Part Six
“Okay,” Piper was saying. “So who’s first on the agenda?”
“Hmm, well, Clark Kent apparently worked on the school paper with her. And from what I read on the school’s website, they were pretty close,” Phoebe said.
Paige took out her Blackberry and quickly looked up the information.
“His family has a farm on Hickory Lane. Let’s go.”
The three left the Talon and stood out on the main street of Smallville. Piper grabbed her sisters’ arms.
“Uh, you know, I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to just orb in. I mean, he might get suspicious if he doesn’t see a car, you know?”
“Damn,” Paige said. “You’re right. So I guess we should ... uh ... rent a car?”
“Do they even have car rental places in this town? I mean, it is called Smallville!”
“Phoebe, you are such a snob.”
“I am not!” Phoebe glared at her older sister.
Paige groaned before her two older sisters could turn this into an argument. She looked it up quickly and found a place.
“Look, there is a place,” she said. “Come on.”
The three walked down the street to the local car dealership, which also doubled as a car rental agency. The owner came out and looked the three of them up and down.
“We heard you rent cars here,” Paige said.
The man, looking a lot like Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard, broke out in a friendly grin.
“Well, hell, yeah, come on in ladies. Let me show you what we have here.” He pulled back his soiled cap and gave them another toothy grin, his ruddy, unshaven face crinkled. “Say, you girls ain’t from around here, are you?”
“Uh no,” Piper said.
“Is it that obvious?” Paige asked with a little trepidation.
“Well, yeah, your city clothes and all. You look an awful lot like the type that Lex Luthor would hang with. I mean, here in Smallville, we’re less formal, ya know?”
Formal? The girls looked at their regular, everyday clothes, not thinking there was anything unusual about the way they were dressed. But then they looked back at the man, who was dressed in grubby jeans and cotton shirt over an equally grubby t-shirt and understood.
“Lex Luthor?” Phoebe asked.
“Oh yeah, the town big shot. Not a lot of people like him around here. His old man owned the crap factory, oops, sorry, ladies, don’t mean to offend your delicate sensibilities. Anyway, used to be a creamed corn factory ‘til old man Luthor bought it. People don’t have much time for the Luthors, that’s for sure.”
“Why?” the three women chorused.
“Well, you know, weird stuff goes on in town sometimes. People doing crazy things, ya know? Like there was once this girl who could turn into anybody she wanted. And this other girl who could be one place one minute, then the next somewhere completely different.”
“How did that happen?” Phoebe asked curiously, glancing at her sisters.
“Well, people say it’s that fertiliser plant, ya know? Like they’ve contaminated the soil with the chemicals they put in it.”
“Oh. Interesting,” Piper said, although it was obvious she was only being polite. They would have to do some more research.
Within half an hour, they had managed to get themselves a rental car. A 1990 Ford that had lost its shocks somewhere along the line, and could have used a paint job as well as a few patches of rust taken out. But they couldn’t afford to be choosy.
Piper drove, taking direction from Paige, and they managed to find the Kent Farm without getting too lost. Before they headed down Hickory Lane, Piper looked at her sisters.
“So, uh, maybe we should think about a cover story?” she suggested.
“Well, why don’t we just say we’re friends of hers, from the city,” Paige said. “Since she works at the Daily Planet. She must have friends in the city.”
“I guess it could work,” Piper said doubtfully.
But Phoebe was looking ahead as Piper turned in the gateway.
“I uh, don’t think that will be a problem,” she said. “He’s not going to believe us anyway.”
Both Paige and Piper’s faces drained as they saw what she meant. Clark Kent was the man from the Talon. And judging from the way he was watching them warily, he knew something was up.
“Is there something I can do for you?” he said as they stopped the car.
The three got out, glancing at each other before turning back to the tall young man.
“Are you Clark Kent?” Phoebe asked, diving right in.
“Yes,” he said, still wary. “Who are you?”
“Friends, uh, of Chloe’s. From Metropolis.”
He dropped the hay bale he had been working on and looked at them, crossing his arms, as if to say, sure, tell me another one. Piper sighed, then looking at her sisters, who both shrugged. Paige gave her an 'I told you so' look. Piper decided honesty was the best policy in this case.
“Okay, we actually came to talk to you about Chloe. We believe she’s in danger and we need help to convince her.”
“Uh-huh. And you would know this how?”
