Warning: Death in this chapter. So shield your eyes if someone dying freaks you out.
Of course I didn't wait for ten reviews...only 8...no wait...7! Darn it! I should learn to count huh? Damn tally marks... assorted grumbling and cursing.
Anyway, more action! More twists!More bald billionaires! Well, not more, the same one. Also there's angst and giant men helpless...eek! Wow, I need less sugar in my diet. A lot less.
Chloe regained consciousness in a strange, plush room in what appeared to be a huge manor. She'd been laid on a bed off to the side of the room and her head felt like a road crew was breaking up pavement in her skull. She looked around to find Charlie standing by a huge window, staring out with her arms wrapped around her waist.
Chloe practically jumped to her feet, and after a moment to let her head balance out, she hurried over to her friend. "Charlie, are you okay?"
Charlie turned slowly, glad her friend was up and about. "I should be asking you that question. You're the one who was tranquilized."
Chloe flashed her a fierce smile. "Ah, they can't keep me down for long."
Charlie laughed lightly. Then her laughter faded and she started picking at the links of the bracelet on her wrist. "I can't get this off, there's no clasp."
Chloe took her friend's hand, pulling her arm closer to her so she could get a good look at the delicate silver bracelet. Green stones the size of erasers flashed in the sunlight, set as they were in every other link. And although it was obvious there had been a clasp on it, it had been disabled to lock it on her wrist. When she looked up into her friend's face, she saw that she was looking sick, her face pale and the green had faded from her hazel eyes.
Charlie collapsed, her descent to the ground slowed but not stopped by Chloe's catching her. "It doesn't affect me like it does Clark, at least not as much. But, it's so much worse..." Her eyes filled with tears. "Chloe, I think...I think I'm pregnant." She whispered in her friend's ear, trying to avoid Luthor's surveillance mics from picking up the statement.
Chloe gasped. She tried to keep Charlie conscious, but to no avail, the Sheevoran female had had too much. As soon as Charlie's hand had dropped limply to her side, Chloe began to search the room for something to break the links with. After a few minutes, her search coming up empty, she sat down beside the other woman and tried to pull it apart with her hands.
Lex walked in then, his face triumphant. "Well, well, well." He drawled lazily. "I never expected this little development. She's too weak to be Kryptonian and it took her nearly three hours to succumb to the Kryptonite, and the only halfling I've heard of is Jason Kent, so she must be something else."
Chloe stared up at the man who used to be Clark's best friend, her eyes wide with fear for Charlie. "Please Lex, you're killing her. She's not the one you have a real problem with, please, just take it off her."
Lex laughed. "She may not be Superman, but her death will cause him great pain. Even if it doesn't destroy him completely, he'll never be the same."
Chloe spoke again, a pleading tone clear in her voice. "Please, Lex. She's just an innocent bystander in all of this. She's never done anything to you."
Lex sneered. "She is in love with Clark Kent. Isn't that enough?" Then he stalked out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind him.
Chloe had very nearly given up on getting the bracelet off Charlie's delicately boned wrist, when she heard the sound of the door being unlocked. She stiffened, expecting to be tortured with another boring yet menacing monologue of Lex's, but was surprised when he wasn't the one who walked inside.
Kitty, Lex's girlfriend slunk inside the room like a whipped puppy. She held a finger to her lips and was holding a wire cutter in her other hand. She tiptoed over to Chloe who was sitting on the floor with Charlie draped across her lap, cradling her head in her arms.
"You have to hurry." Kitty whispered to the blonde. She neatly clipped one of the links the made up the bracelet, and let it drop to the floor.
The effect on Charlie was immediate. She didn't regain consciousness or anything, she just regained some color. Her skin was no longer pale with pale greenish veins, instead it was back to a healthy glow, not a visible vein in sight on her face. While Chloe anxiously waited for something to happen, Charlie murmured, but did not wake.
"Help me." She whispered to Kitty as she tried to pick up Charlie off the ground, one arm around the brunette's waist. The other woman was four inches taller and much more voluptuous than she was, but Chloe still somehow managed to get her most of the way up. Kitty hurried to help, slipping one arm around Charlie's waist. Together the two small women half carried, half dragged the third out of the room.
