All My Friends Are Superheroes
Summary: Being a teenaged hero is no walk in the park; juggling school, homework, superpowers, friends and family can be tough, especially when you and your secret boyfriend are tiptoeing around teammates, parents and mentors. However, sometimes in life you have to just stop worrying, and let the stones fall where they may. It might not be that bad, after all. Season 1. AU/OOC. Birdflash.
Point Of View: Third person's POV, set in past tense/story format, with dreams/thoughts italicized. The focus will mainly be on Robin and Kid Flash, of course, but I fully plan to further explore their interactions with the team, and also with their JLA mentors. Story starts after the team has been established, right after the end of their first official mission together.
"After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment." - Judith Lewis Herman
"So... how does this work again?"
Batman gave Matt a vaguely annoyed look, because he'd already explained it three times, damn it. Then he noticed the unsure expressions on the other teenagers' faces as well, and sighed, motioning to Martian Manhunter. Truth be told, he had his own reservations, but with four new members on the team, having them learn how to work more efficiently together would be helpful...
"It is a simple telepathic training simulation." J'onn told the young heroes, his voice far more patient than the Dark Knight's would have been. "I will connect your team together, so you will all experience the same scenario simultaneously; a hostile alien invasion. If any of you are killed, you will immediately be brought out of the link."
Nodding slightly, Wally chirped in, "Oh, I get it. It's like a team building exercise, to see how we handle working together under intense stress?"
"Precisely."
Mello still seemed wary, "I don't know about this... is it even safe? I mean, having a psychic spaceman poke around inside my head isn't on a top list of my priorities, thanks." He looked at the Martians, "No offense."
"This isn't any more dangerous than your usual telepathic communication with Miss Martian." Batman informed them, causing the original team members to exchange glances, remembering their disastrous mission in Biyalya.
But, then again, there would (hopefully) be no Psimon in this simulation.
It was, to the surprise of everyone, Near that next spoke, "I say we give it a shot." He fiddled with the Transformer toy in his hand. "It will be like a virtual reality game. If anything goes wrong, you can simply press 'exit' and start over."
"Well, I for one will agree to participate." Sushmita announced suddenly, her tone as cheery and optimistic as ever. "Strengthening our bonds can only be beneficial in the future, after all."
Roy looked at the Indian, then crossed his arms and said, "Fine, count me in." His tone was reluctant, though.
"Me too!" Wally declared, moving to stand beside his honorary older brother, and Robin instantly agreed as well, which was apparently enough to convince Conner. Pretty soon, they were all on board, some far more excited than others.
With that sorted, they began, laying on eleven rectangular metal tables all arranged in a circle, with J'onn standing in the center. "Close your eyes. On the count of three, you will be under the trance. Three..."
Robin felt KF's gloved hand reach over and take his. He told himself he wasn't nervous, but the comfort the gesture brought him was unmistakable.
"Two..."
Both of them smiled.
"-One."
Kid Flash was way more pumped about the training simulation than he probably should have been. It was hard to take a virtual reality seriously, though. He mostly just wanted to know how Martian Manhunter had even the personalities of people he didn't know down.
It was all pretty cool - but not very realistic, considering there was no way one lousy alien fleet could take down the entire Justice League so easily. If anything, seeing the reactions of the simulated people they knew was worse, considering they were designed to think it was real. Virtual Zatara seemed pretty shaken.
Oh well, it was time to save the world.
Sort of.
"We are Earth's heroes now." Aqualad grimly declared, serious as ever even though none of it was real.
Superboy turned to him, "So, what are we waiting for? A theme song?"
"That would be pretty sweet, actually..." Firewire muttered, running his fingers through his auburn hair as he helped Robin search for any possible League survivors via satellite feed.
"No, a strategy. Earth's weapons are ineffective, and it has been made tragically clear that a direct attack will not succeed."
A certain geeky gamer spoke up, "Maybe we should start with why they're here in the first place, and where they came from? It might help us figure out some of their weaknesses, anyway."
"Good idea," Robin tapped a few holographic keys, "Checking satellite imagery..." He brought up the globe, "Here's where the aliens are now." Red dots appeared all over the map, including an isolated one located somewhere in the Arctic.
