Guiltily, Superman continued to endure the silent scolding from his friend, as Batman continued to stare at him from inside his pen. Despite the piercing disdain in his eyes, Clark could tell that- for the most part- he had been forgiven, and that Bruce was much more concerned with getting out of their confinement than he was with cursing his hot-tempered actions back at the Legion's headquarters. "Any idea where the others are?" Superman asked, looking around the room. "They've had me shut up in this thing by myself. I haven't seen any signs of Flash or Lantern, but I heard those jerks talking about 'getting started' on Diana. We've gotta get out of here. Now!"
Calmly, Batman complied and rose to his feet, meticulously pacing the length of his pen. Studying the heavy combination locks choking the handle of the pen's door, Bruce prepared to disclose his plan when the sound of footsteps approaching from outside cut him short. Immediately, he and Superman became silent and alertly watched as a large, heavyset, man dragged a medium-sized dog carrier into the room. "Here," he shouted irritably as he carelessly dropped the crate on the ground and looked around at the now startled and squawking array of animals in the room. "Maybe now you'll shut up, once you get a taste of your own medicine!" He looked hatefully from the crate to the various birds and other chattering animals in the room. "If nothing else, you can whine and bark someone else's ear off! Bothersome waste of fur..." he continued to gripe, before the object of his disdain replied from inside the crate.
"Yeah, well it's not like you're much fun to talk to yourself, Pal!" a familiar voice snapped. Immediately, Superman perked up and called to his friend inside the dog cage.
"Flash!" he said eagerly.
"There now," the fat man sighed. "You've finally got someone to babble with. And should you two have a disagreement," he chuckled as he proceeded to exit the room, "Your new friend might have a snack!"
"Yeah, whatever!" retorted Flash, as his hefty friend finally left the room and made his way down the hall. "Superman? Oh man, am I glad to see you!" Flash exclaimed as he struggled to get a clear view of his friend through the small slits in his crate. "I was beginning to worry," he said with a relieved sigh, as Superman inquired about his experience.
"Are you alright? Did they keep you in another room?"
"Yeah, until 'Big Boy' got tired of playing Twenty Questions," Flashed replied as he slipped one of his paws through a hole in his cage. "Put me in here because I was 'talking too much'," he joked before he was startled by another familiar voice from the corner of the room.
"Any sign of John or Diana?" Batman asked as Flash swiftly spun around in his cage, startled.
"Bats?" he shouted with further excitement as he realized his liberator was sitting just on the other side of a locked fence. "Oh thank goodness," he sighed to himself before answering the black wolf's question. "No, they had me locked up in the basement by myself; but I heard some guys talking about putting a cat to sleep so they could get started on 'Lex's throw rug'. I assumed they were talking about you," Flash said nervously, as he looked to Superman. "But then I figured he'd probably want you stuffed..." He looked from Clark to Bruce with a faint smirk.
"We've got to get out of here and find John and Diana. Now," Batman said sternly as he looked past his pen and watched the door.
"I'm up for any escape plans," Flash said eagerly as he pushed his paw against the door to his cage. "But how are we supposed to get out of here without a key-"
"We don't need a key," Batman said bluntly, snapping his teammates out of their self loathing stupors. Looking up from his paws to acknowledge Bruce's reply, Flash was caught off guard when he suddenly noticed the size and spacious area of Batman's kennel.
"Hey, how come you weren't shoved into some tiny cat carrier?" he whined enviously as he watched Bruce pace back and forth, slowly examining the build of his quarters.
"Because I broke out of the first three," Bruce casually replied as he studied the gate's door. "Where's the lock on that crate?" he asked Superman as he looked at his friend and analyzed his confinement.
"On the outer left corner," Clark replied as he looked from his cage's door to Bruce as he stood on his hind legs and studied the kennel's door.
"Flash?" Batman asked as he began to examine the small dog cage.
"Same spot," the scarlet fox replied as he pushed against the little door.
"Slip your arm through the bars," Batman instructed calmly as he placed one of his paws beside the door's hinges and used his claws to slide the pin up and out of the hinge. "There should be a small handle on the outside. Pull it back, and slide it to the right," he explained as he proceeded to remove the pin from the second hinge of his kennel's door. Dropping the little pin to the floor, he stepped back and watched as the door limply slid open from the opposite end, the other side still held shut by the chains and several combination locks Butch had administered earlier. Slipping through the swinging door, Bruce met with Clark and Wally and provided additional assistance as they also escaped their cages with relative ease.
"We've got to find Diana and John before they end up on an operation table," Superman instructed. "Then we need to get out of here and figure out how to get back to the Watchtower."
"Well where do we start?" asked Flash as they proceeded to make their way to the door and cautiously exit the room. "This place is huge! They could be anywhere."
