Young Justice: The Mimic Contingency (A Young Justice Fanfic)

The Magician's Tale

MOUNT JUSTICE - October 29th

9:01AM

After the deaths of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern and the defeat of Doctor Fate, everything immediately went downhill for the Young Justice and America itself.

The Justice League ordered the Team to stay hidden, informing them that no missions would be given until Desmond could be detained. They were also ordered to not engage in any form of superhero activities to avoid drawing attention.

In response to this, several more League members went to stop Desmond, but even they could do nothing.

Captain Marvel and Guy Gardner went to fight Desmond together, but were quickly beaten, with Captain Marvel rendered unable to speak, leaving him powerless to activate his 'Shazam' incantation and Guy Gardner falling even quicker than his predecessor, Hal Jordan.

Red Tornado still served as the intermediary between the League and the Team, but he was soon called upon to fight Desmond.

The Team found his body torn to pieces, red and gold smouldering fragments littered all over upstate New York.

Black Lightning defied the warnings of the League and continued appearing in the public eye, demanding Desmond show himself. When he did, the battle resulted in Desmond overloading Lightning with energy from a nearby electrical board.

It was quite the explosion.

And finally, Captain Atom, the League's trump card. He took a much more strategic approach to his battle with Desmond, but the latter had already discovered that overloading Captain Atom's energy capacity would send him forward in time.

It was lucky the two contended in an abandoned area. Their whole duel destroyed buildings for nearly a square mile.

All around the world, everyone began to think that this was it, the Justice League had been beaten.

Broken.

Defeated.

Inferior.

Even the Zatanna began to think so. She and the Team hadn't seen the Justice League's remaining members for more than three weeks. Everyone, even the Team's most defiant members Dick, Robin and Artemis thought it was hopeless to fight Desmond.

They all went about their business, going to school, coming back to the Cave, socialising as best as people in their situation could, having a deathly silent dinner and repeating, all until it became a bland routine, like they had grown use to the fact that Desmond had pretty much won.
As she cut the ingredients for dinner, her hand clenched around the knife so tightly, her fist began shaking.

Why?

Her fist turned red.

Why?!

Tears began to drip onto the bench.

Why?!

She clenched her teeth together so tightly, her gums started aching.

"WHY?!?!"

She screamed and slid her thin hands along the cold bench, the glass dishes smashing all over the floor, sending leafs of spinach and lettuce all over the walls and floor.

She broke down and fell to the floor, huddling into a corner with loud, desperate sobs as she hugged her knees.

There was a loud footfall before Dick, Megan and Kaldur appeared from around the corner, their eyes going wide with worry when they saw Zatanna sobbing.