WARZONE
Chapter 1

Authors note

There are two widely know schools of thought in structuring a story. The first and most used one is what I call the slow boil. you start slowly introducing the characters and world before building to a grand final. Think Blues Brothers, its all one big set up for a massive show piece at the end. The other one is start big and keep going, don't slow down and only stop when everything is dead, a smoking crater or has been pushed to the limit. best example is Die Hard.

Guess which this is

Preceptor looked over the readings again. He was right, it was the only answer that it could possibly be. How did the fictional human put it; once you've eliminated the impossible whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the answer. The door to his lab opened

'Preceptor, what have you got for me?' Ultra Magnus asked as he came in. The tall commander of Autobot city was a busy man, even these days, but this was of vital importance and that was why he had called him down.

'I've been researching the effects of the Kryptonite meteor rocks and I've come to a discovery. The radiation field it produces negates electromagnetic waves.'

Ultra Magnus looked at the scientist for a moment. It was possible that he didn't understand the importance of such a revelation 'Sorry what does that mean?'

Preceptor agreed it was a difficult concept, even more so for him as it's repercussions broke every law he knew the universe to work on. 'Perhaps a repeat of my experiment will explain better. Please observe.' The scientist went to his console and activated the containment room. Behind twelve feet of transparent shielding a lead room lined with sensor equipment lit up. 'I am introducing raw Kryptonite into the room.' A key switch brought an insulated control armature down from a sealed section of the ceiling.

Ultra Magnus stepped up and looked through the viewing plate 'So that's the dangerous material from space?'

'Please, not so close!.' Preceptor pulled the Commander back. 'There's still the possibility the effects can penetrate the containment room.' Ultra Magnus did as he was asked

'It's that bad?'

'Worse. Observe the reaction as I introduce equal amounts of Energon.' Preceptor activated the trolly with a couple of Energon slivers on it. As they approached the green meteorite began to glow. So did the purple Energon slivers. The two objects began flickering, reacting against each other before a subdued flash of white light seemed to be sucked back into the room. A moment or two later the lights in the containment room came back on.

Both Kryptonite and Energon was gone, leaving little, transparent, crystals in the rock and two empty energon containers. 'What the Pit just happened?' Ultra Magnus barked out loud.

'That was exactly what it appeared to be. While Energon can be described as elemental energy this substance contains a previously unknown element I have named Kryptonium. In effect elemental entropy.'

'You're telling me this stuff... negates energy itself? What about solar...'

'All energy forms can be synthesised into Energon. Kryptonium effects all energy sources, fortunately the degree of it's effects can vary. Only with refined Energon is the result so spontaneous.'

'Fortunate for humanity, not ourselves! If the Decepticons go hold of this they could turn it into a weapon.' Ultra Magnus said with a note of panic.

'No, it is fortunate that the energy drain is slow. If it wasn't the town infected with this element would no doubt be a wasteland by now, that is a best case scenario. There is other evidence that points to an even greater danger. The effect on organic based energy.'

'Preceptor, you have just told me there is something that can increase entropy in the universe and suck the very Energon from us. How can anything be worse?' Ultra Magnus asked. He was a good commander and a very good warrior. Just not a man of science. The effects of Kryptonium on it cannot be predicted. However there has been recorded events of its results.'

Preceptor activated the recordings he had. Showing people utilising practically amazing powers. Many not only defying but out right braking the laws of physics. 'As we know, with enough Energon practically anything is possible. Physics, and many of the basic laws that keep this universe operating, rely on balance. As the humans are known to describe it, a Yin and a Yang. It is my belief that Kryptonium and Energon are two balancing forces in the universe. As such capable of producing exactly the same effects.

'A massive, overloading, charge of Kryptonium and an organic body reacts exactly like an Autobot running on high-grade Energon.'

'Or like Kent.' Magnus guessed

Preceptor nodded. 'Kent's people absorb solar energy at a fantastic rate and store it. He expels that energy in a various forms. Kryptonium harms him by destroying that energy.'

'So what do we do about this stuff?'

Preceptor ran it thought his processor. 'Humans are not as effected as ourselves and Kryptonians. Those people that collected the meteors also wore radioactive shielding, they should be safe. We will have to ensure that the Kryptonium is stored in lead or similar dense materials and underground.'

'I'll inform President O'Neill. Who did they get to clean the area up?'

'A human company based in the area. Luthorcorp.'

Lois took a step back. 'Okay what the hell just happened Smallville?' she pushed Clark away and cast a quick look around the barn attic room the Kansas boy practically lived in. Nope not some parallel universe, still this one.

