A/N: I feel so lame. Someone so graciously pointed out to me that in two places in this story I refered to Chloe as Willow. It has been fixed, everything is good. I was watching an old episode of Buffy when I wrote this and I'm pretty much just an idiot. It's sad really because I read this thing through like 50 times and never caught it. NelStar7 is officiall the man.
Chloe yawned as she quickly pulled something up on the screen. "Left, no right, sorry." She took a long sip of coffee and shook her head, trying to wake herself up. "Right at the next corridor and you should see the control room." She was leading them on yet another mission given to them by Cassandra. In the past few months, following the rescue of Major Bendis, who Chloe had just checked on and was doing fine, baby on the way apparently, they'd gotten a few more letters from Susan with Cryptic messages from Cassandra sending them on what always seemed at first like wild goose chases but turned out to be more important. She was helping them learn more and more about Lex. It wasn't all secret 33.1 labs or projects that kidnapped and experimented on people, he was apparently a lot more crafty and a lot more sinister than they realized.
"Sound a little tired there Watchtower." Cyborg said to her. "We keeping you up?"
"It's three in the morning here." She replied.
"You can sleep when you're dead." Impulse said. "I'm good to go. Impulse out."
"Good job. Cyborg finish up and meet them on the outside."
"Sounds like a plan." Cyborg said.
"Watchtower." Green Arrow said. "Care to lead me out of here."
"Sure thing." Chloe yawned again and turned to the security monitors. This wasn't a smash and grab, this was a stealth mission. The guys were inside a very legit research hospital in Maine. Apparently Lex had been secretly monitoring a few of the research teams, stealing their findings and then replacing their results to make it seem as if they were on the wrong track when in reality they were doing everything right. Cassandra it seemed had formed somewhat of a sense of humor, asking them to please not blow up the place, just stop Lex from getting the information. Cyborg was in the main server, making sure that Lex couldn't get back into the system while Impulse, Aquaman, and Green Arrow went through and methodically cleaned out all hidden cameras and bugs in the research labs. The only problem was, they didn't want anyone to know they had been there. They couldn't take out the guards without raising suspicion or even mess with the security system too much. Chloe had to hack in and very carefully hide all images of them from whatever room or hallway they went in at the same time making sure they steered clear of security. She was erasing the last bit of footage from the server room, making sure no one knew Cyborg was in there when her screens went dead.
"What?" She typed something rapidly and still nothing happened.
"Watchtower, I feel like a sitting duck out here."
"I lost my feed." Chloe said. All her other systems worked so it had to have something to do with the facilities feed.
"What does that mean?" Green Arrow asked.
"It means, I'm blind here, I've got no visual." Chloe told him. "I can't guide you out."
"Shit." Green Arrow said.
"I'm on it." Impulse said suddenly. "I'll scout ahead; let you know when the coast is clear."
"No, you're all ready out. Watchtower get that feed back up." Green Arrow said.
"I'm trying." Chloe groaned. "There's nothing wrong with the system or the connections…it's…" She stopped mid sentence.
"What?" Green Arrow asked.
"Someone hijacked my feed?" Chloe said incredulously. "Seriously?"
"What does that mean?" AC piped in.
"It means someone got into the system using Chloe's connection then shut her out of it." Cyborg said. "I can tap in remote, guide you through the halls." Cyborg said.
"Watchtower…" Green Arrow said.
"Not now, I've got to find whoever tapped into the feed so I can get back in and finish deleting the video." Chloe said typing rapidly. "Stealing my feed, do you have any idea who I am?" Chloe mumbled under her breath. She typed rapidly screen after screen popping up and disappearing as she worked. "Almost there." Chloe smiled triumphantly. "Gotcha." She leaned forward and read the information. "Oh shit." She said to herself as one word stared back at her. "Brainwave."
Chloe quickly got over the resurfacing of old enemies and took her feed back to finish what she'd started but it was all gone, the video for the day, all of it was gone. "This can't be good." She said quietly as she sat back and tried to figure out what to do next. Then suddenly an alarm went off, one that told Chloe someone had just hacked into her computer. "This is even worse." She said sitting forward and typing as fast as she could, finally after about five minutes getting her out and plugging the hole she'd used to get in.
"How did someone get into our system? You and Victor spent weeks making sure that it was impenetrable." Oliver asked after they got back and Chloe explained everything that happened to them.
"They didn't." She said not looking up. "They got into the lab's system and climbed onto ours." She turned to face him. "Piggyback." She said. "But that doesn't matter, I found it fast, locked them out, I don't think they got much if anything, but whoever it was took the video of you guys, all the stuff I didn't have time to erase."
"So someone knew we were there?" AC asked.
"No, I don't think so, I think they were after something else, they just stumbled upon us, that's not the bad news." She stood up. "The person who did it, who stole the video, who stole my feed, that's the problem."
"Who is it?" Victor asked.
"Does the name Molly Griggs mean anything to you?" Chloe asked.
"Molly Griggs." Oliver said slowly as if trying to trigger a memory. "Nick Yang, Bart you ran into them once remember."
"So you know about them." Chloe said.
"Molly does something with computers." Bart said distractedly, playing some game on his phone. "Hey maybe she stole your feed."
"Welcome to the party." Victor chuckled.
"You don't understand." Chloe shook her head. "Molly doesn't just do stuff with computers, she kills with computers." Chloe explained to them what happened her junior year of high school, how Molly sent hypnotizing e-mails that forced her friends to try and kill her. "And she tried to get Lex to kill himself with one too. He locked her up in 33.1 and she's been trying to take him down too, only she's not really doing it the right way."
"Yeah." AC said. "Sounds like she's doing it the crazy psycho way."
"Cause she's a crazy psycho." Chloe pointed out. "I'm worried." Chloe sighed.
"Why because she stole our video?" Oliver said. "What can she do with it? She wasn't supposed to be in the system either, she can't turn us in."
"Yeah but if I traced her, she could trace me. She already got into our system, who knows what info she found before I locked her out." Chloe said. "And she sort of still hates me."
"You don't think she'd try to kill you again?" Victor asked.
