Title/Link:
The World Is Our Playground!
Author: Trippett
Pairing:
(Clark/Lana, Lex/Lana, Oliver/Chloe)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings:
Mild Violence
Spoilers: Post-Reckoning
Short summary:
When Clark finds out Lana has run off to Lex, after the death of Jonathan, he goes off to confront them. After Lana refuses to come back to Clark due to his secrets, Clark decides to stop protecting his abilities from the rest of the world, and destroys Lex's Library, along with the name Clark Kent.
Five Years later, the world is under-attack by Milton Fine, aka Brainiac, along with a number of Kryptonian's that had found their way to earth before, during or after the destruction of Krypton.
And there is only one person who can stop them. Superman.
Chapter One: The Fall Out
Kent Farm
Clark sighed as he withdrew his arm from the hole he'd just made in the barn wall with his fist. He stared at it for a few seconds before turning his back on it and walking away, back into the Kent Household.
When he entered, he walked to the living area and sat down next to his Mother.
"How are you holding up, Mum?" He asked, resting his elbow's on his knees and staring at his feet.
She smiled gently, before patting him lightly on the back. "I'm okay, I guess. It's just going to be strange without your Father around..."
Clark nods. "I know." He sighed, before continuing, "I don't know what to do anymore, without him. I have two choices now; I can stay here with you and Lana, or go to the fortress and begin my training."
His Mum sighed as well. "I don't know how to tell you this, Clark, but I don't think you'd be staying around for Lana, anymore. I saw her and Lex yesterday, and they seemed...close."
Clark's eyes widened as he stared at his Mother, realizing she was serious.
"I'm sorry, Clark. It must have happened after the funeral, I didn't think you two were together anymore after the fight you two had, so I didn't say anything!" Martha stammered.
Resting his head in his hands, he closed his eyes. "I didn't think it was that bad...I thought I'd be able to fix it, like I always do!"
Martha rubbed his back some more, before asking "What are you going to do, now?"
Clark sighed, resisting the urge to cry. Running his hands through his hair, he stood up and began walking to the door. "I have to see it for myself, and if it's true, then I have to try and win her back!"
"But Clark, what about Lex?! He has Kryptonite at the mansion!" His Mum said, standing and rushing to his side.
Clark stopped just before reaching the door, thinking about her last statement. He took in a large breath, before releasing it. "At the moment; I really don't care." He said, before flinging the porch door open and marching out into the snow covered drive way.
Luthor Mansion
Clark super-sped through Smallville, and into Luthor Mansion without anyone noticing. He stopped outside Lex's library and made sure nobody was coming his way, before flicking on his x-ray vision.
Lana was in the library, alone, sitting behind Lex's desk, and by Clark's calculations; was playing Solitaire on the laptop stationed there.
He sighed quietly to himself. So Mum was right. She is with Lex now. I have to get her back, somehow...
He opened the door to the large room and walked in. On the outside; he strode in confidently, while on the inside he was caving in slowly to the instinct to just run away.
Lana looked up from the game she was playing and spotted Clark. She blinked in shock, before looking around. "How did you get in here?"
Clark just stood for a few minutes, staring her down.
She changed tact. "I'm here because I was handing documents over to Lex...from the Talon" she rambled, looking anywhere but at Clark.
"Don't lie to me, Lana."
Clark could see that struck a nerve, because she instantly glared at him. "Why? You lie to me!"
Clark sighed again and rubbed his eye lids. "That's for your own safety! Why do you keep fighting me on this?!"
"Because! You have a secret that you won't tell me about!"
He shook his head. 'Everyone has secrets, Lana. Because my ability to keep it, I'm just like everybody else!'
Lana shook her head furiously and pointed her finger at him. "But that's the thing Clark, you're not like everybody else, and everybody in Smallville knows it! We just don't know why!" she yelled.
"Clark's right, Lana." Came a voice to the side of them, at the other doorway into the library.
It was Lex.
"We shouldn't lie to him." He continued, "Otherwise he'll start sticking his freaky nose into places where it doesn't belong...It wouldn't be the first time."
Lana froze, staring at Lex. "What are you talking about?"
Lex laughed, before walking into the room. When he moved within 10 feet of Clark, Clark audibly gulped, as his muscles began to cramp up. Letting out a moan of pain, he staggered to find something to hold him up. He leaned heavily onto the Pool Table, and concentrated on his breathing.
Lex continued laughing, louder this time. "You see, my dear Lana...Clark here, decided to break into my Vault, on more than one occasion. By studying the tapes of these break ins, I've come to the conclusion that he's the one person who's deathly allergic to..."
He took his right hand out from his trouser pocket's and began showing off a ring, that had a large green, glowing stone in the middle of it.
"Meteor rock!" he finished, with an evil smile. "Well, I have to say that I've never seen it glow before." He added, in surprise.
Clark's face scrunched up in pain, as he lost the effort of keeping himself upright, falling onto the floor.
"Stop it, Lex!" Lana said, seeing how much pain Clark was in.
Lex just smiled and walked up to Clark, kicking him in the gut. "You need to get a few things straight, Meteor Boy!" He said, grabbing Clark by his jacket and flinging him across the floor near to the door he just entered from. "One; Never, and I repeat, never interfere with my plans again!"
