Chapter 7 by Zeebop

Who Greets Them?

Neron

A great shock of blond hair crested a face that was classically handsome, but lined with cruelty. It was a face that was eternally young with green eyes infinitely old and inhuman. Like a mask assembled by some computer algorithm that had pieced together the most handsome stars in Hollywood and arrived in some uncanny valley. The body too was slim, muscular, fit; closely-garbed in an exotic costume of green and white, a bodybuilder encased in a garish cloak and pectoral.

Lois recognized him immediately. "Oh, hell." she said.

The face showed teeth. You couldn't call it a smile.

I smell her on you,

Lost and lonely one,

This night you may rue,

Ere again you see the sun!

Know this devil's whore:

Passage hence demands a toll,

Before you pass through this door,

Lips must wrap about my pole!

His hands undid the great buckle of his belt, and let it fall. His pants fell open as a surprisingly average-sized erection stood out. Lois almost laughed; on his bodybuilder physique it looked small, barely six inches. Yet it was pale, and the veins showed black beneath the skin, and the head was an unnatural grey.

Lois repeated the lines to herself, slowly. The drunken haze was making it hard to think. Neron was a devil—had been the Devil—made a bunch of deals with supervillains, before he had been defeated...Superman hadn't told her all the details but...

"Why are you...rhyming?"

The face-mask froze.

In infernal rank I was demoted

Now a rhymer, to be promoted.

"And if you get your cock sucked...I can go in?"

Such are my fees,

You have it right,

Get on your knees,

Just don't bite.

Lois thought for a moment...then a wicked grin split her face.