Author's note:

If you've never heard of Waverider then it might not be a bad idea for you to quickly go to wikipedia and read the article about him. To make it short and sweet, he is a hero from the year 2030 that appeared in DC Comics 1991 crossover event that was entitled "Armageddon: 2001". His powers are pretty self evident here in this story, but I wanted to give a quick note to be sure that everyone knew who he was.

For those of you that already are familiar with Waverider, I have to warn you that I took some creative license here. First of all, I made him younger. I made him about Clark's age whereas he is described in the comics as being in his mid-thirties. I also made him able to take human form, which is something that I believe he can do now, but couldn't at the time of "Armageddon: 2001".

All of you guys that are sticklers about keeping stories close to canon will have to forgive me. You'll have to disregard Superman's role in "Armageddon: 2001", since in my fic Clark has obviously not yet adopted the old red and blue.

Now…on with the show.

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Ten Years Gone

Chapter One: The Arrival

September 19, 2007

"I can not thank you enough for coming with us," Chloe said as she and Clark pulled the last of the sleeping bags from the truck. "These woods have always given me the creeps."

"Chloe, there's nothing creepy about these woods," Clark said. "Not any creepier than any others."

"Are you kidding me?" Chloe asked. "This is Smallville, Clark. Downtown is strange enough without trying to tackle the great outdoors. It's like Wild Kingdom meets The X-Files. Besides, these little monsters scare me enough."

Clark laughed as he looked around at the seven boys that were presently running around the clearing that they had found, chasing each other with sticks. They were all about ten years old and very loud.

"I thought that you liked kids," Clark said.

"I like little kids," Chloe said. "When they get to this age they turn into gross little snot demons."

Clark set down the sleeping bags and looked over at Jimmy Olsen who was wrestling with one of the tents. It was the old fashioned kind that had poles and ropes and everything else. Clark smiled. Jimmy had the city in his blood. Watching him dressed up in an adult scouting uniform and trying to manage a tent was like watching a fishy try to play baseball.

"Do you need some help, Jimmy?" Clark asked.

"No," Jimmy said. "I think I've got it under control, CK. Thanks."

"Why did you buy that kind of tent?" Clark asked. "They make them a lot bigger and easier to put together."

"Well, because I became a scoutmaster because I wanted to teach the boys everything that I know about survival in the wilderness. What could I possibly teach them if I try and find the easy way out."

"You could teach them to spend less than an hour on their tent," Chloe said as she joined them. She turned and grabbed one boy by the belt and pulled him out of a tree. "Don't do that," she said.

Clark approached Jimmy and took one of the poles from him. He shoved it into the ground and ran the line to the other one. Then he put the canvas tent over them and began to stake it down.

"You make it look easy," Jimmy said.

"Jimmy," Clark replied. "You grew up in Metropolis. It's okay if you don't know how to do this stuff."

"That's why I invited Clark," Chloe said. "He could do all of this with his eyes closed."

"Hey, Mr. Olsen," one of the boys yelled. "When Mr. Kent gets done with your tent is he going to tuck you in?"

Jimmy's face turned red and he headed off to get some more gear from the truck. Clark looked at Chloe and sighed.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come," he said.

"Don't be silly," Chloe said. "Jimmy knows that he needs someone out here that knows what they're doing. He's just embarrassed. I mean, he's probably never been outside of Metropolis for more than a few hours." She leaned in to be sure that no one but Clark could hear her. "Besides, the fact that you were going was the only reason that most of these kids' parents agreed to this trip."

"Really?" Clark asked. Chloe nodded. "Jimmy's dad never took him camping?"

"Jimmy's dad is even more of a city boy than he is," Chloe replied. "He's an accountant."

Clark nodded. "Alright. I'll do whatever I can to help. But I'm not taking over for him. This is important to him and I don't want him to hate me over it."

"Thanks, Clark," Chloe said.

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"Mr. Olsen," a little red headed boy said as he and some of the others began to gather around the area where the tents were set up. "It's getting dark."

Jimmy looked around as he set the last of the firewood onto a small pile. He and Chloe had gone off for a while to gather it and Clark had opted to stay behind and help the boys finish setting up their tents.

"You're right, Jackie," Jimmy said. "It is getting dark."

"Don't you think that we should start a campfire?" the boy asked.

Jimmy smiled. "Absolutely! We should get a fire started! Then we should cook some hot dogs on sticks, roast some marshmallows, and tell some ghost stories!"

The boys cheered in agreement and they all began to make a stack of small sticks and dried brush in the center of a circle of rocks that Jimmy had put together. When they were done they all stood together and looked at Clark.

"Why is everyone looking at me?" Clark asked.

"Aren't you going to start the fire?" one of the boys asked.

"No," Jimmy said. "I'm going to start the fire."

"Did you bring any matches?" another boy asked.

"No," Jimmy replied.

"A cigarette lighter?"

"No."

"A blowtorch?"

Jimmy turned red again. "I didn't bring any of that. I'm going to start a campfire the way the cavemen used to do it. I'm going to rub sticks together."

"Is one of the sticks going to be a match?" a boy asked. Clark had to stifle a laugh, but Chloe was not able to suppress a short giggle. Jimmy looked at her with disappointment.

"Et tu, Chloe?" he said. She put a hand over her mouth and turned her head. "Boys, if any of you bothered to read your scouting manual you would see that all of the instructions that you need to build a warm roaring fire are right there." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a rolled up paperback book. He flipped through it until he found the page that had the instructions for building a fire and handed the book to one of the boys. "Now, you read that to me and I'm going to do exactly what it says."

