Episode 6: Scarlet

Summary: Lois encounters an old friend while on an investigation into LexCorp experiments. When she comes away a little changed Clark has to keep her from doing anything rash while also dealing with an enemy who’s strength is Superman’s weakness.

Guest Staring: Brian Austin Green as Metallo, Phil Morris as John Jones, Keri Lynn Pratt as Cat Grant, P.J. Prinsloo as Ron Troupe, Evan Schulte as Jeff Hage

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Tuesday 5th July - 10:47am

Lois peered carefully around the corner: another empty corridor, dimly lit with emergency lighting. She sighed in annoyance. Not that she wanted to encounter anyone, but the tension was increasingly unbearable. At every corner and every empty lab her adrenaline prepared her for the worst … and it never came. She hitched her bag up over her shoulder and headed off down the 5th … 6th … empty corridor.

Either this project hasn’t yet got off the ground, or it’s already been wound up. Either way this unrealised tension is killing me, and probably denying me the juicy story I was after too.

Lois thought back to the anonymous tip off she’d received that morning, almost the second she’d walked through her office door. The phone on her desk had rung. She’d raced forwards sweeping papers out of the way to reach across for the receiver. She’d been so excited. This lead, coupled with the info she recently got from Nate had her convinced that this particular building was housing some headline worthy experiments.

As Lois stalked down another grey, barely lit corridor she became convinced that no other living soul inhabited this building. She sped up and began to mutter to herself. At the end of the corridor there was only one way to turn. She peeped around as before and saw plastic sheeting draped down the corridor after a few yards.  

“There’s no-one here, Lane,” she growled and turned, deciding to drop it. As she did so she heard the clatter of metal on metal drift down the corridor. She turned back, eyes wide and heart racing. She took a tentative step forward, slowly encroaching on the plastic sheeting.
 
She stopped as she reached it then put out her hand. It was shaking. She touched the plastic slightly and pushed, jumping back when something metallic crashed to the floor up ahead. She steadied her breathing and then pushed again, sliding through a small opening between the multiple sheets.

On the other side the corridor continued but opened out into a lab within a few steps. This room was unlike all the others. She’d come across both locked and unlocked doors and neither type had revealed anything but an empty room behind. Here the place was well furnished and stocked in comparison. Directly in view were metal tables, racks and storage cupboards. This was obviously the place for experimentation. But on what? Or for what?

She shuffled forwards as quietly as possible, keeping close to one wall, but it only took three steps until she was at the corner. She pushed her head forward to peer into the full room but quickly brought it back at the sound of more clattering combined with a frustrated growl. Someone was in this lab. But from the sounds of it they were alone.  

That could be good. Less dangerous to confront one scientist. Clark would be proud of her.

Ok, after three, she nodded to herself.

One …

Two …

Three … she pushed off the wall and twirled round into the open lab then her jaw dropped in astonishment.

“John!” The bare-chested man turned towards the sound of her voice immediately. Lois felt her stomach drop when she saw no recognition or life in his eyes. “John, what … what’s going on?” she asked carefully, smiling a little. She took a small step forward. He turned away.

Lois quickly took in the scene. John Corben, ex reporter and unfortunate experimentation victim, was stood in front of an open cabinet. There were other cabinets open around the room. He was obviously looking for something. He reached in to the top shelf and dragged out all sorts of beakers, tubes, wires and stands. Glaring at what was in his hands for a moment he then threw them to the floor.

“Not what you were after?” Lois laughed hoping to engage with him. He turned to her fully and she was confronted with the reality of his … alterations. The green pulsing of his Kryptonite heart made her stomach roll in a way it never did before. She found it difficult to look at it without thinking of Clark.
But John still needed help. He was a victim, forced into this situation unduly. And Lois didn’t have it in her heart to turn away from someone in need.  

She stepped towards him and noticed the red heart – referred to by the scientists she took it from as ‘the upgrade’. It was placed on the nearby work surface, surrounded by beakers full of red liquid. Lois’s eyes were wide as she approached John. He just seemed to stare back at her.

“New heart not working, eh?” she smiled, nervously. “John, what is it? What’s going on?” She frowned up at him, now within touching distance. He turned away and she noticed something attached to the back of his neck. She caught her breath. “John, what have they done?” She instinctively reached up to try and take it.

He looked back and finally there was an emotion in his eyes, but it wasn’t friendship, and definitely not the romantic interest he had expressed over a year ago. He reacted to her attempt to free him from the emotion chip immediately by reaching up with his arm and swiping her away. She crashed to the floor in a heap, full of confusion.

Lois braced herself on the floor with her hands and looked up, shaking her hair out of the way. John stalked off, to another set of shelves. She pushed herself up and stumbled after him.

“John you have to get that thing off.” She attempted to reach him again. This time he turned and grabbed her by the arms, lifting her up and hurling her across the room. Her back hit something as she landed on a metallic surface. Pain sliced through her and she tumbled off and crumpled to the floor. As she attempted to roll over she noticed the beakers of red liquid smashed all round her. Glass covered the floor and red liquid dripped off the surface directly above. Suddenly her mind went all fuzzy.

Not good, I can’t do with another concussion, she thought. It was difficult to focus and her muscles lost all strength. She tried to turn again, hoping to grab a table leg, anything, that could help as she pulled herself up. It was slow going. Out of the corner of her eye she saw John. He stalked over to her and stopped at the red heart. She gripped the metal leg and began to haul herself up. Blurry vision didn’t keep her from seeing him inject some of the red liquid into his arm. 

Everything began to clear and her strength returned just as he stepped away and she pulled herself up straight. This time she kept her distance and didn’t speak. They started at each other in silence. Eventually Lois couldn’t stand it anymore. “John, please … talk to me.”

His face hardened, his eyes turned to slits. “My name is not John,” he growled. Lois gulped. “I’m Metallo.” Lois eyes widened.

“But …”

He stalked past her and she grabbed his arm, again running on her compassionate instincts. He just swung his arm out and she flew backwards again, this time crashing though a whole rack of beakers filled with red liquid. As darkness descended she desperately hoped that Clark hadn’t been keeping a track on her heartbeat.

When she came round a few minutes later, surrounded by glass and red water, she felt woozy once more: strength missing from her muscles. She blinked to try and clear her head. Wiping her hand down her face it came away red.

Blood! She thought, her heart missing a beat. No, it’s not thick enough. It’s too watery. As she stood up on shaky legs she looked around. The Red Kryptonite heart was gone, and so was John.

Lois felt a wave of … something … wash over her. I need to find him. I need to help him. Somehow he needs to remember that he is really John Corben.

Read the full episode here.

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