Smallville Redux

Chapter 10

AN: Hello all, it's been a while. Firstly happy holidays to all of you and I wish you well in the new year. Now as always thanks to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited.

NOTICE: I've changed the timeline back to Smallville's original timeline which was 2001 but I have changed the world where a few elements from up to 2009 were released earlier. Honestly this is mostly because I was finding some difficulties with looking at the characters as Gen Z as opposed to Millennials. This is a shorter chapter but I wanted to get something out to you guys before Christmas. This is also the last chapter before I start up season two and while short it does help me establish a few things. Anyway that's all I have for now so here is the new chapter.

Start Now:

Clark was enjoying his summer, at least the latter half where he wasn't suspended in a learning crystal. The Daily Planet Internship Program, while not a long one as it lasted only a few weeks had been an interesting experience and with Chloe and Lois also part of it along with him they had definitely had an impact on how it would turn out. While most of the participants were going in to learn the trio hadn't settled for just that, instead putting their own spin on things. With Cloe and Lois already having a rather substantial social media following they'd been able to convince the Planet's Editor on the merits of going digital early. Chloe and Lois hit the place like a whirlwind or a pair of pit bulls impressing many with their tenacity and instincts as a consequence.

Clark had managed to come off as far less fiery than the girls but the quiet intensity he displayed had not gone unnoticed. Many had commended him for not just his work ethic but on his ability to rein in the two girls. One thing that had surprised him was they were sent to cover the Innovation Summit, an event that hosted scientists to show their projects and also doubled as something of a job fair. Because of this it was no surprise that many companies including Big Tech giants sent representatives looking to recruit.

"This place is like Comic Con for science." Said Lois as they wandered around the Metropolis Convention Center.

"Well at least as far as tech is concerned." Said Chloe.

"It's not just tech, there's a wide range of subjects covered here. Botany, Astronomy, Geology, Oceanology, Biology, Chemistry, you name it there's people covering it." Said Clark.

"Sounds like you know a lot about the event Kent." Spoke an older man with them.

The man was Toby McCarthy, an actual reporter for the Daily Planet. He wasn't actually old as he was only in his mid-twenties and didn't even mind that four kids had been tagged with him and his photographer Laura Owen.

"I came with my dad two years ago." Said Clark.

"Really, so where do you suggest we start?" questioned Laura.

"I'd suggest Hall A." came a new, familiar voice getting Clark to shake his head smiling.

"Lex." Said Clark as the Luthor scion approached them.

"You must enjoy those surprise appearances of yours." Said Lois.

"Didn't expect to see you here today. Thought you were too busy." Said Clark.

"I was, I'm still in classes. Then I found out that this year there would be quite the guest list." Said Lex

"Well I know a couple of names caught my interests but knowing you we mean different people." Said Clark.

"How exactly does he know Lex Luthor?" questioned Toby quietly to Chloe.

"Clark saved his life. Lex's car went over a bridge and Clark pulled him out. They've been friends ever since." Said Chloe

"Even after the article you two did?"

"Lex hates Lionel, besides Clark told him before the story dropped." Said Chloe

Before long they had entered Hall A, which was a big room meant for presentations, which was obvious as there was only a stage and tier seating. While they had to split from Lex the group was able to get some quality seats thanks to their press passes and found themselves seated in the front row on the left side of the stage. The first presentation was from Dr. Nicholas Rees, whose presentation was on a type of body armor, something outside of the bulletproof vests that were already worn by cops and the military. It was an intriguing concept but without anything to show with his presentation Clark could tell most in the room weren't taking him seriously. Clark made a mental note to remember the man, he could after all make a valuable ally in the near future.

The next person to be introduced was Dr. Dexter Fitzgerald representing STAR Labs. A bit of a hush came over the room at the announcement as since the death of Harrison Wells was announced the future of the company had been in a state of limbo. That was to be expected considering that Wells had not only been murdered but been the victim of identity theft. That particular part of the story had spawned a whole spew of articles and segments in the news world while the scientific community had also had many discussions about how such a thing was possible.