Superboy pointed at it, "This one get lost?"
"That's Superman's Fortress of Solitude!" He exclaimed.
Cocking his head to the side, the clone asked in an incredulous tone, "Superman has a Fortress of Solitude?" He vaguely heard Kid Flash muttering about how awesome it was, but all the Kryptonian could think was that he seemed to be the only one of his friends that didn't know. Granted, they - excluding M'gann - had been heroes longer, but still... the only thing he knew about the Big Guy was what was on the news or what they told him. It wasn't fair.
"Its power source must have attracted the aliens' attention." The Boy Wonder responded matter-of-factly. "At least enough to send a scout ship to investigate." He frowned at the scowl that appeared on the taller brunette's face.
"Hmph. Must be some fortress..." He turned away.
Miss Martian floated after him worriedly, "Conner..."
He raised a hand to stop her, "No, it's okay. I guess there's a lot about Superman I'll never know." He quickly realized the bitter tone and how he phrased his words would sound to the others, and added, "Uh, you know, now."
It didn't fool anyone.
All of them, even the newbies, knew how much he wanted Superman's approval. But could anyone really blame him? Aside from the team, he didn't have any family, and it wasn't like they could relate to his feelings of isolation or teach him how to use his powers. It didn't take a genius to figure out the reason why he was always watching static on TV - the poor guy didn't know how to turn off his advanced hearing.
No one noticed the almost empathetic look Whiteout (Near) had given him moments ago, it was gone before they could spot it.
"We will target this lone ship." Aqualad announced, and Kid Flash gave an enthusiastic fist pump. "Heck ya, we will! Break it down - build more - and then hit those ugly aliens with their own mojo!"
Artemis elbowed him in the side, ignoring his yelp, and hissed, "Martian an Kryptonian in the house."
"Idiot." Red Arrow muttered.
The speedster gulped, turning to face his two friends, whose expressions were unreadable. "Uh, heh heh... Not that all aliens are automatically ugly, or anything..." he rubbed the back of his head, "Just the evil, invading, take-over-the-Earth kind, you know what I'm saying?" He glanced over at Mello and Matt, who he'd developed quick friendships with over a mutual love of things that moved fast, gaming, etc.
"Oh, don't look at me," The blonde, now going by the name Ghost Rider, remarked, "Keep digging. You're doing great."
Near brushed past them, heading for the Bio-Ship, "If you are done being politically correct..."
Right, right. They had a job to do!
What was it with the Leaguers building their secret hideouts into the faces of mountains?
The Batcave, Superman's Fortress, Mount Justice...
Robin would really have to ask his mentor about that one day. Right now, though, they needed to concentrate on winning the simulation. Everyone had their own jobs assigned to them. They had already arrived at their designation, and he was definitely appreciating his new uniform now - longer sleeves, a turtleneck and thermal tights made the biting Arctic air less intolerable.
However, he still had to go change.
Due to being in a totally snow white environment, he needed to go into a camouflage mode considering red, yellow, green and black didn't exactly blend in when you were trying to steal the cannon off of an alien spacecraft. Ghost Rider snickered that he looked like he could stop traffic.
Plus not all of them were invulnerable to frigid temperatures. The only reason KF didn't need a thermal suit was because he naturally ran at a warmer temperature than the rest of them.
"Identifying weapon's structural stress points and links to the ship." He showed Superboy where he needed to break it, "Here, here, and here." They were going to kick virtual butt by using the aliens' tech against them!
That was when everything went to hell.
"No!" Martian Manhunter's eyes flew open wide, and he shook his head, looking at the teenagers laying in the metal tables, all appearing quite distressed. Except for Artemis, that is. Her breathing had slowed down considerably. The psychic floated over to his niece. "M'gann, snap out of it, please."
He said something that, from the sound of it, was the Martian equivalent to the f-bomb.
"J'onn?" There was a touch of concern in Batman's voice, recognizable only to those who knew him well enough to understand the cues. "What happened? Did something go wrong with the simulation?"
