Biological Families
Author: duane at duaneaakre dot com
Disclaimer: As always I own nothing. Well I own a house, two cars, a pair of jetskis, and a lot of other junk, but none of these characters.
Story Rating: R [The story may drift into the HBO range rather than stay in the WB range, so to be on the safe side, I am rating this R.]
Chapter 5
Clark disconnected the call, grabbed Chloe's hand, and started working his way against the flow of students entering the storm shelter.
"Clark, what is it?"
"That was my Mom. She is in the storm cellar back home. Lex is there. Something happened with 'you know what' and Lex was hurt. Bad. We have to go."
Before Chloe could ask any more questions, Clark had finally bulled his way through the press of bodies at the door and broke into a run. It was all she could do to keep up. One of the chaperones was shouting at them to get back to the shelter as Clark pulled her around the corner. Chloe barely had time to register that this hallway was vacant before Clark swept her up into his arms and accelerated into speed mode.
The night they had returned from ancient Rome Clark had similarly gone into speed mode during the trek to her apartment near Metropolis University. But it had been nothing like this, thought Chloe. Obviously, that time he had been holding his speed down for her comfort, but not this time. She remembered Clark explaining when he first revealed his secrets back in the massage room in the baths in ancient Tolosa that he could run the five miles from the farm to the school in fourteen seconds. Either the events in Rome had greatly increased his abilities or Clark was very, very scared, as according to her 'bot system exactly 0.45 seconds passed from the moment he picked her up until he set her on her feet outside the entrance to the storm cellar. Her 'bots instantly did the math and she tried to understand how Clark could run at 40,000 miles per hour without creating an incredible sonic boom or burning off all of their clothes due to friction. Apparently his body must put out some kind of barrier to protect anything close to him. Or perhaps he was shifting slightly out-of-phase with the rest of the world so there was minimal interaction.
These thoughts ran through her head in the couple of seconds it took for her eyes to clear and adjust to the fading light after the abrupt transition from the well-lit school. Meanwhile Clark had already wrenched open one of the cellar doors and disappeared down the stairs. Well, in his rush he had ripped the door from its hinges and sent it flying into the woods. Not that anyone would notice thought Chloe, next to the gaping ten foot diameter hole in the cellar's roof and the large chunks of concrete scattered for thirty feet in every direction. She could just make out a faint light coming from the large hole as she ran to the entrance and followed Clark down the stairs.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs in the faint light from the lantern it looked like a bomb had gone off. Shattered glass jars and overturned shelves were everywhere. Between the debris from the ceiling and the gallons of spilt tomatoes, the floor was a reddish, muddy mess. The only thing missing from this disaster was the spaceship. Somehow it must have been activated and then departed straight up through the roof. 'I wondered where it went?' thought Chloe as she made her way across to where Martha and Clark were crouched over Lex's body.
"When we came out to the cellar because of the reports of tornadoes, we found a reporter with a video camera already down here," Martha was explaining to Clark as Chloe walked up. "Your father started screaming at him when suddenly Lex showed up. Apparently the reporter stole a disk which was part of the ship from Lex and also found out from him where the ship was hidden. The reporter pulled the disk from his pocket and then, I guess, its proximity with the ship caused the disk to move to its slot in the body of its own volition. At the same time your Dad tried to get the camera away from the reporter and they started to fight. Jonathan chased the reporter out into the storm just before the disk seated itself home in the ship and then started to emit a massive beam of light which struck Lex directly in the face. Lex started to scream as the light continued to pound into his face. Eventually Lex passed out, but the beam just went on and on, even lifting him completely off of the floor with its power. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the beam turned off and Lex dropped to the ground and his eyes were all white like you see them now. Then the ship lifted off from the ground and shot straight up into the night."
Martha was starting to sob. "Your father disappeared into the storm and I have no idea where he is. Lex is unconscious and barely breathing. The spaceship is gone. I didn't know what to do but call you."
Clark pulled his Mom into his arms and started to rock her. "Everything is going to be okay. We'll find Dad."
Chloe stepped forward. "Let me at Lex." With the confidence of one who had been through a lot worse, she added. "I am sure I can fix him right up."
Martha didn't understand what Chloe thought she could do, but she let Clark draw her away to give Chloe room to work.
Clark was more worried about his missing father and the shock his mother was going through than about Lex's condition. Lana had been dead back at the arena when Chloe had revived her and Lex was merely hurt and unconscious. Plus Lex already had an inert set of Chloe's 'bots in his body, so she should have him cured in a matter of seconds. Then he was going to have to explain even more of the truth to his mother so she could understand what was going on. They had admitted Chloe was thousands of years old, but had not explained her ability to introduce her nanobots into other people's bodies and then use them to heal their injuries.
As he watched, Chloe knelt down beside Lex's body and then reached out her right hand to rest it on his exposed cheek. After less than a second, she suddenly jerked her hand away and fell back onto her butt. Holding her violently shaking right hand aloft, she started to shimmy along the floor as though to put as much distance between Lex and herself as possible.
Clark had never seen such a look of terror on Chloe's face as she was showing now. Even after her back was against the wall, her legs continued to move as if to force her body through the wall itself.
Clark let go of his mother and raced over to Chloe in a millisecond. "Chloe, what is it? What's wrong?"
Through clenched teeth that indicated she was in massive pain, Chloe answered. "There is something alien in Lex's 'bot system and now it has jumped into mine. It is trying to take control of my 'bots and my mind. I am fighting it, but it is very strong. I don't think I have much time before it is going to overwhelm my defenses. There is some information I have gotten from it you are going to need to save Lex and me."
Clark listened to her in shock as he realized with the way her body was starting to shake and shudder all over, he might be losing her forever. Just as she was about to give him the vital information, Clark's phone started to shrill. And not just from an ordinary incoming call, he could ignore. This was the emergency signal only one of Chloe's 'special' phones could send. Since Lex and Chloe were here, it could only be from Lana, Lana's parents, or Lex's Mom.
Clark jerked his phone from his pocket and almost yelled "What?" into it.
"It's Lana. I need your help. It's an emergency."
"I am in the middle of an emergency here, too. It's going to have to wait."
"Whitney's dead." Clark could hear Lana crying into the phone. "I am trapped under the wreckage of the truck and can't reach him. If I can't get to him within the next two minutes, it will be too late."
