Luthor Corp.

"Shouldn't you be stifling in that suit, Clark?" Lois asked him. The Luthor Corp. building was packed; so much in fact that there almost wasn't enough room for everyone.

"Just used to the heat I guess," Clark laughed. "I forgot to tell you. You look very pretty in that dress," he complimented.

Lois blushed slightly at Clark's compliment of her red dress and gave him a smile. "Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself, Smallville," she said back to him.

"There you two are," they heard Tess say. They turned around and saw her standing behind them. Next to her was someone they've never seen before. "With all the people in this building I didn't think I'd track you down."

"Exactly why is everyone crammed on the first floor?" Lois asked.

"Head of security insists. He doesn't want to run the risk of a sniper on the upper levels. I asked him what the chances of that happening were. He just said he was looking out for my safety."

"More like his paycheck," Peter said eliciting a chuckle from the group.

"Who's your friend, Tess?" Lois asked.

"Peter Petrelli," he introduced shaking both Lois and Clark's hands.

"He's an old friend and the youngest and now only son of Angela Petrelli; the woman who put on this little event."

"Speaking of mom, I better go find her. Nice meeting you two," he said to Lois and Clark and disappeared into the crowd.

"If you don't mind me asking; how do you know him?" Lois asked.

"Always the curious one, Lois. I met him once during one of Luthor Corps' many events. I went outside for a drink when someone attempted to mug me. I could've taken him down easily, but before I could Peter showed up and stopped him. In a lot of ways, he's reminds me of you Clark."

"Me?"

"He's selfless. Always thinks of other before himself. The kind of person that wouldn't hesitate to put his life on the line. That sort of stuff," she said. "I could use something life threatening right now though. These types of things bore me to death."

"Tess Mercer?" She heard Angela call out from the podium. "Where ever you are in the crowd would you please come up to the podium to share a few words with our guests?"

"Coming!" She yelled to her and then started to maneuver herself through the crowd.

"Tess is right for once. I wish something exciting could happen for a change at these sorts of things," Lois said once she was gone.

"Be careful what you wish for Lois. You might just get it," Clark said to her.


Niki took out the last of the fifth floor guards and ran over to the stairs. The main security room should be on the eighth floor.

"Ice Queen to Power Girl. What's taking so long?" Jessica asked over the communicator. She was currently hiding in the first floor bathroom.

"Power Girl to… do we really have to codenames?" Niki asked.

"Yes," Jessica answered. The codenames were of course just a way to annoy Niki, which Jessica loved to do.

"Well as for what's taking so long, I had to clear two floors of guards on my own; emphasis on the 'on my own' part. I'm now on my way to the Security room. I'll let you know once I taken down the cameras." Niki resisted the urge to curse out her sister. She didn't want to be a part of this, but she couldn't risk Micah's life. The guilt still tugged at her soul though. Even if she wasn't the one that pulled the trigger, she was still an accomplice. Not to mention that she was doing all the hard work.

She left the stair case once she reached the eighth floor. She spotted the security room and pulled a knock out gas bomb out of her bag. She slowly approached the door, which was left ajar. There were six guards in their paying no attention to the security monitors and were just looking at a single T.V. with a game of football on it. She tossed the knock out gas inside and then shut the door. The bomb exploded and the guards started to cough and then were silenced. Niki opened the door and saw the guards were out cold. She walked to the monitors and proceeded to shut down any and all cameras in the building.

"Cameras are shutting down. You can make your move now," she informed Jessica. Jessica and her gun changed into water and she entered the faucet exiting from the one on the fifth floor. She walked over to the fifth floor railing and set up her gun.

"Security is completely down Ice Queen," Niki said. "If you're going to do the deed, do it now."

"Don't get your ponytail in a knot," Jessica said taking careful aim directly at Tess as she made her way to the podium.


"Well, I'm not very good with speeches," Tess said finally stepping up to the podium.

"Just do what my mom does and make everything up on the fly," Peter joked making the crowd laugh. Clark watched Tess, but then saw one of the security guards speaking angrily into his radio. Curious, Clark activated his super hearing.

"Someone answer me!" He yelled. "Something's wrong. The guards on the second, fifth, and eighth floors aren't responding," he then said to one of the other guards.

Clark looked at the fifth floor and his eyes widened at the sight of a sniper. And the sniper was about to fire! Clark went into super speed just as Jessica fired. Clark rushed up the podium, but froze in his tracks. On Tess' left was Peter; moving just as fast as he was.

"How are you doing that?" They asked at the same time.

"Worry about that later," Clark said and put his hand in front of Tess' heart just in time to catch the bullet. He then jumped off stage while the closer Peter grabbed Tess and pushed her to the floor. Time restarted and everyone started to panic at the sound of the gun shot.

"Tess? Are you alright?" Peter asked her.

