"He ripped a hole in the ceiling? What the shnell for?" One of the guards asked as he and four others approached the cell door.
"No idea. But we're gonna find out." The one who answered had barely taken two steps into the holding room, though, before a red figure blurred up and knocked her out. In the next few seconds, Flash had taken down the other guards and dragged them inside. Green Arrow stepped out the door, holding it open with his foot as he scanned the hallway for security cameras. Spotting three, he went ahead and shot them down.
"Clear!" The human called back. Immediately, a stream of gladiators began to flow out of the cell, grinning and cheering as they charged off towards the assigned targets.
Batman had been the one to lay out a plan - groups of warriors would head for the ship's navigation controls, power core, and communications room. If those three locations could not be secured, then they'd have to be disabled, followed by a run to various escape pods and docking bays around War World. Many of the gladiators said that once they had access to a ship, they'd be able to reach civilization easily enough. Those from backwater planets like Earth who didn't have much knowledge of the universe at large were all paired up with those willing to help them return to their own homes.
As for the Justice League, their first priority was retrieving their young charges, after which they'd all pile into the Javelin and make a bee-line back to Earth.
Once the mass of warriors had departed, the smaller group started heading back towards the individual cells where the kids were being held. Flash zoomed off at his own pace, the pair of reunited Hawks close behind him. Superman stayed close to Arrow and Batman, the latter of whom still had Robin wrapped up in his arms.
"You gonna be able to fight with him like that?" GA asked as they ran.
"I'll manage." Was the growled reply, causing the archer to drop the subject. By the time they caught up to the others, all four of the remaining partners had been released from their cells and shackles. Supergirl tackled her big cousin in a flying hug, while Speedy dashed up to his own guardian.
"You okay?" The two archers said at once, before chuckling. Then Roy's attention was caught by the small figure lying limply in Batman's hold.
"Oh, no... What happened to the kid?" He asked, even as Batgirl moved to her mentor's side to check on the boy.
"I'll tell you later, right now we've got to get the heck out of here." With that, the larger group set off in the direction of the hangar where the Javelin had docked. While they ran (or flew, in some cases), Speedy couldn't help but ask Arrow one more question in a quiet voice.
"So, who's the hottie with the wings?"
"Hawkman's daughter Kendra," GA answered, smirking as the teen's face paled. "So I'd lay off the 'hottie' comments if I were you."
"Yeah, yeah, but how'd she- oof! Wally!" Roy started to fuss at the smaller redhead for his sudden stop, before realizing just why all the Earth heroes had halted.
Mongol was standing square in the middle of the hallway ahead of them, surrounded by guards and looking like someone had shaved his favorite cat.
"Kill them all." The tyrant growled.
-C-
"...and just like that, you let them go aboard the War World?!"
"If the answer to that question were 'no', Kil', we wouldn't be having this conversation!" Hal snapped back to the other Lantern. After an exhausting trip at lightspeed to reach Oa, the human had quickly explained what situation had arisen in Earth's solar system, and requested a few more Corps members as back-up to take down War World once and for all. The Guardians agreed (eventually), and allowed Hal to pick five further Green Lanterns to accompany him on the mission. His old combat instructor, Kilowog, had been the first name Hal chose.
Considering all the fussing he was getting from the alien, perhaps that hadn't been such a wise decision.
The other power ring wielders weren't any help, either, all of them hanging back slightly to enjoy the show. Though, Hal supposed that being irritated was a good way of helping time pass faster, because the next thing he knew, they'd arrived back in his sector of space. And just off the left, swinging past Jupiter, was the War World.
The moon-sized ship appeared at first glance to be flying along normally enough, but as they got closer, Hall could see something was off. The massive engines weren't firing at all, and the space in the immediate vicinity was rapidly becoming filled with... escape pods?
"Looks like my friends managed to stir up some sort of disturbance." He muttered with a small grin.
Kilowog snorted. "Glad to know not all humans are as stupid as you then, Jordon."
"Oh, you are gonna hit it off with Batman, I just know it... Okay folks, this is where we split up - Ch'p and Katma, I want you two finding anyone on that barge not of their own free will and make sure they get out. Salaak, Arisia, start rounding up the voluntary employees for trial. Kilowog, you and I are gonna find the Justice League and the kids."
"What about Mongol?" The youngest Lantern, Arisia Rrab, asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"If you see him, great, show that tank of lard why we don't appreciate kidnapping and slavery. If not, don't worry about him just yet." And with that, the six Green Lanterns split off into the pairs to go about their assignments.
-C-
Things were not going well. For the guards, that is.
Thoroughly enraged by the whole mess regarding War World, the heroes of Earth weren't inclined in the slightest to hold back against their opponents. The various sets of mentor and partner were wreaking havoc: speedsters throwing punches too fast to see, Kryptonians lifting guards bodily off the floor only to launch them into others, archers keeping up the stream of explosions and electrified arrows. Perhaps most terrifying out of all of them were the Thanagarians, who'd gone straight for Mongol himself and were giving him to mercy - the tyrant was hard-pressed to defend himself, attempting to attack one of his enemies only to be forced back by the other, losing ground all the while.
"When Rob wakes up, I am so poking fun at him for missing this!" Batgirl yelled to her mentor at one point. Batman was keeping back from the fight as he still held Robin in his arms, only occasionally using one hand to throw batarangs at the crowd of guards. His other partner was doing far more damage, leaping, dashing, twisting midair as she maintained a line of defense for her fellow Gotham heroes that no alien was about to get through.
It seemed as though the League would be finished with the fight and free to continue on their way with only a few more minutes of combat. So, of course, that was when things took a downward turn.