Groaning and eyes squinting, trying to adjust to the surrounding darkness that was cast upon them. Looking around, they saw he was in the middle of a forest lying on the ground, covered in ash in a circular form some 100 meters wide.
He gave himself a quick once-over to check for any evidence of wounds before turning his attention to the watch on his wrist.
(Beeping...glowing green and appears not damaged)
Phew! When he thought of the omnitrix, he did not realize he had held his breadth. He pulled himself up while stretching his rigid muscles and took a cautious scan around his perimeter. He was able to walk beyond the burnt trees and shrubs, into the actual forest because of his intensive plumber training in endurance. His whole body ached.
In his unusual style of living, which involved traveling to numerous galaxies and the multiverse at large on a constant basis, due to the dangers lurking in the shadows, he had interacted with a variety of life forms, some of which simply wanted to be left alone. However, something about this forest made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up while sending a shiver down his spine.
QUIET! For a forest in the middle of the night, it was too silent. Even though he did not pay attention in science class, he had picked up some tree species common to earth. So he knew he was on earth. Not even the smooth rustling of leaves fighting against the cool night breeze could be heard, and apparently the crickets weren't roaming around tonight.
He stopped abruptly and froze on the spot when he thought of Kevin.
GWEN!!! He exclaimed and his face morphed into a panicked expression before his green eyes looked around, as if she would suddenly materialize using her manna teleportation ability.
Despite his panicking state, he heard a twig snap in the distance.
He made a mental note to look for them once he got out of this pitch-black jungle. He glanced in the direction he thought the sound came from, but couldn't see anything—not that he could, even if he wanted to. It was just too dark.
FUCK! He thought. Every year, on the dot, he awakens in an unfamiliar area, and soon after, if not immediately, something horrible occurs. As soon as that idea left his mind, a seemingly enormous exposed tree root split in two, wrapped itself around his ankles, dragged him forward, and eventually suspended him in the air by his legs.
He tried to stop himself from being dragged away by digging his fingers into the earth with all of his effort, but he was not able to do so because whatever was attacking him was much stronger than him. He was swinging about while hanging upside down in the air before abruptly snapping out of his shock when he saw two more roots springing through the air to hold his flailing arms in place.
The entire forest area was enveloped in a bright green light when the roots were only a few inches from his wrists.
Earlier
Swampthing was on his daily patrol of the world when he heard the cries of the green on the banks of River Metropolis, to which he immediately responded. He was then finishing up destroying the boat vessel, when he felt excruciating pain originating from the green in the amazon forest.
His huge form moulded with the ground and became one with it after he leaped from the ship with the evil guys bound with tree barks that were more durable than the flimsiest metal. He travelled so quickly and covertly underground that the ground itself didn't have time to rumble or rock, similar to diving deep inside an ocean where you can't actually see or hear water displacements. Had he done this in the air, a sonic boom would have been heard.
After the incident in the swamp that claimed Alec Holland's life, a new chapter had began, when the green decided he was worthy of having their vast power and knowledge of all things vegetation, then having him defend them against anything causing too much unnatural damage to them.
Since assuming the role of defender of the green all those years ago, he had never moved with the speed he was doing now. This was due to the cries of the local Amazonian plant life, most of which were both figuratively and literally the harshest plant life he had the pleasure of knowing.
As a result of adaptation to wildfires, these trees had grown to be so resilient that the wild fires only burned through 30% of the outer bark, before being doused by rain or human intervention. That was also the reason he was completely taken aback when he noticed the tiny circular clearing that was 100 meters in diameter and had black ash as the only sign of previous plant life.
His shock was rapidly replaced with wrath, which caused him to send out feelers all over the forest in search of the perpetrators. Using his years of experience and the greens knowledge, he detected a variety of wild animals and insects approaching the clearing to determine whether what they also sensed was dangerous, such as the wildfires that rarely occurred there. It was easy for him to detect a figure walking upright on two legs because not many animals could do it so steadily.
He once more vanished under the ground and moved covertly until he reconnected with one of his feelers.
He noticed a young man, perhaps no older than 22, with brown curly hair and bright green cerulean eyes that stood out against the surrounding white. Every time he moved, his lean, well-defined muscles could be seen rippling through his shirt and jacket. He had a watch on his left hand; the largest he had ever seen, especially on a young man.
At a time when technology was rapidly advancing with their packaging becoming more portable, moving from telephone booths and desktop computers to handheld smart phones and laptops, he had no doubt that the watch was odd, since it had a strange design.
He was dressed in dark leather pants and some sort of army boots, the style of which Alec Holland had never seen, not even on the sporadic mercenaries and poachers he would come across on his missions.
The young man suddenly stopped and started scanning his surroundings as if expecting something to emerge. Realizing he had been made, Swamp thing joined forces with the nearby tree and swiftly pointed two of its roots at the guy's ankles.
