Lex pulled his brand new Cadillac Escalade 2005 in to the parking lot of the old, deserted warehouse and waited for a moment. He looked around, not exactly frantic, but a little flustered. He was atleast 11 miles away from the nearest city, which was Metropolis, and he was pretty anxious to get out of there as fast as possible. If it hadn't been for his source, he sure as hell wouldn't be here. He had received the call a few hours earlier, his source had another scoop for him. His source had rarely failed him, feeding him information on his father. They both knew it was very dangerous work, and the 'mole' got compensated well for it.

"Where are you?" Lex muttered, glancing at his diamond studded Rolex.

"Right here," said a voice.

Lex snapped back in to attention. "Please refrain from doing that again," he said, getting out of the car.

"Sure thang, boss," said Marty Brooks, smacking the gum in his mouth. He was 6ft. 5 inches, of obvious Korean descent, and heavily muscled. His chin was square and strong, his eyes bored, and his blonde, red striped hair hung down past his shoulders. All in all, he was a bizarre but menacing sight to behold. Brooks dropped his cigar and stomped on it.

"Don't call me boss." Lex snapped.

"What's the deal, boss?" Marty chuckled.

"You're late, that's what the deal is."
"Yes, boss, you had to wait for a couple of minutes. Big goddamned deal with the information I'm giving you."

Lex sighed and put his hands in the pockets of his silk coat. "This better be quick, Marty."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Marty strode in to the warehouse and Lex followed after him. The small warehouse was made of solid brick. It's inside were small because of the thickness of the walls. A terrible stench filled the place, there were rats and obvious sewage residues. A perfect place for a secret 'meeting.'

"Uhhh," Lex said, covering his nose with a handkerchief, "You could atleast clean this place up a little."
"Arrr, stop whining, boss. You sound like a woman."

Lex shook his head in disbelief, watching as Marty playfully slid his hand across a dirt infested wall. "Have you no belief in personal hygiene?" Lex asked in disgust.

"What the hell is hygiene?" Marty grunted.

"Never mind." Lex replied.

They stopped in an mostly empty room furnished only with two chairs and a tiny tea table. On it rested a laptop.

"Did you leave that here since my last visit?" Lex asked incredulously.

"Yeah, so what?" Marty replied.

"Do you know what my father would do if he found out what we were doing?"
Marty waved it away. "Take a chill pill, boss, relax."

"Relax? Are you seriously talking about relaxing? Do you think, for one second, my father would spare a human life under circumstances like this? That he would even spare his own son? No, you don't know Lionel Luthor."
"Perhaps I do….better than you." Marty said.

"Alright, show me the information."
"Sure thing, boss." Marty said. He cracked his knuckles and got a diskette out of his faded denim jeans jacket. He slipped the disk in to the slot on the laptop and sat back, waiting. "Take a seat, boss." Marty said.

Lex took one look at the dirty chairs and replied, "I'd prefer to stand."

"Your call." Marty said.

Lex walked behind Marty as the document on the diskette was loaded and appeared in front of the computer screen. It was a part of document on Luthor Corp. Obviously illegal. "How'd you get this?" Lex murmured.

Marty shrugged, "I hacked in to the computer files."
Lex raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you knew how to hack."
Marty smiled up at him, "There's a lot you don't know about me."

Lex nodded, "It appears so."
The file was a list of some kind, about some kind of secretive clinic, or something like that. It had Lionel's signature on it.

"What does this have to do with my father?" Lex asked.

"Remember the guy you asked me to investigate after the Lane girl came to you?"
"Yes. Phillip Rafferty."
"It appears that he and your father have been working together for a while."

"Working together," Lex was puzzled.

"Yes….it appears…on little experiments."

This was getting juicy, Lex thought with a smile. "What kind of experiments exactly?"
"Experiments on humans. Or if they can be called humans."
"What exactly are you talking about?"
"Robotics."
"So, they're doing little experiments on Robots?"

"Affirmative."
"But you just called them humans."
"Yes. Turning humans in to Robots."
"Why can't they just build they're own robots?"

