The Warehouse

*****

The cramped metal box was as cold as ice against Chloe’s exposed skin. She was almost completely naked except for the thin cotton underwear she’d put on that morning. The panties and the bra left little the imagination and she’d suffered frighteningly intense stares from the two men who’d taken her out of her bed in her apartment at the Talon.

What do they want?

The idea that they were going to rape and kill her had crossed her mind more than once since she’d awoken inside the cold metal enclosure a few minutes ago. She wanted to call for help but the men who now came toward the box mentioned the name Luthor. She doubted Lionel would risk his already shaky alliance with Clark and Martha Kent to kidnap her. That left Lionel’s son, Lex. She knew he’d been itching to discover Clark’s secret for years and he was getting closer every day. She wouldn't do anything to give him the final piece of the puzzle by calling for Clark to help her out of this situation.

The box rocked unsteadily as it was lifted out of the back of the truck.

“She’s heavier than she looks,” one of the men said. They both got a good laugh at her expense.

Screw you.

Chloe tried to find a split in the seam, or a lock, or anything that would give her a view of her surroundings, but she saw nothing. The box seemed pretty tight but air still came through in a cold and steady stream. She shivered and hugged her knees to her chest.

All she could do was wait.

*****

The Green Arrow took aim. A second later the arrow flew free of the compound bow in his grip and nailed its target -- the back of the man's right leg -- dead center. The thug went down with a cry and began screaming in agony.

Oliver had no pity for the man. He was assaulting an unarmed woman, after all, and he deserved little to no pity.

“Shut up,” he said. His voice was modified so that no one could recognize him when he spoke. The woman he’d just saved was in her mid forties and quite lovely. She had black hair and striking blue eyes.

“You’re the Green Arrow,” she said. “I’ve been looking for you. You’re the reason I came to this part of town.”

Oliver wasn’t one to enjoy fan worship. He hoped the woman didn’t start sobbing on his shoulder. He hated it when that happened. He also hoped she hadn’t purposefully gotten herself into trouble just to lure him out so she could meet him and get his autograph. He hated it when that happened even more.

“You’re going to be fine, ma'am. I’ll tie him up and call the--”

“I don’t care about him! It’s my daughter I’m concerned with. She’s gone missing.”

The man crying on the ground looked up at Oliver with frightened eyes. “I ain’t done nothin’ to nobody’s kid, man! I just snatch purses. I ain’t no pervert!”

“He had nothing to do with it,” the woman said, nodding in the thug's direction.

“We’ll have to alert the authorities about your daughter,” Oliver said. “You can tell them--”

“She was taken by Lex Luthor. The authorities can’t help her.”

Oliver’s curiosity was piqued now. “Luthor took your daughter? You’re sure?”

The woman nodded. “I'm positive. He held me captive for years. I’m Moira. Moira Sullivan. My daughter’s name is Chloe. She works at the Daily Planet.”

“I’ve heard of her,” Oliver said. He wasn't about to let the thug know that he knew Chloe personally. He finished tying up the man on the street and then called for the police. After that was taken care of he turned to Moira. “Come with me, Mrs. Sullivan. I'll do all I can to help you.”

*****

Chloe was almost asleep when the lid to the metal box she’d been stuffed into lifted. Cold air rushed in, making her shiver even more. She thought she’d die of hypothermia if she didn’t get warm soon. Her entire body ached with cold that went straight to her bones.

Big, calloused hands reached in, gripped her arms painfully, and hauled her out. Her knees, which had been bent for God only knew how long since she’d been placed in the box, buckled and she went sprawling to the floor.

“On your feet!” one of her captors demanded.

“Cut her some slack. She’s been locked up for two days,” one of the other men said.

The first man snorted. “You hot for her?”

“No.”

“She stinks to high heaven. I think she pissed herself.”

“She didn’t have a bathroom.”

Chloe lay on the ground, humiliated that she hadn’t been able to hold her bladder or bowels long enough to get to a bathroom. Tears stung at her eyes. She wasn’t just dirty she was nearly naked.

“Take her to the showers. Get her cleaned up,” a new voice said. It was a woman. Chloe struggled to look up but all she could see in the darkness was a pair of feet in sensible flats. Delicate calves disappeared behind an institutional gray skirt.

The two men hauled Chloe away. Her feet dragged and she struggled to keep them beneath her, to walk along lest the skin be rubbed from her toes, but it was pointless. She hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink in almost two days. She was weak.

The showers were filthy. Mold blackened walls rose above her and the floor tiles stank of dirty feet and mildew. Chloe was thrown into the center and a hose was turned on her. One of the men approached and pulled her underwear off, leaving her naked and ashamed.

Don’t let them rape me…

Powdered soap was unceremoniously dumped on her and scrubbed in with a brush and then rinsed off with frigid water. The cold was so deep in Chloe’s bones she thought she’d never feel warm again. Once the shower was over she was haphazardly dried off and dressed in a gray jumpsuit. The material was thin but blessedly dry. Socks and slippers were put on her feet and for the first time they began to feel warm.

She was dumped in a room with padded walls and no bed. The door opened and the woman from before entered. She handed Chloe a bottle of water with the label peeled off. Chloe gulped it down. She hadn’t realized how dry her throat was until the water flushed down her throat. She downed the bottle and wanted more.

“You’ll be summoned soon,” the woman said.

“Who are you? What do you--”

The woman’s fished connected with Chloe’s jaw. Her head connected with the rug that covered the concrete floor. Stars danced before her eyes as little pinpricks of colorful light.

“You’re not to ask questions. You are only to answer them. That is your last warning. Break that rule again and I’ll have you flogged.”

The door shut and left Chloe in total darkness. She succumbed to weariness and sank into dreamless sleep.