Since the intruder had no chance against someone who could compete with Superman in terms of strength (Swamp thing was recalling the time Poison Ivy had him under her control to battle the Justice League), he simply added a little more girth to the roots, then dragged him along the ground into the air when he proved to have some form of advanced human strength. Without skipping a beat, he directed two more at him, this time aiming for his hands to hold him stable for punishment against the green.
The entire region was suddenly lit up in a bright green light when he was only an inch from being fastened to his wrists; as a result, even he and his feelers had to somewhat retract due to the sensory overload induced by the green energy.
After recovering, he turned to where the man was, but he didn't see him. A humanoid plant-like figure, who was identical to him but not buff like him or the man stood in the spot where the man had been. He had a body that was primarily green and black, red flame- coloured hair, and rock-like feet. His elbows and legs had protruding green frills, while his shoulders had scarlet petals.
Between its chest and lower stomach was a circular gadget with an hourglass symbol in the middle that was glowing green. They were the same height, but Swamp thing was more muscular and menacing, so he emerged from the ground.
Ben's warrior instincts had kicked in when he saw the two new roots advancing to restrain his hands, and with a thought and a green flash, he transformed.
When Azmuth granted him master control six years ago, he ceased calling out his various alien forms by their names and was able to switch between them at will and for an indefinite period of time.
Master control gave the omnitrix user quick alterations, no time limit, and unrestricted access to any aliens on the watch (so long as all available power wasn't depleted). He could also change with a thought.
After burning the roots holding him by his ankles, Swampfire took a defensive stance. He paused for a moment to get in tune with nature, and that's when he felt it—the intense agony of the nearby plant life, which didn't appreciate the energy bubble he teleported in.
His intelligence, which has been rapidly developing since he unlocked the master control, suggested that perhaps the forest was attacking him as a result of that. He couldn't really blame what was assaulting him because if he were in its position, he would have done the same, if not worse.
Something was rising from the ground seven meters away from him. On a very enormous, buff humanoid plant-like form with some small flowers with thorns and large veiny vines running all over its body, he was met by a pair of dazzling yellow eyes. Swamp fire's first thought was of an earthly sentient plant alien. There was a dreadful silence throughout the stare down.
Swamp thing roared, "You shall pay for what you did to the green!"
Swampfire thought about what it had just said for a moment before making the connection to the burnt patch on the ground where he had landed on.
"I'm sorry Mrrrr plant thingy but I just woke up there..." He ducked, missing a flying fist that was extending from Swamp thing, seemingly angered by what he had said.
Swamp thing felt all his restraints let go the moment he called him Mr plant thingy and aimed to punch him right in the mouth, however he was astounded by the creature's speed and adept control of the plants around them as him.
Swampfire replied by extending his own hand and then going on to wrap it around Swamp thing, while swaying his own to turn against him after dodging the punch using his plumber training.
Swamp thing was surprised by the creature's extended branch's ability to cause his plants to turn against him and wrap around him, but he recovered from the shock quickly enough to rip through them.
Due to the creature's overwhelming might, Swampfire was somewhat knocked back as it easily broke through his hand. Even though he was aware that he wasn't exerting much effort to restrain him, he was nevertheless astonished by what had just happened. Since there was clearly a mistake here and he was a hero and all, he decided to attempt the peacekeeping route after noticing the rage in the creature's yellow eyes.
Swamp thing relaxed a little as he saw the creature's stiff yet calm posture, and the thoughtful expression on his face because after all, heroes don't seek out conflict.
Swampfire affirmed, "I mean you NO harm." He retreated physically and lifted his arms halfway up in the air as a sign of surrender, but he was still on guard in case the creature made any attempt to attack him.
"What are you doing here!?" Swamp thing questioned in a growl that contained a tinge of rage.
Swampfire snapped out of the daze that the creature could talk, while internally spanking himself for thinking otherwise because other stranger extra-terrestrial life forms are known to converse.
"I got lost and awoke here." He explained. The creature gave him a careful look, before entirely relaxing then turning around to walk away. Though it gave him one more directive.
"Fix what you have broken then get out" and with that he was gone as fast as he came.
Even his methanosian senses were unable to locate him as he continued to stare at the area where the creature had been standing before it vanished into the bushes.
Perhaps Ultimate Swampfire could find him.. 'naaaah too much power for no use'. He looked back to the direction of the clearing he had left behind, disappointed that he hadn't even thought of mending the damage and harm that he had definitely inflicted. He put his hand on the ground, tapped into his body manna, and then channeled all that natural energy to the clearing where shrubs, flowers, and towering, massive trees grew to the same size of the others surrounding them.
Satisfied of the work he'd done and sensing a calmness returning to the forest, he turned and continued on his way. He had already mapped out a way out of the forest, although it would take a long time.
