Clark held Ororo in his grip squeezing tighter and tighter. Something inside him fought for control, trying to stop him, he couldn't tell what it was. He could feel the air in the room change like it does before a storm. He could smell the electricity in the air, feel her veins pulsing in his hand. The fog and ozone smell started to dissipate, he now saw the fear in Ororo's eyes. He watched as she started to gasp for air. Clark started to loosen his grip. What am I doing? He loosened his grip again as it started to sink in what he had been about to do.

He was now able to see into the game room. A girl with shoulder length sandy red hair was staring at him, her eyes wide with fear. He watched as her eyes moved from him to Ororo. She sucked in a breath and let out a scream.

It was unlike anything he had ever heard before in his life. The sound seemed to penetrate him to his very soul. He moved his hands to his ears in a futile effort to block out the sound. His eyes squeezed shut, he felt if he opened them his head might explode. He would have run from the place to put as much room between him and the girl but it seemed to be paralyzing him too. He fell to the ground unable to move. He wanted the girl to stop, she was almost as bad as the effects that the kryptonite has on him. He felt as if he wanted to retch but couldn't. She must have had to take a breath because after what had seemed like eternity it finally stopped.

Not wanting to stay around and wait for her to scream again Clark was gone. He ran for a few miles before he felt comfortable enough to stop. He leaned against a tree and sat down, his head still pulsing. Clark heard a loud crunching, he turned this way and that trying to find the source of the sound. He saw a caterpillar chewing on a leaf. Then he heard a rumbling, looking around again he saw that the rumbling was matching the swaying of the trees in the wind.

Clark kept hearing sound after sound and it seemed it was starting to get louder and louder. He cupped his hands over his ears and crumbled to the earth as all the sounds seemed to be bombarding him. The sounds kept getting louder until Clark felt as if his head were going to explode. And for the first time since he had put on the ring Clark wanted his father. He knew he would have an idea for him to overcome the sounds.

*****

Jonathan walked into the house with Martha holding his arm. It was morning and she had just been released from the hospital. He looked around the house. It was so silent that it was eerie. He had been used to little sounds that he had heard all his life. Like Clark walking around in his room or the sound of a radio in the kitchen, but the only sounds were them walking into the living room. "Did you want me to help you to the room?"

"I'm not broken Jonathan. I can move to the room if I need to." Martha said without feeling in her voice.

Jonathan was starting to wonder if things would ever be the same. It seemed like it had been weeks since he had told Martha that Clark had had run away, but it had only been one night. He looked around the house then back to Martha. "I'm going to be out tending to the cattle. If you need me just yell and I will help you."

"I'll be okay." She gave him a weak smile.

Jonathan looked at her not quit believing her. He didn't want to leave her but he had his responsibility to the livestock. He also wanted to keep busy, he didn't want to let what happened to fully sink in. He figured if he would have time to think about it he might slip into the semi-zombie state that Martha seemed to be in.

"Go Jonathan. I'll be okay."

Jonathan forced himself to move out the door and to the truck then moved into his daily routine.

"Jonathan, lunch is ready!" surprised to hear Martha's voice. He had not realized that the time had passed that quickly. He had been going through the motions not thinking about anything but the last words he had said to Clark. It wasn't exactly the words that had been said but more the tone in which they were spoken. He slowly walked up to the house. Martha was smiling and standing on the porch with a sandwich on a plate. He knew she was forcing the happiness. But he remembered a saying his father used to say, "Fake it until you become it." Jonathan smiled back and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He wondered if she would still be in her happy mood and smiling to him if she knew it was because of him that Clark ran off.

*****

Scott, Ororo, Logan and Professor Xavier were speaking in Xaviers office. It was the next morning and Scott was angry at himself for not making his trip to Smallville faster. He had grabbed a couple of the meteors incase one was not enough. Xavier kept telling him there was nothing he could have done had he been here. He wanted to believe it but he had a responsibility to the school and the students to protect them. He looked across the room and saw Ororo's bruised neck. What kind of monster would do something like that?

"He is not a monster Scott." Xavier said. "He is a teenage boy who is probably scared. From what we have learned from Pete, he is more of a protector of his town and this red kryptonite is affecting him mentally. He can't help what he is doing. Clark will be an extremely hard case but as soon as we get the ring away from him he will be okay."

"I say we just get rid of the boy." Logan said. Everyone in the room looked at him surprised. "Don't look at me like that. He came here to kill all of us."

"I don't think he would have been able to." Ororo said as she unknowingly touched her neck. "I saw it in his eyes. It was almost as if he didn't know what he was doing."

"Believe me someone like that knows what they are doing." Logan argued.

"It wasn't just what I saw in his eyes," she said as she looked as Xavier. "His grip was loosening just before Tracy yelled."

