Chapter 23: The Octagonal key

[3rd Person POV]

"We are live at the LuthorCorp Tower, where sometime earlier this afternoon...armed gunmen apparently entered the building, and are now...holding LuthorCorp chairman and CEO Lionel Luthor hostage... ...along with at least one unidentified female employee." The TV plays as the news is heard.

As Ven watched the news, he recalls this particular episode of Smallville and realizes he needs to make a quick unnoticed visit to Smallville once more. It seems the Kawatche caves were recently discovered and Lex already filed for its preservation but they have yet to insert the octagonal key. 

"Ah yes. The hostage situation episode for Martha and Lionel. As I recall this is when the octagonal key appears from Lionel's vault and should later be stolen by Martha Kent. As I recall, Martha would be hiding it in a green flour container in the kitchen. As soon as she hides it there, I need to borrow it for a bit."

While this wasn't when the key first appeared, this is when it would be best to borrow it. The Kents don't exactly have security in the farm so it's fairy simple to sneak in.

Ven thought that he had to be quick about his plans. As he recalled, the next few days after the hostage incident, there would be a bunch of kids having a party in the caves which would then trigger LuthorCorp to seal of the caves for their research. 

So the only window was right after Martha hides it and before the party. 

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The rest of the events happen the same as the show, and Clark rescues Martha and Lionel. Meanwhile Martha quickly tells Clark to burn the files while she steals the key and puts it in her pocket. 

After some lengthy scolding by the police for sneaking inside the building, Clark and the Kents were allowed to go home after taking their statements. 

Martha then hid the key and as planned, Ven sneaked in to borrow the key by going inside the house in symbiote form and taking it as quietly as possible. 

After escaping the house, he then went back to Ven form and went superspeed to the Kawatche caves. He stood in front of the slot for the key with great anticipation.

"Moment of truth, according to my theory, putting this key would initiate a download of information of kryptonian language and whatever else information the cave wants to impart the holder of the key. From that time the linguist hired by Lex tried it in the show, it looked like the same as when Clark did. Except when Clark did it, his brain was able to handle the information."

"But that linguist Lex hired was only human so it put him in a coma for a while." So to be extra careful, Ven changed his current body's cells to pure Kryptonian and not the mixed optimized one without weaknesses. So in the current Ven would be, biologically Kryptonian.

Ven decided to do some sort of a backup plan. He created a clone, and just like Danton Black's method, he gave the clone a simple command ahead of time so it wont remain on standby. Its orders were to bring him back to Wayne Manor right after his expected download in case he gets into a coma. He then created a separate one to return the key to the Kents. 

After much mental preparation, he inserted the key to the wall. The key then produced a symbol in the shape of the shield for the house of El. Since it didn't appear as the symbol like with the linguist, Ven knew he had tricked the cave to thinking he was Kryptonian.

A bright light beamed like flowing water through his chest and begun the download of information to the current brain. And since it wasn't exactly Ven's actual brain, any potential damage could be avoided and Ven can simply absorb the knowledge as he would when he connects to a host normally. 

After a while, Ven's body collapses on the ground. No matter what Ven does, he can't control it at the moment. He theorized that it might be due to the knowledge being processed by the mimicking Kryptonian brain. So he had no choice but to absorb the knowledge together with his current body. Meanwhile the clones did as they were originally pre programmed and brought Ven back to Gotham and the other to return the key. 

It took Ven longer to process the knowledge than Clark but it was anticipated so he simply remained in bed for a while.

Ven woke up at 12 noon. He realized it did take him a while but at least not a coma like the linguist. He then tries to recall the knowledge and he is sure that he now knows kryptonian language. He then reverted back his cells to his optimized version since he had completed his task.

Now that he had learned it, his next target was the parasites in the Kawatche caves. He just wanted to make sure Lex didn't have any live samples or any for that matter.

In the show, after the linguist found the parasites, they destroyed the nests but had live ones caught and Lex had them brought to Cadmus Labs in Metropolis. By then, Pete and Chloe had already been infected but Clark would solve that anyway.

Ven didn't mind letting them get infected as for all he knew, it might be important to Clark's development but either way, he hasn't decided yet if he wants to interfere. So he just visited Smallville regularly just to keep an eye on things for now and wait for his moment.

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The next few days, the kids finally have their unsanctioned party in the caves. One student named Travis jumped from a high support beam and died. He assumed by the following day Pete would have started acting strange already. 

Ven couldn't estimate when Lex would discover the parasites so he had to keep visiting daily to take a closer look. It was easy enough to hide anywhere if you can stick to walls in the first place or superspeed to a different spot. 

One simple indication that the time is pretty close would be when Chloe started acting up. So Ven decided to visit her in the school paper's room. 

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