Disclaimer: I don't own Justice League Unlimited.

Rest and Relaxation

Chapter Three: Testing Limits

The doors to the Metro Tower opened obligingly for Wally and Bart, the lattermost being agape with wonder at the technological marvel he was now entering. Superheroes of all shapes, sizes and colours walked by nonchalantly, acting as though it were just another day at the office - as if they didn't save the world on a regular basis. They were just walking around, calling out greetings to each other as they passed, moaning about paperwork and talking amongst themselves as they went… if Bart hadn't known better, he would have thought he was working in an office building.

The three stepped into an elevator, where Green Arrow was waiting for them.

"Hey guys."

"Hey GA," Wally replied with a quick smile. Bart looked up at his cousin in awe.

My cousin is on a nickname basis with Green Arrow! How cool is that?

It was still odd to see Wally in the Flash costume, but it was getting easier to cope with. He realised that Green Arrow was talking to him.

"S-sorry, what did you say?"

The blonde archer smiled slightly. "I said, is this your first time in the Metro Tower?" An eyebrow cocked beneath his thin eye mask. "But then again, you've just answered my question."

Bart just replied with a nervous smile, which was the best he could do under the circumstances. Wally put a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"Dude. If you're scared of Green Arrow, you're just not gonna make it here. He's pretty much the most human guy around here."

An ironic smile appeared on Green Arrow's lips. "You got that right… I don't think he's ready to meet Batman just yet."

Bart's eyes widened, and Wally groaned.

"Woah… Batman's here? Like, in the Tower?"

Arrow opened his mouth, a bemused frown on his face. He tossed a look Wally's way, who just shrugged with a smile.

"He's a big Batman fan."

"Aaaah, I see…" Arrow said, nodding with a smile. "Well, trust me kid, you might want to wait until you're a bit more established in the whole superhero thing before you go talking to Batman."

Wally, meanwhile, was putting his finger to his lips and giving Arrow a 'shut up' look.

Bart grinned. "Cool."

The doors to one of the medical bay areas opened, and Arrow held out his arm in a grand gesture.

"After you," he said with a smile. They couldn't have been able to stop Bart if they'd tried. In a blur of colour, Bart was around the corner and in the medical bay.

Green Arrow looked at Wally. "What was that about?"

Wally frowned. "We don't know if he's actually got permanent superpowers yet."

Arrow winced. "Oh. Sorry."

"No biggie. We still on for that poker game next Thursday?"

"Only if you're ready to lose out big time."

"Y'know, it's not really fair for you multi billionaires to win all the time."

"It's not really fair for you fellas to have superpowers all the time."

"Touché," Wally said, a small smile quirking up the side of his face. "I'll see you later."

"Have fun."

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John had nearly been knocked over when Bart zipped into the medical bay. He was beginning to see annoyingly accurate similarities between Bart and Wally. As the various doctors asked Bart different questions and hooked him up to one machine, then the next, John couldn't help but feel sorry for the kid. Come to think of it, he couldn't help but feel sorry for all of the superheroes who fell into it accidentally. At least with his ring, he had the choice. The Guardians asked him, gave him the choice. A lot of the people in the League, they never got the chance to decide.

He let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his forehead.

"Hey GL. What's with the long face?"

John looked over to see Wally stood next to him with two Styrofoam cups of coffee. Grateful for some caffeine, John took his cup and took a delicious sip.

"Just thinking about the kid. How he didn't ask for any of this."

Wally shrugged and took a sip of his entirely too sweet coffee. "Not many of us did, GL. I mean, even Bats didn't have a choice, and he doesn't have superpowers."

John let out a grunt in reply.

"So… do we know how long the testing's gonna take?"

"Could be any amount of time," John said, shrugging. He turned to the scarlet speedster. "How much testing did you have to go through?"

"There was no League back then, so I didn't have to do any. We just tested it by running from one place to another, and timing how long it took. All the vibrating stuff came later."

John nodded and took another sip of his coffee, casting his gaze over Bart through the two way glass screen. It seemed to help Bart that he could see Wally and John there, although John doubted that he was particularly comforting to the kid.

"What were you talking to Green Arrow about?"

"Oh, uh… nothing."

John cocked an eyebrow. "Wally…"

The speedster sighed. "We were talking about a poker game next week."

"I didn't know about any poker game."

"Well, you seem so, y'know… recently, so…"

John turned to face Wally. "Wait, back up. What do you mean 'y'know recently'?"

"Well, y'know… you've been a bit… distant from the League lately. It's not like I blame you or anything, what with all the Shayera and Vixen stuff-"

"There's no 'Shayera and Vixen stuff'! I don't know where everybody's getting this from!"

Wally leaned back slightly at the outburst, his shocked expression evident through his mask. "Okay… There's no Shayera and Vixen stuff."

