STRANGE VISITORS

DISCLAIMER: Liz, Max, Michael, Maria, Isabel, and Kyle belong to Jason Katmis and UPN. Clark Kent, however, belongs to the WB and DC Comics. Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. I don’t own them.

CATEGORY: Max/Liz, and Clark/Chloe.

RATING: PG-13

SPOILERS: Takes place immediately after ‘Ch-ch-changes’.

Maria DeLuca paced back and forth across the floor, waiting for word from Michael and the others. Any word.

No such luck though.

Why did she ever listen to him in the first place? She had decided to cut herself off from all the alien craziness, didn’t she? Well, when Michael called her at 2 AM, saying that they needed her to wait for them at the Crashdown until they got back, Maria did as she was asked. They were still her friends, after all.

However, the urgency of his tone had suggested that something was up.

Something bad.

Please don’t be more ‘skins’, she thought. Yeah, the last time she met up with everyone for a ‘secret meeting’, every human being in Roswell disappeared into thin air. Hopefully, it wasn’t that bad.

Suddenly, a truck pulled up in front of the Crashdown. It was them.

Michael and Valenti exited the car. Along with Max…who was carrying Liz in his arms.

Liz, Maria’s best friend, who was unconscious. And seemed to have labored breathing.

“Oh my god, Liz!” Maria exclaimed, running to unlock the front door. “What happened? What…?”

That’s when she noticed that they weren’t alone. Behind Max was another boy, who looked about fifteen. He had dark hair, and light blue eyes. Then a girl with short, blonde hair. And a couple that looked to be in their early forties. Finally, there was the guy with the trench coat.

“Is she ok?” the boy asked Max.

“Let’s get her up to her room,” he replied, not answering either Maria or the boy. “I don’t want her parents to see her like this. Where are they?”

“Sleeping,” Maria answered.

Nodding, Max walks upstairs with Liz.

“Oh god…oh god…” Maria muttered, panicking.

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder, calming her.

“Hey, take it easy,” the boy said. “I’m sure she’ll be ok.”

Maria turned to face him.

“Who are you?” she asked. “Who the heck are you people?”

“Uh,” he replied, a little nervous. “I’m Clark…Clark Kent. These are my parents, and…”

The blonde girl interrupts him, and shakes Maria’s hand.

“Chloe Sullivan, pleased to meet you,” she said. “Now, you are?”

“Maria,” she said, still unsure.

“Charmed, I’m sure,” Chloe said.

“Uh, Clark?” Maria asked. “Wasn’t there someone else with you a second ago?”

The gang turns around to see that the guy in the trench coat has vanished.

“What happened to Detective Jones?” Martha asked, confused.

Jonathan, loosing his patience, moved up to Maria.

“Listen, young lady,” he asked. “I’ve just been held at gunpoint for the last few days, so could you please tell me who you people are?”

Maria sneaks a look at Michael, who nods her head.

Maria doesn’t say anything, which causes Jonathan to sigh in frustration.

“Then could you get me a phone so I can call someone to tell them we’re all right?” he asked. “Chloe’s parents are probably going nuts right now.”

Maria directed him behind a counter, where a phone is.

Valenti went up to Clark.

“I don’t know who you are,” he said. “But I want to thank you for helping us out back there.”

“Hey, no problem,” Clark responded with a smile. “Any friend of Liz’s is a friend of mine.”

Maria smiled, walking up to Clark.

“Yeah, thanks,” she said. “A…really nice looking friend, aren’t you?”

Clark blushed.

In the corner, Michael gave Clark a cold stare. It was obvious to him that Maria was trying to flirt with the guy. He knew they weren’t technically together, but the least she could do would wait for him to be out of the room.

Jonathan hung up the phone.

“I just talked to you dad, Chloe,” he said. “He’s going to alert the sheriff about that Agent Pierce guy who kidnapped us.”

Maria’s eyes went wide.

“WHAT?!” she exclaimed. “Pierce is dead.”

“Different Agent Pierce,” Valenti informed her.

“What? Evil twin?” she asked.

“Insane brother,” Michael commented. “He wants me dead.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Maria mentions, rolling her eyes. “You really know how to make enemies, don’t you Spaceboy?”

“Hey, you’re the one flirting with the farmboy,” Michael spat.

“Flirting?” Clark asked, taken aback.

“A clueless farmboy, by the way,” he added.

“Hey!” Clark said, a bit insulted.

