Clark watched the soldiers disperse across the farms in groups from behind the shed. One of the soldiers broke off from the others and ran into the house, following after the first man who’d entered before. Using only his x-ray vision made it a little difficult to make out the details of what was happening, but he could tell that this was his best chance. He could see Tina still lying prone on the ground, guarded, but now only by ten men instead of the entire group. If he kept moving, he could probably take out all of them before they could fire a shot off. Still, he thought, the problem was getting away once he had her. With all the soldiers searching the farm, he’d never be able to grab Tina and then Chloe and Whitney as well. And there was another problem, he thought grimly. The soldiers would probably check the barn first, and if they found the cellar things would get a lot worse very quickly.
He dashed quickly towards the back of the barn and slipped in through small door, keeping to the shadows. The only light streaming into the barn came from the cracked window in the loft, casting a small pool of brightness on the ground floor. The rest of the barn lay cloaked in darkness. Glancing through the floor, he could see Chloe kneeling by Whitney down in the cellar. At least he was finally conscious now. Then he swung his head up, looking through the barn doors.
As he stepped back further into the shadows, the barn doors slid open noisily and four soldiers appeared in the main doors, staring around. Thankfully, Clark saw that they weren’t carrying the meteor-powered rifles from before. Not that they were completely harmless, he thought dryly; each soldier was heavily armed and looked like they wouldn’t hesitate to open fire on the first thing that moved. Things could definitely get very bad here very quickly.
One of them clicked on a flashlight and pointed it towards the loft, signaling two of them to search it silently. They broke off and slowly climbed the loft stairs, guns at the ready. Clark waited, watching both groups. He hesitated for a moment and then jumped up and caught the edge of the loft, pulling himself up quickly. The two soldiers separated, one heading towards the cracked window. He glanced through it quickly, and then tried to move the edges of the window. The other searched around, looking up in the rafters. Clark remained where he was crouched for a moment and then he started to creep towards the moving soldier from behind. He closed the distance quietly, his hands at the ready. He’d have to move quickly, he thought, if this was going to work. If he could immobilize every man before they knew what was happening, he might have a chance of pulling this off.
The loft window crashed open suddenly as the soldier managed to force the edges to move. Sunlight flooded into the loft temporarily blinding everyone. The soldier looked away, shading his eyes with his arms from the sudden brightness. Clark stood there blinking, frozen in place as he locked eyes with the shocked man. “Behind you!” the soldier started to yell to his partner, scrambling to bring up his gun. Clark hissed in irritation and started to move.
Extending his arm, he dashed past the first soldier and clotheslined him roughly. The soldier was knocked head over heels and landed with a loud thud on the wooden floor. He didn’t get up. Clark didn’t stop moving, leaping over him and closing the distance to the window. Moving at his speed, the second man looked to Clark to be frozen in the act of reaching for his gun. Clark almost felt sorry for him. He picked up the soldier by his helmet with one hand and slammed him into the window frame, making the entire wall shudder. A few cracks appeared in the frame from around the back of the man’s helmet. The soldier flopped for a moment and then went limp. Frowning, Clark checked him with his x-ray vision for a moment and then dropped him.
“Sam? Everything okay up there?” one of the other soldiers called from downstairs. Clark frowned, staring down at them through the loft boards. He hadn’t meant to give them any warning. Then he heard something that made his blood run cold.
“Possible contact in the barn loft,” he could hear the other soldier rasp into his walkie-talkie. There was a faint hiss of status and then Clark heard the acknowledgement on the other end. He definitely hadn’t meant to give them time enough for that.
Throwing caution to the winds, Clark ran to the edge of the loft and jumped off, coming down almost on top of the two soldiers. They cursed something and started to raise their guns, but he struck one of them lightly across the jaw, sending the man’s head snapping back. Before he could fall though Clark grabbed him by his jacket and spun him around into his partner. Both men flew through the air and crashed through the side of the old horse stall in the side of the barn. Clark waited, watching the dust settle around them, but neither moved.
For a moment he felt like smiling. Then he stared through the barn walls and all his good feelings evaporated. He could see over a dozen figures advancing towards the barn in all directions, and more were appearing every moment.
“Great, Clark,” he muttered to himself in frustration. He spun around, still staring through the woodwork. “You’re really keeping everyone safe here.”
