Chapter 4

He trained. He bled. He fought endlessly. Nothing would stop him…or nothing would stop his instinct. As he became stronger, smarter, and faster than he had ever before, he also found himself questioning if this was something he really wanted.

If killing Superman was really the right thing to do.

But it didn't matter. Each feeling of doubt was washed away by an uncontrollable rage and sense of duty to…something. He felt like had strings attached to every action he took, like it was predetermined…like if his will wasn't his own. Everything he did was bound by one phrase:

The God must die.

Terrance and Bruce spent the next two weeks experimenting on the Kryptonite and forging weapons to combat Superman. Terrance was learning faster than usual, and found himself suddenly knowing things he knew he didn't before. At first Bruce took it for granted, but even he began to wonder how he was learning so quickly. His strength had gone from denting metal tables to totally warping them, and his 30 foot vertical had become 70. His sword had to be swapped out with much stronger material to combat the stress on the weapon, in fact he had switched from a katana to a broadsword entirely. His new strength forced him to adopt a slower and more defensive fighting style.

Terrance's powers had been growing so quickly that Bruce had begun to formulate a contingency plan should he ever go rogue. The only issue was that he had not been around him long enough to have a clear and obvious weakness, but he had a few ideas.

Then a day had come when they were nearly ready to face Superman where Bruce had begun to delve into the other Lexcorp files…one labeled "META_HUMAN". Terrance was in another room working on his strength, so he decided to check the contents to pass the time. His large computer screen in the Batcave brought up 5 more files when he opened the folder, each having their own symbol. One was what looked to be two Ws, the second a C, the third a lightning bolt, the fourth an upside-down V and the fifth was black with the omega symbol.

He opened the first file and found photos and surveillance footage of the woman who had taken his drive. This all confirmed his suspicions about her and the simple fact that she was odd. However the final photo really got his attention. What he found was a vintage photo of 4 highwaymen of sorts…and her dressed in battle armor standing in the middle of them. He looked down at the date which read: Belgium, November 1918. That was the Western Front of the First World War…nearly 100 years ago. What she had been doing all this time was beyond him.

Determined to discover her later, he backed out of the file and looked at the others. He found the next three to be some sort of cyborg, the next a man who could travel faster than the eye could track, and a man who lived beneath the ocean.

Intrigued to see the final one, he moved his cursor over the black file but hesitated when he saw it was titled "PROJECT_ANTIMATTER". An odd chill went up his spine…and he began to have more questions than answers fill his mind. Now he couldn't even be sure if Terrance was loyal to him. What if this was all a trick put in place by Lex…a trick to get Bruce to do…something.

He was about to open the file when Terrance's voice rang in the back. "Mr. Wayne!" he shouted. Bruce quickly closed the files, returning to the home screen. "Bruce," he called as he approached him sweating from his recent workout, but hesitated as Bruce had the look of uncertainty. "Everything alright?"

Bruce still hesitated. Maybe it was smarter to make the hard choice. "I've been thinking that maybe I should do this alone."

Terrance was stunned at first. "W-what? What makes you think that?"

Bruce turned in his chair. "You're learning things faster than a human could ever, and it doesn't seem like you're quick, but like you already know. I've just got this feeling like you've been…compromised."

Terrance shook his head and sighed. "You might be right, but I know what I'm capable of, and what I must do…so with your help or not I'm going to carry it out."

Bruce narrowed his eyes for a second before turning in his chair back to the computer, pulling up the META_HUMAN file. "Do you know about these?" he asked.

Terrance leaned up to the screen. "I know about the project name, but once again it was encrypted."

"Well have a look at this," he then hovered over the black file, showing him the title. "Are you going to still tell me you don't know?"

Terrance's face was filled with astonishment as it read "PROJECT_ANTIMATTER" with a dark Omega symbol. Just seeing the symbol made his mind go erratic, and images flashed in his mind that he couldn't make out. All he saw was a recurrent theme of destruction, death and a dark figure descending upon the Earth.

Bells rang, and he saw the limp body of Superman with him standing over him. Chants took over the image.

The god is dead! *Ring ring*, the god is dead!

"No!" he shouted and felt his legs buckle, falling to the ground.

"Terrance!" Bruce shouted. "What happened to you?"

He didn't get back up, in fact fear took over his face. "You're right…I-I can't help you…there's something horribly wrong with me."

Bruce nodded, and then moved to open the file but a female AI voice sounded. "Retinal scan required for access."

"Lex," he spat and pounded the table with his fist. "Looks like you'll have to go to him for answers."

Terrance nodded as anger took over his expression. "He did this to me…I know it. It just makes too much sense. How he came to me at such a young age, his undying interest in me, everything."