"TRIXX contact Gwen and Kevin" spoke to the omnitrix dialogue on his chest. It glowed briefly indicating the Omnitrix AI was activating itself.
"Transmission error. They cannot be contacted at the moment". A female version of Ben's voice replied. He just stared at the device on his chest like it was insane.
The Omnitrix evolved and created an AI to aid the user interface aspect of the watch when Azmuth activated the master control. Not that it couldn't before, but just something to sum up and simplify the quantum computer processor created by him, the most intelligent being in five galaxies.
The AI was to assist in maintaining the DNA samples stored electronically in the databases, facilitate the correct calculations during Ben's alien transformations, as well as manage the numerous duties and protocols in handling the Omnitrix as a whole. This would make it easier for Ben to use the omnitrix.
Azmuth had also been a little taken aback by how sophisticated Trixx's system was, as Ben eventually came to call her. This demonstrated just how much evolution a sophisticated quantum computer could go through when granted the necessary computing power and Omnitrix's self-sufficient power supply. The name and feminine version of Ben's voice were inspired by the Omnitrix's role as the storage place for millions of aliens' DNA and as a kind of nurturer.
Galvans therefore demonstrated that they were still, by a wide margin, the smartest species in many universes. This was thanks to the technological improvements brought about by Azmuth's creation of a race of megamorphs, that could combine with any technology and essentially upgrade it.
"What do you mean cannot be contacted at the moment?" Swampfire half shouted in panic.
"Their plumber badge signals and cell phone numbers can not be located and reached." came the computerized voice of Trixx.
"Okay let's get out of this place first then we can try again." He said, knowing that the thick tree canopy and the harsh terrain was probably responsible for Trixx not getting a lock on his cousin and best friend.
Swampfire was feeling resolute and a little exhausted, because the amount of manna required to fill the clearing was enormous, given how big and thick the trees were, and that one tree's stem would have required six adults to stretch to their physical limits and join hands to completely cover it—some even going beyond that limit.
Swampfire started to go through the jungle once more, this time in search of the exit that his senses had mapped out. His current form made it very easy to walk along the dense forest floor.
"Trixx, what information can you provide regarding the creature we just came across out there?"
The primary purpose of the Omnitrix was to gather, record, analyze, and secure alien DNA samples so that when a specie becomes extinct it can be revived.
He questioned knowing that Trixx was always too curious about life matter and DNA, thus taking scans and recording them in her storage catalogues though in separate and smaller catalogues from the alien DNAs. Even for Ben himself, anything with a DNA anomaly is always simple to investigate.
"Scans revealed that a body had been covered with a bio-restorative substance, leading me to assume that at some point, his heart stopped and was likely placed in a bushy or muddy area, which had an impact on the local plant life and imbued it with human awareness and memories. The freshly awakened plant life emerged from the bog in what appeared to be a human shape."
Swampfire listened carefully with curiosity while Trixx explained. Then he heard human in the explanation and had to ask. "Did you just say human?"
"Yes I did, he was once a homo sapient before undergoing evolution to what he is now. It is also of the male gender." Finished Trixx in her calm automated voice.
"Okay so that explains why you didn't go to capture mode when we encountered him." He had thought it was an alien like Swampfire and that he would eventually collect its DNA like all the other newer aliens the Omnitrix scanned before, thus when it didn't, he was worried it was damaged by his fall or arrival. "And do you have any idea how we got here in the first place?"
"The last item in my database is traveling through a region of space-time at speeds never before seen, which prevents closed surfaces from deforming incrementally." Trixx made it as simple as possible for him, since despite having travelled to space numerous times, he was still unable to fully comprehend math and everything related to space travel. He had always believed that was the fault of his hatred of space.
"Are you saying that we entered a wormhole?" Again, the serene mechanical voice answered, "Yes."
"WHEN!?" Swampfire didn't mean to shout but he was too shocked to do anything else.
"I believe when you came into contact with the Girl Scout selling cookies. I believe her intentions towards you was nefarious." Came the reply.
"YOU THINK!" He shouted again. "Wait a minute..." he said processing the information. "Why is it that you didn't save me? Don't you have like protocols put in place for those sorts of emergencies!?"
"Usually I do, but somehow the young girl wore a specialized bracelet on her hand that managed to interfere with my systems the exact moment she chose to make her intentions known."
After some seconds, Trixx managed to acquire the short footage the watch picked up from time to time and found who brought them here and how. Her quantum computing and processing working from the minute he revived her to find out why, how and where they were since it could only deal with actual facts and not speculation like he usually did.
"AZMUTH!" He called out with anger at his surrounding, knowing that only one person knew how to temporarily disable the watch safely. Well, two, but one of them was trapped in the null void.
