Note: Sorry it took me so long to update. Been busy with a lot of stuff lately. By the way thank you very for the reviews/messages you sent me about Chapter 15. It's very flattering. I just wish you'd keep on reading the fic 'til it ends(probably Chapter 20). Please review/comment! Pweetie phuleeezz? (







Chapter Sixteen



"Don't worry, I won't tell Dad anything about this." Lex held his sister's soft hand as he sat on a chair next to her bed at the hospital. "I didn't even told him that we've met already."

"Thank you." Lena gratefully replied, beaming a weak smile to his brother. "He doesn't even know that I'm in Smallville. I told him that we were going to Kentucky for a week long seminar about teenage sexuality."

His half brother snickered upon hearing her excuse. "And he bought that?"

"He absolutely did." She said, giggling herself. Lionel Luthor maybe a powerful, conniving and astute but often times he's got that soft dumb side, which only Lena can manipulate. "Dad, believes everything I say."

"Wow, you've got that control over him, huh?" Lex inquired, amazed and jealous at the same time. Lionel was always hard and strict with him.

"Uh huh." She sounded, remembering how good his father is to her and her mom. "All it takes is a warm hug, a kiss on the forehead, the cheeks and the nose, add some adorable puppy eyes and Voila! He's yours."

Lex snorted, eyes darting down on the squeaky floor of the room. How he wished Lionel would be as good and as fatherly to him as he was obviously showing Lena and her mom. What he'd give to see affection, trust and care in his father's eyes, even for just a mere second.

"You think that'll work for me?" He joked, looking up at Lena.

"Well, you could try." Lena kidded squeezing his brother's hand tighter. It's very clear to her that Lionel Luthor's not that fair to Lex.

From everything Lex told her about their father, it appears that while he's very giving and affectionate to her and her mom, Lionel was doing the opposite to Lex.

Silence filled the air for almost a minute then they heard someone knocking at the door.

The door opened and the first face they saw belonged to Martha Kent. She was followed by her husband then Whitney and then finally Nelle, Lana's aunt. They all had the same worried look on their faces.

"What's going on?" Lex was quick to fire the question at the group who let themselves in. Their eyes wandered around the room. It's like they were searching for someone or somebody.

"Clark, Linda and Lana's missing." Mr. Kent advised them as his wife buried her face on his chest, disappointed, when they didn't see anyone that they've been looking for inside the room.

Lex saw Nelle covered her face with her hands while sobbing. Whitney immediately prodded her to take a seat at the vacant chairs.

"Someone from the mansion said that you were here to visit Lena and we kinda hoped that Clark, Lyn and Lana's with you." Mr. Kent added, comforting his wife with gentle pats on the back.

"No. The last time I talked to Clark was this morning, when he called to inform me about Lena's condition."

"Oh dear Lord where could they be?" Mrs. Kent let out, taking her face off Mr. Kent's chest as she wiped her tears away.

Lena meanwhile sat noiselessly on her bed. Absorbing everything that these people were talking about. Clark, Linda and Lana are missing. She automatically concluded that Linda must be beating the crap out of Clark at this instant.

"Let's just hope that they're all together." Whitney wished out loud, as Nelle continued weeping on his shoulder.

"Oh they are together alright." Lena thought, wanting to smile but chose to keep it in her. "You can bet on that pretty boy."

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Linda slammed her forehead against Clark's, their skulls clacking together, then rammed her right knee into his gut.

Clark instantly swung his fist and buried it in his enemy's midsection. After fighting with him, Linda was tired. As the air rushed out of her lungs, she slumped to the ground.

Her coordination and strength couldn't hold out forever. She was exhausted and she could feel every inch of her body aching. The same thing Clark was feeling. What they didn't know is that the meteor rocks that surrounded the foundry contributed to their feeling of weakness.

She spun her left foot just in time to catch Clark before he could reach her for another strike. Linda kicked the guy a dozen feet away into the wall near them.

On their feet again, they moved in a circular path anticipating each other's attack. Both their hands formed in a menacing fist ready to strike out anytime now.

