Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything from the DC Universe including any of the characters, except my very own!
A/N: Enjoy the 'episode'!
Logan's Tattoo Parlour - (Midnight)
The night was cold and still every store in the area, except for this one was closed and completely abandoned until the morning after.
However, 'Logan's Tattoo Parlour' was still open and it's many luminous signs still glowing brightly and just outside the parlour, a tall and muscular young man in a grey hoodie and sweatpants was strolling around with his hands in his pockets, along with the large hood obscuring most of his face.
He pushed the door to the parlour and entered silently, only to be greeted gruffly by a fat middle-aged man with a grey mustache and beard by the counter.
"So then, what will it be, kid?"
The hooded figure did not immediately answer, heavily contemplating the extremely vivid events that had just happened a few mere hours ago.
Flashback - (17:35)
Renee walked towards her car, took out her car keys and was about to enter, when out of nowhere, a grey hooded figure jumped and startled her and pushed her against the car, along with pulling his hood down to reveal himself to be none other than Carter Jenkins, although his skin was paler and more oily and his hair seemed longer as well as a lot more messier than before.
"Carter!" Renee cried, shocked at seeing him again, after the 'incident'.
"Yeah, so what about me?" Carter hissed angrily, gripping tightly on both her shoulders.
"I thought you said that you didn't want anything to do with me!" Renee shouted, glaring at him.
"I DON'T, but what you did to me…" Carter began yelling, but was interrupted by Rene, who rolled her eyes and then argued louder.
"Oh grow up, Carter! The world doesn't revolve around you and your stupid football career! Why don't you get a pair and try and get your life on track again, instead of letting it waste away!"
This statement made him furious and he slapped her hard in the face, causing her to fall down onto the road as she bled slightly from the hit.
Realizing what he just did, Carter stood there and grew more guilty by the second as he saw her covering the place her struck, which was now bleeding more heavily, though not at a serious level.
"Renee, I'm so sorry…" Carter began to apologize, but was yet again interrupted by this time a high heeled kick just in the face and a fast punch to the stomach by Rene, who was still clutching her wound.
"Don't you DARE touch me, Carter Louis Jenkins, EVER again," Renee warned in a dangerous tone of voice and then she added even more menacingly: "Or else."
Renee quickly walked back to her car with her head held high with confidence, got inside her car and drove off, leaving a very emotionally conflicted Carter behind on the road, bleeding somewhat from his mouth and lip.
Carter, with his hood down now, constantly replayed the scene in his head like reruns like episodes of a show on a television, while at the same time wondering what did he do wrong in his life, but most importantly, what did he do right?
Carter had injured the only girl to ever have truly loved him in his life, except for maybe his mother (who had died with Carter's father when he was only six) and ruined his chance at a promising career that he loved with all his heart. As Carter thought about all this, plus more, his thoughts came across something that made his heart burn with pure hatred:
Daniel Li.
The nerve of that guy! Not ONLY did he still away his girl that he had loved, but he also took away his chance at becoming a potentially famous football player.
Carter clenched his fists, making his knuckles turn white. If only he could get his revenge on that guy, somehow.
"Kid, I said what will be, kid?" the middle-aged fat bearded man repeated, frustrated at the youth today.
"Oh, uh…" Carter tried to speak as he tried to remember the exact reason he was even here in the first place.
The middle-aged fat bearded man tapped his fingers impatiently on the counter as Carter tried to remember.
It took about two minutes or so for him to remember why he was here, to wallow in his pity and in a hoarse voice spoke and pointed at one of the laminated images on the wall behind the man, a dark green tattoo that bore an uncanny resemblance to the 'Dark Mark' from the Harry Potter series.
The middle-aged fat bearded man turned around, noticed where he was pointing to and nodded in agreement at his choice.
"Good choice, kid. It's a new tattoo design we recently introduced to the customers. The tattoo is made from pure green liquid meteor rock, nothing else."
Carter was barely paying attention to what he was saying and just nodded, not caring about any of the known consequences that came with the green meteor rocks.
"It'll be fifteen dollars, kid."
Carter handed over the right amount of money and then followed him to a chair, where the middle-aged fat bearded man was getting prepared, making him gulp slightly in nervousness, that didn't go unnoticed by the middle-aged fat bearded man.
"Kid, are you absolutely sure you want to go through with this?" he asked with full and genuine concern.
"Just do it!" Carter ordered, trying to sound confident, although he barely succeeded.
"Whatever you say, kid," he mumbled as the large tattoo needle seemed to take an excruciatingly long time to come in contact with Carter's skin and as soon as it did, Carter screamed once the liquid green meteor rock was injected into his right arm.
