TITLE: Save Me - Chapter 1
RATING: PG13
AUTHOR: suprdreemz
E-MAIL: jjadedone@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters,
I'm only playing with them.
SPOILERS: definitely Dichotic and a touch of Craving, but to be safe, everything up until Perry.
PAIRING(s): Clark/Lana
GENRE: Action/Adventure/Romance/Angst/Future Fic
SETTING: A few years into the future where Kryptonite mutations are widely occurring phenomena causing troubled times and much turmoil. Clark and his friends now live in a world struggling to recover.
SUMMARY: "…. We've all had to face a lot of dangers and take matters into our own hands because we wanted a future for ourselves…for our children. Stress like that tends to give a person new perspective on life, makes them realize that if they only had it to do over again… maybe they'd do it this time with out all the secrets."
POV for rest of story: omniscient/3rd person
AUTHORS NOTES: if any, will follow at end of chapters
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Midnight
Abandoned Luthor Corp. Professional Park
~s~
Lana slowed to a stop as she drove her burgundy Discovery into a secluded spot just beyond the group of buildings and turned of the engine.
It appeared to be the aftermath of a war zone, not an uncommon site these days. High rise buildings with large sections missing, broken glass, giant chunks of concrete lying haphazardly in the middle of a crushed public fountain; a chaotic art form to those loathing anything and everything having to do with Luthor Corp.
The professional park was Lex's project. It was to be the newest addition to the masses of Luthor buildings that had popped up over the years in both Metropolis and other large cities. This one, however, was located right outside of Smallville; something Lex designed to help bring more Metropolis type jobs to the town's unemployed. Businesses such as local internet service, cable service, a pharmacy and a new bank were just the beginning. All seemed to be going as planned until Lionel pulled rank and took over part of the project. Against his son's wishes he turned the plans for a clinic into a science division for his managing director Dr. Hubert Grossman. It was no secret that Dr. Grossman was a renowned expert in the field of genetic engineering. With so many infected running the streets of Metropolis, rumors of tampering with the meteorite and human genes were a hot topic. This made the laboratories an unwanted and very controversial addition, something Lex fought his father on with everything he had.
When the plaza saw its destruction six months ago, Lex was neither as disheartened as one would expect from a person who just lost something he'd put his heart into, nor was he completely exonerated of all suspicions by Luthor Corp. Lex began to sense sabotage on his father's interest in the green meteor rock when soon after Dr. Grossman was found dead in his Metropolis penthouse. The life had been sucked out of him like he'd had a visit from Jodi Melville. Sadly this was not an uncommon ability in the year 2006 and so the local police just chalked it up to a random attack by a hungry infected. Since that event, there had been a string of heavy vandalism cases focused on Luthor Corp. offices and buildings. Still the Metropolis police, most likely out of fear, wrote it off as random acts of violence. Clark and his friends on the other hand did not.
The tables had definitely turned. Some may have assumed that with such power, anything bearing the Luthor name would be the last to stand, certainly not the first to go. The infected evidently had a different belief system and a lot of muscle to back it up.
"I don't like it." Clark was the first to get out of the car. He shut his door and scanned the area, not able to reveal just exactly how much he didn't like it. It was no secret anymore that Luthor Corporation had focused much of its research into studying the Kryptonite. The proverbial cat was allowed out of the bag once the infected started becoming a real problem. An obvious connection between the properties of the Kryptonite and lead had been made. Although Clark didn't know the science of it, he wasn't surprised to find certain led lined walls in the science building. Unfortunately that was exactly where Chloe was supposed to meet her contact and he was not able to peer through the walls to spy out any problems ahead of time. He felt in a sense, blind.
"All I have to do is get the disk from my contact, and then we can go." Chloe reassured Clark as she walked around to the other side of the car and stood near him and Pete. "No big deal, done it a million times."
"Yeah, but nothing this big Chloe'," Pete reminded her. He knew that Clark must have a good reason for concern, one that he probably couldn't voice. And the delicate material supposedly made available to them by Chloe's contact in itself would cause one to be leary.
Just that moment Lana's cell phone rang. She looked at the display to see the number from the Talon and then answered, "Hi… whats up?"
Chloe looked anxiously at her watch and then at Lana.