"The problem with robots is their lack of judgement. If they are asked to follow a order, they don't have the state of mind to weigh the consequences. Say, if they are asked to murder somebody, that is their sole goal. To kill the person. They don't think of escape, cleaning up evidence, you know….the basics."
Lex was confused, "Wouldn't that be good? I mean….No paper trails, no nothing."

"What happens, though, if the Robot is ordered to kill it's master?"

Lex was finally beginning to understand, "So...what exactly happens?"

Marty shrugged. He lit another cigar and puffed on it, "I don't know much. Only that they leave the brain intact."
Lex dropped in to the other chair, not much caring about hygiene right now. "And what do they use the robots for?"
"I don't know," Marty admitted, "But what I do know is that they use them as kind of Bounty hunters."

"For what?" Lex asked.

Marty rolled his eyes, "I repeat….what I do know is that they use them as some kind of bounty hunters."
They sat in silence for a moment. Then, Lex stood up, "You did good, Marty," He said.

Marty cleared his throat, "And my reward?"
Lex smirked. "Why, of course."
Marty sat in anticipation as Lex reached in to his coat and pulled and a large, thick envelope. Marty tore it open to reveal a stack of hundreds, "Hot damn." He snickered.

"I'll be investigating further in to this." Lex said.

Marty shrugged, "Do what you gotta do, boss," As he counted his bills.

"You know, I think I might have underestimated you," Lex said.

"Of course you did," Marty replied, absentmindedly.

"If you could betray my father, who knows what you could do to me."
"I wouldn't dream of it, boss." Marty said, still absentmindedly.

Lex strode up to Marty and grabbed his wrist. The envelope dropped to the floor, scattering money. Marty looked up. Lex had a cold, steel hard expression on his face. "You better not betray me," he said, "because no matter what happens to me, or anybody that I'm close to you, I'll make sure you pay."
Marty nodded, a little frightened. Even though bigger than Lex, many men larger than his size had learned not to underestimate Lex Luthor. And those who hadn't….had died before they could. Lex smiled sweetly and calmly strode out of the warehouse.

CHLOE didn't want to bother him. He was so calm when he slept. Not worrying about getting caught, or worse, losing her. Chloe wrapped her arms around her self. She looked up at the moon through their apartment window. Illinois, Chicago. She'd always wanted to come to Chicago. They were having the time of their lives. She'd even gotten used to super speeding and now rarely had nausea. It was still a frightening experience, though it ended after a few seconds. She often wondered how Bart knew how to get to so many places. He'd reply while pointing to his head and say, "It's all up here."
She looked at the newspaper again. The headline that said: SHOOTOUT IN SMALLVILLE MEDICAL CENTER. There were pictures on the front. An unconscious Lana with Jason by her side, A few patients she knew, most that she didn't, one of Mr. and Mrs. Kent, and one of Clark and Lois.

She sighed. Perhaps, a while back, she would have been jealous, but not now. There had been reported incidents of injured participants in the shootout. Been thrown through walls. Stuff like that. Some of the members had reported of a young teen, no more than twenty, tall, muscular, and had been invunerable to the bullets. No one had believed them.

Chloe smiled to herself, "Well, you've done it again, Clark."

"Done what again?" Bart sat up in bed again and stretched. His hair had grown and was splayed all around his head. Chloe snickered at the sight.

"Bad hair day?" She asked.

He made a face at her. "So….what is it about Clark?"
"He was at the shootout." She said simply.

"Oh. Did he…..?"

"Yeah."
"Did anybody see him?"

"The shooters did, but nobody really believes them. Atleast I hope not."

Bart cleared his throat and sat on the edge of the bed, "Chloe," he said, "There's something I want to talk about," He patted the side next to him.

"What is it?" Chloe asked, sitting beside him.

"Well, do you miss Smallville?"

Chloe shrugged. "I guess so. I miss my Dad and Lois. Why?"

"Well," he said, "I don't know how long this will last."