*****

Oliver Queen wasn’t fond of revealing his true identity to strangers but he couldn’t remain ‘in character’ every time he had to meet up with Moira Sullivan. Besides, he figured if she was Chloe’s mother, and she was an honorable woman like she seemed to be, he was willing to risk it.

“Have you any leads?”

“I’ve got one of my best men, Cyborg, working on cracking into Lex Luthor’s files to see if he’s got information on where Chloe would have been taken. My team is on it. It’ll take time but we’ll find her.”

Moira nodded. “I don’t have long.”

Oliver frowned. “What do you mean? Are you sick?”

Moira nodded. “In a manner of speaking. I’ve been in a catatonic state for years. When I sensed Chloe was in danger I came out of it. I don’t know how. Do you think you can get something that belongs to Lex? If I can hold onto it I can force him to lead us to Chloe.”

“How would you do that?”

Moira explained about her meteor ability. Oliver listened closely until she was finished. “I’ll have Impulse sneak in and get something. Does it have to be something specific?”

“No. It just has to belong to him.”

“I’m on it,” Oliver said. He noticed how tired Moira looked. He hoped he didn’t lose her before they could find Chloe.

He touched her arm, hoping to reassure her. “Hold tight, Moira. We’ll find Chloe.”

*****

Light stabbed at Chloe’s eyes when the door to her cell was yanked open. One of the men, the lesser of the two evil bastards who’d captured her, offered her a hand to help her stand up.

“Come on. Doc wants to see you.”

Chloe considered asking another question but decided against it. She didn’t want to risk a flogging from whoever ‘Doc’ was.

She was led through a sterile white corridor to a set of gray, windowless, double doors. On the other side were stacks of crates. She was in some kind of warehouse. Her escort was a young man, early twenties, with dark hair and brown eyes. He was the muscle builder type with strong hands and, despite his apparent interest in showing kindness, probably didn’t  have much of a conscience.

His grip was firm without being painful but Chloe wouldn’t consider trying to run on legs as rubbery as hers were. He’d catch her in seconds and the punishment for trying to escape would undoubtedly be terrible.

Chloe was urged into a seat behind a desk. The place was dirty and looked as though it was used to being occupied by blue collar men with grease and dirt from hard work permanently trapped under their fingernails. The woman behind the desk looked completely out of place. Whoever this woman was she hadn’t been in this warehouse long. From the sour expression on her face she didn’t want to be here a moment longer than she had to.

She brought up a paper bag with grease stains. It was from a local fast food joint. Chloe could smell the cheeseburger inside and her stomach growled.

“Eat. You’ll need your strength for what’s coming.”

“I’m not playing your games,” Chloe said.

“I can and will send you out there to face the trials on an empty stomach.”

Chloe leaned into the woman, keeping eye contact as she did, and whispered, “Do what you want. Tell Lex Luthor I’m not going along with whatever he's got going on here.”

The woman didn’t deny Luthor’s involvement in her predicament but she didn’t confirm it either.

“Take her out to the gate,” the woman ordered. She motioned at the bag of food. “It’s a shame to let this get cold. The food from that grease joint is actually pretty good. It’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready to cooperate.”

The gentle giant who’d led her into the office helped Chloe to  her feet. Once they were out of Doc’s earshot he said, “You should really consider playing along, Miss Sullivan. It’ll make this easier on you.”

“You’re a part of this. Don’t act like you care what happens to me.”

His mouth disappeared into a thin line but his grip didn’t tighten. He said nothing else as he came to a stop in front of a small makeshift gate. He put her on the other side and then stood guard.

“Start walking.”

Chloe turned her back to him and crossed her arms. “I said it before I’ll say it again. I’m not playing Luthor’s games.”

“Are you afraid of snakes, Miss Sullivan?”

Chloe turned to see Doc had arrived. She had a snake in her hands. It was brown and black and she caressed it with tender affection.

“Get moving or I’ll sic her on you.”

“Do what you have to.”

Doc smiled and approached Chloe. “The vipera aspis. Some say Cleopatra used it to kill herself rather than admit defeat to Octavian. It’s a relatively peaceful death but it is death all the same. Get moving or you die. It’s as simple as that.”

Chloe remained in place. “I'll pass.”

Doc looked frustrated for the first time. “You have to do as I say.”

“Why? Your job on the line? Your life, even? What happens to you if I don’t go along?”

Doc’s jaw clenched once before she suddenly screamed in frustration and hurled the asp at Chloe. She tried to catch it out of instinct. The frightened and confused snake lashed out at Chloe. She dropped the thing and lifted a hand to the soft flesh of her neck where the thing had bitten her.

Chloe was already weakened from a lack of food and water. She staggered back and then fell ungraciously onto her rump. She sank back onto the floor. She felt suddenly tired and sleepy. Her body felt heavy. Her eyes closed and she sank into darkness.

*****

When the world returned Chloe found herself on a cold steel table. Doc stood over her, eyes wide with wonder.

“So it’s true. You’re immortal!”

Doc leaned in and whisked a stray strand of hair from Chloe’s face. “I can kill you time and again and you’ll always come back.”

Chloe didn’t like the anticipatory gleam in Doc’s eyes. “Your wet dream, am I?”

Doc grinned. “You’ve no idea. Tell me; what awaits us on the other side?”

“I’ve never seen anything. Or if I did I don’t remember.”

Doc nodded as though she was pleased with that answer. “Nothing happens when we die. I thought so.”

“You mean you hope so,” Chloe said. “If there is more to life after death then somebody like you is screwed.”

Doc patted Chloe’s arm, almost affectionately. “I’ll take your personal experience of zilch as confirmation that this life is all there is and it’s oblivion at death. Now. Let’s get started.”

Doc turned away from the table and a split second later she held up a scalpel. “Let’s see if you’re made of sugar and spice and all that’s nice, shall we?”

