Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville nor am I affiliated with it.
Chapter 14
The next morning, when Clark came downstairs, he noticed that no one was around, except his mother who was laying Clark's breakfast on the table.
"Hello, sleepy-head," she said, laughing.
"What time is it?" he asked.
"Almost twelve noon."
"Holy…"
"Watch your mouth, and eat." Martha turned around for a second. "Glass," She said.
Shaking his head, Clark just laid the milk carton down and opened the cupboard for a glass.
"Where is everyone?" he asked.
Martha turned around with a glint in her eye. "Outside." She said.
"What are they doing out there?" He asked.
"You'd never guess. Now hurry up and let's go out with them."
Clark quickly gulped down his food and then both he and his mother walked outside. What he saw shocked him. Pete, Chloe, and his dad were playing basketball on teams, and Pete, Chloe and his dad were using his-err-their abilities out in the open! Gabe's absence was no surprise, but Lana's absence he dually noted, and sighed.
"What are you doing?" he asked the group.
"Waiting for you to get up, snoozer." Pete said. Chloe laughed.
"You always tell me never to use my abilities in the open, Dad!" Clark said. "And what about the farm chores?"
"All done." Jonathon said, a smile evident on his face, "Although I feel kind of guilty about it not taking me as long. It makes me feel as though I haven't done enough. And about hiding our new abilities, we checked. No one's around for miles, and I guess it can't hurt to let loose every once in a while."
Clark couldn't believe his dad was saying that. "Hello?" he said. "I was speaking to Dad a minute ago. Can you tell me what happened to him?"
"It's just a bit of fun, Clark. Don't worry about it." Martha said.
With that, Clark calmed down a little and joined in.
After that, he, Pete, and Chloe headed to the Talon.
"Are you sure it's such a good idea to come here?" Clark asked.
"Clark, I don't know about you, but I'm not avoiding the Talon because Lana's decided that she's in a mood for the rest of the week." Chloe said
Walking inside they noticed Lex. At first he looked to be in shock but after he waved for them to come over. They all sat down, and had barely ordered their drinks when Lex spoke.
"Did I see Lana working today?" Lex asked.
"I assume so." Clark answered. "I believe her shift started a couple hours ago."
"I phoned her in as a missing person after the incident near the caves. Now that she's here…"
"You called her in as missing?" Chloe exclaimed. "Well, it's ok. She's back now. I wouldn't worry about it. We can notify the sheriff's office."
"I'm just glad she's safe." Lex said.
Pete glared at him. He was still jealous of the night Lana had spent at Lex's mansion.
"Clark, I have to ask you something." Lex told him. "Where did you get that key?"
"Key?" Clark muttered, as his face went pale.
"The octagonal one that fits in the caves." Lex added. "Care to tell me how you got it?"
"We found it there when we arrived." Chloe covered. "It just happened that Clark decided to fit it in the cave's octagonal recess and that's when the lights started to try and kill us."
"Nice try, Chloe, although your excuse is a step up from Clark's, but I know that it wouldn't have been inside the caves. I've had people searching there since it went missing."
"What do you care? It's not like it's yours anyway!" Pete said, agitated at Lex.
"Oh. And whose is it then? Please enlighten me." Lex said.
Pete immediately regretted his words. He had made the same mistake around Dr. Hamilton.
At that moment the temperature in the room dropped.
Shifting the subject, Pete said. "Gee, it's really cold in here. I wonder if the Talon just got air conditioning?"
"Not that I know of." Lex said.
Clark immediately looked down at his mug. There was a casing of ice around the top and the coffee was solid underneath. He quickly hid it in his jacket and hoped that no one would notice.
Chloe looked over and saw Clark's dilemma. She looked at the table and it too was starting to become stiff from the cold. Chloe stood up quickly. "Uh, we should go…" she said to Lex. Then she shoved Clark outside and she and Pete went to pay for their drinks, including Clark's. Lex looked at Clark, then Chloe suspiciously.
As they were walking, trying to get to a place to speed away, Chloe noted that Lex was getting in his car to follow them. She motioned for everyone to walk normal and a couple of minutes later Lex finally came up to them and asked if they wanted a ride.