A loud crash turned their attention to Bart's phone slamming to the ground as a red blur sped through the room. Suddenly he was standing in front of Chloe with the large candlestick holder that used to sit on the floor by the elevator. He brought it down toward her head but was pushed out of the way by Victor at the last second. He didn't miss her completely, but instead of getting the full force in her head, it grazed down her arm, it still hurt but at least she was alive.
Victor slammed Bart into the wall as Oliver helped Chloe up off the ground, grabbing her arm to check for damages. "What the hell?" Bart said looking around as if he'd just woken up. "What's going on guys?" He looked around the room as four people stared at him incredulously. "I just got the strangest e-mail."
"Does that answer your question?" Chloe looked at Oliver.
"I'm so sorry." Bart said. "What can I do to make it up to you?"
"Nothing Bart, I'm fine." Chloe adjusted her neck, the sling that Oliver insisted she wear due to the dislocated shoulder Bart had given her was killing her.
"No, I know." Her papers rustled with the wind he left behind as he ran out of the room and just as they'd settled another burst followed when he returned. "Double Mocha Fudge?" He held out the container of ice cream to her. "Your absolute favorite."
"I'm not really hungry Bart." Chloe winced again as he blurred out of sight. A few minutes later he came back. "I can make you some coffee, this is that stuff from Hawaii you always talk about."
"Really I'm fine." Chloe assured him with a sad smile.
"I tried to kill you Chloe." He set the coffee beans on the counter and frowned. "That was not cool and you are not fine."
"Bart, just chill." AC said walking in the room.
"You know what I want?" Chloe asked the room at large. "To go to work."
"Where everyone there is completely reliant on e-mail?" Oliver scoffed. "Not likely. I really don't want to have to rescue you from a mob of office workers trying to staple you to death." He handed her aspirin and a glass of water. "You're working from home until we figure this thing out."
"What good is that gonna do?" Chloe said. "I can't figure this out unless you let me near the computer."
"Look, I know about all that self preservation, the brain won't let someone kill themselves crap, but you said it yourself, she created a better program, and she was willing to try it on Lex so my guess is, it probably would have worked." Oliver reminded her. Chloe glared at him and sighed. "The guys are going to stay with you, make sure you don't get on the computer, and make sure no one else in the building tries to kill you."
Chloe spent the whole day at home, unable to get any work done because she couldn't use the computer and too annoyed at Oliver to do anything else. Bart, Victor, and AC played video games until lunch which Victor insisted on going to get because he didn't want risk any delivery men attacking her with chopsticks or something.
"I'm gonna go get the new game." Bart said getting up from the couch and walking to the elevator. "I'm so bored with this."
"Fine." AC sighed, changing the game to one player as Chloe cleaned up for lack of anything better to do. "What the hell?" AC groaned from the living room. "Damn thing froze again." He got up and walked to the game console but froze before he was halfway there.
"Why don't you guys just get a new one?" Chloe offered. "It's always freezing up on you, it's not like you're hurting for money." AC turned to her a blank expression on his face. "AC?" She sad before dropping the rag she was holding and backing up slowly as he advanced on her.
She tried to make it to the elevator but he grabbed her first and slammed her up against the wall, his fingers tightening around her throat. "Please." Chloe begged him hoarsely as he gripped even tighter, shutting off her airway.
"Ok, I got sandwiches from the deli on the corner and because I'm a nice guy grabbed a burrito for Bart." Victor walked out of the elevator and heard Chloe kicking the wall, trying to get free. "Hey man." He ran and tossed AC aside and moved Chloe out of the way as AC came back for more. "Why did he get on the computer?" Victor asked. "He knows better."
"He didn't." Chloe coughed, holding her throat. She looked in the living room. "The Xbox." She said suddenly. "It has a wireless connection doesn't it?"
"Shit." Victor said attacking AC before he could get another shot at Chloe and knocking him to the ground hard. AC slammed his head against the wood floors and looked around confused.
"How did I get over here?" He asked and Victor sighed letting him up.
"This one is only a two player so we'll have to take turns…" Bart stopped and looked at the three of them. "What did I miss?"
"No video games now, are you serious?" Chloe sipped her tea slowly as Bart watched AC pack up the play station.
"No video games." Oliver said. "No cell phones, no computers, no handheld electronic devices of any kind." He stood there with a plastic container as Victor emptied his pockets and AC tossed his cell phone in it.
"Maybe I should just leave for a while, go to England, see Edward, or Smallville." Chloe whispered. Her voice was coming back but slowly and painfully.
"They have e-mail in England, and Smallville." Oliver pointed out as Victor finished completely unhooking her computer and taping off all the wires. He glared at her and she dug her phone out of her pocket before putting it in the box.
"It's not fair to make you guys suffer though." Chloe stood up and stretched.
"It'll be good for them, live like the pioneers." Oliver joked. "Maybe they'll even read a book."
Chloe snorted and shook her head. The rest of the day was probably what Dante had in mind when describing the ninth circle of hell. She was stuck in her apartment with Bart for two hours of excruciating boredom, until AC came to relieve him and then there was another four hours of boredom followed by Victor's shift which took up another two hours of boredom. Chloe was looking at the clock, wondering if 5 o'clock was too early to start diner when the phone rang. She and Victor both ran for it and Chloe smiled when she got there first. "Hello." She said desperately, she'd gladly talk to a telemarketer or political pollster at this point in time but no luck, it was Oliver.
"Hey, look I hate to do this to you but in all the excitement we forgot what today was."
"And that would be?" Chloe asked opening the fridge and trying to find something to cook that would take a few hours at the least.
"The Fundraiser for the Arts Council. Elizabeth called Cara to coordinate and I completely forgot about it." He sighed. "I know we've got this computer assassin going on and I know you hate this type of thing but Elizabeth reminded me that you were on the committee and you kind of have to go."
"God yes." Chloe said not caring two cents about the art council at this moment but caring a great deal about getting out of this house. "I worked my ass off to raise money for art and stuff, we have to go."
Oliver laughed, not fooled by her philanthropy. "I figured you'd say that. I've got a little to finish up here but I'll be by to pick you up in two hours, that sound ok?"
"Fine." Chloe said smiling. She hung up the phone and started getting ready, something that if she stretched it out long enough could last the whole two hours until Oliver got there. She managed to stretch it out enough that she still wasn't ready when Oliver came to get her.