He walked over to Lana, who was standing there, crying, at the sight of Clark in so much pain, and not being able to do anything about it.
"And Two; Lana and I are an Item now, so don't get in the way." Lex finished, with an air of arrogance.
"Now, I'm going to teach you the meaning of pain, Clark." He said, taking off his expensive jacket and placing it carefully on the table. He then stood up straight, and began walking towards Clark.
Clark began getting to his feet, and as Lex raised his ring hand to strike him, he surged forward and smashed his left hand against the ring, sending both Clark and Lex flying in opposite directions from a large blast of wind and light that had come from the ring and Clark's hand.
Lex got up quickly to see what happened, while Clark got up more slowly. As Clark straightened out, Lana and Lex both saw that Clark's veins were glowing green, before fading away.
Clark watched the glow disappear from his hands with a frown on his face. What, after all this time, I've become impervious to Kryptonite! Well, talk about timing. He thought as he looked up.
He smiled, noticing Lex's scared expression. "You really shouldn't have done that, Luthor." He said, walking a few steps forward. "That was your only weapon against me. I'll save you time and say that was the only thing that could hurt me. Thanks for sorting that problem out." He shrugged, and laughed slightly.
"Do you know what it's like to do whatever you want?" Clark asked, as he looked around the library. "Of course you don't." He answered his own question. "But of course, you think you do...you're too ignorant not to, I mean, you're a Luthor, after all. What's the point of having all that money, if you can't do everything with it?"
Lex quickly recovered from his shock of the tables being turned, and ignoring Lana completely, he replied "Of course I do! I as good as own you! I own this town! This town would be nothing without me!"
Clark laughed, and shrugged. "Well, I have to say, it would be a lot quieter than it is now, and I wouldn't be in as many police investigations either..." He sighed, and turned to face Lex. "When we first met, you asked me a question. What was it?" He asked, raising his eye brows.
Lex remained quiet for a minute, thinking, before replying slowly "Do you believe a man can fly..."
Clark nodded, smiling again. "You know, when you asked that, I didn't believe it. But now, I've seen things that no other person has, I've done things no one else can do, and I've been to places where Humans can't stand!"
Lana had remained quiet throughout this exchange, but decided to interrupt. "What do you mean 'I've been to places where Humans can't stand'? It sounds like you're not including yourself in that..." She asked quietly, staring intently at Clark.
Clark nodded, and flung his hands in the air. "That's because I'm not. Do you honestly believe I could have saved the lives I have, if I was Human? I mean, I know Luthor here has had his suspicions, but this is beyond his wildest dreams..." He said, grinning all the while.
"You can't be serious!" Lana said in frustration "If you're going to lie to us, then a believable lie would be best, Clark!"
Clark shook his head, staring at Lana. "What do you think I've been keeping from you all these years, Lana? I kept you save, and away from this secret for as long as I could, because I knew Lex was after me! I had to let my own Father die, to keep you alive, and this is how you repay me! But now you've pushed, and you've finally arrived where you've wanted. Are you happy now? Because that's all I want of you...for you to be happy, no matter how many lives are in the way!" He yelled at her, all his pent up frustration from the many years of keeping his secret from her just bursting out.
"The day that never happened...That's what I'm officially calling it...The day of the election I took you to a place that is dear to me, and I proposed to you!"
"What the hell are you talking about, I think I would have remembered something like that, Clark!"
Lex shook his head. "Just ignore him, he's obviously lost his mind..." he said, staring at Clark in wonder.
Clark laughed. "I'll show you 'lost his mind'." He said, looking up and concentrating on the bookshelves on the upper level. In seconds, they were on fire, and a minute later, the whole upstairs portion of the library was ablaze.
"That's what you get for messing with a Kryptonian, Luthor!" He said, finishing off with Lex, before turning to Lana. "Oh, please, let me finish! I proposed, and you accepted. We were all happy until Luthor here, found out you knew, what he wanted to know...so, he decided to play God! He chased you down Route 40, where you got hit by a school bus...I had to speak to Jor-El, my Biological, Alien" he said, glancing at Lex, before returning his attention to Lana "father. He said if I turned back time, to the beginning of the day, someone close to me would die, and I accepted that...so when I arrived back at my loft, how did you think I felt, having you there, knowing that someone close to me was going to die, just to save the women that was breaking up with me?!" He was now yelling again.
Lana was staring at Clark, eyes wide, and in tears again, shaking her head.
"You wouldn't believe how much I've given up for you over the years...and you go throw it back in my face like that." Clark finished his rant with a sigh, but shook his head. "I love you, Lana. Yeah, that's right...I still do, after everything...but every time, something comes between us, and more likely than not, it's a Luthor."
He glanced about, noticing that the whole Library was ablaze now. As Lana and Lex looked around and noticed, too, they ran towards the door.
"Remember." Kal-El said, turning to where they stood out in the hallway. "There's nobody called Clark Kent. There never has been. You all created him, an image that never existed, but Lana was what made him. With her...'unavailable'...There is only Kal-El, the Last Son of Krypton left, and the World Is My Playground!" He said, before looking up at the flames that engulfed the ceiling.
Raising his right arm above his head, he lifted off and shot straight through the four remaining levels of the mansion, leaving a confused and depressed Lana, and an angry and scared Lex.