Clark looked at the unconscious Lex and felt Chloe's body continue to shudder in his arms.
"Where are you?"
"We were on Bedford Road about a mile north of the bus depot when the truck was sucked up into the tornado. I am now in a cornfield, it has to be in the general area."
"I'll find you. I'll be there as soon as I can." Then without even saying goodbye, Clark cut the connection and turned his attention back to Chloe.
"Chloe, what is it you need to tell me?"
"Clark, don't let Lana touch Lex or me, or she will be infected too. Tons of images and memories have been downloaded into my nanobot system. Most of them are alien, but a few of them are normal. I think I have identified a device in some of the memories that will reverse the effect. It is about the size of a paperback book, silver metallic in color like the ship, and covered with the alien symbols. In the only memory I have of it on Earth, a Major in a German Luftwaffe uniform is handing it to a man wearing a fedora hat, khaki shirt and tie, and a brown tweed jacket whom the Major refers to in English as 'Dr. Jones'. In the background I can see an Olympic flag and I can hear Hitler's voice booming though the stadium. This memory has to be from the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Berlin on August 1st, 1936."
At this point Chloe let out a small scream and started to shake even harder. Finally, after a few seconds she was able to continue. "The prototype time machine is still functional at my lab. Sam knows how to run it. Oh, also, I have been working with a Dr. Virgil Swann in New York on translating the symbols ever since I intercepted some signals from outer space the same day you arrived. He may be able to help."
Chloe gritted her teeth in pain again for a few seconds before she was able to continue. "Hurry, Clark. The portion of my 'bot system I still control estimates it is less than twenty minutes until it will be overwhelmed, Lex probably has longer since his system is mostly inert." Chloe tried to put on a brave smile. "Sorry our dance had to end this way."
Then as Clark was forced to watch, Chloe's eyes rolled up into her head until only whites were showing, scarily similar to Lex, and she sagged unconscious with only an occasional random shutter stirring her suddenly lifeless body.
Clark checked his watch and realized he had less than twenty seconds if he was going to reach Lana in time to save Whitney. He lowered Chloe to the filthy floor of the cellar and couldn't help but notice how her gown was a total ruin. He made himself a promise, when this was all over, he would see her in the true Roman version of this gown at some fantastic Hollywood party like she had suggested.
After a quick kiss to Chloe's forehead, he stood and said, "Mom, take care of them. I have to go, but I will be back as soon as I can."
Martha nodded, numb from all of the unbelievable events of the past few minutes, but Clark was already gone.
-----------------------------------
'Where was Clark?' thought Lana for the hundredth time as her internal clock counted down past the ten second mark before it would be too late to save Whitney. He had said he was in the middle of an emergency also before abruptly terminating their call. However she HAD explained Whitney was dead, so his emergency must be extremely urgent, if it took precedent over her own situation. Perhaps something had happened to Clark and he wasn't coming at all.
Lana had just about resigned herself to losing Whitney and the need to change her focus to her own survival when the engine block which had been crushing her legs was suddenly gone and Clark was standing over her body.
"Sorry," said Clark as he quickly pulled her damaged body over to Whitney. "You were over a mile and a half from where you said and it took longer to find you than I expected."
From ten feet away and viewed from ground level, Whitney's body hadn't looked that bad, but up close, it was very apparent he was dead. He was lying face up; his pale green eyes open and staring vacantly up at the sky. His nose was broken and a trickle of blood had escaped from his mouth and ears. His arms and legs were all twisted at unnatural angles and were obviously broken in multiple places. And finally, several ribs were protruding from a large wound in his left side.
Lana just stared for a second uncertain if she was really able to do anything, but the droning of her internal nanobot clock got her moving. "Clark, tear open the skin on my hand then see what you can do to straighten his arms and legs."
Clark hated the thought of hurting this girl he at one time thought he loved, but knew the blood to blood contact was necessary if there was going to be a chance to save Whitney. Quickly, before he could let himself dwell on what he was doing, Clark dug his harder than steel fingernails into her palm and ripped open four deep gashes almost to the bone.
Lana slapped her bleeding palm against the wound in Whitney's side. She was dimly aware of Clark working on his limbs, but almost her entire attention was focused on following the directions Chloe had downloaded to begin the nanobot transfer. As the millions of nanobots were forced from her bloodstream into Whitney's, it seemed like she could sense each individual nanobot going about the process of reproducing a copy of itself. Four times a second each nanobot created a duplicate. As a result the total number of 'bots in Whitney's body increased at a geometric rate. Millions, billions, trillions, and after four seconds, quadrillions of 'bots saturated every nook and cranny of his body. Once saturation was achieved, the 'bot system issued the command to switch the individual nanobots from reproduction to repair and the real work began.
Once the 'bots where in place, she could call up a status of the damage and repairs with the merest thought. Thirty seven bones were fractured including cracks in his skull from the impact point in the back radiating almost all of the way around to his forehead in the front. Both lungs punctured. Spleen and liver ruptured. The aorta leading from the heart was torn. The list went on and on, but nothing impossible. The soft tissue damage was the fastest to repair while reknitting bones and replacing teeth were the most time consuming. 'How long?' she thought. And instantly the answer was returned; eighteen more seconds until the repairs would be complete.
While she was forced to maintain physical contact with his body until the repairs were complete, Lana tried to decide what they would explain to Whitney. When he awoke out in a field among the scattered wreckage of his truck, what would he think? How could she explain why they were both unhurt? And what about Clark's sudden appearance? Should she divulge her miraculous new abilities?
As Whitney's body was being repaired, so too was his brain. However one part of the repair process had always been beyond Chloe's control, and now also Lana's., as the 'bot system automatically tried to add a backup copy of Lana's memories to Whitney's mind. It was not quite as overwhelming as what Lex had experienced when Chloe's thousands and thousands of years of memories were crammed into his head in a matter of a few seconds. However the experience was very disconcerting as Whitney experienced many of the same memories he shared with Lana only from her perspective instead. And then there was the whole sequence of memories that seemed like some combination of dream and nightmare, memories of chariot races, crucifixions, barbaric feasts, and being killed by men in Roman soldier uniforms throwing spears while tied to a post in the center of a giant arena filled with a screaming crowd. But most disconcerting of all were the numerous memories of Lex Luthor, and the undeniable intensity of Lana's feelings for him. All of her memories of Whitney seemed to pale to black and white next to the vibrant hues of her memories of Lex.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was only the eighteen seconds her 'bot system had originally stated, Lana knew Whitney's wounds were repaired and his body was in the best physical condition possible. She removed her hand from the site of his formerly protruding ribs and reached up to sweep away the strands of his blonde hair that had blown into his eyes.
