Smallville Virtual (TC) Season Episode 10 – Harbinger
"The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green and blue and white!
And some in dreams assured were
Of the Spirit that plagued us so;
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow."
From "The Rhyme of The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Harbinger - one that presages or foreshadows what is to come –Webster's Dictionary
Lex stepped on the gas, plunging the car to extremes that would have made the German engineers who designed it tremble with fear. He drove as if his life depended on it. His night had been a series of cataclysms since Otis had called him about seeing Clark with Lorelai at the Metropolis Grand. The usually reliable snitch couldn't have been mistaken, so Lex chalked THAT off to once again letting the fact that Clark wasn't human somehow get past him. When Lex had arrived at the Kent farm ready to insinuate himself somehow into the investigation, no one was home except the Kent's dog, Shelby. The low, warning rumble of the dog's growl had been a fairly clear indication that Jonathan Kent's legacy as far as Lex was concerned was intact. Evidence of Oliver Queen in temporary residence made Lex's skin crawl. He and Oliver had dwelled on the opposite sides of the class of people known as privileged. You could count on Oliver Queen not being at an Opera benefit, though a hefty donation from the Arts Foundation he chaired would always follow any invitation with Mr. Queen's polite regrets. Never claiming to be above such frivolities, Queens interests were more socially aware, an aristocratic activist, involved in more groups dedicated to illiteracy, environmentalism and so on. He and Clark were more than matched in their almost desperate need to save everything, Lex thought, smiling bitterly at the thought. Politically, Oliver Queen as a friend of the Kents only solidified Martha Kent's homespun agenda in the State Senate, and if Oliver chose, he could easily help Martha to a junior seat in the US Senate. The Kent family just always managed to step on this side of trouble, falling into beneficial situations.
"Not this time." Lex muttered through clenched teeth. This time, you do not win, Clark. The speedometer dropped below 90 miles and hour and Lex punched the gas down, ignoring the highway. This trip was done better and faster on the country roads where impediments like stop signs and police with ticket quotas did not matter. Besides, since Clark and company had vanished yet again, Lex had to track them down. He was going to do that from Cadmus.
'Oh, my God." Dr. Starke stared into Callista's tank, his clipboard hitting the floor with a hollow clatter. The water had become dark, murky green and he could not see her at all. Ignoring the intruder alarms (last night they had gone off because of a rat had gotten loose from one of the minor labs), Dr. Starke ran up the stairs to the observation platform, trying to look down to locate Callista. He could see a coiled mass at the bottom of the tank, and he threw the emergency switch, shutting down the radiation feed and draining the water from the tank. "Drop the resonance field!"
'Dr. Starke, we have two male intruders…" The reply came back. "Do we evacuate?"
"No. Get security on them. No evacuations until I give the signal, clear?" Dr. Starke snapped. "Now, get that field down. And get the shark specialist in here."
"Yes, sir." The gauges on Callista's tank began to move, as the radiation levels and water levels began to drop.
Dr. Starke's cell phone rang. "Hello?"
'What the hell is going on?" Lex Luthor's voice was filled with plainly obvious disgust. "Do you have any idea….I'm on my way there now, Starke, and I expect…."
"Mr. Luthor, I can't…" A pale green hand slapped the phone away from Dr. Starke's ear, and he turned, feeling his chest constrict painfully on the left side, and his left arm go completely numb. A pair of the most awful black eyes peered at him from a face he'd only ever seen in nightmares. The rest of her body was covered in sickly grey green sharkskin, with dorsal and pectoral fins protruding from her back, but the torso was that of a shapely young woman, even to the well toned legs. But this was no lovely and alluring mermaid. And the voice that issued from the mouth, filled with needlelike, razor sharp teeth, was one that he had come to look forward to hearing when he came to this tank. Callista.
"Forget him. I'll deal with him later." Callista said, tipping her head as Dr. Starke shrank back against the tiled wall. 'Don't like my new look, Doctor? I have to say it will make destroying you and this lab so much easier."
