Chapter 12

Buffy hated being impotent.

And right now, she was watching a fight she wouldn't even be of use in. Clark Kent really wasn't human. At first she hadn't really bought it. An Alien? Pfft... yeah, whatever. Right now, she as starting to wonder if maybe he was a demon or something. But, the thing was, every demon she had come across, she was pretty much capable of going toe to toe with, provided she was armed.

But when Buffy watched concrete bubble and melt under his gaze, she knew that if she were to fight him, she would be destroyed without even time to react.

Because for all her power, compared to a normal person, she was still human. Just a little different. Clark clearly wasn't. A tide of molten glass caught the hideously mutated Caleb's feet; Buffy couldn't even see the non-human. The glass suddenly cooled, with a sound like a summer breeze. Cracks appeared, as steam escaped through the rapidly cooled glass. Caleb snarled something in a tongue older than man, and tried to take a step on his glass encrusted feet. He kept slipping around, his awkward, mutated body's crappy balance working against him.

"It's unbelievable, isn't it?" A familiar voice muttered behind her. She whirled around, two stakes already in her hands. Riley Finn, ex-monster hunter, stood behind her. He grinned at her, a little sheepishly.

"Riley? But... What are you doing here?" Buffy was shocked. He was probably the last person she expected to see here.

"Well, long story short, I was working for Luthorcorp, well, it's Lexcorp now, as a mutant hunter. Lex fell in with a bad crowd, and I defected."

"Bad crowd?"

"The First Evil and its gang."

"Yeah, bad crowd."

"Actually, we met it at this crazy crime scene, thousands of demons annihilated-"

"10,753, to be honest"

Both humans jumped. They saw Clark walk surprisingly calmly over to them, looking a little whiter than usual, from the lead rubbed into his skin. The scar on his chest had already healed into invisibility, and he had a small, sad smile on his face.

"I've got him pretty much immobilized, and he's not the brightest bulb in the box. His feet, knees, and his hands are covered in glass. He can't get a grip, and since he's only got close range stuff, he-"

"How can you tell it's male?" Riley blurted in his nervousness. This was the creature that ripped through armies of demons with nary a thought. The ex-monster hunter was practically wetting himself in terror.

"X-ray vision. It allows me to see a lot of things. His skeleton is still mostly human; it's just got all these growths off of it. It hurts him just to move... I can see that the electricity flow up his nerves to his brain is consistent with pain levels somewhere in the realm of getting your arm cut off by a rusty spoon and beheading by belt-sander..." The super-human shrugged his shoulders. He was still lower on energy than he would like, but things were going in his favor right now. It would take the horror in the newly cooled glass hours to move anywhere; Clark only needed minutes.

"Hey, Clark, Xander said you mentioned someone named Lana..." Buffy asked, "Is she... like you?"

The alien looked at his feet. After precisely 240 beats of his heart, he was calm enough to answer. He leveled his inhuman gaze at the Slayer, face still, as though carved from diamond.

"No, Lana was... She was my girlfriend. She died today," Clark sighed, "A brain hemorrhage, when I stopped the nuclear plant from melting down."

"Oh, God... I'm so sorry," The Slayer prime silently cursed her immense ability to put her foot in her mouth. That was possibly the absolute worst way to lose someone you care about dearly, if you're the hero type. Clark Kent was born with the 'good guy' genes in spades.

"Thank you. Do either of you know where I can find the First Evil?" Clark asked, his tone even.

Buffy shook her head, though Riley nodded.

"Last I saw of it, it was screwing with Lex's mind," The monster hunter answered, still a little scared, "I think they're still in L.A."

"And what exactly is the First Evil?"

"Well," Buffy scratched her head, "Basically it's an insubstantial wraith-thingy that can take the form of dead people. I think it can cast magic too," Riley nodded.

"A 'wraith-thingy'? I have an idea, I think. However, If you would tell all your forces to retreat back about 400 yards, and get any friendly Vampires under serious cover. I suspect things are going to get sunnier soon," Clark then stepped off the building, and floated.

"The First Evil didn't think to put a roof on its prison," The Alien told the Chosen One, "After all, humans can't fly."

--

General Lane was a cinch to convince. Ironically, Chloe and Lois had arrived about an hour before the first real reports from Metropolis. Lois Lane was feeling pretty good about herself. She completed the mission, and had gotten enough evidence to prove that Clark was different. Now if only Chloe would stop stonewalling, things would be on a serious turn for the better.

Except for the whole 'Metropolis is being destroyed by crazies' thing.

Chloe was enjoying her second ride in an Abrams tank. Lois grinned. Clark better give her answers... or else...

