The Rogues

Chapter 11: Failsafe Part 1

But, as it turned out, Batman discovering Piper's true identity was now at the bottom of anyone's list of important things to worry about it. Number one was now dealing with the alien spaceship rapidly approaching Earth. The Justice League had been dispatched to deal with the threat and all the kids could do was wait. Piper had decided to wait in his room and was talking to the Rogues.

"Are you sure you don't want us to kill Batman?" Mark asked for the fifteenth time.

"I'm sure," Piper said as he tightened a screw on one of his sonic guns. No harm in being prepared.

"Guys, Piper has it under control," Len said with authority. "I'm sure he can handle Batman on his own but all you have to do is ask."

Piper rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't you guys be more worried about the spaceship than Batman?"

"Nah," Digger waved his hand dismissively. "Spaceships come and go all the time but Batman'll still be here."

"So who is he?" Sam asked curiously.

"I sued him last year," Piper said cryptically.

"You sued a lot of people last year," Mick pointed out. "I mean between Oliver Queen, Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor…" his voice trailed off. "Bruce Wayne is Batman?!" he yelped.

"Keep it down," Len hissed, pointing his gun at the other man. "We don't want our cohorts to know that we know anything about Batman. The last thing I want is to have to deal with the Joker," he shuddered minutely.

"So what's he like?" Piper asked curiously. "Is he is as cute in real life as he is on TV?"

But before Len could answer Piper's door was flung open and Artemis stuck her head in. "Batman, Superman, Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter, Captain Marvel and the two Green Lanterns were just killed!"

"I need to go," Piper sighed, grabbing several instruments as he stood up.

"Stay safe," Len ordered then the conversation was terminated.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Piper grumbled then followed Artemis back into the main room. "Are you okay, M'gann?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said.

Piper eyed her, decided that it hadn't had time to register yet, and then turned his attention to the TV screen where Central City was currently the main story. Both he and Wally watched eagerly as Flash managed to rescue the reporter, Iris Allen only for the two of them plus Zatara get vaporized mere seconds later. "Cold's not going to like that," Piper finally managed to say.

"I can't believe they're dead," Wally looked like he was about to cry.

Silence reigned as the rest of the League, even Red Tornado, fell. Piper was feeling numb, he knew the symptoms of shock, he'd suffered through it before after all but this…this was surreal. How could the Justice League, how could the Flash be dead? That had always been a constant; the knowledge that the Justice League would never fall, that they would always prevail. But if even the Justice League could fall then what chance did they, a group of teenagers, have? Oh how he wished he was back at the Rogues' hideout in his bedroom, listening to them bickering while he tinkered with something! Those days seemed very far off now like a dream that you couldn't remember upon waking but that you knew you'd had.

His musings were interrupted by Aqualad. "We are Earth's heroes now," he announced.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Superboy demanded. "A theme song?"

"We need a strategy," Piper managed to get past his numb lips.

"Piper's right," Robin agreed. "Earth's weapons haven't done any damage."

"Brute force certainly isn't getting the job done either," Artemis pointed out.

"A direct attack will not succeed," Aqualad said. "We need to determine if there is a pattern or if they are simply attacking random cities."

"Already on it," Robin pulled up a holographic display of Earth, the alien ships distinguished as red blinking dots.

"They appear to be attacking major cities," Piper surmised. "All except for that one up there," he pointed towards the lone ship in the Arctic.

"Did it get lost or something?" Superboy demanded.

"Isn't that Superman's Fortress of Solitude?" M'gann asked hesitantly. "Uncle J'onn mentioned it to me once before."

"Superman has a Fortress of Solitude?" Superboy yelped.

"Green Arrow says it's very cold and boring there," Artemis reported.

"None of the Rogues would like it there," Piper sighed. "It's too cold and there are no ice cream trucks."

"Perhaps if we could retrieve their weapons we could integrate them into the Bio-Ship and use it against them?" Aqualad suggested.

"We could do that," M'gann said, thrilled to finally have something to plan.

"Dress warmly," Aqualad ordered. "We leave in ten."