"Chloe, we're gonna be late." He called out.
"I know, I'm waiting on my shoes." She walked out of the bedroom putting in her earrings. "I sent Bart to go pick them up."
"Pick them up?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah they're not here." She smiled.
"Where are they?"
"At Edwards." Chloe said holding out her wrist so Oliver could fasten the charm bracelet.
"You sent Bart to London for a pair of shoes?" He raised his eyebrows.
"No." Chloe said. "I sent Bart to London for my favorite most comfortable pair of shoes."
"Oh." Oliver nodded. "That makes sense now." He rolled his eyes as she sat down waiting for Bart. The elevator bell dinged and he walked in holding a pair of black shoes in his hands.
"Please tell me these are the right ones?" He asked, sounding exhausted.
"Perfect." She grabbed the shoes from him as he collapsed against the kitchen counter.
"Look a little tired there Impulse." Oliver said. "You need more exercise if one little trip to London tires you this much."
"One little trip?" He asked incredulous as he stuffed his face with leftovers. "One trip? Try five."
"Five?" Oliver turned to Chloe. "Five trips?"
"He kept getting the wrong pair." Chloe shrugged.
"Yeah well black heels with straps isn't a lot to go on." Bart pointed out. "Do you know how many of your shoes that describes."
"If someone hadn't taken away our phones, he could have sent me pictures and it would have taken a lot less time." Chloe stood up, her shoes now on.
"Unbelievable." Oliver said under his breath. "You ready now?"
"I just need to get my wrap." Chloe said walking into her bedroom as Bart took five Tupperware's into the living room. The phone rang and Oliver looked around.
"I'll get it." He sighed picking up the phone only to practically drop it when he heard a high pitched tone, like someone was trying to fax something.
"What was that?" Bart asked, his mouth full. But Oliver didn't answer. He'd hung up the phone and headed in the direction of the bedroom.
"I can't find the silver one." Chloe said when Oliver walked in. "Just a second, I know we're late, can you grab the black on off the bed?"
Oliver looked at the black wrap on the bed and picked it up, staring at it for a second. "Thanks." Chloe walked over to take it from him and he held tight to it. "Oliver?" She asked backing away slowly, knowing something was wrong. She wasn't quick enough though and as she turned to run he put the wrap over her head and tightened it around her throat, cutting off her air supply.
Chloe tried to get away, to find anything to use to fight back but she couldn't. Oliver pulled her closer, tightening the fabric around her throat and she shoved herself against him, trying to get a little room. He fell into the dresser and bottles of perfume skidded off the top and onto the floor where they smashed. "Everything ok?" Bart called from the living room as Chloe slammed her healed shoe into Oliver's foot. It surprised him enough to let her go and she choked on the air as she ran to the living room.
"Oliver." Chloe managed to say to Bart. He jumped up from the couch as Oliver came out of the room, a look of determination on his face as he headed for Chloe. He reached her in two strides and slapped her across the face, sending her flying into the opposite wall of the room. Bart super speeded between them and tried to hit Oliver but was tossed aside like nothing more than an annoying fly. He fell into the kitchen, sliding on the floor until he was stopped by his head slamming into a cabinet.
He saw Chloe trying to pull herself up from the floor as Oliver got closer to her, picking up a large candle holder and wielding it as a weapon. "Hit him in the head." Chloe called to Bart. "It should snap him out of it."
Bart looked around the kitchen then reached up to the pot rack pulling down a skillet. He ran over to Oliver and winced. "Sorry Boss, this is gonna hurt." He swung fast and hard and the skillet connected with a satisfying clang as Oliver crumpled to the floor. "I'm so getting fired for that." Bart said dropping the skillet and helping Chloe up.
Oliver woke up groggy and confused as Bart brought him an ice pack for his head. Chloe was sitting on the couch drinking tea to sooth her throat again, she was really tired of almost being strangled. "Sorry." Oliver said wincing as he moved the icepack around.
"Guess we're not going to the fundraiser." Chloe said hoarsely. "I'll have a black eye in another couple of hours and this would be pretty hard to explain." She lifted her head and Oliver saw an ugly red mark where he tried to strangle her. "And you owe me a $3,000.00 pair of shoes." She held up her shoes with her other hand and Oliver saw one strap was broken and a heel had snapped off.
"Can I just repeat how sorry I am?" Oliver asked.
"It wasn't your fault." Chloe said. "We didn't even think about the phones. She's always been visual you know, but sound waves can do the same thing as pictures and colors."
"So she hypnotized me with that noise?" Oliver asked.
"Basically yeah." Chloe shrugged.
"God. I feel so horrible about this." He ran his hand through his hair, wincing again when he hit his head. "Wait, those shoes cost $3,000.00?"
Chloe smiled tossed the shoes over her shoulder. "So can we maybe get proactive about this now?" She raised her eyebrows. "A good offense is the best defense?"
"I don't think…" Oliver started.
"She's just going to keep trying until we stop her, and we can't stop her unless I can get to a computer, leave the house, do my job." Chloe told him.
"But I can't guarantee your safety." Oliver pointed out.
"Oliver, you took away every piece of electronic equipment I owned, kept me locked in my house for two days only to try and kill me yourself." She reminded him. "There are no guarantees."
"But there's a difference between trying to be careful and inviting trouble."
"I'm going crazy here, to the point where I might just kill myself to get out of this apartment." She joked with him. "We can't sit around and do nothing."
"I know." He sighed. "Ok, fine. But you're not getting online unless it's absolutely necessary."
"I can deal with that." Chloe said.
She wasn't allowed in the office yet, Chloe was on the same page as Oliver with that one, a building full of people connected to the internet was inviting trouble but at least he let her out of the house. Much to everyone's amusement, after being cooped up in the apartment for a few days the only place Chloe wanted to go was the grocery store. Bart had eaten all of her food and cooking helped her think, stay calm.
She walked back into her building, arms full with the grocery bags, with Victor, her body guard for the day when they were stopped at the front desk. "Miss Sullivan?" Barry the concierge smiled. "A Doctor Yen left this for you." He held out an envelope.
"Victor can you grab that?" Chloe asked as she dug around for her keys to the elevator.