"You mean the whole hunting us down thing?"
"Yeah," he said, almost smiling at the sarcasm in her voice. "The whole hunting us down thing. I don't know how long we'll have to run away from all of it."

Chloe sighed, "Neither do I, Bart. You're only human. An extraordinarily fast human."

"So….do you ever want to go back to Smallville?"
She was shocked at the question, "Yeah, Bart, I have family there."
He sighed, "I know, Chloe, it's just that I never want to lose you."

He was blushing again. "You're never going to lose me," She said softly.

"I'm sorry…..I just….I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you were hurt. No matter how cliché that sounds, it's real, Chloe. I mean it with all my heart."

And she saw that he meant it. It touched her heart. Someone to care for her. Something that was real. The hope, the joy, everything was real now. Please, let this last.

"You're cute when you blush," She smiled.

He rolled his eyes, "You've said that before."
"Yeah, but you get cuter day by day."

He turned to a more serious matter. "Chloe, I think we're getting tailed."

"What?" Her heartbeat increased. If Bart thought it too, it couldn't be just simple paranoia.

"We're being followed, Chloe." The look on her face told him that she had suspected the same.

"When we were at the hot dog stand in New York," she said, "I thought I saw someone familiar."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Bart asked.

"Because you have so much to worry about," she said, "Always worrying about me? I didn't want to alarm you."

"So we both know we're being tailed."
"No, we both think we're being followed." They breathed in, considering this circumstance.

"How can they know?" He said to himself, "I move faster than anything. How could they keep track of us for so long?"

"Even if they had a tracker, you go at light speed, the thing might be burnt out. The only reason I don't get burnt to death is you don't go at maximum speed and I wear skin protectants. How could they keep track of us…..that is….if we're being followed?"

He leaned back against a nearby desk, "I have no idea."
"Bart, if I'm going to help I need to know why Luthor Corp is after you."

Bart was silent for a moment. Then he said, "I think I robbed them."
She was silent. "You think you robbed them?"

"Yes. I know it sounds weird. The Rafferty guy, he used some kind of drug on me."

"So….he basically hypnotized you with a drug?"
"Yes. And he made me rob Luthor Corp."
"Yeah, well a hell of a reason for the Luthors to want to come after you."

"Yes, isn't it?" He went in to the mini kitchen and returned a few minutes later with a mug of hot cocoa. "You want some?" He asked.

Chloe shook her head, "No thanks."
He sipped lightly out of this. "Had you heard of Phillip Rafferty before this?"
She shrugged her shoulders, "Yes, but I don't remember where. He wasn't exactly a big name in the medical field."
"I see." He sipped again out of his mug.

"Who do you think is after you?" Chloe asked, "Lionel, Lex, or both?"

"I don't know."
She stood up, "Most likely Lionel. He's in to the real underground stuff. Given, Lex is a Luthor, but if I had to choose, I think It'd be Lionel."
"Why do you say that?"

"Lionel Luthor is a cruel, sadistic old man. I wouldn't put anything past him."
"Lex isn't exactly a saint either."
"Like I said, it's a given, he's a Luthor, But he's not like his father."
"I wouldn't be so sure," He said, again gulping out of the delicious drink.

"What are you talking about?"
"On the streets, I heard things about Lex Luthor."
"Who hasn't?"
"No, man. I went to Gotham city. It's no joke. Everyone knows not to mess with The Luthors there. Sure, Lionel is the chief executioner, but Lex……Lex is no better than he is. People have disappeared after bad mouthing Lex Luthor. I read about this guy, no big deal, local reporter, my point is, not important at all. He was trying to investigate Lex. Went undercover, did the whole thing. Well…..somehow, the Luthors found out and it was all over the news. Lex said that it didn't really matter. That he wouldn't sue. Everything was all right. Then, the reporter started saying stuff, like how he had found something and stuff….right. That night, he was going to be interviewed on the news. Live. The big stuff, everybody was going to tune in. 8:00, prime time, baby. Not many people were watching the game that night. Everybody was watching, waiting. Guy never showed up. Couple of days later, they find him. Well….half of him. They found his upper body. Legs were gone. Face burnt. Eyes cut out. Tongue swallowed. Gruesome sight, terrible. Few people even thought about going against Lex after that."

