A/N: I do not own Smallville.

Rating is subject to change.

Chapter Three

In order to sort out the changes in her life Chloe took a week long break from school. It was pretty easy to convince her father to go along with it since he was perpetually busy running the plant and he knew she wasn't one for skipping school, especially not at the expense of the Torch. However, she got the distinct impression, no matter how impossible it was, that he knew exactly what was going on with her.

During that week she reevaluated a lot of things in her life, particularly her relationships and plans for the future.

Chloe already knew who she was, what she valued and what lines she was willing to cross. The time she'd spent exploring her ability had cemented that. Yet, the two things she was unsure about were her relationship with everyone but her father, and what the future held in store for her now. What had once seemed so certain was now anything but.

She was a reporter at heart. Chloe knew this without a doubt. But did that mean she should pursue a career as one?

After all, she wasn't so much a reporter as she was someone who sought out the truth and was willing do just about whatever it took to find it out, and bring her findings to the masses, if possible. But, she didn't have to be a reporter to do that, though it just seemed like the most logical avenue all things considered.

Her choice of career had somewhere along the way negatively impacted her search for the truth.

Sure she informed the masses about all the weird happenings in Smallville including the theory that the meteor shower was responsible for it all. Of course, the meteor shower being the cause was obvious since the majority of all the weirdness occurred soon after it. The green meteor rocks were almost always connected in some way to the events.

Nonetheless, what she had was just a theory. A theory that she couldn't readily prove except through a pattern, albeit an obvious one, but a couple of connections didn't prove anything.

She could more readily see now why Principal Kwan had almost shut down the Torch, besides for his own personal reasons.

Putting forth theories were all well and good but eventually you had to present some proof that lent credence to them.

She had yet to do that which was something she really needed to change.

In light of her recently acquired abilities, it would be easier for her to study and understand the meteor rocks. Eventually, she'd need to set up a laboratory and get funding for some equipment but for right now she could do a preliminary study of the meteor rocks. After all, the damn rocks were practically everywhere.

Honestly, it was baffling that the entire town wasn't infected. Though for all she knew they just might all be. If the incident with Greg Arkin was anything to go by the entire ecosystem of Smallville was infected.

And if the ecosystem was infected then that meant so were the surrounding areas considering how animals and insects migrated, not to mention the runoff from the dam and rivers that flowed throughout Smallville and went to other areas across the state.

How was it that there weren't a plethora of weird incidents happening all over the state?

The bigger question though, was how the EPA had missed exactly how dangerous the rocks are to human beings. If they had known, they would have cleared the entire town of them or at least declared Smallville uninhabitable. She'd held up a Geiger counter to those things, they were clearly radioactive.

Chloe had turned the question around over and over in her head, when suddenly it hit her like a brick to the head. How had she been so naïve?

Testing for radiation was one of the first things the EPA did when clearing an area. Which could only mean one thing. They knew. They knew but for some reason they weren't doing anything about. And there could be only one definite reason for this.

Smallville was a testing ground. A testing ground that no doubt had to be sanctioned by the government.

The town could blame Lionel Luthor for their troubles all they wanted but he wasn't more powerful than the government. At least she hoped not.

Yet, only the government could allow for the things that went on, in and around Smallville, to continue. It made so much sense, especially when you considered the now public and rising concern over the mutant and metahuman populations in the United States, and around the world.

There was no way they wouldn't be on the lookout for such things. A place where every other month some guy or gal went crazy with an ability that couldn't be explained away as a normal human quirk.

She'd first thought after moving to Smallville that they simply had a higher than normal mutant or metahuman population. At worst, they had an unchecked supernatural population. But as those green rocks kept showing up all over the place, along with the general unknown variable that any substance from space posed, she'd revised that opinion. Not to mention the fact that the weirdness wasn't limited to just people. The mutant gene only affected individuals on a molecular level, not the environment.

There had to be some reason the government wasn't swarming all over this place, locking it down into some kind of quarantine.

She personally doubted the government would go to such lengths to warn people about the dangers the meteors posed, and ask that people report any suspicious activity that might be linked to mutants. Enough things already existed that could be used to inspire fear.

Yet, at the same time she had no doubt that Lionel Luthor was in on the project and more than likely had some signed government contracts. Who better to help with testing than an unscrupulous business man more than willing to do anything for a profit? It made better sense as to why LuthorCorp had such a huge influence in a town that should have been below Luthor's interest.

Also, add to the fact there were a lot of pharmaceutical companies who had set up shop in and around Smallville since the meteor shower, and often boasted of using the meteor rocks in their new experimental drugs; her theory seemed more and more plausible.

