Fortress

Disasters

A/N: I don't own Smallville or any characters and places in the DC universe. Nor do I own the episodes that these chapters are based and contained from.

I also don't claim to be a writer. My inspiration is simply to get a creative outlet going.

I only own Tyla Nevin and what pertains to her character story.

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"Lex, I don't want to look at another bottle of wine," Tyla muttered as she picked up a Chardonnay. She was called into the study where Lex was choosing refreshments for a product launch in a few days. He had made an impromptu tasting out of it and told Tyla to come from LexCorp to help him. It had been two hours and they only managed to pick two when her boss wanted five.

"Well, you would think differently if you didn't drink it all and spat the sample out," he started to lecture her. He had cringed watching her drink a cabernet and although it was a small amount, she proceeded to drink it all. He spent the better part of those two hours, teaching her how to taste and sample wine.

Tyla made a face but it could have been either because of the cabernet or him. He couldn't tell. "It's a $500 bottle of wine. Of course, I'm going to swallow it!" She exclaimed. When will she be able to enjoy a good bottle of wine again? Especially something that was considered pristine quality. Her newly minted legal status and she was already helping herself to the luxuries of the alcohol world, of course it was an opportunity to take advantage. After nursing her hangover from her birthday, she was more careful with what she drank....not how.

"That one is technically $300 a sip," he replied. "It's supposed to be taken in small doses." He smirked as Tyla gave him a look of exasperation. If she waited for him, she would have known to take it easy. He would have hated to see how she would react to sake. As much as he wanted to see her suffer through the rest of the afternoon with the drinks, he needed her to be at the top of her game. "Have you heard of Metron?"

"Isn't that your father's pharmaceutical company?" She pushed the glass away from her and slowly got up. She felt a buzzing in her head and moved towards his desk. She tried to sober herself up, knowing that she would need to go into some files for him.

"The very one," he nodded. "He has a project that I want to oversee." He slowly followed her, not before taking a glass of water for her. It didn't go unnoticed that she was slightly shaky from the tasting.

Tyla lifted Lex's computer and rested it on the windowsill. "What project would that be exactly?" she asked as she took out her laptop from her messenger bag.

"There's a serum that brings people back from the dead. I'm not sure what the name is called." Tyla paused. Was he serious? He watched her as she set up her computer on his desk and tried to log on to scrounge up any Metron files. "There aren't any files," he said. He had already tried that route. Either way, she probably would not have the clearance.

"Talk to your father then if you want to partner up with him." She looked through LuthorCorp's scientific project files instead. She knew one person who had clearance. She typed in "Trials - 2002."

"And tell him what?"

"Kafkaesque trials?" She looked up to see Lex look at her as if she spoke Japanese. "It says here that the trials have caused patients' bodies to deteriorate, while their minds retained consciousness." She started to send the files to print. "There's a lot of deficits here. Are you sure you want to take this project on?" She looked up to see Lex nod and sigh. "Okay...I suppose if you appeal with the flaws in this project, you could provide with solutions to prove you can take control over the project."