A/N: Leech will last about two chapters. Three at the most. After that we finally reach Obscura and Tempest, which are the most important parts of the story.

Maggie Sawyer entered her empty apartment and let out a long yawn. After the night she had all she wanted was to plop down in her bed and stay there. As she was about to enter her bedroom there was a gust of wind that nearly blew her off her feet.

"What the?" Maggie thought wondering where that gust of wind could've come from. She looked down at her feet and saw a note next to them. She picked it up and read it.

You're welcome for the save earlier today.

Signed,

A friend

"A friend huh?" Maggie thought then tossed the note aside. She was too tired right now to wonder about the existence of some sort of super human.

Several weeks later

It was a normal outing for the class of Smallville High. They had gone on a 'field trip' of sorts to the woods. Their teacher Mr. Summers sent them all on a rock hunt. The class was less than enthusiastic until he offered to award bonus credit to anyone that could find a meteor rock. After that the class was very much obedient. They nearly ran over each other exiting the bus. Chloe for one had had enough experience with these meteor rocks to last her a life time. Just recently the newest meteor freaks to be added to the wall have been Jeff Palmer, who could make himself invisible, and Bob Rickman and Kyle Tippet, who could make anyone do what they wanted with a single hand shake. The strangest thing about the infected that didn't die was that they seemingly disappeared after being sent to Belle Reeve; vanished without a trace. Chloe would be lying to herself if she said she wasn't curious as to what became of them, but she got the feeling that if she investigated this she'd be getting a lot more than she bargained for.

For now she needed to stay focused on the task at hand; passing her class. She and Jimmy paired up with one another to track down the rocks they needed and all they needed were two more.

"Make that one," Chloe thought finding another.

"How many does that leave?"

"You should know Jimmy. We're working together on this."

"Jimmy. I'm not Jimmy."

"Very funny…" Chloe turned around and saw she wasn't looking at Jimmy…sort of… he looked exactly like him. "Eric. Sorry I thought you were Jimmy for a second."

"Why would you think that?" He asked.

"Is he serious?" Chloe wondered.

"Hey Chloe!" Jimmy called out to her and ran over to her side. "How's the hunt going?"

"Just fine," she said looking from Jimmy to Eric.

"What?" They both asked simultaneously.

"Are you two blind? You look exactly alike," Chloe stated as if it were obvious.

"Really?" They asked at the same time and then looked each other over.

"I don't see it," Jimmy said.

"Me neither," Eric agreed and walked off. Chloe watched Eric walk away. He always seemed so distant from everyone else. Probably because some of the football players saw him as their own personal punching bag.

On another side of the forest Lana was working together with Pete, Clark, and Tess. They had just one more rock to find; of course it would be kryptonite. Pete suggested that they could just turn in Lana's necklace as a joke and wound up getting hit over the head as a result. They decided to split up as the storm clouds rolled in. Clark was with Pete and Lana was with Tess.

"Hey Tess," Lana said to her.

"Yes Lana?" Tess replied.

"I was just wondering. What do you think of Clark?"

"What do I think of Clark?" Tess repeated. "Well I think he's a pretty nice. Probably the nicest out of anyone in the school," she replied while not making any real eye contact with Lana. She had a feeling that Lana might like Clark. Only problem was that she liked him as well. Neither she nor Clark had actually talked about what happened during the Nicodemus incident. Tess remembered their two heated moments very vividly and even had a few dreams about them finishing what they started some nights. She felt something towards him, but wondered if he was just caught up in the moment of things. She wanted to ask him about it, but was too nervous to do so. "Why do you ask?" Tess asked her.

"No reason," was Lana' response. She went to check around a couple of trees. As she checked behind one she thought she saw something green buried underneath some leaves. She moved them and saw a meteor rock. She turned her head and shouted, "Hey Tess! I found one!" Her attention diverted Lana didn't notice the rock glow as her hand got closer to it. Once again like the time before the glow died out when she turned back to the rock. "That's weird. The rock appeared to be a lighter shade of green a few seconds ago," Lana thought. A sudden flash of lightning and clap of thunder made Lana jump a little.

"Maybe we should be getting back to the bus," Tess suggested.

"You can say that again," Lana said grabbing the rock. The two of them met up with Clark and Pete at the bus where everyone, but Eric, was in.

"He can't be far. I'll go find him," Clark volunteered.

"Are you sure Clark? What about the storm?" Tess asked concerned.

"I'll be fine," he said and rushed off to find Eric. Once he was out of sight Clark went super speed.

Eric Summers stood on the edge of the dam holding onto one of the meteor rocks he came across. He contemplated whether or not he should jump. It's not like anyone would miss him. He made up his mind and was about to go over the edge when Clark sped onto the scene.