Still, how had she and the townspeople missed those connections?

Well…she knew why the people who grew up in Smallville didn't.

The inhabitants of the town had willful ignorance down pat. They and the people of Metropolis were way more alike than either would ever admit. Chloe had dubbed it as the Metropolis syndrome when she had been living there, and now it was the Smallville syndrome. It was the way people only opened their eyes to acknowledge a problem when it was practically knocking down their door, and sometimes not even then.

Chloe knew she'd need to do a lot more digging to get solid proof but that wouldn't really take too much time. Though while confident in her newfound abilities she wouldn't allow herself to get reckless.

If what she believed was true, to get proof she would have to hack into government servers, possibly even government facilities. The type of things where mistakes couldn't be made. Frankly, she didn't have the power to take on the government singlehandedly even with her powers.

The first thing she would need to do is gather more research on the meteor rocks, then studiously improve her hacking skills to a very fine point, and work on her stealth and fighting skills. But most importantly she would need to find a suitable partner. Someone who not only believed her theories but was also willing to watch her back.

Unfortunately, that meant she would have to scale back the time and effort she put into the Torch. No doubt unlocking the secrets of the meteor rocks would be time consuming, and if what she expected was true, there was no telling who was reading her paper and taking the things she wrote seriously. Maybe she was being paranoid and thought too highly of herself but better to be safe than sorry.

Speaking of safety, she should probably take down the Wall of Weird. It would help take suspicion off of her for the less than illegal things she'd be getting up to. If people thought she'd lost interest they'd be less likely to look too closely at anything she was doing.

Plus the wall practically screamed to anyone like her that they were a freak to be put under the spotlight and studied. She could now understand why some people almost seemed to become wary or annoyed when looking at it. They were probably conscious of the fact that they were the very freaks she was looking for and wouldn't hesitate to place on her wall.

Yet, their fears were really unwarranted. The only meteor infected individuals she'd displayed on the wall were those who had proven to be dangerous to others and were locked up for their crimes. Everything else on the wall was about numerously bizarre events that occurred in Smallville.

She'd never once outed anyone she suspected of having an ability.

Although she did have some idea of exactly who those people were at school that had abilities, she kept personal files and observations of them handwritten and coded in a journal. A journal which she kept on her person at all times, except when home, where she would hide in a secure place. Information like that could be harmful if it fell into the wrong hands.

Chloe wouldn't stop researching people with abilities however. Knowing who did what was great information to have in a crisis. Plus, she'd gone too far to stop now. The whole goal of identifying them was to try and ferret out the most dangerous ones. But, she could make sure the information she had didn't harm the innocent.

She would need to up the complexity of the code she'd made to make absolutely sure no one but her would know anything about it.

During the rest of the week Chloe began putting her plans into motion.

The first thing she did was stop by the school and remove any sensitive files she had on the computers in the Torch. She put everything on protected disks and made sure to destroy all traces on the computers, even resorting to wiping the hard drives clean and replacing whatever files were taken off. All the knowledge she had acquired from both self-study and better hackers than herself had taught her how to erase even the ghost back-ups that any master hacker could find.

She had been tempted to start taking down the Wall of Weird but considering she had snuck on campus to retrieve the files it was best to cut her loses and retreat before she was caught. She would take down the wall when she resumed classes.

The next thing she did was find a solution to her funding issue. After spending days browsing forums known only to hackers and sending out a few untraceable (or nearly) emails, she had found an effective though highly illegal cash cow. She could now make loads of money without doing a thing except making sure her ass was covered if her actions were discovered.

Essentially she'd made herself an online offshore bank account under an assumed name, untraceable, that every hour on the hour took 1 cent from 100,000 different bank accounts all across the globe. The bank accounts used changed daily. Chloe was basically making $1,000 an hour which accumulated to her making $24,000 per day.

The method was mostly foolproof as only someone OCD or extremely critical of their bank statements would notice losing a measly twenty-four cents. The withdrawal wouldn't register in their bank statements and even if they noticed, it would be nothing for the bank to reimburse them for it. However, she wouldn't be labeled as the culprit and it would just be seen as a computer error.

Accessing the money was as easy as getting a friend of hers to create a credit card that linked to the account with the necessary account number and security code, and making it look like it came straight from the bank itself. Most important of all was that the card was accepted at any store in the United States.

She had already used the account to purchase a new laptop and desktop, managing to somewhat convince her father that one was a gift from uncle Sam and the other she'd won in a school drawing. The others things she'd bought with the money fell into the third step of her planning.

After deciding to study the meteor rocks Chloe knew she would need certain equipment for the job.

