Chapter 6 – Eradicator
The dream had changed.
Tyler found himself adrift in a dark void. Weightless and free. There was no light, no air, only a blanket of silence.
"Where am I?" he whispered.
"In the place that was Krypton," answered Jor-El.
Tyler turned and faced this phantom of his dreams.
"Who are you?"
Jor-El faced him, "I am your creator," he answered, "Yet I exist only in your memory."
"My memory?"
The memory of the part of you that is Krypton."
"I am not of Krypton," he said.
"There is a part of you that is," Jor-El told him, he pointed to Tyler's eye and lifted his right hand, "The part of you that I built."
"You?" said Tyler, Jor-El nodded, "Why?"
"So you may protect my son from the curse of the House of El."
"I don't understand," said Tyler, feeling frustration creep in.
"Seek out my final message to my son," Jor-El instructed him, "Therein lies the answers you seek."
-----
Tyler woke and sat up. His heart was hammering, threatening to burst from his chest. He was cold, clammy and drenched in sweat.
He remembered the dream.
All of it.
In a rush, the others came back to him. And he felt their burden weigh him down.
Suddenly, there came an intense, high-pitched whine that rattled in his head. He put his hands over his ears but it was no good. The noise was in his mind. His head was ready to explode. He grimaced and turned to look out the window. What he saw made his blood run cold.
There was a bright flare of light coming from the Kent's storm cellar. It lay open. Tyler felt the onset of a terrible fear. His thoughts were a jumbled, swirling mass. He fought to quell the panic that crested like a tidal wave inside him.
"Clark..."
-----
Clark was lost in a nightmare.
He was blind, and felt he was falling through an endless tunnel. All around him was the darkness of the void and he could sense the walls closing in. He struggled but found he could not move.
All power was being drained from him and he could feel his life slip away with every breath. Then he started to choke. A terrible weight fell on his chest and invisible hands encircled his neck. They closed, gripping him tighter, and Clark fought for breath.
Colours exploded inside his mind. His thoughts became scattered – Flashes of moments he'd known dashed across his vision so fast, Clark felt he would drown in them. He was getting weaker.
It was harder to breathe... to think... to fight...
Just when he felt all hope had died, the weight lifted. He sucked in a desperate rush of air and opened his eyes.
He screamed. There above him, was the face of Lex Luthor.
No, not Lex!
In a few heartbeats, Clark could see that he had changed. Lex's eyes, usually the colour of storm clouds, now blazed an acid green! Lex's familiar smirk spread over his face. Clark almost gagged as he saw two metal bands, the width of a ruler, slide out from Lex's skull behind his ears. They slithered. Growing and growing, sliding in a curve until they met at a point in front of Lex's eyes. His green eyes burnt out two eye sockets and to Clark, they were like gazing into Death's own visage.
"Lex..." Clark gasped.
His words were cut off as Lex's hands closed around his throat once more. Clark gasped and grabbed at him, trying to pry his fingers loose. Clark squinted at his hands, and his eyes bulged. The flesh began to whither and his veins ran black.
Lex knelt on the bed, his mouth set in a grim line, and continued to squeeze.
"Clark? Did I hear a scream?"
The bedroom door opened and Jonathan Kent stepped in, still dressed in his nightshirt and boxer shorts.
"Lex! What the hell are you doing?" he demanded, trying to take in the scene in front of him, "Get away from my son."
He started to make his way across the room, but Lex was up and moving before he took two steps. He flipped himself off the bed, crossed the floor in a single stride and struck Jonathan a blow to the midriff that flung him back into the wall. The back of his head cracked against the wall and he sank to the floor, unconscious.
"Dad!" Clark tried vainly to roll off the bed and reach his father, but Lex stooped and grabbed his arm. Again, pain lanced through Clark's body and he felt the life being sucked from him.
"Let him go."
Clark and Lex looked up at the sound of the voice.
It was Tyler.
"Let him go," he repeated, calmly.
