"We've been working a lot on your accuracy, but I also want to make sure we work on your speed," Oliver stated. "If you're surrounded by attackers, they're not going to wait for you to take the time to nock your arrows. So I want you to practice loading and shooting five arrows in twenty seconds or less, but don't worry about hitting the target perfectly. We'll work on speed and accuracy separately, and eventually you'll be able to do them together."

Oliver held up a stopwatch.

With five arrows in the quiver on her back and the bow in her hand, Emmeline readied herself.

"Go."

As quick as she could, Emmeline snatched one of the arrows, loaded up the bow, and shot the arrow, then repeated this four more times.

"Forty seconds."

"Ouch."

"We'll do this nine more times, then switch back to shooting for accuracy."

"Okay."

Emmeline retrieved the five arrows she'd shot, and then completed nine more cycles. She managed to get down to thirty-six seconds, which she would consider a win.

After she retrieved the arrows once more, Oliver made the targets start moving again.

As per their usual arrangement, Emmeline waited until she hit a target before talking. "I kind of patched things up with Lana. It's still pretty rocky, but at least we're speaking again. She finally saw things from my point of view and understood why I was upset."

Emmeline missed the target and it took a few minutes for her to hit one again.

"And I realized that I shouldn't waste the time she's still here worrying about when she won't be. That won't do anyone any favors."

"Good to hear. Maybe now you'll actually focus on your training."

"What?! I was focused, I swear! I—"

"Emmeline. It was a joke."

"I didn't even know that was possible."

"What do you mean? I can be laidback."

"Not from what I've seen."

"Well, you'll just have to see me outside of all of this. I'm usually pretty charming."

"Are you actually, or do you just pretend to be so that you can throw people off if they suspect you of being the Green Arrow?"

"I take offense to that. I am a wonderful person to be around."

"Maybe I'll change my tune when I don't associate the sight of you with bruises and sore muscles."

"You may have sore muscles, but my training is working." He came up next to her and touched her bare arm. "You're already a lot stronger than when you first came to me."

Emmeline couldn't stop her face from reddening. "I'll take the sort-of-compliment."

"I was complimenting myself."

"Don't insult a person with a bow and arrows in her hands."

"Like you'd really be able to catch me off guard."

"We could find out."

"Keep your eyes on your targets."

"Who says I'm not?"

Oliver smirked. "Well-played."

"Thank you."

"Now focus on your real targets."

"Hey, I got your text. What's up?" Emmeline asked as she made her way to Chloe's desk.

"Hey," her friend smiled. "I thought you might want to see this. There's a new foundation here in Metropolis that is offering support for the meteor-infected."

"What kind of support?"

"It's still pretty new, so the website doesn't tell me a whole lot. I think it might be mostly financial and psychological help. Which sounds like this could be something for you as much as me. Wasn't your goal to be able to offer your brilliant services to people affected by the meteor rocks?"

"Well, yeah, but I can't do anything until I complete my practicum, get my Masters, and earn my counseling license."

"This might be a good place to do some of that. I'm planning on going there under the guise of an interview later tonight, and you're more than welcome to join me and find out more about the foundation and how you could get involved."

"That'd be awesome!"

Clark suddenly zoomed in and read the webpage on Chloe's computer. "'Support for the Meteor-Infected'," he said dryly. "This is what was so urgent?"

"Right now, my worries should be the least of your worries, Clark," Chloe told him. "The FAA halted all air traffic over Washington late last night. Some commercial airline pilot reported a near-miss with an object that shot into the sky in a red-blue blur."

"No."

"Yeah, they think it may have been a ground-to-air missile, but if you ask me, I think we just found—"

"Kara. Chloe, this is all my fault."

"Clark, you're not the one who played chicken with an airplane. Besides, she's not your responsibility. You're her cousin, not her father."

"But I pushed her away, Chloe. I didn't trust her. Now she's alone and angry. I have to find her and bring her back before she hurts someone."

"Or uncorks the Kent family secret. I mean, clearly, Kara does not fly below the radar."

Jimmy quickly ran up to them. "Hey, Clark. Did you hear from Kara? And is she okay?"

There was an awkward silence from the group. None of them could tell Jimmy what was really going on, and Emmeline was pretty certain that Chloe hadn't spoken to Jimmy since he'd called it off with her.

