ACT III

FADE IN

Chloe picked up the latest issue of Forbes Magazine from the newsstand. Normally, a business magazine wouldn't garner her attention but this time it did. The cover had a photo of Tess Mercer, sporting the tagline "The Woman of Tomorrow? : An exclusive with the first lady of Luthorcorp." As Chloe placed down the magazine, she scoffed.

"Here's your coffee, Miss," the coffee vendor called out to her.

She grabbed the cup from the older man. "Thanks Joe," Chloe responded.

Chloe turned and began to head back towards Isis when she heard a familiar voice call out from behind her. "Chloe!"

She turned and smiled to see her friend Davis, dressed in a navy blue polyester coat, light grey t-shirt, and blue jeans. "Davis, what brings you here?"

"I just got off my shift and I wanted to stop by and say hello," Davis replied.

"That's great, but I only have a minute or two before I've got to get back."

"Then I'm glad I caught you," Davis began. "How've you been? I heard you were kidnapped..." His tone suggested he wasn't quite sure if he heard right.

They continued towards Isis. "Yeah…I've had better nights," she answered.

"I've been there," Davis responded, uneasily. Before Chloe had a chance to react, he tried to change the subject. "I'm just glad you're okay. So..what else is new?" he continued awkwardly.

"Oh…I forgot tell you…I'm engaged," Chloe replied, gleefully presenting the ring on her finger.

Davis was caught off guard, but managed a smile. "Wow. Congratulations! Who's the lucky guy?"

"Jimmy."

"Of course," Davis replied, nodding. "He's a lucky man," he added, carefully concealing his disappointment.

As they approached the doors to the Isis building, Chloe stopped. "I hate to do this but I really need to go. I would stay and chat, but I've got a mountain of paper work in there."

"It's okay, we'll catch up later," Davis assured her. "Besides, I have to head out anyways."

"Oh?" Chloe asked curiously.

"Doctor's appointment," he responded.

"Well I hope it's not anything too serious," Chloe replied, with too much on her mind to prod.

"Nothing I can't handle," Davis lied. "See you around Chloe. Give me a call sometime," Davis added cheerfully.

"Sure," she said, smiling back at him. As Davis walked away, Chloe turned to walk up the steps.

xxx

As Chloe entered the office, she found Clark typing away on her laptop, frustrated.
Clark looked up to see Chloe. "Hey Chloe, I hope you don't mind, but I let myself in."

"It's okay, but shouldn't you be doing research at The Planet…on your own computer."

"Sorry," he acknowledged using her laptop. "But I actually needed your help with something. I got some encrypted data from Summerholt for a story I'm working on."

"I can see what I can do, but where's Lois?" she wondered.

"She's parking the car. She insisted that she wasn't gonna give the city another cent for parking until they ripped up the ticket they gave her last week," Clark explained.

"Ok, let me have a look at what you've got," Chloe responded. Clark stood up, yielding the seat to Chloe.

Chloe opened up a command line window, and began typing furiously. "I'll just run a recursive data algorithm," she started, continuing to type. "…and…viola!"

A notification on the computer screen said "ACCESS GRANTED". Clark looked amazed. "How did you do it that fast?"

"It wasn't exactly easy," Chloe replied. "But I'm guessing the doctor didn't have the time or knowhow to use a more advanced encryption protocol."

Clark nodded. "Dr. Cavendish told Lois that they were running a simple memory experiment. But she didn't buy it. Neither do I."

"You had good reason to skeptical," Chloe began. "Project Morpheus was no memory study. It's initial aim was to investigate and test a subject's extra-sensory perception."

A schematic of a familiar machine popped on the screen. Chloe pulled up all related documents. "That's the device that was at his lab," Clark noted.

xxx

Lois walked into the office, closing the door behind her. "Hey guys, what ya looking at?" she cut in. Walking around the desk, she looked over Chloe's other shoulder. "I see you cracked the code…What's with the funky looking machine?"

"The Mat-er-i-optikon…say that two times fast…was the crown gem of Project Morpheus," she explained. "It's the first of its kind…a large scale psionic resonator. Meaning it's able to record and potentially amplify the abilities of the subject, anything from ESP to telekinesis."

"Look, there's a video from last night," Lois noticed.

Chloe clicked on it. It showed Dr. Cavendish working behind a console, while John Dee was strapped into the Materioptikon.

"John, I'm ready to take the experiment to the next level," the doctor told his subject.

"Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," John responded, coolly.

Dr. Cavendish increased the energy levels on the console and activated the machine. A greenish energy field enveloped John.

