Chapter Twenty-Six
"YOU ANIMAL!" Clark yelled, and with that warcry, The Battle for Chloe Sullivan started again. Before Beppo could move, the livid teen grabbed the monster by the scruff of the neck and threw the monster's body up against the antenna spire. Anyone tuned to KROK heard the singer Dido's airy hit, "Thank You" playing.
"It's Not So Bad, It's Not So Bad...I Want To Thank You ...For Giving Me The...Best Day Of My Life...Oh, oh, Just To Be With You ...Is Having the Best Day Of my SSSSSSHHHHHHHKKKK
The blow shook the all of the electronics, satellite dishes, and the entire spire's structure wobbled ominously. Listeners wondered why Dido's pop hit disappeared; KROK's radio station reception for Lowell County went dead.
Beppo growled off the pain of the impact and bolted off the spire. The monster let loose a primal scream when his paws clawed into Clark's face. The teen's scream this time was less bravado and more full of fright and he stumbled back, slapping at the paws. Clark closed his eyes, not wanting them ripped out, and the monster kept clawing at him. Clark caught his balance inches from the edge of the platform. He winced when the beast's fingernails raked his skin, shredding the cheeks. But the young man punched Beppo hard in the ribs, both fists pummeling the monster's sides. His balled up fists flashed and Beppo felt his ribcage start to compress with each blow after blow after blow; Clark landed at least 40 in the time a human could land 5 punches. The monster wailed, and was forced to retreat, jumping away from Clark.
The hurting teen realized he never been a fight before; sure, he had intimidated people and anytime he did 'fight', it was a punch and a throw and the whole mess was over. Pete was the one that was the scrapper, and had actually fought for Clark, when the Clark turned the other cheek. Now, with his cheeks that dripped blood, Clark knew he was in the biggest fight of his life, and it was all for Chloe.
Wiping away the blood, Clark saw the glowing green eyes of Beppo between the metal crossbeams. The monster stood on the other side of the spire. As long as the monster was conscious, Clark knew that the beast was a threat still to Chloe. The teen went after him, following the monster around the platform. He tried to be careful since the metal flooring wasn't very wide or stable with the missing girder. The platform shook with each of Clark's boot-stomps: with Chloe so close to the edge herself, he didn't want her somehow falling off.
Beppo, on the other hand, wanted The Tall One dead by any means necessary. He backflipped, his controlled momentum taking him over the side. He caught onto the steel framework and, with a furious hoot, tore off another girder. The platform teetered; Chloe's prone body was close to the center and in no way close to rolling off the edge...yet.
Clark lurched forward and watched Beppo catapult over him, the beam in his paw. Even before the monstrous monkey landed on the platform, Beppo swung the thick beam like the bat that The Nice But Now Dead One gave him when they played Wiffle Ball. The girder seemed as light as the yellow plastic bat and it struck Clark's raised forearm; the teen tried to protect himself. But the blow and the meteorite's still lingering effects caused Clark to careen over the side.
"NO!" Clark yelled. This time he had enough recognizance to reach out and grab a girder while he fell. He squeezed so hard that the metal squished between his fingers.
Beppo smiled a toothy grin. He raised the beam over his head and brought it down, the metal edges whistling in the air, down fast, down onto Clark's fingers.
"OH MY GOD!" Clark screamed. He thought that the blow to the head and falling 260 feet or so was agonizing. But no. Beppo slamming the girder on his knuckles, slamming and tearing what he thought was unbreakable skin, slamming down and creating unbelievable anguish. "ARRRRRGH!"
The beam slammed down yet again, the edge this time on Clark's pinkie finger and the teen yanked away his hand. All the teen could do was dangle along the edge, his hand throbbing. Beppo looked down and Clark looked up. With a sneer, the monster took one more swing.
Clark watched the beam come down again, like a guillotine's blade. He concentrated and fiery spurts shot from his eyes. He groaned, his head pounded, the strain to activate his heat-vision nearly wiped him out. Grunting, he kept popping off spurts; not a single long blast, but seven short staccato shots.
