Lois had been a hardened skeptic for many years.

Then she moved to Smallville.

Now she created theories as wild as the ones Chloe always had before she'd found out Clark's secret.

She was also leaning heavily towards journalism which made everyone kind of nervous since a lot of her stories tended to involve things that Clark would prefer to keep on the down-low.

But this was a new one. Apparently, at a fundraiser for Smallville's newest senator, Martha Kent, a hooded figure in green knocked out the lights, stole Martha's necklace given to her by Lionel Luthor, and left without a trace.

Chloe was working late at the Daily Planet, and naturally, Emmeline was helping her out where she could since she hadn't had to work at the clinic and she was ahead on most of her schoolwork.

Lois briskly walked through the door. "Hey."

Chloe scoffed as she smiled. "Let me guess. You need help researching your next article."

"Yeah, the Inquisitor's search engine consists of a highlighter and the yellow pages."

"Does Mrs. Kent know that you're still moonlighting on her?"

"Are you kidding me? I've got this double-identity thing down. And besides, I told her all about it this morning."

"All right. So what's the story worth bringing out the alter-Lois?" Chloe asked as she took a seat at her desk.

"Actually, you know, now that we're both in the same biz, I probably shouldn't be leaking my story."

Chloe frowned a little in surprise. "I can't believe you don't trust me."

"It's not all of you I don't trust. It's just one little side of you."

"Lois, I'm not gonna scoop your story. But watching you bumble through our database is like watching Clark try and dance."

"Okay, cut him some slack," Emmeline put in with a smile. "You weren't complaining about his dancing skills at our senior prom."

"That was slow dancing which doesn't count. Anyone, even Clark Kent, can slow dance." She looked back up at Lois. "Come on. Lois, tell me what you got."

"Okay," Lois relented. "I scooped this off the scumbag before he ran away." She reached into her jean pocket and pulled out a man's ring. "There's some writing on the inside, but it's too faded to make out."

Chloe took the ring from her and pulled out her camera to take a picture of the inside of it. "Yeah, this could take a little while."

Suddenly, an arrow whizzed into the room and began emitting green gas. Chloe and Lois's eyes fluttered shut as they passed out in their chairs, and Emmeline collapsed onto the ground.

The strange gas had only knocked Lois and Chloe out, but Emmeline's throat swelled and she couldn't breathe. She felt like her lungs were being crushed, and she began gasping and trying to draw in a full breath. It didn't work. Her lungs weren't getting the frantic message her brain was sending them.

The mysterious green-hooded figure suddenly appeared and stole the ring off Chloe's desk that she had dropped when she fell unconscious, and with it, anything that could be used to find him.

At the sound of heavy wheezing, he looked beside the desk and saw Emmeline on the floor frantically trying to breathe.

The man rolled his eyes behind his dark glasses. Sometimes, once in a blue moon, someone had a bizarre allergic reaction to the gas he used in the arrow. It wasn't necessarily a harmful effect, just an incredibly unpleasant one. She wouldn't die and she would still be knocked out pretty soon, but she also wouldn't be able to breathe very well until the gas left her system in a couple hours.

After the first time this had happened, he had started carrying a syringe with him that would stop the reaction in its tracks.

Emmeline put her hand to her chest as she continued wheezing. She was going to die. If not from the hooded man, then from his poisonous arrow. Tears of fear and pain formed in the corners of her eyes.

The hooded man uncapped a syringe and headed towards her.

Emmeline's eyes widened in horror as she whimpered in between wheezes. She wanted to move away and escape from him, but she couldn't do anything as long as she couldn't get air into her lungs.

The man knelt over her and plunged the syringe into her leg.

She didn't really know what she expected to happen. Maybe she would feel even more pain or maybe she would wake up in the afterlife in a few seconds.

But neither of that happened.

Instead, she inhaled sharply and let out ragged coughs as her stolen breath returned to her. Now that she could breathe again, her vision began to darken as the gas did what it originally intended to do.

