Misery Business Chapter 5: Infection, a smallville fanfic

Chapter Five

Infection

Belle Reve Sanitarium

"Begin taping," said Dr. Robert Kensington as he flipped open a medical clipboard. He looked up to the camera operator and was given a go-ahead nod. "Patients 48929, 35792, 19044, and 57328 have been prepared as standard for the last ten treatments: 10 milligrams Thorazine introduced via a saline drip. Each patient has fasted for eight hours and all four are still in excellent physical condition."

Dr. Kensington closed the clipboard and set it aside. "Treatments M13, M14, M15, and M16 will be administered respectively. Since a ten percent increase in response occurred in the last treatment I am increasing dosage to eighty cc's."

He gave a nod to the four medical techs that were standing by and they simultaneously injected a different color fluid into a different patient: Black colored, Blue colored, Silver colored, and Gold colored.

Maxwell Lord smiled in satisfaction. "I have him."

Dr. Williams nodded. "Good, continue as planned. Send him to release Luthor."

Maxwell nodded and closed his eyes once again.

Fear gripped Martha Kent even harder than Clark did at the moment. She watched as her son stared hard at Chloe and he could see the conflict behind his eyes.

"Clark, you have to let her go. She won't hurt me," Chloe said in desperation. "She's your mother. Let her go."

At that he released Martha and grabbed at his head again. "Make it go away!"

"Hey!" came a voice from out in the yard.

Clark spun around and saw Diana standing where she was only moments ago except this time a trail of blood seeped from the side of her mouth.

"You made me bite my tongue. That hurt."

Chloe looked on in shock that Diana wasn't dead from the massive uppercut Clark had delivered.

He didn't waste any time and sped in front of her for another confrontation. However, this time Diana was ready for him. She matched each of his jabs, roundhouses, and uppercuts with well timed blocks. Most of his hits wound up being deflected by her bracelets, but to Chloe and Martha's amazement she was holding her own against a man easily twice if not three times her body weight not to mention super-powered.

They could hear each blow land solidly clanging off the bracelet or being absorbed against her upper arms.

Martha finally regained her composure long enough to run back into the house and find the lead box for what she kept hidden for times like these.

Dr. Williams kept watch on Maxwell. Seeing him struggling once again he turned to the control panel and pressed a few more buttons.

The lab techs set aside their hypos showing Dr. Kensington that the proper dosages had been administered, and then turned back to the camera.

"As before, we shall administer ten microjewels to each of the patients to activate the serum."

The lab techs centered electrodes to the temples of the patients. The doctor nodded at the ES tech. "Go ahead."

Martha ran out into the yard and opened the lead box exposing the green kryptonite mere feet from her son. The effect was, as always, immediate. Clark's back arched and he fell to his knees.

At the exact same moment electric current was being introduced to four patients in a laboratory setting in Belle Reve Sanitarium, Dr. Williams was pushing the amplifying device connected to Maxwell Lord's head allowing him to take control of Clark Kent. Diana Troy grasped either side of Clark's head and pushed with all the power of her mind in response, while Martha Kent held green kryptonite inches from her son.

The results were explosive. Green arcs jumped to his head and Clark's eyes snapped open at Diana's touch and he could feel something being pushed out of his mind back to its original source.

Maxwell Lord's back bowed in the chair and he screamed out. Dr. Williams tried to restrain him but was pushed back and lost his footing, collapsing against the control panel simultaneously pushing several buttons at once. The panel exploded and sent a brilliant green surge into the electrical system of the sanitarium.

In a lab, two floors up, four patients received much more than ten microjewels of current to activate the silver, black, blue, and gold kryptonite based serums previously injected into their bodies.

The surge blew out all of the lights in the sanitarium sending many rooms into screams of panic.

"Secure the patients," yelled Dr. Kensington. "Give me vitals as soon as the generators kick in."

One of the lab techs felt around to find his assigned patient, the one with the gold colored serum, but found her mouth instead and her teeth found the side of his hand and bit down.

"AAAAAGGGgg," he yelled. "She bit me!"

