Title: Inspiration

Rated: PG-13

Chapter One

Summary: Zoey and Clayton try to fight the injustices of the VRA

Disclaimer: I Don't Own Smallville if I did Clayton and Zoey would be regulars.

A/N: Set in shows canon while Chloe's missing and after Homecoming well after Abandoned. This is a Zoey and Clayton story but it has a lot to do with Chloe and even Chlollie it all connects and helps put some missing pieces together. OR at least that's what I'm trying to do.

Zoey woke up and accidently pushed Clayton off of the bed. "Wha…What? Who died?"

Zoey rubbed her sleepy eyes and said, "Oh nothing, it's just mourning and your still here."

"Oh, so…we fell asleep working on the latest issue. What's the big….?"

"My dad is an early riser and he has a gun!" Zoey said.

"Right." Clayton said. "I'll just…"He pointed towards the cracked window with the long tree branch just reaching the window just right, perfect for climbing.

Then Zoey said, "Clayton, wait!"

"What?"

Then she grabbed him by his plaid shirt and pulled him close and laid one big enthusiastic filled with passion kiss on him. Then a little out of breath she said cheerily, "Good morning!"

"Mourning!" Clayton said as he grabbed her waist and pulled her back in another kiss.

The good mourning kiss quickly turned into a make out session. Then in the middle Zoey pushed him off of her. He looked at her perplexed. Then they heard noises. She then pushed him motioning him to leave. He got his book bag and was about to leave when they heard her mom say, "Zoey, turn the TV on now!"

Clayton came back in curious about what her mom was talking about. A woman news anchor was on and there was that blur S sign burned on a wall with an X on it. The woman went on to say that the Vigilante Registration Act had passed and now all vigilantes had to register. Zoey quickly turned off the TV and threw the remote at the TV. "Tyrants!"

Clayton came in closer and turned the TV back on trying to get more information but it seemed very vague.

"How can they even tell if they register or not?"

"Besides Oliver Queen? I guess they catch them in the act? Gosh! They are freaking heroes they are treating them like criminals!"

"I know. I can't believe it."

"We got to do something!"

"What can we possibly do against the government?" Clayton asked.

"We got to use our voice, our power of the press. That is how this country started it's all about freedom of speech."

"Yeah, but it's one small online high school paper. What possible difference can we make?" Clayton asked still in a daze over the news.

"Chloe was one small high school reporter and look at the impact she made. She brought an evil billionaire to jail before her senior year. She was one small teenage girl but she still had a huge impact. Come one lets just do what we always do. We got to get this out as soon as we can today."

"We already sent the issue out last night."

"So a special edition is just what this school needs. You get going on setting up on all of the technical mumbo jumbo and I'll get started on the article."

"Will do. Zoey, just be careful, this isn't our regular weird and unusual story this an expose on the government we might….." Clayton said show a hint of worry and nervousness.

Zoey smiled and said, "Don't worry truth and justice almost always prevails!"

Clayton couldn't help but smile at her contagious smile and hope at her relentless hope and optimism she was his inspiration.

The rest of the day was super busy they rounded up as many staffers as they could find and try to get them to respond to the VRA announcement but not one was willing to stand up to the VRA and point out it really should be repealed right away because it was unconstitutional. Most people were scared of speaking up. A lot of them were scared of talking about politics. Some of them actually agreed that vigilantes were a menace and breaking the law. Zoey was even willing to do a point counter point but even those were afraid to be associated with someone who was willing to speak against the government at such a time. Zoey was getting increasingly frustrated. She about gave up. She was pacing in the old Torch room back and forth ranting and raving about how the school was filled with cowards and people who just didn't care. Then Clayton stopped her and took her hand and rubbed tender circles on it.

"It's going to be OK Zoey, we don't need to do a whole issue of several articles. Your article will be plenty and it's a special edition. Believe me with your writing people will notice. It's going to be great because it will be you writing it."

Zoey began to calm down as she looked with in his chocolaty brown eyes, he always had his way to bring her in peace in the most chaotic and desperate situations.

Zoey sat on the floor glued to her laptop typing as if her life depended on it and as far as she was concerned her free life really did. Taking the rights away from heroes was just the first step before they took away her rights as well.

While she working on that, Clayton was trying to set up a special edition. Their online school newspaper was directly linked to the school website and it only ran new articles annually so he had to get permission from the principle to get the special edition out. He sent him an e-mail, called him, and even tried setting an appointment with the secretary, but he got nothing. The principle was MIA. The timing of the mission principle was awfully suspicious. He glanced over Zoey who was still eagerly typing with that mega watt smile on her face. He knew how hopeful she was. She truly believed that this small little paper could make a difference. He couldn't let her down on a technicality. He knew that this could really bite him in the ass pretty quickly; hacking into the schools website could be seen as a major offense. He could get in a lot of trouble for it, but looking at Zoey, he knew it was worth the risk. They couldn't just sit there and be silent. Their heroes needed them and Zoey needed him so what was a couple minor hacking laws when it came to undoing a great injustice?

The special edition was released and as was suspected the whole school was buzzing about. People may have been skittish about speaking up but Zoey's nack for passionate speech and linking super cool examples of how amazing their heroes were, certainly helped and people really did take notice. That was the problem. They both found themselves in the principle office pretty quickly. Clayton knew this was coming. He broke rules so now he was willing to face the punishment. He figured it would be something like detention or even suspension. His worst case scenario was that they ban the Torch for a little while. They waited totally willing to pay whatever price they had to for Truth and Justice.

The secretary called them in and as they came in the principle wasn't there, instead sitting in the principles desk was a stoic woman wearing a military uniform.

She stood up and said, "Did you two illegally hack into the school and run this rag?"

Zoey said out raged, "It's not a rag!"

Clayton asked, " Where's Principle Richards?"

"He'll be detained for a while."

"What? Under what grounds?" Zoey asked just as out raged.

"For not complying with this new agenda." She said matter of factly.

"You can't do this he has rights and so do we!" Zoey yelled.

"Things change. Laws and rights change and you either go with it or suffer the consequences."

"Uh, you can't possibly be for real." Zoey said.

"I am as real as they come and you two are under arrest for assisting heroes and speaking hate speech against the government."