CHAPTER SEVEN

"LANA LANG!"

Clark looked over at Chloe, and Chloe just had a look of worry and puzzlement. It was the same look Clark had on his face. He had hoped Lana would appear but she hadn't. She was gone. Clark had no idea where she was. Clark knew one thing, though. He had to find her quickly. As Clark was about to do so, he heard a siren.

The siren had alarmed everybody. Because everybody started to buzz around, wondering what was going on. Chloe turned her head. She stared as everyone did at the many military vans that had now entered the graduation ceremony.

From these military vans, men dressed in camouflage colored uniforms started to pouring out, as if prepared for anything. On these military vans were labeled MMS.

A voice called out from the lead military vans' loudspeaker. "Attention. Remain calm. By order of the Federal Emergency Decree, all nonessential personnel must evacuate the area within a 50-mile radius. In approximately, a meteor shower is oredicted to hit Smallville, KS."

Clark couldn't believe what he was hearing. A meteor shower? Clark remembered the last meteor shower. It had nearly devastated the small town of Smallville. It had brought with it meteor rocks that Clark had learned was called Kryptonite. The meteor shower also brought with it anoither thing - - a spaceship containing an infant baby. Clark, himself. Was this what Jor-El had warned him against? Clark just had a look of grim determination, determined to stop it if he could, But first he had to try and find and save Lana.

Chloe just looked at Clark with a look of panic. But Clark couldn;t help but feel it was his fault. After all, it was his ship that had caused the fiurst meteor shower. Now what had caused this one? He knew that whatever it was, it was somehow linked to him and Jor-El. Clark then got off the stage and took his graduation robes and cap off and slung them to his side. Even though there was a meteor shower, he wasn;t going to leasve his graduation robes.

As he did so, Chloe called out to him. "HEY CLARK! Can you believe it! Twice in sixteen years! I mean, this is crazy! Smallville has got to have some sort of extraterrestrial bullseye on it!"

Clark tried to smile, but he couldn't. He knew that Chloe had an enthusiasm when it came to the meteor shower. But Clark wasn't about to fuel that desire just yet. He tried to play it cool and normal. "It's pretty weird, huh?"

"Well," Chloe continued, as she took off her graduation cap, "there's got to some kind of connection in the cosmos. I mean, this IS NOT just a coincidence."

Clark tried to calm Chloe down. "Yeah . . I . . . uh . . . I'm sure there's some sort of explanation."

But Chloe wasn't calming down. She was only getting more passionate by the minute. "Well, there's just something in Smallville that is just SCREAMING for celestial attention! I mean, Clark, lightning does not strike in the same place without some kind of lightning rod, right! I just wonder what that is. "

This whole conversation was beginning to make Clark very nervous, especially around Chloe. If Chloe knew the truth . . . well, he didn't even want to think about that. "I'm not sure," said Clark very nervously, and then tried to change the subject. "But we don't have much time. We need to find Lana."

Chloe dropped the subject, and nodded, as if in agreement. "You're right, and if anyone can find her with moments to spare, it's you, Clark."

Chloe then rushed Clark away from the hustle and bustle. He didn't understand what Chloe was saying. She proibably suspected something. "Uh . . . why's that, Chloe?" he asked rather innocently.

Chloe, as she continued to rush Clark, then explained her reasoning. "Because . . . you have a certain . . . 'method' of getting things done in half the time the nornal person gets things done."

Chloe's talk was confusing. What was she talking about? It was almost as if she knew the truth about him, about his secret. But how could she? "And I'm NOT normal?"

Chloe just smiled and said, "NO! Of course you're normal! You're as normal as they come! Now! Let's . . . just hurry and find Lana!"

Lois then walked up to Chloe and Clark, having overheard their conversation. "Look, I'm sure she's already out of town. They've already evacuated half of the county. They probably saw her come in early for graduation and told her to leave town."

"Which is exactly what you two need to do right now," said Clark, as he, Lois, and Chloe then headed to Chloe's car, her Red convertible VW beetle. Clark then put his cap and gown in the back of Chloe's car. "I'm going to hitch a ride with my parents in their truck. Do you mind if I leave my graduation stuff in your car, Chloe?"

"Sure." replied Chloe.

Lois then interjected. "Thanks for the tip, Smallville, but I was raised by a four-star military general. I am not about to run from a time of crisis like a scared little girl in the middle of a fire! Okay! Why don't you just trust me on this?"

