Clark weaved through the trees. It was 6am and he was the only person in the woods. He could hear a branch snap from a mile away, he was certain that he was alone. The nearest living thing was a fast-asleep deer.
It had been two weeks since he copied Mark's powers. In this time, he'd developed a basic level of proficiency. He was no longer shaky when he flew, and he could land without plunging his legs into the dirt.
Clark flew up into the air. He landed steadily on a branch high up in the air. Then, he shifted back into his normal form.
The wind whistled past his ears. The morning air was cold and it pricked his skin. He couldn't push off of nothingness like he could when he assumed Mark's body. He felt normal, and human. He liked the feeling.
Clark switched back into Mark's body. He'd seen Mark a few times in class over the past couple weeks. Each time, the sensation corresponding to Mark's powers became a fraction more intense. Clark believed that he was re-copying Mark's powers as his body developed and became stronger. It was only a very small increase, but it was there.
He continued to train until it was time to return home. As he neared the edge of the forest, he switched back into his own body. Instead of walking back, he started to run.
Since his powers came along, Clark had felt a strong urge to make his own body stronger. Maybe he couldn't be superhuman as just himself, but he could definitely be much fitter. After a couple weeks of running and lifting weights, his fitness had improved considerably.
Clark turned his key in the door. He'd left a towel on the table which he used to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He always did the short run home at a sprint.
Olivia poked her head out from the kitchen. Since his powers had come along, Clark had seemed happier, more excited about the future. She liked seeing him so happy, "How was practice?"
Clark grabbed a piece of bacon from the table, he tore off half with his teeth, "It was good, I'm getting better at flying."
Olivia smiled, "Good job honey, remember, don't damage the trees! We don't need anyone thinking there's a bear living in the woods."
Clark rolled his eyes, "I know mum."
"I'm gonna go shower, I'll be down for breakfast in five." Clark called out as he took the stairs three at a time. His legs were still limber from running.
"Clark, honey, have you seen the news, no one's seen the Guardians for two days!"
Clark was already in the bathroom and turning on the shower. He only caught the last few words of what his mum said.
He didn't understand why any news company would think that was noteworthy enough to be published. The Guardians were probably fighting some kind of dinosaur at the centre of the earth, or in space fighting off an alien invasion.
The warm water ran down his shoulders and washed away the sweat. He didn't spend long in the shower, the smell of fried eggs wafting up the stairs was constantly urging him to hurry back down.
Clark quickly dried off and got dressed. He rushed down the stairs and took a seat at the table. Olivia was already sat down waiting for him.
The mother and son pair started to eat. Clark shovelled the food from his plate into his mouth, while Olivia ate more slowly. It always amazed her how much a sixteen year old boy could eat. And she knew that he'd do the exact same thing at dinner.
Olivia sliced a sausage into pieces, "Have you spoken to Mark honey?"
Clark snorted mid-swallow. He hurriedly drunk some orange juice to clear the food from his throat, "What would I say to him mum? Hi I'm Clark, I know your secret identity, oh and I can turn into you whenever I like?"
Olivia shrugged, "Tell him you like his shirt."
Clark blinked, his knife and fork paused in his hands. He repeated what his mum had just said, "Tell him I like his shirt?"
Olivia nodded and replied casually, "Everyone likes compliments honey. Girls do too, maybe if you gave out a few more you'd have a girlfriend."
Clark looked back down to his plate. He shovelled most of a sausage and some beans into his mouth. He silently processed the advice and the half-joking insult he'd just recieved.
After they'd finished eating, Olivia handed Clark his lunch and gave him a big kiss on the forehead, "Have a good day at school honey!"
Clark still couldn't quite believe that his mum's advice was to compliment Mark's shoes. But considering she'd woken up early to make him breakfast and packed his lunch, he didn't exactly feel like he had the right to argue.
'Fine, I'll compliment his shirt.' Clark thought to himself as he sat down on the bus.
The bus didn't take long to arrive. Clark walked down the steps and wondered how long it would've taken him to fly the same distance. If he went at full speed, he'd probably overshoot massively and end up in Indiana.
Clark walked through the hallways. He had chemistry first thing. He psyched himself up to compliment Mark's shirt. It was weird, but at least it would break the ice.
Just as Clark was giving himself a mental pep talk, he spotted the person he'd been thinking about. Mark was stood by his locker talking to a girl with ginger-coloured hair. She was pretty, and popular, Clark knew that her name was Samantha.
When Clark's eyes landed on Samanatha, he felt a silent shift inside of his brain. In the unknown space where Mark's powers straddled the gap between imagination and reality, a new kind of energy appeared. Clark knew, unmistakeably, that this energy represented Samantha.
'Holy shit! Is everyone at this school a superhero?'
Clark forced himself to act normal. He walked casually past Samantha and Mark and took his seat in the classroom.
He was eager to test out whatever power's he'd just copied from Samantha, but he couldn't possibly change bodies at school without anyone noticing. He would have to wait until he got home.
The fact that he'd copied Samantha's powers proved one of Clark's theories. He could copy more than just one power. He'd been desperate to test out this theory, but most superheroes weren't exactly waiting around the corner. It seemed impossible that his ordinary high school could contain not one, but two, superheroes.
"Take your seats please." The teacher instructed.
Most of the class were stood chatting in the hallway. At the teacher's instruction, they unenthusiastically filed into the classroom.
"Hey! I'm Clark, I like your shirt!" Clark blurted out. He mentally winced at how unaturally the words had come out.
Mark blinked. He looked left and right to check that the student was talking to him. He didn't know how to react. The way the student had spoken sounded like a stalker meeting their idol.
Mark forced an awkward smile, "Uh-sure, thanks."