"What are you?" Dr. Starke stammered, and the Callista thing smiled, beautifully, viciously. Wild and dark green hair fell around her face, tangling over her shoulders as she took a step toward him. He fell back, sliding down the wall, and Dr. Starke felt his pants get very, very wet as the pain in his chest washed up into his jaw and bore down more tightly, making it hard to breathe. Nausea flooded over him and Dr. Starke resisted the urge to vomit, knowing that doing so would not relieve the unbearable tightness in his chest.
"I am one of the Guardians." She replied, her speech wildly accented, the vowels deep and resonant. "I am the last thing anyone who threatens my kind sees before they die. But I am so much more than that now. Thanks to you." She looked at the radiation gauge and then turned her terrible eyes back to the Doctor. "You shouldn't ever play with what you don't understand." She put her head back, wailing. Dr. Starke gasped, the pain in his chest more than he could bear and before he lost consciousness, the glass of Callista's tank began to crack.
Morgaine looked up, and pointed to her sister. :The field is down. We have to go:
:But Callista…a Guardian loose on land is a very bad thing, Morgaine: Rowan said. :We have to get her back to Atlantis. They can help her there.:
:We have to get Gisela out of here, and find Persephone and Lorelai. Callista knows what she's doing. The humans brought this on themselves. She's awakened the Leviathan, Rowan. You know what that means.: Morgaine swam to the top of her tank and hoisted herself out, shaking out her purple hair. "Come on. We have to get dry and find the others."
Rowan followed suit and soon both girls were standing on legs. "I still think this is a bad idea. One of us should go and talk her down. It's awake, but it's not loose, not yet." Rowan said reasonably. "No one deserves this."
"They all deserve this." Morgaine said, punching the gauge on their tank, smiling as the glass splintered under her hand. "Barbarians."
He came up for air and saw the lights of Metropolis as they faded against the new day. The idea of a Guardian there was one A.C. chose not to dwell on as he dove again, ignoring the questions of the fish that passed him. Their fear was justified, but A.C. had no time to console them. He heard the piercing cry, and if a Guardian was free on land, it meant that the Leviathan had been awakened after all. A.C. had never actually heard a Guardian or seen one, but he knew enough. The songs now were vengeance songs, but when it sang the song to wake the Leviathan, no land dweller would be safe on, in or near the water. And no sea life, no matter how pleasantly they had done so to this point, would suffer another day in captivity on land.
:Oren: Lorelai's voice filled his mind comfortingly. :Your Majesty.:
:Shut up, Lori.: A.C. shot back. :This isn't Atlantis. Who is the Guardian and how did it come to be in Metropolis?:
:Callista. She was taken prisoner and has changed form. She will not answer me.: Lori replied. :Persephone and I are at the Metropolis Grand. Two friends have gone to try and rescue the captives, to a lab called Cadmus.:
:I know Cadmus.: A.C. replied, remembering his last visit to Metropolis vividly. :If you are safe, Lorelai, I will go there now.:
:None of us are safe, Oren.: Lori's soft correction made A.C. swim faster. :Go to Cadmus. My beloved is there. You must help him subdue Callista, Oren. Don't hurt her. If we can get her home, she can be saved.:
:I'll do what I can.: A.C. promised, ignoring the urban garbage that filled the river as he got closer to the city itself. Killing Callista would depend greatly on the threat she presented to Atlantis by her behavior. And that was first and foremost in A.C.'s mind.
"What is that smell?" Clark asked, gagging, as he and Oliver moved further and further into Cadmus. "It's disgusting."
Oliver sniffed, and then nodded. "Low tide. That, my friend, is what every coastal city smells when the tide goes out. Nice, huh?" Oliver sneezed twice. "My question to you is, why does it smell like low tide in here?" Oliver pushed open the heavy door, a small gush of water flowing over his boots. Gisela lay in a ball, her tail barely flapping in the two inch deep puddle that surrounded her. Her arms were drawn modestly over her chest, and her green hair coiled itself around her neck. The men pushed their way into the room, and Clark grabbed a white lab coat from a rack and knelt beside her, wrapping the thin cotton thing around her gently.
