The Rogues

Chapter 12: Failsafe Part 2

The mood inside of the Bio-Ship was, for lack of a better word, melancholy. M'gann had been sobbing for the past five minutes, apparently blowing up the alien spaceship hadn't helped her mood any. Wally kept sniffling and wiping at his eyes while Robin, Aqualad, and Superboy all sat in the corner and eyed the other two warily. And Piper? Piper desperately wanted to disappear inside of a mirror. There were plenty of shiny surfaces inside the ship, more than enough for Sam to pull him in and never come back out. None of the Rogues would call him a coward for wanting to escape the weepy teenagers or the aliens. His fingers twitched as he debated contacting them then sighed. He couldn't do it; he wasn't the type to leave people in the lurch if he could help it. The Rogues were nothing if not loyal, after all their motto was, "Once a Rogue, always a Rogue." Besides, as long as he didn't die then everything should be just fine.

"Should we go back to the cave now?" Superboy asked hesitantly.

"No," Aqualad said firmly. "The Hall of Justice. The people need to know that there are still heroes."

M'gann nodded and changed their course.


When they arrived the Hall was under attack. What appeared to be a couple dozen tanks and three dozen Marines stood in front, all armed and firing at the alien ships. Deciding that it probably couldn't hurt to help them, Superboy jumped out of the Bio-Ship and began tearing the ships apart while M'gann fired at some of the others. After the most immediate threats had been taken care of the Bio-Ship landed and the other teens exited, looking grim.

"General Wade Elling, US Air Force at your service," the stout man saluted Aqualad who looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Aqualad, Justice League," he returned the man's salute.

"If I can hack into the League's computers," Robin muttered, obviously already thinking of a plan.

Piper rolled his eyes and played a tune. The soldiers all stood at attention and cleared a path for them. "Can we go now? And don't even think about lecturing me."

"I was not going to," Aqualad was the leader because he was smart enough to realize when to back down. And this was not a good time to antagonize Piper. Besides, the hypnotist had a point; they didn't exactly have time for pleasantries.

"Good," Piper stalked towards the building, some rats already trailing behind him.

"He's grouchy," Wally grumbled.

"We're being invaded by aliens and you're wondering why the guy's mad? And people call me dumb," Superboy crossed his arms, looking smug.

"I'm not afraid to hypnotize the rest of you," Piper threatened.

Minutes later all of the members of Young Justice were standing in the main entrance. The statues of the League members were all broken from where the ceiling had collapsed on them. Fortunately, the path to the library was still clear so Robin was already heading that way.

"I can't believe they're really gone," M'gann sobbed.

Piper awkwardly patted her on the shoulder. "I'm sorry but we don't really have time right now. After all of this is over with then you can cry all you want."

"Easy for you to say," Wally glowered.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Piper's back was rigid and his voice icy.

"As far as you know your family's still out there, not dead like mine," Kid Flash retorted.

"Exactly," Piper hissed as he turned around. "As far as I know. I don't even know where they were staying so I can't zeta there and check up on them. They could be dead right now and I wouldn't have any way of knowing. At least you got that peace of mind."

"Arguing like this is not a good idea," Aqualad said smoothly, stepping in between the two redheads. "As Piper said, it can wait until after we've gotten rid of the aliens."

"Assuming any of us are still alive," Piper said darkly. "I've got a terrible that things are just going to keep…" he and M'gann both turned to look at the statue of Martian Manhunter. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Robin asked as he poked his head back in the room.

"Yeah," Superboy chimed in. "I didn't hear anything either."

M'gann didn't answer; instead she used her telekinesis to haphazardly throw aside broken statue pieces until they found her prize, Martian Manhunter sat there, rubbing his head in confusion. "Uncle J'onn!" she squealed.

"Wait," Aqualad ordered. "Read his mind first and make sure that he is who he appears to be."

"It's him!" M'gann cried. "It's really him!"

She and her uncle embraced, tears of joy running down her face while her uncle still looked confused.

