Story: A Hero by Any Other Name: The Chloe Collins Chronicles
Rating: T for language and adult themes.
Main Characters: Chloe Sullivan (Smallville), Bruce Wayne/Batman (JL Animated Series/Dark Knight Trilogy), Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Smallville), Clark Kent/Superman (Smallville/JL Animated Series)
Note: This story is AU of Smallville. Will try my best to stick to Smallville Canon until Season 10 Episode 1, Lazarus and will throw in references to the wider DCU. The story line follows Justice League the Animated Series: Secret Origins and is my alternate take on how the Justice League forms.
Chapter 8- The Real Sen. Carter, Please Stand Up
~Metropolis: Queen Tower~
As Victor worked to restore the satellite imaging, Chloe pulled up her research and started going through everything she knew about the Invaders again. She began running a program to search for patterns in the various cyber attacks on the satellites and thefts that she knew could be tied to the aliens.
While that ran she pulled up the news feeds and CCTV of the various meteor crashes and factory setups.
"We need to figure out what the factories are doing." Chloe said more to herself than to Victor.
"They're digging into the Earth's core. Probably mining organic material, right? You said that's what they live on."
"Yeah, but there's plenty of that above ground. Why immediately start digging before you take out what's on the surface?"
Victor shrugged, coming to stand next to her in front of the monitors.
"I don't know, but they clearly haven't gotten the memo on global warming, look at the smog they're releasing. They're going to block out the sun."
Chloe paused. Block out the sun…
She moved back to her research. Every attack, every theft took place at night.
Circumstantial, of course they took place at night. That's when most break-ins and robberies take place because there's no one there.
Chloe sighed. Her inner voice sounded awfully like Bruce's Batman grumble.
~Flashback: 2 Years, 5 Months, 1 Week, 2 Days
"How can you say I don't have proof?" Chloe asked outraged. After months of following Batman around, discovering his identity, saving his life and still not being allowed into the clubhouse, Chloe had finally convinced the Dark Knight to review her findings and his response was that it wasn't good enough.
"Everything here is circumstantial. Nothing here would hold up in court, nothing here is compelling enough to bring to the military and nothing here will stop these people from continuing the atrocities you claim they've committed." Batman said almost in a matter-of-fact tone. If it weren't for the ridiculous grizzle of his voice under the cowl that is.
It was hard to communicate indifference and condescension when you were talking around a bunch of marbles. Chloe thought annoyed.
"I claim? Excuse me…"
Batman stopped her before she could go into her tirade.
"Look at the facts. You're a reporter aren't you? At least you pretend to be. The facts are not painting the same picture you are. As far as the facts go, this is a covert government run agency dedicated to the protection of American citizens sanctioned by the president and congress and monitored by the military."
"If we're going to bring Checkmate down, we're going to need proof."
End Flashback~
I need proof.
"Victor, is there a way we can find out what exactly they're pumping into the air?"
He thought for a moment, analyzing the various screens in front of him.
"I mean, we have some tools to measure carbon emissions, carbon monoxide levels and hydrogen outputs. Anything else is outside of QI scope of caring to be honest." He said with a shrug.
"That'll be enough. Can we do that? What do you need."
"I'd have to get pretty close to get an accurate reading. Assuming the Walkers are still playing nice with what they deem to be non threats, I could get it done in about 30 minutes. "
"Do it. I'll keep working on the satellites."
As Cyborg headed out Chloe checked the status of the satellite repairs. Cyborg's program had identified the source of the hack and was looking to identify the exact code damages.
She made some modifications and started pulling the Queen programs off line and reconnecting them to a private server she used for Batman.
Note to self, make sure to cut this connection after we save the world. Bruce would kill her if Victor figured out the Wayne Enterprise connection.
She then went back to her monitor to compile the rest of the information she had. She was guessing that based on the timeline the Invaders had started sending scouts 3 years ago.
Going through the list of probable thefts and break-ins she stopped on the QI break-ins that launched Oliver and eventually Bruce's investigation.
She paused. What were the chances that she might catch something on the security tape? I mean, she was sure that Victor and Oliver had gone through everything with a fine tooth comb, but they knew more about what they were looking for now.
She hesitated a moment before she decided to pull up the footage.
"Why are you hacking into my camera's?" Victor popped up on her monitor before she even got the chance to search the date.
"Jesus Vic. You trying to give me a heart attack?" Chloe asked annoyed. "Where are my carbon emission levels?"
"Indignation only works if you're not caught red handed Sullivan. I get notified when someone hacks into security and it's way easier to track that person down when they're coming from inside a QI building."
"It's also way easier to hack from inside QI. You should work on that." Chloe quipped, diving into the video archives.
"What are you looking for?" Victor asked again.
