slayers_desire | the calvary arrives in Smallville

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the calvary arrives in Smallville

It was time to mount a rescue effort in Kansas. After losing Clark to the Phantom Zone, April had helped Lionel get back to the safety of his mansion, and then had disappeared to the Nexus. Where she was able to find a couple of people who wanted to help keep the peace.

PINpointing back to the farmyard with her allies, April waited for everyone to get settled. Then she took a breath, and gave them a briefing. "So basically right now we have mass public panic, no technology is working, and there are several friends of Clark's that are missing."

"We have two enemies that we need to be concerned about," April pulls out two artist renditions. "The first is Brainaic, a Kryptonite supercomputer who has been posing as Professor Milton Fine. He has all the Kryptonian powers of flight, strength, speed and healing... but isn't affected by Kryptonite. Meteor rock. He can also shapechange. Chloe, you will go with Alice, Victor Van Dort, Doc and Marty to find Brainaic. Also do what you can for those innocents who need to be saved from this chaos. You will also need to find Martha Kent and Lois Lane, as they are both missing."

"The second is General Zod, who has taken possession of Lex Luthor. Once again Zod has all the Kryptonian powers, and I am not sure if meteor rock will affect him. I haven't had a chance to test it."

"Victor Allen and I will try to find Zod, as we have more experience with dealing with crazy Kryptonians. We will also look for a way to bring Clark out of the Phantom Zone."

"I am going to give each of you a piece of Kryptonite, just in case. And hopefully we can figure out a way to get through this situation." April took a breath. Hoping that their little plan would work for the better good.

((this will be a split thread. Alice and Her gang will go off with Chloe to deal with Brainaic. Victor Allen and April will deal with the Clark issue))

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Chloe immediately looks down at her watch, and her face brightens. She pulls her cell phone out of her pocket and that hopeful look becomes a smile. "Oh wow. I don't know how, but the virus is... gone?"

Martha sprints for the house, encouraged to see that the lights are on here too, the clocks are ticking, and when she turns the television on she gets static, but it isn't those green symbols.

"All right! Technology works again!" Marty practically cheers.

Then he frowns. "Hang on -- why does technology work again? Who got rid of the virus?"

"I think we can worry about that later," Doc says. "Right now, we should really see if there's any new information we can find now that we have access to computers again."

"My computer's still at the Daily Planet," Chloe says with a wince. "And I don't think Metropolis is the safest place to be right now. It's worse than what we saw in DC."

"I have one you can borrow," Martha offers. "Or rather Clark does." It's still hard to be thinking about him when he isn't here, and might never be again. She wants to have hope, but this is a mother's worst fear, to lose her child forever.

"I won't have access to my databases and it's probably going to take time for the internet to be all the way up again, but it's a start," Chloe says.

"Worse?" Victor repeats, remembering what they saw in DC. "Oh dear. . . ."

"They'll get it sorted," Alice says, patting his back. "Now that the lights and such are back on, hopefully people will start to calm down."

"Let's see what's up right now," Doc suggests. "Then we can see about finding the ship and if there's anything we can do about it."

"The computer's still in Clark's room?" Chloe asks, and Martha nods. "All right."

Clark's room is moderate in size, and typical in neatness for a nineteen year old boy, with a few socks strewn around and the closet door hanging open, full of mostly red and blue clothing. And judging by the decorating scheme, it's rather obvious whose space the barn loft is as well.

"I guess when you have to go try to save the world, cleaning your room is low priority," Chloe comments as she boots up the computer.

Alice idly picks up one of the socks. "Socks versus the fate of the planet," she murmurs. "I don't think the socks ever win."

Marty's looking at the clothing and biting his lower lip. He knows that April and Victor A are undoubtedly working their hardest to get Clark back, but. . .he still can't help but wonder if he'll see the guy in one of these outfits again. Doc notices his mood and squeezes his shoulder. "He's coming back," he says firmly. "If we can find each other after being separated across dimensions, we can definitely find Clark." He means that, too -- having Marty appear in the Nexus means Doc doesn't think anything is impossible anymore.

"Not unless you're fighting a kryptonite sock monster," Chloe mutters, tapping her fingers impatiently while she waits for the computer to finish booting. It's not a new machine, maybe a few years old, and wasn't even state of the art when it was new. "So... how long have you known Clark? I know he's been going to the Nexus for like two years now."

"Don't even say that, it'll happen," Marty says.

"About -- I'm not sure, time works oddly between the Nexus and this world, not to mention where we live," Doc admits. "Coming up on a year, I think. Marty met him first."

"Yeah, he answered a question of mine about big messes that turned out to be false alarms, and we just kept running into each other," Marty nods. "Victor and Alice know April better, I think. Though you've met Clark once, right Victor?"

"Er -- yes." Victor's blushing now, mostly because him and Clark meeting involved them getting completely stoned off LOLed candy. "But you're right, Alice and I are more closely acquainted with April."

"Clark's always had a habit of turning up everywhere," Chloe says with a faint grin. "Sometimes I think his powers come with some kind of Kryptonian spidey sense."

Marty laughs. "You know, considering some of the weird stuff he can do, I wouldn't be surprised. Wonder what would happen if he actually met Spidey in the Nexus." He gets the feeling they'd have a lot to talk about.

