slayers_desire | kidnapping Clark to a red-sun Earth

Entry tags:

clark,
victor

kidnapping Clark to a red-sun Earth

Things were bad. April had received a piece of silver kryptonite that had infected Clark with paranoia. Worse, the person she had thought had sent it actually had not. Which made her believe that Professor Fine, aka Brainaic, was behind the infection.

Clark had gone to the Nexus, where lucky Victor was able to intercept him. Through text messages and planning, April sent Victor the coordinates to an Earth with a red sun. One of the back-up plan places that April had established previously... just in case they ever had to deal with Clark in red Krpytonite or brainwashed state again.

She stood outside an apartment in the universe, waiting for Victor to show up. The red sun above her made her uneasy, but it was the only way to deal with Clark without his powers.

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She feels her insides twist at the thought of it. Checks her bag to make sure she has chemical icepacks (she does, luckily, because she's not as prepared as she usually is since she had to hollow out a good portion of her supplies to fit the magic stuff in). "We should probably get there."

"It's all a bit hazy," he admits, frowning. "I mean, I remember getting cut, and trying to make it home, but that's when things that to go... weird." He's worked out that he probably wasn't attacked like he thinks he was, at least he hopes so. And he'll check his phone records later, just to make sure that he wasn't called around that time.

He gets to his feet, and though he still feels a little achy, he can stand and walk on his own without wavering. He just feels a little off, still, in a way that'll resolve itself in a little while. He pats down his pockets, but his PINpoint is just plain missing, and he probably forgot to grab it in his paranoid state and left it at home so they couldn't track him. "Um, April, could you...?"

"I did my best to keep a mental track on you, so I could fill in details for both you and your parents." April suggested. She helped Clark to his feet.

Using her PINpoint, April will teleport the three of them to the safe spot at the Kent farmhouse. Her support for her boyfriend still there, with a hand on his arm.

A deep breath of that Kansas air, she slips off her hat, fingers pushing back through her hair, through those tangles and knots. Time for some damage control. She's starting to realize how tired she is, but she wants to be here. "To the house?"

"Yeah."

The front door is absolutely obliterated, with splinters and jagged chunks of wood and glass all over the front lawn, some stretching almost all the way to the barn, suggesting that something or someone ran through it at high speed without any care for if it was closed or not.

Clark swallows, and steps through the empty doorframe. "Mom? Dad? ...Chloe?"

His parents are in the living room, Martha looking at the bruising on her husband's throat, and they both look up sharply when they hear Clark's voice. Chloe comes to stand between Clark and the Kents, kryptonite in hand, looking distressed. It's only been a few minutes since Clark left, and she doesn't expect him to be okay at all.

The signs of the trauma at the Kent farm is worrysome. Not on the same scale at the meteor shower, but still pretty intense as April knows Clark caused the damage.

She quickly steps between Chloe and Clark when she spots the Kryptonite. "It's okay. He is not going to hurt anyone again. Victor and I got the situation under control. Clark had been infected by a new kind of Kryptonite."

"We were able to remove him from the Nexus and help him."

Icepack out, and she ducks her head. "Hello, ma'am. Sir. Chloe. He's normal again," she confirms, even though April said pretty much all of that, wrapping a pack in a clean washcloth and offering it to Clark's dad. Looking around to take stock of the scene. "Is there anything we can do to help you folks out?"

She zips her hat into her bag, hooks her thumb under the backpack strap to take some of the weight off of her back.

Clark stands there looking guilty and trying to be nonthreatening, and it's kind of hard because it's rarely brought home to his family just how powerful he is if he ever got it into his head to turn on them. "I'm me again. I promise."

He's looking physically better, too, which is enough to convince Chloe to toss the rock into its original lead box and engulf him in a hug. "God, are you okay?" she asks, worried as anything.

"Yeah," he says, quiet and so very sorry.

