Disclaimer: Same as previous chapters.

Chapter 3

Andrew and Buffy waited until Lex had gone to sleep and left the mansion.

"Wow," Buffy said, "Umm, why are we doing this at night? I mean I understand with the Luthors but we could've waited until morning."

"No," Gol'Tok said, "I was uneasy before with both Luthors and Andrew was worse, he was very nervous and we have to work quickly."

Andrew slipped on the ribbon device and said, "Umm, Gol'Tok says that it can act as a scanner so I'm going to use it to use locate the meteor rocks we are searching for and, hopefully, I don't blow something out."

As they walked through the fields Andrew held his hand out, scanning for pieces with Buffy holding a flash light and muttering, "We better not find any cow pies."

"Yeah," Andrew crinkled his nose as the device started to beep and smiled, "I think we found a rock."

Andrew picked it up, looked at it and frowned, "It looks alright but how could this stuff be useful to us?"

Gol'Tok took control and waved the device over it and smiled widely, "The mineral is highly energetic but there is radiation, it isn't dangerous with brief exposure but I can protect you against it."

"Umm, let's get out of here," Buffy said, "I think we're kinda trespassing."

"Yeah," Andrew said as he put the rock in a bag and picked up a few more rock as they began to walk until Andrew froze, "Umm, do we know where we're going?"

"I was following you," Buffy said, "Don't you know where we are?"

"Gol'Tok was in control," Andrew said with a bit of a pout.

'Don't blame me Andrew,' Gol'Tok huffed internally.

"Well, let's get going," Buffy frowned as they walked in the relative direction of town and kept walking.

A few hours later it was evident they were lost, Andrew looked at a map they had brought along and frowned, "It's getting light out Buffy."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Buffy said, "We could've gone out at dawn but no, you were freaked out by the Luthors."

"Well excuse me," Andrew said, "I never expected to meet the Luthors. Last year at this time I was arguing with Jonathon over the merits of Dr Who and Star Trek."

"Eh," Buffy said, "Life doesn't always go the way you plan it, does it? One moment you're normal and the next."

Andrew laughed, "You get a foot long parasitic worm living in your head."

"We're doomed Andrew," Buffy said, "And Gol made it worse, now I know we won't have a normal life."

Andrew snickered as they walked when Buffy smiled, "Cool, there's a farm over there."

"This is kinda like Dawn of the Dead," Andrew frowned, "I should stop watching zombie movies."

"Indeed, you have nightmares," Gol'Tok said, "And stop eating spicy food before bedtime, I'm the one that suffers you know?"

"Wow," Buffy laughed, "I love how you get into arguments with yourself Andrew, it really bodes well."

As they got to the yard Andrew noticed that someone was there, he waved at the man and said, "Umm, hello there?"

The man looked at him and said, "Hello son, can I help you?"

"Yeah, hi, I'm Andrew Wells and this Buffy Summers; we're kinda of lost and need to use a phone."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Jonathon Kent."

"Hello Mr Kent," Andrew said, "So about that phone? We need to get to Metropolis."

"Sure Mr Wells," Jonathon said as he looked at the large bag that Andrew placed outside and asked, "What's in the bag?"

"Oh, umm, Meteor rocks," Andrew said, "I've been up all night collecting them."

Buffy noticed the sudden change in Mr Kent's behaviour; he seemed to be a bit more guarded now and regarded Andrew suspiciously and said, "Now why are you collecting meteor rocks?"

Gol'Tok took over and said, "The rocks have been a hobby of mine since I found out about them some time ago, I've heard rumours to the effect that they are dangerous and I fancy myself as a scientist."

"And besides," Buffy said, "We're going back to LA tonight, right Andrew?"

Andrew nodded and as he went inside he frowned; they had to get cell phones, he had a company now and he really needed one for himself and Buffy.

