"For the Good of the Earth"
(this is subject to change, I had a hard time finding a title I liked and I still don't like this one.) This story is a MAJOR work in progress but I would love to get input on anything as I have been having a hard time getting this one finished. There will be WHAMs but I'll try to prevent the major characters from getting injured (no guarantees however.)
Prologue:
The White House was buzzing like a hive of excited bees. Pages were running to and fro, the secretaries were answering phones and the press contacts were trying to quell and calm the rumors of Houston losing contact with the Artemis II Moon Lander. Through is all one man sat calm and collected through the madness. “Any news on the Lander?” the man asked.
“None, sir,” came the reply.
The man rubbed his eyes momentarily in frustration before asking “How long ago did we lose contact?”
“Over six hours sir, they were in the middle of a check-in when it suddenly cut out.”
The president sighed for a moment. His instincts told him something was amiss but the lunar landers always have a hard time keeping up with check-ins. He reminded himself that it was not unusual for atmospheric events to interfere with communications. “Call me just after their next check in window. Hopefully it’s nothing more than the weather down here on terra firma,” replied President Thomas Jefferson Anderson.
Another man strode into the office, “the Joint Chiefs are ready to meet,” said Anderson’s Chief of Staff.
“Good, bring them in,” he said as he stood to meet his military advisors. He greeted each one of them in turn before turning to the final member. He smiled jovially as he spoke to his old friend, “General Lane, thank you for coming. How is Mad Dog?”
“As well as can be expected. You know how things can get when you have someone in the family who’s a reporter,” General Sam Lane said with a smile. Just last week he had a particularly tense luncheon as Lois attempted to grill her father on the latest military move in Asia. She thrived during those tense moments and by golly her passion reminded him of his wife back in the days when he was a recruit for the War with Europe and Ella little more than a correspondent for one of the papers.
President Anderson chuckled before commenting, “at least she’s finally stopped trying to find out what your main project is.”
General Lane’s smile went even bigger as he said, “And now it’s MY turn to attempt to do the grilling. Let’s just say she’s a LOT more secretive about Superman than I am about most confidential information. I can’t get more out of her than what she writes about in her articles on him… except that she seems to have a thing for him.” Both the President and Gen Lane chuckle a bit at that, trying to imagine Superman having a normal life and failing.
“Well Lois has never wanted the normal life now, has she?” The President commented with a bit of a smile.
General Lane paused a moment as he contemplated Lois in comparison to her sister, “No, you’re right about that,” he said lightly.
“Well gentlemen,” President Anderson said as he waved his hand toward the couches arranged in his office in front of his desk, “Shall we get started?” He situated himself at the sole chair and looked over at General Lane, “has your team come up with the ‘Superman Contingency’ plan?” he asked.
General Lane opened his mouth to answer when the President’s chief aide frantically rushed in followed close behind by a Secret Service agent, “Mr. President! The Capitol is being attacked by three flying people! They look like they have all the powers of Superman!”
The agent grabbed the president and started moving him toward a hidden door in the Oval Office, “we have to move you and your VP out of the White House into a bunker immediately!”
The President held firm and gently pulled the agent’s hand off of him as he said, “if they have the same powers as Superman do then there is nothing we can do but hope and pray that they don’t plan on making an example of me. You,” he said pointed at his Secret Service detail, “Agent Carmichael, you’ll have to stand in for me until we know what they want.”
Agent Carmichael nodded his head once in affirmation, “Understood.”
The president turned to the military officials and aides gathered in the Oval Office and said, “If any of you would be interested in moving to the bunker now is the time to do so.”
General Lane looked at his fellow generals and saw the determination to see this thing through no matter the consequence in everyone’s faces. He turned to the president and said, every word tinged with determination, “I think I can speak for everyone when I say, Hell no!”
The President Anderson smiled in gratitude, “Thank you,” he said before he turned to his aide, “Henderson, could you dress Agent Carmichael here so that he could pass for me?”
“Yes sir.”
The president turned to the Joint Chiefs and said, “I will stand where my aide usually does in ceremonial matters.” He paused for a moment before he continued, “I believe I must apologize now for what is sure to be interpreted by history as a cowardly act but I must do what is best for our people, this country and indeed the whole world.”
Another General said, “You have our full support. Whatever we must do we will.”
The President nodded his head as Agent Carmichael took the President’s place at the desk and they waited to hear the end of the gunfire. The door burst apart in a rain of splinters as two men and one woman strode in as if they owned everything in their sight. The woman wore the belt buckle from the NASA Moon Lander Artemis and sneered at all of the men which stood in front of her. The men who joined her just looked the humans in front of them over with a sense of royalty and entitlement. The man with a goatee looked down his nose at the man seated at the President’s desk.
“You are the one they call “President?” said General Zod with a sneer in his voice.
“I am,” Agent Carmichael calmly said.