"I'll know it when I see it."
Victor rolled his eyes. "Same old Chloe then. Paranoid, cagey, but always the smartest person in the room."
"I'm not always the smartest one in the room." Chloe wasn't about to argue the other two points. Really the only thing to say on that is she wasn't the same old Chloe, she was more cagey and paranoid now than she ever had been as Chloe Sullivan.
"You might not be the smartest in the room, but you always seem to know more than everyone else." Cyborg said, "Listen Chlo, as a friend I'm just warning you. Once all this is over you better be in a sharing mood because I can promise you Arrow and Boy Scout aren't going to take those cagey responses."
"Yeah, I know." Chloe grumbled. "For now though, I'd appreciate it if we focused on the alien invasion please."
"Sure, I should be close enough now. I'll keep you posted."
Chloe was already focused on the footage in front of her. Looks like there was an event at QI the morning of the first hack.
Senator Carter was giving a speech on space exploration ahead of a QI announcement on their partnership with NASA.
Funny how he keeps showing up everywhere.
Chloe thought.
Funny or suspicious. Again she heard the Batman growl in her head. She was definitely going to contribute some of her increased paranoia to Batman.
She proceeded to look up Senator Carter. Junior Senator from Kansas, former NASA astronaut. Had been on the first NASA exploration to Mars where he lost contact with command for almost 35 minutes and they thought that he was a goner.
Chloe paused for a moment.
"Hey Chloe, I've got your levels for you. We're looking at a massive amount of Chlorofluorocarbons being released. They're basically shooting volcanic ash into the atmosphere."
Chloe's mind was racing. One of the symptoms of fragments of Brainiac still being lodged in her brain was that sometimes she felt like part of her brain was moving too fast for the rest of her to catch up, and it usually gave her headaches but lead to revelations like the following:
Four years ago, Carter and the NASA Odyssey took a trip to Mars.
Carter lost contact with Command for 35 minutes, came back and decided he wanted to run for Senate.
Robert Kelly also happened to be on the team that reviewed the Martian samples from that trip and then two years later it was his ID card that was used to break into a NASA computer lab and hack the US satellite network.
Andrew Russell was killed in a lab fire, but then broke into the Global Deep Space Monitoring Network and kicked Batman's ass doing it.
Meanwhile, Carter enlists Superman to disarm the earth's Nuclear Defense Systems months before an alien invasion.
"Chloe, come in Chloe. Did you hear me?" Cyborg asked through the com.
She looked at the monitor to see Cyborg without truly registering his face.
"They're blocking out the sun." She said more to herself than to Victor.
"Cyborg, I think I've got it!"
She pulled out her earpiece and tapped into Batman's communication line.
"Batman, come in." Victor raised an eyebrow at her, but she wasn't paying him attention anymore.
"What." Batman's gruff voice filled her ear.
"I need you to run an experiment for me. I think the Invaders can't be exposed to sunlight. That's what the factories are for. That's why they waited 'til night fall to set up shop and it's why the Walkers are so focused on keeping the factories safe."
"That's why they didn't follow us out of the lab." Batman muttered, "Got it." and he cut off communication there.
She turned back to Victor, "We need to let the others know so they can…"
Alarms started going off around her effectively cutting off her train of thought.
Cyborg jumped into his car and pulled up the alerts he was receiving from the QI security mainframe.
"Chloe, you've got company. Looks like a military unit decided QI Tower was a good place to set up base."
Chloe pulled up the surveillance only to see Senator Carter among the group.
"It's not our military. Cyborg I've been compromised. It's the Invaders." Chloe quickly grabbed her laptop and shoved it back into her bag before plugging in a few key commands to scrub the machines around her. The last thing she needed was the aliens to realize how close they were to getting the satellites back.
"I'm going mobile Cyborg. Listen Carter is one of them."
"Wait, what?" Cyborg questioned, already speeding back towards QI, "Chloe, I'll be there in 10."
"Too late. Get in touch with the others. Tell them sunlight is the key." She cut that feed right after and sprinted out of the room bag in hand and clicked on her com to Batman again.
"Batman, QI was compromised. I'm about to be caught."
"Chloe…"
"Listen, I've rerouted QI Satellites to the server. You should be able to access them. Cyborg can finish the repairs. Senator Carter is part of it and I think more are coming."
Before Batman could say anything the connection was cut off.
~Sydney: Batman & Superman~
"Chloe!"
Superman looked down at Batman blasting two aliens out of the way and swooping down to grab Batman by the arm before he was hit by a blaster.
He dropped down behind a low wall inside the factory.
"What's going on?"
"QI's been compromised. Chloe's been taken and she said Carter is one of them." Batman said quickly with absolutely no regard for how Superman would react. He was too busy figuring out a plan.
