Chloe knelt next to Clark's body, and her tears made identical black mascara runs down her face. "You killed him!" she screamed at the meteor freaks standing proudly across the gym. She registered gasps of horror from behind her. "You bastards murdered him!" she shrieked at the nine people grinning insanely at her.

"Well yeah. That was our original goal," Eric said. "My only regret is that I didn't get to take back the powers that should be mine. Chloe screamed wordlessly at them, then whipped around to call over her shoulder. "Lana! Pete, Whitney! Help me move his... help me move him!" She struggled with the words; she had nearly said 'his body'. But she wouldn't accept that he was dead. Not yet.

Pete and Whitney hurried over and helped her lift Clark's limp form and carry him back to where the student body of Smallville High was huddled. As they lowered him to the floor and the students and chaperones clustered around, Chloe noticed that the shock wave from Greg and Tina's collision with him had shattered the panes of glass in the gym doors. Everyone could have escaped- Clark's last words had been to scream at them to run- but no one had left.

Lana knelt beside Chloe, hovering over Clark's body. Her delicate hands mimicked Chloe's earlier motions, tracing over his body, searching for his vital signs. "Clark..." Chloe whispered, still shocked by the horror of it all.

"Chloe," Lana said softly, "Chloe, he's still alive. His heart's still beating. But he's not breathing." Hope blossomed in Chloe's heart. There were hisses and groans from across the gym, but Chloe ignored them. "Hey, does anyone know CPR?" Lana yelled.

A short, pretty girl with straight blonde hair and deep brown eyes stepped forward. "I do," she said quietly. Quickly, she knelt down and, covering Clark's lips with her own, she forced air into his still lungs. Chloe felt a faint twinge of jealousy, but dismissed it. If this girl could save Clark's life, she didn't care.

After several breaths, the girl sat up and placed her hands in the center of Clark's chest, pumping forcefully, simultaneously expelling the air and forcing his sluggish heart to keep beating. Chloe vaguely recognized her; she thought her name might be Alicia. After four compressions, she returned to breathing for him. Suddenly, Clark coughed, and began to breath on his own.

"No!" screamed Eric Summers. "No, he can't be alive! Sean, finish him off while he's still weak!" Sean Kelvin walked across the gym floor, lazily, as if he had all the time in the world. "Hey, kiddies!" he leered at the students, as closed the gap between them.

Chloe felt a thrill of dread. After all Alicia's efforts to revive Clark, they were going to kill them after all. And then the meteor freaks would move on to the rest of them...

Clark choked, regained his breath, and opened his eyes blearily. "No! No he can't be alive!" he heard Eric's voice say. "Sean, finish him off while he's still weak!"

Clark was disoriented. He wasn't sure what had happened. He didn't seem to be dead. He hurt too much for that. Lana, Chloe, Pete, and another girl he didn't recognize leaned over him. "Clark, are you okay?" Lana whispered. He grunted; that was about all he could manage at the moment. What was wrong with Lana? Of course he wasn't okay.

Firm hands helped him sit up, and he found his breathing easier in a sitting position. "Thanks," he said, turning to face the blond girl. He guessed that she'd been the one to revive him. She nodded. "Alicia Baker," she said, indicating herself. He smiled weakly.

Then he noticed Sean Kelvin crossing the floor to where he was sitting among the other students. "Oh no," he whispered. He couldn't defend everyone in his condition. He was barely alive, he couldn't even sit up unsupported, let alone take the terrifying onslaught of the meteor freaks. "Everyone has to get out..." he began in a hoarse voice.

Suddenly, a beautiful, slender black girl pushed her way through the crush of students huddled against the wall, and strode to meet Sean in the exact center of the floor. He stopped in front of her, and she planted her feet firmly and crossed her arms.

"Move, bitch," he growled at her. He was mad. They had failed to take down Clark Kent the first time, and now this chick was in his way.

