"The door's locked," little Lois said, jiggling the handle.
Little Clark easily tore off the door, and they started down the hallway.
"Do you have any other powers?" Lois whispered.
"No. I'm just strong, and I don't really get hurt."
"How did you get them?"
"I don't know. I just did."
They heard someone coming. They dashed into the nearest room.
"This is so creepy," Lois said as she looked around the room. It was a room full of wigs. One of them was the red wig the man had been wearing previously. Lois picked it up and on the inside, the name Lex Luthor was stitched on. "Every time I see a room full of wigs now, I'm going to automatically think Lex Luthor," she said with disgust in her voice.
Clark didn't respond. He fell to the floor.
"Clark, are you okay?"
He was in too much pain to answer.
Lois tried to open the door, but it was stuck. She looked around the room. "It has to be something in here doing it." She found a glowing green rock stashed in the drawer of the table. She threw it out the window. "The radio must've been made with the glowy green rock. Did you know green rocks make you sick?"
Clark was already starting to gain his health back. He managed to shake his head no.
"It's no big deal. Lots of people are allergic to things. You just have to stay away from the rock."
He nodded.
She sat down on the floor with him. "I guess we're stuck in here until you get strong again. We're up too high to climb out. I just hope Lex Luthor doesn't find us first."
sss
Chloe and Clark joined Lois in the parking lot.
"Did you find anything or anybody?" Lois asked.
"No," Clark and Chloe both answered.
"I did," Lois said, as she dangled a blue rabbit's foot keychain.
"What's that?" Clark asked.
"Oh, I remember that," Chloe said. "Lois used to carry that around for good luck when she was little. Whatever happened to it?"
"I didn't carry it around for good luck. It was a fad. I'm not superstitious, and it fell apart," Lois answered.
"Would you please focus?" Clark asked.
"Would you calm down? My point is Chloe's car is way over there, so obviously they were over here by themselves when little me dropped it."
Clark studied the pavement. He saw the tire marks caused by Lex's car. "Lex has them."
"Come on, Smallville. I know he stole your girlfriend and is a name-calling jerk but why would he kidnap little us?"
"Lois, do you see these marks? Lex is the only person in Smallville with these expensive tires, and I doubt he came to the park just to feed ducks or play on the playground."
"You're the country bumpkin. I guess if anybody can read tracks and signs, you can."
"Thank you, Lois," he said with sarcasm. "You two stay here in case the kids come back or anybody suspicious shows up."
"I think not," Lois said, "it only takes one person to scout out this tiny park. I'm going with you. It's only fair, since I was kidnapped too."
Clark looked like he was about to protest but then decided it might be easier and waste less time to just give in and let her come.
Clark took the driver's seat.
"Smallville, don't you think it's strange?"
"What?"
"That we don't remember coming to the future. Shouldn't we know who kidnapped us by our childhood memories?"
"We should. I don't even remember Christmas shopping with my mom specifically, but that's because I did that every year. I went once with Mom to get Dad a present and once with Dad to get Mom a present. Do you remember riding in a helicopter with your dad?"
"All the time but I never fell out that I can recall. Maybe we'll develop the memories eventually. It might help us figure out how we got here and how to get us back because we learned absolutely nothing from this morning. Hey, if all else fails, your mom can reraise little Clark and the General can have me to raise again. Boy, would I love to see the look on his face if we brought him me."
"We're here. Time to confront Lex."
"That was a short drive. I wonder why he didn't walk. I guess that would make kidnapping more complicated. Let's go kick him around. I've been dying to get my hands on that man for some time."
sss
"I don't understand," said the man that was almost completely covered in tattoos.
"You don't have to understand," Lex said, "you just have to do. I want the initials L.L. tattooed onto the children's hands with your permanent ink."
"It's not going to look right when their hands get bigger. That's one of the reasons children shouldn't be tattooed."
"All I care about is will they be able to get it removed?"
No. I made my ink to last forever and the way I inject it, nothing can remove it, but—"
"Then just do it."
The tattoo man shrugged. He was getting paid well to do this, but it seemed like such a dictator thing to do. He was just going to do his job and get out of here. Lex had given him a key to the room the kids were in.
Almost as soon as the guy left to do his job, Lois and Clark barged into the office. Lois grabbed him by the shirt collar and shoved him against the wall.
"Where are they?" she growled.
He didn't bother to fight back. He did look at her left hand. No tattoo yet. "Please, call your dog off me, Clark."
"Answer Lois' question."
"I can and will call the police."
"Go ahead," Lois said. "I'm sure they'd love to hear how you kidnapped 2 harmless kids."
"Kids?" Lex asked innocently.
"Oh, don't play dumb, baldie. You kidnapped a boy and a girl from the park and you know it."
"We have the proof," Clark added.
Lex saw they had him physically and metaphorically backed into a corner, but there was still a way to get out of it. "Those are your little friends? They were lost, and I took them home until I could find their parents."
Lois looked like she wanted to pound Lex's face in, but she finally let go of his shirt.
"Then you won't have a problem bringing them in here," Clark said.
Lex picked up his phone and pushed a button. "Jeanette, please bring the kids to my office." He looked angry at the response. "Then hurry up and find them." He hung up the phone. "Kids will be kids. They can't leave the building with my security, so don't worry."
Lois smiled. "We know you kidnapped them, Lex. The kids will be all the witnesses and evidence we need to lock you away."
"You could do that, but you won't," he said, returning her smile, "I don't think you can or want to explain to the police who the kids are."
Lois knew he was right and was about to take a swing at him until Clark gently placed his hand on her shoulder and said, "He's not worth it."
A woman came in with little Clark and Lois. It appeared the children were holding hands, and they both looked a little ragged from the experience but no permanent damage. Lois and Clark left with their younger selves.
Lex sat down in his chair. He didn't want to kill unless he had to but he had to. The experiment was important. He wouldn't kill little Clark merely because he needed older Clark to save his life on more than one occasion, but Lois was easily expendable.