Chapter Three

"That's not Clark Kent?" Chloe asked.

"I don't know the Kents very well," the alternate Chloe said. "But I do know that there aren't any of them named Clark."

"Yeah, Chlo," Lois said. "That's Lucas Luthor. His father is Lionel Luthor."

Chloe closed her eyes. This was getting very confusing.

"In my world, Lex Luthor is the son of Lionel," she said.

"Another fictional person," the other Chloe said with a roll of her eyes.

"Good afternoon, ladies," Lucas Luthor said as he approached. Once he got this close Chloe could see for certain that she had been right. This was Clark's counterpart in this universe. Only here he was a Luthor. What in the world could have happened in the past to make such a drastic difference?

Then something else struck her. For years Lex Luthor had been seen in Smallville as a good man. He was almost a saint with all of the money that he put into the community. But she and Clark had slowly learned the truth about him. He was evil. And they were very suspicious that he was creating an army of meteor freaks in a secret lab at LuthorCorp.

But as evil as he was, how much worse would Lex Luthor be if he had been granted powers that Clark held. If the last son of Krypton had been raised by the man that had raised the Lex of her world…

She hoped that she was wrong.

"Hi, handsome," Lois said.

Chloe was astonished by the flirtatious attitude that Lois took with Lucas. She was even more astonished when she saw her own alternate self grab him by his tie and pull him into a passionate kiss.

"Are they…?" she started.

"Sorry," Lois whispered. "I should have mentioned that you kind of have a thing for men with power. That one in particular."

Chloe stared. She had always had a thing for Clark. And now to see herself kissing him so enthusiastically, and having that kiss returned, was making her blush. She just kept thinking ilovejimmyilovejimmyilovejimmy.

Finally, the two of them separated. Lucas smiled at her and then turned to the other two ladies in front of him. He stopped when he saw Chloe. He looked from her back to her duplicate.

"Confused?" Lois asked. "Are you sure that you kissed the right one?"

Lucas smiled. "No. I'd know those lips anywhere." He held his hand out to Chloe. "Lucas Luthor."

Chloe took his hand. "Patty," she said as his kissed her knuckles. "Patty Lane."

"Patty's our cousin," Lois explained.

"The resemblance between Chloe and yourself is remarkable," Lucas said. "You could be twins."

"Or the same person," the other Chloe said with a sarcastic grin directed at her other self.

"I suppose," Lucas said. "I'd love to stay and talk ladies. But, I have some business to take care of with Ms. Lang and then I have to go to Metropolis to meet with my father."

"You're going to Metropolis?" Chloe asked. She turned to Lois. "He's going to Metropolis."

Lois looked at Lucas. "Do you think that we could go with you?"

"Why do you girls need to go to Metropolis?" Lucas asked.

Chloe thought fast. "I need to see Professor Hamilton," she said. "He's interviewing me about an internship."

"Professor Hamilton," Lucas repeated. "Emil Hamilton?"

"Yeah," Chloe said. "He has a huge lab on the fifth floor."

"Oh, I know who he is," Lucas replied. "He was developing some kind of tool for studying other dimensions or something. But there was an accident in his lab this morning and someone got hurt. My father fired him."

Chloe's heart sank. "Do you know of any way that I can reach him?"

"No, Patty," Lucas said. "I'm sorry. I suppose you could look him up if he's listed. I really have to go now." He turned to the alternate Chloe and gave her a somewhat less extensive kiss before heading into the Talon.

"Don't lose your mind yet, Chloe," Lois said. "Just because he's not at LuthorCorp anymore doesn't mean that we can't find him."

"Lois," Chloe started. "It's not a question anymore of our getting to him at LuthorCorp. Now I have to find him and get him and myself in there. And that's assuming that he's willing to help me."

The other Chloe looked at her watch. "I have to get back inside. It's getting late, guys. We're not going to be able to find this Hamilton guy today anyway."

"Yeah," Lois agreed. "Why don't you come to our place tonight and spend the night? We'll draw up a plan and head to Metropolis in the morning."

"I guess so," she said as the other Chloe turned to go into the coffee shop. "I'll go with you. I need to use the restroom."

"Whatever," the other Chloe said.

