capture, Chloe had insisted on her legal rights and was told that she had none here. John Halton had seemed to take particular glee in telling her that her life on the outside would no longer exist after 24 hrs. He followed this with the rather cryptic statement, "You have no idea who you're dealing with." The problem, Chloe thought, was that she did.
Checking the doors was next and it helped to stretch cramped limbs. The first was windowless but seeing as it was the door she'd been unceremoniously dumped through the night before, she knew it led to an interior hallway connecting to testing rooms and the small dining hall that had been her interrogation room. Predictably, it was locked. So was the windowed door that led to the ominously green hallway, the records room where she'd been caught, and all the exits. The only door with no lock was the one leading to the small but functional bathroom.
Inspecting the rooms in minute detail revealed nothing of use to unlock the doors, and no potential weapons, even the cups in the bathroom were a softish plastic. There was nothing to do but wait.
****
Martha Kent had always liked Chloe Sullivan. She was smart, funny, caring, generous and unfortunately inquisitive. Now she was here, captured like the rest of them. A long sad breath escaped as Martha tried to sift through possibilities and repercussions. It had been two agonizing years. The sight of Chloe that first night had given her hope but she should have known better. It was breaking her heart to know Chloe'd been caught up in this. Martha hugged herself as she sat in a chair watching her son stare blankly at the opposite wall, his back to the room. His posture shut out everything around him, reflecting physically the state of his mind. Martha tried to suppress a wave of hopelessness. God, she didn't want Chloe to be another victim to add to the list of people destroyed by the meteors and Lionel Luthor's obsession with them.
Evidence indicated Lionel had started tests with the meteors as far back as the year after the shower, motivated most likely by changes in his own son. Martha recalled the time she had worked for him. She'd once accidentally seen that he kept a vault of refined meteors at the LuthorCorp tower and it caused her to re-evaluate everything she knew of him. She'd recalled that Byron Moore had been changed during a LuthorCorp funded experiment years ago. Earl Jenkins had also been injured in an experiment with the meteors or Kryptonite as Clark had called them. Lionel's obsession had been well formed before Clark had ever crossed his path. Unfortunately, meeting Lionel Luthor had been inevitable.
The meeting and eventual friendship of Lex and Clark had seemed like fate. Jonathan had tried to discourage their friendship but it was out of his control. Why Lionel had transferred his son to work near the site of his biggest trauma, Martha would never understand, but it had set in motion the series of events that had brought them here.
Clark had eventually met Lionel Luthor, at a time when his changing body had made it difficult to hide his strange abilities. The incident with the red meteors had sealed Lionel's interest, though luckily the role those rocks had played remained hidden. He most likely began to suspect Clark's reaction to the green meteors after the hostage taking at the LuthorCorp tower. Lionel may not have been able to see but Martha's own distress had made her indiscreet in her words to Clark. It was impossible at the time to know how much he'd understood and whether there had been surveillance in the building.
Then, two years ago, armed mercenaries had invaded the Kent farm, taking Martha and Jonathan first, as hostages against Clark's strength. It most likely wouldn't have worked but their arsenal included Kryptonite. Martha was convinced Lionel hadn't been sure of the effect. He'd merely gambled and won.
The Kents had been brought here and hadn't seen sunlight since. The experiments had begun immediately and the discovery of Clark's alien DNA prompted a number of tests on Jonathan and Martha as well. When they'd proven unremarkable, they'd been kept as goads to ensure Clark's cooperation.
At first, the scientists were enthusiastic. They'd treated Clark reasonably well and the Kents with indifference; though apparently uncaring they were not overtly cruel. A year and a half passed with endless tests, pushing Clark to the edges of his abilities. Physical parameters were all meticulously documented, calculated, and extrapolated while Clark and his parents tried to give each other hope. Escape was planned but rarely got past the first stages as no one was willing to risk the other's harm. They were always held separately as hostages to the others. Finally, Clark and his parents made a pact that any one of them would escape if the opportunity arose and try to bring help. Escape for all of them at once was impossible. All they could do was watch and wait for an opportunity. For a while it helped them to believe the nightmare would end.