“We’re witches,” Paige blurted.
Piper glared at her youngest sister. God, you’d think after six years and change, Paige would know not to blurt things out like that. But as she turned back to Clark, she could see that he wasn’t surprised by the revelation that there were such things as witches.
“Witches,” he said, his face draining of colour.
“Oh, um, no,” Paige said, putting her foot in her mouth even further. “We’re good witches.”
Clark began backing away from them. Piper screwed up her face, reluctantly going for the only option available. She concentrated, put up her hands and waved them at him. He froze.
“Okay, now what?” she said.
“I don’t know,” Paige said.
“Why did you have to tell him we’re witches?” Piper moaned.
“Well, what else was I going to do? He wasn’t going to believe the story that we’re friends of Chloe’s.”
“I know that, dummy.”
Phoebe shushed them both, shaking her head. Sisters!
Suddenly, Clark seemed to come to life again.
“What did you just do?” he asked.
The two younger sisters looked at their older sister. “Piper!”
“What? Normally it works.”
Phoebe rolled her eyes, then looked back at Clark.
“He looks mad.”
“He is right here, and he’s wondering what the hell is going on,” Clark said.
Piper held a hand out to her sisters, to tell them to shut up and let her do the talking.
“Okay, witches exist. But we’re not bad witches, okay? We’re really here to help Chloe. We know she’s in danger and we just want to keep her safe.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s also a witch.”
“Look, I already know about witches,” Clark said, mumbling uncomfortably. “I had a run-in with one a couple of years ago.”
“Really?” Paige asked, interested in spite of herself.
“Yeah, only this one had been dead for like four hundred years. So I already know magic exists.”
Phoebe frowned. “How were you able to, uh, unfreeze like that?”
“Unfreeze,” he said, staring at her. “Oh, yeah, well, I’m not from around here.”
“You’re not a demon are you?” Paige asked.
“Demon?” he said, shaking his head and frowning.
Oh boy, we’ve got a live one here, all four of them were thinking. Piper finally suggested they all go in the house and talk. Clark still looked wary, but he nodded his assent. Once they sat down at the kitchen table, and began to talk, the girls realised just how young Clark was. Two years out of high school, no job except the farm, he hadn’t really had much experience of the world.
The three Charmed Ones began to tell them the story of what they were and how they’d learned about Chloe. They explained to him about the demon world and the Elders and what it meant.
“So, you’re saying these demons will be trying to get Chloe to their side?” he asked.
“And that can’t happen,” Piper said patiently. “Every witch they manage to get to their side tips the scales in their favour. It’s important to keep good and evil in balance.”
“Which is what we try to do,” Phoebe told him.
“It must be a huge responsibility,” he said, looking as if he knew all about responsibility.
While Phoebe had some empathic powers, for some reason, she couldn’t quite read him. He seemed different.
“When you said you’re not from around here, what did you mean?” she asked.
Clark looked uncomfortable. “Well, I’m adopted.”
“You’re also avoiding the subject,” Piper said, looking at him pointedly. “We told you who we are. It’s only polite to return the favour.”
Clark flushed, embarrassed at being caught out.
“Uh, I’m, uh, an alien,” he mumbled.
“Speak up,” the sisters said. “We can’t hear you,” Paige added.
“I’m an alien,” he said more clearly.
The three looked at each other. Then Phoebe nodded. “So my premonition was true.”
“You mean about me flying around with a cape?” Clark asked.
Phoebe stared at him, astounded. “You heard that?”
“Well, I have super-hearing.”
“What else?” they asked.
“Speed, strength, x-ray vision and super breath, and I can shoot fire from my eyes.” He let the sisters take this all in, but he still didn’t know what all this had to do with Chloe. He had no idea why he felt he could tell the girls all this stuff. He wondered if somehow they had the ability to make people speak the truth.
Paige looked at the other two. “That explains what the Elders meant by the saturation of power. They must have sensed Clark.”
Phoebe looked at her, then at Clark. “Do you know anything about the mutations? People developing powers?”
Again Clark blushed. “Uh, yeah, I do. Um, we think the mutations are caused by the meteor rock. I, uh, call it Kryptonite. Because it’s pieces of my homeworld. Krypton.”
“And this is what gives people these powers? We read Chloe’s articles,” Phoebe said.
“I think so. It also makes some of them kind of go crazy.”
