章 58: Chapter 47
Every single attempt to break through to the team has fallen on deaf ears. Harry does not know of anything to do. Every second Artemis and Sara are trapped in the void, they run the risk of serious and last injury. Harry has no idea what the hell to do, especially with M'gann blocking the failsafe and blocking their way out.
Never in Harry's life has he felt so helpless and unable to do anything. A loud crackle of debris caught Harry's attention. Another wave of White Martians started to come to them, more dangerous and more prolific than ever.
"Hold the line!" General Lane yelledd
The troops blasted at the White Martians. There was little effect to them. Harry waved his hands and sent another stream of fire at them. However, energy fields erupted around the White Martians, blasting the fire back onto them.
"There's cannons on the Watchtower that might be able to help us," Robin said. "We should…."
The never ending wave of White Martians backed the team off. They were not going to make it into the Hall of Justice, not at this rate. The pulse of the team increased, their nerves rising up higher and higher. Every minute ticked past on the clock.
Aquagirl analyzed the scenario around her. As the leader of this team, she knew one thing to to do. To save the world, what was left of it.
"Go!" Aquagirl yelled. "I'll hold them off!"
The members of the team paused, and Superman motioned for the team to go inside.
"Be careful," Superman said.
"GO!" Aquagirl yelled.
Superman followed the team forward, to see how the scenario would play out. Aquagirl slammed as hard into the White Martians as humanly possible. They kept pushing and punching through the walls of water. No end in sight for their brutality, just dangerous, dangerous, waves of them kept going forward.
Mareena rose water up from the broken fountain and created a wall which blocked them. At least for the hall.
Harry rushed into the Hall, trying to get the attention of the team.
"Alright, everyone, maybe it's in the Watchtower!" Harry yelled. "Now that we're out of here, you need to focus...you need to…."
"Look!" Kid Flash yelled. "Someone's moving underneath that statue."
Miss Martian placed a hand to her forehead and sighed deeply. She could feel the pulse on the other side of the statue.
"You're right."
The members of the Team pulled back the statue. It took some doing, but they pulled the statue off, unveiled the buried form of J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter.
"Uncle J'onnn," M'gann said. "You survived...how?"
J'onn staggered out, clutching his head. The Martian rubbed the back of his head.
"I truly do not remember," J'onn said. "All I remember is a flash of white light...coldness...and then nothing."
"Then maybe it was a teleporter of some sort," Kid Flash said. "Maybe Sara and Artemis did not get vaporized."
"J'onn, you know this isn't real," Harry said.
It appeared for the briefest second that J'onn heard Harry. Then a white glow flickered over his eyes for several minutes.
"I don't know, the White Martians may have wanted to keep me alive to torment me of the destruction of this planet," J'onn said. "White Canary, Artemis….Aquagirl...are they…."
"They're...they're gone," Miss Martian said. "Well, Aquagirl's still fighting outside."
"Which we should be too," Wondergirl persisted.
"No," Superman said. "We need to…."
The loud scream caused M'gann to almost collapse in a fit of madness. There was no question about it. The sounds of fighting stopped outside, and Aquagirl must have fallen. Captured, dead, it was all the same with these savage White Martians. They cared about only one thing, and that was about conquest.
"No, no," M'gann said.
"Be strong," Helena said.
Harry decided now was time for drastic action. With a wave of his hands, Harry sent the team flying backwards.
"You won't listen to me, I'm going to find a way to put a stop to this!" Harry yelled. "Stay here!"
The entire team watched a crazed Harry fly off, breaking away from the others.The barrier refused to break, no matter how hard Zatanna pounded it.
"Okay, why did he lose it?" Wondergirl asked.
"Maybe the pressure of everything caused him to crack," Robin suggested. "I don't care what he says, we're going to have to help him...help him now!"
Miss Martian nodded, and with the help of the damaged Martian Manhunter, they pushed on the defensive barriers which kept them in the Hall of Justice. Something was not right.
Sam Lane's forces fell to the hordes and hoards of White Martian Invaders. There's no question about it, they have lost, badly. And the White Martians just rubbed it in.