"Sorry guys, problem at the Talon…I've really got to take this," Lana looked a little confused as to what she should do, then feeling badly about the delay, offered a suggestion. "Why don't you just go on with out me, I'll wait here." Lana recommended then stuck her car keys in the pocket of her jeans and continued her phone conversation. "Yeah…I'm here…so what happened?"
"Pete, you mind waiting with Lana?" Clark asked quietly trying to mask his concern for fear the girls would once again peg him a worry-wart and do the exact opposite of what he hoped they would do. He didn't understand their need for constantly proving themselves. He was confident they were more resourceful then most girls he knew, especially in dangerous situations.
"No problem." Pete assured.
~s~
The moon was full and bright, shinning through a broken window, leaving the desk and the figure behind it in darkness. Instead, it illuminated just a section of the floor in the middle of what used to be an office.
"I should have expected this from you," The figure cloaked in darkness spoke. "You always did take that school newspaper too seriously."
Chloe squinted at the figure in the darkness and sudden recognition as well as confusion took over her features, "Ian?" She said in disbelief.
"I'm touched you recognize my voice" Ian walked into the moonlit area where he could be seen more clearly. It was the same Ian, or at least one of him, but it seemed that more then just a few years had passed. Signs of aging on his face were clear even in the dimly lit room.
Clark's jaws clenched automatically …this couldn't be right. He'd witnessed Ian's plummet to the bottom of the dam and had forcefully thrown his double into a large metal sign over 3 years ago. Sure Ian looked much older, but it was definitely Ian. The only problem was, they were told he died, and this Ian looked very much alive.
"But I thought you..?" Chloe was in shock. She stood there, frozen as if she were seeing a ghost while Clark did all he could to stop his focused glare on Ian from becoming a beam of heat and frying off his face. He didn't like this, but making a move prematurely might ruin their chances of getting the disk. Something that would hopefully give them the answers they'd been desperately trying to find for the last year and a half.
"Died?" Ian finished in a smooth yet cocky voice. "Done that quite a few times actually..." he slithered closer to Chloe and affectionately caressed her cheek.
Creepiness oozed in his presence and Chloe was at a loss as to what she'd ever seen in him.
"Amazing what science can accomplish these days." Ian walked back over to the desk. "All you need is a strand of DNA, a certain green rock and a genius in the family and it's like you never have to die. Life can be really exciting when you don't have to be bothered with something like that."
Clark started forward, no patience left for this game anymore, however Chloe' sensed it and grabbed his arm before he made a move. If they could just get that disk, she'd go ahead and play Ian's sick little game.
"So you're the one who's been contacting me?" Chloe' asked.
Ian sighed. "No…I'm afraid that privilege goes to her."
Through the doorway from the adjacent room, one of Ian's henchmen appeared supporting the weight of a very dead woman…he let her fall to the floor right in the moonlight.
"Oh my god," Chloe's heart stopped. The woman was a spitting image of herself. "What the hell's going on you sick bastard!"
Clark grabbed Chloe' by the shoulders as he now saw two men in the room, each holding a gun pointed in their direction.
"So you were looking for this I take it?" Ian ignored Chloe's demand for answers and held up a small case that shimmered in the moonlight.
Chloe eyed the guns pointed in her direction, then looked at Ian and nodded her head.
Ian laughed, "You know, I really do prefer blondes over brunettes... but now I'm afraid, as much as I would like to accommodate you, it's really impossible. You see, if I gave this to you, it would ruin all my fun, and believe me, I'm having the time of my life. Or should I say lives?" He set the disk on the desk, and bent down to pick up a hand sized chunk of concrete and held it above the disk. "I could easily destroy it, but the truth is that another would just be made and I'd be in the same rut." He lowered the chunk of concrete and set it next to the disk. "No, experience has taught me that the best way to handle situations like this is to take care of the ones seeking the information in the first place." Ian nodded to his henchmen who in turn gestured with their guns for Clark and Chloe to move through the doorway and into the next room.
~s~
tbc in chap 2
A/N: To accommodate my storyline, I've taken GREAT liberties with Ian's character and will continue to do so. Such as I have no idea if they ever said Ian actually died or not, but barely have the time to write let alone search through all my Smallville tapes to find out for sure. Besides… it wouldn't matter anyways cuz I'm the goddess of this particular little world and I say he died J