As soon as the car had left Bruce's eyesight he turned around taking out his earpiece from his pocket. He had taken it earlier from his drawer back in the office. " Clark, Diana, I need you to come to Gotham, now!" he said.
After that, he quickly rushed to his car, where his suit was. He put it on then started driving his car to where the fight was going down. While he was driving Clark called him. " I'm on my way, what is it?" he asked.
" It's Metallo, he's wreaking havoc in the city," Bruce quickly said. " What! How? He was supposed to be locked down in S.T.A.R Labs," he replied. " I don't know, he escaped, he might've overridden his system, getting stronger and breaking free,"
Diana chimed in. " I'm five minutes away, how close are you Clark?" she asked. " I'm almost there," he replied. Bruce sighed. " You go deal with it, I'll go to S.T.A.R Labs, try to figure out what he has done,"
Superman and Wonder Woman agreed, all three speeding up to get to where they were going. Batman saw Superman diving in from the sky and punching Metallo as he neared the lab. He quickly got out rushing inside.
A part of the building was in pieces. It was the place where they use to keep him. Batman dived inside the lab. There were ruins everyone, all the machinery was destroyed.
" Help! Is someone there?" Someone called out in agony.
The voice was coming from over the computer ruins. Bruce rushed there, throwing away the pieces. A man wearing a white coat was revealed. He helped him up, reading his name tag. "What happened here?" Batman asked. The man looked in fear.
" He killed Carl! We were studying his systems, he was tied up. Then the system started giving alerts and before we know he had broken free. He started blowing up everywhere. He blasted Carl," The man exclaimed in frustration.
" What were you doing before he got out?" Bruce asked. " Looking at the details of his latest software, where his power source came from," the man answered. " Do you have a copy of what you were looking at?"
The man nodded. " Everything is synchronized, it should be in the database," he mumbled. Bruce then turned around and rushed out, pressing on his earpiece. " Alfred, tell me where S.T.A.R Labs stores their databases," he said.
" It's two stories down from where you are, should be on your left when you get down, sir," Alfred immediately replied. Bruce had spotted the stairs to his right, running down there. Just as Alfred said the room was easy to find. He picked the lock then sat on the computer. As he was searching through the files to find the exact one he took out his device to transfer them.
Meanwhile, Wonder Woman and Superman weren't having much luck. " He seems stronger," Diana said. " He is," Superman replied. " Doesn't matter, we have to stop him from harming anyone," she said.
After that, she dived toward the ground where Metallo was beaming kryptonite through his eyes, hitting a few buildings around. " I can't get close to him while he's doing that," Clark said as he grabbed a big piece of concrete falling from the beams of Metallo and about to hit civilians. Diana nodded, landing next to Metallo.
He turned the beam towards her and Diana crossed her arms protecting herself by her bracelets. When he was done she took a step forward throwing a punch. The robot seemed unaffected by it so she threw another one.
Metallo hit Diana sending her meters away. She quickly got up and took out her lasso, throwing it and capturing Metallo. That's when Superman flew to Metallo, hitting him repeatedly. The impact was on hard on him, parts of his body being destroyed but he beamed Superman at the last attempt.
Superman fell back being affected by the hit and the Kryptonite. Metallo then turned to Wonder Woman, ready to blast her. Just as he did Batman swooped in taking Diana and herself out of the way. " He has upgraded himself, he's stronger, but not unbeatable," he said.
" How do we do it?" Diana asked. " The same way Superman beat him before, we have to remove his head from his body, that's how he controls the Kryptonite and the rest," he answered. " Keep him busy, I've got an idea," he added, running to Superman.
Wonder Woman jumped toward Metallo, gaining his attention. She hit her bracelets against each other, creating an effect that would keep him occupied and hopefully give her friends the time.
Batman kneeled next to Superman. " Can you fight him?" he asked. Clark sighed. " Not as long as he keeps shooting Kryptonite at me," he replied. Then Bruce took out something from his belt, placing it over Superman's body. The little thing immediately emerged, covering Superman's body.
" What's this?" he asked. " Something I've been working on, should keep you safe from Kryptonite," Batman answered. " I'll ask later," Superman said getting up. While he did Metallo hit Diana, crashing her to a side of a building.
Superman sped up toward Metallo sending him away with a punch. Metallo got up and beamed Kryptonite at him. Clark took the attack but it didn't affect him. " Ha, what about that," he muttered with a smile as he lunged forward to attack again.
He started hitting Metallo. As a response, Metallo kept hitting him with the beam. Superman wasn't sure how long the device could keep on getting hit. At the corner of his eye, he spotted Diana coming toward them. " Diana!" he shouted throwing Metallo at him.
