Sorry this took so much longer than usual. This chapter was super long and I didn't have a lot of motivation to do it because there wasn't a lot for Emmeline to do. Hopefully, now I'll be back on schedule.
When Chloe walked into the Torch office, she couldn't believe her eyes.
"Welcome to the Torch," Pete said as he and Emmeline cleaned up the office to get the next issue out. "Unplugged."
"Pete, what happened to my computers?" Chloe asked in shock.
"A bunch of deliverymen stopped by this afternoon. LuthorCorp took the computers back."
"But they were donated."
"Yeah, well, I guess the Grinch changed his mind. Oh yeah, some girl stopped by. Didn't leave a name."
"Thanks, Pete."
"Hey, I'll be out in a second," Emmeline said to her boyfriend.
"Alright."
He pressed a quick kiss to her lips before leaving the room.
"Well, this is just the icing on the cake of my week," Chloe said bitterly. "Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse."
"I'm so sorry," Emmeline told her sympathetically. "I know there's really nothing I could say to make you feel better right now. How about tomorrow you can stop by my place for a little while after school? I'll make sure to have lots of chocolate and we can have an emergency chick flick marathon."
Chloe smiled a little. "You're the best."
"I'm gonna go put these papers in one of the stands. See you tomorrow?"
"Alright, bye."
After Emmeline put the latest issue of the Torch in the display case, she went back to the office and grabbed her belongings. Then she went out the front of the building to meet up with Pete when she saw a red truck ram straight towards Chloe who had been walking to her car.
Chloe tripped and the truck ran straight over her, crashing into a Smallville High van.
"Chloe!" Emmeline screamed.
Without even thinking about the maniac in the truck, she began running over towards her friend, hoping that she was okay.
However, she stopped running when the driver of the truck exited the vehicle. She could not believe her eyes.
It was Clark.
He looked over at her. "Em? What's wrong?"
Emmeline didn't answer as she looked at him in horror, still trying to understand why he had just tried to kill her best friend. Chloe moved out from under the truck. Clark's eyes widened when he saw who was under it.
"Chloe?"
At Smallville Medical Center, the three of them were taken to an examination room. Chloe was checked for fractures while Clark was given a Breathalyzer test.
"The last thing I remember, I was in the library," Clark explained to Sheriff Adams. "I was working on my history paper."
Sheriff Adams looked at the test. "Stone sober. Miss Sullivan, would you care to shed any light on Mr. Kent's version of the incident?"
"Do you mean the part where I wasn't eating pavement?" Chloe asked harshly. "I don't know, um…it just—it looked like he lost control of his truck."
"Miss Brooks, anything else to add?"
Emmeline looked over at Clark and then at Chloe. "Uh…no, Chloe's right. He lost control of the truck."
Sheriff Adams sighed. "Well, Mr. Kent, your family sure has its way of going through vehicles."
"Chloe…" Clark said nervously.
"Is that all you need from Clark?" Chloe asked the sheriff.
Sheriff Adams sighed again and looked at Clark and Emmeline. "Why don't the both of you go on home? I got a few more questions for our Miss Sullivan."
"I'll see you tomorrow then," Emmeline said quietly.
She quickly left the room before Clark, eager to get away from him. Being in his presence had been awkward and uncomfortable ever since the confrontation between him and the two girls.
"Hey," Pete said as she showed up in the waiting room. He quickly came over to her and gave her a small kiss. "Is everything alright?"
Emmeline sighed. "I don't know. Let's just get out of here. I need a coffee and I need it bad."
"Alright."
The two of them left as Emmeline tried to process what had just happened in the last hour.
Before the two girls went off to school, they stopped by Clark's house. When they walked in, Clark was pulling his supplies out of his destroyed truck.
"If you're looking for signs of tampering, I'll save you some time," Chloe told him. "There's nothing wrong with it. I asked the mechanic."
"There's got to be some explanation," Clark said.
"As to why you tried to mow me over? I'm ready and waiting."
"Didn't you and Em tell the sheriff that I lost control of the truck?"
"We were covering for you, Clark. You chased me onto the sidewalk." Her eyes started watering. "Now, I-I know that you're still upset with us about this whole Lionel thing, but don't you think that manslaughter is a little beyond 'eye for an eye'?"
"Chloe, you don't think I tried to hurt you."
"I don't know! But the way you've been acting lately…I don't know, Clark. I can only apologize so many times."
"I have been having a hard time getting over this. Every time I see you, I can't help picturing you and Lionel talking, or you and Em talking about it. You're not the same person you used to be."
