It’s Show time: Court of owls. - Part3

- William Cobb, to save you both time, I'm not going to recite a list of all your crimes, I'm just going to tell you the one that brought the most chaos to society, at least the ones I could find. - Eduard paused as he picked up the same drone, he had already altered last night and set it to display just a single crime. - On June 26, 1981, you were responsible for the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne who were leaving the Aragon Theatre in Gotham City, do you remember the incident?

Eduard waited for several seconds while several indignant messages from countless people who were reading the prosecution's evidence were perplexed, especially as they read the consequences of the act itself that literally worsened the city and destroyed the chance of a better future that the couple were building; was the couple perfect? No! The couple had countless flaws and even committed some legal irregularities, especially when it came to Martha who had been showing some signs of mental, but that couldn't invalidate everything they both did and intended to do for the city, and above all, it couldn't invalidate in any way how hard a blow their deaths dealt to the whole of Gotham; if while they were both alive the city was moving towards a more prosperous and safe environment for the masses, after their deaths these changes not only ceased to exist, but the setback shook the population's spirit so much that over time the city became worse.

- Even if you remain silent, I already have proof of your actions... I have the execution order, I also have your mission report, which was recorded by an idiot in your organization, I even got information on how you infiltrated and slowly took over Wayne Industries... - Eduard commented and waited for an answer for a few moments before being slightly surprised; the man in front of him wasn't afraid at the moment, was his heart racing? Yes, it was, but he kept the same pace as he had since the race, with the exception of the slight fright he noticed the man had when he recognized him inside the helicopter, but that was more than acceptable considering Eduard's identity.

- You're really not scared at all...

- ...

- No last words? No mockery or insult?

- ...

- ... - Eduard was silent for a few moments before finally sighing and moving on; his night was already confusing, but the behavior of the man in front of him left him even more confused since no insult, not even an expression of hurt was directed at him at the moment, this together with the rhythmic heart left him not knowing exactly how to proceed, but he still forced himself to simply kill this man who is one of the main culprits for the city's sorry situation and the "creator" of Batman. -Rest in peace... - And then, just as he had done with Sebastian, he vaporized the man in front of him before simply levitating and then flying off in another direction while forcing himself to ignore his discomfort, which was only becoming more obvious to him.

[Eduard, are you sure you can continue?]

Cortana, who was analyzing Eduard's situation, became worried when she realized how much he was pushing himself at the moment and knew that he could end up weakening during the video if someone begged him, which wouldn't be good for them, after all, the image they wanted to convey at the moment was one of indifference and "justice", After much discussion between them, this was the best way to convey a more trustworthy image and at the same time one that could not be easily taken advantage of by the government, after all, the Marvel government has already taken advantage of public opinion to placate beings like mutants several times and the same can be said of DC where the government actively persecutes Superman and even clones him; Knowing this, Cortana decided that it would be best to show that he was willing to take mortal fire to at least dissuade the government and other organizations from acting repetitively, she also agreed with Barbara in deciding that when they were going to do something like this it was best to do it in the eyes of everyone so that it couldn't be easily manipulated.

- I'll be fine, Cortana, thank you! - Eduard replied with a smile from an angle that the cameras wouldn't catch his image or sound.

[...All right...]

Cortana remained silent, but decided to warn Kara about how agitated he was since he was doing a good job of not showing his feelings on camera, which was perhaps the only good news in Cortana's opinion.

- Just one more target and he could end up demolishing the Orchard Hotel... - Barbara wasn't warned by Cortana about Eduard's condition or how averse he was to be killing, but she didn't need to, she knew her brother too well to know that he didn't like this plan from the start, and yet he still listened to her and Cortana and just went ahead with this planned show. - With him in this state I don't know if he'll be able to kill the latter, considering she was being controlled and unlike Willian she doesn't like what she does, plus she's in "hibernation" being revived only for her work... - Barbara looked at her brother who had already arrived at the place where Mary Turner was being held at the moment and was just knocking out the guards as he walked to the place Cortana was monitoring. - What are you going to do now Ed?