"I think my arm is broken." Gisela whispered. "When the field shut down, I jumped out of the tank…I hurt, Oliver.." She gasped, and Oliver snatched the jacket away, instead rubbing her tail with it. "Then the Guardian wailed and the glass broke…I think there's glass in my tail.."
"We have to get her dry, Clark. I'm betting more than her arm is broken here." He looked up at the top of the tank she'd been in. "What kind of jump did you make?"
"It doesn't matter.." Gisela grabbed Clark's hand. "Find the Guardian, Clark. If she sings and wakes up the Sentinel of Atlantis, all land dwellers will not be safe."
Oliver pulled Gisela from the water, and examined her tail. A large puncture marred the smooth greenish skin, and he looked over at Clark. "I'm not going anywhere until I get this taken care of. Go see if you can find the others."
Clark looked at Gisela, allowing his eyes to see through her skin, down through her skeletal system. "There aren't any broken bones in her, um, bottom half." He told Oliver who nodded grimly. "And the arm is fine. There's a bunch of glass in her, though, Oliver. I don't think you should move Gisela at all."
Gisela smiled at Clark gently. "I will shed some of the glass when I am able to transform. The rest I can manage with. Please. Callista has to be stopped, but don't hurt her, Clark. Hurting her will only cause the Leviathan to become angry. It's awake, and it's listening."
Clark nodded. "A Leviathan? They're real?" He asked, and Gisela shook her head.
"Not 'a' Leviathan, Clark. THE Leviathan. From the dawn of time, it has hunted the darkest water, and has been the guardian of Atlantis since it fell beneath the waves. But you must understand." Gisela sighed, shuddering as her tail began to form into legs. "If Callista does succeed in stirring it, nothing made by human hands will be safe in the water. Every ship and living creature on it will be prey for the Leviathan."
"The oil industry is having a hard enough time right now," Oliver quipped, draping the lab coat over Giselas bare legs. "The environmental damage will be catastrophic."
"I'm going." Clark stood, as Oliver helped Gisela to her feet. She limped for a moment, and then getting her balance, tied the lab coat around her hips like a sarong, the gash on her leg already appearing to have healed. She wore a green bathing suit top, and it blended with her hair. When she was sure she was covered, Gisela looked up at Oliver and Clark felt himself moved by her gentle trust in her sister's friend.
"I'm going too. Dr. Starke needs help. He's…" She looked at Clark. "He's dying. His heart, Clark. Please, lets find him. He's not a bad man."
"Let's go." Oliver said, taking Gisela's hand. They left the observation room and turned down a corridor, A piercing shriek made Clark stagger back, and Gisela steadied him with a gentle hand.
"You heard that, didn't you?" She asked, and Clark felt his balance return, and he looked down at Lori's little sister with new eyes. "Don't be shocked. We all have little talents like that." She blushed. "Sorry. I shouldn't have peeked in your mind that way."
"It's okay." Clark said. "You heal things? Is that why you weren't worried about the glass?"
"Yes. Lori's an empath, and Persephone is a beacon. The twins are sirens, and Callista is…well, a Guardian." Gisela's eyes were sad. "Whatever has become of her, Callista is beyond my abilities now."
Another shriek echoed through the hallway. Oliver turned and stared at Gisela, his hand tightening on his bow. "What the hell was that?"
"Callista." Clark and Gisela said together and Oliver shuddered.
"Let's find her and get out of here." Oliver said, turning away to continue down the hall. "I'm starting to get a world class case of the creeps."
