Why Didn't She Leave? - August 15th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 15
Title: Why Didn't She Leave?
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Smallville
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Smallville people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: A meteor girl who can become anybody she wants terrorizes Smallville.
Notes: Athena Luthor Part 10 - Links Page
Seasons: S1Ep4 “X-ray”
Characters: Athena, Lex, Clark, Pete
Word Count: 2750
Lex looked up as Athena entered.
“Did I just hear Lana leave?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she sat down and rubbed her face. “That was exhausting.”
“Not an easy fix?”
“We both didn’t know our mothers. Our entire understanding of them is dependent on what others tell us. She found out someone lied about the stories she was told.”
“More fairytale than fact?”
Athena shrugged. She leaned back in her chair. “Mother is not a subject I like to discuss. None of us do.” She closed her eyes. “I still have an hour of homework and I’m starving.”
“Dinner should be ready shortly,” he assured her.
“Oh good.” She cracked an eye open to look at him. She wanted to ask if he had a solution for Roger Nixon but decided to let it be.
88888888
Athena approached Clark where he was watching the other students flow past. He stood near a tree, periodically squinting.
“Hey,” she said. “You look like you’re thinking deeply about something.”
“I’m trying to figure out a new power,” he confided softly.
“New?” She watched him. “What is it?”
“I seem to be able to see through things.”
“How do you mean?”
“Sometimes it’s like an x-ray, other times I just…see through things.”
“Oh,” she frowned. “Do you know how it works?”
“Not very well, it keeps coming on as a headache.” They started towards the school.
“But the Scooby Gang is on a mystery?”
Clark looked at her in surprise. “Why do you say that?”
“Because this is the same face when you were investigating bug boy.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know…I just suspect.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Have you met Tina Grier?” he asked.
“I recognize the name, but I don’t think I could identify her.” She looked up at him. “You think she’s dangerous?”
His face scrunched up as they came to a stop at his locker. “Maybe.”
“Okay, what do you need?”
“I need to get this power under control.”
Athena nodded. “Which means keeping an eye on Tina.”
“She’s right there,” he pointed behind her.
Athena took in Tina. She had long brown hair, a pink sweater, jeans and boots. “New boots,” she commented turning to face Clark, so he could watch over her shoulder. “And pretty pricey.”
Clark frowned. “Boots?”
“For my father it’s art, for my brother it’s cars, for me it’s shoes. Trust me, those are last season, but they still have a larger price tag than most people around here spend on formal wear.” She raised an eyebrow. “You think she robbed the bank,” Athena whispered.
He shrugged.
“Hey,” Pete said as he and Chloe reached them.
Clark said nothing, seemingly staring at Athena. His gaze was actually on Tina.
“They aren’t talking to me.” She poked his chest. “Remember, they don’t like me anymore.”
“We like you fine,” Pete told her. “We just felt a little…betrayed.”
“Lana!” Tina called.
Athena turned slightly to check out the scene.
Lana and Whitney came to a stop. Whitney looked annoyed.
“How do you like the sweater?” Tina asked.
“It’s… great,” Lana said. Her eyes looking past Tina to meet Athena’s. “I’ve got one just like it.”
“Crap,” Athena muttered. “I think I have to go interfere…”
“I do think that was the wordless girl call for help,” Chloe agreed. “If you had Tina becoming your clone, wouldn’t you call for help?”
Athena approached, just as Whitney walked away.
“Hey, are you okay?” Tina asked Lana. “I stopped by you house yesterday and Nell said you weren’t in the best mood so…”
“After a few hours of chocolate ice cream and girl talk,” Athena said as she joined them. “I think she got my issues under control. Thank you, for coming to my rescue yesterday.”
Tina blanched slightly. “You were hanging out with her?”
“I was having a bit of a crisis,” Athena lied easily. “Lana was good enough to come when I called.” She assessed the girl. “You’re…Tina, right?”
“Yeah,” she said before dismissing Athena to focus on Lana. “I need a favor. My mom is moving to Metropolis full-time but she doesn’t want to pull me out of school. So…I was thinking I can move in with you and Nell.”
Lana’s eyes widened in surprise. “For how long?”