"No, Lex, that's alright. We don't mind walking." Clark said.
Lex squinted his eyes. "You're sure? It's a long way."
"We're fine." Pete said hurriedly.
"All right." With that, Lex rolled his window up and went ahead. Then Clark, Pete and Chloe speeded out of sight.
"Okay," Lex thought, "I don't know exactly what they're trying to hide but I will find out." With that, he turned onto the highway heading to Clark's house to wait for them to come home.
Halfway down, he noticed three blurs pass him on his side of the road. He could have been mistaken but they looked an awful lot like Chloe, Clark, and Pete. Then he remembered seeing Clark and Chloe do the same thing the night Lana was kidnapped.
Meanwhile…
"I thought you said there was no one on this road!" Clark yelled.
"There wasn't," yelled Chloe. "I thought Lex was headed home."
Pete just shook his head. "I hope that Lex doesn't think too hard on this," he said.
Chloe and Clark screeched to a halt, well Clark did anyway, Chloe continued barreling down the road until her speed decreased. "He doesn't know it's us." Clark said.
Pete stopped too. "He will if he sees us standing around like this!" Pete exclaimed.
Running ahead again, the three ran up Clark's driveway and into the loft before Lex could see them, or so they thought.
In Lex's Car…
Lex almost crashed his car (again) when he saw three figures on the road ahead where the blurs once were. It was Chloe, Pete, and Clark. He was right! There was some sort of teleportation or speed on the go. He suspected that the extra cold in the Talon today had something to do with Clark as well. He followed them to the farm.
At the farm…
After checking to make sure Lex wasn't around, Chloe dragged Clark outside. "That is not going to happen again!" she said. "So you're learning this new power!"
Clark gulped. "But I don't even know what it is!" he protested.
Pete looked at Clark. "You're going to have to learn it soon, man, because you're going to be an inconvenience come the winter."
"Okay so how does it happen?" Chloe asked Clark.
"I just notice my mouth getting really cold, and snow and ice starts forming around me. Then everyone glares at me." Clark said, glaring at Chloe.
"I'm getting your dad." Chloe said.
Clark didn't argue.
Jonathon came out, frowning. "Clark, I told you not to let this get out of hand. You should've come to me." he said.
"I didn't think it would be a problem." He said. "I figured it was something like floating."
Jonathon just shook his head. "And Lex was there when it happened? Clark how many times…"
"I know Dad. I know." Clark said, looking at Chloe. "Did I ever tell you that you have a big mouth?"
Pete laughed.
Clark looked up seriously. "So how am I going to control something like this? Especially when I don't even know what it is."
"Think about something hot?" Chloe suggested. The minute she said it she realized that it was a mistake.
"Then he'd be setting the house aflame." Pete chuckled.
Clark sighed.
"Well, it's still happening, so maybe if you hold your breath?" Chloe said.
Clark tried. When Chloe touched his arm it was ice cold.
"Okay, maybe that's not such a good idea."
Clark let out the breath he was holding. This had to be the weirdest ability so far.
Then Jonathon had an idea. He told Clark to try and take shallow breaths until it stopped. It worked. Then he had Clark inhale a deep breath and let it out, in the process trying to freeze the scarecrow instead of burn it.
Clark tried and tried, until eventually it worked.
Everyone looked at the scarecrow. It was encased in ice, and beginning to melt. Now Clark's skin tone was back to normal, and his breath was warm again. He looked at his dad in amazement.
"You see, Clark? I knew your dad could help!" Chloe blurted.
"Yeah, I guess so." Clark said with a grin. It was still weird that all he had to do was breathe and he could freeze stuff but he was happy enough that he could control it.
Lex was sitting in his carefully concealed car watching all this. His eyes nearly jumped out of his head when he saw the scarecrow encase itself in ice, and Clark standing next to it. So Clark could teleport, and he could freeze things by breathing. And he had the key to the caves. He let that thought digest and started up his car, leaving the farm.