Bruce had the look of acceptance but opened the "W" folder. "Maybe you should reacquaint yourself with Ms. Prince," he said and Terrance rose to his feet as he saw the vintage photo.

"Yeah…I think I will," he said, looking to the file name.

WONDER_WOMAN.

Diana Prince entered the lobby of her hotel building in Metropolis after her day of work had concluded. Night had fallen due to the lateness of her last job during her stay, and she was ready to get back to Paris to continue her normal work.

She longed to return to her room, but she noticed as many of the people in the lobby were crowded around the television, watching a CNN report of strange activity around the alien crash site. She stopped to see that lightning had begun to flare all around the covered area. In all her years on this Earth, that was something she hadn't seen for a century.

The last time she saw something like that she was suited up and convinced that she could rid the world of all war and suffering by killing one being, but that was a long time ago. Things had changed, and she still thought this didn't warrant her attention.

"Diana," a male voice sounded behind her and she turned quickly to notice Terrance Price, the man who had retrieved Bruce's drive from her.

She relaxed when she noticed it was him. "Mr. Price?" she asked.

"We need to talk," he said, and pulled out a flash drive. "It can't wait."

Diana realized what he must've discovered, causing her to let out a deep sigh and an eventual nod. "Ok…come with me." Terrance nodded and he followed her to the lobby elevators, noticing the report on the television. She could almost feel his uncertainty and noticed the stress in his stance. He had to have discovered more than just her identity.

They eventually made it to her hotel room where she set her things down and took a seat at her desk, opening her laptop. Terrance took the empty chair across from her and handed her the drive. "Open it up," he said.

"So, what's troubling you?" she asked as she powered on her laptop and inserted the drive.

"A lot of things," he dodged the question for now. "Are you really 100 years old?"

Her eyes panned up from the screen as she paused, taking a glance at him. "More than that," she said and returned to opening his drive.

"Huh," he huffed. "More than that."

She nodded as the file pulled up on her screen. "What is it you want me to see?"

"Open the meta-human folder, and then tell me what you see," he instructed, still astonished by everything.

She looked back down at the screen and saw the symbols on each file. "I see…symbols. The first one I know is mine but the others…wait…the last one I know as well."

"It's Omega," he answered for her. "The Greek letter for-,"

"The end," she finished. "I know. Why is that important to you?"

"Because that file is for me," he revealed and received a confused look from her, asking for clarification. "About 3 weeks ago Bruce and I discovered that I had strength beyond that of any human and the ability to jump upwards of 20 feet in a single bound. Since then my powers have been slowly increasing and I'm discovering that I can lift cars and wield a sword that I've never used before and fight in styles I've never learned. Among all of this…I had just one goal…to kill Superman and spare the Earth from his power."

Diana couldn't believe the similarity to her own experience of receiving her abilities, but was taken aback by his goal. "Why do you want to kill Superman?"

Terrance shook his head. "I don't know. It feels instinctual. The desire gets worse when I see him."

"That sounds like conditioning," she realized. "Like you've been brainwashed."

He nodded. "It was Lex Luthor…without a shadow of a doubt. I can't open the file without his retinal scan. It's the only one like that."

She looked down and thought about what this could all mean. If Terrance was really brainwashed to destroy Superman, then what was the trigger? How did he come to be?

She realized that her time might have come. "What are you asking of me?"

Terrance nodded and rose from his seat. "I'm not asking you to suit up and join me, since I can already tell that you've probably had enough of that," he then pulled out a small device that looked like a pager and handed it to her. "That's a tracker and measures my anger and power levels. I've injected a tag into my arm that will send out a signal and my location when both of those spike. I fear at that point I'll be unable to control my actions and I'm asking you to stop me with whatever means necessary."

She looked down at what she had given him, pausing for a moment before putting the device on her desk. "I don't know if I'm ready to suit up again…but maybe the time for hiding has passed," she looked up at him. "I'll do my best."

"Thank you Diana," he said and then began to make his way out.

"Where will you go?" she asked.

He stopped just before he opened the door. "To deal with Lex once and for all." He then left her alone in her room to ponder…and decide if the world needed her once again.

Lex sat cross-legged on the helipad atop the Lexcorp tower, waiting for the inevitable moment when Superman would return to punish him for pushing Lois Lane from the top of the building. He smiled, holding a kitchen timer, feeling very confident in his plan that was long in the making.

Superman finally floated up above him. "Boy do we have problems up here!" he shouted and then set the timer for 60 minutes as Superman slowly made his way down to him. He stood to his feet. "The problem of…evil in the world. The problem of absolute virtue!"

"I'll take you in without breaking you!" Superman shouted back, anger filling his expression. "Which is more than you deserve!"