Beppo screeched when the spurts splattered on its paws, burning the fingers, wrist and forearm. He simply dropped the beam while his flesh burned; the smell of singed monkey hair filled the air. The monster was wounded, and he hopped back, clutching his paw.
Despite the pain, Clark climbed back up, one bloody hand-hold at a time and when he reached the top, he eye-jaculated his heat vision blasts at Beppo. Now the murderous monkey was on the defense, jumping around crazily, dodging the shots, hopping and twirling and evading the fiery bolts.
So wrapped up in their Battle, the combatants didn't realize two things: the missed bolts were hitting various points on the platform, spire and support beams, melting the steel and Beppo's frantic hopping was weakening the structure even further.
Neither of them heard the various stress-points breaking...
Beppo looked down while he hopped away from Clark's eye-jaculations. He saw that his paw was a mass of burning monkey musculature. The fact that fire that shot from The Tall One's eyes was amazing to the monster and he knew that he had to kill the boy quick, kill him somehow.
Evading the fire-blasts, Beppo worked his way higher on the wobbling antenna spire. He stopped moving and became a stationary target. Clark focused on him. When he saw The Tall One's eyes glow red, ready to pop off another spurt of liquid fire, the monster leaped high into the starry sky, twirled over The Tall One, and dropped onto a very shocked Clark Kent. Still affected by the meteorite deep below the antenna tower, still weakened by the girder blows to his hands and head and the 260 foot fall, the young man stumbled under the momentum of the monkey's downward motion and Clark fell to his knees.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON GOW AHHHHHHHHHH!"
Farmers in the surrounding areas had to run to their pens, stalls and stables to calm their livestock after the animals heard Beppo's bloodcurdling cry when the monster raked his fingernails over Clark's face, reaching and hooking into its target: The Tall One's mouth. Clark's eyes went wide with terror when he felt Beppo's feet digging into his shoulder-blades, felt the toes curl over his collarbones, felt the beast's ten fingers, the crispy burnt fingers in particular, in his mouth tightening against his soft inner cheeks, and finally the horror he felt was real when the monster snapped The Tall One's head back. Beppo twisted and yanked, falling back onto his haunches, desperately trying to rip off the top of The Tall One's skull.
The pain in his neck increasing, the brachial nerves that governed his arm's motor functions burning, Clark still managed to crawl on the buckling platform with Beppo on his back. Each movement of setting his palm down, setting his knee down and moving forward was sheer agony. One yank and twist made Clark drop to his chest. The monkey enjoyed torturing Clark, enjoyed tormenting him now by slamming The Tall One's chin into the platform, cutting him. The flooring was rattling with the blows, the chin creating dents in it, and fallen warrior's blood spurted from the cuts.
Clark's world was slowly fraying at the edges; slowly the color was seeping into just blackness, all he heard was the monster's happy yips and yaps. Each eyeball rolled in its' socket, the pupils going in different directions. Ready to give in, give in to the pain, to the monster, Clark closed his eyes.
Then he heard the familiar tha-thump of Chloe's heartbeat. Then he heard her soft breathing. The soft scent of her skin, tinged with the copper of her blood was breathed in by the teen. He opened his eyes and his pupils, once dilated and vision blurry focused in on the one constant thing in his life: Chloe Sullivan. If he didn't do anything the monster would touch her...touch her there
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Clark's yell startled Beppo; the monster thought The Tall One was all but dead. But that wasn't the case. Clark eye-jaculated the flooring, melting the platform. Clark wasn't affected much by the burning flooring; he didn't care: he just needed to live, needed to get the monster away from the girl that he loved. The softened slag gave away and both Clark and Beppo fell through the hole.
Suddenly falling down the center of the tower with the glops of metal, Clark instinctively reached out. His hand slapped on several girders until he clasped one. His body swung and he slammed into the beams. He winced and just when he thought he was safe, he didn't feel the monster's fingers in his mouth or his weight on his back.