Zod just strode quietly through the office and noticed the bald eagle which graced the carpeting of the Oval Office. He paused a moment and said, “I see you are practiced in worshipping things that fly. Good. Rise before Zod.” Agent Carmichael slowly rose with grace despite the shudder of fear which caused his legs to shiver. “Now, kneel before Zod.” The Secret Service Agent slowly moved to his knees and looked down to prevent the aliens from seeing his abject fear.
Zod looked at this man with skepticism. “You are not the President. No one who leads so many would kneel that quickly.” He looked around the room with narrowed eyes as if he could ferret out the man who dared try and hide.
The President moved forward and said, “I’m the man they’re protecting. I’m the President. I’ll kneel before you if it will save lives.”
Zod coolly said, “It will, starting with your own.”
Ursa was prowling the room and stood in front of General Lane and looked at his medallions which symbolized his rank. ”What a backward country this must be. Where the men wear the ribbon and the Jewels,” she said as she tore the rank bars from General Lane’s uniform. He staggered back in utter fear of this powerful woman. Then his eyes narrowed to little slits and his hand balled into a fist which he used to keep his anger at bay. Striking this powerful woman would do nothing to change things. No, it would be much better to wait and observe their actions. Maybe he might find something useful in the long term.
President Anderson slightly narrowed his eyes shrewdly before he said quite matter of factly, “What I do now I do for the sake of the people of this world. But there is one who will never kneel to you.”
Zod’s eyes narrowed in fury as he said, “Who is this imbecile? Where is he?”
The president looked down at the ground as he quietly said, “I wish I knew.”
Zod glanced down at the sleeve of his silk-like black shirt and flicked off an imperceptible piece of lint as he replied, “Well if he will not show his face then there is no worry. If he deigns to make an appearance we will crush him much as we crushed your weak forces.”
The President’s eyes held just a tinge of rebellion, ‘I believe he will destroy you,’ he thought but held his tongue. He didn’t become president by flapping his lips whenever he was provoked after all. Instead he carefully said, “I will need to speak to my people. May I have the chance to bring in members of my team so that I may prepare to speak to the nation?”
Zod looked down his nose at the president. He imperiously said, “You may but you will be confined to that corner,” he pointed to a far corner of the Oval office, “and you will read to me what you plan to say before it is recorded.”
The president slowly stood and said quietly, “I understand.”
As the president explained the situation to his Chief of Staff and his head speechwriter their shock was palpable. “You can’t be serious! There is nothing we can do?” his Chief of Staff exclaimed.
“You saw what happened to the Washington Monument and Mount Rushmore. They have all the powers of... of...” he stopped for a moment to see if the Kryptonians were listening in then decided it was best not to take that risk. He pulled out a pen and wrote on the blank scrap of paper, ‘They have all the same powers as Superman.’
The Chief of Staff scribbled a note onto his own notepad and gave it to the President. It read, ‘Did we ever have a contingency plan in case Superman wasn’t on our side?’
The President looked up at his trusted advisor then glanced over at General Lane. The General licked his lips and shook his head imperceptibly. President Anderson turned back to his advisor and considered his answer carefully before he shook his head, “there never was a need,” he said out loud figuring the aliens wouldn’t really notice or care what he was saying.
“Well what are you going to say?” another asked.
“What I have to for my country and the world’s sake.”
Meanwhile in the Crystal Fortress of Superman known as the Fortress of Solitude:
‘How can I love her when I must be responsible for all mankind?’ Kal-El thought as he watched her retreat to his bedroom. A surge of love and affection for Lois warmed him as he thought of what they might share. At the same time he was worried about what his parents might say about it. Sure, Martha would be happy for him as long as his “did right by her” but what of Jor-El and Lara? They were the ones he seemed to feel a strong connection with. They were the only ones that seemed to be able to answer his questions when it came to his powers and how to handle them in this world. He knew he had to speak with them before he went to join Lois. He placed the green father crystal in the console and saw the face of Jor-El glow on the wall before him. “I would like to speak with mother as well on this.”
“Speak my son so we might answer what you ask,” Lara gently said as she flickered into view in one of the larger crystals.
“Is there a way to continue my mission without it being compromised by my emotions?” Kal-El asked. He lowered his head for a moment unsure if that was the question he actually wanted to ask.
“My son, this is something your father and I had hoped you wouldn’t ask,” his mother said with a soft, concerned tone and a look of sympathy on her face.
Kal-El looked down sheepishly before responding, “The feelings I have developed for a certain human being have… affected me deeply.”
“You cannot serve humanity by investing your time and energy into one human at the expense of the rest,” Jor-El admonished. His face was kind and understanding but firm in his beliefs.
Lara continued Jor-el’s train of thought. “Surely this is not how you repay their gratitude, Kal-El. Could you really abandon the weak and the needy merely to fulfill some selfish dream?”
Stung by his parent’s rebuke he lashed out, “selfish! After all I’ve done for them? Will there ever come a time I’ve served enough? At least they get a chance at happiness! I only ask as much. No more.
