Ok, Here's Chapter 26, sorry for the long wait. However the story must go on. As always I do not own Smallville or the X-Men. Now on with the story, read and enjoy.


En Route to Smallville

Tanya Hartford looked over her notes on the current story in Smallville. They're always seemed to be weird happenings going on in that town and since she was originally from there, the TV station most often sent her to investigate. Usually she could not find anything really news worthy and she suspected that today would be the same. At the age of 17 she had escaped the town and going to college a year early. The weird thing was that after living through the meteor shower all she had wanted to be was a reporter. Now at the age of 30 she was in a dead end job working for channel 8 news, in a no respect job, with no way out. Tanya sighed as she spotted the Welcome to Smallville sign in the headlights. Perhaps tonight would be different she was guessing that she wasn't. Up ahead in the main part of town she could see other TV news trucks arriving and pulling up in front of the hospital. That's where they would go with everyone else she supposed, and get the same old story, 'nothing happened here, and we have no comment'. With the news van slowing down she then noticed a motorcycle and truck parked at the side of the road. That was odd, no one else had stopped here and she could see no one around.

"Stop," she yelled at her driver/cameraman, it was as if Tanya had felt something, the story was here, perhaps she would be lucky and find some more victims of the mutant, or maybe even the mutant himself. The driver screeched to a halt at the unexpected command that had been given.

"What are you doing?" Her cameraman yelled at her as Tanya lurched open the van door and was about to leap out.

"I'm finding the story, and you're coming with me." She told him taking authority.

"Not in this life time I'm not, we are supposed to go to the hospital and you know it, not into some woods. Who knows what could be in there?" He yelled at her. At this point a few cars and trucks were pulling up behind them and honking trying to get them moving again.

"Listen I'm in charge, and I have a hunch that our story is in those woods, now park this thing on the side of the road and get out your camera." Tanya yelled back at him as she got out of the truck and slammed her door shut. She quickly smoothed out her pants suit and walked across the high way to the edge of the woods. She waited a minute in the dark as cars passed and finally her cameraman came shooting out swear words as he dodged traffic.

"Well lets get going, I can't believe I'm letting you do this." He spat at her as he grabbed his camera.

"Well neither can I," Tanya muttered to her self as they set out into the forest.

Hospital

Chloe sat in Pete and Bobby's room, the Ross family had finally arrived and the doctors and Officer Miller had taken charge and talked to them. She knew though that soon she would have to face them, and they would have so many questions, many that she probably couldn't even answer. Outside in the hallway the staff quickly went past the room, some had heard rumors about the horrors of what the two boys looked like, or even exaggerations of what Bobby could do, even though no one had even seen him. She had already taken the liberty of letting her father know where she was, however right now he thought she was only there for Pete. She hadn't told him about the room situation. Chloe had already done her crying at the situation, and now all she could do was stare solemnly at the wall and wait for one of them to wake up. Looking at Pete she realized that she didn't know where Clark was or if he was ok. She didn't know what was going on, usually she didn't when it came to Clark. Usually though she wasn't worried, but now she knew that Clark would go after Cory, and he was no match for him, no matter how brave Clark was. She could hear one of the two boys stirring; she looked up and saw that Pete was awake finally. She had thought that he would be since he had been attacked first, and she was guessing with less force then Bobby was.

"Pete, how are you feeling?" Chloe asked walking over to his bedside. Pete stared at her like she was crazy for a moment and then answered back.

"Basically I feel like hell to tell you the truth." He said trying to smile at Chloe.

"I think you have a right to be, Cory also attacked Bobby and Vice Principal Kane. Bobby's still unconscious but Vice Principal Kane woke up a while ago, and not vary happy." Chloe told him, at the mention of the Vice Principal Pete got a strange look on his face.

"Vice Principal Kane was there, I don't remember him being there at all." He stated as he tried to move to sit up in bed.

"He wasn't, he and the Boys and Girls basketball teams came when they heard the commotion." Chloe told him and then started to tell the whole story of what had happened afterwards, from everyone going to Mr. Kane's office to Cory attacking and running out.

"I see," Pete said taking it all in, pausing he realized something, "Chloe where's Clark?" He asked. Chloe frowned she had deliberately left out that part, she didn't want Pete under more stress.

"Clark ran after Cory, he was out for vengeance, I tried to stop him, but I turned around for a second and he slipped out with out me knowing. You know how Clark can get. Once he has his mind on something he does it." Chloe explained to him, surprisingly he was taking it well.