"Harsh, but there's no proof it was Lex."
Bart laughed and slammed his mug against the table, a little angrily. The hot chocolate swayed on to the side, running on to the table. "Everyone knew it was Lex. The police knew it was Lex. But…like I said, Few people even thought about going against Lex after that."
Chloe sighed, "It might have been Lionel."
"We both know why It couldn't have been him."

"Yes," she admitted, "Lionel would never do anything like that for his son. For himself of course, but never for his own son. Lex Luthor may have a bigger dark side than I imagined."
"Seems that way, doesn't it?"

"So what are we going to do?" Chloe asked.

"Watch….and wait."

MARTY was smoking his hourly cigar. Things were going at fast motion in Luthor Corp. Employees ran around, things were going normally, nothing to worry about. In truth, he too had repeatedly mentally chastised himself for leaving the laptop there. What a stupid mistake. He'd have to make damn sure that never happened again. Damn sure!

He chomped in to his Philly Cheese Steak sandwhich and licked his lips. He turned to the beefy black man next to him. The man had atleast 4 inches on him and was bald. "Hey, Tiny, you see the Chiefs game?" He asked.

Rudy 'Tiny' Damon smirked and nodded, "Yeah, man, they knocked the Packers of the charts like they were nothin'," he boomed, "Nothin'. Man, Hall got atleast 68 yards on the 1st kick return."

"Yeah, ole Brett got his ass knocked down," Marty said.

"Brett was nothing. Trent Green had least' a 120 rating."
"Ole' Trent was scoring at will, wasn't he?"

"Yuppie. I can't wait till they play the Falcons. Let's see if Vick'n handle them."

"Michael Vick sure can."

"What 'bout Dunne? Ain't he a little small for the defense."
"Don't be worryin' bout no Warrick Dunne. Little bastard'll run over everybody they got. I'll bet on that."
"Bet then. It's a deal." They shook hands.

"Hey, Brooks!" A short man with short cropped blonde hair appeared, "Boss wants to see you."

Marty didn't feel the least bit scared. It wasn't unusual for Lionel Luthor to see privately with his employees. Marty gulped the last of the sandwhich down and threw the wrapper away. "Be seeing you, Tiny." He said to Damon.

"Have your money ready." Tiny said.

With that, Brooks followed the man to the elevator. He was surprised when the man pressed the down button. "Ain't the boss's office up?" He asked, with one index finger pointing upwards.

"I dunno. Boss wants to see you in the basement." He replied.

They reached the bottom floor and got out of the elevator. Before Marty Books could blink, a pair of arms grabbed him.

Lionel Luthor sat in his heavily furnished, spacious office and looked out at the beautiful city of Metropolis. He sat calmly, nodding in rhythm to the wonderful jazz playing on the radio that had his head shaking and his long, oily strands of hair that hung at his shoulders swiveling lightly.

It was just a matter of time. In truth, he hadn't put it behind Lex. Getting a snitch on his own father. It was not under Luthors. Lionel himself had done the same thing. He mentally commended his son. Had it not been for the stupidity of the snitch, Lionel would never have known. Lex, Lex, Lex. He was growing more like his father every day.

Suddenly, Lionel's cell phone rang. He waited until the 3rd ring, then took it out of the pockets of his silk trousers. "Hello?" He said in to the phone.

"We have him Mr. Luthor."
"I'll be right down," Lionel said. He flipped the phone down and sat for a moment, just savoring the situation. With that, he stood up gingerly and made his way to the elevator. Marty Brooks had made the stupidest mistake of his useless life. He had crossed a Luthor, and unluckily, the worst one.