Clark heard a car start and looked in the direction the sound came from. Then he saw a car speed off – Lex's car. "Did Lex just see all of that?" Clark thought.
"Guys, I'm heading to Lex's. I have to find out what he knows." Clark said.
"I'm going to look for more of the red meteor rock in case Whitney comes back." Chloe said.
This time Pete corrected her. "It's Kryptonite," he said.
"Oh, right. That with a C or a K?" Chloe laughed.
Pete looked at her and shook his head, knowing full well that he had said the same thing. "K." he said with a chuckle. "Anyway, I'm heading to the Torch. Maybe I can find out more about what's going on with Lionel and Whitney."
Clark waved, and sped off to Lex's mansion.
At Lex's mansion…
Lex arrived at his office and sat down to wait for Lana. Before he left the Talon he had asked her to come by when she took her break, which was five minutes ago.
As if on cue, Lana walked into Lex's office and sat down on the cushioned chair next to his desk.
"You wanted to see me?" she asked, sitting back and folding her arms.
"Yes, I did." Lex said.
He remembered her first words on the cell phone: "Lex, this is Lana. I just figured out something really important." He suspected it had to do with Clark, and right now there was nothing more he was itching to find out than what she was going to say.
"Lana, what were you trying to tell me when you called me that night at the Kawatche caves?" Lex asked bluntly.
She looked up. "Hrm?"
He raised his eyebrow. "You know what I'm talking about."
"Oh that. It was nothing. I thought I found something out but I didn't."
"Lana, I can tell when someone is lying or hiding something, and I know that you're doing both."
"How would you know if I was or wasn't?"
"Because I'm an expert at it. Lana, I helped you. You wanted to know Clark's secret and I gave you resources to work with. I know that you know something, and I think that you owe it to me to tell me."
"I thought that you didn't want to investigate Clark any more."
"Yes, well let's just say I saw something the night of your kidnapping that opened my eyes and told me to start looking for answers again."
"Well if you know so much, why are you asking me?"
Lex was getting agitated at Lana's evasiveness of the topic. "I know that you know something Lana. I thought that you didn't care about Clark any more. Why are you holding back?"
"Excuse me Lex, but I have to get back to the Talon." Lana said, and stood up to leave.
Lex wasn't giving up that easily. He let Lana go, figuring he'd try again soon. He was surprised when Clark walked into his office moments after Lana left. Little did he know that Clark had arrived only minutes after Lana walked in.
"Clark, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Lex, I need to talk to you." Clark said.
Lex nodded for Clark to continue.
"I know that you were spying on me. I thought you said that you gave up investigating me." Clark said, getting straight to the point.
"Hello to you too." Lex replied. "I wasn't. I just came by for a visit and I saw that you were busy so I left." He shrugged.
"What exactly did you see, Lex?" Clark asked.
"Why so concerned, Clark? According to you, you have nothing to hide."
"Don't avoid the question, Lex."
"I saw you, your dad, Chloe, and Pete doing something with a frozen scarecrow." He shrugged.
Clark let out a breath. It was cold. He quickly stopped it before it started.
"I'm surprised to say the least, Clark. This is the first time you ever even came close to admitting that you're hiding something."
"I'm not."
Lex laughed.
Clark noticed something in the corner of his eye. It was a red rock, and it was sitting on Lex's desk. He quickly backed away.
"Why so jumpy, Clark?" Lex asked.
"What's that, Lex?" Clark asked, pointing to the rock on his desk.
"That's a piece of red meteor rock I keep close since the incident with Whitney. It's a beauty isn't it?"
"How did you know that it hurt him?"
"I was immobile but I could still see what was going on. Thankfully, you and Chloe discovered a weakness. Next time I'll be fully prepared. What's the matter?"
Clark was hunched next to the doorway. "Uh, nothing." He said. "I should be going now."
"You didn't want a piece for protection did you? I know that you're on top of Whitney's list, and it is a pretty large rock." Lex held it out.
Clark felt the rock tugging at him, trying to take him over. He looked at his hands. His veins were turning red. "Lex, I have to go." Clark said, before the rock entirely took him over, and he left.