Lantern ground his teeth. "Wally, I said there isn't."

"And I said okay."

Taking a deep breath, John tried to calm himself. "All right. I will say this once more, for the last time. There is no Shayera and Vixen stuff. I am with Vixen. Shayera can date- can do anything she wants." He looked at Wally. "Okay?"

Wally nodded slowly. "Okay," he said, his voice having a hint of amusement. "If it bothers you so much, do you want to come to the poker game?"

"Please. I'm not some child."

"But you'd like to, huh?"

"I said I'm fine."

"Okay."

"I'm fine."

"And I said okay," Wally said, his tone of voice clearly indicating how amusing he was finding the whole conversation.

Rather than become even angrier and run the risk of his head exploding, John decided to change the subject.

"Have you told his parents?"

Wally puffed out his cheeks as he blew out a long breath. "Yeah, and I tell you, I've never heard them yell as much as they did when I told them. As if it's my fault I put the chemicals in the same place as before just as a thunder cloud was coming."

John decided to leave that alone. "Are they on their way?"

Flash nodded. "They'll be here the day after tomorrow."

Turning their attention back to Bart, they saw that he was now on a treadmill. Wally chuckled and shook his head.

"That's not gonna work…" he said expectantly, his eyes seemingly waiting for something explosive to happen.

John cocked an eyebrow. "It's meant to accommodate for whatever speed the person is going."

"I know. That's why it won't work. We couldn't get any treadmill to go fast enough for me when I got my powers. The treadmill I've got now had to be especially designed by Cyborg."

"From the Titans?"

"Yeah."

John paused for a moment. Bart had just wrecked the treadmill by going too fast. "What are you going to do if it's permanent?" he said, keeping his eyes on the teenage speedster.

Wally sighed. "I dunno. I mean, I guess could have a sidekick, but…"

John almost spit out his coffee. "You? With a sidekick?"

"Yeah… why?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, you mean nothing like 'there's no Shayera and Vixen stuff' nothing, right?"

John was silent for a moment. "Shut up, Wally."

A satisfied grin on his face, Flash took to looking through the window again. Bart gave him a wave as one of the doctors scribbled something on his clipboard. Wally gave him a wave back as the doctor left and entered the observation room with them. Flash turned to face him.

"Well?"

"According to what we have on your abilities, Flash… he seems to have the exact same metabolism and stamina that you would have had at his age."

"But he's okay, right?"

The Doctor sighed and flipped through the chart. "Well, we'll need to keep him overnight for observations, but… it appears as though he is, yes."

Flash nodded. "Hey, it's nearly dinner time. We'll take him to the cafeteria for something to eat before we go. Is that okay?"

The Doctor smiled. "Of course, of course. It would probably help for him to see some familiar faces."

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John was feeling a strange combination of both disgust and amazement at what was going on before him. Watching Wally eat was bad enough for him. But seeing two super speedsters stuffing their faces… that was pushing even his limits a bit too far. He ducked as a stray piece of chicken leg flew his way, and used his ring to stop it splattering grease on the floor.

"Could you two slow down?"

The two barely stopped to register that he had spoke. They looked at each other, then back to John before shaking their heads and resuming their meal. The Green Lantern sighed into his steak before attacking it viciously with his knife and fork.

"Steak again, GL?" Wally asked, his words muffled by the food filling his mouth.

"What's wrong with steak?"

"Nothing; you've just been eating it a lot lately."

"Well, I like steak. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay."

The trio resumed their eating, when Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E wandered by, the latter wearing his rarely seen civilian clothes. Bart immediately stopped his eating, allowing some stray pieces of lettuce to dangle from his mouth. John winced.

"Kid, c'mon."

Bart gave him an inquisitive look before quickly eating the lettuce. A sheepish look crossed his face, but he was rapidly pulled away from reality by the beautiful blonde teen superheroine walking by. Stargirl evidently noticed her admirer, because she turned and smiled slightly at Bart's unabashed staring.

"Hey Flash. GL," she said, nodding at the two. Wally gave a quick wave before continuing his feast. Stargirl looked at Bart, who was now looking quite embarrassed at being rumbled.

"Who's this?" she asked, trying her best to sound like an older, experienced Leaguer. John tried to resist the urge to roll his eyes.

"This is-" Wally stopped himself as he nearly choked on a particularly large piece of bread. He gestured to John for him to finish the sentence as he desperately tried to force the food down with some water.

John sighed. "This is… um…" He looked at Wally, who had, much to his own relief, managed to force the chunk of bread down his throat. "Has he even got a codename yet?"

Wally gasped for breath, and then paused. "Um… I dunno. Because I thought that Kid Flash was a pretty good name, but-"

"You're hot," Bart said instantly, his eyes still trained on Stargirl. S.T.R.I.P.E, instantly hearing this, quickly made his way over.

"Woah woah woah, what's going on here?"

