ON THE TABLE

"How much time can you give us?" Emil inquired.

Clark shrugged. "I don't have to be anywhere in particular for the next couple of hours."

"Other than being everywhere saving everyone."

"Well, that will never change, so if you need me, now's as good a time as any. But I do want to leave in time to visit Kara before she goes to sleep tonight."

"Fine." Emil headed out the door and into the hallway, motioning for Clark and Lauren to follow him. "We'd like to do the full body CAT scan now, if that's alright with you. It'll take 25… 30 minutes… tops."

"You won't be able to see anything," Clark warned.

"We're not going to be using the regular scanner. We have a special setup on the third floor with a high power linear accelerator."

As they entered the elevator, Lauren explained. "We might not be able to see a lot of contrast, but that might now be necessary anyway. For now, we just want to do a general comparison between your anatomy and Lin… Kara's anatomy. Her scan was… interesting… to put it mildly. I assume this won't surprise you, but as much as Kara looks human on the outside, her insides are… packaged very differently."

"All intelligent life in the universe has a basic humanoid structure," Clark informed her.

"Really?" Lauren was intrigued. "Why?"

"No one has figured that out definitively, as far as I know. It's one of the great mysteries of the universe."

They entered the room with the massive machine. Lauren motioned for Clark to lay down on the scanner table. "If you're anatomies are basically the same, besides for some minor differences we can attribute to you being opposite sexes, then we can say the vulnerablide doesn't affect anatomy."

Clark laid down and tried to get comfortable. "It doesn't. I can tell you that right now. Her anatomy is completely Kryptonian."

"They're going to want to verify that themselves," Emil muttered. He walked behind the protective screen that separated the scanner from the computer.

"If vulnerblide doesn't change anatomy, it's a safe bet invulnerablide won't either." Lauren looked down at Clark and gave him a knowing smile. "And that means we can argue with headquarters that we don't need to pursue most of these," She gestured to a large binder she had tucked under her arm. "…anatomical studies."

Lauren turned on the object alignment laser and nudged Clark a little more to one side and a little further up the table. She then joined Emil behind the screen.

"More importantly," Emil added as they booted up the machine, "is if invulnerablide doesn't change anatomy, we probably don't have to worry it will give anyone the ability fly, or to see through things, or shoot fire out of their eyes or any of your other miscellaneous auxiliary powers you get from organs that you have and we don't. And they won't be able to utilize solar power to the extent that you do. But they probably will to some extent at least, because much of that happens at the cellular level in the muscles and bones themselves. At best, they'll be very strong, very fast, and almost invulnerable. But I'm guessing nothing you can't handle."

"Maybe not individually…" Clark watched the scanner as it made a few preliminary circles around his body.

"And we also don't know what special powers the organs they have, but Kryptonians don't, might give them."

"This is where Lauren and I disagree. I don't think that's something we need to worry about…" Lauren was about to interrupt him. "…but I agree it's a remote possibility, which gives us yet another reason we need to develop the invulnerablide as soon as possible so we can figure out what we'll be dealing with."

"And how to deal with it," Lauren added. "OK Superman, we're ready. Stay still."

The scan started at the top of Clark's head and made its way down toward his neck. Emil and Lauren were very quiet. Clark tried not to turn his head as his eyes looked sideways toward them.

"Are you guys seeing anything?" Clark inquired.

"Uh, yeh," Emil didn't sound so convincing. "It's all very dark. We're not seeing much, but… maybe it'll be enough."

A couple of minutes later, Emil and Lauren both said "Huh?" in unison.

"What is it? What happened?"

"I'll get him a gown," Lauren told Emil. She returned to the scanner room and rummaged through some cabinets. "Your suit is scattering the x-rays. I hope you don't mind putting on a gown."

"It's OK, I don't need a gown."

"There are no gowns in here," Lauren turned to Clark. "I'll go get…" Her jaw dropped. She froze.

He was laying there buck naked, covering his manliness with his hands.

Lauren stared at Clark for a few moments. After a moment, she furrowed her brow, looking perplexed. Then she looked away for a moment, and then looked back at him, and then away again.

"I'm not wearing one of those silly things. We're all adults here."

Lauren turned toward him again and shook her head. "But we need your hands by your sides."

