Picking Up the Pieces

by Kazyre

Wally is trying to heal and reassemble the shards of his life after surviving a brutal attack at the hands of his own father. His best friend and half the Justice League have no intention of letting him go through it alone, but they might not be enough. Rudy West is far from done with him. Sequel to 'It All Started Fairly Normally'. Part 2 of Mainline. **Edit: Part 3 is now up!**

7. Chapter 7

[Mount Justice

March 21, 16:00 EST]

"Recognize: Kid Flash – B03"

Wally heard two things simultaneously. The first was the sound of a Green Lantern's power ring discharging. After spending so much time patrolling with Uncle Barry and Hal Jordan, the unique noise was unmistakable to Wally. However, it usually didn't sound quite so deafening. This was almost a boom.

The second thing he heard was Hal laughing loudly in the background. Wally paused right outside of the zeta tubes and listened curiously. Hal's ring had never sounded like that before. But at the same time, it was vaguely familiar. What was-?

"Is that all you've got, poozers?!"

Wally almost jumped out of his skin at the yell that had definitely not come from his surrogate uncle, Hal. The voice was deep, and it echoed throughout the cave thunderously like boulders being rolled down the side of a cliff. Wally's first reaction was dumbfounded surprise which then morphed quickly into excitement.

"The Justice League told me that their little heroes were impressive, but all I've seen so far today is a bunch of pathetic rookies not even good enough to lick the dirt off my boots!"

Wally sped off in the direction of the familiar voice and was led straight to Mount Justice's training room. He swung around the corner with a huge smile on his face and almost smacked right into Hal, who was leaning against the wall and failing terribly to control his laughter. Wally skidded to a halt beside him and was about to speak when he heard another loud boom and a muffled chorus of groans. He snapped his mouth shut and spun around in alarm to see his entire team being crushed beneath a massive green ring construct the size of a basketball court.

Artemis, Dick, Zatanna, and M'gann were all being pinned flat against the floor by the sheer weight of the construct. Kaldur was on his hands and knees, eyes shut and teeth gritted with extreme effort as he tried to fight the green platform pressing him into the ground. Conner was faring the best, still only on one knee with his hands and shoulders taking the brunt of the weight. He was actually making progress standing up, both piercing blue eyes fixed furiously on one towering figure standing on the other side of the room.

"Well, well, look here," the rough, thunderous voice taunted once Conner was able to straighten up another two inches despite his wobbling limbs. "This maggot thinks he has what it takes to outmuscle my constructs. Here's a bit of knowledge for you, rookie…"

The multi-layered platform flared a little brighter and dropped down on Kaldur and Conner like stretched elastic snapping back into place. The Atlantean collapsed under the increased burden with a strangled gasp, and Conner was pushed down into an awkward push-up position. He roared furiously at the lost ground and fought to push himself back up, arms shaking like mad.

"I can make my constructs as heavy as I want 'em to be."

Wally watched his friends gasping and crying out in distress and looked over at the massive creature, fully decked out in the green and black uniform of the Green Lantern Corps. He stood at a full eight and a half feet tall and looked to weigh upwards of seven hundred pounds. His arms, legs, neck, and torso were thick with brutish, heavy muscle. The alien creature's skin was a tan pink color and looked to be tougher than an elephant's flesh, only exposed from the wide neckline of his uniform and his head. He wore no mask over his face, which was vaguely porcine in appearance with a massive lower jaw that slightly overlapped the top part of his mouth and a severely upturned nose like a bat's with vertical nostrils. Two short, pointed ears sat atop his hairless head, and a pair of terrifying red and black eyes stared down at his captives. He gave them a dark, toothy grin and threw his head back with a great booming laugh when Conner finally gave in completely.

By all rights, he looked like a humongous, menacing space monster that was currently laying a serious beat down on Wally's entire team, and/or about to eat them. Wally was able to see Dick through the construct, and the younger boy struggled to turn his head and look at him with pleading eyes through his mask.

