The next morning, Grandpa drove Emily to school. Jack had driven in earlier with a friend who lived nearby, since he needed to develop some pictures before class.
Not only did Grandpa drop her off right in front of the school building, he insisted on walking her right up to the front door. The other kids on the grounds stared at her. Emily would have been embarrassed at her old school, but... nobody seemed to like her here anyway. So what did she care what they thought? She gave Grandpa a kiss on the cheek before he headed back to the car, which seemed to surprise him.
Emily spent the first few classes as a bundle of nerves until lunch time. When everybody else headed to the cafeteria, she headed for Mrs. Bailes's classroom.
Mrs. Bailes was ready for her. She read each question aloud slowly, just the way Grandma did. Emily found herself calming down after the first question was read and she realized that she knew the exact answer.
Mrs. Bailes took notes as Emily gave her answer aloud. The teacher gave no indication about whether she was pleased or displeased with the answer, which was a bit unnerving but, Emily assumed, only fair.
When Emily finished, ten minutes before the end of lunch, Mrs. Bailes finally gave her a smile. "You did well, Emily," she said. "I need to review your answers again to give you an exact grade, but you definitely passed. How about we'll do all your tests this way from now on, or at least until you get your glasses?"
"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Bailes!" Emily said. She had a strong urge to hug the teacher, but while that was acceptable in elementary school, she had a feeling it wasn't exactly encouraged in middle school. She settled for saying, "Thank you!" again and rushing off to her locker almost skipping with happiness.
When she came back into the classroom after lunch with her books, Mrs. Bailes was waiting for her. "Emily, I have a message for you," she said, calling her over. Emily walked up to her desk. "The office just paged me. They said that your mother just called and said everything has been taken care of at home and to check the front-page news tomorrow. They seemed to think you'd understand what that meant."
Emily let out her breath in a whoosh. "Oh, yes, I do! That's so great!"
"They also said that your parents are coming up to the farm, and they'd like you to come home now. Jack has been called over at his school, and he'll give you a ride back."
Emily gave the teacher a huge grin. "Thank you! Can I go now, then?"
"Yes, but stop by the office to sign out first, okay?"
Emily nodded and almost ran out of the classroom and down the hallway to the office. Mom and Dad were okay, and she could go home!
She slowed. She'd be going home... she was glad to be going home to her friends, of course. But her super-hearing was so much more difficult to handle in the big city. And what about her new vision powers? Would the teacher at Metropolis Union be as willing to let Emily take her tests orally until her vision settled?
She'd miss her grandparents, too. She'd really enjoyed getting to know them better by staying here. Of course, she'd grown up seeing them far more than any normal Metropolis kid would see his or her Kansas grandparents. Her father usually flew the whole family to Smallville every Sunday afternoon. But she'd still never stayed with them for weeks before.
And what about Nathan? Oh, sure, he wasn't exactly what she would call a friend. But she'd thought she was beginning to understand him, maybe. She'd thought about trying to see if she could win him over, get him to stop being a bully. It was probably a long shot, anyway, but... what would happen now that she was gone?
Emily walked slowly into the office and up to the secretary, who recognized her instantly. "Oh, you're Lois Lane's daughter!" she said, smiling brightly. "And Clark Kent's," she added almost as an afterthought.
Emily bit back a grin. Even after all these years, her mother tended to get all the notoriety, since her father often had to "disappear" at crucial moments to reappear as Superman.
"I'm supposed to meet my parents at home, so I need to sign out," she said.
"Of course. Just write your name and the time here. I'll write you a pass," the secretary said.
"So what are you here for?" a voice said from behind her. She turned to see Nathan sitting on the waiting bench by the wall.
"I'm going home early. My parents are here," she said.
He looked surprised. "Does that mean you're going back to Metropolis now?"
So he knew where she was from? That was interesting. "I'm not sure. Maybe. They might have me finish out the week here, I guess."
"Bet you're happy to be going home."