"We need to break through the smog and expose them to sunlight. I'll set charges on the west side to create an opening. Can you cause a clearing in that cloud with your super whatever?"
"Carter is one of them. Chloe was taken."
Batman grabbed him by his shoulders. "Listen, focus. Chloe was taken and we have to get her back, but we need to take care of this first. Can you get sunlight in here?"
Superman's face hardened. "Yeah, I can. Let's go."
Superman flew up fast enough to burst a hole through the East side of the factory taking fire as he went. Batman quickly hurried West and from his utility belt set charges along the outer wall.
He was almost across the whole side when he was spotted.
"I don't have time for this." he let them know as he shot his grappling gun and swung through the throng knocking down 6 of the soldiers.
He dropped down and turned to see a brigade barreling towards him. He flipped the switch in his hand and the charges went off, blasting through the outer wall and sending a few of the Invaders flying into the air.
Rays of sunshine spilled into the factory dowsing the chamber and bathing Batman in a yellow glow.
Batman observed the white jelly like creatures pause and sizzle and then an ear splitting scream unlike anything Bruce had ever heard before ripped through the factory reverberating off the falls and all around him as the Invaders fell and melted before his eyes.
Superman burst through the opposite side of the factory bathing the other side in more sunlight and shot his laser vision straight through the roof before shooting up and taking the whole top clean off.
Batman sprinted to the edge and shot another grappling hook to a nearby tree to get the hell out of the way as the factory crumbled around him.
Two minutes later Superman dropped down next to him and they observed the ruins of the factory.
"What superpower removes clouds?" Batman questioned squinting up at the sky.
"Super breath" Superman shrugged.
Inwardly Bruce groaned, is this guy for real?
Outwardly Batman just nodded. "We have to get to Chloe."
~Cairo: Arrow & Diana~
"Arrow, come in." Cyborg was racing through the streets of Metropolis back to QI Tower. In the distance he could see the building, but he felt like it was still miles away.
"Cyborg, copy." Oliver's voice rang through the car radio. "The princess and I took out the factory. What's the status of the other teams?"
"QI is being raided. Chloe thinks Senator Carter is one of them."
"Wait, what?" Oliver asked, stopping in his tracks and putting his hand to his ear to make out what Cyborg was saying.
Diana touched down next to him. He gave her a head nod, and asked Cyborg again, "Where are you? Where's Chloe?"
"I'm driving towards QI, Chloe's inside. Superman and Batman are on their way back but I don't know if we're gonna get there in time. Listen-Sunlight is their weakness. The factories are shooting Chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere…"
Cyborg was still talking but Oliver had stopped listening as soon as he said Chloe was in trouble. He could not lose her again.
He started rushing to Diana's plane. "We have to get back to Metropolis. They've got Chloe."
His heart pounded in his ears. He could not handle this, not again. There was no way they would make it. He let out a breath trying to gather his thoughts and think rationale here, he was on the other side of the world for god sakes.
"Cyborg, get there as fast as you can. We're on our way." He grabbed his phone out of his utility belt, praying to any god who'd listen that Bart still carried his com when he suited up. Afterall, he'd answered Chloe's call to Metropolis. He must have something on him for her to get his attention.
He ran the scrambler and placed the call. It took less than 30 seconds to connect but to Oliver it felt like a lifetime.
"You've reached Flash. I'm saving the world right now, how may I direct your call?" He heard Bart whizzing around and gunfire could be heard around him.
"The Invaders have Chloe. We need to meet back in Metropolis ASAP." Oliver wasted no time getting to the point.
"Bossman we've got some problems of our own. We're dealing with a full on army over here."
Oliver paused for a moment. What had Cyborg said, "Sunlight! Their weakness is sunlight." He said quickly.
"It's 4 in the morning man. We're not getting sunlight for a couple hours. Ahhh"
There was a blast and static for a moment. Then nothing.
Oliver had to make a decision, it would be a couple hours before they could get to Metropolis even with Diana's superior jet. Batman and Superman were already on their way and Cyborg would be there in minutes. Meanwhile, Bart and Green Lantern were sitting ducks to an army.
What would Chloe do? It was the question he asked himself on a regular basis ever since her abduction. It was his guiding light to making rational decisions for the greater good, the same way Chloe always put others ahead of herself.
He knew what she'd say. A whole city is under attack, two teammates and your 45 minutes out from being able to help. He knew what he had to do and it gutted him.
He leaned over the seat to Diana. "Flash and Green Lantern need help."
~Metropolis: Queen Industries Tower~
Chloe darted into the hallway after cutting power to the servers. She figured that if she could make it to the emergency exit stairwell she'd be able to set off the charges in the workroom she planted and cause enough of a distraction to get out of the building.
