Justin Church

Regarded as a young prodigy of sorts for his knowledge of science and mechanics, Justin had only enlisted in the AMF on behalf of his father. It was never Justin's dream to join the army, but with the rocky relationship between him and his father's love for alcohol Justin saw it as the ultimate escape; and in truth it was. Still, joining the AMF left him feeling like a bit of an outcast, which is probably why he and Corporal William Sterling got along so well. They were both viewed under a very thin lens; Stan as well once he entered the picture. However once Artis Frederic of Atlantech had heard about Church's brilliant and creative mind, he wanted him to join the company and aid them in developing a new type of fighter-jet (since Artis believed the previous model to be a disaster after a tragic accident involving a young test pilot)

   In Atlantech The Early Days, Justin finds that he lacks discipline and often chooses staying out late to gamble rather than get his act together and do something good with his talent. Despite the freedom of being away from his father, he still feels chastised by others (including Lynne Williams) who just wants him to stop wasting their time. During one particular night out (while in his usual disguise of a green plaid coat and matching cap) Justin witnesses the violence the city of Atlantis is well known for; and sees a man shot dead while the perpetrators escape. Unable to get that image out of his head, Justin finds it difficult to concentrate on a game of poker. And even after several shots of alcohol, he is merely left sick, and can't even whip out his phony Aces in time to beat the house before he ends up running to the bathroom to hurl.

And because of Justin's refusal to follow rules, a curfew is implemented on the base in effort to force the young corporal to follow orders. Even William begins to admit that he's sick of watching Justin screw around all the time. It definitely begins to put a dent in their friendship, and with no one else but Stan to turn to, Justin agrees that he will start getting his act together; just so he won't lose William as a friend.

In effort to win back William's trust, Justin even decides to help him out with meeting and possibly talking to Victoria. At first William is hesitant, but Justin reassures him that nothing can go wrong. Once they arrive at Victoria's premiere party and see her signing autographs and hugging fans, Justin finds a pen on the ground and picks it up; claiming that all William has to do is walk up to her and ask if she had dropped her pen. It sounds ridiculous in William's mind, but he accepts anyway; just to end up totally embarrassed when he turns around and sees that Justin left him.

In truth, Justin had forgotten all about the meeting he had with Lynne that afternoon, and in order to stay out of trouble, ditches William and heads back to the academy building, where he runs into Chris Dickerson on the elevator. Sergeant Dickerson and Justin have a brief chat before the elevator ends up on the third floor of the building, and then Justin takes off for Lynne's office; getting there just in the nick of time. After Lynne scolds him for his constant insubordinate behavior, she then leads Justin down to their underground hangar; right to a closed off garage where the remnants of that crash are kept. There, she tells Justin what happened during the flight test, and how the test pilot had died a tragic death.

She also insists that if Justin joins Atlantech he can make sure something like this never happens again. Torn over such a decision, while wondering why Lynne would use such a disgusting form of manipulation, he tells her he will think about it, then leaves.Faced with death for the second time, Justin begins to break down on the inside and heads to The Card Shack to try and drink away the pain along with William, whom he has yet to tell about everything.

Sometime during his emotional tirade, William is able to convince Justin that joining Atlantech could put him on a better path. Justin agrees, but holds off on alerting their chief commander just yet. While the two soldiers are talking, that's when Justin spies Victoria walk into the building and walk right past them. William begins to panic and tries to leave, but Justin tries to stop him by blocking off the door. In order to get Justin out of his way William tickles him until he collapses onto the floor, laughing. Justin calls him out as he leaves, claiming he cheated. When next, he overhears Victoria and Maxwell talking about some big plans. Justin eavesdrops on those two, hiding himself behind a wall, and learns about plans for a major poker game.

Unable to resist, Justin plans on crashing this little game of theirs, but before he leaves he also overhears Victoria talking about all the people she met at her premiere party earlier; and how handsome one of them really was. Thinking back on it Justin puts two and two together, and assumes she must be talking about William.

