The guy was holding a gun to Bruce. He had spotted Skylar being held by a larger man in the corner of his eye. " If you don't want this to get ugly, I suggest you let the lady go and fuck off," Bruce spat.
The guy smirked. " I don't think so tough guy, what are you going to do? Give me money to let her go? No chance," he replied. Bruce sighed, taking a step toward him. He couldn't do his usual gig, it'd draw too much attention but he was not going to let some strangers kidnap Skylar.
Quickly he hit the guy's arm, causing him to drop his gun. He seemed surprised at the action but recovered fastly, going in to punch Bruce. He avoided it and threw another in response. His back was now turned to Skylar and the guy holding her.
" Was that enough or do you want more?" he taunted. The guy spat blood to the floor. " I didn't think this was how it was going to go down, but fine, let's go, man," he responded. He went at Bruce and two started sparring.
Within a minute the guy was on the floor and Bruce was beating the shit out of him. But then something hit Bruce's head, causing him to fall to his side. The guy he was beating quickly got up. " Cmon! Let's go," he exclaimed, pulling the larger guy.
The two raced to the same vehicle, getting in and speeding away. Bruce got up, trying to read the license of the vehicle. He then took a deep breath and rushed to the car, to see how the driver was doing. He had passed out but still had a pulse.
He took out his phone and called 911, informing them about the accident and then he ended the call, looking around. He spotted a dark valley and ran there. Once he was out of sight, he put on his earpiece and teleported to the Watchtower. " This is Batman, I need everyone who's available to come in, now," he spat. Then he went to the computer they had there, trying to search the plate.
" Man, what the fuck? This better be important," Hal said, teleporting in. Bruce didn't answer as he kept on looking at the files. " What's going on?" Clark asked, joining in. " The fuck I know, he's not answering," Hal spat.
Clark sighed, walking over to Bruce. " What the hell happened to you?" he asked once he got close enough to see him. " Yeah, shouldn't you be with your girlfriend?" Hal taunted. Bruce sighed.
" Someone kidnapped her," he replied. " Someone kidnapped Skylar?" Diana asked entering the room. Then the system alerted Bruce. The vehicle that hit them was a stolen one, not that Bruce expected anything less. He started looking through the video footage, of the direction they went off too.
As he automated the system to look for the car he got up, facing the rest of the Leauge who were there. " We were going back to the hotel, someone hit us. Two guys. One of them hit my head, gaining time to run away," he explained.
" But why would anyone try to kidnap your girlfriend?" Hal asked. " Maybe to ask him for money? Didn't you publicize your relationship?" Diana asked, causing Bruce to remember the paparazzi when they were leaving the hotel.
He shook his head. " I don't know, the men didn't seem that interested in me," he replied. " I bet that's the first time you're experiencing that," Hal smirked, and everyone turned to him to give a glare.
" Maybe it was just to top you off of your game, they could call you for it later on," Diana suggested. " Actually," Clark sighed, " I might know why," he said. Bruce turned to him, furrowing his brows. " Enlighten us then,"
Clark crossed his arms. " Remember a few months ago you said all the people who were kidnapped when our cities were attacked tested positive for the meta-gene? And the reason we know was because that they were all employers of Lex, and he had them tested secretly?" he asked.
Bruce nodded. " What's got to do with Skylar?" he said. Clark shrugged. " The dinner we all had? She said that back in Metropolis she interned there for a month, I'm sure Lex didn't miss that opportunity,"
" Let us check, then, Bruce, do you have the system here as well?" Diana asked. Bruce didn't answer, he was already on his way back to the computer. He quickly entered the system, looking for Skylar's file.
Clark, Diana, and Hal walked toward the screen, looking at it. " Huh, what do you know? She tested positive," Hal mumbled. " So I guess this explains it," Diana said. " What do we do now?" Clark asked.
" We need to find her," Bruce answered. " How?" Hal asked. " We weren't able to find the others, our, no, your plan wasn't this, how do you plan to do it?" Hal spat. Bruce took a deep breath. "Because now it got personal," he shot back.
Bruce then turned to them. " It was a black van, the right front corner is smashed due to the crash. I need you three to go over the city, try to spot it. I'm looking through the surveillance," he said. " What? It's a big city!" Hal argued.
" Then it's better if you start now," Bruce spat. Hal opened his mouth to say something but Diana patted his shoulder, shushing him. " Okay, we'll let you know if we find something," she replied, pulling Hal away.
