Chapter 21

Secret SHIELD Facility(Yes, another one, your taxpayer dollars at work)...

The question that should be asked is not that SHIELD has numerous secret facilities but which ones are so secret that even other parts of the spy organisation don't know they exist.

Especially when the one who has been running this facility is the robotic duplicate of Commander Maria Hill.

Right now 'she' is completely in character to fulfil her role as she stands in a large room with huge metal coils, an elaborate chair/table with varying restraints and a large machine suspended above it, arguing with a fairly elderly scientist by the name of Dr Lawrence Grady.

"You promised me that you'd bring me my son back, alive and unharmed!" he is ranting at Hill.

"And we shall," Hill replies coolly. "But perhaps you should remember whose carelessness allowed him to run free in the first place," she retorts accusatory.

"He is my son. Not a prisoner," Dr Grady argues.

"He is a danger to himself and to others," Hill explains it. "Then again it is hardly his fault I suppose. After all he wasn't the one who experimented on himself now, was he?" she reminds him of his actions.

Grady's face goes almost purple. "What I did was for his own good. To remove the traumatic memories of his brother's death," he justifies himself.

"And in the process you mutated his DNA, granting him the ability to mimic your memory realignment technology with a flick of his hand. An ability we don't know the limit of. What if he can wipe the memories of the population of an entire city? Imagine the chaos. Or worse, his abilities in the hands of our enemies. With a flick of his hand he could neutralise an entire army," she lays out some of the potential dangers as she sees them.

"We have no evidence he is capable of anything on that scale," Dr Gray argues.

"We have no evidence he isn't," Hill retorts. She gets right in his his face. "Remember this, Doctor, it is only my grace and generosity that made sure what you really got up to at Summerholt remains secret. You, and by extension your son, do what you're told or the police will conveniently find the tapes of your 'sessions' on both your son and the other patients under your care. Am I clear?" she asks him, her tone hard and cold.

"Yes," Dr Grady says, his voice and posture humbled.

"Good," Hill says. "Now we shall retrieve your son. I'll make sure of that. You just do what you were brought here for and finish perfecting your technology. I am not unaware of its significance. Such a unique device requires detailed analysis and the results collected for posterity."

"Yes...ma'am," Dr Grady says a little snidely.

Hill narrows her eyes and glares at him momentarily before turning and departing. Kevin Grady is a unique specimen that must be captured, contained, preserved...collected and she will make sure that happens.

At the Institute...

Leslie is not so irresponsible that she doesn't take Clark back home. As for how her claim to be his girlfriend will stack up amongst people who know she isn't...well she never really thinks that far ahead. She's more an 'in the moment' sort of person. She'll figure something out, she's sure. Point is even she realised he needs help...and if he ever regains his memories she can demonstrate that she can be just as responsible as him. That she can be a hero too and show that she really is perfect for him.

And if he doesn't regain his memories...well he'll never be able to refute her claim to be his girlfriend, will he?

Anyway right now she is outside the infirmary explaining things to the relevant people while Clark is inside being examined.

"So let me understand this," Professor Xavier tries to summarise this in some sort of order. Leslie tends to be kinda scatter-brained and jumps around in her explanations so nothing is quite in the right order. "You went to help a young man being chased by unknown armed men. A young man who turned out to be a mutant with some kind of ability to alter memories and he 'zapped' Clark, to use your words, who now has complete amnesia. You also believe this young man may well be responsible for your own missing memories."

"You got it doc," Leslie congratulates him on nailing it. "It was the green flash," she gives her explanation. "As you know that's all I can remember; a green flash. It has to be him and when I get my hands on him..."

Charles cuts her off. "Yes, yes, I can imagine," he stops her train of thought. His expression grows deeply contemplative. Who was chasing this young man? And why? And what precisely is the nature of this power he seems to possess? And what has he done to Clark? Leslie is missing a few memories. Clark is seemingly missing everything. He'll have to wait and see what Hank comes up with.

While that conversation is going on Clark is trying to come to terms with everything. He has a mother and a father and a sister who were now with him...and while he has no memory of them he has an instinct that he can trust them...though his sister is kinda annoying.