Buffy sat outside with Jonathon, who regarded her suspiciously still while she shot him a sunny smile and Jonathon frowned deeply and said, "Why aren't you two in school?"

"Oh, umm, yeah, we got our GED's," Buffy said."

Andrew walked out and said, "Okay, got a bus ride to Metropolis then we can get back to LA within a couple of hours, we just need a ride to Smallville."

"I'll give you a ride," Jonathon frowned, "If you want to wait for a bit?"

Andrew nodded and went to pick up the bag of meteor rocks, Jonathon said, "Not in my house son, please."

"Oh, umm, alright," Andrew said as he went inside and sat down.

Andrew calmed down as he talked to Gol'Tok about the potential of the technology they could use with these meteor rocks as the mineral was highly energetic but Andrew was a bit nervous about the radiation from the rock but Gol'Tok was sure they could use it safely. Andrew was thinking of power cells using the energy from the stone, rather than the stone itself, without the radiation itself, that would be the best idea as they might be to leech the energy itself from the stone without the radioactive properties. Gol'Tok agreed that it would be the best way and they'd be able to make the mineral last longer.

Buffy walked in and said, "Wow, Mr Kent has a pretty mean glare."

"Maybe," Andrew said, "He knows the stones are radioactive, I mean they are but you aren't hurt by them, right?"

"Nope, hair isn't falling out and my lips aren't cracking, are they?" Buffy laughed, "And besides, from what Gol said, you get it from prolonged exposure."

"Indeed Ms Summers; prolonged exposure would be needed and you would have to be in close proximity with the mineral for a long time, but without Naquadah this mineral is our best option to begin to use Goa'uld like technology," Gol'Tok said regretfully.

"Are we sure that the Naquadah was completely mined off of Earth?" Buffy whispered, "I mean couldn't the Goa'uld have missed something?"

"Not bloody likely," Gol'Tok whispered back, "The Goa'uld can sense it, we can smell it at times and it is in our blood so there is no way that we could miss any scrap of Naquadah."

"Eww!" Buffy frowned, "But can the Meteor rocks help?"

"In the long run they'll help, once we find a safe way to use it," Gol'Tok sighed, "And hopefully that won't take too long."

Jonathon came in and said, "So Mr Wells, you look familiar, have we met before?"

"Nope," Andrew said, "I've never left the west coast."

"Hmm," Jonathon said, "But still, you got quite a few of those rocks for some reason."

Andrew frowned, "Yeah, I'm doing some tests on them when we get them home, I have some theories to test out about them."

"Oh?" Jonathon said, "Not planning on building a bomb are you?"

Gol'Tok suddenly answered, "Not yet Mr Kent, not yet but soon."

Andrew covered his mouth and sent a mental glare to Gol'Tok; he felt a mental shrug from the Tok'ra and Andrew sighed, "Sorry Mr Kent, I'm not building a bomb."

Jonathon looked at him and said, "Son, are you alright? You seem a bit out there."

"Yeah," Andrew said smiling, "We just had a bad night, right Buffy?"

"Yes," Buffy rolled her eyes, "Just because you didn't want to talk to Lex, Andrew. I know he creeps you out."

"Well anyways," Andrew said quietly, "It was kind of freaky that the both of them knew me, I mean we've been in business for only three months."

Jonathon stared, "Are you in bed with the Luthors? And tell me the truth."

"You mean literally?" Andrew said, "Not even, I'm underage and Lionel's old enough to be my dad, so eww!"

"No," Jonathon said as he turned red in the face.

Buffy said, "Umm, the Luthors want a piece of our company that we just founded, they seem interested in the material that we make the body armour out of."

"Wait," Jonathon said holding his hand up, "You have your own company? Was it left to you?"

Gol'Tok suddenly answered and said, "No Mr Kent, Prime Defence Mechanics was found by myself and Ms Summers several months ago, our first product came out three months and we have several contracts with law enforcements."

"Oh, umm, well," Jonathon said, "You seem rather young to be having your own company."

