Second Choice: 5/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
There was a long silence. Finally Lois said, "I think your Dad was right. Didn't I tell you you're too trusting?"
Somewhere inside him, a tight knot was unwinding. "And I told you I'm a good judge of character."
"Yeah, well the next time you might be wrong. You've got to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this, Clark. You're my best friend, and I'm telling you. Don't tell anybody else. I don't want you to get dissected. Promise me you'll be careful?"
"Okay," he said. "I promise."
"Good," she said. "Start thinking ahead from now on. You could have been in a lot of trouble this evening."
"Yes," he admitted, "But I couldn't let you die, could I?"
"I'm glad you didn't -- but we'll have to explain how you got out here when we tell the sheriff about the pot farm."
"I came with you in your car," Clark said. "And followed you when the guy held you up and dumped you in the lake."
She was silent again, obviously thinking. "Okay, I think that'll work," she said. "What about Mr. Irig? Isn't he going to wonder how you got out here?"
"I'm supposed to be looking for Molly," Clark said. "I'll explain when I get back that I got sidetracked. Wayne doesn't ask a lot of questions." The trees opened up ahead of them and a short distance away he could see the highway. "Do you mind if I pick you up? I think we can get back to that greenhouse before the owner does if I run."
"Really?" Lois's voice sounded a little breathless. "Okay then, let's go!"
**********
And now, Part 5:
As far as Clark could tell, Lois wasn't anywhere nearby. He'd walked nearly the length of the street and hadn't heard her heartbeat, nor had he spotted her with any of the visual scanning that he'd been doing.
He was tempted to go back to Wayne's and talk to Lois in the morning, but some little instinct told him that he would do better to find her now.
She definitely wasn't with Ronnie Davis, he saw a moment later. Ronnie's red Mustang convertible, complete with Ronnie behind the wheel and a blond that looked strongly like Lana, came cruising slowly down the street and pulled to a stop at Smallville's one red light. Well, that eliminated one possibility. So Lois was either upset about something, or she was off tracking down another story with the hopes of getting it accepted by the Smallville Press.
In spite of the fact that her discovery of the pot-growing operation had resulted in an arrest by Sheriff Harris, and her story had made it onto the front page, the paper's owners hadn't been able to hire her. She was under age, for one thing, Mr. Blume had pointed out gently, and while they would be more than happy to accept stories like the marijuana bust from her, they couldn't put her on the staff until she was eighteen. He had, however, mitigated the refusal by paying a pretty decent sum for the story. Lois had told Clark later that, even if it wasn't everything she wanted, it was a step in the right direction. Her name had appeared on a front-page story, even if it was a small town paper in the Midwest. It would look good on her resume some day in the future, and she would be freelancing for the paper whenever she could from now on. Clark wished her good luck, but privately hoped that she wouldn't encounter too much more in the way of big time crime in Smallville in the near future.
And Lois no longer doubted the story he had told her. In fact, a few days later, after all the excitement from the discovery of a drug growing and distribution operation in Smallville had subsided somewhat, she had suggested that they should take a walk out somewhere well away from town, where there was no danger of their being overheard and that he could give her all the details that had necessarily been left out that night at the lake.
She had borrowed her mother's car again, and they had driven out in the direction of Porcupine Gulch, which was actually an ancient, abandoned quarry. Once there, they had gotten out of the little car and walked while he told her the story of how his parents had seen what they thought was a meteor in the sky and tracked it down, only to find a tiny ship of unknown origin with a baby inside.
"A rocket?" Lois asked, when he described the ship.
"They didn't know what it was," he said. "Dad said some people claiming to be from Cape Kennedy came by a few days later, saying that Houston had tracked some space debris that had fallen somewhere in the area. Mom and Dad were afraid they were after me, so they didn't say anything. After a while the men left again."
"Who do you suppose they were?" Lois asked.
"I don't know. They never found the ship, though. Dad hid it under the floor of the storm cellar. It's still there. I went back a couple of years ago to look at it, after more stuff happened."