She lowered the scalpel but it was suddenly gone as something green flew by leaving a puff of wind behind. Chloe and Doc both looked to the lab entrance. Oliver Queen, dressed up as the Green Arrow, stood in the door.

“You!” Doc didn’t look angry. Rather she looked pleased. “I did it. I lured you out of hiding! I’m going to take off that mask and hand you straight to Lex Luthor. After that, I’m going to slice up the Sullivan girl--”

The last person Chloe expected to see rushed around Oliver and confronted Doc. “You’re not touching my little girl ever again.”

Moira drew back and landed an impressive right hook straight to Doc’s jaw. The woman crumpled in a heap at the foot of the bed. Oliver and Moira made quick work of Chloe’s restraints.

“Mom! What are you doing here?” Chloe threw her arms around her mother.

“I sensed you were in trouble. I located the Green Arrow and he agreed to help me find you.”

“We don’t have time for a family reunion here,” Oliver said. “We have to move before the guards can call for backup.”

*****

There were several unconscious guards lying on the floor of the warehouse. Oliver and Moira led Chloe along the outer rim of the floor, avoiding the maze Doc had cooked up for Chloe to cross.

“Chloe, the drugs that keep me awake are wearing off. I don’t have much time.”

Chloe gripped her mother’s hand. “No, that can’t be. You just found me. Besides, didn’t you overcome your condition to help me? You don’t need the drug.”

Moira blinked away tears. “I sensed your distress and used my power to coax one of the nurses to dose me. Now the drug is wearing off. I’m so sorry, Chloe. I…I…”

Moira’s speech began to falter. It was the first sign of her remission into catatonia.

They were very close to the exit when the door flew in, its hinges reduced to spiky shards of twisted metal. Chloe hoped at first it was Clark come to rescue them.

That hope was quickly dashed when a tall man with bronze skin and blond hair ducked through the doorway. Oliver fired off an arrow that literally bounced right off the strongman’s skin.

“Shit,” Oliver said. “Head back!”

The gentle giant guard, who was a dwarf in comparison to the newcomer, rounded the corner and raised his gun.

“Don’t make me shoot, Miss Sullivan. Tell your friend to put down his bow.”

Oliver’s grip tightened on his bow rather than loosened.

“What are we going to do?” Chloe asked.

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking.”

“Mom, no!”

Moira had left Oliver’s side and was approaching the strongman. She had her hands held up in a gesture of surrender.

“I give up. I’m ready to return to the lab.”

“Keep your hands down,” the newcomer ordered. Moira lowered her hands but when she was close she lunged at him.

A green light began to glow between his chest and her hands. A second later the strongman stood tall and still.

“Fight them. Do all in your power to make sure The Green Arrow and Chloe Sullivan escape.”

The strongman nodded. He marched away from Moira, past Oliver and Chloe, and put himself in front of the guard.

“What are you doing?” the guard asked. “Hey, you’re supposed to--”

The strongman thrust the palm of his hand forward. There was an ugly crunching sound as his sternum shattered. He fell to the ground ten feet away, his eyes staring blankly at the high ceiling of the warehouse.

“Run..Chloe…” Moira insisted. She was fading fast. “I don’t k now how…much longer I…can keep control of him.”

Chloe’s heart broke. She didn’t care about the strongman. She only cared that she get her mother to safety.

“We have to go,” Oliver said. “She told me you wouldn’t want to leave her if she started to slip. I promised her I’d get you to safety.”

“But she’s my mother!”

Oliver took Chloe by the arms. “She went to extraordinary measures to save you, Chloe. Don’t make everything she did go to waste by getting yourself captured again.”

He urged her on as her mother stood still, looking off into nothing. She was gone. Chloe took one precious moment to kiss her mother goodbye before allowing Oliver to pull her toward the wreckage of the door and out into the bright light of day. To freedom.

*****

Lex Luthor watched Chloe and the Green Arrow escape. Sitting across from him was his most trusted adviser -- Tess Mercer, aka Mercy.

“Did you see the familiarity in which the Green Arrow interacted with Miss Sullivan?” he asked Mercy.

Mercy nodded. “I did. They know one another personally. She definitely knows his true identity.”

Lex laced his fingers and studied the many camera angels in and around the warehouse.

“Dr. Hill exposed my part in this. She mentioned me by name. She can’t be allowed to be taken alive by the police.”

“I’ll see to it. I’ll also have Mrs. Sullivan returned to her cell,” said Mercy.

“Have Christian see to the cleanup at the warehouse and Moira’s safe return. I want you to focus on Miss Sullivan. Follow her every move. I want you to discover the Arrow’s link to her. I want to know who this man really is.”

Tess nodded once before leaving the office. Lex turned back to the monitor and zoomed in on the Green Arrow and Chloe making a run for it from the warehouse.

Lex Luthor’s lips curved into a smile. “I’ll have you soon, Arrow.”

Kryptonian Nature - Part 10

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

The conclusion...

The plan to rescue Ollie and Chloe was a fairly straightforward one. Clark sent Kara to retrieve the rest of the bro’s from the league while he scanned the building below. It was a two-story structure, no underground rooms. Clark was unable to see into certain rooms due to being covered in lead paint, and since neither Ollie nor Chloe were in any of the visible rooms, Clark assumed they were being held where he couldn’t see them.

One thing he could see rather clearly, however, were the walls. They were veined with liquefied Kryptonite, making it foolish for him to even consider going down there to fight. Both he and Kara would be weaker than newborn babies if exposed to the liquefied meteorites, so he decided to stay in the air, where he’d be safe.

Kara flew in, carrying a Hummer that she sat down outside of the building and then flew to a place beside Clark. He couldn’t look at her, and now he understood why she’d been so reluctant to allow him to regain his memories. He wished he hadn’t gotten them back himself, and thought it may be worth getting recaptured by Alpha if it meant losing his memories of the past few weeks.