At least he knew if Azmuth was involved then Gwen and Kevin were probably in on it, since he was on his way to meet them thus they were fine because the other option would be... no, he couldn't think about that now.
Knowing how wormholes and Galvan intelligence worked, he's probably in some other universe or an alternate one since the creature didn't recognize him.
Groaning in annoyance at how this could turn to a complicated situation soon enough, he gambled, "I'm guessing that we're in an alternate reality or another universe whatsoever." Kicking a stone a mile away in anger.
"According to the creatures DNA structure you would be correct. Even alternate Homo sapiens have varying DNA strands that would be blind to the best DNA scanner unless you know what you're looking for, and luckily for you I happen to know what I'm doing." If Trixx wasn't an AI Swampfire would've thought he was actually talking to a person.
"Wait, you said luckily for us?" In anticipation of her response, he questioned, "I thought you didn't believe in luck."
"I don't, I was trying to calm you down with a sense of humour and from your steady heartbeat, it worked." It was not luck, she had made the correct calculations in coming up with the theory. Who needed assumptions and luck when you had a heavy processing power like hers which continued to evolve the more alien DNAs were added to her database.
"Smart ass," Swampfire grumbled, but chuckled lightly at her attempt at humour which truly proved Azmuths theory of her evolving and adapting with time. He said this while waving his hands around frantically while still walking through the trees.
Meanwhile Swamp thing was watching the whole thing play out with an impressed smirk on his already hard to read face. He knew he sensed the green in him when he took time to really study the creature that the guy turned into, making the green in him to whisper that he was not a threat, which made him turn and leave without any further confrontation.
He was impressed by the display of power from Swamp thing, when he restored the part of the forest in which he had scorched when he landed. He was also impressed by the device on his chest that seemed to be one of those AI programs many corporations used to make their operations more efficient. He came across them in the Congo forest in Africa being used to operate machines remotely, since the conditions were too harsh for a lengthy stay for most humans.
"Good luck" and with that, the ground swallowed him again, making his way to the middle of the Indian Ocean, where the green showed him an underwater mining vehicle destroying both plant and aquatic life.
At the Dock
"Aargghhh!!!" Since his last memory was of lounging with the Avengers in the Avengers Tower after defeating Ultron and then being sucked into a hole, Tony woke up screaming and sat up, inspecting his suit for severe damages.
He turned around to evaluate the situation and noticed that the only damages he had from hitting the ground, were a few scrapes. While the Hulk lay on his back temporarily dazed from the force of the impact, wherever they dropped from, Natasha Romanov alias Black Widow and Clint Burton alias Hawkeye were snuggled comfortably under his arms.
Thor was in a crater of his own making, a couple of yards out with Miljonir nowhere to be seen.
Captain America was already scoping out the area they had landed on, which according to the views he was seeing on the HUD of his amour was a port of some kind.
Scarlet Witch was encased in a maroon cocoon that once in a while would re-energize like clockwork, her magic protecting her while unconscious, until she woke up and was ready to defend herself.
He used his gauntlets stabilizers to push himself to a standing position and approached Cap.
"What's the situation. What happened? And how come you were not knocked out huh!? Even the green guy is out like a light." Came Tony's strained voice, while still stretching his muscles that were dormant for he didn't know how long.
"That's because he had to time the impact precisely so that Clint and Nat wouldn't take any strain on their body, so the impact and its ripples was absorbed by the Hulks muscles thus him passing out temporarily."
No sooner had he finished that statement than the Hulk gave out a Huff and woke up. Seeing Clint and Nat were unharmed, he briefly relaxed but remained vigilant.
He allowed the two heroes to rest on his chest until they recovered or the others woke them up, as well as giving his muscles time to heal after being broken into millions of pieces by the coordinated fall he had managed to archive.
"What's the situation?" Tony asked again a little impatient. He hated the unknown. All his life, his high IQ always helped him get ahead of every aspect of his life and now it seems he couldn't recognize this port that was on Earth. 'I'm pretty sure I have eyes on every port on earth...why can't I recognize this one?' his train of thought was interrupted by Steve's answer.
"I don't know...it looks like some kind of port but I don't recognize it." And it was really racking his brain.
After being rescued from the block of ice, Steve integrated to the modern world as best as he could, meaning he was better at it than how the average human would adapt to new surroundings. He studied the Earths maps, ports, cities, villains, heroes, modern fighting skills and all those other things deemed necessary to survive the 21st century. Right now though, he couldn't figure out which port they were in, since he couldn't ask anybody as it was at night and the port was empty. He looked to Tony for answers.
When Steve gazed at him expectantly, Tony pondered what he was anticipating from him. Steve arched his brow.
Tony needed one more second to understand Steve's intended meaning. He was quite grateful to be wearing an armored helmet since it prevented Steve from seeing how embarrassed he was.