Andrew muttered, "We're both seventeen, though I do turn eighteen in December."

"And I turn eighteen in January," Buffy grinned, "But yeah, we're both emancipated."

"Yeah," Andrew said, "We wanted the meteor rocks for some tests."

Jonathon regarded them a bit suspiciously and said, "No school huh?"

"No," Andrew said quietly, "GED's and everything."

"Okay, at least you two seem responsible," Jonathon said.

Before they could leave Martha came down and said, "We have guests? Jonathon, you could've waked me up, I would have made breakfast," she sat them down and said, "You'll like my pancakes."

"Martha, they're about to leave for Metropolis," Jonathon said, "I was going to give them a ride to town."

"Oh, okay," she said, "It was nice to meet you two I guess."

Jonathon ushered them out to the truck and frowned as he saw Andrew gather his rock samples and said, "You sure you want to keep those rocks? It seems a bit of waste to come out all this way for rocks."

"Yeah well," Andrew said, "I need to test them for things."

"And you're sure that you're telling me the truth about your age Mr Wells?" Jonathon said, "You look younger."

"Yeah," Andrew said almost irritated, "I'm seventeen years old, I got my ID too, see," as he flashed his California ID.

"Hmm," Jonathon said as he drove them to town.

'Jeez,' Andrew thought, 'I am so seventeen years old.'

'Yes,' Gol'Tok whispered mentally, 'Got your big boy hair and everything,' and chuckled at Andrew's outraged thoughts.

'Are you sure you're not a Goa'uld?' Andrew growled mentally, 'I mean.'

'If I was Goa'uld then I'd have been in the Slayer already,' Gol'Tok teased, 'And you are too high strung, you need a vacation damn it. Maybe we should hire more people; we got the money, maybe your friend Jonathon? I like him as he has almost as much imagination as you do Andrew.'

'Maybe,' Andrew thought, 'But still at least we avoided the Luthors, right?'

'It is a fool move to avoid them,' Gol'Tok said, 'This time was alright because you weren't ready to deal with them yet but you may have to deal with them soon and when you do you must be courageous and to find out what they're up to, you may have to be close to them but not for awhile yet.'

"Hey, wait a moment," Andrew said, "Umm Mr Kent, could I ask you something?"

"Certainly son," Jonathon said, "What do you want?"

"Umm, you know about the rocks right?" Andrew asked, "Could I ask you to collect samples of them? I mean we can pay you some money but we would need all variations, that's if you want too?"

Jonathon looked down, 'They wouldn't be at the Luthors they'd be in California, far away from Smallville and my son especially and if Chloe was right about her theories then it'd help Smallville out in the long run, wouldn't it?'

"Can I call you about that Mr Wells?" Jonathon asked, "I mean if I decided to do this?"

"Sure," Andrew said as he fished out a card with his company's name on it and handed to Jonathon.

After Jonathon dropped them off in downtown Smallville they walked into the coffee place and Andrew looked around and smiled, "Nice Egyptian thing they have here I guess."

"Yeah," Buffy said as she ordered a large cup of coffee and looked down, "Andrew, Mr Kent was like super dad or something; you notice how he talked to us?"

Andrew nodded as he ordered a latte and said, "Buffy, we're going to have to buy some new factories soon, maybe in Sunnydale? I want to make contact with Jonathon at least, anyone you want contact with?"

"Mom, Andrew," Buffy said, "I want to talk to her and Giles again at least, I mean I have friends there too so I should get into contact with them as well."

"Okay," Andrew said, "And the rocks we have, well Gol's got ideas for them to be utilized safely. He thinks, and I can't stress that enough, he thinks we can use them safely."

TBC

How should the trio's (Andrew, Gol'tok and Buffy) journey to Sunnydale go?

Andrew will recruit Jonathon as well as another Scooby member to work with him; I will leave you to guess who the mystery person is.

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