The New Earth Adventures of Chloe Sullivan

Issue 2: The Gambit

The story opens in the Kent apartment as the lock is picked and the front door opens. Dark figures enter the room, dressed entirely in black and gray camouflage outfits. They then proceed towards Chloe's sleeping body. One of them treads on a pencil, which breaks, and Chloe's eyes open. The figure nearest to her covers her mouth with their hand and holds her down across the chest and by her right arm. Another figure gets out a syringe and begins to fill it. Chloe's eyes widen as she carefully retrieves something from her left pocket and moves her hand subtly on the underside of the blanket. She is interrupted as the nearest figure injects a solution into her arm which makes her become limp and her eyes to shut. The figure who had just injected her picks her up and carries her out of the room as the dark blue blanket falls to the floor. Another picks up her laptop and retrieves her bag. The third takes some assorted possessions from the sides, a vase, a small figurine, and a lamp. He then quietly places some books on the floor in a scattered fashion and overturns some of the furniture. The final camouflaged figure then leaves, with the apartment in a ramshackled manner.

In the early hours of the morning, Clark rushed home after hearing Lois scream. When he got in through the window he saw Lois standing in the bedroom doorway.

Clark: What's wrong?

Lois: It's Chloe! They've taken Chloe!

Clark hugs Lois, both of them in shock for losing someone so special they'd only just found again.

As the sunrise began filtering into the apartments of Sullivan Place, Clark entered through the front door, in a distressed state of ultra organisation, focussed only on finding her.

Clark: I can't find any trace of her or whoever was in here. I contacted the Metropolis PD but they won't register her as a missing person yet, only sought out the break in.

Lois is sitting huddled up on the sofa, shivering in a state of shock. It is not just the disappearance of someone so close, she had had to grow used to that.

Lois: But I was here! I should have heard something, seen something.

Clark sits down next to his wife to comfort her. He hated seeing Lois this upset and he thought that it was his job to protect her from all the pains of the world. Only no matter how fast or strong he was, he couldn't keep her away from the horrors that seemed to occur all around them.

Clark: [Comfortingly] Lois, this isn't your fault. You were heavily under. You can't blame yourself. If anything it is my fault. I am supposed be protecting the whole city. What if they had been after you? I can't even protect my own apartment.

Lois slaps Clark lightly on the chest.

Lois: Clark, you can't go blaming yourself. You have a job to do. I just wished she'd have told us if she was in trouble. I wish I could believe this was just a robbery and she chased after them for us.

Clark: It's not. It's too well done. If they had really been in a hurry, the dust would have been more disturbed.

Lois does not point out this was what she meant but instead leans closer to Clark. He looks at her even more concerned.

Clark: You're shivering. Here have this blanket. Passes Chloe's fallen blanket from the floor.

Lois takes the blanket from Clark but then drops it and looks at her hand.

Lois: Ew, Clark! It's got some kind of pink stain on it.

Clark: It must be some of Chloe's lipstick. It rolled on to floor with the Blanket. He picks up the lipstick as demonstration. The Carmine must have leaked.

Lois picks up the towel by the corner and peers at the gunk upon.

Lois: [Curious] Hey this isn't just a spillage. There's something written on here.

Lois stands up and slowly turns the towel over.

Both Lois and Clark peer at it. On the back is scrawled in smudged but still readable lipstick SUPERMAN WATCH MUSEU which then becomes a smudge of pink

Chloe's eyes open to find herself in a locked room. It was not the worst she had been. In fact by comparison to some of the places she'd been imprisoned this was luxurious. It was clean, sterile and seemingly free from wildlife. The entire cell largely composes of what seemed to be hard white plastic, reminiscent of a hospital, except on one wall where it was instead clear and she could observe some scientists at work. She tried to move but founded her hands cuffed to a pole behind her. Looking around she failed to see any obvious means of escape, and, if her gambit had paid off, help wasn't going to be easy to find. She just hopes she doesn't end in the same way as the pawn.

After a while of waiting Chloe decides to talk to someone in charge. She coughs loudly and deliberately and one of the lab-coated personnel came over to the wall.

Scientist: So, you are awake then?

Chloe: [in an annoyed tone] apparently

Scientist: Fascinating. Your metabolic rate must be faster than I had anticipated. I estimated that dosage would keep you under for another two hours at least. Fascinating. (Turns and walks away) Fascinating...

Chloe: Hey!

The Scientist turns back to Chloe with what seems to her as a combination of surprise and annoyance.

Chloe: I want to meet the person who organised this! I want to know why you took me!

Scientist: You'll meet him soon enough. Now be quiet. How can you expect us to work if you keep talking?

Chloe: You have locked me up, why should I want you to work on whatever new weapon of torture you are devising?