(A/N: It's been a while since I read the comic and I never paid much attention to the Batman plot specifically, so I don't really remember much about the Talons, especially how they were kept in a state of "hibernation" thanks to that I just made that whole bit up).

Eduard was standing in the middle of dozens of unconscious bodies now looking at the cryogenic chamber where Mary Turner lay unconscious; next to the chamber was a display showing her work as well as the forms that members with sufficient authority within the Court of Owls could use her for, and looking at that just made him feel better, at that moment he actually felt some relief at having at least exposed this organization and got rid of someone like Sebastian; Eduard, who had just relieved his guilt a little, now found himself in a great dilemma as he looked at the woman in the chamber and also at the data on the panel he had hacked, he stood there switching his gaze between the panel and the frozen woman for a few minutes until he decided to make his decision clear for the moment.

- It may be hypocritical of me, but I can't kill her, and I don't think I can really help someone like her at the moment... - Eduard paused as he looked at the woman again and just sighed; could he really not help her? That wasn't necessarily true, quite the contrary, he was already having some results with Harlequin so it shouldn't be impossible to help this woman too, but he really didn't feel like it, the reason? He simply didn't want to see this woman for a while as it would remind him of everything he'd done and even if it didn't really affect him, it was still uncomfortable so he just decided to leave her to be dealt with by Batman, he was sure that man wouldn't kill her anyway and if he did given that he's always been an extremist he might be forced to kill the hero. - I'll leave it to the authorities...

After commenting on this he looked at the unconscious men and confirmed that this would last at least a few more minutes and simply flew off again.

'Cortana, is Batman still following me?'

[He was, but this time he didn't change course to head towards his flight].

'He must have gone to secure the place with someone still alive.

[That's very likely.]

'Monitor the place and let me know what he's done, even if it's pure hypocrisy on my part I still hope he doesn't kill anyone before he goes into therapy.'

[That would be a good idea.]

'I think we should hire or prepare an A.I. for this when we set up a team, usually all the heroes get screwed...'

[You're right let's think about it before starting a team].

'Yeah...'

As Eduard flew off to his last destination, and probably the most disturbing of all because of the information he had obtained, the internet was reacting violently, and this time not because of a revelation of corruption or inhuman criminals, but because of Eduard's behavior which, despite appearing simple, generated a huge discussion thanks to his "concession" since even if the motive was purely to "make life easier" for himself, the people who had been following his actions all night had no way of knowing this. Of course, Eduard didn't know that at the moment, and even if he did he wouldn't care now, at the moment he just wanted to finish his broadcast before getting down to real work, after all, it wouldn't take him all night if it was just to murder a few criminals, the hardest part of his job would be organizing things after he finished "dispatching" Court of owls and had to deal with the mess left by them, after all, he couldn't leave the witnesses still alive and incarcerated especially considering how many of them might "disappear" after a while so he would have a lot of work dealing with them during that night.

Eduard continued his flight at a reasonable speed this time and with that he lasted more than just a few seconds before he finally reached his last destination of the night; The Orchard Hotel, also known as the Orchard, is located in the Old Gotham district of Gotham City. The hotel was opened in 1893 and was quite popular as it was frequented by US presidents and heads of state throughout the 20th century. The building was an old establishment, but with an air of sophistication even in the midst of the Gothic style in which Gotham itself was founded. Eduard hovered over the hotel as he looked through its walls and what he saw made his expression sour, countless "chimeras" were filling the entire building which strangely was without any guests, at least on the surface since he could see not only the guests but also countless people in cages underground.

- What a disturbing place...

[I have to agree with you...]

Cortana had to agree with Eduard when she noticed a huge operating room full of blood and even limbs, this was the place where these aberrations were probably made and even if it wasn't there was no way it could be a decent place just because of this room.

- Let's do it slowly this time, I don't want to destroy a historic site! - Eduard exclaimed with total disdain for the building and kept a mocking smile on his face the whole time as he slowly made his way down to the entrance.

- Let's get this over with and call it a night!

(A/N: Today's Patreon chapter will only be released after 6pm). 

Link: p@treon.com/Aedificationemmundoscumimaginatione

- Good Sunday everyone ;)