Chloe is having a shower the next morning before she goes into work. Clark was still asleep when she woke up so she let him sleep. She had certainly wore him out last night. Not that she is complaining because it was still great even if Clark doesn't have his powers. She even managed not to hurt him…too badly. She did accidentally wretch his neck during a certain climatic reaction but it wasn't too bad and it did give her an excuse to give him a massage.
She finishes her shower and heads back to the bedroom and finds Clark floating about a foot above the bed. She can't help the smile that forms. This means that Clark's abilities must be returning. She moves closer to him and looks him over. There isn't a single visible bruise left. It is utterly amazing considering how beat up he was a couple of days ago. "Clark," she says softly.
Clark stirs and mumbles.
"Clark. Wake up," she says loudly.
Clark does so and promptly falls down onto the bed with a bump. He props himself up on his elbows. "Was I floating?"
"Yep. How are you feeling?"
Clark tries to assess it. "Well my left shoulder still twinges," he complains.
Chloe sits on the bed behind him and starts massaging his shoulder. "How's that?"
Clark luxuriates in her touch. "Wonderful," he says which causes Chloe to smile.
"Any other aches?" she asks him.
"Actually no but I still don't feel…normal."
"Could you explain that?" she asks him.
"I may have been floating there Chlo but I don't think I could make myself do it again."
Chloe stops and backs away. "Try," she tells him.
Clark takes a breath and tries to float himself off the bed. He shakes his head. "No. I don't feel it Chlo." He looks around and sees the bit of the headboard Chloe broke last night. "Pass me that up?" he asks her while pointing at it.
Chloe does so. "I'm sorry about that by the way," she apologies.
Clark smiles. "It's fine Chloe. It's only a headboard," he tells her. Clark holds the metal piece in his hands and tries to bend it without any luck. "I can't. They haven't returned."
Chloe frowns in confusion. "But you were definitely floating Clark. It must mean they will return."
"I'm hopeful. The sooner they do, the sooner Clark Kent can return to his life and meet his new colleague Karen Starr."
Chloe smiles at his words. "Or I find Lex first and put his ass back in jail."
"That would work too."
Clark looks at her wearing absolutely nothing. "How long before you leave?"
Chloe can see Clark checking her out. "Unfortunately too soon unless you want Lois to walk in that door and catch us." Clark looks at Chloe in confusion. "She is on her way here," she informs him having heard her car approaching.
Clark shakes his head. "I miss superhearing," he laments sadly.
Chloe kisses him on the cheek. "Aw poor baby." She then gets up and opens the secret compartment behind the wardrobe.
"You moved your suits in there already?" Clark asks at the sight of Chloe's suits hanging there.
Chloe grabs one of her Power Girl outfits. "Yep but don't worry yours are still there too Clark. I hadn't thrown anything of yours out yet." Her face etches in pain. "I couldn't."
Clark stands up and wraps his arms around her from behind. "I understand."
Chloe gently pats his arm. "Now you better let me get changed unless you want to tell Lois you're alive."
"I want to Chloe. It isn't wise to right now."
"Yeah. You're right. Too many people still think of her as Superman's girlfriend. I read that somewhere."
"Exactly. They would use her to lure me out. As much as I hate this, and I really do hate this, I have to stay hidden."
Chloe superspeed changes into her Power Girl outfit.
"By the way where do you keep the gloves?" Clark asks.
"In my bag. The one that never leaves my side and god have mercy on any thief or mugger that tries to take it from me."
Well that answers that Clark supposes as Chloe superspeeds into her work clothes. She fixes her hair and slides her glasses into place. "So how do I look?" she asks him.
"Incredibly sexy actually," Clark has to admit.
"You're biased," she tells him because her look makes her look dull and ordinary in her opinion. Of course that is the point. It is a secret identity after all.
Clark smirks. "Maybe a little bit."
Chloe gives him a quick kiss. "What are you doing today?" she asks him.
"Mom is coming to pick me up and take me back to Smallville. I just wanted to surprise you last night." Clark rubs his hands up and down Chloe's arms. "I wanted to do something for you because you had suffered so much with my death. I know how hard it is to cope with losing the person you love," Clark tells her from his own personal experience of losing her.
Chloe is deeply touched by his gesture. "You really are one of a kind Clark Kent."
"Was that a compliment?"
Chloe kisses him deeply. "What do you think?"
Clark looks at her amorously. "I think you better go before I ruin another one of your shirts."
Chloe's gaze turns to outside. "I really better. That's Lois. I'll see you later."
Clark nods and watches her leave. Last night had been wonderful and with him floating he is hopeful his powers are starting to return. On the other hand he is frustrated as hell that Lex is free, maybe, and that his current condition forces him to pretend he is dead. Clark hopes this won't last too much longer because the sooner his powers return the sooner he can help in tracking Lex down. Well with Chloe gone he better go have his own shower and get changed before his mother arrives to pick him up.