“I don’t know. A couple of months.” Tina rushed on. “My mom would pay you guys. Trust me,” she smiled, “money is not a problem. Just name your price. I could even get a horse. Uh, we could go riding together. I mean, wouldn’t that be cool?”
“Yeah, uh.” Lana looked to Athena for help. “I’m just going to need to think about it.”
“I wish I’d gotten a choice about Lex moving to Smallville,” Athena said.
“Would you have wanted him?” Lana asked, taking the lifeline to escape the unbelievable position Tina had put her in.
“I don’t know,” Athena decided to commit to the role. “I like having my own space and not having to worry about cops showing up at the mansion. Or reporters.”
“Reporters?”
“I’ve been a little too straight laced for them to be interested in me, but wherever Lex goes, they follow.” She looked around. “Which reminds me, didn’t you need to talk to Chloe about doing some articles for the Torch to get Nell off your back?”
Lana nodded, smiling, a glimmer of relief. “Yes, thank you.” She grinned at Tina. “I’ll let you know what Nell says.” She spotted Chloe and crossed the hall to talk to her. They immediately headed for the Torch office.
Tina glared at Athena. “You shouldn’t have done that!” she screeched. “Lana is my friend, not yours. You ruined everything.” She stomped away.
Athena walked back to where Clark and Pete were. “That’s the kind of reaction I expect for being a Luthor.”
“I was telling Clark,” Pete said, “Tina seems to be…obsessed with Lana.”
“I noticed,” Athena replied. “So did Lana.” She looked up at Clark. “What are you thinking?”
88888888
Clark used his super-speed to reach the Kent barn. He came to a stop and set Athena on her feet.
“Clark? Athena?” Martha asked, looking over the edge of the hayloft. “What are you doing here?” She looked at her watch. “It’s the middle of the school day.”
“More vision problems?” Jonathan asked.
“I controlled it,” Clark said. “Once, sort of. I concentrated and it worked.”
“That’s great,” Martha said.
“It exonerates Lex,” Athena said.
“What is it?” Jonathan inquired.
“The money from the bank robbery,” Clark replied. “In Tina Grier’s locker.”
“We were going to call in an anonymous tip, but I didn’t want to be on campus when it happened,” Athena told them.
Once the call was made, Clark and Athena headed to the loft.
“Okay, so you have to concentrate, and it is signaled by a headache,” Athena said. “So the question is how to make the difference between x-ray and seeing through things at will.”
He grinned at her. “You sound like you have an idea.”
“I know a little about training the body to respond when needed.” She grinned. “So, look here.” She pointed to her right ring finger. “Can you see the healed fractures?”
Clark stared at her hand. After a minute he shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Okay.” She pursed her lips. “You’ve used a microscope, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You know how you turn the turret?” she asked.
He nodded. “Sure.”
“It changes the objective lenses, right? So what if you need to figure out a way to do the same thing with your eyes?”
88888888
“I can see it.” Clark reached out, turning her hand over to look at the damage done to the bones in her hand.
Athena laughed. “Good.” She checked her watch. “Shoot. I have got to get home.”
“Want me to take you?”
“No,” she assured. “I need to work off some energy. I figured I’d run home.”
“Okay.” He ducked down to kiss her.
Athena grinned and made her way out of the loft.
Clark stared at the top of the stairs, a smile forming. She had spent three hours working with him, coming up with theories about how his power might work. They had talked about microscopes, the human eyes, light waves, and finally telescopes. Athena had a way of throwing everything at the wall and working with whatever stuck.
He turned his focus to a football money bank he kept on his desk. He had a general idea how to bring on x-ray vision, but he still needed to figure out seeing through solid objects. He focused on the bank, squinting to adjust to x-ray vision. It worked after a moment.
He reverted to normal vision. He was trying to find the halfway point between the powers when he heard someone come up the stairs.
“Clark,” Lana said.
“Hey, Lana,” he greeted, finally looking away from the bank.
“Did you hear about Tina? They found the money from the robbery in her locker.”
“Really?” Clark stood.
“She actually cornered me today and asked if she could come live with me and Nell.” She approached him.
“Athena said she did a quick two-step to get you away without having to give an answer,” Clark said.
