Free Falling - Epilogue
By: C. Leuch
The Wayne Tower in Gotham was abuzz with activity, despite the late hour. This was the night of the new Superman movie premiere, with a charity meet and greet in the restaurant at the top of the tower. CJ felt an acute sense of déjà vu as he and his wife made their way to the lobby and the set of elevators that led to the party. It had been a few short years since they had attended a similar party in the same location, though this time both Superman and Spencer North were there as guests of honor, and CJ and Jenny had brought Adam with them.
Three elevators had direct service between the lobby and the restaurant at the top of the building, and as each set of doors opened, groups of people streamed out before others climbed on. They had to wait several minutes to make their trip to the top, due to the sheer number of people. CJ spent the time making jokes for the benefit of his son, who was still awed at the majesty of the lobby and the sheer bigness of the building. They had made a conscious effort to shelter Adam from the business portion of CJ’s life, in part to shield him from any publicity and keep him as innocent as possible. If CJ has his way, Adam would’ve stayed home tonight, too, but he had begged and pleaded to see the movie, and Jenny didn’t see the harm. The harm, as far as CJ was concerned, would come from saying something he shouldn’t in front of a few hundred rich and powerful people. Clark tried to diffuse that by visiting him prior to the party, in costume no less, and giving Adam plenty of attention before having a talk with him about how important it was to not let anyone know Superman was his Grandpa.
The next elevator made its way to the lobby, and CJ, Jen, and Adam stood next to the doors, waiting for it to unload before getting on. CJ hadn’t exactly been paying attention to the people around him to that point, but he found himself noticing the faces of those exiting the elevator in front of him. He frowned as he realized that he recognized a few of the people who passed by him, although those men didn’t give him a second look. Recognizing people in the Wayne tower wasn’t unusual – CJ was a Wayne Tech executive and he regularly worked with employees throughout the company. But these men weren’t employees, and something about their faces gave him a bad feeling. After the doors closed and the elevator started to ascend, he tried to figure out where he had seen them before. About 30 floors up it hit him, and he uttered a curse, causing his wife to look at him funny, not that he noticed. He activated his x-ray vision and looked back toward the lobby, trying to track the men, though it took most of the rest of the ride up to find them again. They were approaching a vehicle down in the parking garage, and would soon be out of the streets. Memorizing the license plate, he brought his attention back to the elevator, which had now completed its journey, ushering his perplexed family out and toward the party at the restaurant.
“You need to take care of something, don’t you?” Jen asked, though she no doubt already knew the answer.
CJ silently apologized. “You two go on ahead. Hopefully this doesn’t take too long.” He kissed his wife, then made a bee line for the stairwell.
“Hey, Dad?” he asked, looking toward the party, seeing Superman and Spencer North in the far corner of the room, surrounded by a group of people. Clark met his eyes, a question in his expression. “I need your help with something.”
Clark nodded almost imperceptibly, then excused himself, slowly making his way through the crowd and out the door. It was only a few steps between there and the stairwell, though he shifted into superspeed at that point, not wanting his destination to be noticed. CJ was still standing in place, not exactly sure whether to go up to the roof, or down to his office, when his father abruptly appeared next to him. CJ blinked once, then held up a hand in greeting.
“On our way up, I noticed a couple of Falcone’s goons stepping out of the elevator. It was the express elevator between the restaurant and the lobby, so they must have been at the party…or maybe just around it, if you know what I’m saying.”
“Falcone? The mob boss?”
“That’s him. We kinda sorta made mutual threats toward each other right after that whole mess with our powers disappearing.” That was now several months behind them, though the story was still fresh due to the trial of Senator Robbins, as well as the recent release of information to the press from an anonymous source that detailed a bunch of classified information that was found on computers belonging to Orbital Technologies executives. It also outlined correspondence hinting at a conspiracy to use the company to get Superman out of the way, although as far as the public knew, those plans never came to fruition. “It’s also common knowledge now that you and I share genes.” CJ pointed between them, and Clark nodded.
“So you think that they might do something to disrupt the party as a bit of payback?” Clark asked, and CJ raised is eyebrows. “Maybe a bomb?”
“That was my first thought,” CJ said. He met his father’s eyes, then turned his vision back out toward the streets below. “I’ve been tracking the goons,” he said, pointing out toward the street. “White Chevy sedan, heading west on 30th Street.” He recited the license plate, and Clark quickly found it, too. “I might need you to tail them while I find whatever surprise they left for us. Then probably reel them in.”
Clark kept his eyes on the streets for a few moments, noting the car’s route, then turned back to CJ. “I’ll go keep an eye on them, see what they do. I don’t want to leave Spencer alone, though, if there’s some sort of threat to his safety.”