Chloe finally got the harbormaster, who assured her that not only was Olivers yacht not ready for anyone to use it, but the only boat in all of the Keys that would be accessible would be a shrimping boat that had been docked by it's owner who had then died. She groaned, stomping her foot, but agreed. Hal had called, telling her he was on his way, but Chloe could not stop the feelings of dread that were washing over her. In a way, it reminded her of the evening she'd come looking for Clark, the night she'd figured out the mermaid secret. He'd been very, well, attentive, and Chloe had been puzzled at the time but had chalked it off to Clark being a little jealous of Oliver. But now, while she knew things were dire, Chloe also wasn't one for feeling panicky, and yet she could barely sit still. She looked at Lori, and cleared her throat. Lori turned, and Chloe was stunned to see the exact expression of fear that she felt fluttering around her own heart. She was feeling Lori's feelings and, apparently, Clark had been feeling them the other night, in his own alien way. Relieved, Chloe felt the panic dissipate, and her own ability to remain calm returned.
"Chloe?" Lori asked, rising. "What is it?"
"Tell me." Chloe laughed. "Oh, Lori. If I knew you could read minds…." Lori grinned.
"I've been trying not to. I'm sorry. I can mostly feel people's feelings, and influence their feelings. It's why I had to tell Clark. Once he knew, I couldn't influence him. Don't worry about Oliver. Hal was only kidding about Oliver not being reliable." Lori blurted, and then laughed again at Chloe's reaction. "I'm not helping, am I?"
"Yes, you are." Chloe smiled. "More than you know, and I'm glad you told me."
"Well your thoughts are your own, now." Persephone sniffed, annoyed at losing her entertainment, which had been sifting through Chloe's thoughts like photographs. There had been several that were highly entertaining, and Persephone stored them in her mind for another day.
Lori and Chloe turned, and Persephone had folded her arms over her chest, staring at the television, ignoring them. After a minute, she stood, and grabbed the small harp that Chloe had seen in the recording studio, strumming it absently as she sat again. The music was tense, impatient, and Chloe felt herself filling with those emotions. Remembering what Oliver said, Chloe pulled earbuds from her bag and plugged them into her mp3 player and sat down. Lori nodded wisely, and went back to watching television, tuning out Persephone's music.
Morgaine and Rowan made their way through the long corridor, their bare feet padding along the cold floors. They had found clothes in what looked like a laundry, slipping into the cotton pants gratefully. Rowan stopped, listening.
"Oliver is this way." She pointed, and her sister turned. The glint in Morgaine's eye was frightening, and Rowan pulled at her hand. "You are not following Callista."
"What is a Guardian without a siren?" Morgaine shook free of her sister's hand.
"She's not doing this for FUN, 'Gaine. She's doing it to save us. You can't." Rowan insisted. "Come on.."
Morgaine eyed her sister for a moment. "What if it gives you a better chance? Rowan, you have to…"
"NO." Rowan pulled on Morgaine harder. "Not without you. We go together."
"Okay." Morgaine sighed, squeezing her sister's hand. Lead on."
The broken doors and ruined security didn't bother Lex as much as one would have thought. It made him smile. Once again, Clark was where he didn't belong, and once again, Lex would have to find a way to explain away the farmer's presence. Oliver Queen was a different matter, and Lex would be glad to see the other billionaire led away in handcuffs. Sabotage and espionage charges would at least see Oliver very, very busy for awhile. The silver rental car also was a tip that they were still here. Well, well, well. Lex smiled. If nothing else, it was a chance to once again observe Clark in action. The alarms had begun to sound, and Lex's phone rang.
"What is it?" He asked and the voice on the other end of the line was not Dr. Starke.
'Hi, Lex." Callista purred. "Miss me, baby?"
"How did you get...where's Dr. Starke?" Lex asked, pushing his way through the broken doors. If Callista was free, the rest of them would surely be as well.
"Um, well, he's almost dead. Heart attack." She said sadly. "You stole his soul. Shame on you. But I still love you, Lex. My feelings.." Callista giggled, unable to resist dropping the hint that she had heard his confrontation with Lana. "Well, you'll see."
"Where are you?" Lex asked, hearing the alarms behind her. "You're still in the lab?"
