Impact - A Justice Lords Story

IMPACT! - A Justice Lords Story by BillA1

Disclaimer: The characters Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Superman & Flash their respective secret identities are all owned by DC Comics. This story is intended for my own pleasure and is not for profit. It has been posted to this site for others to read. Places and characters not own by DC Comics are my own creation. This story is based on characters from The Justice League story: "A Better World" written by Stan Berkowitz. Thanks to Merlin Missy for her beta on this story.

IMPACT!- A Justice Lords Story

Rating: (PG-13)

Synopsis: The long reaching effects of the Justice Lords

(Seven months after the death of the Flash (a year after the death of President Luthor))

(Aboard a 767 airliner at eleven thousand feet on approach to Metropolis International Airport - Two P.M. local time)

The silence in the cockpit was broken by a radio transmission. "Soar Nine One Heavy, Metropolis Approach. You are three zero miles southwest of Metropolis International. Turn right heading two zero zero. Descend and maintain four thousand. You are cleared I. L. S. runway two five left. Maintain four thousand until established on the localizer. Contact Metropolis tower on one two eight point two six seven."

"Metropolis Approach, standby," Captain Chuck Nowah answered. He was glad that this flight was a day flight and would arrive in plenty of time for him not to be part of the Metropolis rush hour traffic. It was his last flight. The retirement party would start as soon as the plane rolled to the gate, the wheel chocks were in place and the last passenger was off the plane. Thirty-five years with the same airline and Nowah thought he had seen it all. He'd wanted to keep working but he had reached the mandatory retirement age. He had to go even though he was still a young man in his mind. Modern technology allowed a man, even a novice, to fly a plane by pushing a couple of buttons. Computers. I can still push buttons.

He turned to his co-pilot, who was looking at his wedding ring. Steven Taylor was newly married and often took off his wedding band to look at the inscription inside. Nowah, who had been married twice and was now single, smirked at the young man. "Hey newlywed, doesn't twenty-five right put us closer to the gate?"

Taylor nodded as he put the ring back on his finger. "You know it does. Dude, you sound like a man in a hurry. Relax. The party won't start until we get there in, what? Another fifteen minutes. And of course you know, Chuck; my goal tonight is to make sure you start retired life with a huge hangover in the morning."

Nowah laughed at the younger man. "As long as you're buying, my goal is to ensure you go bankrupt then." He keyed the handset. "Metropolis Approach. Soar Nine One Heavy. Can we get runway two five right?" There was silence for about ten seconds before the radio answered.

"Soar Nine One Heavy. Metropolis Approach. You are two eight miles southwest of Metropolis International. Turn right heading two zero five. Descend and maintain four thousand. You are cleared I. L. S. runway two five left sidestep two five right. Maintain four thousand until established on the localizer. Contact Metropolis tower on one two eight point two six seven."

Nowah had his co-pilot acknowledge the new instructions while he set the flight director autopilot for the landing approach. Once the new altitude and heading were locked in, Nowah engaged the autopilot. There was a disquieting reassurance as the engines throttled back and the plane nosed down slightly and turned.

Computers. Planes were getting bigger all the time and a pilot really couldn't feel the plane until it was in trouble and then it was too late. He sighed. He missed the feel of flight that he got with smaller aircraft. No, first thing he was going to do when he retired was spend as much time as he could in his penthouse apartment and when he felt like flying he would rent himself a little Cessna and fly a plane he could feel. No more "large tin cans" for him.

He turned to Taylor and grinned. "Steven, my man, when we hit Metropolis tower, I'm flipping off the autopilot and flying this baby in manually."

Taylor frowned. "Chuck, I know you want to got out with a bang but you know company rules don't -"

Taylor looked at the older man hard and then his expression softened. "Hell yeah. Let's do it."

Nowah smiled as he dialed the frequency for Metropolis tower on the plane radio and waited for a break in the ongoing transmissions to announce his presence. He looked at Steven and mouthed the words, "Thank you."

"Metropolis tower. Soar Nine One Heavy is two zero miles southwest inbound runway two five right."

"Soar Nine One Heavy, Metropolis tower, roger. Fly straight in, runway two five right. Current altimeter two nine eight...Standby...Standby."

