Chapter 4: Old Man Reviled

Early Morning September 18th

"Raymond Crayshrek," Batman said storming into the Watchtower. He was still dirty from the fight with the old man's robot, dry blood on the bottom of his lip.

"Batman! What happened?" Wonder Woman asked

"That doesn't matter!" he snapped, "check the name Raymond Crayshrek."

"Why, who's-" Superman started, but the look received from Batman was venom, so Superman quickly ran the name. To their surprise the picture of the old man that was connected to the cases and seen at the fire popped up.

"That's the man from the other cases!" Wonder Woman exclaimed, she snatched up the artists drawing they had found earlier and gave it to Batman. "The man was seen around 3 of the 4 missing athletes and Lantern saw him at the fire."

"It says he's a retired scientist from Goth-Corp, no previous record." Superman said reading the information beside the photo. "Never married, no children."

"Move." Batman said taking over at the computer. He swiftly hacked into Goth-Corp's computer system and typed in the name. A whole file appeared; inside there were 5 e-mails to the company from him, and background info. Superman leaned over and read the letters at super-speed. He let go a slow whistle.

"It seems that Mr. Crayshrek was a workaholic who wasn't very happy about being forcibly retired when he reached the companies retiring age." Superman told the others.

"'You stupid jack a– don't realize the huge mistake that you made when you forced me to retire. I was the best employ you ever had, and the most loyal. I gave my whole life to this company and this is how you repay me? I have more brains then all of those new young men put together! Just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm useless. I'll show you! I'll show all of you.'" Wonder Woman said reading one of the letters.

"There all like that." Superman said. "He's very bitter."

"Okay he's mad because he lost his job, how is that a reason to kidnap Flash and the others?" The Green Lantern asked

"How did you get the name Batman?" Superman asked gently, "I know you know more then you're letting on."

Batman clenched his fists and closed his eyes.

"I got the name out of a thug that Crayshrek left behind in a dumpster after he kidnapped Nightwing."

There was a silence following the announcement

"Fits the profile I guess." Lantern mumbled softly to himself.

"Batman I'm so sorry." Wonder Woman said placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be, because we're getting him back. We're getting him back, Flash back, all of them back." He pulled away from her hand and started to type on the computer.

"What are you doing?" Superman asked

"He's a scientist; what ever he's up to must require energy. From what I've seen his little toys require a lot of it." He paused looking at the screen. "hmmm that's a lot of energy to be going into an unused division of Goth- Corp." He looked up at Superman who gave a slight grin in return.

"Lets go check it out then."

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"Hey. . . hey! Nightwing!" Nightwing stirred at the sound of his name. Opening his eyes he found himself strapped to a vertical table, his arms and legs held down by restraints. He was also enclosed in an egg-shaped containment structure, the front of which was a blue tinted glass that he could see though. Across from him he could see Flash contained in a similar oval.

"What's going on man?" he asked him glancing around. There were wires and tubes all over the place, it looked very . . . complicated.

"Got me, I was hoping you knew." Flash replied, "You're the last one."

"What?"

"There's six of these cage-things, and you filled the last one."

"The other four?"

"The missing athletes."

Nightwing turned his head all that he could; Flash was across from him, and to the right of Flash he could see 2 other ovals. To the right of himself he see could 2 more; two rows of three how organized.

"Can't you get out?" Nightwing asked

"I can't move anything but my head"

"Great."

"But the league is work'in on it right? They'll find us."

"Perhaps," said a voice that both young men recognized, "But by then it will be too late."

"You!" Nightwing yelled at the old man who was just entering the room, "What's this all about?"

"My name is Professor Crayshrek."

"Oh, well pardon us." Flash said and rolled his eyes.

Crayshrek smiled coldly then walked over to a large computer that all the cords appeared to be connected to, he flipped a switch and the room came to life. The machinery hummed and several monitors activated. Crayshrek pointed to one of the monitors, it was a surveillance camera monitor, and on it was the rest of the league.

"There very quick, I thought I'd have at least one more hour." The scientist said

"You don't seem to be very afraid for a man who's about to get his ass handed to him." Flash retorted

"I don't think you realize how big this building is my young friend, in the time it will take for them to find you, my plan will already be complete."

"And I don't think you remember that Superman can see threw walls." Flash replied

"But I did. This entire room is lined with lead, and so are several others that were once used for testing x-ray emissions and such. Plenty of red herrings for them to chase."

"Perfect." Nightwing said with a sigh

"Isn't it?" Crayshrek grabbed hold of a lever on his machine and pulled it down. The wall behind him spilt in two, slowly sliding apart revealing one last oval container. The blue front opened upwards with a hiss. Crayshrek then spun a timer on what Nightwing assumed was the control panel.

"One minute my dear lads."

"One minute till what?" Nightwing asked

"You'll find out." Crayshrek smiled his malicious smile again and enclosed himself inside the structure.

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30 sec later: Superman ripped the metal doors off its hinges and threw them down to the ground with an ear splitting slam. He looked around scanning the area.

"Where?" Batman asked

"I don't know. Where ever they are it's in a room with lead."

"Damn. Why did J'onn have to be gone this week?"

"What should we do then? Spilt up? Search this whole building?" Lantern asked

"What other choice do we have?" Wonder Woman replied

"Something faster?" Lantern asked "I just don't want to waste time looking while that wacko has them in his grasp. If anything happens to-"

"We're wasting time now!" Batman interrupted impatiently. Suddenly the lights flickered indicating a power surge in the building. The League didn't know it then but their minute had just run out.

() Thank you too all my lovely reviewers!!!
K.R. . . Please don't hurt me for the cliffhanger!
Louie Pastiche, I loved your theories!
Trecebo and Smi9514 thanks for reading!
Chapter 5 is on the way!!!