But Lex just ignored him, holding onto Clark's arm as the young man grunted in pain. Tyler bellowed in rage and rushed at Lex. He speared him with a viscous tackle and kept running. The two smashed through the bedroom window, ripping out the frame and sending out a shower of glass shards.
Tyler kept his grip on Lex as they fell. He could hear the wind whistling in his ears before they hit the ground with a dull thud. Dust billowed out around them and the ground fairly shook from the impact.
Tyler gagged. He felt a hand close around his neck in an iron grip. He clawed at Lex's fingers, but was suddenly flung at the farmhouse wall with the speed of a fastball. He cartwheeled in mid-air and crashed face first into the wall. All breath exploded from his lungs and he collapsed in a heap.
Tyler lay still for a moment, then he groaned and sat up. Panic hit him like a blow. He jerked round, scanning the farmyard, but to no avail.
Lex was gone.
-----
"Could someone please explain to me what the hell just happened?" Jonathan demanded, as his wife Martha gently rubbed an ice pack across the back of his head.
He looked across the living room where Clark and Tyler sat side by side on the couch.
"I just checked the storm cellar dad," Clark told him, "My spaceship it... it was turned on. We took the key out and its back to normal but..."
"What?" Jonathan cut in as the words registered.
He sat bolt upright, the pain in his head forgotten. He shot a nervous glance at Tyler. Clark noticed, and said:
"Don't worry dad, Tyler knows."
Jonathan looked at Tyler, who nodded.
"Okay," said Jonathan, "Do you know how that happened?"
Tyler shook his head, "According to Clark, Lex always had the key. He just didn't know what it was. He must have snuck past us this afternoon and saw the slot in the ship. Not too difficult to put two and two together after that. Then he put it into the ship and switched it on."
"Why was Lex attacking Clark?" asked Martha.
For a while, nobody spoke, the shock of the attack still lingering. Eventually, Tyler broke the silence.
"I know how we can find out."
Everyone's eyes fell on him, waiting for him to continue. He turned to Clark.
"Remember those dreams I was having? The ones that vanished when I woke up?"
"Yes."
"I remember them now. They were of a man. A man..." he tried to find the words, "A man... not of this world. He was speaking to me, telling me something."
"Who was it?" Tyler met Clark's gaze, and held it.
"Your father, Clark."
Jonathan and Martha gasped. They shot frantic looks at their son, but Clark just sat there, calmly.
"What did he tell you?" asked Clark.
"He told me to seek out his final message to you," he shifted his gaze to Jonathan and Martha, "Do you know what that means?"
They looked at each other. There was a silent exchange between them, then Jonathan nodded.
"I'll get it," he said.
-----
Dr. Emil Hamilton was a man obsessed. He'd lost his research scholarship for openly voicing his radical theories about Smallville's meteor rocks and their strange capabilities. A respected and powerful scientist before the debacle he'd fallen far down the proverbial food chain for his claims that the meteor rocks affected the dynamic nature of homo sapien DNA.
Left without funding, Dr. Hamilton had set up shop in an old barn on the outskirts of Smallville and continued to probe the mystery of the alien compounds. It was in Smallville he'd met Lex Luthor, who'd become his benefactor.
At the moment, he was frustrated. The breakthrough he'd achieved with the Nicodemus flower had been set back after some unfortunate incidents. He cursed people and their shortsightedness.
So they killed a few people. So what? Wasn't the marching army of science more important.
Right now, he was experimenting on the birthing properties of rats if small quantities of liquefied meteor rock were inserted in the embryos before insemination.
There was a noise. Dr. Hamilton looked up as the door opened. He nearly fell off his chair when he saw Lex Luthor enter the room.
But he wasn't Lex.
This man wore a headband, made of thick, dark metal. Through the headbanned shone two bright green eyes.
"What do you want?" he stood up.
Lex crossed the room, and grabbed the front of his shirt.
When he spoke, his voice had a robotic quality,
"I want power!"