Time passed and hope began to fade. The testing continued but the scientists paid no attention to the weariness and despair that started to take the light out of Clark's eyes. He blamed himself for the destruction of his parents' lives and when confronted with the mutants that already resided here, he agonized that somehow he'd created them. Jonathan and Martha had watched him start to withdraw. His answers became shorter. He made eye contact less often. Clark was disappearing into himself as time passed and his parents' protests were ignored.
Gradually, Clark's abilities had stopped increasing. In recent months they had even begun to recede. There was talk of ending the tests and moving on to the practical application of their data. The scientists seemed to switch focus to what they obviously felt was the next stage. The Kents worried about their future but hoped that the tests on Clark would end. Surprisingly, at this time, John Halton and the top members of his crew had been summoned to a board meeting. They'd returned with orders to continue studies and remain silent. Apparently, someone leaking information to the outside had been made an example of. Everyone got back to work but the mood of the facility changed. Martha had realized then that they were all captives here. The scientists were bound by confidentiality agreements and fear. LuthorCorp had them trapped in this nightmare facility almost as securely as the residents.
The scientists themselves began to squabble over incidental things and tempers flared as everyone's nerves felt the strain. The psychiatrist, Nora Peel, began to challenge Halton's authority, claiming equal time from the subjects and interfering in some of the tests. Martha liked her as much as she could under the circumstances. She spoke kindly to Clark and the Kents, trying to draw them out. Jonathan and Martha had revealed nothing. The scientists knew no more from them than they had already known on the Kent's arrival. Clark's ship had been buried long ago, impossible to discover without specific directions. Surprisingly, their story that it had disappeared with a scientist named Hamilton had been taken as true without further investigation.
Halton's frustration came out in petty experiments and increasing meanness. He forced Clark to submit to the mutants, each in turn, to see if his strength had any ability to restore them. Ian Randall's physical involvement had been limited. He was unable to extract anything from Clark and attempts to inject him with Clark's blood or tissue proved useless as it did not survive the use of kryptonite to extract it. Therefore, Ian became less substantial by day. In losing half of himself he was weakened but his mind remained sharp. The scientists, realizing this, let him help with data analysis.
Ian knew the consequences of that day on the dam three years before. Clark's rescue of Lana Lang while allowing part of Ian to die, had sealed the fate of the remaining half. Ian had theorized that one day, he would simply disperse as his molecules lost the energy that held them together. His impending death however, had done nothing to curb his ambition. He fully intended to have his name included in the research revolving around earth's only known alien. He also hated Clark and helped to spur Halton into some of his crueler tests, taking pleasure in witnessing Clark's suffering. Nora Peel had warned Martha that he was even working to convince Halton that the alien should be destroyed as a potential threat.
Sean Kelvin had moaned with pleasure while taking Clark's body heat and then giggled at Clark's discomfort. Martha had been in the room, held by security as a tangible threat to ensure Clark's co-operation. Clark had locked eyes with her and refused to look at Sean as he cackled with glee, gloating at Clark's helplessness. Security in thermal hazmat suits had had to pull him off when Clark had become unconscious. After that, security had been increased as Sean tried several times to escape and attack Clark again. Thwarted from the physical pleasure of Clark's heat, he taunted him whenever he could. Instinctively hitting on one of Clark's greatest fears, he pointed out that his alienness would always keep him alone. Noting Clark's flinch with a predator's instinct, he sank the blade of his words deeper by reminding him of his inability to connect with Lana Lang. Sean had always been proud of his success with girls and was part of the crowd that had derided Clark in high school.