"Sure." He took it from Barry and Chloe called triumphantly as she pulled her keys out. When they got in the elevator she inserted the key in the slot and looked at him. "Doctor Yen? Is that someone from Oliver's lab?"
Victor shrugged and opened the envelope pulling out what looked to Chloe like a playing card. It feel to the ground of the elevator as it started rising and Victor turned to her. "What was it?" Chloe asked confused as he moved closer. "Victor?" She backed up against the wall and he reached for her. She dropped her bags, ducked and got on the other side of him. "What the hell, there's no internet in here, no phone." She screamed. They were only on the twelfth floor. "Snap out of it." Chloe said grabbing her purse and slamming it into the side of his head, but unlike AC and Bart who woke up when they'd been hit, Victor just kept coming and he slapped her across the face, sending her flying into the back wall of the elevator. She slid to the floor in pain as he leaned over her and she dug her mace out of her purse and sprayed it in his eyes just as the elevator opened. He screamed and grabbed his face as she crawled through his leg and out into her apartment, praying that the doors would close before he realized what was going on. She had no phone, no way to communicate; Oliver had taken everything, so she screamed.
"Help."
"You don't have to yell, I'm coming." Bart said from the other room and all Chloe could think was thank god. But Victor had heard both of them and was turning around to head in the direction Chloe's voice had come from. "Holy crap." Bart said when he got into the room and grabbed some decorative vase off the side table and ran to Victor, smashing him in the head. It barely fazed him. "How'd she get to him?" Bart asked as Victor flicked Bart away like an annoying fly.
"I don't know." Chloe stood up and backed away. "We've got to get out of here." Chloe said.
"On it." Bart ran over, picked her up and ran then to the elevator before Victor even noticed they were gone.
Chloe leaned against the wall and caught her breath and stared at the mess of produce and dairy products strewn over the floor. "There's goes diner." She sighed picking everything up when she noticed the envelope Victor had grabbed from the front desk. She picked it up and saw that there had in fact been a playing card inside. She looked at the card and flipped it over. "Queen of Diamonds." Chloe said, something familiar tugging at the back of her mind.
"What are you doing on my computer?" Oliver ran further into his apartment and grabbed Chloe pulling her away from the machine.
"Relax, she's not going to come after me." Chloe said. "She's found herself the perfect soldier."
"What is she talking about?" Oliver asked. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Victor attacked her at her apartment." Bart said. "And we couldn't snap him out of it."
"What do you mean, when we got hit in the head, it was over." Oliver said.
"I've been thinking about that." Chloe said. "I think, she's using Victor himself as the delivery system and the brain."
"Explain." Oliver sat down.
"She knows about Cyborg." Chloe said. "She's the one who stole our video footage remember, and he used his, internal computer to hack into the network to lead you out. Well I think she hacked into him."
"She hacked into him?" Oliver asked.
"He's got a wireless connection built in, it was part of your upgrade package, he's a giant walking internet connected computer." Chloe pointed out. "I think she sent the message straight to him."
"So she can just access him from anywhere at any time?" Oliver sounded incredulous. "Has he been walking around this whole time just waiting to get you alone?"
"Not really." Chloe said. "It's just like with you guys. Bart had to see the e-mail, AC saw the image on the TV screen, and you heard it the phone. She stored the message inside Victor but his brain still had to access it somehow. The problem is, Victor is completely connected to his system, so unlike you guys, he can't get away from the signal. Bart dropped the PDA, AC turned off the television, you hung up the phone, the signal stopped, but the signal is inside Victor, there's no disconnection."
"Can we interrupt the signal with something?" Oliver asked.
"A magnet." AC said. "Like a really big magnet, that wipes hard drives doesn't it?"
"No." Chloe sighed. "I've been going over the files from his upgrade; the upgrade is connected to but not a part of his cybernetic system. Anything, like a magnet, will take out the upgrade but it will also take out the cyber system and unfortunately that's what controls most of his organ functions. I'm trying to figure out how to disconnect the upgrade, the connection without damaging the cybernetic system."
Oliver closed his eyes in frustration. "You said he had to access the file? How did that happen?"
Chloe pulled out the Queen of Diamonds playing card. "She used this, a visual trigger, telling his brain to access the file, which started the brainwash,
"What is this?" Oliver flipped the card over. "Is it dangerous?"
"No." Chloe chuckled. "It's just a playing card. She's got a since of humor, that's all. It was left at my front desk by a Doctor Yen."
"I don't follow." Oliver shook his head.
"You're telling me you haven't seen the Manchurian Candidate."
"You mean the movie with the creepy guy and Denz…" Bart started.
"If you say Denzel Washington I'll slap you." Chloe warned him. "That was not the Manchurian Candidate. I mean the original with Frank Sinatra, anyone?" They all shook their heads. "OK so you know the point of the movie, the main character was brainwashed into doing all these things, the guys who gave the orders was named Doctor Yen." Chloe said. "And he triggered the episodes with a Queen of Diamonds playing card." They all seemed to nod in understanding.
"Victor's in there somewhere." Chloe said. "This has got to be killing him. I remember, he told me about how it felt when Lex tried to take over, when he had no control over himself, how he stopped feeling human, and started felling like a machine, he hated that."
"We'll get him back." Oliver assured her.
Chloe stayed at Oliver's to scared to go back to her place incase Victor was still there. But she couldn't sleep, she'd figured it out a few hours ago, what she had to do to save Victor, and it was tying her stomach up in knots. "You need to sleep." Oliver said from the doorway to the guest room.
"I can't." Chloe said. "I figured it out." She looked up at him sadly. "How to stop him."
"That's good news isn't it?"
"No." Chloe shook her head. "It's really not." She sighed.
"Is there another way?" Oliver asked.
"Without killing him?" Chloe said. "No."
"You gotta do what you gotta do." Oliver said. Chloe smiled and nodded at him. "Get some sleep." He said sadly and left her alone again.
"Remind me again why we're tracking down the guy who's trying to kill you?" Bart asked the next day as they approached the warehouse.
"Because I need to be with him, to sever the connection, I can't do it remotely." Chloe said.