Marty Brooks, was at this moment, was a pitiful expression of human life. Brook's face was downcast, weary. His right eye was swollen shut. His cheeks were purpled and bruised, one was bleeding heavily from a blow from a cane. His lips were split and a large number of his teeth had been knocked out. Blood rolled down the corner of his mouth and rested on his beard, mixed with saliva and perspiration. There were bloody lacerations on his chest and two of his ribs appeared to be broken. One arm was dislocated. The room he was in was underground, a very secretive quarter of Luthor Corp. Few people knew about it. Most of those who did, had face the same fate that our current prisoner was facing. Many of them were dead.

Two guards were standing on either side of Brooks, both carrying loaded revolvers. They also wore iron gauntlets on their fists. There would not be need for heavier artillery. The subject had been heavily beaten and he was tied down. His chin rested against his heaving chest and he fought desperately for every breath.

"Pity, pity, pity," Lionel said as he walked in to the room. He clucked his tongue, "I'm not really one for repentance, but seeing your state, I wonder if I really should have been so cruel."
"Go to hell, Luthor," Brooks spit out.

"Hell……..Hell is earth. Earth is hell. Merely a synonym."
"What do you want from me?" Brooks asked, saliva dripping from his mouth.

Lionel walked closer to him, "I want answers."
"About what?"
"We both know." Lionel said, "Don't play these games with me."
"Go to hell!" Brooks screamed. A guard swung and smashed Brooks in the face. The sound of the gauntlet smashing against the man's forehead was a terrible, crunching sound. Lionel winced as Brook's hollered. Blood now ran freely down his forehead and his nose. "You bastards let me go!"

"Will you concede as to your information. Or will this…..simple inquiry continue."
"Inquiry? You're torturing me!"

"Torture. That's a harsh word. Let's simply refer to it as an….interrogation, shall we?"
"Yeah? Well you can shove that little interrogation up your ass, Luthor!"

Lionel smiled, "You know, I'll get it out of you sooner or later, Marty."
"Then it'll be later!"

Lionel nodded, "I admire your courage, persistence. However, I must inform you, this little charade is doing you no good. Simply give me my information, and I'll release you."
"I'd rather wish to die than give anything to a scum like you," Brooks muttered.

"Be careful what you wish for, Marty."

"Don't call me, Marty. Only my friends call me that."

"Very well, but that is of little relativity. Give me the information immediately. What did you tell Lex?"

Marty looked puzzled, "Who the hell is Lex?"
"Don't play these little games with me!" Lionel hollered, almost losing his temper.

"I don't know who you're talking about."

Lionel watched the man for a moment. "Very well," he said coldly, "If you wish to choose the more arduos method of our little discussion, who am I to dissent?" he turned to one of the guards, "Bring in the instruments." He said.

Marty didn't like the sound of that, "What are you going to do to me?"

Lionel smiled, "Make you wish to die."

Lex watched from his window, calmly sipping vodka. The red pickup truck pulled up to his gates. Clark got out and headed inside, not looking upwards to the observer. Lex waited a few seconds. Then his phone rang.

"Excuse me, Mr. Luthor, but a Clark- ''

"Send him up." Lex interrupted.

"Very well, sir." They both hung up.

Lex dropped in to his seat. No more than 45 seconds later, Clark entered the office.

"Clark," Lex said simply.

Clark cleared his throat, "Uhhh, hi, Lex."

"You haven't been here in a little while."
"I was afraid you wouldn't let me in." Clark admitted.

"Despite our personal….differences, I could never be so obdurate. You are my friend, Clark. One of the 1st I've ever had in Smallville. Why don't you just take a seat?"

Clark forced a smile, "Thanks," he said, dropping in to the seat.

Lex leaned forward, "A drink?" He asked, pointing to the vodka.

Clark raised an eyebrow, "I'm underage."

"Really?" Lex leaned back, "It's amazing how much older teenagers act than they really are, isn't it?"

"I guess." Clark said weirdly.

"So, what could this little meeting be about?" Lex asked, refilling his glass.

"I just came to apologize."

"For what?"
"You know. What happened."

"It's all behind us, Clark. It's over."

Clark swallowed. They sat awkwardly for a moment.

