This time the team is learning /practising their mental barriers - as you have to admit they come in contact with a lot of people with mental abilities like Psimon.

Warning: Implied/Referenced child abuse (if that triggers you just skip Wally's turn practising his barriers)

Hope you enjoy and thank you for reading.

Robyn

The team was waiting in the training room for Black Canary to start the final day of special training. They had spent the rest of the week improving their language skills and interrogation skills and they had been told this was the last part of the 'special' training. They were all incredibly curious to find out what they would be doing today (no one had given them any clues no matter how much they asked/pleaded).

"Today team, we will be working on creating mental barriers to stop other telepaths messing with your minds." Black Canary announced as she entered the training room. She paused, glancing at the team's resident Martian. "No offence of course M'gann."

"Mental barriers?" Wally asked. He really hadn't been expecting that.

"Yes mental barriers," Black Canary smiled. "They are kind of like a force field inside your mind to stop anyone getting in and messing things up or stealing secrets." She explained.

"Cool!" Wally grinned, causing everyone else to laugh.

"Yes Wally. Now sit down in a comfortable position and close your eyes. M'gann I know you are already aware of this, so just use the time to practise your barriers as the others form them." Black Canary instructed.

Everyone sat down in a circle. Robin had Wally on his right and Kaldur on his left. Artemis sat on Wally's other side with M'gann between her and Superboy, who had Kaldur on his other side completing the circle. Black Canary stood behind them, slowly moving around the outside of the circle. They were all sitting with crossed legs and closed eyes, some taking it more serious than others.

"Now focus on creating some kind of barrier around your mind, maybe a brick wall or electric fence, whatever you think will work." She continued instructing them as she carefully inspected the group.

Everyone focused and sat silently for a few minutes, then Wally started to twitch and kept shifting around causing everyone else to lose concentration and open their eyes curious as to what the noise was. Artemis was the first one to spot the source of the obnoxious noise.

"Well done Kid Twitch! You made us lose concentration." Artemis exclaimed frustrated.

"Yeah, well you were probably already failing Arty farty!" Wally shouted back, arguing for the sake of arguing. It wasn't this fault that he struggled to sit still for long periods of time.

"Stop it you two." Black Canary interfered. She managed to corral the group into concentrating again eventually). After half an hour of silence she spoke again. She allowed them to open their eyes as she made her announcement. "Now, Martian Manhunter has thankfully agreed to work with you and test out your barriers." She declared. "He will be here in about ten minutes so try and practise until he gets here."

The team settled down, trying to do as they were told and concentrate again, well everyone but Robin, who was sitting cross legged and grinning, unseen to the rest of the teams closed eyes. M'gann was also smiling, happy to see her 'uncle' - she didn't get to see him that often although he did come and visit her occasionally.

On time, Martian Manhunter glided into the training room ten minutes later. Once the team heard him enter, they gave up trying to concentrate and looked up to watch the League member's entry.

"Uncle!" M'gann jumped up and flew over to her uncle, stopping in front of him. Martian Manhunter nodded and smiled at his niece, leading her back to the circle. He carefully inspected the team before explaining the plan for the training.

"I will enter each of your minds, bringing the rest of the team with me and then I will probe your barriers to see if they hold." Martian Manhunter announced as he sat down in the middle of the team's circle. "Are there any volunteers?"

"Oh, me! Me! I'll go first!" Wally shouted, bouncing up and down from his place on the floor.

Martian Manhunter nodded towards him (as no one else wanted to go first) and leaned forward, gently placing his hand on Wally's forehead. A second later the whole team, apart from Wally, plus Martian Manhunter were in a plain white corridor. There was only a single blue door in front of them.

"Wow, I always knew his head was empty." Artemis announced with her hands on her hips. She was a bit shaken by the whole thing, mental stuff wasn't exactly covered in her father' training.

"So, what do we do now?" Conner asked, ignoring Artemis' comment.

"I need to test his barrier, it must be this door." Martian Manhunter walked purposefully over to the door and twisted the handle. It didn't open. He twisted again and pulled, trying harder to open the door.

It took a few attempts but with an especially sharp pull, the door swung open. The whiteness on the other side of the door frame pulled them in and a second later they stood in a spotless, living room, of what they guessed was Wally's home. A man towered above them, he was quite tall and had a slight beard. He wore a stern expression, eyes alight with anger.

"How dare you?! I told you what would happen if you did not pass your test with at least 95% percent, but you disobeyed me! You deserve this you little brat." The man shouted, his hand was lifted as if he was about to...

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." A voice that sounded like a younger Wally sobbed. Suddenly they were thrown out of his mind and realised they were back sitting in their circle in the training room at the mountain.

