TITLE: Elseworlds-Power

AUTHOR: William Rayne

EMAIL: knytmare@yahoo.com

RATING: PG-13

 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 time to write.

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

124

Chapter 7

Clark stormed into the mansion, past Lex's office and towards the gym. Lex looked up and seeing his brother's mood and direction, jotted down a note to have some of the equipment replaced. A moment later, he heard the muffled explosion of what he believed to be one of the punching bags. Give him some time to cool down and then ask what the hell he's pissed off about.

There are few and far between times when Clark has lost his temper enough to get destructive, and today just happened to be one of those times. As he stood over the destroyed punching bag, Clark wondered why he had ever wanted to transfer schools to be in this town.

"Now I know from personal experience that the first day can be rough, but was it really bad enough to warrant such destruction, Clark?" Lex asked gently from the other side of the room.

Tilting his head so that he can barely see his brother over his shoulder, Clark replied, "I remember you destroying a lot more after that incident at Zero, Lex."

Lex winced slightly at the memory, "That bad, huh?"

Clark chuckled at Lex's reaction, "Almost. I guess I am being a bit dramatic about it."

"You? Dramatic? Perish the thought," Lex said dryly.

Grinning a bit more, Clark replied, "No need to dig it in, Lex."

"Fair enough. Care to talk about it? Or do you want me to leave you to destroying more of the gym?"

"It's just that…" Sighing, Clark organized his thoughts and continued, "You ever wonder if your life could be different somehow? You know, wish you lead a normal life?"

"Yeah, I did, back when I was your age…"

"Careful Lex, you're starting to sound like an old man, 'Back in my day…'"

"Do you want an answer or not?"

"Please, continue."

"As I was saying, I use to wonder about that a lot when I was younger, and sometimes even imagine myself in a different life. Then, much as I hate to admit it, I found myself agreeing with Father… that sort of daydream was ill suited for me and they are for you as well, dear brother. As much as we try to deny it, Father is right, we're men of greatness. You, more so than I. We're not meant to lead normal, ordinary lives… as much as we'd like to. The minute you start to accept that, the better off you'll be."

Clark took a bit to process this and stated, "Yeah, but still… it might just be a bit easier to have a normal life."

"Life, normal or otherwise, is never easy. You never answered my question, what's eating at you?"

"Whitney."

"Ah," Lex said as the matter became clearer, "the quarterback's harassing you and having to play the dupe when you could easily put him down is really getting to you, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't really bother me as much if it wasn't the fact that the whole school supports his grudge against me."

"You're letting them win."

"Huh? No I'm not."

"Yes. You are. If they have you this emotional, they're winning. Father would say you're letting them make you weak. I, on the other hand, believe that you're letting them get to you. In the grand scheme of things, what they think of you doesn't matter unless that's what you think of yourself."

"When you put it that way…" Clark mused as he grasped the logic his brother presented.

"Besides, not everybody in the school supports him, unless something happened with Lana and Chloe that I'm unaware of."

"True. I think I'm gonna go for a walk. Think. Maybe even visit the Kents."

"Not to pry, But what is your fascination with them?"

"Nothing really," Clark said, becoming slightly uncomfortable at the inquiry but hiding it well. "We just have an understanding."

Lex looked at him skeptically.

Clark added, "Besides, Mrs. Kent reminds me an awful lot of mother."

Lex's skepticism turned into a nod of understanding.

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

As Clark went to the Kent farm, he was glad that Lex didn't pry further. What neither his brother nor father knew was that about a month back, Clark was forced to reveal his uniqueness to the Kents. He could've let Mr. Kent die, but something inside of him said that was too high of a price to pay for his secret to be kept. Surprisingly, the Kents took his 'mutant' abilities in stride. Clark's actions had earned their respect and discretion and ever since then, they treated Clark as the child they could never have. He had come to Smallville, more times than either Father or Lex knew of, to talk with his new surrogate family about his troubles and sometimes to help where he could on the farm. This strange bond between them caused Clark to wonder at times if his life could've been different.

Martha and Jonathan had always given him sound advice when it came to his courting of Lana. They even tried to encourage him to help Lex, Chloe and Pete more with their strange encounters with what Chloe had dubbed the 'Meteor Mutants'. Clark, for the most part, reminded them politely that the more he helped with those sorts of dealings, the more he risked exposure. They respected his desire to remain under the radar and didn't press him too hard. Besides, he mused, I help out when I can… when the risk is minimal. Lex and his 'Scooby' gang do well enough on their own.

Clark was used to keeping secrets, but over the past few months, he had gained a lot more secrets than he could ever imagine. It made him sometimes wonder if he'd ever be able to share them all with someone. After all, neither of his 'families' knew the whole truth about him. With these thoughts, he knocked on the front door of the Kent household.

Martha heard a knock at the front door and peeked out the window curtain to see Clark Luthor standing at the door. Smiling, she opened the door and said warmly, "Clark?! It's so good to see you."