The sound of restraints tearing came next. The wounded tech tried pushing her back and he though he almost succeeded when he felt her face under his injured hand, but he crumbled to his knees a moment later when the patient knocked him out cold.

The emergency lighting came on and the remaining techs stood in horror at what stood before them.

Patient 57328 looked from side to side at the occupants of the room in a panic. She shook her head and pounded the palms of her hands against her ears in frustration. Dr. Kensington stepped forward and grabbed her arms. "Help me restrain her!"

She looked up into his face and the doctor saw a perfect replica of a bloody handprint across her face compliments of the felled lab tech. Patient 57328 grabbed a handful of shirt and pushed the doctor back against the wall effectively knocking him out.

She turned to the rest of the techs and screamed at them. They, not being paid nearly enough, turned and scrambled out of the only available door.

"Clark?" Chloe cried.

Diana slumped to the side and fell off of Clark's chest and onto her back. Her breathing was rapid and she was obviously physically spent. "He's back."

Martha closed the lead box and set it down on the ground. "Chloe, help me get him inside.

Diana shook her head. "I'll do it."

She slowly climbed back to her feet and slid her hands underneath his legs and back and effortlessly lifted his body in her arms. Martha shook off her amazement and led the way back into the living room to the couch where Diana deposited his limp body.

She swayed for a moment and then backed up and sat abruptly at the nearest chair.

Chloe knelt by Clark's side and brushed his hair out of his eyes waiting for any sign of movement. Martha, seeing that her son was in caring hands looked over at the massively bruised arms of her guest.

"How … are you," she didn't know how much of her son's secret this woman actually knew and so she moved forward lightly. "Are you the same as Clark?"

Diana shook her head wearily. "Your son will be a great warrior when he is trained properly. He is strong and has gifts that I do not. He is a child of the heavens while I am a child of the gods."

She looked at her left arm and winced. "It has been decades since I have suffered injuries such as these."

"Oh, I'm such a …," Martha chided herself. "Can I get you some – ice?"

Diana leaned back and chuckled. "Thank you for your offer, Mrs. Kent. I will be well momentarily."

Martha watched as Diana closed her eyes. She saw her lips move and heard the slightest of whispers and then stood amazed as the black bruises faded and the sun darkened hue of Diana's skin returned.

Diana looked at her arms and whispered, "Thank you, Grandmother."

Maya stared out of the grimy second story window of the abandoned apartment building that the three of her new found friends were hiding out in away from the constant prodding and poking of the so-called healers.

After releasing everyone else from their respective restraints the three of them agreed not to leave the fourth for further experimentation even though she was unconscious, or more probably dead. The longer they dragged her along, the colder the unconscious girl's body felt. 'Probably have to bury her in the morning,' she thought to herself.

Maya sighed to herself over the loss of her hearing. She was stunned when she woke up on the table in that lab in total darkness being felt up by god knows who and not being able to hear.

She'd tried out a sensory deprivation tank once before, where they lay you down in a shallow pool of water and close you in a light and sound proof tank. It really didn't live up to its name. She could hear her heartbeat and the blood rushing through her veins just fine. Now all she could hear was silence, frightening and maddening silence.

"Hey, deaf girl!" Mary called as she tossed a wad of paper at the window Maya was sitting at.

Talia squatted against the wall closest to the door. "I think she really is deaf; ease up."

Mary flipped her off. "Ease this up, shorty."

Talia scoffed at the abrasive girl. "You're what … an inch taller than I am?"

Mary stood abruptly. "Tall enough to kick your ass down those stairs outside."

"Whatever."

The taller girl stepped forward. "Just like I thought."

Talia stood and walked around the bully of a girl and leaned against the window frame in front of the person that made her escape from the insane asylum possible. The girl looked up briefly and Talia motioned toward her own ears. "Can you hear me?"

The girl shook her head and responded. "They did something to me."

Talia nodded. "That sucks."

The girl stared at her lips in a vain attempt to read what she said but it was still too dark. Talia pointed to her chest. "I'm Talia."

The girl squinted but didn't understand so she shook her head. Then Talia looked around briefly and stopped at the window. She leaned in close and breathed warmly creating a wide circle of condensation on its surface. She then wrote out her name.

