Life In Smallville & Metropolis {8}

Chapter 21: Injustice

Note: Liana's not in this chapter.

Tess is leaving her office and she's on the phone and she says, "I said no. We can't risk the casualties, okay? You wait for the team to move in." Tess hangs up and hears the elevator ding and she sees Clark. Tess says, "Well, you seem to be taking my open-door policy a little liberally these days, don't you?" Clark says, "I guess I assumed after you ambushed me in my barn and accused me of being an alien Jesus that we had dropped any formalities." Tess smiles and says, "You know, I can't say that the sarcasm adds to your coy charm... but, please, come in. Greasy kung pow for one?" Clark says, "I don't have much of an appetite." Tess says, "Okay then. Tell me, what's on your mind, Clark?" Clark hands Tess the newspaper article she published, and he says, "Do you really think spreading panic is responsible journalism? Making Davis Bloome front page news every day is reckless." Tess says, "Reckless? I-I think reckless is not doing everything in your power to stop him." Clark says, "Starting a massive manhunt isn't helping anyone." Tess says, "Clark if you don't want to admit your true identity, that's fine. But we both know that Davis Bloome... isn't a man. He's a beast." Clark says, "If he is this beast then encouraging the police to go after him is dangerous. People will die." Tess says, "And when that happens... you'll know where to find him... so that you can finally slay the proverbial dragon." As Tess walks back to her office, Clark follows her and says, "This is not some fairytale. Obviously, there's some dark part of you that needs to be saved, but I am not your white knight. You're risking innocent lives, including Chloe's." Tess says, "Oh right. The accomplice of the serial killer." Clark says, "She's, his hostage. And she's in the most danger." Tess says, "If you're so worried about her getting hurt... why are you fighting my help, hmm? Maybe it's because you're actually afraid to find Davis. Because the pure and virtuous Clark Kent... can't face what he'll have to do... what you're destined to do... when that moment comes. Clark, I'm just making sure you embrace the inevitable." Tess hears Clark leave and she smirks. Later, Tess checks in on her team where one of their teammates lays dead. Tess walks in on hearing Rudy say, "They're the ones that screwed up, not us." Tess says, "So, quick to assign blame. I taught you to take care of one another. You were trained as a team. If one of you fails, then all of you fail. What the hell is going on here?" Bette says, "Livewire and Neutron found the monster. By the time Parasite and I showed up things had gotten messy. She said Neutron zapped him with some sort of radioactive blast." Tess says, "Your mission... was to find him and then wait until I sent The Traveler." Lesile angrily says, "Is that all you can think about?" Neutron's dead!" Rudy says, "Hey! Back off." Bette says, "Tess was trying to keep us safe. It was you and Neutron who didn't wait for backup." Lesile angrily says, "That thing caught us tailing him and he attacked. We didn't have a chance. I am not gonna be the opening act to this Traveler when you won't even clue us in to who it is. I want out." Bette says, "What? So, you can go back to stealing cars and running from the cops? Tess turned your life around. Gave us a place where we belonged. A chance to do something good for the world." Tess says, "We all suffered a loss here... but we should learn a lesson from this. We're only strong when we're together. If we find that beast you will save so many lives. You can't walk away from that." Lesile says, "Watch me. Go find another sucker to be your hero." Tess looks at Rudy and he walks over to Lesile and absorbs her powers. Rudy says, "Thanks for the power-up." Lesile looks down at her hands to see her powers are gone. Tess looks at Bette and Rudy and says, "It's up to you two now to find him." Bette says, "Don't worry. We won't let you down." Bette and Rudy walk away, and Leslie says, "So, what are you gonna do with me now? Put me back in jail?" The next day, Tess is in her office, and she hears a message that Eva who's transformed herself at Chloe sending a message to Bette and the message is, "Bette, I think we have a serious problem." Then Oliver walks into the room with a bottle of wine and he says, "Your secretary said you were out. If your assignment was to insult your new business partner... you get an A plus." Tess says, "And you flunked getting the hint. I don't have time for wine tasting, Oliver." Oliver grabs two glasses and he says, "Corporate Titans need to learn how to multitask, Tess. It's all business." Tess says, "That's not a quarterly earnings report." Oliver smiles and says, "You're always very perceptive. You know, I like that in a woman. It's a turn-on." Tess says, "If I remember correctly when it comes to the opposite sex... there's little that doesn't turn you on." Tess walks away and Oliver says, "Actually, there's only been one woman that ever had that effect." Tess says, "Nice try. I'm still busy." Oliver walks over to stand in front of Tess and says, "Well, it's to celebrate the reopening of the geothermal power station. I don't think you're understanding the significance." Tess says, "No, I get the PR benefits." Oliver says, "But the eco-friendly little girl the one who wanted to grow up and be a marine biologist. Surely, she's excited that we're reducing our carbon footprint, right?" Tess says, "Well, thanks to all the men in my life that little girl grew up. Now she only has time to worry about things like investor satisfaction and balance sheets." Oliver nods and says, "Well, I remember when the only sheets that separated us were made of silk. All you cared about was saving the planet." Tess smiles and says, "Oh, I still wanna save the planet. It's just some of the people that I could do without. Look, I have things to do, Oliver. So..." Oliver says, "Yeah, no, I'm sure you're busy. Boy, I gotta tell you that's a shame, you know? It's a '64 Soleil. It's from my private