--

The steam burns had already begun to heal and Caleb was just as frustrated as he was before the fight began in earnest. Hellfire, that human-thing was powerful. The only damn reason Caleb even had a shot at killing it was because the First had protected him against its attacks. And to be entirely honest, the failed preacher knew this in his bones. Even with all the protections, the mutated monstrosity couldn't react fast enough to keep up with the alien's speed. Nor its brains. There was a hundred feet of broken glass for him to crawl through, just so that he would have a shot at keeping his balance. He couldn't even get enough leverage to stomp the glass off of his feet.

In some ways Caleb was glad that the alien was on the other side. First of all, even though a creature with that much raw power for an ally would make everything easier, it also meant that he would have had to compete with the damn thing for his master's affection, for which an evil version of his foe would have killed him. Without mercy.

Second of all, Caleb didn't play second string to no-one. Never.

And third... Caleb was a human, even if he didn't look or act like one in the strictest sense. There was a small, stagnant, hidden part of himself that felt bad about hurting people and generally wreaking havoc. A very secret, desolate part to be sure, and one that he'd never listened to. He was starting to fear retribution, not feel remorse. The fact of the matter was that he couldn't feel guilt since his daddy had hit him in the head with a car. After the operation and subsequent investigation, Caleb had been a new boy. An evil, twisted little boy.

But ever since his dad got carted off to jail on child abuse charges and attempted murder, there had been no-one who could put fear into the little boy's heart. Now, he was finally starting to think that all of his actions just might have consequences... And he began to feel young again. Not in a good way, either.

--

"What's wrong?" Lex asked curiously. The First suddenly looked like it had swallowed a bug. It started switching forms rapidly, finally settling on Lionel Luthor's form. His grimace could have murdered someone.

"My enemy is gone. He escaped. I severely underestimated him," The Lionel figure rubbed his hands together, "Apparently he can fly. I didn't know that. And that is a dangerous thing. How was he capable of-"

"Hey, First. Catch."

And so the First Evil of Earth found itself fighting for eternity with the Last Evil of Krypton in a small blackish crystal.

The crest of the House of El.

"Looks like that stopover at the north pole was worth it," Clark grinned to himself. He looked at Lex's unconscious body on the ground, breathing steadily. The bruise was on the back of the jaw, just below the ear. Clark shook his head and picked up the symbol of his birthworld with a handkerchief. He left Lex to sleep off the knockout tap that Lex had in fact taught Clark when they were still friends. Irony abounds when you're practically invincible.

Fortunately, despite his ruthlessness, Lex Luthor had a heartbeat to lock onto. When he got close enough he could even hear the First Evil conversing with the genius. Sometimes, Clark really was thankful for his super hearing.

--

Suddenly Caleb screamed. And didn't stop. He couldn't balance properly, even with his tail. He could barely lift one of his normal arms. His scythe-claw was already starting to rot off. He couldn't speak human words anymore, his monstrous anatomy made that impossible. He begged for help, but it came out as more screams. And there stood the super-human, who watched as the abomination rotted away. Caleb screamed for his father as he disappeared.

"So that's it?" Buffy all but growled. He could have ended it at any time. She realized that it would have gone against his character, but he could have just flown through the storm clouds, and basically been home scott free, even if he left the people to die at the hands of the vampiric army. He didn't, but Buffy really wished she... she didn't know what she felt right now, but she envied the alien. He could run away from it all if he wanted to. The fact that he didn't... it made Buffy almost admire him.

"The only thing left is dealing with the Army," Clark said quietly, "The good vampires are out of the sun, right?"

"Yeah, they have been since you gave the warning," Riley scratched his head, "Don't worry about the Army, I got them covered. Normal people have got to be good for something."

Clark smiled.

--

General Lane was surprised to see Lt. Finn, and when he heard the code phrase that was agreed between the Monster Hunter units and regular army officers, he rendered all reasonable assistance without asking questions. He knew enough to figure out that he wouldn't like the answers, if any were given. His unit quickly began to act as relief, building shelters, medical teams treated the wounded from the disaster (surprisingly few), and infantry cleared away the rubble.

He watched as his daughter searched for her friend, the Kent boy, in the masses of survivors. Sam actually liked the boy quite a bit. He was nice, smart, honest, tough, and just inept enough to not be arrogant. If anything, the boy was a little easy to scare, but it didn't seem to hold long before he got himself under control.

Lois had been having a tough time with him lately, something about secrets and craziness, but General Sam Lane was pretty sure that it would all blow over. Young girls tended to overreact to everything.

--

"So, the First Evil is bound in the crystal?" Giles asked.

"Yep! I wasn't a hundred percent sure, but given what you guys told me about the thing, I though there was a good chance it would work," Clark grinned, "And since all the spells it slung around no longer had a power source..."

"They'd collapse," Willow nodded, "Still, that was really kinda risky."

