Discovery

"Unless it does," Lois said, staring at her in growing horror. The whole 'made me' part of Ella's explanation was making a startling sense to her. She wondered just how many children like her existed where Ella came from.

"Then you can solve it?" Ella asked. "Once you solve it, you're going to have to move really, really fast because it doesn't last long. My activated state that is," she added hurriedly.

"The answer to the riddle is Edward Nygma and Laurel Lance," Lois said, hoping she was right.

There was a sudden blast of light and sound, emanating from the collar that Ella wore. Even as it seemed to crack, light filled the breakages and sealed them shut. Ella herself came to her feet, her eyes closing. A smile spread over her face.

"Hello, Auntie," she said as she opened her eyes. Instead of the steady green, they were an almost shocking amber. "My name's Sphinxie; what's yours?"

"I thought it was Ella?" Lois said, staring.

"That's also my name, but when I grow up, I'm gonna always be Sphinxie. Lucy promised," Ella replied with a nod. "Are you stuck in that cage? I can let you out, you know. Do you want out?"

"Yes."

"Then stand still and cover your ears," Ella said, fisting her little hands.

Then she took a deep breath and screamed. There was no explanation for the sound that emerged. It quickly ramped up from a mere melodious note into something far more dangerous and insidious. Cracks quickly formed over the cylinders and the glass started to fall and shatter on the floor.

Lois watched it happen through scrunched up eyes. The sound felt as though it was reverberating through her bones. She glanced up and noticed that the glass was starting to crack near the top of her cylinder. Taking a deep breath, she covered her face and jumped. The now brittle glass easily shattered.

She landed on the floor, half-crouched. Lois took stock of herself. Aside from a few scratches and small glass shards in her hair and clothes, she seemed fine. She straightened up to look at Ella and froze.

The light from the cracks in the collar had grown brighter. Arcs of electricity started emanating from it. They grew and multiplied until it was as if the girl was encased in lightning. The sound altered and changed into a purely pain-filled cry. There was the faint scent of burning meat that escaped the holes in Ella's cylinder as glass kept falling.

"Ella!" Lois took a step forward and stopped as Ella slowly shook her head.

"Run, Auntie, run," she managed as her voice cut out.

Even as she pointed with one burnt finger towards the door, goo descended from the top of her cylinder. Lois took a step back as it coated Ella and encased her in a rough bubble of semi-transparent green. Lois took one more look before running to the door.

The rest of her escape was a nightmarish collection of horrors. The halls outside the cylinder room were made of more cylinders or even rooms of glass, each containing their own little bit of information. There were vivisected animals and desiccated corpses in many of them. One of them had a woman with a bulging belly, her hand pressed against the glass. She was gaunt from hunger and madness shone in her eyes.

Lois finally stumbled out of the warehouse she'd been hidden in and stared around wildly. It seemed like a quiet industrial complex buried in the suburbs. She fumbled with her necklace, trembling fingers pushing at the little charm hanging there.

Even as the signal went out, there was a near-quiet rumble behind her. She turned. The ground shook as an aircraft slowly rose, cloaked itself and presumably vanished.

As she watched the fading trail in disbelief, she heard a muttered curse behind her. She turned.

A boy stood there, far too skinny but filling out. He was clad in worn denim jeans and a simple white t-shirt. His blue eyes were narrowed on the warehouse, seemingly scanning the place. The cheap sneakers on his feet were slightly smoking from his arrival. She was speechless at proof of Ella's outlandish story.

"I missed her," he snarled, roughly tousling his blue-black hair.

"You almost made it," Lois said. "You might be able to catch them."

"Can't fly," the boy replied, glancing at her. He glanced at the sun and grimaced. "Maybe there's a clue." He nodded at her once before darting into the warehouse.

"Lois! Are you alright," Clark demanded, landing next to her. He looked around, searching for the strange boy.

"I'm fine, Clark. I think I just want to go home for now," Lois said, putting a hand on his arm. "I have a lot of things to talk to you and Bruce about."

"But—"

"—Can we just go for now? Please?" Lois asked. She held up an arm with scratches. "We should get this disinfected before I catch something lethal."

"Fine, but this is going to get cordoned off and investigated," Clark insisted as he picked her up.

"As it should," Lois agreed.

As they flew towards Bruce's lair, she glanced back at the warehouse. Another boy had shown up, his shoes smoking far worse than San's. He looked in their direction before vanishing into the warehouse as well.

*****

"Are you okay," Don asked, ignoring the experiments around him. He frowned at one cylinder. "How is she still alive? She looks like they stuffed four or five in there."

"Don't be crass," San said. "She's not alive which makes it much worse."

He tapped the cylinder and there was a shimmer of energy. The light in the woman's eyes vanished, and she was revealed as another corpse. Her limbs were plastered against the glass and agony could still be read on her mummified face.

"We can't let Lucy see that," Don said, leaning against the cylinder.

"And we won't. No one needs those memories refreshed," San said, walking deeper into the warehouse.

He stopped before an open door. They both frowned at the glass littered floor.

"There are two cylinders missing. Why would they take two when she's the only one they brought with them?" San asked.

"That was your mom, right? Maybe they came up with a way to fast bake another San?" Don suggested with a grin that slowly faded. "You don't think?"

"I don't know what to think. Let's see if they were sloppy and left any notes in general quarters. We'll have Court look over them. He'll be able to tell." San turned away.

"San, if they can clone you—" Don began.

"—They couldn't, though. The needles and extractors didn't work even with the Quell, remember," San replied. "Their only hope for that is to try to make more, and we both know why they can't do that where we're from."

"Gotcha," Don agreed. He followed his friend on their new search.