Clark was still standing there. " Why didn't you tell me before?" Bruce asked. Clark sighed. " I thought you knew, that she told you," he replied. " We'll find her, don't worry," he said, putting his hand on Bruce's shoulder.
" And maybe through her, we can uncover everything going on, it'll be a bonus," he added, trying to sound optimistic. " Yeah, sure," Bruce muttered. Clark stood there for a while, debating something to say, but then he decided against it. " I'll let you know if I find something," he said before teleporting away.
Four hours had passed, the sun was almost up, and no one was able to find anything. Bruce had gone back to Gotham, put on his suit and came back to the Watchtower. He was still trying to find the van from the cameras, but he couldn't.
" Has anyone found anything?" Clark asked through the intercom. " Negative," Diana responded. Bruce sighed, how could this happen? How could two ordinary guys with a pretty spottable van vanish?
" Wait, I think I found something," Hal said. " Bats, was this the van?" he asked and shortly after an image opened up on the screen. Bruce looked at it closely. The license plate was split, it only had a few figures on it and it was the same.
The right corner was smashed, the color was the same. It seemed to be that one. " Yes," Bruce replied. " Where are you?" he asked. " I'm in a parking lot, not far from the crash, they must've swapped cars," Hal replied.
Bruce sighed. " Okay, I'll try to track the cars that left the lot during that time," he replied, trying to find the surveillance. After a few minutes, he managed to find one CCTV, looking directly at the exit of the lot.
During the time of the kidnapping, six cars had left the lot. Bruce froze the image on all of them, zooming in on the drivers to try to see if it was the same two guys. The first four weren't them but the last two had left the lot back to back, and the last one was that two guys.
After getting the new plate number of the car he put it into the system, to see where they went. Meanwhile, he started to find the identities of the men who kidnapped Skylar. They were both documented criminals. And men of Mandragora.
" What did you find?" Diana asked, walking toward Bruce. " Where are the others?" Bruce asked. " They both have jobs in a few hours you know, it's Monday," she replied. " Didn't you say you had meetings today?" she asked.
Bruce shrugged. " I'll ask my assistant to reschedule," he said. " Bruce, no, we don't have anything at the moment, don't set your work aside, I'll stay here and look for more clues, Jonn will join me soon, you should go,"
" We have something, they swapped cars, I'm tracking it at the moment," he replied. " You are waiting, just go, I promise I'll let you know when it finds something," she said. Bruce sighed. " Fine," he spat, getting up.
Bruce went on with his day, he hadn't received a word from anyone and he was also constantly checking the system in case they didn't inform him. As his last meeting ended he sighed, walking to his office and taking out his phone.
He called Diana. " Status report?" he asked. " Okay, Bruce, don't get mad," Diana started, " The system picked up where the car was, so Jonn and I paid a visit there. It was a warehouse, we found five men, two of them fit the description you gave us,"
" And?" Bruce asked. He was mad that they didn't inform him but he wanted to know what happened more. " She wasn't there, in fact, none of the people who got kidnapped were there," she said.
Bruce sighed. " Where are the men?" he asked. " We turned them over to the Central City Police Department," she replied. He didn't say anything else, ending the call, grabbing his stuff and storming out of the office. He was going to interrogate them himself.
About an hour later he was in Central City, inside the Police Department. He had called Barry on the way, asking him to set up an 'interview' with the men and Batman. Barry asked why but he didn't answer, the guy was on his honeymoon, he didn't need to be pulled into this now.
The two men were together in the same cell, at the end of the hall, giving Bruce the opportunity to interrogate them without being seen by others. He flicked the lights off and on, signaling the men that he was coming for them.
He opened the door, stepping in. The men shot up to their feet when they spotted him. " Fuck," the smaller one spat. " You work for Mandragora," Batman said. " Why do you kidnap ex-employers of LexCorp?"
" Why should we give you what you want?" The larger one, who grabbed Skylar, asked. Bruce wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of him, but he needed to get them to talk. So, instead, he stepped forward, giving him his classic glare.
The smaller one looked scared enough. " Boss' orders, they work together," he replied. " Where do you take the people you kidnap?" Batman asked. The larger man patted on the smaller one's shoulder and sat down. He looked up to Bruce. " I don't answer to you Bat," he spat.
" We'll see about that," Bruce muttered, quickly walking toward him, grabbing the collars of his shirt and throwing him against the wall roughly. " Where are they being kept?" he asked again. The guy started to breathe fastly, his eyes covered in fear.