"Argh!" Carter screamed louder by the minute as more liquid green meteor rock was slowly injected into his skin.
Unbeknownst to him, Carter was sort of 'phasing' in and out in the chair and briefly turning intangible at the same time and immensely creeping out the middle-aged fat bearded man, who still continued with shaky hands.
Smallville: The 'Lost' Son of Krypton (Newsboys - Stay Strong)
(Beginning Music)
This race can be wonnnnn!
We gotta…
Stay Strong, you are not lostt.
Daniel Li
C'mon and fix your eyes ahead.
Rene Smith
Our Father's Dawn will light our dayyy, our day
Ben O'Conner
Come on and… Stay strong!
Lorraine Evans
His grip is sureee
Carter Jenkins
And his patience still endures
Warren Li
We've come too far lose our wayyyy, no way…
Janine Li
(Ending music)
Kawatche Caves - (00:15)
The caves were almost pitch black in darkness as Daniel, wearing his signature bright red plaid jacket, light blue House of El t-shirt, jeans and light brown work boots, strolled across with a flashlight past the vast walls of Kryptonian symbols, that thanks to Zor-El, he could now read and decipher.
Probably the only GOOD thing he's ever done for me, even if it was unintentionally.
Daniel then glanced at his wristwatch:
(00:15)
Daniel sighed and started to shine his flashlight to scan the vast walls of Kryptonian symbols, seeing if there was anything unusual, eye-catching, or maybe something that could potentially lead him to the direction of the last crystal of power on them. Unfortunately for him, all Daniel could find was the usual: 'a saviour will come to Earth' sort of crap and nothing at all that includes anything about the location of the third and final crystal of power: water.
"This is going nowhere," Daniel muttered to himself and then instantely froze as he heard the distant footsteps of someone walking rather hurriedly by the sounds of it, towards the caves.
"Shit," Daniel cursed to himself silently and carefully hid behind a nearby cave wall, hoping the person couldn't hear him.
Joseph's P.O.V
I strolled towards the vast cave walls, but at the same time alert for anything or anyone nearby, since you can't be too sure about it.
Gripping my flashlight in my right hand, I examined the entire area for clues or suggestions that was related to finding the Crystal of Air, like the special compass that I found in Chinatown, Shanghai.
Unfortunately, all I found was the usual alien symbols that I, or even my top researchers could not decipher, leaving me huffing in frustration on how metaphorically lost I was in my quest. Another thing that bugged me would be that my son, Ben, is not exactly acting like himself nowadays; I mean sure, he's acted strange ever since Trisha died, but this was a whole new level of his behaviour recently.
Well, whatever it is, it's neither my concern or even involved with me and plus I have BIGGER fish to fry.
(Snap!)
I quickly turned behind me to suddenly feel a strong gust of wind almost knock me down onto the floor.
What in the world was that?
Li residence, Daniel's bedroom - (01:00)
Daniel super sped into his bedroom in a sort of red and blue blur panting, although it wasn't because of tiredness, it was because he was almost caught alone in the caves by Joseph, who would question him endlessly and most likely accuse him for spying.
He then glanced over on his bedside desk to check what time it was:
(01:00)
This instinctively made him yawn loudly and take off everything, except for his pair of white boxers, since lately he liked to sleep topless.
I'll further investigate tomorrow morning… after school.
With that final thought, Daniel drifted into a dreamless sleep.
Li residence - (06:50)
The roosters outside started to crow like every usual morning, causing Daniel to wake with a start at the noise and lazily, but on his clothes from much earlier in the day and hastily go get a quick shower.
Once he was all clean and dry, Daniel trudged downstairs to see his parents were already awake and eating breakfast: pancakes with maple syrup and fresh orange juice as well.
"Morning," Daniel called out to them, getting his backpack ready for school.
"Morning, son/honey," Warren and Janine replied to him respectively.
"Got any plans today?" Warren asked, sipping his glass of fresh orange juice.
"Not really, I'm just going to go with Rene to her house this afternoon to study some math," Daniel told his father, who immediately exchanged a knowing look across to his mother.
Luckily for them, Daniel didn't notice there silent exchange at all and had already disappeared from them, speeding in a red and blue blur down the long stretch of open road and towards Smallville High.
Smallville High - (06:52)
Numerous students noisily entered the high school as Daniel stopped at a safe distance from the school and started to walk at an average human speed with his backpack strapped behind him inside the school hallways to be meet by Lorraine, who practically pounced on him with one big hug and a huge toothy grin.