"Yeah. Always the hero," she said to him, which made Peter smile. "You can get off me now," she said mainly because of the panic that was ensuing as opposed to wanting him to.

"What the Hell just happened?" Lois asked.

"Someone just tried to kill," Clark started.

"That was a rhetorical question, Clark," Lois said then looked up at the fifth floor spotting Jessica.


"What went wrong? You've never missed before," Niki said into her radio.

"I don't know, but we can talk about that later. Meet me on the second floor," Jessica said and then sprinted for the stairs. As she sprinted down the stairs the door that lead to the third floor swung open and hit her directly in the face. Jessica stumbled back and shook her head.

"Going somewhere?" Lois asked Jessica then grabbed her and tossed her out of the stair case and into one of the rooms in the third floor.

"Stay out of my way, Katie Couric," Jessica said noticing Lois' press pass.

"She did not just call me that," Lois thought as Jessica tried to move past her. Lois lashed out at her and kicked her in the face knocking Jessica back.

"Lucky kick," Jessica said pulling out her combat knives.

"Luck's got nothing to do with it," Lois said and went to kick her in the side. Her leg connected, but then went right through Jessica's side.

"I'm not your average assassin," Jessica declared and then went on the attack. She swiped at Lois, but she jumped back. Jessica tried to slit Lois' throat but she ducked and hit her in the cheek. Lois' blow once again only went through Jessica's watery flesh.

"You can't lay a hand on me. Just give up!" Jessica shouted and moved to stab Lois. She moved out of the way causing Jessica to stab her weapons into a power junction box.

"AHHHHH!" Jessica screamed and pulled away. She tried to change her body back into water, but she kept changing back into her solid form. "I can't change."

"How shocking," Lois joked then stopped laughing when she saw the knife become coated in ice. Jessica hurled it at Lois, but missed; the knife shattering against the wall. Jessica swung her knife wildly, but Lois swiftly dodged her swipes and kicked her in the center of her chest. Jessica's eyes changed to a blue color then the sprinklers automatically started. The drops of water that fell then changed into ice, which began to pummel and cut into Lois' body. Lois sent one more kick to Jessica knocking her down and then covered her head and ran out of the room.

"Should've seen that coming," Jessica thought. "Have to find Niki," she thought and ran for the stairs only for Lois to trip her up. Jessica fell down the stairs and crashed into the wall changing into her liquid form much to her surprise and relief.

"It's Linda Lake all over again," Lois thought as the water dripped down the stairs.


Meanwhile Niki was sprinting down the stair case. She was very exhausted at the moment, but couldn't afford to slow down. Just as she was about to go down her fifth flight of stairs a gust of wind picked up and knocked her off her feet. Clark sped out of the stair case, but then heard Niki starting to cough. He walked ran back into the stair case and looked in shock as she struggled to get up.

"How was she able to get up from that?" He thought.

Niki sprung up and ran at Clark. He was about to gently knock her out when she punched him hard in the shoulder. Clark spun around and let out a loud yell. She had actually dislocated his shoulder! Niki continued downward and ran into the second floor. There was another whoosh and then someone's arms went around her neck. Niki elbowed her attacker in the stomach making him relinquish his grip. Niki put her hands around his neck and body slammed him into the floor.

"Peter?" She thought seeing him on the floor. Peter was back on his feet before she could react. He grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her against the wall. Peter felt something hard and cold smash into his back and let go of Niki. Niki kicked Peter in the chin knocking him halfway across the room and into a wall.

"Pretty brutal of you," Jessica said while she watche Peter start to stand. She was surprised to see him still get up despite the ball of ice she threw at his back plus Niki's kick.

"I didn't mean to. It was a," Niki started, but then several security guards ran into the room.

"Freeze!" They yelled.

"Freeze, huh?" Jessica thought. "It's about to get very cold in here," she said to Niki and then put her hand on Niki's shoulder. The guards all opened fire, but the bullets just flew right through the two of them. Jessica's eyes changed to a blue color and then the entire room began to be encased in ice. Peter spotted the ice and sped out of the room before he could be affected as well. The guards were all frozen in their place; trapped in the ice. Niki was speechless at the power Jessica now wielded. Just then Lois and Clark appeared at the edge of the room.

"Give up. You've got nowhere to run or hide. The rest of the guards are already on their way up," Clark told them.

"We're going to have to leave my way then," Jessica said. She grabbed Niki and then jumped through the second story window. They crashed on the hard, concrete street; changing into water on impact. Lois carefully stepped into the icy room to see what became of the two. Clark was about to follow, but then his cell phone started to ring.

"Hello?"

"You're lucky you didn't expose yourself to them," a woman said on the other end. "Otherwise those two would've reported you to their superiors."

"Who is this?" Clark asked.

"A friend, Clark."

"How do you know my name?"

"You just have to trust me. I'll be in touch," and the line went dead.