"Good morning, it's no secret STAR Labs has been hit hard recently thanks largely to the murder of Dr. Harrison Wells or rather the man who presented himself in the role. While I cannot speak on that what I can say is that STAR Labs does indeed have a future. Those of us who knew Harrison know that it was his firm belief that they key to our worlds future would be in energy and the particle accelerator was his means of providing a bridge to that future. For this reason it has been decided that in honor of the real Harrison Wells we will continue with his vision and complete building the particle accelerator that he designed. The plans have already been looked over to determine whether any nefarious changes were made by the identity thief. Following the plans and its guidelines, if we have no setbacks we are looking at a launch date of late 2013 or early 2014."

There was an applause at this, Clark knew that the Accelerator had been a largely debated topic, specifically the location it was being built at, but this was due more to honoring the legacy of who many considered a brilliant man and not letting his dream die. The next presentation was one he didn't much care for considering it was concerning social media which he honestly felt was a waste of time. Still he was there to work and as such settled in to listen.

Lana had adapted to living on the Kent Farm rather quickly and easily. She had taken over Clarks old room while Clark had moved into the attack for the time being. Already they'd begun building an extension of the house Lana would be getting a full bathroom added to the room while Clarks new room would be built with the same addition. They'd been surprised when Lex had volunteered to pay for the extension, reminding the Kent's that Jonathan had made Clark return the truck so he still felt indebted, and this was a rather small way thank Clark for saving his life. The Kent's were also acting as the custodians of the Potter Ranch and while the house itself was being rented out Lana still had access to the horses and there was still a staff on hand to care for them.

At the moment she could be found on the grounds of the ranch with Kara and Patricia as the two girls taught the Kryptonian how to ride a horse. Patricia coming from a rather wealthy family was quite familiar with horses and though out of practice had regained her form within minutes. Kara had taken a bit longer to get a handle on the activity as Krypton hadn't had anything even similar to horses to her knowledge.

"So Lana how big do you many more people do you think will be in this relationship." Questioned Patricia.

"Not many hopefully. I mean the three of us along with Chloe, Lois and Thea already make six. I know a spot is open for another older girl Clark knows named Tess, but I think that's it." Said Lana.

"What about Raya?" questioned Patricia.

"Not happening. I already asked her, and she'd rather wait until someone else is available." Said Kara

"So seven girls, not the largest harem around." Said Patricia

"The heads of a major noble houses on Krypton have been known to have at least 12 wives." Said Kara.

"That was the minimum?" questioned Lana surprised.

"Well no, they could only take one wife if they chose to, but it was expected for them to have that many and most of them did, some people had even more." Explained Kara.

"That's crazy." Said Patricia

"Politics, a House's strength was based on its numbers. That was before the population limits were mandated." Said Kara.

Lex would admit if only to himself that he was enjoying himself, while running into Clark had been a pleasant surprise he actually hadn't stuck around after the first two presentations. This was mostly due to the fact that he'd asked and been told that the people he wanted to see wouldn't be up for a bit. With a specific time for what he was actually interested in he decided to walk around and get a lay of the summit. It was because of this he ran into Madeline Moore, an old classmate from his time at Oxford International in the UK. She was tall at 5'8" and slim figured with dark brown hair that she wore was now reaching just past her shoulders and blue eyes. They'd actually been good friends from the time he arrived there in his junior year after he'd been forced out of Excelsior Academy.

"Got to say I'm impressed Del; you always said you wanted to study the stars." Said Lex.

"It's a fascinating subject, though you were always more interested in anatomy." Said the woman smirking.

"True, I always knew what my future was. Education didn't really interest me until recently." Said Lex.

"I heard about your father, how'd you pull that off." Said Madeline.

"Honestly I didn't, wish I'd thought of it though." Said Lex.

