Chapter 5
Shot of Death

The bell rang right as Clark left the office, and he flinched as he realized his plan would have to be postponed until after school, which seemed like a day away. He reluctantly walked to English, all the while passing notes to Pete, explaining what he and Chloe had discovered earlier.


Chloe sat at her computer thinking about what had happened last night. With nothing to do at the moment, she logged onto the internet to play some games until the period ended and she had to go to class. As soon as she had clicked on the icon however, the IM box popped up with a "blink," startling her. It was –Determined.

"Any new news about the winged wonder situation?" –Determined wrote.

"There is one thing—a new student at the high school could be connected to the story—her name is Andy Falcon," Chloe typed back, more at ease this time when she was IMing the mysterious person. She had decided telling –Determined about Andy wasn't too much of a crime; whoever it was probably could have recovered the information themselves if they had so desired.

"Falcon is a common name. Is it proven yet if Ellen and Andy are related?"

"Not yet. I'm going to have a friend of mine approach the source today and ask who her mother is. By this afternoon, we should know if she's our winged wonder or not…" replied Chloe.

"Is there anything peculiar about her?"

"Yes, she wears a large sweatshirt despite the warm weather, and carries an empty backpack over both shoulders at all times," Chloe replied, not sure what answer she was going to get.

"I have my suspicions…" –Determined wrote back.

"Also, yesterday, my friend found Andy's sweatshirt outside the school only moments after she had ran out…" No reply, so Chloe continued: "It was ripped all the way down the back. No sign of a struggle though," Chloe said. She waited for a reply, but the icon above the IM box said that –Determined had signed off. Chloe began to wonder if she had told them too much…


Van McNulty closed his laptop and looked around his camp. It was in the middle the woods on the edge of the Morley reservoir, a place where no-one would think to search for days. His equipment was set up just as he needed as he began to make a pile of green bullets—meteor rocks. He began his plan of attack for the night—find out just exactly where the meteor freak of his interest lived, and destroy her. The plan seemed foolproof—after all, this one was only a girl. What could go wrong?


Lana didn't want to admit it, but she had been avoiding Clark for the past 2 days. She had been so confused and yet so mystified when she had discovered they were floating at Clark's barn the other day, that she didn't know what she would say to him the next time they met. She knew that she had been fooling herself the day she had told Clark that he didn't need to confess to her. She so desperately wanted to know what mysterious thing had happened between them that day, but didn't want to confront Clark about it. He had said it was dangerous, and that there were things about him that she wouldn't understand—Lana convinced herself that she could handle the truth, whatever it was, she just didn't know if Clark could…


Once the day had finally ended, Clark started searching for Andy again, hoping his first impression hadn't been too traumatic for the girl. He saw her at her locker, grabbing the rest of her books and tucking them under her arm, empty backpack still covering her back. Clark needed to know if his suspicions were correct, and with a sigh that was none-too-confidant, he briskly walked up to Andy so that she didn't have an escape route.

"Hi Andy, it's me, Clark; remember, the one you practically killed yourself trying to get away from yesterday?"

"Oh, hi Clark, I'm sorry about that. I was just, uh, a little preoccupied at the time," she said, and Clark knew there was a piece of the puzzle missing. "Was there anything you wanted?"

"Well, I had just been wanting to be your escort to show you around the school, but it seems you've already gotten the hang of it on your own," he said, putting on his best smile as his Kent Charm made it's way onto his face.

"Well, the school isn't that big. Kinda like the city…" she commented as she began walking towards the entrance to the school with Clark hot on her heels.

"I heard you're from Metropolis. What's it like there?" he asked, secretly digging deeper into the mystery. He knew that if she was who he thought she was, then she had most likely never even been to Metropolis in her life.

"Oh, it's…large. Much bigger than Smallville…" There was definitely too vague to be sufficient. Clark knew that was the best he was going to get out of her, so he quickly changed the subject to the specific information he needed to solve the latest mystery.

"Do you need a ride home? I could give you a lift, I brought my truck this morning…" he said, catching himself as he was just about to mention that he normally ran to school. Andy thought about it for a moment before deciding it might be too obvious if she just took off herself, with no bike or car or any other way of transportation to a house that was miles away.

