Smallville: A New Beginning
Episode 3: Assimilate
As Conner stood at the door of his locker, he began taking out his "Cultures of the world" textbook. Lena came from down the hall. It was her only her third day in Smallville High, but she gained the attention of many students. Lena was a sight for sore eyes. Everyone was surprised when she stopped by Conner's locker.
"Hey Conner."
"Hey Lena."
"I really have to thank you and Martha for getting me out of that cell and enrolling me here. It feels great, finally being able to be free, and part of something"
"Well, Lex just trapped you in there. He was wrong, the bastard."
"Why do you hate him so much anyway, besides the bullets and bondage."
"Let's just say, me and the Luthors have, a history."
The class bell rang. Conner and Lena walked into their first class. They walked inside and sat next to each other. The teacher came out and began his lecture.
"Now class today we'll be discussing the Greek myth of Pandora, and her box…."
Suddenly a loud bang was heard, then another loud bang. The windows broke open. The teacher's shirt became red with blood as he fell on the floor. He had been sniped. Whoever the sniper was continued shooting. Conner grabbed Lena and hid her under the desk. He moved to the back of the room and while everyone was distracted, he super-sped out the window. He saw a trail of bullets, which were frozen in mid-air as he ran in front of them. The bullets fell as he smacked them from their mid-air positions. He repeated the process of running and hitting until he found their source. A sole sniper hidden in the grass. He had green camouflage and carried a large sniper riffle. As he began to fire another shot, Conner quickly shot beams of heat vision at the gun. The gun muzzle began to melt and close up. As the sniper fired another shot, the gun blew apart. The sniper looked up at Conner and pulled out his pistol. He shot at Conner , who grabbed him by the holster on his back and threw him toward a tree. The sniper was unconscious. Conner began to walk toward him. He grabbed him again, and reached for his mask. Before he could tear it off, a smoke bomb went off, and then a flash of light and a high pitched sound. Conner's ears were super-strong, and sensitive to high pitched noises. He fell down in pain and covered his ears. When he looked again the sniper was gone.
Conner walked down the halls of the school. Students leaned against lockers in shock. Conner's teacher was on a stretcher, being rushed to the ambulance outside. The rest of Conner's classmates were being attended to by the school nurses and other emergency workers. They had pieces of glass in their skin, and bloody scratches. Conner found Lena leaning against a wall, being attended to. Conner walked up to her as she finished exchanging information with the nurse. The nurse left them to talk.
"Hey Conner."
"Hey, you ok?"
"Yeah, just a couple of scratches here and there. How come you're the only one that wasn't hurt?"
"…I hid against the wall, after I pushed you under the table."
"Oh…ok."
Conner saw Clayton and Zoe coming from down the hall. Zoe had her notepad and Clayton his camera. They went around asking the students questions on what happened. They came toward Conner and Lena.
"Hello Mr. Kent and miss…."
"Miss Luthor."
"Luthor? Like Lex Luthor?" Clayton asked.
"Yeah I'm his…"
Before she could respond Conner grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.
"Lena…you can't tell anyone you're Lex Luthor's daughter. I don't know if you know this, but Lex Luthor's made some very bad decisions. The Luthor name is infamous and you don't need to be apart of it."
"I'm not changing my last name Conner, I'll just spell Luthor differently then."
"Fine."
They turned back toward Zoe and Clayton.
"Actually it's Luther with an E." Lena told Zoe and Clayton
"Oh ok…it's just I'd be interesting if you were a Luthor, because everyone knows Clark Kent and Lex Luthor were like best-friends." Zoe said
"What?" Conner asked
An announcement came on. Principle Reynolds began speaking
"Hello student body. In light of recent events, I have decided it would be best to let the students home early. In ten minutes you will be allowed to go home."
The students began to scramble for their lockers. Conner helped Lena off of the stretcher she was sitting on.
"I guess we have enough for a story." Zoe told the others.
"Ok, my trucks out back, Conner, Lena, you guys need a ride?"
"Thanks" Conner replied
Lex sat in his penthouse office. He starred out the window and looked onto the Metropolis skyline. He held his hands at his chin with his fingers together. A group of men walked into his office.
"Bad news, Mr. Luthor" One of the mercenaries said to him
"Not what I wanted to hear" Lex said as he turned around to face them.
