Go By

24





*



This time she was in control.

Seated across from Tess Mercer in what used to be the Luthor Towers, Chloe was the epitome of calm, coolness and emotionless demeanor as the other woman gleamed at her like a golden prize.

 There was no fear. There were no questions.

"At last," Tess said with excitement the same as a long awaited holiday. It looked like Clark Kent satisfied his end of the bargain, convincing his fair headed friend to come to her senses. This would be a mutually beneficial relationship.  "I know you will be very comfortable here, Chloe. I'm so glad you've accepted us as allies, at last. I want you to know that you are very welcome here."

Chloe only nodded.

Tess continued to smile, and a thought. "You don't talk very much, do you?"


"Only when I have to."

"Right. Do you have questions for me? Any conditions or requests?"

Chloe slightly bent her head, "I don't like physical contact, for obvious reasons."

"Right," Tess repeated, nodding to herself, "your abilities are still in flux. That's very interesting considering you've remained under meteor infection for over a decade. By my accounts, anyway."

"I suppose that's a reason why I decided to surrender myself to you," Chloe spoke carefully.

Tess smirked, "I don't think of it as 'surrendering'---"

"Isn't it?" Chloe countered, "I've had to dodge so many of your covert, corporate espionage bullets before."

"That's fair. But you have to admit it's hard to hit a target when its virtually non existent or 'dead' a decade. Not going to say that tracking you down was easy but--"

"Here I am in the flesh," this, Chloe said, with a hint of amusement.

Tess nodded, "Yes, here you are." She watched as Chloe's eyes wandered about the room. Scoping, measuring. The woman knew she was being watched with more eyes than she could imagine. She was smart for sure, possibly too smart for her own good. Tess herself continued to calculate the real reason she had turned up out of the blue. She had almost given up on the imbalanced freak named Clark Kent. The mysteries of him possibly as fascinating as Chloe's, but Clark no longer had his meteor abilities; he was merely a pawn now.

Chloe, could be her queen, if she wanted to. She was the mos powerful meteor freak she'd ever studied at Cadmus Labs. To recreate that power, the possibilities, were intoxicating.

Chloe seemed to settle in the large office, seemingly observing its beauty. The room was mostly bare except for the necessary corporate desk, intercom, and sleek tablet which Tess gave little attention to  every now and again. There was a nice, big view of Metropolis, though. That, Chloe admired every now and again.

"You know, Clark trusts me," Tess said, "He wouldn't have referred you to me if he hadn't. I know you two were close at one time."

Chloe tried to smile.


"I'll just cut to the chase," Tess leaned forward, hands collapsed into each other, "I need you Chloe. Perhaps, more than you need me. But that doesn't change what I can do for you. The benefits I can provide."

"What sort of benefits? I'm not hurting for medical insurance."

Tess smiled. "Joke all you want, but I've seen the way you've admired my view up here. Can you imagine being 'alive' again, free to wander around Metropolis? You could have your life back. The way it was before you killed Lex Luthor."

It got her attention. She didn't try to hide that.

"I'm offering you full exoneration of your crimes, Chloe."

"I was never officially convicted of anything. What's there to exonerate?"

"Your death delayed the legal proceedings. However, you are no longer officially dead, either."

"It would be like a protege of Lex to start with the threats."

"It's no threat, just a simple fact. You come to me for help, I will help you in return. But what I wont do is expose my secrets without any of your own personal investment."

"So it's just blackmail, then?"

"Call it a contract." Tess shot up from her desk and took a stroll in front the expansive window behind it. "Not just with me, but with your beloved Metropolis."

Chloe stared at the same view.

"There's a killer out there. A serial killer who has manifested into a genetic nightmare," the red head turned towards the blonde, "all of Metropolis is dreaming right now. Waiting for a super savior to turn up, someone who can punch their way out of this one. But I'm sure you've seen the blood shed it's caused. There's no one who can stop it. But you."

"You think I can heal the--"

"Beast? Maybe you could, but there is a high risk that it will adapt to your cure, and be even more destructible."

Chloe studied Tess, "You think it's adapting to our defenses?"

"I know it is."

"The only way you would know that was if you knew where the Beast came from, Tess."

Tess peered out the window, "I know they are calling it Doomsday, now. I've read the papers, I know the fear. I know that this was the entire reason why the Luthors partnered with Cadmus Labs decades ago," she spun around, "But that was decades ago. And for the past ten years I've been cleaning up the mess Lionel and Lex left in their wake. This, possibly the biggest wake."

Chloe investigative twitch kicked in, "So, you're admitting that Doomsday is the making of LuthorCorp?"

"I'm not admitting anything until I get your word," Tess held out her hand. "Do I have your word?"

Chloe looked at the proposed handshake suspiciously, "I don't accept contracts that are hung over me like black cloud. Or threaten to imprison me."

Chloe stood from her seat, and crossed the room passed Tess and took one last glance at Metropolis, up, way up high. "Also, I would never even consider using my abilities to do anything other than heal. So you can strike that off the table." Chloe faced her, "Besides that, you wont have to admit much of anything after the next twenty seconds. By then, I will have remotely broken any encryption in place in lieu of corporate espionage. Including, any research, or research subjects involved at Cadmus Labs. Meteor infected, or otherwise."

Tess mirthlessly laughed, "I doubt it. You'd be committing more felonies than you could count. Plus, you would never leave this room."

Chloe smiled, "I doubt it."

Tess' humor dissipated, and then she reached for his lonely tablet sitting on her desk.

"It was nice working with you, Tess Mercer. I wont keep in touch."

