-1"Why?"
The robot, twenty million to build and thirty billion to conceive, crashed into the floor, a Picasso nightmare of compacted metal and burnt circuitry. Lex noted the theories were wrong: the Alien could escape a black hole. Shame about the four entire city blocks caught in the crossfire.
"To see if it worked. Don't quote me on that, all one hundred of the best lawyers in all fifty states will deny it."
"No."
No?
Luthor had to admit (privately of course) that he was surprised. No truth and justice speech? No outrage? Hell, no leaking heat vision?
"Why all this? Kidnapping Lois Lane, killing Clark Kent, framing Jimmy Olsen for substance abuse, exposing Perry White's affair, unleashing every major Metropolitan villain and Doomsday on the streets with that evil robot double excuse…why this? Why now, after it's all finished?"
He honestly didn't know, but Luthor hadn't expected him to, not really. That was the thing about stagnation wasn't it?
"Why attack with this…that same robot double, a black hole generating cannon…why?"
Luthor ran his eyes all over the Alien's face. Shock, that was it. Delayed reaction because he honestly couldn't believe it.
"Why after all this time do we still do this? This sick obsession with destroying me? There were children in those buildings, did you know that? Do you even care?"
Luthor stood.
"You were forgetting."
"What?"
"Oh we're asking different questions now."
Tailor made Italian leather shoes made no noise on the marble floor of Lex Corps latest CEO office, well over a ten years profits in the making. Despite the sheer amount of gold and the distant lights of the city it was darker than inside a cave at the bottom of the ocean.
"I did it because you were forgetting."
Luthor had passed the alien now. Even if he'd been facing him he'd never have registered the movement until the vice was actually around his throat, as though the planet itself was trying to choke him.
"Again!?"
Now came the heat vision. Perhaps not so much a tactic as a reflex. A breaking point warning.
"Again with your arrogant pride! Your stupid obsession! Your blind hatred! All for nothing! Roughly a quarter of a million people, half of them not even in this country, all for nothing! Nothing but your games!"
The pulsating light of a god's eyes flashed off near feral teeth.
"You animal!"
Lex fought, pushed out two barley words. The glow faded completely, a supernova implosion on fast forward, a silent whimper rather than a bang.
"What…"
"Said…not…me…"
Blood ran from flared nostrils, ruining a tailor made burgundy tie. It parted at the sneering lips.
"This was never about me. Not really. It was always about you."
Luthor took a breath, removing his hand from around the Aliens wrist, noting with a small pang of annoyance that he'd ruined his manicure.
"So many aliens…so many super villains…so many Justice Leagues and Daley Planets and Lois Lanes…I'm surprised you couldn't see this coming. You were the match to the fuse after all."
He should have been pacing, this was an ideal moment for pacing, but his feet were still a couple of inches off the floor and he couldn't move anyway. He may have lost one of his shoes, everything below his neck was numb.
"Like it or not…you were the first. The first modern day god, the hero from beyond the stars. Hero Superior. There was only ever going to be two men who could match you, and the Gotham rodent has admittedly come closer than I ever will. But he was the second…wasn't he? Him and the clown. A redraft, photocopies from hell to be paraded alongside you and me; Heaven's gift to the mud ball. And then the Amazons and the goddesses, the Martians and the Lanterns, the speedsters and the invaders, the gods themselves, gods we could never even conceive of imagining…and then the rot set in."
He wouldn't have shaken his head in disgust even if he was free to do so, the look on the Alien's face…
"You were unique, but un unique. You had security, you didn't have to be everywhere because they would. All you really ever worried about was here. And you will always save the cattle here. Or so you thought."
His smile faded, and despite the still tight grip his face was one of rage.
"By God, do you realise they'd actually let the Atom run the JLA?! He's smart enough to. He could run a bloody country! Him! A god who gets smaller, this can save people…surely you can, right? After all, I'm just the villain…aren't I?"
The smile leeched back, tired but deserved.
"I am not one among many. You are not one among many. You were forgetting that. So I reminded you. You can't save them all. I can't kill them all."
The Alien probably thought he was mad. Maybe he was, but you'd never be able to compare him to the clown. The clown never did anything like this.
"We're here forever. I can't kill you and you'll never kill me."
The wad of spit actually made the Alien blink.
"Happy anniversary."
The room echoed with mountain silence for a full hour and a half. Eventually the alien set him down.
"I don't have to kill you."
Lex raised an eyebrow.
"Just stop you."
The Alien pulled something out of that ridiculous golden belt, turned it on. Rewound. Pressed play with a finality that emptied Lex of everything in his entire being.
"…fter all, I'm just the villain…aren't I?"
"Alexandra Luthor, as a duly deputized agent of the Metropolis judicial system, I place you under arrest for blatant acts of terrorism against the city of Metropolis and several of it's residents, the state of New York and several of the surrounding cities, and crimes endangering the planet Earth if not the entire Sol system."
The mahogany doors, exact replicas of the ones found all over Wayne Manor, shattered as an army of S.C.U officers led by Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin. The windows imploded, letting in, amongst cold win and the roar of helicopter blades, the entire Justice League of America, their almost one thousand strong army of reserves floating outside, power beams and energy weapons glowing and crackling alongside SWAT team laser sights. Despite the crowded space, the Alien still loomed over everything, the recorder black against his perfect skin and red and gold shield.
"Despite a severe breach of your civil rights, these charges will be taken to a court of law along with evidence gathered by several reporters from several states as well as testimonies from almost all of Lex Corp international employees. Do you have a statement you would like to make in response o these charges? Bear in mind that anything you say may be used against you in a court of law."
Luthor rubbed a temple idly, looked from the various weapons being levelled at him, the various super powers being levelled at him and finally met the Alien's gaze.
"Pause."
The world froze. Luthor removed the VR helmet, made a note that while interesting that particular scenario was unlikely and not possible within the current company budget, and deleted the entire program before showering, getting dressed and going to dinner with the latest mayor of Metropolis.