So, she'd bought a Geiger counter, a pair of lead gloves, several specialized microscopes, and all the standard equipment found in any research lab fit for an Ivy League university. It had taken several days for her fake account to accumulate enough money to make all of her purchases.

She'd also had to painstakingly hide all the equipment from her father so he wouldn't become suspicious. Luckily for her she had dibs on the basement as her own private space, usually where she developed photos. Her father rarely went down there.

Setting up the lab to her liking took weeks of exhausting labor but the finished product was well worth the effort.

Considering lead worked well against earthly radiation Chloe figured it would do just the same with radiated meteors. Purchasing the Geiger counter followed the same logic, and it did help her occasionally find meteor rocks. However, after finding a few she managed to calibrate the counter to the point that it only picked up the radiation frequency emitted by the meteor rocks.

So far her research was going slowly. Though she wasn't too bummed about that fact. There would be no fun in life if everything was too easy. Not to mention it was a relief to know her ability had limits. She was actually excited to see how long it would take her to unravel the secrets of the meteor rocks.

Chloe got a major breakthrough on her research near the end of the week. And it was all thanks to a deadly flower called the Nicodemus.

It had all apparently started when Jonathan Kent decided to take a walk on the wild side. Of course wild for him was drinking during the day, making out in front of Clark with Mrs. Kent and mouthing off to Lex. Not exactly as wild as some of the things she could come up with but out of character behavior for Mr. Kent nonetheless.

Making the intuitive leap that his strange behavior and subsequent collapse might have had something to do with the car crash his father was involved in earlier in the day, Clark had enlisted her and for some reason Lana's help to search the scene.

The logical part of her knew Clark was asking for her help because it was a life and death situation and he appeared to trust in her ability to solve a mystery. The illogical part of Chloe couldn't help but be annoyed by him all but demanding her help.

Their relationship had essentially devolved to give and take, with a lot of taking and little giving on Clark's part. At least it always seemed lately he only came to see her when he needed something, and always seemed to forget when she needed him to do something for her.

It was one of the things they needed to sort out. His assumption that she should drop whatever she was doing to help him with his problems. This wouldn't be so much of a problem too, if he actually politely asked rather than demanded.

She couldn't remember the last time he asked, "Chloe could you please research something for me? Or said, "Thanks Chloe," after she'd given him the information he needed. While she'd admit that type of behavior had only started recently with him, it was quickly becoming tiresome.

However, with Papa Kent's life on the line she'd put aside her frustrations and help.

Their search that night at first proved to be pointless until Lana started to exhibit the same wild behavior the next day. Chloe could admit to being a little frustrated that she hadn't found anything at the scene when obviously something had been there else Lana wouldn't be infected. She couldn't and wouldn't accept the possibility that Lana had suddenly decided to reveal a hidden side of herself of her own volition.

On the other hand, she was grateful she hadn't run into whatever it was considering the side effects. That would not have meshed well with her newfound ability.

She eventually found herself visiting Dr. Hamilton at his lab to try and find out why he was at the scene of the crash the same night as they were. Taking a deep breath she entered the ramshackle of a building.

Announcing herself, "Dr. Hamilton, hello, I'm Chloe Sullivan, Smallville Torch. We spoke a few times over the Internet about the meteors."

Hamilton didn't miss a beat. "Oh, Chloe," he responded before going back to looking at the papers in front of him while holding a book in his hand. A clear dismissal if there ever was one.

Seeing this Chloe decided to cut straight to the chase. "I was wondering if you could tell me what you were doing out in the woods last night?" She dug into her bag taking out the photo with him in it. She wouldn't let him get away with denying he wasn't even there.

Hamilton sighed as he picked up the picture. Seeming to refrain from rolling his eyes he responded, "What I usually do there most nights. Looking for meteor samples. I find them easier to look for at night with a flashlight."

She could sense he wasn't being completely truthful despite his relaxed behavior. Also, even if the rocks did have an eerie glow, who the hell looked for rocks in the dark instead of perfectly good sunlight? "So you didn't see me and my friend?" asked Chloe.

She let her eyes roam around the lab using her keen observational skills to try and find anything that would be useful. Aside from the tank in the corner with what seemed like turtles and some equipment covered with tarps, she noticed that there were an awful lot of plants around.

However, the thing she most noticed was that there was a hell of a lot of new equipment. It looked like someone was funding Dr. Hamilton.

"I heard voices, I saw flashlights; I know kids like to party and as I know you know I don't like company." His tone had changed from relaxed to more forceful.

Interesting.

"So you weren't there looking over the accident scene?"

He slammed the book he was holding down in frustration. "What accident?"

