You wouldn't guess from looking at the exterior of Kim's Handmade Furniture and Antiquities that a network of highly advanced laboratories was housed in and around its foundation. That of course was the point, although until now there was no real purpose for the secrecy other than Dr. Swann's slightly eccentric tendencies. An unassuming door in the small office in the back opened into what first appeared to be only a storage room for broken pieces and works-in-progress, but also served as a passage into the bowels of the building - where its real function lived. The entrance was reached by stepping through an old wardrobe with the backing removed, and into an elevator. Clark wasn't sure all of this was necessary, and couldn't judge whether he found it amusing or disquieting.

"Ah, Clark, we were beginning to think you'd changed your mind," Dr. Swann greeted with only slight agitation when the elevator door opened, revealing the central hub of the facility's nervous system. A bank of surveillance monitors lined one wall, and the wall opposite it was crowded with Cray supercomputers. A long conference table dominated the center of the room, the head of which was without a chair and clearly intended only for Dr. Swann.

"I'm sorry," Clark replied absently, taking in the scene. He was acutely uncomfortable. Although the lab was expectedly cold and clinical, he hadn't anticipated how much dread it would instill, bringing to mind his experiences at Summerholt. "I sort of got a late start."

"Did you run here?"

Did he run here? Lois chuckled silently to herself. Not unless he left two days ago and drank a case of Red Bull. Or maybe two. She had debated crawling into the conveniently located duct to the left of the armoire in the storage room, but having come this far she decided to let her curiosity guide her. She couldn't see anything, but she could make out voices.

"Yeah - " she heard Clark reply.

"Well then you should have been here hours ago, right? Your parents said you left at four, it's now almost ten." This was a new voice, insistent and a bit whiny, both of which seemed to annoy Clark. It certainly annoyed Lois.

"You called my parents?"

"Well you didn't show, we were getting anxious - " The new voice was defensive.

"Look, I don't have to do this. If I'm supposed to trust you - "

"Don't mind Dr. Ripley, Kal-El. He gets a little over-anxious." It was the first voice again - knowledgeable, almost serene.

There was a brief silence, heavy with discomfort. Then Clark spoke.

"Please, don't call me that. I asked you not to call me that."

Lois desperately wished she could see through the dusty metal to get a look at the expression that accompanied the quiet insistence of those words. Why is he calling him that anyway?

The serene voice continued. "Fair enough," he said, but with enough amusement to insinuate he knew something that Clark didn't - or just refused. "Well, despite Dr. Ripley's glowing first impression, you'll want to know who the rest of these people are. Dr. Bridgette Crosby will be supervising the entire process in my stead, as I can only do so much." He gestured with his chair to a smallish, dark-haired woman with determined features and a smart, black suit. She stood out against the rest of the team, which all donned white lab coats. "I'm sure Martha told you she came to help when you returned." Clark nodded politely, but with apparent reservation.

Lois couldn't even see him, but she could detect his apprehension. What is going on here? What process? Clark walks into a wardrobe and what - now he's in Narnia? What is a farm kid doing in a place like this, with secret entrances and a bunch of doctors?

"This, again, is Dr. Ethan Ripley. He's obsessive and overzealous, but he's the best at what he does. He'll be testing your fluids and tissues against known viral and bacterial threats, how they react to various chemical stimuli, as well as their regenerative capability." Dr. Ripley looked a little out of place, more like an athlete than a biogeneticist. "I can see the red flags going up, but don’t worry - no tests will be performed on you directly until we're satisfied via abducted trials that they will be of no risk to you. Of course, we'd have to conduct direct testing at a later date, because that kind of assurance will take some time."

Regenerative capability? Lois tried to convince herself that she was hearing things. This just keeps getting weirder... and more Roswell.

"Dr. Andrea Prescott will oversee general diagnostics, primarily testing the limitations of your various abilities. We're especially interested in seeing if anything other than lead interferes with your x-ray vision, and can therefore possibly protect you from Kryptonite. Eventually we hope to really study the limits of your strength and heat vision, but at present we are at a loss for the appropriate trials. We have a few frequency tests in mind for your hearing, but I must confess we're most excited about this latest development."

"What development?" Clark queried.

"We'll come back to that."

"Dr. Swann - "

"Let's finish with the introductions, first." Dr. Swann wheeled his chair across the room to the last as-yet-anonymous member of his research team. "This is Marin Blake. Technically not yet a doctor, because we recruited her before she finished, but she's been invaluable in her assistance to Drs. Ripley and Prescott. She did much of the designing and construction of the trials, and she'll be compiling and analyzing the data."

Marin smiled shyly. "I'm finishing school via correspondence."

Clark gave her a nod and a half-smile before turning back to Dr. Swann. "Now, what do you mean, latest development?"

Dr. Swann smiled and waited, presumably for effect. "Why, your flying, of course."

Flying? Okay, x-ray vision, heat vision, super strength - and evidently speed, since they assume he ran to Metropolis - that all sent Lois reeling enough, but flying? Horrified at the gasp she felt rising in her throat, Lois tried to clap a hand over her mouth to suppress it, but it was too late.

Clark didn't need any special hearing to know something was in the duct overhead, especially now that that something had started to scramble for an escape, and quickly concentrated his vision to scan through the metal. "There's somebody in there!" he cried, and turned to force open the elevator doors. He pushed through the ceiling hatch and leapt up to the secret wardrobe entrance, slipping out the door just in time to see Lois tumble out of the low-set vent, coughing and brushing dust out of her hair.

"Lois!" Clark exclaimed, half perplexed and half enraged.