Wally, dressed in civvies and completely without his Kid Flash uniform – Uncle Barry may or may not have hidden it from him – charged right at the towering creature despite the fact that he was about waist height to it and one of its arms was almost as big around as he was. Wally stopped right in front of it and placed himself between the alien and his friends.

Then, he threw his arms up and out excitedly and let a huge smile stretch across his face, "Kilowog!"

The massive Bolovaxian looked down at him, and an identical grin mirrored his own. Kilowog reached down and swiped Wally up off the ground completely with one arm, crushing him against his chest in an overwhelming bear hug. He ruffled Wally's flaming red hair with a hand that was as big as the speedster's chest and chuckled deeply. Wally didn't try to fight the iron grip, instead choosing to focus on not suffocating against the dark green of Kilowog's uniform. He could hear the telltale sound of Kilowog dismissing his ring construct and was very acutely aware of his teammates' incredulous expressions as every single one of them stared at him in disbelief.

Kilowog eventually released him, and Wally dropped a few feet to the ground, landing a little unsteadily but still grinning like a fool. "I was wondering where you were, poozer. 'Kept waitin' for you to show up and teach these rookies how it's done."

"Maybe later," Wally shrugged and tried to ignore the open-mouthed stares that Artemis and Dick were giving him. "I didn't know you were on Earth already!"

"He was the first Lantern that got here after John and I sent out the S.O.S," Hal walked up to them and reached up to slap Kilowog's arm amicably. Even Hal could barely clear the giant Green Lantern's ribcage. "I figured that it would be easier to convince the League to let the Team here help fight the Manhunters if they had a little training from one of the Corps' best. So, I asked Kilowog if he'd mind helping out a little."

"Helping out?!" Conner growled suddenly, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "He's been here an hour, and the only thing he's done is throw us around the cave!"

"Are you questioning my methods, you worthless waste of space?" Kilowog rumbled suddenly. Both Hal and Wally winced. He stalked forwards, and the other members of the Team quickly shuffled away from Conner to get out of his path despite their usually strong sense of unity.

Conner stood his ground as the towering Bolovaxian loomed over him menacingly, "Just wondering what makes you so qualified to teach us."

Kilowog snorted at the challenge and jabbed himself in the chest with a finger the size of a water bottle, "I've trained the best of the best, poozer. The elite. Any Lantern that goes through my boot camp turns into a ring slingin' machine."

"Kilowog's sort of like the Corps' drill sergeant," Hal explained. "He's the one who trains the new recruits, including myself and the rest of the Earth Lanterns."

"None of us are Green Lanterns," Artemis grumbled, picking herself up off the floor. She tossed her long ponytail over her shoulder and crossed her arms angrily.

Kilowog glanced at her over his shoulder, and then turned back to Conner with a dark grin, "I coulda told ya that without even seeing your fingers. None of you poozers even has what it takes to pass my little warm up session."

Wally saw Zatanna turn to Dick and mouth 'What's a poozer?'

Dick kept looking forward and shrugged, shaking his head rapidly, "I don't even…"

"Run it again," Kaldur spoke up suddenly from the middle of their loose gathering.

"What did you say, rookie?" Kilowog rumbled, staring the Atlantean down.

"Run your 'warm up' session again," Kaldur spoke dangerously as he leveled a determined glare at the towering Green Lantern. "And we will show you that we are capable."

Kilowog stared at him for a long moment, then at Conner who was cracking his knuckles in silent anger and at each member of the Team in turn. Wally saw his friends all seem to rally at their leader's confident words. He looked up when Hal laid a hand on his shoulder and exchanged a wide, excited grin with the older hero.

"Tell you poozers what," Kilowog shoved Conner back with one hand and stomped into the center of the training ring. He flexed his ring arm and turned around to face them all, having put a considerable amount of distance between them. "We're gonna try a different exercise. If you can impress me, I'll teach you how to fight Manhunters."

The Team readied themselves for battle, all six young heroes steeling their resolve.

