Corporate Konquest

The hundred and forty inch 4k TV turned on, showing Lex Luthor’s face in crystal clear detail—allowing him to dominate the vast conference room of Lexcorp Legal for one last time. As he had been up until he’d died, Lex was a handsome man, not youthful but well-aged, his bald pate giving him a striking note of exoticism in how well it fit his features.

Kon ran a hand through his own lush hair, figuring that if he ever grew old, he’d look at least a little good as a chrome dome.

“Son,” Lex said, his voice commanding as ever, but lowered to a comfortable tone, even through the speaker system that enfolded the room. “I don’t suppose I have a right to call you that, but I won’t have a chance to earn that right, so I might as well say it this once. For the first and last time. I created you for the benefit of humanity. To take the best aspects of the Kryptonians and incorporate them into mankind, but on our terms, as we wish. The only one I could trust with this power is myself, so I tried to give… well, you… the best aspects of myself as well. I’d hoped you wouldn’t have to make the same sacrifices I’ve made, but you’ve been through struggles of your own. And even though we haven’t been on the same side very often, I’ve greatly respected your willfulness, your lust for life, and your sense of responsibility. You’re better suited to appreciate your gifts than… others who possess them… and perhaps you’re better suited to appreciate my gifts as well. That’s why you’re the only one I can trust with the power and responsibility of Lexcorp.”

“Bullshit!” Kon barked. “Classic evil overlord move! Robin’s told me that Ra’s al Ghul does this all the time. Tells Batman or Green Arrow or fucking Bane that they can be in charge of the League of Assassins, then it turns out all they get to do is decide on what color the death gas is when they start gassing people!”

“You’re probably a little dubious,” the recorded Lex said. “Maybe you even think that Lexcorp is some terrorist organization and the world would be better off without it. I had considered what would happen if Lexcorp fell into the wrong hands—hands other than mine, that is—and if it wouldn’t be better for the company to cease to exist. But then, Lexcorp itself employs three percent of America. It’s a trillion dollar company. As vicariously amusing as it is to picture it being torn apart by rival warlords like the empire of Alexander the Great, this would have a deleterious effect on the world far worse than any of those giant monsters or forest fires you so love to combat.”

“Okay,” Kon muttered. “Maybe I could give it all to that Wayne guy. He seems alright—I mean, Robin likes him well enough…”

“And before you think about simply selling the company to some rival of mine—merging two trillion dollar companies would almost certainly create a monopoly. The government wouldn’t look too kindly on that. Basic economics would dictate that redundant divisions can’t co-exist. Departments would be shuddered and hundreds of thousands would lose their jobs. But of course, that’s certain to have already occurred to you.”

“Yeah,” Kon murmured. “Just thinking out loud…”

“Of course, you could sell it to someone else, but how many people are there you can trust with a trillion-dollar company? Beast Boy? Impulse? Stop me if I’m belaboring the point,” Lex said with a chuckle, clearly aware that at least as a video will, he had Kon’s undivided attention. “You can see the problem I had. No, I think you’ll find the safest hands are your own. After all, you can run Lexcorp as morally as you’d like. Give as much to charity as you want. Raise salaries however much you want. Lexcorp is yours to do with as it pleases you. I only have one condition—”

“Here it comes!” Kon cried. “Color of the death gas…”

“In life, there were a few employees who served me with particular loyalty and competence. Now that I’m gone, it’d be ungracious of me not to see to it they still have employment. So, if you’re going to accept my shares in Lexcorp and become Lexcorp’s CEO, I require that you accept Mercy Graves as your bodyguard and Eve Teschmacher as your secretary. Both of them were invaluable aides to me and I’m sure you’ll find them just as helpful.”

“Wow,” Kon said. “The old guy almost comes off human there. I mean, that’s all-out reasonable. Not weird or awkward at all.”

“I also designed a robot that’s a perfect replica of Lois Lane,” Lex continued.

“Whoop, there it is.”

“She made a good PA. She doesn’t require food or a place to sleep, so her continued employment isn’t an issue, but as I did bring about her existence as a sentient being, I’d be remiss in allowing you to just toss her aside without at least trying her cooking.”

“She cooks?”

“She’s programmed with all the culinary knowledge of a Michelin chef, so please, let her wean you off your diet of Pizza Bites and corndogs. I realize your half-Kryptonian physiology could essentially eat dirt if you chose to, but if you’re going to be CEO, you should act with some decorum. Your employees are looking up to you as an aspirational figure. Imagine being an American and having a President who’s a complete slob.”

“How long ago did he record this?” Kon asked.

