Chapter 7: Leads
The Bio-ship landed in the middle of the jungle. The Teams and Leaguers walked out onto the mud.
"Ya gonna do that 'mimic the conditions' thing again?" Static asked Dark Eagle.
"No need. This place is so remote Wally was probably the first and last person here," said the Black Mistress.
"Guys! Over here!" Beast Boy shouted "Look what I found!"
Beast Boy handed Nightwing Wally's ripped off, open top, cowl.
"He was here," said the Bat.
"Guys! Over here!" Robin #5 called.
They ran over to the Girl Wonder. She pointed to a hand print in the mud.
"That looks around Wally's size," said Rocket.
"But these don't," said Zatanna.
Everyone looked over to her. She was standing by a H-U-G-E hand print.
"Wait a minute," said Dark Eagle.
"What?" Speed Arrow asked.
"Etativel em," said the Black Mistress and black energy glowed around her.
She hovered up and covered her mouth as she gasped.
"Miss Martian! Come up here!" Dark Eagle called.
Miss Martian hovered up beside her. The site brought tears to her eyes. The 2 floated back down to Earth.
"M'gann, can you send everyone a telepathic image?" Dark Eagle asked.
Everyone was shocked and looked around at the site. There were footprints, hand prints and all kinds of signs of a fight.
"What happened here?" Bumblebee asked, Guardian comforting her.
"I think I can show you," said Zatanna "Time for you all to let me focus... Wohs su tahw dneppah,"
Their surroundings suddenly got dimmer. Zatanna kept herself rooted, hands outstretched, eyes screwed shut.
There was a flash of light and Wally fell to the ground. He rolled onto his back and sat up. He put his fingers to his ear, attempting radio contact. Wally looked down cast, stood up and lent against a rock, panting. A blast of energy was suddenly shot at him and Monsieur Mallah stepped out from the trees. Wally ran at the gorilla and jumped at it, using himself as a human cannon ball. He bounced off and landed, leaving behind the hand print they had found. He ran but Monsieur Mallah grabbed him and picked the speedster up, fireman style. Wally fought against the gorilla. He wriggled free of the gorilla and tried to run for freedom. Monsieur grabbed the speedster's head and pulled back, Wally's cowl was ripped off, but he tried to escape again. The gorilla grabbed the speedster's waist and slammed Wally into the ground, rendering him unconscious...
The light suddenly returned to normal, the images disappeared and Zatanna collapsed. Nightwing helped his girlfriend to her feet. Zatanna lent on him for support.
"That explains the blood," said Wonder Girl, pointing at a rock where Wally had been knocked-out.
"And it confirms Wally's alive and the Brain does have something to do with this," said Robin the Boy Wonder.
"Neptune's beard! I was hoping this would be easy," said Lagoon Boy.
"Since when has this job been easy?" K.F asked.
"Yeah. Don't hope for foolish things," said Archeress.
"Now that we know the Brain and Monsieur Mallah have something to do with this then Wally really was most likely taken to their second Asian lab. 2 klicks from here," said Dark Eagle.
"'Klicks'?" Beast Boy questioned.
"Short for kilometers, Beast Boy," said K.F.
"Then we should be on our way," said Aqualad.
They all went back into the Bio-ship, the Future Team standing rather than sitting.
"We're coming Wally," both The Flash and Tigress said to themselves.
They looked at the newly built lab. It was a block with camouflage draped over it. Dark Eagle looked at the blue-prints for the lab on her hollo-computer. She showed everyone and explained her plan.
"There are 5 levels below. Don't bother with the last one, it's just living quarters. If Wally's here he'll most likely be on sub-level 4, where expectants are done. We can't be sure Wally's here so me and the Bats will be going along with Miss Martian. If we find Wally then you come in and help us bust out," she closed her palm, making the blue-prints disappear "Any questions?"
"Why do only the Bats and Miss Martian get to go in?" Bumblebee asked.
"We need stealth and Miss M will be scanning for Wally's mind," the Black Mistress answered.
"Why not just rush in there?" Lagoon Boy asked.
"If we do that, the Brain would kill Wally before we get down there. And if Wally's been moved somewhere else the Brain would call them and tell them to move Wally. That's why we need stealth," said Dark Eagle "Everyone on bored?"
They all nodded. The Robins tapped their 'R' emblems and the red (and orange, in the Girl Wonder's case) turned black. Robin 5.0 pulled her hood over her ruby-red hair.
"Let's go," she said.
The Bats (Nightwing, Batgirl, Dark Eagle and the Robins) slid through the vents. Miss Martian was in camouflage mode and was density-shifting through. They all had a copy of the blue-prints on their computers and Miss Martian had a mental-image.
"Miss Martian begin scanning for Wally," Dark Eagle said through the mind-link.
"I'm not getting anything, maybe he's not here," Miss Martian replied.
"Or unconscious," said Batgirl.
"Or worse," Nightwing said, stoic.
They came to where the vent they were in split into 2, leading to sub-levels 4 and 3.
"Robins, you go left with Batgirl. Nightwing, Miss Martian and I will go right," said Dark Eagle.
"Because left leads to sub-level 3 where Wally is most likely not and you don't want us getting into trouble?" the Girl Wonder said, following Batgirl and the Boy Wonder.
"It's like you read my mind," said Dark Eagle "Now get got,"
The Robins and Batgirl slid through the vent. Batgirl stopped at a vent opening.
"Stop," Batgirl hissed.
She dropped a bat-a-rang into the room. It beeped and the security cameras went on loop.
"Batgirl? We're not meant to go in a room unless we find Wally," the Girl Wonder said.
Batgirl ignored her and slid the vent cover off. She slid into the room, followed by the Robins. Batgirl went over to a table. Robin #5 went over to her and looked at the spread. There were Wally's gloves and boots but there was something more disturbing... the Flash Lightning Bolt emblem had been pulled from his uniform.
"Nightwing, Dark Eagle, Miss Martian! Wally was here! We've found his gloves, boots and his Lightning Bolt from his uniform has been ripped off!" said Batgirl through the mind-link.
"That adds up with what we've found. Dark Eagle's downloading the information now. Rendezvous with the rest of the Teams outside," said Nightwing.
"Okay," said Batgirl "Let's go," she said, aloud.
They snuck back outside and joined the Teams.
"I take it you didn't find him?" Aqualad said.
"We found evidence that he was here," said Robin #5.
Dark Eagle, Nightwing and Miss Martian appeared.
"C'mon," said Nightwing "We'll analyze the information when we get back to the Watchtower,"
And with that they walked back to the Bio-ship, got in and they headed up to the outer atmosphere.
WALLY! WHERE ARE YOU!? I, the writer, don't even know yet! I'll figure it out later...
