Yikes, don't know what the hell happened to the first time I posted this chapter. I certainly didn't do that on purpose. Yowza... I Apologize

Chapter 27

Clark sat on the bench, his head in his hands as he groaned in displeasure. It was incredibly frustrating not being able to feel the touch of the person he loved, the woman who meant everything to him. Not only did he have to worry about hurting her, he had to be careful as to not slip up in public.

Looking to the small cabin where he had first met Candice, he continued to sulk, his eyes almost tearing as he shook his head again. There was nothing he could do but learn to cope with it. Somehow he knew that it wouldn't last forever, but the sick feeling in his stomach told him it would be a while before it righted itself. He sighed heavily and leaned back on the bench, the cast iron steel positioning him awkwardly.

It was near six, the convention starting in a few hours. He was curious as to why it wasn't a dinner gala, but it didn't seem quite as serious and pompous as Perry had seemed to let on. The sun was already on its way towards the western sunset, its brilliance still engulfing the ski hill as it was just above the mountains. With his newfound strength and the problems accompanying it, he soon began to covet the blanket of night. The idea of hiding his identity became more of a conscious concern. He hated to have to hide from who he was, especially since he had already embraced who he was. Things were more complicated than ever. It didn't help matters that Brainiac was on the loose again either.

He sat still for more than ten minutes as numerous people walked along the trail, only turning slightly to acknowledge his presence. They didn't seem overly concerned with him, but he knew that would one day change. In the future he knew a certain part of his life would become incredibly public, and it bothered him.

"Clark?"

He turned his head and saw J'onn walking out from the small forest and sit down beside him, his black leather coat done up snuggly. Clark merely nodded in acknowledgment and looked back to the snow in front of his feet.

"I sense there is something troubling you. I'm not surprised since Brainiac is loose here, but it's something else." He propped his right ankle up on his left knee. "Care to explain? I have knowledge of what your father did to you, is that what's bothering you?"

Clark sighed heavily and nodded. "I can't feel anything, J'onn. I can't feel it when someone hits me."

"That's likely a good thing. Pain in battle tends to become an obstacle. I'm sure there is a point where I could hit you and it would hurt, simply because I posses similar abilities, but humans are weak compared to what's out there in the Universe."

"That's not the problem," Clark replied with a heavy tone.

"Then what is?"

"I can't feel Lois. When she touched me it's as if she's not even there."

J'onn sighed softy and turned to his young friend. "All the time?"

Shaking his head, Clark replied. "No, it's like tap water. It goes off and on sporadically."

Reaching out with his left hand, J'onn touched the young man's shoulder. "Can you feel that?"

Clark simply shook his head as he looked at the hand on his shoulder.

"How about now?" J'onn squeezed his shoulder tightly. When Clark shook his head again, he dug his fingers in harder until he saw the young man gasp in pain and choke a little.

"I felt that," Clark exclaimed as shrugged out of the Martian's grasp and rubbed his shoulder.

"It's a matter of the mind Kal-El," he said. "You want to feel, but you are allowing your frustration cloud your concentration. I do not know a lot about Kryptonian physiology, but I can tell you that it isn't permanent."

"I figured as much, but it's just frustrating. I can handle the lack of pain, even relish it a little, but not being able to feel the woman I love, that's the worst pain in the world." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

J'onn dropped his foot back into the snow and stared at the cabin. "You can feel my grasp only because I have the enough power to break that lock in your mind. I wouldn't fathom what kind of complex puzzle it is, since your mind is very hard to maneuver through. The strength I need to communicate with you through your thoughts is very difficult. With humans it's simple, almost as easy as communicating with a horse, but with you it's much more difficult."

"Care to explain that a little further?" Clark asked as he stared at the log cabin with J'onn.

"I don't know what else I can really say other than that you have a mind that humans could only dream about. You possess the ability to store information on an almost Martian level. You may not have the abilities I have, but your brain goes far beyond the restraints that humans possess."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"Very good, especially since it will become vitally important when you're training; your father has much to teach you."

Clark was getting frustrated as the minutes dragged on. "All this talk about my training and my destiny is starting to bug me. I accept that I have a purpose on this world, but I've been running from my destiny for so long and now that I have embraced it, Jor-El tells me I must wait. He tried everything to get me to accept who I was years ago, but now that I have, he wants me to wait."

Nodding, J'onn stood up and walked towards the cabin, his boots softly crunching the snow below his feet. "Patience my friend, he would only wait if that meant there was something important to take care of. And there is." He walked up to the small picnic table and fingered it with a frown. There was something lingering, something alien. "Kal-El?"

"What?" Clark asked as he stood up and wandered over to the picnic table.

"Put your hand on the top of the table."