"Whitney, can you hear me?"
Whitney slowly opened his eyes and stretched his body like after a good night's sleep before propping himself up on one elbow. "I had the strangest dream." Then his gaze took in Lana's shredded clothing, Clark and his destroyed tuxedo, and finally the wreckage of his truck. "It wasn't a dream, was it?"
Lana shook her head understanding his confusion, as she too had experienced death and resurrection via the nanobots. She tried to find the right words to start an explanation. "I . . ."
Abruptly Clark interrupted her. "Lex and Chloe's nanobot systems are under attack by something from my spaceship. I think if we can't find a way to stop it; it will kill them. From what Chloe said, we may have less than fifteen minutes."
Whitney had been watching Lana's face and saw the way the color drained when Lex's name was mentioned. The strange memories he had experienced, which even now were rapidly fading, suddenly felt true.
"No," whispered Lana as she suddenly understood what had delayed Clark. How would they be able to go on if they lost Lex and Chloe?
"We have to get to Chloe's lab," stated Clark as he watched Lana's reaction. As she nodded slowly, Clark turned his attention to Whitney. "There is a lot we need to explain, but there just isn't time right now."
Then Clark reached down a hand to each of them and hauled them to their feet. Enough of the cat was out of the bag with Whitney that Clark felt they were past the point of needing to be subtle and secretive. Besides, he had a feeling they might need Whitney's help, if he was willing, before this was situation was resolved. Therefore, feeling the press of time, without any warning Clark threw one of them over each shoulder and set off at super speed for Chloe's secret facility hidden under the long disused remains of the Creekside Foundry.
It only took Clark a fraction of a second to reach the hidden entrance even with the burden of carrying Whitney and Lana and the zigzag route required to pass through the pseudo-minefield of meteor rocks in the area, a minefield mostly 'seeded' by Chloe to keep Clark and his x-ray vision clear of the area until after the Roman time loop was past. Reaching the entrance, Clark set the others back on their feet and while they were recovering from the shock of traveling in speed mode, he walked up to the concealed speaker and said, "Noblesse Oblige".
As the concrete wall blocking the entrance rolled aside, Whitney and Lana walked up.
"Interesting choice for a secret password, 'With rank comes obligations'," said Lana.
Clark shrugged and then started to run into the facility at a normal pace. Over his shoulder he said. "Chloe's idea, since the events back in Rome and during the ensuing two thousand years she had to live through, she made the decision she should do more with her gifts than just drift along. I agree with her philosophy and this little password is one small additional way to remind ourselves of our goals."
Clark had been to the facility several times before. Lana had never been there, but complete information on the facility had been included in the data Chloe had downloaded to her the previous Sunday evening after their return from Metropolis. Lana knew she could operate any piece of equipment in the facility or even run flat out like now without a single misstep even if she was blindfolded. It was left to Whitney to gaze about in amazement as they ran.
"Clark, where are we going?" asked Lana.
"To the prototype time machine," responded Clark. "Chloe was able discover an alien device, somehow related to the ship, which may be able to reverse what is happening to them. However the only time and place where she knows the location of the device is in the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. We are going to have to use the time machine to go back and retrieve the device."
Lana nodded. "I know where it is. Go on ahead and find Sam. Whitney and I will meet you there. If we arrive first, I'll start setting up the machine."
Clark blurred and was gone.
Whitney ran along beside Lana trying to cope with all of the shocks he had received in the past five minutes. At the moment what was most in the forefront of his thoughts was the pace Lana was setting. He had run the 100m and 200m on the track team in the football off-season, at least until he had blown out his knee. Now he was trying to keep up with Lana and she was maintaining a pace that seemed almost as fast as his personal best. And she didn't even seem to be breathing hard. His knee felt better than it had at any time in the past seven months, but still his muscles were tightening up and his breath was becoming ragged. Suddenly, Lana slowed half a step and grabbed Whitney's hand.
'Sorry about that,' thought Lana. 'I am still getting use to my abilities and forgot you might need a boost to keep up this pace.'
As she said the words, Whitney's body suddenly seemed to feel twice as good and strong; it felt like the pace was no more than a slow jog which could be maintained indefinitely. Then Whitney realized she hadn't said the words aloud, but instead directly into his head.
'What is going on?' thought Whitney towards Lana in return.
'Super-brief version, I will go into details later. Clark is an alien who arrived on earth at the age of three in a tiny spaceship during the meteor shower. He is unbelievably strong and fast, well you got a first hand taste of that just now as he was able to run the six miles from the cornfield where we were to this facility under the old Creekside Foundry in under a second, even while carrying both of us.
'Chloe was born over seventeen thousand years ago in a long-lost high tech civilization. She had experimental nanobots injected into her body just before the collapse of that civilization. These 'bots keep her forever sixteen and can almost instantly cure any injury.
'I first found out their secrets when we were stranded by a time machine back in ancient Rome last Friday.'
Whitney jumped in with a comment. 'So those memories of yours from ancient Rome were real?'
'Yeah, including those of my death. It wasn't until Chloe healed my fatal injuries, that she revealed a few of her additional secrets.'
Whitney thought about things for a second. 'Was I really dead back there in that cornfield?'
'Fraid so, buckoo. Fortunately for you, after wearing that piece of meteor rock that killed my parents, who by the way are no longer dead, has apparently turned me into a borderline meteor freak. At least everyone else who has been healed by Chloe ends up with a passive nanobot system which is only active when Chloe touches them. I am the only one who has ever ended up with an active system; so I can heal people too. Generally, we can bring people back who haven't been dead for more than five minutes. It was scarily close with you as I was trapped under the wreckage of the truck and couldn't reach you. If Clark had gotten there only a few seconds later, well . . .'
'Your parents are alive?'
Without slacking her pace, Lana turned towards Whitney with a big grin. "Chloe used her time machine to snatch them off of Main Street a fraction of a second before the meteor would have hit. They have been staying with me at Lex's mansion for the past week."
