Chapter 12

Dusk settled gently over the outskirts of Smallville. Harmony glanced at the notes she'd taken of the surrounding area and the rotation of the guards, then slipped quietly back into the shadows of the trees. "Clark," she whispered, though she did not know where her cousin had hidden himself.

Pete had returned to the truck when the light from his computer screen began to threaten his location, so she didn't have to worry about him. She knocked on the window on her way past to the back of the truck, and the younger man jumped from the cab.

"What's the new plan?" he asked her as he joined her.

"Wait," she instructed.

Suddenly, Pete jumped. A massive lead form towering 6 ½ feet high loomed over Pete, then hoisted the trunks from out of the truck. Faster than Pete's eyes could follow, the figure's hands flashed, yanking pieces of the body armor out of the trunks, snapping them on to Harmony. She stood still, arms locked straight out, like a scarecrow. Pete watched in fascination as a job that should have taken nearly 30 minutes was done in just a few.

"You've been practicing," he nodded in admiration. "So, I assume that under all that jet-black lead is-"

"Quiet!" Harmony barked, and Pete jerked back. "Don't say it. You know what I mean, and you know why you must never reveal what you know."

"Right," Pete mentally slapped himself for almost speaking what he knew he shouldn't. "Sorry."

"Now it's your turn," Harmony's voice was a little muffled under her face mask. "Stand still."

"Wha-" Before Pete could complete his protest, the monster he knew to be his friend was a massive blur, snapping and clicking armor and weapons to his body as he'd done to Harmony. Minutes later, he looked just like she did.

When she spoke again, it was in his ear. "When we speak to each other, they won't be able to hear us. And as long as he's in that uniform, he doesn't talk. He can hear you, but you'll have to figure out how to understand what he's trying to signal to you. I can understand most of it, so we'll be ok. If you have to call to him, you'll call him what he is."

"Which is?"

"Our Secret."

"That's interesting," Pete logged the name into his memory, then glanced down at the weapons strapped to his body. "So, what's my main toy?"

Secret was suddenly right next to Pete. The giant was surprisingly quiet, considering his suit was made of solid lead. He pulled a gun from each of Pete's hips, but they were unlike any that Pete had ever seen before. Secret tapped the string of bullets wrapped around Pete's chest, then touched the guns again.

"These bullets are for these guns?" Pete guessed, grinning when Secret nodded. "Excellent!"

"That'll be all you'll be using," Harmony instructed. "Are you willing to shoot a man if you have to?"

"If he's shooting at me," Pete retorted.

"Good," Harmony nodded. "These guys will be."

"Would it be ok if I just think about this as one of those video games Clark and I used to play when we were kids?" Pete asked with a grimace. "Just to be safe."

"Long as you don't start thinking you have extra lives or a restart button," Harmony didn't look back. She followed the silent shadow that was Secret through the forest, Pete close behind.

Underground, Clay was pacing, growing very agitated. "Where's your girlfriend?" he snarled at Lex.

"I told you, she's not my girlfriend," Lex gasped, grasping at the pain of the last beating he'd received.

Clay slammed his hand across Lex's face. "I know you're lying! She's not in the mansion and her cousin is missing too! Now, why would that be, if she wasn't looking for you?"

Lex's mind was having a difficult time maintaining its grip on reality, but he held on. If Harmony and Clark were both unaccounted for, that could only mean that they were looking for him. Foolish girl, he thought, but his heart nearly burst.

"She's looking for you," Lex pushed on. "You've insulted her intelligence too many time, I'm telling you. It's got nothing to do with me."

"She's a girl. That automatically makes her too weak and stupid to do anything but try to run after her boyfriend," Clay goaded. "Women are too cowardly to seek vengeance."

Lex bit his tongue until he tasted his own blood, but he did not react. He could not, if he was to make this stupid man believe he did not care about Harmony. As long as his captors thought, even a little, that there was a chance that Harmony might in fact be coming for them rather than him, they would be too distracted to kill him. They would keep him alive to try and find out what she would do. He had to keep himself alive, so the chip in his collar would keep transmitting.