“On it,” said Jen’s voice from the other room, and Clark abruptly looked toward her through the wall. She was looking right him, her eyes twinkling.
“Jen? What…?” Clark asked, then recognition seemed to come. This wasn’t the first time that she’d been able to see through walls, and most of the other times had coincided with a pregnancy. His surprise quickly turned to joy. “You guys have been holding out on me, haven’t you?” She just smiled, and Clark turned toward CJ, who was blushing.
“We were going to tell you later tonight, though honestly I thought for sure you’d noticed this afternoon. I swear his heartbeat sounds like thunder.”
“This is fantastic! Congratulations!” Clark said, patting CJ on the back. They allowed themselves a second to bask in the glow of the moment, but soon enough the reality of the situation came back, and they were back to business. “Let’s do this,” he said, and a moment later, he was gone out the roof access, taking to the skies above Gotham.
“Do you know where Falcone’s mansion is?” CJ asked, turning his attention back to the restaurant. Jen and Adam were approaching Spencer, keeping things low-key.
“I can’t say that I do,” Clark answered.
“It’s the other big mansion is town,” CJ asked. “Has armed thugs all around and a fence that makes San Quentin look welcoming. Might be worth checking that out, too, while you’re up there.” He started scanning the restaurant, looking into all the dark, shadowy corners and hidden spots. It didn’t take much to locate the explosive, hidden in an air vent not too far from the bar. “Well, crap. Found it.”
“Where?” came the voices of his dad and wife in unison.
“In the room, of course. And there’s absolutely no way to get to it without drawing a ton of attention to myself.” His mind raced as he glanced at the timing device. It wasn’t set to go off for probably an hour, so he didn’t exactly need to hurry. At the same time, though, he didn’t want to keep it around and risk it possibly detonating sooner than intended. He also needed to change if he wanted to do anything about the bomb, but if Batman showed up in that room, chances were that the assembled crowd would think that his presence was part of the act. He needed to get everyone out of there before doing anything. “You might want to tune out your hearing, this is going to get a little loud,” he said, then located the nearest fire alarm and gave it a good tug. Immediately, alarms began to sound, and he raced down the stairs before anyone else even got a chance to react. His office was only a couple floors down, and he kept a spare suit there in case of emergencies. Shrugging off his suit coat and undoing his tie, he moved as fast as he could, though he didn’t mind taking a little extra time, just to give the place a chance to fully empty out before he arrived. Once fully dressed, he was just approaching the stairwell, x-raying it to make sure the coast was clear, when he heard his dad begin to speak again.
“You wouldn’t believe what these guys are up to now,” he said, a hint of amusement in his voice.
The stairwell was empty, which is what CJ had been expecting. Ladies wearing four-inch heels and evening dresses probably were not thrilled with the prospect of 90-something flights of stairs, and would no doubt be waiting out the elevators for evacuation, especially since there really wasn’t an immediate emergency. “What?” CJ asked, pushing open the door and turning his sights up several floors to the party. A large number of people appeared to have left already, though he noticed that Jenny and Spencer seemed unconcerned as they waited behind the remaining crowd.
“These geniuses are trying the same thing at the theater where Spencer’s movie is being screened. Planting a bomb right behind the concession counter.”
“With you in town? Give them points for boldness, for whatever it’s worth, but they had to know that you’d notice. You feel like it’s a set-up, maybe?”
“Maybe they just thought I’d be preoccupied,” Clark said. “And under normal circumstances they wouldn’t be wrong. Okay, going in now.”
“Likewise,” CJ said, gritting his teeth before opening the door to the floor with the party. The people gathered in front of the elevator all seemed to notice him at the same time, and the active conversation that had filled the air quieted immediately. As he stalked toward the lounge, he could feel all eyes following him, and he heard someone whisper his name, which seemed to open the floodgates. By the time he entered the room, people were shouting at him. Fortunately, the security guards didn’t allow them to follow him through the doors, and once they swung shut, the sound was shut out, too. In the room, he saw a few security personnel surrounding Spencer, Jenny, and Adam, who were the last party attendees still there. The guards appeared exasperated by Jen’s quiet assurances that the Wayne family and Superman were not going to let anything happen to their celebrity guest, while Spencer was completely relaxed, sipping on a drink and stating that he would leave once everyone else was evacuated. Batman’s arrival stopped their conversation, as well, and he had to suppress a grin as he met eyes with Spencer, who didn’t seem at all surprised or excited at his presence. With a mental nudge, CJ forced himself to get back to business and ignore the rest of the onlookers.
He quickly approached the vent and the bomb hidden behind it, then punched a hole in the wall and pulled the device out. It never ceased to amaze him how easy it was to slap some components together and make something that could kill or injure hundreds of people, he thought, looking at the crude mess of wire and explosives. After a quick analysis of the device, he located the triggering mechanism, detached it from the wires, then surrounded it with hands and waited for it to explode. The wait ended up being only a few seconds, and the explosion pushed on the palms of his hands, but otherwise caused no damage.