"Kind of like if I moved to Metropolis and became a motorcycle-riding party animal and told you to get out of my life. Kind of like that, right?" Clark looked away from her guiltily. "Look, you know what? As much fun as this guilt trip is, I came here to see if you put any more pieces together from last night. What happened after the library?"
"I don't even remember leaving the library. The last thing I do remember, I was working on my laptop."
Chloe walked over to his pile of supplies and opened his computer. After searching for recent documents, his paper popped up onto the screen.
"Well, the computer recovered your paper," Chloe told him. "That's an interesting take on General Sherman."
Clark came over to her and looked at the computer screen where the blinking cursor sat after he had typed 'General Sher'.
"I didn't even finish my sentence," he remarked.
Clark pushed a button on the computer and opened up his email account. The most recent one was from 'brainwave '. When he tried to open it up again, a notification came up saying that the email was locked.
"It says I downloaded an e-mail before the accident. It won't open."
"Who's Brainwave?"
The next day at school, Chloe and Emmeline walked down the hallway, stopping by a bulletin board.
"Are you doing okay?" Emmeline asked. "I know everything happening with Clark really isn't easy on either of us."
Chloe sighed. "If I had just listened to the reasonable part of my brain last year, none of this would've happened."
"We all do things we regret. But in the end, we become better people for it."
The sound of something heavy falling to the floor alerted them to Lana walking over to them.
"Lana, hey, we've been looking for you," Chloe said.
Lana didn't respond. Instead, she grabbed Chloe by the hair and slammed her against the wall. Then she threw her down the flight of stairs next to them. With a cold look in her eye, she started down the stairs.
Chloe quickly stood up, a small cut on her forehead. "Lana, what are you doing?"
"Killing Chloe Sullivan."
Lana did a spin-kick and sent Chloe tumbling down the next flight of stairs.
"Lana, stop!" Emmeline cried.
Was the same thing that happened to Clark happening to her? If that was the case, she may not know exactly what she was doing.
Lana kicked Chloe in the stomach and slammed her against the wall again. She followed as Chloe went down the stairs. The two girls grabbed each other's jackets and began tearing at one another. Finally, Chloe punched Lana in the face and sent her tumbling down the few stairs that were left.
Chloe slammed Lana into a glass case behind her. Lana then kicked her in the stomach to get her off before kicking her in the face which sent her to the ground.
Lana turned and grabbed an axe from the glass case behind her. A group of students who had gathered to witness the fight screamed in horror as Lana began attacking Chloe with the axe.
By now, Emmeline had sprinted down the stairs and could only watch with terrified eyes as the two went at each other. On a normal day, Emmeline was pretty sure she could take down Lana if she wanted. But right now, she was on a frenzy with an axe, and that meant she couldn't do anything without getting a limb lopped off.
The two girls carried their fight into the girls' locker room where shrill shrieks were heard. Emmeline bolted after them and found all of the girls in their underwear scurrying away from the axe-wielding Lana.
Lana swung the axe into one of the lockers and it lodged itself inside. She delivered another spin-kick to Chloe's stomach which sent her into the running showers where more girls screamed and ran away.
Chloe sat against the wall, breathing heavily. She looked up at Lana who was charging towards her with the axe above her head.
Suddenly, Lana's newest friend, Adam, came barreling in and grabbed the axe before Lana could hurt Chloe. Refusing to release her weapon, Lana kicked Adam away from her. She tried to swing the axe at him, but he kicked her which caused it to fall from her hands. Adam quickly retrieved it before she could and pinned his foot to her stomach. Lana grabbed his foot and twisted so he went spinning to the ground.
Chloe kicked her foot out towards Lana's, and the girl fell backwards before hitting her head on the hard tile. Blood came from her nose and had coated the lower half of her face. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at everyone.
"What happened?" she asked quietly.
So Emmeline was right. Lana hadn't realized what she was doing when she attacked Chloe. Something was going on here, and whatever it was, things weren't looking bright for her best friend.
Everyone gathered at the Talon after the catfight in Smallville High that was sure to become something of a legend at the school.
Chloe's cut on her forehead had been bandaged up and she was currently sipping a cup of tea.
"So we can rule out paranoia," Chloe said dryly. "Someone is officially trying to kill me."
"Not just someone," Clark added.
"Yeah, well, either way, it still doesn't look great for me."
Lana came over to the table with an ice pack. "Chloe, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I went after you like that."