"What *did* happen?" Lois asked, and he had told her how the strange powers had appeared, one by one, and how he had learned to cope with them.
"I was scared I'd burn somebody by accident," he admitted. "And when the x-ray vision started up I spent most of my time staring at the ground. I mean, I accidentally looked into the girls' locker room that first day. I couldn't look Rachel in the eyes for a week afterwards."
Lois eyed him with a sort of awe. "Most guys wouldn't think that was a problem," she said.
"I guess," Clark said. "My mom and dad taught me to respect girls, though -- even back when I thought they all had cooties."
Lois laughed. He couldn't help thinking how sexy that laugh was, and he was equally sure she had no idea of how it affected him.
"You learned how to control this 'x-ray vision' thing since, haven't you?" Lois asked. "That's the important thing."
"Yeah. That was back in ninth grade. It was the last power that appeared. I just hope no more show up."
"No kidding," Lois agreed. "Did your parents ever say why they thought this was happening to you?"
Clark shrugged. "The only powers they knew about were the hearing and the speed -- and the strength. I started to get a lot stronger than a ten-year-old kid should be. Dad told me he and Mom figured I was some kind of scientific experiment -- that somebody had been trying to develop some kind of super being, and that I mustn't ever let on that I could do this stuff. He was afraid that whoever had given me these powers might try to take me back and make me work for the government -- or if maybe the Russians had done it, our government would dissect me to try to figure out how the powers worked. After the accident I was scared whoever 'they' were would come and get me, but nobody ever did. I was pretty careful."
"I don't blame you a bit," Lois said. "Nobody ever found out, did they?"
Clark shrugged. "I don't think so -- although I wonder about Wayne, sometimes. He doesn't talk much, and he never asks me questions when something odd happens. I kind of wonder if he knows something but figures the less said the better."
They had walked partway around the quarry and stopped on the lip of a bluff above the deep cut in the hillside. A brisk November wind was blowing but neither of them paid attention to it. "So I'm the only one you ever told?" Lois asked.
"Yeah," Clark admitted. "You're the only person I ever had to rescue from attempted murder. I couldn't let you drown. Besides, I really didn't think you'd tell anyone about me."
"Well, you were right about that," Lois said. "Besides, even if I did, who would believe me? Not that I would, anyway," she added hastily.
"I know," he said. He glanced at his watch. "I have to get home pretty soon. I have to help Wayne reinforce the fence. He's got this one cow that's always getting through it. Last week she got out and the next thing Nettie knew, Mollie was standing there in the middle of her living room, chewing her cud. The front door's latch hadn't caught and she'd just pushed it open and walked in."
"What did you *do*"
"Well, Nettie tried to lead her out but Mollie wouldn't budge. Then she tried to push her out, but you might as well push on a brick wall. If a cow doesn't want to move, she isn't going to."
"Couldn't *you* get her out?" Lois wanted to know.
"That's what I was wondering. Nettie was pretty worried about her carpet."
"I would be, too! What happened?"
"Well, Wayne came in and grabbed the strap around her neck -- you know: the thing the cow bell is fastened on -- and yanked on it, and you know, she followed him out without any trouble at all. Wayne has a way with animals. He says it's 'cause he knows how to get their attention. But he doesn't want Molly breaking out again. The next time she might wind up out in the road and get hit by a truck or something."
"Yeah," Lois agreed. "Poor cow."
"Wouldn't do whatever hit her any good, either," Clark said. "I guess we'd better go."
Lois had nodded and started to turn, and that was when it had happened. Her foot slipped on a patch of grass and she staggered for an instant, trying to get her balance. Clark reached out to steady her, just as she overbalanced and fell.
Clark grabbed for her, off balance, and the next instant, clutching each other, they went over the edge together. Lois screamed.
All Clark could think of was that he couldn't let her die. Not now. Not the best friend he'd ever had. Then he became aware of something out of place. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked down.
They were hovering in the air, forty feet above the floor of the ancient quarry.