“Kal-El?”

“What?”

“Do you hate me?”

He looked over at her. “Of course not! Why would you think that?”

“Because…I was smarter, and I let you…”

“You didn’t know, Kara,” Clark said. “I love you. You’re family.”

She nodded, looking only partly convinced, and still hurting. He wanted to hold out a hand, but the idea of touching her was just too much at that moment.

“I don’t hate you. I…”

“A little help?” Victor asked.

Clark saw Victor looking up at him. Focusing his eyes, Clark used his heat vision to demolish a nearby wall, exposing one of the rooms that was impossible to see into.

****

The effort it took to constantly self-heal left Chloe feeling weak. It didn’t surprise her. She hadn’t been given anything for fuel. No food, no water. The cutting of the blade was almost becoming old hat, and the only thing that was comforting to Chloe was knowing that there would be no scars to remind her of this hell.

“Do you think he’ll walk right into a trap to rescue you?” the man named Alpha said.

“What?”

“You called for him,” Alpha clarified. “Do you think he’d walk into a Kryptonite-rigged building to save you?”

There were soldiers lining the walls, as well as the hallway. Five stood beside Chloe, lazily pulling the scalpel across Chloe’s skin, a bored look on her face.

“I didn’t,” Chloe said, horrified. Clark would risk his life for her, especially in this state of reduced mental capacity. He was so innocent. He wouldn’t know how to deal with the situation, and if he got recaptured it’d be all her fault. What was worse, she hadn’t even been aware of calling for him.

“Oh, but you did,” Alpha said smugly. He reached out for her sweat-covered head, and she turned away from his touch.

“Don’t touch me. You disgust me,” Chloe hissed. The constant pain inflicted by Five had been going on for hours, and Chloe was now seriously testy. Her annoyance was tripled when Alpha laughed, leaned over, and ran his tongue up the side of her face.

“Mmmmm,” he moaned in her ear. “If you were my woman, and you soon will be, I would fuck you as hard as Mr. Queen did in the elevator of his apartment.”

He’d been watching them, and that chilled Chloe. Not because of being watched, but because this man was good enough to circumvent Ollie’s considerable security measures without Ollie ever being aware of it.

Alpha’s hand was straggling dangerously close to her breasts when the wall of her torture chamber exploded, sending debris flying past her. Five gave a small cry as a piece of something sliced across her face. Actually, her entire face looked like a bloody mess by the time she hit the floor, eyes closed, unconscious. Green liquefied Kryptonite sprayed from tubes set into the walls, sluicing over Chloe, and sinking into her skin. She felt herself strengthen as she took strength from it. Her newest wounds, mostly created by the exploding wall, sealed closed faster than any wounds she’d sustained since she arrived.

The room was filled with dust and smoke, and the sound of gunfire. Several people cried out in pain as something red flashed past. Bart… One face loomed out of the darkness over her. Looking up, she saw that it was A.C., smiling down at her.

“Hey, Chloe,” he said. “Hang tight, I’ll get you out of here.”

****

Dawn was coming and Chloe, freshly scrubbed from the shower, paced Martha Kent’s warmly lit living room. Clark Kent stood at the windows, arms crossed. It was killing him not to be able to help with the action, but Ollie had garnered more help in the form of Dinah Lance and the Martian Manhunter.

“Clark, try to calm down and not be so upset,” Martha said.

“Not be upset?” Clark asked incredulously. “Mom, they turned me into a low brow, cousin-lovin’ caveman and you’re telling me not to be upset?”

“I’m just saying you need to keep your cool. Clark, you could lose your temper and very easily kill those men.”

“I’m not seeing a problem with that,” he snarled.

“Clark Kent!” Martha said in shock.

“Kal-El” he shouted at her, his nostrils flaring. “They took everything that matters to me away. They took my mind, they took my life, my manhood, and they turned me into a…mom, I fell in love with my own cousin because of them! How would you feel if that happened to you?”

“I can’t begin to imagine, Clark,” Martha said. She cautiously approached her massive son, whose chest was heaving with hurt and anger. “I can’t imagine. I do know that time is a great equalizer, and if you kill these men you’ll never forgive yourself. If you think you feel bad now, imagine how you’ll feel when you’re calm, when you’ve had time to breathe and think? Please, Clark, think before you act. Rule your strength with your mind, not your passions.”

Clark backed away from her, but bumped into Chloe.

“Clark, your mother’s right. I want them to pay, too, but you have to do this the right way.”

“What way is that? Should I take them to the police so they can show proof of what Kara and I are? There is no justice outside of what I deal out to them.”

“Fine. Kill them then,” Chloe said, shrugging as though it didn’t matter.

“Chloe,” Martha said uneasily.

“No, really. Go on and kill them. Why stop there? Why not kill everyone who does something wrong? After all, you’re a god among us simple mortals, right? Play judge, jury, and executioner.”

Clark turned away, looking bitter. Chloe touched his shoulder.

“They tortured me, Clark. I want them to pay for that too, but not with death. I’m better than them. So are you, but you can only prove that by behaving better than they are.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“Talk to Ollie, see what he wants to do.”

“And if his plan is to execute them?”

“Then you step in and stop him, and make him come up with something better,” Chloe said.

Clark was silent for a long time, watching the watery, weak light of day half-heartedly illuminate the snow-covered world outside the living room window.

“Fine. I’m going to talk to Ollie.”

“Take me with you.”

“I will, but not right now. Right now I have to talk to Kara.”

“Okay, but come back for me. I can’t wait to fly with you.”

Clark smiled down at her. “I’ll always come back for you.”

Kissing her lightly on the forehead, Clark took a step back. In the blink of an eye he was gone.

