It’s Show time: Court of owls. - Part2

An old man with thinning gray hair to match his beard walked through a secret evacuation tunnel. He had sent his daughter and others away long before, but he doesn't go whit they, confident in his superhuman hybrid guards. However, upon seeing the recordings of a monster landing and ravaging his land, he retreated, realizing it was futile to confront such a threat. He knew he needed only to run and hide, just as he assumed others were doing. Unfortunately, he also understood it was impossible to escape, and his resolve faltered. When he saw the smile on the camera and heard "I found you," he felt pure hopelessness; even his fear and anxiety faded as he accepted that it would all end here.

- BOOMM!!!

-Argh!

The man fell with his right leg buried under hundreds of kilos of concrete blocks and twisted metal, he screamed for a few seconds before looking towards the cloud of dust that had been raised by the collapse of several floors in the tunnel; looking at the dense mist of dust Sebastian Clark, a man who was used to running one of the oldest and most dangerous criminal organizations in the world, turned pale with fear as he clenched his jaw tightly so that his teeth wouldn't start chattering. Nothing was visible in the dense fog of debris except for two glowing red orbs that must have been the eyes of whatever had come after him.

- Hello Mr. Sebastian, how are you this fine evening?

Eduard walked slowly out of the mist of debris and looked at Sebastian with a polite expression and an obviously fake smile, he would really like to show a genuine smile which he believed would be more impactful at the moment, but for someone who is far from being a good actor and who is also doing his best not to let on how much the recent deaths have affected him that would be expecting too much.

- As well as he could be in this situation! - Despite the pain and fear Sebastian still decided to keep his composure, the reason? Pride, there's no way someone who has lived as long as he has and who has lived above so many people for so long would be willing to simply die like a coward, not when it's being broadcast to the whole of Gotham and maybe even the whole nation or worse.

- ...Impressive... - Eduard commented, looking at the old man in front of him. - Even if you are scum, I still have to give you credit... - After pausing, Eduard looked at the man's crushed leg and continued. - To be able to remain calm and speak with coherence and a neutral expression, even if forced... Honestly, if I couldn't see and hear your heart, I wouldn't be able to tell that you're terrified at the moment... - Eduard said it with a neutral tone, but even so, just from the sound of Sebastian's heart, he could tell that this simple comment made him even more terrified. He just hoped that having to waste time on this kind of thing would be enough to scare off a lot of criminals and governments too, otherwise he would have just wasted the night since he could very well solve this problem quietly and in a matter of minutes or if he didn't care about the consequences in a matter of seconds.

 

[Fuck! He can see someone's heart?]

[Are you surprised by this? He literally just inspected the entire mansion with his eyes!!! And he found a secret passage in just one minute!]

[Even him being on our side, is scary...]

[Who says he's on our side?]

[Logic?]

[Common sense?]

[Where did you get that from?]

[From live?]

[We're watching the same thing, right? Where in all the footage did you see proof that he's on our side?]

[The broadcast itself?]

[Yes!]

[If he was an enemy or wanted to take over the world I'm sure doing a live broadcast showing his powers isn't the way to go...]

[You have a point!]

[Makes sense!]

[He still scares me!]

 

The discussions became more frantic as the seconds passed, but at the moment Eduard wasn't concentrating on that and just looked at the middle-aged man on the floor in front of him, who was getting more nervous by the second. - Ready for your Judgement?

- ... - Sebastian was silent for a few moments before a mocking smile formed on his face. - Who exactly do you think you are to judge me?

- Does it matter? - Eduard asked, honestly curious at the moment.

- How? - Sebastian asked curiously, since due to the cameras he had expected several arguments to validate his point and not such a simple and vague question as an answer; however, even if he hadn't expected that, it was still very easy for a man with his experience to adapt to this and maintain a calm expression while trying to understand Eduard's reasoning, not that he needed to since Eduard himself would explain what he wanted the world to know.

Eduard, understanding his confusion, decided to be a little honest here, but still didn't forget to direct his reasoning towards blaming Sebastian himself and his organization.

- Sebastian, let's not be hypocritical here, okay? We both know that for people like you a fair trial is never going to happen; if I decided to take you to the police station, you'd be out of there minutes later, so unfortunately you won't get a fair trial... - Eduard paused before adding. - Not that you deserve one, after all, I'm sure you didn't care when your victims begged for any kind of clemency or freedom, so don't expect any different treatment here...; I hope you won't complain about the treatment, since just as you didn't care about the opinion of those you considered beneath you, I don't care about your opinion either... - After saying this Eduard simply picked up one of the drones that were around him and began to operate them, he operated them calmly for almost a full minute until they stopped doing the work of a camera and displayed a holographic screen that was projected high above the drone, on the screen numerous crimes and their evidence as well as witnesses were presented as a list, as the quantity was simply ridiculous it slowly scrolled down presenting new crimes along with their evidence; Eduard just stood there looking at all the crimes since most of them he hadn't actually investigated yet and just waited for about 8 minutes until it was all over, meaning it took him longer to watch this evidence than it did to finish off the mansion and the criminals in it.

 

[Unbelievable...]

[I feel sick!]

[How can someone commit so many crimes in a single lifetime?]

[Forget the quantity! Did you see how that son of a bitch makes those monsters?]

[Fuck! I felt sorry for him at first, but now...]

[Honestly, I don't know how to feel right now...]

[I never imagined I'd want to see the execution of another human being in my life...]