Up in the sky, Superman appeared and slammed down onto the hoards of White Martians. A beam of white hot energy burned them to a crisp. Harry waved his hands and more of the Martians went up in smoke.
One of the troops laid on the ground, with a beam of lighting coming down. Superman flashed over, grabbed the beam, and pushed it up.
Everyone watched in awe as Harry punched the ship.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" Harry yelled. "I know you're out there."
Harry pushes past the attacking troops. The beams of energy clip right past him. Every attempt to avoid the energy makes him come up short.
Then more energy erupts, with the White Martians putting up a barrier. Harry put his hands on the barrier, ripping at it. The energy ripples back, with the hoards of White Martians fortifying the barrier.
The faster he went, the more the energy tried to push Harry back. Harry looked over his shoulder for a second, and could see M'Gann trying to push through.
Harry fortifies the barrier, keeping the Team in the Hall of Justice. He needed to make this work, and getting to the central White Martian Ship was important for activating the fail safe.
"Get him!" the White Martian Commander yelled. "Fire, fire!"
The White Martian Commander bombarded Harry with everything. Several cannons of red energy shot down from the sky and impacted Harry's chest. The energy washed over the young man.
Red Solar Radiation weakened Harry's potential. Yet, Harry persisted, with determination overriding the red solar energies weakening effects. Harry reminded himself, this was a simulation. A simulation gone completely wrong, and he had to exert his will power to fight out.
Harry knocked the White Martian Invaders back with a force of a wrecking ball. They all smacked down onto the ground, Harry breathing heavily from the impact.
After taking out most of the Martians, racking pain beyond anything else hit Harry. Those concussive beams sent Harry sinking into the ground, his entire body ravished in pain beyond all imagining.
"We have him," one of the White Martians said.
The Martians lifted up the Kryptonian off of the ground to drag him to parts unknown. Harry's limp body dragged behind them.
"Well, he doesn't want us to get out!" Donna yelled. "And again, I ask why….."
"Maybe the White Martians did something to his mind?" Kid Flash asked.
"Not surprising," Miss Martian said darkly as she pushed on the barrier with J'onn's help.
Donna and Zatanna pounded the barrier to no effect. The odd ripple effects of energy, made it feel like they were making little headway to trip and break through.
Miss Martian shifted her destiny. There was so much about Harry's brand of magic that she did not understand. And yet, there was so much about it that she had a greater pulse on it than anyone other than Harry. She could find the slightest ripple of it.
The minute the barrier slackened, it was when Miss Martian made her move. She shifted on through the barrier, landing on her knees, with a deep breath.
M'gann finally shifted through, with J'onn coming behind. The ravished battle field, the ashes, they were just too much for anyone to bare. The White Martians destroyed all that they could not take.
"M'gann, I'm sorry," J'onn said.
"No," M'gann said. "They're going to be the ones that are going to be sorry."
Sweet, sweet clarity, hit J'onn suddenly. The mental fog lifted, despite the powerful force trying to keep J'onn woefully ignorant of the truth of the situation.
"M'gann listen to me it's…"
One of the ships flashed into light, over the top of the Hall of Justice. The beam sensors lit up and fired down onto the hall.
The Martians beamed the Hall of Justice with Robin, Kid Flash, Zatanna, and Wondergirl inside. Miss Martian rushed, trying to push back through the barrier, but it was too late.
The Hall of Justice destroyed, with all of the occupants along with it. Not even Whitney would be able to reach the teleporter in time. M'gann's eyes flared up with more dark energy. The debris hovered into the air, with M'gann breathing in and out.
"M'gann….Miss Martian!" J'onn yelled. "You need to listen to me. Your mind is making this real and the reality will be permanent if you do not focus. There's a….."
The ships off in the distance caught M'gann's eye. She noticed the White Martians dragging Harry off into the ship. Those savages took so much away already, no M'gann was not going to lose Harry to them as well.
M'gann navigated the ashened corpses out of the way. Most of the human troops, they were not fit enough to bury. The disgusting smells reached M'gann and turned her stomach.
J'onn tried to yank M'gann away from the carnage. However, M'gann only saw one thing.
White Martians obsessed only with purity who threatened to destroy the new home she built. M'gann slammed on through, knocking J'onn back to the ground with a very evident thud.