“I guess her skills come in handy,” Lana agreed. “She’s understands I have enough problems with Nell without adding more to the mix.”
“I always thought you and your aunt were really close.”
“She wants me to be something I’m not.” She frowned. “There’s the person everybody sees, and the person that I want to be.”
“I know the feeling,” Clark agreed.
“That’s why you and Athena got together, isn’t it?” Lana mused. “Birds of a feather.”
He grinned. “Something like that.”
Lana threw herself at him, kissing him. Clark, shocked, pushed her away.
“What are you doing?”
“You’ve had your eye on me as long as I’ve had my eye on you,” she said, trying to return to kissing him. But he held her too far away. Suddenly, she morphed from Lana into Tina. “I don’t know how you found out about that money, but you should have stayed out of my life, Clark,” Tina sneered, throwing him through the wall of the loft. “You and your little girlfriend.”
88888888
Athena hopped out of the shower, her cell phone ringing again.
“Hello?” she answered, clutching her towel.
“Athena?” Clark asked.
“Yes. Were you calling me non-stop for the last five minutes?”
“Yes. Tina can shift into anyone,” he said. “The meteor shower did something to her bones.”
“Crap,” she snapped, heading for her clothes. “I’m guessing, she found you?”
“Yeah… but she also threatened to go after you.”
“So basically, trust no one.”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t she just leave?” Athena questioned, putting her phone on speaker so she could dress. “She could look like anyone, she had the money.”
“Her mom?” Clark guessed. “She owns the antique store in town.”
“May be something to look into,” she suggested.
“Right now, just be careful,” he warned.
“You too.”
88888888
Athena and Clark met in front of the school as soon as the last bell rang.
“I’m glad I can tell you’re you so easily,” Athena commented.
Clark lifted her right hand, the one he had learned by x-ray. The previous breaks had healed, but there were specific flaws to the bones. “Me too.” He sighed. “I need to tell you something about yesterday.”
“What?”
“Tina looked like Lana - and she kissed me.”
Athena looked at him in surprise. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I pushed her away as soon as it started.”
“It may be part of why she hadn’t left town.” She frowned. “We need to check her house for answers.”
“Hey, Clark, Athena,” Pete said. “What are you two up to?”
Clark scanned his friend and nodded to Athena that it was Pete. “Want to hear a crazy story?” she asked.
88888888
They got out of Pete’s car in downtown Smallville. It was relatively quiet and uncrowded.
“So,” Pete said, “you’re telling me Tina Grier can bend her bones like a contortionist and become anybody she wants?”
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Clark said leading them towards the antique shop.
“It also explains how someone who looked exactly like Lex robbed a bank in Smallville while the real Lex was in Metropolis. And why police found the money from the robbery in Tina’s locker,” Athena told him.
“So how do I know you two really are…you?”
“We came up with a secret handshake,” Clark replied. He grinned at his friend.
“And there is only one Tina,” Athena assured him.
They stopped in front of the antique shop. The “Closed” sign was prominently displayed. They all peered through the display window.
“Great, it’s closed,” Pete said. “Haven’t you ever watched Cops? The last place Tina’s gonna be hiding is her mom’s store because her home is right upstairs.”
“We’re not expecting to find Tina,” Athena explained. “We’re looking for clues as to why she hasn’t gotten out of town. It may explain her motives, her endgame.”
“Are you a junior sleuth?” Pete asked.
“Trained in business and martial arts, both of which require an understanding of the opponent.”
“We need to get in there,” Clark finally said.
“Why?” Pete said, leading them around the side of the building.
“Just…a hunch.”
They reached the back door, along an alley. “It’s locked.”
Athena dropped to her knees in front of the door and pulled two pins from her hair. She manipulated them into the shape she needed.
“You know how to pick a lock?” Clark asked.
Athena smiled widely. “When I was ten, Lex lived at home while he went to Met U. He taught me some of the things he learned.” She glanced up at him as the pins reset. “So yeah, I can pick locks and get out of handcuffs. And a few other, not quite legal things.” She felt for the pins. “If we get in trouble for this, he’ll laugh his ass off.”
Pete looked around. “How long will this take?”