In utter silence they hung suspended in mid air, neither quite believing what had happened.
"Clark?" Lois's muffled voice brought his attention back to her.
"What?"
"Are we floating?"
He looked down. "Yeah. I think so."
"*How* are we doing this?"
He looked down again and back at her face, bare inches from his own. She looked almost as stunned as he felt. "Um ... I think it must be me doing it."
"You mean you can *fly*?"
He gulped. "I guess so."
"Then fly us out of here!" she commanded.
His brain seemed to have gone completely numb. "Uh -- I don't know how."
"Well, how do your other powers work? The ones you can turn off and on." Lois demanded.
"Uh...I sort of *want* them to," he'd managed to stutter back.
"Well, for Pete's sake, *want* us to fly back up there!" she commanded him.
Her exasperated voice had managed to startle him out of the shock that seemed to have paralyzed every individual muscle and brain cell, and he nodded shakily. "I'll try."
And like that, it had worked. They began to rise slowly back toward the bluff from which they had fallen, and, less than fifteen seconds later, they came to a landing on the hill above the quarry.
Lois sat down hard, her legs apparently unable to hold her upright. Clark sat down beside her, equally shaken. For almost a full minute they stared at each other in shock. Finally Lois spoke.
"Wow," she said faintly.
That seemed to cover it.
**********
After they had recovered somewhat, Lois and he had walked back to the car. Neither of them said much. Clark had been trying to absorb the implications of this brand new power that had suddenly manifested itself to be put to instant, emergency use. Lois had been silent, too, until she pulled the car to a stop by the side of the highway that ran past the Irig farm. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow," she said finally.
His heart sank. "Are you scared of me now?" he asked bluntly.
Her eyes widened. "*Scared* of you? Clark, you saved my life! Again!"
"So you're not scared?"
"Of course not! Just -- kind of stunned, I think. Do you have any days off at all this week?"
"I'm free most of Sunday -- after I do the chores," he said. "Why?"
"I was just wondering --" She broke off, looking a little unsure.
"You were wondering?"
"If you could take me over to your old home and we could go down in the storm cellar and you could let me look at your ship."
He began to grin. "You're something else, you know that? You just fell over a cliff!"
"So what?" Lois said. "Nothing bad happened, thanks to you. You have to learn not to dwell on the past, Clark. It's not worth it. Why don't I pick you up at noon on Sunday?"
Which was how they found themselves on the Kent farm, three days later, clambering down the steps into the Kent family's ancient storm cellar.
"Watch your step," Clark said. He held the flashlight he had brought from the Irig farm so that she could see where to put her feet.
"There aren't any rats down here, are there?" Lois asked as she lowered herself cautiously down the rungs,
"No," Clark assured her. "There's nothing for them to eat."
"Did you ever actually use this place?" she asked as her feet touched the floor.
"Sure. A couple of times," Clark said. "A twister came within a mile or so of us when I was five. We stayed down here for an hour, maybe -- and another time when I was eight."
"I haven't seen any since I've been here," Lois said. "Do they happen very often?"
"It's been a quiet year so far," Clark said. He walked over to a section of the floor where a dusty wooden box sat, supporting an ancient oil lamp with a cracked glass chimney. Carefully he moved the box to one side and bent. It took only a second to find the fingerhold in one of the floorboards and he lifted the section of floor upward. Lois stood back, holding her own flashlight steady for him. "Wow!" she said softly.
Clark leaned the wooden section up against one of the walls of the cellar and flashed his light into the hole. Something inside reflected back the light in rainbow colors. He looked down for the second time on the strange, silver-skinned vessel that had somehow brought him to Shuster's Field.
Lois approached carefully and knelt by the edge of the hole, looking down also at the ship. "Wow!" she whispered again.
It didn't really look like any of the big rockets that EPRAD fired into space, carrying weather satellites and space shuttles out of the Earth's atmosphere. For one thing, no full-grown human being could have squeezed into it. It had been meant for a baby -- for him.
