Chloe Sullivan was scared. Her best friend's father was in the
hospital, and it didn't look good for him. The symptoms were
strange, almost unreal. But, in Smallville, those who choose
to see it, you learn not to get too surprised by anything.

She had asked Lana to accompany her to the crash site.
Since, Chloe figured, James Beale and Jonathan Kent had the same
symptoms and the site was the last place they were together at,
it made perfect sense to look there for clues. She didn't hate
Lana, no, hate would be too strong of a word, but there was something
about Lana that just got on Chloe's nerves. Maybe it was her
bubbly cheerleaderness, or the fact that she obviously loved
Whitney, yet batted her eyelashes at Clark. It was at these
times Chloe thought about investing in bibs for Clark.

But now nothing mattered but finding something,
anything to help Clark's dad. As she stepped out of the
car, she felt a chill in the air. The chill told her natural
instincts that something was awry, but the journalist and
her conscience told her to go on. When she looked around
and took in her surroundings, she realized that the entire
scene of the accident was awry.

"What're we looking for, Chlo'?" Lana asked, sounding very perky.

Chloe grimaced, she hated that abbreviation of her
name, and the chipperness in Lana's voice only served to
agitate her. She took a deep breath and sighed softly.

"Look for anything suspicious. Something out of the ordinary,"

Lana nodded and wondered off toward the left. Chloe
took out her camera and took a few pictures. The flash illuminated
a few feet before her, in doing so, something caught her eye.
It was subtle, very, but just a glimpse was all Chloe needed to
investigate further. She walked slowly, yet swiftly. Chloe bent
down and scattered a few dead leaves with her hand. Chloe groaned
when she saw what it was. She grasped the ornament firmly and held
it in front of her face closely.

"A stupid Hawaii figurine, I came all the way down here, looking
for something to help, and I get this. Damn!" she said, through
gritted teeth.

It was then she heard something. A rustling sound.
Chloe turned her head to the right. The first the thing that
went through her mind, "What a beautiful flower." Then the
flower sneezed on her. Chloe blinked her eyes instinctively,
trying to blot out the yellow mist. The mist itself didn't
really have a fragrance, if anything it smelled faintly of
Eucalyptus. In an instant the flower had fallen over, dead,
she guessed. She sneezed.

"Bless you,"

It was Lana standing behind her. Chloe sighed
frustratively and rose to her feet.

"Find anything?" Lana asked.

"No, well, unless you count a girl in a hula skirt,"

Lana tilted her head, much in a dog like fashion.
Chloe held up the figurine and dangled it in front of Lana's face.

"Oh," Lana said, in realization.

Walking to the car, Chloe experienced two more sneezes,
one outside the car, one inside the car, both at which Lana said
"Bless You", which annoyed Chloe greatly. Something was different,
a strange different, Chloe felt almost content....free.



Clark was standing idly by in a line to a water fountain.
He was pre-occupied, worried about his father, and would not have
stepped forward to drink, if it were not for someone behind him
pushing him. Just as his lips touched the cool water, the doors
to his left swung open. He looked up, the noise catching his attention.
His mouth dropped open at the sight that walked in. The water being quickly forgotten.

It was Chloe, well, not quite Chloe at all. Her hair was
basically the same, but the clothes, something was deffinately different.
She wore black leather boots that laced up just a few inches below her knee.
As short black skirt, a bit up past mid-thigh, and a black, sleeveless
shirt with a red dragon on the front.

As Chloe walked through the hall, more than one head turned
and checked her out. Chloe merely had an illusive smile on her
face. Clark was in a daze, he had never seen anything so
revealing on Chloe. She stopped a few inches from him,
her foot tapping impatiently.

"Your water's running," she observed.

"Huh...what?" stammered Clark, letting go of the button.

Chloe pushed him a way from the fountain. She
circled him once, then stood behind him, her hands fondling
his chest and arms.

"C-Chloe?"

"Clark, darling, you seem so tense, how about a tongue massage?"

Clark coughed and turned to face her. It was the
first time he noticed her face. She was wearing darker make-up.
The smoke colored eye shadow and liner made her eyes stand out.
"Beautiful," he thought. Clark removed her hands from him and pushed away.

"Chloe, what's going on, you're acting so, so..."

"Better,"

"What?"

"Better, being truer to myself and doing what I've wanted to do
for a long time,"

"Wha..."

Clark was abruptly cut off by Chloe wrenching his head
down toward her and stealing his lips. He was so utterly surprised,
he didn't pull her off, but stood there, unable to move, unable to kiss
back. As quickly as Chloe had pulled him to her, she pushed him away.

"Should have known, you were never much fun anyway," Chloe spat, bitterly.

Chloe jogged off down the hallway, continuing to turn heads
and to arouse whistles of appreciation of the "new" Chloe.



Lana was sitting where she thought Chloe would have been.
She worried, despite the fact that she knew Chloe wasn't that
fond of her. She wanted to be friends with Chloe, she really
did, Lana didn't have that many "close" friends, aquaintances
and people who associated with her to gain popularity. She
heard the door creak open and turned her swivel chari around
to face the visitor.

Chloe stood, leaning in the doorway, a glare/smirk
plastered on her face.

"Chloe?" Lana asked, her voice failing her as she took in
Chloe's appearance.

