Welcome to my second installment of the DC Extended Universe, and this will be my first from scratch. This is a direct sequel to Pawn of Darkness, so I really recommend that you read that before starting this. Besides, the trailer is there at the end for this story.

Inspiration for this story comes from multiple sources being The Dark Knight, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Wonder Woman. You will find many nods to those movies in here. Enough talk, let's begin!

Chapter 1: Aftermath

The wind rushed by and he felt the skyscraper sway in the cold of night. Gotham City was quiet now, people had already headed home from work. Antimatter sat atop the tallest building in Gotham, looking across the bay to Metropolis to see Lexcorp Tower's top lit up with large cranes and lights as it was being repaired from Doomsday's attack.

2 months had passed since he let Superman die…2 months since he realized that his mind had been hijacked and engineered to kill a man he now held more respect for than anyone else. Diana had returned to Europe to continue her work, but she had made sure that if he ever needed her, she would not be long.

He assumed that she must've still felt she owed him for convincing her to act when it mattered most, but he couldn't tell. She was frustrating to read to say the least. She insisted on keeping her emotions in check, which he figured had to be from her unusually long life…an exact number he still didn't have.

His respectable paygrade working for Wayne Enterprises and a little help from Bruce secured him a home not far from the Batcave, which allowed him to engage in his own work. He had been able to improve his suit, ditching the helmet and favoring a pull-down visor that flipped to the back of his neck when he didn't wish to use it. He kept the broadsword, but made it lighter with the stronger metal to stand up to his superhuman strength and improve its maneuverability.

His memories of being under the sway of the "demon" as Diana called it had slowly come back to him, and quickly realized that his powers at that moment were far beyond the ones he held now. He distinctly remembered jagged energy beams from his eyes, but never could conjure them up again.

The name "Antimatter" gave him no pain, in fact he embraced it. It stayed as a constant reminder of who had been able to control him, but also his ability to overcome that control. In his mind, he had conquered the being that was Antimatter, and it was his to control.

"Enjoying the view?" someone asked behind him. He turned his head to notice Batman had found him, walking towards the edge to join him.

Antimatter turned his attention back to the bay. "You of all people know why I'm here."

"You can't blame yourself for his death forever…not when the world needs you," Batman tried to reason with him.

"You think I've been sitting quietly, sulking in sadness, waiting for the world to fix itself? No…that's not why I'm up here," he shook his head. "Why are you up here?"

"I'm leaving Gotham."

That took him by surprise. "What?! Why now?"

Batman placed one foot atop the ledge that Antimatter sat on. "You said it yourself…something is on its way, and without Superman we're going to need all the help we can get."

Antimatter rolled his eyes. "The metahumans. You're going to recruit the…the cyborg, fast guy and-," he struggled to wrap his head around it. "…and water man?"

"I'm going to need you to protect Gotham while I'm gone," Batman said as he began to walk away. "You can start with that robbery in progress right below you."

Antimatter narrowed his eyes and pulled down his visor. The interface pulled up and zoomed in his vision below. "Good lord," he said in annoyance as a group of masked thugs assaulted the Gotham Central Bank.

"Good luck!" he said to Batman, but turned to notice that he was already gone. "I hate it when he does that."

A shotgun blast filled the air, and all the terror screams stopped, his masked henchmen holding each of the bank tellers at gunpoint. They all had similar masks, resembling that of a clown with heavy white, blue, and red on each one. The Central Bank of Gotham's lobby was grand to say the least, but the security had picked the wrong day to take the night shift off. Most of the defense had already been shot.

The Joker reloaded his shotgun with a pump. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen," he pranced with a little joy in his step along the hall, each bank teller looking to him in fear. "We are tonight's entertainment!"

Up above while the Joker continued to taunt his captives, a caped woman in a black mask looked down, analyzing her foes. There were 7 total henchmen not including the Joker and 5 bank teller hostages. She figured the two henchmen would be the ones to assault the vault, but that was not what she was here for. The Joker had information that she needed.

"I only have one question!" the Joker shouted. "Something ooo-little," he came up close to one of the hostages. "Where can I find my stolen property?"

The male hostage struggled. "Back there! In the vault! That's all I know I swear!"

The Joker scratched his chin. "Hmm…not good enough," he then waved his hand and the man screamed in terror as his henchman prepared to shoot him.

"You sure you want to make such a big mess Joker?" a female asked, and the Joker turned. "Blood stains are hard to clean off."

He chuckled. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Huntress."

Huntress was just under 6 feet tall with a very Batman-like costume with black and purple being the primary colors. Her long black hair and light brown skin peered through on her face that wasn't covered by her black mask. Her suit was very form-fitting, which was something she used to her advantage often.

Guns clicked on her arrival, but she paid no mind. "I have a question for you," she said.

The Joker shrugged. "Well…can you hurry it up, I'm kinda in the middle of something."

"Your last employer…I know he's the one who murdered my parents," she approached him with hands on her hips. "You wouldn't happen to know where he would be in a few days."

The Joker laughed and she kept a smile on her face, hoping that she could get the answer she'd been waiting for. "Well honey, as entertaining as that would be," he then quickly pointed his shotgun at her, the two free henchmen holding assault rifles behind her. "I'm a man of my word…and he doesn't want anything to do with you." He laughed again, and her smile faded, realizing what kind of situation she had gotten herself in.