Mark sat down in his chair. He shuffled a few inches forward, adding a little more space between him and the strange student sitting behind him. He didn't even know the guys name, he thought that it might've started with a C or a K?
The lesson got started. The teacher instructed her class to turn to page 142 of their textbooks. Clark was happy to have questions to focus on rather than the embarassment of his awkward introduction.
The lesson went by quickly. When the bell rang, Mark cast a glance over his shoulder and hurriedly stuffed his book and pens into his bag. He rushed out before Clark could say anything.
'Just tell him you like his shirt! Easy!' Clark lamented to himself.
He wasn't so bull-headed that he couldn't see that his mum had given him good advice. It didn't even really matter what he said to Mark, the important thing was that he started a conversation. Unfortunately, he'd managed to fail spectacularly. It was obvious that he'd made a creepy impression on Mark.
Clark slid his book into his bag. As he walked out of the classroom, he ran into Mark and Samantha again who were standing by the door. Mark gave him a look that was hard to describe.
'Screw it. Might as well keep digging!' Clark thought to himself.
He'd already weirded out Mark, but at least he'd left a memorable impression. He'd copied Samantha's powers too, he felt that she at least ought to know that he existed.
"Hi, I'm Clark! I like your-"
The words Clark had been about to say froze in his throat. He'd never been had a girlfriend, or even kissed a girl, but he felt damn sure that complimenting Samantha's shirt was the wrong choice.
"-shoes." He finished awkwardly.
Samantha's eyebrows furrowed. She tried to remember if she knew the boy in front of her, "Uh-thanks?"
Clark didn't linger. He nodded to both Samantha and Mark and then set off at a swift pace down the hallway.
The two superpowered teenagers exchanged a confused glance.
Sam scratched her head, "Do you know who that was?"
Mark scoffed, "No frickin' idea! He said the same thing to me in class earlier! Except he said he liked my shirt!"
Sam made a huh noise, "Weird."
The rest of the day went by in an educational blur. Clark found a seat in the cafeteria as far away from Mark and Samantha as he possibly could. He kept his head down and focused on the lasagna on his tray.
Mark and Samantha talked about their weird interaction with the boy who's name they didn't know a couple more times, but by the end of the day they'd almost forgotten about it. Both of them had a lot going on in their lives. A weird boy from Mark's chemistry class was hardly front-page news for either of them.
On the bus home, Clark sat with his eyes closed. He silently percieved the way Samantha's powers felt. He didn't activate them, he just observed.
Once the bus dropped him off, he didn't bother going home. Instead, he ran with his backpack on his shoulders, to the forest. He was so full of anticipation that he hardly felt tired at all from the sprint.
Clark switched into Mark's body for a moment. He used his enhanced hearing to check that he was alone in the forest.
Then, for the first time, he focused completely on Samantha's powers.
"Holy shit." Clark whispered to himself.
He stared dumbly at his chest. Then, silently, with a trepid expression, he raised his hands.
"Holy shit." He repeated.
Clark checked a few other things. His transformation into Samantha was fully biologically accurate. He'd prepared himself mentally for the change, but it still left him feeling astounded.
The idea of speaking to Samantha again made Clark feel uncomfortable inside. Because of his powers, he'd essentially seen her naked. It was a complete violation of her privacy.
"Sorry Samantha." Clark mumbled to himself.
Clark pushed his guilt to one side. He focused his attention on Samantha's powers. He had no idea how to use them, but when he closed his eyes, he could faintly feel his intuition pointing him in a specific direction.
Clark chose to follow his intuition. He stopped trying to control Samantha's powers, and instead, allowed them to flow out of him in the way that was most natural.
When he opened his eyes a few seconds later, he was left shell-shocked.
Everything in a ten metre radius gleamed golden. The ground, the leaves on the trees, everything was golden.
Clark could percieve the effect of his powers on a scale thousands of times smaller than his eyes could see. Somehow, by sheer luck and intuition, he'd transformed the molecular makeup of everything around him into gold.
'I need to fix this!' Clark thought to himself.
He was trying to stay low-profile. He didn't want to find out whether a passing plane or satellite could spot a small and entirely golden piece of woodland.
Samantha's powers were like an enormous ship. He could clumsily hit enough buttons to turn the ship left and right, but he had no idea how to sound the horn or raise an alarm. It took Clark nearly an entire hour to transform the forest back into its original state.
Clark found Samantha's potential terrifying. Even with his currently pathetic proficiency in using her powers, he could already cause catastrophic damage. Samantha could rearrange matter on a subatomic level! What difference was there between this and a god?
Clark had spent most of the hour fixing his mess, clumsily trying to feel out the particle arrangements of leaves and wood.
Thanks to his initial haphazard use of his powers, he'd managed to "feel" the arrangement of gold molecules. All he had to do to transform more things into gold, was to will this arrangement onto existing matter.
The molecular arrangement of gold was firmly embedded in his mind. It was both a feeling and a kind of understanding. He couldn't even name the different particles that made up gold, but he could percieve them.
Clark had relied on blind intuition to forcibly comprehend the arrangement of gold. Despite several attempts, he was unable to replicate this feat.
For the makeup of wood and leaves, he could only use his subatomic perception to slowly learn the relevant structures. He then had to push his focus to the limit in order to transform the gold back into its original state. He was like a child holding a sledgehammer, every action required intense concentration.
Once he'd managed to clean up his mess and restore the forest to its original state, Clark sighed with relief. He'd intially thought that Mark's powers were complicated. Now that he'd tried out Samantha's, he completely reevaulated his previous opinion.
"Mum and dad are never going to believe this." Clark muttered to himself.