10. Dura Lex Sed Lex

"Order!" The judge banged the gavel, trying to quell the uproar. "Order in the court!"

It took several minutes before order was restored. Everyone in the courtroom looked beyond surprised, but Wonder Woman looked worried.

"Miss Loring, proceed."

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I know it must be hard to believe that a billionaire, playboy philanthropist like Bruce Wayne could be involved in a plot so dastardly that would involve the killing of Superman and the framing of Lex Luthor. What is Bruce Wayne but the face of week-long parties with A-list celebrities? But make no mistake; Bruce Wayne is capable of that and much more. All we have to do is take a good, hard look at his life: he saw his parents being brutally murdered when he was a young boy. What would that do to him? To any of us? He had no immediate family, so he remained under the care of a veteran of the British Army's Special Air Service. Not exactly the Mary Poppins type."

"At the age of 14, Bruce left Gotham and worked to obtain skills in martial arts and forensics…" she projected a video of a young Bruce fighting against several opponents and studying things under a microscope. "He enrolled in several colleges, failing out of all of them and even washed out of the FBI when he was 20.

"Here he is with Henri Ducard, a dangerous bounty hunter who took him under his wing for several years." Another picture. "Here's Bruce Wayne in Korea, where a terrorist trainer named Kirigi said that Wayne had an impressive intelligence, but his past was too traumatic and sent him away."

"Imagine that: a terrorist trainer kicks you out of the program because you are too traumatized for his taste."

"Your honor, we came upon all this material when LexCorp absorbed Wayne Enterprises. While installing a better network, our engineers chanced upon a secret room, and from there, we were able to pull back the deception of Bruce Wayne. And what we found makes all of this pale in comparison: we discovered that the happy-go-lucky billionaire had turned Wayne Enterprises into a lumbering shell, with hundreds of items missing from R&D projects; entire prototypes vanished from warehouses and bank accounts that should have been flush with cash didn't have a red cent."

"We found…" She motioned to an aide to give hand her a large box, "…a handful of passports from varied nations: Northern Ireland, Spain, Mexico…made out in different names…" she flipped one open and read the names, "to Mordecai Wayne, Sir Hemingford Grey, Bruno Díaz…" She tossed them on the desk. "All of them with Bruce Wayne's face and not one of them a forgery: these were made by the proper authorities in those countries, with a verifiable paper trail. We're entering them as the defense's exhibits 9 through 21. We also found computers with files on people so detailed, the mere act of viewing them breaks several privacy laws. Wayne had dossiers on judges, politicians, generals…not even his fellow Justice League members were safe from his scrutiny…" she fanned a series of folders with the symbols of Green Lantern, Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman. "All with scalding secrets, and all of them obtained with spy software beyond our elite agencies wildest dreams, found in a computer with hacking capabilities that could cripple entire nations. Everything you see here, and more, was created, used and completely known Bruce Wayne without any sort of restraint or oversight from any sort of law-enforcement or government agency. It's shocking, really."

"Mister Wayne claimed to be a playboy billionaire philanthropist, but we've discovered that he was a habitual liar, embezzler and thief, with major crimes committed against institutions such as the United States Army, the Air Force and the Marines. We are working with General Holden, whom gave us a laundry list of equipment commissioned and paid-for by the Pentagon that never made it past the testing stage, but with a black coat of paint, made it to Batman utility belt. Here's a copy of that list and a copy of all items found in the secret warehouses, matching almost perfectly." She also projected images with Batman's cape, cowl, suits, gloves, boots, heads-up displays and their military project equivalent. His vehicles were also represented, with the biggest reaction from the crowd being the Tumbler, referenced on screen as the DCX-38 Bridging Vehicle.

"We are appalled by the sheer size of Mr. Wayne's deception, and we are collaborating with the right instances to see that the fugitive Mr. Wayne answers to those crimes. But first, we must clear the good name of Lex Luthor."