“My old time was about ninety seconds,” she replied. “I’m a little rusty.” She tapped the pins again, working again and again to line them up. She got the last pin and twisted the lock. “Got it.” She pushed to her feet. “Three minutes, I may need to brush up.”
“Plan more breaking and entering?” Pete asked.
“It’s wise to keep skills available,” she told him as they entered.
Clark looked around for signs of Tina, but there were no sounds from upstairs or sign of anyone.
“Ugh,” Athena covered the lower half of her face. “It smells like something died here.”
“I don’t smell anything,” Pete said.
Clark approached a wardrobe. He touched the handle and stepped back as a body toppled out of it.
“Whoa.” Pete stepped forward to look at the mid-forties woman you lay dead on the floor. “I smell it now. Who’s that?”
“It’s Tina’s mom,” Clark said.
“Damn. How did you know she was in there?” Pete asked.
“Because I can see through the door, Pete,” Clark deadpanned.
“Very funny, Sherlock.”
“Um,” Athena said to draw their attention to the area by the register. “I think I found the endgame.”
There were pages of signature practice. All of them said Lana Lang.
“Why’s she writing Lana’s signature?” Pete asked.
“Because that was the problem at the bank,” Athena told them. “She signed a withdrawal card, but when they compared it to their files, it didn’t match.”
“Which means she’s not just obsessed with Lana, she wants to become her,” Clark realized.
“Damnit,” Athena checked her watch. “She was meeting Chloe after school.” She headed for the door. “I’ll see if I can catch up with her. Call the cops, she can’t masquerade as her mom if everyone knows she’s dead.”
“What about you?” Pete asked.
“There is a journalist in town from Metropolis,” she explained. “The last thing we want is for another Luthor to be associated with a crime scene. I’ll get to the school, see about keeping Lana in view.”
“How will you know it’s her?” Clark asked.
“We’ve had a few private conversations that I can use to verify.”
Clark stopped in front of her. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve got this,” she promised. She went up on her toes, giving him a quick kiss and smile before leaving.
“Cops are on their way,” Pete reported. “So you and Athena?”
“Yeah,” Clark said.
Pete grinned.
Title: Why Didn't She Leave?
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Smallville
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Smallville people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: A meteor girl who can become anybody she wants terrorizes Smallville.
Notes: Athena Luthor Part 10 - Links Page
Seasons: S1Ep4 “X-ray”
Characters: Athena, Lex, Clark, Pete
Word Count: 2750
Lex looked up as Athena entered.
“Did I just hear Lana leave?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she sat down and rubbed her face. “That was exhausting.”
“Not an easy fix?”
“We both didn’t know our mothers. Our entire understanding of them is dependent on what others tell us. She found out someone lied about the stories she was told.”
“More fairytale than fact?”
Athena shrugged. She leaned back in her chair. “Mother is not a subject I like to discuss. None of us do.” She closed her eyes. “I still have an hour of homework and I’m starving.”
“Dinner should be ready shortly,” he assured her.
“Oh good.” She cracked an eye open to look at him. She wanted to ask if he had a solution for Roger Nixon but decided to let it be.
88888888
Athena approached Clark where he was watching the other students flow past. He stood near a tree, periodically squinting.
“Hey,” she said. “You look like you’re thinking deeply about something.”
“I’m trying to figure out a new power,” he confided softly.
“New?” She watched him. “What is it?”
“I seem to be able to see through things.”
“How do you mean?”
“Sometimes it’s like an x-ray, other times I just…see through things.”
“Oh,” she frowned. “Do you know how it works?”
“Not very well, it keeps coming on as a headache.” They started towards the school.
“But the Scooby Gang is on a mystery?”
Clark looked at her in surprise. “Why do you say that?”
“Because this is the same face when you were investigating bug boy.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know…I just suspect.”
“Anything I can do?”
“Have you met Tina Grier?” he asked.
“I recognize the name, but I don’t think I could identify her.” She looked up at him. “You think she’s dangerous?”
His face scrunched up as they came to a stop at his locker. “Maybe.”
“Okay, what do you need?”
“I need to get this power under control.”
Athena nodded. “Which means keeping an eye on Tina.”
“She’s right there,” he pointed behind her.