Whitney was about to ask about her relationship with Lex when their run abruptly ended at a heavy wooden door. The whole run had been so surreal. When Clark had mentioned Chloe's lab, Whitney expected some futuristic high- tech facility, but instead they had been running through something with a strangely Victorian feel like you would find in an old Jules Verne story or movie adaptation set back in the 1880's with lots of black painted iron, dark wood paneling, and red leather furniture. Now when Lana pushed open the door, it felt like they were entering the lab where Frankenstein's monster had been created. The room was filled with giant whining turbines, massive transformers, and even a few of those oversized Jacob's Ladders with crackling sparks climbing the two upright arms.
Lana ran over to the control panel with Whitney hot on her heels. The control panel itself looked out of place with its modern style keyboards and bank of flat panel monitors. As Lana started throwing switches and typing commands in at the keyboard, she was quietly mumbling under her breathe.
"The Berlin Olympics opening ceremony was on August 1st, 1936. The American team sailed from New York on July 15th on the SS Manhattan, so factoring in sailing time to Hamburg and then a couple days sightseeing by train, they should have arrived at the Olympic village about July 26th."
"Ah, Lana, how do you know so much about the 1936 Olympics?" asked Whitney.
"My nanobot memory system has effectively unlimited storage capacity. After we got back from ancient Rome, Chloe downloaded all the historical data she had about anything that might be useful. So I happen to know while the most famous member of the U.S. Olympic team was Jesse Owens, the team also had an additional 311 members plus a lot of coaches, trainers, physicians, and other friends and family members. Since we need to be at the Olympics and neither you nor Clark speaks German, I think the best idea is for us to blend in with the U.S. team. I want to get there a few days before the opening ceremony so we can scope things out."
"Are you saying you speak German, now?" asked Whitney as the seemingly endless stream of shocks continued to roll over him.
Lana looked at him and for a moment Whitney thought she almost felt like someone he no longer knew. "Another of Chloe's gifts. I can speak one hundred and seventy eight languages although a number of these are no longer in use. I think while we are touching, I can use my 'bots to real- time translate in your head, so you will be able to understand German and even speak it. Unfortunately, Clark doesn't have the 'bots in his body, so I can't help him there, and I probably can't be touching you the whole time either."
"You keep talking like I am going with you. I don't have time to spend a week in 1936 Germany; I have to report to the Marines in three days."
"Sorry, I forgot you are new to this whole time travel thing. We will be back five minutes after we leave regardless of how much time we spend back there."
Just at that moment Clark seemed to appear out of nowhere with a very attractive woman in his arms. The woman looked to be in her upper twenties; about five foot four with long dark brown hair, blonde highlights, and dark green eyes. As Clark lowered her to her feet, he said. "We'll be back in five minutes or we will be dead."
Lana looked at him. "Thanks for the help. I was just trying to convince Whitney to come with us; we may need an extra set of eyes and hands." Then Lana turned to the woman and extended her hand. "It is nice to finally meet you, too bad it couldn't be under better circumstance. I am Lana Lang and this is Whitney Fordman."
The woman shook the offered hand. "Samantha Wingate. Nice to meet you, too. Clark explained the time crunch, let's get straight to it."
Lana nodded. "I have the system charging up and it should be ready in two minutes. I have set the portal to open in the Olympic village an hour before dawn on July 26th which is my best guess for when the U.S. team will arrive and hopefully we can blend in. That will give us seven days to figure out what is going on and hopefully be all set to retrieve the device during the opening ceremonies."
"Okay," said Sam as she walked over to a storage cabinet behind the control console. After she had opened it, she retrieved a small wooden box and returned to the others.
After she opened the box, the others could see it was filled with cylindrical metallic tubes that looked just like the special cell phones Clark and Lana were carrying.
"Your cell phones will send a retrieval signal to open a portal home by activating them and then saying 'Back to the Future'. Don't laugh at me; the code phrase was Chloe's idea. Since they don't have cell phone service back there, your phones will default to a walkie-talkie mode with a range of about five miles. The nanotechnology batteries will last a month on a single charge, so that shouldn't be an issue. I suggest each of you grab several spares and stash them once you are back there in case your primary one is lost or destroyed."
Clark grabbed several from the box and then looked at Whitney. "Are you in or out?"
Whitney realized it was just this kind of situation, helping people in need that was the reason he was joining the Marines. And this wasn't just to help total strangers, but people he actually knew. Chloe was a friend. Lex didn't exactly fall in the friend category, particularly now that he knew of his relationship with Lana, but Lex did make it possible for Whitney to play with the Sharks for his Dad and he owed him for that. Plus on a more personal side, this would give him another week with Lana to try to turn her back around in his direction.
Whitney took a deep breath. "I'm in. Hell, I have already died today; this is all just bonus time anyway."
Sam handed him several of the devices and then turn the box to Lana.
"Sam, can you set up our return with an intermediate stop in New York City two days ago?" asked Clark. "Chloe said she has been working with a Dr. Swann there at translating the alien symbols and we may need his help figuring out how the device works before we return here."
Sam nodded. "I have worked with Virgil in the past. I can set it up to send you straight to his observatory. His personal offices and living quarters are on the top floor." Then she gestured to the green rectangular doorway that was forming out in the center of the lab. "Is everyone ready to go?"
Whitney looked at this strange apparition and then back to Clark and Lana. "You mean right this minute? Dressed like this?"
Clark shrugged and started walking to the portal. "We are out of time. We will improvise when we get back to 1936 and have more time."
Lana took Whitney's hand. "Come on. It will be okay."
Following Clark's lead, they followed him through the device. It was just like stepping through a doorway although they almost stumbled over Clark's body in the darkness on the other side.
"Clark!" exclaimed Whitney, as he helped pull him back to his feet.
"I'm okay. Passing through the device affects me more than anyone else. I will be fine in a minute."
The device had dumped them out in a shadowy area between two buildings. As they made their way out of the alley, they found themselves on a well-lit central boulevard, a street heavily festooned with giant red banners emblazed with the black and white Swastika. They were really there, in the heart of Nazi Germany. Two of them looked like they had come straight from a tornado and one was wearing a filthy, torn tuxedo. No identification papers. No money. No Chloe with her thousands of years of practical experience and no Lex with his abilities for dealing with powerful men. Just three Smallville teenagers with a burning need to find a secret piece of alien technology to save their friends.
To be continued.
Author's Note: Any thoughts about 'Dr. Jones'?
