Disclaimer: Don't own Justice League.

First Steps

Chapter Four: Problems

The Javelin jet rocketed into the air from its hidden launching platform beneath the Watchtower building. Wally waited until the jet reached the correct altitude, and then levelled the Javelin out. He enjoyed flying the large jets once he had learned how to fly them properly. Especially since the battle with Luthor/Brainiac/whatever a few months ago. Before the incident, Wally was happy enough to let someone else do the piloting, but ever since then he had insisted on flying the Javelins whenever he could, so as to distract him from otherwise worrying thoughts.

In the old days, when it was just the seven Leaguers, Wally's mind would usually become a blank slate on the way to battle; he just wasn't that concerned. Now, though, he always had one thought on his mind:

How fast can I go?

It had always been in the back of his mind ever since he got his powers in that blinding flash of light years ago; it was probably why he screwed up in battle so much when he was younger. But it was never at the forefront of his mind, as he never thought he was anywhere near as fast as he was.

Obviously, he was wrong. He was that fast. Fast enough to almost become one with the 'Speed Force' he had felt. And it scared him. What scared him more was that someone could get hurt because of his being afraid of his speed. Wally glanced over his shoulder to look at the other occupants of the Javelin. As promised, Wally had got Dick a place on his next mission, much to Batman's chagrin.

Any opportunity to annoy Bats is a worthwhile one.

The other member of his team was Dr Light, whom he hadn't even spoken to before, and wasn't about to start, as she was a notorious snob. Wally didn't put much effort into getting to know people like that. Who would want to? Dick punctured the silence with a well placed question.

"Where're we headed?"

Wally turned his attention ahead once more, and punched up the details on the screen in front of him.

"Some R&D facility in Keystone City. We're not sure who's causing the trouble, just that the local police can't handle them," Wally said, wondering if any of his rogues gallery were to blame. Probably Captain Cold. That slippery jerk was always sliding out of prison. Wally smiled.

Heh. I made a funny.

"How long until we get there?"

"About fifteen minutes. Supes is on his way, but he's been held up in Metropolis, so it could take awhile for him to get there," Wally said, turning to face Dick with a grin.

"We'll have finished 'em off before he even gets there."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fifteen minutes later, the Javelin set down in front of the offending building Wally was especially careful not to land on any nearby bystanders or cops.

That would be pretty embarrassing.

Wally was the first out of the Javelin, heading straight for the police chief in charge.

"What's the situation?" Wally asked, doing his best Superman impression. The chief threw him a sideways glance and smiled slightly, clearly relieved at the presence of their city's 'official' protector.

"It's Shade, and some woman dressed in pink and black. There's what looks like a little boy with them as well."

Dr Light spoke up. "A hostage?"

The chief shook his head. "We're not sure. From eyewitness reports it seems the boy has been going along with them willingly."

Wally did his best to give him a reassuring smile. "We'll do what we can."

He zipped back over to the Javelin, and waited for Dick and Dr Light to catch up.

"Any ideas?" he asked.

Dr Light spoke up first as Dick crossed his arms and put his head down in thought.

"The woman in pink and black sounds like Star Sapphire to me."

Wally nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought too."

He looked over at Dick. "Got anything?"

Dick creased his brow thoughtfully. "I'm wondering who this boy is. I mean, why take one boy? If he was important, why haven't they made any ransom demands?"

Wally was about to respond when Dr Light interrupted their discussion. "Excuse me, but I think we can talk about this later once we take care of the two that we know are in there."

Dick looked over at her angrily. "I don't think it's a good idea to go in there until we have all the facts straight. What if it's a trap?"

"What if it isn't? For all we know they could kill the boy while we're out here having a nice little chat."

"If you-"

Wally quickly darted between the two.

"Guys, guys! Really not helping here!" Wally waited until they had both calmed down before speaking to Dick. "She's right buddy, we've got to go in. So, either of you have a plan on how to do that?"

Just as Dick seemed to ready to propose something, a large explosion sent chunks of brick and metal flying into the crowd of police officers, prompting a response of yelling and gunshots. Wally looked up at the smoke in time to see Star Sapphire emerging, trailing a large pink bubble behind her, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off the energy that encased her. Wally didn't know what the large machine in the bubble was, but he was sure it wasn't hers. Then he heard a more familiar noise coming from ground level as Shade encased the front line of cops in darkness, silencing their yells and gunfire. Wally looked over at Dr Light.

"Take her down!" he yelled, pointing at Sapphire. Light nodded, and flew to intercept her. Wally gestured at Dick for him to follow his lead, and ran towards Shade, hopping over cars as he went. Unfortunately for him, Shade saw him coming, and removed his black cloud from the policemen and fired it at Wally. The blackness slid over him like oil, causing Wally to stumble and fall, rolling violently until he hit what he assumed was a wall. He was finding it harder and harder to breath as the blackness tightened around him. Wally heard the muffled noises of the battle around him, hearing the sound of Star Sapphire and Dr Light's energy blasts colliding and ricocheting off the walls, before finally hearing a dull thud followed by a snapping noise.

