This is the 2nd story of the series. I tweaked the end of the Prologue to suit the new storyline. This is NOT a comedy. When in doubt - Keep Reading!

Oh, and btw, I don't own Young Justice . . . But I do own a dog. I'm not sure that my dog is quite relevant to the story, but despite that, she is a pretty great dog all the same. Just thought I'd share. My dog doesn't own Young Justice either.

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 would turn 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. There was a cry and a crash, but the brilliant light had blinded him, and Wally 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.

"Rob?" Wally called out. He swallowed the bile that threatened to choke him as he shoved his panic down. He couldn't afford to panic now. "Robin?"

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

By now the spots had cleared enough that Wally could see the hole in the wall opposite the machine. The wall around it was cracked and blackened. But what he couldn't see was Robin!

"Oh, God . . ."

"Kid Flash, what happened? What was that light that flashed just a moment ago?" Kaldur voice in his head was harsh with worry. "Robin, answer me! Kid Flash! Are you both all right?"

Wally yanked himself out of his shock, and raced over to where Robin had been standing only a moment before. He stared at the spot; horror washing over him.

"Oh no . . ." Wally's moan sent a wave of dread throughout the team.

"Hang on! I'm coming up!" Kaldur told him via the Martian mind-link. "Artemis, stay here and keep watch over these men. M'gann, continue searching for information on the Red Sun Laser."

"Oh God . . . What have I done?"

"Wally?"

The young speedster broke the connection.

This couldn't be happening!

Wally bent down and, with a shaking hand, picked up the only thing left of his best friend: Robin's boot.

Uh oh, this looks serious . . . All Comments and Reactions are encouraged!

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