'Shouldn't I be the one asking that? You kissed me remember?' the tall boy said

'Like hell, you kissed me.' Lois actually had no idea how they got into that situation. So when in doubt blame someone else.

Clark paced back to the steps 'No, no, no. You came up here to annoy me into feeling better about Lana and Lex. It didn't work, we argued and then you kissed me.'

'You're memory's that bad? You kissed me. Why would I kiss you?'

I don't know you're...' Clark trailed off and slowly turned to stare at the wall.

'I'm what? Come on, we're just getting started here. I'm good for another ten rounds.' Clark didn't answer, he just looked at the wall.

Lois waited for a moment 'Earth to Clark? you never actually finished that sentence' Clark spun and jumped at her, his dive would have thrown her out the window. Sure there was no love lost between them but he wouldn't try to kill her. 'whoa!' Lois shouted as instead of going down they went up. Way up.

As they flew up something tore the farm apart. It was like a giant tornado pulled the place apart in one long, painfully slow, instant. Down, far below the two of them Lois saw fencing and farm equipment roll and tumble in the tidal wave of dirt and wreckage.

'Mom!' Clark shouted and then Lois saw her. There was nothing anyone could do. Mrs Kent was going one way, the combine harvester the other. Both collided, Martha Kent's arms waving and harvester blades spinning.

Lois was glad she couldn't hear it happening or The woman's screams over the roaring sound the shockwave made. Something she could hear was Clark's anguished cry.

Looking away she saw what caused it, it wasn't just the farm that was gone.

Earlier, in the skies approaching Smallville a Luthorcorp helicopter almost screamed over cornfields that were happily unaware of what was about to happen. Inside Lionel Luthor would be the first to admit, these days, that he wasn't a nice person. He knew his ambition was a darkness, a darkness he had lost the battle with so many years ago.

Now Lex was losing the same war. It had taken the possessive force of Jor-El and it's over riding control to help brake that strangle hold. That experience, that knowledge, it made Lionel the perfect person to know what his son as facing.

Only this time around Lex wasn't content with one of the worlds biggest companies. He wanted it all. Two hours ago Lionel had finally picked his way through the corporate mess his son had set up to hide the entire research budget and then some. Failed multi million dollar experiments that only ever existed on paper to over funding small charity projects. Lex had used every trick in the book and then some to cover his tracks.

There were dead ends with dead bodies at the end of them scattered across the world. Most of them set up just to keep him busy. At last he found the centre of the web. The long since decommissioned level three. Lex's fine taste for irony must have been inherited. It had taken all of Lionel's strength not to be proud of his son.

To do so would be step back into darkness. A battle of ego and id that ego could never win. 'Can't you go any faster?'

'Sorry Mr Luthor, we're at top speed.' The pilot said back. A quick look over his shoulder Lionel saw the needle on what he guessed was a speedometer buried in the far en of the dial

Lionel shook his head and looked out the window. Something man shaped smashed out of the fertiliser plant. Only it was much bigger.

The transformer changed shape into something else. 'Oh no, Lex what have you done?'

'Mr Luthor?' the pilot asked. The something was now pointing at the town, a great magenta energy beam lanced out. Striking the town dead centre.

Lionel had seen weapons testing. He'd watched the recordings of nuclear bomb tests as they tore towns and villages apart. He'd seen photos of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the famous blasts. Even in his darkest hours he would never have sanctioned something like that.

And it was exactly that which happened to the town of Smallville Kansas when the energy beam hit. The explosion rolled towards them like a tsunami wave.

The pilot jerked the controls, 'Jesus Christ! he cried. The helicopter spun. Lionel was thrown to the side of the chopper. Out of the side window, his face mashed against it, Lionel Luthor saw the tidal wave of dirt and wreckage cover the window and then the helicopter...

A few moments before Lana Lang, now Luthor, was neck deep in trouble. Not a huge surprise, she was always in trouble at one time or another. Only this time it wasn't meteor freaks or super stalkers. It was worse. She had to find her way out of Lex's grasp somehow.

This was one problem Clark couldn't save her from. God, how useless was she? Stumbling from murder plot to kidnapping and back again always looking for the farm boy to save her. That had been the last five years of her life, disaster to disaster like some raft trapped in a storm.

She had to get out, not just of Lex's clutches but all of it, Smallville, Kansas even Clark. Last time she tried she'd been pulled back. Not again, never again. But how could she leave now? As a Luthor she had access to almost unlimited funds and almost no private life to speak of. Worst of all she knew Lex. He wouldn't just let her go. He'd fight, dirtily. He'd track her down wherever she went. Even if only for revenge.