Jimmy picked up two sticks and followed the instructions as they were read to him by the boy with the book. He rubbed the sticks just the way that it said to on a patch of dried straw. But nothing happened. Nothing continued to happen for nearly an hour as the sun finished going down and the stars began to sparkle overhead. Soon it was so dark that they could barely even see one another in the dim moonlight.

Clark chanced a glance at Chloe. She was looking at him expectantly as Jimmy continued to mumble to himself and rub the sticks together. The boys had given up waiting and were all sitting around the camp, chewing on whatever candy they had in their pockets. Clark shook his head at Chloe, indicating that he was not getting involved. She poked her lip out. He sighed.

Clark looked down at where Jimmy was kneeling. He let a wave of heat issue from his eyes and kept it focused on where the other man's hands were working. A small flame shot up from the straw and quickly ignited the rest of the sticks.

"We have fire!" Jimmy yelled. The boys got up and cheered. They looked on in astonishment that their scoutmaster had actually been able to make a fire without using matches or lighters. "Get me some of that wood!"

Soon, they had a roaring fire and they all sat around it with hot dogs on sticks, roasting them over the warm flames.

"Great job, Sweetie," Chloe said.

"Yeah," Clark added. "You really did a great job on this, Jim."

Jimmy smiled. "Thanks, Chlo. Thanks a lot, CK. I know it took a lot of willpower for you not to take over."

"Hey, this is your scout troop," Clark said. "I'm here if you want some help. Otherwise, I'm not getting in your way."

"Thanks again, CK," Jimmy said.

"Let's tell some ghost stories," one of the boys said.

"Yeah," a few of them said in agreement.

"Okay," Jimmy said. "Who has one?"

"I could tell about Bloody Fingers again," came a response.

"You always tell that one, Sidney," another said.

"What about Mr. Kent?" someone called.

"Me?" Clark asked. "I don't know any ghost stories."

"What about the meteor freaks?"

Clark looked at Chloe and she returned with a look that said "don't look at me".

Clark nodded. "Do all of you know the story of the meteor shower that happened a while back?" Most of the boys said that they had. "Well, what your parents didn't tell you was that when the meteors came down, so did a huge monster that buried itself at the bottom of Crater Lake."

Jimmy listened enviously as Clark went on to tell about the monster that sent up energy from the lake that gave people strange powers and turned them into monsters. Clark caught Jimmy's eye every now and then as he told his story. He could tell that he was upset. He cut his story short and excused himself. Chloe followed him.

"Clark," Chloe said. "Jimmy appreciates the things that you're doing for him."

"I know that he does," Clark said. "I just feel like he's jealous of me for things that I have no control over. I can't help it that I'm better at camping than he is."

"He's not jealous because of that," Chloe said. "He's got it in his head that you've got everything that he wants. He even thinks that I'm closer to you than I am to him."

"You're my best friend," Clark said. "You're the only one that knows my secret."

"I know that," Chloe said. "But seeing us so close bothers him. He's a very insecure person. He's also very sweet."

"Well, I don't know what I'm supposed to…"

Clark was interrupted by a loud hissing noise that seemed to get so loud that nothing else could be heard over it. The entire night began to fade as the sky lit up almost as bright as if it had been the middle of the day. They looked up in time to see a huge ball of fire streak by over their heads with a ribbon of flames trailing behind it. It was descending rapidly. It vanished into the distance but Clark's sensitive hearing told him that it crashed to the ground a second later. They could see smoke coming up from the treetops and could see the glow of a section of the forest in flames.

Jimmy and the boys came running to where Clark and Chloe were standing. They followed their gaze into the distance where the mysterious object had vanished.

"What the hell was that?" Jimmy asked.

"It looked like a meteor," Clark said.

"Well," Chloe replied. "Smallville is no stranger to meteors."

"Do you think that it was the monster?" one of the boys asked.

"No," Chloe said assuredly. "That was just a story.'

"I'm going to go check it out," Clark said.

"I'll go with you," Jimmy said.

"No," Clark replied. "You stay here with the boys. I'll be fine."

Jimmy nodded and Clark set off into the woods. When he had gotten out of view of the others he broke into a full run. He did not quite break the sound barrier, but he was able to reach the forest fire that he found nearly ten miles away in under a minute.

The trees had been mowed down in a straight line as if something had come into the middle of the forest and cut out a section for a new highway. The trees had not been knocked over, but had apparently been incinerated. They were completely gone; with no trace left behind that they had ever been there to begin with. The lane was about a mile long and whatever had put it there had dug deeper and deeper into the ground as it went. He followed it all the way to the end. What he found lying in the crater in the center of a blazing fire surprised him.

Lying there, unconscious and completely naked, was a man.

End of chapter one.

Hey guys. I hope you liked the first chapter. I started to make this story take place during the first season of Smallville, but I decided to go ahead and make it a present story. I guess it's because Clark didn't really start meeting other DC Comics characters until season 3 when he met Perry White. Then he met Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Martian Manhunter. This year he's going to meet Supergirl and Bizarro Clark. So I think that it's safe to say that this would be the time that he'd be most likely to meet Waverider.

Give me a buzz and let me know what you think. I always love getting reviews. In the next chapter Clark will meet Waverider and find out a little about who he is. Again, if you're a stickler for canon, you won't be happy. I had to change his original mission (mostly the timeline) and some of his powers in order to fit him in with a Smallville setting.

See ya,

Kal-El2K7