Timmons looked too shocked to even try to dispute the arguments from the defense. Wonder Woman had looked angry, then worried then sad. Lex sat there, his expression sympathetic.

"Your honor, the defense calls Detective Harvey Bullock."

The gruff detective walked in, reeking of cigar smoke; his hostility palpable.

"Detective Bullock, were you present at the Gorfinkle's warehouse on March 17th of this year?"

"Yes."

Jean took the remote control and pressed a button. The flat TV screen came to life and the images of a helmet-mounted camera played. It showed Detective Bullock walking in a packed warehouse. "There you are. Detective, could you tell us why you were in that warehouse on that day?"

"We got a 911 call reporting shots fired in the warehouse. We went in and found the place as you can see it." He pointed at the screen.

It showed a mess of officers walking around the warehouse, full of capes, cowls, gloves, and hundreds of Batman-related items. There were glimpses of batcycles, hang-gliders and two batmobiles: one was the long, sleek black vehicle with bubble windshields and the other was the Tumbler.

"What are we looking at?"

"Buncha capes and cowls. Costumes."

"Thank you, detective. Were you the one who found the disks?" She pointed at a stack of disks in a clear evidence bag.

"Yeah." He looked like he loathed being there and he said just the bare minimum not to fall in contempt of court.

"Did you log them into police custody?"

"Yeh."

"I have a copy of the evidence log, your honor. There are only two signatures, both from Detective Bullock logging in the evidence. They have not left police custody since."

"Detective, we also found a DVD recorder among a bank of monitors, which has also been in police custody since, and was also signed in by you. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Your honor, we'd like to show the defense's Video Number 3." She took one of the disks and played it in the recorder. It was a black and white high definition video, and it showed the inside of the warehouse the police raided, albeit from a high angle. Loring fast-forwarded it to the moment when the massive Batmobile arrived. The door opened and Batman climbed out. He appeared to be in a hurry, as he jumped out of the car and ran. A gasp went through the crowd when he removed his cowl and revealed Bruce Wayne's face. He ran past the camera and was out of frame for a few minutes. When he reappeared, he wearing a light grey suit and he quickly left the frame.

Bullock was aghast. Timmons was furious. "Your honor, that video could have been faked in a number of ways. Maybe Mr. Wayne was on his way back from a party."

"He went to the party in the Batmobile, dressed as Batman?" Loring raised an eyebrow.

"He's rich enough to have his own…" Timmons saw the trap, but reacted too late. "…replica of the Batmobile."

"Why would he do that?"

"To impress the ladies, I'm sure."

"To impress the ladies." Jean shrugged. "We'll get to that in a moment."

Timmons continued, "In any case, we want the video and we'll have it checked by our experts."

"By all means. However, you'll need to use the bat-player. If you use any other type of disk player, they'll show as blanks. That's why it took us too long to see the content." She turned. "Detective Bullock, were there any fingerprints found in the objects found in the warehouse?"

"Yes."

"Were they identified?"

"Yes."

"Who did they belong to?"

"Alfred Pennyworth."

"Bruce Wayne's butler and the SAS man who cared for him in his childhood. Any other prints?"

"Richard Grayson."

"Ah, the sole survivor of the Flying Graysons, adopted by Wayne in a rather questionable process. Any other prints?"

"Bruce Wayne's."

"Thank you; no further questions."

Timmons walked to the detective and leaned in, conspiratorially.

"Detective Bullock, do you buy all this malarkey?"

"No, I don't. Pretty boy Wayne is the guy who made Two-Face piss his pants? Wipe the smile off the Joker? No way. That's Wayne coming from a party, plain and simple. Or maybe he was into freaky superhero play, you know? Wouldn't be the first time I come across a high muckety-muck getting freaky in Wonde-er, Batman's gear."

"Thank you. And did you find any evidence of any shots fired from the warehouse?"

"No. We found traces of a chemical reaction, by the worktable over there. Analysis came back as a low-grade explosive. Harmless."

