Subject: Chapter 1
Title: Subject
Author: D.M. Wyatt
Pairing: Clark/Other, Clark/Lex (eventually), Clark/Lana (eventually)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Extreme Physical and Emotional TC, graphic descriptions of adult sexual content, including violent rapes and other types of non-consensual sex, cliché fic, BD/SM, extremely dark, and very long.
Spoilers: None but keep in mind events in the show from the 4th season on haven't happened.
Short summary: Clark is kidnapped by a cruel Man, who has more in mind than just making Clark his test subject.
Author's Note: This was my first fanfic but I've been reading Clex and SV fanfics for awhile and found that I love TC and labrat!Clark fics. So I had wanted to give writing one a try. I knew it would be long but didn't know just how long it would be...
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Summary of this chapter: Confused and weakened by prolonged kryptonite exposure, Clark wakes imprisoned...
See all chapters here...
Chapter One
Clark awoke, confused and groggy. He vaguely remembered pain and confined spaces… Flashes of faces, being held down…. Screaming in agony… Loud noises… Were those dreams or did that really happen?
He tried to get a better grasp on the images and sounds that skittered on the edges of his memory, but couldn't…
He looked around, trying to get his bearings. The light was very dim … The room he was in was shiny and looked like it was made completely out of glass, like a large rectangular fish tank. He tried to make sense of it, but couldn't. He shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs from his brain.
He looked down at himself. He lay on a hospital style bed and the head of it was slightly raised. He was covered with only a sheet. He pulled it off and saw he wore only a dark blue t-shirt and gray gym shorts, not his own. No socks, no slippers. And, he realized, under the shorts he wore no underwear.
That little detail twisted his stomach into a knot…
Clark also had on a strange bracelet where his watch would normally be. He lifted his arm to get a closer look at it.
It had a thick chain attached to small, slightly curved metal plate. It looked like a medic-alert bracelet but it had a bar code on it instead of a medical condition. "USG-Subject-K-34623" was printed just below the bar code.
The bracelet was made of an oddly colored metal, sort of a mix between copper and bronze. Clark gasped and closed his eyes when the room started to tilt…
He was confused. This didn't feel like the normal after-effects of kryptonite exposure to him. Why was he so woozy? What else had they done to him?
He leaned on one elbow to get a better look around. There was a small metal chest of drawers next to the bed and a small sink and toilet in one corner. He swallowed hard. The sink and toilet were just stuck in the corner. There were no curtains; no walls for privacy.
The toilet and sink were just sitting there out in the open.
That knot in his stomach got bigger.
Privacy clearly wasn't a concern for whoever had put him in here. He looked around. What was he in? Where was he?
The walls and ceiling of the small room he was in were made of glass panels that were about 10 feet long and about four feet wide with small gaps in between them. The panels were held in place by heavy metal brackets welded to the metal floor. Other brackets joined the ceiling panels to the wall panels. The brackets were made of the same oddly colored metal as the bracelet on his wrist.
The panels were clear but had a slight tint to them. It was hard to tell in the dim light, but the color looked like maybe it could be a faint green. He frowned. He didn't like green but at least it wasn't glowing.
The only light in the room was a soft, silvery blue light. Almost like moonlight but when he looked at the direction the light was coming from, it was odd. There looked to be another set of windows outside the room he was in.
It was then, despite the fog still clouding his mind, he realized that he was actually in something more like an enclosure. He was inside a glass cage that was itself inside a much larger room.
The moonlight, as dim as it was, came through what looked to be a very large bank of windows that went from floor to ceiling along one long, semi-circular wall of the outer room. The enclosure was pushed into the center of the curve so that he imagined during the day his prison would be filled with sun light.
He tried to sit up the rest of the way, but he his head swam and his vision went dark. He fell back heavily onto the bed, barely able to see, his head feeling like it was in a vice.
Clark took some deep breaths trying to regain his equilibrium, but he didn't feel right… This wasn't from just kryptonite exposure. He thought back, trying to remember where he was before he was here.
The last thing he remembered clearly it had been morning…
:::::::
It had been a bright morning, a good day to tend to his chores, and he was feeling good.
He was home for the summer from his first year at college. His parents were out of town for a few days and he had the run of the farm. His party days were behind him, he didn't like the lectures he'd gotten about having parties, so he had not planned on having anyone come over.
However, with his parents out of town he could stay up as late as he wanted without fear of a disapproving glare from his mom. He could also eat leftovers for breakfast as he stood in the middle of the kitchen. All without his mom nagging him for eating weird stuff in the morning or telling him that he should at least get a plate and sit at the table...
He had been in the barn putting away some tools when he thought of ordering delivery. He would get pizza just so he could have it cold for breakfast in the morning while standing next to the sink still wearing his pajamas.
Clark smiled at the thought but the smile faded when he heard a car pull up outside. He looked at his watch. It was just past 7:30am.
