As the four of them walked to the bus, Clark told them that his parents were going to Metropolis for their anniversary, leaving him alone in the house for a couple days.

"What are you gonna do now that you're officially home alone?" Pete asked.

"I was thinking of having a few people over," Clark answered.

Chloe smirked. "Do my ears deceive me or is Clark Kent actually suggesting a party?"

"A small gathering. You guys, a few other people, maybe even Lana."

"With or without her possible action-figure boyfriend?"

As Clark got on the bus, he turned to them. "8:00. And remember, the key word is small."

"Small," Chloe smiled.

That night, Chloe went to Emmeline's house so they could head over to Clark's together. As they pulled up, Emmeline's mouth dropped open at the sight of what must've been hundreds of people. Suddenly, this was the last place she wanted to be.

They two of them got out, and Emmeline had never felt so small. Chloe must've sensed her unease because she took Emmeline's hand in hers. Together, they both looked around for Clark and found him buried in his house.

"So, this is what you call a small gathering, right?" Chloe shouted to him in an attempt to be heard over the loud music.

"Do you even recognize half these people?" He looked over at someone. "Hey, watch the glass—" There was the sound of glass shattering and Clark sighed heavily.

Emmeline went over to the window to get away from everyone and she saw Clark sitting down in front of it. "Hey," she said, even though she knew she couldn't be heard.

"This is a disaster," he said to her.

Suddenly, a boy crashed next to both of them looking pale and sweaty. "Guys, I think I'm gonna hurl."

Emmeline bolted up and left Clark to deal with Mr. Vomit. She hated puke more than anything and was not about to witness it. Instead, she went outside for some breathing room. She crossed her arms over her chest and blew a puff of air through her cheeks.

Not too much later, fireworks started to go off. Wasn't that illegal?

"Clark, man, how cool is this?" Pete said as the usual three joined Emmeline outside.

"Pete, why didn't you just call the cops? It would have been a lot easier!" Clark yelled.

"Hey, I can't claim credit. It wasn't my idea."

"It was mine," Lex Luthor's voice called out from behind them. "Call it a party gift. I hope you like it."

"It's great," Clark stuttered. "Just…"

"Don't worry about the police. It's covered. I know this kind of party can make or break a reputation and I wanted to make sure yours was a hit. I hear you're taking a tour of my plant tomorrow."

"It's a class field trip," Chloe said.

"What'd you do wrong?"

Emmeline allowed herself to smile a little.

"It's that bad, huh?" Clark asked.

Some Asian woman came out and seductively took Lex's arm, making Emmeline quite uncomfortable. "Sorry I took so long," she said in a very obvious flirty tone. "Someone overflowed the bathroom."

"I'm officially dead," Clark muttered.

"Clark," Emmeline said quietly. "I'm sorry, I can't be here." She took off and decided to just walk home.

"Emmeline!" Clark called. "Em!"

"What's wrong with her?" Lex asked.

"She's quiet and really, really shy. I'm sure all of this is basically her worst nightmare."

"If I had known, I never would've brought her," Chloe insisted.

"It's alright, Chloe."

The remaining people watched their friend walk down the drive at quite a fast pace.


On Monday morning, Emmeline was walking to class when Clark caught up with her. "Hey, Em! Listen, I am really sorry about last weekend. I had no idea it was going to get so out of hand."

"It's okay, Clark. I'm sorry for bolting out like that."

"I understand why. If I could've, I would've bolted too."

Emmeline smiled a little and they both walked to class together. Then the rest of her class boarded the bus that would take them to LuthorCorp. Chloe ended up sitting next to her.

"Anything interesting happen after I left?" Emmeline asked Chloe.

"Actually, yeah. We found this weird guy hiding up in Clark's loft. He started shaking at an extremely fast rate that was really intense to see. We took him to the hospital and we found out that he was actually wanted for murder."

"Murder?"

"Yeah. I mean, Clark seems to know him really well, but…"

"I'm kind of glad I wasn't there for that."

They arrived at the plant and when they went inside, they were met by one of the workers to begin the tour.

"Hello, everybody. I'm Gabe Sullivan, plant manager and proud father. Hi, sweetheart," the man said looking over at Chloe.