"All the levels look good, John. Just try to try keep calm and focus your thoughts," Dr. Cavendish reminded John.

"Understood," John said as he closed his eyes.

"Just a few more seconds, and we should be good," the doctor stated. Suddenly there was a power surge, and the levels started to spike off the charts. Dr. Cavendish tried to correct the problem, but the controls weren't responding.

"Get out of their now!" Dr. Cavendish frantically shouted.

John tried to unstrap himself, but currents of energy shocked him and pulsed throughout his body. John screamed in agony. As Dr. Cavendish tried to run over and get John out of the machine, a stray energy pulse collided with his body, rendering him unconscious.

Two guards ran into the room finding both the doctor, and John unconscious as the energy surge shut down everything but emergency power.

The video abruptly stopped. "Based on the police reports, once paramedics arrived, Dee somehow managed to overpower them and the guards. They were left stunned, disorientated," Lois commented.

"John's ex-wife was in pretty bad shape. One minute she's catatonic, the next she's hysterical…incoherent," Clark began.

"It was like she was having night terrors on acid," Lois offered, cutting in.

"Is it possible that the machine gave him the ability to harm people through their dreams?" Clark wondered.

"Given what we saw on the video, I wouldn't rule anything out," Chloe responded. She pulled up John Dee's prison and court records. "Now this is interesting."

"What is it?" Clark asked.

"It seems Dee was a Luthorcorp scientist. In January of last year, the facility he was working at blew up. It was initially claimed that the gas explosion was an accident," Chloe reported. "However, the blast patterns suggested foul play. So, Luthorcorp launched an internal investigation, resulting in Dee being blamed for the explosion. Among those that testified against him were the late Donovan Jamison and…Lex Luthor."

"What facility?" Clark followed up, sensing that the situation was all too familiar.

"It doesn't say," Chloe replied, shaking her head.

xxx

Lois phone beeped, indicating a text message. "Looks like another patient was admitted to Met Gen with similar symptoms to Dee's ex-wife."

As Lois headed for the door, she turned back to Clark. "Coming partner?"

"I'll catch up with you later. I have something to take care of," Clark replied.

"Where are you going?" Lois questioned him.

"To see Tess."

xxx

BAM! BAM! Tess' fists pounded the red bunching bag. She spun around gave a swift kick to the bag, just as Eva walked into the room. "Eva, I'm assuming you have some updates for me."

"Yes, Miss Mercer."

Tess responded, "Can you hand me that towel?" Her assistant grabbed a small white towel and handed it to her boss. Tess wiped the sweat off her brow. "So you were saying?" she continued.

"I thought you would like to know that the revamped Robotics Division is now operational," Eva answered. "I've had all the equipment moved out of storage from the old Syntechnics facility and transferred to the new space provided to us by S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Good work. I'm glad our new arrangement with them is working out," Tess commented. BAM! BAM! She continued to pound her fists into the bag. "Did the team leader receive the information I sent her?"

"Yes, she's examining the data from Project Ares as we speak and will attempt to put it to good use," Eva responded.

"Tell them I want results, and if they can't give them to me, I will find someone else that can. I want weekly updates on their progress. Project Metallo must be given the highest priority," Tess told her assistant. BAM! BAM! She landed another two punches to the bag.

"Absolutely," Eva replied.

"What's Dr. Price's status?"

"Still catatonic, but that could change at any moment," Eva explained.

"Make sure we have a man there, just in case he starts rambling like Dee's ex-wife," Tess insisted. "We can't have him leaking sensitive information to the police or reporters."

Tess spun around and kicked the punching bag, nearly knocking it off its chain. As she steadied the bag, she thought 'I have to be more careful.'

xxx

She looked up to see another assistant, Greg come in. "You have a visitor, Miss Mercer. He insisted on seeing you immediately."

Clark walked into the room behind Greg. He had tried to find Tess at Luthorcorp but to no avail. So he thought the mansion was the next best place to look. There she was, dressed in black workout gear, pounding away at a red punching bag.

"We can finish this later," Tess told Eva. The girl nodded and exited the study with Greg.

xxx

"Do you kickbox Clark?" Tess asked. BOOSH! BOOSH! She swiped her fists at the bag.

"No, I can't say that I do."

She gave the bag another swift kick. "Then, what do you do to work up a sweat, Mr. Kent?" she added, giving him the once over. Clark really knew how to fill out a suit, she thought.

"I'm actually here on official business for the Daily Planet," he changed the subject as he presented his badge.

BOOSH! BOOSH! Tess hit the punching bag. "Congratulations Clark. What can I do for you?"

