VULNERABLIDE

Linda's head snapped to the side as a forceful hand ripped the sack off her head. Blinking and squinting her eyes against the sudden onslaught of light, and taking a deep breath of fresh air through her nose, she tried to assess her situation. She was lying on a couch in a large room illuminated by harsh fluorescent lights, casting stark shadows against the utilitarian furnishings. A desk stood against one wall, cluttered with papers and office supplies, while metal file cabinets lined another. The sterile atmosphere hinted at its underground location, devoid of any windows to let in natural light. It wasn't until her eyes adjusted that she recognized the figure looming over her. She let out a muffled yell of dismay.

Lex Luthor!

His features contorted with disdain and revulsion, Lex's piercing eyes drilled into her with an intensity that spoke volumes of his contempt. The harsh lights overhead accentuated the stark contours of his bald head and clenched jaw, casting deep shadows across his face. Dressed immaculately in a tailored suit, he exuded an air of superiority and dominance, towering menacingly over Linda's small frame. With each breath she took, Linda felt as though the weight of his contempt was pressing down on her, making it difficult to draw in air. His presence loomed over her like a suffocating shadow, suffusing the underground hideout with an oppressive aura of malice.

Despite sensing the intensity of Lex's hatred and anger, Linda was merely a bystander in his eyes. His malice and contempt were not meant for her, but were singularly aimed at Superman.

Superman. The mere mention of his name sent shivers down Lex's spine, igniting fiery rage within him that consumed his every thought. Superman was a blight upon this world, a symbol of false hope and undeserved adoration. How dare he flaunt his powers and superiority, while Lex, the true genius, the native born son of Earth, was forced to toil in the shadows? He thwarted his plans at every turn, disrupting his carefully laid schemes with his interference. And yet, the world cheers for him, worships him as if he were a god. But he is not a god. He is an alien, an outsider, a trespasser in Lex's eyes. He does not belong here! He was never meant to be here! He should have perished along with his doomed planet of Krypton. But fate had other ideas, granting him life and allowing him to roam freely among humans, masquerading as a champion of justice. How Lex yearned for the simpler times when villains roamed without the interference of a caped crusader. Figures like Al Capone, Blackbeard, Pablo Escobar, Du Yuesheng, Lawrence Anini, and Dawood Ibrahim thrived without the hindrance of a of a self-righteous alien.

Lex knew two years ago when he sent Linda to Midvale Girls' School that Superman would find her one day. Her being rescued was a feature, not a bug, of his plans. He wanted Superman to find Linda, rescue her, become close with her, love her, cherish her, and then…fail to protect her –- or worse - as he would ultimately fail to protect everyone he cared about. Lex was willing to let her go, since she wasn't really useful to him in any other capacity anymore. But he wasn't going to make it easy for Superman. Using Linda to lure him into a trap was an opportunity too good to pass up. Yes, he could have filled the bombs with kryptonite. But he didn't want Superman dead… not just yet. For now, he just wanted to hurt him.

Damn it!

He wanted to hurt Superman!

Lex hungered to inflict such searing agony upon Superman that the hero would beg for death to release him from the torment, a courtesy Lex would deny him. Then Lex would continue to subject him to unspeakable suffering, till even the hope of the solace of death eluded him. And only after Superman stopped begging for death would Lex finally kill him.

The desire to pierce through Superman's facade of invincibility and shatter the arrogance that came with his superhuman abilities made Lex shake with delirium. He relished the thought of watching Superman's legendary stoicism crumble beneath the weight of unrelenting pain. Would Superman weep like this feeble Kryptonian girl when faced with enough agony? Might he tremble in terror like his hapless compatriot when confronted with the horrors that awaited him? Lex burned with a consuming fervor to unearth the hero's breaking point. He was driven by an insatiable thirst to push Superman beyond the brink, to strip away every vestige of hope until the hero was reduced to nothing but a hollow husk clad in a scarlet cape.

Lex sneered at the creature cringing on his couch with contempt. Superman, the stupid, arrogant fool had made his presence known at the school, and then just left Linda there, giving Lex the opportunity to rekidnap her. It didn't take long for Luthor to formulate slight alterations to his plans to take advantage of this unforeseen windfall. She would prove useful again after all.

He yanked off the rope tied around her face and extracted the washcloth stuffed in her mouth, but left the zip tie holding her hands tightly behind her back in place. "Hello there." Lex's voice dripped with scorn. "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. Why would Superman kidnap her? 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…please…?"