"Fine," Clark dropped his hands.

"I didn't mean…" Lauren looked away again. She spotted some surgical drapes on a counter, grabbed couple, and, keeping her gaze averted, threw them in the vicinity of Clark's crotch. "Here!" She walked quickly back to the other side of the screen to join Emil.

Emil gave her a sympathetic look. "Don't be embarrassed. It's not every day you get to see something like that. The first time I saw Clark naked, my blush lit up half of Metropolis. And I'm married."

"I'm not blushing." Lauren rolled her eyes.

"Guys, you're embarrassing me."

"Sorry, Clark," Emil apologized.

After the scan was over, Clark put his suit back on and they walked back to Emil's office.

"I'm sorry if I upset you," Clark apologized to Lauren.

She stopped in her tracks and turned to Clark, opening her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out for several moments. She shook her head. "I wasn't upset."

"We're going to be working a lot together. I just don't want to start off on the wrong foot."

"You didn't. You haven't. Just forget about it, please."

"Forget about what?" Clark grinned at her.

"No idea," she answered, playing along.

They all pulled up chairs to the small conference table, which was covered with an assortment of vials and various other lab paraphernalia.

"We'll do a deep dive on these images starting tomorrow," Emil began once they were all settled in the office. "But just preliminarily, I'd say we've got a good case Kara's anatomy is fully Kryptonian."

Lauren placed the notebook she had been carrying onto the table and starting flipping through the pages. "Here… this one." She opened the binder and removed some pages. "And this one… and maybe this one. She removed more pages. "I'll send these back with my counterproposal."

"Thank you," Clark told her.

Lauren gave him an apologetic look. That still leaves us all this." She shoved the binder toward Emil. "And I'm not sure they're done yet. They're still sending us more. This thing is almost twice as thick as it was this afternoon."

"So let's get started then." Emil took the binder and flipped to one of the first pages. "Alright…let's see. Bodily fluids…."

Emil adjusted his glasses. "Blah blah blah blah…. blah blah…. OK… Including, assuming the subject secretes the following, but not limited to, since the subject may secrete other fluids of which the writers of this proposal are not aware blah blah blah, the following bodily fluids: blood, saliva, sweat, tears, mucus, urine, and… ahem…" Emil coughed into his hand. " …semen."

Clark grimaced. "What could they possibly want with all those?"

"I've read through most of this already." Lauren gestured to the binder. "The reasoning is pretty thin. Frankly, whoever wrote these proposals should be embarrassed."

"We got plenty of blood from the shrapnel," Emil muttered, scribbling some notes on the page. "But for the rest of them…" He gestured to the items on the table. "They're all labeled."

"Saliva's not a problem. Sweat and mucus…" Clark shook his head. "The only way I know of would be with kryptonite." He gave Emil a pleading look.

"We'll say 'no' and hope they won't push us on those." Emil scribbled more notes.

"Urine… fine. Tears…" Clark grimaced. "Plenty of those lately. But semen's just not gonna happen."

Emil poised his pen above the paper. "Uh, can I give them a reason?"

Clark shifted in his chair and cleared his throat. "I just can't."

"Can't what?"

"Masturbate. That's an Earthling superpower."

"Why not?"

Clark shrugged. "I have to be in love. Why can't you tickle yourself?"

"You can?"

Clark wiggled his fingers against his side. "I don't think so." He let a faint chortle. "Well…maybe."

Lauren tried unsuccessfully to suppress a giggle.

"I'm very ticklish." Clark smiled at her.

Emil chuckled as he scribbled more notes. "Fine, so just blood, saliva, tears, and urine. And the 'writers of this proposal' will never become 'aware' of any other bodily fluids, because I'm not going to ask you."

"Thank you, Emil."

"I won't tell them you're ticklish either. Next up," Emil turned to another page. "Tissue samples…. Blah blah blah… including… blah blah… but not limited to…." Emil grimaced. He looked up at Lauren. "We're saying 'no' to most of these." Lauren nodded in agreement.

Emil looked at Clark apologetically. "I haven't told them yet we don't have a way to anesthetize you, so they're asking for… a little bit of everything. Can I assume hair and nail won't be a problem?"