Chloe took the ice pack away from her and pressed it to her cut. "Yeah. I can't believe you got us suspended. Thankfully, Adam was there. Those were some really nice moves. What was that? Kung fu? Judo?"
Adam shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I've watched a few too many Jackie Chan movies."
"Well, who would've thought it would come in handy in the treacherous halls of Smallville High?"
A thoughtful look crossed Clark's face. "Just before this, did you get any weird emails?"
"Let me check," Lana answered. She opened up her PDA. "I did, but I don't remember opening it."
"It sounds like the same thing happened to both of us. It's like we were being hypnotized."
"It could be a subliminal message," Adam put in.
"Something could've been hidden in the binary codes," Chloe added.
Lana handed her PDA to Clark. "Well, how did I get snapped out of it?"
"Right now, I'm a little bit more concerned with what triggered the 'Kill Chloe' impulse in the first place."
Clark looked at the PDA and then up at everyone with no emotion. "It's Brainwave again."
Adam went over to one of the Talon computers as everyone gathered behind him. "Every computer online has an IP address so we should be able to track the message and the computer that it was sent from."
"You can do that?" Clark asked suspiciously.
"We'll see."
"If this Brainwave person wanted me dead so badly, why didn't they just send me a message saying to off myself?" Chloe asked.
"The brain's hardwired to stay alive. I mean, not even hypnotic messages can override our survival instinct."
Clark's eyebrows rose. "What, did you just pick that up somewhere?"
"I was in physical rehab for months. What else is there to do but read?"
A dialogue box popped up on the computer saying that the computer was registered to Chloe Sullivan and the IP address was registered to LuthorCorp.
"Chloe, the message came from your computer," Clark remarked.
"I thought Lionel took back all of your computers," Lana said. "Why would anyone at LuthorCorp want to attack you?"
Chloe, Clark, and Emmeline all exchanged nervous glances. Lionel Luthor certainly would want to attack Chloe.
Chloe and Emmeline walked into the Torch office late at night, both of them a bit on edge with the assassin emails being sent out.
"Chloe," Clark's voice suddenly said.
The two girls gasped and whipped around to find Clark already in the office.
"Clark, don't sneak up on us like that!" Chloe scolded.
"Look, I talked to Lex and they found your old computer at LuthorCorp, but the hard drive is gone."
Chloe groaned. "Including all of my e-mail addresses."
"Well, we think this is who took it." He showed them a picture of a pretty brunette woman. "She may be working for Lionel. Her name's Molly—"
"—Griggs, yeah, I know. And for once the connection isn't Lionel. I interviewed her for a story I did about a month ago."
"About what?"
"Summerholt Neurological Institute."
"Summerholt? Isn't that where Ryan used to be?"
Emmeline's eyes darkened at the mention of her old friend. She thought about him a lot, and she really missed him. His life had ended far too soon.
"Yeah, to study his ESP," Chloe answered as she pulled out a file. "That's why I started looking into the place. Apparently, he isn't the only patient Dr. Garner held against their will."
Clark took the file from her. "Well, his methods are right out of the Mengele handbook."
"That sicko should be behind bars for the rest of his natural life," Emmeline said coldly. "He made Ryan's life a living hell."
"I know. Why was Molly there?"
"Uh, MIT recruited her at 15," Chloe explained. "She was a total engineer whiz kid until she went homicidal on another student. After her breakdown, they sent her to Summerholt."
"Yeah, but Summerholt isn't exactly a psych ward."
"For megalo-brainiacs, it is."
"Why would she want to kill you?"
"Well, when I talked to her, she was pretty adamant that Dr. Garner had given her a new life. I had enough ammunition in that article to shut him down in a second."
Clark looked at her urgently. "Chloe, who else knows about this article?"
"…Max."
Chloe quickly picked up the phone at her desk and called her friend.
"Max!" she said quickly into the receiver. She waited for him to finish speaking before she told him, "No, you don't understand. Someone doesn't want that article published and she's threatening whoever knows about it." After a bit of silence on her end, Emmeline could hear screams coming from the phone. "Max? Max?"
More shrill screams sounded out on the other end. Clark and Emmeline made eye contact.
This was really, really bad.
Clark, Chloe, and Emmeline walked inside Lex's mansion after Max's untimely death. Chloe had to go into hiding until Molly was caught or else the same thing could easily happen to her.
"Thanks for letting Chloe stay here, Lex," Clark said.
"Whatever I have to do to help," Lex answered smoothly.
"Yeah, this is the last place anybody would look for me," Chloe said nervously.
