Epilogue

Optimus staggered weakly to his feet as I approached. He bent over Megatron and picked something small up, clutching it in his fist. "I'm sorry, but you left me no choice, brother," he said sadly. I felt a surge of guilt, even though Megatron had been one bad dude.

I couldn't have been more surprised when he turned to me, apparently sensing my approach or something. "Wally, we are in your debt," he declared gravely, blue eyes seeming almost to twinkle down at me.

"What? John over there did all the work; all I did was throw it at him," I said pointedly. "And that was the right thing to do, wasn't it? 'Cause it kinda looks like the Allspark was destroyed…"

"It is better this way," the Autobot insisted. "With the Allspark destroyed, none of us will fight over it anymore. Our race might finally have peace."

"Are you sure?" I still felt kind of bad about it, and I couldn't tell if he was just saying that or not.

John came up behind me and patted my shoulder. He was sweaty and covered with dirt, and his eyes gleamed an emerald green. "Don't kid yourself about this, hot shot. If you hadn't thought to throw me the Allspark, Megatron would have probably killed us all."

I tried to look modest, though I was secretly thrilled. Maybe I could finally move on from kid sidekick status to being a real hero! And Linda was bound to be impressed that I'd thought to tell John how to defeat Megatron. Not that it had actually been my idea, since Optimus had told me to, but close enough.

"You did good," Superman agreed simply, beaming over at me. Diana nodded and smiled tiredly, brushing sweaty strands of hair from her eyes.

An engine rumbled behind me, and I turned around to see Bats driving the tow truck up to the curb. Bee was attached to the back with a huge chain, and cheerily waved one arm at me. I felt a surge of relief that he had survived the battle.

The passenger side door of the truck flew open, and Linda raced towards me. I held my arms wide and gladly accepted her hug, even though she squeezed me a bit too tightly for my personal comfort. "Wally, I'm so glad you're okay," she breathed into my ear, sounding a bit tearful.

I pulled away and grinned at her. "Of course I'm okay. I'm the Flash, remember? Fastest Man Alive," I said impishly.

She playfully slugged my shoulder, and shook her head while I gamely tried not to yell with pain. "I still can't believe you're the Flash. All those times I interviewed him, I mean you…"

"Wally!"

I turned again at the familiar voice, and hugged Shayera as she reached the little gathering. She was cradling one arm to her chest, and both wings looked mangled, but she was unquestionably alive.

I couldn't have been happier than I was at that moment. Everyone I cared about was alive, and another alien threat had been neutralized. All in a day's work for a member of the Justice League, but I still felt like dancing around and singing. I repressed this unreasonable urge, knowing that the others would think I'd finally snapped. Plus, the approaching Bat would probably take pictures to blackmail me with later.

"What happened?" Linda asked, seeming reluctant to step away from me. At least she refrained herself from hitting my aching arm again, for which I was extremely grateful.

"Wally had the idea to put the Allspark into Megatron's chest, and threw it to me. There was some kind of explosion, and Megatron was killed," GL said, drawing Shayera's attention to him for the first time. I pretended not to notice the way she immediately rushed over to him, grabbing his hand. He didn't exactly resist, either.

"It was nothing, really," I claimed stubbornly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bats nod approvingly in my direction, the tiniest of smiles curving his lips. I felt overwhelmingly proud to have gained his rare approval, but tried to hide it.

"We couldn't have done it without you," Diana said kindly.

"She's right. We didn't even believe you in the beginning, for Rao's sake," Shayera declared adamantly.

I felt a very unheroic blush coming on, and quickly changed the subject. "So all the other Decepticons are dead, right?"

"Yeah, they're taken care of," Linda said. "They weren't nearly as powerful as Megatron."

Superman suddenly jumped and touched his ear, in a way that made me wonder briefly if he'd been stung by a bee. Then I saw the other Founders do the exact same thing, and realized they were hearing something over their comms.

Damn, I needed to get a new one.

"Calm down, J'onn," Superman said with his trademark Boy Scout chuckle. "Everything's fine down here now. Flash saved the day." He looked at me and winked.

"We'll need some clean-up crew down here immediately, to the coordinates of our comm. locations," Batman added briskly. "We've got massive destruction and Decepticon casualties."

