Clara Kent Superwoman

Chapter 3: Lex to the Rescue

It was cold now. The sun had gone down over the golden fields over an hour ago. Clara had watched the pale blue of the sky shift into hazy pink and crimson and dreaded the coming of night. If it were not for her enhanced vision she would have been in complete darkness but the waning moon and winking stars kept their constant watch. Clara tried anything and everything to free herself from her bindings, rubbing her elbows raw, a sensation Clara had never felt before. The ring finger on her right hand was simultaneously burning and freezing, as if a fever and numbness were raging against each other. The war crept up her arm and into her chest, flowing into the rest of her body until she was clammy, shaking and she ached to her very core. The chill of the night air prickled over her skin, intensifying her tremors and simultaneously making movement increasingly uncomfortable.

Over the last hour Clara felt herself weakening, her mind becoming consumed by the overwhelming sensations instigated by Lucas's ring and the meteor within it. The angle at which she hung made her hair obscure her peripheral vision, but she could see the stone pulsated with an effervescent green aura. She had long since given up screaming, and the longer she hung there the less hope she had. Surely her parents had missed her by now? Perhaps called Chloe or gone to interrogate Lex? Or maybe they thought she was out sulking? She had not heard the ring of her phone in the backpack, but there was every possibility her battery had run out, she had a habit of forgetting to charge it as she used it so irregularly. Her bag was to the side of the clearing, dumped there by Whitney's harpies.

It seemed ironic to her that this time yesterday she had saved a man's life by pure luck of being in the right place at the right time. Tonight she had been in the wrong place and by happenstance Whitney had Lucas's ring, she supposed the universe liked to balance these things out.

Clara hoped the universe didn't want a replacement for the life she saved.

The night was full of sounds, crickets in the plants, the wind rustling the corn, the occasional heartbeat of a small animal. There wasn't a human around for miles, no cars on the road and as time went on and she grew weaker, Clara began to despair that anyone would come to help her.

Her limbs lost their tension one by one, and she prayed for someone, anyone to come, her heart was slowing, the feeling receding from her skin, a pressure began on her eyes, urging her to close them.

Clara's vision began to blur at the edges, tunnelling until she could barely see anything. Everything went black.

Clara didn't know how long she was unconscious, she fazed in and out of the waking world. She did not know if she was hallucinating or dreaming when she heard the sonic boom of what could have been a jet. She didn't register the flash of red across the sky. The world was a blur and opened her eyes with extreme difficulty as she felt aftershock of something landing in front of her. Clara stared glassily at the hazy long coated silhouette that landed in front of her. Struggling to stay awake she vaguely saw a tall male figure, with a bald head and glowing red eyes. Clara felt the darkness rushing towards her again, her head fell to the side as the dark stranger moved towards her and removed Lucas's ring, hurling it into the atmosphere as if it was nothing. The figure checked Clara's limp form for a pulse, seemingly reassured of her health, but before he could proceed he was interrupted by the revving of an engine coming up the road. He must not be seen. The figure looked once more on Clara before rising as fast as lightning into the sky, becoming a red blur in the atmosphere.

For Clara her ordeal was over. For the stranger his duty was complete.

The hunter never failed to find his man.