"JARVIS! Connect to the Stark satellites and triangulate our location." A second later Jarvis voice was heard, "No satellite link or upload detected, sir."
"JARVIS! What happened to my satellites?" Tony asked, gritting his teeth against the impending eruption of rage within him.
"I do not know Sir." He blinked inside the suit, where Jarvis was displaying to him information about the satellites he was able to hack when he couldn't identify Stark's. "There are a lot of satellites in space, but not one of them is Stark Inc. Or connected to you," he said.
The majority owner of the satellites in orbit, according to the brief information Jarvis acquired from them, was a company called WAYNE Inc. The second majority owner appeared to be another billionaire by the name of Lex Luther, which Jarvis decoded owing to their lax security system.
He started panicking, "Uh! Cap! We are in Gotham."
"What's a Gotham?" Cap asked out in curiosity while kicking some stones into the water. Tony was about to respond with sarcasm but a deep voice with a hint of base beat him to it.
"It's MY city" and everyone looked up a stack of four containers, to see a dark figure looking down on them with bright white eyes and what looked like a devils horn.
Earlier
Batman was in the bat cave keeping an eye on his enormous supercomputer, which was more powerful than the combined supercomputers of the Pentagon and NSA. It intercepted and recorded all 911 emergency phone calls, before processing the information from numerous sources in Gotham and around the globe, through an algorithm that pinpoints specific key phrases that caused each computer protocol to react in specific ways.
Since he believed that his priority was watching the world on his supercomputer and not going after grocery thieves out to make a quick buck, he only showed up in situations classified as an emergency. The watchtower's systems was connected to the batcave to share the same protocols in case of an emergency or if one had been compromised or infected with malware.
The cave's system blared warning sounds akin under a nuclear attack, while the computer connected to one satellite in space triangulating the location where the threat originated from. The screen then began to flash a giant red danger alert symbol.
The first image was of the entire earth, followed by a view of the clouds, before building structures began to appear. When the camera zeroed in on a large body of water, it surprised him by being the port of Gotham, his home city. When his eyes focused on the energy readings displayed on the screen, they bulged open in shock and bewilderment.
That couldn't be right. He shouldn't have been standing here...he should be ash by now.
The only thing that could give out that energy signature was a nuclear explosion but it seemed contained to a specific part which should be impossible. That both worried and intrigued him.
"What or who possesses the strength necessary to confine that energy signature?" He asked out loud. Captain Atom and Superman came to mind, yet they both had obligations at the watchtower. He called it in.
"Batman to watchtower." After a minute someone responded.
"Hey Bats...Just so you know... I was not video calling that hot waitress from yesterday on the leagues most powerful computer with exceptional visual display properties so that I could clearly see..."
"I need you, Shazam, Superman, Wonder woman, Flash, J'onn, and Green arrow to teleport to my location in 10 minutes." Batman then ended his transmission.
"Jeez I already feel sorry for the dude who deserves this line-up," Hal Jordan, the green lantern said. Something on the screen caught his attention.
"Oh shit!" Tapping the unmute button and muttering quickly.. "Sorry beautiful, what can I say, the world needs me more than you do apparently so..." he said giving the said waitress his most seductive smile ever, that left her drooling for more but Hal quickly tapped the end call button and said in a relieved tone, "Thank the stars, another one bites the dust!"
"You know you can avoid that if you stop flirting with every girl you meet" Superman said while coming into the control room up to the computer to see what was up.
He had heard the Batman's urgent voice while grabbing a bite to eat in the cafeteria, prompting him to skip the meal to check what had the dark knight so alarmed.
"As if!" Hal replied in turn.
As the information on the screen caused superman's eyes to widen, Hal saw him take off for the hanger that he had already begun to open. All he could utter when he read them himself was, "WTF!" Those readings were inexplicably off. Rereading, he set the teleporter's coordinates after which he met the other members of the squad halfway there. From there, they all teleported to Batman's location.
The minute Superman set his eyes on those readings, he opened the hanger and took off at supersonic speeds, the friction experienced during earths re-entry, which would be problematic to space shuttles was not a problem for him, barely feeling it. Once he reached the clouds, there was a loud BOOM! Where he accelerated and broke the sound barrier heading for Gotham.
Batman may already be in danger, if not suffering from radiation poisoning, not to mention all those Gotham residents who would have been caught in the blast radius. According to those readings, it seemed two nuclear bombs were detonated at the Gotham port.
Using his telescopic vision to zoom ahead while nearing Gotham, he saw Batman talking to a group of people wearing all kinds of weird costumes yet it wasn't even Halloween.
One was in what looked like a mechanical suit that was colour themed red and Gold. Another guy was wearing a bag pack full of arrows and carrying a bow in his hand. One was in a massive green body suit and another guy had on a traditional armored attire covering his body while carrying a mallet.