The Scientist makes a signal to his co-worker almost imperceptibly. Chloe feels something shoot into her cheek even though she saw nothing. She tried to speak but found it impossible, like her entire lower face was no longer there. She looked up at the scientist staring hard into his eyes.

Scientist: Since you are so interested in my work you can be the first test subject for our new targeted paralysis solution or TSP. Don't worry, you'll be able to talk again in an hour. Assuming there are no side effects, it only killed about half the rats last time. (Smiles)

Back at Sullivan Place, the message has given Lois new hope, emerging from bleak despair to her assertive organised self that Clark had fallen in love with. After getting changed at a speed that even impressed her spouse, she and Clark have decided that the last word must be museum and since they were at the Science Exporium only yesterday, Lois decides they should take a look and watch for any signs of Chloe. Clark is as keen, if not more so, to find her again. So, rather than wait for a taxi, Clark changes into his Superman outfit and flies them straight there at high speed.

When they arrive they land unseen and Clark changes back into his work suit. Despite their keenness to find Chloe, they don't want to alert whoever took her that they may be on to them, as they could endanger her life.

As her cousin and her high school love search for her above, Chloe is entrapped beneath them in the vaults of the museum. She has been unable to speak for quite some time and has passed the time rehearsing scenarios in her. She hopes it will all work, everyone needs to be in the right place at the right time.

As she was musing about this plan, the scientist from earlier interrupts her thoughts. Without a warning he shoots a dart into her cheek.

Chloe: Ow! She is surprised by the return of her power of speech

Scientist: Good, the reversing agent seems quite effective.

The Scientist enters the cell and retrieves the projectile, seemingly more concerned about his instrument than Chloe.

Scientist: The boss would like to speak to you now. Make sure you are talkative, I would hate to waste any more time on you already. The three batches we have used have to be restocked and I have much more important work to do.

Chloe is taken aback, as the boss enters into the room. She had expected it to be reptilian Director, not the nervous unassuming Professor Ignazi. The professor comes to the cell standing in the entrance as he speaks to her.

Professor Ignazi: You seem surprised to see me.

Chloe: I was rather expecting to see the museum director in front of me... [Uncertainly] and you seem to have lost your stutter.

Professor Ignazi: [Laughs] Public relations. It is central to any business, an illicit one more so. That charming lawyer can deal with most law suits and awkward questions, especially, when he isn't aware that anything untoward is going on. And even if someone does suspect something, who would mistrust me, the bumbling professor, with his speech impediment and crazy hair.

Chloe: Well I must admit I was fooled, especially with your academic record. I though your field was more ancient than alien tech.

Professor Ignazi: That was how I began but in a field like historical engineering funding is limited. Who now cares how they built bridges in ancient Zimbabwe or why Tibetan monasteries survived such conditions? Especially when today we live among those of other planets and hear everyday of more meta-humans. What every organisation wants is to discover these secrets, and they care little for how they are attained. Now with Mr Luthor unable to compete on the same level, the market is open for entrepreneurs.

Chloe: So is that what you see yourself as? An entrepreneur? Like William Teach or Cortes?

Professor Ignazi: And it was these men who built nations. But I am not here to discuss ethics with a small time do-gooder from Star City. I am here to get some answers. [More business like] Now, what do you know about the artefact?

Chloe: That it's not the first, you have plundered several sites around the globe. And that your next target is in the Canadian Yukon.

Professor Ignazi: And how would you know that?

Chloe: [Smiles coyly] You don't expect me to tell you all my secrets right now.

Professor Ignazi: Oh, Miss Sullivan. Please don't make me resort to more brutal methods. Although they may be the height of fashion right now, I find them so inelegant.

Chloe: You wouldn't dare. If I screamed loudly enough someone would hear me upstairs.

Professor Ignazi: We are in a sealed lead vault underground. Unless you can scream in ultrasonic frequencies and planning on calling dog, no one will hear a thing. Now I repeat how do you know such things?

Chloe remains silent.

Professor Ignazi: Very well. He retrieves a device from his pocket. It was metallic with a silver sheen and was fronted with two M shaped wires. This handy gadget was attained from Lexcorp during their troubles. It enables immense pain to be sent to your receptors without any actual damage. He turns the dial up to six and points it at Chloe.

Chloe screams in pain.

Chloe: [Between screams] Your comm... [Another scream] ...unications network.

The Professor turns off the device and returns it to his pocket.

Chloe: [Smiles faintly] You should improve your internet security.

Professor Ignazi: Well you are quite the computer expert.

Chloe: I dabble. Very ingenious of you, using ultrasonics as an information medium.

Professor Ignazi: Another gift of Lexcorp. [Returns to business manner] Now, who do you work for? And remember the device.

Chloe: [Reacts in memory of pain] I... work for the Green Flag and myself, that's all. I am just a journalist who has got in over her head.