"Hi, Dad," Chloe said sheepishly as she discreetly hid behind Clark. Emmeline couldn't help but smile at her obvious discomfort.

"Welcome to LuthorCorp, where we give a crap."

"Okay, somebody kill me now," Chloe muttered.

"A little fertilizer humor there. All right, before we go inside, I need you to remove all your cell phones, pagers, jewelry. Anything that jangles, dangles, or rings needs to go in these plastic trays right here. All right, any other questions?" Clark raised his hand. "Yes?"

"I heard there was a third level to the plant. Is that true?" Clark asked.

Gabe hesitated, then smiled. "Yeah, yeah. That's where we do the alien autopsies. I think we better get started."

"Don't encourage him," Chloe sighed.

"Come on, Chloe," Emmeline said. "If I can stay at that party for longer than five seconds, you can handle this."

"This way, everybody. All right, people. Let's stay together," Gabe announced. He led them all throughout the plant and pointed at some tanks. "Watch out for these babies. 262 degrees. They get hot." They walked into another room with boards, screens, and other workers. "This is it. The plant's mission control. 100,000 tons of animal waste to process here every year. Trust me, the results can be pretty explosive. So if any of you had beans for lunch, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

The students laughed, but Chloe groaned. "Among his peers, he's considered witty."

"Mm-hmm," Pete smiled. "Where's Clark?"

Before either girl could respond, the door in front of them began rattling and jangling fiercely.

"What the heck?" Gabe muttered. "Excuse me."

He walked over to the door, but before he could open it, some African-American man stepped out with a gun in tow. He grabbed Gabe and aimed the gun at his head. "Don't move!" he ordered. "Take me to Level 3."

"Dad," Chloe whispered.

"Now!" the man ordered.

Alarms started blaring and the man aimed his gun at everyone. All the students sat in a line with Emmeline clutching onto Chloe's hand as tight as she could. People feared for their life way too often in Smallville. Who knew a simple class field trip would turn into a hostage situation? Emmeline was considering never leaving the house again. At least she would be safe from bug men, crazed murderers, and hostage takers. Maybe she could convince her mom to homeschool her…

The man asked Gabe over and over again where Level 3 was, but Gabe kept telling him he didn't know. If something didn't happen soon, someone was going to get shot, and she didn't want to play the guessing game of who it would be.

"I swear, I don't know anything about Level 3," Gabe insisted.

"You're lying!" the man shouted.

"He's not lying!" Clark said as he came into to the room with some rolled up paper. "I found these blueprints. There is no Level 3."

Where on earth had he gone? And where had he found those diagrams?

The man opened the blueprints and got even angrier. "Every night, I go down to Level 2, I follow the red pipes down that long hallway, I go to the door, I open it, and I take the elevator down to Level 3!" He went over to Clark. "You're just like everybody else. Now you get over there and you sit down!"

Clark went over and took a seat next to Lana. When he looked over at Emmeline and Chloe, they looked about ready to burst into tears. Pete put his arm around Emmeline, fully aware that this was not the best situation for her. Emmeline squeezed Chloe's hand even tighter and began trembling a little.

The phone rang and Gabe picked it up. "Lionel Luthor."

"Speaker," the man said. Gabe put the phone on speaker and put it back on the receiver. "Mr. Luthor, I've finally got your attention, haven't I?"

"Earl, why don't you come out?" Lionel's voice said on the other end. "We've got a lot to talk about."

"Just tell me what you were using down on Level 3."

"You're sick, Earl. Let everyone go. We'll get you help."

Earl began convulsing again and when Clark stood to help him, he got whacked onto the ground. Everyone went over to him to make sure he was all right.

"Clark, are you okay?" Emmeline asked.

"I'm fine," he said weakly.

Earl went over to the camera. "See what you made me do? Your methane gas-valve just broke. The whole place is gonna go up."

Emmeline put her hand over her eyes and tried her hardest to pull it together. She didn't want to be the weak one in this situation, but that's what it looked like. She felt Pete's arm go around her again and she forced herself to stop acting like a little girl.

"We need to do something," Whitney said.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Clark told him.

"The man's nuts. He's not listening to the cops and that methane gas is gonna blow."

