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 9-The Doctor Will See You Now
~Metropolis: A few buildings away from QI~
Chloe was running full speed across the skyline of Metropolis. She could feel the adrenaline in her veins as she powered through pain and leapt from rooftop to rooftop.
I really should have kept up with my morning runs the last weeks.
Bruce would most definitely give her shit about it later. She had been busy with work and research the last few weeks and had been recovering from a sprained ankle before that.
"That's what you get for wandering around the streets of Gotham in heels." Bruce had told her.
Chloe pointed out that 1) she was not wandering, she was gathering information about a new player in firearms and 2) If he truly thought she should stop wearing heels, he should stop buying her beautiful designer heels that cost more than her monthly rent.
Back to her issue at hand. She was about two blocks away from QI at this point and was really hoping that the Invaders had deemed her unimportant.
From the looks of it, they were sticking to the QI building but she continued for three more blocks before slowing down, just to be sure.
She paused, leaning against a billboard sign to catch her breath and assess the damage caused by the blast.
She was bleeding. Her left side was drenched and as the adrenaline started to wear off she was feeling it a bit.
MetGen was back passed QI Tower and even if she made it there, she didn't think she could sneak her way in without getting caught dripping blood all over the floor.
She took in her surroundings, mentally calculating the distance. She knew there had been a falling out a few years back, but Chloe thought that maybe her being back from the dead and all would lend itself to some sympathy and help from her former friend and superhero physician.
At this point, it was her only option.
~Metropolis: Emil Hamilton's Residence~
He was on his way out. Packing up his bag with extra medical supplies to offer his assistance at MetGen. When Aliens invaded the hospital tended to get a little over crowded, and despite leaving his post almost 5 years ago, Emil still volunteered for free clinic days, and when a crisis called for it.
He went back into his bedroom to grab his jacket when he noticed the open window.
Knowing he definitely did not leave that open, he slowly backed out of the room to investigate the rest of his apartment.
He heard clanging from the bathroom.
Retreating back into the hall to grab an umbrella he slowly approached the bathroom, he flicked on the lights umbrella raised to see a petite brunette sitting on his counter and bleeding through one of his very expensive hand towels.
She looked up, green eyes shocking him.
"Long time no see Doctor Hamilton."
Chloe tried to give him a small smile but it was more of a grimace than anything else. Her side was throbbing now, her head swimming slightly, and her jacket did not want to cooperate.
Emil stood stunned for what felt like 5 minutes but was probably closer to 30 seconds before responding, "Ms. Sullivan. Let me grab my bag."
After helping her out of her jacket, removing the shards of glass from her side and beginning to stitch her up, he finally broke the silence.
"You've been gone a long time Chloe."
"I know."
"Do they know you're back?"
"Yes." she winced slightly at the needle piercing skin.
He nodded, pausing his stitching to clear blood with a disinfectant cloth. "So, just takes an alien invasion to pull you back in?"
"End of the world has always been my specialty Doc." she joked half-heartedly before really looking at him.
"I'm sorry I wasn't here. I'm sorry about Tess."
"Don't…" he closed his eyes. Took a deep breath, and tied off the last stitch.
"You weren't here Chloe. It had nothing to do with you."
"She took my place. She took over Watchtower and I…"
"If she hadn't taken over Watchtower I never would have gotten to know her the way I did. Despite how short a time it was, I am grateful for the time I had with her."
Chloe nodded, she understood that. After Jimmy, she never once regretted her relationship with him. She regretted that it led to his death and she regretted the pain she put him through, but selfishly she couldn't regret having him in her life.
"I'm glad you got to know her, she was special. A pain in my ass most of the time, but she was something else."
Emil gave her a smile and a little chuckle at that. Cleaning up his equipment.
"She said something very similar about you."
Chloe smiled, "I figured she threw a party after my funeral."
"She respected you, what you did. For Oliver, the team. Watchtower impressed everyone." He said solemnly, returning his cleaned instruments to his bag. "How's it feel?"
"Like my side got ripped up and sewn back together. Thanks for the help Emil seriously, I appreciate it."
Emil nodded, looking slightly distracted before broaching a slightly uncomfortable subject.
"If you knew about Tess, you probably know that I don't work with Oliver anymore."
Chloe had some questions about that, but decided now was not the time. She just nodded.
"You being here, doesn't change anything that happened when you were gone."
She nodded again, "I understand."
A blast could be heard from outside. Startling both of them out of the moment.