"You guys look worried. What's going on?"

"Apparently, Kara decided to go to Washington, D.C., alone, and not tell anyone," Clark answered shortly.

"Maybe she's doing the tourist thing. Postcards are probably already in the mail."

Chloe looked at him suspiciously. "You know something, don't you?"

The look on Jimmy's face answered that.

"Jimmy, she's my cousin," Clark said. "She's my family. If you know anything, you need to tell me."

Jimmy sighed. "Kara asked to see a video that Lois took of some so-called spaceship out in Granville. The recording was ruined, but I managed to get a partial image of equipment that…pointed to the government."

Clark turned and took a few steps away from him, overcome with anger and worry.

"And you didn't tell us this because…?" Chloe asked frantically.

"Because Kara asked me to keep it a secret. She trusted me."

Emmeline knew Jimmy was just hurt that Chloe was keeping something from him, but that barb had to sting.

"I'm sorry, C.K. She said it was a hobby. I had no idea that she'd follow the lead all the way to Capitol Hill."

"Thanks, Jimmy." Clark pulled the two girls away from the photographer. "Guys, if he's right, the government might have Kara's crystal. That's her last tie to Krypton. She'll do anything to get it back."

"Then you'll have to either stop her or help her before she does something insane," Emmeline told him.

Chloe and Emmeline walked into one of the units in a large office building which housed the Isis Foundation.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked

"Yeah, I was hoping I could get a—" Chloe started.

"Chloe. Em."

Chloe turned at the familiar voice. "Lana."

"What are you guys doing here?"

"I stumbled across the Isis Foundation website and saw they were reaching out to meteor victims. I-I wanted to see if I could get an interview. Do you work here?"

"You could say that." She smiled at the receptionist then ushered the two girls towards the back. "I actually kind of am the foundation."

"When did you become such a champion for the meteor-challenged?"

"Lex ruined lives with 33.1. Not just his victims, but their families and friends. I'm using the divorce settlement to fight back."

"Lana, this is a little more impressive than just writing a check. I mean, this is a major operation."

"Right now, it's just me in an office. But eventually, I'd like to open a free clinic, start support groups, set up a crisis hotline."

"I'm so proud of you. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I don't want anyone to know until I've had the chance to build this into something real."

"You're on the Web. You're already out there."

"I launched the site so that people that needed help could find me. Grassroots is really all I want right now. Chloe…do me a favor and don't tell Clark, okay?"

"I thought you two were all about full disclosure now."

"Well, you know how he is. He's gonna think that the work's too dangerous, and he's gonna try and talk me out of it."

Chloe's eyebrows crinkled. "Lana, I've interviewed enough people to know when someone's bending the truth. And as much as I love what you're doing, I'm sensing a right angle in here somewhere."

"That right angle is your imagination. Please, Chloe, don't tell Clark anything."

"This conversation is officially off the record."

"Thank you."

Emmeline thought that was extremely hypocritical of her considering how much she had hounded Clark about sharing his secret, but she decided not to bring that up since they were just now starting to reconcile.

"Actually, I'm glad you're here, Em," Lana said. "There's something I wanted to ask you. I want to offer counseling services to those who want them, and I was hoping you might be one of those counselors. I spoke with your professors at Central Kansas and they said that as long as I have someone licensed working here as well, it would count towards your practicum."

When Emmeline had agreed to come with Chloe tonight, she never imagined she would receive this kind of offer. "Lana, if this is your way of trying to buy back my friendship…then I gotta admit, it's kind of working."

"Not necessarily 'buying', per se. Just trying to make amends."

Emmeline smiled fondly. "You've changed since high school. I mean, we all have, but…you used to hate people with meteor powers. And now you're working to help them."

"Well, I realized that having meteor powers usually is something that is out of their control. And hopefully, by helping them here, we can prevent them from getting to the part where they hurt others."

"I would love to help you out."

Emmeline pulled out a cutting board and set some chicken breasts on it to make some chicken alfredo for dinner, then she took out her knife and started to cut it into small strips.

When she accidentally got too close to her hand, she cried out and pulled her hand away, expecting to see blood spurting. But after the quick adrenaline rush faded, she realized that she didn't have a mark on her even though she was sure the knife had hit her.

Emmeline looked at the knife on the cutting board. It had snapped in half.

The adrenaline rush returned.