It took Piper a few minutes but he finally found the cloak that he was looking for. Having spent six years living with the Rogues and (literally) stuck between Heatwave and Captain Cold he had finally gotten fed up, played around with their tech and developed several different cloaks. One produced cold air (it had come in handy in Bialya) and there was another one that reflected light but the one that he needed now produced heat, like a miniature heater. It was also fur-lined and had matching gloves that had been specially designed so he could still play his flute. After some careful consideration he grabbed a green duffel bag that was covered in music symbols and shoved several sonic guns, flutes and tuning forks inside. He hoped that he wouldn't need all this stuff but one could never be too sure.

Once at the Fortress of Solitude M'gann started things by using her telekinesis to rip half of the ship apart while Kid Flash ran off to take a look in the opposite direction. "Communications disabled," she reported. "As well as the repulsors."

Artemis fired an arrow which released a weird, gray sticky substance that covered the front of the ship. Aqualad used the distraction to jump up from the icy cold waters of the Arctic and wrapped his water whips around the rather large cannon. Robin and Superboy joined them seconds later and Robin quickly brought up a holographic keyboard. "The cannon's weak points are here, here and here," he pointed as he spoke and M'gann used her telekinesis to attack where Robin had dictated.

Superboy grabbed the cannon and began tugging. But as he did so, he failed to notice that the ship's weapons were glowing. Just as it prepared to fire Piper's shout of "Look out!" was heard and Superboy hit the deck, allowing the beam to pass over him harmlessly.

"It didn't give any indication that it was firing," Robin said worriedly. "Sorry, Superboy."

"You're welcome by the way," Piper called from his position on the ground. "Now can we hurry this up before it does that again?"

Superboy gave one final tug effectively freeing the weapon then turned to M'gann. She nodded and flew over to the cloaked Bio-Ship and placed her hands on top. A second later the ship became visible and she took the weapon from Superboy, placing it on the ship which quickly wrapped around the unfamiliar object.

"The weapon is now being integrated," she told Aqualad. "The ship can't be cloaked while it's doing that or use the weapons system."

"How long is that going to take?" Aqualad asked.

"Five minutes," M'gann replied.

"I don't think we have five minutes," Piper said, staring up at the sky as two more ships flew into sight.

"Can the Bio-Ship fly?" Robin asked as he adjusted the hood on his white parka.

M'gann eyed her ship warily.

"Never mind," Artemis grumbled. "We'll cover you until the ship's functional."

"Agreed," Aqualad said. "Piper, will your flute be of any assistance against the ships?"

Piper gave him a strange look. "No, but I have been working on some new weapons if Kid Flash would bring me my bag."

"Here you go," Kid Flash dumped the bag at Piper's feet, receiving a dirty look in return. "What?" he complained. "I haven't seen any other aliens besides the ones that are firing at us," he said lamely.

Piper shook his head in annoyance and pulled out what looked like a bazooka. "Let's help this works," he said more to himself than anyone else and fired. What could only be described as a sonic blast encompassed the ship, blowing up its cannon. Unfortunately smoke was now pouring from Piper's bazooka and he looked annoyed as he put it back in his bag. "Well that weapon's a goner," he sighed.

"You made a bazooka?" Kid Flash yelped.

"I made my first bazooka when I was nine," Piper sniffed indignantly. "But I really need to fix the…"

"Less talking, more shooting," Artemis yelled as she continued firing arrows at the other ship.

"Superboy, help Artemis," Aqualad said as he began using his whips on the ship that Piper had injured.

"Got anything I can borrow?" Robin asked, landing in the snow next to Piper.

"That was the only thing that I had that could be used against something that big," Piper replied. "The majority of my stuff is still in Central, including the weapons."

Robin sighed, pulled out a few birdarangs and started throwing. After a second Piper aimed one of his smaller sonic guns and began firing as well. Between that, Aqualad's water whips, Superboy's pounding and Artemis's arrows it was no surprise that they finally managed to bring down the injured ship but that still left them one, not quite so damaged alien vessel to worry about.

"The cannon is online!" M'gann said joyfully.

"Then fire already!" Artemis snapped.

But before M'gann could do anything the alien vessel fired and Artemis disappeared in a Flash of light.

"Artemis!"

A/N: Hope you guys liked! Please read and review!

A/N/N: Random updates again after this people. Work starts back tomorrow and I can't guarantee a new chapter every day although I will do my best. On a side note, this is my favorite Young Justice episode because everyone dies in it! It's the best one to use in a fanfiction without a shadow of a doubt!