The drive-in's concessions were near a small stand for people to sit down and enjoy snacks. A large interior with tiled floors and walls. The inside was filled with the smell of popcorn butter, and the tables were very greasy, but it served the needs of the two farmers staying temporarily. Martha and Jonathan ate a burger along with a hot dog while they waited until it was time to bring Lana home. While they were planning their schedule around a visit with Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers, they were still working through their meals. They had looked over what they knew already. Two promising doctors from Midvale, a small suburban town off in the east from Smallville. They finally narrowed it down to a day next week, but something was still troubling Jonathan.

"Martha, something is still not sitting right with me about this. This whole plan and all. Maybe we should talk it over before fully accepting." Jonathan warned as Martha was preparing the call on her phone. She flipped the case shut as she put it back in her pocket. Looking at her husband worried at what was troubling him.

"What is it Jonathan?" Martha questioned. Jonathan anxiously looked at her closer as she asked. Making sure to not be in earshot of others. "I'm worried about letting these people know about Clark's abilities. What he can do. We have told him to constantly keep them a secret from others, and now we are going to tell people we barely know?" Jonathan whispered out his declaration, but enough that Martha was able to hear what he was feeling. His conflict about the choices they were both making moving forward. What they would have to do.

"We'll still tell him before we go through with this. Remember, we haven't told them anything yet. Just that our son needs a checkup that none of the doctors here can provide." Martha explained.

Jonathan sighed. "Alright, i'll talk to him later." Jonathan said. He wished to get this over with. Each new thing that Clark learned he could do scared him. He burned his closet in his sleep, he lifted the tractor when he was four, and his eyes glowed while he slept when he was a baby. It frightened him, but he knew it probably scared Clark more. It's why it was his responsibility to make sure he could understand all this. Unfortunately he reached the point where his skills couldn't help figure out what Clark was.

Martha nodded in response to his assurance. They both got through the rest of the meal in silence for the next few minutes. Jonathan looked at his phone and found that Lana's dad called. Lana shared the number of the house just in case plans changed. Jonathan found a message as well where he said that he came back early, and wished to prepare dinner. Jonathan showed it to Martha, and she responded. "Well, she's not exactly our kid."

"Your right I suppose. Just seems odd he'd have her miss the movie this early just for a family dinner." Jonathan wondered

They nevertheless cleaned up their wrappers, and tried to find the truck as fast as they could. They found Lana outside of the vehicle, more punctual than they were.

"Sorry Lana. Your dad called. He showed up early and wanted to set up dinner" Jonathan said. Lana sighed in response. Lana wanted to protest this, but without Clark, it didn't seem as worth it to do so. Lana exited the car, but still was angry about all of this. Jonathan understood, not really getting this whole situation either. He then looked around inside the car and around the drive-in. "Where is Clark?" Jonathan asked with a sudden elevation in his voice. Lana nervously approached. "He's… gone. He ran off" Jonathan turned red; completely overwhelmed by this change in events. After pacing back and forward in frustration, he decided to run off to look for Clark. Martha stopped him however.

"Please Martha, I have to find him." Jonathan pleaded to his wife. Martha had then consoled him. "I'll find him Jonathan. Just get Lana home." Martha urges as she runs off to look for him. Jonathan gets back to Lana with an uncomfortable pause having them both on the spot. "Well we should probably get back the car." Jonathan says before knocking on the driver's side where Lex was sitting. Lex brought down the window and looked out to him.

"Already Mr. Kent? Hank is almost as impatient as my own dad." Lex said amusingly.

"Well that doesn't surprise me Lex. Now come on, get out." Jonathan asked. Lex exited the car and Jonathan entered. Lana was about to get into the passenger side before looking towards Lex. "So how are you going to listen to the film's audio? I don't see your car anywhere nearby." Lana questioned. Lex pulled out a pair of earbuds from his pocket. "LuthorCorp Generation 5 audio tech. The latest model. It's able to pick up public radio frequencies instantly. I'll just watch the rest of this film outside. It's fine." Lex explained assuredly. Lana said her goodbyes before the truck pulled away and exited the drive-in.

