Forgot to mention that Jesse also took Deathstroke and Boomerang from the Batcave II, I've updated that detail in chapters 22 and 23.
Batman POV
As I open my eyes, the first thing I realize is that my body is numb. I can't feel anything, can't move anything but my eyes. Can't even open my mouth. I try to figure out what's happened to me by peering out of the edges of my vision, but this is ineffectual. The agonizingly bright fluorescent lights on the ceiling don't help my case.
I hear the creak of a door opening and shoes tapping briskly over linoleum. A face appears above mine, a man with a triumphant smile. "Nice to see you awake Mr. Wayne," Luthor says. "I wouldn't even bother trying to break those bindings. We injected you with a new drug manufactured by my sister over at Luthorcorp. It will keep your motor skills numbed for a few hours.
"I gave you leeway you know," the president says, still staring down at me. "You could've just handed over the metahumans. You of all people should know humanity doesn't need these 'gods' ruling over us. We as a species were doing fine without those metahumans, but then they came along and made things on Earth all the more difficult to live with.
"You and I are clear representations of what humanity can achieve. We don't need to hide behind the metahumans, we don't have to rely upon them, but so many people wanted so badly to let them carry our burdens. The metas have the power to wipe out the entire human race. After Metropolis, the public realized there was a chance, albeit minute, that they could be our enemies. I acted upon this, and I expected you, the Batman of all people, to agree with me."
I want to tell Luthor that he's wrong, that humanity is doomed because there is a catastrophic war on the horizon, between two of the most powerful beings in existence. Humankind wouldn't stand a chance against Trigon or Darkseid without metahuman defenders, but my mouth is literally sealed. If I could have, I would have planted a good punch to his face, but he has shut my body down like a coward.
"You protect the girl, the speedster, the Lantern, as if they actually matter more than you. Bruce, you could have been a great man, a fear inspiring avenger, an ordinary man doing the same good as I, getting rid of the threats to human welfare, but no. You fancy yourself a white knight, a defender of all, even those who are too risky, too powerful to be kept free. You disappoint me in many ways," he says. I hear the door open, as two pairs of footsteps tread over a the floor. A doctor wearing a surgeon's mask is visible at the corner of my eyes, and before I know it, I am sent back into a deep sleep.
Damian Wayne POV
"What do you mean you couldn't find him," I say, feeling my stomach bubble with anger at the speedster in front of me on the Arkham Island dock. We had been taken here by Kara and Eobard, and the cave underneath the Asylum was being prepared for being lived in for the time being.
"I tried my best Damian, but the cave was empty, the house was damaged from a fight. It doesn't seem like he made it. It's been hours, there's no way Bruce wouldn't have contacted us by now," Thawne says. I feel that anger spike up again, but I try and keep it under control.
Kara and Jessica land next to us at the dock we are standing at, their faces full of worry. "Barbara intercepted some radio chatter… Bruce was taken away," Kara says, her face pained.
"No. I refuse to believe that. My father is a master of escape and various forms of combat, there is no way he was taken down by those donut-inhaling GCPD bozos," I tell her, because it can't be anything but the truth. My father had taken down some of the greatest criminals and lowlife scum in the world… being defeated by deadbeat city police didn't seem like an even remote possibility.
"She's telling the truth," Jessica says. "They were all talking about Bruce being beaten, how he bled, went down in a couple blows."
"Don't lie to me Cruz," I tell her. "My father isn't weak."
"She's not lying," Kara says, holding my shoulder. "I'm sorry Damian. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I miss him too, and it's only been hours." I look at her, see her close to tears, and I feel my anger slowly ebb away. I should've known I wouldn't be the only one affected by Father's arrest. Kara had seem him as a parental figure, but it had never occurred to me how much she truly cared for him.
Father's absence had damaged morale pretty badly for our team of sorts, and as his son, I realize that I have to be brave for all of them. That's what Father would want me to do. To lead them. Blind denial won't change the fact that the Batman is lost to Luthor.
"Kara," I tell her, "we'll get through this. If Father really is gone, we have to get him back."
"We have no idea where he is," Thawne says.
"And we lost to just one speedster woman…" Jessica says. "if Luthor has more metahumans that he's keeping from the public…"
"Then we stand no chance," Kara says.
"That's why Father said for us to rally more metahumans. You three can't be the only ones out there," I tell them. "There have to be more metahumans out there than you three. They've lived in fear for long enough, hidden long enough. It's time we give them something to strive towards. It's time we show them Luthor's time is over. That not all superhumans are evil."
"How do you suppose we do that?" Kara says. "We don't know where to look."
"We find them ourselves."
Batman POV
I awake on the top of one of two twin beds in a prison cell, the front of which is a transparent purple shield projectio; through it i can see a block of duplicate holding cells. My body is sore, and covered in a drab blue-gray jumpsuit, but to my relief, I am able to move again. Well, move as much as I can with the cuffs holding me against the steel railing of the bedpost. I try and yank them off, but they dig into my flesh unlike any metal I've ever seen.
"Don't bother," I hear from as I see a guard approach, wielding a rifle I wears a heavily armored, gunmetal gray exo suit and helmet with black visor. "We wouldn't trust you with either hand free."
"Wouldn't trust this guy either," another guard says, walking up to his friend. This new guard has his hand grasped around a blindfolded man's back; he is undoubtedly handcuffed behind his back. I look to my side and see that there are a pair of cuffs attached to the bedpost of the other bed.
The guard opens the energy field door by inputting some kind of code, and the blindfolded man if forced down onto the bed and cuffed to the bedpost by one guard while the other keeps his gun trained on the prisoner. The whole time he is being subjugated to their treatment of him, I hear a string of curses in a familiar voice. After both arms are cuffed to the bedpost, one of the guards removes the blindfold, and I am met with the face of one of the most dangerous men in the world.
"Have fun you two," one of the guards says as he reactivates the energy field. My cellmate turns his head to glare at me through his one good eye, his empty right eye socket menacing without its usual eyepatch covering.
"Wayne," Slade says. "What a pleasant surprise."
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