Another woman was wearing a tight fitting combat suit that actuated her lovely curves which was evidenced by the way she let her cleavage show.
Another guy was wearing a costume consisting of bright American colours and carrying a shield. The last one was a woman wearing some form of combat cloths and her hands glowing red. He closed in on them.
Earlier
After contacting the watchtower, batman took the bat mobile to the port and drove at top speed. It being a more modernized and armored vehicle than the US president's The Beast, he arrived at the port in no time. The roof retracting back, he shot a grappling hook to the nearest crane and was hoisted up into the night.
While patrolling the entire port, he found a few people dressed in costumes, passed out on the port and decided to observe the one surveying around. He wore a costume designed using the American flag and carried a shield. He seemed to be scanning the area, which meant ex Special Forces but probably went nuts due to P.T.S.D.
The HUD in Batman's suit managed to zoom into his other accomplices. The one in some kind of red and gold mechanical suit woke up and started looking around seemingly calming down a little when he saw the American guy.
"Is this what has become of Gotham? A place for rich kids to party wherever they want?" He wondered out loud. His rich kid theory was based on the very expensive, very real like mechanical amour one guy was wearing. Even had thrusters that worked as stabilizers on the hands. He made a mental note to subtly ask where he bought the suit and acquire the company under the Wayne Inc. Research and Development department.
He admired their loyalty and friendship, checking up on each other like that even when drunk off their minds.
One lady drew his attention. She was encased in a maroon cocoon, which the dark knight concluded was a very expensive lighting effects that made her look like she was floating. He made another mental note to acquire that company.
Batman tapped his earpiece to call off the backup and blame the whole thing on a computer glitch originating from the watchtower, because the bat cave was never wrong.
He pulled out his tablet connected to the cave and typed something, connecting to the watchtower. The screen froze for fifteen seconds then 'connecting...' was written, meaning no one was currently at the control room.
That was not what irked him. The screen freezing for fifteen seconds was not to be taken lightly, especially being connected to powerful processors like theirs. It could mean one of two things: one, he/the watchtower had been hacked or two, Hal / Barry / Oliver left porn on rerun again on the computer.
The second one was unlikely because he had put up a firewall to block all unwanted and unprofessional material in the watchtowers system. He could bet his whole fortune that the trio couldn't have hacked it, as only Cyborg surpassed his computer skills since he was a hybrid of Apokalyptic technology, which utilized quantum computing thus surpassing every tech on earth. He quickly did a deep diagnostics of the important sections and databases of the watchtower.
LEVEL 5 BREACH!!! Flashed momentarily then disappeared. It appeared the firewalls blocked out most of the attack and the hackers retrieved random information like who owned the satellites. Upon closer inspection, he realized all the Wayne satellites had been hacked at the same time with the watchtower and bat cave.
Only a handful of computers in the world could accomplish such a feat and he had access to most of them except a few, Lex Corp was the one to gain by this kind of action. He initiated a tracing program which tracked the hacker swiftly through the various lines of malicious code he tried to cover his tracks with.
Batman knew he was a genius when he thought of protocols should his system ever be compromised. There was someone always smarter than you out there and he had witnessed it at this moment. He was beyond furious that the hacker managed to hack all his satellites at once as if his firewalls were not a challenge. The same firewalls NSA, Pentagon and every super power nation always attempted to breach but failed to get passed the first one. He never let Cyborg adjust the code too much incase his system got corrupted under Apocalypse influence.
This hacker though, breached through so many firewalls to get to the information he wanted. That, he could tolerate but something else bugged him and even he would never admit it to anyone, but he found patches on the system indicating that the hacker decided to stop after getting the information. A lot of information, weapon projects at Wayne inc and Watchtower database would have been compromised had he continued the attack.
He surmised either the hacker was making himself known that he could do that or it was a trial phase for a coordinated attack on the Justice league at large and Wayne Inc. for being one of the major donors to their cause. He hoped it was the first one because the second one would be devastating. He developed a code that subtly attached to the hackers program in case any of his systems were ever breached.
To his surprise the trace led him to the port right on top of him.
It couldn't have been me. His next thought was interrupted when he saw the America clown talking to the mechanical suit clad one. He adjusted the antennas on his bat ears to listen in on them. The others around them were slowly waking up and stretching, each looking curiously around them as if they never saw a port before.
"Of course, Rich kids" he groaned, glad he was never like that. He heard the one called Cap asking what a Gotham was, and him loving everything stealthy, decided to answer them and scare the alcohol out of their system. He dropped down on top of the lower containers.
"It's MY city," his suits automated voice speakers augmented his voice till they could hear him. Even he couldn't have predicted what he saw next.
