The Bottom of the Glass--12/13

[bluesuedeshoes]

Author:  BlueSuede
Title:  The Bottom of the Glass
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst/Romance/Drama
Pairings:  Chloe/Oliver
Summary: Chloe's meteor powers return with reinforcements. Instead of talking to anyone about it, even Oliver, she finds a different refuge.
Warnings: mild OOC on Chloe's part


Chapter 1

Previous (Chapter 11)
Next (Chapter 13)

-12-

Tess swore. Red lights were flashing and sirens were blaring, notifying them that someone had breached security. "We need to get out of here. Now!"

"We can't just leave Emil's research here! They'll put everything together. They can't know about me!"

"What the hell are they doing here?" Tess asked, scrambling with Emil to grab files and vials of red serum.

"I must have missed a bug somewhere. Would you pass up the opportunity of having the three of us in one room?" Emil asked, eyebrows up.

Tess muttered darkly under her breath, jumping when she heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairwell outside.

"Chloe, you need to get out of here. There's a window through that door," he nodded before rushing back to his computer to start an emergency shut down.

Chloe bit her lip, making a quick decision. Tess glanced over her shoulder and saw that Chloe was still standing there. "What are you waiting for? Go!"

Thinking Chloe was an idiot, Tess spotted a box in a corner of the room. Dumping its contents, she started throwing the files into it. Someone started beating at the door.

Making her decision, Chloe grabbed a couple of vials of serum and a syringe before sprinting for the door Emil had directed her to. Inside, she spotted the window he was talking about. Wondering if she would even fit through it, she grabbed a couple of crates and started stacking them, heart thudding wildly in her chest.

She jumped as she heard the Checkmate minions enter the room outside. Cursing, she moved more quickly, meaning that she only got more clumsy. Then she heard Tess's surprised voice, "Clark?"

Chloe breathed a sigh of relief too soon. Just as she was thanking God for the Blur, two men must have gotten past him to burst into the small storage room she was in. Buying herself time, she roundhouse kicked one of them into the other. As they were disentangling themselves from each other, she took the syringe and plunged it into the first, the second, and then the third vial. Jabbing her arm with three doses at once, Chloe suddenly felt dizzy, a feeling which was almost instantly replaced with an adrenaline rush the likes of which she had never felt.

A third man joined her first two, and she found herself smirking at the challenge. Abandoning her escape plan, she jauntily jumped down from the boxes she'd been climbing and took a fighting stance. Cocking her head to the side she raised a hand and beckoned the men forward.

Glancing at one another warily, the three of them simultaneously lunged at her. With a thrill of excitement, Chloe fought them tooth and nail.

Unfortunately, while she might have been able to take two of them, three was a bit ambitious, and when they were joined by a fourth, Chloe suddenly found herself struggling desperately to break free of them. A scream of frustration ripped from her throat at being restrained, and Clark looked up in time from saving Emil to see her predicament. Rushing to her side to knock them out, Clark was startled when Chloe started to head deeper into the fray. He gripped her shoulder and wrenched her back.

"Chloe, get out of here," he commanded. Rolling her eyes, Chloe headed back to the stack of boxes while Clark went to the aid of Tess, who was currently giving two men a serious run for their money.

Chloe was halfway out the window when someone grabbed her ankle. Kicking wildly, Chloe tried to throw him off as he yanked her back down. He was wearing kryptonite knuckles.

"Get off!" she shouted irritably, only to be ripped from the tower of boxes unceremoniously. Angrily she wiped blood from her lip before pulling her fist back and letting it fly at the man's face with all the force she could muster. "Let go!" she yelled when he still wouldn't release her.

Clark heard her that time, unfortunately, and before Chloe could warn him off, he entered the room, only to collapse to the floor the moment he felt the green kryptonite's effect.

