Worst Case Scenario
is an aptly named AU Young Justice (2010) fanfiction written by clcman. The story's divergence point is right before the last two episodes of the first season, as the Team is given a new mission a few days earlier to investigate some loose ends from the previous episode, "Performance". Then things go downhill. Fast. Complete, but a series of sequels is in the works.
Provides Examples Of:
- All According to Plan: Zig-zagged. The Light's "Operation Guillotine" scheme absolutely did *not* go according to plan, and Lex Luthor actually yells at the Light for losing so many irreplaceable assets while accomplishing nothing. However, the Light's primary long-term plan, "Operation Pedestal," remains essentially unaffected, as Guillotine was a side mission to remove the Team from the board, and nothing more.
- All Just a Dream: Rocket suffers a particularly bad set of hallucinations thanks to Psimon.
- Alternate Universe Fic: Unabasedly takes place after "Performance" but before "Usual Suspects", diverging heavily from there.
- Break Them by Talking:
- Black Manta, Sportsmaster, and Psimon are all fond of this, to varying degrees of success.
- Robin pulls off an impressive heroic example on Cheshire and Tigress.
- The Cavalry: The Justice League. Multiple times.
- Chekhov's Gun: There is a continuity error in Chapter 13 with regards to the episode "Homefront". The error is intentional, and a hint that Tigress is not quite who she says she is.
- Chekhov's Gunman:
- The author uses several characters with minor appearances earlier in the canon season, most notably Parasite, whose in-canon single episode plot becomes the springboard for the story as the Team attempts to uncover information about his boss(es).
- Also Greta Hayes, AKA Secret, who appears in order to help Zatanna fight off Tala.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder / Heel–Face Revolving Door: Artemis cannot seem to decide which side she is on. In the end, it turns out that Artemis is good, but the character pretending to be her for most of the story is bad.
- Darkest Hour: Probably Chapter 9, where Superboy is the last man standing. Though Chapter 60 comes pretty close.
- Darker and Edgier / Dark Fic: It's a bit darker in tone than the show, but not much, and some of the canon episodes come pretty close.
- Demonic Possession: Zatanna ends up under the control of a Lord of Chaos named Tala.
- Despair Gambit: The entire story is meant to be one by the Light, so that they break the Team's resolve in order to end their interference.
- Epic Fail: Operation Guillotine ended up having this result. While there were enough parts in play that the light could move on afterwards, as Lex Luthor pointed out, for nobody dead or permanently injured, the light lost 3 bases, an interdimensional portal, had several supervillains captured along with losing Klarion, giving Zatanna the powers of a lady of chaos, exposed not only the connections that the Light is a real organization, but also their use of Belle Reve as a Cardboard Prison. While the overall plan isn't overly damaged, Luthor makes a point that the other leaders caused considerable damage to the organization for their gambit.
- Evil Twin: Tigress is actual another universe's Artemis impersonating her.
- From Bad to Worse: To worse, to worse, to worse. It's in the title, folks.
- Humongous Mecha: The Brain has one. He built it over a weekend, because he was bored. The Justice League's heavy hitters take it apart pretty easily, as they've fought such robots before.
- An Ice Person: Mr. Freeze.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Tigress trips over two of these, claiming that her mother is dead when Artemis's mom is alive and agreeing to Robin's intentionally faulty Call-Back to an earlier episode. These are how Robin deduces that she is not Artemis.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Black Manta does this to Aqualad. And then tasers him.
- The Mole: The canon search for the Team's mole continues, only complicated somewhat.
- First there's Artemis who claims to be the mole, then claims to be a Fake Defector only to betray the Team AGAIN. Her true allegiance is still up in the air all the way until Chapter 68, when Robin reveals that she is an imposter. Even then, the REAL Artemis briefly pretends to switch sides in order to get the drop on Vandal Savage.
- Then, there's M'gann, who was blackmailed into providing information to the Light and stealing Superboy's shields.
- There's also the matter of Rocket and Robin, both of whom were psychically manipulated by Psimon. Rocket was the victim of total control, poisoned Zatanna and electrocuted Red Arrow. Robin was subconsciously guided into making poor decisions.
- Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: Averted. Despite some early confusion with reviewers who believed this trope to be true, clcman has confirmed that he is male. Unless he isn't.
- No One Gets Left Behind: The Team and the League are equally determined not to rest until the entire Team is safe.
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness: The Light, as in canon.
- The Reveal: Too many to count.
- Rock Falls Everyone Dies: Happens in Chapter 23, with almost the entire Team dead, defected or captured, leaving only Rocket and an injured Aqualad. Turns out its All Just a Dream. See above.
- Sequel Hook: M'gann still hasn't revealed that she's a white martian yet, the light is still moving at large with other plans, several prisoners escaping via "lifeboat protocol", and most importantly, in the first base the government found someone wrapped in a blanket with the Superman shield.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Happens all thie time with incinaration and then giant ckabooms at the very end aswell.
- Trauma Conga Line: Ho, boy.
- Villainous Breakdown: Lex Luthor actually has one after the day/night is over. As he put it, the light, in trying to eliminate the "sidekicks" ended up losing 3 bases, 1 dimensional portal device, their Belle Reve operations, several supervillains, 2 lords of chaos and billions in investments. Needless to say, Lex wasn't happy about any of this.
- Wham Episode: Several chapters count, in particular Chapter 11 which reveals that Artemis is the mole, Chapter 23 in which the entire Team (allegedly) is killed off (see Rock Falls Everyone Dies) Chapter 39 where Artemis reveals that she ISN'T the mole and Chapter 52, where Artemis betrays the Team. Again. Chapter 68 where Robin reveals that Artemis and Tigress are two different people is arguably the main twist of the entire story.
- Wham Line: In Chapter 68: Robin: "Where is the real Artemis?"
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Vandal Savage falls into the Evil Gloating sub trope against Robin, Artemis, and Kid Flash. Amusingly, he actually stated his intention to kill them immediately, but Robin distracted him. The narration notes that while this is "Supervillain Cliché #1", Savage probably invented it, and has been falling for it for centuries.
