Our Broken Justice

Preparing for failure

      Conner huffed out a breath as he took out two more ships. Pietro zoomed by taking another one out before losing speed. Both teens finally fall over from exhaustion as a been from a ship hit them. Megan lost her balance leaning against her Uncle.

'     No, He's gone' She fell to her knees, crying as Wally approached her.

     'It's all right' he put a hand on her shoulder 'We'll find him with Lorna I know it'

     'No' Manhunter interjects 'My mind is clearer now The disintegration beam is exactly that. There is no detention facility, no prisoners to rescue Our mission holds no purpose."

     'No! You're wrong' Wally grabbed him by the front cape 'The Zeta Radiation proves she's alive. She's-!' Robin grabs Wally by the shoulder, turning around.

     'Stop it, KF. I've been scanning for League and Team signals since we got inside. They're not here Lorna is gone' Wally opens his mouth to argue but closes it looking away. ''But our mission still holds purpose, destroy this mothership' Megan stands up watching Robin walks away. She places a hand on Wally's shoulder before following them. Wally growls before following. They walk into a room covered in red light. Two drones are on surround a sphere. Robin looks at his HoloGlove.

     'This is the power core. Blow this and the whole mothership blows' Robin and Wally both move over to it. A drone approaches them but Megan hits it first knocking it down. Robin starts taking off the extra straps on his chest.

     'You knew' Wally said as everything finally clicks 'You knew from the beginning why we were really here'

     'Four minutes' Robin says 'Let's go' The hangar doors close. Before they can reach them.

     'Perfect' he gripes a clicking sound catches their attention 'Huh?'
A group of drones approaching them fires lasers. The four heroes split into pairs to avoid the deadly beams.

     'Sixteen seconds and counting' Robin reported 'Manhunter, take Miss Martian and go'

     'No, we won't leave you' Megam objected.

     'That's an order we'll follow as soon as we blow those doors." Robin told her as Manhunter pulls her out of the hangar. Robin over to Wally who nods pulling his goggles. Robin places an explosive on the wall three small explosions come from the ship before the whole thing explodes.

     'Don't... Don't tell me the mission was a success the price was too high." she closes her eyes. When she opens them a second ship descends. 'No, we have to get out of here now."

     'No' Manhunter replies coldly 'We have to end this now' he slams his hand through Megan's chest. She cried out in pain and shock.

Mount Justice
     Megan's eyes snap open as she gasps for air. She slowly sits up looking around. Shazam slowly helps Wally up behind her, while Red Tornado helps Artemis. Conner is sitting up with Wolf's giant head in his lap. While Kaldur slowly pushes himself up by his elbow. "You're all alive!" she realizes relieved. Lorna shifts to a sitting position as green Lantern checks on her. Robin sweats as he pushed himself into a sitting position, looking around. Pietro pushed himself up looking around.

     "What happened in there?" Batman asks Manhunter.

     "The exercise, it all went wrong," Manhunter says looking at the teens.

     "Exercise?" Robin's voice cracked as he heaves in his breaths.

     "Try to remember." Batman insists. "What you experienced was a training exercise" everyone slowly starts to remember.

     "What the heck is wrong with you?!" Pietro glares.

     "Manhunter psychically linked the six of you within an artificial reality," Batman said ignoring him. "You all knew this going in what you didn't know was that it was a train-for-failure exercise"

     "So you wanted us to watch each other died" Lorna crossed her arms remembering why she hated batman.

     "No matter what the Team accomplished, the scenario was designed to grow worse" he admitted "Still you were aware nothing was real including the deaths of the entire Justice League"

     "That is why you hardly grieved" Manhunter picks up. "Even when Wolf was disintegrated before your eyes" Conner continues scratching Wolf's ears "But all that changed when Artemis died, though consciously Miss Martian knew it was not real, her subconscious mind could not make that distinction, she forgot it was only an exercise and her subconscious took control, making all of you forget too" the whole Team turns towards Megan.

    "Uh, I'm... I'm so sorry," she says looking between both her teammates and mentors.

    "This isn't her fault! Why didn't you stop the exercise?" Conner demanded.

    "We tried," Manhunter told him "But Megan had a death grip on the scenario even Artemis, who should have awakened upon her death was so convinced she had passed, she slipped into a coma. I realized I would have to wrestle control from Miss Martian's subconscious from within, But upon entering the reality I was overwhelmed by your collective emotion. There was too much noise to think clearly to remember why I was there, The deaths of Aqualad and Superboy helped But only when Robin and Kid Flash were silenced did my mind clear enough to remember my true purpose, To shock M'gann out of the exercise before your comas became permanent my apologies" he apologized "I had no idea a training exercise could be so dangerous... so damaging" Megan turned away from the others covering her face. Shazam walked up behind her giving her a hug. Manhunter nearly collapsed as Batman and Tornado caught him.

     "As bad as all that?" Batman asked gesturing to the chaos.

     "Perhaps worse," Manhunter admitted.

     "Yet this is not what troubles you" Tornado observed.

     "Make no mistake," Manhunter said looking at batman "My niece is untrained and cannot be held responsible for this... for our debacle"

     "No one blames her," Batman told him "But clearly we underestimated her abilities"

     "You understate it" he pressed "In terms of raw power, she has the strongest telepathic mind I have ever encountered" Megan sobbed in Shazam's arms. He glares over his shoulder at the two Leaguers. "Stronger by far than mine"