***

Mercy Graves took over from there, still wearing the abbreviated chauffeur’s uniform and stockings that Lex had had her in, and wearing them well enough that Kon didn’t expect he would ask her to change. She led him to the elevator and showed him a fingerprint scanner on the control panel.

“Thumb there. It gives you full control of the system. Otherwise, there’s no way to your offices without a guest pass.”

Kon got that. He’d been issued a guest pass at the front desk, had to swipe it in the elevator just to get this far. “How’d you get my thumbprint?”

“When have you ever worn gloves?” Mercy retorted.

Mercy pulled off the rare feat of being butch without being unfeminine. She had a square jaw, a solidly handsome face with piercing, almost hostile eyes, and black hair clipped only long enough to blunt her severe cheekbones. Her body was magnificent, taut muscles visible through her stockings with every pumping stride, not too bulky, but giving her arms and shoulders real weight inside her tunic. Not to mention her thighs. It got to the point where Kon tried not to look at her, just to be polite.

The elevator doors finally opened, depositing them on what Kon’s X-ray vision told him was the top floor of the skyscraping Lexcorp Building. Miss Teschmacher—or who Kon assumed to be Miss Teschmacher—buzzed them out of the antechamber and into the main office, though Mercy swept him inside too fast for Kon to get a good look at her. Instead, he looked around the office.

It was a corner office. Entering it, the wall to Kon’s left was floor-to-ceiling windows with a balcony outside it, though the door in the windows was so cleverly concealed Kon couldn’t see how anyone could get to the balcony. Directly in front of him was the desk—the stump of a redwood tree, hollowed out to holf an office chair in the center, various accoutrements lining the glazed top of the stump, which terminated at waist level. Behind it was another row of floor-to-ceiling windows, this one with no balcony to break up the view.

On Kon’s right, wood paneled walls held paintings, a chalkboard, and a television, all set into the wood. And, bracketing the door he’d come in through was something of a lounge area: easy chairs, a couch, a coffee table. Kon guessed Lex and anyone he invited in could sit down here and have an informal meeting, or even hang out and watch TV, though it was hard for Kon to picture Lex Luthor doing exactly any of that.

“Nice place. Mind if I redecorate? I may not know art, but I know what I don’t like.”

Mercy sighed. “You can decorate however you want. This is your office.”

Kon snorted. “It’s Lex’s office. Do I have to stay here?”

“No, but it sends a message to the rank and file that you’re in charge now. If you don’t like the furnishings, they can be replaced, but writing off the office entirely would be a sign of weakness.”

“Weakness? I’m not even that weak against Kryptonite. Guess it’s the Luthor in me. Then again, I hear he had his trouble with the green stuff too.”

Mercy reached into her pocket and came up with something that looked like a remote control, only it had the thickness of a smartphone. Kon could only guess—based on what Tim was going on about at this time or another—that it was more analog than digital, and thus the hard plastic buttons on the face were harder to hack or something.

Mercy pressed one and a panel on the wall at three o’clock slid open. Kon looked through, hands curled into fists in case Metallo was behind door number one, but it was instead a bedroom. Looked nice, too. Like a really good hotel room. But not one Kon could ever see himself visiting. Not unless he was on Red K and decided he was dickish enough to trash a hotel room.

“This is—was Mr. Luthor’s home away from home. I assume you don’t want to move into his residence, but this floor has full facilities. It can serve anywhere from four to forty guests, depending on modification, and if you start to feel crowded, you also have access to the executive facilities on the other floor, which are quite exclusive.”

Kon grunted. “I’ll bet. Only the guys with eyepatches get to use the polo court, huh?”

Mercy replaced the remote in her pocket. “I’m aware that you and your sire had your differences, but Mr. Luthor was much more than his disagreements with Superman. He employed millions of people.”

“Yeah, and I bet Lizzie Borden was a great dancer. But that’s not the big takeaway, is it?” Kon strolled over to the desk and hopped up onto it. He sat facing Mercy. “So the big catch is that you get to keep your job, huh? Is that what you want? Whydo you want to keep working for a guy who’s against everything your old boss stood for?”

“I don’t think you know much about what Mr. Luthor stood for.”

“I know enough.”

“Not if you’re going to be the CEO of Lexcorp.” Mercy’s eyebrows raised. “Perhaps that’s why Mr. Luthor settled on this grand gesture as his last wish. He was a… hard man to understand. Maybe after walking a mile in his shoes, you’ll think of him differently.”

Kon scratched his chin. “I inherit his shoes too?”