"This kid isn't normal. He came out of nowhere, melted my gun, and when I shot him, he threw me at a tree."
"Can't say I'm surprised. He withstood my bullets last time we met. Which is why I made these just for you."
Lex pushed a button and a wall of Green Kryptonite bullets appeared.
"I checked the security footage of the lab he snuck into. Right when he walked into a room full of the material this is made of, he fell weak and powerless. If the serum could make him weak, imagine what a bullet would do. But, let's not kill him. Bring him to me."
"Yes sir, Mr. Luthor"
Conner sat in the loft and looked out at the sun. Martha came upstairs behind him.
"Hey Conner."
"Hey Ma"
"Lena told me what happened today. Did you find the shooter?"
"Yeah, he only shot the teacher, I was able to stop him before any one else was hit. I destroyed his gun, but he got away."
"Well, do you know who he was aiming for? They might be in trouble"
"No, but he kept shooting after our teacher fell, so it can't be him. Maybe it was me?"
"Or maybe, it's the girl you saved from Lex Luthor."
Suddenly, a gunshot went off. A bullet hole appeared in the wall next to Conner's head. Martha hit the floor. Conner picked her up and sped her toward the house. He came back outside to see where the bullets were coming from. He focused in on his supervision. He saw the sniper in the distance as he stood up, and motioned Conner to come and chase him. Conner sped after him and appeared before him.
"Wow kid you're fast." The sniper said as he pulled out a dagger from a lead sheath. The dagger was Kryptonite.
"Typical" Conner said as he attempted at running.
The sniper sliced him on the arm and Conner fell as he began to bleed. The sniper kicked him over, and tried to step on him. Conner grabbed his foot and kicked him in the abdomen. The sniper fell back and rolled down the small hill he was on. As Conner stood up, he heard the roar of a motorcycle. He felt a wire pierce his back. When he looked forward he saw to men in black armor on motorcycles. They drove in from his sides, turned and went in the opposite direction. They kept driving in a circular motion around Conner. He was wrapped in a strange wire. One of the men pushed a button and the wire glowed green. Conner fell weakened. The second man pushed another button. An electrical shock went threw the wire. Conner felt an excruciating pain course through his body. He fell over, and his vision began to blur as his eyes closed. He was out cold.
Conner woke up in a dark room. He couldn't see a thing. He stood up, and backed up toward the wall. As he knelt against it, he heard a rattling noise. The wall was cold, and had a lot of separations. He turned around and touched it. The lights in the room came on. He was trapped in a metal cage. He was the only one in the room.
"Good…you're awake." He heard a voice say. He turned around to look at his captives face.
"Lex" He said to him.
"Surprise, surprise" Lex said. He opened his palm to reveal a remote, he pushed one of the button. The metal of Conner's cage began to glow green. "It didn't take long to figure out your weakness. The green serum is quite useful when dealing with people like you." He staired at Conner who laid in pain, gasping for air. "I must say this is pretty disappointing, for some reason, I had an entire rainbow spectrum of Meteor rock in my past life. Each had a different effect on humans. Green gave us power, Blue could heal us when digested. Let's see what blue does to your kind."
Lex pushed another button, and the green bars changed to blue. Conner stood up and leaned against the gates. He tried to pull on them, but he couldn't. His powers were still gone.
"This is interesting. The blue rocks neutralize your abilities while keeping you at perfect health. You've become nearly human."
Conner worked up enough strength to talk "What do you want with me?"
"It's simple really. A business deal of sorts. The way I see it, your life is entirely in my hands. It's obvious there's not a lot that can kill you, but this stuff seems to be the one thing that can. So I give you my offer. Work for me, or I kill you here and now."
Conner let go of the gate and looked at Lex. "No. Never."
"I figured you would say such, that's why I had something worked out"
The mercenaries came out with their rifles. They brought Kryptonite hand-cuffs and placed them on him. They dragged him into another room.
Conner was strapped down to a metal hospital bed. The braces were Blue Kryptonite. He was facing a large screen.
"Sorry for the hostility, but you refuse to co-operate with me."
"What is this?" Conner said as he tried to break free. The mercenaries came and held him down.
"A…feature presentation. From an old friend of mine. She developed a program that could bind others to her will. Ms. Griggs was quite the brilliant mind. Let's see if it works on you."