Lana walked up to the big window behind Lex's desk. Out there was the world, a world she would lose herself in if she could. She couldn't ask anyone for help, not even Chloe. The resourceful reporter could track her down anywhere with the slightest clue and if she could Lex would be two steps either behind or ahead of her.

Lana knew the only way out was to close one chapter and start another. She might even have to die, or at least fake her own death. As she thought of that idea and realised it wasn't the best but the only way out Lana Luthor saw an incredibly bright green flash. It was so bright that she saw spots, blinking them from her eyes she was met face to face with a wall of debris and exploding glass.

Shattered, bleeding and broken Lana came to and saw the rubble and glass burying her alive. Trapped and cut badly she could feel the broken ribs in her chest moving on their own. The shooting pains from the imbedded glass jutting into her keeping her awake as the blood loss made her eyelids heavy.

Her last thought was of how, only moments after deciding to fake death, fate had taken her life.

Before that Lex looked up at the monster he had created. 'What's the matter human, second thoughts?' Galvatron gloated.

Lex shook himself into action, 'The back up system?' He asked the lead scientist. It meant detonating billions of dollars but if Luthorcorp was connected to this...

'We haven't installed it yet.' The professor panicked. he was scrambling fro the door

With one swipe the titan crushed the door. 'Not just yet flesh insect. So the unflinching Mr Luthor isn't that confident after all. A back up system, probably some crude explosive device or network to tear me apart. How predictable, but my systems would have detected anything like that.'

The Decepticon chuckled. 'I know everything you installed or rebuilt within me. With your help I am now the ultimate Decepticon. I am Galvatron.'

Lex could only watch as the experiment marched up and down. 'What have we here.' it stopped in front of the other unit. 'Another new Decepticon and a flyer too. Named Cyclonus if I'm not mistaken.' It laughed again. 'What are the chances. History does indeed repeat itself.'

'It doesn't function, we haven't finished it yet.'

'Then finish him. Your best and brightest do not impress me Luthor.'

Lex winced. 'Why would they finish it. That's still more than three million from being functional again.'

'You underestimated me, and you're making the same mistake again. Although I think you might need more of an incentive. If you don't repair my lieutenant I will level the town. Believe me I have practice in this sort of thing.'

Lex looked up and up at the giant robot. 'No, you won't do that. We built you, we know what you're capable of. I had you built powerful but you're no match for the Autobots on Earth.'

'You have no idea who I am, or what I can do. I think an abject lesson. For you and the Autobots.' Galvatron rose, Lex guessed he was kicking in his anti-gravity drive. The flying robot barged his way out of the roof and high above. Transforming into his space cannon mode Galvatron pointed himself at Smallville.

'No, don't do it!' Lex shouted up through the hole. 'Can he do it?'

The head scientist looked back. I don't know, with enough power at anyone time, against the right target, his Fusion Cannon can be as devastating as an atomic bomb. We were going to install limiters but...'

The Decepticon fired.

Lois couldn't believe she was flying. It was the only answer to how they hadn't hit the ground yet. She and Clark, Clark of all people, were floating down to the ground. She wanted to ask how he was doing it, how long he could.

It wasn't important.

In front of her eyes Smallville had been blown apart. Like someone had dropped a H-Bomb on on the place. Sometimes she might have disliked the little town but that was more than overkill. As the two of them touched down gently in what was once a field. Now it looked more like a demolished building site.

Bit's of masonry still fell down around them. 'Clark... I'm, I am sorry.' The guy had been through so much. His father's heart attack, the girl of his dreams abandoning him. Now his home gone, his mother dead in a horrible way and everything he knew gone in the same instant.

Lois expected the look on his face to be despair, anguish. After all Clark Kent without angst wasn't some thing you saw very often. Not the look he had.

Lois had seen her father mad, chewing metal and spitting bullets mad, before. It was something she never thought could be eclipsed. Clark wasn't just angry, or upset. He was practically psychotic with rage. 'What could do this?' She asked no on in particular.

'That, there.' Clark pointed a speck that was coming closer and closer.

'A transformer, what's it doing here?' She asked before wincing. 'Oh okay, that's obvious. It's a Decepticon isn't it?' the purple transformer flew away, heading for Metropolis

Clark growled back at her . 'No it's scrap.' and took off. Really took off, two fists forward after the Decepticon. Jaw on the floor Lois was stunned. She'd know him for something like two years and then he pulls this out of his hat, This was something they'd have to talk about.

Still looking up in awe at the shrinking dot that was Clark Lois totally missed the Smallville high sign falling amongst the debris and landing inches from her. Knocked off her feet it was one shock too much and the military brat did something that up until now she had no experience in.

Lois fainted.

End chapter 1

Authors note
There was a formating problem earlier I've had to fix, sorry about that.