Lex's face twitched with annoyance. Impudent alien… spawn! He couldn't stand her whimpering and cowering. She had been feisty enough when he first found her four years ago, but Dr. Elbe had inadvertently done something that changed her literally into a crybaby. "Oh, is it only kinda tight? Lemme fix that for you." He reached behind her and pulled hard on the zip tie, tightening it further. Linda yelled in pain and dismay. "There, fixed."

Linda started sobbing again.

Lex almost regretted hurting her. He wasn't a sadist. If causing her pain had given him pleasure, maybe it would have been worth dealing with the freshly invigorated wailing and bawling. He wanted to hurt Superman because he hated him with a burning passion. But he had no strong feelings about the creature cringing and trembling before him and no particular desire to inflict pain on it for its own sake. It was not worth the tears and slobber now staining his couch.

He roughly yanked Linda so she was sitting upright. "Shut up!" he shouted at her.

She tried again to suppress her crying. "I wanna go back to school," she whimpered between hiccups.

"Oh, you're not going back to school," Lex growled, shaking his head slowly, menacingly.

"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. He scoffed when she flinched at the pathetic rag.

"What do you want from me?" she whimpered.

Lex looked at her for a few moments, his nose scrunched and his lip curled in a snarl. Standing up to his full height and looking down on the small, cowering, figure, he forced his expression into one of serious import. "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, placing the items on the coffee table opposite the couch. Sitting down next to them, he reached over, 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.

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

Jiggy leaned against a wall, pulled out a pocketknife and started cleaning his fingernails with it. He watched Lex and Linda with curiosity. Linda eyed him warily until Lex grabbed her chin and yanked it till she was facing him again, dangling the hair he had just pulled out of her scalp in front of her eyes. "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 as he let go of her chin and picked up the scissors. "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, letting a golden curl fall to the floor. Several more cuts followed, each reducing the length in his hand until it became shorter and shorter. "See. I can cut it… easily."

He dropped the trimmed hair that remained in his hand and picked up the flask and showed it to Linda. He twirled it around to showcase the yellowish liquid inside. As it swished around, Linda could see there was a bluish-grey globular object immersed in the liquid.

"Dr. Elbe found a curious substance inside of you… all over your body. It's producing a mixture of chemicals…" Lex twirled the flask again, holding it up to his eye level, watching it swirl. "…we're calling 'vulnerblide.' You're full of these vulnerblide chemicals, in your blood stream, your lymphatic system, all your fluids and tissues, permeating every cell in your body, everywhere." He put the flask down, opened the box, and pulled out tuft of blonde curly hair. "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, Lex 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. He inserted the lower scissor blade into the loop and attempted again to cut the hair. 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," Lex pointed out. "Like Superman." He paused to smirk at Linda for a moment. He dipped one of the scissor blades into the liquid in the flask, inserted it into the loop of hair in his hand and pulled, slicing through the hair easily. "And now… vulnerable. Like Superman, earlier today in Midvale."

He leaned toward Linda, holding the scissor blade between them until his scowl was just inches from Linda's petrified face and the blade was touching the corner of her eye. She closed her eyes tightly, expecting to feel pain as he cut her. But it was the dull side of the blade that he firmly drew down her cheek, following the path of her tears. He had no desire to ruin his couch with her blood.

He pulled back and waited for the girl to open her eyes again. "It is a scientifically valid hypothesis that if there are chemicals that can make your hair vulnerable…" He paused again for dramatic effect. "then there are other chemicals that can make my hair invulnerable."

"But… you're bald."

"Shut up!" Lex angrily whipped Linda in the face with the handle end of the scissor blade, regretting it when he saw her nose start to bleed. He had always thought she was a bit of a dimwit, but perhaps she was denser than he thought. No matter. Superman would understand. For now, he was done with Linda, who had again begun sobbing hysterically. "Jiggy!" He motioned for Jiggy to come forward and take her before the blood dripped on his couch. Lex noticed he was leering at Linda. Gross! "Why are you looking at her like that, Jiggy? She's not even human!"

Jiggy licked his lips as he drew near. "She looks human."

Lex wanted to puke. According to his new plans, Linda needed to be severely traumatized, but he didn't have the stomach to do it himself, kind of like not wanting to squish a disgusting insect. He had decided to delegate the task to Jiggy and the rest of the thugs. But the thought that they might actually enjoy themselves made Lex nauseous. "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.