New Girl in Town

By SSG Michael B. Jackson

Disclaimer: I don't own a damned thing to do with Smallville, to include any of the DC Comics characters portrayed. Hell, most of them have been around since before my parents were born, so how could I? Anyway, there's no money in this for me; I only want to have a little fun and maybe entertain a few other people as well, so enjoy and please don't sue me. I'm a poor soldier with four kids, so you wouldn't get much anyway!

Quirking an eyebrow as he dialed, Lex looked to Talia and said, "So you're the mysterious Talia." Then, extending his free hand as he put the phone to his ear, he said, "I'm Lex. Lex Luthor. And I've just been dying to have a word with you all day…"

A half-hour later, very little talking had gotten done, but a lot else had. Fire, rescue, and police units were on site, and everything was fairly well under control. The blazing remains of the Escort had been extinguished, Martha and, reluctantly, Talia had been checked out by the paramedics, and a sheriff's deputy was bustling around the scene, making measurements, taking photos, and conducting interviews by turns. Jonathan and Clark had shown up as well, both of them practically beside themselves with worry until the paramedics had blessed off on Martha, telling her merely that she should make an appointment with her doctor for a more thorough checkup as soon as possible. Lex, for his part, had sort of bounced from one thing to another, and hadn't had any real chance to pursue a conversation with either Talia or Clark. And that was where things stood when Chloe rolled up in her little red Volkswagen.

Excusing himself momentarily, Clark walked over to meet her as she dismounted near the road and headed in their direction. Meeting her halfway, he said, "Chloe. What're you doing here?"

"Well," she said, "at the risk of being labeled an ambulance chaser, it was kind of hard not to notice all the lights and sirens in a town as massive as Smallville. When I realized they were all headed out toward your place, I got a little worried, so…"

"So you decided to see what all the commotion was for yourself," Clark finished matter-of-factly.

Chloe nodded and said, "Yeah, something like that." Then, frowning with concern, she said, "So what happened, Clark? Is everybody okay?"

Clark sighed and said, "Mom had a little accident. Front tire blew and the car went off the road. It rolled a couple of times and ended up out there in the middle of the field. After that, I guess the gas tank started leaking, and… well, you can figure out the rest."

"Oh, my God," Chloe said, aghast. "Your mom, is she-"

"She's fine," Clark said evenly. "She and Talia made it out okay. Just a miracle, I guess…"

Cocking her head slightly, Chloe said, "One of those 'Clark Kent just happened to be in the neighborhood' miracles?"

"Not this time," Clark said flatly. "I was still at school when I got Mom's call, and everything was over by then. By the time I made it out here, the fire department and the sheriff's deputy were already on scene."

"Wow," Chloe said wryly. "A bonafide non-Clark Kent miracle. Now that's news; for Smallville, anyway."

When Clark had no immediate reply for this, Chloe finally broke the silence with, "And all this because of a bad tire. You might want to recommend a little more regular maintenance to your folks, Clark. I know you farm types like to do your own work and all, but-"

"That's not it, Chloe," Clark said slowly. "Those tires weren't brand new, but they weren't worn out either. Mom had the winter tires taken off and these put on down at the tire shop just a few months ago. And besides; Dad checks all that stuff regularly. If anything obvious was wrong with one of the tires, he wouldn't let Mom just drive off on it."

"Okay," Chloe said, "Bad luck then, not a bad tire. But, forgive me for saying, your mom must've been really haulin' to end up way out there."

"Just the speed limit, according to her," Clark said. Then, frowning, he added, "Of course, having the brakes fail on you as soon as an emergency hits doesn't help matters any."

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Chloe exclaimed. "Are you telling me that on top of an out-of-the-blue blow-out, your mom's car just happened to have a brake failure at the same time? Isn't that just a little too coincidental to be coincidental?"

Still frowning, Clark said, "What are you getting at, Chloe?"

"What am I getting at?" she said incredulously. "C'mon, Clark, you connect the dots! If the maintenance on that car was as good as you say it was, what're the odds of two catastrophic failures like that happening at the same time? By themselves, that is."

