It had taken some time. It was honestly a small hope off in the distance. Anyone of reasonable thinking wouldn't have given it as much effort.

Yet, it was something to cling to for the team. They needed something, anything to show for the effort they had been putting in. It was why Superman had gone out every day to find that lead-infused paint Green Lantern and the ladies had found. It had a taken a few days, but the Kryptonian thought he had finally found a lead.

Because he was honest, it was pure luck that he had found it. He had been scanning a city in the heartland of the country when he noticed something strange. Though there were lead constructs all over the place, especially your older buildings and statues, he had noticed black spots in his x-ray vision, each moving at steady paces. It took him a bit to realize they were nothing more than trucks on the highway.

At first he was going to brush them off as just a mere coincidence, but then he realized just how uncommon it was. There were plenty of other cars and trucks he could see right into, seeing the drivers, the passengers, contents, and even the engine hard at work. That was too strange to be overlooked.

As if to confirm his feeling, the trucks he couldn't see into were small moving trunks, just like the ones U-haul used, yet their colors were different. Instead of orange and white, they were red and white, proudly proclaiming the company name, Master Movers. It wasn't all that hard keeping up with them since he could fly. He just made sure he stayed high up in the air so that they couldn't see him. If they felt the slightest bit paranoid and thought someone was following them, they could try to lose their tail, real or imaginary.

Which lead him to a moving truck yard. It was half-full of the moving trucks, all of which were kept within the confines of a gated parking lot. Nothing unusual there, at least if you didn't take into account all of the trucks were coated with lead paint.

Now, it could've been complete coincidence. Maybe the company painted their trucks with paints that had lead in them. The only problem with that theory was that he found a couple of trucks with shoddy paint jobs. There were ripples, for a lack of a better word, throughout the upper layer of paint. It was as if someone had driven the truck before the paint had dry, which allowed the wind to pull on the wet paint.

Eyeing the parking lot, Superman saw there was no one currently roaming the lot. However, he did notice the fence was constructed with deterrents. It was electrified and powerfully so; there were many small animals lying at the base of the fence, burns to their bodies and clearly dead. Security cameras were positioned at the corners of the fence, turning from side to side as they scanned the area.

Someone clearly didn't want unexpected visitors.

All of the reconnaissance was performed in the clouds, so there was no fear of anyone spotting him. However, he needed to get into those trucks. He needed to be sure that this place was indeed what the League was looking for. Anything else would put them back at square one, where they had been for far too long.

It was good thing he was faster than a speeding bullet. It also helped that he knew his way around trucks too, thanks to his upbringing on a farm. Steeling himself, he then bolted for the ground, first becoming a blur of red and blue before he picked up more speed. He didn't even touch the ground as he changed directions at the last seconds, running parallel to the ground. He closed in rapidly on the back of the truck he had been following. He didn't have a watch or anything, but he had the door unlocked, shoved upward, and then brought back down behind him in a second flat. Flash would've been impressed with his speed.

However, that left him in the back of a dark trailer. That was no problem for his x-ray vision, which he summoned. Unfortunately, as the darkness receded he realized the trailer was pretty much empty. Aside from some trash, there wasn't much of anything.

That was very disappointing. Superman could only imagine how his friends would react to this, assuming he mentioned it at all. He would have to return to scanning another city and there was no telling if there would be any luck there.

Glancing to the trash, the dark-haired man noticed a few pieces were merely paper balls. Picking up one of them, he uncrinkled it to the best of his ability until he had a wrinkled piece of paper in hand. He immediately recognized it as a Bill of Lading, basically a receipt for whatever cargo the truck was carrying. Scanning it, it took a moment for Superman to realize what he was reading.

Toy guns—air soft guns to be exactly. That's what this truck had hauled as of yesterday. It went to some place in Virginia if the Bill of Lading was correct.

