"Sorry we had to take this detour, but I promise this will be quick."
Chloe apologized to Peter. They were inside Smallville Savings & Loan so that Chloe could deposit her latest paycheck.
"It's fine, Chloe. I'm enjoying taking my time to get somewhere for once."
Right after Chloe had made the deposit and they were headed towards the door, a shady looking man who had walked in moments before opened the door for a few guys in clown masks and made an announcement as one of the masked men stood watch.
"Ladies and gentleman, just stay where you are. We want the bank's money, not yours. Do as my friends say and no one will get hurt."
The leader went to talk to the bank manager as thug #2 began giving commands to all of the bank's occupants.
"Everyone throw your cell phones in the middle of the room. All cell phones in the middle of the room now. If anyone tries to be a hero, you'll see just how short our patience can be."
Hey Pete, you can stop time right? Why don't you do that? You could tie them all up in a neat little package before they even knew what happened.
If you remember correctly, the man I got the ability from couldn't control it. He's lost somewhere in the timestream for all I know. Messing with time is too risky. But it's not like I'm helpless without that ability.
Clark was walking toward the Smallville Savings & Loan to deposit a check he had gotten for selling several dozen artichokes to one of Smallville's wealthier families. His moment of relative peace was interrupted when he heard a gunshot come from the bank. Using his x-ray vision and super-hearing, he could see that a few thugs were trying to steal the bank's money and that one of the four had just shot one of the bank's occupants. And to top it all off, Peter and Chloe were inside. The police were nowhere in sight, so obviously the thugs had managed to disable any silent alarms. Clark called the police and decided to hang back, but kept his eyes and ears on the bank in case he needed to step in.
Are you gonna step in now, or are you gonna let someone else get shot?
I've got a plan.
The four thugs began working their way outside loading all of the money they could carry into their car out front. Using his telekinesis, he forced the last bag violently through the front door breaking the glass. The other bags followed. Everyone around was completely dumbfounded. Using the confusion to his advantage, Peter went invisible and fought all of the thugs. Without being able to see who they were fighting, Peter took them all out quickly. Seeing the police pull up, Peter quickly went back inside and became visible again. All the while, Clark was watching everything.
I knew there was something different about him. He must have a meteor ability like Chloe. Or several of them, from the looks of it.
Back inside the bank, everyone had ran out, except for Peter and Chloe, who had stayed behind to tend to the gunshot victim.
"Chloe, this guy's lost a lot of blood. The ambulance won't get him to the hospital in time. It's time you showed me your superpowers."
Chloe nodded and bent down to the floor. A flash of light emitted from her hands and within seconds, all signs of the wound were completely gone. Chloe smiled and then fell over. Peter worriedly grabbed her and tried to make sure she was okay.
"You never told me that healing others took a toll on you."
"Oh, did I forget that? Must have slipped my mind."
Peter helped her to her feet.
"So, two superpowered people go to a bank and it just happens to get robbed? How cliché is that?"
Peter laughed and they walked outside to actually talk to the police this time. Clark saw that they were okay and ran away at superspeed. He didn't know how to react to his newfound knowledge and didn't want to have to speak to either of them right now.
At the Luthor mansion, Lex was waiting urgently. Tess was able not only to get Paul Westfield to agree to work on Project: Afterlife, but he also agreed to speak with Lex right away. Just when he thought he couldn't handle the anticipation anymore, Tess and Westfield walked into his study.
"Mr. Westfield, this is-"
"Lex Luthor, I know. Ms. Mercer here has filled me in on all the details of this project, Mr. Luthor, and I must say, I'm a little insulted you didn't come to me first."
"Simon Fowler was one of Luthorcorp's top geneticists."
"Simon Fowler is an imbecile. It took him three months to produce those unstable atrocities. I can produce a perfect duplicate of Gabriel Gray in two weeks, and he'll possess all the memories and abilities he possessed up to the time of his death."
"That's a bold claim, Mr. Westfield. Are you sure you can back it up?"
"If I can't, I'll retire from my post at Cadmus Labs."
"I was hoping you'd say that. Tess, get this man anything he asks for. His feats will be legendary and I don't want the history books to say that I didn't give him everything I could to help him accomplish them."