Clark sat down at his normal seat to watch the next three fights. On the fourth fight both of the contestants were wounded too badly to continue and both were disqualified. The next match was Clark's. He was once again fighting a veteran, this time it was the Salment. Clark was determined not to be caught flat footed this time. As he walked towards his entrance to the pit he reviewed what Jor-el had told him about the Salment. He was very fast and could spit some sort of substance that might be strong enough to kill Clark if he was hit directly by it. Clark wasn't planning on finding out the hard way if this was true or not.

As the shield came down and the match started Clark immediately went into 'Clark time'. To his astonishment the lizard looking opponent was already there waiting for him. The Salment was able to move at least as fast as he could, maybe even a little bit faster. He was fast enough to play keep away with Clark, much as Clark had done with the Archan. Clark tried his best to catch up with him, but to no avail. The little lizard was simply too fast and agile.

To make matters worse, every few seconds he would turn around in mid leap and fire off a blast of whatever it was at Clark. Clark was able to dodge them, but only barely. Dodging these things also slowed Clark down, but they eventually gave him an idea. He knew it was best to keep as many of his powers a secret for as long as possible for the element of surprise that they would give him in a fight, but didn't see much of a choice in the matter. Just as he was about to fire with his heat vision he thought of a new plan. What if he tried throwing things? Even in 'Clark time' something that is thrown can usually travel faster than whatever is throwing it. Clark looked around and spotted several obvious choices for throwing materials around him, each about the size of a baseball. Gathering a few he chucked them at the lizard one at a time.

They almost hit the lizard, but he was just fast enough to dodge them and return fire. Clark thought of a new approach and readjusted his tactics by grabbing more objects, this time making sure to gather quite a few smaller objects, most about the size of a large marble, and then threw them all at once, shotgun style, at the lizard. The Salment wasn't quite fast enough to dodge all of the projectiles and one clipped him in the leg. It didn't do a lot of damage because it was so small, but it did enough damage and inflicted enough pain to slow him down for the few seconds Clark needed to catch up to him and end the fight with one solid punch to the lizard's head.

The shield raised and Kal-el was declared the winner. Clark walked out of the pit and moved towards the Trough. When he got there he grabbed something to drink and sat down to watch the rerun of the fight. Half way through the fight Clark saw the lizard spit a thing at him that he didn't remember. It went right by him, so close that Clark couldn't tell if it had hit him or not.

Looking at his arm near where it would have hit he saw a small patch of his suit that was slightly melted. He knew that the suit was made of the most rugged material that Kryptonian's made that was flexible and light enough to be used as clothing. This scared Clark a little. He hadn't even seen the bolt coming and it had nearly hit him. If it had hit him instead of barely grazing his suit he would be dead or at least he would be in enough pain to wish that he were. Clark realized that he was so into the chase that he ignored what was happening around him. He then promised himself that he would be more observant of his surroundings in the future. He didn't want something like this to happen again. Next time it could cost him not only the fight, but also his life, and it could cost the girls their freedom. He wasn't going to have that happen because he wasn't being observant enough.

Clark's promise to himself came at a very good time for him. Up next was Kronus and another newcomer. The fight was once again short, but this time Clark kept his eyes open. This newcomer was slightly more intelligent then the last so he approached Kronus with more caution than the last fighter had. Not that it did him any good. The instant he came close enough Kronus lunged forward in a blur to hit his opponent in the middle of his chest. Clark's eyes widened at what happened next.

Kronus's fist had withdrawn with even more speed than he had used to punch his opponent with. His opponent's chest seemed to act as if Kronus's fist had entered him instead of just hitting him. A large hole formed where Kronus had hit him. It looked as if he had been shot with a massive bullet. Apparently Kronus had hit him hard and fast enough to cause his own body to tear itself apart. This was what had happened during the previous fight.

Clark was absolutely astonished at this, not only at the strength shown, but at how unnecessary and brutal the act had been. Clark could do something similar if he wished anytime he hit someone, but he never did it. He could take a relatively normal person down with much less force just as easily as he could with the kind of force that he was just shown. Kronus had done what he had done because he wanted to kill his opponent, not because he wanted to win. He could have downed his opponent just as fast but with less force, had he wanted to, but he didn't. Clark had a hard time understanding someone that bloodthirsty. Even the other fighters in the arena at least tried not to kill their opponent if they outclassed him. They might hurt him badly, but they wouldn't purposely kill someone that far below them. It was considered unsportsmanlike conduct. He knew one thing though. If Clark ever met Kronus in the arena he wouldn't pull his punches because Kronus wouldn't either.

The rest of the round Clark tried to come up with strategies to beat the winners of each fight, taking their various strengths and weaknesses into consideration as he formulated a plan of attack that would allow him to beat each of them. However, in the back of his mind he couldn't forget about Kronus and what he'd done.