John rubbed his closed eyes with his thumb and forefinger. He looked over at Bart irritably. "Dammit kid, don't you ever do anything that's not on impulse?"

Wally nodded, taking a bite from another breadstick. "Hey, that's pretty good."

"What?"

"Impulse. For a codename, I mean."

Everyone, including Bart, simply stared at him.

"What?"

The younger speedster scratched his chin. "Impulse… that's pretty good for you," he said, shooting a cocky grin in Wally's direction. The speedster just responded with a quick sarcastic smile.

Stargirl cocked her head. "So? What's your name?"

Bart nodded and smiled, extending his hand. "Impulse. I'm the Flash's partner."

Wally choked on his bread yet again, and John couldn't prevent the smile on his face.

S.T.R.I.P.E took Stargirl by the shoulders and led her away from the table. "Okay, nice to meet you, Impulse. Hope to see you around."

Stargirl waved at Bart over her stepfather's shoulder, who promptly melted in his chair. He looked over at Wally.

"She's really hot."

Wally just shrugged. "Yeah, she's nice."

Bart looked over at him sarcastically. "'Nice', huh? So who do you think is better?" He smirked. "You got a League girlfriend? Someone mom and dad don't know about?"

Though he loathed to get drawn into these kinds of schoolgirl conversations, John had to confess to being slightly curious himself. The last time he checked, Wally hadn't been having the best of luck with the opposite sex. Of course, the way he acted around them didn't help. Wally shifted awkwardly in his chair, and John took an amused sip of his water.

"Well, uh…"

"Is it Hawkgirl? 'Cause she's hot."

The water came spewing from John's mouth, his eyes wide. Bart looked over at him with a mixture of shock and disgust. Grimacing, the teenage speedster wiped the water from his shirt while Wally looked on with extreme amusement. John pointed to Wally while looking at Bart in disbelief.

"You think… that him… and… is that… what?" he said, looking over at Wally, completely flabbergasted by the suggestion. Wally put his hands up defensively.

"Hey, I'm not doing anything with Shayera."

Bart's smirk returned. "Oh, so it's Shayera, huh?"

"She's just a friend."

Bart nodded. "They always start out that way…"

John glared at the younger speedster. If he didn't know Bart could avoid him at super speed, he probably would have lunged for him by now.

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"So when do I get a costume?"

Wally scratched the back of his neck. "… let's just see if the powers stick first, okay?"

"And if they do? When do I get my costume?"

"I dunno! Sometime… later, I guess."

Bart crossed his arms, making a mild huffing noise. "Fine."

Wally let out a long breath. "Well… I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."

The Flash nodded and smiled before turning to the door, which slid open obligingly.

"Hey, W- Flash?"

The speedster allowed a small smile at the almost slip up. Most of the Leaguers that could pass by at this time of day already knew his secret identity anyway. Not that it would matter if they all knew his name was Wally. None of the League members exactly had loose lips.

"Yeah?"

"You… are okay with me being your partner, right?"

Wally's small smile widened as he turned to face his cousin. "Yeah. I'm okay with it."

The smile that spread across Bart's face made Wally feel much better about this entire ordeal. After one last glance at the younger speedster, Wally stepped through the door and was greeted by Green Arrow in the corridor outside the med bay. Arrow waited until the door was shut before he spoke.

"How is he?"

Wally sighed. "Looks like he's the next Kid Flash."

"Really? And you're okay with that?"

He grinned. "Hey… How hard can having a sidekick be?"

Green Arrow's eyes thinned beneath his mask. "Hard. Very hard."

Flash's face fell. "Seriously?"

"Oh yeah. If they're not complaining about one thing, they're getting themselves into trouble without you knowing, or joining up with a group of other irresponsible teenagers…" he smirked at the last statement, and Flash couldn't help but grin, despite his nervousness.

"Yeah, those teenagers are a real pain to work with."

The archer's smile slowly faded. "Just be careful with him. You always think it's going to be easy, but they bring a whole other bag of problems with them. One of the worst and best moments of my life was when Roy went to join the Titans."

Wally paused at the unusual sounding seriousness of Arrow's voice. "…thanks." His face brightened as he started walking to the elevator, Arrow walking alongside him. "Hey, you got any good sidekick tips? I'm thinking of asking Bats for some advice, too."

Arrow paused. "You have met Nightwing, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Just talk to him. He can give you a crash course in how not to treat your sidekick." He shrugged as they reached the elevator, sighing as he pushed the button. "It's a balancing act. You've got to let them do their own thing, but you've got to keep them close by at the same time. That is, unless they join a team."

The elevator arrived and the doors opened. The two heroes stepped inside.

"So… what? You think I should send him to the Titans?"

"Oh, God no. You'd miss out on half the fun of having a sidekick if you did that. You miss out on the 'job well done' feeling and the patting each other on the back. You don't get to do that very much when you're flying solo."