Course he is also trying to absorb the revelation of this school and the appearance of his doctor. "So let me get this straight," he addresses Beast. "You are a mutant. A branch of humanity with an extra gene that grants you extraordinary abilities and sometimes physical alterations."

"That is a very brief summary but accurate," Beast confirms for him.

"And this is a school where you help people learn to control their abilities?"

"We do much more than that but that is part of it, of course."

"And I live here?" he asks his parents who nod. "So am I a mutant?"

Jonathan and Martha share a look. They had tried to keep the summary as distinct as possible for him but they hadn't thought about what to tell him about what he is. This situation is unbelievable enough. However, they have gone through the whole amnesia thing before when Jor-El released Clark after those 3 months a couple of years back and they coped. In fact this might be easier because at least this time they have a vague idea what happened whereas they didn't have a clue what Jor-El had done.

Jonathan goes and sits on the bed beside his son, placing a hand on Clark's shoulder. "Son. It's more complicated than that. You do have abilities, quite a few of them actually but not because you're a mutant."

"Then how do I have abilities?"

"Because you're an alien."

Clark just stares at his dad...before he chuckles. "Oh right. Good one," he laughs. "You really had me going," he says, thinking it is a joke.

Martha joins her husband on the bed beside her son. "Honey, it's true. We found you as an infant in a spaceship," she tries to explain as gently and calmly as possible.

Clark looks back and forth between his parents and then to his sister.

"It's really true," Claire confirms.

"I...uh...where are my people then? Why was I in a spaceship?"

Martha internally pains. This is gonna be hard. "They're gone, Clark. Your world was destroyed. Your parents, your birth parents, put you into that ship to save you."

"I'm alone?" he asks with stark pain.

Martha hugs him tightly. "No, honey. God no. You're never alone. Your dad, your sister and I are always here for you...and so are your friends upstairs."

"That's right, son," Jonathan says in agreement, joining in the hug. Hell even Claire joins in. She knows the pain of loneliness all too well herself.

"Yes. We are all here for you Clark," Beast joins in the verbal support if not the physical.

"And what can you do for him?" Claire asks.

"I need to compare the scans of Clark's brain I just took with the ones I have on file and see if I can figure out what has been done. Due to Clark's alien nature his brain does not work the same way as a human. His neurological structures are vastly more complex," Beast answers.

"Thank you, Hank," Jonathan says.

"You're welcome, Mr Mayor," the hairy mutant replies with a smirk.

"Mayor?" Clark questions.

"Yep. Dad won the last Mayoral election," Claire says in pride.

"I see."

"Interesting," Beast remarks.

"What is?" Martha asks.

"Clark. He knows what a Mayor is, yes?" the mutant doctor asks the amnesic teen.

Clark nods. "A mayor is the elected head of a municipal government," he practically quotes the dictionary definition.

"It's personal memories that are missing. He can't remember anything about himself," Beast explains what he noticed before he departs to start examining the scans closely. That fact helps...though in what way Hank does not know yet.

"So what exactly are these abilities I possess?" Clark wonders.

"Strength, speed, invulnerability are usually the big 3 we mention," Claire answers.

"Strength? How strong?"

Claire looks around and grabs one of those stands you hang IVs from. "Here. Bend this," she tells him.

Clark looks sceptical.

"Go on," Claire encourages him. "Just take it and bend the fucking thing."

"Claire," Martha groans at her daughter's language.

Clark takes the metal pole and tries to bend it...and to his surprise it bends over at 90degree with ease. "Whoa," he says in surprise.

"In fact that's only the tiniest fraction of your real strength. You can bench-press 747s with your little finger," Claire claims.

"I'm not sure that's accurate," Martha hedges her bets because she's not entirely sure just how strong Clark is now. He surpassed almost anyway to measure it awhile ago. "But you are very strong so you do have to be careful around people," she cautions her son.

"Um, ok," Clark says, not certain he likes this. After all he has no wish to harm anyone. "So is there anything else I can do?" he asks.

