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: none
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.
I've decided since the stories are supposed to be flashbacks from Lex until I get back to the futurefic/AU that I presented in the prologue, to start out each 'episode' with Lex commentary, hope it works.
267
Chapter 6
I never would've guessed that I would end up holding up my end of what I thought was a joke. Then again, you know what they say: Hindsight is 20/20. Even with that knowledge, there isn't a night since this all began that I wonder if I had picked up something earlier, then perhaps I wouldn't be in my current position. Of course, I suspect that my subconscious picked up on the subtle changes my brother was exhibiting. I never really understood at the time why I hid the research in Level Three from him, I just thought that right then wasn't the right time to tell him. Perhaps if I… no, there are so many maybes. I must face the reality that is. I might as well wonder if things would've been different if Clark hadn't been found by us. It's ironic to wonder that considering that was a question my dear brother tended to ask over those first few years of discovering himself and his power.
For a long time I've blamed Father for Clark and my estrangement these past few years, but I have come to realize that we were all at fault. We are, after all, Luthors, it's in our nature to destroy that which is beautiful. I just hope that it is also in our nature to build beauty out of the destruction.
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Smallville, January 7, 2002
Now this isn't what I expected, Clark thought as he walked down the hallway, ignoring the looks of hatred and revulsion cast at him. After two months of pleading and promising, Clark finally got Father to let him transfer to Smallville High. Though he suspected the transfer had more to do with keeping tabs on Lex than his wishes, Clark was glad none-the-less. That is until now, today he was regretting his desire to come here, but true to the Luthor pride…he soldiered on, seeing the hostility as a challenge he must overcome.
"Hey Luthor!" boomed a familiar voice from down the hall, interrupting Clark's musings. Great, just fucking great. Thanks Lex, Clark thought, as he rolled his eyes up and turned to see Whitney stalking down the hall towards him.
Just what do you think you're doing here?" Whitney challenged as he looked Clark dead in the eyes.
Ignoring the murmurs of agreement from the students that had gathered to watch the confrontation, Clark returned the look with just as much intensity and replied smoothly, "It's a free country, last time I checked."
The hall became quiet as the two stared at each other, neither flinching nor backing down. With the sound of the bell ringing, the crowd waited for one of them to make a move. Unfortunately the showdown was cut short by the sound of Principal Kwan's voice.
"Why aren't you people in class?" he asked and upon seeing reason for a crowd, directed his question to Clark and Whitney. "Is there a problem here, gentlemen?" he questioned with authority.
"No sir," both said while not breaking eye contact with one another.
"Good. Now I suggest everyone gets to their classroom before you find yourselves in detention," with those words, the crowd began to part, and Kwan turned his attention to the boys. "That goes, especially, for the both of you. I don't want to see this again or we're going to have a problem."
Kwan took both boys by the arms and sent them off in separate directions. They take the hint and walk. As he watched both of them head to class, Kwan rubbed his temple and sighed, "This is going to be a long semester."
******************************************************
Clark walked into his English class, and no one was sure if he was red because of the confrontation, or because he was embarrassed about being late. The teacher just gave him a look, as Clark spotted an open seat by a familiar face. Taking his seat, the teacher resumed his lesson.
"I gotta say, you Luthors sure know how to make impressions. I thought Lex was supposed to be one making headlines, Clark, or you feeling left out?" whispered Chloe as she leaned over a bit to get his attention.
"No comment."
Smirking, Chloe said, "Suit yourself, but if I were you, I'd keep in mind that besides a certain Ms. Lang… I'm about the closest thing you got to a friend in this place."
Sighing, Clark replied, "We'll talk at lunch."
As Chloe smiled, Clark hastily added, "Off the record."
She didn't get a chance to reply before the teacher cleared his throat and the both of them focused their attention on the lesson.
*****************************************************
As the bell for lunch rang, Clark met Chloe outside of her classroom, as they had agreed upon after English class.
Seeing him, Chloe remarked, "I'm surprised."
"Why?"
"Figured you'd ditch me, fearing I'd somehow try to turn this into an interview."
Smiling, Clark replied, "We already agreed this was off the record. Besides, I have two good reasons to have lunch with you."
"Oh?"
"The foremost being that you and Lana are pretty much the closest thing I have to friends in this town besides Lex."
"And the other?"
"From what I hear, you stop by the mansion often enough that I can't avoid you forever even if I wanted to."
Laughing, Chloe stated, "Well, your brother has been rather helpful both to the town and to me since he came here."
As Clark started to head to the front entrance of the school, Chloe stopped him and said, "Wrong way, the cafeteria is that way," and pointed over her shoulder.
Puzzled, Clark said, "I know. I thought we should have an open lunch."
"Unless we're seniors, I don't see that happening."
Grinning, Clark rebutted, "For someone who spends a lot of time with my brother, you seem to have forgotten some of the perks of knowing a Luthor."
Chuckling inwardly at Chloe's reaction, Clark offered his arm, "So you in or you out?" As Chloe took his arm, he smiled.
***************************************************
"So I heard the official gossip version of your hallway encounter with Whitney, care to tell me your side?" Chloe asked as she dipped her fries into sweet-sour sauce.