She shrugged. "Yeah, I miss my friends. But mostly I'm glad that the story is over and the bad guys in jail, yadda yadda. Last night my mom called and she was all freaked out. Turned out the drug dealers they were after had threatened them with pictures of Jack and me going to school here. She was so worried that she had Grandpa drive me to school instead of me taking the bus."
"I'd wondered where you were this morning. I'm glad they got the story."
"Mom says it'll be in the morning edition of the Daily Planet tomorrow. Check it out if you get the chance." Emily couldn't believe that she was actually having a halfway decent conversation with Nathan MacGillivray.
"So why are *you* here?" she suddenly thought to ask.
He grimaced. "Fighting. They're probably going to suspend me. It's my third fight of the year, third one they caught me at, anyway. And they have that stupid three-strikes rule."
"Who were you stealing lunch money from this time?" Emily asked darkly. She should have known that he was here because he'd been bullying again.
"Nobody. Me and that kid from the basketball game yesterday, we had words."
"Oh." She didn't know what to say to that.
"All right, Emily, here's your pass. And yours, Mr. MacGillivray. Three days' suspension. I don't want to see you on the school grounds until then. And that pass needs to be signed by your father."
Emily headed for the office doors.
"Hey, Emily, wait up!" Nathan called, trotting after her.
"What?"
"Well... I know the bad guys got caught and all, but... if your mom was all worried yesterday, you still probably shouldn't be hanging around outside alone."
"My brother's coming to pick me up," she said, pushing open the school doors and walking into the bright sunlight.
"Yeah, but he's not here yet. Why don't I wait with you?"
Emily was about to tell him to go on home, but it occurred to her that she *had* wanted to see if she could help Nathan before she left for Metropolis. This might be her last chance.
"Well, okay."
She sat down on the grass by the flagpole and picked a long, flat blade. She held it between her thumbs and blew into it, making a honking noise.
Nathan laughed.
"What, you've never blown grass blades before?" she asked.
"Oh, sure I have. I just wouldn't have thought you were the type to make such a... rude sound."
She threw the grass blade at him, and he laughed.
"Do you want to come over?" she asked before she could change her mind. "I mean, my parents will be there and all. But I could at least show you around before you leave. Besides, you have to get home somehow, don't you?"
He nodded. "I was just gonna wait for the bus. The secretary always tells me to get off the school grounds, but then how else would I get home?"
"Always? How often have you been suspended?"
"This is the first time this year. Twice last year, though."
"For fighting?"
He hesitated. "For bullying."
Emily tried to think of a delicate way to broach the subject, but she couldn't. "Why do you do it? Bullying, I mean?"
"I guess I... I don't know. It makes kids leave me alone, for the most part."
"What would they do if they didn't leave you alone? Tease you?"
"They did when I was little."
Emily wasn't sure what to say to that. Had they teased him because he'd been too big? Had he been so tall, so much bigger than the other kids even then? Or was it just how kids could be, always picking on somebody as the scapegoat, sometimes for no reason at all?
He looked embarrassed to have told her so much. He tossed a rock in the direction of the flag pole, and Emily winced at the ding it made.
"So..." she prompted.
"I guess I could ride home with you," he said. "I haven't seen the Kent place in years. You sure your brother won't care?"
"Nah, he won't mind. And there he is!" she said, standing up and brushing the grass off her backpack and pants as the car approached.
Jack looked just as confused as she felt. Half-ecstatic, half-disappointed. He'd probably miss the yearbook club, and Chloe. But he loved Metropolis and the busy hustle-bustle of the city.
"Hey, Jack, Nathan's coming home with us, okay?" Emily said, leaning into the passenger seat.
"Sure. Get in."
Emily and Nathan climbed in and buckled their seatbelts, which were especially needed the way Jack drove sometimes.
They reached the farmhouse and got out of the car. But something seemed... wrong. They hadn't expected to see a car for their parents, of course, since Superman Express was still generally the way they traveled. But surely there would be some signs that somebody was here, right?
"Emily, stay back," Jack said, approaching the house. He tried the door, which was unlocked, and then stepped inside.