"Detective Bullock, what type of warehouse is Gorfinkle's?"

"A construction warehouse."

"Maybe those were explosive caps, leftover from construction jobs?"

"Maybe, yeah."

"Thank you, detective. No further questions."

"Miss Loring, your next witness."

She stood next to the witness stand and dramatically said:

"The defense calls Alexander Luthor."

The hubbub of the crowd rose to a pitch and the honorable Benedict Timmons almost jumped out of his seat with joy. Lex on the stand? Was Loring scuttling her case? He was itching to go toe-to-toe against Lex Luthor.

Lex stood up from the defense table and walked, slowly, to the stand. He was impeccably dressed and he walked with an air of confidence.

"Do you solemnly affirm that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, under pains and penalties of perjury?"

"I do."

"First things first: did you kill Superman?"

"No, I did not."

"Did you sack the Fortress of Solitude?"

"No, I did not."

"Why do you think you have been accused of doing this?"

"Because when I wanted to buy Wayne Enterprise, I made an enemy out of Bruce Wayne."

"Why is that?"

"It's no secret that Bruce Wayne has never been a hands-on CEO and I, well, I live and breathe business." Lex smiled towards the jury. "My business sense has made not only Metropolis thrive, but we've shared the wealth all across America. On the other hand, under Bruce Wayne, Wayne Enterprise's stocks were twenty dollars under their highest historical price and some divisions were frankly stagnant. Lucius Fox, bless his heart, did the best he could, but most of the blame landed squarely on Bruce Wayne: he flipped and flopped between deals, wished and washed in and out of propositions and he seemed to be more interested in partying with starlets than in running a multi-billion dollar business. I put together a team to see if it was feasible to outright buy the underused divisions or if a merger was on the table." He shrugged and raised his eyebrows. That was it. He thought I was trying to desecrate the memory of his family and he went nuts."

"He refused the deal."

"Yes. He called me several times, trying to scare me out of the deal."

"And did he succeed?"

"Yes and no. Miss Loring, in our social circle, we know that Bruce is a bit unstable; that whole business with his parents and all that is kind of a touchy subject. We're very careful around him. He rarely shows up to formal events or business meetings, he leaves early when he does and he is profoundly unreliable." He leaned into the microphone, conspiratorially. "A lot of tongues wagged when he adopted that kid, Richard Grayson, and when they went at functions, you could see the kid was trying to conceal bruises or disguising a bad limp. Bruce was a better at it, but you could see there was something else between them. Mr. Timmons hinted that Bruce Wayne had all that bat-gear to impress the ladies, but I heard from friends that he didn't sleep with any of his girlfriends."

"Objection, your honor: hearsay."

"Sustained, Mr. Luthor, keep to the matters at hand."

"Yes, your honor. No, Bruce didn't scare me out of the deal, but I tried to be more diplomatic. I tried different approaches, sending my people to talk to his people…a merger would make him ten times richer."

"Could it be he doubted your business sense? After all, you did get taken by Madden and his pyramid scheme."

"A black chapter in LexCorp history, but we managed to pull through. And that's what made me look in Wayne Enterprise's direction and do the same for them. Bruce stonewalled us, but his is a publicly traded company, so we just went around him and bought Wayne stock."

"How did Bruce Wayne take it?"

"He sent my way every kind of inspection and audit he could think of. We had inspectors and supervisors and senior agents crawling over LexCorp on a daily basis. I didn't mind much, I keep a tidy ship, but then Batman started snooping around my offices."

"The Batman?"

"Yes. I have several security videos that show him staking me, my top aides, my personal assistant, my offices and other businesses I own in Metropolis and Gotham. My security is second to none, but he managed to break into my research labs on several occasions."

"Did you report the break-ins?"