"I had some business to take care of." Callista looked down at the dead technician at her feet. "Hide and go seek, Lex. You come seek me, but I won't be hiding. I'll be looking for you, too." She hung up and shattered the phone in her hand. "And when I find you, you will answer for this crime, Alexander Luthor."
"Oliver! Gisela!" Rowan ran to Oliver and threw her arms around his neck. "Neptune bless you!"
"Whoa, Rowan." Oliver smiled, but extracted himself from her embrace. "Glad to see you too, but we're not out of here yet." He looked over at Clark. "Okay, let's find Callista."
Gisela though, had not moved. She had simply turned toward a set of doors, her head cocked as if she were listening for something. She raised a hand as Oliver started to speak.
"In there. Someone alive…" She walked through the doors, and Clark felt a wave of nausea pass over him, painful and sudden.
"You okay, Clark?" Oliver's hand was heavy on Clark's shoulder, and Clark shook his head, trying to get the feeling to pass. He should have known; Cadmus was Lex's special baby when it came to all kinds of experiments, and Kryptonite was one of Lex's more consuming hobbies.
"I'm okay." He replied, swallowing the stream of bile that burned his throat. "Something in that room.."
Oliver eyed the door. "What is it, Clark? That kryptonite stuff?"
Clark looked at Oliver and nodded. The nausea had not passed, and Oliver looked back to the door. "Stay out here, Clark. Rowan, Morgaine, come with me. Get yourself together, Clark, and then see if you can find Callista. Don't come in this room, Clark. Got it?" Oliver said, his voice intense. "Go. I'll catch up."
"Okay." Clark nodded, moving off by himself. He could hear a flurry of conversation behind him, and turning, he saw Rowan striding purposefully toward him. She stopped three feet away and held up her hands. She smiled reassuringly her grey eyes soft and full of a kind of compassion Clark had only seen in his mother's face, or on church windows. It was an otherworldly, all encompassing pity that made tears well in Clark's eyes.
"You can't go alone, and I can't trust my sister to go with you. She's better off with Oliver and Gisela." Rowan said with gentle resolve. "I'm going to help. If I can get Callista to cooperate, both of our worlds will be saved."
As Clark and Rowan went down the hall, Oliver entered the room after Gisela, surprised at the damage around him. This tank was smashed as well, and a man in a white lab coat lie at the bottom draped in what looked like seaweed.
"Dr. Starke." Gisela gasped, hopping up into the now empty tank to kneel beside the scientist in the shallow water. "Can you hear me?"
"Princess." Dr. Starke reached up to touch Gisela's face. "I should say, Angel."
"Ssh." Gisela said softly. "I can help you, if you will let me."
"Dear girl." Dr. Starke smiled, his glasses askew on his face. "I'm beyond anyone's help. My heart.."
Gisela took his hand. "I can help you live, if you wish. I can also help you die."
"Gisela." Oliver looked at her, stunned. "You can't be saying what I think you are saying…"
"I am." She looked up at him, defiantly. "Doesn't every living creature have a choice?"
Dr. Starke laughed, coughing a little. "Poor Princess. Perhaps in your world, they do. Here, we hang on to life with both hands, afraid to let go. But my heart won't keep me going. It's okay, really."
"That's ridiculous." Oliver shouldered his bow. "Let's get you out of here."
"He has a choice." Gisela rose, holding her arms up, a small, slight barrier between the much larger man and the scientist on the floor. "Let him make it."
"God bless you, Princess." Dr. Starke gasped, and Gisela knelt beside him again. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his, and then sat back on her heels, raising her hands over his chest. Speaking in Atlantean, Gisela sang, her voice low and soft, almost a lullabye, and Oliver, desperate to intervene, could not. Dr. Starke's breathing grew shallow, but more serene and eventually stopped. Gisela stopped singing, and pushed Dr. Starke's glasses from his face, closing his eyes. She kissed the man again, gently as if he were her father, and looked up at Oliver.
