I just started reading Smallville fanfiction and decided to try it on for size. Of course, it's a story of mine, so there's gonna be considerable angst. This is gonna be a story...I think.

Chloe Sullivan did not strut. Unlike most of her other friends she found strutting and other acts of allure useless and too game-like for her and Chloe prided herself on being brash and honest. While these were admirable qualities in a reporter, not very many people appreciated her view on absolute truths and went as far to call her a tease and a snoop.

The nerve!

So she walked down the hallway rather briskly, her manner so business-like that none of the men in the other cubicles dared to look at the petite blond admiringly, despite the shortness of her skirt or the flattering neckline of her blouse. She, of course, noticed none of this and continued towards her full-sized office as hastily as she could manage.

She had a deadline.

After three years at the Daily Planet and four years as editor of the Torch, she had quickly learnt the importance of deadlines. Her editor would skin her alive if she did not hand in her report on the drastically rising gas prices on the east coast. The damned bitch was looking for an excuse to fire her, anyway.

She adamantly refused to do even a single story that dealt with the President of the United States, who happened to be an old friend and current enemy and someone who she enjoyed calling a ruthless dictator, off the record, of course. With the way that Alexander Luthor had warped her country after his past two years in office it was hardly a shock that she was one of

the few who opposed to his presidency.

"'Reign' would be more accurate," she thought darkly as she pushed through her office door, closing the blinds discreetly before collapsing onto her chair and kicking her feet onto her desk. But

there was no time for rest and relaxation; she had to suffer through another bone-crunchingly dull story, unfortunately.

After years in Smallville and experience with untrustworthy people Chloe had become rather paranoid. She had no copies of her work nor did she have access to her annotations and she needed to get through three programs before she'd be able to so much as access any of her files. Not all of them were reports on gasoline prices, and her boss had made it quite clear that anyone anti-Luthor could pack up their desks and try their luck at peddling papers opposed to printing them. While she was a woman of honesty, she was no fool.

As she typed furiously she calculated the percentage increase from last week's gas

prices in comparison to this week's. She rebelled in her own way, because questioning the drastic oil and gasoline price increases was in a way questioning Lex's economic system. She reveled in this fact, though a small comfort it was.

"In the past six days the average price increase has been twenty three point sixty four

percent...question ethics of those in control...no disaster nor problems, why the sudden augmentation...?" She read pieces of her work aloud, wanting the piece to seem inquisitive, yet not pestering. Running it through an error-free grammatical program, she e-mailed it to Simone, the cold hearted bitch. She mentally added to the title with a mischievous smirk before pushing a strand of flyaway blond hair behind her ear.

She found it best to begin research on a new story, though her topics were limited. Lex Luthor and his PR people did a fantastic job of stealing the front page of the papers with his great deeds, his merging of LuthorCorp with some other household name. She was disgusted by the sight of Lex doing work for charity or working on amending the Constitution and Bill of Rights to better fit the people. She found these acts to be complete and utter bullshit.

None of her sources could find any dirt on him whatsoever. Clean as a whistle, and boy, he knew how to cover up his tracks. Any questionable aspects of his life were pinned on someone else, making him come out smelling fresh as a rose. He had never been accused of any crime nor been indicted.

Anyone close with Chloe would relate her determination to find something, anything, wrong with their "leader" with that fact that she was simply obsessed. She wished that it was as easy as that, a simply fixation to get over. But it was more. She knew him; she knew that there was more. Lex Luthor was many things, but a kind a generous person was not on the list.

She had covered many of his speeches and dedications, hoping for some error or something of the sort, but finding absolutely nothing. It was not just his flawed character that bothered her; it was the fact that he was approaching world domination slowly yet surely. He had many of the smaller countries wrapped around his masculine ,yet manicured, finger and was changing foreign policy one step at a time in hopes of reaching what he called, "Worldwide Mutual Understanding." She read between the lines and interpreted that he was not satisfied with simply controlling the world's economic and military superpower. "Relative deprivation," she mumbled, recalling a lesson she had taken in high school about absolute monarchs always wanting more than they had. He reminded her vaguely of Adolf Hitler, for Lex too it seemed was a fascist dictator wrapped in a charismatic shell.

The knock on her office door awoke her from her reverie. "Come in," she called out, slightly alarmed.

Simone's mousy looking assistant Janis poked her thin face through the doorway, wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue. "Ms. Sullivan?" Her tone inexplicably irritated her, high-pitched and twittering.

"Yes, Janis?" she responded tiredly, taking her feet from off of her desk and composing yourself. The usually expressionless girl looked rather eager, this was both surprising and annoying Chloe at the same time.

"There's someone here to see you, Ms. Sullivan." Chloe looked at the secretary or assistant as they now preferred to be called, in surprise.

"Oh, who?" she was rarely visited by anyone after Clark had figuratively taken flight and Lana had gone with him. The pain of the memory still burnt in her mind as though it was fresh and she winced slightly. Janis did not seem to notice.

"I can barely believe it, but Alexander Luthor's people have just contacted us. The President wants to talk! With you!" At that moment Chloe would have indefinitely preferred having Lana and Clark's love thrust in her face to this reunion

Like? Hate? Anything? Please review, I think I'll continue this.