He flung the helpless doctor across the room and onto a table adorned with rows and rows of tanks. Dr. Hamilton smashed through one, his head banging off the wall and he slumped to the ground.
Lex stepped over to him, reached into one of the tanks, and drew out a meteor rock. It blazed and he drained it. He opened his hand, and the dust of the meteor scattered on the floor.
-----
Tyler turned the device over in his hands. It was block shaped, ten inches long, five inches wide, and coated white. It was covered in strange symbols and carvings.
"Like alien hieroglyphs," he said.
In one corner there was a gem set into the metal. Tyler squinted at it.
"That's all we found in the ship," Jonathan informed him, "We don't know what it says, and it doesn't appear to do anything."
"Oh it does something," said Tyler, "Power on!"
All three Kents shot each other surprised looks. None of them had understood those last words that Tyler spoke - he'd said it in another language.
They were startled when a green beam suddenly shot from the gem in the device. Like a laser, it zoomed out and buried itself in Tyler's right eye. He sat perfectly still, his other eye glazed over and unfocused as the beam connected him to the device.
Clark held his breath and watched his friend. Tyler remained as he was for a few more seconds, then the beam winked out. He took a long, deep breath, and when he looked up there were tears in his eyes. He held to Clark's stare and Clark could almost feel the overwhelming sadness inside him.
"I know," Tyler whispered, "I know everything."
He sounded tortured.
"You know what it is?" asked Martha, leaning forward expectantly.
Tyler nodded, "Tell them my story first Clark," he said.
"But Tyler..."
"Tell them," Tyler repeated more firmly.
Clark nodded. He turned to his parents and began recounting the story of what happened to Tyler the day of the shower. How he'd found the ship as a young boy, and the change it put him through. How coming back to Smallville had triggered enormous powers in him.
Tyler sat where he was, eyes closed and seemingly in a trance until Clark had finished.
"This," he said at last, holding up the device, "Is both a message and a warning." The Kents kept silent, waiting. "It's a communicator, able to transfer images, sounds, data, whatever, directly into your brain. In essence Clark, what it is, is your father's story."
"I want to hear it," said Clark, eyes fierce.
Tyler nodded, "You were born on a planet called Krypton," he began, "The Kryptonians were an accomplished race, advanced beyond our dreams – Their history stretching back aeons. They were students, artists, scientists. Generations ago, Kryptonians developed the art of space travel. A new universe was opened to them and they had the chance to roam far-off worlds under distant suns. But not all on Krypton saw these new developments in that light. You see, the Kryptonians were also an arrogant race, who believed they were an elite people. Many argued that travelling to other worlds would contaminate the 'genetic purity' of Krypton. They wanted to remain pure. As with all civilisations, and Earth has boasted many examples, arrogance was their downfall. An ancestor of yours, Kem-L," he nodded at Clark, who realised he wasn't breathing, "Built a sentient device that would ensure that purity. He called it the Eradicator, a device capable of reproducing itself in order to fulfil its one and only function."
"Which was?" Clark asked.
"To preserve the Kryptonian way of life, the status quo if you like. It altered the genetic coding of all Kryptonians and forever bonded them to their planet. If any ever tried to leave, which some attempted to do, they would die."
"Then why is Clark here?" asked Martha.
Tyler glanced at her before continuing, "The Eradicator, or parts of its coding, existed in every manifestation of Kryptonian technology. Making it impossible to construct anything that held off the Eradicator's influence, but your father beat it Clark, or at least he thought he did. You see your father, Jor-El, was one of the greatest thinkers Krypton had ever known. A year before you were born, he stumbled upon something. An imbalance in the core of the planet, an energy build-up of monumental proportions. The planet turned into a time bomb, and Jor-El realised that in time, it would implode upon itself."
"My God!" Jonathan muttered, stunned. Martha could only stare at her son, tears staining her cheeks, unable to speak. Clark's face betrayed no emotion.
"Go on," he told Tyler.