After being shaken out of their surprise at his appearance, each of them took a fighting stance. America guy held the shield ready to throw at him while the robotic suit one seemed to be charging up his hand blasters. The one who looked like an archer aimed an arrow right at him while the woman next to him pointed two guns at him and the big guy just growled (batman saw that was no big green costume) the other woman's hands started glowing maroon. He observed it was some sort of energy which she easily manipulated.
"Shit!" Was all he said before the stare down continued.
Tony looked at the voice and his sensors picked up on a human figure dressed in some form of bat costume which was heavily armored using Kevlar and had stingers at the gloves like Black widow. What was strange was that he couldn't see past his face mask and utility belt, meaning they were lined with lead which in turn meant it may be housing weapons or something worse. The others took defensive stances while Cap stepped forward to try the peaceful approach before Tony got bored or the hulk got angry and says or does something stupid.
"We mean you no harm, we are a bit lost and may be in need of assistance." Steve said in a friendly yet official voice to show how serious this matter was to them.
Immediately batman knew he was the leader of this group and even had soldier like mannerisms. "What do you want? What are you looking for?" He asked in a no nonsense tone giving the vibe he was expecting an answer.
Steve sighed tiredly and tried again, "We want to get out of here and we are not looking for anything. Can you help us or not?" He asked ready to turn around to chat with his team ignoring him.
Batman gazed at them for a few more seconds and his gut told him the Cap guy could be trusted. He relaxed but remained vigilant and asked, "Do you have any papers with you?" Batman asked in a deep base voice while Steve's was only deep.
Cap began walking to where the crazy dressed person had landed using what appeared to be a tricked out grappling hook connected to his suit somehow. Tony and the others remained alert. Cap had always been too trusting and some time that kind of trust got one in trouble. Cap began jogging to meet him in the middle since he landed quiet a distance away, which was understandable given the fact that they did not know each other.
Batman watched Steve start to jog towards him, reaching into the back of his pants for what he assumed was Identification papers, which had been personally delivered to him by the president when he was rescued from the ice.
A few feet from each other, Steve was slowing down when a loud BOOOM was heard. Sound and air being split into two literally, which meant something went supersonic. Looking at Batman, his hand was tapping his earpiece and shouting 'Stand down Superman' while looking for the source of the sound. Due to the super soldier serum in Steve, his reflexes and senses was more enhanced than the average human, so he was able to hear something coming at them at supersonic speed. He immediately thought of a missile thus looked up trying to locate and attempt to either deflect it into the water with his indestructible shield or jump to evade it knowing the others would survive too.
Looking to his left, he saw a pair of red glowing eyes coming at him too fast to react in time even for his enhanced reflexes, putting up his shield, he braced for impact hoping he could at least get out alive with some major bruises which would heal in time.
No sooner had he closed his eyes, than a loud CLANG! Of collision between Miljonir and the man of steel sounded, then soon after an explosion went off somewhere behind him.
Opening his eyes, he no longer saw the pair of red eyes coming towards him and Thor was without Miljonir, which meant that it had been the thing that saved him. Miljonir flew past him back to Thor's waiting hands. Steve gave him a thankful look and he just nodded.
Earlier
Superman had seen what was happening using his telescopic vision. He saw batman grapple down to ground level and face off with the group of clowns and started smiling at how he will enjoy watching batman take care of that situation.
The one wearing all American attire stepped forward, while the others took defensive stances all towards batman, who still hadn't moved an inch even when the American started running towards him while pulling something from his back. He thought it could only be a gun or knife considering it was at night. With batman outgunned, he didn't stand a chance against all those weapons, he increased his speed which split sound and air into two, creating a large BOOOM!
Reaching Gotham, he headed towards the port at top speed.
He was getting ready to yank him away from Batman when a hard, precise, and excruciatingly painful blow to his forearm sent him tumbling in the opposite direction. Only when fighting Darkseid and Amazo had he ever experienced a hit like that. He crashed into a stack of containers, whose contents caught fire and caused a moderate explosion.
"What was that hammer made of?" Wondered Superman aloud while looking at it a few meters away from him. While contemplating to pick it up, it suddenly floated in the air and took off through the hole they made on the building which they had apparently ended up in. Wasting no time, he took off in the direction the hammer flew to.
Earlier
Thor had been alert when Cap went to speak to the human dressed in what looked like a demon costume, because he did not know where they were and he couldn't sense Heimdall or Asgard at all. Anywhere in the Nine Realms, Thor could sense and see through Heimdall's eyes, a feat only Odin and he were capable of, him being the Prince of Asgard.
Not sensing Asgard really worried him and he hoped nothing had befallen his home world, not that his father or the many capable warriors couldn't handle things without him. He just had a bad feeling about all of this.
Looking at his friends beside him, he felt confident that they would find out what was happening and stop whoever was attacking Midgard then he would return and check up on his people. The avengers were a very resourceful and powerful group despite being humans.