Athena took in Tina. She had long brown hair, a pink sweater, jeans and boots. “New boots,” she commented turning to face Clark, so he could watch over her shoulder. “And pretty pricey.”
Clark frowned. “Boots?”
“For my father it’s art, for my brother it’s cars, for me it’s shoes. Trust me, those are last season, but they still have a larger price tag than most people around here spend on formal wear.” She raised an eyebrow. “You think she robbed the bank,” Athena whispered.
He shrugged.
“Hey,” Pete said as he and Chloe reached them.
Clark said nothing, seemingly staring at Athena. His gaze was actually on Tina.
“They aren’t talking to me.” She poked his chest. “Remember, they don’t like me anymore.”
“We like you fine,” Pete told her. “We just felt a little…betrayed.”
“Lana!” Tina called.
Athena turned slightly to check out the scene.
Lana and Whitney came to a stop. Whitney looked annoyed.
“How do you like the sweater?” Tina asked.
“It’s… great,” Lana said. Her eyes looking past Tina to meet Athena’s. “I’ve got one just like it.”
“Crap,” Athena muttered. “I think I have to go interfere…”
“I do think that was the wordless girl call for help,” Chloe agreed. “If you had Tina becoming your clone, wouldn’t you call for help?”
Athena approached, just as Whitney walked away.
“Hey, are you okay?” Tina asked Lana. “I stopped by you house yesterday and Nell said you weren’t in the best mood so…”
“After a few hours of chocolate ice cream and girl talk,” Athena said as she joined them. “I think she got my issues under control. Thank you, for coming to my rescue yesterday.”
Tina blanched slightly. “You were hanging out with her?”
“I was having a bit of a crisis,” Athena lied easily. “Lana was good enough to come when I called.” She assessed the girl. “You’re…Tina, right?”
“Yeah,” she said before dismissing Athena to focus on Lana. “I need a favor. My mom is moving to Metropolis full-time but she doesn’t want to pull me out of school. So…I was thinking I can move in with you and Nell.”
Lana’s eyes widened in surprise. “For how long?”
“I don’t know. A couple of months.” Tina rushed on. “My mom would pay you guys. Trust me,” she smiled, “money is not a problem. Just name your price. I could even get a horse. Uh, we could go riding together. I mean, wouldn’t that be cool?”
“Yeah, uh.” Lana looked to Athena for help. “I’m just going to need to think about it.”
“I wish I’d gotten a choice about Lex moving to Smallville,” Athena said.
“Would you have wanted him?” Lana asked, taking the lifeline to escape the unbelievable position Tina had put her in.
“I don’t know,” Athena decided to commit to the role. “I like having my own space and not having to worry about cops showing up at the mansion. Or reporters.”
“Reporters?”
“I’ve been a little too straight laced for them to be interested in me, but wherever Lex goes, they follow.” She looked around. “Which reminds me, didn’t you need to talk to Chloe about doing some articles for the Torch to get Nell off your back?”
Lana nodded, smiling, a glimmer of relief. “Yes, thank you.” She grinned at Tina. “I’ll let you know what Nell says.” She spotted Chloe and crossed the hall to talk to her. They immediately headed for the Torch office.
Tina glared at Athena. “You shouldn’t have done that!” she screeched. “Lana is my friend, not yours. You ruined everything.” She stomped away.
Athena walked back to where Clark and Pete were. “That’s the kind of reaction I expect for being a Luthor.”
“I was telling Clark,” Pete said, “Tina seems to be…obsessed with Lana.”
“I noticed,” Athena replied. “So did Lana.” She looked up at Clark. “What are you thinking?”
88888888
Clark used his super-speed to reach the Kent barn. He came to a stop and set Athena on her feet.
“Clark? Athena?” Martha asked, looking over the edge of the hayloft. “What are you doing here?” She looked at her watch. “It’s the middle of the school day.”
“More vision problems?” Jonathan asked.
“I controlled it,” Clark said. “Once, sort of. I concentrated and it worked.”
“That’s great,” Martha said.
“It exonerates Lex,” Athena said.
“What is it?” Jonathan inquired.
“The money from the bank robbery,” Clark replied. “In Tina Grier’s locker.”
