Make it stop- make it stop- make it stop; was all he could think. This was not right. His brain must be melting and running out of his ears. He was only pseudo-aware of a warm trickling from his nose and ears. He could not hear. He could not see. He could not breathe. He was boiling alive. He was terrified. He was in major trouble.
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Clark dropped to his knees clutching his head with one hand and his stomach with the other. The scream went right through Chloe and spurred her into action. Pete, on the other hand, slowly came to a horrifying realization. Within his pocket sat a green rock glowing and humming with delight.
"Lana! Box!" Pete shouted.
Lana Lang burst out of the stand of trees to his left at a full run.
As Pete was trying to contain the green menace, Chloe was quickly making her way around the back of her car. She had to suppress a scream of her own. The closer she got, the worse the situation appeared. Clark was bleeding all over. It was coming out of his ears, his eyes, his nose, and places she did not want to dwell on. Even his skin had a pink sheen as if his blood was trying to escape through his pores. Chloe swallowed hard and continued her trek to him.
"Clark!" She heard only screaming. "Kent!" A sick gurgle replaced the screaming.
Pete threw the rock to Lana as Chloe reached Clark's side. Lana caught it and put it immediately into the lead box. Once the threat was gone, Clark face planted on the green grass with a heavy thud. Chloe grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Come on Clark," then with a little more force, "Kent, don't do this to me!"
Pete had broken into a sprint, covering the distance left between him and the pair quickly. This was a good old fashioned cluster fuck. This was the last thing he had expected. There had been a plan. Get Clark; ask for help; depending on answer: make plans or send back. What the hell happened? Kryptonite never did that. On closer inspection, it looked as if Clark had nearly exploded. The sight was nauseating.
On his arrival, Chloe tried to flip Clark over and failed miserably.
"Get over here and help me! What the hell was that?" She snarled.
Together they rolled him onto his back.
"A huge mistake." There was no defense. It was a mistake.
Looking back down at Clark, she noticed he was not breathing. Pete quickly opened up Clark's mouth; all he could see was blood.
"We've got to clear his airway." Pete started pushing on his friend's stomach hoping that Clark- usually a brick wall- was pliant enough to force the blood out. Clark gagged and released everything in his lungs and stomach. They quickly rolled him onto his side to keep him from choking.
"Nice Kent, you are so going to owe me a new pair of shoes after this!" she said through a clenched jaw.
Pete and Chloe gently rolled him onto his back once again. Clark's eyes fluttered open. The whites of his eyes were a ghastly red. Just as disturbing, Clark did not look directly at either one of them.
"Pete?" Clark whispered.
"I'm here man," Pete replied calmly.
"Pete?" Clark called out again.
Unsure, Pete put his hand firmly on Clark's shoulder.
Clark gave a smirk. "Wow Pete that REALLY hurt." Clark closed his eyes and lost consciousness.
Pete just looked at him; sat back with a thump and smirked. He had found the one he was searching for. OK maybe this was not a total cluster fuck.
Directing his gaze over Chloe's right shoulder, he addressed someone standing behind her.
"Lana, get the van, we need to move out just in case someone heard or saw anything."
Chloe, so focused on Clark, had not even noticed Lana's approach. Turning to look up at Lana, Chloe was startled at the young woman standing behind her. There was coldness in her demeanor. As a matter opinion, Lana did not seem too concerned about Clark's well being at all.
Lana produced a walkie-talkie and spoke, "Dashel bring the van."
Chloe stared. The voice was the same, yet wrong. She looked back at Pete noticing the difference in him as well. There were scars on his face. Scars she knew that Pete Ross should not have.
"What happened to your face, Pete?" Chloe asked holding out her hand to touch.
He dodged her touch instead of answering. Looking over her left shoulder, he gave instructions to another person who had silently approached.
"See if the car works. If it does, follow the van. If not, then hide it."
Turning towards the new mystery person, shock gripped Chloe like a vice. She could handle racing through a tunnel of pure energy. She could handle the exsanguinations of her best friend, just barely. The straw floated down onto the back of the camel. Apparently, she could not handle coming face to face with her mirror image. Her beautiful, normal day had long since left the universe. Chloe hit the ground just missing what was left of Clark's lunch and lungs.
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Chloe realized she was in a moving vehicle almost immediately. She opened her eyes just a crack. A van, nothing good usually happens when you are in the back of a van. She opened her eyes fully to notice Clark lying next to her, still unconscious.
"Welcome back."
Chloe sat up and looked toward the front of the vehicle. Pete was sitting right behind the empty passenger side seat. A young kid Chloe vaguely recognized was driving.
"That's Dashel, don't worry he's cool. We're all friends here," said Pete tilting his head toward the driver.
Unsure, Chloe gave a small nod. She returned her attention back to Clark. "How's he doing?" She scooted a little closer to him to get a better look.
Clark was incredibly pale. Well, she guessed, blood loss would do that to a person. Blood still caked his ears, eyes and hair. To top it off, he had muscle spasms every now and again. He was definitely a mess.
"He's recovering slowly; it would help if we could just let him sun himself." Pete looked down at his shoes, "I've never seen him react to the meteor rocks like that."