A video appeared on the screen. A swirling figure began to turn in front of Conner. The pupils in his eyes shrank as he looked forward. He became mesmerized. Lex bent over to face him.
"We're going to go far together." He told Conner
"Shut it, Luthor." One of his mercenaries said. The group came up behind him, all pointing guns at him. "You had us kidnap this kid, so you could mind control him. We've seen what he can do. We've been through bad deals. You of all people would be the one to break a deal."
"Gentlemen, why so insecure? I assure you, nothing will happen, now put your guns down." Lex told them. They still held their guns up at him. "Oh, so that's how we feel? Fine." Lex ran behind Conner and hid behind him. He drew his gun and began shooting.
A gunfight broke out. Lex released Conner from the bed and Conner fell over toward him. The Blue Kryptonite's affect wore off. A gunshot was fired and the bullet propelled for Conner. It hit him and bounced off. He was still dazed, so he had no idea what was happening. The bullet hit the screen, and it shattered. The pupils of Conner's eyes grew back to their normal size. He stood up and entered his super-speed vision. Everything slowed down as the mercenaries fired their shots at Lex. The bullets froze in mid-air. Conner lifted up his hospital bed and kicked it toward them. He grabbed Lex and twirled him, and threw him toward the wall behind him. As things sped up again, the bed hit the mercenaries and they collapsed. Lex hit the wall and fell. Conner walked up to Lex and grabbed him by the collar.
"We're done here, Luthor." He told him
Lex, bleeding, smiled. "No we're not. This is only the beginning." Conner let him go and Lex fell. He stood back up and looked toward the bed. The mercenaries were gone. Where did they go? He didn't have time to worry about that, without a purpose, they were sure to leave him alone. He sped off and left Lex.
Conner arrived at the Kent Farm, and as he came inside Martha walked up to him and hugged him.
"When I checked the barn I found Kryptonite. Are you ok?"
"Yeah…but we have a problem, Ma. Lex knows my weakness, but I don't think he knows who I am. But he has seen my face. And that's a problem."
"Conner…every problem has a solution…This one specifically is more of a Clark Kent original."
Martha reached in the kitchen drawer and pulled out a pair of glasses. "Back when he was in High School, Clark got into his own, situation. He lost most of his sight, but he developed his super-hearing. When his eyes began to re-adjust he wore these to help him see better. After that he didn't have a real use for these. Maybe you could use them to disguise yourself, like he did."
"Thanks, but I don't see how glasses are going to help me hid from Lex."
"Well, change everything about you, you're hair is long, why not make it shorter when your Conner Kent?"
"Create two different identities"
"Sacrifices are going to need to be made Conner, we both know that."
"You're right." Conner said as he slipped on his glasses. "Thanks Ma."
"Any day, my son." She said as she hugged him
Lena came down the stairs "Hey Ma. Hey Conner." She said as she hugged him "I didn't see you after that second shooting, what happened?"
"Lex." He told her
"Of course" She told him "Hey what's with the glasses?"
"I'm a bit near-sighted"
"Oh...You never seemed like you were"
"I always had these, just never used them."
"They look good on you."
"Thanks...I was going to start wearing these again."
A helicopter flew over the wilderness of Kansas. Lex's mercenaries sat inside.
"Where do we go now?"
"Luthor's ruthless. We should split up. He wouldn't go after all of us. We can't stay together."
"Fine."
As they continued to fly over, their heard a sputtering noise. A fire burst from the side. Smoke began to rise. The Helicopter exploded and like a ball of fire, it crashed.
In his office, Lex Luthor sat with a bomb trigger in his hand.
"Bravo Lex, eliminate your enemies." Other Lex said as he appeared before him.
"I guess it was a habit of my old life. I feel like I've done it before."
"We have and trust me Lex, this is only the beginning of a long journey."
Author's notes:
Conner's ears are sensitive to high pitched noises, as Clark's were shown to be back in Season 7 episode Siren, when he first encountered Black Canary. The hypnotic video that Conner watches was the one created by Molly Griggs, a recurring villain in Smallville. Also, at the end of this episode, Conner officially begins wearing a pair of glasses, which are the same one's Clark wore in the Season 3 episode Whisper.