Panicked red eyes met the cowl's white lenses, "I cannot bring them out of it. Miss Martian has... Artemis was killed in the exercise, she has forgotten it is not real. Her powers have taken over my scenario, and the others believe it to be real, too."
A bit stunned by the information, Batman immediately went to check on the others. Wally and M'gann appeared to be the most effected, if their heart rates were anything to go by. Robin's expression was one of deep focus; determination. It was Artemis's condition concerned him. "If she was killed, why isn't she waking up, then?"
"...she is comatose." J'onn replied grimly. "M'gann has an iron grip on the simulation. They all are convinced what they are experiencing is real. It has control over each of their senses. If they die in the simulation, they may perish if we are unable to awaken them."
Looking over at his son's still form, the vigilante questioned, "Can you do anything?"
The Martian let loose a heavy sigh, "I can attempt to enter my niece's - for lack of better term - nightmare, and convince her to loosen her hold of the scenario. We may have to remind them and there may be after effects, but..."
"What is it?"
A troubled expression was on the telepath's face, "It might be necessary for you to inform the others, Batman. If I am unable to stop this, the children will need to be moved to the medical wing."
Comatose sidekicks couldn't exactly care for themselves, after all.
"What the fuck were you thinking?!" Green Arrow exploded the moment he laid eyes on the Dark Knight. "You know what? Do NOT answer that! How could you be so careless? They're kids! For God's sakes, Bruce, they're all already about as emotionally stable an an epileptic blind man with Cerebral Palsy trying to ride a unicycle, and you thought this was a good idea?!"
Batman didn't even blink, "Hello to you too, Oliver."
The man scowled, "Look, just because you put yourself through extreme conditions that even insane people wouldn't dare to try just for the sake of training doesn't mean a bunch of teenagers should be subjected to the same thing!" He stormed past the man and into the medical ward.
What he found there damn near broke the master archer's heart.
His girlfriend, Black Canary, was bent over Roy, Artemis and Sushmita, talking to them in a gentle voice, hoping to penetrate through whatever psychic barrier was keeping them trapped.
Miss Martian was strapped to a hospital bed, strange techy looking cuffs around her wrists, and he understood why. Her hands and eyes were glowing, and they were to prevent her from using her telekinesis and accidentally destroying the room. Flash, Aquaman and even Superman were there, the last of whom was looking at his clone with something close to remorse.
The kids were all hooked up to heart beat, blood pressure and brain wave monitors, a few of them had IVs inserted into their wrists to keep them hydrated. God, they were so still...like corpses.
Martian Manhunter stood in the center of them, completely spaced out.
Suddenly, M'gann cried out, straining unconsciously against her restraints, "Conner!" She was screaming, tears running down her face, and Superboy's monitors beeped, alerting them that he had "passed" as well.
"Who all is left?" Green Arrow asked, swallowing hard as Dinah looked at him with a pained expression, and sighed softly, "Three, now. Just Miss Martian, Kid Flash, and...Robin."
The archer tensed and turned around, expecting to see Batman there, glaring at him for his outburst. Instead, he found the man leaning over his ward's hospital bed, a gloved hand on the boy's, trying to calm down the obvious agitation the ninja was showing.
He was muttering under his breath, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Minutes of silence passed, and then Kid Flash's vitals spiked, before plummeting, his heart beat slowed down to almost normal human levels - a definite bad sign. Flash started shaking him, freaking out and attempting to wake him up. Superman had to intervene before he accidentally injured his nephew.
It wasn't long before they lost Robin, too, and there was real fear on the Batman's mostly concealed face.
Seconds after it was all over.
Miss Martian's powers shut off, and her eyes stopped glowing, as did J'onn's. The teens started coming around, groaning in pain and confusion. Roy actually stood up, rather groggily, but his legs nearly gave out and his former mentor rushed over to help him.
At the torrent of questions coming from the upset and rather traumatized sidekicks, Martian Manhunter began to explain. When M'gann broke down in tears at hearing what she'd accidentally done, Captain Marvel flew over and hugged her tight.
Despite being rather shook up, it seemed like everything was going to be okay.
That was when they heard Kid Flash's fearful voice, "Uh, Rob?"
