"The
Carnival"
By
The Satyr Icon
Special thanks to katieishere, chlarklove, and Veaglarwen for beta-ing the story, offering support, and just being cool all the damn time! Special thanks also for those that got sneak previews and chimed in with advice.
All characters, references, and other things pertaining to 'Smallville' are property of the WB, DC Comics, Tollin-Robins, Al Gough & Miles Millar, and J. Siegal & J. Shuster; I am just writing for fun, and I owned them, all would be good and clean in the World.
Prologue
Celebration in Smallville was in the air. All the harvests were in, and nearly all the farmers had gotten bumper crops from the land. Even those farmers that didn't get generous crops still had a good season. In Smallville, the end of the harvest traditionally meant two things: the Homecoming Game for the high school football season and annual carnival. Kids and adults were waiting for the fun could begin...
Chapter One
Fun arrived at the Smallville Fairgrounds in the form of the Grayson Circus and Carnival Show. Grayson employees, carnies and circus folk, freaks and geeks all did their part to erect thrill rides, set up booths with food or games, and raise from the ground four huge circus tents.
Every year, by midweek, the town was flooded with flyers and posters proclaiming "The Circus and Carnival Is Here!" in shops, stores, gas stations and bulletin boards. The newly re-named local radio station, KROK, sent out a jingle and message about the carnival every ninth song from its huge radio antenna by the fairgrounds. Everyone from Grandville in the South, Tabbiton in the West, and Kaitisnertown in the East knew that Smallville's carnival was Friday through Sunday.
But this year, there was something different than "The Great Graysons" acrobatic tandem on the flyers and posters. And, of course, it caught Chloe Sullivan's eye. Her father, Gabe, made a rare trip and dropped her off at the school, by the baseball field. She waved bye to him and saw at the poster on the school's chainlink fence.
"Beppo The Missing Link?" Chloe read aloud when she saw the main attraction to the circus. She loved the circus, but what she saw made her forget about the animals, acrobats, the sideshow, and the clowns that were also on the poster. The picture of Beppo, a chimpanzee, fully upright on his legs, looking dapper in a tuxedo and holding a brandy sniffer in one hand shocked her. His face didn't have the usual chimp features; there were rounder, more ...humanoid. Beppo qualified to create interest from Chloe for a simple reason: Beppo wasn't normal. "This is so cool. Wait untiI I show my boys!"
Chloe looked around. Her classmates trudged to class head down. 'Don't worry, Chloe. There's at least another thousand in town,' she thought and tore down the poster. She folded it up and jammed in in her knapsack. Chloe's mind whirlled at the different possiblities and explainations about Beppo. She walked on, her boots seemingly cracking the concrete of the sidewalk and the floor tiles in the school with her inquistive energy.
Chloe could barely pay attention in her first class, Algebra I and her second class, American Literature. She already had her special reporter notebook filled with questions for whoever owned or trained Beppo and possible theories why a chimp like Beppo was alive. Her Am-Lit teacher gave the homework assignment to the class and Chloe scribbled it down in a separate notebook. She eyed the clock, counting down the last three minutes of class, waiting impatiently for the bell to ring and signify fifteen minute snack break. She bit on her pencil. 'One minute to go,' she thought and got ready to bolt where her "boys", Clark Kent (who she had an obvious crush on and he a secret one on her), and Pete Ross (who she counted on to keep her sane around Clark) and she ate their mid-morning snack.
Brrrrrrrinnnnnnnnnngggggggggg
"Finally!" Chloe exclaimed, scaring the bejesus out of the football player that sat in front of her. She jumped out of seat and bolted out the classroom. Her teacher smiled; Mrs. Bryant knew that Chloe had a hot story.
Clovis Wilburn got the worst jobs. He was a cranky 45 year-old man, with a chip on his shoulder; he wasn't agile enough to be in the circus, unique enough to be in the side show, smart enough to run the game booths. He was labor, pure and simple. What made Clovis especially mad this carnival season was that he was the "go-fer" now for a creature that tested at a higher intelligent quotient. To be at the whim, to be at the beck and call of Beppo hurt Clovis's meager pride. Others in the company made sure Clovis knew his spot in relation to Beppo: Beppo was special. Unlike Clovis.
Wearing dirty overalls, Clovis opened the door to a deluxe motor home. He carried a basket filled with bananas and some other assorted fruits from local farms. The bananas, of course, came from the caribbean. But unbeknowst to the ones that bought the fruit from the farms, the soil was seeped with fragments of the meteors that pelted the town in 1989. The green slivers somehow irradiated the fruit.
"You son of a bitch," the carny said in absolute disgust and looked at Beppo, who sat casually on the couch, sipping brandy from a huge sniffer, watching an opera on Bravo channel. The carny grabbed a banana and threw it at Beppo, hitting the chimp. Beppo shrieked, rubbed his shoulder, looked the banana first and then at Clovis like the carny had done something positively rude. But it didn't surprise Beppo. Clovis had been torturing him in little ways since Beppo was acquired and joined the show. Clovis set down the basket, spat on the fruits, went back out and locked the door.
Beppo climbed off the couch, wiped off an apple and bit into it. When he chewed, the particles from the meteors were absorped into his tissues and somehow altered Beppo's already unique DNA structure. Beppo really disliked that damn dirty Clovis. He took another bite. His eyes narrowed. He hated Clovis. He climbed up on the couch and looked out the window and his brown eyes turned green. He followed the carny's steps. The chimp smacked the wall angrily and punched a hole in the wall. Beppo shrieked happily. He jumped around the motor home with amazing speed. Beppo stopped, composed himself, and sat back on the couch and took a sip of the brandy. He smiled, thinking about the new powers. He finished the apple, ate some more fruits, and waited for Clovis.