The experiment with Jodi had furthered Clark's withdrawal. Jodi had been a friend. Clark knew that she was always suffering and wanted to help her. His guilt over the meteor shower showed in how easily he submitted to her. Lowering his tall frame, he had looked into Jodi's eyes and smiled slightly with encouragement. Jodi whispered that she was sorry but could not suppress the joy she received from feeding on him. It was a chance to reduce her constant hunger. In spite of his resolve, Clark could not suppress the look of horror as Jodi's jaw dropped or his cry of pain and Jodi missed neither. Both of them had changed after that. Jodi became more needy and her behaviour more erratic. Clark spoke only to his parents and when spoken to. Then a month ago, Halton brought in Desiree Atkins.
Martha stood up and walked to the door, unwilling to think about the series of events that had cost the life of her beloved Jonathan. That wound was still too raw and she could indulge in her sorrow at another time. Clark needed her now. Nora Peel was due in any minute and Martha would see if she could pull some strings. Her father hadn't wanted her to be a lawyer for no reason. She had used that natural talent for persuasion to get the freedom she currently enjoyed. It was cynical and harsh to use Jonathan's death as leverage but she portrayed herself as a grieving wife and let them believe it had made her harmless. They never suspected that a farmer's wife could manipulate them and she needed to talk to Chloe.
LaCasta I have to say thank you for Every chapter because you help so much.
The Missing
Chapter 6
The overhead light came on at six am, startling Chloe out of a rather nightmarish dream. Captured by a mad scientist, exposed to meteors, she'd mutated into a rat and been crawling through endless air ducts trying to escape. The desperate feeling of being chased clung to her as she sat up and tried to shake off the last vestiges of sleep.
She'd spent two hours the night before not answering questions from that asshole, John Halton. The self-important, sadistic prick. Thank God they hadn't found her true identity, yet. Fingerprinting would probably come next. Rich had been charming. He'd surprised her with a varied and inventive use of the curses available in the English language. Quite honestly, she'd never have guessed he had it in him.
Rich had come looking for her during breaks. Pissed off when he couldn't find her easily, he'd notified the guards and they'd discovered the shutdown of the ducting security. Ah, true love. Chloe knew she'd never been one to inspire poetry but Rich's loyalty was insultingly short lived. Oh, well, so much for agonizing over letting him down easy. Now she had bigger worries to tackle.
Chloe looked at the sparsely furnished room and wondered which mutant had occupied it first. Stark white walls, a bed, a chair and small table, three doors, no lamp and no night table. The air vent was high and small. Chloe remembered her pass card. It had unlocked all the doors. She'd set it down in the duct before jumping down. If she had some luck left they may not have seen it before closing the duct. Little good it would do as they would definitely have reactivated the laser sensors in the duct.
No surveillance that she could find, though, that was a godsend. The bare walls and sparse furniture didn't leave any place to hide a camera so she could only conclude there was none. Perhaps they had decided it was in the best interests of the captives to give them some privacy. Perhaps it was arrogance on the part of her captors, secure in the thought that she could not escape. This was not a comforting idea.
Immediately upon capture, Chloe had insisted on her legal rights and was told that she had none here. John Halton had seemed to take particular glee in telling her that her life on the outside would no longer exist after 24 hrs. He followed this with the rather cryptic statement, "You have no idea who you're dealing with." The problem, Chloe thought, was that she did.
Checking the doors was next and it helped to stretch cramped limbs. The first was windowless but seeing as it was the door she'd been unceremoniously dumped through the night before, she knew it led to an interior hallway connecting to testing rooms and the small dining hall that had been her interrogation room. Predictably, it was locked. So was the windowed door that led to the ominously green hallway, the records room where she'd been caught, and all the exits. The only door with no lock was the one leading to the small but functional bathroom.
Inspecting the rooms in minute detail revealed nothing of use to unlock the doors, and no potential weapons, even the cups in the bathroom were a softish plastic. There was nothing to do but wait.
