“You mind telling us what you thought you were doing?” Whitney snarled at Clark as he came back into the computer room. He had Tina Greer propped up on his bed and was holding at damp washcloth to her forehead. Her eyes were still a little out of focus, but the glare she fixed him with was steady enough. Clark winced as he saw the dark bruise on the lower side of her face. He’d caused that, he thought, aghast.

“Look, I’m sorry I…” he started to apologize.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it!” he yelled. “What were you thinking?” Clark hesitated and glanced at Chloe. She was sitting idly by the computer terminals, smiling to herself. There wasn’t going to be any help from her, he realized.

“I wasn’t. I saw someone on the monitor and I just panicked.” He averted his eyes from Tina. “It was an accident.”

Whitney stared at him for a moment, his face going even more grim. “An accident is tripping over something. You ran through two doors to get to her. You nearly knocked this one off its hinges,” he gestured towards the computer room door, “and turned the front one into toothpicks. I’ve seen tornados do less damage.” Clark gritted his teeth and winced. Whitney glared at him and leaned in closer. “Which bring up a good question,” he went on, “how?” Clark’s head jerked up suddenly and if it was possible, Chloe’s smiled got even bigger. She was clearly enjoying herself.

“Do what?” Clark stuttered lamely, his mind racing for a plausible excuse.

“Go through my door like it was cardboard,” he grated. “That’s what.”

“I don’t know. Uh, shoddy workmanship?” he offered. Chloe snorted to herself. It didn’t sound very convincing at all, even to him.

“Maybe you didn’t notice when you were smashing through it,” Whitney drawled, “but there was a thin sheet of steel in that door. I’m not very well liked,” Chloe snorted again, “and I put it in to keep people out,” he went on. “It should’ve been more than enough to keep you in.” Clark was trapped now and he knew it. “So try again.”

He waited as Clark stood there, trying to think of an explanation. He’d have to tell them, he realized. There was no other way. But Tina, he thought, glancing at her. He x-rayed her again for a moment, so quickly that the green glow from the radiation in her body lingered, ghost-like, over her body. The Tina he had known had been a murderer with a fixation on Lana Lang. She’d almost killed them both once, before dying herself, but here she was, alive and well and close to Whitney. Could he trust her, or even Whitney, he asked himself. How well did he know either of them?

While Clark hesitated, Whitney finally swore and shook his head. He grabbed Clark’s arm and pushed him towards the door. “That’s it; I’m throwing both of you out of here. I don’t care if Lionel Luthor himself is right outside, you’re leaving.”

“Oh God, listen to the drama queen,” Chloe said, exasperated. She rolled her eyes and leaned sideways in the chair, her legs hanging off the arm.

“Something to add, Sullivan?” he turned on her. “You brought him here, you care to explain?”

“Sure, if it means you two will stop being idiots about this.” Clark stared at her, his heart in his throat. She shrugged and spun the chair around. “You want to know about Clark, fine, I can deal. He’s special, that’s all. And I don’t mean in the tall, dim, irritating, and cute sort of way, though he’s got that going, I mean in the ‘different from your average guy’, special.”

Whitney frowned at her. “Special… How?”

“You know the rumors about the meteor rocks changing people?” she asked him. “They’re true. He’s proof.” Now they were all speechless, Clark most of all. He wasn’t so far gone though that he missed seeing Tina stiffen up suddenly, her eyes wide.

Whitney looked Clark up and down, blinking in astonishment. Then he shook his head, his face darkening again. “Bullshit,” Whitney told her. “They’re just rumors.”

“How else you gonna explain how he went through your house like a locomotive?” she asked him sunnily.

“You really expect me to believe that?” he asked her incredulously.

“Hey, I didn’t believe it either till Clark here punched a hole in about a foot of concrete. Something like that tends to convince a person, that and the whole of Luthor Corps trying to kill us.”

“I heard about that,” Tina spoke up for the first time. She looked at Clark, her face puzzled. “It was you they were after?”

“Wait a minute,” Whitney broke in, waving his hands. “I’m all for rumors and conspiracies, especially when it’s connected to Luthorcorp, but I’ve never seen anything to suggest that the rocks can change people. They’re harmless; I had one as a paperweight and you don’t see me sprouting another pair of arms.”

“You have gotten dumber though,” Chloe breezed.

“What I mean is,” he snarled, glaring at her, “the meteor rocks are all over the place, and I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone else, so do you expect me to believe that he’s the first person to be changed by them?” he asked, gesturing to Clark.

“Not the first,” Clark said, eyeing Tina. She caught the look and stared back at him, clearly disturbed. Whitney missed the exchange though, and turned towards him.