“You have been given a higher form of happiness,” advised Lara, “the happiness you feel by serving others, by inspiring them to…”
“But this is not all I feel,” Kal-El said cutting his mother off softly. His heart constricted at the idea of letting Lois go.
“Patience Kal-El,” Jor-El admonished reprovingly, “You begin to sound like an Earthling.”
Kal-El looked up at that, revelation in his voice, “You only speak of honor, of sacrifice, of responsibility…”
Lara spoke softly but firmly as she willed him to understand, “Because that is your heritage. Those are the values we lived by on Krypton.”
He remembered viewing the family archives. Families before theirs, all chosen because of their affection and caring for one another, “but you had more than that, and I know it. You had each other. Can I never have what you had?”
Lara looked at him with motherly affection but also a sense of sadness, “And she… the one you have chosen… she feels as much for you?”
Kal-El spoke with conviction as he said simply, “Yes.”
There was a long pause as the images of Jor-El and Lara looked to one another. Their eyes locked and they seemed to be communicating silently before they turned to Kal-El. Finally Jor-El spoke in a resigned voice, “If you will not be Kal-El… if you will live as one of them… love their kind as one of them, then it follows that you must,” he paused a moment as he contemplated how to finish, “become one of them” Jor-El finally said. A crystal in the corner of the Fortress lit up with a blazing red light. It was large enough for a man to stand up in and still have some room to move. One side of the crystal slid down to reveal that the crystal was hollow. “This crystal chamber has in it the harnessed rays of the red sun of Krypton. Once exposed to them, all your great powers on Earth will disappear.”
Urgently and with a sense of heart-break at what he would feel Lara continued, “If you do this, there is no return. You will feel like an ordinary man. You can be hurt like an ordinary man…”
Kal-El moved toward the chamber. His cape floated about him as he strode forward. Jor-El’s voice rang out firmly and desperately, “Think, Kal-El! I beg you!”
Kal-El turned, his cape swung around his legs he looked to the image of his father. He pointed in defiant certainty but paused as he swallowed down a lump in his throat. His voice wavered slightly in fear of the unknown ahead, “Father, I love her.” He turned as the crystal door slid closed. He looked up slightly and was surprised to see Lois standing there with her hand over her mouth her eye wide with surprise at what she was witnessing. He leaned forward as he felt the hot glow of the red rays enter his body. Outside of the chamber the memory bank sparked as all of the power from the crystal bank was being focused towards the chamber. The faces of his parents faded like a mist as the father crystal glowed brightly for a moment then faded to a clear pale gray-green, their faces filled with grief. His body felt like he was being pricked all over with a million knives. He closed his eyes against the pain. Slowly the pain diminished then finally faded away to nothing. He took a deep breath and felt the cool air caress his lungs for the first time in his life. The door slid open and he strode forward and found that Lois had moved from her spot high above and met him as he came out of the chamber.
Lois looked at him with awe, “You gave it all up for me. I… I don’t know what to say.”
Kal-El stood before her slightly nervous but trying not to show it, “Say you love me.”
Lois’s eyes glowed with affection and awe at what he had given up as she took his hand and kissed it, unsure if the words would even come. She curved her head against his body as she hugged him tightly, willing him to feel what she felt at that moment. Slowly she pulled away, reluctant to leave the warmth of her embrace to look up into his eyes. Slowly they turned and made their way into the bedroom. Hours later they were slowly waking up from a night full of exploration and love. His arms were wrapped around Lois and held her close to his chest as a means of keeping each other warm. The Fortress had been slowly cooling in the dim sunlight of the Arctic Circle and at one point in the night they had both been shivering until they cuddled close to share warmth.
Finally Lois spoke up, “now that you don’t have your powers, how are we going to get back to civilization?”
“I’ve brought mom up here and she doesn’t like to fly so I have alternate means of getting us back to civilization. Don’t worry we’ll make it back in time to make deadline on the Niagara story.”
Lois tucked her head down against his chest, “Oh god, don’t remind me about that story. My sister would have been a better person to write than we were. Remind me again why Perry wanted to send us there again?”
Kal-El’s eyes twinkled, “I almost wonder if it was a way to put us together in close quarters.”
Lois smacked him slightly as she saw the look he had in his eyes but she had a bit of a smirk as well. “If it was, he probably knew more about you than he was letting on.”
Kal-El’s face slid into a look of worried shock at her statement, “If he does then…” Then he saw Lois’s face and stopped mid-sentence. “You were joking.”
Lois scoffed, “of course I was! I seriously doubt anyone else at work has an inkling that the hero of Metropolis works next to them. Everyone else thinks the CAPE is your life.”
If you remember the Superman Movies you probably noticed that there were segments pulled from the script, so the standard disclaimer applies. Superman and the others belong to Warner Brothers. No copyright infringement is intended.