Emily and Nathan, who had not stayed in the car, peered in behind him. The house was dark, lit only by the sun from outside. And it was very obvious that nobody was home.
"Mom? Dad?" Jack called.
"Grandma? Grandpa?" Emily knew that her grandfather would usually be out doing farm chores at this hour, but if their parents were home, surely he would be inside visiting with them.
"Are you sure they said to meet here?" Nathan asked, sounding nervous.
"Positive," Jack said grimly. "Em, Nathan, I think we should wait by the car."
They turned towards the door. "Too late," a man said. He was silhouetted against the door frame, and he clearly held a gun.
"Now!" he said, and suddenly Emily felt herself grabbed from behind. Something awful-smelling was shoved in her face, and everything swam before her eyes. She could tell that Nathan and Jack had been grabbed, too. Then everything went black.
******
Emily opened her eyes. Her head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and it was hard to see at first. Everything was blurry, as if her x-ray vision was completely malfunctioning.
"Jack?" she whispered.
"I'm here," her brother's voice called to her from the darkness.
"Me, too," she heard Nathan say.
"Shut up, back there," an adult voice said, sounding rather annoyed.
"Where are we?" Emily whispered so quietly that she knew only her brother would be able to hear.
His whisper back was likewise quiet. It was a good thing that Emily's super-hearing was the one power she had pretty much under control. "Dunno. We were in a truck earlier, I could feel the jolting. We've stopped moving, but I think we're still in the truck."
"Why didn't you stop them from taking us?" she asked.
"Well, the chloroform didn't knock me out, but it did make me a bit woozy. Chalk that up as another vulnerability. That, and..." He hesitated.
"What?"
"He had a gun to your head, Em. I'm fast, but... it wasn't a risk I was willing to take. Now, maybe they'll relax their guard. Figure we're just kids. You know?"
A hand suddenly touched her arm. Emily started, as she'd believed her brother to be several feet away given the distance of his voice. But then she realized the hand was too small to be Jack's... it was Nathan's. She gave it a squeeze.
"We'll be okay," she whispered into what she thought was his ear.
There was suddenly a loud scraping noise and a flash of light as the back door to the truck was lifted suddenly up. Emily shielded her eyes against the flashlight the man at the opening held. "All right, all of you, get out. And don't try anything, or I'll shoot. I don't need three hostages, one or two will suffice, trust me. And shooting one of you will show the Kents that I'm serious."
Emily scooted her way towards the door and slid onto the ground. Her hands and feet were both tied together, her hands behind her back. She could look around, though. They were in what looked like a warehouse district. She didn't recognize any of the buildings, and there was no dock, no water, so it certainly wasn't the West River district or Hobb's Bay. Probably not Metropolis, then.
While her captors were busy watching Jack and Nathan drag themselves off the truck, Emily decided she'd have to take the risk. "Superman!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "Help, Superman!"
The closest thug immediately grabbed her around the mouth and nose, squeezing so tight Emily was sure she'd suffocate. She struggled desperately, knowing that she was panicking but unable to help it. She tried to hit at him with her fists, but he was too big. Jack launched himself at her captor, and he had to let go in order to ward Jack off.
"Geez, this one's strong," he said to two others. "Hold him tight. Now," he said, turning back to Emily, "little girl, that wasn't very bright. If you don't want to get yourself, or one of the others, killed, then you'd better behave better than that. Besides, there's no way Superman will hear you so far away from Metropolis. Might as well save your breath... what's left of it."
Gasping for air, Emily nodded. All three were marched into the warehouse, four captors around them.
Emily tried to remember what her mother had taught her about being captured by criminals. Lois Lane Kent seemed to get caught or kidnapped about once a week, and she had escape down to a fine art. One of the first rules was to figure out how many bad guys there were, memorize their faces, and keep track of where each was at all times.
So, there were four. No, five, counting the driver of the truck who had just joined up at the rear. All wore ski masks and dark clothing, which made it difficult to tell them apart, but they were at least different heights and builds.