Clark shrugged. "Sure."

"Skin?"

Clark sighed. "OK."

Emil scribbled some notes. He paused and looked up at Clark. "I'm sorry, Clark, but I'm going to leave muscle and bone on the list. And we'll also need a broyanin sample."

"Ouch," Clark whispered.

"We need to try to understand how you use sunlight. If we understand it, maybe we can figure out how to prevent kryptomutants from using it."

"Kryptomutants," Clark choked on the word.

"That's the 'official' term we're using. I'm having someone forge a few scalpels out of the shrapnel. I'll let you know when they're ready and we'll just collect all these at the same time."

Clark leaned forward and placed his elbows on the table. He pushed his forehead into his palms. Lauren and Emil exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"We'll get through this, Clark." Emil tried to sound reassuring.

Clark shook his head, still holding it in his hands. "I brought all this on myself, and on the whole world. How am I ever going to make things right?"

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Emil turned to his desk to pick up a file. He handed it to Lauren. "I only had a few minutes to look over this. Can you give us a summary?"

Lauren took the file and opened it. "In summary… first of all, the sexual assault forensic exam isn't going to yield much. I collected all the requisite samples, but she told me she's already taken two baths."

"Sorry about that," Clark apologized. He lifted his head out of his hands and leaned back in his chair. "I didn't know we'd be doing this."

"You don't have to apologize," Lauren told him. She continued. "As for the exam itself, it was… puzzling. She's obviously been severely sexually and physically abused, but there's very little evidence of injury. Noted were 4 instances of recent malunion in her bones; one in her hip and 3 ribs. I can only surmise she has a remarkable ability to heal."

"She had extensive injuries when I picked her up." Clark leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "She was in a lot of pain, so I took her to get some sun. She had seven broken bones. I didn't set all of them because she was screaming in pain." He blinked his eyes several times. "Shit!" He leaned forward and grabbed the vial labeled 'lacrimal," opened it and held it up against the bottom of one of his watery eyes. "May as well…"

Emil turned to a side table and grabbed a tissue box and held it out to Clark, who took a tissue. Lauren sat silently with her mouth slightly open and a remorseful expression on her face.

"She's been spending a lot of time in the sun the last couple of days, so she's pretty well healed by now."

"Sorry Clark," Emil apologized. "I'll go through the rest of the report and if there's anything I think you need to know…." His voice trailed off.

"No, I'm sorry," Lauren interjected. "I could have been more delicate with my words."

"No, you were fine," Clark assured her. "You've both been great. Really."

"I'm surprised she can utilize the sun like that," Emil mused. "It's not consistent with what I've observed from your tissue samples I collected from the shrapnel. The vulnerablide rendered your cells completely unable to use sunlight."

Clark shrugged. "I didn't think it would help either. I thought I'd try on the off chance, and it worked."

Lauren flipped through the binder. "Um," she began hesitantly, "besides the report, there's a huge list of questions here headquarters wants answers from her." She separated several pages out of the binder and handed them to Clark. "I couldn't get much out of her. I didn't want to push too hard."

Clark grimaced as he scanned the questions. "I'll see what I can do."

"How is she after… you know…" Emil inquired.

"Not good. She's acting out a bit."

"You have to get her in therapy… now, not later."

"I know," Clark conceded. I'll call Dr. Lucus tomorrow. Did Lois call you?"

"Yes."

"What are your thoughts?"

"If they have such a big head start on us, the quickest way to catch up would be for Kara to get the opalquine to make the invulnerablide."

Clark shook his head. "I'm not sure she'll be able to."

"We'll attack this from several angles, but that's definitely an avenue we need to explore."

"I'll see what I can do, but what about those other angles?"

"We have made some progress with the vulnerablide," Emil admitted. "We've determined the chemicals are macromolecules built from 7 basic building block monomer molecules. We need to sequence the macromolecules, but we don't have any machines or even any procedures to do that. Vulnerablide chemicals are unlike anything else we have on Earth. We have to start from scratch. It could take weeks just to create accurate sequencing procedures, and then even more time to automate it."

"If you can find a way to solidify the macromolecules, I might be able to sequence them."

"Maybe I could, but we're talking about millions of monomers…"

"Then we need to get started right away."