"But if you fail," Kilowog gave a low, grinding laugh. "I'm gonna tell the Justice League to send you all back to the sandbox, cause you ain't got no business fightin' crime, much less Manhunters."

Wally knew that Kilowog was just baiting them to get a rise. He highly doubted that any of the mentors would take kindly to hearing the Bolovaxian dissing their protégés to their faces, but it yielded the desired effect. Every single one of his friends glared at Kilowog balefully as the verbal barb hit particularly close to home for all of them. Wally's eyes kept darting between the Team and Kilowog nervously. How hard had they all worked this past year to distance themselves from being called 'sidekicks'?

"What are you waiting for?" Kilowog snorted. His ring flared to life and materialized six miniature revolving planetary systems. Three hovered close to the ground, spaced apart like the points of a triangle with Kilowog in dead center. The other three were higher in the air, spaced the same way but gathered slightly closer together to compensate for the gaps. Each revolving system was created differently and didn't appear to be modeled after any planets Wally had ever seen before. Each system had a minimum of ten staggered planets, with the biggest one the size of a monster truck. The suns were the size of houses, easily filling up the cavernous training room and radiating immense heat. The planets revolved around their respective suns at different speeds; the inner planets moving rapidly while the outer ones traveled at a fraction of their pace.

Each of the six suns seemed to be very real. They burned almost blindingly bright, and flares arced from their surfaces wildly.

"Impress me!" Kilowog bellowed, and then gravity took effect.

Wally felt himself violently jerked towards the closest sun before he was enveloped in green light and pulled back to Hal's side. Hal flew them both out of the battlefield to stand back by the room's only exit. He didn't appear to be struggling in the slightest against the gravitational pull, although Wally could still feel the incredible tug.

The largest planetary system had formed right around the Team with them only five planets from that system's sun. It instantly yanked everyone off their feet and dragged them into the blazing star.

Conner twisted around and managed to dig his fingers into the ground, creating long trenches in the floor as he was dragged several feet before catching to a stop. He reached out and snagged Artemis' quiver as she sailed past, snapping her to a halt as well. M'gann was able to right herself in the air and fly top speed in the opposite direction. She caught and tried to hold both Zatanna and Kaldur with her telekinesis, crying out loud from the strain. Dick fired his grapnel gun directly into the ground and wrapped the wire around his wrist a few times before the cord pulled taut. Wally heard his best friend's shoulder pop out of its socket with a sickening crack. Dick gave a strangled gasp of agony but held on, forcing his other hand up to grab the wire right as one of the smaller planets passed over him.

Wally looked over at Hal pleadingly, desperate to go help his teammates, "You're seriously sidelining me for training?!"

Hal held out his hands to ward him off, "Whoa! Not my call. Take it up with Barry."

"You're supposed to be the fun uncle," Wally griped, realizing that he wasn't getting free any time soon.

"Yeah, well, if I let you participate, and you get hurt, I'm gonna be the dead uncle," Hal said dryly.

"Coward," Wally jabbed with a bitter sigh.

Hal dropped him a few feet.

Down below, his friends were still struggling against the sun's pull. Kilowog, however, was standing easy despite being in the middle of six. He chuckled deeply at the young heroes, "This is pathetic. I even turned off the gravity for all the planets, and you poozers still can't handle it."

Wally saw Conner's fingers slipping and M'gann starting to lose her hold on Kaldur and Zatanna. The leather strap looped across Artemis' chest was already stretched as far as it would go and beginning to tear from her quiver. And it was only a matter of time before Dick's grappling hook broke from the strain. Wally knew that it was Bat-tech, but it still had its limits.

"I think you six should break out the buckets and shovels when we're done in here," Kilowog laughed outright. "Make me a pretty sandcastle. Heh heh. If there's anything left of you…"

Conner's face screw up in rage, and he gave a great roar, pulling Artemis closer and actually wrapping his arm around her right as her quiver's strap was on its last threads. A knife pulled free from one of Artemis' boots, and they all watched as it soared right into the closest sun and burned away before it even reached the fiery star. Artemis seemed to go rigid from fear and clutched at Conner's arm with a death grip, "We have to think of something fast!"