Jonathan accepts the ice pack and lightly touches it to those dark bruises, Clark's big handprint displaying itself in purple and black across his neck. "Thank you," he says, and there's only a little rasp to his voice. "I think we'll be okay, but thanks, Victor." He doesn't admit to his heart problems, almost ever, although this has stressed that weakened muscle even more.

Martha has a cut above her eye that's been cleaned and bandaged, and she moves gingerly, her side banged up from where Clark backhanded her into the kitchen counter. There's a bit of destruction inside the house too that they haven't gotten the chance to clean up yet, but she doesn't pay it any attention as she too comes over to her son, touching his arm as if making sure that he's okay. "What was it?"

April is tuned to the guilt of her boyfriend, and the concern of his loved ones. She is especially concerned for Jonathan and his weak heart. Knowing that with Jor-El's dark foreshadowing that it gets harder and harder to protect the senior Kent from paying the price for Clark's well-being.

"It was a silver-colored Kryptonite. When Clark touched it, he was infected with paranoia. To the depths that everyone and everything was acting against him." She gently explains. She is not going to detail who she believes takes responsibility for the infection without Clark's say. No point worrying the Kents more.

"Victor was able to remove it from his system."

"Anytime, sir," she says, and even though he said that they're fine, she goes about straightening up the house anyway. It's a great comfort when you don't look around and have constant reminders of the last disaster that happened. When you can wake up and find everything in order.

Setting the broken things into a broken things pile on the kitchen counter, where they can decide later whether they want to try to patch it up or toss it out, putting the other things where she thinks they ought to go, fingers nimbly working, and bending and picking up, and placing down. "It was nothing, really, anyone else woulda done the same." Vicky, ever the southern gentleman, doesn't want to accept credit for what she sees as plain old fashioned politeness. Doing the right thing. Helping someone she loves.

"I was hallucinating. A lot," he adds, and his mother hugs him as hard as she can without hurting herself. "I don't remember a lot of it. I'm sorry. Really sorry."

"Sweetie, we're just glad you're all right now," Martha says, always concerned for her son, especially when they rarely have to worry about his health. Seeing him as badly off as he was made her more scared than how he was acting, almost.

"Did anyone see you?" his dad asks, although he too was worried for Clark. And he gets up to put a hand on Clark's shoulder, letting him know that he's forgiven and it's okay, no matter what the bruises say.

Clark shakes his head. "I don't think so. Just the people in the Nexus."

Chloe comes over to help Victor clean up, although there isn't much they can do for the cracked countertop or the missing door. "I'm glad you were able to help him," she says, grateful because she wasn't able to stop him before. He didn't hallucinate her subjecting him to kryptonite, just in the wrong context.

April joins Victor and Chloe in the clean up. Giving Clark that necessary moment with his parents to apologize. And become a family again.

Victor's incredibly relieved that they're as accepting of Clark's temporary blip as they are. She was hoping for this outcome, for everything to be okay, and she's glad that that the interaction is following her projection.

It tinges all of her actions with calmness, a warm sense of well-being.

"I'm glad, too," she says, softly. Giving Chloe a tired smile, as she rescues a miraculously unbroken coffee cup. "Homeboy's a real good fellow, and I hate to see him all freaked out."

Clark's had more than enough blips that his parents are old hands at rolling with the punches these days. It's never easy while it's going on, of course, especially if stuff ends up broken or people get hurt. But they love him, and always will, and they only want what's best for him.

Clark subtly (or so he thinks) gives both of his parents a quick scan, to make sure he didn't hurt them too badly. They exchange a bit of a knowing look, but let their son assure himself that they're just bruised and shaken.

With the cleanup crew, Chloe nods in agreement, finding the broom and sweeping up the littler bits of shattered crockery. "I haven't seen him that scary since his last red kryptonite episode," she says, completely unaware that she's actually missed one or two of those. "He came to see me at the Daily Planet and just freaked out over some emails Lionel Luthor sent me. He must've been hallucinating because we were talking about Lex, not him. Oh," she says, looking at Victor, because she knows that she's not from this world and wouldn't have heard. "Lex is running for the Senate, and I got an internship at the Planet."

