The votes are in! SHE is-- drum roll, please-- you'll see! What? You thought I'd tell you :Evil grin:

DISCLAIMER: Come on. If I owned it, nobody would even know what the hell a rift was.

Chapter Five

She smiled, a predatory gleam in her entrancing hazel eyes. "You just couldn't play nice, could you, Clarkie?"

"Lana!" Clark exclaimed in shock. She's the one who hurt me? But-but why? I know we didn't part on the best of terms, but...

Lex had his head on straight, and started employing stalling tactics. It wasn't likely he could stall her until the police arrived, but it was worth a shot. "Lana, why would you do this?"

She glared at him. The hostile look seemed so out of place on her. "I know the police are coming." Without shifting her steely gaze from Lex, she ordered, "Boys, give Mr. Kent a few tokens to remember us by, until we meet again."

The goons enthusiastically carried out her order, minus the biggest one who was busy holding Lex back. The other three crowded around Clark, green kryptonite glowing eerily in their hands. In little more than a minute they seemed to have managed to damage at least a few of Clark's ribs, and Lex knew that if his friend had been normal he would have been black and blue the next day. Police sirens sounded in the distance, and Lana said harshly, "Let's go, guys. Mr. Luthor spoiled our little party."

Two of the three goons backed off of Clark, but the smallest one didn't. He took out a small, crudely fashioned kryptonite blade and dragged the point down Clark's face over his right eye. Satisfied, the thug put the blade away and followed Lana out. The goon holding Lex let go and raced to catch up with the others.

Pissed off as Lex was just then, he ignored the urge to chase the bastards down. He couldn't take them out on his own. Instead, he grabbed the bits of kryptonite that the thugs had left behind, and got it as far away from Clark as he could. Then he knelt next to the beaten man and began checking his injuries. Without the green rocks in near proximity he was already starting to heal. Lex could see the cut on Clark's face closing up, and although he knew that soon there would be nothing but that bit of blood from the cut to indicate anything had happened, he continued checking for injuries.

Clark gently pushed Lex back and said, "I'll be okay."

Lex went and got a damp washcloth to get the blood off Clark's face. He had just rinsed the blood off the rag when there was a sharp rap on the still-gaping door of his apartment. Lex moved to answer it, and found a policeman. If I didn't know any better I'd swear cops have some sort of radar that tells them when the bad guys are gone, the youngbillionaire thought irritably. Outwardly, his demeanor was pleasantly polite.

"Hey, uh, we got acall saying there was going tobe trouble here?" The cop was confused. There didn't seem to be anything wrong, except that the kid who'd been hanging around Luthor lately was sitting on the floor. But when you live with a billionaire, the cop guessed you could sit wherever you wanted.

"You just missed them, officer. There was a group of four thugs, and a woman named Lana Lang. We suspect she hired the men. They fled when they heard the sirens," Lex said. It was a half-truth, not really a lie. The officer nodded, writing down the important stuff.

"Okay, and can you describe any of the men for me? Any identifying marks, anything that'd make these guys stand out in a crowd?"

"One was a midget," Clark spoke up. The officer's eyes darted to Clark, then back down to his notepad. "And one ofthem had a skull and crossbones tattooed on his forehead. There wasn't anything especially significant about the other two, as far as I could tell."

"Alright," said the cop. "We'll look into Miss Lang, and see if we can find any guys with those profiles in our database."

Lex stepped up and shook the man's hand. "Thank you, officer."

"You're welcome. You kids have a nice evening." The policeman left.

Lex turned and walked into his bedroom. "Let's get packing, Clark."

"What?"

A bald head poked out between the door and doorframe. "She knows where you are, and you saw how easily she got in here. We're going elsewhere. Hopefully someplace inconspicuous enough that we won't be all over the news."

"Oh. Where?" Clark asked.

Lex grinned as he poked his head out again. "Think small."

:Dodges rotten veggies: Please don't hate me. Popular vote demanded Lana. Besides, it's not what you think. Just bear with me 'til next chapter and you'll see what I mean, 'kay? Here's how the final vote came out:

Lana-- 4

Jessie-- 3

Chloe-- 2

Lois-- 1