He dashed over to the barn doors and threw one closed quickly. Grabbing the other, he glanced out as he heard a startled cry. A swarm of bullets smashed into the wood around him as the soldiers spotted him and opened fire. Ducking his head, he slammed the door shut and then grabbed the remains of an old tractor plow. He threw it against the door to block it in and then turned around, seeing the side door he’d slipped through earlier. It hung open in the wind, swinging slightly. Even worse, he could see another soldier through the barn walls, approaching it. He was pressed up against the side of the barn, trying to keep from being seen. Clark watched him through the wall smiled grimly.
Running over to the wall, Clark paused, watching the soldier, and then he smashed his fist out through the wall and caught the soldier’s neck in his hand. Then he pulled back sharply and slammed the man senseless against the side of the barn. He let him drop and pulled his hand back, still smiling. Then he quickly slammed the door shut and flung the dead bolt on it, locking it.
“Now lets see what happens,” he muttered.
Lana came charging out of the house, already shouting into her radio. “Beel, status! Beel!” She waited impatiently, looking around the farm as she did. A squad was nearby and she waved them over, still waiting for a reply. Only static came back. “Codel,” she snarled, “what’s your status? Why isn’t Beel responding?”
“Don’t know,” he came back over the radio. “He took a squad into the barn and then said something about a noise and we lost him. We’re taking a look there now.”
“Forget about the other patrols,” she said, “get everyone there. That’s where he is.”
“Who, ma’am?” he sounded confused.
“The alien!” she practically shrieked. “He’s here on the farm right now. Trap him in the barn and wait for further instructions.” She glanced up and saw the soldiers look around nervously. “You have a problem with that order?” she snapped.
“No, ma’am,” one of them said, snapping to attention. “It’s just… we don’t have the equipment to deal with him. The guns…”
“Are on their way,” she said. She raised her radio again and spoke quickly and precisely into it. “This is LC1 for Pandora, do you copy?”
“Copy, LC1,” came the reply after a moment. There was a sudden burst of gunfire in the direction of the barn and everyone but Lana jumped, their weapons at the ready.
“We need containment measures on site,” she went on. “Location: ES241. Clearance code is 3429-345LE. Maximum spread, is that understood?” She covered her radio with her hand and glanced at the soldiers. “You may want to get over to the barn now,” she said dryly. They stared at her for a moment, blinking in astonishment, and then they turned as a group and ran off. She smirked and uncovered her radio.
“Copy, LC1,” the reply came. “Code is accepted. Containment on the way.”
She nodded and did the calculations in her head. They were more than five miles from town and the labs. Getting the helicopters launched would take at least ten minutes, if it were already prepped that was. Added to that was the time it would take to get the meteor guns out of the vault. She realized slowly that they might have to hold their own here for a while. Lana grimaced. She hadn’t planned on having a second confrontation with the alien so soon. She’d seen how much damage the first creature could do when it was provoked, and the second was even stronger, if it was possible. She and her men were armed with only rifles and their stun batons, which were capable of delivering a nearly fatal burst of electricity to a target, but only at close range. She doubted that even if the alien let them get that close he would barely feel that.
“Lana, have you called for the troops?” Lionel asked. He emerged from the house, looking shaken. His suit was wrinkled and stained from the dust inside.
“Yes, sir, they’re on their way.” He nodded, staring off into the distance. “Sir, perhaps you’d better go back inside. This area isn’t secure yet.”
“Have you found him yet?”
“We have it pinned down in the barn,” she assured him. “It’s only a matter of time.”
“I don’t have to remind you of how important this place is to me, do I?” he asked, not looking at her.
“Sir, no, sir.” He nodded and stared back at the house, taking in all of it. She glanced towards the barn and then looked back towards him. She bit her lip eagerly and stepped towards him. “Sir, do I have permission to use lethal-“
“No,” he said sternly, some of his fire coming back. Her face fell. “Not yet,” he amended. “I want him alive, but I can live with the alternative. Her secret is more important to me than the alien, do you understand?” She nodded quickly trying to contain the sudden rush she felt. Saluting, she started to rush off when he called her back.
“Lana, I trust you in this. Alive, if it’s possible.”
“Of course, sir,” she said guilelessly.