Lois can't help but notice that Chloe is practically glowing as she enters the car. She tries to work out what has happened and comes to one conclusion. "I am going to kill Bruce."
"What?" Chloe asks at Lois' ramblings.
"Don't sit there and pretend you didn't sleep with Bruce."
"Lois I didn't sleep with Bruce and I don't know where you got such a ridiculous idea from."
"Chloe you have the 'I just had great sex' look about you," Lois tries to explains to her cousin.
"And you assume I did it with Bruce?"
Lois shrugs. "Logical choice. He was sniffing around you."
"How the hell did you reach that conclusion?" Chloe asks having gotten totally lost at Lois' logic.
"He showed up in your bedroom to find out if I was on to you? Puh-lease," Lois scoffs. "He could have phoned or used your League communicator to do that."
"Clark said he had a thing for…Catwoman is it?"
"Selina Kyle? Probably but Bruce has a roving eye. Why do you think I dumped his ass?"
"I don't know Lois and frankly I don't care and I can promise you I have not slept with Bruce."
Lois looks at Chloe. "You swear?"
Chloe rolls her eyes. "Yes Lois!" Chloe says totally infuriated. "I swear."
"Ok then," Lois says deciding to believe Chloe. "So who have you been sleeping with?"
"No-one Lois," Chloe replies since Clark's return is a secret for now. "You're imaging things. Now can we get to work please. I had a revelation about Lex while doing some research last night."
"What revelation?" Lois asks.
"That it is time you phone the General."
That same morning Lex is rudely woken up by one of his guards. They had forced him to work late into the night and now they were waking him up early. He knew for certain something here was wrong. He didn't know what…yet but Lex had always been an observant person. He had had to be to survive growing up with his father because he could never tell when Lionel was going stab him in the back.
Lex had noticed some things already from his first day here. Firstly the Ultra-Humanite was held someplace else when they weren't working together. Lex's best guess as to why was that his captures thought it would be unwise to keep them together. Clever or so it seems but they let Tess stay with him and Tess was much more useful than to him that even someone of the Ultra-Humanite's intellect. For one thing he could trust Tess.
Lex had spent yesterday working on the cell needed to hold Power Girl, to hold Chloe. Even with all his genius he hadn't yet worked out how she was alive or how she had managed to gain Kryptonian abilities but he knew the answer would no doubt prove very useful to him one day but he had other priorities right now.
He and Tess are escorted to their workspace to renew their work. Lex can see that they are being held in only a small part of a much bigger facility. He knows these kind of places well and there are signs he can pick up on. He wonders what is going on in the rest of this facility. He may find out later but for now he should go back to making his captors believe he is doing the work they ask of him. A few hours later General Lane comes and checks up on them and during that moment a Private whispers something in the General's ear which lip reading looked like he said 'Lois Lane was on the phone'. Lex smiles. God bless Lois' innate ability to sniff out a story. She might end up providing him the means to get out of here.
Lois slams the phone down after talking to her father. "Well that was a waste of time."
Chloe is hanging about up in the bullpen with her cousin. "I heard," Chloe says having listened in on the whole thing.
Lois sighs. "I guess we better go visit him."
"I guess so."
"I can't believe he helped Lex Luthor escape prison."
"He never said that."
"He didn't have to. It was the lack of anything he said." The entire conversation involved her father fobbing off and avoiding answering her on grounds of national security. It was so obvious that he knew what was going on and more than that that he was involved.
"Do you know where he is?" Chloe asks because they had simply been transferred through to him without being told where he is exactly.
"No but I can find out. I'm sure my sources can get that information for me."
"Lois what actually happened between the two of you?" Chloe asks. Lois had never gotten on with her father but it seemed downright close to hatred she had for him now.
"He is an idiot. A bigoted, small-minded idiot."
"Does this involve Superman?"
Lois lowers her voice. "What did Clark tell you?"
"That the military don't trust him and that the General is one of the leading figures in that belief."
"Yeah that sums it up. We had this huge row where he sat there telling me how dangerous Superman was and that I should stay away from him and I yelled back at him that he didn't know a damn thing about Superman and that he should shove his prejudice up his ass. That is what it comes down to you know. It is the fact Superman is not human. Well anyway bottom line is that we haven't really talked since that row."
That leaves Chloe wondering if Uncle Sam would now view her in that same way which is not a very encouraging thought she has to say.
"Starr. What are you doing here?" Perry asks as he passes by.
"She is helping me," Lois tells Perry by way of explanation and she is glaring at Perry daring him to argue with her.