Paige seemed thoughtful. “That’s why Chloe was asking me whether I’d been to Smallville.” She turned back to Clark, “Look, we really could use your help. Demons are after Chloe and if we don’t stop this, she could get taken, or worse, killed.”
Clark shook his head. “I don’t know if I could convince her any more than you can. She’s pretty stubborn.”
“Yeah,” Paige said sardonically. “I noticed that.”
“Well, what else can we do? Does Chloe have any family, perhaps?”
“Um, well, her Dad moved away a couple years ago. He got blacklisted by the Luthors and he couldn’t get another job.”
“Why was he blacklisted?” Phoebe asked. “Seems like an extreme thing to do.”
“Yeah, well when Lionel Luthor decides to do something to an enemy ...”
The three girls shuddered. They were glad they hadn’t talked to Lex Luthor first. If he was anything like his father ...
“What about her mother?” Piper asked.
“Uh, yeah, Chloe’s mom, she’s well, in a mental hospital.”
“What? Why?”
Clark shrugged. “I don’t know. Chloe doesn’t talk about it much.”
The sisters stared at each other. They would need to do some more research from that angle. They finally decided it was time to go. But as they were leaving, heading back to the car, they saw a man standing beside it. He looked up at them as they approached. He was dark-skinned, tall and lanky.
“Something I can help you with?” Clark asked, making it obvious he didn’t know the man. But the visitor was focused on the three girls.
“Well, the Charmed Ones.”
Before the sisters could move into action, Clark stepped in front of them, just as the demon fired off a ball of flame. It hit Clark in the chest, throwing him backwards a few feet. He lay on the ground, blinking in surprise. The girls quickly stood together, concentrating their powers and spoke the Power of Three spell. Screaming, the demon erupted in a ball of flame and disappeared.
Paige looked at Clark. Strong he might be, but he clearly wasn’t able to fight magick.
“That answers that,” she said, voicing the concern all three of them had about whether Clark would be able to protect Chloe.
Clark stared down at the blackened remains of his shirt and t-shirt, touching his chest. It was unmarked. He looked up at the three girls as they helped him up. He didn't like this. He didn't like it at all.
“Okay,” Piper was saying. “So who’s first on the agenda?”
“Hmm, well, Clark Kent apparently worked on the school paper with her. And from what I read on the school’s website, they were pretty close,” Phoebe said.
Paige took out her Blackberry and quickly looked up the information.
“His family has a farm on Hickory Lane. Let’s go.”
The three left the Talon and stood out on the main street of Smallville. Piper grabbed her sisters’ arms.
“Uh, you know, I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to just orb in. I mean, he might get suspicious if he doesn’t see a car, you know?”
“Damn,” Paige said. “You’re right. So I guess we should ... uh ... rent a car?”
“Do they even have car rental places in this town? I mean, it is called Smallville!”
“Phoebe, you are such a snob.”
“I am not!” Phoebe glared at her older sister.
Paige groaned before her two older sisters could turn this into an argument. She looked it up quickly and found a place.
“Look, there is a place,” she said. “Come on.”
The three walked down the street to the local car dealership, which also doubled as a car rental agency. The owner came out and looked the three of them up and down.
“We heard you rent cars here,” Paige said.
The man, looking a lot like Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard, broke out in a friendly grin.
“Well, hell, yeah, come on in ladies. Let me show you what we have here.” He pulled back his soiled cap and gave them another toothy grin, his ruddy, unshaven face crinkled. “Say, you girls ain’t from around here, are you?”
“Uh no,” Piper said.
“Is it that obvious?” Paige asked with a little trepidation.
“Well, yeah, your city clothes and all. You look an awful lot like the type that Lex Luthor would hang with. I mean, here in Smallville, we’re less formal, ya know?”
Formal? The girls looked at their regular, everyday clothes, not thinking there was anything unusual about the way they were dressed. But then they looked back at the man, who was dressed in grubby jeans and cotton shirt over an equally grubby t-shirt and understood.
“Lex Luthor?” Phoebe asked.
“Oh yeah, the town big shot. Not a lot of people like him around here. His old man owned the crap factory, oops, sorry, ladies, don’t mean to offend your delicate sensibilities. Anyway, used to be a creamed corn factory ‘til old man Luthor bought it. People don’t have much time for the Luthors, that’s for sure.”