The girl, in response tried sounding out the unfamiliar writing but realized the futility. "Tal—Tal-a."

Talia shook her head and then smiled. She leaned back in and huffed again obscuring her pervious writing and then she traced something else. "T. J.," she said in response.

The girl looked back at her and watched T.J.'s lips move. "T.J."

Talia nodded and smiled. "T.J. you got it."

The girl held a hand against her own chest. "Maya."

Talia held out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Maya."

Maya smiled for the first time since the breakout and thought to herself that maybe things weren't as bad as she had thought. 'At least I've got a friend.'

Chloe stood in front of the bathroom sink letting the water run occasionally interrupting the flow by splashing some on her face now and again. She leaned in and turned the faucet off and reached for a towel when she noticed the bracelet on her wrist.

"I'm so stupid!" she said to nobody as she cocked her arm. "Jor-el."

"Yes, Chloe Sullivan," came a response.

"Something's happened to Clark."

A very brief moment passed and Jor-el responded. "Scanning."

A longer pause came as Chloe left the bathroom and headed downstairs to see what Jor-el was doing. By the time she made it to her fiancé's side the voice came back.

"Kal-el has suffered an attack to the temporal lobe of his brain. The attack has passed and you must wait until morning for him to regain consciousness."

Chloe sighed with obvious relief. "He's going to be okay?"

"Yes, Chloe Sullivan. However I am concerned with this anomalous attack. Describe his actions surrounding the event."

Chloe found a seat on the edge of the coffee table and stared at Clark."

"I don't know … it looked like he had a headache, which in retrospect he probably was. He shook it off and then a minute later it happened again and he went all paranoid and attacked Diana and Mrs. Kent."

The voice of Jor-el strengthened. "Were there fatalities?"

Chloe shook her head. "Um, no. Diana stopped him."

Now that Clark was out of the woods, so to speak, she realized that Diana had actually stopped Clark or at the very least occupied him long enough for Mrs. Kent to grab the kryptonite.

"Intriguing," he replied.

"Jor-el, he knocked her three fields over and she sped back for more seconds later." Chloe thought for a second. "Is there a chance she's Kryptonian?"

"Highly unlikely."

"Well then how did she do the whole wonder woman thing?"

"I will need more data to form a theory," prompted Jor-el.

Chloe rolled her eyes upward and tried to remember everything Diana had told them at before the whole incident. "Um, her name is Diana Troy. She said she was from Georgia near the Black Sea."

Jor-el responded quickly thereafter. "No Diana Troy is listed in any public or secured records of any European country. Soviet records have been accessed as well. More data," he again prompted.

Chloe's face screwed up in frustration. "What else did she say?" She remembered the fantastical. "Um, she said something about Amazons and that she was descended from actual gods."

Jor-el's voice picked up in tone. "Chloe Sullivan, is this Diana within the realm of communication?"

"She's upstairs, asleep," she said with curiosity. "Why."

"I must speak with her."

The abrasive girl stuffed her hand into the stolen hoodie pockets and kicked another piece of trash across the room. "I'm Mary, and now that we have the social niceties taken care of what exactly are we going to do? We'll be on the five o'clock news before morning."

She looked up at the cracked ceiling and gave a sighing chuckle. "Escaped mental patients bite doctor's hand, film at eleven."

Talia nodded. "And you can bet that the fact that they were doing, what I'm sure are illegal experiments, won't be in the official story."

Mary looked over at the window. "We need a plan. We need better clothes." She looked down at the soiled hoodie and grimaced. "We need a car." Then she looked over at the body of their possibly deceased fourth partner. "And we need to find somewhere to stick dead girl here."

Talia stared at the motionless body leaning against the one corner of the room. "I don't want to leave here. She deserves better."

Mary wrinkled up her nose. "She's going to start stinking up the place if we don't do something soon."

Maya watched her two friends talking and wished she could decipher what they were saying. From the direction of their eyes she could tell that they were talking about their fourth. She unwrapped her legs from the bound position she had been holding for the last few hours and crept over to the innate body.