“Will someone please just explain to me what the hell is going on here?” Jonathan interrupted, causing everyone to go silent. “Well?”

“I’ll tell you.” Max said from the stairwell, walking back into the room. “Maria, how long until Liz’s parents wake up?”

“About an hour, I guess,” she answered.

Nodding, Max went up to Jonathan.

“Mr. Kent?” he said. “I’m really sorry for dragging you and your family into this. I can’t imagine what’s going through your head right now.”

“I just want to know who you people are,” Jonathan answered.

“We can’t answer that,” Michael interrupted.

“Michael!”

“No way, Maxwell!” Michael spat. “You’re not doing a ‘tell all’ right now. Not until we find out exactly what that guy is?”

Michael pointed towards Clark.

“Well?” he asked, his only answer being silence.

Until Max broke the silence.

“He’s an alien, Michael.”

“WHAT?!” both Michael and Maria exclaimed simultaneously.

“Clark?!” Jonathan told his son, accusingly.

“They’re from another planet too, dad,” Clark informed him. “At least Max is. That’s why Pierce was after them.”

“I don’t believe this,” Michael complained. “Max are you insane or something? Remember the last time we found another alien? One word: Tess!”

“This isn’t the same thing,” Max argued. “Liz and I could have died in there, but we didn’t. He could have let us die, but he didn’t. That earns some measure of trust.”

Throwing his arms in the air, Michael headed towards the door.

“You know what?” he asked. “Do whatever you want, I’m heading home.”

“Michael, don’t…” Max tried to warn him.

However, he didn’t listen. He stormed out.

“The temper on that guy…” Clark mentioned.

“Yeah, well, welcome to Michael-land” Maria told him.

*****

Somewhere just outside of Roswell, at an abandoned ranch, Agent Pierce looked at his surroundings nervously. There were dozens of what looked like art displays, seemingly related to UFO phenomena.

“You like the décor?” a voice asked behind him.

Pierce turned to see Lex Luthor walk into the room, accompanied by Nicholas, and two unidentified men.

“It’s…intriguing,” Pierce responds. “Lex Luthor, right? I didn’t take you for a UFO enthusiast, kid.”

“The Luthor family became powerful by taking chances,” Lex told him. “That includes things that aren’t believed in by everyone. The general public believes that all those stories about Roswell are made up to continue a tourist attraction…”

A grin crosses his face.

“…but we know better, don’t we?”

Pierce looked at him coldly.

“What do you want?”

“I think the question is ‘what do YOU want’?” Lex responds. “The answer is, quite simply, Max Evans. And I can help you get him.”

Pierce thinks about that for a moment. Lionel Luthor, Lex’s father, was the president of LuthorCorp, one the of most powerful corporations on the planet. They had at least a dozen military contracts.

Luthor probably had resources that he never even knew about.

“What’s the catch?” Pierce asked him.

“Something crashed in Roswell a few days ago,” he informed him. “Something that I want. You deliver it to me, and I’ll get you Evans, his girlfriend…the whole bunch of them.”

Pierce couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy. Lex thought he could stop those aliens, when an entire group of trained FBI agents couldn’t?

He started to laugh.

“They’re aliens, Luthor,” he laughed. “What makes you think that you can even lay a hand on them?”

Lex smiled.

“Well, I do have his sister tied up in the attic,”

Pierce’s eyes went wide, and he grabbed Lex roughly by the throat.

“You’ve spent all this time leaving her there?!” he spat. “You idiot!”

However, before he could do anything else, a blast of invisible force erupted from Lex’s hand, tossing Pierce across the room.

“Don’t threaten me, human!” he ordered. “I could incinerate you with a thought.”

Painfully, Pierce picked himself up off the ground. Lex grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up.

“Oh, this is rich,” he gasped. “Lex Luthor is an alien?”

“My name, human, is K’Var!” he spat. “I may have to wear this shell to survive here, but I can still crush you like an insect.”

He threw Pierce to the ground.

“Your petty rivalry with Zan is the only reason I’ve giving you this chance,” K’Var admitted. “We have some history. You can do anything you want to him or the humans. But his sister is mine…and that artifact in Roswell.”

Pierce couldn’t believe it. An alien wanted his help…but an alien who had a past with Max. What did he call him? ‘Zan’? Well, obviously ‘Max Evans’ wasn’t the name he was called wherever he came from.

“What is this artifact you want, anyway?” he asked.