This time, Clark was the first to come, he moved so quickly that she could not counter his powerful punches. She was hit on the face a lot and some of the punch connecting to her shoulders and arms. Linda thought that it was enough so she moved in.

Clark dropped down beneath the arc of her punch and the fist passed above his head, even as he kicked out at her. His foot caught her in the gut, cracked one of her lower ribs and sent her staggering backwards. Linda nearly fell over again, stumbling several paces and just regained her balance in time to avoid Clark's follow up attack. She dodged that blow then she jumped backwards to put some distance between them.

"Oh boy this isn't getting any fun." Linda thought with one hand feeling her lower rib for any fractures. Luckily, it wasn't broken.

"Give up?" Clark yelled remaining on his ground. His breathing getting heavier by the minute. He was, just like Linda, dead tired and aching.

"You wish!" She rushed with her super human speed and grabbed him by the collar, letting out her other fist as it collided with Clark's face, repeatedly.

With pain surging wildly on his face, Clark was able to stop Linda by clasping his hand on her fist, as it was about to hit him again.

Linda moaned in agony as she felt his hand nearly crushing her fist. She didn't expect that a monster like him could equal her strength.

Focusing all her energy, she pushed Clark away using her other hand. Thankfully it worked and she managed to send him reeling backwards.

Thinking fast, she got hold of a long piece of wood from the ground. She thought of using it as a weapon. Linda snapped it in half with her knee and threw one part of the wood to Clark's direction.

He ducked the flying object as he saw Linda coming for him, holding up the other piece of wood like a knife.

She was so swift that Clark wasn't able to back off from her assault. Linda grasped the wood firmly as she shoved it hard on Clark's chest, aiming for the heart.

For a moment Clark thought the jagged wood penetrated because of the throbbing pain but when Linda pulled it off, there isn't a single scratch.

"He's invincible." She reckoned starting at the slashed portion of Clark's jacket that revealed a bit of his skin.

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Whitney suggested that they should let the police help them with the search, when Nelle's mobile phone rang. She rummaged in her bag to pick it up, wishing all the while that it was Lana calling her.

"Hello." They heard her greeted on the phone. All eyes where on Nelle, waiting for any development about the call.

Nelle stood up and exited the room without even excusing herself from the group. They understood though, thinking that it maybe an important call and that she should be alone.

Momentarily, Whitney followed outside and it was only then that Lex talked about the research Clark and himself are doing. Being careful though as to not spill any details in front of Lena. He presented them with the possibility that Clark must be on the tracks of the creature they're after.

"Is this about the killings?" Lena jumped in on their conversation, intrigued by the topic. Lex kept on referring to the monster as an 'IT', thus sparking Lena's curiosity even more. "The one about Michael?"

"Yes." Lex found himself answering his sister's query.

"Why on earth would you guys be interested on finding the 'IT'? Are you like some secret agents or something?" She asked, eyes scanning Mr. and Mrs. Kent then to Lex.

"Well-um- we're helping the police with the investigation. Being Michael's employer I think it's just fit that I help out." Said Lex thankfully finding that excuse lingering on his thoughts.

"It's Clark." Lena mumbled with a far away look in her eyes.

"What?" He inquired surprised with what Lena uttered from out of the blue.

"What did you say Lena?" Mrs. Kent couldn't help but ask Lena to repeat what she said. Mr. Kent had the same confused look on his face.

"Clark's the 'IT' you've been looking for all along." She explained, sitting straight on her bed. "He's the killer!"

"No, that's not possible." Martha was quick to dismiss Lena's accusation on his son.

"Do you even know what you're saying?" Lex shot a look at his sister. "Clark wouldn't-."

"He did this to me!" Lena cuts in before his brother could finish his sentence. Anger was very much evident on her watery eyes. "I wasn't mauled by a bear, Lex. Clark did this to me!"