"Eric! Don't!" He called out to his classmate. Eric was surprised that someone had bothered to come find him and nearly stepped away from the edge when lightning struck just next to the spot he was standing on. Eric slipped and Clark dove to catch him. Just then lightning struck Clark. The rock Eric was holding onto started to glow brightly as Clark pulled Eric over the edge of the dam. He saw part of Eric's jacket looked like it was on fire, but when he tried to put it out Clark retracted his hand.

"OW!" Clark gasped. "Ow?" He repeated realizing that hurt. It actually hurt.

Clark thought that maybe his powers were just glitching; that they would be back to normal the following day. But he was very wrong. He found himself incapable of moving his dad's stuck truck. He even got a bloody nose from trying to move it. Now Clark was running the bleachers for gym class. He was tired, sweaty, and his bones were aching more than the time he went head to head with super powered Whitney. Now he was hobbling over into the locker room; cramping up for the first time. He spotted Eric and decided to talk to him.

"Hey Eric."

"Hey Clark. I never got a chance to thank you for yesterday. If you hadn't shown up I would've made an incredibly stupid decision," he said.

"No problem. Are you feeling alright since then?" Clark asked.

"Yeah. Never better; in fact I feel like a new man," Eric said with a smile. "Clark; your nose is bleeding," he said noticing the blood flowing from it. Clark put a hand up to his nose to stop the blood and stumbled out of the locker room to go to the nurse's office. Eric looked back at the machine he was on and set the weight on it to maximum. He lifted it easily without even exerting himself. He smiled for what felt like the first time in years.

Clark exited the locker once again bumping into Tess.

"You seem to have a habit of running into me, Clark," she said to him, but then saw his nose. "Your nose is bleeding. Are you alright?" She asked in concern.

"Yeah. Just working a little too hard," he said to her.

"I can see that. You look like a machine that's been running on a nearly everlasting power supply and has suddenly been switched to an emergency backup system," she said.

"You have no idea," Clark thought. He then felt really dizzy and almost fell down. Lucky for him Tess caught him.

"Easy there Clark. I have you," Tess said holding him up. Clark was surprised that she was able to keep him steady.

"Pretty strong there," he said.

"Guess I don't know my own strength," Tess half joked. She flashed back to that day a few weeks ago. She somehow massacred all of those men without breaking a sweat. Where did she get that power from? As Tess helped him to the nurse's office Clark wondered if he should talk to her about the Nicodemus incident. She hadn't mentioned it since she recovered at the hospital, which made Clark wonder if she remembered those particular details of the event at all.

Later that day

Today could be described as one of the best days of Eric Summers' life. For the first time ever he outshined the football players in gym class, which actually got him some admiration from the girl he's been crushing on since the beginning of the year. Now he was standing outside of building drinking a soda and minding his own business when he heard someone scream. He saw a man rush by him followed by Chloe and Pete. Wanting to help Eric started to run and then found himself standing in front of the guy cutting him off; looks like he's more than just strong. The guy pulled out a knife and tried to stab Eric, but he lifter up his hand shattering the weapon. As the dumbfounded criminal looked at what remained of his knife Eric took Chloe's bag away from him and tossed him into the side of a truck knocking the guy out.

"Here you go Chloe," he said handing her back her computer bag. Chloe just looked purely shocked. Eric's speed, strength, and invulnerability; was she wrong about Clark? Had Eric been the meteor freak this entire time?

Luthor Corp.

"Any reason why you wanted me to come down here with you, boss?" Rudy asked Lex as they exited the elevator in one of the lower levels of the Luthor Corp. building.

"You're the one that gave us the disk Rudy. I think it's only fitting that you get to see what we've found out about it so far," Lex explained to him. They walked into a lab with at least a dozen scientists in it. They stepped towards a window and the other side of it was the disk being held up in the air over a container of chemicals. "We've exposed this thing to virtually every substance known to man and it's had no affect on the disk at all," Lex explained. "Observe." One of the scientists pressed a button on the control pad and the disk was lowered into chemicals labeled 'dangerous and harmful.' The disk was kept in there for twenty seconds and was then lifted out of the chemicals; it was completely unharmed. "You may have stumbled onto the greatest find ever Rudy," Lex said to him when suddenly the alarm started blasting.

"What's wrong! ?" Rudy asked nervously.

"The temperatures for the chemicals are starting to rise uncontrollably. They're going to blow!" One of the scientists yelled already running away from the glass. Rudy tried to run, but one of the other scientists knocked him down. He turned over just as the chemicals exploded and broke through the glass; covering him from head to toe.

To Be Continued…

A/N: I could resist doing the Jimmy and Eric thing. For those of you who don't know/ don't remember, the actors that play Jimmy and Eric are twin brothers.