Luthor's New World Order

Chapter 9: The First CutChapter Text

Dates: January 22 2005-January 31 2005

Lyra Strayd, like Kara Danvers, possessed a foster family. She was one of the thousands of aliens to choose a life undercover via adoption. Unfortunately, Lyra's adoptive family was nowhere near as kind as Kara's. They were an exploitative lot who essentially forced Lyra to become their slave, knowing that she literally had nowhere else to go. If she ever tried to run, or to tell anyone about their abusive treatment of her, they would willingly out her as an alien in disguise. This threat was so dire to Lyra that she chose to spend her life as a servant with a home instead of a runaway without.

Her fear of being sought out as an alien only increased when Lex passed his bill that legalized alien dissection. Although she was a strong and proud girl who had, long ago, taught herself to keep a stiff upper lip, even dissection was a threat scary enough to make her tremble. Lex was the one thing on Earth she feared. Everything else she could handle, even her abusive family. But anti-alien policies? It was something she never even dared address, let alone face.

It came to pass, then, one night, that Lyra was forced to confront her worst nightmare head-on, though what made it even worse than a nightmare was the fact that it was reality. She and her foster family had been sound asleep when the doors were violently kicked in. Before anyone could even blink, let alone sit up and properly awaken, the entire house was under siege. An army of black-clad humans stood around the house, guns and nets at the ready. Swiftly, they each entered the house and began scouting around for poor little Lyra. It didn't take them more than two minutes to find her.

"I've got it! I've got the alien!" the woman who found Lyra first screamed. Her comrades all whooped appreciatively while Lyra screamed her head off, panicking. But she was quickly silenced by a brutal punch to the mouth, and a hissed threat that said if she even made a single peep, her screams would be exercised to their max capacity. Lyra fell silent after that.

In the next room over, her parents were facing a similar situation. Although they were pure humans, simply by owning an alien, the SWAT team mistook them as enemies. They did not realize that Lyra's family had adopted her as a live-in servant, they assumed that the family had adopted her with the intention of protecting and hiding her. As such, they were treated like an enemy and dealt with in a very brutal manner.

"Let us go! Take her! Do whatever you want with her! But just leave us alone!" a female voice screamed. It was Lyra's "mother".

"Yeah! We had nothing to do with this! We only wanted her for the labor!" a male voice, her "father" agreed, but their pleas fell upon deaf ears.

"You were harboring an alien. You were an accomplice to a crime. By order of President Lex Luthor, you must be put down for your treason against this country."

"What?! Treason?! NO!" both of Lyra's parents wailed, then they said no more as they were swiftly and silently executed. Only Lyra survived the night, but her lifespan didn't extend too far beyond their own. Instead, as soon as her "parents" had been properly dealt with, she was quickly whisked away in the middle of that dark night and she was never seen again.

The next time Lyra saw the light, it was a blindingly harsh glare, white and hot. It burned right over her face and she had to squint in order to see anything. She turned her head one way, and then the other. She was dimly aware of metal straps holding her in place. Then she realized what kind of room she was sitting in.

An auditorium!" she gasped in growing horror. Sure enough, she was right. All around her, in all directions, there were rows and rows and rows of chairs. They were empty at the moment, but Lyra knew full well that they would be filling up very soon.

Lyra raised her head and cried out in dismay, shock, horror and embarrassment. She was completely naked. She began to thrash around against her metal shackles, but it was useless.

"Hey! Someone?! ANYONE?! LET ME OUT OF HERE!" she bellowed, sobbing, but nobody came to answer. Instead, she could only continue to scream and cry alone. She even tried to cover herself up, just to maintain one small shred of dignity, but she was strapped down so tightly that she could only wiggle her fingers. So her body was forced to remain prostrate, on display for the entire world to see. The humiliation was hotter than the overhead lamp, and that was burning her skin.

At last, then, someone finally entered the auditorium. It was a tall, young, human male in a long white coat. He wore blue rubber gloves and big goggles. Lyra began to panic again, whimpering and gasping as he slowly walked on over to her, taking his sweet time and humming an eerily chipper tune as he approached.

"Please, sir, please!" the poor little alien whimpered, tears in her eyes as she looked up through the blinding light as his handsome and shaven face. "Please kill me first! Please make it quick!" but his boyish smile was sickeningly cruel as he shook his head.

"Sorry ma'am, but no can do!" he sneered down at her, and all around, the seats came to life with noise as more and more students filed on in for their biology lecture. A few other lights suddenly bathed the area. Cameras! They were going to record the entire dissection!

"Please, please, please, please!" Lyra sobbed, shaking and gasping as the tears poured down her face in buckets, but the scientist hovering over her only continued to smile down at her.

"Sorry ma'am," he repeated. "But no can do!" then she heard nothing else but her own screams. The teacher made the first cut, and Lyra screamed and screamed and screamed and bled.

The speed and efficacy with which Lyra was taken was terrifyingly admirable, but of course, her absence was noted before too long, but even though it took less than 12 hours for anyone to realize that Lyra had been taken, it was still too late to do anything to help. Instead, all that could be given to her now was a eulogy and an obituary, speculating that a local hate group had kidnapped and/or killed her.

Because no ransom was ever put up and there was no trace of her to suggest enslavement or alien trafficking, she was assumed dead and that was that. Of course, cops were called in to search the house and send out parties to try and find her, but hopes were never very high, even from the start, and with each day where she remained missing, hope got smaller and smaller.

When Lyra's obituary made the news, Kara was heartbroken. Although she hadn't realized it before, she and Lyra had met once in the past, long ago. It was back when Krypton was still in one piece. When she was about 7 years old, her family had visited Lyra's home planet, and the two had met while Kara was there, becoming fast friends. But even though that was the only time Kara ever came into contact with the young Valerian, Kara's memories of her were fond nonetheless, and to learn that she had been kidnapped and killed (likely by an anti-alien hate group) sent Kara into a depressive spiral.

"She was only 13, Alex," Kara gasped softly as she wept over Lyra's obituary.

"Who was?" Alex asked in concern, Kara only shoved the paper over to Alex, pointing at Lyra's beautiful little face. as they were swiftly and silently executed. Only Lyra survived the night, but her lifespan didn't extend too far beyond their own. Instead, as soon as her "parents" had been properly dealt with, she was quickly whisked away in the middle of that dark night and she was never seen again.

"Oh my god," Alex breathed in horror as she read what had happened to the poor girl.

"Isn't it just sick?!" Kara gave a small hiss as she continued to cry and mourn. "That there are people out there who would do this? To a child? To my... my... my friend?!" then she began to bawl. Even though she hadn't been close to Lyra, they still had been friendly. But even if they hadn't been friendly, there was still something so gruesome and wrong about a child being kidnapped and killed that it would've been enough to upset anyone (or at least, anyone who actually believed that aliens deserved the same kind of life humans led).

"How can they do this, Alex, how?!" Kara sobbed into her sister's shoulder.

"I don't know Kara," Alex replied with a heavy sigh. "I just don't know..." and on a TV downstairs, that Eliza and Jeremiah were watching with horrified eyes, a live dissection was going on. It was little Lyra Strayd, and every little last organ inside of her body. All of it, laid out on display, like some sick, twisted trophy, for students to gawk and marvel at. And she was only the first of many who would suffer this same gruesome fate. She was the first cut.