Clark pressed his foot down on the accelerator, slowly driving down the driveway of the Kent farm and out onto the road. Waving goodbye to Martha Kent took off down the road, turning on the radio to a song by Remy Zero. Singing along (quite badly) in his tuxedo he made his way to Backview road, hoping the directions Chloe gave him were accurate. He turned onto that, having to put on his headlights. The sun was setting and it was being blocked by the trees as the road was going through a forest. Clark drived for a solid five minutes before he reached the first house. Clark saw a very old and crooked mailbox, on it was incribed "Mercer"

Clark stopped on the road, turning off the vehicle. Kent got out of the red truck and walked up another dirt path that led to the front porch. Clark stepped on it, avoiding a gap in the wood that was evidently caused by insects. The house itself was old, and signs of insects were everywhere. The wood on the ouside that Clark could see was aged with time, with it being marked up and almost falling apart.

Kent didn't even have to knock, Alex opened up the front door and stepped out onto the porch with Clark, wearing a completely stunning and very tight textured full-length green dress.. She closed the door as quickly as she could again. "Hi Clark!" she exclaimed giving him a large hug.

Clark recipricated. "I got you this." he said, pulling out a red rose from behind him.

Alex's eyes widened as she gently took the flower from Clark's hand, bringing it up to her nose and smelling it. "It's wonderful!"

"Be careful," cautioned Clark, "It has thorns."

Mercer just smiled. "A rose isn't a rose without thorns, Clark, same thing with people. Now, shall we be going? You're ten minutes late." she said.

Clark guided Alex down off the porch, towards the truck. "Me and punctuality have never been on the best of terms." he explained. He watched Alex jump into the passenger-side side, quickly putting on her seatbelt.

"I'm sorry about how my place looks, my dad is just living with grandpa temporarily until we get all of the funiture for our new house in place." she explained.

"Sorry? It looks fine." replied Clark.

"You're a very nice guy Clark, but a terrible lier." Alex said, laughing. "One of the things Chloe mentioned. I guess she's right."

"She usually is." replied Kent. "What else has Chloe been telling you?" he asked as he turned the truck around, heading straight for Smallville High.

"She made me promise not to tell you." she said. "But I guess I could. Under torture, that is."

They both laughed. Feeling more at ease, Clark turned off the radio to talk with her more. He let his back loose a little... there was nothing to be nervous about.

Clark and Alexandra walked up the steps of Smallville High, arms interlocked, looking just as formal as everyone else. Maybe a bit moreso. They went straight to the dark gymnasium, which had several small multicoloured disco-balls lights running which was making the room swirl around in a blizzard of colours. A slow dance was playing, so naturally Alex pulled Clark into a crowd of people. She placed his arm on her hip tenderly, placing her own hand on his shoulder.

"You're pretty direct, aren't you?" asked Clark, starting to dance.

Alex replied with that usual wide smile. "Enough of our lives are wasted on fear and hesitation, Clark," she said, "I think you allready know that. If you want something, you have to reach for it."

Clark looked more intently into her eyes, as if staring straight through them. Kent understood that... for years he was too afraid to ask Lana out for a simple date. But Clark knew there was a reason. "If you do that you can lose it forever."

"From what I've experienced, anything that is worth chasing isn't going to run away." she replied.

Clark blinked. "So, what do you want?"

"Right now?" she pondered, "I want to get to know you."

Kent was taken aback slightly. His earlier instincts were right, she was ivery/i direct. But Clark didn't mind, he found himself wanting the same thing... to her, that is. He knew himself plenty. Or at least as much as one could. "I love this music." said Clark after a moment's silence, him glancing away from Alex.

"Yes. It's beutiful." she replied, not taking her eyes off of Clark. She leaned forward, resting her head on Clark's chest. Feeling him breath, feeling his warmth. She continued to sway with Clark to the music, until the song fatefully ended. What was strange was that no more music played.

Both Clark and Alex looked up to the mock-up platform where Pete and his date stood in front of a microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please." he said, very respectably. "We're about to step up the pace. We invite anyone who dares it to come up and dance here, show some tailfeathers if you will." said Pete, his remark being met with a round of laughter.

