Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville and I'm not affiliated with it.

Chapter 20

In the field behind the Kents' farm, Lex played football with four powered up teens. Chloe threw a pass to Pete, who was on her team, and Clark intercepted it, running now towards her. He passed the ball to Lex, who ran with it for forty yards before being intercepted by Whitney.

"Damn," Lex thought. "I almost had a touchdown."

Chloe, Pete, and Whitney were winning by one point. So far, the teens had been holding back so that the game would be fair to Lex. However, his next request surprised them.

"You guys don't have to hold back, you know. I want to see what I'm up against." Lex said, with a glint in his eye.

Pete rolled his eyes, while Chloe smirked and said, "Ok, but remember, you asked for it."

With that, Whitney threw the football to Chloe, who zipped a hundred yards away and caught it. Lex looked on in wonder as Clark speeded in front of Chloe, and she ran into him, bouncing backwards and dropping the ball. Clark caught it and passed it to Lex.

"Uh oh." Lex thought, and ran with all of his might, realizing the significance of the can of worms he had just opened.

Whitney intercepted Lex from the side, making sure not to hit him too hard, for fear of injuring him. However, it was still a fine blow and Lex fell, rolling as soon as he hit the ground. But he still clutched the football. Lex stood up and ran again and Clark ran ahead of him, blocking. All of a sudden, there was a yell.

"Clark!" Pete exclaimed, in warning. Pete had tried to super speed in front of Clark to stop him, but still not being in complete control of that ability, he had gone faster than he wanted and couldn't stop. Pete ended up zooming completely off of the field and into the trees.

"I have to go and get him." Clark said, zipping away.

Lex looked at Chloe. "How come you're so good at it and Pete's not?"

"I learn quickly." Chloe joked, picking up the football that Lex had dropped. "But I'm still not that great at this strength stuff."

Sure enough, as if to acknowledge her statement, the football flattened in her hand.

"Crap." She sighed. "Oh well, there's always another day for football."

At that moment, Clark and Pete ran into view. Clark began to slow and Pete, watching Clark like a hawk, tried to imitate him and began to slow down as well. However, Clark stopped, and Pete tripped and rolled head first into the dirt, completing three forward somersaults until he stopped. He spit out dirt, stood up, brushed himself off, and shook his head.

"What happened to the football?" Clark inquired. "Or do I need to ask?"

Chloe sighed. Then she immediately began to clutch her head. When she opened her eyes, all of the guys were still standing around, but in boxers. Chloe blushed madly. She made the mistake of looking at Clark, and suddenly the heat began to build up behind her eyes. Not knowing what it was Chloe began to wipe at her eyes frantically.

Clark recognized the signs not a moment too soon. "Duck!" he yelled to everyone, and heat blazed out from Chloe's eyes, scorching everything in sight. When it had stopped, Clark noticed that a great portion of grass was on fire, and was spreading toward the trees rapidly. He couldn't put it out in super speed, as that would spread the fire out more. His mind panicked. What was he going to do?

Chloe seemed to come to life instantly, realizing that the current situation was her fault. "Clark, oh my god, I'm so sorry, I just…I…the x-ray vision came back and…"

Clark shared a look with her, and immediately she understood why Clark hadn't told her just how the heat vision worked. She blushed again. Then the smoke caught everyone's eye, and Chloe realized that they were going to have to act fast to stop the fire. She, along with Pete and Whitney, began to go into super speed when Clark stopped them.

"It'll spread the fire." He said. "I guess we'll just have to go and try our best to pat it out with our hands."

"I don't know if I'm invulnerable." Pete said.

"I would say you are, Pete." Chloe said. "You did knock a hole into a cabin wall with your body and not feel it."

"I felt that plenty!" Pete exclaimed.

"I can't help either." Whitney said regretfully. "I'm not completely…like Clark…in that way."

Clark looked worriedly at the fire, which was getting bigger by the moment.