"Clark almost died for us once," the girl said, her long, chemically straightened hair swinging slightly as she raised her chin to glare up at him. "And you are NOT taking him." Sean chuckled humorlessly. "And who's gonna stop me? You?" he asked. "I told you to move, bitch."

If looks could kill, the death glare the girl was giving Sean Kelvin should have vaporized him. "My name is Kendra," she said firmly. "And hell yes!" she screamed. Then, raising her hands so that her hands faced directly at Sean's chest, she fired a huge spurt of emerald flame from her palms. "You're not the only meteor freaks in the room," she said.

When her fiery assault on Sean ceased, there was a small puddle on the floor and a huge indentation in his chest where she had melted away part of his body. "Oh, you wanna play?" he yelled, incensed. And suddenly the two were locked in a battle of fire and ice. Kendra was throwing flame from her hands, and Sean was firing spikes of ice from his fingertips. Slowly, Sean was being forced backwards

"Whoa," Pete whispered. "When did he learn to do that?"

As it became obvious that Sean would not win this fight, the other meteor freaks edged forward to help her out. And one by one, other students moved out onto the gym floor behind Kendra. Several Clark recognized, many he didn't. But as a pitched battle ensued, it became obvious that every one of them was a meteor freak.

But the powers of the eight under Eric's command were greater, and Clark could see that the students who had gone to take up his fight would not win. There might be more of them, but Justin Gaines alone was fighting twelve, and Sasha's bees harried every one of them, distracting them and weakening their defenses.

Clark groaned and tried to stand. His strength would recover quickly, if only the kryptonite were gone. Even across the room, from where Eric was standing and clutching it, he could feel it's green haze of agony. But no matter. He had to help... somehow...

"Clark?" Alicia Baker asked shyly from by his side. "That piece of meteor... it hurts you, doesn't it?" He nodded. "It's a little fragment of Krypton- the planet I come from," he explained. "You want me to get rid of it?" Alicia asked. "If you can figure out how," he said, staggering slightly as another wave of pain washed across the gym from the shard in Eric's hand.

"Not a problem," Alicia said. She vanished suddenly, reappearing across the gym just long enough to seize the kryptonite from Eric's grip. Then she disappeared again. The pain was gone, and Clark instantly felt better. About six seconds later, Alicia reappeared at Clark's side. "I can teleport." she said, seemingly to finish her earlier statement.

"Where'd you take it," Chloe asked out of some kind of morbid curiosity. Alicia grinned widely. "China," she said matter-of-factly. "I tossed it in the Yangtze River."

Clark made to join the fight, but Whitney's hand on his arm stopped. "Hey man, that rock might be gone, but you're still weak." "I know, but I have to help. I can't just stand by while..." he trailed away. "Maybe if I could get some sunlight," he mused.

"Not likely," Pete pointed out. "I don't know that you noticed, but there's a tornado across town. The sky's pretty dark." "We can deal with that, too," said a voice from nearby. Clark turned shakily to see three beautiful young women a few grades above him. "We can control the weather." Lana snorted.

Without another word, the three girls climbed up what remained of the bleachers to reach one of the shattered high windows of the gym. Thrusting their arms out the window, they assumed identical focused expressions, and a faint breeze drifted through the gym. And suddenly, just through that window, sunlight streamed. Clark walked haltingly to where the patch of sunlight lay, and stepped into the soft golden glow. "Thank you," he whispered to the girls still sitting atop the bleachers.

His eyes closed as he felt strength and power returning to his body. In one golden rush, he was strong again. His hearing returned to it's usual prowess, and the sounds of the meteor freak battle were suddenly magnified in his ears. People fighting, risking their lives... for him. Well no more. This was his battle. He would fight it.

The electric green eyes of Clark Kent popped open. He saw all that was going on, and studied it for a moment.

Tina Greer was fighting two opponents at once, using her tremendous strength to hold a girl sprouting vines and a young man who seemed to have unnatural strength of his own at bay.

Greg Arkin had outdone her, fighting six at the same time, and from the number of web-encased forms lying scattered around on the floor, he had faced down many more.

