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Chapter 9

Lana was in the guest room, snoozing comfortably in a queen size bed. The rainstorm had become a lightning storm after midnight, but Lana was unaware.

Lex was pacing in his study. He had been unable to sleep and had gone to his study to do some research on his laptop. Still concerned about Lana, his mind was troubled with fearful thoughts about Whitney. So here he was now, pacing, because there was nothing he could do.

There was a crackle of thunder and a large crash. Lex's head shot up, and he looked around to see what it was. There, dripping, in his study doorway, stood Whitney. He looked mean and ready to kill.

"You!" he said. "You plotted with Clark didn't you! You always plotted to get Lana away from me, always tried to help Clark make points with her, and now you're holding her here. Where is she?"

"Calm down Whitney. I'm sure that we can talk this out rationally." Lex began.

Whitney zoomed over to Lex's laptop, and seeing the research about him, he picked it up and threw it as hard as he could through the wall. The laptop broke to pieces as it slammed through wall after wall after wall. Lex was amazed at Whitney's strength.

Lana was cowering in the guest room. She wanted to stay there, and not move. Then hopefully Whitney couldn't find her. But, she knew that it wasn't right. She knew that she couldn't let Lex, and his mansion, be destroyed on account of her. Getting dressed she reluctantly ran down to the study. "Whitney!" she cried. "I'm here. Now leave Lex alone!"

"This wimp?" Whitney asked. He looked at Lex and picked him up with one hand.

"Why are you here Lana? Don't you realize it was always Lex who tried to break us up? He always tried to keep us apart so Clark could have his chance with you. Don't you realize that?" Whitney spat.

Whitney then proceeded to throw Lex into a bookcase, which collapsed on top of him, leaving him immobile, but conscious.

Lana was afraid. She was more afraid than she had ever been in her life. Not only was she afraid of Whitney's new powers, but the fact that he had some new twisted obsession with her, or did he have it all along? Running as fast as she could, she had barely reached the doorway when Whitney appeared in front of her. "Going somewhere?" he asked.

His grin was menacing. Lana stopped and looked him in the eyes. They were neon green again. "What do you want from me?" Lana asked in desperation.

Whitney looked at her, somewhat hurt, so much so that Lana almost felt bad for him.

"I want you to love me again, Lana, like you used to."

"Whitney, I could never love you again, especially not now. You're a monster!"

Whitney's temper flared again.

"Is that so? Well, maybe you'll change your mind when this monster gets rid of Clark."

"I would like to see you try," Clark said challengingly, as he leaned against the doorframe. "I'm getting a bit sick of you hitting me around."

Clark had a partial red gleam to his eyes.

If it was a couple of years ago, Whitney might've been startled by Clark's sudden appearance in the doorway, but now, it just annoyed him. "Don't start with me, Kent…"

"Whitney, whatever problem you have with me, at least confront me with it, not Lana. You've beaten up the only girl you loved. Look at her."

Whitney looked at Lana. She was a pinnacle of bruises. She nodded in agreement with Clark.

Chloe stood hidden next to the doorway. Just a minute ago, Clark had heard the commotion with his enhanced hearing and rushed both of them to the mansion. They had a plan, albeit a very weak one, but if Whitney didn't notice her then it might work.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Whitney yelled at Clark.

"No! You know I'm right. If you want to hurt me so badly then why don't you? I'm right here!"

Whitney's eyes glowed and he zoomed toward Clark, who sped out of the way in time, leaving Whitney crashing into the wall. It just made him angrier.

Chloe got ready to carry out the plan. Pulling the large chunk of red kryptonite out of its already open lead box, she held it closer to Whitney. They had figured that if red makes Clark crazy and green hurts him then maybe green makes Whitney crazy and red hurts him. It was a good theory, and it was working. Whitney's veins began to bulge and turn red, and he cried out in pain and surprise. However, the large chunk of red kryptonite was taking its toll on Clark. He was trying to remain sensible, but was having a hard time. His eyes were becoming redder the longer he was exposed.

"How does it feel Whitney?" Clark asked. "I don't know how in the hell you got it, but since you have the power, now you have the weakness too."

Chloe shot Clark a glare. He shrugged. She had to hurry or Clark was going to go psycho again, as she so mildly put it. Somehow Whitney managed to get up and stumble down the hallway. Clark, very egotistical in the state he was in, zipped in front of Whitney before he could get very far, but immediately dropped to the ground when he began to feel the radiation that Whitney gave off. Then Chloe began to chase Whitney but he was far enough away to decrease the kryptonite's effects and he speeded away.

Lana walked out into the hallway. "Clark, how did you…get out of the way like that?" she asked.

"I'm a little more experienced than Whitney." He said under his breath.

"You're what?" Lana asked.

"What do you want me to say Lana? Do you want to know the truth or a candy coated version of it? I don't think you could handle the complete and total truth about me." Clark said.

"Alright, that's enough out of you." Chloe said, as she put the chunk of kryptonite back into the lead box and closed the lid. Immediately Clark returned to normal, and began to look nervous.

Lana looked from Clark to Chloe. She knew that there was something weird about Clark but every time she was close to finding it out, the clues would stop. Frustrated, she let out a sigh.

"Thanks Clark and Chloe for saving me." Chloe muttered, as Lana stomped past them up to her guest room.

"Um, I'm still here." Lex said, in a muffled voice.

"Oh, Sorry Lex." Clark said, and he and Chloe walked over and lifted the bookcase off of him.

"Thanks." Lex said as he brushed himself off. "You really showed Whitney."

"Yeah, I guess we did." Chloe said, with a smile. "Anyway, Lex, we had better be getting back to Clark's house. His parents are probably worried."