The security personnel were staring at him wide-eyed. “Go, help the others get out of here. I’ll secure the scene,” he told them in a gravelly voice, pointing toward the elevators with a hand that still had smoke rising from it. “I’ll take care of the stragglers, too,” he said, sticking out his thumb toward his family. The guards nodded mutely, then left. Once they were alone, Spencer approached him slowly, his eyes fixated on what was left of the explosive.
“Was that a…bomb?” he asked.
CJ waved his hand back and forth, still trying to disperse the smoke from the explosion. “Yup,” he answered. He looked toward Spencer, half smile on his face. “First bomb, huh?” Spencer just raised an eyebrow and made a face.
Adam practically sprinted to his side. “That was cool! It blew up while you held it!”
CJ held up his hand and wiggled his fingers for his son. “It tickled,” he said, causing Adam to giggle. “So tell me, was that cooler than what you’ve seen Grandpa do?”
Adam appeared skeptical. “It’s still not like flying.”
“Face it, you’re never going to win that one,” Jen said, putting a hand on CJ’s back.
“You know, you sure look like Batman, but I know he doesn’t really smile like that,” Spencer said to CJ, taking another sip of his drink.
The comment only caused CJ’s smile to widen. “Maybe he does and you just can’t see it,” he said, bringing an odd expression to Spencer’s face. At that moment, Clark showed up in the room.
“Perpetrators arrested,” he said, bringing an appreciative nod from CJ.
Adam ran over to Clark and hopped in front of him until Clark bent over and scooped him up. “It’s okay if I hug you right? Even when you’re being Superman?” Adam whispered, causing Clark to grin.
“I like hugs no matter what I’m wearing,” Clark whispered back, and Adam’s little arms flung around his neck.
“Why is that every time I come to one of your charity parties, something blows up,” CJ asked, bringing a snort from Jenny and an appreciative smile from Clark.
“Maybe it’s your explosive personality,” Clark answered, and Spencer groaned. “Certainly makes these parties a lot more interesting.”
“I have to say, this is more action than I expected tonight,” Spencer said, then emptied his glass. He then noticed that the bar was unattended, which seemed to interest him greatly. “If all your charity parties are like this, I think I could go for a few more.”
“Feel free to join me on as many of these as you want, but Gotham is a whole crazy world unto itself,” Clark answered as Spencer ambled around behind the bar. “There’s always something interesting going on in this town. Actually…this whole thing tonight would make for a pretty interesting story.”
“Where’s a journalist when you really need one?” CJ said with a smirk, earning one in response from Clark.
Jen was thoughtful for a moment. “I’ve been selling a few pieces to the Gazette lately,” she said, looking toward Clark. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Be my guest,” he answered. “I think you’re…well situated to write the story.” Jen smiled appreciatively.
“Okay, okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one,” Spencer said, grabbing a clean glass from behind the bar and pouring himself some soda. “Two Supermen and a Batman walk into a bar….”
“I’ve heard that one,” Clark and CJ answered in unison. Adam giggled.
“I think you WROTE that joke,” Jen said to CJ, reaching up for a small kiss. The cowl made it somewhat difficult, but she was well practiced.
“I did. I also asked how many of us it took to screw in a lightbulb,” CJ answered. “It’s a lot funnier with Jon around,” he said to Spencer, who just raised his eyebrows in response.
“Grandpa, I want to fly with you,” Adam said eagerly, then yawned.
“Maybe he should fly home,” Jen said, walking over to him and cupping his cheek. Bruce was at the manor, watching over Cate until their return. CJ didn’t feel too bad about leaving Adam there with him too, especially if he was on his way to bed. “It’s getting awfully late and he has school in the morning.”
“Sounds like your Mom says it’s okay,” Clark said to Adam. He turned back to Jen. “I’ll tuck him in and be back. Since the party got cut short, you want to go somewhere for drinks?” He then looked toward CJ.
“There’s a place around the corner,” CJ said, bobbing his head in the general direction of the restaurant. “Rico’s. We’ll meet there in a little bit. I gotta take care of the cops first - they’re on the way up now.”
“We’ll get going then,” Clark said. Jen leaned in to give Adam a kiss, then touched Clark’s arm and stepped away. Clark cupped the back of Adam’s head and gently pushed it down so that Adam’s forehead was against his neck. “We’re going to be moving fast, okay? If you stay close everything will be fine.” With that, he disappeared, and CJ found himself smiling toward the spot they had just occupied. He had initially been upset that Adam had unearthed the family secret at a such a young age, and he worried about the burden that would put on him. That worry was still present, but it was balanced by the upside, which included tender little interludes like the one he just saw. At the same age, he probably would’ve been overjoyed at the prospect of a trip over the city in Superman’s arms. He was beginning to think that he missed out on something special by not being in on the secret at an age where everything was larger than life and magic was still real. A sigh escaped his lips, and an amused glance from his wife brought him back to the present, and the fact that the police were almost there.