****

Kara was floating above the clouds, soaking up the sun, while below her the clouds churned angrily and threatened to spew more snow onto the world below. She jumped when she realized Clark was beside her.

“Ready for that talk?” Clark asked.

“No. I never want to talk about it again.”

“We have to.”

“What is there to say, Kal-El? We crossed a line we never should have crossed.”

“Because we didn’t know who we were.”

“You think its over, don’t you?”

Clark frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You really need to get friendly with the Fortress of Solitude, Clark. It could educate you on Kryptonian physiology. I don’t know about with other species, but when Kryptonians have sex with one another they form a chemical bond. We become mates on a cellular level and once that bonding happens, it can’t be undone. Not on our own.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means we’ll still desire one another. We’ll fight it, we’ll be disgusted by it, but it’ll be a powerful need.”

Clark tasted bile at the back of his throat. “You said it couldn’t be undone on our own. Who could help us?”

“The Manhunter may be able to undo our mistake, with help from Jor-El. That’s a big ‘may,’ Kal-El, and it’ll take time.”

“We have to try. I love you, Kara, but you’re—”

“Ditto,” she said quickly.

Clark fell silent, and found his eyes drinking in the way the sunlight seemed to run like liquid gold down the swell of her breast and into her cleavage—

“We’re finding J’onn now,” he said, and Kara, who’d felt his desires, nodded.

“Right. Let’s go.”

Together, the two of them swooped down through the stormy clouds, heading for Metropolis, where Ollie was interrogating the scientists who’d captured them. He stopped only long enough to keep one promise—to pick up Chloe.

****

Two days later

Chloe stood before the observation window in Ollie’s lab. Ten scientists, the founders of the Shadow Society, milled about, some looking bored, some looking panicked. Five’s face was wrapped in bandages. The woman had had the nerve to ask Chloe to heal her. Chloe had responded by reaching out with a hand adding another ugly tear to the woman’s face.

Ollie had pulled her away, then, looking at her in shocked concern, and now they stood watching Five dab at the blood that poured from the new wound on her face.

“I never dreamed you’d do something like that.”

“That bitch tortured me. She cut on me for hours, Ollie, and then had the audacity to ask me to heal her? Fuck her.”

Ollie reached out to Chloe, pulling her close.

“I wanted to kill her.”

“I’ve felt like that before,” Ollie said. “For all your talk to Clark about being better—”

“It was just a cut—”

“It’s the worst gash she’s got on her face, Chloe. Not even surgery will fix it. Not that she’ll be having surgery any time soon.”

“I won’t heal her.”

“I won’t ask you do, and I don’t blame you for refusing. Just…no more damage, okay?”

Chloe nodded against his shoulder. Chloe enjoyed his scent, and the feel of his body against hers. “We’re all such a mess. You, me, Clark and Kara. Especially Clark and Kara.”

“J’onn will sort them out at the Fortress. They’ll overcome this.”

“And us?” Chloe asked. “What'll we do about them?”

“I haven't figured them out yet,” Ollie said honestly. “I'll think of something, though. As for you, I want you in Star City, with me. Come home with me Chloe. We’re too good together to be apart.”

She squeezed him, and he knew her answer in that moment.

“But you won’t, will you?”

“My place is here, at Isis. I have a lot of work to do with meteor freaks. And besides…I’m going to write my own column, and publish it. Just because the doors of the Daily Planet are closed to me right now, doesn’t mean I have to give up my writing.”

“Who’ll publish you?”

“I was hoping my rich boyfriend would help me there. I could open a small press in the floor above the office.”

“You’ll have to put out for that,” Ollie said.

Chloe laughed. “I’d put out for you anyway.”

“Consider it done. What will your column be called?”

“I was thinking…the Eye of the Storm.”

“You sense a storm coming?”

Chloe kissed him softly. “The storm is here, Ollie. It’ll get worse before it gets better.”

Ollie kissed Chloe slowly and deeply. “It will get better, Chloe, with people like you, Clark, the Justice League, all working together. We’ll make it better.”

Chloe nodded. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Think we can make it, living in two different cities?”

Ollie shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’re damn sure going to try.”

Previous Chapter // Home

Kryptonian Nature - Part 9

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

Clark Kent listened to the sounds of the world and enjoyed the vista of stars that littered the night sky like sparkling diamonds on a velvety black cushion. A full moon hung over the ocean, a bright orb that turned the black water into a rising, swelling, living mass that occasionally crested with white waves. Kara floated stretched out on her back, while Clark perched on her mid-section as though she were some sort of recliner, his bare feet dangling in the salty ocean breeze.

“Thanks for bringing me flying,” Clark said, his ears perked up at the sound of whale song beneath the water. It was lovely to listen to.

“You’re welcome, Kal-El,” Kara said, studying him. She casually glided through the air, moving closer to a distant and deserted beach. “We’ve been cooped up on that farm for days.”

“It’s our home,” Clark said.

“Not anymore.”

Clark shut out the ret of the world, the whales below, and looked at her. “What do you mean?”

“We’re no longer the people who used to live there. We’re different now, and they don’t want to see that.”

Clark glanced at the water, using his funny vision to look at what was beneath, seeing the skeletal outlines of many living creatures. The ocean was brimming with life, and Clark wanted to see it all.

“Let’s go swimming,” Clark said. “We can hold our breath for a long time. I did it for two hours once, just sitting in my room. I’ll bet I could go even longer!”

“We can go swimming in a moment, Kal-El, but right now we need to talk about what we’re going to do.”

Kara held onto Clark, to keep him from falling when she zoomed toward solid ground and set him down on the sand. Clark was immediately fascinated by it, picking up a handful and watching it sift through his fingers. Everything was new and exciting to him, and Kara knew they could spend years discovering things, and amazing themselves.

