Smallville: Transcentennial

By Jeune Ecrivain

Rating: T

Summary: Crossover (I don't want to give away with what show). Clark meets someone with a secret to rival his own. He and Chloe team up with this new companion to rescue the latter's best friend and uncover another Luthor scheme.

SMALLVILLE: TRANSCENTENNIAL

"WOO-HOO!"

Clark Kent couldn't help but whoop with sheer excitement as he soared through the sky, weaving among some clouds and swerving straight through others. He was going so fast that seemingly hurricane-strength winds billowed against his bulletproof skin, but the sensation only served to ameliorate the intense rush that ran through his body as he flew through the air. Sure, virtual invincibility, Herculean strength, sonic speed, and a number of extrasensory faculties gave him thrilling freedom sometimes, but there was no match for the freedom he felt as he made Peter Pan look like a clumsy wannabe. He had known for a few years that he could jump incredibly high, but he never imagined that he had the capacity to defy gravity altogether…at least not when he was himself instead of Kal-El, Mr. Hyde to Clark's Dr. Jekyll. He accelerated, his arms stretched out behind him and a wide grin of exhilaration plastered on his face, wondering why he was ever so afraid of heights.

His grin dwindled slightly as he saw something moving ahead and slowed down somewhat in case it was something by which he didn't want to be seen. As he approached cautiously but still quite rapidly, his grin quickly gave way entirely to a look of bewilderment. The mini-UFO had someone riding on it! On closer inspection, the flying object looked like a cross between a bumper car and a motorcycle…but without wheels. Curiosity getting the better of him, Clark sped up and got as close as he could. The rider seemed to be a boy about his age, perhaps a little younger. He had short, dark brown hair and brown eyes. He navigated in a way that left no doubt that he was very experienced with whatever it was he was riding as he gripped the handlebars with resolution.

Before Clark knew it, he was flying right along beside the mysterious pilot, and in one instant, the boy turned his head and their eyes locked. They stared at each other, both looking astonished, neither one completely willing to believe what they saw. Yet Clark also saw an element of fear in the boy's eyes, but before he could say anything, the pilot took off in a burst of astronomical speed. Clark did all he could to catch up, but whatever it was that the boy was flying was just a little too fast for him. Clark sensed that if he was just a little more practiced at his newly discovered power of flight, he would've been able to keep up. But for now, he as left to watch as the flying pod grew smaller and smaller and to wonder at what in the world he had just seen. He was especially bewildered by the inscription he had seen on the rear bumper just before it took off.

VIVAT SUPERHOMO

"I'm telling you, Chloe. It was like nothing I've ever seen before!"

Clark's best friend, a pretty blonde with a certain witty ditziness about her, journalistic aspirations, and an eye for the weird and supernatural, arched her eyebrows at her extraterrestrial comrade. "Coming from you, that means there's definitely something beyond normal out there…again!"

"That thing could fly as fast if not faster than I can," stated Clark. "It was completely open to the air. It didn't look at all like an airplane or a helicopter. It looked like a flying bumper car with handlebars and no wheels."

"And there was some guy about our age riding it?"

"Like it was the most natural thing in the world, although he seemed like he really needed to get somewhere."

"Did he ever see you?" asked Chloe Sullivan, wondering what the implications would be if he had.

"Yeah," answered Clark. "We actually stared at each other for a moment. He looked just as amazed as I was, although he also looked a little scared just before he took off."

"You probably did, too, Clark," Chloe remarked. "Whoever this guy is, he probably has some big secret that could mean big trouble for him if someone found out. Just like you."

"Maybe," Clark said. "But right now, I'd just like to know what this guy's up to. I think he came here for a reason."

"Ah, yes, the old friend-or-foe question," replied Chloe with a clever smile. "Part of the routine for the modern superhero."

"Chloe…"

"You are a superhero, Clark. Your humility is commendable, but seriously, it's time you got used to the idea."

Clark didn't quite know what to say to that, so he went with old faithful. He changed the subject. "I did see something on the flying…thing…before he took off."

"What?" asked Chloe, her notorious reporter's instincts kicking in.

Clark sighed, giving the conversation a pregnant pause. "It was an inscription. Almost like decal or something."

"What did it say?"

Clark hesitated briefly before saying the words he wasn't sure he should believe. "New model debuted in 2121," he recited.

"The year!" Chloe asked somewhat incredulously.

"I don't know what to believe," Clark said plainly.

"Well, we are no strangers to time anomalies. Case in point: Lana's urgent phone call that you mysteriously got before she made it," Chloe reminded him. "But still…that's over a century ahead of now"

Clark opened his mouth to respond but was cut short by the sound of a knock at the door. Chloe walked over and opened the door to her dorm to reveal a dark-haired youth standing there. "Hi," he said. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I was told that you were at the Kansas Journalist Convention last week"

Chloe furrowed her brow, wondering what this guy wanted. "Yeah. What about it?"