Seeing the look in Lois' eye Perry decides today is not the day to argue with Lois and decides just to go along with it. Whatever the reason Perry is pretty certain he'll get something great from it to put in the paper.
"What are you doing here Lois?" General Lane asks his daughter as she stands in his office. "And who is this?" he asks in reference to the woman in the glasses that is with her.
"This is my new partner Karen Starr and we are here to find Lex Luthor," Lois tells her father. It hadn't been too hard to find where her father was stationed and well it wasn't even that much of a surprise that he was stationed at the base outside Metropolis. It kinda figured really.
General Lane looks sternly at Lois. "I have no knowledge of Lex Luthor's whereabouts."
Lois places her hands on his desk. "Lets cut the crap dad. It was the military that broke him out. Now either you did it or you know who did and I want to know why you released that psycho."
General Lane stands up from his chair. "What you ask is covered by national security. I can't discus it."
Lois straightens up and shakes her head. "It's always the same old excuses isn't it dad. It's always national security or it's in the national interest. How many of my birthdays did you miss using that?"
General Lane signals for the guards outside his door to come in. "Private," he says addressing one of them. "Escort these two off the base."
Lois glares at her father. "If this is how you treat your daughter I hate to see how you treat your enemies."
"I obey orders. I don't make decisions."
A look of puzzlement flashes across Lois' face for a second before she restores her poker face. "Don't bother. We'll see ourselves out," Lois says as she marches out with Chloe following. The guards do escort them until they are outside the base. They get into Lois' car.
"Something's wrong," Lois says.
"Yeah I picked up that vibe too," Chloe tells her cousin.
"Did you see or hear anything?" Lois asks.
Chloe shakes her head. "There was lead everywhere and I didn't hear anything which just proves my something is wrong vibe."
"What do you mean?" Lois asks.
"What I mean is that it was too quiet. There were no conversations, no joking, no banter, nothing like you expect on a military base. It's like everyone has been replaced with pod people."
"I wouldn't rule that out considering everything that I have seen these last few years," Lois tells Chloe.
"So let me guess. We come back after dark and sneak onto the base."
Lois smiles widely and starts her car up. "You see Chloe. This is why I need you as my partner. Great minds think alike."
"Who was that?" Lois asks as Chloe finishes a phone call. It is night time and they are about to sneak onto the base. They are dressed all in black to better hide themselves.
"Mrs Kent," Chloe answers. Well it was Mrs Kent's house but she was speaking to Clark telling him what she and Lois were about to do. He had concerns but he said he trusted her to do the right thing. Mutual trust and respect. That is why she and Clark are going to have a long and happy relationship.
They are at the perimeter fence. "So how are we doing this?" Lois asks.
Chloe shakes her head and promptly picks Lois up. "This way," she tells her cousin as she floats upward and over the fence.
"Ok. That was interesting," Lois comments as Chloe lowers her back on her feet.
"Clark must have done that a hundred times," Chloe assumes.
"Yeah but it was…different. I don't know how to explain it."
Chloe isn't sure she wants Lois to explain it. "So start in the General's office?"
Lois nods and they sneak their way to his office. They stop outside his window when they see he is still there. He is speaking to someone.
"Luthor wants to see you," the other person informs the General.
Dammit! Lois just knew it. She knew Lex was here. On the other hand this is perfect. They can follow her father and find out what is going on which is exactly what they do. They follow him to a large warehouse as he disappears inside.
"Well?" Lois asks at a whisper.
Chloe shakes her head. "Lead. Just like everywhere else and I can't hear anything either. I'm guessing some sort of sound proofing. The phrase 'Paranoid much?' comes to mind."
"Then we'll just have to get inside and look," Lois decides. She sees the door is guarded by a couple of soldiers. "Now how do we get past them?"
Chloe is looking around. The warehouse is near the fence on the opposite side to where they sneaked in. Then she spots something. "How about a fire?"
Lois looks at Chloe and then to wear she is looking. In the light coming off the security lights of the warehouse is a dried up bush. "That should do it. Go ahead."
Chloe stares at it and lets off her heat vision setting the bush alight and just as they hoped the guards rushed off. Chloe picks Lois up and at superspeed they are through the door and inside to find a completely empty warehouse.
"Where did my father go?" Lois asks.
"And what were those guards guarding?" Chloe asks.
They wander into the centre of the building and look around. "This is insane," Lois says.
Chloe meanwhile is looking down at the floor. "They lined the floor with lead."
"What?"
"They lined the floor with lead," Chloe repeats. She bends down and examines the floor carefully. "There is a seam for a door right here," she tells Lois as Chloe trails her finger along it.
"It's underground. All this up top is for show," Lois realises.
Chloe nods. "Stand back will ya?"