"Here I was thinking you'd won the chess game." Said Madeline

"What about you and your father?" questioned Lex.

"Things have gotten better. When he realized that I actually do like guys things improved. Turns out that's why he was mean to all of my female friends, he just didn't want me dating at all." Said Madeline.

"So he wasn't the giant asshole we always thought he was." Said Lex

"No. He just played the unapproving father to the girls because he thought I wasn't into boys. Of course now he keeps reminding me to look for a husband, he wants me married by the time I'm 25."

"What does Max think about that?" questioned Lex.

"Nothing. We broke up almost two years ago." Said Madeline.

"Damn sorry to hear that."

"It's fine, I'm over it." Said the woman. They engaged in a bit more idle conversation as they entered Hall A and were directed to the front of the room to the left in an area Lex was personally considering the VIP area as it hosted company representatives.

At the same time Moira Queen stood backstage as she mentally prepared herself to fact the crowd of the summit. This was always Robert's thing, they used to joke he was a showman at heart. Quickly she shook the thoughts from her head as she didn't have time to have another breakdown right now. That thought came just in time as she heard her name announced causing her to take a deep steadying breath before walking out onto the stage of Hall A.

"Good morning, as you have heard my name is Moira Queen. Some of you know me, most of you knew my husband Robert either directly or by reputation. 23 years ago today the first Innovation Summit was held here in Metropolis, the brainchild of two men, two visionaries who looked at the world around them and determined that they could do more. They determined that cooperation between great minds could give the world the future that the Jetsons had presented or perhaps an even greater one. Unfortunately both of those men, my husband Robert Queen and Thomas Wayne are gone, long before that vision could come to fruition.

Queen Consolidated is still dedicated to that vision. To that end I am proud to announce that we will now be partnering with both Swann Communications and STAR Labs on a few projects to help develop the technology to chart the path to that future. Today I am here to reveal to you one of those projects. Renewable Clean Energy is something that many of you know has been worked on for decades now and even still we have only scratched the surface for what is possible.

One recent development is an improvement in Solar Power Technology. Specifically speaking I have recently gotten to know a rather remarkable young man who completely redesigned solar panel technology allowing them to convert nearly 60% of the absorbed sunlight into electricity. While he has elected to remain unnamed for the time being the design has been determined by our top scientist as completely viable, both in concept and in terms of manufacturing cost. To explain how it works I present Dr. Victoria Frye of our Applied Sciences Division."

Toby McCarthy was impressed, despite being simple interns and still being high school students, not even juniors, Chloe, Lois and Clark operated like they'd been professionals for years. Somehow the trio had scored interviews with not just Lex Luthor but Ted Kord, Moira Queen and William Earle, the CEO of Wayne Enterprises for the Daily Planet. Luthor and Queen had even done an additional less serious interview for the social media channel that the kids ran. The second interview had questions like who their first celebrity crush was and what was their guilty pleasure movies which went aways to making them seem more human. Clark had also been helpful in translating the scientific words to regular English which would definitely help with what would go into the article. Honestly the three of them almost had him wishing the internship program would last longer so they'd still be around next week.

While he was in his thoughts Clark was in discussion with a rather new tech billionaire Eric Beale, Toby didn't know much about the guy as he'd literally came out of nowhere a few months ago. Apparently he'd developed some super classified tech and gotten a multi-billion-dollar deal from the government for it. His partner Nell Jones was in a similar position only she was speaking with Chloe as if they'd known each other for a long time. His thoughts and observations were interrupted by his phone ringing and pulling it out found his wife calling. Answering he talked with her for only a few minutes before giving his confirmation and hanging up.

"Hey guys change of plans." Said Toby catching the attention of all four of the interns.

"I have to head out a bit early so I can't go with you back to the Planet. Enjoy the rest of the day, just remember to stop by the Planet and drop of your recorders and the camera." Said Tobey.