Later after he'd returned home and decides to call Lynne, he sees on the video screen that she's been crying and asks why. Lynne then informs him about Captain Grants meeting with Morane and the council. Without delving any further, Justin tells her he's decided to join Atlantech. She kindly thanks him and their call ends.

## Relationships

As far as friendships go Justin seems to be the closest with William; views him like an older brother. Justin is on okay terms with Stan winston and does like to joke around with him, but as far as closeness goes there is no deeper connection there (although Stan has been shown to be protective of Justin just like he is with William.)

However, the one person Justin always seems to be at odds with is Lynne Williams. She is his superior officer and he is the immature, disrespectful delinquent. Despite her frustration with the teenager Lynne still tries to look at the good he can do if he would just make the effort to change his ways. Justin feels harassed and overly criticized by her (much in the same way he feels about his father) which in turn causes him to react defensively and lash out. Despite her good intentions Lynne does come across as being too hard on him at times, but this is simply a reflection of her character; not to mention she also gets it from her father. She tries to push Justin to be the best he can be because that's what she believes. Justin however, feels she is just being controlling and has no qualms calling her a bitch or other derogatory names to her face or behind her back.

Justin also seems to share some kind of special friendship between him and Chris Dickerson. It is never really mentioned in what way Justin sees the older man, but it is shown that he highly respects him. Much like Lynne, Chris also knows Justin is capable of being better and rightly encourages it, but he never seems to push the issue. This is probably why Justin shows more respect towards him than Lynne. Chris also doesn't approve of a lot of things Justin does or says, and makes it a point to tell him when hes wrong. Unlike Lynne Justin actually listens to what Chris has to say. In Chapter 29: The Storm, Chris is shown to be very angry with Justin and William, but more so Justin because he feels the kid doesn't understand the weight of what they're truly up against(the mass slaughtering of their people by the Tjatey.) He is even more upset that Justin believes killing the Tjatey traitors isn't necessary; because Justin believes in capturing them instead they can get to the bottom of why Naeem and the others turned against them.

It isn't until Justin sees Chris die that he realizes what he and both William are responsible for. Before Chris passes on he kindly tells Justin that he forgives him for everything. This in turn seems to break Justin more than anything, unleashing a kind of anger within him he didn't even know he had. But through this newfound rage Justin is able to kill Naeem himself (stabbing the traitor with his own blade.) After this moment he is forever changed and is shown to be battling survivor's guilt on top of PTSD in Atlantech: Days of Darkness, especially when he returns to the base after being discharged for over a month.

Justin also interacts with Enrique Alveras whenever he stops by The Card Shack for a little R&R. They don't appear to have any kind of friendship whatsoever, but there is respect between them.

In Days of Darkness Justin also interacts with Brian when they run into one another outside of a gift shop. Justin sees Brian's dog tags (that are obviously burnt looking) and makes the connection that he must be the young sibling of that test pilot whose death he was investigating over at Atlantech. Justin mentions to Brian that he knows how his brother died and is willing to tell him if the guy will hear him out, but Brian refuses and instead takes off hoping to never see that kid again. "Blonde menace" is what Brian refers to Justin as at this point.

Similar to the relationship between Lynne and Abraham, Justin does seem to have some kind of bond with Artis Frederic of Atlantech. Although, it is actually Artis who sees his younger self in Justin than the other way around. In fact Justin actually fears becoming exactly like Artis when reaches his age. They are both shown to respect one another, and even bounce ideas off of one another from time to time while working on projects. Justin does eventually reach a certain point where he feels he can fully trust Artis, that is until later on in Days of Darkness (Chapter 14: Clock is Ticking) after Justin and Jayce have both spied Artis at the Ritz having dinner with Julius Morane. But also after Artis reacts as though he is hiding something the morning when Justin finally confronts the man, demanding to know why he was there with Morane.