Lois backs away as Chloe digs her fingers in and lifts the door up and underneath is a deep shaft. Lois looks down it and is unable see the bottom due to its depth. "Whoa. They don't do things by half do they."
Chloe looks down the shaft with a very uneasy feeling. Something big is going on around here. Carrying Lois she floats down until they land on the top of an elevator car. Chloe looks down with her x-ray vision. "It's empty," she tells Lois.
"Can you see anything else?" Lois asks.
Chloe looks around and frowns. "No." She places her hand on the wall of the shaft and looks at it closely. "I think this used to be a lead mine."
Lois had to hand it to them. They know how to hide themselves away. She opens the roof hatch of the elevator car and drops down with Chloe following on behind. They open the door to be confronted by several guards pointing weapons at them. Both Chloe and Lois raise their hands above their heads. Oh this is going well.
Chloe could of course disable all of the guards at the price of her secret identity and if it looks like Lois is in real danger she will happily do that but for now she'll play along.
They get marched along a non-descript tunnel which Chloe mentally notes branches off several times along the way. How big is this place?
They reach a door which a guard opens and the second he does Chloe's skin burns and she feels nauseous. She suddenly leans on Lois. "Karen. What is it?" Lois asks at a whisper.
"Kryptonite," Chloe whispers back.
Lois' eyes widen in deep concern for her cousin. "Lean on me and make it look like we're comforting each other."
Chloe nods as the guards march them in. Lois looks around the chamber, more than a room, and can see the sickly green glow of lots of kryptonite including a kryptonite cage. Oh god. They are planning to stick Chloe in there and study her. That can be the only reason they would build a cage. Ok Lane get a grip. They obviously haven't realised who Chloe is yet. If they did Chloe would already be in the cage. If they play this right hopefully they'll just get stuck in a cell somewhere. Hopefully away from all this kryptonite. In the centre of the chamber is General Lane. "Hello daddy."
"Lois. You should not be here," he tells her.
Lois shrugs while still holding onto Chloe who is trying very hard not to show how sick she is feeling. "I'm a reporter. I go where the story is."
General Lane nods. "Very well." He reaches for a radio on his belt and brings it to his lips. "Bring them in."
A few minutes pass until Lex, Tess and the Ultra-Humanite are marched in and lined up next to Lois and Chloe.
"Hello Lois! Funny meeting you here," Lex says cheerfully.
Lois virtually growls at him and if she wasn't holding Chloe up she would punch his lights out.
Lex then notices the person leaning on Lois looks sick and the green glow of the kryptonite in the room. He knows who that is. She is the key to getting out of here as long as no-one else notices.
Lois turns her attention back to her father. "So you did break him out."
"Like I said. I obey orders. I don't make decisions."
"Then who does?" Lois demands to know.
"I am not at liberty to disclose that information."
Lois is getting increasingly annoyed. "Ok. Let me try this question. Who are you and where is my father?"
"He is your father Lois," Lex tells her.
"No he isn't," Lois argues. She may not have spoken to her father recently but she knows him and this is not him.
"Yes he is. His mind is under some kind of outside influence along with everyone else around here but he is General Samuel Lane." It may have taken Lex a little while but he finally worked out what was off. Everyone here is being controlled somehow. The only thing Lex hadn't worked out yet was who was behind it.
"Enough!" General Lane barks. "Always the clever one aren't you Luthor?"
Lex stands there looking incredibly smug.
"Now you know you'll have to be gotten rid of," General Lane states. "Guards! Take aim!"
Lex remains unflustered as the guards point their weapons at the group. "You don't want to do that General."
"You would have helped speed things up but we will manage to capture Power Girl without you."
Lex smiles. "Ah but you don't have to capture her General because you already have her." Lex then grabs the glasses off Chloe's face. "She is standing right here. Why do you think the kryptonite is glowing?"
General Lane walks up and raises Chloe's head up to get a better look at her. "It is you. Our Lord will be pleased."
"Our Lord?" Chloe asks through a pained voice. God this really, really hurts. There is so much kryptonite in the room and the lead in the walls is focussing it inward.
General Lane pulls a device that looks like a small box from his pocket and pushes a button on it. Suddenly there is a sound like thunder and a vortex forms. General Lane drops to one knee as a huge figure with grey skin and glowing eyes steps from the vortex.
"You summoned me General?" the figure inquires.
"Yes my Lord." He gestures at Chloe. "We have the Kryptonian female."
The figure walks forward and cups Chloe's chin with his hand and studies her. "Excellent General," he says.
Chloe coughs. "Who are you?" she asks not noticing the look on everyone else's face. The look of fear at who's presence they are in.
"The kryptonite is obviously affecting your memory or maybe Kal-El neglected to inform you before his untimely death. In either case my name is one you will need to know. I am your new master. I am Darkseid."