Then, Lex leaned forward, "Clark, I know."
For some reason, Clark felt very alarmed at the moment. "You know what?"

"About, Bart." He murmured.

"What about Bart? What are you talking about?"

Lex smiled with his first triumph. "So you admit you know him."

Clark looked down, ashamed. He had just betrayed his friend.

"Please, Clark," Lex said, "Don't lie to me. I know about Bart's little, should we say…..abilities."

Clark gave up all pretense. "How'd you find out?"

"I saw the tape robberies."

"Please, Lex. He didn't do it willingly. The guy, Phillip Rafferty, he did something. Some kind of mind control. I don't know. But Lex, please, he's innocent."
Lex pondered this for a moment. Then he sipped out of his vodka. "I think I believe you, Clark. But I don't know what to believe."

Clark squirmed in his seat, "He's innocent, Lex. Atleast believe that."

"Very well," Lex said, "For the start of this investigation in to the robberies, I'll believe he's innocent. Not for him, Clark, but for yours."

Clark smiled, gratified. "Thanks, Lex."

Lex looked at his watch. Then he cleared his throat, "Clark, I've been investigating under deep cover. I found something on Rafferty. One of my….acquaintances works at Luthor Corp, under my father. He feeds me information."
"A mole?"
Lex nodded, "Affirmative. He's a pretty good hacker too. Hacked in to Luthor Corp's private documents. Wholly illegal, but smart about it. He found a connection."

"Connection between what?" Clark asked.

"Phillip Rafferty and my father."

Clark leaned back, absorbing the news. "Wow," he said simply. He looked upwards, "What's the connection?"
"They've been building some sort of robots. We don't know why yet. All I know is that they are using humans, their brains, and making them in to some sorts of super soldiers."
"Why is your father involved?"
"I'm yet to know."

Suddenly, a beeper on the desk began to sound. Lex lifted it. "It's Marty," he said.

"The mole?" Clark asked.

"Yeah."
Clark stood up, "I guess I should be going."
Lex shook his head, "No, no, come with me. Besides, two heads are better than one.
Clark nodded, "Thanks, Lex."

Lex smiled, "No problem."

With that, they walked down to the garage.

The yellow Ferrari pulled up in front of the warehouse and came to a screeching halt. "You know," Clark said, "It wouldn't hurt to drive slower."

"What would the fun in that be?" Lex smirked, getting out of the driver's seat.

Clark shook his head and followed his best friend inside the warehouse. "This is where you normally meet?" Clark asked, holding his shirt up to his nose.

Not Buckingham palace, I know." Lex said, holding a handkerchief to his nose.

"That's an understatement." Clark replied.

It was Lex who smelled it 1st. They got up to the door of the meeting room and Lex shrank back.

"What's wrong?" Clark asked.

Lex said, "I can smell something in there, and it's not pretty." He opened the door. The corpse was unrecognizable. It was intact and had obviously been burnt. The skin on the face was missing. The hair on the head was gone. The body was mutilated and lacerated. The eyes were gone. All the joints were either dislocated or broken. The burnt skin was covered with dried blood and dead, rotten flesh.

Clark almost vomited. "That must be your informant."

"Or what's left of him," Lex replied, studying the grisly scene.

"Who did this?" Clark asked.

Lex smirked. "Who do you think?"

"Your father?"

"Yes. Of course."
"Do we call the police?"

"I don't think that will be a good idea."
"Why not?" Clark asked, a little surprised.

"Who knows what they'll think." Lex said.

"Does that really matter?" Clark asked, "What they'll think."
"I've already been a suspect for murder," Lex said, "I won't be again." With that, he left and after a moment, Clark walked after him. They entered the Ferrari and zoomed off.

"So what do we do now?" Clark asked.

"I don't know, but this game just got a whole lot more interesting." And how true these words would be. How true.

Lionel sipped smoothly out of the martini glass. He swallowed. Then he picked up his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Hello?" Said the voice on the other end.

"Kristina," Lionel said, "I believe we have a problem."