TITLE: Elseworlds-Power

AUTHOR: William Rayne

EMAIL: knytmare@yahoo.com

RATING: PG-13

SUMMARY: Clark: a name associated with power not meant for mortal man. Luthor: a name associated with a thirst for power and control. Clark Luthor: God help us all... Things the way they were never meant to be.

SPOILERS: revised Premier and "Metamorphosis"

PAIRING: none

DISTRIBUTION: FanFiction.net, email me

DISCLAIMER someone else owns 'em, I'm just taking them out to play. Don't sue me, I have no money

FEEDBACK: Desired like none other.

NOTES AND NEWS: Thanks to Deia for helping me with story development and being an "über beta queen and grammar Nazi." Props to DuMont for helping beta. As always: bold italics for stressed, italics for thoughts or voice-over, and underlines for sarcasm or disgust. 

This is a *huge* work in progress, so expect possible revisions to previous chapters. Been busy with school, so haven't had a chance to get a lot of chapters beta'd, proofed and edited. Thank you for your patience, I promise to get them out to you as soon as they are ready to be published. I am looking for beta readers and editors to help with this, if you'd like to volunteer, IM me…I like to screen those I'm trusting with 'my works' (see disclaimer).

Oh yeah, I'm horrible with tenses, so please forgive me, I'll try to clean and tighten that up some in the future.

Lastly, this concludes the first 'episode', don't worry I have more to go since I plan on going way into the future as the prologue indicates. Do expect the time line to jump.

267

Chapter 5

He ran at super-speed through a cornfield. He stopped, saw the tree fort, and climbed the ladder to it without breaking pace. Pushing up the trap door to the fort, Clark saw Lana lying across the room, unconscious, wrapped in a thin, white cocoon of web silk. Clark was worried as he climbed all the way inside and walked towards her.

"Get away from her," Greg said, perched up against a wall, sitting coolly overlooking Lana.

"Greg, I know what's happened to you."

"Then you know that I've been freed."

"You're a slave to your instincts."

"I have no rules, rich boy," Bugboy said as he climbed down to stand in front of Clark, "I eat what I want. I go where I want. And I take what I want."

"You're not taking her."

"Then try and stop me."

Clark moved to advance on Greg, but Greg rushed him, pushing them both out the side of the fort. The two fell, in a mess of broken boards and tree branches, to the ground.

Clark recovered immediately and looked around, but Greg was gone. As he looked into the distance, he saw Greg leap easily over a tall fence with an old wooden 'Creekside Foundry' sign. Clark got up and followed him.

Inside Creekside Foundry, Clark looked around to see abandoned metal and equipment scattered about. Sunlight streamed into broken windows as he immediately began to feel sick. He pushed through the sickness, going deeper into the foundry. As he did, he walked past strewn meteor rocks that were glowing green. Looking around for Greg, Clark felt weaker and sicker. He leaned for support on the beams as he strained to walk. Greg appeared behind him unnoticed, and he picked up a large metal pipe to smash Clark in the back with. Clark was flung across the building and landed amongst some rocks. Dropping the huge pipe, Greg smiled, as Clark was clearly suffering.

Clark was in pain, wondering why it was so, since he had survived an explosion. His thoughts were redirected to the fact that his hand started to change, becoming rough and covered with green veins, causing him pain. Despite the agony, Clark knew he had a slight advantage in that Greg thought his suffering was from the blow, but he began to ponder what the true source was. Looking at the strange, green, glowing rocks he was laying in, he wondered if they were the reason.

"You shouldn't have followed, Luthor. This isn't something you can buy your way out of," Greg taunted. Spotting his prey, he added, "Did you know the buffalo ant can lift thirty times its own body weight?"

Clark saw it coming, but couldn't do anything to prevent Greg from grabbing him by the jacket and hurling him across the building again. Greg, smiling, hopped across the floor like a grasshopper. Clark struggled up from where he had landed.

 "Clark...?"

Clark climbed up onto some grating and spied a large metal concave nearby.

"Clark, where are you?" Greg called out as Clark climbed into the metal hull where he can hide.

"I just want to play."

Immediately, as Clark hid in the metal, he began to feel better. He saw his hand returning to normal from its deteriorated state.

"Clarkie... come out!"

Puzzled at this sudden change, Clark examined the metal hull. It's lined with lead. These old things have more lead than iron…or maybe it's the iron?

His thoughts were cut short by Greg, "Give it up, Luthor! You can't fight natural law! Only the strong survive."

You get cocky, you get sloppy and right now, kid, you're a mess. Clark left his lead-lined hiding place. He surprised Greg from behind, grabbing him and pressing him up against a wall.

"Did you really think you could hide from me?" Greg asked casually as if totally in control of the situation.

Clark smashed Greg into the opposite concrete wall and then hurled him across the building. Landing in a heap, Greg looked surprised for a moment, and then reached up to a chain hanging above him for support as he tried to stand, his other hand hitting a lever beside him. The chain was freed, and a huge metal chute fell on top of Greg. Clark ran over, but it was too late. As he looked on, hundreds of insects scuttled out from under the metal and scurried off. Clark ran out of the foundry with all the speed he could muster.

He ran back to Lana, finding her covered by the mesh of Greg's cocoon, still out cold. He carefully pried apart the webbing and as she began to rouse. He heard sirens approaching quickly. Self-preservation and the fear of another incident with Father overcame his concern for her and he ran. It's bad enough I have to explain to Him the deal I made with Chloe, no need to add the cost of keeping my name out of this to Father's plate.

**************************************************************

Back at Luthor Manor, Clark stood with his hands on the balcony rail of Lex's office gazing at the stars, mulling over the day's events. The sound of his brother's voice broke his reverie.

"Quit blaming yourself, you couldn't have saved him," Lex said as he too leaned against the banister in a similar manner.

"No, Lex, I think I might've been able to. Something just kept me from…"

"Of course something stopped you, Clark. Whatever it was in that foundry that was making you weak, not anything you had control over."

"Maybe if I…" Clark said more to his hands than to Lex.

Lex grabbed his little brother's shoulder, turned him around, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "No, no and no, Clark. For all your talents, whatever made you weak in there was some serious mojo, that's what kept you from saving him…you can't save everyone, Clark. You try doing that and you'll get everyone killed."

Grinning mischievously, he added, "Besides, you're not Warrior Angel, you're human…my weirdly, freakishly abnormal, possibly a mutant-but-still-human-none-the-less brother."

Laughing at his older brother despite himself, Clark said, "You and your comics, Lex. I guess you're right, though. This isn't some storybook, people die…it's the way of the world. Promise me that if I ever end up being a strange visitor from another planet, flying around in some lame outfit…you'll be there to make sure it doesn't go to my head."

Chuckling at his little brother's ribbing, Lex responded, "I promise."

Getting past their amusement, the brothers once again turned and leaned on the railing to look out at the world through new eyes. "Now that we're past that, we need to figure out what made you weak and what stopped it. Also, you will eventually have to talk to Father…"

Lex stopped talking and they looked at each other, and simultaneously said, "Right. The story for Father first."