"Daniel! How are you today?"
"Fine, but aren't we excited today," Daniel said, giving her his own toothy grin.
"Why shouldn't I be? Here, check this out," Lorraine said, grabbing a nearby paper and shoved it into his hands as Lorraine just stood there eagerly bouncing on the spot, while Daniel quickly scanned the entire contents. "So… what do you think?"
"It's… awesome," Daniel managed to speak out, causing Lorraine to beam brightly at him and then quickly glance at his wristwatch.
"We better go now, French remember," Lorraine reminded him, when suddenly out of the blue a student, what looked like possibly a junior, came sprinting down one of the hallways, his arms flapping madly in mid-air and yelling…
"FIRE! FIRE! EVERYBODY GET OUT NOW!"
At the mention of this, everyone of all ages, from the weedy-looking freshmen nerds and even the tough-looking jocks that looked like they belonged inside zoo cages, immediately started to panic frantically, all of them extremely desperate to reach the exit first and pushing and shoving to make sure of it.
"Daniel, c'mon we have to go find Ian and Rene," Lorraine yelled over the panicked cries of the numerous students surrounding them, but Daniel wasn't listening as he used his super hearing and smell to detect the smell of smoke and the sound of the fire.
Unfortunately for them, it was a GENUINE fire this time, not like the prank ones before it, making him hastily grab Lorraine's hand tightly and move quickly through the passing crowds of students and teachers alike.
Luckily for them, Daniel height made it much easier to navigate towards the school fire exits.
"RENE! IAN! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?" Daniel called out, pushing several people out of his way, while using his super hearing and smell to keep record of where the fire could be now.
That's when he saw it. A faint green sort of 'astral' projection of what seemed to be like a person around his age, near the wall right on his left-hand side, causing him to wince in pain slightly.
Green Kryptonite.
"Daniel, are you okay?" Lorraine asked him, concern and worry in her eyes.
The faint green 'astral' projection seemed to have now disappeared somewhere and Daniel felt his full strength coming back to him again.
"Yeah, c'mon let's keep moving towards the fire exits," Daniel replied, keeping casual and barely succeeding at doing so.
At last, they finally reached the fire exits, where outside most of the students and all of the teachers were waiting there.
"Yes, we made it. Daniel…" Lorraine panted in exhaustion and turned around to see that he was no longer there and had most likely gone back inside the building to search for Rene and Ian. "DANIEL!"
One of nearby teachers of another homeroom heard her cry and pulled her out of the school building, albeit forcibly as Lorraine struggled with all her might from his grip and eventually did so, running back down the hallways to the place where she last saw him with her as well as silently cursing herself for letting him slip away from her.
Down at the boys' locker room, Daniel walked silent and carefully through the hallways, keeping all of his senses on alert for any signs of Rene, Ian, or frankly anyone on that matter.
It was about twenty-five minutes into the search that he finally heard of soft whimper of a female voice and the frantic calling of a male voice that he instantely recognized on sound and immediately super sped towards them, not really caring about the consequences anymore about being spotted.
Unbeknownst to him, pair of glowing jade green eyes on the wall was gazing at him as he super sped towards the two people in a red and blue blur.
Once he reached there in about less than a second, Daniel saw to his horror, Rene sprawled on the ground with her head bleeding quite heavily and crushed by some roof debris with Ian by her side desperately trying to move at least some of it off of her. Both of them were highly covered in dark soot from the raging fire.
"Ian! Tell me EXACTLY what happened here?" Daniel yelled over the sounds of the raging fire.
"R-Rene was going to meet me t-today, since she was tutoring me in geometry lately, but then the fire happened a-and we both tried to quickly get out and then the roof caved in, making her push me out of the way and knock her onto the ground and crush her. Thankfully, she's still alive… barely," Ian added at the end through his tears, noticing his best friend's horrified expression at the possibility of her being dead.
Daniel breathed a sigh of relief at the mention of this, but then regained his focus and started to scan the entire surrounding area to see if there were any ways out of here.
"Ian, there's no ways out of…" Daniel began to tell him, but then noticed to his dismay that Ian was now unconscious thanks to the fumes from the fire that was steadily growing.
Although, on the bright side, since no-one was now watching him, Daniel clutched onto the roof debris that was crushing Rene and threw it away from her to the wall effortlessly, making it flip a few times on the way there.
He then scooped the pair of them up onto either one of his shoulder, Ian on his left and Rene on his right and then charged into one of the brick walls, but not before making sure it wasn't going to hurt them.
