Chapter 10

PT. 1

Clark and I had been stuck in a deadlock, arguing back and forth for the past 20 minutes. We were all outside watching as the sun made its dissent. Chloe was sitting on a nearby fence, remaining neutral in the fight raging between the two of us.

"Look, if I hadn't thrown it at you she would never have reacted that way."

"Maybe, but that isn't permanent. That wouldn't make any sense. How can you have a power based solely on necessity? Its impractical."

"This isn't a science, Pete. There are no rules here. You'd understand that if—"

"If what? I was super-powered? Excuse me for being normal."

We weren't getting anywhere this way, bickering about the origins of her power. The problem was, I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't back down.

"You said yourself that it starts out that way. How are we going to learn to help her if its all about life or death? Just continually throw me in front of a bus and see what happens?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't object to that."

Suddenly she jumped off her seat on the wooden fence. "SHUT UP!" She shouted so loud, I almost jumped out of my skin. I couldn't even speak.

Apparently Clark was having the same problem as he open his mouth to say something.

There was only silence.

"Did I just—?" She asked herself aloud. "Did I—?" Neither of us answered because we couldn't.

Very quietly she whispered something I couldn't hear.

Clark coughed repeatedly "How did you do that?" He rubbed at his throat puzzled.

"I dunno." She was as surprised as any of us. "All I did was say it."

I clapped my hands together and pointed at myself to grab her attention. "Oh right. Sorry Pete."

She stalled for a moment to get her bearings, then merely commanded me. "Speak."

"Ha! I told you it had nothing to do with necessity." My voice was raw, but I ignored it, feeling like I was close to the answer.

"That was her mind control power which has its own set of activations. Obviously she already has a handle on it, because it's not a complex ability. At least not like telekinesis."

"How do we know that?"

"She can tell us to do whatever she wants, it doesn't have anything to do with stress or necessity. Unlike the other power which is dependent on it."

"And you base that on what? One trial run?"

"Guys, would you stop it already? If you keep this up I'm going to have to strip your speaking privileges for the remainder of the day." She became silent. "How crazy is it that I can do that?" She walked away back to the house and we followed after her.

"It is pretty awesome." He flashed her a big grin.

Realization hitting me, I came to a halt. "Wait…all you did was say it?"

He rolled his eyes at me and continued on. "Oh Jeez Pete, would you let it go?"

"Shut up, I wasn't talking to you." Clark was seriously starting to get on my nerves.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Except you just asked us to stop and we weren't forced into dysfunction again."

"Maybe its because she yelled it."

"No." 'you Idiot'. I struggled to control my volume. "She whispered it to you and it still worked."

"Right, it looks like I have to speak in imperatives. Like 'Go', 'Stop' or in this instance, 'Shut up'."

"So if you told me to go to hell, would I start digging into the earth?" He appended, jokingly.

"I don't think its that simple. I think it has to be a real order. Something you really will to happen."

"I haven't been consciously accessing it all the time either, which is probably why it hasn't happened before." A sly smirk formed on her face.

"Pete, run to that fence and back." I shot her an odd expression, but stuck to my spot.

"Run to the fence." Her tone sounded the same. It was no more or less fierce, yet it simply resonated in me. I was compelled to move, in way that made it difficult to discern my own intended actions and her induced ones.

At the railing, only a few yards away I remained, reporting the new development. "The spell ends once you complete the task. So that's good."

"Depends what the task is." Clark and Chloe walked back now closer together, arms interlocked.

She called over her shoulder to me. "Come on back!"

I hurried over, of my own volition…I think.

PT. 2

Clark stretched his legs out under the table. "What I really don't understand is how she got two gifts." It was weird, but Clark and I hadn't had a moment to talk alone all day. Chloe was up front ordering some cappuccino concoction, out of earshot. There were a considerable number of people waiting before her, giving us the perfect opportunity to talk. I never could explain why but Thursday nights at the Talon were always jam-packed.

"Its probably two different mutations. The girl's been exposed to more meteor than Crater Lake." I drank a bit out of my water bottle, which I brought along from the house. I was trying to be economical and health conscious or I'd be facing my freshman ten all over again.

"Two infections. That might explain why they're developing independently." He paused to acknowledge Chloe's approach. "Moira was holding her back so long, we have no way of knowing when she got them."

"Could this be anymore hard?"

"Or more terrifying." He added just as she walked up to us, placing her coffee down and eyeing us both questioningly.

Immediately aware of what the subject was, she popped in, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table next to Clark. "Personally, I find this all slightly poetic. The curator of the Wall of Weird is herself belonging to it." She offered a smile to lighten the glum mood. Clark and I gave her frustrated looks; we hated when she acted like this was nothing. It wasn't funny. Not at all. "What? Did I mistakenly sit down next to the black hole of humor or something?"

"No, nothing." She read us both in an instant.

"Guys." She sighed. "I know it bothers you when I joke about these things, but what else do you expect me to do?" Neither of us could meet her eyes. Two cowardly men we are. "Sit around all day and feel sorry about myself? I've never acted like the victim before, I'm certainly not going to start now."

She cleared her throat, marking the shift of direction. "So what're we doing tomorrow?"

"We were thinking that since we only have to focus on the…" I took in the room, watching to see if anyone was listening. "Is this the best place to be having this conversation?"