“We were going to call in an anonymous tip, but I didn’t want to be on campus when it happened,” Athena told them.
Once the call was made, Clark and Athena headed to the loft.
“Okay, so you have to concentrate, and it is signaled by a headache,” Athena said. “So the question is how to make the difference between x-ray and seeing through things at will.”
He grinned at her. “You sound like you have an idea.”
“I know a little about training the body to respond when needed.” She grinned. “So, look here.” She pointed to her right ring finger. “Can you see the healed fractures?”
Clark stared at her hand. After a minute he shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Okay.” She pursed her lips. “You’ve used a microscope, right?”
“Yeah.”
“You know how you turn the turret?” she asked.
He nodded. “Sure.”
“It changes the objective lenses, right? So what if you need to figure out a way to do the same thing with your eyes?”
88888888
“I can see it.” Clark reached out, turning her hand over to look at the damage done to the bones in her hand.
Athena laughed. “Good.” She checked her watch. “Shoot. I have got to get home.”
“Want me to take you?”
“No,” she assured. “I need to work off some energy. I figured I’d run home.”
“Okay.” He ducked down to kiss her.
Athena grinned and made her way out of the loft.
Clark stared at the top of the stairs, a smile forming. She had spent three hours working with him, coming up with theories about how his power might work. They had talked about microscopes, the human eyes, light waves, and finally telescopes. Athena had a way of throwing everything at the wall and working with whatever stuck.
He turned his focus to a football money bank he kept on his desk. He had a general idea how to bring on x-ray vision, but he still needed to figure out seeing through solid objects. He focused on the bank, squinting to adjust to x-ray vision. It worked after a moment.
He reverted to normal vision. He was trying to find the halfway point between the powers when he heard someone come up the stairs.
“Clark,” Lana said.
“Hey, Lana,” he greeted, finally looking away from the bank.
“Did you hear about Tina? They found the money from the robbery in her locker.”
“Really?” Clark stood.
“She actually cornered me today and asked if she could come live with me and Nell.” She approached him.
“Athena said she did a quick two-step to get you away without having to give an answer,” Clark said.
“I guess her skills come in handy,” Lana agreed. “She’s understands I have enough problems with Nell without adding more to the mix.”
“I always thought you and your aunt were really close.”
“She wants me to be something I’m not.” She frowned. “There’s the person everybody sees, and the person that I want to be.”
“I know the feeling,” Clark agreed.
“That’s why you and Athena got together, isn’t it?” Lana mused. “Birds of a feather.”
He grinned. “Something like that.”
Lana threw herself at him, kissing him. Clark, shocked, pushed her away.
“What are you doing?”
“You’ve had your eye on me as long as I’ve had my eye on you,” she said, trying to return to kissing him. But he held her too far away. Suddenly, she morphed from Lana into Tina. “I don’t know how you found out about that money, but you should have stayed out of my life, Clark,” Tina sneered, throwing him through the wall of the loft. “You and your little girlfriend.”
88888888
Athena hopped out of the shower, her cell phone ringing again.
“Hello?” she answered, clutching her towel.
“Athena?” Clark asked.
“Yes. Were you calling me non-stop for the last five minutes?”
“Yes. Tina can shift into anyone,” he said. “The meteor shower did something to her bones.”
“Crap,” she snapped, heading for her clothes. “I’m guessing, she found you?”
“Yeah… but she also threatened to go after you.”
“So basically, trust no one.”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t she just leave?” Athena questioned, putting her phone on speaker so she could dress. “She could look like anyone, she had the money.”
“Her mom?” Clark guessed. “She owns the antique store in town.”
“May be something to look into,” she suggested.
“Right now, just be careful,” he warned.
“You too.”
88888888
Athena and Clark met in front of the school as soon as the last bell rang.
“I’m glad I can tell you’re you so easily,” Athena commented.
Clark lifted her right hand, the one he had learned by x-ray. The previous breaks had healed, but there were specific flaws to the bones. “Me too.” He sighed. “I need to tell you something about yesterday.”
“What?”
“Tina looked like Lana - and she kissed me.”
Athena looked at him in surprise. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I pushed her away as soon as it started.”
“It may be part of why she hadn’t left town.” She frowned. “We need to check her house for answers.”
