A/N: Remember back when I used to update every day, sometimes twice a day? So do I. I am really sorry.
So, I finally did Failsafe. I'm going to tell you right now, it is very different from the show. The only similarity is that everyone fake dies in both. Seriously, it's way different.
Also, there are a few parts that are pretty graphic. You have been warned.
I own nothing.
Mount Justice
October 16, 14:23
The team walked into the center of the cave to find Batman and Martian Manhunter standing in the center of six really uncomfortable looking beds. Wally realized with a sinking feeling what day it was.
"Nope" he announced "We are not doing this again. You can find someone else to stick in your endless doomsday scenario"
The team, who had apparently gotten used to this kind of thing, looked at Batman suspiciously.
"Batman" Robin asked slowly "What is he talking about?"
"Today you are doing a train-for-fail simulation. It is impossible to win, yes, but you were going to know it was a simulation going in"
"Yeah" Wally interjected "Except you weren't going to tell us it was unbeatable. Then, the simulation gets screwed up so we all think it's real while we watch powerlessly as every member of the team dies, one by one. You can count me out"
Batman looked at the looks of consensus on the team. He nodded and walked over to the computer.
"In that case I have another mission for you" he typed in some things and a picture of Gotham Harbor appeared. "There has been some unusual activity a the Gotham shipyards. You are to investigate and not be seen."
The group sat in the bioship headed to Gotham.
"So Wally, anything important happen on this mission?" asked Robin.
"We didn't have this mission last time, remember. We were too busy watching each other die. " he responded. "You're welcome, by the way."
"Then we will have to go on the information we do have." Kaldur announced. "Artemis and Miss Martian form a perimeter, while the rest of us will investigate more closely. Understood?"
There was a general murmur of acknowledgement as the bioship came to a stop. Miss Martian formed a mental link before disappearing with Artemis. The rest moved closer to the abandoned warehouse (Wally couldn't help but feel a wave of cliché wash over him). Finally, they worked their way up closer and closer, taking down thugs as they went, when they finally reached one of the crates that they had been moving. Superboy ripped it open and all four of them looked inside. What they saw made Robin gasp and recoil in horror.
"What is it?" asked M'Gann over the mental link.
"It's Scarecrow's fear gas. We need to get out of here, now" he responded.
"No, you must stay for a while" a cold, ominous voice intruded into their mental conversation.
"Psimon" growled Superboy.
"Yes, it is I. It seems you did not learn your lesson in Bialya. Perhaps we should try something slightly more extreme?"
Superboy lunged at him, but Psimon simply waved his hand and he dropped like a broken puppet. Wally heard screaming on the other side of the mental link before he too fell unconscious.
Wally woke up in a strange place. He climbed to his feet and looked around. He was standing in some sort of crater. There was burning ruble at his feet, and something smoking in the distance. For some reason in looked strangely familiar.
Off to his right he heard a shifting sound. Looking at the source, he realized it was Robin waking up.
Wally rushed over to his friend. "Are you okay?"
Robin didn't respond for a moment. He rubbed his head and looked up at Wally. "I feel ... weird. It's hard to describe. Almost like I'm dreaming."
"Now that you mention it, I kind of have that feeling too. By the way, does this place seem familiar at all?"
Robin stood up and looked around. His facial expression looked as though he had been shot. "We need to find the others. Now. " He started to run, then grimaced and gripped his thigh. He must have been pretty determined though, because he barely even slowed down. "Artemis! Superboy! Aqualad! Miss Martian!" Robin looked like he was starting to panic.
To their far left they heard something that sounded a lot like Superboy. They started moving in that direction. Wally knew better than try to help Robin with his leg. Dick could be very defensive about this kind of thing, even with his best friend.
"Rob! Where are we?" Wally asked, starting to panic himself.
"Don't you see it, Wally? We come here almost everyday". Robin's face rivaled the one he had worn to Jason's funeral.
In that instant, the truth came crashing down on Wally. He couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed before. "The Cave" he said weakly.
Once they had found the rest of the team, they decided to try to use the zeta-beam in Happy Harbor to transport them to the Hall of Justice and find out what was going on. As soon as they exited the remains of the mountain, however, they realized that plan had a slight flaw.
"What happened?" asked Conner, looking down at what was left of the only hometown he had ever known.