"Holy moly." Oliver whispered, his eyes wide. "Just like that."
"Just like that." Gisela stood, and smiled at Oliver softly. "His heart was broken and his soul destroyed. He wanted to die. Living would have been more of a torture for him. I just sang him to sleep. He did the rest himself. It was his time."
Oliver stared at her for a long minute, and then cleared his throat. "Okay. Let's go find Clark and the others." He turned, and Morgaine was watching, her grey eyes full and deep with an awareness that Oliver had never seen in the girls face before.
"You showed him mercy." She gasped, looking at her friend. "He was in your power and you allowed him to die peacefully. His crimes against us, against you were irrelevant."
"He never did more than try to understand us, in his way." Gisela said, taking Morgaine's hand. "The land-dwellers are not evil. Not all of them are, not really. Look again, my friend, and be at peace."
Morgaine nodded, and left the room behind Gisela in stunned silence. Oliver smiled and shook his head. He'd be glad to find Clark and get the hell out of here.
They swam from the crack made by The Leviathan's awakening, small black shadowlike fish, darting here and there, almost invisible in the dark water. Harbingers, as they were called by the underwater world, only ate one food, hunted one prey, and the disease they spread throughout the ocean would leave nothing but devastation in their wake. Disturbed by the shifting monster, they were desperate to feed, eager for the taste of their preferred food. Gliding by scent, they turned toward a small underwater outpost, teeth churning in their mouths. The small dome surrounding the outpost would provide almost no challenge to the onslaught of living pestilence. Falling upon the glowing dome, they tore their way through the field, causing water to crush the outpost before anyone could call for help, feasting upon the mer-folk whose mission it was to keep the Leviathan's grounds clear of any intrusion. Doom had come, and the great beast shuddered again, the pain and suffering of the Atlanteans drawing it more awake, freeing more of it's vicious bedfellows. It's dreams were fractured images of the Guardian's path, and the Leviathan groaned, the rocks that surrounded it restricting it's movements.
Slowly, it became more aware, conscious of it's surroundings. No song had been sung to return it to it's rest, there were no waiting warriors to subdue and restrain him. The slow growl of it's stomach resonated through the ocean, sending all marine life scattering away. None would dare approach, not even the majestic whales whose gentle song had kept the monster in his age long slumber. Soon enough, sharks from every corner of the world would come, waiting for the thing to rise, thirsty for their chance to glut themselves on the fruit of it's vengeance. But for now, this one spot was ominously still. The Leviathan waited.
A.C. lifted himself from the river, and strode toward the warehouse where Cadmus resided. He did not bother with looking around since the terrain was familiar. Stepping around damaged doors, the Prince of Atlantis surveyed the devastation around him.
"Gisela! Rowan!" He called, his voice echoing around him." Morgaine!" He could smell death, but there was no outward sign that any had died. The lab itself was a cursed place, A.C. thought, grimacing as he stepped over debris. A small cry made A.C. turn, and he moved toward it, stooping to push the broken machine away. A cat, half it's body shaved, darted away with a grateful mrrow, and A.C. moved on.
He could sense the cold presence of the Guardian, as she moved through the lab, a trail of destruction in her wake. A.C. reached out with his mind, until he found her. It was indeed Callista, and her thoughts were black, twisted and somehow alien. She had been infected by something that was making the transformation to Guardian more powerful somehow. His only hope was her sense of duty, that his rank would some how make Callista come back to herself.
:Hail, Guardian: A.C.'s felt his thoughts take on a regal tone. :You have accomplished your mission. The Daughters of the Royal House are free. You may now stand down.:
Callista's voice was a warm chuckle. :Ah, the Prince. So much the stuff of fairy tales and legends that I have tears in my eyes. Tell me, Prince, what part of you do you defend today? The royal house and people of Atlantis? Or the land dwellers who never fail to harm us? They fish our seas, poison our oceans in a way that they would never abide if it were their sky….:
A.C. paused and then turned, following the direction of Callista's message. Because he had so opened his mind, A.C. could now sense the presence of the mermaids, and the two men, one human, and one, different. A.C. smiled. There was only one person whose presence AC could identify in such a way. If Clark were here, that could only be a good thing, A.C. thought, moving down the corridor. It was then that he saw her, the Guardian, standing over a victim that A.C. could only barely force himself to defend. Lex Luthor was in an unconscious heap on the floor, and Callista turned hearing A.C. as he came around the corner.