Just before she completely passed out, she could've sworn she saw the smallest trace of a smile on the man's face and felt his hand gently pat her leg.

Clark found out from Lionel about several other missing pieces of jewelry, and later went to stop the newly dubbed 'Green Arrow Bandit' from stealing another piece. However, thanks to some advanced technology, he hadn't been able to prevent the theft nor had he managed to get any answers about him.

"So how'd you let this guy slip through your fingers?" Chloe asked as they all walked down the stairs.

"This Green Arrow Bandit's got a lot of gadgets," Clark answered.

"Gadgets? Against the man of steel?"

"What kind of gadgets are we talking about?" Emmeline asked.

"An electric arrow that works like a taser. Didn't do much on me, but I can't say the same for the security guard."

"So a poisonous gas arrow and an electric arrow? How many other special arrows does the man have? Why can't he just use normal ones?"

"That gas wasn't poisonous," Chloe put in. "We only got knocked out, I don't know why you had such a weird reaction to it. Maybe you're just allergic to whatever was in it. And even if he did steal our evidence, the guy did save you."

"Yeah, after he poisoned me in the first place. That's like something kidnappers do to initiate Stockholm Syndrome."

"At least you're not bitter."

"You weren't awake. You have no idea how scary it is to lay on the floor wheezing while a guy in a hood approaches you with a needle. I thought he was going to kill me."

"But he didn't."

"Oh, well, then that just makes it all okay."

"I don't think he meant for that to happen."

"Are you seriously defending him?"

"You're usually the one who plays devil's advocate."

"Whatever."

"Hey, guys, still here," Clark said, finally able to get a word in. "You know, the one who actually fought him."

Chloe smirked. "Fine, backing off. 'The Green Arrow Bandit'? Is that really the name Lois came up with? If you ask me, I'd lose the 'Bandit', but not my story."

"You know, with your competitive streak, I'm surprised you forfeited this one to Lois."

"Ha! Competition? Lois? I'm chalking this one up to pro bono."

"Yeah, right."

"Okay, so idle hands aren't really my thing. I got the Safetex report on the arrows." She handed him some of her papers. "They're made from an advanced titanium alloy that is untraceable."

"What about the ring?"

"None of the shots I scanned on my computer came out to have a clean image. However, I may have forgotten to mention to Lois that my computer is compiling them to render a new one."

Clark smiled at his blonde friend. Nearly every single day, she managed to remind him just how lucky he was to have her in his life. He would never have been able to save as many people as he had if she wasn't there every step of the way getting him all of the information he needed.

As the three of them waited for the image to render, Chloe's phone rang. She smiled when she saw who it was. "Lois, hey," she answered into the phone.

"Chloe!" Lois screamed on the other end.

"Lois?"

"Help! Please!"

Chloe's brow furrowed. "Clark, she's in trouble."

In less than a second, Clark had disappeared.

"What happened?" Emmeline asked.

"Lois got in too deep, that's what happened. I mean, I'm not one to talk, I realize that. It's just…what if she's gone too far this time?"

"Even if she has, Clark will find her."

The computer beeped as the image finally finished rendering. She quickly sent a text message to Clark's phone that said 'Call me!'

After a few seconds, Chloe's phone rang.

"Chloe, it's too late," Clark said on the other end. "There's no sign of her."

"Well, I might have something that will help. The image from the ring finally rendered, and I'm sending it to you right now. It's a family crest. The only problem is ye old crest-makers weren't very creative. I mean, there's thousands of them, and they're all practically identical. It's gonna take me a little while to track this one down."

"I've seen this before."

"Clark? Hello? Hello?" She sighed as she hung up the phone. "Well, thanks for sharing."

The 'Green Arrow' (the 'Bandit' part had since been dropped) saved Lois from the thugs who kidnapped her, though Lois hadn't exactly been grateful considering his antics were the reason she was kidnapped in the first place.