Though initially disappointed, the Man of Steel was puzzled. Why paint an entire fleet of trucks with lead if they were only hauling toys? It didn't make sense. There was no need for it.

Except if what this receipt was saying was false. It could've been falsified in order to deceive law enforcement should they be pulled over. If that was truly the case, then there was no telling what was actually transported. A part of Superman felt that perhaps the guns weren't exactly toys.

Reaching a hand up, Superman activated his comm link. "Superman to Watchtower; is there anyone available to check out a location for me?"

Lucius Fox was not happy. There was turmoil in his ranks, hushed whispers that would stop whenever he walked by, rumors that swirled throughout corporation long enough they might as well be fact. Months of his time had been put into quelling it.

He had done so without very much help from his CEO.

Most of the work he had done was for Bruce and the younger man hadn't made things easy. He was all but ignoring his company, which did not sit well with members of his board. Their annoyance had spread to the rank-and-file and they were starting to be put off by Bruce's perchance for unexplained absences—unexplained at the time, anyways. He usually had a pretty good reason once he actually came in, but then the cycle repeated itself. This must have been how Sisyphus felt.

This time, Bruce hadn't been around for going on two weeks. No word had been left, just poof, he was gone. Multiple calls had been made to his house and cell phone—most of which had been made by Lucius—and all had gone unanswered. There had been no returned calls to the dozens of voicemails left. It was unacceptable to be frank.

He wasn't asking for much out of the man, either. Pay attention to your employees; keep up with the various projects; attend a damn charity party. Aside from the occasional attempt, which were few and far in-between, the billionaire pretty much failed on the first two demands. He at least made some effort for the charities, but now that was falling to the wayside.

Lucius glanced to his clock; it was early afternoon, which even Bruce had to be awake by now. Picking up his phone, he hit the preset number for Bruce's houses and held the receiver by his face. The rings started and each one slowly gnawed on his diminishing patience. The longer they went, the more he felt this would end just like all his other calls.

And then the answering machine picked up. "We're sorry, the person you reached is not available. Please leave a message after the beep. BEEP!"

"Bruce, it's Lucius," the older man said. "I need you to call me back now. Now later today; not tomorrow; not next week. Now."

He hung the phone up and pressed his hand into his face. This was beyond aggravating at this point. The man was tossing away his family's company and eventually it would leave him behind. Part of him wondered why he even bothered anymore.

"Bruce, it's Lucius. I need you to call me back now. Now later today; not tomorrow; not next week. Now."

The sound of a generator turning on filled the chamber. The screen to the large super computer turned on, a window appearing on the screen. The words of the call appeared in the window, a flashing cursor beneath it. The cursor then jumped down a line, a string of code writing itself from one side of the window to the other, stopping once it reached the end and starting up again on the next line. The next line one went a few characters in before it stopped, the cursor flashing beneath it.

It jumped down to the next line again and the words INITIATE PROTOCOL 4 appeared.

The phone suddenly rang, causing Lucius to jump in his seat, hand jerking away from his face. His heart was pounding from the sudden scare and he shook himself. My, that was unexpected.

Picking up the phone, he answered, "This is Lucius."

"Hey, Lucius!" Bruce's voice replied, startling the man. "Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth and all, but I decided to go on an impromptu vacation and just completely forgot to let you know about it. I hope you can forgive me. Ciao!"

The call ended with a familiar click. Pulling the phone away, Lucius blinked owlishly at it, holding the receiver to a side as he stared at it.

That was strange. It wasn't often Bruce suddenly called him out of the blue like that. It may have been because he had just checked his messages and found the borderline demanding ones. Yet, Bruce at least spoke with him, not at him. It seemed he was in a rush and was just doing his due diligence, which didn't sit well with the older man at all.

Something was up, he could just feel it.

"Alright, Bruce," he sighed as he hung the phone up. "We're going to have to discuss this when you get back," he said more to himself than anything else.

For now though, he had some business to attend to.