She was indeed, the stuff of nightmares. Callista smiled, forgetting her revenge on her captor.
"Your Majesty." Callista sneered. She looked down at her feet. "I bring you a tribute, he who has taken us against our wills to this place of torment."
"I will deal with him, Callista. But you must end this. Return to your natural form and we can go home." A.C. said reasonably. "Atlantis is in danger."
"I know." Callista agreed. She kicked Lex, who groaned. "Because of HIM."
"No, Callie, because of you." A.C. corrected her. "You have called the Leviathan, and you forget what else has been unleashed with him."
Her horrible eyes grew wide. "The Harbingers."
"Yes." A.C. said, holding out a hand. "Please, come help me fight them, Callista. We must stop them and keep the Leviathan asleep, or all the world is doomed."
Lex groaned again, and fell over onto his back, coughing. Callista looked down at him, and it seemed she grew smaller, more like herself. "I cannot do that. It cannot be freed." The green sharkskin look of her skin subsided and soon, Callista looked much more like the girl Lex had been familiar with. She looked down at Lex and one glistening tear, perfect and crystalline fell from her eye. "I cannot harm him."
"He will live." A.C. said, kneeling beside the fallen billionaire. "He's been poisoned."
A.C. looked up at Callista. "He's been stung by you."
"I only grabbed him…" She looked down at her hands. "I wanted to subdue him, bring him to Atlantis for justice, and…" Callista knelt beside Lex and pulled aside his collar. A long, red open cut traced along his throat, and Callista sobbed loudly, placing her hand over the wound. "Will he really live?"
"You do not have feelings for this…" A.C. looked down at Lex. Words could not express his revulsion and his wish to end Lex here and now for what had happened between them before, but Callista was reading him, and A.C. regained his composure.
'No, not in that way.." Callista nodded solemnly as Clark and Rowan came toward them from the other end of the hall. Callista rose, and A.C. with her, as Clark spotted Lex on the ground. "Halt!" She cried, and Clark stopped, his face set in grim lines.
"What did you do to Lex?" Clark asked, and Callista hissed in reply. A.C. turned,and in a quick bark of Atlantean, silenced her. Rowan placed a restraining hand on Clark's shoulder as well, murmuring something about not being what it seemed.
'He's hurt, Clark." A.C. said, making his tone authoritative. "Lex doesn't deserve it, but he can be saved."
Clark nodded and then recognized the man standing in front of him. "A.C.?"
"Clark." A.C. held out a hand. "We really don't have time to catch up right now. Let's get Lex to some help."
Hal Jordan found his way to the Metropolis Grand and found the room number he'd been given by Oliver's friend Chloe. He knocked twice, taking off his sunglasses. Given Oliver's taste in women, Hal completely expected the door to be opened by a tan, buxom bimbo with an obnoxious giggle. However, the intelligent green eyes were the first thing Hal noticed, followed by the curved, almost hesitant smile. If this was Chloe Sullivan, than Oliver had somehow grown up in the past few weeks.
'Are you Hal?" She asked, and Hal nodded. "How do I know?"
"You called me from Ollie's phone." Hal replied. And I insulted you, of course, he thought, and she smiled, satisfied with the part of the answer he'd actually spoken.
'Chloe Sullivan, right?"
'Yes." The smile widened. "Come in." She opened the door wider to allow him to pass, and he saw the two mermaids asleep on the couch. "they're worn out."
'I can imagine.' Hal replied. "You think you girls are ready to travel?"