"What's this symbol on the front? Lois asked. "It looks like an 'S'."
"I don't know," Clark said. "There's another one -- sort of like a big cloth decal that looks like it -- in the ship. And some blankets. I guess they were for the baby -- me, I mean."
"Can you open it?" Lois wanted to know.
"I guess so," Clark said. He knelt beside the hole and reached down, sliding his fingers under a narrow ridge of metal. With deceptive ease, the top of the rounded front end of the craft lifted easily to disclose the padded interior where he had lain.
"Wow!" Lois said again. She leaned over, flashing her light into the cavity thus revealed. "They found you inside this? It doesn't really look like a rocket, does it -- more like a space ship you see in comic books or something."
"Kind of, yeah," Clark said.
Inside, neatly folded by Martha Kent's hand, were two thick blue blankets of some very soft material, and resting atop them was the large 'S' decal that matched the symbol on the ship. Shut inside the tiny ship, they were free of dust and clean as the night that Jonathan and Martha Kent had found this strange craft.
"What's that?" Lois asked. She shifted her flashlight's beam so that something within the craft gleamed dully in the light and then flashed more brightly. "Do you see that? What is it?"
"I don't know," Clark said. He knelt on the ancient floorboards, shining his light into the foremost section of the little ship. There was something there, nearly concealed by the fabric of the blankets, something spherical that he had not noticed before. It had either rolled or been tucked far into the nose where it was almost invisible to all but the most careful inspection. Cautiously, he bent and stretched his arm out. It was almost out of his reach, but he leaned forward until he was almost certain that he was going to overbalance, and his hand closed around the object.
And he nearly dropped it. It felt like some sort of crystal, smooth and slick to the touch but, unlike any crystal that he had touched before, this substance was warm. Clutching his prize, he backed up.
"What is it?" Lois asked again.
"I don't know," he repeated. "I'm going to take it out with me and we can look at it out there. Have you seen enough of the ship?"
"I guess so," Lois said. "We'd better cover it up again, just in case somebody decides to come down here. Kids or somebody."
"Yeah." Clark manhandled the section of boards back down over the ship, hiding it away again and set the wooden box holding the lantern back on the boards. Finished, he picked up the strange sphere again.
It began to glow, a soft white light radiating from it, and he let it go quickly, but the ball didn't drop to the ground as it should have. It rose slowly until it was on a level with his eyes and then remained there, floating motionless in the air -- and suddenly the featureless surface changed.
"What's happening?" Lois breathed, staring fascinated at the phenomenon. Even now, riveted by what was occurring in front of him, Clark found an instant to marvel at Lois's courage. Other girls might have fled in panic. She stood still, watching.
The surface swirled with color, taking on a reddish hue. The swirls of red resolved themselves into an irregular shape glowing in an ocean of white. Clark leaned forward suddenly as a single word reverberated softly in his head and he knew, not knowing how he knew, that the globe had spoken to him.
"Krypton," he whispered.
"What?" Lois asked.
The colors began to swirl again, and the red became mixed with blue, green and brown and slowly faded away, leaving the other colors behind. What they saw now on the surface of the sphere was something far more familiar. It was a tiny and yet perfect representation of the Earth.
"Oh my god," Lois whispered. "Clark, do you see? That red thing was a continent. It was showing you another world!"
Almost instinctively, he extended a hand. The glowing sphere moved slowly and gracefully to settle in his palm and the glow began to fade. "Krypton," he repeated in a hushed voice, awed at the implications of what had just happened.
"What?"
"It showed us Krypton," he said, cupping the globe in both hands. There was nothing unusual about it now. It was merely a ball with Earth's continents pictured on the surface.
"How do you know?" Lois asked. There was no disbelief in her voice; only curiosity.
"It told me so," Clark said. He lifted his gaze from the sphere and looked at Lois, a faint tingle running up his spine. "It spoke to me -- in my head. That was Krypton -- the planet where I was born."
**********
tbc
