—-
We flew until we landed somewhere in the woods that was suspiciously close to my house.
Scratch that, it was right in front of it! With the rest of the Justice League there as well! Then again, I shouldn't be too surprised that they're there. I did say it was where Luthor died so they'd want to investigate, and since Ivo was an employee of Luthor, Batman could find out where he lived.
They're still standing at the front of the house but turn to us once they notice our descent to the ground. Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, and… an absent Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter. I wonder where they're at.
"Here it is, the Android." Hawkgirl introduced.
Immediately their eyes are on the body in my hands. The most intense of the stares were Batman and Superman.
And while their eyes are focused on it, but likely ready to act against me should I try something, my eyes are just as focused on them. My first target is Superman, and an analysis of him flashed through my mind. Next was the Flash, followed by Green Lantern.
The godlike strength of a Kryptonian, access to the Speed Force, and the constructs powered by Will through the Emontional Spectrum. I was now most of the Justice League and greater than them, with the only missing elements being the Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman but they should be showing up soon enough.
With my main goal mostly achieved, I paid attention to the heroes again rather than just analyzing them.
Flash is disturbed by the snapped neck but is otherwise apathetic to Luthor's death, and the same could be said towards everyone else on their feelings for man. Not to say that they would let the man die without trying to save him, they were still heroes, but that didn't mean that they would mourn him should he go. Except for one person that is.
Batman is hard to get a read on other than some sense of displeasure, the only thing that mask of his, cowl and face, gives is a sharp narrowing of his eyes. Of course, the man wasn't upset over the idea of Luthor dying but the idea of someone killing him, and thus a person who must be brought to justice in his eyes.
Superman is much more open with feelings while being much more complicated as well. There's sadness, relief, and disappointment flashing through him. It was often a thought of his that he lamented how Lex Luthor misused his gifts when he could've done more to help humanity than he could for all of his world-ending power. Now that potential for good is gone forever.
He walks over to me and gestures that he'd like to see the body. I allowed him to and handed it over. All he did was gently close his eyelids. He was surprisingly gentle with the body of one of his greatest enemies.
"So, you're the one who killed Luthor?" Superman asked neutrally.
At that blunt greeting by Superman, I turned to Hawkgirl who was still next to me and gave her a glare. "You didn't tell them?!"
She at least had the nerve to be sheepish, "It was ridiculous enough that they'd assume that I was trying to pull a joke worse than the ones Flash makes. And I needed them to take this news seriously at the moment."
"What did you leave out?" Batman demanded.
"Hey! I doubt that anything you could come up with would be as good as mine." Flash said, not really offended but still curious.
Hawkgirl still wasn't used to the explanation but gave it anyway. "Well then, according to the Android, Luthor died from tripping and falling down some stairs. Hence the broken neck."
"Huh, I was wrong. That is a pretty good joke." Flash chuckled before a glare from Batman and Hawkgirl shut him up. Batman then aimed that bat-glare straight at me.
"Really? That's the best you can come up with?" Batman said, mildly annoyed. Honestly, I expected him to likely catch me on my bullshit, but for him to be annoyed about it was a surprise. The guy's a stickler when it comes to killed people.
"I explained in great detail how he died and how I had no part in it. That she didn't tell you ain't my fault." I said in my defense.
"You'll have to forgive me if I'm not too keen on believing the most commonly used excuse in Gotham. If a person is injured, they fell down some stairs. If a person is killed, they also fell down some stairs. Simply saying that does not and will not explain away this dead body." He ended with a bit of heat. Ah, as a detective he likely had to deal with a whole bunch of excuses and what nots from the criminal underbelly of Gotham, be it the insane, genius, or more often the dumb and desperate.
"In Gotham, sure, but I am neither from nor in Gotham, and this is not that shithole of a city. I was made in this here country, in this here city, in this here house. So when I said that this guy fell down some stairs, he fell down some stairs."
"Alright," Superman said as he got between me and a even more glaring Batman, then asked, "if Luthor really did… trip and fall from the stairs, how did it happen?" His face scrunched up in confusion at entertaining the idea that the human who caused him so much trouble would go out in such a way.
