Webs of Steel

Chapter 8; Bait

Lois knew something wasn't right before she'd even opened her eyes. She could hear the sound of a busted pipe, dripping water onto the floor, and wherever she was, it had a funky, repugnant smell. It was worse than the smell of the farm, or the scent of Lex Luthor's cologne, and it was not one she recognised. The last thing she remembered was leaving the Talon, but everything after that up until now was nothing but a blur. She couldn't remember arriving at the farm or giving Clark a hard time, only the Talon, and being stood up. As she opened her eyes, she realized that she'd been tied to a chair and attempted to loosen the ropes around her wrists but to no avail.

She lifted her head and screwed her face up at the stiff feeling in her neck. Ignoring the ache that came with even the slightest movement, she scanned the room in search of any clues as to where she was. Her eyes fell upon the pipe that she'd previously heard dripping. It was made of plastic, and the water was dripping down through a crack, forming a puddle on the floor. There was a sticker upon the pipe, but even while squinting, the letters were too small to be read from her distance.

Giving up on trying to read it, she kept looking around until she saw a fire escape door. It was chained from the inside by rusty, worn out chains that had obviously been there a long time. Other than the leaking pipe, the chained up fire exit, and the chair she was tied to, there was nothing to see, nothing to tell her where she was, and she didn't even know if she was still in Smallville.
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Chloe didn't notice when Clark and Peter entered the room until their shadows invaded the light that seeped through the blinds. She stopped typing on the computer in front of her and glanced up at them with curious eyes.

"If you came to ask about that rock, the results aren't back yet. It'll be at least another few hours."

"Hello to you too, Chloe." Peter greeted her. "And that's not why we're here."

"Oh." She mouthed. "If you came to hang out, I'm sorry but I've got an article to finish."

"We didn't." Clark shook his head.

"Lois hasn't been home all night." Peter informed her. "We thought that she might be with you."

Chloe rolled her eyes, smirked, and folded her arms across her chest. "Nope. Not here, as you can see…" She stated. "But after what you, Clark Kent, pulled, I'm not surprised that she didn't go back to the farm."

Peter scowled. "Wait, how much do you know?"

"Well, she messaged me from the Talon last night. She said something about you standing her up." Chloe explained. "I didn't check until over an hour later because I was working on this article, but when I did reply she didn't text back. I just assumed she'd gone home to kick your ass."

"I didn't stand her up!" Peter denied.

"You asked her on a date and then didn't show up so… yeah, you did stand her up." Chloe argued. "Not that it's any of my business, but why, Clark? Just why would you do something like that?"

"I was-"

"Please don't tell me that you stood her up because of Lana, I still haven't forgotten our date when you ditched me to go find Lana."

"It has nothing to do with Lana, and I had to save her life, and that's the only reason I ditched you that night!" Clark blurted suddenly.

Both Peter and Chloe shot him a look as he stood there in shock over what he'd just done. Clark looked from one to the other and his eyes finally settled on Peter, who knew exactly what he was thinking and gave him an approving nod.

"Chloe, it's me." He admitted.

"Clark?" She questioned.

"I know that it sounds crazy, but yeah." He sighed. "The other night at the party, during that attack, we somehow got body swapped."