Music was playing.Strings, accompanied by French horn. The melody flitted like a hummingbird, energetic and lively, before solidifying into a stair-step arpeggio, again and again. It certainly required no small degree of technical skill for the orchestra to perform, but there was a certain routine to it, prowess without grace. Soon, the orchestra would be silent, to give way for a single pianist. Again, to play the piano part in this piece required all of the trademarks of good musicianship: dexterity, timing, memorization. But there lacked that certain
je ne sais quois that made the truly immortal composers stand the test of centuries. It was merely 'some old music.'
The piece was by Antonio Salieri, who in his time was a celebrated and successful composer in Vienna. He was the favored musician in the court of the Emperor of Austria. He was the instructor of titanic composers such as Liszt, Schubert, and even Beethoven himself. He was rich, he was popular, he was successful in every measure....
....and if it weren't for an unflattering depiction in a play written centuries after his death, he would have been completely forgotten to history.
For Salieri was a contemporary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. And while Salieri was rich, popular, and powerful, Mozart....was
Mozart.The strings jumped in again to accompany the pianist's busy fluttering, but the music was drowned out by the sounds of Lex Luthor entertaining his guests in his father's study.
An oil painting of his old man hung over the mantle of a roaring fireplace, gazing down coldly upon a room filled with priceless pieces of art and antiquity. Mahogany armchairs, polished to a shine, dotted the corners of the room, dwarfed by the mighty oak partners' desk and high-backed chair at the end of the room. A huge grizzly bear pelt lay across the eggshell carpet, its visage frozen in a permanent silent roar. The walls, painted a deep forest green, were dominated by massive bookcases on either side, filled to burst with leatherbound volumes. What free space on the walls remained was cluttered with gilded paintings, hunting trophies, or photographs of the old man's conquests. Among them, not a single picture existed of his wives, or his son.
Some men played golf to clear their heads. Some took up hobbies like train sets or ships in bottles. Most men these days simply got drunk and picked up whatever barfly with low enough self-esteem would have them. Lex, on the other hand, had a very particular way of relieving tension after a stressful day, and as the orchestra swelled, he was well on his way to fulfilling it.
*KNOCK-KNOCK*"Mister Luthor?" came a voice from the other side of the large oak double-doors.
"There's been an incident that requires your attention, sir."Lex's face twisted to a scowl of frustration, his whole body trembling with sudden agitation. The moment ruined, he wiped a hand across his face, took a moment to compose himself, then turned off the music and went to the door.
Greeting him was a tall, fit woman of Asian descent in a smart black dress and rimless glasses, holding a company-issued L-Pad. She did not so much as flinch as the door cracked open to reveal the scene inside.
"Mercy," said the visibly annoyed Lex,
"I know you're still new to the position, but I thought I was quite explicit when I told you I was not to be disturbed when I have guests in the study.""You were, sir," Mercy Graves said, her poker-face not giving a millimeter.
"You also told me that I was to inform you of any Alpha-priority incidents immediately, regardless of the circumstances. Between having you temporarily annoyed and having you potentially endangered, it was not a difficult judgment call."For a moment, Lex eyed the girl, trying to get a read on her intentions.
His last assistant, Miss Tessmacher, was competent, well-mannered, and studious when it came to knowing what he wanted at any given time. She was always nervous around him, however, careful not to say or do anything that might displease him. She had taken an unfortunate fall from the top of the LexCorp Tower during the Toyman's first attack, but was spared at the last second by divine intervention in a blue T-shirt. How tragic, then, that her guardian angel was nowhere to be found when she stepped in front of a train a week later.
Mercy Graves was not cut from the same cloth as Eve Tessmacher. She was a thorough professional, who knew full well what the job was when she took it. Her résumé didn't include the corporate moguls and political power players that Miss Tessmacher had worked for, but included some old friends that made Lex raise an eyebrow when she applied for the position.
Even now, her actions intrigued him.
I chose the action that may very well get me killed, the implication was,
rather than allow a situation to happen which may get you killed.After a moment of scrutiny, Lex laughed.
"Hah!" he exclaimed.
"Hard help is so very good to find, isn't it? If you'll give me one moment, Mercy..."Clapping his hands, he turned towards his guests.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to cut it short tonight, ladies," he said, his voice dripping with mock sadness.