Wally opened his mouth to yell out instructions right as a green gag clamped over his face. He looked over at Hal in surprise only to see him shaking his head with a smile.

"No helping them," Hal waggled one finger at him. "No cheating."

Oh, come on! Just because he was injured, it didn't mean he wasn't part of the team anymore. If this was any normal battle and he was hurt, he'd still be able to help. What difference did it make?

One of the inner planets whirled around on its orbit, heading straight for Conner and Artemis. Wally felt his heart rate quicken as he watched the car sized green planet crash into them both and break Conner's grip, throwing them both to the mercy of the artificially created gravity.

They both slid several yards before Zatanna thrust out her arms and shouted, "Ekam su reivaeh!"

At the same time, all six of Wally's teammates hit the ground hard and stayed put like they were holding anchors. Even their hair looked extremely weighed down. On the plus side, none of them were being dragged into the sun anymore, but it didn't look like they were able to move either. And the massive planets were still spinning.

Conner hoisted Artemis up and threw her out of harm's way when the planet came around for a second pass. She slid only a few feet and had to quickly flatten herself to the floor when another, larger planet came rolling around.

"Never thought I'd ever want to use that spell," Zatanna joked lightly, trying to keep her face from being smashed into the floor. "Sorry, guys. I didn't know what else to do."

"You did well," Kaldur said through gritted teeth as he attempted and failed to stand. Sweat poured off him in rivulets as the intense heat from the suns took its toll on him. Wally knew that he would be dehydrating in a matter of minutes if he wasn't careful. Off to the side, M'gann wasn't faring much better. "We are safe for the moment. However, now we need to find a way to move without being pulled into the suns."

"Green Lantern rings work by willpower, right?" Dick took the added weight and used it to his advantage, placing his shoulder to the floor and aligning his torso just right. Zatanna's gravity spell bore down on him and forced his shoulder back into its socket with another awful sound. He only took a moment to catch his breath and looked at M'gann. "Miss Martian, can you get into his head and break his concentration? We'd only need a few seconds."

M'gann was already showing signs that the heat was becoming too much for her. Hell, Wally was on the very edges of the battlefield and shielded by one of the most skilled Lanterns in the universe, and he was really feeling the heat. She propped herself up on one elbow and tried to see Kilowog through the gaps in the rotating and revolving minefield of planets, "I- I think I might be able to, but I can barely concentrate myself. If one of these planets hits me, I'll lose it."

"Leave that to us," Dick gave her a reassuring grin and then craned his neck to look at Artemis. "Get your timed explosive arrows ready. Heavy explosives. You and I are going to take out the planets that pass too closely to us."

The blonde nodded as best she could and maneuvered her quiver under her arm so that she could access the arrows lying inside, "I'm not going to be able to shoot anything."

"My spell only affects your body," Zatanna frowned. "Our clothes and equipment should be fine."

"That's not it," she winced as the largest planet passed over her again. "Trying to shoot arrows with all these suns around us is going to be like shooting through hurricane force winds. It'll be impossible to calculate all the shifts in direction and correct them."

"That's fine," Dick didn't seem fazed by the news. Wally figured that his best friend had already realized that and taken it into account. "We just need the planets closest to us. Superboy, Aqualad, stay down and rest up. We're going to need you both at full strength when we reach Kilowog. Zee, put up a-"

"-force field around Miss Martian," Zatanna finished his thought for him, and Wally found that he didn't like how in sync she was with him – really didn't like it.

Dick nodded in agreement, "Don't bother shielding the rest of us. Keep all your power focused on her."

"Alright, Miss M," Dick had both hands full of red batarangs and was looking in every direction, watching the planets move. "Go!"

M'gann's eyes glowed bright green, and her expression went slack as she attempted to break into Kilowog's mind.

Zatanna had been slowly crawling her way closer to the Martian, inch by inch, until they were crouched beside each other. She waited for Dick's signal and then yelled in an echoing voice, "Tup a dleihs dnuora Ssim Naitram dna I!"

