Lois Lane Is Dead

The dull tone of the flatline sounded throughout the operating theatre. The reporter's sightless eyes stared up at the ceiling. No heart beat, no brain activity. The small, delicate breasts did not rise and fall. Lex Luthor took a deep breath, and everyone waited to hear what his plan was.

"Clear the room," he said.

They shuffled out, the doctors and nurses. Mercy Graves was the last one. She paused at the door.

"Mr. Luthor...should I enact the Ennui protocol?"

"Yes," he said at last. "Thank you, Mercy."

She shut the door behind her. Everyone involved in this project was about to have their memories erased. The club would be shut down, scoured clean, the building demolished. WIthin twenty-four hours, no one would have any memory or evidence that Lois Lane had come here on her night out.

Except...there was the body.

"Why did you have to die?" he whispered to himself.

He stared at the naked corpse. There was a trickle of blood from the nostril and eyes. Synaptic seepage; his chemicals and brainwashing devices, his nanites and retroviruses...it had been too much for Lois Lane's system. Too greedy, too blind to the damage his method did all in pursuit of his goal...and Superman had not been there to save her, this time.

Superman. The alien, Lex thought. He scowled, then mopped the sweat from his brow. The Man of Steel will come looking for her. He would find her. If even one molecule of her DNA remains...he will know. Even if it didn't...if Lois disappeared too completely...he will blame me. Who else could do that, after all? Make someone vanish so completely?

For all his billions of dollars and advanced technology, Lex Luthor knew he had nothing that could truly protect him if Superman was pushed beyond his limits. Even Kryptonite wouldn't be enough.

Which left him with very few options. Perhaps he could stage a scene...throw Superman off of his scent? Or create a duplicate...a clone. That would take some effort, but wasn't impossible. If he acted quickly, and could come up with the right cover story...

Lois Lane was dead. Now, Lex Luthor needed to figure out what comes next.