Boom! It was faint but he heard it and started looking around. His Asgardian physiology plus him being the god of thunder, granted him heightened senses so powerful, second to the All Father himself, which made it possible for him to hear the distant sound. He sensed something closing in on their location rapidly. He had to mentally retract his statement when he saw that the Hulk heard it too and was looking around.
When Thor saw Cap start a small jog to the man to hand him his identification card, he heard another BOOOM! This time loud enough for everyone to hear and start looking around. Thor being quicker and acting on pure instinct', threw Miljonir as hard and precise as he could to intercept the projectile heading for Steve. He knew even with Cap's super soldier serum, he couldn't survive against that kind of force that would no doubt incinerate him upon impact.
Due to him being over a thousand years old and taking part in almost every major war in history, he was a master at using Miljonir which is why it connected with the projectile just in time before it did any damage to his friend. Retracting his throwing arm back, he looked at Cap (silently asking if he was alright) who in-turn just nodded at him when he got over his shock.
The moment the hammer connected with the object, several people teleported in the area and saw both objects flying in another direction before colliding with containers and explosion engulfed them. Thor was suddenly struck by mystical lightning which tingled differently from his own, then was tackled past some containers colliding with them while exchanging blows. Then everything went to shit after that.
Earlier
As soon as Batman heard Superman approaching, he tapped his earplug, "Superman stand down! I Repeat stand down! Not a threat! Sta..." He was cut off when he saw Thor (being very keen, he had figured out almost all their names by them calling each other) made a mental note they weren't very discreet, throw his hammer towards them and his instincts kicked in making him dive aside and in between two containers. There was a reason he chose to land there while Cap who didn't know about Superman's supersonic speed or his friends hammer kept looking around for the source of the sound.
Batman flipped onto his feet to see Cap brace for the impact and Thor's hammer slam into Superman's figure, sending both of them crashing into a pile of containers. At the same time the reinforcements which he requested had arrived and seen superman being knocked into the containers and the person responsible recall back his hammer.
Groaning, Batman didn't attempt to call off his team because it was too late and what was about to happen was unavoidable. With his prediction being spot on as always, Shazam was the first to attack Thor with lightning and tackled him into containers behind them. Then a fight broke out which the dark night was forced to join if they were to minimize property damage by bringing these people in quickly. Looking around, he watched how the people he called 'Rich kids' were capable of handling themselves very well.
General point of view.
As soon as the first punch was thrown, everything happened consecutively and too fast to keep track off.
Iron man blasted green lantern out of the sky with his gauntlet blasters who then crashed into the water.
Green arrow shot a tranquillizer at a distracted Black widow, but it was shot out of the air by another arrow. Looking towards Hawkeye, he barely dodged an arrow that was aimed at him before arrows began flying and piercing the air around each other having the capability of piercing steel.
Black widow was going to help Hawkeye, who was now engaged in a hand to hand combat with the green guy, whom he was at a stalemate with. Before she could reach, she was knocked by a force equaling a rampaging hulk, which threw her against a container where she fell unconscious.
Wonder woman bumped into the woman in a combat suit running to help her comrade fight Green arrow. She was knocked unconscious from the impact. Wonder woman cringed at the thought of knocking a human with that much force thus flew towards her, hoping she was still alive. Her legs were grabbed by an angry Hulk, taking her by surprise at his speed, before being slammed into the ground, over and over again, each hit disorienting her. Never had she been manhandled like this before.
Hulk had allowed Nat to go help Clint, since he didn't want to get involved first because of the damage it would cost, stood waiting to be needed. He watched a woman dressed in what looked like a swim suit, bump into her making her unconscious. Furious, he leaped to her, grabbing her legs mid-air then slammed her repeatedly in the ground with each hit being stronger than the last.
Superman slammed shoulder first, into the Hulks back, sending them both flying away while Diana dropped to the ground unceremoniously.
Wonder woman sat up, getting her bearings on. "Hera! That beast is strong!" She said looking towards the loud bangs that were Superman's and the hulk trading blows.
Her enhanced perception made it possible for her to follow the battle happening around her. She looked towards the rest of the battle and saw J'onn fighting the woman who had a maroon aura around her. Flash was speeding through the battle field landing precise hits to the enemies while securing the occasional night guard coming to play hero. Batman was fighting a guy in a red mechanical suit. Green lantern was helping Shazam take down the man with the hammer. Diana had to agree with her senses that he had a familiar aura, an appealing physical appearance and gave Superman a run for his money strength wise. His muscular arm which tightened with every grip to his hammer, his chiseled chest hidden under his traditional warrior armor and also had a long brown wavy gold hair flowing to his back. For a moment, she had a stray thought about her brothers, the gods. She shook her head from those thoughts and dove into battle with a war cry.