Wally could see a clear but shimmering bubble form around the two girls.

"Get ready to set your timers…" Dick warned Artemis. Wally could see the wheels turning in his head as he studied the speed and paths of the planets of all six revolving systems and the points where they passed closest to each other. It only took him a matter of minutes, and suddenly he was a whirl of action, shouting out commands and setting the timers on his own explosive projectiles. "Alright, this has to be perfect! Get two arrows ready; set one for detonation at fifteen seconds and the other for seven seconds."

Artemis twisted the tips of her arrows to set them, "Done!"

"Stab the first arrow set for fifteen seconds into the planet that passes directly above you," Dick shouted. One of the five planets within throwing distance of the acrobat came spinning by, and he hurled his first batarang into it with no difficulty. "You'll have to shoot the second, but you'll be shooting towards the sun. It needs to hit the planet that passes closest to Superboy – the darkest green one! I'll handle the ones further out."

Wally watched in awe as Dick threw three more batarangs, hitting two of his target planets when they came by, and ducked when his third missile fell just a few inches short of its intended planet and came whizzing close to his head as the sun's gravitational pull yanked it back. Artemis jammed her first arrow up into the planet and rolled onto her back as soon as it had moved on. She pulled her bow out and managed to shoot her second arrow before the sun's pull ripped the bow from her hand and sent it rocketing, along with the arrow, into the planet. The arrow dug in perfectly, but the compound bow splintered apart on impact, and the shards were quickly devoured by the sun's heat. Dick scored his fourth hit on the next planet to come too close to the group and immediately covered his neck with his hands and pressed his face into the floor.

"Everyone down!"

Wally saw the entire team take shelter into the floor. He watched the targeted planets continue along their paths and realized Dick's objective with the timers an instant before it happened. He hadn't wanted the timers to make sure that the explosions took place well away from the Team; he'd calculated the points where the planets were closest together and figured out where to place the charges and when to detonate them in order to take out as many planets as possible at one time.

The second planet that Artemis shot reached a point on the opposite side of the sun where it passed very close to the two other innermost planets to their system. Then, it detonated.

The explosion blew apart the biggest planet like it was as fragile as an egg, taking out it and the two planets closest to it. Then, the planet that Dick had hit first blew. That one took out a few planets in the neighboring planetary system where they intersected. The second planet that Artemis stabbed detonated, and then two more of Dick's followed after that, and the last one exploded seconds later.

Wally flinched as the six deafening blasts shook the very walls of the cave. Like a chain reaction, glowing green planet after planet blew apart, either from the explosives themselves or the giant, jettisoned chunks of other planets. The Team was showered with shrapnel and debris but remained hunkered down until it all stopped.

When the dust and smoke cleared, Wally was able to see everything. Out of the ninety-something planets that Kilowog had created, Dick's plan took out twenty-seven and heavily damaged another three. Wally couldn't be sure, but if he'd followed Dick's plan correctly, it looked like another five might have been destroyed had one of his batarangs not fallen short of its intended target.

The explosions had completely cleared the Team's immediate area of threatening planets and had removed the planets of other systems from the equation as well. The only thing that remained of the targeted planets was a cloud of whirling debris.

Wally was so amazed by the perfectly executed attack that he was startled back into reality when Hal gave a low, appreciative whistle beside him.

The Green Lantern was still calm, but he was staring at the devastation below with an intrigued expression on his face, "That… was really something…"

Wally felt himself swell with pride as he stared down at Dick. He wanted to call down to them, but Hal still had the gag on him – which was smart, because Wally totally would have shouted down to them how to beat Kilowog's trap. Beating Kilowog was a completely different story altogether, but Wally could have at least helped them with the constructs.

The whole Team, minus M'gann who was still mentally linked with Kilowog, gave small cheers and exhausted laughs at the massive success.

"Hgiew nwod eht sirbed!"