"Yeah, our lives were kinda on the line. I would have liked to have known, so that I could whine and complain about it longer," Xander groused. Honestly, he was pretty okay with the risky business that he'd gotten himself involved with. He'd grown up knowing he might die the next day; Sunnyhell was like that. Him being an adult now didn't change anything. Aww... who was he kidding. He wasn't an adult. He was still that goofy kid in high school who had no social skills. Xander liked it that way.

"I'll keep that in mind if this sort of thing happens again," Clark commented. It turned out that he possessed a very dry sense of humor. Some of the survivors trundled by them, continuing down the street to get medical aid.

"You know... I think Buffy is a little angry at you. You kinda stole her thunder. She's the one who usually rides in, saving everyone by the seat of her pants," Xander's one eye sort of softened. He sympathized with Buffy a little. He'd felt inferior since he was a kid, thanks to whole situation with his family. He knew what it was like to realize that you were outclassed. So far, Clark Kent was the top of the line when it comes to raw power. Buffy would have to grow up and get over the kid's abilities. She would eventually.

"Yeah... I kinda got that impression. She makes her friends by saving them from evil monsters right?" Clark looked at the old friends.

Giles nodded, Xander shrugged, and Willow giggled.

"I make my friends the same way. She's probably not used to being damsel in distress," the Kryptonian laughed, tinged with a little sadness.

"CLARK KENT! YOU HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO, BUSTER!"

All four people twitched as a storm named Lois Lane began her final approach on the unassuming alien. She had been put off, ignored, lied to, and above all, she wanted answers. Real answers. Not shoddy deflections and flat out untruths. Lois wanted nothing short of a fountain of veracity. What Lois Lane wanted, Lois Lane got, damn the consequences. If she had more of an inkling about what kinda situation she was charging into... maybe she would have done things different. Maybe.

"Hello, Lois. I'm glad you brought the help I asked for," Clark drawled. It came out a little off, but Lois payed it no mind.

"You. Explain. Now," Lois growled.

"I wanted the army so that they could help with the aftermath, and I wanted you out of the city so you were safe," The alien smiled, "And there wasn't time for a full explanation. I was working under a deadline, per se."

The intrepid reporter threw her hands up in the air, and stomped on the rubble that littered the ground. She knew he was making fun of her. He had his own little private joke, almost certainly at her expense. Lois Lane would not be made fun of. Her hair-trigger temper was infamous when she'd gone through boot camp. This little coward of a farm boy simply didn't have a chance.

"Deflect all you want, but the truth will come out. Chloe knows, and I can get her to tell me. I know I can. But I'm giving you a chance to stop running away and actually face whatever the hell is going on. You don't keep secrets from friends! You just don't!"

"Lois."

"It's like you're two different people! One half of Clark Kent is a rather nice, innocent, happy-go-lucky, awkward guy. But then all these little things come up, like how the hell did you become friends with Lex Luthor, of all people? How do you seem to show up at every single weird thing that happens in a 100 mile radius? How the hell do you survive half of the stuff you do? What's the other half of Clark Kent?"

"Lois."

"What could possibly be so bad that you have to hide away from everyone you know?" Lois looked suspiciously at the farm boy, "Does Lana know?"

Clark closed his eyes, "Yes. Lana knew."

Giles took off his glasses, mumbling something vaguely insulting about Americans. Willow slammed her hand into her face. Xander just gaped at the assertive girl haranguing a creature that could kill her with a glance. Did she seriously just go there? Bringing in the dead girlfriend rarely got the answers.

"Then how could it possibly... be..." Lois Lane noticed a distinct shift in temperature. Suddenly Clark's statement hit her. Past Tense. Lois gulped a bit, "Lana knew? Why the past tense? She die or something?"

"Oh. My. God. Ms. Lane, you've just inserted your foot though your mouth and out your ass," Xander actually groaned.

"Yes, Lois, Lana is dead," There was something so final about the way he said it, almost like a piece of his soul had died the moment he found out. Lois' breath caught in her throat.

"Oh. Oh geez. I- I'm sorry. Are you okay? Oh yeah... Bad question... Uh... I'll come back later. Yeah," The intrepid reporter backed away, slowly-ish.

"No, I'll tell you now. I might as well, since you obviously won't stop until you find out. I'm an alien, as in from another planet. My planet was destroyed along with most of my people. I came in with the meteor shower in Smallville in 1989. I get this funky high from the yellow sun Earth orbits around, and quite simply I'm a superman, better, faster, smarter, stronger, tougher, all of that. I survived mostly because it's pretty much impossible to hurt me," Clark picked up a bit of piping from the piles of rubble in the area, and made a balloon dog out of it at super speed, "Are you happier now?"

Clark was gone. The metal dog sat at Lois' feet.

"Holy shit," Lois very nearly fainted.