Two Sides of the Same Coin | Young Justice

Chapter Eighteen | The Secret

"SIMULATION OVER."

My eyes immediately shot open, which was my first mistake. Harsh light burst across my vision, causing a groan to leave my mouth as I shakily rose a hand to cover my eyes. I rolled over, feeling a hard surface beneath me and assuming that I had just fallen off of my bed in the middle of the night. There was suddenly a small gust of wind, my stomach lurched, and then my body slammed roughly into the ground.

Second mistake.

"And there's the floor," I muttered as I put my hands under me and slightly pushed my head up. I was greeted by heavy black boots and a matching cape swirling between the two muscular legs. I almost groaned in frustration. We had to stop meeting like this.

"You've gotta be kidding me, Bats," I groaned as stood up, using the table I was apparently previously laying on for support. My head felt light and legs shaky; throat dry and eyes narrow as I glared at the Caped Crusader.

In a vain attempt to regain my balance, I slowly began to take in my surroundings. I was in the main room of the base, leaning on what looked like a smoothed cement block about four feet high and six feet in length. Around me stood Bats, Green Girl's dad or whatever (mental note: find out who he actually was) and Squidkid.

The room was silent, the only sound being the humming of the generators in the background. I suddenly froze, realization striking. Sure, my arms were shaky, but they didn't hurt. Come to think of it, none of my body was actually in pain. And wasn't I just fighting a bunch of guys? And wasn't I just in my pajamas? And wasn't I just busy, you know, shooting my fake ex-partner?

Just as the question began to form on my tongue (and perhaps it was better that it had been stopped, seeing it was probably going to be something along the lines of "what the hell did you do to me, you bat-brained son of a bitch?") a voice appeared in my head. And I usually have a lot of voices going on inside my headー you would all know, since one of the many is currently being used to tell this story to youー but this was a voice that I definitely did not conjure up on my own.

It was deep, modulated, and so monotonously soothing that it almost made me momentarily forget that someone was invading my mind. Almost.

"Please, do not be alarmed. It was simply a test."

I stumbled away from the cement block, clutching my head. I looked up at the three men and noticed that Megan's brother (still don't know who he is!) was staring back at me with glowing green eyes.

"You!" I shouted accusingly, one hand leaving my head as I pointed a finger at him, "get out of my head! That's just... it's just... I could technically sue you for that!"

"And I could technically throw you in jail because you have a body count of fifty-four."

I turned to the new voiceー which was out loud this timeー and sneered at Bats.

"Oh, shut it, Rich Kid. Who even gave you consent to pull this stunt anyway?"

"You did."

I scoffed. "No way! I would neverー"

I was cut off when suddenly the Martian Man stepped forward, eyes once again glowing green.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What do you think you'reー!"

* * *

"Let me get this straight. You want me to actually just let you knock me unconscious, invade my mind and all of my secrets, then put me through some crazy test which you have complete control over, all while I'm just supposed to trust that you won't do something.. Batman-ish when I'm asleep?"