Frowning, but doing as he was instructed, he put his hand on the table and looked over to J'onn. "What?"

"Can you feel that?"

"No," he responded, his frown deepening as his shorter friend leaned down onto the table with both palms.

"There is energy here."

Clark's eyes widened and he smiled a little. "This is where I met Candice."

"Who?"

"A person with abilities. I met her the first night I was here. She was infected by the meteors in Smallville."

J'onn took his hands off the picnic table and stuffed into his coat pockets. "What kind of abilities does she possess?"

He thought back and remembered. "She said she received superior strength from the moon."

"Hmm, that sounds plausible. What I'm feeling here is rather powerful, as if the being possessed something alien. It would make sense since the meteor rocks come from very far away." He grinned as he looked over to Clark. "Is she a nice woman?" He frowned as Clark suddenly went red in embarrassment. "Clark?"

"I kind of found her lying naked," he said softly, turning away and looking to the path as he put his hand in front of his mouth.

"Naked?" J'onn echoed with raised eyebrows. "That must have been an interesting first encounter."

"You have no idea," Clark replied as turned back around. Not liking where the conversation was heading, he changed it. "So, what exactly is Brainiac up to? I know he disguised himself as Milton Fine and tricked me into believing me he was Kryptonian the last time he was here."

J'onn nodded his head slowly and continued to look at the table. "Not only that, he engineered a drug to release Zod. I think you remember."

"How could I forget?" Clark sneered in disgust.

"You shouldn't. As far as making you believe he was Kryptonian, that's not entirely false.

"What?" Clark asked suddenly, turning around and staring at J'onn.

"It's true; Brainiac was a creation of your race. An artificial intelligence created simply to hold the information and database of Krypton. The problem with artificial intelligence is that when you create it there is always the possibility of it evolving. That's what happened. After it absorbed all the knowledge of Krypton, it became hungry for more."

Clark shook his head in wonder. "If it comes from Krypton, then why wasn't it destroyed when the planet was?"

"Brainiac is far beyond the intelligence of anything in the world and knew that Krypton was about to be destroyed. Being the selfish and maniacal being it is, it saved itself by leaving the planet before it imploded. Always hungry for more knowledge, it raided across the universe, destroying civilization after civilization to gain the knowledge it feeds on."

"How do we stop it?" He was more concerned about keeping people safe than hearing a history lesson.

J'onn walked around the young man and looked to the sky. "That's the number one question. Truthfully, I don't think he can be destroyed. It would explain a lot when it comes to you destroying Fine. Fine may have been vanquished, but that doesn't mean Brainiac was. A self replicating entity with a hunger for knowledge and no moral conscious is the ultimate foe. There is nothing beyond the realms of its sanity. It will do what it thinks is best gain what it wants."

"What does it want?"

"Everything, Kal-El."

Clark frowned. "What do you mean everything?"

"I can't really explain much better than that. Everything is the right word. It wants to know everything humans have to offer. It feeds on the knowledge of everything."

"So there is no way to stop it?"

"There is one way for sure, but that's the biggest problem. It is an extension of a compiled program. Once its program is complete, then so is it."

"But for that to happen he would have to have gained the knowledge from everything in the Universe." Clark's eyes went wide as he thought about it. "Nothing would be left."

J'onn nodded. "That's right. To truly vanquish Brainiac, it would have had to eaten everything this universe has to offer."

"The Universe is endless though."

"Exactly."

Clark knew what J'onn meant. Brainiac could never be destroyed, it would simply continue on its journey forever. "Why has does it have its sights set on earth?"

"It knows that there is a living survivor of the Kryptonian race. It means to use you to gain the knowledge of this planet. You are the only obstacle in its way. It houses everything you'd ever need to know about Krypton. It likely plans to ask for a trade."

"A trade?" Clark asked in wonder.

"It will likely offer you all you want to know about your home planet in return for everything this planet has to offer."

"If that happened, would he still remember everything about Krypton?"

"Of course, but that's not the point. The point is that you would have to give up the lives of billions to learn more about your home."

Clark's eyes went hard as he turned back around to J'onn. "I would never do that."

"I know you wouldn't Kal-El, but it will be a hard offer to refuse."

"I don't think so." He replied with a hard tone. The thought of sacrificing every human on earth, his best friends, and even Lois, would drive him to say no, no matter how enticing the knowledge of home would be.

"You'd be surprised what loneliness can drive a person to do. You can say that you would refuse now, but when the time comes, and trust me, it will come, it will be much harder than anything you've dealt with before." J'onn turned to face Clark and looked hard at him. "If I was this world's protector and Brainiac offered me the knowledge of whether or not there is another of my race out there in return for this world, I don't know if I could refuse."

Clark's mouth hung agape as J'onn turned back around. "But his answer could be no, and in the end he would gain everything just for a yes or no answer."

