The Rogues

Chapter 14: Failsafe Aftermath

It's a very dark and dismal place but, then again, so is his life so he can't really complain. Simple music flows through the place, music that could crumble an empire but now only calls the small creatures that have been with him for…he can't even remember how long it's been now. The slightly peaceful moment was ruined by the sound of something beeping. Only a little curious (curiosity killed the cat after all) he slowly got up and walked over to the computer which is now flashing red warning signs. "No," he whispers. "Oh, Piper, why did you do it? Why did you play your swan song?"

Piper sat up, gasping as tears streamed down his face. He had done it; he had…why was he in Mount Justice? A sinking feeling made itself known as he rested his gaze on the Young Justice team as they slowly sat up and realized that they were no longer dead.

"What happened in there?" Batman asked as he helped J'onn to his feet.

"The exercise, it went all wrong," J'onn sounded slightly dazed.

"Exercise?" Robin sounded slightly annoyed.

"Try to remember," Batman said. "What you experienced was a training exercise. Manhunter psychically linked the seven of you within an artificial reality. You all knew this going in but what you didn't know was that it was a train-for-failure exercise. No matter what the Team accomplished, the scenario was designed to grow worse. Still you were aware nothing was real including the deaths of the entire Justice League."

"But that all changed when Artemis died," J'onn was standing on his own now. "Even though her subconscious knew it wasn't real M'gann didn't and she took over the scenario. Artemis, who was supposed to wake up after her death, remained in a coma as did the others who died. That was when I entered the scenario and attempted to wrest control from M'gann but I was overwhelmed by your collective emotions. It was only after everyone else died that I was able to remember my true purpose there and I attempted to shock M'gann into waking up before you permanently died."

His legs gave out again but fortunately Red Tornado and Batman were there to catch him. "Was it really as bad as all that?" Batman asked quietly, not wanting the children to overhear.

"Perhaps worse," J'onn replied.

"Yet this is not what troubles you," Red Tornado surmised.

"Make no mistake, my niece is untrained and cannot be held responsible for this-for our debacle."

"No one blames her but clearly we underestimated her abilities," Batman attempted to reassure the elder Martian.

"You understate it," J'onn corrected. "In terms of raw power, she has the strongest telepathic mind I have ever encountered. Stronger by far than mine. But what truly worries me is that even after I killed her in the scenario it continued to run. The only one left by then was Piper."

Batman frowned. "It is possible that he does have some mind control abilities. We did use him to help place all of them under hypnosis so that it would seem even more real but I didn't think that he actually had any powers."

"Batman, the scenario cannot enhance one's abilities, you can only do what you can in real life," J'onn said urgently. "After the others were gone and the scenario got worse Piper played something that he called a 'swan song' and blew up the planet. I saw it crack in half before it exploded and that's when we woke up."

"He blew up a planet?" if Red Tornado had been capable of it, J'onn was sure that he would have been raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," J'onn's voice was serious. "His abilities have also been under underestimated and understated. That boy is possibly more powerful than Superman. Should he ever choose to use his abilities for the wrong people…we would not be able to stop him."

And in all of the confusion no one noticed that Piper had slipped away while M'gann sobbed bitterly into Captain Marvel's chest.

Even when he was safely within the confines of his own room Piper didn't give into the urge to have a nervous breakdown (even though that's what he really wanted to be doing). Instead he began packing. Two changes of clothes (including his best cloak), a couple of books, his cell phone (he was smart enough not to give Batman the phone number), all of the money that Len gave him in case of an emergency, his favorite flute and Jerrie all somehow managed to fit inside of his green duffel bag. Then he threw on casual clothes and headed towards the hangar. He was smart enough to know that J'onn would no doubt inform Batman of his 'abilities' and since he didn't really want to spend the rest of his life locked away or get mind-wiped he decided that the best thing to do would be to split before that happened.

Once in the hangar he went straight to one of the computers and began entering commands. He heard a peculiar whining sound behind him and turned around. "Hello," he greeted the Sphere. "I know that you are afraid of me and you have every reason to be. But I'm leaving now and I don't plan on coming back."

The Sphere made a beeping noise.

"I've mastered it," Piper said coldly. "It can no longer be released unless I want it to. You'll keep an eye on the others for me, won't you? They were all right, I suppose. Oh and whenever your people come for you I would appreciate it if you didn't tell them about me. We both know what the outcome of that confrontation would be."

The Sphere made a noise that sounded like an agreement and rolled away.

Piper just shook his head and pressed the 'enter' button on the keyboard and the hangar doors opened. He walked out and didn't look back.

"Where's Piper?" Batman demanded after giving Robin a pat on the shoulder.

"I…he was just here," Artemis sputtered.

"Find him. Now," Batman ordered.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Captain Marvel said firmly as he released M'gann.

"And why is that?" Red Tornado asked.

"Probably for the same reason why the three of you were just having a conference that you didn't want the rest of us to overhear," Captain Marvel gave them a look. "Because he's a very upset teenager with a lot of power inside him and you are scared of him."

"But Piper doesn't have any powers," Wally protested. "Does he?"

"Leave, now," Batman ordered.

"How did you know about that?" J'onn asked quietly, ignoring the children as they filed out of the room.

"I know a lot of things that no one thinks I do," Captain Marvel crossed his arms. "Three years an inter-dimensional portal opened up on a planet called Apokolips. The wizard who gave me my powers ordered to investigate so I did. The planet was gone, it had been completely destroyed by a man wearing a green cloak and playing a flute."

"So an alternate version of our Piper came here to destroy Apokolips," Batman said slowly.

"Yes apparently Piper, both of them, are the vessels of something called the Anti-Life Equation. It was placed within them when they were conceived by a man called Desaad who wanted to use Piper to take over Apokolips. The other Piper managed to stop Desaad on his world but not before a lot of bad things happened to him and lot of other people. So he came to our universe and destroyed Apokolips before Desaad had a chance to do the same to our Piper," Captain Marvel explained.

"But he still possesses the Anti-Life, correct?" Red Tornado confirmed.

"Right and if Piper died before he mastered the Equation then it would be released into the atmosphere, destroying all life on Earth. But since he's obviously mastered it then he can no longer be killed," Captain Marvel said.

"Do the Rogues know about this?" Batman wanted to know.

Captain Marvel shrugged. "I'm assuming that they do, the other Piper did visit Central City before he returned to his home dimension."

"Oh this is going to be interesting," Batman sighed. "I suppose I should talk to the Green Lanterns about this, seeing as his power is technically from another planet that would fall under their jurisdiction."

"The Equation cannot be removed, Batman. The other Piper tried countless times but it is encoded in their genetics," Captain Marvel said gravely. "Ask the Green Lanterns if you want but I can assure that he cannot be contained unless he wants to be."

"Anybody else got a feeling of impending doom?" Mick asked as he dealt another hand.

Len glowered at his teammate. "Why did you have to say that?"

"Yeah now we're all feeling it," Sam also sent him a glare.

Overhead thunder rumbled and lightning cracked and Mark gave them a sheepish smile. "Sorry."

"Just have another beer," Digger advised. "That usually takes care of it."

"Morons," Len grumbled but followed Digger's advice nonetheless.

A/N: Hope you liked! Please read and review!
A/N/N: I couldn't resist throwing Captain Marvel in here; he's one of my top three favorite DC characters. Oh and Trickster should hopefully show up within the next two chapters and then he'll never go away! Ha ha!