Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville
CHAPTER TWO
00 metamorphosis 00
The next morning we went to the farmer's market, a weekly ritual we preformed in the summer, because not only was it a gathering of farmers and local craftsmen it provided a perfect opportunity to sell our fruit, but it also provided the opportunity to find who had partied too hard the night before, and as it was the night after homecoming there were many upperclassmen mysteriously absent.
Mom and Dad had banned any electronics and rude behavior, insisting I be a civil saleswoman to not scare off any potential customers. Thankfully, Chloe and Pete also came, even though neither of their parents were farmers.
"All hail the homecoming king and queen!" Chloe suddenly declared from beside me, making me look up from checking apples. There was Whitney and Lana, arm in arm, the perfect couple, excuse me while I gag.
Lana stepped forward, "Clark! I didn't see you at the dance last night."
Was she really that oblivious? Parental orders stopped me from saying something snide to the little princess, but they didn't stop me from glaring a hole in her head.
Clark hesitated, looking at Whitney, "I was… I was a little tied up." Clark finished angrily, glaring at Whitney himself.
Lana apparently was not completely oblivious as she didn't miss the look he gave her boyfriend.
Dad chose that moment to cut in, "Hey, congratulations. That was one heck of a game. I haven't seen an offence that good since I played."
I mentally face palmed at dad's complete naivety at the situation. He had barred Clark from the team, and then he went around congratulating the jock that had strung up Clark. At least that told me Clark hadn't told dad about what happened last night.
"Thank you mister Kent," said Whitney smugly, nicely covering the sound of my foot making contact with dad's shin. When he turned to me with the gall to look affronted I returned an outreaged look before looking meaningfully at Clark.
"I'm going to get the rest of the boxes out of the truck." Clark said.
"I'll help you." I said, fed up with being in this situation, but not being able to do anything about it here.
"I'll help too," I heard Whitney say, and then the sounds of him jogging to catch up with us. "Kent. You realize last night was a joke, right."
When Clark didn't answer Whitney put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him, "I need that necklace back."
That stopped me short, "Seriously? You think you can ask for anything after last night?" Was he really that arrogant? That out of touch with reality?
"I don't have it."
"Look, it's Lana's favorite so—"
"So you better go back to that cornfield and find it," finished Clark smugly.
As soon as we got out of hearing range I spoke up, "The necklace isn't in the field, I gave it to Lex while we were getting you down, he probably still has it."
I looked up to see Clark's smile, "I know."
"Oh, Clark! You make me so proud," I said, wiping a fake tear from the corner of my eye, relishing in the chuckle my dramatics had earned.
0000
Unfortunately Clark's good mood had dissipated by the end of the market, most likely by witnessing Whitney and Lana's goodbye kiss.
"Can't knock your taste in women." I turned to see Lex standing next to us. "About what happened last night—"
"It was just a stupid prank," said Clark, letting Lex grab an apple before putting the basket in the trunk.
"You were tied to a stake in the middle of a field. Even the Romans saved that for special occasions, you could have died."
"I know!" I spoke up, slightly outraged with my brother, "He hasn't even told our parents."
"I appreciate your help, I just want to forget it ever happened." Clark said suddenly.
"Yes, repression, what a wonderful coping tool," I muttered sarcastically under my breath.
"What's the hold up?"
I turned to see dad and spoke without censor, "Lex wants to know about what happened last night, I want him to tell you, and Clark just wants to repress."
"Huh?"
I groaned at the look on Clark's face and caved to the puppy dog eyes/justified outrage, it was a strange combination that only Clark could pull off. "Nothing."
"Mr. Kent, it's good to see you." Lex said charmingly, holding out his hand.
Dad shook it, "Lex," and then turned to us, "Come on, we got to finish up."
"Okay dad," we chorused.
"At least I got a handshake this time," said Lex optimistically.
Clark left, leaving me alone with Lex.
"Is that her?" he asked pointing at Lana.
"Yup, cheerleader, prettiest girl in school, tragic orphan, that's Lana Lang."
"Orphan? You put that into her description?"
I nodded, "Yeah, she lost them in the meteor shower, and her crying face got landed on the cover of Time magazine. Everyone knows what happened, just because your new in town shouldn't mean you should be left out on the gossip."
"So that's the girl he got strung up for."
"Yeah, but honestly, he'd probably do it all over again if that meant he could go on a date with her."
Lex hummed thoughtfully.