Exacerbated, Clay stormed up the stairs. Lex listened to him go, then heaved a sigh of relief. Where are you, Harmony? He called to her in his mind, but he knew it was no good. There was no way she could know where he was. He was kidding himself. The chip in the collar had been a good idea, but he couldn't honestly remember that he had told her where the receiver was hidden, or how to run the corresponding program on his laptop. She wasn't coming for him. No one was.

"We're almost on top of him," Pete warned, watching the computer screen that he'd pulled open for a moment, then snapped shut again. "Secret, how many people can you see guarding that outside door?"

Secret concentrated for a moment, then held up two fingers. In a flash, he was gone, then back again, holding up his hand in a 0 sign. Pete grinned. When the small company snuck to the entrance to the underground bunker, they found the door gone, as well.

Silently, they snuck down the stairs. At the bottom, Harmony waved Secret up toward the ceiling, and he levitated, flying along above their heads. Pete stared for a moment, then concentrated again on the task at hand. He slid along the wall, keeping one gun ready as Harmony guarded entrances that they came to. At each entrance, Pete checked the computer, just to be sure, then shook his head. Finally, they reached one where Pete pointed, indicating that they had to turn.

Harmony edged her head slowly around the corner. Seeing no one, she crept around, Pete following along the opposite wall, Secret overhead. Pete pointed to a door. "He's down there," his voice was a whisper in Harmony's ear.

Harmony glanced up at the ceiling, but Secret was already waving her away from the door. She crossed quickly to the other side of the hall, where she could help Pete cover the computer from Secret's laser fire. They folded themselves around the laptop as Secret shot two beams of red light from his eyes, searing the lock. He dropped from the ceiling to tear the door off its hinges. Harmony and Pete shot down the stairs as fast as they could, but Secret had already dispatched the men left to guard Lex.

"Clear our path out," Harmony instructed quietly. With a silent nod, Secret was gone.

"Who's there?" Lex called suspiciously.

Harmony held one finger up over her mask, indicating that Pete wasn't to speak Instead, they worked quickly to untie Lex and lift him to his feet. When it became apparent that Lex wasn't going to walk out on his own, they each threw one of his arms over their shoulders, dragging him up the stairs.

Lex had no idea what was going on. He could see a little, but it wasn't enough to make sense of the blurs he could pull through the slits in his eyelids. Whoever had either rescued him or stolen him from his kidnappers refused to speak, but they were very good at their task. And they were fast. He tried to keep up, to help with his own rescue, but his severely injured, weakened legs were of no use to him.

Suddenly, gunfire rang out over his head. "I can help!" He shouted to his rescuers, unsure if they could hear him over the din of the firefight.

Then, he felt someone grab his wrists, pressing something into his hands. Two handguns. He was lifted to his knees, then he felt two backs press against his own. He knew he and his two companions had formed a triangle that he could help defend. He drew on his training that he'd worked so hard on his whole life. Focusing, letting his other senses take over, he fired. Once, twice, three, then four times. Each time, he heard a body fall. Keeping his other senses heightened, he knew the hall was temporarily cleared, and the adrenaline would heave his battered body out of the building.

"NOW!" Lex shouted, but he didn't know which way to go. Hands grasped his arms again, and yanked at him. He fell when he hit the stairs, but quickly recovered, scrambling up them and toward the light at the top.

Through the firefight, Harmony feared that Lex would be shot, but she knew she had to trust his superior training. Then, they were clear, and out in the open, sprinting for the forest, but she heard Pete gasp that they weren't going to make it.

"Secret!" She shouted, looking to the sky. Silence would be of no help to them now.

Then, he was there, blasting from the clouds like a black missile to scoop them all up. He shot for the truck and the safety of the forest. He set them down gently next to the truck, then soared back into the clouds. Harmony helped Lex into the back seat, where he collapsed into a heap, as Pete hurried across to the passenger seat, yanking the helmet off his head. Moments later, they too were gone, their mission complete.

"We got him," Pete emailed Chloe back at the mansion, then fell back against the seat.

Behind them, Clay's men did not know which way they'd gone until they heard the rumble of Harmony's truck as it thundered its way back onto the highway, speeding back to Smallville, and safety.