"Right." Bart said. "Still seems like a stupid plan." He looked down at the GPS signal in his hand. After Bart had been capture by Lex, Oliver had one installed in each of them for safety. "Two more blocks."
"So what is the plan exactly?" AC asked.
"We keep him from killing Chloe so she can do what she needs to fix him." Oliver said.
"That's a pretty vague plan." AC whispered and Oliver glared.
"Here we go." Bart turned down an alleyway and they saw a door to a warehouse. "Who wants to go in first?"
Oliver stepped forward and kicked the door open. "After you." He smiled at Bart who walked in slowly. They all followed him and Chloe brought up the rear immediately sitting on the ground and pulling her computer out of her bag. The guys formed a semi-circle around her, their eyes peeled for danger when AC was thrown to the ground by Victor, who'd jumped down on top of him from the rafters. "As fast as you can Chloe." Oliver said jumping in to defend AC.
Bart headed for the fight and Chloe held out a hand to stop him. "Wait." She pulled something out of her bag, a long cord and plugged it into her computer. "I need you to plug this into the jack in his arm." She typed a little more and then handed on end to Bart who looked a little skeptical. "Just hurry."
"Hold him guys." Bart said running over and slipping the plug into Victor.
"Don't let him pull it out." Chloe said typing again.
"Faster would be better." Oliver said as he, AC, and Bart struggled to keep hold of Victor.
"It's almost done downloading…there." Chloe said.
"It didn't do anything." Oliver said as Victor broke free, tossed Oliver across the room and pulled the plug from his arm.
"I haven't activated it yet." Chloe said as he tossed AC and Bart out of his way and turned on her.
"Activate it." Bart screamed. "Activate it."
"I'm so sorry." Chloe said sadly and he slapped her hard, sending her to the ground. "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." Chloe said as he reached out for her. His hand froze in mid air then fell to his side and his head tilted forward.
Bart walked over and waved a hand in front of his face. "Whoa." He smiled. "That is so cool, is he sleeping?"
"No." Chloe pulled herself up. "He's off." She looked over at Oliver then at the statue still figure of Victor. "I turned him off." She grabbed her computer and started packing it up.
"Go get the car." Oliver told them. "We need to get him back to the lab, so they can delete the programming."
AC and Bart nodded and walked out. They could tell that Chloe was upset but they didn't really understand. "You did what you had to do." Oliver told her.
"Yeah?" Chloe frowned. "He's a person Oliver, and I just hit his power button, like turning off the television." She slung the bag over her shoulder and walked to the door.
"Wait for the car." He pleaded with her.
"I think I'm gonna walk." Chloe smiled sadly. Oliver just nodded.
Victor was in the lab for most of the day, getting his hard drive basically whipped and rewritten. While everyone greeted Victor in Chloe's living room she stayed on the balcony, not sure if she was wanted at the welcome home party. He made his way outside a few minutes later and coughed. Chloe took a deep breath and turned around.
"I'm sorry." They both said at the same time and then broke out into smiles.
"Why are you sorry?" Chloe asked.
"I tried to kill you?" He reminded her.
"Yeah, well so did everyone else this week, that's old news." Chloe shrugged it off.
"Why are you sorry?" He asked sitting down next to her.
"What I did to you…I didn't want to do it, I didn't want to treat you like a machine, you know that's not how I see you right?" She pleaded with him to understand.
"I know that Chloe." Victor assured her. "You did what you had to do and I'm not sorry you did it."
"I turned you off." She said.
"I was trying to kill you." He pointed out.
"Ok, but still. It'll never happen again I swear it."
"Don't do that." He told her. "There are things that come along with this life. With mine it's the risk of getting hacked and turned into a mindless robot who tries to kill my friends. I know that logically there has to be a safety in place, a backdoor. I like that you're the one with the access though, because I trust you."
Chloe smiled as he handed her a piece of paper. "What's this?"
"The new shut down activation word." He smiled. "I haven't looked at it, it's like seeing a sign that says wet paint you have to touch it just to be sure. I'd end up shutting myself down. The lab techs assured me that it's one of the least common used words in the English language so random people on the streets shouldn't turn me off either."
"You want me to have it?" Chloe asked.
"Like I said. I trust you." Victor smiled.
"Hey." Oliver said at the door to the balcony pulling on a jacket. "My tech guys managed to track down Molly using the stuff they got from Vic, anyone want to ride along."
"You know it." Victor stood up and Chloe smiled as she followed them out.
Oliver stopped the car a few blocks from where they'd picked up Victor. Chloe looked at the warehouse and smiled. "Let's do this."
Capturing Molly was relatively easy compared to most of the people that usually had to deal with. She wasn't a seasoned criminal and she was working solo so she had no security in place and the team managed to sneak up on her with little difficulty. She was sitting in her very own makeshift command center. There was a pretty high powered computer, made from scraps as far as Chloe could tell, bits of other machines pieced together. Chloe was almost impressed. The bank of monitors, all six of them showed surveillance footage of a few places, one the lab they'd been in just the week before. "Hey Molly." Chloe said and the girl practically jumped in her seat. She turned around and saw the whole of the JLA standing behind her looking pretty pissed. They could practically see the gears moving in her head as she went over her options. She turned around quickly and started typing, the surveillance footage vanishing and in its place swirls of light and color. She turned around quickly to watch her plan in action but frowned as she saw the team standing in the same position they were in before.
"I bet you're wondering why they aren't trying to kill me." Chloe smiled and pulled a small device out of her ear. "This is really neat." She flipped it over. "The guys in Oliver's lab cooked it up for us. It sends a constant signal to our brains, effectively blocking whatever it is you're trying to do."
Molly looked around a little less confident now and a lot more scared. "You're not going to kill me." She said backing up until she hit the edge of her desk. "That's not your style."
"No." Oliver agreed. "We don't really go for that sort of thing." He took a step forward.
"So what then? You gonna lock me up like Lex did?" She scoffed at them.
"No." Chloe said. "But I'm sure the Doctor's at the Belle Reeve would love to have you back."
"I don't belong in that place." Molly said angrily.
"You've been trying to kill me for the past week, what makes you think you're mentally stable? Chloe asked. "Why exactly have you been trying to kill me?"