The light dimmed and the sight of a warehouse in Northern Virginia appeared before J'onn. Next to him was Flash, a serious look on his face.

Things had changed since the events of two weeks ago. There was a seriousness, a purpose to the League that hadn't been there before. The atmosphere was tense and fellow friends had taken to different coping mechanisms. For J'onn, he had buried himself into the investigation of the Canidite, hunting down what leads he could, and unfortunately coming back with very little. There had been a small matter with an alien ship off the West Coast of the United States, but that situation had been resolved fairly quickly between himself, Hawkgirl, and Green Lantern. That reprieve did little more than distract the Martian from his investigation, leaving back where he had left off, unfinished and frustrated.

Flash, on the other hand, had begun to joke less. He was just as single-minded as the rest of them. There had been times each of them had reminded the others that they needed to check on their own cities lest they neglected them. For J'onn and Flash, both of their cities had quieted down in the time since the Erie bombing. The others hadn't been as fortunate.

Which was why they were here. John Stewart was in Detroit making his rounds; the same with Hawkgirl in Midway City. Diana had been forced off the Watchtower to look in on Gateway City, which had been a combined effort between the two men. J'onn's calls to her responsibilities and Flash's comforting tones had been the key factors in the Amazon agreeing to the respite, such as it was.

"You know, Wondy isn't going to be happy with us when she finds out about this," Flash remarked after awhile. "It'd be one thing if it was a few hours, but this is really too close to when she left, ya know?"

"I believe I do," the Martian responded. "Hopefully we find something here that may placate her."

"Yeah. So how do you want to do this? Want me to do a quick search?"

J'onn shook his head. "I think I will perform a mind-sweep of the building. Knowing if we're walking into a situation with armed men would be beneficial to us."

"By all means, J'onn."

His eyes glowed a bright orange as he stretched his mind out to the building. The first thing he noticed was how empty it felt. There was no activity on the psychic plain he could find. However, he knew what it felt like when there was a distinct lack of a presence. If there was a lack of minds in an area, it felt lonely and silent. The feeling he felt now was nothingness, as if a void stood before him.

J'onn stopped his search as he scowled. He knew what this feeling meant. "Telepathy inhibitors," he stated, a hint of his disapproval leaking into his voice.

Flash perked up at that. "Oh, there's something going down here. Do we call in backup?

"Superman is in route," the Martian stated. "However, it would behoove us to do some reconnaissance. We need to know what we are dealing with."

The red-clad man straightened his posture out. "Quick search it is then."

"No. Whoever it is we are dealing with, he'll be expecting us to chase him. If he has gone out of his way to use lead and telepathy inhibitors, then he'll be prepared for you as well."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" Flash questioned.

The answer to that was a subtle approach. Instead of only the Flash racing through the building, the two heroes phased their way in—J'onn by altering his body, causing him to become transparent to the naked eye, and Flash by vibrating his body so fast that he slipped right through the very atoms that comprised the walls.

The two met with no resistance once they were inside. Like most warehouses, this one was filled with crates and barrels. Ropes with metal hooks hung from the ceiling, a metal scaffolding attached to a railing system being the site where the ropes were attached.

There were, however, many men here, all of whom were dressed in either combat fatigues or laborer clothes. Some were openly carrying automatic weapons as they patrolled the room—specifically, they were keeping an eye on the weaponless men as they moved crates and barrels to trucks.

"That looks like one of those trucks Supes was following," Flash whispered to the green man, crouching behind a wooden box as he peered over its top.

J'onn found himself agreeing with that realization. They were painted red and white with the logo of MASTER MOVERS in bold letters. While there were trucks that were being loaded, there were others that were being emptied. Considering the amount that was stored here, these men had been at this for quite some time.

"Hurry up, ladies!" one man called out, strolling by the back of the trucks, a machine gun clutched in his hands. "We're on a schedule here!"