"A few of my companies where he broke in tried to keep it in-house. I didn't find out until recently. They called the police, but it hardly mattered. Nothing was taken, nothing was broken and most of all, law-enforcement considers him a good guy. Did you know that Batman was officially involved in 881 cases solved by the Gotham City Police Department?"

She arched his eyebrows. "That many?"

"Yes. Anyway, I stopped hearing objections from Bruce Wayne earlier this year and I went ahead with the merger. Things stalled when Lucius Fox took ill, during the time Batman fought Superman on top of the towers. After that, Bruce Wayne became permanently unavailable. He pulled a vanishing act, with no one seeing neither hide nor hair from him. As you can imagine, Wayne Enterprises took it very hard. The stock plummeted even more and the board was fed-up with his antics. Next thing I know, they voted for the merger. When that was completed and we took over, our audit revealed all the secrets you previously mentioned about Wayne and Wayne Enterprises. Finding out he was Batman was the biggest shock and it explained a lot about his behavior."

"What type of behavior?"

"His constant unavailability; his foppish attitude…many times I wondered how Wayne Enterprises survived with him at the head, but he apparently came up with a brilliant design or managed an important contract every now and then. And the company did well because of him. Not great, mind you… just well. The audit revealed that the "from well-to-great" money of Wayne Enterprises went to fund Batman's war on crime."

"Is it expensive being Batman?"

"It is prohibitively expensive."

Jean nodded and pressed a button.

A slide appeared with photos of the various vehicles, suits and hideouts Batman had, along with numbers to the right of them. A running count was kept, with the total noted on the bottom right corner.

"Whoa, that's a lot of numbers, Mr. Luthor. How big is the figure?"

"Six hundred and eighty-two million dollars, and that's before he even landed a punch on a bad guy. If you factor in the number of years he was active, he spent close to three billion dollars in this. In a city where cops are badly paid and even worse supplied, how come this man invested so much in outfitting himself? Sure, he saved lives, but he could have helped even more. Did you know he had the best crime lab in the East Coast, inside his Batcave where none but he could use it?"

"He did have a standing donation to the city for 10 million dollars every year and the Wayne Foundation helped underprivileged children and unwed moms. Not to mention his contributions to firemen and law-enforcement." Loring said.

"I know. But when you see that he spent 20 million dollars in things like Bat-Shark Repellant and Bat-Cycles, it feels a bit like the change you find in the sofa, doesn't it? He spent an exorbitant amount of money just to play with the big-boys and girls."

Lex shifted in his seat. "It's like the arms race: Batman had to have everything to help him keep up: the fastest car, the fastest computers, the oddest gadgets he could pull out and overcome any situation, not to mention his state-of-the-art hacking and surveillance equipment. But no matter what, he'd never be able to compete with the biggest boy in the solar block."

"Superman."

"Indeed. Bruce Wayne resented Superman. I've seen the videos where he calls him an overgrown farm boy, constantly made snide comments about his intelligence and his boy-scout attitude. The man had a jealous streak a mile wide. I think he got tired of using expensive technology to be as capable as the man who was born with everything and decided to take his place."

"Do you think that's the reason why he did that?"

"Yes. Batman is a very dangerous man, and when you pull back the cowl and see he's Bruce Wayne, the kid who saw his parents being brutally murdered, it explains a lot about his conduct. When I tried to take over Wayne Enterprises and make it thrive, he realized he couldn't afford to keep being Batman without its contacts, contracts and sponsorship." He arched an eyebrow. "I had to go, so he could keep being Batman."

"Your honor, the defense has not proved beyond reasonable doubt that Bruce Wayne was Batman, other than a suspicious video and some questionable fingerprints in discarded gear, which may or may not even be real batgear."

"Miss Loring, I've been very patient with this line of questioning, but if we don't see something more tangible, I'm going to rule it inadmissible."

"Mr. Luthor, do you have more conclusive evidence that Bruce Wayne is Batman?"

"Certainly; did you know that the eye-shields in Batman's cowl are also high-definition cameras?"

