OOM: Smallville

[shortofcrazy]

In the morning, Riley is settled into a circular booth in the Talon, his back against the wall and his feet drawn up onto the seat. His face is pinched -- with exhaustion, worry, frustration -- and he has a small, silver laptop on the table in front of him, along with his bigger MacBook (they're attached via a cable) and a cold cup of coffee.

Comments

[shortofcrazy]

"--Aw jeez--" Riley's startled flail is enough to smack his hand against Bethany's laptop's screen, and as he hisses and looks up -- Clark.

Immediately, he's up out of his seat.

"Did you--"

'Did you find her' is a pretty stupid question to ask, after Clark's opener, and the fact that Chloe isn't standing next to him. Riley swallows it.

"Yeah," he says. "That whoever owns this," with a frustrated gesture at the laptop, "is even more paranoid than I am." Riley sighs. "I got past the initial layer of security, but it took all night; the stuff's incredibly complex. I don't know how much of it's because of different tech between our worlds and how much is just because you guys are from 2007 and I'm from 2004, but I've never seen anything like some of it."

He shoves his hands into his pockets. "The system encryptions should have been the hardest part, but I can't get into more than a couple of files, and none of the biggest ones, which I'm guessing are also the important ones. The ones that I did crack, they're in some kind of crazy code; I only got a couple of phrases here and there." He pulls over a sheet of notebook paper (in a notebook he'd snagged from Chloe's apartment), that is covered in scrawled, illegible handwriting, from top to bottom, left to right.

" 'Erythrocyte and leukocyte counts,' 'spectral scan,' " he reads off of it. He glances at Clark. "I did some Googling. That's, uh, red and white blood cells, and this -- scan, that monitors air pollution sources. And the other thing I got," he says, and he hands the paper over to Clark. In giant letters, in the center of all of the algorithms and notes and formulae, it reads: 'LUTHOR CORPORATION.'

[hero_farmboy]

Clark does not understand your technobabble, Riley, other than to figure out that while some information was gleaned, it's nothing immediately useful. The medical terms go over his head, too.

However, when Clark glances down at the paper, it's clear that something there is recognized. Something that makes his jaw clench and his eyes flash with what can only be anger.

"Luthorcorp. I should have known."

[shortofcrazy]

"Yeah." Riley knows enough about the Luthors -- not a lot, but enough -- to know that it's bad news.

"What about you? Did you get anything from Tobias?" he asks, desperate for any kind of a lead.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark glances up from the paper very briefly and then sidesteps around Riley to slide into the opposite side of the booth.

"Nothing concrete." What? It's the truth. "He basically confirmed that Dr. Bethany is behind the abductions, but he didn't know where Chloe would have been taken."

[shortofcrazy]

Riley leans heavily on the table.

"Nothing?" he says, quietly. "No clues, no leads -- nothing?

"Clark, man, we've got to find her. If we don't, I don't -- I don't know--"

He sets his mouth, panicky and scared as all fuck, but stubborn as it comes. "Not an option."

He isn't looking at anything but Clark.

[torch_reporter]

Coffee had been her plan. But she stops short on the stairs when she sees Clark with... with Riley.

Ooookay. Is the world ending? She doesn't remember bringing her boyfriend back here. And the fact that he's conversing with Clark...

Confused, coffee is ignored and Chloe walks over to their booth. Slowly, she looks from one to the other. "Um, guys? What's going on here?"

[hero_farmboy]

Clark's head snaps up seconds before she approaches their booth. "Chloe," he says at the smae time she speaks, standing from the booth.

"Are you all right?"

[shortofcrazy]

Riley's eyes snap to Chloe, who is standing over (then at, as he gets up) Clark's shoulder. Riley isn't frozen for more than a split second before he's moving.

Chloe, meet incredibly ungraceful bearhug. Incredibly ungraceful bearhug, Chloe.

Riley can move pretty quick, for an unathletic guy.

[torch_reporter]

She hugs Riley back out of instinct more than anything. But as she does so, Chloe looks over his shoulder at Clark. There's a definite question in her eyes.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?"

[hero_farmboy]

Clark averts his eyes in a valiant attempt to give them some measure of privacy. As much as they can have in a public place with a large farmboy standing right beside them, anyway.

"You've been missing since last night," he explains. "I brought Riley in last night to see if he could help find out where you might be."

[torch_reporter]

Which would explain the anaconda squeeze she's currently found herself trapped in, at least. Chloe's eyes close and she buries her against Riley's shoulder as she thinks it over.

Missing? That doesn't make any sort of sense. But still, her heart skips a beat.

Chloe lifts her head back up to meet Clark's eyes again. "Clark, that's ridiculous. I've been upstairs all night."

[shortofcrazy]

Riley shoots her a quizzical look, his eyebrows furrowing. "No," he says, and he releases her, stepping back with his hands on her upper arms, and then finally letting her go. "I was up there half the night. Trust me, Chloe -- you weren't there."

He glances at Clark, bewildered.

(Clark only barely alluded to the fact that other people had been abducted, and didn't mention at all that people have been returned to their beds in the morning with their memories wiped.

He's kinda confused, here, and more than a little worried. She doesn't remember?)

[hero_farmboy]

Yeah, well, Clark was a little too freaked with "Chloe's gone" to get into specific details. Also, he wasn't entirely certain the previous abductions were necessarily connected. Completely.

He stands corrected.

"Chloe," he starts slowly and seriously, "I think you might have been taken by the same people who took Daniel Kim." He eyes her hopefully. "You don't remember anything?"

[torch_reporter]

"Oh my god," she gasps, hands going to her mouth.

She looks from Clark to Riley and back to Clark again. They mean every word of it, don't they?

"I don't understand. Why would they take me?"

[hero_farmboy]

"Maybe they just wanted to scare you." Clark suggests, trying to be convincing and casual all at the same time. "You did witness Daniel's abduction, after all. They probably thought this might stop you from looking into it anymore."

[torch_reporter]

That still doesn't make any sense. She's seen what happens to witnesses before - their houses get blown up.

She shakes her head, frowning. "No. If that were the case, they wouldn't have released me."