After another few brick walls, Daniel finally saw the fire exit and super sped outside the school and carefully laid them both on the firm grass ground near the rest of the students and teachers, but not before Rene slowly regained conciousness and ever so slightly opened her eyes just in time to see the Superman crest in a red and blue blur that went speed back into the school.
Right after that, Rene drifted back into unconsciousness as students and teachers alike came running towards them with medical staff as well, who immediately hoisted them onto stretchers.
Even though she was unconscious, one image, or rather word, seemed to have sort of repeatedly flashing within her mind and also one name as well.
Daniel?
Back within the school walls, Daniel was speeding through every inch of the entire school for the feeling of slight nausea that he only had when he was near some green kryptonite.
It could have been just some students green kryptonite earrings or something else they had that was made out of it as well, I mean besides, green kryptonite is very popular now thanks to the meteor shower a few months ago.
But no matter how hard he tried to reason with himself, Daniel felt the compelling need to go and investigate the source of his slight nausea.
He then slide to a halt near the assistant coach's office and looked around him. If people thought the school looked bad, this was a whole new level of destruction. Everything in the whole room was either burnt or about to be burnt by the looks of it, but most of the stuff in here looked as if they had been destroyed by… hand?
Daniel kept examining the whole office. Afterwards he exited the room and went down the hallways back to the fire exits, where he then felt the familiar agonizing pain of the green kryptonite nearby, causing him to slightly lose his balance and grab onto the office desk, because in front of him, out of what seemed to be nowhere, were the words: 'RUINED' in messy liquid green kryptonite sprayed onto one of the rows of red football lockers. Then, the flames reacted to the substance and set it alight with words of fire.
"Hurts don't it?" a familiar male voice asked bitterly.
"Who are you?" Daniel called out, as the pain of the green kryptonite remained.
"Don't you recognize my voice?" the voice said with malice. "You ruined me, my love life and also any chance at career in what I love, hence the writing. Don't you remember?"
The things that the voice said made Daniel instantely recognise the voice and hiss through gritted teeth:
"Carter!"
Carter chuckled darkly and so did a few other voices, meaning that he wasn't alone this time.
"Where are you? Show yourself!" Daniel ordered, the pain of the green kryptonite getting worse by the minute.
"Right over here," Carter stated and appeared a few feet away from him out of thin air, a smug smile plastered on his face, wearing black army boots and the same grey hoodie from earlier in the day, along with a pair of black leather gloves.
"What do you want?" Daniel glared at him furiously. "Do you want your chance at football career, Rene, or maybe something else back?"
"No. I just want to see you suffer, like I did," Carter whispered and kicked him just above the stomach, which made him fall backwards onto the floor and wince.
"Guys, you can come out now!" Carter called out to them and they like him, also instantely seemed to appear out of thin air. One of them had sandy blond hair and was incredibly bulky, even almost matching Daniel himself and the other had raven dark hair and a crooked nose.
"How do you guys do that?" Daniel panted, the pain from the green kryptonite growing more powerful.
"Simply with these," Carter said and pulled the right sleeve of his hoodie to reveal the now glowing green 'dark mark' on the bottom of his right arm, which made Daniel wince louder in pain and agony, although thankfully he didn't notice it.
"Didn't know you were such fans of Harry Potter," Daniel remarked sarcastically over the overwhelming pain of the green kryptonite, but not from the wall that had now burned out, but from the tattoos this time.
This remark earned him another kick, this time directly to the stomach, causing him curse fluently under his breath.
"So, any last words?" Carter asked smugly, his fists tightening in anticipation as the two behind him sniggered.
"Yeah, I do. Duck!" Daniel shouted and threw at them with all his strength a smoke pellet from one of the nearby lockers that upon contact with the floor, exploded in a cloud of blue, yellow and red smoke.
That was lucky, although I'm not sure why a student would even carry these things in his/her locker in the first place. Anyway, where was I?
This momentary distraction of him long enough to crawl with all of his remaining strength, away from them and give him his full strength back.
Sunlight, that's what I need right now. If it wasn't for my built-in kryptonite resistance, I would have been dead by now.
Daniel ran at a human pace towards the fire exits to again feel the presence of the green kryptonite eventually growing closer and closer as someone behind him, Carter, tackled him onto the ground, making them both slide forward a bit as both of them fought, albeit with him winning due to the fact that he had a green kryptonite tattoo on him.
"How does it feel then, huh? The pain that you're feeling now as I punch you hard in the face," Carter said bitterly, punching him repeatedly in the face as hard as he could. "Because the pain I felt after what you did to me was a thousand times worse."