I scrutinized him, "I may not know you very well yet, but I recognize that look. Your plotting."
He smiled innocently at me.
I rolled my eyes, "I wasn't going to stop you, I just want to be kept in the loop."
"Clara!"
I turned to see dad looking at me, "Got to go, bye."
"Bye" I heard him call after me as I ran to my father.
0000
As we drove home Clark was ignoring me, undoubtedly for the slip up I had had earlier.
"Oh my god, Jonathan!" I heard mom exclaim.
I turned to see a truck on it's side on the road ahead of us , Dad immediately stopped the truck, and Clark ran out to help the driver. I ran out and followed my father to the back to helping him get the fire extinguisher when the truck exploded.
Once the flames had died down the three of us, Dad, Mom, and myself, ran forward to find Clark. He was supposedly near invincible, but his powers were coming in gradually so he might not have reached fireproof yet, so I had ample reason to be concerned.
We found Clark shielding the prone form of Whitney, he only appeared to be singed, but when Dad put his hand on Clark's shoulder he pulled away quickly, nursing his burned hand. Clark looked up, spooked, but unhurt.
"God, Clark, is this saving people thing going to become a habit?"
0000
Once Whitney had been handed off to the paramedics we were free to leave, but once we got him Clark would not stop staring at his arm.
"Whitney's gonna be alright. He's got a couple of cuts and bruises, but nothing serious."
"Too bad."
"Does he remember anything?" Clark asked, ignoring my comment.
"No, just that something smashed his truck and he woke up in the ambulance."
"You need to talk to mom, I think I really freaked her out this time."
"You also made her pretty proud, Clark."
"Yeah, not every mother can say her son pulls people from burning cars." I joked lightly.
"Something else happened this morning. When I woke up I was kind of… floating."
"Floating," Dad said, rolling to word around on his tongue.
"When I woke up I crashed. What's happening to me?"
"I honestly don't know. As soon as you start breaking the law of gravity we are definitely in uncharted territory."
I hummed, "Well you seem to be getting more powers as you age, and flying might be one of them. We can't tell anything for certain unless you do it again." Actually Clark should be able to fly eventually, but he was only fourteen, so he might not get to flying for a while yet.
"I just wish it would stop, why don't you get any of the weird powers?" He asked, turning to me.
I just smiled, "Stop whining, you just came unscathed out of an explosion. I have to catch the bus or I will be late for school, but if you miss it you can just zip over there in an instant. You have gifts, and you have no problem taking advantage of them when you need them. Considering your propensity for trouble, you just might need to fly some day."
"Did you just use propensity in a sentence?"
I looked at him disbelievingly, "That's what you got out of that?" I watched him crack an almost-smile and rolled my eyes, "Never mind I'm going to my workshop, I got a lot of orders today, apparently some of the jocks are having computer issues." I stormed off, leaving the two on the porch.
I had better things to do than to listen to Clark mope.
0000
The next day Clark and I went to the Luthor mansion to deliver the produce Lex had ordered, thankfully he had seemed to get over his bad mood so the ride there wasn't filled with uncomfortable silence, just the regular kind. The guards at the gate let us in easily, so I suspected that Lex had given them the order to give us access. One of the maids was kind enough to direct us to a room we could wait for Lex in, and I was pleased to find a diagram for the battle of Troy.
I always enjoyed a chance to quiz Clark.
"Do you remember how the Trojan war began?"
Clark sighed, "There was a golden apple right?" I nodded helpfully, "It was sent to this prince by Eris who wasn't invited to the Trojan prince's ball. It was addressed to the fairest, so the goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and uh…"
"Hera."
"They were all trying to get the prince to give it to them, so Athena the goddess of war promised victories in battles, Hera the consort of Zeus promised him principal power over the earth, and Aphrodite the goddess of love promised him the most beautiful girl in the world."
"And he chose…" I left it open.
"Aphrodite," supplied Lex, surprising us.
"Even though the most beautiful woman in the world was already married, to a Spartan King." I continued.
"Thus starting the Trojan War." Finished Clark tiredly.
"You covering the Trojan War in English?" asked Lex.
"Not yet, but I saw your model and I couldn't help but test to see if Clark managed to remember any mythology." I said helpfully.
"You've already covered Greek and Roman Mythology in school," Lex asked surprised, I don't know why, it was a fascinating subject.
"No," Clark all but groaned, "But when we were eight Clara found a book on it and took the opportunity to pound as much as she could into my head."