"He's sick, but he's still strong."

"Whitney, I don't want you to get hurt," Lana said.

"I'm not putting my life in that man's hands," Whitney said firmly. "Two of us can take him. How about it, Clark?"

"I can't," Clark answered.

Whitney looked at him in disbelief. "It's okay," Lana said. Whitney stood up angrily. "Whitney!"

"Luthor, I trusted you," Earl said to the camera. "You told me you were trying to help people." He turned around and saw Whitney coming for him. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

Whitney flung the gun to the ground, but Earl punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground as well.

"Get back!" Earl screamed as he retrieved his gun. He went back over to the camera. "It's all your fault, Luthor." Then he shot the camera, which made Emmeline jump from the loud noise.

They pulled Whitney back over to the group.

"I don't want to die," Emmeline said softly.

Clark looked her straight in the eyes. "You won't."

They waited a little longer before Lex walked into the room holding his hands up while wearing a bulletproof vest.

"What kind of man sends his own kid to do his dirty work?" Earl growled.

"I'm not doing anybody's dirty work, Earl," Lex answered. "This is my plant." He looked over at Lana who was holding Whitney. "How is he?"

"He needs a doctor," Lana answered.

Lex turned his focus back to Earl. "What are we gonna do about these kids, Earl?"

"I never meant to hurt anybody," Earl said remorsefully. "I tried talking to your father, but he wouldn't listen to me."

"I know the feeling." Lex took off the vest. "Earl, you say that everybody's been lying to you. I'm gonna tell you the truth. My father doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about anybody in this room. Because if we all die, his P.R. firm will spin it, his insurance company will pay out, and you, Earl, will go down as the bad guy."

"I'm not the bad guy. I'm just trying to get better."

"How are you gonna get better by killing a bunch of kids? If you let everybody go, I'll take you to Level 3."

Emmeline looked up at him. So far, there had been every reason to believe that Level 3 didn't exist. Was this man really not as crazy as he seemed?

Earl pointed his gun at Lex. "You stop lying."

"Let them go, and I'll show you where it is. Earl, trust me. I'm a man of my word."

Earl lowered his gun and looked at all the students. "Get out. Get out. Get out! Everybody, get out!"

Everyone scrambled to their feet and got out of the room as fast as they could. Pete was still holding onto Emmeline.

"Come on!" Pete said to Clark who was still in the room. "Come on, man, let's go!"

The three of them ran out of the room and started down the hallway.

"Come on, keep moving!" one member of the SWAT team ordered.

"This way, kids! This way!" another said.

When they made it outside, Clark suddenly turned back around and headed towards the closing door.

"Clark, come on, man, we gotta go!" Pete yelled.

"Don't worry about me!" Clark yelled back as he slid under the doors.

"Clark!" Emmeline and Pete screamed.

The two of them continued outside and met with Clark's parents. Emmeline realized it was nighttime outside. Had they really been trapped there that long?

"Pete! Emmeline!" Martha exclaimed as she hugged the both of them. "Where's Clark?"

"He's back inside, Mrs. Kent," Pete said apologetically. "I tried to stop him. I'm sorry. I-I'm sorry." Emmeline looked at Pete sadly. "Come on," he said to her. "Let's find our parents."

Emmeline looked around in the crowd until she saw her parents. "Mom!" she called. "Dad!"

"Emmeline!" her mother cried. Emmeline ran up to them and they all embraced together. "Are you alright?" her mother asked frantically. Emmeline nodded and they all hugged once more. "Come on. Let's get you home."

"Mom, can we wait for Clark to come out? Please?"

"Of course."

They sat around for what felt like hours until Emmeline saw Clark come running out of the building and hug his family.

"Clark!" she called as she ran over to him.

"Hey, Em!"

Emmeline hugged him tightly. When they released, she hit him on the chest. "What were you thinking?"

"That's what I'd like to know," Martha said. "But the important thing is that you're safe."

Emmeline smiled and walked back to her own parents. Her mother put her arm around her shoulder and they walked to the awaiting car. She looked back at Clark as he and his family laughed and hugged over and over again. She didn't know what it was about him, but he could always be counted on to save the day.