Justice EDL

EDL : Gaslight (part one)
submitted concept draft
(December 2017 through February 2018)

~ the one script which wrote them all ~

(Clark and Bruce voiced over as Orion walks down a long platform barely lit by the green of a screen at the end.  A green face on the screen looks suspiciously down on him as he begins a download.)

Clark - "If I look at you.  If I really look at you ... you'll die.  I can never look at you ... at her.  I can't _touch her,_ Bruce.  Everything here _breaks_ ... everyone _Breaks !"_

Bruce - "I know.  That's the problem.  Remember fields of wheat."

Clark - "I didn't come back _right_ Bruce.  I didn't come back ..."

Bruce - "I know.  That's why we're here.  Remember.  Think.  Fields of wheat, Clark.  Blowing in the wind."

(Orion raises his finger with a 'Shhh ...'  The face smiles and fades, the room going black.)

Clark - "I can't.  _Speak_ ... I can't _walk_ I can't _talk_ ..." building to a roar,  Because you're All.  So.  _! WEAK !_

Green sparks from a cattle prod charged with kryptonite light the chamber, Bruce's armor dented in and sparking from the roar, with Clark chained to the wall with green goggles with red dots glowing through from the centers of the eyes as he roars.

Clark wears a black suit, mildly armored to conceal the green woven within to restrain him.  The distributed plates hide the power cores, etcetera.  They glow when he's overpowered in response.
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(Voiced over as a woman runs chased through the woods)

"The women who came to us came to live. They were lost. Abused. Some needed medical attention they were deemed unworthy of.  So we helped them.  And when we did, they came to punish us. So we punished them. That's how it started. And that's how it ended.

(Ancient Greek soldiers pursue.)

"We walked away into our woods, away from the world of men.

(Eyes in the bushes.)

"But those who knew, did come to us still, forever hidden from history behind myth. Forever and still. So when we spin our tales to amuse, always remember.  It's got to have a beginning and an end.  And _that_ is why you'll never hear a true tale of Amazon.  We accept neither."

(The pursuers fall by arrows from the darkness, which turns to sweep over the Earth and stars to a fleet of small green craft approaching)
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In an overgrown swamp, Constantine sits on a log next to the Swamp Thing and a drink.

Constantine - "Just so we have an understanding, when I call you 'the bog-beast' it means something very different where I come from."  Takes the shot, pours another and passes it, refused.

Swamp - "I _am_ ... where you come from.  Right now ... and I _know_ ... a lot of things.  I _know_ ... why you are here, Constantine ... and I know _you_ ... have left _me_ no _choices_ ... again."

Constantine - "Then you also know we're short on time, so you'll wanna speed up the dialogue a bit."  He tosses the filled shot-glass into the swamp and drinks from the bottle.
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Sara walks up behind a woman dressed in Renaissance attire, who stares out the window.

Sara - Smile "Hey my darling Constantine."

Johanna Constantine - A smile, "Sara, you're in the wrong place and time again."  Sara's arms slide around her waist, "But don't worry ..."  A quiet giggle, "we have a plan."  She turns with a laugh.
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(Voiced over in the dark)

"Then begs the big question.  Where do all the little Amazons then come from ?  I told you already we were women real and true and so where do women come from, but from women.

(A man peers from the darkness over the slain, then watches the woman escape, disappearing back into)

"Gargarean seed planted within, and without ... when the arrows flew among our tribes ... they always flew in the same direction and never once was counted _who_ let that arrow fly."

(The woodland Amazons greet the woman.)
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Mera - Bemused, "Arthur, you were _born_ a king.  You will _always_ be king. There is no other."

Arthur - "Just you.  A man may love a woman and they beget a child like any other.  It does not make him king.  I found myself out there Mera.  The fight.  It's in me now and ... there's something."

Mera - "Something."

Arthur - "They're different now Mera.  Somethings happening."

Mera - Laughing, "Perhaps then you _are_ unfit to rule here, husband."

Arthur - Laughing with her, "I fear it's true !  I've begun to believe in them again, Mera.  Hope."
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Bruce and Clark in an elevator, wearing business suits.  Bruce nods his support to Clark, who seems uncomfortable, still.  Clark sees Bizarro in the reflection of the smooth metal doors (it's what he always sees in the reflection now).  Still shaken before they slide open showing the League around a table, Orion standing at the head.
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Mera - "Hope ?"

Arthur - "Yes.  Hope."

Mera - Laughing, "Arthur you've gone mad among them !  Hope is no way for those to whom the people look for it."

Arthur - Laughing with her, "I agree !  I agree with you."  He turns and stops her, "So instead of my queen, will you be my wife instead, and queen to all the rest ?  Sworn to protect and serve you dearly."

