JL fic -- The search of West [1/5]
Title: The search of West [1/?]
Author: Jerico Cacaw
Fandom: Justice League
Characters: JL7 + NW
Rating/Warnings: FRT. I've never written Nightwing, so he might be a little OOC
Summary: Wally West is a nice guy. A super-speeded criminal, yeah, but a nice one. The League should be able to handle him, really. But Batman, being Batman, has other ideas, and Nightwing doesn't know what to think.
Notes: It seems I've been playing with other author's Universes too much. This story follows doctorv’s Criminals don't have freckles fic, so I suggest to go read or re-read that one first. Now, I'm not sure where this is going to, so until I figure it out and ask for doctorv's permision, this will be posted only at my journal.
They weren’t infallible, and Clark Kent was aware of said fact. It was an unavoidable part of human nature. And even if four of them were not to be included into the narrowest definition of human race, as some purist enjoyed reminding to the world, he still realized the occasional backfiring couldn’t be avoided. Even more, he waited for it to materialize from time in time, as it made him remember they weren’t as perfect as everybody wanted to believe.
Because, otherwise, Batman would undoubtedly find the need to redouble his already irritating and customary comments on how they were not gods.
It would probably work better if Batman weren’t addressing an immortal Amazon actually related to the Olympus’ Gods, two incredibly powerful and resilient beings which happened to be the last survivors of their own worlds, an interplanetary law officer able to turn his thoughts into tangible objects, and a feisty winged detective who refused to even consider the existence of the word ‘retreat’.
Thus, Clark Kent took any defeat as a chance to make himself remember, to prevent himself from forgetting. What they fought for, who they fought for. How they fought for it. And every time he felt like locking each creature on Earth into a separate glass container, he looked back at those failures and became reacquainted with the notion that, sometimes, his best effort was all he could do, even if it wasn’t enough.
He also remembered the wisest advice he ever heard, from a small boy to his younger sister, while the second hiccupped nursing her scratched knee. It hurts now, but you'll move on. And even if his own mother never had the need to kiss his pain away, Clark Kent couldn’t sleep that night, delving into the truth and deepness of it.
We forget, we forgive; and when we are challenged, we grow stronger.
Clark Kent understood, but Superman was another story. He accepted the need to get to know your own weaknesses; after all, the reporter and the superhero were one and the same. Yet, as the most renowned hero of the word and leader of the powerful Justice League, it was his duty to see that the rest of the team did its best. And, currently, one of them wasn’t.
“You allowed him to escape?”
Disbelief tinted his words, yes, but that was because Green Lantern was one of his most reliable partners. All of them were, in their own way, but from what Hawkgirl informed and considering the Green Lantern love for the rules due to his military past, to listen how exactly the mugger managed to run away was downright disappointing.
Closing his mouth to stop himself from saying so, he decided to do one final swept over Central City. It wasn’t long before Hawkgirl catch up with him.
“You didn’t saw the guy. He moved faster than anything I’ve ever seen.”
“Yet Green Lantern was able to catch him once,” was his dry remark. “And we wouldn’t be talking about catching him back if Lantern hadn’t left himself open.”
“He tricked me,” the alluded grunted from his left, as the rest of the team flied by their side. “It will never happen again, no matter how surreal an act he puts.”
“There is the possibility he wasn’t acting all the time,” the Martian Manhunter calmly declared. “If you allow me to look--”
“Stay out of my mind.”
Superman stopped and waited, hovering, until the others noticed and turned back. His eyes never left the black man’s face. “What are you not telling us?” he asked.
The team’s attention was now heavily focused on Green Lantern, as they realized the reason for said question. Some of them had a problem with mental probing, but never the ring wielder. When questioned he had declared, more than once, that he had nothing to hide. Apparently, it had changed.
Superman watched as bright green eyes flashed with fury, just for the hero to finally nod at the Martian’s direction. The Martian Manhunter own eyes turned orange before he addressed them.
“He took Green Lantern’s wallet,” he explained.
“Why in Hera’s name did you have such thing on you?”
The Man of Steel couldn’t help but agree with Wonder Woman’s questioning.
To Be Continued
[ Chapter Two] [Chapter Three] [Chapter Four] [Chapter Five]
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