The next day, the Daily Planet was hopping with the latest news, and everyone was trying to pump out their articles about it as fast as they could.

"Chloe, what's all the buzz?" Clark asked as he walked into the workroom.

"Seven stolen artifacts were anonymously returned to the Met, the Tate, and the Louvre. Looks like you've got some friendly competition in the 'knight-in-shining-armor' arena."

"The guy does a couple good things, and he goes from villain to hero overnight?"

"Not in my eyes," Emmeline said. "I'm still a little shaken from the whole 'nearly-dying-by-suffocation' incident."

"We've been over this," Chloe sighed. "That wasn't intentional. And come on, every time he strikes some corrupt tycoon, an anonymous donation to some charity mysteriously appears the next day."

"You don't care how many laws are broken to get it there?" Clark asked.

"Well, I guess that's just the price of justice. I mean, if you ask me, he's a modern-day Robin Hood. That still doesn't mean I'm not dying to find out who he is though. Oh, hey, I never heard back from you after I sent you the picture of that crest."

"Yeah, where did you see it before?" Emmeline asked.

"Oh, uh, I kind of ran into a dead end," Clark said unconvincingly.

Chloe tried to open the pictures she had of the ring, but only an error message came up. "That's funny. So did I. All my files on the ring are gone. Including the backup files. Clark?"

"Just don't look into him, Chloe."

Chloe smiled broadly. "You know who he is, don't you?"

"As a favor to me, please don't."

"And he knows who you are. Well, I guess there's some sort of secret code of honor among superheroes."

"Clark, you up here?" Emmeline called as she walked up the stairs to the loft.

When she got to the top, she froze when she realized that none other than Oliver Queen was standing right across from Clark. And to her embarrassment, it looked like they were kind of in a heated conversation.

"Uh…am I interrupting something?"

"No, Oliver was just leaving," Clark said sharply, not taking his eyes off the other man.

Oliver turned around and gave her a charming smile. "Hi, Oliver Queen," he said as he extended his hand.

Emmeline nervously shook it and for one horrible second, she couldn't remember her name. "Um…Emmeline Brooks."

"Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you as well."

"Then why do you look so petrified?"

"I…I get nervous sometimes meeting new people. It's not personal, trust me."

She left out that she got even more nervous meeting people who were drop-dead gorgeous. Oliver Queen might've been the most attractive person she'd ever met in her life. She didn't think it was possible or fair for someone to look this beautiful.

"Right. Well, I'm harmless, I swear. I gotta get going, but it was good to meet you."

"Yeah."

Oliver took off down the stairs and out of the barn.

Emmeline looked over at Clark. "Wow."

Clark rolled his eyes. "Believe me, you don't want to get mixed up with him."

"Jeez, what did he do to tick you off? Is it because he's dating Lois?"

"Yeah, right. She can date whoever she wants, that's not my problem. I don't trust him yet, that's all."

"Has he given you any reason not to?"

"It's complicated."

"Okay, well, thanks for clearing that up."

"Seems like we're the only ones who aren't rooting for this Green Arrow guy."

"Oh, fear not, Lois is still an avid hater."

"Perfect, just who I want on my side."

Emmeline laughed. "So you really know who he is?"

"Em—"

"No, I'm not expecting you to tell me. I trust you. I always have. If you can't or don't want to tell me, I respect your decision especially because this time, it's not your secret to tell. I'm sure I'll find out when the time is right."

"It might be better if you just stay out of it altogether. I don't want what happened to Lois to happen to you."

"It won't. I don't slander people and attach my name to the slandering."

"Still…"

"I'll be careful. I promise. It's not like I'm jumping to get involved after he nearly killed me."

"Look, I'm not his biggest fan either, but I gotta agree with Chloe. I don't think that was intentional."

Emmeline rolled her eyes. "Well, if he really wants to redeem himself in my eyes, he's more than welcome to try."