The Martian Girl saw red the second she squared off against the White Martians. They all looked at M'gann, blocking the group which took Harry onto the mothership.
"M'gann, please, none of this is true!" J'onn yelled.
Those words fell on deaf ears. M'gann's eyes lit up in a fury, and she was like a hurricane, an unbridled storm which rocked the White Martians down ot the ground.
If J'onn were to get into the way, then he was going to be taken down as well. It was the only way to save the world, as if M'gann ripped the White Martians apart, piece by piece, tearing them apart.
J'onn laid on the ground amongst the hordes of White Martians. He had to figure out another way. Harry must have known, but now he was on the ship with the White Martian. What is his plan, J'onn wondered?
The hoards of White Martians hauled Harry into the ship. They moved him over onto the lab table and strapped him down. The White Martian Commander eyed Harry with a sadistic smile.
"You're an interesting specimen," The White Martian said. "You will be dissected. First, we should start with this brilliant brain of yours, picking it open, piece by piece, until there's nothing left."
Despite being primed by dissection, Harry refused to back down. Despite being back in a lab, being a test subject once again, Harry knew it was just an attempt to play to the deep rooted emotions of his mind.
"Are you scared?" The White Martian asked.
"No," Harry said. "I know, and you know that I know, that today's events are not as they seem. You've expanded a lot of time and energy preventing my Team from knowing as well. Preventing me from pulling my team out."
"What do you mean?"
Harry just smiles, laying it out on the line.
"I wait for my true enemy to reveal himself. Time to take off the mask. You know that you're there."
"You are much too clever for your own good," he said. "It appears though you've finally learned the differences between dreams and reality.
The White Martian turned, shifting into something else. Something even more hideous than a White Martian. A tall and imposing figure, dressed in blue, with a skull for a face appeared. His skeletal hands slammed on either side of the dissection table.
Harry recognized the disgusting entity instantly. From both the files of the League and from his training simulation. Harry cocked an eyebrow and smiled.
"Doctor Destiny, I presume," Harry concluded.
"Foolish child, you have no idea the power that I wield," Doctor Destiny said.
Doctor Destiny broke out into malicious laughter. Harry could tell that this insidious individual would strike even the strongest people with terror.
"I'm more powerful than you ever imagined. All people experience fear, all men, including a Superman.
The dream leech fed off of everything, the deepest darkest fears. The only thing Harry did not understand is what he hoped to accomplish.
"I hoped to draw the Martian in," Doctor Destiny commented. "He and I have a reckoning after the Justice League foiled me. But, the other Martian, her fears, her terrors, they're quite delicious. With your minds rested, I was able to slip into them. It took some work, but it was able to be done. But...you're too dangerous to be left alive."
Doctor Destiny created a drill with his hand and lowered it, slowly, menacing towards Harry.
"You will cause this entire simulation to collapse upon your death," Doctor Destiny said. "And I will be able to enter Miss Martian's body in the real world."
Death approached Harry, but he did not flinch. He was in control here, not Doctor Destiny.
Harry snapped free and disappeared into a flash of bright light. He needed to break Doctor Destiny's control somehow, someway, before it was too late. His head thumped, thoughts of what he needed to do to win this battle.
Artemis, Sara, Mareena, they slipped further with each passing second. Harry needed to reach that failsafe, but to do that, he needed to reach Miss Martian and snap her out of it.
Doctor Destiny appeared next to him, rising in the air. Those sunken in guys glowed maliciously. Doctor Destiny swooped down, and laughed at him.
"Soon, M'gann M'orzz wlll be mine," Doctor Destiny said. "But now…."
"Mind over matter!" Harry yelled.
The two exerted in a battle of wills, their minds locked in battle. Doctor Destiny fed off of M'gan's depair which made him stronger. However, Harry had something worth fighting for, determination to go through.
"And what if you wake up in Cadmus and see that all of this is another simulation?" Doctor Destiny asked. "Or in the Hogwarts hospital wing, doomed to be a puppet forever more. Everything in your life has been a lie….Harry Potter."
"I wouldn't go there if I were you," Harry darkly told him.
