This story came about when I just sat down, with no ideas in mind, and started typing. At the end of this little piece, I thought "Hm, so what happens next? What does the Machine O' Doom actually do?" Using some friends on here as a sounding board, we came up with so many great ideas that I decided to do this: I will use THIS chapter as the beginning to THREE SEPARATE STORIES! Each story will start with this chapter (with maybe a tweak), and then at the second chapter veer off into something original. In each story, the Machine O' Doom will do something different. One I plan as humorous (and exciting), another will be tragic (and exciting), and the third will be adventurous (and exciting) . . . These were meant to be short stories but since I apparently have no idea how to keep a story actually short, just enjoy it.

Here is the beginning of the first story . . . It is the funny one.

Warning: Language (just like one little word)

Wally West stood staring at the machine that sat in the middle of the evil scientists' laboratory curiously. Was this why they had been sent here? As usual the covert mission the team had been sent on had ended with an all-out battle. Really, he didn't even know why they bothered trying to be sneaky. It never seemed to work out that way. At least not for him.

"KF?" Robin's frustrated voice called out from the office on one side of the lab. "I haven't found anything on the files that Batman wanted us to look for. I think they knew that we were coming and wiped the hard drives of everything having to do with the Red Sun Radiation Laser. I've checked every computer on this floor and the mainframe, but there is nothing here."

Oh yeah, Wally thought. The laser was supposed to strip the powers of Superman for hours or was it a couple of days? Whatever it was, it was bad news! It was also why Superboy was told to sit out this mission. Connor was hating life back at the cave at the moment, and Wally knew that tomorrow they would be having to replace all of the punching bags the cave held.

"Well, then, what's this thing? I mean, if the bad guys are building it, you can pretty much consider it a sure thing that it isn't the answer to world hunger. If we can't get the Red Sun Laser thing, maybe we can figure this thing out." Wally suggested.

It looked like a laser. A really big one, or maybe some kind of gun. It had an end that looked like it meant business after all.

Robin frowned at him. "Sorry, KF. I know you're curious, but that's not our mission. Stay focused, dude. Not finding the Red Sun Laser or any of its research is a bad thing; especially for Superman and Superboy!"

Wally nodded absently, but couldn't pull his eyes from the machine in front of him. He had been studying it for a while and thought he figured out how to turn it on. He pressed the switch and the machine hummed to life. Whoa! That was awesome!

"Wally," Robin hissed. "Seriously, dude. Turn it off!"

"It'd be nice if the mission wasn't a complete failure, you know?" he said. "And how do you know that this thing isn't the Red Sun doohickey?"

Robin shot him a look. "Doohickey? Really? I thought you knew something about science."

Wally shrugged. "I didn't want to confuse you with all the technical terms. And I am being serious. This thing could be bad news! We should figure it out and maybe dismantle it, or something."

"If it is bad news, wouldn't it be a bad thing to turn it on when you have no idea whether or not it might create earthquakes or possibly burn off our atmosphere?"

Wally glanced at the Boy Wonder for the first time since spotting his current obsession. "You may have a point there, Rob. Okay, shutting it down now."

"Good," Robin glanced over toward the wall of windows opposite of where he was standing and saw a small, silver laptop sitting next to a silver briefcase on the counters that ran along the wall. "Hey, how'd we miss that," he asked as he moved between two laboratory work benches to reach it; inadvertently crossing in front of the Wally's machine o' doom.

At that moment, Wally touched the switch that he had decided turned the machine off, but instead of shutting down, the complicated device emitted a high-pitched whine and suddenly a burst of white energy shot forth. It blinded him for a second, and he had to fumble around for the switch that had been his second choice. After a moment, the light disappeared and Wally was blinking hard to rid his vision of dark spots.

"Ah, man, that was intense!" Wally crowed.

"Robin, Kid Flash! What was that light? We could see it from out here," Aqualad's voice sounded in his head. "Are you both all right?"

"Yeah, no problems. Everything's under control up here and we're fine. Right, Rob?" Wally sent down via Martian mind-meld. "Right, Rob? . . . Uh, Rob?"

"Robin?" he called out.

By now the spots had cleared enough to see that Wally was alone in the lab. Normally, that wouldn't be a concern because the little ninja-bird was constantly pulling a Batman and disappearing on him, but they were on a mission and connected via M'gann's telepathic link. There's no way that Robin wouldn't hear the question no matter where he was in the building, and no way he wouldn't answer a question put to him. Rob was the ultimate professional when out.

Wally wracked his brain to remember where Rob had been standing in the room when he had accidentally activated the unknown machine. Um, halfway between the office and where he stood next to the machine, but he had been off to the side, not directly in front of it.

But if that was the case, then where was he? Wally knew perfectly well that Robin wouldn't pull a prank during a mission!

"Robin, are you all right," Aqualad asked the bird via the mind link. "Robin, answer! Kid Flash, where is he?"

Panic started to rise up inside of him. "I-I don't know! He was just here a moment ago!"

"Kid Flash, what did you do? What was that light that flashed just a moment ago?" Aqualad did not sound amused. And Wally had to admit, he didn't exactly feel like laughing either.

Wally zipped over to where he last saw Rob standing between two of the lab's work benches. He stopped and stared.

Oh, shit!

Reactions? Opinions? Comments? It doesn't matter if you are just discovering this story; leave me a note once in a while. Let me know when you particularly like a chapter; if it made you laugh out loud - You'll make my day!

I just posted a cover photo for this story. It is called a Gatling Gun Laser, and it is a REAL device created by Patrick Priebe who owns the website "Laser Gadgets". Google it! He will make you your very own laser device! Seriously! I'm so going to get one of his inventions.