“Power, Mr. Pierce,” K’Var told him. “Absolute power.”

That sent a chill down his spine.

*****

Jeff Parker walked downstairs, sighing in relief. The Crashdown was now in it’s busy hours, and both he and his wife had to pay close attention. Still, he was glad that his little girl was going to be ok.

He walked across the room, to where Jim Valenti sat with the man that brought Liz home.

“Thank you, Mr. Kent,” he said. “When she didn’t show up at the academy, I thought…”

“Yeah, I understand,” Jonathan answered. “Is she feeling ok?”

“A small fever, but otherwise she’s fine,” Jeff explained. “Where did she catch this again?”

“Kansas,” he said. “It’s just normal hay fever, so she’ll be back on her feet in no time. I’m just glad that we could help out. She’s a good kid.”

Jeff smiled, and went into the kitchen.

Jonathan, sighing, turned back to Valenti.

“Thank you,” Jim said. “I know, it doesn’t seem fair to lie to Parker like that. But I don’t want to worry him.”

“This story of yours…” Jonathan said. “Other galaxies, royal families, reincarnation…it sounds so unreal.”

“Yeah, I know,” Valenti admitted. “My old man spent his entire life looking for aliens, and I’m the one who found them. But they’re good kids, all of them. If the truth gets out, more people like Pierce will show up. Probably worse.”

“It’s what I’ve always been afraid of,” he told him. “That someone would find out what Clark was, and come after him.”

Valenti nodded. Heaven knows what he would do if anything ever happened to Kyle.

Kyle.

There had been no sign of Kyle ever since he went looking in the desert. Why hadn’t he tried to contact him?

*****

“Hello?”

Kyle entered the main deck of the spaceship, stepping cautiously inside. It was small, about the size of a gas station. Still…Kyle wanted to be careful.

Whatever flew this thing might still be alive…and possibly hungry.

Get ahold of yourself, Valenti, Kyle thought. For all he knew, whoever the pilot was, he or she ejected before the ship buried itself miles underground.

He just hoped there was some way to bring it back to the surface, so that he could tell the others.

Suddenly, Kyle froze. He heard something coming from the cockpit. It sounded like…breathing.

Very shallow breathing.

Walking into the cockpit, he saw the pilot. He…wasn’t human-looking, but humanoid. His skin was pink. Meaning not flesh-colored, but pink like a flower. With no sign of any hair on him…not even eyebrows. His eyes were green, and he was looking directly at Kyle.

He also had a sharp piece of metal lodged in his chest, oozing blood.

“Oh my budda!” Kyle whispered.

A cluster of words, belonging to a language Kyle never even heard of, escaped the strange man’s mouth. They sounded weak.

He was dying.

“I…” Kyle tried to say. “I don’t know if you can understand me, but I know someone who can help. Someone who can heal. Just…just stay here and I’ll…”

“No!” the alien warned, as Kyle turned to leave. “Don’t go…it’s too late…”

Kyle’s eyes went wide, as he turned back towards the alien. He could understand him!

“You…” he said. “You can speak English?”

The alien nodded.

“I’m sorry, my translator was damaged in the crash,” he said. “Thank you for coming.”

Kyle thought for a moment. What if this thing was faking? What if he was planning to attack or something?

However, Kyle somehow had the inclination to trust him.

“That voice…in my head…?” he asked. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” the alien answered. “My name is Abin…I know of the king of Antar’s presence on this planet, and was coming to warn him. I am a…lawbringer, you could say.”

“Like a sheriff?” Kyle asked. “Yeah, my dad used to have that job. Wait…warn Max about what?”

Abin winced in pain, taking a deep breath.

“K’Var is on earth,” he explained. “I was here to stop him, but…”

Abin began to cough violently, causing Kyle to look on. Concerned, he walked up to him.

“Kyle, you have to listen to me,” he whispered. “I have something K’Var wants. He’ll stop at nothing to get it.”

“What?” Kyle asked. “What is…?”

“I can’t tell you,” he responded. “I can only ask you to keep it safe. If K’Var gets ahold of it, he would have power beyond imagination.

Abin grabs Kyle’s hand, grasping it in both of his.

“Keep it safe, Kyle,” he asks. “Use it with honor.”

Kyle looked at his hands, as they started to glow bright green.

“What do I do?” he asked. “I don’t know how…?”

“You will…” Abin told him, with his final breath.