"I'm betting that guys knows something about this," Flash said. "So here's my plan: I'll zip around this place, knocking all of these guys out, and you focus on that guy. Deal?"

A small smile appeared on J'onn's face. Flash's confidence was welcomed by him. "Be sure not to injury these men terribly. We may need them for further information."

"Got it, no head injuries." Flash paused as he mulled something over in his head. "Maybe a concussion or two. Slight ones."

Then in a red blur, Flash took off. J'onn watched as the man circled around the room, darting for the men with guns first. The first pass he made disarmed them, leaving them all staring at their hands in confusion, their clothes whipping to a side from the wind left in Flash's wake.

Moving forward, J'onn floated over the floor before he landed right behind a man, who was staring at the rest of the room in bewilderment. He had been in process of using a dolly to lift a crate up. Stopping next to him, the Martian merely raised a fist up and shot it out to his side. The blow knocked the man out, causing him to collapse to the floor.

And then Flash made his second pass. Again, he focused on the former gun-wielding men, each one suddenly jerking to a side as a red blur passed them, each one with their head snapped to a side as they appeared to be involuntarily lunging in midair.

Suddenly, Flash appeared at J'onn's side, resting an arm on the Martian's shoulder, the arm itself bent at the elbow, which was pointed right at J'onn's head. The rest of Flash was relaxed as he leaned towards the green man. "Well, well, guys, I think you can all call it a day," he announced, causing all of the men to jerk around to look at them.

There was a moment where everyone was looking at the heroes and the heroes back at them. Then all of the laborers pulled out handguns, the sound of hammers being cocked back before they were aimed right at them.

Flash frowned. "Huh, hadn't expected that."

J'onn merely narrowed his eyes. Then, his arms shrunk into his body, his shoulders slurping up his upper arms, followed by his elbows, forearms, and lastly his hands. Two mounds formed on his chest before they fired out, two columns racing through the air. At their ends, fists began to form, fully taking shape an instant before they slammed into the faces of two of the workers. Both men were thrown off their feet as the fists rocketed by, colliding with anyone that didn't try to get out of their way.

In all, J'onn could see seven men that were felled by his attack. However, before he could pull his arms back into his body, the rest of the men began to open fire on him. Only a few shots got off, however, as Flash was once more on the move. Again, he raced by all of the men, snatching their guns right out of their hands. The few shots that had been taken missed the Martian, pelting the boxes and barrels around him.

Seeing an opportunity, instead of returning his extended arms, he separated them, the left arm swinging to the left and the right one to the right. They moved from his chest, migrating to his sides while the elongated appendages clotheslined the workers.

There were a couple that ducked the arms, only for Flash to dash by them, delivering a powerful punch that sent them flying off their feet. In a matter of seconds, all threats had been dealt with by the two heroes.

As J'onn began to recall his arms back to his body, returning them to their normal size and anatomically correct position on his body, Flash once more returned to stand next to him. "I gotta say, that was—"

Suddenly, a pair of doors on the far wall swung open, more men in black combat fatigues pouring into the room.

"...I swear, I was not going to say this was easy."

Immediately, two of them took front and center in front of their comrades. Each wore a tank on their back, with a hose connected it to a long, gun-shaped nozzle. Immediately, J'onn stiffened at the sight of them.

Flamethrowers.

The men did not hesitate as they aimed their flamethrowers at the Martian and pulled their respective triggers. Two streams of flames shot across the room towards him, J'onn frozen where he stood as he watched the approaching fire.

Flash was suddenly in front of him, both of his arms extended out in front of him. Keeping them as straight as he could, he began to rotate them each in their own circle, picking up speed with every rotation. A current of wind was formed by this motion and was directed at the flames, the two forces coming into contact mere feet in front of Flash.

Immediately, the fireballs spread out, forming half of a dome in front of the heroes. Flames reached around Flash's wind current, dying out as they licked at them the further they moved away from their source.