Before she could look up, Chloe was gone. Not a trace. Not a whisper. Only the cold shiver of suspicion that she had just gotten played.

Tess stared at her tablet as everything was erased, cameras, recordings... zeros and ones washing across the pixels.

Looking up from the sidewalks all the way to the top floor of the Luthor Towers, one could barely see Tess Mercer's shadow as she stood there motionless. Any type of frustrated scream or infuriated noise was lost underneath the airy height of a tower so tall. Or even the ruckus of a metro so big.

But if you stared harder, you might have seen the slightest inflection when the large window pane shook, as the small tablet was flung into it, and then  bounced harmlessly to the carpeted floor.


*

Chloe Sullivan removed her headpiece, and took a seat in front of her massive console.

She'd done it. She had finally toppled the Luthor Tower. Atleast, this was the first brick to go down. Now all she had to do was wait for the others to fall.

She watched as her hack completed its download. It was satisfying. Easy. Like playing with a bunch of amateurs, really. It wasn't really fair considering Chloe had alien tech to keep her in the advantage, but neither was it fair that humanity was in risk because of secret keeping.

Even when Tess finally discovers how she pulled it off, Chloe would be six disguises ahead. She'd become good at hiding, keeping aliases. But this time, she knew, she'd have to go deeper than before. She had just pissed off one of the most powerful figures in the world. Someone with possibly deeper pockets than Oliver Queen.

The hunt was on for her now. But first, Chloe had to hunt down Doomsday.

"Ms. Sullivan," the butler's voice came through the intercom, "you have a visitor."

Her investigative thirst quenched for now, she put her monitors on standby and entered the hallway into the underground base she had called home for the last decade.

It was dark here, and there were no windows. A blinding computer monitor were her daily windows now. Her field trip into Suicide Slums last night being an intoxicating bender she'd thought about all day and tonight. She hadn't slept since.

When she reached the opening of the hallway that led to the house, she discovered Alfred and their guest had beaten her there.

It was Clark.

Instantly, she smiled, but tucked it away once she saw that Clark, was not smiling back.  He'd returned sooner than she expected, and she thought they'd agreed to meet when she contacted him. Something was up. "What is it?"

"I have to talk to you," Clark looked between her and the older butler, "in private."

"Ok," Chloe glanced at Oliver,"You can talk here."

"How did you get in here, anyway?" Alfred gruffed.

"Front door was open."

"No," Alfred sighed, and began his journey back to the din, "it wasn't. But I have a feeling it is now," he nodded to Chloe, "You do understand I must report every visitor to Mr. Wayne."

"Chloe, this is an emergency." Clark turned to her, "Where can we talk?"

It was an impulsive, juvenile feeling to take him by the hand and lead him away to privacy. She thought of it, but didn't act on it. She was both glad, and extremely terrified to see him so soon. The plan was to wait until she contacted him. His anxiousness told her that something had already gone wrong.

"Step into my office." She led down the same hallway, but this time through a hidden section and through a secret passageway. There were many of these corridors built within and under the mansion. It was where she had hidden all this time.

Among rose colored vials, and test samples. Glass, and cold, temperature controlled rooms.

"What is this place?"

"This is where we store samples and extracts."

"Of what?" he walked closer to the vials.

"Of me," Chloe answered simply, "Some contain samples of my DNA, others just whole blood. Some we mixed with fragments of meteor rock, but.. We've tried to harness the root of how my abilities work, but nothing has been exactly conclusive. So far, there is no external proof of any special power in me. Just genetic mutation."

"So all the infected you've healed, has been by direct contact?"

"Yes," Chloe nodded, "so far it's the only way."

Clark held a glass test tube in his hand, swirled the freckles of rock within it.

Chloe stared curiously at Clark's sudden preoccupation. She had news to tell herself ,her encounter with Tess, and the admission of Luthor's involvement with Doomsday. But something told her to hold her tongue. Play her cards. Clark was obviously hiding something under his sleeve. "What was it that you came to tell me?"

That's when he turned, a strange look in his eyes. They were glowing, burning. His lips curling. "Something happened to me last night. After being with you, well, all my problems seemed to solve themselves."

She watched as he stalked closer to her, the room's red glow intensifying around them. "Are you telling me you got your powers back?"

Without warning, Clark ripped apart his shirt, exposing his flesh, "I'm saying, you cured me."

His words breathed down her eye lashes as she closed him. He brought her hands to his chest, the thin cloth gloves teasing both of them. But she could feel his skin: Smooth, healed. Somehow he had trapped her against the opposing wall, his arms cradled around her; not quite touching, but nevertheless hot against her skin. He was behaving strange, she knew. Never this aggressive, or confident before. She dared to like it, but her conscious throttled with needed explanations.

"How?"

Clark bent down, and kissed her.

Once.

"Something awoke inside of me," Clark told her, "something dark, violent."

Her eyes met his, "Violent?"

"Something I thought I had left behind, but carried with me for a very long time."

"You're scaring me, Clark." The longer she looked into his eyes, the more her mind wandered with what was really going on. Her instincts told her she was safe, that Clark wouldn't hurt her.  She hoped she was right about him, her trust in him. But she couldn't shake the feeling that Oliver was right too. There were sides to Clark that no one had seen. But she was seeing it up close.

"I'm sorry," his red eyes glowed, "But if you want my help, you have to understand who I really am."

When he broke away from his second kiss, his eyes were deeper, a familiar blue. This was the Clark she knew the previous night, and all the years before. This was the man she was trusted with her life.
 In one motion, she was in his arms. He didn't warn her, she just knew. Chloe closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

And then they were gone.