The two Chloes went back into the Talon. The dark haired version went to the counter, which Lana had evidently abandoned. The blonde one headed toward the restroom. When she passed the office she paused at the sound of raised voices inside.

"Lucas," Lana was saying. "You can't do this to us!"

"I'm not doing anything, Lana," Lucas replied. "This place is not making any money."

"We're not making as much money as we used to because you and your father opened a strip mall a half mile away," Lana said. "There're three restaurants and a book store with a coffee shop in it. Why would you try to compete against your own business?" She paused. "Unless you've been planning to close the Talon all along."

"Now why would I want to do that?" he asked.

"I don't know," Lana replied. "Ask your father."

"My father may be the majority stockholder in LuthorCorp," Lucas said. "He may have Metropolis in his back pocket. But don't be fooled, Lana. Smallville belongs to me!"

Chloe had only heard Clark this angry a few times. And he had never heard him speak to Lana like that. She was beginning to feel that her suspicions about Lucas' father's influence over him were correct."

"So just like that you're going to close the Talon," Lana said. "Some of the friends that you've had for years will be without a job. Your own girlfriend will be out of a job."

"There are a lot of jobs available in this town," Lucas said. "And as for Chloe, I'll take care of her. You know that. I took care of you once upon a time."

"Yes," Lana said. "You did take care of me. You took very good care of me and I loved you very much. Until the day that I realized that you could never love another human being as much as you love your money and your power. You're so crazed with your quest to take over LuthorCorp that it isn't even funny."

Lucas' voice came closer to the door and Chloe edged away from it.

"The Talon will close in thirty days, Ms. Lang," he said. "The building will be torn down and a parking deck will stand on this spot in six months. I suggest you and Lois start packing your things and find other employment. I'll be happy to provide you with references if you require them." With that, the door opened and Lucas Luthor emerged. He did not notice Chloe as he turned and headed for the door. She saw him stop and speak to her double on his way out. And she could hear the quiet sighs of her friend still inside the office.

The moaning coming from the other room was too much to bear.

"Does that not bother you?" Chloe asked.

Lois looked up from the magazine that she had been reading, looked to the door leading the other Chloe's bedroom, and chuckled.

"It sounds like that every night," she said. "You have to get used to it."

"You don't understand," Chloe said. "Lucas is the duplicate of Clark Kent in my world. He's a guy that I have had feelings for my entire life. Now, I'm sitting here listening to my own screams as he makes love to me in another room. It's freaking me out."

"Do you want to leave?" Lois asked. "We could go out and come back later. But they have known to go at it all night."

"No," Chloe replied. "I'll just cover my head with a pillow and try to get some sleep."

"Did you call information to try and find out where Hamilton lives?" Lois asked.

"Yeah," she replied. "He's not listed. But I found an article about him on the Daily Planet's website from a year ago. It says that he lives at Grande View Estates."

"Another place owned by Lionel Luthor," Lois said.

"Let's hope we can get to him before he gets evicted."

Lois got up from the sofa that she had been lounging on and came over to sit on the edge of the cot that had been set up for Chloe to sleep on.

"Chlo," she said. "Have you asked yourself what you will do if Hamilton won't help you? Or even if he will but we can't get him back to his lab? There is a chance that Luthor has already had all of his equipment scrapped."

"Yeah, I've thought about it, Lois," she said. "The only thing that I can hope for is that he can recreate his own work. He's been experimenting with his equipment for years. He has to be able to build another projector."

"But even you said that the projector was built for looking into other dimensions," Lois said. "It was never intended to actually transport a person or a thing to another world."

"It had to be the meteor rock," Chloe said. "Hamilton wasn't able to get the thing to work right until he started using a meteor rock to funnel the energy. That has to be the x factor that turned it from a viewing tool to a transporter."

"Well," Lois said. "I'm going to bed. We'll go to Metropolis in the morning. We'll go to Grande View and find Hamilton. Then you and Thing Two in there can put your identical heads together and get him into LuthorCorp."

"Assuming that he agrees to help us," Chloe said.

Lois asked. "I just hope that we can come up with a better strategy than asking him if he'll please blast my cousin with his weird meteor laser canon."