"Then we keep looking until we find them."
"Well we can't just walk around here in plain sight," Flash commented as he peered around a corner, making sure the coast was clear.
"If we're going to search this place thoroughly, we have to make sure we can't be seen," Batman advised as he spotted a nearby maintenance closet and, after briefly struggling with the doorknob, entered and approached the large circuit box in the far corner of the room.
"Well how are we supposed to do that?" asked Superman curiously.
"Yeah" agreed Flash as he clumsily stepped over a fallen mop and weaved between the various tools and dirty rags scattered over the floor. "It's only a matter of time before one of those goons notices we're missing, and we're bound to turn some heads if we just wander the halls. The only animals allowed in this dump are ones in cages," he commented as he stood behind Bruce and watched him study the infinite switches and wires in the circuit box.
"No one's powers are working-"
"And even if they were, it's not like any of us can make ourselves invisible," Superman and Flash continued.
"Just because you can't fly or break the sound barrier anymore doesn't mean we're completely powerless," Batman said as he flipped off the main power switch with his nose and removed its wire, shutting off all the electricity in the warehouse. Engulfed in complete darkness, the three heroes stood in silence for a moment before Bruce calmly led the way out of the control room. "Lex and Grodd don't know it, but they actually gave us some consolation 'powers' to put to use," he explained as they stealthily made their way down the pitch black halls, alert to the shouts and accusatory groans of the startled poachers.
"Like what?" scoffed Flash, skeptical to Batman's claim. "Aside from being an even bigger babe magnet, and my own personal teddy bear," Flash joked as he paused and scratched behind his ear while standing, "how is any of this beneficial?" He asked, nudging Bruce's paw and pointing to his tail.
"Well for starters, you've made it down a completely dark hallway without tripping over your own feet," Bruce said as the three turned a corner and continued their search. "Acute hearing and vision in the dark, a heightened sense of smell, and strength surpassing a normal human being; as long as we play the hands we've been dealt properly," he dictated while occasionally pausing to take in a quick inhale or exhale through his nose, "we'll be able to find John and Diana and-with their help- make it out of here alive."
Impressed by their friend's observations, Clark and Wally thought over what Bruce had said and validated his statement. "Okay, well where do we start looking?" asked Flash. "GL and Wonder Woman have to be somewhere in this building." There was a brief moment of silence as the three men contemplated their situation and began brainstorming a plan. While doing so, Batman slowly began walking ahead of his friends, his ears erect and his nose to the air, searching for a clue to his friends' whereabouts. Ignoring Superman's directions and the approaching sound of men's voices from the opposite end of the hall, in a matter of minutes Bruce's powerful nose recognized the scent of a friend, 'Diana!'
"Diana's going to be somewhere in the East Wing..." Bruce declared, his voice trailing off as he turned to his left and took a whiff of the stale air. "John's not far."
"What?" Superman asked, surprised, before he saw his friend thoroughly sniffing the surrounding area, his nose to the ground and his ears held high to pick up any audible clues to their teammates' positions.
"Is there anything you don't know how to do?'" asked Flash, amused. "You sure we should be calling you 'Batman'?"
"Down this hallway, he should be nearby," Bruce continued as he followed his nose further down the hall. "Follow Flash!"
"Me?"
"But where are you-" before he could even get a grasp of what was going on, Superman watched a black blur of fur bolt around the corner in the opposite direction.
"Where's he going?" asked Flash, confused.
"He must've picked up on Diana's scent," Clark deduced, before looking around the corner in the opposite direction. "We better start looking for Lantern while he finds Diana. Batman said he was close," Superman said as he and Flash made their way down the hall. They quickly picked up the pace when the sounds of angry, outraged screams grew louder as the men quickly realized that 'that black mutt had broken out again' and had 'set the lion free out of spite!'
"Well we better get moving before they lock us up again."
"Lead the way," Superman said as he made a pointing gesture down the dark hallway with his paw.
"Wait, what?"
"Batman said to follow you, and after to him, you have the next best nose," Superman replied to a skeptical Flash. "So, lead the way."
Confused, Flash looked down the hall then back to Superman. "Well, ok," he said reluctantly as he closed his eyes and took in a big whiff of the air. "Remember, I've never done this before..." Humorously, but still understanding, Superman nodded as the two began to race down the hall, Flash slowly zigzagging ahead, his head directed downward as he tried to pick up Green Lantern's scent. "But, when we do find GL," he said as he turned to look back and see that Superman was following. "I don't have to point the way, do I?" he asked, jokingly, while mimicking the famous pose of the English hunting dog.
"A simple 'found him' works just as well," Superman assured with a laugh, as the two continued to methodically make their way down the hall.