Again, another powerful howl rang through the city streets, louder and more forceful than the first. Immediately, Superman and Flash froze and listened to the call. At first they were just as startled as the citizens who fled through the streets; but after allowing the call to sink in, Flash was struck by realization and knew what had to be done. "Batman!" he shouted as he stood on his hind legs and pushed up against Superman's shoulder.
"What?"
"That's gotta be Batman! He must be nearby," Flash responded as he stumbled into an awkward gallop. "Come on; let's hope he's got some kind of plan to get us out of this mess." He turned around to see if Green Lantern and Superman were following. "Don't know about you guys- ouch!" he grumbled as he turned around and accidently tripped over his tail again, "but this thing has got to go!" he grumbled as he blew the bushy red plume of his tail off of his face.
"I know what you mean," Superman replied as he and Green Lantern followed behind.
Back in the alleyway, Batman paced back and forth, waiting for the others to arrive. He knew they'd heard him; 'how could they not have?' As he proceeded to enter the phone booth a second time, he hopped up on his hind legs and, looking at his paws, let out a frustrated growl as he attempted to punch in the emergency transport command. Slow and delicately as possible, he attempted to use the sharp claws at the end of his large black paws to type in the correct series of numbers. But try as he might, his paws would slip and fumble all over the keypad- horribly botching his attempts. After a final, barely successful try, he sat down and listened for the system to reply. "Code unrecognized. Access denied," the speakers replied in a bland monotone. Again, Batman snarled in frustration, and proceeded to exit the booth; but upon doing so, the blaring sound of squad cars and the blinding flash of searchlights caught his attention and he stealthily leapt behind a nearby dumpster. Peeking around its corner, he watched as two cops and an animal control officer peered into the alley. "…That last one came from over here," said one of the officers in regards to the howling. Silent and tense, Bruce remained still and watched as they proceeded to turn and check the next street. But then, just as the scene died down, an officer shouted out in response to a shadow moving behind the dumpster, "Look! I think that's the tail!" Immediately, Bruce looked behind him at his nuisance of a fifth appendage and quickly slipped it down beneath his legs.
As the officers began to cautiously make their way into the alley, Bruce did his best to slip further back into the shadows. Slowly, the men moved further into the alleyway, a loaded tranquilizer gun ready and waiting for the first sign of any activity. Despite his urge to charge forward and take the men down by himself, Bruce held his ground, remembering that he was not Batman at the moment and could do nothing to defend himself that wouldn't end in him being shot and stuffed. He continued to back further into the darkness until he and the officers were caught off guard by the shrill scream of a startled alley cat; accidently bumping into the stray, Bruce had awakened the cat and caused it to flee from its resting place beneath the dumpster. Skittishly, the little black cat bolted out of the alley, stopping for a minute to hiss at the ones responsible for disturbing her slumber. "Ha, was that the 'tail' you were talking about?" joked one of the officers as he and his partners regained their composure. The suspicious cop took another detailed look around the alleyway before turning back to his teammates with a reply.
"I guess so," he laughed with a shrug. As the three men proceeded to exit the alley, the garbled sounds of a radio alert came through from their squad car:
"Attention all units, we've got a rogue leopard making its way down Atlantic. Have your shields and tranquilizer guns ready! The animal is distressed and presumed dangerous! Again, all units to Atlantic Street!" Quickly the men responded to the alert and dashed out of the alley, allowing Bruce to come out of hiding and analyze the pending situation. 'A rogue leopard...' he thought to himself, reflecting on who it could be. He knew Clark and John were wary enough to stay out of the public eye under these circumstances. All who remained were Wally and... 'Diana!'
Sirens blared, lights flashed, and people screamed as they ran through the streets in a desperate attempt to escape the menacing gaze of the bloodthirsty leopard that freely prowled the streets of Metropolis. Confused and alone, Diana ran up and down the city streets, searching every alley and store window for Batman or any of her other teammates. She hadn't seen or heard from any of them since they'd been separated by Grodd's transporter. Aimlessly wandering through the streets, she wasn't even sure who, or rather what, to look for. The mutagen hadn't fully taken effect when they escaped the fortress, and looking at the stray cats in the street and the pigeons fighting over breadcrumbs on the sidewalk, she realized that she could be passing by any of them without even realizing it! As she continued to wonder down the now deserted streets, the sound of approaching cop cruisers led Diana to leap behind a nearby truck and hope that she hadn't been seen; it was clear she'd caused enough trouble when she attempted to communicate with the citizens the first time; another run in was the last thing she needed. Once the cruiser was out of sight she continued to roam the streets, hoping that she'd run into one of her friends sooner or later.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking in circles, Diana's attention was drawn away from her rosette-speckled paws, as she looked up to see a swift black shadow whirling over her head in the sky- 'a pigeon?' She thought to herself as the bird perched on a nearby streetlight for a moment. "Well it's about time," commented the bird- a brown eagle with bright green eyes- before swooping down and landing on the sidewalk in front of Diana. "Hey Flash she's over here!" it shouted again before flying around the corner.
"John?" Diana scoffed in excited confusion as she curiously followed the eagle around the corner to find it flapping around an exhausted fox.
"Diana," the fox sighed as it sat down in the middle of the sidewalk, panting heavily. "A leopard," it exhaled. "Man, why does everyone else get the cool animals?" the cute red and white fox whined playfully as it lay down and rolled over onto its side.
"Wally," Diana replied as she gratefully sat between her friends. "I've been looking everywhere for you guys. Where are Superman and Batman?" she asked when she saw that two of her teammates were still missing.
"The king of jungle justice told us to find you, while he went looking for Bats- that is, if he's even a bat," Flash replied, looking to Green Lantern. "That would be a little cliché, don't you think?" he asked jokingly. Irritably, John shook his head and looked towards Diana.
"At least we know those chemicals didn't mess with his sense of humor," he sighed.
"Indeed," she agreed before repeating her question. "Where are Bruce and Kal?"
"Don't know," replied John. "Superman sent us to find you-"
"-He's searching for Batman," answered Flash and Green Lantern. "Hopefully we'll get another call to tip us off."
"Batman has a communicator?" asked Diana excitedly.
"Not exactly," replied John.
"But we should here him again if we're lucky," continued Wally.
Back on the other side of the city, Superman cautiously crept through the empty streets. Wary of any squad cars or animal control vehicles, he knew his white pelt stood out like a bright light against the dark city streets. Too big to actually hide behind any nearby cars, he moved as quickly as possible, hoping that he'd find his friend soon. "Batman," he whispered as he approached a nearby alleyway. Looking into the dark passage, he noticed a rundown phone booth with its door left open. Looking back to the main street, he read the familiar signs before calling out again. "Bruce, are you there?" he asked again as he proceeded to walk into the alley. At first there was no answer, but as he made his way further into the shadows, the resonance of a low growl caught his attention. Immediately, Clark turned around just in time to see a large black wolf step forward from the shadows. With a familiar scowl carved into its muzzle, and a focused look in its eerie yellow eyes, the wolf stared at the white lion standing before it, before cracking a slight smile.
"Took you long enough..."