Stocky seemed to be the leader, and he pushed them into the warehouse. There were quite a few other people in the warehouse, most wearing something that looked almost like medical clothing, and they wore masks like doctors might wear over their mouths and noses.
One of them stepped forward. He looked angry. "Craig! What did you bring them here for, you moron!" he shouted at the stocky man.
"Where else did you expect me to take them?"
"Get a cheap hotel room! Something like that! Now they've seen the lab. You've created witnesses, you imbecile! You think we can return them to their parents after this?"
Craig shrugged. "They're kids. They didn't see how we got here, and there's nothing to see. Besides, by the time we let them go back home, this lab'll be closed up and we'll be long-gone."
The other man didn't look convinced. "Just get them in the back. Tie them up or something to keep them out of the way, then get back out here. We need more hands to get this shipment loaded on the truck."
Emily tried to count the workers in the warehouse quickly, but the two men were finished their conversation and she and the boys were pushed through the room before she had more than a general idea of their number.
There was a door at the back of the warehouse, and the three were pushed through it and into a small empty room that had probably once been an office. It had a few chairs, but not much else.
"Search 'em," Craig said to the tall man. "Two of 'em are Lois Lane's kids, so you'd better believe they know how to pick a lock. Take anything that could be used to escape or as a weapon. I need to supervise the arrangements. Once you're sure they're clear, tie 'em up good and well. In fact..." He tossed two pairs of handcuffs to the tall man. "Use them both on the bigger kid. We've already seen how strong he is."
The tall man nodded, and Craig walked out of the room. The tall man patted down Nathan while a skinny man checked Jack.
"You, too," another man said, patting Emily awkwardly. She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore his touch as he looked her over from head to toe. Finally, he yanked her barrettes out of her hair. "Ow!" she exclaimed. "Those are mine!"
He grinned and stuck them in a pocket. She looked over at Nathan and Jack. Both had been divested of their belts. "All of you," the skinny man said sharply, "take off your shoes and your watches. Hand them over."
They were certainly thorough. Once all three kids had given up their shoes and anything that the goons seemed to think could possibly, by any stretch of the imagination, be used as a weapon, they were led over to the chairs.
Jack's chair was placed against the back wall. There was a length of exposed pipe, and he was forced down onto his chair near it. The tall man threaded Jack's arms through the slots in the chair behind him, crossed them, and, using a separate handcuff for each wrist, cuffed him to the pipe.
"I'd like to see any human get out of that one, kid," he said with satisfaction. "Not even Houdini could manage that."
Emily was taken to one of the corners of the room on the opposite wall from Jack. Her hands were also crossed behind her, but since there was nothing on the wall for them to be tied to, they were tied to the rungs at the back of the chair... but carefully tied far enough apart so that she couldn't pull them together to work at the knots. Her ankles were likewise crossed and tied to the legs of the chair, high enough so that they couldn't reach the floor.
She felt a thud as one of the other chairs was pressed into her back. Nathan had been tied to it the same way she was. Then their chairs were lashed together, back-to-back.
The last of the men headed out, leaving the three alone in the room.
"Any idea what they're doing out there?" Emily asked.
"I bet they're making crystal meth," Jack said. "That's the main drug that those drug dealers Mom and Dad were tracking down were selling. They were trying to come up with an even more addictive version of it to sell in those clubs the drug dealers own. Maybe this means they've come up with it? They were talking in the truck about some sort of special shipment."
"Special how?"
"How did you overhear them?" Nathan asked. "Didn't you get knocked out, too?"
Jack shot Emily a glance, then shrugged. "They didn't hold the chlorofoam tightly over my mouth, I guess. I woke up after a few minutes and just feigned unconsciousness for a while."
"Where was the special shipment going?" Emily prompted.
"I don't know," Jack said. "Really. They just said that the special shipment was ready. Something like that."
Emily gazed at him.
"Emily, don't you think I've thought about it? About all of it? But if I try to blast us out of here, I could hurt one of you. And what if they have this room booby-trapped, or something? And crystal meth labs aren't exactly the most stable places in the universe; you hear about them blowing up all the time. It might trigger an explosion."
