The Luthorcorp fertilizer plant stood like a flat, gray, boring monument, entirely hidden from Smallville's view by trees and hills.
Clark and Lex stepped through the front door, promptly greeted by the plant's manager.
The manager clearly had no idea why Lex felt the need to personally perform a "surprise inspection" all the way out in Smallville. Knowing the reputation of Lionel, it stood to reason that Lex was here because he was unhappy with the plant.
The manager led Lex and Clark through six gigantic rooms filled with hundreds of workers and large whirring machines. They seemed to be traveling along a somewhat zig-zagging path, weaving between rooms via dozens of small hallways. Lex would frequently request that they stop and check one room or another. Although Lex didn't explain why, Clark knew that Lex was merely checking all potential hiding spots—large rooms that were used for "storage," especially with easy access to the outside; smaller hallways that led off into other areas, etc.
It was at this point that Clark began to realize something about himself: he was looking into rooms before they walked inside them. If he focused, he could mentally will his vision to "move forward," directly through solid objects. More than that, he was seeing things he'd never seen before. Light that passed straight through the building walls, made of colors that went beyond the normal spectrum. A faint glow from the internal antenna of every cell phone; another from a walkie-talkie strapped to the manager's belt. And on top of all that, Clark found he could selectively "cycle" through his vision. If he only wanted to see certain types of light, that's all he'd see. Like a switch being turned on and off.
Clark swept his gaze across the entire building, taking it all in. Despite being one of the most colorless, mind-numbingly boring places someone could be, to Clark it was suddenly vivid and fascinating. The whole plant was a swirl of rainbow-light—all except for a large, rectangular chunk of the building at the far side. Not only was it devoid of all color, but Clark couldn't see through it at all.
The group walked into the last large room. Clark stared at the opposite wall; this was the one he couldn't see into.
"What's that wall made out of?" Clark asked.
The manager and Lex turned and looked at Clark quizzically.
"Well," the manager said, "that wall is the same as all the others—though it was made with a concrete/lead composite."
"Why just that one wall?" Lex asked.
"It's not just the one wall; it's all four walls surrounding that chunk of the building, as well as the ceiling and floor. It's to keep the rest of the building from being irradiated."
"Irradiated?" Clark and Lex both said in unison.
"Yes," the manager replied, nervously stiffening a little, "we use radiation to treat some of the fertilizer to make sure it's safe for use."
Clark pulled Lex aside.
"Lex, he's lying," Clark whispered. "Irradiating fertilizer would make it useless."
Lex nodded and turned back to the manager. "Let's see what's in there."
The manager didn't do a great job of hiding the fact that he was trying to think of good reasons not to go in. Before he could get a word out, Lex interrupted him.
"Let me stop you before you say something stupid. Take us in there."
The manager shook his head. "No, sir. I'm sorry, it's just too dangerous."
Lex practically sneered at the manager and tried to shove his way past. When the manager stopped him, Lex kicked the man in the stomach and stepped past. Clark followed.
They approached a door, seemingly-unimportant, hidden in a corner of the large wall. Lex tried to unlock the door using his personal code on the keypad lock; it wasn't working.
Clark grabbed the doorknob and pushed. It cracked in half.
"Lex; it's broken."
Lex raised an eyebrow. "That's not a good sign."
Inside, they found along hallway with a label on the wall:
HAZARD WARNING: RADIATION. MORE THAN TWO HOURS OF EXPOSURE MAY CAUSE PERSONAL HARM.
"Well," Lex said, "I guess we're not staying for more than two hours."
They continued down the hallway, reaching a second door. Stepping through that, Clark and Lex found themselves in a dark hallway made of glass, staring directly into a cloud of green-brown fog. It was actually one gigantic room, with glass walls that reached all the way to the ceiling. The walls divided up the room into hallways where passersby could observe the interiors of the fog-filled rooms. This seemed like a testing facility... or a demented zoo.
Clark suddenly felt a sinking feeling in his stomach and a tingling sensation on his skin. There was kryptonite in this room—a lot of it. Was that why the fog was green?
Clark didn't want to simply run out of the room; he wasn't about to leave Lex alone here. He pulled out his phone and dialed Diana. Help would be nice right now. Clark felt his stomach sink a bit more as he realized that he had no cell reception in here; the walls blocked it out.
Lex walked toward a concrete-reinforced room in a corner. Inside, he found a wall of computers. A hand-scanner sat on a desk beside them. It was a Luthorcorp scanner, one of their more famous inventions. It could almost-instantaneously read someone's DNA to within a 75% accuracy margin. Only the designated subject or a close blood relative could activate it. Lex put his hand on the scanner. Three seconds later, the computers booted up.
"Luthor, Lionel: Recognized," one of the smaller displays read.
Clark walked in after Lex.
"Are you okay, Clark?" Lex asked. "You look like you're about to throw up."
Clark changed the subject. "What is this?"
"I'm about to find out."
Lex quickly sorted through the computer's unique operating system. Luthorcorp's research computers all used a unique OS, each one tailored to center on exactly what needed to be done. All the computer's commands and information lines fed directly into its primary function like a funnel. At the core of this particular system, Lex found a series of files organized by project and date. He quickly opened one text file and scanned it in two seconds, moving on to the next, and the next.
Clark was having trouble focusing; he couldn't keep up.
"Are you actually reading all that?" he asked.
"Don't need to read it all," Lex replied. "Just find the key words and extrapolate. Once you know the language these research scientists use, you don't need to..."
Lex sat in his chair, stunned.
"What is it?" Clark asked.
"...Luthorcorp has been experimenting with the meteors that fell here in 1997."
"Yeah. I can tell."
"But not just the meteors themselves; they've been testing the meteors' radioactive effect on plant life, animals, and... humans."
"Humans?"
"Yes. Humans."
"...What did they do?"
Lex turned away from the computer. "I don't think I want to know."
"Lex, there could still be people here."
Lex slowly turned back to the computer and looked through the list of entries.
"It looks like the last entry was in December... right after my father died. This must have been a project closely tied to him."
"Does it say what happened to the test subjects?"
"Looking... it says they were put into 'stasis.'"
"Stasis? What, like frozen or something? Drugged?"
"It doesn't say. Without reading and watching every entry, I can't tell."
"If they're still here, we need to let them out. Now."
It wasn't often that Clark found himself wary of anything, but this was one of those rare times.
Clark nodded towards the door they came through. "We should go back outside for a minute to call someone, just so people know where we are."
"Good idea."
As Clark and Lex approached the door, however, they saw the handle completely melted by some type of green acidic glowing liquid. As it dripped from the handle, it burned holes in the floor. Clark felt kryptonite radiation seeping out of it into the air; he couldn't touch it.
Lex looked up towards the ceiling, trying to find where the liquid had fallen from, but the ceiling was completely obscured by darkness and brown fog.
Clark looked closer at the door; it had deep claw marks running upwards along its surface.
"Lex... I think this door was sealed shut on purpose. There's something inside here, and it doesn't want us getting out."
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