Mera - Looking long at him, " And would your queen marry an untested warrior ?  I fear not, dear Arthur."  She pulls her lips closer to his, "Not until you've proven yourself."  She removed the crown from his head with a kiss and places it on her own.
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In the Justice meeting room.

Orion - "Orion."  He stares hard at Clark, not looking away from him until Clark's meet his in defiance.
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John - "It's happening _now,_ Arrow."

An arrow hits the mark.
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Diana - "Why here ?"

Orion - "You do not know this yet, a thing you may have learned before your extinction.  You are feared across the worlds, your barbarous ways known to exceed even those of my father.  So I bring it here, and he will come for it.  To die."
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Voiced over while John Constantine walks through a graveyard with a shovel.

"Dear John ~

"Sara has told me all about you.  She also told me 'dear John was somehow humorous tomorrow, and that you should take note.  Have fun in the apocalypse, they do come and go you know.  Here's what you'll need.  Call me Grandma Great.  

"Johanna Constantine."
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A cracked Polaroid of Lady Constantine in a corset and bloomers, being carried by a proud looking Sara (White Canary)
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John holding the note and looking at the photo, standing over a dead Solomon Grundy who holds a dirty and aged, yet modern manila envelope.
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In an Atlantean prison colony set long before Mera rules. In preparation of an uprising, the prisoners cheer her name, brandishing raw weapons.

A younger Arthur watches hidden among them before leaving, returning to the palace.
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Clark - Staring hard now at Orion, "So you want to use our world as a way to kill your father because you can't do it yourself.  Coward."

Orion - Looking deep into his eyes, a tiny crackle of green there, "Do they know ?"  He smiles.  "They don't know, do they ?"  His smile widens.

Bruce - "The question stands."

Orion - Not breaking eyes with Clark, "He planned to invade anyway, this just ups the game.  But believe me he Can Not be allowed to possess what I've stolen from him.  If you understand _this,_ then you understand why it's a _good_ plan, and only your world can save them all."
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Lucifer - "Try the Endless.  They actually seem to care about your species."

John - "Not really."  Lights a smoke, "They only tell themselves they do to keep from suicide out of moral self righteousness.  Gets in the way of endlessness.  But You're exactly the _opposite_ of that."

Lucifer - A giggle, "I'm very glad you think that.  Now what do you want and why ?  _After_ you put out that cigarette."
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Young Arthur and Mera make love in the shadows ...

She leaves in the morning with cropped hair.
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Arthur (current) leaves the palace, geared for travel and war, a braid of Mera's hair hanging from his shoulder.
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Diana is very observational of Clark and Orion, suspicious of what Bruce knows about it.

Orion - "Our world was once like yours.  Lush with life and our people prospered.  We grew and we grew.  We warred and we ate, created ... built ... until it was gone.  No life left but our own.  Nothing to mine and neither a thing to fight nor for.  Understand that my father comes first for food, and his soldiers are very hungry.

(views of Apokolips, a civilization with nothing, which eats it's own according to hierarchy, until ...)

"He's fed on ... uncountable worlds, like his father before him, throwing the scraps to the people.  We are very hungry.  And as it is the humans who will defend this world, it is you who the soldiers will eat first."  He turns his gaze briefly to Bruce with an inward pause.

(views of Orion in these battles)

"But it's because the realms and worlds known know to fear your brutality," a pause staring at Clark without smile, He must start here."

(views)

Diana - "Start what ?  Be precise."

Orion - "Conquest of your universe.  He starts with this galaxy.  Your system is on the outside, and he'll work his way in.  In a thousand years he'll reach the core and mine it.  The materials are required for the gates."

(more views ...)

"But humans are the greatest threat here, most feared.  If he kills and devours _you most_ viciously, he will be feared throughout all places who _know_ to fear, and thus to fight.  His rule will then be absolute with little effort.  And when they forget, he does this again to those most feared."

(last view)

Flash - "Stop.  You said he wants to _eat_ us ?"

Orion - "He does."  A sideways look away from Clark with a mild inhale of scent, " ... and so do I.  Sometimes we do wonder what things taste like."  Looks at Clark and smiles.

Bruce - "And then You get the throne.  Let's talk treaties."

Orion - Still smiling at Clark, "Whomever kills him will rule, Kal-El.  But I give This,"  handing the equation download to Clark, "to You.  The Anti-Life Equation.  The key to end all worlds."

Flash - "... but like really really eat us, you mean."
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The next morning young Mera charges to war against the gates of Atlantis with her people as Arthur watches from the castle tower. She smiles at him from afar between wiping out the guards at the castle gate.
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On the airplane ...

Asshole passenger - Suspicious indignation, "So what exactly do you _do_ ... ?"

Constantine - "Save the world so assholes like you can keep pissing me off on the way to doing it."  Drinks the tiny bottle looking out the window.

The plane soars over the city toward port.
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Arthur walks from the water onto the empty beach at night.