A/N:  I guess you could call this a feeler… that's why it's short.  This is just an idea that me and Benthos are playing with.  We only have a couple chapters sketched out so far, so it could still go anywhere.  I wanted to post this under MutantX first because Mutant X is my favorite show, but I have no problems posting it under Smallville if the interest (reviews) is small. I'd like to see at least 7 reviews- different reviewers.

Prelude

It was dusk.   The cloaked Double Helix was lowering altitude as it neared its destination.  The Mutant X team within was relaxed yet alert, well rehearsed in their mission.  They were chatting about incidental things, Shalimar and Emma were planning a trip to the mall once they had completed the mission, Brennan and Jesse smiling indulgently.  Suddenly the air vehicle took a random bullet to the left wing.  The wing sheared off where it joined the Helix.  A gaping hole appeared in its side.  The Helix careened out of control.

"SHIT!"  Jesse fumed at the controls, trying desperately to compensate for the loss of balance.  As the Helix screamed and spun toward the ground, its cloak lost, Jesse worked frantically to control its landing. 

"Adam!  We're going down," Brennan shouted at the monitor. 

Adam had an intense expression of frantic concern and determination and was shouting something at them.  Everything was too loud, the Helix was screaming and shuddering all around them.  Adam's image was breaking up.  Shalimar had sprung to the emergency power grid toward the back of the cabin.  The problem was that although Adam had installed a secondary power source and backup CPU as precaution to such emergencies, this time it wasn't a loss of power, it was a loss of stability,  A bullet had struck the seam that intersected the wing and body of the vehicle.  The Helix crashed in a field, plowing up rows of corn then secondary woodland growth.  It came to a halt and there was silence.   Darkness fell.

Inside the Helix, Emma awakened, her head and body screaming with pain.  Blood was still trickling darkly from a gash in the side of her head.

 "What happened? Where am I?" she asked groggily.  There was no answer.  All was dark and silent.  She sat up and considered her predicament.   "Who am I?" 

Seeing the outline of an opening in the side of the VTOL silhouetted by the moonlight outside, Emma crawled through the hole and wandered outside into the darkness.  Stumbling and falling a couple times, eventually, she found a road and wearily followed it.  As a pair of headlights approached, Emma turned to face the approaching car.  She stumbled onto the road into its path then collapsed.  The silver Jaguar XK8 convertible screeched to a halt.  Emma could hear footsteps running, approaching her.  A woman's concerned voice, asked her if she is all right, experienced hands quickly checking her for injuries.  A man's voice, friendly but also concerned asked her what happened?  Emma looked up and saw the man, early 20's, medium height, athletic build, bald.  He looked familiar somehow.  His hazel eyes had a knowing, concerned look; they had the cynical quality of a child who learned about life too soon. The woman was beautifully catlike.  She had long dark hair and like her male counterpart had an athletic build.  She was beautiful like….Emma couldn't remember who.  She sensed the couple's sincerity and relaxed.  She could feel their mutual affection for each other as they worked together as a team to load her into the passenger seat of the Jaguar.  The woman squeezed in beside her and placed one arm behind the seat and the stretched the other out against the dash.  As the stress of the past few hours took its toll, Emma's head rolled to the side and she fell asleep.

The man looked at his companion questioningly. 

"Helen?"   Her dark eyes gazed into his hazel ones.  She nodded.   Lex Luther started the car and sped off to Smallville Hospital.