Harry refused to break, his will was stronger. He refused to back down to Destiny. Despite the feeling of his mind being inflamed as Doctor Destiny tried to break him.
Doctor Destiny prepared to peel back his mind and send the Kryptonian into a pit of his own nightmares. There was so much delicious torment locked into this mind, that Doctor Destiny hardly could think where he might begin.
The moment J'onn slipped in, Superwoman hoped that maybe he would find a way to get everyone out and soon. The minute he did not return, Superwoman's hand started to shake. This is one way where she could not solve her problems.
"J'onn should have gotten out by now," Superwoman said.
"I know," Wonder Woman said with a shudder.
The chills blasted into the cave. The cave should not have been that cold. Batman leaned over the computer, to check the progress. Their life signs were blipping. They hung on, but for how long.
"Automatic failsafes should have booted them out an hour ago," Caitlin said.
"They should have, but they didn't," Superwoman said.
Batman fought past the cold, trying to check on them. However, the close he got to Harry, something hit Batman. Images of a young boy going down the alleyway with his parents. They just wanted to take a shortcut. The man accosted them. Just give them the pearls.
Just give them the pearls.
He just wanted the pearls. Several gunshots fired and the young boy watched his parents fall. On a loop these images played, with Batman trembling.
Those images locked Batman into an eternal round of torment.
"No!" Batman yelled.
"Bruce?" Diana asked.
Claire was not feeling too hot herself. Images of her own racing to her father as he dropped from a heart attack, never able to save him in time. Claire refocused her mind and grabbed Bruce by the shoulder, along with Diana.
Claire and Diana make sure Bruce has been pulled away. Batman snapped out of it.
"I'm fine, just...Harry's doing something," Batman said. "Have you ever seen anything like this?"
"Only when Harry's particularly distressed," Caitlin murmured.
"Oh, Hera," Diana said.
Aresia, standing over the slain bodies of men, with Diana helpless to stop her, flashed in her mind. The thought Diana failed Aresia, and had disgraced the Amazons through her genocidal rampage. The disease being released into the atmosphere, without any way to stop it.
Thankfully, a very rear and dire situation cause everyone to snap out.
Suddenly, the situation turned from bad to worse, when J'onn began to shake on the table. He entered a seizure state, which Diana and Claire rushed towards him.
J'onn's horrified screams chilled them to the bone.
"DESTINY!" J'onn yelled. "DESTINY! HE'S HERE! HE HAS M'GANN!"
"Destiny?" Caitlin asked. "You don't mean…."
"Doctor Destiny, one of the most feared enemies of the Justice League," Batman explained. "He nearly killed us all with our nightmares last time. He's supposed to be locked up, under a cerebral inhibitor. It was built by Lena Luthor, so it should not have failed."
Diana worried about Donna, Claire worried about Harry, and Bruce worried about Helena, and they worried about the team in general. They came to the conclusion that maybe this was a mistake, but they could not have known.
"We get them out of here, and never again," Claire said. "You're supposed to prepare for everything. How could you not prepare for this?"
"We don't have time to argue," Caitlin said. "Every single path to the failsafe has been blocked. It's up to Harry now."
"We don't have much time," Batman said.
No time, no time, despite Caitlin's best efforts. She daringly checked on the life signs which blipped repeatedly on the screen.
Everyone except for M'Gann and Harry clung on to life. And for how long would it be before the succumbed to this simulation gone wrong.
'Come on, I know you can do it,' Caitlin thought as if Harry could hear her.
Harry battled against Doctor Destiny. Doctor Destiny stepped back as they ended up in a graveyard.
"Oh, this is fun," Harry said. "It's the night he returned. You're trying to use that against me."
"He killed so many of your friends," Doctor Destiny commented. "Don't you remember?"
"I remember that being in another life," Harry said. "And with all of the simulations, I've had many lives. It might as well have been a century ago. A mere flicker, a drop of water in the ocean of time."
An army of skeletons rose from the ground. Their bones inflamed and shot at Harry like a cork. Harry dodged the skeleton bones and they shattered onto the ground.
The army of skeletal creatures grab towards Harry. Harry blasted at them. He rose into the air and shot a beam of light from his hand.