*****

Pete lay on the bed staring up in the dark. He knew it was morning but he hadn't gotten up to turn on the light so he was laying in pitch black. He wondered what lay in store for him today. Yesterday Clark had broken into the mansion and what he had heard from Kurt last night it hadn't been pretty. He didn't know any of the details but he knew that it wasn't good. He heard a poof and knew Kurt had just come into the room.

The light switched on and Pete again laid eyes on the strangest person he had met yet. He was surprised at himself for getting over meeting a blue man so quickly. "Are you okay?" Kurt asked concerned.

"Yeah." Pete sat up and smiled. It had only been half a day since Pete had met Kurt but he felt a sort of kinship toward him.

"Professor Xavier said that you could come upstairs today to meet the other people your age if you vanted to."

He must have had a surprised look on his face because Kurt spoke, "You don't hev to if you don't vant to."

"No, I would like to get out of this room." Pete said surprising himself. Inside he was freaking out but he knew that he should meet the people before passing judgment. He had been thrown in the mix with Kurt and even though he looks like a blue demon he was a pretty nice man.

"Do you vant me to take you or do you vant to valk?"

"I think I want to walk. I want to see what this place looks like too." Pete took a breath and stepped out into the hall.

*****

The day before was the buzz of the mansion. All the students who had not been there to witness the occasion have been asking question after question. Rogue was getting sick of it but she could tell that Bobby and Peter were enjoying it. They were sitting on a couch with a crowd of the younger kids around them. Both were telling of their share in helping to get rid of the person who had threatened their lives.

"I hear that there is another boy downstairs." She heard someone say behind her.

"Kitty saw him. Do you think he is like the other one and wants to kill us all?" Said another.

Rogue was about to turn around and yell at them to shut up when all the talking stopped and she turned around to see Professor Xavier and Storm walk into the room. "I know you all know of the boy down stairs. I want you to know that he is human and will not be hurting any of you. I have given him permission to come up if he wants to. While he is up here I don't want any of you treating him differently."

Xavier talked of how their powers might frighten him so to not use them in front of him. After a small lecture they left the room. Rogue knew they were probably going to go after the boy. As soon as they were gone everyone started talking.

She left the room and walked down the hall she was heading to her room. She didn't want to meet this boy. As she walked by the elevator it dinged and she froze. She expected to see the boy step out in front of her but it was Nightcrawler. "Kurt, hi." She said moving toward him then she watched as the boy stepped out and she stopped moving again. She saw the boy looking around amazed and scared. Instantly she felt a little better knowing he was probably just as scared as her, he also frightened her because scared people can do stupid things.

"Hello, Rogue dis iz Pete." Kurt waved his hand to Pete then back to Rogue. "Pete dis iz Rogue."

*****

Chloe walked into the living room. She set down her bag and sighed. She had spent the entire day at the Torch. She had pulled every article that had anything to do with Clark. After doing that she was exhausted and needed to sleep. She had stacked all the articles and placed them in her bag. She didn't want anyone to see that she was investigating Clark. She was about ready to sit on the couch and relax when Lana walked in the back door. Chloe felt a pang of jealousy and grabbed her bag. She didn't want to wait around to hear Lana say how excellent Clark was.

She started to walk toward her room when Lana spoke. "Have you heard about Clark?"

Didn't move fast enough, she thought with a grimace. Chloe forced a smile and turned to face her. The look on Lana's face shocked her. Lana was pail and her lips were white. She looked like she hadn't sleep for a couple of days. She knew something terrible had happened. They probably broke up, a voice in her head said. Good, she thought jealously.

"Clark is missing." Lana said.

Those words seemed to echo in Chloe's head, the bag dropped from her hand. The articles spread across the floor. Lana bent down and picked up the papers. Chloe realized what Lana was doing and quickly grabbed all the articles and threw them in her bag. She looked at Lana to see if there was any clue that she saw anything.

Lana was looking at her but not with shock or disgust but of sadness. "That's not all." Lana said as she stood when Chloe did. "Pete is missing too."

"I have to go." Chloe couldn't think of anything to say she turned and walked into her room closing the door behind her. She dropped her bad and fell on her bed. She grabbed the picture sitting next to her bed. It had her in the center with Clark and Pete standing on both sides. It had been taken about two years ago on a camping trip. She smiled as she remembered how much fun they had had. Then angry with herself for feeling anything for Clark she shoved the picture between the mattresses.

*****

Lana stared at Chloe's door. She had been out all day hoping to find Clark in anyplace she could think of. She had snuck into the caves she knew he liked and to the old tree house that she knew he had played in when he was younger. She had searched everywhere she could think of. She wondered when Clark and Pete would be in the news.

Why would Clark just run away? I have never seen him run away from a problem in my life. And why is Pete missing too?

She had saw the articles that fell out of Chloe's bag. She remembered some of the story headlines that Clark had been involved in, otherwise she would never have noticed anything. Now a new question plagued her. Why would Chloe have a lot of articles on Clark? Is she doing a story on him?