Webs of Steel

Chapter 14; A Matter of Time

Glancing down at the glowing green rocks that were intertwined with the chains that bound him, Clark felt like he could throw up. He didn't bother to attempt to break them again, with green Kryptonite it would only be a waste of time and energy.

Mysterio was nowhere to be seen, and Clark assumed that he'd disappeared long before he'd come to. It was just him, chained to one of the wooden pillars that secured the roof, and Gwen, wired up to a chair that had power that he didn't wish to witness. Though it wasn't himself he was worried about, and he could keep Gwen safe as long as he was in the room. It was Lois and Peter that he feared for, but there was little he could do in his current state.

"Did you… did you patch things up with Peter?" He inquired.

"You really wanna talk about that right now?" She fired back. "Because I don't think it's the time or the place."

"It's not." He agreed. "But since we can't go anywhere, we may as well kill time until we can come up with an escape plan."

"Escape?" She laughed. "You're chained to a pillar and I'm wired to what looks like a torture chair, escaping is physically impossible unless something were to weaken those chains."

"Peter says you have brains, if that's true then surely you can think of something!"

"Classy, Clark. Real classy."

With a hefty sigh, Clark silently cursed his lack of social skills when it came to anyone outside of his Smallville circle. His eyes lingered on the meteor rocks, making feel worse than he already did. If he wasn't able to distance himself from them soon, he was afraid that the last of his strength would disappear.

"I'm sorry, Gwen. That came out wrong."

"Damn right it did."

"I just thought that making conversation would stop either of us from panicking, that's all." He shrugged.

"Well, it would be nice not to sit in silence."

"See?"

"But, if you didn't notice, I don't panic."

"Yeah." He agreed, having no energy to challenge her on it.

"And to answer your question, yes. I think for the most part, we did." She said, thinking over his original question.

"Good… because I have a confession to make, and I don't know if Peter told you." He chuckled.

"Told me what?" Gwen frowned suspiciously.

"About the body swap."

"Oh. That." She sighed. "Yes, he did… What a joke." She added, rolling her eyes.

"… I don't know if I should tell you this, but it wasn't a joke." He admitted.

"Hah! Yeah right, what's next? You're gonna tell me that it was you that said those things and not Peter?"

"Well, actually… yes. I was the one that called you annoying and said all those other things." He admitted with a nervous laugh.

"What?" She questioned in disbelief. "Huh, figures… Okay, if we make it out of here, I'm going to hurt you."

"Oh come on, I said I'm sorry!"

"But you're only coming clean to pass the time away, and I was so mad at Peter for that. Now, if we don't get out of here, he's gonna forever go on thinking that I didn't believe him!"

"Gwen, I'm sorry. You caught me at a bad time and-"

"We are done talking about this." She cut in.

"Look, would it make a difference if I promise you that we will get out of here?" He questioned.