Author: duane at duaneaakre dot com
Disclaimer: As always I own nothing. Well I own a house, two cars, a pair of jetskis, and a lot of other junk, but none of these characters.
Story Rating: R [The story may drift into the HBO range rather than stay in the WB range, so to be on the safe side, I am rating this R.]
Chapter 5
Clark disconnected the call, grabbed Chloe's hand, and started working his way against the flow of students entering the storm shelter.
"Clark, what is it?"
"That was my Mom. She is in the storm cellar back home. Lex is there. Something happened with 'you know what' and Lex was hurt. Bad. We have to go."
Before Chloe could ask any more questions, Clark had finally bulled his way through the press of bodies at the door and broke into a run. It was all she could do to keep up. One of the chaperones was shouting at them to get back to the shelter as Clark pulled her around the corner. Chloe barely had time to register that this hallway was vacant before Clark swept her up into his arms and accelerated into speed mode.
The night they had returned from ancient Rome Clark had similarly gone into speed mode during the trek to her apartment near Metropolis University. But it had been nothing like this, thought Chloe. Obviously, that time he had been holding his speed down for her comfort, but not this time. She remembered Clark explaining when he first revealed his secrets back in the massage room in the baths in ancient Tolosa that he could run the five miles from the farm to the school in fourteen seconds. Either the events in Rome had greatly increased his abilities or Clark was very, very scared, as according to her 'bot system exactly 0.45 seconds passed from the moment he picked her up until he set her on her feet outside the entrance to the storm cellar. Her 'bots instantly did the math and she tried to understand how Clark could run at 40,000 miles per hour without creating an incredible sonic boom or burning off all of their clothes due to friction. Apparently his body must put out some kind of barrier to protect anything close to him. Or perhaps he was shifting slightly out-of-phase with the rest of the world so there was minimal interaction.
These thoughts ran through her head in the couple of seconds it took for her eyes to clear and adjust to the fading light after the abrupt transition from the well-lit school. Meanwhile Clark had already wrenched open one of the cellar doors and disappeared down the stairs. Well, in his rush he had ripped the door from its hinges and sent it flying into the woods. Not that anyone would notice thought Chloe, next to the gaping ten foot diameter hole in the cellar's roof and the large chunks of concrete scattered for thirty feet in every direction. She could just make out a faint light coming from the large hole as she ran to the entrance and followed Clark down the stairs.
When she reached the bottom of the stairs in the faint light from the lantern it looked like a bomb had gone off. Shattered glass jars and overturned shelves were everywhere. Between the debris from the ceiling and the gallons of spilt tomatoes, the floor was a reddish, muddy mess. The only thing missing from this disaster was the spaceship. Somehow it must have been activated and then departed straight up through the roof. 'I wondered where it went?' thought Chloe as she made her way across to where Martha and Clark were crouched over Lex's body.
"When we came out to the cellar because of the reports of tornadoes, we found a reporter with a video camera already down here," Martha was explaining to Clark as Chloe walked up. "Your father started screaming at him when suddenly Lex showed up. Apparently the reporter stole a disk which was part of the ship from Lex and also found out from him where the ship was hidden. The reporter pulled the disk from his pocket and then, I guess, its proximity with the ship caused the disk to move to its slot in the body of its own volition. At the same time your Dad tried to get the camera away from the reporter and they started to fight. Jonathan chased the reporter out into the storm just before the disk seated itself home in the ship and then started to emit a massive beam of light which struck Lex directly in the face. Lex started to scream as the light continued to pound into his face. Eventually Lex passed out, but the beam just went on and on, even lifting him completely off of the floor with its power. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the beam turned off and Lex dropped to the ground and his eyes were all white like you see them now. Then the ship lifted off from the ground and shot straight up into the night."
Martha was starting to sob. "Your father disappeared into the storm and I have no idea where he is. Lex is unconscious and barely breathing. The spaceship is gone. I didn't know what to do but call you."
Clark pulled his Mom into his arms and started to rock her. "Everything is going to be okay. We'll find Dad."
Chloe stepped forward. "Let me at Lex." With the confidence of one who had been through a lot worse, she added. "I am sure I can fix him right up."
Martha didn't understand what Chloe thought she could do, but she let Clark draw her away to give Chloe room to work.
Clark was more worried about his missing father and the shock his mother was going through than about Lex's condition. Lana had been dead back at the arena when Chloe had revived her and Lex was merely hurt and unconscious. Plus Lex already had an inert set of Chloe's 'bots in his body, so she should have him cured in a matter of seconds. Then he was going to have to explain even more of the truth to his mother so she could understand what was going on. They had admitted Chloe was thousands of years old, but had not explained her ability to introduce her nanobots into other people's bodies and then use them to heal their injuries.
As he watched, Chloe knelt down beside Lex's body and then reached out her right hand to rest it on his exposed cheek. After less than a second, she suddenly jerked her hand away and fell back onto her butt. Holding her violently shaking right hand aloft, she started to shimmy along the floor as though to put as much distance between Lex and herself as possible.
Clark had never seen such a look of terror on Chloe's face as she was showing now. Even after her back was against the wall, her legs continued to move as if to force her body through the wall itself.
Clark let go of his mother and raced over to Chloe in a millisecond. "Chloe, what is it? What's wrong?"
Through clenched teeth that indicated she was in massive pain, Chloe answered. "There is something alien in Lex's 'bot system and now it has jumped into mine. It is trying to take control of my 'bots and my mind. I am fighting it, but it is very strong. I don't think I have much time before it is going to overwhelm my defenses. There is some information I have gotten from it you are going to need to save Lex and me."
Clark listened to her in shock as he realized with the way her body was starting to shake and shudder all over, he might be losing her forever. Just as she was about to give him the vital information, Clark's phone started to shrill. And not just from an ordinary incoming call, he could ignore. This was the emergency signal only one of Chloe's 'special' phones could send. Since Lex and Chloe were here, it could only be from Lana, Lana's parents, or Lex's Mom.
Clark jerked his phone from his pocket and almost yelled "What?" into it.
"It's Lana. I need your help. It's an emergency."
"I am in the middle of an emergency here, too. It's going to have to wait."
"Whitney's dead." Clark could hear Lana crying into the phone. "I am trapped under the wreckage of the truck and can't reach him. If I can't get to him within the next two minutes, it will be too late."
Clark looked at the unconscious Lex and felt Chloe's body continue to shudder in his arms.