Daniel then used both of his legs to push him away from him and miraculously succeeded in doing so.
"Where are your lackeys?" Daniel spat, wiping the blood that was running from his mouth and glaring at him menacingly.
"They'll be here eventually," Carter told him, yet again as smug as ever.
He then turned around to see both of his 'lackeys' and smirked in satisfaction as one of them had one of his arms strapped tightly around a girl's neck, a girl that Daniel immediately recognized as…
"Lorraine!" Daniel shouted and began to walk forward, but was stopped by Carter, who stuck his hand out.
"Stay there!" he ordered in complete smugness.
"Okay, just let her go. She's completely innocent," Daniel said, holding his arms up in self-defence.
"No-one is completely innocent," Carter stated and nodded to the 'lackey' that was holding onto her.
"She's got nice tits, huh?" the 'lackey' stated, caressing her left breast, but was quickly interrupted when Lorraine bit his hand and made him yelp in pain.
"She bit me!"
"I'll do a lot worse if you do that, OR anything else along those lines ever again you fucking asshole!" Lorraine threatened.
This threat made the 'lackey' whimper like a little girl and stop trying to sexually harass her in any way, making Daniel sigh in relief, until he realized that they weren't out of danger quite yet.
Although, what happened next was both extremely revolting and horrifying as the 'lackey' holding her started to suddenly spasm violently on the spot, which gave Lorraine the opportunity she needed to escape from his grasp and nobody bothered to stop her as all eyes were transfixed on the person that was having a violent spasm was now bleeding out vast amounts of thick crimson-coloured blood from his ears, eyes and every space available from his body.
This horrifying experience made the other 'lackey' cower in absolute fear and scurry out of their as fast as he could, only to buckle down on his knees and also start to violently spasm and bleed heavily from his eyes, nose etc as well on the floor like the other one too.
Even Carter was stood there frozen in fear as he watched his two best friends' spasm and bleed, until their bodies eventually seemed to 'dissolve' away one layer at a time.
Saying it was extremely horrifying was an understatement.
"No," Carter barely managed to whisper and began sprinting towards a wall, but not before becoming an emerald-coloured astral form for a brief moment and then turning both invisible and intangible.
"You okay, Lorraine? Lorraine?" Daniel asked the feeling and presence of the green kryptonite now completely gone and his strength back again to see that she had passed out and was sprawled on the floor unconscious like Ian and Rene were.
"Great," muttered Daniel in frustration, hoisting her up bridal style into his arms.
*He then super sped out of the school just in time, before the inferno reached a large leftover gas canister for a chemistry class and set off a gigantic explosion that was quickly catching up to him, so with one last push, Daniel managed to out speed the explosion and super leap out of the school building, where numerous students and teachers screamed and shrieked*
"Unngh!" Daniel grunted out to make people believe that the impact had hurt him, even though he didn't feel it.
The crowds of students and teachers then noticed the pair of them covered in dark soot and dirt and came dashing towards them with paramedics in the lead.
"What happened?" one of the paramedics asked, while checking her pulse rate.
"I found her unconscious in the hallways and quickly got her out of there once I realized that there was large leftover gas canister from one of the chemistry classes," Daniel hastily explained, hoping that Lorraine was alright and that's when he remembered about Ian and Rene. "Sir, can you please tell me what happened to two people called Ian Holmes and Rene Smith?"
The paramedic stopped checking her pulse and then replied: "Well, I heard that the Ian kid is in the Smallville Medical Center as we speak, but the Rene girl…"
"What about, Rene?" Daniel demanded, grabbing the sides of the paramedic with both of his arms.
"She's in a critical condition and they're preparing to move her to a hospital in Star City for surgery…" the paramedic began to tell him, but Daniel had already started to run off at a human speed away from the school, until he was definitely sure that no-one could no longer see him, he then super sped towards the Smallville Medical Center as fast as he possibly could.
Smallville Medical Center- (10:15)
The places was bustling with activity as medical staff scurried all over the place to the recent victims of both their usual patients AND the students and teachers of Smallville High.
Daniel stopped just outside the place and immediately dashed towards to the reception lady.
"Excuse me, miss. Do you know where I can find Rene Smith anywhere?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, she's in room number 605," the reception lady answered.
"Thank you," he said and with that he dashed towards room number 605 quickly, desperately hoping that he wasn't too late.
Luckily for him, Daniel was just in time to see a group of doctors and nurses rolling a severely injured and frail-looking Rene out of her room on a stretcher.
She had numerous deep burns in her skin and her right arm and left leg seemed to have been broken as well. Rene also had an oxygen mask attached to her mouth, along with a few nurses helping her out.
