Act I, Scene XIII

Clark arrives back in the apartment. He closes the door behind him, and turns, and faces the music in the form of Lois and Jason.

LOIS: You sneak off in the middle of the night and next thing I know you're in the middle of some smack down all over the news! You could have been killed!

JASON: You beat him! You humiliated him! Why'd you do that? You didn't have to do that!

CLARK: Jason, I…believe me, I tried to-

JASON: They'll unmask him, they'll throw him in jail and throw away the key. He was a hero, just like you!

Something seems to snap in Clark at this.

CLARK: Like me? He's nothing like me! He's violent! He's unstable! He's a borderline sociopath! He dresses like a bat and wears a mask!

JASON: (points to his own eyes, indicating Clark's glasses) And you don't?!At least he wears his mask when he's being a hero. Better than wearing it when you're pretending to be a person!

He storms off to his room, tears in his eyes. Clark watches him go, real anguish in his face. He takes a step as if to follow and finds Lois' arm has attached itself to his wrist. Though she couldn't have a hope in hell of stopping him physically, the simple gesture is enough to halt him in his tracks.

LOIS: (gently) Let him go, Clark. He's too angry right now to listen to reason. Try it tomorrow.

CLARK: I'm trying to do my best here, Lois, but sometimes I just feel as if I understand-

LOIS: Kids? Women?

CLARK: -humans.

LOIS: Humans?

CLARK: Yes, humans. I don't get this world sometimes. I zip back and forth across this planet every single day. Stopping one disaster after another after another, saving hundreds, thousands, millions of people. I answer a request for my help to bring a fugitive to justice. I saw him at work again tonight, Lois. He hates criminals. He despises them. The methods he uses…the things he does…(he shrugs) I didn't believe it about those cops, but what if he discovered they were on the take? What if he couldn't control his anger? And so I brought him in. As gently as I could. Giving him as much dignity as I could.

He bunches his hands into fists and takes a deep steadying breath.

CLARK: And yet everywhere I turn, people are looking at me as if I'm the villain. I heard them, Lois. I heard them all tonight as I flew across this damn city. Who does he think he is? Did you see those things from his eyes? And then to come here…and have my…

He trails off, unable to complete the sentence. He stares out into Gotham, lost for words, visibly irritated.

CLARK: I'm not a Boy Scout, Lois. I'm tired. And I don't know how much more I can take.

There is a pause. Lois seems to be looking for the right thing to say. She reaches out as if to touch him again, but pulls back at the last moment.

LOIS: You know you were right before, at least partially. Batman isn't like you. He can't fly. He can't leap tall buildings in a single bound. He's human, Clark. And the people of this city, they mistrusted him, they feared him, but they all knew what he was and they saw the things he did and some part of them thought - he can do all of that, and yet he's human, like the rest of us.

CLARK: And Superman isn't.

LOIS: No. He isn't.

CLARK: (sarcastically)What part of the reassuring chat is this, exactly? I'm confused.

LOIS: Clark, I've seen you work miracles so many damn times. Seen you do things no-one should be able to do. And you've saved my life so many times doing those things. But if you're asking me is there a part of me that doesn't look at you moving mountains and blasting laser beams from your eyes and creating hurricanes from your breath and wonder what it must feel like to possess power like that…you're crazy.

CLARK: I don't understand.

LOIS: Batman is pretty much as advanced as humankind can hope to get. And tonight you handed his ass to him on a plate. Forgive us for wondering for a moment what exactly is stopping you from doing that to the rest of us. You know. If you ever wake up one day and discover you're tired of zipping back and forth across this planet every single day, stopping one disaster after another after another…

CLARK: Forgive us for wondering? You're including yourself in this, Lois? You're just like the rest?

LOIS: Hey. You were the one said you couldn't understand humans Not some of us. All of us. So don't you dare accuse me of generalising. You stop seeing us as individuals and start seeing as a species and we're all in trouble, Clark.

CLARK: I-

He cocks his head to the side again, and points to the switched-off television.

CLARK: Turn it on.

Lois does so. The rolling news is still on, and a sleepy, if extremely caffeine-wired looking Mike Engel stares out at us.

ENGEL: That breaking news again: Batman has escaped police custody. The van transporting him to Gotham City Central Precinct never arrived-

CLARK: What do you know. Humans 1, Kryptonians 0, huh?

He walks to the window, pulling aside his Clark Kent civvies to reveal the S shield beneath. Opening the window, the wind ruffles his hair and causes Lois to pull her nightgown tighter around her body to shield herself from the cold. She shivers. Clark watches this gesture. He doesn't seem to know what to say.

LOIS: I know we look small from way up there. Try not to see us that way.

He's gone in another moment, leaving Lois standing at the window as she watches him soar out over the city. Unlike in the Prologue, there's none of the love and pride evident there now, only concern and worry. She closes the window.

Act I, Scene XIV

Back on the rooftop from Scene XI. No time appears to have passed.

BATMAN: How did I get here?

LUTHOR: (nods to the Eradicator) My friend here can move extremely fast when he wants to.

ERADICATOR: I can also confuse Kryptonian physiology. Slow him down.

BATMAN: Then why do you need my help? I just got my ass kicked.