But of course. She was waylaid about 30 seconds into this plan.
Why do I even bother? She thought as 4 soldiers blocked her path.
Guns up and pointing directly at her.
She put her hands up in surrender, slowly backing away from the guns. "Hey now, chill. Just trying to avoid the alien invasion."
They advanced slowly on her. Fanning out in an attempt to surround her.
"Don't ever let your enemies circle your back" Bruce told her in one of their first training sessions.
Chloe glanced to her left, fire alarm.
"When surrounded, your first goal is to confuse and disorient. Take advantage of knowing your surroundings and use their numbers against them."
Chloe eyed the stairwell in front of her, 50 paces and to her right the work room with charges.
She could pull the alarm, kick off the wall and probably get over the three soldiers between her and the door but she ran the risk of running into more on her way down, plus she didn't know how fast her enemy was.
She could set off the charges now, but they were too far away for them to be caught in the blast, she'd have to lure them into the room without killing her first.
Then she'd be backed into a corner however, never somewhere she wanted to be.
"Always be aware of the exits." Bruce had told her more than once. "You should always have an exit strategy."
She paused thinking about when she first entered the workroom.
One door, with a stairwell to the left 10 yards away, to the right around the corner was the bank of elevators. Three windows on the east wall. It was a corner office.
What was on the other wall? Chloe had to strain her brain to remember what was behind the workbench with Cyborg's equipment. Was it a window…
Balcony. That's right, there was a small balcony, probably for smoke breaks back in the day. And there was a shorter building next door she could drop down to which lead to a series of restaurants and shops of fairly equal height…
Her thoughts were interrupted as more people came down the hall from the elevators.
Senator Carter appeared behind a brigade of soldiers.
"Senator, pleasure to see you making the most of your position." she said taking a side step towards the work room so she could get a better angle of the enemy.
"We're under attack at the moment ma'am. We must take precautions. We will be commandeering this facility and it's satellite access, for the greater good." Carter said.
Chloe noticed not one of the soldiers spoke.
"The satellites are down. You can see for yourself." She motioned towards the door.
Soldiers looked at Carter who gave them a nod to follow Chloe into the work quarters. She moved to the side to allow them access while keeping a clear path between herself and the balcony door. A door she'd have to get through quickly.
One of the soldiers moved to the bank of computers, swiftly typing in codes to get them back online.
He then walked back to Carter whispering in his ear before they both looked at Chloe.
"Get the computers back online." He told her.
Chloe shook her head, "I can't do that."
"You can and you will, now."
Chloe looked towards the soldier to his left, reviewing his sleeves she noticed he was a general rank.
"You know, growing up with a general uncle. I gotta say this is the most silent brigade of warriors I've ever seen." The general gave her no notice whatsoever.
So they're all aliens.
Carter looked like he was going to say something heated, but then thought better of it.
Plastering the fake smile she'd seen him use at press conferences on his face, he spoke in a calm voice, "This is a stressful time for everyone. But we need you to get the computers online. Like I said before, we're under attack."
"Yeah, I noticed." Chloe deadpanned. If she could get around the work bench she could use that as a shield from the blast.
"Listen, I don't know who you are…" Carter began but Chloe cut him off.
"I get that a lot. But I also don't know who you are. What I do know is you're not Senator Carter."
That caused a genuine smile "Well done, bug. I'd be impressed, but like I said I don't even know who you are and in a few moments. It won't matter anyway."
Before her eyes he shifted into the white blob creatures she'd seen from Batman's camera lens from S.T.A.R. Labs.
The soldiers around shifted seconds later.
The blob that had been Carter shouted something in a language Chloe did not recognize but she took that as her cue to vault behind the table as she set off the blast.
~Metropolis: street level~
"Chloe!" Cyborg shouted from the street as he saw the blast from the work room.
He ran headlong into the building where he was immediately confronted by gunfire.
The military personnel he saw on the security feed shifted into Invaders, raining fire down on him as he dove for cover.
"Damn it!"
He tried to pull up the QI security footage but all the camera's were down. More shouting and an explosion from above could be heard from the distance.
If Chloe had still been in the building, Cyborg did not think there was anyway that she got out.
He needed to make a decision, did he cut his losses and retreat, wait for the others to regroup or did he charge right in.
"It's pretty hard to be a hero if you get yourself killed in the process." Chloe had said on more than one occasion back in the day. However, Chloe probably did just get herself killed or captured, and frankly, Cyborg would rather be eaten by aliens than go hide and wait for Oliver to find him.
"I swear to god Chloe, if you died I'm going to bring you back and kill you myself." Cyborg said as he typed in a couple codes and prepared for battle.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!