Lex just looked at the rock in bewilderment. Something had just happened here. Had he just seen what he thought he had? He had seen Clark's veins bulge and turn the same color as the rock. He added this detail to the list of things he already knew about Clark. Then a thought hit him. There were new cameras just installed in the caves after the last ones mysteriously burnt out. These were concealed more. Maybe there was some sort of video tape footage. He made a mental note to check.
Clark ran to the Torch and immediately asked Pete if he found anything else. Pete hadn't found anything.
"I think that Chloe is better at research." He said.
"Speaking of Chloe, is she…"
Just as he said that, Chloe walked through the door with a massive piece of red kryptonite.
"Chloe!" Clark yelped, as he leaped back from the rock.
Pete looked up too late. His eyes glowed red.
"Chloe go get a lead box or something!" Clark yelled.
She quickly left with the rock and Pete's eyes went back to normal. Clark looked through the Torch closet and found the lead box they had used earlier. He tossed it to Chloe.
"Uh, Clark, there's a problem," Chloe said. "It won't fit."
Clark was faced with the worst imitation of his lopsided grin ever. "What was that?" he asked.
"That was me trying the Kent grin, but apparently it didn't work so well." Chloe laughed.
Clark just shook his head. "Are you sure you don't have a bigger box?" he said.
"Maybe your parents do. I'll bring it to them." With that, Clark and Pete had to hold on to the papers on the desk as Chloe sped out of the room.
"Pete, you don't know how to hack into a computer, do you?"
"Kind of. Why?"
"Maybe there are a few interesting articles on Luthorcorp's computers."
"I don't know, man. They have a pretty tight computer security system." Pete said. Then he typed in 'Luthorcorp +Indonesia' and a page with twenty results opened.
Pete looked down through them. "Luthorcorp funds poverty project…, Luthorcorp opens fertilizer factory…" Pete read. "Oh here's an interesting one." He mentioned. "Missing soldier found! Young soldier Whitney Fordman considered MIA was found today by Lionel Luthor of Luthorcorp. Whitney had suffered a traumatic blow to the head, causing him temporary amnesia. He also suffered from a few minor injuries. Doctors are baffled by his survival. They say Whitney is an extremely lucky man to have survived the blast. Mr. Luthor has volunteered to take care of the young man until he is healthy enough to return to his hometown of Smallville, Kansas."
"How come we didn't see that before?" Clark asked.
"I don't know, probably because it's in the back files of some small Indonesian newspaper. It's linked to another article – the newspaper article that was released in the Smallville Ledger about Whitney's disappearance."
"I bet Lionel paid the Ledger not to publish that article." Clark said. "I'm going to email the Smallville Ledger, and ask them why they didn't publish the second article."
"What about the Daily Planet?"
"They wouldn't have done an article on Whitney. A lot of guys could've signed up and been MIA. Metropolis is a big city."
"You're probably right." Pete agreed.
Clark sat down to type up the email.
Just then Chloe walked in. "Got a bigger one!" she exclaimed, as she showed off the new lead box she had.
"That's great. Now can you put it in the closet or something?" Clark said. He wasn't too fond of having the red kryptonite around.
"Fine." Chloe said as she pouted and walked over to the closet.
Clark looked back at Pete. "Luthorcorp is not usually so sloppy. If that article was there in the first place we would have found it. Why does he want us to see it now?"
"Maybe he just doesn't care. I mean, after what happened in the tunnel we already know that he was behind it, whatever it was."
"True. But he could want us to find him. He could be trying to lure us into a trap."
"Clark, man, you've been watching too many mystery movies."
"No, I just don't want to become a specimen on a lab table." he said.
"What's all this about Lionel?" Chloe asked.
"We finally found some semi-proof of what happened in Indonesia. I say semi because it doesn't really prove anything, it just confirms that Whitney was in Lionel's care."
"Care, my butt." Chloe said. "Claws are more like it. Anyway, what are we going to do about it?"
"Keep searching." Pete said. They all agreed and sat down to do some serious investigative work.