"Yeah…"

The doors slid open as they reached the ground floor, and the two stepped out. John stood at the entrance of the Metro Tower, still in his Lantern uniform. Flash turned towards Arrow.

"Thanks for the advice, GA. I'll keep it in mind."

"You'd better; the kid'll eat you alive if you don't. And don't forget to bring your wallet next Thursday; I hear there's some of my money in there," he said, a smirk on his face.

"Oh, like it matters, GA. Dr Fate always knows when we're bluffing, anyway."

"Too true. See you later."

"Later."

Wally made his way over to the unusually patient John Stewart waiting at the door.

"Ready to go?"

The speedster nodded as they stepped outside. "Yeah. Let's go."

He kept his pace down so he could run alongside the flying Lantern beside him. They quickly twisted and turned as they took the intersection out of Metropolis and towards Central City.

"What do you wanna do tonight?"

John shrugged. "What did you have in mind?"

"Hockey game on tonight. Keystone Combines and the Steel City Champions. Six pack of beer and a pizza?"

John nodded, a rare smile spreading across his face. It felt good to be looking forward to something. "Sounds good."

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John and Wally yelled in agony as a player was knocked roughly from his feet.

"Oh, come on, that's gotta be a foul!"

"There's no way that's a foul."

"Trust me GL, I've been watching hockey since I was a kid. I know what a foul is."

"Well, that's pretty funny looking foul to me."

"Oh yeah? Well we'll just see what the referee has to say."

John smirked. "$20 to the winner?"

Pulling out his wallet in a competitive frenzy, Wally thrust a twenty dollar bill on to the table. "You're on."

John did the same, and they turned their attention back to the television.

The two leaned forward to look at the screen, each willing the referee to judge in favour of their theories.

"It was so a foul," Wally muttered.

"Not gonna happen."

The referee pulled out a yellow card.

Wally fell back onto the sofa, groaning. "I don't believe it! That was such a foul!"

John's smirk grew as he theatrically took the twenty dollars from the table and put it in his wallet.

"Game, set and match."

"Ha, ha," Wally said, snatching a slice of pizza from the box on the table and munching on it huffily.

The game went on.

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Ted walked past the cell marked 'Abra Kadabra'.

"Lights out, Kadabra."

"What? Already?"

Ted rolled his eyes.

Every single time…

"Just do it Kadabra, or I'll have security come in there and magically make the light bulb disappear."

There was a brief pause, and then the light went out.

"You never treated Mirror Master this way…" he grumbled, and Ted chuckled to himself as he went on to the next cell. Although these were dangerous criminals incarcerated in Iron Heights, it was difficult to tell at times. He came to the next cell, that of Roscoe Dillon, otherwise known as 'The Top'.

"Lights out, Dillon."

All he heard was what sounded like muttering. He knocked on the door.

"Dillon? I said lights out."

Still no response.

"Dillon?"

The muttering continued. He slid the food and deliveries slot open, taking a peek inside the cell. Suddenly, he was overcome by powerful wave of nausea, unlike anything he had ever felt before. He fell to his knees and vomited, a dull yet sharp pain quickly forming at the front of his head, his perceptions swirling and blurring together, unable to make out anything.

The door blew from its hinges, blasting into Ted and slamming him into the wall opposite. A small green hurricane came out of the cell, gradually coming to a halt and revealing the Top. He smiled as he breathed in loudly.

"Ah…freedom. There's nothing quite like it."

"Top! Top, my good friend! Help out a fellow rogue, would you?"

The green and yellow striped villain looked over at the cell containing Abra Kadabra, and simply smiled.

"Apologies, Kadabra, but you don't come close to being any fellow of mine."

And with that, he twirled around, going faster and faster until all that remained was a green and yellow blur, spinning on the spot. It quickly shot through the wall and out into the prison yard.

Alarms blared and snipers took aim, but all of their efforts were futile. Bullets whirled away from the Top as fast as they were fired, and anyone coming close enough to him to do anything became incapacitated with illness and nausea. He smiled as he span away, looking forward to seeing his good friend the Flash once again. Once that matter was over and done with, he could rejoin the Weather Wizard and the rest of Grodd's Secret Society once again.

He passed by a liquor store as he made his way down the streets of Central City. He immediately came to a halt and paused at the window.

"Well, I suppose a glass of Port wouldn't go amiss…"

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(A/N: Say hello to the supreme upper class snob that is The Top. In the more modern comics, the Top (aside from being dead – for the moment) is quite insane as well as being a snob, being more akin to a very loopy Penguin than anything else. In Justice League Unlimited, however, he seems mostly in control of his faculties (even though he never speaks). So I just made him an insufferable snob – which makes him an interesting foil for the borderline slob Wally, don't you think?

Anyways, review.)