Again, thanks for the positive response. I was meaning to say that I don't intend to bring in the entire Green Lantern Corps either, or the Legion of Super Heroes. I prefer one-on-one superhero-villain fights. Thanks, and enjoy! And before you say anything, Elasti-Girl IS A DC SUPERHERO. Disney actually had to specially obtain permission from DC to use the name.
"I should have known that Lex Luthor was behind this. I wonder what he's up to. At least we know how Skyman died. J'onn, Any info on Crimson Avenger?"
"Unfortunately, not, Batman. His death was not due to nanobots, or at least ones we can detect. We still don't know the reason."
"Well, that's not the problem right now. We need to save Ray. Call up Bumblebee, and any other shrinking heroes we have. This is a rescue op."
Thirty minutes later, a group of shrinking heroes had assembled in the Watchtower.
"Bumblebee, Molecule Plastic Man, Offspring, Elasti-Girl. We have prepared special blood-proof suits for you. You guys are responsible for entering Skyman's bloodstream and saving The Atom. Understood?"
Elongated Man quickly stretched over and whispered into Batman's ear.
"Ah. Ralph thinks you guys should bring back a destroyed nanobot or two so we can analyze them. And don't worry, Sylvester's body won't decompose on you. We made sure of that, had Ice come over and freeze it. That's why his blood circulation will be extremely slow. Elongated Man could go with you, but he is staying behind on overwatch duties."
The five heroes nodded and got to work. Bumblebee shrunk down and carried a shrunken Molecule into a cut that Batman had opened up to allow access to the bloodsteam. Plastic Man, Offspring, and Elasti-Girl stretched into Skyman's nostrils, Plastic Man turning into a microscopic moon rover. Elongated Man got up and went to check on the cameras attached on each hero's body.
"Are cams up and running smoothly, J'onn?"
"Yes, Mr. Dibny. All cameras functioning well."
"That's good. Batman has assembled the Justice League, yes?"
"Correct. Batman is leading an infiltration of the Lexcorp building. Wait a second- Superman, you doing good down there?"
"Affirmative, J'onn. My X-ray vision is showing no abnormalities. Luthor is not in his office. Or the building. Or Metropolis, or New York state, or America, or North America, or… the world? Do you have the tracker we last slapped on him, J'onn?"
"Yes, I do – hmm. It's being interfered with, like some weird… undersea interference?"
"Interesting. Aquaman, do you have an idea of where Luthor is?"
"No, Superman. None of my animal friends have reported seeing any unusual submersibles, though one anglerfish is reporting a dome in the Mariana Trench. Luthor must have gone all out."
"Very interesting, but not surprising. I'll have Batman bring the Bat-Sub around."
Meanwhile, in the Watchtower laboratory.
"How's everyone doing in there? Karen, give me a heads up."
"Everything is going smoothly, Ralph. Molecule and I have no sign of Atom yet. We did just find a suspicious piece of black debris, almost… electronic. The piece has letters on it but is incomplete. It says 'WA,' but that's it."
"Hmm…. Interesting. Eel, Luke, Rita? Any new discoveries?"
"This is Elasti-Girl, Ralph. I have not discovered anything abnormal."
"Offspring reporting in. I, uh, haven't noticed anything – have I? – no, I haven't. No, nothing to report."
"This is Plastic Man. I have located precisely noth – wait! I see a nanobot! And it's active! Engaging now."
Plastic Man proceeded to stop talking, and Ralph awkwardly listened for several minutes as Eel made exaggerated kung-fu noises and the occasional TIE fighter screech (for some reason), still unsure if Eel was actually making any progress, or if he had even engaged. Suddenly a pinky emerged from Skyman's nose, shaped like a ball. It then felt around for a few seconds (awkwardly brushing Ralph in the process), which cued more than a few odd looks from superheroes passing in the halls that happened to glance in the window. Finally, Plastic Man dumped what appeared to be nothing onto a laboratory table and pressed a button which caused a glass cage to spring into place around the tabletop. A screen above the table slowly zoomed in, revealing a small black drone confusedly jetting around the enclosure.
"This is Offspring. I'm glad you got your drone, but Atom is nowhere to be found. I've scoured every capillary, every vein, every artery. Nothing. Ask Bumblebee and them, nothing either. Good news is there's no body or ripped off limbs or ominous scraps of his costume either."
"Well, that's not good. The drones probably kidnapped him and flew out. But if they did it here, doesn't that mean they're still on the Watchtower?"
"Possibly. We'll come out and keep searching for miniature clues around the body, but there's no way we'll cover even a fraction of the ship. You need to find a more efficient way."
"Hmm. J'onn, can you run an electromagnetic search of the Watchtower? Every nook and cranny, J'onn. NOTHING can be left unsearched. Also, get me Mr. Terrific. I need him to analyze our captured nanobot."
"On it, Ralph. Hmm… search is producing nothing, nothing at all. I checked Watchtower teleportation logs, but there were no activations, not even tiny nanobots."
"Understood. What are all possible ways they could have gotten off this ship? They couldn't have escaped the airlock, and Atom can't breathe in vacuum anyways – they somehow teleported from inside this ship."
"Let's see here… There have been no boom tube energy fluctuations, so we can rule that out… The Ray has confirmed they didn't find a way to teleport with light… but they could have been teleported with magic. I'm calling up Zatanna now to search for magical fluctuations."
"That's good, thank you."
Meanwhile, on the US East Coast…
"Superman, I have called in the Bat-Sub. You, Aquaman, and Green Lantern can each find ways to travel underwater on your own, so you'll be fine. I'll bring Wonder Woman and Cyborg, and Flash still isn't back yet, which is strange, but whatever."
"Affirmative, Batman. League, let's meet at the dive point."
As the members of the Justice League gathered at the beach, they were surprised by a bright flash of lightning. The Flash jumped out of the Speed Force, blurring his body to the point where he was a red blur with yellow eyes, no doubt the lightning from the Speed Force.
"Oh, hey, Barry, you're back. Did you find the killer of Crimson Avenger? We already figured out who killed Skyman, but we still –"
"BATMAN! I trusted you! Listen here, heroes – I travelled back in time, and the killer of Crimson Avenger is none other than BRUCE WAYNE!"