"That's why I say loneliness is a powerful thing, Kal-El. I have been alone for more years than I can count. Just the knowledge of whether or not there might be another of my race out there would be that enticing."

"But you really wouldn't accept his offer, would you? Clark asked in desperation. If J'onn didn't have the power to refuse Brainiac, how could he possibly have it.

J'onn smiled and turned around to look at Clark again. "Of course not, but that's only because I know what would become of the world should I make that trade. Without that knowledge I would likely let my need and hunger for that knowledge trick me into accepting its offer."

Clark shook his head and sat back down on the bench. "You make this sound as if this is worse than Zod being released."

"It's far beyond that. Zod wanted to create this world in his image, but Brainiac only brings destruction and death."

"This is really confusing," Clark replied as he sunk his head back into his hands.

"This is Brainiac." J'onn chuckled in paranoia and walked back towards the forest. "There is much I have to do before Brainiac makes itself known, so I must be leaving." He walked to the edge of the trees and looked back. "Kal-El?"

"Yeah?" Clark asked as he lifted is head.

"Have fun tonight."

Clark stared in shock as J'onn disappeared into the woods. "How?" he asked aloud. When he got no response, he simply stood up and walked away, not wanting to linger in the thoughts of what dangers lay ahead. Even if he couldn't feel anything, Lois was his first commitment and he wanted to make sure she had a pleasant time at the convention.

Knowing it was a suit and tie affair, he looked around to make sure no one was in view. With a sudden gust of wind he was off. He eyed his surrounding as they went flashing by.

He slid to a stop suddenly as he let out a large breath. It had taken only a fraction of a second to get to the downtown core. It surprised him immensely, having taken less time than it should have. With his heart racing a mile a minute, he slipped into an alley and leaned up against a brick wall of the building on the right. With his eyes looking up and down his arms in confusion, he sighed heavily. He must not have been granted only more strength, but more speed as well.

With the newfound excitement of going so fast, he wanted desperately to try his other abilities to see if they were enhanced as well. Only problem was the fact that he knew there was no way he could possibly control them if they were much what he expected them to be. Straightening his coat and letting himself calm down, he took a deep breath and walked back out onto the naked road. He was just a few hundred feet from the resort part of Aspen. Maybe things weren't going to be as bad as he thought. The exhilaration he received from traveling at such a speed was truly unbelievable. He felt as if he could run around the world in a matter of seconds.

He shook away those thoughts and maneuvered his way onto the bustling sidewalk and down the main strip. There were tourists left and right, none of them aware that he could disappear in a heartbeat. He always wondered if people could see him move was he was at full speed. Would people be suspect if he just suddenly disappeared? The ideas that came to him excited him even more. If he could move quicker than the blink of an eye, he might not have to worry about people seeing him run off at such a speed. Clearly the human race lacked the response time to come even close to recognize him on the run.

He thought of Bart suddenly, wondering if he was now as fast as his short friend. Clark quickly chastised himself for taking his abilities for granted and walked into a store. He needed new clothes, and especially a suit. His t-shirt clung ridiculously tight to his body, his newfound abs playing out an almost poetic scene in a mirror he quickly passed by. He stopped at another mirror and looked himself up and down. He hadn't taken the time to see how much bigger he had actually gotten, but now he could plainly see.

His shoulders were larger and wider, the shirt on his back almost ripping at the neck as he lifted them up and down. The arms of the shirt, once loose, were now stretched horribly, the threads struggling hard not to bust free. Physical appearance meant little to him, but he couldn't help but admire himself in the mirror. The definition on his forearms and his stomach was something new. He had been bulky, but now he was more defined and precise.

Shaking his head in wonder, he turned around and bumped into an attendant. "Oh, I'm sorry," he quickly stammered as he held the woman from falling down.

"My fault sir, I should have been standing further away." She straightened her long skirt and smiled up at the man in front of her. "Can I help you with anything?"

Clark nodded as he looked around the store. It was a men's fine clothing store, with suits lined up by the dozens. "I'm in need of a new suit." He smiled at the middle aged woman and she motioned for him to follow her.

As he did so, he couldn't help but notice how small his jeans suddenly felt. He peered down and almost tripped over his own feet as he quickly tried to pull his already taught t-shirt down over his crotch. The tight jeans certainly didn't leave anything to the imagination.

"What type of a suit are you looking for? We don't carry a whole lot in your size, but we have some."

"What?" Clark asked suddenly, his attention ripped from his furious grabbing at his shirt. "Oh, just a black one."

"Good, at least we have plenty of those. I'm glad you didn't want something luxurious or we'd have to order something."

"I'm need the suit for tonight, so."

