A Different Smallville

After a while, Clark stopped by to talk with Lana who was currently working the counter at the Talon. He had learned from Chloe that she might know something about who Jake lost friends were, as apparently Jake approached her after school. Which made Leonardo grumble about divas and grumpy teenage girls.

"Hi, Lana, how are you doing?" Clark asked as he sat his school bag on the chair next to him.

"Hi, Clark, I haven't seen you in a while." Lana smiled at him.

"Been busy lately." Clark awkwardly replied.

While that statement was fairly true, it wasn't the entire reason either. Truth is, since returning from Egypt, he has been avoiding this place and her. Which was more because he didn't know if she would throw coffee at him for being away from Smallville for so long.

"I heard." Lana's eyes slightly narrowed before opening back up a bit. "What can I help you with?"

"Now, I don't mean to upset you, but I am here about Paul. I'm doing an article about him." Clark tried to explain.

Lana put on her fake smile and tried to look eager to help. "That's great, Clark. What do you want to know?"

'Be careful Clark. This snake is about to strike.' Leonardo sighed. 'I don't see what attracts her to you since she likes ambitious, powerful or men with status. Not a farm boy who appears average.'

Clark lightly put aside Leonardo's words for the moment as he didn't feel like arguing about this topic again. "Well, you told the police he had a friend with him when he approached you, and I was wondering if you could point him out."

Pulling out a yearbook, Clark opened it and began to flip through it. His skin tingled a bit as Lana lightly touched his hand to stop him from turning the page.

"I think that's him." Lana almost purred in his ear.

"Van McNulty. Thanks." Clark almost bit his tongue at her forwardness.

'Time to leave, Clark.' Leonardo said. 'You would think after months of being away, you would put your emotions in order.'

'I can't help it, when I saw her all the emotions rushed back.' Clark sighed. 'Besides, she is not a bad person.'

'Bad no, toxic to your mental health yes.' Leonardo snipped back.

'Lana is not toxic.' Clark quipped back.

'To others, maybe not, but to you she is. Clark, you were doing so well when we were in Egypt, but as soon as we returned. You began to slide backwards before we went on the trip where you feel restricted.' Leonardo said. 'Granted it is not all Lana, but I feel she is a big part of it.'

'I'm not going to talk about that now.' Clark said, putting an end to the conversation.

Before Clark picked up his bag, Chloe came charging in. "Hey, so we can rule out the Himalayan yoga masters. Check out what my connection at the coroner's office gave me."

Opening a file on the counter, pictures of gill-like features were presented before them. Which made Lana frown as she looked away. Though slightly odd due to being on a human body, it wasn't something someone would almost gag at.

"You're not gonna see any of this in Jake's official autopsy report. Believe it or not, they're gills." Chloe smiled lightly.

"That's disgusting. He really was a freak of nature." Lana said.

"Hey, besides trying to drown you, it's not like he did anything bad with them. If anything he probably just had a horny break from reality for a moment when he tried to drown you." Leonardo said. "Besides, there are plenty of people with abilities, and not all are bad people. Remember Cassandra or Kyle."

"Personally I find the gaping bullet wound more disturbing." Clark broke up Leonardo rant. "Lana you're lucky that the bullet didn't hit you."

"Forgive me if I don't have more sympathy for the guy who tried to drown me or just like Greg Arkin didn't ask to become a bug boy and Tina Greer didn't ask to become a bone morpher. Look, the fact is when they got their powers they went psycho and tried to kill me. Tina even came back for seconds. Chloe's been attacked by more of these people than me." Lana clenches her fist.

"Tina had some mental issues that cropped up years after years of having her abilities." Leonardo added.

"Who cares, these freaks often come after me and Chloe." Lana said with Chloe nodding.

"So you two think that they should be killed for being different, having abilities they might not have asked for?" Clark said calmly.

"They are a threat. What happens when the police can't stop them or we get lucky enough to save ourselves." Lana said.

'Technically, we save you, but whatever.' Leonardo sarcastically grumbled.

"I disagree, yes we had some run in with a few bad apples of the ability bunch. However, throwing them all into the same crowd is a bit much." Chloe distances herself from Lana.

"Well, before this conversation really gets more heated, I am going out to see what I can dig up about the Smallville latest anti-hero." Clark calmly said as he grabbed his stuff and walked away.

After watching Clark leave through the door, Chloe turned to Lana. "What's wrong with him?"

"Maybe he is a hero hater." Lana shrugged. "Well, hates other heroes outside of himself."

--

Clark managed to track down Van who was listening to the police radio and saw a similar looking man in a picture. Which made something click in his head which was only confirmed after double checking things over. Even if it was a bit of a jump in logic and reasoning.

"So the marine that Tina killed when he was delivering news of Whitney's Death was Van's father. He wants revenge but since Tina's already dead, he hunts down other meteor infected." Clark murmured to himself sadly. "Since there were two other victims with a similar rock nearby."

'The meteor shower would have happened with or without you coming along with it.' Leonardo calmly said. 'It is just like how you can't control others actions where some just want to do evil because they can. Hence be it natural disaster to hit men and serial killers are outside your control and can't blame yourself, but try to clean up the aftermath or lessen impact.'

'Well since you're such an expert, what am I supposed to feel? Now due to kryptonite someone is hunting them down.' Clark said a bit heatedly.

Clark really loves and hates when Leonardo acts like this and pokes his sore spot or hits the center of his self-loathing. Making him think or clean up his act so he can't dwell on issues or attempt to make him see the light.

'Well, Hitler did the same Jews, Romans did the same with the believers of Christianity, and so on throughout history.' Leonardo said. 'There will always be haters, for every good action we do, someone will push back with evil. In the history of the world, there have been many discoveries that were meant to benefit and help others, but were weaponized to hurt them instead.'

'Ok.' Clark wanted to sigh, and brought them back to the current issue. 'We need to gather evidence and bring him in before he hurts someone else.'

'Call Pete and go out to collect evidence. Since Van clearly plans out his assassination, he must have a set up somewhere.' Leonardo said. 'It also has to be in an area where he can disappear for hours and no one would raise suspicion, but also where very few to none will go.'

'Like a cabin,' Clark said as he looked at properties owned by Van's parents.

'Bingo.' Leonardo agreed.

Grabbing the camera normally used to take pictures for the school newspaper. Clark called Pete to meet him and told him to wear his hiking boots. Since the cabin they are heading to is fairly deep in the woods and he didn't want to risk tipping Van off with a vehicle near there.