Then his eyes closed, and his body rested. The bright green energy flowed around him, until his body evaporated. Just as the ship around him did, leaving Kyle inside a barren underground cavern. All traces of Abin and his ship disappeared into thin air.

“No way…” Kyle muttered, standing up slowly. He looked across the cave, searching for a way out.

But what had that alien given him?

Kyle slowly opened his hand to see what it was. A jewel maybe? Some sort of power source?

No.

In a palm of Kyle’s hand was a single, emerald green ring.

*****

Nightfall, back at the Crashdown café. Jeff Parker began to climb the stairs, leaving for the night.

“Just be sure to lock up, ok Maria?” he called to the young waitress to was still in the café part of his home.

She smiled, and brought the boy sitting at the bar a plate.

“There you go,” she said. “One ‘Will Smith’. On the house. A little ‘thank you’ for saving my best friend’s life.”

Clark grinned, and looked at his surroundings.

“I can’t believe how incredible this place is,” he commented. “I mean, sure, it sort of trivializes the whole UFO concept, but it’s just…cool. I never thought I’d be a tourist attraction.”

While his attention was diverted, Maria opened a bottle of Tabasco sauce and poured the contents of it onto Clark’s meal.

“Let’s just hope the food’s as good as the atmosphere,” he said, and took a bite.

About a few seconds later, Clark’s eyes went wide, and he breathed in air. Fanning his mouth, he turned to Maria.

“Water!” he asked.

“Huh?”

“Water, please!”

“Ok, ok…” she complied, and poured him a glass of water. Clark drank in eagerly, then poured himself another glass.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and turned to Maria.

“What the heck did you put in that?” he demanded.

Maria was confused. What was wrong?

“Tabasco sauce,” she answered. “Why?”

“Why on earth did you put Tabasco sauce in it?” he asked, surprised. “A little warning if you’re going to do that.”

She laughed.

“Wait…wait…” she giggled. “You…don’t like Tabasco sauce?”

“It’s bad enough my dad keeps trying to force-feed the stuff to me,” he responded, still fanning his mouth.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I…you’re an alien, so I just assumed you needed to have it on everything like the others.”

Well, that certainly explained Michael’s temper, Clark thought.

Speaking of which…

“I think I’m the one who should apologize,” he said. “I sort of set your boyfriend off earlier…”

Maria shook her head.

“Oh, he’s not my boyfriend,” she said. “Well, not anymore.”

“What happened?”

Maria thought for a moment.

“You don’t want to know,”

Clark simply looked at her.

“Come on,” he encouraged. “Just try me.”

“It’s…all this alien stuff,” she explained. “It just started to be too much for me, you know. I just wanted out.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “I know what you mean.”

Maria looked at him, a little confused.

“But…you’re an alien,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t get frustrated with it,” Clark told her. “Do you have any idea how many times I wish I was just a normal teenager? That I had an ordinary life?”

“Well, what planet do you come from?” she asked him.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “My ship crashed when I was a baby. I didn’t even know I was an alien until the school year started, and dad showed me the ship.”

Maria was surprised upon hearing that. From what Liz had told her, Max and Michael had known they were aliens since they hatched. How could you not know something like that?

“God, you must have been so scared,” she said. “It’s like your whole life was a lie or something.”

Clark shook his head.

“Not in the least,” he corrected her. “The thing is, I still consider myself a human being. It’s how I was brought up. No matter where I come from, or who my real parents are, as far as I’m concerned I’m human.”

“But you’re not,” Maria pointed out.

“Maybe not in my blood,” he said. “But in my heart.”

“I really wish Michael was like you, you know?” Maria told him. “Not ‘like you’ like you, but the whole human thing. He’s always saying that he doesn’t belong here, or with the rest of us. How is anyone supposed to…to commit to someone who thinks like that?”

Neither one noticed someone standing at the window to the Crashdown. Michael was there, and he had heard the entire conversation.

Slowly, he walked away. His thoughts going over what he had just heard.

*****

Upstairs, above the restaurant, Liz slowly opened her eyes. It was dark out, but her surroundings were familiar.

She was in her own room, asleep in her own bead.

She sighed in relief for a moment, thinking that the past week had all been a dream. But then she felt the lump on her head.

No, it was real. The entire thing had been real.

“How are you feeling?” Max’s voice suddenly asked her.

She turned to see him walking up to her bed, kneeling beside her.

“Better,” she said. “A lot better.”