Beppo jumped free of The Tall One and they fell. He swung on the bars and beams watching the Tall One clang against the structure. The monster felt it was time to escape, escape with his prize. Easily, Beppo traveled up the tower and hopped onto the shaky platform. He walked toward The Blonde.
Clark scaled the crossbeams fast, scanning for the monkey, waiting for another attack. Then he heard the paws of the beast slap onto the platform. The teen looked up and concentrated: his x-ray vision wasn't crystal clear, but he did manage to make out the beast's form moving in Chloe's direction. With a deep breath of chilly air, Clark hustled up the tower, determined to stop the beast, determined to never let that monkey touch Chloe again.
"CHLOE!"
A powerful emotion possessed Clark that was stronger that the effect of the meteor. The weakness in his body dissipated. The sensation that ran through his whole being was Love, his love for Chloe and the love she had for him. Clark gritted his teeth, flexed his knees, and launched himself upwards, his body temporarily breaking the law of gravity. It was like he was flying, almost flying, possibly flying, unbelievably flying the 40 feet from where he dangled up to the platform, and he didn't even care about his fear of flying or heights. What drove him was his fear of losing Chloe. He grabbed the melted, softened edges of the gaping hole and propelled through and, some how, he knew to angle his body, to change his leap's momentum, and he soared toward The Beast. Fists in front of him, boots behind, Clark was a projectile, a missile shooting straght at the monster. But as fast as he soared, he still wouldn't get to Beppo in time.
The Beast - Beppo - reached for his unrequited love The Blonde - Chloe Sullivan - ready to escape from the Tall One. "Escape somewhere. Anywhere. Gotham, Coast City," The Monster thought. That's where he would take his prize.
Clark Knew how to save Chloe. Knew how to arrive in time. Knew how to protect her.
Again.
The Monster's arm stretched.
Clark's eyes glowed red.
The beast's paw moved closer, inches from Chloe's skin.
Clark aimed and shot a wad of liquid fire.
Beppo turned and saw the Tall One zooming at him.
Then the monster saw the wavy trails of the blast.
Just when the blast hit the paw.
But the blast didn't burn the hand like before. No. The intensity of the blast was amazing; it was based on Clark's unfiltered desire to keep the murderous monkey away from Chloe, to keep the monkey's paw from touching her again.
Beppo screamed as the blast incinerated his hand off.
The monkey's eyes went wide. He looked where his hand was, looked at the cauterized nub just below where his wrist was, looked where the surrounding flesh was now a blackened scarred mass. The fresh air he breathed in was fouled by the stench of burned hair, charred bone, and sizzling fat, and he looked at the wind take the ashes of his left paw, and scatter them over the hillside.
The monster looked at The Tall One, again.
Clark's fists were a second from the chimp's chest.
Beppo opened his mouth to scream.
A second later, both fists, powered by fear, hope, anger, and love collided with the monkey's chest.
The scream never started.
Beppo staggered and clutched his chest; it was shattered from the impact, the breastplate crumpling under the force of the double punch. The ribcage caved in, sending jagged shards and craggy splinters into Beppo's vital organs. The monkey's heart, all 4 chambers, were penetrated by thousands of pieces of bone, his lungs popping by the pieces that pierced the greenish main component of his respiratory system.
Clark looked at Beppo. The monkey looked back at the teen quizzically: his last few breaths that came from Beppo were bubbly, frothy on his lips, blood mixing with the exhales. Inhaling was no longer a viable, automatic option. He dropped to his knees.
The chimpanzee, now just simply a chimpanzee named Beppo said what he been trying to say perfectly, correctly for the last several days, the word that meant so much to him. The word he said with his last breath:
"CHLOE."
The chimpanzee reached with his only paw to touch Chloe.
But he didn't. He couldn't. Everything in the monkey's body suddenly stopped working: He seized up, mid-reach, mid-exhale, mid-blink, mid-heartbeat.
The monkey fell over side of the platform, and Clark rushed over and watched the chimpanzee, Beppo so-called the Missing Link, hitting girders on way down. He winced when he saw the chimp's body fall, splattering on the ground.