Clark just stared at Lois and then back at Chloe, and then back at Lois again, and then back at Chloe, as if pleading for help on this one. Lois must've noticed because she practically screamed at Clark. "What? What is it?"

Chloe then quietly interjected. "Uh, Lois?"

"WHAT!"

"I think you better trust Clark on this one."

Lois just pouted and looked at Clark and Chloe, and just said, "FINE! I'll just . . . ride with Chloe and head to her house and pack as much stuff as we could take."

Clark nodded, as Lois got into the passenger seat of Chloe's car, and Chloe got in the drivers seat. Clark just stared at Chloe, and said. "Chloe, be careful."

Chloe then nodded and drove away, leaving Clark in the distance.

As soon as Clark saw that Chloe and Lois were out-of-sight, he then jetted away, speeding all across Smallville to find the love of his life, Lana.

After running all around town, Clark finally arrived at his house. He couldn't believe that he couldn't find Lana. She had to be somewhere. He hoped an early meteor hadn't hit somewhere in Smallville, and Lana hadn't died at the mercy of a meteor.

No, thought Clark, he couldn't live with that if that was to happen. But he needed to talk to his parents.

He walked in the door of his house, not to find his parents, just sitting for a cup of coffee like they always were, but madly packing everything in sight. His dad rushed down the stairs. "CLARK! Where in heaven have you been? We've got to pack up!"

Clark walked into his house and stood by the kitchen table, agonizing over the current situation. "I've been looking for Lana everywhere. I can't find her."

As his mom was furiously packing, she tried to be the voice of reason in the situation. "Sweetheart, she's probably been evacuated already."

As his dad continued to pack, He told Clark. "Now, we need to pack everything from your room and from the loft that's necessary. Your mother and I will take care of everything down here."

But Clark just stood t\here, as if thinking and pondering something he needed to do. "No. I've got to do something first."

Then, immediately, Jonathan and Martha Kent stopped what they were doing. They knew what Clark was feeling. Ever since Clark learned he was from the stars, he had told them he believed the meteor shower was his fault. "Don't think for a second that this is YOUR fault."

Clark then stood up to his parents. "Look at the facts, mom. I came to Smallville sixteen years ago in a meteor shower. Now another meteor sjhower is happening all over again, and it's all because of me."

Jonathan then stood before Clark, to try and calm him down. "Clark, there was nothing you could have done to prevent that meteor shoiwer, and there is nothing you can do to prevent this one."

Clark couldn't accept that. "No. We don't know that. There's got to be something that I can do to stop it."

Martha just stood grabbed Clark's arms and shook her head in disbelief. "Clark . . . you don't have time."

Clark just stared into her eyes and said, "No, mom, I don't have a choice."

Jonathan and Martha Kent stepped away and nodded, as if in approval. Clark went upstairs to do what he had to do. First, he would change his clothes. Then, he would find Jor-El.

After changing his clothes, he headed to his upper barn loft. His father had called this place, the Fortress of Solitude. It was where he spent hours studying things about his life, his interests, and his past. Clark moved over to his desk. On his desk, next to old high school textbooks, Native American literature, there were two lead cases. One Clark dared not open. It contained an extremely rare substance: a green Kryptonite fragment from the planet where he came from. That substance made Clark weak and if Clark was exposed to it's energy, he could die. He kept it in case he was exposed to the red meteor rock which had a strong mental effect on him, which he never kept. The lead case kept the meteor rock from killing Clark.

The other lead case had an extrememly rare and possibly valuable object. It was this case that Clark was looking for. He opened it. In the lead case was full of old stuff, pencils, erasers, and a ruler. But in the corner of the case was a small disc-like object covered in a small cloth. Clark unveiled the cloth to reveal a small octagon-shaped disc. It was a metallic silver disc, which had on the edges symbols from Clark's planet. Clark had dubbed this octagonal disc, "the key." Because that what it was. It seemed to be the key to unlocking everything about Clark. There was an octagonal keyhole in Clark's spaceship which had long since been destroyed. There was an octagonal keyhole in the center iof a native american cave wall that had drawings that pointed to Clark's origins. There was also a keyslot in an inner chamber which was inside that cave wall. It was this inner chamber where Clark could often speak to the essence of his biological father, Jor-El. This is why Clark had grabbed the key in the first place.

Clark then looked at his reflection in the key's face. He then knew what he had to do. He then turned around and saw someone he wans't planning to see.

Lex Luthor was standing right behind him, looking at him square in the eye.