Clark rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, come on Chloe. Are you saying that you think somebody sabotaged my mom's car?"

"You got a better explanation?" she said flatly.

"Who'd want to hurt my mom, Chloe?" he countered. "I can't think of any candidates off the top of my head. Can you?"

Shaking her head slowly, Chloe said, "Just because you and I can't think of anybody doesn't necessarily mean there is nobody." Then, looking at Talia where she stood talking to the sheriff's deputy, she said, "And, in a situation like this, the first thing you've got to ask yourself is: What's the new variable in the equation?"

"Now wait a minute," Clark said, following her gaze. "You're not saying that you think-"

"That the new girl over there had something to do with this?" Chloe finished for him, and then, after considering for a moment, "I don't know, Clark. But it wouldn't be the first time weirdness followed a new face into town. Or had you forgotten about Adam?"

Clark sighed and said, "Alright, point taken, Chloe. But I don't think Talia is another Adam Knight."

"Or an Emily Dinsmore or a Mikhail Mxyzptlk?" Chloe said a bit skeptically. "You've gotta admit, Clark, our track record hasn't been so good up 'til now. How can you be so sure that she's different?"

Frowning, Clark said, "I guess… I can't be. Not a hundred percent. But my gut feeling is that she's not like that."

"I sure hope you're right, Clark," Chloe said slowly. "Because if not… It's your roof she's staying under."

The situation being what it was, it wasn't too hard to put Lex off a little longer. Obviously, he wasn't exactly happy to have both Clark and Talia right in front of him and not have the opportunity to talk over the previous evening, but he couldn't really argue when more than one person told him it just wasn't the right time. He finally contented himself with securing Clark's promise to come by the mansion with Talia sometime in the next couple of days, but, even so, he left feeling not quite satisfied.

For their part, once all was said and done, the Kent family found themselves short a seat in the old Dodge Ram when it came time to finally head home. There were any number of solutions available for this dilemma, but it was Chloe who finally solved it by abruptly offering Talia a ride in her VW. When Clark gave her an odd look, she just winked and, making sure that she was out of Talia's line of sight, mouthed the words, 'Talk to your mom.' After weighing everything in his mind for a moment, Clark decided that was as good an idea as any. He very much needed to find out exactly what had actually happened, and he was reasonably sure that Talia was capable of sidestepping around Chloe's curiosity, for the time being at least.

Once they'd taken off, Jonathan at the wheel, Clark turned to Martha and said, "Alright, Mom; it's just us now. What really happened?"

"Well," Martha said thoughtfully, "It was pretty much just what I told the deputy. The tire blew, we went off the road, rolled a whole bunch of times, and ended up out in the middle of that field. I was sort of half out of it, and Talia pulled me out of the car before it blew up." Then, after a short pause, she said, "There's a little more to it than that, of course."

Raising an eyebrow, Jonathan said, "Well don't keep us in suspense, Martha. What else happened?"

Frowning thoughtfully, Martha said, "When the car came to rest, it was upside down, not right side up like they found it. The dash had been mangled, and my legs were trapped underneath; that's where I got some of those bruises they were so curious about."

"Let me guess," Clark said. "Talia got you loose?"

Martha nodded and said, "First she turned the car over, so it'd be easier to work, I guess. Then, after she ripped the door off with her bare hands, she bent the steering column up, popped the steering wheel off, and pried the dash off my legs. After that, she carried me away from the car and covered me with her body when the gas tank went up. We were only maybe fifty feet away, and I'm sure at least the edge of the blast caught us." After pausing for a moment, Martha looked to Clark and, with a small smile said, "It was kind of like having you there, Clark."

Frowning slightly, Clark said, "One thing I'm curious about, Mom. You told the deputy that you hit the brakes after the tire blew, and the pedal went straight to the floor, right?"

Martha nodded and said, "That's right. And those brakes picked a wonderful time to go out, let me tell you."

Nodding slowly, Clark said, "Yeah, Mom, that's what Chloe and I were thinking too. The timing was great; just a little bit too great, actually."