Clark spotted his closest friends with their backs to each other, each holding some kind of weapon. Pete had simply picked up a chair, while Chloe and Lana had somehow unearthed golf clubs from the boxes behind the stage the band had occupied earlier. Whitney had a pair of glass shards he must have found beneath some broken window.

Justin Gaines had ripped yet another section of the bleachers away from the wall and had pinned at least thirty students under it, and despite their combined strength, despite their meteor-induced abilities, they were unable to shift it.

Meanhile Sean Kelvin and the girl named Kendra were still at the heart of it all, fighting with ice and fire. However, several frozen bodies lay nearby, indicating that others had attempted to intervene.

Taking instant action, Clark sped to the frozen ones on the floor. Kneeling next to each one, he used his heat vision to create a blanket of searing warmth over them until the ice melted and the revived. When all of Sean's victims had been revived, Clark pointed to where some students not involved in the fight were still standing, stunned. "Go, get to safety," he said to them.

Next, he ripped apart the bonds on the several hundred encased in Greg's cocoons. He gave them the same message, but they were less inclined to leave the battle. "No way in hell are we sitting this out," one of them said fiercely.

Clark sighed, but moved on to where Justin had pinned so many under a large section of the bleachers. He lifted the bleachers easily, freeing the trapped students. "Thanks," a tall boy with unruly hair said. "Man," he said, wiping a trace of blood off his cheek as he surveyed the fight before them, "It's like being inside an X-men comic here." Clark nodded. "Welcome to my life," he said wryly.

And then he was gone, launching himself into battle. He hurtled directly between Tina Greer's opponents to tackle her to the floor. Her head rebounded against the hard wood and she lay still.

In a single bound, Clark cleared the distance to the stage, and ripped the curtain down. In another leap, he had rounded up Tina, Greg, Jeremy, Jodi, Eric, and Sasha and tied them into a tight bundle inside the curtain. It wasn't maybe the most humane solution, but it was effective and probably wouldn't hurt them as much as allowing them to remain in battle.

Jeff had completely disappeared, and Clark's X-ray vision did no good. However, Jeff's location became fairly obvious when a pair of invisible hands seized him from behind. Clark reached up to seize the back of Jeff's collar, and flipped him over his shoulder. On impact with the ground, Jeff instantly became visible. With a sigh, Clark stuffed him inside the bag with the others.

Clark looked around for Justin and Sean. They weren't hard to find. Every person in the room was clustered around Justin, trying to overwhelm him. The exceptions were Clark and Kendra, who was still engaged in a one-on-one fight with Sean. Clark assumed that the rest of the school could handle the telekine for a moment, and went to assist Kendra.

"Need a hand?" he asked. Kendra tossed a smile over her shoulder. Sean was several inches shorter, and appeared to be sweating. It wasn't sweat, however. It was condensation, and meltwater as he dissolved into a puddle. "Nah, I can handle it." A final burst of green fire, and Sean collapsed into water completely. "No!" came a yell from across the room.

"Is he dead?" Kendra asked shakily. "I don't know," Clark asked, equally disturbed. "I thought he was dead once before- he was locked in solid ice for eight months... Who knows?" he said. Kendra smiled weakly at him. "Damn, that really takes it out of you..." she muttered.

Suddenly, there was a terrific groaning of steel girders and concrete. Clark whipped around, and saw Justin Gaines- strained but with a manic glint in his eye- staring straight up at the ceiling. Clark followed his gaze and realized immediately what was happening.

Justin had realized that he was totally alone in this fight now. He saw that he couldn't win. So he was going to completely destroy Clark the only way he knew how- he was going to kill ever other person in the room. He was going to bring the roof down, all in one giant slab.

"Oh my god!" Lana screamed, pointing upward. "We're all gonna die!" screamed one of the three weather girls sitting atop the bleachers. A chorus of shrieks and screams rose from every throat, and terror welled up in Clark's heart and mind. He didn't know how to stop this. He didn't know how to save them...