Clark affixed the thin rimmed glasses to his nose. "I wanted to talk to you about an ex-Luthorcorp employee, John Dee."

"The prisoner that escaped," Tess acknowledged.

"What kind of work did he do for Luthcorp?"

"As far I can tell, he was experimenting with refined meteor rock at the Ridge Facility," Tess started. "The official record states he had become reckless with his research. Lex and his colleagues told him to stop, but he refused. With his job on the line, he rigged the facility to explode in a final act of defiance. Luckily the facility was empty at the time."

"Funny, I heard that Lex was illegally experimenting on people with abilities there," Clark countered. "I also heard that Green Arrow's team brought the facility down to put a stop to it."

"Now, where would you have heard a thing like that?" she asked, slyly.

"I have my sources," he cryptically responded.

"Lex told me to never underestimate you, Mr. Kent," Tess told him. "I can see that he was right. He also told me that you have quite the overactive imagination."

"We both know what Lex is truly capable of and the lengths he's willing to go to achieve his goals," Clark shot back.

"You can believe anything you want, Clark. But ghosts from the past aren't what people should be worried about," Tess countered.

"What are you talking about?"

"John Dee visited the mansion this morning, looking for Lex," Tess elaborated. "He's mentally unstable and he wants revenge. If he believes those vigilantes are responsible for the explosion, then they're in trouble."

Green Arrow and his cohorts had been a thorn in Luthcorp's side for far too long. 'The loss of a few scientists would be a small price to pay to eliminate terrorists like him,' Tess thought. And if the vigilantes did survive Dee's wrath then someone would have to find another way to get rid of the threat.

Clark swallowed hard. While Tess was holding back, he knew she was right. He had to warn Oliver before he became Dee's next target.

xxx

Lately, things had felt like they were falling apart for Davis Bloome. He was at a loss to explain what was happening to him, but he was haunted still. He needed help.

Davis had been referred to Dr. Evans by his doctor as she was the most qualified expert on dream interpretation in the area. In her mid-30s with long blonde hair, Dr. Evans was a clinical psychologist, getting her Doctorate in Psychology at Oxford in her home country of England.

She definitely seemed like she had the expertise he needed to understand what was happening. But now that he was standing face to face with her, he was at a loss for words. Davis shifted uncomfortably in the leather seat. "Dr. Evans…I…I'm not sure where to start."

"Just start from the beginning," she calmly urged him.

"I've been having these dreams…nightmares actually," Davis started.

"When did they start?" Evans followed up.

"I guess it's been three…four months," Davis continued, furrowing his brow as he attempted to nail down the timeline.

"Could you tell me more about the nightmares?" she gently guided him with an open-ended question.

"In some of them, I feel like I'm being chased by an unseen figure. It's large…dark…I run and I run, but I can't escape it," he began. "When it catches me, I feel strangely drawn to the darkness but I'm scared. It's like I'm pulled into two different directions. I feel like I'm going crazy."

Dr. Evans intently listened to Davis. "You're not going crazy," she assured him. "These kinds of dreams are fairly common. The figure may represent something in your past, something that you feel like you can't face. But it's fighting to come to the surface, to move from the subconscious to your conscious mind."

"Maybe, I went through a lot moving from foster home to foster home. But this feels like something more…and lately, things have becoming more vivid, more disturbing," Davis explained.

The therapist noted the mention of foster homes, and decided that she would return to the subject at a later time. The more pressing matter seemed to be the nightmares themselves. "In what way?"

Davis took a breath and continued. "Lately..it's like I've actually become the beast. And I'm doing things…horrible things. It's like I'm an animal, filled with rage…a killer instinct. I wake up in a cold sweat and my skin feels tight…raw."

"Before we go any further, I want to remind you, while our sessions are confidential, I have a duty to warn the authorities if you intend to harm someone," Dr. Evans reported.

"These are only nightmares," he insisted. "I'm a paramedic. My job is to help people, not to harm them. I could never hurt anyone." He told himself that, but the dreams were so vivid, he secretly wondered if he would be capable of harming another.

"I understand completely. Those in helping professions rarely are capable of such acts. But I'm required to remind you to cover all eventualities," she replied. Davis nodded in acknowledgement.

"Still, I can't understand what's happening to me. There's this darkness inside me and I'm afraid one day it will consume me," Davis added, worried.

"You've made a good first step coming here, Davis," Dr. Evans reassured him. "Together, we'll continue to explore your dreams. In time, you may find that once you understand your dreams, you will no longer fear them."

xxx

Clark had tried without any success to reach Oliver. He was getting worried. It was already nightfall. Exiting the elevator at Met Gen, he turned to see Lois.

