Barry was currently working in his lab at CCPD when he heard someone walk in and was surprised to see Gabby.
"Gabby, what's going on?" Barry asked, seeing the look on her face.
"I need your help. And not just as the Flash." Gabby said.
"What's going on?" Barry asked her.
"About a week ago, I was hired by a couple to help track down their missing son. I tracked down his most recent location and only found this in the bricks." Gabby said as she handed Barry a gold brick.
"Seriously?" Barry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"What, you can run at the speed of sound and yet you raise an eyebrow at a gold brick. Especially when said brick can likely pay for your wedding, since I tested it and it's real gold." Gabby said.
"Fair enough. And it turns out that you came to the right place, since this does line up with evidence we've collected from crimes associated with a new crew here in Central City, led by a man who calls himself Goldface." Barry said as he walked over to his computer and pulled up all the information CCPD had on Goldface and his crew.
"Says here that they're suspected of running a new blackmarket for stolen, high profile and experimental weapons." Gabby said and Barry nodded.
"And they're currently in a turf war with Amunet Black and her crew, since she and Goldface used to be a thing and have a joint gang, but after they split, so did their crew and they've been fighting over their turf ever since. Luckily it hasn't gotten too violent yet." Barry said.
"But why abduct a kid?" Gabby asked.
"I don't know, but here's the thing. This boy, Sean Douglass, he's the latest disappearance in the past month alone. Kids have been disappearing all over the city, but the thing is, their kids the police don't generally look for since they are homeless or runaways, so they assume that it's just parents making a big deal out of nothing." Barry said.
"Wow, our tax dollars at work." Gabby said.
"Tell me about it. For every cop who gives a damn about these kids, there's about 5 who don't, preferring to focus on quote on quote, real crimes instead tracking down kids who ran away." Barry said.
"Wow, Central City's finest. And the thing is, I saw similar things when I was overseas, but I was hoping things were better here. You don't think these are coincidences do you?" Gabby asked, knowing Barry well enough.
"No. Especially since gold objects like that brick have been found at the last known locations of these kids. I think that Goldface is abducting them. The only question is why, since he trafficks weapons, not people and that's quite an escalation." Barry said.
"I'll reach out to some of my contacts in the criminal underworld, see if I can find out where Goldface's market is. Once we do that, we can begin making plans to save those kids." Gabby said.
"Yeah, and hopefully figure out why Goldface is abducting kids and bringing that kind of heat onto his gang." Barry said and Gabby nodded, since they both felt like there was something they were missing in this equation, but hopefully, this investigation would help shine some light on that particular topic.
"You're sure this will work?" Goldface asked his benefactor/buyer as he looked at the pods that his client had provided, even of them containing teenage kids abducted from the streets of Central City.
"You doubt what I said?" his buyer asked.
"It's just I'm banking a lot on this. So far the CCPD thinks that these kids are just runaways, but if they realize the truth, I'll have an even bigger target on my back, not to mention what'll cost me if this doesn't work." Goldface explained.
"And if the procedure doesn't work, you'll be compensated fairly for your losses. But if you don't have the guts to go through with this, I can always take my plans to Amunet. It's my understanding that she was always more willing to profit off taking big risks than you. I was hoping you could prove her wrong since you seem to be more stable than her. I thought that you'd like to be able to one up her." the buyer said.
"Fair enough, especially since I'm not dumb enough to directly attack you, since even my powers wouldn't do much against you." Goldface said as the buyer stepped out of the shadows.
"Grodd is pleased to know you are smart enough to know that without him having to make you know it." Grodd said.
"And like our deal says, if this works, you get the kids, but in addition to you paying me, I get to keep the tech to put to further use?" Goldface asked, just wanting to confirm that.
"Of course. Especially since I will likely become one of your best customers if that is the case. And you will become very rich as long as you are the only one who knows of this." Grodd said.
"That's what I'm counting on. Begin." Goldface said to his flunkies, who, despite looking nervous at the giant gorilla in their market, nodded as they moved the pods over to the chambers Grodd had provided and locked them in.
"Are the seals secured?" Goldface asked.
"Yes sir. We're ready to begin." his main lieutenant Jordan said.
"Good. Then, let's dunk these kids." Goldface said as he activated the chambers, causing them to fill up with some kind of black substance, right as the kids began to wake up.
"No." they began shouting as they pounded on their pods, trying desperately to escape, but it didn't work as they were completely submerged in the substance.
"How long will this take?" Goldface asked, right as the pods auto drained, to reveal the kids were unconscious.
"Status on their vitals?" Goldface asked as his crew checked.
"They're all alive, just unconscious." Jordan confirmed.
"Then chip them and let's prepare for when they wake up." Goldface said, since Grodd had also supplied them with mind control chips from an old defunct government organization called the ASA that had been disbanded decades ago. In fact, Goldface was pretty sure most of this tech had come from there, just updated for the modern age.
"Now we just have to wait for them to wake up and see what we gave them." Grodd said and Goldface nodded as they waited.