Before anyone can answer the door opens and in walks the woman who claims to be his girlfriend, her interrogation over but she is wearing an unhappy expression. That's because she is not alone. She is accompanied by, from Clark's perspective, the most gorgeous and beautiful woman he has ever seen...which is none because he has amnesia. His point is the vision of loveliness with red-hair and emerald green eyes is more akin to a living Goddess he thinks.

Clark blinks...and blinks some more as his eyes itch and burn. "Argh," he cries out in pain before the pain releases and fire streams from his eyes in two red beams, setting the bed opposite on fire.

Claire reaches out and absorbs the fire into herself. "That would be heat vision," she says as Clark just stares in utter disbelief at what he did. Disbelief and fear.

"What just happened?" Beast asks as he returns at the cry he heard.

"Oh, nothing. My brother just rediscovered his heat vision. It's fine. I've got it covered," Claire promises.

"That was awesome," Leslie comments.

The red-head next to her disagrees. She can clearly say the stark terror on Clark's face at what he did. She moves over to him. She had heard what had happened and wanted to check up on him. "Hey. It's ok," she says softly. "Your sister has done a lot worse."

"That is true," Claire says with a hint of pride.

"And, you know, I know what it's like to have powers you can't control. The last time mine evolved I nearly turned the mansion inside out," Jean tells him, trying to make him see he's not alone.

"You did?" Clark asks the beauty.

Jean nods and smiles gently. "Yeah… but my friends understood what happened. That's why we all attend this school. To be with people who understand that sometimes we struggle to control our gifts."

"You think them gifts?"

"Of course. Yes, they come with a burden others may not see but what we learn here is how we can use them to benefit the world. We learn and appreciate that they are indeed gifts. So what just happened, it's fine. You're not in trouble."

"No, of course you're not," Martha assures him, giving him another brief hug and being grateful to Jean for her words.

Clark finds himself smiling at the redhead's words. That's a very upbeat way to view it.

"Spare us the sales pitch, Grey," Leslie says, making a face.

Clark frowns at her. Is he really dating someone this rude? Doesn't...feel right. "Grey? Is that your name?" he asks, returning his attention to the red-haired angel.

Jean nods. "Yep. Jean Grey," she says, offering her hand. "Nice to meet you again, Clark," she jokes.

Clark smiles and takes her hand...oh so gently. He so doesn't wish to harm her in anyway. "Nice to meet you too."

"And don't you worry, we'll sort your memories," Jean seeks to assure him. "After all this isn't the first time."

"It isn't?" he questions that in surprise, looking at his family.

"Oh fuck me, Jean," Claire swears.

"We hadn't mentioned that yet," Martha elaborates.

"Ah. Whoops," Jean says with an apologetic smile. Boy she feels foolish now.

Clark can only stare as her cheeks redden. She looks so...so...and his eyes start to burn again. Oh come on!

While Clark is getting reacquainted with his powers, family and friends the Professor is bringing Logan up to speed in his office. "I don't know if we can restore Clark's memories or not but I do know that understanding this young man's powers and how they work would be a great help."

"You want me to find him," Logan figures.

"Cerebro never picked up the power usage so I can't track him."

"How does that work?" Logan asks, confused.

"I don't know," Charles admits, unhappy that he is as confused as Logan is. "Clearly there is something unique about this mutant. We need to find him before whoever is hunting him does. Take anyone you wish, if you wish but find him and bring him back here," he directs the feral mutant.

"Alright...but you know I ain't always gentle," Logan cautions.

"As long as it's not permanent," Charles puts a limit on how rough Logan can be.

"I think I can manage that," Logan assures his friend. Though he does have to note how Chuck has been just that slightly bit harder in his attitude since Apocalypse. Not that he's not the same good guy because he is. Perhaps what has happened is that he's just had a little of his idealism knocked out of him and is ready to be more pragmatic about things. Perhaps it's not a bad thing. Right now it's not Logan's problem. Finding this mutant is.

Clark, meanwhile, is getting a tour of the mansion and right now his room to see if anything can be jogged loose with his memories.

"So this is my room?" he queries.

His mother nods. "Yes."

"Nothing is familiar," he has to confess.

Jonathan places a hand on his son's shoulder. His day job be damned right now. His son needs him. "You'll get through this son," he assures the confused teen.

