Chapter 21

Clark had saved everyone at the ball and he raced away from there using his ability to now see different waves from the electromagnetic spectrum and his super hearing to pin point Gloria's location.

"She is in the greenhouse" Clark thought to himself. In less than a second he raced into the green house and he snatched Gloria and raced her to a field far away from where people lived, he knew he could battle her here and no civilians would be hurt.

"You think you stopped me kryptonian? I'll destroy you and then go back and finish off all of those people" Gloria said laughing an evil laugh. Clark couldn't help but grin

"You couldn't destroy me before and you can't destroy me now, those vines trapped me but they couldn't suck the life out of me like they can the others, I'm a bit different aren't I Gloria?" Clark replied with a confident almost sinister tone. Gloria hated to admit it but the kryptonian was right, if her vines could have killed him, they would have.

"It doesn't matter kryptonian, I'll trap you with so many vines you'll never be able to escape" Clark laughed at her

"Haha, I don't think so" Gloria let out an evil growl and sneer

"WE'LL SEE YOU FOOL" yelled Gloria and then suddenly vines started coming up through the field all around the open space vines were coming up through the ground. Clark only smirked and he stood in place. Clark quickly activated his heat vision too an extremely hot temperature and spun his body around at almost the speed of light completely scorching the field and melting all of her vines. Gloria was furious

"NO, HOW COULD YOU?" Gloria screamed. Clark gave a confident grin

"Easy, I tried blasting them before and they grew back, I realized that I had to melt them completely to make sure they didn't grow back".

"I HATE YOU KRYPTONIAN" Gloria yelled. Clark didn't care that he made an evil creature who just tried to kill innocent people angry and he raised his voice in anger.

"YOU COME HERE AND TRY TO KILL INNOCENT PEOPLE, I'M NOT GOING TO ALLOW IT" Clark yelled which took Gloria by surprise and also scared her a bit.

Clark then proceeded to run around Gloria extremely fast which caused a tornado to circle around Gloria at crazy speeds, Clark then started firing small shots of his heat vision into the tornado causing it to heat up.

"If electricity is its weakness, then mixing heat with kinetic energy should produce lightning" Clark thought to himself. Gloria tried to escape but the wind was too strong, and then she tried to call upon more vines to come attack but the ground was too scorched for them to come up, she was trapped and she knew it, for the first time she experienced true fear at the hands of the kryptonian.

"What is he, how can he produce this much power" Gloria thought to herself in her final moments.

Clark noticed that lighting strikes were now coming from the tornado and they were striking Gloria and he could see that she was slowly disappearing so he increased his speed further literally setting the ground on fire at intensity of the speed he was going. Lightning strikes came more suddenly from the tornado finally destroying Gloria and saving the planet. When Clark realized she was destroyed he stopped running. He looked around at the field that was destroyed, he thought about the saves at the charity ball and finally he thought about the new powers he had gained recently

"I'm becoming more powerful, almost week by week" Clark thought to himself. Clark surveyed the destruction some more and he thought to himself

"I have to be careful". Clark then text his mom and Lori and he let them know that he was ok even though he realized they probably already knew he was ok, he figured it was still the right thing to do to let them know. He then went home

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Clark was in the kitchen when Lori and his mother got home from the ball. Both of them looked at him knowing it was him who saved everyone but Lori wasn't sure if she should tell Mrs. Kent that she knew Clark's secret and Martha didn't know that Lori already knew.

"Mom there is something I have to tell you, actually a lot of things" Martha looked at her son both with love and gratefulness, and with awe because she had never seen him use his powers like that before.

"What is it Clark?" Martha asked curious with Lori standing by her wondering what Clark was about to say.

"I told Lori my secret" Clark said with a firm voice, Martha was very surprised and so was Lori.

"How much did you tell her Clark?" asked Martha concerned about too many people knowing Clark's secret.

"I told her almost everything mom, my powers, krypton, being the last of my kind, all the major stuff" Clark said with a small smile realizing just how crazy his life was. Martha then looked over at Lori

"How do you feel about all of this" Martha asked hoping that Lori would be ok with it since she was really liking Lori being with Clark.

"I'm great with it Mrs. Kent, I think Clark is totally amazing" Lori then looked over at Clark and said

"It was you that saved everyone at the charity ball, that was extraordinary Clark".

"Thank you Clark, you saved everyone but people were scared and shocked by what happened, you showed so much power tonight and with so many people around they didn't know how to explain it, it shook them…to their core" Martha said to her son worried that his recent saves would land her son too far into the public eye.

"What was that thing?" Lori asked remembering the horrible vines that came up out of the ground. Clark looked at her remembering the events of the evening himself and he replied

"It was a phantom Lori, from a place called the phantom zone, I was sent there once right before Dark Thursday".

Martha looked at her son and she could see that he was feeling guilty, she could see the guilt in his eyes but she could also see something else, a new strength in his heart and his soul. Martha could tell by looking at Clark that more was going on with him then he was letting on, she knew by looking at him that something had changed within her son, she could tell it by the look in his eyes and his amazing display of his powers earlier in the evening.

Martha was worried that maybe after all the time he spent feeling alone, and all the time he spent feeling guilty that maybe something had cracked in him, that maybe there was something underneath the surface that wanted to take over. Martha had seen a determination in Clark since the events of Dark Thursday that surprised her and worried her, he was using his powers in a way now that wasn't so secretive and she knew especially after the way she heard Lois, Lex, Lana, and Oliver talk tonight that people were going to catch on that there was a being with super powers out there. Martha was worried for her son for many reasons.

"What's the phantom zone, and how were you sent there?" Lori asked wondering what was going on. Clark understood that there would be a lot of questions, and he was ok with that, he loved Lori and he wanted to be honest with her

"The phantom zone is place for alien criminals to be sent to, an enemy of mine named Zod sent me there so that he could try to conquer the earth" Clark said knowing how insane this all would sound to someone.

Lori was amazed at what she just heard, but she was still curious to know more about the man she loved.

"Who is Zod, and how did this phantom escape" Lori asked curious about her boyfriend and about the whole situation. Clark realized that there would be a lot of questions to answer and a lot of explaining to do. Clark just hoped that by the end of it he wouldn't scare Lori away, he loved her and he couldn't stand the thought of losing her.