" We don't know, we don't know!" he yelled. " Our job is to take them to secure location, from there another team brings them to wherever they are being kept, let him go!" The other guy blurted out, taking a step toward Bruce.
Batman turned to the other guy then back to the man he was holding. " Well, that wasn't so hard now right?" he taunted, letting to of him. The smaller guy walked to his friend, checking to see if he was alright. Bruce looked at them one more time then left.
There was an another car who left the parking lot right before them, this must mean that Skylar was inside that car, possibly with other people. He needed to track down that one. He went back to the Watchtower to do just that.
The sun was setting when Bruce found where the other car was. It was outside of Central City, an empty factory. When he looked into it he found out that the grounds belonged to one of the corporations of LexCorp.
What was really interesting to Bruce and pretty much confirmed Lex's involvement was that he normally didn't have any properties in Central City, he preferred much bigger cities. So it confirmed that he had only bought that place to contain the people he had kidnapped.
" I've found the location of the kidnapped people, it's an empty factory outside of Central City. I need everyone available to come in for a rescue operation," Bruce said into the intercom. He was very well aware that he could do it by himself, but this was a Leauge mission in the first place and he had to include the others.
Following the ten minutes, Clark, Diana, Jonn, and Oliver showed up. " What's the plan?" Clark asked. " We need to get everyone there under control so that they don't tip off their bosses. We interrogate them, find out what their plan is. Meanwhile, we safely transfer the people there to S.T.A.R. Labs to control their powers," Bruce explained.
Then they went outside of the factory. " Arrow, you're with me. Jonn, you make sure no one escapes. You two find the kidnapped people," Bruce said, pointing at Clark and Diana at the end. Everyone nodded, parting into three groups and going in.
Oliver and Bruce went inside, specifically where chatter was coming from. He peeked inside and counted ten men. He then turned to Oliver, mouthing the number. Right when they were about to go in, he stopped with the voice he heard.
" I know, that chick is such a treasure, what I wouldn't do for the boss to let me have my proper fun with her," the voice said. " Hawkins," Bruce muttered. He didn't know if he was talking about Skylar or not, but he got angry.
He took out one of his fog bombs, throwing it inside the room. When it got off, they heard movement and voices of a sheer panic. " Now," Bruce said, jumping inside the room. Green Arrow followed him.
Two men started to run toward Bruce. The faster of the two tried to punch him. He avoided it, grabbed his arm and threw him to the other guy. They both fell to the floor while Bruce turned toward another one.
This one had a knife. He tried to stab Bruce a couple of times, him avoiding it every time. He finally kicked his hand causing the knife to fall. This time the guy tried to go down, grabbing Bruce's waist and trying to throw him. Bruce held on to his body, jumping and rolling in mid-air and ending up on the guy's shoulder, knocking him down.
He looked over to see that Oliver had taken care of two and was now handling the remaining two. There was only one guy left. Hawkins. Bruce started to look around, to see where he was. Then he found him behind one of the counters with a phone.
He grabbed the phone quickly, looking at the screen. Texts between someone saved as 'Boss' was open and he had typed ' league is here, send help'. Luckily he didn't press send. Bruce put the phone to his pocket, grabbing Hawkins.
" Hawkins, what do you say you and me have a little bit of 'proper fun' eh?" Batman spat. Roy looked at him in fear. " You can start by telling how you escaped from prison," Bruce added causing him to gulp.
Bruce threw him to the ground. " No answer? Works for me either way," he said as he took a step toward him. " Mandragora, he had me swapped while I was being transferred," Roy spoke up, his words trembling.
" I'm done!" Green Arrow yelled. Bruce sighed, grabbing Roy and pulling him to the middle. Oliver was pulling the other men toward there, making them sit in a circle in the ground to tie them up. " We're about to interrogate, how are you doing?" he asked into the intercom.
" Searching the building, I have found a young man tied up and someone torturing him," Jonn said. " We're looking for the rest of the people," Diana said. Bruce turned to Roy, he was the only one awake.
He kneeled in front of him. " Where do you keep the hostages?" he asked. Roy gulped again, looking between Batman and Green Arrow. " Basement storage," he stammered. Bruce pressed his earpiece. " Got that?" he asked. " On our way," Clark replied.
Bruce turned back to Hawkins. " Let's have a chat, you and me," he smirked.