"No, I didn't."

"Batman's cowl recorded every conversation and interaction…" Wonder Woman's eyes bulged…and so did a few others scattered among the audience, among them a man in a bomber jacket, a blond gentleman in a bowtie and a woman wearing fancy jewelry. "We found thousands of hours of footage. Luckily, he had everything listed and itemized, in a secret room in his Gotham City penthouse."

"Your honor, we'd like to submit this video for the defense." Loring pressed the remote and a video played. It showed slightly younger James Gordon standing in his office, smoking his pipe. A display read the date and time: 02/14/06, 9:55pm.

Batman's voice sounded, off camera: Actually, your department's full of holes, but Holliman's the only one leading directly to Dent.

Gordon answered: Holliman, well, you may be right.

Batman interrupted. Follow up on it if you'd like, but if you don't, I will.

Gordon says: I'd assumed as much. I know how you feel about this case.

Batman: I know you don't agree with my methods, but you seem to appreciate my results

Gordon: It's not that- it's just that you seem to know more about my department than I do.

The camera moved to show him leaving the office through the fire escape, using the bat-line to swing through two city blocks and then drop to the ground. A remote control in his wrist was thumbed and the Batmobile's door opened. He got in, started the car and drove away. A red light blinked. He pressed a switch and a monitor flickered on, revealing an immaculately dressed older gentleman.

Jean put the video on pause. "The man in the video is Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's manservant."

Master Bruce, Miss Vale called about your date.

The voice was gruff. I'm on my way. Meeting with Gordon took longer than I thought, but I'll be there.

Fashionably late is one thing, sir, but if you're coming here to change, you're about to be bloody avant-garde.

I'll make it up to her. Call the restaurant and tell them to start on her favorite dishes.

Already did that, sir. May I suggest you go to the Gamma warehouse? I believe an Armani should be in one of the emergency lockers.

You're a lifesaver, Alfred.

The car entered a warehouse and parked. The door opened and he jumped out of the vehicle and ran towards a locker. The recording stopped when he removed the cowl. It jumped to another video, taken from a camera located in front of a locker in the same warehouse. It showed Batman, without his cowl, taking an Armani suit from it and running out of the frame. He got dressed out of the frame, but his reflection could be seen in a video screen to the side. Finally, he emerged, showered, shaven and hair neatly combed, wearing the suit.

"Mr. Luthor, can you identify the suit?"

""That looks like a single-breasted, 2 button with notched lapel, light grey Armani, with a satin tie. Geometric pattern."

"And here's a picture taken from Gotham Gazette the night of February 14th, 2006, where we can see Bruce Wayne and Miss Vicki Vale, having dinner at Fox Gardens. Mr. Luthor, can you identify the suit Mr. Wayne is wearing?"

"A single-breasted, 2 button with notched lapel, light grey Armani. And there's the geometric tie." Loring put a still from the video next to the picture from the Gazette. "One and the same."

"We also found a video taken the night of Batman and Superman's fight."

It started with a still image of from the perspective of Batman, about punch Superman in the face.

"This video was badly damaged and we could only recover the final minute of it, on account of the brutality of the fight."

A right hook that looked like it hardly affected Superman.

You're lucky I rolled with that punch. Otherwise you would have broken your hand.

You son of a bitch. The camera moved a few steps back. I'm going to make you regret you came to Gotham.

"I'm sorry, old friend, but what's wrong with you?" Superman caught a batarang with one hand. "First you punch me and now a batarang?"

The blast didn't overload the light sensors of the camera, so they could see Superman fall backwards, his whole body smoking.

What did you do to my powers? What did you do to my powers?

Loring did another side-by-side comparison, this time of a zoomed frame of the batarang to an image from a computer file.

"Our technicians zoomed on the batarang and discovered that it matches perfectly with a diagram found in one of Wayne's computers. The one he had in his Gotham penthouse. It's the same principle of the beam Dr. Tyler worked on, only with an explosive red sun component, for shock and awe."