"You said we use to live on a farm?" he inquires about that instead.

Jonathan nods. "Yes. Had been in my family for 3 generations but we had been losing money and the bank foreclosed. We were about to leave to stay with your grandfather until Professor Xavier showed up and offered us a place here instead."

"He runs this school, right?" Clark has to keep questioning everything because he has no memories of his own to fall back on.

"That's right," his sister confirms.

Clark looks around the room and spots the other bed. "I share this with someone?" he guesses.

"Yes, Bart," Martha confirms his guess. "We'll introduce you later. We don't want to overwhelm you with too much all at once. This place can be kinda crazy at times," she laughs just thinking about it.

"And that's just Bart," Claire quips.

Even Clark manages a chuckle at that one despite not knowing what is behind his sister's words. It is all just so strange...everything is to him. All he can go on is his instincts. And those instincts tell him that these people are indeed his family and he can trust them.

"Maybe we should go meet Chloe," Claire suggests.

"Chloe?" Clark queries, the name stirring a feeling of something in him.

"Your best friend since you two were like 13," Martha explains, remembering fondly how the two just hit it off almost immediately. It was so cute.

Clark would like to meet his best friend. Of course he would.

"You're gold," is Clark's 1st reaction to seeing Chloe.

Said gold-skinned girl arches a blond eyebrow.

"I just said that out-loud didn't I?" he says sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

It was such a dorky Clark Kent gesture Chloe can only smile. "Yes, you did," she confirms.

"Sorry," he apologises. "If I was rude," he stammers.

Chloe shakes her head. "It's fine," she excuses him. "But that...right there is classic Clark Kent so I'm fairly confident we can reverse what's been done to you."

"Really?" Clark asks hopefully.

Chloe nods. "Yeah."

"So mom said we're best friends?"

"I like to think so," Chloe tells him.

"I think we are."

"What makes you say that?" she wonders.

"I don't know. A feeling."

"Can you elaborate?"

Clark struggles to conjugate his feeling into words. "Just...a feeling that I can trust you. That makes no sense does it when I can't remember?"

"Perhaps it's the echo of your memories underneath which would indicate they're still there. Just blocked from you."

"You're...awful optimistic," Clark describes her.

"Must be your bad influence," Chloe teases which earns her a perplexed expression in return. "When I was trying to be a reporter I use to make leaps of logic most people would think were crazy. Then again those people didn't grow up in Smallville."

"How's that?"

"Your parents not told you how Smallville is...or perhaps was the centre of all weirdness in the Continental United States?"

Clark shakes his head. "Will you tell me about it? About us?" he asks her, his curiosity needing to know.

"Yeah. Of course I will," she says without hesitation. Anything she can do to help Clark. That will never change.

Clark listened to Chloe in both fascination and horror bordering on downright embarrassment. Being his best friend meant she knew all his most embarrassing stories...and yes, Smallville sounded like a very weird place. What surprised him was the claim that he stopped the people altered by the meteors and saved people. That he was a hero. Chloe used that word.

Him. A hero.

Well he does have these abilities...and he supposes it makes sense he would use them to help people.

He also got to meet his roommate. Kinda annoying but Clark must like him in some way. Otherwise why would they be room-mates. Well he guesses the jokes weren't that bad.

Later on he also met this girl with brown hair and a white stripe in it and his first word out his mouth had been, "Pretty."

"Well thank ya sugah," she had responded with a huge heap of Southern sass. "Mah nahme's Rogue since ah know ya've forgotten it." She laughs. "Dang, this is just lahke tha last tahme."

"You were there last time?" Clark asks her.

"Course ah was. We were datin back then."

"We were?" Clark asks with extreme interest. He means, yeah, she was really pretty.

"Sure were," Rogue confirms.

"But we're not now?" he can guess from the past tenses she is using.

"No."

"Why not? I mean you are really pretty...and I...um..that's kinda all I got," he says lamely.

Rogue grins. "Wow, even with no memory yer goofiness survives intact."

Clark's expression is just...confused...which is kinda adorable. Like a lost puppy.

