Info Dump

Lois sat in the center of her cylinder, dazedly staring at the door. Her mind was sluggish, still trying to process everything. The aliens had long since left after checking something on the cylinder's control panel. She didn't think she wanted to know just what they were looking for.

Then her gaze turned to Ella and became fiery. She leaned towards the girl.

"Are you one of these 'containers,' too?" She demanded, one hand trying to dig into the surface of the container's floor.

"No," Ella shook her head. "I told you. I'm a weapon."

"A weapon? What does that mean, Ella?" Lois finally asked.

Ella looked away from a moment. Then seeming to come to a decision, she looked back. Her gaze was very serious.

"We're not from around here. Where I'm from…you're dead. You're both dead." Ella said.

"What?"

"The way it was put was that there were these really bad aliens and there was a schism. Auntie Iris says that means a divide, a division?" Ella paused, frowning thoughtfully. "Well, anyways, there was a schism and then a war and then the wrong side won. At least from everybody's perspective that is.

"The side that won were the Abominators. Even the side that lost called them that. They believe that there's a perfect genome for every species in the universe." Ella looked away again. "They killed a lot of planets before they got to Earth."

"What do you mean 'killed?'" Lois asked. Her heart was starting to race. What did Ella mean that she was dead?

"When they can't get what they think is right, they nuke the planet and send down meteors until it's all burnt up." Ella started fiddling with her fingers. "First, they identify the containers that they want and then they move to secure the wanted products if they already exist."

"Wait, what?"

"I didn't exist, but I was identified as being a potential step in the chain so they made me. They made Court and Aarti and San, too, but for San they had to kill you because you wouldn't cooperate." Ella looked up at Lois and studied her. "You're really pretty, so it's a shame they did it. Also, San wouldn't be so messed up if they hadn't, I guess?"

"Who's San?" Lois asked, her brow furrowing.

"San-El, the son of Superman and Lois Lane," Ella replied. "Or, as they call him, Subject 59743."

*****

San skidded to a stop, chest heaving as tried to reorient himself. He could still feel the craving clawing at his stomach, the fire in his veins demanding to be cooled. He frowned up at the setting sun. It was the cause of all of this.

He couldn't wait to get his hands on Ella's kidnappers. He planned on snapping their spines and then tying them up with their own intestines. He knew that Aarti would frown at that and Dawnie might give him 'terror eyes' for a few weeks, but it would be so worth it. Lucy probably wouldn't care and just laugh it off.

He let a small smile quirk his lips. Court would help him get rid of the evidence. Probably in exchange for his 'last' baggie of Quell, but he'd still do it. San briefly considered dumping the rest of the hated-beloved drug in the ocean here before discarding the thought. His blood felt as if it was on fire. Court was the one who suggested night work to help avoid direct sunlight and kept saying that he'd adjust to the new levels.

San glanced back. He could feel the approaching storm. With another smile, this one more genuine, he continued in his original direction.

*****

"I don't have any children," Lois protested.

"Not here," Ella emphasized. "Where I'm from. When I got repossessed," Lois frowned at the phrasing. "They found this guy who worked for this agency who could skip dimensions. They kidnapped him and made him open a passage.

Ella looked down at her hands, hunching her shoulders.

"He tried to escape and didn't make it." Ella sighed. "Anyways, we're here now. But where I'm from, it's still a war."

"A war?"

"When Auntie Iris found out where, she started writing articles and making noise and people started listening because there was a lot of strange things going on. I read some of the articles in class, and it was really interesting." Ella twirled the end of her ponytail around a finger. "Aarti started it all when she escaped. That was when I was just a baby, like five or something."

*****

"At least tell me you scored the Quell," Lucy said as Don skidded to a stop.

"This looks like heroin," Aarti said, examining the baggie in her hand.

"He tricked you," Dawnie said, glancing at the baggie in Aarti's hand. "The one he had had a red line and that one doesn't. It's probably some high grade heroin or something."

"He's mixing it with heroin now?" Aarti exclaimed.

"Naw, that stuff doesn't work on him." Don dropped Lucy and yawned, stretched. "He really only likes it when it's cut with—," he trailed off as he noticed three high powered glares aimed at him.

"And when exactly did all this experimentation occur?" Lucy bit out.

"Um—Gotta go buy some supplies! Court out!" came from their earpieces. Aarti's eyes narrowed.

"Coward," Don hissed under his breath. "Look, it was like this," he began.

As the three girls slowly nodded, he cut out. Lucy stared at the empty space for a long moment before turning to Dawnie who was slowly clenching and unclenching her fist. Aarti merely crushed the baggie in her hand before tossing it on the floor.

"Dawnie," Lucy finally said.

"On it, boss!" Dawnie chirped, taking after her brother.

*****

"And in order for you to get out, you'd probably have to solve the really big riddle," Ella finished.

Lois sat, shell-shocked. At this point, she was more than willing to help this San-El beat, crush or simply eliminate her captors. Her mind still struggled to understand everything Ella had blithely explained. For the girl, it was simple past history, but for her it changed quite a lot of things. She rubbed the simple gold band on her finger and glanced at Ella. Ella had a worried look on her face.

"What's the really big riddle?" Lois asked.

"I don't know the answer. I mean, I do, but I also don't. It's a secret and breaks my natural limiter. At least that's what they said when they did it. Because I'm a weapon," Ella repeated.

"You keep saying that, but what do you mean?" Lois stood up, using the smooth glass of her cylinder as a crutch.

"I don't understand it really well yet, but Uncle Arthur said it's pure subsonics?" Ella's voice rose just a bit at the last as if she herself was still unsure.

"Then what's the riddle?" Lois asked.

"Lucy said that the riddle is 'Ella is the Riddle of the Canary. Can you guess who they are?' That's all anyone's ever said." Ella looked up with a shrug. "It doesn't make much sense."

"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.