Lex pulled out his cell phone and began to dial the fire department. Someone picked up. "There's a situation with a fire..." he began.

Clark realized he had to do something. An idea formed in his head. "This had better work," He thought, "or that fire is definitely going to burn down acres of forest tonight."

He held in his breath like he had done in practice with the scarecrow, and slowly allowed it to cool along with his body temperature. When he noticed his skin get a whitish tint, he let all of the air come barreling out of his lungs, and toward the fire. Slowly each flame froze in mid crackle, and nothing was left but a field of ice lined with icicle fires, trailing almost all of the way to the trees. Clark stood looking at the results in amazement.

So did Lex. The voice on the other line had to call him back to reality. "Hello? Sir? Sir? What's the address?"

"Address? Oh…never mind. It was a false alarm." Lex said into the cell phone, and closed it shut.

After the situation with the fire, Clark didn't think it a wise idea to stick around the area, so Lex offered the four a ride, and they began head home. On the drive, everyone had some sort of compliment to give to Clark.

"Clark, that was amazing." Lex said.

"Yeah that was really cool." Pete agreed.

"Definitely the most awesome thing I've ever seen, Kent." Whitney admitted.

"Truly Torch worthy." Chloe joked.

Everyone glared.

"I was just kidding!" Chloe protested.

The looks subsided slightly.

Chloe shrugged. "You believe me, don't you Clark?"

"You know I do." Clark said, holding her in an embrace.

A few minutes later…

Chloe, Clark and Pete walked down the dark driveway as Lex drove away with Whitney.

"I think I'm going to head home now, guys. I just didn't want to be in the car with those two." Pete said, still a little distrusting of Lex and Whitney. After a small discussion of whether or not Pete could super speed home, Chloe decided to drive him.

"I'll be home in a few minutes." She said, and left.

Clark walked up the steps to his house, and upon stepping inside he knew that something was wrong. The atmosphere was gloomy and uninviting, which never described his house normally. The second thing he noted was Lana's absence.

"But didn't I see her vehicle in the driveway?" he said aloud.

"Yes." A voice next to him said. He recognized it as Gabe's.

"Lana's gone missing again, Clark." Gabe explained, with a worried look on his face.

"Again?" Clark sighed. "But she must've arrived here safely, since her jeep is outside."

"Yes, and no, I'm afraid, son." Jonathon said, walking over to the counter. "We heard her screams from inside the house, but by the time we got outside she was gone."

"But can't you both super speed now?" Clark asked, eyeing his parents.

"Yes, and we did, but we still didn't see anyone." Jonathon explained. "Whoever it was had to have been faster."

Clark turned to leave, but Jonathon grabbed his arm. "Do you really think that you can go up against this thing alone?" he said. "If it's faster than we are, it's already at an advantage, and I doubt that speed is all it has."

"Someone has to stop it." He said.

"You don't even know the direction it headed." Gabe said.

"I'll find out." Clark told him, determined.

"Let your mother and I go." Jonathon said. "We're the ones that are resistant to your weakness. It'll be safer."

"But Mom doesn't even know how to use her abilities!" Clark protested.

"I do so." Martha disagreed from the next room. She walked into the kitchen. "Your father has been helping me."

"So it seems." Clark said, realizing that her hearing certainly worked. He looked at his mother. "Alright, fine, but I want to come along."

"Well it's no good to go tonight. We should wait for morning and look for clues, starting in the driveway." Jonathon said.

"Dad…we can find clues tonight. By tomorrow it might be too late." Clark said.

"I understand your concern, Clark, but unless you've developed some sort of infrared vision too, we're not going to see much in the dark."

Clark slumped, defeated, and reluctantly went up to his room.

Ten minutes later Clark heard a soft knock on his door, and Chloe walked in. She shut it and walked over, sitting down on Clark's bed and immediately cuddling into him. He leaned into her embrace as well, and both sat there for what seemed like an eternity.