Professor Ignazi: I believe you. Another nosy reporter who thinks they can stop progress. Besides, we will be able to break into your laptop soon and we will know all of this anyway.

Chloe: [Quietly to herself] Yeah, good luck with that.

Professor Ignazi: [Continues apparently not hearing her] Now that we know you probably won't have any backup coming after you, I think we will keep you for a while. We could use another human test subject, and they do tend to be so fragile. Now, if you will excuse me, I have important work to do. Ignazi leaves closing the cell behind him.

Chloe is pleased with herself. She has managed to find out everything she needs to know. All she has to do now is wait for the opportune moment.

Back in the museum the search was beginning to look fruitless. Although the museum was mostly empty today, Clark couldn't risk using any of his explicit powers with all the cameras around, and his superman outfit might have been a bit conspicuous. He had looked behind most of the locked doors with his x-ray vision but it was not yielding any results. Lois' search was not going much better and she was beginning to wonder if she had led them further from Chloe as they met back up in the history of flight section.

Lois: Anything?

Clark: No, you.

Lois: No, nothing. What if she meant somewhere else? What if I've put us on a wild goose chase?

Clark: This is the most sensible place to check. She was here yesterday so I'm sure she has either been taken here or left some clue for us around.

Lois: But we've checked everywhere.

Clark: No, we haven't, let's look inside the conference room. She might have left us something in there.

Back in the vault, Professor Ignazi renters the laboratory where Chloe is imprisoned in order to oversee the progress the scientists are making on the new version of the Moira serum. Chloe, although she was apparently searched, was not totally without resources. They had not bothered to remove her wristwatch anyway, not that they would have been able to without the code, or found the section she had on the inside lining of her back pocket, which was all she needed. She adjusted her hands down the pole and was able to get her fingernail into the right place. The compartment opens slowly and she teases out the small item.

On the other side of the room the scientists were too engrossed to pay any attention to Chloe's actions or notice the odd smell. Suddenly a slight coughing starts coming from the communicator with the cell. At first they ignore it but then Ignazi looks up and sees Chloe slumped forward, hanging limp.

Professor Ignazi: [With authority] I ordered the gaseous test not to start yet. Who did it?

Other scientists look blank.

Professor Ignazi: [Irritably] One of you knocked the button again didn't you! The nitrogen counter has already begun to drop marginally. Morons! You are meant to be the best scientific minds and all I get is fools!

Ignazi puts on the gas extractor and opens the cell up in a gas mask. He walks towards Chloe slowly, she does not appear to be dead only unconscious, breathing slowly. At that moment Chloe springs into action, bringing up her foot to Ignazi's face so hard he spins out of the cell and lands face down on the floor. In the next second, she brings her arm over head like she's bowling a cricket ball with the naked flame heading straight towards the scientist's latest formula.

Clark: Did you just hear something? Like a small rumble.

Clark and Lois have been looking around the conference room, which was surprisingly unlocked, and as of yet have found nothing.

Lois: No, you're probably hearing an undersea earth-tremor again. It seems completely silent to me. It makes me miss Chloe's conversation, we never seem to be able to stop talking once we start. Don't you find that?

Clark: Not really, we had some rather long silences only punctuated by that infuriating beeping her watch made.

Lois: Her watch didn't beep.

Clark: Are you sure? Maybe it's only on the super spectrum.

Lois: [Having a revelation] Wait a second. What if watch didn't mean watch the museum? What if she wanted Superman to listen out for her watch? Knowing he, I mean you, would pick up the noise.

Clark: That's a long shot.

Lois: Just try it.

Clark listened hard and he could hear it. The noise from Chloe's watch had a distinctive pattern of three beeps followed by a two and a quarter second silence. It was coming from directly below them. Not waiting any longer Clark spins into his Superman outfit, through the floor, acting like a drill through plywood table, and into the vault below.

Superman is surprised by what he sees as he lands. He was expecting to fight the creeps who had taken his Chloe away but it appears the job has already been taken care of. Three scientists are collapsed near one wall, apparently unconscious from the force of the blast. On the floor are also the bodies of another lab coated man and Professor Ignazi, who Chloe is leaning over with a syringe.

Chloe: The same agent they used on me. Should keep them under for a good few hours, handy of them to have so much lying around. (Chloe stands up) Well better late than never.

Superman: Are you hurt, miss?

Chloe: Yes, I'm fine, you should probably've been more worried about them. Superman turns around. But I've already checked them. They might feel like they have the mother of all hangovers when they wake up, but they've nothing that won't heal. And you can stop the miss. You've never called me that before.

Superman: I don't know what you mean, young lady.

Chloe: Come on Clark. I know it's you. I know you're Superman.

To Be Continued in: Issue 3: Unearthing the past.