The blackness slid off of his body just as easily as it had encompassed him before. Wally took long, grateful breaths, and looked up to see Dick throwing Shade's broken stick to the floor. Wally surmised that he must have ran through the hole in the wall that the explosion had caused, and was now inside the building. Wally thought about how many times Dick had saved his ass in this way as Dick ran over to him.

"You okay?"

Wally smiled weakly.

"Great," he coughed, before his eyes widened in alarm and he pointed behind Dick. He ducked in time to avoid a vicious kick to the head from Shade. He retuned the favour by sending his leg into Shade's gut, sending him reeling backwards. To his credit, he recovered quickly, and was coming at Dick again. Wally forced himself to his feet and was about to intervene when he saw something out of the corner of his eye.

Must be the boy the chief was talking about.

Wally checked back to see if either Dick or Light needed his help, but they both seemed to have things well in hand. So he sped after the shape that was quickly retreating into the depths of the shadowy facility.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Damn, this kid can move fast, Wally thought, having already lost track of the child. Wally's ears perked up as he heard a noise echoing through the corridors.

Sounds like... a lullaby?

Wally followed the sound through the maze of corridors until he came to a door that had been forcibly opened, the hinges warped and bent out of shape in such a way it was a miracle the door had not simply dropped off the wall. Wally cautiously entered the room, and looked around. The song was definitely coming from in here. There were papers and computer parts strewn everywhere, the smashed glass of the monitors cracking under the weight of Wally's boots. He silently thanked himself once again for putting thick soles on his boots, and then continued to the source of the haunting melody.

It's coming from the wall?

Wally pressed his ear to said wall as best he could, finding it very difficult with the lightning shaped ear pieces on his costume. He stepped back from the wall and clenched his fist, vibrating it faster and faster, before using it as a drill to pound through the wall. He stepped through the whole he created and into a back alley. He looked around for the source of the song, but it had stopped as soon as he had drilled through the wall.

Wally turned around and froze at what he saw.

"Toyman," he whispered, understanding now who the child was. And, like any child, Toyman had an affinity for big robots. Big, big robots. And this one was intent on smearing Wally on its' foot, which he surmised for himself as the right leg of the robot pulled itself up, and then brought itself down. Wally darted to the left, and ran out of the alleyway stopping at the mouth to turn around and taunt the small man controlling the robot.

"Hey! You call that a robot? I can get a better robot for $10.95 at a Wal-Mart!" he yelled, not prepared for how fast the robot could move. It leapt out of the alleyway, intent on crushing him underneath its weight, just as Wally decided it would be a good idea to move out of the way. The robot created an indentation in the sidewalk, sending a cloud of dust spewing forth from the broken gravel. Wally ran to the middle of the road, checking for bystanders, and, upon finding none, continued to taunt Toyman.

"Wow! You're really not good at this, are you? Maybe you should just quit while you're ahead!"

Wally was sure he heard a cry of anger from inside the robot, but it was quickly replaced by the sound of a missile being loaded and fired. Wally smirked.

Oh please. A missile? I could dodge that in my sleep.

Wally dodged to the side, and was slightly surprised to see the missile doing the same.

Oh, a seeker, eh?

Wally smiled, running towards, up, and over Toyman's robot landing on the other side. He heard the satisfying noise of the missile colliding with the robot, and smirked at the angered yell that emerged from within.

"I'll get you for that! I'll-"

Wally could hear nothing for a few seconds, and then heard Toyman speak again.

"All right, fine! I'll get you some other time, speedy boy."

And with that, the robot began trudging away down the road. Wally's face scrunched up in confusion.

What was that? It sounded like he was interrupted or something.

Wally ran in front of the robots path. "Not so fast, buddy."

The robot seemed ready to strike at him again, when Wally heard a car turning into the road, and turned to look. He quickly turned back to the robot in time to see a laser being fired towards the car.

Wally set off after it, hoping to either deflect the laser or get the people in the car out of the way in time.

Everything started to move in slow motion, from the look of horror slowly spreading across the drivers' face, to Toyman's robot blasting off behind him. All that mattered was saving the driver. Just as he was overtaking the laser beam, it occurred to Wally that he would have to be travelling very fast to outrun a laser beam.

And there was that question again.

How fast can I go?

Fear gripped Wally's soul, and he began to slow down, the laser overtaking him and heading straight for the car. Wally closed his eyes in horror, and then felt himself being hurled backwards down the road as the car exploded, sending him crashing to the ground and into unconsciousness.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: I apologise if the action scenes were a bit simple (or the opposite), but good fight scenes require skill I don't have just yet. With that in mind, review please!