He nodded, smiling slightly. “I think I will take your advice,” he said slowly, looking towards the house. “Inform me the moment reinforcements are here. We’ll be able to capture him then.” She nodded again and he waved her away, heading back inside the house.
She could barely stand to wait for his back to turn before she was off and running. Hurrying down the line of vehicles, she found the one she wanted and popped open the back quickly. Inside was a rack of assault rifles and ammunition, but she hardly gave these a glance. Lifting out the entire rack, she put it on the ground carelessly and reached back inside the car. She opened up a hidden compartment in the car and took out a large, gray gun. Clicking it on, she saw the firing light on the side turn a bright green and she smiled. It had been specially designed for her, with more than twice the firepower of the normal meteor powered models. Hefting it, she turned towards the barn and marched off.
“Alive if possible,” she repeated to herself. “Only if he can survive this first.”
Her men had the barn completely surrounded, but hadn’t made any other move aside from that. They were crouched behind sheds and fence posts, staring towards it and waiting nervously. The barn was quiet looking for all the world as empty as it should have been. “Any movement?” she asked one of the soldiers as she approached him.
“We got a shot off at him when he closed the doors before,” he replied anxiously. He rubbed his palm against the side of his pants nervously and then gripped his gun again. “Someone tried the door in the back but he knocked him cold through the wall. Other than that, there’s been no movement.”
“He can see through walls remember?” she reminded him dryly. “He’s probably watching us now.”
The soldier blanched, looking back at the barn in horror. “What about back-up?” he asked.
“On their way,” she replied coolly. She thought for a moment and then nodded quickly. “Open fire.” The soldier stared at her. “Open fire on the barn,” she said more forcefully. “We’ll flush him out and deal with him ourselves.”
“But Beel and the others are still inside. And what about backup…
“Backup can scrape up what’s left of him when I’m done with him,” she spat out at him. “Now open fire!” He stared at her and then hefted his gun and fired a steady stream at the barn. After a moment, the rest of the soldiers joined in. Dust and splinters of wood shook out from the barn as more than thirty guns fired on it. The old wooden boards split and tore apart as the bullets crashed through them.
“Come on,” Lana whispered, her eyes locked on the barn as she waited. “Come on out.”
Inside the barn, Clark ducked as the bullets tore through the air. Tools jumped off the walls and the entire structure seemed to shake under the onslaught. One of the support beams for the loft was shattered as the gunfire tore it to pieces, sending a portion of the loft crashing down over Clark’s head. He shook it off, climbing to his feet as he covered his head. A year ago, being struck by a bullet would have left a bruise behind, but by now he was strong enough to shrug a shot off like a light punch. Still, this wasn’t one bullet though. He was practically knocked off his feet as he was struck back and forth from all sides. Gritting his teeth, he ducked, making himself less of a target. All around him, the barn continued to disintegrate. He saw the edge of the loft tilt and finally collapse on the far side of the barn, smashing into pieces. Another post cracked and broke off, this time causing a section of the roof to buckle. The Kent barn had withstood countless winter storms and seasons of neglect, but now it was being thoroughly destroyed in a matter of moments.
If this keeps up Chloe and Whitney are going to be buried underneath all the rubble, he thought. Staring outside through all the gunfire, he could see the soldiers still unloading round after round towards him. Don’t they care? Their own men are still in here! The gunfire continued, tearing through the walls and occasionally striking him. Watching his barn disintegrate under the heavy fire, Clark’s face scrunched up in anger. He’d had to endure a lot since he’d come here. He’d found out his parents were dead, his home abandoned. And now his friends were hurt and in danger and these people were destroying another piece of his home. Clark wasn’t a violent person by nature, but there was only so much he could take. And he’d just reached that limit.
Clark stood up, hardly even feeling the bullet’s impact anymore. He stared through the walls at a group of soldiers, watching them stand around a shed his father had built, using it for cover. In a second, in less than a hundredth of that, he was running, smashing through the barn wall like it wasn’t even there. He ran heedlessly through the bullets, frozen as if in mid-flight, towards the soldiers. The shed exploded as he passed through it, hurtling the men through the air. They came down roughly and tumbled away. Clark slowed down momentarily, snapping around to look for another group. There was a cry from his left and then a round of gunfire struck him across the back. Five soldiers were opening fire on him from across the yard. Turning swiftly, Clark dashed towards them before they could fire another shot and smashed the lead man across the face. He went flying to the side, tumbling head over heels as he came down. Not stopping, Clark smashed through the rest of the soldiers, scattering them like ten-pins. Another soldier appeared from behind the barn, raising his rifle hastily, but Clark was already there in front of him. He snatched the weapon from the startled man and smashed the butt of it into his stomach. The man went down, the breath rushing out of him.