Clark turned away.
He looked at Chloe. And smiled. She was safe. Again.
But Clark hadn't completely saved Chloe.
Then the tower shook precariously, and all the girders roared, breaking, snapping in half. Clark saw the platform she was passed out on buckle, rivets breaking, the section separating from the tower and falling away.
The sound of the metal breaking was awful to Clark. But worse to him was that several more sections dropped away, and he didn't want a simliar fate to occur to Chloe. In one seamless motion, he jumped onto the platform that Chloe was laid out on, scooped her up into his arms, and without hesitation, he used his superspeed to run down the beams of the antenna tower. Clark again felt confident in himself, in his powers, and his abilities and he thought it was because he now had Chloe in his protective embrace. He ran without missing a step, each boot planting firmly on the vertical support girders and he finally stopped over the slight rise of the hill.
Clark heard a deep creaking sound coming from KROK's antenna tower, the monument to Smallville's spirit after the meteor shower, the battleground for two combatants brought together by the same catastrophe. The tower was built to withstand forces of nature, but NOT the superhuman variety. With so many support beams damaged or broken or used as a weapon during the fight, the top part of the tower finally collapsed. The heroic teen shielded his girlfriend's body from the dirt and rocks that would have pelted her when the massive tower collapsed in on itself.
Chloe first noticed the scent of fresh dirt when she awakened. Her eyes still closed, she sniffed, searching and finding what she wanted, the scent of Clark's cologne. She opened her eyes and saw her loved one's face, smudged with dirt, and blood. She didn't have a nightmare; no, everything that happened was real. Beppo kidnapped her and hurt her; the pains in her head, arms and legs started to pulsate again. She rubbed her eyes and focused on Clark's face again. The full moon was a bright glowing light behind his head; it looked like a halo. A halo like her guardian angel had, she imagined. He smiled at Chloe while he cradled her. She tried to smile back, but instead, Chloe cried, in pain from the injuries, and in relief to be in Clark's arms. She wrapped her good arm around Clark and hugged him, her tears soaking his shirt. Clark delicately held her back.
"Clark, hold me," Chloe sobbed, "I'll take your hands on me over that monkey's anytime." She pressed into her guardian angel's body, and he held her tighter. She closed her eyes happy that she was safe now. She let him rock her gently, rub her back, hold her until she stopped crying.
"Are you ok?" Clark asked, looking down at her.
"That's always the first question you ask after you save my butt," Chloe snarked, looking up at him. "Speaking of which, thanks to Beppo's fashion sense, it's sorta showing."
"I'm not looking," Clark said. She smiled at her gentleman hero, and she shifted and tugged down her mini-skirt as best as she could; he now was looking at the trails of lights in the distance; one was police lights swirling.
"Oh my god," She gasped, looking at where the tower had been, looking at the twisted metal. She looked back at her boyfriend. "What the HECK happened?"
"Umm," Clark said; that's what he always answered after she asked that question.
Chloe socked his chest softly; she knew he was evading her question. Why, she didn't know. But she knew one day she'd find out. His grip loosened and she worried that if she pried at his secretive nature, asked more questions, he'd let her go.
"I yelled your name...and you found me," she said, setting aside her reporter's nature, for now. "Just like you said."
"I'll always find you," Clark said easily, and Chloe didn't doubt that. She snugged into him more.
"I hate Beppo," She whispered and shivered.
"He's dead" Clark whispered back. She slowly nodded.
"How did you stop him?" Her voice was tiny.
"Adrenaline, I guess...nothing was going to stop me from getting you back," Clark said simply and Chloe hugged tighter.
"Kent charm...Kent heroics...All that just for me?" She smiled.
"Didn't I did promise to protect you forever?" Clark asked his girlfriend.
She nodded slowly and her smile grew larger when he leaned in.
"I'm a mess," She whispered. "I'm all bloody and dirty and ..."
"You're beautiful," He whispered.
"Oh," She breathlessly said. Her lips made a perfect circle, and Clark leaned in closer, wanting to touch that perfection with his lips.