The Lost Grayson (Young Justice)

Chapter Fourteen: Failsafe (Pt. One)

Rylie's POV

I had known about the training exercise for about two weeks now, how Meghann was going to link us and send us into an alien invasion mission we were destined to fail, but seeing the setup still sent shivers down my spine. It was so much like Cadmus, all metal tables and people standing at computers. I could feel my heart pound as I sat on one and tried to focus my thoughts on the challenge ahead.

I gulped hard just as Artemis sat next to me. She jabbed her thumb in the direction of Wally and my brother, who were tensely talking with each other as they finished prepping for the mission.

"What's up with them?" I rolled my eyes.

"Rob's being the annoying brother that he is, and they had a small fight downstairs. I wouldn't worry too much." She nodded and rolled her eyes at the two boys, then turned her attention back to me.

"You okay?" She asked, noticing my nerves. I shrugged.

"Yes, perfectly fine for a girl about to relieve her worst memories all over again. Just peachy." I replied sarcastically, taking one of my daggers out of its sheath and fingering the newest engraving: a thornbush growing from the hilt to about an inch up the handle, just like the one the Injustice League had used to try and take over the world. 

"Cadmus all over again, huh?" I sighed. Artemis had seen the tape, I knew that much. The viewing room had been running for a week, but she was the only one out of the team who had gone in. Sure, the league and Bats had watched it and blurred curtain parts so no one could tell it was me, and I would keep it in case one of the doctors went on trial after my soon to reappear secret identity 'recovered from her physiological damage' and then went public with the scheme, but it was very strange to have people viewing that. Most of the team saw it as a privacy thing. It was a symbol of my life in there. The only thing I had of the last four years. I sighed and responded to her.

"The people, place, and time, no. The situation that's about to go down, pretty much. At least this time I know it's a simulation." I ran a hand through my hair and tried to make my nerves a little less obvious.

"Just pretend it's a dream. Play along and you'll be awake before you know it." She added, giving me a smirk before Batman called for us to lie on our tables. I mumbled thanks, put my dagger away, and laid down on the cool metal, trying to repress old memories as they flooded my mind. I took a deep breath, focusing on what Artemis had said. It's only a dream. It can't hurt you.

"Everyone ready?" Meghann asked as Bats gave her the signal to start the linking process.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I said, and she linked us without further question.

Suddenly, I was standing in front of the viewing screen, watching as an alien ship flew into our airspace and promptly destroyed the Justice League's celestial defense. I remained silent, stunned but knowing it was just a dream. They weren't really dead.

Then, Zatanna appeared on the screen.

"Tornado, did you-"

"Yes Zatanna, we saw. Contact all league members and start preparing for invasion." Tornado responded.

"Will do. See you in the field." The monitor went blank, and our remaining mentor turned to us.

"I am needed elsewhere. But, should the league fail..." We all exchanged glances, knowing what we were heading into face.

"We stand at the ready." Said Kald'r.

We watched for what felt like days as the Justice League was picked off one by one. Batman, Flash, everyone was zapped by the alien tech, disappearing into nothing. Even Red Tornado was was gone. The team was all that's was left of the Earth's heroes.

You would imagine that we would have some reaction to this, right? Nope. Everyone was stone faced, knowing it was a simulation. Not a tear was shed.

"We're Earth's heroes now." Said Kald'r as we started to get ready for a fight.

"So what are we waiting for? A theme song?" Connor asked. I piped up and started typing on my wristpad, the gears in my head turning.

"We can't just go in there blind, Superboy. We need a strategy to try and beat these things. I'm pulling up a map of all known locations of the sentient tech used in these machines. Robin, can you pinpoint the completed weapons using that data?"

"Yep. Transferring data and image to computer now." Within seconds, a holographic map of the globe popped into the large screen. There were red dots all over the place, some in high concentrations, some just two or three dots. "Each pinpoint is where one of the machines is currently."

Immediately, Connor pointed one out that I had noticed almost instantly. It was a single dot, sitting in the northern part of the Artic.

"This one get lost?" As soon as he said it, an idea formed in my mind. I turned to Meghann.

"Miss M, if we could get ahold of one of the weapon systems, do you think you could hook it up to the bioship?"

"Yeah. And since the only thing that can hurt this tech is a piece of the same design..."

"We get the weapon, we can kill those things."

"Let's do it!" Wally cheered, somehow chipper in all of this. "Wipe out every ugly alien.." Artemis punched him.

"Hello, Martin and Kryptonian in the room." She pointed out. He blushed and hastily tried to make amends as we all turned to our leader.

"Suit up for Artic stealth and be prepared." Was all Aqua Lad said. We loaded up quickly, ready to try to face this head on. We thought we had it all figured out. Boy, were we wrong.

The mission started out simple enough. We landed, and of course, the thing started shooting at us. Artemis took its flight and mobility systems out with ease, and we started the process of getting the weapon systems integrated into the ship, communicating telepathically, but losing Wolf along the way. I tapped on my pad frantically, searching for any sign of a residual, but came up empty-handed. We had our first team casualty.

"Nothing. Not even enough radiation to try to track where it could have sent him  if anywhere. I'm... sorry Superboy." He sighed, knowing it was a simulation, but upset anyway. He loved Wolf.

"Nothing we can do for him now." I nodded, then went to go stand next to Wally.

"Hey." He kept a stone face, but he slipped his fingers into mine. He knew I was feeling off. I really didn't have to say it, so I just gave his hand a quick squeeze and sighed.

"So this is our lives now, huh KF?" I replied, letting my anxiety show a bit.

"Pretty much, babe." He squeezed my hand back and brought our tangled fingers to his lips, kissing my hand lightly. "But I finally got your brother's blessing to date you, so I'm satisfied." I rolled my eyes.

"Let me guess, he threatened to kill you and throw your rotting corpse in the sewers for Killer Croc if you even dared to hurt me once?"

"Yep." He smiled over at me, his cheeky grin almost making me forget why we were here. To save the world. His tone took on a little more serious note.

"Alli, I-" Suddenly, another fighter bot came out. Artemis tried to take it down, but it was too fast. She turned to face us.

"Artemis, behind you!" Meghann yelled in her mind, but it was to no avail. In a flash, it had zapped her. She was gone.

"Artemis!"