Daniel was so distracted with the sight of her so frail and vulnerable-looking, that he didn't notice Ian calling out to him at the other end of the hallway and then running to him.
"Daniel!"
At last, this seemed to snap him out of his thoughts and make him see that Ian was not as badly hurt or injured as Rene was. In fact, if Daniel guessed, he looked as if he was probably the least serious victim of the school fire.
"Ian! How are you? What happened to you?" Daniel bombarded him with questions.
"Whoa, slow down there. Don't worry, I'm fine. I was just sitting in the waiting room for Rene, since I was the one, who…" Ian glanced guiltily at the floor.
"Hey! It wasn't your fault, Ian. It wasn't you're fault that the fire started. It wasn't your fault that some of the roof debris collapsed onto her. It wasn't…"
"Okay, I get it!" Ian shouted and then sighed. "You better go check on her, I heard that their moving her to Star City for some major surgery."
"Yeah, I know. Thanks by the way, for looking after her," Daniel said and ran off to where Rene was.
The stretcher that had Rene lying on it was nearing a white helicopter with a red cross in the middle of a vast green grass field.
Daniel managed to sprint to the stretcher just before Rene was placed inside the helicopter.
"Excuse me, sir, but you're not allowed to go on this helicopter," one of the doctors told him.
"I know I'm not, I just wanted to say goodbye to her, that's all, sir," Daniel replied.
"Who is she exactly? To you, I mean?" the doctor asked him.
"She's my girlfriend," Daniel said casually, trying to lie, yet somehow it felt like the truth to him.
The doctor nodded in understanding at his predicament and after Daniel gave her hand a quick squeeze, he signalled him to step back as they placed Rene inside the helicopter and it began to ascend into the clear blue sky to Star City Main Hospital.
Once the helicopter was out of sight, Daniel super sped all over town with one objective:
Find Carter Jenkins, but first…
He super sped around a corner and discreetly entered 'Logan's Tattoo Parlour', stealing one of the lasers that could remove tattoos.
This'll do the trick, but I need one more thing.
Li residence
Daniel super sped down into the storm cellar to see the small black spaceship on the ground as usual.
"Jor-El!"
The ship then started to glow bright yellow and levitate a meter or so off the ground.
"WHAT IS IT, DANIEL?"
"I need your help, please," Daniel begged.
"WHAT HELP DO YOU REQUEST FROM ME?"
"I need you to help me locate the Crystal of Air. It's my only help in curing a… friend of mine," Daniel explained to the AI.
Jor-El remained ominously silent for a while and then said:
"THE CRYSTAL HAS A BUILT-IN HOMING BEACON INSIDE OF IT THAT ATTRACTS KRYPTONIANS. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CONCERTRATE HARD AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SENSE THE LOCATION OF IT, ALONG WITH THE OTHER CRYSTALS AS WELL."
Upon hearing this advice, Daniel thanked the AI, which stopped glowing and descended back on the ground again slowly and then super sped out of the loft.
*As he was running at super speed, Daniel momentarily closed his and focused on the location of the Crystal. After a while of concentrating extremely hard, he finally managed to hear the familiar high-pitched beacon noise of the crystals and with a start went back to 'accelerated super speed mode'.*
O'Conner Mansion- (10:25)
The place was practically deserted now as Joseph was in Russia negotiating with the leader of the country and most of the bodyguards were either fired or on break somewhere else, so Ben was alone by himself wearing a smart purple polo shirt, a soft black jacket, along with matching pants and a shiny pair of shoes, sitting in his office chair drinking some of his father's whisky by himself, when a gust of wind suddenly whooshed past him.
"What the hell?"
As soon as the gust of wind had gone, Ben immediately started to check all of his pockets for anything missing, especially the Crystal of Air in the top pocket of his jacket.
Unfortunately for him, it wasn't there. This discovery made his eyes widen in shock and then narrow in fury.
"Guards, search the perimeter for ANY intruders, NOW!" Ben ordered into the speaker phone and then slamming it back down in its place.
He then screamed in anger and pushed all of his papers and files off of his desk, huffing loudly and swearing to himself that if he EVER found out who did this, he would kill them mercilessly for what they did to him.
No-one EVER steals from Ben O'Conner. Absolutely nobody!
With the Crystal of Air gripped tightly in his left hand, Daniel smirked as he super sped out of the O'Conner Mansion and began searching every inch of the town again.
Edge of the Smallville Woods - (10:35)
Carter stumbled through the woods as his body gradually grew weaker and weaker, sweat dripping heavily from everywhere in his body.