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Through the red haze, Clark heard another burst of gunfire and turned, seeing another group of soldiers standing over Tina’s body. He stared at her, not even noticing the bullets striking him, only seeing her still body lying there. Then he was running across the field, moving so fast that his footprints smoked in the dirt. He grabbed one of the soldiers and flung him to the side, sending him soaring thirty feet through the air to come down hard on the roof of one of the parked cars. He battered another man aside and then grunted as one of them pulled out a metal wand of some kind and struck him with it. The end glowed a bright blue and gave out a high pitched whine as Clark felt electricity surge through his body. It hurt, but that was all. He stood there for a second, grimacing as the man held it to his chest and then he took hold of the baton and pulled it away. Smashing it in his fist, he grabbed the startled man and struck him across the helmet with the broken pieces. He was lifting him up to throw him aside when a shout broke through his rage-clouded mind.
“Stop him! Quickly! He’s destroying everything!” It had come from the house. He turned around slowly, still holding the stunned soldier, and looked in the direction of the familiar voice. A man was standing in the doorway of the abandoned home, looking as pale as a ghost himself. His dark brown hair stood out shockingly against his skin, and the look in his eyes was intense. It was a look Clark had seen many times before in his world. “He’s ruining my home!” Lionel Luthor shrieked at the soldiers. “Do something!”
“Your home?” Clark said angrily. He dropped the soldier and started to walk across the yard, picking up speed. “Your home!” he yelled. Lionel stood staring at him as he dashed across the yard towards him, Chloe, Tina, the farm, everything else forgotten. He heard the rest of the soldiers cry out helplessly, but there was no one between him and Lionel. He threw himself forward the last ten feet, his arms outstretched towards the billionaire.
Then a burst of green light struck him from the side and knocked him sprawling. He tumbled wildly and went sprawling in the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust and torn up soil. As he finally came to a stop, he retched, feeling the meteor rock radiation washing through him. It was more powerful than yesterday through, and he coughed, spitting something strange that tasted coppery out of his mouth. What was that taste, a part of him wondered idly. It seemed vaguely familiar. He struggled to his feet, his vision swimming, and then saw the red flecks on the ground and remembered it was blood. It had been a long time since he’d been hurt enough to actually bleed. Gritting his teeth, he tried to push himself up with his arms, and then collapsed as his right arm screamed in agony. His shoulder throbbed and felt like it was on fire.
Through the pain, he felt a something cold and hard pressed against his head, right behind his ear. “Not so strong now, are you?” a girl’s voice asked him. Clark looked up at her slowly, blinking the dust out of his eyes. Even with her hair cut shorter and her eyes colder and harder than he’d ever imagined, he still recognized her immediately. He’d found another of his friends.
It was Lana.
“Give me a reason to do it,” Lana threatened him, holding the gun at his face. Her face trembled as she said it, but the gun remained steady. “Give me a reason and I’ll blow you back to wherever you came from.”
Clark stared up at her, too shocked to respond. It was Lana, his Lana, and yet it wasn’t. He could see the LuthorCorps fatigues, the short hair, and her tight, drawn eyes, everything that was different about her, but beyond that there was the something else, something in her eyes that touched him. He recognized it, the same way he had with Chloe before, but it was stronger now. There was hate and anger in her eyes, he could see that easily enough, but he could sense the pain there; the sadness that had always been a part of the Lana he knew.
“It’s you, Lana,” he said quietly, staring up at her, not even seeing the gun.
She blinked, the gun jumping a little. “You know my name?” she asked stunned. Suddenly she looked less sure of herself. “How is that…” she started to ask, but then she shook herself and pressed the gun down against his temple. “Shut up! Just shut up!”