"Clark!" she yelled angrily, turning to spit in her assailant's eye. Her satisfaction was fleeting, however, when he directed a harsh back-handed slap across her face. He was too strong for her and she couldn't break his grip. Just as she was frustratedly thinking she should have thrown herself out the window when she had the chance, she heard a soft whistling sound pierce the air, and the man's face went slack. He fell on top of her and she saw a small green dart sticking out of his shoulder. "About time," she grinned, looking up to see the Green Arrow directing another dart in the direction of the door. She looked around the room. Before Clark passed out, it looked like he managed to take out just about all of them, leaving only the two the Green Arrow had just taken out.

"Oh right, Clark," she muttered casually, glancing at her now helpless best friend as she suddenly remembered him. She bent over and slipped the kryptonite knuckles off of the unconscious heap before her. Pleased with herself, she climbed to the window and hurled the knuckles out. Shutting the window, she sat down to watch Clark come back to life.

He stood almost instantly.

"You should get Emil and Tess and all the research out of here before Checkmate sends any more of these guys," she told him matter-of-factly.

Clark, frowning deeply, looked as though he were about to ask her something, but he shook his head, apparently deciding she was right. Leaving her, he went to Tess, carelessly tossing an unconscious man from atop of her. Gratefully, Tess stood, grabbing her box of files, and allowed Clark to carry her to safety.

Oliver watched them go before turning to Chloe, throwing his hood down. "Are you all right?" he asked, concern in his voice. Behind his glasses, his eyes took in her bloody cheek, where the false knuckles had made contact.

She smirked at him from her precarious perch atop the boxes. "What? No voice distorter? Have I ever told you how sexy that thing is?"

Oliver's eyebrow shot up. "Chloe?" he asked slowly.

"Hmm?"

"Are you okay?"

"Peachy."

Hamilton had reached his side. His eyes took in the empty vials and syringe on the floor. "Oh God," he groaned, looking up at her in panic. "Chloe, what did you do?"

"About what?" she asked cheerily.

"The serum."

"Oh that," she frowned. "I figured I'd take my chances with the side effects. If they captured me, I didn't want them to be able to make me use my powers."

Emil faltered and Oliver looked at him anxiously. "But...but that's okay, isn't it? One dose isn't a big deal and the side effects should wear off, right? We just need to keep an eye on her until they do, right?"

Emil nodded slowly. "I'm not sure how long they'll last, but-" he swallowed, "but how much did you take, Chloe?"

"Three doses. You said that was how much it takes to clear out all the green crud, right?" She looked ridiculously pleased with herself.

Emil groaned and Oliver swore.

"Shouldn't that have killed her?" Oliver demanded, wide-eyed with panic.

"It might, yet," Emil said nervously.

"Don't worry. I bet when that guy slapped me with his kryptonite brass, it bought me some extra time. It did break skin," Chloe said in a manner of commenting on the weather before shooting a dirty look at the offending man.

"What's going on?" Emil and Oliver jumped and Chloe giggled pleasantly, amused at seeing them startled.

"How long have you been standing there?" Oliver asked Clark irritably.

"Since I said the word peachy," Chloe supplied from behind them. All three men shot her a nervous look.

"Chloe's system is about to go into complete meltdown because she took three times the amount of red K she was supposed to and now there's no green K in her system," Oliver said angrily, trying to keep the volume of his voice under control.

Clark looked from Oliver to Emil. "SHE WHAT?" The mention of red kryptonite alone was enough to send him through the roof, but Oliver had just said something about Chloe being unable to function without green kryptonite. Emil set into trying to explain how Chloe's system had become dependent on meteor rock, and how the cure he had concocted worked.

"Did you know it's kind of dizzy up here?" Chloe asked suddenly, interrupting them. Three heads snapped in her direction. She swayed for a moment before passing out, tumbling from the crates, only to be caught by a quick-responding Clark.

"What do we do?" he asked Emil, fear in his eyes as he held her like a bird with a broken wing.

 

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Next (Chapter 13)