Rogue answers his question. "Look, sugah, ah know ya can't remember much of anything but sometahmes things just don't work out. Doesn't mean ah look back on it with any regret or anything. It was good while it lasted...and hey we're still good friends. That's what's important in tha end."

"I guess so," Clark accepts. Still now he can't help but wonder what happened. This girl was his ex...and his current girlfriend...well she was away...and oddly he's only just now thought of her. Shouldn't he be more concerned or something. In fact now he thinks on it no-one has mentioned her either. Not his family nor the friends he has met. Strange.

All thoughts of Leslie fly from his head when he spots approaching him the red-haired goddess. He waves. "Hi Jean!"

Bayville...

Mentioning Leslie though brings us to where she is, when you'd thought she would be trying to take advantage of the amnesic Clark. Well she was back in that alley where Clark was attacked after being dragged here, quite literally, by Wolverine.

Now she was here with him, Domino and Thunderbird(Logan thought muscle would be handy on this exercise) as they tried to get clues.

"Why am I here again?" the white-skinned, electrical woman asks rudely.

Wolverine sighs. If only he didn't need her. "Because, spark-plug, you're the only one who has actually seen the guy we're looking for," he explains it to her for, like, the 12th time.

"Only from a distance," Live Wire claims.

"Which is more than any of us," Wolverine retorts.

"If I didn't know better I would say you don't want us to find the guy," Domino accuses.

"That's rubbish," Live Wire dismisses that. "This is the guy who screwed with my memories. I want his head on a spike outside the mansion."

"That would keep the lookie-loos away," Domino jokes. "But still, you weren't exactly keen to leave," she mentions.

"Well someone has to look after Clark in his current state," Live Wire mentions.

"Or perhaps try and take advantage of his amnesia," Dom speculates.

"As if you wouldn't."

Dom rolls her eyes. She figured that might be it but perhaps some part of her had hoped for better. "I've done many things I'm not proud of," she'll admit, "but trying to take advantage of an amnesic guy, never," she insists. "Besides, after what Jean's evil twin pulled a few weeks back you really think what you wish to try is a good idea?"

Logan silently groans at the mention of Madelyne. He can't believe Red has an evil twin. It's so...comic booky. It was also gross and uncomfortable remembering the feelings of love and adulation Madelyne forced them to have for what they all believed was Jean. For Christ's sake, he's her teacher and she's just barely twenty. Even he knows how inappropriate that is. Not to mention he's kinda in a serious relationship with Storm.

"Oh please, someone is trying to mind fuck us every other week," Live Wire argues.

"I really wish I could dispute that," Domino wishes because that means the electrical mutant has a point. Dom never wishes to give her that. "Thunderbird, what have you got?" she asks the native American powerhouse who possesses great tracking skills. Another reason he was here. It also a clear attempt to change topics as Dom tries to ignore Live Wire's triumphant grin.

Thunderbird had been surveying the scene, trying to piece what happened in his mind. "Well from what Live Wire can recall happened and from what I see, I believe the team chasing the mutant are professionals. Highly trained. Perhaps former military."

"Or current military," Wolverine chips in.

"You think the government is after him?"

"SHIELD maybe. Remember they had spark-plug here at some point and she thinks this mutant is the one who took her memories."

"So what? He chose to leave and they didn't accept his letter of resignation," Dom phrases it.

"Speculation but sure, I'm considering it," Wolverine responds as he sniffs around, trying to separate the scents and figure out which one belongs to who they're after. "Here," he announces, fingering the ground. "This one doesn't have that military stench. This could be our guy."

"Fresh enough to follow?" Dom inquires.

"Luckily spark-plug here actually did good and came straight home so we haven't lost too much time," Wolverine very reluctantly praises her.

Live Wire beams.

Dom gags, sticking her fingers down her throat. A very faint smile forms on Thunderbird's face at the funny monochrome woman.

"Come on. We need to get going," Wolverine orders them to move out. He has the scent and they're on the trail.

Author's Note: To merge Blank in with what happened to Live Wire it occurred to me that Dr Grady and his memory altering machine had to fall under SHIELD's control and that means it also falls under the Hill-bot's control. Oh bad Jean. Setting off Clark's heat vision with all your hotness. Lol. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Blank part 3