The Equivalents

31. The message.

Batman and his team went back to the Avengers compound. They had some scratches on them from the explosion, but nothing too serious. All the evidence was destroyed, except for what Batman got. Which if his theory was correct, was more then enough to confirm if Peter, Jason, or Bucky were ever in that van.

He went to Tony and Bruce B's lab to run some analysis. He had found two hairs. One black, which he assumed was Jason's, and one brown, which could've been either Bucky or Peter. All he needed was one confirmation. If he had that then he could use the street video from the street cameras they got and see if this van was spotted going anywhere else.

As soon as the DNA analysis was complete, he had a match on Jason and Peter. He was right. As usual.

"It's a match." Bruce stated.

"Was the exploding van not enough evidence for you?" Tony asked.

"It proved the van was the Joker's. It didn't prove if Red Hood, Spiderman, or Winter Soldier were there. This does." Bruce explained.

"Ok, so now what? We go over the cameras again?" Tony asked.

"Yes. We keep looking until we eventually find something." Bruce said. Worlds greatest detective was sure taking a lot of time to crack the case. To be fair, he didn't have too much to work with here. Especially since, you know, he was in an alternate world he knew nothing about.

Right as he was going to pull up a camera, a message popped up onto the screen.

To our loving Avengers/other guys from alternate universe. I don't have time to say much, but we're alive. We might be able to get out of here, but incase we don't, well... hopefully you'll find us. Uh-Oh, the lights just started flashing. Better type faster then and wrap this up. M.H. Felix's pizza. Please hurry.

Bruce and Tony were both confused by that last part. Steve had walked in while they were reading the message and didn't get much out either. What the heck did that last line mean?

"Well, if it was written by Bucky or Jason, maybe it's a code?" Steve suggested.

That made sense. Bruce had taught Jason many codes. None of which were obvious enough to notice at first sight, but Bruce usually could. Maybe he just wasn't looking hard enough or maybe it was a really old code?

Bruce examined the message again. M.H. Felix's pizza. That was the sentence. If they got a location from this note, that's where it would be. But it just looked like a random combination of words and letters. Bruce of course didn't know what, or more actually, where Felix's pizza was because he had never been there. Or you know, in this universe before for that matter. Steve and Tony didn't know either. Which is why everyone was rather confused. No one knew what it meant. Which wasn't a good thing. Obviously.

"Jason didn't write it. It's addressed to the Avengers and calls us the 'other guys'. To us, you're the 'other guys'." Bruce explained.

Steve took a look at the message next. He had taught Bucky many codes back in WW2. But Bucky had also learned many codes from his time being used by the Soviets. Steve wouldn't know those codes, so Bucky wouldn't use them, right? But one person may have known the codes. One of Bucky's other former partners. Natasha Romanoff. Steve called her in to examine the message. She got nothing from it.

"James didn't write it. This doesn't sound like him. It's not something he would say." Natasha said.

"I was thinking the same thing." Steve sighed, hoping he was wrong.

"Alright, then who does it sound like?" Tony asked.

As if on cue, Dick walked into the room.

"Hey, Bruce? I was gonna get some fresh air and maybe..." He was interrupted.

"Dick. Does this mean anything to you?" Bruce asked as he showed him the message.

Dick was relieved. His teammates were ok. Well, ok-ish. They were alive, and right now, that's all he needed.

"They're alive." He mumbled for himself. "Felix's pizza. Now I'm hungry."

"Well we know it was definitely Peter." Tony joked.

"Hungry, could they be trying to tell us something?" Steve asked.

"I don't think they're sending us their dinner order, Steve." Tony stated.

"Hungry..." Bruce stated. "It could be a restaurant."

He walked over and typed in Felix's pizza in the computer. He missed the bat computer so much as of lately.

After a moment, Felix's pizza popped up. It was a family restaurant with only one location. The only problem was, it was still open. Batman doubted the bad guys hijacked a pizza parlor to hold the missing heroes in. If they had, it would've been reported by now anyway. So why did Peter send this?

"Why can't they just say 'we're at this warehouse, come and get us'?" Tony sighed.

"Maybe they don't know where they are. Maybe they only know the area." Steve said. "Maybe it's by this pizza place."

"Then we send in teams to search the area. Every inch within a five mile radius of this restaurant will be looked into." Bruce ordered, going into Batman mode. "Dick? Thank you for your help."

"No problem." Dick gave a fake smile before scratching his back. He had received a message himself. But not from Peter. It was from Count Vertigo surprisingly. It said to meet at a certain location to regard the favor he would be doing to get Jason back. He didn't know if he should go now though. What if the teams found Bucky, Jason, and Peter? What if Dick going put himself at risk, or worse, the Avengers/DC gang or Jason? But what if they didn't find him and he missed out on his chance?

Dick Grayson had a very big decision to make, and was running out of time to make it. But he only had an hour left to decide, so he better make a decision and make it fast. The only question, will it be the right one?