“Lana, keep him there,” Lionel said, running up to them, the soldiers that could still walk, following after him. Encircling Clark and Lana, they aimed their guns and waited. Lana didn’t acknowledge him. She stared at Clark, grinding the gun into his skull.
Clark moved his head away, but she pressed it down against him more firmly. “I said don’t move!” she yelled at him.
“Lana, you have to listen to me,” Clark said quickly. “I’m your friend; I’m not here to hurt you. You can put the gun away.” Everyone looked shocked as he spoke. Lionel glanced from Clark to Lana and then back.
“You can speak English?” he asked, amazed.
“He’s not going to be speaking anything if he keeps it up,” Lana threatened. Her finger tightened on the trigger as she kept the gun pressed against his head. Clark gritted his teeth as his shoulder scraped against the ground. He knew he could probably move fast enough to grab the gun away from her before she could fire a shot, but what about then? She wasn’t just going to give up that easily. No matter how different she was, she was still Lana. Could he really fight her if he had to?
“Lana, please, I’m your friend,” he tried again.
“Shut up!” she screamed, her face flushed with anger. “I’m not your fiend. I’ll never be your friend. You killed my parents! Every last one of your kind should die,” she swore coldly. Clark could only stare at her, horrified.
“Now don’t do anything rash yet,” Lionel told her firmly. He stepped forwards, reaching out to grab her shoulder when Lana stiffened suddenly and he moved back. His face was worried, but also strangely chagrined.
“Lana, I need him alive, do you understand me?” he asked in a level voice. Her lip twitched nervously, but she didn’t answer. She tightened her grip on the gun and stared at Clark. He looked back at her, too stunned to move. She’d pressed the trigger back halfway, only an ounce more pressure would send it back fully. “Lana,” Lionel tried again. “Lana, I’m giving you a direct order now!” he snapped, his patience at an end. “You will not destroy that creature unless I say so, do you understand?”
With supreme effort, Lana seemed to come back to herself slowly. The flush faded from her face and she seemed to shrink a little. Her finger relaxed around the trigger, but she didn’t take the gun away from his head yet. “Understood, sir,” she breathed out quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“We’ll deal with that later,” Lionel said shortly. He glanced at Clark and pursed his lips. “Much later. There are a lot of questions I’m sure we’d all like answered, but here isn’t the place. We’ll be able to sort things out once we have it contained.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Clark said.
Lionel smirked and looked away. “Just as stubborn as the other one,” he said dryly.
Clark’s head jerked up roughly. A number of things clicked together in his mind suddenly. He’d wondered before about how the soldiers had known recognized him in town, how they’d known of his weakness to the meteor rocks. How could they have known about his secret and the limitations of his powers, unless they’d had a chance to study them close up before? With a sudden wave of nausea he realized that of all the people he’d wondered about in this version of Smallville, he’d never paused to think about what had happened to him here. If his ship hadn’t landed in front of his parents in this world, he thought with horror, just where had it landed? Right on the Luthor’s doorstep? He looked up and saw Lionel smiling tightly down at him and it was all he could do from rising up to grab hold of him. Lana seemed to sense what he was thinking and put the gun underneath his jaw.
“Don’t think I wouldn’t do it,” she said quietly.
He swallowed and looked in her eyes. A part of him believed her. “I could take that gun away from you, you know,” he said quietly.
“Then why don’t you?” she said back. He just looked back at her, shaken by what he heard in her voice.
“Lana, leave him alone for now,” Lionel spoke up. He looked at the scattered boards from the various sheds Clark had destroyed and then at the ruined wall of the barn. “I’d rather we didn’t do any more damage here,” he said tightly.
“What do you care? It’s my home,” Clark snapped.
Lionel jerked his head back, glaring at him. “What do you mean by that?” he asked, his face darkening noticeably.
Clark shut his mouth and didn’t say anything, staring at him angrily. Lionel glowered at him and then he seemed to control himself with effort. He let out a long breath and smirked. “If you’re thinking that there’s nothing we can do to you, you’re wrong,” he said, squatting down to look at him. “Your kind is strong and practically invulnerable, it’s true,” he said quietly, “but there is that practically part of it that’s the snag. We’ve had quite a bit of time to study your species, your strengths and your limitations. But what I am saying this for,” he smiled suddenly, glancing at Clark’s red and swollen shoulder, “I’m sure you already know what I’m talking about. So all that’s left to say is that if you are hiding things from us, make no mistake, we will find out about them.” He smiled at Clark and stood up. “Lana here has become quite the expert in that area.”