"Maybe the zeta-beam still works." Wally said. "You never know"
It looked like something had ripped the city to pieces. At first Wally thought it might have been a bomb, but that couldn't have caused this. There was a building dropped on top of the school, the library had collided with the city hall, and an office building had half a dozen holes burned through it, almost as if-
No. That was impossible. It was the kind of thing Batman would immediately think upon seeing this. Wally wanted to slap himself for it.
They trudged through the city, and found the zeta-beam in an abandoned shed in what was once suburban Happy Harbor. At least, the shed was abandoned now. Wally had no idea how it had looked before.
In an amazing stroke of luck, Robin actually managed to figure out how to fix the zeta-beam. Unfortunately, before he could finish they were found by an humvee filled with around seven black clad soldiers.
"Get down!" Aqualad yelled as the soldiers opened fire on them. Wally, Kaldur, and Artemis got down fast enough. Robin was behind a crate, tapping away on his wrist computer, and Superboy was bullet proof.
Miss Martian cried out and fell to her knees. She clutched her midsection and fell forward. "M'Gann!" Conner cried. He was at her side by the time she hit the ground, but there was nothing he could do. She was dead.
In the five years Wally had known Superboy, he had never seen him this angry, at that was saying something. This was someone Wally had seen pick up tanks and thrown them at other tanks in a fit of animalistic rage.
Conner was on their attackers before the rest of the team had even realized what happened. He grabbed one soldier and threw him as high as he could. Wally lost sight of the man within seconds.
The raging Superboy proceeded to rip the vehicle in half, pick up the back end, and slam it onto two other soldiers. He planted a fist straight through the stomach of another soldier, and tossed another into the ocean. Wally ran forward to stop him, but was batted out of way like a fly.
Reinforcements rolled into the area. Conner ripped through them like ants. That was when Wally saw him. It was amazing that he actually did, from this far away. Deathstroke readied a weapon, and Wally seemed to know what would happen before it did.
"Superboy, get down!"
It was no use. The kryptonite bullet fired by the assassin struck the hero at the base of his spine. His face was a mix of shock and pain. The mighty, invincible kryptonian fell. He didn't get up.
Wally wanted to attack Deathstroke. He wanted to make him pay for killing his friend. However, Kaldur grabbed him and yanked him through the zeta-beam that Robin must have finished in the commotion.
They arrived at Hall of Justice speechless. In a matter of minutes they had lost two team members.
Finally, Kaldur spoke. "We need to find out who those people were and what happened to Happy Harbor"
"What happened to Happy Harbor? What about what happened here?" Robin asked. Looking around, Wally realized he was right. The walls were a charcoal black. The glass cases that once contained trophies of the Justice League's victories were filled with objects that made Wally want to turn and run. There was Joker's suit, with a hole burned on the center and Bane's venom device, looking as if it had been run over with a car. A different case held the shredded remains of what Wally immediately recognized as Zoom's cowl. There was a blood encrusted costume that looked a lot like Black Adam's.
Then he saw it. In the center of the room. The very sight of it made him want to throw up.
Right there, in the Hall of Justice, were the beaten, broken, shattered pieces of the batsuit. A glove and part of the other arm were missing. A single rip ran from the right shoulder to the left hip. The cape appeared to have been haphazardly stitched back together for display. The utility belt was torn in three places and there was a hole burned in the leg. But the worst part was the cowl. The area around both eyes was soaked in what looked terrifyingly like blood. Part on the side of the mouth had been forcefully torn off and the entire back was riddled with cracks and scratches. It wasn't even a memorial to the fallen hero. It was more like "If we can do this to Batman, imagine what we can do to you".
"On second thought, this was a bad plan. Maybe we should leave." said Robin, obviously scared upon seeing the costume.
"No. You're not going anywhere. "
The team looked for the sound of the voice. They found it one the end of the hallway. It was impossible, and yet, it made sense. Happy Harbor, the batsuit, the cave.
It was Superman. And yet, it wasn't. There were subtle changes in costume and posture. His face was older, more battle worn. And the eyes. They were cold and dead, like the man was sleepwalking.
"Surrender, and you will be allowed to live. Resist and you will be killed."
They looked to Kaldur. He gave a single, curt, nod. They came quietly.
As the team walked down the hall, they saw that Batman was not the only one with a costume in the the building. Wally saw the tattered remnants of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Captain Marvel and Martian Manhunter. He paused for a second to look at his own mentor's costume before being shoved along.
Superman took them to a holding cell. Wally, Artemis, and Robin were pushed inside, while Kaldur was hauled away. His eyes were cold and dull, as if he had given up.