It's good that there's at least a little bit of levity now that the power's back on, and Chloe's in a slightly better mood when the computer finally finishes its tortuously long boot cycle. "All right, let's see... looks like most websites are still down. It's mostly government servers that are up and running yet. I'll see if I can get into the LuthorCorp database." Her fingers practically fly over the keys, and if Chloe had a superpower at the moment, hacking would clearly be it.

The group watches her work with interest. They're all from a time period before modern computing, and while Doc in particular has adapted, it's still fascinating to see someone who's so at east with them do her magic. "Amazing how far technology goes," Victor murmurs, absentmindedly running his hands over the top of his mallet.

"Oh, this is nothing. This sucker's probably four, five years old? It's ridiculously slow." And yet it's probably faster than anything they expected, never mind her typing speed.

Her reading speed is also exceptional, because her eyes fly over the pages as she scrolls. "Okay, looks like there was a work order for moving a mysterious and heavy shipment to a warehouse in the Metropolis suburbs. Size looks about right to be that ship. Security is ridiculous, though."

"Victor and I are from the 1870s -- anything like that is fast to us," Alice says.

The others crowd around to try and see the document. "Of course it would be," Doc says. "But it's still our best shot for an investigation. What precisely do they have for security?"

"Armed guards, locked doors, alarms, laser tripwires... it's locked up like Fort Knox, and given what they're guarding I can't say I'm surprised." She shakes her head. "I don't know if we could get in without getting caught, or worse."

"Armed guards I've dealt with before," Alice says, taking out her deck of cards and flipping (very carefully) through them. "But it does sound like a lot of trouble. And if we get caught, well--" She doesn't even want to think about that.

"Anything else of interest on the site?" Doc asks.

"Well... we also need to consider the possibility that if we go, we may run into Zod," Chloe points out. "I have some kryptonite that Clark gave me but I don't know how well it'll affect a human body, even if he has Kryptonian powers."

She flips through a few more pages of information. "Nothing relevant that I can see. The real juicy stuff would be on the computers at LuthorCorp itself, or at Lex's mansion."

"April gave us a little kryptonite too, when this whole thing started," Marty says. "But yeah, if Zod's hitching a ride on Lex, it might not work as well." He glances toward Victor, as if hoping for confirmation of this fact. Victor gives him a 'how should I know, I wasn't possessed by a Kryptonian' look and a shrug in return.

"Hmmm." Doc frowns, thinking. "I could try causing some sort of weather event at the site, if we can find out where it is. . . ."

"What -- like -- hit it with a lightning bolt?" Marty says, blinking. "You really think that would work?"

Doc shrugs. "It's just a suggestion. And it's something we can try without having to directly break in."

Chloe frowns a little. "That might short out the electronic stuff, but not so much with the guards. Unless you're thinking of... hitting them too."

Doc winces. "Not planning on attacking the people, no," he hurriedly says. "Just anything electronic."

Victor's been looking a little pensive throughout this. "I -- I might be able to get in," he says suddenly. "I -- I have the ability to -- l-leave my body and become a ghost. Which means I can essentially walk through walls. The only p-problem is, I also glow bright green like that, so stealth m-might be a bit t-tricky. I'm not sure if anything could actually h-hurt me like that, though."

Chloe looks a bit pale when he mentions that, because she was semi-recently possessed by a dead girl who made her try to slit her wrists. "Um. That sounds... somewhat useful? But it might get us caught if you're noticed, and... I'm not sure what you could do if you got in." She's not trying to shoot down every idea, just trying to figure out the risks.

Outside, high in the sky, a strange weather anomaly begins to brew. An oncoming rush of air and heat, down from the sky, almost like a meteor but made of pure energy.

What, is everyone getting possessed lately? If it makes you feel better, Chloe, this power creeps Victor out a little too, since his body sorta goes dead when he does it. "I know I'd be limited to looking around -- though I can touch things if I concentrate, so. . . ." Victor shrugs. "I understand it's a risk, but I thought I ought to say something. A friend of mine suggested I could be a spy when I first got these p-powers, and it would be nice to put them to good use for once." He sighs. "Though perhaps you're right about being caught, since I do glow. I would be sure to lead anyone who saw me away from anyone else, of course. . . ."

"Maybe if we comboed--" Doc starts, then stops. He frowns and looks up.

"What is it, Doc?" Marty asks, looking up as well.

"I - don't know," he says slowly. "It feels like there's something going on up there -- something I'm not causing. Something coming in fast."

"Oh perfect," Alice gripes. "This is the last thing we need!"

Chloe immediately gets up from the computer, going to the window to look outward. "Where is it? Is it going to land?" She's thinking more ships, more Kryptonians, maybe even an invasion.

The energy anomaly comes down, down, and when it's about ten miles up it splits into seven, each of them going their separate ways, streaking downward in all directions. The closest one is on a vector for a field about two miles from the farm.

The others head toward the window too, as Doc tries to get a reading on this weird feeling he's getting. On a whim, he causes his own minor anomaly -- a little gusty wind -- to see if it helps. It sort of does, if only because the anomaly coming down seems to be interfering with it. "It's -- great, it feels like it's gotten bigger -- but there's definitely something coming in close around that way." He waves in the general direction of the field. "Damned if I know what it is, it just feels odd."

"Everyone gets your kryptonite and let's go see who's coming," Chloe says, grabbing her own and dashing down the stairs.

The anomaly is moving fast enough that it's entirely visible by the time they get outside, and it glows a bright, sharp blue that reminds Chloe of the Fortress transport energy.

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