Nowah and Taylor looked at each other with concern. There was a hint of panic in the tower controller's voice. It came through even through the controller tried to sound calm. Something is very wrong.

"Can you see the airport yet?" Taylor asked. Nowah shook his head and squinted out the windshield. "Not unless that's it where the black smoke is rising." Oh, crap.

"Soar Nine One Heavy. Metropolis tower. Go around. Execute established missed approach. Contact Metropolis Departure on one one five point nine zero. The airport is closed. Expect clearance to Gotham. Acknowledge."

Gotham? What the hell. Is that the nearest airport that can handle a 767? Damn! Nowah sighed loudly and cursed. He had been within ten minutes of calling it a career and now he would be airborne for at least another thirty to sixty minutes. Doing things I don't want to do anymore because I have to.

"I got it," Taylor said to Nowah as he keyed the handset. "Going around. Going to one one five point nine zero. Soar Nine One Heavy."

Nowah applied power and raised the nose of the aircraft to climb out and bypass the closed airport. As he set the autopilot for the missed approach altitude and adjusted his flaps, he wondered about the airport closure. Before the Justice Lords took over, he might have asked the tower controller what the problem was. But now he didn't dare. He knew the radio transmissions were recorded, everything was on tape and he didn't want anything that could be construed as 'questioning' to get back to the FAA or to the Justice Lords.

The Justice Lords. Others had blamed the Justice Lords for everything that went wrong in their lives, but Nowah didn't. Because of them, the streets were safe again for the average Joe, the little guy. Little guys like me. He was sure the Justice Lords were good but misunderstood people who only created problems for the bigger guys, the evil ones, the ones that did wrong. And that certainly didn't describe him.

While Taylor let the passengers know that they would now be landing in Gotham instead of Metropolis, Nowah tried to focus on the retirement party he hoped was still at the airport. He cursed again when he realized he was certainly going to be stuck in rush hour traffic after all.

(The Command Center aboard the Watchtower)

"Sector fourteen all clear."

"Sector thirty all clear."

"Sector ten all clear."

J'onn listened to the reports as they came in. He was pleased that after a few rough first weeks, the command center he ran now functioned like a well oiled machine. He settled back into actively scanning the minds of the command center personnel looking for dissent, looking for anyone who was holding back information.

He heard Superman and Diana approach from behind but he didn't stop his scanning. He acknowledged them with a nod as they stepped abreast of him. They returned his gaze with a smile. They above all understood how important his mind scanning was.

A month ago, his active scanning had uncovered an assassination plot with Superman as the target. The severity of the punishment of the would-be assassin served as an example to the rest of the civilian crew. Yes, the rewards of working with the Justice Lords are great but our wrath is fearsome.

No one wanted his mind destroyed by the Martian. There'd been speculation that the Martian planted thoughts in the discovered assassin's empty, broken mind to commit suicide by throwing himself out of an airlock. None of the remaining civilian crew wanted to verify that hypothesis firsthand.

J'onn's mind probing was interrupted when he overheard one of the center crew report a problem in sector twenty eight. This sector held Metropolis and Detroit, the homes of Superman and the Green Lantern.

"What the problem?" J'onn asked the crew shift supervisor.

"Problem at Metropolis airport," the supervisor answered. "Seems a refueling truck crossed an active runway without ground controller clearance. A student pilot on a solo flight in a Cessna hit the truck when it crossed in front of him as he tried to land. The explosion killed the pilot and the truck driver. The fire is currently out of control and has damaged both runways."

J'onn nodded. "I understand." He pressed his commlink. "Green Lantern, what is your current location?"

Superman exclaimed, "I'm standing right here. I can handle it. Metropolis is my home."

"I'm in Detroit," Lantern answered.

J'onn looked at Superman as he spoke. "Lantern, there's a fuel fire out of control at Metropolis airport. Request you handle and advise when the situation is under control."

"I'm on it. Will be there in five minutes. Lantern out."

"Conference room! Now!" Superman bellowed. He turned and stormed off in the direction of their private conference room.

"No," J'onn answered back. "Whatever you have to say, you can say here. The Lantern will be on the scene in five minutes. He is more than capable of handling that emergency."

