Chapter 15 - Prevention

Clark had been careful to keep his friendship with Lex secret for the first couple of weeks of knowing him, because he didn't want to get in trouble with his dad, but that was nothing compared to how careful he was now. Getting yelled at or grounded was the last of his worries. He couldn't imagine actually being prevented from visiting Lex.

Despite the age gap, Lex had quickly become his best friend. Not only could Clark talk to him about anything; Lex actually wanted to know—he listened actively and enthusiastically to Clark's victories, and with sympathy and occasionally advice for his failures. Also, if Clark ever mentioned in passing liking a certain kind of snack food, Lex would have it waiting for him the next time they met. Most importantly, even as they were doing experiments, Lex never made Clark feel like a bug under a microscope. He always felt like a whole person.

The other nice thing was that he'd convinced his parents—his mom, really—to put his "internship" earnings toward the farm, in exchange for permission to use his abilities for more of his chores and a doubled allowance. He watched their stress lessen over the following weeks, which meant his relationship with his parents actually improved. That helped him to feel less guilty about going behind their backs.

Aside from having Lex as a friend, and aside from the steady income, getting to learn so much about his abilities was incredibly cool. He found out what he could and couldn't do—for instance, he learned that he would be able to withstand a bullet if he needed to, though it would hurt a bit. He learned how to control his strength with more precision. And each week, he got a little stronger. Clark didn't know whether that was just because his powers were maturing as he aged, or because he was working out so much. He supposed it didn't matter.

Lex ran into Victoria Hardwick at a charity gala at the Metropolis Museum.

Normally, Lex would have considered Victoria to be a welcome distraction from his usual work. The battle between their companies was a chess match he could win, as long as he kept on his toes, and he enjoyed the challenge. Having her around the mansion was fun, and a welcome release for both of them. She was hot—not exactly pretty, but certainly attractive.

Now, though, between keeping the plant afloat and working with Clark, Lex really had enough to keep him both challenged and happy. Six months ago, he would have drawn out the chess match to last weeks. Now, he was just as happy to get through it quickly.

Clark was endearingly innocent about the whole arrangement. One afternoon, Clark came by the mansion in the late evening. He'd come to warn Lex that Victoria was snooping around on Lex's laptop. He wanted to know why Lex wanted to keep her around if he didn't love her. It was kind of adorable.

Lex had deflected Clark's warning about one of his servants' obsession with him by asking about Lana, and managed to get sidetracked into talking about his mother's death, when they both heard a crash and a scream.

Clark sped out of Lex's study, following the sound of the crash. It had come to a bathroom, where Victoria was struggling under the water in the bathtub. Clark was able to get her out and to safety, but he ended up being knocked into a mirror by some force he couldn't see. He glanced up at just the right moment and used his x-ray vision—a person was walking away. An invisible person.

Victoria had passed out; Clark covered her with a towel and left her on the bathroom floor. He sped back down to Lex, who was in the hallway, halfway to the bathroom.

"Someone attacked Victoria."

"What? Is she okay?"

"She's fine, but . . ." Clark lowered his voice. "I saw someone leaving the room. Someone invisible."

"Clark, unless the invisible assailant has super speed, they can't have gotten far."

"So?"

"So can you use your speed and x-ray vision at the same time?"

They'd tested that. "Yeah. But Lex, I think the person was infected by the meteor rock. They threw me into a mirror."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but I'm not sure I can overpower them."

"You don't have to. Just find out who it is, and we can talk about how to take care of it."

It took about a minute to find the skeleton again—Clark remained a room away to make sure the person didn't see him coming. The skeleton went into a little cottage to the side of the mansion—Clark watched through the walls as the person scrubbed away some kind of residue from his skin, then he switched his view to skin level. He jogged back to Lex, who was holding a crying Victoria in the bathroom.

"It's Jeff Palmer," he said.

Lex blinked. "Jeff?"

Jeff was surprisingly willing to share why he'd done what he'd done. He didn't even try to hide the fact that Lex would have been his next target.

On the plus side, Clark was able to help Lex to find his watch. Exiling the Palmers from the mansion and calling the police about Jeff was tough on all of them, though Lex left Amy's theft out of it. She clearly needed mental help, not a jail sentence. The Palmers wouldn't be able afford therapy or medication, especially having just lots their jobs; Lex told them to send him the bill. Not exactly because he felt responsible, but because he just felt terrible for Jeff and Amy's parents. They were good people.

Lex was terrified to think what might have happened to him if he'd been attacked by an invisible enemy, and he was incredibly thankful that Clark had been able to prevent it. He wanted to thank his younger friend, but he didn't want Clark to have to explain away another bonus on his paycheck. So instead, he made use of the time Victoria spent in recovery away from the mansion. He put a hold on the experiments and spent time with Clark up in his study, putting out all of Clark's favorite snack foods. He also bought an X-box for the mansion and played with Clark for a few hours, and gave him permission to use it whenever he wanted.

Even at that, Lex still felt indebted to Clark, but the real chance to thank him came a week later. Lex ran into a sleazy farm equipment salesman, Bob Rickman, at a reception, and found out that Bob was planning to use the Kent farm land to develop a new pesticide plant. Lex knew Jonathan Kent would never sell—his stubbornness was legendary, after all, but so was Bob's ability to persuade, and Lex just didn't want the Kent family to have to deal with it. Clark's pain over his parents' stress was always significant. So Lex pulled a few strings and managed to run Bob out of town before he could try anything. It was the least he could do.

Later on, Clark ended up meeting one of Bob's friends, Kyle Tippet, and he found out that Bob was actually a meteor rock mutant with the power of persuasion. Lex didn't like to think about what might have happened if he hadn't stepped in.