They Were Hunters

CUT TO BATCAVE

Intercut with scenes of Bruce Wayne exercising to build up muscle –beating up and dragging a tire, lifting while carrying chained metal balls, bench pressing an enormous amont of weight – are scenes of him checking all about the Kryptonite on the LexCorp software, and operating a laser to cut shards of the rock. The end results include Kryptonite vapor stored in bullets resembling shotgun shells and a Kryptonite spear.
Afterwards, a tired Bruce is checking the software again, and picks a folder named “META-HUMAN”. The resulting window has four icons. He picks the first, resembling two Ws (Subject: WW). The first file, “2012Central IMPOR”, is a picture of Diana outside a bank in Paris. The second, “SURVEILLANCEMBANK”, shows CCTV footage in Paris, three years later, of Diana taking money from an ATM and being checked by a facial software once she lifts her head. Bruce, already intrigued, then goes for the last file, “BELGIUM, NOVEMBER 1918”. The result is a black-and-white picture of a World War I squad, with Diana in some sort of armor in the center. A startled Bruce pushes his back towards the chair and wonders what he is seeing.

CUT TO FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE
Lex Luthor is opening General Zod’s body bag.

SHIP PA
Alexander Luthor, your security override has been accepted. Genesis Chamber ready to analyze genetic sample.

Lex drags Zod’s corpse into the flooded chamber.

SHIP PA
Acknowledging presence of genetic material.Analyzing. I've identified the host as General Zod of Kandor.
Lex puts his hands around Zod’s face, and then takes a knife to slice his hand. The blood drips from his hand onto Zod’s face.
SHIP PA
Acknowledging presence of foreign genetic material. Analyzing.

LEX LUTHOR
Oh. You flew too close to the sun. Now look at you.

As the corpse sinks and is taken by mechanical arms at the bottom of the chamber…

SHIP PA
Advising. Action forbidden. It is been decreed by the Council of Krypton that none will ever again give life to a deformity so hateful to sighted memory. The desecration without name.

LEX LUTHOR
And where is the Council of Krypton?

SHIP PA
Destroyed, sir.

LEX LUTHOR
Then proceed.

SHIP PA
Very well. Preparing chrysalis and commencing metamorphosis.

Mechanical arms descend from the ceiling, coming towards Zod’s body.
CUT TO BLACK
CUT TO DAILY PLANET
Jenny checks some text being submitted by a repoter.
JENNY:
“And so, we are left to wonder, If Superman was aware of the threat and did nothing,was he then complicit in the Capitol tragedy?"
Perry enters the room, and passes by Lois’s cubicle.
PERRY WHITE
Still no Kent?
JENNY
"His disappearance raises questions."
LOIS LANE
No.
JENNY
"How could he simply have disappearedat a time when we, as a nation,need him more than ever?"
Lois then sees on TV a report titled “WAS SUPERMAN INVOLVED?”, where a crowd screams “Burn him! Burn him!” while effigies of him are torched down.

CUT TO MOUNTAINS
As Clark hikes along a mountain range, he eventually finds his father, Jonathan Kent, making up a pile of rocks out of the rubble in the ground.
PA KENT
Something, isn't it? We met Kansas, live on a pancake so we come to the mountains. All downhill from here.Down to the flood plain. The farm is at the bottom of the world. I remember one season water came bad. I couldn't been 12. Dad had out the shovels and we went at it all night. We worked until I think I fainted. But we managed to stop the water. We saved the farm. Your grandma baked me a cake. She said I was a hero. Later that day we found out. We blocked the water, alright, we sent it upstream. All alike farm washed away. While eating my hero cake, their horses were drowning. I used to hear them wailing in my sleep.

SUPERMAN
Did the nightmares ever stop?

PA KENT
Yeah. When I met your mother. She gave me faith that there is good in this world. She was my world. I miss you, son.

SUPERMAN
I miss you too, Dad.

A wide shot shows Clark is all alone by the pile of rocks.

Cut to GOTHAM
Bruce walks towards the destroyed Wayne Manor. Inside, he’s staring at the empty fireplace. eventually joined by Alfred.
ALFRED
You know you can't win. It's suicide.

BRUCE WAYNE
I'm older now than my father ever was. This maybe the only thing I do that matters.

ALFRED
20 years of fighting criminals amount to nothing?

BRUCE WAYNE
Criminals are like weeds, Alfred. Pull one up, another grows in it's place. This is about the future of the world. It's my legacy.

Close-up on the Wayne family crest near the fireplace.

BRUCE WAYNE
You know, my father sat me down, right here. Told me what Wayne manor was built of.
ALFRED
Railways, real estates and oil.
BRUCE WAYNE
The first generation made their fortune trading with the French. Pelts and skins. They were hunters.

Bruce then walks out the mansion.
Cut to DINER
Martha Kent is readying up to leave her job while watching TV.

REPORTER
We got to wait for more evidence, but the question still remains, where is he? If Superman was not involved, If he's got nothing to hide, then why hasn't he been seen since the day of this tragedy?
INTERVIEWEE
Look, you can't...

Martha turns off the TV. Through the back door, she takes out the day’s trash, and just as she puts it in a dumpster, a nearby car starts and turns its headlights on her. Suspicious, Martha tries walking away – only to be stopped by an arriving van. She turns around to see the car as the vehicle opens. From it, two men get out, grab Martha and drag her into the van.
Cut to GOTHAM
A rainy night. Batman now wears an armored suit, with flashing eyes. In a wrecked building, he takes the Kryptonite and stabs it on the ground. Amidst the rain and thunder, he then turns on the Batsignal and stands besides it as it flashes his emblem on the sky.