Chloe broke the silence. "I heard about Lana." She said.

Clark nodded.

"Don't worry. We'll find her. But there's nothing we can do until tomorrow, when we can actually see and look for clues."

Clark first eyed Chloe, wondering if she had been replaced with a pod person. "Chloe Sullivan is not going clue searching at night? That's a first."

"Look, farm boy, your parents are right, what can I say?" Chloe said.

"It's the first time my parents ever stopped me from leaving." Clark admitted.

"They're worried about you, Clark. They don't want you running headfirst into situations you don't have all of the facts about."

"I seem to recall a certain blonde that liked to do that a lot," he teased.

Chloe pouted and folded her arms.

Clark smiled. "She looks so pretty when she does that." He thought.

"Alright, I'll give it until tomorrow morning," he gave in.

Chloe smiled, and then her gaze turned serious. "I don't mean to suddenly shift the subject, but I just wanted to tell you that I understand now why you didn't tell me about the…heat." Chloe said, a little uncomfortable.

Clark looked at her with surprise, not really having a reaction since he hadn't expected such a statement from her.

"That was why it happened to you in health class, wasn't it? I mean first the video, and the teacher was, well I'll admit, an attractive woman…" Chloe began.

Clark began to turn red.

"Couple that with certain thoughts of…I'm guessing…a certain brunette with the initials LL…" Chloe said, raising an eyebrow.

"You know what? I think the football game's on downstairs…" Clark said, trying to change the subject.

"Clark, it's ok. I'm not offended or weirded out or anything. I mean how could I be? It just happened to me!" Chloe comforted.

"Yeah, so what were you thinking about?" Clark joked, getting back at her.

"Err…about that." Chloe began.

Clark smirked. "Now that you know my deepest darkest secrets it's only fair that I know yours."

"Well, the whole x-ray vision thing you promised to help me with but didn't, started happening again, only this time it wasn't skeletons, it was you guys, in nothing but boxers…and other variations…" Chloe said, very embarrassed.

Clark laughed aloud at 'other variations' comment.

"And, well, I kind of made the mistake of looking at you…" she admitted.

Clark looked coyly at her. "Why was it a mistake?"

This caused Chloe to blush even more at the implication.

Although, some sort of understanding had developed between the two, and at the same time, both leaned in for a kiss. Eventually it turned into a passionate one, and soon both teens ended up on the floor.

Clark looked at Chloe. He couldn't believe that he didn't notice how pretty she was before. Chloe almost melted as her hands traced Clark's well toned chest. In fact, she found it…really sexy. Almost too sexy even…

Immediately the heat began to build up behind her eyes again, and she stood up, pushing Clark away.

"Chloe? What's wrong?" Clark asked.

She turned to look at him and Clark could see the color of her eyes change.

He immediately ran to his closet and began throwing things around until he found what he was looking for: a large piece of metal. He had kept it near when he had first experienced heat vision, and it looked as though it would get plenty of use with Chloe around. He quickly tossed it to her and she looked at it just in time. She felt the waves of heat part from her eyes and saw the distortion of the air the heat caused before reaching the metal. It only lasted a few seconds this time, and she was left with a very hot slab of iron in her hands.

"Chloe give that to me quickly before you burn yourself!" Clark exclaimed. He didn't want to take the chance that Chloe wasn't invulnerable. But she was, and she held on to the slab as though it was only at room temperature.

Clark grabbed it and immediately used his breath to cool it down, and set it on the floor. After that his room had a nice layer of frost, icicles and a thin layer of snow covering both he and Chloe. As if things couldn't get worse, there was a knock on the door.

"Clark?" Jonathon asked. Not used to Clark having girls in his room, Jonathon barged in and was faced with two teens in somewhat states of undress, covered in snow, standing in a room of icicles and frost. Clark's shirt and pant button was completely undone, Chloe's shirt was halfway up her chest, Clark's face was plastered with lipstick, and both had hairdos worthy of the punk movement. Jonathon, normally the one to scold, was for once, speechless. "Do I want to know?" he managed.