Emil eyed her as she got up, easing her jacket back on.
"You're not going to be taking it easy any time soon, are you?"
"World needs saving Emil. No rest for the wicked and all that." she said with a shrug that turned to more a of a grimace.
Emil rolled his eyes. "Take this, it'll help dull the pain until you can actually get some rest."
Chloe nodded, accepting the pills as a gift. She'd suffered worse, but would take reprieve where she could get it.
"You take care of yourself Chloe."
"You too Doc."
~Metropolis: Outside QI~
"Took you long enough." was Cyborg's response to Batman and Superman saving his ass.
"Where's Chloe?" Superman asked before Batman got the chance.
Cyborg sighed. "There was an explosion, I think she got out but I'm not sure which direction she went in or if any of the Invaders followed." He hung his head.
Back for three hours and he'd let her get taken away again.
When he looked into Superman's eyes he figured he was thinking the same thing, but before either of them could voice their disappointment Batman chimed in.
"She can take care of herself. Right now we have a job to do. Cyborg, she found something right before she went off-line, we need to be able to access the file she sent."
Cyborg exchanged a look with Superman. Before returning his attention back to Batman, "I know where we can go."
The Watchtower had been empty for almost three years. After Tess passed away and Oliver realized he couldn't take being in Metropolis anymore, Cyborg put in proper protocols and shut the whole thing down. It was still in Oliver's name, he bought the building after Chloe's death and Cyborg still kept everything secure and if not completely up-to-date, he'd occasionally pop in to make sure things could run in an emergency.
Alien invasion, definitely counted as an emergency.
He bypassed the security quickly leading the way into the familiar setting. Stained glass window, Watchtower command center, everything down to the ugly throw pillows on the secondhand couch Chloe had brought from Smallville. They hadn't changed anything really at all. Hell, Chloe's bedroom upstairs had remained untouched completely.
Cyborg had never had the emotional reaction to Watchtower that Oliver and Bart had since Chloe's abduction, but now knowing that she had been out there the whole time, he found himself noticing the things that made this space hers. The little touches, the pops of color, the coffee maker that was idle for far too long, it probably did not work anymore.
He had very little time to ponder his new appreciation and emotions however, because Batman was already fiddling with the Watchtower system.
"Hold on a second, there's a secure encryption key you have to use before you can...[Welcome to Watchtower]" the electronic tones of the Watchtower system booting up interrupted Cyborg's warning.
"How did you?" He asked and Superman answered easily,
"He's Batman."
"Right." Cyborg said joining the other two in front of the monitors.
"So what do you got?" Superman asked as Batman quickly worked on the computer.
"We've got a satellite."
~Metropolis: Phone booth~
Chloe was always someone with a plan. She'd admit they weren't always the best plan, but she never didn't go in without at least 2 contingencies if not more. So as she left Emil's (a detour in plan A), she whipped out her handy dandy pager to go to plan B.
Checking the phone booth number, she sent the message to Alfred Pennyworth and then waited patiently. Three minutes and 32 seconds later the phone rang.
"Alien Invasion hotline, how may I direct your call?" Chloe answered
"Ms. Collins, how may I be of service?" Alfred asked in his proper British accent, not giving any acknowledgement of Chloe's greeting.
"Straight to business Alfred, this is why I like you. I was running a few scans on Batman's footage from S.T.A.R. Labs earlier, can you tell me what came up from those, what was found in the database, and also I connected you with the QI server so if you could pull up the satellite images that would be great to."
Chloe said quickly leaning her arm against the side of the booth. She was feeling light-headed, either from the drugs, blood loss, or adrenaline drop, she wasn't sure. She knew she needed to keep going though so she tapped her nails on the top of the phone box as she waited for Alfred.
"Just a moment Ms. Collins. I'm afraid I am not as adept as you are when it comes to this sort of thing."
"Alfred, you can operated the fancy espresso maker, you've got this." Chloe said and she could feel the butler's grin even though he did not respond.
She waited as Alfred sifted through the information she had requested. She learned a long time ago to not interrupt Alfred as he worked. He had a keen sense for details and knew how to spot patterns. She imagined that Bruce had picked up several of his more useful traits from the man, not that Alfred would ever admit to being more than an old butler.
Chloe rolled her eyes. The man was incredible and in the early days of her and Bruce's relationship, he was the only reason she stuck around. He somehow managed to make her feel comfortable, at ease, like in the presence of a grandfather, but he was sharp, quick witted and always knew more than he let on. He saw things other people didn't and more often than not, it was those observations that got him to talk Chloe into keeping up the work, even if Bruce Wayne was being a jackass at the time.