"The elevator's at the end of the hall; I'm sure you can find your way out from there."As his guests gathered their things, Luthor crossed his fingers and made a pantomime blessing.
"Mediocrities of the world," he said,
"I absolve you."The two guests filed past Lex and Mercy, and Miss Graves did not give them a second glance. She made careful note not to notice the fact that both of them were wearing what appeared to be cheerleader uniforms with Superman's logo on their chests.
She also chose not to notice that one had a bloody lip, and both had bruises forming around their necks.
"So!" Lex started.
"This Alpha-priority incident. Should security be sweeping the upper levels of the Tower for unwanted playthings? Toys in the attic, hm?""No, sir," Mercy said, ignoring his wordplay,
"The breach was reported on sub-level 38. No eyewitnesses, of course, since the only person allowed on that level is yourself. Still, surveillance was able to capture the incident on camera."Handing Luthor the L-Pad, Mercy turned away, observing one of the framed Gustave Doré lithographs that lined the hallway to the study. Lex glanced for a moment as he tapped the unopened video file, noticing the one she had chosen to divert her attention to. An angelic figure, bathed with light, casting an accusing finger at a man and woman as they cowered in shame away from an idyllic wood.
"The Expulsion from Eden," he remarked.
"God sends Adam and Eve away to suffer and grow sick and old and die, because they ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The serpent that tempted them loses his legs, and has to spend the rest of eternity crawling in the dust on his belly. Hell of a price to pay for taking a bite of the forbidden fruit...."Lex turned the tablet back to Mercy.
"....but hey, what's the harm in having a little nibble?"Mercy gave Lex a studying look, as the scrawny red-headed man gave her a playful hiss, then stepped toward him to watch the video with him.
"So, let's see what-- ah!" he said.
"Object AC1-04-18. Previously in the custody of the United States Air Force, held underneath the Groom Lake AFB in Lincoln County, Nevada. Officially, it doesn't exist, has never existed, never will exist. Unofficially, it crash-landed about twenty-six years ago in a field in Kansas, and its occupant was never recovered. I don't mind telling you, I made quite a mess to get my hands on it, but it was worth every bit of it. It's where I do all my best thinking."In the time since Object AC1-04-18 was recovered, LexCorp had hurdled its competitors by leaps and bounds. Bleeding-edge electronics, new social media platforms, a whole new generation of artificial intelligence, all ready to launch humanity into the future in such a short time. Of course, those were only the experiments that yielded successful results. Others were locked away in the sub-levels beneath LexCorp Tower, some gathering dust, others still writhing and shrieking in their containment cells, gibbering masses of substance that was once human.
The Object itself was a pod of some sort, a silver sphere maybe three feet in diameter embedded at the front of a golden dart, lined with red-and-blue trim, and fins of gleaming crystal. The spherical pod was open, revealing what appeared to be a small seat, small enough to seat a creature the size of a human infant, ringed with pockets and compartments, some of which had been opened, others remained sealed.
Behind object AC1-04-18 was a transparent tube. Suspended in a clear acryllic resin was Object AS-04-43: a shard of green xenomineral, unlike anything found on the Periodic Table.
Despite the wealth of ideas Lex had gotten from studying these objects, he had yet to make any progress on activating Object AC1-04-18. This cost him no end of frustration.
Without warning, on the video, golden lights began to pierce the outer skin of the pod, crisscrossing it like circuitry. A voice, in a language Lex didn't understand, spoke.
Then, accelerating in an instant, Object AC1-04-18 slammed downward, burrowing into the ground, flooding the room with smoke and dust as the video cut off.
"Looks like Sleeping Beauty finally woke up," Lex said with piqued curiosity.
"And I didn't even think to kiss it.""Should I alert a security team to recover the object?" Mercy offered.
"Hm? Oh, no, no, nonono," he waved the idea away.
"This is one I'm going to handle myself. I want to find out exactly where my baby has gone off to, and who's doing what with it. In the meantime....hold my calls.""And if the Toyman attempts to act on his threat from today?"Lex shrugged, as if the matter was trivial.
"Then hold his calls, too." 
Retired,
Half Pint,
Hound55,
Cyberlad,
mickilennial,
Ezekiel,
Master Bruce,
PrinceAlexus,
Pilatus,
Chronic