"Lana,"

Chloe pushed herself from the doorway and walked
slowly around the room. Lana followed her, absolutely speechless.

"What's wrong Lana, something seems to be catching your attention,"

"You look, you look..."

"Stunning?"

"That might be the word I wouldn't choose to describe you,"

"Oh, what's wrong? Poor little Lana, not the center of attention
anymore, not the apple of every guy's eye anymore?"

Lana stood up, hurt by Chloe's words. She started for the
door. Chloe swiftly walked behind Lana, grabbed her shoulder
and spun her around.

"You like the attention, admit it. Little miss popular/perfect.
You've always stood in the way of what I wanted most. I've been
wanting to do this since the first time you batted your dull
witted eyelashes at him,"

Chloe drew back her right hand and punched Lana with
all her strength behind her fist. Lana fell to the ground
with a thud. Chloe stood smirking triumphantly.

In a broom closet, that was where Lana was tied up.
The room had a few strands of light filtering through, allowing
her to see a few brooms and the doorknob. Her face hurt, she
never expecte Chloe to pack such a brutal punch, but once again,
Chloe had proved her wrong. Lana knew Chloe wasn't herself, and
all she wanted to do was right now, was one, get out of the
inclosed, tight place, and two, help her friend.



Chloe felt free for the first time in months. With Clark
off her mind and the need for caffenine, she was almost content,
but she was longing with desire.

Chloe plowed through the doors of "Lana's little clubhouse",
the Talon. She didn't fully understand why Lex Luthor had backed her
in the place, but that wasn't what on her mind. She wanted to cause
mayhem, to destroy the things that Lana loved most.

She was going straight for the front counter, when a girl who
worked there stopped her.

"Have you seen Lana?"

Chloe smiled devilishly.

"Actually, right now, she's a bit tied up,"

The girl looked confused.

"Well, if she gets un-tied, tell her she's needed here, kay?"

"Why what's going on?"

"One of the girls called in sick, we need another person to work,"

"Oh, wait, Lana mentioned something about ending today early,"

"Really?"

"Yep, I told her I needed some caffenine and she told me about
giving you guys a break and that the drinks were free,"

"Oh, great,"

The girl whistled loudly, catching everyone's attention.

"Hey, Lana says we're closing early and that the coffee's free,"

Lex Luthor sat, stunned. Closing early and giving away things
weren't exactly his idea of how to make a business succeed. He closed
his cell phone and stalked toward the girl who had just announced "Lana's
blunder." He tapped the girl on the shoulder, barely catching a glimpse of
blonde hair bouncing off behind the counter.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Chloe said that Lana was giving us the day off,"

The girl bounded to the door and left hurridly. He looked up and
quickly and found Chloe, sprayiny a short line of whipped cream on her
fingers. Lex sighed and forced himself in Chloe's direction.

Chloe had just touched the cream to her lips, enjoying the sugar
as it dissovled in her mouth. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned
around. Chloe smiled seductively, then licked her lips. Long had Lex
avoided a close encounter, such as this one, with Chloe. From the instant
he had held a conversation with her, the thoughts that drifted into his mind,
he wasn't very proud of them, but it was something he could not control.
He was afraid of what he might do, afraid he might regret something or maybe
that she would reject him was the bigger fear.

"It seems we've entered a rebellious stage, Ms. Sullivan?"

"Oh, Lex," she said, rubbing some of the cream on his lips,
"I think we're way past formalities."

Lex absent mindedly licked the sweetness of his lips,
the taste loosing all effect on him. He could only stare astounded
at Chloe. She hopped off the chair with a bounce in her step.
Chloe trailed her hand across Lex's chest, while walking behind him.
He let a breath, one he never knew he had been holding.

"Chloe..."

He was cut off by her sliding her hands down further. He took a
sharp in take of breath and she reached his growing erection. Suddenly,
Chloe backed away from him. Lex let out a ragged breath and turned to face
her. As his cold blue eyes met hers, he saw something, something close to
the resemblance of fire, but not quite. She was smiling, playfully, almost
as if she didn't know what she had just done. Chloe turned around and started
to walk off toward a back room. She looked over her shoulder, then curled a
finger for him to follow. He knew he should have tried to help her, to try
to find out why she was acting so strangely, this behaviour, seemed vaguely
familiar. Now, all he could remember was her small, pink tongue licking the
cream off her fingers.

The room wasn't brightly lit, but Lex could still see Chloe's hands
slowly pulling her tight skirt down. In his wasted time lingering outside,
he noted, she had already kicked off her shoes carelessly in the corner.
He leaned against the wall, an inner torment tumbling inside his head, the
angel and the devil. One telling him to let her continue her striptease
and the other telling him to stop her. Like many other times, the devil
would win this round. She wiggled out of the thin material that once floated
upon her legs and through it to the floor. Lex parted his mouth slightly,
black lace, bikini. Chloe, a dazed look in her eyes, reached for her top
and angrily pulled it above her head. She wore a bra that matched.
Offhandedly, Lex thought of how color coded she was. She walked slowly
toward him, reaching out, placing both her arms around his neck, bringing
him closer to her. He didn't refuse, he couldn't, Lex was spell bound.
Lex, growing impatient, captured her lips and she responded furociously
by devouring all of his mouth. Then, she stiffened and fell back a few
steps. Lex grabbed at her arms and caught her as she fainted.