Soon after he left Clark and Chloe disengaged from their conversation with Beale and Jones who they'd learned were actually engaged as they were pulled away.

"So what now?" questioned Jimmy.

"Food." Said Lois.

"Definitely, I mean this is all interesting, but it will still be here after we eat." Said Chloe.

"Right lets see if we can find the food section then." Said Clark.

Two hours later they were once more seated within Hall A for a presentation, this one being of particular interest for the trio of Smallville residents. The presenter in question was Dr. Norman Parker of STAR Labs who was presenting the findings regarding Smallville's Meteor infected.

"Good afternoon, as stated my name is Dr. Norman Parker, I am currently the lead scientist STAR Labs has assigned to study the issues surrounding Smallville's meteor infection. In the time we have been studying their cases we have come across some rather startling information. For starters the infection is caused by exposure to the meteors which are radioactive. We have discovered several different types of exposure including irradiation, inhalation, secondary exposure such as through animals, ingestion and a host of others including genetic inheritance. Originally we thought that the exposure caused a mutation in the infected individuals DNA, thus giving them powers. That has been proven incorrect, instead what it does is activate a portion of the genetic structure revealing two more chromosomes and as such a 24th paired set."

As he was speaking the screens behind him had been following along as something of a visual representation. When he reached this point it highlighted the pair of chromosomes that were shaped like an 'M' only it was broken in the center and not actually touching.

"We have taken to calling it the M chromosome or the Metagene. Each person impowered by the meteors possesses this gene, only it looks like this."

The screen flickered and showed another image of the chromosome, only it was now green.

"You'll notice the coloration is showing as green. As many may know chromosomes are naturally white and we use dyes and stains to color them for research. That is not the case here, instead the radiation of the meteors have effectively turned the chromosomes green. The activation of the Metagene is not without consequence, in the case of the meteors we have found that it affects brain chemistry causing psychosis to varying degrees depending on how much they use their abilities. While the goal is to find a cure we are still in the early days, and more is still being discovered all the time." Said the doctor.

The next week flew by in something of a blur and with it ended their time as interns. With the Daily Planet internships over Clark, Lois and Chloe found there time in Metropolis over and like most other kids of their ages they were focused more on having fun. He and the girls, including Kara, Thea and Patricia had taken a few trips such as going to beaches in Miami and Cabo much to the shared enjoyment of them all. He'd spent time in Maine with Arthur, the two of them both relishing having a sparring partner that could handle their strength, though Clark was clearly the stronger of the two. He'd spent time in Starling City with Thea, just the two of them which somehow ended up with her buying him what seemed like a completely new wardrobe. He'd also spent some time in Central City with Barry and Iris, where they'd gotten to meet Iris's father as well.

At the moment he was in Starling City with Thea, specifically he was in her room in the Queen Mansion. She had given him something of a fashion show dressing in several outfits including her school uniform, casual clothes and swimwear. At the moment they were lying on the bed watching the ending of a movie called Scary Movie, a parody of both teen movies and slasher films. Moira wasn't actually there as apparently she was on a date with Walter Steele, the current CEO of Queen Consolidated, who had also been the person to get her out of her funk and into the outside world once more.

"Told you it was good." Said the girl after the movie ended.

Before he could comment the phone she had in her room rung and she reached over to pick it up off of the base and seeing the name decided to answer.

"Hey Tommy…tonight, hold on let me check." Said the girl before putting the phone down to the bed.

"Tommy wants to take me to a Laker game, do a brother-sister activity." Said Thea.

"You told him?" questioned Clark.

"Mom did, made him promise not to tell Malcom and why." Said Thea.

"Was that a good idea?" questioned Clark.

"Tommy can be emotional so it was better he knew why Malcom couldn't know about me." Said Thea.

"Alright, I can head back home and work on my projects." Said Clark.

"What time are you trying to go?" questioned Thea after picking up the phone before agreeing and hanging up.