Just as always, nobody dared put themselves into the public eye. That is, nobody except Alex.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Alex, suddenly running toward the platform, having a firm grasp on Clark's hand.

"I don't think I can..." tried Clark to explain, but he found himself begin dragged onto the platform. Despite these two's bold moves, still nobody else dared to join them. Kent looked around at the gym, with everything laughing, clapping, and cheering the pair on. Clark felt nasuated, being in front of all of these people. And he was going to be dancing. Kent looked around the gym more, spotting Chloe and her date smiling and waving. Just as always she had a camera in her hand, taking several shots. 'Front page news:' thought Clark, 'Flannel-boy trips over date's feet for all to see'

Clark glanced over at Pete. "What music?" asked Clark, hoping for some miracle that would play music Clark actually knew how to dance to.

"Tango, my man."

Kent's eyes shut and sweat beaded down his face. He looked at Alex, who was again beaming. She seemed perfectly fine with it. Suddenly it hit Clark... Alex had manipulated situations again. Clark felt slightly resentfull, but that emotion was replaced by amusment. "I don't know how to Tango." explained Clark.

"It's simple," replied Alex, "you'll know what to do. It comes naturally."

Kent didn't believe it for one second. That was impossible, he had seen people Tango. Clark wouldn't be surprised if it was entirely necessary to attend a dance school just to make one of the simpler moves. However, Clark found himself staring into Alex's eyes as the music started up. He couldn't take his eyes off of hers, he couldn't do anything but stare. Those black eyes almost had a hypnotic quality...

Suddenly Clark moved. In perfect sync with Alexandra. The two started executing the Tango perfectly, with everybody in the gymnasium whistling in approval of the performance. Kent didn't know what he was doing, he was just trusting his instincts. Somehow that was keeping his steps perfectly in step with Alex's for a seemingly flawless performance.

The music got faster. So did Clark. The two continued to dance vigorously, both smiling at they swirled around, above and below each other. There was something completely and eerily erotic about the entire thing, and even though the two were physically seperate most of the time it was more personal than the slow dancing.

But, just as quickly as it had begun, the music was over. Pete rushed onto the platform, toward the mic. "Let's hear it for Clark Kent and Alex Mercer!" he shouted while clapping.

Clark and Alex took a bow, completely amazed by all of the attention. The two however slipped back into the gathering as a faster, modern piece played. The two managed to fade back into the crowd. "That was..."

"Amazing!" replied Alex.

Clark nodded in complete agreement. The farmboy looked around the gymnasium again, noticing the speakers placed throughout the room. Tied to the speakers were cords leading to contraptions on the cieling, whgich were holding up the giant model of the Smallville macot. The animal was massive and very heavy, and was carefull hung over the centre of the gym for all to see. "How did I dance?"

"You danced wonderfully." responded Alex.

"No, I mean how did I dance? I've never done anything like that before."

Mercer shrugged. "I guess it just came to you."

Clark shook his head. "No, that's not impossib-"

Alex placed her fingers on Clark's lips. "One minute..." she said, rubbing her temple.

"What's wrong?" asked Clark.

"I don't know..." she started, but was interupted by a loud bang.

Entering hyperspeed, Clark glanced around the room to see everying perfectly still, like in a photograph. They were all in the middle of jumping, just startled from the bang that happened several seconds ago from Clark's perspective. Kent looked around the room, spotting one of the speakers. It was in the middle of exploding. It didn't have a very loud blast, but it's main base was being blown apart. It was collapsing, and the cords leading to the cieling were being set loose.

Clark looked at another. The same thing. Kent looked at all of them in succession, they were all exploding and their frames were crumbling away. Nobody looked like they were in immediate danger. 'System overload...' thought Clark, 'How is that possible?'

Kent stood, remembering that Alex was staring directly at him. He had to return to his exact spot or she would see him suddenly disappear. Once doing that, he left his super speed world. Everyone started screaming, and both him and Alex looked around in confusion. Both of them looked at the massive mascot, and a dark feeling came over Clark. He had forgotten. Without the speaker support, the mascot would fall. Countless dozens of teenagers dancing under there could be seriously or worse.

The large mascot started to fall faster, all of the helpless teenagers under it screaming as it raced towards them.