"Hello Mrs. Kent, is Mr. Kent around?"

Taking one look at Clark, Martha asked, "Rough first day?"

"How did you know?"

"Woman's intuition. Not to mention it just shows on you, Clark."

Smiling, Clark responded, "I'll have to work on that."

"Anyways, Jonathan is in the barn. Are you going to stay for dinner?"

"Uh…"

"I'll bring out some pie in a bit, think it over."

"Sometimes I think you missed your calling in sales, Mrs. Kent."

"Please, Clark, call me Martha. Mrs. Kent makes me feel old."

"Um…I'd feel weird being on a first name basis with you Mrs. Kent. No offense but…hey, would you mind if I called you Mom? I mean, you and Mr. Kent are practically family, knowing my secret and all."

Smiling, Martha spiritedly said, "I wouldn't mind at all. In fact, I'd be honored."

Clark entered the barn to find Jonathan chopping wood. "Mr. Kent?"

Jonathan stopped his work and turned to face Clark, "Clark. How are you? What can I do for you this time?"

Worried that he might be a nuisance, Clark responded, "If I've come at a bad time, I can always come back later."

Chuckling, Jonathan said, "No, no. I could use a break. What's on your mind, son?"

Clark took a log to sit down on and recanted the day's events to Jonathan. Jonathan listened intently, and as Clark ended his tale, Martha came in with 2 slices of pie.

"As much as I hate to say it, Clark," Jonathan stated, "your brother is right. You're letting them get to you. It'll get better, you just have to earn people's respect. You can do that in a day."

Clark didn't have a chance to respond as a black-clad figure descended from the rafters of the barn, kicking Clark off of the log, sending him flying head over heels back into the barn wall. The figure then grabbed Jonathan and threw him into Martha, sending the two out of the barn. Clark recovered from the kick, set himself in a low crouch, and looked up at his assailant and growled, "Big mistake."

The figure before Clark was shorter than him, maybe five and half feet tall, and was dressed very much like the ninjas of Hollywood depiction, except for the metal mask. Clark grinned and used his superspeed and strength to hit his opponent in the chest, sending the ninja into one of the loft posts. Assuming the fight was over, Clark turned to check on the Kents and in doing so, didn't see his opponent flip and rebound off the wall with uncanny finesse that sent the dark clad figure flying back towards Clark's back. The assailant punched Clark in the small of the back, knocking the Luthor off balance.

Clark had the wind knocked out of him, and found himself crashing into the tractor. He got up, dusted himself off and looked to see his attacker looking at him curiously. "That's it you Turtle's reject, no more Mr. Nice Guy," Clark said angrily.

Going into what he liked to think of as "hypertime", a state where everything seemed frozen in time, Clark rushed toward his opponent to deliver an uppercut, backed up with every ounce of strength he possessed. He was completely bewildered when the ninja sidestepped and deflected his punch. Before Clark could react, he found himself in the same painful position he had put Whitney in earlier that day. A metallic voice said from behind him, "Tell your father to stay away from Suicide Slums or he will lose a son."

To emphasize the threat, the figure suddenly twisted Clark's arm and Clark screamed in anguish as he felt the bones break. Clark threw his head back and heard a satisfying crunch as he blacked out from the pain.

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

He woke up to the murmurs of a worried Martha, "Clark?! Are you all right? Try not to move. Jonathan, call 911."

Using his good arm, Clark grabbed Martha's and rasped, "NO! No paramedics, call my brother."

As Mr. Kent nodded and turned to go make the call, Clark added, "One more thing. Lex doesn't know that you know." Seeing that they understood what he meant, Clark succumbed to the darkness that called to him.

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

Then next thing Clark knew, he was feeling groggy and he could hear the voices of his brother and father.

"How did you allow this to happen? A ninety degree angle, you say?"

"I don't know, he's been out for hours. Toby set the bones. Once that was done, he started healing up like he always has… like it was a cut or something."

"This isn't right, after that explosion, I could've sworn he was indestructible."

"So could I but you've seen… can't get an IV in him. Maybe it has something to do with…"

"With what, Lex?"

"With my getting my ass kicked," Clark replied as he became fully conscious. He shot Lex a quick look and faced his father to say, "I'm surprised you took time out of your busy schedule to come see me. After all, you left it up to Toby, Phelan and I when Lex got hurt at Zero."

"Son," Lionel began with genuine concern in his voice, "I was overseas then and came back as soon as I could. How are you feeling? Is there anything I can do?"

"Save it for the press, Dad. Clark, you feeling well enough to tell us what happened?" Lex interjected.

"Lex," Clark said softly and looked at his brother as Clark realized that Father, for once in their lives, was concerned for someone other than himself. The family was silent for a moment as the tension hung in the air. Clark broke it by turning to Lionel and asking directly, "What's in Suicide Slums?"