Lex leaned back near one of the vans at the drive-in and plugged in his earbuds. He tuned one of the earbuds to the drive-in's audio for the film. However, for the other, he had tuned it to a nearby security camera for a gas station on the other side of the woods. The same woods he knew Clark Kent dashed towards with his mother close behind.

The woods were rustling and branches were snapping at high speeds. Clark felt the sound of each one like it was a large jaw digging deep into him with a sharp impalement. However, this pain came from his ears rather than the rest of his body. He tried to ignore it and kept running. He ended up crashing into a brick wall, not feeling the sharp impact. It was like the wall was simply made of stacked pillows in its strength. Clark tried to process where he landed. He hadn't gotten a handle on his speed. It simply felt like he had no control over his own legs when he went that fast. Like he was re-learning how to see when running. He saw supplies in a backroom of some kind. Most kept in a freezer, but some were in packaging. He peered over to look in order to gain more intel of where he went. As he opened the corrugated cardboard flaps keeping the box shut, he looked through to find some Soder-Cola, fruit snacks, and chips bags. From what Clark could see, he was in a convenience store. He felt like sneaking out the way he came in, but wanted to keep a low profile in order to not get spotted.

As he looked around for alternate exits out of the storage room, Clark heard the sound of a loud muscle car. He realized that despite his crash into the storage room, he still could hear everything. He snuck towards the window to peer out towards what was going on. Nearly all of Smallville was at the drive-in, so whoever these people were didn't seem to be from town. This wasn't helped by their custom paint job that didn't look like it came from anywhere in Kansas, much less Smallville. Clark was always welcoming to outsiders, possibly because of his adoption. However, these ones were dragging someone tied up from their vehicle onto the concrete below. Seemed whatever kidnapping was going on was brought on from outside the town.

This sickened Clark. He hated that his home was just some hideaway for this kind of crime everywhere else. He knew crime existed in Smallville, but it was always muggings or some quick thefts. All of which even the Sheriff had kept down to just one hand in count. It was only when Lionel Luthor came to Smallville that crime had begun rising, but it was all because of his influence over the town. These men didn't seem to come from LuthorCorp however, and if they were, they weren't planning on showing it. They wore leather jackets along with cargo pants that were detailed in camo. Their slouching and very childish demeanor was the one thing that had Clark dismiss military corruption being the cause of this. Two of these goons approached the tied up captive who was duct taped together. What seemed to be their leader was the one who ended up doing the dragging. He was defined by a gold chestplate with green wires across it with black stripes. He had multiple lashes across the side of his face which differentiated him from his comrades. Aside from those lashes, Clark recognized him somehow. He just couldn't remember where he did.

As the captive was dropped, they crawled away from the leader before he drew some kind of coil from his wrist and launched it around the captive's feet at a powerful speed. The leader tightened the coil without even touching it and drew the captive back towards them with ease. The burn from the concrete and push caused the captive a lot of pain. The leader bent down to speak with their closer hostage.

"This is the last time you get to walk away from me. Now, onto business. Where did you stash your notes? My men would like to know now." The leader demanded calmly. However there was a deeper impatience behind it. As the captive covered themselves near a gas dispenser in the gas station connected to the convenience store, Clark looked on in horror at this person's fear. He then got mad and exerted pressure on the window frame he was looking through. It began to crack under the pressure, and the cracks continued upwards to the window. Also going below to the wall tiles. The goons noticed as the glass started shattering on the floor below inside the convenience store. Their leader then noticed and signaled them all to go out and check for witnesses. Clark immediately ducked down as he realized they had seen what had happened. He checked the wall and saw what he did even with only a bit of pressure on the frame.

He knew he had to get out of the storage room immediately and save the hostage. They were still in danger from the leader. He seemed to be well armed, but to Clark's own strength, that was more to protect him from dying rather than keeping him from harm. Clark knew he couldn't control what he could do, not completely. So he had to be as careful as he could. At first, he sped around to the gas station's front. He barrelled forward with an enormous gust of wind. However, he didn't time his landing well enough and crashed into the car, completely wrecking it. This luckily drew the leader away from his hostage and allowed Clark to accidentally get his attention.

Clark stood up and tried to play this situation out more confidently as he came face to face with this leader.