The beam crossed over, causing the skeletons to explode. Harry pulled back his hand and blasted them one more time and again, they shattered, into nothing other than dust.
Harry stood in the ashes with no fear in his eyes.
"Let's talk about your fears," Harry said.
"You know nothing of what I fear," Doctor Destiny said. "I don't fear anything."
"Oh, no, you fear one thing," Harry said. "Despite all of your power, all of your parlor tricks, deep down, you will always be some petulant little nobody named John Dee."
"He is gone!" Doctor Destiny yelled.
Their minds locked into battle. Harry focused on what he knew about the man that Doctor Destiny was before he became Doctor Destiny, locking into eternal battle with him.
Doctor Destiny refused to back down. He refused to succumb to these thoughts, these deep rooted, demonic thoughts which Superman tried to slip into his mind.
"You know it's true," Harry said. "Without that face, you're nothing. You're in a room, deep underground, drooling and catatonic. Someone had to let you out of your cage. The question is, who?"
Doctor Destiny took Harry on a roller coaster ride of some of his worst memories. Harry shrugged them off like it was water on his back.
"I don't fear nightmares, because they can't hurt you," Harry said.
"But, what of your friends, dying helplessly in the void?" Doctor Destiny asked.
Harry's nose bled, but he persisted. It was not about clearing his mind, but rather introducing more hazards to trip up Doctor Destiny.
"Once I peel back the layers of your mind, you will know fear," Doctor Destiny said.
"You keep saying that," Harry said."But, I think I see your other fear...what happens when you can't use fear to defeat someone. Once they've lived all of their nightmares...you can't control their emotions."
Despite the endless hordes of White Martians stampeding towards them, J'onn refused to back down. He tried to make M'gann see, blocking out all other distractions. He pushed through, despite all of the times M'gann tried to push him back.
J'onn locked onto M'ganns mind in a desperate attempt to make her see. Flashing an image through the cave.
"No, I see it now!" M'gann yelled. "You're not J'onn at all. You just wear his face."
"M'gann, I know you're hurting, but you can't be blinded," J'onn said.
She snapped back and send J'onn flying with a thunderous explosion. M'gann's eyes glowed as she rose up. The entire world crackled as M'gann tapped into her full potential. She would channel all of this energy, and wipe the White Martians out.
"You can't hide what you are," one of them yelled. "You destroy us...you will become us."
"No, I'm not doing this for myself," M'gann said.
M'gann's entire world burned around her. The only thing left for her to do would be to wipe out this infestation before it spread.
"Megan!"
Harry appeared at M'gann's side. The White Martians rippled. Harry wrapped his arms around her and teleported her out of the field.
M'gann could not tell fantasy from reality anymore. She came across the dead bodies, caused by White Martians. All of her team there, including Harry.
"M'gann, I'm right here!" Harry yelled. "They're all in the void."
Harry tried to snap the Martian out of the figurative blue screen she slipped into.
"Oh, she can't hear you, because I own her mind now," Doctor Destiny said. "And now….time to make sure that she does something that will cause her to break."
M'gann did not see Harry, she saw another White Martian. Hideous and destructive in front of her. A reminder of the image she ran from, the image which she tried to avoid.
"That's right, once she kills you, everything will be mine," Doctor Destiny said.
"M'gann please," Harry said. "I'm really sorry….this is going to hurt me a lot more than it hurts you….."
Harry raised his hand and uttered one word.
"Crucio."
All of M'gann's nerve endings exploded into a pain far greater than anything ever imagined. Harry's hand trembled when putting M'gann through this, but something happened, it caused Doctor Destiny pain as well, breaking M'gann out of it.
"No, you can't...she's going to be mine!" Doctor Destiny yelled.
The taunts of Destiny caused M'gann's mind to snap forward. The very violent shock to her nerve endings, the pain emitting through her mind, it caused her to see everything clarity.
The members of the team flickered back and forth between the simulation and the void. M'gann turned around and saw the tormentor in front of her, clear as day.
"YOU DARE MAKE ME LIVE THAT!" M'gann shouted, eyes glowing madly. "You almost make me kill the one I love…"
"You won't escape," Doctor Destiny said.