Lex looked up at her. "Chloe, I'm sorry about what happened to your friend at the Daily Planet. You must've really had Garner over a barrel."
"Yeah, well, I obviously didn't know what I was getting myself into. Just seems to be a nasty habit that I've picked up lately."
"So your theory is that Garner has turned Molly into his own email assassin, using hypnotic suggestion?"
"It's not that far of a stretch," Clark said in Chloe's defense. "Summerholt goes from studying the brain to controlling it."
"It's a pretty amazing breakthrough if you don't consider the application."
Chloe stepped up to his desk. "Well, there's no question. When it comes to brain warping, Dr. Garner is definitely the guy."
Clark's eyes turned cold. "I'm gonna go talk to Garner."
"No!" Chloe exclaimed as she grabbed his arm. "No, no, Clark, don't, please. It's too dangerous."
"I'm not the one he's looking for. It'll be all right. Just don't leave the mansion. I'll call you if I find anything."
Clark left the room as Lex stood up from his desk and walked over. "Chloe, I have my tech guys trying to track her. I'm gonna go see what they've got. Make yourself at home. Emmeline, you're welcome to stay as long as you'd like."
"Thank you, Mr. Luthor," Emmeline said quietly.
"I've told you before, you can call me Lex."
Lex followed in the direction Clark had gone. Chloe looked ready to fall apart at any second.
"It's gonna be okay," Emmeline said to reassure her best friend. "Clark always fixes these kinds of things. And if it makes you feel better, my phone is turned off so I won't see any freaky messages, and I won't be checking my email anytime soon either."
"Thanks. Molly will probably want to go after you next, so that's a good idea to stay away from technology for a while. How are things going with Hannah?"
"She hasn't spoken to me since I found out she's fighting for custody. It's tough on my parents because I know they don't want to lose me. Not to mention that this is costing a lot of money which is stacking up on top of all the medical bills from the cancer."
"I'm sorry."
"I'm pretty sure in light of recent events, you have it worse. I can't complain."
"Doesn't mean that whole situation doesn't totally suck."
"Yeah, it's hard. I guess I'm just hoping that Hannah will realize that this is hurting everyone more than it's helping."
Chloe's phone began ringing and she quickly answered it. "Hello? Really? Oh, okay. Yeah, um, I'll be right there."
"Who was that?" Emmeline asked once she had hung up.
"Mrs. Kent. She said Clark found out something, but it was too dangerous to talk about it over the phone. So she wants me to come over there."
"Are you sure about this? Clark didn't want you leaving the mansion. If he found out something, wouldn't he come back here?"
"I don't know, but this could be important. I trust Mrs. Kent."
"I do too when there's not a hypnotic assassin sending out emails. What if she's been affected?"
"I don't think she would be calling then. I think she'd be coming after me. Come on, Em, what if this is the way I find out how to stop this?"
"Well…then I'm coming with you."
By now, it was rather dark outside which made the whole situation that much more ominous. The two girls drove down to the Kent farm and stepped into the barn.
"Mrs. Kent?" Chloe called. She looked over and found Martha with her back to her. "Mrs. Kent, I got your call." The woman turned to face them. "What did Clark find out?"
Martha grabbed a sickle off the wall and started approaching Chloe with a cold look in her eyes.
Emmeline's heart rate sped up. Martha had gotten an email. Before either girl could make a run for it, Emmeline felt a sharp pain on the back of her head that made black dots cross her vision. Her vision finally completely faded and she collapsed on the ground.
Jonathon wrapped a chain around Chloe's neck and yanked her against a support beam. Martha walked towards her, the sickle raised over her head. With no other option, Chloe kicked her in the face which sent her sprawling backwards.
Suddenly, the pressure on her neck released and she fell forward.
"Chloe!" Clark said urgently as he knelt down next to her. "You all right?"
Chloe nodded until she saw with horror that Jonathon was coming up behind him. "Clark!"
Jonathon tackled Clark and began punching him mercilessly. Chloe frantically looked around for something she could do to help her friend. She ran over to the wall and pulled a lever that released several bales of hay from the loft above them.
After a few tense seconds, Clark pushed one of the fallen bales of hay off him.
"Mom!" he cried as he tossed away the bale on top of her
"What happened?" Martha asked breathlessly.
"You okay?"
Clark looked over at Chloe who was taking several deep breaths, looking exhausted from everything that had happened in the last few days. He then looked over at Emmeline's still form on the barn floor.
"Em!"
Clark ran over to her and turned her over so she was lying flat. Then he took her head in his hands and gently shook her.