"I am, I guess." Chloe looked around. "Not exactly a vacation we're going on, so.."
"Have you heard from Ollie?" Hal asked, and Chloe shook her head.
"No, actually. It's been hours." She looked at her watch, and then Oliver's phone, which she held in her hand. "I hope they're all okay."
"If Ollie is with them, they will be." Hal smiled, a lopsided grin that Chloe couldn't help but return. "Don't worry about them."
The two groups reunited, with Clark carrying Lex over one shoulder, like a sack of feed corn.
'"I'm not even going to ask." Oliver said, taking in Lex's slumped form over Clark's shoulder. "Dropping him off with the police?"
"He's been hurt." A.C. replied, eyeing Oliver. "Who are you?"
"Oliver Queen." Oliver replied, matter of factly. "You just sprung out nowhere, didn't you?"
'My lord." Gisela gasped, taking A.C.'s hand in her own, and curtseying gracefully.
"Rise, Gisela." A.C. smiled. "You do me much honor." He looked over at Oliver. "You can call me A.C."
"Fine." Oliver turned to Clark. "I'm ready to end our trip to the science lab. How about you?"
Clark nodded. "That makes two of us." He readjusted Lex on his shoulder and started moving toward the exit. A.C. and the mermaids followed, the flurry of Atlantean too fast to even begin to attempt translating, but Clark was already picking up the finer points. As they left Cadmus, Oliver's cellphone began to ring, he frowned, pulling it out of his pocket.
"This isn't my phone." He said looking at it. "It's Chloe's" He rolled his eyes and answered. "Chloe Sullivan's line."
"She's cute, Ollie and way too smart for you." Hal's voice was bracing, and Oliver grinned.
"Yeah, well, I'm undeserving, what can I say? Where are you?"
"At the Metropolis Grand. I've got these girls ready to go. We'll meet you at Metropolis Municipal. I have Carol's Lear and I had to leave a pint of blood, the keys to my car to get it and a promise that I'd take her to dinner when I bring the plane back in one piece." Hal replied, "You guys all ready to go? There's some nasty weather brewing east of here and while I won't care, you might need motion sickness pills or something."
Oliver laughed. "I'll take my chances. We're on our way." He hung up, and turned to Clark, who was putting Lex into his car. "My friend Hal is here with the plane. Are we takingLex with us?"
"I have to get him to help, Oliver. I can't just leave him." Clark said, and Gisela moved to Clark's side.
'I'll go with you, then, Clark. The toxin in his bloodstream can only be cured in Atlantis. I can help him survive, but that's all." Her face was serious under the mass of green hair that spilled around it. Gisela looked down at Lex, who was sprawled in the almost non existent back seat of the sports car. "But we have to hurry."
As Hal's borrowed plane took off, loaded with its passengers, fisherman off the coast of New Foundland discovered the same thing as shrimpers in North Carolina. The nets were empty. And with a large storm brewing out to sea, that was unheard of. But not one fish, crab, lobster or shrimp were harvested, traps were empty and nets bare. The large sport fish, kingfish, swordfish and sharks circled mercilessly and the old timers whispered of witchcraft and mermaids, tying knots of protection in lengths of rope to keep the boats safe. But the experts, the captains of the fishing boats blamed the odd weather, and the increasing violence of the coastal storm season instead. It was as if all the fish had simply moved further out to sea, too far for the smaller fisherman to go, and the commercial fisherman also eyed the horizon. All those who made their living on the seas felt a tremor pass through them. Something was happening beneath the turbulent surface of the ocean, something dark, dangerous and far beyond any modern understanding.
The large tail of the Leviathan broke through the crust of ages that had gathered upon it's back, sending debris through the waves. The Guardian's voice had vanished, but the anguished cries of those lost in the Atlantean outpost forced the beast awake. The tail swung, churning the water into waves above, and the Leviathan rose, awesome in his strength and terrible to behold. Blinking, it swam toward Atlantis, following the scent of the Harbingers and looking for a meal.