****
Martha Kent had always liked Chloe Sullivan. She was smart, funny, caring, generous and unfortunately inquisitive. Now she was here, captured like the rest of them. A long sad breath escaped as Martha tried to sift through possibilities and repercussions. It had been two agonizing years. The sight of Chloe that first night had given her hope but she should have known better. It was breaking her heart to know Chloe'd been caught up in this. Martha hugged herself as she sat in a chair watching her son stare blankly at the opposite wall, his back to the room. His posture shut out everything around him, reflecting physically the state of his mind. Martha tried to suppress a wave of hopelessness. God, she didn't want Chloe to be another victim to add to the list of people destroyed by the meteors and Lionel Luthor's obsession with them.
Evidence indicated Lionel had started tests with the meteors as far back as the year after the shower, motivated most likely by changes in his own son. Martha recalled the time she had worked for him. She'd once accidentally seen that he kept a vault of refined meteors at the LuthorCorp tower and it caused her to re-evaluate everything she knew of him. She'd recalled that Byron Moore had been changed during a LuthorCorp funded experiment years ago. Earl Jenkins had also been injured in an experiment with the meteors or Kryptonite as Clark had called them. Lionel's obsession had been well formed before Clark had ever crossed his path. Unfortunately, meeting Lionel Luthor had been inevitable.
The meeting and eventual friendship of Lex and Clark had seemed like fate. Jonathan had tried to discourage their friendship but it was out of his control. Why Lionel had transferred his son to work near the site of his biggest trauma, Martha would never understand, but it had set in motion the series of events that had brought them here.
Clark had eventually met Lionel Luthor, at a time when his changing body had made it difficult to hide his strange abilities. The incident with the red meteors had sealed Lionel's interest, though luckily the role those rocks had played remained hidden. He most likely began to suspect Clark's reaction to the green meteors after the hostage taking at the LuthorCorp tower. Lionel may not have been able to see but Martha's own distress had made her indiscreet in her words to Clark. It was impossible at the time to know how much he'd understood and whether there had been surveillance in the building.
Then, two years ago, armed mercenaries had invaded the Kent farm, taking Martha and Jonathan first, as hostages against Clark's strength. It most likely wouldn't have worked but their arsenal included Kryptonite. Martha was convinced Lionel hadn't been sure of the effect. He'd merely gambled and won.
The Kents had been brought here and hadn't seen sunlight since. The experiments had begun immediately and the discovery of Clark's alien DNA prompted a number of tests on Jonathan and Martha as well. When they'd proven unremarkable, they'd been kept as goads to ensure Clark's cooperation.
At first, the scientists were enthusiastic. They'd treated Clark reasonably well and the Kents with indifference; though apparently uncaring they were not overtly cruel. A year and a half passed with endless tests, pushing Clark to the edges of his abilities. Physical parameters were all meticulously documented, calculated, and extrapolated while Clark and his parents tried to give each other hope. Escape was planned but rarely got past the first stages as no one was willing to risk the other's harm. They were always held separately as hostages to the others. Finally, Clark and his parents made a pact that any one of them would escape if the opportunity arose and try to bring help. Escape for all of them at once was impossible. All they could do was watch and wait for an opportunity. For a while it helped them to believe the nightmare would end.
Time passed and hope began to fade. The testing continued but the scientists paid no attention to the weariness and despair that started to take the light out of Clark's eyes. He blamed himself for the destruction of his parents' lives and when confronted with the mutants that already resided here, he agonized that somehow he'd created them. Jonathan and Martha had watched him start to withdraw. His answers became shorter. He made eye contact less often. Clark was disappearing into himself as time passed and his parents' protests were ignored.
Gradually, Clark's abilities had stopped increasing. In recent months they had even begun to recede. There was talk of ending the tests and moving on to the practical application of their data. The scientists seemed to switch focus to what they obviously felt was the next stage. The Kents worried about their future but hoped that the tests on Clark would end. Surprisingly, at this time, John Halton and the top members of his crew had been summoned to a board meeting. They'd returned with orders to continue studies and remain silent. Apparently, someone leaking information to the outside had been made an example of. Everyone got back to work but the mood of the facility changed. Martha had realized then that they were all captives here. The scientists were bound by confidentiality agreements and fear. LuthorCorp had them trapped in this nightmare facility almost as securely as the residents.