Frowning, Jonathan said, "What're you thinking, Son? That somebody messed with your mother's car?"

Clark sighed, and said, "Well you gotta admit, Dad, it's awfully convenient that the brakes just happened to fail when they were needed most. And it wasn't like there was any warning, right Mom? They didn't go spongy or start acting weird before the tire blew, did they?"

Cocking her head slightly, Martha said, "You know, now that you mention it, they did feel a little funny after we left the courthouse. Like you said; spongy, somehow. I remember thinking that I should have your father take a look at them once we got home."

"After you left the courthouse," Clark said slowly. "Not before that? Not while you were driving around town or after you left the Talon?"

Shaking her head, Martha said, "No. I didn't notice anything then."

"Well, okay," Clark said. "How about at the courthouse, then? Did you notice anything while you were there? Anybody hanging out around the car or messing with it? Anything like that?"

Martha started to shake her head, and then, a certain mental image leaping to her mind's eye, put a hand to her mouth and blanched visibly.

Seeing this, Clark put a hand on her shoulder, concerned, and said, "What is it, Mom? What's wrong?"

"Talia," Martha said reluctantly. "She had… a disagreement with Sheriff Adams, and she went outside. After I had a few words with the sheriff, I went out to get her and-"

"And what, Mom?" Clark said warily.

Sighing, Martha said, "And when I went out there, Talia was over holding one side of the car almost a foot off the ground, looking around underneath. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me that she'd heard something under there. Obviously, I was a lot more concerned with the fact that she'd just lifted up a car in the middle of a public parking lot than anything else, but now-"

"Now you've just got to wonder," Clark said tiredly. "What are the odds of that and the accident being totally unconnected?"

Talia was more than a little relieved when they pulled up in front of the Kent house. She'd spent the trip home politely dodging a number of odd questions from Chloe, and to say that she felt less than comfortable around Smallville's most dedicated investigative reporter was an understatement. Hardly even waiting for the VW to come to a stop, she jumped out with a quick, "Thanks for the ride!" and headed toward the Kents as they dismounted the old Dodge Ram. She was brought up short, however, by the guarded and wary expressions on their faces.

"Uh, something wrong?" she said tentatively as she reached the old pick-up.

"We need to talk, Talia," Clark said in an authoritative tone she hadn't heard from him before. "Just you and me," he added, motioning toward the barn.

"Clark-" Jonathan began, only to be cut off by Clark as he shook his head and said in a low tone, "Let me handle this, Dad. Just in case." Then, looking to Chloe, who'd just walked up a few paces behind Talia, he said, "Chloe. Thanks for giving us a hand. I'll give you a call later."

The hint was obvious, and, though she was sorely tempted to do otherwise, Chloe decided to play it Clark's way for the time being. She wasn't exactly sure what he had in mind, but she figured she'd give him space to operate, for now at least. That being the case, she turned and, with a quick, "No problem, Clark. See you later, Mr. and Mrs. Kent," headed back to her car.

As Chloe headed back up the drive, Talia looked warily from Clark to his parents and said, "Okay, what's going on here? Did I miss something, or what?"

Stepping forward, Clark put a hand lightly on Talia's arm and, motioning once more toward the barn said, "Come on. Let's go talk."

Talia briefly considered protesting, but then decided to just go along; she'd ruffled enough feathers for one day already, she figured, and, for the foreseeable future at least, she'd be staying with the Kents. Their good will was a must.

As soon as they stepped inside the barn, Talia turned to Clark and said, "Okay, we're here now. What the hell's going on?"

Wearing a grim, determined expression that only fueled Talia's unease, Clark said, "What were you doing with Mom's car out in the courthouse parking lot? She said she saw you lifting it up and doing something underneath."

For a moment Talia was struck speechless, first by sheer puzzlement, then, as comprehension dawned on her, by shock and disbelief. Finally, finding her voice, she stammered, "Ohmygod! You- you think I- you think I'd-!"

Raising an eyebrow, Clark said unwaveringly, "Did you?"