"Probably not." Both Chloe and Clark said in unison.

Then Jonathon remembered the reason he had come upstairs. "Martha made a snack for you…" he began, but Gabe appeared behind him with fruit salad Martha had made, and upon witnessing the scene, almost dropped it.

Chloe gulped. "Hi Daddy…" she said innocently.

At Lex's…

Whitney and Lex sat in Lex's office.

"Lex, there's something I want to ask you." Whitney began. "What exactly has happened since I left? I mean, Lana and Chloe are both staying at Clark's, and Nell is gone."

"Would you like the short version or the long one?" Lex asked.

"Short I guess."

"Well, Nell decided that she was moving, and Lana didn't want to go so she moved in with the Sullivans. Chloe's father lost his job and since has been looking for work. Clark offered both a place at his house for an affordable rent, and Lana decided to move in too."

Whitney looked ponderous. "I assume that a lot of other things happened besides that."

"Well, you said that you wanted the short version." Lex said.

"What about Lana and Clark?"

"They became closer and were together for a few days before Clark ran away to Metropolis for the summer. According to Clark they've been attempting to be friends since then."

"Why did he run away?" Whitney inquired.

"That's one of the great mysteries of Clark Kent. You'll have to ask him. I don't have an answer for you." Lex told him.

"Isn't he with Chloe now? They seem very close."

Lex nodded. "Whitney, I don't mean to change the subject but shouldn't you inform your parents that you're alive?" he asked bluntly.

Whitney gulped. Guiltily he realized that the thought hadn't even crossed his mind.

"How am I going to explain this to them?" Whitney asked.

"What, the fact that you survived a bomb, that you were in a coma, or that you were in a lab and are now some sort of superhuman?"

"All of that!" Whitney exclaimed. "I mean, what if they freak out? And I can't exactly tell them about Clark."

"I'll set it up and we'll do it discretely." Lex offered. "I'll send someone to tell them that their son is alive and we'll arrange a meeting place and go from there. As for whether they freak out, we'll just have to worry about that when it happens."

Whitney nodded. "Thanks. You know, I never thought that we'd be getting along, Luthor." He said.

"You know, Whitney, you can call me Lex."

"Sorry. I guess I'm just used to being hostile when it comes to Luthors."

Lex nodded. "I'm not my father, Whitney, nor will I ever be."

Whitney acknowledged the comment. "I think I'm going to go out for a run, to clear my head." He said.

"I'll see you in a while then." Lex said and tossed something to Whitney, "Oh and you might need this key to get back in."

Whitney caught it "Yeah. Thanks for helping me out, Lex." he said, and speeded out of the mansion.

In Lionel's laboratory…

Lana sat up from the table she had been laying on. The scientists around her began to rush around in mad panic.

"The subject's awake! Quick, get the piece of meteorite!" she heard one scientist say.

Lana punched through the glass surrounding her with her fist. Immediately afterward she looked down at her manicured hand. There was no blood. The scientists around her were frantic. Some tried to stop her by swinging any sort of hard object at her. The objects shattered upon impact. Then she saw one of the lab technicians coming with the piece of meteorite that she had learned to dread, and she began to panic. Something told her to touch the floor, so she knelt down and pressed both hands to the tiled surface. Immediately she felt the flow of heat through her body and saw the heat travel along the floor and scorch everything and everyone in sight. She stopped when they had all fallen over. Lana walked over to the computer terminal, and saw her vital signs on screen. To the side it said, "Subject fell unconscious after injection of green liquid. Predicted to regain consciousness in two hours. This is the second treatment with both the blood and the serum."

Lana noticed a link at the bottom and clicked it. She read, "Subject #2: Lana Lang. Noticeable effects: Subject has exhibited great strength, speed and resistance to hurt. Also exhibits a weakness to the green meteors and is affected by the red."