"Where are you?"
"We were on Bedford Road about a mile north of the bus depot when the truck was sucked up into the tornado. I am now in a cornfield, it has to be in the general area."
"I'll find you. I'll be there as soon as I can." Then without even saying goodbye, Clark cut the connection and turned his attention back to Chloe.
"Chloe, what is it you need to tell me?"
"Clark, don't let Lana touch Lex or me, or she will be infected too. Tons of images and memories have been downloaded into my nanobot system. Most of them are alien, but a few of them are normal. I think I have identified a device in some of the memories that will reverse the effect. It is about the size of a paperback book, silver metallic in color like the ship, and covered with the alien symbols. In the only memory I have of it on Earth, a Major in a German Luftwaffe uniform is handing it to a man wearing a fedora hat, khaki shirt and tie, and a brown tweed jacket whom the Major refers to in English as 'Dr. Jones'. In the background I can see an Olympic flag and I can hear Hitler's voice booming though the stadium. This memory has to be from the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Berlin on August 1st, 1936."
At this point Chloe let out a small scream and started to shake even harder. Finally, after a few seconds she was able to continue. "The prototype time machine is still functional at my lab. Sam knows how to run it. Oh, also, I have been working with a Dr. Virgil Swann in New York on translating the symbols ever since I intercepted some signals from outer space the same day you arrived. He may be able to help."
Chloe gritted her teeth in pain again for a few seconds before she was able to continue. "Hurry, Clark. The portion of my 'bot system I still control estimates it is less than twenty minutes until it will be overwhelmed, Lex probably has longer since his system is mostly inert." Chloe tried to put on a brave smile. "Sorry our dance had to end this way."
Then as Clark was forced to watch, Chloe's eyes rolled up into her head until only whites were showing, scarily similar to Lex, and she sagged unconscious with only an occasional random shutter stirring her suddenly lifeless body.
Clark checked his watch and realized he had less than twenty seconds if he was going to reach Lana in time to save Whitney. He lowered Chloe to the filthy floor of the cellar and couldn't help but notice how her gown was a total ruin. He made himself a promise, when this was all over, he would see her in the true Roman version of this gown at some fantastic Hollywood party like she had suggested.
After a quick kiss to Chloe's forehead, he stood and said, "Mom, take care of them. I have to go, but I will be back as soon as I can."
Martha nodded, numb from all of the unbelievable events of the past few minutes, but Clark was already gone.
-----------------------------------
'Where was Clark?' thought Lana for the hundredth time as her internal clock counted down past the ten second mark before it would be too late to save Whitney. He had said he was in the middle of an emergency also before abruptly terminating their call. However she HAD explained Whitney was dead, so his emergency must be extremely urgent, if it took precedent over her own situation. Perhaps something had happened to Clark and he wasn't coming at all.
Lana had just about resigned herself to losing Whitney and the need to change her focus to her own survival when the engine block which had been crushing her legs was suddenly gone and Clark was standing over her body.
"Sorry," said Clark as he quickly pulled her damaged body over to Whitney. "You were over a mile and a half from where you said and it took longer to find you than I expected."
From ten feet away and viewed from ground level, Whitney's body hadn't looked that bad, but up close, it was very apparent he was dead. He was lying face up; his pale green eyes open and staring vacantly up at the sky. His nose was broken and a trickle of blood had escaped from his mouth and ears. His arms and legs were all twisted at unnatural angles and were obviously broken in multiple places. And finally, several ribs were protruding from a large wound in his left side.
Lana just stared for a second uncertain if she was really able to do anything, but the droning of her internal nanobot clock got her moving. "Clark, tear open the skin on my hand then see what you can do to straighten his arms and legs."
Clark hated the thought of hurting this girl he at one time thought he loved, but knew the blood to blood contact was necessary if there was going to be a chance to save Whitney. Quickly, before he could let himself dwell on what he was doing, Clark dug his harder than steel fingernails into her palm and ripped open four deep gashes almost to the bone.
Lana slapped her bleeding palm against the wound in Whitney's side. She was dimly aware of Clark working on his limbs, but almost her entire attention was focused on following the directions Chloe had downloaded to begin the nanobot transfer. As the millions of nanobots were forced from her bloodstream into Whitney's, it seemed like she could sense each individual nanobot going about the process of reproducing a copy of itself. Four times a second each nanobot created a duplicate. As a result the total number of 'bots in Whitney's body increased at a geometric rate. Millions, billions, trillions, and after four seconds, quadrillions of 'bots saturated every nook and cranny of his body. Once saturation was achieved, the 'bot system issued the command to switch the individual nanobots from reproduction to repair and the real work began.
Once the 'bots where in place, she could call up a status of the damage and repairs with the merest thought. Thirty seven bones were fractured including cracks in his skull from the impact point in the back radiating almost all of the way around to his forehead in the front. Both lungs punctured. Spleen and liver ruptured. The aorta leading from the heart was torn. The list went on and on, but nothing impossible. The soft tissue damage was the fastest to repair while reknitting bones and replacing teeth were the most time consuming. 'How long?' she thought. And instantly the answer was returned; eighteen more seconds until the repairs would be complete.
While she was forced to maintain physical contact with his body until the repairs were complete, Lana tried to decide what they would explain to Whitney. When he awoke out in a field among the scattered wreckage of his truck, what would he think? How could she explain why they were both unhurt? And what about Clark's sudden appearance? Should she divulge her miraculous new abilities?
As Whitney's body was being repaired, so too was his brain. However one part of the repair process had always been beyond Chloe's control, and now also Lana's., as the 'bot system automatically tried to add a backup copy of Lana's memories to Whitney's mind. It was not quite as overwhelming as what Lex had experienced when Chloe's thousands and thousands of years of memories were crammed into his head in a matter of a few seconds. However the experience was very disconcerting as Whitney experienced many of the same memories he shared with Lana only from her perspective instead. And then there was the whole sequence of memories that seemed like some combination of dream and nightmare, memories of chariot races, crucifixions, barbaric feasts, and being killed by men in Roman soldier uniforms throwing spears while tied to a post in the center of a giant arena filled with a screaming crowd. But most disconcerting of all were the numerous memories of Lex Luthor, and the undeniable intensity of Lana's feelings for him. All of her memories of Whitney seemed to pale to black and white next to the vibrant hues of her memories of Lex.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was only the eighteen seconds her 'bot system had originally stated, Lana knew Whitney's wounds were repaired and his body was in the best physical condition possible. She removed her hand from the site of his formerly protruding ribs and reached up to sweep away the strands of his blonde hair that had blown into his eyes.