Talia stood thunderstruck for a moment, unable even to begin to formulate a reply. Then, anger flaring to life inside her, she said, "Did I what, Clark! Screw with your mom's car? Set things up somehow to kick off a potentially fatal crash just so I could play the hero?"

His tone still unrelenting, Clark said, "You said it, not me. So did you?"

Shaking her head slowly, Talia said, "I can't believe you're even asking me this! My God, Clark, is that how I've come across to you? As the kind of person who'd do something like that?"

"Talia," Clark said matter-of-factly, "The truth is, I hardly even know you. Period. You dropped into my lap literally out of nowhere just last night with one of the wildest stories I've ever heard, and now this happens after Mom saw you doing something to the car. What am I supposed to think?"

"Maybe," Talia said very slowly and deliberately, "You should think that I was telling your mom the truth when I said I heard something under there. That I lifted the car up to see what was making that weird scratching noise. Maybe that's what you should think."

"Alright," Clark said, "Let's go with that then. What do you think it was? Did you see anything under there?"

"No," Talia said reluctantly, "I couldn't see anything. And the noise stopped as soon as I bent down to take a look. I… don't have a clue what could've been making it."

Nodding slowly, Clark said, "Right. So if you were in my shoes, what would you think?"

Sighing loudly, Talia said, "I guess I'd think the whole thing was pretty fishy. That maybe I was making up the noise thing to cover whatever the real reason was for me lifting the car up." And then, a pleading note in her voice, she said, "But that's not how it was, Clark! I'm not making anything up! And hurting you mom is the last thing in the world I'd want to do! Like I told her, she's way too cool to have anything bad happen to her!"

His expression softening slightly, Clark said, "Talia, I- I want to believe you. Really I do. But you have to understand, a lot of weird things have happened around here in the past. A lot of people have turned out not to be what they seemed to be, and other people, people I care about, have been hurt. After all of that, it's kind of hard to just take a chance on somebody again."

Talia sighed, and said, "I guess I can understand that, Clark. And I'm sorry that I got dumped on you and your family along with all my issues." She paused for a moment, considering, and then continued in a leaden voice. "It all seemed like such a good idea last night, but now- now I think maybe I should just go. You guys obviously have more than enough going on without adding me to the mix."

"Now hold on a minute," Clark said, concern suddenly coloring his tone. "What do you mean 'go', Talia? You're just a kid; where exactly are you gonna go to?"

Shaking her head, Talia said in a bittersweet tone, "Oh, c'mon, Clark, you know the score. It's not like I'm a normal fourteen year-old or anything. I can take care of myself, and I can set up shop just about anywhere in the world I want to. I'm sure I'll do… just fine."

His mouth compressed into a hard line, Clark said, "Oh, I'm sure you will, Talia. I don't doubt you can take care of all your physical needs, one way or another. Probably not legally, though."

"Clark," Talia began in a conciliatory tone, only to be overridden as he pushed on ahead.

"But no matter how well you take care of yourself, you'll still be all alone. And however powerful you are, Talia, you're still just a teenager. Trust me when I say, the next few years are going to be some of the roughest in your life. You're gonna have a helluva time getting through them without friends to cover your back and a couple of rock-solid adults to pull you back on track when you start wandering astray. Is that how you want things to be?"

"No!" Talia yelled in sudden frustration. "That's not how I want things to be, Clark! But what exactly the hell is it you want me to do! If you can't trust me, there's no way I can stay here, and sure as hell I'm not going to let the sheriff shuffle me off into the foster care system! For that matter, if you really believe I'm dangerous or whatever, what do you plan on doing? Are you gonna pop out with some of those powers you've been denying you have, go from 'Norman Rockwell' to 'Norman Bates', and put me in a shallow grave out there in the cow pasture? Is that what you've got in mind?"

"No!" Clark said, vaguely horrified by the notion. "We're not like that, Talia!"

"Well," she said, a quaver in her voice, "Whether you believe it or not, neither am I! And I would never put someone's life at risk just to make myself look good in their eyes! Especially not someone who's been as good to me as your mom has, Clark."