"This is Smallville Pete, who isn't talking about meteor-powers these days?"

"Okay…" I continued to be dubious, but the super-friends seemed to believe it was all right. "You know how to access the mind…thing so we're going to move on to the other…thing."

Clark chuckled. "Eloquently put." Then a skinny brunette unexpectedly barged up to us, pretty with long brown hair and blonde highlights tied up in a straight ponytail. Coffee tray in one hand and the other on her hip, I could sense already that she was not having a good day or possibly even a good year.

"You, call your mom." She pointed directly at Clark. "She's been wondering where you are." That was odd, considering that Smallville girls were never raised to be that direct and brazen. This was a leap farther than Chloe, who only really acted that way when she had her nose to the ground, following the path of a story. I knew that Mrs. Kent still owned the place, but I found it strange that she'd enlist her workers to pass on her messages, especially the really disgruntled ones.

"Lois!" Chloe hopped up and hugged her. Lois the partying cousin from Metropolis, right.

"Hey cuz." She patted her back and released her smaller cousin. "You didn't tell me you were in town." There was a genuine tone in her words separate from the feeling she presented to others.

"I'm not. Not for long anyway." She ran a hand through her own hair. "I'm heading back soon." Lie. Which was wise, we didn't want to invite any unwanted questions. From what I've heard about Lois, she was tenacious in the uncomfortable way. Not to mention incapable of holding a job. Apparently, she was fired for lack of delivery and story theft; crimes even the Inquisitor looked down upon.

Noticing me finally, she nodded in my direction. "Who's your little friend?" Little? I'm 5' 10! Out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw Clark smile.

Either way, I rose from my seat and outstretched my hand to her because it was the right thing to do. Not punch her in the face. That would be the very very wrong thing. "Pete Ross. Nice to meet you."

"Too bad you have no babies to kiss." Clark jabbed, but all of us refused to recognize him.

Shaking my hand strongly in return, she introduced herself. "Lois Lane. And back at cha." I pulled my hand back and positioned myself by Chloe's side.

"You know Pete, he went to high school with me." Chloe continued, in hopes of igniting her taller counterpart's memory.

"Is he the doofy kid who kissed you in the elevator?" Silence.

"Lois!" I would have hung my head if I had any motor function at the moment. Wait… nope, nothing.

"What? I always thought that story was funny."

"A laugh riot." I half-smiled, hard a feat as it was. 'It is WRONG to hit girls. You can not hit a girl.'

I lifted my coat that had been lying on the seat and folded it over my forearm. "Like I said, it was nice meeting you Lois." I walked around the two girls, Chloe watching me with concern. "I'll see you two back at the farm."

Each step was as painful as the next, reminding me that I was salvaging what modicum of dignity I had left.

Pushing the door open with one hand I caught Chloe's voice before it closed. "What the hell is your problem, Lois? Come on Clark, we're leaving."

I wasn't even half way down the street when they caught up with me.

Chloe's eyes shone with sympathy and the slightest ounce of fear. The same expression I saw the next time I ran into her after that incident "I'm so sorry, Pete. She's really not that bad all the time."

"Yes she is." Grinning to cheer me up, he patted me on the back. "It doesn't get better in time either."

Instead of defending her cousin, Chloe remained silent, which I greatly appreciated. I loved that she was loyal to me that way. They both were.

"I hope you left her a lousy tip." I was joking of course, since we never tipped well in all our years at the Talon. We were kids on short allowances. Now we were college kids on even shorter self-budgeted ones.

"20." Clark answered nonchalantly.

"What?" Why in the world would Clark tip her?

We all stopped to hear his explanation. "It's towards the charity closest to my heart." Chloe and I both bewildered, waited for the punch line hidden in that.

"The Get Lois Out of Kansas Fund." She quirked her brow at me. Crash and Burn, Clark…Crash and Burn.

She started down the road first, crossing the street to where the truck was parked. "I think you were definitely funnier when you were a zombie." We laughed heartily together, at his expense.

"Clark, funny? Can you imagine that?" Chloe moved next to me after I caught up, running her arm around my waist.

"Never in a million years." She rested her head against my shoulder. I was so wrapped up in what was going on between us I didn't even realize that Clark had disappeared.

Chloe was no doubt the first to notice. "Clark?" We both turned, breaking away from one another. We were ready and alert for anything that may happen.

Except…Clark jumped out behind a car, scaring us. He made for Chlo, lifting her with his shoulders, so that she hung there, struggling against him. Her legs out front and her head hoisted up behind him. Deep inside me, a bit of anger stirred, because I knew his stunt was not as innocent as it looked. He had physically ripped her away from me.

"Put me down!" She screamed and resisted all the way to the Kent truck, creating a scene so ridiculous it won more than a few heads turning in our midst.

I fell behind, doing my best to separate myself from their association. Gaze focused upwards, I spoke directly to the heavens.

I wanted to say something comedic like, 'Why Me?' or 'Way to go'. The words didn't form, because though Chloe and Clark were quirky and downright extraterrestrial at times they were still my friends. We have issues that went deep into our past engraved into everything we've become. Even so they would do anything for me, like I was doing for them now.

Maybe I didn't know what else to say…but it was simple. And sometimes, simple worked just fine.

"Thanks."

Part 1- She
FINIS