[It's official, this live just destroyed the political careers of dozens of people!]

 

Eduard remained silent for a few seconds and took the time to listen to Cortana quote a few comments while selectively ignoring those who were insulting him or simply claiming that it was all a lie.

- So, what's my pity? - Sebastian asked mockingly as he looked into Eduard's eyes, which were still glowing slightly red.

- Previously I had thought of letting the people decide after seeing the evidence presented, but... - Eduard paused as Cortana presented him with some of the most creative ideas from his current viewers, he had to assume that even the man in front of him didn't deserve it, at least he didn't think anyone did. - Honestly? Some of the ideas in general are so disturbing that I preferred to just get it over with, after all, I still need to go after the few members I've discovered recently, so what are your last words?

- ... - Sebastian Clark thought of a multitude of things to say, from what he was used to such as threats, insults, mockery and for a few moments even thought of asking to spare his daughter before discarding all these thoughts and just close his eyes, he would give no satisfaction to this man or the people watching his end, if he was to die at all it would be in silence without leaving any shameful memories behind.

- ... - Eduard waited for almost a minute before sighing. - Since you don't want to say anything, then... Goodbye? - It sounded more like a question than he would have liked, but to be fair he didn't really know how he should end it since it was different, after all, he had never done anything similar to a public execution before.

Then in just a second, red beams much wider than usual left his eyes and vaporized the once leader of a secular organization into nothingness, and just like that he was gone. - No matter how many times I do it, it's still weird... - Eduard muttered in a way that the cameras couldn't pick up and began to float through the hole he had created earlier.

'Is that Batman?

Eduard, who had returned to the surface, looked in one direction and saw a man wearing a bat costume inside a car/tanker that was less than two minutes away from his current position.

[Yes, he left as soon as you killed several guards with your fall].

'I see...' Eduard nodded to himself, ignoring how awkward it might look on camera, and floated away again, 'I don't intend to have a conversation with the most paranoid and annoying guy in DC, so let's go.

- Time for the next target...

- GOOD!!!

 

[I hope he kills everyone in the organization!]

[I doubt it! I think he's broadcasting to expose the organization, maybe he hasn't even found everyone!]

[I agree, such an old organization must be well hidden...]

 

It took Eduard only a few seconds to reach another end of the city where he could watch a man wearing black armor perform parkour with agile, fluid movements; looking at the man who didn't seem to care about anything and just kept cutting his way to a spot where he realized there was a helicopter Eduard fell into deep thought about whether he should attack the man now or just wait until he reached his helicopter.

- I'm going to be a bit stingy and wait for him to get to the helicopter before I grab this idiot, as I'm sure he won't talk to me I'll let all but one of the crimes play on the screen... - Eduard then left the crimes running and flew straight to the helicopter.

When he arrived, he saw that the pilot was running while holding a cell phone with his transmission currently being displayed, on the screen it was possible to see him looking at the fleeing man.

- For some reason I feel a little embarrassed right now... - Eduard commented and ignored the reaction this comment caused as he flew to the helicopter and sat down in the pilot's seat, after sitting down he just closed his eyes and began to calm as he waited; he slowly reflected on his actions tonight and his motivations, he found several obvious mistakes in his approach, but didn't worry about it overall he must have achieved what he wanted, to make an impact, a bit of fear and demonstrate his sense of justice which is similar to Tony Stark's which he honestly finds more realistic for being willing to do what he did today. Honestly, if it wasn't for him feeling like shit since he started the attack and killed some people who clearly deserved it, the night would have been perfect, but unfortunately he really felt it as much as when he killed Killgrave; while lost in thought and calming his inner turmoil the door of the helicopter opened and a man wearing an all-black outfit that looked like some kind of ninja armor with the only highlight being some golden adornments on his face that made it look like he was wearing an owl mask, the man was also carrying several throwing knives and military knives with him, just as the man sat down and was about to say something he simply jumped out of the helicopter while throwing a knife directly into Eduard's eye who had turned his face to look at him.

- His personality can truly be described as sinister... Who aims for someone else's eye after just one look? - Eduard shook his head before disappearing at the same time as the helicopter was torn to pieces by the speed with which he exited it. - Oops... I think I broke your ride buddy, I'm sorry. - Eduard commented sarcastically as he walked towards the Talon responsible for dispatching the Wayne family.

- Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! - The knives kept hitting him and falling to the ground as he walked towards Talon without bothering to dodge.

- You know that's useless, right? - After a few seconds of walking in circles Eduard asked before sighing and disappearing from Talon's sight.

- Crack!

- Ugh!

Eduard, who had just broken the tibia of William Cobb's right leg, simply stared at him for a few moments, forcing himself to remember all the crimes he and his sister had uncovered from the man and their consequences in order to ignore the pain the man must have been feeling, even if he didn't show it.

- Let's get this over with as quickly as possible, William Cobb! - After Eduard exclaimed his name, William, who was struggling to get up, stopped and looked at Eduard's face, and even though his face was hidden under his chewing gum, it was still clear that he was surprised, thanks to his heartbeat, which skipped a beat as it accelerated; before returning to normal, and after he remained still, as if accepting his fate.

Note: I will post an extra chapter a week on my Patreon until there is something different, anyway if you want to support me, or just read a few chapters ahead the link is: 

p@treon.com/Aedificationemmundoscumimaginatione

- Good Sunday everyone ;)