"Well, then let's find you something quickly then." She began to hum softly as she fingered through a rack of black slacks. Lifting out a satisfactory looking pair, she held them in front of the young man's legs and nodded. "Here, these might work. They're the biggest pair we have so you better hope they fit."

Clark smiled weakly and took them. It took only a few minutes before she had a coat and shirt in his hands. He explained that he didn't need a tie or shoes as when she began rooting for them. With a nod she directed him to the changing rooms.

He quickly slipped on the pants and admired the relaxed fit. The waist was just a little baggy, but he could easily correct that with his belt. Jamming his hands into the pockets, he lifted the bottoms of the pants off the floor. They barely reached and once he was in his shoes they would be the perfect length. He found it odd that his life was always so complicated; yet finding a suit always seemed to go smoothly. Even back in high school it had been surprisingly easy. Shaking his head and smiling, he put on the white dress shirt and buttoned it up. He extended his arms and his shoulder sunk a little. The cuffs on the end were a little small, but he knew the next size up would be just right.

Shrugging out of the tight dress shirt, he put his t-shirt back on and slipped his legs back into his jeans. As in his nature, he folded the slacks properly and clipped them back into the hanger. He slung the small shirt on a hanger on the wall and put his boots back on. As he walked out of the change room with everything in order, even a new black suit coat, he handed them to the woman. "One size larger with the shirt and everything should be fine."

"Do you not want me to check it for you? You're supposed to put everything on and then I make sure it fits right."

Clark smiled and shook his head. "I know what fits." She glared at him with an almost motherly eye as he walked past her. He truly did know what fit him and he knew well enough that he didn't have a lot of time. Walking to the checkout counter and pulling out his wallet, he suddenly felt jealous of J'onns's shape-shifting ability. It sure as hell would be easier than buying clothes.

As the woman was about to grab his credit card from his fingers, he froze. He couldn't believe it; he was envying another Alien's abilities. J'onn was right; he had truly accepted who he was. In the past he lamented what abilities he possessed, but now, now he accepted them a second nature. Finally letting go of the card and allowing the woman to take it, he looked down at his arms and almost smiled. Life threw obstacles at him, such as his newfound strength, but in the end he knew he could deal with them. Lois was right yet again. He would adjust and deal with it accordingly. Sure, it meant having to be careful until he could harness it all, but in the end it would be okay.

"Sir?"

Clark snapped out of his little world, grabbed the card back and slipped it into his wallet. It was amazing how easily Lois could set him at ease. Just the memory of her was enough to lift his spirits. It felt as if anything she said could be coated in gold. Her words meant so much to him that he could remember everything she said.

As he took the large bag with the suit and the pants inside, he turned and went to walk to the door. He stopped though, his eyes staring blankly ahead. "Wow." He whispered.

"Sir?"

"What?" Clark asked as he turned to the woman.

"Is there something else I can help you with?"

He shook his head slowly. "No, everything's perfect." With wide eyes, he slung the bag over his right shoulder and walked towards the door. "Perfect?" he whispered to himself. How could anything be perfect when what J'onn described as one of the most dangerous beings in the universe was right on his doorstep? He knew the answer already though, and it was a humbling one.

Lois.

Still shaking his head like an idiot and feeling as if nothing in the world could deter his happy thoughts, he walked out into the sunlight and took a deep breath. He always knew that the sun fed him, but with strength he now possessed, he could feel his muscles almost pulsating beneath his skin. The feeling was incredible, a warmth enveloping him and soothing his body in bliss. He craned his neck and closed his eyes, but was knocked out of his train of thought as someone bumped into him.

He cleared his throat and looked around to see that no one had been watching him. Sucking in his cheeks, he began to walk down the busy sidewalk, looking for another store. This time he needed some casual to replace the clothes he was wearing. He couldn't help but feel a little ashamed at the way he was looking. Purposely holding the bag in front of him so as to not show off, he couldn't help but notice the amount of women walk by and take a second glance. His cheeks went a little red as he finally dipped into a store and sighed heavily. Lois would have gone wild if she saw people staring at him like that. No, he corrected himself. She would have made fun of him until he was redder than a tomato.

"Can I help you with something?"

Clark was snapped from his thoughts as a young woman stood by him with her hands clasped by her stomach. He gently nodded his head as she looked him up and down. It made him incredibly uncomfortable, but he fought past it. "I need some new jeans and a few shirts."

"You're telling me." The woman caught herself staring and looked back up to the young man, whose face was turning red. "My name's Alicia," she stuttered. "I can show you some things - I mean clothes - if you'd like?"

"Actually, I think I can manage," he replied with a guilty look. Her shoulders seemed to sink at his reply, but he quickly walked away in search for a pair of fitting jeans. God how he needed a new pair of jeans.