THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951)

Kara tightened her grip on Clark's arm and looked downward at the building below them. She was nervous, but she trusted Clark completely.

They watched as a large window opened on the 9th floor of S.T.A.R. Labs a few hundred feet below where they were hovering.

"There it is," Clark announced, referring to the open window.

Clark concentrated on creating a cloak.

They were called broyanins. Located in the lower back, near where an Earthling's kidneys would be, broyanins had two main functions on Krypton. They helped Kryptonians filter out dangerous wavelengths of light Rao would emit on occasion, as well being part of the physiological system enabling them to soak up certain wavelengths of light as a supplemental energy source. On Earth, Clark discovered a long time ago he could use his broyanins to manipulate light in other useful ways. For example, they played a role in allowing him to use x-rays to see through opaque objects, and shooting intense rays of infrared light through his eyes. Right now, he was using them to blur and refract the light around himself and Kara to create a sort of cloaking effect. Anyone that would happen to look their way while they were "cloaked" would think they saw a shadow or a flicker of light depending on the angle. If he had been by himself, Clark would have just zoomed through the window at super speed and slammed on the brakes once inside, but Kara's Earthling-like physiology wouldn't be able to handle that. So instead, he surrounded them with this illusion to camouflage them as they flew through the window.

A few moments later, they were standing on the other side of the window in Dr. Emil Hamilton's lab.

Emil and Clark shook hands. "Come in, Superman, come in." Emil turned toward Kara, who had combed her hair back to its natural color and curliness. "You must be Linda, of course. It's nice to meet you."

Kara shrunk back a little and gripped Clarks arm harder.

Emil gestured toward the last occupant of the room; a 30-something plain, but pleasant looking woman dressed in the same type of white lab coat as he was. "This is the doctor I told you about, Lauren Lovell. She has my complete confidence. I trust her one hundred percent. She also happens to be brilliant, and also very sweet."

Lauren smiled at Emil and then turned to Clark. "It's a real honor to meet you, Superman. I'm such a big fan of yours."

Clark offered Lauren his hand and they shook. "It's a pleasure to meet you too. And I'm in awe of anyone Dr. Hamilton would speak so highly of."

"Whenever you're ready, Lauren," Emil told her.

Lauren smiled at Kara and held out her hand. "Shall we go?"

Kara took a deep breath and glanced at Clark uncertainly. Clark nodded toward Lauren and moved his arm toward her, bringing Kara along with it. "Go ahead. It's alright." He removed one of Kara's hands from his arm and gave it to Lauren. Kara hesitated before letting go of Clark and letting Lauren lead her toward the door. Kara looked back at Clark, eyes wide with anxiety, as they walked out.

Clark swallowed hard. The day before had been so wonderful for Kara. He had told her he would protect her. She trusted him. And now he had to bring her here.

Emil clapped Clark on the back. "Come."

Clark followed Emil into his office. Emil sat down in his chair and kicked his feet onto his desk. Clark sat down into another chair and leaned back with a huff. He reached back under his cape and pulled out a small bag and tossed it onto the desk.

"These are the clothes she was wearing."

"Good. We need to get these and the samples from the exam tested right away before anything else. Headquarters wants to know which goons are in Luthor's good graces this week."

"What's the point? He's got a full pardon."

"They want to be ready to pounce as soon as he makes a wrong move."

"Damn it Emil! I hate this! She's already been through so much. I feel like I'm in the middle of one of those gawd-awful sci-fi horror films from the 50's." Clark continued in a mockingly dramatic voice, "….meet creatures from outer space…" He switched back to his normal voice. "Except today I'm not the one tied down on the table. I'm the one with the knife in my hand."

Emil gave Clark a remorseful look. "Don't worry, you'll have your turn on the table. They agreed to your proposal. We can spare Linda from whatever we can get from you. Just let me know when is good for you, and I'll have things set up and ready."

Clark looked away, staring blankly at, or through, the wall. "Yeh. I'm sure I can find a few hours when I'm gonna be like 'Wow, this is really 'good for me.'"

"I'm on your side, Clark, but they won't give us the resources we need for the invulnerblide project otherwise. They insist If we're going to start having Earthlings turning into Kryptonians, we need to learn as much as we can about them. I have my doubts their motivations are pure, though. Some of my colleagues are… way too excited about this. They've probably been fantasizing about getting you on an exam table and under a microscope for years, and now we have the vulnerablide to do it."