I pouted, "I don't know what your complaining about, learning is fun!"
"So you say."
"So anyway, I heard that you saved that Whitney Fordman's kids life. You keep this up and you could make a career out of it." Lex said, smiling.
"Or get put on the sheriff's radar for being at so many crime scenes." I supplied.
"We're just dropping off your produce. Sorry our parents gave you a hard time."
"Ah, if push came to shove I would have arm-wrestled them or it." I smiled at the millionaire, happy he could brush off my father being so uncharacteristically rude. "Speaking of your parents have you told them about what happened before the dance?"
Clark groaned, "Will you two just drop it? I'm tired of hearing about it already." He glared at us until we nodded contritely.
"Planning an invasion?" Clark asked to break the uncomfortable silence.
"My father gave this to me when I was nine."
"Cool gift."
"It wasn't a gift. It was a strategy tool." Lex said derisively, but I couldn't help but think I would have loved a model of the battle of troy when I was nine, or at least when my parents thought I was nine.
Clark huffed, "Wow, I still think Clara was worse."
I slapped him in the stomach, "I'm not that bad."
Clark turned to Lex, "When she learned about how much money America owes China, she decided that we need to learn their language, or some of them anyway."
"And I got you to conversational in Mandarin and Cantonese, so I don't see why you're complaining. Although we haven't reviewed it in a while, remind me to double check your characters." Clark groaned dramatically. I turned to Lex, to find him amused at our antics, "So why a battle?"
"My father equates business with war. Take the battle of Troy, it started because two men were in love with the same women. Kind of like you and the quarterback, that is why he strung you up, right?"
"I thought we weren't going to talk about this anymore. Besides, if we're at war Whitney's pretty much won."
"You lost one battle, that's all. Besides, I don't believe Lana's as infatuated as you think." That was interesting, as far as I knew the golden couple were solid. Did I miss something?
"He's captain of the football team. The whole town treats him like a god. Game over."
"If you hadn't pulled him out of that truck, your problems would be solved,"Lex said, walking away from the model. He turned back to look at Clark's expression, "I'm kidding of course."
"You have a dark sense of humor," I said thoughtfully, "But I like it."
"Don't worry Clark, I've got your Trojan horse." Lex declared, walking over to the mantle and picking up an old fashioned metal box. He opened it to reveal Lana's necklace. Clark flinched as the effects hit him, backing away slightly.
"Clark, you okay?"
I reached forward and plucked the box from Lex's hand, "I told you Clark has a rather violent reaction to the radiation in the green meteor rocks."
Lex's face immediately turned apologetic, "I'm sorry, I forgot."
"I'm fine." Clark asserted.
"Sure you are," I shrugged at Lex, "You didn't mean to hurt him," I turned and waved the closed box in Clark's face, noticing no negative reaction, "This box is blocking the radiation, is it made of lead?"
Lex nodded, "Yeah, my mother bought it in a Casbah in Moraco. The guy told her it was made of the armor of Saint George… patron saint of Boy Scouts. She gave it to me before she died. Think she was trying to send me a message." He shrugged, handing it to Clark.
"I can't take that," Clark said, walking away, and I shook my head in agreement.
"What is it about Kent's and gifts? It's yours, hand it to Lana tell her what happened. Trust me, once she opens it, you'll win her heart. The necklace gives you the power Clark. All you gotta do is use it." Clark took the box and started walking out.
"Go ahead, wait at the car, I'll be there shortly." I called to him before turning to Lex. "Are you really that clueless or are you trying to send a message?" I asked angrily.
"What?"
His confusion seemed genuine and I realized that maybe he had never had a real friend before, I sighed before continuing, "The problem with Clark accepting that gift has nothing to do with money!"
"So what was the problem?"
"Friendships have to be equal, if one party has more invested than the other than they tend to fall apart. You just shared a story from your childhood, and so did we, but you also gave Clark a gift. A gift given to you from your mother before she died, that has a lot of sentimental value, and to keep the relationship healthy he has to give something too. We don't have anything from our parents to give you!" I groaned smoothing back the bangs that had fallen from my braid.
"Oh."
I worried my lip before coming up with an idea, "Okay, come by the house sometime and I'll show you around. Both Clark and I have private places filled with personal objects. We might not be able to give you something, but that doesn't mean you can't have a look around."
"Both of you? But I didn't get you anything."