He turned around to face Clark and examined him. His eyes widened when he put the face to the man.

"Clark Kent? What are you doing here farmboy?" The leader tauntingly said. Clark had finally figured out why he looked so familiar after he heard the man call him that. The taunting, the smirk, the anger. This was Kenny Braverman. His old school bully. Clark got past the scarring and how he's clearly changed when he got older, but the voice still remained largely the same. It didn't surprise Clark that Kenny became a criminal, but he still knew the danger he had in that suit. He tried to stand up tall, but still was visibly trembling. Despite all of his power, Clark had never been in an actual fight.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. Last I heard, your dad sent you to Connecticut." Clark replied. Kenny started getting riled up from that comment. Clutching his fist intensely. Electricity sparked from it periodically.

"Yeah, I was. What you didn't know was that just as I was pummeling little brats like you, my dad always saw you and all the other kids in school as the better son. He wanted to toughen me up. So he sent me to my personal hell. Turns out there was a gift there. After I kept on looking for more of it in Keystone, I came back here for more of my prize." Kenny explained. Clark noticed the sparks intensify. While it was good this battle was fair, he didn't want the hostage to be in danger. That was the priority. He prepared a stance to start running so he could save her before Kenny could make a move. Do what he never had the courage to do way back when he was bullied by the same man.

He moved forward as Kenny and the hostage slowed to a crawl. Clark rushed for the hostage as his main move. Hoping to catch them and move out of the way before disarming Kenny. However even when the world slowed down, he still saw Kenny's coils moving in the direction he was in. He slid downwards to avoid them, and scooped up the hostage in his arms with ease. As he blinked, him and the hostage were on the concrete facing each other, and the car had erupted in a large explosion far away from them. The entire gas station followed. The flames launched up in the air with smoke trailing off of it. Kenny had to have been crushed under the debris and flame. It blinded Clark temporarily with its power. Then he realized the taped up hostage had fire over their bonds. He removed them as quickly as he could, but still found some minor burns over the hostage's hands. However the hostage stood back from Clark a bit, horrified by the situation. Clark saw that this victim was a woman, from the coat, she was a doctor from somewhere. She was frightened by him.

"Who are you?" The doctor asked, trembling. She was still shaking from the explosion. Clark tried to come up with an answer. He was scared to tell her much. If she tells anyone, especially Kenny and his gang, it's all over for him and his family.

"I'm no one really." Clark covered. He wanted to make sure she never had anything to get off of him. "Why did those men kidnap you?" Clark questioned. He had to figure out what Kenny was after before being lost to the explosion. The doctor struggled to work through an answer before Martha ran through to the side of the road that Clark and the doctor were at. She hugged him tightly.

"Clark, are you okay?" Martha muttered close to her son. Clark nodded heavily and stood up.

"I'm fine mom." Clark assured. Martha stood up again as well and looked at the doctor.

"Who's this?" Martha asked. She suspected that she was from LuthorCorp given her dress sense, but needed to learn more before being guarded.

"My name is Vell. Vell Willis." Vell explained. She looked to Clark as she spoke. "I was kidnapped due to my access to proprietary gene treatments. They were stolen from my lab in Keystone, but that wasn't enough for the hooligan." She continued. Clark and Martha both were listening in. Though they weren't sure what was going on. Martha had an idea on how to get answers though.

"I have somewhere we can go for now then. Keep you both safe." Martha assured. As she gestured for Vell to follow, she told Clark to stay close. "We are going to have to talk about everything here. Starting with what happened to have you leave the drive-in and speed through the woods." Martha muttered in panic. Clark felt disappointed in himself. Despite the pain, he felt he could have pressed on like he always had with a new ability. Though he thought it might have just been the explosion that caused that feeling to rise in him. The guilt.

"Mom, I could hear everything. After the movie turned on, it triggered. Now, I think I have super-hearing." Clark whispered insistently. He was worried about what he had, but it still filled him with some excitement of having such an ability. At least once he had it more under control. Still, giving them names at least alleviated some of the worry.

"You can hear everything?" Martha whispered worryingly. This was not what she was ready for, and with a blown up gas station and some kidnapped doctor she was bringing home, it was only going to get worse.