Clark swallowed hard and continued to avert his gaze.

"I can't imagine how that makes you feel. Well, I guess you just told me, didn't you…. Sci fi horror film… huh? You know, Clark, you can fly and you can shoot lasers out of your eyes. But honestly the thing that amazes me most about you is how you maintain your faith in humanity even though you're constantly exposed to the worst of it."

Clark finally turned to Emil and smiled warmly at him. "Because of people like you."

Emil was humbled. "I'll protect you and Linda as best I can."

Clark nodded.

"There's no one better for Linda to go through this with than Lauren, but considering what she's already been through, and what she's going to go through, have you thought about… trauma counseling maybe?"

"Yes," Clark shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Lois has been bugging me about that too."

"I know someone. Dr. Lilian Lucas. She's excellent."

"Ha, she's the same one Lois mentioned."

"Cause she's the best."

Clark grunted. "I hate roping more people into this, especially if Kara… er… Linda… - she wants to go by the name 'Kara' now, by the way, but of course as far as S.T.A.R. Labs is concerned, she's still 'Linda.' And this is exactly what worries me. If Kara's going to be talking with a therapist... She's just a little girl. It's hard enough for us adults to…. There, she did it again." Clark slapped his knee.

"Who did what?"

"She just called me Clark for the 3th time…. to Lauren. Actually, she's calling me 'Clark Oops." That's my name now, I guess. 'Clark Oops, I mean Superman.'"

Emil chuckled.

"It's not funny, Emil."

"So then don't crack a joke."

"Lauren doesn't even need to be brilliant to figure out by now my name's Clark. Now I have to bring a therapist into this? She'll pull everything out of Kara before the first session is half over... Oh great! Kara just told Lauren about 'Aunt Martha Oops' and…." Clark winced.

"What?"

"Apparently Ma now lives in a place called 'Smallville-oops.'"

Emil suppressed a chuckle, so it came out as a snort instead.

"Twenty-twenty hindsight, I guess we should have told them they shouldn't talk at all."

"Don't worry about it too much. Lauren can be trusted. She'll be discreet."

"If it could, my heart would be palpitating over sending Kara to school in the fall. Ma's insisting on it. I agree with her it's the best thing for Kara, but I'm terrified. Ma says she has the whole summer to try to get Kara better at this secret identity…. stuff. Hopefully she'll get the hang of it."

"I have full confidence your 'Ma' can do anything."

"It won't be as hard in Smallville. Everyone there knows me as Clark anyway. She'll just have to not talk about any of this or any," Clark twirled his hand in the air the way his mother sometimes did. "…Superman…ish… stuff. I know she needs to see a therapist. I was just hoping to put it off a little till she gets better at all this secrecy…sh… stuff."

Emil couldn't suppress a little chortle. Clark was usually so careful with his language. "'What about the…. side project we were discussing?"

Clark grimaced and reached under his cape again. He pulled out twp smalls vials of blood, one labeled with a 'J' and the other with an 'L.' Instead of giving them to Emil, he rolled them between his fingers and fiddled with them. "I have them here, but…"

"I just want you to know, I'm still willing to do it, that's all."

"You're sure no one will find out?"

Emil smiled. "For the tenth time… I'll do all of it myself. I'll destroy all the printouts, all the records, the files, and just keep everything up here." He tapped his forehead. "I promise. I do this kind of testing every day, even when my tech is here. No one will suspect anything."

"If I only knew if you'll discover anything important."

Emil stated the obvious. "You can't know what you don't know."

Clark grimaced again, placed the vials on the desk, and rolled them in Emil's direction. Emil picked them up and put them in his lab coat pocket.

"How'd everything go? You OK?" Clark inquired when Kara and Lauren returned.

Kara didn't smile, but she nodded her head.

"Everything went fine," Lauren answered. "She was a trooper."

Clark looked Lauren square in the face. "By the way, my name is Clark. And Linda is staying with Aunt Martha in Smallville. And if you're as brilliant as Emil says you are, I'm sure you understand why you can't ever tell anyone any of that."

Lauren nodded her head. "I understand…. Clark" She handed some papers and a small box to Emil.