"What happened after that, we don't know. The discs stopped recording after that and new footage has not emerged." Loring said. "But we can speculate."

She showed the video of the destruction of Wayne Manor, and the finding of kryptonian remains.

"This also coincides with the disappearances of Bruce Wayne and Richard Grayson. I think he never realized their fight against Superman would have someone watching it and making it public. Even if Joe Q. Public could not do anything to him, he'd face the scrutiny of his fellow heroes."

"The very same heroes he spied on relentlessly."

"Thank you, Mr. Luthor. No further questions."

"Your honor, I'm parched. Could I have a glass of water?"

"You may, Mr. Luthor. Mr. Timmons, your witness."

"Bra-vo. Braaa-vo, Mr. Luthor. Fantasy writers should hire you to write their stuff."

Lex stopped before he put the glass to his lips. "It's the truth, Mr. Timmons. You can't make up stuff like this."

"Oh, but you can, as a man of ample resources and staggering wealth. You're richer than Bruce Wayne and you have a mean streak a mile wide. Surely you could have spent a few billions in taking down both Superman and Batman."

"No, I didn't. My finances are squeaky clean and LexCorps's records are available to the public. The IRS audited us when we were merging with Wayne's and they gave us a clean bill of health."

"You're also one of the most gifted orators I've ever seen. I bet if I give you the most obscure reference or topic, you'd be able to talk for six hours straight and would never repeat a line. For all we know, you've been talking around us, like that fellow in The Usual Suspects." He took a seat on the prosecutor's desk. "But fortunately, we have one way of sifting through your bologna and finding the real deal."

Lex shrugged and drank from the glass.

"Your honor, with the permission of the court, we'd like to bring an expert in lie detection."

Wonder Woman stood up, her golden lasso clutched in her hands.

"Objection, your honor." Loring stood up, her face red. "This is all kinds of inadmissible…"

The judge banged the gavel. "Mr. Timmons, you know as well as I do that the lasso –and its results- are inadmissible in court. I'll have to instruct the jury not to take into consideration anything said because of it."

"Yes, your honor, but at this point, I'm pretty sure Mr. Luthor has gotten away with the biggest pile of lies the world has ever seen. But if we can extract a nugget of truth, inadmissible as it were, we could have a glimpse of the madness and depravity that hides behind that charming façade. Even if he wins this case, the people will know that he killed Superman."

"Mr. Timmons, I cannot…"

"Your honor?" Lex said, straightening his tie. "I'll allow it."

"Mr. Luthor, I don't advise…"

"It's ok, Miss Loring." He coughed, clearing his throat

"It's still inadmissible."

"I'm not afraid to speak." He said so softly, it sounded like a whisper.

Wonder Woman approached the stand. She wore a business suit, much like the other day, but this time everyone could see the black band in her left arm, with a red "S" shield on it. She uncoiled her lasso and dangled it in front of Lex.

He rolled up his sleeves and grabbed the lasso with both hands. A golden halo enveloped him.

"Lex Luthor, did you kill Superman?"

Lex opened his mouth and said. "No."

Wonder Woman's face was a stern mask, but when he answered, her jaw dropped.

"Were you part of his murder?"

"No."

"Did you hurt him in any way?"

It took a second. "No."

"What happened to him?"

A beat. "Bruce Wayne Batman killed him."

"And where is Batman?"

He raised his eyebrows before answering "I don't know."

Wonder Woman pulled her lasso off Lex's hands, her eyes unbelieving. Slowly, her eyes became bloodshot, her nostrils flared and her mouth opened in rage.

"You lie."

Her words floated in the courtroom.

"You LIE."

She gripped the bannister and splintered it.

"BY HERA, YOU LIE!"

Her scream was deafening, but Lex didn't flinch. Wonder Woman dropped the lasso and wrenched off the witness stand, throwing it away, and went for him.