“Well then where are the rest, huh?”

“I’m not really the one you should ask about that,” Clark told him.

Tina flinched visibly and then she seemed to steel herself. She started to raise herself up gingerly. Whitney noticed and quickly rushed back to kneel down beside her. He steadied her shoulder and took her hand. “Whoa, are you sure you should be doing that?” he asked her.

“No, but that’s not really an issue,” she told him, never taking her eyes off Clark. “We need to talk, alone.”

Whitney blinked and then glanced back at Clark and Chloe. “I think that should probably wait until later.”

“No, sorry, not you,” she disagreed. Whitney’s eyes grew wide as he followed her stare. Clark nodded at her and waited, his arms folded over his chest.

“Wait a minute,” Whitney protested, “I’m not leaving you alone with him. He jumped you not five minutes ago!”

“We’re not going to fight are we?” Tina asked over his shoulder at Clark.

He shrugged. “I’ve had a very long day, but I’m willing to go on your basic faith here.”

“Tina,” Whitney pleaded again.

She looked pained at the tone in his voice, but she remained resolute. “I’m sorry, but this is something I have to do,” she told him. “Why don’t you go find something to fix the door with? We’ll be fine.” He didn’t move, his eyes pleading with her. “Please.” Finally he bowed his head and nodded. He got up slowly and turned towards Clark, his face stony.

“If anything happens…,” he warned him, trailing off.

“Lord,” Chloe laughed again. “You’ll do what; break your fist on his jaw?” Whitney shot her a look, then turned around and stomped out of the room. She smirked at him from her chair.

“Chloe,” Clark spoke up, “you too.”

“Oh, come’ on,” she protested. “You owe me!”

“Chloe!” he barked at her, his temper starting to fray.

She sniffed and said, “Whatever.” She left as well, slamming the door behind her. Finally they were alone. Clark studied her carefully. She looked almost exactly like he remembered her, but that didn’t mean much, he realized, when you could change the appearance of your body absolutely. That was the effect the meteor rocks had had on Tina Greer. She’d been born with a bone disease that had left her frail and almost bed-ridden, but after the meteor shower, she had mysteriously recovered. It wasn’t until much later that they had learned that the meteor rocks had been responsible for it all. Along with healing her, they had also given her the ability to control the shape of her body, allowing her to mimic anyone’s appearance. Additionally, or simply as a side-effect of her new ability, she had also been given increased strength and speed, enough to prove a serious threat to Clark. They had fought twice in his Smallville, the last time ending in her accidental death. But that had been in his world, Clark realized. The question now was, how different was she here?

Tina remained silent, staring at him intensely. Not willing to be the first to speak, Clark waited, eying her back. Finally, she broke the silence. “How do you know?” she asked him, her voice as tight as a wire.

“About you?” he asked, surprised. She nodded curtly and he shrugged. “I could see it in you. It’s one of my powers.” Tina seemed to deflate, her chest heaving. She stared off into space, her mouth half open. Clark cocked his head, puzzled by her response.

“He doesn’t know, does he?” he asked suddenly, glancing towards the door.

Her head snapped up immediately. “No!” she almost cried. Then she went on, more softly, “No, of course not. I don’t use it often, and never around anyone else.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“You don’t?” he asked, surprised again.

“Why would I want to?” She looked at him incredulously. “To let him know I’m a freak? That I put his life in danger just by being near him? Things are hard enough as it is.” She looked away sadly, and then glanced back. “You look surprised,” she pointed out.

“I just thought you would’ve told him,” he replied.

“How many people have you told?” she asked in response.

Clark grunted offhand and nodded. “Point taken. Though,” he admitted, “a lot more people than I thought seemed to have figured it out already.”

“Luthorcorp,” she breathed out. “I don’t think we can help you with that. If they want you, they’ll find you. They found all the others.”

“There were others?” he asked.

She nodded. “A lot more. Maybe thirty, maybe fifty, maybe even a hundred. No one knows for certain. A few years after the meteor shower, Luthorcorp started going through the town, interviewing everyone, tracking down stories, following up on rumors. Their men were everywhere with trucks and equipment. When they found someone like us, somebody different, they took them away to their labs.” As she spoke, Clark heard her voice start to crack. There was such pain and fear in it, fear he recognized so well. He knew what it was like to live day to day hiding a secret. The suspicion; the tension building and building till it felt like you might just tear apart. He knew what that was like.

