By Kal-El
Part 3
Disclaimer: Clark, Chloe, Lex, Lana, Pete, Whitney, Martha and Jonathan are property of DC Comics and the WB. 'Superman' and all related characters are property of DC Comics. I don't owe them.
Category: Clark/Chloe
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Takes place after 'X-Ray'
Editors Note: Keep in mind that the 'Professor Hamilton' in this story is different than the one from the actual show. This story takes place earlier in the season, so he hasn't shown up yet. I based this Hamilton on the one from the comic books, so that explains any personality differances.
Cut to outside Smallville High. Slow stares at Lex Luthor, not believing what she had just heard.
CHLOE: What…did you call me?
LEX: I gotta admit, your disguise was nearly perfect. For awhile you had even me fooled. But nearly just isn’t good enough.
CHLOE: You little scum.
Clark step in between them.
CLARK: Lane? What’s he talking about, Chloe?
CHLOE: It’s nothing.
Lex grins smugly.
LEX: Oh, it’s something all right. Seems your friend here has been keeping secrets from you. Haven’t you, ‘Chloe’?
CHLOE: Shut up!
CLARK: Chloe, come on…talk to me.
She turns to him.
CHLOE: There’s your answer, Clark. Why I suspect the Luthors so much. You stay around them too long, you’re bound to get hurt.
She walks away, leaving Clark with a dumbfounded look on his face.
He looks towards Lex, obviously mad.
CLARK: What did you do to her?
LEX: For someone who wants a career in crusading for the truth, your friend’s not that good at confronting it.
Clark looks at him for a moment, a bit unsure. Then, finally, he walks away.
LEX: Wait…wait, ok, I give.
Clark stops in mid-step.
*****
Cut to later on, in the fields near the Kent farm. Clark is listening to Lex.
LEX: Her dad’s…he used to be someone my dad knew. General Sam Lane.
CLARK: Her father was in the army?
Lex nods.
LEX: The best. Sam had three types of people around him. People who looked up to him, people who were afraid of him, and people who hated him. No matter what, people respected him.
CLARK: So…what? Why is he in Smallville?
Clark paused, becoming worried.
CLARK: It’s about the meteor rocks, isn’t it? My god, no wonder Chloe…
Lex shook his head.
LEX: No, he hasn’t worked for the government in a long time.
CLARK: Why not?
Lex pauses for a moment, then decided to continue.
LEX: One of the last things Sam did was shut down this terrorist group that had settled in Metropolis. They were planning on attacking the LuthorCorp building, but dear old dad got wind of it. He told Sam, and General Lane shut it down.
Lex lowered his eyes.
LEX: But he didn’t get all of them. There were about three members of the group left. They weren’t happy.
CLARK: So he’s hiding out from them here?
LEX: He and his wife had two daughters. Lucy, age 4, and Lois, age 6. The family was having dinner when they attacked. Sam managed to stop them alone…he had a gun in the cupboard. He was lucky, all he got was a wounded shoulder. Lucy, however, wasn’t so lucky.
Clark stares at him, horrified.
CLARK: (whispering) Oh my god.
LEX: Yeah. The girl died in her older sister’s arms. Little Lois Lane didn’t even move to get out of the way as her father killed the three murderers in a vengeful rage. Maybe she didn’t want to move, I don’t know. All I do know is that Sam Lane disappeared after the funeral, along with his wife and remaining daughter. At least, until I saw him the other day.
Clark looks downwards, taking it all in.
CLARK: I don’t know what to say.
LEX: May I offer you some advice, Clark? Secrets are what we call double-edged swords. They can bring people closer together and they can tear them apart. They can protect people and they can hurt people just as much. But they are walls. All that matters is what you do with the truth once to get at it. Do you exploit it or do you use it to help whoever the secret was protecting.
Lex walks away, leaving Clark alone with what he just discovered.
*****
Cut to night. Chloe is walking into the Smallville drive-in. It was deserted at the moment…the films ended at 2 AM, over an hour ago.
Slowly, she approached it, nothing with her except for a pad of paper and a pen. Then, suddenly, she heard a ‘whooshing’ sound.
She spun around to where it came from, but saw nothing there. She turned back…
…only to see Clark Kent standing right in front of her.
CHLOE: Ahh.
She stumbled back in shock.
CHLOE: Don’t do that! I…I didn’t expect you to show up. There’s no sign of him yet, and…
She walks ahead of him.
CLARK: Chloe?
CHLOE: Just stay back and let me ask the questions. We don’t want to scare him off.
CLARK: Chloe, we have to talk…
She doesn’t answer him.
CHLOE: If we play this right, we can blow the lid off this whole Luthor mess.
Clark begins to get frustrated.
CLARK: Lois?
She stops and closes her eyes.
CHLOE: (whispering) Please don’t call me that again.
Clark walks up to her and puts his hand on her shoulder.
CLARK: I’m sorry.
She brushes his hand off, and turns towards him.
CHLOE: So…how much did Lex tell you?
CLARK: Just who you used to be. And why you’re not anymore. Why didn’t you tell me.
CHLOE: It was a long time ago. Another lifetime.
CLARK: If there’s anything I can…
She begins to get mad.
CHLOE: Look, I don’t need your pity, ok?
Clark is taken aback by her outburst. However, he simply looks at her.
CLARK: You know, some times I think I’m lucky that I’m an orphan. I mean, I never even knew my family at all. They could be dead or alive, and I’ll never ever know.
Chloe bites her lip, understanding what point he’s trying to make.
CHLOE: I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.
He smiles.
CLARK: It’s understandable.
Suddenly, they hear footsteps behind them. Both Clark and Chloe snap to attention and look towards where the sound is coming from.
CLARK: Hey!
It’s the scientist from LuthorCorp. Startled, he covers his eyes with his hands.