Clark looked at Lana and saw her smile tightly. Something lurched in his stomach and he thought he would be sick on the spot. It just wasn’t possible. Could he have been wrong about her?
“Uh, sir?” Everyone looked up suddenly as one of the soldiers spoke up.
Lionel glanced at him irritably and snapped, “What is it?”
“The girl, uh, the one from before,” he said slowly, looking back towards the barn, “where is she?”
Lionel gaped at him and then spun around and stared at where Tina had fallen. Clark craned his head to side as far as he could with the gun poking him in the head and looked as well. He could see the soldiers he’d knocked unconscious still lying there, but Tina was gone.
“Spread out and search the farm,” Lana snapped suddenly, glancing from Clark to where Tina had been and back again. “She can’t have gotten far.”
“She didn’t,” Lionel said slowly, staring around them, his eyes going wide with alarm.
“Sir?” Lana asked, confused. Lionel didn’t answer, staring at the soldiers massed around them. They were still standing ready, with their rifles aimed at Clark, but they took a step back nervously as he eyed them. Slowly, Lana realization crept into her eyes and she stiffened. “She’s here!” she cried, her other hand diving for the spare holster wrapped around her leg. She pulled out an automatic, but waved it around at the group, unsure of whom to aim it at. Some of the soldiers lowered their guns as others realized what had happened as well and jumped back, bringing their guns up at anyone who was near them. Then without warning a large soldier leapt forwards and grabbed Lionel, jabbing his pistol against the billionaire’s throat.
“Smart man,” Tina’s voice came out of the burly man’s mouth.
The soldiers shifted their aim from each other to Lionel and Tina quickly, but not quick enough. She held him tightly, moving the gun barrel up to rest against his face as she wrapped her other hand around his throat. “Don’t be stupid, drop the guns,” she snarled, her voice sounding strange coming from the large soldier’s body.
“Do what-,” Lionel started to rasp out when Tina choked him off. He gasped and breathed out the rest as she loosened her grip. “Do what she says… Now!” The look he fixed her with was pure murder.
“Didn’t think you’d be the type to sacrifice yourself,” Tina wheezed out. Her voice sounded forced and almost wet now. “Let him go!” she called then. Lana stiffened, her eyes blazing, but Tina fixed her with a steely look. “Your choice, step back, or find out what your boss looks like without a face.” She moved the gun so it pressed against Lionel’s eyes and waited. Lana hesitated, and then backed up from Clark, holstering her gun forcibly. She gestured to the troops and they lowered their weapons.
Clark got to his feet, looking uncertainly at Lana. She glared at him from the corner of her eyes, but refused to face him.
Lionel went pale with fury, almost quivering. “Whomever, whatever you are, I’m going to remember this. And no matter who you look like, or how often you change, I will find you someday,” he promised.
Tina flinched suddenly, but then tried to hide it. “Whatever,” she shrugged. Then she looked at the soldiers. “That’s not good enough, drop them all, now.” They did so reluctantly. “You too, Commando Barbie,” she smiled somewhat vacantly at Lana.
Lana flushed, but pulled out her gun slowly. Clark readied himself, but she tossed it on the ground and stepped back. “Satisfied?” she asked snidely.
“Not yet. Clark, you want to do something about that?” she asked quickly. He nodded and stared down at the gun, focusing his vision. In a moment, the gun glowed bright red and then melted into a slag of circuitry and metal. For good measure, he swept his heat-vision along the ground, super-heating the other guns.
“Finished,” he said.
“Good,” she coughed. Her eyes closed momentarily and she seemed to slump over, but she then tightened her grip on Lionel and jerked him almost off his feet. “Grab the others from the barn. Hurry!” Clark glanced at the soldiers, but she nodded towards the barn. “We don’t have much time, go!”