"Alright, that'd be great," she said, climbing into the red '90's pickup. She situated herself in the seat so that her wings were as comfortable as possible—which wasn't very. As they drove along, she directed him to her house.

"Who do you live with anyway?" Clark suddenly asked her as she described the path to her house.

"My mother. My father died when I was little, in the meteor shower …" Andy said absentmindedly before shrinking back. Now he'd probably ask more questions.

"What was your father's name?" Clark asked, directing the conversation into a trap.

"Charlie Falcon. My mother changed her last name from McKenzie to Falcon when she married, said it was a much more pleasing name, that's why I got it," said Andy. Clark remained silent—knowing he had just solved their mystery, and then realizing that that meant only one thing: Andy was the winged wonder. He suddenly wondered if he too someday would fly like he had seen Andy do a few nights before, but the atmosphere became muted as he dropped Andy off at her house.

"Thanks for the ride," she said quickly, jumping out of the car at an awkward angle—Clark knew it was because of the secret hidden wings.

"Andy! Wait,you forgot something," Clark said suddenly to her. She stopped, and waited, wondering what he was doing now. Clark turned around in his seat, and reached into the back. Andy waited with curious eyes. Clark pulled out a green sweatshirt from his bag in the back.

"I found this yesterday after you took off. What happened?" Clark asked, indicating the long tear down the back. Andy's face went pale; did he know? Quickly snatching the bedraggled item of clothing from Clark, she wordlessly grabbed her backpack and books, slipping the straps over her shoulders—unaware that she needed not for her new friend knew her secret, and jogged to the door. Clark waited until the door had closed, and then switched on his x-ray vision to the level that he could see only through the wall, and still see human figures instead of skeletons. Despite the knowledge of her secret, still he gasped when he saw Andy slipping out of her new sweatshirt to reveal a marvelous duo of auburn feathered wings—each almost 7 feet long by the looks of it, streaming out behind her as she took the stairs three at a time.


Andy was glad to have a new friend at the school, even if he was a potential threat to keeping her secret. She had never had a real friend before, always being cooped up in the house since she was 3 and had begun to sprout wings from her shoulders where meteor rock fragments were imbedded in the skin from the meteor shower the day before. She began to think that if someone had figured out her secret, maybe it wasn't so bad. Clark hadn't reacted like the fictitious people her mother had described; tying her up and hauling her off to Metropolis. She flopped down on her bed, grateful for her wings freedom, and fell asleep.


A sudden crash awoke Andy suddenly. She was just in the stage between sleep and awakening, and was disoriented when she realized it was dark outside. She heard footsteps running up the stairs, and went to investigate, remembering just in time to pull on her sweatshirt just in case. Her door burst open, and where she expected to see her mother, a man a little older than her appeared with short brown hair and camouflage paint covering his face, a determined look in his eye and a gun in his hands. She suppressed a yelp, and mentally thanked her instincts for covering up her wings only a few seconds before.

The man didn't say a word but instead took aim with his gun, before he was yanked back out of her doorway by an enraged Ellen. Andy, who had been standing stock still in fright, only had a moment to comprehend what was going on in the hallway outside her door, before she heard a shot ring out throughout the house, and her mother slump against the wall to the floor, dead.


Clark heard a gunshot from his loft with his super-hearing, and immediately Andy came to mind. Not Lana, nor Chloe, or Pete, as it normally would have been, but Andy. He super-sped from his barn to her house, bracing himself for the worst. He used his x-ray vision once again to see into her house, this time searching for a gunman. On the second floor, he spotted 3 skeletons—one was slumped over on the ground, clearly being the one the second skeleton holding the gun had chosen to victimize first. As he watched, the gunman took aim at the third skeleton in the house, which had a pair of wings sprouting from her back—the long bones of the wings resembling bent spears aiming towards the floor. Clark knew it was now or never, or another life would be claimed. He heard two more gunshots as he super-sped through the open door up to the second floor to see 2 bullets flying towards Andy, only inches from hitting her square in the face. Moving at lightning speed, he placed his own invincible body between the bullets and his new friend, not taking the time to notice that the small projectiles were glowing an eerie green as they pierced his body square in the chest.