"There you are Smallville, I thought I'd lost you," she called out to him. "Get anything from the ice queen?"

"She gave me some story about Dee being responsible for the explosion. But I don't buy it. He worked at the Ridge Facility, and I seriously doubt all they were doing was refining meteor rock," he said with good authority. That was only the tip of the iceberg.

"Project Ares," Lois finished thought. The name alone conjured many unpleasant memories. "Of course. They didn't want to call attention to their operation. So they blame it on a disgruntled employee."

"How about you?" he asked.

"It's been hard to get anything with some Luthorcorp goon milling around," Lois began.
"But when Price became hysterical, I did manage to hear him mumble something about a Dr. Destiny. He kept repeating it. Do you think that's what this freak is calling himself now?"

"It's possible. If we could only figure out…," Clark began, when the alarm bells starting to ring in the hospital.

"Code Blue, Code Blue, all available personnel report to Room 523," a nurse reported over the intercom.

As doctors and nurses rushed in to help, Lois and Clark tried to follow them inside. A doctor turned to them, "I'm sorry you can't be in here right now."

Lois and Clark pulled back, barely catching a glimpse of the patient, Penny Masterson, who was laying almost lifeless in bed.

"What happened?" One of the doctors asked.

"I don't know. A minute ago she was writhing in bed, hysterical. I went to get her some Ativan. When I came back, her blood pressure had dropped and she was in vfib," one of the nurses explained. Suddenly, Penny started flatlining. "Asystole"

"Starting compressions," a female doctor announced, as she commenced CPR. "A round of Epi."

The nurse prepared the appropriate dosage. As the doctor paused compressions, the nurse injected the needle into the patient's heart.

The doctor resumed compressions. Soon after a weak, erratic heartbeat emerged on the heart monitor. "Vfib," the nurse noted.

"Prepare the paddles," the doctor ordered. The female doctor pressed the electrified paddles down to try to shock Penny's heart back into a normal rhythm but it had no effect. A male doctor continued CPR.

"Increasing the voltage… charging paddles," the female doctor announced. "Clear!" She shouted as the other doctor got out the way. Administering another shock with the paddles seemed to have no effect.

They tried to stabilize her but they couldn't work fast enough. Moments later the patient was flatlining again. "Asystole," the nurse reported.

"Resuming compressions. Another round of Epi," the doctor ordered.

The nurse administered the second round of Epinephrine. Over and over, the doctor tried to get back a rhythm with CPR but it was no use. "That's it. There is no heartbeat left to shock. Call it."

"Patient's name is Penny Masterson. Time of death was 7:07 PM," a second nurse reported.

Clark feared something was terribly wrong, and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Lois turned around to say something to him, only to see he was nowhere to be found. "Clark?"

xxx

The night was brisk, even for the leather clad hero Green Arrow as he patrolled the rooftops. Everything was quiet, and as clichéd as it sounded to him, it was a little too quiet.

He began to scan the area when he heard the sound of dog barking incessantly. Focusing with his bow's sight, Oliver finally found what he was looking for. A young South Asian woman appeared to be out walking her cocker spaniel. As a hooded figure approached, the dog began to whimper and slink down to the ground.

Oliver lost his focus when he heard a phone call coming in. He clicked on his earpiece. "Yes?"

"Oliver, it's Clark, the prisoner on the loose, John Dee…he worked for Luthorcorp," Clark told him as stood atop another rooftop, at Metropolis General.

"Clark, I'm kind of the middle of something, can I call you back?" Oliver asked, impatient.

"No, listen. He worked at the Ridge Facility. He has some sort of powers…he's dangerous. He could kill you. Promise me you won't try to approach him," Clark demanded, concerned for his friend.

"Trust me Clark, I won't do anything you wouldn't do," Oliver insisted before promptly hanging up.

Green Arrow focused in on the hooded figure with his sight. "Now I have you," he stated with satisfaction.

Oliver pulled an arrow out of his quiver. The emerald archer poised his bow and prepared to fire.

His hooded target was in fact, John Dee.

ACT BREAK

Writer's Note: I don't usually add a note at the end but it would have been a little spoilerish to mention at the start. Regarding the scene where Penny dies..The original scene i wrote in 2010 had her blood pressure high and the doctors repeatedly trying to shock Penny when she was flatlining. This was years before I took a First Aid/CPR course, where they explain you can't shock someone who is flatlining! Also her blood pressure should be low, not high! The reworked scene was inspired by me recently doing a rewatch of ER…while admittedly not completely realistic itself, I hope it helped me rework the scene to be better than the original. If it still doesn't work, let me know and I will update it.