At Zatanna's shout, the swirling debris field dropped to the ground and cleared the air for them.

The small reprieve didn't last long. M'gann suddenly jerked back, and her eyes returned to normal. She gasped, clutching her head, and looked around at her teammates in shock, "It didn't work!"

Before anyone had time to react, they all heard Kilowog's easy laughter again from the center of the cavern, "You should know better than to try and break a Green Lantern's will. And it's extra stupid to break into my head and try to scramble my thoughts. I'm from Bolovax Vik, little Martian. Don't you know what that means?"

The Team stared at him blankly, and Wally couldn't really blame them. He'd never even heard of that planet until he met Kilowog.

"My people can share one communal mind," Kilowog smiled at them all darkly. "All sixteen billion of us. Do you know what it's like to have to keep your own mind intact when you can link up with the thoughts and feelings of an entire planet? You couldn't break my concentration that way if you spent a lifetime trying."

Their small victory just moments ago seemed meaningless now. They still didn't have any way to circumvent the six suns. Again, Wally could see Dick working furiously to solve their predicament.

"Can't you just phase through the floor and drag him down through it?" Artemis asked M'gann with her eyes shut tightly in pain. Zatanna's spell was beginning to take its toll on them all.

"Even when I'm at my full strength, density shifting is too advanced for me," M'gann shook her head apologetically.

"I bet I could punch through the floor," Conner growled in frustration.

"And then what – tunnel under him?" Dick shot him a look like he was crazy. "We need to think of something to get rid of the suns so that we can move."

"Why can't Aqualad just put them out with water?" Conner asked impatiently.

Kaldur looked like he was very ill. He and M'gann needed to get out of this dehydrating heat quickly, or they were going to be in some real danger. The Atlantean struggled to even lift his head, "I am afraid that would not work even if I had enough water at my command."

Wally tried not to feel exasperated with his friends. They all had their different fields of expertise, and science – also Green Lanterns – just wasn't theirs. The sun didn't burn through oxidation; it was powered by nuclear fusion. Feeding water to a real sun would just break the water down into hydrogen and oxygen. And since hydrogen was kind of the fuel for the sun…that would just make it worse…like throwing gasoline on a campfire.

He looked around for something to grab their attention and spotted the rough, unpolished cavern wall beside him. All of the explosions had shaken loose part of the cave. Wally spotted a bit that stuck out a little, took aim, and kicked it as hard as he could. A pretty sizeable chunk of the cave wall detached and cracked apart loudly when it hit the floor.

Dick immediately looked over at where it had struck the ground and then up where Hal and Wally were hovering – with Wally waving frantically to get his attention. His eyes widened suddenly at the gag over Wally's mouth, probably thinking he was in danger for a split second, and then narrowed in confusion.

'Alright,' Wally thought joyfully, ignoring Hal's suspicious glares. It was super bro telepathy time. Or actually….regular Martian telepathy time would work fine too. Why weren't they mentally linked up? Oh wait, maybe the Team was, and M'gann just hadn't included him in it. Ah, not important! Okay, focus! He needed to do this right and do it fast. And since he couldn't speak, and didn't know an ounce of sign language…

Charades!

He and Dick were the kings of board game night. The Team had actually tried to ban them from being on the same side because they were just that freakin' good. For them, Charades was effortless.

But how the hell was he supposed to act out the color yellow?

Maybe if he could get Dick to guess enough yellow things, he'd get it. Okay, what was yellow? The sun – he didn't know how to act that out, and pointing at one of the existing suns would just confuse Dick. A banana? He tried to imagine himself trying to mime a banana. A lemon? Mustard? Ugh, no! Alright, uh, maybe a traffic light? Or he could try miming a rainbow and pointing down the rows to yellow. No, he'd probably just look like he was interpretive dancing… Crap. This was hard.

Worrying about losing Dick's attention, Wally started frantically running his hands all over his torso and arms where the yellow of his Kid Flash costume would be if he was wearing it.