As much as she'd been trying to ignore it, she couldn't deny that something was wrong with her. So far, she'd set a target on fire with her eyes, witnessed people become muscled skeletons, heard the world amplified, and now she'd broken a knife with nothing but her hand.

At first, she had thought they were possible abilities as a result of being around meteor rocks for so long like Chloe, but now she didn't think that was the case. Too many of these abilities…were Clark's.

What did that mean? How could she possibly be exhibiting Clark's abilities?

And what was she supposed to do now?

When Emmeline arrived at her next training session, she noticed several pitching machines stationed around the area.

"What's all this?" she asked.

Oliver lightly tapped one of the machines. "When you're in the middle of a fight, chances are that there are going to be other things happening around you, and it's important to pay attention to that too so you're not caught off-guard but at the same time, you don't let it keep you from your main goal. So you're going to shoot arrows at all of the targets around the room while dodging baseballs and softballs. You can't move on to the next target until you hit the one before it. Got it?"

Emmeline nocked an arrow onto her bowstring. "Yes."

"Go."

One of the machines lobbed a baseball in her direction. She quickly dodged it and then aimed her arrow at the first target and released it.

After she had hit the fourth target, the pitching machines picked up speed and frequency. It became harder and harder to pay attention to where each ball was coming from and even harder to keep track of the ones rolling around on the floor.

As she was about to release another arrow onto the eighth target, she took a step back to dodge an oncoming ball and slipped on one she didn't see just behind her. She accidentally released the arrow in a random direction and it hit one of the pitching machines while she fell towards one of the glass windows.

"Emmeline!" Oliver exclaimed.

He quickly caught her just before she slammed her head into the window, but in the process of trying to catch her and avoid her wayward arrow, he also slipped on one of the rolling baseballs as well and took both of them down onto the floor.

Emmeline smirked. "You're not as good of an instructor as you say if you didn't think I could come back from that fall."

"You were about to faceplant through glass. Just because I'm tough on you doesn't mean that I want you to get maimed."

"It probably wouldn't have broken."

"Yeah, probably being the key word."

Emmeline laughed. She could only imagine how ridiculous they must've looked just now flailing all over the place.

It was at that moment she realized the position they were in.

Oliver Queen, wearing only a pair of workout pants and a tight tank top, was on top of her.

She was suddenly very aware of every single part of her body that was touching him. His hands rested on either side of her head and his legs draped over hers.

The whole room seemed to freeze in time while also increasing by about fifty degrees.

He seemed to become aware of their position as well and looked down at her to make eye contact.

The room increased a few more degrees.

Her whole body felt like it was on fire. It was not entirely unpleasant.

Oliver leaned his head down.

Emmeline knew what a small action like that meant, especially when the energy in the room was practically pulsing, but still, her brain refused to acknowledge it until his lips were touching hers. Even then, it took a few more seconds to process what was happening. Then she closed her eyes and leaned her head up to deepen the kiss with him.

Archery was not his only skill, that much was certain.

After what felt like an hour, Oliver pulled back and looked deeply into her eyes. Then he suddenly sat back so quickly that it might've been comical if Emmeline's brain wasn't still a few seconds behind.

"I'm gonna, um, go make sure your car is ready."

He quickly stood up and raced towards the door.

Emmeline finally sat up and watched him quickly throw on a shirt over his tank top and run out of the training area. She lightly put a finger to her lips which still tingled with pleasure. "Whoa."

Chloe opened the door to her apartment.

"Chloe, I need to tell you something," Emmeline said breathlessly.

"Okay, come in." Chloe poured her some coffee and then sat across from her on the couch. "What's going on?"

"Hold on, why do you look like you just lost a Pulitzer?"

Chloe sighed heavily. "Kara asked Jimmy to lunch this afternoon. I know it's just lunch, but…"

"Kara told me she was going to back off from him."

"Well, since he broke up with me, he's technically fair game now. Even if I don't like it."

"How are you? Are you okay?"

"Forget about me for a second, what did you come rushing in here for?"

"Okay, um…there's something I've sort of been keeping from you."

"What is it?"

"Do you remember when you helped out Clark, Oliver, Bart, Victor, and Arthur? And I said that I didn't have any skills that would've been useful and you told me that I should try to find one? Um…a few months ago, I reached out to Oliver Queen and asked if he would teach me archery. It took a while, but he eventually agreed, and we've been meeting a lot since then and he's been training me in archery and combat."