Can't go to a hospital, everyone would then know about me and what happened, but I need to go somewhere, anywhere.
A thick tree root on the floor managed to shake him out of his thoughts by tripping him up and making him fall on his face.
"Shit," he muttered and then with extreme effort, he got back up on his feet again by also using the tree for balance. "Argh!"
Carter keeled over slightly in agony as he felt a sudden surge of pain run through his body like electricity across a wire.
I have to keep going, I have to…
(Snap!)
He quickly turned around for the any sign of movement nearby, but luckily found none and kept on stumbling out of the woods, until eventually he found himself near the edge of 'Crater Lake' and his knees began to buckle and then drop onto the ground.
"No," Carter gasped and panted hopelessly and began to spasm, although not as violently as his 'lackeys' did earlier.
"Carter!"
Hearing the familiar voice, Carter frantically turned behind him from the view of the beautiful clear lake to see Daniel standing there on the spot with small beads of sweat running slowly down from his forehead and what seemed to be a laser gun from a tattoo parlour in one hand, along with a clear crest-shaped crystal in the other hand.
"What do you want? Argghh!" Carter demanded angrily, but was cut off by another surge of pain and clutched the part of his body that had hurt the most right now, his liver.
"Please, listen to me very carefully. You're body is rejecting the green kryp- meteor rock in that tattoo and in the process it's eating away at itself, because it's using all of its energy to get rid of it, to no luck. These things," Daniel explained and showed him the laser gun and the Crystal of Air. "Can save you, I promise. You just have to trust me on this one. I know we had our differences, but I am trying to save you, I don't want anymore people killed and I think neither do you."
"Why-Why would you want to help me?" Carter panted, his body growing weaker by the coming minute.
"Because," Daniel began to say, while giving him a look of genuine care and concern. "I know that you're a good person inside. I see the way you looked at Rene when you two were together and I saw the fear and instant regret of Lorraine being man-handled. You're a good person, Carter and even though you have done some bad things in the past, but you still hope for the future. I know it."
Carter face expression softened for a moment and then suddenly scrunched up in pain as another more powerful spasm hit him.
This made Daniel dash towards him, only to be stopped abruptly a foot or two away from him by the crippling radiation from the green kryptonite tattoo.
C'mon! There's no stopping now.
Daniel huffed and grunted as every step he got closer, the more the radiation from the tattoo got a little bit stronger.
"Do it," Carter only managed to whimper as the spasm decreased to a certain level for the time being.
Daniel nodded with the sweat on his forehead increasing and placed the Crystal of Air about two or four inches above the tattoo.
"It's going to hurt quite a bit," he warned him.
"Just do it," Carter ordered and bit his lip as preparation for the pain to come.
With the crystal firmly in place, Daniel pointed the laser gun and fired the beam of laser directly through it, which instantely split the beam into four separate smaller, but still powerful beams of hot white beams of light that each shot from the top, left, right and bottom of the tattoo, along with burning the skin in the process that made a few wisps of smoke come out as well.
"Arggghhhh!" Carter screamed and desperately tried to resist removing him arm out of the way.
"Almost there, just hold on for a bit longer," Daniel advised him and kept the laser gun going. "There!"
Daniel stopped the laser and threw it aside a far distance and examined the place where the lasers had it and saw that the tattoo was finally gone. Unfortunately, it left behind a rather serious dark burnt patch of skin behind, but luckily, Daniel came prepared for that as well and pulled out a long strand of clean bandages from one of his pockets and wrapped it tightly around the burnt skin.
"Better?"
"Yeah… thanks by the way and thank you for what you did. I owe YOU one," Carter apologised sincerely and got back up on his feet again.
Daniel nodded and smiled, only to be interrupted by the sound of loud police sirens nearby.
"You gotta, NOW!
Carter looked confused at the sudden change of expression, but he then also heard the sound of nearby police sirens, nodded quickly and darted off somewhere through the forest with Daniel looked on proudly, until he realized that Deputy Banks and the Sherriff were now standing right behind.
Whoa! Looks like I'm not the only one with super speed in this town.
"Ah, Mr. Li, what are you doing here and at this time as well?" Deputy Banks questioned him suspiciously; his eyes were on him like a hawk.
"I just wanted to admire the view of the lake, I mean it is really beautiful at this time of day," Daniel lied casually, looking directly into his eyes to avoid being caught lying.
"Sure is, Deputy Banks. I sometimes do it when I have day off from work," the Sherriff agreed, much to Banks' complete and utter annoyance.