“You should get going, too,” CJ said to Jen and Spencer.
Jen stuck out her arm. “Shall we, Mr. North?”
Spencer emerged from behind the bar and was at her side in a few long strides, taking her offered arm in an exaggeratedly gallant motion. “Charmed, Mrs. Wayne,” he answered.
“Watch it, North,” CJ said with mock seriousness, pointing at him. “Don’t get too forward with my wife, if you know what’s good for you.”
“I will be a perfect gentleman,” Spencer answered. Together the two of them walked toward the doors.
“Will you be long?” Jen asked over her shoulder as she laid her hand on the door handle.
“I don’t want to spend any more time around those cops than I have to,” CJ answered. “But…I was thinking that the partygoers got a bit shortchanged tonight. I might give them a little show when I leave.”
Spencer’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I’m not missing that.”
“Don’t give him any more reasons to show off,” Jen said with a wink, then the two exited, just as the police approached the door. They seemed somewhat surprised to see him at first, and more than a little awed at his presence, but he didn‘t let that affect him. He quickly showed them what was left of the bomb and the fingerprints covering the surface, and mentioned that Superman had captured the prime suspects planting a bomb at the theater, and had dropped them off at the local station. He also instructed them to obtain surveillance video from the lobby showing the men entering and exiting the building. Once the facts were relayed to them, he couldn’t think of any need to stick around, so he quickly left the room and headed toward the stairwell. This time, instead of going down to his office, he went up toward the roof.
In the years since had created a sinkhole in the street below, he had been looking into technology that could be added to his cape to make it so that he could essentially glide off the building instead of free fall, and he had tested it out several times, to satisfactory results. Stepping up to the ledge, he looked down, noticing that many of the partygoers were gathered on the sidewalk outside the lobby, looking up, trying to spot their hero. CJ smiled, happy to give them a glimpse of an altogether different and unexpected hero. The wind buffeted his cape, trying its best to push him over the side, but he wasn’t budging until he saw Spencer and his wife down there. After a few long minutes he spotted them, and Jen immediately made a quip about flying superheroes, knowing full well that he was listening in. Without another moment of hesitation, he jumped away from the building, letting himself fall for several seconds before activating a switch which turned his cape into a sail, and caused him to glide over the street on the breeze. The crowd below ooh-ed and ahh-ed, and he closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation of flight at last.
He did a circuit of the building, then circled around the neighboring building, dropping about forty stories down in the process, before deciding that he’d had enough. Finding a clear spot in the roadway traffic, he deactivated the switch, letting his forward momentum carry as he dropped to the ground amid a flurry of camera flashes. A moment later, Superman dropped down from the sky next to him. They staged a handshake, the Clark grabbed him and whisked him into the underground bunker in the Wayne Tower parking garage that served as a secondary base of Batman’s operations.
“Now you’ve done it,” Clark said with a grin. “I think you’ll officially be trending by the time we get out of here. Hardly the best thing for a man of mystery and shadows.”
CJ removed the cowl and shrugged. “They paid big money to see a flying superhero – I figured I could give them their money’s worth.”
Clark cocked his head to the side. “Are you saying I shirked my duties for the evening?”
“Not at all.” CJ took off his gloves, then swirled his cape off his shoulders. The rest of his clothing could go on over the spandex, assuming he didn’t wear any light colored tops. After pulling on a button-up shirt, he clapped Clark on the shoulder. “All I’m saying is that you have plenty of help in that respect these days. You don’t always have to be the only one to fly over the city. In fact, I would say that you’ve earned some time off after all these years.”
The look that CJ received was filled with love and respect, mixed with a bit of surprise. Superman would never go into retirement – he was too much a part of Clark Kent for that to ever happen. But between his kids, his friends, and all the other people he had inspired to action, there were more people out there ready to jump into action to make the world a better place. He hadn’t been alone for a very long time, and now it was time for him to enjoy the world that he helped create. “Maybe I like that part of the job,” Clark said.
“I know you do,” CJ said softly, pulling on a pair of pants and completing his transformation. While he was putting on his shoes, he heard a whoosh of air, which indicated that Clark had also changed clothes. When CJ looked up, he saw his father dressed casually, a wistful expression on his face. He approached Clark and put his arm around his shoulder, guiding him toward the exit. “Come on. Let’s go meet Spencer and Jen.”
With that, they left, bound for more mundane adventures.
THE END