"Whitney, can you hear me?"
Whitney slowly opened his eyes and stretched his body like after a good night's sleep before propping himself up on one elbow. "I had the strangest dream." Then his gaze took in Lana's shredded clothing, Clark and his destroyed tuxedo, and finally the wreckage of his truck. "It wasn't a dream, was it?"
Lana shook her head understanding his confusion, as she too had experienced death and resurrection via the nanobots. She tried to find the right words to start an explanation. "I . . ."
Abruptly Clark interrupted her. "Lex and Chloe's nanobot systems are under attack by something from my spaceship. I think if we can't find a way to stop it; it will kill them. From what Chloe said, we may have less than fifteen minutes."
Whitney had been watching Lana's face and saw the way the color drained when Lex's name was mentioned. The strange memories he had experienced, which even now were rapidly fading, suddenly felt true.
"No," whispered Lana as she suddenly understood what had delayed Clark. How would they be able to go on if they lost Lex and Chloe?
"We have to get to Chloe's lab," stated Clark as he watched Lana's reaction. As she nodded slowly, Clark turned his attention to Whitney. "There is a lot we need to explain, but there just isn't time right now."
Then Clark reached down a hand to each of them and hauled them to their feet. Enough of the cat was out of the bag with Whitney that Clark felt they were past the point of needing to be subtle and secretive. Besides, he had a feeling they might need Whitney's help, if he was willing, before this was situation was resolved. Therefore, feeling the press of time, without any warning Clark threw one of them over each shoulder and set off at super speed for Chloe's secret facility hidden under the long disused remains of the Creekside Foundry.
It only took Clark a fraction of a second to reach the hidden entrance even with the burden of carrying Whitney and Lana and the zigzag route required to pass through the pseudo-minefield of meteor rocks in the area, a minefield mostly 'seeded' by Chloe to keep Clark and his x-ray vision clear of the area until after the Roman time loop was past. Reaching the entrance, Clark set the others back on their feet and while they were recovering from the shock of traveling in speed mode, he walked up to the concealed speaker and said, "Noblesse Oblige".
As the concrete wall blocking the entrance rolled aside, Whitney and Lana walked up.
"Interesting choice for a secret password, 'With rank comes obligations'," said Lana.
Clark shrugged and then started to run into the facility at a normal pace. Over his shoulder he said. "Chloe's idea, since the events back in Rome and during the ensuing two thousand years she had to live through, she made the decision she should do more with her gifts than just drift along. I agree with her philosophy and this little password is one small additional way to remind ourselves of our goals."
Clark had been to the facility several times before. Lana had never been there, but complete information on the facility had been included in the data Chloe had downloaded to her the previous Sunday evening after their return from Metropolis. Lana knew she could operate any piece of equipment in the facility or even run flat out like now without a single misstep even if she was blindfolded. It was left to Whitney to gaze about in amazement as they ran.
"Clark, where are we going?" asked Lana.
"To the prototype time machine," responded Clark. "Chloe was able discover an alien device, somehow related to the ship, which may be able to reverse what is happening to them. However the only time and place where she knows the location of the device is in the Olympic Stadium during the opening ceremonies for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. We are going to have to use the time machine to go back and retrieve the device."
Lana nodded. "I know where it is. Go on ahead and find Sam. Whitney and I will meet you there. If we arrive first, I'll start setting up the machine."
Clark blurred and was gone.
Whitney ran along beside Lana trying to cope with all of the shocks he had received in the past five minutes. At the moment what was most in the forefront of his thoughts was the pace Lana was setting. He had run the 100m and 200m on the track team in the football off-season, at least until he had blown out his knee. Now he was trying to keep up with Lana and she was maintaining a pace that seemed almost as fast as his personal best. And she didn't even seem to be breathing hard. His knee felt better than it had at any time in the past seven months, but still his muscles were tightening up and his breath was becoming ragged. Suddenly, Lana slowed half a step and grabbed Whitney's hand.
'Sorry about that,' thought Lana. 'I am still getting use to my abilities and forgot you might need a boost to keep up this pace.'
As she said the words, Whitney's body suddenly seemed to feel twice as good and strong; it felt like the pace was no more than a slow jog which could be maintained indefinitely. Then Whitney realized she hadn't said the words aloud, but instead directly into his head.
'What is going on?' thought Whitney towards Lana in return.
'Super-brief version, I will go into details later. Clark is an alien who arrived on earth at the age of three in a tiny spaceship during the meteor shower. He is unbelievably strong and fast, well you got a first hand taste of that just now as he was able to run the six miles from the cornfield where we were to this facility under the old Creekside Foundry in under a second, even while carrying both of us.
'Chloe was born over seventeen thousand years ago in a long-lost high tech civilization. She had experimental nanobots injected into her body just before the collapse of that civilization. These 'bots keep her forever sixteen and can almost instantly cure any injury.
'I first found out their secrets when we were stranded by a time machine back in ancient Rome last Friday.'
Whitney jumped in with a comment. 'So those memories of yours from ancient Rome were real?'
'Yeah, including those of my death. It wasn't until Chloe healed my fatal injuries, that she revealed a few of her additional secrets.'
Whitney thought about things for a second. 'Was I really dead back there in that cornfield?'
'Fraid so, buckoo. Fortunately for you, after wearing that piece of meteor rock that killed my parents, who by the way are no longer dead, has apparently turned me into a borderline meteor freak. At least everyone else who has been healed by Chloe ends up with a passive nanobot system which is only active when Chloe touches them. I am the only one who has ever ended up with an active system; so I can heal people too. Generally, we can bring people back who haven't been dead for more than five minutes. It was scarily close with you as I was trapped under the wreckage of the truck and couldn't reach you. If Clark had gotten there only a few seconds later, well . . .'
'Your parents are alive?'
Without slacking her pace, Lana turned towards Whitney with a big grin. "Chloe used her time machine to snatch them off of Main Street a fraction of a second before the meteor would have hit. They have been staying with me at Lex's mansion for the past week."