That made me smile, "You're helping Clark out with Lana, that means I have to sit through less longing stares and disappointed sighs, you are giving me plenty."
I left him cheerily, happy to have found a solution to the temporary bump in our friendship.
I explained my plan to Clark on the ride back, and suggested he show Lex his telescope.
I already had a plan for something to show Lex, and I hope he liked it.
0000
That night I was interrupted while restoring the project I wanted to show Lex by my Father. Apparently there had been an incident in the barn.
I was staring in horror at the damage Clark had done the blades, knowing that was going to be a pain to fix.
"I never saw anybody move like that. He came right off the ceiling. It was almost as if he—" Dad told mom who was fussing over him.
"Wasn't entirely human?" Clark finished, " I saw his face. I think it was Greg Atkin."
That shocked me from my horror, "Greg? I remember him, obsessed with bugs. I mean entomology is interesting and all but he really went all the way."
"I haven't that name in a long time. Pete and the two of you used to hang out with him in grade school." Mom said.
"Why would he want to hurt you?" Dad asked.
"I don't know." Clark said, and they turned to me.
"I don't know either!" I said indignantly.
"Are you still friends?" asked mom.
"I pass him in the halls."
"I don't see him much either."
"I remember his mother used to keep him on a short leash, but I can't believe he'd hurt a fly."
"Of course he wouldn't, he'd probably capture it and keep it in his room with all his other pets." I said lightly.
"Kids just don't leap off the ceiling and attack people." Said dad.
Clark turned on his flashlight and pointed it on the ceiling, "How do you explain that?" he asked, illuminating the slimy green footprints.
"I don't know, seems kind of out there."
"Oh, this coming from a man who's been hiding a spaceship in his storm cellar for the last twelve years." Quipped Mom.
I looked warily from the footprints to the damaged farm equipment and sighed, "I'll call Chloe, Greg works at the torch and she can start digging on all the strange behavior he's been exhibiting."
"Can't do it yourself?" Clark called down to me.
"I'm busy! I have to fix this stupid piece of junk and test out those solar panels before you can put them on the house."
"Solar panels?" Dad called.
"They'll save money on the electricity bill, so don't argue!" I called off angrily, the men in this family were so stubborn every time I wanted to improve something around the farm.
They wouldn't even let me near the tractor on my own, they were absolutely ridiculous.
0000
The next afternoon Chloe had something on Greg Atkin so we gathered at the Torch to converge.
"I found an article on these Amazonian tribesmen who took on the traits of the insects they had been bitten by. But nothing as extreme as Greg's. You have any luck?" Chloe asked, turning to us, where Clark was sitting at the computer and I was sitting next to him trying not to pass out.
"Only that Greg didn't move to Smallville until after the meteor shower. He wasn't exposed."
"What about his tree house, it was near an impact point and he used to live there as a kid," I said, trying unsuccessful to hide a yawn, I had had to work through the night and I was exhausted. "He could have gotten effected by long term exposure."
"Yeah and what about his bugs?" Chloe asked, excitement brewing, "They were probably exposed. Think about it. Pieces of that meteor are still buried all over Smallville. The whole habitat's infected, so when boy catches bugs and bugs bite boy you get bug-boy."
"Makes sense," I said shrugging, "Or Smallville sense anyway."
"You two, you can't even walk out your door in the summer without being bitten by a mosquito. Why don't we have a whole town of 'bug-people'?"
"Uh, because, you need a high level of toxins to cause mutation. These Amazonian tribesmen were all attacked ny swarms."
"And we all know that Greg kept swarms of bugs in his room." I said dryly.
"Maybe they got sick of the view and staged a revolt," said Clark semi-serious.
"Well according to this bug's have a short life cycle. So if he really has gone Kafka lets hope he isn't in the mating phase."
"Or the eating one." I murmured half-asleep.
0000
That afternoon, after school Clark, Chloe, Pete, and I went to check out Greg's house.
"Doesn't look like anyone's home." Chloe said looking through the window.
"Or that anyone's cleaned," I muttered, grimacing at the grime on the window.
"Your right, Clara. The place is a mess. Remember what a neat freak his mom was?" Pete said turning to us.
"Yeah, she used to make us take off our shoes. One time I forgot and she yelled at me." Clark said.
"Is that what broke up the friendship?" asked Chloe.
"After seventh grade Greg's parents got divorced and he just stopped calling after that."