"We need to get out of here." declared Robin.
"Yeah, but how?" asked Artemis.
"They didn't take my computer. These doors are all connected to the mainframe. Probably so they can remotely shut them in case of a break in. "
"Why would he leave your computer? Superman should know better than that."
"I don't think that's Superman. Didn't you see him? I think someone is controlling him" Robin said as he typed away on his computer.
The door creaked open, and the trio stepped out slowly. "This way" Robin said, pointing to his left.
Somewhere down in a different direction, there was a strangled cry. Nobody voiced the fears that they all had about who exactly it came from.
"Umm, where exactly are we going?" asked Wally.
"The control room. If we can find out what is wrong, it will be there. "
"Are you crazy?" exclaimed Artemis. " We want to get out of this place, not further in!"
"No. We have end this, because we're heroes, and that is our job. " he replied grimly.
"Did you see those costumes out in the hall? If they couldn't handle this, what make you think we can?"
"Yes, I saw the costume of my almost certainly dead father, who was probably beaten mercilessly before he died. And that is why we need to do this. Because Batman wouldn't give up." his voice cracked, and Wally could see he was close to tears. "Batman believed in that until the day he died. And so will I."
They nearly made it. They were seriously about a hundred feet from the door when he found them. Wally guessed it was just a matter of time. This time though, Superman was not giving them any chances. Artemis immediately fired a barrage of arrows at him, which slowed the man down by about a quarter of a second. This bought Robin all the time he needed to hand Kid Flash an explosive and tell him one word.
Go.
Go he did. He vibrated through the door, which left a gaping hole in it because he still sucked at vibrating, and, without even looking at who was sitting there, knocked a man out of the control seat and planted an explosive on the computer he was using. Kid Flash jumped clear as the bomb went off.
Wally looked through the hole he had left. The lifeless bodies of his two friends lay on the floor. Superman, it seemed, had frozen in mid-step. It was then who had been at the computer. He was shocked that he didn't recognized the massive. Cro-Magnon before. Finally, everything was clear.
Vandal Savage stood up, smiled evilly, and pulled out a device. He hit a few buttons and Superman began to move once again.
"No!" Wally exclaimed. It couldn't have all been for nothing. All his friends that died , all the dead leaguers in the hall, the destroyed cities.
"Yes. I won. Everything you did was for naught. You were doomed from the start." He made Superman walk to his side and stop. "Would you like to know why I allowed your friend to keep his wrist computer? It was because in my 50000 years, I have learned the true nature of despair, the element that makes it all the more desperate. Hope. I let you keep your means of escape so that, like shipwrecked sailors turning to seawater, you would scramble over each other to your imminent deaths. It is what did him in in the end" Savage gestured to Superman "Because, super or otherwise, he was still a man." Vandal turned to leave. "Kill him"
Superman grabbed Wally. Even with his super speed he couldn't react fast enough. Kid Flash tried to cry out, but Superman freeze breathed the area around his mouth. Wally struggled, but couldn't get loose. The last thing that Wally felt were a pair of laser beams boring into his skull. Then, it was over.
Wally woke up gradually. At first he just heard muffled voices around him. He felt the ground. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was not dead. After all, this had been the third time that he had 'died'.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. He was back in the medbay of the cave.
"Thank God you woke up" Flash, who had been standing near him exclaimed. Wally's uncle had wrapped him in a hug the second he woke up.
"What happened? What was that?" Wally asked.
"Psimon trapped you all in some sort of mental simulation. Martian Manhunter says that everyone died. He wouldn't say anything. He only just managed to get everyone out before it killed you for real."
Wally asked if he could be alone. Of course, he wasn't really alone because of the other team members also in the med-bay, but they were all just as silent as him.
With guilt he realized that this was his fault. Sure, the training simulation had been bad, but it wasn't as bad as Psimon's deathtrap. He had been the reason that they had gone on the mission in the first place. Because he couldn't handle going back into the simulation. With these thoughts swirling around inside his head, he slowly drifted off to sleep.
A/N: So, how was it? If you caught the Injustice reference, have a cookie (::). If you caught the JLU reference, have cookie (::). If you got the Dark Knight Rises reference, have a cookie. (::). If you didn't get any of them, have one anyway for waiting while I finally got this chapter out after over a month.
Wow, even when I do a chapter from scratch I still steal (sorry -borrow) all kinds of crap from other people.