It didn't work at all. Dick's eyes bugged out of his head, and Wally sort of thought he saw him flush a little. It must be getting even hotter down there. He needed to hurry. Wally rubbed his hands across his chest and stomach, nodding with a smile. Then, he pulled his feet up to gesture to where the red would be on his costume's pants and shook his head while frowning.

His best friend stared at him blankly. Ugh, come on Dick, yellow good! Red bad! Wally tapped his chest with both hands again and turned to point at Hal. He mimed making a fist and pretended to punch the older hero, all the while gesturing to his torso and waggling his eyebrows encouragingly at the acrobat down below. He probably looked ridiculous, but he didn't care.

It only took a few more seconds before Hal caught on to what he was doing. Hal gasped, looking scandalized, and smacked Wally's pointing hand down, "Stop it! I'm onto you!"

Wally smacked Hal's hand right back, still pointing to his own torso and nodding at Dick. Then, he and Hal essentially got into a slap fight. He could see Dick looking back and forth between them, completely bewildered. He wasn't getting it, and it wasn't Dick's fault. The only reason Wally even knew so much about Green Lanterns was because Hal was his uncle's closest friend, and he came to Central City all the time to go on patrol with them or drag them along on weird adventures.

In a frantic, last ditch effort, Wally slapped his chest particularly hard and then grabbed the green band over his mouth with both hands and mimed breaking it.

Dick's eyes widened in recognition, and an enlightened grin slowly spread across his face. The Boy Wonder ripped out a batarang and held it out to Zatanna, who was trying to cool down M'gann and Kaldur, "Zee! Can you turn all of our costumes and weapons yellow?!"

Zatanna gave him a look like he'd lost his mind. Ha! So maybe she and Dick weren't as in sync as Wally had feared. He'd bet that she couldn't partner with Dick in a game of ultimate charades during a heated battle.

"Umm…sure Robin…" she seemed to be thinking about it for a moment. Then, she looked right at Wally and smiled as an idea came to her. "Does it have to be all yellow?"

"Just so long as the weapons are," Dick sent a brilliant grin up at Wally in thanks, and he couldn't help smiling back despite the gag hiding the lower half of his face.

"Brag su ni Dik S'hsalf sroloc!" Zatanna shouted.

Wally watched with a smile as his friends' gear became the same bright yellow as his own costume with red accents. He shot a triumphant look over at Hal, who looked upset that his efforts had been flouted, "Cheater…"

Wally glared at him briefly before turning back to watch his teammates.

"Alright," Dick whipped one, now yellow, batarang at the closest sun, "Green Lantern constructs can't hold up against the color yellow. KF told me that ages ago. I can't believe I forgot."

Dick's missile launched right at the sun that had been terrorizing them for the last thirty minutes and ripped through it without burning up. The smoldering green star seemed to bend inwards at the point of impact and collapse in on itself.

Wally watched his friends anxiously, chewing on the inside of his lip. Yeah, they were systematically taking out the suns and remaining planets, but they seemed to have forgotten about Kilowog for the moment. And the massive Green Lantern was grinning eagerly and readying himself for a fight.

Beside him, Hal smiled too, "Now it's about to get good."

Wally shot him a look and asked, "Don't you have any war plans to be helping with?"

"I'm on break," Hal shrugged. "Besides, I wanted to see this."

Wally rolled his eyes and shook his head. He could hear Dick down below giving commands and Zatanna cancelling her weight spells. Conner gave a loud roar and immediately launched himself into the air at Kilowog, who remained relaxed. He looked up at Conner as he entered free fall, "Took you poozers long enough to figure that out."

Kilowog raised one arm in defense as Conner came crashing down on him. He barely even moved when the half-Kryptonian landed right in front of him and slammed a fist into his arm. Kilowog just shook it off and grabbed Conner's elbow, throwing him aside effortlessly.

"Do you know what I use my ring for, rookies?" He laughed loudly as M'gann righted Conner in midair. "Flying towards my enemies so I can take em out with my own two hands."