The scientists themselves began to squabble over incidental things and tempers flared as everyone's nerves felt the strain. The psychiatrist, Nora Peel, began to challenge Halton's authority, claiming equal time from the subjects and interfering in some of the tests. Martha liked her as much as she could under the circumstances. She spoke kindly to Clark and the Kents, trying to draw them out. Jonathan and Martha had revealed nothing. The scientists knew no more from them than they had already known on the Kent's arrival. Clark's ship had been buried long ago, impossible to discover without specific directions. Surprisingly, their story that it had disappeared with a scientist named Hamilton had been taken as true without further investigation.
Halton's frustration came out in petty experiments and increasing meanness. He forced Clark to submit to the mutants, each in turn, to see if his strength had any ability to restore them. Ian Randall's physical involvement had been limited. He was unable to extract anything from Clark and attempts to inject him with Clark's blood or tissue proved useless as it did not survive the use of kryptonite to extract it. Therefore, Ian became less substantial by day. In losing half of himself he was weakened but his mind remained sharp. The scientists, realizing this, let him help with data analysis.
Ian knew the consequences of that day on the dam three years before. Clark's rescue of Lana Lang while allowing part of Ian to die, had sealed the fate of the remaining half. Ian had theorized that one day, he would simply disperse as his molecules lost the energy that held them together. His impending death however, had done nothing to curb his ambition. He fully intended to have his name included in the research revolving around earth's only known alien. He also hated Clark and helped to spur Halton into some of his crueler tests, taking pleasure in witnessing Clark's suffering. Nora Peel had warned Martha that he was even working to convince Halton that the alien should be destroyed as a potential threat.
Sean Kelvin had moaned with pleasure while taking Clark's body heat and then giggled at Clark's discomfort. Martha had been in the room, held by security as a tangible threat to ensure Clark's co-operation. Clark had locked eyes with her and refused to look at Sean as he cackled with glee, gloating at Clark's helplessness. Security in thermal hazmat suits had had to pull him off when Clark had become unconscious. After that, security had been increased as Sean tried several times to escape and attack Clark again. Thwarted from the physical pleasure of Clark's heat, he taunted him whenever he could. Instinctively hitting on one of Clark's greatest fears, he pointed out that his alienness would always keep him alone. Noting Clark's flinch with a predator's instinct, he sank the blade of his words deeper by reminding him of his inability to connect with Lana Lang. Sean had always been proud of his success with girls and was part of the crowd that had derided Clark in high school.
The experiment with Jodi had furthered Clark's withdrawal. Jodi had been a friend. Clark knew that she was always suffering and wanted to help her. His guilt over the meteor shower showed in how easily he submitted to her. Lowering his tall frame, he had looked into Jodi's eyes and smiled slightly with encouragement. Jodi whispered that she was sorry but could not suppress the joy she received from feeding on him. It was a chance to reduce her constant hunger. In spite of his resolve, Clark could not suppress the look of horror as Jodi's jaw dropped or his cry of pain and Jodi missed neither. Both of them had changed after that. Jodi became more needy and her behaviour more erratic. Clark spoke only to his parents and when spoken to. Then a month ago, Halton brought in Desiree Atkins.
Martha stood up and walked to the door, unwilling to think about the series of events that had cost the life of her beloved Jonathan. That wound was still too raw and she could indulge in her sorrow at another time. Clark needed her now. Nora Peel was due in any minute and Martha would see if she could pull some strings. Her father hadn't wanted her to be a lawyer for no reason. She had used that natural talent for persuasion to get the freedom she currently enjoyed. It was cynical and harsh to use Jonathan's death as leverage but she portrayed herself as a grieving wife and let them believe it had made her harmless. They never suspected that a farmer's wife could manipulate them and she needed to talk to Chloe.