Chloe was confused about that herself. Pete- at least the Pete Ross she knew- had known the "secret" longer. She had seen the effects of Kryptonite only a few times, but nothing as severe as what they had witnessed out in the field.
"From what I've seen, he doesn't," she finally answered.
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Clark started to stir.
His first thought was of the very unpleasant way he felt. Frog in a blender- no, a frog deep fried and thrown in a blender. His nerve endings and muscles burned. His eyes and ears must have had hot pokers inserted because this definitely did not feel natural. Slowly, he realized that there was no sound. Wherever he was, it rocked gently back and forth. He cracked an eye open, blackness. He opened the other eye, nothingness, along with the complete silence.
'OK let's not panic yet,' he thought.
"Shit."
Chloe and Pete heard him. Bemused smiles spread across their faces. Clark Kent never said anything like that, and if you did, you were on the receiving end of a glare of a lifetime.
"How're you feeling Clark?" Chloe asked smiling.
No response. Chloe repeated her question and placed her hand on his arm. He jumped at the touch; panic raced across his face.
Chloe grabbed his hand in hers firmly, "Clark it's OK. It's just me." She looked at Pete with confusion written on her face.
"Chloe is that you?" Clark rolled clumsily onto his back. His gaze never met hers; it veered off slightly to the side. "I can't see or hear."
He could feel "Chloe" patting him on the shoulder. When he awoke, he had been laying in a fetal position. When there is only six feet of room and there is 6'3" of you, it is most decidedly uncomfortable. Turning onto his back had helped some, but his knees were now up in the air placing pressure on his back. The pain was still present and he could not see or hear. His imagination started running wild with crazy scenarios. Terrorists, deranged scientists, Lionel Luthor: all flitted through his mind. He did not know where he was; where they were going; or if he and Chloe were in any danger. The last part was usually a good bet though. OK, now it was time to let the panic rise just a little.
"Is that you Chloe?" he asked again with a little more forcefulness.
She grabbed his hand, put it on her face and nodded her head.
He let out a long breath, "Are you alright?"
She nodded again.
"Good, good…" Clark paused. "Are we in a vehicle?"
Another nod.
Clark took a deep breath, "Is Pete here?"
Nod.
Clark could barely keep eyes open, "Do you know where we are going?"
This time Chloe shook her head.
He was so tired, Clark continued at a whisper, "Are you safe?"
With her final nod, Clark closed his eyes. "Never felt this tired before." He relaxed and slipped back into sleep.
"I didn't lie did I Pete?" Chloe asked. "We are safe, right?"
"No you didn't. As I said you're amongst friends."
After a very long silence, Chloe finally asked the question, "What's going on Pete? I've already figured out your not the Pete Clark and I know. That kind of went out the window when I saw… her."
Pete smiled, "You've come through the looking glass, flown over the rainbow, slid into an alternate universe. All of this was not supposed to happen." He gestured at Clark. "I did not know that Clark would react so badly and at such a distance. I'm truly sorry."
"Why did you even have it on you?" countered Chloe. "I mean, he can't get near the stuff and you had it on purpose!"
"Insurance," Pete replied, "I've been visiting alternate Earths for the past two months ever since… Well, ever since he arrived."
"Who arrived?"
He had not wanted to get into this now. He wanted to explain the whole sordid story only once. Pete looked Chloe directly in the eyes.
"Kal-El."
"Oh… but that still does not fully explain the "insurance"," Chloe countered again.
"Not all Clarks are kings of flannel. Not all Clarks had Mr. And Mrs. Kent as parents. Not all Clarks survived becoming Kal-El. The ironic thing is; I've never used it in my travels. I finally find the Clark I'm looking for and I nearly kill him by accident," Pete said humorlessly.
Chloe studied him for a minute. "I guess I wasn't part of the plan?"
"An improvisation, your drive home was the only time he was in a remote enough area. I was also running out of time. I had to come back and check in, but I knew I had found "the one". So I thought- I'll bring both of you with me." He leaned back against the side of the van and chuckled. "Whoops."
Chloe chuckled as well, "Surprise! Welcome to Wonderland!"
"I'm surprised that you're handling this as well as you are." Pete gave her a sideways glance.
"Well, Wall of Weird keeper here," she said with a nervous giggle. "But I do believe that seeing myself made me do a Scarlet O'Hara."
Pete snorted and nodded in agreement.
Chloe looked up when something came to her, "Where's my car?"
"Chloe and Lana are following in it. We had to restart the battery. The energy in the vortex wreaks havoc with electrical items."
Another light bulb went off over her head. "Pete, do you keep the rock in a box or just in your pocket?"
"Why? You happy to see me Chloe?" Pete grinned devilishly.
"What? No! Geez Pete," she shot him a killer glare. She then let her face relax a little. "No, I was wondering if the tunnel could have an effect on the Kryptonite."
The light bulb went off over Pete's head. "Damn it! I never even thought of that!"
Pete looked down at Clark, whose head was up against his leg, "Sorry man."
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A/N: This is more of a friendship between Chloe and Clark. Sorry all you Chlarkers. But I do so love a really good Chlark.