ERADICATOR: I can buy instants only. And if he became aware of me, he could shrug off the effects.

LUTHOR: From where I was standing, you did better than most. But with my help…you can do better still.

BATMAN: I know you, Luthor. You're the worst kind of scum. Worse than a thousand Falcone's or Maroni's.

LUTHOR: (bows) Well, quite. But at least I don't run around in scary makeup. How is your friend, by the way? Still securely locked away in Arkham?

BATMAN: He'll rot in there.

LUTHOR: Oh don't worry, I have no desire to see him do otherwise. Besides, he might be a little pissed at me muscling in on his old stomping grounds. But we're getting off-topic.

BATMAN: You? You're the new crime lord?

LUTHOR: (pointing to the pierside) Whose guns do you think those are, scattered all over the harbour? Pah. World's greatest detective indeed…

BATMAN: You fill my city with guns and you want my help? You're crazier than I thought.

LUTHOR: Oh, far from it. Without help, Superman will bring you in. You know it. You don't stand a chance against him. And with you in jail, your identity exposed, you won't last ten minutes against half the crooks in the city that you put in there dressed as a flying mouse. But he's too much of an idiot to see the reality of that. He thinks you can get justice. Stop me if I'm wrong at any point by the way.

Batman says nothing.

LUTHOR: And you saw him tonight. You saw the power he possesses. How long before he tires of saving us from ourselves and starts instructing us on how to be better? How long will he live? Forever? How long before he works out how to clone himself or before he sires his heirs and spreads his abilities far and wide, and we all fall under the yoke of super powered aliens who can kill us in an instant? I may be a criminal, but at least I'm human.

ERADICATOR: He is on the move. I will distract him.

He takes off into the skies above. Luthor watches him go. As soon as he is gone he approaches Batman and speaks as if from one confidante to another.

LUTHOR: He's not alone of his race on this world. There is another. A General. He craves Superman's power for himself. He must not get it. They think I'm helping by bringing you in, and I am. But not them. I'm helping the human race. Stand with me.

BATMAN: Everything you're asking me to do goes against what I stand for.

LUTHOR: Don't be naïve! Gotham despises you. But I can change all of that.

BATMAN: You?

LUTHOR: This empire I've built in the last year, within your city. Help me now, help me when I call upon you, and I will allow you to dismantle it. It'll make the mass arrest you, Dent and Gordon tried last time look tame. You will personally be responsible for the biggest clean-up of Gotham's streets in three generations. If that doesn't make the fools running the city revise their opinion of you, I don't know what will.

BATMAN: And what happens to you?

LUTHOR: Well. (smiles)You know something, I'm just not that keen on prison. And Gotham doesn't suit me like Metropolis did. You look the other way. I slip out. We never see each other again. Happiness ensues.

The Eradicator touches back down on the rooftop.

ERADICATOR: He will not find us, for now. But we should not linger.

LUTHOR: I think I'm done with the pitch. Just awaiting the response.

Luthor and the Eradicator regard Batman. He meets their gaze, his armour tattered, a shadow of the same man who started the night so masterfully interrupting the arms shipment.

BATMAN: How can I possibly trust you?

LUTHOR: (sighs) I'd prefer it if you came on board. But don't mistake me for one of your two-bit Gotham villains. I am not a moron. Do it.

He points. The Eradicator advances on Batman. Batman puts himself into a defensive posture as he approaches, and lashes out a foot to connect perfectly with the Eradicator's stomach. But it has no effect. Batman tries again, and again, raining blows down on his opponent, but all to no avail.

The Eradicator pins Batman's arms behind his back and immobilises his legs. Luthor advances now and puts his hands on Batman's cowl. When he speaks, it's softly, conspiratorially.

LUTHOR: I could take this off. See who you really are. Find out who you love. Make them suffer.

He steps back, and motions. The Eradicator releases Batman.

LUTHOR: Should I do that, Bruce?

Batman's eyes widen behind his cowl. Luthor smiles.

LUTHOR: As I said. Not a moron. No-one but a billionaire could have the toys you do, and the carefree playboy act may fool some, but it doesn't fool me for a second. Besides, I've become rather a specialist at secret identities in recent times.

BATMAN: You hurt anyone I care about, and I'll kill you.

LUTHOR: Not many of them left now, with Mummy and Daddy and Rachel in the ground is there? But hey. Demonstration of seriousness over. We were talking about trust. So how about a freebie to show you I'm serious. In fact, how about two.

He lifts a dossier from a nearby surface and gives it to Batman, who opens it. Inside is the face of Anna Ramirez, Gordon's lieutenant.

BATMAN: She was the traitor? She gave Rachel and Dent to the Joker?

LUTHOR: It's amazing what you learn when you mix with the morally ambiguous.

BATMAN: What's the second?

LUTHOR: They do say turnabout is fair play, don't they? Tell him. No. Better to show him.

The Eradicator ripples his form into a perfect replica of Superman. Batman reacts with shock.

LUTHOR: Useful skill. Would allow you to shake hands with yourself. Say, in a press conference in front of the world's press, to make a story go away…?

The implications of this don't take long to sink in.

BATMAN: Kent…

LUTHOR: Kent.

BATMAN: What do you need from me?

Luthor smiles.

END OF ACT ONE