"Get out of here, J'onn!" the red-clad man shouted, his head tilted to a side so that he could look over his shoulder.

That shook J'onn out of his fear-induced daze. Immediately, his body became transparent and he sunk into the floor. The moment he was surrounded by the building's foundation and out of sight of the flames, he fully relaxed.

However, he was not one to remain comfortable in safety while his friend was putting his life on the line. Instantly, he surged forward, phasing through the concrete for a long distance. Because of the warehouse's telepathy inhibitors, he couldn't sense where the attackers were, but he knew distances and he was judging they were just above his head presently. Pressing on, he came to a point he believed put him right behind the group, twisting his body around before he moved upward.

And as he predicted, he came out of the floor right behind the men. However, while he had taken cover in the foundation, two of the men had moved to stand next to the men with flamethrowers, each taking aim at Flash with their machine guns. There were two men standing in between J'onn and those four attackers, which meant they would have to be dealt with first.

Moving up behind them as his body filled in with color, the Martian crossed both of his arms in front of his chest, his hands balled into fists. Immediately, he swung them out, uncrossing them as the bottom of his fists slammed into the heads of the two men, both of whom went flying in opposite directions. J'onn didn't bother watching them crash as he knew his strength, and he knew he had used the correct amount to knock them out from the initial blow.

That left the four before him. First thing was first, he needed to end the threat of the flamethrowers. Though the gunmen were taking aim, if he went after them first the men with the flamethrowers would turn on him and he wouldn't last for long. If he took out the flamethrowers first, there was still the chance that they gunmen would fire; yet, with Flash's speed, he could dodge the bullets if he needed to.

Reaching out, his hands grabbed onto the hoses attached to the gas tanks and he yanked on them hard. The hoses popped right off of the tanks, and gas immediately poured out. Even better, the flames died out, coming to a stop moments later.

This caused all four men to turn around to face the Martian, stunned looks on their collective faces. J'onn did not waste any time as he drew a hand back, the hand increasing in size until it was a large, oddly-shaped club. Swinging his arm out to his side, he then swept it from his right to his left, the club colliding with the head of the rightmost man and knocking him right off his feet. Not even stopping, his club hand nailed the next man, and the next, until it reached the leftmost one. All of them went flying to the left, landing hard on the floor where they did not so much as twitch.

Flash was suddenly at his side, looking at the Martian's handiwork. "Didn't take it too easy on them, did you?" he remarked.

"I suppose I did not," J'onn replied even as his club shrank and his hand returned to its normal form. "If you would, please locate the telepathy inhibitors and disable them. We'll be able to glean some answers then."

"Consider it done." Flash was gone in a red blur then, which left J'onn to walk to one of the fallen men, kneeling next to him. Aside from the combat fatigues, there really wasn't much he could tell from sight alone. It was times like these he was most impressed with Batman; he would've identified something about their dress even before he attempted to search them.

And then Flash was back. "I think I got them all," he said, his voice surprisingly stern. That was J'onn's first clue that something wasn't right. "But I found something else you're gonna want to see."

Turning his head to look at the red-clad man, the Martian's face immediately hardened. In his hands was a plasma rifle of Kalanorian design. The very sight of it set him on edge.

"Where did you find this?" he questioned immediately.

"In a crate in another room. I accidentally kicked it when I went in for one of those telepathy inhibitors and one of these babies popped out."

J'onn returned his attention to the fallen men. Reaching his hands out to place them on either side of the man's head, he then reached out with his mind. They needed answers and they were going to get them.

"So not only are they stealing Canidite, but they're also collecting Kalanorian tech?" John demanded, standing up from his seat as his hands pressed down on the table.

"That is what Flash and I were able to uncover," J'onn answered the Lantern, remaining seated in his chair. "From what I was able to obtain from our attackers, they had been collecting the plasma rifles since the Kalanorian Invasion."

"Great, just perfect," the former marine groused as he dropped back into his seat, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "They're doing everything they can to make themselves as dangerous as possible."