"Then, what are you doing at this time of day? Aren't you supposed to be in school right now?" Deputy Banks asked again, his eyes narrowing even more.
"Um… there was a fire today, so I couldn't," Daniel answered, his eyebrows raised at disbelief at this guy.
Even the Sherriff couldn't believe what his favourite deputy was asking.
"Deputy, I think that's enough questions for now. I don't think the boy knows anything about the situation involving Carter."
"No! He knows something, I know it! He's always there when something happens and believe me, I'm gonna find out why he is," Deputy Banks protested furiously, stormed off into his police vehicle and drove off at a higher that permitted speed.
"Sorry about that, goodbye and have nice day, son," the Sherriff apologised on behalf of the Deputy, got back into his police vehicle and also drove off, albeit at a permitted speed, unlike the Deputy did.
Daniel shrugged at the usual behaviour of the Deputy and super sped back home.
Li Residence- (10:50)
Once he got home, Daniel was ambushed by hugs and kisses from his mother and father, who scolded him for going back inside the school building and almost getting killed by the looks of it and crying in joy to know that their son was alright.
"What happened?" Warren and Janine asked simultaneously.
Daniel then began to carefully and slowly tell them what happened up to the point (maybe avoiding some details) and showed them the Crystal of Air, which made him receive a pat on the back from his dad and another hug from his mom.
"Wait, so Rene didn't see you right?" Warren asked anxiously and judging by his son's sheepish facial expression, she probably did.
"She sort of did," Daniel admitted, scratching the back of head.
Warren sighed and then told him: "You have to be more careful the next time, son. If anyone finds out about your secret, you could put the ones you love and care about, like Renee or Ian, in serious danger."
Daniel nodded and a brilliant idea popped up in his head.
"Hey mom, I'm gonna take a shower now, can you please wash my clothes? They're pretty dirty and covered in soot from the school fire. Anyway, my point is that can you stitch my light brown plaid jacket with my bright red one so that you can flip them inside out repeatedly, please," Daniel asked his mother, who kindly nodded, despite the how unusual the request was and got to work immediately with it.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Janine immediately started to get to work with what Daniel had requested, since she sort of finally got an idea on what he had in mind.
Li Residence, loft- (21:50)
The night sky was as beautiful and yet mysterious as ever with the heavens shone brightly, due to the fact that there was little light pollution coming from Smallville. It was a truly magnificent sight to behold. Daniel stood there, bent down at an angle to peer through his telescope to see more clearly at the heavens. Daniel was now wearing his light brown plaid jacket and a light blue and white chequered flannel shirt. Everything else was the same as before, but cleaner. As Daniel gazed up at Venus in space, he heard the distance sound of footsteps and the familiar aroma of melted chocolate and lavender.
Renee.
This made Daniel smile and turn behind him to where Renee was, until it made him grow very concerned for her wellbeing as he soon realized that she was still probably recovering from her surgery, along with her other injuries and shouldn't be here, so he decided to make her go back home as quickly and carefully as possibly. And there she was standing there, supported by crutches and with most of her torso wrapped with clean bandages, along with one or two plasters stuck on her forehead. Renee was only wearing an olive green t-shirt, a loose pair of baggy navy-coloured pants and pink sneakers.
You're Beautiful - James Blunt
(Beginning Music)
My life is brilliant.
Renee hobbled over to him on her crutches, only to be lifted up and placed near him next to the edge of the loft, just below the starry night sky.
My love is pure.
"Thanks," Renee said with pure sincerity in her voice.
"For what?" Daniel asked in confusion.
I saw an angel,
Of that I'm sure…
"Everything," Renee answered and then added with a smirk: "So, I'm your girlfriend now, huh?"
Daniel, who realized that she heard about earlier in the helicopter, turned beet red and avoided gazing at her, especially her dazzling eyes.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that, it's just…"
You're beautiful!
You're beautiful, it's true.
But Daniel was cut off when Renee suddenly launched her lips onto his and they kissed passionately, their tastes combining and their tongues exploring each other's mouths excitedly.
I saw your face,
In a crowded place.
"No, we can't do this," Daniel gasped, letting go from the kiss, much to the Renee's disappointment. "I'm sorry, but I just… can't."
When Daniel said that, Renee looked absolutely crestfallen and cursed herself mentally for probably screwing in some way and so, they just stood there and gazed up at the starry night sky silently without a single word, until it was time for her to go back home again.
And I don't know what to do,
Cause I'll never be with you.
(End music)
A/N: Thank you for all your support and stay tuned for the next 'episode'!