Superman stopped, turned and glared at J'onn. "That's my city. I protect that city."

J'onn returned the glare, "Yes you did. But now we protect the world. It would take you twenty minutes to get to Metropolis from here. Lantern will be there in five." J'onn folded his arms across his chest and enlarged himself slightly. "Now tell me again why I erred in sending the Lantern instead of you."

Superman growled but said nothing. He turned and flew off.

Diana watched Superman leave then looked at J'onn with a small, secretive smile. "I thought it was a good call, J'onn. It was the right call." She leaped in the air and hovered near J'onn. "You keep making decisions just like that." She turned and flew off after Superman.

J'onn turned to the crew shift supervisor. "Keep me advised," he said. "Inform me when the Green Lantern has the situation under control. Continue with your reporting."

"Yes sir," the supervisor answered. Then he called out to the command center staff, "Report sector twenty eight when clear. Continue reporting."

"Sector nineteen all clear."

"Sector thirty one all clear."

"Sector seven all clear."

J'onn resumed his active scanning of the minds of the command center personnel.

(Watchtower Conference Room)

"How dare he do that to me?" Clark thundered.

Diana looked on as Clark paced back and forth in the conference room. He was as angry as she'd ever seen him. He pounded his fist into his open hand. She sat down at the conference table and just watched him.

Finally after two or three minutes, she said, "Clark, that's enough. Sit down before you wear a hole in the carpet." She paused and added, "Please!"

Clark stopped, looked down at his feet for a moment then back at her. She smiled at him but he didn't return the smile as he sat down across from her. Dammit. He's going to pout. Persephone, give me patience.

"Look Clark," she said. "It's clear you're upset but J'onn did exactly what we want him to do. It was a good decision and you know it. So what's really bothering you?"

"Nothing," he snapped.

"Stop it. Stop it right now," she snapped back as she stood up and leaned forward on the table looking down on him. "I'm trying to be someone you can talk to, someone you can confide in, but you are making this harder than it needs be."

She sat back down in her chair and pointed her finger at him. "You are becoming more and more like Bruce everyday. Well, I'll tell you what I told him. I will not be Echo to your Narcissus. Now tell me what's really bothering you."

Clark glared at her then put his head down on the conference table. He sighed loudly then raised his head and looked in her eyes.

"J'onn was right," he said slowly. "Sending John was the best call. I guess I'm mad because I haven't spent as much time in Metropolis as I should have. Now there's an emergency and someone else gets to handle it."

Diana leaned forward. "Do you want to spend more time in Metropolis?" She paused. "When was the last time you saw Lois?"

He interlaced his fingers and brought them to his lips. "More than a month ago," he answered. "She won't see me, won't take my calls. She doesn't like what we're doing. And sometimes after talking to her, I don't like what we're doing either."

Diana nodded. "What we're doing is important. I'm sure even she can understand that." She stood up and moved over to the seat next to Clark. She put her hands on top of his, bringing them down, away from his lips. "Would you like me to talk to Lois for you?"

He smiled but shook his head. "No. You can't fix this...but thanks for offering. I have so many more enemies now it's not really safe for me to see her anyway."

"You can see her," Diana said. "Just put her someplace safe and you can see her anytime you want." Diana knew her tone sounded colder than she wanted and that made the words sound sarcastic. But there was no mocking here. She and Clark had been lovers for less than six months but she knew Clark still loved Lois just as he knew she still loved Bruce.

"You know I don't have to see Lois. I can go to Metropolis and not see her," Clark offered as if trying to convince himself.

"Clark, look at me. Let's be adults here." She smirked. "And I've had more adult time than you. You do need to see Lois and you wouldn't go to Metropolis without seeing her."

He stood up and leaned with his back against the table. "Diana, you make it sound like seeing her is some sort of an obligation on my part."

"It is Clark, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. I mean, as Bruce would say let's cut to the chase. You want her approval. And I honestly think she wants to give it to you. Put her where you know she's safe and talk to her about what we're doing and help her see that we are right." She stood up and placed her hand on his shoulder. "That is, if you still think we're right."

