@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor Superboy nodded
“Call Lex? Huh. You must really be spooked.
If we run into trouble, my priority is protecting the both of you and getting you out of here. Regardless if the download is complete.”
Conner flew over towards the wall and punched it. He created a sizeable dent in the wall.
“……..”
he punched it a few more times, before knocking the wall down. On the camera feed, the wall in the room with the corpse falls over and Conner is seen on camera. -c-
@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor -c- Conner covers his nose and approaches the corpse, taking a close look at it. He sees a name tag on its shirt and leans in to take a closer look. After a moment he steps back, a confused expression on his face. He starts searching the room quietly, looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Meanwhile, one of the ‘mannequins’ slowly turn their heads somewhere off camera, seemingly on their own
@SteelKon @JaguarAvatar "I'm not 'spooked'. I would never call Lex if I was afraid," she stated bluntly. "I'm only using him as a threat... And if that message would scare anyone, it'd be him.
"I'm going to ask one of you to grab a DNA samp—" Lena reaches up and puts her sleeve over her nose as the smell hits her. She groans, a wave of nausea washing over her. "... Sample... Also, be careful. Those mannequins are robots. They're probably going to attack you."
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon “Robots?”
Ivette let out a satisfied growl, a smile coming onto her face
“No holding back then if they try anything…and if I see that creepy guy, I’ll…”
She took a deep breath, calming herself down
“…I’ll politely ask him…I’ll /encourage/ him to tell us what his deal is.”
@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor Conner took the name tag from the corpse’s shirt
“…Don’t have an official way to take his DNA, but I think his name would be on this thing. And if the name matches the name tag then…”
The ‘mannequins’ begin to walk off screen slowly, shambling in a very unnatural way
“…I think I can safely say that Lena is…”
Conner turns around suddenly
“…holy shit…”
Conner rushes out of the room, back toward the others, as the -c-
@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor -c- shadows of shambling figures appear on camera
“…Okay. So they’re…slow as hell…and they smell just as bad as the corpse…but they don’t seem to be a threat. They’re too slow for that.”
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon Ivette growled
“Christ, can’t that thing move any faster, Lena?”
The ‘mannequins’ seemed to freeze the moment Ivette mentioned Lena’s name.
Meanwhile the man on the camera feed seemed to laugh, shaking his head and mouthing something
The ‘mannequins’ began to pick up speed, making their way towards the hole in the wall
“…Uh…Superboy? You said those things were slow, right?”
@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor Conner got in a fighting stance next to Ivette
“…Well, they were…They didn’t seem too interested in me.”
the ‘mannequins’ stared at the pair for a moment before getting on all fours, sprinting towards them
“Oh what the f-…”
One of the ‘mannequins’ leapt towards Conner and attempted to tackle him. He quickly grabbed it and tossed her away, throwing her towards another charging figure
“OKAY. FINE THEN.”
@SteelKon @JaguarAvatar Lena looked towards the opening, now looking panicked. She had a thought. A horrible, sickening thought as she watched them charge.
She stood up from her seat, facing them across the room. "Lena Luthor!" She shouted.
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon the mannequins suddenly stopped, slowly turning their bodies towards the sound of Lena’s voice. Jaguar pushed one of them off herself, her claws scratching them and drawing blood
“…They…aren’t robots? At least not entirely…”
The figures twitched and moved erratically towards Lena, as if they were wrestling with their own movements, fighting against what they wanted to do
“…what the hell is going on?”
@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor “Lena, for the love of god tell me you got that thing ready to go! We need to move!”
he squinted, staring at one of the mannequins. He used his X-Ray vision, or at least as much as he could. He covered his mouth, a look of horror on his face
“…Jesus…I…don’t think they’re entirely alive anymore…their insides are…rotting.”
@SteelKon @JaguarAvatar Lena looked horrified, but remained still as they came towards her, a tear escaping from her eye. She seemed to be fighting the instinct to run away.
"... Clementine, is that you?" Lena asked in a small, broken voice.
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon a voice from the computer begins to speak, in a robotic text to speech tone.
[Not quite. Almost. But not quite.]
The figures kept staring at Lena, tears falling down their eyes when they heard the name Clementine. Their expressionless faces suddenly shifted to sadness, before slowly becoming enraged
[They were…a mistake. But the emotional one refused to get rid of them. Perhaps as an admission of guilt over what he has done. We believe he wanted them to be found.]
@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor Conner quickly moved in front of Lena, getting between her and the approaching figures. He stared at the computer for a moment, before reading into his pocket. He pulled out the nametag he found on the corpse. He stared at the name, muttering quietly
“…Gerald Hartwin…what…what did you do?”
@SteelKon @JaguarAvatar Lena's hands turned to fists at her sides and her body began to tremble with anger, tears still running down her face.
"... You copied her... Why?!" Lena demanded. "What did you do to her?!"
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon Ivette was seething with rage. She snarled, sniffing the air before storming off.
[…Incorrect. At least on these failures. The prime body was…initially incapable of being copied perfectly. It seemed the direct copies were always destined to fail, one way or another. A breaking point was hit. It is amusing. Had he held out longer, a solution would have presented itself eventually. Thanks to a certain rogue AI.]
The man on the camera feed smiled at the camera. -c-
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon -c- Meanwhile, Ivette could be seen on the cameras, marching past the room where the figures once stood.
[…before that solution presented itself, he tried to cheat his way. Encouraged by his wife.]
The man on the camera looked back at the missing persons posters. He reached over and pulled one off the wall, showing it to the camera. There was a girl on the poster. She had a visual similarity to Clem, but was obviously a different person -c-
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon -c- [Grief makes humans irrational and stupid. He programmed the mind. But the body…needed adjustments.]
Ivette appeared on camera again, in the same room as the corpse. She was pacing around the room, searching for something.
@JaguarAvatar @HeartOfALuthor Conner stared at the missing person’s poster and then stared back at the figures in front of them
“……How many…how many did you take?”
Conner slammed his fist on desk, nearly causing the computer to tip over
“How many lives did you destroy? How many families did you break? And for what? Why do this? What kind of monster are you?”
@SteelKon @JaguarAvatar *iLena*. They were talking about iLena. She changed everything simply by existing. She thought of her, of all the clones of herself that weren't viable because Lex wanted them so be human so desperately. She thought of all the dead clones she'd seen in his files.
... But Lena knew why her own DNA was corrupted. Why was Clem's? And why were all these copies made unless...
Lena had been puzzling the pieces together, and was only now fitting it all together.
--
@HeartOfALuthor @SteelKon [How dare you.]
The man on the screen looked enraged. He began typing furiously
[You stupid child. The original Gerald loved his daughter. He was solely motivated for his daughter. But every experiment failed. Each resulted in failure. The toll that takes on someone can drive them to do unspeakable things…in the end he couldn’t live with himself and the actions he had to take. That’s why we exist.]
Ivette begins scratching at the floor.
The man on the video -c-
Conner Kent
𝕷𝖊𝖓𝖆 ⋆
Ivette Velez / The Jaguar