"I already told Hawkgirl this, so feel free to check with her for any discrepancies. He was injured and wanted Professor Ivo's help in fixing his damaged armor. So he barged in and started calling out for him, but since dead men couldn't answer he was met with silence."
"And why didn't you respond? You're clearly not happy with him intruding your home." Batman asked.
"Because I was busy and didn't notice at the beginning of this."
"And what could an Android with a dead creator be busy with?"
"A classic American pastime, lounging around and watching TV all day." I answered. Well, Ivo did have a pretty killer flat screen TV so it'd certainly be something I'm going to use later on.
"Really? Just watching television?" Green Lantern asked, echoing the surprise of his collegues.
"I mean, Ivo's dead and he never really gave me a purpose beyond keeping him safe as a bodyguard. But he's dead now so that whole point is moot. What, did you expect me to start running around on a rampage, chugging a ton of booze, and shout 'kill all humans'?"
"...to be fair, it happened a depressing amount of times with Androids like yourself to be a concern. Except for the chugging booze part, that's new," The Flash said. "Happy to be chatting with you rather than the alternative though."
"Continue," Batman ordered.
"So I didn't really notice anything until I heard a racket coming from the stairs. I heard some mad rambling, some loud stomping, power armor tends to do that, a cry of pain, and then he fell down the stairs. By the time I got to him, he was at the bottom and already dead."
"It matches up with what he told me, though he did mention some new details from the questions that you asked," Hawkgirl said, backing me up.
"There is one more detail that I didn't mention," I added, causing her to glare at me. To which I just winked back at causing her to scowl as well. Green Lantern didn't look too happy from that either.
"And why hadn't you?" Batman asked, not happy as per most of this conversation.
"...because this is a bit unbelievable," I admit. Well, it wasn't that hard to believe since I saw it happen but I shouldn't be able to, so I'll have to bullshit my way through an explanation. But this should earn me some points with the League for pointing this out.
"Coming from the Android who just told us that Lex Luthor broke his neck from falling down some stairs?" Flash asked incredulously, fueled by everything he just mentioned.
"Yes, coming from an Android with a name still pending I'll have you know. Anyway, being a product of nanotechnology, I tend to notice when others like it appear before me. Like in this guy's body. And it's been there for a while, a few years give or take, which is weird considering that this is pretty advanced beyond most of today's stuff. Barring yours truly"
"Wait a second, nanotech? As far as I'm aware that kind of technology has only been seen a while ago with-" Superman said.
"Brainiac." Batman concluded.
"That's impossible! He was destroyed with Darkseid and we have the only piece that remained in lock-up. There's no possible way for Luthor to have gotten his hands on it!" Superman argued.
"I have a way of proving it, you're just gonna have to hand the body back," I said, gesturing to Superman to hand it over.
He didn't seem too keen on it as he looked at Luthor's body warily. "And how do we know that he won't just take control of you?"
I countered with a simple reason. "The fact that I was holding it long enough that if he could've, he would've done it already."
"...that's a pretty good point." He admitted and handed it over to me, still careful and gentle in his handling of the body while also able to pull it back should he need to.
I held the body by the shoulder with one hand, which was even easier to do than before with my new strength, and ripped away the armor and then the skin on the stomach area.
The League was surprised by my sudden action and speed but soon became more alarmed at the lack of human blood pouring out but the skull-like face of a machine.
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I can't help but feel that this might be the weakest chapter yet while also being the longest. As usual, this is coming out raw so tons of things I may need to fix. So this is definitely something I'll look over later, so tell me what you think.
Still, I consider this to be a somewhat eventful chapter. Amazo got to met with the League and got most of their powers. He's already one of the most powerful beings on the planet with the four powers he has already but he plans on getting the whole set and more.
And to answer why Wonder Woman and MM are absent, MM tried to find Luthor before he died via a mass brain scan of the city. To no one's surprise, that left him depressed with how much people sucked in their thoughts so he flew off to mope. Wonder Woman is busy trying to find him.