Problems Up Here

Cut to: HELIPAD
Atop the LexCorp building, Lex Luthor sees the Batsignal from a distance. He then calls someone in his cellphone.

LEX LUTHOR
The knight is here.

Cut to: DAILY PLANET LOBBY
A man cleans the floor with a floor scrubber as Lois goes down the escalator. She then goes towards the man.

LOIS LANE
Excuse me. Don't I know you...

The man is then revealed as Anatoli.

Cut to: HELIPAD
Lois and Anatoli are in a helicopter flying towards the LexCorp helipad, where Lex himself waits. The helicopter lands, Lois gets down, and then the chopper takes off as she walks towards the standing figure.

LEX LUTHOR
Plain lo, in the morning. Lola in slacks. Lois Lane. Mmm. Come see the view.

Lex puts his arm around Lois's shoulders, making her visibly uncomfortable.

LEX LUTHOR
Now, the secret is the height. It's the building material. It's light metals, which... sway a bit in the wind. And you know something about LEXCORP metals, don't you, Miss Lane?

LOIS LANE
I've proven what you've done.

LEX LUTHOR
Wow, you're feisty. Unfortunately, that will blow away. Like sand in the desert.

LOIS LANE
You're psychotic.

LEX LUTHOR
That is a three syllable word for any thought too big for little minds. Next category: Circles. Round and round and round they go to find Superman. Mmph! Wrong category, boy. No, not triangles. Yes, Euclidean triangle inequality. The shortest distance between any 2 points is a straight path. And I believe the swiftest path to Superman... is a pretty little road. Mmm, called Lois Lane.

He pushes her down the building.

LOIS LANE
Aahhhhhh!!

On the way down, Superman catches Lois and flies her to safety on the ground.

LOIS LANE
You came back. You came back.

She kisses Superman, who then flies to where she fell from. He glides near the helipad where Lex is waiting, sitting around a kitchen timer.

LEX LUTHOR
Boy, do we have problems up here! [turns on the timer, stands up] The problem of, of evil in the world. The problem of absolute virtue.

SUPERMAN
I'll take you in without breaking you. Which is more than you deserve.

LEX LUTHOR
The problem of you on top of everything else. You above all. Ah. 'Cause that's what God is. Horus. Apollo. Jehovah. Kal-El.

Superman has landed on the heliport.

LEX LUTHOR
Clark Joseph Kent. See. What we call God depends upon our tribe, Clark Jo. Because God is tribal. God takes sides. No man in the sky intervened when I was a boy to deliver me from Daddy's fist and abominations. Mm mm. I've figured it out way back, if God is all powerful, he cannot be all good. And if he's all good then he cannot be all powerful. And neither can you be. They need to see the fraud you are. With their eyes. [extends his bandaged hand] The blood on your hands.

SUPERMAN
What have you done?

LEX LUTHOR
And tonight they will. Yes. Because you, my friend, have a date! Across the bay. Ripe fruit, his hate. 2 years growing. But it did not take much to push him over actually. Little red notes, big bang. You let your family die! And now, you will fly to him, and you will battle him, to the death. Black and Blue. Fight night! The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God vs man. Day vs night. Son of Krypton vs Bat of Gotham.

SUPERMAN
You think I'll fight him for you?

LEX LUTHOR
Mmmm... Yes, I do. I think you'll fight, fight, fight for that special lady in your life.

SUPERMAN
She's safe on the ground. How about you?

LEX LUTHOR
Close, but I'm not talking about Lois. No. Every boy's special lady is his mother.

Superman turns around, fearful. Lex starts showing pictures of a restrained and beaten Martha Kent.

LEX LUTHOR
Huh! Martha, Martha, Martha. The mother of a flying demon must be a witch. The punishment for witches, what is that? That's right. Death by fire.

He throws the photographs on the ground. Superman kneels to get one, which shows a gagged Martha with "WITCH" painted in her forehead. He lifts his head in anger, eyes glowing as he charges his heat beam...

SUPERMAN
Where is she?

LEX LUTHOR
I don't know! I wouldn't let them tell me! Aha! If you kill me, Martha dies. And if you fly away, mmm, Martha also dies. But if you kill the Bat... Martha lives.

Superman closes his eyes, stopping the beams. Lex circles his hand around Superman's head.

LEX LUTHOR
There we go. There we go. And now God, bends to my will.

A Lexcorp helicopter is approaching.

LEX LUTHOR
Now the cameras are waiting at your ship. For the world to see the holes in the holy. Yes, the all mighty comes clean about how dirty he is when it counts. To save Martha, bring me the head of the Bat.

Superman drops the Polaroid, then all pictures fly as the helicopter's wind draft blows them away. Lex looks at his timer.

LEX LUTHOR
Mother of God, would you look at the time. When you came here, you had an hour. Now it's less.

Lex enters the chopper and leaves. Superman stands

Cut to WAREHOUSE
The captive Martha Kent watches Anatoli arrive with a digital timer, counting down from 35 minutes.

Cut to DAILY PLANET
A woman watches CNN in a wall full of television screens at the newspaper's office.

ANNOUNCER (VO)
CNN's Brooke Baldwin is on the scene. Brooke, you're live on the air. What do you see?

The woman, Perry White's assistant Jenny Jurwich, turns around.

JENNY
Perry...

Perry walks towards her, turning around as he sees the office lights are flickering. We hear Brooke give her report.

BROOKE BALDWIN (VO)
There's something happening at the ship. It's sending massive power surges.

Cut to: HOTEL LOBBY
Diana enters her hotel, goes towards a television broadcasting that same report.

BROOKE BALDWIN
The police created a barricade around this containment center. And we're trying to get a little bit closer here to find out what's going on. It is absolute chaos. You can see that lightning. Those surges are like increasing and they seem to be getting stronger by the minute.

Cut to: STREET
Lois opens a cab's back door.

LOIS LANE
Daily Planet.

Just as she's about to enter, she sees Superman is right by the taxi.

SUPERMAN
Lois. I have to go to Gotham to convince him to help me.

LOIS LANE
Who?

SUPERMAN
Or he has to die.

LOIS LANE
Clark...

SUPERMAN
No one stays good in this world.

Superman flies away.