Chloe had also witnessed the fight between Kronus and the newcomer. In fact she had paid special attention to this fight because of what Clark had said about watching Kronus and telling him if she noticed anything unusual about him. She had noticed something all right. Kronus was insane. He was absolutely, grade A, one hundred and ten percent, out of his mind. She had paid close attention to his eyes as he walked off of the stage and had seen the blood lust there. It nearly made her sick. She was glad she hadn't eaten the food Clark brought her and Lana or she might have thrown up. It was nearly an hour after the match that she felt like eating anything. Lana was also hungry so Chloe snuck her one of the two bars of food. Chloe showed Lana a way to eat the food without anyone being able to see it. When she tried it herself she discovered that it tasted pretty good. In fact, as soon as it hit her stomach, her stomach woke up and complained bitterly about its lack of food. She hadn't eaten anything since about half an hour before she had left Clark's room and that was nearly eight hours ago. She quickly ate the rest of the bar and let it settle in her stomach. It had taken the edge off, but it didn't fill her up. She had hoped that Clark would bring more food with him when this round was over, but there was only a ten minute break between rounds this time, and Clark hadn't been able to get to them in that time without drawing suspicion about why he wanted to be with them so badly. Besides, it would also look pretty suspicious if he were to spend every break with them.

Chloe understood what had happened and explained it to Lana, who had also been hoping for some more food. Lana had been steadily improving ever since they left Clark's room. She was almost back to normal now, although she still didn't want to talk to Chloe about Clark. This worried Chloe. She knew that Lana would never want to be with Clark now and she was also sure that Clark no longer thought himself in love with Lana, so the thing that worried Chloe was what Lana would do when they all got home. Would she run to Lex and expose Clark? Would she take it to the news papers? All the sudden Chloe didn't like her chosen profession quite as much as she had previously. She could see in her mind the flock of reporters descending onto the Kent farm and destroying their family trying to get at all of Clark's secrets. She didn't want that to happen and she was determined to stop it from ever happening. To that end she decided to plant a few seeds with Lana now that would hopefully bear fruit by the time they got back home, at least with some careful watering by Chloe Sullivan, ace reporter and best friend. Although not necessarily in that order. She was a best friend first and a reporter second.

Knowing Lana she had to start off very slowly and work her way up or Lana would get suspicious to her motives.

"You know, it was very nice of Clark to bring us those bars of food." Chloe said.

"Maybe, so?" Lana asked wondering where Chloe was going with this.

"So maybe you should think about treating him a little nicer when we get out of this and you can drop the fetal position act without raising suspicions." Chloe said.

"Why would I do that? He's been lying to me ever since I've known him. He's the one responsible for my parent's dieing in the meteor shower."

"Lana, he was a baby when he was sent off in that space ship, he didn't have a choice in the matter. Besides, he lied to me too, and I understand why he did it, even if I wish that he hadn't, at least, not for so long."

"What do you mean 'not for so long'?" Lana replied.

"Well what do you think either of us would have done if he had simply walked up to us the first time we met and said 'Hi, my name is Clark Kent and Kal-el. I have two different names because I'm an alien.' We both would have thought he was insane. Then he would have to prove it. After that, what do you think we would have done? I know I would have called the Daily Planet. You probably would have called the cops or the FBI or the CIA or something and we both would have ruined his life and possibly insured his death and his family's death. No, I am glad that he didn't tell either of us until much later. I just wish that it had been a little sooner than this. Maybe a year ago. I think I could have handled it then. What about you? When do you think you could have handled it without running to the cops?" Chloe asked, trying to get Lana into the mindset of not telling anyone about Clark.

"I don't know." Lana replied quietly. "I don't think that I could have handled it. I'm not sure that I can handle it now. I could have handled him being a meteor freak but… he's not even human."

"He's more human than a lot of humans. Being human isn't really about your genetics, that's being a homosapien. Being human is about what's in a person's heart. Even more than that, it's about what a person does. There are a lot of homosapiens that I wouldn't call human. There's also one Kryptonian that might be more human than anyone I've ever met. Clark could have chosen to rule the world but instead he chose to help those he cared about. He's saved our lives so many times that I've lost count. It's become a regular occurrence for him to save our lives and he doesn't even expect a reward. In fact, he's usually the first person to minimize whatever it is that he did. I know that that's to protect his secret, but he continues to save us even when he knows that he won't get anything from it. In fact, it could get him killed or locked away in some lab. He uses his abilities to help others when he could easily follow the route that many humans and meteor freaks have taken and used his power for selfish purposes. He's a hero, whether he wants to admit it or not. While his abilities allow him to do great things, it's his heart, his human heart, which motivates him to do those great things." Chloe ended passionately. She doubted any speech would make Lana think of Clark as human, but hopefully this was a good start towards helping her to see why she shouldn't tell anyone about Clark. For one evil moment Chloe wondered if Clark knew of a way to erase a person's memories. She dismissed the thought with a chuckle. She was just going to have to keep at it. Somehow she was going to convince Lana to keep Clark's secret just that. A secret.

TBC