Perplexed at having a visitor this early, he stepped out into the barnyard. A man had just gotten out of a large black sedan that had heavily tinted windows. With his slick look and shiny dress shoes, the man was decidedly out of place on a farm. He was a large man and, had Clark been anyone else, physically intimidating.
A black panel van pulled up behind him but that driver just parked the van and waited.
The man stayed next to the two vehicles, more than a dozen feet away from where Clark had stopped. Confused by this, Clark never the less smiled politely, "May I help you?"
"Yes, I'm looking for Mr. Kent."
"Oh, my dad isn't here right now, maybe if you leave me your name…"
The man held up a hand, interrupting Clark. "I'm not looking for Mr. Jonathan Kent. I'm looking for Mr. Clark Kent. Aren't you Clark?"
Clark frowned. Perplexed and mildly suspicious why this man would come looking for him, he said reluctantly, "I'm Clark."
"I'm so happy to finally meet you, Clark. I've heard so much about you." The man walked toward Clark, holding out his hand as if he wanted to shake, but a familiar pain, nausea and weakness struck Clark as the man got closer. This Man, now suddenly menacing, had kryptonite on him. And he had a lot of it.
Alarmed, but trying to keep his distance, Clark stepped back several paces but the pain and weakness quickly overtook him. He stumbled and fell, landing flat on his back. The pain increased as the Man came closer…
Trying hard to ignore the pain, Clark managed to ask between clenched teeth, "What do you want from me?"
The Man smiled and kneeled down next to Clark, who moaned and writhed in pain.
"Me? I don't want anything from you, Clark." It was then that the man took a large piece of refined kryptonite out of his coat pocket. The green amulet dangled from a chain. He held it up, so that the obscenely glowing stone hung just above Clark's face.
He smiled at the immediate and agonizing pain this inflicted on Clark. He screamed in pain and tried to twist away from the glowing green stone but with his strength nearly gone, Clark couldn't do more than roll over onto his side.
The Man then yelled back at the men in the van, "The coast is clear." As two other men got out of the van, all Clark could think about was trying to get away.
It took a lot of effort, but Clark managed to roll over onto his stomach and get up onto his hands and knees. He tried, but failed, to crawl away from the Man and the kryptonite. The Man laughed and dropped the stone closer to Clark.
"You're looking a bit green. Are you feeling okay?"
Clark collapsed, his strength nearly gone. He was having trouble breathing through the torment the kryptonite was causing him. He turned his head to the side, before his strength totally gave out and his head dropped to the driveway. He groaned, as the Man smiled down at him.
His world narrowed. He could feel the sharp gravel digging into his body and cheek, it just added to the agony. A gray fog closed in on his vision, making it hard for him to even focus on looking up at the Man. So Clark looked instead at the Man's shoe, it was so close to his face. It was extremely dusty. Clark wondered idly if the Man would be annoyed he was going to need to get his expensive shoes polished…
Clark was pulled out of his stupor somewhat as the two other men approached. Clark looked up as the other pairs of shoes joined the first. He was able to croak, "Why?"
The Man pulled on Clark's shoulder and turned him over. Clark looked up at him, his pain fogged vision making it hard for him to focus. He had trouble listening to the man's reply, but he tried very hard. It felt important, somehow, to understand…
"There are men who want answers from you. And they want a lot of answers. I was sent here to retrieve you so they can get them."
The man dangled the stone still closer to his face, and Clark was nearly unconscious from the agony. He could only moan in protest as the man smiled at his torment.
Clark's eyesight started to narrow further, the black moving in. Then the man let the stone drop onto Clark's stomach. The second it hit, he felt an excruciating pain unlike anything he'd felt before and his world went black.
:::::::
Clark grimaced at the memory…
His still foggy mind couldn't make much sense about what was going on. However, Clark knew enough that he didn't think that a glass paneled enclosure could keep him where he didn't want to be.
Clark sat up again, this time more slowly, trying to avoid another dizzy spell. He slowly swung his feet over the side of the bed and got down. He was surprised how cold the metal felt under his feet.
Worried about his still weakened state being a hindrance to any escape attempt, he tried to lick his dry lips but his mouth was gummy… He was terribly thirsty, but ignored it. His primary problem was all he could think about: getting out.
Clark looked up and out into the darkness of the room the enclosure was in. The details of the room were hard to see, all he could see were oddly shaped dark shadows. He tried to focus his X-Ray vision on the room outside his enclosure but it made his head hurt. He groaned, but looked at the glass walls with more resolve.
He braced himself against the pain that would come and tried again. His head felt like it would split open but his vision went blue. However, the clear glass panels suddenly looked solid. He went back to normal vision and could then see through the glass, even if only barely…
Perplexed, he moved over to the wall and tried it again, the same thing happened: as soon as he went into X-ray vision the otherwise transparent glass became completely opaque…
It was like the glass was made with lead but it was just glass. Did they do that on purpose? Why don't they want him using his X-ray vision through the glass? Straining to see, he focused on the floor but only opaque blue met his vision.
