"Le…" I'm glaring at Kitty even before she begins to pitifully attempt to correct her monumental mistake, "Lenny…"
Her voice, calling out even the sound of 'Le' could be disastrous. The look in my eyes informs her of all she needs to know as she promptly puts her head down and continues fumbling with what's in her hand. The anger inside simmers for a moment… speaking and calling me Lenny, it's as if she tests me on purpose. I rise quickly to my feet and take a few tentative steps forward, scanning the horizon and the heavens above…
Moments pass…
Then I feel it…
A sudden rush of wind blows from behind me, sending a cold chill down my spine and deep into my very being.
The sound of the strong gust of wind is joined by the sickening sound of material flapping in the breeze.
Feeling, almost nervous for a brief second, before grasping firmly onto the Kryptonite in my pocket, ready to uncoil with it like a viper, I slowly turn around….
And I see Kitty… shaking and flapping a large blanket open as she lays it across the ground, gusts of air blowing into my face as it flails through the air. My grip on the kryptonite remains firm as I consider that, despite her not being Kryptonian, it would still very satisfyingly tear into her flesh…. But no, she may have a use yet.
She will live for now and so once again, for the time being, I find myself with company.
But one may ask why, Lex Luthor, feels the need to surround himself with anybody, let alone the incompetents I have admittedly burdened myself with in the past. These people have never been accomplices, no; I share neither schemes nor spoils with anyone. My aspirations, my undertakings are my labour and therefore I and I alone will reap the fruits. Ultimately, at a point when it is far too late, they will realise that they are expendable. So what then, are they?
Mrs Teschmacher… Otis… Stanford… Brutus… Grant… Riley… Kitty…
Then there was dear Gertrude Vanderworth… That was a labour unlike any other I have undertaken, feigning love to a withered old crone was something that is quite haunting yet it paid handsomely when she finally had the decency to die.
I have people as my allies, simply because they are tools, implements with which I can use to fulfil my endeavours. Like tools I pick them up, use them as long as necessary and then… the inevitability of outliving their usefulness. I certainly do not have people around me because I wish to have a following. Oh no. One thing I am not is a dictator.
Do I see myself as a leader? No, not particularly. I have no real desire to command as such. So do I see my self as an inspiration, someone who, like a son from a distant star, could be a light to show the way? Again, no, for I have no burning ambition to be a standard bearer for anybody.
True, I am the greatest criminal mind of our time, but that is not because I either wish to have a following or be a symbol for anything whatsoever. My brilliance is a truly awe inspiring thing. But I will not use it to help others simply because I have personal dreams and ambitions, so therefore, I will do the very human thing of helping myself.
At large I command a certain amount of, well I would not rush to use the word respect but my infamy as the not only the greatest criminal mind of our time but also the man who almost killed Superman, bestows me with a status, if you will. There are the dogs, the pick pockets, the petty thieves. There are the wolves, the murderers, the rapists, those who commit fantastic crimes.
Then there is Lex Luthor.
But when put into an environment where even my monumental intellect, resources, brilliance and cunning have no impact, give me no quarter or separate me from my fellow man, dropped into an ocean with sharks even bigger than myself? Well, I found myself in such a place. I became a number, a statistic, someone as vulnerable as the person in line next to me. I entered alone and knew that to survive, I would simply have to do what I've always done. Make convenient and self beneficial allegiances.
As I told Kitty, in prison, even Lex Luthor becomes leader to no man.
I did once before have to make an allegiance to predators almost, almost, beyond myself.
Three Kryptonian criminals, each one of them had the same powers as him. Although the best thing was their desire to destroy him, it was almost perfect. The enemy of my enemy was my… Oh well now, I certainly not use the word friend. Not because I have none and do not wish for any, but they too, where little more than super powered implements. They would kill our mutual problem in the red cape, they would rule the world and I, for the tiny part I played, would get Australia.
Well… that is what they thought…. He was just one and they where three… but one fact remained…
Mind over muscle… Even three times the muscle.
The kryptonians saw things going thusly, they kill the son of Jor-El and then rule the world, which was absolutely fine with me, to a point. I was all for the killing part of the plan obviously. But I took exception to the rest of it. I would take Australia as my own, bide my time, waiting. I have no desire for it; I'm simply out for my cut. The greatest criminal mind thrives in a free world, with one dictatorship; I would either wither and die, or have to pretty much retire. Neither of those two things appeals to me.
Oh and of course, there is the one slightly significant thing that I, Lex Luthor, will kneel before no one.
So where someone to rule over Earth, regardless of whether or not I was in their favour… Well, I would not allow it. Before I even stepped foot into what remained of the White House, I had already begun plans to go on a small vacation, to a place I had been to before and found had remarkable souvenirs.
A charming place called Addis Adaba.
They had their goals of the death of the son of their jailer and then world domination. They would do it of course, I fully believed, they would kill him and then slowly cross the finish line and claim their prize, the planet Earth. Yet at the finish line, I would be there, waiting, smiling… shortly before I killed them with Kryptonite.
Mind over muscle…
I would not have stepped into the vacuum left by their deaths, taking place on the throne of the world, oh no. I would have taken what I could, got my cut, and left, the planet returning to how it once was…. Although it would now be Kryptonian free.
I smile a small smile, a simple mocking remembrance…
General Zod… A simple, shallow, short sighted man with power wasted on someone whose self importance spans galaxies. So wrapped up in his narrow minded agendas to have revenge on Jor-El and to rule he was as simple minded as that brainless behemoth Non. At least Ursa seemed capable of diverse thought, even if she had nothing but blind allegiance. Zod was a man who pathetically justified his so called supremacy by calling himself 'General'.
A psychiatrist's field day… What a sanctimonious pitiful little man…
How is it that a man from a world that has long since died can parade around as having any kind of General authority? He was nothing of any importance and would have died by kryptonite like any common Kryptonian.
So like all the other people I have had around me throughout my criminal career, they where simply a means to an end. That is all anyone ever is. I keep them at hand for a specific reason until such time as I see fit or until they become obsolete. Right now it's beneficial to keep her alive as Kitty has a certain potential usefulness.
As it is always good to have a sentimental, comforting woman around if you're going to have a child in your possession.