Undaunted, Kaldur doused himself in water from his pack and took a few unsteady steps towards their new objective before gaining momentum and breaking into a run. His tattoos flared bright blue, and he formed two blades with his water-bearers. Conner charged at Kilowog again, trying to force him to turn his back and leave an opening for Kaldur, but Kilowog simply snatched up the Atlantean's exposed arms with his power ring and swung him into Conner with another booming laugh.

"You poozers aren't going to impress me like thi-"

Dick suddenly dropped onto his back and stuffed a smoke bomb into his open mouth with a cackle before vaulting off backwards, landing upside down on both hands, and springing back onto his feet with a huge grin. Wally's head whipped over to look at where Dick had just been a second ago – halfway across the room – and he smiled at how easily his best friend could disappear without anyone noticing.

Kilowog broke off into a hacking, sputtering cough as the smoke filled his mouth, throat, and eyes. He took a blind swipe at Dick, but the acrobat was already far out of range by then.

"Ekoms dna srorrim!"

The smoke expanded to form a massive cloud that engulfed Kilowog. Kaldur and Conner both rolled to escape the smoke, and Dick was already back in the air, landing gracefully on the rafters and unhooking his grapnel gun. Wally saw M'gann's eyes glow again, and the smoke cloud started twisting and swirling violently, not allowing a single tendril to escape. Artemis pulled a collapsible crossbow from her hip and opened it with a snap of her elbow. She fired a barrage of bolts into the smoke that detonated on impact, throwing Kilowog free of the cloud and onto his back.

Kaldur doused the Green Lantern with a jet of water and slapped his hands on the trail of water connecting them. Wally could see Kaldur's fingertips spark with electricity. The current traveled through the water and danced all along Kilowog's body dangerously. He looked momentarily affected, but Kilowog's skin was far too thick to absorb much damage from the shock.

Conner took the opening and grabbed Kilowog around his massive neck, squeezing with all his might. Kaldur came at him, water-bearers blazing, and dodged beneath the kick that was aimed at him. M'gann pulled Kilowog's other leg out from under him and sent him crashing to the ground where the very cave floor shot out to wrap around him like a straitjacket at Zatanna's command. Dick jumped down and landed on the stone encasing Kilowog's chest, leveling one yellow batarang at the Bolovaxian's face. Artemis reloaded her crossbow and aimed it similarly while Conner adjusted his hold to stay out of their way.

Kaldur quickly placed both water blades down on Kilowog's neck and said calmly, "Yield."

Both Hal and Wally glanced at each other knowingly, and the speedster sighed.

Without so much as a single word or taunt, Kilowog flexed his arms and broke out of his restraints. He snatched Dick by the chest and Kaldur around the waist, then cracked their heads together and unceremoniously tossed them both aside. He gave Conner the same treatment, flinging him over his head and right at M'gann. Conner crashed into her, and they both fell to the floor in a heap. Artemis had enough time to fire a few bolts at Kilowog that stuck in the upper layers of his skin like porcupine needles, and then he was on her. He planted a foot the size of a trashcan lid square in her chest and sent her soaring back several yards. Wally saw her hit the ground and roll a few more feet before coming to a halt and lying still. Zatanna stood frozen in shock at how quickly the tables had turned. She was the least experienced of them when it came to actual battles, and so her reflexes still weren't where they needed to be. By the time she'd stammered out half of a defensive spell, Kilowog had her knocked out as well.

The huge Green Lantern straightened up then, standing in the middle of Wally's fallen teammates, and placed his hands on his hips to survey his work. Hal flew them both over to where Kilowog stood and finally released Wally from his ring. Wally immediately zipped over to Dick and examined the large knot that was forming on the side of his head with a mild grimace. The boy wonder was out cold.

"Told you they were good," Hal smiled up at Kilowog. He nudged Conner with his boot and crossed his arms in satisfaction. "So, what do you think?"

"They didn't give up even for a second," Kilowog laughed in his deep, rumbling voice. Wally watched as Kilowog stared down at the unconscious Team fondly. "I like 'em."