Liz reached up and kissed him. They continued to kiss for a moment, until sparks of green electricity started to form between them.

“No, no, no…” Liz groaned. “One kiss…that’s all I’m asking for.”

She fell back down on the bed, sighing.

Max just sat on the edge of her bed for a moment, thinking. If only there was something he could do.

Then a thought occurred to him. Maybe there was.

“Can you walk?” he asked her.

Confused, Liz nodded.

“Come with me?” he said.

*****

Several minutes later, Max and Liz arrive at a local golf course. They look around for a moment, making sure no one else is there.

“Max, what are we doing here?” she asked.

Max looked at her…directly into her eyes. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked in the moonlight. How much he wanted to kiss her…

Max shook himself out of his daydreaming. They were there for a reason.

“When we rescued you, you were covered in bruises,” he explained. “Now they’re all gone.”

Liz raised her eyebrows, not quite believing him. Then, as she felt her face, she knew he was telling the truth. Even the bump from a few minutes earlier was gone now.

“You healed me while I was asleep, didn’t you?” she asked.

Max shook his head.

“I tried to, but I couldn’t,” he informed her. “Your power prevented me from doing anything. Somehow…you healed yourself.”

“Max, I can’t…” she argued.

“Yes you can!” Max corrected her. “You have the power to. You just…you don’t understand it.”

He wandered a few feet away.

“While you were gone…” he started to say. “Michael made me think about something. His powers…he used to have no control over them. Mainly because he didn’t have any control over himself. Over his emotions. Then, when you were gone, I had the same problem. I think that, maybe, that’s how our powers work. How yours work, too.”

Liz walked up to him. Now this was something she could understand. The scientist in her started going over this theory.

“So they’re powered by emotions?” she asked. “Emotional and hormonal responses?”

Max nods.

“Exactly,” he said. “The stronger the feeling, the more powerful the energy. Negative emotions equals negative energy.”

“Then positive emotions would create positive energy,” she concluded. “Like protection and healing. I…I made a shield at the Kent farm. There was a grenade…”

She turned the other way, starting to think.

“I was mad at you, Max,” she confessed, her eyes closed, “I still am. But when I saw your face, I was relieved. That’s probably why I could heal myself.”

“I was thinking…” Max continued. “That maybe if we found a way to control it. You could help us, you know? You wouldn’t be in danger anymore. You could protect yourself.”

She took a deep breath. Max didn’t understand it, did he? What she was going through.

Finally, she just went ahead and said it.

“I don’t want them controlled, Max. I want them gone.”

He bit his lip nervously. He was afraid of this.

“Stop treating this like a curse, Liz,” he pleaded with her. “Don’t you see…it’s a blessing?”

“I…I can’t go one like this,” she admitted, a tear coming to her eye. “Being afraid, every day. That…that someone like Pierce would catch me again. Hurt me…cut me open…”

That last line made Max’s heart get caught in his throat.

“You know what they did to me in there,” she said, turning to Max. “I…I’m scared. I don’t want to go through that again. Please, if you love me, take these powers back.”

“I can’t,” he whispered sadly.

“Yes, you can!” she said, her voice desperate. Even a little angry. “You can manipulate matter. You can restructure molecules…god, you can bring me back to life, Max! How hard could it be to change a person’s DNA?”

“I’m not god, Liz,” he admitted. “I don’t have the right…”

“Damn your rights and make me normal!” she spat, becoming angrier. Green sparks flew off as she said this.

“Liz…” he said, trying to calm her down.

She wasn’t listening.

“Do you have any idea how much I’ve given up to be with you, Max? Do you?!” she yelled, the energy becoming stronger. “What do I get for it, huh? Oh, we don’t belong together. Oh, you’re married and have a child with someone else. A child, Max! One that’s not mine!”

With her final words, a blast of energy shot towards Max. He barely raised his energy shield in time to deflect it.

Her anger spent, she started crying again.

“Please, just make me like I was?” she begged.

Max lowered his field, and walked up close to her. He looked completely shocked by her outburst.

“It’s been too long,” he told her. “If I tried…you could die, Liz. Is what I am so horrible?”

She didn’t have an answer for him.

That’s when they noticed something in the corner, struggling.

When Liz’s energy blast ricocheted off the shield, it must have flown into the air. There, on the ground, as a small bird. Its wing was singed from the blast, then broken from the sudden impact with the ground.

Liz’s eyes were frozen when she saw it.