"Thanks Lauren," Emil told her. "Clark will be back later after he takes Linda home, and you can give us your full report then."

"I'll start working on it right away." Lauren turned to Kara. "Good-bye. It was so nice to meet you."

"Bye," Kara whispered.

After Lauren left, Kara turned to face Clark and frowned guiltily. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

"Come over here, Kara." Emil pushed some stuff aside to clear a space on one of the lab benches. "Hop up."

Clark lifted Kara up onto the counter. It was time for the next ordeal.

Emil opened up a surgical pack and set a scalpel and tweezers apart from the remaining contents. Clark watched as Emil held up a small syringe, tapping it a few times and pushing the air out the tip of the needle. He tried to remain stoic, but his eyes started watering, and his stomach felt like it was tied in knots and would explode any moment.,

Kara was facing straight ahead toward the door and the hallway, as though she was ready to bolt in that direction. But she was watching Emil out of the corner of her eye. She knew how important this was. She tried to put on a brave face, but it looked more like a grimace.

"This will sting just a little bit, but not too bad. Just try to stay still." Emil motioned for Clark to come closer. "Show me where, Clark."

Clark pointed. "Right there, just on the tip of the mastoid process… looking… area."

"Ouch! Owweee!" Kara scrunched up her face.

"Done." Emil pulled the needle out and waited a few moments.

Kara's face was still scrunched up.

"It still hurts?" Emil was surprised.

She nodded.

Emil shot a worried glance at Clark. He touched his finger to where he had just injected the numbing agent and rubbed gently.

"Can you feel that?"

"Yes." She relaxed a little and took a breath. "It doesn't hurt that much anymore though."

Emil took his pen from behind his ear, and ran the tip of the pen gently down the skin behind Kara's ear. "Can you feel that? I mean, it feels normal? It's not numb? At all?"

Kara shrugged. "I can feel it."

Emil furrowed his brow and pulled Clark aside. "Clark, I'm not sure this is going to work. Some of her physiology may be Earthling-like, but it doesn't mean her nerves have the same kind of receptors."

Clark let out a frustrated sigh. "We need to get a piece of that. It's right there." Clark focused his x-ray vision on the small glob of opalquine on the bone behind Kara's right ear. He turned back to Emil. "Maybe we can test different anesthetics on…"

"Do Kryptonians even have neurons and pain receptors and stuff? I mean, like Earthlings do?"

Clark thought for a moment. "No," he replied meekly, embarrassed he hadn't thought to consider that.

'So what made you think this might work?" Emil tossed the syringe aside. "Or any anesthetic? You told me you come from a long line of scientists. What happened? Did the sciency genes skip a generation?" Emil grinned at Clark. "Do you even have genes?"

Clark ignored that question. "What might work, then?"

"No idea. I wouldn't even know where to begin. It may not even be possible. We don't know enough about Kryptonian physiology…. yet"

"Then, that's the first thing you'll focus on. Pain, I mean. How Kryptonians…."

"Clark, what are you thinking? We don't have time for that. Luthor's got a huge head start on us. We need to get to work on that stuff now…. Yesterday!"

Kara heard that. "What's wrong?"

Clark walked back over to her. "We can't figure out how to get to the opalquine without hurting you," He turned to look at Emil. "Unless you have any ideas."

Emil shook his head and shrugged.

"I'm taking her home. I'll bring her back when we figure it out."

"You said you need it now." Kara pointed out.

"We do, but we can't have it now, so…."

"I'll be brave," Kara whispered.

Clark didn't understand yet what she meant by that. "You are brave." Clark assured her.

"Just hold me tight so I don't move." Kara grabbed Clark's shoulders and buried her face in his chest. She scrunched her face and squeezed her eyes shut.

Clark felt sick to his stomach. "Nah uh….No… no, Kara. We're not doing this." He gently pushed her away.

Kara tried to pull closer. She took a deep breath and held it.

"I'm not Dr. Elbe…." Clark protested.

"I know." She took another breath and held it.

Emil picked up the scalpel and tweezers and held them at the ready.

Clark looked over Kara's head at Emil and shook his head. "No," he mouthed.

Emil didn't back down. His face was remorseful, but resolute.

Clark shook his head again. "I can't do this," he mouthed.

"You have to," Emil mouthed back at Clark.

Clark slowly, grudgingly, put his arms around Kara.