Chloe had to refrain from rolling her own eyes. Not a smart move to pretend like he didn't know about the accident. Smallville was in its own words, small. Even someone cooped up like him would have heard about it.

Flicking her eyes down briefly, she saw the name of the book he had been holding. The Nicodemus Diary. Well, that was certainly worth looking into.

Deciding she'd gotten all that she could Chloe put on a surprised face, "I must be mistaken. Sorry to have bothered you." Chloe flashed a false smile and began moving toward the exit.

"And what were you doing in the woods last night?" he practically demanded.

Chloe paused, deciding to use Hamilton's own explanation. "Partying, with my friends."

She'd come back later when he was gone and do some snooping. Who knows? He might have already made some decent headway from his study of the meteor rocks. It would certainly make things easier for her with her own studies.

She spent the next three hours researching everything there was on Dr. Hamilton and the Nicodemus flower. Since Pete had tagged along she'd had to slow down how fast she found things, not wanting to make him suspicious.

In the end her suspicions that Dr. Hamilton was involved were confirmed. Along with the startling discovery that it was LuthorCorp or more specifically Lex Luthor who was funding Hamilton's research. Though really she supposed it wasn't that surprising. After all, he had visited the Torch and shown interest in the Wall of Weird and her meteor theory. It wasn't a stretch to think he wouldn't also seek out the scientist she mentioned to him and see what they made of things.

Despite his 'social flaw' Hamilton had been, still was really, a brilliant scientist.

However, she kept that bit of information to herself when she relayed everything she had found to Pete and Clark. Chloe had no doubt they would jump to conclusions and stick with them instead of thinking things through. They'd assume the worse, go confront and accuse Lex, rather than first listening to whatever he had to say with an open mind before jumping to conclusions.

While Chloe didn't know Lex all that well if he was anything like her, he wouldn't respond well to accusations, especially not without hard proof.

Chloe knew she would have to break into Hamilton's lab sooner rather than later after reading The Nicodemus Diary and learning what happened to those infected by it. She might be upset with Clark, but she didn't want anything to happen to Mr. Kent. Plus she adored Mrs. Kent whom she knew was probably out of her mind with worry about her husband.

So a scant four hours after visiting Hamilton she was breaking into his lab with Pete by her side, instructing him on the ways of snooping, and breaking and entering.

Needless to say, her plan totally backfired on her when Pete accidentally got sprayed by the flower. Pete confessing that he was attracted to her was definitely a shock, but nothing could beat him pointing a gun in her face and demanding her car keys.

Luckily, she managed to warn Clark about Pete more than likely going to murder Lex. Clark somehow managed to stop him in time. Even more fortuitous was she was able to take the time she was waiting for someone to pick her up from Hamilton's lab collecting information. And boy, was it interesting.

The little she had been able to skim through while collecting had been for lack of a better word: enlightening.

Of course, Chloe found the next day after reading it all and going back to seek out Hamilton that the lab had been moved. It would have been foolish but helpful to her if he had stayed where anyone could find him. Still, she'd gotten quite enough from him to work with.

She didn't have a lot of time to do a more in-depth analysis of the information she'd gotten since before she knew it she was back at school again.

But her return to school only brought with it more surprises.

A/N: Thank you to J and noellesullivan for being my first reviewers and continuing to review. Also, thank you to Asurau, highlander348, aseret91, and whatweareafreaidof.

Highlander348: The thing with Brainiac is where I got the idea to give her this power. Also, I've changed things from her origin. She isn't a meteor freak and the reason why will be revealed. This story could technically be in the crossover section because it will intersect with other universes. I've already given you a hint of one of them.

J: She will reconcile with Clark but as with the Chloe in the show, this one needs time away from Clark to be her own person whose life doesn't revolve heavily around Clark's life. Also, Clark himself needs to grow up, as I believe they held him back a lot in the show in the earlier seasons. I didn't like him in Smallville, at all, not even the later seasons. But, I'm trying to make sure that doesn't affect my writing of his character as he is presented. Lex, I have plans for Lex.

Asurau: All will be revealed in due time.

Whatweareafreaidof: I know, but he wasn't completely right in the way he acted either. Honestly all of this could've been solved if he stepped away from Lana for one hour, like he did to do his report on her, and could have avoided this whole mess, but he never made time for an interview. It's not like she didn't ask him more than once. As he said, there wasn't a lot they had to tell and how hard would it have been to tell some things about himself, editing out the abnormal stuff. He could make time for his friends Lex and Lana but not Chloe? For just an hour?

Thank you for reading everyone. Please remember to read, review, fav and like.