by Rubberman41
Metropolis:
Alexis Luthor tossed and turned in her sleep, her red hair matted to her head with sweat. Her short nightie clung to her shapely body. She was dreaming.
In her dream, Alexis saw maddening things: her father ranting over being defeated by Superman, again. That was funny, since she had never met her father.
Alexis also saw her mother slaving away at one menial job after another to keep food on the table. Alexis hated mother; she saw her as weak and beaten.
In her dreams, Alexis saw the young red-haired man in golden armor. He was mocking her with his dignity and self-rightousness. She knew that one day they would meet on the battlefield.
Alexis saw him, the new Superboy — how young and naive. She hated him, him and his father, for making her father a laughingstock to the world. She saw herself grabbing Superboy around the throat as if to strangle him, but for some strange reason she began kissing him — a long, passionate kiss — and she closed her eyes to enjoy it. No! This is wrong. He is my enemy, and anyway, he’s just a kid.
In her dream, Alexis pushed herself back from Superboy and opened her eyes to see that she had been kissing a mutated white ape — the Ultra-Humanite.
Alexis screamed and suddenly awoke. “Damn! What did all that mean?” she asked herself.
She arose shivering, and reaching for her robe, she wiped the hair out of her eyes. Alexis walked over to her vanity and looked into the mirror. “Monitor on,” she commanded. With those words, the mirror changed into a TV monitor. She lazily scanned each camera until she came to the one in the lowest subbasement.
The monitor screen showed a large glass tube filled with a greenish liquid, which held the figure of a man. The man’s resemblance to Superman was uncanny, though the man in the tube was much younger. Soon, my soldier, the effects of the kryptonite poisoning will wear off, and you will fight for me against my enemies, Alexis thought to herself.
Alexis was glad that she had found her father’s old bases. In one of them was this man kept alive by his science. She had found the history of the man, or at least what existed, and she determined that he could be saved and would make the perfect soldier in her war against her enemies.
She smiled to herself, having a great tool to fight her nemeses. “Monitor off,” she ordered and then returned to bed. She slept soundly the rest of the night.
The End