"More importantly, what are they intending on doing with all of this?" Superman questioned. While he didn't like this newest discovery, the presence of these weapons said they could not afford to be trailing their mysterious mastermind for much longer.

"It doesn't take much to figure out they intend to use all of this," Hawkgirl pointed out. "They want a technological advantage and they got it in the plasma rifles. Us finding their stores of Canidite will force them to adjust whatever plan they have, not to mention letting them know we're on their tail. They can't keep up this cloak and dagger stuff for much longer."

"We also came up with a date," J'onn added, which returned the room's attention to him. "They intend on doing something on the twenty eighth."

"That's two weeks from now," John was quick to say, "which means we have less time to put an end to this."

"Was there anything else you found out, J'onn?" Hawkgirl asked then.

The Martian shook his head in the negative. "Unfortunately not. It seems whomever we are after has been keeping their ultimate goal close to the chest. They would only inform their men of their next destination when necessary and not before."

The entire time, Diana had been quiet, which was something Superman had taken quick note of. It wasn't normal behavior for her, but she seemed to be processing everything that was said. It was something the Kryptonian was doing himself, but the puzzle pieces he had weren't sufficient to make a full picture. Part of him hoped the Amazonian Princess did.

And as he thought this, Diana finally spoke up. "Has anyone noticed that all of these findings are heading east?"

Superman looked to her with curiosity. The others were doing the same with various looks of surprise, realization, or stoicism. This allowed the dark-haired woman to continue unabated. "The Canidite was produced on the West Coast, yet the largest stockpile was found in Midway. Every lead we've found has been leading us further and further east, currently placing us on the East Coast."

"That's a good point," John admitted as he slid forward in his seat. "A lot of power centers for the country rest on the East Coast too; I think we can safely say these are where these guys intend to strike."

"So where are we looking for?" Flash asked. "Metropolis? Gotham? New York?"

"If it was me, I'd be thinking Washington," the Green Lantern replied.

A map of the North American East Coast appeared on the holographic projector. "There's a pretty important corridor here," Hawkgirl said, pointing a finger to one area. Specifically, it was the region from Boston to Northern Virginia, something Superman knew as the Northeast Corridor. It was a region filled with important cities that held great political power and historical significance to the U.S. An attack anywhere in that region was like blowing up a powder keg.

"We need to have satellite surveillance over this entire area," Superman immediately said. "We'll continue our investigation, but we need to be ready in the event we're not able to stop whatever plan is in motion. That way we can act immediately."

"Is there anything else you found?" Diana inquired.

"Nope, that was it," Flash replied.

"Then we need to go back to that warehouse," Hawkgirl declared. "There has to be something else there."

"Agreed," John responded. "I'd like to have a look at the Kalanorian tech. Maybe I can get some sort of lead from them."

"And I'll go to search it too," Hawkgirl volunteered. "Maybe a different set of eyes can find something else too."

"I would like to talk with the men Jonn and Flash apprehended," Diana added then. "Perhaps my Lasso of Truth can reveal more from them."

It was highly unlikely that would work. If J'onn couldn't read it in their minds, it was most likely it wasn't there to begin with. Still, they couldn't leave any stone unturned. "Do that," Superman told her before looking to Flash and J'onn. "The rest of us will get the satellites in place. We'll want to keep an eye on everything, especially on the 28th. Hopefully we'll pick up something long before then."

"Sounds good to me," Flash replied as he leaned back in his chair, resting his hands behind his head.

"Then we all have our assignments." Superman paused as he looked to the other Leaguers. "Meet back on the Watchtower in three hours. If we haven't found anything new, then we won't find them at all. Keep everyone informed of what you find. We're getting closer to the perpetrators.

"Now than at any time, we all need to stay safe."

To Guest: Oh, I see. Never watched that in its entirety to be honest.

To FlackAttack: I can confidently say yes and no.