"A friend of mine went there, and now she's gone missing."

"Oh, my God," breathed Chloe. "Do you have any idea where she is?"

"No, this is the first place I thought to look since she was last seen in Metropolis."

"Did you call the police?" Chloe asked as she opened her door wider.

She was about to invite him in when she heard both Clark and the youth blurt out almost simultaneously, "It's you!"

Clark marched up to him as a confused Chloe darted her eyes between the two young men before her. "You're the guy that was flying on that…whatever it was!"

"And you're the guy that was flying…period!" retorted the visitor.

The two stared at each other for a moment, and Chloe decided to break the silence. "Wow! Weird Factor: 11!" she said with a nervous chuckle before turning to the visitor. "My friend was just telling me that he saw you flying on some pod with handlebars or something. What was that?" she asked, a little more bluntly than she intended.

The youth looked between Clark and Chloe nervously, perhaps near panic.

"Don't worry," said Chloe, sensing his trust issues. "As you can probably guess, Clark here has a pretty big secret too, and I have no intention of ever betraying his trust. If your intentions are good, your secret's safe."

The stranger looked at Clark and wordlessly asked for confirmation of Chloe's statement. Clark nodded gently, and the young man hesitated for a moment before releasing a resigned sigh. "Well, if he trusted you with whatever secret he has, I guess I can. And you and I…" He turned to Clark and gestured between himself and the former. "…can obviously relate to each other about the whole big-secret thing. If nothing else, we're in a state of MAR."

"MAR?" Clark repeated.

"Mutually Assured Revelation," he explained.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Chloe couldn't help but smirk. "Clever."

The boy shrugged. "Ok, here goes…" he said with a heavy sigh. "I'm from the future," he stated plainly, pausing a moment to let it sink in.

"2121?" Chloe inquired.

"How'd you…?"

"I happened to see the model year on that thing you were flying," Clark explained.

The stranger nodded. "I was born in 2106. In 2121, my family and I rented a time machine and went on a sort of vacation. We took a trip through time, making stops in periods like prehistory, classical Rome, the Italian Renaissance, Capetian France, and then this period. That's when everything went wrong. Our time machine completely broke down, and my Dad said it would take an indeterminate amount of time to fix it. So, until then, we've been trying to live our lives and blend in as best we can in early 21st century society."

"Time travel as a leisure activity. Who'd'a thunk it?" Chloe observed.

"It wasn't always like that. For a while, it was quite restricted. Long story," explained the stranded time traveler.

"How long have you been stranded in this century?" Clark asked, inwardly still trying to get his head around what he had just been told.

"Four years," the visitor answered. "Surprisingly, we've all gotten pretty comfortable here." His gaze then drifted downward in hopelessness. "Especially me."

"You friend…" Clark realized.

"Yeah," the boy confessed. "She means a lot to me. I met her my first day of 21st-century school, and we got to know each other really well. It wasn't long before I even told her where I was really from, which was a huge risk. But I trust her. I haven't regretted it yet." He sighed heavily once more. "She's the only one outside my family who knows, and she's my best friend. That's why I was hoping you might be able to help me find her. She went to the Journalist Convention last week, and that's where she was last seen." He pulled out a picture from his pocket and handed it to Chloe.

"Oh, my God!" said Chloe. "I know her!"

Clark moved closer and looked at the picture. It depicted a pretty blonde with wide blue eyes and a playful smile. "We chatted for a while at the Convention," Chloe continued. "Her name's Keely Teslow."

"Great! Do you have any idea what might've happened to her?" The teenage time traveler seemed excited now.

"No," replied Chloe. "I saw her just before the convention ended, and everything seemed fine"

The time traveler looked dejected.

"Don't worry," said Clark. "We'll help you find her. You have no idea about some of the weird stuff that goes on around here, and there's a good chance she got involved somehow."

Chloe smiled knowingly at Clark. "Going into superhero mode, are we?"

"Yeah, I wondered about that," said the youth. "What's your story?"

Clark sighed, not really wanting to dwell on his origins. "I'm the last survivor of a humanoid alien race whose planet exploded," he said as concisely as he could.

The time-displaced visitor nodded, surprisingly unshocked by Clark's revelation and taking the hint not to ask for further details just yet.

"Bye the way, this is Chloe Sullivan," Clark said, indicating his best friend with a hand on her shoulder, soliciting a polite "Hi" from her. "And I'm Clark Kent," he finished, extending his hand.

The teenage time traveler took it with little hesitation. "Phil," he obliged. "Phil Diffy."