The final girder supporting the roof snapped, and three tons of steel and cement came crashing down. The students and staff of Smallville High threw themselves to the floor, crouching and covering their heads in a vain attempt to shield themselves from the certain death falling toward them.

But the impact never came. Chloe was the first to look up. "Oh my god..." she whispered. One by one, heads popped up all across the room. Two thousand people looked up at their savior.

Clark Kent hovered twenty feet off the ground, supporting the mass of concrete with both hands. "Are you all okay?" he asked shakily. His expression as stunned. There was scattered nodding across the crowd. Clark took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. They were safe.

He rose slowly, pushing the ceiling up and up and up, until he was clear of the high walls of the gymnasium. There, he dropped the roof off to the side of the school building, where it couldn't cause any more damage. Then he returned to the gym, dropping easily into a sudden empty space in the crowd.

Silence reigned as his feet touched the ground again. Everyone was staring at him. Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. "Um... I guess the secret's out, then. All of our secrets," he said. There was silence. "I... I want to thank all of you. This was my battle. They were here for me. None of you had to step up the way you did, to defend me. I guess I'm glad you did. We'd all be dead, if it weren't for your incredible bravery." Clark faltered. He had no idea what else to say.

Vice Principal Tipton forced her way through the crowd of students into the clear space around Clark. "Mr. Kent, perhaps it's not the best moment to say it, but I think that's a load of bull." A group of guys at the back snorted at her choice of words. "Yes, Kendra Hall and the others demonstrated a great deal of courage, but it was you who saved us all. You finally defeated the... the..." she paused, searching for a word. Finally, she continued diplomatically, "The seriously ill young men and women. You were willing to sacrifice yourself to give everyone else a chance to escape. You... caught the roof."

There was an awkward pause, then Clark stuttered, "Well, it... it was the very least I could do... it was all my fault that they were here, after all..." Tipton held up her hand to silence him. "It was not your fault, Mr. Kent. They may have been after you, but that doesn't make it your fault." Everyone nodded decisively.

"And I would just like to add that I know I speak for all of us here, when I say that, if that's what you want, not one of us will ever reveal your secret. From this moment on, this... incident... didn't happen. It was a tornado from today's storm that destroyed the gymnasium." Turning to face the rest of the people gathered around, she said loudly, "Is that understood?"

The entire student body of Smallville High nodded almost in unison. "We won't tell anybody, Clark!" called a voice from the back. "Yeah, nobody's hearing it from me!" said someone else.

Again there was silence, and a tense pause. Then suddenly, Pete started clapping. Slowly, others joined him, one by one, until a swell of applause and cheering filled the gym. "Clark! Clark! Clark!" Pete yelled, and several voices joined his.

Clark raised his hands for silence, completely overwhelmed. "Please," he said as the cheers died away. "I don't deserve this... I don't need your thanks. I haven't done anything someone else wouldn't do in my place. I... Thank you all for keeping my secret. You have no idea how grateful I am for that. But there really was a tornado outside town today. I should probably go see if everyone's alright. And I need to check on my parents."

He turned to vice principal Tipton, wanting to thank her, but she waved him away. "Go. Find your parents, help the rest of the town," she said. Clark nodded, and with a last glance at his four closest friends, he launched himself up, up, and away.

As he soared through the sky, Clark felt a sigh of relief. He knew now that he could fly. But he'd been terrified that it wouldn't work this time, that he'd look like a moron, jumping around in front of the entire school... Then he shook his head. Stupid thing to worry about, when the entire school knew he was an alien. The entire school knew he was an alien... Oh god, this was going to create an entirely new level of weirdness at Smallville High...

A Note from Lara: Okay, I know I said that this was a three-shot. Well, guess what, I lied. Not exactly lied I guess. More that I had thought a three-shot would be enough to tell this story. I changed my mind. Stay alert for the bonus fourth chapter, coming soon... Also the sequel I'm planning for this story...