Chloe looked at her wide-eyed. "Um…I…I don't have any words. That is incredibly surprising, but it's also insanely awesome. Why are you just telling me this now?"

"I was really on the fence about it, so I was afraid that if you tried to talk me out of it, you would've succeeded. He's been really good about not just training me but also being a listening ear and helping me work through a lot of stuff."

"Should I be jealous?"

"There's more."

"Oh."

"We trained earlier today, and, um…we…sort of…kissed."

Chloe's mouth dropped open. "You did what?!"

"I know, I can't believe it either. Part of me wonders if I just hallucinated the whole thing. It doesn't feel real. I don't even know how it happened. One moment, we're just doing archery training like usual, and the next thing I know, he's on top of me kissing me."

"What happened after that?"

"Nothing, I took the car that's always waiting for me and left."

"Well…what does this mean for you guys?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. I mean…am I even allowed to do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know, he was just in a relationship with Lois and all."

"They broke up."

"Yeah, but there's the girl code and everything."

"I love my cousin, but you guys are mostly acquaintances. Girl code doesn't apply. Do you want there to be something?"

"I don't know. Maybe it was all just a mistake."

"I highly doubt that. You wouldn't have let him kiss you if you didn't feel something towards him."

"Well, what if he thinks it's a mistake? You should've seen how quickly he ran out of the room afterward. I don't even know if he's going to keep training me after this. He's the one who sets everything up, and I just have to wait until he sets another meeting. What if I never see him again?"

"No way that's going to happen." Chloe excitedly pushed her. "I can't believe you kissed Oliver Queen."

Emmeline smiled as she blushed. "He was really good at it."

"Hey, Clark," Emmeline said in surprise from the desk at the clinic. "What's up?"

"I, uh, thought we might give lunch a second try."

The girl smiled. "Sure, let me just clock out."

She typed some buttons into the computer and then stood up and came out to the lobby. Then the two of them headed out and started to walk down the sidewalk.

"Hey, um, I'm sorry for how things went the last time we did this," Clark apologized. "It wasn't very fair of me to not consider your side of things."

"Thanks."

"I'm glad that you and Lana at least seem to be on better terms."

"We'll just take things a day at a time for right now. How did things go with Kara and the crystal in D.C.?"

"She broke into a government lab to steal it which went about as well as you'd expect. One of the agents captured her and injected kryptonite into her bloodstream."

"Ow, that had to have been extremely unpleasant."

"You have no idea. When I went to get the electrodes off her, I saw what she was seeing. I saw…my mother."

"Really?"

Clark smiled. "She was so beautiful. I wish I'd known her. She left behind a picture at the farm before I was born. I'll show it to you when you come by again."

"I'd like that."

"I also saw Kara's father, my uncle. He was in love with my mother and wanted her to leave Jor-El and be with him instead. When he realized Kara was watching, he erased her memory of the day. It's awful what he did, but seeing that helped Kara understand me and herself a little bit more. I'm hoping she stops fighting me on everything now."

"Glad to hear things mostly worked out."

Lunch proceeded successfully this time around, and it was only when they were almost back to the clinic that Emmeline finally made a decision.

"Clark…there's something I should tell you."

"What is it?"

She wasn't sure how to phrase this. How could she tell Clark that she was showing signs of having his powers? She didn't even understand what that meant or how it could be possible. But she also knew that she wasn't going to be able to handle all of this on her own, and if anyone could help her make sense of it all, it would be him.

"Um…a few months ago, I think something—"

"Hey, guys, what are you up to?"

Emmeline's heart sank as Lana walked up behind Clark and stood next to him. "We were just getting lunch together," she smiled.

"What were you saying, Em?" Clark asked.

Emmeline knew that she could never confess what was going on in front of Lana, and she also couldn't imply that Lana couldn't know because she knew how her raven-haired friend reacted when she thought someone was keeping something from her even though she wasn't exactly an open book herself. "You know what, it can wait."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'll see you guys later."

Emmeline walked into the clinic and clocked back in. Maybe it was better that no one knew anyway. The strange abilities had only shown themselves once each. If she was lucky, all of it was over and she could go on with her life completely unaffected and forget all about it.