"Jor-El tried to warn people, but there was nothing anybody could do. The Eradicator had bound everybody to Krypton and when the planet died, they would all die with it. But he was also a rebel. He did something that no Kryptonian had done in millennia, he got your mother pregnant."
"Excuse me?" Clark's expression was almost comical.
"Kryptonian women no longer carried their children themselves. The young were born in capsules, like the pods in The Matrix. But Jor-El was determined that at least one Son of Krypton survive. The move made him an outcast, dispelled from their highest council as a heretic," Tyler paused, composing his thoughts, "He became obsessed with saving your life. He refused to let you die with them. So he built the ship, knowing he'd have to place you inside and seal it before the Eradicator had a chance to alter your coding. But, like I said, the Eradicator exists in all Kryptonian technology, including the capsule, and your father feared it would awaken here on earth. Once there, it would sense that, apart from you, no other Kryptonian life existed. After that..."
"It would follow its core programming," said Clark, "And try to replicate the fate of all other Kryptonians. It would destroy me."
"Preserving the status quo," Tyler confirmed, "And that's why Jor-El built me."
"You?"
"The Kryptonian parts of me are based on the same technology as the Eradicator, a machine able to bond to a life form in order to function if removed from Kryptonian technology. I was programmed to attach to the first living organism that came into contact with the craft, which means," he glanced pointedly at Jonathan, "That it should have been you. The one who discovered Clark – To act as a Guardian."
Jonathan and Martha regarded Tyler. His story was out there - but they believed every word.
"So Lex has now revived this Eradicator?" said Martha.
"Yes," said Tyler, "Somehow he managed to activate it, and it took over his body. You have to understand, our machine parts are different in nature. He isn't Lex anymore. The Eradicator has subjugated him completely. Now it will continue to try and carry out its primary function."
"Well I won't just sit around and wait for it," said Clark, he stood up, "This thing is responsible for genocide. I'm going to find it, and put an end to it."
"How did you feel when Lex touched you Clark?" asked Tyler.
"Weak," said Clark, "Like he was sucking the life from me."
"Like he was holding a meteor rock?" Clark nodded. "Exactly, he's like one big meteor rock by now. You can't go up against Lex. Every time you hit him you'll only be hurting yourself. Clark, he could kill you."
"Tyler's right Clark," said Martha. She stood and laid a comforting arm across his shoulders.
"I can't just do nothing," he protested.
"You can help me find him," said Tyler. He also stood, and went to grip Clark's shoulder. "There's one more thing," he said.
"What?"
"Your name," he said, "Your true name, you want to know what it is?"
"Of course."
"Not so fast Clark," Tyler warned him, "Once it's spoken it's a part of you. You'll never be plain old Clark Kent again."
"I want to know," there was resolve in his voice.
Tyler nodded, "Your name is Kel-El," he said, "The last son of the House of El."
Clark exhaled and he felt tears stinging his eyes.
"Thank you," he said.
"Believe me Clark, it was my pleasure."
"Now," said Clark, "Where could Lex be?"
"I'm not sure. He knows I'm here now, he probably knows what I am, so he won't try another direct attack."
"What do you mean?" asked Martha.
"There's more than one way to destroy a man, Mrs Kent," said Tyler, "The people of Krypton, for all their noble works, still had a darker side to their nature. A deep-rooted violence that no amount of enlightenment could banish. When nobles clashed, it was commonplace for one to wipe out all those his rival loved. Leaving that broken man to take his own life."
Martha gasped, "That's terrible."
Clark was stunned, "He'll attack those I love?"
Tyler nodded, then suddenly froze. A terrible feeling of dread iced its way through his veins and he looked up at Clark. As soon as their eyes met they both knew.
"Lana!"
-----
The Eradicator stood on the balcony of the old theatre, looking out over the coffee shop floor. It was still early and Main Street was deserted, none of the stores having opened yet. So Lana Lang was all alone, wiping down tables.
Thoughts he could not process were flooding his mind and he struggled to be free of them.