They all couldn't believe what Lena was blabbering, though they could tell that she's becoming emotional about this. Lex, Mr. and Mrs. Kent watched as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I bumped into him yesterday afternoon in school and he told me that Linda wanted to meet me somewhere. I trusted him and as it turned out, Clark took me to the woods." Lena narrated remembering the experience she had. That abrupt brush with death in the hands of Clark Kent. "I became suspicious when he started laughing for no apparent reasons. I thought it was a joke. He turned around and I saw the evil in his eyes. His teeth became jagged while his fingers developed claws."

They were hanging on every word Lena let out in between sobs and sniffs. Lex held her hand again for some comfort.

"Then Clark began lashing on his claws at me. I tried to duck his every move but I fell backwards on the ground. It was then that he went on top of me and started licking the blood dripping from my wounds. He was so heavy that I couldn't do anything but scream." She continued with the narration, brushing the tears away from her face. Keeping her courage to reminisce that horrible day. "But Linda, she appeared and saved me from that monster."

"Clark wouldn't do anything like that." Mrs. Kent insisted rising from her seat, walking towards the bed. "Clark maybe different but-."

Mr. Kent placed a hand on his wife shoulder, just in time to stop her from blurting out their son's secret to Lena.

"Linda saved you? How?" Lex questioned, focusing his eyes back on Lena. "If you said that Clark became a monster, then how did Linda managed to save you from him?"

Lena kept her silence. She's most definitely scouring for a perfect explanation to Lex's questions. Unfortunately, she couldn't find any. There's nothing left to do but tell them the truth about Linda.

"Linda's not ordinary. She's unlike any other teenager. She has special gifts." Lena divulged her friend's deepest secret to Lex, Mr. and Mrs. Kent.

That small description sounded strangely familiar to all of them. Those would be the same words they'd probably use to describe Clark when the time comes that they had to explain his abilities to someone else.

"Gifts?" Mr. Kent couldn't control himself from asking.

"Yes, gifts. Like flight. Linda's got powers beyond those of ordinary men." She relayed, eyes wandering to Lex then to Mr. and Mrs. Kent. "She's very strong, she's got x - ray visions and - and she's unbelievably fast."

"The same powers Clark possesses." Mrs. Kent revealed out loud. Mr. Kent and Lex were thinking of the same thing.

"What d'you mean?" Uttered Lena, baffled by Mrs. Kent's words.

"Clark also has the powers that you just mentioned. The speed, the strength and the x - ray vision." Lex exposed, moving his chair closer to Lena. "Look, Lena, the Clark that attacked you by the woods isn't Clark. It's a shape shifter. The same monster causing all this hysteria in Smallville."

"Clark and I have been working together to get rid of these menace in town, Lena. So there's no way that he could've planned to kill you." He added gazing her straight in the eyes. "Clark isn't the enemy in all these. It's Nick Adler, the shape shifter."

"Clark's got the same powers-." Were the words that came out of Lena's mouth. She paused, absorbed deep in her thoughts about something. "The son of Jor El."

"Oh my god we have to stop them!" Lena added.

"Stop who?" Mr. Kent muttered, anchoring an arm around Mrs. Kent's shoulder.

"Linda and Clark. They're at that abandoned foundry right now." She spoke suddenly being enlightened by Lex's explanation. "Linda used Lana as bait to take Clark to the foundry. She had her mind set on killing him, thinking that Clark is the enemy."

"We have to stop them now!" Lena finished mid - shout, climbing out of bed in a hurry. Lex helped her get up when with out warning, the door opened as Nelle and Whitney came in.

"They've already found Lana." Nelle informed them, that sad façade now replaced by a happy and relieved one.

"Chloe and Pete found her in the girl's locker room." Whitney announced following behind Nelle.

According to Chloe and Pete, they were assembled on the Torch's office when all of a sudden they heard a cry for help coming from the girl's locker room.

Of course being pureblooded journalist that they are, they investigated and found Lana locked in her locker. Her hands were tied behind her back and her feet are bounded too. Someone kept her there. When asked who did that to her, Lana mumbled a name,

"Nick Adler."