Clark and Bruce walked into the dress shop where Chloe and Charlie had told them they were going. Inside, all the found in the deserted shop was a dress crumpled on the ground and an unconscious shop clerk behind the counter.
Bruce hurried over her to rouse her while Clark used his X-ray vision to search the building. Bruce hooked his hands underneath the woman's elbows and lifted her to her feet. He shook her gently and she slowly came about. Clark swung around, desperate to find out what had happened.
"Are you okay?" Bruce asked, watching Clark out of the corner of his eye. He knew the Kryptonian was feeling useless, and did not like it. And someone with almost limited strength feeling frustrated, it was not a happy prospect. "What happened here?"
The woman placed the palm of one hand against her head. Then she spoke. "Some guy, wearing an awful wig came in with this frizzy-black-haired woman and started talking about this crazy dress they wanted to order. While I was talking with them I felt cold metal against my neck and heard a hissing noise." She touched her fingers to a visibly red, raised circle on her neck. "Then, nothing."
Bruce looked at the raised mark on the woman's neck. "Air pressure injection." He told Clark. "Obviously a tranquilizer."
Clark's face lost color. "Luthor." He said simply, then stormed out the door without another word.
Bruce let go of the clerk and headed for the door. At the last moment he looked back at the woman. "Please, miss, could you keep that dress for me. I think we're still gonna need it." Then he followed his friend out the door.
"Clark!" He shouted as he followed the other man. He grabbed his wrist with one hand, trying to stop his marching. Unfortunately, Clark just kept walking and Bruce was dragged behind him. "Clark, if Luthor has them you can be assured that it's a trap!"
Clark whirled around, forcing Bruce to let go of his arm for fear of being thrown to the ground. "I know that Bruce, Don't you think I know that?" He sighed, anger fading quickly into something that shook Bruce Wayne to the core, defeat. "But I also know that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I let Charlie and Chloe die because I was trying to protect myself."
"Clark," Bruce said after a minute. "You have to let me handle this. You don't stand a chance against Luthor's kryptonite. You have to let me handle this." Clark opened his mouth to argue, but was cut off. "You'll just have to sit this one out, do you think that Charlie and Chloe would forgive me for letting you sacrifice yourself when you didn't have to?"
Charlie regained consciousness just as they had made it out of the manor and out onto the grounds. Although weak, she was able to find her feet and hurriedly walk while somewhat supported by Chloe.
On the edge of a wooded part of the grounds, they heard a shout and Kitty froze. Charlie and Chloe ducked behind the nearest tree, not knowing how much Charlie's body could handle after hours of Kryptonite exposure.
A single gunshot rang out, it sounded as if the guards had fired a warning shot. But then Kitty fell, her face just inches away from Charlie and Chloe's hiding spot, dead before she hit the ground. A neat black bullet hole in the middle of her forehead oozed dark blood onto the dirt beneath her.
Chloe gasped, but Charlie put a hand over her mouth and pulled her farther back into the foliage around them. She was still not at full strength, she didn't want to test how bullet-proof she was at the moment.
A guard marched over to Kitty's fallen body and stared down at it. Charlie and Chloe shrank back as far as they could, fearful of being seen.
"Command, just took down Kitty as she tried to escape." He said into his radio, then listened to the answer. "Yes sir. Will do." He said with a curt nod. Then he bent and scooped Kitty's lifeless body into his arms and marched back to the mansion.
As soon as the burly guard was out of sight, Chloe and Charlie stood, keeping an eye out for more guards. Chloe kept one bracing arm around Charlie's waist, and theyran through the forest, searching for a way off the property.
Dun dun dun! Funnily enough, not as dramatic when written. But say it out loud and make it seem dramatic, I'd consider it a huge favor to me.
Oh and don't forget to tip your waiter/waitress on your way out with a lovely review. I would appreciate it. I wish I could hit a button and only those who review would be able to read on...but that button doesn't exist just yet. Darn it. But if you've gotten this far in the story, unless your a monkey at a keyboard just hitting buttons, please review.
And my lawyers have pressured me into this...but I apologize to all the monkies at keyboards just hitting buttons. It was unkind of me to say that. Please, don't sue me. Navy DEP recruits don't make money until they're done with boot camp.