"When I figured out whose feed I stole, I just knew that you'd know it was me, I knew that you'd find me and you'd ruin everything and I couldn't let that happen." Molly said.
"Ruin what?" Oliver asked. "What were you doing spying on the research lab in the first place?"
"Trying to find out why Lex was spying on them." Molly said.
"Does that make sense to anyone else?" Bart asked.
"Did you find out?" Chloe asked ignoring Bart.
"Because they're close." Molly said. "Closer than he is."
"Closer than he is to what?" Oliver asked.
"Finding the formula." Molly was telling them everything now in the hopes it would somehow save her. "The formula to give people powers."
Chloe looked at Oliver. "They're what?" She asked slowly.
"They're trying to find a cure." Molly said. "But to do that, they need to find out how someone becomes a Meta." Molly turned around and pulled up a screen. "And they're almost there."
"You think they can actually do that?" Victor asked. "You think they can cure you?"
Molly scoffed. "I don't want the cure, I don't need the cure. I want the formula."
"Why?" AC asked.
"For Lex of course." She looked at all of them. "To make him one of us, one of the people he hates so much, one of the people he kidnaps and experiments on."
Chloe shook her head trying to process everything. "Hold on, on top of the many flaws of that plan, the one that sticks out to me is the part where you want to give Lex powers that could make him even more unstoppable."
"No." Molly said. "That's not…I want him to hate himself as much as he hates us."
"Molly." Chloe sighed. "If I thought that would work I'd have shoved him into a vat of meteor solution a long time ago and let him do himself in but you don't understand Lex's mind. That's not how it would go down. He would just use his powers against us."
"We can't let Lex get that formula." Oliver said.
"Really?" Chloe said sarcastically. "Cause I was gonna send it express mail."
"But didn't Cassandra tell us the clinic was good?" AC said confused. "To protect it?"
"How can it be a good clinic if this is what it's doing?" Victor asked. "Making a formula to turn people into Meta's."
"Or worse." Bart pointed out. "To cure them."
"Look I don't like the thought of any of this, but we don't have the whole picture here." Chloe said. "We don't know what's really going on and I trust Cassandra, I trust that she knows what she's talking about so for now, we watch the clinic, we don't let Lex get the formula, and we see what they do with it ok?" Chloe asked this more to Oliver than anyone else.
"Sounds like a plan to me." He nodded. "And her." He tilted his head toward Molly who had tried to slip away while they fought with each other.
Victor reached out an arm and grabbed her. "Belle Reeve." Chloe said. "It's obvious she still has some work to do there." Oliver nodded at AC.
"AC take her home, we'll see if our friend in the area can come pick her up." Oliver said and AC took Molly from Victor and brought her out to the car. "Chloe." He looked at the equipment. "You and Victor want to take this apart? Bring it back home?"
"I thought you'd never ask." Chloe smiled. Not only would the information on the computer help them out a great deal but she was fascinated by how the whole thing was put together. They got to work as Oliver arranged with Clark to come pick up Molly and drop her off at Belle Reeve.
"I'm not a taxi." Clark said to them when he showed up at the penthouse.
"No, but you're cheaper." Chloe smiled. "I'd love to visit but I'm a little busy now." She pointed behind her to the mess of electronic equipment and wires that was occupying every inch of her living room floor.
"I can see that." Clark smiled. "It's ok, I've got to get back pretty quick anyway. I've got to meet Lois in twenty minutes."
"For what?" Chloe asked.
"I uh, wasn't sure how to break this to you but I got a job, working for the Daily Planet." He said.
"That's great." Chloe smiled brightly and hugged him in excitement. "I'm so happy for you, and proud of you. That's so great."
"Yeah well, the part where I'm the only person on staff who can tolerate Lois and therefore have been assigned as her partner, not so great." Clark said.
Chloe tried to hide her laughter but it wasn't going to happen. She felt it burst out before she could stop it. "You and Lois, working together?"
"It's not funny Chloe." Clark said. "She bosses me around all the time and she's constantly getting mad at me because I'm running off in the middle of things but you know it's kind of important." He said.
"Yeah and she'd get less and less mad at you if you just told her why you were running off." Chloe reminded him. "I mean she's obviously pretty ok with the whole super hero secret identity thing, she knows about all of us and she hasn't printed the story yet."
"I know but I'm not like all of you." Clark said. "My story is a little bit different from "Something happened and I got some powers"."
"Yeah." Chloe conceded. "It's more of, I'm the prince of an Alien planet that's long since been destroyed and I was sent to earth to take over but I've decided to use my powers to help save the humans instead of enslave them."
Clark just looked at her for a second. "Yeah, if I ever decide to tell Lois, there's no way I'm letting you write the script."
Chloe slapped his shoulder as AC came out of the back room with Molly who was passed out cold. "We gave her a sedative so she shouldn't even know what's going on much less who you are."
"No problem." Clark took the load from AC and smiled before speeding out of the room.
Things settled down after the Molly incident. Cassandra hadn't sent them anything in a few weeks and Lex hadn't done anything noteworthy either. It actually seemed like they might be getting a break. "What are you doing tomorrow?" Chloe asked leaning against Oliver as she watched the movie.
"Meeting at three." He said. "Other than that…not much. You?"
"I've got a pretty light day." Chloe said. "I was thinking we could all go to the beach."
"AC would love that." Oliver smiled. "Am I supposed to be this confused?"
"Just watch the movie." Chloe said.
"I don't understand. Who's the bad guy?"
"They're all bad guys." Chloe ate some popcorn.
"Even Sam Spade?" Oliver said confused.
"He's not as bad but he's not a good guy. He was sleeping with his partner's wife, he's in this for himself." Chloe said.
"I don't' like it when the good guys aren't good." Oliver sighed.
"Not everything is black and white Oliver." Chloe nudged him.
"Well, we should fix that." Oliver grunted.
"I think I'll make a picnic lunch." Chloe said.
"How's that going to fix it?" Oliver looked down at her.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "For the beach." She told him.
"So is it the real Maltese Falcon or not?" Oliver asked.
"Just watch." She said snuggling closer to him.
"When you said beach, I was thinking we'd load up the car and drive to the coast for the day." Oliver said getting off the plane.