“I don’t know if anyone else knew what was happening,” she went on. “Maybe it was just the freaks like us that knew, because we were more observant or just more nervous. Or maybe everyone else was just happy to see us taken away. After a while, they got nearly everyone. I was only safe because my mother kept me hidden. I had always been sick, so it wasn’t difficult to keep me at home and away from people. Then, about a few years ago, they just stopped looking. It was like they gave up or something. Or, maybe they thought there was no one left, because after that, I never heard of anyone else like us.”

“No one else,” Clark wondered.

“If you don’t mind,” she asked him, “but how did it happen to you?”

He hesitated, and then said, “I’ve always been like this, since the day of the meteor shower.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “How did you stay hidden?”

“It’s complicated,” he stammered. “And it doesn’t matter now. Somehow, they found me out.”

Tina nodded seriously and was silent for a moment. Clark glanced at her. She had such cold, tired, sad eyes, he noticed. There were lines in her face he hadn’t noticed before either. Even if she could change her appearance with a thought, he realized, she couldn’t stop some things from leaving their mark on her.

“You know, the safest thing for me to do would be to kill you,” she said evenly. Clark blinked and faced her. They stared each other down, sizing the other up. “I could you know, you might have surprised me before, but I’m a lot stronger than I look.”

“So am I,” he replied.

She touched her bruised jaw and swallowed gingerly. “That’s for sure,” she muttered under her breath. Then she frowned and raised her chin defiantly. “But it doesn’t matter how strong you are,” she told him, “they’ll find you. And you’ll tell them about me, and Whitney.”

“I beat them once,” he remarked.

“They won’t come after you just once,” she said sadly, “they’ll come after you as many times as it takes.”

“Well if it comes to that, I wouldn’t tell them,” he said calmly. She smiled a little and looked away. “That doesn’t mean much, does it?” he realized.

She shook her head. “No. But it was nice to hear.” She sighed and sat back down on the bed. “So what do we do now?” she asked.

“That’s what we were asking before you showed up,” he admitted.

“Alright,” she said, “then here’s the deal. We’ll help you get out of Smallville, and in return, you don’t breathe a word about us to anyone else. And you don’t come back. Ever. Just keep running, as far away from Luthorcorp as you can get. How’s that?”

“It’s not that easy,” he told her. “I need to find out what happened here, what went wrong. This isn’t what I… it’s not….,” he hesitated. “This is my home. Even if I don’t remember it this way, I can’t just run away.”

“Information’s tricky,” she admitted. “Whitney’s good, but… It might actually be more dangerous to go digging around than to smuggle you across the county line.”

“I still have to try.” He looked at her helplessly. “I don’t know if you can understand.”

“You think I stayed here because I couldn’t leave?” she asked him. “It’d be easy for me to cross the county line. I could make myself look like Lionel Luthor in a heartbeat and just march through the soldiers. It’s what I should’ve done years ago if I had a bit of sense.”

“Why are you still here?” he asked.

She sighed and shook her head. “That’s a long story,” she replied. “Too long to get into right now.” She closed her eyes wearily and rubbed her forehead. “Well, I guess we’d better call them back in now,” she decided finally, getting up off the bed. She started towards the door and then stopped and glanced back at him. “You won’t…” she left it hanging.

He shook his head. “It’s your secret. And I don’t really blame you for not telling him. I’ve… I’ve got someone like that too.” She smiled a little and then set her shoulders.

“He’s probably standing with his ear to the door,” she muttered to him. “Even if the room is soundproof.”

“He’s not,” Clark smiled. “But he has passed by about five times already.” He shrugged self-consciously at her questioning look. “I can sort of see through walls too.”

Tina laughed. “He’s sweet, but a wee bit over protective. Even if I could probably carry him with one hand,” she remarked. “Oh well,” she shrugged and opened the door. Clark smiled and shook his head. Then he started to mull over what she’d told him. Thinking, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out. He pulled out the meteor stone the old farmer had given him when he’d first arrived here and looked at it. It gleamed dully in his hand. He still felt strange holding it, but it was nerves, nothing more. The rock had no effect on him. He stared into it, wondering.

“Well the place is still in one piece,” Chloe’s voice pulled him back from his thoughts. She craned her head around as she stood in the doorway. “I’m surprised. I was expecting just to find a big crater. I mean, the people two streets over are going to be picking splinters out of their grass come tomorrow.” He looked at her and shrugged, still preoccupied.

She sat down in the rolling chair in front of the computer. “So, you want to tell me what was so important between you two?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he said, “but it’s kind of private.” She sniffed and spun the chair away from him, grunting irritably. “Chloe,” he said, a bit annoyed, “come’ on!” She ignored him completely, not turning around. “Fine,” he shook his head. He breathed out angrily, but then he stopped himself and tried to go on more pleasantly. “Thank you though, for before. That was quick thinking.”