They put lead in the floor too… What was out there that they didn't want him to see?
Groggy and in pain, his brain couldn't wrap around that. He shook his head, thinking maybe it might matter but the idea to be concerned slipped away from him as a wave of dizziness hit him, making him sway. He leaned onto the glass wall for support, panting.
He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the glass. Its cool surface felt good to his fevered brow. He tried to gain control of his equilibrium. Clark took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He looked at his reflection in the glass.
He appeared pale in the silvery light of the moon, his eyes glazed. No wonder he felt like crap, he looked like it too. But he noticed something odd. There were two reflections of his face, one fainter and slightly offset from the other, instead of one.
He realized that the glass panel must be double-paned. Clark thought that was curious. Why would there be two panes of glass?
Clark sighed and contemplated just breaking the glass; after all it was stupid to put him into a glass cage without there being kryptonite around. But Clark didn't know who could be nearby so he didn't think he could risk the loud and very distinctive noise breaking glass would make.
But these people knew that kryptonite was his only weakness and that he couldn't see through lead. So why put him in a glass room unrestrained? A room he could easily break out of…
There had to be something more to this than met the eye, but in his confused state he couldn't make sense of it.
Clark couldn't see beyond his enclosure so he decided to Listen instead.
He had to focus hard, it was much harder to do than normal, but he was able to hear a soft whir. It sounded like a camera lens motor. He looked up.
Just outside the glass of his prison, he saw what he hadn't noticed before: a small surveillance camera. It hung down to just above the ceiling of the glass enclosure he was in.
He was being watched.
As he looked back at the camera, the lens adjusted. Again it made that soft barely audible whir. Clark swallowed hard.
Someone was watching him right now and that person was even adjusting the camera to get a better look. Were guards on the way? Was it a mistake he woke before they had kryptonite to keep him under control? Was someone going to bring kryptonite to subdue him?
He couldn't take that chance and realized that he had no time to lose.
Clark looked around for the door.
He found it, back in the darkest corner of the enclosure. The door was made out of more of the same coppery bronze metal. There was a small square piece on one side of the smooth metal door, the lock no doubt, but Clark felt sure he could take care of that.
He moved quickly to the door and looked back at the camera with a frown. It whirred again as it followed him. He tried to pry the door open with his fingers, but it didn't move.
Perplexed, he tried harder to pull it open, this time pulling with all his might. It didn't even budge… He tried again, and felt like his muscles might pop from the strain, he was trying so hard. He stopped to catch his breath and reached out to the wall to steady himself. The exertion had made his head swim…
He glared at the door, frustrated. Why couldn't he open the door? Maybe he was still too weak from the kryptonite exposure and whatever else they'd done to him… He tried to think if there might be another way out since his strength obviously wasn't working.
He muttered softly under his breath, "Damn."
Clark heard a slight noise, this time it was different. It wasn't the lens of the camera. He focused his hearing until he could hear distant voices.
"What's he doing?"
"I think he's trying to escape… Like that would happen, that door is supposed to be unbreakable, even by him."
Clark thought, 'Unbreakable?' He looked at the door skeptically.
The chatter continued, "At least he's doing something to break the monotony. He's been asleep so long. Maybe he'll do somersaults next…'
"Yeah, maybe they should give him one of those wheels. Wouldn't that be funny?"
"That's good. He could run and run and run…"
The men laughed too loudly at the weak joke.
"He's already a lab rat in a tank. All we need now is the exercise wheel…"
The men laughed even louder, overly amused. Annoyed, Clark looked over his shoulder and glared back up at the camera. The men stopped laughing.
"Hey, can he hear us?"
Clark never heard the answer as he shook his head at the distant men on the other end of the camera. He refocused his hearing, making their voices nothing but a quiet whisper.
He heard no foot steps; no other voices; no heartbeats. No one was nearby.
Clark looked again at the glass panels.
The two rocket scientists on the other end of that camera would know he broke the glass as soon as he did it. No doubt they'd then raise the alarm, so noise wasn't really a concern anymore. Maybe no one being nearby was a good sign, despite the voyeurs on the other end of the camera, it might mean fewer problems to try and overcome once he got out. He shrugged.
Breaking the glass it is.
Clark would just have to depend on his speed to get him out of any trouble he might find. He worried about how weak he was and how woozy he still felt and whether he could attain full speed, but decided that he'd just have to wing it. It's not like he hadn't done that before.
Trying to make sense of the shadows he could see in the outer room, Clark thought he could see a large set of double doors. He picked a panel closest to that side to try and save a little time. Maybe it would save a second or two but under the circumstances he could use any extra advantage, no matter how small. He smiled to himself at the thought.
They'd clearly underestimated his power, if it was going to be as easy as breaking a window to get out of here.
He picked the most likely spot, balled up his fist and punched through the glass.
Clark immediately realized that breaking the glass had been a very, very stupid idea….
Continued here...