"There's definitely going to be a lot of clean-up," I said, starting to feel left out of the conversation. I glanced around at the destruction all around us, and the people cautiously starting to emerge from the ruined buildings. It would probably take months to get everything close to the way it had been.

"All right, I'll look for the crew. Thanks, J'onn." Superman looked over at me again. "The Watchtower finally came back online," he said, for mine and Linda's benefit. "Everything seems to be working again, and J'onn and Mr. Terrific are sending down a clean-up crew to start work on the city."

"Right after the battle is over, we finally get some back-up" Shayera said dryly, rolling her eyes.

"Funny how that worked out," I agreed.

Optimus, who had been so far silent, looked over at something behind me. I felt the tale-tell thud of the ground, signaling that the other Autobots were approaching. I saw both Ironhide and Ratchet, though I was dismayed to see Ironhide holding two separate pieces of Jazz in his hands. "Optimus, we couldn't save him," Ratchet said, and my good mood sank slightly. There had been a causality on the side of the good guys, which really sucked.

Optimus took the pieces into his hands and looked sad. "Oh, Jazz." After a moment, his slumped shoulders straightened, and he gazed down at the rest of us. "We lost a great comrade today, but gained new ones. Thank you, all of you. You honored us with your bravery."

"Aw shucks. It was nothing," I joked. When the others only stared at me, I said quickly, "Never mind."

"We wish to stay on Earth, and help to protect this planet," Optimus suggested, waiting for approval from the Founders. "We could stop any other Decepticon attacks with minimal difficulty, and keep the humans safe."

Superman nodded, at the same time exchanging looks with both Batman and Diana. "We'd be honored if the four of you decided to stay on Earth," he said formally. "You can be part of the reserves, if that's what you want."

Optimus nodded gravely.

"What about Bee? Is he going to be okay?" I interrupted, gesturing at the yellow Autobot. He had been listening silently to our conversation, and flashing me a very human-looking thumbs-up when he saw me looking.

"I think he will," Ratchet said reassuringly. "I should be able to completely repair his legs. And I will continue to work on his voice malfunction."

"I like it, I love it!" was Bee's musical input to the chat.

"This is great," I declared brightly. "Megatron's defeated, and everything's going to go back to normal. No more being stalked by police cars for me, right?"

"Right," John agreed. I saw the way he was beaming over at Shayera, and tactfully looked in the other direction. The others were doing much the same, probably with the same hopes I had for a coming relationship between the two.

"Does this mean we can go home now?" Linda proposed. "I'm beat, and I've got to get a story ready for tonight's new broadcast. Not with anything about your secret identity involved, Wally," she added quickly, before I could say anything.

I grinned at her. "Have I told you how much I love you?"

"Not lately. We've been kind of busy for the past few hours," she joked, punching my arm. I clutched it and bit down hard on my lip to keep from yelping. She was hurting more than Megatron had!

"Good work, everyone," Superman said. "And Optimus, I'll gladly offer rooms at the Watchtower to the four of you, should you decide to use them."

Optimus nodded. "Thank you for your generosity."

"Let's get out of her–" GL broke off and touched his ear. "What? Now? Okay, fine. We're on it."

"What?" I asked reluctantly, almost afraid of what I was about to hear.

"Another breakout at Arkham," he said wearily, rubbing his forehead with the hand not firmly attached to Shayera's. "Copperhead, Star Sapphire, Grundy, and several others. They're robbing a bank."

"Our work never ends," I said grudgingly.

Linda grinned and kissed my cheek, stepping away. "I'll meet you at home, Wally. Good luck."

I grinned at her, brightening again. The others took off in the direction of Arkham, Diana grabbing Batman and pulling him into the air. As I followed them, injured ankle thankfully starting to throb a lot less, I offered one last wave to Linda and the Autobots. Maybe my luck was finally starting to turn around again.

I just wanted to thank all of you for reviewing all the way through with this story, even though I sometimes took quite a while between updates. ^-^; And I want to extend a special thanks to Cyclon One for being my unofficial beta reader on this story. So thanks again to everyone, and I hope to see you at some of my upcoming stories!