"Which sucked. Cause he had a killer tree fort his dad built in the woods," said Pete.
"It was okay."
I yawned, "I preferred the library."
Pete shot me a look, "Of course you did. Clark never liked it either. He used to get dizzy just walking over there."
"How come?"
It was because of the meteor rocks that littered that area, but Clark never wanted me to talk about it.
"He was afraid of heights." That too.
"It wasn't structurally sound," Clark defended.
"Sure it wasn't," I said smiling.
"You guys come here!" Chloe cried, pushing open the window.
It looked like a mess from outside, but it was even worse on the inside. The house was trashed, with muddy hand prints on the walls and the thermometer at 103 degrees Fahrenheit. It was what we found in the bathroom that was really disturbing. It appeared to be bits of skin, torn off and discarded like cellophane.
"Oh, man that's disgusting. What is it?" asked Pete, snapping a picture.
I bent down and picked up a scarp, "It's skin, he must be molting." I threw it down, thoroughly disgusted.
"You guys better come in here."
Greg's bedroom was covered in webs, like a cobweb but bigger and thicker, and playing on there was footage of none other than Lana Lang.
"Your not the only one with the hots for Lane," said Pete, gesturing at the tv.
"I think Greg's found his mate."
A thought struck me and I started searching the room, under the bed, next to the dresser, anywhere big enough.
"What are you looking for Clara?" asked Clark.
I grimaced but answered, "Most insects follow the same pattern, they eat, then they molt, then they mate. He's already molted, so that means that he's eaten. Some insects, and most arthropods, spiders," I elaborated at Pete's confused look, "Leave the corpse nearby, and as awful as the thought is. Don't you think Mrs. Atkin would just die before letting the house get to such a state? And from the looks of it," I said going over to what appeared to be a cocoon hanging from the ceiling, ripping it open, "She did." I finished, gesturing at the shriveled corpse of Mrs. Atkin. I stepped back from the cocoon, and place a hand over my mouth and nose in an attempt to block the smell that had escaped when I opened the cocoon, it was putrid. "Did you know the Farrow spider, that after it hatches, it kills it's mother?"
"Let's call the police." Said Chloe, her voice muffled by the hand covering her mouth and nose.
"I'm going to wait outside," I said turning to Clark, only to find he had disappeared, most likely after Lana. I sighed, and then instantly regretted it as the smell of rotting meat filled my mouth.
0000
That night, after the police had let us go and Greg Atkin had been neutralized, there was a visitor on the Kent farm. I was testing my solar panel at the time, pleased to find it operational, but disappointed that it didn't seem to be converting as much energy as it should. I would have to go over the designs to find the flaw.
I was alerted to this by some knocking on my workshop's door, I wasn't inside, but I could hear them from the roof. I crawled over the shingles from where I had installed the prototype for my Solar panel to see the heads of my brother and Lex Luthor.
"About time you came over!" I cried, before jumping off the roof and onto Clark, who as expected, caught me easily. "I want to show you Fido!" I declared before jumping down off Clark and rushing inside, leaving the door open in an invitation to follow me.
"Fido?"
I ran past the couch and reached under the desk, "You know how most kids at some point wanted a dog? I did too, but when I was six the adoption was too fresh for me to feel comfortable asking for things, so one night I snuck out to the scrapyard and brought some stuff home. Mom and Dad were so worried when they noticed I was missing, they thought I had ran away, they called the police, there was a manhunt and an amber alert, it was a whole thing, so they were surprised when I came back two days later carrying Fido."
"And Fido is…?"
I grabbed Fido and brought him up for viewing, he was obviously made of a culmination of metals, haphazardly welded together, expected because I had used an old gas grill in the absence of proper tools. He was dog shaped, with defined eyes, ears, and a nose. I smiled at the billionaire, "I was one of those kids with more brains than I knew what to do with, so instead of asking for a dog, I built one." I set Fido down on the counter and pressed the button on it's back, at first nothing happened, but then the dog's eyes lit up, it's tail waved jerkily back and forth and it's jaw opened releasing a staticy bark. Then the dog's legs began to jerkily move, carrying it slowly across the counter.
"How old were you when you made this?"
"Six." Said Clark from behind him, having opted to not enter the controlled chaos of my space.
"Six," Lex repeated with a raised eyebrow and a disbelieving tone, and then he looked from me to the robot and back again, before smiling, "Clara Kent, you are one of a kind."
I beamed.