“Why?” the three women chorused.
“Well, you know, weird stuff goes on in town sometimes. People doing crazy things, ya know? Like there was once this girl who could turn into anybody she wanted. And this other girl who could be one place one minute, then the next somewhere completely different.”
“How did that happen?” Phoebe asked curiously, glancing at her sisters.
“Well, people say it’s that fertiliser plant, ya know? Like they’ve contaminated the soil with the chemicals they put in it.”
“Oh. Interesting,” Piper said, although it was obvious she was only being polite. They would have to do some more research.
Within half an hour, they had managed to get themselves a rental car. A 1990 Ford that had lost its shocks somewhere along the line, and could have used a paint job as well as a few patches of rust taken out. But they couldn’t afford to be choosy.
Piper drove, taking direction from Paige, and they managed to find the Kent Farm without getting too lost. Before they headed down Hickory Lane, Piper looked at her sisters.
“So, uh, maybe we should think about a cover story?” she suggested.
“Well, why don’t we just say we’re friends of hers, from the city,” Paige said. “Since she works at the Daily Planet. She must have friends in the city.”
“I guess it could work,” Piper said doubtfully.
But Phoebe was looking ahead as Piper turned in the gateway.
“I uh, don’t think that will be a problem,” she said. “He’s not going to believe us anyway.”
Both Paige and Piper’s faces drained as they saw what she meant. Clark Kent was the man from the Talon. And judging from the way he was watching them warily, he knew something was up.
“Is there something I can do for you?” he said as they stopped the car.
The three got out, glancing at each other before turning back to the tall young man.
“Are you Clark Kent?” Phoebe asked, diving right in.
“Yes,” he said, still wary. “Who are you?”
“Friends, uh, of Chloe’s. From Metropolis.”
He dropped the hay bale he had been working on and looked at them, crossing his arms, as if to say, sure, tell me another one. Piper sighed, then looking at her sisters, who both shrugged. Paige gave her an 'I told you so' look. Piper decided honesty was the best policy in this case.
“Okay, we actually came to talk to you about Chloe. We believe she’s in danger and we need help to convince her.”
“Uh-huh. And you would know this how?”
“We’re witches,” Paige blurted.
Piper glared at her youngest sister. God, you’d think after six years and change, Paige would know not to blurt things out like that. But as she turned back to Clark, she could see that he wasn’t surprised by the revelation that there were such things as witches.
“Witches,” he said, his face draining of colour.
“Oh, um, no,” Paige said, putting her foot in her mouth even further. “We’re good witches.”
Clark began backing away from them. Piper screwed up her face, reluctantly going for the only option available. She concentrated, put up her hands and waved them at him. He froze.
“Okay, now what?” she said.
“I don’t know,” Paige said.
“Why did you have to tell him we’re witches?” Piper moaned.
“Well, what else was I going to do? He wasn’t going to believe the story that we’re friends of Chloe’s.”
“I know that, dummy.”
Phoebe shushed them both, shaking her head. Sisters!
Suddenly, Clark seemed to come to life again.
“What did you just do?” he asked.
The two younger sisters looked at their older sister. “Piper!”
“What? Normally it works.”
Phoebe rolled her eyes, then looked back at Clark.
“He looks mad.”
“He is right here, and he’s wondering what the hell is going on,” Clark said.
Piper held a hand out to her sisters, to tell them to shut up and let her do the talking.
“Okay, witches exist. But we’re not bad witches, okay? We’re really here to help Chloe. We know she’s in danger and we just want to keep her safe.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s also a witch.”
“Look, I already know about witches,” Clark said, mumbling uncomfortably. “I had a run-in with one a couple of years ago.”
“Really?” Paige asked, interested in spite of herself.
“Yeah, only this one had been dead for like four hundred years. So I already know magic exists.”
Phoebe frowned. “How were you able to, uh, unfreeze like that?”
“Unfreeze,” he said, staring at her. “Oh, yeah, well, I’m not from around here.”
“You’re not a demon are you?” Paige asked.
“Demon?” he said, shaking his head and frowning.
Oh boy, we’ve got a live one here, all four of them were thinking. Piper finally suggested they all go in the house and talk. Clark still looked wary, but he nodded his assent. Once they sat down at the kitchen table, and began to talk, the girls realised just how young Clark was. Two years out of high school, no job except the farm, he hadn’t really had much experience of the world.