Diana grabbed one of the lampposts Metallo had destroyed earlier and hit him, sending him toward the Sky. Superman flew above him getting ready to hit him to make him hit the ground, hard.
As Metallo's body crashed to the ground, creating a little dent, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman quickly went there. " Quick, before he gets up we must extract his head," Batman said. Superman nodded, kneeling down to hold Metallo's head.
Once it was done Diana sighed. " What are we going to do with the parts?" she asked. " It's clear S.T.A.R Labs isn't secure enough to hold him, we should store it in the Watchtower. We could intervene earlier and there wouldn't be this much damage," Batman answered.
" What about the rest of his body?" Superman asked. " Let's take them with us now, we'll decide it at the meeting," he said then called his car. Batmobile showed up within minutes. He gathered the other pieces of Metallo's body. " I'll take them there," he said putting them in his car.
" Where are you going?" Superman asked him. " I've got a few things to take care of, let's meet in the Watchtower in an hour, let the others know," Batman answered. Then he got on his car driving away.
Bruce went back to his house, wanting to examine the pieces for himself before and logging them onto the database. He was back in the Batcave within minutes. He immediately picked up the pieces and lay them on a surface.
" Sir, may I ask what you're looking for?" Alfred asked. " To find whatever caused him to override the security measurements in the first place, what turned him on again," Bruce replied. " I've uploaded the files you sent over from S.T.A.R. Labs, perhaps they could help,"
For the next thirty minutes, Bruce examined them. He also looked at the files and cross-referenced what he found. In the end, he found out that the scientist at S.T.A.R. Labs messed one of the codes on his software, causing him to wake up.
After that, he went to the Watchtower. Diana, Clark, and Jonn were already there. Bruce walked over to the computer they had over there and started to transfer the things he had found. " So, what did you find out?" Clark asked.
" It's better when I tell it once everyone's here," Bruce replied. " Fair enough," Clark said. " Although now might be a good time for you to explain how you had that thing that protected me from Kyrpytonite," he added.
Bruce looked at him. " Was it a bad thing?" he asked. Clark sighed. " No, but it might've been good for you to mention it rather than hiding it," he replied. " You know now," Bruce spat. " About the things he's hiding, I talked to Barry," Diana said with a smile walking near them.
" He told me about the little run-in you had today," she added. " What about it?" Bruce asked. " Nothing, but it must've been very special if you practically kicked Barry out, he doesn't mind it by the way," Diana said.
Clark turned to her. " What happened?" he asked. " Barry met Miss Jones," she explained. " Ahh," Clark said turning to Bruce. " Is that why you were late?" he asked smiling. Bruce rolled his eyes instead of answering and focused on transference.
" Someone who made Bruce late to save the city, I want to meet this girl dude," Clark said patting Bruce's shoulder. Bruce turned to him. " Where did you put Metallo's head?" he asked. " I preserved it in one of the rooms back there," Jonn answered.
Bruce got up to walk out of the meeting room to where Jonn described. " Wait, Bruce," Clark said speeding next to him. " Have you read over the email I sent you, about the interview?" he asked. Bruce sighed as he remembered. " About the job in Metropolis," he said.
Clark nodded. " Yeah, Perry White wants me and Lois to do it, should we say next week?" he asked. " At the party?" Bruce asked. " Sure, we'll talk the details," he said then Bruce walked out. He took the head and took it to another room where he had the necessary equipment to keep it secure. After he put it inside a protective shield he uploaded the algorithm he made back in the Batcave to make sure he couldn't escape again.
When he got back to the meeting room everyone was there. " Wow, dude the minute I leave the town someone attacks it," Barry said. " It wasn't related to you," Bruce answered. Hal chuckled at him while the other sighed.
" We need to figure out where we'll store the rest of his body," Superman said. " Yes, it can't be here in case he wakes up again," Diana said. " How about S.T.A.R. Labs?" Barry asked. Bruce shook his head. " No, it can easily be break-in in to,"
" I can take it back to Atlantis with me, you can put it in a box and I'll seal it away deep down," Arthur offered. " That could work, the threats of someone stealing the pieces from Atlantis are very low," Jonn said.
Hal nodded. " Great, it's agreed then, what else do we have to talk about? I'm kind of in a hurry," he said. " We'll finish when he finish," Bruce replied then went on to tell about the things he has found.
" Where are we on Mandragora? Has anyone been able to find him?" Clark asked. " We were just talking about it today, no, he's completely gone off the radar man. I've been looking for him for weeks, it's like he has gone off the face of the Earth," Barry said. " It's not a coincidence," Bruce mumbled.