"No, you won't escape," M'gann savagely said. "Because, when this world collapses, you're going to die with it it."
An angry and uninhibited Martian plowed through Doctor Destiny's mental shields. Doctor Destiny tried to reaffirm control. Now M'gann had been woken up, she plowed on through and sent Doctor Destiny collapsing to the ground.
M'gann shattered Doctor Destiny's mind. And she did much more than shatter his mind, she made his mental avatar reflect what he truly was.
The images of a drooling, catatonic man in a straightjacket appeared before them. M'gann turned around, hands shaking, as the floating team members surrounded her and Harry.
"M'gann, time to go home," Harry said.
"Right, home," M'gann muttered. "Oh, God, what did I do?"
She became like them, didn't she? The way she attacked Doctor Destiny was savage. Harry squeezed her hand and pulled M'gann into him as the failsafe appeared.
Harry grabbed the cube which hovered in mid-air. The glow of purple energy emitted around the Team and J'onn when they disappeared.
Relief hit them the moment they escaped. Artemis, Sara, Marenna, Donna, Whitney, Helena, Zatanna, Megan, and Harry all woke up. All sweaty, breathing heavily, but still alive. J'onn woke up seconds later. Diana moved over to check on Donna and Claire did the same to Harry.
"Oh, that was...how close did we come to dying?" Artemis asked.
"Way too close," Harry told them.
They just barely escaped the simulation world. It was hard, the images still burned into Harry's mind. What Doctor Destiny forced Harry to do, what Doctor Destiny forced M'gann to do. And yet, it was the only way to get them out of there. M'gann was shaking like mad.
Harry's eyes flickered, with one arm around M'gann.
"That might not have been the best idea to put us through that simulation," Harry said.
"No, it wasn't," Helena said. "What were you thinking?"
"It was a mistake," Batman agreed.
"And you're never doing that again," Superwoman said to him. "And you might not be fit to help lead this team going forward."
Claire's firm voice resulted in Batman conceding her point. Still shaken up at seeing his parents and also what might have happened if the team, including his own daughter, had been killed, Batman had a lot of thinking to do. He questioned the ability to make objective decisions. The leadership of the League.
"You might want some chocolate," Harry said. "It will help."
After Harry's suggestion, Batman stopped and agreed.
"I think we can all use some chocolate," Harry said. "Because...it will help."
"Hey, I'm not going to argue about chocolate," Whitney said.
"Me too," Sara said.
Oh, her near death experience rattled Sara. More than she would ever recount.
Caitlin moved into the kitchen to get them more chocolate. She passed them among the team. Harry bit into the chocolate. He thought he could handle this simulation, but yet, it almost cost them everything.
And it forced Harry to return to a dark place which he never thought he would go to.
Never again, never again.
The rest of the team just relaxed in the aftermath, although they did not say much of anything to each other. Black Canary would be by to talk about everything that happened, and Harry...well Harry hoped they could work this out. He sensed that everything changed as the team faced their own mortality.
"Every day we go out there, we risk a lot," Whitney said.
"It was supposed to show us the worst case scenario," Mareena said.
"I don't think that even Batman knew how true that was," Helena said.
Every time M'gann closed her eyes, she faced the horrors of the White Martians. The fact with one small slip she could be like them.
The rest of the team were not too much better off. They were very reluctant to talk about anything.
Harry tightened her arms around M'gann and made her relax. He could not give M'gann hallow words about how everything is going to be okay.
"Well, that's getting thrown in the deep end," Zatanna said.
The entire team knew the simulation was a learning experience, although not an enjoyable one.
"Maybe next time it won't be so bad," Artemis said.
"No," Harry said. "The League won't put us through that one again."
Harry hoped that he never would have the opportunity go to that place again. Darkness was a force which he succumbed to.
He would heal. The rest of the team, Harry had no idea. Right now, the League would be having some serious discussions about the future. And despite everything, Harry could not blame Batman.
If anything, Harry blamed himself for not taking the decisive step, as uncomfortable as it was, to get Megan out of there. Harry could not articulate how dirty using that curse made him feel.
Physical scars were easy, mental ones were the tricky one.
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