The three Charmed Ones began to tell them the story of what they were and how they’d learned about Chloe. They explained to him about the demon world and the Elders and what it meant.
“So, you’re saying these demons will be trying to get Chloe to their side?” he asked.
“And that can’t happen,” Piper said patiently. “Every witch they manage to get to their side tips the scales in their favour. It’s important to keep good and evil in balance.”
“Which is what we try to do,” Phoebe told him.
“It must be a huge responsibility,” he said, looking as if he knew all about responsibility.
While Phoebe had some empathic powers, for some reason, she couldn’t quite read him. He seemed different.
“When you said you’re not from around here, what did you mean?” she asked.
Clark looked uncomfortable. “Well, I’m adopted.”
“You’re also avoiding the subject,” Piper said, looking at him pointedly. “We told you who we are. It’s only polite to return the favour.”
Clark flushed, embarrassed at being caught out.
“Uh, I’m, uh, an alien,” he mumbled.
“Speak up,” the sisters said. “We can’t hear you,” Paige added.
“I’m an alien,” he said more clearly.
The three looked at each other. Then Phoebe nodded. “So my premonition was true.”
“You mean about me flying around with a cape?” Clark asked.
Phoebe stared at him, astounded. “You heard that?”
“Well, I have super-hearing.”
“What else?” they asked.
“Speed, strength, x-ray vision and super breath, and I can shoot fire from my eyes.” He let the sisters take this all in, but he still didn’t know what all this had to do with Chloe. He had no idea why he felt he could tell the girls all this stuff. He wondered if somehow they had the ability to make people speak the truth.
Paige looked at the other two. “That explains what the Elders meant by the saturation of power. They must have sensed Clark.”
Phoebe looked at her, then at Clark. “Do you know anything about the mutations? People developing powers?”
Again Clark blushed. “Uh, yeah, I do. Um, we think the mutations are caused by the meteor rock. I, uh, call it Kryptonite. Because it’s pieces of my homeworld. Krypton.”
“And this is what gives people these powers? We read Chloe’s articles,” Phoebe said.
“I think so. It also makes some of them kind of go crazy.”
Paige seemed thoughtful. “That’s why Chloe was asking me whether I’d been to Smallville.” She turned back to Clark, “Look, we really could use your help. Demons are after Chloe and if we don’t stop this, she could get taken, or worse, killed.”
Clark shook his head. “I don’t know if I could convince her any more than you can. She’s pretty stubborn.”
“Yeah,” Paige said sardonically. “I noticed that.”
“Well, what else can we do? Does Chloe have any family, perhaps?”
“Um, well, her Dad moved away a couple years ago. He got blacklisted by the Luthors and he couldn’t get another job.”
“Why was he blacklisted?” Phoebe asked. “Seems like an extreme thing to do.”
“Yeah, well when Lionel Luthor decides to do something to an enemy ...”
The three girls shuddered. They were glad they hadn’t talked to Lex Luthor first. If he was anything like his father ...
“What about her mother?” Piper asked.
“Uh, yeah, Chloe’s mom, she’s well, in a mental hospital.”
“What? Why?”
Clark shrugged. “I don’t know. Chloe doesn’t talk about it much.”
The sisters stared at each other. They would need to do some more research from that angle. They finally decided it was time to go. But as they were leaving, heading back to the car, they saw a man standing beside it. He looked up at them as they approached. He was dark-skinned, tall and lanky.
“Something I can help you with?” Clark asked, making it obvious he didn’t know the man. But the visitor was focused on the three girls.
“Well, the Charmed Ones.”
Before the sisters could move into action, Clark stepped in front of them, just as the demon fired off a ball of flame. It hit Clark in the chest, throwing him backwards a few feet. He lay on the ground, blinking in surprise. The girls quickly stood together, concentrating their powers and spoke the Power of Three spell. Screaming, the demon erupted in a ball of flame and disappeared.
Paige looked at Clark. Strong he might be, but he clearly wasn’t able to fight magick.
“That answers that,” she said, voicing the concern all three of them had about whether Clark would be able to protect Chloe.
Clark stared down at the blackened remains of his shirt and t-shirt, touching his chest. It was unmarked. He looked up at the three girls as they helped him up. He didn't like this. He didn't like it at all.
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