He stood stolidly for a moment more, his gaze seeming almost to bore through Talia as he weighed everything in his mind. In the end, though, it was a simple decision; trust her or don't. Either way, there were bound to be consequences, both immediate and unforeseeable, and they'd just have to be dealt with as they arose. Clark's gut instinct, his most basic assessment of the person before him, told him that she was trustworthy, the incident in the courthouse parking lot notwithstanding. And, finally, it was this appraisal that won out.

Relaxing from a posture that had unconsciously become almost defensive, Clark said, "I believe you, Talia. And I'm sorry that I accused you like I did."

Talia almost visibly sagged with relief for just a second, and then, regaining both her composure and her pride said, "Well, apology accepted, I guess." Then, her bravado crumbling, she came forward and, putting a hand on Clark's arm said quietly, "Thank you for trusting me, Clark. It… means a lot."

Smiling, he said, "Well, you've got to start somewhere, I guess. And this seems like the right place."

After a moment's silence, Talia said, "Okay, then. What now?"

"Now," Clark said slowly, "We go and let Mom and Dad know what the score is. I'm sure that they're awfully curious about what's going on in here."

Talia nodded slowly and said, "Yeah. Hopefully they're taking it as a good sign that nobody's gone through a wall or anything yet."

"Hopefully," Clark said, still smiling, and then, "After that… Well, you tell me, Talia. We just established that you didn't have anything to do with the accident, but do you really think it was just an accident?"

Shaking her head slowly, Talia said, "Not really. I've been thinking about it ever since it happened and… I just don't believe it. It's too big a coincidence for the brakes to fail like that right after a blow-out. And when you add whatever I heard under the car to that…"

"It adds up to something not being right with this," Clark said flatly.

Talia nodded and said, "Exactly."

"Which is why," Clark said smoothly, "as soon as we get done with Mom and Dad, you and I are going back out to take a better look at that accident scene."

Jonathan and Martha were both more than an little relieved to see Clark and Talia come out of the barn not only whole, but apparently in good spirits as well. As they approached, Jonathan looked to Clark and said, "I take it that went well."

Clark nodded and said, "You could say that, Dad. We hashed some things out, and… well, I'm sure that Talia didn't have anything to do with the accident. That's what she says, and I believe her."

Cocking his head slightly, Jonathan said, "Really." Then, looking to Talia, he said, "I guess whatever you said must've been pretty convincing, huh?"

"I only told Clark the truth, Mr. Kent," she said quietly. "I told him that there was no way I'd ever risk anyone's life just to make myself look good." Then, looking to Martha, she added in an even lower tone, "Especially not somebody I care about."

A soft smile on her face, Martha stepped forward and, taking Talia's hands in hers said, "I don't know about you, Jonathan, but I'm willing to accept that."

Nodding slowly, he said, "I trust Clark's judgment. And yours, dear." Then, looking to Talia he said, "So what do you think really happened, then? You figure it was just an accident after all?"

Shaking her head, Talia said, "No, Mr. Kent, I don't, and neither does Clark. We talked it over in the barn, and-"

"And it still doesn't make any sense." Clark finished for her. "The odds are that somebody did something to that car, and since it wasn't Talia, we need to figure out who it was."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Jonathan asked flatly.

"Well, first," Clark said, "We need to check out the accident scene again. I don't know what we might find, but it's the logical place to start. After that… we'll just have to see, I guess."

By the time they rolled back up to the break Martha's Escort had made in the old rail fence, dusk was fast approaching. Parking just off the road, they dismounted and started retracing the path of destruction in toward where the still-cooling hulk of the burned out Escort rested. Thanks to the deputy's decision, based on safety considerations, it would be there until at least the next day, so they figured they'd have ample opportunity to study it.

"So," Talia said. "Any idea where to start?"

"I guess we can check out the car first, and then sort of spiral out from there," Clark said a bit uncertainly. "Didn't you get any experience doing stuff like this working with the government back home?"

"Only a little," Talia said. "Investigations and forensics weren't my area of expertise. Not yet, anyway. My job was pretty much muscle-work at the stage I was at. A couple more years, a little more training and field experience, and who knows? But I'd only been with Section Zero for a little over a year when all this happened."