“Someone had to do it,” she replied, “and you certainly weren’t up for it.”

“Thanks,” he said dryly.

“Clark?” He turned around to see Whitney and Tina standing there in the doorway. “She tells me you two have come to a bit of an understanding, that right?” he asked. Clark glanced at Tina and she nodded in agreement.

“We have.”

“Apology’s been given and accepted,” she said with a small smile.

“Not by me,” Whitney said flatly. Then his face softened as he looked at Tina. “But I’ve learned to trust Tina. She’s usually right about these things.” Chloe snorted derisively, but no one seemed to notice.

“I’m sorry about keeping this from you before,” Clark said to him. Whitney shrugged and waved it off.

“I probably would’ve done the same thing. Forget about it.”

“No, I am,” he insisted. “But maybe I can make it up to you.” He put the hunk of meteor rock on the table and stepped back. “What is that?”

“Did you forget already?” Chloe asked, amused.

“Just humor me,” he told her.

“It’s a meteor rock,” Whitney said quietly, staring at it. Tina nodded slightly, studying Clark.

“That’s what someone told me when I got this afternoon,” he corrected them. “But I don’t think it is.”

Whitney picked up the stone, studying it closely. “How can you tell?”

“A few ways,” Clark said delicately. Tina shot him a warning look and he nodded slightly, catching it. “It looks like one, it’s a crystal, it’s green, and I’m betting if you studied it under a microscope it would probably closely resemble one too. But there’s just critical thing missing, it’s not radioactive.”

Whitney’s hand shook suddenly and he almost dropped the stone. Fumbling it, he blinked and looked at Clark. “The stones are radioactive?”

“The real one’s are.” Clark turned to Chloe. “Do you remember what they were shooting at us at the Talon?” he asked her.

Her eyes narrowed and she cocked her head. “I mostly just remember being tossed through a window like a rag doll, but I think they were lasers.”

“Green lasers,” he corrected her. “You ever wonder why they did that? Bullets just bounce off of me; the only thing that really hurts me is the radiation from the meteor rocks. I can’t stand to even be near one.” He walked over to Whitney and took the stone from his hand. He held it tightly and then tossed it up, catching it. “But as you can see, no reaction. But there was one this afternoon, when I got shot. It didn’t last long, but it’s not the sort of thing you forget.”

“So you’re saying they had guns designed to hurt you?” Tina asked him. Clark nodded and then the full weight of the question fell on him.

“Not just anyone,” he muttered. “Just me.”

“Oh, I don’t know, they did a number on the people in the crowd,” Chloe commented.

“Sure, but if they just wanted to do that, why use lasers?” Tina argued. “A normal gun would’ve done the job.” She stared at Clark. “They must know all about you.” Clark nodded, shaken for a moment.

“So the radiation was in the stones, but it’s now in the guns. What did they do, drain the radiation out of it?” Whitney wondered, grabbing the stone again. He held it up to the light, staring at it.

“Yeah, like that’s going to really show you anything, Mr. Science,” Chloe snorted. He glared at her and put the stone back down on the table.

“You said Luthorcorp gathered up all the stones, right?” Clark stepped in quickly. “But they didn’t do a very good job of it because there were still so many around.”

“Of course,” Tina breathed out. “They weren’t collecting them, they were replacing them!” Her eyes widened in awe. “That’s why they stopped looking. Take the stones away…” she trailed off, glancing at them worriedly. Clark glanced around but Whitney and Chloe hadn’t seemed to notice.

“But why?” Chloe asked. “Why collect them?”

“Who knows,” Tina shrugged, looking at Whitney. “I guess we could always ask though.” He snorted and nodded. Then he grew serious and nodded, looking at Clark.

“Since we’re coming clean now, I think I can help you with something.” Clark looked up at him, his eyes narrowing. “Or maybe you can help me with something,” he corrected himself. He walked over to the computer and then glanced down at Chloe shortly. She sat there in his chair, not budging. “You mind?” he asked. She smiled and pushed the chair away, rolling to the side of the room. He stared after her and then sighed, taking another chair and setting it in place in front of the computers.

“Whitney, what is it?” Tina asked, looking confused.

“I never told you his last name, did I?” he asked. “Tina, meet Clark Kent,” he emphasized the last name. She stared uncomprehendingly, and then her eyes lit up and her mouth hung open.

“Kent, as in…”

“Kent farm, outside of town,” Whitney agreed. He stared to type quickly.