"How can you eat that?" Clark stared blatantly at her fries.
"Don't knock it until you've tried it. And don't avoid the question. This may not be an interview, but I'm curious."
"Fine, fine," Clark said while looking dubiously at her fries once more. "Not much of a story anyways even if it was an interview. Whitney shouted my name and questioned my existence, to which I promptly told him it was a free country. Much glaring, Principal Kwan, and then I'm in English class with you."
"You'd think that he'd remember that if it wasn't for you, he wouldn't be alive but all he remembers is that your brother tipped Lana off to his little homecoming prank. But that isn't really why Lana broke up with him, that was because he managed to lose her necklace."
"Remind me to thank Lex for that. What's so special about that thing anyways? Every time I bring it up, she just gets sad and doesn't want to talk about it and I feel like an asshole for bringing it up."
"I forget sometimes that you're new to Smallville. The story behind it is common knowledge 'round these parts," seeing Clark's look of impatience, she summarized, "The necklace contained a piece of the meteor rock that killed her parents."
At the mention of meteor rock, Clark paled slightly but recovered by diverting the subject, "Obsess much?"
Giggling at his comment, Chloe stated, "Don't get me started on theories of the many issues of Ms. Lang… but I guess Whitney finds it easier to blame you Luthors than face the fact that he fucked up."
Chuckling, Clark asked playfully, "Is that a tone of sympathy I hear in your voice, Ms. Sullivan? I'd be careful, someone might start thinking a reporter such as yourself might be becoming biased."
Chloe responded by hitting Clark right between the eyes with a sauce-soaked fry. "I'm not biased. You brother has done more to change my opinion of your family than you have. Ever since the Bugboy incident, the only acts of 'selflessness' you've done, has been an attempt to catch Lana's eye. Your brother, on the other hand, I can't seem to figure out why he's helped me and this town these past few months. Point being is that I'm now of the opinion that you Luthors aren't all that bad. Not all that good, but not that bad."
Anger danced softly in Clark's eyes and before he can retort, Chloe warns, "Careful, Clark… that temper of yours is the reason I'm the one you're having lunch with right now and not Lana."
The statement froze Clark's initial reaction, "Huh?"
"Oh come on, if I notice the danger that dances behind your eyes from time to time, you don't really think Lana would miss it, do you? It's scary, Clark, bone chilling even, and had I not faced death twice last semester, I'd probably be too scared to even let you know that I notice it. You can thank your brother for that bit of fearlessness. Point is, Clark, that your impulse to emotion might just be the reason Lana keeps sidestepping every time you try to ask her out on a date. Other than that, I really don't know why you two wouldn't be a couple by now."
"Or maybe Lana knows, like the rest of this town, that Luthors aren't to be trusted," said a familiar voice from over Clark's shoulder.
So engrossed in their conversation, Clark and Chloe didn't notice Whitney until he said something. Taking care not to show his superspeed, Clark got out of his seat quickly and turns to face the blonde quarterback. "Whitney," Clark says, "this is a private conversation so why don't you just leave before we have a problem."
"Funny, I don't recall freshmen being allowed open lunch," Whitney sneered, obviously ignoring Clark's veiled threat.
Clark was about to respond when Chloe tugged at his sleeve to draw his attention to half of the Varsity football team walking through the entrance of the fast food joint. Showing equal bravado, Clark remarked dryly, "Gee, I'm flattered…you brought back-up, 'cause you obviously can't take me on your own."
The team heard the exchange and started to advance, only to stop at a gesture from Whitney. Seething, he snarled, "I don't need the team or anybody else for that matter, Luthor, to take you on. A fight between you and me would have two hits, me hitting you and you hitting the floor."
"You forgot the third hit… you hitting your alarm clock, 'cause you're dreaming."
A year ago, to say that Lionel Luthor would've been outraged that his son goaded a fight would've been the understatement of the millennium, but times change. Ever since Clark attended more public arenas, it has been strict procedure that if a bully tried to fight him, Clark was supposed to roll with the punch and avoid any subsequent hits as believably as possible until security or someone stopped the fight. We can't risk discovery, son, they'll take you away from Mother and I. You'll be in a lab for the rest of your life so as much as it pains me to tell you this: you have to swallow your pride when it comes to fights. However, since his recently gained invulnerability, Lionel saw the rules had to be changed. So Clark was sent to observe various martial arts masters to learn, not the art itself but, what the art of self defense should look like. He was still never to engage in actual fighting, just appear to use martial arts to subdue his opponent until proper parties intervened.
As he saw Whitney throw the punch, Clark reacted with just enough speed to not appear inhuman but enough to still avoid it. Looking as if he deflected the punch, Clark made a quick motion and grabbed Whitney's wrist to twist Whitney's arm behind his own back. Using his superior strength, Clark held it painfully there. I should break the bastard's bones. How I wish I could, just one little twist or a bit more pressure. I could say it was because of an 'improper execution' of the martial arts maneuver. But there will be too many questions and I can't risk that…no matter how much he deserves it or I want to.