“Kal-El, we need to make a choice. We can stay and let them restore our memories, or we can travel the world, swim the oceans, free and answering to no one. Wouldn’t you like to do that? Instead of doing chores on the farm for strangers, wouldn’t you rather run through the deserts, swim oceans and lakes, maybe even learn to fly?”

“That sounds like fun,” Clark said hesitantly, “but what about Mom, and Chloe and our new friends?”

“They’re not as friendly as you think,” Kara said crossly. Clark’s dark brows knitted together in a frown of confusion.

“What?”

“Kal-El, if they get your memories back you’re going to understand who I am to you. You’ll know what a cousin is, and you’ll understand why it was so bad for us to be lovers. It’ll hurt you so much, and I don’t want you to hurt. Remember how sad I was? You don’t want to be that sad forever, do you?”

Clark gave it serious consideration. “I was smarter, before,” he finally said. “I want to be smart again.”

“You’re smart, Kal-El!” Kara said cheerfully. A little too cheerfully for Clark’s liking, and he knew she was lying for his benefit. It was touching, but it was still a lie.

“No, I’m not, Kara. You’re just saying that to make me feel better, but I’m dumb. I can tell when people look at me that they feel sorry for the way I am now. I don’t like that. I want to be like I was before.”

Angry, Kara backed away from Clark. She’d hoped he’d be more receptive to her wishes, but he wasn’t. “That’s not what I want for us. I know what’s best for you, Kal-El. You should listen to me, and trust me.”

“I do trust you. I just think you’re wrong this time.”

“You trust Chloe more than you do me!”

“No,” Clark said, bewildered and upset. What was wrong with Kara? Why was she acting this way? “Don’t me mad, Kara. I just want to be like I was before. You can stay like you are now, if you want. I’ll still be your friend.”

Kara paced, thinking what to do. She knew what Clark liked most, what he’d been doing without for days since Chloe had found them at the lake in Smallville.

“Don’t you miss mating? I can find someone to be your new mate.”

“Nah,” Clark said. “Chloe won’t do it. She likes Oliver now.”

“It can’t be Chloe. She wants to make us remember. I’ll find someone new. Someone who looks like Chloe. Wouldn’t you like that?”

“No. Let’s go home. Mom is making meat for dinner, and she said I could have my own cake, all to myself.”

“Will you stop thinking about food for once!” Kara yelled. Clark backed away from her, his eyes wide and hurt. Kara felt terrible. She was being mean to someone innocent and sweet…to family. “I’m sorry, Kal-El.”

“You’re getting mean,” he said. “I don’t like you very much anymore.”

“Kal-El! You don’t mean that!”

“Yes I do. If you don’t get your way you yell and say mean things. You make me feel stupid.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt-”

He turned and ran, diving for the ocean, only instead of going into its depths to explore, he sped toward Smallville. Sighing, Kara rose into the air and followed. He swam very fast, and soon he was on land, his arms and legs pumping so fast only her eyes could follow them. In less than a minute, he was back at the farm, covered in ice from the water that had frozen to him when he reached the winter landscape of the place he called home. Inside, his mother grabbed him up in a hug, and Kara watched, through the walls, as he hugged her back.

Flying for the barn, Kara curled up on the couch, weeping bitterly. Kal-El had made his choice, and hit hadn’t been her. She imagined the pain he would feel when he did regain his memories, and he finally understood all the mistakes they had made.

****

Screaming was all Oliver Queen was capable of doing, so he did it very loudly. He hung from his wrists, facing a mirror that showed his reflection on one half, and Chloe in the next room in the other half, suffering terrible tortures, her mouth opened in screams that he couldn’t hear through the sound proof walls.

“Leave her alone!” Oliver shouted, but ice cold water sprayed over him, robbing his body of warmth. A second later a man in a white lab coat approached with a wand that sizzled on the end with an electrical current. He touched it to Oliver’s wet skin, sending painful shocks over his entire body. His scream was cut off when his heart faltered, and then resumed at a rapid pace. He was prepared to die—he just didn’t want to do it so painfully.

“Oh, God…” he gasped when the wand was pulled back. “Just do it, already. Just kill me!”

In the next room Oliver watched Chloe struggled against her restraints when the woman torturing her pulled a scalpel over her flesh over, and over again, bringing up lines of blood that disappeared under a rosy glow of light. Seeing Chloe suffer was even more torture than what he went through with the electric shocks.

Feeling weary, Oliver sagged against the cuffs that held him up, but doing so put pressure on his lungs that cut off his ability to breathe. It was the same principal behind the old Roman method of crucifixion. The victim didn’t die of the wounds to the hands and feet. They smothered to death when they were too weak to hold themselves up any longer. Oliver considered putting himself out of his misery by suffocating himself. He hung there, his arms outstretched above him in a gruesome imitation of the Christ, and dizziness overcame him. Just before he blacked out, the cuffs released, and he collapsed to the floor, landing hard on his back.

Air filled his lungs, and he gasped greedily, sucking in as much as he could, feeling his half-numb limbs tingle as blood began to circulate properly. A face appeared over him, handsome and with cold eyes offset with blond hair. The man was a perfect example of Hitler’s Arian dream.

“Trying to kill yourself?” the man said. “I think not, Mr. Queen.”

“Who…”

“I am called Alpha, here in the Shadow Society.”

Oliver tried to place any terrorist organization that bore the name Shadow. He could think of several, but he’d never heard of the Shadow Society.

“You’ve never heard of us, and you will never tell anyone of us. Even if, by some miracle, you managed to escape these walls you could shout our name from the highest mountaintop and no one would know who you speak of, and no one would believe you anyway.

“What…do you…want?”

“My desires are simple. I want you to die. I have no reason why, other than you’re tiresome meddling in one of my greatest experiment I’ve ever had the privilege to conduct. The Traveler has escaped me, but I’ll get him back. He will come to me.”

