VULNERABLIDE

Linda's head snapped to the side as the sack was roughly ripped off her head. She took a deep breath of fresh air through her nose. Her mouth was gagged. She was laying on a couch in what appeared to be an office. Looking up, she let out a muffled yell of dismay.

Lex Luthor.

He was staring down at her, his face twisted in disgust. He yanked the rope tied around her face and extracted the washcloth stuffed in her mouth, but left the thongs holding her hands tightly behind her back in place.

"Hello there." He smiled at her, but his voice dripped with hatred. "Aren't you going to say hi?"

Linda tried to choke back her sobs. She remembered Mr. Luthor had no patience for crying children.

"Hi," she managed to squeak out.

"That was a close one, wasn't it? Superman almost kidnapped you. You should thank me for rescuing you."

Linda was confused. Very little Mr. Luthor ever said to her made much sense.

"Mr. Luthor," she tried her best to speak politely. "My arms hurt. It's kinda tight. Can you…?"

"Oh, is it only kinda tight? Lemme fix that for you." He reached behind her and pulled hard on the thongs, tightening them further. Linda yelled in pain and dismay. "There, fixed."

Linda started sobbing again. Lex pulled her upright until she was sitting on the couch. "Shut up," he shouted at her.

She tried again to suppress her crying. "Please take me back to school."

"You're not going back to school."

"Why not?"

"I saw your last report card. Who do you think's been paying your tuition?"

Linda started crying again. "I'm sorry, I'll try harder…."

"Oh, shut up already! I don't care about your report card." He threw the washcloth at her. Not that he expected it would inflict any pain. He just wanted to lash out at her.

Linda flinched when the washcloth hit her. "What do you want from me?"

Lex looked at her in disgust for a few moments. "I want to show you something." He walked to the large desk dominating the room, picked up a pair of scissors, a flask, and a small box, then returned to Linda. He then reached over and grabbed a small tuft of Linda's hair and gave it a hard yank.

"Ow!"

A burly man with a nasty scowl and an odor to match entered the room.

Luthor briefly glanced up at him. "Ah, Jiggy. I just need a few more minutes."

Jiggy leaned against a wall, pulled out a pocket knife and started cleaning his fingernails with it. He watched Luthor and Linda with curiosity.

Luthor turned back to Linda and showed her the hair he had just pulled out of her scalp. "Your hair is vulnerable. Do you know what vulnerable means?"

"Capable of being wounded or hurt," Linda recited timidly.

Lex nodded his head in approval. "Very good. Your hair is vulnerable," he repeated. Bringing the hair and scissors close to her face, he proceeded to cut the hair near the bottom, shortening it. Several more cuts followed, each reducing the length until it became shorter and shorter. "See. I can cut it… easily. Dr. Elbe found a curious substance inside of you… all over your body. It's producing a mixture of chemicals." Lex twirled his hand holding the hair around. "We're calling it 'vulnerblide.' You're full of these vulnerblide chemicals, in your blood stream, your lymphatic system, and permeating every cell in your body, everywhere." Lex dropped the hair that was in his hand. He opened up the box and pulled out another tuft of blonde curly hair and showed it to Linda. "They even permeate your hair as it grows out of your scalp. Dr. Elbe managed to remove the vulnerblide from this hair." As he had done before, Luthor held the scissors and hair up to Linda's face and proceeded to try to cut the hair. But this time, the hair doubled back on itself, bending around the scissor blade, refusing to succumb to the cutting edge. He formed a loop with the hair, holding it taut between his fingers. and attempted again to cut it. The scissors wouldn't close all the way. He took a deep breath and put all his might into closing the scissors.

The scissors broke.

Linda startled.

"Invulnerable," he pointed out. "Like Superman." He paused to smirk at Linda for a moment. "It occurs to me that if there are chemicals that can make your hair vulnerable, then there are other chemicals that can make my hair..." He paused for dramatic effect. "...invulnerable."

"But… you're bald."

"Shut up!" Luthor hit Linda in the head with the half of the broken scissors still in his hand. She started crying again. Was she really so dense? No matter. Superman would understand. For now, he was done with Linda. He looked up at Jiggy and motioned for him to come forward.

Jiggy was leering at Linda. Gross! "Jiggy, she's not even human!"

"She looks human."

Luthor wanted to puke. "Listen, I don't care what you and the others do to her, but I don't want to see or hear about it. Just keep her out of my sight." He was about to dismiss Jiggy when another thought occurred to him. "And Jiggy, don't be so rough with her you end up like Lester."

Jiggy pulled Linda up and swung her over his shoulder. "Got it, boss." He carried the sobbing Linda out of the office.