She squatted down and set her fingers against the pulse point at the girl's neck feeling for some sibilance of life but was rewarded with nothing but cold flesh.

"She's dead."

Mary laughed. "No shit, deaf girl."

An annoyed grimace appeared on Talia's face. "Who exactly are you taking to? She can't hear you."

Mary smirked. "You can hear me."

Talia stood upright and straightened her back. "I can fart, but you don't see me doing it, 'cause it's rude."

A laugh escaped Mary's lips. "Don't push me sunshine. I bite back."

Talia rolled her eyes and went to check out the dead girl's condition. It wasn't going to be good for them if she looked obviously dead and they were carting her around.

The light wasn't good seeing as the only source of illumination was a streetlight from across the street. At least she hadn't started smelling yet.

"We need to get on the move if we're going to get her out of town and buried proper."

She grabbed one of her hands and wrapped it around her neck before lifting her up. That's when she felt something moving against her hand. More importantly she felt the dead girl's hand move against her hand.

"Holy crap," she said as Talia fell backward dropping the arm and the partially hefted body of their fourth. "She's alive!"

Chloe knocked softly at the door to Clark's bedroom where Diana had drifted off to sleep hours earlier in exhaustion. "Diana? You awake?"

She heard the shifting of the bed springs. "Come in, Chloe."

She cracked the door open and the bedside lamp ignited. "Sorry to wake you, but it's important."

Diana swung her legs to the side and motioned to the chair set under the desk. "I'm a light sleeper."

"This is going to sound weird," started Chloe as she pulled the chair out and brought it close to the bed. "But I have someone that needs to talk with you."

Diana's eyes darted to the door.

"He's here," Chloe said pointing to her bracelet.

"Greetings, Diana Prince," uttered the voice of Jor-el.

The Amazonian looked shocked for a moment. After the shock came a look of resignation. "To whom do I speak?"

"I am the interactive construct Jor-el from the planet Krypton. I am the recorded and self-aware embodiment of the father of Kal-el who you know as Clark Kent."

"Greetings, Jor-el."

Chloe watched as Diana's eyes tracked back to her own. "I apologize for the deception, Chloe, but it was necessary for my quest."

She was about to reply when Jor-el cut her off.

"Which leads me to my first question, Diana Prince: Why has a princess of Themyscira appeared in the childhood home of my son?"

Diana crooked and eyebrow. "You are remarkably informed, Jor-el."

"You are evading the question, Princess."

Diana sighed. "So I am." She stood and stretched her legs. Her hands went to her arms and kneaded the sore muscles underneath. The healing that was performed earlier had certainly dealt with the worst of her injuries, but the pounding her muscles took remained in soreness.

She looked back at the bracelet. "I have been sent by the goddess Demeter to assist your son and his betrothed for the foreseeable future.

Jor-el didn't miss a beat. "Why would my son need your assistance?"

"Have you not been informed of the attack earlier this day?"

Chloe nodded, but Jor-el answered. "Indeed. Which leads me to my second question, Princess: How did you know my son was in danger?"

Diana clutched her hands behind her back and stood tall. "I was graced with a vision that unless I was here at the beginning of the Age of Heroes to assist your son then he would commit grievous crimes against humanity and it would destroy the greatest hero the world has ever and will ever see."

Chloe's took a sharp breath, not only because of the revelation of the crimes Clark might have committed if Diana wasn't there earlier, but at her revelation about Clark's destiny.

"What do you mean 'greatest hero'?" she asked.

The Amazon stepped forward and sat herself at the corner of the bed in front of Chloe.

"Not since the last battles of Hercules has the world seen a true champion for all humanity. Your betrothed has a destiny beyond that of this small town Chloe. His name will span the galaxies, the heavens above, and the hells below as defender of this world and all who reside here."

Chloe's brows raised and crinkled at the same time.

"He has only scratched the surface of his true abilities at the moment. He will be the bringer of peace to some and the harbinger of doom to the wicked. Clark Kent will be your husband and lover, the father of your many children, but first and foremost Kal-el of Krypton will be Superman."