“Wait, what is this?” Clark spoke up. “I thought you didn’t know anything about that?”

“I lied,” Whitney shrugged. “Well, not really. I don’t know anything concrete about the place. I’ve just got a whole bunch of suspicions and unanswered questions.” He pulled up a file and turned in his chair, motioning for Clark to step closer. He did, slowly though, his stomach sending an icy chill through the rest of his body. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

“Luthorcorp owns about sixty percent of the property outside of town. It doesn’t do a hell of a lot with it, just puts up ‘no trespassing’ signs and fences. They buy up the rights and then just bulldoze all the houses down. They chased a lot of good families off their land and then they don’t even do anything with it. All except for one area.” He brought up a map of Smallville on the screen and circled a bit of land with his mouse. It was an area Clark knew well.

“It’s kinda curious, don’t you think? They tear down all the houses except for one: the Kent farm. This one they don’t touch, they leave everything in fact, right down to the rotting fences. It was one of the first ones they bought as a matter of fact; right after Red Tuesday.”

“How’d you find out about this?” Chloe asked curiously. She craned her head up to see the screen.

“Someone tipped me off to it. It’s not easy to notice, they’ve done everything to hide it by just pretending there’s nothing special about the place.” Chloe looked confused and he went on. “You’ve got something you want to hide, right? What do you do; ring it with barbed wire, armed guards, and hi-tech surveillance, or do you leave it out in the open, hidden along with all the other farms you own?”

“It still doesn’t mean anything,” she pointed out. “They could’ve just forgotten about it.”

“Not when the property is solely owned by one Lionel Luthor. Not Luthorcorp, not a dummy corporation, but Lionel himself.”

“Maybe it’s a summer home,” she shrugged.

“What about the family?” Clark heard himself ask. He felt like he was standing outside his own body, listening to all this. They all looked up at him. “What happened to the Kents?!” he almost screamed.

“The farm was put up for sale after Red Tuesday,” Whitney told him quietly. “A lot of places were… vacated that day.” Clark stared at him, feeling his eyes tightened and dry up. “I did some digging, checked out police reports, old newspaper clippings, that sort of thing. Jonathon and Martha Kent were driving home from town during the meteor shower. There had been a big festival that morning; practically the whole town had been there. They were about a mile from their home when a large meteorite came down in front of them. The police reports that day were all rushed and incomplete, but they did manage to identify the bodies.”

Clark heard him say it clearly, but for some reason his brain refused to process it. He shook his head slowly, feeling something start to burn deep in his chest. “What… That’s not what happened!” he choked out.

“It is,” Whitney said reluctantly. He pulled up another file on the screen and moved aside so he could see better. Clark stumbled over to the monitor and gripped the sides of the desk, reading. The column was small, hardly more than an inch, one of many sandwiched into a horribly, large obituary section. They’d saved on space by resizing a photograph of both his parents into the space above the column. Due to the resizing it was almost impossible to make out any details, but Clark knew what it looked like. That very picture rested on their mantle, a snapshot of his parents just before their marriage. He’d seen it everyday of his life as he’d passed by the living room, their smiling, joyous faces, the glow on his mother’s cheeks, and the bashful, youthful, twinkle in his father’s eyes. And now it was over their obituary. Chunks of wood in the desk snapped off, unnoticed, as he gripped it tighter.

“Clark…” Chloe said gently, trying to bring him back.

“Where are they?” he asked. “Where are they now?” he repeated, throwing the broken pieces of the desk aside.

“They were buried there,” Whitney said. He turned back to the computer and highlighted a section of the text. “It says they were interred in a family plot at the farm-“ he was cut off by a gust of wind that knocked him out of his chair. Tina fell back with a cry and Chloe’s chair was thrown back against the wall fiercely. Chloe cried out as she hit her head against the wall as the chair struck it.

“Ow!” she yelled, touching the back of her head gingerly. Then she touched her mouth and winced. “I bit my tongue,” she mumbled.

“What happened?” Tina moaned from the floor. She groaned and stood up, rubbing her elbow.

Whitney climbed to his knees, trying to clear his head. “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“Where’s Clark?” Chloe suddenly asked, staring around the room. They all looked up, glancing around. He was gone. Behind them, the door to the room swung wildly on one hinge and then fell off with a crash.

“He did it again!” Whitney cried out. “Can’t he just open it first?”

“Whitney!” Tina yelled. “Forget about that. We need to find him. They’re still looking for him.”

“Well, I guess we know where he’s going,” Chloe spoke up. She looked back at the obituary on the computer screen. “Home.”