Mercy rolled her eyes. “I’m staying on at Lexcorp because it’s what Mr. Luthor wanted for me. We built a great deal together. If Mr. Luthor thinks you’re the best person to care for his legacy—if you are his legacy—then I want to give you all the help I can.”

“You’re seriously going to do whatever I tell you to do?”

“That’s what I’m paid for, sir. We’ll also have to encode your voice into the computer systems. That will allow you to control the building without a remote.”

“Uh-huh. In a minute.” Kon leaned forward. “So if I told you to get me a glass of water, you’d do it?”

“Yes.”

“Go get me a glass of water.”

Mercy turned on her heel.

“Wait, stop, I changed my mind.” Kon hopped down from the desk. “What about if I asked you to dress a different way?”

“I’m willing to dress however you like, sir. You’re in charge.”

“Take off your shoes then.”

Picking up her feet, Mercy stooped to take off one pump, then the other. She stood in her stocking feet on the tile floor.

“There. Now we’re getting comfortable,” Kon enthused.

“I’m always comfortable.”

Kon kicked his own shoes off. “First things first. This place needs a whole different vibe. Not to mention some shutters. I’m way more of a fan of Big Blue than Lex was, and I still don’t need him seeing into here every time he flies by.”

“The glass is one-way, sir. Even X-ray vision can’t penetrate it.”

“Whoa.” Kon squinted, trying it out. “How about that? I’d still feel like a bit of an exhibitionist with these giant windows around. Hey, did Supes ever just hover outside the window with his arms crossed. I bet that would freak a guy out. Like, how do you know he can’t see? It’s not like you have X-ray vision to test it with…”

“Supergirl tested it for Lex. She said it blocked her.” Kon looked at Mercy expectantly. “The two of them were dating at the time.”

“What? Sick fuck, she’s not even legal now!”

“A different Supergirl,” Mercy said.

“Oh yeah, right. Weird how many of her there’ve been.”

“You were one of four Supermen, sir,” Mercy reminded him.

Kon shucked off his jacket and tossed it onto Lex’s chair. “No whoopee cushion? Surprised you could resist. Hey, do you have to call me ‘sir’? Is that in the employee handbook? Feels a bit formal. Look at me, I’m not even wearing a shirt with sleeves.”

Mercy heaved a sigh. “I can call you whatever you want me to call you, sir. You’re my boss. What you say goes.”

“Okay, what do you want to call me?”

Mercy’s lips curved upward. “There is a section in the employee handbook on abusive language in the workplace.”

“Hey! That was kinda a joke! You almost made fun of me!”

Mercy’s smile widened. “Would you like to spank me?”

Kon gaped a little, brought up short in the middle of his glee at the crack in Mercy’s façade. “Oh… uhh… did Lex used to do that?”

“No. It wasn’t one of his proclivities. But you are only half-human.”

Kon gulped. “Rain check.”

“If you’d like me to call you what I want…” Mercy reached for the clasp on her tunic. “Should I also dress how I want?”

“I… uh… I don’t see why not?”

Mercy slipped loose the catch on the corner of her breast, letting her tunic come undone, opening along the stripe that went down the front of her uniform. The buttons were apparently for show. They popped open one by one, while the stripe unsealed with a hiss, leaving her tunic hanging open like an unzipped trenchcoat.

Underneath, Kon could see the garter belt that held up her stockings, black panties, and a black bra. Her breasts were full and proud, bigger than they had seemed under the restrictive outer garment, while her panties were skimpy as hell, like a brushstroke from bristles that were about out of paint.

“I like dressing this way,” Mercy said. “I like having you look at me the way you’re doing now.”

“I’m… not looking at you,” Kon said unconvincingly, his eyes flickering up above Mercy’s left shoulder, then plummeting back down.

She strutted towards him. “Lex was an exquisite lover, but he wasn’t as young as you are. Didn’t have powers like you do. That’s another reason to stay on the job. To see how well you fuck me, you dirty alien cocksman. I want to take your nasty half-human cum right up my cunt. You want that too, don’t you? To fuck Lex’s woman right where he used to. It’s the one win the Kryptonian could never get over Lex. You can get it right now.”

Kon didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t quite accept, but he didn’t want to say no. Perhaps that was why, subconsciously, his superhearing flicked on and he heard sounds of distress at the periphery of his senses. A disaster. Metallo hadn’t been behind door number one because he was rampaging through Bakerline, demanding his body back or buried or something. Kon bolted for his shoes.

“I gotta go! Metallo! Rampage! Better stop him!”

Mercy made no move to close her tunic where it hung open. “That’s alright. Lex kept flexible hours too.”