“Hey, Clark, Athena,” Pete said. “What are you two up to?”
Clark scanned his friend and nodded to Athena that it was Pete. “Want to hear a crazy story?” she asked.
88888888
They got out of Pete’s car in downtown Smallville. It was relatively quiet and uncrowded.
“So,” Pete said, “you’re telling me Tina Grier can bend her bones like a contortionist and become anybody she wants?”
“I saw it with my own eyes,” Clark said leading them towards the antique shop.
“It also explains how someone who looked exactly like Lex robbed a bank in Smallville while the real Lex was in Metropolis. And why police found the money from the robbery in Tina’s locker,” Athena told him.
“So how do I know you two really are…you?”
“We came up with a secret handshake,” Clark replied. He grinned at his friend.
“And there is only one Tina,” Athena assured him.
They stopped in front of the antique shop. The “Closed” sign was prominently displayed. They all peered through the display window.
“Great, it’s closed,” Pete said. “Haven’t you ever watched Cops? The last place Tina’s gonna be hiding is her mom’s store because her home is right upstairs.”
“We’re not expecting to find Tina,” Athena explained. “We’re looking for clues as to why she hasn’t gotten out of town. It may explain her motives, her endgame.”
“Are you a junior sleuth?” Pete asked.
“Trained in business and martial arts, both of which require an understanding of the opponent.”
“We need to get in there,” Clark finally said.
“Why?” Pete said, leading them around the side of the building.
“Just…a hunch.”
They reached the back door, along an alley. “It’s locked.”
Athena dropped to her knees in front of the door and pulled two pins from her hair. She manipulated them into the shape she needed.
“You know how to pick a lock?” Clark asked.
Athena smiled widely. “When I was ten, Lex lived at home while he went to Met U. He taught me some of the things he learned.” She glanced up at him as the pins reset. “So yeah, I can pick locks and get out of handcuffs. And a few other, not quite legal things.” She felt for the pins. “If we get in trouble for this, he’ll laugh his ass off.”
Pete looked around. “How long will this take?”
“My old time was about ninety seconds,” she replied. “I’m a little rusty.” She tapped the pins again, working again and again to line them up. She got the last pin and twisted the lock. “Got it.” She pushed to her feet. “Three minutes, I may need to brush up.”
“Plan more breaking and entering?” Pete asked.
“It’s wise to keep skills available,” she told him as they entered.
Clark looked around for signs of Tina, but there were no sounds from upstairs or sign of anyone.
“Ugh,” Athena covered the lower half of her face. “It smells like something died here.”
“I don’t smell anything,” Pete said.
Clark approached a wardrobe. He touched the handle and stepped back as a body toppled out of it.
“Whoa.” Pete stepped forward to look at the mid-forties woman you lay dead on the floor. “I smell it now. Who’s that?”
“It’s Tina’s mom,” Clark said.
“Damn. How did you know she was in there?” Pete asked.
“Because I can see through the door, Pete,” Clark deadpanned.
“Very funny, Sherlock.”
“Um,” Athena said to draw their attention to the area by the register. “I think I found the endgame.”
There were pages of signature practice. All of them said Lana Lang.
“Why’s she writing Lana’s signature?” Pete asked.
“Because that was the problem at the bank,” Athena told them. “She signed a withdrawal card, but when they compared it to their files, it didn’t match.”
“Which means she’s not just obsessed with Lana, she wants to become her,” Clark realized.
“Damnit,” Athena checked her watch. “She was meeting Chloe after school.” She headed for the door. “I’ll see if I can catch up with her. Call the cops, she can’t masquerade as her mom if everyone knows she’s dead.”
“What about you?” Pete asked.
“There is a journalist in town from Metropolis,” she explained. “The last thing we want is for another Luthor to be associated with a crime scene. I’ll get to the school, see about keeping Lana in view.”
“How will you know it’s her?” Clark asked.
“We’ve had a few private conversations that I can use to verify.”
Clark stopped in front of her. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve got this,” she promised. She went up on her toes, giving him a quick kiss and smile before leaving.
“Cops are on their way,” Pete reported. “So you and Athena?”
“Yeah,” Clark said.
Pete grinned.