“Right,” he said and dashed towards the barn. He shouldered open the bullet riddled door and stepped inside. Timber and pieces of the ceiling had collapsed all over the barn floor, forcing him to clear a path to the cellar entrance. Along the way, he heard a moan and stared quietly for a moment. Pulling a section of the collapsed loft up, he discovered two soldiers lying underneath it, part of the group that had attacked him earlier. They were badly injured, but from the look of things, still alive. He hesitated for a moment, but then his own nature took over and he picked them up as gently as possible. He carried them back through the barn and outside, laying them down against the door. Quickly, he hurried back inside. There had been four, he remembered, and stared around, using his x-ray vision to locate the others. He found them buried under more rubble. One started to cough as he pulled him out of the pile of timber he’d been lying under, but the other was already dead. Gritting his teeth, Clark gathered the two of them up and carried them outside. He set them down by the others and then returned for a final time, hoping that Chloe and Whitney would be in better shape.
Tossing the last few bits of wreckage aside, Clark found the cellar door and yanked it open, almost ripping it from its hinges. He stared down into darkness for a moment and then a long handled shovel jabbed up towards his face. He snatched it away and blinked as he saw Whitney was on the other end of it. “You’re alive!” he exclaimed, staring up at him.
“Yeah, he’s alive, great,” Chloe snapped, stepping into the light. She lifted a rusted old pitchfork shakily, and banged it against the opening, trying to get it through. “Help me with this, I’m gonna kill him!” she snapped at Whitney.
“Later, we have to go,” Clark told her, reaching down into the opening. Whitney grabbed Chloe and boosted her up so Clark could grab her.
“What about Tina?” he asked. “Where is she? Is she…”
“She’s fine, but she’s all alone out there!” Clark said. He pulled Chloe up and helped her over the lip of the entrance. She climbed to her feet and stared around, looking at the demolished loft and the numerous bullet holes along the walls.
“You know, maybe it was a good idea I stayed down there,” she said slowly.
Clark grabbed Whitney’s hand and pulled him out in one clean motion. Whitney scrambled up and then glanced at Clark’s shoulder. “What happened to you?”
“Later, c’mon!” he yelled, running towards the door. They followed after him.
Tina still had Lionel held hostage, thankfully, but she seemed to be swaying on her feet unsteadily. Lana and the rest of the soldiers watched her with dreadful intensity, but they didn’t try to move just yet. Tina still held Lionel in almost a death-grip, half-choking him. His face was actually starting to turn red as he fought for breath.
“Get in the car,” Tina yelled at them, her voice wavering. “Go!”
Whitney stopped frozen in his tracks. “Tina?” he stared at her, almost horrified. Clark glanced at him and then realized that Tina hadn’t changed back yet. She was still in the form of one of the LuthorCorp soldiers. “What…” Whitney started, his face blank and uncomprehending.
Tina flinched away, turning her face away from them. “Get one of the cars, come on! They’ve called for support, they’ll be here any minute.”
Chloe glanced from Tina to Clark, and then to Whitney. “Okay, that’s good enough for me. Come’on,” she waved to them and ran towards one of the LuthorCorp vehicles. “Forget the clunker, we’d be better off in this.”
“Right,” Clark agreed, and then he ran back towards Whitney. He was still standing there, staring at Tina. Grabbing his arm, Clark forced him to look towards him. “We’ll talk about it later, okay, but not now.” Whitney stared back at him numbly. “Get one of them started,” Clark told him and shoved him towards Chloe. Then he turned back towards Tina.
“Just get them away,” she gasped at him as he came closer, her voice catching. Her face was streaked with sweat now, and more disturbingly, the features on the soldier she’d impersonated had started to loosen up, making her face look like a mask of soft wax. Blood spilled out of her mouth suddenly and she coughed, hacking it up. “Get them away,” she wheezed again.
“Not without you,” he told her. He took her by the shoulders and for a moment, she resisted, but then she seemed to collapse in his arms. Lionel fell away, gasping in air as he was able to breathe again. He held his hands to this throat and stared at them, grimacing as he fought for breath. Clark hefted Tina in his arms and stared right back at him. “This isn’t over,” he said quietly. Lionel was coughing too fiercely to respond, but the look in his eyes said enough.
Finally, he looked at Lana. She stared back at him with such naked hate in her eyes that it almost made him sick to his stomach. “Three of your men are by the barn,” he said quietly, “I couldn’t save the fourth. I’m sorry.”
Lana went pale and then flushed again, blinking quickly. “You’re lying. You don’t care.”