The rest of the members turned to him. " What do you mean?" Jonn asked. " While we were busy with Metallo today six kidnappings took place in Gotham, Metropolis and Washington. The cities where Clark, Diana and I live," Bruce said.
Clark furrowed his brows. " Do you mean someone purposely let Metallo loose? Knowing we would show up," he asked. " I don't know, could be, one of the scientists that worked there died but I can question the other guy. All I'm saying is it's very interesting six ordinary people were kidnapped simultaneously while we were focused elsewhere,"
" Maybe they're not even related to this thing Bats, maybe you're reading too much into it," Hal said. Bruce glared at him. He grabbed a tablet and projected six files toward the table. " Then why do all of them are listed to have been positive for having a meta-gene?" he spat.
Hal gulped as he eyed the files. " How do you know that they have tested positive?" he asked. " Lex Luthor makes everyone who is working for him take the test when they're starting out, secretly. I hacked into his system," Batman answered.
" Bruce, are you saying someone orchestrated this as a distraction to keep us out of the loop?" Diana asked. He nodded then projected other files of other people. " I was curious so I dug a little more. These are eighteen other people who have been reported as missing or were kidnapped in the last month. If you check the dates, they all correlate with a time when we were busy, and they were all current or former employes at LexCorp or somewhere owned by it,"
" Damn, that's when Captain Boomerang struck," Barry said. " And the Toyman in Metropolis," Clark mumbled. Bruce nodded. " Do you think I'm reading too much into it now Lantern?" Bruce spat. Hal sighed as he sat up straight in his chair.
" We need to find these people," Clark said. " We can't," Bruce said. " And we shouldn't," he added. Diana furrowed her brows as she sat up, hit the table with her hands. " What do you mean we can't and shouldn't?" she loudly exclaimed.
Bruce turned to her. " We firstly need to find out who is behind all of this, everything that has happened in the last month or so are connected. But we have the upper hand now, they probably don't know we realized what is going on, if we start investigating right after this they'll stop, making us harder to find out what's exactly happening," he explained.
" What do you mean it's all connected?" Arthur asked. " Increasing number of attacks, criminals escaping from where they shouldn't be able to, Mandragora being tipped off, they must all be working together, some way," Bruce explained again.
Clark crossed his arms. " So, what do we do now then? Wait around and do nothing, let people be kidnapped?" he asked angrily. " All of you continue your lives the way you did, I'll try to find their trails. It's impossible to know who'll they kidnap next but if I anticipate who it is then Jonn can take that person's place, being our insider,"
" That seems like it can take a while," Barry mumbled. Bruce turned to him, glaring. " Come up with a better plan then!" he spat. " You said it yourself, even you couldn't find him what makes you think you can now? Five minutes ago you weren't even aware of the kidnappings,"
After that Bruce took a deep breath, calming himself and sitting down. " We're at an advantage now but we need to keep it that way. We can't punch through our way in this one, we need to be smart. We need to figure out why they're doing this, what they are aiming at. I'll notify you if I find something,"
Barry leaned over the table. " Bats, if you won't get mad, I want to ask something," he said. " You told me Miss Jones was working for Mandragora, maybe she knows something? Something she heard or seen," Barry mumbled.
Bruce shook his head. " No," he replied. " But-" Barry said but Bruce caught him off. " You have a point, I'm sure she doesn't know anything but maybe Hawkins knows something," he said turning to Superman. Clark huffed, " I'll get right on it," he muttered.
The time was 10 PM when Bruce got back home. " Alfred, I need you to get some surveillance footage from Metropolis, Washington and Central City while I go over the ones in Gotham," he said sitting on his computer.
" Do you mean the footages of the kidnappings, sir?" he asked. " Yes," Bruce replied. " Alright, would you like me to ask Master Grayson's assist?" he followed up. " Has he finished his homework?"
Alfred sighed. " No," he admitted. " Tell him to finish it. Then he can go downtown," Bruce said. " You mean for patrolling?" Alfred asked. He didn't answer, focusing on his work. " Yes Master Wayne," Alfred said then left.
Bruce watched all the footage he could find for a few hours. In all of them, men dressed in black ski masks were kidnapping people in a van with a fake license plate. The men appeared right when the attack happened so no one realized anything.
He couldn't trace the van too because at some point all of the vans vanished, probably changing cars at a blind spot. It really was a perfect plan. Then an idea popped into Bruce's head. Maybe he couldn't find where they were taken but maybe he could find who would be kidnapped next.
If all of the victims had a common background maybe that'll help him. He quickly opened the files of all twenty people who had been kidnapped. They were all from different cities and so far had nothing in common.
Bruce sighed, the time was around 2.30 AM. He got up, he could look over the files tomorrow and properly inspect them. Now he had to go join Dick.