"Em? Emmeline?"
Emmeline's eyes fluttered open. "Clark?"
"Hey, you okay?"
"My head hurts."
When Clark touched the back of her head to help her sit up, he could feel something wet and sticky. His stomach flipped a little when he saw her crimson blood on his hand.
"I've got to get you to the hospital."
Since she was still dazed, Clark gently lifted her up into his arms and carried her out to his truck.
"Em, stay awake for me, alright? Just talk to me."
"Talk about what?" she asked softly.
"I don't know. Tell me…tell me about you and Pete."
Emmeline smiled. "I love him. I love spending time with him, and how he knows exactly what I want. He knows me better than almost anyone I've ever met."
Clark smiled a little. It was weird that his two best friends were dating each other, but he had always seen it coming.
Once they arrived at the hospital, Emmeline was taken in to receive a CT scan to make sure there wasn't any damage to her brain.
Her parents came to pick her up as soon as they heard the news.
"What happened?" her mother asked frantically.
"I was helping Chloe with something, and…I fell and hit my head. They said I just have a mild concussion, so I'll be fine."
"As happy as I am that you found friends, you've never gotten into so much trouble before, especially this past year," her father told her. "Is everything okay?"
"Yes, everything's fine. I just wasn't paying attention."
"Excuse me?" Emmeline looked towards the parted curtain and saw Jonathon. "Could I talk to Emmeline for a minute?"
"Oh, of course," her mother said. "We'll just be in the waiting room, so come out when you're ready."
Her parents left and Jonathon looked at Emmeline. "I can't tell you how sorry I am for this."
"It's okay, Mr. Kent. Really. I know that it wasn't you. It was some evil email assassin person from Summerholt."
"That doesn't change the fact that I hurt you. So I'm going to be paying the medical bills for you."
"Oh, no, I can't let you do that."
"No objections. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here right now."
"It's not your fault though. I don't blame you in any way."
Jonathon smiled at her. "You're a pretty amazing girl, Emmeline. But I'm still paying for it. Now, let's not keep your parents waiting."
Clark and Emmeline walked into the Torch office to find all the computers back.
"New computers?" Clark asked.
"The same old computers, new Luthor," Chloe smiled. "Lex returned them to me, no strings attached. Uh, I guess he felt guilty about firing my dad."
"Well, at least you're up and running."
"Sans cyber stalker."
"Your soul is still intact."
"Yeah." She looked over at her best friend. "How are you feeling, by the way?"
"I'm a little dizzy still, but it's nothing serious," Emmeline answered.
"If it's any consolation, my dad feels terrible," Clark told her. "He's already taken out the money to pay for the hospital funds."
"I told him that it was really okay since I know it wasn't his fault."
"Well, you know my dad. He takes the blame for everything."
"Oh, that sounds familiar." Emmeline looked over at Chloe. "How are you doing?"
Chloe sighed. "You know, all this stuff with Molly…there's just—there's a part of me that feels like maybe I deserve it."
"No, Chloe—" Clark started.
"No, like it was my penance, you know, for what I did to you." She walked over and sat on her desk.
Clark sighed as he set his backpack down. "You can't take all the blame. You went to Lionel because I pushed you away. It seems to be one of my hidden talents lately."
Chloe laughed. "It's not so hidden. You know, I never set out to investigate you, Clark. I didn't even tell Em about any of this for months. It just…it was so flattering that someone like that would be interested in my work."
"It made you feel like you mattered."
"Yeah. And then Lionel, like, set my dream out right in front of me, and I just…" Her eyes welled up with tears. "I don't know, I gave in to all my worst instincts."
"No, Chloe, he caught you at a weak moment, and we all have them. When you both found me at mine in Metropolis, neither of you turned your backs on me. You both gave me a second chance, and I at least owe you two the same."
"I'd like that. So what do we do now? I mean, we can't just forget about everything that's happened."
Clark got up and sat next to her. "Well, you have to understand that there are some things about me that'll never add up."
"I know that," she laughed.
"Are you willing to stop digging?"
Chloe took a deep breath. "Yeah. I mean, I figure you'll just tell us when you think it's right."
Clark smiled warmly. "I'll see guys you tomorrow."
"Okay." After he left, Chloe looked at Emmeline apologetically. "Em, you were right. I shouldn't have gone to the Kent farm. I should've known that it was a trap. It's my fault you got hurt."
"Will you and Mr. Kent relax? I'm fine, and it's no one's fault except Molly's. And besides, some people are worth getting concussions for."