Whitney was about to ask about her relationship with Lex when their run abruptly ended at a heavy wooden door. The whole run had been so surreal. When Clark had mentioned Chloe's lab, Whitney expected some futuristic high- tech facility, but instead they had been running through something with a strangely Victorian feel like you would find in an old Jules Verne story or movie adaptation set back in the 1880's with lots of black painted iron, dark wood paneling, and red leather furniture. Now when Lana pushed open the door, it felt like they were entering the lab where Frankenstein's monster had been created. The room was filled with giant whining turbines, massive transformers, and even a few of those oversized Jacob's Ladders with crackling sparks climbing the two upright arms.
Lana ran over to the control panel with Whitney hot on her heels. The control panel itself looked out of place with its modern style keyboards and bank of flat panel monitors. As Lana started throwing switches and typing commands in at the keyboard, she was quietly mumbling under her breathe.
"The Berlin Olympics opening ceremony was on August 1st, 1936. The American team sailed from New York on July 15th on the SS Manhattan, so factoring in sailing time to Hamburg and then a couple days sightseeing by train, they should have arrived at the Olympic village about July 26th."
"Ah, Lana, how do you know so much about the 1936 Olympics?" asked Whitney.
"My nanobot memory system has effectively unlimited storage capacity. After we got back from ancient Rome, Chloe downloaded all the historical data she had about anything that might be useful. So I happen to know while the most famous member of the U.S. Olympic team was Jesse Owens, the team also had an additional 311 members plus a lot of coaches, trainers, physicians, and other friends and family members. Since we need to be at the Olympics and neither you nor Clark speaks German, I think the best idea is for us to blend in with the U.S. team. I want to get there a few days before the opening ceremony so we can scope things out."
"Are you saying you speak German, now?" asked Whitney as the seemingly endless stream of shocks continued to roll over him.
Lana looked at him and for a moment Whitney thought she almost felt like someone he no longer knew. "Another of Chloe's gifts. I can speak one hundred and seventy eight languages although a number of these are no longer in use. I think while we are touching, I can use my 'bots to real- time translate in your head, so you will be able to understand German and even speak it. Unfortunately, Clark doesn't have the 'bots in his body, so I can't help him there, and I probably can't be touching you the whole time either."
"You keep talking like I am going with you. I don't have time to spend a week in 1936 Germany; I have to report to the Marines in three days."
"Sorry, I forgot you are new to this whole time travel thing. We will be back five minutes after we leave regardless of how much time we spend back there."
Just at that moment Clark seemed to appear out of nowhere with a very attractive woman in his arms. The woman looked to be in her upper twenties; about five foot four with long dark brown hair, blonde highlights, and dark green eyes. As Clark lowered her to her feet, he said. "We'll be back in five minutes or we will be dead."
Lana looked at him. "Thanks for the help. I was just trying to convince Whitney to come with us; we may need an extra set of eyes and hands." Then Lana turned to the woman and extended her hand. "It is nice to finally meet you, too bad it couldn't be under better circumstance. I am Lana Lang and this is Whitney Fordman."
The woman shook the offered hand. "Samantha Wingate. Nice to meet you, too. Clark explained the time crunch, let's get straight to it."
Lana nodded. "I have the system charging up and it should be ready in two minutes. I have set the portal to open in the Olympic village an hour before dawn on July 26th which is my best guess for when the U.S. team will arrive and hopefully we can blend in. That will give us seven days to figure out what is going on and hopefully be all set to retrieve the device during the opening ceremonies."
"Okay," said Sam as she walked over to a storage cabinet behind the control console. After she had opened it, she retrieved a small wooden box and returned to the others.
After she opened the box, the others could see it was filled with cylindrical metallic tubes that looked just like the special cell phones Clark and Lana were carrying.
"Your cell phones will send a retrieval signal to open a portal home by activating them and then saying 'Back to the Future'. Don't laugh at me; the code phrase was Chloe's idea. Since they don't have cell phone service back there, your phones will default to a walkie-talkie mode with a range of about five miles. The nanotechnology batteries will last a month on a single charge, so that shouldn't be an issue. I suggest each of you grab several spares and stash them once you are back there in case your primary one is lost or destroyed."
Clark grabbed several from the box and then looked at Whitney. "Are you in or out?"
Whitney realized it was just this kind of situation, helping people in need that was the reason he was joining the Marines. And this wasn't just to help total strangers, but people he actually knew. Chloe was a friend. Lex didn't exactly fall in the friend category, particularly now that he knew of his relationship with Lana, but Lex did make it possible for Whitney to play with the Sharks for his Dad and he owed him for that. Plus on a more personal side, this would give him another week with Lana to try to turn her back around in his direction.
Whitney took a deep breath. "I'm in. Hell, I have already died today; this is all just bonus time anyway."
Sam handed him several of the devices and then turn the box to Lana.
"Sam, can you set up our return with an intermediate stop in New York City two days ago?" asked Clark. "Chloe said she has been working with a Dr. Swann there at translating the alien symbols and we may need his help figuring out how the device works before we return here."
Sam nodded. "I have worked with Virgil in the past. I can set it up to send you straight to his observatory. His personal offices and living quarters are on the top floor." Then she gestured to the green rectangular doorway that was forming out in the center of the lab. "Is everyone ready to go?"
Whitney looked at this strange apparition and then back to Clark and Lana. "You mean right this minute? Dressed like this?"
Clark shrugged and started walking to the portal. "We are out of time. We will improvise when we get back to 1936 and have more time."
Lana took Whitney's hand. "Come on. It will be okay."
Following Clark's lead, they followed him through the device. It was just like stepping through a doorway although they almost stumbled over Clark's body in the darkness on the other side.
"Clark!" exclaimed Whitney, as he helped pull him back to his feet.
"I'm okay. Passing through the device affects me more than anyone else. I will be fine in a minute."
The device had dumped them out in a shadowy area between two buildings. As they made their way out of the alley, they found themselves on a well-lit central boulevard, a street heavily festooned with giant red banners emblazed with the black and white Swastika. They were really there, in the heart of Nazi Germany. Two of them looked like they had come straight from a tornado and one was wearing a filthy, torn tuxedo. No identification papers. No money. No Chloe with her thousands of years of practical experience and no Lex with his abilities for dealing with powerful men. Just three Smallville teenagers with a burning need to find a secret piece of alien technology to save their friends.
To be continued.
Author's Note: Any thoughts about 'Dr. Jones'?