"It would seem that we have visitors on their way." Alfred informed Chloe.
"Great, just what we need." Chloe grumbled, "How many you seeing?"
"Well, it is unclear. There are either several small ships, or a single ship the size of the moon coming at us."
"Excellent." Chloe groaned, "Anything come up from the program sweep?" Chloe asked, referring to the bug she had Batman implant at S.T.A.R. Labs which legitimately felt like weeks ago, so much had happened since then.
"They're definitely getting intergalactic communications. It's all gibberish, but they're communicating with someone out there." Alfred said, "There was a spike in frequency right before the meteors arrived."
"Makes sense, they're communicating positions, plans etc. would be great if we knew what it was they were saying to each other. I want to know where the next wave is coming."
"Well, there was a recent spike in activity about five minutes ago, so whatever is happening it's happening now." Alfred said reviewing the frequency and looking for patterns.
Chloe was running through the information she knew. Trying to determine her next move when Alfred interrupted her thoughts, "Interesting. Ms. Collins I do believe that the signal is not going to the ships in orbit but is going out across the world. It's originating in Metropolis though."
It was then that Chloe heard screams. "Alfred, check the news feeds, what's happening at the other factory sites?"
Alfred pulled up the feeds and saw that there was withdrawal. Newscasters were talking about retreats.
"They seem to be leaving." Alfred said scrolling through the sources of information.
"They're not leaving, they're regrouping, and they're regrouping here."
~Metropolis: Watchtower~
Oliver had not stepped foot in Watchtower since the day he buried Tess Mercer. Another woman he loved, another woman killed for her role as Watchtower.
When he had gotten the transmission from Victor, letting him know where to meet Oliver felt his veins turn to ice. He knew it was irrational, he knew that there was more important things to deal with right now, he knew he was being unreasonable, but he also knew that A) Chloe had come back from the dead less than 12 hours earlier and B) she was now missing again.
Stepping foot back into the shrine that was all things Chloe, straight down to the damn couch he first made love to her, he felt like this was karma coming to bite him in the ass. He should have done more, he should have looked for her, he should have tracked down Checkmate and offered himself up, traded anything for her release.
Now he was back in this space, her space.
"This is your command center?" Lantern asked, underwhelmed to say the least.
Their space Oliver thought as Bart clarified that they didn't use the tower anymore.
"Anything from Chloe?" Bart asked hopefully of Victor.
"She sent a transmission with access to the Queen Satellite feeds. She managed to get them up and running before the Invaders got into the building." Victor explained.
"But nothing since she went dark?" Oliver asked feeling a tightness in his chest that he was sure would suffocate him.
"She knows what she's doing. We have bigger problems." Batman indicated the screens, which showed activity at the final factory in Metropolis, 15 blocks from where they stood.
The number of Walkers seemed to be multiplying, fighter jets filled the sky.
"We need to go." Superman said making towards the door.
"We need a plan." Argued Batman.
"They're not playing defense anymore. They're going to wipe the city out. So here's the plan, stop them." Superman said before exiting the building.
"Right because that always works out." Oliver said to the heroes remaining.
It was time to rally the troops, they weren't the team that Chloe wanted them to be, but they were all here to fight together, and Oliver felt a responsibility to take charge in some way.
He took a breath cleared his mind of everything but the mission, and went to work.
"Okay, we're going to need a parameter. The army has been clearing people out of the city, let's get them moving faster. We need to contain the situation, keep fire within the area already impacted."
As they planned their next move, Oliver could almost feel Chloe in the room. She'd be all in on this. She was always the one with the plan.
Chloe Sullivan, you better come back.
Author's Note: A couple things, 1) I don't know how pagers work. I know you send messages and you can then call people so that whole thing might be inaccurate, but you know alien invasion, lots of things aren't real. 2) I don't know how satellite images work so that's not real either, if anyone has this info, please send and I will update accordingly.
Additionally, I have just posted: Say My Name: The Chloe Collins Chronicles this will be a series of one-shots, in no particular order that fills in some of the blanks from the time Chloe was on the run. I thought it might be fun to explore the many different identities that Chloe has worn over the years and give some context to Batman's Watchtower File. If you guys have any requests on the stories you want to know more about let me know and I will post them there.
Thanks,
~Intrepid Reporter
