Lois and Oliver were at the bar of the Halloween Club. Lois swished the puce colored liquid around in her glass and then forced herself to take a drink.

"How is it?" Oliver asked.

"About how it looks. It had such a promising name. Biting Goblins. It's hard to say what's in it. Maybe milk, lime juice, and a little beer. I should have watched what they put in it."

"Did you want to trade me for my Bloody Mary?"

"No, thanks. No reason for us both to suffer because I chose to try something new."

"We don't have to drink. We can dance."

"To the Addams Family theme song?"

"It's a great song. Watch how easy it is to dance to," he started bobbing up and down and snapping his fingers.

"No, thank you. The whole place is lame. I guess we can just sit here and laugh at people's costumes. Look at that girl dressed like a rabbit."

"I'm looking," he said day dreamily.

She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

"You told me to. Hey, is that Lex and his girlfriend?"

"So it is. I wonder who they're supposed to be dressed up as."

"It looks like Bonnie and Clyde to me."

"I see that now. Hopefully those aren't real guns."

"You don't trust them? Do you think they're bad people?"

"I know Lex is but not in a gun-slinging, bank-robbing kind of way. He's too smart and wealthy to get caught, at least not easily. Lana is more complicated."

"What do you mean?"

"This may sound a little strange, but I think Lana assumes the personality of whoever she's dating at the time. When she was with that Jason guy, she was cultured and mysterious. When she was with Clark, she was a small town orphan with the innocent, woe-is-me act. Chloe said when she was with Whitney, she was popular and one-dimensional. Now that she's with Lex, she's taking on a darker side. That's why she can't seem to go 5 minutes without having a boyfriend or she'll lose her entire identity."

"I don't know her well enough to make that judgment. Did you want to go say hi to them?"

"No need. They've spotted us and are coming in for the attack."

"Oliver, Lois! How nice to see you here and in the same costumes," Lana said in an overly sweet voice.

Lois and Oliver nodded and tried to look disinterested, hoping they would take a hint and socialize elsewhere.

"I expected a better class of people to show up," Lex said, glancing around.

"So did I," Lois said, staring pointedly at Lex and Lana.

Lex's eyes narrowed, and he glared at her. "Have you ever heard the theory that a costume is a hidden facet of our personality?"

Lois smirked. "No, but that would certainly make sense, Clyde."

"That would mean Oliver likes arrows and living like an outlaw," Lana said, "and Lois is a damsel-in-distress, waiting to be saved by her hero."

"Honey," Lex said, "you're being too kind to Lois. I would say she's more like a tramp hot for a criminal. She thinks she's gone up in the world from muffin peddler to writing for a rag, but everyone knows it is really a step down."

Lois was ready to start the first bar brawl of the night if Oliver hadn't placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Lex and Lana left, seeing they had properly riled Lois.

"Why don't we dance? It'll take our mind off of them," Oliver said.

"I don't think Monster Mash is any easier to dance to than the Addams Family but why not?"

sss

The man sitting in the back room of the Halloween club was your stereotypical mad scientist, and it wasn't a costume. He squinted at the screen in front of him through his thick glasses and ran his hand through his wild, white hair. He tugged at the sleeves of his lab coat as he watched the people at the club. He hadn't expected so many people to show up or so many good costumes. This was better than he had imagined. Until a couple of months ago, he had worked as a chemistry professor. He had begun to research the supernatural, for ways to tie it into chemistry. The Ivy League college he worked for couldn't tolerate a nutty professor, so they had found an excuse to fire him after all his years of dedication. That didn't matter now. He would show them. He had had a breakthrough in his research. He was able to take the spiritual essence of a being, fictional or not, and bring that essence into a person wearing a physical representation or in other words, a costume. There was a lot of boring scientific reasoning behind the process that involved a chemical of his own creation, but that wasn't important. What was important was that his experiment was about to be set into motion.

His assistant and body bouncer for the night called him on the walkie talkie.

"It's all done, boss. I've turned the crowd outside away. I think I picked out some interesting costumes."

"Good job."

He pushed the button that released the chemical into the air. If all went well, the opportunities were limitless, but for now he was going to sit back, observe his work, and take notes.