“I…” she said. “I…I didn’t mean to…”

Gently, she picked the injured creature off the ground and held it. Is this what she had become? Something that could only inflict pain? On herself? On the man she loved? And now, on this innocent creature.

That’s when she noticed it. Her hand was glowing again.

But, this time, it didn’t hurt her. As a matter of fact, the energy made her feel good. It was warm…soothing.

She opened her hands, and raised the bird into the air. It flew off into the sky, its wing completely healed.

“Oh my god…” she whispered. She stared at herself, astonished. “Did…did I do that?”

An amazed smile came to her face, as she looked at Max. He was smiling right back at her.

“It feels good, doesn’t it?” he asked.

She nodded, and walked up to Max. She put both her hands on his.

“Yeah, it does,” she answered. “I love you.”

Then, they both began to glow. Almost in unison.

“I always wanted to know what it was like from your point of view,” she said, smiling at him.

“And how is it?” he asked, already feeling the connection between them…stronger than ever before.

Incredible, her voice sounded in his head, as they stood in the moonlight.

*****

The next morning, Max and Liz enter the Crashdown hand in hand.

“Well, someone looks like she got lucky,” Chloe commented as they walked in.

Liz blushed, but then shook her head.

“Nope,” she reassured the blonde girl.

Sitting at the table were the Kents, Valenti, and Maria.

“Where’s Clark and Michael?” Max asked them.

“Spaceboy’s gone AWOL again,” Maria informed him. “And Mr. Kent seems quite the tourist. He went straight for the UFO Center.”

“I’m heading to work in about an hour, I’ll talk to him then,” Max replied.

That’s when they noticed someone walk up to them. It was John Jones, the detective that had helped them.

“You should all go there,” he instructed them. “You’ll be safe there.”

Their eyes snap to attention. They never saw him enter.

“Where did you run off to?” Jonathan asked. “Look, detective…safe from who? Who would want to…”

“You needn’t worry about your secrets, Mr. Kent,” Jones reassured him. “No one beyond this table can hear us.”

Liz looked over her shoulder to see that he was telling the truth. Some customers were looking directly towards them…but not AT them. As if they were invisible.

“Who are you?” she asked. “How do you know so much.”

“Just trust me, Elizabeth,” he said. “Kyle has gone missing. As has Max’s sister, Isabel.”

Max went wide-eyed.

“How do you know?” he demanded.

Then the entire building began to shake. However, the customers didn’t seem to notice.

Only the people at the table…who suddenly fell to the ground.

Just then…the wall collapsed inward in a huge explosion.

*****

Out in the desert, Michael Gurin sped through the sand on his motorcycle. It seemed as if everyone had forgotten about Kyle in all the commotion.

Well, everyone except him.

So if everyone wanted to ogle the farmboy…then let them. He was going to actually do something.

“Maria doesn’t like it…tough!” he muttered under his breath.

Kyle was going to look for the pod chamber, and that was the last anyone saw of him. So that’s were Michael was headed.

The, suddenly…something stopped him.

He felt something. A presence that he had felt before. Someone familiar…at the Crashdown…

His eyes went wide in horror as he realized what it was. Who it was!

“No!” he exclaimed, and turned the bike around.

He only hoped he wasn’t too late.

*****

It was easy…that was the first thought that entered her mind as she walked through the hole in the Crashdown.

This is what she liked. Not sneaking around or manipulation. Those things came naturally to her. Which was why K’Var tended to have her work on the inside.

But not this…pure power was something she enjoyed doing. It was what she craved. It was what she wanted.

And Tess Harding always got what she wanted.

“Hi honey,” she greeted the unconscious people on the ground. “I’m home!”

Her eyes scanned the room, at the various humans minding their own business. They couldn’t see her, of course. She was mind warping them all. As far as they were concerned, nothing had happened.

But still…as fun as this was, she had a job to do. K’Var wanted them alive, so she’d bring them alive.

Even Parker, as much as infuriated her. But K’Var promised that, once he got what he wanted, she could do whatever she wanted to the humans.

She smiled.

“So tell me, Max,” she said to the unconscious boy. “Who’s going to stop me from killing your precious girlfriend?”

“Well…there’s me!” a voice called out the way she came in.

A voice she didn’t recognize.

A confidant one.

Tess turned around just in time to see Clark Kent running right towards her…

Faster than a speeding bullet!

TO BE CONTINUED...

Plus, what’s the secret of John Jones. Find out next.