"Relax, Jack," Nathan said from behind Emily, sounding amused. "You're not Superman."
Emily saw Jack flinch, but he didn't say anything. She shook her head at him. "Quiet," she whispered under her breath. "Don't give it away."
"Give what about?" Nathan asked from behind her.
Emily winced. He had better hearing than she'd given him credit for. Super-hearing was an amazing power, but its use as a secret conversational tool was limited by the inability to speak very quietly and still be clear.
Emily shrugged, and Nathan let out a small "ouch!"
"Sorry."
"You'd better be," he muttered.
"Excuse me?" Emily said, shocked.
"Well, you guys really could have taken a few precautions, you know. I mean, did either of you bother to check whether the person who called the office really was your mother? It was a bit suspicious, you have to admit, encouraging you to come home together, alone, after she'd been so frantic that she had your grandfather drive you to school that morning."
"What, like you knew what was going to happen?" Emily was affronted.
"No, but if I were you I wouldn't have walked into the empty house."
"You did walk into the empty house," Emily reminded him.
"Yes, but I'm me, not you. Not the child of the most notorious news team on the East Coast."
"Did you a fat lot of good, didn't it?" Emily retorted.
"Notorious?" Jack sounded astonished.
Nathan sounded like he'd really like to whack one of them, if he could reach. It was probably best that he couldn't, because he'd either hit steel, or get punched by steel for hitting Emily. "It is your fault that I'm here, though," he said. "Nobody'd have any use for me if it wasn't for you." On the last few words, his voice trembled.
Emily wasn't sure how to respond. She had a feeling that Nathan wasn't entirely talking about his lack of use as a kidnap victim... but if she said something reassuring, she thought it would only humiliate him and anger him more. So she said nothing.
"There's gotta be *something* I can do," Jack muttered. "Would it look suspicious if I got out of my handcuffs?"
"You got a lock pick on you somewhere?" Nathan asked, sounding impressed.
Emily shook her head warningly at Jack.
"I wish." Jack was looking intently at Emily, or, rather, her bound hands. "Ouch!" she exclaimed as she felt a powerful burning sensation as if she'd touched a hot stove. She fought back the tears that came to her eyes.
"Jack, that hurt! I'm not invulnerable, you know."
"What did he do?"
Emily sighed. Having Nathan here was turning out to be a royal pain. Without him, she and Jack would already be untied and be looking around the room for a way out.
Then, she had an idea. She and Jack had, after all, inherited their father's talent for languages.
"Jack, smog bi ti zazhetch dzes agon?" If he could light a fire in the room, maybe their captors would come to rescue them. Maybe. And when they did... she would be ready for them.
Jack shrugged. "Zdes net chevo zazetch."
She looked around the room. He was right. There really wasn't anything to burn, except perhaps their chairs. But they'd have to get out of the chairs first, and that would be hard to do without letting Nathan find out about their powers.
"Krome togo," Jack said, "eti kimikati mogut bit bzrivo-opasniye. Ya mogu ustroit vzriv!"
Emily bit her lip. She hadn't thought about that. As Jack had pointed out earlier, crystal meth labs were always in the news for, well, exploding. But wasn't that because of chemicals mixed together improperly, not because of fire? Besides...
"Y ti smog bi nas unisti otsudo ceyu minutu? Lutshe risknut raneniye, chem zhdat poka oni nas ubyut."
If he had to, Jack could grab them both and get out of the lab fast. But if they stayed here... who knew if they'd really be returned to their parents, even if their parents gave in to the drug lords' commands.
If only it was dark enough that nobody could see what they were doing...
What about the electricity? "Mozem svet ubrat?"
Emily saw Jack turn his head and scan the walls. She could tell the moment he found the electrical wires. His entire expression lit up. Then he frowned in concentration.
"What if you get hurt?" he asked, forgetting to speak in Russian.
"We'll be fine. I trust you," she said.
tbc...