"Please." Chloe smiled. "I can't do anything halfway anymore, I learned that from you." They left the runway and got into the car. "I was watching Evita the other day. " Chloe shrugged. "And I remembered Edward's got a beach house in Buenos Aires."
"This is so cool." Bart smiled. "You're house is on the beach?"
"Right there." Chloe said.
"You spoil them you know that right?" Oliver pointed out to her.
"I do what I can." Chloe said. "They work hard, they deserve a break. It's a private secluded beach, a place where they don't have to worry about what people see." Chloe shrugged. They got to the house ten minutes later and Bart did a speedy tour of the house.
"This place is awesome." He said settling back in the main room. "Which room is mine?"
"Whichever you want." Chloe smiled.
"I call the room with the ocean view." AC said as he started for the stairs.
"You can't call rooms you haven't even seen yet." Victor protested following him.
"No calling rooms allowed." Bart said. "It's first come." He ran up the stairs, passing AC and Victor and smiled on the landing. "First serve."
"Miss Chloe." Pilar, the house manager had walked into the room. "It's so good to see you again."
"Hello Pilar." Chloe smiled at the woman. "How have things been?"
"Quiet." She admitted. Chloe hadn't been to the beach house since before she started working with Edward, she had come a few times with Abby, Lily, and Rose but hadn't really had time for a vacation since she started at the company. "There are just a few things I need to go over with you."
"Sure." Chloe turned to Oliver. "Why don't you go grab us whatever rooms are left and I'll meet you guys down at the beach in an hour?"
"No problem." Oliver smiled and picked up his and Chloe's bags and headed to the stairs but stopped when the yelling started.
"Do over." AC said. "We can't do first come first serve when he uses his powers."
"You can't call a do over." Bart screamed. "I got the balcony room fair and square, just cause you're slower than a turtle…"
"Come down to the beach and say that to me." AC screamed back.
"Oh, does the little tortoise want to race the hare?" Bart said in a sing song baby voice.
"Hey, dumb ass, the tortoise beat the hare." Victor screamed back.
"Beach, ten minutes." AC screamed. "But don't come crying to Chloe when I beat you so bad you can't find your way home."
"You're all talk fish boy and no follow through." Bart said.
"I'm on it." Oliver said as Chloe rubbed her temples and he rushed up the stairs to intervene before the fight got out of hand.
Pilar, being the good, loyal housekeeper that she was, pretended as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and smiled at Chloe. "You just need to talk to the chef, go over the menu for your stay so we can run to the market, and there are a few other things that I needed to talk to you about."
"Lead the way." Chloe smiled.
An hour later Chloe walked down the patio to the beach. Victor was kneeling down, making what looked like a miniature Taj Mahal out of sand. He didn't really care much for the water, even though countless doctors and technicians at Queen Industries had told him it was perfectly safe, he still had the mind set of electricity plus water equals bad. "Wow." Chloe paused to admire his work. "Did you do that from memory?"
The detail was amazing, every brick carved out, even the intricate carving details on the front of the building were there. Victor looked up sheepishly. "I downloaded images and blueprints, is that cheating?" He asked.
"Is anything we do cheating?" Chloe responded before walking over to Oliver who had set up a few deck chairs for them in the sand. He was staring out at the water where AC and Bart continued to fight. "Who won?" She asked sitting down next to him and dropping her bag.
He looked over at her and smiled. "Who do you think?" He nodded out at the shallow edge of the water and Chloe listened to the argument.
"That didn't count." AC said.
"Of course it counted." Bart scoffed. "You can just say it didn't count."
"Best two out of three." He offered.
"Just give it up and admit that I'm faster than you." Bart smiled.
"You don't want to go again because you know I'll beat you." AC said.
"I don't have to go again because I already beat you." Bart told him.
"Apparently halfway through the race, AC found some fish tangled in an old fishing net and stopped to help them." Oliver filled Chloe in. "He says he wants a do over and Bart claims that it doesn't matter, he should still have beaten him even stopping to help the fish if he was as fast as he says he is."
"Why do you have to be a brat about everything?" AC screamed.
"Look, Chloe's here." Bart started to walk up the sand to her. "She can sort this out. Tell him that it totally counted and he can't just call do over because he doesn't like the end result."
"Tell him that if he wasn't a selfish bastard, he'd understand what I did and let me do the race over." AC screamed.
"Hey." Chloe held up her hand. "Both of you play nice and go away, you're blocking my sun and I'm on vacation."
"But Chloe…" They both whined.
She sighed as Oliver smiled at her. "Bart, you know you didn't beat him fare and square if you're so sure you'll win, you should give him another race. AC stop whining, you knew you were in a race and you could have finished and then gone and freed the fish, that was your own fault. Now both of you get out of my sun."
Bart and AC looked at each other and shrugged. "I don't feel like racing anymore." Bart said.
"Me either." AC shrugged and they walked away.
Chloe slathered on some sun tan lotion and took a quick dip in the ocean before drying off and laying back in her deck chair. She closed her eyes, relaxing and enjoying the sun and the company. She felt at peace here, the beach was private and secluded enough it didn't matter that AC and Bart were having racing using their super powers, the staff was well trained and loyal enough to turn a blind eye when Bart zoomed from the beach to the kitchen to grab a snack and disappeared again in the blink of an eye. She felt happy and relaxed for the first time in months, it didn't last for long though. "Uh oh." Oliver's voice brought her back to reality and she opened her eyes to see Bart standing in the ocean, on a patch of dry sand as AC swam in circles around him, pulling the water into a whirlpool that effectively trapped Bart in a cocoon of water. He tried a few times unsuccessfully to super speed out of it, but just ended up hitting the wall of water and falling back into the center.
"Guys, place nice or I'm sending you back up to the house." Chloe called. AC stopped swimming and the water crashed in on Bart, knocking him on his ass.
"Sorry." AC said sheepishly. "Just having a little fun."
Bart surfaced a few seconds later spitting water out of him mouth and immediately set chase. Oliver couldn't help but laugh as Chloe rubbed her temples, she could feel what she'd dubbed as the Bart/AC headache coming on. "This isn't going to end well." Oliver warned as AC gathered up his energy and created a massive way aimed at Bart, who had run behind Victor's sand castle for cover.