"Yes that is one thing that is very true about Clark." Pete said quietly and the room was in silence once more as they were both in deep thought. Pete knew that whatever Clark was doing right now he had better be careful. He had even warned Clark about this very same thing happening. Looking over at the other bed he noticed how Bobby looked so helpless, but was he really? Pete asked himself now unsure of any answers.

"Oh, Pete there's something else you should know. The media are here, they found out about the mutant attacks...I guess its another slow news day." Chloe said trying to make a joke out of it, but they both knew that this was Smallville land of the weird and unusual. It was at that moment that a nurse came in with Mr. and Mrs. Ross to see Pete, they both rushed over to his side as Chloe slipped out of the way so to give them some privacy. Going back over to Bobby's bed she sat down and waited for something else to go wrong with the day.

Somewhere in A Dark Forest in Smallville

Night had fallen in the forest as Scott, Ororo and Logan set out into the forest to find Clark and hopefully Cory too that is if they were lucky. Logan had grabbed two flashlights from inside the truck so that they could see. After a few minutes of heading deep into the forest Logan spotted something in the brush.

"Stop, I see something," he told them, he could sense something was going on but couldn't be sure what it was. Walking closer Ororo burst forward at recognition.

"Guys its Clark," she yelled as she ran toward the limp Clark Kent. Scott checked his breathing as Logan went to the clearing dead ahead to check for Cory.

"He's still breathing, and he has a good pulse rate." Scott informed Ororo; together they moved Clark so he was lying straight on the forest floor.

"Bad news, Cory's not here." Logan said running back. "He must have slipped out before we came in, we don't have much time."

"We can't leave Clark here," Ororo protested.

"So then we can take him with us and drop him off at the hospital." Logan spoke up acting as if the answer was obvious. Ororo was starting to agree with him when Scott interjected.

"We can't do that, I got a call from Chloe, Mr. Kane the Vice Principal was attacked, and he knows about Bobby being a mutant. We won't be welcome."

"Well then we won't tell them who we are and just say we found Clark in the woods and go out to search for Cory." Logan half-said and half-growled at Scott.

"Boy's," Ororo yelled at them, "we have to take Clark with us, I don't think we can just leave him here. Scott you will take him in since you have been seen around town, and I will go with you. Logan you might get a bit too angry, if you know what I mean." Ororo informed them both trying to get them to behave, as she usually had to do.

"Why does everyone say that to me?" Logan asked, already knowing the answer. Ororo sighed and picked up one of the flashlights from the ground where she had laid it earlier. Logan picked up Clark and the three turned around and were suddenly blinded by a bright light a few feet a head, none of them could tell who or what it was that was the cause. They just stood there stunned as they adjusted to the light and soon saw that it was a TV reporter.

Tanya had been getting a little restless after a few minutes of complete darkness when suddenly up ahead she spotted three hunched over figures with flashlights. Then suddenly they picked up what looked to be another victim, another teenager. The three people then stood stunned; they had somehow not seen the Camera light, being too deep in concentration. Tanya and her Camera guy were both stunned not only had they found another unknown victim, but also from the looks of the three in front of them, they had found more mutants. An owl hooted in the distance as the two sides stared each other down in a stunned silence.

Cory's Apartment

Cory opened the door to the small apartment that he and Mystique were staying in, and came face to face with a very angry looking Mystique. She was in her normal form, and the TV was on in the background. He could see that his face was in a corner of the screen as they described him as a powerful and dangerous mutant to not be encountered. Cory smiled as he saw this.

"What in the world are you smiling for?" Mystique questioned him, yelling and pointing at the TV, "What have you done?"

"You should be too, I've finished with the plan. The meteor rocks have been combined." Cory said smiling and in a few small movements he dropped the bag with the large meteor rock in it and jumped onto the couch from the back of it.

"You've finished already, then you must be weakened too. We should stay through the night and wait for this to die down." Mystique said a little surprised that Cory had completed the plan already, it was early, and they were going to wait a while and get a few more meteor rock.

"Well, I'm not that weakened, I was able to attack another person. He never saw it coming." Cory gloated to Mystique. Mystique stared at him angrily and was about to chew him out for his actions, but when she was about to they heard a knock at the door. Cory jerked straight up, and Mystique turned around to face the door surprised at the sound. A knock came again and they were both quiet not knowing who it was.

Ok I know that at the end of the last season the Ross's got a divorce, but this is my story, and I'm not having them be divorced. Thanks for reading I hope you all enjoyed it. Now its time for reviews, I'll take any kind.