"Yeah." Clark agreed.

Lex brushed himself off. "Watch out for Whitney," he said.

"Don't worry. I don't think he'll be back for a while." Clark said, hoping that it wasn't wishful thinking.

The next morning…

Clark woke up to the ringing of the phone. It was quarter to eight in the morning. His parents were up but Chloe, Gabe and Lana were asleep. He figured he'd let someone else answer it, but apparently no one was in the kitchen because it continued to ring. After six rings, Clark sighed, and then ran downstairs to get the phone.

"Hello?"

"Clark, it's Pete. I'm really freaked out man."

"What? What's going on?"

"You're not going to believe this but this morning, I woke up and I was floating! Floating! I was so freaked out that I wouldn't go back to bed."

Clark paled. He ran his hand through his hair, and sighed. "Is that it? Are you okay?"

"What do you mean is that it? Holy crap, man!"

"Pete, I didn't mean it that way. I just wanted to know if anything else happened."

There was a pause. "Yeah. I stayed awake and thought that if I watched some TV then maybe I'd be alright. I found out that I couldn't even do that! Clark, I sat down and broke the couch! Then I picked up the remote and it broke. After that I got frustrated and walked back to my room, and when I walked in I noticed that the bed, too, was after breaking, probably from my earlier fall."

Clark pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, as if to think. "Alright, Pete, stay where you are and don't move. I'll be right there."

"Sure man, sure. Just hurry up ok? I'm freaking myself out."

"On my way."

Clark hung up the phone. He then ran upstairs, dressed, and left his parents a note that he was headed to Pete's and he'd see them later.

After super-speeding down God knows how many back roads, Clark stepped in front of Pete's house.

Pete opened the door almost instantly, and waved for Clark to come in.

"How do you think it happened?" Clark asked.

"I don't know." Pete said, and Clark noticed he had calmed down considerably. "Sorry Clark, I didn't mean to frighten you. I just…"

"Woke up and found out that you can do things that your best friend who's an alien can do. I got it."

Pete sighed.

Clark looked at Pete. "Well, until we figure out what's causing it, then you can at least enjoy it. I mean, you always did wish you could do what I could." Clark said, being optimistic.

That earned Clark a hard glare.

"Geez! I was just kidding." Clark said. "Anyway, I'm going to try and get you a little used to having strength before we go to school, because I don't want you breaking everything."

Pete nodded, and Clark began to explain how he controlled his strength. Pete practiced until it was time to leave for school.

At school…

When Clark and Pete walked into the Torch office, the first thing they noticed was the big mess. There were coffee cups broken, the mouse was squashed in two, and Chloe was sitting in a pile of ripped papers. Clark noticed that she was holding a taped up coffee mug, filled with the remains of a café mocha, which was currently soaking the tape that surrounded it. She started to lift it to her mouth when it too, broke into a million pieces, soaking her skirt along with it. Chloe looked as if she was going to cry, but she held back.

She looked at Clark meekly.

"Chloe, are you ok?" Clark asked, rushing to her.

"Yeah, great. The best I've ever been. How was your day, Clark?" she said sarcastically.

"Not great if you count Pete freaking out and calling me, and finding out that he has my strength and he can float."

"Wha..?" Chloe said.

"Yeah, we're going to have to investigate to try and figure out what's caused it." Clark said.

"You'll have to investigate. I can't do anything without breaking it." Chloe said sarcastically.

"My first period is math, and I can catch up on it anyway. Why don't I stay with you and help you learn how to control your new strength?"

Chloe nodded. She didn't like feeling helpless. The bell rang and Clark remained while Pete waved goodbye and left (carefully).

Clark looked intently at Chloe. "First, you'll need to calm down," he said.

She took a few deep breaths and nodded.

"Now, it's as easy as this. When you pick up something, imagine that you can and are holding it and not breaking it, like this."

With that, Clark picked up a CD case. He handed it to Chloe. She lasted about a second. Then it broke.

Clark rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long sixty minutes.

Halfway through Chloe's 'lesson' a knock was heard on the door of the Torch. It was Principal Reynolds.

"Chloe Sullivan! Open up the door this instant!" he demanded.

Chloe, already shaken, jumped up and ran towards the door, to which Clark stopped her and opened it himself.

Principal Reynolds stared daggers at Clark. "So this is where you are." He stated. "I don't take kindly to people skipping class, Mr. Kent. Therefore, I would advise that you march along to whatever class you have now and report to my office for a detention after school."

Clark's mouth dropped. "I can't have a detention after school," he thought. "What if Pete and Chloe…?"

"I asked Clark to stay and help with the paper, since I'm loaded with work this week." Chloe covered. "He's doing well in math anyway, so I figured that it wouldn't matter."

Reynolds raised his eyebrow. He pushed the door open a little more and witnessed the mess that Clark and Chloe had so carelessly forgotten to clean up.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"Um…erm…shit…" Chloe muttered under her breath. "I…err… was a little…frustrated this morning with the layout."

Now Reynolds looked really suspicious. Yet, he couldn't disprove what Chloe was saying, and Clark did write for the Torch. "Okay, I'll let you off with it this time, but next time, Ms. Sullivan, I expect you to control your temper. You're not in elementary school. And I expect that if Mr. Kent is going to miss any class for the Torch that the proper teacher be notified ahead of time and he gets his missed work."

A relieved Clark and Chloe both nodded.

Reynolds gave the room one last look and then walked down the hallway.

Chloe let out a huge sigh, and flopped down on the remaining intact chair.

"Chloe, no!" Clark said, but it was too late. The chair broke into pieces, and Chloe's butt hit the floor.

Clark ran his hand through his hair. "Lunch," he thought, "think of lunch."