collection. I was thinking, we could just take the afternoon off and, uh... pop the cork." Tess smiles and says, "Keep your cork in your pants." Oliver says, "Your loss." Later, Tess is walking the halls of the Luthor mansion with her security guard, and she says, "Plastique and Parasite fell off the grid 20 minutes ago. Keep trying their cells. And come get me the moment that you make contact." The security man says, "Right." Tess walks into her bedroom to unbutton her shirt when she sees Oliver in her bed naked. Oliver says, "No, please, don't stop getting undressed on my account." Tess sighs and says, "You really don't know the meaning of boundaries, do you?" Oliver says, "Well, I know you shot me down earlier but I'm always eager to try another flyby." Tess says, "How did you even get past security?" Oliver says, "Must have been sleeping on the job." Tess says, "Oliver, I think it's time for you to leave." Oliver says, "Really? Okay." Oliver gets up and holds up the sheet around his body and then he drops the sheet and he's bare in front of Tess. Tess turns around and says, "Where the hell are your pants?" Oliver says, "Yeah, yeah. I hid my pants like that time I hid your clothes in Fiji on the Cabana. Remember that? That was a good time. If I remember correctly, we spent the rest of the vacation au naturel." Tess turns around and looks Oliver in the eye and says, "You can streak down memory lane all by yourself. Those days are over for me." Oliver says, "Really? Because I'm pretty sure I felt some of the old chemistry earlier this afternoon." Tess says, "Oh, there was tension. Mm-hmm. But it wasn't sexual." Oliver walks towards Tess and says, "Well, I beg to differ, Tess because I've been that look in your eyes before. What do you say, hmm? I'll fly you to places you never knew existed." Tess says, "You know, you might wanna cool your jets there, ace." Oliver says, "Maybe we should start over." Tess says, "It's too late for that now." Then there's an explosion and Tess falls down and covers her head. Tess looks to see Oliver knocked out and says, "Oliver." Tess turns to face Bette and Rudy and he says, "Thanks for the bolts you made me take from Livewire I deep-fried your little chips." Bette says, "We should have known you were only pretending to be the good mother hen. Looks like your freaks have come home to roost." Rudy then knocks Tess out. Later, Tess wakes up to being tied to a chair and looks up to see Rudy. Rudy shocks Tess and she pants. Rudy says, "Are you in pain? Huh? Think of how Livewire and Eva felt when you popped their brains." Tess says, "They betrayed us all." Bette says, "You're the one who betrayed us." Tess says, "Just tell me what you want." Bette walks to stand next to Rudy, looks at Tess, and says, "First, you're gonna give us access to the inmate files from Black Creek. Then we're gonna reach out to everyone that suffered your injustice and form our own league." Rudy says, "You may have recruited us, but we're free agents now. And with all that power... no one will ever mess with us ever again." Bette says, "Cough up the password to those files." Tess says, "I'm not about to let the world get taken over by a bunch of freaks." Bette has a sword in her hand and says, "Well, this freak's gonna make you talk." Bette puts the sword up to Tess's chest and then Clark walks in. Clark says, "Get away from her." Bette then punches Tess to knock her out. The next day, Tess is in Clark's barn, and she sees Clark open a secret compartment and she says, "You're looking for the crystal?" Clark says, "Let me guess, Eva told you all about it." Tess walks down the stairs and says, "You know, I thought I finally figured out the whole Kal-El puzzle with the Vertias journal, but...sending her in undercover did seem to reveal a few missing Kryptonian pieces." Clark says, "So, what did you do? Have one of your Black Creek inmates steal the crystal before you had them murdered?" Tess says, "I had nothing to do with their deaths, Clark. Black Creek was Lex Luthor's project. The chips were implanted there. The technology was untested. If it malfunctioned, you can't blame me." Clark says, "I'm sure there's no way to tie it back to you. You've already had your people cover your tracks. Where is the crystal?" Tess says, "I had it destroyed... so that you'd have no choice but to kill the beast. Sending him to some otherworldly prison that's not enough. How many people like Plastique have you sent to jail only to have them slip through the system? What if that happened again? You can't tell me that no one's ever escaped from the Phantom Zone." Clark says, "This isn't your battle." Tess says, "So, you admit that it's yours. Clark, don't you see that I'm doing this all for you?" Clark says, "For me?" Tess says, "Yes." Clark says, "You're so delusional, you put together a small army to make some fictional prophecy come true." Tess says, "Clark, the mark of a true hero... is somebody who's willing to sacrifice his own personal morality to help keep the world safe." Clark says, "No one has the right to choose who lives and dies. I was beginning to think that you were different from Lex. I was wrong." Clark walks away and Tess turns to face him and says, "The difference... is that he turned his back on you. But I still believe. I understand... that if everyone was more like you the world would be a better place. But the truth is that that's out of your hands now. You can't avoid your fate." Clark says, "Lex did teach me one thing. The word "fate" is used by people who've lost sight of who they are. Why are you so determined to see Davis Bloome die?" Tess says, "That's simple, Clark. An entire civilization's survival depends on it." Tess walks out the barn and later returns to the mansion. As Tess is walking the halls, she sees a purple light under a door, and she opens the door to see the orb glowing. The orb speaks and says, "Is Kal-El ready to fulfill the prophecy?" Tess says, "I did as you asked. The crystal has been destroyed." The orb grows more powerful and spreads to Tess and says, "Then you shall be the savior of Kandor."