Lana gasped, but noted that there was no mention of her heat trick. She cursed herself for ever getting involved in Clark's life. Maybe then she wouldn't have been in this situation.

She walked over to the metal doors and began to pull them apart. An alarm blared just as she opened them far enough to squeeze through. She heard voices blare over the intercom. "Code Red! Code Red! Subject has escaped! Capture and sedate the subject!"

Not waiting around she quickly used her newfound speed and zipped through the hallway to the next room. It looked like chamber of holding cells. Lana shivered, wondering how many souls had been imprisoned and died there against their will. She turned and the blinking red light on the wall reminded her that she had to hurry. The room with the containment cells was a dead end, so she headed back into the hallway.

Lana scoured the area for an exit. "Nothing!" she exclaimed. "Not even a lousy door."

Frustrated she tossed her head back. Upon doing so she noticed a vent near the top of the wall. She stood looking at it for half a second before thinking of a way to get up that high. Lana walked over the wall and kicked her foot hard against it. A foot shape dent appeared. She did the same with her hands and eventually the wall was full of hand and foot shaped holes. Congratulating herself at her intelligence she began to climb up the wall using the dents, and not a moment too soon. A team of men had entered the hallway, and they had kryptonite, she noted. She wrenched the vent cover off of the wall, and luckily she was small enough to fit.

But she heard the men talking as she squirmed down the vent, and the subject of their conversation was not good. She heard one say to use the meteor gas.

"Meteor gas?" she thought. "Crap, I better hurry."

She frantically scrambled through the vent until she came to a split. One way headed straight up, but the other went straight ahead and opened up into the sky. She squirmed toward the opening. When she reached the outside she found another dilemma: she was high up off the ground and there was no ledge to cling to.

"Oh no!" Lana exclaimed. It echoed throughout the ventilation system. She heard a hiss behind her and realized that they had begun to gas the vents.

"Gas…jump…gas…jump…" Lana thought, frantically looking forward and behind her. "I guess it's really no choice."

She hurtled herself out of the vent, hoping that her newfound ability of invulnerability kicked in when she hit the ground, because if it didn't, this wasn't going to be pretty.

Lana felt herself falling, the wind cutting at her as she dropped. She closed her eyes, not wanting to witness her crash to the ground. For a minute though, she felt at ease, safe, like she would never hit. It was like she was drifting. She opened her eyes and noticed that she was six feet above the ground, floating. This freaked her out, and she panicked and fell, landing on her butt.

"Well I guess it's better than breaking my spine." She thought, as she stood up. Noticing the red light still flashing on the outside of the facility, Lana zoomed away before anyone could find her.

One thought crossed her mind as she was cutting through Smallville's fields: how could she control all of her newly possessed abilities so quickly? She began to wonder if she had been programmed.

Back at the lab…

Dr. Vera pressed the communication button on the intercom. Lionel's face appeared on the other side.

"She's escaped, sir." Vera regrettably reported. "And before we had a chance to do tests on her, I'm afraid."

"What?" Lionel said sharply. "Has the device been planted?"

"Yes, but it's only partially functional. We were going to finish tuning it today." Vera reported.

"Change back to code blue, Vera, and bring the controlling device to me."

"I'd have to advice against that Mr. Luthor. The subject is very dangerous and we aren't sure of everything she is capable of. The implant may not even work."

"Vera…" Lionel warned. "If I wanted your opinion, I'd ask for it. Bring the device to me. I'll expect you in an hour, do you understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Luthor," Vera responded. "I'll leave ASAP."

With that, she pressed the button on the intercom, and against her better judgment she headed to package the controlling device.

A/N: Well, lots of cliffies this time. I decided to leave Ch19 as is and just write 20. Don't forget that a lot of the story is rewritten, so if something's not clear, you may want to backtrack a little. And you definitely should reread Chapters 10-12 again. ;)