“No…no I won’t allow that.”

Alpha smiled menacingly. “You won’t have anything to do with it.”

His eyes traveled to Chloe, and he snapped his fingers. The soundproofing that blocked her screams was lfited, and Chloe shouted out in agony at yet another deep cut.

“She will bring him to us.”

“Chloe…don’t…”

But it was too late. Chloe had reached her limit. “Clark! Claaaaaark!”

Back in Smallville, Clark Kent was pulling on a fresh pair of pajama’s, Scooby-Doo’s that his mother had bought him, when one sound, one tiny voice among the billions he liked to listen to in the quiet of night, rose above all others. He blocked everything out and focused on that one voice.

“Claaaaaark!”

“Chloe!” he said. Crashing through his bedroom window, Clark ran to the barn, but Kara had gone.

“Claaaaaark!” Chloe screamed again. She was in agony. His heart pounding, desperation clenched Clark’s stomach and he turned. He had to get to her. Focusing on her voice, Clark ran and then leapt, and this time he didn’t fall back down to earth. He had only one goal in mind.

Save Chloe Sullivan.

Chloe was so focused on that one task he didn’t realize at first that he was flying, and when he did, he took very little joy or satisfaction in it. There was only the sound of her voice, and a feeling of blinding rage that someone would hurt her.

His flight was cut short when something slammed into him with the force a hundred atom bombs. Shaking his head, Clark looked up. Kara floated before him.

“Chloe needs me!”

“The bad people have her, Clark. You’re not going back there.”

“You can’t stop me!” Clark said uncertainly. The truth was, he wasn’t sure what Kara could do. Could she break him as easily as she’d broken Chloe that one time? She’d managed to halt him in mid-flight now.

“I’ll try,” Kara said, and lunged for him. They grappled in mid-air among flashes of lightning, the ground below lost to the billowing wet clouds they struggled within. She was strong, and she was winning the battle to push him away from Chloe’s agonized screams.

“Kara!” he shouted, grabbing her arms as she tried to punch him. “Stop it!”

“I won’t lose you again, Kal-El! Not for her. Not for anyone! I have to keep you safe!”

“I have to save Chloe, she needs me!”

“I need you too! You’re all I’ve got left!”

Knowing it was the right thing to do, Clark pulled Kara to him, hugging her close as she cried into the crook of his neck.

“You’ll always have me, Kara. No matter what, but Chloe—”

Clark was cut off as a powerful bolt of lightning struck him and Kara, the current coursing through their veins. It would have fried anything else to a cinder, but to them it was nothing but a fairly nasty shock that knocked them off balance for a moment.

But it wasn’t the lightning that caused Clark’s heart to race, or his heart to grow heavy with grief and self-loathing. It was the memories of his past, of who he was, and what he’d become after being kidnapped by a blond man who called himself Alpha, of the Shadow Society. He’d come to the barn, where Clark was trying to teach Kara to dance, shooting Kryptonite into their veins and weakening them. He’d taken them to a lab, he’d robbed them of their memories, and turned them into…

“I remember,” Clark said heavily. “I remember…everything.”

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Kryptonian Nature - Part 8

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

It wasn’t easy to rattle Martha Kent, but she was officially worried. Chloe had left the previous evening to try and patch things up with Oliver, but that as now 24 hours ago. Chloe wasn’t answering calls, neither was Oliver, and she had been trying to reach them in earnest now for over three hours. Even if the two of them were taking time to make up, which Martha hped was the case, they wouldn’t willfully ignore repeated calls from her.

Putting the phone back on the hook, Martha resumed the mundane task of cooking dinner, her mind torn between her work, Chloe and Oliver, and the current predicament her son found himself in. She cut vegetables for the pot roast she had planned for dinner and listened to Clark and Victor laughing at the television set in the living room (Clark much louder than Victor). Clark had discovered the joys of cartoons, with Scooby-Doo being his favorite. While Clark laughed at Shaggy and Scooby cowardly running through some supposedly haunted mansion from the latest ghostly threat, Martha turned over what she should do. Should she call Victor in and ask him to make the trip to Metropolis to see why Chloe and Oliver weren’t answering her calls? Was she overreacting?

The kitchen door opened and A.C. came in. He was tall, blond, and handsome, much like Jonathan had been at his age (though Jonathan had never been so bulky). With A.C. coming through the door with his mop of wild blond hair, Clark laughing at cartoons in the living room, and her going about the task of making dinner, Martha felt as though time had transported her back fifteen years, and she missed her husband more than ever.

Martha peeped into the living room. Victor sat beside Clark, making Martha think of Clark and Pete, and that made the feeling of nostalgia all the more powerful.

“You look a million miles away,” A.C. said softly from beside her. Martha smiled at him. “I’m just missing Jonathan…and the man Clark was becoming before this happened.”

“We’ll get Clark back,” A.C. said, resting a beefy, comforting hand on Martha’s shoulder. She patted his hand and went back to work, trying not to read anything into the touch, and feeling ashamed that such a thought would even cross her mind about a man half her age.

“Had any luck getting through to Ollie or Chloe?” Martha asked, taking a seat at the counter where she sat a bowl of freshly washed potatoes that needed peeling and cutting.

“No,” replied A.C. “I’m about to ask Victor if he wants to run to the city and find out what’s up.”

Martha nodded. “I’d feel better if I kenw for certain they were okay.”

“I’m sure they’re fine. Need help with this?”

“I could use a hand peeling potatoes. Jonathan was always so much better at it than I was. I usually cut away half the potato in the process.”

“Lucky for you I’m good with a knife,” A.C. said, smiling a dazzling white smile. Picking up a potato, he peeled the skin off evenly, taking very little potato with it. Victor entered the kitchen and smirked at his friend performing domestic duty.