Clark was silent for a moment and then he removed her hand from his shoulder and gently cupping it, rubbed it against his cheek. He grinned at her. "You know, I could love you Diana. Thanks. One day, you must tell me the story of Echo."

She grinned back as she replied, "I could love you too, Clark, but Narcissus is the better story."

(The next day. Seven A.M. Outside Lois Lane's apartment building.)

Clark landed outside of her building where he was greeted by a police lieutenant.

"How mad is she?" he asked the officer.

The lieutenant shook his head. "Superman, I grew up on a farm. I've seen wet hens and broken hornet nests but I'm here to tell you she is ten times madder than both put together."

Clark sighed. I may not have thought this through.

As if the lieutenant could read his mind, the policeman added. "I've got men stationed on the stairs and on each floor and at all the entrances, including the roof. There are two armed officers outside of her apartment. No one is getting to her floor without being seen and challenged. She is isolated...er... I mean insulated and well protected."

Clark smiled. "Thanks, Lieutenant. Guess I'll go upstairs and get what's coming to me."

As he turned to leave, he could hear the lieutenant mumble under his breath, "Go with God, son, and may He have mercy on your soul because she won't."

Clark entered the building, got on the elevator and punched the button for Lois' new apartment - the penthouse. She'd been moved from her modest sixth floor apartment to the penthouse at Superman's request during the night and judging by the yelling he was hearing as the elevator traveled, she was...unhappy.

The elevator door opened and she was standing in the doorway of her new apartment. A guard was standing in front of her blocking her exit. There was a visible expression of relief in the guard's face when he saw Clark approach.

Clark nodded to the guard and stepped in front of Lois.

"You! This is your fault," she snapped. She folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "Is this because I wouldn't take your call? Because I wouldn't see you so you make me a prisoner, move me to another apartment. I didn't think even you could sink this low."

"Lois, let's step inside and talk," Clark said as he stepped past her and into her apartment.

"Sure," she retorted. "We don't want your friends here to listen in when I tell you what I think about you and the Justice Lords, do we?"

As he closed the door behind him and faced the very angry woman, he tried to recall Diana's words about obligation not being a bad thing. Suddenly, Diana's words didn't sound as convincing as they did a day earlier.

Chuck Nowah sat in the back seat of his taxi, angry that his retirement party had been ruined. After landing in Gotham, it took him six hours to get back to the Metropolis airport. Most of the people who had planned to attend his airport retirement party had long since left once they found out that the plane couldn't land there. A couple of people who did stay told Nowah when he finally arrived that they saw the Green Lantern at the airport and thought that he'd started the fire. The Justice Lords wouldn't do that, would they?

His taxi pulled up in front of his apartment building and he immediately noticed the policemen standing outside. As he took his bags out of the taxi and set them on the sidewalk, a policeman approached and asked for identification. Nowah gave the officer his airline employee card and driver's license.

The officer checked the identification against a list on a clipboard and handed the documents back to Nowah.

"Mr. Nowah," the officer said without looking up. "We moved you last night to another apartment." He looked at Nowah as he pointed to a policeman standing by the door. "Follow this officer who will show you your new apartment."

"What?" Nowah exploded. "I had the penthouse! That was my retirement home. How dare you move me? Who in the hell told you to move me?"

"Sir, don't make a scene," the officer cautioned. "The Justice Lords requested you move so they could move someone else into that apartment for security purposes. I'm sure you understand and the city will compensate you. We all have an obligation to do things that promote our safety even if we don't wish to do them. Moving you makes the other tenants in the building safer."

Nowah snatched his bags and moved toward the officer at the door. "Oh, yeah," he snarled. "I bet we're all safer now. We all have obligation to the Justice Lords, don't we? But tell me something, Officer?"

"What's that?"

"How much safer is the world today because the Justice Lords took my retirement home away from me?"

The officer looked away and offered, "I'm sure it's only temporary, sir. I mean they promised us it was only for a few days. And it is for the good of the rest of the tenants in the building."

"Yeah. A few days," Nowah mumbled as he entered the building to find his new apartment on the sixth floor. After all, it is temporary I guess and the Justice Lords wouldn't lie to a little guy like me.

Would they?

END