"See now," Clark said as they approached the wrecked Escort, "That's the part I don't get. You're saying that you were recruited by a government agency of some sort when you were thirteen years old? What kind of world do you come from, Talia?"

Talia sighed, and said, "The same kind of world where the FBI will recruit teenaged hackers and crackers if they need them, Clark. The truth is, it's all pretty complicated, and I've been working above my level for a while now. But there's been a lot going on the last couple of years where I'm from; terrorists all over the place, wannabe world-beaters coming out of the woodwork, monolithic secret societies backing the terrorists and the world-beaters to further their own agendas… I guess when things got that out of hand, the government couldn't afford to turn away talent, no matter how young."

Shaking his head slowly, Clark said, "Sounds pretty out of control, all right. But your folks were okay with all this?"

"Well," Talia said slowly, "I'm not sure 'okay' would be the right word. But you've got to understand, teen super-teams have a long history back home, and that's the background both of them came from. Their team was sort of quasi-government sponsored, so that made it a little easier for them to accept what I wanted to do, but… well, Section Zero is just a whole different animal. They grew up back in that four-color tights and spandex era, with all the hokey code-names and the crazy villains who never quite seemed to get around to killing the good guys. They just figured Section Zero was something like their old team, more of a school for super-powered misfits than anything else. I knew better, but… well, it was something I really wanted to do, so…"

"You let your parents keep thinking that Section Zero was something that it wasn't," Clark said flatly.

Talia nodded and said, "Yeah. Of course I knew that couldn't last forever, and to say that sparks flew when they found out… well, that would be an understatement. That's one of the reasons I was down to reserve status when this happened. That and, after a year of playing in Section Zero's world, I was kind of ready to try out 'normal' again for a while. I just sort of needed to decompress, I guess you could say."

Clark gave a small snort and said, "Well, I hate to say it, but if that's what you were after, Smallville probably isn't the best place you could've ended up. Despite that 'Norman Rockwell' façade you already noticed, Smallville is probably one of the least 'normal' places you're ever likely to find."

Putting a hand on the burnt out wreck they'd come to examine, Talia said, "Yeah, I'm starting to see that. And this so-called accident just sort of reinforces the impression."

Instead of commenting, Clark just studied the wreck intently, letting his x-ray gaze penetrate it layer by layer. He paid special attention to the front end, scrutinizing what was left of the braking system and the right front tire closely. He quickly found this to be futile, however; everything had been too thoroughly burned and blasted to leave behind anything he could recognize as a clue.

"Yeah," Clark finally said distractedly, then, "Tell you what; why don't you take a closer look at the car while I walk around and take a better look at the area here. Maybe something that'll help us got blown off when the gas tank went up."

Talia shrugged and said, "Sounds as good as anything else, I guess." With that, she turned and began to examine the vehicle meticulously, starting at the front end and working back.

For his part, Clark began to walk slowly around the area, sweeping his enhanced senses over everything. He found all sorts of random fragments of metal and plastic scattered around, far more than were visible to the normal human eye, but nothing that jumped out and grabbed him as unusual. Until he neared a small copse of trees maybe fifty yards from the burnt out hulk of the Escort.

As he swept his x-ray vision across the trees, he immediately noticed a relatively large mass of oddly shaped metal in the brush near their edge. Focusing on this, he moved a bit closer, and felt his eyebrows raise in surprise as the shape of the thing became clearer. Finally, he knelt down, pushed the brush aside, and got a good look at the thing.

"Hey Talia!" He yelled. "I think you should come have a look at this!"

"What is it?" She yelled back from where she stood still examining the wrecked Escort.

"I think," he said slowly, "I just found our smoking gun."

Okay, end of chapter 5, and things are starting to get even more complicated. Clark and Talia have a clue to work with now, but what exactly will this clue lead them into? Find out in a few days in chapter 6, "Layers of Deception". Also, as always, please take a little time to review. After all, if you don't, how do I know that anyone's even reading this? And if no one is, there wouldn't be much point in continuing to write it, now would there?