Chaos erupted.

The judge banged his gavel, calling for order, people screamed, some fled for the exits, and an enormous green hand enveloped Wonder Woman.

"DIANA! CALM DOWN!" Green Lantern stood in the aisle, struggling to control the enraged princess. "THIS IS NOT THE WAY!"

"He did it! I know he did it!" There were tears in her eyes.

"We can't prove it! We have nothing." he gestured around. "And thanks to your outburst, we have even less."

"Batman couldn't have…"

"Maybe…" Green Lantern said, briefly touching his throat. "Maybe not. But this is not the way. We're done here."

Diana nodded and Green Lantern slowly dropped her to the ground. Lex stood there, her lasso in his hands. He offered it to her.

"For what it's worth, Diana, I did not kill him."

Wordlessly, she grabbed her lasso and stepped away. She walked through the aisle, past the court doors and left the courtroom. Green Lantern eyeballed Lex and followed her out.

Judge's chambers

"I have never, in my years on the bench, seen such an appalling display of professional misconduct like yours, Mr. Timmons."

"Your honor, I never thought…"

"You never thought what? That a warrior princess would behave in court when things didn't go her way?" Jean Loring was furious. "If it wasn't for Green Lantern, my client would be…I don't even want to finish that sentence."

"I agree. The case didn't go your way and your cheap trick failed you. On behalf of the court, I'd like to apologize, Mr. Luthor, for any harm incurred."

"That's ok, Your Honor. I'm fine." Lex shrugged and looked at Timmons. "But if there's any damage, you'll be hearing from my attorney."

"Foreperson, have you reached a verdict?"

"We have, your honor."

The bailiff took the slip of paper from the foreperson's hand and gave it to the judge.

"On the charge of genocide, what say you?"

"We, the jury, find the defendant Alexander Joseph Luthor, not guilty."

"On the count of felony murder, what say you?"

"We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty."

"On the count of sabotage, what say you?"

"We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty."

"And on the count of public endangerment, what say you?

"We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty."

"Thank you for your services, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you're excused. Mr. Luthor, you're free to go."

Lex and Jean Loring parted ways on the steps of the courtroom. He refused to give an interview, while Jean faced the reporters and said there would be a press statement forthcoming, but Mr. Luthor just wanted his privacy for the time being.

His limousine approached the curb and he climbed aboard and sped away. Once safely seated, he loosened his tie and relaxed. Pearl greeted him from the seat across him, surrounded by flashcards, a headset and a video screen.

"How are you feeling, Lex?"

Lex signed Fine. Those idiots.

He removed the small speaker from behind his top molars. He disengaged the electronic device from his necktie and dropped it in the ashtray. He crushed them with a paperweight while Pearl sat next to him.

"How long until the paralyzer wears off?"

Six hours. Lex signed. I couldn't risk any less. Did you have any trouble with the flashcards?

"No." She beamed. "I expected her to ask more questions, but she just went for the easiest. And in the judge's chambers, I went with the basics."

He nodded. I guess she never expected her lasso could be defeated with a vocal cord paralyzer, a voice modulator, a gesture stimulator and a very lovely, loyal woman with all the possible answers. He kissed her hand. The lasso compels you to tell the truth, but if you are physically unable it's completely useless.

"What if they analyze the glass? Won't there be traces of the paralyzer?"

He shook his head and produced the glass from his coat pocket.

"The facial movements were incredibly accurate." Pearl said. "The words I said absolutely corresponded to your jaw and vocal motions."

Jonah did well. I could feel my paralyzed muscles move to form the words you said, even when they wanted to say something else, what she wanted to hear. There was a slight delay in the response time. That second's delay could have cost me dearly.

He massaged his face. I think my right cheek is still trying to say "Bruce Wayne Batman".

"And how does it feel?" She said, caressing his neck. "The lasso?"

Wasn't so bad. He grinned. After all, I didn't kill him.