"Oh no." Chloe sat up straight as AC let the wave go and it crashed down, demolishing the Taj Mahal and soaking Bart and Victor.
When the water receded AC stood up with a shocked expression on his face, not believing what he'd just done. "It was an accident." He said to Victor, backing away slowly into the water as Victor glared at him then back at his ruined castle. "It's all Bart's fault anyway."
Victor turned to Bart who was smiling smugly and Chloe jumped up, grabbed the bucket Victor had been using and slipped her arm through his. "Hey, there's a little cove up the beach, I told Enrico that I'd try and get some fresh scallops for him. Come help me."
Victor glared one last time at AC and Bart before allowing Chloe to lead him off down the beach. Oliver walked over to the two of them and slapped them both on the head. "Hey." He said glaring. "Chloe was nice enough to bring us all out here to relax, and this is how you repay her?" They had sense enough to look ashamed. "She hasn't had the best time lately so from now on I want you to give her a break, be on your best behavior, no more fighting, no more complaining, no more whining. Understood?"
"Yes boss." Bart and AC agreed and Oliver smiled and went back to his lounge chair.
When Chloe and Victor came strolling back up the beach a few hours later Bart and AC were playing around, amicably in the water and Oliver was trying to pretend as if he hadn't fallen asleep. "So did you find any?" He got up and looked in Chloe's bucket which was filled with different shellfish.
"Tons." Chloe smiled. "Fresh Scallops, did anything ever taste so good." AC was making a face, but Chloe had long since learned to ignore his distaste for her affinity for seafood. "Bart can you run those up to the kitchen for me?"
"Absolutely." Bart smiled and grabbed the bucket from her without argument and was off.
"He'll probably start diner soon so we should head back up to the house ourselves." Chloe started grabbing her sun tan lotion and towels and AC stepped in and stopped her.
"Let me get that for you." He said smiling.
"Sure." Chloe backed away but gave him a strange look.
They went back up to the house and Chloe showered and was drying her hair when she heard the familiar screams of Bart and AC. "I didn't do anything to your red shirt loser." AC screamed. "Maybe you forgot to pack it."
"I didn't forget to pack it, it's my favorite shirt, I take it with me everywhere." Bart said back. "I know you did something with it."
"What possible reason could I have for taking your stupid shirt?" AC asked.
"Cause you're a dork." Bart retaliated. "Fine, you don't want to admit you took it, maybe you'll be a little more understanding when I start messing with your things."
"That's real mature Bart." AC told him. "What are you gonna do? Hide my clothes from me?"
"How would that work?" Victor piped in. "You'd just be giving the man another excuse to go naked and I for one am not down with that plan."
"Maybe I won't mess with your clothes." Bart said. "Maybe I'll mess with something else."
Chloe rolled her eyes as the fight continued and saw Oliver walk hurriedly past Chloe's door and she heard what sounded like harsh whispering and then it was quiet, no more yelling, no more fighting. Chloe got up from her vanity and walked to the door to investigate. Generally the only reason Bart and AC stopped fighting was that one of them had knocked the other unconscious. She stepped out into the hallway and was greeted with four smiling faces. "Hey." Oliver said to her surprised.
"Hey." Chloe said cautiously looking at all of them confused. "What's going on?"
"Just waiting for you, to go get some dinner." Bart said. "You ready?"
"Yeah." Chloe knew something strange was going on but she just couldn't figure out what. She walked with them down to the dining room and Bart pulled her chair out for her while AC opened her napkin and laid in her lap. She gave them another strange look as dinner was served. Twenty minutes into the disturbingly quiet meal, Bart turned to AC.
"Can you pass the salt please?" He asked.
"Sure." AC grabbed the salt and handed it to Bart who nodded.
"Thank you."
"Your welcome." AC said and Chloe couldn't take it anymore.
She dropped her fork to her plate which made a very loud clink in the room and they all stopped eating to look at her. "That's it, I want to know what's going on." She looked at everyone in turn and they all seemed confused.
"What are you talking about?" Bart asked.
"I'm talking about this weird Stepford thing you've got going here with the please and thank you. I'm talking about the fact that AC isn't complaining about Bart sitting too close. I'm talking about the fact that not once this evening has Bart tried to regal us with the Star Spangled Banner done entirely in burps." She raised her eyebrows and they all looked at Oliver.
"I was just trying to give you a break." Oliver defended himself.
"That's sweet really, but I don't need a break." She said. "So just act normal ok, you guys are freaking me out."
"Really?" Bart asked smiling. "Cause I really can do the Star Spangled Banner in burps." He took a big gulp of his drink and Victor groaned but Chloe just smiled.
"I'm trying to eat here." AC complained.
"So whose stopping you?" Bart asked, completely in burps.
They spent the rest of the diner much more comfortably and hung out for a little while before separating to go to bed. The next day they spent a little more time at the beach and then went into town. Bart wanted some souvenirs and Victor wanted to check out the old buildings. They ate a lunch at a little café and were heading back to the house when Chloe's phone rang.
"No work." Bart said. "Remember."
"It's Edward." Chloe said walking a little ways away as AC finished some story and the guys laughed to take to the call.
Oliver watched as she went from smiling, to frowning to concerned. When she came back over to them she smiled sadly. "I gotta go guys." She said. "You can stay until Monday like we planned but I've got to get to London."
"What's going on?"
"Nothing." Chloe said. "Edward fell down some stairs, he's in the hospital. Just a small accident but I want to go myself. Check on him."
"You want some company?" Victor asked.
"No I'll be fine." She said smiling. "I'll take the plane but I'll send it back for you guys." She kissed each one of them in turn and pulled out her phone to call for a cab. "Don't let this ruin you're fun ok."
"You sure you wanna go by yourself?" Oliver asked her.
"Sure." Chloe said climbing into the cab. Oliver watched her go and then sighed and pulled out his phone. "I've gotta go too." He told them.
"Man you guys don't know the meaning of vacation do you?" Bart asked. "Where you off too?"
"London." Oliver said.
"Chloe said she was fine." Victor frowned.
"Yeah." Oliver sighed. "Chloe doesn't know what I know." They all looked at him confused as he walked away to use the phone.