Ch. 16

Clark gasped and his eyes flew open as he was awakened by the feeling of Chloe's hand cupping his face. He kept looking first at her, and then over at Kronus to make sure that he wasn't a threat any more. After assuring himself that Kronus wouldn't be getting up again he looked at Chloe once again, checking to make sure that she was ok. A thought occurred to him about her not staying where he had told her to, but he decided to put that off. Now wasn't the time for something like that. That time would come later. Now was the time to get off of this ship before anything else happened.

Clark gently reattached Chloe's glove and stood up, pulling her up with him. He noticed Lana, or the person he assumed to be Lana as it was hard to tell from this distance with her helmet on, still standing behind the crates.

"Come on Lana, it's time to go!" Clark shouted at her while motioning for her to hurry.

"What just happened?" Chloe asked as Lana hurried over.

"I … I'm not sure … I can't … it's … I don't know. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before. I can't explain it. I don't even know what really happened. All I have are a few vague memories of something I just don't have the words to explain."

Lana reached them just as Clark finished.

"Get us out of here." Lana demanded through gritted teeth.

Clark felt a little annoyed by her demanding tone and words but knew that Lana was right, so he grabbed both of them and sped to the massive hanger doors. Clark had planned to exit the ship much as he had entered, using a departing ship to open the airlock doors but now he had to come up with a new plan because the fight with Kronus had stopped all ships from departing. Clark let go of the girls and walked over to the two giant doors and pried them open to make a space almost four feet wide. Clark watched as the energy barrier that kept the atmosphere from being vented flickered on.

Knowing that it was permeable to anything solid by experience, he grabbed both of the girls around the waist, one in each arm, and flew through the barrier and out of the hanger. Not wanting anyone to try and follow them he let both of the girls hang in the weightless expanse just outside the hanger doors and turned to face the doors once again. Reaching out he grasped both doors and wrenched them shut. Flying to the top of the doors Clark began to use his heat vision to weld the doors shut. He knew it would take them well over a day to open the doors again. Finishing, he turned and once again grabbed the girls around the waist and began the journey home.

It took a considerably longer amount of time for him to fly back to earth than it had to leave it because he had to worry about the girls being fried upon reentry if he went too fast. Clark ended up entering the atmosphere somewhere over New York City. Just before he was able to distinguish individual skyscrapers he decided it was time to have a little fun. Squeezing Chloe several times in rapid succession to get her attention, he mouthed the words 'Do you want to have some fun?'

Clark was able to make out Chloe's head nodding through the suit and smiled. This was going to be a lot of fun.

Clark continued to drop like a stone towards the New York City streets as the buildings and the ground became larger and larger. He could feel both of the girls go stiff as he continued to plunge downwards at an alarming rate. Just in time Clark swerved to miss the hard ground, coming within six feet of the pavement. He followed the street at this height, dodging between semi trucks as he navigated first one street and then another, making Chloe feel as if she was on the best rollercoaster ride ever.

Clark grinned as he heard the squeals and screams coming from both of the girls. He finally broke free of the skyscrapers as he left the city behind. Clark flew a bit higher and faster, flying towards home. His heart beat sped up as he neared his hometown. At first he had intended to go home, but worry over what Jor-el said about his parents being injured turned his flight path towards the hospital.

Clark flew low over the tree tops to avoid detection. When he neared the hospital and found a suitable landing sight just out of sight in the woods he decided to have a little more fun with the girls. As he passed over the landing site he had picked out he turned sharply and flew straight up for a couple of seconds and then turned again, first his belly and then his feet pointing towards the sky as he flew head first towards the landing site, completing most of a loop de loop.

Just as he neared the tree tops he flipped over to where his feet were pointing towards the ground and came to a quick stop, his feet floating less than half an inch off of the ground. Clark dropped the rest of the way and then set both of the girls down gently.

Lana scrambled away and jerked her helmet off.

"Clark, you scarred me half to death with that stunt and the other one you pulled back at the city! You could have killed me!" Lana yelled at him.

Clark just blinked at her as Chloe took her helmet off.

"We are SO doing that again!" Chloe yelled loudly and with a grin, speaking the second her helmet came off. "That was AWESOME! Clark, the second we get everything settled, you ARE going to take me flying again. That is DEFINATLY my favorite power."

Clark grinned at this and nodded his head in agreement. Flying was his favorite power too, and he would love to go flying with Chloe.

"By the way, why did we land near the hospital?" Chloe asked in a much quieter and more serious tone.

"Jor-el told me that my parents had been injured in the meteor shower and I want to check on them. He said that they weren't hurt too badly, but I still want to check up on them before we do anything else." Clark said with a worried look on his face.

"Then let's go and see them. However, we are going to need a change of clothes if we don't want to stand out." Chloe said as she looked over the outfit she was wearing and then at Clark's outfit and then finally looking at Lana's. None of their outfits were even close to what an earthling would normally wear.

Clark's white outfit, especially as damaged as it was after the last fight, would be like a loudspeaker announcing that something wasn't right to anyone who saw him.