The mention of Lex makes April think back to her phone call with the billionaire. And how the thought of him as a senator was a bit disturbing. In the comics... President Lex Luthor was a feared and powerful enemy.

And from her Nexus visits, there are things she knows but can not say about the Luthors. Things learned from Smallville people who are five years ahead of them.

Instead, she comments on a neutral topic. "An internship? Thats great news Chloe."

"Running for Senate," she says, voice blankly interested, trying to keep from showing bias. She wonders if Lex even has any interest in politics, or whether it's one of those This Is What Rich People Do situations, or This Is A Stepping Stone To World Domination.

"And an internship. That sounds like a great job for you. Are things going smoothly so far?" She dampens a cloth, wipes off the counters, proper circular motions.

"Yeah," Clark says, looking back at them. "Dad's been thinking about running against him."

"Clark..." Jonathan says with a frown. "I'm not so sure it's a good idea anymore. When you thought you had been exposed, it got me thinking about what it would be like if I really did run for Senate. Our family would be under a lot of scrutiny, and there's a good chance your secret might come out."

"It doesn't matter," Clark counters firmly. "I want you to run. It's the right thing to do."

In response to the internship question, Chloe gives a nod, and sweeps the broken bits into a dustpan. "I've only been there for about a month but it's my dream job. They're starting me in the basement but I'm in now. I'm totally fine with working my way up."

"Senator Kent has a nice ring to it." April said. Totally oblivious to the possibility that it could be the other Kent in the room who reaches that mark.

"You know you have our support. To run things behind the scenes to keep things from the press. And now... we have someone in the press. Sort of."

Now, that Senate thing... that's totally up to the Kents. Whatever they want to do, and it's not her place to send in her duo of pennies on the subject. Politics is a dirty game, especially (she's gathered, since her travels with Kal) in Metropolis. She doesn't blame Jonathan for wanting to keep his hands clean.

"Hey, it's all about getting your foot in the door, in that kind of business. You'll move up," she says, grinning at Chloe, cleaning in those same circles.

"That's what I said," Martha tells April with a small smile, also unaware which one of them will end up bearing that title. "After Jack had to resign, it leaves Lex almost unopposed. The state needs someone honest and hardworking who'll represent the interests of the farmers who live here."

"All right," Jonathan concedes. "I suppose I can't stand by and let a Luthor run Kansas." He looks serious, and faces Clark. "You did see me and Lionel, but he was offering to fund my campaign against Lex."

Clark's a little relieved to hear that, because he still can't tell what all he saw was real and what wasn't, although he's a little surprised to hear that Lionel doesn't want his son playing politics.

Chloe gives a modest shrug at her own attention. "I won't lie in any articles, not for political reasons, but if something happens I'll gladly redirect people away from Clark. And who knows, this could be the start of an awesome career."

It was strange to hear that Lionel didn't want his son in politics. April finished the area that she was cleaning, and stood to dust herself off.

"Anything else we can do to help?"

It isn't so surprising to Vicky, but that's because power struggles and convoluted relationships are pretty much how people show their love, it's just that the more money you have the more jacked up it gets. As far as Victor's concerned, the craziness is just how the families that raise you are, with the exception of Clark's family who is awesome. But even in the case of Clark's family, he was adopted and his birth-dad's kind of a jerk right now.

"Who knows," she says, cheerily. "But it's exciting, to be at the center of things when news starts to break."

Clark's parents look over what they've done so far, cleaning up the mess, and Clark looks a little guilty still over having caused it in the first place. "I'll replace the door," he offers, but when he takes a step to superspeed away he wavers, just a little.

April is at Clark's side at the first sigh of the waver. "You. Should. Rest."

This is her don't argue with me Mister voice.

"Yeah, honeybee, you have got to sleep," she says, less firmly than April did, smiling at him. "Remember, we have a double date with science."

kidnapping Clark to a red-sun Earth

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