Lois trotted into her bedroom and closed the door. Chloe turned toward the wall and covered her head with a pillow. She was trying to drown out the sound of the bed in the other room which was now knocking against the wall with a steady rhythm. Somehow she finally dropped off to sleep.

She woke up sometime in the night. She did not have a watch or a clock to see what time it was. A noise had awakened her and she sat up to find its source. She saw Clark, or Lucas, standing at the refrigerator wearing a black woman's robe that only came down to his thighs and drinking out of the milk carton. He put the carton down and looked at her.

"I didn't mean to wake you, Ms. Lane," he said.

"It's alright," she replied. "I wanted to catch the end of the show anyway."

"Show?" he asked. She glanced at the bedroom door and he smiled. "Oh. I see. I'm sorry if we kept you from falling asleep."

"Again," she said. "It's alright."

"I try to get Chloe to come and stay with me at the mansion," Lucas said. "But she's so proud of her independence that she won't have any of it. I could give her anything that she wants and she would never again have to work."

"She wants to make it on her own," Chloe said. "We're a lot alike in that respect."

"Well, I know that she'll be a success in anything that she does with her life," he said.

"As long as she doesn't want to work at the Talon," Chloe added. "Right?" Lucas looked at her with a puzzled expression. "I overheard you talking to Lana today."

"Ah," Lucas said. "I doubt that she's mentioned it to Chloe and Lois."

"I guess not," Chloe said. "You know, Mr. Luthor…"

"Call me Lucas," he said.

"Okay, Lucas," she said. "Back home there is a man that has about as much wealth and power as you do. He put his money ahead of his friends, and he's nearly lost them all."

"Well, I'd like to say that I don't care about money," Lucas said. "But then again…I'm only human."

Chloe laughed. "Human. Right." It was a bold statement. But she was sure that if the Clark of her world could trust her to know his secret, then surely his double could. Especially since he had just finished making love to her own double for hours.

Lucas eyed Chloe intently as he casually stepped toward her.

"What are you saying, Ms. Lane?" he asked.

"Nothing," Chloe said. "It's just that you remind me of someone from back home. Someone with a lot of secrets."

"What kind of secrets?" Lucas asked.

"How long have you lived in Smallville?" Chloe asked.

"I've been in and out of town my entire life," Lucas said. "I've been a resident for about six years."

"A lot of people who live here that long tend to pick up some abilities due to their exposure to the meteor rocks scattered around the area."

Lucas sat down on the couch and faced her.

"I stay away from meteor rocks," he said. "They make me ill."

"I know they do," Chloe said. "I also know that you're not like other people."

"Ms. Lane," Lucas said. "I don't know if you actually know anything about me or if you're just making things up to play some sort of game. But I have spent my life hiding some things about myself and searching for some answers. I will do anything to cover my secrets and solve them at the same time."

Chloe shuddered at the chill in his voice. She thought that perhaps this conversation was not as brilliant a plan as she had thought. The look in Lucas' eyes did not mirror the look of Clark Kent. She saw a whole lot more Lex Luthor there than she was comfortable with.

"I'm sorry, Lucas," she said. "I was mistaken. Good night."

She lay down and turned away from him. She could still feel him staring at her for several minutes before she finally heard the door to the bedroom close. She would not be sleeping anymore tonight.

She was afraid that she had awakened a sleeping dragon. She had to find Professor Hamilton and get home before it was too late.

That'll do it for chapter three. I got finished with it quicker than I thought that I would. But chapter four will definitely be delayed until next week.

A note about the next chapter. I may continue showing what's going on with Chloe, but I'm definitely coming back to our dimension to show what happened with Jimmy after she disappeared. Here's a hint. He's going to have to call in CK for backup. Also, I'm going to start working out a couple of flashbacks to explain how Clark became a Luthor in the mirror universe.

And yes, I remember that I said that Jonathan Kent was still alive in the mirror universe. We will be visiting him and his family in the next few chapters. There's quite a surprise coming up there as well.

You guys are sending some great comments. I really appreciate them. MysticWolf1 and Shiann Reece…you seem to be enjoying the story the most. I like that. Keep sending those comments. And I don't mind if you give me some ideas about what you think should be different in the mirror universe. And remember…this is Elseworlds: Book One…when its all done I've still got a Book Two tucked away in my brain.

See ya,

Kal-El2k7