"I guess I'll take his place then," a male voice sounded above and a figure landed with a powerful thud, knocking the Joker back into the reception desk. Huntress looked to see Antimatter move quickly to disarm one of the henchmen before throwing his sword into the other's leg. He tossed the one he had gripped at the impaled enemy and moved to reclaim his sword from his leg. "Can you fight?" he asked Huntress.

She rolled her eyes. "Can I fight he askes me," she pulled out a small crossbow from her utility belt and fired it at two of the henchmen while Antimatter made quick work of the other three with his superhuman jumps and bulletproof suit. All the hostages had been quickly freed with no bloodshed.

Huntress grabbed the Joker who was now alone. "Where is he?!"

The Joker laughed hysterically. "You have nothing to threaten me with!" She growled and pulled a knife from her belt, lifting it in the air.

"No!" Antimatter shouted as he grabbed her wrist. She tried to pull her arm free, but she found herself cemented in his superhuman grip. "The police will be here soon, we have to go!" Sirens began to blare outside, and she let up knowing he was right.

"How do we get out?" she asked but found herself cradled in his arms as he leapt 70 feet in the air to the rafters above, landing in the roof catwalk. He set her down.

"Like that," he said.

She fixed her ruffled hair from the sudden gust of air during the jump and looked down as police stormed the building to arrest the Joker. She still didn't say anything.

"Well, I'm-," he began, pulling his visor up.

"I know who you are," she said, and finally looked into his eyes. "You were with Superman and Batman fighting that monster weren't you? Who was the other one…Wonder Girl?"

"Wonder Woman," he corrected. He was struggling to find what to say next, and it reminded him of the time he had first met Diana. No background, nothing, just forced into a conversation with a woman who he thought was attractive. But this was different…at that time he wasn't choked up by her beauty but more from the odd vibe she gave him. Now…he found his eyes looking away from her face, trying not to stare.

A smile creeped up her masked face. "Are you alright?"

He scoffed and shook his head with a smile as he broke his trance. "I think I should be asking you that," she shrugged and he got a better look at her suit. "So uh," he noticed the pointy ear-like parts atop her mask. "Are you the… crime-fighting bat woman...you Batgirl?"

She patted him on the shoulder and kept her hand there. "Close," she then seemed to bat her eyelashes at him. "Huntress."

"Huntress," he repeated. "Interesting…so what's your power?"

She pulled her hand from his shoulder. "I have none."

"Come on…everyone has a gimmick."

"Not everyone is special like you Antimatter," she knocked a sense of reality into him, beginning to walk away. "Thanks for the save, but I've got to go." She started to jog down the cat walk towards the back door at the end.

"Will I see you again?" he asked just before she headed out.

She opened the door but gave him a quick wink before she headed out. "You just might."

It was good to be back in familiar territory, away from the horrors that plagued Metropolis. Diana had returned to Paris to continue her regular antique work…trying to return to some sort of normalcy.

But deep down she knew that after what had happened in Metropolis her life would never return to the peace she had found. The news was raving over her appearance, and she tried to avoid the stories about her whereabouts. They knew nothing about her.

Superman's sacrifice had inspired her to consider going out full-time, offering her powers like the others back in the US. However her dilemma over the nature of humanity still kept her hesitant.

She had just come in to work for the day when a man dropped off a case at her desk, labeled "Wayne Enterprises". She looked back up at the man to see if she recognized him after reading it, but did not. Flipping the box around, she opened it. A note was placed on top.

Found the original. Maybe one day you'll tell me your story. -Bruce

She looked down to see the original copy of the photo that had been taken in Belgium of 1918. There he was…Captain Steve Trevor…the man who was brave enough to give his life to save thousands of others. He gave her faith that there is good in this world when she had none left. The picture itself brought memories flooding back into her mind, replaying her entire life's story in just a glance. Her emotions began to peep through her expression, but tears didn't flow. It gave her more happiness than anything.

She turned the note over when she spotted more writing on the back.

P.S. Terrance still isn't the same. Maybe you'll have more success talking to him than I am.

She never forgot what the demon had said to her when it released its hold on Terrance. It wasn't possible for her to be his sister, so who was it referring to? It was something she had looked into, but the more she researched, the more she found that there was nothing on Terrance at all. His Wikipedia page was filled with speculation on his early life, and yet everything current was minimal. It was like he was a ghost.

However, he held something that she had never felt in any male before…a sense of comradery. Bruce was a partner sure, but Terrance held some sort of connection with her that she couldn't identify. It felt natural and instinctual to make sure he was all right, something she had felt with her mother when she was a young adult.

Maybe because he was quick to trust her with his life, which she never understood in the first place, or there was something else between them. All of that aside, Terrance was a mystery she would still need to solve one day.

She placed the picture back in the foam bedding of the case to preserve it and then turned to her touchscreen device. She opened a composition for an email to Bruce and began to write him a thank you.

She had a lot of things to consider.

Like usual the first chapter is a little shorter to set the stage. This story I feel is going to be 65% Antimatter and 35% Wonder Woman for the main characters. Huntress will see the third-most attention but not too much on her thought process. Also a fair warning that these chapters won't come out nearly as fast as POD because I'm doing them from scratch. Over this summer I'd say once a week but even that is ambitious for me. I'm heading off to college in late September, and I have no idea what my stance on this will be then. Let me know what you guys thought! If you enjoyed please follow/fav and leave a review! Thanks for reading!