"What was that?" Artemis demanded, the first to recover from the slightly disorientating experience of being so suddenly thrown out of the speedster's mind.

"I believe that was a memory." Kaldur said reluctantly, he knew Artemis would not rest without an answer but was reluctant to actually invade is friend's privacy.

"But- what was that? Did we just see what I thought we saw?" Artemis asked stunned.

"It's not our story to tell, if he wants to tell you, he will. But for now leave it." Robin stepped in, looking unusually serious. He glared the archer down, until she nodded her consent. He turned his glare on the rest for the team (just to make sure) who all nodded as well, it wasn't any of their business unless Wally wanted to discuss it. Wally smiled shakily in thanks to his best friend who smiled back reassuringly.

"Who will go next." Martian Manhunter asked calmly, having allowed the group to calm themselves down.

"I will." M'gann said shyly. She'd had far more practise than the rest of the team and felt quietly confident with her mental protections but her uncle was very skilled with mental manipulations, attacks and defences.

Martian Manhunter nodded and then pulled them into M'gann's mind, in a similar fashion. The team was suddenly facing a brick wall that looked incredibly stable, it was far too tall for them to look over. Martian Manhunter walked towards it and knocked on the wall, it stayed firm, he knocked harder. It cracked slightly and an overwhelming feeling of loneliness pulsed through. Almost as soon as it had appeared it was gone, the cracks were fixed as if they had never existed.

"Well done M'gann." Martian Manhunter nodded and smiled softly to his niece as soon as they were out of her head.

Artemis volunteered next. Her wall was a big and colourful hedge with, weirdly enough, a sign pointing down a hole to Wonderland. Artemis' wall held, only a few leaves falling off the hedge when Martian Manhunter attempted to attack.

Next was Conner who had a plain white picket fence that reached high into the sky. The team could only hear faint voices in the background when Martian Manhunter tried to break the fence down.

After that was Kaldur, he had a giant wave with the top hanging suspended high above their heads. It was impressive as you could even hear the crash of the water as it rolled in front of them, only allowing faint flashes of an underwater city to be seen through the otherwise dark water.

Finally was Robin, who simply grinned at Martian Manhunter as he leant forward to put his hand on his forehead. The team were pulled into his mind and came face to face with a large green field, a bright blue sky above. In the distance sat a circus tent, with flags waving in the gentle wind. Unnervingly, they couldn't hear anything - not even any of the natural background noises usually found in places like this.

the only visible barrier was a ticket booth standing in front of the group, the kind you would see at a fayre or circus (which made sense with the circus tent in the distance). Wally, curious as ever, stepped forward first and tried to walk around the small ticket booth. An invisible barrier was suddenly in his way pulsing with blue energy that zapped him and everyone else out of Robin's mind.

The team's eyes snapped open in sync, having been pushed back to their own minds so suddenly that a faint headache was forming.

"Ugh, what was that?" Wally groaned.

"That was Robin's mind protecting itself. Well done Robin, I see you remember my teaching and continue to improve." Martian Manhunter smiled at Robin who grinned back.

"What was with the circus? And what do you mean your teaching?" Artemis crossed her arms and asked. She really wasn't in a good mood, between the headache forming and the faint exhaustion for focussing on her mental barrier for so long, she was completely done with everything.

"Boy Wonder here was trained by the Justice League as well as Batman when he was younger. The circus is more personal, I mean we didn't ask you about the Wonderland thing." Wally smirked smugly, he was glad to be in on some secrets for once (and to be able to rub that knowledge in Artemis's face was a bonus).

"Really?" M'gann questioned, more curious than anything.

"Yeah, he was the baby of the League and has been since he was six. You should have seen him he was really cute. I think I have pictures somewhere." Wally had started to vibrate at this point, looking like he was about to dart away at any moment.

"Gee, Kid ADHD calm down." Artemis stated, rolling her eyes. Martian Manhunter and Black Canary shared a short look before declaring the training over for now and allowing the group to disperse.

Batman chose that point to the enter the cave, he gave one look at Robin then whirled around, cape fanning out as he exited the room.

"Well this has been fun, but Bats wants me back in Gotham. See you tomorrow." Robin said as he ran out of the room after his mentor.

"How did-?" Conner asked confused by the interaction - or more precisely lack of interaction.

"Don't ask. We call it Bat speak. No one else understands it but the Bats." Wally shrugged than announced he had to leave too and ran back home, he didn't want to hang around and give them a chance to ask any awkward questions.

"Well, that was eventful. See you tomorrow." Artemis added as she pulled herself to her feet and joined the boys in leaving.

Conner and M'gann looked at each other and shrugged, they could get answers later. Kaldur just sighed, sometimes he really wished his team would act more mature.