"So we've got about three hours before he gets here." Said Thea.

They spent the next hour and a half watching American Pie before Clark left so she could get ready.

Raya was enjoying her time exploring the planet Earth. Granted it was not an unknown world to her, even before her arrival those few short months ago. The planet had been considered a research planet for Kryptonians since before humans had a written language, so she'd been fully read up on it. Her time studying in the Fortress had merely been so she was up to date on Earth's cultures, she could now speak five of their languages those being English, Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin and French all of which allowed her to travel the world and be able to speak with people. Truthfully she didn't have much intention of speaking with too many humans, while she found their planet beautiful she didn't have the same appreciation for them, they were far too violent in her opinion. The fact that they still didn't have one solitary government for the world was also a mark against them, even their local governments were a joke, it was no wonder they hadn't ventured into space yet.

Sure they'd gone to their moon, but it was really close and anyone with any sense would tell you until you've explored outside of your own system you hadn't seen much of anything. Even with all of that against them she understood why Jor-El had sent his son here. Humans looked remarkably like Kryptonians, granted there were some evolutionary differences, but they were all biological and on the surface they could pass for each other. There was of course the yellow sun, which meant when Kal-El was of age and had fully come into his powers there would be few things in the universe capable of doing him serious harm. Finally there was the fact that the planet was a virtual unknown in the greater galaxy, especially due to the fact that they didn't even have their own Green Lantern. This made the place the perfect place for an orphaned Kryptonian baby to be raised, at least that was the logic.

While that was good for Kal-El she was trying to figure out what to do with herself. She had wanted to die with Jor-El and Lara but had been convinced to instead escape into the Phantom Zone by Jor-El, it was a decision she'd second guessed many times over the years she'd been trapped within the prison dimension. Now that she was free she actually had no idea what she would do with herself, with the exception of Kara everyone she had known was gone. Her planet had been reduced to chunks of rock that if she neared could do anything from strip her of her powers to killing her. There was a temptation to simply leave Earth behind but the knowledge that she was of an endangered race made her stay, the universe was a dangerous place and depending on factors she could wind up enslaved on any number of worlds as amongst the most advanced that she knew of none of them boasted a yellow sun. It was a sobering realization that for the time being she had no choice but to live amongst so violent a people.

The rumbling of her stomach had her grimacing and halting in mid-flight. Her method of travel meant she travelled very lightly and as such she didn't keep much on her person. Looking down she spotted only a single island in her immediate surroundings and while it would take no time to reach a more populated destination she decided this would do well enough for a quick meal. Zipping down to the islands beach she was pleased to find a fire pit was already installed and dropped her backpack beside it. Soon enough she had a piece of boneless chicken breast roasting over the fire thanks to a quick usage of heat vision. Turning on the timer of her watch she placed down a towel and proceeded to lay back and enjoy the peacefulness.

Her rest was interrupted only a few moments later as a shadow was cast over her before a throat was cleared catching her attention. Opening her eyes she found three no five people surrounding her all of them women.

"Can I help you?" questioned Raya.

"Yes, what brings you to our island stranger."

The woman who spoke was blonde with blue eyes and wore a brown dress with a portion cut out over her breasts in the shape of an eagle.

"Just waiting on my food to cook, once I've eaten I'll be on my way." Said Raya.

"How exactly did you get here, there are no vessels anywhere on the beach." Said another, this one with long red hair pulled into a ponytail.

"Let's just say I have a special means of travel." Said Raya

"I see forgive our inquiry, Themyscira rarely sees new faces." Said the blonde.

AN: That's it the chapter is done. I know it's a short one and there is a lack of action but this got the ball rolling on several things that will factor into the story in the future. The role of Madeline Moore is an original character who I imagine as Daniela Ruah, I loved her as Kensi in NCIS: LA though this role will be a bit different I couldn't see her as anyone else. Anyway that's all I have for now, thanks for reading and please review. Until next time, LATER.