Author's Note: Didn't get any feedback about the content rating last time, so I'm just going to assume that we're all good in that department. Now... Shall we see what our friends are up to? Rhetorical. We're going to anyway.
Diana slowly opened her eyes and immediately slammed them shut again; the immense pain in her head forced her to the ground until she'd adjusted. She slowly opened her eyes again, forcing herself to focus through the pain. As soon she'd managed to get to her feet, she took a brief inventory of her surroundings. She was stranded on an abandoned rooftop in the slums of Gotham. Her Justice League counterparts were all stirring around her.
"Owwww..." The Flash moaned. "What'd we just do? Did we just party? Oh, wait, I remember now..." He scratched his head. "Sort of, anyway. What's going on here?"
"Good question." Green Lantern said solemnly. "Last thing I remember is being loaded onto that ship and being injected with some kind of drug. Anybody got anything else?"
"They... They have Bruce." Diana said slowly, memories flowing back to her. "At the Asylum."
"Yeah, that's why we went with them in the first place, remember?" Said Shayera.
"No. He must have escaped. He came after us and... He traded himself for us."
"He would do something stupid like that." Lantern groaned. "So now we're right back where we started. Batman captured, and now they'll be expecting us. We need a plan."
"Let's not be too hasty." Superman interjected, folding his arms. "Our comm links are missing, and we have no other way of contacting the Watchtower. We have to consider the fact that he's fine, too. He could've escaped. We have to be careful."
"You think he got away and just dumped us here?" Shayera asked.
"Sounds like something Bats would do, when you put it that way." The Flash quipped.
"This is no time for jokes." Wonder Woman said angrily. "He could be in serious trouble."
"Right, but it would be stupid to charge in when we don't know who we're up against. We need a baseline. Diana, do you know who did all of this?"
"No." Diana searched her memories as hard as she could, but came up empty. "I never heard his name or saw his face. All I know is that he had an accent. German, maybe?"
"It's a start." Superman scanned all of the nearby buildings with his X-ray vision, searching for a working clock. "It looks like we've been out for a while; four hours at the least. I say we head over to Wayne Manor. We can reestablish contact with the Watchtower from the Batcave, and see if Alfred knows anything that we don't."
"But what about Bruce?" Diana sputtered furiously. "If he's in danger, then-"
"Then he wouldn't want us rushing in half-cocked and getting everybody killed." Superman said firmly, with a note of finality in his voice. "Batman's tough, Diana, he can hold out. But we need to do this by the way he would."
Diana bit her lip, but relented all the same. "Fine. But we move fast. I have a really bad feeling about this."
"Agreed." Superman said, flying off without another word, the rest of the League in tow.
The Flash was the first to reach the Manor, of course. He rapped on the door with supersonic speed, nearly knocking it in. Despite his enthusiastic knocking, there was no response.
"Uh-oh. That's not a good sign." He said to the rest of the League who had just caught up to him. "Looks like nobody's home."
"Then we go in anyway." Superman reached out an enormous hand, crushing the doorknob and breaking the lock. "After you." He held the door open for the rest of the team. Diana led the way to the clock in Bruce's study that concealed the Batcave, knocking hard three times. After a moment, the clock slid aside to reveal a rather worried looking bald man in his mid sixties.
"Master Bruce, is that yo- Oh. I'm glad to see that the rest of you are safe."
"So I take it that you haven't been in contact with Bruce recently either then?" Diana asked sadly.
"Unfortunately not. His communications systems went offline several hours ago. Oracle and I have done our best to make contact, but to no avail."
"I figured as much." Superman said, stepping forward. "Alfred, we need to get in contact with J'onn at the Watchtower. Can you help us out?"
"Of course, right this way." Alfred gestured for the group, and led them down into the bowels of the Batcave. "Master Bruce is quite prudent about keeping spares." He said, pulling open a drawer beneath Batman's computer that contained about ten extra earwigs.
"And they say that I'm the boyscout..." Superman muttered under his breath, inserting the earwig. "Superman to Watchtower. J'onn, can you hear me?"
"It is good to hear from you." Said the slow, dry voice of the Martian Manhunter. "Are the others with you?"
"All except for Batman. We think that he's still back at the Asylum."
"I wish that I could do more for you, but I have been unable to unable to establish telepathic contact with him."
"Then it's settled." Superman. "We go in there and we get him out."
"Excellent." Said Wonder Woman, cracking her knuckles. "Let's get going."
Author's Note: A bit short, but I've cut this chapter in half so there'll be more soon. Real soon. Like, two hours soon. So sit tight, I'm working hard to get that up. It should be done by the morning.
Unleash the Shadow: Oho, yes it is. Where it goes from here, even I don't know. Well... Sort of. We'll see.
The Fiery Apprentice: Funny, that's exactly what I was thinking. Although that does mean skipping ahead a few hours: Five hours of unconscious superheroes might be a bit dull. Sorry if it feels like I'm trying to cash out here, but there wasn't much that I could do for the fear toxin; it's an effect that's much more effectively portrayed through visual media than text. And I really gotta get me some of that sweet, sweet, new 52 action. That sounds familiar... I think there was a BTAS episode with a similar concept.
RFK22: I'm on a roll, hopefully I won't slow up anytime soon.