"How did you wind up here?" Robin asked curiously. "We saw you get zapped by that disintegration beam."

"I…do not know," J'onn replied.

"Maybe you were density-shifting when you got zapped and it scrambled your brains?" M'gann suggested.

Piper frowned as he listened to the conversation. Something was definitely off about all of this and not just the whole invasion thing. The older Martian was acting weird and now Wally's eyes were lighting up in a very similar fashion's to Len's when he discovered that they made ice cream that tasted like coffee. Only trouble could follow. Then Wally ran out of the room at top speed, forcing the others to follow him. Piper just shook his head in dismay then left as well, albeit more slowly.

"I knew it!" Wally was bouncing up and down as he pointed at something on one of the screens in the Bio-Ship. "The beam that the aliens are using emits the same radiation as what powers our zeta tubes!"

He received blank looks from Aqualad, Superboy and M'gann. Robin had a thoughtful expression on his face while Piper just looked bored.

"It was a zeta beam that hit them!" Wally exclaimed. "That means that Artemis and everyone else are still alive!"

The look on Piper's face was slowly turning from boredom into incredulous stupefaction. Was Kid Flash really that dumb? Even Mick would have been able to tell the difference between a disintegration beam and a zeta beam. He briefly considered telling the younger Flash off but ultimately decided against it.

Fortunately Wally took his look to mean that he was impressed by Wally's genius. "All we have to do now is find out where they're keeping the prisoners and storm the place," he began bouncing again.

"We'll need the Watchtower computers for that," Robin said. "I could hack into them from here but it would probably be faster and safer if we did from somewhere else."

"I can authorize all of you to go to the Watchtower," J'onn offered. "But only one person can go at a time."

"Excellent," Aqualad was feeling much calmer now that they had a plan as they exited the ship once more. At least until the Bio-Ship was zapped.

"That didn't feel like a zeta beam," M'gann groaned as she carefully picked herself up off the ground, the shocking of losing her telepathic link to the ship momentarily throwing both herself and Uncle J'onn to the ground.

The soldiers began firing once more; at least until Piper blew a furious note at them and they abandoned their posts and retreated into the building with the new Justice League. Once inside they entered the library where Robin typed in a series of commands and one of the bookcases slid to the side.

While J'onn entered his own personal codes Wally came over to Piper and said, "I'm sorry for what I said earlier, about your family."

"It's okay," Piper told him honestly. "Logically I know that the odds of their having survived are very slim no matter where they are but I will keep hoping until I know for certain. And who knows, maybe Artemis will still be alive after all." He still highly doubted it of course but since Wally was actually apologizing Piper figured that he owed the other boy something.

Before Wally could say anything else the disintegration beams began filtering in through what was left of the ceiling. By the time the Martians and Robin had gotten out over half of the soldiers were gone. Highly irritated at this point Piper literally threw Kid Flash into the actual zeta tube then turned to face Superboy and Aqualad who were still attempting to help the wounded.

"Are you guys coming or not?" Piper did his best not to sound upset but, so far, he wasn't having much luck.

Aqualad threw him an annoyed glance. "If you are that concerned for your own life then go on through."

Piper glowered. "I'm a Rogue; not a martyr," he said but he still shoved an injured soldier through first. "And Rogues don't leave each other behind."

The beams were getting closer now and there was no way they could rescue the rest of the soldiers. "Superboy, Piper, go," Aqualad ordered.

Superboy went through but only after Piper gave him a not so friendly shove. "Are you coming?" Piper asked.

"I'll be right behind you," Aqualad promised.

Piper didn't look so convinced but he went through anyway, feeling a little sad when he saw Aqualad get zapped. "If you're not right, Wally, I'm going to kill you myself," he muttered petulantly.


A/N: Hope you guys liked! Please read and review!
A/N/N: Yeah, yeah, I know. Another death. But hey, it's Failsafe. What more do you guys want? A happy ending? Not going to happen. Oh and Trickster should be making an appearance soon. Not sure when but within the next six chapters or so.