HAMILTON: Don’t shoot!
Chloe looks at her pencil and grins.
CHLOE: Don’t worry…it’s not loaded.
Slowly, Hamilton uncovers his eyes and dusts off his clothes.
HAMILTON: Sorry. Just taking precautions. Gosh, this is exciting, isn’t it? Just like in the movies.
Clark raises an eyebrow, then looks towards Chloe.
CLARK: This is your informant?
Hamilton looks over his shoulder.
HAMILTON: Informant? Where?
Then it dawns on him.
HAMILTON: Oh, you’re referring to me, aren’t you? Yes, I guess I am at that. Professor Emil Hamilton at your service.
He extends his hand to greet Clark, who shakes it.
CLARK: Hamilton? The name sound familiar.
CHLOE: He worked for S.T.A.R. labs in Metropolis. One of the people who founded the company. But he left when the board members cut down his funding.
HAMILTON: Yes, that’s correct. Office people…I will never understand them. They told me that some of the experiments I wanted to do had no applications to it. Feh. All they’re interested in is making money. Scientific discovery means absolutely nothing to them. Fortunately Mr. Luthor thought differently.
CLARK: Lionel Luthor hired one of the smartest people in Metropolis but didn’t tell the press about it? That doesn’t sound like him.
HAMILTON: Yes, darndest thing. He won’t even allow me to leave the laboratory, just work on my solar converter. He even had me alter its design slightly, and I don’t like the side-effects. Not one bit.
CHLOE: Wait…solar converter. What side-effects?
Hamilton thinks for a moment.
HAMILTON: You of course know how solar plates work, correct? The solar converter is something I invented to do it one better. It absorbs light, heat…any energy that the sun gives off, and convert it into pure power. Mass-producing one of these would eliminate the necessity for fossil fuels.
CLARK: But you said there were side effects?
Hamilton nodded.
HAMILTON: Not at first. But Lionel Luthor had me alter the design. He had me increase the size of it so that the intake would increase dramatically. With the redesign, it redirected the source of the solar energy it was absorbing by sending radio waves towards it.
CLARK: Redirected?
CHLOE: Like a magnifying glass. It means more sun on a specific area, right? Wouldn’t that melt the converter.
HAMILTON: No. It’s not that accurate. The increased solar energy would concentrate on a ten-mile radius.
Clark’s jaw drops.
CLARK: Smallville. Chloe, this converter thing is the reason for this whole heat wave. He’s gotta shut it down.
CHLOE: I don’t think it’s that simple. Lionel probably has the controls himself.
HAMILTON: Correct, but it gets worse…
CHLOE: How worse.
Hamilton looks worried.
HAMILTON: He wants too much energy. He’s stockpiling it at the lab, but the storage cells aren’t big enough. It’s taxed to the limit. Within a few days it will erupt.
CHLOE: Then that solves the problem, right?
The absolute terror in Professor Hamilton’s eyes tell her otherwise.
HAMILTON: He won’t listen. The damned fool won’t listen to me. With that much energy stores, it’ll erupt outwards. When it erupts, the result would be akin to a miniature super-nova.
CLARK: Oh my god…
HAMILTON: Yes, it will destroy the converter, as well as the lab. However, I fear that it just may take all of Kansas with it.
Clark backs up in shock, not knowing what to make of it.
Then he starts to run.
CHLOE: Clark…CLARK?!
He takes off towards the entrance, with Chloe following.
Once he’s outside the entrance, the runs away at super speed. By the time Chloe gets there, he’s long gone.
*****
Cut to Clark arriving at the Kent farmhouse. He enters, looking around.
CLARK: MOM?! DAD?!
No answer.
He runs outside, into the barn.
CLARK: You’ve got to get out of here. Out of Smallville…out of Kansas…you have to…to…
Then it hit him.
All at once, he heard dozens of voices all at once. Loud voices, both male and female, assaulting him from every angle.
VOICE: Order Chinese?
VOICE: I’m sick of your complaining.
VOICE: You’re breaking up with me?!
VOICE: WHAAAAAHHHH!!!!
VOICE: Don’t talk back to me!
CHLOE'S VOICE: Clark!
VOICE: Goodnight, I’ll see you tomorrow.
VOICE: Chow time!
Finally, he looses it. He opens his eyes, which begin to glow bright red.
CLARK: Get…out…of…my…HEAD!!!
With that last word, twin beams of red energy erupt from his eyes. When they touch a haystack, it immediately bursts into flames.
Clark looks horrified when he sees what he’s done.
CLARK: NO!
Another blast comes from his eyes, setting another haystack on fire.
In a panic, he begins to run around the barn at super speed. He runs so fast that it creates a mini-whirlwind, frightening many of the animals inside.
*****
Cut to outside. A car pulls up to the Kent farmhouse, and Chloe hops out.
CHLOE: Thanks for the lift.
The driver nods, then drives off.
The second he’s gone, Chloe notices the commotion coming from the barn.
CHLOE: What in the…
She runs towards it.
*****
Cut to inside the barn. Chloe slowly opens the door, only to see the miniature twister in the middle of it. He dies down, and Clark is where it used to be.
Only his shirt’s on fire.
CHLOE: CLARK!!!
She runs towards him, but the fire has died down by the time she reaches him, burning off his shirt. And the strangest thing is…there isn’t a single burn mark on him.
CLARK: Please…stay away…
CHLOE: Clark…what happened to…
He looks up at her, his eyes still glowing red.
CLARK: Please…just stay away.
She stares at him in shock.
Next: Chloe now knows Clark’s secret…so what happens next? Hamilton may just be able to explain why Clark’s powers are going out of control, but can they possibly trust him. Is there any hope of stopping Lionel Luthor before in incinerates Kansas?
Find out in part 4.