"She is not of Krypton," said a soft, weak voice inside his head, "She is innocent!"
"I care not!" savagely he banished the voice, "The Son of El loves this one deeply. She is his weakness."
He screamed his rage and leapt from the balcony. At the sound, Lana jerked round. She looked up and caught the briefest glimpse of Lex before he was on her. She fell, and her head caught on the edge of a table. She crumpled to the floor, out cold.
For a moment, Lex did not move. He stood over her, his eyes raking up and down her comatose body. The voice in his mind screamed louder than ever. But he brushed it aside as if it were no more than a pestering fly.
He lifted his gaze to the ceiling. It was stone, supported by a series of overarching metal beams. Suddenly, a pair of neon green lasers erupted from Lex's eyes. He concentrated them on the supports and instantly the metal began to smoke, an acidic stench filling the air.
Flaming droplets of molten metal dripped to the floor, burning through it like acid. One of the supports rent from the wall and smashed into the ground, barely a yard from where Lana still lay.
He switched his fiery gaze to the next one, and the next, cutting swiftly through them like a wire through butter.
Out the window, two blurs could be seen tearing up the street at a crazy speed. Clark and Tyler screeched to a halt outside the window. One look and they took in the scene inside.
Tyler screamed, "Lana!"
He dove straight through the window, rolled amid the shards and came to his feet. Lex ignored him, still severing the supports. Clark jumped through the window and landed beside him.
"The roof's gonna cave!"
"Get Lana out!"
Tyler gripped Lex by his collar, bunched his muscles, and pulled. Lex flew through the air and smashed into the opposite wall, sending out a shower of broken plaster.
Clark glanced up, and at that moment, the last support gave way with a loud wrench. An ominous rumbling sounded and, for a second, the walls appeared to bend inwards before the ceiling came crashing down.
Clark lifted Lana and raced outside. Tyler zipped over to Lex and hauled him to his feet. He slammed him back into the wall once more, then with a grunt, heaved him over his head. Huge blocks of masonry rained down on them, smashing into Lex and knocking them both from their feet.
Choking dust billowed out and Tyler tried to move his head. As he did, he again felt Lex's iron fingers closing about his neck.
"Pitiful," Lex hissed, "You dare to oppose me?"
Tyler gritted his teeth, "I will end you," he croaked.
"I am immortal," the fingers tightened further, "Not even you can prevent the destruction of the Last Son of El."
"You're wrong!"
With a mighty effort, Tyler managed to wrest his knees up to his chest, wedging them between their bodies. He tilted himself back and planted his feet flat on Lex's torso. A strangled cry escaped from him as he finally wrenched Lex's hands from his throat.
Then, concentrating all his strength, he shoved his legs out straight. Lex catapulted through the air, cartwheeling over and over high into the sky. Then he became a mere speck that fell like a stone somewhere beyond the limits of downtown.
Tyler coughed. A spray of dust and small stones burst from his throat, and he groaned and stood up, dusting himself off. The street-facing wall still stood. So Tyler stepped through the window to where Clark was bent over Lana on the sidewalk.
"How is she?" he asked.
"She'll be fine," said Clark, "A few bruises, maybe a concussion. It looks like we got here just in time. Where did Lex land?"
"Hopefully the next state."
"I doubt you chucked him that far."
"Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?"
"He's got to be holed up somewhere," said Clark.
"Yeah but where?" asked Tyler, "It has to be a place where he has access to meteor rocks, I think he gets his energy from them."
"But I told you, there's no..." his voice trailed off as comprehension dawned on his face.
"Clark, what is it?"
"I know where he is."
"Where?"
"Level 3."
"Where in God's name is that?"
"The LuthorCorp plant."
Tyler hesitated for a second, then: "Okay, get Lana home. I'm going to the plant."
"I'm coming with you."
"No, you're not!" Tyler's voice carried an edge, "You can't hurt him, I can! Its about damn time I taught that thing what it means to be a Son of Krypton."