"The problem of you on top of everything else…you above all!" Lex continued as Superman made his way to the helipad. "Because that's what God is. Horus, Apollo, Jehovah, Kal-El…Clark…Joseph…Kent," Superman was now on the ground, showing a bit of shock that Lex had figured out his identity. Lex continued, "See, what we call God depends upon our tribe, Clark-Joe. 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! Mmm," disgust rid Lex's face. "I figured out way back! If God is all-powerful, then he cannot be all-good…and if he is all-good, then he cannot be all-powerful. And neither can you be."

Superman gave him a funny look, trying to figure out what Lex was getting at. Lex continued, "They need to see the fraud you are. With their eyes. The blood on your hands."

"What have you done?" Superman said in an ominous voice.

"Hmm, and tonight, they will…because you my friend have a date, across the bay. Ripe fruit his hate. Two years growing, but it did not take much to push him over actually, leading my good friend Terrance to him, little red notes, big bang. You let your family die!"

Superman turned to him as he paced to the edge of the helipad, remembering who Terrance was from the party here at Lexcorp. "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 still didn't look convinced. "Or Antimatter can kill you…your choice!"

Superman chuckled. "I'll beat any monster you throw at me."

"Oh Antimatter is no monster…no, no, no!" Lex said, still standing at the edge, thunder rumbling across the bay in Gotham. "No he is more than that. Mr. Terrance Price has been bread to kill you with the heritage of a humanized devil and the strongest breed of humans on this Earth! And all it takes is a few words…a few words and he snaps! Hmm! Snaps to kill you! But lucky for you, you can fight the Bat instead. Your choice!"

"You think I'll fight them for you?"

"Hmm. Yes I do," Lex hummed. "I think you will fight-fight-fight for that special lady in your life!"

"She's safe on the ground, how about you?"

Lex began to circle his way back behind him. "Close, but I am not talking about Lois. No. Every boy's special lady is his mother."

Superman felt his heart stop for a moment and anger take over as he lifted his fist. Lex unveiled a slew of pictures showing Martha Kent, his mother, being held against her will at an unknown location.

"Martha, Martha, Martha," Lex gasped. "Hmm. Why, the mother of a flying demon must be a witch! The punishment for witches, what is that? That's right, death by fire!" He then began to toss the pictures at Superman's feet and all he could do was fall to his knees in shock, looking at the photos.

Superman growled and looked up with red energy-filled eyes. "WHERE IS SHE?!"

"I don't know! I would not let them tell me!" Lex shouted as his eyes were about to fire their red beams. "Now…if you kill me, Martha dies and Antimatter kills you…and if you fly away mmm Martha also dies and Antimatter kills you. But if you kill the Bat… Martha lives and Antimatter will never come to be."

Superman shook his head as his eyes powered down. He couldn't lose his mother…not now, and he didn't want Terrance to have to go through with his programming, especially if Lex was telling the truth about him. He bowed his head down, defeated.

"There we go. There we go," Lex said, holding his hand above Superman's head. "And now God bends to my will," Superman looked up to him with hate-filled eyes as Lex began to back up. "Now the cameras are waiting at your ship, for the world to see the holes in the holy! Yes the Almighty shows us how dirty he is when it counts! To save Martha and spare Terrance…bring me the head of the Bat!" Lex then made his way back inside the building, and held out the timer he had set. "Ah! Mother of God will you look at the time! When you came here, you had an hour…now it's less!"

Lex smiled and went back into his penthouse, shutting the door and watching Superman fly off towards Gotham with no choice. He felt victory right in front of him.

The elevator dinged and he chuckled. "Oh, oh, oh…late as ever aren't you Mr. Price?" He turned to see Terrance dressed in his purple and black suit, broadsword on his back. He wasted no time grabbing Lex and pinning him against the wall.

"What did you do to me?!" he shouted through his helmet before tearing it off, still holding Lex down with one arm. "What did you do?!"

A smile creeped up Lex's face. "Me? I was right here the whole time…what did you do to yourself?"

Terrance's patience wore thin. "I will kill you right here!" he shouted, drawing his sword.

"Rise Omega! Rise to kill the Alpha!" Lex shouted.

Terrance's arm stopped cold. He lost control of his body, his mind…everything. His eyes began to glow red and an uncontrollable rage was the only emotion he had left. "The God must die," he said. "The God must die!"

Lex smiled as now Antimatter ran out to the helipad and executed a jump so powerful it bent the edge, and he was gone towards Gotham. "A deal is a deal…but he forced my hand Superman…he forced my hand."

Another crazy chapter! I think this story has maybe 2 left and then I will begin my original story which will be a sequel to this one. This is merely a foothold into a series that will begin soon! If you enjoyed please follow/fav and leave a review! Thanks for reading!