"Are you sure we're not going to get in trouble?" Claire asked following West into the basement level of the library.

"Positive. This room hasn't been used in years and no one bothers to check it," he said as they approached a door. West opened it and he and Claire stepped into a room where three ordinary looking people were already sitting. The room looked nice despite the fact that it hadn't been used in a while. There was a girl that looked around Claire's age balancing a pen on her pointer finger. She had brown hair and was dressed in blue jeans and a red shirt. The other two were boys. One was wearing a black shirt, exercise pants, and was smoking a cigarette. He looked to be about West's age. The second boy had on glasses, was in a white shirt and jeans shorts, and was reading a book. He looked like the oldest of the group.

"Hello everybody," West greeted.

"Hey West. What's up?" The girl asked. Even though her attention was diverted the pen stayed perfectly balanced on her finger.

"Guys. This is Claire. She's like us," he said.

"Kind of figured or you wouldn't have brought her down here," the guy in black said.

"So, what's your story," the guy with the glasses asked closing his book.

"You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine," Claire responded.

"Fair enough," the girl said. "First things first; my name is Amy and as for what I can do," she flipped the pen in the air, grabbed it, and chucked it directly at Claire's head missing to the right, by only a few inches.

"Are you insane? You could've hurt me," Claire said. West gave her a look. "I'm just making a point," she said to him.

"Look closely at the pen," Amy said. Claire looked at it and was surprised. Pinned to the wall by the pen was a spider. "Pin point accuracy; that's my power. I never, and I mean never, miss," she said then smiled.

"And I have the scars to prove it," West mumbled. "I guess you can refer to her as the good version of the Marvel Comic's villain Bullseye; sort of. Next we have Jack," he said pointing to the guy with glasses. Jack set his book on the table. He reached for his glasses and pulled them off. He then tossed his glasses and then they froze in mid-air.

"Telekinesis; an overdone, but useful power," he said as his glasses floated back into his hands.

"And last, but not least we have Ryan." Ryan held his hand up to his cigarette and then his fingertips caught fire igniting it. Claire felt a small stab of pain in her heart at the sight of his hand.

"What's wrong?" Ryan asked.

"My birth mother; she…she could create fire as well," Claire sighed.

"And judging from your tone of voice she's no longer among the living," West guessed. Claire nodded. "I'm sorry," he said.

"No. You don't have to be," Claire said keeping back her tears.

"So," Amy said. "Changing the subject, what can you do?" Claire pulled the pen out of the wall and sat at the table. She held her palm out and then stabbed herself in it. "Ummm," Amy said.

"Wait for it," West said to her. The injury in Claire's palm began to seal up the second she pulled the pen out.

"Cooool," Jack marveled. "I've never seen a healer before."

"I don't think any of us have," Ryan said. "There're definitely not a lot of them, that's for sure."

"Can you regenerate from anything?" Amy asked.

"Anything, but getting my head blown off, cut off, or shot through. Basically I can come back from anything that doesn't involve the head though I did have the top of it taken off once exposing my brain. It wasn't a pleasant experience I can tell you that much."

"You still haven't told them the best part," West said.

"What best part?" Claire asked.

"Don't you remember? You had that big pair of scissors and you," before West could finish, they all heard someone sneeze from outside the door followed by the sound of rapidly moving feet. West rushed out the door and saw someone already moving up the stairs. He ran up the stairs and into the main level of the library just in time to see the person racing out of it. He followed the person out of the library only to bump into a crowd of people. "Damn it," he cursed. Hiding just at the side of the library was Lucy Lane almost unable to believe what she just witnessed.


"Looks like your two enforcers failed," Danko said to his boss. "I told you, you should've sent me."

"Duly noted, Danko, but your expertise is needed elsewhere."

"I know; going after that little group of super friends that have been giving you a hard time. According to the kid, they've been in communication silence these last two days so I doubt they're going to be falling for anymore fake messages. They could be anywhere in the world by now."

"We always come prepared though, Danko," the man said and snapped his fingers.

"No! No! Let me go!" Danko heard a girl plead. One guard opened the door to the office and another two guards entered holding a struggling girl.

"Matt! Help me! Please, help me!" Molly cried in her mind.

"Don't bother trying to reach Officer Parkman. His holding cell is specially made so he can't here anyone's thoughts, but his own," the man said as they forced the girl in the chair and kept her down. The third guard placed a map of the world on the table.

"Whoever you want me to find for you, forget it!" Molly screamed.

"Sure. Act like you have a choice in the matter," the man said holding up a syringe. "Keep her steady," he said and then injected Molly with the green serum. Her eye color momentarily changed green and then the guards felt her stop struggling. "That's a good girl Molly," he said and pushed the map closer to her.

To Be Continued…

A/N: I know the Claire plot might not seem that important at the moment, but trust me it will be. See ya!