Everybody else turned and saw the speedster sitting on one of the hospital beds, next to Robin. The raven-haired boy was leaning against his best friend, trembling badly. Even with the sunglasses, they could tell he wasn't entirely with them.
"Dead..." The thirteen-year-old whispered. "My fault... Let them all die... Wally..." He buried his face in his hands, making a sound that was a cross between a whimper and a sob. "Please don't leave me alone!" He started thrashing, and the speedster had to grab him so he wouldn't fall into the floor.
Immediately, the Batman was barking orders, telling everyone but Martian Manhunter and Black Canary to leave the room. They were reluctant to listen, but eventually did, too freaked out to do much but listen to their mentors.
"Come on, Kid-"
Kid Flash wrenched his arm from his mentor's grip, zipping back over to Robin's side. "I am NOT leaving!" He said vehemently, reaching out to take Robin's face in his hands. "Rob? Buddy? Can you hear me?"
"What happened in there?" Batman all but growled at the young speedster, who flinched and closed his eyes.
Pain... So much pain...
Robin was cradling his burned, blood-soaked body in his arms, crying. He kept apologizing. The redhead didn't know why. It wasn't his fault. He was the one that stupidly thought their friends had been teleported.
A shaking hand touched the Boy Wonder's cheek, and KF was wheezing in agony. It hurt so much, even though he couldn't feel his legs or his back at this point. He saw horror on Robin's face and realized it was because of what he was asking him.
"Please... Dick. God, it h...hurts. Just do it."
Robin hugged his boyfriend closer, burying his face into his shoulder, "I-I can't, Wally, I can't!" His whole body was shaking with silent sobs. "Don't make me do this, please! I love you!"
He didn't want to be left alone again.
Wally scrubbed the tears from his eyes, "I-I made him kill me." The three adults were stunned into silence by his words. "There was an explosion. It felt so real. I thought we were rescuing the others, but... he knew the truth." The teen met Batman's gaze was a frightened expression. "It was a suicide mission. Blow up the mothership and take the aliens with us. Save the planet. But we didn't die..."
If only it had been that simple.
He had grabbed the younger boy's arm, tearing through the unfamiliar halls, desperately trying to escape somehow. Seeing in accelerated perceptions meant he could feel the bomb go off before it happened. The speedster had flung Robin to the ground and jumped on top of him, covering the boy's body with his own in an effort to protect him from the blast.
It had worked, somehow, but he was so badly injured that his healing wasn't even helping anymore. His lower half had been scorched beyond recognition, and Robin had to put out the flames with his cape. He'd held his best friend in his arms as the fifteen-year-old pleaded with him to get it over with.
"This is all my fault," the Metahuman suddenly gasped out, quivering violently. "I made him do it to avoid as slow, painful death. He's just a kid. God, why did I do that? I-"
A hand on his shoulder made him pause, and he looked up at the Martian. "This is not your fault, Kid Flash. Robin has always had a fragile mind. Witnessing the elimination of his entire family as a youth profoundly changed him. His brain has gone into this state so as to keep him from suffering further psychological trauma by the outside world."
"He has to wake up..." Wally choked out, looking at his uncle with teary, pain-filled eyes. "He's my best friend, my-"
My everything. Please, Dick, you made me promise nto to leave you. You can't leave me, either.
J'onn was staring at him, but he barely noticed, his attention on his Little Bird.
By this point, Batman had laid the young acrobat back out on the medical bed, trying to make him comfortable. The boy kept mumbling to himself. His sunglasses were gone now, and the redhead saw tears trickling out from under closed eyelids, running down his face. "Is there anything we can do to snap him out of it?"
"...I don't know."
This is a rough draft of this chapter, sort of. I've been working on it for more than a week, got stuck and then just finished it in the last three or so hours. Like always, edits will be done later today once I've gotten some sleep and can see straight.
As for the next chapter, more angst! From Robin's point of view: yay! He'll be okay, eventually, don't worry. I just like torturing him and KF. The reason I didn't detail the deaths is because I thought it would be fun to find out from the adults perspectives, in flashes. Then you can see their reactions to the aftermath.