“I do,” he swore. “Look, I didn’t start this fight. I didn’t want it.”
“You started it fourteen years ago,” she said coldly. Clark could think of nothing to say to that.
“Clark, let’s go!” Chloe yelled from across the yard. He looked at Lana sadly for a moment and then turned and ran, carrying Tina in his arms. She wheezed painfully as he ran, going pale. Whitney and Tina were inside the cab of one of the dark gray SUV’s that the soldiers had arrived in. Whitney was frantically rummaging around the front seat, looking for something.
“What are we waiting for?” Clark asked, opening the back door. He lay Tina down on the floor of the cab trying not to jostle her too badly. She coughed weakly and lay there, her face white. She still held the gun tightly in her hand.
“I can’t find the damn keys,” Whitney snapped, still rummaging around. “One of the soldiers might still have them,” he looked up at Clark.
“So what do we do? Ask them for them?” he snapped back, his temper fraying.
“God, you two are children,” Chloe snapped. She shoved Whitney aside and crawled down underneath the steering wheel. Pulling back the covering, she started to reach inside, pulling out wires. “Can hack into a computer system, fine, sure,” she mumbled, “can benchpress a buick, yeah, easy, but can either of them hotwire a car? Didn’t think so.” She glanced up at him suddenly. “Hey, it might be a good idea to do the eye thing to the other cars, you know.”
“Eye thing… Oh, right!” he said. She rolled her eyes and looked back at her work.
Clark jumped out from the car and turned around, focusing his eyes. Pressed for time, he just swept his heat-vision on full blast down the line of cars. One by one, they started to smolder as the interiors ignited and tires melted and exploded in rushes of compressed air. When he was satisfied they were all scrapped, he turned around and started back.
Suddenly there was a roaring sound in her head that seemed to eclipse everything. He sagged, falling to his knees and he squeezed his eyes shut from the pain. In the midst of it, he heard someone’s voice call out through the din. Trackers in the car there are trackers in the cars show you where they are here here here hurry. Not in control of his own actions, Clark opened his eyes and stared through the car, his eyes falling on a small blinking box underneath the driver’s seat. And then like that, the noise was gone. Shaking his head, Clark climbed to his feet. Blinking rapidly, he glanced over at Lionel and the rest, and caught the wondering look on the billionaire’s face. Then he heard the car roar to life suddenly and Chloe call out in triumph. Turning quickly he ran back.
“What did I tell you?” Chloe laughed at him as she climbed out from under the steering wheel. “What did I tell you?”
“Good job. Excuse me a minute,” he said and punched through the floor by her. Feeling around, he found the box and ripped it out quickly. He tossed it over his shoulder negligibly.
“Um, we’re not going to need that, are we?” she asked, staring at it.
“Not unless we want them following us,” he told her, shoving her into the driver’s seat. “Drive!” he said tersely.
“What? Where?”
“Anywhere other than here,” he said. She swallowed and nodded, gunning the engine. The car lurched and they took off, rocketing through the farm gates and onto the dirt road.
Clark climbed around to the back, stepping over Tina. Whitney was sitting numbly beside her, just staring down at her. “How’s she doing?” he asked quickly.
Whitney looked up at him and then shook his head, looking overwhelmed. “I don’t know. I…” he floundered and then looked away, “I don’t know.” Clark gripped his shoulder comfortingly.
“She’s going to be fine,” he told him. “She’s strong, she’ll pull through.” Whitney stared down at her and didn’t say anything. She moaned suddenly and her wound reopened more, spilling blood down shoulder. Her body twisted and then flowed back quickly into her original form. To his amazement, the gun she’d threatened Lionel with, disappeared into her hand, flowing back inside of her.
“Fooled ‘em,” Tina said shakily. Her eyes were unfocused and dim, and her voice wavered weakly. “Fooled them all.” She winced as the car bounced and Clark took her hand, trying to comfort her. Whitney sat there numbly, staring down at her, almost not even seeming to see her at all.
Even as he held her hand though, Clark glanced back through the rear windows and saw the farm slowly disappear behind them. With a sudden sinking feeling he knew he would never see it again, not in this world at least. The feeling shook him deeply and not for the first time, he wondered if he would ever be able to get home at all.