Chloe's and Lana's outfits were almost as bad. Underneath their space suits both of the girl's outfits were identical, looking similar to a very modest roman toga, covered in white, light blue, and deep pink waves. They looked like a strange, albeit beautiful, form of tie die.

Clark immediately disappeared and then reappeared with a change of clothes for both of the girls. He had already changed into his normal attire of a red flannel and blue jeans.

Clark turned his back and walked off a ways to give the girls some privacy as they got dressed. They approached him when they were done and together they went to see if the Kent's were still in the hospital.

Clark walked up to the nurse's station and asked if there was a Mr. or Mrs. Kent being held at the hospital. After checking the nurse replied that there was a Mr. Kent still being held for a concussion and a broken leg but he was about to be released in an hour. Clark got the room number from the nurse and then told both Chloe and Lana to follow him as he walked to his dad's room.

Opening the door, Clark entered the room first, followed shortly by both Chloe and then Lana who stayed near the door.

"Nurse, when is the doctor going to let me out of here? I have a farm to run and a house to rebuild."

Clark watched as his dad turned around after there was no reply. He spotted his son and smiled.

"Clark, what took you so long, your mother and I have been worried sick."

Clark wasn't worried. His father was grinning as he said it and he could tell that it was his way of breaking the ice. Clark moved forward and wrapped his dad in a gentle bear hug.

"Are you ok?" Clark asked.

"Fine as a fiddle. I'll be even better as soon as they let me get out of here and I can get back to the farm. How are you? You didn't get hurt or anything during the meteor shower did you? Nothing … happened did it?" He asked, concerned about Jor-el and what he might have done to his son, but also not wanting to give anything away to the two girls standing behind his son.

"I'm fine and we'll talk about the rest when you get home. I have it on good authority that you'll be released in about an hour. The nurse at the nurse's station was just starting the paper work when I left. How's mom?"

"She's fine, a little bruised and she needed a few stitches, but she's fine. They released her almost immediately while they've been holding me here for the last couple of days." He continued to mumble for a few seconds about doctors and how they thought they knew everything.

Clark was amazed that such a short amount of time had passed. It felt like another lifetime to him. He looked over at Chloe and saw a similar expression cross her face.

"Listen, dad," Clark interrupted his dad's rant on doctors just as it was taking off, "I'm going to go and check on mom and the farm and then I'll bring her back to get you and we'll take you home."

"Alright, but your mother's been staying at the Talon for the last couple of days. I hope you don't mind Lana, but the house got pretty banged up and I didn't want her staying there when what's left of the roof could drop down on her at any time."

"It's ok Mr. Kent. It's not like I was using it." She said with a sad smile.

Clark began ushering both of the girls out of the room. Just before he followed them out the door his dad called him over.

"You're sure that everything is all right, son?

Clark began to nod but stopped for a few seconds when he thought of Lana. In the end he simply said "I think so. I'll tell you everything later."

Clark walked out and caught up to the girls as they were walking down the hall. When they were outside and out of sight Clark picked them up again and ran them to the Talon.

When they got to the Talon Clark tried to open the door but it was locked. He knocked but didn't get an answer. Telling the girls to wait here Clark ran around to the side of the Talon. He jumped up to the fire escape that was located on the second story of the Talon, just outside of the apartment, and knocked on the window.

A sleepy eyed Martha looked out and spotted her son standing outside the window. She grinned from ear to ear and hurried to unlock the window.

"Clark!" she exclaimed as he climbed in the window.

Clark hugged his mother for several long moments before he broke the embrace and spoke.

"Mom, how are you?"

"I'm fine. How are you?"

"I'm fine, mom."

"I've been worried sick about you."

"Mom, both Chloe and Lana are standing outside the Talon waiting to be let in." Clark said, changing the subject.

"Oh, well, why didn't you say so earlier?" Martha said in a teasing voice.

They both went down and opened the door to Chloe and Lana who were sitting down on the curb outside the Talon. They both got up and hurried inside where they all sat down for a minute while Martha walked into the Talon's kitchen and grabbed a few Coke's and various other snack items.

When she got out of the kitchen everything was quite and stayed that way as they all ate. Not a word was spoken until ten minutes later when Clark stopped eating as he remembered that they needed to leave soon to pick up his dad.

"Mom, dad's being let out of the hospital in about half an hour or so. I told him we'd come and get him." Clark said.

"Alright, just let me grab my purse and keys and then we'll go." Martha said as she got up from the table.

After she grabbed her keys both Chloe and Clark moved to follow her out to the truck, but Lana didn't move.

"Clark, I'm going to stay here. I have a few things that I have to do." Lana said, lowering her eyes to the floor as she finished.

Clark felt that something wasn't quite right but knew that he couldn't do anything about it right now so he decided to go along with it, at least for now.

"Ok, we'll see you soon." Clark said.

After a few seconds Clark turned around and walked out the door, leaving Lana alone with her thoughts.

TBC