“Did I hear someone say my name?”

“You mind going to Metropolis and checking on Oliver and Chloe for Mrs. Kent?”

“You boys don’t have to call me Mrs. Kent. Martha is fine.”

“And miss out on dinner?” Victor asked, smiling playfully. “I’ll call Bart and have him zip over.”

He cocked his head to the side, as though listening to a distant voice. A few seconds later, he looked up again.

“Sent him a text. He’s running over…is it me, or is it really quiet in here?”

Victor, A.C., and Martha looked into the living room after realizing there was a noticeable lack of laughter at the cartoon on TV. Clark was gone.

“Clark?” Martha called. “Come here!”

Her son didn’t respond, as he usually did, by blurring into the room at once. However, someone did seem to appear out of thin air: Bart Allen. He looked pale and shaken, and a little frosty around the edges from his fast run in the winter air.

“We’ve got big trouble,” he said. “Old Tim, the night watchman at Ollie’s building? Dead. Throat cut wide-open.”

“How come it wasn’t on the news?”

“Nobody knows. His body was up in Ollie’s apartment, which was totally trashed. I think Ollie and Chloe have been kidnapped.”

****

Cold water roused Chloe from a drug-induced sleep. She blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of the everything that was going on in the room with her. The more time that passed the more she realized that there wasn’t much happening, but the bright light above her, as well as the noise of the circulation fans moving air through the room, were overwhelming her already distorted senses. There was a lot of silver in the room, and plenty of shiny surfaces for the overhead light to reflect off of, and Chloe found it all very disorienting. It didn’t help when ammonia was held under her nose to facilitate clearing her head.

“Good, you’re coming around nicely,” said a female voice above and behind her. The ammonia was removed, but the sterile scent of an operating room remained. The air was filled with the noisome aroma’s of more ammonia, rubbing alcohol, and bleach, which made Chloe’s delicate stomach churn.

There was a chair beside her, as well as a tray laden with surgical instruments, their razor sharp edges gleaming wickedly. The owner of the voice, who sounded as though she regularly treated her vocal cords to washes of whiskey and dried with cigarettes, came to sit in the chair beside Chloe, who determinedly tried to commit each and every line (and they were considerable) of the woman’s face to memory. She wore a white lab coat and had short gray-black hair.

“Good to see you awake, Miss Sullivan,” said the woman, sounding as though she really needed to clear her throat.

“You have me at a disadvantage. I don’t know you.”

“I’m number five,” the woman replied.

“What are you, a Borg drone?”

Five smiled. “Hardly. I’m the fifth founding member of the Shadow Society.”

“I’ve never heard of a group calling themselves the Shadow Society.”

“Of course you haven’t. Very few people outside these walls ever will.”

Chloe felt as though she’d swallowed a huge chunk of ice that was going to take quite some time to melt.

“The fact that you’ve told me means you don’t intend to allow me to leave here alive.”

The woman nodded, slowly and seriously. “That’s right, but your death is quite a ways off. I can’t say the same for your friend.”

“You’ve killed Oliver?” Chloe said, the proverbial ice cube in her belly turning into a ball of acid that clawed at her chest and throat.

“Not yet, but we will.”

The strong fingers of anxiety did a superb job of twisting Chloe’s guts into knots. She ahd faith that the guys in the League would find her and Ollie, but would they do so before thee psycho’s murdered him?

Even if they kill him, I can save him, Chloe tried to reassure herself. I hope.

“So, you figured out how to control Clark and Kara and wiped their memories. They obviously got away from you. Mr. Queen and I will do the same.”

The woman laughed. “‘Mr. Queen.’ No need to be so formal, Miss Sullivan. We know you two have recently become lovers, and unless you’re Kryptonian as well, I very seriously doubt you’ll escape us.”

“How do you know about Krypton?” Chloe demanded.

“Question and answer time is over,” Five replied. “Or should I say, it’s just beginning? I have many questions about you that I’m just dying to discover the answers to.”

“I’m not telling you a thing.”

Five picked up a scalpel and admired its gleaming edge in the bright light of the room. “Oh, but you will, Miss Sullivan, and you won’t ever have to utter a word. As a matter of fact, I’d be very much surprised if you’re able to do anything more than scream in agony.”

She laid the scalpel’s cold edge against the soft flesh of Chloe’s inner forearm and then flicked it with a quick, precise movement. The blade was so sharp, the cut so expertly shallow, that there was very little pain, and the blood took a moment to well up as though her body hadn’t been aware it had been damaged. Five picked up a very dirty looking cotton ball that looked as though it had been used to wipe down a filthy toilet bowl.

“I wonder if your body fights off infection as well as wounds. Do you self-heal always, or only when taking on someone else’s wounds?”

“Go to hell,” Chloe spat.

Five looked very serious when she said, “I will, some day, but not today.”

The cold steel of the blade came to rest on Chloe’s wrist, and she knew that this time the pain would be much worse. If she could command her body not to heal, then perhaps the woman wouldn’t inflict too much damage to test how far Chloe could go and still come back. She didn’t relish the idea of repeatedly dying and returning for the amusement of this psychopath.

Once more the blade cut her flesh, but this time the pain was immediate and terrible. The blade had but deep, severing a major artery that caused blood to spray out in a powerful arc and fan across the ceiling panels above, hitting the light as well and turning its glow crimson. Chloe’s mouth hung open unflatteringly as she stared at the wound, which gushed blood with every beat of her heart.

Dizziness hit Chloe fast, and hard, and as the darkness at the corners of her vision began to close in, she had just enough time to see a man burst into the room, a look of horror on his face.

“Jesus, Five!” the man exclaimed. “What’s wrong with you? You weren’t supposed to kill her!”

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